#something something monstrousness

[sanguinarysanguinity]

I have Just enough understanding of what you're up to with 'Omega3-verse' to be both curious and also somewhat trepidatious... so do tell!!

So, you might remember a post by @jeejyboard that was making the rounds:

...yeah.

It was spawning season, when the Highland's departed sons and daughters returned in their masses, each seeking the glen of their birth. There were fewer on the roads these last years: too many killed at Culloden or exiled in France. The French exiles would arrive eventually, the poor brutes -- too late, haggard and wounded, to die alone and unsatisfied in the spawning grounds. So it had happened in the years after the '15, Ewen had been told, and the '19, too.

There was no small number of spawning Redcoats on the road, either, headed for Argyle, the Lowlands, or the southlands. Most had shed their eponymous red coats, the narrow backs of their uniforms burst by the bulging shoulders beneath. But even without their coats, they were still recognisable, their military footgear and distinctive waistcoats surviving their owners' increase somewhat better than their coats.

But Redcoat or Highlander, the salmon-kin were harmless so long as one did not impede their journey. It was not until they reached their respective spawning grounds that the cock hookjaws became fierce, their breeding fangs and newfound five stone of muscle at last finding employment -- but only against each other. So long as one posed no competition for the henfish, one had nothing to fear from the jealous cockfish. But there were always a few intrepid youth, who, more horny than wise, tried for one of the henfish and were savaged for their impudence. Lachlan, as a boy, had donned skirts and bonnet and almost succeeded in slipping in and out of the spawning grounds undetected, before running afoul of a hookjaw's wrath.

Ewen had never been tempted by such sport. He yielded to the salmon-kin on the roads, and guarded the privacy of Ardroy's spawning grounds so that the Cameron salmon-kin may conduct their affairs unmolested. When the season was over, he arranged for the pregnant henfish to be taken in and cared for, and likewise saw to the dead. Not one in twenty hookjaws survived the spawning grounds to see another season. They died of exhaustion or hunger or their festering wounds, their bodies a feasting for carrion-birds. Only a few kelts -- emaciated, wounded, and barely conscious -- were found alive, lying scarcely breathing among their dead kin. Ewen saw that they, too, were cared for. Most still died, but at least they died in comfort. They were as Cameron as those who never left, and the Clan took care of their own...

[yesandor]

As Nandor leans forward to threaten Guillermo, his eyes are lit in a nod to Bela Lugosi’s Dracula.

WWDITS, 5x9 (2023) // Dracula (1931)

[mxwhore]

i have to finish dunmeshi... have an inspired sphinx mart

tipjar • patreon

[vickyvicarious]

“I made a mistake, Kemp, a huge mistake, in carrying this thing through alone. I have wasted strength, time, opportunities. Alone—it is wonderful how little a man can do alone! To rob a little, to hurt a little, and there is the end. “What I want, Kemp, is a goal-keeper, a helper, and a hiding-place, an arrangement whereby I can sleep and eat and rest in peace, and unsuspected. I must have a confederate. With a confederate, with food and rest—a thousand things are possible. “Hitherto I have gone on vague lines. We have to consider all that invisibility means, all that it does not mean. It means little advantage for eavesdropping and so forth—one makes sounds. It’s of little help—a little help perhaps—in housebreaking and so forth. Once you’ve caught me you could easily imprison me. But on the other hand I am hard to catch. This invisibility, in fact, is only good in two cases: It’s useful in getting away, it’s useful in approaching. It’s particularly useful, therefore, in killing. I can walk round a man, whatever weapon he has, choose my point, strike as I like. Dodge as I like. Escape as I like.” Kemp’s hand went to his moustache. Was that a movement downstairs? “And it is killing we must do, Kemp.” “It is killing we must do,” repeated Kemp. “I’m listening to your plan, Griffin, but I’m not agreeing, mind. Why killing?” “Not wanton killing, but a judicious slaying. The point is, they know there is an Invisible Man—as well as we know there is an Invisible Man. And that Invisible Man, Kemp, must now establish a Reign of Terror. Yes; no doubt it’s startling. But I mean it. A Reign of Terror. He must take some town like your Burdock and terrify and dominate it. He must issue his orders. He can do that in a thousand ways—scraps of paper thrust under doors would suffice. And all who disobey his orders he must kill, and kill all who would defend them.”

There's so much going on in this conversation. First, the obvious irony of Griffin telling Kemp how he understands now that he needs a helper he can trust, while Kemp is trying to ensure he gets caught in the next few minutes. Griffin saying that he will be easily imprisoned once caught but that he's hard to catch, as Kemp frets over whether they will be able to catch him now. That's pretty obvious, and both funny and also sad. It's perfectly understandable for Kemp to want Griffin to be caught even before he talks about this plan, but it sucks that Griffin's sincerity is just completely bouncing off him. Griffin is for the first time trying to make a connection with someone (something that could potentially turn this situation around) but he's been rejected from the start.

But there's also... what is Griffin talking about? This goes from 'yeah, Griffin, you shouldn't be going it alone' to 'no Griffin not like that holy shit' real damn fast. And it's really interesting in the context of the rest of his behavior, because... this really doesn't seem to match it throughout most of the book so far.

Griffin has used plenty of violence before now. He defaults to threats or physical harm when he feels too vulnerable or powerless. But while he's been reckless and careless with it, there has never really been premeditated malice to anything he does. He's not scheming evil upon others. He's mostly reacting, again, often in what seems a kind of panic. When he gets most violent, at least. He has done harmful things with forethought, but those are mostly limited to theft, and are informed by selfishness and a lack of consideration/awareness of potential consequences.

He also has been consistently motivated by curing his invisibility. He wants his resources back, and privacy/freedom to work in order to do just that. He very quickly decided making himself invisible was a shortsighted mistake, as he encountered drawback after drawback in the immediate aftermath. He also wasn't motivated by any particular single goal of seizing power when he made himself invisible. He was deeply depressed and clinging to 'seeing it through', and then panicked when he came into conflict with his landlord. His paranoia about his invention was intense, but that too is linked to him seeking control over his own life, not others' as such.

So then, why this turnaround? Well, last chapter he said this:

"I had one hope. It was a half idea! I have it still. It is a full blown idea now. A way of getting back! Of restoring what I have done. When I choose. When I have done all I mean to do invisibly."

So, now it seems Griffin's motivation has shifted. He no longer wants immediate relief from invisibility. Instead, he wants to do things while invisible first. He wants to establish a Reign of Terror, to take over a town by utilizing his invisibility in the only way he can see it being of practical use: murder and the spreading of fear. But he says that as a 'must' as 'judicious'. So it's still not for the pleasure of it. Then, why?

First, I frankly don't believe Griffin is actually capable of enforcing the kind of siege he describes here. Physically maybe (depending on how unprepared others are), but emotionally I don't think he could keep it up. He'd collapse, he'd succumb to the guilt he clearly does feel at times. When he's not in a constant state of high emotion (largely fear, which with Griffin transitions seamlessly into rage) he wouldn't be able to keep murdering people so coldly and logically. He can of course work himself up over time, and can hold a grudge, which might be enough to get him started enacting this plan, but I don't believe he could see it through all the way. Still enough to do monstrous things, of course, just not enough to be effective at establishing his goal. (And even that shows his typical lack of forethought. Does he think that no one else would help them? That this town would just succumb to him in total isolation?)

But why does he even want it? I think it actually reflects all his same motivations until now. He feels cornered and he reacts badly, lashing out at others. As the rejection builds all around him, as his options dwindle, as his fear and helplessness grow - he consistently reacts by escalating and proving everyone's worst assumptions about him correct. And right now, even though he has found Kemp and thinks he can mostly trust him, it's not enough to make him feel safe. There are lots of people actively hunting him, now. And he can't just stay in Kemp's rooms forever. He would hate the idea, would feel imprisoned. He doesn't think much of stealing from others, but absolutely hates being stolen from (and he has so little, that the loss feels correspondingly huger), especially something like his books which contain the key to freeing him. So being here is a brief reprieve but he's still deeply afraid. And that makes him deeply angry. And so he wants revenge, he wants to punish them (in general, who make him feel afraid - and Marvel in particular, who has 'betrayed' him).

He also quite likely knows even with his idea it will take an unknown but likely significant amount more time to perfect his cure. So even if all he wanted was to be cured, he would need a safe place to work until then. And the tension is so high right now, his fear of being betrayed is so strong, that I don't think he believes it would be possible to do the necessary work unless he has the town cowed under his invisible heel.

“I don’t agree to this, Griffin,” he said. “Understand me, I don’t agree to this. Why dream of playing a game against the race? How can you hope to gain happiness? Don’t be a lone wolf. Publish your results; take the world—take the nation at least—into your confidence. Think what you might do with a million helpers—”

This line is also key. Kemp urges Griffin to confide in others. All his considerations of the usefulness of invisibility were from the perspective of a lone man against a cruel world. Very selfish and very assuming of a hostile environment. This too is reflected in Griffin's treatment of the few people he has reached out to - Marvel and Kemp. In both cases, he seeks understanding and sympathy. But he also seeks it at metaphorical gunpoint, by threatening them with what he could invisibly do to harm them. It's because as much as he may pour out his heart to Kemp here, he doesn't fully trust him. He doesn't fully trust anyone. By collaborating with them, all he is doing is giving them power over him, and that means they have power to hurt him. So instead he clings to his own power to hurt them first.

In Griffin's eyes, there is no such thing as an equal relationship. There is such thing as trust rewarded, or even given freely. And so in order to ensure his own safety he has to be the one in charge. He has to convince Kemp that they will both reap great rewards, he has to be able to hurt him and get away should anything fall through.

It all ties in perfectly with his backstory of being an outsider (albino, not socially adept at all), and being poor (in many ways powerless). And of course, it is such a self-fulfilling prophecy of terrible outcomes. If you only give violence, you're only getting violence in return. Someone has to let their guard down first, someone has to be willing to trust and be vulnerable for things to ever change. But Griffin is convinced that would be a mistake to ever fully do. And as much as I want to tell him he's wrong, his experiences corroborate that view. Everywhere he goes, he's experienced rejection and hate, or nosiness and distrust at best, no matter how much he tries to be on his best behavior. Every time he even partially lets down his guard or reaches out to others, they turn on him. And of course so much of that is because of the way he never fully relaxes, the way he always keeps a threat hanging over their heads, but he's not gonna see that. All he's gonna see is that he's been right all along. That he truly is in this alone. That he has to be selfish and he has to hit first and hit harder because he is outnumbered and if they catch him he won't be able to get away.

[pynkhues]

About the dom/sub dynamic and its depiction: there's a season two interview of Jacob, Sam and Delainey breaking down scenes in which Sam says the park scene after the Dreamstat break was supposed to feature some actual bondage and then jokes that it "became about umbrellas" instead.

It's this one starting at 7:45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEhcEMokCFM

(x)

Yes! I actually mentioned that in my first post on the topic too. It's interesting to me that they changed it, and I'm very curious as to how it was originally written because I can't entirely picture what it could've been?

I think the umbrella works really well though, and Sam's right that that line - "I'm a little wet" - is pretty great, haha. It works so well both as this shift into something new for Louis while simultaneously being a reversion to who he was as the pimp and brothel owner in New Orleans. I know people tend to like to think that the powerful pimp was an act for Louis, but I do think that it is a real part of him - it's just not the only part of him, y'know?

[frostybearpaws]

ya know

I just gotta say I’m not really vibing with SNW’s gorn hatred. The show runners are trying to paint them as this Ultimate Evil creature. SNW has established that Gorn are asexual (?) parasitoids. But it’s so surface level, they’re being boiled down to horror movie monsters and that’s kind of getting old. I want at least SOME questions to be answered. There’s so many that this show has raised and then just left to hang. But most of all I want to know the WHY behind their actions. It would add perspective and a much needed depth to gorn world building.

What the gorn are doing IS monstrous. But the gorn themselves are not pure evil (as much as the show runners want us to think they are). Similar to what Neera said to La’an, they’re individuals with the capacity to do good or bad things.

Currently they’re doing a bad thing, now SNW tell me WHY?

[windupaidoneus]

hildegarde referring to zenos as 'your great grandson' with surprising vitriol when talking to emet about him not bc he hates zenos but bc zenos is (or was.) a walking reminder emet's had kids w someone that wasnt him #mentalillness

[francesderwent]

you know, for years I’ve either been primarily occupied with some past knot that I was trying to mentally unravel into what-might-have-beens and closure or with some imaginary future that I was painting in my head based on illusory signs. but lately I’ve been pretty securely ensconced in the present moment. occasionally I indulge in gazing back to look for the invisible string or peering around the corner to wonder what might be coming next, but mostly I’m just thinking about the now, and how happy I am in it. what’s on my mind is going for little walks, and washing the dishes while someone else dries.

[tortoisesshells]

BONUS ROUND

137/200.

[re-d4cted]

POST ABOUT THE GODS AU I CANT CARRY THIS BURDEN ALONE

you would be the one to ask 💀 I've been tormenting you for YEARS with this au

okay so since this is going to be a massive word vomit post ill put it under a cut after I give a quick summary of the basic premise

so there is a family of gods who are known to be cruel. who have a hatred for all mortals and will use them for their own entertainment as some sort of sick punishment for the wrongs of the past

philza, the God of death, and his sons techno, willow, grian (you can ask about this LATER), and tommy. who are the gods of blood, madness, tragedy, and chaos respectively

now to give a brief summary up to right before purgatory (I will be skipping over the grian stuff but if you want to know more about that I will explain) meaning I'm not going into full detail, because if I did this post would be a novel

*disclaimer!!!!!! I HATE dream but unfortunately he is a big villain in this au so he is gonna get mentioned just be aware that he will always be the most vile person in any au I make

DSMP

SO it all starts when willow gets bored of her challenges (the 100 player challenges) and decides she wants to do something new. she takes tommy and they disguse themselves as mortals and go to the land of dsmp to spread their madness and chaos there

tommy pretended to befriend tubbo because he found him interesting and then the three of them created l'manburg. tubbo doing it for a place to be free and the two gods doing it to see how other residents would react

the revolution was exactly what they wanted, beautifully chaotic and allowed willow to let her madness infect everyone who opposed l'manburg

erets betrayal wasn't planned but it was wonderfully entertaining for the gods watching the revolutionaries get beaten over and over just to keep getting back up

in the end tommy makes the deal to trade his disc's for independence because he and willow had already planned an election

and the elections go exactly as planned with the betrayal of schlatt being planned since the beginning. you see schlatt was someone willow had previously turned mad and she knew exactly what would happen if she brought him in

in Pogtopia is where things start to go off track, because tommy starts to realize that maybe his friendship with tubbo isn't just pretend and he starts trying to convince willow that blowing up l'manburg won't be as entertaining and leaving it be (it doesn't work)

techno just makes things more complicated because he wants blood to spill, and to help his brothers with their little game

the red festival and tubbos execution creates a conflict between techno and tommy, and willow just thinks it's because tommy wanted to mess with tubbo more. to settle this argument they fight in the pit

November 16th is when everything goes ary. at first everything is according to plan, techno "betrays" them, willow blows up the country, phil is waiting in the wings to collect all the souls. but then something unexpected happens, tommy doesn't go through with his part of the plan and refuses to kill tubbo

the others have to improvise, because even though they could kill everyone there, tommy doesn't want to and they aren't going to go against family, they couldn't care less about the mortals but tommy is another story and if he wants to play nice they'll let him play nice (for now). willow and phil stay back to keep an eye on him while also playing the parts of father haunted by his dead daughter just for the fun of it

and tommy does well for a bit, keeping his chaos in check at least, and not seeing tubbo as just another mortal (he couldn't care less about the others), he does find the newcomer interesting though and doesn't immediately dismiss them

when his chaos reaches a point where he needs to let some out he takes the new guy (ranboo) and goes to rob the mushroom house, things get a bit outta hand and the house ends up burning

tommy takes the fall

he gets exiled by the same person he went against his family for

he is hurt

brought to logstedshire, he plays along with whatever, letting his chaos and willows madness infect dream, taking joy in watching it consume the man. when he finally gets bored he leaves and joins his brother at his cabin

not even a week later the butcher army come to try and execute techno, which doesn't end well at all. tommy stayed behind while techno humored the mortals letting them attempt their little execution than easily breaking free and killing quackity in the process. phil goes with him

doomsday is planned by the gods to get back at the mortals who hurt their youngest. tommy blows up the community house so he give the warning for what's to come

during actual doomsday they finally reveal what/who they are, so the residents of New l'manburg can see just how badly they fucked up

tommy is supposed to kill tubbo, before he can however tubbo asks him if it was all fake, and tommy is honest. tells him that in the beginning it was but at some point that changed, and he started caring and now he'd be lying to himself if he said he didn't. he can't even bring himself to kill tubbo

something shifts in tommy and he is no longer chaos, and instead becomes loyalty

phil, techno, and willow are blinded by rage towards the people who made tommy hurt and attempts to kill tubbo but something unexpected happens

for his accomplishment of doing the impossible, making a cruel God kind, tubbo is turned into a God. the God of forgiveness

the three leave once tommy runs up and hugs him, realizing Tommy's domain has shifted and that like it or not a pair of gods have just been born

ranboo ends up being taken to the cabin along with tubbo because he has no where else to go. it helps that the gods have all taken a liking to him

over the next few months tubbo along with ranboo start working with the gods to try and get them to see mortals as more than just tools for their entertainment (the two also get married and adopt micheal at this point)

everyone else on the smp believe beeduo got kidnapped by them and keep trying to "save them" and failing miserably every time

ranboo happily playing cards and winning with them, cut to quackity spying on them and thinking this must be some advanced torture technique

all is well until tommy and tubbo get attacked by dream using a god killing axe (he was angry that tubbo took his only chance to become a god and now wants to kill him). while protecting tubbo and fighting back (killing dream twice) sam and the others arrive and think it's tommy who snapped and attacked first (they still think he is chaos)

he gets captured and put into the prison that was built to keep the gods imprisoned. tubbo runs back to the cabin and tells the others what happened, and while he is breaking down tubbos domain shifts from forgiveness to destruction and becomes cruel

Niki joins them at this point and the syndicate is formed

over the next few months while tommy is trapped in the prison, tubbo pretends to be glad he is free and roams the server letting off radiation and slowly weakening and killing anyone he comes across. just biding his time until the syndicate is ready to break tommy out

when they are ready they strike at night, tubbo gets in by pretending he wants to settle things with tommy and "get peace", once he is on the moving bridge he reveals his true colours letting his radiation kill the warden

he finds tommy weak and in chains, tommy who even after months in prison, has not gone back to chaos. wasting no time tubbo destroys the chains and breaks down the "impenetrable" walls with his destruction. meeting up with the rest of the syndicate who were waiting on the outside

ranboo and Niki were told to stay behind at the cabin incase tubbo couldn't control his power, unfortunately that's what dream was expecting. so while the gods aren't there to protect them, dream attacks, they hold him back long enough for the others to get back but right as they get there ranboo is struck with the same axe dream used against tommy

niki takes tom so tubbo and willow can go to ran, while techno and phil fight off dream. willow plays a song to keep ranboo calm, while tubbo tries to stop the bleeding. in this moment they are not the cruel gods they are known as, and like tommy months earlier, their domains shift

madness becomes music, blood becomes protection, and death becomes family

dream is killed for good this time, ranboo is healed by phil who refuses to let his death take him, and they leave for good with the few people they care about. they can learn to be kind later for now they need to heal

between dsmp and qsmp

there is about a 1000 year gap between the two. and the first 400 of those years is spent happily traveling together and leaning to be kind with ranboo and micheal, who have been made functionally immortal by phil (he asked beforehand of course)

willow is the first to split off wanting to play his music for the world and distance herself from her past madness. then tommy leaves because he wants to explore the world, techno goes with him for protection

leaving phil to look after the _Beloved family who have made a little home for themselves. tubbo has to leave occasionally go preform whatever duties he has as a god, but he always comes back. and micheal goes on his own adventures for years, even decades at a time, he too always comes back

after 200 years of this little routine ranboo asks phil the question he's been dreading for 600 years. he waits until tubbo is out of the house and asks if he could take back the immortality. says that he's been thinking about it for a long time and now that he's lived such a long life he's ready. when phil asks if tubbo knows, ranboo can only say his expression would make him change his mind

after explaining that ranboo would still have to live out the rest of his natural lifespan and that ranboo has to promise to tell everyone sooner rather than later, it is done, and ranboo is mortal once again

the first ones told are micheal and tubbo, who comes home a year later, the tears are expected and there are a LOT of tears, it's almost like ranboo would drop dead any minute and not live nearly another 100 years. tommy, techno, and willow find out not long after and their reactions are similar, with lots of tears and hugs

they all promise to make as many memories in the next 100 years as possible

and once those 100 years are up, phil personally escorts ranboo to the afterlife to be taken care of by his wife, the goddess of death

ranboo would be joined by micheal not much later

NOW FOR QSMP

qsmp is set long after the gods have learned to be kind (thanks to the efforts of ranboo and micheal) now the family is off doing their own things and trying to atone for their pasts. their old domains will always be a part of them and they still have power over them, but they don't abuse that power

willow and phil just so happened to end up on the same train to quesadilla island together. little did they know the descendants of people they once knew (and tormented) would also be on the island, along with foolish and slime who are the same people from the smp

they both end up finding foolish and slime and apologizing for what happened in he past. slime doesn't really care cause the gods never messed with him much, if anything he was one of they few people they were kind to, and foolish had no problems since what they did never really effected him 💀

of course neither of them reveal what they are to any of the other residents (that don't already know) and just go on with their lives on the island, well willow goes off island for a while so she can go off and spread her music and phil stays behind giving small blessings to the islanders

when the kids come it becomes increasingly clear why phil was drawn to this place, he is the God of family after all. and to his surprise all of the kids have been blessed by various gods given to the residents to be raised as new champions, and of course the one phil ends up with just so happens to be blessed by one of phils own sons, techno

when willow comes back she can feel the presence of the young champions, but there is a stronger presence that she couldn't explain, at least not until she meets tallulah

because unlike the other egg children, tallulah isn't blessed by a god, and she wasn't born from the dragon like the others (I WILL BE MAKING A SEPARATE POST ABOUT THIS BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT IT GETTING LOST IN THE MASSIVE SUMMARY POST)

while the other eggs are simply blessed by gods, tallulah is one, and she's not just any god, she's a god born from music itself, from willow

she's not sure about being her mother at first, she's too scared her lingering madness will infect and ruin her, but when she helps her paint her first sunrise she knows she will never be able to let her go

when she has to leave again she promises to send her the prettiest birdsongs every morning so she knows she will always be there for her. phil promises to protect her with his life while willow is away

the nightmare that happens isn't actually a nightmare, it really happened, and it's the first time phil uses his influence over death in centuries. he refuses to let his kids die like that, but if something like this were to happen again he wouldn't be able to bring them back. not without the other islanders finding him out

and no one does find out, at least not for a while, when the Brazilians came a few of them seemed to know something was up but couldn't quite place what it was.

when tallulah got attacked by the code phil got carried away and death slipped from his grasp causing tallulahs death

and everything goes back to normal, or as normal as things could be, until Bobby's death. and there's nothing phil can do, his domain may be death but even he has rules he must follow and he's already broken them once, he cannot do it again. the most he can do is bring Bobby's soul to the living world and allow his parents one final goodbye

he can't help but feel guilty for not being able to do more for the grieving parents of the island

when the codes disguse themselves as Phil's kids he is pissed, and he can't help it when death surrounds him. if he uses an excessive amount of power while fighting them, the only one to notice is etoiles who had only seen philza use this kind of power once before

finding tubbo had been a surprise, and phil hadn't expected the warm hug he got. not after he left 300 years ago, after the loss of his family. but as it turns out he missed phil greatly and was excited to see him again

introducing him to tallulah and chayanne was easy, and they took to him quickly. phil was quick to make him their godparent (pun intended)

one day after putting the kids to bed with him, phil could tell there was something on tubbos mind. he didn't have a chance to ask what was wrong before tubbo spoke, saying he hadn't put a child to bed like this since... he couldn't even finish his sentence. sometimes he would see micheal in the egg children and it was just too much for him

and once again things seem to be going back to normal until the eggs are taken away. phil knows they aren't dead, he would have known if the were, but still their absence drives him mad. he has half the mind to think willow is behind his madness but he knows his daughter would never

tubbo is a mess with them gone, he doesn't want to lose another family

the birdhouse is much like the prison tommy was once put in, and with the stress of losing the eggs, phil starts seeing things. and he really starts to wonder if some of willows old madness was re-emerging

willow comes back to the island as soon as she stops seeing tallulahs paintings in the sky, and when she finds out she's missing... that madness he's been running from sneaks back up on him. she leaves before it can infect anyone else, and when phil finds her later he doesn't mention it

when she finds the recording of her song with tallulahs turtles, all of the madness disappears. perhaps it's her music that will reach her

.

.

.

and that's all the notable lore bits up till purgatory (I am begging someone to send an ask about purgatory cause I have many thoughts)

^this is a lie, there is so much I left out, like the entire backstory of why they were cruel in the first place, or how any of the dsmp backstories play into this, and also Kristin's whole role in this, and I completely left out ALL of the Hermitcraft and life series stuff that has to do with grian

I just put the bare minimum and this is still monstrously long 😭😭😭😭

genuinely anyone who makes it to the bottom of this post good job, it took me days to write because it was all off memory 💀

anyways please send me more asks about it because writing it all down has made me brainrot over this au again

[mrsterlingeverything]

Apes and monkeys freak me out

[chirpchangeling]

Your character archetype is "otherworldly god/creature with eminence power that has only been feared or reviled by all who've seen them, later revealed to be deeply hurt and shaped by their tragic past. The character is then given love and support by those who have chosen not to fear them" (this is probably very specific but. Yeah adhkfzbsh)

it IS very specific. not far off-base though

[2c75ff]

((My sole contribution to any of the themes invoked over the course of this particular day is the fact that Seventeen is very weird now, for many understandable reasons, about the prospect of being outclassed to the point of helplessness; and that his figurative wires, when it comes to the thought of submission, have found themselves subsequently crossed and fried in some interesting and occasionally rather Cell-shaped ways.))

[gailynovelry]

Okay, so you know how like in certain kinds of children’s stories, the main character will wind up with something like a dragon’s egg? (Or another baby behemoth sort of creature, it doesn’t matter.)

The egg hatches. The hatchling is, of course, endearing. It’s friendly. It loves the one who hatched it. And of course, it starts to grow.

And all along, you’re thinking; how big does this thing grow? Big big? Eater-of-worlds big? And how soon will it get there? And depending on what kind of story this is, you have to ask yourself — what is the main character going to do with the dragon once it grows beyond their control? What nature will it take on? At what point does it forget being small and tame?

Anyway, the Mindhive trio stealing Vertigo from ReGene’s research facility in a USB drive is kind of like them picking up a dragon’s egg.

[githjanken]

a while back there was a post going around about redesigning your childhood ocs and like

turns out i got some ideas for my very first roleplay character

[medicinemane]

Everyone's against cringe culture and shit like that, but pretty much everyone seems to have an arbitrary line they draw in the sand

I'm not talking concrete lines where like you have some quantifiable metric for it. You think I don't have lines? Of course I do, there's stuff that's blatantly stuff that causes direct harm to people, though at that point it's not about someone being weird, it's about someone doing actual bona fide harm

But that's the thing, a lot of people it's just they'll be like "no, we shouldn't make fun of people... but this person's being weird"

And it's like... you can say anyone's being weird. If that's where we draw the line then literally there's no reason for people not to make fun of you for innocent but slightly weird shit, and we're right back where we started

"Yeah, but this person's being weird", yeah, not shit, I think they're weird too but like... that's not the point, that's irrelevant. The point is that you can't just shift the rules. If it's wrong to shit on some people for being weird, it's wrong to shit on any people for being weird. You need to produce some quantifiable bad they're doing like say... going in to strangers in boxes to say stuff that makes them uncomfortable, now we've got a clear reason why what they're doing isn't ok

Though to be clear here, they're still not bad for being weird, they're bad for their other actions

Like... I don't want to give an actual examples, cause it honestly doesn't matter, but do you think I don't browse the internet and find all kinds of stuff where I think "could you fucking not"?

...but then I move on cause it's honestly not worth my fucking time. Either there's an actionable offense that needs reporting or I can just move on (or a need to change things so certain destructive or dangerous behaviors can be reported, though that requires being able to say why this needs to be a thing in concrete terms)

Just... I don't know... drives me nuts how people, including people I like, will talk a big game about cringe culture needing to die, but then do the exact same shit

"But you don't get it, this time they we're being too weird, it was creepy", yeah, but they weren't actually hurting anyone, and guess what? There's someone out there who'd be happy to use that excuse to shit on you

So there it is