#shes going through the horrors for real and it's a little bit funny I don't think her team fully realizes its THAT bad

[bigmoon-is-bigwife]

Ros is always so paranoid that people are plotting to kill her. She mentions it constantly after any interaction with Pili and/or Bad. And the sad part is she isn't even wrong half the time! They want her ass dead!

She sounds insane when every now and then she goes "I think they're plotting! They want to kill me!" But it is in fact true. It really does bring up the question 'Is it paranoia if they're actually out to kill you?'

[jellieland]

(Spoilers for. Real life?? I guess???)

---

Five figures stand, solemn, at the celestial summit of nowhere. They discuss matters of great import, and observe the fragile gossamer thread that is all that surrounds them, and-

Oh. No, nope, nevermind. They're just arguing again, aren't they.

"-don't know what you expect ME to do about it!" snaps the Red One.

"I don't know, Grian, how about literally anything?" asks the Scarlet Moon, raising an eyebrow.

"I mean, you could at least tell us what's going on out there," says the Ruby Star. "I don't think that's too much to ask, Grian."

"Riiight, like that'll help," says the Bloody Victor, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, for goodness sake, Martyn, do you have to make this difficult every single time?" snaps the Red One. "Anyway, we've got loads of time to work this out. It's only just started, even if it was a bit earlier than I thought it would be," he grumbles, irritated.

"Oh! Look!" calls the Coquelicot Loner, from where he is peering away from their circle at something that would look, to anyone but the five present, entirely indistinguishable from any other patch of the universe. "They must be done! Someone's coming!"

"What?" The Red One frowns. "Don't be ridiculous, Scar, there's no way-"

A brilliant beam of starlight shoots down from the heavens, and tears through their little circle like a formula one car cutting through the middle of a picnic.

It leaves behind...

Huh.

What. What is that.

There is... a. Person? But the proportions are all wrong, nothing this world has ever seen before. The limbs are mismatched, twisted, not quite connected. The movement is... disturbingly smooth, except when it jerks and jumps at seemingly random moments.

Whatever they are, they regain their balance, look around, and... laugh. "Oh, hey guys!" they say. "You know, I really didn't think this counted. But here we are, I guess!"

"Mom?" says the Coquelicot Loner, squinting at her. "Why are you short?"

"Oh my god, Scar, you can't just ask people why they're short," says the Ruby Star, apparently on autopilot.

"Yeah, and, uh, not to be rude, but more like why are you an eldrich horror? But, like, more so than usual?" says the Bloody Victor, backing up and looking rather alarmed.

They raise an eyebrow. "Oh, we're doing this now, are we?" They shake their head. "You know what this is perfectly well. We did another game, and I won. Deeply surprising, I know, but here we are!"

The Scarlet Moon tilts her head. "I mean, not that it's not nice to have you here, I guess, but that seemed real quick for a whole game, Cleo."

"Yes, thank you Pearl," says the Red One, narrowing his eyes. "I quite agree. Just how violent WAS this one that it's already finished? And WHY was I not informed?"

Cleo laughs. "To be honest I don't think anyone expected it to matter. And, I mean, sure it was violent, they always are, but it was all pretty light-hearted to be honest! Not a lot of drama, you know." She looks around, and seems to remember something. "Oh, Scott, I let a zombie kill you at the end! Sorry about that, I didn't realise quite how low you were. It was pretty funny, though."

The Ruby Star blinks, and shrugs. "I mean, fair enough. Hey, that means Divorce Quartet is all here, now!"

The Coquelicot Loner squints. "...Does that make you my stepdad, Scott?"

"No," says Cleo.

"God no," says the Ruby Star. "For, just, so many reasons."

"Yeah, I am not doing that again," says Cleo.

"So... So, hang on," says the Red One. "You're saying, in your game, it was all just. Cool and fine and calm. No pain or blood or sacrifice. No agonising entangled web of alliances. No cold-blooded, cold-hearted backstabbing?"

("Hey!" says the Bloody Victor.)

"I mean there was plenty of blood, technically. And Martyn did sort of try to stab everyone in the back and then run away."

("...Yeah, ok, fine," says the Bloody Victor.)

"But no, not much emotional turmoil, all in all! It was pretty chill, really!" They glance around the circle. "It was nice to see Ren again, too! I think he was off roleplaying with Martyn most of the time, though."

"I'm going to kill you," says the Bloody Victor, despairingly. "How is that fair?!"

"Life isn't fair," says the Scarlet Moon.

"Oh, you-"

"Can you shut up for five minutes," snaps the Red One.

As the bickering continues, the Coquelicot Loner and Ruby Star sidle up to Cleo, avoiding her wavering, eldritch outline.

"So!" says the Coquelicot Loner. "How's dad?"

Cleo gives him a look. "Scar," they say.

He holds up his hands. "Ok, ok! Just asking!"

She shakes her head, not without affection. "Is this really all you do here? Just stand around and irritate each other?"

"No!" says the Coquelicot Loner, seemingly deeply offended.

"Yeah, pretty much," says the Ruby Star.

"Ok well that's stupid," says Cleo.

"Yes," says the Red One, having extricated himself from the continuing altercation between the other two. "This is extremely stupid." He claps his hands, drawing everyone's attention and finally ending the argument, for now. "All in favour of erasing the past few minutes from existence and pretending none this ever happened?"

"Aye," says everyone but Cleo.

"What," says Cleo.

"It means you get to go home and you don't have to stands around in a circle with us lot for the rest of eternity," says the Scarlet Moon.

"Oh. Yeah, definitely do that," says Cleo.

"Wonderful," says the Red One, and clicks his fingers.

...

Five figures stand, solemn, at the celestial summit of nowhere. They discuss matters of great import, and observe the fragile gossamer thread that is all that surrounds them, and-

The Coquelicot Loner speaks. "Well, that was fun, wasn't it! Do you-"

"I thought we just agreed that didn't happen, Scar," snaps the Red One.

Oh, ok. Alright, they're arguing again.

Yeah, we probably don't have to stick around and listen to this any longer, either. I don't expect it's going to change anytime soon.

[justarandombrit]

Believe it or not, I did in fact go to see Spies Are Forever (you'd never know from looking at my blog), and, as usual, I wrote down some notes. My memory is shit so I'll probably update this with additions when I remember more, but for now, below the cut...

Act 1:

. They played Show Stoppin' Number and so many people were singing along

. It started midway through them playing The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals

. Joey: “Sorry to anyone who thought they were seeing Wizard Of Oz. Although, this show has many friends of Dorothy”

. Emily Proudlock has a beautiful voice. The microphone was struggling a little at the start, though lmao

. THEY GOT AN ACTUAL BANANA PEEL

. Oliver Ormson (Owen) called Curt “Mega” which in the show he doesn't do until he becomes the DMA (not a criticism, just interesting)

. Owen said the “A man needs his privacy”(?) line, so Owen and Barb have officially interacted now

. I love Brian's Informant. His French accent was so over the top

. Brian stared at Clark when he said “The Deadliest Man Alive” until Clark played the keyboard sting. And then whenever anyone else said it throughout the show, he played it.

. They left in a huge awkward silence when the DMA was waiting for Sergio and it was so funny

. Sergio sounded so awkward when he said “You guys can relate, right?”

. Joey fucking SCREAMED “PLEASE!” during Sergio's little Somebody's Gotta Do It reprise

. “The Deadliest Man Alive disarms Mega and escapes”

“He does?”

. Dean John Wilson walked back on stage after his exit, said “The Deadliest Man” and left again

. Okay, so Claire M. Hall is a perfect Cynthia

. You guys are gonna crucify me for this, but I actually liked her Eyes On The Prize I better than Lauren's…

. Joey was making the weirdest faces during Eyes On The Prize II

. Curt cocked his head at Hallucination!Owen and Owen shrugged and mouthed “I don't know” at him

. I LOVE EMILY OOI’S BARB!!!!!! She did a cute little dance during “It's actually a gun!”

. Obioma (Curt) pretending his beard had been shaved lmao

. No Richard Big appearance sadly

. Curt was even more oblivious about Tatiana hitting on him than in the actual show

. The Nazi ensemble stuck around throughout the whole scene and kept gasping when Curt called them villains

. THEY MADE NOT SO BAD… EVEN MORE NOT SO BAD

. “SAY WE GOT A BIT LOST, WITH THE WHOLE HOLO–” *looks at ensemble* “ehh…”

. “WE DID ALL WE COULD DO TO poopoo THE JEW”

. They didn't make the audience chant, which was… probably for the best

. Von Nazi yelled “I'm a big boy! A BIG BOY” at Mega then walked off without using his knees

. Curt groaned and hung his head when the DMA said “I'm gonna torture the living shite outta you”

. Actually gasped at the overlapping “Doesn't even matter if I killed my best friend” and “To show you the horror of staying alive”, even though I knew it was coming

. The homoeroticism 🤌🤌🤌🤌

Act 2:

. I WAS ON THE SAME ROW AS A.J. FUCKING HOLMES AND DIDN'T NOTICE UNTIL JOEY SHOUTED HIM OUT

. Joey shouted out loads of cosplayers still in character as Vanger Borschtit

. Everyone was so excited about Vanger Borschtit, and Joey made everyone cheer for an acceptable amount of time “for his reel”

. The new We Love the Prince lyrics really are so much better (also what did he do to the Pope?!?!?)

. Vanger Borschtit was DISTRAUGHT when the prince died

. Obioma stared so blankly into the audience at “Or whatever it is you boys do in the rumpus room”

. I think out of all of the new cast members, Evelyn Hoskins (Tatiana) sounded the most like the original actor (she was also so cool)

. Obioma actually sung the little “Very good place to start” Sound Of Music reference and Tatiana looked so annoyed

. Tatiana was SO into Doing This up until the kiss (which wasn't a real kiss lmao)

. MRS MEGAAAAAAAAAA

. The lights flashed rainbow after the line “So we're just… friends?”

. Curt looked straight at Barb when he said “Some of us may die”

. Curt paused before he drank the shot, and then started drinking a load and everyone stared at him, really concerned. It was a really neat piece of acting

. Von Nazi kept stressing how he had no idea how Feurgin was killed

. The Informant looked so concerned at the start of NSB reprise, then actually kinda got into it

. Jak Malone (Von Nazi) made his death SO DRAMATIC. He fell to the ground and went “Ow, my back! Ow, my front! Ow, my…self” and then got up and bowed

. Owen stood behind the DMA and they just spun around while Joey narrated

. Joey: “THE DEADLIEST MAN ALIVE FALLS DOWN THROUGH A HIDDEN TRAP DOOR IN THE STAGE–”

. ONE STEP AHEAD JSTSKTKEYYKDKFYFUHDYSWWGDJFKGKFDHSGSTSFJKGKGKGJDSYSYIFKF I'M NOT OKAY

Dean: *Crouch-walks away*

. Owen stared directly at Curt (and addressed him instead of Tatiana) when he said “Don't slip up” and loads of people “Ooh”ed

. Owen seemed actually on the verge of tears in Spies Are Forever (Reprise)

. He also fully yelled “You're a caveman!”

. They changed the line “Taking your advice” to “Moving on”, just like Curt (I think it was Curt? Edit: IT WAS JOEY) wanted in the livestream

. The speech before Spy Again (Reprise) was so good. Everyone came out on stage and it was all just incredible

. SPIES ARE FOREVER, IT'S A MUSICAAAAAAAAALLLLLL……. IT'S ABOUT SPIES!

[thescarletnargacuga]

Caine and Pomni having a movie night, with them accidentally choosing a horror movie to watch. Pomni doesn’t really mind and isn’t affected, but for DAYS Caine is bothered and doesn’t want to be alone without Pomni ever. Causing him to constantly sleep in her room, accompany her on adventures, etc. Pomni then has to teach him the beautiful art of the movie not being real, but because he is a visual learner she also has to show him that it’s not real by pointing out how each affect is done.

PRACTICAL EFFECTS

A HALLOWEEN SHOWTIME ONESHOT

WARNING: movie blood and gore

~~~

Caine could barely see through his clenched teeth as he sat shaking next to Pomni. He and Pomni were relaxing with a spooky movie marathon. Just them, a bowl of popcorn, and eight hours of back to back seasonal features. However, one of the TV movies was a bit more gory than Caine could handle.

Pomni was having a great time, eating handfuls of popcorn as the killer on screen violently swung a massive chainsaw. She chuckled at the campy acting and blatantly fake special effects, not noticing Caine was ready to bolt.

When the killer dug his chainsaw into the gut of the underdressed hot girl character, Caine screamed. Pomni jumped for the first time all night, spilling the popcorn. Pomni paused the movie. "Caine?? What the heck!?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN- WE JUST WATCHED SOMEONE DIE, POMNI!!" Caine plucked his eyes from his mouth and rubbed them against his coat. "MY EYES WILL NEVER BE CLEAN AGAIN!!"

Pomni blinked, confused. "Caine... It's a movie. I'm not crazy about horror, but these movies are so bad they're actually pretty funny."

"FUNNY? FUNNY????? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Caine slammed his eyes back in his mouth so hard, he nearly choked. "I never realized I was dating a psychopath!"

"Woah, woah, woah, Caine, breathe. Calm down a little." She took a few deep breaths, encouraging him to breathe with her. "It's a movie. Fake. Everything that's happening on screen, isn't actually happening."

"...come again?" Caine arched his top jaw, looking from Pomni to the screen. "I know movies have actors and such, but you're telling me that that man is not actually digging a chainsaw into that woman's stomach? But- but- it's so real! I can't even look at it without getting squeamish!"

"Have you ever heard of movie magic? Practical and special visual effects? All of that blood on screen is nothing more than red dye and corn syrup. I mean, some hardcore movies use animal blood, but it's mostly colored corn syrup. That torso getting cut up? Fake. A prop. That chainsaw? Doesn't actually have blades on it except in close-ups."

Caine still couldn't bring himself to look fully at the screen. "I don't like it..."

Pomni put a comforting hand on Caine's shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. We can skip this one if it's too bloody. I prefer atmospheric and psychological scares, myself."

Caine snapped, vanishing the spilled popcorn and refilling the bowl. "Thanks, Pomni."

"Of course, Caine. This is supposed to be fun." Pomni scoots closer, until their thighs touch. "Just imagine all those actors covered in sticky syrup. Must have taken them ages to wash it out."

"Heh, yeah..."

"Caine, out of curiosity, what did you think was happening?"

"Oh...uh, seems silly now but... I thought actors were really going through everything on screen. Because they're mass-produced like boy bands."

"....say what?"

"What?"

"Nevermind. We'll talk later." Pomni changed to a different movie and settled her head on Caine's shoulder.

[sapphoshands]

"We broke every rule we established for the trials and the characters broke every rule given to them but its funny that viewers have different interpretations" not cute actually, Jac. Just bad writing that verges on outright racism by killing off the one Asian character and making the Black character over the top malevolent. Oh and putting the sole (white) man in narrative center. Should've known it was too good to be true.

it is of course extremely déclassé to go into the inbox of someone who is loving a thing and tell them why they should not be loving the thing, but you know, i'm so deep in this show, i'm just like *rubs hands* more time to think about my blorbos! so!

i will do you the courtesy of ignoring your bad faith phrasing to engage with your actual points - and of course, we also have to keep in mind that we're just over halfway through the season, so things may come back in ways we can't yet see. that said, i adore the idea that agatha's punishment in this was to be seen by yet another coven as an object of horror and fear, especially after a few moments where she was seen as a real person. i think that's going to play very strongly into the end of the season and i think it's a very smart bit of writing that plays with the expectations of the characters on screen and the audience watching the show. i got a little seduced by some of the alternate trial theories, ngl, but that is one of the joys of episodic television and i am having a blast watching more of this story unravel.

re racism, i as a white woman am certainly not going to tell anyone how they should receive a story like this. but i feel about alice's death much like i feel about the push for no more dead lesbians, which is that if we erase any sort of peril for any given segment of the population, we are no longer telling full stories about them. speaking for myself, i am a advocate for increased representation of all sorts on screen (and behind the camera), and simple math tells us that having more people of colour on screen means more people of colour will die on screen. so i always ask myself whether the death feels racially motivated, and in this case, to me, it doesn't. we've already lost a white woman to the road and it is important for the show to keep the stakes high. to me, alice's story was gorgeously tragic and a really wonderful parallel to agatha's - you really felt alice, having discovered the depth of her connection to her mother, feeling that lack for agatha. but naturally... you may have a different interpretation.

jen, on the other hand - oh my god, jen, i fucking loved her in this episode. and again you can read her as OTT, although in contrast to agatha i think she's really rather restrained! obviously tropes play differently for Black characters than white, but in the context of the show, in the context of the way the rest of the coven has been portrayed, she fit perfectly. i mean, in jen's trial, agatha tried to sacrifice mrs hart, tried to cheat, tried to literally break out, etc, because she was so determined that her quest was the only thing that mattered to her. i frankly don't blame jen for pulling an agatha and deciding to put herself first, and i don't think the show wants us to blame jen either. totally tracked to me. the retainer moment? exceptional. and alice and lilia were right there with her - it's not like she was the only one pushing this agenda, you know? certainly she wasn't singled out by skin colour.

billy, now... i am not gonna lie. i am a little worried that we're gonna turn this into the billy show. and i do mostly trust jac schaeffer and mary livanos and the whole setup of the fucking show that they won't, that this is about women and witchcraft and queerness and all of my favourite things. but it's a marvel property, right? and we always have to have this fucking fear. but this interview, again, actually made me feel a lot better about that:

obviously this sounds like it was really early in the room and things change throughout the course of development, but it is really reassuring to me that in the early stages of breaking agatha's story, billy... wasn't billy. he was, you know, a sexy lamp. someone else could've done his job. so his innate billyness didn't matter. to me, that suggests that the established arc remains agatha's and billy's just there to prop it up. i'm sure that since he became billy in the writing process, he became more important and elements of his story became part of the narrative and so on, but i expect it was a series of discussions on how to fit him into the story rather than how to rewrite the story to suit him.

i'm just as biased in my defence as you are in your annoyance, so you're welcome to dismiss all of this and grump on with your grumpy self. but i think this is a smart, interesting, nuanced show that hasn't spilled all its secrets yet. and i cannot wait for more. is it wednesday yet?

[hero-ar]

Highlights of Ep 8 of Murder drone to me

The teachers nonchalantness to whole thing is so real. Especially the reaction the little slap.

I found the fact they was no sound during the space seens so cool. Excellent usage of that too.

"Stop :)"

Nuzi canon yay

Lizzy casually text V while she is in the middle of the fight is so funny

Why is the sentinel velociraptor beefing with Lizzy? (Still funny)

Cyn. Is so silly. And also so very terrifying (let me in, let me in, letmein, letmein, letmeinletmein)

Hands! That is so cool

I was at the edge of my metaphorical seats when V crashed through

I sorta wish all the cores look slightly different from one another.

Go- fu- da- it

Khan little moment where he saves N with the door, I adore it

"Wierdly hot robots" immediately made me think of NuziV, I still head canon it

They is something so funny about Cyn/the Solver saying "Kay" so casually after Uzi's speech about being an absolute nerd

She is not at all concerned and only slightly amused, and it for some reason is so funny

And then [amazing battle] also nightcore

Cyn was so cool through out all of it, she is so unserious.

V's absolute disgust with Nuzi is so real, also her disgust when Uzi fistbump her after the secret handshake is so funny

My brother screaming "Eat it, Eat it" into screen only made the moment funnier

Uzi standing like Cyn and swatting the gun away made me chuckle a bit, also her eyes look so cool✨️✨️✨️

(😧 . 😧)

WOMEN THATS YOUR HUSBAND

"Broken OC"

More ammo for my NuziV headcanon.

Doll.. a moment of silence for her

.

.

.

I know it says Solver in the caption, but that is definitely Cyn, Cyn was the one with the bow obsession.

Anyhow.

Khan and Nori. Just that

----------------------------------------------------

Overall, I really liked this episode, the animation was so COOL, I liked the story, and it made me feel some genuine horror sometimes. Generally positive feeling about the ending. Only truly negative feeling being how some questions feels unanswered, but Cyn's silliness somehow made up for it?

No actually criticism from, I don't think I know how to criticise anyway, not the point, I have no problems with the finale, 9/10 series would watch again

If you read through all of this thanks, and feel free to add your favourite moments.

[spinchip]

May I ask ALL of the ask meme questions about Never the Dark 👉👈 I WANT TO KNOW

[ask meme]

i'll do all the ones i havent already answered! Thank you! and putting it under the readmore cuz it'll get long

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

cuteness agression towards zane. love him so much i have to put him through the horrors. No to be serious I just really enjoy writing things that cover darker topics, so drug use, alcoholism, manipulation, etc. is all interesting to write for me, so i favor that type of plot. the main idea came from thinking about what might have happened if Wu never told the other about Zane getting sent to the never realm, and just quietly went there alone to save him. Wu doesn't fight the emperor, he doesn't even try. he tries to bring zane back but he mostly dodges his blows until he's certain that nothing he says will remind him who he is. and then i thought- what would Wu do, and what would be the fallout? and the fic was bornnn

2: What scene did you first put down?

the very first scene. that feels surprising to me- i usually get hung up on scenes happening way later down the line, but i had such a clear and specific idea for how i wanted the prologe to go that it was almost easy.

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

i already did this but i'll do it again.

“Oof-” She stumbles back, “Sorry- what happened? Why are we stopping?” “I apologize.” Birdy says, emotionally flat where he’s standing in front of a large purple tree, “I was simply making sure we were on the right track.” When he starts moving again, he takes a wide step over something. As the others begin to move, Nya sees that the thing Birdy had stopped at and stepped over was a oblong dark spot on the grass. She’d seen a few of them before, scattered around the forest. She steps over it too but doesn’t ask about it. Birdy's voice had taken on that tone that comes when he’s not feeling like himself. She blinks, surprised at herself for knowing that.

this is part of the scene where Birdy is leading the others through the acid forest. I think you all should know that spot? blood on the weird grass here leave lingering stains. this clearing? the same as the one birdy shared with farley. it's why zane doesn't want to stop here and why he acts so jumpy

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

crying screaming throwing up

“It was wrong of me to bring up your friend.” Birdy says before stepping any closer, “I reacted so strongly because I was afraid for you, Kai. Those pills are designed for control. Samira supplies the people of this realm and then twists their addiction against them.” “I don’t need your worry.” Kai says, but it’s lost some of the bite it had before. Hesitantly, Birdy approaches Kai. Slowly, with enough time for Kai to draw away, and with more than a bit of caution to stay out of easy access of another swing, Birdy cups Kai’s injured palm. He takes the bandages next, moving to wrap his hand, “There is not a switch I can flip to turn it off.” Birdy says wryly, carefully winding the gauze around Kai’s hand, “I am sorry for what I said.” Kai just stares at him. “...You may not trust me, but I trust you.” He continues, finishing up dressing his knuckles, “I believe you would have made the correct choice.”

5: What part was hardest to write?

the zane POV chapters actually. isnt that funny? theres just so SO much information that recontextualizes a lot of previous events, and trying to keep track of everything was really hard. ewspecially when past me would add stuff without thinking of the ramifications. like FUCKK i wrote a throwaway line about x in chapter 5 now i have to integrate that into this chapter. damnit.

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

I don't know

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

nope! well there may be a little projection in some aspects, but what is writing if not sorta-therapy through the blorbos?

12: What do you like least about this fic?

that i didn't write it all down and edit before posting. Looking back through chapters i'm catching inconsistencies a lot that coul dhave been avoided if i drafted, then edited and fixed, then posted!

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

i'll make a separate post for this one heehoo

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

don't take candy from strangers.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic

that I can write a book. I used to be so convinced that my attention span wouldn't allow for long form writing like this but i've proved myself wrong. and i'm grateful for that.

[chemicallywrit]

Well well well, look who's having a real day off for the first time in six thousand years! I'm gonna write because that's what my soul needs! It's time for Audio Drama Sunday! Here's some shows I enjoyed this week...

♟️ @camlannpod first of all. I called it. Second of all. How DARE you. The discussions about names and power in this episode were fascinating and...I don't know, I love a hero who's devastatingly normal. Gwen/Shujun can make anything happen with her words, is the damsel in distress, but she's just normal. Perry is normal, Morgan is normal, and Dai might not be normal by neurotypical measures, but he's just some guy. Except that he's really not. And the group of them can either embrace it or suffer.

🧃There is never a week when @thesiltverses doesn't go all the way off, and this one went ALL the way off. We have to talk about Shrue having a whole breakdown and then moving forward anyway. Felix, Ray, and Daisy were amazing, but I also have to give all the flowers to Rhys Lawton, who I met recently and was an utterly terrible villain in this episode. Corporate horror. Who knew? (Anyone who works in corporate knew.)

🐗 The season finale of @victoriocity was funny and amazing and incredibly well done as always, but the stand-out moments are the moments of friendship between Clara and Fleet. I just. I love them your honor. They are best friends. Do not separate them. It's really good to see Fleet cracking open a little bit. Just a little. He's still Fleet, after all.

🍦I listened to the new Among the Stars and Bones on the way home from work and it was absolutely chilling. My word. The number of times I screamed. Oliver Smith was incredibly scary even in the midst of the horror, Jordan Cobb is always a treat, and my word, the crowd of Nabonidas crew members...Hey, Chris Magilton, writer of Among the Stars and Bones, what the hap is heckening???

1️⃣3️⃣ I've started listening to Thirteen! I love a horror anthology, but especially one with a central theme. So far most of the stories present you with a protagonist who is missing closure, and a creature who offers it, for a price. Thirteen is about grief. The stories are rhythmic and spooky, and at one point alone in my house I actually really scared myself listening. Check out Thirteen, it's a treat.

⛽️ In other shows I've started listening to, @desertskiespodcast is gorgeous and lovely and...the only word I can think of is effervescent. It's like a cold soda on a road trip. It's maybe just what I needed. My favorite part is definitely the cold opens, especially the one about Cash laughing. Jared Carter has incredible comedic timing.

In Inn Between news, we just posted 5.8: The Blood, which might be my favorite episode of the season, depending on how the next one turns out. In The Dead news, this next story is a HUMDINGER. Did you cry at Giancarlo in the last story? GOOD, now it's time to run for your life through London. Y'all are gonna love this.

Catch y'all next week or whenever I have time to write again! If you like what all this is, maybe drop me a tip?

[chaosmagetwin]

Hello! My name is Halie (Pronounced Hay Lee), my pronons are She / It, I'm 31 years old, I'm pansexual, but very demi with it, and this post is about who I am! While I'm here, if you're a terf, go away <3 If you're a minor you're on thin ice. Just know not everything I post is appropriate for you.

Feel free to flirt with me if you like, but don't expect much! I'm a chronic fumblr and let's be honest, I seize up like a doe in headlights if people are flirty.

I am very much a writer type (My works are below the cut!), and most of my interests and skills relate to that.

That said, feel free to send prompts of any kind into my box, especially for stories of some kind. The weirder and more genderfucky, the better. Asking for some smut is also fine <3

Owner is @thewhorehome Love you Daddy <3

These're my gender graphs. I would love to consolidate them all into one graph, but IDK what program that would be or what that would even begin to look like considering how many variables there are, so, ya know, I did my best. These are not gender graphs that are a "one size fits all", they are mine. If you feel like associating with them feel free, but if you want to know why [Insert gender thing for you] isn't on here, it's because I have no opinion on it, don't know it exists, or don't think it applies to me! I associate with demons a lot (as the graph says) but I recently discovered that the type of demon I am is the Acedia Demon, or Noonday Demon. Aka, the demon of depression. Basically, I murdered the host of this body and replaced him. Now I’m making it my own body. I strongly feel like I’m not the original host, but I have access to those memories.

Now for a little bit more about me. CW: my BDSM test, A master list to my different writing projects, some selfies (SFW only), and maybe a few other things.

This post is subject to change and be edited! I won't take out any works, but I might change the links if they get updated to AO3! Just keep in mind, anything not on AO3 is some serious Behind The Curtains stuff, and a lot of older work that I won't be picking back up. Be careful, you're looking at my soul.

It's funny, a year ago that "Dominant" was at 7%, and switch was sub 20%. Sadist was also at a sub 20%, and voyeur was... sub 40% I think? I've gone through some things, most of which is from one off dates. I want to be clear, though, I'm not a dom! I'm not a top! These things have not changed. My understanding of them has grown a little bit, and my switchiness is debatable. It takes *very* rare moods and people to activate it, and I will tell you now, you being more of a bottom isn't it.

Now, for the Master list! If you're from The Old Times (there's like.... 4 of you, idk if you're even real, but w/e.) you MIGHT recognize this. It's been 8 million shwillion years, and I've decided to update. Don't go thinking that this means this blog is going to go and get serious though.

First up, the major projects!

Layla is a transgirl space scavenger mechanic, an anarchist from Mars where Hypercorps run everything, and she's just hit a minor jackpot; an empty cargo ship filled with material that can not only earn her a lot of credits, but also reputation. There's just one problem; there's no pilot, there's no destination, and there's nothing to indicate what really happened.

Set in Eclipse Phase (A Transhumanist Sci-fi TTRPG), Hive's Story is a horror, about the scariest parts of being early in transition; not knowing who you are, or who you'll become, and how people abandon you. It's still a work in progress, naturally.

A necromancer witch kills a mech pilot and steals their mech, before raising them to Pilot it for her, since she does not know how to do so. The two of them attempt to save the Witch's girlfriend, A Mech Artificer, who is going to be executed by the Empire for the Witch's crimes of necromancy. The POV character is The Pilot, who has lost most of it's memories, and is completely subservient to The Witch, but has enough personality to wish it weren't.

Be sure to read the content warnings; they're going to be pretty important.

Next up, some minor projects! Some have been dropped, some are still being worked on.

Charm used to be human... before she died, anyways. She's wound up in another world, and she feels different, but it's difficult to say how exactly! She doesn't remember NOT being a Hellsworn, even in her old life, but there weren't exactly Hellsworn there. She's lost, confused, and worse, she seems to be hated by anyone who isn't a hellsworn as well, and now she's being forced into the slums outside the city! Slums that are roiling with deceit, and love, and a fomenting rebellion that major players in the slums are trying to prevent. But she's not the only one who's been isekai'd; John's still trying to run the rat race; he figures he can start small, just be a mason, try to live a quiet life. He didn't think he was interested in a loud life... but something is wrong. He was doing that in his last life... and died for it! He's alone, surrounded by people who tolerate and use him, but he doesn't know what to think anymore.

Hellsworn Charm is a story about a girl on an upwards trajectory from the bottom and finding a ceiling of oppression, and about a man who is on a downwards trajectory from... well, not the top. Both struggle with their lack of purpose, but where one gets a support network, the other does not, and the two's trajectories are on a collision path. The story is more world-building than plot, and once i realized I didn't really have one, it sputtered out. I won't be moving it to AO3, though. I'm not too proud of this particular work.

This post goes into what what it is, as well as explains where it's from ^.^

WHEW. The OG. The one that... almost started it all. There were a few versions of AOM before this, but goddamn, this is the one I put the effort into. It's got some notes in it from when I was trying to rework it, which I still might do, but this version is better than the newer one, even still.

I still want to work on this one, tbh. It's a story about an apocalypse of magic (AOM), with the main character, Rhea, waking up in a hospital, having survived a magical plague in 2020 (I swear, I wrote this in 2012 or something, cut me some slack) that turned her into a Kitsune, and her brother into a Giant. At first, it's all about survival. Later, it's about realizing the depravity of humanity.

The other OG. Lesbians witches who hate each other, and also have to deal with their country falling apart. One is the princess, the other a rebellious peasant. I used prompts to get started on each part.

Honestly, don't know that I'll ever pick this one up again. I like their dynamic, but the world just wasn't it, I think. I've tried reworking it, like, 4 different times.

My very first ever long story, and also my longest even now. Almost 90 pages! I got so far! And god, my pacing was terrible. Fun though. It's FILLED with my annotations.

Aisleigh is a very poor woman who just got invited to Chile to go to a very rich mans party. She gets experimented on midway, and it goes from "Poor girl being uplifted to high society" to "kind of super-hero origin story, except she's now a brilliant fox girl". Listen, young Halie was cooking, but she did NOT know what she was doing.

A super hero origin story, except in this one, the main character began to lose her emotions. Can't really talk much about this one, pretty sure I was writing it while feeling dysphoric and worried about the apathy that was consuming my life :)

A Light Touch of Cold Steel (6016 words) by ChaosMagius Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Warhammer 40.000: Darktide (Video Game) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Hadron Omega-7-7/Veteran Characters: Original Female Veteran, Original Female Psyker, Hadron Omega-7-7, Original Nonbinary Fanatic, Original Ogryn Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Blood and Injury, Gore, Nurgle Plague, WH40K Inquisition BS, Robot/Human Relationships, Trans Female Character, Planet Cadia (Warhammer 40.000), Adeptus Mechanicus (Warhammer 40.000), Masturbation Summary: A team of four varlets attempt a dangerous mission of assassination of a plague cultist officer of nurgle. Things go wrong, and Ashley, our Veteran and POV character, takes a little extra heat for it from Hadron.

A small hit of smut at the end of some violence :)

That's pretty much all of what I'm willing to share from my projects these days, but I've got a few more I'm still working on. I may add more to this over time. As of September 2024, these projects are a Mecha story, a post apocalypse mage who is so lonely she's disassociating, and whatever else happens to catch my attention.

Anyways, here's me

Thanks for reading!

[innytoes]

"My wife can stab me a little bit I don't care."

okay i need this but i don't know who from...... 😩

oh maybe some jubobby?!

Alfred The Cat verse. Set after the Haunted House Fic.

"You know, it's weird that someone who sees ghosts hates Halloween this much," Leo said, poking his head out of a kitchen cabinet next to the one she was rummaging through. She'd been cursing to herself about Reggie's over-abundance of autumnal mugs, trying to find one that wasn't shaped like a pumpkin or a ghost or what have you.

"Gah!" she exclaimed, nearly dropping Pumpkin Mug Number Four. At least the ghost had the decency to look kind of sheepish. "I get enough jump scares in my life, thank you."

Ever since Sunset Curve made it big and bought the creepy haunted murder-house they'd been renting, things had changed a little. Julie had moved in, officially.

Sunset Curve won a Grammy, on a song that Luke and Julie wrote together. Bobby proposed. They had the wedding in the garden, giving Tía an explanation about wanting to put down roots and make memories in their forever home, because 'our ghost friend is tied to the place he died and else he can't come' wouldn't fly.

They'd done some renovating, making sure to leave Leo's unmarked grave undisturbed. He'd been very adamant he was fine with them just pouring a slab of concrete over his remains to install a catio for Alfred. There was nobody to visit his grave anyway. That was why he'd been such easy pickings for the serial killer who used to live here.

Gertrude, the ghost of the woman who owned the house in the fifties, had passed on to the Other Side after passing on her famous scones recipe to her favourite 'adopted grandson', Reggie.

Which led to today.

With the renovations done, apparently her boys had decided this was the year they were going to win Best Halloween House In The Neighbourhood. Which wasn't even a real thing. There was no contest. There was no prize. But Reggie had insisted it was a real thing, and it was measured in how spooky your decorations were, how awesome your candy, and how happy you made the kids.

Obviously Julie didn't have the heart to argue with 'don't you want to make the kids happy, Julie?' Not to mention the puppy eyes of four musicians and a ghost.

So she said yes to the giant skeleton, and yes to the millions of decorative gourds, and yes to the fog machine and the 'spooky lights' and the creepy animatronic witch. She agreed to getting The Best Full Sized Candy Bars Ever for handing out, and hiding them from Luke. She even indulged the boys in their horror movie marathons, and Bobby stoically did not wince when she grabbed his arm so hard he had bruises the next day.

It was just that the last horror movie stuck with her. Especially today, what with it being a very stereotypical Dark and Stormy Night. Especially, especially because the guys had left the following morning for a series of concerts in New York, leaving her alone in a big, empty house with just an elderly cat and a ghost.

"We'll be back before Halloween," Bobby had promised. They video called every day, usually after the show, and he wisely never said anything about the amount of lights she had on.

"Come on, Halloween is fun! It's about dressing up in silly costumes and running around with your friends and getting free candy from strangers," Leo pointed out. "Which is honestly a terrible thing to teach children, now that I say it out loud."

"You just like it because you get to scare people who want to 'get a look at the murder house'," Julie said. And okay, it was pretty funny to see Leo scare the daylights out of troublesome tweens daring each other to touch the door.

"That too." Leo beamed. For a while, that had been the only contact he had with the living, until some 'entrepreneur' had bought the nearly derelict building, slapped some landlord beige on everything, and rented it out to some broke musicians.

"I like the cute parts of Halloween," Julie defended herself. "The candy and the pumpkin spice everything and little kids dressed up in costumes. I could just do without the horror stuff."

All of a sudden, all the lights in the house turned off.

"That isn't funny," she snapped at Leo.

"It wasn't me!" Leo said, raising his hands up in self defence. "It must be the storm."

Great. Just great. "Can you use your ghost powers to turn the lights back on?" she asked, hopeful.

"No?" Leo asked, confused. "Why would you think I could do that?"

"You can turn the TV on and off."

"I turn the TV on and off with the remote," Leo said, amused. "I think you need to... flip the breaker switch. Or something."

"Where even is the breaker switch?" Julie asked, and Leo unhelpfully shrugged. "Okay, I'm going to find some candles or something, so I don't stub my toe or anything trying to find it."

"Skill issue," Leo muttered, phasing through the table. "I'll check the laundry room."

The only candles she was able to find were Bobby's tea lights. They would have to do. She plopped one in a wine glass, holding it up by the stem as a make-shift torch. Leo came back to report the laundry room was a bust.

"Maybe it's in the hallway closet," Julie said, but Leo didn't seem to be listening anymore.

"Did you hear that?" he whispered, even though he was a ghost and nobody else could hear him.

"What?" Julie whispered back.

"I thought I heard someone."

"If this is a joke..." Julie started, but Leo shook his head, curls bouncing. He looked genuinely scared. She put her wineglass-light on the countertop.

"It's not! I heard something."

"Well, go look!" Julie hissed at him. He was a ghost, it's not like anyone could see him, or hear him. If someone had broken into their home...

"You go look!"

"You're a-"

"Hey, why's it so dark in here?" a voice asked, and Julie shrieked, grabbing the nearest utensil and thrusting it at the burglar.

Okay, so maybe when Luke, Reggie, and Alex called Bobby to see how surprising Julie turned out, and he picked up from the ER with a fork stuck in shoulder, they laughed harder than they should. Julie felt really, really bad. He'd been so worried about her, knowing she was creeped out being home alone.

Bobby, being Bobby, had just shrugged his non-forked shoulder. "My wife can stab me a little bit," he'd said. "I don't care."

And that was one of the many reasons why she'd married him.

[electronickingdomfox]

"Bloodthirst" review

It's Resident Evil, but the zombies are vampires!!

Novel from 1987, by J. M. Dillard. Kind of a retread of her previous novel ("Demons"), but substituting demonic possesion with vampires. Of course, there's nothing supernatural going on, but a scientific explanation behind everything. I found it less scary than the previous entry, though it's in the same spirit of horror story, this time with a political background as well.

The initial setting is intriguing, even though it's fairly obvious what's going on and who are the villains, from the earliest chapters. The ending is also exciting, and reminded me of an actual TOS episode. The problem is the rest of the novel, and by that I mean like 90%. I had the impression of reading chapter after chapter of barely anything but filler. Kirk does little more than talking through the terminal with this or that. McCoy does little more than telling Kirk "they're close to find a vaccine" and fretting over Chapel's sickness. Spock does... nothing, really. The fact that the story was extended artificially to a breaking point is obvious by the fact it takes the crew SEVERAL DAYS to find an intruder in the ship (an intruder who wears a red cape, is sick and insane, and screams in pain every time light touches him). This with a crew of more than 400 persons, and with the full security team activated at all times (what the hell!?).

To add more padding to it, there are lengthy scenes focused on a group of redshirts. Now I don't have a problem with original characters having their spotlight if they're interesting and play some role. But these guys just reflect about their High School dramas, and they don't have a distinct role compared to any other redshirt: that is, being attacked and suffer a lot. The other characters are a mixed bag. The most interesting is probably Adams, the "vampire", and the passages that follow his sinister deeds are the only ones that keep the plot moving, in that stale middle section. Kirk is serviceable. In particular his friendship with Admiral Quince felt like the real thing. And he gets to do some of his cunning negotiations at the end. McCoy on the other hand... Look, this author makes him funny on occassion, but in my opinion, she has a REALLY odd idea of the character. From the "dirty old man" trait, to his clumsiness and cowardice. The guy who would offer himself for torture in "The Empath" is here scared shitless at the prospect of it (well, he's scared of dark corridors too, so...). Fortunately, there's no Mary Sue on sight this time. Unfortunately, there's still the obligatory romance "out-of-left-field" for McCoy, that this author seems so fond of. This time in the shape of... Christine Chapel??? We're suppossed to believe that she's not just the closest person to McCoy (closer even than Kirk!), but that all this time, they've been repressing romantic feelings for each other. And that Chapel isn't really attracted to Spock, but only chose him because he'd never return her feelings... Yeah, weeell, how about... NO.

Other random weird bits: Nobody knows what a vampire is in the 23rd century (only Chekov has heard about this legend, that had survived for hundreds of years so far). And a crippled Enterprise can only manage to go at warp 9! (c'mon Scotty, I'm sure you can do better than this shitty, fast-as-fuck warp 9 speed...). Spoilers under the cut:

The Enterprise receives a distress signal from a scientific station at planet Tanis, but upon beaming down, they just find a deserted lab, two dead scientists missing most of their blood, and a single survivor: Dr. Jeffrey Adams. Adams looks gaunt and is obviously suffering some kind of disease that makes light painful for him. He's brought to sickbay, and needs continous blood transfusions to survive. But when Kirk interrogates him, suspecting the scientists were doing illegal research on biowarfare, Adams says they were just working on agricultural projects and that the other two commited suicide. Nonetheless, the evidence at the station points to Adams as the murderer, and it seems he had drunk the blood of the victims too. The fact that Admiral Rodrigo Mendez, head of weapons research, is awfully interested in destroying any trace of the virus, and quickly bringing Adams to trial, makes it all the more suspicious. However, the landing party is unable to recover any sample of a virus at the station, and records had been destroyed, so the Enterprise starts travelling to the nearest starbase.

After being informed of this, Adams accuses Mendez of being the mastermind behind the virus development, and begs Kirk to not surrender him to Mendez, since the admiral wants to kill him. Kirk is unwilling to believe at first that Mendez, or any other top brass at Starfleet, would be involved in such deadly project. Besides, upon learning that one of the dead researchers was Mendez's son, he dismisses the admiral's behavior as natural resentment. Nonetheless, Kirk contacts his friend, Admiral Quince Waverleigh, at Starfleet HQ, to see if he can unearth some dirty laundry among the top brass.

Meanwhile, Adams attempts an escape from his isolation chamber at sickbay, and injures Chapel, drinking some blood from her head wound. Adams doesn't go far under the light. But Chapel has contracted the disease, which is contagious upon contact, and slowly slips into a coma. In the end, McCoy realizes that Chapel has died, and disconnects life support. And there's a lot of drama about this, but since the reader can probably guess where this is leading to, and what the solution will be, the scene doesn't have all that much impact. Apart from this, Spock has recovered some info from the fragmentary records at the station, that tell about a Vulcan researcher who had also died at an earlier point. This suggests that there was, in fact, two versions of the virus: a first one that was deadly to Vulcans (and thus, Romulans too), and the current mutation (probably accidental) which is deadly to humans. This deepens Spock's suspicions about Mendez, since he had lost his wife in a Romulan attack.

Once in the starbase, Adams is brought to a detention cell, which he promptly escapes again, this time more successfully. First, he attacks a guard and steals her red cape, to better protect himself from the light, as well as a device that blocks tricorder readings. After this, Adams kidnaps Lisa (a redshirt on shore leave), and forces her to ask for a beam up directly to her quarters in the Enterprise, where he also attacks her and drinks her blood. And then comes a loooong period where everyone is searching frantically for Adams throughout the ship. And yeah, he can block tricorders, but it's not like he's invisible or anything... He goes as far as entering sickbay and stealing transfusion equipment to draw more blood! (his next victim being Stanger, another redshirt).

For his part, Admiral Quince starts noticing strange things going around him, ever since he started investigating: sudden personnel transfers, tampering with his terminal, etc. He sends Kirk a quick anonymous message, to warn him that things are looking ugly. Yet Kirk is unable to reach him afterwards, and later is notified of Quince's sudden death in an "accident". This is the last straw that convinces Kirk of Mendez's guilt, alongside a small clique of corrupt admirals. So he decides to lure him to Tanis and catch him red-handed there, with a bluff: he tells him that Adams has been captured and has spilled the beans about the R-virus (the incriminating Romulan strain), and that they have found the evidence at Tanis.

At sickbay, Ensign Stanger wakes up from the dead after having been infected. And even though he shows some early signs of "vampirism", his good side wins in the end, and he's able to protect his friend Lisa and capture Adams (at long last!). McCoy has also developed an effective vaccine, that he administers to the whole crew and Chapel, who's also waking up from the dead (but strangely enough, much slower than Stanger?). The modus operandi of the virus is thus revealed: at first, it sends the host into apparent death (actually, hybernation) while it consumes the bloodstream's heme; once the host is depleted of heme, he wakes up and starts craving blood and infecting others. (But I don't know, as a bioweapon, it doesn't seem so effective to me...).

In the final chapters, Spock and McCoy beam down to Tanis and confront Mendez, who demands the samples of the R-virus (which they actually don't have). But just then, a transporter beam captures them and they appear in a Romulan ship. As it turns out, Adams had contacted the Romulans, promising them the samples of both virus in exchange for his freedom. Kirk forces Adams to cooperate by refusing to give him the cure, until he tells them where's the R-virus, so Adams confesses: the original R-virus had been hidden all this time inside a locket that he wore around his neck. The Romulan commander threatens Kirk, saying that he'll kill Spock and McCoy if he doesn't surrender Adams. Yet Kirk tries to negotiate with him and buy time, now that he has the only sample in his hands, though the Romulan doesn't agree to destroy the sample. However, Spock, McCoy and Mendez had managed to escape from their cells in the meantime. And after a run through the enemy ship stunning Romulans (with McCoy closing his eyes every time he has to shoot, the poor devil), they manage to lower the shields and beam themselves to the Enterprise, which promptly warps away. In the transporter room, Mendez makes a last, desperate attempt to escape with Adams and the sample. But Spock tricks him into confessing everything, and then Kirk informs him that he's been monitored, and now Starfleet knows everything about his involvement in the illegal research. In the epilogue, Kirk reflects about his lost friend Quince. And there's a moving scene where he receives a posthumous gift, with a last message from his friend, telling him to not feel guilt about his death.

Spirk Meter: 0/10*. Kirk and Spock barely exchange a couple of lines throughout the novel.

There isn't a lot either in other departments. Spock and McCoy don't seem to like each other much, though McCoy asks Spock for company while disconnecting Chapel from life support. Though it's hard to read that as Spock/McCoy, when it's evident that McCoy's full concern is for Chapel in this book. Maybe, maaaaybe, one could read some McKirk in the final scene, when McCoy drinks with Kirk in his quarters and comforts him about Quince's death. But at this point, that's like begging for crumbs.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

tagged: @bonez-artistry

[unnursvanablog]

Lawyer dramas are usually something that I shy away from (but not as much as doctor dramas) but with the right cast and story I am willing to give most things a try. I also got a little sick earlier this week and I had finished this weeks episodes of No Gain No Love and binged the remining episodes of the new season of The Rings of Powers so I had nothing to watch and therefor decided to just give The Judge of Hell a go.

And while I was itinually hoping for a more horror-esque sort of story, but this no The Guest. This is just a darker fantasy story with a demon as a protagonist - but what a protagonist she is! I find Park Shin Hye very charming and funny in this role. I genuinely chuckle at lot of her scenes. But then again I just tend to have a fondness for these sort of no nonsense, very tired of humans and their nonsense sort of female fantasy characters. It's a bit camp, and I enjoy it.

The fantasy elements in this show are sparse. Much sparser than I would like, at least in the first two episode and it felt very info dumpy at times. Lot of things explained through text on screen, things are explained to us quite rapidly at times instead of letting it slowly unravel through the story just to sort of laying the groundwork and setting the scenes so the story can be ushered to a start. It's annoying, but I get it and I can deal with it.

It feels very procedural, typical lawyer/judge sort of stuff (but the judge part is just sort of a setting, it's not really heavy on making sure it's accurate. This is a campy fantasy show and not really a very heavy drama where they fact check stuff) with like a certain case filling up the bulk of the episode, with some goals and personal moments of the charcaters sprinkled in there, and then it comes to a close and the story continues on. I do think the angle of her being more liniant towards criminal and then just straight up killing them and sending them to hell quite interesting and I do suspect that the murder of the real Kang Bit Na will slowly weave it's way into the story. She will probably finally get the justice for that death in the end, which landed her being stuck in Kang Bit Na's body when she acidentally got sent into that hell courtroom instead of her killer, and then possibly having to make up her mind if she wants to stay in that human body or not… for love.

The cop character, aka the male lead is fine. He is just sort of there for me if I am being honest but he seems to be a nice balance to the 'I can't believe I have to deal with this nonsense' sort of character that Kang Bit Na is. He is filled with longing to do the right thing and making sure his community is safe (there is maybe a waft of copaganga in there but that comes with these sort of shows) and uphold justice. Somewhat of a sunshine to her moon, and I do enjoy that sort of dynamic. I do like when the female character get's to be the more mean one, it must be said. But there is a slight edge to that male character. I had a hunch, and then in the end of episode two he confessed to having murdered three people and there it was. But, I am sure it's going to be more complex than that. And then she tried to kill him. that was WILD.

I kinda suspect that it the romance might be on the milder side for this one, but then the demon controlling Bit Na asked the dude to sort of fake date her (stop it drama, don't dangle my fav romance trope in front of me and then don't deliver) so what do I know. I know that a lot of people don't enjoy Park Shin Hye when it's very romance heavy and they don't find her to have great chemistry with her male leads (I have seen her do a good and a bad job at it) and they don't like the way she kisses her male costars (which I wish the kdrama community would give a bit of a rest, because the critiscism has been done to death, because maybe it's just the way that she is directed or has been directed since she was a teen) and while I can't say there is a sizzling chemistry between Bit Na and Da On… yet, I don't think the drama requires it.

Yes, she seems to be quite uncomfortable with heavy romance. I get it, it's a valid criticism. But the roles that a actress like her are often offered, especially once Shin Hye got into her young adult career were romance-focused, rom-com and youth-dramas and there aren't a whole lot of options for a strictly no-romance roles for women in kdramas, if you are playing the lead. But I do think Park Shin Hye is trying to find those roles for herself now (she does like to kick ass in a lot of her dramas, and do some action which I admire) so maybe she is aware that that is her weakness. And that's okay (sorry, I am a Park Shin Hye girly and I have been defending her from angry fangirls for a long time).

I must say that the two hours that took to watch the first two episodes flew by quite fast and I was quite entertained by it. I didn't start scrolling my phone and I was quite engaged by the whole thing. More so than I thought I would be. So I think I will be adding it to my tv show watching schedule for now on, at least. Just so I can watch Park Shin Hye being evil and murdering scumbags and looking very good while doing so. Whenever the music starts and we see her walking menacingly in slow motions as she is about to murder a man… that's when my cold dead heart skips a beat.

[ninapedia]

Jan 2025 Books Read

TOTAL: 9

The Wolf and the Woodsman, Ava Reid

This was Ava's first published book, and it shows. I can see the foundation of what I've come to love in Juniper and Thorn and A Study In Drowning there in it's infancy, but not fully developed. Her plotting gets better with each book she's written but the world building, characters, and character VOICE are all incredibly strong. Walked away enjoying the read and what I got out of the book.

Otherworldly, F.T. Lukens

It's F.T. Lukens. It's queer fantasy romance fluff. I knew what I wanted and I got it.

Lady M*cbeth, Ava Reid

Last Ava book I had to read and the most recent one. Ava's at her strongest when she's in her own world and not working within the confines of another. It is a wholly unique story though, and like The Wolf and the Woodsman I walked away satisfied with what I got out of it. I think Ava's incredibly strong at giving her heroines unique voices despite the core of the circumstances being similar. No two protag sounds alike even if they're all the same sort of 'flavour'.

Don't Let The Forest In, C.G. Drews

I am going to chew off my own arm. If someone touched me while I was reading this book I would have bitten them. I'm obsessed. I'm Insane. I want to scream about the ending specifically until my throat is raw. I want to eat the book in an entirely literal sense, like physically bite into it. I won't be able to stop thinking about this book for AT LEAST the rest of the year.

My Throat an Open Grave, Tori Bovalino

Unfortunately I read this book RIGHT AFTER Don't Let The Forest In, so it was in it's shadow. I still very much enjoyed the book and the messaging of it, and it's almost exactly what I look for when seeking out Faerie Romance (even if they don't use that term), but it's not what I wanted in that moment.

Compound Fracture, Andrew Joseph White

I know the tension in this book was written well because I had to keep stopping to brace myself for what was going to happen next. Adding the rest of Andrew's work to my list. Already bought the one that wasn't at my library.

Hell Followed With Us, Andrew Joseph White

See, now I have a problem with Andrew's books. And it's that I've gone through them way too fast. Finished Hell Followed With Us in two days. Love the way he writes body horror and especially as it relates to the trans experience. The Spanish Catholic that still lives inside of me was going feral over all the religious bits. Nothing subtle about the allegories, and the reflection of real world events is very loud and honestly probably too on the nose for me, but the writing was so my cup of tea it was easy to overlook.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, Andrew Joseph White

UNHINGES MY JAW AND SCREAMS. I think this was favourite of the three books, which is so funny to me because medical related horror is usually one of the things I cannot handle because I'm deeply terrified of Medical Things. NGL there were some rough moments for me, but I was so invested with Silas that I was determined not to drop it.

Catch all for AJ's writing as a whole:

I think the best written tension is when I see exactly what's going to happen and still flinch when it does. Build up liking blowing a balloon bigger and bigger knowing that it'll eventually pop and knowing exactly WHICH breath will push it over. The eventual cathartic release after the final string snaps is so so good.

Bury Your Gays, Chuck Tingle

This is probably going to be the last book I finish this month but it's a good way to end the month! This is my first time reading Chuck Tingle's work and I'm SO IMPRESSED by the way he used foreshadowing, like I'm hesitating calling it Chekhov's Gun but it does feel very Chekhov's Gun. There were so many little details that felt inane until they weren't. I was able to approximate what was going on but even when the reveals happened there were certain elements I didn't guess but with hindsight I saw that they were foreshadowed perfectly. Very entertaining read, I really want to read Camp Damascus now (his other horror book) but it's not in my library so I gotta wait until I can buy it.

CURRENTLY READING:

Old Wounds, Logan-Ashley Kisner

Where the Dark Stands Still, A.B. Poranek

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann

BOOK CLUB BOOK:

Inkspell, Cornelia Funke

[sharpth1ng]

What did you think about the motives of the ghostfaces in Scream 2? I thought they were one of the more interesting ones throughout the series (aside from Sidney's cousins. She slayed) loved Nancy's good old revenge and she was so unhinged 😭 Billy totally got that from her

Yeah I think the motives in Scream 2 are pretty great!

Nancy's revenge motive kinda makes her a Mrs Voorhees, it's like going back to the first Friday the 13th movie after Jason already grew up and started killing people. I think it plays well with Billy's Norman Bates coding as well, instead of the mother living on through the son like she does in psycho, the son lives on through the mother. Either way, this family revenge motive is classic in horror and the maternal relationship is central to that a lot of the time in movies like this.

Mickey's motive works well too. It was smart to bring in an unrelated killer- it's something that's less common in the franchise, were we keep coming back to killers that are related to people in the original movie. Scream 5 subverts that a little, with Sam being the blood relation, while Richie and Amber aren't related to the original killers, but then in scream 6 we go right back to the trope with the killers all being Richies family members (weak as hell imo, but I'm not getting in to that here).

All that is to say that Mickey's motive stands out to me, and he pulls it off better than Richie- I do still think Richie's reveal is good, the reddit bit is funny, but Amber is a lot more compelling than he is. Mickey is both more fun to watch, and also he's not a groomer (which Richie pretty clearly is, he would have started talking to Amber when she was 16/17).

Mickey's motive also works well with the meta aspect of the franchise, its directly commenting on the "movies don't make psychos" part, only the line is blurred. Stab isn't just a movie, it's a dramatization of real events. So in the end we have movies inspiring murderers, which in turn inspires a movie, which in turn inspires another murderer.

I also like the fact that Mickey wasn't planning on getting away with it. His whole plan is to become a celebrity murderer. Even in versions of the script where Billy talks about the possibility of getting caught he's still planning on making himself as sympathetic as possible in court, but Mickey isn't thinking about that at all, and I find that interesting.

But also yeah I agree, Jill is a lot of fun, I do really enjoy her plan to frame herself as the final girl.

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary436

12/3-4/24

tuesday - wednesday

writing this as my gf prepares for work.

another short one today. i did some more drawing which was nice, i think i basically just need the hands to be done, and then it'll be over... then i can go onto another attempt at getting better at all this, which is exciting for me.

i watched 2 movies today, one was occult, which was by koji shiraishi, who directed noroi as well. i wanted to see some j-horror stuff because i've been so into siren lately. here's a couple shots of funny things i saw in it:

i like how this was filmed at the time when there was a big ad for ugly betty up in shibuya. i've seen that before on some images i found on flickr which feels really funny, to see that and be like, oh wow, it's from then!!

equally entertaining is that psp monster hunter ad.

there were some shots that were actually really nice, the whole ending bit is also insane, maybe i could have grabbed those but these are funny to me in i guess a very narrow way.

i quite liked the film itself, it's not so scary really, but at a certain point you get a sinking feeling, and it feels so sudden, a couple times you feel very bad, you see people broken up over things, the film generally feels focused on a particular kind of poverty in japan and what happens to the people who live on the outside of the norm out there, who are headed towards homelessness and are unstable, it's a movie that wishes for kindness for people like that, as well as taking the cult-terrorist fears of the general public and using this man to examine that/prod at why people end up there. like noroi though, the text isn't so interesting as is its uncanny atmosphere, the way the world is rendered through the camera and all the 'supernatural' sightings of leeches flying through the sky. i really like that stuff, i like how cheap and strange it looks, it makes it more carnivalesque which ultimately extends / articulates the film's goals a little better, a miserable laugh at the end of poverty, a mania of a certain kind and a curiosity driven to standing on the side of grave injury, getting swept up in a strange brotherhood with a strange man.

that's one thing i thought about, eno, when he and shiraishi drop the formalities, and they bond in that way, and around when that happens eno becoming extremely agitated towards the only woman at the dinner table with them, and how she dies at the end. i keep thinking about that, and what i wrote about yesterday a bit, more that it's interesting that the film makes a point of this man being oddly misogynistic and pathetic, like he wants her but doesn't know how to be charming or nice even so he goes to attack her. excluded from being normal himself, he attacks her for being 'weird' and quiet, this makes me think of nekojiru's work, where she'd go to lengths to express how outsiders aren't somehow some kind of cure or solely good force in relation to the broader scope of society, rather they absorb all the same neuroses and use them maybe moreso to protect themselves, to never be in the wrong despite generally being seen as such (all of those judgments though, take place in a subconscious way).

anyhow, i quite liked that film.

the other film i watched i didn't like so much, videophobia, i picked it because it also seemed j-horror-y and it sorta was, it was also a movie that i picked because it seemed intensely related to what i was writing about last night here, it's about a woman who discovers revenge porn of herself on xvideos and then, as time goes on, loses it bit by bit and gets plastic surgery to become a new person so she doesn't have to live with the fear of being found out. it's an effort to meditate on how we have this massive industry and, i don't know if this is true, but in the film a woman says that global usage of 'that site' which one she means idk (i would imagine this is the figure of the one big one (if it's a real figure at all)), sits at around something like 5 million hours yearly or something? maybe a jump up to billion? i don't know. but something obscene like that. that was the best part of the film, when the woman says that to her, just this kind of cosmic terror at a figure that great, that it measures to an impossible amount of years, that it feels hopeless in the face of that basically. but idk, the rest of the film is just kind of flat. i dunno. i can't get as excited about the rest of it as i can about that little bit lodged in it. the film at points doesn't come off as leering or creepy or whatever, it just feels odd in how it handles her suffering. i don't know, i just don't know. and the music felt so wrong at points. but it felt interesting too, to see that idea meditated on, this woman really was sacrificed to this managed desire.

but now it's almost 7 am, i am super duper tired,

so,

byebye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nellie-elizabeth]

Bob's Burgers: The Tina Table: The Tables Have Tina-ed (15x01)

Fun to be back to school with the kids! This was a great episode to open up our fifteenth season.

Cons:

This isn't really a flaw of this episode, but a general note... one of the things I love about Louise is that she's an agent of chaos but she always comes through when it matters. I've noticed a trend recently of her being a little more... responsible, end of the day, than you would expect? It was interesting to me that her role in this episode was to convince Tina to do the right thing, even though the wrong thing was causing so much chaos and making people act so wacky. You'd think maybe Louise would be into that, at least at first? And then maybe have a turn a little later? But she immediately was against all these shenanigans, which I thought was a little odd.

Pros:

I liked the subplot back at the restaurant a lot - basically, Teddy has been having Bob and Linda recount the plots of various horror movies to him, since he hasn't seen any of them. Linda ran out of movies to describe and just starts making up fake plots to movies she hasn't seen. Bob gets involved one day against his will, but then finds that he actually really loves the creative outlet! They get found out when Teddy actually goes to see one of the movies they've been describing. He's barely mad, though - turns out, he thinks their versions of the stories are better than the real thing!

I liked that this was a Bob vs. Linda competitive thing; often the joke is that Bob is a pushover or just has to stand there while Linda is a chaos agent, but here we see them both getting invested and going a bit wild about it.

The main plot features Tina's morning news show segment at school, and some drama with Mr. Frond's new video game diagnosis tool. Tina gets a lot of positive feedback about featuring the game, and when it turns out it's all a fraud, Tina is tempted to keep up the ruse for the sake of the positive attention on the show. I really liked Mr. Frond conspiring with the kids for his own ends, it's always funny to see his supposed scruples fail in the face of potential personal gain. The twist that it was Henry Haber making the game for him in secret was also pretty funny.

This show exists in this kind of timeless zone where these kids have all been the same age for the past fifteen years, but one thing I loved about how this episode played with that specifically is that Mr. Frond's game is like... extremely archaic, 2-bit graphics, the most basic shit imaginable, and the idea of children this age in 2024 being impressed by something like that when they have a bajillion cooler things on their smartphones that most of them probably would own by middle school if not sooner... I don't know. It just made me smile. This show plays fast and loose with the anachronisms and I like that.

Also, it was fun to see Tina getting a clean win in this episode. She's often the sad sack, but this time, she got success on her show, and then even when she chose to do the right thing, she still won in the end, as it's decided that her show will stay on the air! Her bad-ass moment where she tricks Mr. Frond on the air was such a triumph! She even got some extra time with Jimmy Jr. being open and emotional with her, during the chaos of everyone trying to live up to their game-assigned personalities.

That's all for this one!

8.5/10