#went to town w/this

[cecoeur]

it's hell on earth to be heavenly them's the breaks, they don't come gently

[surplus-of-sarcasm]

@roblingoblin285 guess who got creative w/this for no reason at all?this has actually been in my drafts for a while, but yeah.

Note: this isn't an rp, I kept the "you" and "I" to stay consistent to the original post's POV. Also, I decided to add my taglist to this cuz why not.

Wound

TW: Guns, stab wound, blood, death mentions, murder mention

"Like the wound so bad? How about I give you one too?" I crack a smile on bloodied lips

"For the record, it was a hunting knife, and the idiot that stabbed me. . .the poor fool, they brought a knife to a gun fight." I give an almost cruel smirk as I pull out the gun, covered in bloodstains.

"Well, are you planning anything? Like it even matters; I can't imagine you'd get very far with your side all bloodied up like that." You raise an amused eyebrow, shaking your head in disbelief.

"That's exactly what they said. Look how beautifully it ended for them." Maybe it's true that I am somewhat out of breath as I say it, but nothing could possibly burn brighter than the raging fire in my eyes.

That warrants even more attention than the gaping stab wound in my side, hot blood snaking down it in a slow cascade of crimson.

"You're insane."

"Well, you're the one complimenting my stab wound, but I am nothing, if not completely deranged. We're terrible adversaries, even though we've never met, sanity and I." My features fix themselves into a slightly softer expression, my smile more bittersweet than scary now.

Your eyes widen as I pull out a needle and thread from the large pockets of my jacket. "Not my first wound, I like to be prepared. And if you want to try anything. . ." my hand flits over to the gun, and my eyes twinkle with a playful look, though with just a hint of danger, like a pinch of powerful spice in a seemingly mild-flavoured soup.

The stitches are nowhere near perfect, but they should hold for now. I'd used a piece of cloth I'd ripped off my enemy's corpse to try and clean anything. Just until I could get somewhere where I could get the wound properly fixed.

When I'm done, you pull out your own gun. "I hope you like plot twists," you smirk, the surprise becoming smugness faster than a bullet gets fired.

Instead of being met with wide eyes, shallow breathing and a drain of colour from my complexion, you get a highly amused, musical laugh. Not a shrill cackle, a genuine laugh. That is highly unsettling to you, if the way your grip tightens on the weapon and the speed at which your fingers approach the trigger are any indication.

"What is the point of killing someone you've never met? Better yet, that we're both armed. You're scared, aren't you?" My voice drops down to a whisper.

"Not scared. I just have absolutely no reason to trust you." You look straight into my eyes, and your gaze doesn't falter. Most people are afraid of the roaring flames in them licking their skin.

Not you. The blood loss might have made me delirious, but you seem impressed.

"Listen, I'll just be on my way. I don't want anything from you. Maybe I kill people. Maybe it's not pretty to look at. But they aren't in any way good or innocent. I'm not the purest around, but I have limits. Killing random strangers is a waste of ammo anyway. And, I'm not stupid, you're an assassin too. So how about this? You spare me, I spare you, and we both pretend we're dead."

"The hell? You think I'm doing that crap?" you bark, giving me a sardonic laugh.

"You're stalling. You're thinking it over. For whatever reason, you didn't just kill me. What's stopping you?" I challenge, fingers tightening on the gun, face stone-hard and gaze sharp and unrelenting, like cold steel.

"I'm dead either way. I don't kill you, I die. I try to kill you, I also die. We both do. Equals. Hideously poetic maybe. So, this is the only option where I live. And if you turn out to be a liar, a couple of bullets is more merciful than what a failure is put through by my employers." If it weren't for your years of rigorous training, you'd've shuddered at the thought.

I nod at you, and I get up, shaking your hand, and we both part ways.

That night, you lie awake in your bed in one of your more remote safehouses, thinking of whether you made a mistake or the right choice, your mind racing with thoughts. You get up, rather irritably and pull sleeping pills out of your medicine cabinet and swallow them with water. they work, like a charm.

The last thing you think of (aside from the pretty stab wound, we've already established it's cute, yeah it's me talking now not the characters) before you drift off, is that look in my eyes.

Terrifying. Haunting. Relentless. Fiercely passionate.

✨️Le Taglist: @larinzz @syberianjade @lateuplight @altu-whump @enbious-prince @astr0-mj@thelazywitchphotographer @addictedsandwhichaki @justalittlecorrupted @quaggasus @dodo-docs @vernilliom @sirrsnakesssss

*wiggling my eyebrows and winking flirtatiously* that's an awfully pretty stab wound in your side. what is that, a hunting knife?

[ruporas]

soft (and some bittersweet)

[housecow]

i always wonder what it’ll take for how fat i am to get acknowledged. the only time ive ever had it publicly or privately called out (besides in kink situations) was in 9th grade. i didn’t go to anime club because im not into anime (im still not) even though i told this dude i would be there lol.

he was pissed at me the next day and just mouthed the words “you’re fat” in the hallway like that would mean anything… i’ve never rlly been insulted for my weight or had it poked fun at. is it weird i want to get big enough for that to happen??

[drkcatt]

repurposed an old oc into xiv... her name is Lovelace (surname) and she had a weird lowkey homoerotic academic rivalry with y'shtola when they were in school and it still keeps her up at night at 40 years old. also she's divorced.

[weirdbabs]

i somehow never realized that hijack turned around and saw isabel's face, and that's why he tried to provoke dimitri into fighting with the club

[hella1975]

so there's a reason my new job got back to me so quickly about my application and that's bc it's an absolute fucking shambles like actually perfect timing for me to decide to rewatch the bear bc i have never more felt like ive been thrown into a broke on-its-knees establishment trying to crawl its way up the ladder where i am somehow a godsend to them. my old job was crazy and shambolic in the sense that the industry is just Like That but this one?????? insanity. every 5 mins i am questioning what im doing with my life. ive already had a walk-in fridge moment

[nightbigail]

Aloha! Here’s another addition to the 3oT NPC Extended Universe: Hoala the Part-Time Jobs Guy from Lulukoko 🌴🌺🐚

He’s a hopeless romantic who gives great love advice and enjoys matchmaking. Ironically, he’s never landed a date with anyone or been in a relationship.

He’s also a terrible flirt because he gets flustered easily 👍

[popsicle-stick]

I don't know anything about England but I'm interested in how the characters' locations inform their characters like Seward's. I'd like to know more about the implications of being from Purfleet/Essex for example (Though iirc Stoker immigrated from Dublin well into adulthood so I don't know how well he knew all the cities.)

there's so much to be said! i really don't think that stoker meant much intentionally, but the placement of the asylum in purfleet specifically is interesting.

long post so i'm cutting this!

the asylum at purfleet, essex, is an example of the common 19th-early 20th century phenomenon of establishing psychiactric hospitals in the rural counties surrounding london - simultaneously serving as a 'tranquil' location away from the city, while also serving the dubious, cruel purpose of squirelling away would-be patients into residences away from the city - out of society, out of sight, out of mind.

in terms of jack seward himself, purfleet is a kind of an in-between, nothing place - things and people pass through, not much stays. (there's a reason why whitby is remembered as 'the dracula place', and not purfleet.) it's quite literally on the edge of london - of society - and in that scene where jack's looking despondently towards the sun setting west over london, his own isolation becomes palpable - from society and from the world as a whole. the endless, transient, liminal feel of the essex saltmarshes just....gives the vibe. this was a scene that felt particularly gothic to me - jack is the custodian of his very own haunted house, here, in all its bleak, isolated glory.

It was a shock to me to turn from the wonderful smoky beauty of a sunset over London, with its lurid lights and inky shadows and all the marvellous tints that come on foul clouds even as on foul water, and to realise all the grim sternness of my own cold stone building, with its wealth of breathing misery, and my own desolate heart to endure it all.

this is an fascinating parallel with the count's situation in transylvania, which is NOT the topic du jour here so i'll stop before i ramble but compelling nonetheless! like the count, though, he's a liminal figure - in london, but not quite in london. in the group, but not in the group. alive, but not really living. wide awake in the witching hour, unsure how to re-integrate with society.

it's also worth noting that the opening of dickens' great expectations has pip in his childhood home on the kent marshes - which would pretty much be the opposite bank of the thames from purfleet. in great expectations, pip's village serves a similar role - the quiet, bleak, nowhere-place directly placed against the bustling cosmopolis of london.

in terms of other characters and locations, i've written a bit before about jonathan (and mina possibly) hailing from exeter, devon, in the south west of england - which is much further from london.

jonathan and mina, in terms of the group dynamics, are outsiders: they're very much lower middle class, hyper-aware of the importance of money and societal etiquette as a means for survival and social betterment. this is a personal hc of mine, but i like to think of jonathan as having the long supressed remnants of a devon accent. south west accents are often the subject of a lot of ridicule and mockery in the UK (akin to a southern US accent) and hiding that regionalism, in both the 1890s and today's britain, would be a means of survival and progress for him - i think the fact that he's always given a standard home counties RP accent in adaptations cuts out a major aspect of his character. he's a devon boy!

in contrast to all this, lucy's hampstead residence shows her affluence. it, too, at risk of breaking my social isolation metaphor, was on the edge of london at the time - but was known more as a wealthy suburb with huge areas of greenery at hampstead heath and highgate. there's something to be said, though, about a place like highgate cemetery - a liminal place between the dead and the living, between city and country, haunted at night by a vampire - and the same could be said for purfleet.

arthur is hard to pin down - for the life of me i CANNOT work out where 'ring' is supposed to be - at first i thought it might be a shortening for ringwood, hampshire, which could work! but i just don't know. his character does scream privileged southern/home counties though, and if anyone has any followups on 'ring' and its wherabouts i would LOVE to know because this has been bugging me for ages. lmao

tl;dr, psychology and sociology as informed by place is SO fucking fascinating to me like it just. it affects so much. from the liminality of certain places lending themselves to the supernatural, to characters being mirrored by their surroundings and vice versa, to the social implications of where you call home. it's just!!! interesting!!

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

oh waow maybe having friendly neighbors is a Good thing (said in the voice of a guy who just received free cookies)

[britneyshakespeare]

anyway here are some cute pictures my friend took of me on the swing today

[ghostboyhood]

dude im

i think this is the first time in... as long as i can remember that life's actually going well. like sometimes life just Goes By until something bad happens or whatever... but like, ive had a lot of pretty good days in the past month ish? ive gone to two really amazing local shows recently, plus some other concerts, im seeing my favorite band next week, i might be making merch for another one of my favorite bands.... and yeah ive had shitty days and i got sick but like.. i remember those days well so the inbetween is just, that.. the in between... god idk becoming more involved in my local scene has been so fucking surreal..

[wildflowercryptid]

potentially batshit headcanon, but i think it'd be funny if these two were related somehow.

[faaun]

oh my god u rly are everyone you've ever loved !! for better or worse !! a part of you becomes them!

[demonzoro]

i finally got around to watching trigun stampede! visually it was gorgeous. however, a lot of the emotional beats felt like i missed a step in actually attaching to the character/setting. many times i got the feeling like i should've been emotionally invested but wasn't. the irreconcilable siblingship was fun though i enjoyed the irreconcilable siblingship

[kuromi-hoemie]

i love black women