#like not only are these people ghouls who are going to fuck you over they’re not even hot or talented? Like have some self respect

[kittykatninja321]

what is it with people (liberals usually for some reason??) and weird Freudian projections onto politicians? “We need this politician to be like a mother/father to the country” no we don’t

[kurosagi-h8r]

Tkdb ghouls — boobs, ass, personality, or something else pt 2

what is it called when you need to step away from your device whenever you write two sentences about Haku to keep yourself SANE. It's a disease at this point and it keeps happening when i write haku brainrot istg GET OUT OF MY HEAD *SHAKES HIM VIOLENTLY* anyways *cough* finally i got to write him here. haku, my main target, this happened because of you dude. sprinkle sprinkle

Part 2 - Sinostra, Hotarubi, Obscuary, and Mortkranken

Part 1 here

Fem bodied reader, foot fetish rui, mention of bloodplay. some of them are nsft so minors dni

Taiga

...Your entire being? Wherever he can get his teeth on??

Ok maybe both ass and boobs. Sometimes thigh especially when you're sitting on his lap during his gamble. It's like his hands just have a mind on their own. Had you not stop his hand from going further up he wouldn't even restraint himself. Does he even have any in the first place?

I feel like he's kind of into bloodplay(?) Watching his kitten squirm gets his blood rushing to his groin. The more you resist the more irresistible you are to him. Unless you made it clear to him that you don't want to scar yourself for him.

Romeo

(I'm biased) I would say he's personality guy... and after that is definitely looks. Of course what I mean by personality is not about being kind or compassionate, it's more about how you carry yourself. Be a fucking egoist; be fucking classy. But of course looks also matter because how you present yourself is how you want people to perceive you. You should treat your exterior like it’s an armor and you have to keep him in mind when you try to make yourself look good. "Will Romeo hate it? Or will he like it?"

He's a face guy.

Look him in the eye when you're talking to him, think about him when you put on your makeup, don't refuse when he wants to cum on your face, do not ever turn your face away when he's still being gentle – not when his hand is still caressing your cheek, and not grabbing your face roughly.

Whatever effort you've done for him, he should be the only one ruining it. Your tears should be there for him or because of him. Your smile should be there only when he's the one making you smile. Your anger, disgust, hatred, they’re all his to manipulate and witness to his heart's content.

Did I say your face is his favorite thing to cum to?

Ritsu

Physically, he's into ass. And don't ask me why. He love your hips too especially when he can get his hand on it. Love to see you wear pencil skirt that hugs your curve on that area.

And intelligence. If you can argue with him (in his style), the longer you stand your ground your next words are will not be going through his head but through his dick. 100%. If you win he'll say yes to bottoming for you and you know he's not one to purposely lose a battle.

Subaru

Look... eyes...

Eyes are window through the soul, in which he will gladly get lost in if they're yours. Yes, with a single touch he can get inside your head but being able to look into your beautiful orbs and wonder about what you're thinking is simply... exhilarating. To think that you're so open to him that way... so trusting... he should've present you with a ring right there and then.

He can be a bit shy to lock gaze for too long, but if you distract him with kisses on the lips he would have no choice but to not look away. Yes he will faint but who cares when your arms are there to catch him.

Haku

Lips

He loves watching your lips when he does things to you. Be it when he's making you cum or when your lips are around his cock or as simple as hearing you talk. Sure he's listening to you talking about this and that but for sure half of his focus is on the way your lips are moving.

100% would run his finger through your lips, then slowly insert a finger in as you try not to gag, and then your drool would be all over them ruining layer of lip gloss that you've put on. Is it strawberry flavor this time? Can I have the honor of tasting it, princess? Please?

Of course his favorite word on your lips would be his name, much to his denial. Calling his name like a prayer is the last thing he needs — it's what he wants, but not what he needs. He never need to be your God, he simply wish to be... Haku. Your Haku.

Zenji

Your skin is the perfectly blank canvas; your voice, scent, and soul, are the arts seeping through it. It'll be forever forgotten if Zenji – the man of quill – does not do justice on reflecting back your beauty with the touch of his lips and fingertips.

Would worship every inch of your skin if he could. He would write poems on you because you wouldn't let him bring papers to bed. With a lipstick he could either use it to write on you, or use it on him and let his mouth to the job of leaving love traces on you.

Ed

Shoulder, neck, veins– exposed veins.

He bites. Or at least planning to one day. His claws slowly tracing along your veins, soon he'll invite his own lips on you – oh so slowly like you're his long lost lover and his main focus would be to make you stay in your place for as long as he can make you.

Fantasize about leaving bite marks all over you. If you complain the next day he'll say sorry and use them as reason to kiss the pain away – just to make new ones on other places. He'll whine like a little kid being denied of his nursing time if you say no.

Rui

Greedy bastard number 2 after Haku

Lips, neck, jawline, hands, feet (ok listen i'm still on my sub!rui phase)

He can spend more time picking the perfect stocking and killer stiletto/heels than the rest of the lingerie. He doesn't give two shits on what’s up there since he can only look and nothing else. The way you can pleasure him is when he's on his knees with hands tied in the back and your heels playing with his hard cock until he's a whimpering mess.

Lyca

Scent. I don't think I should explain more. He would even find your sweat pleasing to his nose and you would have a hard time pushing him away.

Yuri

Ankles (Blame @/jeun-bug and @/istharoth for this). Well I mean it wouldn't be far off so i will not be explaining it here.

Yuri and exposed back.

Backshots.

The guy can perform autopsy like it’s a walk in the park but if you need help unzipping the back of your dress???? Yeah. Somebody please call the ambulance, the doctor is frothing at the mouth /j

Jiro

Big size difference. Whether you're the small one or the big one doesn't really matter as long as there's a noticeable gap between you and him. He's down for picking you up with one arm and also looking up during conversations.

[anothersadsimp]

Musical Detour

Astarion x Bard!Reader

Words: 3000

Synopsis: Imagine that scene in Tangled where they're all dancing n stuff but Tav does the music. Thats pretty much it. FLUFF

A/N: THIS STARTED AS A SMALL CUTE IDEA AND HERE WE ARE OVER 3000 WORDS LATER FUCK. Okay back into the void bye.

You and your party had just arrived at Wyrms Crossing after defeating a used to be immortal and a literal god. Tensions were high as well as the exhaustion that flooded your minds and bodies, but there was an elder brain to be stopped. Refugees surround the lower levels of the city, bickering and groaning from long travels. 

“So many people seeking refuge.” Shadowheart mummers. 

“All hoping to get into Baldur's Gate, where my father is held. They won’t get the help they need until we save him.” Wyll notes.

“One problem at a time. Why don’t we set up camp? Me, Astarion, Karlach, and Gale will take a look around.” You suggest, trying to keep your tone light. 

“Sounds good, be safe.” Shadowheart nods, before leading the others to the area we scouted. 

“Well, where are we off to now, oh fearless leader?” Astarion chides. 

You sigh, looking around the surroundings overwhelming you. You see a cobble road to your left which leads to multiple buildings with people bustling about. You turn and nod your head towards the road, “This way seems like a good start.”

You start walking down the path where it leads to the main road. Once you reach it there's a line of people waiting in front of a gate. You were about to start maneuvering around them when one of your companions stopped.

“Oh. My. Gods. It’s the Circus of the Last Days! My mum and dad would bring me when I was a kid.” Karlach exclaims, stomping in place for a moment in excitement. “Tav we have to stop in just for a little bit. Please?” 

Her excitement brought a smile to your face, and you couldn't help but want to go just for her enjoyment. Who knows what silly mischief your current company will get into going in, it certainly piqued your interest. You looked around Karlach’s large frame to the others behind her with your shoulders shrugged, and a natural smile gracing your face.

You knew just how to convince Astarion into getting into trouble, more than he actually realized after you became official. It wasn't just the effortless smile that seemed to radiate off of you that convinced him, but your eyes grew wide as soon as they met with his.

He sighs, “Fine, but if there's any clowns, you’re on your own.”

Karlach jumps with excitement, which makes your smile widen. Suddenly she grabs your wrist and pulls you towards the entrance. Astarion frowned for just a moment after your face, holding an expression that rivaled the sunshine on his skin, was ripped away.

“No stopping those two once they’re together. They seem to be the only one that can keep up with Karlach’s energy.” Gale comments before following behind them. 

Astarion watches a moment longer before jogging up to stand behind you, Karlach taking his spot next to you still holding your wrist. He is still as close to you as he can get, his chest just barely rubbing against the back of your armor. The feeling causes you to turn your head to the side just so with a small smile, always acknowledging his presence. 

Your attention gets turned back ahead of you as the line moves up. As you step up you see an elf in some of the most colorful clothes you’ve seen, along with a ghoul dressed up as hideously as the elf.

“Hello, hello, and welcome to the Circus of the Last Days!” He greets enthusiastically.

“Hello, we’d like to enter please.” You say.

“Ah yes! Come and forget your worries! Benji just has to check if you're a vicious murderer first.” He says with a smile. “Benji!

The clownish ghoul stalks up towards the four of you and begins sniffing the air.

“BLOOD. TASTY BLOOD, SO DELICIOUS” It shouts and laughs maniacally.

“Well, I gotta say that's the first. Sorry folks, I'm afraid you cannot enter. Have a nice day!” He dismisses. 

After seeing how excited Karlach had gotten, and how her shoulders drooped, you refused to take no for an answer. Even if you could feel Astarion perk up behind you at being turned away, and Gale sighing somewhere behind. 

“Oh! Did I forget to mention, I’ve been recently hired! Meet your new bard! And their band of misfits.” You exclaim, gesturing with your arms and showing your violin. 

“Oh! No one tells me anything around here. Well, welcome to the family. You’ll want to talk to Ringmaster Lucretious once you head in. Good luck!” He says before moving to open the gate to the circus.  

You smile awkwardly towards the strange gatekeeper and continue into the entryway. Once through you could see colorful booths lined up, each with a different character expressively trying to get customers. You slowly walk past each one, taking in every detail you can of each vendor. Clearly they’re swindling. Years of being a bard on the streets had taught you a thing or two about how con artists work, and sometimes having to be one. 

“Surprising to see how many people fall for these silly games, just a waste of gold.” Gale comments. 

“Common, I want to play at least one game, the point is to have fun!.” Karlach whines. 

You reach into your pouch and pull out some gold holding your hand out towards her, “Go crazy Karlach.” you say with a smile.

A fiery, playful grin adorns her face, “Thank you!” She grabs the gold from your hand and quickly brings you into a bone crushing hug before racing off.

You, Astarion, and Gale continue walking, checking out the rest of the booths. As you venture deeper into the circus you start to hear music. It sounds like a few people playing together playing a familiar song. One you know by heart. You couldn't help but follow the music, your pace increasing.

“Something catch your attention, my dear?” Astarion asks behind you, but it doesn't quite register in your head and you continue walking.

You round a wide corner to see a little band playing just a few shallow steps down. There's a gnome holding a strong steady beat, while a drow plays strums on a lute. Alongside them was an elf carrying the main melody on their flute. The music begins to take you, the beat drumming in your chest, becoming your new heartbeat. The rhythm of drow’s strumming makes it feel as if you could float away with its voice. You tracked the elfs movements as he played the main part of the song. He’s floating around the crowd, trying to keep them engaged. 

You close your eyes for a brief moment, really listening to the flute. The key they’re playing the song in, each particular note to the beloved melody they play. Slowly you grab your violin strapped to your back with its bow. You can hear the notes in your head, and you know just the right moment to jump into the song.

“Everything alright?” Gale asks, but once again the question falls upon deaf ears.

The three musicians look at eachother, and the tension and volume of the music increase. It’s about to happen, and your eyes coles once more. The main part is coming up and that's when you’ll jump in. You keep your eyes closed counting to drumming that took over your heartbeat. 

1

2

And

You leap down the 3 shallow steps to be on the same level as the other musicians starting to harmonize with the flute. Your eyes were closed, lost in the melodies the four of you create. Your body moved with the music stepping, skipping, turning in whichever way the music desired it to.

People nearby cheered, some throwing gold at you and the three others. Eventually the cheering turned into a gathering of dancing and laughing. Random circus patrons and even workers stop to watch your merry band. The laughter made your eyes open to see wide smiles surround you. Couples and children dance around you causing a wide smile to shine on your face. 

Meanwhile Astarion and Gale stood right where you left them staring at the scene before them. Astarion shifts his weight onto one leg, and his arms cross. He tilts his head to the side as he watches you, and swears your smile blinds him momentarily. Without realizing it the corners of his mouth curl up as you start to interact with the crowd. You crouch down in front of a small human child and poke them lightly with the tip of your bow during a small break. The child giggled, hands coming out to try and catch your bow but you pull away with a twirl and begin to play once again.

“Always up to something.” Gale smiles, his body relaxing.

“You mean always causing a scene? Then yes, they’re quite good at that.” Though the words seem a tad harsh, there's no sense of malice in them. That soft smile of his refusing to leave. 

After another twirl you stop a moment, out of breath but refusing to stop playing. You look over towards your companions and see them looking at the scene unfolding. Only Astarion was staring straight at you. You stare into his blood red orbs the best you can from the distance between you. Even though you’re already breathless it feels as if he took your breath away, and not the performing. Warmth spread through your body from his gaze making you feel both giddy and shy. 

You force yourself to turn away from Astarion to look at the ensemble beginning to end the song. The drum slows, the rest following its beat as the flute dies off. You begin to improv with the strums of the lute as the drum slowly fades. You lock eyes with the drow ready to finally finish the song. They strum the last chord, as you play the last few notes while slowly bowing. You draw the last note out and stop, bowed over in a small lunge-like stance and your chest heaving.

The crowd erupted into cheers, and shouts. Gold clattered onto the stone beneath your feet, which made you stand to full height. Everyone around you had wide smiles, applauding you and the others for the show. You walk over to talk to the other musicians, and help them pick up the gold.

“Did you know they could play like that?” Gale asked, one hand holding his chin clearly amused. 

“I-I had no idea.” He said in disbelief. 

They both knew you could play, have even heard you practice no matter how hard you tried to hide it. But they had no idea how well the practice had really paid off. They had no idea how well you actually perform in front of people. Astarion briefly wondered how your name wasn’t well known for your talents. 

You turn away and leave the group of musicians behind you, violin packed on your back, and head towards your companions. About half way there the small child you poked ran up and tugged on your pant leg. You crouch down to see they have a few small wildflowers in their small fist held out towards you.

“Thank you! These are beautiful.” The child lights up at your words and runs back towards their parent. You stand back up and continue to walk back towards your friends. You look down at the flowers and pick one to put behind your ear.

You stop in front of Astarion and Gale, still too preoccupied with the flowers to see their astonished faces. Once you were satisfied you looked up at them, and you can’t tell if the warmth you’re feeling is embarrassment or residual from all the dancing. 

“That was amazing!” Gale exclaims, his smile wider than you’ve ever seen. 

You let out a little huff of a chuckle, a bashful smile adorning your face, “Thanks.”

“So, you do really have talent after all.” Astarion teases, with a wicked smirk to match.

Somehow you can't help but relax from his silly teasing, a genuine smile coming back as you hit his shoulder. “Shut up” you mumble. 

“It’s really a shame Karlach missed that. She’ll be sad when she finds out, no doubt.” Gale comments. 

“Please, she would’ve burned her heart out from dancing if she were here.” Astarion cracks.

“We should probably find her.” you say trying to change the topic, “The games couldn’t have taken that long. I saw her run off that way” you point. 

“Right. Well let’s make sure she hasn’t burned anything, yes?” Gale rhetorically asks as he leads on the way in the direction you pointed towards. 

You turn to follow Gale but stop when you don’t feel the vampire's presence behind you, “You coming?” You ask.

You turn around after asking to see if he’d followed but you still see him standing there. His arms were no longer crossed, he had one hand on his hip that was jutted out and the other resting at his side. His eyes were still trained on you almost as if you had put him in a trance. He finally made eye contact, and that subtle smile that naturally came to him when looking at you grew. 

Astarion started making his way to you, never once looking away from your widened eyes. You couldn’t look away from him as he stalked towards you, Gale and Karlach forgotten from one endearing gaze from your vampire. You take note of that cute little smile that adorns his face. It’s small, but it's rare to see a smile like this one from him. Once that's genuine.

He stops in front of you, one hand coming to grab your waist to bring you closer. You raise your hands up to his chest, one hand still clutching the other flowers the child gifted you. You’re nearly chest to chest if it weren't for your arms trapped in between you two. The hand on your waist now further towards your back as his arm wraps around you. The other hand comes up to the one holding the flowers, running his fingers gently over the back of your hand. 

“You really are something, you know that?” His voice is deep, and low enough for just you to hear. 

“That I am, though I do hope you mean it in a good way.” You tease, head cocking to the side. 

“Depends on the day, really.” He says with a dumb contemplative look on his face, that smirk never leaving. “But yes, I do mean it in a good way.” 

He looks back into your eyes, before the drop down and he leans closer. Both of your eyes close in unison as he gives you a gentle, chase kiss. You unintentionally softly sigh into the kiss, loving the feeling of him close to you. He pulls away and you’re still momentarily dazed, eyes taking a second before opening to see him looking back at you.

A little chuckle escapes him at your dazed expression, “Aren’t you just an adorable little pup.” 

You hum at his teasing comment, slowly coming out of the trance he put you in. You look at the flowers still clutched in your hand and grab the small red one with your other hand. 

You somehow get closer than you already were, your lips grazing his ear, “Same can be said about you, my love.” you whisper. 

As you tease him with your breathy words against his ear, the hand holding the small dainty flower comes up to place it in his luscious locks. Your hand brushes his other gently as you work causing the smallest of gasps to escape his lips, you would’ve missed it if not being so close. You step back after twining the flower into his curls, taking in every detail of his face and your work. The red hue flower perfectly matched the highlights of his eyes as they shine in the sun that bathes the entirety of Baulders Gate.  

“Perfect.” You smile. “Anyways where did the other misfits go?” You wonder, starting to turn around looking for them. You start walking in the direction you saw Gale disappear to, leaving Astarion behind. 

He stared in bewilderment as you walked off, not quite ready for you to turn the table so fast on him in more than one way. ‘Certainly is something’ he thinks to himself as a small smile of disbelief graces his lips, before walking after you. 

BONUS:

You and Astarion were still looking for Gale and Karlach. The circus really wasn't too big, and how does one lose a tall, rambunctious, fiery Tiefling. You were coming up on the last few booths, and still no luck. Did you pass them?

“Where in the hells are they?” You wonder out loud, beginning to get tired of walking in circles. 

Astarion was cut off, from what was no doubt a teasing or snarky comment, by running footsteps approaching the both of you. People part as you see Karlach jog towards you, you can tell she’s burning hotter than usual. You brush it off knowing it's from excitement, judging by the smile on her face. You then notice she's holding something rather large in both of her arms.

“Guess what I just got!” She shouts.

She raises a large owlbear blush closer to her chest as to showcase it, arms around its middle as if she's carrying a real owlbear cub. You’re surprised it's not being chared by her excitement.

“He matches the one we got at camp, now he’s got another friend!” She screams in excitement. “That game merchant had no idea what hit him!”

“Oh, no. Please tell me you didn’t set anything on fire.” You groan

“No, but they will need a new strength gage, and hammer.” Gale chides in, strolling behind Karlach. “Quite an impressive display nevertheless.” 

“Somehow I’m not surprised. Now I heard something about a terrible clown? Let's see how terrible.” You say with genuine curiosity.

“You’re really gonna drag me to a clown show?” Astarion scoffs.

“Come on! It’ll be fun, well fun to make fun of him.” You say, having to think halfway through after listening to yourself. 

Your hands grab one of Astarions before dragging him along with you to the circus stage. He groans and reluctantly lets you lead him away. The other two follow behind you, Karlach distracted with her new plush and Gale wondering how he ended up with such fools.

[came-out-of-the-coffin-desisted]

not to out of left field dragon age post, but i’m thinking of replaying origins and it made me think about how like. mahariel and tamlen are definitely old enough to be married/bonded by dalish standards, and they’ve been friends for at least a fews years if not their whole lives (and it’s probably their whole lives honestly) so they’ve had time to get bonded.

so the implication is that either a) they haven’t gotten their shit together enough to tell each other how they feel much before like. the week origins begins OR b) the elders wouldn’t allow them to bond, the way they wouldn’t let mahariel’s parents bond, and eventually they relented. and i know a lot of people like the first one and i agree that it is like. nicer to the characters. but the second one makes me go INSANE because it’s like. we think you’re too immature, or maybe just one of you is, you’re too impetuous, you don’t think before you act, and you egg each other on, or one of you is too devoted to hold the other one back. whichever it is, it’s a matter of worrying they won’t be good for each other— they don’t approve of the match.

until someone (probably ashalle or marethari herself) intervenes, and the FIRST thing, the very first thing that happens is they find that cave. no matter how it happened— if tamlen refused to go back to prove that he was worthy, if they egged each other on, if mahariel led tamlen forward— they WERE bad for each other, but not out of malice. out of love. and afterwards, when mahariel is a warden and tamlen is gone from them forever (even if they will, unbeknownst to them, see him again, just in the most horrifying way possible,) i can just imagine them sitting up nights, afraid to sleep because of the horrible dreams, alternatively blaming the elders for not letting them be together sooner and blaming themselves for not going back, for not making him go back.

in the gauntlet, the spirit or demon or whatever it is takes the form of tamlen, taunts them about their failure, about their waking fucking nightmare.

and months later, when there have been so many loses that they’re sort of numb to it all, when they’ve made a new family and maybe fallen in love again, when they’re living every day like it could be their last (because it could be,) they wake up one night in a cold sweat, or they’re in the middle of ~something~ with their new partner, and shrieks ambush their camp. they have to come out and fight, back to back with their new family, with their lover— they finish the fight covered in blood, every inch the warden, every inch the hero of ferelden. and in the aftermath, there he is. the ghost of the one person they never thought they’d lose, their best friend, the soulmate they were /supposed/ to have. and he’s a ghoul, he’s dying, and if they don’t kill him, the blight will force their hand.

and then there’s one fucking line with alistair about it. you can’t follow up on it. …but imagine if you could. imagine if the warden absolutely melts down afterward. imagine if they got to feel, for once, the ENORMITY of what they’ve lost, the enormity of what the blight took from them, which they’ll never get back, even if they have people they love. even if they live through it all, they save the world, now they’re the warden commander and they get to live free of fear—they’ll still never be one half of the happy elder couple who laughs and jokes and says ‘yes’ to every match because they believe in love over all. they’ll never get to see merrill become keeper and tease her about how pompous she was as a kid, they’ll never have children. they’ll never hunt again, never sit with the halla and smile about the beauty of the world.

in a lot of ways i think that the elven wardens lose the least, because they gain power they’d otherwise never have— but they still lose things. there is no easy way to become a warden. the only way that a warden loses nothing by joining is if they had nothing to lose at all.

[dewdrops-whammy-bar]

Special Ghoul my beloved...

Tagging @puppsworld bc he seemed enthusiastic about this (thanks for the yelling!!! You will never catch me I'm too slippery >:3)

Written in bullet format bc brain is going too fast to make coherent sentences let’s goooo

Warning for references to self-harm/self-mutilation, blood, and autocannibalism! This gets messy y’all

BEFORE:

Ok so Special isn’t a “true” ghoul. They’re a human who turned themself into a ghoul via an unstable and experimental ritual.

This has resulted in issues like mobility issues from excessive scar tissue. Turns out doing your own top surgery isn't such a great idea.

Which human you may ask?

Mary Goore themself! (I had to. I love them ok sue me /lh)

BACKSTORY:

Mary ended up at the Ministry when they took a rough turn in life. They had heard of the Ministry before and were already subscribed to that sect of Satanism but didn’t have any interest in joining an organized religion. They knew the Ministry would take them in so they headed to the Sweden location.

They weren’t officially a Sibling but were in the process of becoming one. (They didn’t really want to, but it was the only way the Ministry would let them stay.)

They heard about the Ghost project starting up and jumped at the chance to get involved with music again

Unfortunately the only way to get involved with that was to be a high-ranking sibling (which could take years) or a ghoul. You can see where I’m going with this.

Mary found an old book deep in the library that detailed a prototype ritual of turning oneself into a ghoul. They decided they had nothing to lose and started planning.

THE TRANSFORMATION (this is where it gets gory):

The ritual involved a lot of carving sigils into skin and a ritual disembowelment. The book strongly recommended a few people help with that but Mary said fuck it I’m doing this myself

Gave themself top surgery while they were at it (transgenderizes your metalhead twink)

They died obviously. At least their mortal vessel did

Mary crawled out of the Summoning well the next night as a ghoul and promptly ate their former body. Yummy.

They kept their skull and some bones bc that’s fuckin metal

GHOUL LIFE:

Seestor was NOT pleased when she found out what had happened

But Mary/Special couldn’t really be Banished, they weren’t from the Pit.

So she begrudgingly let Mary join the Ghost project

They ended up as a co-writer and concept musician and eventually a spokesperson

They go by either Mary or Special, but their friends mostly call them Mary. Special is more of a title to them. Don’t call them Phil unless you want your insides to become outsides.

They have sick scars all over their body from their transformation!!

They don’t have an element, but they do have a bit of magic.

They’ve got a lot of unsettling traits. They don’t blink a lot, they walk silently, and they’ve been known to cause disappearances in nearby towns. A ghoul’s gotta eat.

They’re outwardly cold and grumpy but they’re pretty chill if you get on their good side. They despise Imperator and higher-ranked Ministry members but are protective of Siblings.

They hate the friendly voice they have to put on for interviews, but it’s one of the only times they can let down their mental mask around other people and just chill. (Lots of complicated feelings there, possible hurt/comfort idea?)

They only take off their mask around people they trust.

They like to scare new residents by standing in dark corners and staring at them.

They’re close with Terzo’s ghouls, Cowbell, and a couple humans.

They trust Cowbell the most bc they’re both kinda misfits.

Ghouls only need human meat once in a while but Mary has more cravings for it than most. Ministry members are off limits though.

They were referred to as “it” for a while (mostly by Imperator and her most loyal following) so they aggressively correct anyone’s pronouns (Theirs and others’). It’s the one of the only cracks in their “cold creepy ghoul” demeanor. They’re especially protective of trans Siblings.

They’ve been known to appear from the shadows and correct a condescending cardinal on a Sibling’s pronouns.

Special ghoul my beloved… this was super self indulgent and fun to write. Feel free to use this as inspiration for art/writing!

[thelampisaflashlight]

A Nightlight For Your Pride

[Lamb meets the usually confident Swiss in a time of weakness and doubt. Short read, but a wholesome one.] Below the cut.

"You're just... not really my type."

It shouldn't bother him, Swiss knows.

Most of the time he can let that sort of thing slide, cause, shit, if he was everyone's type he'd be up to his ears in warm bodies to cuddle, but he thought...

Swiss thumps the back of his head against the stone wall behind him, running a hand down his face as the other fiddles with the cigarette pinched between his fingers, unlit.

"I'm sorry if I led you on, that wasn't my intention."

He really thought...

"I don't mind hooking up, but dating's a no."

He was so fucking embarrassed.

"No, it's, it's fine." He'd said, "No worries."

Fine.

No worries.

"Dammit..." Swiss groans, sinking down into a squat.

He'd kind of walked off after that, after saying it was fine, and just... kept going.

Honestly, Swiss had only meant to take a short walk to clear his head, but now he's here; The old chapel on the other side of the woods past the lake.

It's a place he's maybe been once or twice before, but never alone, and certainly not this late in the afternoon.

"Haahhh... Man, why am I so hung up on this?" he mutters to himself, rummaging through his pockets for his lighter, "I didn't even like her that much, I just..."

What had he been thinking?

"Stupid."

They just got back from tour, he should be celebrating, not getting hung up over some girl.

Some pretty, smart, talented girl, who made his stomach feel all wiggly...

"We can still be friends though."

Swiss lets the cigarette hang in his mouth and go to ash.

"I don't think... that's possible." he mumbles, then asks the air, "Do you?"

"I have... no idea." a voice from somewhere above his head has Swiss scrambling away from the wall.

"Who's there?!" he shouts, panicked, "Who-"

"The nightshift." says a little ghoul as they hang over the top of the wall, horns glowing bright green in the fading light, "I did not mean to startle you, but there was not a good time to announce my presence."

"The nightsh-Oh. Oh, shit! How late is it?" Swiss asks, patting himself down for his phone, but coming up empty, "Shit..."

The ghoul on the wall slinks down and crouches on the ground in a very froglike pose, reaching into a pouch around their waist and withdrawing Swiss' phone from it, holding it out to him carefully.

"You dropped this by the lake."

"You've been, uh, you've been following me that long?" Swiss chuckles nervously, wondering how he hadn't noticed them before taking his phone back, "You... you could have said something sooner."

"Mn, you did not seem like you wanted to be bothered." the ghoul replies, long, pale tail sweeping through the leaves on the ground, the eerie glow coming off the spade casting yet more of that strange green light, "Normally, I would not follow someone so far. I do not like wandering too much, but it will be getting dark soon."

"Wait..." Swiss stares at the ghoul for a moment, tilting his head, "Wait, do I know you?"

"I do not think so?" they reply, mirroring the tilt, "You do not look familiar to me."

"No, no, I..."

Swiss bites the inside of his cheek, thinking back on a conversation he'd had with Dew ages ago now...

What was...

“There’s only one other ghoul from that incident that’s still in residence here, but they live in the dorms with the human clergy, and they’re honestly kind of weird.”

“How so?”

“Walks on all fours all the time, glows in the dark like a radioactive sleep paralysis demon, dislikes other ghouls …except for fucking Aeth for some reason…”

“Why do you sound so bitter about that, hm~?”

"You're... Satanas I never did learn your name, but, I heard about you from a friend." he says finally, "You live with the clergy, right?"

The ghoul nods.

"I did not know whether or not I should be worried that people speak of me." they muse, "Or flattered."

Radioactive sleep paralysis demon...

"Ehn, it's subjective..." Swiss lands on, "So you are...?"

"Lamb."

"Lamb, okay. Uh, I'm Swiss." he says, offering his hand to them, "Nice to meet you."

"Swiss like the cheese, or Swiss like the country?" Lamb asks, giving Swiss' hand a gentle pat instead of shaking it.

"Oh, it's, I guess like the country kind, but it's more like, Swiss Army Knife, 'cause I'm a multi-"

...dislikes other ghouls...

Swiss pauses, biting his lip.

"-talented individual." he grins, "So, Lamb, um, care to escort me back to the abbey? Since it looks like the sun's going to set soon, and, ya know, can't see very well in the dark."

Lamb nods.

"Stay close then."

The walk back to the abbey is cathartic if nothing else.

Watching Lamb weave through the tall grass on all fours is silly, but something about the way they pause and wait for him to catch up, or look back at him, or warn him of dips in the path makes Swiss' chest feel warm.

"...Possibly rude question, but... why do you walk like this?" Swiss asks as they make their way round the lake, which Lamb stops at to lap at the water there like some kind of predator mammal taking a break from the hunt to hydrate, "Is it comfortable?"

Lamb peers back at him and hums.

"It's not particularly uncomfortable." they say, moving back into a seated position, "Feels safer."

"Safer?"

Lamb shrugs, then raises up, albeit not very high, standing at their full height.

They're really quite small, maybe around Aurora's height, possibly a smidge taller, but it's hard to tell without the ghoulette around to compare them to.

"I wasn't saying that to make you feel like you needed to stand up-" Swiss frets.

The ghoul gives him a confused look and carries on walking towards the abbey, their tail flicking through the grass, now brighter than before.

"Why..." Swiss starts, but cuts himself off.

"You can ask questions." Lamb tells him, as if sensing his hesitation, their tone shifting to a gentler one that puts Swiss strangely at ease, "I don't mind."

Swiss considers this, catching up to walk beside them.

"Why does your tail... glow?"

Man, he sounds like a little kid.

"I don't really know." Lamb admits, "But Omega said it's not hazardous or really... uh, toxic or anything of the sort. Although, I would not touch it."

"Why not?"

Yeup, little kid.

"It can get on your skin and stain it."

Swiss blinks.

"Really?"

And just like that, he's reaching out and-

"...Hey, Aeth, do we have any of the good dish soap?"

His hands keep that unnatural glow for two whole hours despite Aether almost scrubbing off a full layer of Swiss' skin, but it fades eventually.

And when it does?

He misses it.

[moonwaterart]

I’m only on episode 3 of the fallout tv show, but so far none of the inconsistencies from the games that people have bitched about have made sense to be bitched about.

Spoilers obvi.

Why is Cooper/The Ghoul ‘impossible to kill’? Bro uses V.A.T.S. in combat to get his shots. Plus Lucy at this point in time uses a tranq gun and Maximus is a terrible shot. Cooper’s got 290+ years on them! He’s figured out the game!

The hand jets? Did y’all forget The Brotherhood of Steel ALSO invents shit? They don’t just hoard technology they believe is dangerous? Again. It’s been 290+ years since the bombs dropped. After trial and error, they most likely found a way to mod the T-60s to allow hand jets OR jet packs if wanted. Plus Knight Titus, the asshole he was was definitely the type of asshole to think he’s cool enough for hand jets.

Dogmeat being a girl? Get the fuck over yourselves. She’s a fucking dog. Also do you know why most trained stunt dogs are female? It’s because no one wants to look at dog dick in 4K if they’re hired! Plus something about female dogs being easier to train due to their temperaments.

‘But- but the Enclave was destroyed-‘ they were mostly destroyed! The remnants that survived what happened in Fallout 3 -get this- scattered. Some went to the Mojave which we found out in New Vegas which later found their way to the NCR which we jump to in the tv show, some were found in the Commonwealth thanks to DLC for Fallout 4. They weren’t where they were during the events of Fallout 3. Far from it! But because of Dr Wilzig, we got Dogmeat and she’s the goodest girl.

I get some people are newer to the fandom, but also a LOT complaints are coming from older fans who -not gonna lie- forget that Fallout as a series has some wacky shit going on. You have Mysterious eldritch human-like entities with godly weapons who can greatly damage and kill your enemies in one to two shots or bestow misfortune upon who they shoot or help you if you’re downed.

You’ve got a cult who worships atoms because they believe we’re all just different universes waiting to be renewed by a nuke going off. At the same time there’s a cult that worships the 4 horseman of the apocalypse and believe they called each of the 4 groups to bring each of the signs with them (war, famine, pestilence, death).

You get to meat a plethora of companions on the games from humans to animals, super mutants and ghouls to robots! Hell, in the first game you had a hyper intelligent deathclaw as a companion only because when the Enclave made them the group of deathclaws decided they didn’t want to kill humans and instead wanted to befriend and trade with them within the vault they were shoved into after the Enclave slaughtered basically the entire vault.

In Fallout New Vegas in the Big Mountain DLC you can fucking flirt with your own brain if you choose to do so (they will be appalled by your actions to do so).

Yes, the game is anti-war and about how governments are corrupt and War never changes, but there’s so much goofy ass shit in the games and lore that you need to allow yourself to have a bit of fun and use some game logic when dealing with the tv show or you’re just gonna be fucking bitter about everything you find inconsistent with the games. (Remember, they still have yet to tell us HOW exactly a ghoul is created and keep changing HOW they’re created. It’s never been consistent throughout the games)

[in-death-we-fall]

Sex, Drugs and One Armed Groupies

...is gonna be the title of this since there kinda isn't one. Scans were posted by @fuckyeswednesday13 a long time ago. I really liked this article and now it's nice and easy to read (especially the columns. Ask me how much I hated the columns.) Enjoy! (drive link)

UPDATED FULL VERSION HERE

The Big Day Out. The Australian travelling musical circus that steamrolls its way around Australia and New Zealand every winter with the hottest bands on the planet flying from all over the globe to join down under’s best bands in a mayhem filled fortnight. This year’s line-up, features among others, The Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Jane’s Addiction, Jimmy Eat World, The Hard Ons and deathglam monstrosities, the Murderdolls. So far, the Mid West (sic) based five-piece outfit have been the cream of the festival, appropriately headlining the ‘Essentials’ stage. This is the band’s first time in the Antipodes and quizzical music fans have crowded to see the much-talked about live set. With Sydney copping the biggest crowds of all the legs on the tour, the band are preparing something special. But at 3pm in the afternoon you wouldn’t know it. Most of the band are still in bed from the night before, well, actually… the week before.

The ‘Dolls have been in Sydney for five days before their Big Day Out show and not finding much to do early on in the week they’ve just been getting down to the (sic) rock’n’roll’s most popular pastime: hard drinking. Drummer ‘Big’ Ben ‘The Ghoul’ Graves and bass player Eric Griffin are recovering from last night’s binge. While singer Wednesday and guitarist Joey Jordison are recovering from the night before the night before. Acey Slade, who maintains his sobriety, but still stays out ‘til dawn, has been up since 11am and is the only one ready for the show. With the band on stage at 7:15pm, things need doing. Staggering through their beer can and ‘paraphernalia’-strewn rooms to the showers, they’re down in their van and on the way out to the Big Day Out site just after 4pm.

Situated at the same place that hosted the Sydney 2000 olympics, the festival facilities are first rate and the sell-out crowd of 52,000 festival-goers are making the most of it. The temperature’s pushing a blistering 35°C and being the middle of a drought-ridden summer in Australia, everything’s dry, dusty and cracked. It’s a good 40-minute drive from the city to the festival and the sun’s stinging in through the van windows. Not big fans of the sunlight, the Murderdolls have got their leather jackets up over their heads to avoid even the slightest hint of a tan.

In the cool, air-conditioned shade of backstage I get to sit down with Joey Jordison and singer Wednesday 13 to gind out how the band are doing after their meteoric rise over the past eight months. Joey is straight down the line, measured and professional. “This si the first Big Day Out for all of us. Slipknot have only been down here once but not that (sic) this festival. This is something I’ve really wanted to play – something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time.”

For Wednesday, this is another notch on his rise as an international rock’n’roller. “It’s awesome,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to be out on the front of a rock’n’roll band at a festival like this. After struggling doing my own band for six years I actually quit my job back in April and I’ve been touring every since. I’ve done all the things I ever dreamed about. I’ve been to Europe three times, Japan twice and here we are now in Australia and that has all been pretty much in the last six months! Holy shit we’re doing some things that some bands have never done!”

“We just checked out the videotape from the Auckland show the other day and fuck man, it was awesome!” enthuses Joey. “People are saying we are pulling the most people to that stage out of everyone. Our band has been doing really well especially since we’ve only been going for a short time. We hope that after the BDO we’ll be able to come back and do some real headlining shows down here. We are having fun though, thinking about it, we’ve never had so many days off between shows before, it’s more like the Big Day Off!”

The band wasn’t supposed to be so idle. Most overseas bands on the BDO bill play a bunch of satellite shows in various cities around the country and for a month prior, the Murderdolls had been slated to perform a Sydney show with fellow US rockers The Deftones. But with very little warning, the Murderdolls were dumped from the bill just before the show. What really pissed off Joey and the lads was a lot of the Murderdolls fans had bought tickets on the basis that the band would be playing but in the end had to watch the Deftones supported by ex-At The Drive-In chancers, Sparta.

Without much choice in the matter the Murderdolls issued a statement on their website apologising to their fans and kept trying to fly their flag with some instore appearances at local record stores. One in particular at Utopia Records, was insane. There was such a roar when the band turned up, they looked truly surprised at the number of kids who had showed up, most dressed in black and red outfits.

“Someone told us there was only going to be about 150 kids, which was supposed to be a good turn-out for Utopia records for a new band,” retells Joey. “But when we turned up there (sic) almost 500! We talked to fans and signed everything that they had. We were there for a good three and a half hours. And at the Channel V interview it was pretty much the same story. Hordes of kids that wouldn’t let us get away.”

“That’s the cool thing with our fans,” explains Wednesday. “We’re not a radio band or an MTV band with this created army of little kids which I think is more pure than being the Number One radio band or liking it because someone tells you to like it. I know that our fans are real. It is really cool to see these hordes of kids show up, they are dressed like us, they know everything about us, it is just awesome.”

Thinking further ahead fans will be please to know the band are not going to let up on the groundswell already created by the Murderdolls. “I have to go back and finish recording some Slipknot stuff,” reveals Joey. “Then we (the Murderdolls) are going to do some more touring. There’s usually a three to four month sort of break between recording and when an album comes out so we are going to tour pretty much all the way from the end of May all the way to maybe the beginning of October. Which will be good because there’ll be less sunlight at that time of year,” jokes Wednesday raising his non-existent eyebrows and throwing his arms, heavily tattooed with b-grade horror heroes, into the air.

As the hot afternoon drifts into an only slightly less simmering evening, there’s a small problem with guitarist Acey. He’s got indigestion. This amounts to a small crisis because first aid officials must follow procedure and administer the medicine. This takes two St. John’s Ambulance men on pushbikes in a five minute ride from their base at the side of the main stadium. Very un-rock’n’roll indeed.

With the gig just 45 minutes away, the boys are pacing around their trailer, having their pics taken for Hammer. Acey inside in front of the mirror still applying the last of his make-up, Ghoul is getting powdered up, Wednesday’s still with the photographer, while Joey’s nervously pacing around, in the trailer, out the trailer, back in… Eric meanwhile is ready for the stage and cracks open the obligatory bottle of Jack Daniel’s. As a Murderdolls ritual, they’re applying the slap, the band have to listen to Kiss. “Must. Have. Kiss.” stipulates Joey. “‘All American Man’! We sometimes change that to ‘All American Ghoul’,” chimes in the Ghoul.

Just 10 minutes before showtime and the long lanky frame of Ben Graves is stretched spider-like up against the dressing room wall. “I’ll be in pain afterwards,” he explains. Wednesday has by now finished his solo shots with Hamer’s photographer. The day is hot enough anyway, and under the photographers lights the heat is even more stifling. ‘Jesus, it’s fucking hot!” exclaims the frontman. “But I don’t mind… I’m a naturally dead person in front of a camera” he laughs.

More Kiss blares out from the dressing room, this time ‘Dr Love’! Then the moment comes: ground fucking zero at the Big Day Out! The band clamber into the van and head around the back way to the Essentials stage. The bottle of Jack’s being passed around as they approach the stage the band take a quick peak (sic) to see how the crow’s building up. It’s the biggest yet, taking up most of the grassy area out the back of the main stadium. Joey – who regularly suffers from pre-gig nerves as his pre-stage vomiting on Slipknot’s ‘Disasterpiece (sic)’ DVD proves in all its technicolour glory – is bricking it.

Five minutes before the band are due to hit the powerchords and the guys are milling around in the wings. Ghoul is banging on some warm-up pads and everyone is getting psyched. They’ve left the Kiss CD backstage so they have to hum ‘All American Man’ together. Then they make their way to the stage.

A couple of huge Murderdolls logos adorn the stage and in an eruption of noise and energy, the Dolls take the stage and instantly kick off with ‘Dawn of The Dead’. Jordison in black leather Gestapo hat is jumping around stage left, Acey is wailing away stage right while Eric bangs away on the bass doing his best Nikki Sixx impression, while the Ghoul wrecks the trap kit. Wednesday is the last to take the stage and screaming, “We are the dead, coming for you!” And the crowd goes fucking wild.

The kids down the front, dressed up in full glam-goth regalia, know every word and sing along fervently with the band while among the throng watching from the side of stage are some of the biggest names in the Australian music industry. Members of bands like 28 days, Machine Gun Fellatio, Cog, Jimmy Eat World, Pre-Shrunk, and Sparta all stand wide eyed and mouths agape at the outrageous rock revisionism being unleashed onstage.

By the time the band have launched into ‘I (sic) Was a Teenage Zombie’, ‘Let’s Go To War’ and ‘Slit My Wrists (sic)’, the crows know what they’re in for. Most who have showed up for curiosity (sic) sake are still hanging around, but if anything the crowd is building and everyone looks like they are right into it having fun. The intro to ‘Twist My Sister’ is a kid’s nursery rhyme ‘Old McDonald’ which gets the whole crowd singing along.

Unbelievably, some lunatic in the crowd starts throwing bangers at the stage, but the fireworks only make it as far as the front row of fans before blowing up in their faces. Wednesday tries to get the guy to quit while geeing up the rest of the crowd. “All the people down the front tell the people at the back to ‘Die Die Die… my bride!’ he yells as the band grind into the song…

Today’s set includes two new songs, and we can report that both are killer kitsch rock rippers. The first, set for legendary status is called ‘The Devil Made Me Do It… And I’ll Do It Again’ while the second is the set closer, a crowd sing along gem ‘I Love to Say Fuck’. Wednesday grabs his big black umbrella, emblazoned with the word FUCK, Eric, Acey, and Joey are going crazy, jumping up and down in unison, Ghoul is all arms and legs behind the kit while Wednesday is right down in the crowd’s face urging them to stick their fingers in the air and yell ‘Fuck!’. It looks great to watch. “It isn’t choreographed,” says Wednesday later. “Everything’s pretty much spontaneous. There are some things like we all jump on an ascent in the music or whatever but everything else is stuff that just happens on stage.”

They (sic) crowd are almost passing out from the combination of frenzied activity and the extreme heat, but still manage to scream out for more as the band leave the stage. “A lot of people don’t know that’s what drives a show,” explains Wednesday about his relationship with the audience. “You have to make fans feel part of the event and I think we do it better than anyone else.”

The band then jump back into the van for the two minute trip back to their dressing room behind the main stage. When they get back there the guys are all super hyped up. Excitedly buzzing around their dressing room, drinking beers, telling jokes. Joey is busy analysing the gig, and the BDO circus in general. He and Wednesday have got an interview to do with Australian TV scheduled for 8:45pm. It’s almost 9pm and Joey has another issue: “I want to eat! I must eat before I talk!” he exclaims. The interview is postponed for 20 minutes.

Bass player Eric is hanging around, so I grab him for a quick chat. Of all the Murderdolls, Eric seems the shyest but is probably the one most up for anything, especially if it is party related. He may only be small, (even in his Ace Frehley six-inch platforms he’s still barely average height!) but he’s a true rock’n’roller with a party attitude to match. “‘Machine Gun Fellatio’ that’s a cool fuckin’ name,” he squeaks discussing some of the other bands on the BDO bill. And he does squeak, kinda, like annoying Brit ‘comedian’ Joe Pasquale.

I bring up the fact that esteemed record producer, Nick Launey (Silverchair, INXS) was side of stage watching the show and had an interesting story to tell me about Eric. “I think I know where this is going,” smiles Eric slyly. “I met him about two years ago in LA at a party and we were all fucked up. I got dragged down three flights of stairs by my hair and he reckoned it was the biggest rock’n’roll moment of ‘00 for him. First impressions count, man.”

“It was so rock’n’roll!” Launey informs me later. “It was the launch of Orgy’s album and they had these models dressed as prostitutes lying on a bed and Eric jumps up on the bed with them, which of course you weren’t allowed to do. So the bouncers are dragging him out by his hair, kicking and screaming, down the stairs. His head was literally bouncing down each stair like a cartoon character and all the while he’s just got his middle fingers up on each hand and is yelling out ‘Fuck You!’, ‘Get Fucked!’, ‘Fuck you, mind the hair!’ Somehow he got back into the party and I asked him ‘how’s your head?’ and he just said “Whaddya mean?” - it was just so rock’n’roll!”

Eric has pre-arranged with their tour driver to take him over to the Boiler Room, where the BDO’s electronica acts are playing. He wants to see German electronic innovators Kraftwerk. “One of the bands I was in before the Murderdolls was very digital and computer based,” he reveals. “Kraftwerk don’t do a lot of live shows and I don’t think I’ll ever get the opportunity to see them again. They’re pretty important to the genre and even if I catch just 10 minutes of their set I think it will be worth coming over. A short ride through the back entrance, we arrive at the Boiler Room and manage to get in, via a bit of a labyrinth, through the backdoor and into the main arena just at the side of the stage. The Kraftwerk guys are standing robot-like in front of their computers while the huge dome-like venue is dripping with sweat from the 10.000+ strong punters who have basically been locked in the room all day listening (sic) the dance bands. We get a good vantage point but after about five minutes we’re leaving. “Jeez! That was the most boring piece of crap I’ve seen!” exclaims Eric when he gets back to the dressing room. “But it was worth going because I scored some drugs!”

Acey’s just hanging around backstage with his camera and a little doll from The Nightmare Before Christmas. He has a ritual where he takes a photograph of the doll in front of landmarks all around the world. “I have him in front of the Eiffel Tower for instance,” he says. “The other day I took a pic of him in front of the Sydney Opera House.” And with that he takes a photo of the doll sitting in front of a sign that says ‘Sleazy’. Hmmm. Odd man.

Acey and Eric are loving every minute of the Murderdolls ride. They’re both on their first trip to Australia and according to both of them it is (sic) has been “Cool as hell!” “The Gold Coast was really on,” says Eric. “It’s been kinda mellow since we got to Sydney because we’ve had four or five days off before this show so we’ve just been trying to find out what’s been going on. It’s been building gradually… and we’ve been partying a lot – maybe too much,” he adds sheepishly. Rick the tour manager – who’s passing by – agrees: “Yep, they’ve been very naughty boys – they’ve got to go to bed early tonight with no supper,” he jokes.

“He knows we’re the most dangerous band on the tour,” counters Eric. It’s a fact that seems to deter any other bands partying with the Murderdolls too. “The only band that has even reached out to us are the guys in Jane’s Addiction, in particular, Dava Navarro,” offers Acey. “He actually came out of his way to come over and introduce himself. And pretty much comes up and talks to us everyday he sees us along with the drummer, Steven [Perkins]. Everyone else is just kinda like, ‘What’s Up?’ Maybe it’s because we don’t look like we’re the most approachable band. Then again no-one has done anything to piss us off at all.”

No one may be talking to the Murderdolls but there is talk of the Murderdolls all over BDO. Most centres around their appearance with most Australian musical luminaries agreeing the band are the best dressed at the festival. One member of Aussie band the Resin Dogs even goes as far as to say, “The Murderdolls rock the wardrobe”. Acey is kinda flattered but non-plussed by the comments. “What image?” he exclaims. “This is how we are all day! Obviously we knock it up a notch for the show but this is the real thing. We don’t care if people like us as sexual deviants or not, but one thing’s for sure – they’ll fucking remember us.”

Big Ben Graves strides over to join us at the table. “Did I hear the words sexual deviant?” he announces in his deeply rounded US accent. “I’ve always been like that! Some people have a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other – I just two devils. There is NO voice of reason!”

We ask him if he has had any interesting adventures since he’s been in Australia and then instantly regret it…

“Dude, it has been nothing but interesting adventures. For instance last night, he (indicating Eric) he almost screwed a one-armed girl!”

“She had three tits and one arm,” giggles the dimunitive (sic) bassist.

“Yeah. It was weird,” continues the Ghoul, “one of her arms was like a stump and it looked like it had a nipple on it. I must admit I almost fucked her just for the freakiness of it.”

And with that starter for 10, the Ghoul is off. He starts ranting on with these sick freak jokes that crack everyone up and inside a minute you get a window to his personality. “Our drummer is one bona fide sick fuck,” jokes Wednesday of him later. “He stills (sic) freaks us out. I’ll just look at him sometimes and say to myself, ‘holy shit, dude, what planet are you from?’”

“It was weird on the Gold Coast,” says Eric, picking up on the tour adventure thread. “The girls there were the hottest chicks I had ever seen in my life but by the same token I had never got as much shit for the way I look than I have there as well. It was like two opposite poles. At first it was, ‘hey freak, where’s the funeral?’ and the next was, ‘sit down have a drink with us.”

“As far as people looking at you weird, I found Sydney is where I got the stares,” admits the Ghoul. “Sydney sucks! Although we did have some girls staking out our hotel which was pretty funny and I did have an over-zealous fan thrown out of the bar. The guy was just touching me a little more than he should and I didn’t like it,” he says animatedly. “I was like, ‘man, don’t make me waste this perfectly good bottle of Heineken by breaking it over your head. I’ve done it before’. Eric looks at him and says, “yeah he has!” But he was on something. I remember thinking ‘I want whatever he’s on… times ten!”

“I gotta say though, the Sydney crowd today was one of the best crowds we’ve had so far,” offers Acey as he joins the throng. “It was insane. It is good for us this tour, because the kids don’t know what we are all about yet so we have to prove ourselves. By the end of the set they all had their hands in the air.”

By this time Joey and Wednesday have finished their feed and their hastily re-scheduled interview and are looking for some more mischievous fun for themselves. “First of all, I’m going to go back over to the stage we played because there are a lot of kids hanging around over there still wanting to see us,” explains Joey. “Then after that, I’m gonna go directly where ever (sic) the free drinks are at…” Suddenly, Eric’s doubled over in the doorway of the dressing room. It’s been 45 minutes since he visited Kraftwerk in the Boiler Room and the pharmaceuticals are beginning to take effect. We ask if he’s OK. “Yeah man, I just think I’m gonna spew!” he grins. The rest of the band are baiting him ceaselessly.

“C’mon chuck it up man!” they urge and all crack up laughing together.

In the middle of all the commotion Wednesday is taking a piss in the corner of the dressing room. The place is a wreck: there are empty bottles of booze, food scrapes (sic), squashed fruit, hairdryers, make-up, boots, clothes (black and red if (sic) course) and of course a giant mirror. Wednesday is actually pissing into a bottle of Corona. At the same time I am just about to pick up my freshly opened bottle of Corona from the table which is besides (sic) a now suspicious looking bottle. “Yeah I always piss in the empty bottles,” giggles Wednesday. And then I leave ‘em on the table just to piss off anyone who might want to grab some of our rider or whatever. Just be careful just to get bottles from down there in the ice box, he laughs mischievously. Suddenly the oddly warm bottle in my hand seems less than appealing…

As the clock turns 1am the only people left at the stadium are the cleaners, the roadies and the still-partying Murderdolls. Last to leave, the van is parked just outside the dressing room and all I can see through the opened door is the Ghoul chucking around a baguette, now baked hard as a rock over the course of the stifling hot day. “Look at this - it could be used as a weapon to seriously maim you!” he screams bouncing the French loaf off the wall. A post vomit Eric cracks up, as the two hold a mock baguette joust oblivious to the outside world. They eventually make off back to their hotel room in the city, but don’t hang there for too long. The weekend lights of Sydney beckon and they cruise down William street in King’s Cross, to an underground rock venue called Club 77. It’s glam night, just their crowd and they spend the wee hours of the morning hanging out with fans and getting stuck into the sauce with a vengeance. Australia has officially been Murderdolled!

Blood and Glitter

Gavin Braddeley charts the rise of shock rock

Glam is hard evidence that what goes around comes around. Long dismissed as the definitive climax of 70s bad taste, in recent years glam rock has arisen from the grave, albeit with a veil of cobwebs draped over its original dusting of glitter. Originally a violent reaction to the 60s happy fad for all things natural, worthy, meaningful and drab, glam was all about being deliberately artificial, selfish, throwaway and garish.

In the States Alice Cooper was impaling baby dolls and throwing blood bottles around the stage from ‘70 onwards culminating in the vaudeville theatrics of the ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ album/tour of ‘76.

Back in the UK, the Glam pioneer was lame pop pixie Marc Bolan (sic), photogenic frontman with T-Rex, who caused a sensation when he took to the stage on Top of the Pops in ‘71 with glitter under his eyes, clad in what looked suspiciously like drag. Never one to miss a trick, the lizard-like David Bowie soon jumped from the hippy ship to take on his otherworldly Ziggy Stardust persona.

The older generation may have thought that smearing make-up on your face and covering your clothes in sequins made you look like a ‘pooftah’. Alice Cooper got around this by replacing Glam’s overt ‘fagginess’ with ghoulish melodrama, prompting one critic to observe that Americans were more comfortable with necrophilia than homosexuality. And then came Kiss. Gene Simmons’ monstrous blood vomiting, fire breathing ‘Demon’ persona enslaved an entire generation of US children crossing Glam’s theatricality with heavy metal machismo to create one of the most influential bands in rock music history.

W.A.S.P. and Mötley Crüe supercharged Kiss’s sleaze and violence quotient to spectacular effect in the 80s, and provide the missing link between Glam and the Murderdolls, who happily cite the back-combed bad boys as a large part of their creative DNA. The chief inheritor of the Glam tradition in the last decade, however, is cross-dressing controversialist Marilyn Manson. Bowie may have metaphorically murdered his creation Ziggy Stardust in the summer of ‘74, while Bolan (sic) died more literally in a car accident three years later, but quarter-of-a-century on, Manson used his own dark arts to conjure their spirit on ‘Mechanical Animals’, his own tribute to pop’s most decadent decade.

Dead… and loving it!

The Murderdolls’ five favourite movie death scenes of all time…

The Murderdolls are proof positive that nothing gets some folks’ creative juices flowing quite so freely as a truly delicious cinematic death scene. Joey and Wednesday have a few favourites – both carnage connoisseurs identifying the ‘74 classic power toolfest The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as the gory cream of the crop – a movie currently being remade with a certain Mr. Manson in the soundtrack composer’s chair. (As a curious aside, you never actually see the girl hung on the hook – just a shadow – but such is the film’s sordid impact that most viewers swear you do!)

Joey 1. Texas Chainsaw Massacre “The girl on the hook.”

2. Friday The 13th Part IV “When the knife comes through the bed and impales the chick.”

3. The Exorcist “When the priest is hucked out through the plate glass window.”

4. A Nightmare on Elm Street “Where the girl is getting dragged across the rooftop.”

5. Necromancy “Where a group of devils and monsters take a girl apart.”

Wednesday 1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre “The girl on the hook.”

2. Dawn of the Dead “When the spiked ball comes down and rips the guy’s head apart.”

3. Phantasm “A silver ball hits the guy in the head and sucks out all his brains.”

4. Hellraiser “Where (sic) the end sequence where the guy is being chased by all these hooks. They attach themselves to him and rip him apart.”

5. Nightmare On Elm Street “Where Freddy rips out the guy’s veins and uses them like strings controlling a puppet.”

Schlock n’ Roll

B-movie classics that have influenced shock rockers of now and then…

Some horror movies are best watched not so much with your tongue in your cheek, as thrust firmly through it, films that by accident or design are more about fun than fear. The same could be said of numerous horror loving bands, including the Murderdolls, where an ‘everyday is Halloween’ ethos prevails. Here are a few examples of B movie blood fests which may not have won any Oscars, have been paid tribute to by schlock loving bands over the years…

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957) It is no surprise that the mother-of-all cult movies inspired the mother-of-all cult bands, and when Glenn Danzig created a label to release early Misfits material he dubbed it ‘Plan 9’. Frequently voted the worst movie of all time with its ludicrous script, mind bogglingly bad special effects, cardboard sets, and even more cardboard artistry, Plan 9 From Outer Space is irresistibly entertaining. Directed by the cross-dressing caliph of crap Ed Wood Junior, featuring proto-goth babe Vampira and Bela Lugosi (dying of drug addiction, he was replaced mid production by a stand-in who looks nothing like him).

The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971) Featuring horror cinema’s kind of camp Vincent Price as the fiendish Phibes, avenging the death of his wife using maniacal methods borrowed from the biblical plagues, all against wonderful, strangely psychedelic sets. Also possessed of a strange psychedelic sensibility are punk pioneers the Damned, though in the 80s, lead singer Dave Vanian’s horror sensibilities took centre stage, attracting a goth following. The 80 track ‘13th Floor Vendetta’ is a classic example of the band’s game-topping which, if you listen carefully, is all about ol’ Doc Phibes.

Mars Attacks! (1996) Director Tim Burton’s tribute to the drive-in shockers of the 50s and 60s, Mars Attacks! was actually based upon a ‘62 series of bubblegum cards, discontinued because of their gruesomely graphic pictures of earthlings being exterminated by alien invaders. As such this inspiration might suggest Mars Attacks! has little by way of plot, but for anyone with a weakness for vintage schlock sci-fi it’s a true Technicolor treat. This must certainly include the Misfits and when they reformed, they did so without the blessing of founder Glenn Danzig, but with their monster movie obsessions intact – among a multitude of horror movie tributes on their ‘97 comeback album ‘American Psycho’ was ‘Mars Attacks’ (and even an instrumental coincidentally titled ‘Abominable Dr Phibes’!)

I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957) The drive-in movies of the 50s and 60s typically featured juvenile delinquents or monsters, and this bargain-basement effort delivered both in one lurid package. Before becoming ‘Pa’ on TV’s Little House on the Prairie Michael Landon stars as a troubled teen – though when he starts growing hair in strange places, it’s more than just hormones to blame. A howl from beginning to end, Teenage inspired a number on ‘Songs the Lord Taught Us’, the ‘80 debut from drive-in movie loving ghoulish rockers The Cramps.

Murder, mayhem and a right old mess

Minging Murderdoll tales from the Big Day Out

Who is the messiest Murderdoll of them all? Wednesday: “That would be Eric and The Ghoul. They are just messy as fuck. But you know you’ve just got to get used to living with these people. We’ve been on the road since July. You live on a bus for six weeks which means you’ve got (sic) live in everyone else’s shit.”

Who is the tidy anal doll? Joey: “No-one. We’re all pretty fuckin’ messy.” Wednesday: “I just took two garbage bags of mess out of my room. And just put it in the hallway. Just full of chicken bones and beer bottles and all sorts of shit like that, it was just smelling really bad so I had to get rid of it.”

So you do that yourself? Wednesday: “I don’t let the cleaning staff come into my room and tidy up. I put the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign for the whole week I am there.” Joey: “The housekeepers are scared shitless to come into our rooms anyway so we keep it easy for them and put the ‘Do Not Disturb” signs up the whole time. They are going to be so scared to come into our rooms and clean up after we’ve been there for a fuckin’ week!”

[everybodyshusband]

love at first sight

mushy may ; day four (approx. 1k words)

under the cut or on ao3

itty bitty nsfw section towards the end

“...But if we can’t get enough people, then we might as well not even ha–” Dewdrop pauses mid-sentence and stops in his tracks, pawing frantically at Mountain’s arm as he points shakily in the direction of two of the most beautiful creatures he’s ever seen in either of his lives. “Who. Are they.”

They—whoever they are, although Dew thinks they’re multi and water ghouls respectively—are walking across the abbey grounds hand in hand, talking and laughing with each other. He’s enamoured with the way the multi ghoul throws his head back when he laughs, and Dew can’t stop his eyes from roving over the water ghoul’s delicate blush and subtle smirk. They’re gorgeous, the pair of them. Dewdrop wants them both to sink their teeth into him.

(In reality, he thinks that maybe—just maybe—what he really wants to do is be horribly domestic with the pair of them. He wants to have movie nights in a comfortable bedroom they all share, go on silly, ridiculous dates, and let himself be reeled further and further in by their charms until he falls horribly, wonderfully, irrevocably in love with both of them. He thinks he’s already halfway there.)

Mountain turns—frustratingly slowly—and follows the line of Dew’s arm until his gaze falls upon the two newest summons; the ones he helped name. “Oh.” He shouldn’t be surprised that Dew hasn’t met them yet, but the realisation that he doesn’t know who their new pack members are is jarring, somehow. “That’s just Rain and Swiss. They’re the new summons I was telling you about.”

Dewdrop turns and gapes at him. “They’re pack?” There’s no way; no fucking way two creatures of such perfection are a part of his pack.

Mountain nods. “Mhmm. Rain’s water, Swiss is a multi. We summoned them both two, maybe three, days ago.”

With a surprising show of strength, Dewdrop pulled Mountain down to his level, making direct and, quite frankly, jarring eye contact as he spoke. “Mountain. Are they a part of our pack?”

“Yeah, sundew.” Mountain nodded as well as he could with his face sandwiched in between Dewdrop’s small hands. “They’re pack. According to Copia, Rain’s going to be on bass and Swiss is–”

Dewdrop shrieked and sped away from the earth ghoul and towards Rain and Swiss as fast as his legs would allow him.

“Oi! Oi, oi!” The sound of Mountain’s footsteps echoed through the halls, right behind him. “Dew, get back here! Leave them alone, you fucking menace!” Despite Mountain’s seemingly heard words, Dewdrop could hear the telltale shake of laughter in the earth ghoul’s voice. His hypothesis that Mountain was laughing was further proven when the earth ghoul’s footsteps slowed to a stop, and Mountain’s wheezy cackles reverberated through the hallway.

Dewdrop whooped as he got further away from Mountain, which in turn, caught the attention of Swiss and Rain. They turned to face the source of their disturbance, and for the second time that morning, Dewdrop found himself skidding to a halt, in awe of their collective beauty.

Swiss began walking towards him and grinned as he took in Dewdrop’s extremely flustered appearance. Sathanas, Dewdrop was going to pass the fuck out if the multi ghoul kept looking at him like that, and that would be the opposite of the good first impression Dewdrop wanted to make. As if Swiss’ hopelessly charming smile wasn’t already enough for Dewdrop’s poor love-stricken brain to handle, Rain smirked at him as he moved to join Swiss, and Dewdrop was sure he felt his knees buckle under the weight of the water ghoul’s amused gaze.

“Hey, doll.” Sathanas, Swiss’ voice was so hot it should have been illegal. “We met before?”

Dewdrop opened his mouth to answer but Rain beat him to it. “I think this is the little flame Mountain was telling us about. Dewdrop, right?”

“Y– yeah…” Dewdrop could only hope that his brain wasn’t short-circuiting too badly, and that his words were still coherent enough for the ghouls in front of him to understand. “You– you know who I am?” He cursed his inability to speak without stumbling over his words. So much for wanting to make a good first impression…

“‘Course we do, doll. Mountain’s told us all about you.”

Uh oh.

“All good things, of course,” Rain added, kindly alleviating Dewdrop’s fears. “Well, mainly good things.” …Mostly alleviating them.

“Wanna walk with us? Show us around a few places?” Swiss asked, reaching out to grab Dewdrop’s hand. “I know Rainy’s dying to see the lake.”

“You haven’t been shown the lake yet?” That was odd. The lake was usually one of the first places around the Abbey water ghouls were given the tour of.

Rain shrugged his shoulders. “Not yet. Show us, won’t you?” The water ghoul made a point of grabbing onto Dewdrop’s other hand. Sathanas, he wasn’t going to survive these two.

“Y– yeah, of course.” Clearly the hand holding had set off his flustered stutters again. “Uhm, follow me?” It came out as more of a question, but when he set off down the well-beaten track that led down towards the lake, both ghouls followed eagerly behind him, each of them still holding his hands.

He couldn’t stop his mind from wandering, and he found himself coming up with half-baked plans for future dates on the lake’s shore. He and Swiss sitting together on a picnic blanket on the dock, feeding bites of fruit and sips of drink to Rain each time he came back up to the surface for a chat. Rain and Swiss gently coaxing him into the shallows, rewarding him with kisses for every difficult step that moves him further into the water.

He tried to stop his mind from coming up with anything too irrational—like Swiss holding Dewdrop’s back to his chest, playing with his little cock while Rain fucks into his cunt, both of them praising him for being so good for them; so pretty as he takes all the pleasure they want to give him—but each new thought his brain conjured up had him almost giddy with excitement.

Baby steps, he needed to remind himself. First, show them the lake. Then he could think about loving them both into eternity as much as his heart desired.

[sanderssideswriting]

Just watched the Halloween video from this year and saw screencaps of the Halloween video from a few years back… I just don’t understand how we can go from Frankenstein prosthetics for Logan in that episode to messy eyeliner with visible mess up marks for Janus in the new one. Like it’s not a difference of a new makeup artist, it just feels like a lack of caring for it to be as good as it’s been.

I just loved this series so deeply before, so it’s frustrating to see what seem like such flippant disregard for the quality of what they’re making

thank you for this ask because I've been thinking of going through each makeup look and analyzing them more. I totally agree with you about the lack of care. The whole thing is so insanely rushed when they could've taken like, a few more days of planning if they wanted to get it out for halloween, or hell a few days after and have them spin it as them being sad spirit halloween is gone for the year and what a spirit christmas would be like. Or like, the 12 days of christmas but 12 days of spirit halloween? I just feel like there could've been some better ideas. The makeup looks like they were given 5 minutes to figure out what each side would be and 5 minutes to do the make up itself.

onto the make up analysis that'll be under the cut.

Little disclaimer before though, I'm in no way a makeup artist, what I am is a cosplayer and I've pulled together some pretty cool shit with very limited supplies and knowledge.

editors note: so according to the comments it seems like everyone's a character from the nightmare before christmas? Or at the least, Remus, Virgil, Roman and maybe Logan. I don't know, I've seen the movie like twice. just keep that in mind I didn't know until after writing everything below. But it really doesn't change my criticisms of the makeup

first on the list: JANUS

now this is just, I don't even know what it is. I think it's from the I'm Mr White Christmas, song because every year people do half Mr. White Christmas and half Mr. Sun makeup and it looks very good. But you don't need it to look that good. Like, I'd personally make the contrast between the blue and red way more, because it just isn't there. Maybe to keep the snake appearance do like, orange scales or orange underneath then red? Something to look more like fire. the joker esque smile doesn't work, again the contrast is very bad. The blue sticks out but the red doesn't so I'd get some lipstick, maybe a blue eyeliner if you can't get a blue lipstick, and loose the black lines, maybe make the blue side white and the red side more of a very dark red?

VIRGIL

I've got no idea, it's just so generic. A ghoul? A zombie? Who knows, not me. first of all, make the eye makeup darker, maybe some dark contour to make his cheeks look sunken in. if the stitches have to be purple then I'd say make it darker and use a black eyeliner pencil to add some definition and some detail that's harder to do with the eyeshadow

LOGAN

Frankenstein's monster? Or Frankenstein, the thing on his forehead says monster, the lab coat says man. why the fuck is Logan the only one who's got something over his usual attire. I guess you could argue that he just has one laying around? I'm not going to get into the wonky line, straight lines are hard. but the screw, again could've been done better with an eyeliner pencil because they are very pale.

PATTON

also I'm not trying to take unflattering screenshots, I'm just trying to get a clear one of Thomas facing the camera

a clown! very simple, very easy and the makeup is fucking visible!! Personally, adding the triangles around the eyes would be nice, for Patton I'd definitely lean on the fun side of clows and not the scary side. I just think a little more could be done. But I'm just thankful there's an actual red nose. The bar is low. I have to mention Patton's verse again, it's so bad, so rushed, could there not have been a little more thought into it specifically?

ROMAN

Jack Skellington I believe? I don't fucking know. my issue is the eyemake up once again, Make it much darker and less blocky. maybe some nose contour or try to make it look like an actual human skull? the stitches are eh, but I feel like they could be darker, maybe a liquid eyeliner in this case. This is also the only one where I think they really tried to hide Thomas's mustache I guess for the lip stitches?

REMUS

THe boogey man? Also from the nightmare before christmas. Are Roman and Remus doing a group costume? Remus's is probablt the best, he is also the only other side with something over his costume. The makeup looks pretty good, the black is solid at least around his mouth. Again, the eye makeup should be darker. the things on his cheeks are worms I believe. those are alright, I'd probably try to make them stand out a little more

[kissingghouls]

I can't get Copia out of my head - nothing new there but I was thinking and... Do you think Copia was so self-conscious about his nose that he got the nose job or was his mom the one who wanted her surgery and he tagged along? Or maybe he was pressured into it? But I don't think anyone in the MInistry really cares what any of the Papa's looks like...

Hello anon! What an excellent question, thank you! 💖💖💖

My personal headcanon is more like Copia went in for some other kind of corrective surgery related to the fact that the dude used to snore so fucking loud. Like seven freight trains loud. And rather than get his own tour bus so the ghouls wouldn’t kill him, Copia opted to have the surgery instead. It happened to change his nose a bit, but now he can sleep on his back and he can share his bed without getting embarrassed about the snoring or driving his partner to another room. It took some getting used to, but the pros were so positive it was hard for him to lament his old profile. Mostly he still just sees himself in the mirror, the same age lines and the shape of his mother’s eyes.

As far as the Ministry is concerned, I don’t think they’d ever pressure someone into such a thing. They might hold some influence over his appearance in other ways—the symbolism with color and the style of his papal robes—but they wouldn’t push him to change physical features like that. I like to think that even though the Ministry is some vaguely religious and ~mysterious organization, they would still be the opposite of what other organizations would be. They’re less about fitting people into a certain box or looking/acting a certain way and more about celebrating what makes you you. If Sister Imperator or anyone else wants to have cosmetic work done, the Ministry is hardly going to tell them no—they’re not in the business of saying no to anything really. They’re only strict about the budget.

Do I now have a million ideas thanks to this and the ghovie? Yes.

[anamelessfool]

Giving you a character... Nihil (obvious I know)

NO this isn’t obvious! It’s what I liiiive for hehe Thank you thank you thank you (Art I’ve done of him)

How I Feel about this character

So happy I am at a distance from him. He’s an absolute train wreck even though he tries his best. He’s just desperate to be known. Longs for somebody to believe in him, so any sweet words shared with him are taken immediately to heart. He is self-centered but only because he doesn’t understand other people. Automatically assumes everyone has his best interests in mind. Doesn’t realize he breaks hearts. He’s everybody’s pal. I love the idea of a man who sold his soul for fame and now his entire bloodline is cursed. It rattles around in my brain a lot.

People I ship romantically with Nihil

Literally anyone with nice words to say to him. He will charm the pants off anyone, human or ghoul alike if they have even the slightest fondness for him. He’s so desperate for love.

Non-Romantic OTP for Nihil

His oldest son Primo. I write him as his one regret in his whole life is cheating on Primo’s mother and having her leave. It’s the man’s eldest son, a father has a connection with the eldest son that’s special. Maybe every interaction he has with Primo as an adult comes from that guilt.

Unpopular Opinion

I don’t like when he’s written as cruel or mean. Thoughtless, yes. Self-centered, yes. But cruel? No. Cruelty means they’re actually thinking about you and wanting you to conform. This guy just wants to be your pal and desperately wants you to like him. In a lot of ways that’s a whole lot worse but hey that’s definitely not something I know from personal experience nope not at all Writing Nihil helped me come to terms with my own father’s failings and allowed him to be human in my eyes despite all the fucking pain he’s brought me over the years but hey that’s why I sent those fics to my therapist first

One thing I wish Happened

More Young Nihil! It all had to run deeper than that one night at the Whisky A Go Go. Like….way more. And I wanna see it.

[wrathofrats]

I actually would really love to know: do you hc that ghouls that arent in the band anymore are send back to the pits? or do you feel they stick around but just do different jobs? and if so, how does that look? are there ANY ghoul beyond the band ghouls at the abbey?

so like, do they have to move out of the band ghoul dorms and into a different dorm? is it 1 HUGE pack? or is it like, a few different packs that are kinda like extended family. so every once in a while they go over for tea or a bbq get together.

is there a wing thats like 'ghoul wing' and then the 'band wing' so that, once a ghoul leaves the band they have to go to the normal ghoul wing? and is the ghoul wing divided by packs? or is it just 1 huge wing and a "fuck it, sort it out yourselves" type situation??

Idk I just like hearing about peoples like, ideas on world building like this sometimes.

Omg hi I do have opinions on this

I think the old ghouls stick around and are put to work/easy stuff for retirement. Obviously the quints work medical, earth ghouls do food and botanical and farming deals, fire ghouls do glass/metal/architechtureal stuff, air ghouls deal with sibling affairs and water ghouls kinda help as needed, mostly with earth ghouls.

I think there’s only the band ghouls, I think summoning is a very hard ritual and takes a lot of resources, so it’s only used for band members. The current band has their own dorm/housing situation while every other era has its own building. And those who are between (like aether) just choose, but aether is currently in the era 3 house with ifrit and Zeph and them (obv this is excluding my hc that aether is dead/no longer with the band in some way lmao)

They’re all a pack I think but definitely are separated by their eras

Thank you for asking!

[dialovers-translations]

Diabolik Lovers LOST EDEN ー Kino Dark [Epilogue]

ー The scene starts in the living room of the Sakamaki Castle

Laito: Anyway...I didn’t expect for the people of the Church to make a surprise appearance...

Shuu: ...Seems like they are the ones who have been hunting down Demons in the human world.

Kou: ...Hunting? What do you mean?

Subaru: It’s been talked ‘bout quite a lot lately. Apparently there’s some guys going ‘round killin’ Demons...especially Vampires.

Kou: ...I had no idea such a thing was happening in the human world while we were at Eden...

Laito: ...So, if he’s working together with the Church, does that mean that this Kino we’ve heard so much about also participated in these activities...?

Shuu: Yeah. Probably...

Reiji: I can only assume that he won over the Church by flaunting his identity as Father’s son. 

Kou: But why would he do that...? I mean, he’s a Vampire himself, isn’t he? 

And why did the Church start hunting Demons at this point anyway?

Ruki: ...They might be taking advantage of the unstable situation in the Demon World. 

I believe that they came to the conclusion that now that Karlheinz-sama has passed away, it is as good of an opportunity as ever to permanently get rid of all Demons in the human world. 

Shuu: ...That might not be the only reason.

Subaru: ...What do you mean?

Shuu: Perhaps the Church doesn’t simply want to get rid of all Demons in the human world...But they’re actually hoping to conquer the Demon World as a whole.

Reiji: ...Ridiculous. So you want to claim that one day us Demons will have to surrender to mere humans?

Kou: There���s just...no way, right? They don’t stand a chance against us without any magic...

Ruki: Not under normal circumstances. However, right now, they have a powerful magic user on their side. 

Subaru: ...Ayato, you mean...? 

Shuu: ...He’s a fool after all. Things could get very problematic if he falls for their taunts.

Reiji: ...I suppose we do not have a single second to waste after all. 

Monologue

After a while,

we arrived at Rotigenberg.

Barren lands as far as my eyes could reach...

Furthermore, a nauseating stench,

lingers through the air. 

I recall what Kino-kun said. 

ーー The Cursed Wastelands of the Demon World.

ー The scene starts on the open fields of Rotigenberg

Yui: ...!

( What a horrible stench...I wonder where this is coming from...? )

( It’s almost as if there’s something rotting nearby... )

Ayato: ...Coff! Coff, coff! It stinks...The fuck’s this stench...?

Kino: What, you ask...? Well, if I had to give it a name, I’d say that this is the scent of Rotigenberg. 

Everyone who comes here likes to compare it to the scent of rotten figs though. 

Oh well, we can do something about the smell once we get to the manor. Come on, let’s go.

...Ah, right. The underground here isn’t the best, as you can see, so watch your step, okay?

Yui: ( Right. My feet keep getting stuck in the mud... )

( ...This is mud, right...? It’s kind of weird... )

Kino: By the way, they say that all of this muck is what’s left behind of Ghouls’ corpses after they rot away. 

Yui: ...Corpses...!? 

Kino: Fufu. And now you’re surprised? You’ve been trampling all over it this whole time. 

Yui: Uu...

( I mean...What else should I do...? )

Ayato: Hah...No wonder it stinks. This place is just as disgustin’ as I heard it is...

Kino: Well, I doubt that’s the only thing causing the smell.

According to what the Ghouls have told me, this place has always been a hotspot for miasma. 

Yui: ...Miasma?

Kino: Some people like to compare it to the gasses which emit from the ground in the Underworld. 

Well, to be honest, I don’t know all of the details either? 

Yui: ( Either way, that doesn’t sound very positive... )

( I wonder why Kino-kun brought us here...? )

??? A: Kino-sama!

??? B: We’ve been awaiting your return, Kino-sama! Welcome back!

??? C: I am so glad to see you have not changed at all!

ー Ghouls run up to them

Yui: ( A bunch of people are approaching us from up ahead...? )

Kino-kun, who are these people...?

Kino: They’re the Ghouls who live here. Seems like they’re here to welcome me back. 

Monologue

Before I knew it,

a crowd of people had flocked around Kino-kun.

All of the Ghouls,

welcomed him with open arms. 

When I watched the scene unfold,

I was reminded of Yuuri-san’s words.

ーー He is the hope of the Ghouls. 

I could definitely feel,

that all of the people here,

seemed to worship Kino-kun in such a way. 

However, it was then that I realized.

In the shadows of the adults,

who were enthusiastically glorifying Kino-kun 

there were children,

glaring his wayーー 

Young Ghoul Boy B: ...

Young Ghoul Girl C: ...

Yui: ( ...Are those kids glaring at Kino-kun? )

( I wonder if something is up...? )

*TIMESKIP*

*Creaaak*

Kino: Come on in.

Yui: P-Pardon the intrusion... 

ー They enter the Ghouls’ house

Ayato: Hah...The fuck is this? What a dump. 

Yui: A-Ayato-kun...

( That’s a little... )

Kino: Excuse me? Who said the two of you could talk? I’m pretty sure I forbid the two of you from communicating. 

Ayato: Hmph. Our journey’s over so that rule is no longer in place. 

Anyway, both you and those Ghouls from earlier...I’m surprised you can survive livin’ here.

Kino: Not a single person would willingly choose to live here. I’m sure even an idiot such as yourself knows that, no? 

Besides, I wonder whose fault it is that we have no other choice...? 

Ayato: Ugh...

Yui: ...? What do you mean...?

Kino: Right. Why don’t you explain it to her, Ayato? 

Seems like she’s dying to talk to you after all. ...Yuuri, come with me for a sec. 

Yuuri: Roger.

ー Kino and Yuuri leave the room together

Ayato: ...

Yui: ( Ayato-kun seems kind of troubled. )

( I wonder if it’s a difficult topic? The reason why the Ghouls are living here... )

Hey, Ayato-kun. Could you tell me? 

Ayato: ...How to put it, guess you could say Ghouls are faced with discrimination.

Yui: Discrimination...?

Ayato: You know that Ghouls don’t have any magic, right? That’s why all other Demons look down on them...

Personally, I never had any interest in Ghouls, so I can’t say I either like or dislike them.

But I’ve heard that some people will crunch up their nose just from hearin’ the word ‘Ghoul’ being mentioned.

Yui: ...No way...

Ayato: There’s those who will catch them and turn them into their personal slaves, while others don’t even want to touch them. 

That’s why they rarely ever leave Rotigenberg.

I guess it’d be more accurate to say that they simply can’t...

Yui: ...

( I had no idea the Ghouls were shunned like that in the Demon World... )

( Then is Kino-kun trying to help the Ghouls, perhaps...? )

( But...Why won’t he just say so then? )

Ayato: Either way, this is an issue which concerns the whole Demon World. It isn’t something we can do somethin’ ‘bout by ourselves. 

I’m not sure what Kino’s objective is, but for now, we gotta think of a way to get out of here. 

Yui: ( Good point... )

*Cling*

Ayato: Damnit...I’d easily be able to get us outta here with my magic if only I could get rid of these damn handcuffs...

Yui: Yeah.

( If only there was a way to outsmart them... )

ー Yuuri enters the room

Yui: ...Yuuri-san.

( He didn’t hear any of what we just said, right...? )

Yuuri: Yui-san. Kino is calling for you. Please come with me. 

Yui: ...Okay...

Ayato: Chichinashi...

ー Yui leaves with Yuuri

Yuuri: Kino is inside this room. Well then, if you’d excuse me now.

Would you please deliver this to Kino-kun?

*Rustle rustle*

Yui: ( ...Juice? )

Sure.

( This is the infamous Guava juice he loves so much, right...? Could it be he goes all the way to the human world to get it...? )

*Knock knock*

Yui: Kino-kun? I’m coming in, okay?

ー Yui enters the bathroom

Kino: Ahー You’re finally here. You took forever...

Yui: ...!

( T-This...It’s the bathroom...!? )

Kino: Come on, get over here already and rinse my back.

Ah, also. Where’s my guava juice? You brought it with you, right? Hurry up and give it to me. I’m thirsty.

Yui: ...You called me over just for that!? Do that yourself!

( ...Oh no, I blurted it out... )

Kino: ...Hm, I see. Sure, no problem. ...Not for me, at least.

Yui: Uu...

( If I don’t obey, he’ll do some horrible things again... )

( Not just to me, but I’m sure to Ayato-kun as well... )

...Fine. I just have to rinse off your back, right?

Kino: Fufu, exactly.

Yui: ( I guess this should do... )

ー Yui turns off the water

Yui: ...Okay, I’m done. I’ll get going noーー

Kino: Hah? What are you saying? I never said that you could stop, did I?

Yui: Ugh...

Kino: Aah, but. Let me think...Rather than having you continue rinsing off my back...

I’m pretty sure that doing this would be much more fun! ...There!

ー He pulls her into the tub with him

*SPLASH*

Yui: Kyah...!? 

( I got pulled into the tub...! )

Kino: Ahahaha!

Yui: ...How could you!! My clothes are soaking wet now!

Kino: Then why not take them off? Come on, I’ll do it for you!

*Rustle*

Yui: ...Let me go!

Kino: Oh shut up. Pipe down. It echoes in here...Nn.

ー Kino suddenly bites her

Yui: ( He’s sucking my blood in the tub...! )

Kino: Haah...Nn...Nnh...Ahー... It really is delicious. It’s quenching my thirst.

Yui: ( I’m feeling lightheaded like I stayed in the hot water for too long... )

( My body is going numb... )

Uu...

ー Yui faints

*Thud*

Kino: Woah there!

Geez, out cold already? How boring...

Oh well, anyway...Nothing quite like enjoying a glass of juice while soaking in the tub. Fufu...

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

[voidthewanderer]

🍅🍌🍇 for Arsenic, Crow, & Ripper?

@bokatan || OC Interview Questions

🍅 [TOMATO] How misunderstood is your OC? In-universe or IRL.

Arsenic: He both is and isn’t, in universe; if that makes sense. He intentionally puts up a front because he feels the need to protect himself from the world around him, despite being in a place where he’s safe and can be more laid back. Unless people actually know him, they just keep their heads down and keep quiet; which does hurt him a bit. Yes, he wants to be viewed as someone to not fuck with, but not as someone you can’t do anything around. His character as a whole, I think everyone pretty well understands him. I haven’t seen anyone misinterpret him yet.

Crow: In universe, they’re pretty well understood. People know why they act the way they do; being a bit more skittish with new people and keeping to themselves. Their character however? It’s less of a misinterpretation or misunderstanding of their personality and more of their design (or should I say lack there of now). Crow has skin like The Ghoul; always has. When all that shit happened complaining about how he looked, despite the fact that I made Crow well before any reveals for the show, I am now terrified to make any art of them and have them mistaken for me just “trying to be lazy” with ghoul skin. I could explain a million times how they turned, I feel like people still wouldn’t understand.

Ripper: The reasons why he’s not misunderstood as a character are why he is in universe. Most people get to see his jovial, goofball side. There’s only one instance (currently) where someone has seen just how strong he can be (kicking down the door). Yes, they’re aware of what he did before the war, but in universe; especially post war, they find that taking down a protectron isn’t exactly a crowning achievement anymore.

🍌 [BANANA] Have parts of your OC been lost to time (in-universe)? What do they wish they could lose from themselves?

Arsenic: He’s lost a lot of his morality. As the years passed and the clientele grew, he became less and less concerned about the consequences of his actions; no matter who the client was. Killing people and selling their parts to others who partake in cannibalism? Ah, it’s just money! He’s not physically bothered by it at all anymore. He wishes that it had been some of his attitude problems; or even his sex drive cut down massively.

Crow: Cliche, yes, but they lost their innocence. They always viewed the world through rose tinted glasses, always trying to keep hope that things would eventually change for the better. That the war could be ended and maybe life would go back to being somewhat normal. But it never happened… things got worse. And slowly their whimsy of the world, always trying to view the bright side faded away. They wish it had been their timidness to have been lost. It’s hard to live in a world where, if you’re around the wrong crowd, you can get used and abused to the point of death.

Ripper: He lost hope. Hope in others, hope in himself. Although he didn’t see the world quite like Crow did, he knew that people could still work together and make things right; or at least right enough. He lost hope that he’d ever get to be the same man he was before his incident. Although he’s also glad he didn’t, he sometimes wishes that he’d lost some of his laid back, lackadaisy personality. Trying to make jokes and light of everything. It wasn’t that type of world anymore, he started to view it as people seeing him as a just making his own form of dark humor to offset his time on earth.

🍇 [GRAPES] What's their circle of people/their species like? What dynamic would they be called?

I can actually answer all three of these guys together because they have the same exact circle of people. Life in The Slog and how everyone treats one another is almost like family. They take care of each other, get into fights sometimes over the pettiest of things. Arsenic is actually the only one who has someone within his circle that isn’t in the others; and that’s Cyanide, the 19 year old he employed when she was 17 and ran away from her vault. He used to have a close friendship with her, letting her be clingy and cuddly, but since she’d confessed feelings to him not long after she’d turned 18; he set a hard boundary with her: they could be friends, but if she acted like they were actually a couple or if she tried to force a closer relationship, he’d ship her back to her vault. Their dynamic weakened into he views her as a colleague, but she acted like a jealous teen who had her crush taken away from her. He scolds her for how she acts now, but he’s since stopped threatening to ship her off.

[magdaclaire]

ch 4 of my katemary fic

find ch 1 here

find ch 2 here

find ch 3 here

now on ao3

Mary’s coming off a really good hunt outside of Fort Dodge, sweat coming off of her like a downpour, when she gets a call from Kate. Talking on the phone still isn’t easy by any means, hasn’t been since she lost some of her hearing in a hunting accident in ‘71, but at least it’s a little easier with these cell phones. They’re just louder to her for some reason. She answers the call from Kate and puts the phone to her better ear still, just in case.

“Mary, I’m really sorry, but I didn’t know who else to call,” she says, panic thick in her words. The sated relaxation of a moment ago sloughs off of Mary quick, her mind hyperactive and alert. A vampire? A werewolf? A fucking rugaru? Ghouls? 

“What’s up?” she says, her tone tighter than she means, but Kate gives a sigh of relief just from hearing her voice. 

“I have a shift in three hours, my daycare is closed today and the hospital daycare is being sanitized after an exposure with hand-foot-mouth. I didn’t know who else to call,” she says again, and Mary slumps, relieved. She calculates the distance from Fort Dodge to Windom in her head, coming up with a little more than two and a half hours once she accounts for traffic. 

“I’ll be there in two and a half hours, alright?” she says, flipping her blade in her hand just for something to do. Restless isn’t a good look on her, but it’s one she wears often. 

“You’re the best, Mar. You’re sure you can come?” she asks. She’s relieved but weary, too used to doing everything by her lonesome to take easy honest. Mary wants to slip her fingers between Kate’s, hold her hand and make her know that Mary is here, even if she can’t always be here. She does what she can when she can’t do that. 

“I said I’ll be there, didn’t I?” Mary says wryly. Kate laughs a nervous chuckle across the line. Mary puts her weapons in the trunk of the Impala (which she had argued off of John as soon as they started hunting separately) one handed, her phone tucked up between her ear and her shoulder. It’s only once she’s gone through these motions that she notices the silence on the other side, worrying in its completeness. 

“You alright, Kate?” she asks, closing the trunk and moving to get into the car. The route from Dodge to Kate’s isn’t one that she’s taken before, but she does some routing in her head that’ll make it easier. Kate makes a noise, a hum really, and then speaks. 

“I just- I don’t know how to- Thank you, Mary. For coming. I really didn’t know who else to ask,” Kate repeats, and it’s just enough that Mary can’t quite take it. 

“Kate, you can always ask me. Even if I’m pretty far out, I’ll find a way, alright? Bobby is only an hour and a half out, Rufus is almost always there too if he’s not on a hunt, and Ellen is only a while further out. My people are your people. Okay?” she establishes, her voice harder than she’d like it to be, but isn’t it always? She never can be a soft woman, she never can take a tone to comfort rather than a tone to take control. And isn’t that what she finds comforting? The establishment of control. A hand on the wheel. A knife in her hand. 

“Mary- you- you can’t just. Tell me about your day. I can’t do this,” Kate says, and Mary obliges. She tells her about the hunt that she had been on and the ease of it, the comfort of an iron blade in her hand and the ease of a salt and burn. When that’s said and done, she asks Kate about her own week and Kate obliges as well, filling her in on milestones that Adam is blowing right past, how she’s already planning Adam’s Purim outfit for the local celebration at temple, the goings-on at the hospital. It all flows over Mary like a river, smoothing out her stone exterior until she could be picked up and skipped, gentle on the hands. 

She doesn’t know that she ever felt that way before meeting Kate. Gentle in the hand. She’s always felt too rough around the edges for all of that. She pulls into an exit to switch highways, coming closer and closer to her destination in a way she can feel in her feet. Coming closer to Kate always feels like this. Like anticipation. Like excitement. 

“How are Sam and Dean?” Kate asks, breaking Mary out of her thoughts. She sighs. 

“Haven’t seen them yet this week. They’ve been with Bobby while I was going after this case,” she explains, biting at one of her nails. 

“If you need to see the boys-” Kate begins, but Mary cuts her off. 

“Kate, I can handle one more day, and so can they. I’ve talked to them on the phone every day since I dropped them off,” she soothes, soothing too the little ache in her chest that sprouts up from the idea of pushing off seeing the boys for another day. Kate needs her. She needs her like a hunt and she needs her like a friend, and Mary’s always been better at the former, but she’s trying at the latter. 

“Does John?” Kate asks. Mary tilts her head despite knowing that Kate can’t see it. 

“Does John what?” she asks back, unsure. Kate breathes out audibly. 

“Talk to them on the phone,” she says. Mary considers. 

“I’ve never asked,” she admits, feeling a bit as if she’s let her boys down. How would John know to call if she didn’t tell him? Mama always had to tell Daddy about the little things that came with being a parent, so why wouldn’t John be the same? She’s never been as patient as Mama, though. Maybe that’s the problem. 

“So no,” Kate confirms aloud, and Mary leaves it. No, he probably hasn’t called the boys. She’s not sure he knows where they are should he want to speak to them. 

“Probably not. I should remind him-” 

“That is not your job, Mar. If he doesn’t know how to be a father, how to pick up the phone and call you to find out where in the world his own children are, then that’s his own fault. You think it’s my fault that he doesn’t know about Adam?” Kate asks. 

“Well, of course not. If I could find out about him-” Mary starts, but Kate keeps going. 

“Exactly. Neither of us are to blame for the laziness and stupidity of John Winchester. You get me?” she asks, though it doesn’t sound much like Mary can decline. So she doesn’t. 

“I got you. You’re a bit of a bully, you know,” she says, pulling fondness out of that well within herself where she keeps all of her soft emotions, wanting to say something, if not important, than at least affectionate, at least a bit true. 

“Oh, I am well aware. Teachers called me a joy to have in class, but… assertive, shall we say,” Kate says, humor dripping off of her words. Mary snorts. 

“I don’t think I was ever in a school long enough to get a report card from the same teacher twice in a row,” she comments, not thinking much of it. 

“Mar, that’s really fucking sad,” Kate says. Mary’s heart drops to her stomach. She’s never sure which side of normal her life falls on- whether she’s awesome or scary, whether she’s free or untethered, whether she’s cool or sad. She’s known for a long time that she wasn’t anything close to normal, but to hear it from Kate, to hear it from this friend that she’s beginning to trust, makes her chest hurt. 

“Is it?” she asks, just barely keeping her voice from breaking. She’s not normally so emotional. It’s only… 

“Yes,” Kate says, her voice gentler than before. 

“The boys have never been able to stay in a school system,” Mary replies, the words catching in her throat. 

“Mar…” Kate starts, but Mary keeps going. 

“That’s my fault. I’m the one who started John on hunting, and I’m the one who got back in too. I’m a really bad mom, I think,” she admits, the last part choking itself out of her quietly, killing her in its near silence. Kate takes a moment before she replies, likely looking for something to say that wouldn’t worsen the situation. Mary doesn’t want to make Kate have to choose her words carefully around her. She wants Kate to feel safe. Maybe that’s another thing she’s fucking up. 

“Those boys love you,” Kate says, gentle in the hand, smooth and skippable. Mary snorts, rough and right. Her kids love her. What a revelation. 

“Children tend to love their parents, whether it’s a good idea or not,” she says, checking her rearview mirror before she switches lanes. If she keeps her mind half on the road, there’s not a chance she’ll cry. Hopefully. 

“Not like Dean loves you, babe. He’s a good boy. I know John didn’t do that,” Kate coaxes, words curling around Mary like she’s trying to call a wild animal in from the cold. Mary can’t take it. 

“Between Bobby and being a big brother-” Mary is gonna say more, but Kate cuts her off again. Bully. 

“Will you just take some credit for that boy?” she snaps, continuing, “For Sam too? Maybe you’re fucking him up, yeah, but who isn’t fucked up by their parents? They know you love them. They know you care. Isn’t that enough?” Mary feels the fight drain out of her like she’s just felled a vampire, like she’s finished an argument with John, like she’s burnt up the last remnants of a ghost. She doesn’t want to fight with Kate. She doesn’t know how not to fight. 

“I don’t really know how to agree with you on this,” she says, and Kate hums. 

“Then just let me have this one,” she suggests, and their conversation moves to kinder topics, keeping them on the phone until Mary pulls into Kate’s driveway. There’s a bit of a song and dance as they get off the phone, and then again when they greet each other in the doorway. Kate leads her back to the nursery naturally, walking backwards down her hallway to face Mary like she does it every single day. Mary can’t help but smile at her antics. 

The nursery itself is done up in yellow and green, a mural on the back wall that was obviously painted by hand. There are bears everywhere, in the mural and on the floor, a bear as big as Sam sitting in the corner with another bear in its lap. It’s only when she looks in the crib that Mary gets the real center of the story: Adam is curled there sleeping, bear onesie half unbuttoned from the gentle force of a baby asleep. Kate reaches out and runs her finger down his nose, a gesture so fond that it makes Mary’s chest ache. When Kate speaks, it’s at a stage whisper, quiet but understandable. 

“He was just going down for a nap when I called you, so I have no idea when he’ll wake up,” she says, still looking down at her baby with love in her eyes. Mary wants to lace their fingers. She doesn’t. 

“He sleeps for more than two hours on a nap?” she asks instead, and Kate looks up at her, nodding. 

“Oh yeah, Addy’s a great sleeper. He’ll still go down for bedtime too,” Kate says, and Mary’s eyebrows shoot up. Sam wasn’t a great sleeper at all, never had time for a nap, always go go go. Dean slept best when being held when he was a baby, and privately as he got older too. He would climb into bed with her whenever he could, which means that Sammy’ll climb into bed with them too, not wanting to be alone in the big bed even as he gets older. She loves her boys. She focuses instead on Kate’s. 

“And… what time is his bedtime?” she asks, just to get her facts together. 

“Whenever he starts yelling, normally, but that should be around seven?” 

“He’ll be willing to sleep again in three hours?” 

“He will. Just promise me you’ll get some sleep?” Kate wheedles. Mary chuckles. 

“I’ll try. When do you go in?” she asks. Kate checks her watch. 

“In about half an hour. I should probably get going, actually. You’ll be here when I get back?” 

“Of course,” she says. Kate kisses her on the cheek and swoops out of the room. Mary doesn’t collect herself in time to go after her.