#id been like 'no evil scientist

[aj-living-life]

Remembering how the first time I saw a body swap in a show I went right then and there "this would be great for those transgender people" and thinking my momma raised me right.

[roseverdict]

And today on the Rosie Overthinks Things Show:

I've already seen posts pointing out a few callbacks in Wanted- the Spin™, everything about Bit, and Victim's new gray color in accordance with how the fandom's depicted them up until now, mainly-

but I noticed a few other callbacks from the mercs. Or at the very least, they're callback-adjacent.

And while this wasn't a callback from AVA 6 to AVA 1, it does seem that Victim did something quite similar to Bit in the first video, and I vaguely recall hearing that quite a bit of inspiration for AVA came from this gif.

Hmm.

Interesting.

[nothingenoughao3]

Why we wanna transition to Mad Scientist (or, revulsion and queerness in horror)

(Hi, @ash-eats-film! This is the thing I mentioned!)

Horror has a few baseline emotions it tries to inflict on the audience. This has been written about for decades, most famously by Stephen King, but the baseline elements most writers agree on are as follows.

Dread: Anxiety over what is about to happen

Terror: The fear of what is occurring right this second

Revulsion: Being forced to interact directly with what's happening right now

Black comedy: Being tricked into laughing at either the terror or the revulsion

Horror: The trauma response to what just happened

A great example of this can be seen in The Evil Dead II (YT link that doesn't include the full context, but does have the, uh, money shot). There's the dread of realizing there's something in the root cellar; the terror of when the Deadite pops up in the trapdoor; the combined revulsion and black comedy of Ash jumping on the Deadite's skull/the door, popping out its eyeball which shoots into Bobby Joe's mouth, and then the horror of what just went down rolling over Ash and his current companions.

Often, revulsion and black comedy go hand in hand. That's because they're tension relievers. The revolting thing becomes ridiculous, and you laugh at how ridiculous it is. This lets you settle down in the midst of the gore and death, just slightly, just enough to get through it... so the horror can fully set in for you, too, once it's over.

You also, often, question your own stability if you laugh in the middle of a gross-out horror scene: "Am I sick? Is there something wrong with me for laughing at X?" This is even worse if the villain starts laughing--now you're questioning whether you're IDing with the monster. Are you okay? Is something wrong with you?

Revulsion is often framed as the slutty member of the good, proper, morally-upright brigade of horror. We have a name for folks who seek out gross-out horror--they're gore-hounds, a term that is virtually always pejorative when applied to other people. We call certain types of horror "torture porn" or "gore porn", as though it is inherently sleazy and sexual to rely on this specific emotional reaction. (Note that we don't have "black comedy-porn", or "dread hounds", even though a dread hound sounds really fucking cool.)

Not to go off on a huge tangent, but I think the issue with media that overly relies on revulsion is that it's unbalanced, not that it's bad. A movie that's nothing but dread never has any emotional payoff. A movie that's nothing but terror never lets the audience relax back into their seats and, paradoxically, will become boring (imagine two hours of jumpscares).

So forth and so on: all aspects of horror rely on each other to survive. That includes scenes that make you go "Awww, sick" while nervously cackling.

Here's the thing: in previous generations, revulsion was similarly understood to be an essential part of horror, but what led to a revolted reaction was very different.

Lovecraft (boo this man! BOOOOO) understood the power of revulsion, which was the source of a lot of his strangest and most vivid descriptions. It was also the source of some of his most bigoted ideas working into his stories. The undercurrent of "non-WASPs are evil because they are repulsive" is as pervasive in his work as "the universe is incomprehensibly vast". You kind of can't get around that.

But there's another thing Lovecraft did to generate revulsion. He wrote a number of stories where an unhealthy focus on corpses, graveyards, graverobbing, and the like is, indirectly or directly, associated with sexual perversion. 

How many, you may ask? Off the top of my head, there's "The Loved Dead", "In the Vault", "The Disinterment", "Pickman's Model", The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, "The Hound" and "Herbert West: Re-Animator". All of these tales share certain themes, which don't repeat beat-for-beat in each tale but do overlap:

Male character becomes obsessed with dead bodies--whether that's stealing them, having sex with them, desecrating them, or resurrecting them.

He is comfortable around death and the dead to a degree that is unusual, sometimes explicitly stating that he prefers the smells/sights of death to those of life.

Terms like "fiendish", "hellish", "abnormal" and "perverse" are used to describe him; his gaze towards dead bodies or to experiments may be framed as "leering" or "speculative".

He is frequently a twink; often described as being frail, if not noticeably beautiful; he may recall being mocked for being "bookish" or "weak" as a child.

He is superficially charming in a way that gets him by in polite society, but not long-term nor in-depth.

He often ensnares an otherwise "normal" man to share his obsessions, effectively recruiting him as an assistant... until the "normal" guy realizes he's about to go on the chopping block (or, in at least one story, already was on the chopping block).

Their crimes involve a lot of sneaking around late at night, locked doors, whispering so they don't get caught (or they'll be killed), secretiveness, glee at getting away with it, and frequently, sharing the same living space.

The Unrepentant Evil Dude is often killed at the end of his tale in a way that implies vigilante/mob justice is at hand. 

The other may be allowed to live if he's very sorry and frames the whole story as being the fault of the other guy, or he may die too while affirming his horrible demise as just, even if it terrifies him.

(One could make an argument that Wilbur Whateley fits into some of these tropes. It's me I'm one)

If this all sounds very gay, Lovecraft probably would have agreed. He had as dim a view of homosexuality as he did on most other things that were Outside The Norm. In other words, we were supposed to see Richard Upton Pickman with his ghouls and think, "Ah, yes, this is a metaphor for queerness", only we were supposed to be revolted by that revelation.

This same attempt at revulsion can be easily read into Victor Frankenstein, and probably more Mad Scientists than I can name offhand (but feel free to in reblogs). Frankenstein's "crimes against nature" were connected to dead bodies as well, and likewise involved a lot of sneaking around, locked doors, and worry about what would happen were he caught with this naked man-thing he's keeping in his dorm. His crime, as with his parody character Herbert West, is creating life outside the bounds of heterosexual cisgender sex. This was meant to revolt readers' sensibilities as much as the whole cutting-up-corpses-and-stitching-them-back-together thing would.

This is why, if we're being honest, "Re-Animator" and "Bride of Re-Animator" are not necessarily gay… they're homophobic. This might be controversial, but stick with me.

I feel like Gordon and Yuzna were tapping into that old-fashioned Revulsion Handbook, including from the source material, which thematically linked Herbert West with queerness. (I'm using "queer" a lot here, but I would personally include trans-friendly readings under that rubric; I'm using "queer" in the analytical sense and not solely in the identity sense.) This means that, ironically, a lot of what we could point to as queer subtext is actually homophobic text.

This is reinforced by the novelization of the first film, written by a homophobe who got Trumpist brainworms later in life. He wanted to make West repulsive to the reader, and therefore, he tried to make West more gay. And IT WORKED. 

To be clear, I'm not accusing anybody, other than the novelist, of being a homophobe. There's a difference between possessing internalized bigoted beliefs which express themselves in writing, versus utilizing tropes originating in bigotry because That's What's Done Around Here. (I can understand why others might not perceive a meaningful difference.) Like the Cuzco lizards, this queerness-as-villainy is definitely a stupid thing ported in from the source material.

I do think that this is why everybody but Our Queen Barbara Crampton seems embarrassed or nonplussed by all the transfags pestering them about fellatio tapes. It's because they don't get why this thing appeals so much to us. It shouldn't. If anything, they should be canceled for having yet another queer-coded villain, along with a number of other plot choices of questionable taste (I'm looking at you, The Head Scene, and I don't like what I see).

Only, uh, it didn't work out that way long-term, did it?

I thank Cronenberg and venereal horror for this, in part. Brutally queer despite not being explicitly gay, venereal horror is what happens when the characters should be revolted, but aren't. 

This kind of thing is horrifying for crossing the line twice: first by being disgusting, then by having characters respond as though it is exciting, or sexually stimulating, or if nothing else, normal. They are perverse. They leer at the dead and the subjects of their experiments. And the disgusting monsters at the center of these narratives are celebrated. Their twisted sexualities are explored with the same brave frankness other filmmakers give to milquetoast cishet missionary nonsense. Their political views are given life and air, and usually, they're right. Their deaths, if they come at all, are framed as tragedies brought on by society's sick rejection of the flesh their brave experimentation.

Cronenberg's the dude who unironically thinks that Shivers (trigger warning for literally everything) has a happy ending. My man David's got subscriptions where others have issues.

Venereal horror has given us a new metaframework for looking at the repulsive, the monstrous, and the problematic and responding to it… differently.

Now here's another thing: Lovecraft likewise provided a structure for embracing the grotesque and the queer.

Pickman, the Decadent artist, paints photorealistic, enormous portraits of ghouls. Literal flesh-eaters. He is fascinated by them, comfortable with them. "Model" heavily implies that Pickman is a ghoul changeling--switched at birth with a human child. This leans into Lovecraft's ideas about heritability being a major source of horror, of course, and seems run of the mill until you get to The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

In there, Pickman appears again, but this time as a ghoul. He has cast off his human social shackles and joined the beings he loves, beings who understand him and support him. Kadath is notable in that the ghouls are actually... like... reliable, loyal, and morally good? Carter's opinion pretty much is, "They do eat human corpses and they smell awful, but they're all very nice and want to help me on my quest, so maybe they're not so bad (if not as good as the cat army)".

This feels like Lovecraft acknowledging that his entire approach of linking queerness, death, and revulsion is fundamentally flawed. Once you become familiar with the repulsive, it becomes not-really-that-repulsive-at-all. You can find beauty in it, and amusement, and love. Pickman embracing his ghoulish nature isn't all that different from Seth Brundle's overall lack of revulsion at his body's transformation. And it's not that different from what a lot of transmasculine folks go through, either.

It's not that transmascs, trans men, and/or transfags don't see what West does as crimes against nature. It's that we're all very fucking tired of being accused of crimes against nature. We're tired of not being able to look at socmed without finding accusations that we're disgusting perverts who sneak around behind closed doors to corrupt innocent, promising people to be our lackeys and partners in crime.

Hell, I refer to my wife as "my partner in crime" not because it's a cute way of acknowledging how well and how much we work together both in life and creativity. It's also because we could have been arrested for our relationship when we got together.

We were illegal.

There was a lot of sneaking around and whispering and trying not to get caught and "what if they call the cops on us if we're clocked". Can I tell my friends about this? Will they reject me or rat me out? Where am I safe? Nowhere. Best to lock the door and then check it again to be sure. Best to be very quiet.

Best to act like a graverobber trying to get their grisly wares back home before good, decent, Christian folk see them.

So when I hear "Blasphemy? Before what God?!", I read it as (whether he's ace or aro, gay or achillean, trans man or transmasc or genderfucked) a queer slogan of defiance, instead of a defense of graverobbing, corpse desecration, and non-consensual resurrection.

We're told we and our bodies are repulsive, so being told that Herbert is also repulsive makes him more relatable. Instead of wondering what the hell's wrong with him for shooting up reagent, we all theorize that it's actually T or has similar effects--because we're all told that T is a toxin that will horribly change and disfigure our bodies. He dresses in a three-piece suit for school, and instead of reading him as a stiff and overly-formal little freak, we assume he's layering up because he hasn't found a hoodie he likes yet. 

He cackles at his horrific creations, and instead of saying "What a fucking freak (anguished)", we say "What a fucking freak (affectionate)" and laugh along with him. Who among us hasn't taken apart our Barbies and tried to combine their parts with the Kens? What is a doll, or a human, but a collection of parts to be rearranged? Haven't we also been told we're freaks for rearranging our own parts?

We've already been told by society at large that we are Herbert West. We're just embracing it, in the proud tradition of venereal horror fans who are not revolted when they ought to be, and I think that's delightful.

[labselkie]

head hurts and i’m unnecessarily stressing over a paper and a presentation so. unluckily for you guys y’all get three big texts posts today

how it feels to go into five tangents at once

i’m going to refer to my s/i as myself in this post sorry (this counts as the mutant au,, that’s technically the main skyliv canon now, spidersona is second canon shhh. also a the mutant she has a different job)

can i let liv be stereotypically evil for a little bit. can i sit on that metal chair and giggle and kick my feet while she monologues and infodumps for an hour. tell me all the things she’s planning on doing to spider-man.

can i just. pull up to the lab one day during her lunch break to find her still hunched over her desk. she perks up like usual,, it’s a sight id never get over, before bolting over and getting a tentacle tto pick me up by the scruff (back of the shirt) and drop me in the first chair she sees

it’s like she’s got it all ready, like she rehearsed for this rehearsal. i mean when she turns the monitor around she didn’t realize she had a folder of pictures we’ve taken together open but “OH WHOOPS! DONT LOOK AT THAT, ITS FINE” and she minimizes it to a folder called “evil plans”

can i let her get into it every now nd then? even if she gets too into it, idc if she calls me her lackey or sidekick before she bursts into laughter. idc if she tosses me her goggles to hold before deciding to slide them uncomfortably over my bangs to try them on. she’s lost a lot with her work, this is the most fun she gets nowadays

the computer files make it canon that she’s had friends. but if you’re an Octavius who’s been dead set on work, i don’t know if you’re canonically destined to keep those friends

i mean, in my au she’s barely started the collider, but she’s still busy. she’s got a much more involved role in everything else at alchemax. she has to oversee funding from fisk and sponsoring miles’s school. she feels the need to consistently redesign and tweak her technology. she wants it to be perfect, she wants it to be seen

but after a bit, maybe i can help her learn that not everyone has to see her. i need to learn the same thing, but a couple people, maybe even one, can be enough

i show off liv being a “mad scientist” too much. maybe she hasn’t been consumed by her work, maybe she’s got a perfectly fine social life. if that ends up being canon for whatever reason, i’m sorry. i don’t want to take that away from her

but she’s an Octavius. like every Spider is cursed by the universe, so many with that last name must be cursed too. same with the Osborns, and the Staceys, and so many more.

But when a mutant so out of the norm just shows up at your lab one day, maybe this universe is special

[madscientistotd]

a disclaimer!

this account is 100% human run by one guy (me!). I do all the research myself, schedule the posts, find the images and sometimes this information is hard to find. id like to add a disclaimer that its very likely that I'll be wrong about your submissions if I'm unfamiliar with the source. some wiki pages have such little information that I don't know what to say and some have so much that it'd take forever to read through it all. there's also not a great deal of images for some more obscure characters. I do not have the means to do hours of research just for one post, so there's a likelihood I will put your submission on hold until I can find enough info. to help make this easier, I ask that you please provide me with sources of information for less popular and / or more in-depth characters. sources with years of complex lore (evillious chronicles, resident evil etc) end up with generally quite vague descriptions because there's so much information I don't know what to do with it. others (hellaween, malviolence) don't even have wiki pages that I can skim. a good portion of the sources don't have image galleries readily available and there have been instances where I've accidentally used fanart or had to settle for super low quality images. so, if there is no readily available image source, please provide (preferably 3) images in your submission or let me know where I can find them! I want to be able to share your favourite scientists with everyone and I cannot do that without information!! it also helps if you tell me what category they fit under (see pinned).

I also apologize for any scheduling issues. there have been multiple times lately where there are no posts because I didn't have the time to do research and didn't have a post for the day. that's the case for today, but I've scheduled one for this afternoon.

thank you, -MSOTD :-)

[luca-armed-and-neurodivergent]

Haha oh boy two Limbus text posts with moderate but not negative reception and I’m already going into controversial territory

My picks for distortion detective ids :) … oh boy I’m gonna be put in the singing machine for there but THEY ALL HAVE REASONINGS YOUR HONOUR

Let’s just start with the easy ones

Ezra and Dias : Ezra don/Dias Faust … do I need to explain these ? Well Ezra is very energetic and a big fan of Workshops just like don but exchange workshops with fixers. And Faust and Dias just click … ya dig ?

The one where there isn’t an obvious choice but which will need an explanation

YuRia I believe should be ryoshu, her „interest“ in psychomends mirrors ryoshus „interest“ in „art“ her personality also fits onto ryoshu more than other options (yi sang because smart and an inventor… and that’s about it Faust is already given to dias)

Oh boy this is gonna have people look at me weird

Vespa crabro: now meursault is the obvious pick and one I’d agree with, one small issue tho… I believe SINCLAIR is a better pick in all honesty. Why ? Let’s start superficial, young and a powerhouse (especially when they experience strong emotions).and for the more story aspects. They were forced out of a rather good position in life without any choice. Vespa losing his job and Sinclair losing his family and they both have a bad history with an evil group (we don’t know if Vespa was traumatized by the thumb like Nagel und Hammer traumatized Sinclair but it’s clear he holds distain for the syndicate)

And now for the grand finale the thing I might get hate for

Moses

And no it is NOT outis … stop booing me I’m right „but old woman“ „but smoke war“ well guess what. The person I’m thinking off neutralizes both points and yes ITS GREGOR first the superficial points… Gregor is old too bro is 35 he’s already standing with two feet in his grave and yeah smoke war and stuff… also both Gregor and Moses are missing an arm and they both smoke… now for the story THE BIG THING why I believe Gregor is a better pick. It’s because they resemble each other. Just on different sides of the war. Both were essentially brainwashed by a powerful entity on their side of the war. Hermann the head scientist of g Corp and Dias the cult leader of the Udjat. Both also were the favorite underling of said powerful figure and both Moses and Gregor were put into a leadership position Gregor being the mascot and war hero of g Corp, Moses the captain of the udjat and both now have major ptsd from the war also holding distain for their respective brainwasher. And let’s not forget both have been on record for turning into a creature when in emotional distress

Or in short: Ezra/don Dias/Faust YuRia/ryoshu Vespa/Sinclair Moses/Gregor

[ironspine]

I think the most depressing thing is that we shouldn't have to be afraid of AI.

AI, on it's own, is actually pretty cool. And we CAN and SHOULD have been able to have it without risking all these terrible versions of the future you see in clickbait youtube videos. AI should have been this interesting philosophical problem, that encouraged a wave of books about the ethics of sentience and robot labor. AI should have been the cause of celebrations, because maybe it will end up being useful for jobs that humans can't do well.

AI isn't really likely to turn evil and destroy the world. Yeah, that's definitely something to consider, but we aren't in a place where we have to worry about that yet.

AI face detection isn't inevitably evil, it's just almost inevitably going to be used in evil ways. In 20 years or so when corporations use their cameras to track your every move so they can market to you, that's going to be because corporations are awful and the government is not adapting well to regulating the internet. In some alternate world, AI face detection could be an innovative new way to use ID, one that cant be falsified or lost.

AI shuffling through the internet like an omnipresent spider isn't inherently bad. What's bad is that it uses what it finds to make dumb, unethical art, because that's where the money is. But in another world, AI's ability to analyze data could be used by scientists to find patterns in society and point to areas that need to be researched. It could also be used to evaluate sources, and disclose biases/conflicts of interests. Some schools are using it to detect plagiarism even now.

AI being able to do work that previously required humans shouldn't be scary. We should be excitedly welcoming in an era where humans no longer have to work to survive. We should be having televised councils of people debating ideas for how to restructure society when having a job is no longer required.

And AI's water consumption shouldn't have been a problem, because the people in charge should have massively scaled back once they realized the cost. They should have put AI on hold immediately, and started researching ways to either compensate for the water loss, or to reqiure less.

AI is not the problem. It is a tool, and as such, morally neutral. The ways it is being used are the problem. The people who are controlling it are the problem. If your society is structured so that the people in power cannot be held accountable, then every new tool, every innovation, only magnifies and expands their power. But if your society is structured where quality of life and ethics are valued highest, those tools become amazing, wonderful things. They become gifts, from humanity to humanity, that expand our ability to live good lives and take care of our environment.

We don't have to fight the future, we have to fight for the future.

[paingoes]

Hi! I just started reading your destroyer story and I really liked it. Was the academy a training ground or an experimental place or both? The way that it was talked about as weeding out the good kids made me wonder what it would be like to actually live there

oh what an exciting ask. both is correct! i want to describe it as a kind of evil X-Mansion situation. it was legally filed as a boarding school for tax reasons but the main purpose is for psychic training and experimentation.

they do technically hold classes. the vibe of the school environment is like if there was standardized testing at school every single day (you need to focus, the stakes have never been higher, be quiet, focus on the test). however as you can imagine being exposed to this every day causes a lot of the kids to get desensitized to the high security environment and still find ways to act like kids in spite of it. its their only opportunity to really socialize with other children and some of them are able to take advantage of it in subtle ways.

any time not spent in "class" is spent with research/training of psychic abilities. this takes up the majority of the day. these can be 1-on-1 or in groups depending on how specific or dangerous the test is. this is where a lot of the MK Ultra type shit happens its where the kids learn to blow stuff up with their mind and the researchers get to see how they react in different combat situations.

the facility also has a LOT of doctors and scientists on staff to experiment w different drug cocktails and procedures to see what works and what doesn't. they're able to really juice some of the kids abilities in this way and eventually permanently modify them to get more consistently high results. (this is what happened to delta. he'd never be able to produce the levels he does if he wasnt altered.)

one of the weird things w the institute and one of the reasons it doesnt really "work" in-universe (the whole project is generally considered a failure by Empire) is because there are kids there of a lot of different age ranges and ability and many of them were ENROLLED at different ages. there's a huge disparity between the kids who were basically born into the program the way delta was and the kids who showed up when they were like ten or eleven and already had personalities.

i actually think one way to describe it if there was more levity to their circumstances, the institute would be a really good generic evil setting for some kind of tween fantasy series. imagine some older kids getting enrolled into the program and learning to rebel and form alliances with each other to plan a daring escape!!! and they are teenage psychics and best friends!!! i think this is what maximum ride is about i guess it has potential to be a kind of maximum ride situation... i never read that book though so i dont know.

anyway as it is i havent really written about the Institute simply because im kind of adverse to in-depth depictions of severe child abuse! because it was a very very abusive environment for the students, bonding was discouraged, all of them were repeatedly told they were only as valuable as their powers were strong and it was designed to groom them for a lifetime of accepting abuse and dehumanization.

so i dont really want to get heavily into whump w/ child characters because its not to my taste but tbh i might make a backstory chapter at some point because it is fairly important! its just depressing honestly id have to psych myself up to write it.

thanks for the ask! <3

[celestialrosesgarden]

[SPIDER-MAN X READER] Silk Threads 1.5k words

Chapter Three: Mouse Trap

   For any university student, Fridays were a blessing. A day to relax or catch up on work, not to mention recovering from going out the night before. Well, this was true for most university students. The girl, however, was not blessed with this freedom. Her Friday would have to consist of her pathology class and long hours in research. It could be much worse. She could be stuck in research with a professor other than Dr. Gravitz.

   She peered over her laptop screen to see said professor lecturing. Her fingers tapped away at the keys jotting down simplified notes of his ramblings. She kept her eyes on her screen even as her friend Lori leaned over to whisper a hushed, "I can't believe it's the first day of class and he's going to lecture for the full two and a half hours."

   "You know how Dr. Gravitz is, Lori. He wants to get the most out of every class," she laughed. "I bet he's going to let us go ten minutes early to make it seem like he's doing us a favor." She took note of the time: 12:45 P.M. The class ended at one which meant that in five minutes they would be out. She switched out of her document with her notes to instead play her daily Daily Bugle games.

   "Alright, I think we'll wrap it up there." 12:50 P.M. Exactly as she had predicted. She packed her things away, waving a quick goodbye to Lori before making her way to the professor's desk.

   "Ah, good afternoon! How are you doing today?" Dr. Gravitz asked, also packing away his things.

   "I'm alright, how are you?" She responded.

   "I'm doing quite alright. I do, however, have some questions for you but I'll ask you once we get to the labs." He grabbed his bag and made his way to the door. He held it open for her, letting her pass before him causing a small 'thank you' to leave her lips.

   As they made their way down to the basement where the labs were they exchanged words on the lectures from the previous day as well as today. Dr. Gravitz was one to always listen to others' opinions on his teachings. In his words, ‘a true scientist must know others' views in order to form their own and perfect their knowledge.' Or something like that.

   Once they made it to the lab door he swiped his ID card letting them enter. The girl tied her hair back, before entering a different room where all the mice were located. Grabbing one of the carts, she moved it into the experimentation room and began to prepare. She let Dr. Gravitz grab the other cart as she opened her laptop to make documents with the data that would result from today.

   "What questions did you have to ask me?" Ever since he had mentioned it in the classroom the words had been eating away at her. She watched as she smiled at himself, an amused glint in his eyes. He was always up to something. Always scheming. As much as she loved him she sometimes hated him.

   "I just wanted to see how you felt about being partnered up with Peter Parker," he responded.

   Of course, that's what this was about. He had set this all up as some kind of joke. A scientist's 'evil' plan and she fell right into it. Just like a mouse trap.

   "First off, that's not really a question," he interrupted her to laugh. "Second, I don't have much of an opinion. I don't know the kid, never heard about him until yesterday. He's a complete stranger to me."

   She grabbed one of the cages off of the cart, placing it on the table. "I'm not too surprised by that," he started. "That boy is very quiet and doesn't talk much. I'm not too sure if he's close to any other science student." She reached past him to grab the makeshift weights, three chain links dangling from a piece of fine wire mesh.

   "I don't understand; if he's so quiet, why partner him up with me? You know I don't talk to the other students. What if we wind up just not talking to each other the entire semester?" She questioned.

   "You talk to me just fine. You can't do that with Parker?" He countered.

   "That's different," she argued back. "You're an adult. I've always gotten along better with people older than me, ever since I was young. I don't do well with guys the same age as me, and definitely not in this field."

   "Parker is two years older than you, so you should be just fine!" She jokingly rolled her eyes as he plucked the mouse by its tail from its cage. He let the mouse hold onto the mesh wire before rising into the air. After three seconds passed, he removed the weight and put the mouse back into the cage. She marked down in her chart '#1: 3 links - Passed."

   "Still—" she grabbed the next cage— "I was slightly annoyed at you." She ignored the fake gasp that he let out. "I thought you were setting me up. Three girls in the entire class and you put the other two of them together. But not me. I'm stuck with some random guy that I have no idea about."

   He grasped the tail of mouse #2: "That's the whole point. I assign partners so that everyone meets new people. I do it based on who I think would work best together." Mouse #2 passes with three chain links, and he is placed back into his cage. "If you're so desperate to know something about the boy I can tell you what I know about him: from my own experiences and what others tell me." The girl quickly nods, overly eager to hear anything about Peter. He smirks to himself, this action is missed by the girl as she grabs the third cage. "Peter is extremely intelligent. Truly brilliant. However, he's lazy."

   "So is that what this is? It's my responsibility to make him try. I need to change him?" She scoffed.

   "Absolutely not. I simply put two of the smartest students with the most potential together. It's up to you what you do with that. Besides, that boy has been doing better. The entire physics department sings his praises, as does Dr. Connors and Norman Osborn."

   Her head snapped from watching the mouse on the weight to him. "Norman Osborn?! The Norman Osborn? Oscorp Norman Osborn?"

   He laughed, placing the mouse into the cage. "Precisely," he stated matter of factly. He reached out for the next cage which she put down. "Parker is friends with Norman Osborn's boy."

   Harry Osborn. She knew that he had gone to Empire State He was notoriously known on campus: Harry Osborn kept the party scene alive at ESU. Last year her friends used to beg her at least once a week to go to one of Harry's ragers. She always said no, too busy with work and studying to even amuse the idea. Besides, Harry was known as a playboy and she didn't want to deal with him or his other lowlife friends. What did that say about Peter if he can be friends with someone as carefree and shallow as Harry Osborn? She didn't want to judge him before getting to know him, but the more Dr. Gravitz went on about him the more she couldn't help to jump to conclusions.

   Acknowledging her silence, Dr. Gravitz decided to defend Peter. "He's a good kid. Truly, I just think he's too brilliant. He doesn't know what to do with it. But he's getting there." She looked back at him, nodding at him signaling for him to continue. "He helps out at Oscorp on an internship. He also does research with Dr. Connors– on cross-species genetics. He has a lot of potential. I'm not too sure if he's aware of that though."

   The girl looked away from his piercing glare, grabbing the next mouse out of its cage. She held him by his tail, watching the way that it instantly curled up to grab onto her hand. She maneuvered her hand so that her palm was open and faced up—still with a tight grip on its tail— and felt his tiny paws clamor to sit in her palm. He nuzzled into her thumb, squeezing himself into a tight ball. Her other hand raised and with her index finger pointed out ran it gently against the mouse's soft white coat. His red eyes closed slightly and his body relaxed.

   Dr. Gravitz watched on before deciding to speak once more. "Sometimes I forget what it's like. To be nineteen and think I know everything about how the world works. All while simply being a child. You need to broaden your horizons and open your mind to the unknown. Like all good scientists do."

   Knowing he had her beat, she kept her mouth shut. Her full attention was on the mouse now sleeping in her palm but his words had resonated with her. However, Dr. Gravitz was always one to get the last word.

   "I should know, I'm a doctor. I know everything."

[goldenageofwireless]

wait can u give me a quick rundown of ur ocs… so i can ask questions abt them 👀

yes ofc !!!! OK SO. My guy that im like hyperfixated on right now is Emil, he's a mad scientist guy and he SUCKS. basically he's just always been a pain in the ass since he was born and never really made an effort to be a better person. Also he's really fucking smart. He ends up getting really famous and wealthy cuz he invented something really cool (still hammering out deets on this, i like the idea of some kinda neural implant or advanced surveillance tech tho). He enjoys living in luxury but hates the constant attention, so one day he decides to abandon it all and isolate himself in his lab in rural Louisiana. He stays in isolation for like 5 or so years and gets soooo depressed. and keeps thinking gay thoughts about his former lab partner .... (i'll get to them in a bit) he just kinda ignores All That and keeps working. Until his lab partner shows up at his door and is like DUDE YOUR INVENTION CAUSED THE END OF THE FUCKING WORLD. and then they go on a lil road trip together to stop the Big Bad and Emil learns to stop sucking so much and take accountability for his actions :3 also heres a doodle i did of him recently <3

[ID: a digital drawing of op's character, Emil, visible from the waist up. Emil is a fat, white man with messy orange hair. He is wearing a white, short-sleeved lab coat, black gloves, and a purple button-up shirt. The shirt is unbuttoned a bit, and his cleavage is visible. He has green goggles on his head, and he's wearing colored contact lenses. His left eye is green, and his right is purple. He's frowning and glancing to the right/end ID] so Sahir !! They were Emil's lab partner in grad school. They're a botanical psychologist (some shit i made up, they're researching the cognitive abilities of plants). They've always been the quiet, out of the way, people-pleaser type. Emil kept them around bc they just went along with whatever he did. ANYWAY they always kinda had a crush on Emil and even when he ditched them when he got famous, they didn't stop thinking of him </3 So when shit goes down bc of his big fuckup they go find him and basically don't leave him alone until he gets off his ass and fixes it. They're still not really comfortable with standing up to him, so they just keep letting him be a dick to them until they just. have enough and totally snap. and that's kinda the inciting incident that makes Emil realize how much of a dick he is and why thats Bad actually. So Sahir's whole personal journey is basically unlearning their people-pleaser mentality and gaining confidence in themself <3 SO theyre the only two that really have a solid storyline at this point, i have a few misc guys ill drop tho :) ok so first up there's Mal (short for Malpractice Lawsuit), she's basically liiiike if u took the concept of capitalistic greed and made it into a lesbian robot <3 shes evil and she sucks and shes sooo hot and i wanna write her into emil and sahir's storyline but im not sure how atm !! but perhaps i will figure it out eventually !! and theres Marvin, he's a lil guy robot and my fav oc :3 he's just small and silly and also a genius who does Epic Cool Hacking Stuff but hes also an 8 year old who eats dirt then theres Hugo and Vicki, theyre cool and gay :) Hugo is the most anxious man alive (also hes from boston) and Vicki is a demon who just decided that xey like him and they hang out. not much story there they just kiss each other a lot

so yah !!! thats my guys !!!

[nightcolorz]

Imagine ur a 18th century country boy from a very Catholic French village and an abusive family that stifles ur identity and self worth, and imagine u get ur first taste of freedom and happiness when u run off to the city to be an actor. Imagine how happy u r getting to explore urself and Imagine the joy when ur embraced for it. Imagine u only get a glimpse of that life until ur kidnapped in the night by a devil who fundamentally alters ur body and ur appearance to the point where ur reflection in the mirror is unrecognizable. Imagine ur given no explanation or understanding beyond "you are a predator who has to take human life now." You're like, "what unforgivable sin did I commit to deserve this" from ur perspective there is smth so cosmically wrong with u that u have been eternally fated to live an existence of ultimate evil until gods light strikes u down. So imagine u spend decades and decades trying to justify this reality to urself, trying to live with yourself and accept yourself as smth that u can only perceive as inherently evil. Then imagine at one of your lowest points someone with ur same ailment approaches u and explains that he's a scientist who studies ur kind. Imagine how mind blowing it would be when he speaks of u not as smth removed from what is natural entirely, but as a biological organism. Suddenly ur not an agent of the devil, but a being that functions as part of the natural world. U don't kill and drink blood because ur smth evil, you do bcus its where ur body gains its energy. And then imagine said scientist says hey btw, if u don't mind, to help me further my research id rlly appreciate some samples of ur DNA. I've found ways to alter the changes in our bodies temporarily also so that u can experience sensations u haven't since u were transformed, if ur interested. Girl I'd give him my sperm too tf.

[glitchywriter]

No title yet (comment suggestions?) Chapter 1

Leon Kennedy/Reader

Established Relationshipp

Word count: 2k

Warnings: Blood mention, slight violence but not in crazy detail.

A/N: first time writing for resident evil so I’m still new to the franchise and lore. But also it’s fiction so I’m not super stressed about keeping it too accurate :p regardless I hope you guys like this!

———————

The mission was supposed to be easy. Nothing you haven’t done before.

Your team was tasked with infiltrating the nearby AquaLife laboratory to see if they had any information about Umbrella's next attack, or if they were even working together at all.

You were personally tasked with sneaking in undercover, the guise of a new scientist sent from a partner laboratory in the next city over, eager to learn anything you can about the future of Biotechnology.

You’ve been visiting for about a week, finding out the layout of the building and gathering any paperwork you could slip by without anyone questioning why certain receipts were going missing. All the while slowly gaining the trust of the head lab technician, Dr Stevens.

He shows your group around on your first day, and explains how AquaLife specializes in the genetic mutation of marine life, and how that can be implemented to further the future for “BioMedicine”

(A telltale sign that regardless of Umbrella’s influence, nothing good can come out of whatever they’re working on.)

You get shown your desk, next to a kind woman named Jane who gifts you a stack of cat-shaped unused sticky notes, and you get the feeling at a surface level that the people who work above ground have no clue what secrets lie beneath their feet.

Before entering the laboratory and starting the mission, Hunnigan ran you through the rough blueprints she could find of the somehow mysteriously secret building. Not much could be seen, besides the fact that there’s stairwells throughout the building that seem to lead nowhere.

You caught a glimpse of one on your tour, a base idea of their locations in your mind as you stared at the blueprints for hours back at base.

The door leading up to it seemed to be locked, with a screen next to it (a keypad?) and a small red light attached. Dr Stevens noticed your sights trained on the door, and smoothly reassured the group that it was just ‘an archives room in the basement’, before quickly moving on to the next room. You have to admit, he knows how to talk his way through situations.

A week into your supposed month-long mission, your coworker and friend Claire was the next addition to AquaLife, given the role of an intern and receptionist for the company. Dr Stevens bought it quickly, her fake ID and bubbly personality selling the role well; giving her instant access to the company’s computer, and by default, their servers.

The plan was easy. The plan was going smoothly. Until it wasn’t

Two weeks into your mission, you slipped up.

You managed to grab a keycard off a higher officials desk, slipping it into your coat pocket after ‘accidentally’ tripping and spilling your coffee on his desk and paperwork. You apologized profusely, shed a tear or two for forgiveness, and walked away towards the stairwell as quickly as you could.

You weren’t supposed to gain access to the basement this early into the mission, the plan was to wait until the month was up and then you’d break into Dr Stevens office, while Clarie would bypass the basement security code and let Chris in from the sewers.

But you saw an opportunity to get a headstart and took it. You could easily slip downstairs, see what’s they’re hiding, and slip back to your desk before anyone notices. Claire could use this information to give Chris a better chance of gaining access to what they needed quickly.

So now you slip the keycard out of your pocket, look both ways, before scanning it against the screen next to the door. You hold your breath as the light goes from red to green, and you hear an audible click of the lock coming unlatched.

You let out a small cheer, before sliding through a small gap in the door and slowly taking the stairs down. An eerie darkness fills the empty corridor with only one LED lightbulb to light it as it flickers in and out, and the faint noise of a water pipe dripping somewhere in the area. The stairs lead to a long hallway, and at the end of that another set of doors that, luckily, the keycard unlocks.

The first thing you notice when entering the room is the smell. A mix of rotten seawater, like a beach during red tide, and something almost earthy that you can’t quite place. The room is spotless regardless, and luckily empty.

Two new doors on each side of the room, and on the back wall a line of desks and multiple security screens showing the upstairs offices. You see Jane on her lunch break in the break room, and Robert from IT slipping into another door with a box of wires spilling out of it. Lastly you see Claire. She’s currently gracefully weaving in and out of offices, and to the untrained eye it just looks like she’s doing busy work, but you know by the way she checks her shoulders that she’s definitely working on something for the overall mission.

Looking down at the actual desk you immediately read and grab a few loose papers, what seem to be logs of recient transactions between AquaLife and a mysterious bank number. More money than you can describe going back and forth between the two.

As you’re reading through the papers, you’re startled by a sudden and loud BANG from behind the door to your left, followed by glass shattering, and water running.

Quickly grabbing your gun out of the waistline of your jeans, you slowly walk towards the door before looking through the small plexiglass window in the middle of it.

On the floor is a shark, no, a man?

His skin color is gray, and scales line his arms and legs. His head mimics one of a hammerhead, while keeping the eery placement of human eyes and a human mouth filled to the brim of sharp teeth that coat with blood as he screams and gargles on the floor surrounded by glass

Behind him is a large tank that was seemingly filled with water a few minutes ago, but is now spilling out and slowly flooding the floor before disappearing into a drain before it can reach the door you're currently behind.

It’s a terrifying sight. The man (if you can even call him that anymore) is obviously in pain, and standing above the tank is a man wearing a lab coat and holding a long pole with a spearhead covered in blood at the end of it, slightly sparking with electricity. He’s smiling as he walks over to the creature on the floor, and stabs it multiple times in the chest before it stops moving and the screams suddenly stop.

The man pulls a recording device out of his pocket, bloody hands click a button and speaks “Experiment-502 showed sudden signs of hesitation and pain when faced with exterminating other targets. I have disposed of Experiment 502 to keep the bloodline pure and without faults. Sadly we lost another tank in the process that will have to be replaced. I’ll continue my work elsewhere, and hopefully Experiment-503 doesn’t show the same signs and set our plans back any further”

He then turns, and you duck just in time for him to miss the eye contact you’d make otherwise, before you hear another door open then slide shut.

Letting out a breath, you quickly take a photo of the dead creature, and the broken tank with it. You can only guess how truly strong it was to break glass of that thickness.

You then stand and go to leave the room, having seen enough evidence to hopefully leave this mission early to plan a bigger attack and take the laboratory down before they even suspect it.

You also hope that what you’ve gathered is enough to keep Chris off your case about not sticking to the plan.

Walking up to the metal door in which you came, you try to slide the keycard through, before realizing there’s no handle, and no card slot. There’s no way to leave the same way you entered.

Okay, small hiccup.

You take a deep breath, before looking around the room a second time, and realize you’ll have to find another way out of the basement. If they’re all leaving through a different door then there must be another way out. Recalling the blueprints, there’s definitely another set of stairs somewhere.

Worst case scenario, the drains have to lead somewhere if that was their entrance plan.

Despite all of that, you’ll need to let someone know what’s happened, Claire was busy sneaking into one of the other file rooms, and a ringtone would definitely give away that cover

That leaves you with two other people. And one of them you rather not stress right away.

You slowly pick your phone out of your pocket, dreading the call you’re going to have to make, and press the green button

The phone answers with a click, and you hear a deep voice answer with a quick “Y/N?” before you speak.

“Chris, I’m..in a bit of a situation“ You say quietly, and you hear shuffling on the other side before the voice gets closer to the microphone.

“What kind of situation? Where are you?” He sounds stressed already, and you know that this isn’t helping.

“I know we weren’t supposed to enter the basement this early..but! I found a keycard and I figured that if I could get even some information early it would help you next week…which, before you get mad, I did find some useful stuff” Your explanation is rushed and slightly panicked, and you hear more shuffling before he repeats your name much more annoyed this time.

“You did what? We had a plan, you're supposed to always follow the plan.” He says sternly, something you’ve heard him repeat in the past. Sighing he continues “What happened that made you call me”

“I’m.. stuck?” It comes out as a question, because technically you can get out. Just not as quickly as before. And you don’t know how yet…. You don’t have to go into that much detail with him.

“The door I came through is locked behind me, and I can’t open it to get back up. I think I’m going to have to make my way through the basement to find the exit”

“Why didn’t you call Claire?! Or ask her to go with you?” He said, frustrated. “Actually, it doesn’t matter. It’s fine. We’ll come help you. We don’t have any idea what’s down there and I don’t really want you, or Claire, finding out alone” you hear the sound of clicking and metal in the background, loading a gun and suiting up.

“Yeah,,I already found out what’s down here and you’re not going to like it” You say, looking towards the door hiding the creature on the floor. “They’re turning people into..sharks I think? I haven’t seen enough yet but whatever it is, it’s not pretty.”

Then it fully sets in what he said to you

“Wait. We?” You ask, already knowing the answer, quickly turning around and pacing the room as you listen.

“You know I’m going to have to tell him. And he’s not going to be happy. I can’t keep this from him” Chris responds, and suddenly your fear of being stuck in the basement is overtaken.

“Nonono, listen I’ll be fine. I can make it through on my own, just please don’t tell him. I only wanted to inform someone I’m down here, and Hunnigans out of town. Claire can’t exactly help from her position either” You start to say “You can totally bring someone else for backup if you have to! It’ll be fine. He doesn’t have to know” last ditch effort

“I have to tell him.” Chris starts “He’ll have my head if I don’t tell him that his wife is currently locked in an underground facility with no backup, no floor plan, and no clue what’s hiding down there.” He’s mad, and you know your fate is sealed. “Plus. Everyone else is out on missions and I need a second hand, which I would’ve had Diego to help if you hadn't gone in early!”

He’s got you there.

“Can I bribe you not to tell him?” You slightly plead, knowing his answer before he has to respond.

“Not a chance. Call Claire and don’t move. We’re on our way.” And then the phone clicks

————-

[obscuredilfoff]

Propaganda below the cut!

Solomon "Doc" Saturday

He's buff. He's a scientist. He cares about animals and the environment. He loves his wife, his son, and the three Literal Cryptids that they've adopted. He went blind in one eye protecting his son. His son turns out to be the reincarnation of an evil god and he's like "Okay. He's still my son and I still love him. We just have to get the evil god out of him." He's snarky. He's trying to corral his wife away from doing insane shit, except for the rare occasions where he's the one doing insane shit. He and his wife have an ongoing science vs mysticism debate that affects every mission they go on.

Uncle Jim

he got bankrupted by his ex boyfriend's parents (ex died and the bank account was in the name of the ex) and had to build his life up from scratch. hes raising his 17 year old nephew for atleast 7 years because his sister did want to be a parent. he has bills to pay but can barely make ends meet. hes the sweetest man on the planet. he famously said 'why do you have to be gay? is it not enough to be poor?' while pursuing a guy he has a one night stand with (its famous because HES gay, hes had to fight his mildly homophobic sister about it and is estranged from her - while raising her child at her request) he nearly got punched by a pretty boy loser of a banker guy (ex bf of one night stand guy). one person is introduced as someone with a long time crush on jim and he turns him down by calling him a Good Kid. the actor for this character is 29 so its a fandom belief that hes probably at most 32 and Dramatique TM. he has so much game. the end scene of the show is him pulling one night stand by his id card, whispering dirty things in his ears and then BITING the lobe. mostest tierdest gay of the neighbourhood, we love uncle jim (additional info with no joke whatsoever because that would be soooo rude and inappropriate - jim in thai slang means pussy, which is the name of this gay elder who everyone in 1km radius wants to fuck. do what you will with this addition)

He's got two young twinks fighting over him. Is like in his late 30s but acts like he's way older. Tells one of the guys who has been in love with him for years that he's a good kid. Dick so good that he got a guy to work for him for free for like a year before he finally acknowledged that they could potentially get together (they only fucked once at the very start). Tells his gay nephew that lives with him that he shouldn't be gay since he's already poor.

[telephonetrance]

ohh the themed ask post is so cute.. lemme kick these over i bet u have rly good opinions on these

Would you rather be hypnotized by a vampire, enchanted by a witch, or possessed by a demon?

Would you rather have a mad scientist or a mad sorceress experiment on you?

happy october! i hope its been good for you so far :)

AW THANK YOUUU i have been good but october has been going by so fast !! hope you have been doing well too :]

[questions are from this ask game!]

THESE ARE HARD bc ideally i love all of them but i have to pick one so .

for the first one, probably enchanted by a witch .. oh to be turned into a witch’s familiar or puppeted around like a doll ……. plus i’ve been reading the vn umineko so i have immediate connotations w witches

possessed by a demon would probably be second place for me i think id enjoy getting used as a vessel for evil purposes . and tbh im not the BIGGEST fan of vampires but im not against them

for the second one, i’ve GOTTA say mad scientist !! i’m just very normal abt being experimented on for scientific purposes, clinically or playfully or obsessively fascinated .. plus it fits w the robot thing

[wheelbarrowofstagefourcancer]

Wow you know a lot about sesame street!

(Does mun wanna talk about their favorite muppets?)

Yeah, I’ll hand it over to mun.

Thanksssss tho sesame street and the muppets are separate kinda THO muppets from the muppets have been on sesame street

AND YEAH ID LOVE TO

so animals like normally my top fave coz he plays the drums and hes in the band and he’s so so cool and he screams a lot which is so me

kermit and miss piggy are my FAVSSS and i love them and they’re such a cute couple and kermit is so funny and sweet and frogs are also just really cool and miss piggy is so amazing like she’s if barbie was cooler and sassy and actually lived her life in a really fun way!

also they’re so cool that they’ve both had evil counterparts like Kermit had constantine and miss piggy had… i can’t remember her name but she was evil miss piggy who is different to the pig who kermit dated for a short stint in one of the shows

OOOOO AND BEAKER I LOVE BEAKER SO MUCH and he’s autistic coded to me so like ngl i kin beaker and he’s really cool because he almost dies like every time he’s on screen and also him and the scientist who i can’t remember the name of for the life are so gay

AND ALSO THE GUY FROM THE MUPPET MOVIE AHHH I SUCK AT NAMES BUT I LOVE HIM SO MUCH AND MAN OR MUPPET WAS SUCH A GOOD SONG

[a-narcissists-warren]

ok so a bunch of stuff happened while i was asleep (lore always happens when i go to bed wtf, must be a timezone diff) and i just spent the past 30 minutes scrolling thru all of it SO

Alfonso (hope i can call u by ur name) ur fridge got destroyed by Evil Anon and we currently dont have it back yet, u can draw an exact replica of it back but u CANT bring back all of the things in it or on it back soooo

i brought all the silly things u put on the fridge back! we also all currently know that Funny Anon is a child and is calmed by sweets and ik u can draw some but then again- so i just brought some handmade sweets myself too.... think of it as a 2nd batch for when the ones u bought run out!.. if they havent run out alr

and while 🍬💥 Anon seems to do harmful experiments which made Funny Anon scared of em... im just trying to see if there's anything ELSE that could keep Funny Anon docile, and id prob just apologize if i hurt Funny Anon in any way and try n make up for it!

also i think a lot of anons need therapy.... me included bcuz i realized ive been WAY too desensitized by all this gore and lore it just doesnt faze me and thatS NOT GOOD

srry for rambling btw..... i just get rlly excited whenever lore comes up, plus the fact ive always been asleep when lore happens and can never rlly be apart of it

-💜💣

of course you can call me by my name! a lot of you forget it doesn't include the L,, i don't really mind it tho.

It's Afonso without the L cuz I'm not a Loser,, hehe!

thank you by the way! you can place the sweets by their bed.. I know you and the little scientist anon are friends, so can you keep an eye on him to not provoke the funny guy? If their first death isn't enough to remember... yeesh.

Don't worry about rambling! i enjoy these long asks, it's like listening to a podcast! ^_^