#former concepts of the bishops

[ali-croft7]

Uhm... who are you again?

[myballsitchaurghouchie]

Dance untill the sun sets

[ID in Alt Text and under the cut.]

ID: A digital drawing of the Lamb and Narinder from the video game Cult Of The Lamb, dacing over a blue background. The Lamb is drawn with a short ponytail, wearing white shorts and a red top with short sleeves, as well as arm and leg guards. Their back is facing Narinder who is holding one of their hands up above their head. Narinder is drawn as his follower form, wearing wide pants and a red shirt with wide, shoulder-length sleeves. Both characters are smilling and have a slight blush over their face.

[chibishortdeath]

Alright I’ve thought about, I’m gonna actually start posting some of my criticisms of Netflixvania starting with the first season. I actually have a notepad document on my computer somewhere that’s just various rants about it that I’m gonna take from lol

Rant under a cut cause it’s long, spoilers, and also cause uh tldr I do not like the show 💀

Ok let’s start from the beginning of the show, episode one.

The first episode isn’t terrible, it’s a bit rocky, some red flags here and there for what was to come, but that’s kinda expected of animations like this. It usually takes them a couple episodes to pick up and grow into their own, so I was skeptical, but not gonna knock it entirely when I first saw it.

My biggest criticism of this episode was the complete missed opportunity to introduce certain characters from this section of the series’s story. Imagine if they had shown Isaac and Hector in the background of the castle or something at this point for foreshadowing later, as they would’ve already been studying under Dracula at that time. Imagine if that old woman Lisa helped ended up being one of Lyudmil’s family members, cementing them as friends of her for later. Alas, Netflix just decided not to use most of the already written backstories for most characters. But eh, that’s getting into nitpick territory.

And then the second episode happens… I honestly genuinely hate the concept of the Speakers and it’s because they completely replace a much more interesting (especially for the tone and themes they were going for) group for Sypha to be a part of: The Church. In the game, Sypha is a witch, something that’s currently not very good to be at this time, however the church employs a bunch of male wizard soldiers. This is already a perfect opportunity set up and ready to go for them to make their points of the church being hypocritical, add some intense dramatic irony with maybe the audience getting to know Sypha is a witch before anyone else does and seeing her interact with a bunch of people who would have her dead if they knew, and create a super conflicted situation where these church soldiers all die during their encounter with the cyclops, but yet they scrapped it for uh random group of magic users that kinda exist entirely for a plot that didn’t need a new device to work. And Sypha just being all hood down and no hiding just takes away something interesting about her character, making her kinda bland in the process. Like it’s one thing to have the Girl™️ who owns the braincell trope and another to have a character with some actual immediate conflicts. They totally could’ve played up the “oh no if Trevor knew would he kill me” dynamic, especially with witches being commonly lumped in with ‘monsters’ in a lot of other media and Trevor being ya know a monster hunter. And already just from this one design choice she completely loses her symbolic putting the hood down scene for much later in the story to show that she actually trusts people and feels safe enough to not need to hide anymore because she’s got people on her side now.

Also the lack of Grant is just a crime in itself. Grant could’ve worked perfectly as like the everyman of the group. Hell, with his background of being a former noble turned thief presumably after hard times to straight up losing his entire hometown to flames and leading a revolution about it, Grant literally has like almost every common not magical vampire hunter person experience. He could’ve given the group any of those perspectives and been told the perspectives of the vampire hunting life he hasn’t had, ya know? And he’d help differentiate the personalities and humors of the group in general. I literally can’t think of a negative to having Grant in the group.

So we were robbed of character development for Sypha and the existence of Grant, what’s next—

The Bishop character is someone that could’ve been interesting if he was written with any kind of nuance, but instead he’s extremely on the nose and blatantly laughably evil. Otherwise this guy is pretty forgettable besides how lame it was that they used Blue Fangs to kill him instead of ya know an actually recognizable enemy. Like the Blue Fangs design wouldn’t be bad if it was in literally anything else, but compared to the designs of most Castlevania monsters it’s just really lame. I’d’ve even accepted a Warg or something, idk. Personally I think having Death walk in taking the form of Zead and going through that speech while eventually turning into the skeleton form we know him as woulda gone hard but for some reason Death isn’t a thing until seasons later which sucks.

I also absolutely hate Alucard and the Cyclops being in the catacombs! Hate it! The Cyclops kinda had like a courtyard area for it and made sense being there since it was standing guard on the way to the castle. Literally what it is even doing in the catacombs 💀💀💀. Standing guard for… eepy Alucard? Why??? And the whole sleeping soldier thing or whatever they called him is just so obviously an excuse to have him appear faster and make it seem like it tied into the plot. Alucard absolutely should not have been introduced to the main group this early on because again that robs him of a bunch of opportunities for background and character development. He got maybe the one oh no dad don’t commit mass death that’s bad scene and nothing else when they had plenty of time to show him initially following his fathers orders and eventually growing to stand against him. And again??? Missed opportunity for anything radio drama related??? Like if there’s any opportunity to get any of that story more known it’s in an animation? And besides, it’s less work to just use whatever materials and supplemental materials already existed for the game!

Dracula’s Curse and CoD have:

Two games

Two manuals

Three manga (TokyoPop and Preorder)

A couple game guides

Flashback sequences in a radio drama

Flashback sequences in SotN AKA: the game everyone knows

A ton of references in later games cause IGA is a big Dracula’s Curse fanboy

Pachinkos

That is plenty of material to make an animation based on, especially because most games don’t get half of that, especially not NES games. They were literally handed like the NES game to adapt lottery and decided not to scratch like half the ticket 💀💀💀.

Alucard also being able to levitate kinda negates a lot of things. Like what the hell is the point of having a bat/mist form and a double jump then? If he can just be flying vampire Jesus immediately or whatever people call him idk. And you can’t tell me Alucard wouldn’t be painfully embarrassed if someone ever saw him shirtless come on this is the guy that wears like 5 layers of clothing in every game he’s in to the point that even in the modern era he’s choosing a suit over casual clothes. Every action he makes in this introduction to him is obviously fanservice for the sake of fanservice with very little thought behind it, except I’m not feeling very served right now. And having Trevor kinda lose that fight is a reoccurring problem this show ends up having: putting down other characters just to make certain ones get the cool fanservice moment. Contrary to what the writers of this show may believe, it actually doesn’t make me go “oh wow, Alucard is so cool and much badas”, it just feels weird and uncomfortable that Trevor is getting cheated out of one of his canon achievements because the writers preferred one character’s tits more than him.

So, basically, the show starts out with missed opportunities, concepts and characters getting cut out, watered down versions of characters that did make it in, cheap fanservice, poor explanations for things, etc etc. this all culminates into a resounding m e h + dread for later seasons being worse (boy was I correct on that fear lol).

Here’s some other things for the first season I didn’t know where else to fit:

None of the humor hit for me at all, like not a single joke. The humor was either a no response at best, but definitely a physically wincing from secondhand embarrassment at worst. Related to this, I feel like most of the dialogue reads like either someone who just learned what swear words are and thinks they’re really cool and funny or genuinely forced. At times most of the characters talk with the same delivery, cadence, personality, etc, it’s really obvious they were all written by the same person or group. And that even goes for background and side characters, too. This is a criticism I’ve never seen said: I really don’t like the voice acting in this show. I’m sure it’s no fault of the voice actors at all, but there were times in this where I either could not hear characters properly or could not understand characters properly and I had to watch it with closed captions on. The clearness and volume of the characters voices varies A LOT even just between scenes sometimes. And that combined with all the characters having really similar speech patterns, there were a lot of times where if I looked away from the screen, I genuinely could not tell if it was Alucard or Trevor speaking cause it sounded like it could reasonably have been either of them (and in some cases it literally didn’t even matter that much which character was saying what). It’s an absolute tragedy that the color schemes in this show are not remotely similar to Dracula’s Curse too. I understand why some color combos wouldn’t make it for eyestrain reasons, but the pixel artwork in all the NES titles is beautiful. Same goes for music, like I am never going to forgive this series for using Bloody Tears for a Dracula’s Curse ���adaptation’ and not Beginning or Aquarius or Dead Beat or Ghost Ship or Clockwork or— ya know? These are two things that the series are really known for so you’d think with some of the fanservice they did they’d be all kinds of ready to use stuff like that for more of it.

Anyway, past season one is when I started watching the series primarily through clips/episodes reposted on YouTube or elsewhere cause I had completely lost any interest in it. I’ll probably go through synopsises online again for season 2 just to try to better remember what happened in that one because I do remember having very little good to say about season 2 as well and I gotta do that research so I can hate things properly :3.

There’s a certain part of this where I just kinda blanked on things to even say, partially because Season one is kinda bland in general, but partially because I started getting sleepy while typing. So if I feel like I missed anything season one specific I’ll just put it in the beginning of the season two post. d(_ _ )

[evilsoup]

"there is of course a sensible version of [the 'culturally christian'] discourse which has something useful in it" I'm curious as to what you think that is since I've only evee seen the stupid version lol

The basic idea that people from a christian background are likely to have some unexamined assumptions, including some pretty subtle stuff, is obviously correct imo.

Assuming someone cares about christmas as something people would feel it's important to mark, or assuming that all religions have something like a pope or formal heirarchy of priests and bishops, or assuming that repentance and forgivenes are central moral precepts for everyone, or even having a christian-god-shaped-hole in their belief system that gets filled in with nature or History or whatever. That sort of thing.

The problems with the stupid version of this are the same kinds of problem as the stupid versions of patriarchy, the idea of white supremacy, the more vulgar kinds of marxist class theory, etc: the elevation of a framework that is useful in some contexts into a transcendent statement which sits behind everything, outside of time, and is always true in all contexts; an opportunistic flip-flopping between structural and individual levels of abstraction; and a dogmatic sealing-off of the belief system rather than a genuine attempt to bring it into critical (& self-critical) dialogue with other ideas and indeed with new observations about reality.

So e.g. the idea that Christmas being a public holiday in western countries (structural cultural christianity) and the idea that you personally are definitely arguing some position because you have some unexamined bias (individual cultural christianity) get muddled together so that argument becomes impossible -- any attempt to push back on the latter leads to accusations that one is denying the former.

The idea that someone from a christian background or culture could have actually examined whatever bias they received from their upbringing, or that they may never have been really exposed to x specific bias, or that someone from another background could independently come up with an argument that "seems" culturally christian, or that the position which seems culturally christian may actually be more widespread than christian/christian-influenced cultures -- all of these are ruled out by the stupid, dogmatic, circular, sterile, sealed-off monologic version of cultural christianity.

I think that allowing all this to cause one to totally abandon the concept would be a vulgar negation of the stupid version of cultural christianity and would just make one stupid in the opposite direction; and since something like a christian/post-christian hegemony is in fact quite observably real in the west, the direction it makes you stupid in is a christian/post-christian chauvanist one -- just as vulgarly negating the stupid versions of patriarchy theory, white supremacy theory, marxism, etc will put you in bad company. You need to get inside these flawed attempts at grappling with reality to unpick where they're wrong, enter into honest dialogue, transform them and yourself be transformed, basically intergrate what is useful about them and understand how what is not useful about them comes into being. imo.

[zed-the-strem]

So I've seen some posts of someone making a concept for a third playable character for cult of the lamb, and I may or may not have a stupid follow up idea on numerous level to that (BTW it was @derpyjackarts, great concept, love it.)

Anyways more under the cut, it'll be a lot.

More playable characters

Follows the system introduced in the Unholy Alliance update, except with up to 4 playable characters at a time. The possible playable characters are as following:

The Lamb - the default, the lil guy

The Goat - oh, he's a little fucked up actually

The Sheep - Steven Universe's fursona (i mean that lovingly)

The Ram - morally grey home made battering ram

Then, I propose unlockable characters, to add more variety:

Leshy - A former bishop, now indoctrinated into the proper cult; yours! || Unlocked after earning Leshy as a cult member, however while played as will not exist as an npc

Heket - the same as Leshy, albeit Heket instead

Kallamar - the same as the above, following suit

Shamura - you get the gist

Narinder - potentially a bit more than the rest, but mostly the same.

Potentially Aym and/or Baal? but I dunno

Additionally, a bit far fetched, but I also propose...

Different abilities/playstyles depending on characters

it's a bit of a far fetch, and would definitely be a stretch to ever be added to the game, or even modded in my eyes. However, I think it could be interesting to have differences in how the characters play both in combat and in the cult. Additionally it could give some benefit to having a former bishop being played by a player instead of an npc. I don't have exact ideas just yet but i may repost this with more info. Feel free to put ideas about this in the comments!

[nerdygaymormon]

The LDS Church & homosexuality

Some church goers are uncomfortable that I identify as gay. They think how my Creator made me is somehow against God, but I’m allowed to stay in my church because I’m single and celibate which means I am following my church’s teachings on sexuality, which also matches historical Christian teachings on sexuality.

You know who isn’t following those historical teachings? Straight couples who use birth control. Also breaking the historical rules are straight couples where one or both of them divorced a former spouse.

By historical, I mean the majority Christian understanding of the past 2000+ years. But we don’t even have to go back that far. I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which I’ll refer to as “the church” or “LDS Church”), let’s look at some of it’s more recent teachings & practices: 

In the 1960′s, at General Conference it was taught that using contraception was a gross wickedness. 

In the 1980′s, the LDS Church told bishops not to issue temple recommends to married couples who engage in oral sex.

Even up to 2020, the Handbook said church members had to consult with their bishop before getting a vasectomy or tubal ligation because this was seen as a moral issue since it would prevent them from having more children. 

This is not ancient history! 

Over the past 50 years, the church has liberalized sex for straight married couples. Current LDS policies are that birth control is considered a private matter for the married couple to decide and bishops are instructed not to ask married couples about their sexual behaviors. Oral and anal sex, or any other sexual act that may not result in pregnancy, are no longer considered moral dangers which the church needs to stop straight married couples from exploring. As one friend of mine described it, once you’re married, anything goes as long as there’s consent from both partners.

————————————————————

For gay couples, there’s been a little bit of movement by my church, but nothing like what has happened for straight couples. 

Gay individuals are now allowed to call themselves “gay” without getting in trouble, they’re allowed to date and hold hands and kiss without having to confess or have their church membership put in jeopardy (unless you attend the church’s schools where you may get punished for those behaviors). However, for gay couples, marriage or sex will both bring discipline and possible expulsion from the church.

————————————————————

The Biblical viewpoints on sexuality come from a time and culture that valued women for their ability to produce children. Infant mortality rates were high and overall population growth was slow. Any kind of sex that couldn’t result in a pregnancy was forbidden (even if not the intent of the original text, that’s the interpretation made by Christians and taught for centuries)

Today, infant mortality rates are low, life expectancy is high, and the world’s population is at a whopping 8 billion (it first reached 1 billion in 1804, 2 billion in 1927, and has continued to expand at a quickening pace). The reality of our lives has changed.

Biblical understandings of orientations were very different from today’s. Even modern understanding has evolved as prior to the 19th century, the concept of a sexual orientation was absent from Western culture. 

————————————————————

Let’s take a look at the evolution of the LDS Church’s positions on homosexuality.

Labels

In the 1960′s church leaders took a hard stance against even identifying as gay. Calling yourself gay or a homosexual could result in excommunication. 

In the 1980′s, the church separated having gay feelings from behaviors. Feelings and attractions were no longer a sin, just the behaviors. However, what labels queer members should use was still a hot topic. Same-sex attraction was the preferred label.

I remember being told in the 1990′s that the terms gay, lesbian, or bi should only be used as adjectives to describe behaviors or feelings, not people. People were encouraged to say they experience same-sex attraction (SSA) and not call themselves gay. 

While calling yourself lesbian, bi or gay is still not encouraged, in 2016 the church finally said it’s okay to do so.

—————————

What causes someone to be gay

The church taught people developed homosexual feelings due to a variety of reasons. These reasons changed over the decades, but here are some of the things the church taught as causing homosexuality: masturbation, sexual abuse, wearing gender non-conforming clothing, or even just talking about homosexuality. In other words, having gay attractions was a mental disorder for which someone needed help. 

Gay people have been disagreeing for decades, explaining we didn’t choose to be gay and it isn’t the result of abuse or other such causes, it’s just how we are.

Since 1990, there’s been a steady accumulation of research to show that a person’s sexuality is determined before birth. Yet the church resisted change. Recognizing that it’s previous statements on the causes of homosexuality conflict with the research, in 2006 the church stated that it has no opinion on what causes someone to have homosexual attractions. 

In 2010, Boyd K. Packer taught in General Conference that since God’s Plan is for men & women to have sex with each other in a marriage, God wouldn’t give people same-sex attractions without a way to change them while also prohibiting them from being able to act on these attractions. "Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone?" That is a damn fine question to which the church has yet come up with a good answer. It leaves the church in a quandary that it acknowledges people are gay, they don’t choose to be gay, and they can’t choose to not be gay, and yet they're still prohibited from having sex or getting married

—————————

Reparative/Conversion Therapy

Given the way the church thought about what causes someone to be gay, it’s little wonder it also taught someone could be ‘cured.’ The 1960′s saw a big increase of statements from top leadership in the church teaching this.

In Sept 1969, the BYU Psychology Department begins electroshock aversion therapy research against ‘sexual deviancy.’ 

In 1978, gay students who attend BYU are still required to do conversion therapy, but no longer will aversion therapy be used.

In 1992, the church discouraged leaders of local congregations from encouraging members to change their sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual as that generally leads to frustration and discouragement.

In 2016, the church created the Mormon and Gay website which declared conversion therapy or sexual orientation change efforts are unethical. It seems that it’s around this time that BYU ceased conversion therapy 

It took until 2019 for LDS Family Services (the church’s therapy arm) to say it no longer tries to change a person’s sexual orientation, in other words, no more reparative therapy.  

—————————

Mixed-orientation marriages

In the 1970′s and 1980′s, gay men were actively encouraged to marry a woman with the promise this would "cure" their homosexuality (the church is focused on gay men while barely showing any concern for lesbians). I suppose this could be seen as another attempt at reparative therapy.

In the April 1987 General Conference, Gordon B. Hinckley said marriage shouldn’t be used as a way to cure homosexuality. But for men who were able to have some attraction to a woman, or who had a great desire to be married with a family in spite of who they are attracted to, mixed-orientation marriages were still encouraged.

In 2006, it was stated mixed-orientation marriages are no longer encouraged as therapy or a solution to deal with homosexual feelings. It’s a little more expansive from the 1987 statement which was only about using marriage to cure homosexual feelings. While this is the official policy, many leaders still encourage gay people to enter mixed-orientation marriages, and not just at the local level. David Archuleta shared in 2022 that an apostle had encouraged him to marry “a good girl.”

Mixed-orientation marriages don’t have a good track record, even for LDS couples, about 70% of them end in divorce. This is why I think the church stopped encouraging them.

—————————

The fight against gay marriage

In the 1990′s and 2000′s, the LDS Church’s fight against gay marriage invoked the fear that if gay marriage was legalized, within one generation the world’s population of humans would be wiped out. 

Somehow they thought homosexuality was so alluring that everyone would choose it and no more children would be born. Makes me wonder how many repressed gay men were in the ranks of the church leaders. 

Once gay marriage was legalized, the church moved to explain why it still wouldn’t allow gay marriages among its members. Here’s some of the attempts:

The church has continued to teach that God only approves of a man & a woman who are married and sealed together. They will sometimes refer to scriptures as if that settles the matter, but even a casual reading of those verses will leave a person wondering what they have to do with a gay couple, or why a verse about polygamy is used to support 1 man + 1 woman. 

With the growing acceptance of gay people and calls for change, in 2019 Elder Oaks introduced the idea that the 2 great commandments are in conflict and we need to not accept our gay neighbor too much because it would conflict with obeying the 1st command to love God. Later in a 2023 YSA fireside, Elder Oaks  backed off of the idea that there's tension between the 2 great commandments.

In 2021, Elder Oaks introduces the idea that the church is only about helping people aim for the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom, and that requires a straight couple being sealed. Queer people can’t fit that, so they will go to a lower kingdom, and those are really good, so they’ll be fine. (it feels like an attempt to placate those who want more, like how the idea of civil unions was meant to satisfy gay couples and keep them from wanting to get married)

In 2023, Elder Oaks added the idea that everyone who “keeps their covenants” are assured of having a sealed relationship. I think this is his way of saying gay marriage isn’t needed because that won’t last and eventually after you’re dead you will get to be in a straight marriage so just be patient.

In 2023, a survey by PRRI shows that as of 2022 50% of active LDS members of the church in the United States approve of gay marriage. So I would say these attempts against accepting gay marriage are not yielding the hoped-for results 

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Status of children of gay couples

In 2015, in response to the legalization of gay marriage across the United States, the LDS church implemented a new policy which forbids children from joining the church, or advancing in church, if one of their parents is in a gay relationship. Sadly, this mostly affected children who grew up in church as they were born to a couple in a mixed-orientation marriage which had broken up and the gay spouse found a same-sex partner. 

In 2019, as part of undoing the 2015 policy, it was shared that many exemptions to the policy had been granted since 2015, and that the policy against the children is no longer in effect.

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Law of Chastity

For many decades, “acting” on same-sex attractions was considered against the law of chastity. Many took this to include not just sexual acts but also dating or even hugs and holding hands. 

In 2019, as part of undoing the 2015 policy which banned the children of gay couples from joining the LDS church, the statement was made that "immoral conduct in heterosexual or homosexual relationships will be treated in the same way." Many interpret this to mean dating, hand holding, and other activities that single heterosexual adults are allowed to engage in before marriage, these are now allowable for gay people. Not all local leaders agree with this interpretation, and in 2023 the BYU Honor Code was updated to forbid “same-sex romantic behavior.”

————————————————————

Within my lifetime, the law of chastity restrictions on straight couples have gone away as long as they’re married.

For gay people, the church now acknowledges they exist and it isn’t a choice to have these feelings. You may be allowed to date and hold hands and kiss but it is not encouraged because it can lead to a gay marriage.

Church leaders and members from a few decades ago would be shocked at the current teachings and practices of the LDS church in regards to sexuality, both for straight and gay people.

It is odd to hear church leaders claim the law of chastity isn’t subject to change, that doctrines never change, our teachings about homosexuality will never change, and yet we have a history of change. What's the point of being a church of continuing revelation if we say there will be no further revelation?

I hope for our leaders to receive "further light and knowledge.” We claim to be a church of revelation, so let’s get inspiration on how God’s queer children fit into God’s plan, on the blessings available to them, on how they bless the rest of the church, and their purposes in life. Let queer people have joy and hope in this life. 

[midnightanxietytm]

The rites of spring

Summary: Amidst the spring rites, Narinder learns something about his usurper.

"What could that mean? Had the Lamb not taken a consort during the previous fertility rituals? That was very unbecoming, it should be a God’s duty to bestow such blessings upon their followers…"

Author’s Note: So, before starting, a few things just for context: Since i'm not really into anthro, the lamb and their respective followers have human forms and wear animal masks that correspond to their role in the cult; The lamb is the leader obv, cats are “keepers of the house” aka they are organizers/overseers of other tasks, crows are gatherers, moles are miners so on so forth.

Also, I’ve imagined that as The Lamb, after achieving godhood, has a face that’s perfect to an unsettling and undescribable degree and that only the ex-bishops can actually look at them unmasked for more than a few seconds.

Also also, Masks, man! I love the concept of masks that both hide and reveal identity, don’t you?

Contents/warnings: Narilamb being toxic yaoi/yuri. This author is self-indulgently using the sex update for content. Non-explicit sex (aka we fade to black because i got lazy). Some angst. Mention of spouse death. Pinning, banter and all that fun stuff

Dividers by @/cafekitsune

“I wonder if our glorious leader will give anyone the honor of spending the night with them this time…” Muttered one of the Crow-masked followers, and Narinder frowned upon hearing it.

What could that mean? Had the Lamb not taken a consort during the previous fertility rituals? That was very unbecoming, it should be a God’s duty to bestow such blessings upon their followers… Maybe Narinder should take this as an opportunity; point out their flaws, make them uncertain, shake their foundation… Yes, surely that was the intention behind him making his way to the fields, where the Lamb-masked deity stood, casually talking with their followers.

Said followers, upon seeing the former god approach, promptly bowed to their leader and left quickly. Narinder was still proud of that, even decades after losing his godhood, they still avoided him in fear, yes, surely that thug in his heart was pride… This new mortal body of his was confusing sometimes…

The Lamb sighed upon seeing their followers flee, but turned to Narinder with a soft smile; “Yes, Narinder?”

The former deity put on a cheeky grin; “I heard you won’t take a partner for tonight’s ritual…” He said, softly dragging out his words. “Your followers are feeling uneasy…” An exaggeration, but a necessary one, it doesn’t matter if the followers were still as loyal as ever, Narinder would make sure to point each and every flaw until they weren’t.

So the giggle his usurper let out in the face of that treat came as a surprise. “Really, is that your pick for today? Okay then, your complaint is registered, Nari.” They said with a soft laugh. “You are free to go for today, We’ll begin soon.” And they left, just like that…

Usually, Narinder would retire to his tent sooner for the Fertility Ritual, along with his siblings. That year though, he chose a hill a little further away from the main clearing, sat down, and chose to watch from afar.

The dances began right after the sun was down; a large bonfire was lit, drums resonated, and beyond it all, The Lamb was sat on a large, elevated wooden throne, and on the opposite side of the valley, Narinder stared at them.

The hours dragged, the activities and celebrations getting more lewd by the moment, and to Narinder’s surprise, from up the hill, he saw his brother, Leshy, leave his own tent, grab the attention of a follower with a orange cat mask, and disappear with them behind the temple. Ew.

Narinder looked back to the Usurper; now they had one leg thrown over the throne armrest, mask lifted and resting on top of their head, their ethereal features full on display, but none of the followers were paying attention, all either asleep from their exhaustion already, or engaged on lascivious displays with one another.

And they both watched, Lamb’s kaleidoscope eyes hooded, a small, satisfied smile on their face, as if their follower’s pleasure was their own… And maybe it was, Narinder couldn’t know; The Lamb had more domains than he had even at the height of his godhood, he chose not to follow that train of thought.

The night went on, then passed. The sun would be rising in about two or three hours, and by now most followers had either retreated to their shelters—most with a partner, so their fun would continue—, or fell asleep around the dying bonfire. The former god rose from his watching spot, and crossed the large clearing with slow steps. He jumped over sleeping, naked bodies, and climbed over to his new deity’s thone.

“You didn't take a lover tonight after all…” He said, and again, the deity laughed.

“So you were just curious after all?” Narinder chose not to give an answer, but The lamb didn’t desire one anyway. “This existence you doomed me to, Narinder, is a lonely one, you should know.” They mused, though there was no hint of sadness on their face, it was a mere observation.

Narinder growled either way; “I doomed you to it? Need I remind you that it was you who took it by force?!” He grabbed the back of the throne forcefully, leaning over the god laid down on the seat.

“I don’t mean godhood, Nari,” Says the lamb, laughing yet again, their eyes hooded, their soft smile never leaving. Utterly infuriating. “I mean immortality… I’ve taken a few lovers before, but they all left me, they die, whether of age or of their own volition, so why try?” The deity then reached both their arms towards him, hugging him by the shoulders, Narinder had to prop his knee on the throne as the Lamb refused to let him go.

“Mortals die, Lamb, that shouldn’t bring you pain, you are weak if it does.” He whispered tauntingly, but the usurper’s face still did not falter.

“I guess…” Hummed the Lamb; “But we both know that gods die too, even if just by the hands of another, and so what’s left for us?” Their hands slid upwards, from his shoulders, to his neck, then his face, where they took off Narinder’s mask and carefully placed it aside.

“That’s a fool’s conundrum, Lamb.” Narinder snarled. And only then, their smile fell, and they sighed heavily.

“I don’t know why I thought you’d understand,” Their hands left his body, cold, and they grabbed the black cat mask, holding it as if made of gold, staring longly at it. “even imprisoned you had Aym and Baal, before that, for better or for worse, you had your siblings…” They carefully placed the mask back on his face. “Leave, Narinder, The one Who Waits. If you must think me a fool, then so be it.”

And out of all the outlandish things Lamb said to him in those decades since his defeat, this is what took him back the most, this blatant dismissal of his opinion of them was something he wouldn't stand by. He growled again and spoke his mind; “You think you can just dismiss me like that?! Don’t forget I was a god before you, I am your predecessor!”

And his former vessel simply sighed and stood up, forcing Narinder to take a step back. “Narinder, can you honestly say you miss your godhood? Because as far as I’m aware, I’ve taken a huge burden off your shoulders, along with the chains on your wrists…” They then reached again for him, but now to pull him roughly by the back of his neck, until their faces were inches apart. “And you have eternity with me in order to learn to appreciate it.”

Then they let go and promptly turned to leave, and it was the second time in a very short timeframe where Narinder was left stunned by the damned lamb. Utterly infuriating. Narinder turned around quickly and grabbed the darned usurper by the arm. He had to say something, had to give a comeback, something, anything, to shut them up.

Yet nothing came out.

He looked at the crown, resting on the Lamb’s head, and for the first time, the sight didn’t infuriate him. “At least take a partner for the next ritual. When you’re immortal, you have to move with the time.” He said after a moment of silence. “Besides, whoever you choose will surely be grateful…”

The lamb spun on their heels with a smile, all of a sudden. “Whoever I chose would be grateful?” And Narinder knew that cheeky smile better than he’d like to admit. “What if I chose you?” Came the dreadfully anticipated honeyed words.

The former god made sure to keep his expression plain as he slid his hand down their arm and granted their hand, kissing their hand. “I would be honored, my God.” He much preferred this type of teasing, he could deal with this better than the dismissal and nonchalant attitude his little lamb would sometimes display.

The usurper hummed softly, their usual smile back to their face, they pulled their mask back over their face, and Narinder felt as if pulled into a trance, one he had allowed himself to be put under, he regretted nothing. “The night is still young, my darling.” They said, and Narinder allowed himself to be pushed into sitting on the throne himself, and happily allowed the Lamb to straddle them.

Suffice to say the haze from the ritual had not yet passed, and no one would dare prevent a god from enjoying it too. Narinder surely wouldn’t.

And by the time morning came they were already apart, Narinder in his shelter as if he never left in the first place, and Lamb diligently helping their followers through the afterglow of the ritual.

By mid-day, when they gathered for a sermon and a feast in celebration of the successful ritual, Narinder heard a rabbit-masked follower gossip that during the haze of the night, they thought the Lamb had taken a lover, and they might have been delirious, but they still commented that in his mind, their Leader had the most ethereal body, and made the most beautiful sounds in the heights of pleasure.

And Narinder agreed in silence, but that was no one’s business.

Author’s Note²: Yay my first COTL fic! I quite like it, but expect me to play around with their characterization a bit in the next ones. I especially want to give a shot to cannibalism as a metaphor for love, as one does. Hope my interpretation of them in human form with masks wasn’t a dealbreaker for yall, but i can barelly describe normal body language, much less antho body language, I’ll give it a shot too, soon.

Anyways, that’s it for today, thanks for reading and feel free to give me some kind criticism if ya want! Byee!

[albinocapybara]

Finally after being stumped on a name for so long, the LeshyCat children concept is here, first, of course, some info on the parents :)

(Btw im not a native english speaker)

If you have any questions about them or my other headcanons feel free to ask too!

How they met: Due to his injuries making it extremely difficult for him to adjust to his new life in the cult (let alone how he would now have to learn how to live with a mortal body again) on his own, the Yellow Cat (who i will be referring to as "Amare" from now on) was assigned as his caretaker to help him deal with the necessities that came with being a mortal again (sleep, water, physical activities and so on) on top of the problems that came with his injury. While Leshy at first felt insulted by this treatment (the whole "i was a god i can do this without the help of some mortal yada yada" thing), he soon realized it was for the better (while also realizing his feelings for Amare :3).

Leshy: Freed from Purgatory in the cult around 100-ish years after his death and 15 years after Narinder was overthrown by The Lamb. All his high priests and his witness (Amdusias, Valefar, Barbatos and Agares) had passed away before his arrival, making the former and current gods of death the only "familiar" figures in the cult (they both changed so much after their last encounters), although he still avoided both of them most of the time (Narinder because of his conflicting thoughts about the older brother, and The Lamb somewhat out of anger at them but mostly fear due to how traumatic Purgatory was for him), but dont worry they eventually made amends along with the rest of the bishops :). Also became friends with bat follower but she isnt relevant for this post

Amare (the Yellow Cat): Rescued from being sacrificed to the dead bishop of chaos in Darkwood after followers of the Old Faith killed everyone else from his village, works as a farmer in the cult. He was the only follower (aside from the first five followers of the cult, who are kept alive and act as advisors and friends for The Lamb) that knew of Leshy's past as an bishop, and though he still held resentment for the former god, The Lamb's seeming disposition to forgive him made the cat consider doing the same for him, volunteering to be his caretaker. Once their relationship was made official, he was given a golden skull necklace to ensure the two could stay by each other's side for eternity.

Now for the children hehe

They are twins (as ive mentioned in my other posts), a daughter named Camellia (Amare chose the name) and a son named (drumroll please im so proud of this name) Havoc! (Name chosen by Leshy of course).

They both have green moss-like fur from Leshy, and the head shape of a cat from Amare, but other than that their bodies are very distinct due to inheriting different parts from their parents

Havoc: His limbs and tail, as well as his longer whiskers, are from Amare, giving him a silhouette very similar to a cat, aside from the antler-like branches he got from Leshy, he also has two sets of eyes like Leshy used to have once, ironically though, he has rather poor eyesight, needing glasses to see things that are a bit too far. Despite his name he is actually pretty calm and enjoys the peacefulness of the cult, though this doesnt mean he is opposed to some occasional mischief, specially with his sister. Wants to help with teaching when he becomes of age (also im thinking about the idea of having him figure himself out as transfem but thats for another time)

Camellia: her limbs and tail, being from Leshy, are quite a bit longer and thicker than her brother's, giving her a broader and taller silhouette, as well as making her quite a bit stronger physically, she also has only one set of eyes and shorter whiskers than her brother, as well as no branch antlers. Is a very active person, playing with other kids and sometimes helping adults with tasks that wouldnt risk injuring her (most of the time they dont let her though). Also loves doing pranks and other forms of tomfoolery around the cult along with her brother. She is also very protective of him, getting into multiple fights with kids (and a drunk adult one time) who pick on him (aka bullies). Wants to follow her parent's job of farming when she comes of age.

[rottmnt-residuum]

3 SILLY THEORIES COMING RIGHT UPPP

1 - This one is too on the nose I think but anyways- since Frankenstein’s monster is made of old body parts, the EPF might try using other mutant body parts or elements and kind of make Donnie their own kind of monster soldier thing. That’s it… that’s the whole thought process 💀

2 - Dr. Frankenstein created the monster for several reasons, but one of them was to try to create a new species. The EPF could be studying mutants to try to replicate the mutagen or something of the sort, to create mutants they can use. The baby mutants in your concept art could be one of their tries at it.

2.5 - The EPF could also be trying to mutate people who are near death so they can be useful again, as that was another one of Dr Frankenstein’s motives, to renew life.

3 - Mixing 1 & 2.5, they could lose Donnie somehow (See : BISHOP SHOVING HER HAND IN HIS BRAIN), not quite death but IG a kind of brain dead ish?? And as an attempt to bring him back to his former use, and also as an experiment to see if they can use this to their advantage, they use other mutants body parts or whatever they’ve studied ( maybe Mikey’s ninpo... hmm) to kind of Frankenstein him and bring him back.

YALL IM NOT GOOD THEORIZING- But congrats on one year of Residuum!! WOOO 🎉🎉

50%

90%

2.5. 0%

3. 25%

[weebstranglerkiwi]

DELTARUNE: The Chess Theory v2.0

A popular theory in DELTARUNE is the "Chess Theory", the concept being that the main Dark World villains chapters 1-6 are based off of chess pieces and how they work, from highest to lowest value:

1. The Chess Theory

Infinite Value - King (Chapter 1) - Sits isolated in his castle and only attacks when provoked, has very slow movement.

9 Pawns Value - Queen (Chapter 2) - Is very mobile and goes wherever she wants. Combines the movement of a rook and a bishop, but can't imitate a Knight piece.

These are the confirmed villains, now we move on to theory territory:

3. 5 Pawns Value - Rook (Chapter 3) - Usually appears halfway through. Needs a pawn to move so it can move.

4. 3.5 Pawns Value - Bishop (Chapter 4) - Very mobile and versatile. Usually gets moved right at the start.

5. 3 Pawns Value - Knight (Chapter 5) - Very mobile and can straight-up ignore and jump over other pieces.

6. 1 Pawns Value - Pawn (Chapter 6) - Follows commands, presumably the Vessel(?)

This is the general outline of the chess theory. From here, I will expand on what it started.

First of all, something that absolutely nobody brings up, and it ticks me a lot, is that in chess, there is 1 King and Queen. But there are 2 Rooks, Bishops and Knights. I believe that Chapters 3-5 (which are releasing alongside each other) will have 2 main villains, 2 Rooks, Bishops and most importantly... Knights.

2. The Rooks

Let's start with Chapter 3. I believe that Tenna will be the main villain alongside either Mike, or someone new. A Rookie is a new recruit, an apprentice if you will. Also, "to rook" means to defraud or swindle someone. Therefore, I believe that Tenna will be a former apprentice of Mike, that has defrauded them and took their place as the star of the TV Dark World, a sort of darker version of "the apprentice bests the master". Alongside Tenna, I believe there will be another main villain, another one of Mike's Rookies, possibly a sort of "movie director/writer" character, working behind the scenes while Tenna is the public star. Mike will most probably be hiding somewhere, I believe he will be an ally to the Delta Warriors, and will help to defeat the two Rooks that defrauded him.

3. The Bishops

Continuing, Chapter 4 (which I suspect to be located in the Church) will have 2 Bishops. Now, Chapter 4 is the biggest shot in the dark here, the only information we have on it are the Light World and Castle Town sections from the Status Update. However, we KNOW that it won't be a purely Light World Chapter, because in the most recent newsletter, Toby Fox stated that Chapter 4 will be a much more normal experience gameplay-wise than Chapter 3. We have no idea what 2 Bishops could entail, possibly one being a genuine, righteous, religious Bishop that wants to stop us due to their beliefs, while the other is a lying, evil preacher. Who knows?

4. The Knights - Pawn Promotion

The most interesting part of this theory is the idea of two Knights. I will refer to these 2 Knights as the Roaring Knight, and the New Knight. What is another important thing in chess? Pawn Promotion. In the Snowgrave/Weird Route, Spamton is a pawn that gets promoted to become the Queen, taking over her mansion. I believe, that the same thing will happen in Chapter 5, the main villain will be the Roaring Knight, however, at the very end of the chapter, a New Knight will rise up, Kris Dreemurr.

Chapter 5 will conclude with Kris escaping our (the Player's) grasp, no longer being our Pawn, they will become powerful enough to be the Knight. Chapter 5 will end with us being separated from Kris, and Chapter 6 will begin with us reconnecting with the Vessel.

If you want to learn more about HOW Kris will get stronger and become the Knight, go read my Knight Theory, it should be up now!

5. The Pawn, our Vessel

With Kris breaking free, we are able to finally control our Vessel, taken away from us by an unknown interloper. This theory can branch in two ways: 1. The main villain of this chapter will be either another of many Pawns, maybe December Holiday, trapped wherever the Vessel is situated, a Bunker Dark World I presume. 2. Alternatively, WE could be the main villain of Chapter 6, the 6th Chess Piece, I lean into this more.

Both branches entail that Chapter 7 will reconnect or even reconcile us with Kris!

6. Behavior of the Villains

Both King and Queen behave very similar to their respective chess piece's movement. What would the future villains' behavior be?

The Rooks are most probably going to be preceded by a Lightner, a Pawn that is influenced/controlled by them, most probably Toriel. Rooks only start playing a major role halfway through the chess match, but are the most important pieces when it comes to the end of the match, the Checkmate. They will pack a punch I bet.

The Bishops will appear as soon as the Dark World adventure begins, and will play a vital role throughout the entirety of the Chapter, however they will probably appear less than Queen, and in more serious, noteworthy situations as well.

The Roaring Knight would most probably be very erratic, appearing at unexpected moments, ignoring what blocks their path through force of will. I believe that the Delta Warriors will confront the Knight by cornering them, much like a Knight in chess must be cornered to stop jumping around.

The Pawn will mindlessly follow orders.

5. End

This is it! Sorry if I messed something up, this is my first post on Tumblr! I'm not sure how things work around here, but if you have anything to add to the table or your own interpretation to discuss, feel free to leave a note! Alright that's it. You can scram now.

[lammydraws]

more Former God of Death AU stuff, ref sheets of sorts. (notes and infos below)

and doodles

it takes place before Narinder got the crown and became the Bishop of Death

so this is basically pre pre canon back when there were still a few more gods in the land of the old faith Mercy is the god of death and has Isabella as her apprentice Isabella is a mortal, but eager to learn, by this time ascended gods have proven themselves to be accepted as equal to born gods, but the likes of Shamura and Kallamar bring some interesting concepts to the table. before most gods just existed in harmony with nature and people, there were some who were more power hungry and inclined to harness the power of devotion and a following as well as by fighting and absorbing powers of other god like creatures. When Shamura informs Mercy of a born god (Narinder) they see more fitting to be Mercy's apprentice it should have been the order to prefer a god over a mortal, but Mercy instead opts to take both as apprentices. the reason why she took an apprentice is because she kinda plans to "retire" aka pass on her crown not sure if she's just tired of dealing with the many tragedies that tend to come with death (although she's very compassionate and empathetic) or some of the recent developments with more and more conflicts and fighting mainly between gods but it obvs also affects mortals - they kinda die and stuff :v especially if conflicts cause natural disasters and whatnot she has a good relationship with Shamura but also sees their desire for war and power which she cannot really support bella is mercy's first apprentice and they have a good relationship. mercy likes her, loves her as if she were her own child. Mercy refuses to dismiss Isabella as her apprentice when Narinder comes along even tho she knows that only one can have the crown and the favor is definitely stacked towards Narinder. Bella knows that too, but she's really determined and hard working, but also never unhelpful or unkind to narinder.

sorry its messy, i have no energy to format this rn. maybe i come back to it and edit it ,_,

[ihopeinevergetsoberr]

the counterpart

chapter 3 — and there’s affection to rent

rating: explicit. i’m sensing a smut chapter approaching.

word count: 2,5k

pairing: viktor x fem!reader (no use of y/n)

cw: 90s au. they’re still playing chess, drinking, smoking, cussing, fucking (not yet, but eventually) and doing all the things you’re not allowed to read about if you’re not old enough. this chapter is just… pure dialogue and (not so subtle anymore) sexual tension, and i finally revealed their majors (took me long enough). consider this part a teaser. yeah.

ao3 link

part 4

—

What’s the most important thing one learns in college if their major is painfully tasteless? Especially if said one is a lost girl — all ambitions, but no actual possibilities, kidneys so done with your rebellious acts of liquor consumption they might fail you much earlier than they did Bobby Fisher?* 

Your professors taught you how to come up with an intriguing title. How to make sure your column is the most eye-catching on the whole page. How to journal properly, and how to not be a pussy when you’re interviewing someone hard-talk style — taught you how to bend over people and for people.

Those were petty things. Undoubtedly crucial for your education, yet still petty. They didn’t teach you how to live. They just made you sleazy and more sleep-deprived. The first trait could still be put to a good use, though. 

But college? Oh, college taught you how to live. Not the beautiful concept of being a part of it, but the campus itself, specifically the dorms — your self-proclaimed, crude lectors. They showed you everything you needed to know: from friendly faces coated in thick smoke on the tiny balcony, to sweaty ones, all rolled out tongues and glassy eyes — the disgusting art of bathroom quickies. 

But most importantly?

College taught you there are five types of men you have to stay away from: bishops, knights, rooks, cowards (kings) and pawns (your favorite ones to devour). 

Bishops are mouthy. They’re harsh — vile, even. Greedy heartbreakers, easily irritable when something refuses to get out of their oblique, grabby path. Mediocre in bed: unnecessary rough, redundantly rude in dirty talk. Terrified of any feeling that doesn’t involve hatred or malice. Smartasses (in a bad way). Pass. 

Knights are immature. They have potential — a contentious one, to be frank, yet it’s still there, slightly palpable in their endless promises and occasional gentlemanly habits. They’re deeply insecure — self-conscious, even, always underestimating their power. A good base for raising the perfect partner — if only you have the patience to spare, that is. Not as unbearable in bed as the previous category. Sometimes they cook great breakfast the morning after.

Rooks are superior. Straightforward, yet humorless; good listeners, yet awful comforters — oh that constant lack of the golden mean, the complete inability to lie. They’re reliable, but not fun to sleep with. Not fun to date either — it’s almost like these men paired for life, invariably with someone as insufferably stable as their stoic demeanor. You still liked them though; but only as a rare, handsome dainty — an audience perfectly suited for your drunken monologues. 

Kings and pawns are not worthy of being elaborated on. Skittish and obedient, former ones too selfish in bed, ladder ones too pathetically down bad. Finita la commedia. 

In conclusion: one should play with those pieces, yet strictly avoid committing to them — to save the tears when you make an invariable sacrifice. 

That thought spun inside your head — doomed and stupidly petulant, recycling itself slowly to a flavourless overchewed gum on the convex surface of your tongue, persistently threatening to jump out of your mean mouth any second. You wondered — shamefully, with an almost shy tredipation, — how would Viktor react to this  incredible wisdom of your creation, how comical — or plausible, perhaps? would he find this metaphorical conclusion to be? 

But you refrained from revealing it to him just now. No, you couldn’t care less about invoking a potential little discussion — not when he’d just returned to the still equipped with a chess board desk, and certainly not when your hand was settled so perfectly into the tender grasp of his. A set of longer, paler fingers twined oh so cautiously around your wrist, securely preventing it from any occasional twitches. Tending to your wound with special gentleness — as if he was constructing a fragile weapon, a thing dangerous enough to explode all over the place if he treats it with something bolder than a ghost of a touch. So concentrated: he pressed the tiny piece of cotton to the bloody mess under what once used to be your nail; shushing you softly when you flinched, feeling the saline lance right through the weak digit. 

“Stay still for me, would you?” Viktor frowned, carving an angry little stroke into the back of your palm — a firm affection just for you to giggle about. The ambience around him didn’t resemble the one libraries usually possess anymore. It was an appointment now, and you adored the way he turned the place into a makeshift clinic with just a few quickly grabbed from the pharmacy trinkets. 

“For you?” you pulled a taunt — an innocent one, yet utterly unsubtle in its intentions. 

“Well, I’m your doctor,” he wreaked vengeance with a playful protest, elegantly twisting your implication. A reciprocation, of sort; a playful thing returning every single one of your tortuous undertones. “It’s only natural that you listen to the professional’s recommendations.” 

He wasn’t clueless anymore. He wanted to proceed. He begged to proceed, actually; grazed your forearm approbatory and dull, then dared to crawl into the sleeve of your shirt. Just the briefest presence of fingertips under the cloth — peak intimacy only a library could provide. 

“But I’m not quite deceased yet, and last time I checked — you were a mortician,” — a shot back, witty and precise. Had him chuckling warmly as you raised your head, allowing the copper to meet your irises with a playful tingle. 

“Believe me, I can be versatile,” Viktor assured, only giving you half a tease to work with, to unravel. Submitting his gentle touch and returning to the medical one instead, carefully pulling out a patch out of his pocket after a short session of rummaging around.

“Oh, I already figured that much,” you allowed him to lead — both literally and figuratively, careless about the way he victoriously pointed out the flush on your face — barely as crimson as the disaster he cleaned up for you, yet still pleasantly noticeable. 

That boy was no usual rook, knight or bishop of yours. Needless to mention something as fearful as a pathetic king.

There was something slightly pawn-like about him though — but you didn’t hate it like you normally would. You didn’t mind a little submission. You adored it. You wanted him at your mercy. Erotically so, to be precise. As if him wrapping a patch around your swollen finger isn’t erotic enough already.

Although it wasn’t mercy that made him care for you. 

It was tenderness. A thing all the five-types-one-should-avoid were not capable of on their own. 

Viktor broke the silence with a strangled little cough. 

“It might ruin your nail-polish,” he warned, eyes flickered between you and already tinted with a humble red spot patch. 

“As if there’s any nail left to apply the polish to,” you hissed, wincing at the sharp sensation stinging that sensitive piece of skin — no doubt staining the fresh little rag even more. Viktor tried to ease your suffering with an almost friendly pat on your shoulder. 

What a way to ruin the eroticism. 

“A tragedy, if you ask me,” he whispered, short and sweet, with a contrite little sigh, “you messed up a perfectly nimble hand.” 

“You don’t know the first thing about compliments, do you, Viktor?” you pricked back, harmless and waggish; a careless, erratic thing, — already too far gone to stop those lively amber eyes from scanning you with terrified unease: had he said something stupid? Had he failed in humoring you? 

You pulled him firmly straight out of the paralysis of his distress, fingers yanked gently at his to put them — now skittish and a little tense — back into an intertwinement with yours, demanding they linger there, safe and tender. 

“I’m getting there,” he budged, slowly growing less fidgety against your touch, “Forgive me, I’m yet to master the art of courting.” 

“I’m fucking with you,” you reminded handily. Watched him form a theatrical little scoff, but his teeth betrayed him, leaping out in an impish smile. 

“Of course you are. You journalists love to torment people,” Viktor nodded, slightly tickling the underside of your palm with a relaxed swipe of a thick-skinned thumb. 

You didn’t take it personally. You didn’t fancy your major enough to get defensive. 

You didn’t question how exactly he found out about it either. His answer — tanned, handsome and talkative — was most likely rotting in bed right now, still half-alive from his birthday black-out even though it’s been literal days. Besides: if Viktor were to ask how did you find out that he’s an exceptional future engineer or that he’s a winner of multiple open chess championships — you’d send him straight back to Jayce too. The source was obvious. 

“You know what I’m majoring in? Did you make a dossier of my poor persona?” you chose that torment instead. At his service, you gave the man precisely what he’d requested.

A thoughtful one, a pretty disgrace at his whim. 

He should’ve been more careful with his desires. 

“You’re not a project of mine to keep a dossier for you,” he reproached smoothly. “Unless…” his tongue clicked in thick suspense, “you’d allow me to make one. For collecting kompromat, of course — a procedure every opponent should adhere to.” 

“Kompromat?” 

“Yes, kompromat,” Viktor confirmed, unaltered. 

“But I’m innocent,” — a cheeky lie, blatantly obvious. Had him squeezing your hand to prevent you from sliding out of his grasp, all too tight for a man that shrinked into a handsome flustered mess at your first attempt to crawl under his pale skin. Perhaps he simply took his sweet time in comprehending that he’s allowed to be vengeful. 

“A cruel woman, mercilessly flirting with her opponents to bribe them into resignation?” he deadpanned, evidently pleased with a newly established privilege of savoring your touch for however long he pleased. “What’s innocent about that?” 

“I’m not trying to bribe you into resignation!” you sneered, now defensive. Pulling away to watch him sigh at the loss of you in his palm — but he didn’t chase after you. Viktor backed off, bitter and respectful, leaving you with just the aftermath of his touch and a blood-stained patch tightly wrapped around your phalanx. 

“You‘re not?” he whispered, suddenly reminded of the library’s policies. 

You soothed him with a nod, following the trajectory of his wandering eyes. Pushing the amused hum back into your mouth as Viktor forced his sleeve to roll up, exposing a worn down watch. Apparently also reminded that he does not, in fact, belong just to you this Friday. 

“I would use more… radical methods if I aimed to bribe you into anything at all,” you laughed out a raspy sound, no doubt feasting upon the way he stirred, wrapping that food for thought with him to go. 

“How reassuring,” he murmured back, brushing his upper lip in a pensive, fleeting lick, eyes darting to your still full of unfinished business board. 

“You’re leaving?” you mumbled rhetorically, hating just how desperate that came out. 

“I’m afraid so, yes,” Viktor mused, reluctantly grabbing the clocks he brought with him, “but I still have to show you the draw. If only we could arrange another meeting.” 

“But we weren’t recording our moves,” you groaned at the silly oversight, watching him rise heavily to his lanky legs, stretching above you into a tall pretty sight. “I don’t trust my memory to that extent.” 

“Well, I do,” he objected, nestling his hand into the arched hilt of his cane, preparing to leave you — lonesome and terribly lacking his calming presence — in the legendary place of your duel. Making a bitter, sad-eyed mess out of you — a devastated subject abandoned in the filled with the smell of yellow pages air. 

But you weren’t exactly known for your unlimited patience. If anything, it was the other way around — you wanted him to indulge you now, to turn on those heels of his and sink back down in his squeaky chair, letting you devour his genius as fervently as you pleased — oh the price you’d pay to dive into his mind, to watch him think, and defeat, and conquer. 

“How does your schedule look on Sundays?” you uttered before your restless brain got the chance to turn it into an overthinked burden. A brave one — you had your eye on him and were determined to make it abundantly clear. 

And Viktor, albeit still discreet, was determined to reciprocate. 

“Normally — not eventful,” he laughed, delaying his departure to spare you one more sweet glance, “but this Sunday I’m playing chess with a remarkably persistent lady. As long as she’ll have me, of course.” 

He gawked at you with the repartee of a complete wiseacre, and you flinched with a giddy giggle, secretly hoping he’d emphasized that last part — or somehow specified it to prevent your mind from spiraling into all the different ways you could have him in. Oh the bitter consequences of being a smartass: sass is contagious and you poisoned him with it, dooming whatever boundaries and clarity this man had possessed before making your acquaintance. 

But it also meant the world was now your oyster. And you took the opportunity by its slender, practically paper-white neck — so far only figuratively, but you wouldn’t be opposed to turning it into something gentle and tangible: if only he consented to it, of course.

“Sunday it is, then. My room, if you’re comfortable?” you suggested, pushing it half-cowardly. 

“I’m not allowed in that part of the dorm,” he marveled at the bold offer, yet his response didn’t imply any objections. 

“And you intend to stick to that?” 

“Of course not.” 

“Then it wasn’t even worth mentioning. Room 505, it’s the one on the second floor…”

“What if I get lost?” 

“Say my name to any freshman-looking girl and they’ll walk you straight to my very door.” 

“Do you have a reputation I should worry about?” 

“Do you ever stop asking irrelevant questions?” you finally snapped, two steps away from turning a gentle neck-grip you fantasized about earlier into a cold-blooded murder in the middle of a college library. “I write essays to earn extra-cash, if you’re that curious. People around the campus know me. Now, back to more urgent matters: please, don’t show up before ten in the morning. No, scratch that — eleven is even better. I like to sleep in on Sundays.” 

Viktor listened to you carefully — with the perception of a responsible server, almost ready to scribble down your every complex instruction, only lacking a salute and a devoted ‘yes, ma’am’ to complete the procedure. 

“It’s been a while since I looked forward to play someone,” he’ll confess to you on his way out of the building, failing to hold that shy thing in the unreliable prison of his gritted teeth, leaning on that thin cane with the whole heavy essence of his trembling audacity. A test he dared to run only before slipping away from that wide-eyed state of yours, escorted by a row of now painfully familiar to you clacks of metal against the concrete. 

And later, when that hot summer day will slowly melt into a hot summer night; when you’ll abandon the comforter of your bed to stick out of the window, half-naked and positively enraged; when you’ll smoke your third cigarette of the hour to tame the riot of aroused nerves — you’ll think about him, and about chess, and about the things chess made you want to do to him. 

—

notes: 

*Bobby Fisher — a grandmaster, the only American chess player to defeat soviet players at the time. Died of kidney failure at the age of 64. 

tags: @zaunitearchives @blissfulip @thehistoriangirl @queen-of-elves @vyshnevska

[littlechaoticwitch]

Winx Club Rewrite: Season 1

I understand this is me being very late to the party, but that's pretty on-brand for me at this point lol

A few years ago, I started to work on a possible rewrite for Fate: The Winx Saga but it soon became this monstrous project of rewriting the entire franchise. Because while this series is one of my beloved childhood series, it is also very messy with its world-building and plotlines, as well being done dirty over and over again by its countless reboots. As much as I would have loved to create a full-on alternative universe like the ones I've seen on tumblr for years, it just took up so much of my time that could have been spent on other projects and it was starting to feel more like a chore than anything else. Eventually, I did create some fashion boards for how to translate their outfits from the show into real life, and wrote up some concept ideas for their live-action costumes, which led to me just writing up the notes I had for the rewrite to share them with y'all.

Some of these ideas were inspired by other people's rewrite of the series, some of these ideas came to me while writing this up, and a lot of these are my attempt to make sense of Winx Club's fucked-up lore. While these were originally written with a live-action reboot in mind, these could also work for an animated reboot targeted for teens/young adults.

This is probably the extent I'll do for any sort of Winx Club rewrite, but it was still fun!

-Bloom is not a princess, but instead the daughter of Priestess Marion (the last Keeper of the Dragon Flame) and Bishop Oritel

-Daphne was twenty years old when her aunt and uncle gave birth to Bloom. She was best friends with Crowned Princess Politea, who betrayed her own kingdom to the Ancestral Witch in order to gain the throne, but she was killed soon after she led Marion and Oritel to their demise. Daphne was not killed when she sent Bloom (and the Dragon Flame) to Earth, but instead viciously tortured, ripped of her wings, and cursed to live inside her mother's mirror, which was thrown into the depths of Lake Roccaluce. From there, she uses her remaining magic to speak with Bloom once she realizes her cousin has returned to the Magical Dimension.

-Domino's demise did happen sixteen prior to the series, but the destruction was more thorough, so the other girls truly believed all hope was lost in trying to revive the kingdom. Only a few hundred people (either those who had moved away from Domino prior to its destruction or actual refugees), Bloom, and technically Daphne (as well as Valtor) managed to survive the attack. When visiting the frozen Domino palace, Bloom discovers she can either bring her realm back to life or break Daphne's curse, but the spell will only work with an Enchantix-level fairy dust bottle.

-Flora is the plus-sized daughter of Professor Palladium (who would also be of Hispanic descent), and due to being half-elf, she does have a normal lifespan as the others

-Tecna is a former Specialist with a prosthetic left arm, who joins Alfea after realizing she has magic, but she suffers severe social anxiety and finds comfort in the library, where she becomes close with Headmistress Faragonda as a result.

-Musa starts off the series dating Riven, but they break up right before the Day of the Rose festival

-Aisha takes over Mirta's role as the witch-turned-fairy. Coming from a long line of witches, Aisha never felt comfortable practicing witchcraft as her negative emotions stem from her controlling parents and isolated childhood, even though she advocated for witches to be treated fairly. Despite having a friendship with Stormy, she was never afraid to stand up to the Trix and this led to her being turned into a pumpkin. After being brought back by Flora's magic, Aisha decides to help the Winx after Bloom loses her magic and she ends up gaining her wings as a result.

-Sky has an older sister named Jade, who is heavily based around Diaspro's design, powers, and personality (leaning more into the comic version of the character). An overprotective sister who wishes to keep her people safe, she is the crowned heir of the kingdom but their parents are trying to force her to give the crown to her brother instead. Due to her attending a private academy on Eraklyon, she has no idea her brother is using a fake identity.

-Timmy is more of a social butterfly than Tecna, with him having chaotic mad scientist vibes when it comes to machines. Their relationships starts off as academic rivals, with Timmy being the only person who can beat Tecna in some subjects, causing her to show more her emotional side as she is determined to beat him fair and square.

-The Trix disguise themselves while causing havoc, with only the viewers knowing the connection between their civilian identities and their witch forms. Their cover is blown when the Army of Darkness is defeated, with the fallout resulting in them being sent to Light Rock for their sentence.

-Stormy takes over the roles of both Lucy and Anne, mainly through her friendship with Aisha and her being the one to compete in Miss Magix. She is a native of Andros with a Linphean mother, and she has vitiligo. At first, she was forbidden to have a friendship with the princess due to her low status but after showing potential to become a great witch, Aisha's parents allowed her to stay around as they thought she was a "good influence". She ended up running away from home due to neglect, where she met Darcy and Icy on her way to join a coven. She has no real interest in the Dragon Flame but enjoys causing mass chaos.

-Darcy's storyline with Riven remains, but it has more depth once they get to know each other. Darcy is a Melodian native who spent the first few years of her life on Solaria, but after her mother abandoned her for a noble man, she ended up in the care of Headmistress Griffin. Riven is also from Melody, but grew up in the poorest district, where he was tossed between boarding schools, right until he was found by Professor Codatorta during a boxing match. Despite originally using him to get under Musa's skin, the two ended up falling in love and Darcy truly felt guilty for using him, but she was too desperate to gain the Dragon Flame to never feel powerless again.

-Icy was once the daughter of Aster Dell's leader, until the village was burned to the ground by an unknown force. Adopted by a noble Eraklyon man, she grew up in high society as Duchess Elisa Smirnov, the childhood friend of Prince Jade and deep down, she was less than thrilled upon she would be become Schuyler's arranged bride after her older sister ran away from home. Much like Jade, she had no idea about Sky using a fake identity, as she preferred to keep her distance from the prince unless she wanted to use their arrangement as a way to cause drama between him and a certain redhead fairy.

-Instead of an identity switch, Sky goes from a scrawny, pale prince with short hair, a designer preppy "old money" wardrobe, and an elegant way of speaking to a muscular, tanned Specialist with long hair, a more casual skater style, and a surfer-like accent while using a ton of teenage lingo incorrectly. While under a different name (Sam Harvey), he tries to fit in, but his cover ends up being blown at the Day of the Royals, where his sister reveals the truth.

-Stella explains she came to Earth by accident, as she was trying to teleport away from the troll but her ring glitched out and sent her to Earth instead of home. Bloom does not take someone else's identity, but Faragonda tells her not to let anyone know she is from Earth (which is considered a forbidden realm for magic users)

[cogglebee]

Hello tumblr, I come to you humbly with nothing but a leshycat fic and a dream LMAO no I'm just gonna info dump about it here because there's some important information that I think some people are gonna want going into this.

So the whole thing is inspired by the Motorcycle.jpg ep by Slaughter Beach, Dog, there's gonna be 4 chapters, one for each song on the ep. The whole thing is based around the idea that each of the mini bosses you fight was once a regular critter like the rest of the followers you see in the game until they were transformed by the bishops in a dark ritual. (Pulled from the most recent dev ama on reddit)

So following this, I decided to make Amdusias and the Yellow Cat the same guy. The concept is that once indoctrinated into the cult, the Lamb wants to keep him around for as long as possible.

He was the first real beast they defeated after all. Amdusias is like a living trophy to the Lamb. So every time he dies he gets brought back, and every time he comes back he looks a little more like his old self (green fur fading back to yellow, horns shrinking down and becoming fuzzy till they're his cat ears again)

Amdusias is incredibly adverse to the whole cult and the Lamb and anything to do with the Red Crown in general. The first chapter mostly focuses on him slowly becoming more and more part of the cult, the deaths and resurrections, basically all the set-up before we get to the leshycat stuff

He is eventually entirely devoted to the lamb, as much as the can be anyway. Afterall, how can you worship a dead god? So he is made a disciple of the Lamb, and everything is fine (Its not, he is unwell)

But then Leshy is indoctrinated as a follower, and shenanigans ensue

Shenanigans being Amdusias coping with both seeing his former god just HERE, ALIVE, OUT AND ABOUT

More happens, but I don't want to be too spoiler-y with the rest, there is a lot of emotional angst and romantic fluff. The romance part is probably going to look super cringy because I literally know nothing about that (aromantic author) but I'm writing about a worm chaos god and some fucking cat from a video game about cults becoming boyfriends so how much does it even matter???

[chi---nu]

Presenting to you my new COTL AU, here's

GHOSTS OF THE HERETICS

You may check the stuff about this AU down below!

You can send stuff related to this AU in my ask box! Questions for the characters and stuff about it as well

Concept

The concept for this AU is that instead of the bishops becoming followers or reincarnating like many AUs I've see do, they become ghosts, also taking inspo from those drawings where follower Narinder feels guilty and sad by looking at the crowns of his dead siblings, the ghosts of the bishops are most of the time around Narinder, reminding him that it was his fault that they're dead

Characters and their designs

All the ghost bishop designs from Ghosts of the Heretics are colored all around the color purple, their crowns have an X showing that they have no power, just as I headcanon Haro's crown to have no power being the reason for it to have an X on it, they all have an oozy aura around them that is always going up

LESHY

Ghost Leshy is still the most chaotic of the siblings, as the deceased god of chaos, he causes the most chaotic supernatural stuff to happen, he has bad eyesight tho, sees a lot of stuff being blurry or too bright to identify, his presence generates chaos in the hearts of the living

HEKET

Ghost Heket is just as temperamental as she used to be when she was alive, her rages make her supernatural stuff be very destructive, her voice is very weak, she may lose it sometimes during conversations, her presence generates famine, causing the living to starve, sometimes she steals food from the mortals because it's funny

KALLAMAR

Ghost Kallamar is still a coward, he will act tough because he is in a very powerful vengeful ghost just like his siblings, however he is still easily scared and will run away sometimes, Kallamar's hearing is poor, spells to ward off ghosts that include saying specific words do not work on him, as he cannot hear them properly, so his soul doesn't consider the spell, his presence generates sickness, causing the living to well, get sick

SHAMURA

As the former god of war and a symbol of wisdom, Ghost Shamura is the most angered of the vengeful ghost siblings, they feel betrayed, backstabbed, their own sibling turning against them and their other siblings, they seek revenge against The One Who Waits, Shamura has poor memory, sometimes forgets stuff they used to do when they were alive, but can never forget the betrayal of their brother, Shamura's presence generates war and unbalancement between the living

NARINDER

Narinder as a high tier follower from the Cult of the Lamb has access to more stuff than the regular followers, he's often called a schizophrenic by the other cultists because of the ghosts haunting him, Narinder carries with him a machete(item said to ward off ghosts) to defend himself, he wears a chestplate made of iron and silver(materials said to ward off ghosts) and also bracelets of the same materials in the top half of his arms, he's also scared of the Ghosts, they hold a lot of power and that's why he has a lot of stuff to ward off ghosts, but it usually doesn't work

The Lamb / Lambert

By time this AU takes place, The Lamb has recieved enough devotion to start changing their body into a more godly appearence, as the Red Crown holder, Lambert develops traits about death, and can feel the powerful presence of the Bishop Ghosts around the cult, espcially around Narinder, they have no time to investigate tho, they're too busy taking care of the cult

Stuff about the AU

The main purpose of the Ghost Bishops is to haunt the one who was responsible for their deaths, not the Lamb, they were a vessel, they are here to haunt Narinder, The One Who Waits, now as a follower of the cult, he barely can do anything to the ghosts, showing fear(he was afraid of ghosts in the Blood Moon Festival so yeah), their prensence makes him feel guilty of his actions, being the responsible for the death of his own siblings, Narinder wishes he could go back in time and prevent all of this from happening, he wouldn't have to suffer from the souls of his dead siblings seeking revenge on him

The Ghosts are never around Narinder when the Lamb is with him, they wanna be kept as a secret, if Narinder tries to tell the Lamb about them, they will show up and stop him before he does

However The Lamb knows the spirits are there, but they don't know that they're the Bishops

The Ghosts cannot be taken to the afterlife while their unfinished business with Narinder is completed(which means Narinder has to die)

I might have repeated something I said before in this part but I really don't care

Reblogs > Likes

[fideidefenswhore]

The way the Pilgrimage of Grace is often talked about is as a harmless, totally peaceful protest by honorable Christian labourers who were genuinely traumatised by the Reformation and just wanted to preserve the Catholic traditions they'd always had, and that such good guys wanted Mary restored is treated as "proof" she was a real princess. It's always honest Robert Aske betrayed by Henry and how the King went overboard putting the rebels down with mass hangings and slaughter everywhere. The nobles involved are ignored or spoken about like minor additions to the group, but just as honorable with pure motivations. But from your recent posts it seems it was a real attempt on all out revolution, really trying to remove Henry for Mary and probably kill him? So Henry was more justified in his reaction than he's usually given credit for?

I'll just be honest, I've read as much about this subject as I've been able, but I'm still not really confident enough to offer so much as a summary. There's so many contradictory texts on the matter that my best guess is some subsections were more peaceful than others (like, were the reports that Cromwell's comissioners were being literally murdered and wrapped in cowhide true or not? Different historians have argued differently).

I don't think it was homogenous in motivations or goals necessarily, I assume the quote you're referencing in the latter part regarding Mary was this one, Bigod's rebellion was a later development, it wasn't endorsed by Aske, but all the former leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace and many of its participants suffered for it, the usual argument is that this gave Henry the 'pretense' he needed for reprisals, that there was still an uprising in the same region after his (conditional) pardon.

There's no 'justification' for state-sanctioned violence, but did Henry feel personally justified in these reprisals? I'd say, 100%, and the rebellion had in some ways been fomenting for like, the past five years...the irony of it is that it was predicted for so long as one that would be brought about to oust Anne Boleyn, and it seems if there was this (not very unified or cohesive) dissent against her, the target shifted to Cromwell; because he became the new councilor (I'd argue Anne was seen this way) seen as the most influential with the King (like...do we think it's a coincidence that it took place after his significant rise to power, which mainly took place after the Boleyn fall? Or that the Dissolution's pace increased considerably thereafter...?)

But tl; dr, those seeking rebellion and usurpation had not been seeking one of 'non-violence', even if they swore in their rhetoric that Henry was so hated that an usupration could be achieved 'peaceably', no such animal. I don't know if I'd apply this to Pilgrimage of Grace, necessarily, but it's definitely untrue that Henry 'solely' arrested or implacably hated those that 'never intended' violence against him (I did a web weave on this concept, about where his suspicion and paranoia-- arguably, much of it wasn't necessarily paranoia, even-- if you're interested...came from) :

"Those who feared for the faith in England had prophesied that, in the end, only the sword might save it. Bishop Fisher, Queen Katherine's unswerving champion, had called on the Pope and Emperor to lead a crusade which would be 'a work as agreeable to God as going against the Turk'. In 1531, Reginald Pole, the King's cousin, had pondered how [Henry VIII] might be stopped, and asked: 'And what if [Charles V] will thereto draw his sword, wherein is so much power...?' In 1529 some at Charles' court counselled that 'he could very easily, with the assistance of the English themselves, have their King dethroned', 'the very English would help...in dethroning their King.' 'Your Majestey might make a new King of England.' In June 1535 Pole wrote to Charles [V] of England's spiritual danger and called for his aid. [...] 'Prince and prophet', Pole composed, in anguish, a private letter to Henry VIII which turned into a political tract for other princes of Church and state. The De unitate, written between September 1535 and March 1536, denounced Henry for breaking the unity of the church, and foretold his destruction. Calling prophetically upon the Catholic monarchs, especially the Emperor, to invade England, Pole promised 'whole legions, lurking in England', a fifth column. The Pilgrimage was the great rising in England for which Pole and the papacy had prayed [...] In 1535 Paul III had prepared a sentence of excommunication against the English King; prepared it, but not proclaimed it. As news reached the French court that Henry had been unable to disarm the rebels, Montmorency, the Grand Master, believed that the censures could be published, and that the English people 'will in the end kill the King if he persists in his errors.' The Pope now created Pole a cardinal [...] The Pilgrimage of Grace had failed, but the hope remained-- in the Curia at least-- that the English people would rise again, and that when they did their King-- now in thrall to the 'Enemy of mankind'-- would be overthrown. Soon a crusading indulgence was offered to justify the English rising to return their king to 'the way of truth', promising full remission of sin. Pole prepared to bring it to England. In Kent in December 1538, men still talked sadly of the failure of the Pilgrimage, but hoped for Cromwell to 'flee the land' and for 'England to shine as bright as St George'." Brigden, Susan. 2012. Thomas Wyatt : The Heart’s Forest. London: Faber and faber.

Tl; dr, spiritual motivations do not necessarily preclude violent ethos; and all of the above provides needed context to the reprisals...imo.