#has no concept of chill. and her way of communication is a nightmare to me.

[lorisystem]

Had a week of paid leave last week and back to work today attack bite attack attack attack bite maim hurt kill destruction violence etc etc

[found--family]

‘Supernatural’ season 15, episode 15 screener secrets: We’re ‘Highway to Heaven’-ing this bitch

[everything is from this Hypable article] 

This week on Supernatural, Amara returns and are angels solving people crimes now? Hypable previewed Supernatural season 15, episode 15 “Gimme Shelter,” so read on to find out more.

After a sweet and fun return to ease us back into the world of Supernatural last week, things are heating up pretty dramatically – I knew there wouldn’t be much more time for messing around.

“Gimme Shelter” sees Supernatural dip its feet into what the Winchesters currently believe is their big plan – eliminating Chuck by also taking down Amara, resulting in what they believe will be a cosmic-being-free balanced world. But first, they have to find her. Sam and Dean get a pretty good lead on her location, which results in a very interesting conversation between Amara and the boys – especially with her most favoritest Dean, of course.

Meanwhile, Castiel is persuaded into taking Jack to investigate a nearby case in Missouri – which all three adults suspect is probably the work of a human criminal – for the sake of humoring Jack and keeping him both busy and supervised. On the way home, they have a very interesting conversation of their own.

Spoiler Warning: This article contains generalized spoilers for Supernatural season 15 episode 15, “Gimme Shelter.” If you do not wish to be spoiled at all, do not read this article in advance of the airdate.

The official synopsis for Supernatural season 15, episode 15 reads:

MATT COHEN DIRECTS — Castiel (Misha Collins) and Jack (Alexander Calvert) work a case involving members of a local church. Meanwhile, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) go off in search of Amara (guest star Emily Swallow). Matt Cohen directed the episode written by Davy Perez (#1515). Original airdate 10/15/2020.

If you want to know what to expect from this week’s Supernatural, here’s 10 teasers plus 15 single word clues from our advance viewing of Supernatural season 15, episode 15 “Gimme Shelter.”

‘Supernatural’ season 15, [10] episode 15 screener secrets 

1️⃣ During the filming of this episode (27 January – 5 February) Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles both spent much of the week at home with their families in Austin, a detail which was made clear on their and their wives’ public social media accounts – possibly the result of scheduled time off as they’ve mentioned occasionally requesting? The result is that the episode is weighted much more towards Cas, Jack and the murder investigation they’re chasing than towards Sam and Dean, but on the flip side, the Sam and Dean arc is more crucial to the long game of the show, so what it lacks in minutes, it makes up for in impact. 

2️⃣ However, the episode still begins and ends in a grounded family group way, at home in the Bunker – one of those “we know we should be doing this together but there are Reasons we have to split up” situations. This detail, in my opinion, really speaks to the motivation of the creative team towards honoring the four leads as parts of a whole – in earlier days, this kind of episode would have been two entirely non-touching threads. This one is, if not a tapestry, at very least a braid – tied up together at both ends, and intertwined in the middle.

3️⃣ You might have seen pictures or ominous trailer footage of Castiel and Jack digging a hole at the crossroads. We all know what that means! However, don’t worry. They simply want to talk – and the demon they summon has some really interesting – and dare I say positive? – news about the state of Hell under Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Rowena. Let’s just say the demon is actually pretty friendly… and extremely bored.

4️⃣ The two main guest stars on Cas and Jack’s side of the episode are both actors who have been briefly featured on the show before, in a couple of pretty famous episodes – one from season 2 and one from season 5. I don’t think there’s meant to be any meta or Easter Egg element to this, just the usual Vancouver casting industry cycle (see the ‘Weren’t You In Another Episode‘ reference page on the SuperWiki) but one of them is one of those cute “I appeared on Supernatural as a child and now I’m here as an adult” situations, and the other, well… the original character’s very name has become the stuff of Supernatural legend, and if I were in charge of this episode I would have put the actor in a particular piece of footwear and made sure we got a shot of it, just for kicks.

5️⃣ Castiel steps into a prayer circle when the church group members are meant to give a testimony – presumably of their journey so far and their relationship with faith. That’s what Cas chooses to share, at least – in a non-specific, humanized way – and fans of the character will be moved to hear the ways he verbalizes his own growth.

6️⃣ Speaking of growth, some of Dean’s is spelled out for him in the most miraculous way by Amara. After Sam and Dean meet up with her and have a conversation about Chuck that’s ultimately a bit of a non-starter, Dean returns to ask her another, more personal question. Her response gave me legitimate chills. It’s a very weighty mic drop and the combination of the level of impact and the level of clarity (it’s entirely airtight, no room for interpretation) feels like the culmination of all the self-actualization work the show has been doing on Dean in the last four years. (I wish I could tell you Sam got a big special moment like this in the episode, but he doesn’t. Amara’s return was always going to be Dean’s thing.) Amara’s speech to Dean… it doesn’t feel isolated, like the idea of it was invented just for this episode. It feels more like concrete evidence of what the show has been trying to prove for ages. And the funny thing is, Amara is the anti-Chuck, right, and all season, we’ve learned about the version of the story Chuck thinks is good, and we’ve been told to root against that. Chuck’s version of Supernatural isn’t how the writers really feel. But I think Amara’s might be. Dean has obviously struggled to see what she tells him, all in one piece, but here it is – this was the point, laid out on the table, from the entity behind the curtain – both onscreen and off. Amara knew what she was doing, and so did the writers. This was always, always the point.

7️⃣ Even before this massive scene, Amara’s return is just great. Emily Swallow does such an incredible job with this character – she really is the anti-Chuck even without the whole writer comparison. Swallow imbues this character with such an incredible peace and stillness in comparison to Chuck’s histrionics – this was true in the way she spoke and behaved even in season 11, but this Amara also feels kindness and patience and tolerance. She radiates power, even when she’s also slightly goofy. There’s no fight, there’s no antagonism, but the boys in her presence are like little fish in a vast ocean – they quickly realise they have no real control in this conversation. The way that we leave her indicates she’ll be back and has more to say or do, and what she shared during her reunion with Sam and Dean makes me really curious about the role she’s due to play in the show’s endgame.

8️⃣ I’m not very religious but I really like the version of a church group or ‘faith-based community,’ as they say, featured in “Gimme Shelter.” Supernatural has a shaky history in terms of how the show portrays people in-universe who believe. Sometimes they’re treated like a joke, or stupid, or dangerous, or hypocrites, but occasionally civilian acts of faith are shown as great and powerful things, even in a world where we know that what they believe in isn’t strictly accurate. That concept became an even bigger question mark for me when we got the reveal that Judeo-Christian God is not only absent, but our actual villain. However, this was a really nice look at why faith can still be a framework for a good way of life – loving thy neighbor – for some people, no matter the truth about Chuck. The episode also features a callback to writer Davy Perez’ very first Supernatural episode “American Nightmare” in terms of the way that some people have weaponized faith and religion to the detriment and harm of others or even themselves, but this factor does not negate the positive point mentioned above.

9️⃣ Supernatural alum and newly minted director Matt Cohen really got the full old-school Supernatural episode experience when it comes to leaning into the spooky horror element. The murderous case-of-the week featured in this episode is heavy and lingering on the gore and even contains a little bit of a jump scare, so view responsibly.

🔟 So, um, you know that line, in this week’s teaser trailer? The line that a lot of people are freaking out about because it seems to pertain to something important that we know about Cas’ fate that Dean and Sam aren’t aware of? Yeah, it is 100% absolutely not about that at all. It is about something super important, but it’s not that. It’s also the last line of the episode, but trust me – it’s not a cliffhanger and it’s not a red herring and it’s not a twist. The information is gleaned within the episode and you’ll know exactly what Cas is telling Dean about after seeing it – narratively, that’s the reason it isn’t in the episode, because the show clearly assumes you’ll get the picture and can skip a rehash of information. But what you were probably expecting – maybe even hoping for – it’s not that. You’re gonna have to hang on for that one.

Finally, have 15 random yet significant words from this week’s episode without any context whatsoever: Gaia, Ronald, mother, pierogies, cats, philosophy, target, blind, permission, lockdown, Kool-aid, buffet, gift, trial, choice.

‘Supernatural’ airs Thursday at 8/7c on The CW

[trunkzbriefs]

Any Son and/or Briefs family headcanons? Spicy hot takes? Truths Toriyama and Toyotaro themselves can not handle? Straight up lies?

GODDAMN SORRY this took a while cause i suck at putting thoughts together. i apologize for my obvious briefs bias i have more hcs for them than the son family despite loving them both :pensive: anyway heres some random stuff

briefs hcs:

all of the briefs are pros at non-verbal communication. i hc that saiyans have their own language (and also in my own Mind Canon they still have their fuckin tails) and a lot of it is done through tail movement/body posture/grunts/etc. etc so theyve all sort of picked that up. even bulma, who doesnt have a tail, is pretty good at getting across what she means without actually speaking. they still do speak normally but it comes in handy sometimes considering that both trunks and vegeta are prone to running out of speaking energy or getting very frustrated with words, so having another way to communicate works very well for them

vegeta is fffffffffffffffffffurry. without getting too deep into my own General Saiyan hcs (thats why i made a whole ass four subspecies!!) i think that the entirety of planet vegeta tended to be very hot aside from the part where the castle was, where the temperature would drop. meaning that saiyans working in the palace would grow thicker fur around certain parts of their body, and in the royal saiyans theyd be Especially fluffy. he kept it down on earth, but he has thick patches of fur around the bottom parts of his arms and legs. kind of like snowy boots and gloves! he also has fur that grows in on his neck like a lions mane.

future trunks is an actions sponge, vegeta is a words sponge. vegeta will pick up words VERY quickly regardless if he fully understands the meaning of it or not (completely inspired by 'THATS RIGHT BOYS... MONDO COOL' in z) and future trunks will unintentionally mimic the actions of people - around people he looks up to he might take a few small mannerisms from but this extends to copying the disposition of anyone; he's just very adaptive. this is the most obvious (and funniest) when he's around vegeta bc it really shows like. yeah damn that sure is vegeta's son

vegeta & bulla have an intimidating bastard smirk naturally. their natural smiles are pretty frightening and they have to put effort into a 'normal' one. this also extends to current trunks, his default smile is the Vegeta Bastard Smirk but he learned to have a normal smile quicker than his father and sister. future trunks has a slightly unnerving natural smile (the fact that his pupils are always drawn so fucking small makes me hc that he just has a very intimidating look of 'cat thats about to pounce on an unfortunate trapped mouse' whenever he smiles) but he learned to look normal even quicker than current trunks since he's around humans a Lot and is sort of their uh, Hope. don't want to look scary to the people who depend on you!

bulma has some fighting knowledge and mildly good ki control. vegeta taught her it as a just in case so that she'd be able to defend herself against Bigger threats if he wasn't there and also so she could raise her own ki to alert someone to her if she had to.

vegeta is extremely clean and can not stand to have things disorganized for more than like... an hour before he has to tidy everything up. every time he goes down to the lab and bulma is passed out in a pile of bolts and circuit boards it kills him inside just a little bit

future trunks has little concept of power control. since his timeline was always in danger it wasn't really an important thing for him to learn. the amount of mugs he's accidentally crushed is impressive

vegeta tends to not sound like he's asking questions when he is. he doesn't add the proper infliction to the end of his questions and just sounds flat most of the time. it's confusing to people who dont know him well.

im not even gonna lie, im a BIG fan of the chill demon panchy headcanon so i love the idea that the briefs have a Lil bit of demon in them but just dont know it ghjnkm

[banging my fists on the 'hcs that not even got could take away from me' table] future trunks has OCD

vegeta doesn't really get labels but he's bisexual & "debatably a man", bulma is bisexal & bigender transfem (sometimes shes Wamen and other times its like "gender? no"), bulla is a nonbinary lesbian, current trunks is a bisexual trans man & future bulma forgot to explain the concept of gender and sexuality to future trunks so he's a little confused on that front and his gender & sexuality are "i have literally never thought abt these concepts in my life but i think men are nice. i refuse to think about gender though" (i actually have two main hcs for future trunks which are either gay trans man or more-feminine-presenting nonbinary bisexual)

son hcs:

goku is Not as fluffy as vegeta at all, but he does have fur on certain parts of his body. namely on the back of his elbows + ankles, down his back connecting to his tail, and on his shoulders. its inherented from gine!

gohan is learning saiyan language from vegeta! vegeta acts grumpy about it but he's glad to have someone to teach. when gohan learned that most of the history had been lost he basically wished shenron for a big ol book on saiyan culture and gave it to vegeta just as an act of kindness and vegeta was like [in an angry voice but very touched] "Ok. Sit down. You're learning." by extension gohan is also teaching the rest of his family!

i will take ox king being actually non-human to my grave so like, chichi has horns and a very short ox tail! gohan and goten both have horns, but they're hidden by hair. goten's horns are bigger than gohans.

goten also has a more ox-like tail, with a little puff of fur at the end. generally, gohan looks more saiyan-like and goten looks more ox/human-like.

although he keeps up his cheery demeanor very well, goku is still haunted pretty badly by like... everything that’s happened in his life. he still has frequent nightmares about cell & buu specifically.

gohan will freak out at worse, zone out at best, if he's even tapped on the neck. it reminds him of the whole 'getting his neck snapped on namek' so that area is pretty off limits to everyone

goten gets along really well with android 17. they both have a love for nature and 17s kind of like his chill uncle, so whenever he gets too stressed out or just needs a break you can find him face down on the ground outside of 17's place on monster island.

goku is really really good at remembering completely random shit. bulma uses this to her advantage whenever she's working and has him memorize random technology stuff. a week later goku can not remember what he had for breakfast that morning but as soon as bulma asks "hey do you remember what i told you last week" hes like "oh yeah sure i have no idea what it means but [blurts out three hours worth of technical garble]"

oh boy is this a headcanon that has a lot more depth to it than just a bullet on a tumblr post, but gohan has DID!

goku, like vegeta, doesnt get labels either, and does not even Try, ask him about any of it and hes like "i dont get the gender thing but i think lots of people look nice :)" gohan is gay and like vegeta, "debatably a man", goten + chichi are both bi nonbinary, & pan is a lesbian trans woman.

both:

bulla and pan are both into music! i think theyd mess around making their own stuff w/ launchpads

i have a general hc of ki mixing or shielding, essentially, if youre close enough to someone people wont be able to tell apart your ki and you can also 'shield' someone with your ki for a small amount of time. if vegeta has his energy low, his and bulma's energy are the same. same thing with goku and chichi! goten and trunks are near impossible to tell apart, and same thing with gohan and videl.

though goten and trunks are both protective over their younger siblings, gotenks is that protectiveness times a thousand. look at bulla or pan wrong for 2 seconds and you're going to have an angry gotenks in your face asking if you have any last words. i like to think that trunks and goten fused casually a lot, especially around the time where bulla and pan were young, so its basically goten and trunks own attachment to them PLUS gotenks' attachment to them as his own person combined.

i like to pretend end of z did not happen the way it did so uub, using nimbus, travels back and forth a lot. goku isn’t the only one who teaches him how to fight as goten, gohan and trunks all think of him like a little brother and love training with him!

fuck you letters to toriyama/toyotaro hot takes:

cell, as cool of a villian as he is, definitely should have had a creepier final form. or multiple- just something that really drives in the fact that he's made up of other's dna & fuckin ABSORBS people. also his first two forms should have had a different absorbtion method other than the tail thing (not the drinking thing thats fine) it just feels.   Weird. not good

it would have been far more interesting to keep the bitter attitude towards vegeta that future trunks had imo... in super trunks was going through a Lot granted but the fact tht he wasnt more confrontational to vegeta being a dick to him seemed kind of off considering his attitude in z i just.. think it would be interesting and far better if they had more of a back and forth 'family but lowkey hate each other' relationship

i dont want to rant about super so heres some super condensed takes, goku black arc specific because thats 90% of what ive seen of super:

mai is a fucking freak ass weirdo, why did they not just make another character to pair with trunks

trunks not flipping the fuck out at his timeline being erased feels... out of character. also trunks deserved the win against zamasu

future bulma did NOT need to die

trunks should have just stayed in the current timeline

please fucking let trunks and goten grow up. we SAW a version of trunks who looked 14 (history of trunks....) and the versions of goten & trunks we have r/n in super do not look 13/14 respectively what in the goddamn hell is going on in the character design department

super definitely should have taken place later down the line

supers version of bulma and videl look awful. why are they That stick like.

vegeta needs to kill frieza. just once.

fu has enough potential to be a very interesting mainline character and i am so sad he's not

i would actively enjoy a sdbh anime with more  budget that isnt just a promo anime and has a plot that makes sense... i think db should have more wild spinoffs

xenoverse deserved a better story that went FULL in on the 'what if' type of timelines- like they did in raging blast which is a FUCKING GREAT GAME

straight up lies:

dragon ball z is a good series

[savage-rhi]

DS: Rewind Ch. 33

Higgs ran. The lightning in the distance made him flinch every so often. He didn’t know what was going on with his Ha, but he could feel the turmoil his Ka had been through. Knowing himself, Higgs understood he was going through with Amelie’s plans back in the world of the living. Here, on the beach, the Higgs that was present was but a mere fraction of the whole that created him. The bit of humanity that clung onto hope and didn’t fall prey to the dark. Gene pulled him out of the ocean, away from Amelie’s hold, and now he had to find some way to get back in the driver's seat of his body and mind.

Beaches were never supposed to go on forever. Like all things in life, there was a beginning, middle, and end. The influence of Amelie--an Extinction Entity nonetheless had turned Higgs’s beach into an endless circle. A cage of her own making. Higgs knew on a primal level he should have been out of here; either on the other side or one with the rest of his Ka. However, after several hours of running and going nowhere, he alas had to give up momentarily and catch his breath.

The frustration of being cornered aggravated Higgs as he thought about what occurred before Gene disappeared. Something wasn’t right. She shouldn’t have bled on the beach. As he blinked, Higgs could see what was going on back home. The images made him grunt as he stumbled backward into the sand. His eyes felt heavy as did his mind. Fingertips digging into the side of his scalp, Higgs could see what was going on in Edge Knot City the longer his eyes held fast.

“Surely you’ve figured it out by now. DOOMs? People like us? She’s the source of it all. The nightmares that haunt us? The visions of an inescapable future? Sound familiar? Happy fucking DOOMS day Sam!”

“Fuck you!”

Higgs winced, the sound of his own voice and Sam’s radiating in his eardrums. He forced himself to look out to the ocean. The waves were turning darker. A navy blue encompassing what was once a turquoise color. The sky became a haze of greys and blues, much like when BTs would rise from their slumber and hunt. Higgs swallowed, feeling his knees wanting to give out. The foreboding energy that came from the beach, struggling to contain itself sent chills up his spine.

“Even if you beat me, you can’t save her. This is a done deal.”

Higgs understood back home, he was long gone. Neck deep in grandeur and rage.

“No--” His voice somber, Higgs shook his head as he murmured to himself. “I can’t let this happen. I can’t go through with this. This--this isn’t what I wanted.”

“But it was.”

Higgs quickly turned, facing Amelie. Squinting his eyes, Higgs studied her. She wasn’t wearing her red salmon-colored dress, what he had been acquainted with before. Her dress flowed like the grey in the skies. There was an air about Amelie that felt peculiar.

“You’re a fraction of her, aren’t ya?” Higgs whispered when it dawned on him.

Amelie sighed, offering a smile while she shrugged. “Does it matter? Does it even matter that you are a little piece of Higgs, a simple blink in the grand scheme of things?”

“I reckon not,” Higgs said, holding his ground. He knew better than to fall for sweet words and broken promises when it came to the entity before him, recalling how it felt to be drowning in the ocean. Disconnected from his body and soul.

“You’ve seemed to have gone through a hell of a lot to keep me in the dark.” Higgs said, furrowing his brows as he sneered. “You promised me power and purpose, and you’ve led me to ruin.”

Amelie shook her head, her eyes disappointed as she bit her bottom lip. “You knew what was coming, Higgs. I never lied to you. I never tricked you.”

Higgs tampered down his anger, nonetheless, it was still there. Brewing deep in his gut as he realized Amelie had been right about that. She had warned him before he sacrificed this part of himself to save Gene back in the colony. He knew the consequences of his actions even before he had put the mask on.

Glaring towards Amelie, Higgs let out a shuddered breath. “--But you sweet-talked me into this, goaded me. That was your plan all along, wasn’t it? You fucking hyped me up. You set me up for failure. All so that I could be a fucking puppet in your show.”

“A puppet show,” Amelie repeated softly, chuckling to herself. Higgs visibly tensed upon hearing her laughter.

“It’s funny you call it that. I now see the similarities. You know, this battle--between you and Sam back home, it’s going to determine my choice in the end.”

“The choice of what?” Higgs asked bitterly.

“If the world should end or not,” Amelie simply stated. She began to walk out towards the ocean, sticking her feet in the surf as Higgs watched her warily. Confusion mounted his features as he tried to piece together just what the hell Amelie was driving at.

“My being is unprecedented. I may be an Extinction Entity, but I’m human too. With that, comes humanity. Feelings, emotions, such things that were never an issue before when a species time was up. I’ve been indecisive about humans, Higgs. I have this part of me that wants to wipe the slate clean of their existence and everything they’ve touched, and yet--there’s a part of me that wants them to keep living on. There’s a hope that as generations of them come and go, they’ll get something right and will evolve into the next best thing, then I can reap what’s left. Then there’s this part of me--what you’re talking to right now, that understands that no such creature should have this much awareness. The checks and balances of the universe, the cosmos, and this planet were not perfect but reached a harmony. As soon as evolution stepped in and made Homo Sapiens the intellectual animals that they are, there’s been nothing but suffering. Not just for them, but for everything else. It was the same the other five times.”

Higgs suddenly felt cold and could see his breath as Amelie paused for a moment. A breeze of wind passed through her blond locks as she sighed. A sadness lingered on her lips as she spoke up once more.

“I witnessed it thousands of years ago when the Neanderthal came close to their moment of greatness. I knew the common ancestor of both them and Homo Sapien had potential. I should have done what I did to the Neanderthal EE, speed up the process of their demise. It didn’t matter that they branched off the evolutionary path, they still ended up the same way. Destructive creatures. Maybe then--we wouldn’t be here. Maybe then I wouldn’t be plagued by what I need to do.”

“Will you cut the bullshit and get to the point? I don’t have time for the Shakespearean monologue.” Higgs said bitterly. He was close to yelling. A great wave of sorrow and dread filled him upon hearing the confession leaving Amelie’s mouth.

Amelie chuckled, turning her head and faced Higgs. He let out a gasp, seeing there was blood escaping from the corners of her eyes. Higgs took a few steps back as Amelie began to slowly walk towards him. Her expression is neutral.

“You’re that spark of hope that Higgs has left. I can’t let you resurface and undo everything. Not when I’m so close to getting my answer. The fight between Sam and you isn’t finished. It’s barely begun.”

Higgs shook his head. “That’s not what I wanted---that’s not me. You can’t just use me and Sammy boy up there as pawns on a board just because you can’t make up your damn mind!”

Amelie stopped, rubbing away at her eyes as she glanced down at her fingertips. The warmth of the blood made a shiver trail down her arms while she sadly pressed her fingers together as if the fluid were some foreign substance she had no concept of. Higgs couldn’t help but watch with awe at it, how childlike her features became and how remorseful she looked. It was a far cry from the intimidation she held moments before.

“After everything you’ve been through as a child, there was this void growing bigger in your heart. You had seen the worst of humanity in the form of someone who was supposed to love you. That was your cornerstone as a youth. Over time, you developed an ego to pacify those feelings. You took on the role of a leader, took pride in the work you did for the benefit of the community, and yet deep down, it was never enough to make those ill feelings go away. You never trusted anyone. Not even those you held dear. There was a part of you that enjoyed killing people to make your DOOMs stronger before I came along. You’d never admit it. Try hard as you might to appear humble, you were anything but inside. Even when you trained the recruits for Atomic Runners, you felt a rush. Having people subservient and underneath you made you feel strong. Stronger than the little boy who was nearly beaten to death by his own uncle. It was only a matter of time, Higgs. If I never came to you, those feelings would have boiled over. The inadequacy. The hurt. You would have stricken down anybody once the coil snapped. Me coming to you, begging for you to be one of my champions, it was a blessing in disguise.”

Higgs was silent as Amelie continued to talk. A hollowness in his eyes began to grow as did regret. He started to look anywhere but her direction, almost as if he were a child trying to hide his shame from a parent. Her words burrowed under his skin, reminding Higgs of the bitter truth: he was never a good guy. Even this part of him that held onto humanity, that wanted to influence the whole of his Ka, knew better.

“And what you did to Fragile--my powers may have influenced the ideas you had, but you wanted to hurt her. She stood for everything you could never be. She had a father. Someone that loved her. She gave people hope and didn’t have to prove herself unlike you. Everything came easy to her, so why were you punished? You were envious to the core. You took away the one thing you could, her youth and life. That’s the only power you had a hold of when it came to her.”

Amelie began to walk towards Higgs and gently placed her hands upon his cheeks. She forced him to look at her. Higgs could feel his skin tremble as his eyes were weighed down by guilt.

“Do you deny everything I’ve said?” Amelie asked, her tone soft as she pleaded.

“No, I don’t.” Higgs murmured.

“Then you see why this is a fool's errand, to try to go back to the rest of your Ka.” Amelie gave a half-smile, then brushed away some strands of hair out of Higgs’s face. He kept his eyes on her as she attempted to soothe him.

“You’re a small piece of Higgs,” She shook her head. “How could you possibly influence the whole of your existence with this much turmoil? If you rejoin with the rest of yourself, you’ll drown. If it weren’t for me, keeping you asleep on this beach, you would have been gone. You were always going to disappear, Higgs. The dark was going to win regardless if I stepped in or not. I’d like to think I spared you the pain by making your life far grander than it could have been.”

There was nothing to say. Higgs knew everything Amelie was telling him was the truth. He couldn’t fight it, even if he wanted to.

When he looked settled enough, Amelie moved her hands away from Higgs's face and trailed to his hands. She gently clasped them, her thumbs rubbing over the top of his knuckles. Higgs blinked a few times, confusion settling in his gaze as brows furrowed. Amelie smiled as more red began to pool from the corners of her eyes. The fraction of her here, trying to keep Higgs’s humanity at bay, was starting to grow tired. Higgs could feel it emitting from her. Whatever was going on back home, back in Edge Knot, was making Amelie weak.

“Let’s go back together. I’ll be there for you. I promise.” Amelie begins to shift her weight and starts to drag Higgs along. The two end up walking the shoreline of the beach, treading into the surf. When the waters began to reach Higgs’s waist, he stops.

Amelie turned around, perplexed at what made Higgs freeze. Then she could see it, this light in his eyes that had her letting go of his hand as his gaze bore into hers.

“I am--everything you said,” Higgs started. He laughed for a moment, feeling his eyes begin to water. “But I’m still here. This one little part that--gives a shit. That still sees the good in people. It’s tiny, but--I’m fucking here. I exist.”

Higgs gestures at all of himself, feeling his emotions swell while Amelie stood in bewilderment. Nonetheless, she was listening.

“I have lost people I cared about. People I’d die for. Cause’ you missed something about me: I hated myself more than anyone. I had a death wish. Someone wants me to return. I have someone back home that loves me, even after all I’ve done and who I am. I may not be able to stop myself from going through with the plans you have for the world--but I’ll be damned if you take away the one thing keeping me around.”

“Higgs, wait!” Amelie exclaimed, watching as Higgs quickly turned around in the water and rushed towards the shore. He could sense BTs trailing behind him, sneaking behind like a wave. The water began to feel heavy like cement had been poured, but Higgs struggled and kept his eyes on the prize. He saw on the beach a bright light. The warmth radiated like the sun. It burned his skin, but Higgs knew he had to reach the center no matter the pain. Even with his flesh searing, blisters forming all over, hairs catching flame, Higgs smiled. He may have only been a small piece, but he belonged to something bigger. And it was time for him to wake up.

A whale let out a mighty call as it stranded itself on Amelie’s beach. The creature struggled against the sand, it’s mewling bellows a cry for help as it felt air burn the insides of its organs. Small decaying crabs desperately tried to walk over, wanting to scavenge off the dying beast, but the moment they got too close, they too perished. Black ooze poured from their small bodies, feeding into tiny streams that traveled to the ocean to carry them away.

On the last bellow, the whale ceased its movement and Higgs arrived with Amelie. He took a few steps, then paused. Blinking a few times, Higgs didn’t register Amelie commanding him to put her down until she had used her strength to hit his back. Higgs let out a grunt, sitting her down with a thud on the sand.

Amelie began to brush off her clothes, sighing as she stood up. “The final battle will be here on the beach. Higgs, you took things too far with Sam. You took it too far with me. What was wrong with you back there? Why didn’t you follow the plan? I had everything under control. There was no need to up the dramatics.”

Amelie paused, seeing Higgs was staring at his feet. His eyes blew wide open as black tar began to seep from the corners. Amelie took a few steps forward, reaching a handout. A gasp escaped her throat as Higgs suddenly shot back up. He recoiled away from her.

“Higgs?” Amelie quietly said as his expression began warped. He went from fearful to angry in such a short time, that even Amelie, as powerful as she was--stepped away from him.

“Sammy boy was gonna win the whole time, wasn’t he?” Higgs asked, his tone cold. He had his answer when Amelie didn’t say anything for several moments. Shaking his head, Higgs began to chuckle.

“Let me explain, Higgs.” Amelie started, placing her hand over her heart for emphasis. “You have--every right to be upset.”

“The hell I do!” Higgs spat. “I see it so clearly. Back in Edge Knot, I could feel my power slipping away. It allowed Sam to take us down easier. But this isn’t the first time--you’ve slowly been zapping everything you gifted to me, haven’t you?”

Amelie furrowed her brows, letting out a sigh. “It’s true.”

Higgs shook his head, disappointed was an understatement. He felt rage burning inside his gut. His teeth grit as he shook trying to control his anger.

“Tell me why.”

“You’ve only been seeing one side of the story, Higgs. After Sam made it past the point where I had you and Homo Demens stage my kidnapping, I realized that the matter I’m haunted by is more complicated. Pitting you and Sam against each other to determine the fate of the world, it was shallow of me. I never should have left it in either of your hands when the decision is mine.”

“But you’re still gonna let Sam get a final word in, right?” Higgs scoffed.

Amelie didn’t say anything, but she clenched her fists and looked firmly at Higgs.

“That will be between him and myself.”

“You’re pathetic! How could you string me along? Do you have any idea how much I sacrificed?!” Higgs bellowed. Even with Amelie having tempered his powers down, the energy emitting from Higgs was influencing the beach. Amelie could see the waves in the ocean were beginning to grow more unsteady, matching the turmoil Higgs was undergoing.

“I know I am in the wrong!” Amelie exclaimed. “And I am taking responsibility. Higgs, whether you or Sam win, the end is going to happen. Whether it gets postponed or happens thousands of years later. You were chosen to help speed it up because I sincerely believed that’s what I wanted. My mind has changed. Am I not allowed to feel the complications you feel?”

Higgs furrowed his brows, letting out a hiss as he began to pace back and forth. It was his way of keeping his cool despite wanting to hurt her. He could feel himself crave the need. Emotion running high, Higgs shook his head. He started muttering no several times as Amelie could only watch. She knew it would be foolish to offer him comfort in a time like this.

Higgs stopped pacing, his hands carding through his hair as he realized that everything leading up until now, had been a sham. That he had murdered and destroyed, turned the world upside down, and that it amounted to nothing. He was a particle, a little blink in the universe, but no god. No harbinger of death itself. He was a toy that had been discarded.

Upon his mind overloading with a sense of dread, Higgs screamed then fell to his knees in the sand. His head bowed as he was hit with one realization after the next; like something deep inside him was waking up. Becoming aware of all the little details in the journey that got him to this point. He whimpered, punching the sand as debris flew into the sky. Snarls and grunts escaped his throat as his rage spilled over until he was weeping.

“I made a beast of myself for you.” Higgs whimpered between, seeing Amelie’s legs in his field of vision. Higgs still kept his head down, not wanting to grace her with his presence. “I gave up the life I had---as stupid and insignificant as it was for you!”

“Believe me, if I could take it back--if I would have known then what I know now, this never would have happened,” Amelie said sincerely, keeping her voice calm as she swallowed. The jig was up. Amelie knew the part of herself she left in Higgs to keep his humanity, his attachments at bay, had failed. Higgs was waking up, no longer under her control. The fight between Sam and them both in Edge Knot had been too much to keep the checks and balances in place.

Lost in his tears, Higgs eventually ceased as Gene’s face came to him. He blinked several times, forcing his head up as he stared at Amelie.

“Gene---back when I fought Fragile, you told me she wouldn’t be a problem anymore. What did you do?”

Higgs searched his memories as he kept staring at Amelie for an answer. He combed through his mind over and over, but it was all strange. He remembered Gene coming right at him, and out of fear he thrust the knife towards her, but then he blinked and Amelie was by his side and Gene along with the rest of the dead she summoned were gone. Something wasn’t right, but believing Amelie had no reason to lie, Higgs thought that the Extinction Entity merely forced Gene away.

Higgs knew by the sorrow look in Amelie’s eye, that he was dead wrong.

“She was getting in the way,” Amelie shook her head, swallowing guilt as she remorsefully spoke. “I thought if this was going to work, you needed no more distractions. The knife I gave you was supposed to end it. I gave you the push you needed.”

“I killed her,” Higgs murmured. He blinked several times as a strange memory swept through his eyes. Higgs saw Gene in front of him on another beach, desperately trying to tell him something, only to stop. The smell of blood filled the air as she mouthed out the words she felt cold, then disappeared. Everything about her, the warmth and acceptance, it all faded with her.

“I killed Gene.”

He was so hurt, so defeated, that Amelie wanted to express her condolences to him. She reached out to pat his head.

"Higgs, I'm so sorry-"

“Amelie?” Sam’s voice called out. Amelie let out a gasp, dumbfounded that he arrived already. Higgs rose up while Amelie stepped away from him.

“Sam, what are you doing here?”

The moment the words left Amelie’s mouth, Higgs gestured out with his hand and clenched his fist. Amelie began to choke, she was dry heaving like a fish out of water. Higgs wanted nothing more than to snap her neck right then and there but knew he wasn’t powerful enough. Not when she was draining and taking it all away as he went through the motions.

Before Sam could rush over to help, Higgs made a jump. Standing in front of Sam with a stern look, Higgs saw red. He was broken from the revelations, and most of all, angry at himself. Higgs destroyed the one person left that cared about him despite the evil he had done and there was nothing left. Amelie be damned. The whole world be damned. If Higgs was going to lose everything that mattered, he was going to go down with the ship in flames.

“You ready to end this? Before the end of everything?” He asked Sam.

If the Extinction Entity wouldn’t bring the end, Higgs was going to force it on her. He would have his fight. He could die knowing that there was a chance he’d see Gene on the other side.

Tagging: @deathstrandjng​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @evillpasta​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @kusooi​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @justfanjunk​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @lucyfer-thorn​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @septicteara12​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @bl00dypalace​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @apocalyptic-demen​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @forksoffortune​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @starivaille​​​​​​​​​ @argetlam007​

[theparanormalperiodical]

The Real Story Behind The Babadook (2014), And 17 Weirdest Bogeymen From Around The World That Might Be Hiding Under Your Bed Right Now

Strange times we live in.

It’s a Saturday night, and I’m hauled up at home eating a vegetarian lasagne whilst my mother asks me for the 37th time why I’ve decided to give up meat, when really, if there was no global pandemic, I’d be hauled up at home eating a vegetarian lasagne whilst my mother asks me for the 37th time why I’ve decided to give up meat.

It really is a strange time we live in.

But, in my attempt to protect the vulnerable groups in society and halt the spread of the latest Twitter hashtag in its tracks, I decided to catch up on the horror films hadn’t found the time to press play on just yet.

So, a bucket of popcorn and some mild trauma later, I could finally join in the conversation about The Babadook.

6 years too late.

Nevertheless! Once I’d emotionally recovered, I finally had my Sex And The City moment. No, not the ones with feminism that would make Emilline Pankhurst perform the equivalent of a Viennese Waltz in her grave - the one where Carrie sits in her NYC apartment and thinks about men at her computer.

“I couldn’t help but wonder: could the Babadook be based on a true story? ”

Unfortunately, I discovered that the Babadook is based on the concept of the boogeyman, an urban legend that has a greater global reach than Covid-19. 

So, to distract you from the global pandemic with the threat of a creature lurking under your bed and waiting to snatch an ankle, I thought I’d let you in on the reality behind this queer icon.

First, let’s talk ‘bout The Babadook.

It was one of the biggest hits of the 2010s, combining the classic trope of creepy children with the classic colour palette of depression. Our story follows a single mother and her son who begins to be visited by an imaginary creature fresh from the pages of a children’s book.

With spiky talon-like hands, a cloaked figure, a jaw crammed full of teeth, a face paler than that time you bought that foundation on a whim in TK Maxx - all crowned with a dusty hat - the Babadook the child was seeing certainly had a sense of style.

The child, Sam, begins to create intricate traps and weapons designed to stop the Babadook, all the while the book predicts the mother’s rather dark future. It becomes clear that the Bababook is preying on the mother and essentially possessing her, a diagnosis that is confirmed when the mother attempts to kill Sam.

She then regurgitates a black inky substance evocative of ectoplasm, and is released from its grip. 

The film ends on the happy family feeding the Babadook as it lives in their basement.

This indie horror - once it had finished polishing the 5 awards on it’s mantelpiece - might have woven a intricate plot deviating from the simple basis of international man of mystery James Bond The Boogeyman, but the basis still sticks out more than that wardrobe in the corner of your bedroom you’re now highly conscious of.

Simply put, the Babadook matches the basic concept of the boogeyman:

There’s some weird, dark creature that knicks kids and eats ‘em if they wander alone or don’t go to bed or misbehave. Just like Krampus, the bogeyman is a legend propagated by parents to convince kids to stay in line.

That being said, the mythical creature isn’t the only inspo behind this cinema-hit.

Specifically, the brains behind the film, Jennifer Kent, claimed it was about a deep-rooted fear we all have: that of going mad. On top of this, it seeks to show parenting from a real perspective.

The film focuses on a single mother as she faces one of the most difficult challenges in life: she loses her husband whilst going to give birth to her son, and then has to raise him alone. But that is not all.

Kent also spoke of a real encounter with the bogeyman. 

Basics, her bestie’s son was being plagued by an imaginary monster, so she pretended to talk to it to calm his concerns. Sure, this tale might not have kickstarted the real terror engaged with in this movie, but it invited us into the reality behind the bogeyman.

But beyond this, the movie also detracts from the Babadook, and instead looks for the primal instincts in the mother - it looks for the bogeyman within us all.

That’s right - the real horror that was inside us all along.

Yawn.

But the thing is, it also brings up hell of a lot of paranormal activity that is remarkably accurate to theories of the supernatural.

      Let’s start with the introduction of the Babadook.

He arrives in the form of a creepy children’s book no one’s seen or heard of. Armed with a chilling nursery rhyme and an aesthetic last seen in 2007, the Babadook follows the basic principles of a basic haunting: ghost does spooky stuff, ghost spooks humans, humans invite it in following the consent laws of the universe by interacting with it, ghost spooky powers intensify.

This begins with the book itself. Although the film doesn’t consider if he is a paranormal being aligning with the concept of demons and spirits (etc.), this book follows the concept of haunted objects.

By opening the book and reading it - or, interacting with it - they invite in the Babadook. And when she tries to destroy it, it crops up again, fully intact and conveniently lying on her doorstep.

No ‘sorry we missed you card’ needed.

This closely follows the theory of the haunted object, something more on-trend than tutting at empty shelves in the grocery store. Haunted objects have a habit of failing to be destroyed, and by engaging with them, such as not asking permission for taking a picture of a haunted doll, you enter communication with them.

From there, you’ve basically consented to a full possession. The object is a vessel for a spirit or a demon until a new, better, breathing vessel can be found.

You can find out more about this here.

I can’t find anything about haunted books specifically online, but as a variety of haunted objects exist, from bunk beds to boxes, I’m sure there’s potential for it.

     Next is the eventual possession of the mother.

One of the most dramatic moments we witness is when the mother coughs up this black bile which represents the removal of the Babadook. This bears a striking resemblance to ectoplasm, a white liquid often released by those experiencing intense paranormal activity.

When mediums experience a trance-like state, they supposedly release a fabric-like or thick substance that darkens as physic energy is intensified. It allows those in the supernatural realm to interact with the physical realm, and for spirits to represent themselves to the audience of a seance.

This film was one of the first to explore the potential paranormal explanations behind the bogeyman, and give some basis to a beast that has haunted communities since the beginning of time.

Speaking of the beast…

Who is the bogeyman?

It’s sometime in the 1500s.

We are in the middle of a small country called England, struggling to make ends meet between the near constant famine, the anxiety of being cursed by a witch, or some war with [insert european nation that may or may not exist anymore].

Either way, when we aren’t trying to spell everything with an ‘e’ at the end, we are being taunted by hobgoblins.

These pesky beasts made their name in tormenting Englishmen, playing pranks on them or simply just being foul.

Hobgoblins are the OG bogeymen, or are the first we can trace back to recorded sources. But they were no means the last. And they were by no means the only ones in the world.

As a simple definition, the bogeyman is a mythical creature that makes sure kids are staying in line, and was made up by parents. The thing is, the bogeyman features in every culture that has ever been created.

And given the realm of the paranormal explored so far on this blog, perhaps your local Babadook isn’t so out of the question.

The bogeyman has always claimed a rather vague existence, representing a non-specific terror that has even extended to just ‘being the devil’ in some cases. The origins of the name are no different: ‘bogge’ comes from middle english, meaning ‘something frightening’ or ‘scarecrow’.

It has even been interpreted to mean ‘goat’ which can be traced to relations to the devil.

Appearance wise, the bogeyman has several broad features that stretch across cultures. Standard features include sharp teeth, talon or claw-like hands, hooves for feet, and even bug-like features. The Babadook might have shared in a few of these #basic-bogeyman traits, but it’s not all about looks.

How does his personality fair?

The bogeyman can pick between three personality types: something that punishes misbehaving children; one that is just violent for the hell of it which includes stealing kids, and eating them and/or taking them back to hell; or one that protects the innocent.

“So what you’re saying is, this is a vague looking creature with a vague personality with vague ambitions that is made up by parents who are tired of their kids interrupting their vague post-marital sex?”

Okay, fine, the bogeyman bears little resemblance to the basic concept of the bogeyman. But this is what makes him the international man of mystery. It’s the regional divergences between each nation’s own Babadook that makes this creature quite so peculiar.

You see, I assumed the bogeyman would be a universal concept draped in more black clothes than a kid that was in the throes of that scene where Edward leaves Bella. 

Turns out that there’s actually a band of bogeymen which can be specified by their not-so-casual racism and genitalia.

But as the 195 countries dotted across the globe have fostered their own child-eating monster, I thought I’d cut to the chase and fill you in on the world’s weirdest bogeymen.

*Rolls up sleeves of Team Edward hoodie*

     The Sack Man

Making his cinematic debut in The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Sack Man is the international symbol for the bogeyman. Whether he himself is draped in sack-like materials, or is lugging one around with him, Hombre Del Saco uses his luggage to capture and carry naughty children away to, uh, somewhere.

Most popular in Latin countries and Eastern Europe, the Sack Man is the most well travelled bogeyman on this list.

     Babaroga

The original inspiration behind the Babadook - note the similar name - Babaroga is a resident of Serbia and its neighbouring countries. However, the mood board for the Babadook’s inspiration stopped there.

Babaroga literally translates to “old woman with horns”.

And this pensioner spends her time finding children, putting them in a sack (how original), bringing them to her cave, and eating them. Or, to shake things up, she pulls childrens through small holes in the ceiling.

     El Coco

When he’s not featuring in lovable Disney hits, El Coco is snatching kids that don’t get to sleep when they should. With nursery rhymes detailing the legend - a chilling similarity to the Babadook - spanish-language countries across the globe are versed in reportedly seeing a coconut-like face hiding under their beds.

With a brown hairy face and body, and glowing red eyes to match, this famous humanoid might be closer than you think.

“Que viene el Coco y te comerá” 

 - A line from the traditional Spanish nursery rhyme.

     The Mamma

Pakistan gets its fair share of attention on the news cycle, but aside from the war going on, no one has ever noted the rather peculiar beast haunting the nation’s young women.

The Mamma isn’t the mothering being the name suggests, but is a large ape that lives in the mountains and only comes to the civilised world when in need of a young girl. Once he’s kidnapped ‘em and taken ‘em back to his cave, he licks their hands and feet so they can’t escape.

I have a strong feeling that what happens next to these innocent women isn’t as silly as someone licking your feet.

     La Tulievieja

Bringing together the award-winning aesthetic of The Ring and the naseau-inducing aesthetic of Cats, La Tulievieja is Panama’s warning for naughty children. Legend has it she is a spirit cursed by God for drowning her child.

The thing is, God’s curse was, uh, confused. Her monstrous form consists of acne scarring, long hair, claws for hands, a cat’s body and a farmyard animal’s hooved feet. On top of that, she also looks like the child she drowned.

Yep, confused.

     The Jersey Devil

Most countries suffer from multiple bogeymen - here in the UK, for example, we have 12 varieties - and America is no different. The Jersey Devil is actually one of 4 variants, and, like La Tulievieja, is also confused.

Fresh from the jaws of New Jersey, this beast has a horse’s head, bat wings, hooves, and a snake’s tail. First spotted in the 18th century and then again in 1909, it is believed that this legend was actually manufactured as a real estate hoax to coax residents into lowering their selling prices.

You might be able to deny the existence of this beast, but the Cipelahq (a large owl), the Long Black Being that makes a habit of slithering round like a snake, and Bloody Bones (a dancing skeleton and a separate skull) have yet to be disproven.

     The Copperpenis Owl

Hungary has 3 different bogeyman, and most fit the description of the international beast: there’s one with a sack, there’s one which is just a-bit-beasty, and then there’s the giant owl with a penis made of copper.

I personally feel a Babadook with rose gold genitalia circa 2013 might have detracted from the overall feel of the film.

     Ijiraq and the Qalupalik

Iniut communities also follow beliefs in the bogeyman, and probably focus on them more than others because if you wander off in the Arctic you will either get mauled by a bear and die, or freeze.

And then you’ll die.

They actually have 2 resident bogeymen. There’s the Ijiraq, a shapeshifter that kidnaps kids. You know, pretty basic bitch stuff. And then there’s the Qalupalik who is slightly more spooky.

This is a mermaid laden with green skin, long fingernails, and ratty hair that carry babies away in amauti (pouches or sacks for carrying kids) and bring them to live in their underwater world.

     Butzemann

Remember when I mentioned that thing about casual racism? It’s a bit of grey area, ironically.

Germany’s very own bogeyman is known as The Black Man.

(You can see my point.)

That being said, this probably doesn’t actually refer to the colour of his skin as most Germans during the Middle Ages hadn’t actually seen anyone from the African continent. Instead, his outdated nickname was actually down to his preference for dark corners.

The closet, under the bed, in forests during the early hours... If it’s spooky, you’ll find him here.

     Babau

Germany isn’t the only country with politically incorrect bogeyman. Italy has its very own Black Man, a mysterious figure which often features as a black man (gasp) or a black ghost. Only this entity has no legs.

The Marabbecca on the other hand is specific to Sicily, and mirrors the mythology of the Inuits.

Don’t play too close to the water, kids, or a Marabbecca will swim up and drag you to your watery grave!

     The Kropeman

Our final iconic bogeyman isn’t like the other girls, even if his fellow Luxembourgian monsters are. There’s yet another Black Man, and there’s something about an uncle, but it's the Kropeman which has me sleeping with the lights on.

Under the streets of this small country roams a man with a long hook.

When he’s not busy dodging rats in the sewers, he’s grabbing kids by their nose via the hook, and dragging ‘em down into the storm drains.

So - which one is hiding in your closet?

(Aside from the queerness your inner 14 year old hasn’t fully unleashed yet like a big bisexual dragon spewing flames of gender-neutralness.)

(Don’t worry, I’m fine.)

Are you a whore for horror? Passionate about the paranormal? Do you want to see a new real ghost story every day? Then you have to follow this blog.

Read this post next!

[hellishvu]

Fellas, is it Gay to Fall in Love with a Spider?

—  this was so fun to write and let me tell you ! i’m in luv with this concept. also this one is WAYYY longer then my usual stories so grab your popcorn! i wanted to do it right and not force or push the relationship :) this is going to be my pride gift! since it’s so long and i’m sososo close to 200 followers so please enjoy <33

words: 4,783

☆彡 where a spiderkook comes flying through your window during a robbery chase.

Jungkook loves his role as Spider-man, he loves saving things from the world to his local neighborhood. Sometimes he would save a cute guy here and there or a friendly cat. Flying through the air when all of his community knows him very well. Of course they hadn’t known his real identity wanting to keep that a secret. He could only imagine the reaction of all his friends that he’s known for years.

So when one night a chase turned extreme very quickly, Jungkook was on the case seeing the burglar steal a handful of the local bank’s money. Jungkook being there before any of the police force wanting to take things into his own hands. The sharp turns, the fast dodges so he doesn’t hit city buildings. This guy was an expert because he knew every pathway for Jungkook to almost lose him.

There was a sudden turn where he was face front in a bright advisement billboard causing Jungkook to turn his body to a nearby window so he wouldn’t smash right into the wall. Jungkook smashed through the window seeing a male sleeping soundly till he awoke rapidly.

“Holy shit!” You screamed out as you saw a male with a spider suit groaning in pain seeing the he literally went through your window. You heard the shattered glass when he stood up looking out the broken window seeing the robber got away.

“What? What are you doing? My window!” You whined when you got up turning on the light of your room, thank god you lived alone or explaining this to anyone would be a nightmare.

“Well, I shoot webs here and there you know.” The male says with a rather cocky attitude seeing you grab a broom near the door of your bedroom.

“Well you kinda shot a web into my house.” You pointed at the residue of a web on your very favorite poster of the band you’ve been obsessed with. You turned your head towards the clock to see the time was almost 12am.

“Don’t you sleep? It’s 12am. Why are you rolling through windows?” Jungkook heard the male say swiping the glass, you got near his foot pushing the broom to signal him to move his feet so you can get all the glas. Jungkook was literally so confused, did you pay no mind that he literally could fly through your window? Or did you not notice that he was Spider-man in the first place?

“Okay, I hope this doesn’t seem egotistical but you know i’m Spider-man right? Saved the planet?”

“Hi spider-man that saved the planet. I’m y/n now go fix my window!”

“Okay I will come back later but right now I have to go.” Jungkook tried to say when he moved even a muscle caused him to wince at the pain of some open cuts. You took his arm and gave him support so he could get to your bed.

“No. You’re bleeding, luckily no glass got stuck in your skin but it’s better to stay here.”

“But I have to go, plus I just can’t reveal my identity.”

“Well Spider-man you can keep your mask on, just let me help your wounds. Let the cops take care of whatever chase you’re in.” You covered your windows by the curtains you had hoping that the male could relax about his identity. The male requested he went to the bathroom to change, of course you providing clothes for him.

Jungkook walked in the bathroom and the first thing that came to mind was “I’m so fucked.” Why did he need to chase after that one robber, why did he jump through a window, or why is this (cute) guy helping him? Jungkook looked at his reflection of the so called cuts and wow there was a lot of them he was surprised that he hasn’t dropped dead yet. Jungkook took off his spider suit leaving just the mask which looked so ridiculous that he couldn’t help but giggle in the bathroom but it hurt like a bitch so that ended quickly.

“Are you okay in there?” Jungkook heard the muffled question by the door yelling back an ok before once again looking in the mirror once again.

Jungkook opened the restroom door to see you already with an air mattress near your bed. Jungkook raised an eyebrow seeing he never intended on staying the night at so called... just now realizing that he hasn’t learned your name or he just forgot.

“What’s your name?” The male asked when you set a pillow on his air mattress. You looked up to see a well fit male that was like eye candy but you quickly snapped out of it so you could answer his question.

“Y/N, I said it before but I was in a fit of rage so it’s nice to not want to kill you.” You smiled when the male sat down next to you. You grabbed the very home-made med kit that you had for god knows how long but you made sure it was sterile. You don’t want to be known for the person that literally killed spider-man. You started with the smaller cuts some needing band aids while others needed bandages.

“Question though.”

“Shoot it.”

“Do you always jump through people’s windows?” The question has Jungkook snickering flicking your forehead in response, telling you the story from the beginning of how he ended up sitting next to you. Even if he did sleep over, he was spider-man! He’s dealt with the worst people so if you did try anything he doubts it will be tough situation. Maybe that was just an excuse to stay next to you while your warm hands touch his rather cold body. That made his face heat up but thank god you couldn’t see it or the way his ears are probably the most vibrate red in the entire world. Weakness: cute guys... truly the worst.

When the fix was done you sighed seeing the great job you did but you clicked your tongue when you saw one of them were already falling off. You went back to work while this probably will kill Jungkook, he was ticklish and throughout all of this he’s been dying to not laugh.

“Well you should be done. There’s your bed, don’t mind if it gets cold doesn’t usually get that cold in here.” Once again you hinted at the broken window, Jungkook couldn’t help but giggle a little. You laid back on your bed rolling your body away from spider-man.

“Wow he acts like I’m just a friend sleeping over.” Jungkook thought while turning his body towards you, seeing the back of your head. God this mask was suffocating though, he never realized that in battle but holy shit when you got nothing to think but about this mask.

“Do you think, you could just not turn around because I’m going to die from this mask before I die from bleeding.” Jungkook asked seeing you slowly turn to see him. You nodded having sleep in your mind rather then the superhero’s face. Jungkook took off the mask breathing in deep breaths ruffling his soft brown hair. He liked it longer, loved his natural curls.

“Hey I’m a cute boy you’re a cute boy. I have a great personality, you do too. Let’s be soulmates.” Jungkook thought once again before covering himself with more blankets feeling the chilling breeze. Jungkook yawned before resting his eyes.

You woke up rubbing your eyes, you felt something missing or someone. You looked down to see the spider kid not even there. You grumbled that he just left! You looked through the broken window trying to not get pricked by the sharp edges. Looking at the air mattress with a note on the pillow.

“Well there goes him.” You mumble under your breath as you got to cleaning the sleepover if you could call it that.

Jungkook went home, seeing that the apartment was empty so he had the opportunity to quickly change out his spider suit and giving him the well needed shower. The water on his wounds stung for a bit but he felt clean and he can finally go out to eat.

“Jungkook where were you last night?” Jungkook heard his friend that he’s been living with for years. Jungkook quickly tried to come up with an excuse as the silence was more noticeable the longer he took.

“Just slept over at my.. boyfriends house.” Oh god the regret he witnessed when Namjoon gasped loudly. Jungkook did not indeed have a boyfriend neither a brain apparently. That excuse will have to do till Namjoon forgets about it but till then he’s gotta make up a fake person or he could use you but he literally doesn’t know anything besides your name.

Jungkook got out of the shower, seeing his well missed bedroom with posters and clothes that still need to be washed. Jungkook patched himself up but while doing it he couldn’t help but miss your warm hands.

The real question was how was he suppose to help you fix your window? I mean he can’t just walk in and be like “Hey i’m the guy that like broke your window but I’m not spider-man. I’m just a guy you know? That noticed your window was broken because I’m a nice-” Now he was just rambling to himself, he wanted to see you again somehow or someway. Maybe there was another way, maybe he had to take things in his own spider hands.

Jungkook put on his suit sneaking off in the back of his bedroom window webbing across the city trying to look for that particular billboard. Jungkook found it seeing the large women with cat food in her hand while the cat literally looks like they want to destroy her. Jungkook looked inside your window seeing that you weren’t home and no lights were on.

“This can’t be a good idea, crime is never a good idea but is it crime if it’s helping? Maybe he’ll tase me and reveal my identity and send me to become the next cat food model with a cat that wants to murder me, but I won’t be the model I’ll be the cat food they will call it spidermeow.”

You walked in from the longest day of your life, time moved like a snail and you rather spend your time in your cozy bed than anywhere else right now. Playing your favorite music through your earbuds before taking them off when you entered your room. You saw your window was finally repaired with a little note stuck on with tape.

You took off the note seeing the window was actually repaired quite nicely. You knocked on the glass making sure it has the strength to stay in place. Seeing a large box of which probably where the glass was shipped in, you turned it around seeing a name and an address.

Order from: Jungkook Jeon

Ship to: Game Apartments Apt 304

Shipper’s Address: Seaside Apartments Apt 203

“Jeon Jungkook!” Jungkook heard a yell from Namjoon, groggy from taking a nap not so long ago. Jungkook opened the door wearing his slippers before seeing Namjoon in the door way. Jungkook ruffles his hair before taking the door.

“What can I help you wi-” Jungkook widens his eyes recognizing your face instantly. Jungkook cleared his throat trying to act back to normal. Not wanting to break his persona of just a normal guy.

“I think we should talk window breaker.” You grinned with the address and name sticker held up in the air.

Jungkook quickly let you inside pushing you towards his room before Namjoon could ask what was going on. Jungkook slammed the door looking back at you resting on his bed.

“So you’re spider-man?” You got up seeing his face up close and personal. Jungkook gulped stepping away from you to hide his anxious behavior.

“Me? Spider-man psh! That’s- absurd!” jungkook could feel the sweat roll down his forehead to his cheeks.

“Jungkook you don’t have to lie. Plus you wanted to meet!” You cross your hands almost like trapping Jungkook from any possibility of breaking free from this one.

“Yeah but not revealed.” Jungkook ran his hand through his hair, sighing that Mr. Park was going to kill him later about someone finding out his identity.

“I won’t share it. Call it a solid for fixing my window.” You smiled seeing Jungkook blush from seeing your cute smile.

“You also look a lot better then I imagined.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“So is that all? I know your identity and the world seems to not be exploding.” You looked out his window trying to prove the point that the world will keep spinning if you knew his name or not.

“Well once you start sharing it I’m sure the world will explode pretty soon.”

“Well I’ll just hang out with you till I gain your trust. So if I start sharing you can catch me anytime.” You declared a deal with him seeing his reaction of being uncertain that this plan will go as smoothly as you want.

“I wish I was cat food instead.” Jungkook mumbled under his breath, having to deal with this and try to explain this to Mr. Park was going to be the death of him.

“You want to get some coffee? Catch breakfast?” You asked trying to give Jungkook a chance to let loose and not think about his spider side every two seconds.

“It’s 2pm.”

“Well, what about brunch then?” You shrug your shoulders trying to meet in the middle with Jungkook.

“Fine. Let’s go.” Jungkook gestures you to leave his room, following you right behind.

“We will be back Namjoon.” Jungkook waves at Namjoon closing the door leading you to go down the stairs the thick air of awkward silence. You expected him to be louder and more out going like when he was in his spider suit.

“So.” You said in between your sips of your beverage, Jungkook holding his banana smoothie in his hand. Jungkook turns his head towards you away from the window he was just staring out of.

“So?” Jungkook raises his eyebrow, wondering when you were just gonna leave him alone so he could just handle the issue of his identity.

“You get mean when you’re Jungkook.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well when your spider-man, you’re kind and you fix windows. When you’re Jungkook you seem annoyed to be with me. I feel like you’re not even giving me a chance.” You sigh sinking in your seat, deciding if there was a way to remove your memory from that night you would take it in an instant at this point the chances of you becoming Jungkook’s friend is as equal as the planet exploding due to an alien invasion.

“It’s just- My friends don’t know, Namjoon doesn’t. I’ve been friends with them for years and they still don’t know. I wasn’t ready for someone to know.”

“And I was hoping that somehow we could meet again but as Jungkook and somehow we could be friends since you’re really sweet. If we are friends and people know who I am. You could get in so much trouble and risk to your own life just because I didn’t remember to take off the stupid sticker with my name in big bold letters.” Jungkook takes a deep breath trying to calm himself down seeing your reaction of silence. It wasn’t that you didn’t know what to say, you were figuring out when you should say things.

“Sorry I know I talk a lot.”

“No! It’s okay. I thought going to your house it would be all fun and games but now I know it’s more than that. I was ignorant for thinking it wasn’t a big deal.” You said drinking your last sip of your beverage. Setting it down leaning on the table wanting to show compassion towards Jungkook by body language.

“Thanks. I’m glad we had this talk and I could give you another chance.” Jungkook smiles showing his bunny teeth, you couldn’t help but smile back it was addicting.

“Well it’s fairly early but do you want to have a sleepover? This time I won’t be smashing into anyone’s windows.” Jungkook suggests seeing it was a Friday afternoon. You two being in the large city where snacks and arcades were less then a mile away.

“Yeah I would like that.” You both got up from the booth, setting down a 5 dollar bill in tips. Jungkook basically dragged you out of there.

Jungkook breathes in the city air of the very polluted atmosphere. You trying to guess where Jungkook could possibly take you. Jungkook standing proudly holding his backpack around his arm.

“So our first stop is...”

“Donut shop?”

“Nope.”

“Gas station?”

“We are in the city Y/N.”

“Park?”

“Okay, note taken you're not good at guessing games- Our first stop is the bookstore.”

“Oh and you call my options ridiculous!” You shoving Jungkook playfully when he laughs, Jungkook pulled his wallet from his backpack showing that he just got paid.

“Come on! Read one comic with me!” Jungkook teases you, watching you grumble under your breath.

“Just one?”

“Please!”

“Fine.”

The bookstore was filled with the smell of new books. The pleasant scent with the look of smiling Jungkook. He wore a nicely light pink open button up shirt with a white undershirt. The fluffly brown hair that you remembered from the night he slept over, when in the middle of the night you heard his little snores turning to see his hair in the moonlight.

Jungkook showed you many collections naming all of the main characters and the plot line trying to get you to chose one. Of course the describing was filled with body expressions and his sound affects.

“Oh what is this?” You teased pulling up a comic of SpiderMan, Jungkook getting shy asking you to put it back.

“It’s not even right! First they have me date a women, I’m gay!” Jungkook realized what he just said always having the habit of saying things that are personal too quick.

“You’re gay?” You asked, Jungkook rubbing the back of his head seeing you put the comic back to the original place.

“..Yeah.” Jungkook quietly said hoping that you wouldn’t stomp on his poor heart. You pulled him into a hug messing with his hair.

“Me too.” You released the hug, Jungkook had asked if you had something to write with and something to write on. You pulled a napkin from the cafe you two were at earlier.

“Do you think I could come out? As spider-man?”

“Are you ready? I don’t want to force it on you.” You asked while Jungkook took the napkin signing it, you hiding him as best as you could from the cameras so his identity is hidden.

“Spider-man is Gay #pride2019 — spider man himself”

You two walked out of the bookstore giggling like kids. Jungkook holding the comics he bought with the one you chose to read with him. You could feel the bond get tighter every moment with him. You didn’t want to lose him and you’ve only had this day with him, he looked at the world with glowing eyes rather then seeing all the negative even if he sees it all while he’s spider-man.

“I wonder if falling in love with a spider is gay?” You mumbled under your breath while Jungkook spun around wondering what you said.

“Huh?”

“I wonder if facing my fear of... heights. Was a possibility?” You could be lying or you couldn’t, you never really went to the higher buildings of the city due to not being the most famous or successful person. Jungkook held your hands jumping up and down.

“Do you want me to get you up on the buildings?!” Jungkook cheered still holding your hands. They were soft. Jungkook always wanted to take someone to the buildings with him, it was like the picture perfect romantic setting. The starry night, the good-looking guy, and Jungkook getting his first kiss with yo- It was the starry night that was romantic! Not the possibility that you two might kiss, he wants it though. Good god does he want it.

“Yeah, sure.” You nodded, Jungkook realizing how long he’s been holding your hands letting them go shyly.

Jungkook walked with you till he found a secured place to change into his spidersuit. Jungkook changed in front of you really not realizing you were there. You tried to stare everywhere but Jungkook’s toned body. Jungkook finally changed into his suit, asking if you could carry his backpack just in case anyone would recognize it.

Wow you haven’t seen him in his spidersuit in so long but now that he’s stretching in it, testing his webs, and making sure he can climb up the building. You couldn’t look in his eyes which is saddening, you love his brown eyes. Jungkook was way more louder and out-going as spider-man though.

“Okay are you ready?” Jungkook was jumping in place waiting for your okay. You pulled the backpack handles around your shoulders tightening it.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” You nod, Jungkook pulling you close to his chest wrapping his hand around you. Jungkook could feel his heart race a little quicker not because of the adrenaline of going up this building, it was your head was like not even a feet away from his face. Kissing distance was there and just thinking about it made Jungkook blush.

Jungkook shot his webs pulling you two up the building. You probably shouldn’t look down and even Jungkook warned you about it but curiosity kills you, looking down you widen your eyes. Jungkook noticed it holding you tighter to his chest. Holy shit were you high! It only been like 5 minutes and wow you could see people as ants.

“You okay?” Jungkook said underneath his mask looking up trying to find a faster way up. You laughed like a manic seeing the adrenaline of being so free.

“Yeah! Keep going!” You yelled holding a camera while you told Jungkook to pose, he stopped his web shooting for a minute smiling.

Jungkook two hours ago would never do this with you, never let you take a selfie with him, and would never climb this building with you around him. He’s falling in love which is a unknown subject to him, but he’s going to really fall if he doesn’t stop staring at your eyes.

You two reached the top of the building feeling the strong breeze. You saw Jungkook a bit cold, when he’s on roof tops he’s fighting or chasing after villains but just being on here not moving a muscle the cold got to him. You pulled off your coat wrapping it around him. Jungkook was about to take it off to give it back to you but you stopped him.

“What? You deserve it.”

You two sat down, seeing the starry night of the city. You looked at the billboards seeing many advertisements of water that is way too expensive and clothes that just say one word on it and it suddenly costs 500 dollars. You looked back at Jungkook seeing him enjoy the jacket you let him borrow since it was way bigger than him and you enjoy your coats bigger because for some reason it makes sense to you that they would warm you up more.

Soon enough you saw the twitter trends billboard change instantly seeing #PrideSpiderman and #SpidermanisGay and #Spidergay. You couldn’t help but laugh a little bit, you pointed it for Jungkook to see. Jungkook laughing loudly leaning on you so he doesn’t fall on the concrete.

Jungkook got himself together getting back up from his laughing fit, the first thing he saw your face so close to his. Jungkook took off his mask so you could see him. The blush that is generating, the raw feelings for you, and the tears that are about to come out some from the laughing and others from wanting to kiss you so bad it’s annoying.

“Would it really kill you if we kissed?” Jungkook whispered pressing his forehead to yours. The breath hitches you both exchange realizing there was no way to back out now, you were going to be in his life and in his memories if he decides to not to date you. The city would always remember him of you, that bookstore would always remind him of you, and running and chasing after villains on the rooftop he’ll always blush remembering this day.

“Jungkook you’re going to kill me.” You embrace his face pulling him even closer. Pressing your lips to his, Jungkook felt the most adrenaline in his life with you kissing him. Jungkook closed his eyes letting the strong feelings of love run through his body. You released the kissing session seeing Jungkook still closing his eyes, you flick his forehead just like how he did that faithful night.

“Can we do it again?” Jungkook asks putting himself on your lap. You chuckled pulling him in once more, Jungkook being less nervous about kissing you. It was the prefect sweet harmony and one to always remember.

“I’ve always loved your hands.” Jungkook said while you embraced him, not even minutes later Jungkook realizes just how awkward that sounded.

“Oh god that sounds a lot creepy than I meant it to be.” Jungkook looked down to hide his embarrassment. You lifted his chin making the eye contact once again.

Don’t worry you dork.” You press a kiss on his forehead. 

“How are you going to explain to Namjoon when I come over?”

“Oh I said you were my boyfriend.” Jungkook realizing he did his very own foreshadowing.

“Oh really now?”

“Well, I needed an excuse of why I was gone when I came home at like 7am. Plus I kinda wanted to be your boyfriend at the time and you were kinda running through my head all the time but at the same time I didn’t know if I had feelings for you because like could I even have feelings for you if you knew I was spider-man-“

“Oh I’m doing that thing again.” Jungkook buries his head in your neck whining that he does talk a lot out of no where.

“If you find it annoying, I’ll stop.” Jungkook mumbles wondering when he should get off your lap. You gave him silence but Jungkook took that as “plz get off my lap you weirdo.” Jungkook lifted one leg off of you but before he could get off your lap you pressed him closer to you.

“Y/N?”

“You’re precious, I love your rambles don’t ever change.” Oh god butterflies flew everywhere in his stomach. Jungkook lifting his head, kissing you softly again.

You two arrived at the apparments sharing jokes and stories along the way till Jungkook opened the door, seeing Namjoon sitting on the couch in his pajamas, snacking on carrots. Namjoon waved at Jungkook before noticing you were there.

“Is this your boyfriend Jungkook?” Namjoon asked giving a rather playful face seeing Jungkook frown from the teasing. You held his hand raising it up for Namjoon to see.

“Yup! I’m Y/N, Jungkook’s boyfriend.” You announced offering to shake hands with Namjoon. Namjoon shook hands with you feeling the ferm grip. Jungkook felt the weight off his shoulders not having to worry about that.

“Wait did he just call me his boyfriend? Is that official? Or did he just say that to protect me? Is it okay to marry someone you just started dating?” Jungkook thought while you and Namjoon converse getting to know eachother.

Jungkook decided that it was time to have alone time with you, you exchanging goodnights with Namjoon. You felt Jungkook’s hand lead you to his bedroom. Not as strangers anymore, but as lovers. You couldn’t help but have a giant grin on your face.

“Guys did you hear spider man is gay!? This is a win for the gays!” You two heard from the other side of the door. Namjoon cheering, you looking at Jungkook looking like he was on top of the moon, you pulled him in so you both were laying down on his bed. Sleeping peacefully in eachothers arms not a care in the world wether bad guys existed or good guys, all you needed in your world was Jungkook. It didn’t matter if he was the global superhero spider-man or just a regular nerd that enjoys comics a little too much. You knew he was special.

[two-are-the-trees]

31 Days of Poe Day 26: “The Premature Burial”

It’s amazing how tightly fear can grasp one’s entire life. In Poe’s “The Premature Burial,” the concept of an obsessive phobia is made not only terrifying, but also extremely relatable as one man goes to great lengths to protect himself against his ever-looming fear. It is a story of losing control to worries and fruitlessly running from that dreaded specter of death which could come for us at any moment. 

The story begins as the narrator explains the universally understood horror of being buried alive and recounts many cases in which this nightmare came to life. He explains that many people have medical conditions which causes them to fall into a death-like trance and are therefore mistaken as dead and buried, only to awaken later in complete terror. The narrator then admits that he himself has such a condition and this leads him to become increasingly paranoid that he will be buried alive. He takes extreme precautions like customizing his intended coffin and tomb with escape measures and informing all of his friends of his condition. As he grows more and more fearful, however, the phobia begins to take over his life and soon, he is made a prisoner of his own fear. 

Poe truly emphasizes how terrifying it would really be to be buried alive with his gruesome descriptions. The narrator imagines the close hardness of the coffin on all sides, the stifling air and smell of earth, the complete darkness, and the closeness of decay, touching on many different fears at once. He also explores the psychological part of the fear, outlining the process from slowly waking from the deep coma, to the confusion of the strange environment the sleeper finds themselves in, to the realization that they have no way to communicate with the world above. Poe makes it very clear that the experience of being buried alive is to die and experience death while still remaining alive; an unnatural and primally abhorrent idea. 

The inclusion of the supposedly real cases of premature burial take this base level of fear and escalate it to paranoia as reassurance that the fear is actually valid. The narrator gives several accounts, each one horrifying in a different way. He describes one man who was accidentally killed during an attempt to revive him with an electric shock and one woman whose skeleton was found upright in her tomb, indicating that she had awakened and then tried in vain to escape. These cases are horrific enough in their own right, but they are even more chilling given that cases of premature burial were extremely common in reality during Poe’s time. The bell that the narrator mentions being attached to his hand for emergency communication should he be buried alive was a real precaution taken in many graveyards to ensure that those who were prematurely entombed could seek help. Though we know the narrator is taking his obsession with this fear too far, we also can’t help but understand his anxiety in a society in which medical science could only loosely determine the line between life and death. 

Would I recommend “The Premature Burial?” Definitely; Poe’s understanding of various fears is always elaborate and infectious, and this is no exception. The feelings of dread and anxiety are palpable and the visceral descriptions of the sensations of being closed up in a coffin would make anyone feel uneasy. As unpleasant as fear is, there is also something fascinating in the analysis and exploration of phobias. They can so easily overcome the mind, just as the narrator becomes absorbed in his fear in his very efforts to avoid it. 

For more analysis (which contains spoilers!!!) please read below the cut!

Like in “The Imp of the Perverse,” this tale is all about how the mind can trick itself and how difficult it is to get something out of your mind once it has planted itself there. The more you try not to think of it, the more it invades your thoughts. This is similar to what happens with the narrator and his obsession with being buried alive. What starts out as a simple thought grows until it consumes his every thought and action, even preventing him from going anywhere without his friends who know of his condition. What he seeks is to reassure himself that he will not be buried alive, but rather than doing this through simple reasoning, he does this through excessive measures, forcing him to think about his fear even more. And of course the more he thinks about it, the more it tortures him. 

This is what causes the narrator to wake in a dark, cramped space and immediately assume that he has been buried alive. His descent into total panic is extremely short. As soon as he realizes that he is without any of his burial precautions, rather than assuming that he has NOT been buried alive, he assumes that he must be in a common coffin with no way to escape. He quickly begins screaming bloody murder until he realizes that he is, in fact, simply sleeping on a ship with very cramped quarters. This demonstrates the great lengths to which fear has gotten, taking over his every thought to the point where his mind can convince him that his phobia has come true. 

Remarkably, however, this tale has a very hopeful ending. It is not a case of self-fulfilling prophecy like you might expect from Poe rather, the narrator takes his anxiety attack as a learning experience and completely turns his life around after that horrible shock. He goes out more, travels more, and thinks less and less about death and burial and more about life and his own enjoyment. For an author that seems to think a great deal about death, this is an incredibly uplifting ending. But why write it this way? Poe is a master of terror after all and there is no shortage of that in this story. The cautionary tale could have ended horrificly as a warning to the overly-cautious. But I like to think that Poe also took something from the happy end of this tale. Perhaps this was an attempt to assuage his own obsession with death and analyze maybe if he has let death infest his brain a little too much. After all, the narrator claims he even stopped reading ghoulish stories, much like the one he is part of. We all enjoy a good scare and some of us are more attuned to the macabre than others, however it’s important not to let the fear of death snuff out the wonders of life. Even Poe will tell you so.

So, what do y’all think? Is the narrator justified in the lengths he goes to to prevent premature burial? Do you think the narrator is really cured in the end? Do you have a phobia of similar severity to the narrator’s? To add your thoughts, please comment on this post or send me an ask! You can also use the tag #31daysofpoe to write your own response post!

[aximili]

X, Q, E

oooo i didn’t think i had any ocs starting with x but i remembered one from ages ago actually..... i had a story called After Life abt a kid trying to redeem his soul after he gets sent to hell, it was a bit all over the place tho and i scrapped it. although recently saw there’s a netflix show of the same name w ricky gervais and still managed to be annoyed

Full Name: Xanthe (if she had a surname it’s gone from my memory omg)

Nicknames, If Any: Xan

Hogwarts House: slytherin

Gender: female

Sexuality: bi

A Song I Associate With Them: hmmmm.... That Man by caro emerald

3 Important Relationships: WELL i only remember 2 other characters she knew, tbh this world was never well-developed

-ransom, he’s her very officious & stuffy angel rival who she ends up having a weird hate-fling with

-there was the main kid whose guardian demon she is (oh yea she’s like a guardian angel but the opposite. encourages u to be bad.) but for the life of me i don’t remember his name lol. once i had developed RanXan as concepts i got distracted by their s*xy little rivalry. yes it’s all terminally het, i was like 14

2 Fears: she’s been (well, not alive, but around) for a long time so she’snot scared of much. she’s a very cocky person and embraces being the bad influence, especially to annoy ransom, bc on the surface she’s like, well this whole heaven/hell divide is bullshit, people aren’t just one thing. but i think deep down she’s afraid of the idea that she really is bad. and afraid of what happens once she fades into irrelevance in hell and stops getting assignments but still has to carry on existing

1 Element of their backstory: i think she was alive way back in Biblical Times - obv she wasn’t called xanthe then but chose her own name. she was a serial liar and said that god was talking to her in order to get things she wanted. but she died young, like everyone did

Q - oo i DO have one Q oc! he’s from adrift, my pirate novel that i will one day finish

Full Name: Queryn Smousk

Nicknames, If Any: idk if anyone calls him a nickname. they mostly just don’t refer to him. 

Hogwarts House: hufflepuff

Gender: male ? hm

Sexuality: gay

A Song I Associate With Them:  bottom of the river by delta rae

3 Important Relationships:

-rictor avis: queryn is a generic sailor on the pirate ship, rictor is the surgeon/carpenter for the crew, he’s a huge tall crow man, and is equally or perhaps more creepy than queryn. they hang around together and give everyone weird vibes. rictor is mute & queryn isn’t, but he says very little out of choice (he doesn’t speak the main language, idk common or whatever, very well) but they like to sit in the crows nest together in silence most hours of the day when theyre not working. everyone even their crewmates thinks they might be up to some weird shit. their dark secret? theyre just a cute couple.... they just like to hang out. they bonded with quiet, intense looks when queryn was first rescued dying in the swamp and brought on board and rictor mended his wounds. it was tender. absolutely nobody else knows theyre a couple even tho they don’t keep it a secret. theyre just chill

-garran korrash: garran is the bosun and is a literal/figurative grizzly old bear, and as well as being queryn’s manager he’s one of the only people who he’s really chill with. garran was the one who insisted they stop n help him out, and queryn’s been grateful ever since. he doesn’t say it bc he hardly says anything, but he shows it in hard work

-sonya perlace: like almost all of her crew, queryn would die for captain sonya. he comes from a pretty harsh society where the strong survive, and even tho he never quite fit in there, he really respects sonya’s strength & leadership.

2 Fears: even tho he’s a pirate his biggest fear is drowning since he nearly drowned before. he has a lot of nightmares about it. he’s also creeped out by elliot. cause what the fuck even IS that?

1 Element of their backstory: p much the only backstory he has is that he was part of this society of amphibian/lizard people in the deep swampy area of the continent that’s cut off from the rest. he was out hunting but got badly gored by a huge aninal (idk what, like a Bigger Lizard.. theres always a bigger lizard) and couldnt make it home. he started sinking into the bog but couldn’t pull himself free, then the area began to flood with torrential rainwater and he cried for help. luckily sonya & garran happened to be trekkin through the jungle and heard him

E - has to be elliot, the little bastard supreme. i played him as a dnd character with an altered backstory but i’ll use the adrift version

Full Name: elliot (no known surname)

Nicknames, If Any: nope

Hogwarts House: slytherin

Gender: male

Sexuality: probably bi? he only a teen though and being surrounded by furries hasn’t had much chance to develop any feelings on the matter

A Song I Associate With Them:  mariner’s revenge song by the decemberists

3 Important Relationships:

lol 2 of the 3 are fully hatred relationships because this young man has iiiiisssuuuuuues

-sonya perlace: he acts the begrudging deckhand who’s resigned himself to his life, but he is 100% devoted to eventually killing her. she killed his mama and he has been waiting for his moment ever since, he’s even had opportunities to leave the crew but has stayed so he can keep close to her. it’s fully like, would have a picture of her with daggers & darts in it, if he had such resources

-niphea perlace: niph is the captain’s daughter, the first mate, and the reason elliot’s still alive - she persuaded sonya not to throw him off the ship along with his mum. he has understandably mixed feelings abt this, and he rarely shows it, but she’s always been an advocate for him and treated him fairly so he does like niph more than anyone, despite himself. also she’s his closest in age on a ship full of adults. he.... tries not to think abt the fact he plans on killing her mother in return cause that’s a bit awkward isnt it

-aidan moss: quartermaster aidan doesn’t like things he doesn’t understand, and he doesn’t understand what elliot is, so he goes out of his way to be awful to him, tending to delegate his own jobs to elliot at every chance he can get & generally insulting him. elliot tolerates it bc he has to. but make no mistake this dude is no2 on the kill list

2 Fears: i don’t think he has a lot of fears because he’s already been through some of the worst things imaginable. i don’t even think he precisely fears drowning/dying at sea, because he’s been focused on the image of how his mother died for so long, & imagining doing the same to sonya, that it kinda no longer affects him?  but he also saw his dad die over a long period from wound infection and i think that must have made a traumatic impression on him, so i imagine he’s probably at least repulsed by decay/rot

1 Element of their backstory: so elliot is the only human character in a world of animals basically... i mean this is major novel spoilers but when tf am i ever gonna finish that.  he comes from a very remote island of remaining humans, descendants of the few who survived nuclear disaster a long time ago. when he was small he and his parents were exiled from the island for breaking its rules (yea, as tends to happen w small isolated communities, things got over the top cult-y) and sent out in a tiny boat to fend for themselves. his dad died slowly while they drifted in the ocean, and he and his mum were near death when they were picked up by sonya’s crew, who were like what the fuck are those??? they kept them in the hold to discuss what to do w them, but elliot’s mum, thalia, tried to break free, attacking niph when she came with food. as punishment sonya made her walk the plank, and that’s where it all went wrong yknow. woops this isn’t 1 element is it. oh well 

[littlegumshoe]

ANOTHER skip list in no particular order.

refer to my previous lists for more

SCP 001- when day breaks

SCP 001- the database

SCP 001- gods blind spot

SCP 001- twistedgears-kaktus-proposal

SCP 3000- Ananteshesha

winner of 3000 competition ‘horror’

SCP 3007- A World of Two Artists

hallucination where your mind is transported to a place but your body stays put

SCP 1730-  What Happened to Site-13?

SCP 451- Mr Lonely

formerly an scp agent, cannot perceive presence or actions of human beings anymore

SCP 3512- The More You Know

incels and pick up artist culture

SCP 2740-  It Wasn't There 

Another reason for you to be afraid of attics

SCP 3005- A Light that Died

All information about the appearance of this scp has been lost, all that remains is a testing log. One of my personal favourites

SCP 978- Desire camera

SCP 2316- Field trip

you do not recognize the bodies in the water.

SCP 1423- Summer of '76 

Connected to the last SCP “We’ve had a great year, haven’t we?”

SCP 1875- Antique Chess Computer

self playing chess set, who under no circumstances should be connected to the internet, pretty unnerving skip!

SCP 140-  An Incomplete Chronicle

a self writing book writing about a long dead civilisation, as it writes fragments of this made up civilisation manifest in reality, the more it writes the closer they come to meeting with our own time, what happens when the date reaches modern day?

SCP 2539- Highway To Hell

“After returning, said individuals typically show signs of severe dehydration and heatstroke, even when provided adequate supplies to prevent this.”

SCP 1231- The Theoretical Family 

Amiga which displays a family, the more it is viewed the more thumbnails of the family are displayed, each with more distressing circumstances. Is it all real?

SCP 2933- Mr. Scary

“Yes, see, Father was v-very sick. The rust was inside him. So he p-promised me that if I took the rust from him, that he would m-make smiles for everybody.”

SCP 2935- O, Death

cave leading to alternate earth where everything is dead, plants, animals, humans, microbes, everything! But how?

●●|●●●●●|●●|● 

memetic SCP that can only be safely documented through pictures.

SCP 3998 The Wicker Witch Lives

Documents detailing a trial of a witch, slowly we unearth her true intentions

SCP 1425- Star Signals

a self help book 

“With the best-selling novel Star Signals, sold in four countries and translated into hundreds of languages, you too can tune in to the celestial frequencies, and then become like the stars!”

SCP 358- The Red Pool

creatures from another world manifest from this otherworldly portal.

SCP 2529- Rest in Peace

missing persons phenomenon

SCP 1538- Instructions to a Twin-Screw Extruder 

suicide hole

SCP 1487- Beautiful Bones

girl who can only see people as skeletons

SCP 1782- Tabula Rasa 

"There's a hole in the wall in the bottom of the floor / There's a girl in the wall in the bottom of the floor"  

SCP 2695- Lucibelle Perhacs

“SCP-2695 is an elderly woman, originally residing in Montreal, Canada,,,

,,,Since initial containment, an additional three sewing needles have appeared within their right atrium and pulmonary valve, suggesting that SCP-2695-T is currently self-replicating at a rate of one needle per two weeks.”

SCP 715- My Face That I May Be

“,,,has been known to animate sporadically, producing images believed to be modified from previous shot,,,Images produced by SCP-715 are often heavily distorted”

This photobooth SCP is under so many locks and keys and passwords, something extremely sinister is within the files.

SCP 3044- Evolution In A Bottle

SCP 2886- Planet Hopping Volcano

[Czech greeting clip] Dear friends [Esperanto greeting] World [sound of wind] [sound of thunder] [Amoy greeting] eaten

SCP 736- The Iapetus Anomaly

Chilling, the build up in the research log makes it just such a great read.

SCP 2467- A Sum Greater than its Parts

‘The watcher of eyes and biter of teeth deemed them worthy’ a ship that appears in any body of water large enough to fit its mast (even a puddle)

SCP 3333 (wayback machine link)- The Tower 

the author edited the original and it fucking sucks, so ive linked the old version here! One of my all time favourites.

SCP 2137 A Door to Another World

Special Access Designation: CODE NIGHTMARE REGENT RED 

SCP 1048-  Builder Bear

a teddy bear

SCP 2508- The Long Wait

Hardcore cottagecore

SCP 2669- Khevtuul 1

a space probe, designed to find any planets capable of supporting earth life. It absorbs the consciousness of a former doctor and wants to return home.

SCP 2798- This Dying World

“SCP-2798 is the result of a Foundation project, initiated in 1954 and completed in 1971, designed to contain SCP-001.”

SCP 2308- Futures Trading

a temporal anomaly used to make infinite moneys

SCP 3999-  I Am At The Center of Everything That Happens To Me

A barely coherent SCP that takes a journey through the writers mind, truly wild and amazing piece.

SCP 1981 "RONALD REAGAN CUT UP WHILE TALKING"

SCP 1867- A Gentleman

sea slug with the mind of a british explorer

SCP 2719- Inside

short, im really loving the meta scps at the moment.

SCP 2747- As below, so above

the ULTIMATE meta experience, you will question the fabric of reality

SCP 460- S Séance Storm

Floating cloud that stops to materialise ghosts

SCP 3125- The Escapee (The password is 55555)

Memetic SCP “ At this point, "humanity" as an abstract concept, along with all attendant abstracts such as "civilization", "culture", "society", "community" and "family" will have ceased to exist. “

SCP 1739- Obsolete Laptop

laptop found with an .exe file that sends you to an alternate dimension, with one express purpose,,,

http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2844 

a cute sentient machine who was programmed to create  “small, interlocking metal pieces for the glory of He Who Was Broken” though it only knows how to make paperclips,,, even when its power is turned off,,,

http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1451 

[DATA LOST] The changes have already begun to occur. The three aspects….are melding Are[DATA LOST]et out[DATA LOST]

http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1483 

a safe two-way portal leading to another Antarctica, honestly, i could see a whole novel being written about this scp it truly fascinated me

SCP 2474-  Irnini Mons

space anomaly on Venus

SCP 3519- These Quiet Days

The World is Going to End

SCP 3029- KIC 8462852 ("Tabby's Star") 

A star had been noticed to dim periodically and it was determined to be an array of reflective objects around the star, a ship is sent to investigate. Heartwarming.

SCP 3003- The End of History

Earth like planet invested with a parasite, our world may be a perfect new host

SCP 3002-  Attempts to Assassinate Thought

A shared memory, delving deeper into the files unearths something we didn’t notice at the start and it may be too late.

SCP 3200- Chronos 

A void in space where trans-universal contact may be possible. A crew is sent to investigate.

SCP 1780- The Temporal Anomalies Department

office nameplate that opens a portal in the nearest door, weird, spooky, and at points hilarious

“Agents █████ and ███████ @2301, Debriefing. Who keeps using the doughnut?!”

SCP 3008- A Perfectly Normal, Regular Old IKEA

SCP 2003- Preferred Option

Time travel to multiple universes and multiple times, really demonstrates the Foundations fear of the unknown and barbaric choices to fend off the end of the world.

SCP 3963- I Contain Multitudes

The writing at the start was meh, but God!! this is such a gross lil goodie

SCP 513- A Cowbell

You’ve seen it. Now he can hear you. You’ve touched it. Now he can see you. Never ring it. If you hear it, he can touch you.

SCP 703- Into the Closet

The lil closet that could

SCP 3101- Contain me Harder

My scp husband, or me as an SCP i cant decide. This skip is all im about.

SCP 6327-J-  [redacted for brevity]

A joke SCP i had to include, because its really good.

[pontmercyingtil]

RebelCap Prompt Fill!

So, I tried to answer using ALL three prompts for your request, because it was fun. Enjoy trying to spot them! (and thank you for being such an awesome fic friend, @cassandor)

----------** All Things New and Bright **---------

“Do you ever have nightmares?” Jyn asks, her head pillowed on his chest. Outside of this cot, the chill of Hoth awaits them, and she sees no reason at all to move.

“No,” Cassian replies, his voice soft, just like the snow that must be falling outside. It’s hs nighttime voice, as she thinks of it. Private, intimate, a part of him he keeps away from the rest of the universe.

“None at all?” She shifts a little to look up at him, which accidentally sends her elbow straight into his gut. There’s the tiniest exhale from him, a faint wince. “Sorry.”

“I’m fine,” he says. “It’s the occupational hazard of sleeping with you.”

“Hey, kriff off.” Her lips narrow, but only for a second, because he’s leaning in to kiss her forehead. The forehead kiss, Jyn thinks, is a decidedly unfair tactic, one that completely negates whatever glare she was delivering.

“Kriff off? As in, go somewhere else? And leave you all cold in this cot?”

“Do it. I dare you.”

He just answers by tugging the three layers of blankets around her a little tighter. Two of them are their standard issue ones, a faded green-brown like so much else in the Rebellion. Another is bright, bright blue, and nearly brand-new. She’d seen it on a mission that for once, hadn’t required stealth or speed, and bought it with her new officer’s salary, a concept that still baffles her. Jyn knows Cassian surrenders his pay, that it goes to those more in need, but she can’t bring herself to do the same. Not yet. Not when, for the first time in years, she can buy things that are bright, soft, new.

“You know I won’t leave,” Cassian whispers. Ah. To him the joke hadn’t been funny, not like it had been to her. Because Jyn knows that, by now. He’s stuck by her side for two years, seen her at her worst and helped her be her best. Why the hell would he leave her now when she’s just started being a bright, new, type of person?

“Unless you asked,” he adds. Something sharper than a shard of glass, sharper than a razor-edged vibroblade twists in between her ribs. Her hand fumbles for his under the blankets, their callused fingers tangling. Jyn has never held a hand that doesn’t have the calluses from a blaster’s grip, and she doesn’t think she ever will.

“Well, I won’t. Unless you start hogging blankets, and we know you don’t do that.” Jyn keeps the mood light, has to. She can’t surrender to the pain inside of her, the ache of knowing that as much as she is new and bright and focused now, Cassian is still worn and tired and broken. She’s tried to mend him as best she can. But it’s hard when she doesn’t know how to fix, only to destroy, and harder yet when it is the very thing he loves, his Rebellion, that keeps shattering him, tearing him apart at all the ragged seams Jyn has welded back together with kisses and promises.

“Maybe I’ll hog blankets on another base. You never know.” He says her slang word with carefulness, as if it’s a new language to him. Cassian, she’s learned speaks seven languages fluently, and can converse in four more.

“Oh yeah? What kind of a planet would make you, Captain Cold, want a blanket?”

There. A flash of humor sparks in his eyes, the way she’s seen Skywalker’s lightsaber ignite. Both lightsaber and Cassian’s smile, she thinks, are the light of hope.

But the light fades as he ponders the question, finally admits, “Rain.”

If she hadn’t been looking at him, she might have teased him about that. Might have asked if Fest called particularly wet snow their rainy season. Might have asked if he disliked rain because it might mess up his hair.

But her gaze has been locked on his, so she knows not to. Because even the thought of rain on his hair, of rain at all, takes her back to a planet she tries to forget, a moment she can never forget. And given the coldness like a wall of ice in his eyes, Cassian is thinking the same thing.

“You know what we should do?” she asks, her voice casual still, but so light. Her own bedroom voice, one she is just learning. “Next leave? Let’s go somewhere it rains.”

“What?”

Her free hand slides up to brush the hair from his eyes, to stroke the little crease between his brows. To touch him in all the intimate, soft, new ways she’s learning. “I mean it.”

“Trust me, I have learned many times you do not say things you do not mean.”

That quirk of his lips, neither smile nor frown, she soothes with a kiss. “Good. So. Rainy planet. Or moon. Whatever. Let’s go, yeah? Let’s go and make some new memories.” It’s a wild, bold idea, one that she can’t even believe she’s suggestion. It might be the most luxurious thing she’s ever suggested to him, beyond the time she tried to convince him they had time to take a bubblebath in the mansion they’d snuck into for a recon mission. Because even then, that had been spur of the moment, a joke, admittedly laced with desire, but an impulsive joke.

This? To make plans for the future in the middle of the war? To plan for good memories when all of their best so far have been snatched out of darkness and shadows, moments of joy as much as survival. It’s an impossible thing, she’s asking for, she thinks, but one she wants to give him. “I want to kiss you in the rain,” she admits. “I want… I want to catch raindrops in my hands, and smell the wet mud. It’s got… there’s a smell to good mud, you know? It’s bright and warm and full of potential.”

“Mud-smelling is not exactly something I’ve had much experience with.” Cassian replies. But he’s talking. That’s good. Even better is when he admits, “we did… we had a greenhouse though, and my sisters and I… we’d, you know, try to build with it. Made a mess.”

“I’d make mud houses and try to chase down a Tur-Toad to stick in it. Always collapsed by the time I got one.”

The corner of his eyes crinkle. “You should build with snow. Much more stable.”

“And where am I gonna find a Tur-Toad in the snow, huh?” Really, where would she find one anywhere but Lah'mu, anywhere but a planet she didn’t want to go back to. Which meant, perhaps, one day, she should.

“Are Tur-Toads really that important to this diorama?”

“Absolutely.” she shifts in the blanket nest again, her cold feet brushing over his calf. She has a bad habit of kicking her socks off.

“Shavit!” he curses, one of the words he’s picked up from her. “Those are like ice, Jyn. You didn’t tell me you’re cold.”

“I’m not,” she promises. Smiling, because he is too. Because they managed to get past the pain of the past, to even find some small joy in stories of their long-ago past. It would baffle the others, people like Leia, who asked what Jyn and Cassian talk about. No one would believe the two so-called heroes spend a good deal of time arguing over Tur-Toads and cold feet.

“Mm.” he fusses more with the blankets, holds her closer. “So, a rainy planet. Full of mud and tur-toads.”

“One with a spring,”Jyn insists. If they're going to build this dream that may never come true, then she wants it to be the best possible of all options. “I like spring.” Likes its potential, the light, the longer days.

“I do, too.” This time, it’s Cassian who leans forward, who kisses her, shy at first, like he always is (except when they’re kissing after an argument), warming to her the way snow melts, slow, then all in a rush. She tucks her head in the crook of his shoulder after. They should both sleep. Soon. Tomorrow will come and there will be no spring, not on Hoth, and they will have work to do.

It’s just…

She sighs. “I still have nightmares.” There. The topic that had woke her, the topic that she’d hoped he would share.

“You do?” his voice is a low rumble now, protective. “You haven’t… you never told me.”

Because he sleeps so rarely. Because once he falls asleep she’s terrified to wake him. Because oftentimes, reaching out and feeling he still has a pulse is enough to send the nightmare away. Because… she doesn’t want to admit this. Hates admitting anything. He won’t leave her, he’d said, but a lifetime of being left points to the opposite, and she’s scared to trust in a future that might be different. “They’re worse when you’re gone.”

He’s silent. Thinking. There’s nothing to be thought of, though. He can’t comm her, not when he’s allowed no communication back to base. Can’t send her flirty holomessages the way Solo does to Commander Organa, because even if he was permitted to, both of them would die of mutual embarrassment before finishing a recording. And he absolutely can’t start skipping missions. Not for her.

Sleep tugs at her. She yawns. “It’s fine, Cass.”

“No, I…” he starts, but is cut off by another yawn. This time, one of his. He kisses the top of her head now, since it’s all he can reach with her clinging to him like a mynock. “Boordii has nice rain,” he says. “Spent a few months there as Aach a few years ago. No Imps, no bases. Just a bunch of smugglers and some cigara greenhouses.”

“That where Aach got his bad habit?”

“Maybe.” He lets out a deep breath. “Nice planet. Lots of places to play Sabaac, so that’ll keep you happy. Good food. You’ll have to let me know about the mud.”

“Boordii, huh?” her eyes slide closed again. “Tell me more.” She falls asleep listening to him describe the remote planet, and then, what they might do on leave there.

Four nights later, he wakes her with that same gentle nighttime voice, but this time, it’s to tell her he’s headed out. They never say goodbye. Not to each other. But he does let her know when he leaves, and she does command the Force to be with him, making the well-wish sound more like a one-woman threat against the greatest power in the universe.

When she wakes, she finds three things on the stack of crates that serve as their dresser. An old, handwoven blue blanket, with a note on top of it. It’s his handwriting, because no one else has writing that looks as if each letter is personally attacking the next one after it. “Stay warm.” her fingers skim the blanket, feel the soft wool. There’s what looks like a burn singe in the top corner. The lines of color are sharp peaked stripes, and suddenly, she remembers Fest used to be famous for such weavings.

Under the blanket is, impossibly, delightfully, a stuffed toy, small, with little bits of scrap duraplast for eyes, and the exact same faded green-brown as the Alliance fatigues it must have been sewn from. The same green-brown of all Tur-Toads.

When she lifts it, she sees there’s something attached, a tiny datachip. Toad and blanket in hand, she pads back to the cot, and plugs in the datachip to the pad that she’s claimed as half-hers, since the ALliance is short on new ones. It has multiple files. Leave paperwork. Fake IDs for both Aach and a lady smuggler named Raine Tur. The name makes her smile, though she does wish he hadn’t used that picture of her mid-sneeze from that day he’d made stuffed hot peppers. Kay had taken the holo, though, and it’s a good enough memory to forgive the depiction... which is probably why he picked it in the damn first place. Clearance for them to head to Boordi.

It has, she realizes, all she needs to hope for the spring that will come someday, making everything soft and bright and new.

[letterboxd]

Horror.

Letterboxd presents our community’s 25 top rated horror films of all time.

With the release this month of the newest Halloween, and an embarrassment of riches in the form of thousands of new horror film reviews thanks to all the Hoop-tober / Shocktober / 31 Days of Horror challenges, we are feeling brave enough to open the crypt and pull out the Letterboxd community’s 25 Highest Rated Horror Films of All Time.

Don’t @ or stab us, these are computed from your ratings of all feature-length films tagged in our horror genre, as at 24 October 2018. It’s a wide-ranging list, with some perhaps surprising omissions—for example, the original Halloween, Night of the Living Dead and Evil Dead 2 all just missed the cut. See the full list or read on for data insights and member reviews of our highest rated horrors.

Strangling the numbers:

Though there is some genre crossover (into comedy with Young Frankenstein, mockumentary with What We Do in the Shadows and One Cut of the Dead, and zom-rom-com with Shaun of the Dead), these films are all categorized as horrors by us (and IMDb).

In the battle of great horror decades, the scary sixties wins with seven films, over five films from the slasher seventies and three from the evil eighties. Shout out to the terror twenties, with three films.

By country, USA has most films in the list, but Japan comes in strong second with four, Germany has three and France, Sweden and the UK are represented with two each. India, New Zealand and the Czech Republic also make the cut.

The most obscure film on the list (from a Western perspective) is Manichitrathazhu, from Kerala-born director Fazil, watched by just over 250 members.

All the directors are dudes. We can’t make any excuses for that, but we can point out that, behind-the-scenes and on-screen, women played important roles in these films. The Phantom Carriage, for example, is based on the novel by Sweden’s Selma Lagerlöf, who in 1909 was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. And what would Jaws be without the editing prowess of Verna Fields?

There are five films on the list from this century, some by directors of color, including Jordan Peele, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. Roll on the 21st century of horror.

On that note: this top 25 is based on member ratings, but we also have a popularity index—based on the sheer amount of activity for each film regardless of rating—which produces quite a different list, heavily favoring the 21st century.

Letterboxd’s 25 Highest Rated Horror Films (as at October 2018):

1. Psycho (1960, USA) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

“Throughout his career, director Alfred Hitchcock has enriched the world of cinema with some truly groundbreaking thrillers and despite that, Psycho feels like something of a first from him. It’s his first stint with the genre of horror, it breaks through the barriers of censorship unlike any film before and over the years, it has played a major role in influencing not only films but pop-culture as well.” —CinemaClown

2. Alien (1979, USA) Directed by Ridley Scott

“When shit hits the fan it comes with the best first impression of any monster. PERIOD.” —TKettle

3. The Shining (1980, USA) Directed by Stanley Kubrick

“As soon as Jack Torrance is in frame, that uneasy feeling takes over. I feel as though I wish I could warn all of the other characters in the movie to walk on eggshells, don’t upset him! Maybe you shouldn’t talk to him right now! Can’t you see it! Just leave him alone! There has never been another character to give me such all-consuming anxiety.” —HollieHorror

4. The Thing (1982, USA) Directed by John Carpenter

“The man responsible for the movie’s stomach-churning physical effects deserves most of the credit for its appeal and success. Rob Bottin worked so hard he was hospitalized for exhaustion, pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer! And he was only 21 at the time! Pure underrated genius.” —Josh Stoddard

5. Rosemary’s Baby (1968, USA) Directed by Roman Polański

“I’m awestruck by how good this is. Every little detail from the very beginning means something and you really experience exactly what Rosemary experiences. Masterful spectatorship alignment.” —Sean Upton

6. Get Out (2017, USA) Directed by Jordan Peele

“When you prod underneath the surface here there’s so much just waiting to be unpacked. As a piece of writing it’s a masterclass in foreshadowing and subtext.” —Alex Secker

7. Jaws (1975, USA) Directed by Steven Spielberg

“Bruce, the mechanical shark, still works today. Even with all the VFX-heavy films that are commonplace now, the shark is [as] scary and compelling now as it was in 1975. The camerawork is masterful, and it feels like films now are still trying to catch up to what was happening behind the camera on this movie.” —EJ Moreno

8. 修羅 (Demons) (1971, Japan) Directed by Toshio Matsumoto

“Matsumoto è stato uno dei più grandi innovatori del cinema giapponese e fonte di ispirazione di grandi registi del cinema mondiale. Quest’opera non fa che confermarne l’importanza e la genialità.”

Translation: “Matsumoto was one of the greatest innovators of Japanese cinema and a source of inspiration for great world cinema directors. This work confirms his importance and genius.” —Tonino Mannella

9. Les Diaboliques (Diabolique) (1955, France) Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

“It was extremely suspenseful and you can see how this film had such a huge impact on Hitchcock when he made Psycho… Five out of five overly dramatic heart attacks.” —Libby Ajayi

10. Possession (1981, Germany, France) Directed by Andrzej Żuławski

“Ana’s spectral screams as she flows and dances like a ghoul in the subway. All I could do was cry at it, with her, for her.” —Claire Diane

11. 怪談 (Kwaidan) (1964, Japan) Directed by Masaki Kobayashi

“Every frame of this movie is a piece of art… To ask for more would be greedy.” —Gabe

12. മണിച്ചിത്രത്താഴ് (Manichitrathazhu) (1993, India) Directed by Fazil

“Perhaps the most popular film to come out of Kerala in this generation. The screenplay, the performance, and the plot are worth a study in [themselves]. Fantastic package of thrilling entertainment and storytelling.” —Vinay Warrier

13. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962, USA) Directed by Robert Aldrich

“Normally my heart really aches for ‘crazy’ characters who have been brutalized by the concept of womanhood but… it’s very hard for me to feel bad for Baby Jane.” —Caroline

14. The Innocents (1961, UK) Directed by Jack Clayton

“Exquisite and captivating… it’s the only movie I’ve watched this Hooptober that has genuinely scared me. Squirming, nail biting, chills down the back, all of it.” —Xebeche

15. Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In) (2008, Sweden) Directed by Tomas Alfredson

“Deep down, it’s just a story about human misunderstanding, but it is gracefully put together to give you a thrilling ride that will make you root for an evil you’re not really sure is there. It makes you question your moral standards and puts you in a nice grey area.” —Charlie Bluu

16. カメラを止めるな！ (One Cut of the Dead) (2017, Japan) Directed by Shin'ichirô Ueda

“The film starts as a Z-list zombie movie and looks cheesy as hell, but when we discover we are watching more of a mockumentary of this film being made and the director on the verge of a breakdown, the fun really begins. The first 37 minutes are completely one cut… one cut, that actually blows my mind.” —Coles84

17. 鬼婆 (Onibaba) (1964, Japan) Directed by Kaneto Shindō

“In good ol’ black and white, Onibaba is a visually stunning erotic horror film painted in deep shadows and flesh… it’s less a ghost or monster tale and more of a morality play about the passions and desperation that arise in splintered, war-torn communities, and how no matter what we fear, we are ultimately our own demons. Creepy, sensual and effective.” —Doug Bellak

18. Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) (1920, Germany) Directed by Robert Wiene

“From Murnau’s Nosferatu and the American noir of the 1940s, to contemporary horror films and every piece of work where Tim Burton asks Johnny Depp to dab black around the actor’s eyes, the influence of Wiene’s film can be felt… it is the stuff of nightmares that still has power nearly a century after it was made.” —Travis Lytle

19. Spalovač mrtvol (The Cremator) (1968, Czechia) Directed by Juraj Herz

“I find it hard to fathom a film as stylish and mesmerizing as this is, 45 years old! It was obviously way ahead of its time! The cinematography is as captivating as the film is deliciously macabre!” —Juli Norwood

20. The Exorcist (1973, USA) Directed by William Friedkin

“The Exorcist remains one of the greatest achievements of the horror genre. The things they were able to accomplish with sound mixing at the time have yet to be outdone. The makeup department deserves a heap of credit, and the effects still look great. Acting is something that typically gets sacrificed in most horror movies, but this is one exception where every actor delivers a quality performance.” —Sean

21. Körkarlen (The Phantom Carriage) (1921, Sweden) Directed by Victor Sjöström

“It was not for nothing that Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to get the Nobel Prize. She’s a great storyteller, and there’s a melody in her writings that is hard to not get sucked into… Victor Sjöström has really understood the tone of the novel and the music that comes with it is in tune with the melody of Lagerlöf's writings.” —Terése Flynn

22. Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage (Faust) (1926, Germany) Directed by F. W. Murnau

“I watch this, and cannot fathom how this one man could make the cinematic medium look so relentlessly groundbreaking in its mere infancy. It’s obscene that he died so young… in a sense, Faust’s quest for the ur-truth becomes Murnau’s own quest for his own epic cinema: one that maximizes the potential for awe at every turn, leaving behind mundane methods for totalizing ones.” —Darkness Lingers

23. Shaun of the Dead (2004, UK) Directed by Edgar Wright

“I understand tossing Batman when your other options are [Prince’s] two biggest contributions to the world of music, but it still saddens me that Shaun and Ed so carelessly tossed away a truly undervalued record. Perhaps, we all do crazy things when we’re trying to survive.” —Willow Maclay

24. Young Frankenstein (1974, USA) Directed by Mel Brooks

“When Mel hits, he hits big… [he] may not employ nuance often, but he’s got broad comedy and wordplay down pat, and some of his best examples of this are in Young Frankenstein.” —Joe Campbell

25. What We Do in the Shadows (2014, New Zealand) Directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi

“An absolute must-watch for fans of horror comedy, horror, vampires, brilliant comedy in general, and great improvization. According to their IMDb trivia, Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement and co. shot over 125 hours of improv for this film before finally whittling it down to 90 minutes of the best stuff.” —Voidember

Right. Now that that’s all done with, we are ready to go into town and party.

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

by Wardog

Monday, 23 July 2007Wardog opens the inevitable slew of Harry Potter by bitching and moaning.~Reviewing Harry Potter has got to be something of a pointless endeavour; I mean, if you like Harry Potter you'll read it anyway and if you don't, well, you probably have more self respect than I do just about now. The truth of the matter is, I don't like Harry Potter any more. Once, upon a time, when they were tautly-plotted, slim-line, above-average children's books I was very fond of them. But now that they're a sprawling, insufficiently edited Phenomenon I can't read them without frustration, and yet seem to be incapable of, you know, stopping. It's depressing, I think I need a twelve step programme. Given that the book has evolved beyond conventional reviewing (and that's not a good thing) here are some assorted observations.

Needless to say: spoilerific, including death spoilers

Plot & Pacing

As in the preceding two books, this is completely wrecked. Although it has a beginning and a reasonably climatic ending sequence (the Battle of Hogwarts, because that's all we ever really cared about anyway, wasn't it?) everything in between seems jerky and uneven. Essentially, it consists of long stretches of exposition interspersed with pockets of reasonably exciting action sequences, as Team Potter infiltrate the Ministry, Gringotts, Malfoy Manner and finally Hogwarts with varying degrees of success and pointfulness. If I was feeling generous, I would comment on the thematic nature of these incursions, and how resonant it is that everything that Harry was introduced to in the earlier books as a source of protection and authority is now corrupted. But I'm not feeling generous; Harry, Ron and Hermione spend an enormous quantity of the book sitting in a magically protected tent in the middle of nowhere, dithering between hallows and horcruxes and reading Rita Skeeter's biography of Albus Dumbledore.

Aside from one or two chapters at the beginning of the book, the Harry Potter books have always been told entirely from Harry Potter's point of view. The reader sees what Harry Potter sees, and hears what Harry Potter hears. This comes with attendant advantages and disadvantages. It brings the reader close to Harry and makes you root for him, it also rigidly controls the flow of information between author and reader. But it also means that for anything to happen, Harry has to be there. That's why he spends such a lot of time crawling around beneath his invisibility cloak listening in on plot dumps. Needless to say, the same holds true of the seventh book; the whole wizarding world is at war but we hear of it as Harry does, through daily prophet articles and occasional communications. There's no sense of scale or grandeur. It's unpleasant, yes, and oppressive but it packs only a limited emotional punch because the reader, like Harry, it stuck in a freaking tent.

Furthermore, a large portion of the book is told through letters, extracts from books, articles, memories, long autobiographical interludes from minor characters who suddenly turn out to be important. It's not precisely tedious but the preoccupation with the backplot, as ever, hinders the build to a dramatic climax. There's even an intermission, I kid you not, an intermission in the final showdown so Harry can peg it off to Dumbledore's office to re-live the last seven books from Snape's perspective. Perhaps I'm old fashioned but I don't think three chapters from the end is a good place for a massive exposition.

I'm not saying there aren't good bits, because there are. Neville kicks Dark Lord ass, for example, Dudley, of all people, has a moment of touching redemption and Luna remains just fabulous throughout. But the book seems to have no sense of itself as, well, a book. Books need to build to something, books need pace and structure, books need to be edited! But as Dan said, it's not a book, it's source material.

Style

Perhaps a demonstration is in order...

A quote from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

"Hang on..." Harry muttered to Ron. "There's an empty chair at the staff table.... Where's Snape? "Maybe he's ill!" said Ron hopefully. "Maybe he's left," said Harry, 'because he missed out on the Defence Against the Dark Arts job again!" "Or he might have been sacked!" said Ron enthusiastically. "I mean, everyone hates him --" "Or maybe," said a very cold voice right behind them, "he's waiting to hear why you two didn't arrive on the school train." Harry spun around. There, his black robes rippling in a cold breeze, stood Severus Snape. He was a thin man with sallow skin, a hooked nose and greasy, shoulder-length black hair, and at this moment, he was smiling in a way that told Harry he and Ron were in very deep trouble.

Aww. Just typing that out made me nostalgic for happier times when I actually used to enjoy reading Harry Potter. A quote from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...

And then with a little shudder the elf became quite still, and his eyes were nothing more than great, glassy orbs sprinkled with light from the stars they could not see.

I know they are very different books and the seventh book is infinitely "darker" (I'll come on to this later) in tone, setting and intent from the second, and I also know that there's something like seven real world years between them. But if this is evidence that JK has developed as a writer, I would like to point out that she appears to have developed a rambling, overwritten and overwrought style in place of the clean, sharp and witty one of the earlier books. You're meant to get better, the more you practice, right?

I could, perhaps, forgive the above but it's not an isolated incident. The stars are cold and unfeeling throughout; it's worse than being in a Hardy novel. And people don't just die, they die with Tragic Gravitas, their "eyes [staring] without seeing, the ghost of [their] last laugh still etched upon [their] face." A little less verbiage and a little less hysteria could have benefited this book immensely.

Character Death: the Massacre of the Minors

Characters die in Harry Potter, we have always known this. JK Rowling makes a big deal of it. It's how we know she is writing Serious Literature for children instead of a bunch of silly books about a teenage wizard. Reading the books, it's obvious that JK prides herself on her portrayal of death and its after-affects on the loved ones of the deceased.

The suddenness and completeness of death was with them like a presence - The Deathly Hallows.

This is at its best when it's understated, for example the lingering psychological consequences of the death of his parents on Harry which seeps through the pages of all the books. When it is all about Making A Point about JK's conception of herself as a writer, it is unsurprisingly less effective. I don't mind that Sirius died, I mind very much that he died to Show Us Something About The Nature of Death.

The Deathly Hallows has a higher death count that Hamlet, except that they're all relatively minor characters including, of all people, Colin Creevy, the poor pointless bastard. This says nothing to me about the harsh and futile nature of warfare, but it does scream "cheap shot." I hate it when authors kill off their emotionally engaging wallpaper characters just because they can and then expect the reader to applaud them for being dark and courageous. I felt exactly the same way when Joss Whedon gratuitously killed off Wash in Serenity. It was easy to kill Wash, he was a great character who everybody loved but he was also completely irrelevant in terms of the plot. His death was a quick way to wring an emotional reaction from the audience without causing the writer any inconvenience to do it.

People die by the bucketload in Deathly Hallows (including Harry's owl, for crying out loud), but none of the deaths are meaningful, with the possible exceptions of Fred, Remus and Snape. Most of them, including Lupin's, occur off camera and are thus stripped of any emotional resonance whatsoever. I can't help but suspect that JK must have loathed Remus, one of her most popular characters, by the end. He spends the whole book dashing in and out of focus being stripped of any plot and then, oh look, by the way he's dead. And Fred was essentially a

spare

Weasley, having, you know, an identical twin. It's the most cowardly half-hearted selection of deaths I think I've ever encountered.

Against this arbitrary massacre, the survival of all the main characters seems both ludicrous and damnably unfair. I'm not saying that I wanted Harry, Ron, Hermione and/or Ginny to die but if you're going to make a hoo-hah about how being a children's author is like being a cold, callous killer you probably ought to stick by your machete.

Which brings us nicely onto...

Dark, man, dark

I have one answer for this and it's oh pulease.

Having waited around politely for Harry to finish school, Lord Voldemort has finally got round to taking over the wizarding world. Quite a lot of nasty things happen in Deathly Hallows and there's a 1984ish air of secretive corruption and control but Harry Potter's darkness is about as sophisticated as a teenage goth's, and remains about as cosmetic. The nastiness is always a hazy, unconvincing background to the well nigh miraculous survival of all the main characters. Hermione, for example, gets captured by Bellatrix at Malfoy Manner and, although she horribly tortured in a scene that is genuinely chilling for about half a second, she shrugs off the experience with the ease de Sade's Justine. And Hogwarts may degenerate into a horrendous nightmare of cruciatus-enforced discipline but the students respond to this with a Blytonesque "down with those rotters" jolly hockey sticks glee that completely undermines any sense of oppression or abuse.

Similarly, although Lord Voldemort swoops around being threatening and imprisoning wandmakers, the Death Eaters themselves continue to be the most appallingly incompetent bunch of nazi-wanabees ever to grace a page. Not only do they routinely fail to capture or kill (and, occasionally, even recognise) the three teenage wizards who keep infiltrating their strongholds but they spend so much of the book being punished for ineptitude by their own master, it can almost be considered a form of self-harm. Regardless, it's hard to take them seriously as opposition.

It is mildly interesting to see Harry himself stooping to some of the unforgivable curses with barely a qualm. But this seems to be less a case of dark, man, dark than convenient, man, convenient.

Paging Lord Voldemort

This is an aside connected to the general incompetence of the Death Eaters. In the seventh book, the Dark Mark seems to function primarily as a communicator, which means the greatest dark wizard, like, ever spends the book being yanked about the country by his incompetent minions. There isn't a scene like this in the book, but there should be:

Random Wizard: ARGHRGHGH!!

Lord V: CRUCIO!

Random Wizard: ARGH! Mercy! Mercy! I'll tell you everything. Please ... stop the pain.

Dark Mark: [ring ring]

Lord V: I'm sorry, I have to take this... [talking into his elbow] Hello, yes, Lord Voldemort here ... I see ... are you absolutely certain of that? You thought you'd captured Potter fifty pages back. Oh. You've definitely got him this time. On my way.

Remus, Tonks and Sirius

Let's move on to character for a bit. I have always thought the Remus/Tonks relationship felt bolted on, and suspected it was a "ya boo sucks" to fanfic writers which made me even less sympathetic to its inadequate presentation. As Harry and Cho and Harry and Ginny have comprehensively revealed, human relationships, especially romantic ones, are not JK's strong point. But Remus/Tonks, partially because we only ever see it second and third hand, has always seemed particularly lacklustre. Harry, as a protagonist, does not preoccupy himself with the moods and inner workings of his companions; therefore in Half Blood Prince we were occasionally told Remus and/or Tonks looks sad or angry or otherwise distracted but then left to either draw our own conclusions or hear about the reasons long after the events that inspired it.

This unsatisfactory portrayal continues, unabated in Deathly Hallows. Off-camera, they get married, have angst, and Tonks becomes pregnant. Remus comes on-camera long enough to angst further and then retreats back into married bliss. Their child is born (Team Potter are sitting in their tent as usual at this point), Remus evinces delight and then he and Tonks are both killed at the Battle of Hogwarts. To say it's massively dissatisfying and frustrating is to do massively dissatisfying and frustrating things a great disservice.

Oh and as a footnote to this, it turns out that Sirius has girly pics on his bedroom walls. Just to make it absolutely clear that he's straight, completely straight, you got that slashers?

Dumbledore

You would have thought the one concrete advantage to Dumbledore being definitely dead would be avoiding the long Dumbledore Explains The Plot chapter at the end of the book. But, no. Death just isn't the handicap it used to be in the olden days and it happens anyway. Stab me. Stab me now.

Just as Order of the Phoenix tore away the veil of unquestioning admiration and idolisation Harry (and, presumably, the reader) felt for the Marauders in a conceptually interesting but badly executed way, Deathly Hallows does the same for Dumbledore. Harry is forced to confront the truth that his beloved mentor was a real person, a man with faults and weaknesses just like any other. I always found Dumbledore a little difficult to take but it's hard to tell how much that was deliberate on the part of the author (he's the worst headmaster in the world, for example - imagine you were in Slytherin house at the end of Philosopher's Stone, how would it feel to have the house trophy goiked out of your hands by some random world saving after the whole hall had already been decorated in your house colours, saving the world is all very noble and everything but it's hardly a legitimate extra curricular activity) and how far it was me reacting against his role as a plot device, explaining or withholding information on the most spurious personal pretexts to make life easier for his author.

But the fact of the matter is that Dumbledore is too imperfectly drawn in books one to six to be effectively interpreted as anything other than a two dimensional mentor figure. Therefore Harry's Dumbledore-related angst in the seventh book interferes with the smooth running of the plot and feels completely hollow because ultimately it doesn't matter. He's dead, for God's sake, dead. It's just too late in the day to care about Dumbledore's family skeletons and, since he was always presented to the reader as a kindly jelly-bean eating mentor figure, the additional "complexity" feels like an unconvincing and irrelevant ret-con.

That Bloody Epilogue

Of all the stuff that was leaked onto the internet before the book was officially released, the epilogue was the only one I investigated. I dismissed it as a clever parody. It was just too sickening. Draco's receding hairline had to be a joke. The legion of incestuously named rugrats, ha ha, very funny.

Oh wait.

No.

That was real.

It was really real.

Dear God.

Worst. Epilogue. Ever.

Conclusion

Sadly, everyone else I've spoken to (with the exception of Dan, obviously, but we share a brain) has been deeply enthusiastic about Potter. So perhaps I'm just a grumpy old git and didn't deserve to enjoy it.

It still sucks though.

Themes:

J.K. Rowling

,

Books

,

Young Adult / Children

~

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~Comments (

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Arthur B

at 19:21 on 2007-07-23Don't worry, I am also grumpy about Potter. I briefly considered actually bothering to read

...and the Half-Blood Prince

in order to prepare for

Deathly Hallows

, since I'd stopped after

Order of the Phoenix

, but in the end I couldn't be bothered - especially after I got around to reading summaries of it, and reading patches of it in Borders.

Thoughts:

- Speaking of cheap shots, doesn't Voldemort randomly kill the Sorting Hat for no good reason?

- And doesn't Voldemort essentially die because of a totally newbie mistake? Which Harry carefully explains to him before Voldemort goes ahead and screws up anyway? Doesn't Harry basically loophole his way to the win?

- Aren't

these people

overreacting a little?

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Wardog

at 20:42 on 2007-07-23Oh I totally forgot about the random death of the Sorting Hat! And, yes, Harry Potter wins by being a PC - he is the Joe Williams of children's fantasy.

That is a slightly over-reaction, yes...but people are not sane when it comes to HP.

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Mystiquefire

at 18:36 on 2007-08-11Trust me you are not the only one who thought this book sucked.

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Wardog

at 21:38 on 2007-08-11I think I'm so bitter because I was once very into Harry Potter. And I think I've become incapable of recognising its strengths any more. I mean what I've come to think of the puzzle-box aspect of the books (plots within plots) is probably better done than I give it credit for being. For example, according to the friends I have who still like Harry Potter, if you go back, you can genuinely trace a hint of the "true" Dumbledore throughout all the books. Sadly I genuinely can't be bothered.

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empink

at 12:12 on 2007-08-24

Sadly, everyone else I've spoken to (with the exception of Dan, obviously, but we share a brain) has been deeply enthusiastic about Potter. So perhaps I'm just a grumpy old git and didn't deserve to enjoy it.

No, you are not. My hate for DH grows with time's passing, actually, and though I'm well out of my tween years, I'm not yet a grumpy old git or anything approaching it ;).

Well, I might just be plain grumpy, but that book was enough to make me so, even when I just expected more possibly crappy source material for fanfic, fanart and so on. While it hasn't seemed to have as great an effect on fannish output in my little corner of fandom (mostly because of extenuating wankumstances), what little effect it *has* had has produced fic and art I'm still avoiding. Not because the fans I keep track of are not talented in their own way, but because I still can't bear to read things that are compliant with Deathly Hallows, cracktastic though they may be. Instead of making me chortle at the weirdness of fandom, the cracky ships that have sprung up just make me see more red. More...more epilogue. *shudders*

The whole book was just so *bad*, in places where it wouldn't have taken more than a little judicious effort to be the opposite. The few good bits it had just weren't enough to hold back the tide of useless jokes, stupidities, non-characterizations and daft deaths. It therefore feels hugely ironic that DH is the only HP book I have a copy of to this date (well, a paper copy).

Then again, I doubt I could reread the earlier books now without rolling my eyes and sighing knowing what is ahead for Harry. Incapable of recognising the series' strengths looks about where I'm standing now.

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Wardog

at 10:54 on 2007-08-27Many thanks for the comment - one of the problems with DH in terms of fandom, perhaps, is that it closes off more avenues than it opens, if that makes sense. Especially in terms of the Epilogue of Death because everyone is permanently dating the person they were doing at school. I wouldn't say no to a bit of twisted Dumbledore/Grindelward m'self but I can't see it eclipsing the amusing if pointless popularity of Scorpius/Albus-Severus (just *shudder*). Sadly, I have copies of all the books and although I tried to re-read them a few months ago to prepare for DH I couldn't actually get beyond 3. Sigh.

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M Harris

at 11:19 on 2007-10-04One of the most irrating things in book seven was Voldemort's lack of a plot or any sort of meaningful action. I spent the duration of the book waiting for him to kidnap people Harry was emotionally attached to and torturing/killing them until Harry came to him. We are continuously told of how unusually smart and clever and intelligent (and handsome)Tom Riddle was. So it is completely out of character to have him become inept. But of course Lord Voldemort being strategic and cunning would mean that Harry would have to form some sort of plan, and as he is clearly incapible of that I guess JKR had to stick with him sitting in a tent for a very long amount of time while Voldemort killed time by killing minor characters.

Another thing that really angered me was JKR writing that Snape based his entire life on the fact that he was in love with some girl when he was fifteen. It made his character lose any sort of depth he had gained through the other books. The dialogue between AD and SS of "After all this time?" "Always." made me want to kill people.

The halfnaked!pictures in Sirius' room could have ONLY been put there as a "fuck you, I'm writing the book" from JKR to the slashers. I have no idea why she felt so threatened that she needed to close that particular opportunity for straying from 'everyone is straight and get married to people they met when they were eleven and have large amounts of children named after dead relatives' Deathly Hallows.

(Hahahaha, Dumbledore/Grindelwald is canon, because she can't write another book to insert girl!porn in to say otherwise.)

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Wardog

at 12:40 on 2007-10-04Indeed, Voldemort's ineptitude is particularly annoying in book full of things that are particularly annoying. I remember those halycon days when Voldemort was actually rather scary... the drinking unicorn blood business really traumatised me. To be fair, the whole seven book arc is so unwieldy I'm not sure I could easily come up with a way for Voldemort to have been effective by book 7 without completely hindering Harry's ability to take him out. I think it actually comes to the contradiction that lies at the heart of most children's books (and for that matter a lot of detective stories): why is that the group of feisty kids able to take out fully grown villain when conventional law authorities have failed, or why is this cocaine-saturated amateur able to catch the criminals who have been defying the finest minds at Scotland Yard. Most texts go some way towards smoothing over these inconsistencies (i.e. the Secret Seven always end up alerting the police when it comes to the crunch, Sherlock Holmes is a specialist in a proto-forensic techinque that - although nonesense in the modern day - is unknown to the authorities) but JKR manages to have the worst of all possible worlds: hugely powerful wizard we should all be scared of who has taken over *the entire ministry of magic* versus one short-sighted kid with an expelliarmus.

And, yes, you're right - the whole Lily business makes Snape much less complex and interesting than he used to be.... although I almost hovered on the verge of finding it just a little bit sweet. I was desperate for emotional connection by that time in the seven hundred page monster.

Dumbledore/Grindelward? Ouch.

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Melissa G.

at 15:07 on 2009-12-08So, I've been in a "reading sporks of Harry Potter" mood which led me back to many of the articles here, and I just wanted to point something out about Colin Creevey's death, and maybe someone else has said it already, but...it is not actually possible for him to have been there to die.

It's said that he snuck back from the Hog's Head into Hogwarts to join the battle. The only problem is: he can't have been at the Hog's Head in the first place. He wouldn't have been at Hogwarts that year - being Muggleborn, he would been arrested and sent to concentration camp(?) - so he couldn't have been evacuated from Hogwarts to the Hog's Head to sneak back. And he couldn't have gotten into the Hog's Head from the outside because Hogsmeade has a curfew curse thing that would go off if anyone was walking around the streets late at night. Perhaps he Apparated into the Hog's Head? But why? How would he have even known the battle was going on then?

I know it seems obsessive, but it's just that it was such a cheap shot, and it isn't even possible given the rules she set up. Arg.

[kat-lockhart]

When It Storms

[Warning: The following story is about a panic attack triggered by a thunderstorm. It contains vague reference to past traumas.]

I can feel the storm, the way the old timers say they can. Only for me, it ain’t in my bones. I feel the change in the air like foul breath on my skin. Our crop is wilted, bent beneath the heat and kneeling for the coming rain. Still, my skin breaks out in goosebumps and I shiver. I am fighting my reactions and praying for the storm to miss us. I don’t reckon the Light hears these prayers though.

“You doin’ alright, hun?”

Ma has an uncanny sense for when I am struggling. I force a smile and nod, but don’t dare summon a lie to my lips.

She doesn’t believe me. I can see it from here, that way she lofts a single brow when she isn’t convinced. I know the look because it is one I adopted.

I can’t tell her, though. I can’t reassure her with the truth, because there is no reassurance to it. I wouldn’t be able to bear the reaction, no matter the route it went. I have envisioned them all. I have seen the pity and pain written on her frail features. I have seen the rage, too.

I can’t tell her, so I give her the half-truth.

“Just gotta a lot on my mind, Ma. Ain’t nothin’ worth worryin’ about, but you know how I am.”

I even manage a convincing chuckle as I push myself up from the table. Every lie is more pressure on my soul, but I can’t tell her the truth.

“I’m gonna go work in the shop for a bit. See if I can’t clear up some of those projects I got started. I’m gonna see if the guys in the north can’t send me another capacitor for a second set of shields.”

Ma just smiles and nods. She don’t buy it, but she learned when I was just knee-high to a grasshopper that I won’t talk about a thing if I don’t want to. Instead, she stops the quilt she is working on and bows her head. I don’t reckon the Light will hear her prayers either.

It ain’t that the Light is gone. We ain’t been forsaken. As I march through the farmyard, I can count my blessings with each step and still have dozens left by the time I enter the workshop. It’s just, I don’t think the Light is there to bail people out of the trouble they put themselves in. I ache knowing the trouble is my fault.

This is all my fault.

With the curtains drawn closed and the shop dimly lit, I look weakly at the unfinished pylons and back up generator. I must go through the motions if I want to beat the storm, but when I pick up my spanner, it feels heavy and wrong. It’s all a trick of my mind, but fatigue’s got me feeling rather gullible. I just can’t summon enough faith to see the point in any of it. I just want to go back to the house and crawl into bed and sleep until it is all over.

But I can’t sleep when it storms.

Maybe it’s senseless to return to the workshop. Maybe all my efforts to reclaim this sacred place is a fool’s errand. It ain’t the first time I have been too stupid or stubborn to look out for my own good. I just can’t let them win. Even if Darsa, Lord Shepherd, has them locked up with no chance of escape, they maintain their cruel hold on this place, and hold me hostage in it.

But, I let them in.

I want to call for help. I got the communicator Darsa had given me and all I need to so is dial it up and ask for help. He’s a man true to his word and I trust him with my life. He saves my ass over and over and is too damn humble to realize it. He’d be there, even a thousand miles away.

But, I let them in.

Him and Gregor tried hard to forgive me of my shame, but I just can’t forgive myself. I saw the pity there, even if it wasn’t, and it hurt. I made a bad call, but some mistakes will just live with you until the end.

A crack of lightning, striking in the woods close by, brings me up for air. I am gasping desperately, panting and not able to get enough breath. My heart is racing, and skin is damp and cold.

Panic.

My body ain’t listening to my brain anymore. I can’t keep ahold of calm logic. My thoughts of Darsa and Gregor are turning against me, so I try to cast them out altogether. But, when they are gone, I can only think of the Anderson brothers. They are the monsters from my nightmares. I ain’t never let anyone have the power over me that I gave over to them. Not even Crawford and Colton strike fear into my heart the way they do.

I can’t breathe.

I can’t sob and breathe at the same time.

The dusty concrete floor is cold against my cheek, chilling the tears I didn’t recognize. I am losing chunks of time. I don’t know how I got here, curled up on the floor fighting for air.

No.

That ain’t quite right.

I don’t know -when- I got here. The storm is raging outside, strobing light casting cruel shadows across the floor and the thunder rolls on like a stampede. The rain is falling in fat drops, pelting the windows and rushing over the shingles.

The storm is just a storm, but I can’t convince myself of that.

I loved storms when I was a child, the power of nature leaving me awestruck.

But I can’t convince myself of that.

I am trapped in my own head while my body struggles to regulate. Is this what it was like when a void priest dropped you into a gilded cage? Was this a taste of what Colton had in store for his enemies? When I am finally trapped will there only be storms and unwelcomed vulnerability? How long could I endure it?

The ache of my lungs starts to finally replace the wicked thoughts. My throat is raw, like I had been screaming even though I hadn’t made a sound. My ribs hurt, and my fingernails have left angry little crescents in my palms. I have no concept of time. No idea how long I had been crying on the floor. It had likely been only an hour, but it felt simultaneously instant and eternal.

No matter how long I panicked, though, pain always rescued me.

It was the promise, the Lightsend I prayed for. Physical fatigue and aches displaced the crushing weight in my chest. My breaths were still delivered on gasps, but the air filled me. In the absence of adrenaline, I am exhausted. Too tired to push myself to my feet, I remain on the dirty floor. If my past attacks are any indication, I will be here until the dark hours of morning.

Tomorrow, I won’t tell Ma anything. She will know I am not alright, but I won’t talk about it.

Hopefully, one day, they can all forgive me.

[ @darsacarrington for mention ]

[aion-rsa]

Top New Horror Books in March 2021

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Where horror meets speculative fiction you’ll find inventive fears and chilling uncertainty. Here are some of the horror books we’re most excited about and/or are currently consuming…

Top New Horror Books in March 2021

Later by Stephen King

Type: Novel Publisher: Hard Case Crime Release date: March 2 Den of Geek says: Stephen King, author of The Stand, The Shining, and many more, needs no introduction. The top name in horror is sure to be the one everyone is talking about.

Publisher’s summary: The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine – as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave. 

LATER is Stephen King at his finest, a terrifying and touching story of innocence lost and the trials that test our sense of right and wrong. With echoes of King’s classic novel It, LATER is a powerful, haunting, unforgettable exploration of what it takes to stand up to evil in all the faces it wears.

Buy Later by Stephen King.

The Second Bell by Gabriela Houston

Type: Novel Publisher: Angry Robot Release date: March 9 Den of Geek says: Horror meets legend in a different take on the werewolf. Author Gabriela Houston has been praised for her character work and mixture of grounded realism and chilling fantasy.

Publisher’s summary: To the world you are an abomination; a monster with unholy abilities. You’re shunned and left to fend for yourself. Your only chance of survival is to tap into that dark potential – would you do it?

In an isolated mountain community, sometimes a child is born with two hearts. Such a child – a striga – is considered a dangerous demon, which must be abandoned on the edge of the forest to protect the community. The only choice the child’s mother can make is whether to leave her home with her infant, or stay behind and try to forget.

Miriat made her choice. She and her nineteen-year-old striga daughter, Salka, now live a life of deprivation and hardship in a remote village, where to follow the impulses of the other heart is forbidden.

But Salka is headstrong and young, and when threatened with losing everything, she is forced to explore the depths of her true nature, testing the bonds between mother and child.

The Second Bell by Gabriela Houston.

Our Last Echoes by Kate Alice Marshall

Type: Novel Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers Release date: March 16

Den of Geek says: This YA pick reminds us pleasantly of Twin Peaks or Alan Wake. A spooky setting and a protagonist with a strong hook to its location promises a tightly constructed story.

Publisher’s summary: In 1973, the thirty-one residents of Bitter Rock disappeared. In 2003, so did my mother. Now, I’ve come to Bitter Rock to find out what happened to her–and to me. Because Bitter Rock has many ghosts. And I might be one of them.

Sophia’s earliest memory is of drowning. She remembers the darkness of the water and the briny taste as it filled her throat, the sensation of going under. She remembers hands pulling her back to safety, but that memory is impossible–she’s never been to the ocean. 

But then Sophia gets a mysterious call about an island names Bitter Rock, and learns that she and her mother were there fifteen years ago–and her mother never returned. The hunt for answers lures her to Bitter Rock, but the more she uncovers, the clearer it is that her mother is just one in a chain of disappearances. 

People have been vanishing from Bitter Rock for decades, leaving only their ghostly echoes behind. Sophia is the only one who can break the cycle–or risk becoming nothing more than another echo haunting the island.

Buy Our Last Echoes by Kate Alice Marshall.

Top New Horror Books in February 2021

The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor

Type: Novel Publisher: Ballantine Books Release date: Feb. 9 Den of Geek says: A spooky thriller set in a small village promises ghostly visitations and weird happenings that a single mother and her daughter need to investigate. Evil lurking in churches and exorcisms are a horror staple, but the historical grounding here gives it a unique texture. Publisher’s summary: A dark history lingers in Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, Protestant martyrs were betrayed—then burned. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And a few weeks ago, the vicar of the local parish hanged himself in the nave of the church.

Reverend Jack Brooks, a single parent with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping for a fresh start. Instead, Jack finds a town rife with conspiracies and secrets, and is greeted with a strange welcome package: an exorcism kit and a note that warns, “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.”

The more Jack and daughter, Flo, explore the town and get to know its strange denizens, the deeper they are drawn into the age-old rifts, mysteries, and suspicions. And when Flo begins to see specters of girls ablaze, it becomes apparent there are ghosts here that refuse to be laid to rest.

Uncovering the truth can be deadly in a village with a bloody past, where everyone has something to hide and no one trusts an outsider.

Buy The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor.

What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo

Type: Novel Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Release date: Feb. 2 Den of Geek says: Fans of the human side of werewolves or the everyday life of the Addams Family may like this story of a student returning home to a strange place after a taste of the outside world. Written for a YA market, but the inventive concept means it has crossover appeal. Publisher’s summary: Eleanor Zarrin has been estranged from her wild family for years. When she flees boarding school after a horrifying incident, she goes to the only place she thinks is safe: the home she left behind. But when she gets there, she struggles to fit in with her monstrous relatives, who prowl the woods around the family estate and read fortunes in the guts of birds.

Eleanor finds herself desperately trying to hold the family together―in order to save them all, Eleanor must learn to embrace her family of monsters and tame the darkness inside her.

Buy What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo.

Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap

Type: Short story collection Publisher: Small Beer Press Release date: Feb. 23 Den of Geek says: At Den of Geek we’re always looking for horror that mixes with science fiction and fantasy. Isabel Yap does exactly that. A well-established writer with short stories in genre pillars like Tor.com, Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons, her stories are vivid and unsettling. She’s garnered praise from authors including Tamsyn Muir. Publisher’s summary: “Am I dead?” Mebuyen sighs. She was hoping the girl would not ask. Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap’s debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, “A Spell for Foolish Hearts” to the terrifying tension of the urban legend “Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez.”

Buy Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap.

Top New Horror Books in January 2021

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In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce

Type: Novel Publisher: Berkley Release date: Jan. 19

Den of Geek says: This novel for fans of the line where true crime meets horror follows Belle Gunness, a real life serial killer. This looks like a darkly fascinating portrait of a wicked and deadly woman, showing how the “Widow of La Porte” clawed her way through history, leaving victims in her wake. Publisher’s summary: They whisper about her in Chicago. Men come to her with their hopes, their dreams–their fortunes. But no one sees them leave. No one sees them at all after they come to call on the Widow of La Porte.

The good people of Indiana may have their suspicions, but if those fools knew what she’d given up, what was taken from her, how she’d suffered, surely they’d understand. Belle Gunness learned a long time ago that a woman has to make her own way in this world. That’s all it is. A bloody means to an end. A glorious enterprise meant to raise her from the bleak, colorless drudgery of her childhood to the life she deserves. After all, vermin always survive.

Buy In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce.

In Darkness, Shadows Breathe by Catherine Cavendish

Type: Novel Publisher: Flame Tree Press Release date: Jan. 19

Den of Geek says: Intentionally disorienting fiction can be hit or miss, but in this case it sounds like the non-linear storytelling adds to the intended feeling of a nightmare. Old-fashioned Gothic horror fans with a taste for dark fantasy might enjoy this one. Publisher’s summary: In a luxury apartment and in the walls of a modern hospital, the evil that was done continues to thrive. They are in the hands of an entity that knows no boundaries and crosses dimensions – bending and twisting time itself – and where danger waits in every shadow. The battle is on for their bodies and souls and the line between reality and nightmare is hard to define. Through it all, the words of Lydia Warren Carmody haunt them. But who was she? And why have Carol and Nessa been chosen?

The answer lies deep in the darkness… 

Buy In Darkness, Shadows Breathe by Catherine Cavendish.

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

Type: Novel Publisher: Nyx Publishing Release date: Jan. 31

Den of Geek says: Dracula retellings are common, as are takes on the famous vampire’s wives. This one sets itself apart by focusing on a relationship between the wives themselves, coloring in the classic story with what the author calls “sapphic yearning at the opera.” Publisher’s summary: Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband’s dark secrets.

With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.

Buy A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson.

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[lucalicatteart]

people of the realm: some roomates

Though originally i only had the demon who used magic to form a bunch of arms and etc.,  when thinking about his living situation, a roommate naturally occurred as well, since I guess it seemed natural, the typical trope of 'every stressed out uptight hermit must by law have another character they're forced to interact with that is the complete opposite of them' lol .

 Kaiel is a lazy goth elf art school student (mostly focused on painting) that owns like 500 hats and likes to play her really loud music while she paints, or just does anything in general (ALWAYS music.. one of those people who is like.. never NOT listening to music, she's always got a radio out or headphones in or something). She leaves junk food wrappers and craft supplies and clothes everywhere, and despite being pretty active and energetic, mostly likes to sit around the house and play games, or invite friends over,,, mostly to still just play games with them. The only thing that rivals her music collection is her games, game devices, game merch, etc. She has a bunch of small pets like mice and snakes and, most frighteningly for her roommate, lots of spiders and other bugs. Kaiel is pretty social but still stays at home a lot, she just prefers to invite people over rather than go out places.

 She’s just naturally a pretty loud and excitable person, and can be a bit sloppy and careless and more relaxed about everything (like messes around the house and deadlines and stuff don't really get to her, if she spills something she'll leave it and decide she can clean it up later, etc. Which she does ACTUALLY do, like, she gets her school projects turned in on time, pays rent, does her part of the house chores, etc. It's just she... often waits until the very last minute and is never urgent about getting things done, she's just.. very mellow and chill about things all the time) , which is fine for most situations, but with Virin being the exact opposite they can,, clash a lot.   

She doesn’t have any ill feelings towards him though, aside from sometimes being a bit jealous since he’s vaguely famous in certain music scenes and she thinks being famous would be cool, since people could bring her free food, and she always wonders why he doesn’t take advantage of fans and ask them to make free food for him (she's regularly like "HEY, you have fans right??? You think any of them would bring us free snacks? Some dinner? Do you have any of their phone numbers you could call on like, right now? Wouldn't that be so cool? I'm sure you could get in touch with someone!! Pleaseeee?!!?!!") . Sometimes she likes to mess with him, because she sees him as so emotionally unstable, she'll like, do something small like nail a shoe to the outside of his door , or re-arrange his food in the fridge to watch him freak out just because she's so baffled by the fact that he could be affected my something which she perceives as so trivial, but this has backfired in the past since like.. she does have.. basic empathy,.. and when it goes from 'oh hee heee he's annoyed for 2 minutes or so' to like, 'he seems to be having a legitimate breakdown over this and has been crying for 15 minutes' she starts to feel extremely guilty about her 'pranks'.  

Virin is a demon/jhevona who has the rare ability  to use magic to form functioning external arms (which if you’re not naturally inclined would be hard to do given how much energy it would take usually and would drain your magic pretty quickly), which he mostly utilizes by using them to play ridiculously elaborate songs that are only possible for someone with way more than two hands (so he’ll regularly write music where 8 pianos are supposed to be played by him at once and etc., or will simultaneously play 19 entirely different instruments all on his own, etc.), though he also uses it just for everyday stuff since the arms are kind of second nature to him now (like he doesn’t really have to consciously consider much, if he dropped something and wanted to catch it, an arm may just appear on it’s own to do so, etc.).  He spends most of his time sitting in his room with the door locked or off going to classes, just wants to be left alone to practice and write music.. He doesn't seem to actually have any friends, hobbies, or life, outside of classwork and his own musical projects and performances, though he has been known to try gardening every once in a while (he buys plants and tends to them for maybe a week, before he eventually gets so stressed out with other responsibilities he forgets to water them and they all die.. wait a few months and repeat lol). 

 Due to a combination of health issues, nightmares, and the severe burden of his workload (and his perfectionism in relation to it), he is pretty much always extremely sleep deprived which makes him easily annoyed and emotional (he’s that way even when not sleep deprived lol, but, it severely Amplifies it.. to the point where he stress cries over just dropping a notebook on the floor,, or will  run outside in the middle of the night because for the past 45 minutes his mind has been literally unable to do anything else but  fixate on this small dripping noise seemingly coming from outside his window so now he’s going to go angrily climb up the side of the building and fix whatever is making the noise before he burns down the apartment in an exasperated sleepless fit of noise rage, etc.). 

He regularly goes multiple days, sometimes even a full week without sleep, and is often just walking around like, disoriented and hallucinating and severely emotionally stressed, running into things or dropping stuff due to the reduction in motor skills (and just general cognitive processes) from sleep deprivation, feels like he's always about to pass out, etc. Though he's looked into a few different potions and enchantments to help with the effects of getting little sleep, most of them have had side effects he doesn't like, or haven't worked for some other reason, so for now he's still just stumbling around in the worst mental state possible most of the time (though he does luckily get a break every once in a while between school work and etc. and can actually rest, it's still usually only for a few days or less).  

He's naturally almost impossibly shy and reserved and soft spoken, though it’s not very obvious since most of the time when people actually see him outside of his room he’s stressed and only half awake (thus making him seem more confrontational or uncaring).  His only life goals are to gain recognition for his musical talent, and also to one day be in a position where he can sleep for three weeks straight and have no responsibilities to attend to. He also maybe wants to be a teacher but is the worst public speaker imaginable and would have no idea how to communicate with students. Since he's such a ridiculously extreme over-achiever, he'll probably come up with a hundred more goals for himself over the course of his life, but for now he can only handle so much in his already overburdened workload.   

They both get along generally, though they don’t know much about each other and hardly talk (aside from every once in a while when she does something like begs him to play rhythm games with her (because "you’re a professional musician so you’d be good at them right?!") and he reluctantly does for maybe 20 minutes before something about the game’s design or a random element of the environment (maybe a box of cookies spilled on the floor) makes him upset and he runs off back into his room stress crying (which she doesn’t understand how ridiculously little he sleeps or etc. so her perception of him is just that he’s like, legitimately so deeply affected by like.. cookies existing or something, she’s always just obliviously baffled about his moods like “wow, who would have thought someone hates lamps so much that they’d get upset over them! weird lol! :O “ ), they’re at least very civil and have enough common ground that it’s not impossible to share an apartment and they’re both responsible enough to pay their rent on time and etc. usually, despite constant disagreements over noise level and house chores (and bug friends).

 Though it'd probably help if they spent a little more time with each other, so that eventually he could see that she's much more than an irresponsible loud reckless but well intentioned fool that contributes to his sleep issues (especially since she has actual artistic talents, that could be something he'd have an admiration for if he ever actually saw them), and she could see the state he's actually in 24/7 and realize that he's not some insanely hyper-sensitive weird boy that sobs over seeing potato chips, it's just that he probably hasn't slept once in about a week and is usually in a pretty fragile state.

[cawfulopinions]

Earthbound: A First Timer’s Perspective, Over 20 Years Later

I was born too late to enjoy Earthbound when it was new. The game came out in 1995, a year after I was born, and around the time the SNES had begun to give way to the Nintendo 64. Any excitement about a potential entry in the series for the N64 passed me right on by, and, like so many other people my age, my first experience with the series was when Earthbound’s main character, Ness, appeared in the Smash Brothers series. As a teenager, in the beginnings of the emulation age, friends recommended it to me, but the game’s slow start and strange aesthetics never quite grabbed me. It wasn’t until it finally got a Virtual Console release for the New 3DS that I finally sat down and actually played it, and even then it was as a “rainy day” kind of game.

Which is how I ended up in the strange situation where most of my experience with Earthbound and the themes that went into it came from games that were most influenced by it, particularly Undertale, a game so bleeding in influence from Earthbound that I’d almost call it a spiritual successor. It’s no surprise that this is the case -- its creator, Toby Fox, has history in the Earthbound fangame community, and has specifically cited Earthbound as an influence in how he wrote Undertale. 

Playing it now, more than twenty years after its initial release, long after the franchise came to an end, I can now see everything I missed in the time since then, and everything I’ve missed since then. There’s something about the game, from its simplistic, charming presentation, to its surprisingly introspective moments, to its cartoonish enemies and its overall optimistic view of the world that spoke to me in ways I can’t put into words (though I’m sure as hell going to try).

Earthbound starts off generically enough -- the player controlled character, Ness (I hesitate to call Ness “you” in this instance, for reasons that are obvious to anyone who’s played the game), is told that he has a grand destiny requiring him and three other children to go on a journey to face a grand evil named Giygas. At the behest of a magic bee, he sets off to record the sounds of the “Your Sanctuaries” around the world so that he can gain the strength needed to fight Giygas, and unite with the other destined youths who’ll help him on this journey.

And when you start off the game, Ness is completely alone on this journey. These beginning parts of the game are easily the toughest parts of the game -- it’s Ness against the world, and with just his baseball bat and a couple of not-so-great psychic spells at his disposal, the world’s pretty willing to stomp all over Ness. I remember spending a good chunk of my first few hours running back home for free healing before trying again and again to get past the current plot obstacle.

And Ness is alone for a good chunk of the game -- your first party member, Paula, you don’t meet in proper until after you get past the game’s second town, and you have to actually rescue her from the boss of the third town before you can use her. There’s a good chance you’ll actually accidentally tackle the second Your Sanctuary before you save her, too.

Every time I got a new party member, I felt like things were starting to get a little bit smoother. And that’s not a statement to Earthbound’s detriment -- with every friend Ness met along the way, I felt the world open a little wider. Things that I struggled with before I had no problems with now.

And this went the other way too -- every time a character had to leave my party, I yearned for them to come back. There’s a part where Paula gets kidnapped again in Fourside, and suddenly I realized just how much I wanted her back when I realized how much Ness and Jeff struggled without her. At one point, Poo leaves the party to become stronger, and even though I’d barely used him at that point, I felt incomplete without him around. When he triumphantly came back at the end of Deep Darkness, everything finally felt right again.

Earthbound is a game that’s generally light on the characterization and plot, and Ness’s group is no exception to this. I think each of them has maybe five lines total in-game. But even with that, I felt attached to these kids and their journey through the game itself.

Even with how sparse it is, though, there’s something about Earthbound’s writing that really sticks with me. There’s a dryness to it that’s definitely indicative of the era it was written in, but there’s a quirkiness to a lot of it too, and more than that, there’s an earnestness to it that’s very welcome. Nothing ever feels like it was written just to take a potshot at someone (...except for the club from the above screenshot. That one might just be a potshot :V). Eagleland, the country the majority of the game takes place in, is so obviously a pastiche of what Japan thinks America is like, but it never passes into the territory of parody.

That’s without even getting into the general acceptance the game gives to some of the weirder bits of it. Like the guy who wants to talk to a mad scientist so he can get himself turned into a giant dungeon, because he loves dungeons that much. Or the monkey colony in a hole in desert, lead by a monkey Dalai Lama. Or the sesame seed you can talk to in that same desert that yearns for its partner, which is another sesame seed. These scenarios are all presented in the only way Earthbound knows how: completely straight-lacedly.

Something I found interesting early on is that even though the main characters are all children, the majority of the NPCs you interact with are adults. And none of these characters are really villainous. Antagonistic, yes, and occasionally you do have boss fights with them. But on the whole, these characters are helpful or at least earnest with their intentions. And there’s no real judgment toward the party for their friendship with people much older than them. For example, early on, it’s established that Paula is good friends with Everdred, the local crook, and it’s the party’s friendship with the Runaway Five that helps them out of several jams during the story.

Another thing is that, aside from one character very early on (who is a literal magic bee), no one dies in Earthbound. Random encounters are generally animals, monsters, or inanimate objects that have been compelled to fight you by Giygas’ evil influence, or they’re aliens and robots that follow Giygas and are here to invade earth. When you defeat them, animals become tame, plants and objects return to normal, and robots are turned to scrap metal. For a genre generally defined by its protagonists basically being D&D Murderhobos, it’s a surprisingly nonviolent take.

Even though the story is established early on, Earthbound really doesn’t spend a lot of time focusing on the ultimate goal of the journey. The game is separated into small arcs, each focusing on their own subjects and characters and plot bosses, with the common factor generally just being the influence of Giygas on whoever the head honcho is of the current problem. And the problems of those small arcs are so often small in the scale of the world-ending horror Giygas is supposed to be. The first major threat you take on is a cult that wants to paint the world blue, after all!

I think this is part of why Earthbound’s creepier moments (like Noonside and Giygas himself) stick out so hard to people -- they don’t fit with the calm, homey atmosphere of the game until this point. But I think that’s important too -- Earthbound is, ultimately, a game where the villain is the concept of evil itself. And what does evil take the form of in Earthbound? Something incomprehensible, something that doesn’t fit with the world until this point. It’s Noonside, where yes is no and the people are being manipulated by an evil idol. It’s Giygas, who has become so consumed by evil that he’s become something eldritch.

For how grand your journey is made out to be at the start, for the majority of the game, it feels very relaxed, almost homey. The plot really doesn’t ever kick into high gear -- your fight with Giygas comes nearly immediately after getting the final Your Sanctuary and going through Magicant, and Magicant itself is kind of homey and introspective -- it’s a journey through Ness’s mind, and on a whole, everything there is very chill.

(Ness’ Nightmare can go suck a dick, though.)

There’s something almost coming-of-agey about Earthbound. I say “almost”, because you don’t really learn much about Ness himself, but that’s the kind of journey you feel like you’re having. I feel like this is best evidenced with the Your Sanctuary sections, where, in each one, Ness has a vision of himself as a young child, and his family around him. It’s a story about Ness’s growth, even if we don’t concretely see what that growth is. And at the end of the game, after the threat’s all taken care of, you’re given time to go back to talk to everyone you’ve met along the way and retrace your steps back home, if you so want. 

It’s all very cozy. It’s all very friendly. I’d say it’s not the kind of RPG I’ve ever played before, but I played Undertale first. But even with that foreknowledge, the further I went into Earthbound, the more I realized that Undertale is bleeding in its Earthbound influence. Everything about how Undertale is written, how it approaches morality, its combat, the journey you take, it’s all clearly born out of Earthbound. I’d even go so far as to say that the meta-role of the player in Undertale and Earthbound is very similar, too -- because in Earthbound, you are who saves the day in the end. The characters pray to you for help, and you, the player, are stated as praying for them to win. You beat Giygas in the end.

I’m not sure how much I have to say about Earthbound that other people haven’t said already in much cleaner or plainer terms. But it absolutely touched me. I suddenly understand why it’s as beloved of a game as it is, why people have clamored for Mother 3 to get an official release for so long, why it was such an influence on other RPG developers over time. I’d say I want more games like it, but I’m not sure any other game could scratch the same itch that Earthbound did for me. But now that I’ve played it, I feel like it’s filled a yearning I didn’t even realize I had.

Maybe that’s enough for me.