#venom tma au

[symbiotic-slime]

idk how much you’re willing to spoiler about your fic BUT I am so curious if there will be any other avatars besides Eddie/Venom & which entities you associate with which characters!! :o I always thought a tma/marvel crossover would be so cool, I’m so interested in this :]

I’m always happy to share more about these fics!! I admittedly haven’t thought of many characters since I’ve basically only made lore for Eddie/Venom and Flash 😅 I’m hoping the fics will be written like a statement/series of statements!

for what entities they’d serve, I think Eddie would be an avatar of the Corruption! it just fits symbrock so well— like a parasite (affectionate) who is obsessively in love with you is basically combining all of the aspects of the Corruption into one. in my fic, Venom starts out as mold growing in Eddie’s apartment which he starts off trying to kill but eventually the Corruption gets a hold of him mentally and he bonds with Venom! there’s a lot of body horror with Eddie since the Corruption is just perfect for body horror. lots of rot/decay (he’s basically Jane Prentiss-esque but instead of worms it’s goop) and also to highlight the obsessive/toxic love part Eddie’s rib cage is ripped open and Venom is wrapped around his heart >:3

I think Flash would be an avatar of the Slaughter! I know I’m so original by making the solider character a Slaughter avatar but it fits him too well 😭 his fic is a lot sadder than Eddie’s, since I’m kinda making the unpredictable abuse he suffered from his dad the catalyst for the entity noticing him and starting to influence him. I’m warping around the comics timeline a bit so he joins the army right after high school and also making it so his legs being amputated is the result of his need for violence instead of him being a war hero to fit the Slaughter better! in the hospital, since he can’t really feed the Slaughter anymore, its influence on him starts to wain and he resolves to become a better person (think like what happened with the coffin in s4)! it’s not entirely a happy ending, since he is getting weaker and weaker by trying to be a better person, but he makes amends with Peter and their friendship starts there in the fic! that’s as happy of an ending as anyone in a TMA au can get unfortunately :,(

I was also thinking of making the Venom symbiote an avatar! I kinda scrapped that idea because I figured they would be an avatar of the Hunt and I wasn’t sure how to show that in a way that significantly deviates from canon? like they already kind of have to kill to survive, and are an apex predator with a drive to hunt. I’ll make a fic about that if I can think of a fun supernatural way to do it but as of now it’s still a headcanon but I’m not a planning a fic about it

I’ve also thought about what entity they would be a victim of! I’m a big fan of putting my favourite characters in situations, so it’s very fun to assign them their own personal hell, but I haven’t thought of any fic ideas for it. they’ve just been given a vibe lol.

Eddie would be a victim of the Lonely (he starts having a breakdown every time he thinks the symbiote has died and starts weeping about how “we’re dead” and cannot get over Anne for the life of him… he just seems like his biggest fear is being alone)

Flash would be a victim of the Web (specifically with the addiction imagery from s5, but also with him being repeatedly blackmailed in the comics)

Venom would be a victim of the Desolation (especially with Eddie and Dylan both “dying” in the current run, I’d also ignore Flash’s resurrection so it’s just like “all my friends are dead”)

[someones-there-1]

randomly got the motivation to return to my tma spiderman au silliness. venom jon (someone said jenom and i’ve unable to get it out of my head ever since)

ok lore wise [beware tma spoilers] jon having the symbiote is equivalent to him becoming an avatar. he dies end of s3 era and oliver banks gives him the symbiote, and he relies on feeding the symbiote to survive. the symbiote itself isn’t sentient (there are instances of this in the comics so don’t come at me for that) he just has to feed it either trauma (s4 era) or straight up eat people (s5 era). martin is all for it because he’s a monster kisser

[chai-en-kaadhale]

tma au where the entities and entity people have a weird venom-style symbiosis thing going on ((they still want to take over the world in a primordial urge kind of sense but they've been domesticated))

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

Jon: "AH FUCK" Jon: "Ceaseless watcher, where are my keys?" Ceaseless Watcher: "Oh my fucking god you idiot it's in your other hand," Jon: "AH shit" Ceaseless Watcher: "You are getting complacent with me around, Archivist," orororor Michael Crew: *Reading a book or some shit* The Vast: Teehee *opens a random hole underneath him* Michael Crew: "GODDAMN YOU VASTTTTtttt t t t t t t t t " orrrrrrrrrr The Hunt @ Daisy: "Aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you wanna go apeshit?" Daisy: *grabs the hunt's tiny alien face and chucks it at a wall* in this AU Daisy wouldn't need a coffin to free her from the hunt bc she would bully it into leaving by itself trust. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

and then occasionally they'd merge like venom and eddie to go (for example) from "Michael" and "The Distortion" to "Michael the Distortion" except its actually like. consensual.

[blood-injections]

Ummmm. Relistening to the mangus archives. Thinking about making an au. Maybe fucking with it. Like Destroya and the Phoenix Witch are entities too and members of the fab four are their avatars. I'm thinking Ghoul for Destroya and Jet for the Witch, and like those forces of the desert are like against the tma entities like the fears are aligned with better living and like the desert is an entity in itself maybe. Im just thinking of soo much lore like Destroya is a being of war but also ultimately one of balance. And the Witch is one of peace. And I'm thinking the Witch was once just a person to but became the avatar and became the Witch and now she in herself has like become an entity. And Jet being the new avatar is like slowly becoming her, a spiritual being, something beyond himself. And Ghoul with Destroya is too but is like, more himself too, he just has powers I'll elaborate on later. Also Destroya and the Witch are like yin and yang like together they create balance they're like. They're the avatars of the land, of the desert, even if when they started they weren't human, were like a giant robot and a spirit of a person that died in a war, but they both became something More and now they have avatars of their own but they're like all the same. If any of this makes sense. This au is rotating in my brain in lightspeed its insane. Haven't figured out the venom siblings things yet i think they'll have to like.. be twins in a sense. share something, like both being avatars of the same thing, or being their own thing that I'll come up with later. Anyway, feel free too interrogate me about this au because I'm going crazy and i will be posting about it for the foreseeable future

[multifandombullshitbabes]

HELLO

ok cool now that THAT is done, hi :) I'm Sara/Sera. Aro. Lesbian. Genderqueer (she/they/he). Libra. 21. Art college. INFP. etc.

This is a blog where I'll do whatever the fuck i want with the fandoms I like, even the ones i have blogs dedicated to. Just because.

My og posts are all tagged "hey look i posted a thing" so. yh.

I'll put here some fandoms that I DEFINITELY will be at least talking about:

both Top Gun movies

Merlin BBC

Sherlock BBC (yh ik sue me the show was fun)

Warrior Nun

The Magnus Archives

Outer Range

Our Flag Means Death

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom (ONLY the books. That show sucked, I'm sorry not really)

Treasure Planet (most underrated movie EVER, yep)

Rise of The Guardians

all Kung Fu Panda movies

Nope

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Wednesday

The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor

The Untamed

Anne with and E

Teen Wolf (i have a weakness for this show yall, idk)

Arcane

First Kill

The Witcher (only the show, sorry)

The Sandman

Girl From Nowhere

Suits (i have not finished season 5 cuz i know its gonna get shitty so apologies)

Black Sails

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

both Venom movies

Like Minds

Moon Knight (TV show)

Sharp Objects

Suspiria 2018

Whiplash

Jennifer's Body

The Pirate (1948)

Derry Girls

Criminal Minds

Cocaine Bear

Knives Out + Glass Onion

Into the Spider-Verse movies

TMNT 2012

Reservation Dogs

The Bear

Marble Hornets

Creepypasta

Stardew Valley

8 Women (2002)

Nimona

The New Girlfriend (2014)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Harlan Coben's Shelter

Malevolent (podcast)

ATLA

Blue Eye Samurai

Kubo and the two strings

Midnight Burger

After School Lessons for Unripe Apples

Supernatural (im on season 8 rn)

House of the Dragon

Once Upon a Witchlight

Detroit: Become Human

CURRENT HYPER-FIXATION: Arcane, TMA, BBC Merlin

Theres a TON more, I'll add them as I remember them and as I also consume them. From this list tho, pls send ur thoughts!! Just know im more active in some fandoms than others. This list is not on a particular order, so yh!!

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AO3 Link: SpookySweet (please check out my works, I will love you foreva)

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TAG LIST:

"hey look i posted a thing" - any posts originally mine

"rebloggin time" - every time i reblog something and I add to it in the post itself, not the tags (text, images, etc.)

"come get yall headcanons" - all headcanons/au posts of mine, reblogs included

"shit talking but seriously (or not)" - discourse/fan wank tag, any criticism posts/reblogs i might make

"this is me writing lads" - my writing

"shitpostti" - shitpost/crack posts of mine

"YOU ASK I ANSWER" - answering things from inbox

"so artsy rawr XD" - art tag

[tangereendream]

WIP ask game

The most wonderful @burningdarkfire tagged me for this one! Thank you!

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Now, I have 35 WIP documents, so I'm not going to list them all, just the ones with actual snippets to pull from (the rest are just outlines).

Her Name Is Ellie

Bury the Lead

egg him up

essek/fjord evil

esswulf canon divergence

feign death

In You Black Heart

Schweinshaxe

Show me where it hurts, I'll show you how it works

sigh... breeding kink...

So Bleed Me

you take yourself too seriously

I'll tag @widogastwebofwords @perpetualnovelboyfriend uuh and anyone else who wants to

fill list of wip document titles. Critical role unless otherwise specified.

sexy science times

the devil you know (or go home)

you're so alive you think you'd rather be dead

Heroes Go To Heaven, Villains Go To Port Damali State University

Her Name Is Ellie

Crueler Kindness

Evil with a capital E

sigh... breeding kink...

wulf and trent's awful adventure (colab)

wulf watches cam

An Extremely Unofficial Guide to the Proper Care and Maintenance of Anxious War Criminals by Eadwulf Grieve

and they were gym bros (oh my gods they were gym bros)

astrid/wulf/essek

Bury the Lead

Court Drama

Egg him up

essek/fjord evil

essek/wulf/ludinus

esswulf canon divergence

executioner divergence

feign death

hey boy nice knife wound can i put my tongue in it

hospital time

i can't ever wake up

in your black heart

keptolo fic

nye

one rule

Schweinshaxe

Selkie AU

Sex pollen but it isn’t immediately obvious it’s sex pollen

Show me where it hurts, I'll show you how it works

so bleed me

tell me i'm a bad man/kick me like a stray

thank you for the venom

the world needs more spinach not more motherfuckers like me

this is not thursday

watch change

you know how to say goodbye

you take yourself too seriously

june prompts

providing leverage

E * MO * TION

the one left behind

[blaseball] In Your Rotten Heart

[blaseball] Perfect Bake

[blaseball] send him back to the null space (colab)

you hold me sturdy like I am not a shadow

[fire emblem three houses] you can't kill your way to peace

[friends at the table] It's Dark and It's Matter

[star trek deep space nine] can you even tell i'm standing in front of you?

[ds9] it feels like the world is crumbling down

[ds9] when your greed destroys all those underneath

[the magnus archives] monster-seeking-monster

[tma] The Magnus Institute is Under New Management!

[symbiotic-slime]

me when I rant to yall about the venom tma au that I’m taking forever to actually write

there HAS to be a reason for this

[lucianinsanity-only-art]

Tag List:

Art and Writing related:

Luci An's art

Luci An's writing

Other People Fanart

Other People Art

Other People Fanfic

OC Kiss Week

AUs

Comic

Horror

Fanfic

Animation

Sculpture

Sewing

Art Doll

Dolls

Monster

Fandoms:

BNHA

Dragon Ball

Trigun

Good Omens

Sam and Max

TMA

Centaurworld

TOH

Ace Attorney

Dungeon Meshi

Venom

SCP

MP100

WTNV

Pacific Rim

Simon Snow Series

Hatsune Miku

Original Characters:

Random Lore

Los 23

Owen

Philip

Brisa

Jace

Dracon

Derian

Xian

Natalia

Eloisa

Xian, Natalia and Eloisa

Rovvena

Random (character)

Random and Rovvena

Xanthe

Sigrid

Azul

Danilo

Dom (Domeka/Dylan)

Ismael

Rei

Facundo

Santiago

Fabricio

Dax

Karla

Camila

Karla and Camila

Samantha

Hannah

Sam and Hannah

Ariel

Mar

Malva

Yeong-Jun

Hector

Hal

Hal and Hector

Arturo

Victor

Paris

Nicolas

Noah

Maximo Juan Zacarias

Senda

Iris

The Not Name Story

Dylan

Nic

Danilo NN

Random Stuff:

Tag Game

Bye An Sanity (text post, just talking)

Content Warnings:

Scopophobia

Body Horror

Blood

Injury

Violence

TW Death (death)

Bugs (Worms) (Spiders)

No ID

[jealizmuch]

HI SO UM I CAME UP WITH AN AU…..

[gertruderobinsonscat]

More TMA Fanfic Plotbunnies

Daemon AU. The “somewhere else” Jon and Martin end up is a universe that contains daemons. When they wake up in that universe their own daemons manifest for the first time. I have a couple different ideas for what their daemons could be:

-Jon’s daemon is a cobalt blue tarantula that terrifies him at first. Jon has to learn to stop being afraid of her/thinking she’s tied to the web. Martin, however, thinks she’s adorable after only a brief period of residual web phobia. Martin is perfectly content to hold her in the palm of hand, and Jon can’t get over how good it feels when he does. Gradually he learns to accept her, and it’s helped when Martin points out tarantulas, unlike most spiders, don’t spin webs to catch their prey.  Anyway, they learn more about daemon settling in this world, and Jon wonders if their encounter with Mr Spider affected her final shape. (sn: I could never write this fic, arachnophobia too strong)

-Martin’s daemon is a moose, because they keep popping up on lists when I google “most solitary animals in the world”.  Also feeds into the whole loneliness thing, since having a soul that big means most people have to keep their distance in order to avoid touching him (Martin has a same sex daemon/or is trans in this verse because bull moose are so much bigger and have enormous antlers).

-Jon’s daemon is a hedgehog. Prickly spines to discourage predators unable to compete with its innate adorableness. 

-Martin’s daemon is a platypus, because they also keep showing up on lists of “most solitary animals”. Also a same sex daemon, because even though platypi are cute and goofy looking the males produce venom that while not lethal to humans is *extremely* painful. 

[symbiotic-slime]

we are cooking tonight fellas ‼️🍳

[areyougonnabe]

what resembles a fic roundup but isn’t

i wrote 275k this year and not all of it was very good!!! here we go anyway!!!!! 

if we’re talking good omens i’m still impressed at how i wrote a whole fic based on the premise of “ikea delivery” and i’m also still fond of the one with the snake venom.

apparently also in 2020 i wrote this TMA accidental baby acquisition fic which really doesn’t seem like this year but hey. it was pretty funny.  

clearly at a certain point in the year i descended into the terror and have not emerged. i think on the whole i’m proudest of my irving/tozer sex ghost AU, my fitzier cold war spy AU, and my pre-canon ross/crozier/sophia fic.

more terror fic i wrote this year that i still like: 

the one where tozer sexually humiliates irving 

the one where james visits francis in disguise 

the one where hickey becomes the god of a hallucinatory mutiny camp sex cult

the one where ross and crozier play romantic leads in one of parry’s shipboard theatricals

the one where goodsir uses magic to bring gore back to life

the one where hickey tells tozer about the captain

the one where hodgson is awkward at dinner

in 2021 i would like to spend roughly the same amount of time writing but as i’m starting school again chances are that writing will potentially be academic and non-pornographic. (i am saying this as a way to manifest it, but i’ll probably just end up doing the same shit all over again)

to everyone who has commented, kudos’d, bookmarked, and read my silly little stories: you are my favorite people in the world and i’m so incredibly grateful. feedback makes brain go weeeeeeeee and you’re the only reason i wrote anything at all. thank you thank you thank you! 

[cannibal-wings]

WIP Title Meme

Pseudo tagged by @traincat

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and I'll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it! 

Note from me: Bolded Fics are ones that are currently posted on my AO3

Ok, so I’ll break this up by fandom since I have many WIPs. Outlast: The Long Road- y’all know this one Freedom Goretober Miles Wing AU Dishonored: Wings Over Dunwall Raven Corvo AU Displaced God AU The Harder They Fall (High Chaos Dishonored 2 AU) Mer AU Dishonored CorvoSider Ritualistic Cannibalism Tye no, Tye stop. You have...like too many wips... Tye I’m warning you don’t do thi-

Fallout 4: Aliferous    Dark Craving Gill Nate Fic FEV Nate A Sniper’s Eye Future Retro Dragons!!! That’s a Human Person Charisma AU Rooted + Solar Powered Goretober kremvh's tooth Cage Fighter Mac AU Nate Wakes Up Early AU Raider King Nate AU

Prey 2017: Prey for me because I’m back on my bullshit

Venom: Wings of Change Let’s Send Flash, Venom and Eddie to SPACE! Pick Up the Pieces and Make Something New Flash is a Klyntar AU Demon Flash AU The Shape of Venom

Spider-Man/Fantastic Four: Flash Empath AU Spider Face AU SpideyTorch Wing AU whoops johnny died There are Worse People to Have Wake up in Your Arms Doom/Reed college AU Victor Teaches Reed Magic SpideyTorch nightmare fic Untitled Swan Fic Mythical AU Goretober Burning Really Sad Johnny Fic SpideyTorch Bodyswap SpideyTorch whoops they’re on the run FlashFire Recovery Story

Warrior Cats: I’m 27 whole years old and writing warrior cat fic in the year 2020. God cannot judge me for I’ve killed god myself. Anyways, here’s a fic about that cannibal clan I’ve been meaning to do 

The Magnus Archives: TMA: Monster Jon Fic TMA: After the End TMA: Bow Before the God You Created

PFT Novels I Guess Count The Long Road Take Two This Time with FEELING Bird Novel There Has Been a Recall Meat Cute Lets see here, who do I know that writes: @softgrungeprophet @screwtheprinceimtakingthehorse @kitausuret

[haberdashing]

What A Tangled Web We Weave (5/?)

TMA AU diverging from canon at the end of episode 92. Jon is forced into an arranged marriage by Elias; Martin does what he can to help.

on AO3

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6

Martin might have said that the strangest part about the transformation was that it didn’t hurt, but that would have been inaccurate in more ways than one.

For one, the initial spider bite did hurt, after all, it stung like hell as the cool venom first entered his body, and his body ached as it toppled unceremoniously onto the floor of its own accord, though that pain was quickly replaced by a vast, all-consuming numbness.

For another, claiming that that was the strangest part of the transformation would have been glossing over every other part of what was just generally speaking a very strange process.

As Martin lay sprawled out on the floor, unable to move, his eyes remained fixed on the ceiling, and he saw the spiders emerge en masse, even tried counting them before quickly getting overwhelmed. There were dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of them, far more than Martin would have guessed could be hiding in his own fairly small flat.

And Martin watched as every one of the spiders headed right for him, climbing atop his immobile body and getting to work.

There was no way they should have been able to spin spider silk as fast as they did, even given the sheer number of spiders working together, but then, these weren’t normal spiders, after all, and Martin supposed that meant they didn’t have to abide by the rules of normal spider biology, either. (Martin remembered, dimly, interviewing a man who’d rambled about spiders doing things that weren’t biologically possible in between violent sobs; Martin wondered, distantly, if it had really been a coincidence that that particular bit of research had been assigned to him back then.) Martin didn’t have any way to keep track of time, but by his best guess it was only a matter of a few minutes before the spiders’ webs covered his entire body.

Martin could feel each and every one of the spiders skittering around on top of him, was all too aware of the ones that evaded his static field of vision. Their legs tickled as they brushed against him, even when they were no longer touching him directly, even when their footsteps were placed on top of spider silk. His whole body started to fill with a pins-and-needles sort of sensation, too, like when you cut off the circulation on a limb and then when you try to move it it won’t quite move right, doesn’t even entirely feel like it’s yours, except it wasn’t just one limb, it was everywhere, covering every inch of his body.

Also, between the chilly venom coursing through his veins and the cool tile floor seeping away what body heat he still had, Martin was freezing. He would’ve shivered, if he could have; instead, he just wished he’d collapsed in one of the rooms that had a carpet draping the floor instead.

As the spiders finished up their web, they left holes through which Martin could breathe, but even his eyes became covered by their newly-made webs, his view of the ceiling replaced by darkness, though he could still see enough to see the off-white color of the substance that surrounded him.

The spiders kept moving after he was fully covered, kept dancing along to a pattern only they knew, and several times Martin felt a slight shock, like static electricity zapping him over and over, when their legs landed upon him. Martin tried to logic his way through what was happening, tried to figure out if there was some rationale behind when and where he was getting shocked, but if there was a method to the madness, he couldn’t find it.

In a way, those little static shocks were reassuring, because it meant Martin could still feel something beyond the numbness and the tingling and the pins and needles that still covered his entire being.

Martin wasn’t sure how long he lay there, cocooned in spider webbing, immobile and seeing nothing but a field of off-white. It might have been minutes, it might have been hours. It felt like an eternity.

But eventually, the spiders went from simply climbing atop Martin to slowly, carefully, taking apart the webbing they had so meticulously spun minutes hours an eternity ago.

They started by the hole that Martin had needed to breathe, and as that hole grew he could see the spiders, first out of the corner of his eye and then growing closer and closer, and he knew he should be terrified of all this. A small part of him was scared, truth be told, but mostly out of concern that one of the spiders might lose their footing and fall through the hole and onto his nose or mouth, which would likely end unpleasantly for the both of them, true, but that probably wasn’t what most people would be afraid of after being wrapped in a layer of spider silk that was only removed when the spiders themselves decided it was time.

But after all, Martin had always liked spiders.

He’d even named the one residing in his closet. Was that spider there still? Was little George an agent of the Web all this time, or was it a coincidence, that he’d joked to himself about having a spider as a roommate before? Or was it neither--had he become entangled with the Web specifically because he was the kind of person who, upon finding a spider spinning a web in the corner of his closet, decided to name it George and make it his honorary roommate?

The world seemed awfully bright as it began to emerge into view once more, but that could have been Martin’s eyes just having adjusted to the dim light that seeped through spider’s silk. Even with his sight restored, though, Martin couldn’t move his eyes away from the ceiling, where it seemed like there were even more cobwebs than the mass of them he’d seen earlier, somehow, covering nearly every bit of wall and ceiling within his range of vision.

Was that... sanitary? Removing the spiderwebs entirely was probably out of the question at this point, but he wasn’t going to get his neighbors sick by having his flat like this, was he? They may not have done much to help him out before--if they even existed, which he still wasn’t sure about--but that didn’t mean he wanted them to get caught up in this, didn’t mean he wanted them to suffer because of him.

Looking into that would be a problem for another day, though. Or at least for a time when he could actually get to his computer and do some research, instead of laying on the floor, waiting for the last of the spiders to retreat...

The spiders did remove the last of the spider silk and retreat, slowly but surely, and the pins-and-needles sensation left with them, leaving Martin feeling very cold and very alone and a little silly just lying there on the floor of his flat, staring at the cobweb-covered ceiling.

Martin’s whole body was shaking as he forced himself to sit up, then pushed himself off the floor. Everything still seemed too bright, even though he only had the one light on and the sun had long since set (what time was it, anyway? how many hours had passed? it had to have been hours, because it felt far too long for mere minutes but it- it couldn’t have been days, could it?), and Martin’s shaking quickly turned to shivering as leaving the floor didn’t warm him up nearly as much as he’d hoped. He looked over at a blanket that he’d left on the couch, imagining the warmth he’d feel while wrapped up within it, before his wandering eyes found something else to focus on.

Martin turned his gaze towards his hands, his heart sinking as he did.

They looked normal, really. Part of him had expected them to be- to be made of spiderwebs or something now, but they were the same as always, more or less. Big, fleshy, clumsy, with bitten-down nails and ripped cuticles. There was the minor matter of a new mark on his pinky finger, where the spider had bitten him earlier, and that almost certainly wasn’t a coincidence, but that wasn’t what had caught Martin’s eye so easily.

No, what had caught his eye wasn’t his hands, exactly, but the dozens, even hundreds of strings extending out from them.

No, not strings--threads. Threads that, though Martin didn’t dare touch them, he was certain were spun of spider’s silk. Connections, of some kind, perhaps? If so, he must be connected to more... people? things? both? than he’d realized.

Then he turned his hands slightly, and the threads disappeared from view, as easily as if they’d been a mere trick of the light.

They hadn’t been, though. Martin was sure of that much.

Instead of going straight for the blanket he’d been eyeing, Martin stumbled his way into the bathroom and turned on the light, instinctively squinting and raising one hand to his forehead because even now, even after his eyes had had plenty of time to adjust to being able to see his flat once more, that light was still awfully bright, almost painfully so, even as he took measures to block out the worst of it.

As Martin looked in the bathroom mirror, it became clear at a glance why lights that had been normal enough for him before were so uncomfortably bright to him now.

For one thing, his eyes were dark all over, an inky off-black hue filling them from lid to lid.

For another thing, there were eight of them there.

Maybe he should have seen it coming, should have realized why things seemed so off, should have noticed... well, he definitely noticed them now, at least...

Martin’s eyes started watering at the sight of it, and that just made it worse because all eight of his eyes were watering, and he did try not to cry, he really did, but even as his sight blurred he could see tears welling up in eight distinct places, and somehow this was the straw that broke the camel’s back, this was what made it all a bit much for him to handle...

Martin ended up curled up against his bath mat, sobbing into a rust-colored towel, and the only consolation he had was that this wasn’t happening at the Institute, that there wasn’t a tape recorder in sight, that the only ones who had to know about this moment were him and the spiders lurking in the corners of his walls.

[lamiralami]

TMA Retro 4: Page Turner

I was touched to see some tag commentary on yesterday’s post! Honestly, it gave me an emotion - I am traditionally very anxious about engaging online, it speaks to my immense love of TMA that it brought me to Make A Post At Last. It’s very affirming and reassuring to get some response to my lunatic treatises. Y’all are all right. 💜

Anyway, grab some lighter fluid and a sturdy wastepaper basket, time to torch your haunted novel in MAG 4: Page Turner

It’s ironic that this statement is about the Vast when it is one dense motherfucker. so many dangling plot threads are introduced here, each ready to hook you and start reeling. we’ve been into the meta plot since episode one but this episode is the first time the audience is made aware of such.

seriously: Jurgen Leitner and his library, Gerard Keay and Mary Keay, Michael Crew. the figures introduced in this one thirty-minute installment loom large over the rest of the entire run

you could, your first time through, even file this away as a one-off scary story if not for the fact that Jon knows what’s going on (enjoy it while it lasts, my son). He’s heard of Jurgen Leitner. He alludes to an incident with his library in 1994. Deeper than that, he immediately takes the statement at face value and treats the claims within it as authentic, which is a complete 180° on the first three episodes

and this is such a smart story choice? Jon shapes our perspective into this universe and up until now he’s been utterly dismissive of the validity of the stories he’s telling. To go from practically rolling his eyes to scheduling a meeting with his boss about tracking down more haunted books - that tells us that Jon takes this seriously as a threat. And that makes us take it seriously too, makes us take note that strange books are dangerous things in this world. Any offhand mention of books in future statements will be enough to make us sweat

And! It starts winding the narrative tension on a character level. Why and what does Jon know about Jurgen Leitner and his library? Why does he say his name with such venom? And if he’s so sure about the supernatural nature of these books, why is he so loath to believe the other statements?

(and then it takes 80 + episodes to fully answer these initial questions. Jonny enjoys a slow roasted torment)

love that the statement giver presents, as proof of his iron-clad sanity, the fact that he works as a theatre technician. speaking as someone with an unfinished theatre degree: theatre people are feral my good buddy, try again. I mean, we refuse to say the name of one of the most famous plays in the English language because we think a ghost will trip us for the indiscretion. this is not the trump card you think it is.

a quick sidebar for the Red String Brigade: The Trojan Women is an ancient Greek tragedy that involves a baby being thrown off a city wall. The Seagull’s first published English translation was done by Marian Fell, and also a seagull is a bird and birds can fly. Much Ado About Nothing is very good and you should all watch the version from 2011 with David Tennant and Catherine Tate.

it’s interesting that these early episodes seem to take a cue from urban legends in some respects. Nathan Watts gets extremely drunk at a party and then is almost skinned by a monster while having a smoke. Joshua Gillespie is approached while engaging in a whirlwind of debauchery and has to take care of a cursed coffin after accepting money for what he thinks is a drug trafficking gig. Amy Patel regularly spies on her neighbour for her own entertainment and then has to watch him be replaced by a malevolent entity only she can perceive. and now Dominic Swain pushes past his guilty conscience to score a valuable book off an unknowing charity shop and...gets a bit dizzy and haunted by a phantom stink for a few days then gets ‎£5,000, well anyway, the point is he got spooked! spooked after doing something kind of iffy! that is pure urban legend procedure; modern day fairy tales imparting dire  consequences onto societal transgressions. in a horror story this structure offers a false sense of safety - if you’re a good person, the monster won’t come for you. I can’t recall which upcoming statement yanks the rug out from under us with the first completely random victim.

cannot comprehend how this guy didn’t start plugging the book into google translate the second he got home. that probably saved him from being taken by the book but I am still judging him for not even trying it. yeah you’d be sucked into some sort of sky hell but at least you’d know what’s in the book!! could never be me

(yes I am aware in this universe I would have been eaten years ago. I’ve made my peace with that)

grbookworm1818 slays me. I don’t know which is better, the idea of Gertude carefully curating the most sixty-five-year-old-on-goodreads username she could as a cover for her cursed purchase history, or her actual sixty-five-year-old brain just expressing itself naturally because Gertrude is a very busy woman who doesn’t have time to immerse herself in the ins and outs of internet culture, she just wants to buy the demonic tomes she’s selected for destruction and get on with her day thanks.

did Gertrude know what a meme was? which Archivist could convincingly pose as a millennial best, Gertrude Robinson or Jonathan Sims?

The Key of Solomon and its former keeper, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, are both real historical figures. the book is basically Renaissance-era magical au fanfic of the Bible, and the man was a 19th century British occultist (and likely drinking buddy of Jonah Magnus) who founded a Very Serious Secret Society. this is a picture of him whiiiiiich rather dispels any sense of menace he’s meant to invoke. what kind of cosplaying nonsense

Mary Keay is such a striking figure. “She was very old and painfully thin, but her head was completely clean shaven, and every square inch of skin I could see was tattooed over with closely-written words in a script I didn’t recognise.” a Look, a vision!

I’m guessing that Our Gerard was blasting heavy metal at 2 am to try to drown out his undead mother while waiting for her manifestation to dissipate. I like to imagine him frequenting Reddit advice posts about dealing with toxic family members, poor lad

oh my gosh Mary refers to Gerard as “her Gerard” is that where Jon got “our Gerard” from?? I feel betrayed??

whatever, I’m reclaiming it. Our Gerard is meant with affection now babey! 

the eye portrait is a bit puzzling. the inscription - ‘“Grant us the sight that we may not know. Grant us the scent that we may not catch. Grant us the sound that we may not call.”’ - could almost be read as an invocation against the Eye? But in general Gerry is fairly Eye-aligned, so...shrug emoji

(honestly my main takeaway from the eye portrait is that it’s finely detailed and near photorealistic so we can add “tortured artist” to our list of Gerard Keay traits and is it any wonder that he’s so Fandom Beloved?)

Mary is Not Good at negotiating sales. her main technique involves terrible tea, bringing up repressed childhood trauma, and getting her magic book to drop animal bones onto customer’s shoes. I’m guessing Pinhole Books was in bad shape even before the police investigation and murder charges.

hahaha, the Vast pushes Dominic down the stairs. classic. you gotta grab what opportunities are available

so did Gerard have to follow Dominic back to his flat and wait awkwardly on the doorstep at like 3 in the morning, hoping none of his neighbours would notice and call the cops

the revelation that Mary’s been dead the whole time! this episode may be more intent on world building and plot set-up but damn if it isn’t still a good little ghost story.

kind of rude of Gerry to just burn a book in this guy’s flat without asking and then steal his wastepaper basket.

Jon may not call the statement giver a liar for once, but never fear, he’s still our petty bastard man. accuses Gertrude of filing statements without reading them, has Sasha double-check Martin’s research, grumps about his general misfortune . he’s stressed from the Archives’ disorder and having flashbacks to a certain picture book but by Jove, that won’t stop him making snide comments on what’s supposed to be an official audio transcription!

[symbiotic-slime]

writing some catholic trauma into my venom tma au >:3