#i feel like lucid dream is too yellow

[elliebell77]

dreamswap :)

[pandoa]

Hi!!! Can I request yellow pansies and anemones in a balcony theme for Jamil? Thank you!!

Yellow pansies ~ “they love me, they love me not. they love me, they love me n—” “what are you doing?” “GAH!”

Anemones ~ “just take my hand. don’t you dare second guess yourself”

~jamil viper x gender neutral reader~

the moment i saw the balcony theme and anemones prompt i immediately thought "ALADDIN A WHOLE NEW WORLD SCENE-" AND I'M JUST SDJNJVDV THE PERFECT WAY TO END THIS EVENT, THANK YOU FOR REQUESTING <3

♡shining, shimmering, splendid!♡

He was perfect. Way too perfect, actually. What kind of man was just too good at everything?

It was to the point where it drove you absolutely crazy. Every step he made caused your heart to flutter hoping each step would be an inch closer to him standing right beside you, every mention of his name made you helplessly lift your head thinking you and him were in the very same room, every word he said to you was another word you would place high on a pedestal as if it were the most enchanting sentence your ears had ever heard. He had lucid locks of hair your hands had only dreamed of running themselves through. Skin as smooth as silk that sent electrical shivers down your spine with just one simple touch of his skin on yours. His dancing lyrical, his mind intelligent, and his soul beautiful. 

You were in love with Jamil Viper. And you were nearing the verge of insanity if you did not find out if he had felt the same. 

Days would seem to pass in no time at all—mainly because you would constantly be dazed with your mental consciousness never present at all—and it regrettably began to influence, not only your emotions, but the life lived around you as well. You could no longer keep still, your mind always drifting off into never-ending daydreams, friends concerned for your health, and your heart needing a definite answer before it exploded into a million pieces. Which was why you were there now, leaning on Ramshackle’s antique balcony, pulling at the dainty petals of a flower you had picked on your way back to your dorm after class. This had to be settled once and for all. In the name of your ever-pounding heart.

“He loves me, he loves me not,” your hopeful muttering played through the trees and grassland residing at the bottom of your balcony, each petal you gently picked off gracefully gliding down to touch the greenery as it twirled and spun in the wind. Going up to Jamil and directly asking him about his own feelings was obviously not an option in these circumstances; that was simply too bold for your taste. So, you had resolved to the next best thing for determining someone's romantic emotions: using flower petals to predict your crush’s feelings. 

Plucking another petal off of the delicate flower, you sighed wistfully as a gentle breeze began to comb through your hair, “He loves me, he loves me n—”

“What are you doing?”

“GAH! J-Jamil!” Upon hearing the calm voice of the Scarabia second year, your body jumped up in surprise as you hid the flower you had been holding behind the small of your back. Lifting your gaze up to face him, however, you had noticed something off about the way Jamil’s figure had slowly risen up and down as if he were flying in mid-air. That’s odd, you curiously thought, I don’t see a magical broom with him anywhere?

“What brings you here…floating on a…” a small pause cut your sentence as you looked over the balcony’s railings only to see a familiar piece of tapestry-like cloth hovering over the air—confusion plaguing your voice as you turned to look the boy directly in the eye, “magic…carpet? What the heck, Jamil?”

Jamil, softly clearing his throat, attempted to avoid eye contact as a hesitant hand shot up to nonchalantly cover a part of his face. For whatever reason, it had seemed like he was embarrassed—for what you did not know. You were too focused on hiding a burning blush on your end to notice the also red tint creeping onto the vice housewarden’s cheeks. Trying to continue on with what he had come here for, Jamil finally gained back some of his composure and looked back at you, “I noticed that you seemed…quite stressed this past week and thought that you could use a moment to clear your head. So, I borrowed Kalim’s carpet and headed straight for Ramshackle. Apologies for scaring you, though. That, I did not plan.”

“What do you mean?” you timidly asked, heart still palpitating miles and miles each second Jamil’s gray eyes had bore into your own. 

“I’m taking you with me to relax.”

“What?”

“You heard me,” you watched as Jamil had shifted his position to get a better angle before reaching his own hand out to latch onto yours. “Here, just take my hand. Don’t you dare second guess yourself,” he said as the sun over Ramshackle’s balcony reflected onto the shining gold accents of his charms and bracelets—causing him to glimmer brighter than any star you had ever seen, “And don’t worry either.”

“You can trust me.”

a/n: and then reader and jamil ride off into the dramatic sunset singing "a whole new world" throughout the entirety of nrc until jamil finds out kalim tried to cook again and jamil's little date is interrupted because he doesn't want the housewarden to burn down their whole dorm <3

[anjee0]

Melody of the Heart

Chapter 3 ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

Female!reader x Eminem (Feel free to put in your own oc insert)

Description - Y/n is struggling artist who decides to perform at an event hosted by MTV where a bunch of celebrities will be watching in person. Marshall is invited and is immediately captured by Y/n's beautiful voice. Now all he wants is for her to be on his next song.

Warnings - Second hand embarrassment, Y/n being awkward as.

As soon as Marshall got back to his hotel, he settled at his laptop and turned it on, curious to find out more about Y/n. He searched her name: ‘Y/n Y/l/n’ at the search bar, surprisingly, without struggling to figure out modern technology either.

As he hit the enter button, a list of links all displaying Y/n's name filled the screen. The first one was to a Spotify page which intrigued his interest immediately. He clicked on the link to be met with her Spotify profile. He looked closely at the profile picture and he could confirm that it was in fact the Y/n he saw singing earlier that night.

Marshall scrolled down carefully to find that she had an album of her own. It was called: ‘Lucid Dreams’ and the cover was a picture of a beautiful night sky with a hazy purple tint to it. He clicked on the album and scrolled down as he browsed through the various tracks displayed in front of him. 

He started with the first song at the top. Marshall listened closely to the glassy synth beats that started to play. It was then followed by Y/n's singing. Her voice was delicate yet so powerful at the same time. Y/n's voice was layered with silkiness and a velvety touch. Marshall leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes as he imagined her singing in front him. He could picture her emotions so well as he caught himself tapping his foot to the beat.

Track after track played, and he just couldn't stop listening. This wasn't the usual type of music he was used to listening to, but Y/n's voice made it hard for him to not be obsessed. Marshall sunk into his chair as the music took him away to a whole other dimension. He hadn't heard music like this in ages. 

When the album came to an end, he immediately clicked around Y/n's Spotify page, looking for any links to her social media. Marshall found one that led to her Instagram and immediately clicked on it. Y/n's account was public and she made a few posts. Her posts consisted of her own covers of various songs as she played a ukulele in the background and a few promoting her album.

Marshall watched the multiple videos of her song covers and was easily mesmerised. The way she strummed the strings on the ukulele with such precision and elegance made her look professional. The comfortable notes of the ukulele complemented Y/n's voice perfectly. 

He continued scrolling through her videos and felt a wave of surprise as he found her doing a cover of Yellow Brick Road. He felt his lips curling up to a small smile as he listened closely. The caption stated: “Been a huge fan of Eminem since I was a teenager, so I decided to cover Yellow Brick Road. ❤️”

After clicking around some more and gathering more information, Marshall called his manager Paul, eager to tell him about Y/n. A few rings went by before Paul answered the call.

“Marshall? Is everything okay? How’d the event go?” Paul asked.

“The event went amazing, man. Listen, you were watching it live, right?” Marshall asked.

“Yeah, I was.”

“Well did you see that first girl? Y/n Y/l/n? She was phenomenal.”

“Yeah. In my opinion, she was the best out of all them. So, why are you calling me?”

“Listen Paul, I really think this girl has some potential. I really want her on a song.” 

“Oh, wow… Really?” Paul asked, his voice was touched with confusion and surprise. He paused for another second before speaking again. “Uh, I mean, are you sure?”

“Listen, I know how it sounds too. This doesn't really seem like me but…” Marshall thought carefully about his next words as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I have a good feeling about her.”

“What exactly do you know about this girl?”

“Well I did some research and she makes her own music. She has her own album and from the looks of it, she's an independent artist-”

“An independent artist? That's gonna be hard to manage Marshall. I'm not sure if this is a good idea.” 

“Paul, I know it is going to be hard to manage but it doesn't matter. This girl has potential and I want the world to see it.”

“The world just has. On live TV.”

“Paul, you're not hearing me out man,” Marshall said, his voice hanging onto everything that it could with a pleading tone. “This is worth it. I want this to happen.”

“Okay, listen. I'm going to check this girl out myself. If I think you're onto something, I'll let you know and maybe we could try to get a hold of her, okay?”

“Okay, yes, thank you.” Marshall sighed in relief. “That's great, man. I'll talk to you tomorrow.”

Marshall went to bed that night with heavy weights of anticipation and nervousness on his back. He would be truly disappointed if Paul disagreed with him. He closed his eyes shut as his mind became occupied with the thoughts of Y/n.

The next morning, Marshall woke up with the small hook of anticipation still hanging onto him. He paced around the room, constantly glancing over at his phone as he bit his fingernails anxiously. Suddenly, his phone started buzzing against the table as it played his ringtone. Marshall saw the call was from Paul and immediately picked it up.

“Paul? Yes? What do you think?” Marshall asked rapidly, not even letting his manager speak first.

“Jeez, morning to you too Marshall.” Paul replied monotonously.

“Sorry, I’m just really dying to know what you think.”

“I get it man, I get it.”

“Well?”

Paul let out a longing sigh before he kissed his teeth. “We can do it.”

As soon as those words left Paul’s mouth, Marshall let out a breath of relief as felt all the nervousness from before gliding off his body. He let out an airy chuckle and smiled gently. “Paul, that’s great. Thank you.”

“We still need to set up a lot of things. I discussed it with the team and they’re happy to take it on. In the meantime, you get in touch with her, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. That sounds great. Thanks man.”

As soon as the call ended, Marshall opened Instagram and went to Y/n’s profile. His fingers hovered over the keyboard as he thought of what to write. He wanted to come off as professional but relaxed at the same time. Marshall started waving his thumbs over the screen as ideas struggled to come to his mind.

In the end he settled with: “Hey, I saw you last night at the The Rhythm of New York Event. You were absolutely phenomenal and I was wondering if you wanted to work on a song with me? Thanks.”

Marshall immediately settled the phone down on the desk before sitting back down on the bed with his elbows resting on his knees. He tapped his foot against the floor rhythmically in quick one second beats as he waited for a response.

Y/n stared at her phone for what felt like an eternity. Her eyes wide and her mouth agape as she tried to process what was in front of her. With a variation of different emotions brewing inside her mind and body, she didn't know how or what to feel. She just stood there, unsure. There was no way that her idol that carried her for nearly her whole life had just messaged asking her to be on his next song. There was no way Eminem, the Eminem, the rap god himself, had said that Y/n was phenomenal.

She immediately called Maya, her fingers shook as she struggled to navigate through the phone. How could she when she was ecstatic and full of shock? The phone rang a few times before Maya picked up.

“Hey girl! What’s going on?” Maya greeted Y/n.

“You need to get here quickly.” Y/n said sharply, getting straight to the point.

“Is everything okay?” 

“Yeah, I mean, I think?” Y/n sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m not too sure. I just need you to get here, okay?”

“Alright, I’m getting there okay?”

A few minutes later, Maya showed up looking exasperated. A sheen layer of sweat was painted on her face and cheeks were flushed rosy pink. She panted continuously as Y/n let her into her house. 

“Are you okay?” Maya asked, immediately collapsing on the sofa.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. My engine was busted so I ran all the way here.”

“Couldn’t you have caught the subway?”

“Really? And torture myself like that?”

Y/n giggled at Maya’s comedic response. “Like running here wasn’t torture, right?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me. So, what happened?”

“Right. You’re not gonna believe me if I tell you.” Y/n reached for her pocket and showed Maya the text messages. 

Y/n could see the exact moment where the tiredness on Maya’s face was replaced with utter shock and a wave of excitement. She sat up with her eyes wide as she waved her hands around in joy.

“EMINEM WANTS YOU ON A SONG!” She exclaimed gleefully. She got up from the sofa and intertwined her hands with Y/n’s. “HE WANTS YOU ON A SONG!” She repeated energetically as she jumped around in circles.

“What do I do?” Y/n asked.

“Reply! Of course!”

“How?”

“Say you wanna do it!”

“Do what?”

“The song!” Maya laughed. “Oh gosh. Listen, I’ll do it for you.”

Y/n reluctantly handed the phone over to Maya. She watched as her friend thought carefully about what to type before moving her thumbs across the keyboard swiftly. Maya read over the message one more time and smiled softly as she gave the phone back to Y/n.

“Alright. Read that and tell me if you like it.” Maya said.

Y/n’s eyes scanned the text message briskly that read: “Hey, thank you so much, I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed my song last night. I would love to work on a song with you. Thank you.”

“How did you do that so flawlessly?” Y/n asked, feeling a bit bewildered.

“I don’t know. It’s kinda easy if anything.” Maya responded.

Y/n rolled her eyes and pulled one of her playful smirks as she sat down next to Maya. “Seriously though. Thank you Maya. This is all happening because you were there for me and helped me out.” Y/n’s gaze softened as she beamed lightly at her friend.

“Don’t credit me.” Maya responded. “Your outstanding talent got you here.” A small pause was followed as a restful silence hung in the air. “Ready to send it?”

Y/n nodded nervously in response. Her thumb shook over the send button subtly. With one final exhale, she sent the message. Immediately, she switched it off and threw it behind her on the sofa.

“Why’d you do that?” Maya laughed.

“It’s like sending a risky text message to your crush.” 

“Didn’t you just do that?”

Y/n scoffed dramatically as she hit Maya’s shoulder gently. “I only had a crush on him for like a few months when I was 15!”

“And if my memory serves correct, you said that you found him ‘hot’ around 2 months ago.” 

“Yeah, two months ago!”

Maya tilted her head and smirked at Y/n like a little child. She hummed playfully and let out a chuckle she struggled to hold back. “Come on.. You still fancy him, don’t you?”

“Okay, well, like a bit…”

“I knew it!”

“A bit! Just a bit!”

“You know what, I see a love story forming between the two of you-”

“Okay, that’s enough!” Y/n interrupted with a loud cackle as she covered Maya’s mouth.

Maya slapped Y/n’s hand off gently and laughed. “I’m just teasing you. I’m so happy for you girl.”

“Thanks Maya. One more thing though…” Y/n responded.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Is it okay if this can stay between us? This is definitely highly confidential and I don’t want people knowing about it.”

“It’s safe with me. Don’t you worry.”

“So now I'm just waiting for a reply…” Marshall explained to Hailie as he poured some tea.

“I will have to admit, this is very unlikely of you, but I think this is the right idea.” Hailie responded.

“I'm surprised that I decided to do it. She's really something else you know?” Marshall sighed as he rested the mug down onto the table. “I'm worried that she's going to decline the offer…”

“Why would she? She said she was a fan of yours on Instagram so I don't see why she would turn it down.”

“I know that, but it's still a possibility.”

“Even if she does, just let it be known that you at least tried and went out of your way to ask.”

“Thanks Hay…”

Hailie smiled softly at her dad before taking his coffee pot and having a sip.

“Did you just say all that sweet stuff so you could steal my tea?” Marshall asked with a dumb smirk on his face.

“No, I'm being honest. I'm just craving some tea. And plus, this is fruit tea. No way you would like this stuff.”

“What? I'm not a baby.”

“Yeah, whatever. So when did you send the message?”

“About an hour ago.”

“Have you checked if she responded?”

“No, not yet.”

“When did you last check?”

“Never.”

“Dad! Come on, you need to check the messages at least every 5 minutes. Come on, check your phone.”

Marshall sighed playfully in a dramatic manner before he took his phone out. As soon as he opened it, he took notice of the notification displayed on the lock screen.

“It's from Y/n.” He said.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Open it!” Hailie encouraged him.

Marshall wasted no time as his thumbs scrambled to unlock the phone and open the DM. When he did, he let out an airy chuckle of relief.

“She said yes…”

“Dad, that's great!” Hailie squealed as she embraced Marshall into a hug. “You need to call her now and talk to her. I'm gonna head back to my room.”

A few minutes passed and Marshall was able to get confirmation from Y/n that she could video call. When she answered, he could see the nervousness plastered over her face. Her cheeks were blushing pink as a nervous smile crept on her face.

“So, Y/n. How are you feeling?” He asked.

“A bit nervous.” She chuckled. “This is just so surreal. I’ve been a huge fan of yours since I was a teenager.”

“I know. I saw your post where you covered Yellow Brick Road. It was great. Your ukulele skills are amazing.”

Y/n’s cheeks flushed even more, turning her a deep red, which she didn’t even know could be possible. “Thank you. I really appreciate that.”

For the rest of the phone call, Y/n told Marshall a bit about herself, mainly just about her music and her life in New York currently. (She skipped over all the personal parts from her childhood, feeling that it was unnecessary to share).

“That’s great that I know you a bit more well now. Listen, this isn’t really something that I do, and I’m only doing this because I really think you’ve got some potential. I don’t want to pressure you or anything, but try your best to not mess it up, okay?”

Y/n could immediately feel the pressure being weighed down on her. How was she supposed to be calm when Eminem told her to not mess up? “I’ll try my best…”

“Good. So, let’s talk about business and how this is going to work. Since you’re an independent artist, I think it’s best we can get you a manager and sign you to a good record label. Are you on board with that?”

Y/n felt a surge of uncertainty spiralling through her. She wasn’t too keen on getting a manager, but she supposed there would be some benefits. “Are there benefits to it?”

“A lot. With a manager, they can give you guidance, help with time management, networking and organising events. And with a record label, they can help you financially, give you boosts and help with your development. There’s a chance that after this, a lot more people will wanna hear your voice. And for that, a manager and record label could help.”

Y/n considered the offer and came to a conclusion that it would be useful. “Okay, that sounds good.”

They talked for another hour or so discussing everything Y/n would have to be prepared for. She will have to admit, she was shaking with anxiousness. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and she couldn’t mess it up, no way. The strain on her was tremendous but she was willing to do anything for it to happen. It was a dream come true. 

“So, how much time do you reckon you’ll need to pack?” Marshall asked.

“Pack what?”

“Your suitcase?”

“My suitcase?”

“Yeah, you’re coming with me to Detroit.”

“I am?”

“How else would we do the song?”

“Oh, right! So I’m staying with you?”

“Yeah… how else would we do it?”

Y/n felt a gush of outpouring embarrassment spill from her guts. She was making herself look stupid in front of Eminem of all people. “Oh yeah! Duh! Of course. Well… to pack, it depends. How long will I be there?”

“At least a couple of months.”

Y/n kissed her teeth as she struggled to cover the shock on her face. She would be spending a few months in Eminem’s mansion. She nodded slowly, trying to think of what to say next without sounding dumb.

“Greal.” She responded.

“Greal?”

Y/n’s eyes twitched as she felt herself growing terribly awkward and mad at herself. “I meant to say great. But then I was gonna say deal. And then it just kinda became greal…” At that moment, she wanted to hang up the call, block Marshall on every social media platform and disappear off the face of the Earth.

“Hey, sweetheart, it’s fine, don’t sweat it. I understand, you’re nervous.” Marshall replied sincerely.

Y/n felt a sense of relief knowing that he understood, but the fact that he had just called her sweetheart did not help at all.

Eventually, their call came to an end as they waved each other goodbye. Y/n grabbed her pillow and screamed into it. The lingering embarrassment clutched onto her like a blood-sucking leech. It caused continuous pain that made her feel humiliated. This was really happening. It was real. In one week, she would be hopping on a private jet with Eminem to start a song with him. She couldn’t mess up anymore. It was time to commit to this properly.

A/N: chapter 3 after a month! (I'm so sorry). Also, Marshall calling Y/n sweetheart was a reference to a Rhythm and Flow episode where he called one of the girls sweetheart🙈 I think it was s2ep5 if you wanna see it!

[howlsofbloodhounds]

hey wdyk about nim? i've seen her mentioned, ik she's from dreamtale, but i don't actually know anything about her or if she's good/bad

I don’t know much, it’s been awhile since I’ve brushed up on my dreamtale stuff, so dreamtale experts could probably correct me or answer you better, but the gist of what I know is:

1. She’s one of the Guardians, i think there were like four? Pretty sure she was like the guardian of emotions, or the guardian of the tree of feelings. and she had a tree with apples of negativity and positivity she had to protect. And to keep it and the balance safe she moved/hid her tree/apples somewhere in the UTMV? Or around it.

2. She was chilling one day when a human attacked her, probably for one of the apples. She managed to kill the human but was weakened by him. After that she kinda created(?) two little balls of energy, yellow and purple, Dream and Nightmare; so she’s their mother.

3. She tried to make them vessels as humans, but the bodies couldn’t handle the twins’ magic and exploded. She then decided to make the twins skeleton bodies based of a Swap Sans because it helped ‘vent’ their energy/magic better. (Which is why some joke that swap is the twins’ dad)

4. Then after that she basically became the tree itself. I don’t remember if she was ever capable of talking to the twins or aware of what was going on, but Nightmare ultimately ends up killing her after his Corruption via cutting down the Tree of Feelings.

5. Not so certain about this one, but I’ve heard around that Nim hated humans and that the Apple Incident with Passive might’ve been planned? Or that she allowed it to happen? Not too sure.

{ @lucid-cups }

[imthatpowerful]

a lil yapping lowkey 😪😓

also i know im not the only one w these experiences, i think it’s something everyone experienced actually so please share ur experiences if u have similar ones cuz i’m intrigued.

i was thinking n shi and i js realized ive been a master manifestor and shifter and allat since i was a kid before i even knew the name of what i was doing 😭😭😭 i manifested a couples things like my height, 🍒 size, me moving to the US and prolly a lot of other things and all i did was persist in the idea that one day i was gonna have those things. sometimes id pretend i alr had those things. i didn’t even know what i was doing was manifesting and when i got exactly what i wanted i was shocked 😭 lowkey regret manifesting those so imma undo those but anyways that’s not the point.

i also def shifted and astral projected as a kid as well. i have vivid memories from when i FIRST gained consciousness at 3 they’re kinda vague but i can remember the feeling vividly. i remember this one night i was sleeping and suddenly i was out of my body and floating to the ceiling, i felt like a balloon, i was attached to my body by a string, i saw myself sleeping. and i kind of went through the ceiling. i was really scared and didn’t know what was happening and i wanted it to stop, and then it did. and i don’t think it happened once. i remember this VIVIDLY. it’s a core memory, not sure if it was a dream tho bc that whole era where i was newly conscious was kind of like weird but i bet on my life it was real and i astral projected that night.

i remember a BIG airport looking place i was in before i was born or before i was conscious it was orange tinted my mom was there, i was a baby, and there were other babies and mothers there. it was like a baby airport or something idfk and mothers i think were picking up their babies, but i was alr w my mom so i didn’t know why we were still there. i think that was my spawn point. i also remember a big green grass field and a big windmill w red blue green and yellow fans and a farm (all based off this ad i saw on tv) istg i was there either in a dream or irl but it was def irl bc some of my earliest dreams i remember literally were so simple like a woman in a red dress and a man in a suit running and the ground breaking beneath them or this vampire movie we had on dvd as a dream but 10x scarier, plus i was rarely (actually never) a character in my dreams when i first started dreaming. i also remember playing w my brother and suddenly i was in his pov and i could see myself. def shifted on accident. could’ve also been a dream. there are also other occurrences like when i first started watching nursery rhymes etc. any arab moots know exactly what video im boutta describe. it’s that video of nancy ajram i think and she’s a fairy and she��s saying not to scribble on the wall i think it said shakhbat shakhabeet. that was like one of the first medias i consumed as a kid. i remember being in the village for the nancy ajram mv istg, like i was there it felt so real my memory is so vague but i remember seeing a fairy and being in the middle of the village and a forest that’s all i remember but i remember the feeling. and there’s def more times ive shifted. but like i could yap on and on about if i remembered but it’ll be too long.

i also think i’ve lucid dreamt but can’t remember any specific core memory or occurrence.

like overall i think i naturally knew all of that and then when i got old enough to learn religion and stuff like that’s when i stopped being able to do allat. i remember being bummed out to find out allat wasn’t real and i actually lowkey refused to believe in my religion at first i remember my granny and mom telling me to say the thing that would make me a member of the religion and i crossed my arms and refused and they told me not to do that. ever since then i let go of any belief i had of the supernatural. deep down though,i was a lil agnostic and i carried doubts that the supernatural wasn’t real bc i knew what i experienced, but i was scared of going to hell (now ik that what u believe and assume happens after death is what manifests) so i fought those thoughts. all those memories of me doing those things were burried, and since it was an early memory i convinced myself it was prob a dream. but again what 3 yr old has VIVID dreams that feel real. now that i believe in this stuff again i know i used to do allat. and it was so normal for me. so glad these things found me again though. maybe that’s why i didn’t hesitate to believe in this stuff or question it when i rediscovered it.

having to unlearn what society conditioned me to believe has been a really long journey but i can feel myself becoming that little girl again who literally was shifting and astral projecting like it was nobody’s business.

if u made it this far thank you i love you 💗 here’s a cookie. and js know you WILL shift and have everything you ever wanted. heck you already have it now!

[zeemczed]

Silly Game Time: Do you often remember your dreams? What's a dream that you do particularly remember?

Myself, I almost never do. But I do remember one where I wandered around an empty, medieval city wearing a tailcoat tuxedo and carrying a yellow rose.

I am a prolific lucid dreamer, and I have found many, many, many repeated places.

The City on Three Bridges, spread across three islands and the mainland, the roads on the islands and the shore too steep for any car to reasonably climb - and yet they do. There is a convenience store at the highest point of the hill approaching the City. Half of it is a restaurant, or was. The booths have been shoved together so tightly that no one can sit there anymore, just for storage. There is no candy there, but there are bars of pickled onion. The owner is unseen; you simply leave the money on the counter.

The Badlands, a desert that stretches an infinite way into the distance, all the buildings dilapidated and burnt out. The natives never speak, wearing heavy winter clothing that conceals all. If you feel something in your skin, look for slits, places where the things have burrowed in. You may have to remove them by hand. Water hurts them, the surest way to dispose of them.

The Game Shop, which has been there forever. You can buy 3.5" diskettes with new levels and classes and stories for The Game. The girl who works there acts hard and stoic, but she is a soft touch underneath it all. She does enjoy swapping stories.

The Neon Wastes. A discount Las Vegas to be walked on foot, with cracked remnants of parking lots between them. No one uses cars there anymore, so they just built new neon edifices over top of the parts of the lots they wanted to. The games they play cannot be reasoned out, only played and understood. Do not play Albedo. You will lose. You will lose parts of yourself. You will not be able to stop, no matter how much of yourself you lose.

The DIY Carnival. They can't park themselves anywhere legal, so they put it in the back alleys in the slums. They've made the rides themselves. They look like they should kill, but no one is ever hurt. The most popular is the Guillotine. It is a cart on an 80 degree chute. You are put on it, hoisted up to the top, and dropped. There are no brakes. And yet, no matter how far you are flung when you crash, you are fine. The clowns are scruffy, yet beatific. They are not demons, but angels, servitors of a higher power. No innocent may come to harm while they are there, and no one who would harm the innocent may live. Long live the Whiteface. Long live the Hobo. Long live the Tramp. Long live the Auguste and Contra-Auguste.

[rivetgoth]

I have always loved Skinny Puppy’s “Last Rights” but I feel like this year has really been a year of returning to it and sitting with it and exploring it deeper than I ever have before and I’m quickly becoming convinced it’s one of their all-time best albums and also just one of the most masterfully composed albums of all time tbh.

It is just so cohesive and everything feels so neatly interwoven. From the cover with its sickly smoggy greens and yellows and oranges in this desolate surreal wasteland littered with skulls and gargoyles and angels and demons, crumbling pillars that almost evoke a burial ground of some ancient city or temple, and the NAMES of each song which all just feel so dark and surreal even before hearing them— Love in Vein, Killing Game, Knowhere?, Mirror Saw, Inquistion, Scrapyard, Riverz End, Lust Chance, Circustance, Download. I feel like it all feels very desolate and very dark and totally evocative of that same wasteland feel as the album cover. And that’s just the presentation, not even getting into the actual sound of the songs yet.

We semi-know what was going on when the album was written and what it’s about to some extent through interviews with Ogre; he was going through the very worst of his addiction, struggling with a bad breakup and a psychotic breakdown and it all sounds like all of those things were feeding into each other in a really vicious cycle. He was self harming on stage for this tour, he had a seizure in the recording studio at one point. 

“I was basically trapped in my apartment, only escaping to get more drugs to sustain the delusion that was going on. I was having massive amounts of hallucinations, there were lights coming out of the walls and I was under the impression that I was being watched by people very closely, and that there was a demonic force that was slowly closing in on me and just harassing me until I committed suicide, basically. It wouldn't leave me alone. I couldn't stop doing drugs because it was too painful to stop doing drugs and face what I'd become. And whenever I did drugs, as soon as I put the needle in my arm and injected the cocaine into my body, it was like turning on all the sound, all the vision, all of the hallucination...this was something very twisted and very real. And at the time I was being harassed by some people who knowledge with occupying different transient fields of energy, which I believe they did.” [source]

I feel like the progression of the album is just so striking. “Love in Vein” as an opening track, title itself evoking the moment of shooting up and the collapse begins. The opening “Dreams not waking,” capturing this imagery of the drugged out “main character” of the album there in squalor, shooting up to escape reality, wasting away. The album flows in and out of coherency and it’s mostly downwards from there. “Killing Game” is the most concious and lucid song on the album, which fades immediately to “Knowhere?” which is one of the most desolate, disturbing, heavy, chaotic songs I think I know of. It really sounds like the ambiance of a smoggy post apocalyptic wasteland full of half-functioning machinery, animal bones caught in oil spills and tar, exhaust fumes melting lungs, with Ogre’s screaming “One day you will have no one to run to.” 

The disorganized incoherent anger giving way to the much much more subdued “Mirror Saw” feels like the moment during a bad trip when you come back to semi-lucid semi-reality and are punched in the gut by self awareness. This moment where you ask yourself “What’s happened to me?” Or in the song’s case, “What’s become of me and you?” Most definitely thinking of the same person who was the target of the anger in “Knowhere?” The song is less coherent than previous ones—the descent downwards continues on even as emotions blur together and shift and evolve in and out of reality—but it feels like a moment attempting to break free from the altered state psychosis into something more conscious. But it’s too late for full lucidity. I picture “Mirror Saw” as one laying on the floor and staring up, looking at popcorn ceiling morphing into angels that morph into demons, noises playing from an old television just out of view so all you can hear is this chaotic cacophony of sounds, unable to fully parse what’s outside in the real world, what’s on the TV, and what’s in your head.

The themes of destruction of the home, the physical space itself, wrapped in metaphor surrounding the destruction of relationship and love and life itself—the dead baby crashing through the windows, the guilt crashing through the ceiling, the invasion of privacy and lack of safety one feels when exposed in the wake of destruction—is a prevalent theme throughout the album but especially in “Mirror Saw.” Alongside absolutely fucking masterful musical composition and mixing from cEvin, Dwayne, and Rave, inserting bits of angelic choral sounds that feel almost sinister in their ominous presence. Songs become more and more incoherent at the same time as Ogre’s vocals becoming less strong and less coherent. “Scrapyard” cutting in and out in these jagged discordant bits and pieces of noise without rhyme or reason. The album loses any sort of musical structure save for certain sound motifs echoing across various sonic landscapes as the album progresses further and further into madness.

“Circustance,” the last song before “Download” and the very last time we hear Ogre’s voice. The angel motifs and soft voices and sounds drifting about over the cacophony of discordant noise — the song is also incrediblyyyy erratic and lacks any linear structure — as Ogre sings “I looked upon the circus in the sky … Make it go away, make it go away,” the sort of transformation of the heavenly into something cartoonish and comical and fictitious, the irony of the circus jingles overlaid, the lyrics being purely bits and pieces of words and phrases, total incoherence as he witnesses this distorted Heaven up above him (more mentions of the ceiling, he’s still laying there in the rotting room, these are all still just visions). The song picks up in energy again and for a split second it feels like coherent (sludgy, droning) rhythm before it ends and we shift into “Download”…

…I think it was Dani who said that “Download” struck her for it being the final song and its complete absence of Ogre vocals, like he’s been fully overtaken or his voice has been lost. That really stuck with me. At risk of sounding corny “Download” sounds like an interpretation of dying. The discordant chaos and sound, the sounds of previous songs returning in distorted bits and pieces as distant motifs, the DMT release, electronic noise that’s incomprehensibly inhuman, life flashing before your eyes in fragments, the chaos increasing through the death throes, battling and resistance to hang on, until finally everything quiets down and turns to soft lulling whirs, breathing slowing, resistance subsiding, and the last 5 minutes of the song feels like floating, drifting away to calm nothing. And that’s how “Last Rights” ends.

I think you can interpret the album as almost happening in real-time, from The needle is warm at the point of shooting up to “I look upon the circus in the sky” as the final fractured thoughts before overdose/death, or just as an exploration of that point in Ogre’s life, perhaps as a sort of speculative piece on if he had succumbed to the intrusive suicidal ideation he described feeling at that point or if he had ended up dying to all the other inflictions at that point, be it overdose or a secondary symptom of the drug use (ex. the seizures, or even the frequent mentions he describes through the album of heart attack, head exploding, etc). Either way it just floors me listening through it all as a single piece how coherent it is, how dark it is, how much it all blends together into this genuinely disturbing piece of music that captures addiction and psychosis so well, the interwoven musical motifs and lyrical motifs and the constant imagery evoked of this totally desolate living space that’s crumbling both inside and out, haunted, plagued by angels and demons, the sort of Jacob’s Ladder sentimentality as the lines between the demonic and the angelic blur together, all both literally and metaphorically, where one can’t tell what’s really happening and what’s symbolic and what’s just a hallucination, how much of it is just spent through the eyes of the narrator staring up at a blank ceiling.

Like… goddamn. This is nowhere near a complete write-up but I just really wanted to get some of my thoughts out. It is such a harrowing piece of music and I actually feel like it’s somewhat underrated (although I know amongst Puppy people it’s beloved) in how beautifully crafted it is on all fronts. There is nothing else quite like it at all. 

[candy8448]

Dreams are weird, and can sometimes be really unerving

Especially when you lucid dream, things can get really strange

At least in my experience it can

Ive been thinking about legend on kohilint. The longer he stays there, the more aware he is that he is in a dream. He occasionally has these horrible throbbing headaches, hears loud buzzing and thumping in his ears. Sometimes things are out of place but then he looks back and those out of place things feel normal. Some things suddenly change colour, sometimes at the edge of his vision, someone's face turns into this horrible distorted and warped haunting things, with creepy and unerving expressions, but he looks a second more and it snaps back to normal. Sometimes people just dissapear and things appear into place. Yet, after all this, link finds it normal, obviously it has always been like this, the walls were always neon green and glowing like that, surely.

He is aware he is in a dream, but he is also in such denial that it feels like real life again, i mean, he can still eat and taste and sense, so it must be real. But its not, you can sense things in dreams, but his denial is so deep that he doesnt know.

The sun never seems to set, the sky is too blue, the clouds are too perfectly shaped and the sun is always a perfect, yellow circle. Of course it is, kohilint is just that perfect, but its real.

When he looks off the coatline, the distance is always empty and foggy, as if its forbidden to go that far, to leave the boundries of this dream that is so perfect to him

But it is so warped and wrong

[flygonscales]

Hey so a while ago I mentioned I had a new fursona called Samael; well here he is!

This sounds crazy but he actually came to me in a dream (feel free to skip the dream summary lmao) (no really, it was one of those really vivid lucid ones, and there was a secret dragon society in a pseudo medieval world, and dragons could shapeshift into humans (through some kind of convoluted ritual) and there were dragon hunters (just reskinned witch hunts to be honest), and though they were called dragons, most of them were wyverns (basically rathalos and rathian), but I was a super special cool one that I remember thinking of as like destruction wyvern rathalos (mainly colour scheme) and malzeno (4 legs and the vampire beak thing), i was in the dream and was a chosen one type thing called a Vampyre (look i might just be edgy and cringe), (and no one had noticed up until then? Even though my parents were raths and I was a 4 legged elder dragon thing?). It wasn’t fully medieval because later on in the dream I got my hands on a boltgun (based on faint memories of the yellow one in dr who (42?, look up dr who boltgun and you’ll see what I mean)) . When I woke up it wrote out a full summary of what I dreamed and it’s really long, I might have to try and make a coherent setting/lore out of it, and I drew out my first design for Samael. (Might post that sometime too)

I really want to make fursuit parts but I’m trying to save money at the moment, I keep telling myself I can do stuff like that after my exams lol.

[wickdcreatures]

          Benji had a strange look in his eye all night, but also maybe Salem was looking too far into it. The most important thing to him was the soft plush pillows in one of the many guest rooms in Benji’s too large, too empty house. Whatever wards he had up in the house, though, kept Salem’s ghost at bay — so his dreams are light, less nightmare filled, and… yellow? 

He’s painting on a large, expensive canvas, large brush strokes, angular, yellow — and in front of him, his muse for the night… @fyramids. What a strange little creature! Strange, this dream feels less like a movie like his dreams normally do! He feels oddly in control of his body — a welcome change. Maybe this is what lucid dreaming feels like! 

          “ I usually don’t paint angles, ”     Salem says absentmindedly, drawing his paintbrush slooooowly down the canvas,     “ Or use this much yellow, for that matter. This is fun. ”

[werewolf-girlfriend]

thanks for the tag @dandy-dog!!! :D

Favourite color: ohhhhhhhhhh this is a hard question. if u look at my blog u might think it to be red and green but im also very weak for blue and yellow and orange and and and and... and i always wanna buy something if it has a rainbow on it :)

Favourite Song: god. i genuinely don't think i can pick just one. i couldnt even pick 10. theres too many songs i like a whole lot..! but i can tell u some of the stuff im listening to these days:

Phantom of the Opera covered by Ghost

ChuChu Lovely MuniMuni MuraMura PrinPrin Boron Nururu ReroRero by MAXIMUM THE HORMONE

Can You Feel The Sunshine? from Sonic (lol)

www.girl by Toy-Box

Given and Denied by Poets of the Fall

Lucid Dream by Owl City (i just found out recently hed released new music and like hooolllllyyyyyyyy shit)

Currently reading: SO GLAD U ASK i have been absolutely readingpilled this year so far. i just finished The Song of Achilles like 2 days ago (it was so good?? omg???) as a break from reading The Murderbot Diaries! Manga-wise ive been eating up Paru Itagaki's Sanda before i get back into my journey thru Junji Itou's mangaography which i wanna complete by the end of the year >:3

Currently watching: Dungeon Meshi like everyone else :) I've also been enjoying the You're Under Arrest OVA from '94 and that Prehistoric Planet docuseries!

Coffee or Tea: i only recently got into tea but even if i hadnt id still choose weird hot water with the slightest of taste to bitter coffee >:) that said i dont drink much tea either lol

Currently craving: oh my god i want some fucking fries. or a huge bowl of spaghetti with meat sauce and parmesan ohg.... i am writing this post right before lunchtime....

and im taggin @beastwife @yaboi-nate @rikke-m-a @1night-star1 @dragongirltail @freshdonuts @camiliark @beatcroc @smolsleepyfox @thrashz @adhdwerewolfgf @beastrogen @spearxwind !!

[callmejudgement]

Judgment’s Detailed Experience #1

Ft. Method at the end, lucid dreaming, advice

5/3/2023

When I woke up this morning, I was slightly disappointed because I hadn’t shifted. I intended to shift right upon my mind waking up, without moving a single muscle. However, I had already tossed and turned a few times and felt defeated.

So, I decided to do I little mental exercise instead. I imagined standing on a beach with my feet in shallow water. I imagined looking out to the horizon, and then I laid down on my stomach in the water. At first, I couldn't see anything. I just acted as if I was on a beach.

At this point I could actually see everything clearly. It was not like a daydream at all. I focused so intently on the sand. I picked it up and felt the roughness of the rather large grains. Some were pink, other grains white or yellow. The water was a beautiful crystal blue that shimmered in the sun.

It was a beautiful beach. As I examined the sand, I noticed a few pink flower petals a few feet in front of me. I reached out and grabbed them before the waves swept them away.

Lastly, I scooped some of the water into my mouth and tasted the saltiness of the sea. By now, you probably think that I have shifted, so let me be clear that this was only a dream.

I was not lucid, my dream self only acted with the intention of firmly visualizing a beach that I set upon falling back asleep.

After tasting the seawater, I looked to my right, at the ocean, and noticed a large wave. It was at least 3 stories high and I got scared and ran off the beach. My mind lost focus and I lost the intention of visualizing the beach in favor of my safety.

I spent the rest of the dream in my regular dream daze, doing random junk. However, had I continued to visualize the beach and affirmed that I was safe, that I have shifted, and that I was in my waiting room; what do you think would have happened?

I expect that the dream suddenly would not have been a dream anymore. I would have stood on a very real beach where I could think clearly and be guided by more than a single intention.

The Morning Dream Method

Upon waking (it’s ok if you move your body), go back to sleep. As you are falling asleep, visualize a simple scene (beach, grassy field, snowy forest). At the start, you probably won’t see anything. It will be just a concept in your mind that you are dedicating yourself to exploring. Feel the grass on your feet, or sink yourself into a pile of fluffy snow. Since you just woke up, it should take only a few minutes for you to fall back asleep (if you feel like it is taking too long, just know that it will happen tomorrow and get up). Once the dream becomes clear, begin affirming that you are already in your dr (or wr. Whatever you want to call it).

Example affirmations:

This is my dr. I’m in my dr.

I have complete control because this is my wr.

I am fully conscious and aware because I have shifted.

Everything I am experiencing right now is real.

I will remain here as long as want.

Do not doubt if it is possible. Just know that everything has become real. These affirmations serve to remind you of what you already have achieved. Once you feel in control, do at least 3 reality checks. Why 3? Just to be safe and ansolute! So when you shift back, you are sure it was no longer a dream because not one, not two, but three checks failed.

Reality checks:

Stick your fingers through the palm of your other hand. If they pass through, you are dreaming.

Cover your nose, if you can still breathe, you are dreaming.

Look at your hands. Do you have 5 normal-looking fingers on each one? If not, you are dreaming.

Honestly, these are the only ones I recommend doing because you may have greater powers in your dr or wr that compromise the accuracy of other reality checks. For example, some people use flying or changing the environment as a check. But what if you can fly in your dr? What if you have the power to control your wr at will (I know that I do)? If these do not apply to you, then you can try them; however, in my 6 years of lucid dreaming, I found those three to be the easiest and most accurate as they only require yourself.

That’s all!

Happy shifting,

Judgement.

[anin13]

Shumori chapter 9

TW: Diabolik Lovers, swiss idol ideation and self hate, survivor's guilt.

Once upon a time there was a railroad line

On the road to hell there was a railroad track; if you ride that train till the end of the line, where the sun don't shine and it's always shady

It's there you'll find...

-You won't even acknowledge me, not even in this! It's not your little world and me simply existing in it!

-...Anything but him, please!

-We both wish it had been YOU instead!

...That it was simply a matter of time.

Before anything else could happen, before he could stop the fire lamp from falling on Edgar's face, Shu found himself back at a white place. With a phonograph, to play the tunes he no longer heard. His music book, the pages crossed by black crayon and doodles of dogs and cats. A pillow to sleep the sorrows away, a half eaten apple and a puppy he knew all too well.

...Waiting for something to happen?

There was a door that cast a faint shadow. He could use it to get out into that strange dream world he'd met Laito and the others in a lucid dream. He didn't have the will this time. He just wanted to stay here, away from everything, away from himself if possible.

Destiny is not something you can escape, no matter how much you let sunlight blind you to it; the vampire king's firstborn...

You've been coming here to shut the world out for as long as you can remember.

...It's been centuries.

But in the last weeks there is something off here you can't put your finger on. There is a chandelier, hanging from the ceiling, wherever that is. In it are 6 candles, only two with colored flame, one yellow one green. They clash with everything else here, don't they? You have no idea why it's here. There is no need for light.

-Heyyyy... -an exhasperated half-growl echoed from afar, muffled- How long do you plan to drag this on?

That was a voice from outside. It sounded familiar in tone.

Shu half-opened his eyelids to come back to the real world and saw the starry sky, trees, stone structures and a tall, grown man instead of the child he'd somehow expected.

Yuma put a hand on the blond vampire's forehead. It felt cold, and he felt dumb; of course, Shu was an undead!

Shu's brow was furrowed in confusion. What was he doing?

Oh, right. Humans check for fever like that.

Yuma might still have moments in which he thinks he's human. Shu found it funny when he retracted the hand, embarrassed; he seemed to remember feeling for signs of life in him was pointless. He was easy to read as ever.

Yuma recovered fast,

-You somehow feel asleep on a stone cold bench in a garden! -he announced- You have a good skill right there, you'd be able to rest if you lived in the streets!

-...You came.

-I had to! -Yuma blurted out despite himself- ...And there was nothing else to do. -he added, almost casually- What did that apple mean? You just met me and you haven't investigated nuthin' 'bout me.

Shu almost smiled and sat up,

-It means it's time to give you back, like a lost boy.

Shu started walking toward the entrance, and Yuma frowned like a kid who had just been denied dinner.

-Hey, I forgot where I live! ...Wait, yer not going anywhere! -Yuma caught up and grabbed Shu by the back of his sweater,

-Stop that, -Shu dragged- it'll ruin my sweater...

Yuma pushed him against the nearest wall and pinned him there,

-You can't keep pretending you know nothing. I am trapped in empty memories, suddenly I meet ya people and I start having this strange thing where I can't even remember my own name. -Yuma pushed harder and grit his teeth- One last time before I snap. Do you people have anything to do with this?!

-Maybe. How should I know? -a calm Shu averted his eyes- Lately I am trapped in the opposite problem, I remember too much, particularly every time I want to rest.

Yuma lightened the pressure on Shu's chest. Surprisingly, this wasn't some evil bastard plotting the Mukami family's demise. He'd gotten an inkling, but this hidden sincerity confirmed it.

-Yuma Mukami, right? -Shu looked at his face again, looking for any changes he could barely notice; only small new scars and long lost freckles- Be glad there is no memory or fate to torment you.

Yuma opened his mouth to retort but Shu suddenly freed his left hand and pulled Yuma's clothes off his shoulder. A big burn scar crossed it.

-I see... -Shu tried to keep a neutral tone but failed- how did you get these?

Yuma jumped backward and pushed Shu's arms away. He was now officially creeped out.

-What the HELL? Are ya tryin' somethin' funny? You damn perverted aristocrats...

-Don't flatter yourself. -Shu retorted in a very well practiced dismissive tone- You have broad skin marks. What happened?

Yuma couldn't just bring himself to run into the forest again and leave this uncomfortable conversation. This was his only clue, and probably only means to return to his family.

Whoever they were.

The apathetic guy really didn't seem like a bad one. He looked sad rather than aroused or anything like that, now he'd stopped talking to observe; maybe Kou's story had come into his mind as the other guy tampered with his clothes; nobody ever checked your skin out of nowhere under normal circumstances.

This was anything but a normal circumstance.

There was nothing normal about either of the vampires involved.

-I... don't know, I've had them since I can remember. I can't remember anything before I was 13. They could be a clue about what happened but I have no idea what made them.

Shu met Edgar when he was 11; he wondered, again, what he had lived during those times, and how come he ended up a vampire.

Yuma saw the unspecified questions swimming in his eyes,

-I only remember I used to live in the streets with Boss, our gang leader, and other boys. -he sighed and approached Shu again- When they got killed I ended up in an orphanage. I met the others in a room they used to lock up problematic kids in.

Shu laughed a bit. It was only natural!

-We tried to run away and they shot us. I don't remember much after that other than making a deal with a massive guy with long white hair in a room red and hot as an oven.

-Our benefactor claimed to feel bad for us, and made an offer we couldn't refuse. -Yuma looked up, recalling Karl-Heinz's exact words- A second chance at life, if we helped him. I wasn't even sure if I was imagining shit.

Shu knew what this "benefactor" had offered.

-Sounds unfair, offering anything like that to a child in the brink of death.

-Che. -Yuma scoffed- I already spoke enough, are you gonna spill the beans, or what?

-You want to get back to your house, that's all I called you here for. I have no beans to spill, but something strange is indeed happening. My dreams are funny these days, but I'm sure yours aren't. -Shu pointed to the entrance and walked on under the windy night sky, beckoning Yuma- Come on in.

Yuma was confused, weird dreams were normal, weren't they? He was probably lying, too, but he'd get nothing out of beating him, either way, and he was tired and hungry.

-Why are you helping me? We've been nuthin' but trouble for you guys! -Yuma's voice started raising- We kidnapped your personal snack!!

Shu smiled again,

-I don't care, she's not my snack, and I'm sure you won't kill her.

-How would ya know that?!

-You... don't seem like a bad guy.

Shu muttered Edgar's words from the past about himself slowly, hoping, praying something might spark a remembrance in Yuma, but on the other hand, begging for it not to be the case; Yuma had been through enough.

Yuma fell silent, surprised, and as he recovered the ability to speak,

-HAH?

-So we're going to call your brother who kindly gave me his phone at school.

-Ruki WHAT? -it was Yuma's turn to laugh; that was impossible.

-...Something about his priorities being the brothers, or whatever. I didn't care enough to remember.

Yuma couldn't help but feeling a bit happy Ruki was willing to risk the mission for him, but wondered if some kind of punishment awaited once he got back...

Yui was dressing up after school, as she was finally going on a normal high school girl kind of outing! Almost normal, but it was okay- She was so excited! She couldn't help but feel embarrassed about how easy and with how little she could be presuaded to spend time with the Mukami brothers despite them having kidnapped her.

Granted, nobody in the Sakamaki family, not even Subaru, had ever gone to any trendy places nor tried to hang out with her pretending to be humans with her without causing a ruckus. It had normally only been walks around places that were open at night. Very late at night.

Yui felt a little sad but a little happy.

There was a knock on the door.

-Eve... may I... come in?

-Azusa! Yes, of course!

Azusa looked a bit shy,

-Hey Eve... Ruki won't be joining us today... he says Yuma... is at the Sakamaki's house...

-Is he okay?

-Yes, that Shu guy... found him somehow... he is not their... hostage.

Yui was confused. But at least now Azusa wouldn't be worried; his brothers might have been horrible, but Azusa was kind of sweet! Hopefully Subaru would like him as his friend someday too.

Another thought crossed her head, why was she wanting to be friends with Azusa? He had kidnapped her! And so had Kou!

-A-anyway, Azusa, too bad Ruki can't join but I'll be happy to hang out with you and Kou!

-I am happy too... to spend time with... our Eve. We will have... a great time!

Azusa smiled and left the room, not before pocketing Yui's nail clipper for dubious purposes, since Ruki had confiscated several sharp items from him lately.

Kou Mukami was still at school; of course he remembered he had kind of a date with the Masokitty he'd better not miss if he wanted to lure her more into him.

But it was his turn to return some bullcrap teacher stuff to the library and clean up the classroom by himself, on account of a little bit of glitter escaping the outfit he'd smuggled out of the idol agency to wear at school.

What true fashion lover wouldn't have taken that chance???? Either way, he was nearly done and trendy places would close later today, as it was Friday.

He had finished mopping the floor for the 4th time when he decided it was enough and cursed Karl for not giving him illusionism magic to simply hide the damned sparkles. So irritating and unfair.

On his way to the library, something felt off. Everyone was supposed to be gone, but he felt a presence. It felt sinister but familiar. The presence wasn't alone, but he couldn't make out the neutral presence from the sinister one.

Creepy. He'd do this fast.

As his footsteps echoed faster up the stairs and into the library halls full of dusty books he finally heard a page turn behind some shelves that made the space look labyrinthic in the slumber.

A bit nervous, he turned the corner and found Laito Sakamaki sitting on a chair with his legs crossed on a desk, casually reading an ominous-looking book. He was surrounded by two floating green flames that gave his eyes a look as if they were lanterns, a bit like his name.

Kou tried to tiptoe away from this unwelcome sight; he'd already seen the guy in a weird dream and didn't need this.

Too late. A giggle followed him.

And Laito appeared in front of him.

-AAAAH!

-So you are a screamer I.R.L. too -he smiled and showed two pointy fangs- You are a vampire too, no need to be afraid. And it's a full moon!

SHIT. And who the HELL called irl I.R.L. in real life????? Only if you were a vampire who hasn't quite caught up with the times...

There was no reason for Kou to be afraid, so he simply said something about having something to do and turned around.

-Ah, too bad. Your plans have been cancelled. -Laito proclaimed as green glowing chain barriers slithered over all possible exits- You see, it's a full moon, and my patience is short. I won't be satisfied easily...

No fucking way. Kou ran.

-Why are you so afraid? -Laito's voice followed him with an audibly raised eyebrow- I just want answers!

Kou stopped running. The book Laito was holding was about dreams; the sensation he had in his bowels got replaced by a different kind of cringing spasm. This was embarrassing; his history had caught up with him again. Kou raised his palms in surrender,

-Hey, if you simply wanna talk there is no need to put scary stuff on the door, is there?

Laito smiled ominously,

-They wouldn't bother you if you didn't want to leave... I know eeevery trick in the book! -he slowly approached Kou like a cobra would a mouse- I have had many, many people try to avoid my questions lately, and I'm not going to be left talking to myself tonight as well.

-What..? -Kou sort of could relate, but seriously, the magic chains were disturbing! He'd have to convince Laito to calm down, despite the fake calm demeanor he tried to exude. His eye told him it was as fake as the wigs in the TV studio. They were so fake yet so well done they looked uncanny.

He sat down on a chair in front of a library desk and invited Laito to sit down in the opposite chair. There was no way out of this; the Masokitty would have to hang out with just Ruki and Azusa.

Who knows, maybe Kou's absence made her heart grow fonder!

Reiji woke up with a headache after dreaming of having a shouting match with Shu on a railroad track. He should have maybe just exploded the mine he was inside of in the dream to have woken up less mentally sore.

Somebody was entering the mansion. He looked down the balcony. It was simply that good-for-nothing. Wait. Someone followed. The tall Mukami guy. What in tarnation?

He'd see what was happening from afar. This was fishy.

-Your brother's in his way to pick you up, better not make it too scandalous...

Reiji facepalmed. Why would that be scandalous?

-Ya sure have a house full of useless trinkets, what the hell do you have that broken phone for if you can just..?

-We never bothered to throw it away...

-Not even the guy who seems to have his shit together? I don't know him well but he looks like a real clean freak!

Reiji felt some pride and some nervousness. That guy had detected so much in so little time? He was glad the turmoil underneath wasn't so obvious.

Shu laughed at the guys's jokes. This guy looked very familiar but he couldn't put his finger on why. Shu had an almost loving look on him.

As if he'd found his person after a long time. Reiji cringed.

The doorbell rang and Ruki took Yuma with him after declaring Shu a decent man (WHAT) and thanking him.

He didn't feel like having that oaf hostage or anything but there was no reason to fraternize with thieves. Much less make their team whole again! Incomprehensible.

-Hey Reiji, what are you glaring at so intensely? -Kanato emerged from the bathroom, startling Reiji

-Never mind. It really is not my business why they stole that woman, either way, it's Subaru's girl, Subaru's case.

-Are you thinking how Shu making a friend is irritating?

-I am not interested in befriending terrorists, Kanato... but I am intrigued who the tall guy is. Have we met him before?

-No, I'd never seen him, and Teddy says he'd rather not meet him again.

Reiji was left wondering and rummaging his memories as Shu felt, for a few minutes, as he said goodbye to Ruki and Yuma, like the false human he had pretended to be for Edgar so long ago: happy?

-Eve... Kou said he's caught in school stuff tonight... so it's just the 2 of us... tonight... like a date, if you want!

Azusa's smile was very convincing and Yui really wanted to give in to make him happy, and she felt comfortable with him but she would be strong; she'd never do Subaru dirty like that!

-Ehh, yes, Azusa, a friend-date is a nice outing too!

-I'm very happy, Eve! Where do you wanna go first?

Yuma was relieved to be sitting on the soft limousine seat next to Ruki, heading home and sipping blood his brother had stolen from the hospital especially for him about a week ago. Ruki had anticipated some form of starvation and Yuma was grateful.

-Hey Ruki... -Yuma couldn't get something out of his head- what do you think could have made the shape of the scars I have on my shoulder?

----

This chapter is short-ish because i am very sleepy :D but more soon!

[whatsk-poppinhomies]

➥ Episode : 1 TW : kidnapping?? ; generally creepy ; Word Count : 1.0k ◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇

Buzzing, but it was faint, like a distant ringing in your ears that you couldn’t quite place, but if you could try… Like an old lightbulb, one that would explain the light that you could see through closed eyes, a light that illuminated the insides of your eyelids and had you squirming where you lay. 

You couldn’t have been asleep that long, it didn’t feel like more than five minutes since your eyes had shut, but you knew that the sun wouldn’t… it shouldn’t be as bright as the light that seemed to be right overhead. With a bit of reluctance, you opened your eyes, wiping the sleep from them before looking around. 

The room that you were in wasn’t your living room, it wasn’t any room that you had ever seen before in your life. It was bare, it was empty aside from the bed that you had been laying on, and a wooden chair in the corner. The walls were painted a nauseating mustard yellow and the floor was carpeted with an even uglier fuzzy orange rug. It screamed outdated, vintage even, and that in itself sent an unnerving feeling washing through you as you ran to the door on the other side of the room. 

“Good morning, Y/N!” A voice spoke over what you could only assume to be a speaker, although when you looked around the room you couldn’t seem to find anything that the voice would come through. It was a deep voice, but you could hear the amusement in it, something that had you panicking, breathing far too fast and causing you to become lightheaded quickly. “I’m sure that this is confusing for you, so before I bring you out to our guests, how about you take a seat and I’ll explain everything to you.” 

It’s not like you had a choice in the matter, the door that you had been trying to leave through was locked from the other side, and the wood was so thick that any amount of punching or kicking would only result in you getting hurt. “What is this… Where am I?” You asked, looking around the room once more and taking a moment to take it all in, just how strange it was. There were no windows, no pictures, nothing that would indicate that this room had at any point before you been used. 

The sound of the lock being undone had your head whipping back in the direction of the door, and the person that walked in wasn’t someone that you had ever seen before in your life, and the wide smile that he was wearing was in no way comforting, if anything, it was eerie and uncomfortable, and you found yourself scooting further up to bed to try to create a distance between you and the strange man. “No need to be scared.” He said, but his mouth didn’t move the way it should have while saying the words, and his smile never faded or faltered. “You’re on the Dating Game, and we have a crowd of people waiting to meet the new contestant.” 

The Dating Game… Of course… Now it all makes sense. You were simply dreaming, lucid dreaming, about the VHS tape that you had received in the mail. Everything about the tape had been odd, down to the way that you had come about being the owner of it, and that’s why the dream felt so strange. “Alright… Well, I’m gonna wake up now.” You said, laying back down in the bed and closing your eyes, hoping that if you fell asleep in the dream that you’d wake up back in your own apartment, on the couch that you had fallen asleep on. 

A chuckle sounded from the man, and it was robotic, creepy, and you squeezed your eyes tighter just to be sure that you wouldn’t slip up and take a peek at the man that was the embodiment of a nightmare. “You are awake, Y/N. You’re on The Dating Game, and our audience is waiting to meet you. Now…” The bed shifted and you could only assume that the robotic man had taken a seat on the edge of the bed, and the thought of him being so close had you tensing up, but unable to move any further away. “I’m sure you’ve heard of games like this, shows that have gone by the same name. They were fun, but they were all the same, and they were quite boring. The rules of our dating game are slightly different, yet very simple. If you play by the rules, you’ll be able to leave, and I do believe that you’ll be a very happy girl when you go back.” 

Your eyes slowly opened, and you dared to look at the man who was closer than you had thought he would be. His eyes were lifeless, and the smile was like that of a dead man, and the fear that raced through your veins was indescribable and equal to no other fear that you had felt before. “What… What are the rules? How did I get here?” 

Those two questions were asked completely backwards, and you realized a little too late that the answer to your second question wouldn’t be given. “You get to pick the men that you’d like to end up with, but in the end, you can only choose one. You have to go on three dates each, with all five of the men. I don’t think you’d mind all that much.” Your eyes narrowed at the miniscule, vague sounding rules, waiting for more, but the man simply stood up from the bed. “No need to think too hard about who your choices will be… We know everything about you, Y/N… And we do believe that your episodes will be liked very much by our audience and those watching back at home.” 

And with that, he walked out of the room, leaving you even more confused and far more terrified than you had even felt before. Was there even a point in trying to open the door again? What were you supposed to do? You didn’t know where you were, the entire thing felt like a horrid fever dream that you couldn’t get yourself to wake up from. You just wanted to go home, you wanted to be back on your couch with your soap operas playing in the background. You wanted to be anywhere but where you were at right now, but it didn’t seem like that would happen anytime soon. 

◇──◆──◇

[casualfruit]

The FNAF movie sucks, and not in the fun way

Before I start, I just wanna say that I have been a fan of Five Nights at Freddy's since the game dropped in 2014. I have followed nearly every game, watched all of MatPat's theory videos multiple times, and I still consider the first game to be a legitimately good piece of horror media. That said, I didn't have much in the way of expectations going into this movie. I knew it would be campy trash, and I knew Matthew Lillard was gonna be great, and that was about it.

Spoiler-free review: it focuses way too much on boring character drama, completely upends huge parts of the established lore, and has barely any animatronic violence. The plot is frustrating and confusing, the characters are poorly written, and the story as a whole feels like a first draft (which, considering it's been in production hell since 2015, it very likely was).

SPOILER-FULL REVIEW BELOW

Before I get into things, I'm gonna start with a rundown of the plot:

A guy named Mike Schmidt has been taking care of his younger sister, Abby, since their parents died a few years prior. Their aunt wants to take custody of Abby because she thinks that Mike is not a suitable guardian, even though she sucks and Abby doesn't want to be with her. Having a terrible employment track record and not wanting to lose his sister, Mike takes the only job available to him: working as a night shift security guard at a pizzeria which was abandoned in the 1980s after 5 children went missing there.

He's also really into lucid dreaming because he saw his younger brother get kidnapped when they were camping years ago, and he's obsessed with recreating the scene in his dreams over and over until he can figure out who did it. Also his parents killed themselves some time after the kidnapping, leaving Mike to raise Abby on his own for an indeterminate amount of time.

On his first night at his new job, he meets a sketchy police officer named Vanessa who shows him around the place. The aunt hears about Mike's new job and hires some people to trash the place so Mike will lose his job again and she can take Abby. Predictably, the goons all get killed. Meanwhile, Abby somehow becomes "friends" with the ghosts in the animatronics at the pizzeria, and convinces Mike to take her there, where she and the animatronics play together and have a great time. The ghosts are also talking to Mike in his dreams, and they offer to show him who kidnapped his younger brother if he gives them something in return. He agrees, only to realize that what they want is Abby - but it's too late to take it back. The Freddy animatronic shows up at their house where the mean aunt is babysitting Abby, kills the aunt, and takes Abby to the pizzeria. Mike, with the help of Vanessa, saves Abby and temporarily disable the animatronics, only to be confronted with the Real Villain: William Afton, aka the child killer from the 1980s, aka the guy who hired Mike for this job, aka Vanessa's father, aka the guy who kidnapped Mike's younger brother????

Turns out the animatronics obey Afton because he wiped their memories and uses them to make more of themselves by killing children in old springlock suits. Vanessa has been helping him get security guards so they can be killed for some reason??? but now that Abby is about to die, Vanessa has had a change of heart and defies her father's orders and tries to save Abby. Afton shanks Vanessa for her disloyalty, but while he's doing that, Abby sees a picture of the yellow rabbit (Afton's character) being friends with the kids he killed, so she rips it down and replaces it with a picture of the yellow rabbit killing the kids. This causes the ghost kids to realize that he killed them and they turn on him, causing his springlock suit to crush him inside, and they drag him away screaming into the darkness.

The pizzeria collapses and Mike and Abby take Vanessa to a hospital, where she survives (albeit in a coma). Abby wants to go back and visit the animatronics again, and Mike basically says "sure maybe".

The End

Except of course it isn't, there's a sequel bait ending with Afton being stuck in the suit, grievously injured but still alive, because that's what all the cool kids are doing these days. I fucking hate it here.

First things first: the highlights

The animatronics were made with practical effects, and they look incredible. They're actually like the springlock suits, since they work both as costumes to be worn by humans and as standalone animatronics, (but obvs more stable than in the games)

The pizzeria set is also amazing, and pretty accurately reflects the layout of the original game

Matthew Lillard's performance really leaned into the campiness of it all, and I loved every second of it. In his first scenes he did a great job being kinda weird and off-putting, but not in an obnoxiously obvious way. In the end the writing was just godawful, but his performance elevated it from pure garbage to the campy trash I had hoped for.

Second things second: the meh parts

The movie did a serviceable job establishing why someone would decide to work the night shift as a security guard at an abandoned pizzeria. It was contrived as hell, but it made sense? at least for the first night

Josh Hutcherson's and Elizabeth Lail's performances were fine, but the writing did NOT do them any favors

The child acting was decent for the most part

The special effects varied in quality. The practical effects were mostly good, but the CGI effects were more mixed

MatPat 15 second cameo, he says "that's just a theory" [insert Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme]

And finally: the bad stuff

Oh god. Where do I even begin.

The plot is complete dogshit. It's confusing and overly complicated, and the pacing drags like hell for the middle third of the movie. The movie is like 90% based on the original FNAF, 9% based on FNAF Sister Location, and 1% based on FNAF Security Breach. Except all of that accounts for about 60% of the movie - the rest is boring character drama.

The fan service in this movie is really bad. Mike Schmidt's last name isn't revealed until the very end of the movie, at which point it's treated like some Grand Reveal, but it means nothing. When Afton is being crunched by the springlock suit he yells "I'll always come back!!". You know, like at the end of Sister Location. But it's stupid and was badly shoehorned into the middle-end of the scene when it would have fit better at the very end. There's a few mentions of the ghost kids liking a yellow rabbit, aka Afton, but it's a very poorly executed plot twist.

Perhaps the most egregious failing is that Matthew Lillard was in the movie for maybe 10 minutes out of the TWO HOUR RUN TIME. He showed up twice for a few minutes in the beginning of the movie (when he hired Michael to be the security guard) and once at the very end when he's revealed to be the evil mastermind. If he had been there for longer, he might have made the movie more bearable. What a fucking waste.

As for the character of William Afton - once again, completely wasted potential. For some reason they introduced him under a fake name, but didn't establish the name of the owner of Fazbear's Pizzeria, so the real-name-reveal at the end just fell flat. He could have been an increasingly threatening presence throughout the film a la Phone Guy (which he is a grand total of one time). And also he's Vanessa's father??? WHY.

Oh yeah, and speaking of Vanessa - girl what are you doing in this movie lmao. She both gives big exposition dumps and is annoyingly cryptic and vague. Even after Mike puts together what's happening, she continues to be cryptic and vague for some goddamn reason. I honestly feel kinda bad for Elizabeth Lail - not even the most Oscar-worthy performance could salvage that mess.

This movie also changes a few major things about the lore of FNAF, and all of those changes are for the worse.

I have no idea why they decided that Afton controls the ghosts or how he was able to wipe their memories, nor could I possibly guess why they had his control hinge on a fucking crayon drawing tacked to a wall. This mechanic isn't established until the scene when it gets overturned, at the very end of the movie.

They even changed some little details which, as inconsequential as they were, makes me wonder why they were changed at all. For example, the little da-da-dum-dum-dum tune that Foxy sings to himself is different. Also the animatronics' eyes turn yellow when they're angry/about to attack, and red when they turn on Afton. When I was a kid, one of the scariest parts of FNAF was the human-like eyes staring at you in the dark as you wait for the jumpscare. Having them change color honestly diminished the scariness. Also, Chica's cupcake can teleport/fly through the air and attacks people (that was funny, but it undermines the tension with how ridiculous it is). They also didn't incorporate the Toreador March until the end credits.

One of the worst minor details is that Afton explicitly says that he was the one who kidnapped Mike's younger brother, but for some reason he's not an animatronic? Unless he's the cupcake, in which case I'm gonna put my head through a window.

All in all, that's 1 hour and 50 minutes of my life that I'm not getting back. I'm just glad I watched it at home instead of wasting money on theater tickets.

[weministertomonsters]

halfway lucid dreaming

It's nearly been a week and I've done even less than usual, which is concerning considering I already don't do much. The couch is no longer a safe haven. I'm struggling and slipping and I'm tired of trying to fix myself for a life I don't even want to live. I don't want to be here.

So I close my eyes and dream.

The ground beneath my feet is still slightly warm from the heat of the day. Sand works its way into my shoes as I trudge forward into the desert. The sky is black and starless, having traded the sun for a heavy golden moon. The crickets and the low, howling wind are the only sounds here.

My thoughts won't stop racing. I want to scream, but I never feel like I was allowed to, even in dreams. I remove my shoes and shake them out before I dig my bare feet into the sand.

Suddenly I realize I'm not alone.

There's this creature poised on a shard of rock looking at me. It has blue skin and ribbed horns that curl backward through wild, tangled black hair. Staring yellow eyes, the color of the moon. Its body is pure muscle with broad shoulders and clawed hands like it has been carved out of marble. Its nose twitches as it stares down at me, and I just know it means no harm.

"Hey," I say as I sit down on the sand below the rock. "You can't sleep?"

I don't sleep, it tells me. I watch.

"What are you watching then?" I ask and lean my chin on my hand, looking up at them.

The sand is warm and the wind is cold, a contrast that makes me shiver violently.

I am watching you.

"It must be hilarious, seeing me struggle," I sniff. "Everyone says my perspective is too narrow, and I worry too much. They're right, but I'm not sure life is worth trying to change anything."

I cannot say.

"Of course you can't, you're in my head, in this dream. It's different here, right?"

Yes. It is empty.

"Are you lonely?" I hold out my hand as an invitation.

The creature jumps off the rock and comes over to me. They are wearing old-fashioned sandals, the thin straps winding up around their ankles. When they settle next to me they don't sit, but crouch on their haunches. They stare at the moon like they're waiting for something to happen.

"What's your name?"

What do you want my name to be?

I laugh. "Well, I like naming things. How about Aaun?"

What does it mean?

"Devil's moon." I nod at the moon beaming down at us.

Because of my horns? Aaun turns to look at me. Or my tail?

He flicks his tail and it whisks through the sand like a snake. He has ornaments pinned into his horns; golden trinkets that tinkle softly.

"No, I just like devils of any kind. It started as a rebellion against my parents, but now I just feel sorry for them. Everyone is praying for their neighbors and friends, but who prays for the fallen angels?"

I don't think fallen angels wish to be prayed for.

"Keep telling yourself that," I murmur.

My dream shatters so suddenly that as soon as my eyes flicker open in reality, I've forgotten most of it.

"Breakfast!" My sister calls, striding into my bedroom.

Damn, I think as I stare at the ceiling. Another day.