#horror is kinda just a guy man

[elizakai]

i love the MTTRIO because they are all judgy hypocritical little shits living off of spite and appy juice

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

Hello Walten Files Fandom, long time no see

[momentomori24]

[This has been sitting in my draft for a while lol]

When it comes to Curly's failings, I always see people bring up his obvious failure to protect Anya and him prioritising Jimmy, who was the rapist in that situation. Which is completely valid btw and we should rake him through the coals for that alone even more. But I also see too many people saying that Curly "didn't enable Jimmy" or playing softball for his actions. And I could maybe see where that comes from if that incident was the only thing we had to point to-- but that wasn't all he did, is it? Curly being indifferent or not taking Jimmy's mistreatment and belittlement of Anya seriously was hinted at so much earlier than that.

Namely, the very first time we play from Curly's point of view. Let's just skip the fact that Curly was putting everyone in danger by not taking his psych evals seriously and simply giving the same answers to pass them even tho he was shown literal minutes after this scene being clearly not-sane, and go straight to the point I actually wanna get into. Which is this:

These scenes in isolation wouldn't be that bad. From his pov, it's played off as comical and it is. Jimmy being a brony (not really lmao) and getting playfully dragged over it is funny. But unfortunately this is the first example out of many for Curly's complacency. Anya is complaining about Jimmy not taking his psych evals or her seriously, which is easy to believe considering how much he rags on her for "not being a good nurse" (she kept Curly alive on hopes and dreams how dare you). So he keeps making her do silly and inappropriate reports she clearly doesn't wanna do, which is kinda shitty (also borders on harassment). But rather than actually saying something about Jimmy's behaviour or even acknowledging how it sucks he says this:

Mate, that's not a good thing 💀 He's clearly aware that the problem is Jimmy's lack of respect for Anya specifically. He knows that if he, his friend and a man in power, were the one doing the evals Jimmy wouldn't try that disrespect. But it's Anya, a meek woman who ranks lower than him so he thinks he can get away with it (which he DOES), and Curly's shown as comfortable in knowing that. He doesn't chew Jimmy out for making Anya uncomfortable nor does he reassure her that he will do something about it. All he does is take it off her hands this once and helps Jimmy power through it to get a good diagnosis (even tho we know he's DEFINITELY not sane either). He doesn't even mention Anya's discomfort or confront him on his inappropriate behaviour, just teases Jimmy in good fun instead because he doesn't think of it as anything serious. It's subtle and pretty minor in comparison to everything else, but I think it's worth pointing out. Especially because this convo takes place after Jimmy had assaulted her, which makes this so much worse.

If you need any more evidence of Curly being an enabler you need not look further than Anya herself. And I'm not just talking about the way he failed her here-- I'm talking about Anya's own view of Curly and the way said view influences her actions.

Just look at her choice of wording. "What would you have done". This is in response to him saying that she could've come to him if she were feeling stressed, which she-- in his eyes-- didn't. The question itself implies that she had no faith in Curly to actually help despite his insistence that he would've, which I think is significant because it shows that she's very much aware of Curly's shortcomings when it comes to her situation AND it's one of the first (or the first time) she actually verbalised her lack of trust towards him or anyone directly. Prior to this scene she had told him about her rape and the rapist, presumably because she trusted him to handle it. And he dismissed her because the rapist was his best friend, and that evidently deeply scarred her. Enough so that she secretly took the gun and hid it someplace else and didn't even tell Curly were that was, because she knows that if Curly has access to it there's a so much greater chance Jimmy will have too, insinuated by the line "the least I can do is make sure he never gets it either". Speaking about the gun:

It sucks so bad that this perception of him isn't even inaccurate nor unjustified. That despite everything Jimmy had done to her and everything he could still do to her, he'd very likely still not allow her access to the gun for protection. Because that's exactly what he didn't do anyway. He didn't attempt to keep her safe from Jimmy, instead he just pretended that nothing was wrong and still let Jimmy's belittlement of her pass. He didn't give her the gun after the incident, because she wouldn't have hid the case if he had. Despite his desperate reassurance that he'd do anything, he did nothing but make it worse for her and she KNOWS that. It's so frustrating knowing he entrusted the axe to Swansea when he needed it but not the gun to Anya when she needed it too. Also this:

The fact that his knee-jerk reaction to her admitting that she's pregnant was "Who would you--" is so fucked, especially considering she's already told him what happened. "Who would you" what? Who would you fuck? Who would you have sex with? That choice of wording drives me up a wall-- SHE wouldn't and didn't do anything or anyone. That was JIMMY. The potential sentence implies that she had any choice or agency in her pregnancy. She didn't. And the fact that Curly had to ask "who" insinuates that he's been putting Jimmy's action out of sight and out of mind the whole time, choosing to not think about them or what happened to Anya at all. And considering he still made her do Jimmy's evaluations despite being able to do them himself and literally didn't even think of making sure she gets psych evals done too--especially AFTER getting sexually assaulted--that might actually be the case (I haven't seen anyone make a stink about that piece of info so I'm going to because what kinda colossal fuck up IS that??).

I vaguely had a post like this in mind but seeing so many people be like "well Anya did some wrong stuff too like leaving Curly alone with Jimmy but you don't get mad at HER for that so why is Curly not doing anything about Jimmy being alone with Anya so different??" actually makes me want to blow some people up. Jimmy's an abuser, sure, but Anya has no real reason to believe that he'd actually harm Curly. From her perspective, they were close, close enough that Curly would not only let Jimmy continuously disrespect her but also get away with assaulting her too. That, and she knows that Jimmy was closer to Curly than anyone and more likely to be civil around him than he ever was to her. She has barely any reasons to suspect Jimmy would harm Curly when they're alone. Curly, on the other hand, has every fucking reason on the planet to think Jimmy would harm her when they're alone. He knows he raped her (likely in her room at night too). He knows that he sexually harasses her. He knows that he doesn't respect her at all. And that was BEFORE the crash. Anya tried insisting on giving Curly his medicine, only for Jimmy to keep aggressively insisting that he'll take care of it despite her protests. Curly didn't try to keep them separate at all even though he was the Captain and had the power to do so. And this should go without saying, but leaving your rapist alone with his best friend that he was close to and enabled/protected him and leaving your friend alone with the woman he raped (and might have repeatedly assaulted given his free access to her) is NOT THE SAME and I'm going to start chucking some people down a waterfall because what the fuck is that argument 💀 Actually leave it to the fandom of the game where the rape of a woman is the catalyst for the events that unfold to use her trauma to defend the guy that enabled it in the first place. Bloody hell.

The reason why this whole Curly discourse pisses me off is because it-- from what I can see-- ONLY brings up his failures 1-0 days before the crash and the Dead Pixel scene (or all the discussion around other points are drowned out by those two). Those scenes, while important to talk about, are not the only things he's done, and focussing on those as the only things is a mistake that comes short of understanding the issue. When it comes to Curly the main defences I see for him are "he was trying not to escalate the situation" and "he was trying to keep things under control the best he can" and "he was waiting for the right time to help Anya", but those don't work when you look at the bigger picture of everything he's done.

He half-assed through his psych eval despite clearly not being sane (and KNOWING he's barely sane, he literally admits it to Jimmy's face). He still continued to task her with Jimmy's psych evals. He brushed over Jimmy's sexual harassment of her as a joke. He didn't think about making sure she got psych evals done herself after being raped. He gave Swansea the axe but didn't give Anya the gun despite it being for "unrest amongst the crew" (whatever the hell THAT means). He let her assault slip his mind that she had to remind him. He's literally a blond man. He took no action to hold Jimmy responsible for anything, and prioritised how his violation of Anya would affect him rather than her. He ignored her demands for him to get rid of Jimmy. He still allowed Jimmy free reign of the ship as co-pilot even after he was openly fantasising about killing everyone and had a major motive and the means to do just that. He was potentially thinking of making her miscarry to cover up what happened. He was so accustomed to her sucking up being disrespected and disturbed that he didn't even notice a difference in her behaviour until she hid the fucking gun. There's so much other shit he's done and hasn't done, and not talking about them or glossing over them makes it so easy for people to argue that he isn't actually an enabler or just minimise the severity of his neglect.

And while I'm already dragging Curly through the mud, I might as well just drag Swansea too. I've seen too many people being like "Anya should've told Swansea instead" and "Swansea was the one that actually took responsibility". Like, y'all realise he's not that much better than Curly, right? He already knew about what happened to Anya-- he admits it to Jimmy's face-- but he didn't do shit. He knew, but he still got completely shitfaced for months despite her earlier protestation to that (for very understandable reasons). He knew, but he still let Jimmy have the axe AND be alone with Anya while having it. He knew, but when Anya locked herself in the Medical and Daisuke and Jimmy asked for his help he didn't budge nor really showed any care. He knew, but the reason he finally decided to do something about Jimmy wasn't Anya, it was Daisuke. Her suffering and her eventual death weren't enough for him to take action either.

This game, on top of everything else, is a great depiction of rape culture. It doesn't just include the rapists, but the people (mostly men) that stay silent, do nothing, make excuses for and protect the perpetrator for whatever reason, and Swansea and Curly (Curly way more so than Swansea) are both active contributors to the environment that allowed for evil to flourish and continue unhindered until it destroyed them all. And while that arguably doesn't make them evil themselves or as bad as Jimmy, they are so much more a part of the bigger problem than the fandom likes to admit.

[Ok since this is kinda gaining a bit of traction please consider helping these guys out here, here and here. Thanks!]

[quirkle2]

art pieces that r incomprehensible without access to my mind

[cringefaecompilation]

liam: specifically makes orym a character that is actively biased and brings up his bias on a near-constant basis to goad other party members into challenging his viewpoints but has insofar failed to get anywhere outside of introspection he takes upon himself because they're all convinced he's supposed to be the moral core of the group rather than someone they need to question because he's comparatively "normal" and his problems/traumas are more grounded than theirs

matt planning on taking out orym's kneecaps with a bat come thursday:

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The West Passage

medieval fantasy set in a giant crumbling palace of traditions with forgotten origin, ruled by giant eldritch Ladies

when winter weather comes in the middle of summer, and a beast below the palace begins to rise, two teens from Grey who have suddenly gained a lot of responsibilities set out on separate journeys to the other towers to find a way to stop it, and meet all sorts of strange people and creatures along the way

world where pronouns/names are based on people’s roles

tons of cool medieval-style chapter illustrations by the author

[forestlovesyou]

I got hit by a huge wave of nostalgia and fell back into the Undertale rabbithole and I just couldn't resist the urge to make a Handplates skeleton lore accurate oc who I am pretty proud of ngl :] adawd

[001139]

a story about a flight instructor who hallucinates his dead student

[hopelessbaddays]

INTRODUCING MY OWN HORRORBREW, #219 AKA NIIKKU

due to how the game is programmed, there are several invalid color combinations of the player character in Super Mario Bros. 2 (aka the Lost Levels). one of them, for whatever reason, has the exact same combination as mario though his name is completely glitched.

this is based on an idea i had of turning this concept into an in-universe event (and giving 219 existential and identity crisis).

(more under the cut cuz this will get long)

219, nicknamed "Niikku", is a faulty clone of Mario born in World 9 while the brothers were trapped there due to Minus World's influence on World 9, which is a boundary between that place and the normal Mushroom World. he physically resembles Mario except for two things: his sidebangs are a single curl over his ears instead of parted into two round bangs, and his clothes are completely organic and cannot be taken off as they're part of his body.

personality-wise, he has Mario's most basic traits: he's a sweet, cheerful guy who is always willing to help others. however, his sense of identity is shaky due to having been born with blurry and incomplete memories and a great self-awareness. upon birth, he questioned who he was and clinged to the idea that he was Mario because it was the only thing he was sure of, even if slightly.

under high amounts of stress, his body starts melting and returning to its original state. while he has an efficient regenerative ability, the time taken until everything is regenerated depends on which kind of cells melted (skin cells being the fastest while bones being the slowest). usually, the melting starts with the hands or the face. though he can regenerate his brain cells, if his brain completely melts or is damaged in some way that halts his regeneration, he will die.

for most part, he has a good relationship with the original Mario brothers. he's closer to Luigi and sees him as his own brother, treating him as such. he has conflicting feelings for Mario, but doesn't have any ill will towards him; if anything, he's more likely to overthink and stress himself into melting than harming Mario.

at first they were suspicious of Niikku, but overtime they came to treat him more and more like family, albeit a little strange on the side. Luigi likes spoiling him as a little brother, which often leads to some bickering as Niikku thinks of himself as the older brother, and offers comfort whenever Niikku is panicking. Mario sees him as a clueless younger version of himself and assumes the role of an older brother and a mentor to Niikku.

that's not to say neither brothers have a lasting, albeit baseless fear of Niikku suddenly turning face and killing Mario to replace him, but such is reserved to their nightmares.

Niikku's key characteristic is the questioning of his identity as a person.

he sees himself as Mario and doesn't accept the fact he's a clone well. to him, being born with this body and these memories should mean something — but the truth is that his existence is completely out of chance. nothing about him was planned. he simply exists. and yet, even the only thing he was certain of turned out to be a lie.

he doesn't like being reminded that he's a clone over and over. at very least, he wants to be treated as a person. he can get some quips and jabs, just don't push it. depending on who you are, he will either start melting or throw hands at you.

the basic story outline goes as such:

As a fun little challenge after rescuing Princess Peach again, they decided to take the Lost Levels route to World 8, known for being much harder than the usual route and thus only people with excellent jumping skills and reflexes can successfully travel through it, but without taking any Warp Pipes to skip worlds.

This resulted in them reaching World 9, an elusive land that’s rarely seen due to the high difficulty of traversing the Lost Levels, its only known entrance for some reason, alternatively named as “Fantasy World” by the inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom. World 9 is also the boundary between the normal Mushroom World and the Minus World, being heavily influenced by the eldritch workings of that realm and thus possessing many similarities though significantly less hazardous.

The brothers found themselves trapped in World 9, looping back to the beginning whenever they reached the fourth level, and decided to look for a way out more carefully as the usual approach wasn’t working. During their prolonged stay, things like blood and dead skin cells exposed to the land’s strange atmosphere accumulated across the land, which, thanks to Minus World’s influence, started mutating into distorted mockeries of the Mario brothers.

Most of these “invalid brothers” were little but animalistic creatures made of flesh or disfigured beings that could barely tell their surroundings. However, one became an almost flawless copy of Mario, down to his basic personality traits, mannerisms and some of his core memories — this being Niikku.

Waking up alone and disoriented in 9-3, the newborn clone struggled to comprehend his own existence in the midst of an unfamiliar place, assaulted by confusing memories of a life that wasn’t his. He started believing he was in fact Mario since it was the only thing he was sure of. Despite that, his sense of identity remained shaky.

At one point, Niikku came across Luigi while the brothers were separated to cover ground and, recognizing Luigi as “his” twin brother, accompanied him in the original plan of looking for an exit. Luigi noticed something off about “Mario” and the slightly wayward way he acted, but initially brushed it off and blamed it on stress. They traveled together until Mario caught up to them. 

The two Marios accused each other of being an imposter, with Mario growing impatient of the clone’s insistence that he was the real one and Niikku agitated as the presence of a second Mario caused his mind to doubt itself. Before a fight broke out, Luigi convinced both to settle the confusion by asking questions that only the real Mario would know. While Mario answered each question flawlessly, Niikku found himself hesitating several times, second-guessing himself and giving uncertain answers.

It ended with Niikku being exposed as an imposter. However, before either of the brothers could decide what to do with Niikku, the clone spiraled into panic the more he questioned himself and his identity. This led to his body to start melting, returning to its original state. Niikku stayed ignorant to it, assuming that the wetness on his hands was tears until Mario and Luigi’s shocked reactions brought him back from his thoughts. Niikku went from panicking over his identity to panicking over the fact he was melting, and desperately sobbed out to the brothers that he didn’t want to die. Out of instinct, Luigi comforted Niikku and helped him to calm down as Mario tried to find a way to stop the melting. It stopped once Niikku calmed down; his face’s skin and eyes would regrow hours after the incident.

The Mario brothers then decided to take Niikku under their wing until they were out of World 9 and had an idea of what to do with him, with Niikku accepting the offer. They would travel World 9 together whilst Niikku pondered about his identity and false memories.

that's all for today! congratulations, you reached the end of this yapfest! have a cute niikku doodle!

[chibishortdeath]

Great googley moogley it’s all going to shit! Every day becomes exponentially more terrifying!

And all perfectly timed to just right at the start of what’s supposed to be my adult life where I get my shit together and be useful and productive!

[totally-not-an-awkward-okapi]

Look man I just think it’s a shame that Lon Chaney Jr’s horror film debut usually gets cut from the roster.

[otome-dissection]

yakuza 0 majima they could never make me hate you

[kerosene-saint]

pov that time I was in line for the Alex Brightman photo op at a convention, sitting in the disabled/fast line and looking at the other disabled fans waiting for him, all decked out in beetlejuice themed things, me in my beetlejuice lanyard, then looking over at EVERYONE ELSE waiting in line for him and just seeing. mass amounts of Hazbin Hotel cosplayers, people holding cardboard standees of the hazbin characters, hazbin hotel merch all over everyone.

[atlas-five]

the last episode really explains so much about lena tbh. and I'm genuinely surprised gwen is only just now at serious risk of being GOT by some horror or another what has she been up to?? who told her talking to The Horrors™ like that was a good idea??? YOU JUST LISTENED TO THEM ESTABLISH THAT THEY LIKE TO HURT PEOPLE MS BOUCHARD PLEASE USE YOUR BRAIN

[skeletons-in-ur-closet]

i wish i was a man tbh

[thegreatyin]

ffxiv shadowbringers is actually the epic tale of a catboy going "these light edibles ain't shit" and then he kneels over