#fuckin creep

[lactosegremlin]

CAN HE FUCKING N O T

[gaslightgatekeepgotham]

JERVIS SLANDER!!!! I LOVE JERVIS SLANDER!!!!!!!

FUCKING THANK YOU!

[st4rry4pples]

bro can tony do something wise for once and get jericho tf out of there. literally no one wants him like do you hear those boos?

[sammaggs]

It’s blurry because I was shaking so bad and I deeply embarrassed myself I was exceptionally uncool but guys he shook my hand and he said “Thank you Sam” and I looked directly into his eyes at least once so I’m gonna chalk this one up to a WIN

[longmaxsilvarg]

never gonna understand why i see more hatred towards warren than ELLIOT

[lichqueenlibrarian]

Well, that’s certainly something.

[randomcollection-o-stuff]

I Am so glad that my first time reading Dracula is through Dracula Daily and Re:Dracula. It is so immersive reading along with Mr. Harker, whose voice actor is incredible btw, all of them are!!!! Cannot recommend it enough

[moipale]

Haustorium, Amygdala

a danny phantom fic, for ecto-implosion 2024 written for the lovely @pricklenettle's artwork

In the Realms, three humans take a pit stop on an island haunted by a gnarled mass of plants, so tangled they appear near-indistinguishable. One of those humans carries a burr from it back to Earth. In the Realms, all dead things that blossom into afterlife are gifted a core, which is a sort of mind. Minds, famously, think. And feel. Both of these things have consequences.

Gen, rated T. Body horror, POV nonhuman, parasitism/possession, and lots of plants.

Read "Haustorium, Amygdala" on Ao3 here, or see below the cut for a preview.

Cultivator!

O, Cultivator! Thank you!

You—tall-form, pollinator, self-locomotive, primate with hair like raven feathers and crocus-purple stems-of-walking! Cultivator, thank you for bearing Us sunward!

—

It had been so long since the Growth last felt life.

Or, not long at all, for some of its pieces; there are always things dying, always things afterlife-resurrecting, and thus, always newly dead plants twining with and becoming part of the Growth. But when considering the sum total of its pooled existence without life… well, it had been unfathomably long, indeed. The Growth had missed it: the breeze, the soil, the silt and sun.

The Growth had lamented its capacity to miss. Had lamented lamenting, although it could only do so in that distant way of planthood—that is, the halfway, imperfect imprint of emotion that the Realms “gifted” it, that which it gifts to all those who did not before think. Not that it knew this. This was the only sort of emotion it had ever endured. In life, consciousness was so simple: utilitarian signals and feedings and warnings bounced between each other, when growths were still distinct. Now—now it missed. For a time well past, it longed.

And in its longing, it was rewarded.

Three strange beacons of life passed through the Realms.

Eyeless, earless, the Growth did not see them so much as it felt their disturbance: how the Realms shivered and displaced, death recoiling from that which it could not touch. All the Growth’s collective attention sharpened. Immobile, it could do no more than reach a lurching vine here and there toward the ripples, looking for more, wondering—and then it froze. For the strangelifes, pulsing, un-dead, were coming toward it.

The Cultivator was the only one of the three which descended from the strangelifes’ moving metal hollow. She stepped from it onto the island of the Growth. She made contact with the land, let her ankles brush through its undergrowth, stepped carefully, did not trample—she was like a breeze more than a creature, caused less breakage, even, than the ghosts which floated and did not step. The Growth was fascinated. It readied its burrs and pollens. Clad in leathers and nonskins, the Cultivator had so many places on which to find purchase—so the Growth reached out and clung.

It wasn’t an intentional bid for life-again. The Cultivator, in her nondeath, was a curiosity to be sure—but the Growth did not imagine she was anything but lost, that she could possibly bear it home to soil-and-sun. It could not have known. When she rose again from the island, it was a mere few miniscule pieces of the Growth that clung to her: curious, sure—but merely hoping for another island to disperse to. As with every host that wandered close enough, the Growth reached out and latched on with one goal in mind: to find another home for it to occupy, another place to assimilate, another ward against extinction. So—it did not imagine the direction she was heading was sunward. It could not have known. And it would have been blindsided when they reached that precipice anyway, but before they did, before the depth of this opportunity became apparent, something else shocked it from curiosity into complete captivation.

The Growth could not take the Cultivator as a host.

The Growth had always been able to take self-locomotive things as hosts.

Not the rock of its islands, not the metal of the strangelifes’ hollow; these surfaces were too inert to parasitize, the metal too smooth for even lichens to cling to. Those self-locomotive dead who touched down on the islands of the Growth, however? Yes. All of them. They proved excellent dispersers, once the Growth learned how to pilot them to new islands, spread new Growth. None lasted all that long—but long enough. The Growth populated much of the Realms. The Growth had wormed into creatures plenty, and from their eyes seen, from their skins felt, from their ungravity flew. So why not her?

Her body rejected it. Simply and utterly. Perhaps because she was still living? As a test, when the Cultivator leant forward over the shoulder of another strangelife, the Growth hopped to him and attempted to dig in. And—success. Yes, this one could be seeded; the Growth would be able to parasitize him fully when the seed took root. So why not her?

The Growth redoubled its efforts. The Growth tried to seed her. But nothing! It could cling to her surface, could ride with her, could even dip beneath her skin and explore inside—but to no end! A barrier remained between her and it; integration was impossible, assimilation a dream. The Growth was fascinated. Curious. Captivated. Frustrated. It had been curious before, and it lamented that curiosity, cursed it—the Growth, limbless, was not meant to crave, to seek—but this was all the more consuming. It had not before known frustration. And from the frustration of unsated curiosity rose a bubbling new emotion it had never known, was caught up in the froth of: excitement. Like a berry stepped on, or a bloom punching open, the Growth felt liable to burst.

And then—life!

That piece of itself upon the Cultivator, which the Growth’s main mass communicated with, crossed from death into life, and the shock of it reverberated across that link. All the Growth shuddered. Islandsfull of leaf-and-vine rustled, curled, feeling. Life again! Life, air, soil, sun!

Or—not quite sun, yet. The Cultivator had emerged from death into but another metal casing, the air stale. But present! Oxygen: how the Growth had missed it! It tasted different now, admittedly; the Growth no longer needed it as it had in life. But it was so nostalgic. Another foreign feeling.

The strangelifes scurried about. They emerged from metal into less-stale air, and spent time there refueling: chewing, swallowing, that gory unphotosynthesis of animals. And then Seeded-Strangelife shooed the others away, and the Cultivator acquiesced to the shooing, and passed through a threshold, and there—

There was the sun.

[Continue reading "Haustorium, Amygdala" on Ao3 here.]

[drawbauchery]

[inkyquince]

i WAS creating a sherrif/chief of police oc for DoL and then I listened to the second part of a creepcast video and im sitting here all bug eyed, like oh JESUS

[sam-rothstein]

‼️ creep 2014 spoilers ‼️ everyone complaining abt aaron's actions being stupid is 1000% missing the point bc .

. bc knowing in retrospect that josef was fully actively plotting to kill aaron from the moment he saw him it becomes pointless to question and nitpick everything aaron did. bc like he literally never does anything that hurts his case. he's never in a position where josef couldn't/wouldn't kill him and then he did something stupid and then josef became able to kill him.

yeah sure aaron isn't just nice he's overly trusting and accommodating and gives josef the benefit of the doubt far beyond what he's earned, to the point where you kinda wonder how he's gotten this far in life. but on the other hand being empathetic and believing what others tell you abt themselves and trying to see the best in them is . generally a good thing and something that will make people value you . and for what it's worth it's this very quality that makes josef genuinely like aaron and a little hesitant+regretful abt actually killing him.

like 'it seemed stupid that you wouldn't look behind you. but then i realized you're a good person and believed i would do you no harm' you don't need to question aaron's behaviour at the end they. they do that for you in the movie. and so yeah it seems aaron goes to the lake believing that josef doesn't really intend to seriously harm him. maybe that belief wasn't totally rational based on what we've seen. but yknow on the one hand any of the people in your life could be plotting to harm you. and on the other hand our feelings and beliefs aren't based just on logical analysis of the evidence. like what i'm saying is

-on the one hand

aaron's only real 'mistake' is he goes to josef's house assuming josef is not a serial killer. and sure the job is a little sketchy but that's still a reasonable assumption. like the fact is, random strangers, creeps, people who have hurt you, they're all usually not serial killers. it doesn't pay, yknow basically all of the time, to assume that the people around you are serial killers. and this has already doomed aaron just as the film begins.

also like it's very easy to imagine a version of this movie where aaron takes way more safety precautions and i envision it being a more boring movie but i don't envision it being a movie that makes me feel safe and secure bc it's very easy to imagine him doing that and still dying. maybe his friends or the police end up with more evidence they could use to catch josef but that doesn't really help aaron. like it wouldn't be very useful if he had told someone where he was going or had them checking in with him but josef just murdered him as soon as he got there. but yknow josef doesn't murder him at the cabin at all. like you're left with the knowledge that josef was thinking abt killing aaron the entire time and could have killed him in pretty much any frame of the film and was just choosing not to bc it was more fun for him. so like this movie made me feel fuckin unsafe. the ending really puts it in perspective that like cautious or not if some rando decided they really wanted to kill you. they could. they could murder you anytime, anywhere. is it more likely josef's murdered dozens of the dumbest motherfuckers on earth or that he was able to kill them simply bc they didn't know in advance he was a serial killer. yeah josef wants to kill aaron back at the lake just as he likes toying with people and forming weird relationships with them before killing them and likes to have their interactions filmed but by the time josef's sending the last tape .. if aaron didn't come he probably would've just . broken into his house and murdered him anyway right.

(side note it's the exact same people complaining it doesn't make sense aaron would keep filming as he's answering the phone / trying to escape. ??? he was already filming it's literally more effort for him to turn the camera off than not also you're trapped with someone you've come to believe is dangerous why Wouldn't you keep filming?? like as a deterrent / so you at least have evidence if something does go down)

-on the other hand

where does aaron's belief in josef come from? this is not really a mystery. when we leave the cabin and start watching josef's videos on aaron's tv there is certainly this sense that aaron is not even nominally in control of the narrative anymore, this sense of like, this thing has come out of the woods and the darkness and followed aaron and yknow it's in his house now. might not have been intentional but aaron's yellow shirt in the first scene after the cabin reminded me of his car and the yellow door that's featured strangely prominently at the beginning too - like, we're travelling, we're entering a new house, aaron's house, aaron's own reality, this evil is inside aaron as well now.

aaron admits josef has gotten into his head. he groans 'i gotta stop thinking about this guy' more like josef's an off-limits crush than a stalker. indeed josef has gotten into his head more than he even realizes, in the sense that he believes the emotions josef expressed to him. as much as he believes josef could be dangerous, and despite the evidence he can't trust what josef says, he also believes josef's loneliness and pain and desire for connection. josef has gotten to him. and i don't find that terribly unrealistic bc as a viewer mark duplass gives an amazing performance and he's super fun to watch and ofc we're seeing the character in a different light than aaron is but josef Does kinda get to you. aaron is indeed stupid but also i do kinda understand why he didn't just run away and might've seen something to care abt in josef.

also imean to my mind aaron's actions are due not only to stupidity and empathy but Also his attraction to josef. however, random commenters and critics alike seem determined to ignore the sexual aspect of this movie even though it's not exactly subtext. well hopefully for josef's part it goes without saying. as for aaron... we see just as he does the way josef is pretty much coming onto him, the way josef loves him and really likes hugging him, that by the end of the day it's pretty clear josef has a sexual interest in him and that he openly expresses his romantic feelings in the tapes (he uses the word friendship but uh we know what kinda 'friend'ship he's talkin abt) - i think the easiness with which aaron accepts all this makes Way more sense if he's also bi and josef isn't totally off the table for him either. admittedly that's speculation and to speculate some more isn't it possible that even while being creeped out by it aaron likes that josef likes him? after all the movie starts with him half-joking about the client being an older woman who just wants a boy to give money and rubdowns to and in a way that's not so far off from what he gets... and ends with him going 'how can i not go he's so sad... you got me'... maybe aaron is drawn to josef bc josef appears to want him and to need the kinda emotional support he's apparently very willing to give. mark duplass even said as much in an interview which ikno is Not part of the movie But this interpretation doesn't seem more unlikely than aaron simply being the stupidest person to ever live to adulthood which is also just an assumption audiences are making.

in any case what is NOT speculation is that aaron decides things aren't over with him and josef Not bc josef sent him a video but rather bc he's having dreams abt him. i'm not so sure there's any peachfuzz in aaron there's probably no part of him that's a murderer but there is a part of him, perhaps subconscious, that's intrigued by josef's fucked up shit and is exploring putting himself within this weird, undoubtedly sexual, fetish framework that josef outlined for them at the cabin. josef's weird sexuality has gotten to aaron as well. iknowikno the author is dead and everything but it is actually inconceivable to me that the filmmakers didn't intend the two dream-sequence-descriptions to be read as attraction on aaron's part. like the second one do i even need to say. maybe they're also there to suggest that aaron has a feeling of complicity with/protectiveness towards josef and his weird wolf shit as well. this is clearly backed up by his call to the police where he says he wants to report 'a violent domestic incident and stalker.' not that he deserves to not be taken seriously but this is probably most of the reason the cops don't take him seriously bc it sounds like he's talking abt a guy he hooked up with. he could have said assault or kidnapping or anything but he said domestic incident. the only thing this term means to me and indeed the only relevant thing it means to google is violence within the home/within a relationship, usually between intimate partners. SO either he's thinking of josef as someone he potentially could be / is in a relationship with, maybe without even realizing it, or he wants to make what happened between him and josef sound less weird, make josef sound less predatory, kinda suggesting they were consensually hanging out instead of . josef luring him to a remote location and attempting to kidnap him. why doesn't he tell the cops he has video of josef? why does he immediately get defensive and hang up instead of trying to explain where he's coming from, which seems out of character for him? perhaps the stress of the moment, perhaps stupidity, or maybe, again even without realizing it, he doesn't want anyone else to see the tapes.

while i don't think aaron's feelings for josef affect his ultimate fate that much i also don't view it as totally incidental - these things make aaron more of a character in his own right, suggest an understandable motive for some of his actions and show that josef accomplishes his goal of insidiously getting into aaron's life and mind before killing him which itself adds another intriguing and unsettling dimension to the film . and it makes ya think. what if i somehow got killed for being horny for mark duplass in creep 2014.

[kritzenkriegen]

..okay that's excellent actually

[lichqueenlibrarian]

I need emotional support.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

The way I get into horror is drawing something I'm really scared of. (Like the fear of spiders or clowns) I feel like if you turn your fear into art it doesn't seem so scary anymore....and since have the fear of the one ocean half of my drawings are based around water it helps somewhat to get into the horror mindset. (To me anyway!)

i would Love to do that, however my fear of spiders is like. they scare me to the point of tears <3 i Cannot look at them much less draw them <3

[citrine-elephant]

currently thinking about how simmons' jealousy would have played a part in IF leon and helena had been apprehended

but especially if this occurred after he got all ugly

this is to say, i'm broken after drawing leon's scars that simmons totally gave him when he whipped the shit out of him with his bone spike things. guh im still a sucker for aeon with his ass doing that.