#well not technically undead I guess

[bestiarium]

The Embekete [Onge mythology; Andamanese mythology]

In the religion of the Onge people – native to Little Andaman Island in the Indian Ocean – the Embekete are small humanoid supernatural creatures. Despite their diminutive stature, they play a large role in the system of rebirth. In Onge religion, the nature and manner of one’s death determine what happens to the soul: if you die from illness, your spirit will become a malevolent Eaka, a resident of the world directly below ours. Similarly, if you meet your end at sea, your soul will transform into an ocean spirit, and if you kick the bucket while within the confines of a forest, you will transcend to the world above ours and become an Onkoboykwe spirit.

But the Embekete are a special case. The soul of every Onge person who dies from disease will rise from the corpse to become an Eaka spirit, but one day before this happens, a strange creature climbs out of the dead body. This entity, resembling a tiny humanoid creature, is an Embekete. The Embekete will then try to find the shore and jump in the sea. These strange creatures can tirelessly swim enormous distances, and so the Embekete will keep swimming until it reaches the land of the Inene, which is the Onge term for Caucasian people. It will then live among the white-skinned people and will eventually transform into an Inene itself.

The significance of this bizarre system of rebirth is that supposedly, all Caucasian folks are reincarnated Onge people: they were all Onge in their past life. I don't know if people who are neither Onge nor Caucasian are also supposed to be reincarnated Onge. But if they are, the story then implies that since the very first Onge people grew from trees planted by the Onkoboykwe spirits, all human life originated at Little Andaman Island.

The traditional Onge religion is fascinating and refreshingly unique. Unfortunately, the Onge people are nearly extinct as current estimations place their numbers at about a hundred.

Sources: Ganguly, P., 1975, The Negritos of Little Andaman Island: A Primitive People Facing Extinction, Indian Museum Bulletin, 10(1), pp. 7-27. Ganguly, P., 1987, Negrito Religions: Negritos of the Andaman Islands, in Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition, Lindsay Jones (editor), Volume 10, pp. 6455-6456. (image: Onge women engaging in a traditional dance. Image source: Ganguly, P., 1975)

[misstycloud]

Haunted House

Ghost yan x ghost reader

TW: suicide mention

——————

It was with curiosity you stared out the window. A car had pulled up in the drive way. Through the car windows you sa two adults and three children in the backseat. Well, it was definitely not a maintenance company then. It always bothered you so when they came and meddled with your house; though it technically didn’t belong to you anymore you still considered the building as you home, and prison.

You watched as the kids ran out of the vehicle to inspect the house. You had to admit, they were rather cute. Before you hadn’t really thought about having kids and weren’t sure if you ever would, but now you found yourself wondering if you would have made a good mother. One always ponder about the choices out of one’s reach.

They seemed happy, the family of five. Perhaps you would be fine with them around.

“What are you thinking about, dear?” A voice interrupted your dazed thoughtfulness as your mood instantly soured.

“Nothing so you can leave.”

The man behind you sighed. “Do you always have to act like this whenever I’m around?”

You couldn’t bring yourself to look back at him, fearing that the sight of him would send you into a frenzy. “I do when you’re the one who ruined my life.”

“Ruined your life? We were happy together, in fact, I remember you telling me ‘I promise to love you even in death’ but I guess that doesn’t apply, not with the way you treat me.”

You nearly gasped at his audacity. The nerve some people had!

“What? Are you actually serious right now- you can’t be? The way I treat you? You want to talk about the way I treat you? You killed me!” You shouted.

You had turned around now. Your eyes took in the handsome man you had once called the love of your life. Despite the hatred for true actions and pain he caused you, a small part of you still felt something when you looked at him. Maybe it was affection? Maybe it was the anguished feelings of a happy life that could have been? You weren’t sure.

He stilled for a moment before speaking again. “I know, and I am sorry it had to go that way-“

“Had to? You weren’t forced to do anything. At least take responsibility for your actions!”

“I wouldn’t have had to do it if you had just stopped flirting with those other men.” It seemed like it was his turn to become angry. “Don’t think I didn’t see how you looked at them, how your eyes lit up when you saw someone you very clearly fancied.”

“Oh my- we’ve been over this a hundred times, they were just coworkers nothing more. Besides, they have wives and kids of their own!”

It didn’t matter how much you insisted, your (ex)husband did not relent in his accusations.

“That doesn’t mean they’ll be loyal. You have no idea what a treasure you are, many would do anything to get to have you.” The man twirled a strand of your hair around his finger, entranced by your beauty.

“Oh, like you, you mean?” You fired back.

“Stop that.” He said. “I don’t want to fight with you, we’ve already done enough of that. I did what I had to do and nothing will ever change that. Now we’ll be together for ever, even in death, just like we promised each other at the altar. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I hope that one day you will understand how deep my feelings for you go and see things from my perspective. I love you, I really do.” He turned to leave you to your lonesome. Before he left, he told you one final thing, “No one else will adore you as much as I, especially now considering no man will ever see you besides me. You’re nothing more than a ghost after all.”

The tear threatening to escape earlier finally welled up. You cried and wiped your eyes with you cold, dead hand.

——————

Just as you had imagined, the family did bring you a new sense of happiness. Whilst not exactly ideal, watching over(spyin on) the parents and the children made your days more fulfilled. They brought laughter and fun back into your undead life.

Unfortunately you weren’t able to look out for them unless they stayed in the house. It was a real pain in the ass, not being able to leave the building. If you could, you would have left decades ago- much to your (ex)husband/ dismay. You suspected he was relieved to find that you were both confined to your place of death. It meant you couldn’t leave him, which was his goal the entire time. He got what he wanted in the end.

After stabbing you out of jealousy, you died in his arms, crying and demanding answers to why he would hurt you. When you (surprisingly) woke up again, you were in the same position you had been when your life drained out of you. Your man was clutching you tight to his chest and he was stroking you hair. At first you had believed it was all a dream, then you thought you survived the whole thing. He was still petting your hair and rambling on how he loved you and how he would rather die than be separated from you. You hadn’t expected him to be so literal.

You were shocked when you had pulled away from him, only to discover a second version of him lying unmovingly on the floor next to you. Then you noticed the pool of blood spilling out from his neck, and the knife he stabbed you with in his hand. With disbelief you glanced back at the ‘living’ version of him. He smiled somewhat solemnly at you as you took in his too-pale skin and the large scar he had on his throat.

You tried not to think about it too much. No matter what he did, you would never forgive him for taking your life away from you because of his irrational fear of you cheating on him. Well, it was impossible for you to leave or cheat on him now. You were the only ghosts in the house and didn’t have the ability to take even a small step outside the front door.

Instead of spending your days avoiding him as usual, you now followed the family around the house. Mostly the children of course. They had the habit of getting into trouble whenever their parents weren’t around. You had forgotten how many times you had saved them from tripping or bumping their heads. You were lucky you could touch things in the real world for a short second. You couldn’t before so you assumed it was because you were a young and weak ghost back then.

The whole babysitting act also appeared to bother your husband, which you relished in. You remembered one day when he approached you after the family had left for the grocery store.

“Don’t you think you’re spending an awful lot of time with those children?”

“I like them so I don’t mind.” You answered and continued staring at the drawings they made that afternoon, right before begging called to get dressed and meet by the car.

“Well, I don’t think it’s right for you to do the parents job.” He sneered.

Rolling your eyes, you said, “Like I said, I don’t mind.” Your wanted to leave it at that but your (ex)husband had other plans.

“Sweetie, I will be honest; I believe your getting too attached to this family, it’s not good.”

You sent a glare in his direction. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What I mean is I think you should let them be. They’ll eventually move on whilst you’ll be stuck here. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

You scoffed at the audacity he had again. “A little late for that, don’t you think? This is the only source of happiness I have, don’t take anything more from me, please.”

“I don’t make you happy, then?” He asked, though his tone suggested he already knew the answer.

You could look him in the eye, choosing silence. He grumbled something incoherent. After another long minute of silence, he sighed. He did that a lot these days, you thought.

“Alright, my love. Continue to look after these living people if it brings you joy, but remember, it won’t last forever. I will be here when you’re done.”

Once more he left you alone to look out the window. Despite your will to disagree, you knew he was right. These people- this family- they were all still alive. You were not. Your time was over, your life stolen from you. It was only a question of when they’d leave. Until then, you’d be their guardian in this haunted house.

[illusioninfnty]

Zombies Are My Sweetest Slaves!

જ⁀➴ Zombie Apocalypse : Day 27

feat. Simon "Ghost" Riley ᯓ★ Oh no! Your boyfriend got bit by a zombie! Good thing he still knows how to pleasure you!

warnings! : NSFW 18+, zombie!Ghost, technically monsterfucking, dubcon bc he is a zombie, humping, unprotected (and unsanitary) sex, creampie

ᯓ★ kinktober m.list || read on ao3

You close your book shut as you anxiously look outside of your window. The sun was setting quickly, and Simon still wasn’t back yet from his last supplies run.

He always came back before dark.

You contemplate going out on your own, but then shake your head at that idea. Simon could handle himself, and it was completely possible he just got caught up in getting extra supplies. You didn’t hold many survival skills like he did—if you left on your own, there was a high chance you weren’t coming back.

You bite your lip, beginning to pace around the living room. You and Simon were thankfully able to find an unoccupied house to hunker down in, away from the cities where the infected gather together.

“Fuck it,” you mutter under your breath, about to go out, until a bang sounds on the front door. You run over to it hurriedly, looking out the bay window to see a heaving Simon leaning against it. You open the door, practically falling over with the way he topples onto you. Thankfully, you’re able to pull him inside just enough to get the front door locked and shut. You kneel on the ground, pulling Simon into your lap.

As your arms pull away from him to get a closer look, you realize that he’s covered in blood. The blood soaks your hands as you realize there’s a lot more of it than you thought, his black shirt masking most of the red blood.

“Si, what happened?” you ask, your hands frantically searching his body for a wound.

“Fucker got me from behind,” he grunts out. His head falls back in pain as your hands feel around his sides. You lift his shirt up and gasp as the oozing bite stares back at you. The veins around it show through his skin in a sickly purple color, and he breathes in heavily as you touch the area around it.

Your eyes well up with tears as you lift a shaky hand to your mouth.

As the seconds tick by, Simon gets worse for wear. The pupils of his eyes begin to turn a milky white, and the bulging purple veins spread to the rest of his body.

“W-what do we do?” you ask, voice shaking.

Simon grunts again, his mouth opening and closing without any words coming out. “Sh-shhh,” he repeats, only sounds coming from his now decaying mouth.

Tears fall from your eyes uncontrollably as you sob over your boyfriend’s body. You know that Simon’s about to turn—it’s inevitable. But you also don’t have the strength in you to kill him. There’s nothing left for you in this world without him. You’d rather let him have you than put a bullet to his head.

As Simon begins to make sounds that are no longer human, gargles and groans coming from his mouth, you prepare yourself for your own death. Instead, you’re met with something else.

Something hard against you.

“Si…?” you open your eyes and gasp at the sight before you. 

Simon’s dick stands hard and at attention, bulging through his pants. You blink. You didn’t even realize that the undead could even get hard.

Your boyfriend jostles himself around a bit, moving more sluggish than usual. Despite that, he’s still able to manhandle you, pulling himself on top of you.

He grunts as he begins to rut himself against you, his hardness pressing against your cunt.

“Oh, Si,” You raise your hand to his face, rubbing a thumb over his cheek. “It’s still you, isn’t it?”

He grunts, and you could’ve sworn he nodded.

“I guess we haven’t done it in a while…is that what you want? To fuck me, baby?” you chuckle.

Simon responds with a thrust of his hips. His jaw hangs open slightly, and some drool spills out of the corner of his lips and onto your arm, but you don’t mind it in that moment—not when your zombified boyfriend who you thought was about to kill you, actually just wants to fuck you instead.

You start to grind yourself against him, working to pull your pants and underwear down your legs. It’s a bit difficult with practically all of Simon’s weight resting on top of you, but you eventually manage to pull it all down, the fabric pooling at your ankles.

A growling sound escapes him as your bare cunt is revealed to him, and you’re pretty sure that you know exactly what he’s trying to get across to you.

Swiftly, you work to undo his own pants, shoving them down to his knees. Simon’s cock springs up as you lower his underwear to rest around his thighs. Precum beads at the tip, and his cock throbs as he clumsily pushes it against your cunt. He attempts to thrust but he keeps missing your slit, grunts of frustration leaving him.

“Here, baby, let me help you,” you say as you take his cock into your hand. You give it a few strokes before guiding him to your entrance, already wet with your own arousal. His thick tip slides into you with ease and you moan, throwing your head back as you grasp onto his arms.

A strangled grumbling sound escapes from Simon as his hips begin to rut against you. His pace is slow and uneven, but his fat cock filling your insides up so nicely makes up for it.

“There you go, feels so good, Si,” you whine, thrusting your own hips up to meet his own. The sounds of the skin-to-skin contact ring out through the house, only second to the sounds of pleasure that come from yourself and Simon.

You stare up at your boyfriend as he fucks his cock into you, and you can’t help but feel like you truly see him, Despite his zombified state, milky white eyes, graying skin, and blood everywhere, you still see hints of your Simon in him. His grip on you is tight, fully encompassing, just like how Simon always liked to hold you in all hours of the night.

“I love you, Si,” you tell him, tenderly. The last time you told him was just this morning when he left for his supply run. You never would’ve guessed that would be the last time you would go through your routine, suddenly craving the previous monotony that you were frustrated by.

As you whisper those words to Simon, his hips start moving in a frenzy, grunts coming from him at a more rapid pace.

You throw your head back against the floor as his cock starts to press into places deep inside you, signaling your orgasm on. Your nails dig into his shirt as you feel yourself cum, your legs wrapping themselves around his waist as he continues to pound into you.

“Simon!” you yell out, and it’s accompanied with a low moan of his own. After a few more thrusts, you suddenly feel your boyfriend release his load into you, his thick and warm cum spreading all over your insides.

You pull yourself away from him, unconfident that he would do so on his own. Just as you suspected, his arms reach out to pull you closer.

“Not yet.” You lightly smack him away, watching as his cum oozes out of your swollen, achy cunt. “I’m still sensitive.” A groan leaves him as he presses his weight against you and you roll your eyes at his antics, sighing.

You let a silent moment pass as you stroke the back of his neck, ignoring all of the bodily liquids that cover you. Simon never once moves to attack you, something that you are incredibly grateful for—and something that makes you hopeful for your future.

“Si,” you start, swallowing, “I think we can make this work.” You cup his cheek and caress it gently, not caring about the blood and drool that sticks to your hand.

Simon lets out a long, deep grunt, nuzzling into your neck. You smile and let out a laugh, as his nose and heavy breath tickles your skin. It sounds like you’ve gotten his approval.

[meanbossart]

some questions about du drow and his blood magic sorcerer stuff (because i'm so damn curious about lore and sorcerer is one of my favourite classes haha). how did he become a sorcerer? did bhall create him that way and only grant him access to those powers later? did du drow just... not realise he had them until he joined the cult of bhall? did he suddenly stop being a sorcerer after he was infected with the tadpole? does he still have access to those powers but he just doesn't use them? does he still use them but not to the same caliber as before? i can understand not having them after being killed by bhaal and subsequently resurrected by withers, but if they are cut off at a different point, what causes that?

i think that's all the questions i have... sorry if they're too many 😅

(Technically there are indirect spoilers for A Novel Experience in this answer but I don't think its particularly egregious. EITHER WAY I figured I'd mention it.)

I guess sorcery is something bestowed upon him by matter of being a God's spawn, but there's no solid answer here and in truth, it's anyone's guess! He was born with these powers and had a vague but progressive knowledge of their existence as he developed. As I've mentioned before, DU drow killed his foster mother and partner at the age of 10 or 11 - he is not supernaturally strong now (well, I mean that he's only as strong as you would expect a 6'5", 250lbs man to be), and he certainly wasn't back then, either - It was thanks to his sorcery streak that he could take them out at all and swiftly. From that point on, he also had to escape the Underdark all by himself, where said powers probably came in clutch.

I believe that as DU drow grew older, a mixture of forgetfulness and aversion played a role in him pushing the thought of it out of his mind. He did not practice his powers at all as a teenager and focused entirely in what his body was physically capable of doing and enduring - he was often hungry, hurting and lonely, whatever weird blood magic he spurred up as a child, bore no relevance now. In truth, his powers are pretty useless for any purpose besides quickly killing something or healing himself.

It's worth noting too that this sorcery thing is purely in service of lore; DU drow is not a character that I play table-top with and so, his sorcery isn't supposed to function exactly like it would in a game. He has a blood magnetism/molding type power based closely off the Blood Magic's homebrew additional spells. He doesn't have cantrips or domain over any other type of magic like a caster character normally would.

DU drow can only do the following: Hemorrhagia: An AoE spell that draws blood out of a creature's orifices by forceful, magical means until either the caster's concentration is broken or all affected creatures perish. Ineffective against undead or constructs. (Based on the 6th level spell Haemorrhage from the aforementioned homebrew)

Universal Recipient: The human body is like a balm, and DU drow is but a pile of meat-putty; The blood and flesh of others can be absorbed to quicken the healing of small wounds, retain the vitality of the caster, and even regenerate the function of body parts. This also makes him immune to all blood diseases, but not to all blood conditions. This is actually a passive. (Based off of "Theft Of Life".)

(I have a desire to expand upon this but my other ideas are currently irrelevant and/or undercooked. So I'll leave at that for now.)

This is based on his theoretic conception (literally a piece of meat slabbed off of a dead god), and should also explain how he would have been able to survive infancy, childhood, and later, Kressas's experiments.

Upon joining the Bhaalist temple, DU drow would come to better understand and utilize his powers, but it was often more of a threat/punishment used against his own followers rather than something ever employed against victims. He always preferred getting up-and-personal with targets and sacrifices rather than resorting to sorcery, though naturally he still enjoyed the benefits of being Universal Recipient at all times.

DU drow does not recall ever possessing these powers following his brain being scrambled and the tadpole inserted. I can also tell you right now that triggering them by accident is impossible - his rejection of Bhaal as well as his death at the temple, however, did not nullify them. Once again, Universal Recipient does remain in-effect, but the benefits enjoyed by someone who's unaware of how that power functions is far too subtle for DU drow to chuck it up to anything outside the normal range of weirdness that surrounds him. As far as his friends and himself are concerned, he just heals really well sometimes.

Thanks for being curious about it! I had been holding onto this for so long, LOL. I'm glad to finally have a reason to get into it.

[kiame-sama]

Warnings; bg3, full party (because I want them all there to talk), Druid Tav*, Slight druid path spoilers I guess?, Owlbear, Protector type Tav, yandere companions (ALL of them), basic identity spoilers for first act followers, slight early story spoilers, they/them reader, yandere Raphael makes an appearance too.

* Tav is the name that always appears in the character generator first, so technically Tav is the unofficial term for the player character- or Reader in this scenario.

~~~~~~~~

The large owlbear lumbered slowly amongst the fallen undead, using the sharp beak to pick around the bodies for anything useful. Of course, not everything picked up by the defacto leader of the group was typically deemed useful. Such was the way of the unusual soul the group found themselves following the every whim of.

Countless battles had been won with their leadership and each companion had true respect for their leader, even if respect for the other companions was variable. To take them from desperate and hopeless about their plight to truly believing they could succeed their impossible mission. Each odd soul brought in to the fold by the odd druid may not believe, but they believed in how much their leader believed. For them, this was enough.

This meant that when their trusted leader wandered around as a creature that could feasibly carry three of them, they just followed along and grabbed what they wanted if their leader didn't pick it up first. They trusted their leader to distribute loot and treasure adequately based off of who could best use what was collected. Still, that didn't make the experience any less surreal, even for those who were familiar with druids that favored their bestial forms.

"Astarion, do you ever feel like we, as a group, just adapt to everything around us a little too well?"

Gale, the wizard of the group walked next to the rogue vampire spawn, his arms crossed in a contemplative way. Never before would he have imagined himself having light banter with such a being without bloodshed, but here he was regardless.

"Do tell me you are joking, right?"

"No, should I be?"

"God's, Gale, we're all stuck here as a group with only one thing in common- the fact that we're facing impossible odds to simply survive- and we can barely keep ourselves from killing each other. On top of that, just what do you think we're doing right now? Hm?"

"... Collecting the spoils of our battle?"

There was a distinct moment of silence as the beautiful vampire spawn stared at the wizard with a look of disbelief and disgust. The apparent pause catching the attention of the rest of the party- minus the owlbear lumbering ahead of the group- as they all decided to listen in. It was good fun to hear the others squabble and it gave a sense of comradery despite the situation they were in, misery loving company in most ways, though things weren't seeming too miserable now.

"We are in a temple that is inside of a crypt- some depth underground- picking amongst the remains of reanimated corpses that have all been stomped to death by our Owlbear leader. Not to mention this leader who just so happens to be the most balanced person among us and somehow isn't corrupt as all hells while doing it."

Some of the others nodded along in their own ways, knowing Astarion's assessment wasn't too far off from the crux of the situation they found themselves in. A few cast glances at the afore mentioned owlbear leader who seemed rather content rooting through what little remained from their earlier rampage.

"And they're hot as the hells while doing it."

Karlach, the literal flaming tiefling barbarian, commented, putting herself in the conversation with a wide grin.

"You're one to talk, Karlach," Wyll playfully jabbed back, "You've literally got fire coming out of you!"

"You know I'm right though!"

"Well, I didn't say you were wrong."

Before the two could continue, Astarion cut them off, bringing the now group conversation back to Gale.

"Anyways, my point still stands. We are not the ones who make this all work. They make it work for us. We are stuck together- like it or not- and they call the shots. We can get used to anything because they can get used to anything. Don't pat yourself on the back too hard now, it might get you excited."

Gale slightly winced at that jab, given the fact that he was the most obvious about being smitten with the group leader, and yet his beloved was completely unaware of how hard he had fallen. How hard they all had fallen.

"Are you all fools," Shadowheart hissed in a low voice, "you know they can hear us, right?"

It was Lae'zel's turn to bark out a laugh, her lips curled in a sly grin as she regarded the Sharian cleric. It gave the Githyanki soldier a sense of satisfaction to know something about their leader the cleric didn't.

"They can't understand us in that owlbear form. Why else would these fools talk so plainly?"

Unknown to them, their leader could understand them, but simply didn't want to cause in-fighting or favoritism to arise. So they simply carried on as if unaware of the conversation, just trying to focus on finding what was salvageable.

Unknown to them all, a demon watched from the rafters. His arms were crossed and a grin played across his lips. He had to admit, that druid was certainly a fetching prize as they clearly enamored not only their mismatched companions but him as well. Time would leave him the last among them by the druid's side, he would ensure it. Besides, he had plenty of time to wait.

[browniefox]

I asked for fic recs so it only makes sense that I provide some.

The Invisible Stan by The Last Speecher (HeidiMelone)

Simple, short, but elegant. You know how hanahaki disease is a trope? I feel like this should be a trope, but idk what you'd call it - Ninny disease sounds bad, but like it's clearly based off of Ninny from the Moomins. Anyway, great fic <3

An Outreached Hand by WDW

Ghost trick au! Love a good ghost trick au! I reread this recently and it still holds up so well, still so good even if unfinished. Haven't played ghost trick since, some of the twists make a hair more sense - especially the twist in the last chapter posted and being like 'OH IT'S *THE* GHOST TRICK'. Shoutout to undead creepiness and cute kitties :3

Retrograde by scrawling_stardumb

Kissing this one on the mouth. Only one chapter and unfinished, but it's a long chapter and really makes you go 'whoa'. It's interesting because the summary *technically* gives you more info than the chapter itself, but it's that kind of dramatic irony that fits the writing so well. A good solid McGucket POV too, which there really isn't enough of. Tbh, it stands okay almost as a one shot? I wish this became a whole popular au like all the others, bc it kicks ass as a concept.

Finding the Right Frequency by impish_nature

A pretty cute one! Ford trying to figure out how to deal with Bill, and Stan having found a stable job, and someow their two worlds intersect. Cute moments between the two, and some good Stans getting to reconnect.

Things You Can't Take Back by thesnadger

Classic by the Snadger! I always appreciate people who take Stan's memory less and make it more complicated, or at least have there be aftershocks to have your whole life erased :D So well written.

like they were a perfect fit by hapful

Stanford Pines and the photo he never looses. A beautiful story about Ford throughout the ages and his opnions on family, specifically Stan.

putting the dog to sleep by parsnipit

Old Yeller is such a sad story, and also some of this made me think of Mice and Men, and ugh just Stan and Ford and beign willing to kill something you love - sometimes because you love it - and it's such a perfect analogy to them I could die.

none of those phds is an md, you dumb idiot by untrustworthyglitch

I always love a fic that acknowledges language barriers. It reminds me of a really old fic where I did something similar, but like, being away from Earth would lead to you forgetting a lot of things, including language.

Too Late, Too Soon, Not Enough by IncomingAlbatross

Ah, gotta love a good fic that shows the missing scene of Ford and Stan switching places. Who came up with the idea? Who needed to be convinced? What swears do they get to use while off camera? Stan I love you so much, and Ford I lov eyou for beig nso complicated.

Raising Stakes by MaryPSue

Mwah! A Classic if I've ever seen one! While I'm partial to werewolf!Stan, Vampire!Stan does have so much potential and MaryPSue puts it to use so well! A great look into what Gravity Falls was like back in taht time period, and I love when people utilize Susan in fics that take place pre-portal <3 Also, Carla! I miss you so much Carla <3 It's drama, it's action, it's everything!

Lost and Found by PengyChan

Tate & Fiddleford have a lot of untapped potential, and while I think going the angst route makes a lot of sense, this one is almost more fluff and catharsis, I guess? I love it, near and dear to me.

Off-Season by anistarrose

Time Travel fic, but not a timestuck au? More likely than you think! A cute oneshot with particular focus on Stan, Mabel, and Dipper. Just a fluffy little thing with a couple strangers helping Stan out through a difficult winter.

Persist and Dwell by fencesit

A bit of Soos's trust in Grunkle Stan, and a mystery that isn't so much mystery as it is simply just not explicitly said. One of the final scenes has still stuck with me, and this is defo a concept I'd love to see explored more.

flee from your ghosts (burn your house down) by thepolysyndetonaddictsupportgroup

While typically OTGW x Gravity Falls crossovers are, like, Pinescone, I'm partial to this version where Wirt is their dad. There'a few details that didn' sit well with me, but over all so incredible and well written. Some of the metaphors are just so evocative I could eat them. The descriptions are to die for. And I love the depiction of a dad struggling to get his kids to open up to him that feels like it's part dads struggle with teens and part those pines twins just won't tell the truth.

If you have any Gravity Falls fic recs, feel free to comment them!

[would-this-pokemon-be-a-friend]

How about Banette?

Man, trust me when I say it pains me to score ghost-types so lowly, seeing as it’s my favorite pokémon type. But alas, a banette, being a being whose sole reason for being alive (undead?) is revenge and torment, specifically of children, and even more specifically a single child.

But before I get into it, banettes are a great size to be a pet. At three and a half feet tall, they’re on the bigger size as far as house pets go but not to a completely unreasonable level. Looking at those stubby legs, we can tell that these pokémon probably don’t spend a lot of time running around or climbing, which makes their space needs pretty straightforward. Wild banettes spend most of their time creeping around in dark alleys and garbage dumps (Emerald, Scarlet), but this seems more out of necessity than choice (there’s nothing tied to their health and darkness, from what I can tell). The issue with banettes come down to their personality, which comes from their curious origins.

Banettes don’t seem to be a traditional biologically-derived species, rather arising from an inorganic source… probably. It’s very confusing. What we do know for sure is that each banette originated as a child’s doll that was cast away and forgotten for one reason or another, which has become a living pokémon. Most pokédex entries report that banettes are brought to live by being possessed by an obscure, cursed energy (Ruby, Sapphire). In these entires, it seems like this spiritual energy is the real creature, with the physical form we see being nothing but a puppeteered shell, since the spirit is released instantly if the banette’s mouth is ever opened (Sapphire). However, there does seem to be some sort of symbiosis between the is conscious, cursed energy and the inanimate doll itself. It’s confusing, like I said. According to some pokédex entries, “strong feelings of hatred” are what animated the object (FireRed/LeafGreen). My best guess is that the spirit that inhabits the doll is taking part in some sort of role-play, offended on the behalf of the doll for being abandoned. Regardless of the reason for banettes’ resentment, this feeling drives their behavior in a not-so-good way.

Banettes spend most of their time stewing in their feelings of hatred towards the child that lost them as a doll, seeking them relentlessly to get their revenge (Emerald, Diamond/Pearl/Platinum). This isn’t a great starting point for a pet’s behavior. If my pet spent most of its time conspiring how to find a random child I don’t know to do know-knows-what terrible things to them, I would find it… difficult… to say the least. Now, can you soothe a banette’s vengeful feeling? Technically, yes. According to the pokédex, a banette that is cared for and treated well will cease their vengeful mission, which is great, but they also sort of cease being; Once a banette has reached a certain level of peace, they become inanimate once again (Ultra Moon). It doesn’t take a lot to read between the lines: a well cared for banette won’t be a pet for long.

We’re obviously already on shaky ground, and we haven’t even talked about how dangerous banettes are. They can use all the classic potentially-lethal ghost-type moves we know and love, like Curse and Phantom Force. This is no good. If a banette gets mad at you because you, for example, prevent them from hunting down and harming a child, it becomes a pretty serious threat.

Overall, banettes just aren’t a good fit for a house pet for many, many reasons. I would only recommend that someone take a banette into their care if their goal is to soothe it and bring it peace, not as a pet but as a therapy patient. Do not adopt a banette as a pet, please.

[katthyacinth]

Define Alive

As you prepare to rest your mind is preoccupied with questions for your vampire companion. Unable to push the thoughts away you approach his tent.

“Astarion?” You ask softly peering inside.

“Yes my sweet?” his voice replies from inside.

A rustling sound follows as he then appears in front of you.

“Can I ask you a question?” the words fall from your mouth

“Anything darling” You fear that might have been a mistake

"i guess now that I think about it its less of a question and more of an observation... you hate us, or maybe it's envy? of the living I mean. Do you wish you were still alive? That you were never immortal?"

He pauses not expecting your question slightly caught off guard. "I- I- well one loaded question there my love... I- pity you all. You must worry about the fact you'll one day be old and decay, you all can die from disease your so fragile and weak you living people..." he pauses, a long pause as you look at him expecting more. You haven't gotten the answer you wanted yet. he knows you won't leave until you do "although I guess if I had to say one nice thing. I envy the fact that your warm, that I can hear your heartbeat... it's calm... you living people are so careless and light for people who are so fragile." he trails off to himself until he realizes what he's doing "but I never wish I was still alive god no I would have been dead two hundred years ago and no one would be able to bask in my beauty!" he adds seemingly to dismiss the rest of his words. “Yes I suppose we can't have that” you chuckle "then I would've never met you the tragedy. Although sometimes I think what really defines being alive... I mean I think you're pretty alive to me" you muse

He scoffs giving you a look “I think the whole point of vampires is we're dead love. or undead if you want to be so technical about it”

“No, I mean think about it, what is making you not alive right now? You don't have a beating heart? Trees and plants live and they don't have organs or bacteria, diseases they're alive. The fact you don't can't eat? Plants eat sunlight and they don't even eat it. A Lot of animals don't have mouths too like worms. They're still alive.”

"Sweetheart while the philosophical thought is nice I-" He starts to speak but you cut him off again lost in your own ramble. He decides to indulge

“The point is Star… I think the fact that you're standing here having you're own thoughts walking around talking to me, that's enough especially with magic … who's to tell you if you're alive or dead you are both and it's ok. You're both!”

You look at him. He looks at you curiously thumbing over the odd thoughts you just piled into his mind. after a prolonged silence, he speaks

"you know... maybe you're right. I've been dead in the ground for far too long. I think it's time I start living again..." he finishes putting his arms around you.

It doesn't matter that his skin is not warm or that you can't feel a beating heart, you love him, he is yours you are his. Everything is ok.

(This is a rewrite for a fic I have on AO3 That I thought I should share so I have slight diversity in my evil men hyperfixation lol.)

[tyrantisterror]

How are monsters classified in Offbeat Melodies?

Short Answer: Very, very, VERY loosely, especially compared to my other stuff.

Long answer: Ok. so, if Midgaheim is inspired by European mythologies, and ATOM is inspired by atomic age myths about paleontology and radiation (i.e. dinosaurs were big lumbering reptiles, radiation makes animals become giant monsters, etc.), then OM is inspired by, like, 1990's era Cryptozoology, UFOlogy, and Paranormal "Science." It's fantasy by way of Unsolved Mysteries and Leonard Nimoy's In Search Of (ok that predates the 90's but whatever it's the right vibe).

So the main approach to monsters is more or less "would this make a good urban legend?"

There's also a good bit of Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror baked into it too - including the Goblin Universe hypothesis in Melody's world building kinda made for the perfect opportunity for me to scratch that cosmic horror itch, and since my main setting really doesn't work with that stuff, it felt natural to include it in the cosmology here. Melody is very much a place for me to play with the toys that otherwise wouldn't fit in my main setting.

With all that said, I have two different loose taxonomies for the monsters in OM. The first is by Archetype, and the second is by Nature.

By archetype, they are:

Cryptids: Your nessies, your big foots, your chupacabras, etc. Creatures that seem like they could fit within our understanding of life on Earth.

Aliens: Visitors from beyond the stars who came here using incredibly advanced technology.

Ghosts/Undead: The souls/bodies of people or creatures that have technically died yet somehow persist.

Eldritch Abominations: Beings from another reality whose very presence is beginning to change what the "normal" reality is, often to the detriment of the people and creatures who live here. Colonizers from another universe, basically.

Wacky Nonsense: Silly and bizarre monsters who tend to be pretty light-hearted in concept even if they still prove to be a threat. The most prominent example would be the Gattlesnakes, a group of giant pit vipers from another universe who wear mech suits that can convert into muscle cars, and carry gatling guns that can convert into slurpee machines. Their small, tight-knit gang of inter-universal outlaws include Fancy Dan, Rhonda Rugged, Calamity Janet, Monosyllabic Chuck, and their leader, Cobra Gunner, a massive cobra whose mech suit is more akin to a flying battleship and can transform into a giant base. They're basically like if the villains of an obscure 1980's toyline escaped their home universe and tried to hide out in ours.

By nature, they are:

Mutated Natives: creatures from the "normal" universe that have been mutated/altered by contact with beings, substances, or even just the very essence of other universes. The most prominent of these would be Duchess Scissorjaw, a hippo-sized snapping turtle that was captured in Melody's Lake Alto and is living in a zoo display at Melody's Wax Museum. While the players and audience of Offbeat Melody know that it's not normal for snapping turtles to get that large, the discovery of Duchess Scissorjaw was rationalized by humanity within the story as "Well, I guess snapping turtles can get a lot bigger than we thought," since that is the simpler explanation than the reality, which is that she's a mutant who absorbed some of the essence of the Sea of Monsters. Almost all of the undead creatures in Melody count as this, but the other categories actually tend to be...

Interuniversal Visitors: i.e. the VAST majority of Melody's bestiary. Almost all of the main monsters in Offbeat Melody, from its Nessie and Big Foot analogues (the Altopogo and Southpaw Sam) to its alien visitors (the Kaleidoscope Men, the Grays, Ivora Sykes the Melody Mothman) to the Wacky Nonsense and Eldritch Abominations, are visitors from other universes. This category could be split into creatures that have "gone native" - the Altopogo and Southpaw Sam may come from alternate universes, but they traveled to Melody to help preserve the very fabric of the "normal" universe, and are important guardians of it as a result - tourists who are just here to visit, and conquerors who want to reshape our reality and/or its inhabitants into something more to their liking.

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.231 thoughts

[Do You Remember~ The 17th Night of November~]

(Topics: criticism - pacing/narrative focus, character analysis - Gina/Feng/Julia/Billy, speculation - Soul/Ruin)

Juggling Glass and Rubber

Damn, Tozuka, you weren't lyin', that Unjustice can sweep the Master Rules!

I'll admit I am a little disappointed by this turn of events because, like I was saying the last several weeks, I expected there to be an extra wrinkle that kept Unjustice from trivializing all of the MR fights, especially the ones that hadn't actually happened yet!

Yusai I was always pretty shaky on, and since she never got much characterization going in, I'm not exactly surprised, but the rest were definitely bummers

I've said before that I'm fine with skipping the Sick fight since Rip and Latla's climax already happened, but it's not like there was nothing to be done with it, like focusing on Sick's desire for revenge or having Rip look back on the mistakes he made in L100

Same thing with Billy and Tatiana's reunion - technically the climax of their joint arc was at the end of L100 when they promised to stay by each other's side until death, but I always thought of that as the setup to an upcoming payoff, not the payoff itself. It's definitely still salvageable here, but I think having Tatiana come in to save Billy when he's having trouble would have felt a lot more cathartic if it was focused on and analyzed rather than just...happening. Some insight as to why Billy was having trouble using Unjustice, like perhaps being overloaded with too many new Rules or reconciling with the choices he'd made, would have given Tatiana something internal to save him from as well as something external

I guess my issue here is that we're not really getting to see the effects that Remember is having on the cast as a whole, which I think would have better served as the focus here. I don't know if it's that Tozuka has been given a set number of chapters to work with by Jump or what, but it seems likely that Tozuka had ideas for how he wanted to execute everyone's arcs and fights but had to prioritize who to give the lion's share of the focus to for the sake of maximizing narrative impact

Case in point, the characters who he did manage to analyze here each had a pretty unique interaction with Remember

Remember Who You Are

Despite how brief their scenes are here, I do think that Gina and Feng's moments illustrate Remember's value remarkably well

Gina starts referring to everyone by the old nicknames she used for them in L100, only to amend "L'il Lucky" back to just "Fuuko," directly demonstrating the mental gap between the present and past. Gina naturally picks up her old habit, but isn't restricted by it. The respect and love she has for Fuuko goes beyond what can be expressed by a cute nickname, and those feelings were forged through L101 Gina's relationship with Fuuko. It's subtle, but it's a nice little cherry on top of Gina's arc

Feng, meanwhile, is noted to be getting stronger as Time ages him. This could be taken two ways: either he's stronger because of Remember and Time misread the situation, OR because Feng knows that he would have spent his time training and improving, his body, mind and soul are developing proportionally rather than being aged in a vacuum. The latter is thematically appropriate to countering Time's philosophy that age's function is to weed out those who have outlived their usefulness, while the former is a direct result of all of Feng's accumulated years across loops compounding simultaneously. Could be a little of both, honestly

What's even better about Feng's moment, though, is what he says in response to Julia's help: "I'm not deserving of your charity." In the past, Feng definitely would have been mad about getting help, resenting the idea that anyone thought he couldn't hack it on his own, but that's not what he said here. He believes he's done nothing to earn Julia's aid, that whatever Time was going to do to him, he had coming, and this is certainly because he remembers what he did. All of the people that he's ever killed, the lives that he ruined, especially his own son's, he now knows and can look back on from the perspective of having just abandoned the mentality he had back then

If Feng still believed in individual strength before receiving Remember, he probably would have looked back on the failures of his past as the results of his own physical weakness, not because of a flawed philosophy. Instead, Feng has already proven that he's stronger now after learning the true value of his age and legacy, so while he can still improve thanks to the lessons he can learn from his past self, the current Feng is able to retain his new outlook because he has an objective point of comparison that this was the farthest he ever made it

These are the sorts of subtle advancements I wanted to see from the whole cast, and again, while we still can see them, I think having a chapter dedicated to showing each little vignette would have been more effective than either breaking them up like this or showing such a notable imbalance between them

At the very least, though, even without being the primary focus of the chapter, Julia's interaction with Remember is far and away the most interesting one

Welcome Back, Juiz

Julia's behavior just before and after Fuuko actives Remember easily provides the most contrast of everyone and best demonstrates the tremendous growth rate that Remember allows

Prior to Remember, Julia was only able to use Unjustice involuntarily. To great effect, mind you, but still by accident: first when she stopped Soul's attack, and (seemingly) second, when she used it to reduce the damage of Soul's attack and ride it back to the surface. It's not explicitly stated that that's what happened here, but if Soul's intention was to kill Julia with that, he really dropped the ball, so I choose to believe that his bloodlust was negated by Unjustice

Afterwards, Julia was using Unjustice like a pro. She dropped War down a phase, got Time to bring Feng back to his prime, and even got Death to take out Luck, a feat that Fuuko objectively wouldn't have been able to accomplish with Unluck alone since Luck would have been able to avert Death's inadvertent attack with his good fortune. The most impressive part to me, though, is that she was able to channel Unjustice into her soul!

By putting Unjustice in her saber, Julia effectively injected Unjustice directly into Change's body, ensuring that she couldn't live by her own philosophy of constant change, even if Julia wasn't physically there to make visual contact. Juiz never learned soul manipulation, and Julia only just now mastered Unjustice thanks to her memories, so the fact that Julia was able to integrate those two abilities into such a high level technique is proof that her current self has in no way been overtaken by Juiz's memories, the most major worry that everyone had for Remember's use

That's not to say that none of Juiz's experiences made it to Julia, she still did remember Juiz's entire life after all. Beyond just Juiz's techniques and physical abilities, Julia went from panicking over Soul's attacks and Victor's injuries to calmly and confidently taking out the MRs one by one. She knows now what she's capable of and the weight that she carries, and she remembers what kind of relationships she had with everyone else. This is likely why she went to Billy first - both to give him access to Unjustice to make him stronger and to remind him that, despite their pasts, they aren't enemies anymore

The look of shock on Billy's face suggests that he was paralyzed by the realization of his past actions, and it's Julia's words that snap him back into the present and bring a smile back to his face. That's really what I was talking about earlier; giving Billy an internal conflict with his memories would have provided an angle that no one else really had while also allowing him a stronger character moment with both Julia and Tatiana

Still, even if it's a weaker moment than it could have been, I do appreciate Julia's direct acknowledgment of Billy as an ally, as it at least subtly harkens back to their previous encounter. Where previously Billy stole Unjustice and lost the ability to use it after Juiz had some time to think about his motivations as an enemy, this time Julia is willingly entrusting Unjustice to Billy as an ally

Actually, I wonder if perhaps that's why Tozuka had Billy fail to use Unjustice on Sick, because he is still fighting that internal conflict...for now, I'll choose to believe that Tozuka has that in his back pocket, but I won't be redacting any of my criticisms until he makes good on that, as this review is based on my immediate interpretations and I don't want to erase all of this and redo it...

Along the same lines, not only does Tozuka still have a backdoor for analyzing Billy, he also still has one for giving us some more cool moments for the rest of the Master Rules as well

Put Me Back in, Coach!

Despite one-shotting seven MRs all at once, Julia didn't actually manage to clear the field. The Union's gearing up to face Sun, but they seem to be forgetting: they didn't actually beat Soul. He's still in the Roundtable Room, and he's undoubtedly more pissed than ever

I'm not sure if I would have caught this on my own before seeing their post on this, but Webmantis on twitter pointed out that the MRs' souls must all have been sent to Subspace, the cosmic waiting room that all souls go too between loops. They note that, since Soul hasn't entered Phase 3 yet, he'll most likely be able to bring everyone back

However, they also note that doing so would be an odd narrative choice, as it would make Julia's steamrolling seem kinda pointless. Why bother killing off a bunch of characters just to revive them in the next chapter?

Fortunately, I think I've come up with the perfect answer to that very question!

Firstly, it's to show off Julia's post-Remember Unjustice; we were promised a sweep, and Tozuka made good on it in spectacular fashion. Second, and more importantly, their deaths are necessary for Soul to reach Phase 3

Fuel for the Fire

You may recall from a few weeks ago that I described the mechanism that the MRs use to reach Phase 3 is absorbing their Rule directly: Change absorbed the change in her shape when she was cut in half, Time absorbed Shen's lifespan, War absorbed Billy and Tella's violence, Justice absorbed Yusai's resolve, etc. This is why Death only just now reached Phase 3, because no one was dying the entire battle until she was forced to personally kill Luck, and Luck was likely being prevented from absorbing any fortune by Unluck

So now that all of the MRs other than Soul are dead, their souls are free of their vessels. I don't know if their vessels were actually preventing Soul from accessing their souls, but since he seems to consider the others his friends, he probably didn't want to resort to absorbing them either way, but now? It doesn't matter if he could or couldn't before, now he has to, otherwise it's all for nothing

Now, the question may be how he'll be able to reach them. Webmantis' proposition was that reaching Phase 3 would give Soul access to Subspace, but I'm saying that he won't be able to reach Phase 3 without the souls that are there - that's a pretty clear logical paradox

Well, not to speculate too much, but I think we already have our answer to that one too: Soul's finally going to change

Another topic I've been going on and on about lately is the stagnation and inflexibility of the Rules, the most notable being Soul's rejection that souls are connected. However, Soul saw that new facet of his Rule be added in real time, by Negators that aren't even his vessel. The only one who should have control over his Rule is himself, and yet he's seen others interact with their souls through reinterpretation time and again (Andy vs. Ghost, Gina vs. Change, etc.). In other words, he should know full well by now that his Rule isn't as set in stone as he once thought, and if everyone else can control their souls through their perspective, then why couldn't Soul himself?

With the lesson that Julia just taught him about souls, Soul can connect himself to his fallen comrades and drag them back from Subspace (or prevent them from reaching it in the first place), and achieve Phase 3 by adding their souls to his own. Whether this would mean gaining power over their Rules or reviving them is another question, but at the very least it would show tremendous growth in his character

I'll go into more detail on this if it comes to pass, but Soul learning to change his perspective on his Rule would make him more like the Negators, more like a human. This would also make him the most well-rounded and developed UMA to date, which I think would more than make up for any loss of characterization among the rest of them

Now, I would definitely prefer that he brings back the MRs, if only so we can see Luck's Phase 3 (c'mon, he's Fuuko's foil for cryin' out loud!!!), but even if he just integrates them into himself, I think that would create the perfect parallel to give the final member of the Union a chance to demonstrate his growth

The Man Who Would be King

While fighting Soul, Sun and Luna are all clearly the most important boxes to check off right now, there's still one more that Tozuka alluded to in this chapter: Ruin's return

How Remember will affect him exactly, I won't speculate on, but I think it will give him the final push he needs to join the Union and help fight God. If my previous speculation about Soul comes to pass, then that would make Soul the ideal matchup for Ruin

Not only would they have the parallels of being "multiple souls in one body," it would also be the ultimate payoff to Ruin's designation as The King of Negators. If Soul is Master Rule #1, then it's Ruin's destiny as the Negator King to negate all of the Master Rules in his reformation and rebellion against the God he so thanklessly devoted his life to

This would also present the opportunity for Ruin to reform the MRs too and unify both Negator and UMA as I've speculated on before, but again, I don't want to go too far into it here. As it stands, this is just me making things up, and I don't want to either raise my hopes too high OR preemptively run out of things to say, but the parallel is so interesting that I can't help but get excited by the possibility

Conclusion

As always, it's entirely possible that I'm wrong about all of this. Maybe Soul's gonna try to go Phase 3 and self-destruct because of Unjustice; maybe Soul is gonna fuse with Sun in Phase 3 and they'll become "SOL;" maybe Kururu's going to use Unchaste to aggro Sun into shooting Soul dead. I don't know. There's always a chance that what we get isn't as interesting as what we envision; the best we can do is be open to what we do get rather than insisting it has to be the way we want

If there's one thing I hope I've gotten across with this review, it's that I don't want to get hung up on the negatives, but I also don't want to just ignore them either. I am disappointed that certain plot points are being glossed over, and that's a valid response for any of us to have, but I'm not going to go so far as to say this was a bad chapter because of it. Good things definitely still happened within this chapter, and there's plenty of chance that good things will come out of what this chapter set up

As I said, all there is to do now is be patient and open-minded. If this ends up just being a lull in an otherwise fantastic finale, so be it. If it ends up being the start of a rushed mess, so be it. The only way to know is to be there to see it

Until then, let's enjoy life!

[hummingbee-o0o]

5 times Armand interrupts Daniel's online interviews +1 time Daniel gets his revenge

(Chapter 3 is now up, have a snippet!)

The interviewer is a person looking to be in their late twenties, with colourful hair and an easy approach, as well as lightning-quick reflexes and a good memory; Daniel likes them pretty instinctively and, because he has a raging ego, imagines it’s because he knows a promising interviewer when he sees one.

(A bright young reporter, if you will.)

The conversation rolls pretty easily, even when dipping into more complex topics, and the interviewer jumps pretty gracefully through a few technical hoops Daniel sets up for them just for fun.

“So we also hear some rumours about Interview potentially getting made into a graphic novel, can you confirm or deny anything about that?”

Daniel laughs a little.

“Sure, I mean, for what it’s worth. I don’t think I know much more than you — yes, the idea is out there, my agent wants to do it, and the publisher is loosely looking for people who might take on the project, but it’s all just very vague for now.”

“Vague like a longlist, or…”

“Oh, vaguer than that, yeah.”

“And what about that sequel?”

“I’m working on it.”

A beat of silence; Daniel is an asshole, remember?

“Come on, give us something more! Will the story pick up right where you left off, or will you go somewhere else? Or will you continue with the multi-threaded plot structure?”

“I’ll definitely continue with that, yeah. As to the opening, I haven’t written that yet, so I guess I’ll be as surprised as you guys when it finally happens.”

“What about the hinted developments between you and Armand?”

“Hinted as in, that paparazzi shot of us getting to third base in that night club? Or do you mean the book?”

The interviewer grins, showing off their braces, which have tiny little skulls on them — pretty awesome.

“I meant the book, but we can talk about that picture if you like.”

“Oh, I’ll take the book,” says Daniel, and the interviewer laughs. “And yeah, I will write about that, I just haven’t decided how much and which parts, which I guess makes me a raging hypocrite for picking and choosing which parts of my life I’m gonna keep private, but— HOLY SHIT!”

“Hey, you good?” the interviewer asks, alarmed. “What happened?”

Armand, that’s what happened. (And isn’t that just the story of Daniel’s life in a nutshell.)

The light of Daniel’s undead life has just entered the room, dressed to go out and sporting a goddamn knockout of a new haircut. He smirks insouciantly at Daniel’s reaction, going about collecting his iPad, like he’s not just… done this.

---

(Read the whole thing on AO3)

[the-antiapocalyptic-man]

what is the Robin timeline in ur headverse? Like what’s the order and where do they end up later in the timeline? (also love ur art its amazing)

okay, stick with me, this is a journey:

Bruce wasn't the first Batman in the headverse, that was an OC named Dr. Aloysius Flying Fox (later just Aloysius Fox). His Robin was John Blake, who's thus first by technicality. Al and John are the headverse's Golden Age Batman and Robin, with a weakened Zod as the Golden Age Superman and Diana back in her role as Golden Age WW since she was born in 1900 as a Century Baby.

Once Bruce becomes Batman, the order of Robins is:

Dick Grayson (adopted as preteen, trains for a year or so and debuts as Robin) who becomes Nightwing around the time he's 18, using a name of Kryptonian animal and a Kandorian bodysuit gifted to him by Clark, giving him a little extra protection even against superhuman foes.

Jason Todd comes on after Dick's moved to San Francisco/Jump City full time with the Titans but before he's Nightwing. He's older than Dick was when he started (so 14-15) and only gets a year or two before Joker kills him. He's revived shortly after by the League of Assassins and trained in the ways of the All-Caste. He returns to Gotham as the Red Hood before completing his training, which causes problems for his Outlaws down the line.

After the incident with Jason, there's a gap where Bruce is mostly operating solo (barring team-ups with other established heroes). Tim, Steph, and Cass all come crashing into his life around the same time after Dick's become Nightwing but before Jason return. Tim is Robin, Steph is Spoiler and Cass is Orphan, but Steph and Cass become a second Robin and Batgirl shortly after coming up the Batman's aegis.

After Jason's return, Tim is Red Robin, Steph and Cass are both Batgirl (barring Cass's time undercover as Kasumi), at which point Damian enters the picture and the whole dynamic blows up. Once everything's kind of settled, Damian is Robin.

Then Crisis Era begins and there's another big shake-up, the functional result of which is the disappearance of the Trinity. This Era is defined by reality breaking apart as a result of various Meta-Cosmic beings (The Hands and The Eyes, Monitors and Looker, Pariah, Old and New Gods, etc) all fighting to survive Perpetua and The King of Tears attempting to resurrect Ultra the Hunter.

Dick and Damian continue on as Batman and Robin for some time. Carrie Kelley is active as Robin as well, but she's from a timeline create and destroyed during the Crisis, so she mostly operates independent of the larger Bat-Family. Jace Fox discovers Aloysius's history as the Lost Batman of Gotham's Golden Age and simultaneously operates as Batman of the Cinderella City (New York).

Dick eventually leaves the mantle, Damian becomes the Outsider, and Jace and his sister Tam operate as Batman and Robin. Cass is the new Batwoman, with Vivian Vale (oc) as Batgirl and Cheyenne Fremont as Nightwing. Steph is Oracle with assists from Barbara. Tim survives being captured by Joker and then splits his costumed adventures between the Black Ace Joker and the Batman Who Laughs.

From there is a jump to the Beyond Era and the emergence of Terrence McGinnis, unknowingly a result of Waller's work to create a reliable Batman of her own, who then bonds with an abandoned picotech symbio-suit being maintained by an older Jace.

Duke's present through the timeline, but as a Monitor-level metahuman, he's sort of on his own trajectory. Harper is concurrent with Steph, Cass, and Tim, all of whom are involved with a Talon using the pseudonym "Turner Hayes" before being revealed as an undead Dexter Dent. Dex is briefly Robin under James Gordon Jr, Waller's first attempt at having a Batman of her own.

Maps Mizoguchi is in here somewhere, probably concurrent with Damian and Carrie during the Crisis. She eventually becomes Meridian (uh, current BoP spoilers I guess).

Jenny Wren claims to be the First Robin but she's just one of Aloysius and John's rogues who became a Talon but got her memory scrambled.

I think I originally had a young Helena Bertinelli as Robin concurrent with Dick to retroactively justify Helena Wayne being named after her, but idk if I'm keeping that or it really makes sense. Otherwise she's Kate Kate's Robin before becoming Huntress. Helena Wayne follows a similar trajectory, but becomes Batman between Cass and Jace but before Terri and Elaina (Dick's daughter with [redacted] and briefly one of the Red X's).

Jarro...exists.

I...think that's everyone?

[lemon-natalia]

Gideon the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 3

oooh bioluminiscent church lighting funky

why do they make all the poor skeletons attend church as well 😭😭 imagine literally being undead and u still have to go to mass

oh what the fuck

guess i was technically right about Harrow being an orphan, i just didn't think it was because she'd literally mummified her parents?! When she was 10!!

not even 3 full chapters into this book and it already has a talent for just lulling you into a false sense of security and then dropping an absolute bombshell of a line

'What she'd found, what she'd seen' seems to be some kind of mystery surrounding Harrow's parents deaths ... 🧐 Also 'if she'd been stuck being Harrow's parents she'd have done the same years ago' cold-hearted 😭, i love Gideon sm so far, she's hilarious

ok ~what the fuck~ the whole 'puppeting' thing wasn't even a metaphor she is literally making her dead mother's body move around! ok!!

ok this emperor dude is giving total cult vibes, even more so than the Ninth already does

not entirely certain why Ortus's mother is so upset about her son being the cavalier ... guessing there's a high chance of death involved but still?

'"Because I completely fucking hate you," said Harrowhark, "no offence."' i can understand the other way around, Gideon is literally an indentured servant of course she doesn't like Harrow, but i feel like there's gotta be another reason why Harrow dislikes Gideon quite so intensely, other than just rivalry & her being pretty mean??

this chapter makes me wonder about the nature of necromancy in this world, and the extent 'resurrected' dead bodies are, yknow, really 'resurrected'? like are they simply going through the motions like dolls with no actual conciousness, or do they know on some level who they used to be... if they're totally no conciousness, then what is the point of making them go to a religious service, but if they're not then the whole using skeletons as labour thing is horrifying on a totally different level

[johncon]

Guess who got his dumbass turned into a vamp

@hinata-rosario-revamped

Well, considering vampires are technically undead, a dunk in a Lazarus Pit should fix you right up and 'bring you back to life' from vampirism. I would, however, suggest not using the volatile Lake under Gotham and finding a more legitimate Pit to guarantee the results.

[eldritch-elrics]

had a whole discussion with friends the other day about which video game characters would be able to survive in the world of dark souls and it was really fun and silly but currently i am smashing my two fixations together to consider in depth: how does olimar fare.

let's assume olimar is roughly the size of a normal person. he's got a couple things for him & against him just on his own:

for:

he's pretty fast. he can run around a bunch without needing to worry about stamina

assuming he's isekai'd into dark souls following the completion of pikmin 2, his space suit gives him resistance to fire and electricity

also assuming he's gone through pikmin 2, he can punch. i guess.

because he is very observant, i think he would be good at learning enemies' attacks and capabilities

against:

limited mobility other than running. can't jump and can't dodge. this is pretty big

presumably no skill wielding a sword or other weapons. also a big deal

i'm gonna say that if olimar didn't have pikmin with him, he would not survive dark souls. however. the pikmin change everything

i think we can assume pikmin mechanics would work the same. there's a whole lot of corpses in dark souls; i don't see any reason why those couldn't be fed to the onion to grow more pikmin. also, the enemies and bosses are built to fend off attacks from weapons or magic. i don't think they'd be ready for pikmin clinging onto them and bashing them!

olimar would certainly have to keep his distance from the enemies/bosses. he's definitely not used to being attacked with swords and such! however, i think he could get creative... maybe he could use bows to launch the pikmin farther than he could throw them? many possibilities...

finally. it would be really funny if chosen undead!olimar was basically just leafling/bad ending!olimar. because, well. technically he didn't die for real in the crash, but it would be so funny if restoring humanity meant "stop being a leafling"

[tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons]

The Battle for Pumpkin King #1

In this post, I’ll be talking about the first Issue of The Battle for Pumpkin King! I’ll be tagging all my spoilers with #Pumpkin King Spoilers, for anyone who wants to avoid them! Below are my thoughts about this first issue and where this comic series may go.

The series starts off with establishing Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie’s close friendship with each other, as children. They routinely compete with each other, but all in good-nature, as they’re both good sports about who wins/loses. It’s mentioned that they also learn science, learn about the world around them, and make discoveries together(seen with Doctor Finkelstein and a young Sally in his lab, experimenting with chemicals.)

In this issue, the current but soon-to-be-retired Pumpkin King makes an announcement to Halloween Town about his ending reign. He reveals his plan on working closely with his successor and aiding in their selection - which will be a set of competitions between two members of the community, as he guides them closely competing for the throne. The citizens immediately nominate Jack Skellington and Oogie Boogie, who accept the challenge and shake hands with one another, where the issue then ends.

First off - let me talk about the new character, the pumpkin-headed, well-dressed man previously seen in the upcoming covers of the series:

We do not know his name yet, but it’s implied he’s been the Pumpkin King for a long time, as you can tell by his design, where his pumpkin is rotting and even has mold growing on it. I also like the little touch of the round cut on top of his head - like people traditionally do to clean and carve jack-o-lanterns. I wonder what’s the story behind that..!

There’s an interesting panel where he talks about maintaining control of his successor, Halloween town, and Halloween itself, with a sinister-looking pose. Will this hint to him being the villain/antagonist of the comic series? Judging by the next cover where he’s shaking hands with Oogie Boogie, it’s likely he’s either going to side with Oogie, or purposefully shove some conflict between him and Jack to offset their friendship. The series *is* about their falling off, after all!

Also, the previous Pumpkin King being a literal pumpkin-headed man makes me wonder if Jack Skellington’s Pumpkin King “outfit” is a dedication/commemoration to the previous ruler, or the linings of The Pumpkin King? Did this character set the title first, or have there been others *before* him? Either way, I’m excited to see/learn more of his character, and hopefully his name!

In here, we also see both Sally and Dr. Finkelstein in the open out in the Town Square, watching and joining in on the fun. It’s likely that the Doctor hasn’t become protective over her yet, and she’s freely allowed in the town in her childhood! I hope to see more of Sally in this comic and even the Doctor himself.

Also, here’s a meme to celebrate the comic’s release:

--

I will make a minor comment that the writing seems a little flat thus far, but I give leniency since this is Disney, and aimed for children. The entire Town idolizes both Jack and Oogie - but we don’t exactly know *why*, if they had a good upbringing or they earned a good reputation in the town? Also, a lot of the side characters seem to be the same age in here, maybe a little smaller in size, besides Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who look to be infants with a slight age difference between them. I’m not going to scrutinize too harshly to the consistency of ages with the movie - since they’re undead, it makes *sense* if the Citizens age more slowly or differently than humans do. And it isn’t established how long ago this comic takes place in regards to the movie yet, so I won’t jump to any major conclusion.

I also have the question on why Sally is in here as a child - I hope to learn more about her and Doctor Finkelstein, if he made Sally to age or reconstructs her when she gets older. I guess, *technically*, the “backstory” of Sally from Long Live the Pumpkin Queen (the novel sequel) could be applicable to this comic...!

I'm loving the art so far! Here’s waiting for the next issue’s release!