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phyx-m · 15 days ago

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Beneath The Silk | True form Sukuna x Reader

🔗 Masterlist

Chapter 28: Fingertips To Flesh

Content warning: Violence, murder, vomiting, blood, angst, light body horror (?).

🔗 Songs for this chapter:

Slow Decline - Elsiane We Are Shadows - Kittie Changelings - Gazelle Twins

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Chapter 27 | Chapter 29

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Your ability has always come with its flaws. It’s not just that you hate using it or the sick aftermath it leaves behind, but that it requires closeness—skin-to-skin contact, your fingertips pressed against something alive—for it to work.

It’s a disturbingly intimate way to kill.

And now, it seems, you may have no choice but to use it once more.

Each sedate step the armed Kasai takes toward you sends your mind spiralling for a plan—a way to slip past him, find your father, and end this before he flees.

But because of the cool weather, the approaching figure is well-covered, leaving only his hands, neck, and face exposed. You’ll need to close the distance without arousing suspicion and without giving him the chance to draw his weapon.

Charming him is out of the question—you’re sopping wet in blood, garment-tattered. You’re certain pieces of someone’s skin are tangled in your hair from your husband’s brutality. So, playing the damsel is your only option. You just hope Sukuna was being an ass when he said you’re a terrible liar—because you’re going to need one hell of a performance.

Sweat licking its way down your palms, you’re surprised when your gloves peel away smoothly. You tuck them into the back of your obi before letting your shoulders fall inward. With the man already halfway down the empty corridor, you take a breath.

Inhale.

At least being a woman, you can lean into everyone’s perceived helplessness of you.

Exhale.

“Please!” You stumble forward, pitching your voice higher to sound desperate. “You have to help me! The King of Curses, he’s—he’s killing everyone down in the main hall.” A hitch in your breath. A glance over your shoulder. "He’ll come for me next."

The smile on the man’s face reams up into a sneer, and he stops walking to take you in. His eyes carefully drag to your bare feet and then to the tattered hem of your garment before he laughs.

“And his wife, barefoot and blood-soaked, escapes without so much as a scratch on her skin? You must think I’m stupid?” He cocks an eyebrow before he continues walking, that one hand on the hilt of his weapon tightening.

Your mouth dries out.

Shit.

Not the reaction you’d hoped for.

Stay calm. Keep going.

You take another staggering step and raise a hand to touch your chest to appear docile. Not a threat.

“I—”

Below, in your lowered vision, you catch on your fingers. Discoloured veins creeping from the fingertips to the knuckles just like they were last night in the rocky overhang. But you shove the worry aside, hoping the blood smeared all over you hides the unnatural hue.

Another step forward.

“I admit, I was lucky to escape,” you say, forcing a pathetic wobble into the words. “But I’m afraid for my life. He’ll come for me.”

Hopefully not.

“Please.”

Two more steps.

Closer.

Another.

You stop just within range—close enough that he could unsheathe and strike with his katana if he wanted to.

Then, suddenly, you can’t think.

Soft vibrations, followed by stronger tremors, roll along the floor and travel into the soles of your feet. There’s a surge of dark energy, his energy, a distant swell and then a dull boom that makes your whole body shudder.

For a moment, feeling it even this far away gives you comfort but is quickly chased down by a searing ache inside your chest.

When did it start to feel this way? This longing. It hurts. Too much.

Forget him.

Clinging to what could have been will only bring heartache. This is the right choice. Leaving Sukuna was the right choice. Because beyond this cage, these shitty walls, and his shrine is liberation and a life with your sister. Her promise to take care of you—something you’ve had little of and yearned for.

You cut your eyes to your shoulder as strong, unwelcoming fingers grasp around their curve, and the distant sounds of fighting are swallowed into the background.

“Fine. This way,” the Kasai grunts, his hand leaving his weapon only to drag you back down the corridor from where you came from. Not what you wanted.

“Shouldn’t we be going the other way?” You bite down on your tongue when your voice doesn’t sound as fragile as it should.

His eyes dart down to your face, letting them wander before his grip turns choking, making you wince.

“You’re safe with me,” he smirks, teeth and gums flashing while he drags you along.

Liar.

You get the feeling you’re not, and at this angle, your reach is off, no skin to tamper with.

Mind scrambling for a new plan. You remember your blade hidden inside your obi. If you can stab him, there’s a chance you can get away without needing to use your gift.

Maintaining pace with his long strides, you discreetly shift your hand to your sash, angling the sheath just enough to grant you better access while keeping it out of his line of sight. Your fingers slip inside, brushing over the hilt. Feeling the engraved markings, you steady yourself. Slowly, carefully, you begin to slide it free.

The man’s gaze remains fixed ahead, though his eyes flick to the side whenever the walls creak and groan under the constant rising pressure of Sukuna’s energy.

He’s distracted.

Now’s your chance.

Do what needs to be done.

Blade in hand, jaw set, you swing the weapon toward his abdomen and lunge.

The metal punches in. It disappears into fabric, through flesh, and sinks deep between the bones of his rib cage until the hilt meets resistance. Blood coaxes over your hand, and more splashes free when he frantically turns, releasing your shoulder and accidentally tearing open the wound.

“What the fuck?!” The man’s shriek contains such fury it feels like it punctures your skull.

Yanking the tantō free, you step back on trembling feet, pivot, and run in the opposite direction.

“You traitorous little bitch!” he roars from behind, voice rattling along the corridor. “Get back here!”

You don’t look back. You can’t. You keep running.

The blaze inside the floor lanterns dance and bend as you race past, your arms pumping wildly, breath tripping into the next.

You’re fine. Keep going.

Plunging down the vacant passage and nearing the corner, you’re nearly at the turn when another armed Kasai steps into your path.

Shit.

His brow furrows softly as he sees you coming, his eyes scanning your dishevelled form, landing on the bloody blade clutched in your palm. You realize he looks younger but bears a resemblance to the man you just stabbed.

“What’s happen—”

“Please!” you interrupt, stopping in front of him. You lower your weapon in a placating manner, though the tremble in your fingers is real. “You have to help me! The King of Cur—”

“Brother! Don’t listen to her!” Staggering footsteps thud close behind. “The lying cunt just stuck a blade in me!”

Your attention shoots to the younger man, eyes catching on his face as it flips through a wave of emotions—sympathy, regret, apathy… anger.

Anger.

A sibling’s anger. Lots of it.

You understand it too well.

A need to protect.

Before you can react, he moves, and his fist crashes into the side of your face.

You let out a cry of pain as firm knuckles crack into your cheekbone with enough force to send black spots spilling into your vision.

With a strangled cough, your hand slips, and you drop the blade to the floor, the clattering of it mingling with your gasping breaths.

“Don’t drop your weapon. It’s your lifeline. Without it, you have nothing—you’re dead.”

Uraume’s words tiptoe into your mind.

Agony pushes through your face as you drop low, crouching and blindly groping for the hilt.

But before you can grab it, his foot connects, kicking it out of reach.

The metallic rasp of a katana being drawn follows, cutting into the air. Then, the creaking of the floor as he shifts into a killing stance.

You tilt your head back, looking up at him.

But his hands tremble, hesitating—like yours once did with Sayuri.

This is your chance.

Do it.

Now.

You have to. You need to. Because if you don’t, you’ll die here.

It’s either you or him.

Him or me.

No.

What did she say?

Everyone.

You roll your eyes forcefully upward and reach inward, clawing for the power you despise. It feels distant, like trying to grasp something buried in thick mud.

So much untapped potential lodged so deep within you.

But then, your grip catches. You pull it closer, feeling energy hum at your fingertips.

A dull recognition crosses the man’s face, and he starts to bring down the weapon.

Do it!

In a burst of speed, you dive forward, fingertips targeting the soft, exposed flesh at his throat where the panels of his kimono overlap.

The world shrinks to a single point.

Somewhere in the background, the injured brother shouts a warning, but it barely registers. For once, everything has gone so perfectly quiet inside your mind. All that matters is your hand stretching, reaching closer.

Closer.

Closer…

Then, contact.

All that raw, solitary power, and it’s yours.

The weapon’s descent halts.

The man freezes, standing so still, it feels as if the world has paused. He blinks down at you, your bodies close, both locked in place.

Your eyes meet.

His face crumples in confusion.

“I’m sorry…” you whisper. “I’m so sorry.”

And finally, you release it.

There’s a pulse. Skin ripples. You pull back.

His katana clatters to the floor, and his hands tremble before clawing desperately at the spot you touched.

But it’s too late.

The skin darkens, turning mottled grey from the point of contact, spreading like an old stain.

He falls, knees buckling into the floor.

You know what’s happening below the surface—his insides rebelling, twisting, succumbing to rot. The stench of it already chokes the air sour.

His body starts to bloat as swollen innards fight to break free. You step back, your stomach rioting, fully aware of what’s about to happen.

The worst part of it.

The sick part of it.

The rotten part of it.

Something cracks inside. Bones. He screams. Loud and frightened.

At that moment, you think of your mother.

Shame crashes into you, and you turn your head away at the last second. The sound giving you a vivid image of his body rupturing, fluids spilling onto the floor. A hiss of air and the horrible warmth trickling into the passage tell you the body has torn open.

Breath held, it falls silent—until you hear the other brother’s wet, howling cry.

You turn to face him and see everything. His hurt, his agony, the anguish of what you’ve done.

What I did.

His expression grows darker, and tears brighten his eyes, but they don’t fall.

“You fucking witch!” Snarling and spitting, he turns his gaze from his sibling’s broken carcass to you.

He advances, teeth bared, and you scramble backward.

“I’LL KILL YOU!”

His weapon is out, and he’s on you immediately, the blade arching down toward the floor.

You dodge, only saved by the stab wound you inflicted earlier. It slows him, making his movements sluggish. As he pulls back the katana, it takes him a moment to recover—but a moment is all you need.

Stepping close, you slip your palm up, cupping his face.

It really is a disturbingly intimate way to kill.

And this time, as you watch the slow, putrid decay trace across his features, your lips shape the word “sorry,” but no further apology comes.

* * * * *

Out in the garden, the cool night air touches the warm sweat and dried blood clinging to your body, the sticky stench of rot still lingering in your nostrils. For a moment, there’s relief—but it doesn’t last.

Where the hell are you?

Heart pounding, you sprint down the stony path, your weapon tucked back into your obi, gloves still stripped off.

There’s no sign of him—your slinking, cowardly bastard of a father. Nowhere to be seen on the compound grounds. The passage you took should have cut him off unless he’s already reached the stables. But he couldn’t be that fast.

Unless…

You stop.

Unless you’re hiding.

Just as you once did when you were younger, hiding whenever he came for you. But why would he hide now? Unless he’s afraid. Afraid of what you’ve unleashed upon this place. Or perhaps he’s running from something deeper—his own regrets. Regrets over how he’s treated you, your sister, and even your mother, like nothing more than cattle.

You hope he’s hiding. There’s something satisfyingly sweet about that idea.

A breeze rolls over you. You look up. Let your eyes sweep across the area, scanning the mounds of shrubs. Their squat, plump forms make it easy to hide against the darkness.

You take a step forward, bare feet tapping against stone.

But you pause when you hear it coming from behind—footsteps.

Rushing. Urgent.

They melt into the ongoing fight at your back, the rolling booms of explosive energy.

You turn, but it’s too late.

A sharp blow lands on the back of your head. The ground rushes up to meet you. Your hands claw frantically at the air, grasping for something but finding nothing.

Knees slamming into the rigid path, pain shoots through your legs. You try to get up, but before you can react, a kick to your stomach folds you inward. The cold, hard ground presses to your cheek.

“This feels familiar,” a voice drawls from behind.

Groaning and clutching at your abdomen, you watch a pair of feet step into view. A tongue clicks, drawing your gaze upward to meet your father’s hollow-faced scowl.

“Don’t be so dramatic. You should be used to this by now,” he says, circling you like a vulture. “Now get up.”

Feeling the blood drain from your face, you force yourself forward, but his foot slams into your side, punching a second breath from your lungs.

“I said get up, girl!” he shouts. “No one’s here to protect you now.”

He’s right. There’s nothing between you, no one standing at your side. There never really had been—until recently.

Sick with rage, you slowly push yourself to your feet, and something flashes sharp from the corner of your eye. Righting your balance, you see him and the tachi he wields—a sword designed for combat on horseback. It’s long and curved in its reach. Perfect to keep you and your fingertips at a distance. A spineless tactic.

Slipping your hand into your obi, it closes around the sheath, and with a quick motion, you draw your tantō free and point it at him.

His lip curls back, nose wrinkling with disdain as his eyes flick to the smaller weapon.

“Did the creature truly teach you how to wield a blade?” he laughs as if the sight of you armed is the most absurd thing he’s seen all day.

“No.” You swipe away some blood caked to your upper lip. “Uraume did. And they’ve been more of a guardian to me these last two months than you’ve ever been!”

It��s something you’ve never considered until this moment, and regrettably, you’ll never have the chance to thank them. There’s also the realization that you’ll never see Ren again, either. But for now, you shove that all aside.

Focus.

Footwear scuffing along the path, your father widens his stance, keeping his presence guarded and watchful.

“Hmm, a pity neither of them knew about that.” His gaze drops to your shaking hands, the colour staining them. “It might have been something to see them try to teach you discipline—what you could’ve been if you weren’t so shamefully usele—”

Stupid. Useless girl.

“Shut up!” The words emerge as a snarl, your mouth tightening in anger. “I don’t know why I haven’t done it, but I should have killed you years ago.”

There’s a beat of silence before he bursts into heavy laughter.

“I know why!” he chuckles, alighting his free hand to his temple. “There’s no clarity up here for you.” He pauses, and he smiles. “The answer sits right in front of you. It’s been sitting with you for twenty-five long years.”

What?

Nothing he says makes sense. Nothing.

It’s all nonsense. Gibberish.

Sneering, he continues to laugh.

And he doesn’t stop laughing.

You need him to stop laughing.

Need him to stop breathing.

You want him gone.

Everyone. Gone.

Just like she said.

“But you’re too broken and naive to understand,” he adds after calming himself. “Too desperate for scraps of affection to see the truth.”

“Desperate?” You take a long step forward, the broken edges of your kimono swaying with the movement.

Your father’s eyes narrow, the grip on his weapon shifting defensively.

“I’m glad I was desperate enough to witness the downfall of this clan. Everything you’ve built, all the power you’ve fatted on, is about to be taken in one single, glorious, fucking night.”

You let the words settle, let them crash and reform as you watch his face turn rigid.

“And it’s all because of me,” you add, mouth twitching into a smile that doesn’t fully settle.

He stares at you, his eyes betraying uncertainty for the first time, as though he doesn’t recognize the person standing before him—neither his daughter nor his victim.

Good.

You didn’t want to be either. You want to be your own person—not something your father can twist into a means to an end.

Your own fucking person.

Free to be greedy. Selfish.

To want things you’ve never allowed yourself to want.

And god, you think, you knew what that was.

Through slitted eyes, you watch him carefully.

Waiting.

The corner of his mouth curves. The veins in his neck bulge. His fingers loosen briefly on the hilt of his weapon, only to tighten again.

Then, with a sudden burst of motion, he uncoils, charging straight for you.

You lift your weapon in preparation.

Your father might be older, but his experience shows. He’s lived through battles, he knows how to fight. You are running on reckless adrenaline. And your blade is no match for his reach.

But all you need is one touch.

Which leaves you only one choice.

Pulling back your arm, you aim, and you throw. The tantō spins through the air, curving as it tumbles toward him. And while it flies, you run.

You should be thinking—recalling everything Uraume taught you about footwork and intent. But you’re angry. So fucking angry. And in your rage, you’re almost mindless.

Distracted by the incoming projectile, he swats it aside. The weapon clatters to the ground, the sound bouncing off the stones.

It’s enough.

In the next instant, you slip past his guard, lunging for the exposed skin of his wrist where his sleeve has rolled up.

Terror flashes across his face as your fingers make contact, his weapon too long to angle back in time.

Do what needs to be done!

You heave, and you pull all your power into you, feeling its scurrying energy at your fingertips. Pulse quickening, you prepare to end him, to watch the life drain from his eyes as you release it.

And you do.

And you wait.

Ready.

But nothing happens.

No rippling flesh. No rot. No torn body. No satisfying end.

You glance down.

Panic stiffens you.

The discolouration of your hands is gone. But that shouldn’t matter—it should have worked. Why didn’t it work?

You press harder, frantically digging your fingers into his skin, pushing so forcefully the flesh indents and puckers.

A little more.

Nothing.

Please. Please?

Still, nothing.

You look up and find furious eyes looking back at yours. Furious eyes you’ve seen looking back too many times.

A snarl explodes from your father’s throat as his knee drives into your stomach, sending you sprawling backward. Your feet catch on the uneven path, and the next thing you know, you’re on your backside, blinking up at the inky night sky.

He steps forward, his outstretched shadow falling over you.

“You think by sicking that thing on us, you can destroy everything I’ve built?” he hisses, flicking the blade tip across the top of your left hand to draw blood. “Enlighten me, girl, what part of yourself did you give to him in return?”

The blade flicks again. You hiss at the bite of metal cutting through flesh. Watching him carve a wider, deeper trench from your wrist to elbow.

“It doesn’t matter what I gave him,” you spit, your eyes wandering to where your tantō lies paces away.

Not close enough.

Your eyes wander back.

Another swipe.

More blood trickles down, soaking into the fabric of your kimono sleeve.

“Ryomen Sukuna does what he wants,” you breathe, trying not to move while the monouchi glides to coax out more red. “He always has, and he always will.”

As exhausting as that is.

But he is untamable.

A force. A menace. A monste—

A pressure prods against your skin. A pressure that is familiar. A pressure that feels as if it’s searching and looking for something.

“... and besides,” you continue, ignoring Sukuna’s aura, even when it’s strong enough to lift every hair on your body. “What I give to my husband is none of your fucking busi—”

That tendril of energy suddenly bursts, shattering your sentence.

Your head turns. Your father’s does as well.

Gaze sweeping toward the compound, you focus on the distant main hall at the estate’s center.

From deep inside, energy gathers, pulling inward, tighter and tighter—

And then it snaps.

Every part of you freezes.

For one heartbeat, silence, save for the distant sounds of screaming.

The air feels thin, suffocating under the King of Curses’ hold.

The earth trembles.

And then…

...

BOOOM!

A detonation of raw energy erupts.

The force spirals upward into a towering column before expanding outward in an uncontrollable wave.

Unseen slashes tear through the air, eviscerating everything—the compound, trees, rocks, wildlife, everyone still inside.

It’s both mesmerizing and horrifying to witness.

You can’t look away.

The shockwave rolls forward. Rubble shoots skyward, curling and tumbling like an angry plume before raining down.

There’s no time to shield yourself as the aftershock bursts past, slamming against your body, throwing your hair back, and peppering your skin with sharp, stinging debris. Dust fills your lungs, carrying with it the faint taste of blood.

Squinting your eyes, you realize that it isn’t stopping. It keeps coming and coming, devouring and pushing forward faster and faster.

Fear spears through you as you brace yourself to be torn into tiny pieces.

But then, all at once, it stops—just shy of your bare feet, your toes nearly severed.

The barrage settles, the power flickering and fading into a sudden, deafening silence.

You blink.

A shaky exhale escapes you as your eyes take in the destruction—the massive crater where the estate once stood.

The corner of your mouth pulls up.

The other fight has been decided.

No one can survive that. Not anyone but one.

You keep looking, but not for long.

Quickly, you pull away.

With your father distracted and gaping at the devastation, you throw yourself across the ground toward your weapon.

Reaching, you grab it and whirl.

In a blink, you surge forward, driving the blade deep into the muscles of his thigh.

He lets out a pained grunt as his legs buckle, his body collapsing into a tangle of exhausted limbs.

Teeth bared, he struggles to push himself up, but you don’t let him.

With a burst of strength, you lunge at him. Your injured hand grabs his wrist, pinning his weapon hand to the ground.

Another surge, and you’re face-to-face, the tip of your blade pressing into the hollow of his throat, drawing a thin line of blood.

Your breath catches.

Then you freeze.

And you look.

And the face staring back is your father’s.

His eyes meet yours, frail and tired-looking.

You both remain like this.

Quiet. Waiting.

“Once…” he starts, his chest heaving with shallow, laboured breaths. The rhythm pulls at threads buried deep within you, grounding you, like you’re a child again, as if he’d once loved you.

“Once, I think I cared for you, just like your mother had, but—” He blinks like he lost his train of thought in mid-sentence. “But I forgot what that felt like.”

Something inside your chest twists, hollows out, dissolves.

Forget?

How could he forget?

Your head falls back, and a raw, animalistic laugh rips through you while tears shimmer as glass in your eyes.

You squeeze your weapon.

“You think I care?” you exhale.

But maybe you do, because you think back to yourself as a child and how knowing this might have broken you even further.

“All I care is that Yuna and I will be rid of this.” You nudge the blade harder into his skin. “Rid of you.”

His breathing stills. Your gaze drops back to him.

The sharp angles of his face, his eyes—everything is the same. And yet, all at once, it’s not.

“Yes… your sister,” he murmurs. “Kasai’s most radiant and perfect gem. Flawless on the surface, isn’t she?”

You don’t answer him.

He laughs, low and bitter. And he doesn’t stop laughing.

You need him to stop laughing.

Need him to stop breathing.

You want him gone.

For years, you’ve endured. And endured. And endured.

No more.

Everyone. Gone.

“Next time you see her,” he says, his voice cracking, “ask her...”

Something wet rolls down your cheek.

His eyes lift and fill with an emotion terribly close to pity.

“Ask your sister how your mother—”

You drive the blade into his neck, a half-cry tearing from your throat.

In the secluded garden, his eyes bulge, the whites so bright in the dark that it’s unbearable to look at.

With a short twist of your arm, you push the metal in until the hilt grazes skin and meets resistance. He coughs, and blood bubbles up, flecking his bottom lip. Red weeps in fine tracks down from the wound, and he flails.

You let go of his weapon hand, giving him space to shudder in his final death throes.

Where his feet lay in the garden, they twitch, his heels digging into the dirt and pushing up small piles as if trying to crawl away.

You won’t let him.

After years of trying to escape, he finally understands what it feels like—what he made you feel. Powerless. Hurt. Unloved and unwanted.

No more.

Your eyes follow your hand as you pull the blade free. But instead of sheathing it, you drive it in again.

Hot liquid spurts out, spilling over your bare, trembling fingers.

Then, you pull it out, then push it in again.

You think of your mother.

Then out, then in again.

You think of your sister.

Out, then in.

Again.

And again, until nothing remains but a dark red hollow where his neck once was—just like the gaping crater Sukuna made into your home.

Home…

You have no home.

Your father stops moving, and you pull back. The gurgling in his throat falls silent, eyes rolling soft and distant.

Gone.

For a long moment, the world falls quiet, filled only with the calming sounds of a soft and gentle breeze rustling overhead. But as you sit there, panting and straddling the body, the metallic tang of blood and the weight of death wander into your nostrils.

Three times you killed tonight. Three lives taken. Three lives never coming back. And there is also the heavy knowledge of what you asked the King of Curses to do for you.

Wiping your brow, you feel the adrenaline slowly ebbing and falling away from your body. Then, leaning over, face angling toward the dirt, you vomit.

Feeling empty would be easier. Better. You want to feel nothing at this point so you force it all out.

Watching the sick and bile seep into the earth, you slowly gather yourself, your stomach emptied, and your trembling eased.

There is still more to do.

Blade in hand, you bend down and cut a strip of clean cloth from your father’s kimono. Quickly, you tie it around the wound on your arm to staunch the bleeding. Without Sukuna’s healing, it will scar.

Pushing up to your feet on unsteady legs, you tuck the weapon away and take one last glance down at the body lying half on the path, and half on the darkened soil.

Freedom—yours and your sister’s—stares lifelessly back at you.

Safe. Finally.

Hopefully…

You shiver. A pulse beat inside your head throbs.

Take Ayana. Find Yuna.

You need to leave. Now.

Slowly stepping away, you turn, and you run.

* * * * *

Scattered pieces of debris from the King of Curses’ destruction crack and shift underfoot as you pick your way toward the stables. You don’t allow yourself the chance to pause or look at it. You just keep moving.

As you near the edge of the garden’s soil, your escape route comes into view. Then you stop.

You hear them before you see them—voices.

Sinking low, you flatten yourself against a shadowed shrub for cover.

“—the hell is taking so long?” someone grumbles.

Tilting your head for a better view without exposing yourself, you spot two armed men standing outside the stables. From their appearances, one is Kasai, the other a Zen’in.

Odd. Because you thought the Zen’in clan had left after they were rejected in favour of Onishi.

You shuffle closer on your haunches, feet pressing into the dirt.

“The aberration should have tired by now,” one of them—likely the Kasai—says.

“Doubtful,” the other replies. “He’s probably already wiped out the entire Kamo clan. And if that’s the case—” A disgusted sound rises from his throat. “We can only hope that psychotic fuck doesn’t become their next clan head.”

A pause.

Silence.

The other man says nothing.

In the distance, the thunder of hooves suddenly tears through the night.

You lift your head, listening. A nervous twist forms in your stomach. You don’t know who’s coming, but something feels wrong. Just like this whole harvest festival has felt wrong.

Muscles tensing, you prepare to run for the stables and retrieve your mount.

“What about Lord Kasai’s daughters?”

You freeze in place.

“I heard Lady Yuna took a horse and rode west. Apparently, the other one slipped away.”

“Don’t we need her?”

“So I’m told.”

What?

A chill drips down your spine.

“And ordered to remain untouched and unharmed. If not, well...”

Your heart pounds at their words and the approaching sound of hooves and baying horses, each second narrowing your chance to escape.

You can’t get caught.

But should you risk slipping past these two and whoever is coming, or turn back and find Sukuna?

No.

You’re on your own now.

Turning your head to the left, you know of the private door at the back of the stables—the one you and your sister used to sneak through as children. It’s your best option.

Breathing deeply, you pull away from the shrub and steady yourself. If you don’t move now, the delicate sense of freedom you’ve killed for will slip through your fingers.

You rock back and forth on your heels, tuning out the voices and hoofbeats.

Inhale.

You can’t get caught.

Exhale.

You launch forward.

Feet digging into the dirt, they barely leave the ground before a hand clamps around the side of your head. A panicked scream rises up your throat, but the hand shifts, a palm pressing hard over your mouth to smother it. Another arm snakes around your waist, dragging you backward into deeper shadow. You stumble, colliding with solid warmth.

Even with your strength drained, instinct takes over. Your right hand flies up, clawing at the stranger’s grip—but a third hand catches your wrist, pinning it to your side.

Three.

Three hands.

No.

Injured arm exploding upward, you make a desperate attempt to break free. Why you thought that possible, you’ll never know. His fourth hand locks around your other wrist, rendering both arms useless.

One wrench backward, and you go still. Another pull, and so does he.

Caught.

In the darkness of the garden, quiet, shaking breaths pass between you two.

And with your back flush against the strong planes of his abdomen, he cages you in so close.

It’s an embrace of sorts—one you can’t fight as your bruised body goes limp against.

A dark part of you aches with relief that he’s found you, and you can feel the steady pulse of his heart.

But you know you can’t stay. You need to be gone—from here and from him.

You need to leave him.

No—

Pain sizzles along your spine, only to burst behind your eyelids.

Yes.

Leave him.

The words circle endlessly, strangling your thoughts.

You start to squirm, start to thrash, but his grip tightens. Soft breaths turn shallow, escaping your nose as the hand covering your mouth tilts your head back, forcing your gaze upward.

The King of Curses’ face swims into view. Short strands of pink hair pull away from his forehead, crimson eyes glowing bright in the darkness.

“Going somewhere?” he hisses, flashing a grin.

Red paints the inside of his mouth and teeth. He reeks of death. Of fire, and broken bodies—the aftermath of what he’s done for you.

For me.

Before you can even react, your hair crashes wildly across your face as he suddenly moves, spinning and pulling you away from where you stood moments ago.

From the corner of your eye, the stables—your path to freedom, to your sister—begin to slip away.

Panic surges in your chest.

You fight.

Kicking your legs wildly into the air, the momentum has you writhing and squirming while the mantra in your head builds, rising in desperation louder and louder.

Leave him!

Without loosening his grip, you bite down hard on the hand covering your mouth, enough to draw blood. It piles and flows onto your tongue in streams, hot and metallic.

Sukuna tenses, exhales softly, unfazed, and doesn’t let go.

“I was wondering when the little snake would finally show her fangs,” he growls with excitement.

Feet dangling uselessly in the air, you watch the surroundings blur, his strides quickening as he moves toward the limestone barrier. Using his shoulder, he pushes through a side gate, passing into a cluster of cypress trees. Only then does he set you down.

Cold grass presses against the soles of your feet, and you stagger back, putting space between you. You quickly wipe your mouth and spit out the blood sitting on your tongue.

You turn.

For the first time, you both stand before each other, drenched and covered in splashes of red and gore. No. That doesn’t feel right.

Why doesn’t it feel right?

Taking in your appearance, Sukuna’s mouth twitches.

“Wife,” he murmurs, his eyes trailing a languid path over every part of your blood-soaked body, heating as they roam. The intensity matches the warmth steadily rising in your chest.

“Look at you…” His voice drops, turning low and raspy. “You’ve gotten even filthier since the last time I saw you.”

Fuck.

That voice.

It almost makes you forget everything that has just happened. Completely wiping away what you’re meant to do, where you need to be.

When his hooded eyes return to yours, they darken, and the red around his pupils nearly disappears. You wish they wouldn’t do that. Want them to look elsewhere because your heart skips a beat a thousand times over and slams so hard into your chest that you edge backward.

“Blood red.” He steps closer.

Your knees threaten to tremble inward as his bare upper body moves with fluid, unnatural grace.

“Just like a flower.”

He stops before you, head dipping low and levelling you with a stare. Your pulse quickens to an unbearable high.

“It suits you,” he whispers softly into your face.

“Lord Sukuna.” You exhale, then swallow, his lower eyes flicking to track the movement of your throat. “You found me.”

He smirks—but then he blinks.

His expression darkens.

“You’ve always been easy for me to find…”

Snapping branches and the whining of horses burst into your ears, breaking the spell.

You look away, glancing toward the source. There, Ayana and Sukuna’s mount stand, tethered beneath a tree. Your brow furrows in confusion. They shouldn’t be here—you were just about to barrel into the stables to retrieve her.

But cypress. You noticed the scent of cypress on Sukuna’s kimono. That’s where he had been. He had moved them earlier in the evening—while you were dressing.

Turning away from you and stepping closer, the King of Curses begins untying the animals.

“It seems you’ve misplaced something,” he remarks cooly over his shoulder, casting a glance at your hands.

Your eyes dart downward.

Gloves.

You say nothing, your fingers twitching before reaching into your obi to gather them. The effort takes a moment; the blood and sweat clinging to your skin make the leather stick as you pull them on. Once encased, your gaze lingers there. The gloves remind you—it’s over. There’s no longer a reason to end his life.

Your mind settles back, watching Sukuna prepare the two mounts. The reins creak with each move of his four hands, the fastenings of the saddle’s buckles clicking into place. When he’s finished, he pats both horses on the neck.

All while you watch, your mind chases down reasons to find a way out.

“Lord Sukuna,” you say, keeping your voice steady. “What are you doing?”

Above, the wind stirs the leaves.

“What do you mean, what am I doing?” he mumbles, annoyed. “You have eyes. Use them.”

He doesn’t turn as he guides the mounts forward, their hooves parting the crackling grass.

“That’s not what I mean,” you murmur, stepping closer to Ayana, who is tucked near his side. Just a simple slip past him, and you could mount her. “My father’s dead, my Lord.”

Sukuna’s bottom hands slide down both reins as he turns to face you.

“What of it?”

What of it?

Does he not understand?

You exhale quietly, straighten your posture, then lock eyes with the man, who is your husband in name only.

“The Kasai clan is gone. Your arrangement was with my father—” You motion between the two of you. “This thing between us… it’s over.”

There's no purpose to this anymore.

The treaty is void. It’s done.

“So please,” you continue, your voice quieter now. “I wish to be released from this union.”

The space between you grows still.

Sukuna studies you for a long moment. His eyes soften, his expression unreadable. Then his gaze shifts, tracing every detail of your face, starting with your hair, gliding to your lips, then your nose, before finally settling on your eyes.

Then, he cocks his head slightly.

And laughs.

The sound is as loud as it is cruel, and you feel another cage closing around you.

“Is that what you thought?” He arches his slitted eyebrow, taking a step closer, guiding the two flanking horses by their reins.

“After what I just did for you. You thought this was over?”

The air seems to grow thin.

“After what I did, in which you now owe me.”

Another step.

“After I’ve told you time and time again that you belong to me.” The tone of his voice shifts, turning low and threatening. “You thought this would be over? ”

Another step, longer in length.

Your heart stutters in your chest.

You step back. He stops.

“I—” You hesitate, unsure of anything anymore. “Yes?” you manage, the word barely holding together. “Neither of us ever wanted this, did we? So… what’s the point?”

His eyes turn dark as they narrow to slits, and he’s moving again.

“Point?” he spits. The sound is broken glass. “You’re asking me if there’s a point? Even after I heard you cry out so desperately for me?”

Another step.

Your eyes dart to your mare.

“When I’ve seen how those once-timid eyes now look at me?”

One last step, and he’s before you. He dips his head, his gaze locking with yours.

“This thing between us is not over,” he hisses.

Another feeling claws its way into your chest.

“Then… what is it that you want from me?”

Sukuna tilts his head, his four red eyes fusing onto yours. The question seems straightforward, but his expression suggests there’s more to it.

In the distance, shouting voices. It snaps both of your heads toward the commotion. Along with it comes a faint, dull pressure. You recognize that pulsing energy now, the signature of someone like you. Someone like Sukuna.

“It’s time to go,” the King of Curses growls.

You pull away from him, darting toward Ayana, but he grabs your wrist and lifts you up, placing you into his mount’s saddle.

The moment he touches you, something hurts. Pain stabs into your skull. That same chanting mantra tripping over itself again and again.

Leave him. Leave him. Leave him. Leave him. Leave him.

“Please, just release me from this!” you breathe, trying to slip off, but his hand clamps down on your thigh, keeping you in place.

“No.”

Gripping his horse’s mane and swinging his leg over, he positions himself behind you—a solid wall with no chance of escape. His lower hands slot around your waist and take Ayana’s reins with his upper left hand, and his mounts in the other.

“Say goodbye to the north, wife. You won’t be seeing it again. But I’m sure you’ll find it comforting when we return home.”

Home.

Home…

The shrine.

“No!” You lurch forward, your battered body thrashing in his grip, setting both horses on edge as they toss their heads with alarm.

“Yuna!”

The name tears from your throat. A desperate plea. The last fragile hope you cling to—wherever she is.

Was she safe? She has to be safe.

She’ll come for me.

Won’t she? To protect you. She has to. She promised she would.

Sukuna’s hands tighten. He lets out a frustrated breath.

“When will you learn?” he growls, his mouth close to the crest of your ear.

One of his hands releases your writhing frame, moving to the side of your head.

You freeze, sucking in a tight breath as his energy suddenly spikes.

Leave him!

“Sukun—!”

Flick!

His fingers snap against your temple.

A sharp pain erupts behind your eyes. An even sharper pulse eats its way through the fragile tissue of your skull like fire, devouring a blight that was never meant to be there. All at once, it silences that screaming chant into a whisper, and clarity comes in the form of a heartbeat. The rhythm of two heartbeats, yours and his, the one knocking into your back.

Your lips part, weakly moving to form words. They try to tell him you’re grateful for what he’s done. Try to say you never wanted to leave him. Try to tell him more. Try to open that bottled-up jar and show him things still tucked safely inside.

But no words come. Just slurred mumbles, your eyes swimming, your head sagging until it rests against his sternum.

“Shh, you’re okay,” he coos against the side of your face, his voice mingling with the creaking of leather.

Black rots the outline of your vision as the mount sways into motion.

You feel your husband's hand trail from your temple to your scalp, softly combing his fingers through your tangled hair.

It feels nice.

You want more.

I want you, Sukuna.

The shadows come closer, swallowing the last of your consciousness.

I need you, Sukuna.

Eyes collapsing shut, your body becomes weightless, but he doesn’t let you fall.

His lower hands slide down, steadying you. One braces your hip, the other presses firmly against your waist, holding you securely as though you might shatter if he ever let you go.

The warmth of him spreads through you, filling you up. You feel safe, protected. Feelings you haven’t known in years… decades… a lifetime… ever.

You want more.

You need more.

I think… I know… my heart is yours… Sukuna.

Like sinking into honey, you lose yourself to the weight of exhaustion until, at last, you surrender to the dark embrace.

* * * * *

🔗 Chapter 29

#sukuna x reader #beneath the silk #sukuna x you #heian sukuna #dark content #true form sukuna #dark fantasy #jjk fanfic #sukuna smut #sukuna fanfic #jujustu kaisen fanfic #ryomen sukuna

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beggars-opera · 1 year ago

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2023 Tumblr Top 10

1. 84,334 notes - May 27 2023

Rocky Horror is turning 50 next month and people still act like being gay was invented by Ellen in 1997

2. 83,389 notes - Jan 29 2023

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4. 73,685 notes - Jun 17 2023

Kind of hard to believe there was once a time where a legitimate genre of post was "my mom says if this gets 2k notes she'll buy...

5. 50,381 notes - Jan 4 2023

I hate, hate, HATE the term “affordable housing.” I hate that we’ve normalized it. I hate that we just accept that the majority...

6. 39,333 notes - Nov 30 2023

Mitch McConnell next, like to charge reblog to cast

7. 32,329 notes - May 28 2023

Your honour, I admit that I do have a superiority complex over not watching Disney "live action" remakes, but in my defense, I...

8. 31,496 notes - Feb 26 2023

Görkem Şen is a Turkish musician who wanted to create the sounds of electronic music acoustically. His invention, the yaybahar,...

9. 25,703 notes - Oct 17 2023

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The millennial litmus test for sexuality was 100% Pirates of the Caribbean. I was 13 when the first movie came out. Literally...

Created by TumblrTop10

#tumblrtop10

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moviebracket · 2 years ago

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One group of polls will go up each day and polls will be a week long! Submissions will remain open through the end of the first round, and I'll add some more first round groups depending on submission numbers! Apologies for the brief absence, I had some personal stuff going on.

Movies that lose by smaller margins may have a chance to return to the bracket at the end of Round 1.

Round 1 Group A

Lilo & Stitch (78%) vs Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (22%)

Pan's Labyrinth (53%) vs Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (47%)

Legally Blonde (96%) vs The Last Temptation of Christ (4%)

Brother Bear (59%) vs Kubo and the Two Strings (41%)

Round 1 Group B

Stardust (47%) vs Heathers (53%)

The Batman (2022) (47%) vs Moulin Rouge! (53%)

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (58%) vs Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (42%)

Now You See Me (78%) vs Morbius (22%)

Round 1 Group C

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (29%) vs The Prince of Egypt (71%)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (32%) vs The Princess Bride (68%)

Rogue One (33%) vs Spirited Away (67%)

Goncharov (90%) vs Love Actually (10%)

Round 1 Group D

A Silent Voice (38%) vs Princess Mononoke (62%)

How to Train Your Dragon (65%) vs The Sound of Music (35%)

Knives Out (43%) vs Howl's Moving Castle (57%)

Little Miss Sunshine (42%) vs The Little Mermaid (1989) (58%)

Round 1 Group E

A Quiet Place (45%) vs Zombieland (55%)

10 Things I Hate About You (72%) vs Lemonade Mouth (28%)

Juno (21%) vs The Addams Family (1991) (79%)

The Parent Trap (1998) (54%) vs Bend It Like Beckham (46%)

Round 1 Goup F

Rent (48%) vs West Side Story (2021) (52%)

Elf (39%) vs The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (61%)

Hairspray (2007) (43%) vs Mamma Mia! (57%)

Clueless (51%) vs Miss Congeniality (49%)

Round 1 Group G

Forrest Gump (50%) vs Kingsman: The Secret Service (50%)

Enchanted (69%) vs Ferris Bueller's Day Off (31%)

Battle Royale (45%) vs High School Musical (55%)

Matilda (1996) (60%) vs Chicago (40%)

Round 1 Group H

Mean Girls (54%) vs School of Rock (46%)

The Hitman's Bodyguard (25%) vs Grease (75%)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (51%) vs Parasite (49%)

The Wizard of Oz (46%) vs Star Wars: A New Hope (54%)

Round 1 Group I

Populaire (13%) vs Labyrinth (87%)

Matilda (2022) (17%) vs Kung Fu Panda (83%)

Superman (1978) (44%) vs The Sixth Sense (56%)

The Martian (65%) vs Trainspotting (35%)

Round 1 Group J

Dune (37%) vs Back to the Future (63%)

Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension (44%) vs The Return of the King (56%)

Home Alone (63%) vs Frozen (37%)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (59%) vs Meet the Robinsons (41%)

Round 1 Group K

Crazy Rich Asians (68%) vs The Phantom of the Opera (2004) (32%)

Alien (75%) vs Mulholland Drive (25%)

The Imitation Game (39%) vs The Simpsons Movie (61%)

Castle of Cagliostro (59%) vs Once Upon a Time in the West (41%)

Round 1 Group L

North by Northwest (22%) vs Arrietty (78%)

Scream (53%) vs War and Peace (1966/1967) (47%)

Arrival (18%) vs The Rocky Horror Picture Show (82%)

Little Shop of Horrors (1986) (55%) vs Night at the Museum (45%)

Round 1 Group M

Steven Universe: The Movie vs Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Everything Everywhere All at Once vs Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Rise of the Guardians vs She's the Man

Pacific Rim vs Treasure Planet (2002)

Round 1 Group N

Deadpool vs Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

Pitch Perfect vs Get Out

The Perks of Being a Wallflower vs Mad Max: Fury Road

Inception vs The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Round 1 Group O

The Princess Diaries vs Paddington

Pride vs Velvet Goldmine

Shrek 2 vs The Devil Wears Prada

Saw vs But I'm a Cheerleader

Round 1 Group P

Evil Dead 2 vs Nope

Whip It vs I Love You Phillip Morris

Jennifer's Body vs Ginger Snaps

Bodies Bodies Bodies vs The Social Network

Round 1 Group Q

The Mummy (1999) vs The Silence of the Lambs

Fight Club vs The History of Future Folk

Cyrano vs Beetlejuice

Die Hard vs While You Were Sleeping

Round 1 Group R

Cocaine Bear vs Boy Meets Girl

Clue vs Dungeons and Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

Coco vs Wendell & Wild

The Lost Boys vs Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

#bracket #tournament #movies

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twistedtummies2 · 2 years ago

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The Price May Be Right - Number 30

Welcome to “The Price May Be Right!” I’m counting down My Top 31 Favorite Vincent Price Performances & Appearances! The countdown will cover movies, TV productions, and many more forms of media. Today we focus on Number 30: The Sinister Man, from Bloodbath at the House of Death.

This…is not a very good movie. XD “Bloodbath at the House of Death” is a 1984 film that essentially attempted to do a non-musical version of what things like “Rocky Horror Picture Show” tried out. The film is a satirical, farcical comedy with a surreal and perverse sense of humor, which takes various horror and sci-fi tropes, then mixes and mangles them all with a combination of slapstick, over-the-top camp antics, and a heavy dose of vulgarity. However, while “Rocky Horror,” in my opinion, is successful in its attempts to both mock and pay homage to the genre and its cliches, “Bloodbath” is much less competent. To be blunt, it’s just not very funny. However, the movie is not completely without its merits…and most of those merits come from Vincent Price as the main villain of the story: a mysterious figure known simply as The Sinister Man. This wicked and wily antagonist is the leader of a Satanic cult. Years ago before the start of the film, this cult committed a massacre in the titular House of Death, and they now guard the property in secret, using it as a headquarters for their bizarre rituals. When a team of scientists go to the aged manor, investigating strange radiation readings emanating from the property, the Sinister Man bands his forces together to purge the outsiders from their lair. This is one of many times in Vincent’s career – particularly common in his later years – where he essentially is performing a work of self-parody. In fact, this was a fairly common thing with a lot of horror actors from years past, including Vincent’s friends, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, not to mention even older performers, such as Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. However, I would argue the difference between some other performers and Vincent’s way of working was that, even during his prime, Vincent ALWAYS had a sense of humor about himself and the reputation he had. As time went on, as a result, he was more than happy to joke about in such projects; it always felt so honest with Price. As if he was laughing right alongside the audience, happily guiding them through the mayhem. It’s this sparky sort of humor that makes Price’s turn as the Sinister Man genuinely great to watch. He makes the worst jokes suddenly snicker-worthy, and the few jokes that were already good suddenly become HILARIOUS in his skillful hands. He plays the Sinister Man with a sort of foppish silliness, as if he’s actively TRYING to be this all-powerful figure of grand oratory and awe, but his pomposity is constantly punctured, causing him to revert to a spoiled brat. It’s like if Daffy Duck decided to play…well…Vincent Price! And that’s a lot of fun to watch. A lot of my favorite comedic moments in Vincent’s career actually come from this one movie; therefore, even though the picture as a whole isn’t very good, I still felt it was worth giving it attention on the countdown.

Tomorrow, the countdown continues with my pick for Number 29!

#list #countdown #best #favorites #top 31 vincent price performances #the price may be right #number 30 #vincent price #movies #film #horror #comedy #actors #acting #bloodbath at the house of death #sinister man

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danielaegan · 2 months ago

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On October 29th in the year of the Lord 2024, a new novel will grace the world. Who the Fuck is Rocky Phantasmic?! has finished gestating, and the world’s book womb is ready to birth this bastard child of horror and comedy. The title may be a grammatical nightmare while promoting and talking about the book, but you’re in for the ride of the year as an ensemble of unlikely characters shoot for the MacGuffin to end all Macguffins.

But who the fuck is in this book?

Meet Dave, a queer indie writer who is definitely not a self-insert from the author no matter what anyone says. What does he know about mobsters and demons and undead mobsters in cahoots with demons? Even with his overactive imagination, he’s not ready for what’s coming.

Dave’s would-be partner in crime should’ve been canceled comedian Cliff Quinten, but they seemed to have gotten their wires crossed. Cliff’s on a mission of his own to save his floundering career, but he’s waylaid by his own personal horror movie playing out as he attempts to make his big comeback tour—only don’t call it a fucking comeback tour.

Dave’s polyamorous wife Heather is involved in all this nonsense too, though not by choice. All she wanted was to get laid and get home to her husband and daughter, but Heather’s plans are dashed by a priest who’s hunting her husband. Now she finds herself at the end of a chain, waiting for her opportunity to spring into actual and save her husband.

Father Stephen is the broken priest, a man with a demon in his head. He sees beyond the veil. Demons encircle his entire being, and the only way to stop them and save the world is to kill Dave before the one Father Stephen calls The Enemy can get him.

He’s not the only one after Dave. The Undead Boss has sent a pair of his cronies after him to make good on a deal he’s made with a demon called He Who Walks Above. With the help of a supervillain from the old country, they’re willing to get their hands dirty to get them on Dave. Do demons and low-level mob operations coexist? What kind of evil synergy is this?!

Through all this is a question on everyone’s lips: Who the Fuck is Rocky Phantasmic?!

****

Who the Fuck is Rocky Phantasmic?! drops hard on Tuesday 10/29, and will be available in paperback and ebook through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo Plus, Smashwords, Apple Books, or wherever you can find good books. It’s now available for preorders.

#newreleases #new books #cover art #amreading #newreads #lgbtq books #bookshelf #horror #comedy #cosmic horror #storytelling #villainpunk

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gnb · 6 months ago

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YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM SAN DIEGO WHEN...

From Floz House via Facebook:

1. You can correctly pronounce Tierrasanta, La Jolla, Rancho Penesquitos, San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Jamul and El Cajon!

2. There are four distinct seasons: Summer, Not Quite Summer, Almost Summer and oh, Hey look it’s summer again.

3. Your house is worth more than some small countries.

4. You know what IB, OB and PB stand for.

5. You know what “marine layer” means.

6.You grew up thinking everyone ate avocados daily and fish tacos weekly.

8. You've tailgated at Qualcomm Stadium or maybe some of you also tailgated when it was Jack Murphy Stadium!!

10. You lived on California or Carne Asada burritos from Alberto’s/Roberto's/Cotijas/Aliberto's and all the other "to's"

11. You remember and or totaled your car on the Old Black Mountain Road before the 56 was built.

12. You still call it the Del Mar Fair. And everyone knows what you’re referring to when you say, "I'm going to the track.”

13. In high school you went looking in La Jolla for an area of houses built strictly for small people - referred to as “the munchkin houses” - due to the fact that they were inhabited by some of the actors who played Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz film.

14. You remember when Bonita, Lemon Grove, La Mesa, and Spring Valley were "in the sticks."

15. You understand what May-gray and June-gloom means.

16. There's a North County, South County, and an East County - but no Central County.

17. You know what "the merge" is and will plan your entire day around not being on it during rush hour.

19. You've gone to Sea World on a warm day and sat in the first few rows at the Shamu Show to get cooled off.

20. You've been delayed at the Border Checkpoints on the 5, the 8 and the 15. (*Bonus* You say "the" before freeway names.)

22. No matter what the weather is, there is always someone walking around in a tank top, shorts and flip flops.

23. You've been to the desert, the mountains and the beach all in one day.

24. You know that Ramona, Santee and Lakeside are where the "cowboys" live.

26. You've gone to the Zoo to just go on a walk.

28. You know what the "Santa Anas" are and that they have nothing to do with the city of Santa Ana.

29. You know what real Mexican food and real salsa looks and tastes like.

30. You remember when "Mission Valley" was only cow pastures.

32. You know that you have to leave at the crack of dawn to find parking at the beach, or risk parking in front of someone's million dollar bungalow and waking a mile+

34. You've watched fireworks over the bay while enjoying a bonfire.

35. You've dated, are related to, are married to or have a story about a Marine or Navy guy/gal…

36. You avoid the Gaslamp Quarter during ComicCon or love SD Comic Con

38. You still call it “The Fair” or “North County Fair” even though they changed the name when Westfield Malls bought it.

39. You know what a Red Tide is and what Bioluminescence is.

41. You rode the Coaster in MB

42. You went to the Bacchanal to see bands

43. You know about the Proctor Valley Monster

45. You whine when it sprinkles

46. You know what OTL is

47. You know that "Jamacha" is pronounced Ham-a-shaw, not Jamaica

48. You know that the "homegrown "albums were produced by KGB radio 101.5

49. You went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show every week at The Strand

50. When visiting Coronado, you took a boat not a bridge

51. When you had to pay a toll to cross the bridge And if you've moved away, your love for SD stays with you💓 We are so lucky to live here!

#sandiego

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arlongo · 11 months ago

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Salvation

On April 29, 2017, I published The Ambiguity of Rock n' Roll… a 700-page indie rock epic. I knew back then that I’d never write another story like that again, and it became my benchmark for how I view every story I wrote afterward. For various reasons, I never considered the following three stories I wrote to reach the greatness of ARR… I am still proud of these stories, but I know I have better stories to tell. For the few that had read ARR, there is a small easter egg in Salvation.

Salvation (formerly known as The Ghost of St. Augustine) was an idea I had for nearly five years. It was initially going to be a subtle revenge story. Then, while writing my first horror story, Bigfoot, I began thinking ahead and returned to The Ghost story. But I was still stuck on the revenge premise… this particular plot couldn’t carry the story. So I thought what if I move the story’s subplot to the top and make the revenge plot a subplot… Then, it suddenly made sense. However, it would mean I gotta write my first romance story.

Out of all the possible genres, romance didn’t appeal to me personally, and it would be going against my one of my main writing philosophies of writing what I know. Simply put… I do not know shit about love and relationships. But then again… I don’t know anything about Bigfoot, either. So I figured… I got the characters all figured out for The Ghost and I am pretty much in my “fuck it” phase in my writing “career.” First horror story… first romantic story. Something for everyone.

So within twenty-four hours of completing the first draft of Bigfoot… I started writing Salvation. In just twenty-four days, I completed a first draft of over 120 pages. Unlike Bigfoot, I felt good with the first draft and saw the potential for it to become one of my favorite stories I’ll ever write due to the two main characters and their character arcs. Another reason is that with Salvation, I finally proved to myself that I could write female characters just as well as male characters. I was aware in past stories that some female characters were somewhat underwritten. I am always looking for ways to be a better storyteller and Salvation is a step in the right direction.

Two weeks from today, Salvation will be available on Amazon. The preorder link will be added next week as I am still rewriting a few things before the deadline next week. For now… here is the official story synopsis. And yes, it’s not revealing much. I am not like Hollywood, revealing every damn thing beforehand.

Tom and Hanna, two former High School best friends, go their separate ways after a tragedy at their deaf school. They are reunited at their ten-year class reunion, where they are forced to face the ghosts of their past and confront the nature of their relationship, then and now.

The Ambiguity of Rock n’ Roll may never be beaten, But like Rocky once said…

“'Cause all I wanna do is go the distance. Nobody's ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood.”

This is how I view Salvation. I went the distance with the story and that’s the best I could’ve done.

I don’t know how many more stories I have left to tell, but in the end, it would be hard to imagine not seeing Salvation on A. R. Longo’s “Mount Rushmore” alongside The Ambiguity of Rock n’ Roll.

#writers on tumblr #writing #amazon #kindle #amazon kindle #romance #romantic

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resident-gay-bitch · 3 months ago

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You just get it, we’re on the same wavelength

my brain just spiralled back to sirius and evan as frank-n-furter and rocky from the rocky horror picture show

#rosestar #evan x sirius #rocky horror au #microfic #Jay talks

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resident-gay-bitch · 6 months ago

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All miscelanious ships and rarepair fics are below the cut; angst, fluff + smut

All works can be found on AO3 as well.

Ficlets:

Kleptomaniac (Bartylus) Regulus feels that he will never be enough for anyone after James chooses Sirius over him until he finds out he's always been Barty's main priority - angsty as hell with a nice ending

Love? (Jilypad) Lily finds James distraught on their bucks and hens nights confused with his poly feelings for Sirius as well as Lily - angst with a happy ending

Double Vision (Kinda Jegulus + kinda James & Sirius) Sirius gets a makeover, making him look strikingly similar to Barty, so when James waltzes into the house on the hunt for his boyfriend to fix his broken glasses, vision blurred, he doesn't realise it's Sirius there and outs their relationship accidentally - funny fluff with a split moment of angst because Sirius is dramatic

Micro Fics:

(All Entries for @marauders-rarepair-fics are listed below)

May 4: Poprocks (Loverose) Pandora introduces her twin, Evan, to her new husband, who happens to be the man Evan has been regularly sleeping with, luckily their marriage is one of convenience - very mild angst with suggestive themes

May 5: Peace (Sevatrix) Bellatrix can only find peace when alone with the man she loves, Severus - sad vibes

May 6: Corduroy (Dormus) Dorcas tries to help her boyfriend, Remus, find a nice outfit that doesn't make him look like a grandfather to go out in - fluffy as hell and soft

May 9: Weed (Bitchkiller) Barty and Sirius get high together and realise the other isn't so bad afterall - suggestive themes at the end

May 12: Platforms (Starprince) Sirius is getting ready to go to a concert and he's wearing platformed shoes, Severus tries not to melt at the sight of his boyfriend being rediculously tall in them - fluff with suggestive themes at the end

May 13: Queen (Mybill) Mary and Sybill find themselves falling furhter for each other as they dance around the room to a Queen song - fluffy

May 15: Protest (Lucilus) Regulus and Lucius are sneaking around the mannor, engaged in an affair when Lucius is set to marry Regulus' cousin the next day - smutty things are happening!

May 16: Flying Saucers (Eclipse) James tries his best to make Remus' childhood dream of seeing a flying saucer come true, even though he's a little confused as to why flying dishwear would be a young boys dream - fluffy as hell James is an adorable idiot who doesn't know anything about muggle culture

May 17: Radical (Wolfpanstar) Remus, Pandora and Sirius are reading up on patronus' when they all figure out they have each others animagus' forms, which is the truest display of love - fluff!!!

May 18: Funk (Rosequill) Evan finds himself swept up in bed with Rita, and he's sure he's about to become obsessed with her - smutty

May 20: Flowers (Bartylily) Barty has a super embarrassing crush on Lily and works up the courage to ask her out, surprisingly, it goes well - fluffy!

May 22: Jaws (Prank) James can't believe he scored a date with Frank, the older boy he used to have a crush on in first year, and finds himself scared to death when watching Jaws in the muggle cinema together. Frank assures him that James is safe and holds his hand through it - fluffy adorable mess

May 23: Boogie (Lilylene) Marlene and Lily go on an awkward first date - awkies but it gets fluffy in the end

May 24: Disco (Snettigrew) Severus comes home to find his boyfriend, Peter, dancing to that insufferable disco music again - fluffy and very light

May 27: Pet Rock (Pandromeda) Andromeda is infatuated with her whimsical girlfriend, and finds herself falling even harder when Pandora decides they need to adopt a pet rock - fluffy as hell!

May 28: Roller Skates (Mollytrix) Molly knows it's wrong to keep seeing Bellatrix when they've chosen different sides in this war, but she just can't help herself - sorta angsty fluff

May 29: Rocky Horror (Rosestar) Sirius begs Evan to dress up as Rocky and Frankenfurter for a party, and Evan can't say he regrets it later that night when Sirius' is all over him in that little outfit - fluffy and suggestive as hell

#jay writes #multiship masterlist #multiship #rarepair #marauders era #marauders multiships #marauders rarepair

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explosionofdisbelief · 2 years ago

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I posted 1,554 times in 2022

That's 1,553 more posts than 2021!

27 posts created (2%)

1,527 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@anakinkendrick

@chadlesbianjasontodd

@mo-betta

@aquilacalvitium

@bondsmagii

I tagged 1,170 of my posts in 2022

Only 25% of my posts had no tags

#dracula daily - 135 posts

#animals - 106 posts

#art - 96 posts

#ofmd - 54 posts

#language - 29 posts

#do not lose - 28 posts

#history - 24 posts

#places - 23 posts

#nature tag - 18 posts

#goncharov - 17 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#like to look at the .edu sites first and actually read the websites instead of just googling and giving up right away when the answer was wr

My Top Posts in 2022:

today i woke up and opened instagram, like i usually do, and the first post on my feed was from the Anti-Racism Daily (@/ardtakeaction) account posting about a nightclub shooting at a queer club. in my own city. it was a shocking way to learn about the news because for one, i never think of my city as being that noteworthy to end up on national outlets, and two it was a huge gut punch of a reminder that my little bubble is very far removed from the daily realities of life in my city.

i may have a skewed perception since i've lived in colorado most of my life, but it seems that we've had more than our fair share of mass shootings. first columbine, then the movie theatre shooting in aurora, and now this one. last night's shooting hits closest to home in more ways than one. literally, since it's a short drive from where i live. and also because it was a very targeted attack against the queer community.

i have never been to the club where the attack happened, but that doesn't matter. it was a safe space for queer people, one of few, in a city that is full of conservative evangelical spaces. at one point, this city held the headquarters of over 500 religious organizations. i don't know if that's true anymore, but that is a staggering number. it's also something that, living here day-to-day, is easy to forget. it's normal to see churches on every corner and get asked at a fast food drive-thru if you have a relationship with jesus (yeah, that happened to me once). for someone who's not religious, it's a bit of a trip sometimes.

i have to admit, i forget what colorado springs looks like to outsiders. and i get frustrated that the media's portrayal of this city is a one-note story of conservative evangelicalism and extremism. even the post where i found out the news about the shooting. because yeah, while colorado turned blue when obama became president and elected the first openly gay governor, colorado springs has always been red. and i understand that is what everyone sees from the outside. but i want to give you another angle. because that's not all that this city is.

i decided after hearing the news this morning i needed to get out and not just sit around and stew in my feelings. i was upset, and i knew just sitting and scrolling wouldn't be good for me. i live downtown, which is a bit of a liberal/queer oasis in this city, and if you only know colorado springs from what you hear on the news, you would never think this was the same place.

almost all the shops downtown are locally owned and many of them, including my favorite coffee shop, have pride flags hanging in their windows all year long. (this photo is from earlier this year, but there are still flags everywhere.) i went there today, and spent about an hour reading, which is something i do often. i saw many visibly queer people come in and out, as usual. but today i was more aware of them. most people probably wouldn't guess i'm queer just by looking at me (especially here), but i do feel a kinship with queer people i see out in the wild, even if it's just one-sided.

there is a queer club downtown as well (which i went to many moons ago before i knew i was queer myself), a burlesque club that hosts drag shows, a theatre that (before the pandemic) regularly hosted interactive showings of rocky horror, and a huge park that hosts the pride festival every summer. there is probably more, but i am very much an indoor girl so i don't know half of what goes on.

after i left the coffee shop i visited the tattered cover, one of my favorite bookstores, to pick up some books i had ordered. on my way in i almost ran into a very large, intimidating looking white man. he startled me (not hard to do), but then i saw his shirt. it was a pair of hands making a heart shape with a rainbow heart inside. i almost burst into tears right in the middle of the store 🥲 (i'm very emotional today, i can't help it). it felt more meaningful today than it would other days. i don't now if he was queer or not, but it didn't matter. the fact that he made the choice to wear that shirt today, in public, was a statement of support. a loud one.

after i picked up my books, i left right away to avoid any temptation of buying more 👀 (i have a problem)

See the full post

11 notes - Posted November 20, 2022

i just googled other epistolary novels that could possibly be experienced à la dracula daily but like...most of the books that are out of copyright (and therefore in the running) i haven't heard of

HOWEVER.

house of leaves came up on the list. can you even imagine trying to release that mess of a book in a daily email??? i couldn't even finish reading it because i couldn't figure out what i was supposed to read in which order and all the different storylines in the main text vs. the footnotes

i'm sure tumblr would turn it into something beautifully chaotic but damn. it makes my head hurt just thinking about it 😵‍💫

15 notes - Posted May 9, 2022

i've seen quite a few people talking about dracula daily the last couple days, and i would like to make a suggestion: if you're following along with this (or if you've already read dracula), PLEASE also read the route of ice and salt by josé luis zárate. it tells the story of dracula's journey from transylvania to england from the point of view of the demeter's captain

in the chronology of the story, it takes place starting on july 6th, when the ship sets sail. it's a novella (less than 200 pages), so it's a quick read. i looked through the dracula daily archive and the beginning of july is pretty sparse with entries, so you'd definitely have time to squeeze this in chronologically! 😊

and, it takes some of the homoerotic subtext in dracula and puts it right in the text! this book is super weird, a little gory, definitely gothic, slightly confusing, really creepy, and very queer. and it fits the vibes of the original novel perfectly, imo

this book is only recently available in english, thanks to slivia moreno-garcia's very small press. it was originally published in 1998 in spanish by mexican sff author josé luis zárate. there is a free sample available here from the innsmouth free press website, and you can also find all the buy links there

you have plenty of time until july to get your hands on this, so no excuses! 😁

24 notes - Posted May 5, 2022

ah yes. today we meet van helsing. the character who made me question whether bram stoker actually knew anything about the dutch language at all or just decided to arbitrarily give this one dutch guy the weirdest grammar and speaking patterns i've ever seen

42 notes - Posted September 2, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

today is the first day that dracula daily really hit me emotionally. i've read the book before, years ago. but finally getting news about jonathan, even though it's not from his hand, was so impactful after MONTHS of nothing! like. reading it so spread out in real time makes it such a different experience than just reading the book in whatever speed it takes you to read it.

i actually felt relief from sister agatha's letter. even though i've read this book before! i thought, wow finally! some actual news from jonathan! and it's not a letter he was forced to write under duress!

i am just really enjoying this whole experience. it's truly the best way to read this story

289 notes - Posted August 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #L O L @ me only posting once in 2021 🤣

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mikiib · 3 years ago

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The Magnus Archives: ALIEN AU (Part 1)

So in short I had come up with an AU where the cast of TMA characters are set in the universe of ALIEN. They’re both my FAVORITE pieces of horror media I’ve consumed and so my brain figured- WHY NOT? So I have 13 pages and scenes in my brain that would take place in this AU. If this or the following posts that I’ll make inspire anyone I would LOVE to see what you come up with! In short this story has a mostly good ending.

Here’s a list of the things that ARE and AREN’T in this universe.

- 14 Fears aren’t in this world. It’s fully immersed in the universe of the movie ALIEN/ALIENS. - The xenomorphs however have more powers- they can shape shift into anyone they ‘kill’. So if the alien hatches from the host but somehow the host survives then that creature can pretend to be that person. If they kill someone they can pretend to be them. They still however take the main biological forms of the hosts they came from in regular form. - Queens are born when there is no other queen in near vicinity detected by the unhatched egg. - The hatching of an egg takes a lot longer after implantation rather than a few hours like the original movie. - The aliens acidic blood is still STRONG but not nearly as much. I nerfed that to a slower burn- if left on the surface for more than a few minutes it can still be JUST AS BAD as the movies version. - Cyborgs are a thing in this world- who is and isn’t a cyborg is up in the air- however you’ll find out if you follow the posts. - The aliens are weak to extreme heat and extreme cold. The younger they are the more vulnerable to both. Fire extinguishers and flamethrowers will be a big weapon in both firepower and as a melee weapons. - The technology is slightly more up to date compared to ALIEN’s 80′s tech, as there are in short video calls that can be held. -Mother (MU-TH-UR 4900) is the ships computer mainframe, and can connect directly to Elias with his acceptance of the transmission. Mother also monitors the crew and their vitals when they are under cyosleep. - They can quit. No bindings to ‘The Eye’ here.

ARTIFACT RETRIEVAL VEHICLE: THE COEUS CREW: SEVEN

Captain and Scrivener (Archivist): Jonathan Sims (Age: 31)

Executive Officer: Sasha James (Age: 35)

Warrant Officer: Georgie Barker (Age: 29)

Navigator: Melanie King (Age: 27)

Engineers: Tim Stocker (Age 33) & Martin Blackwood (Age: 27)

Science Officer: Nikola Orsinov (Age: 30)

CARGO: OTHER WORLDLY ARTIFACTS UNDER STUDY COURSE: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MOON BASE: THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES

-Everyone shares the role of being a Scribal (Archival) Assistants to Jon- no exceptions. -The Magnus Archives is a space station on the Moon orbiting Earth. -The cargo they carry is found from the ships that collect samples from uninhabited planets as well as statements from those who report to them their findings to investigate. -The Admiral is the ships designated therapy cat to help the crew cope with isolation brought on by Georgie. -Elias Bouchard is the head of The Magnus Archives.

STORYLINE:

The story starts after they’ve collected the last of the artifacts required on the list to retrieve. They’ve been in cryosleep for over 6 months and only need 3 more months of it till they’d arrive to their destination. Everyone wakes up on their own time, Georgie first, along with Melanie and Martin. Followed by Tim, Sasha, Jon, and Nikola, they gather at the dining table of the living quarters. Martin makes everyone their preferred meals, seemingly the most nervous. This has been Martins first time aboard THE COEUS, and his banter with Sasha and Tim prove while not the best at his job there, he makes a mean meal out of the ‘rubbish space food’ provided. Melanie comes back after taking a look at their current location frowning, letting the others know they aren’t even close to Earth yet- not even in their solar system anymore. In surprise they turn to Jon, who himself has only been Captain on ship for only just before this crew was assigned to him. He gets up to check out whats going on, many of the others follow him, much to his disgruntlement as they basically fill the small room. Mother has intercepted a transmission of unknown origins and under contract of their jobs they must check it out. Curious to know more about their new course Jon calls Elias, who informs them it will be a 2 week set back on their schedules course. Jons not exactly excited about this but Tim’s quite happy to be informed it does give them quite a large bonus since it does seem confirmed of unknown (non-human) origins.

Once they arrive to their destination, Melanie sets the ship into motion for landing. She reads off all planet signs to the crew on. It’s a nearly isolated dwarf planet of 600 kilometers in diameter (372.823 miles). The surface on landing will be 23 degrees celsius- much warmer than expected but it does seem to be orbiting a sun fairly closely. They prepare for landing and Martin and Tim are set to get the ship in position. Martin and Tim talk together as they prep and make sure the landing legs will be fine against the surface of the planet. While they do so Sasha pops in announcing she gets to go with Jon and Melanie to investigate the source of the spooky transmission on foot. Meaning also she gets a bigger cut in the bonus than them. Tim and Sasha razz at each other but stop when sparks are spat in Martins face for wiring something wrong. He curses and Sasha comes over to help see what's wrong, pulling on gloves. She laughs a bit and gently teases him to choose a different degree to lie about next time he wants a new job as she fixes the wiring for him. Martin shushes her, claiming he didn’t expect them not to do background checks, nor did he expect to be given a position on one of the biggest damned cargo retrieval ships known. While he worked originally as a simple warehouse organizer at The Magnus Archives sister base on earth he had needed cash to help support himself after his Mother had moved out. Tim wraps an arm around Martin, claiming he’ll shield Martin from Jons prying eyes if anything goes wrong on this detour. They laugh a bit before the radio goes off from Jons office room. He’s complaining about the lights not turning on in there and would be thrilled if someone did their job correctly when fixing it before he gets back on the ship. Tim radios him that they’re on it before they tease Martin more on his obvious crush on Jon before Sasha is then called up to suit up.

Georgie is helping the 3 suit up properly, making sure their heart monitors are secure and attached to their neck to get an accurate pulse. Jon seems to be struggling most with the suit up, this unlike the other two, being his first time in a suit outside of the initial training. Sasha after having her camera feed double checked helps Jon out. And while Jon doesn’t say anything about it, it’s obvious Sasha should’ve gotten the job as Captain. Melanie the entire time rattling on about how excited she is to document her findings of a foreign transmission.

They land with ease, nothing going wrong as the planet, while rocky with a constant rain, is also somewhat flat. They make their way to the source of the transmission. Tim and the others are now watching from the ship- cameras live feed and audio coming to them as Georgie talks with Melanie about all the kind of things they could find on the ship to study. Nikola reminds everyone that without the items and everyone following the procedures for quarantine, no one is touching the items that may be brought back. The conversation dies out into aww when they see the space ship the signal is coming from appear on camera. Melanie is excited as Sasha and Jon start to look for a way in. Jon reminds them to stay close to him at all times as they enter the ship- its obvious he’d rather none of them go in here due to how degraded the place looks. Everything seems to have been heavily melted in random patches, but the ship itself seems to be made of a biological element of some sort- comparing it to a ribcage almost as they walk through it.

As they traverse the ship they stumble across multiple dead alien bodies. They aren’t fresh but they also don’t look years old. Melanie goes to take a closer look at them but Jon quickly pulls her back from them, yelling about how obviously unsafe it is as well as the fact that she just broke formation rushing off into a different room. They both get into an argument about what should be done with the bodies, and how far their investigations should go. At this point the feed is hardly coming through via camera, but the audio makes it back to the the ship roughly. Sasha goes on without them as she’s getting closer to decode the transmission. it’s a warning of sorts is what she can gather. Looking at the bodies it may have been an illness of some type, each of them dead from some type of acid but she finds one with an open chest- like an explosion. she gets closer to one, that seems to shift out of the corner of her eye. She tries to let the others know but she realizes that they can’t hear her over their arguing, and she’s almost certain she’s lost on the foreign ship. So instead she brings herself closer to the alien body before something crashes behind her and she stumbles back, tripping over something, and screams as she bashes her head on the back of her helmet. She gets up and looks around and sees the shadow of the creature run off and she chases after it.

That got the attention of the others as not only with the scream but Tim tells them her heart rate is spiking drastically. Jon and Melanie cry out for Sasha and she stops after meeting a dead end. She sighs and tells them she’s fine, she just fell and admittedly was just chasing after shadows. She turns around however and suddenly her heart monitor on the ship starts to read dead. PART 2

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thecreaturecodex · 4 years ago

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Grikkitog

[Commissioned by @coldbloodassassin. I avoided doing the grikkitog during my initial run of PF2e monsters this summer, in part because I couldn’t figure out whether or not it’s supposed to be able to be attacked through its manifested maws. I don’t think so, and have clarified this in my version. This will probably be a somewhat tricky monster to fight in ways that mundane ambush predators wouldn’t be--it can eat three PCs at once while remaining hidden. A dangerous foe for low Perception parties!]

Grikkitog CR 14 NE Aberration This rock suddenly shifts. Clusters of pinpoint eyes open at irregular intervals, as do asymmetrical maws filled with jagged teeth.

A grikkitog is a bizarre predator native to the Plane of Earth. As fleshy meals are scarce on the Plane of Earth, they usually seek to escape to the Material Plane, where they prefer rocky habitats. There, they masquerade as a boulder, part of a cliff face, or even part of a stone structure, and then attack creatures that trod on them or pass by. This behavior has earned them the appellation of “hungry earth”.

A grikkitog can cause jaws and eyes to appear on any surface that is contiguous with the ground where it sits, and can attack, grab and chew to death multiple foes at once. While so doing, their core body remains quiescent, but small twitches and spasms may alert savvy combatants that it is not an ordinary rock. Grikkitogs usually flee if their core bodies take serious damage, preferring to retreat and set up an ambush point somewhere else.

The true body of a grikkitog is a strange symbiotic creature, a fusion between some incorporeal parasite and the body of an earth elemental. Most earth elementals tell horror stories about grikkitog infestation to each other in low, rumbling tones. Some, especially weak or oppressed elementals, may actually seek out a grikkitog in order to gain access to its power to wreak revenge. Such a bargain is short-lived, though—a grikkitog lives for a few decades at the longest as opposed to the functionally immortal elementals, killing the elemental to which it is fused along with it.

Grikkitog CR 14 XP 38,400 NE Huge aberration (earth, extraplanar) Init +8; Senses all-around vision, darkvision 60 ft., Perception +28, tremorsense 30 ft. Aura infestation (120 ft.) Defense AC 28, touch 12, flat-footed 24 (-2 size, +4 Dex, +16 natural) hp 210 (20d8+120) Fort +13, Ref +10, Will +17 DR 10/adamantine; Immune bleed, paralysis, poison, sleep, stunning; Resist acid 10, cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10, sonic 10 Offense Speed 20 ft., burrow 20 ft., earth glide Melee 3 bites +22 (1d12+8 plus grab) Space 15 ft.; Reach 5 ft. Special Attacks gnash (1d12 bleed), manifold grab Statistics Str 27, Dex 19, Con 20, Int 14, Wis 21, Cha 20 Base Atk +15; CMB +25 (+29 grapple); CMD 39 Feats Blind-fight, Critical Focus, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Disguise), Tiring Critical, Toughness, Weapon Focus (bite) Skills Climb +31, Disguise +31 (+35 as a rock), Knowledge (planes) +25, Perception +28, Stealth +19, Survival +28 Languages Aklo, Terran, Undercommon SQ implant core Ecology Environment any mountains or underground (Plane of Earth) Organization solitary Treasure incidental Special Abilities Gnash (Ex) A creature grabbed by a grikkitog takes 1d12 points of bleed damage. Implant Core (Ex) As a full round action, a grikkitog can root itself in place on a rocky surface. While implanted, it cannot move and is considered to be flat-footed, but is always treated as taking 10 on a Disguise check to appear as an ordinary rock. It also gains the use of its infestation aura if it is implanted on the surface. A grikkitog may free itself as a move action. Infestation Aura (Su) An implanted grikkitog can manifest mouths and eyes on earth or stone surfaces within 120 feet, as long as they are in contact with where it has implanted its core. It may make Perception checks and bite attacks from any of these squares, treating them as the source of the attack for the purposes of cover and concealment. Only damage dealt to the grikkitog’s core affects its hit points. While making attacks through its infestation aura, a grikkitog’s core remains disguised, but at a -20 penalty (as if it were making Stealth checks while sniping). Manifold Grab (Ex) A grikkitog may make grapple checks to maintain up to three grapples as a swift action. It does not gain the grappling condition if it makes grapple checks using jaws created through its infestation aura. A grikkitog only takes a -10 penalty on CMB checks to grapple when using just its jaws to maintain the grab.

#grikkitog #commissions #pathfinder 1e #pathfinder 2e

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husbandograveyard · 4 years ago

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Wootwoot! We made it you guys! May 4th is my one-year anniversary on Tumblr. With some ups and downs and over 300 requests written, I'm gonna go ahead and say it was a successful year!

Monday until next Sunday I will do another Mini HC event, like we did for valentine! Open for all my fandoms, with mystery prompts to choose from.

Until then, I wanted to do a sleepover event. Unlimited asks and interactions for the weekend cause I feel like I haven't talked to a lot of you in a long while!

You can send me any classic sleepover question

Kiss, marry, kill

Would you rather

Top 3/5/10...

Questions about me

Questions about my anime, writings...

Theories (keep em spoiler free though!)

For this event, I will engage in a little bit of selfship talk if anyone were to be interested. Ask me about my F/o's and tell me about yours! Dynamics, habits... anything!

Questions about OCs

If you need some inspiration, I have included a couple of lists below the cut with questions id be 100% okay with.

Also, if you just want to chat, tell me about your week, a funny thing that happened to you, or a fun fact (i love fun facts especially if it's creepy or an animal fact)... A N Y T H I N G is welcome! There is no limit to your asks, spam me if you want! ♡

Look forward to talking to you guys!

Ps, I'll tag these #1yearSleepover if you want to block something against spam

Questions for OCs - Specify which one! Taken from here

1. How many different places have they lived?

2. What is their dream vacation?

3. What is their favorite color?

4. What is their favorite book?

5. Have they ever cheated on anyone before?

6. Have they ever been cheated on?

7. How many partners have they had?

8. What is their favorite food?

9. Are they a liar? Are they good at lying?

10. Introvert or Extrovert?

11. Have they ever been arrested and why?

12. Who would they sacrifice their life for?

13. What are their spending habits?

14. Do they like hot or cold temperatures better?

15. Are they religious?

16. If they could describe themself in one sentence, what would they say?

17. Do they have any overused catchphrases?

18. What makes them laugh?

19. Have they ever lost anyone close to them? How did it affect them?

20. Do they have a fast reaction time, or slow?

21. How do they react to praise?

22. How do they react to criticism?

23. Are they indoorsy or outdoorsy?

24. What are their biggest pet peeves?

25. Do they have any type of handicaps? How do they manage them?

Other ask game - taken from here

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk?

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day?

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books?

4: how do you take your coffee/tea?

5: are you self-conscious of your smile?

6: do you keep plants?

7: do you name your plants?

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings?

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself?

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach?

11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends?

12: what’s your favorite planet?

13: what’s something that made you smile today?

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like?

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!

16: what’s your favorite pasta dish?

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair?

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it?

20: what’s your favorite eye color?

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces.

22: are you a morning person?

23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets?

25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into?

26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit?

27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor?

28: sunrise or sunset?

29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing?

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared?

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks.

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends.

33: what’s your fave pastry?

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it?

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often?

36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean?

38: tell us about your pet peeves!

39: what color do you wear the most?

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you?

41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving?

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it!

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with?

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything?

45: do you trust your instincts a lot?

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of.

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe?

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today?

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought?

50: what’s an odd thing you collect?

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them?

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far?

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them?

54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face?

55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point?

56: what are some things you find endearing in people?

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?

58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why?

59: what’s your favorite myth?

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves?

61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received?

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind?

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be?

64: what color is the sky where you are right now?

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with?

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like?

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel?

68: what’s winter like where you live?

69: what are your favorite board games?

70: have you ever used a ouija board?

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea?

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it?

73: what are some of your worst habits?

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns.

75: tell us about your pets!

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t?

77: pink or yellow lemonade?

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you?

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why?

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of.

82: are/were you good in school?

83: what’s some of your favorite album art?

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones?

85: do you read comics? what are your faves?

86: do you like concept albums? which ones?

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy?

89: are you close to your parents?

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year?

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch?

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most?

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday?

95: what are your plans for this weekend?

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house?

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it?

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them.

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why?

#sleepover #aksgames #1YearSleepover #scheduled post

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