#did i mention the tourists. and the fact that i like to go to salem bc that's where all the interesting stuff is

[c0rpsedemon]

it is my most strongly held belief that anyone whose favorite holiday is halloween is NOT from around here . most high stakes time of the year

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 11/9/21

ALMOST birthday problems

listening short ride in a fast machine, john adams. i listen to a lot of instrumental stuff throughout my workday and there are only so many video game soundtracks i actually like.

this version is nearly a full two minutes shorter than the version on spotify i liked best. this piece looks fucking exhausting to both play and conduct, and the comments are full of conductors complaining about it lmao

read the wiki page like “okay what is this About is it an experimental piece about spaceships bc that’s what i want this fluttering-adrenaline-pulse piece to be about” no! it’s about eighties sports cars. it does not sound like it should be about eighties sports cars. 

i know just enough about classical music to be dangerous. i know what i like, which is when people incorporate folk music into their style (copland, dvorak), music featured in the barbie ballet movies (tchaikovsky), and a very small number of bach chamber works (one specific doctors’ waiting room music). this doesn’t really fit into any of those and sounds more like a movie score to my (bad, deaf) ear but it’s a pretty cool four-minutes-and-change.

reading Has Witch City Lost Its Way? by Kathryn Miles for Boston Magazine

the author asks this question and then kind of shrugs at it. this was a weird one! i’ve been to salem quite a few times. it’s a very charming little town on the sea with good nightlife, you can take the train into boston, the rhythm and flow and concerns of a tourist town are very familiar to me, it’s almost the perfect place for me to live, and i could never ever live there bc 1) money and 2) i find it absolutely fucking insufferable in large doses. i think the intersection between queer people and astrology/witchcraft/woo is fascinating, and it probably is a great way for some people to reclaim the concept of religion, but please god get all that as far away from me as possible. i like nondenominational spookiness and vampires and that’s about it.

it’s very difficult for me personally to think of witchcraft without thinking of both queer people and terfs. it’s odd that the author did not address this, nor did she mention that many of the “witches” killed were people of color. the author does point out that hey! it is super weird to disneyify a place where atrocities were committed! but she also flinched away from any real criticism about the modern white witchy movement trying to make itself as palatable as possible though commercialization. except in a very oblique way, bc all her interviews were with people who have a vested commercial interest in “Witches Are Nice And Friendly Actually”

this is quite long for a puff piece, with several interviews conducted for background info, and i get the feeling there was a very heavy editorial hand here. massachusetts people are fucking terrified about losing out on tourism, since historical events are really the only thing the state has going for it (unlike jersey, where yeah tourists drop a lot of cash, but there’s a sort of indifference about how the state is viewed? they’re assholes and proud of it and massachusetts ppl are assholes and really defensive about it).

watching not quite a fallow week, but bouncing off a bunch of anime while trying to find something just okay enough to handsew. bouncing off things for very petty reasons, let it be clear. saving The Harder They Fall as little a treat for myself tonight, bc i have YET ANOTHER work call w/japan.

playing one cycle/playthough of The Remainder (act 1/free prologue) free on steam by Square Weasel Studios.

i like to keep an eye on the LGBTQ+ tag and this one is in fact gay, people have hair and pronouns. there's a sea-based magical and religious system! please pay attention to the psychological horror content warning up top!

art style is delicious- there's been a rash of "magical otome protag with amnesia" lately (the arcana is i think the most famous), and i do like how they're like "what do you look like? hah just kidding, this is u :)"

romance/otome/dating games have consistently been some of the most fucked up games ive ever played, for reasons of Genre that could be several theses on its own. i appreciate the content warnings at the top, but even though this is not a game specifically tailored for a fanbase (i think it would work better without the name customization, actually) it does have a beautiful tragic sadperson whomst i expect to see some cosplay/fanart/fanworks for. there isn’t a good gender-neutral term for sadboy. bear with me.

inside baseball industry musings, my company does not rep them, all thoughts my own &tc: i cannot immediately find a ton of info about this studio, other than they're canadian. this is odd, bc finding info about games and studios is literally my job, esp bc they are also doing all the Indie Marketing things right EXCEPT for social media- releasing a free teaser like this, doing episodic drops with completely different SKUs so they keep getting fresh eyeballs, and a very high-effort and polished art style. they also have a very well thought out steam page that properly sets expectations and gives a good teaser of the game. their thumbnail is fucking killer and drew me in in the first place, and the whole thing (aside from one! one singular typo in the actual game itself! very forgivable!) is very polished. this team knows what they’re about. i'm sad nobody's really talking about this, but we are experiencing an absolute glut of games right now.

it doesn’t really look like anything i’ve seen before, which is always very exciting. it’s got flashes of dry humor that i like very much and i probably will pick up the full game when it’s out in feb (ep 2 is out but i like consuming completed things bc i Never remember to come back to them)

making hey remember this bad boy? finally washed it on cold/delicate/with woolite and on the extreme-low-heat dryer setting, then absolutely crisped it again on high for a bit bc i am quite paranoid about moths and carpet beetles. i would like to hang this on the wall adjacent to my work desk bc there’s been a bad echo on all my calls lately, but this blanket is very hard to look at. so it is folded up small and thrown artfully over our maroon futon and they kind of cancel each other out.

the fringe is in okay shape, i started combing it out before realizing that’s an insane thing to do and i only have a limited number of hours on this here earth. the thing i DID do was reattach the fringe in the seven or eight places it was peeling off. i think it was originally machine stitched on, which makes sense. although if you hand-embroidered and hand-quilted a blanket of this size, a little bit of straight stitch is going to be Nothing to you.

teaser of next week’s tuesday again no problem, bc god willing i will have cleaned/deodorized/built a proper frame for this thing and hung it up

[silyabeeodess]

FusionFall Headcanons: Te-Xuan-Ze Inc.

There are at least two locations within the game where we find this curious business: Orchid Bay and Endsville. Based on the original character guide/bible from 2007, it’s a paranormal consulting agency that Juniper Lee opened.  (A big thanks again to the person who sent me that!) While the guide itself seems to contain mostly early-mid concepts that didn’t always make it/were changed in the final game and there isn’t a mention of this business in missions/other dialogue that I’ve seen for us to pull other information from, the fact that it is still present holds weight. 

Since the two locations I mentioned are the only places where I’ve found TXZ Inc. along with it’s obvious name, it’s pretty safe to say that the business still focuses strongly on the paranormal.  Orchid Bay is June’s hometown that’s crawling with monsters out of sight from human society while Endsville is its own hotbed for the supernatural. However, since it would go against June’s story in her own show, I don’t think she’d come out so openly with her identity as the Te-Xuan-Ze. We also have the issue where she wasn’t able to leave Orchid Bay before she made her deal with Grim because of the war, which would’ve made running a much bigger branch in Endsville difficult for her. The following points will break down my thoughts concerning these issues.

First off is how the name/identity of the Te-Xuan-Ze is being used for the business. While the realms of the supernatural may be hidden in the world of June’s show, that’s not the case in others like Fusionfall itself. The Saturdays and some other Secret Scientists look for cryptids.  As mentioned, Endsville has supernatural beings all over the place. We have demonic villains like Him, Aku, and Demongo.  The list goes on... Moreover though, there’s also evidence of a past Te-Xuan-Ze at the Forgotten Falls through the statue that’s there for anyone to find.  Because of this, for most people within the world, I’d say that the Te-Xuan-Ze as a title is known mostly as a legend that only those with a wider understanding of the supernatural realms can confirm.  This would allow June to use the namesake for her business without many people understanding what it truly meant, and even then, many of those who did would likely just pass it off as something derived from folklore--effectively hiding her identity in plain sight.  The name wasn’t chosen out of laziness or simple pride in the title though: It serves another purpose. If supernatural beings need June’s help, they know exactly where to go.

As for who’s actually running these businesses, I think June’s mainly working them behind the scenes with her family. A few close people in her circle, like her two brothers, are already aware of her true identity and have helped her on her adventures before. While she might not have been able to leave Orchid Bay until recently, they could: Therefore, it was through them that she was able to expand. Any employees that they added on, meanwhile, were carefully selected with the condition that they already engage with the supernatural or can at least see past the magical veil. Since supernatural beings may show up as clients themselves, or on the chance that someone/something actually arrives at TXZ Inc. with the intent to harm June and/or others, they need to be prepared for anything.  

To the average person with just an interest in the paranormal, nothing really stands out. There’s the typical ghost-hunting equipment like dark lights, EMF detectors, and spirit boxes; tons of books; etc. It’s the kind of stuff you’d find at tourist sites in Salem or Gettysburg. A keen eye might be able to find some worthwhile things; however, there’s a lot more products sold under the table that you can only really get your hands on if you know exactly what to ask for. 

TXZ Inc. encourages that all people share their supernatural stories.  A lot of them are nothing and they don’t look into every single one as a result, but its just in case there are witnesses of devious events too worried about others thinking they’re crazy or lying to speak up otherwise. 

Since Endsville’s state with the supernatural is more open and chaotic than in Orchid Bay, it’s branch ended up being much larger and there’s a lot more products available. They even have items directly from the Underworld. 

Occasionally, TXZ Inc. handles tours/open investigations; however, since the business is focused primarily on defending both humans and supernaturals alike, the people working there don’t make a habit of just waltzing onto a paranormal site. For one thing, it could be dangerous for those they bring along if there is something really going on at those sites. For another, it can be just plain rude to the supernaturals.  Most likely, they’ll host them to distance the public from truly deadly areas, often working with paranormal beings to put on a show. Jeff the Spider is one of the supernaturals who’s been hired by them in the past--to different results each time. 

Over time, Hoss Delgado became a bit of a regular client to TXZ Inc. He and Juniper Lee still don’t see eye-to-eye regarding to how they approach the paranormal, with him being far more aggressive and confrontational; however, early on when the business was forming, he was able to suggest some good equipment for them to have in-stock.  Now, they’re an easy supplier for himself--so long as he remembers not to attack any supernaturals shopping there anyway...  

[ofelvie]

joe keery. cis male. he/him.  ／  elvie croft just pulled up blasting spooky boy by danny gonzalez  — that song is so them ! you know, for a twenty - four year old youtuber, i’ve heard they’re really scatterbrained, but that they make up for it by being so loyal. if i had to choose three things to describe them, i’d probably say 80s horror, buckets of halloween candy, and blurry photographs of mysterious figures in the woods. here’s to hoping they don’t cause too much trouble ! ( sam, 23, est, she/her )

hey there demons! *ba dum tss* my name is sam and i’ll be writing elvie, a brilliant harvard law graduate who threw away any shred of credibility he ever had in order to make silly videos on the internet. more info under the cut. feel free to message me if you would like to plot!

i. stats

𝖋𝖚𝖑𝖑 𝖓𝖆𝖒𝖊: elvin tupelo croft

𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖋𝖊𝖗𝖗𝖊𝖉 𝖓𝖆𝖒𝖊𝖘: el, elvie, the ghost guy

𝖍𝖔𝖒𝖊𝖙𝖔𝖜𝖓: salem, massachusetts 

𝖉𝖆𝖙𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖇𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖍: october 31, 1995

��𝖔𝖉𝖎𝖆𝖈: scorpio

𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓: demisexual

𝖔𝖈𝖈𝖚𝖕𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓: lawyer youtuber

𝖕𝖔𝖘. 𝖙𝖗𝖆𝖎𝖙𝖘: loyal, open - minded, exuberant.

𝖓𝖊𝖌. 𝖙𝖗𝖆𝖎𝖙𝖘: scatterbrained, obstreperous, impulsive.

𝖎𝖓𝖘𝖕𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖉 𝖇𝖞: shawn spencer, psych ; fox mulder, the x files ; stiles stilinski, teen wolf.

ii. history

elvin tupelo “elvie” croft was born in salem, massachusetts ( yes, really ) on halloween day ( yes, really ). an only child, his father is the district attorney for essex county, massachusetts while his mother owns a store in town that sells witchcraft supplies such as crystals, herbs, grimiores, etc. fun fact: she’s the descendant of an accused witch, meaning that elvie is as well.

as it turns out, beneath of the surface of the few tourist attractions that it has to offer, salem has a small town, stuck in the past vibe. it’s the sort of place where everyone knows everyone all their lives because no one ever leaves and no one ever moves in. he grew up in this...eccentric...environment, living in the same house all his life and only ever leaving to visit his grandparents in boston. 

he was five years old when he saw his first horror movie ( an apathetic teenage babysitter let him stay up long past his bedtime to watch nightmare on elm street ) and from that moment on he was HOOKED.

when he started school, two things about him became apparent: 1) he was highly intelligent and 2) he struggled greatly with tasks such as sitting still and staying focused. he was tested, and it turns out that he has a through the roof genius level iq and he also has adhd, which he was put on a few different medications for until something finally seemed to work for him.

he could have been one of those child prodigies who finished high school at the age of ten and then college at the age of fourteen, BUT his parents decided that they didn’t want him to miss out on the experience of going through school with people his own age.

as the smartest kid in class with glasses and braces and an insatiable obsession with all things horror and halloween, he…was picked on. mercilessly.

so, he didn’t really have any friends...............................at all.................................but he didn’t mind. he was perfectly content to go right home after school and spend the rest of the day reading comic books or watching horror movies or researching local urban legends and paranormal stories.

he started his youtube channel when he was a teenager and it was…trash honestly. it was basically buzzfeed unsolved if buzzfeed unsolved consisted of one ( 1 ) dorky teenager yelling at the air in the middle of abandoned house at 3am, but it turned out that people found it entertaining. his first few videos were flops, but he would soon start amassing subscribers in the hundreds, then thousands, then hundreds of thousands.

so, when he got to his senior year of high school, he was a shoe - in to be named class valedictorian ( he was ) and he was even getting ivy league offers. at the same time, his youtube channel was starting to gain momentum. his parents mainly his father were really pushing him to attend college and elvie, genius level iq and all…didn’t want to go. he wanted to focus on his youtube channel, but his dad was absolutely not having it.

he attended harvard for both his pre law and law school studies, breezed through classes, graduated with honors at the top of his class and once he passed the bar exam there were countless job offers waiting for him. elvie ignored them all and moved to los angeles so that he could finally focus on his youtube channel.

it’s been almost two years since he moved and he likes it in california!

iii. extras

his name is elvin but basically no one ever calls him that. his own parents don’t even particularly like the name. long story. most people call him elvie and some who are super close to him just call him el.

while he is the “ryan” aka the believer of his youtube series, he’s definitely NOT a scaredy cat like ryan the poor guy. in fact, all his life there’s been this running joke that HE DOESN’T SEEM TO BE SCARED OF ANYTHING, and who knows? maybe he isn’t.

has the most cartoonishly exaggerated boston accent that one could ever hope to hear, except he doesn’t seem to realize it at all. 

10/31 blaze it he’s a HUGE stoner.

he’s got jokes. stay vigilant.

he’s OBSESSED with all things horror, halloween, and 80s. he makes a lot of film references that are often so obscure that most people don’t even catch them.

he is legally permitted to practice law in the states of massachusetts and california, so basically: he’s a lawyer! however, this is not at all common knowledge because...

most people don’t know how smart he actually is because he intentionally plays dumb and he’s really good at it. being high all the time and his natural chaotic energy is quite helpful in hiding his intelligence. he just doesn’t like to be seen as smart, so the whole once - brilliant law student thing? not common knowledge whatsoever. he tries not to mention the college he attended by name at all, but if he has to then he lies and says that he went to salem state.

and yes, he has SO MUCH chaotic energy. he’s the kind of person who will stick a fork in his microwave just to see what would happen out of sheer boredom. he has two pet mexican redknee tarantulas that probably aren’t even allowed on campus named freddy and jason who he just…fucking loses track of every other day. his favorite drink is literally black coffee mixed together with a can of monster energy and 5 ( f i v e ) teaspoons of sugar. he is c h a o s. he has absolutely NO IMPULSE CONTROL whatsoever. 

he has slight Daddy Issues™. slight. when he was born, his dad was hoping that he would get a star athlete kid who would go on to follow in his footsteps and one day become a successful, respectable lawyer but instead he got…elvie. he’s never outright said that he’s disappointed but he didn’t need to. elvie’s a really difficult person to rattle but every time, without fail, he ends a phone call with his dad and he’s in a bad mood for the rest of the day. 

his car is this PIECE OF JUNK giant turquoise van that he painted to look like the mystery machine. her name is laurie strode.

even though he makes constant pop culture references about horror movies and the 80s, but outside of those areas he’s completely clueless about pop culture. like, he can recite the entire scripts of the shining and empire strikes back and ferris bueller’s day off word for word, but if someone tried to talk to him about the new post malone song or the latest marvel movie he would just stare blankly.

he has a HUGE sweet tooth. his favorite food is halloween candy and his favorite candy is black licorice disgusting i know.

he takes adderall for his adhd and he’s usually good about keeping up with it. started keeping them on his person in college because he realized that his meds were getting stolen and it’s a habit he's held onto that doesn’t really keep his shit from getting stolen.

.he’s good at…A LOT of things because he’s a really fast learner. he can play the guitar, he can draw, he did drama in high school. he just has to watch someone do something once and then he can usually immediately do it himself. this skill doesn’t extend to physical activities such as sports, however. he’s terrible at those.

he’s basically a cartoon character

iv. wanted connections

friends

cousin  ( their grandparents would probably be from boston but otherwise anything really goes for this )

his weed dealer lmao

smoking buddies

people who don’t like him / find him annoying

has stolen his adderall

maybe someone who knows how smart he really is

exes and flings

( these are just ideas and i’m trash at coming up with these, so please don’t feel limited by what’s listed here. )

[elviefm]

is that [JOE KEERY]? no, that’s just [ELVIE CROFT]. [HE/HIM] is [TWENTY-FIVE] years old and is a [NIGHT JANITOR AT CURTAIN CALL]. rumor has it they’ve been in town for [ONE MONTH]. on a good day, they’re [JOCUND & PERSPICACIOUS]. but watch out! they can also be [SCATTERBRAINED & OBSTREPEROUS]. [SCRAWNY BY WALLOWS] plays in my head whenever i think of them. can’t wait to see them around Springhill! [sam, 23, est, she/her]

hey there demons! *ba dum tss* i’m sam and this is one of my favorite muses ever so without further ado, character info is under the cut and please message me if you would like to plot!

i. stats

ｆｕｌｌ ｎａｍｅ：elvin tupelo croft

ｐｒｅｆｅｒｒｅｄ ｎａｍｅｓ：el, elvie, spooky guy

ｈｏｍｅｔｏｗｎ：salem, massachusetts

ｄａｔｅ ｏｆ ｂｉｒｔｈ：october 31st, 1994

ａｇｅ： twenty - five

ｚｏｄｉａｃ：scorpio

ｏｒｉｅｎｔａｔｉｏｎ：demisexual

ｏｃｃｕｐａｔｉｏｎ：night janitor at curtain call movie theater

ｐｏｓ． ｔｒａｉｔｓ：jocund, perspicacious, loyal, open - minded.

ｎｅｇ． ｔｒａｉｔｓ：scatterbrained, obstreperous, flippant

ii. history

elvin tupelo “elvie” croft was born in salem, massachusetts ( yes, really ) on halloween day ( yes, really ). he's an only child and his father is the district attorney for essex county, massachusetts while his mother owns a small local business that sells witchcraft supplies such as crystals, herbs, grimoires, and more. interesting fact: she’s the descendant of an accused witch, meaning that elvie is as well.

as it turns out, beneath of the surface of the few tourist attractions that it has to offer, salem has a small town, stuck in the past vibe. it’s the sort of place where everyone knows everyone all their lives because no one ever leaves and no one ever moves in. he grew up in this…eccentric…environment, living in the same house all his life and only ever leaving to visit his grandparents in boston.

he was five years old when he saw his first horror movie ( an apathetic teenage babysitter let him stay up long past his bedtime to watch nightmare on elm street ) and from that moment on he was HOOKED.

when he started school, two things about him became apparent: 1) he was highly intelligent and 2) he struggled greatly with tasks such as sitting still and staying focused. he was tested ( a few times, much to his irritation ) and it turns out that he has a genius level iq and adhd.

he could have been one of those child prodigies who finished high school at the age of ten and then college at the age of fourteen, BUT his parents decided that they didn’t want him to miss out on the experience of going through school with peers his own age.

HOWEVER, as the smartest kid in class with glasses and braces and an insatiable obsession with all things horror and halloween, he…was picked on. mercilessly. he never had many friends, but he was content to go right home after school and spend the rest of the day reading comic books or watching horror movies or researching local urban legends and paranormal stories.

so, when he got to his senior year of high school, he was a shoe - in to be named class valedictorian ( he was ) and he was even getting ivy league offers. of course, his parents mainly his father were really pushing him to attend college and elvie, genius level iq and all…didn’t want to go. he had a van ( a turquoise monstrosity painted to look like the mystery machine ) and he just wanted to drive. alas, his dad was absolutely NOT having it.

he attended harvard for both his pre law and law school studies, breezed through classes, graduated with honors at the top of his class and once he passed the bar exam there were countless job offers waiting for him. elvie ignored them all and finally embarked on that road trip he had been meaning to take.

he’s been on the road for about a year now and he’s traveled all over the country. he often breezes into a town or a city, lives in his van, and takes up some odd jobs to squeeze a few dollars out of before he inevitably gets fired for messing up or not taking the work seriously or getting high on the job. he arrived in springfield a month ago, continuing his pattern or having fun and exploring somewhere he’s never been before.

iii. extras

his name is elvin but basically no one ever calls him that. his own parents don’t even particularly like the name. long story. most people call him elvie and some who are super close to him just call him el.

BIG RYAN BERGARA ENERGY. a huge believer in the paranormal and urban legends, and one of his favorite things to do when he goes somewhere new is check out the local cemeteries and haunted locales. unlike ryan, the poor guy he’s definitely NOT a scaredy cat in fact, all his life there’s been this running joke that he doesn’t seem to be scared of anything, and who knows? maybe he isn’t.

has the most cartoonishly exaggerated boston accent that one could ever hope to hear, except he doesn’t seem to realize it at all.

10/31 blaze it he’s a HUGE stoner.

he’s got jokes. stay vigilant.

he’s OBSESSED with all things horror, halloween, and 80s. he makes a lot of film references that are often so obscure that most people don’t even catch them.

he’s a lawyer! at least in the state of massachusetts. however, this is not at all common knowledge because…

most people don’t know how smart he actually is as he intentionally plays dumb and he’s really good at it. being high all the time and his natural chaotic energy is quite helpful in hiding his intelligence. he just doesn’t like to be seen as smart, so the whole once - brilliant law student thing? not common knowledge whatsoever. he tries not to mention the college he attended by name at all, but if he has to then he lies and says that he went to salem state.

and yes, he has SO MUCH chaotic energy. he’s the kind of person who will stick a fork in his microwave just to see what would happen out of sheer boredom. he has two pet mexican redknee tarantulas named freddy and jason who he just…fucking loses track of every other day. his favorite drink is literally black coffee mixed together with a can of monster energy and 5 ( f i v e ) teaspoons of sugar. he is c h a o s. he has absolutely NO IMPULSE CONTROL whatsoever.

he has slight Daddy Issues™. slight. when he was born, his dad was hoping that he would get a star athlete kid who would go on to follow in his footsteps and one day become a successful, respectable lawyer but instead he got…elvie. he’s never outright said that he’s disappointed but he didn’t need to. elvie’s a really difficult person to rattle but every time, without fail, he ends a phone call with his dad and he’s in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

his car is this PIECE OF JUNK giant turquoise van that he painted to look like the mystery machine. her name is laurie strode.

even though he makes constant pop culture references about horror movies and the 80s, but outside of those areas he’s completely clueless about pop culture. like, he can recite the entire scripts of the shining and empire strikes back and ferris bueller’s day off word for word, but if someone tried to talk to him about the new beyonce song or the latest marvel movie he would just stare blankly.

he has a HUGE sweet tooth. his favorite food is halloween candy and his favorite candy is black licorice disgusting i know.

he takes adderall for his adhd and he’s usually good about keeping up with it. started keeping them on his person in college because he realized that his meds were getting stolen and it’s a habit he’s held onto that doesn’t really keep his shit from getting stolen.

he’s good at…A LOT of things because he’s a really fast learner. he can play the guitar, he can draw, he did drama in high school. he just has to watch someone do something once and then he can usually immediately do it himself. this skill doesn’t extend to physical activities such as sports, however. he’s terrible at those.

he’s basically a cartoon character

iv. wanted connections

best friend from salem who travels with him *will probably submit as a wc

friends

cousin ( their grandparents would probably be from boston but otherwise anything really goes for this )

his weed dealer

smoking buddies

people who don’t like him / find him annoying

i know there are a lot of business owners so : people he worked for who have since fired him for being an all around awful employee.

has stolen his adderall

maybe someone who knows how smart he really is

romantic connections!

( these are just ideas and i’m trash at coming up with these, so please don’t feel limited by what’s listed here. )

[bomberqueen17]

germans

So. I Instagrammed about this a fair bit already and some of it crossposted here, but. 

We spent the last couple of days in a lovely, if remote, hotel sort of thing in the Westfjords, and did a lot of sitting in an outdoor hot spring pool thing near a greenhouse with a pool in it, and such, and now today we’re dealing with the fact that bad weather means our flight back to the capital today was cancelled, and that continuing bad weather meant there’d be no replacement flight tomorrow, and we’ve got to fly home (well, back to Toronto) tomorrow evening. It was the hotel proprietress that made us see that no, in fact, going and waiting at the airport up in the north country wasn’t going to help-- we had to start driving south if we were going to make it.

So that was today, and I Instagrammed it, but what I wanted to come here to mention is something I haven’t been putting in any of my Instagram stuff because it wasn’t really a funny story yet until now.

So. At the hotel thing in the Westfjords-- it’s called Heydalur, it’s a former dairy farm rehabbed into a tourist destination hotel resort campground kind of thing-- anyway, we were not the only guests! No. We were joined by one of those Sprinter vans full of Germans. Eight in total, all in athletic leisurewear. We made brief friendly conversation and then sat separately at dinner, as the hostess had seated us separately.  

(the readmore: saga of the Germans)

Then the next day we each separately went to the same place. Holmavik, which boasts a restaurant with an attached museum about witchcraft. We were driving over the terrible road, nearly made it to our destination, and came upon a white Sprinter van going twenty km/hr under the speed limit, and so we overtook it and then found ourselves going rather faster down a snowy pass than we’d intended [I’m saying “we” but I was driving, you see how this goes], but we acquitted ourselves just fine and got where we were going-- only to have the Sprinter van pull up about ten minutes behind us, and the Germans pile out.

So we entered this museum together, and the owner was startled by the sheer numbers of us, and then of course we wound up going through the museum in a big crowd, and then all wanting lunch at the same time, and then yet another group came in-- coincidentally, five Austrians-- and the woman was slightly cross, as it’s the slow season and she had no help and everyone wanted complicated things. In retrospect, we should have just had lunch first, and looked at the museum second, but I hadn’t really considered the Germans’ plans. 

They left before we did, and the museum-slash-restaurant owner was slightly flustered and laughed with us about tour groups-- “this is our slow season, I’m not prepared for crowds!” and when I said something about having had to explain one of the museum captions to them because it involved some knowledge of American history [literally just a mention of the Salem witch trials], she sort of scoffed and said, “Germans think they’re the center of the world!” and I laughed and said it was kind of her to say such a thing to an *American*-- who wasn’t even bilingual-- a New Yorker no less-- but I don’t know if, of course, she knows the reputation of New Yorkers, so perhaps didn’t even really understand how self-centered I was being. Listen though, Germans can’t possibly outdo us at being The Worst, but it was kind of her to say so. 

Anyway-- we wound up in the hot tub together that night, Dude and I and several of the Germans, and meanwhile another white Sprinter van full of Germans had showed up to Heydalur, and I laughingly said “oh do you guys know each other?” because that’s a ridiculous thing to say, and they were stonily silent in return, and I was like how do I even explain that that’s a ridiculous joke and I know that so I gave up and moved the conversation along, and was like well, at least we won’t really see one another again.

This morning as we were all collecting ourselves at breakfast (during which several of the new Germans attempted to hold conversations with me in German, assuming I was from the other group) I overheard them conferring with the hotel owners about their plans for the day-- which we did too, actually, the woman who owned the place came around and checked in with each group to ensure we really understood the weather reports-- and determined that they were driving down to Reykjavik today, as their flight is early tomorrow morning. They hadn’t left any time to account for weather. 

So they left before us, all piled into their van, about fifteen minutes before we did, and I resigned myself to following them at their timid speed, as the conditions would be too bad for overtaking. 

And then we never saw them. There were no tracks on the road. Well, there was one set, and we followed it a while, expecting to catch up to a slow-going Sprinter van, and then... the tracks turned off at a farm, and were clearly coming from the other direction. (The Djupvager [highway 60] ]is two lanes wide, but it’s not a generous two lanes, and the rule seems to be that if you can’t see the lane markings then you just drive in the clearest part of the road, which makes perfect sense as you can see other traffic coming from a great distance due to the way the road doubles in around the fjords.) 

So they weren’t on the road. They’d left fifteen minutes before, but hadn’t actually gone... the only way one can go on the highway. There’s only one way over the mountains that’s open in the winter, and it’s through Holmavik, and then across. There are no other towns large enough to stop in between Heydalur and Holmavik, and there’s no town the other direction that’s close (like, if they’d gone for provisions or something). The closest grocery store is Holmavik, or you have to go back to Isafjordur, an hour and a half the other direction.

So they were gone. We puzzled, intermittently, over our vanished Germans, until we got to Holmavik, ascertained that they hadn’t beaten us there, and then we mostly forgot because there was so much terrifying driving to do.

Until dinnertime. We got to Búr∂ardalur around, ehh, like 3pm? I’d made quite good time, possibly driving faster than I ought to have, but listen I have a lot of experience on very snowy roads and the thing I’ve sort of learned is that for drifted snow, which was the problem for much of it, there’s a technique-- you accelerate smoothly toward it, take your foot off the gas, hit it as square as you can with the car aimed in the direction you need to go, and then touch no pedals and hold the wheel firmly in the direction you need, only adjusting to steer in the direction of any skid that happens. You will rapidly lose momentum, but you mustn’t spin your wheels or hit your breaks; you want the car to roll, fluidly and smoothly, and your momentum must be sufficient to carry you to the other side of the drift. You ideally also want there to be a great deal of leeway either side of this drift, but as it doesn’t matter which lane you’re in on the mountain roads, I didn’t find it difficult. It was exhausting, and it required steady focus and a very iron nerve, but it also meant I was traveling relatively fast for most of it. Because I know that if you stop you get stuck, and if you hit the brakes you die. 

So it only took me about half again as long as the estimated time to make my trip, because we didn’t stop and the conditions weren’t icy, they were snowy. Maps says now it’s an hour’s drive; I think I took an hour and a half. So-- 

(I also had rather a lot of trouble getting disoriented, when visibility was ten meters or less, so that took a lot of concentration as well-- it was impossible to tell if you were going uphill or down unless you really paid attention to the way the car was pulling, which made it hard to regulate speed. But I did all right, obviously, as I survived.) 

Anyway-- we made it past Bur∂ardalur and then had to turn around and come back when the road was closed a bit further on, which is good because the wind was so upsettingly dangerous and much harder to accomodate than drifting or falling snow-- and then settled into a guesthouse after much searching, and then we went to the only open restaurant in town, when they opened at 6 pm.

We walked in, and as we entered the dining room, there was a group of people, and one of them looked up at us and started laughing hysterically.

It was the Germans.

We couldn’t understand where they’d been, but they told the waitress that it had taken them three and a half hours to come from Holmavik. I don’t know where they’d been before that, if they hadn’t really left or where they’d hidden-- maybe they’d moved their van to load it, and we got out before they did somehow-- but they’d come the same way as us, and with a great deal less expedience. 

They wreaked havoc in that tiny restaurant, got the waitress all flustered, and then had to have her split their check eight ways (and bicker over the details) as three more groups of stranded travelers came in for a shift I’m sure the waitress had assumed would involve maybe five customers total. 

As they left, we discovered they were pushing through to Reykjavik tonight, and had to stop until the road re-opened, but were continuing on now. We wished them luck. 

They left, and another tour group of nine Germans came in, joining the group of four and the group of two and the group of five, and we watched our waitress’s eyes glaze over, and hastily took our leave. 

If we see those Germans again it’s because something terrible happened to them, so I really hope not.

I do have an anthropological question, though, which is-- why do Germans vacation in packs??? Why is that a thing? I’ve encountered it elsewhere too? Always herds of unrelated adults, is what I’ve found, and this may be anecdata but they also always seem to be attired as if for athletic exertion regardless of whether they’re traveling by bus or bicycle, and I don’t really get it, but maybe there’s something I’m missing, or maybe there’s some anthropology there. (All the unrelated German groups were dressed for hiking but none of them actually did any, that I could find out about-- there’s not much hiking to be had, in this amount of snow, and there are snow sports to be sure but there was no evidence of any of them either?) 

Fascinating. 

[eliscroft]

[ joe keery, cis male, he/him ] have you seen ( ELI CROFT ) hanging around? the ( TWENTY-FIVE ) year old often hangs around ( THE WITCH'S HOUSE ) when they’re not being a ( LATE NIGHT RADIO SHOW HOST ). i’ve been told they’re ( LOYAL ) but ( SCATTERBRAINED ) and when i look at them, i see ( 80S HORROR, BUCKETS OF HALLOWEEN CANDY, BLURRY PHOTOGRAPHS OF MYSTERIOUS FIGURES IN THE WOODS ). wellcliff wouldn’t be the same without ‘em! [ sam, 23, she/her, est ]

hey there demons! *ba dum tss* i’m sam and i also write cal ( @calsmorgan​​ ). much like my sweetheart jock, this spooky nerd is one of my favorite muses ever, and i hope you love him as much as i do! please feel free to message me if you would like to plot!

TWS: medication, bullying, drug mention

STATS

FULL NAME: elvin tupelo croft

NICKNAMES: el, eli, et, spooky guy

GENDER + PRONOUNS: cis male + he / him

DOB + AGE: october 31st, 1994 + twenty - five

ZODIAC: scorpio

HOMETOWN: salem, massachusetts

OCCUPATION: host of the graveyard shift, a radio program airing every weeknight in wellcliff from 12am to 5am.

FUN FACTS: fluent in icelandic, has two mexican redknee tarantulas named freddy and jason, and has a HUGE sweet tooth.

 HISTORY

elvin tupelo “eli” croft was born in salem, massachusetts ( yes, really ) on halloween day ( yes, really ). he's an only child and his father is the district attorney for essex county, massachusetts while his mother owns a small local business that sells witchcraft supplies such as crystals, herbs, grimoires, and more. interesting fact: she’s the descendant of an accused witch, meaning that eli is as well.

as it turns out, beneath the surface of the few tourist attractions that it has to offer, salem has a small town, stuck in the past vibe. it’s the sort of place where everyone knows everyone all their lives because no one ever leaves and no one ever moves in. he grew up in this atypical environment, living in the same house all his life and only ever leaving to visit his grandparents in boston.

he was five years old when he saw his first horror movie ( an apathetic teenage babysitter let him stay up long past his bedtime to watch nightmare on elm street ) and from that moment on he was HOOKED.

when he started school, two things about him became apparent : 1) he was highly intelligent and 2) he struggled greatly with tasks such as sitting still and staying focused. he was tested ( a few times, much to his irritation ) and it was discovered that he has a genius level iq and adhd.

he could have been one of those child prodigies who finished high school and college by the age of sixteen, BUT his parents decided that they didn’t want him to miss out on the experience of being in school with peers his own age.

HOWEVER, as the smartest kid in class with glasses and braces and an insatiable obsession with all things horror and halloween, he was picked on. mercilessly. he never had many friends, but he was content to go right home after school and spend the rest of the day reading comic books or watching horror movies or researching local urban legends and paranormal stories.

so, when he got to his senior year of high school, he was a shoe - in to be named class valedictorian ( he was ) and he was even getting ivy league offers. of course, his parents mainly his father were really pushing him to attend college and eli, genius level iq and all…didn’t want to go. he had a van ( a turquoise monstrosity painted to look like the mystery machine ) and he just wanted to drive. alas, his dad was absolutely NOT having it.

he attended harvard for both his pre law and law school studies, breezed through classes, graduated with honors at the top of his class and once he passed the bar exam there were countless job offers waiting for him. eli ignored them all and finally embarked on that road trip he had been meaning to take alongside his best friend.

they unexpectedly settled in wellcliff about a year ago after getting their hosting gig at the local radio station. ( basically, they were working as interns for some extra cash and the regular hosts called out of work at the last second, so eli and his best friend were shoved into the booth and told to think fast! ) they were a literal overnight success and so they were offered a regular hosting gig at the station.

the graveyard shift is a radio program that airs every weeknight from 12am - 5am in the wellcliff area and on apps such as iheartradio. eli hosts the show alongside his best friend and they discuss topics such as the paranormal, conspiracy theories, and all things spooky. 

PERSONALITY

a HUGE believer in the paranormal and urban legends, and one of his favorite things to do when he goes somewhere new is check out the local cemeteries and haunted locales. however, unlike his real world counterparts zak bagans and ryan bergara he’s definitely NOT a scaredy cat in fact, all his life there’s been this running joke that HE DOESN’T SEEM TO BE SCARED OF ANYTHING, and who knows? maybe he isn’t.

10/31 blaze it he’s a HUGE stoner.

he’s got jokes. stay vigilant.

he’s OBSESSED with all things horror, halloween, and 80s. he makes a lot of film references that are often so obscure that most people don’t even catch them.

he’s a lawyer! at least in the state of massachusetts. however, this is not at all common knowledge because…

most people don’t know how smart he actually is as he intentionally plays dumb and he’s really good at it. being high all the time and his natural chaotic energy is quite helpful in hiding his intelligence. he just doesn’t like to be seen as smart, so the whole once - brilliant law student thing? not common knowledge whatsoever. he tries not to mention the college he attended by name at all, but if he has to then he lies and says that he went to salem state.

btw yes, he has SO MUCH chaotic energy. he’s the kind of person who will stick a fork in his microwave just to see what would happen out of sheer boredom. he has two pet mexican redknee tarantulas named freddy and jason who he just…fucking loses track of every other day. his favorite drink is literally black coffee mixed together with a can of monster energy and 5 ( f i v e ) teaspoons of sugar. he is c h a o s. he has absolutely NO IMPULSE CONTROL whatsoever. 

even though he makes constant pop culture references about horror movies and the 80s, but outside of those areas he’s completely clueless about pop culture. like, he can recite the entire scripts of the shining and empire strikes back and ferris bueller’s day off word for word, but if someone tried to talk to him about the new post malone song or the latest marvel movie he would just stare blankly.

he has a HUGE sweet tooth. his favorite food is halloween candy and his favorite candy is black licorice disgusting i know.

he takes adderall for his adhd and he’s usually good about keeping up with it. started keeping them on his person in college because he realized that his meds were getting stolen and it’s a habit he’s held onto that doesn’t really keep his shit from getting stolen.

he’s good at…A LOT of things because he’s a really fast learner. he can play the guitar, he can draw, he did drama in high school. he just has to watch someone do something once and then he can usually immediately do it himself. this skill doesn’t extend to physical activities such as sports, however. he’s terrible at those.

he’s basically a cartoon character

WANTED CONNECTIONS

best friend from salem who travels with him * wc on the main

friends

paternal / maternal cousin ( paternal cousin’s grandparents would probably be from boston + maternal cousins grandparents would probably be from salem )

his weed dealer but they gotta have the really good shit

smoking buddies

people who don’t like him / find him annoying

has stolen his adderall

maybe someone who knows how smart he really is

romantic connections! 

these are just some base ideas and i’m definitely open to brainstorming!

[dem-obscure-imagines]

The Familiar

Thackery Binx x Reader Prompt: Some of y’all asked for some Binx around Halloween time but I couldn’t write any since I was busy with school, so I’ve just had this floating around in my head since like October. Apologies. Warnings: None? Word Count: 2.2k

You’d decided a long time ago that you weren’t a great witch. It wasn’t that you were an evil one, no, you tried your best to keep the balance. It was just that you were...as your mother put it, rather inexperienced. You hadn’t had much time to hone your skills yet, and your magic was far from fully controlled. You weren’t good at brewing potions or casting spells...overall, you were kind of a mess, but you meant well.

And that, Thackery figured, was probably the reason he had stumbled upon your house in the first place. He knew well after his couple hundred years wandering through the streets of Salem, that any witch worth her hexes needed a familiar to keep her on the right path, so your familiar is just what he became.

Now, nearly two years later, you were curled up on the couch with your knitting. It wasn’t a particularly magical project you were working on, but you’d been told by your mother that crafting something with magical hands often increased its magical properties. You figured that must be the case for something like this, something that took so long to make.

You heard Thackery’s paws pad across the wooden floor and into the living room, where you were settled.

“Are you a bit cold? It’s rather cold in here.” He noted. How he was able to tell, all covered in fur like he was now, you’d never know.

“Now that you mention it, yeah, I am.” You agreed, setting your knitting to the side and manifesting a spell in your hand. It was a little one, so it didn’t require nearly as much thought or focus as it had for you a few years ago, but it still required a free hand or two. You watched as a little flame grew in the palm of your hand and then, with a flick of your wrist, you banished it to the fireplace, where the logs caught nicely, beginning to warm the big room of the old Salem house on the sea.

“What are you making?” Thackery tilted his head and watched as you picked up your project again. His sharp green eyes fixed on the string and you could tell it was taking every bit of his consciousness to resist the urge to play with it. Cute, you decided.

“Scarf. It’s going to get colder soon.” You reminded him quietly, as though the orange trees outside weren’t a reminder of the fact. Halloween had come and gone uneventfully, so you were safely on your way through November, trying to balance your magical studies with all of the hobbies you had, this being one of them. Well, that and bonding with your familiar. Although, the last of those things wasn’t too difficult. You knew he was pretty fond of you.

“Right. The weather tends to do that, doesn’t it?” He chuckled to himself, shaking his head. You couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be Thackery Binx, after having lived through so many seasons and years and decades and centuries. Time really didn’t mean anything to someone who’s immortal. It was sad. “Oh, don’t be sad for me, love.” He cooed, looking at the expression on your face. Your bond with him did many things. One of them was letting you tap into the other’s emotions from time to time, not that he didn’t know you well enough to be able to tell.

“It is sad, though, isn’t it?”

“I suppose. But you shouldn’t be sad for me. Someone as precious as you shouldn’t waste time on being sad.”

You couldn’t seem to explain your racing heart, nor the way it warmed your insides when one of his little paws rested on your working hands, stilling them in their places. He looked up at you with those emerald green eyes. “It’s okay, really, it is.”

Your next words were quiet. Had it not been for his acute senses, you doubted he’d have been able to hear you at all. “But it’s not, though.”

Thackery sighed, lowering his paw as you started to put your knitting away and instead picked up the remote for the TV. You pulled your blanket up higher over your legs and gave your thighs a pat, inviting him on. He gladly curled in your lap, warm and purring when you pet him behind the ears, making sure to find his favorite spot.

“We’ll figure it out,” he reassured you between fits of purrs. “Someday…”

“Yeah,” you mulled through thoughts, biting your lip. “Someday…”

***

Your next day of adventure brought you to one of the only genuine witch suppliers in town. It wasn’t hard to imagine that a place like Salem seemed to foster a lot of tourist traps as opposed to genuine places. You’d had to weed through a lot of them the hard way, using some pointers from your mother to steer clear of the ones filled with nothing but nonsense and shiny things.

This one, however, was run by one of the older witches in town, a kind soul who always gave you a discount on books and potion ingredients. She also had very good advice from time to time, so you figured she might have the answer to your question.

“Information on familiars, eh? I do believe I have a few tomes on that. This way, dearie.” Elzabeth led you down the shelves in the front of the cozy little shop. “How is your little Thackery doing these days? Staying out of trouble?”

“Yeah, he’s fine. Chased a bird the other day, but aside from that, it’s been business as usual.”

“You usually bring him here. I was surprised to see you alone.”

“I’m working on a bit of a gift for him, actually. That’s why I need the spells.”

She smiled, and when she did, her eyes seemed to twinkle. “I was wondering when you’d come here looking for something like this, actually, once you realized what happened to him.”

“Yeah, it’s really sad.”

“Very sad. He used to wander in here all the time before he found you. I think he was sort of always looking. It just took him a while to find a witch he could count on.” Your heart melted at that. A witch he could count on.

“We’re a good match, him and I.”

She handed you a thick leather book with a wink. “I think so too.”

***

Thackery sat bolt upright the second he heard your keys in the door. You were late. You were never late, but today you were. The cat had been worried. He was about to hop through the cat door and go looking for you.

“Sorry I’m late, buddy. Traffic was rough.” You explained, walking through the door holding a big brown paper bag with one arm and holding your broom in the other hand.

“You flew.” He tilted his head, eyes fixed on your vehicle of choice.

“It was windy.” You amended, plucking a dead leaf out of your hair and holding it up as evidence. ‘

Thackery nodded, but he still wasn’t quite convinced, his green eyes narrowing in suspicion. You walked out to the table and set the bag down, unloading your goodies. Some groceries, some ingredients to restock your brewing stash, some more yarn, and a smaller paper bag that you didn’t unload. Instead, you waved your hand over it, sending it to your room.

“What was that?”

“Some books.” You replied nonchalantly.

“Oh, alright.” Thackery hopped up onto the table and then onto your shoulder, nuzzling his cheek against yours, a little way to show you how much he missed you. “I’m glad you’re home.”

“Me too.”

***

That night, long after Thackery went to sleep, you set to work. Elzabeth’s shop wasn’t the only place you had stopped that afternoon. You had made another quick place to a store called Familiars R Us, where you picked up all of your favorite treats for Thackery. Today though, the only thing you’d gotten him was a shiny new collar.

Cracking open the book of spells from Elzabeth’s, you flipped to the page you wanted, gripped the collar, and murmured the incantation scrawled on the yellowed paper. The candles around you flickered, flashed, and then blew out, leaving you sitting in the dark clutching an enchanted object. Steam rose off of it and your hand burned holding onto it, so, cursing, you set it down to cool off. You figured, or hoped, that when you woke up the next morning, it would be cooled off enough to put to use…

***

By the time the sun came up, you were already in the kitchen, toiling away at some useless luck potion one of the boys in your class was paying you to brew for him. It would work, yes, but at the end of the day, it was meaningless. It did, however, distract you from what was coming ahead.

“You’re anxious,” Thackery announced, hopping up to sit on the counter before even touching the breakfast you’d laid out for him, eggs and sausage, one of his favorites. “Everything alright, love?”

“I’m good, yeah.”

“Well, that’s not the truth, now is it? I know you’re not nervous about the potion you’re brewing, judging that it’s liquid luck.”

“I’ll explain it to you as soon as I get this bottled up, alright?”

“Okay.” He settled, hopping to the table to eat off of his plate.

You ladled a few bottles of love potion out of the cauldron before flicking your wrist to put out the flame. You could probably sell the leftovers to the Potion place next to Elzabeth’s. Satisfied with your work, you set the bottles on the counter and then joined Thackery at the table and picked up your fork.

He stopped eating, looking up at you eagerly.

“What?”

“Explain yourself, witch.” He teased.

“Well, I enchanted something last night and I’m nervous to try it out is all.”

“Oh. What did you enchant?”

“A collar…” You pulled the artifact from the pocket of your cloak and set it on the table. He looked it over before looking back at you, a question waiting behind his green eyes.

“You’re not trying to mute me, are you? If I was annoying you, you could have just said something.”

“It’s not that.” You laughed, shaking your head. “I love the sound of your voice, Thackery, you know that.”

“Is it for me? I suppose I should have asked that first.”

“It IS for you. A...belated birthday gift of sorts, I guess.” You took a few bites of sausage and eggs, waiting for him to say something more or ask what enchantment you had put on it. That would probably be an important thing to ask. You were guessing he didn’t ask because he didn’t want to get his hopes up. You felt the anxiousness manifesting in him, too. “I can help you put it on whenever you’re ready.”

His eyes didn’t leave yours when he answered, “I’m ready.”

So, standing up, you helped clasp the brown leather collar around Thackery’s neck. And then you waited. Not even a second later, he groaned in discomfort, hopefully a good sign. Then, he mewled, hopping off of the table away from you, hiding himself behind the large round wooden structure.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” You asked after a few concerning moments of quiet. You moved to peek around the table, but you were stopped by the sound of a voice, and a head of sandy hair rising up from behind it. Large hands and human fingers gripped it, pulling himself into a standing position.

Any question you had was silenced at the sight of him. It had worked. Holy shit, it had worked. A black sweater was draped over his frame, and a pair of ripped blue jeans adorned his long legs. Thackery looked up at you with wide green eyes before surging forward and collecting you in his arms, pressing a long and desperate kiss to your lips, followed by three shorter but equally desperate ones.

The breath was sucked out of your lungs, your knees going wobbly at the fiery passion he instilled in you. He pulled away and studied your features, analyzing, although he was more than capable of just feeling your emotions through your bond. There was no regret or disgust or anything, only warmth and swirls of surprise.

“H-how did you-?” He pulled you against his chest, long fingers combing through your hair.

“Elzabeth came through. She’s amazing.”

“Thank you.” He pressed a kiss to your hairline, exhaling a long breath with his lips against your skin. “Thank you so much.”

“Of course.”

“And you’re...you’re okay with...your cat kissing you?” He was having a bit of trouble wording exactly what had just unfolded.

“Well,” you tilted your head, pretending to consider it, “I think I’d like it if he did it again.”

“Oh, well in that case…” Thackery grinned and tilted your head up to his, connecting your lips once more.

[thewitchandthebeasthimself]

The Witch and The Beast Himself: Chapter 1

****************************************************************************************************

It may seem like another love story to you, and it probably is. However this is a story of how two very unalike yet very similar people met and fall for each other in a city full of constant chaos where it was just everyday life to them. It was a story about a man known for his rampages throughout the city, dubbing him to be a beast in man’s flesh. It was a story of a woman who was a young witch looking to start a new life in the city where no one knew what she was and to meet the dullahan she had heard about.

In a city where nothing changed, life as they once knew it was about to change forever.

For him, and for her.

 ***************************************************************************************************

“Umm, Miss (last name)?” A woman’s voice startled me out of my nap.

“Hmmmmh?” I replied, barely awake.

“I’m sorry, did you fall asleep? The other passengers have already left the plane, we were about to board our next set of passengers until I noticed you were still on board.”

“AH! I’m so sorry!” I jumped up quickly, straightening up my (hair type, hair color) hair and swinging my carry on bag over my shoulder. I can’t believe I slept through the plane landing and everyone else being escorted off of it!

The flight attendant that woke me laughed and waved her hand at me, “It's okay, you’re not the first person to do this. But thanks for flying with us, have a safe time in Ikebukuro!”

“Okay, thanks a lot!” I stepped out of the plane and down the walkway to Ikebukuro Airport's welcoming center. The brightly lit center swarmed with people from all over the world. There were so many new faces, and so many different kinds of energy from each one…

One thing I should probably mention about myself is that I am not a normal human. I’m actually a 23 year old witch from Salem, Massachusetts in the US. I’ve been a witch since I was a little girl; my parents were also witches and helped me become the witch I am today so that I could learn to uncover some of the Earth’s strangest, wondrous mysteries, and to master witchcraft. I feel like I’ve mastered enough magic to handle myself in a real fight, plus I have the ability to heal others through hands on healing. Because of my healing ability I sense energies everywhere I go and can usually tell how a situation would turn out before it happens. I have read through every book that we have and been all over the USA since then, but I just feel that it wasn’t interesting enough to stay there. I really wanted to travel the world and see all this beautiful planet has to offer and get away from the boring everyday life I had before.

One thing that had attracted me here were the rumors of an Irish urban legend called a dullahan riding a motorcycle that neighed like a horse through the streets of Ikebukuro supposedly in search of her head. It had been said to be living and working like a human. I had seen other unreal super natural entities like vampires, ghosts, spirits, and more but a dullahan living amongst humans in a Japanese city? Now that’s a sight to see.

I never really did think I would get to pursue such a thing until I met an online friend of mine named Erika Karisawa. We had met through a online cosplay group; to be honest she’d always been very nice to me and would always tell me all about her crazy adventures here with her friends “Dotachin”, Walker, and Saburo. One day she extended an invite out to me to come meet her and her friends so I decided to get an apartment together there and settle in for a bit. I had also accepted a job there as a barista in a local coffee shop to keep my life somewhat interesting while I was there. Being a smart witch I had also picked up on speaking Japanese fluently so that I could speak to others there.

I haven’t told her about me being a witch yet and I probably won’t for a while because knowing her, she’d probably ask me to conjure up something weird like one of her favorite manga characters or to hex people on the streets for fun. While it does sound fun pranking people with magic and fulfilling Erika’s fetishes and fantasies, I do try to follow the Witch’s Threefold Law, anything you do will come back at you times three. I’ve experienced the wrath of the threefold law too many times so I really don’t wanna mess up here. Another thing i really don't want to mess up is another friendship because of being a witch.

I stepped down to the floor level of the center and followed the signs that lead out to the streets of Ikebukuro where Erika and her friends were supposed to meet me.

Shit I can’t believe I slept like that, I thought. I should probably text Erika and tell her I’m gonna be a bit late, I hope she won’t be mad at me.

I pulled out my phone and went through my texts to find her number. I seen that I had two missed calls from her and a few texts asking where I was. Suddenly, I sensed a familiar energy walking towards me, and two other unfamiliar ones following. I looked up to see that it was in fact Erika and two of her best friends walking up to me.

“Erika!” I smiled and called out to her, waving my hands at her.

Her face lit up the moment she saw me. “Hey (your name)!” She had to have recognized me as well after all of those Skipe video chats we’ve had. She ran up to me and hugged me for a second, then pulled back.“You’re late! Where were you? Did you stop to check out the souvenir shop or something?”

I laughed nervously, “I fell asleep on the plane and didn’t get up when the other passengers were leaving.”

“Oh wow, geez (your name)!” She shoved me playfully. “Its okay, the guys and I were talking about heading up to Russia Sushi for a quick bite then we can show you around the city. How does that sound?”

“Sounds great, let’s go!” I said, excited to start our adventure.

“Okay!” She wrapped her arm around my shoulder and spun us around the other way to face the men behind us. “Lemme introduce you to the guys! This is Walker,” pointing at a squinty-eyed guy with blonde hair in a light blue hoodie who smiled and waved at me. “And this is Dotachin.” pointing at a tall man with a beanie tugged over his forehead and wearing a dark green jacket. “Saburo’s usually with us but he was off doing something today, I'm sure you'll meet him though.”

Dotachin groaned and extended his hand out to me to shake, “Call me Kyouhei. Dotachin is just a nickname Erika gave me a while back. She’s told us so much about you, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Yeah, its nice to finally meet you too!” I replied, accepting his firm handshake. Upon taking his hand I could sense he had a very warm energy that made him seem like the leader of their little group.

We began walking down the street heading to this Russia Sushi place Erika was talking about, talking along the way. The city outside of the airport was bustling with even more energy and life. There were tall buildings every which way I looked, lighting up the sky with an array of different colors as the evening set in.

“So where were you from again?” Kyouhei asked.

“She’s from a town called Salem in the US!” Erika butted in. “I’ve heard that in the 1600’s 19 of its townspeople were victims of a public execution because they were accused of being witches. Apparently there are still witches there today.”

“Sounds like a crazy background.” Kyouhei said.

“Oh that’s really cool!” said Walker from behind us. “Have you seen any, (your name)? Are YOU one?”

I tensed up a bit at the question. Nobody here needs to know I’m a witch.

I breathe in and out to change the nature of my energy to appear as if I were baffled by the question. “No way, thats ridiculous! There were just a lot of crazy Christians and Catholics there during that time that wanted to accuse innocent people of such crazy things but they weren’t actually witches there. And I’ve never actually seen one. I guess my hometown just went along with opening up all of those witch related shops to attract more tourists and what not since that’s what it’s known for.”

“I don’t believe you!” Erika said, teasing me again. “But ya know, that would make a pretty sexy cosplay outfit wouldn’t it, Walker?”

“For sure!” Walker replied. “Maybe you could try out cosplaying Blair from Soul Eater!”

“Ooooooh I love Blair! She’s a fine ass witch! Pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin!” Erika mushed, unwrapping her arm from my shoulder and fantasizing over this character they were talking about.

Kyouhei smirked, “Are you sure you know what you’re getting into with them? They can be a bit overwhelming with all of their otaku talk.”

“Yeah I’m pretty sure I do. That is how Erika and I met.” I said. Then the question popped into my mind. “Hey do you know anything about a dullahan living here? That’s kinda one of the reasons why I came here.”

“Hmm, I don’t think I’ve heard of a dullahan living here but we have seen the Headless Rider from time to time. She doesn’t ever just stop to talk to anyone, she mostly keeps to herself. I honestly don’t blame her with all the crazy stuff going on these days.”

Sounds like that may be what I’m looking for, I thought. We’ll see.  

“Crazy stuff huh? Yeah I’ve heard a bit about it.” I said.

“What exactly did you hear?” he asked.

“Just things about a bunch of gang wars and some pretty nasty attacks from ‘the Slasher’.”

“Oh okay,” he said. “Since you’ll be staying here there’s some key things you should know about this place that I'm sure Erika hasn't mentioned yet. Stay away from all of the color gangs here in the city. The fights can get pretty nasty and they don't care who gets in the way. Color gangs will usually wear a color to represent the gang they’re in, like how the Yellow Scarves wear yellow and the Blue Squares wear blue. There’s the Dollars that don’t have a color so it’s hard to tell who’s in it and who’s not. And there’s word of a new color gang called the Blood Diamonds.”

“So they’d wear red or blood colors to represent themselves, right?” I asked.

“Exactly,” he said. They've been going around busting people up for no reason, raping local women and either killing them or leaving them on the street with their clothes burned, so be careful. Also, there are quite a few dangerous people here that you should stay away from…” the moment he said that I was suddenly overcome by a dark, sinister energy that was incredibly strong, cunning and unstable. Then a slim man in a black coat with tan fur, short black hair and his hands stuffed in his coat pockets jumped down from literally out of nowhere in front of us, stopping us in our tracks.

“Hello, Dotachin.” said the man, with a smile on his face. The energy I had felt came off of this man. He didn’t seem to look like much, but he gave off a vibe that he could shatter someone’s mind in an instant. How could someone come off with such a strong energy like that? It’s almost… sickening.

“Hey, Izaya.” said Kyouhei, producing an annoyed energy at the sight of him. “We thought you were living in Saitama now.”

Izaya smiled and said, “I am, but its gotten boring very fast so I decided to come back to visit some old friends. So who should she stay away from?” he asked, looking at me.

“Definitely pricks like you.” Kyouhei said, pretending to be joking with him.

“Haha you’re so funny Dotachin! I’m the nicest man you’ve ever met!” He came forward to me and spoke to me in English, his accent changing with his words, “I’m Izaya, an information broker that used to work here. And you are?”

“Um hi I’m (your name).” I said in an awkward tone. His stare sent chills up my spine. He was oddly very fluent in my first language.

“You’re an American. What brings you here?” he asked.

“Um I’m looking for someone.”

“Are you? Well it just so happens that finding people is an skill of mine, maybe I can help. Here’s my card.” He pulled out a card with his full name, Izaya Orihara, and his number on it. “Give me a call if you’re ever interested.”

 I took the card from him, “Umm thanks, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

 His energy is so weird, I thought. I doubt he’d know anything about the dullahan but I guess I could give him a call later on. Despite his energy he may actually be pretty decent at his job.  

And that’s when I first met him.

  I felt another energy coming towards us. It felt like electric. It appeared to feel like a …. A vending machine?! Yes, a VENDING MACHINE came hurling at us.

While I could use a force push spell to hurl the object back at the sender, I didn’t want to risk anyone finding out what I am. The only other thing I could do was warn everyone.

“Everyone get out of the way!” I yelled in Japanese. Luckily everyone had jumped out of the way just in time before the vending machine smashed into the sidewalk in front of us.

What the hell just happened?! I think to myself before a light, soft and mellow energy comes charging towards us. There was also another side to this energy that appeared which was very enraged and filled with hate towards Izaya.

“IIIIZAAAYAAAAAA!!!!” I heard his voice in the distance. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”

Izaya sighed, switching back to Japanese. “Looks like Shizu-chan has found me. I guess I’ll be taking off.” he said before darting away.

“GET BACK HERE YOU BASTARD!!!” yelled the man coming towards us. The energy that came from this man didn’t appear to match him either. He was a slender man that had blonde hair, sunglasses, a bartender uniform, and literally steam coming off of him, or at least from what I could see. He was somehow… I don’t know… perfect. Even in this enraged form he’d taken on. He looked like the man I had a dream about before I was woken up on the plane. As he approached Kyouhei the enraged side calmed down slightly.  

“Where’d he go, Kadota?! I’m gonna kill that fleabag for stepping foot here again!”

“Calm down a sec Shizuo, you’re scaring our friend here.” Kyouhei said.

“Hmm?” He said before turning to look at me. His enraged energy vanished instantly, making him appear completely calm, the steam around him disappearing causing him to appear even more attractive than before. As we locked eyes for a second I felt his curiosity of me rush over me like a wave. I blushed away after staring into his light brown eyes for what felt like an eternity. I’d been taught that the eyes were the window to the soul, and it definitely showed on him. He appeared to be the most kind hearted man i’d ever met. I’ll have to figure out that raging, vengeful energy he had and how he was able to fling a vending machine at us like it was a frisbee.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “I just hate that scumbag so much I wish he’d never came back.”

“Um it's okay,” I said.

“This is Shizuo Heiwajima.” said Kyouhei. “He may seem a bit scary at times but he’s a good friend of ours. He’s probably another guy I’d recommend you stay away from,” he laughed.

“Hahahaha yeah stay away from me!” Shizuo joked back, slapping Kyouhei on the arm which made Kyouhei cry out a bit.

Shizuo reached into his pockets and pulled out a pack of blue American Spirit cigarettes and a lighter, took one cig from the pack and lit it, and stuffed the pack back into his pocket.

“Well Tom is probably wondering where I went so i’m gonna go back to him. I’ll see you guys later.” He turns around and walks in the direction he came from.  

Whoa. I thought. He's…

Walker interrupted my thoughts, “Wow, you got to meet with two of the most dangerous people in the city upon arriving!”

“Yeah they sure know how to make an entrance,” Kyouhei commented. “Anyway you should definitely stay away from Izaya. He’s usually involved in everything that's happened in this city. While Shizuo can be a great guy at times you don't want to be around while he's on one of his rampages. He can tear up everything in his path.”

“He pretty much turns into the Hulk when he's mad, especially when he sees Izaya. I’m surprised he was able to stop when he saw us.” said Erika. “Man, I wish they’d just announce their love already. It’d make a perfect yaoi.”

“Ha, a yaoi? Those two look like they hate each other's guts! There's no way it'd work out between them.” I laughed.

“Yeah we keep trying to tell her but she's dead set on writing up some fan fic about them,” Walker said.

“Alright guys let's get going its getting dark out,” Kyouhei said.

As we headed up to Russia Sushi all I could think about was him.

 I wonder if I'll see him again? I guess if he's one of the most dangerous men in the city that goes on crazy rampages then I probably will.

[nancydrew428]

Midnight in Salem

I decided to make this post about Midnight in Salem to compile the facts and help myself, and hopefully others, understand what’s taking so long (maybe) and just to see what we know right now. If anyone has any other information that they’d like to add, feel free to submit it/message it to me and I can put it in this post (and give you credit) or you can reblog this post and add your info. ☺

So what do we know so far?

We know the game is titled Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem (MID for short).

Her Interactive posted an update on Facebook on May 11th, 2017, that I found through this Youtube video.

The update reads:

“Despite our best attempts to answer everyone's emails, posts, tweets, blog posts, etc. about Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem...we admittedly do miss some. And hey, we’re only human, so sometimes we inadvertently miss responding to a post. Hence, we felt it would be appropriate to post the attached message. Our goal is to have a more substantial update for you very shortly. We appreciate your patience during this unprecedented shift at HeR Interactive. Please know that we are not ignoring you but we are a very lean team and simply can't respond to everything. We are doing the very best we can. Also, please know that just because we offer a new Nancy Drew puzzle or start a new Nancy Drew contest, that it has no impact on the development and progress of our next title. Our fans mean the world to us and we appreciate you sticking by us during this longer than usual wait time between titles. As always, we thank you for your support and stay sleuthy!”

And there was also this picture with it.

It may not be (in fact, it isn’t) the response that many of us wanted. but at least it’s some sort of a response.

The game has not been cancelled and they are still working on it.

They answered a couple of tweets saying:

Still working on it! #NancyDrew (June 12th, 2017)

MID has not been canceled, and we are still working on it. At this time we do not have any updates to share, sorry! (June 14th, 2017)

The release date is still TBD.

On Twitter, they’ve posted that they don’t have a release date.

Hello S, we can't say for sure [when the game will come out, or even if it’ll come out this year]. When we have an update, we wil share it on our site as well as on social media. (June 5th, 2017)

Hi! We don't have an estimated date set for MID just yet. When we do, we will be sure to announce it! (June 14th, 2017)

We don't have a release date set for MID yet. When we do, we will announce it! (June 16th, 2017)

MID is going to be Her Interactive’s 33rd (desktop) game.

You can watch the preview for it here.

It is not yet rated by the ESRB.

It is for ages 10 and up.

The operating system:

Windows® XP/Vista/7/8/10

OS X: OS X: 10.6.8 Snow Leopard/10.7 Lion/10.8 Mountain Lion/10.9 Mavericks/10.10 Yosemite or higher

The description/story of the game is:

“The Hathorne House was the former home of Judge John Hathorne, inquisitor of the infamous Salem witch trials and the final home to 102-year-old Frances Tuttle, his last direct descendant. When Tuttle passed away, the manor became city property and the mayor must find a manager to oversee the planned tourist attraction. Judge Steven Danforth is assigned to oversee the proceedings, but on the night of October 21st local police rescue his son Jason from the burning confines of the estate’s upstairs library. Investigators discover that the library was locked from the inside, but the young child remembers nothing about entering the room. The only thing he can recall was the frightening expressions from a ‘vile ghostly woman’ who watched him with burning eyes as she spoke from the fireplace flames. The police were quick to respond to the fire because neighbors already called them about the boy dancing in the dark street. Was the child bewitched? Acting on tips from concerned citizens, police arrest the eccentric Mei Parris and accuse her of witchcraft.  Is Mei Parris truly a witch? Or is she the victim of townsfolk who are unsettled by her unique appearance?”

The game features listed are:

“Learn about the historical Salem Witch Trials

Explore an ancient crypt

Solve historical figure Ruth Hathorne’s puzzles

Take a tour of Salem and discern fiction from truth

Sleuth at Amateur or Master level and erase any mistakes without starting over”

According to the MID Wiki page, “The game will be the first in the series to allow full movement, but will still be point and click.”

So far there are 5 characters listed (there might be more characters in the game, but this might also be it).

All of these 5 characters are women.

The characters are named:

Mei Parris

Lauren Corey

Deirdre Shannon (a recurring character in the games)

Teegan Parris

Jenna Ravencraft.

“Mei Parris has spent her life pulled between two extremes due to her physical appearance: the near-crushing protective attention “lavished on her by her parents, and the unjustified fear of the local townsfolk.”

“Lauren Corey is a calm and slightly grouchy introvert with a bookworm streak. She loves to bake, and is beloved in the local community for her winning entries into cooking contests.”

“High-maintenance Deirdre Shannon has spent her life hovering in Nancy’s shadow, and lives with the knowledge that she is the “girl who would have become Nancy Drew” had circumstances turned out better for her.”

“Teegan Parris is easy to like: outgoing, cheerful, extremely fashionable and professional. But when Teegan’s stressed out, she has an incredibly short fuse before her temper ignites.”

“Constantly commanding the spotlight, Jenna Ravencraft runs a local paranormal tour company. It’s well-known locally that her tours are faked (or are they?) — full of rigged special effects designed to showcase spells and ghosts.”

What I found from the MID Wiki page, Jenna Ravencraft might be voiced by Kiki Penoyer. However, this may be false, because the website that says this also says that MID was going to come out in the fall of 2015. (That was supposed to be true, I believe, but then—obviously—it wasn’t, and that website hasn’t been updated, so I don’t know if the voice actress information is incorrect too.)

By looking at the MID Wiki page, I found a link to this video on the Her Interactive Youtube account where Ellie (it looks like she is someone who used to work for Her Interactive) answered questions that people sent in (back in July 2015). She said that she couldn’t really answer any questions about MID, however, she said that “I can mention that there may or may not be a certain dynamic, sleuthy [or sleuthing] duo, helping you out in this one.”

There’s a speculation that this means that the Hardy Boys might be featured in the game.

We have these 2 pictures (they’re essentially the same, though).

They fired the voice actress of Nancy Drew, Lani Minella, back in 2014.

Just look at this Twitter “thread” with Lani’s answers:

#NancyDrew fans.  Sea of Darkness = my last game voicing Nancy.  Luv u fans dearly.  15 yrs, 32 games. Hugs and thanks so much. Will miss u!

Well I am so fond of people like you, that's why I had to let peeps know I wasn't leaving on my own accord. Thanks hugely!

They won't [ask me to come back].

[It] was not my decision, but they're trying new things to gain a larger audience. Thanks for hanging in there and being so great

Lani Minella also admitted that Her Interactive fired a lot of their crew in that same Twitter “thread” .

I know, I used to read Nancy Drew books when I was a kid.  I don't expect Her to last. Fired most of the crew

Hello Mary & thank you for your kindness.  I'm not  employee of Her, but they let go of many others as well. Happening a lot. Hugs!

Not only did she talk about Her Interactive firing a lot of their crew, but there was a post in the Her Interactive community that said there were 25 Her Interactive employees but then in April 2017, only 14 employees were listed.

Through Glassdoor, there was a review of Her Interactive that you can see without having an account on the Glassdoor website. This review was from a former employee, a 3D digital artist, who said that “It [Her Interactive] was a great company to work for,” they worked there for more than 3 years, and the people were fun and great to work with. HOWEVER, “Once [the] former CEO left, [the] company has changed.” Which yes, that’s often times what happens. When a CEO leaves, the company changes, however that ex-employee considered that to be a con and the person, who had worked there for over 3 years and obviously enjoyed their work, was fired. So maybe it wasn’t a good one? (at least not for the people who were fired.)

BizJournals had an article talking about some people who were fired from the Her Interactive community.

Geekwire did too. At least in May 2015, Jared Nieuwenhuis was the HeR marketing director and he said that the reason behind this cutback in staff was  “changing market conditions in the game industry and shifting priorities at Her Interactive.”

Penny Millikin is the new CEO of Her Interactive. She was hired back in September of 2014 and has served on the Board of Directors since 2003. According to a Her Interactive newsletter, “Ms. Milliken has worked in the entertainment industry for more than 20 years with over 10 years of brand management and family marketing experience at The Walt Disney Company in the U.S. and Europe. … Her broad entertainment background includes theme parks, motion pictures, feature animation, television animation, home entertainment, new media and e-commerce. Penny has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.”

She believes that outsourcing is important (I found this link from here, and she starts speaking at around 45:45). (This might sound mean, idk, but I swear I’m not trying to be rude. I don’t know enough about her, about outsourcing, or about Her Interactive to be able to say whether Ms. Millikin is right or wrong or whatever else.)

So the new CEO, Ms. Millikin, thinks outsourcing is a good idea (idk how to word that without sounding disapproving—I mean, I guess I don’t approve of it, but I’m also not against it, because idk enough about it, if I’m being honest). So I’ve found whether MID is being outsourced and I also have done a little digging to get to know more about it (I still don’t really understand it, but at least I have a better idea than before!).

So first of all, according to Little Jackalope on the Her Interactive blog:

“Nearly ALL of our Nancy Drew games have had parts that had been outsourced. All games up until #16 ICE all the character designs and animation came from outside of our office and by another company (then we brought on our own character designer and animators). All of our games’ music has been outsourced as well, with our current composer working from Europe. Many voice actors and actresses have recorded characters for us, even some located in England! Outsourcing is very common in the game industry. Sounds, designs, animations, modeling, marketing content and more are sourced from multiple companies who specialize in what they do. Our game company is no different, and we are a small one! Rumors have spread about Midnight in Salem being outsourced, so to confirm a fact: yes, MID has elements outsourced, just like our past games. 🙂 That is all I can share on the story, for now. When I have news or details to share, I will!”

So Nancy Drew games in the past have had parts that have been outsourced and MID is no different. “MID has elements outsourced.”

Also, through this vlog on Youtube, I found these responses on the Her Interactive blog.

MESSAGE:

“Hi, I am a new software engineer and long time fan! I was curious to find out, do you guys have any woman programmers on your in-house programming team? And how big is your programming team overall? HER seems like such a small family company, but at the same time making a game probably requires lots of hands and a lot of work! Thanks!”

ANSWER:

“Hi Annalyn, we’ve had female programmers in the past and will continue to emphasize the importance of female programmers in the future as well.”

MESSAGE:

“Do you currently have any female in-house programmers? And what exactly do you mean by ‘emphasize the importance of female programmers in the future’?” 

ANSWER:

“Our current programmers are outsourced with our art team at this time.”

The vlogger, Nancy Drew Walkthroughs, says that HeR is outsourcing both the art team and the programmers (that doesn’t mean music, writing, or voice acting, though). Basically, that means that the game is not actually being worked on at Her Interactive. which is kind of an update in and of itself. If they made a bigger post about how they’re outsourcing, and what outsourcing is, maybe people would be more understanding and patient of everything that’s been going on, because we might understand it more and we would actually be getting information from HeR.

Second of all, what even is outsourcing?

Outsourcing: The practice of having certain job functions done outside a company instead of having an in-house department or employee handle them; functions can be outsourced to either a company or an individual .

In-house: In-house refers to conducting an activity or operation within a company, instead of relying on outsourcing. A firm uses its own employees and time to keep a division or business activity, such as financing or brokering, in-house.

Third of all, what are the pros to outsourcing/reasons to outsource?

PracticalEcommerce says:

“Specialized skills. The task is highly specialized and requires expert skills or systems, such as graphic design, website development, payroll, PPC campaigns, human resource compliance.

Specialized equipment. The task requires a large facility, specialized equipment, or operational efficiencies. Fulfillment operations are frequently outsourced because of the need to stock large amounts inventory and manage it efficiently.”

And:

“For longer-term needs ... the benefit is that you gain operational efficiencies and skills that you would have a difficult time replicating in-house.”

The Journal of Accountancy says,

“Cost savings and quality. Fierce competition has led many businesses to restructure and downsize staffs in an effort to save money. As in the case of General Electric, even thriving companies do whatever possible to reduce staff and costs.”

And fourth of all, where are the cons to outsourcing?

Also through The Journal of Accountancy, I found this picture, which may explain why Her Interactive is outsourcing as much as they are (this is assuming that a major part of the delay is the actual outsourcing itself).

According to Flatworld Solutions, some cons are:

“- Possible loss of control over a company's business processes

- Problems related to quality and turnaround time

 - Sluggish response times coupled with slow issue resolutions

- Lower than expected realization of benefits and results”

And according to The Balance, there are issues with:

“- Hidden Costs

- Threat to Security and Confidentiality

- Quality Problems

- Tied to the Financial Well-Being of Another Company

- Bad Publicity and Ill-Will”

And one thing that pops up in soooo many places is: communication issues.

Chron talks about communication issues here, and mentions:

“- Language or Dialect

- Cultural Nuances

- Communication Technology”

As well as timezone issues.

@katmurph31 posted this post, with these screenshots:

So it looks as though at least starting on May 3rd, 2017 (if not before), the art and development teams have been working on the game.

@jayne-penvellyn on Tumblr posted this with these screenshots to an email she got from Her Interactive which isn’t really an update (it’s the same kind of thing they keep saying, but still).

On top of that, @yancydrew posted this with this screenshot:

Which makes me wonder if HeR has barely done any work on this game, if they haven’t finished the voice overs, if they’ve even found all of the voice actors/actresses, if they’re just waiting on the voice acting before releasing the games, if they need to do the voice overs before they can even truly start on the game, if they are trying to tell us as little as possible so that they can surprise us soon (*crosses fingers*), or if it’s a mixture or any of those or something else completely.

[vieuxnoyesrp]

Ches. Kira has had a special place in our heart since she moseyed her way into the Quarter, and you managed to charm us all over again with her whimsical, dreamy personality which you caught so well. Even more important to us, you managed to toe the line between inquisitive, goofy Kira, and resolute, realistic Kira, allowing room for Kira to explore who she is, what she is, and who she wants to be. The headcanons you shared with us crackled with the intensity of Kira’s potential. Portraying the many different facets of teenager is difficult at the best of times, and yet you managed to highlight Kira’s insecurities and doubts without letting them rule. We can’t wait to watch the tension of this kitsune kid discovering herself set sparks across our dash!

Ches, thank you very much for applying. As for Kira…

                         ⚜ ~ WELCOME TO VIEUX NOYÉS!!! ~ ⚜

Wondering what to do next? Click here and let the good times roll!

⚜ Roleplayer:

⤜ Name/alias: Ches

⤜ Pronouns: She/Her

⤜ Age:  22 in three months, yikes

⤜ Timezone: CST UTC-6

⤜ Activity: 6-7, I’m in school and I work weekends, but I’m home and available every night, and constantly checking tumblr throughout the day on mobile.

⤜ Best form of contact: Through tumblr messaging is fine

⤜ Any Triggers? None

⤜ How did you find Vieux Noyés? Scrolling through the witch roleplay tag

⤜ What drew you to the RP? EVERYTHING! As you can guess by the way I found the rp, I’m a sucker for anything supernatural, shows, books, roleplays. They all draw me in. This place has a triple bonus since it’s based on one of my favorite dramas, has my favorite original characters AND some I don’t recognize (then again, I really fell off the wagon with Originals, so that could be why), and all of the drama waiting to explode in that plot has me squealing with anticipation. I want to see it all, and of course throw Kira into it somehow!

⤜ What is one subplot/element from the Plot page that you are particularly looking forward to seeing in this roleplay? I guess I just answered that question. I’ve been in love with the story of the Salem witches since forever ago, so I can’t wait to see how the witchy politics turn out between them and the NOLA coven, and how that effects everyone else. Are the Salem witches really going to follow Marcel’s magic ban? Having their own power source separate from ancestral magic, I wouldn’t think so. And then there’s the revival of the Hunters Guild the plot hints at. I suppose I’m really just excited for all the political drama going on in every supernatural sub-community.

⚜ Desired Character: KIRA YUKIMURA

⤜ Why do you want this character?

Where do I start? Kira and Lydia were my favorite characters in the drama, for one. I loved their personalities and was so excited to see Kira’s growth in her abilities and coming into herself (imagine my dismay when you know what happened). Aside from the show, Kira’s personality is the type I’ve always been drawn to in roleplaying and just in reading in general. I find her type the most relatable, and their journey to discover themselves and gain confidence in their abilities is always fun to roleplay. For me, it’s fun to slowly push her out of her shell and into relationships with other people, especially when they develop into close bonds. I’m also very interested in her becoming more assertive. Even though her parents aren’t part of the roleplay (unless I missed them somewhere), that can be inserted into plots or just self-paras down the line. The added bonus is the fact that she’s a kitsune. I’ve been obsessed with Japanese folklore since I was a child, which includes the lore surrounding kitsune. Kira in particular was fascinating to me because I’d never heard of one whose powers were specifically drawn from electricity before her introduction to TW. I look forward to roleplaying her exploration of her abilities and seeing what her full potential is (especially since it was never reached in the show). That being said, I don’t intend to make her all-powerful (if I’m accepted!), but I want to roleplay her discovery of her strengths, weaknesses, limits, etc. That will probably take discussion with the admins and some research on my part, but that’s all part of what makes supernatural roleplay fun in my opinion.

⤜ What are your future plans for this character?

Again, I suppose I kind of answered this question. I really want to push Kira out of her shell and develop personal relationships, stand up for herself more, be more confident in herself, and discover just what she is and what she can do. Even I don’t know what all that is, what with this secret organization her parents are part of. Other than confidence and exploring her powers, I would love to see where she fits into all of the political tension going on in the Quarter. As an unknowing were, she’ll eventually be forced to pick a side or remain neutral, but I don’t see remaining neutral as something that’s she’s capable of for moral reasons. In the process, she might have to stand against her parents, or friends, and I want to roleplay that when the time comes. And then there’s the overall tension outside of the were community.  The Quarter isn’t that big, so I imagine every supernatural is going to get dragged into the conflict between the covens and the vampires, only for that to be exacerbated by the Hunters. She’s going to have to decide who to support or where to remain neutral based on who she wants to protect and what she feels is right, and those two might conflict each other. I really want to see that.

⤜ Put yourself in your character’s shoes. Give us a few lines to describe a day in the life of your character… Where do they live? Where and how do they spend their time?

Of course she lives in a normal neighborhood with her parents, just close enough to school that she can take her bike instead of the dreaded bus. But she really lives in the Saint Aloysuis library, furiously typing away at whatever chapter she’s currently writing and often neglecting her homework in the process.  She tells herself it’s only Calculus, which she could do in her sleep. Or it’s only another poetry analysis essay that’s much simpler to write and never as enticing as the drabble ideas and climactic plots that practically loom over her shoulder, whispering temptation into her ears as if the fox spirits from her father’s stories have come alive. She’s mastered the art of writing a passing analysis essay in one night, and an essay guaranteed to give her an A if she actually puts more effort into it. On the nights when she has some freedom or the itch to leave her room, the university’s library is open almost all night and even has a Starbucks. What more could an aspiring writer need?  Her laptop is never out of reach specifically because inspiration strikes at the most unexpected moments, and she’s learned Google Drive is much better than any notebook she might carry. It has more space for one, and offers much more security should her works fall into the hands of prying classmates or, God forbid, her mother. She’s developed a weekly time table to balance her homework with updating her Wattpad stories, and volunteering, although it’s sometimes ignored in favor of posting double updates, drabbles, or new stories she just couldn’t resist. Her writing is really the only thing she’s allowed herself to be impulsive with. That, and her visits to the animal shelter. She visits religiously twice every week, sometimes more if school or her parents are becoming just a little too stressful. There’s something about the warmth with which the shelter animals greet her, how they lovingly paw at her legs and lick her fingers that’s instantly soothing. Kira can forget all of her troubles when she’s there, and often wonders how in the world her mother could say no to having a pet? Every now and then, she likes to visit Cafe du Monde, or Jackson Park to watch the tourists. Of course, she loves her coffee, but she also occasionally indulges in people-watching. It’s great material for when she’s writing, but it’s also her guilty pleasure. Sometimes, she watches the gaggles of strangers and tells herself that day will be the day she steps out of her shell. She’ll smile and wave at a stranger, start a conversation with someone wearing her favorite band T-shirt, walk up to a girl and tell her she really likes that dress, where’d she get it? All of these hopes were pushed aside the first time she tried to smile at a stranger who proceeded to walk right by. They just hadn’t seen her, is what she told herself, but she’s still not sure and definitely not ready to try again. More than twice every month, she comes home to the disappointed gaze of her father, who’s walked past her room and been horrified at the aftermath of a morning getting dressed. Every day, Kira finds herself going through several ensembles before settling on the usual graphic tees, jeans, and converse. She’s fairly certain her flashier clothes are just as flattering as she thinks they are, but the last thing she wants is to deal with Jeremy freaking Gilbert’s immature comments. She’s known him long enough to know they’d come if she tried to change. That being said, she’s gathered her courage and worn clothes a little out of her comfort zone once or twice while visiting the park. The one time a stranger complimented her was enough to make the girl glad she’d stepped out of her shell at least this much.

⤜ Give us three headcanons regarding your character of choice. (If your character is from one of the tv shows, please come up with a headcanon that is not explicitly stated on the show, but is rather based on your own imagination.)

(This was mentioned briefly in the bio and her photoset and I love it) Kira’s a writer, although she finds it difficult to call herself that. All she does is write fanfictions under an alias online and post drabbles every now and then. She’s hardly an author, and is so unsure of herself that’s she’s never even been able to present her work to Mr. Lewis, the high school creative writing teacher. The shy little thing’s approached him with the intention of showing him her work five times in the few weeks she’s been here, only to chicken out each time because of her own worries. She relies on the mostly encouraging comments and feedback from readers online, taking it all to heart every time she writes a basic outline or character bio. Her dream is to become a professional writer, and she wants to go to school for it but she has her doubts. Not only is there her own insecurity to face, but the disapproval from her parents that’s sure to come if she tells them. So she quiets that dreamy voice in her head when the conversation comes up, instead saying she might want to become a teacher or professor like dad. It keeps them satisfied, and works as a nice backup plan. The two professions aren’t the same, but as long as she can indulge in her passion and keep her imagination alive, it’s enough for the young fox. Ever since that time she survived being electrocuted, she’s developed the hobby of chasing lightning during storms. She doesn’t do anything as poetic as dancing in the rain. The girl’s got two left feet and fell flat on her butt three too many times back when she was enrolled in basic ballet lessons. But she’s almost perfected the art of sneaking out of her room at night and racing off on her bike, chasing bolt after shimmering, ephemeral bolt until the hints of sunrise appear. She survives the day after with a cup of strong, black coffee – forcefully taken – and power naps during lunch if her body still threatens to crash afterwards. Kira isn’t quite sure what she’ll do if she actually encounters a lightning bolt one night. Touch it? The idea used to sound fatally idiotic to her, but the more she thinks about it, the more she knows, somewhere in her gut, that it just might feel right.

The one grudge she holds against her parents is the fact that they deprived her of any close familial ties. She’s an only child, she has no cousins that she knows of, and the mere hint that she might want some type of pet warrants that stony, frigid gaze from her mother that demands silence on the topic and makes her skin tingle with fear. Since Kira’s yet to make friends, she does the next best thing and hangs out at the local animal shelter often. The attendants are so familiar with her that they often ask her to come in and play with the animals when they’re short of staff. The familiarity is something Kira’s proud of, even if it’s nowhere near an actual friendship. Still, it’s more than any relationship she’s had in the past, and it’s given her someplace else she feels at home.

Kira’s romantic experience is exactly zero, zilch, nonexistent. But she’s had crushes before and feels that there’s something a little off compared to what she’s heard both from media portrayals and the few girls she’s known. There is no sexual tension or dirty daydreams for her, and the mere idea of being alone with someone in that setting and naked gives her butterflies for the wrong reasons. The extensive searching she’s done online has led her to the conclusion that she’s asexual. Of course she’s not so quick to label herself after having no actual experience. Maybe she hasn’t met the right person yet. Maybe it’s just because of her personality. But everything she’s read so far about asexuality leaves her thinking ‘That’s me’.

Kira often feels like she’s at odds with her parents, especially her mysterious mother, but she’s always had a soft spot for her father’s stories. She’s not sure if it was because he wanted to pass on a part of their heritage or because he was so passionate about them, but he’s told her tales of kumiho and kitsune for as long as she can remember. When other kids her age were listening to Harry Potter or Narnia at night, Kira was begging her father for more tales of trickster spirits luring travelers astray with the forms of beautiful women and samurai that avenged their lords at the cost of their lives. She used to enthusiastically claim she’d be a historian when she grew up just to watch her father’s eyes light up with pride. Now that’s she’s a teenager, she doesn’t lean towards that profession so strongly. However. Mr. Yukimura still finds his daughter curled up in his office with the books he used to read to her, and his tales of samurai and mythology still bring a soft smile to her lips.  

⤜ What are some plots you’d like to explore with your character?

She knows it’s not exactly smart to go wandering around the woods. In fact, it’s dangerous and more than a little stupid. But something about the densely wooded area has always drawn her in, and she’s backed away too many times to keep ignoring it. What’s more, she doesn’t want to ignore it. Something about the forest just feels right, like the feeling she gets when she’s chasing after lightning. She knows there’s more to the place than just little forest critters, having seen a pair of eyes gazing solemnly back at her more than once. They seemed so intelligent, so piercing, she couldn’t have imagined it herself. So she sets off in her rattiest jeans and the mimimum equipment to survive several hours in the forest. But what she may find is definitely beyond her expectations.

Mercy Lewis leaves Kira absolutely dumbfounded with every encounter. It’s amazing and absolutely befuddling, considering half of the time the curly-haired girl doesn’t even do much to earn the reaction. The only thing Kira is absolutely certain of is that she wants them to be friends. She will start small. She can’t follow the girl, that’d be creepy. And blatantly asking to be friends would be childish. They aren’t elementary schoolers anymore. She can, if she tries hard enough, start a real conversation, ask to meet again or even ask for her number. She’ll do things normally, she won’t rush, and she won’t chicken out like she usually does. It’s simple, and might even seem sad, making her first friend as a junior in high school. But it’s the one specific goal she has for herself (save graduating, which is a do or die thing for Kira), so she has to see it through.

I really want her first act of self-assertion to come from standing up to Jeremy, but their relationship blurb only mentions the one encounter, so that’s a tentative plot idea. Another tentative one is becoming involved in the supernatural drama going around town, but I think it would be best to wait until she’s developed other relationships to plan that one.

⤜ Para sample:

(Retained for privacy.)

⤜ Would you like to be considered for another character if not accepted as your primary choice? (If yes, name the character.)  Malia Tate?

⤜ Have you read the rules?: Yes

⤜ Anything else?

Nothing!

[halfpeculiarprose101]

What I Have Learned From Being A Tour Guide

In the walls of a colonial home that stands on the corner of Derby Street in the old city of Salem, tales have been created and bought to life. The Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, better known as The House of the Seven Gables, inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most gothic novel. Through visiting the home, Hawthorne became inspired by its history and architecture. The house includes a long line of sea captains, including Samuel Ingersoll, the father of Susanna Ingersoll, Hawthorne’s second Cousin, who he would come to visit in the home, and through her got inspired to write his novel. (Side note: Susanna was a bad ass and is going to get a separate blog post later).

I think about what inspired Hawthorne and how he felt visiting the home. I have been working in the house since the summer of 2016.

Growing up in the historical town of Lexington, Massachusetts, I have always loved and valued history. In the years I would pursue it, my love kept growing. Working in the museum, I my love became stronger each and every day. However, I was horrified when I started, and there were days where I really believed I could not do it. I am glad I stuck with it though, because being a tour guide has taught me many things, including valuable skills. It has brought me closer to these historical characters, the unique city of Salem, and my love for history.

People from all over the world visit the museum. In the summer, Salem, and often times the house itself, is a major travel destination for tourist. I love getting the chance to meet people from near and far, and hear about what has brought them to Salem. Yet, it is also important to keep in mind that people come from different backgrounds and educational experiences. As a tour guide, it is your job to understand who you are talking to. Some folks come to the house and only know about things like the American Revolution, while others know a whole lot. Similarly, I have found that often times, people mostly come to Salem to learn about its famous witch history and its involvement in the witchcraft trials. Sometimes, people come to the Gables thinking that its going to be haunted or have some connection to the trials. Some get pretty disappointed when they get a tour that is mainly about colonial architecture for 45 minutes. Others, simply have no clue what the house is, but they are interested and want to learn more. Nevertheless, I find that sometimes groups are not always vibing. So, I bring them in, and I make it my goal to spark their interest by the end, or at least drill one interesting fact into their heads. I like to project my voice and present the information like I am telling a story or having a conversation. People do not always relate to random facts about history, but everyone can relate to a good story. You just need to know your group and tell the story in the right way. For example, I would explain the history of the home to a school group of middle schoolers in a different way than I would a regular group. It is all about knowing who you are talking to, and thinking about how you can make their visit a beneficial and fun experience.

At the end of the tour, I get reminded of why I am a tour guide and love history so much. People in my groups will often say things like, “That was a great tour! I learned so much!”, or “My kids hate history, but they loved the tour!”. I realize in these moments that I never wanted to do this job for the money. I am a storyteller. History is a sea of stories about the lives of ordinary people just like you and me. Once people understand that, they can connect to these characters and events in a way they never could before. My job as a storyteller is to bring people closer to these stories, and bring them to understand how every aspect of history shapes the future.

I think that I may just be a major history nerd, but the houses colonial architecture is magnificent. The property includes beautiful gardens and overlooks Salem Harbor. I like to imagine sailors traveling on ships out into the vast seas, and what Salem was like as a bustling seaport. In the house, I feel such a deep connection to the people who lived and visited there. The fact that people who I admire so much, like Hawthorne, stepped foot there and sat in the very chairs in the dining room, gives me such an amazing feeling.

The Gables has taught me many great things, and most importantly, it is there, where I have met so many great people, and some of my best friends. All of my coworkers are unique in their own ways. They are accepting and create a friendly work environment. Not to mention, they are extremely smart and I know if I ever needed advice or help on my homework, I would have people to come to.

All in all, I have come to the conclusion over the past few years that if you are passionate about something, do not let your fears stop you. I doubted myself and did not think I could be a tour guide. It took a lot of courage to apply for the job and continue for so many years. There were times when I really did not think that I was good enough. However, the more I learned from my experiences, the better I got at it, and I have taken away so many valuable skills. Most importantly, I learned that history means the world to me, and even if no one remembers what I said about the home’s architecture, or the global trades, they will remember that these stories matter, and it is a great honor for me to get to share them with the world.