#the world is a nightmare realm

[nykloss]

It is absolutely horrifying seeing so many educators in the groups I'm in promoting the use of AI to generate lesson plans, to come up with articles for their kids to read, to grade student work, etc. That technology isn't there yet, it's spitting out fake information, and even if it WAS correct it is so incredibly unethical at this point.

If you don't want your kids using AI to circumvent your assignments, don't feed the AI with the ability to do so by using it to MAKE your assignments. Good grief.

[clannfearrunt]

Ok so I don’t know anything about Touhou, right. Like I usually recognize when a character is Probably From Touhou, because they tend to look a certain way, but the only character I can actually recognize and name is Cirno just because she used to pop up frequently in Marx’s tags when I was a child first learning how to look for Kirby fanart on Pixiv dot com and I was really mad about it.

Anyways the other thing I know about Touhou, I guess, or at least tangentially? Is the genre of youtube videos that usually have “Yukkuri” in their title and are narrated with TTS voices that I guess are supposed to represent specific Touhou characters. Sometimes they’re in the thumbnail but I don’t know who they are because they’re not Cirno. I’ve never been very fond of the TTS voices because they’re hard to parse so I’ve never really interacted much with these videos. Until now.

Bc the YouTuber doing these Minecraft lets plays that I’ve been hooked on does them in this style. And it’s been some kind of experience I guess trying to parse which references are supposed to be about the Touhou Lore and what’s actually referencing information from this specific youtuber’s Greater Minecraft Fiction. There are three TTS voices in these series and I don’t know who any of them are supposed to be. I’ve managed to figure out, after going back to their very first season and watching probably close to 20 hours of their Minecraft videos, that when they call the Player Character “President” that’s Minecraft Lore and not Touhou Lore. One time one of them made a reference to one of them being a vampire, which seems to be Touhou Lore because there were never any vampires in their Minecraft series. I don’t Fucking Know.

Cannot stress enough I also just don’t know which characters these are anyways so I can’t even like look it up even if I wanted to. I saw a tumblr post about Touhou the other day mentioning a “Marisa”. I recognize this name. I heard one of the TTS voices say it, like, maybe twice across all ~20 hours of Minecraft videos. They don’t ever fucking say each other’s names. Who the fuck are they. It doesn’t even matter anyways, because I don’t really care about Touhou. This youtuber’s editing and commentating style has managed to utterly captivate my finicky attention span, and that’s wonderful. I’m having a great time. When is the next video dropping

[vintagerobin]

"The Endless shouldn't be interfering with major events" seriously?? Dream has been personally fucking with the Justice League and their major events since the very beginning. He's rifled through their trophies and abducted people from their bases and scared the absolute shit out of J'onn at his apartment at 3 in the morning and all of this is stuff that happens shortly after you're first introduced to the guy. Tell me you've never picked up a Sandman comic without telling me you've never picked up a Sandman comic.

[div-divington]

If we assume that Alan wrote himself into the Entity's Realm and wasn't just sucked up by the Fog then there's a real possibility that, out of all the Survivors in there game, he's got the greatest chance of escape. Cuz why would he write himself INTO a situation that's (arguably) WORSE than the Dark Place without writing a way out? Unless the story started coming true before he could finish it (probably thanks to the Entity itself) and he got sucked up immediately after typing "so I went to a Worse Place"

But then if we assume that the Entity did just Grab him with the Fog, poor Alan just got magically teleported out of Hell (the Dark Place) and into Super Hell (the Realm). Poor bastard.

[vertigoartgore]

Freddy Krueger by artist Sam Kieth. The cover of the unpublished Freddy Krueger's A Nightmare on Elm Street Vol.1 #4 (a short lived magazine from 1988, which lasted only two issues before Marvel Comics decided to pull the plug). Also used as an house ad.

[pfffsfic]

Post-Fall Falls False Starts- Chapter 2: Nightmare Fuel

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His first two thoughts on the back of the red van were wordless, pure emotional bursts that he couldn't have described eloquently with a million years to think about it. Anyone trying to simplify those feelings must first acknowledge that no set of words can ever be exactly equivalent to those sorts of unfiltered emotions, and approach the task with that in mind.

The first one was roughly, "Heh heh, pretty clever of me, huh?"

The second one was roughly, "OUCH!"

The universe tore up around him, he hung on for dear life, and his knuckles went white with exertion at about the same time his vision went white from overstimulation. It had been a few seconds- or a few hours, or a few millennia- when he realized how tight his grip was, how much his fingers ached, and how much longer he could hold on- only a few seconds. Hoping desperately that the stillness around him was real stillness and not the product of his fragile polygonal brain shutting down in the face of incomprehensible speeds, he let go and tumbled down onto what felt almost like asphalt, but more alive. He opened his eye. There was another eye staring back at him from the ground.

"Agh-!"

He stood up involuntarily on shaky legs, wringing his hands, adjusting to the feeling of being on solid ground once again. It was solid ground! And the sky wasn't TV static! It was... reddish-pink in some parts and orange, like the color of fire, in others. Another universe, surely, and one where the ground had a heartbeat. Or had that been his own heartbeat playing loudly in his head? He reached down and felt the warm blacktop beneath him. No, it really was pulsating- besides, he hadn't had a heartbeat since the day of his disfigurement. Was this place alive? That explained the eye. That also explained the small mouth he now noticed a couple of feet from him, and the pair of noses growing from the ground several feet beyond that. This place had a lot of orifices, and though he knew it wasn't too different from the faces that adorned many of Elmore's objects, he still found himself averting his gaze.

He turned his attention away from the ground and the sky to check out what was in between them and found a sight both familiar and unsettling: a gas station! Its name: Gas Giant. Its logo: A star with a big red X through it. The exterior was almost fleshy. Everything here was either almost fleshy or entirely fleshy. No way could he stay here, but that was alright, all he had to do was hang on again when the shopkeeper left. All he had to do was go through that vertigo-inducing nightmare of an experience a third time. "Toughen up, stupid, you're almost to safety," said the little demon version of himself on his right shoulder. "Maybe you should run for the hills and stay in this dimension," said the other little demon on his left shoulder, who really should have been an angel, right? Why were both of them demons? Because he was evil? What did that say about his mental state? Oh, well, it was just a creative visualization of his subconscious, and that meant he could reach up with both hands and crush them into dust. He took great pleasure in doing so a few seconds later.

A grotesque, four-armed monster with an eye where its mouth should have been left the convenience store portion of the station with a shopping bag in his telekinetic grasp. It was followed by a more humanoid armless being who glowed white and had an electrical socket-shaped face. In other words, nothing too out of the ordinary. It was much more concerning for Rob to see the shopkeeper, who stood taller than he imagined and wore a black hood that made him look like a cultist, leaving the store with a party-sized bag of chips and a gaze that could fall on him any moment! He ducked behind the van, mind racing. This was bad. He couldn't be found out, not now! Not so close to salvation, to starting over. What had his plan been? How had this ever seemed foolproof? He scouted out a path away from the van and realized to his horror that there was a sheer drop on the horizon. This was a floating island. It was far too large to see what exactly was beneath, but he also had no time to run to the edge and find out. There was nowhere to hide.

Rob steeled himself and decided not to try.

He stood next to the van, looked down at an invisible watch, leaned one elbow on the hood of the van all cool-like, and glanced up for just a second to meet the left eye of the shopkeeper as he returned from his snack run- meeting both eyes had always been a challenge for him, of course.

"Hey there, man," said Rob, voice faltering ever so slightly. For a long while, it seemed like he wasn't going to get a reaction.

Before he received any kind of verbal response, his arm was grabbed, the door was opened, and he was painfully yanked into the shadowy store within once again. The shopkeeper's shoulders slumped and he let out a loud, vulnerable sigh as his silhouette faded into the darkness.

"How did you follow me? Did you steal something back there when you tried to attack me? A portal replicator, perhaps, or one of those keychains that links your soul to the first person you inflict pain upon?"

"No! No. I just held onto the back."

"You-"

The shopkeeper slapped his knee, or at least that's what it sounded like. He laughed! Hard. And then he glared disapprovingly.

"You've got to be messing with me," he said, sounding defeated. "It was really that simple? I'll have to remember to install barbed wire on the back door."

"You were about to leave me in that crumbling static wasteland. You would have done the same if it had been you out there!"

"Why would I have hung onto the back of my own van?"

"I don't- I mean- It's a hypothetical, okay?"

The shopkeeper ate some chips sorrowfully. There was a loud crunching noise, and Rob pondered his lack of a visible mouth, but decided it would be rude to ask his potential ticket out of here about the details of his strange shadow man anatomy. Finally, the crunching slowed, the van- which had been slowly moving- came to a halt, and the shopkeeper opened the doors again.

"No, no, no, wait! Please! Don't leave me here-"

"Go fill up the tank."

Rob gulped, wondering whether this was the mercy it appeared to be.

"Is this- is this goodbye? After I'm done, are you just gonna-"

"Come back after you've filled the van up and we can talk."

He nodded wordlessly and made his way to the pump. The hose also felt alive, but he pretended it was just the diesel coursing through and the idea calmed his nerves a little. As the tank filled up, his emotional state changed, but he found that he couldn't tell whether he was getting more anxious or less, much to his discontent. The machine beeped, the flow stopped (though the pulsating of the hose didn't), and a gaping maw opened up in the fueling station where a card reader might have been. A shadowy hand tapped him on the shoulder and passed him a small velvet sachet that he quickly emptied into the hole, flinching and stepping back when he realized the bag was full of teeth.

"Will the place we're going be as freaky as this place? For that matter, what is this place?" Rob asked, head in his hands, sitting on the floor of the van a few moments later.

"A dimension with no rules and cheap fuels," said the shopkeeper in response. He shrugged. "And, no. Where we're going-"

"Where we're going? So that means I'm coming with you, then! Why didn't you say so earlier? I was so worried, and surely you could have seen that!"

"Don't test my patience, young man. I'm taking you along on a one-way trip, free of charge, out of the kindness of my heart."

"And where was the kindness of your heart back when-"

"I said not to test my patience!"

"Fine, fine. Tell me about where we're headed."

The van pulled out. It was far easier to stomach the feeling when you were inside of it rather than hanging onto the back for dear life, Rob found. How different would his new home- he had taken to thinking of it as a home already- be from his original home? Would there be buses there to ride? Coffee to drink? It seemed like the shopkeeper wasn't about to answer for several long moments, but he piped up with perhaps the least helpful piece of information possible.

"It's a place where you never have to pump your own gas."

"So, are we talking some sort of sci-fi future dimension, or...?"

"No, no, they've just got attendants! It's not the future."

"Does this place we're going have a name? Would I have even heard of it?"

"Perhaps. Well, if I'm being honest, definitely. It's called Oregon."

"Huh? But- I thought you said we were going to another dimension."

"We are."

The all-too-familiar feeling of the universe tearing up erupted around them for just a moment and then, though it wasn't visible from the store, a road stretched out before the driver, and the first vestiges of daylight spilled up over the silhouette of a dark forest into a starry night sky.

[patchwork-crow-writes]

72 - Your Dream Companion

In the darkness behind your eyelids I am there, waiting for you to come to me in sweetest reverie. When the world's harsh light stings your eyes to tears, just let yourself drift away into my eternally loving arms. Let me catch you as you fall into slumber, and I shall be your pillow, softer than any waking comfort you've ever known.

I am never far, my dearest light - just close your eyes a moment and I am by your side. Listen to my soporific song, guiding you gently to torpid bliss, and let my misten fingers caress and soothe your aching soul, if but for a moment. Breathe deep of me, let slumber wash over your tired body, and accept the love and care that you have always deserved.

Will you adore me then, fleeting though I might be? As ephemeral as the silvery dew that glistens in the dawn, as transient as the breath which unfurls like a flower in the cold night air, only to be banished by the light's cruel rays. Though our tryst be brief, I pray that you do not forget... that you shall not forsake me come the break of day.

How my heart aches when you struggle against me so! I wish you no harm, surely you know this? The world has been cruel to you, my light, and I wish only to provide succour... what could such an uncaring reality truly offer you, that cannot be matched in our sweetest dreams?

Then come, my light! All your wishes shall be granted, if only you would let yourself float down to me... be my dream consort, and I shall be your dream prince, down in the lightless depths of our intoxicating sleep together.

______________________________

The Dark Menagerie No. 72

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[frozenartscapes]

Now that we’ve gotten more Christmas Three Houses characters I really hope Christmas Hubert is either extremely Christmasy (like full on Santa’s top elf kinda deal) or like…the same. But with a sprig of holly on his lapel. A Christmas vampire.

[saturnalia-charceuterie-board]

yesterday i was in walmart and i saw this really cool jellyfish lamp for only eleven dollars and oh! wait post canceled somebody sent me a reel. okay it was about astrology very cool (i love astrology) anyways i was in walmart and i saw the lamp and something in my stomach recognized it and all of my bones locked in place and can there be anything but grief here? is there anything else to feel? it's just grief all the way down, in love and in fear and in excitement and in nostalgia, it's all just grief in different coats of store brand acrylic paint. is there anything else here? camus was right about absurdity. it holds hands with grief and they're both holding hands with me, we're standing in a little circle, and i'm sitting on the floor above the jellyfish lamp with no pants on (my dick is massive) and i pray for and to nothing at all. is there anything else here? anything at all?

[cryptiddeer]

People who pilot those big fuck-off Godzilla fighting Mechs have a tenuous and weird relationship with their humanity and independence + supernatural twins tropes + my brains complete inability to shut the fuck up about hoyoverse games = a brand new fucked up au for me to chew on

[godsfavoritescientist]

I'm trying so hard here to draw some kind of connection between the 4th dimension and Bill even though I know next-to-nothing about it. Anyway this article seems extremely speculative but it does sound like the kind of thing that would not deter Bill in the slightest from introducing a 4th dimension into our world during weirdmaggedon. Maybe similarly dangerous things could happen to 2D beings if their world was suddenly made 3D, too. I mean, I can't imagine suddenly having one's internal organs exposed to open air and gravity would be great for staying alive. My line of thought here is: what if Bill "liberating his dimension" meant "liberating it from the confines of 2D." What if he made it a 3D world with newfound power, and a side effect of that ended up causing it to go up in flames. What if "and I'm here to liberate [Ford's dimension]" meant his endgoal was making our dimension 4D

[journey-to-the-attic]

hmm not sure how to feel about obey me running the same pop quiz concurrently in both games

there's a weird disconnect - the new ui and sfx of nightbringer did a good job of giving that disjointed feeling of being somewhere unfamiliar, but given that the pop quiz seems to be taking place in the present that mc came from, the nightbringer ui just feels.... off in the wrong way

given that i've got more resources there i'll probably keep using the original game to play the pop quizzes, but since you can get devil points for s ranking a rhythm stage in nightbringer, seems like these events will be a good place to farm some!

(though in the first place i'd rather they finish the nightbringer story before adding supplementary content like this)

[the-scungles-of-crungles]

This is "The Doctor", a resident of the nightmare realm, who has been there long enough to have been almost completely corrupted. His face is normally just a pitch black void hole but sometimes you can see eyes and/or teeth in there

He wants to help people, but he's almost completely lost his mind, and can sometimes act a bit... Feral.

Surprisingly, the nightmare realm's usual effect of making people lose every memory of their life before they ended up here, hasn't managed to take away his medical knowledge. He's still very smart, despite everything.

Unfortunately he seems to scare off most people who he would otherwise have helped...

[eric-the-bmo]

So for my game tonight- Theodore's unconscious right now, but as soon as he wakes up... Imagine this, because this is what the session's opening will be like for him:

You're ripped out of whatever dream-state you were in (was it a nice dream? did you forget everything you've gone through while you were sleeping?). You're on the floor.

You realize your body Hurts. Your nose is broken.

Maybe you'll vaguely realize where you are, or maybe you'll try to remember what happened-

But you're going to get decked with a baseball bat, held by your former friend/party member, who most likely has the intent to kill you. He's knows it's you.

Panic- fight back? Do you fight out of instinct or because you remember what you've caused and decided this is a viable act of karma, so you fight to get him to hit you more?

If you haven't by now, realize the consequences of your actions: Your mentor, who kept you from dropping out and had hope for you, both for the changeling and human world, is gone- possessed- and it's your fault. Your former friend's boyfriend is also gone, you tried to kill another party member's friend (and the party in general), and you've practically kickstarted a war while you were possessed by the BBEG. Your party already lost some trust in you earlier before- all trust is obliterated because of this.

Do you have anything left?

[wizard-in-a-gaybar]

he's just floof. can't even see his head behind all that fluff. how is this little creature supposed to survive the nightmare realm on his own. i mean look at his little paws, he'd be so scared, my poor baby

So fucked that little animals can have bad dreams what do you mean they have to deal with nightmares too

[majorxmaggiexboy]

which installment of how to train your dragon is this