#i think i slowly start to create some kind of lore in my head for these random guys lol

[suddenly-frankenstein]

the killing can wait (part two of whatever these guys have going on here)

full (well, still censored) version is under the cut

click on it for better quality i guess :(

[lokisgoodgirl]

Measurement : The Rite (III)

A Masterlist for The Rite is HERE A Link to my Regular Masterlist is HERE Summary: (3) Loki gives you a taste of luxury, a visit to the Asgardian Weaving Crones - and his inseam isn't the only thing measured up. (w/c 3.9k) Warnings: 18+ Minors DNI. Smuttish. Language. Loki being a tease. Ridiculous Asgardian lore.

‘I’ve never wanted anything so badly,’ Loki drips in your ear: warm, hot, desperate. With every impossibly calculated push of his hips, your spine arches off the bed: inch, by inch, by inch.

His lips meet the hollow of your collarbone with a hungry growl, like he'll eat you alive. ‘I’ve never wanted anyone so—’ You wake with a violent shudder, wide-eyed and staring at the ceiling. An oil of sweat covers your naked body, tangled in the sheets. The air is sticky, mind racing as you squint towards the window. It’s barely daybreak.

Noon, Loki said. The boy will come at noon.

Loki’s stone-faced apprentice seems unimpressed when you open the door before the second of his tiny knocks. It’s exactly midday. Not desperate at all, you think, as his lips form a thin line. He’s judging the neckline, you can tell.

“After you,” you say, forcing a smile. You don’t like him, and the feeling is clearly mutual. You catch the start of his eye-roll as he turns away and his silly little boots clack across the stone.

Shameless stares fall on the two of you walking the bustling corridors of Asgard’s court. Looks are followed by whispers. It feels…naughty - a tingling feeling that starts in the seat of your belly and seems to plump the ends of your hair, giving it a bounce as you walk.

You wonder what they’re thinking, seeing you led by the boy with Loki’s symbol emblazoned on his chest. You hope they think it’s something scandalous. And, maybe it is.

At every turn, you expect to see Loki standing in the middle of the corridor with his hands clasped behind his back; a smirk curling at his lip and the start of a hard-on in his ridiculously tight trousers at the mere whiff of your approach. But alas, it’s not to be. Just more stares, more whispers. They’re starting to get annoying.

“How much longer?” you hiss. He glances over his shoulder. “Not long, pipe down,” he says with all the enthusiasm of a bag of sand.

You stick your tongue out at the back of his head and suddenly his fist rises, a burst of blue smoke curling between his fingers. It undulates in the air, a ball gaining the shape of a small fist identical to his own. Slowly, one finger unfurls in your direction: the middle one.

Little shit, you think. But honestly, it’s pretty impressive. Loki's clearly teaching him well. Sort of.

Eventually, after passing through the courtyard and out the palace gates, he stops under a lemon tree. There’s a massive, bronze door cut into the stone walls with one large turret protruding from the top. Your eyes dart over the door, and then to him, and then the door.

“Well?” you ask, trying to be polite but the impatience bleeding through. This dress is pretty tight; your breasts look incredible but fucking Norns, it’s hot today. He gestures to the tree. “You have to bite into a lemon to open the doors.”

Your arms fold, eyebrows rising. “Be serious. I wasn’t born yesterday.”

His beady gaze drops down to the hem of your dress and back to your face. “Clearly,” he says. Your eyebrows rise further and you chew the inside of your mouth, reminding yourself he’s a literal child. He shrugs with a sudden burst of youthful innocence. “I don’t make the rules. It's some kind of test so they get no time wasters.”

“Who?” “The Crones.” No...way.

The Asgardian Weaving Crones are second only to the royal family in their legendary status. How many times had you pranced around in your aunt’s scrap fabrics from her sewing table, playing 'Ceremony' – inventing all the spells you’d have woven into the fabrics the Crones create with their famously nobbled fingers. The more nobbled, the more revered.

It's said the robes can make you more beautiful, more lucky, more fertile. Whatever you desired. Every piece is a work of art, cost more than a summer-palace in the hills, reserved only for the highest…highest…members of the court. I guess Prince Loki wasn’t kidding about the luxury, you think, eyes sliding to the plump lemons hanging over your head. “Just a bite?” The boy nods, and you reach up – pulling down the nearest one. He gives an unnerving smile of encouragement just before you bite into the peel, and stinging juice floods your tongue. A rogue spurt splashes into your eye and you yelp, dropping it on the ground. Through the burn, doubled-over, you see a fading wisp of blue smoke. Little shit, you think again, more violently this time. “What’s going on?” Loki’s voice is somehow everywhere all at once, smooth and heavy in the stifling air, falling like rain.

You squint up towards it. He’s hanging out a window in the turret, propped on his elbow with that smirk on his face. But no hard-on, you think. At least, not that you can see. Rumour is he’s always sporting at least a semi. Side-effect of all the mirrors in the palace, you figure. From this angle, his taut jawline cuts like an anvil, and his hair hangs apart from his shoulders as he cranes to get a better view. He's not wearing a shirt, and the temperature rises another few degrees. “Are you tormenting her?” he chides casually, and through the half-blind haze, you can tell the boy is squirming. The bronze door swings open from invisible hands, and you shoot the kid a withering glare with your one good eye before disappearing inside. The first, fresh waft of marble-chilled air hits like an orgasm and you let out a sigh of relief. “Come upstairs,” Loki’s velvet voice commands from above. You follow the spiral staircase in the direction of his soft laughter, skirts bunched in one hand, hoping your face isn’t as sweaty as it feels by the time you reach the top.

Ignoring the burn in your lungs, and your eye, you set your face in a mask of cool indifference totally at odds with the rabid excitement clawing in your veins. Long curtains of chiffon which ripple in impossible colours with each waft of breeze surround the turret walls.

Loki lounges in a chaise in the corner, loose green silk trousers slung low on his hips. One leg dangles off the end of the short seat, the other slung to the side as his laugh tapers and his eyes fix on you.

You swallow, unable to stop the rolls of your gaze up his exposed torso above the silk stretched across the bulge in his pants: pale, deep lines of muscle highlighted in painfully arousing definition as he brings a hand behind his head, raking those black waves back as he does it.

“Did he ask you to bite into the lemons?” Loki asks innocently. A solitary dimple crushes into his cheek as one side of his lip curls. You nod, mouth dry and knees weak. Loki sighs with a short tut. “He did the same to my brother. And what’s worse, my brother has been here before many times: he’s just an idiot.” You’re not sure if you should agree. It might be treason; you can never tell. Thankfully – that’s the moment you notice someone in a black robe hunched over at a wide table in the corner, laying out a selection of colourful fabrics so fine they seem to breathe. “Like what you see?” she croaks, wearing a matching smirk to the one Loki sports, just visible beneath a dark hood. You swallow, glancing between them. The two of them burst into laughter; the old woman’s hoarse cackle somehow twists perfectly with Loki’s deep, melodic mirth. Heat crawls up your cheeks. She waves a hand, brushing the hood down to reveal a shock of white hair plaited in a low bun, folds of tanned wrinkles creased in mischief. “Sorry dear, where are my manners? This one brings out the worst in me.” Loki scoffs, bounding from the chaise and crossing the floor in two long strides. He falls to his knees, gathering her hands in his own and places a gentle kiss on the crepey skin. The way he’s looking at her, the wide-eyed sincerity...it makes an unexpected lance of jealousy spear through your chest.

“And you bring out the best in me, my dearest Lagertha,” he says in earnest. “Still beautiful: inside and out.” She pulls the hands from his with a quicksilver grin, curling thick chunk of black hair behind his ear. “Mmm,” she hums, flashing you a wink. “At least where garments are concerned, I do my best. What you do in them, is your concern. Now, onto your usual perch.”

Loki raises a eyebrow and she watches him stand. The two of you follow the methodical shift of his muscular ass in those silky pants all the way to a small, raised block in the centre of the room. “You’re next, dear,” she says and you startle, realising she’s hovering at your shoulder. She turns her head fractionally, hiding the movement of her lips from view. “For now, take a seat, enjoy the show. Hmm?”

You shift to the same seat Loki occupied, still warm from his body. Spreading your skirts, it’s difficult not to feel the weight of the prince’s stare as Lagertha fusses around him.

And suddenly, the questions start. Loki’s eyes narrow and widen in perfect time to the cadence of your answers: hobbies, studies, the time you saw Thor fall into a well on his way back from a tavern. His laugh is music, as sweet and filthy as the best of your dreams – and you find yourself reclining on the chaise just like he was, a fist resting beneath your temple as you talk. It’s nice, it’s…easy. He's interested. And all the while, Lagertha works silently; the only indicator she’s listening at all is the covert smile that occasionally pushes her cheeks up.

“You have to stop making him laugh so much, the hemline will be askew if I get the lengths wrong.” “Nonsense,” Loki smiles down at her, before meeting your eyes again. “Lagertha has never put a stitch out of place. I have every faith in her.” “You’ve never had someone entertain you so much before…”

“I thought you’d have his measurements written down somewhere,” you say like the three of you are old friends. She pushes the silken tape into the hollow of his ankle, stretching up the length of his thigh to the bulge of his crotch. Loki shifts, spine straightening, and he shoots you a wicked smile that makes the pulse in your throat race.

You trace the angle of his chin, the sharp lines of his jaw, imagining how perfectly they’ll fit between your legs; only his strong brow and devastating eyes drunk with pleasure visible as he laps at your clit. A shudder wrenches down your spine.

“I don’t need to take Prince Loki’s measurements, dear,” Lagertha says brightly. ‘I’ve been fashioning garments that make his public weak for many centuries, I think I can remember an inseam.” “So why are…?” “Lagertha and I have an understanding, don’t we darling?” Loki tips her chin up with his finger and even beneath the heavy folds of wrinkles, she blushes. “Lagertha turns a blind eye to my family’s archaic demands of style, and we pretend that she forgets my measurements.” Lagertha meets your stunned expression, offering a self-assured shrug. “I may be old, but my eyes are just fine,” she says, winking. Suddenly, you wonder where Lagertha’s been all your life.

“What…demands of style, do they have?” You sit up, crossing your legs. Loki tilts his head, and you note his gaze drop to your lips. You wonder if he’s been thinking about last night’s kiss-come-dry-hump as much as you have, and as Lagertha loops her hands around his bare abdomen, pulling the measuring silk tight, he lets out a sensual, silent ooof that makes your pussy clench.

“My father and his ilk have very set notions of what ceremonial robes should be; you’ll be shocked to learn I don’t agree. In their eyes, we should parade ourselves in sack cloth and ashes—" “—Sack cloth? How dare you!” Lagertha screeches, mortally wounded. She slaps his thigh again, shooting you a look. “This one has a very specific set of requirements for his ceremonial garbs, ones that tend to highlight his…assets. Things which don’t concern the other family members quite so much – not even when Odin was a strapping one too." She sighs wistfully. "Loki likes the spells woven in to be just so: make it smell like orange blossom when the folds move, cape fluttering to a particular rhythm…that sort of thing.” I fucking knew it; you think with silent vindication. Loki looks down on her with adoration. “And you never disappoint.” “You should be more worried about disappointing her,” she jabs, nodding towards you. A sudden clarity settles in your stomach like a stone. “Wait, is this for our…the…Rite?” Loki looks up, impossibly beautiful; a slat of sunlight splitting the symmetry of his face. “You agree, then?” “If you don’t, I will…” Lagertha mutters loud enough for you to hear, and Loki snorts. “You know the stipulations, Lagertha. You don’t qualify, much as it pains me.” He presses a hand to his chest. “Otherwise, I’d have been at your door on my hands and knees centuries ago.” She slaps his thigh again, and then, they both look at you in perfect sync.

“I agree. I’ll be your partner,” you blurt without an ounce of doubt. As if it could have been any other way. Because now, as his eyes fall to your lips again and his tongue nips over his own; pulling the bottom one between his teeth like he doesn’t know he’s done it, you know he wants it as much as you do. Loki says nothing: a close-lipped smile skating across his lips and a regal bow of his head that his father would be proud of.

The next fifteen minutes passes in pleasantries and then, it’s your turn. You stand on the podium. Even in the strangely cool air in this secret place feels like hot needles; breaths growing short and heart hammering. The fucking…bodice, you curse as Loki’s expression hardens at your distress. He raises his hand, long fingers poised and his eyebrows raise like he’s asking for permission. You give him a small nod. He clicks them. The dress melts into a light cotton shift that blows around your ankles, and the relief is immediate. “Oh my…gods, Loki…that feels amazing,” you moan, head falling back. Lagertha shuffles at your feet. “Getting some practice in, good idea, dear.” Your neck snaps up, catching the back end of her sly smirk, before glancing to Loki reclined on the chair. He shrugs, picking at a bowl of nuts – his eyes are alight with amusement, and you wonder if he's always like this or you’re…special. Don’t think that, you chide. Don’t start being an idiot and actually falling for him. He needs you, that’s all. Just enjoy whatever this is.

Somehow, your measurements don’t take as long as Loki’s did. You’ve got a feeling that has something to do with the agreement they have. She creaks to her feet, shuffling to the wide table and notes something down on a scroll of parchment which reaches the floor. “Oh,” she says suddenly, patting the long folds of her black garb. One extra-nobbled finger rises. “I left something in the other room. Stay here,” she says, hobbling to the stairs. She glances over a hunched shoulder. “Behave yourselves, won’t you?” You figure it would be rude to follow her down the stairs to make sure she doesn’t fall to her death. Looking at Loki, you’re surprised to see the mirth dancing beneath his skin has somehow grown. “What?” you ask, skin prickling under his stare. The god’s dark hair spreads over his bare shoulders, the point of his chin lowered as he observes you beneath his lashes. Something occurs to you. “There’s only one room in this place, isn’t there?”

Without breaking eye-contact, without a falter in that low smirk, Loki nods. Just once. You step off the podium, wobbling a little. Forgot he took my shoes, but somehow you manage to maintain a sultry approach. Loki straightens against the chair’s back, a sudden nervousness flashing in his eyes. A silent conversation seems to pass between you. ‘What are you doing, little owl?’ his raised eyebrow says. ‘What are you doing?’ His legs widen, as if of their own accord. The forest green silk at his crotch stretches tight, an unmistakable bump rising on the right-hand side. You stop in front of him, and his eyes move from their level place on your torso to your face. ‘What are you waiting for?’ the flicker of his lips says.

Hands slide past his temples as you fasten one knee beside the thick line of his thigh – and then the second. You press tight to the crease of his hips, staring down at him. Loki of Asgard gazes up like the prettiest sub you’ve ever seen; but there’s nothing submissive about the slide of his large hands over the curve of your ass. The cotton of the robe he manifested for you is as thin as a spider web – but somehow opaque. You feel his touch like it’s bare skin; the lazy circles he’s making on the small of your back sending sharp shivers tingle across your limbs. “We must be very, very careful…” he murmurs, that famously stoic brow rippling in front of your eyes. You draw a finger down his cheek, cupping the angle of his jaw; brushing your lips against his. He sighs into your throat: shuddering, warm, desperate. Loki’s tongue feels like heaven in your mouth. Growls rumble in his chest as he pushes forward and pulls back in time with your body, completely in sync. Your hand creeps to his cock, fingers grazing the impossibly hard length of him. He must be eight…surely not nine, inches. Gods, what if he doesn’t fit. And then you remember, that isn’t part of the deal. He pulls away as your squeeze at the root, stark fear in his eyes.

“I know…I’ll stay away from the tip, I promise,” you whisper, catching his lips again. Loki melts into it.

His cock was made to fit in your hand – even the outline of it through the silk is like a legendary sword made for your grip. He palms ravenously at your breast with every work of his mouth, lips travelling to the curve of your neck and drawing his teeth over the supple skin they find.

The fact you can’t touch him…really touch him, somehow makes it even hotter; like you’re terrified virgins around the back of the stables. The other hand rocks you dangerously on his lap, and the sudden fear the thin fabric separating you both won’t be enough is very real. Loki’s thumb grazes against your nipple, pinching gently, rubbing in a way that shoots a lance of primal fuck-me energy straight to your cunt. Arousal tides between your thighs: tacky and warm and screaming for you to have him right here. You’ve never been more turned on in your entire life. You didn’t even know it could be like this.

“Gods, I want to taste you,” he husks through gritted teeth. Saliva rings his lips, and Loki’s head falls back against the sofa, back arching under the ghost of your fingertips trailing up the ridges of his manhood like it’s made of spun sugar. “Slower…Norns…I—"

His eyes fly open, pupils as wide and deep as fresh tar and his jaw slack. Loki’s hand flies to your wrist, wrapping it tight and pulling it away. His abdomen clenches as he breathes: slow, heavy, restrained.

“Did you almost…?”

The look in his eyes gives you the answer, and you can barely stifle the look of pride. You lean forwards, noting the shiver that tightens his thighs as your lips fasten around his earlobe. “Four moons, my prince," you whisper, bold as sin. He releases a low, ragged exhale that vibrates through his chest.

“I need to see you,” he says slowly, searching your face, “every day, from now until then.” You roll your lips together. “You said there was a feast?” Loki nods. “The night before – for the next two days, we can do whatever we want.” That smirk lights from its embers. “Almost.”

Your heart drops somewhere around your knees and you shuffle off his lap, shifting to the small edge of the cushion beside him. Suddenly, somehow, time is moving too fast; slipping through your fingers like sand. “Not that I’m…” -desperate- “…but, are you free tonight? Maybe we could go for a walk, or, something.”

Loki’s brows peak. It’s something he isn’t expecting, and suddenly you wonder how much of this charming afternoon has been staged. “I can’t, I’m afraid,” he says, lingering over each word like its passing quality control. “My brother-“ “-It’s fine,” you cut, forcing a smile. He’s a prince. Of course he’s not free, idiot. “Maybe tomorrow.”

At that moment, Lagertha heaves herself into view at the top of the staircase. Her face contorts in a staggeringly fake caricature of innocence. “Oh, I almost forgot you were here.” Out of the corner of your eye, you see Loki pluck a cushion from his side and place it on his lap. But Lagertha misses nothing, and her eyes slide to yours with a sparkle of approval.

“I’ll take my leave,” you say, standing and giving a quick curtsey. Loki calls your name as you cross the floor, but you need to go. You need to think – shake away these ridiculous, girlish thoughts in your brain before you embarrass yourself any further.

A faint glow of green colours your vision and you realise Loki’s magic has restored the dress you came in, and like before…it’s far too tight. At the bottom of the stairs, you press a hand against the marble; steading your breaths. The bronze door swings open.

“Ah, the jester,” a sneering voice craws. “Are you lost?”

You look up, locking eyes with Fandral. A cape slings jauntily over his shoulder: pale blue, rippling silk the same colour as the cloudless sky. His hair is particularly resplendent today, and as much as you’d like to kick him in the balls and run – he does hold clout. People like him, for some reason.

Fandral chuckles, and it makes your stomach turn. He paces forward, the tap of his heels on marble echoing until they stop in front of you. “May I offer a little advice?” he asks, in a way that says you’re hearing it whether you like it or not.

“Prince Loki likes shiny things, pretty things.” His eyes narrow. “He likes playing with new toys; the novelty, you know? I’m sure rumours of his appetites have even spread to whichever hovel you crawled out of.”

You open your mouth to call him a cunt but he raises a finger to his lips, eyes closed like you’ve interrupted the sweetest melody in the nine realms. They open slowly. “I will perform the Rite with Prince Loki, little jester. It will be my thighs shaking under the work of his regal, royal mouth. And do you know why?”

Anger, white hot and thick, curdles beneath your skin.

“Because,” he says with black delight, eyes dropping down to your feet and back to your face, “the pleasure of the subject is only one part of the ritual. You cannot possibly fulfil the second.”

He leans forward, and the scent of his cologne chokes up your nostrils. “But I can.” Fandral twirls the golden lock hanging over his forehead and stalks towards the spiral staircase. The periwinkle cape shimmers as he spins.

“I expect he didn’t tell you about that,” he says with feigned regret, pouting. It crawls into a shit-eating smile, and he offers a wink that makes your blood freeze.

“For him, you’re just a bit of mischief - best you know sooner, rather than later. You'll thank me...sometime. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a certain ceremonial robe to be measured for.”

The click of his heels ascending to the turret room fades as you tear gasping into the open air; heart hammering as you run; his words beating in your ears with every breath.

Chapter Four: Daylight Orgy The Masterlist for The Rite is HERE ❤️🕯️❤️ Tags in comments x

[princessbrunette]

OUTERBANKS: THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE AU — THE LORE ♡

₊˚⊹ ᰔ

CW: depressing tones, violence, death, blood, gore.

AN: okay, so i don’t really know what this is — but i wanted to open this up as an au i could write drabbles for with reader x character and i decided to write some extensive lore behind the universe i’m creating. i’ve always loved zombie media so i wanted to combine my fav things n create this little au for you guys. this isn’t really a fic but more so an opener to inspire drabble requests n ideas in my inbox, kind of like an experimentation. okay, hope you enjoy !! ౨ৎ

“We got gate one locked down, I repeat Pope— we got gate one locked down. Proceed with opening gate two. Over.”

“Got it, thanks JJ. Over.”

The squealing of mechanics shakes the dusty ground as the old gates begin to slowly slide, squealing as they open up revealing the long forest road up ahead. John B readies himself for a simple supply stake out, headed out alone to check out an old warehouse one of the runners had scoped out a week prior. As he exits the gates, he looks right and then looks left — stepping on the squishy skull of a previously dealt with Infected, its body lulling out from the old rickety grafitti’d sign reading Kitty Hawk.

The world went to shit back in 2020. Some sort of pandemic that had people biting others, their brains overpowered by aggression and hunger for flesh. One day everyone was cleaning up the beaches after Storm Agatha, the next day people were tearing into flesh right infront of your very eyes. At first, the people of the Outerbanks had moved out onto their boats, living out on the water with the occasional supply run. It worked for a while, the infected couldn’t swim so as long as your boat was afloat — you were safe from their bloody unforgiving jaws. However, supplies started to run out pretty fast, and people began to turn on eachother. Hopping boats and pirating until no one was left standing and the water was tainted with blood— the infected gathered on the shore to feast on the bodies slowly being washed up by the tide.

The pogues had found you by week six, your body curled on the pier by the Chateau crying into your hands having lost everyone you’d ever known. You were sure to soon perish— no supplies, no weapons, no food. Life had become bleak, hopeless — until for the first time in your life you’d felt the cold barrel of a pistol pressed to the back of your head.

“Who are you and why are you out here?” Kiara barks, a khaki green bandana tied to cover her nose and mouth.

“I’m— i’m just looking for shelter. I don’t have any weapons on me I swear I’m safe, please just —”

“Are you bit?”

“No!”

“Turn around.”

When you slowly turn, you’re met with two female faces, one more familiar than the other. Besides Kiara stands Sarah Cameron— a girl you went to school with. She looks more unsure than Carerra, hand resting on the pocket knife wedging out of the waistband to her denim shorts.

“I don’t think she’s bit Kie… hey, I think I know this girl.”

It was Sarah who had convinced Kiara to bring you back to the Chateau and let you stay. It was also Sarah who got you accustomed, explaining the role everyone played. She was a negotiator, her social ranking in the old world aiding her in communicating with people outside of the barricades they’d made. Kie was in charge of supplies, stock take and recruiting. She decided who was in and who was out. Pope was the brains, did all the mathematical equations to help the group understand their circumstances and chances of survival better. JJ, a fighter — most skilled in dealing with firearms and building bombs, which came in pretty handy when clearing out what was left of Kitty Hawk. John B was their leader, he often came up with the main strategies and stuck his neck out on the line.

Everyone was their own cog in the well oiled machine they’d built to aid them in surviving an apocalypse. It was uncertain what you could bring to the group until you’d mentioned that you’d been studying to be a nurse.

“S’good thing you come in useful ‘cus I was totally gonna suggest we use you as bait. Y’know, cos of the whole doe eyed damsel in distress thing you got goin’ on.” JJ jests with a smirk, and you don’t miss the way his eyes linger on you to make sure you knew he was only kidding around.

You became a lot more useful for patching people up once you’d cleared out Kitty Hawk. The pogues and yourself had began to collect a larger group of survivors, creating a small town to live in what once was the behavioural-correctional camp. You’d collected gardeners, seamstresses, doctors — people of all ages looking for shelter and safety to live in the many dormitories the land had to offer. You had the evening shifts, patching up any runners that had return from their time outside of the gates with injuries.

You remember the day Sarah got bit so clearly.

The Twinkie had come barrelling through the gates so fast, the townspeople that protected the entrances barely getting them open in time before the vehicle was speeding in— Kiara and John B ushering the blonde out the doors yelling out for you urgently with devastation in their voices, begging you to amputate the arm she’d been bitten on.

The pogues had gone for what was promised to be a civil meeting with Ward and Rafe Cameron. The two had taken over what was left of Kildare, creating a strong colony in a gated community that Ward had just come into possession of right before the outbreak. They were feared, respected — and they wanted Sarah to return to them.

Of course, the meeting was a set up— and when Sarah had refused to go with them — they opened fire, attracting rogue infected to swarm in on the group. In the chaos, Sarah was bitten — and JJ in a fit of rage had shot Ward Cameron straight through the skull infront of his only son. This started an all out war.

You recall arriving to Sarah, and your heart sinking. It was definitely too late, her eyes blood shot and skin uncharacteristically pale. She was whispering “Its okay.” Over and over. You wasn’t sure if she was convincing you or herself.

Kiara took her out to the forest to put her out of her misery before she got the chance to turn into one of the brainless monsters that had existed outside the gates. She was stronger than you could ever be, holding back her tears as she aims the barrel to the blondes head. You weren’t there, but you heard the gunshot as you were patching up JJ who was skimmed by a bullet. You slept by his side that night without uttering a word about it.

Everyone got a little more serious from that point on. You often stared at the heart with her initials she’d carved into her old bunkbed that now sits empty in her dorm, her things laid out like she was still coming back to collect them one day. John B got a little more stern as a leader, over protective of you as he made it clear he didn’t believe you’d be able to protect yourself out there — banning you from leaving the gates. JJ became a more ferocious fighter, busying himself with target practice out in the forest shooting bullseyes each day to ensure he could quickly take down whoever he needed to. Pope got more reserved, more moody — hanging out by himself infront of maps or in the radio room with Kie trying to find new survivors. Occasionally, just occasionally — the bunch of you would get together and drink round a camp fire. Things would feel normal again, just for one night — the group laughing and telling stories the same way they might have done before the outbreak.

You wondered how long this could last, if there was ever an end to any of this. You also wondered if there was a reason to it all happening, if you were being punished for the way you’d behaved as human beings. Mostly though, on a day to day basis— you wondered when Rafe Cameron would return for his revenge. It was only a matter of time.

[niconebula]

Okay, I really want Watching and Dreaming to include in it's themes a conversation about The Collector's immortality and King's self professed semi-immortality. The big elephant in the room is that King is eventually going to outlive all of his family and friends dozens of times over. He starts implying that they have this kind of connection and understanding to Eda, but we haven't seen it play out yet. This is the reason it's important to set him and the Collector up as the genuine best friends I'm sure they will start (slowly) becoming by the end of the series.

I find TOH to be a death and naturality positive show. Caleb will never actually speak from his grave to Belos, there's no communicating with the dead and any attempt at a reversal of the natural cycle, like Belos re-animating tons of Grimwalkers, is obviously framed as being bad. I could make a whole post just on this topic. It's also why I'm not completely on board with the guy from the in-between being THE titan himself.

It's been said by Dana that The Collectors are all about being unnatural, resisting change, and preserving time. They collect so that things may never fade, and the Titans were in direct opposition to this in their creating of new, different life through death. Therefore, I'd like them to tackle the theme head on with King opening up about his existential dread and uncertainties. One of my fears ever since the big reveal was that they were going to find some magical way to change King into a mortal being so that he could be with his family in a 'normal' way. This would be a bad move for a lot of reasons; primarily that it blows a hole in the legacy he carries as the last Titan and representative of his people. Though it might be comforting to him to live the life he originally expected, it would take away his unique identity. With the Collector, a lot of theories hinge upon his magic being drained in some kind of way, making him into a normal mortal child as a solution to his problems. I'll be really disappointed if this happens. I'm not against them preserving a large part of his magic somehow in an amulet to allow them to access it once they come of age and maturity (incredibly specific because this is my idea right now). But anything further would be taking away their identity as well as making King once again alone by the time the Clawthornes die (again unless they do it to him too.. it would be bad though).

Both being the only one of their species remaining from the war (though there may be more Collectors further out there), their reconciliation is an incredibly strong theme. And for King to know that he's not alone in trying to accept his history and Titan-hood, and everything that entails. I'm also just incredibly curious about the kinds of things they would get up to in the farther future including some inter-dimensional or worldly travel and for King the rebuilding of the Titan species; a lore topic for another day but I tend to think King only having a dad is quite literal in that Titans are a 'male' only species and reproduce in a kind of magical asexual way.

[hellfire--cult]

fic authors self rec game

When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let's spread the self-love ��

thank you for tagging me @thecreelhouse 💜

okay, i'll give a little lore for each fic

Do I wanna Know? - Stripper!Eddie x Shy!Fem!Reader

I wrote this fic thinking it was going to be a two piece. I had it all figured out in my head, and then when I wrote it the words kept flowing. I also didn't think it would really catch people's attention, I just needed to write that idea in my head. I put a lot of self indulgent things in it, thoughts and mannerisms, so it was also a bit healing to write. It also brought me a lot of joy that people felt identified and that it helped them understand themselves or they felt seen through my fic and it felt like a warm hug.

2. Hooked on you - Hook!Eddie x Fem!Reader

This came to me in a vision after watching Peter Pan from 2001. But I am also a big fan of hidden messages through fantasy, or through fiction, like little riddles of hidden meanings behind the whole world one creates. For example, in my story, Neverland is a place of self acceptance, of saving, to those who are ready to leave way too early because of grief or a broken heart. I do have backstories for each character and if you read the story you know reader's, but safe to say, all of them, including the kids, suffered gravely. I also loved the mixture of fantasy and wanting to live in ignorance to one's depression and anxiety cause I think we can all kind of relate to that, even to this day. I started writing to escape reality, and reader here slipped into neverland in order to escape it.

3. The White Rabbit series, including Bunny, Bunny, Bunny and Run, Rabbit, Run. - Mafia!Eddie x Fem!Reader - Steddie x Fem!Reader

I wanted to expand my boundaries a bit. I always wanted to write a fic that didn't consist of love, only pure lust and desire, as well as dark romance features. This was literally all self indulgent, with things I've wanted to experiment writing, filled with explicit scenes and using words I never used before. It is just literal sex, but I am pretty proud of my detailing of scenes, of my smut scenes. I was always afraid of making smut scenes bland, the need for realism too great in my body lmao.

4. Please, Trust me. - Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

Oof. I really don't know how to word this right so bare with me. I wanted to show that some people that feel like suicide is the only way to be free, some embrace this possibility with open arms and with relief in their faces. Reader was ready to go. Through and through. She wasn't sad about it. She was excited for it. And it wasn't because she was 'crazy' or 'unstable'. She was perfectly conscious of her decision. I wanted people to see though, that there's always a purpose. That you just need to wait. And maybe that purpose comes with a person, and sometimes it doesn't. I wanted people to know that there's also hope. But my main purpose was to show that suicide doesn't always mean bad.

5. Baring Teeth - Non-Traditional Omegaverse, Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

My baby. Even if it's still on going, and my updates have stopped, I am still writing it. I am proud of this fic in particular because of the plot twists that I have in mind for the future of the fic. I am also proud to like, write something that people, that are not into Omegaverse, can read cause I slowly give hints of what it is, and descriptions as we go further into the story. It's not like I hit people with it without them knowing what it is. People that have never read any of the sort can easily read this and slowly get accustomed to what Omegaverse is.

This was hard. I honestly took a lot of time to think of what I was proud of LMAO

no pressure tags and sorry if you were already tagged: @andvys @munson-mjstan @loveshotzz @pastel-pillows @ghost-proofbaby @lokis-army-77 @munson-blurbs @rip-quizilla

[musingmelsuinesmelancholy]

Would you say your spiritual beliefs have changed significantly since you first began exploring spirituality? Do you feel your core beliefs have changed or remain the same?

ooooooh hell yea! how horrified my 14yr old self would be at the shit I get up to now xD

I started out as a neo wiccan, super-duper new age. I'm talkin crystals, reiki, "smudging", rede thumping, love and light and pixie farts. There was some animism, I think I've always been one to an extent. I have very distinct memories of being angry at kids for "hurting" the plants outside the church at school and being absolutely horrified to hear that only humans had an immortal soul. Firmly rebuked that idea in my lil ginger gremlin heart, much to the priest's annoyance. Once I found wicca it validated those feelings of mine and allowed me room to explore them, though not to the extent I later would. Given that I was very fluffy when I began, around 2014, I was very much into (for lack of a better word) toxic positivity and I struggled to accept/acknowledge the darker parts of myself, nature, magic, occult/pagan history and spirits. While there was some animism there it was lacking nuance. It made me uncomfortable to try and reconcile this nature-based religion with the violent colonialist history of the country. So I ignored it.

I found, or rather was led to, traditional witchcraft in late 2017. This led to me fully embracing animism as the focus of my craft/spirituality and accepting all those dark things I had shunned. I moved completely away from deity worship. Tho, tbh, I don't think I ever really did believe in The God/Goddess. (I was one of those all gods are The God/dess types) I think it was more that I liked the sound of it, and I agreed that the divine feminine was sorely underappreciated rather than having actual belief/devotion. I was able to reconnect with my Maliseet relatives which was so instrumental in my developing a more nuanced approach to and understanding of animism.

Rather than craft being a religion it was a spiritual practice. A way to connect with the spirits and make things happen. I yearned for power, for witchcraft. It was how I survived living with my father, how I survived my ex's abuse and how I escaped. I was spite, hate and venom. Cursing, binding, dominating, sweetening and twisting.

My local lore as well as the lore of my ancestors' cultures informed my craft. I balked at the idea of worship. A witch makes magic, we do not bow. Why rely on a god when ours is the weaving of fate? What God would want such a cruel and twisted witch anyways... We have our devil(s), land spirits, the dead... our "little gods". I Didn't need or want a Zeus. After all, there was none of that in the lore. Coming from a catholic background I saw people begging God to fix their problems. Issues which, for the most part, could probably be handled pretty easily. I learned to see seeking solace and strength in religion as a kind of weakness.

Once I was free a vacuum was created. I had my relationships with spirit but I felt rather aimless.. I have reverence for my witch father, after all, it was He who opened the door, yet I felt a certain emptiness. There was no need for all this malefica I had been used to.

Eventually She appeared to me; all those hidden parts of myself were brought to light. I felt like a granite pebble. Hard and unyielding, to be worn smooth ever so slowly by the ocean. Try as I may to remain jagged the waves will win; I will be softened/polished... She opened me to love, not philia but rather something rather like agape. If you'll forgive my catholic terminology haha. I still don't understand. As I'm writing this, I'm in disbelief that I actually said that... that I actually truly feel this way now... This is new and not at all where I thought I was headed. I'm embarrassed that I ignored her for SO long and all because I couldn't find mention of what I was seeing/experiencing in folklore. Yet she was there, from the start.

I'm not sure where this will lead nor how it'll shape my craft. I'm exploring (and adoring) gaulpol. I'll have to, like my animism, learn how to practice it in stolen land. I'm unsure of how syncretic my craft will remain, as a large portion of it was informed by new England lore. My ancestors faith has always played a large role in my veneration of them.. then again they sent me messages/omens when I asked for guidance in identifying Her.. so perhaps neither of them will mind haha.

My craft began very terrestrial, and it will continue to be so, but it has become much more focused on water and stars than I would've thought. I always thought of the heavens as more the purview of ceremonial magic. One thing that's stayed 100% consistent is the imposter syndrome and fears/feelings of inadequacy xD

Good lord I fuckin rambled huh? TLDR yea shits changed, always been a dirty soil lovin animist from the sticks. THank you for the ask bud! Sorry about the novel that shit is wicked long

(I hate that when I'm tired the fuckin Mainer comes out)

[lixxen]

hello beloved mutual lixxen. im curious of about danny phantom! ive seen your reblogs of it, and i was wondering if you could explain the premise of it? bc my memory of it was a kids show from nickelodeon, but it seems super popular. is it still running??

anyways it seems kind of fun, im thinking of starting it

Welcome back to Lixx explaining hyperfixations!!

Danny Phantom is a children's cartoon from 2004 that has three seasons and a graphic novel (that came out last year) (the show has been done for twenty years)

It focuses on Daniel Fenton, who is a 14 year old who lives in a small town somewhere in the northern Midwest of the US (near Wisconsin but not in it). His parents are scientists/inventors who are obsessed with ghosts. They create a portal that should bring them to the Ghost Zone, a special realm that ghosts come from, but it doesn't work. Danny does inside of it and turns it on, which turns him into a Halfa. A Halfa is a half ghost, half human. He canonically dies twice in the show. I will not elaborate on how this kid just dies a few times.

The show follows Danny and his friends (and various classmates and reoccurring cast) as he learns how to use his powers and fight off ghosts along the way!

The cast includes:

His older sister Jazz, who is actually a really good big sister who cares a lot even if she's overbearing

Sam, his main love interest who is a Jewish goth girl and doesn't eat meat

His best friend Tucker, who is a techno nerd who loves meat

The A-Listers, who are the popular kids

Valerie, who is a love interest and enemy at certain points

His parents Maddie and Jack, who are overbearing and can be kinda crazy at times

Vlad, his not uncle who is fucking insane and a main bad guy. In love with Maddie

Plus various others!!

The fandom is very active and old. There are regular Tumblr/AO3 events that happen every year with a schedule and there is a steady fanon that has been built around the show that is basically canon (or supported by the canon). The creator, Butch Hartman, is a bigoted asshole who everyone hates.

The show is very fun and it is bingeable. It has a specific formula and is predictable at times. But also, it's very grim because you slowly realize that this 14 year old kid is literally carrying the weight of a realm on his shoulders and is living a double life where his parents basically want him dead and gone while loving his alive self

The fandom loves gore/whump.

I'm not kidding.

I have written a handful of gore fics for this show and tbh they're not even the worst things ever. If you've ever want to see some of the most jaw dropping whump and gore, this fandom has it.

We have fics that are literally the best written alternate universes and have nothing to do with the original show besides characters and death. Like. There's bound books of that specific fic. I haven't read it but it's long and it will make you sob

Some things that are lore building/fanon shit that everyone knows:

Ghost obsessions (you'll know it when you see it)

Ghost cores having specific effects on ghosts (it's canon but not really talked about in canon for more than two seconds)

Danny having allergic reactions to blood blossoms outside of his ghost form

Ghost speak being a ghost language all ghosts speak

Wes Weston and Kyle Weston being unnamed background characters that the fans took and made into full characters. It's actually cool as fuck. They're fully functioning characters and I love them

Death echoes/death days

I will warn that whatever feelings you have regarding to ships needs to be kicked to the side. All things go for ships here. Don't like the ship/don't condone it, don't interact with ir. You will waste your breath trying to play police over ship

Ships also have names. Platonic AND romantic ships. Here's some I can name off the top of my head:

Pitch pearl: Danny/Phantom (Danny gets split into a ghost and human form at one point)

Amethyst ocean: Danny/Sam

Savant Par: Danny/Tucker

Everlasting trio: Danny/Tucker/Sam

Badger cereal: Danny & Vlad (I think????)

Swagger Bishie/Golden Twinkie: dash/Danny

Pink astronaut: Danny/Paulina

Gray Ghost: Danny/Valerie

So yeah lol

This is my most read fic I think. I am gonna start writing again for DP soon. I love reading them

(here's my AO3 fic tags from my bookmarks for DP)

[whumpshaped]

hey does anyone wanna see a new demon i made yesterday.

picrew

hes rosier. heres some rosier lore copied from the server

for context, in the angel demon au i have with mill (@whumpsday), bellamy is prince of hell (the devil's son) but hes still unmistakably bellamy. so as soon as he can he kills the devil, takes over, and reforms hell entirely by killing off the powerful sadists, forcing everyone else into submission, bribing those who just want power and are willing to help with the reform, and puts laws in place to protect lesser demons and fallen angels. he comes up with the idea of angel sanctuaries where the fallen can be protected. and he needs guards for those sanctuaries. thats where rosier comes in, because hes powerful yet not very interested in torture and has never hurt angels before (a clean record is required)

rosier.. "and by his sweet and sugared words, he tempteth men to fall in love." his eye got messed up by some magic damage. he uh. couldnt fix it bc it was by the devil and its just..... sort of messed up forever

rosier is sort of inspired by big cats. but not in a shax way. shax is like a housecat. rosier is a jaguar/tiger/lion/just anything big and dangerous ok

but hes also just very tired of killing and torture. the devil halfway blinding him was like the last straw and he just left. went away to the most desolate fucking place he could find and just stayed there

then he heard bellamy killed the devil, which he had zero interest in bc surely the heir must be as insufferable as the father. then he slowly hears abt the reforms and he slithers back. just to take a look at least. and .. well its all very different

he sees a poster abt open positions at the angel sanctuary. his record is clean of any angel abuse. he did torture human souls for a good while which he found no particular enjoyment in. then he just turned to feeding on lesser demons, sometimes killing them to see if it sparks anything. but more and more hes thinking maybe hes just not into that. but he has all this power.... and theres all these defenceless angels here. and if that means an audition w the new devil? well. hes in

he has this very calmly confident air abt him. but hes very polite, very compliant

rosier is kind of on the same level as asta. he could likely take zyr in a fair and a dirty fight both actually

i wouldnt say hes necessarily a good character. hes indifferent a lot of times. and he also doesnt step in bc its not worth it. he goes to earth and sleeps w ppl and clearly takes advantage of them. he kills. he used to torture. he didnt stop out of moral qualms rly he stopped bc it wasnt smth he liked doing.

but then he does get into the moral side of it when he starts working for bellamy. and as he gets to know bellamy better he gets into it even more

he feeds primarily on lust, sexual pleasure and fear.

and now i must admit i made him specifically to seduce bellamy. i have created a new blorbo doll to shove towards mill's blorbo and i am saying "now kith"

AND NOW SOME FLIRTY.

rosier also very much finds bellamy attractive but doesnt even think about doing anything abt it until he sees bellamy swooning. and then hes like. aha. fair game then. and begins making the subtlest comments

he also immensely enjoys seeing bellamy flustered. he thinks its the cutest thing. he loooves that bellamy tries to hide it but cant

but also rosier has a good sense of descerning when hes allowed to flirt, and hes otherwise very much focused on his job and knows his place. he wont ever embarrass bellamy or challenge his authority. not unless its just the two of them and tasks for the day have been dealt with and he can play around :)

i cant get the image of this overused trope out of my head. the "hey boss u look tired" [gives gentle massage]

"relax, your majesty. everythings going well. you can stop and breathe for a minute."

(context: bellamy is a vegetarian in the au, VERY strange for a demon because demons usually eat meat. and raw meat at that)

also also the first time when rosier asks him out and it starts out as if hes abt to make some request regarding his position/job but then its like "your majesty if i may be so bold- i noticed you havent had a proper break in a while and as your loyal servant i cannot approve of such behaviour. ive prepared some food and i'd be honoured if you graced me with your presence :)" and its all absolutely free of meat. no meat whatsoever. rosier isnt even eating meat. and its fucken gourmet stuff and not the sort of food the devil made for him thats like..... well this was the first thing i saw on the human market that didnt have meat in it here u go. its actually well thought out and yummy and amazing and rosier is very proud of it bc he made it himself but he absolutely wont reveal that fact until he sees that bellamy loves it

(in response to bellamy gushing about his angels. bellamy has a BUNCH of angels who are bonded to him, and he affectionately refers to them as "his flock")

rosier loves to listen to him when he gets like that. he loooves how passionate bellamy is about making an impact. and it gets him into the whole angel thing sooo much. he ends up sort of collecting his own flock, not by bonds but just on an emotional basis. he tells bellamy he has no idea how it happened but the angels seem to love him a lot lol he gives bellamy all the credit for it tbh. "it wouldve been unthinkable before, you know. ive met angels before the sanctuary system, and their first reaction was not to be concerned about my eye. everythings so.. different now. its nice."

ok thats all thank u stan rosier

[lilgarbitch]

Hi!! I’m super interested in you’re like lore? I guess. Where did you get your idea and motivation for running in circles? xx

GAH that’s such a sweet question🥰

(Edit: this is a jumbled mess i apologize)

Okay, it’s a little embarrassing, but I guess the best way to phrase ‘the lore’ is personal experience.

For Y/N’s character, I heavily over exaggerated my own interests. My life is run by music. I’m a (mediocre) vocalist and song writer, and always had a fun little dream planned out of being able to tour, so that part had been on the back burner for a while. (I’ve even thrown in a few lyrics from my own ‘songs’ in the story🤭which made me really excited to keep writing this.) Her personality is formed from a lot of different characters I’ve read, plus ideas of my own to create more tension in the story (like her being a cute little reckless idiot)

Now, for the back story. (Only one person knows this, so I’m both excited and scared to tell yall😂) I had liked songs from Bad Omens for a while now. I wasn’t obsessed with them, but I enjoyed their music. They caught my attention after covid and I had their music in my playlists, so when I saw that they were going to a festival I had tickets for, I was super excited to see them. The day of their show comes and I’m standing there all giddy and shit, excited to finally see their whole act in person. And then Noah walked on stage. Lemme tell ya, ya girl fucking FROZE😭Like something fully short-circuited in my brain. Couldn’t tell you why or what happened, fucker just had me standing there like 😃 as I watched.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so starstruck😂 And that flipped that little gremlin switch in my brain, making me fall back in to being a fangirl for the first time in years, which obviously led me to read fanfiction again.

As I read a few, I had the plot of RIC slowly forming in my head. One of those “Oh I wish I could find a story that fit exactly what I wanted to read” plots. Because who doesn’t want a story they can semi-relate to? After restarting my tumblr page and spending a good bit of time on here, I very fortunately had the chance to get to know some really sweet writers, and they were who helped push me to actually take this plot and put it into writing.

Mainly one specific writer. I got pulled to her story when scrolling for new ones to read because it was the closest thing to the plot I had in my head and I ATE THAT SHIT UP!!! And it made me realize I needed to start working on mine.

Thank you @thefallennightmare for writing Just Pretend🥰

Now, obviously this story didn’t actually happen. But that moment when Noah’s presence fully broke my brain was something that had stuck with me, so I thought, “That would make a cute ass soulmate based plot.” I built up that part of the story, then built Y/N’s character, and everything after that is just what my gremlin brain wants to write.

Extra note: I have always loved to create scenes and stories, so I have a few cute scenes written in my notes app, completely unrelated to any fandom or story, that were kind of there ‘if I ever started writing again,’ and one PERFECTLY fits into this story. So I’m SO EXCITED to be able to actually write it out now that I have characters and a plot.

AGAIN, THANK YOU FOR THIS ASK🥰🥰🥰

[everythingisok3000]

A Brief Essay on Why Secret Worlds are Dumb and Why the MCU X-Men might Be a Mistake

OK First off I think I'm no longer a big MCU guy. Even that's kind of a weird way to think of it, but I remember watching The Avengers with my mom when it released in 2012 and thinking it was the most amazing thing ever and then slowly realizing over the next ten years that this was becoming an accepted and dominating part of movie culture, up until it started becoming sluggish and weird. Now, I haven't seen I want to say ten of the movies in the universe. Almost none of the TV shows. I keep getting hopeful about a revival of quality, but I also wonder if it's even worth it at this stage. Anyway, I'm invested in the X-Men's success in the MCU because they've done a "pretty good" to "actually a terrible movie" job for all 10ish movies that exist (Logan doesn't count in my mind, but maybe it should because it's basically the Wolverine franchise). I'm hoping this amorphous revival corresponds with the beginning of the X-Men's introduction, and that for once it will not feel like a mess with occasionally great ideas and mostly bad ones.

But first:

Secret worlds are dumb. I'll get into why this matters to X-Men in a bit toward the end. I think the most notably stupid secret world is Harry Potter, in that the reason and logistics of it staying secret are basically nonsense. I haven't read the series since middle school, so I'm a little rusty on the lore, but it appears that they disguise magic because it would be dangerous in the hands of humanity, or maybe they were persecuted by them, but like, since when? And to what end? Are there not innumerable remedies for modern problems? And to what end? Like, the world is already full of plot holes and nonsense stuff, please watch any number of videos breaking those down I enjoy them immensely. But furthermore it just makes the world less interesting. Except for Harry Potter specific plot points, the human world basically never interferes with the wizarding world, which would objectively be an interesting conflict. Somehow the world has basically no problems managing memories and perceptions despite what should be an overwhelming amount of evidence that magic exists in the world, including the natural elements.

Another in this vein I could say is the Percy Jackson series, but it makes this more interesting and "integrated". Like, there's explicit reasons why humans simply don't see the mythological worlds around them, and how these are in some ways personified elements reflecting the world that happen to have some real-world applications. Still, and like Harry Potter, I think this creates some convolution, like the desire to have your cake and eat it too.

There's a bunch of others. off the top of my head, the Assassin Guild stuff from John Wick. The little people from Epic. Toy Story. Actually, basically every other Pixar movie. Most egregiously, most superhero comics, (we'll get into it, but first:)

The thing is though, they're sort of meant to be dumb. Not that these are for kids and therefore are supposed to be dumb for their sake (and not that they aren't written as that as well, in some cases). A lot of these have the childlike view of "There's something beyond the world I see", allowing for this unique element hidden from the world but open to them. It's sort of wish fulfillment, and it makes characters more relatable to the reader. It's much harder to sell a world with people that are well familiar with everything in the world already. Much easier if you're Bob McNormal bumbling around asking questions about everything.

On top of that, a lot of these stories are simply not interested in the story possibilities of these worlds intersecting. Yeah, it might be interesting to see the world's response to toys actually being living creatures, but then that becomes an entirely different story from the one the creators wanted you to experience, which is more about the value we have for toys and how they might feel about us in return.

Then we have comics.

Comics do this weird thing where somehow everything, and I mean everything, is a "secret world", with each new thing being a surprise, despite clear logic that it should not, and this fact hampering the story. There's of course several continuities for everything, but generally the mistakes begin when the world is just already very normal. These worlds are usually based in mythological and sci-fi origins that would prevail understandings of how things work, but are never addressed or taken as fact until Superman starts existing. Magic is another thing, where most people don't understand or are surprised by its existence despite enough minor characters knowing and possessing it to populate a town. Aliens are another thing, where they're somehow unknown and unheard until they're explicitly announced, and even when they are typical life seems unaltered except for a few groups of people. I mean, yeah, comics aren't usually focused on the civilian perspective, but wouldn't that be objectively interesting no matter how you look at it? And at a certain point, wouldn't it just be stupid if every new thing is a surprise to characters? I've been reading old Fantastic Four, and there's several of these. Wakanda. Atlantis. The Inhumans. The Negative Zone. Various Aliens and Planets. Freaking Latveria. These are all new and surprising things about the world that the Fantastic Four and the rest of the world are discovering, yet everything is normal otherwise.

Thus we return to X-Men. I'm told that The Marvels has a scene where one of the characters travels to an alternate timeline with the X-Men, specifically Beast, in an end credits scene (of course). It seems for some reason they're going to go for an "alternate timeline with mutants" thing, and somehow mash these things together. Maybe they'll have that Marvel 616 combining with 1610 thing which everybody liked and it made so much sense. Part of this, I think, wouldn't make sense. As a world without mutants simply doesn't make sense in the world of marvel. Every other character in the universe is a mutant or has mutant ties, even outside of X-Men titles. Part of this is that X-Men are specifically a political group, a lot of their stories tying into their influence in the world and the consequences of their existence. Hell, a bunch of characters are simply responsible or involved in historical events. See Apocalypse. There's some serious nonsense they'd have to do to make them make sense in the world of the MCU. It wouldn't make sense, for instance, if they simply start to exist all of a sudden. It would make most character identities completely different to their comic counterpart. We'll get into that thing about how the characters presented aren't actually the way they're presented but how they're supposed to be based on external media.

Hence the most unfortunately logical arguments for the existence of mutants in the MCU. They're "secret". I've of course already mentioned how the significance of their existence would be contradictory to their place in the Marvel universe, but also the scale of it wouldn't make sense.

For an example, let's take a classic: The Manhattan Project. A cool fact I heard on the internet and various sources is that one of the most secretive and important projects in American history was not very secret to those for whom it was significant. Spies, internal workers, people that observed the loss of certain physicists from magazine subscriptions, all had at least an inkling of what was going on, if not the full truth. This sort of thing is one of those conspiracy breakers. If only one nation is securing an important top secret, why would multiple corroborate an even more important one.

Bringing this over to X-Men in the MCU: We have to first assume that X-Men simply must exist in some capacity in the MCU. Somehow to the extent that oldheads like Magneto, Professor X, Mr. Sinister, etc. have based their identities on it. Furthermore we have to assume there's some control over the outbreak of mutants and knowledge of their existence. This thing that should have existed for centuries by now, (see literally freaking Wolverine, for example), let's assume it's less so, even. Let's also assume families and friends involved are kept quiet. How the hell are the Avengers, Wizards, Vigilantes of various kinds, Mystic Worlds, Aliens, etc. NOT aware of their existence in any capacity whatsoever. We literally had a large-scale government conspiracy in Captain America 2, where the country was being run in part by literal neo-nazis, but somehow the existence of a large subset of people is kept under wraps. Magneto, in all his extremism, has yet to perform earth-shattering acts of terrorism against the people shutting up his and mutantkind existence for the past, let's say, 10+ years at least?

So, therefore, unless they resolve all of these issues, it wouldn't make sense for mutants to exist in the MCU. But they must. Yet how? If they do that world-smashing thing, or even have a link between these specific worlds for the purpose of having character interactions between established characters and newly introduced ones, how will that even remotely address or delve into the interesting political consequences of mutant existence in the world? A secret world in this case doesn't make sense, and convolutes things outside of what is interesting about this topic.

So what is the poor multi-billion dollar media franchise to do?

Well,

Surprise Reveal: This is a Pitch for how Mutants Could Work in the MCU (by me)

Yes, I have duped you all. All three of you following me, and however many somehow find the tags I threw on here and read through this freaking essay.

I have not actually consumed much X-Men materials, I'm sad to say. Yet I love them. What I have read and consumed is great and interesting and fun and I just really like this kind of world they do. After I finish reading all of Fantastic Four, (I'm like 12% of the way there), X-Men is next.

My understanding, however, is that the X-Men get into all sorts of whacky shenanigans even outside of their political activism. Infamously so. See the well-known "10 X-Men Plots" post for examples. I'll give here an specific, then unspecific pitch for how it works, then we'll see about it.

Basically: At some point in the past, mutants were removed from all of history and apparent existence. This was done in the form of transporting what would've been our current mutant population to an alternate but identical world where they've been living their lives as normal, but without all the other superhero stuff, (Wakanda, Avengers, Wizards, Gods, etc.), mirroring how people in the current MCU see the world as being without mutants.

Through some event, however, the worlds collide through some sort of event, pushing all of mutant kind into the world of the MCU. Since they have memories of both places, they return as though they'd been missing for years, while all other "normal" people are given the memories between the two worlds, one or the other. This includes human allies and enemies of the mutants, who both recognize and sometimes don't recognize them. As for who and why, my bet is on Scarlet Witch and some delayed reaction to her death, (if we're going to totally accept that she's dead now), she did one of those "no more mutants" things that got rid of them, and her death brought them back. Or maybe some other force of mutant nonsense, doesn't particularly matter.

The conflict of the film would then be: how do mutants interact with this world that doesn't know of them? Several "passing" notable mutants might be able to walk free of their purpose with the X-Men, especially given they might not be necessary anymore. Others might want to preemptively advocate for their existence and make it known that they are around. Meanwhile Magneto or whatever conflicting ideal would want to make it known and get the jump on humanity. From here on, after and even within this movie, mutants are a part of history that is now "forgotten" because of the combination of worlds.

This obviously has a lot of problems with it, especially with how the memories of everyone would work. What determines if some people have memories of one world or another? What if some people are living or dead in the opposing worlds, what happens with the combination of them then? Do they live or die? That's sort of difficult to determine. Here's the unspecific version then:

Mutants that existed in the world were erased from it temporarily, similar to "The Blip" and length of five years that happened with Endgame, and are suddenly brought back. Whether or not they were "actually there" the whole time (would be stupid) or "now exist with no consequences from their previous life" (kind of depressing, opens up a conflict we don't want to explore, really), is sort of up to Kevin Feige himself.

We already have had this happen in the MCU, with Dr. Strange and magic. (No one knew of it/took advantage of it before that movie?) I think there's a better way to do it. It does seem like they have a plan. The new (hopefully not bad) Fantastic Four movie is supposed to take place in the 60's, perhaps in a different reality, like they've been doing. I anticipate in a matter of years, (the next Avengers movie?) we'll have a whole universal reset that just gets rid of these problems anyway. Just, please don't make X-Men a "secret world", I beg of you.

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 092 - Trip and T'Pol have a Child?!

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 4 Episode 20 - Demons

We open with some humans in suits watching over a baby Vulcan. Why they're doing this, is left a mystery, at least for now. After the intro we find out Enterprise has once again returned to Earth, to better formalise the alliance created in the Romulan Arc. We get some fun banter about how the person giving out the speech left out Enterprise's involvement, and everything seems fine and happy! That is until a wounded human gives T'Pol a tube containing hair, saying "They're going to kill her".

Phlox cross references the hair's DNA and it appears that it's the child of Trip and T'Pol. How did this happen? T'Pol hasn't been pregnant at all, and it appears they're both just as confused as I am. Apparently though, T'Pol has Vulcan senses to tell that the DNA result is accurate.

Starfleet Command however, wants to keep the information secret, as it could result in human Xenophobic factions derailing the alliance conference, so the investigation into this is going slowly. But, because Archer is more eager, so he asks Reed to contact Harris to get things going faster. According to Harris, the woman who gave T'Pol the hair is part of a Xenophobic movement called Terra Prime, who killed her off because she was trying to leave. Apparently the governor organising the human conference is also a former member of Terra Prime, and Archer uses this information

We then cut to the suit guys, presumably Terra Prime, on the moon, however they don't give us much insight into their plans, however it's clear that whatever they're planning, it's already in motion. Later in the episode we also see the main suit guy watching a speech from what appears to be a genocidal warlord from the aftermath of World War III. World War 3 has been mentioned a couple times before, but I think this is the first time that the show has given me any information surrounding the Third World War, and I'm curious to see if we'll ever get some more lore details about that.

In med-bay we get a really cute scene with Trip asking Phlox as much as he can about the baby! It's really cute seeing his father instincts activate.

We're given a Sub-Plot about Travis meeting up with an Ex, who's now a Journalist. It's not the most interesting sub-plot in the world, but Travis is just such an under-utilised character that I'm happy he's being given anything to do.

The Crew through various means, manage to narrow their investigations down to a mining colony on the moon, and Trip and T'Pol volunteer to investigate undercover, and are given temporary jobs at the colony to do their mission. Trip pretty much instantly gets pulled into Terra Prime's recruitment within moments of arriving. It's kinda wild that Terra Prime's rhetoric is only a couple word changes away from current day real world right wing rhetoric. This is the kind of allegory that makes Sci-fi as genre really work. Anyways, Trip goes on to Infiltrate Terra Prime, but our duo have been outplayed. T'Pol is shot while doing her own investigations, and Trip is exposed while he's infiltrating their meeting.

Also apparently the universal translators have started malfunctioning. Apparently, Travis's journalist GF is a spy from Terra Prime who informed the leadership about Enterprise's mission.

Trip and T'Pol are captured and sent to Terra Prime's leaders, and apparently the entire Lunar Colony is a space ship, which is now taking flight, and Enterprise goes into pursuit. The ship heads to a facility on Mars, and takes over a weapon system used to redirect comets, and sends out a threatening message to earth, which serves as our cliffhanger.

I really enjoyed this episode, I loved it's racism allegories, especially as I mentioned before parallels in Terra Prime's Rhetoric. It's writing around Trip and T'Pol was great. I can't wait to see how all of this finishes up.

Comparing my Enjoyment of this Episode with a Doctor Who Universe Story of the Same Title

Doctor Who - Season 8 Serial 5 - The Dæmons

A nice little jaunt to the Third Doctor Era, with The Dæmons, from 1971. Not an exact title match, but close enough. The Dæmons (Which going forward I'm just going to spell with an e, it's easier) is very well loved serial in Classic Who fandom.

The Demons one of the rare nice interceptions between Doctor Who as a Sci-Fi show, and fantasy elements. It's one that very much plays with the classic "Sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic" idiom.

Keeping the Summary brief, basically some Archaeologists have uncovered a Bronze Age Tomb, Which the Master intends to crack open to unleash an Alien Called Azal, which is the in-universe inspiration behind the Devil, and it's up to the Doctor and UNIT to stop him.

As wild as a plot summary of "The master tries to summon Satan" sounds, and while it is played with that very specific 70's Who flavour of Camp, it still also manages to be pretty subdued. It's atmosphere is amazing, the direction of the serial is dark and mysterious and absolutely treats it's sufficiently advanced technology as magic. As serial it has kind of the same vibes as the Hammer Horror movies, and really starts the whole Gothic horror sci-fi hybrid direction that a lot of the Early 4th Doctor era would decide to follow.

Roger Delgado's performance as the Master is at it's best here, even if his take on the Character isn't normally my cup of tea, and Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor is also on point here. This is serial a great showcase of the kind of Mentor/Assistant relationship between the Third Doctor and Jo Grant as a companion. I do however have to say that the UNIT boys are not given much to do here, even if this story do give us the absolutely classic "Chap with the wings over there, Five rounds rapid." line.

To pick one story over the other though, I'm going to have to go with Doctor Who's The Daemons as the better one. Enterprise's Demons was great, but it did feel mostly like set up for the finale to come, where as Doctor Who's Daemons was a complete story in it's own right, and hits on a sub-genre that I love, and is just directed in a way that you don't often see from Sci-Fi.

[anx1oustig3r]

6, 23, 36 for Braith

1, 15, 39, 41 for Sorrel

BONUS

B, F, G for Scath and Delia

WHEW A LONG ONE

BRAITH

6: Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?

She definitely thinks they SHOULD be flexible. Given how the laws have greatly harmed her family, she doesn’t have a lot of respect for hard laws that only benefit those in power or of status. If she had her way she would bend every law in the way of fairness rather than who can cough up the most cash.

23: How does envy manifest itself in them (they take what they want, they become resentful, etc)? 

Braith is a nice girl, but she can get very mean and nasty when she gets jealous. The best example is with her family. She has two much younger brothers who are twins and they get a lot of preferential treatment (biggest portion at dinner, prioritised clothing etc.) and because of this she tends to treat them very harsh. She insults them, fights with them and just very openly acts like she wishes they were never born.

NOW THERE IS A DEEPER REASON FOR THIS BUT IT’S A SPOILER SO IM KEEPING MY MOUTH SHUT FOR THE MOMENT.

36: Do they actively seek romance, or do they wait for it to fall into their lap? 

She actively seeks romance. She’s very much a shoot your shot kind of person and is actually a big romantic if you catch her eye. Now she can often be way too forward which has made people uncomfortable but she doesn’t really care. She thinks sitting around and waiting is boring and won’t accomplish anything.

SORREL

1: What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do?

About ten minutes. Sorrel’s a bit of a fidgety fae and likes constantly having tasks or something to do. Boredom makes them slightly dangerous and may make them lash out. That’s why, in spite of the horrible pay and hellish conditions, they’re grateful for their job helping drive and deliver coal from Iron Fog. They get to be productive, help the people in their community and make a bit of coin for small things.

15: How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first?

They’re much more of a thinker. They speak slowly and precisely, choosing words carefully like it’s a puzzle. It’s like they believe their conversation partner is going to try and outwit them. It’s a mindset that’s unusual for a peasant in Revtel.

39: How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people? 

Very difficult. Sorrel is unnervingly observant and if they catch a flaw or personal weakness, it will always be at the back of their mind. Not even in a malicious way. They don’t even like that this is something they focus on, but it was drilled into their head ever since they were a child.

41: How do they feel about children? 

Very neutral. They have younger siblings who get on their last nerve and tend to avoid younger children because of that, but they find older children to be really entertaining. They enjoy delivering coal around where the local gang of hooligans live because they always get very excited to hear about Iron Fog and all the machines.

SCATH AND DELIA

B) What inspired you to create them?

OH BOY so. It actually started with our AU when I was trying to figure out how to fit Mireska’s lore into that modern setting. Knowing that her family were shady in the lore, I ended up doing research into drug cartels and such. For Scath I took inspiration from drug lords while Delia actually was inspired by accounts of their hitmen and body guards. Then their dynamic and relationship with Mireska was inspired a lot by Butterscotch and Beatrice from Bojack Horseman. (Delia in particular was heavily inspired by Beatrice AND SOMETIMES IM SCARED I MAY HAVE JUST RIPPED IT OFF BUT)

F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)?

I get excited. It’s been really fun to write characters that are just, genuinely pretty terrible people. With Delia she’s done some bad, hypocritical and downright cruel things but the circumstances in her life have just, never given her a chance so of course she’s bitter, but that doesn’t excuse her taking it out on her daughter and leaving her family in the dirt because she was too proud to go back to them. While Scath is a complete monster, I love how it stems from this desperation for control and a deeply buried longing for love and admiration that he’s doing all the wrong things to acquire.

They are two horrible, fucked up people who need to divorce and get therapy and leave their daughter alone and I love them.

G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most?

For Scath it’s everything. Okay in seriousness I think it’s his refusal to take any accountability and admit when something’s his fault. I think so much of the tragedy in Sunbreeze could have been avoided if he just let go of his ego and apologised to his wife and child.

With Delia it’s her shaky principles. She knew the Sunbreeze family was bad and they had hurt her parents, but she still ended up sleeping with Scath and chose him over her family and her best friend who was the reason she even had the job as his bodyguard in the first place.

[awkwardgtace]

What inspired you to create the seer au? It's such a cool idea to dive deep in and see how Delphia interacts with the gods while also being a "background character" in the human world. How long did it take you to map out Delphia's relationships to the gods?

this got very long and probably very much ramble so I'm sorry. I put a tldr and have left most of it under a read more. I'm not even sure if a lot of my rambles are relevant to the question

tldr; I've always liked gods and the idea of false deaths seemed fun. So I ran with that and the overall development probably took a month for Rhys, Vitus, Dabria, Ash, Alessia, Delphia. With everyone I'd up it to two or three months total for the basic plot and relationships I've run forward with since. A lot of times I get an idea and just run with it so that definitely happened here and the lore or ideas come while i'm failing to sleep or bored at work.

ok this is actually a long answer (and i'm super excited to type it out) so i'm gonna just put the short answer of the first story with her before a read more that goes into like the world

So Delphia's original story was actually started by thinking about this post. It talks about giants reaching in through doors and windows and i wanted to write something with that. My brain didn't like the simple idea so it slowly morphed into someone who sees their own death and tries to escape saved by a being of protection. This kept evolving until that original post didn't work as a base anymore. I actually still have like saved snippets from when I wrote up Little Seer and all the ideas that I jumped between. A lot of it was like well she sees things, maybe she helps people and that makes her stand out. When I finished that story I didn't have everything in my head how I do now with the gods and Delphia's relationships.

I think overall it took me a few weeks to actually finish her first story. I only really had the ideas Vitus and Dabria are parents, Rhys is a brother, Ash and Alessia are partners to Delphia (the full all three with each other came later), and Delphia is more human than they are by the end. Then I ran with it, just thought about how she got there and the life she had that would make her give everything up blindly. I also did always want a more full pantheon, gods of war, prosperity, sky, fate, all the fun stuff (cause i was a greek and roman myth nerd as a child and even made pantheons for a class once. If my project partner somehow sees this shout out to the god of war and moist things)

Ok now onto the really long parts going into a read more. It may have turned into rambling. Hope it actually answers your questions :D

So once I decided I wanted Delphia to see the future and be saved by a god of protection I started to kind of dive into things I always thought about. Death that doesn't stick, names holding unbelievable power. I also always had story ideas of someone powerful always ready to sacrifice themself for whatever cause they wanted regardless of how minor or major it may seem.

So basically I made Del and I liked the idea of avoiding her name. I wanted her name to do something when she remembered it. I actually made a note of her name early on because it was going to reveal her connections to the gods in some way with a few that held more significance for her. I spent probably a day deciding how I wanted her memories to act and I liked the idea of an unexpected side effect. So I figured what if it builds up each time she dies. The spell itself gets stronger and stronger until finally the release causes a burst. I also thought it would be a good way to give gods an insight to how a human was feeling. I liked that set up to sort of propel relationships forward if I kept writing about them (which I already knew I was going to)

For Delphia as a character I wanted her to have minimal ties to humans. To give her a reason to see the gods giving her this life among them and taking it. She was also supposed to be the kind of person who sees the worst of people and continues to make the choice to help them. I wanted sort of a martyr who's choosing to be one and knows the consequences of her death. She's also supposed to be a person that if you know her you have good things to say. The stories of a witch or curse bearer doesn't match up with her. People would be overcome with guilt if the thing that turns others against her didn't make her sort of fade away. They don't remember Delphia, they remember someone with magic and a cloak.

A lot of the lore of the world I came up with as I went along. First I wanted a reason for everyone to be afraid of the gods, but I wanted it to be wrong. Easiest path is old gods and it fit in with the myths I loved too. Then I needed a reason they were gone so I figured they had to go too far. And I needed someone to stop them so Fate gives power to Life and Death.

For the actual gods it was kind of easy. Love, Fate, Life, Death, Nature, War, Prosperity, Sky, and Protection. Then I figured it's more fun to have some things not match up. Life (Vitus) looks cold, stern, and stoic, but is warm, caring, and kind. Death (Dabria) at first glance looks warm and bright, but she has to take care of death and those paths. War (Ryder) hates war and fighting despite the view that he'd encourage it and his odd way of speaking. Prosperity(Felix) looks aloof and materialistic, but cares more about others than he lets on. For the sky( Luna and Sola) I liked the idea of the two being children because the skies are ever changing and children just fit that image in my head. Love (Rhys) struggles with his own emotions and anger, while managing the feelings of others well. Nature (Ash) looks intimidating and harsh, but they are soft spoken and kind. Protection(Alessia) was different, for her I wanted her to immediately come across looking warm and welcoming, but strong and commanding too.

On top of all of that I wanted the gods to be human. There's a bunch of lore in my head about why they are how they are and what makes them different from the old gods that I plan to write more eventually. Gods aren't fun when they're perfect, they're fun when they're flawed. They're interesting and make you curious so that's what happens. I've still developed things as time goes on (such as I can't say why but at some point I've decided my gods are always prepared for war don't know against what).

Ok so after all that ramble here's the one about the relationship with Del and each god.

Short answer I'm still working on them all! For the most part I figured it out over a month for the basic interactions. This month based off when the god was developed.

Alessia, Delphia, and Ash have the most defined relationship overall. Alessia and Ash are opposites with Delphia being someone who meets in the middle. I liked the idea of that, also with all of them it's more been deciding how all of them work. For Rhys it's been a little longer than Ash and Alessia to figure it out. I wanted siblings with Rhys a bit more of someone to mess with Del. An objectively normal relationship compared to the reality they're in. I've figured them out more as I work on Rhys in other stories. Felix and Ryder are still being worked out. I know most of how I want them to interact, but their personalities aren't as solid compared to the others. Felix and Ryder fill in the role of older siblings more solidly than Rhys. For Del it's definitely how she sees them. Felix just being aloof and caring preferring to be disliked as long as he can keep the important people safe and Ryder taking blame on himself for things out of his control are newer ideas and change how they'll interact with her. I'd say those two show both the least concern and hold the most in interactions with her. Luna and Sola were instantly younger siblings for her. For the most part the relationship with Delphia is still in development. I don't actually know if I'm great at the whole writing kids things but I try :). I'm actually a younger sibling so I take a bit of how I remember thinking with my older sibling to figure out how they act. Sola needs more work than Luna though. Sola is bubbly and almost naive in ways Luna isn't which is a different thought process for me to write (i have ideas for her though I swear they are coming.). It's taking more to work out how exactly each will interact with her with those mannerisms while being gods. They aren't children forever, but that mindset they have now is the one I plan to focus on longest. Vitus and Dabria are honestly the odd ones here. Maybe the only OCs I have that are developed to a point it's kind of fine tuning when I think about a new fact for them. I think they probably took a few months to get to this point total, but their relationship with Del was pretty much immediate. In old drafts she was their actual child who ran away. I wanted good parents that are over protective at times.

I think the general relationships were all mapped out within a month or two of creating the god or Delphia. A lot are still sort of living ideas too. If it hasn't been obvious I really like found family and I see almost all of them as siblings with Vitus and Dabria as parents. Fate is left out a lot, but i actually do have ideas for them I just haven't gotten to them yet.

I don't think I actually answered your question like at all, but I also don't think I'll be any better if I wait on answering. Feel free to keep sending asks and I will continue to try and answer (hopefully on topic since I have no idea if I am anymore)

[suenitos]

idk it just scratched that part of my brain that enjoys creative media outlets LMFAOO but idk i'm not a lorehead in the sense that everything had to be thought out i just thought everything could be stablished inthe lore in a fun or interesting way BECAUSE it surged as nothing serious and slowly started to introduce more and more serious elements, people at the end thought this was a series. and that it was solely written by wilbur which made me saurrrr angry. he's a talented creater, such as slimecicle, in terms of creating cohesive stories! but to attribute all progress to him was ANNOYING

(cGeorge was my personal 9/11 in that regard. Cause he was such a smartly introduced and stablished character and he was so good and in my then circle NOBODY FUCKING CARED it made me go crazy. like you really didn't need to do daily streams like tommy back then to create a compelling character and cGeorge showed that and well you know my cDnf demons sorry had to pull this out he's just so loved by me ... need to finish the animatic fr)

techno was such a good creator i'll always hold my love for him close to my chest, he cared a lot about the things the fans created, he was just lovely and he made such an interesting character with only little preparation. he managed to weave a truly beautiful tale of found family with the syndicate, and he maintained his character the way he loved until the end which i admire since lots of other creators decided to let the fans dictate far more than they should've (in my opinion). i hate the way he was treated at the end of 2021. he seriously deserved better, and i hope he rests in peace knowing he made such a beautiful impact in the community in general.

anyway FUCKKKK MUCHAEL i have a bone to pick with any and all cBeeduo loreheads They're worse than cInniters 2 me 🌟

i understand you. i personally lovedd a lot of the fanart and THE ANIMATICS that came out of dsmp it was kind of like SU in that it also got me to Draw Better. i will always be mad about the wilbur head writer thing because well im a little drolopilled about the fact that DREAM came up with a lot of stuff that ppl attributed to wilbur but anyway.

i think what george did with his character was really smart in my eyes showing the character IS the spectacle simply because he didnt do a ton but every single one of those streams revealed something important about his relationship to other characters and the server. and that disconnection and slow insanity via the dreams was interesting to me. i do wish he did a bitttt more but not everyone needs to be a tommy to have good lore. it irritated the hell out of me that so many people didnt take his streams seriously for a lot of reasons we talked about a little but those are my personal demons about cgeorge

i think in some ways techno rlly embodied the srs and nsrs aspects of the rp in that he had some really epic moments ppl will remember forever but at the same time was goofy and silly. i loved that he had a strong sense of his character and the way he incorporated other characters into the plot. admittedly i wasnt much of a techno watcher but i think everyone felt the effect of his passing really deeply. i also hope his family is doing alright and if there is an afterlife he knows just how much of an impact he continues to have on the world :(

cbeeduo was hell on earth oh my god. i hated cranberry in particular if qs lore wasnt fleshed out his wasnt even a skeleton. it wasnt even ARTERIES. you will neva be cdnf ⁉️ and once again fuck that pig

[dearwriters]

Creating semantic horror

This is such a great question, and I am very interested to hear everyones take on it! While I have made some posts about how to insert horror elements into a story, about creating horror using the concept of the Uncanny or how to produce a feeling of disgust in a reader, I think the question "how do you create horror using just words" is incredibly interesting, because it takes the question of writing horror to a semantic level. How does one actually write horror? What does horror sound like? What does it read like? And it instantly reminded my of the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, in my opinion a master of the creepy atmosphere. And that's what it is essentially, right? Creating atmosphere through words. Let me use "The Raven" as an example. Because something Poe does incredibly well is play with language to create a semantic picture.

The Raven starts out like this:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—     While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

Do me a favour as you read this: read it out loud. This is the best way to really grasp the rhythm of the words that imitate the rapping on the chamber door. Another example:

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

The s-sounds of the "silken, sad, uncertain rustling" actually imitates the rustling it describes.

What we as writers can learn from poetry at this point is that one can use specific words, their sound as well as their meaning in tandem, in order to evoke an intentional atmosphere. The "crinkling of drapes" will never be as evocative as a "silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain". Now, I do not mean to say that you have to rhyme your novels, not at all. Just that as you choose your words, you can think about the signifier as well as the signified.

If you can't really picture how this tool of poetry translates into prose, let's take a look at "The Tell-Tale Heart".

You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded — with what caution — with what foresight — with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.

Again I implore you to read the words alout to get the best picture. It is the rhythm, especially of the second to last sentence that gives it atmosphere. The narrator uses a lot of fragments to portray a fragmented mind. The repeated "— with" creates a build up that then is followed by the reveal of the murder, juxtaposed with the pretense of kindness.

And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly — very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man’s sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha! — would a madman have been so wise as this?

Again, Poe uses rhythm and pace to illustrate the goings on. The description of the opening of the door is as draged out as the opening itself is and then contrasted to the violent immediacy of the words "thrust" and "Ha! ".

The end of the story illustrates the breaking point of the narrator by completely fragmenting his narration:

It grew louder — louder — louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! — no, no! They heard! — they suspected! — they knew! — they were making a mockery of my horror! — this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! — and now — again! — hark! louder! louder! louder! louder! — “Villains!” I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed! — tear up the planks! — here, here! — it is the beating of his hideous heart!”

To summerize: if we take a page out of Poes book, it might be a helpful tool to really think about the semantics, the sound, the rhythm and the pace of our writing to create a sense of horror, tension and uncertainty.

What do you guys think?

could anyone give me some good tips for writing horror? how do you disquiet a reader and how do you make them uncomfortable with just your words? usually visuals play a big part in fear for me, so some writing tips would really help. thank you!

p.s. i don't want to rely on just gore descriptions that feels lazy :(

[silphwave]

Hi! That other anon that asked you if you've taken classes about pixel art made me wonder what other experience you have with art. Are you self taught? What kinds of art have you practiced before pixel art? I'm curious because your style of pixel art and use of color is so unique and striking.

Hey, I appreciate the interest. I studied Fine Art at university, although I learned zero knowledge about any traditional techniques such as colour theory, composition etc. The art school was sadly obsessed with conceptual art. They didn't care if you could draw, paint, sculpt or craft with skill and beauty; only the message mattered. In hindsight I should have expected this, I didn't really have a message, just a mood.

I still remember one of the senior lecturers looking at the work hanging up in my art studio and he sighed "Hmmmm, it's just a bit too nice isn't it?". Then he sat me down and began asking "What do you hate? You should make some art about that..." He then proceeded to try and get me to make social and political art, which has never been in my nature. Art is a relaxing hobby for me, a form of escapism, a happy place away from the world. So I continued what I was doing regardless, making surrealist collages from vintage magazines and old books and scraped a bare minimum pass.

I went under the online alias of "Dharma_Collage" from about 2014-18. Maybe there's still some remnants of work online (I'll see if I can find any to add to this post). It slowly transitioned into the work I'm doing now as I used the old collaging techniques to make my first Pokémon art. I don't think I learned anything practical from art school that's helped with the art I make now, it's just been purely led by following my own interests and making what excites and motivates me. The Internet has endless help and resources for anyone willing to learn on their own.

As for pixel art, I seen some pixel art online and just instantly thought to myself "Wow, I want to make that!". So I briefly studied and researched and then jumped head first into it and just kept putting in the hours. Started small, using pixel apps on my phone etc and gradually upped the scale and complexity. I had another page called "Pixelad" for about 6 months before Silphwave, I'll add a few of those earlier images here too for comparison.

When something doesn't look right, whether it be colours, composition, texture, font etc it really offends my brain. There's some kind of OCD factor that compels me to fix what I'm looking at. Most of my art is rearranging and recolouring things until it no longer annoys me. Almost like some feng shui process, especially for the cluttered album cover type designs I make.

I always liked drawing things as a kid, we didn't have much money for toys, game consoles or Pokémon cards etc; so I'd make my own. I filled a notebook with my own Pokémon gameboy experience, I drew locations on every page and made teams for dozens of trainers and gym leaders I'd fight along the way and had extensive stat tallies for all my Pokémon that were constantly getting erased and updated. It was basically a one man D&D adventure 😅 I'd make my own Harry Potter wands and Witches and Wizard cards or LotR weapons and maps. This kind of lore expanding, creating fan art was pretty much ingrained in me from an early age. Maybe that's why the nostalgic theme is ever present through my art as that's essentially what I'm doing, reliving and continuing my childhood.

(Sorry for the long convoluted answer, I found it helpful for organising my thoughts. You've prompted me to think of some things I hadn't considered before, thank you)