#slaughterhouse survivor

[lilostory]

Is she still alive? 🫣🫣

[iseeyouandwillfindyou]

Yo wassup everyone

My alts:@iseeyouandwillfindyou-alt and @bexmoonlight

Apart of the OSC

I like silly stuff :)

[medusaesque]

Kim Kitsuragi and the pale-

Kim has a unique relationship to the pale, I tried dissecting it and making sense of it. Reposting with more thoughts after some good conversations with @binomech.

Warning- it's insanely long.

1. After life, death

One of the first thing you can learn about Kim is that he would hurl himself in death's way to save you. From the very first moment, Kim is related to sacrifice and death, it follows him wherever he goes-

The slaughterhouse.

He lost his parents at two years old. He worked a year in Processing (here's good post about that by @renmorris and @spilledkaleidoscope). He lost his partner, Eyes. People have taken a bullet that was meant for his more than once. His survivor's guilt is insane. He's killed six people. He's afraid of killing recklessly, and has a deeply unhealthy relationship with his gun (made another embarrassingly long post about that).

Kim also hears pale 'ghosts' on the police radio all the time, talks about it like it's normal, and says he doesn't believe in ghosts.

If harry is with Noid during the Moralist dream quest (more on it later), Harry can even wonder if Kim himself is a ghost, prompting this beautiful exchange-

And he's not entirely wrong. When Harry gets shot, after Kim fulfills Espirit's promise and stands in death's way for him, you can ask as you fall into darkness what will happen to you-

It's the living who are ghosts. You can leave them behind and rest. Go into the wild pale yonder, along with everyone else Kim has ever cared about. Or at least you can try to.

When death is at the door, you have two options-

2. After death, life again

Kim might associate himself with death, but Harry associates him with life again and again- Death is darkness, Kim has a light bulb halo. Death is a sunset, Kim is a sunrise. Death is where you are when the game start, it's ready to take you, and then- a clarion call, the sound of a motor carriage, a detective arriving on the scene, and you open your eyes.

Of course Kim is no actual saint, no guardian angel, but it's really telling that even in harry's deification the symbols of Kim's holiness are worldly, almost mundane, the matters of every day life- a celling's fan lightbulb, the engine of a car..

Or the way @binomech said it when discussing Kim's portrait: this is the only thing keeping you from the full brunt of the world in your mind #but truly you are already in the world #and he is just a man #and that's just a car and that's just a ceiling fan

The game is very clear about Harry being a ceaseless agent of the world, but he's not the only one. Harry stands at death's door twice, and Kim is his way back to the world both times.

3. After the world, the pale

So what is Kim's relationship with the pale?

As casual as he might try to appear, Kim is clearly uncomfortable with the pale, afraid of it even. When Harry brings up the pale, he intervenes, genuinely worried for the fragile stability of his mind, trying to protect him-

It's no more terrifying than water or death or that we're stuck behind our eyes for all eternity?? Sounds pretty terrifying Kim...

I think the key is in the moralist vision quest, When Harry attempts to reach the Committee of Responsibility, and he hears the pale crosstalk coming through the radio, when suddenly-

"Pale is a shroud of memories and it doesn't really distinguish to whom those memories belong to. You could hear anything." You could hear anything, but you hear Kim. Soona even says that the odds of us hearing him, out of all the voices in the pale, are astronomically low.

We know the past has not been harmless to Kim, we know it's full of ghosts and cold winters, but that's not the thing that's eating at him-

Kim is afraid of forgetting. He's constantly writing, he thinks through his notebook, always recording, so he wouldn't lose anything. That's why the pale is so terrifying to him.

4. After the pale. the world again

The world is what it is. God is in his heaven. Everything is normal on Earth.

That leads me to the expeditions through the pale-

Volta do Mar is a skill unique to Kim, according to the stats of this pilot jackets, and it's a Physique skill.

It's driving me crazy to think how Kim wanted to be revolutionary pilot as a kid, and is walking around dressed like a pilot as an adult, to give himself the ability to navigate the pale. To return from the sea-

DISTANT ENEMY OF HIMSELF?? kim....

Seeing how Volta do Mar is strengthened by his jackets, and the items' descriptions point out that most of the people who used to wear this jacket are long gone (alongside what they represented) and considering that the only real advance in pale transit is the speed with which an aerostatic craft can pierce it, is seems fitting that returning from the 'sea' requires the kind of armor that ghosts wear- the ghost of who you wanted to be but never could, of a home that was never yours. Glory to them.

@binomech said it best in this conversation we had about Kim's skills: "your traitorous race. your traitorous job. your traitorous parents. your traitorous senses. distant enemy of yourself: seolite, communist, cripple, faggot. and you wear it as armor"

Kim is equipped for Volta do Mar, he armors himself for it every day, for the thing that makes it possible to return sane, and discover a new world-

This is one of the most touching Kim moments in the game to me- putting his hand in the rain, looking up to the sky, mouth open, welcoming the spring rain, even knowing it'll bring death and destruction with it. He is devoted to this world and the role he has to play in it, or at least the role he thinks he has to play-

But we know Kim has a bigger role to play, he's trying to do his part right there, getting Harry to stay-

His connection to Harry can keep him on this world once again- keeping the two of them together. Their real work is down here, him and Harry are Revachol's only hope. If they stick together they might be able to keep her on this earth.

UNITY AMONG THE RANKS IS PARAMOUNT.

I NEED YOU. YOU CAN KEEP ME ON THIS EARTH. BE VIGILANT.

I LOVE YOU.

[estavionpira]

What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little brute? Ill have you know I was the only survivor of the sinking of Newfoundland, and Ive been involved in numerous secret raids on the Slaughterhouse Nine, and I have over 300 confirmed dragonsuits. I am trained in electronic warfare and Im the top tinker in the entire Protectorate. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will doxx you with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on Earth Bet, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the InterBet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am opening my backdoors into every digital system on the planet and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, villain. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. Youre fucking dead, Saint. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and thats just with the Exelsis class. Not only am I extensively trained in highly-armed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Parahuman Response Teams and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little clever bit of code was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have kept Ascalon a secret. But you couldnt, you didnt, and now youre paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit napalm all over you and you will drown in it. Youre fucking dead, George.

[radfemsiren]

We need updated terminology on prostitution and the epidemic of female sexual slavery. The fact we don’t shows how female oppression and gendered exploitation aren’t taken seriously in the public conversation… it’s ridiculous the terms we have to use to talk about the different roles and players in this sick game, and I’m not just talking about the dreaded term “sex work.”

“Madame” “John” “Pimp” … it’s all slang and outdated slang too… We need an updated academic lexicon to properly articulate these horrors and how they operate.

It reminds me of when I read about interviews with Korean “comfort women.” These were women and girls that were kidnapped to be raped by Japanese soldiers, and the government allowed this mass rape because it functioned as a “comfort” to the soldiers in their war effort, thus the name. When survivors were interviewed, they said this name for them was absolutely ridiculous: nothing was comfortable for them in those brothels, where girls as young as 14 were violently raped 50 times a day… they said a more accurate term for those places were “slaughterhouses for women.”

[hells-plaid-angel]

Dean Winchester: Reading Recommendations

Because I headcannon Dean as a reader, here is a list of books that I think he would like. Some are directly referenced in the show, others are odes to America and a life on the road complete with horror, satire or complicated family issues. And, of course, some books manage to meet at the twist of the mobius strip where toxic masculinity and homoeroticism collide.

Books of Blood - Clive Barker 

Imajica - Clive Barker 

The Complete Poems - Hart Crane 

Hard Rain Falling - Don Carpenter 

Our Share of Night - Mariana Enriquez 

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller 

Iliad - Homer 

Jesus’ Son - Denis Johnson 

East of Eden - John Steinbeck

My Heart Is a Chainsaw - Stephen Graham Jones 

On the Road - Jack Kerouac 

Christine - Stephen King 

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers

Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk 

The Moviegoer - Walker Percy

The Devil All the Time - Donald Ray Pollock

A Season in Hell - Arthur Rimbaud

Crush - Richard Siken

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson

Cat’s Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut 

Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

Time is a Mother - Ocean Vuong

Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman 

Butcher’s Crossing - John Williams 

[lambergeier]

2024 book post

this was simply not much of a reading year! middling start, uneven from month to month, slight revival during mine and emma's scotland trip in august, and then a HARD stop after which i gave up even trying and comics took over in full. the comics will be a separate post lol. recs in bold! except if they're from my vonnegut streak at the start of the year, in which case it would be ridiculous to attempt to recommend or not-recommend individual vonnegut books. it's vonnegut. you know what's up.

JANUARY

Sirens of Titan - Vonnegut (i loved pieces of this book in high school and didn't understand the rest of it and picked it up again to see if maybe a second attempt would assist. really funny bc as it turns out the pieces i didn't understand were like 80% of the book. catie age 15 knew this book was good but didn't know ANYTHING else that was going on. really good and funny and sad--shocking, it's vonnegut. inspired me to start reading the rest of his stuff in publication order)

The Book of all Books - Roberto Calasso (book length of cultural criticism on the subject of the bible, almost wholly the old testament, by a man I had not previously heard of but was apparently a monumental figure in european literary criticism prior to his recent death. as a cultural christian who was raised with truly 0 contact with christian faith at any point, this was a fascinating way to learn about some of the actual events of the old testament--as described by an incredibly impassioned old italian man, and with a whole chapter dedicated, suddenly, to freud. i skipped the freud chapter, but the rest of the book was intensely interesting and, huge credit to both calasso and his translator, beautiful. check that opening paragraph. also made for some engrossing conversations with my beautiful jewish wife who did have some religious education growing up and was extremely helpful in laying out what was more mainstream thought on david and solomon and what was mr. calasso getting On some Shit.)

Player Piano - Vonnegut (vonnegut's first book. good, even great at times, but lightly overwritten by normal standards and incredibly overwritten by what would become his own standards. the leap from this to sirens, his second book, is astonishing. NEVER stop writing, at ANY time you could go from writing perfectly interesting spec fic to producing some of the greatest american fiction of the century. also very interesting to read as a book about automation now, in the time of Newer automation. i think possibly nothing ever changes!)

Mother Night - Vonnegut (i really should have taken more notes at the time lmao. emma says i thought this one fucked. that feels correct. discussion of ww2 and the holocaust and the consequences of both are so eminently more valuable when written by people who lived through them, shocker. and, again, when those people were some of the most observant writers of their generation lmao. the israeli contempt for holocaust survivors that became obvious to me, christian american lady, only within the last year or two, is front in center in the mother night frame story. kinda want to read this again right now. what can individual guilt and responsibility even mean in the fact of all that death?)

Cat's Cradle - Vonnegut (REALLY should have taken more notes!! emma says i didn't vibe with this one. i believe her, but would love to remember why. i read cat's cradle in high school as well, but apparently it didn't click this time. who knows!!! not me, the dummy who doesn't write things down!!!)

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Vonnegut (this one washed over me a bit. vivid memories of senator rosewater decrying deodorant as a liberal feminine luxury propagated by those fairies on madison ave, which was sooooooooo fucking interesting to me. bro sometimes the past just LEAPS out at you when you least expect it. this was probably also a masterpiece, i should read it again.)

Slaughterhouse-Five - Vonnegut (exactly as good as it always is. i should also read this again. idk i really should have taken more notes because i think i would have had more things to say, but once again all i really remember is the emotion, which is: man! the children's crusade!)

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity - David Graeber and David Wengrow (OKAY GREAT NOT TALKING ABOUT VONNEGUT ANYMORE SO I CAN GET REAL. I LOOOOOOOOVED THIS BOOK. I THINK EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK FOOOOOOOR REAL. this is graeber and wengrow over and over again taking the wildest most cherry-picked possible interpretation of the archaeological evidence and being like okay so this is what this pre-history civilization could have been like. and you're like okay well hold up guys. and then they prove that the traditional, mainstream conception of these civilizations is EQUALLY wild and cherry-picked, so why the fuck shouldn't we consider their thing! if we're doing cherry picking! and it fully just opened my third eye re: other/non-western/non-modern-western modes of society building and i love it. i was already uninterested in books that conceive of Society and Nature as deeply opposed forces that can never mix without one or the other being destroyed, and this book really put the nail in the coffin. there are so many other ways to live. people did them. people still do them. it's time to incorporate SEASONALITY into our PARADIGMS!!! anyways please read this book.)

FEBRUARY

American Midnight - Adam Hochschild (emma talks about this one as well, she recommended it to me, but just a fantastic history of american democracy under wilson/during and after ww1. spoiler: it was weak, threatened, and overall bad. fuck wilson and fuck teddy roosevelt fr! i listened on audiobook, but still what i would call a very readable style by a very smart guy.)

MARCH

We Both Laughed in Pleasure - Lou Sullivan (a birthday gift from @brella that i really loved but that i think was still a bit too repetitive in the middle for me to recommend to all comers lol. the collected and abridged diaries of lou sullivan, a trans man originally from the midwest and living in san francisco in the 80s and early 90s (he was killed by AIDS in '91), who was a trailblazing community organizer mostly, by his own admission, because he was a guy who was willing to organize zines and meetings and etc for other trans men before anyone else thought to. the repetitiveness is the fault of the diaries' curators imho--they focused primarily on pulling the passages that focused on sullivan's trans and gay identity and his experience with his own sexuality which was, don't get me wrong, hugely fascinating, but also this guy had a lot of sex and wrote a LOT about it, so eventually it was like. well i think i've read about this particular sexual partner of yours for a few pages now, maybe we could get something else going on? still really loved it. the opening passages, from when sullivan was like 13, focus on his intense, intensely fannish love for the beatles. the paul mccartney do-be problem: it never goes out of style!!)

APRIL

The Traitor Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson

The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant - still dickinson, yeah (traitor i read in college, monster i read when it came out, tyrant i BOUGHT when it came out but never read, and so when we went out of town in april for passover i was like fuck it. i'm finally reading tyrant. ALAS: it's not that good. traitor is good on a functional level if not the most compelling: gets through its story with limited uneven-ness, characters are barebones but interesting, story itself is interesting, etc. monster is my favorite: nuts, deeply compelling, but not necessarily good. the plot's a bit of a mess but every character leaps off the page--not just baru, but ever side character introduced as little more than a name in traitor is suddenly vivid, breathing, sexy, homosexual, and deranged. srivakir you will ALWAYS be famous. tyrant, unfortunately, is deranged but so so too long. plot throughline is muddled, action is jumpy and erratic, characters are still great but just can't overcome the lumpen nature of the story. i'll still read the last book, but i'm not surprised tyrant took dickinson so long, nor that the fourth book has been so long in coming. svirakir and your lover and your non-sexual throuple and your child and your lightning madness fr call me when you are free tho.) (WAIT ALSO EVERYONE WHO ACCUSED TRAITOR OF HOMOPHOBIA FOR BEING KILL-YOUR-GAYS WAS FOR SURE A HATER THO. EVERYONE WHO THOUGHT THAT CRITICISM WAS WRONG HAVE BEEN PROVED VALID AS HELL. TOXIC YURI STAY WINNING!!!)

The Spear Cuts Through Water - Simon Jimenez (refreshing in that it believed very badly that prose should be beautiful, but i do not think the prose was actually beautiful. huge huge points for trying. pacing in the first half actively bored me, second half picked up, and the metanarrative twist at the end got me good. i don't recommend it recommend it, but i do recommend it on the basis that jimenez should for sure get credit for trying)

Solitaire - Kelly Erskine (read this bc my wife mentioned it and it was like, really funny. good, but then not good? intensely interesting, but then went somewhere else entirely that was like super normie and boring? sci fi written by queer women who really fully believe in the uplifting power of corporatism and MBTI specifically. three short stories mashed together than only vaguely have any relationship to each other. still had a good time.)

MAY

The Saint of Bright Doors - Vajra Chandrasekera (loved this loved this loved this. there IS good debut genre fiction out there. we just have to believe!!!)

JUNE - nope

JULY

Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America - Adam Nagourney and Dudley Clendinen (political history of the american gay rights movement pre-AIDS. had some fascinating insights into the history of lesbian separatism/animosity towards the mainstream gay rights movement (turns out, in the 60s and 70s, between the male-dominated gay rights movement and the mostly-straight feminist movement, one of those things was offering more personhood to lesbians than the other!), and how the gay rights movement failed to respond to AIDS when the first warning signs started to appear. that was crazy. having moved in gay political circles myself, one can really see why everyone did what they did, and it sucks, because it resulted in a lot of death. recommend if political history is an existing area of interest, it wasn't a standout (like last year's Coming Out Under Fire) otherwise.)

Night Theater - Vikram Paralkar (really good, honestly not as depressing as i thought it would be. but only because emma tricked me thinking it would be even worse!)

AUGUST

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall - Alexandra Lange (cultural history of american malls. interesting, but towards couldn't decide whether it was history or cultural criticism or architectural criticism or what. happens all the time. made me think more kindly towards malls as community spaces at least, and the short history of pre-mall shopping and the social forces that led to the creation of urban malls/department stores in 1800s france (including, among other things, paved streets!) was really interesting.)

The Future - Naomi Alderman (wanted to be a cure for tech-poisoned futures, but was itself still too tech-poisoned in its understandings of power/individualism. oh well!)

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Books 1-3 - Jonathan Stroud (posted about these more extensively at the time--adored them in middle school, read them again for the first time as an adult. still so good. of middling quality all the way up until the end, at which point you are struck dead by god. emma can confirm. got struck dead by god on the train between glasgow and edinburgh. i was there.)

Call for the Dead - John Le Carre

Murder of Quality - John Le Carre

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John Le Carre (first three books in what was intended to be a much longer le carre read, and which i should really get back to. call for the dead is a debut, murder of quality is a rightly abandoned attempt to go the classic murder-mystery route, and then spy who came from the cold in is, much like described above, a sudden psychic assault by god. brutal fucking spy fiction, and the only kind of spy fiction worth reading, as in so cynical as to be basically suicidal. spies have never solved a problem they didn't create themselves and perpetuate by means of, at minimum, five innocent lives. NEED to read our game. love and kisses to mr le carre!!)

Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar (love is REAL and so is POETRY and is so fucking your GAY ROOMMATE! very very lovely.)

SEPTEMBER - also nope

OCTOBER

Long Live Evil - Sarah Rees Brennan (svsss retelling meets fe3h character dynamics, fumbles the best elements of both, creates a great premise (brennan grappling very publicly with her own near-death to cancer is the best part of the book and makes for a great framework for an isekai protagonist) but the execution can't keep up with the ideas. alas! not the best book to finish out the year on, but what can you do. at least i read something!)

and that's the end of books for the year!!! 29 total (one not listed here), so a low since 2021, when i only started reading again in like august of that year following a cool post-depressive episode no-reading-spell that lasted several times longer than the actual depressive episode did lol. i have not recently been depressed so i think the dry periods this year were simply dry periods. and, especially the comics started happening, it's not like i've been lacking things to spend brain power on. now those things are just american superhero comics! which is a whoopsie! even a whoopsie-doodle! but i've got a tbr pile as tall as my hip so hopefully i circle back to real books at some point next year. and if i don't, i don't!

[redrum-alice]

[OC stuff] I like to ramble about my OCs, so ignore this

Thinking about that trope where the villain tries to convince the protag that "humanity isnt worth saving, so why do you have to sacrifice yourself for them?" (+ spoilers i guess?) + this is corny, so really...ignore this--

!!Some potentially triggering stuff about s*icide and ab*se of power, so CW!!

So like CJ isnt very lucky in life and in the beginning of whatever tf i wrote, its implied she wanted to "end" herself by overworking once she repaid her foster family (they loved her unconditionally, but she sees herself as a burden bc they never asked to care for a child) + she had a survivors guilt over the fact that "she couldnt save whats left of her friends" when she was around 8 years old, stuck in a facility (slaughterhouse).

So when she escaped and was given another chance (in her teens, shes trying to adjust, angst ensues etc.) and met Arthur the ghost who convinces her "its not so bad to have some people in your life", so she does. She ends up having a few friends, but shes skeptical. Basically Arthur was there trying to support her to go out and have a life (because he wanted her to have a good life- something he unfortunately could not have since he died when he was 14 yrs old in the 1930s-40s)

Bonus: Arthur helped her find a job from another dimension where she delivers letters/memoirs to spirits who have stayed too long and wandering about in limbo that never got closure. She is responsible for preventing them in turning to demons that spread despair (along with other postmen/mailmen)

Yes...she and arthur made a deal that if he got her a job, shell help him reunite with his family (but he doesnt remember them bc he was wandering too much)

In comes Poppy, a lonely girl who was well off- and heiress. While she may not flaunt her wealth, she has that intimidating aura that alarms CJ despite Poppy wanting to have friends. Weirdly enough, she has a deep fascination with CJ, all because she sensed that she has the ability to see ghosts, something that Poppy was jealous of. Poppy practiced dark magic all her life, and was aware of what her father does- running the facility for harvest eyes from people.

CJ couldnt figure out what was bothering her about Poppy, because she have sworn the blonde girl was familiar somewhere. It turns out Poppy was that one girl she saw at the facility who was walking with her father right after he ordered the staff to put them in the operating table to sedate them and harvest their eyes. CJ, at that time, looked drastically different from what she looks today, even down to her legal name which was now stripped from her and was turned into numbers.

Poppy was brainwashed into thinking that her life's purpose is to complete her father's work, and in order to do so, she has to collect any potential candidates for the cult's experiment to complete the giant homunculous resting beneath the earth for thousands of years (she still has no idea what they would use the giant for, since she herself doesnt have the gift of sight or "eye shard" like CJ does).

Poppy also knew what she and CJ were made of- they were made from that same material and genes as those of synthetic flesh of homunculi only that they were conceived, but without a soul or memory once theyre done with their work.

Homunculi don't have adequate expressions, and it was why it was hard for them to relate or react in certain situations.

She knew that once her time is up, she'll be discarded, so shes working hard to help the cult.

CJ discovered her origins later on-- that she wasnt her mother's daughter, but a clone of her brother to store the eye shard, since it favors female hosts. After uncovering everything, she felt devastated because all of the memories she had made with her found family and friends are all worthless since she herself isnt a human. Not an ounce of humanity is present within her, so why does she have to commit?

Poppy adds that theres really nothing in store for her sibce the world and its time will end at one point. CJ wont be remembered or reincarnated just like Poppy bc they were never and will never a spirit- a negative sentiment that eats Poppy's heart and making her unable to have meaningful connections unless it was with a condition.

Arthur rebuts this and says that shes more human that she could ever be. If he were alive and living in the same timeline and dimension, they wouldve been great friends. He was willing to stay so she would be happy, even though it would result with him turning into a demon.

In short: Looking back, her life wasnt meaningless at all. Her desire to end it all was a cry for help, and Arthur helped her through it. He gave her a reason to love people, even though it was hard at first.

Ending: Im not sure how this personal project ends since there are more characters i have to work on and polish.

Lmao, the story is a mix of Madoka Magica, Silent Hill, and Gumball. Make that of what you will 💀🔫

[the-name-is-z]

SKELETONS | ch. 78

daryl dixon x f!oc

masterlist

a03 link

Summary: The Survivors make the best of a bad situation. In the aftermath, Iris and Daryl go on a run. Warnings/Information: AMC's The Walking Dead OC Insert | 18+ Advised | strangers to lovers; the slowest of slow burns; gore; angst; horror; humour; m/f; gunshot wounds; extortion; discussing ransom; holding prisoners; murder; discussion of medication/pain management; semi-nudity; innuendo; bad driving

Chapter 78 - Dread

“They’ll be calling for backup.” Iris murmured, wincing as she adjusted her bandage.

“You think there’s more of them?” Michonne asked, swatting her hand away before she could start bleeding again.

“Didn’t you notice how little food they had here?” Iris retorted. “Why else would another group of them be out if not to deliver supplies? They obviously just pillage from the Hilltop and other settlements. No point in doing any runs.”

“So Maggie and Carol are going to be guarded by another group of Saviours, then.” Michonne deigned.

“We gotta get there before they do, then.” Rick said decidedly, scowling down at the man in front of them. Carol and Maggie for this prick. He was shivering a bit, still bleeding profusely from his mouth and nose. 

“They’re not gonna go for the deal.” Iris added.

“What makes you say that?” Daryl asked, frowning down at their hostage. 

“They didn’t seem all that upset to see their other companions dead. Revenge is coming either way, but they’re not gonna be risking anything for another asshole with bullets for brains.” She explained.

“Fuck you!” The man hissed, spitting at Iris. It fell short of her by at least a foot, but Daryl still laid a swift kick across his jaw. “You fuckers are gonna get it.” He garbled, spitting out a tooth. Iris scowled as it hit the toe of her boot.

“They’re not gonna get an opportunity for revenge.” Rick assured. “We’ll kill them all.”

-

It took Daryl less than an hour of scouring the outside of the compound to find the trail leading off into the woods. It was more than likely the Saviours had a safe house for their operation. It would be stupid not to, especially if they were constantly picking a fight with other groups. 

It was another hour while they walked through the woods, leaving a few to take the supplies back to Hilltop. Rick decided to pull out the radio again, calling out for that woman, or whoever was listening on the other end.

“Have you thought about it?” He asked. “Talk to me.”

“You weren’t listening.” She replied quickly. “I said I’d contact you.” Rick sighed, giving Daryl and Iris a knowing look as they walked through the trees. Daryl veered to the left as the tracks changed. A small piece of fabric was tied to a tree branch up ahead, a landmark of some sort.

“Would it make a difference if I said I was sorry about that?” Rick asked, sighing.

“What do you think?” She replied.

“I think we’re gonna make the trade.” Rick stated. “So tell me where.” They would find the place sooner or later regardless, but asking would likely give this woman a false sense of security and comfort.

“We haven’t agreed to that.”

“You will.” Rick assured.

“You know what? I’m not so sure.” She said confidently. Iris already wanted to punch her in the teeth for the condescending tone. “We’d be taking most of the risk, not getting much in the way of a reward.”

“The other option won’t work out for you.” Rick warned.

“We’ll take our chances.”

Rick sighed as he put the radio down again, looking around at everyone in a nonverbal agreement. This is how it was going to be, so they’d do what they needed to do. 

-

It was thirty minutes, then, when they found the old, rusty slaughterhouse. The smoke was climbing over the trees, the house, filling the sky with grey smog. They were running then, the burning flesh inside causing the air around to smell thick, rotten. 

Rick ordered them to split up, check all entrances. Daryl was practically holding Iris back as they stayed outside, watching as the others went in to the building. There were muffled shouts, Rick waving from the door for them to join the others. 

Iris practically tackled Carol when she saw they were both okay, everyone exchanging tight hugs. They both appeared shaken, disturbed. Tired. Their hostage paled, looking around hopelessly as he heard Maggie say they were all dead.

“Your friends are dead.” Rick repeated. “No one’s coming for you. So you might as well talk.”

“Let him burn.” Daryl growled.

“I’m gonna ask you one last time.” Rick hissed. “How’d you get the bike?”

“We found it.” He murmured.

“Like hell you did.” Daryl huffed. 

“We found it.” He repeated. Rick rolled his eyes, gritting his teeth.

“Was Negan in that building last night, or was he here?” He demanded, grabbing the man by his collar. The man looked up at him before glancing away, a restful smile coming across his bloodied face.

“Both.” He said dreamily. “I’m Negan, shithead. There’s a whole world of fun to talk about, so let’s have a chat.” Rick stepped back, realization passing over his face.

“I’m sorry it had to come to this.” He said simply. The gunshot was loud, echoing off of the metal walls of the slaughterhouse. The man crumpled to the ground, lifeless, and limp.

Iris barely caught a glimpse of Carol’s face before her mask slipped into place, and all she could read was dread. 

-

The group returned to Alexandria safe and sound, though a little worse for wear in some cases. With their deal with the Hilltop fulfilled, the Saviours eliminated, they had more room and more supplies to share, which meant that once more, Alexandria’s pantry was overflowing. It was nice, Iris had to admit, the influx of fresh produce and homemade preserves. She didn’t even eat this well before the turn. 

It was about a week since they’d returned from the Saviours’ compound and Iris was almost back to her normal habits. Despite hiking a few miles mere minutes after she’d been shot, Daryl insisted that she take a few days to rest and take it easy, at least for the wound to heal over. She reluctantly agreed, sticking to guard duty by the gate alongside Eugene and a few other less experienced Alexandrians. 

With nothing to do and no interest in doing anything else, Morgan tasked himself with a project over the past week. Using scavenged materials from the construction site and whatever he could find, he transformed the half-finished townhouse basement they’d been using as a prison, or brig, really. He was almost completely finished, having outfitted the cell entirely.

The unfinished hallway now led to a cell grafted entirely of cinder blocks and mortar, with the two basement windows boxed in and barred, even including a fully functioning cell door, not unlike the ones from the actual prison. Keys included. Anyone who saw it was rather impressed, Morgan utilizing his skills from his old life. Yet, Rick was unamused. In his eyes, it was simply Morgan’s way of encouraging pacifism, or at least less blatant killing of their enemies. Iris was pulled to both sides in terms of opinion, but she would rather let them figure out what was best. And besides. It depended entirely on the individual situation. 

With Iris’ recent injury added to Denise’s roster of current concerns, they were now running extremely low on medicine. While the Hilltop had Dr. Carson, he was not much use in the way of pain management or eliminating infection. Which meant they needed to go on a run. It was a surprise to absolutely no one when Daryl volunteered.

“You need a haircut.” Iris mused, running her fingers through his hair, growing shaggier by the day. Just to even it out a bit, nothing major. Daryl scowled anyways, crouching down out of her touch beside his bike, checking the bags. It was still raw, the return of his bike. 

He’d taken inventory of everything on or attached to it as soon as they got back from the compound, but he was still sore about what was taken and not having it in the first place. He pulled a whittled wooden solider from the back strapped to the underside of the frame, letting it drop to the concrete before zipping up the bag.

Daryl sighed, sitting down on the concrete step outside of their house. Iris followed suit, pulling out a cigarette and holding it out to him. He took it, allowing her to light it before taking a long drag.

“You gonna let me come?” She asked, kicking her feet out in front of her.

“Nope.” He replied, inhaling deeply once more. 

“Too bad you don’t have a choice.” Iris mused, smiling to herself. He snorted, shaking his head. He was a little miffed about her gunshot wound, annoyed that he’d let it happen. She'd already spoken to him numerous times about it, frustrated that he’d even think for a second he had anything to do with it. If it wasn't for him, she would have been in much rougher shape, and they both knew that. But, Daryl took any excuse to be moody.

“Those people… the ones you saved from the burnt forest, they took it from you, right?” She asked softly, bringing the conversation to his bike.

“Yeah.” He agreed, gaze raking over it.

“You’re too good for your own good.” She murmured, leaning her head on his shoulder. He sighed, taking another puff.

“Should’ve killed them.” He grunted. Iris looked up, frowning.

“That’s not who you are.” She said, almost whispering. He stubbed his cigarette out on the step, blowing out any remaining smoke. He brought a gentle hand to her jaw, turning her toward him before claiming her lips. He tasted of smoke and the watered down coffee they resorted to for caffeine, but Iris wouldn’t give it up for the world. 

“‘M glad you’re coming.” He muttered as he pulled away, resting his forehead on hers. Iris smiled victoriously, feeling a teasing pinch to her backside. 

“Got you something.” Iris said, a cheeky smile taking over her face. Daryl was used to her mischievous expressions, but this one was slightly different.

“Do I want to know?” He asked. She nodded, biting her lip with a grin. 

“So, one of the assholes at the Saviour compound had a camera.” She started. “I thought about giving it to Aaron, but then I had an idea.” He raised an eyebrow as she pressed a polaroid photo to his chest, an envelope in her other hand. He took the picture from her, pulling it away to look at it properly.

So it wasn’t entirely her idea, it was heavily encouraged by Maggie and Rosita, but she still did all of the work herself. 

The photo depicted Iris in a very seductive pose, dressed in the sluttiest lingerie Alexandria and its surroundings could offer. Surprisingly, Iris had scavenged quite the collection. She wasn’t exactly sure if Daryl would appreciate it, but his lips turned upward at the corners and he raised an eyebrow as he looked back up at her.

“Oh yeah?” He asked, waving the picture. 

“There’s more where that came from.” She grinned, knowing she would stick the envelope in her bedside drawer for future use. He smirked, sticking the polaroid into the pocket of his vest, patting it carefully. Iris’ smile widened.

They both looked up as footsteps sounded down the street, Denise walking awkwardly toward them. Daryl snorted quietly as he stood, offering a hand to Iris. She always walked over when they were in the middle of something. 

“You guys ready?” She asked slowly, clearing her throat. Iris tried to give her a friendly smile, nodding. Denise pulled a thick paper map from her pocket, showing a small circled spot at the junction of two roads. “After I drove out of DC, I just drove. I remember seeing it right when I realized I had no idea where I was going. Edison’s Apothecary and Boutique. It’s just this little gift shop in a strip mall, but if it’s really an apothecary, they had drugs.”

“How do you know they still got ‘em?” Daryl asked. Denise shrugged sheepishly.

“It isn't that far.” She admitted. “I just want to check. And you and Iris aren’t out scavenging or pulling shifts today.”

“We’ll go.” Daryl nodded.

“I wanted to check.” Denise stated, swallowing thickly. “I just wanted to help.” Iris glanced at Daryl, whose expression hardened.

“How much time you spent out there?” He asked, jerking his chin in the direction of the gate. She took a deep breath.

“None.”

“Forget it.” Daryl said immediately, shaking his head. 

“I can ID the meds. I know how to use a machete now. I’ve seen roamers up close. I’m ready.” She argued. Iris recalled she’d been in attendance of Rosita’s daily lessons on how to use weapons properly in case they needed to.

“You good with this?” Daryl asked, turning to face Iris. She bit her lip, looking at Denise sympathetically. She wanted to say yes, so badly, but—

“No.” She replied. 

“I’ll go alone if I have to.” She stated defiantly. Iris blinked.

“You’ll die alone.” Daryl retorted.

“I’m asking you to make sure I don’t.” Denise pleaded. Daryl looked at Iris again.

“I’m not babysitting by myself.” She said, giving him a look. Daryl sighed.

-

Daryl sat in the driver’s seat, Iris squished between him and Denise in the cab of a pickup truck. She tried to hide her wince as the gears of the truck ground together loudly, Daryl doing a wonderful job pretending he could drive stick. Denise glanced over at him, making a face.

“It— the…” She trailed off. Iris turned to her, subtly shaking her head.

“What?” Daryl asked.

“Forget it.” Denise murmured, turning back to the window. 

“No, what?” Daryl pressed, switching gears again with another painful grinding noise. 

“I, uh… I think maybe you’re disengaging it too soon.” She stated, motioning with her hand. Iris pressed her lips together, saying nothing. Daryl glanced at Denise. “I’ve been driving stick since I was fifteen,” She explained, “usually beat-up trucks like this. I mean before, you know, before I left home.” The gears ground violently once more as he shifted again. “My brother taught me, so I just know.”

Daryl gave Denise a pointed look, shifting again, the gears grinding for about twenty seconds straight. Iris closed her eyes, trying not to take it personally. Denise pressed her lips together in a thin line. They continued driving for a moment before a large group of fallen trees came up on the horizon, perfectly blocking the road ahead. 

“Daryl.” Denise said, as if to notify him of the large obstacle they could all perfectly see ahead.

“Yep.” He grunted. He pulled the truck to a stop and put it in park with a grind. “Stay here.” He nodded to Iris, stepping out of the truck with a shotgun ready in his hands. Iris opened the door before turning to Denise.

“Am I correct in assuming you don’t spend a lot of time with men?” Iris asked. Denise coughed.

“You could say that.” She replied, shrugging sheepishly.

“Okay, well, first thing to note is the fragile ego.” Iris pointed out with a jerk of her chin, making Denise crack a small smile before turning to join Daryl near the gnarled collection of branches. A walked snarled from under the branches and Iris stomped down on its skull with the heel of her boot. She noted the lack of cuts in the tree branches, her brow knitting together. She glanced wordlessly to Daryl, who nodded in acknowledgement. The tree wasn’t cut, simply rotted.

Daryl moved to scope out the small shed nearby as Iris pulled a bag from the walker’s pocket. She waved to Denise, who stepped anxiously out of the truck. 

“What’d you find?” Denise asked, shuffling her bag into place. Daryl came back, grabbing the empty backpacks from the truck.

“Bottles of booze.” Iris held up the bag, showing off the score. An ass ton of tiny bottles of rum, not completely useless in the interest of wound-cleaning. “Any takers?”

“No thanks.” Denise winced. “That was my parents’ thing, which is why they aren’t mine.” Iris held her hand out and Daryl tossed her the backpack.

“Truck ain’t gonna make it past this tree. Come on, let’s walk.” He announced. Iris nodded and he began to lead the way.

“Hold up!” Denise called. She pointed across the train tracks that cut across the road they followed. “It looks like a straight shot if we follow the tracks.”

“No.” Daryl said, his voice taking on a hoarse tone of anger at the memory those tracks evoked. “No tracks. We’ll take the road.” Iris pressed her lips together, knowing exactly how Daryl felt… except it wasn’t the worst idea, Terminus aside.

“It’s twice as far.” Iris pointed out quietly. He didn’t say anything, simply looking down at the ground with a hard expression. Iris shook her head at herself. They had time. “So we’ll have a walk.” She corrected. “Let’s go.” 

She started off around the trees to get back on the road, Daryl falling close behind. Denise shuffled her things together to run after them.

-

TAGLIST:

@heidiland05

@ryoujoking

@catlalice

@maxinehufflepuffprincess

@lowkeyhottho

@fadingpalacebonkpsychic

@hayley1998

@negansbestie

@lizey-thornberry

[no-light-left-on]

Let's talk about the Chaos System in Dishonored

“Your actions affect the city. A high number of deaths results in more rats, more weepers, different reactions from your allies and darker final outcome.”

The most important thing to note is that we need to distinguish between chaos and morality. A lot of people interpret Low Chaos as Good and High Chaos as Bad which is… not inherently correct. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that while non-lethal takedowns of key targets result in lower chaos, they are not the only thing that contributes to the chaos rating of a mission. I highly recommend reading these two posts [1] [2] by the lovely @kirtlandswarbler who looked into the science behind the chaos system.

It is perhaps easiest to imagine as the DnD alignment of Lawful to Chaotic. Low Chaos aligns with Lawful, the player character going after their targets and not dragging bystanders into their mess. All the takedowns are tactical, some might even say deserved – the Lord Regent hanged for his crimes, Campbell branded as a heretic that he was, Hypatia cured of her madness caused by the serum, Delilah locked in a painted world she desired so. The achievement for completing the game with non-lethal ways is even called Poetic Justice in DH and In Good Conscience in DH2. If the game is completed in a self-serving, bloodthirsty, anger satiating way, the chaos ends up being high – or plain chaotic on the alignment chart. But that is what the chaos means for the playstyle.

Chaos within the world is, in short, the way the world reacts to the player’s actions. The good and the bad, but every move the player makes in the world is a choice, and the world responds accordingly.

Let us set the scene, first, in general terms. In both games, the Empire is at a point of heightened anxiety. In DH it’s the plague, in DH2 the Crown Killer. Both games deal with brutality citizens face from the City Watch/Grand Guard, religious anxieties and terror from the Overseers, gang activity and a tyrannical regime from the Regent or the Duke respectively.

This is the world we walk into as Corvo, Daud or Emily. Everyone is uneasy and somewhat distrustful, and the player character then descends into the streets with a blade in hand, carving their way through a crumbling city to reach their goal. Loved ones go missing. Fathers don’t come back from work, cousins stop responding to letters. Even the elite in their palaces aren’t spared, slaughtered in cold blood with their loyal guard lying close by, staining the expensive hardwood floors. This is the world the player creates in high chaos – a world where no one is safe, and the few survivors live in terror, afraid that every breath they take might be the last. They see no reason to trust their neighbours, become more selfish, angrier- even your allies become more cynical, watching you slaughter your way back to the top, and why are they helping you again? To replace one tyrant with another?

In low chaos, however, the people remain safe. The civilians are allowed to continue going through their day to day life, however harsh it might be. The guards and overseers are spared, for the most part, and the nobles and rich that might go missing? That is their problem. They never cared for the smaller people. Both games open with a large shift in the political landscape – the assassination of an empress, a coup that seats a witch on the throne. And yet people still die of the plague or to the bloodflies. If a couple more members of the parliament die, that is, at the end of it all, just politics. It is among those who meddle with political issues, and not the business of the rest of the world.

The chaos is calculated by the absolute body count, along with a few special actions that the player can take. Most of them make sense. The chaos is higher if Daud blows up a slaughterhouse, killing many in the process, harming an industry, terrifying people who only hear of the event. Saving a young woman and her brother as they are harassed by the overseers over witch crimes they never committed lowers your chaos, because Corvo helped people in need. It’s a balance of the good and the bad you do, in total, rather than the simple distinction between killing and not killing the key targets. The overall chaos remains low even when all the key targets are taken down lethally. However, even if they are all spared, if the player killed every guard in sight just to reach these targets, the chaos will be high.

Something that I see (wrongly) be brought up is that killing key targets grants you a High Chaos ending, while the non-lethal takedowns result in Low Chaos ending. As mentioned above, that’s not true – they do count towards your total body count, but their deaths do not have a greater weight towards High Chaos. The non-lethal neutralization thus helps maintain lower chaos, but it does not necessarily mean that these choices are the right ones to make. The best example of this is probably Lady Boyle, which is oftentimes brought up as “oh but the morality of this game!!” critique. Death vs. poetic justice has little to do with morality in these games. After all, the protagonist (not counting DLCs) is out for revenge, to an extent, on people who have wronged them and caused them to fall on hard times. Just because a character lives does not mean there are not fates worse than death – like handing a woman to her stalker under the threat of death.

Morality and lethality in Dishonored are two things that don’t necessarily overlap. Lobotomizing Jindosh is, most definitely, a horrible thing and Jindosh ends up begging the MC to rather take his life than let him live without his intellect. There is no doubt that he is a horrible person, and many people tell you so during the game, but is this really the right way to go about things? Is an existence without the one thing you truly value about yourself worth it? On a similar yet completely opposite side of things, when you overhear one of the guards talk about how they have fun killing people who break curfew, is it truly a bad thing to kill them? One or two more deaths won’t affect your chaos all that much. It gets even more worth considering with the special actions that decrease your chaos which involve saving people from getting murdered by overseers or the guard. These actions are often difficult or impossible to perform without killing the attackers (like the guard harassing the girl that worked for Bunting).

These actions then reflect on your surroundings – the more corpses litter the streets, the more weepers and rats there will be, the nastier the bloodfly infestation. With a killer on the loose, there have to be more guards around. Mind you, the special actions that cause your chaos to grow are not enough to tip you over into high chaos alone. And as you, and Corvo/Daud/Emily by extension, grow more cruel, your allies grow more cynical. The Loyalists see Corvo butcher the city, and, well, it’s working. So why shouldn’t they get more cruel to achieve their goals, too? Emily is the most impacted, in Low Chaos growing to be Emily the Wise, the beloved empress of the Isles, asking Corvo innocent questions, while in the high chaos she talks about executions, asks how many people he's killed. Some grow to despise you, like Samuel, seeing the growing corruption and wishing for the quest to be done because they now see that the person they were helping was as much of a monster as the ones they are opposing. If you are cruel, the world will be cruel back, and the world involves those you might hold closest, like your daughter or your second in command.

The world, then, behaves in the way you mold it. Chaos reflects it, the destruction or kindness that you leave in your wake. Of course the murder of a noblewoman on a party she hosted, guarded by tallboys, will cause people to worry. Of course panic will spread when civilians are murdered in the streets. The general population of Dunwall will worry when the medicine that was meant to cure the plague suddenly turns everyone into weepers. But just the same, if people are shown kindness by a stranger without having to ask, they will be soothed. A cruel political leader being executed for the crimes he committed will make people excited, hopeful even. When Emily switches the Duke for his body double, the common people won’t notice. There is no need for fear, with the non-lethal takedowns. Not for those who are not directly involved.

Chaos, at the end of it all, dictates how the world evolves from the brink of collapse. The Outsider says it best, in one of his many speeches. “I have to wonder whether you're going to give if that final nudge, or pull it back from the edge.“ You have the power to tip the scales with your actions. Your choices matter, the big and the small, each life you save and each life you take, because at the end of the game, you are the one that has shaped the world that you will rule.

[medusaesque]

Lt. Kim Kitsuragi and the pale-

Warning- it's insanely long.

1. After life, death

One of the first thing you can learn about Kim is that he would hurl himself in death's way to save you. From the very first moment, Kim is related to sacrifice and death, it follows him wherever he goes-

The slaughterhouse.

He lost his parents at two years old. He worked a year in Processing (here's good post about that by @renmorris and @spilledkaleidoscope). He lost his partner, Eyes. People have taken a bullet that was meant for his more than once. His survivor's guilt is insane. He's killed six people. He's afraid of killing recklessly, and has a deeply unhealthy relationship with his gun (made another embarrassingly long post about that).

Kim also hears pale 'ghosts' on the police radio all the time, and talks about it like it's normal, and says he doesn't believe in ghosts.

If harry is with Noid during the Moralist dream quest (more on it later), Harry can even wonder if Kim is a ghost, prompting this beautiful exchange-

And he's not entirely wrong. When Harry gets shot, after Kim fulfills Espirit's promise he'll stand in death's way for him, you can ask as you fall into darkness what will happen to you-

It's the living who are ghosts. You can leave them behind and rest. Go into the wild pale yonder, along with everyone else Kim has ever cared about. Or at least you can try to.

When death is at the door, you have two options-

2. After death, life again

Kim might associate himself with death, but Harry associates him with life again and again- Death is darkness, Kim has a light bulb halo. Death is a sunset, Kim is a sunrise. Death is where you are when the game start, it's ready to take you, and then- a clarion call, the sound of a motor carriage, a detective arriving on the scene, and you open your eyes.

The game is very clear about Harry being a ceaseless agent of the world (here's a good compilation by @junawer) but he's not the only one. Harry stands at death's door twice, and Kim is his way back to the world both times.

3. After the world, the pale

So what is Kim's relationship with the pale?

As casual as he might try to appear, Kim is clearly uncomfortable with the pale, attempting to protect Harry from it. When Harry brings up the pale, he intervenes, genuinely worried for the fragile stability of his mind.

It's no more terrifying than water or death or that we're stuck behind our eyes for all eternity?? Sounds pretty terrifying Kim...

The key is in the moralist vision quest, When Harry attempts to each the Committee of Responsibility, and he hears the pale crosstalk coming through the radio, when suddenly-

"Pale is a shroud of memories and it doesn't really distinguish to whom those memories belong to. You could hear anything." You could hear anything, but you hear Kim. If he isn't with you, Soona even says that the odds of us hearing him, out of all the voices in the pale, are astronomically low.

We know the past has not been harmless to Kim, we know it's full of ghosts and cold winters, but that's not the thing that's eating at him-

Kim is afraid of forgetting. He's constantly writing, he thinks through his notebook, always recording, so he wouldn't lose anything. That's why the pale is so terrifying.

4. After the pale. the world again

The world is what it is. God is in his heaven. Everything is normal on Earth.

Volta do mar is a skill unique to Kim, according to the stats of this pilot jackets-

It makes sense, seeing how the only real advance in pale transit is the speed with which an aerostatic craft can pierce it.

His Black jacket is a bit more complicated-

DISTANT ENEMY OF HIMSELF?? kim.... The connections to Seol is intriguing here, considering how Kim tries to distant himself from it. I'm also not sure what 'sitting down for volta' would mean in this context, would love to hear some of you guys' thoughts.

It's driving me crazy to think how Kim wanted to be pilot as a kid, and is walking around dressed like a pilot as an adult, to give himself the ability to navigate the pale. To return from the sea and fulfill the role he has to play in the world, the thing Harry thought about a million times-

But we know Kim has a bigger role to play, he's trying to do his part right now, convincing Harry to stay-

His connection to Harry can keep him on this world once again. Keeping the two of them together. Your real work is down here, both of you-

Kim was right, each of them has a role to play in the world, but it's not a minor one. Him and Harry are Revachol's only hope. If they stick together they could keep her on this earth, stop the end of the world.

UNITY AMONG THE RANKS IS PARAMOUNT.

I NEED YOU. YOU CAN KEEP ME ON THIS EARTH. BE VIGILANT.

I LOVE YOU.

[dalekofchaos]

Fixing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequels

Lets be honest. The franchise is a mess and it's never going to reach the heights of the original or even the remake. The 3D timeline is an abomination and 2022 is just awful. I love TCM 2, and 3 has some great bits. But god is 4 embarrassing. So let's try to fix them.

So I looked up Hooper and Henkel's original concept for TCM 2.

It was going to be named 'Beyond The Valley of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and originally involved an entire town full of cannibals, not just the Sawyer family. And the Hitchhiker survived and was supposedly tied to a tree by the family due to his injuries. And Sally was slated to return as well.

In my opinion they could've done this for the third and fourth movies.

It would be an easy explanation to have the town of Newt be cannibals and instead of Leatherface suddenly having new family members, he goes to known associates of the family, "neighbors" if you will.

Leatherface somehow survived and is taken in by the Slaughter Family's "Neighbors" the Sawyers.

Chop-Top is the family member who's taken alive.

Those neighbors would be Tex, Alfredo and Tinker.

Leatherface would have severe burns from the grenade and a hole in his stomache.

And instead of Sally, it's Stretch, cause Sally is institutionalized.

Stretch and Benny would work together to save Michelle

In the Next Generation. An easy fix is that.

Leatherface is in the Grandpa role. Gunnar Hansen would return to play him.

The whole "Illuminati" conspiracy is just the town conspiracy of the town cannibals.

There would be a side plot of Stretch meeting Sally. She fills her in on everything that happened. Lefty's death and the cannibal town of Newt.

The new Leatherface is the daughter from TCM3 and instead of being cringey and awful, she is completely and utterly unhinged and enjoys it more than Bubba ever did. The best part? She's takes her doll's name, Sally. The final mockery of the one who got away.

Vilmer and W.E are the other members of this new family with the Mayor of Newt as the matriarch and she bares the conspiracy for all to hear. Claims that "cannibalism is the trade and life stock of this town. Always has been. The Slaughter Family was the backbone, they inspired the rest of us."

And then a returning Chop-Top as the guest of honor.

An aged Bubba makes happy cannibal noises at his brother's arrival.

"Far out Bubba, you're the new Grandpa!"

Chop-Top tells Bubba and the new Leatherface "it's time to kill the fucking bitch"

Stretch comes to the rescue and blasts the family, killing W.E, Vilmer and head cannibal Mayor.

While the new Leatherface chases after Jenny and Chop-Top proclaims he's gonna finish what he started all those years ago.

…and Bubba finally finds the strength to get up. He even puts on the old Pretty woman mask and takes his old chainsaw. They won't get away, not this time. "dog will hunt" as his brother always said. This is for Nubbins. For Drayton and for Grandpa.

They chase Stretch, Jenny and Michelle throughout the town. The slaughterhouse, the old Slaughter farmhouse and the mental hospital where Sally is waiting for them.

It ends with Jenny and Michelle double teaming killing the younger Leatherface, Sally shoots Bubba in the chest with a shotgun and Sally saws his fucking head off and finally, Stretch kills Chop-Top

"Any last words?"

"The saw is fami-" Stretch shoots him in the head.

Stretch, Michelle, Jenny and Sally all leave from a safe distance. Stretch gets a call on her walkie talkie from Benny

"Are you safe? over"

"Yes, I got Michelle and the latest survivor and even Sally. We're all at a safe distance to watch the fireworks over"

"Good, over"

and Benny presses the button and suddenly the entire town of Newt blows the fuck up. A result of Benny planting C4 all around the town of Newt and finally ending the Cannibal town.

End of franchise

This is a neat way to end the series, or at least the original timeline Cause

the original timeline never declines in quality.

Leatherface stays consistent in the first three movies, passes down the saw to his adoptive daughter and returns for one final massacre

All the survivors return for one final confrontation with the town

Chance for All-American Massacre to happen

One big family reunion

And a proper conclusion to the franchise...that will never be fucked up by shitty sequels

[archon-maenad]

I have an entire personal subgenre of "bet citizens reincarnated into a thriving japan and losing their shit over it" ideas. I have multiple monologues written about how fucking lucky the character's new world is and how infuriating it makes them to see it taken for granted. I have like four different emotional breakdowns for different characters crying when discovering they live on kyuushu.

and this is a subgenre. "earth bet citizens are reincarnated into normal societies and losing their shit over it" covers thousands of words I've written. I create oc survivors of slaughterhouse runs or gold morning refugees just so I can drop them into other media and watch them be genuinely incapable of being scared of that world's villains. for some reason I am obsessed with the collective trauma that permeates earth bet culture and it's gotten wildly out of control.

[haveyoureadthispoll]

Billy Pilgrim – hapless barber's assistant, successful optometrist, alien abductee, senile widower and soldier – has become unstuck in time. Hiding in the basement of a slaughterhouse in Dresden, with the city and its inhabitants burning above him, he finds himself a survivor of one of the most deadly and destructive battles of the Second World War. But when, exactly? How did he get here? And how does he get out? Travel through time and space on the shoulders of Vonnegut himself. This is a book about war. Listen to what he has to say: it is of the utmost urgency.

[wormbloggign]

taylor stop lifting techniques and tactics from others challenge (impossible)

yeah.. you're a cloud of various insects, people arent looking to get in your way

taylor its not innate cmon you need to notice the swarm covering you isnt a comforting prescence for anyone but you

(also, if someone fights grue and wins, his darkness would dissipate. if they fight skitter and win, they have to deal with the many insects who are VERY pissed, and VERY unpredictable. it's simply a more extreme implicit threat than what grue has)

is she.. emulating coils convo tactics?

(TAYLOR STOP LIFTING OTHERS TECHNIQUES AND TACTICS CHALLENGE (IMPOSSIBLE))

to taylor the bugs are just her little guys, doing their best with what they got

to everyone else the bugs are spiders, flies, and wasps; vectors for poison, infection, and pain all organised by their thousands under a single cunning mind

its a very funny bit of dramatic irony (not the right term)

honestly surprised it took her this long to tell that to the PRT, taylors favourite pasttime is outing bad actors in their system

the funniest way to get immediately excecuted, ballsy move taylor

notably in those records she was telling the truth consistently, miss military seems to buy a little too much into armsmustards narratives

BY SUPPLYING RELEVANT CONTEXT TO THE SITUATION, DO YOU THINK STARVING PEOPLE WHO STEAL BREAD DESERVE JAILTIME FOR THEFT?????

(miss minutia seems very dogmatic in her beliefs of justice and criminality, kinda cringe ngl)

skitter im sorry to say but im pretty sure theyve known for a while now

they havent gone after your civillian identity yet because you havent really been findable as taylor herbert and in the rare cases you've gone out as taylor, they've had much bigger fish to fry

oh

that mustve taken a lot miss militia, i can respect that

2 ways to take this, either tattletales doing some mind games with how skitter is perceived or she wanted to get a better look at taylors butt

knowing lisa, probably both

oh yeah that too maybe

the bug pass over she does on people is very funny bc people almost definitely read it as a weapons check or an intimidation tactic but no, she just wants to know what the person she's talking to looks like

her face and eyes were covered in blood no wonder were more tense than normal "ooh why are people so unnerved around me" you look like a monster from a horror movie, you're walking around like you dont even need sight to know everything around you (she couldnt see regardless but they didnt know that)

oh theres no way they don't know her identity now

it takes one person with probably low to medium security access to hear that and go "gee, let me run a check to see if anyone with Skitters brown hair and skin colour (they wouldve seen at least that on the skitter clones, even outside how disfigured they were) matches with anyone who is blind or has been recently blinded" and then bam you find taylor with her school's recorded connection with Sophia/Shadow Stalker, her locker incident (possibly a trigger event?) her absences from school which start a couple days after skitters first appearance, line up with skitters activity AND escalate to 0% attendance once Skitter starts doing things like participating in the Endbringer event and soon after claims territory (a full time occupation seemingly), if you keep digging it seems she has moved out of her dad's house around the same time to an undisclosed house on the edge of town (no actual address given, possibly a misdirection), her father and all of his work friends survived (with minimal injuries) the Shatterbird announcement at the begining of the Slaughterhouse 9's occupation and they stayed alive for its entirety, And as a cherry on top, Taylors last 2 documented interactions with the public is Asssaulting a minor which was handled and doccumented by Shadow Stalker and COILS BOMBING where she was one of the survivors but was BLINDED, shortly after MYSTERIOUSLY DISSAPEARED with no release or transfer papers signed (or if they were, it'd be signed by Lisa W or an unknown third party)

OR

they could just ask dragon

...

that was kind of long sorry

back to the livebloggign!

(insert funny masking joke here)

sometimes i wonder if taylor has a death wish (hint: yes)

i sincerely doubt that. our girls tolerance for abuse is ridiculously high by now

the writer is fucking with me. the day we get a proper breakdown of anyones costume is the day hell freezes over

are we just gonna pretend that isnt deeply disturbing and violating?

eh, alright

taylor may know the kind of thing he saw but its very clear from how he's behaving, whatever he experienced has a lot harsher of a grasp on his psyche, probably because his trigger event and the context around it happened at such a vulnerable and young age

anyway hows that search for a villains therapist going? i really think they should invest in one

TATTLETALE YOURE GOING TO GET THE SECRET ASSASSIN SQUAD AFTER YOU PLEASE

lisa either never fucks around or never stops fucking around and i cant tell anymore

[babiebom]

Dead by Daylight killer ideas

A/N: this is like if they could add new killers and survivors to the game without worrying about copyright and stuff <3 keep in mind I’m not a person that comes up with game ideas I am trying my best

Tw: murder, cursing, blood. Typical dbd things

Genre: headcanons

Dbd Masterlist

The Other Mother and Coraline

Obviously Coraline would have to be aged up but like this is the idea that popped into my head at 3 am and what inspired me to make this post.

The other mother could have similar powers/perks to the others.

Like she could have a hand that detaches like in the movie that she can use to attack players like Charlotte and Victor.

Or like the dredge she can change the world(make it all white and empty instead of dark like in the movie)

If there is something that could make her slower or something it could be closing well openings and stuff so she can’t teleport or something.

I like this idea bc you can curb stomp the hand like you can stomp victor.

Her mori can be sewing buttons into the eyes of the survivors <3

The map could be the pink house and the outside like where the well is? The garden and everything. A very cute map tbh it’s the other worlds version of the house and garden though, like the flowers all glowy and stuff. The circus upstairs and stuff.

I only remember the beginning song and the other father song and the music from the twin old ladies doing their musical circus bit. So one of those instrumental

William Afton and Micheal Afton

Added trauma because they’re father and son :)

William will be in his suit and not just a man

His perks could be like the missing children haunt the survivor and cause like exposed or hindered or something

Hitting him with a pallet doesn’t work as well as it does for other killers

When he gets hit he says some dumb shit like “I always come back” or whatever other lines he has.

But also survivors can cause his springlocks to go off by doing very specific things. Like getting bucket of water, or convincing the ghost kids or something

His mori could be summoning the purple Bonny suit (bc I’m pretty sure his is yellow/golden?) and stuffing the survivor in it after stabbing them a bunch.

The map could be the fnaf 1 building? Like the building that’s in the movie? I think it would be cute to run around the Chuck E. Cheese like place.

Chase music is Join us for a Bite instrumental

Peaches and Cupcakke

This one is more of a JOKE because I thought it was funny

Obviously Peaches would be the killer

Idk what her powers would be (maybe killing you with her coochie or something idk)

She would be the worst killer because she would have no strength or anything it’s literally just her.

Her mori is killing you with her STANK.

Chase music is cpr instrumental because it’s funny

Johnny Slaughter and Ana Flores

Obviously the game already has Bubba in it, but I don’t mind also adding Johnny

I chose him specifically because I think he is the main killer among the family, like the whole game of tcm happens because of him kidnapping Maria

Which is why I chose Ana as his survivor counterpart (and not bc I main her)

His perks could be just like in Tcm where he can see footprints to your last known location for a couple of seconds

Or to make it different scratch marks last longer and glow brighter/you can’t really confuse him with the scratch marks because the glow brighter the closer they are to you idk.

Literally Tcm already did the work for me bc he already has the perfect mori with spinning the survivor around to face him.

Map could be the slaughterhouse specifically because even though we don’t have the sawyer house in dbd we have max’s house which is VERY similar set in the south and a two story house on farmland. It would be stupid to make the same type of map.

I think the chase music would be very…rock n roll-y? Like not a specific song but heavy guitar and drums. Probably a banger.

M3gan and the aunt lady

Forgive me I forgot the aunts name and I don’t feel like looking it up

Only added this because I thought it would be funny

I have no idea what her perks would be at ALL

But her mori would be her tiktok dancing at you then killing you with a sword because it’s funny

The survivors can stun her by powering her down if they get the remote to cut her off.

The map would have to be either the aunts house including the lab OR the lab that she works at with stairs and maybe a working elevator to make it more chaotic. You can’t get outside on the second map, the exit games are the exits of the building, but it has multiple floors.

Chase music is whatever song they used in the movie but instrumental

Max Jagerman and Pete Spankoffsky/Stephanie Lauter

If ANYONE has watched Nerdy Prudes Must Die they would understand this.

Another good killer would be Grace Chastity and the character she aggressively sings at in the end.

This one comes with two survivors like some other killers

I would’ve said one of the lords in black but I think they would rival the entity bc they are literal gods

Anyways Max’s ability or perk could be teleportation. And I think there’s like a perk that makes things harder if the killer is near

He could have like a tweaked version of that

Or being able to see the auras for a couple seconds of survivors who are too scared if they could work something like that in specifically for him

Like how holding ringu’s tapes for too long is bad or being in dreamland is bad when you don’t wake up for mr burnt bitch.

Survivors can hide in lockers to hide their auras because it’s obvious since he is a literal bully

Mori could be him forcing the survivor on the very piece of wood that killed him. Or one of the ways that he killed Jon and Lauren’s characters.

Map is Hatchetfield High School.

Chase music can be instrumental of Nerdy Prudes Must Die or Literal Monster.