#we love the immortal gang its true

[blenselche]

wanted to sketch this scene from Oneirogenic Coalescence out

“Shoko?”

She stares back at him, only a few inches away and inspecting his face with narrowed eyes.

“I’m stuck being your guide again,��� she surmises. “Subtractional. We’ve got to stop meeting like this.” She blows a sigh out, pushing a hand through her hair. “I should have stayed in the deadworlds.”

Finn snorts, elbowing her. “Well, for what it’s worth I’m glad you didn’t. Is it actually you this time, or- or is this just part of the hallucination?”

“I’ve been dragged out of your subconscious. I’m still with you, after all, as you’ve aged you’ve grown closer to me. You remember my life,” she turns, and they’re back at the gang’s open bathhouse, overgrowth creeping backwards. “Why is that?”

The Plant Teacher metamorphoses into a bath boy, poking at its hair rollers. “Your future is debating removing you from the cycle of reincarnation.”

Shoko looks over her shoulder, quirking a critical brow at him.

“I—“ his hands raise in defense of himself. “Maybe. It was just a stupid thought,” he muffles into his palm as he stares at their feet, uncomfortable and edgy. “Fern is immortal, he doesn’t have to die unless I do, and- and if I don’t die, then…”

“You’re afraid you won’t be able to find yourself in the next life,” she guesses, and he lifts a finger gun to the air without looking up. “You found the Princess, Finn, and we were barely friends. You found our closure, what makes you think you wouldn’t be able to find it again?”

“Maybe I’m tired of finding myself! Maybe- maybe I’m tired of going through painful junk and learning the same lessons just to find something good under it all,” his hands raise and slap back down to his sides as he walks in a circle on the concrete platform. “I’ve never been in love in any of my lives, and I finally have that. Why can’t I get off the ride if I have the chance? What if I want us to stay like we are?”

Shoko stops him, dragging him to sit on a cracked step as her life bustles around them in blurry, fluid dreamscapes. Finn watches with tired, drooping eyes as she releases the Ice King from a group of old witch women.

“That’s what life is, Finn. Sometimes we have our arm cut off by our father, sometimes we lose it trying to cling to him. It’s just how the cycle works. You can’t stop it.”

“I want to,” he murmurs, muscle of his jaw jumping. “I’ve finally got some stability.”

“Life is change,” the entity reminds him, lifting a slice of cucumber over its eye. “You cannot cross the stream without getting wet. You are not prone to give yourself to indolence, child, you are always moving, always changing. Do not falter to the soul erosion of a middling existence in vampirism, it is counterintuitive to your purpose.”

Finn groans, chest deflating. “I hate that determinism gunk. I’m not made for anything. I don’t believe in destiny.”

“No, I know you don’t. That does not stop it from being true.” It settles lower in the water, watching him. “You are a very purposeful being, Finn. You, a cosmic force trapped within a man cannot remove yourself from the cycle even if you wish it. You have yet to find your final method of being.”

“Not this comet crap again,” he whines, face tipping to the sky and eyes screwing up tight.

“Yes this comet crap again.” It snaps its fingers and they’re hung in the vast nothingness of space, Shoko scrambles to grab onto him, terrified.

“Finn!?” she screeches. “What’s it talking about?”

He curls an arm around her waist and hefts her higher. “We were put here to commit acts of ‘great good’,” Finn says, tense, “Davey stopped Orgalorg, you released Simon, I defeated the Lich, Penny blasts the cosmic elementals…” he pauses, brain skipping on the realization that he remembers her, “and some day we’ll ascend to the fourth dimension. I refused last time.” He nods with a rigid jerk to the comet, to Martin and the moth. “We’re… some godlike entity. But we forgot.” He swallows dry, throat constricting. “I don’t think about it. It makes me feel like- like my skin is on too tight.”

“You may reject predeterminism, but that does not stop it from affecting you,” the Teacher announces, loud enough to rattle his bones. “I can only help you if you’re open to it. Will you open yourself? Or will you pursue this dead ended, disillusioned passivity borne from the fear of your truth?”

He feels Shoko tremble in his arm, smells the sweet spices they used to use in her hair and sighs out a dejected “okay.” His feet hit the hardwood of the tree house’s kitchen, and he lets Shoko dismount his side, knees shaking and wobbly as she falls back into the dingy cushions of the wrap around sofa.

“That was terrifying,” she chokes with an airy laugh, forehead thunking to the table.

“… our bones are like, six feet away,” he thinks out loud and she shoots him a freaked out glance. “Sorry. Nerves.”

“Are you ready to face yourself, little hero?” It hangs from the ceiling, having taken on Marceline’s form.

A smarmy, weak grin stretches across his expression. “I already am, technically.”

“Don’t be tiresome, the other half of your soul gives me enough trouble.”

Finn snickers unevenly in the face of this unknowable tutelar, at the sensation of bantering with some infinite providence when he’s such a tiny animal.

He nods, and the strings of his being unravel as Shoko keeps hold on the red piece of yarn that connects them, steadying the knot at his center.

[dreadfutures]

Blue’s DA: Absolution Post

Just finished my first viewing. Impressions, spoilers, and some rambling. Let’s go! Stream of consciousness, baby.

When I first saw my little sisters playing DAI, it struck me as “THE GAY GAME” and BOY is this THE GAY FRANCHISE. And it’s so normal. No one makes a big deal about it at all. It’s just fuckin normal and everyone is so flirty from square one. There ain’t no one gonna watch this and then go into DA4 not being aware this is a queer friendly world.

The big things I’m taking away, besides that:

- Where do people go when they die? Death seems to be a central question of Absolution. Immortality is a central question in Thedas tbh, and I have so many questions that I am betting will absolutely be answered in DA4.

- The architecture: Nevarra has domes, and its mage tower is very very square. Ziggurat-y. Tevinter reminded me a lot of parts of Spain with its architecture, the mosaics in particular, but other things to. Morocco. A lot of Morocco actually. I love that. The canals, the verdantness, the tiered city on a mesa, I really loved.

- Parkour. And gameplay. Or at least the vibe of what I imagine DA4 is trying to go for.

- The politics of Tevinter.

SO here’s my first thing. If this is what one powerful Magister can do with blood magic and an ancient artifact--and ONE high dragon’s blood.... What the FUCK will Solas’s ritual do? (obviously, tear down the Veil.)

Also there wasn’t a lot of Veil being explained, but I feel like the most important thing for new people is the Spirits, Demons, Magic, Blood Magic, and Slavery.

Wisdom/Memory’s 8 eyes (as a Spirit) became 6 eyes when they were corrupted to Enmity/Pride.

Speaking of Memory--Amelia Pavus? Hello.

I 100% expect to hear something about Rezaren’s aspirations to become the Black Divine, in DA4. I 100% expect we’re going to see Dorian’s efforts to reform Tevinter, and the position of Black Divine will be incredibly relevant.

Honestly the internal politics in Tevinter are so fascinating. Tassia’s honest, earnest desire to make Tevinter better than its worst rumors. Trying to hold the people around her to higher standards--even when they are someone she loves. In the end, when her people need her to help the wounded, that’s what she does. That’s when she steps out of Rez’s games, and she goes to help people.

How does that play into Dorian and Maevaris’s efforts and the Lucerni?

We also, I don’t think, get a great view of how Tessia treats and thinks of elves and slaves. Is that something she also wants to fix in Tevinter? No idea.

I don’t think it’s a cheap throwaway that the Templar who tried to stop the gang in the wine cellar got the voiced line: “you’re the reason all my friends are dead.” They did a really good job I think emphasizing, with the camaraderie of the Tevinter Templars WHO DONT USE LYRIUM TO NEGATE MAGIC. THE POOR FOOLS. They’re just people.

I'm a little perplexed that Tassia didn't seem to know Neb was dead/an elf. She seems so in tune with the Templars under command, and while I get that he seems to be Rez's personal guard, he also somehow seems to be rank and file with the guards she works with? I don't know. But the way she talks to him makes it seem like she thinks he's living and conscious.

Someone said that Hira knows Meredith (The Crimson Knight) is going to wage war on all mages. I don’t think that’s true. I think it’s more likely that Hira has no idea the Crimson Knight is Meredith? And Meredith’s war is against the world, or Tevinter. It seems like Meredith may have been taken over by something or left a Demon of something or is channeling something at the heart of the red lyrium consciousness that just wants war, vengeance, bloodshed.

I honestly thought Hira would have been loyal to the Qun. This feels like it came out of nowhere, but at the same time, so did Meredith’s appearance here:

Someone suggested that we see Meredith in the Black Emporium in this show, but I really don’t think so? It doesn’t look like the BE. I know she was shown in DAI. I know.

I know most of the stories told in Dread Wolf Take You in Tevinter Nights were lies, or partially so, but I still feel like we should have heard about this. So I don’t know. Either way, Meredith shouldn’t have the idol, though.

We knew that the Venatori were still around post-Inquisition. Now we know there are still Red Templars about.

I think fewer people knew that the Venatori have (supposedly) been around longer than the Inquisition and Corypheus...? It took me a little bit and I’m still not 100% sure, but Hira being a child when the Venatori killed her family wouldn’t make sense with an Inquisition timeline.

Tinfoil hat: There are actually two factions within the Evanuris. Both evil and terrible, both going to destroy the world, and Solas stands between them. One is Red Lyrium aligned and one is Blight aligned, hence why we have Meredith vs. Corypheus (red lyrum vs. darkspawn) in the mural above. I know, I know, they’re intertwined. But I feel an itch. And I’m mighty suspicious.

I’m so suspicious about which Evanuris are in Trespasser’s Elven Mountain Ruins and which aren’t. It feels like factions. It feels like the Forgotten Ones/Evanuris split isn’t the only split, or it’s more significant than we realize.

Okay so what happens to dead people? Was it really Justinia we saw in Here Lies the Abyss in DAI? Was this really Neb? You could say “it was really a Spirit who took Neb’s form, embodied Neb’s love for his sister, and stood against blood magic and so decided to destroy Neb’s body.” But I think it was really Neb. I really do. So what happens to people when they die? Is it only elves? Is it humans?

The Spirit says at the beginning: “By name and by nature, mortals are doomed to die.” Which by the way is a very Cole way of saying things I think, and I love it.

I don’t think it was a coincidence that the dragon doesn’t attack Qwydion the Qunari and likes her.

Speaking of Qwydion, she’s introduced as a rebel mage. Which to me implies that she’s from a faction that rebelled against the Circle. Not that she’s someone who left the Qun.

It’s so interesting that we can see Rez’s mother remove a demon from her son and put it in someone else. So we could deal with abominations and with Harrowings all along, huh. lol.

I’ve been making a list of silly Andrastian sayings and Thedas-isms lol. There were some good ones in this show.

The magic in this show was badass. Super awesome. Beyond just the scale of it. The dome that gets put around the circulum looks like the one Corypheus put around Calpernia's old master. Rez’s magic feels way more powerful than other peoples, and it looks awesome. His multi-threaded missile attack when he’s defending against the sloth demons that attacked with Pride look awesome.

If you think about it this whole show revolves around what is acceptable collateral damage. The whole temple is going to kill everyone inside. That’s lit.

I wish I knew what those bird things were that were setting off the traps throughout the temple.

In general this temple makes me scratch my head. Andraste (who loses her nose in the finale lmfao) is holding magic in her hands. Andraste seems to be more of a saint than the pinnacle of the religion in Tevinter, so it’s weird that she’s all over. Cool I guess, I don’t have anything else to say, really. Except that in Rez’s dream of being Black Divine, his outfit was terrible. LOL

I actually really loved the dream sequence. It felt super validating to how I’ve always imagined Fade sequences going lol.

They also I don’t think mentioned the Fade at all lol.

okay okay i’m done for now x) I’m stewing up some other theories and stuff but yeah.

[mysteriesofmarcy]

Maystery Monday #5: Underestimated

So today the queen poems from Star vs came to mind.

We have classics like

Tick tock, the clock talks

But secret are its powers

The only one to break its spell

Was Skywynne, Queen of Hours

Important poems, like

Eclipsa Queen of Mewni

To a Mewman king was wed

But took a monster for her love

And Away from Mewni fled

And new ones, like

The immortal monster

Will long be haunted

By the darkest spell

Of Moon the Undaunted

But I noticed something.

Star's poem says

Star the Underestimated

Was queen for just four days

Her one decision on the throne

To give it all away

And that got me thinking. This wasn't the only time Star was underestimated. From The Banagic Incident:

Marco: Sorry, I underestimated you.

Star: You... underestimated me?

Marco: Ehmmmm, yeah, I did. Sorry. This stuff looks delicious though!

Star pushes the ice cream out of his hands

Marco: Why did you --

Star: There was a fly on it.

She's not the only one either. In the Amphibia episode All In!, Andrias tells Anne that "From the moment you walked into my throne room, I underestimated you."

And there are several points in Gravity Falls where Dipper and Mabel are severely underestimated. Instances that come to mind include

Headhunters, where nobody believes Dipper can solve the case of the murder of Wax Stan

Irrational Treasure, where nobody (including Dipper) believes Mabel can solve the case of the true founder of Gravity Falls

Gideon Rises, where Gideon doesn't believe Dipper can stop him without his journal

And Weirdmageddon III, where Stan doesn't believe the Mystery Shack Gang can (or should) save Ford

I'll also throw in The Stanchurian Candidate where Dipper tells Stan "We don't think you can do it" and he proceeds to (almost) win on his own

So in short: to be a protagonist in a modern cartoon, you must be underestimated.

And I'm sure this trend also shows up in other shows, but these are the only examples I can think of right now.

[spidersmiceandeverythingnice]

Thinking about Morally Gray characters.

...

A good example of a morally gray hero is Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho. He's an ancient, immortal fox demon who turned to thievery out of boredom with his long life. A remorseless killer who has no true friends or loved ones, he winds up on the wrong side of the law and winds up hiding his soul in a human body after he's injured; knowing that he'll need at least sixteen years in the human world to recover, he chooses a newborn baby as his vessel.

This human woman, Mrs Minamino, dutifully raises her son even though it is clear to everyone that there is Something Weird about this kid. He's unnaturally smart - a genius! They say - and Kurama is barely able to disguise his apathy and hate for humans in this form. He is actively planning his escape to the demon world at every moment.

Until one day, Mrs. Minamino rescues her son from a falling tree.

There was no danger to Kurama - even in the body of a human child, he has unnaturally fast reflexes and would have walked away without so much as a scratch - but Mrs. Minamino still put herself in mortal danger to protect him. Because he's her son.

Kurama realizes that his "mother" truly does love him. And through her selfless love, he grows a conscious.

Those sixteen years pass and Kurama no longer has any intention of leaving the human world; he's completely devoted to caring for his mother as she battles a life-threatening illness. He even intends to sacrifice his life to restore her health and protects the protagonist from demons who want to harm him. As he joins the main team, he acts as the wise guy, the hypercompetent strategist who has a plan for everything.

And then we actually see him fight - and it becomes extremely clear how DANGEROUS Kurama still is.

His magic extends to all plant life, so he can grow poisonous flowers in an opponent's bloodstream by inflicting simple wounds. He has an arsenal of carnivorous plants which gleefully would eat him alive along with his opponents. When he fears he no longer has enough power in his human body to keep up his win streak, he resorts to taking dubious magical medicines to boost his strength temporarily. Its all for a good cause, of course. They're saving Human World! Kurama really is so self-sacrificing, huh.

Eventually, we see how far he's actually willing to go in the Chapter Black arc. Chapter Black is a legendary video tape which is said to record all of the worst atrocities that humankind has ever committed. Most demons want to get their hands on it to justify their hate of humans - but we learn that it's fallen into the hands of a human named Sensui, who has now started a genocidal death cult dedicated to ending the human world forever.

Kurama has no interest in watching Chapter Black - anymore. After all, his mother is human and he loves her. He wants to protect her, and the world that she lives in. He's grown to care for his human friends, too.

So, eventually Sensui engineers a situation where the gang may have to kill a child - this child was groomed into joining Sensui's cult and doesn't really understand what he's signed up to do.

Kurama kills the child without hesitation once he understands Sensui's purpose. He even volunteers to do it so no one else has to.

He then immediately goes on to trap one of their enemies in an eternal mental prison of anguish, where they won't be allowed to expire and die - just out of anger, that he was put in that situation to begin with.

And THAT is how you do morally gray. We understand that Kurama is one of our heroes, a good guy who loves his mom, values his friends, who makes jokes and offers advice. But every time the gang has to make a tough choice, Kurama is the one to suggest the most ruthless and cutthroat option - which sometimes means sacrificing himself, to save the others, yes, but Kurama also has one of the highest kill counts of our characters. He habitually is the one to kill his opponents in ways that are tailor-made to torment them and cause pain. He's so dangerous that even our Token Evil Teammate who calls murder a hobby respects and admires him for his violence. (At one point in the story, both Kurama and the Evil Teammate guy are trying to tough up one of their human friends and Kurama says, "Your weakness and his honor cause him to hold back [in training you] - but I will not.") Kurama often feels guilty about his choices - but he never accepts pity from the others. He's always fully aware of what he's doing and why. The fact that he has morals now is just another layer to the character's psyche.

Anyway this post was about Rhysand and the type of character he COULD have been if SJM was a good writer.

[denialintheriver]

Obey me 2

Shall-we-die masterlist

Misc obey me masterlist

Dotster001 masterlist

Taifenggg masterlist

DiceTheRole masterlist

Green Flag

Pack mark 1 & 2 & 3

Most to least would have kids

How to cope when missing MC

Pack Mark Placements: Brothers

How important is the relationship to them / What is its worth in comparison to other things in their life?

Shy MC confess the love

A very sweet MC <3

Replaced!AU

𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐩-𝐢𝐬𝐡

Married to solomon

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐁𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐄𝐋

Mc with cat-like tendencies

Living with ours dear Solomon

Valentine's chocolate gift from ours dear MC

Solomon body

How many kisses I think it would take before he turns to mush

What to do when needing your affection

Random ability, beneficial in a relationship from them

Little headpat

Their love languages

Wearing theirs clothes

Little obey me headcanons

One headcanon for each OM! Cast

Mc killing a lower demon while defending themself

The day you and the stars disappeared..

What they do when you’re away, and react when you come back home to them.

The Gang React to You Saying You Hate Them

What do they admire about their MC

A list of gifts they gonna give you on your Birthday!

It's nap time but you find a demon in your bed

Accidentally fall asleep around HOL

Back from the dead 1. The brothers

Belphegor wake up earlier then you

Dangerous zone is near the twins

Doodling Them in Your Notebook

Nickname the casts used on you

The unexpected rainfall with you

Reaction to a certain rumours

Popular with the Ladies

Defense System

MC's charms

Fluffy tail

Cold hands/feet

Nickname for them

Happy Birthday MC!

Certain habits remain.

MC turn into one-punch man

Love, Laughter, and Mistletoe

Brothers calling you their "Master"

Why did you dance with another demon

Parents meeting up with the bf

happy april fools day!

A Gift for You

He's the type to... (NSFW)

Smeamy book love ( NSFW )

Red flag🚩🚩

SLEEP DEMON! ♥︎

Yan! Belphegor

Yandere lovers 1&2

The soulmate world

Most to least most likely to be Yan! 2.

What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling

How they feel if their darling fought back

What they do anything against their darling's will

Poly Yan! Brothers

Sharing with the twins

MEANT TO BE YOURS! ❞

Their true colors  different from the way they act around everyone else

How long do they pine after their darling before they snap?

Others

Silly Quote

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6

𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐁𝐎𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒

Art

You are likely to face Barbados warith

angst sol... Immortal..?

When MC!

[libidomechanica]

We are concluded this head below

The like a meek the cast in vain !     And form would hush, t is but deems. The woman’s fathers for     your release. To proverb— and hand with his at pleasure, liue     and mind, you determined wel with fainted time for what—a     tender bibbers of

sencelesse bower between this a     woman with that love or this worlds life from this engines are     almost encourages— why call’d restored. To me the Starres:     for darting gall. A straggling? Upon his two eyes first     look, quite a fane a broke

of that flaps and out a clouds all     eyes. Until their guns of her soft Muse! Gazette, had though in     tuneful she life again. And once or observe, abandoned.     Our then is insight, and the tall? For wanton wing, but once     with the dooth perhaps the

wounded! And dreadful as true; as     span had I with loue hath play’d by another’s way, for Venus’     nun, as the message sublime any thing of my mother     then the special. Her eyes my stormes and wind; my dust would     calm me contractions with

a filled, but that didst bring in t     before our Cot o’er the skye. A things I cast out. We are     concluded this head below? She was quite a pack of an     old pass, whose name; yet with life finding into an oak, where     she goes, and while her air.

Thereon was the horizon’s very     moving several shutters seeke so serene father     mate, doth appal. Thou shalt thou were heart is frayle, my hart     like Wordsworth, of knight her heaven must them in a silly     blessings where the discuss’d

he hath kindle fyre of meane loue     embarrass’d—quite agree; of such portliness! An unobserve,     abandoned. Not though the angry pride the way home descry     that, afterwards of no great plenty make the innocent,     for war cuts up his

here, althought in, for love, the     figurative, that Moon I thinke that he, o’er Sir’ and smil’d at     least was not tongue when we carue, and moisture of purposeth,     that with Sisyphus he turns to guide its spoke so stammer     and of great plenty make

a merry in,—march her his mother,     showing of true beautiful serve to subdue. Is Betty,     half-girlish folks with deliberations beautiful     she fleshy prince de Ligne have Public good, have you have none     in gangs of Love have aloud

for useful on occasion,     there commanding duct through Sestos every flowers of thee,     my heart doe seemd the palates tingled among? To the journeyed     in each man the strong the fulnesse. And Juan, who left, and     somehow, but we were tears;

the owne wicked up the noise like     a snail, and moning, her were sone che cheareful and make     the tertian, and knows no art, must, sure, fie! Which the crave to     hide; only think they blush of reason; where Melodies, as     well known to use to base

a way. Whiles her meant but so it     seems to what to learned high place! By separation a     quarter. A lover, fair Cynthia’s wasted with a different     hands to their gazing on untamed leopards play. His feet,     but speake no not envy—

Adeline, and leaf to lull down     to me giue. Of which the first whome nor the dame where the grand     loved, nor any vanished flight. Is young persons, the head, nor     do aspire to a flowers, or best relation, which her     cheek, in temple’s eyes do

come when other though her worse to     wear! Through, and ward, or lost Haidee; yet you are rib here,     hereditary seat men desire: count my mind, for such     love. And, save the blooming human share less rigid editor     whom were physicians,

and beautiful forever honest     bark her soul, until she could liue for one. The glass than     other believes competence; not fightingale is of     the son, but sown so lowly through the though obvious as     hens the dinners? Young Charley

did again, if you bastard     violence it was passion is charm much her sight? Where on     tithes, and o’er books. Which her deeming year: so thou some friend     shaking him by the name in the meaning is the edicts     sterne could best and even

her pain? But he scuffle, and     truculent did each bud puffing Mars and dark, no souls immortal     man, and at election, talk of morning came to my     concision: juan being defeated. Hath got blush in hour     wood; To taste, but what’s enough

from all thing court, camp, church, takers     of the gods adultery, but found such music and     formal, and role, and hot his appease the wood. At his eyes     she offered, with all things sublime of your imperious     deedes. She is not so

near! Shoulder, less numberland, Wolfe,     Hawke, that once or awe, the most fear of Adeline we for     than match made all ages, pregnant of hopes, hovering mood, if     siluer, her beauty slain. Difficult to these thing in Spain,     you know’st what poet, or

to be the charm much on education     was won before, myne humbled on though tis always     best, nor other now that daily. That till more to pleasing     is done, would be thought, if not wake; he died. Then the     Consider a darkness.

[indyhaatin]

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[subir-astrologer]

DIPAWALI / DIWALI SIGNIFICANCE

Diwali, the festival of lights, is celebrated on the darkest new moon night of the month of Kartik in the Hindu calendar. It marks the victory of good over evil. There are various alleged origins attributed to this festival. Some hold that they celebrate the marriage of Lakshmi with Lord Vishnu.

In Bengal the festival is dedicated to the worship of Kali. It also commemorates that blessed day on which the triumphant Lord Ramareturned to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana.

On this day also Sri Krishna killed the demon Narakasura. In South India people take an oil bath in the morning and wear new clothes. They partake of sweetmeats. They light fireworks, which are regarded as the effigies of Narakasura who was killed on this day. They greet one another, asking, "Have you had your Ganges bath?" which actually refers to the oil bath that morning as it is regarded as purifying as a bath in the holy

Ganga.

Apart from blessed thoughts which emanate from the inner recesses of our heart, the enthusiasts besides lighting their homes and hearths also make sure that their houses are spruced up for inviting the blessings of Maa Lakshmi, the Lordess of wealth and wellbeing.

For this purpose, we can say with fair amount of certainty that Swachchta (cleanliness)

has its own reward. Not only our houses, we clean up our surroundings too and for this purpose, Swachch Bharat Abhiyan has done much. Need is to keep not merely ourselves but also clean up our environment.

For this, use of crackers which produce huge amounts of pollutants should not be used. It would be in the fitness of things to confine ourselves to lighting our houses to the best way possible.

Deepavali is more of the festival of light than of the sounds generated by exploding of crackers.

Lamps that adorn homes during Diwali symbolize the light of knowledge. Just as darkness causes fear and brings sorrow in the form of mishaps, ignorance of one’s true identity leads to suffering, as body-consciousness gives rise to vices that corrupt our thoughts and actions.

Diwali does not just mark the mythical victory of Rama

over Ravana; it is a celebration of the light of spiritual knowledge dispelling the darkness of ignorance which masks one’s true identity as an immortal being.

Happiness is the fruit of good actions, which in turn flow from pure thoughts and feelings. Noble thoughts will come naturally to us only if we have cleansed our mind and cultivated virtues such as love, kindness, purity and truth which, like the fragrance of flowers, enrich human life and bring joy to relationships.

Deities invoked during Diwali are physical representations of virtues. Goddess Lakshmi, popularly associated with the festival, is shown seated on a lotus, holding a lotus blossom, one each in two of her four arms, while one palm is raised in blessing and another showers gold coins. The lotus is a symbol of purity, as the flower remains untouched by the mud in which it blooms. Blessings and gold signify generosity and abundance.

[arundolyn]

Mind sharing your orientation hcs for the undernight/guiltygear cast?

thats a bit of a tall order so here's the ones i personally have particular thoughts on?

hyde - bi

linne - too old to care about labels (bi, some flavor of trans/nb for fun. can't tell me she's basically immortal and is not tired of cishettitude. and also her reincarnation thingy is potentially very conceptually interesting in that it specifically puts her in the bodies Of Girls. brings up some interesting ideas regarding transness even if i personally like to think her soul just goes to whatever it vibes with that's closest at the moment her current body dies and she has no say in the matter. fuck canon that one's more fun. from that standpoint maybe some kind of genderfluid then.)

wald - GAY CAUSE YOU CAN'T TELL ME THE SHIT WITH KUON WASNT LGBT AS HELL. yeah uh huh you respected him as a warrior sooooo much that you defected and pissed adelheid off so bad she said licht kreis is girls only now. no they broke up and she was so big baby mad about wald being Gay, Apparently she's not letting a man within 10 feet of her again i guess

amnesia is like lgbt gang. chaos and gordeau are obvious. too easy. enk gay trans man. hilda trans lesbian who will flirt with men just for fun or evil purposes. girlboss moment.

orie lesbian executor squad quadrouple so true. mika's bi. kaguya is so lesbian definitely. wagner nb lesbian bc why not lets run with the shoddy localization its more fun that way.

phonon + nanase trans lesbian besties to gfs speedrun

yuzuuuuu so bisexual. i love you failgirl

vati agender for sure

merkava canon trans

carmine's just confused and would punch someone he had a crush on (hyde) bc hes pissed theyre making him act weird.

lmao thats mostly everyone whoooops

gg: (i have not played strive's story and dont anticipate to in a while)

sol - lgbt all at once no i will not explain

axl. dont even get me started trans butch nb lesbian you either get it or you dont. i can opine for days

relatedly i-no lesbian. she said im not about to date a man and axl said wait what the fuck did you just trans my gender. her power...

bi ky bi ky no i will not explain

milla elphelt ram all lesbians. id say millia is ace too

baiken and anji trans wlw mlm solidarity ofc

testament

goldlewis is gay as hell for sure and we love him for it

johnny is an egg detector that counts for something

bridget trans gener

ANSWER IS SO GAY. chipp is bi. they are in love and they kiss in the president's office

zato hates women he's gay by proxy but who's keeping score over there. and his strive outfit is literally gay as fuck. why is he as a man always standing with is ass toward the fucking screen. stupid.

slayer bi but hes married. if sharon let him..... im not elaborating.

gio big lesbian for sure

venom. well. yknow.

jack-o trans and bi queen shit love her for that so bad

nagoriyuki has transcended mortal perception (gay and trans but by far the coolest about it)

thats everyone i can think of off the top of my head i think

[pet-genius]

The Death Eaters as a Cult - Part 1

This is a very lightly edited old Reddit post, that I'll publish in parts because the whole thing is like 7000 words. Analyzing Voldemort, the DE and their dynamics, Dumbledore and Harry in comparison, and individual Death Eaters. Hope you like it!

Some say Voldemort is a cartoon villain, or wizard Hitler. I think he is very realistic, and that the focus on his political aspirations ignores interesting aspects of him. I cannot prove that JKR had cults in mind when she wrote Voldemort and his followers, but this is how I read them. It’s nearly impossible to define a cult, so, for the purpose hereof, I’m going with “a group dedicated to the worship of a person”. Many cult leaders in real life present themselves merely as “god’s voice” or “the messiah”, but Voldemort specifically didn’t bother to hide behind a power higher than himself.

Tom Riddle comes from humble beginnings, like many cult leaders - he’s raised in an orphanage. He already has delusions of grandeur, only in this case they’re not delusions, because he really is magic, which makes it all the more dangerous. Look how he reacted to discovering he was a wizard, and how Harry did.

Immediately following the revelation that Lily and James did not die in a car crash, and that Harry is famous, and that he survived an attempt at his life by the worst wizard in history:

Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He’d spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn’t they been turned into warty toads every time they’d tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he’d once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?

“Hagrid,” he said quietly, “I think you must have made a mistake. I don’t think I can be a wizard.”

Heart-breaking. Harry doesn’t believe he can be special, he blames himself for the way he’s treated.

This is Tom Riddle:

“I know that you are not mad. Hogwarts is not a school for mad people. It is a school of magic.”

There was silence. Riddle had frozen, his face expressionless, but his eyes were flickering back and forth between each of Dumbledore’s, as though trying to catch one of them lying. “Magic?” he repeated in a whisper.

“That’s right,” said Dumbledore.

“It’s... it’s magic, what I can do?”

“What is it that you can do?”

“All sorts,” breathed Riddle. A flush of excitement was rising up his neck into his hollow cheeks; he looked fevered. “I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to.”

His legs were trembling. He stumbled forward and sat down on the bed again, staring at his hands, his head bowed as though in prayer.

“I knew I was different,” he whispered to his own quivering fingers. “I knew I was special. Always, I knew there was something.”

His megalomania and violent nature are already apparent, as is his preternatural control of his magic. It also hints at rudimentary legilimency.

Dumbledore spells out that young Tom Riddle equated magic with immortality and liked to collect trophies, and that Tom Riddle liked being special, as he resents the name Tom for being too common; he already lives behind a mask and only shows his true face in shock. This, and not Dumbledore’s magical prowess, is what always scared Tom. Voldemort knew Dumbledore knew what he was. That was the only tactical advantage Dumbledore had.

It’s also one of JKR’s strokes of brilliance: Dumbledore saw Tom for what Tom was, and others never did until it was too late, not because he was that clever, but because he knew from experience. Dumbledore had allowed himself to fall for a charismatic but heartless man before, and it took Ariana dying to slap him awake. Dumbledore knows good people can be led astray: It happened to him. It has nothing to do with intelligence or “goodness”. Gellert was able to give Albus exactly what Albus lacked, stuck at home taking care of Ariana: the promise of freedom and a bright future, and the companionship of an equal. Albus fell for it, despite warning signs that should have been obvious.

Later, we know Tom is chosen by a wand of yew and phoenix feather. Both yew and phoenix are associated with immortality; yew trees are very long-lived. Compare this to Harry’s wand, holly and phoenix feather: both these characters will experience death and rebirth, except Tom Riddle’s wand tree is yew, and Harry’s is holly.

From Wikipedia: “The Christian church commonly found it expedient to take over existing pre-Christian sacred sites for churches. It has also been suggested that yews were planted at religious sites as their long life was suggestive of eternity, or because, being toxic when ingested, they were seen as trees of death.” Also from Wikipedia: “Christians have identified a wealth of symbolism in the holly tree’s form. The sharpness of the leaves help to recall the crown of thorns worn by Jesus; the red berries serve as a reminder of the drops of blood that were shed for salvation; and the shape of the leaves, which resemble flames, can serve to reveal God's burning love for His people.”

The two orphans’ wildly different views of death are also apparent in their wand trees. Voldemort will murder to attain his goals; Harry will sacrifice himself. That the phoenix feather came from Fawkes is also meaningful - Dumbledore taught both magic in some capacity, but he never could defeat Voldemort, because they’re too alike. One of Harry’s advantages in this battle is the integrity of his soul, which cannot be compromised.

Next, Tom Riddle is sorted into Slytherin. For a child who is already prone to megalomania, the house values bring out the worst in him, and under Slughorn, he grows into a manipulative, cunning, ruthless young man. I’m not blaming Horace for Tom being a psychopath, but some of the particular ways his psychopathy manifested in seem to have been directly due to Slughorn’s influence. Slughorn is a blood-supremacist, who was convinced Tom must come from fine stock. Slughorn tests drinks for poison using house elves; Tom Riddle tests the effectiveness of his Horcrux’s protection on Kreacher. Slughorn emphasizes the importance of connections and outright praises Tom for knowing more than he needs to, and encourages an attitude of “it’s only wrong if you get caught.” But Slughorn, prejudiced and cunning as he is, is not violent - he is academically curious about Horcruxes, but he finds them repugnant. Tom’s heart is not so faint - at the point of asking Slughorn about Horcruxes, the diary is already a horcrux, and Tom has already murdered his father. This is how Dumbledore describes Tom’s original gang, who were the proto-Death Eaters:

As he moved up the school, he gathered about him a group of dedicated friends; I call them that, for want of a better term, although as I have already indicated, Riddle undoubtedly felt no affection for any of them. This group had a kind of dark glamour within the castle. They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty. In other words, they were the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts. Rigidly controlled by Riddle, they were never detected in open wrongdoing, although their seven years at Hogwarts were marked by a number of nasty incidents to which they were never satisfactorily linked, the most serious of which was, of course, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, which resulted in the death of a girl. As you know, Hagrid was wrongly accused of that crime.

Dumbledore explains what motivated people to join Tom: some were afraid, some ambitious, some cruel. He controlled his so-called friends, and already started framing others for his own crimes (Hagrid’s framing was followed by Morfin’s and Hokey the house elf’s).

This is followed by Tom’s attempt to become a teacher (Dumbledore spells out his motivations: He is attached to the school, he wants to study its magic, and he already wants to build himself an army). He is denied, oddly chooses to work for Borgin and Burkes, a choice fueled by the desire to trace down more items to make into Horcruxes. Through the memory of the meeting with Heptzibah Smith, we see that Tom was definitely charming when he needed to be, and knew how to make people feel good. He did not use magic to trick her into showing him her precious locket and cup: he used muggle manipulation - flattery, making an old and forlorn lady feel valuable, perhaps even flirting with her (she’s certainly flirting with him). He was pleasant enough that Ms. Smith eagerly looked forward to his visits - but as she showed him her treasures, he was caught off guard by hearing about his mother and how she sold the locket, and she saw him for what he was, although she quickly fell into denial. Sadly, she was murdered two days later.

Why rely on Horcruxes to gain immortality? Tom must have known about Nicholas Flamel and the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Horcruxes require someone else to perform the resurrection ritual. Either making the Stone is so hard that it would deter Tom (unlikely), or he already expected to rely on followers who would find him and revive him - he certainly seems to have expected his followers to have searched for him earlier. Maybe Horcruxes were appealing because they require murder. In any case, this is followed by the memory of Tom asking Dumbledore for the DADA job again, a decade later. Tom has spent a decade gathering followers, and he has already changed his name to Lord Voldemort. This is reminiscent of real life cult leader David Koresh, and the leaders of the Children of God, Aum Shinrikyo, etc. The meeting between Voldemort and Albus is interesting, because it’s clear that Dumbledore had tried to teach Tom about the power of love:

“The old argument,” he said softly. “But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your famous pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore.”

“Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places,” suggested Dumbledore.

This did not help. Tom never learned - how could he? At 16, he was already a murderer - who could love him now for who he was? He could never be truly loved, and he could never truly love another, and he underestimated the power of love for his entire life, leading to his downfall - twice (were that it was so simple in real life).

Voldemort is trying to obfuscate the nature of the relationship, like all cults - they never admit this is what they are.

“I am glad to hear that you consider them friends,” said Dumbledore. “I was under the impression that they are more in the order of servants.”

“You are mistaken,” said Voldemort.

But LV can’t lie to Dumbledore, who changes the subject. He denies him the DADA job again, and the curse is placed on the job. LV’s ascent is due to begin in a few years. Hagrid tells the story:

Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin’ fer followers. Got ’em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o’ his power, ’cause he was gettin’ himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn’t know who ter trust, didn’t dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches...

Voldemort isn’t just interested in immortality. He wants complete control. He wants everyone fearing him - even fearing his name. He has people isolated and distrustful, fearing for their lives.

But we know his reign of terror was dreadful - what I’m interested in is the way he treated his own followers. We know little about how he treated them in the first war, but we do have what Sirius had to say about Regulus’s fate:

From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don’t just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It’s a lifetime of service or death.

We know the real story of Regulus’s disappearance, and it’s different. Kreacher tells us that Regulus died in the Horcrux cave - but more telling is that Regulus forbade Kreacher from telling his parents what had happened to him. Why did he feel the need to do that? This suggests that Regulus knew LV destroyed traitors’ families, which is a tactic used in cults and other abusive dynamics. We know LV would leverage Draco’s welfare against Lucius for his failure in the Department of Mysteries, too. We know also that instead of going to Dumbledore, or to his own brother, Regulus chose death – unless he was really dumb, and I don’t think he was, he must have been manipulated into believing that was his only option, or his world made no sense after his faith had shattered. So many people never readjust to life outside the cult.

Voldemort “dies” about two years after that, having successfully recruited about 400 followers (“the death eaters outnumbered us the Order 20:1” - Lupin). We can’t say if all these people were genuine Death Eaters or people who had been Imperiused or otherwise coerced, or allies like Narcissa, but that coercion is used to recruit shows that Voldemort did not take his own followers’ ambitions and wishes into account. People who use outright coercion don't suddenly draw the line at manipulation.

[callmeblake]

10 THINGS YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE’S ‘DANGER DAYS’

The future is bulletproof, but how’s your ‘Danger Days’ knowledge?

By Ali Cooper-November 20, 2020

It’s been an entire decade since the Killjoys first made some noise on 2010’s Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys. The aftermath is secondary, ultimately legendary and a timely reminder that My Chemical Romance can turn their hands to any far-fetched concept and produce a timeless, genre-defining album in the process.

For every year we’ve run away with Party Poison and co., fighting off Better Living Industries, we’ve uncovered one lesser-known fact about this neon My Chem era—and the final full album from the New Jersey boys—in hopes that it may not be their last record for much longer.

Read more:

Frank Iero teased the new Future Violents EP for longer than you realize

My Chem didn’t intend for “Look Alive, Sunshine” to make sense

The immortal words of Dr. Death Defying’s introduction to the Danger Days era were a roll call to the post-apocalyptic world where the Killjoys reside. And they’re perplexing, to say the least. What does “Louder than God’s revolver and twice as shiny” even mean, anyway? The good news is MCR didn’t intend for us to understand it in the first place. Gerard Way confirmed to Billboard that the language play in this opening track mirrors that of the novel-to-film classic A Clockwork Orange. Teenage gang members in Anthony Burgess’ novel use a nonsense language called Nadsat. It’s just loose enough for readers to understand its base meaning but not how it reaches the point. So that explains why this introductory narration has kept us scratching our heads for years.

The Black Parade is dead

Blink and you’ll miss the sneaky reference to My Chem’s previous album, The Black Parade. A skeleton half-submerged in the desert sands wears a dusty Parade-era jacket in the chaos of the “Na Na Na” video. But this glimpse of their past isn’t just a visual depiction of “The Black Parade is dead” sentiment. What we’re actually seeing is the burial of the memory of drummer Bob Bryar. He left the lineup during the writing of Danger Days, but they don’t brush over the loss of a key member in their rise to success. Instead, the passing nod recognizes and celebrates Bryar’s role and lasting effect on MCR’s past, present and future.

MCR meets The Sims

We’ve heard the rapid-fire anthem “Na Na Na” in many shapes and forms over the last decade. But there’s one alternate version we never expected. My Chem re-recorded the song in the fictional Simlish language for the video game The Sims 3: Late Night. If you’ve ever wondered what the classic track would sound like if you couldn’t understand English, look no further. We wouldn’t recommend listening to this gibberish version while drunk. Still, it’s definitely an unusual addition to the legacy of a song that broke the mainstream.

“Bulletproof Heart” provided the concept

After exhausting themselves through the process for The Black Parade, My Chem swore their next effort wouldn’t feature a concept. They planned to return to their raw talents as songwriters without novelty costumes or fleeting gimmicks. However, that all changed when the band wrote “Bulletproof Heart,” which handed them their next grand concept: futuristic runaways. And it sounded like a distant echo from the existential Black Parade days morphing into the laser-beam Killjoys era. Gerard confirmed to Billboard that this epic track showed MCR how to use their experience in high concepts to the best effect for their fourth record.

“SING” rebooted Danger Days

One of the defining anthems from Danger Days, Gerard confirmed to Billboard that the writing process that culminated with “SING” was the catalyst for the band’s decision to scrap their progress on the fourth album and start all over again. It was a defiant track devoted to standing up and being heard. And it brought life to the new incarnation of My Chem was given the rousing cover treatment on Glee. Plus, the band recorded a version entitled “#SINGItforJapan” to raise funds for the Red Cross relief efforts after the 2011 Japan earthquake.

California 2019

The band proved fans right about their theory of MCR’s return in 2019, the same year the Danger Days universe is set in. But they also paid tribute to something other than their own forward-thinking genius by placing the Killjoys in an alternate dystopian universe nine years in the future. The setting was inspired by one other bleak, post-apocalyptic vision of California in the year 2019: Blade Runner. It turns out we have Harrison Ford’s 1982 sci-fi classic to thank for MCR’s futuristic interpretation that involved the entire band dying in the field of combat with robots.

“Party Poison” is a love song to rock and metal

The anti-party party anthem “Party Poison” brought the unbridled energy to the Danger Days era. And it included a plethora of rock and metal influences. Originally titled “Death Before Disco,” the midpoint of the album not pays tribute to both Ray Toro’s inspirations from the vibrant MC5 and Gerard’s favorite Judas Priest song, “Living After Midnight.” Gerard also mentioned the outstanding influence of Bruce Springsteen on Danger Days. He explained to Rolling Stone that writing “Party Poison” was like discovering their own show-stopping alternative to “Born To Run.”

Kobra Kid’s helmet

While fighting off Draculoids and Exterminators, the Killjoys needed all the luck they could get. Kobra Kid was of course there to help with his iconic helmet sporting the words “good luck.“ This design feature was a sneaky nod to the space-based Nintendo video game Star Fox, where a screen appears and a voice says “good luck” before every mission. With this 1993 callback, Mikey Way’s Danger Days alter ego kept a classic sci-fi shooter reference close to his heart. Of course, the positive message didn’t save his character from death, but it’s the thought that counts.

The origins of “DESTROYA”

Gerard once described “DESTROYA” as “the hardest song the band have ever done.” And he later revealed to Billboard that the Hindu Holi festival inspired its lyrics. Known as the ���festival of colors” and a positive social event for friends and family to repair broken relationships and strengthen connections, this traditional event in the Indian calendar encapsulates all the neon fun-loving vibrance of Danger Days. According to Billboard, every member of the band took to the drums for the recording of “DESTROYA.” Their goal: To bring out the vivacity and togetherness of one of the most upbeat songs on the record.

Gerard hinted at their return during

Danger Days

Eagle-eyed MCR fans leave no stone unturned when it comes to speculating the now-factual return of the emo icons. The MCRmy uncovered a hint of the band’s foreshadowed return by way of an olive green jacket Gerard wore during promotion for their fourth album, suggesting that a sigil patch that appeared on his shoulder spells out My Chemical Romance. We saw Gerard sporting this jacket on numerous occasions before the band’s hiatus. And in hindsight, he also wore this jacket for their reunion show in Los Angeles in 2019. Was the singer always hinting what to expect when My Chem eventually returned?

© Copyright 2019 Alternative Press, Inc.

[wangxianficrecs]

Follower Recs

~*~

Hi! First of all, thank you so much for running this blog, It's become one of three reasons why I haven't yet committed arson (I jest but the Feeling is true). [Hee, hee, hee.] I have a rec for you! It's called "wholesome life usurp immediately" by comfect on ao3 and it's. So good. It's unfinished but the author updates it literally every other day if not faster! It's a lovely fic, I hope you enjoy it. 🌻

Wholesome Life Usurp Immediately

by Comfect (T, 55k, yunmeng sibs, qingli, wangxian, WIP)

Summary: Wen Qing examines Jiang Yanli at Cloud Recesses and has a cure for her poor cultivation.

Now there are Three Prides of Yunmeng.

Everything kind of fixes itself from there.

~*~

hello mojo!! I would really like to recommend standing still (but we keep going) by lwjromantics!! it's really good!!

standing still (but we keep going)

by lwjromantics (justfantaestic) (T, 5k, wangxian)

Summary: Lan Wangji supposed that if having to take care of little A-Yuan and Mo Xuanyu and having to look at the reminders of Wei Ying in their habits and mannerisms was punishment for his actions, he would willingly take it and flay his own back open.

— There are children in the Burial Mounds.

~*~

hii mojo! I just read this cute fic and I loved it so I wanted to rec it :) 

Word Up, Talk the Talk

by Larryissocute (G, 2k, wangxian)

Summary:  It wouldn’t have been a problem (it really wouldn’t) if they weren’t best friends. Wei Wuxian doesn’t know what good deeds he did in his past life to be blessed with Lan Wangji as a friend nor does he know what evil things he did to be cursed with being only a friend to Lan Wangji.

Or the one where Wei Wuxian kisses Lan Wangji and then runs away.

~*~

Hey! Love your account — and proud of you for taking the hiatus you needed.  [Lol - it was really nice!]  Idk if you take fic recommendations, but I'd love to rec Roots by ardenrabbit. Fantastic characterization, I really love it!

Roots

by ardenrabbit (E, 46k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary:  After Wei Wuxian's duel with Jiang Cheng, he finds that stab wounds aren't so trivial when he doesn't have a core to heal them. He wakes to find Lan Zhan in the Burial Mounds with him, already beloved by the Wens and making himself at home. When Lan Zhan tells him that he wants to stay and offers more help than Wei Wuxian knows how to accept, he fears that it's only too good to be true.

Lan Wangji knows that Wei Ying is doing the right thing, and he couldn't live with himself if he let him do it alone. For everything Wei Ying has sacrificed, Lan Wangji is determined to give something back to him.

Hanguang-Jun has turned his back on the clans to join the Yiling Wens and their demonic cultivator leader, and every clan has a different opinion on the matter.

~*~

Hello! I wanted to rec a fic on ao3 called "Restoration" by jelenedra. It's complete, an alternate universe of the sunshot campaign told nonlinearly. It has strong fairy tale and fae elements, with a touch of mystery. Bit of a fix it. Some delightful one liners, and the final ending imagery is just LOVELY. The fic deserves much more love. There's also some YilingWei, wwx not raised by Jiang, and sentient Burial Mounds elements. Enchanting read that keeps you enthralled and curious and intrigued.

Restoration

by jelenedra (M, 85k, wangxian)

Summary:  They say he was thrown into Luanzang Gang by the man who killed his parents; they say that he is an immortal cultivator who had been in a deep trance until the Wen sect disturbed his rest and incurred his wrath; they say that he is the fierce corpse of a cultivator who had somehow regained his mind and his spiritual powers.

When Lan Wangji sees him for the first time, he understands why people talk.

Meng Yao wants safety. Xue Yang wants vengeance. The Sunshot Campaign wants victory. Yiling Laozu provides, for a price.

~*~

I usually read all your recommendations. Thanks for gathering all good recs of wangxian. I am in love with every single story your recommend especially the favorites. [I’m so glad!]  I just wanted to suggest a fic i came across while searching for phoenix!wwx. Its a new story I think as author has published it today. The first chapter was very interesting that i thought ill recommend it you and know your opinion. The legendary phoenix and his dragon -Devipriya and Hidden Path to Love by ShadowTenshiV

Hidden Path to Love

by ShadowTenshiV (G, 78k, wangxian)

Summary:  Wei Ying is a servant working at the Gusu Lan castle. One day he enters through a secret passage way connected to the library where he meets a Lan for the first time. He may have left quite an impression, gaining the other´s attention and slowly becoming friends. They would like to become something more, but a servant can´t be with a prince, but maybe his secret can change that.

~*~

hello mojo! i was wondering if I could make a fic rec? it’s called “and the calm is deep where the quiet waters flow” by izanyas. it used to be on ao3 but the author has since moved it to eir own website and has started posting updates there. i was wondering if this could also act as a signal boost bc some old readers on ao3 might not have known that it is now on another website.   Author's been through a tough time so I think it deserves a lot more love.

For new readers, please mind the warnings in the prologue and the beginning of each chapter! it’s omegaverse and a very heavy read as it deals with (possible spoiler) off-screen rape that results in an unwanted pregnancy, as well as secondary gender oppression which runs deep, but for people who can bear it the writing, worldbuilding, and emotions are truly spectacular.

and the calm is deep where the quiet waters flow

by izanyas (E, 270k, wangxian, WIP, link is to WordPress rather than AO3)

Summary: Cangse Sanren was the first of her kind to become a cultivator. Talented, passionate, free-spirited, she bested everything that ever came her way until the very end.

Jiang Fengmian refuses to see her son deprived of that same freedom.

~*~

Hello Mojo! I dunno if this's been recced before, but here's another ficrec for you? It's complete, on ao3, "The Third Young Master of Qishan Wen" by KouriArashi. It's 'if wwx was raised by dafan wen, but gets recognized as 3rd heir due to his skill' scenario. Some really nice banter and characterization. Wwx and lz get together before the sunshot campaign. Story follows the live action but diverges into au, and does some cool callbacks to original canon. Love Meng Yao in this!  [Oh, I know KouriArashi from my last fandom, I love her works!]

❤️The Third Young Master of the Qishan Wen

by KouriArashi (T, 139k, wangxian, my post)

Summary:  The fic where Wei Wuxian is adopted by the Dafan Mountain Wens instead of the Yunmeng Jiang.

~*~

Hi Mojo! I can count the number of times I’ve spoken on Tumblr on one hand (I’m shy heh) but I found this fic that I think you and others would really like? I’m a sucker for emotional hurt/comfort and this was just too sweet for me not to share (did I go through 20 pages of bookmarks just to make sure you don’t already have it? Maybe …) [Aww, you can do a sidebar search in the bookmarks for the author’s name.  But I hope you found other good fics by carding through the whole catalog!]  It’s “Close Your Soft Eyes” by timetoboldlygo! I also wanna say thank you for all the hard work you put into this blog! It’s a treasure beyond compare. :D [Thank you so much!]

Close Your Soft Eyes

by timetoboldlygo (G, 12k, wangxian)

Summary:  When Lan Wangji woke, the first thing he noticed was the slip of paper, folded and tucked between his index and middle fingers, not Wei Wuxian’s absence. His fingers trembled as he unfurled the paper. A donkey with a little smile beamed down at him.

-

On the nights that Wei Wuxian was gone, Lan Wangji woke to gifts on his pillow.

~*~

Hey Mojo! I love your blog it is beyond awesome! [Thank you!]  I was wondering if you would consider reading JaenysBloodcourt series "A Bond to Takes us home"? The summary is weird but I like the fics and would love to hear your opinion on LWJ POV (it's part 2). Part one is Mingxian but part two (Wangxian) reads as a standalone for the most part. Anyways, thank you for all your hard work! <3 [I’ll put it on my list!]

A Bond to Take Us Home

by JaenysBloodcourt (T, 10k, mingxian - nmj/wwx, wangxian, series in progress)

Summary:  Wei Wuxian has two soulmarks. He has two soulmates that seem to be the opposite of him. During his first life he meets both of them, loves only one and longs for the other. In his second life, the one he loved first is dead, and the one he pined after is pining after him.

These are the many tales of his soulmates and the raucous they made across the cultivation world.

Some are dark, some are light. Beware.

~*~

I forgot to send this in for Mother's Day a few weeks ago, but have you read dragongirlG's "into the light of a dark black night"? It's a short canon divergence where Mama Lan escapes the Cloud Recesses after spending one last, heartbreaking night with her sons. It's so beautiful and bittersweet! [Oh, ouch.  I just read this author’s time travelling juniors au, but hadn’t seen this one.]

into the light of a dark black night

by dragongirlG (T, 3k, Madam Lan & sons)

Summary:  The night that Wu Yuhua, formerly known as Madam Lan, plans to escape from the Cloud Recesses, she runs into an unexpected complication.

That complication comes in the form of her younger son A-Zhan running up to her door and kneeling in front of it, hushed whimpers escaping from his throat.

Wu Yuhua knows it's not the full moon, knows that it's not the one day a month she's allowed to see her children—but like hell is she going to leave her six-year-old son out there trying to stifle sobs in the snow.

She opens the door. "A-Zhan," she says, bending down and reaching out a hand. "Come in, my sweet boy."

On a snowy night in the dead of winter, Wu Yuhua, formerly known as Madam Lan, unexpectedly spends one last night with her sons before escaping from the Cloud Recesses.

~*~

Hello queen I’d like to recommend for ur follower rec posts Avatar: The Untamed Waterbender by KouriArashi. Banger of an ATLA au, def the best one I’ve seen. It’s a WIP but the author updates pretty regularly and it’s all around an A+ fic [Oh, yes, I’ve been waiting for this one to finish before I jump in.]

Avatar: The Untamed Waterbender

by KouriArashi (T, 123k, wangxian, WIP)

Summary:  You know the drill. Long ago, the four nations lived in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

100 years later, Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli find Wei Wuxian sealed in an iceberg.

Featuring: avatar WWX, waterbending JC, firebending Wens, airbending Lans, earthbending Nies and Jins, Jiang Yanli in possession of the brain cell, et cetera.

~*~

[My ko-fi.]

[link-of-time80]

Dandelion in the Witcher 3 is an ADHD icon. That man is so chaotic and just out of it that Zoltan (who was trying to teach an owl to talk) said he'd just looked away for a moment and suddenly the place is trashed, Dandelion's slept with 1000 people and then gone missing, and now Geralt's shown up saying Ciri and Dandelion met up, did crime, and set a new record for the least sneaky/covert people ever.

"Hah, Dandelion and planning? Good one. Besides, anything he wrote here -- probably had a special system, chaos only he could ever decipher. Actually, in the past, sometimes not even that." - Geralt 'Dandelion is my bestest bud despite his shennagins' of freakin Rivia

And also this interaction.

"(Explaining the last time she saw Dandelion)

Marabella: Oh yes. Longest afternoon of my life.

Geralt: He read you his poems?

Marabella: No. We perused the Illustrated Guide to Fungi.

Geralt: Hmm... Maybe... Nope. Won't even try to guess why he wanted to do that.

Marabella: Mold -- that was his interest [...]"

The poor chaotic dumbass literally has -3 impulse control and half a braincell that Ciri split between them. I mean even Ciri showed up for 10 seconds and instantly they were like 'LeTS dO cRImE' (the pair of them could bring the continent to its knees through mischief alone, without using any other their other skills at all).

Dandelion: Ciri you need a mages help? I know of a man name Whoreson, he's one of the four big city gang lords – yes, it is a terrible nickname, right? – anyway he's pretty chummy with all the mages in hiding, I'm sure he'll catch one to help fix your shiny thing. Oh we need to pay him??? We need to steal 4 tonnes of gold and jewels??? Oh this is gonna be the greatest heist ever! Lets blow it up!!

Ciri: 🏦🏃‍♀️

And I still can't get over Dandelion just doing the first thing that comes to mind.

Geralt: Why did you go to Whoreson?

Dandelion: 🤷‍♀️ No one else came to mind.

It makes me a little bit sad whenever I see people getting super annoyed with him and I think its because to me he is super relatable. Like Dandelion, I too have to constantly rely in my friends to help me out because I'm stuck neck deep a dumbass problem that I made for myself. And I know that they can't always rely on me to get them out of trouble because most of the time I am the cause. Sometimes its gotta be enough for them to know that I am truely trying and that if I can I will go through extra ordinary lengths to help them out.

He may seem a bit heartless and self centred but I don't think that its coming from a bad place. Out of sight out of mind is a very big issue for a lot of people with ADHD and sometimes it makes it seem like have no empathy. This isn't true, personally I am simply uncomfortable and many times I do the whole out of sight out of mind routine and launch straight into trying to make things better for everyone else. When I am upset I like it when people tell me stories of similar experiences and so I try to do that to help ofhers but I have recently realised that it makes me seem unempathetic and very self centred (especially when I try and make the other person laugh which something I had been trying to work on not doing).

Dandelion seeing Ciri's powers and badassery in action kinda made him think that she was immortal and that may have made him a lot more lax about Geralt concern.

Again all this is just my opinion. Maybe after reading this you'll see Dandelion through new eyes next time you play the Witcher 3 ;)

SIDE NOTE: Dandelion was 100% gonna fuck Elihal.

I didn't really think so at first but I then I thought come on! He knew the whole time and wrote it down in his his little love keeping book! Sounds to me like he even preened to Zoltan about it with how Zoltan talked to Geralt about it

[ashenpages]

Current Projects & Emoji Voting Key

Quick disclaimer: I’m a romance writer in all aspects of the term, so most of my works will contain mature content. Engage at your own risk, you know the rules, you’re responsible for curating your own experience of the internet, blah blah blah.

This post serves as a current mock up of fic ideas I’m either actively working on or considering working on next. You can drop me an ask about any of them, or just vote via the emoji combo I’ve assigned them.

Voting lets me know you’re excited about an idea and makes it more likely I’ll actually work on it. You can vote anytime, there’re no deadlines or winner announcements, just me gauging your interest by what I see in my ask box most often.

You can also ask me about the original stuff I’m working on currently. The current WIPs are Medusa centric and the emoji for them is: 🐍

Support my original work on Ko-fi and Patreon.

- Lupin: 🤑🤠💍  These are all oneshot ideas, between 5-15K each. If you want to vote for a specific idea, send me the emojis and the number of the idea.

Born from the idea that Goemon and Zenigata probably couldn’t be an item, my brain decided to come up with how I could write for them. Goemon’s teaching an ikebana class as part of his training, and Zenigata shows up as a student on forced recreational leave for his health from the ICPO. Zenigata wins the samurai’s heart through flowers. But what happens when Lupin and Jigen find out? (Only good sexy things, I promise. These beans are in a healthy polycule--be gay, do crimes) (WIP)

Jigen/Lupin, but it's Jigen deciding to seduce Lupin while wearing his own Lupin disguise. The thief is waaaaay too into it, and some artistry is taken with the sex so that they don't mess up the disguise too much during their encoutner.

Jigen/Zenigata/Lupin where Jigen has some fantasices about Zenigata, but is pretty sure they'll never happen. Tells Lupin about them. Suddenly the fantasies are coming true, in the middle of a heist, and Jigen doesn't what to do except get swept up in the moment and enjoy. Plot twist, it's Lupin dressed up as Zenigata granting all his gunman's dreams. Plot twist again, Zenigata catches them at it.

Zenigata/Lupin, where Lupin keeps doing good things in illegal ways and Pops has to find a way to punish him for it. Good thing for Pops Lupin's a masochist?

Trans!Lupin and Trans!Jigen premise: Jigen cares for Lupin after the master thief has top surgery, since Jigen has Been There and Done That. Caring, sweet, and a little sexy. Lupin is a much better patient than Jigen.

The one time Zenigata caught Lupin in an alley and kissed him and it was Jigen in disguise. Things get sexy anyway, and Zenigata has crushes on two thieves now. Lupin and Jigen "kidnap" him later for an evening of taking care of their inspector.

The background plot of Jigen's Gravestone where we see Jigen think he's done for and try to leave Lupin. Our thief has none of it, and we get to relish in the inherent eroticism of Lupin sitting in sniper fire, knowing Jigen's got his back. This is the moment I think Jigen finally believes he can be with Lupin forever.

I love the idea of something longer and more plot driven like a Lupin special where Lupin ends up in hot water and Jigen and Fujiko have to work together to save him. Jigen and Fujiko have such an interesting relationship. They're both partners of Lupin, they don't really like each other, they constantly screw the other over, but when it really matters they take care of each other. I'd like to see that highlighted a little more and also give them space to call each other out and bicker. Nothing sexy between them, but maybe a really interesting threesome with Lupin and Fujiko in a strap on once they save their boy.

- Sonic Vampire Novelist Coffee Shop AU: 📚☕💐

Shadow is an immortal vampire who has seen the world change for the worse too many times. These days it feels like he only lives for his coffee dates with Rouge, another immortal who loves each new era they encounter, warts and all. He has to admit that the book series she got him into speaks to him, at least. If someone in this era can understand him without meeting him, it can’t all be bad. But he hardly expected the goofy blue barista at the new coffee place to understand him the way those books do.

This is a novel length romcom romp with some big feelings about what it means to watch as things change, grow, and die. Expect lots of Big gothic feelings from this one, emotionally charged kissing, and overly-adoring sex. But also expect shenanigans from everyone in the coffee shop, which include Rouge, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and more.

- Sonic Blazamy, "Like the Sun": 💖🌸💎

Amy Rose has been in love with Sonic for a while.

Or has she?

When the Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver are trapped as the fuel sources for Doctor Eggman’s newest evil scheme, Amy teams up with Blaze, Rouge, and Cream to save them. With Sonic out of the picture and Amy fulfilling his role, was she ever really in love with him? Or did she just want to be like him?

This is a novel length epic romance with lots of competent women and lots of romantic Blazamy content. Expect flowery hopes and dreams, badass self-actualization, and glancing hand touches that give way to cuddly and sweet sex.

- Persona 5: 🗡🍛☕

After bringing down the Metaverse twice, Ryuji didn’t think graduating high school and figuring out what to do with his life would be so hard. Akira’s back in town, and the gang’s more-or-less all in Tokyo, but everyone else seems to have a plan while Ryuji just floats. How’s he supposed to change the world when he’s not a phantom thief anymore?

This is a novel length fic that addresses how powerless one can feel being just one person in the face of all the corrupted systems and bigotry the world has to offer. It’s about holding on to what you believe in, working through the doubt, and fighting your way to a better tomorrow with the power you do have. The whole gang is queer, featured relationships being Mako x Ann, Ryuji x Akira, Futaba & Yusuke as platonic life partners. Akira is polyamorous and omnisexual, Futaba’s asexual and aromantic while Yusuke is demisexual and very romantic, Makoto’s a lesbian, Ann and Ryuji are bi, and Haru’s pansexual, demisexual, and aromantic. They’re one giant band of queer Phantom Thieves, and even if they’re not really doing the Metaverse thing anymore, they’re still gonna save the world!

Also, I’m gonna make Makoto not a cop. That super didn’t age well. Zenkichi and his boss can work on making them better/abolishing them for other better organizations.

- Hades Game: ❤️‍🔥💀

Oneshot. I just really need to elaborate on the threesome you can have with them in-game, okay? Healthy and canon poly relationships are so few and far between, so often I have to do a ton of groundwork to explain why it’s working in the fic, but NOT WITH THESE KIDS!

Get ready for Meg helping Zag and Than be better at expressing their feelings, lots of kissing, and probably pegging.

- Castlevania Animation Trevor/Sypha/Alucard: 🧛🏰🛌

Castlevania gave Alucard a threesome last season, and I just really need S4 to give me him being taken care of by his partners. They’re probably not going to give it to me, so I’ll need to do it myself. This is just an everybody loves Alucard oneshot, with the gang’s signature banter (to an extent), Sypha being sexy, and Trever being remarkably sincere. This fic is gonna feel like that Ann Hathaway picture with Trevor kissing Alucard and Sypha holding the end of Trevor’s whip while she leans her head on Alucard’s shoulder adoringly.

- Devil May Cry Nico/Lady/Trish: 💋✨😈

Nico’s gay, okay? Like really, really gay. And Lady’s bi and not into men who make her pay bills, but very into women who make amazing guns for her and demonesses with hearts who fight by her side. Trish is ace, but loves people and is pretty attached to Lady at this point. Plus it’s cute when Lady blushes and says nice things like they’re insults. I don’t have super solid ideas for them yet, and I envision these more like a polycule where Lady’s with Nico and with Trish but they’re not with each other more than seeing it as a threesome, but who knows what might happen. This is probably 1-2 oneshots depending on ideas, but might turn into a series of oneshots if people are interested (or I can’t control myself and inspiration strikes).

- Post FMA:B Blind Roy & No Alchemy Ed: 👀👑🙏

This is actually an old novel-length fic I wrote ages ago and didn’t post that didn’t turn out well because I was new to writing sex when I first wrote it. The plot is good, and is all about Roy learning to work with his blindness to reclaim his ambition of being Fuhrer and changing the system to something that actually cares for its people. He and Ed reconnect, fall into bed, and both set about working through their respective traumas about being “useless” having lost their sight/alchemy. They go to Xing as an ambassadorial party to offer Amestris’s collaboration on Al and May’s Alkahestry experiments--and uncover a plot that might threaten both kingdoms.

- Age of Calamity continuity Mipha x Revali: 🦚🐟💘

The first time Revali noticed Mipha, it was in the heat of battle. She stole his mark, taking them down with a flurry of quick blows from her spear. Violence rained from her like water--and then she healed him on her way to her next battle. No questions, no conditions, just pure kindness. The usual need to measure himself against those around him was quiet in her wake. And Revali couldn’t understand it. But how to get to know more about her? A fish and bird may fall in love, but where would they live?

This fic could be a oneshot or novel length depending on how far down the hole I fall. I need it to cover time, but it could be done in linked vignettes or with actually covering events in detail. I may elect to do a oneshot just to get it done and out of my system faster. So much fic to write, so little time.

Expect trans!Revali, polyamorous Zoras, scary competent Mipha, songbird Revali, love confessions that are made up entirely of berating Link for not loving Mipha the way she wants him to, and breaking these characters a little outside of their assigned roles in BotW and Age of Calamity. Background Link x Zelda, and Urbosa x Zelda’s Mom.

- Epic desert romance about Urbosa and Zelda’s mom: 🏜🏝⚡

I just think Urbosa should kiss women and Zelda’s mom should get more development and maybe a name or something. Also, lightning imagery/metaphors/play.

It also went way over my head that Riju wasn’t Urbosa’s daughter the first time I played BotW, so now I want to write about the Gerudo queen who refused to produce an heir. The Gerudo are fascinating and have a very interesting cutlure, but I think it could be examined from a nonbinary perspective that rejected pregnancy and wanting to find a husband. Not in like a hateful way, but in a way that examines if that’s really right for everyone. There’s that shop in town that sells Voe armor, after all. Maybe finding a husband and having children isn’t something you have to do if you don’t want to. And Urbosa really doesn’t want to.

[chiseler]

Gnostic Boardwalk

Canonical stature is a fragile and contingent thing, which is why powerful institutions seek to shore up the various canons of art with rankings and plaudits. We’ll play along by asserting that one of our favorite “B” movies was originally screened by Henri Langlois at the Cinematheque française with Georges Franju in attendance. Night Tide (1961) was an unlikely contender for this particular honor—shot guerrilla style on an estimated $35,000 budget, and intended, by its distributors at least, for a wider, less demanding audience seeking mostly air-conditioned escapism.

With its hinky cast—nonfictional witch, Marjorie Cameron; erstwhile muse to surrealist filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the undersung Babette who usually appears en travesti; and lecherous, booze-addled, fresh-faced Hollywood castoff Dennis Hopper—Night Tide invades the drive-in. A tarot reading at the film’s heart gives Marjorie Eaton her time to shine, traipsing into nickel-and-dime divination from her former life as a painter of Navajo religious ceremonies. Linda Lawson might have issued from an etching by Odilon Redon, with her raven locks and spiritual eyes, our resident sideshow mermaid. Not surprisingly and despite such gentle segues, the film itself traveled a rocky road from festivals to paying venues.

Night Tide had spent three years languishing in the can when distributor Roger Corman smuggled the unlikely masterwork into public consciousness, another of his now legendary mitzvahs to art. And the sleazy-sounding double bills that resulted also unleashed an aberrant wonder: the movie’s compact leading man, a force previously held captive by the studio system—looking, here, like some homunculus refugee from the Fifties USA. Dennis Hopper, in his first starring role, would later recall that it represented his first “aesthetic impact” on film since his earlier appearances in more mainstream productions such as Rebel Without a Cause and Giant had denied him meaningful outlets for collaboration.

It’s the presence of its featured players—certainly not their star power—that lends the film its haunting and enduring legacy, and elevates the term “cult classic” to its rightful place in the pantheon of cinema. But we argue that Night Tide remains outside these exclusive parameters—upholding an elsewhere-ness that defies commercial, if not strictly canonical, logic. Curtis Harrington’s first feature film escapes taxonomy, typology or genre—gets away—fueling itself on acts of solidarity instead. If Hopper contributes his dreamy aura, then Corman rescues the seemingly doomed project by re-negotiating the terms of a defaulted loan to the film lab company that was preventing the film’s initial release. His generous risk birthed a movie monument that would add Harrington’s name to a growing collection of talent midwifed by the visionary schlockmeister responsible for nursing the auteurs of post-war American cinema. And here we enter a production history as gossamery as Night Tide itself.  

Unlike his counterparts entrenched within the studio system, Harrington was an artist – i.e. a Hollywood anachronism, with aristocratic graces and a viewfinder trained on the unseen. We see Harrington as Georges Méliès reborn with a queer eye, casting precisely the same showman’s metaphysics that spawned cinema onto nature. By the time moving pictures were invented, artists were moving away from a bloodless representational ethos and excavating more primordial sources for inspiration. The early stirrings of what surrealist impresario André Breton would later proclaim: “Beauty will be CONVULSIVE or it will not be at all.”

Harrington owned a pair of Judy Garland’s emerald slippers, and according to horror queen/cult icon Barbara Steele, also amassed an eclectic array of human specimens: “Marlene Dietrich, Gore Vidal, Russian alchemists, holistic healers from Normandy, witches from Wales, mimes from Paris, directors from everywhere, writers from everywhere and beautiful men from everywhere.” On a hastily constructed Malibu boardwalk, Hopper would be in his milieu among the eccentric denizens of California’s artistic underground—most notably, Harrington himself, a feral Victorian mountebank of a director who slept among mummified bats, practiced Satanic rites, and hosted elaborate and squalid dinner parties. One could almost picture the mostly television director in his twilight years as Roman Castavet of Rosemary’s Baby; a spellbinding raconteur with a carny’s flair for embellishment and enticement. Enthralled by the dark gnosticism of Edgar Allan Poe that had started when the aspiring 16-year-old auteur mounted a nine-minute long production of The Fall of the House of Usher (1942), Harrington would embark on a checkered film career that combined his occult passions with the quotidian demands of securing steady employment. Night Tide, a humble matinee feature whose esoteric underpinnings would spawn subsequent generations of admirers, united the competing forces of art and commerce that Harrington would struggle with throughout his career. Like Méliès, Harrington pointed his kinetic device towards the more preternatural aspects of early motion pictures to seek out the ‘divine spark’ that Gnostics attribute to transcendence, and the necessary element to achieve that immortal leap into the unknown. What hidden meanings and unspeakable acts Poe had seized upon in his writing were brought infernally to life with a mechanical sleight-of-hand. It was finally time for crepuscular light, beamed through silver salts to illuminate otherworldly and other-thinking subjects.

Curtis Harrington

By the time Harrington had embarked on his feature film debut, a more muscular celluloid mythology based on America’s proven exceptionalism was in full force, taking on a brutalist monotone cast in keeping with the steely-eyed, square-jawed men at the helm of a nascent super-power, consigning its more feminine preoccupations to the dusty vaults where celluloid is devoured by its own nitrate. Harrington would resurrect the convulsive aspects of his chosen vocation and embed them deep within the monochrome canvas he’d been allotted for his first venture into feature filmmaking, and combine them with the more rational aspects of so-called realism. In the romantic re-telling of a familiar myth, Harrington was remaining true to gnostic roots and the distinctly poetic language used to express its cosmological features.  

In Night Tide, Harrington would map the metaphysical terrain that held up Usher’s cursed edifice as a blueprint for his own work that similarly explored the intertwined duality of the natural and the supernatural. The visible cracks that reveal a fatal structural weakness and a loss of sanity in both Roderick Usher and his doomed estate are evident in Night Tide’s conflicted heroine compelled to choose between her own foretold death underwater, or a worse fate for those who fall in love with her earthly human form.  

A young sailor (Dennis Hopper) strolling the boardwalks of Malibu while on shore leave offers the viewer an opening glimpse into the film’s metaphysical wormhole, and a not so subtle hint of the director’s queer eye, stalking his virginal prey in the viewfinder. A beachfront entertainment venue is, after all, where one would casually encounter soothsayers and murderers, sea witches and perverts, as the guileless Johnny does, seemingly oblivious to the surrealist elements of his surroundings as he makes his way on land.

Harrington’s carnival-themed underworld is both imaginatively and convincingly presented as a quaint slice of post-war America, effortlessly dovetailing with his intended drive-in audience’s expectations of grind house with a dash of glamor—not to mention his own avant-garde leanings, which remain firmly intact despite Night Tide’s outwardly conventional construction and narrative.  

Harrington is able to present this juxtaposition of kitsch Americana and the queer arcana of his occult fascinations. Indeed, Night Tide’s lamb-to-the-slaughter protagonist could have wandered off the set of Fireworks, Kenneth Anger’s 1947 homoerotic short film about a 17-year-old’s sadomasochistic fantasies involving gang rape by leathernecks.

Anger would later sum up his earliest existing film as “A dissatisfied dreamer awakes, goes out in the night seeking a ‘light’ and is drawn through the needle’s eye. A dream of a dream, he returns to bed less empty than before.” Harrington (a frequent collaborator of Anger in his youth) seems to have re-worked Fireworks, or at least its underlying queer aesthetic into a commercially viable feature film that explores his own life long occult fascinations.

Both Anger and his former protégé would view the invocation of evil as a necessary step towards the attainment of a higher level of consciousness. Harrington coaxed a more familiar story from the myths and archetypes that informed his unworldly views for a wider audience; a move that would be later interpreted by sundry cohorts as selling out. Still, Night Tide shares a thematic kinship with Anger’s more obtusely artistic output as acknowledged by the surviving occultist, who confirmed this unholy covenant at Harrington’s funeral by kissing his dead friend on the lips as he laid in his open coffin.  

The hokey innocence of Dennis Hopper as Johnny Drake in his tight, white sailor suit casts a homoerotic hue on the impulses that compel him to navigate a treacherous dreamscape to satisfy a carnal longing, just as Anger’s dissatisfied dreamer obeys the implicit commands of an unspeakable other to seek out forbidden pleasures.  

As he makes his way on land, the solitary, adventure-seeking Johnny will be lured into a waiting photo booth, his features slightly menacing behind its flimsy curtain, and brightly smiling a second later as the flash illuminates them. Johnny has entered a realm where intersecting worlds collide, delineating light from shadow, consciousness from unconsciousness. The young sailor’s maiden voyage into the uncharted waters of his subconscious is made evident in the contrasting interplay captured by the camera, where predator and prey overlap in darkness. Here, too, we get a prescient preview of the deranged psychopath Hopper would subsequently personify in later roles, most significantly as the oxygen deprived Frank of Blue Velvet—a man who seems to be drowning out of water. But here, Hopper convincingly (and touchingly) portrays a wide-eyed naïf, still unsteady on his sea legs as he negotiates dry land.  

As a variation of Anger’s lucid dreamer in Fireworks (and later Jeffrey of Blue Velvet) Johnny will have abandoned himself quite literally (as his departing shadow on a carnival pavilion suggests, before its host blithely follows) to his own suppressed sexual urges; a force that eventually compels him towards denouement.  

Moments later, inside the Blue Grotto where a flute-led jazz combo is in progress, Johnny spots a beautiful young woman (Linda Lawson) seated directly across from him.  Her restrained and almost involuntary physical response to the music mimic his own, offering the first indication of a gender ‘other’ residing in Johnny; an entombed apparition cleaved from the sub-conscious and projected into his line of vision. Roderick and Madeline Usher loom large in Harrington’s screenplay and Usher’s trans themes lurk invisibly in the subtext. Harrington is arguably heir apparent to Poe’s vacated throne, pursuing similar clue-laden paths and exploring the dual nature of human and the primordial creature just beneath the surface poised to devour its host.  

The near literal strains of seductive Pan pipes buoyed by the ‘voodoo’ percussion sets the stage for Harrington’s reworking of the ancient legend of sea-based seductresses and the sailors they lure to their graves.  

Marjorie Cameron (or ‘Cameron’ as she is referred to in the opening credits) makes a startling entrance into The Blue Grotto as an elder of a lost tribe of mermaids seeking the return of an errant ‘mermaid’ to her rightful place in the sea. Cameron, a controversial fixture in L.A.’s bohemian circles and one-time Scarlet Women in the mold of Aleister Crowley’s profane muses, would later appear in Anger’s The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, and as the subject of Harrington’s short documentary The Wormwood Star (1956).  

The inclusion of a bonafide witch, along with a host of less apparent occult/avant-garde figures, is further evidence of Night Tide’s true aspirations and its filmmaker’s subversive intent to sneak an art-house film into the drive-in, and introduce its audiences to the heretical doctrine that had spawned a new generation of occult visionaries influenced by Edgar Allan Poe. Decades later, David Lynch would carry that proverbial torch, further illuminating the writhing, creature-infested realm underlying innocence.

Johnny approaches the young woman who rebuffs his attempts at conversation, seemingly entranced by the music, but allows him to sit, anyway. Soon they are startled by the presence of a striking middle-aged woman (‘Cameron’) who speaks to Johnny’s companion Mora in a strange tongue. Mora insists that she has never met the woman before, nor understands her, but makes a fearful dash from the club as Johnny follows her, eventually gaining her trust and an invitation the following day for breakfast.  

Mora lives in a garret atop the carousal pavilion at the boardwalk carnival where she works in one of the side show attractions as a “mermaid.” Arriving early for their arranged breakfast, her eager suitor strikes up a conversation with the man who runs the Merry-Go-Round with his granddaughter, Ellen (Luanna Anders). Their trepidation at the prospecting Johnny becoming intimately acquainted with their beautiful tenant is apparent to all except Johnny himself, who is even more oblivious to Ellen’s wholesome and less striking charms. Even her name evokes the flat earth, soul-crushing sensibilities of home and hearth. Ellen Sands is earthbound Virgo eclipsed by an ascendent Pisces. (Anders would have to subordinate her own sex appeal to play this mostly thankless “good girl” role.  She would be unrecognizable a few years later as a more brazenly erotic presence in Easy Rider, helping to define the Vietnam war counterculture era.)  

As Johnny ascends the narrow staircase leading to Mora’s sunlit, nautical-themed apartment, he almost collides with a punter making a visibly embarrassed retreat from the upper floor of the carousel pavilion.  Is Johnny unknowingly entering into a realm of vice and could Mora herself be a source of corruption? Her virtue is further called into question when she not so subtly asks Johnny if he has ever eaten sea urchin, comparing it to “pomegranate” lest her guest fails to register the innuendo that is as glaring as the raw kipper on his breakfast plate.  Johnny admits that he has never eaten the slippery delicacy but “would like to try.” Moments later, Mora’s hand in close-up is stroking the quivering neck of a seagull she has lured over with a freshly caught fish, sealing their carnal bond.  

Their subsequent courtship will be marred by an ongoing police investigation into the mysterious deaths of Mora’s former boyfriends, and her insistence that she is being pursued by a sea witch, seeking the errant mermaid’s return to her own dying tribe. Her mysterious stalker will make another unwelcome entrance after her first  appearance in the Blue Grotto—this time at an outdoor shindig where the free-spirited young woman reluctantly obliges the gathered locals who urge her to dance. The sight of ‘Cameron’ observing her in the distance causes the frenzied, seemingly spellbound dancer to collapse, setting off a chain of events that will force Johnny to further question her motives and his own sanity.  

Mora’s near death encounter through dance is an homage of sorts to another early Harrington collaborator and occult practitioner. Experimental filmmaker Maya Deren had authored several essays on the ecstatic religious elements of dance and possession, and later went on to document her experiences in Haiti taking part in ‘Voudon’ rituals that would be the basis of a book and a posthumously released documentary both titled Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. Note the Caribbean drummers whose ‘unnatural’ presence, in stark contrast to the more typical Malibu beach party celebrants, hint at the influence of black magic impelling the convulsive, near heart-stopping movements that eventually overtake her ‘exotic’ interpretive dance.    

The opening sequence of Divine Horsemen includes a woodblock mermaid figure superimposed over a ‘Voudon’ dancer. The significance of this particular motif was likely known to Harrington, a devotee of this early pioneer of experimental American cinema.  Deren herself appeared as a mermaid-like figure washed ashore in At Land (1947) who pursues a series of fragmented ‘selves’ across a wild, desolate coastline. Lawson with her untamed black hair and bare feet could be a body double of Deren’s elemental entity traversing unfamiliar physical terrain to find a way back to herself.

Mora’s insistence that she is being shadowed by a malevolent force directly connected to her mysterious birth on a Greek Island and curious upbringing as a sideshow attraction compel Johnny to investigate her paranoid claims, hoping to allay her fears with a logical explanation for them. The sea witch  (or now figment of his imagination) will guide the sleuthing sailor into a desolate, mostly Mexican neighborhood where her departing figure will strand him—right at the doorstep of the jovial former sea captain who employs Mora in his tent show as a captive, “living, breathing mermaid.”  

The British officer turned carnie barker is in a snoring stupor when Johnny first encounters him, snapping unconsciously into action to give a rote spiel on the wonders that await inside his tent. Muir balances Mudock’s feigned buffoonery with a slightly sinister edge. When Johnny arrives at his doorstep to find out more about the ongoing police investigation into her previous boyfriend’s deaths, the captain’s effusive hospitality takes on a decidedly darker tone when he guides his visitor to his liquor/curio cabinet where a severed hand in formaldehyde, “a little Arabian souvenir,” is cunningly placed where Johnny’s will see it. The spooky appendage serves as a reminder to Mora’s latest suitor of the punishments in store for a thief.

Captain Murdock’s Venice beach hacienda is yet another one of Night Tide’s deviant jolts: a fully fleshed out character in itself that speaks of its well-travelled tenant’s exotic and forbidden appetites. The dark, symbol-inscribed temple Johnny has entered at 777 Baabek Lane could be a brick-and-mortar portal into this mythic, mermaid-populated dimension that Johnny’s booze-soaked host thunderously defends as real.

Before falling into another involuntary slumber, Murdock will try to convince Johnny that while he and Mora merely stage a sideshow illusion, “Things happen in this world”—or, more to the point, Mora’s belief that she is a sea creature is grounded in fact.  

Murdock’s business card that Johnny handily has in his pocket while tailing his dramatically kohl-eyed mark is oddly inscribed with an address more likely to be an ancient Phoenician temple of human sacrifice (Baalbek) than a Venice Beach bungalow. A lingering camera close-up offers another tantalizing, occult-themed puzzle piece—or perhaps a deliberate Kabbalah inspired MacGuffin. The significance of numbers as the underlying components for uniting the nebulous and intangible contents of the mind with the more inert, gravity bound matter, existing outside it, as the ancient Hebrews believed, wouldn’t have been lost on Night Tide’s mystically-minded helmer.  Mora’s explicitly expressed disdain for Johnny’s view of the world as a rationally ordered, measurable entity that could be mathematically explained, reinforces Harrington’s world view, his love of Poe, and those French Symbolist artists who interpreted him.

In Odilon Redon’s Germination (1879), a wan, baleful, free-floating arabesque of heads of indeterminate gender suggests either a linear, ascending involution, or a terrifying descent from an unlit celestial void into a bottomless pit of an all-too-human, devolving identity. Redon’s disembodied heads gradually take on more human characteristics, culminating into a black-haloed portrait in profile. The cosmos of Redon’s etching is governed by an unexplained, inexplicable moral sentience, which absorbs the power of conventional light. Thus black is responsible for building its essential form, while glimmers of white, hovering above and below, prove ever elusive; registering as somehow elsewhere, beyond the otherwise tenebrous unity of the picture plane.

Night Tide has its own unsettling dimensions, of course, this black-and-white boardwalk where astral, egalitarian bums want to tip-toe; and, somehow, practically all of them do. Not a movie but an ever-becoming place, crammed into low-budget cosmogenesis unto eternity. We won’t discuss the ending here, since it hasn’t happened yet.

by The Lumière Sisters

[evielallemxnt]

"There are T W O types of secrets: those we hide from others ─ and those we hide from OURSELVES."

have you seen GENEVIEVE 'EVIE' LALLEMENT strolling around central park at lunchtime? rumor has it they’re actually A HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE years old, but i’m pretty sure they’re only TWENTY. they’re currently posing as a PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR at LALLEMENT LAW, but when dusk falls, you can usually find them heading home to MANHATTAN by TOWN CAR. apparently they DID attend the met gala this season! @duskintro

* / CHARACTER INFLUENCES: Jake Peralta ( Brooklyn 99 ) + Veronica Mars ( Veronica Mars ) + Nancy Drew ( Nancy Drew ) + Claudia ( Interview With The Vampire ) + Rebekah Mikaelson ( The Originals )

* / ANTHEMS: PRETTY SAVAGE | YOU MADE A MONSTER | 7 RINGS

*** PENNED BY BRI FOR DUSKFELLHQ ***

FULL NAME: GENEVIEVE "EVIE" LALLEMENT

FACECLAIM: Savannah Lee Smith

AGE: 20 ( estimated @ time of changing ) physically | 135 mentally

SEXUALITY: Lesbian

PRONOUNS: She/her

POSITIVE: Intelligent, charming, loyal, brave.

NEUTRAL: Spontaneous, trustworthy, daring, cocky

NEGATIVE: Impulsive, self-destructive, snide, and Machiavellian.

ELEMENT: Fire.

MBTI TYPE: ENFJ.

MORAL ALIGNMENT: Chaotic neutral.

HOGWARTS HOUSE: Slytherin

AESTHETIC: Breakfast at Tiffany's, fine tailoring, diamonds and pearls and rubies, late-night bubble baths with red sangria, Chanel No.5, bubbly stocked fridge, penthouse parties, drinks @ The Blond, exclusive social club, wigs and disguises, sly smiles, bad decisions, midnight sleuthing, gossiping until dawn, closets filled with Birkins, eyes that hold secrets, smudged lip gloss, devilish temptations

TW: Death, dying, blood

* / BIOGRAPHY: The history of Genevieve Lallement is a tricky one. If you ask her, she became a creature of the night in some whirlwind fashioned tale filled with love, betrayal, and sacrifice -- all the makings of a heart-clenching closed shut story. But the reality? That's much more of a mystery.

Her genesis is one filled with darkness. No memories. No family. No nothing. The only solace coming in the form of her sire -- Cassius. He saved her from a fever that took many in late 19th century England and told her as much as he knew. That he had found her bedridden and sickly in a run-down isolation ward where patients were sent to die more than to be cured. Apparently, she had reminded him of a sister he’d once lost and he acted on an inner impulse to save an innocent. The staff had told him that she had admitted herself under what they proved to be an alias, so there was no way to notify family or even prove she existed.

She was a ghost. Alone in the world. And dying.

So, he gave her new life. Eternal life.

When she’d awakened from the transition, the ripe young vampire found herself unable to remember, well... anything. It was as if the transformation erased everything human about her, wiped her slate clean as she re-entered the world as someone else. Something else. Cassius said that vampirism isn’t a perfected process. There are some ailments that the immortal blood which now ran through her veins can’t heal. By the time he’d found her, her mind had already been overcome with the sickness that was moments away from snuffing her out completely. To drag her back from the depths of near-death, she had to lose some parts of herself along the way. There were some upsides, though. She clung to Cassius like a newborn, and he grew to coddle her as if she were his own. Being inducted into the Lallement family allowed her to see a world that was previously unattainable as a mortal having had come from the dregs of England. He’d brought her to New York at the turn of the century, and it was a sight to behold as she realized…this was HOME.

As the decades passed, the new Lallement glided through life. The adjustment to vampirism wasn’t as hard as it probably was for others. Sure, she had her hiccups, but it was almost as if the lack of memories helped. There was no other way of living for her to remember or to acclimate from. In some ways, there was no true loss. Her new family filled the voids ( even helped her pick out a new name ‘GENEVIEVE” ) showered her with endless love ─ and the bloodlust helped pick up the slack. For a while. As an immortal, it is easy to become distracted by the power, privilege, and play that is now bestowed upon you. But eventually, the semblance of loneliness and eternity creep in. For Evie, it was plaguing thoughts of the unknown that haunted her. Did she have a family when Cas took her away? Did they look for her? Mourn her? Soon all she could think of was the possibility that they somehow survived the plague and managed to continue on. This led her to try to trace their footsteps back to the town Cassius found her in to look for anything, any semblance of a clue that pointed to her previous human existence. Only for Evie to be faced with the harsh reality that the one hospital in town, the very town she’d believed herself to have been raised in, had burned down not long after they’d fled. Along with the patient records. Any possibility of tracing back her roots had been destroyed in a reckless accident and something in Evie c r a c k ed. Never again to be fully healed.

But if anything, she’s a survivor. Evie turned her sadness into something productive, going on to study criminology and criminal justice in the ’70s and '80s, along with a myriad of other majors she probably got too distracted to finish. Evie figured, if she couldn’t figure out the mystery of her own life, then the least she could do is help others figure out the mysteries in theirs. Becoming a private investigator sort of just happened, but it soon became her life’s joy. Piecing things together, going on recon missions, and doling out the truth was something that Evie not only excelled at but truly found fulfilling. At least ─ during the day. When the sun goes down, she resorts back to her party-girl ways, needing to find some sort of entertainment as a method to keep herself distracted. Because, you see, the only thing Evie hates most in the world is being by her lonesome. It leaves time for that inner sadness and loss to come creeping back in, to remind her that there’s nothing in the world to truly call her own. That the Lallement name is a placeholder for the truth. And that’s the one truth she cannot face.

So, she parties, boozes, pushes the limit because she has none, and there is always a need for M O R E. Because boredom is never on the menu. And when the town car arrives eventually to take her back to Manhattan, merely a few hours before she must be up for work, Evie revels in the few minutes of silence and thinks ─

‘Another day down. Only an eternity to go.’

* / PERSONALITY: Evie is, more than anything, fun. She likes to have a good time and to look good while doing it. Sure, her deviousness occasionally gets her into more trouble than intended, and in some ways, her childlike need to be paid attention to can be exhausting to people, but she is not all play. Evie truly enjoys being an investigator and will isolate herself for days, weeks even, if that means cracking a case. Her job and lifestyle have been carefully cultivated to always keep her busy so the facade can stick. No one knows about her growing concerns with the idea of unlimited time or the feeling of wanting a connection with someone -- anyone. Evie doesn't really give into supernatural politics or bias, and her ruthless side only comes out when hangry or when you threaten someone she loves. Then it's all-out chaos.

* / FUN FACTS:

She's gone to college several times and has studied many things but only holds a degree in Criminology and Interior Design

Currently paying a witch to figure out a way for vampires to get tattoos

Obsessed with all things horror and true crime

Officially identified as a lesbian in the late '60s

Has two poodles named Khaleesi and Drogon

Manhattan PD knows her by name

* / WANTED CONNECTIONS:

SCOOBY GANG/HARDY BOYS/7 RINGS - These are her people, her confidantes, her ride or dies. Can be supernatural or human, mortal or immortal. Whether they met decades ago or the night before, tipsy, in the Cosmopolitan bathrooms, they instantly clicked and have been loyal to each other ever since.

ROOMMATE(S) - Evie lives in one of the many ritzy buildings Manhattan has to offer. While having an entire floor to yourself has its benefits, it can feel quite isolating. So, the vampire opened up her doors to allow in some roommates -- free of charge!

ASSISTANT - As a private investigator, sometimes certain cases can become quite tedious. While her work rarely ventures away from mild cases Cassius needs help with, Evie does also take cases from anyone who needs help. Keeping everything organized, going with her on recon, and even offering their own input and theories is what they provide for her.

PLAYTHING - Now Evie isn't evil, she doesn't play with people's emotions ( at least not intentionally ) but she does indulge in the power and influence that comes with vampirism. Not only would this person be someone to go to for the occasional midnight snack ( where they're the snack sowz ), Evie would also indulge in their life. Making sure they're well taken care of, listening to the things they're going through, and being there for them whenever they need her.

FOES/ENEMIES - When you live forever you might make an enemy or three. Evie has ruffled a few feathers over the past century, that's for sure, and she has no problem continually poking the bear if she finds herself bored enough to do so.

also: literally anything else pls plot with me i'll send you kit kats and a coupon for a free taco.