#Like guys this a cult of child soliders

[backpackingspace]

I think we should make shadowhunters weirder actually

#Shadowhunters #Shadowhunter cumture #Like guys this a cult of child soliders #They should be absolutely freaks #All of their practices should have everyone else shocked and horrified #Yes this is mostly about how alec is a great dad and great with kids but was raised very traditional #And there should definitely be moments where he does something and everyone else is like what's wrong with you??? That child 3??? #It applies to other things but alec and madize are stuck in my head right now #Anyway alec definitely gave 5 year old madize a set of very real weapons #Caterina nearly killed him #Outsider pov my beloved

[ohnoitstbskyen]

... y'all know Lae'zel is acting scared, right?

Video transcription: I've seen a lot of comments on my short about Lae'zel dismissing her entire character because she's mean and… I'm just checking in here… you guys know she's scared, right? She's terrified. She was kidnapped by the worst monster she knows, infected with the most horrifying death anyone in her culture can have, and then stranded on a hostile world, alone, with nothing to guide her except the dogmatic military cult indoctrination of a cruel lich demigod, telling her that her only hope of salvation is to follow Gith doctrine with total unyielding faith. And still she tries to save you. When she keeps insisting that you must get to the Githyanki crèche, it's our only hope, she's trying to guide you towards the only salvation she knows from the parasite, so she can share it with you. And Gith... aren't supposed to do that, saving an outsider is not part of the doctrine, she's breaking the rules trying to do right by you. None of that means she's not being an asshole, she's rude, dogmatic and unpleasant. But everything she does comes from a genuine, very misguided and abrasive, desire to do the right thing. It doesn't make her behaviour okay, but there is more to her character than just "being the mean one."

To expand on this a bit more than I can in a 60 second short, people acting from fear and from their damage is a major theme among the Baldur's Gate 3 companions.

Lae'zel is terrified and falling back on the only thing she believes will give her back some control over her situation, which is the dogma of the military cult she's in. Shadowheart is much the same, amnesiac and grasping on to the only solid thing she knows, which is her faith, which preaches deception, loss and duplicity as the only certain factors in life.

Gale is an inveterate people-pleaser desperately dependent on other people to help him feed his magic addiction, with his overtly affable exterior hiding a rolling boulder of guilt, ambition, greed, arrogance and legitimate hurt. Asterion is... well, no way to really lay out his deal without spoiling, but the boy has been through it and his self-destructive, hedonistic and selfish impulses are all coping mechanism and self-defense all the time.

None of that make their shitty behaviours okay, but in a fictional story, those kinds of flaws and toxic behaviours are what make for interesting stories and characters. I don't blame anyone for finding Lae'zel unpleasant and abrasive, but I do get a bit Old Man Yells At Cloud about people who casually brag about shoving her off a cliff-side, or murdering her because "she was a bitch" or whatever.

Like... being unable to face discomfort in your media is not a virtue, and lashing out reactively against fiction that doesn't validate your power fantasy isn't a flex.

Of course, I saw a lot of those reactions in YouTube comments and on social media, so my sample is biased by those algorithms, but still. A lot of people seem aggressively proud that they never engaged with her story because the terrified indoctrinated child-soldier wasn't immediately nice to them and I can't explain it but something about that reaction feels puritan to me.

#tbskyen #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #laezel #lae'zel #Youtube

[silverbirching]

SO WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT HADES 2, RIGHT

At least we had all better be, while I'm waving this broken bottle around.

Look guys I'm a Classical mythology wonk. And I don't mean like, "hey I read the Percy Jackson books, they were neat", I mean when I close my eyes before I sleep I pray to every god who might conceivably be listening that Linear A gets deciphered in my lifetime. I mean I've got a giant metal print of Circe Invidiosa by John Waterhouse in my bedroom. I mean that if you make the mistake of mentioning Hadestown in my presence you have unwittingly activated the trap card of "Sam talks about his string-and-sandwich board conspiracy theory about how Persephone was a terrifying eldritch queen of the dead and the entire greek world was scared shitless of her, so maybe knock it off with all these tender waifs in flower crowns, artists of the last two thousand years for two solid hours."

(The Percy Jackson books are extremely neat, btw)

So cut to 2020, the year of shit, and here comes a game from one of my favorite studios of all time, about one of my favorite subjects of all time, and it's gorgeous and deep and full of stupid gay drama and the art melts my eyeballs and the voice acting (true to Supergiant tradition) is basically indistinguishable from foreplay. So I played it. I played the absolute balls off of it.

AND THEY'RE MAKING A SEQUEL, HOLY SHIT

so the Thing about Chthonic deities is the underworld really creeped the Ancient Greeks out, so there's not a lot of writing about them that has survived to the present day, since if they were worshipped it was usually by mystery cults or more in an avoidant "please please please don't notice me I've been a good boy please" kind of way.

Hence why our favorite bisexual softboi dreamboat Zagreus doesn't really feature much in the mythology, except he was probably an offshoot of Dionysus and usually got synchronized with him, Hades himself, or Mycenaen Poseidon. They make a joke about this in Hades, btw (they make a fucking JOKE SONG about in in Hades).

BUT DID YOU KNOW ZAGREUS HAD A SISTER!?

Her name is Melinoë, and she's also cited from very limited sources, but I want to show y'all the brilliant Apostolos Athansssakis' translation of one of the view sources we have, the Hymn to Melinoë:

I call upon Melinoë, saffron-cloaked nymph of the earth, whom revered Persephone bore by the mouth of the Kokytos river upon the sacred bed of Kronian Zeus. In the guise of Plouton Zeus tricked Persephone and through wiley plots bedded her; a two-bodied specter sprang forth from Persephone's fury. This specter drives mortals to madness with her airy apparitions as she appears in weird shapes and strange forms, now plain to the eye, now shadowy, now shining in the darkness— all this in unnerving attacks in the gloom of night. O goddess, O queen of those below, I beseech you to banish the soul's frenzy to the ends of the earth, show to the initiates a kindly and holy face.

My guess would be is that Supergiant will not have her be the child of Zeus under false pretenses (there's sources that indicate Zagreus is also a child of Zeus) but still. Dope. Rad as hell. Zag's baby sister is a twin-bodied goddess of nightmares and I am excited a normal amount.

Also Apollo is gonna be in this one, you guys.

Look at this magnificent pain-in-the-ass. I can already tell you he's going to be 10,000% annoying, and I am completely here for it.

#hades 2 #hades supergiant #greek mythology #zagreus #hope you guys are ready for more of this #this is literally what my stream of consciousness is 24/7

[noodyl-blasstal]

King of the (bouncy) Castle

It's @taznovembercelebration day 17 and today I drew the prompt "soft"

Read below or on Ao3 if you prefer. Missed yesterday's? Find it here.

-

“Ko!” Lup yells from the hall.

“What?” He screams from his bedroom, because he’s still deciding on what to wear and if it’s that urgent she can come in.

“Do you know anyone else?”

“In general? Or?”

“Don’t be a dick. Do you know anyone who can come today?”

“Why?”

“Magnus had to drop out.”

“We can win without him.”

“A team is four people.”

“Ask Dav.”

“He’s racing today”

“Lucretia?”

“She just laughed until I hung up. It was a solid 3 minutes.”

“Merle?”

“I’m going to need you to work from the assumption that I have remembered our joint friends with whom we spend all our time”

“But seriously, Merle.”

“Taako, I have tried everyone we jointly know. He said he was going to be busy in the greenhouse, and then he said some other things. Would you like me to tell you what those other things are? Because I can. I can tell you exactly what he had planned for the onions because he told me because I had him on speaker phone and I got trapped in my shirt and he said a lot of words before I could hang up. They’re burned into my brain forever and cha’girl is happy to share that burden.”

“No! Lulu, don’t! I’ll cast silence.”

“I’ll counterspell it. Now start thinking of people.”

“Angus?”

“I also know Angus, and he’s a literal child.”

“He’s, what, 6 now?”

“He’s eleven, Taako, you baked him a cake in the shape of the number for his birthday two weeks ago.” There’s no need for Lup to slander him like this.

“Eleven! That’s basically an adult for humans, right?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Are you going to stop doing special magic boy lessons with him because he’s all grown up now?” Lup goes for the jugular. He doesn’t have to stand for this cruelty, for the implication that he actually likes spending time with the baby.

“What aboutttt… erm…” Taako changes the topic seamlessly and casts his mind furiously about for a name, any name, of a person Lup wouldn’t have already called. There’s one that popped up as soon as Lup asked and he’s trying his best to see round it but it keeps sidling into his eye line. He can’t though. It’d be a disaster. “Errrrr… Brian.”

“No. Absolutely anyone else.”

“What’s wrong with Brian?”

“He’s in a cult!”

“But apart from the cult stuff he’s lovely.”

“Taako! Do you want to win or not?”

Fine. Fine! Taako does very much want to win, especially after Lydia tripped him last year.

“Kravitz.” He says it fast, like he’s ripping off a plaster. Maybe Lup won’t put two and two together.

“The guy from work?”

“No?”

“Oh, you know another Kravitz, do you?”

“Yes?”

“Is any of that supposed to have convinced me?”

“Is it working?”

“No.”

“Fuck.”

“So… different Kravitz? How do you know Kravitz-Who’s-Not-From-Work? Why do you have a way of getting in touch with him?” Lup’s going to cling to this an unnecessary amount.

“Ooooh are we talking about Kravitz?” Barry, fucking Barry, asks. Wandering his ass right into their private conversation.

“This is a private conversation, Barold.” Yells Taako through the door of his room into the hall of their too-small shared apartment.

“Would you like me to put my noise cancelling headphones on?” Barry asks, earnestly, like he’d actually fucking do it if Taako said yes.

“Absolutely not, Barry, You live in this house and you have every right to be in this hallway.” Lup snaps. She’s still mad about last time Taako forgot to tell Barry he could take the headphones off. In his defence, he made him a cake about it. A jake, in fact, with edible press studs. Barry loved it! Plus, he was listening to one of his lectures, he was fine, happy as a clam!

“Fine.” Taako threw up his hands, no one could see him, but it felt important to do it anyway, you know, for the drama. He couldn’t argue with this, he didn’t have a choice, he may as well give in and call Kravitz, they’ve both worked together to twist his arm. “You’re making me do this though. It’s not because I want to. I’ve been compelled.”

“What?” Says Barry, perplexed. “I thought we were just talking about your crush.”

“His what?” Says Lup.

Taako springs forward and manages to flick the lock across the second before Lup tries the handle.

“You’re in love with death?” She tries the handle a few more times, as if it’ll jiggle the lock free.

“A man isn’t his job, Lup.” Taako shouts back. Denying everything.

“That wasn’t a no!”

“I have to ring him, because you’re making me. Or do you not want to win Bounce Off 2: Bounce in the City?”

There’s grumbling from the other side of the door followed by a muttered “c’mon Barold,” fakeout. Taako’s wise to it though, so he isn’t shocked by her ‘one last try’ of the door handle, or the second attempt that follows after she does fake footsteps away from the door.

“Fine! He’d better be down though and good.”

“He’s tall.” Says Barry, conversationally. He’d better not plan on telling Lup anything else.

“Good. We can use height.Is he strong?” Lup asks.

Kravitz is strong, Taako knows that for normal reasons, reasons like he can carry a lot of pastries when he orders them; and that time he helped Taako move the big table when someone spilled and he had to clean under it. Not reasons like all the time he spends staring at Kravitz’s forearms, and his thighs, and his everything else. Because he doesn’t do that. Taako would never.

“Fine. Don’t answer me.” Lup actually leaves this time, Taako pretends he can’t hear Barry telling her about Kravitz and his newfound love of coffee and baked goods.

Taako [10:23] Yo stud got a minute to chat?

It was only polite to text first, he doesn’t want to jumpscare Kravitz with a phone call, he isn’t a sadist. The three dots flashed up immediately. Thank fuck he’s awake at the crack of dawn.

Bones [10:24] Dear Taako, Of course, I’ve always got time for you. All best, Kravitz.

Taako has been trying hard not to find his ridiculous dork texts endearing. He’s failing. Badly. He ignores the squooshy feeling it gives him and hits the call button instead.

“Hello Taako, it’s lovely to hear from you!” Says Kravitz like he actually means it.

“Hey Krav, quiiiiiick q for ya. What’re you doing this morning?”

“I’m just practising.” Of course he is. Why wouldn’t Kravitz be sat straddling his giant instrument right now? Taako’s mature though, he won’t make a joke about it.

“Can’t keep your hands off your instrument, shameful!” Fuck.

“Well, someone has to keep it in tune.”

Gods, he wasn’t supposed to play along. Why did he keep flirting back? Was this whole thing actually plausible?

“Wanna spend some time with Taako instead?”

“I’d be very interested in that.” Kravitz says, buttery and glorious.

“How do you feel about inflatables?”

There’s a long pause.

“It’s not a sex thing.” Taako says, to make it less weird.

“I’m not sure that makes what you said less weird, Taako.”

“You know, like bouncy castles.”

“Okay.” Kravitz doesn’t sound particularly convinced.

“And my sister will be there.”

There’s another pause. “...And Barry?”

“Obviously.”

“Uh huh.”

Fuck, Taako’s losing him, and it’s suddenly incredibly important that Kravitz not only agree to this, but is also enthusiastic about it. “It’s a competition.” Says Taako.

“Oh?” Of course that piqued his interest, Kravitz loves competition. He tries to help harder than any other customer, tip better than anyone else, and he races people in the street.

“We lost last year, but we’ve been in training.”

“You’ve been in bouncy castle training?”

“Obstacle course training… and also trampolines.”

“Is that what the weird squeaking is when we’re on the phone sometimes?”

“What?”

“You know, the calls where you’re all breathy and there’s the squeaking noise.”

Taako didn’t realise Kravitz had picked up on that. “You didn’t think…?”

“Well now I know it’s not a sex thing.”

“You thought it was a sex thing and you stayed on the phone?”

“I don’t judge.”

“You didn’t wanna ask Taako what he was up to?”

“I know you’re a private person.”

“Not if you think Taako’s doing sex things on the phone without your consent. In fact, that’s the least private a person can be.”

“You make a compelling point.”

Taako doesn’t even begin to know what to do with that. “So… bouncing?”

“Where is it?”

“We can pick you up.”

“All three of you?”

“Barry said he’s sorry and he’ll stop asking about the ‘secret sauce.’”

“I just really don’t think it’s a respectful way to talk about embalming fluid.”

Taako thinks it’s a great way to refer to embalming fluid, but he also wants Kravitz to be happy. “He double pinky promised.”

“Oh, well if he double pinky promised.”

“Great! Pick you up in 20, wear something snazzy.”

Taako hangs up the phone before Kravitz can object or ask anything else. He has limited time and an outfit to re-plan.

#taznc #taz november celebration #Taakitz #Background Blupjeans #Taako #Kravitz #Lup #Barry Bluejeans #TAZ Balance #TAZ Spoilers #TAZ fic #Noodyl Writes #Mild references to sex #Are these getting more unhinged? No. We've been like this from the start

[littlethingwithfeathers]

I'm grumpy about Silent Hill again...

TW for discussions of suicide, self harm, abuse (both parent to child and amongst peers) and general spookiness. Y'know... the usual Silent Hill rigmarole of trauma and despair. Also be warned that I'm going to spoil a lot of the Silent Hill series, in particular Silent Hill 2 and the Short Message game that just came out. ***

So... one of my most popular posts out there is this one. It's about Pyramid head and the loss of subtlety in media. And I couldn't help but feel like we hadn't moved an inch from when I posted that back in... *checks date on post* hrrk. my bones... 2017. I'm going to die soon. Anyway. Today I watched Second Wind do a run of the short, free-to-play Silent Hill: Short Message. I admittedly had a good bit of trepidation going in just because of the marketing. Which, for all of you marketing majors out there, that is called "Not a good sign." Marketing should make you want to play a game... especially if you're a fan of the series already. But this... it was a bit of a wet blanket, largely due to the fact that it spoiled a lot of the focus of the game. It basically said "this is a game about how bullying and being chronically online is real bad. We're gonna be spooky about it now." And... straining to push aside how incredibly reductive that is... why give it away? Why say it out loud? Why did you tell us what you are doing? Can you imagine Silent Hill 2 if we'd known it was about James killing his wife from the jump? We didn't. We hadn't the first clue. We knew nothing other than that he was looking for her and she was maybe dead? But we didn't know how... possibly lung cancer or TB given that she had the most pointed coughing sequence since the movie Tombstone. And hey... the last game had someone looking for a loved one too. Maybe that's the deal with Silent Hill. Who knows? No one did at that point. It was still a big old mystery for the most part. And then the E3 trailer... like there's the weird pretty lady in jail? But what's she talking about? Who the fuck is Mary? Is that... his wife? Well then who the hell is Ms. Miniskirt? No wait... is that his wife in the VHS tape? What the hell is going on? Oh look gameplay! And... a little girl? And a weird guy with a gun... This soundtrack slaps. I'm gonna go see if it's up on Napster yet. (this was 2001... again... my bones etc) I remember combing over low-res copies of that video for HOURS when it came out. Why are the nurses different? It's not snowing? Who are all these people... And why do they all sound like they put ketamine in their coffee. It was like a great big puzzle to work out and we had a ball theorizing and researching so when it came out we were HYPE. And that was largely because in short... we knew SOME things at release. Fog. Nurses. Big stick. Weird people. Banger soundtrack. Dead (but probably not) wife. And we presumed or supposed more... cult activity? New beasties? Radio maybe? But we effectively knew nothing about the plot. And the best part was, while they had a solid hook (Find dead lady who we love so huggy buggy much) and instant intrigue (Angela in the cemetery being weirder than a film by David Lynch), and a very familiar setting (we may have improved draw distance on the PS2, but we don't have to use it!), we still didn't really know what was going on. The plot was essentially unfolding out of a black box. Silent Hill 2 was quite content to be a slower burn than trying to boil the Lake Superior with a signal flare. You don't even see the main "villain" Pyramid Head until a few hours in and, as I pointed out in that other post, there's no flashy cut scene to introduce him and go WOOOOOO SCARYYYYY. He's just chillin' behind some prison bars (which that totes is normal in an apartment complex) and staring at you like I stare at the inside of my fridge when I really would like some cheese to materialize.

And then... like we're not even really sure what the hell is going on for the longest time. We meet our wife's hot twin with the key to a strip club and she keeps getting killed over and over... and things keep getting increasingly rapey and lewd in a way that's just uncomfortable more than anything... But even at the end. Even with the big reveal of "You killed your wife." they still don't ever explicitly state "And you killed her because you couldn't have sex with her anymore." It wasn't until you finished the game, and talked to someone else about it, or let your brain cook on it for a bit that you went... heyyyy... he's a horndog! (In fact... if I'm going to chide SH2 for anything it's that right at the very VERY end they tried to frame James's actions as understandable because the woman who was dying and frightened and in pain was mean to him. Yes, being a caretaker is hard. But Christ... pick a topic for discussion.) But contrast all that with Short Message. The marketing and such all said out loud "THIS IS ABOUT BULLYING" so even going in... I was already like "yep. The bully is probably us, but we had reasons because we have to be complicated and you aren't allowed to make the player feel bad" And lo was I correct. There was no... intrigue. I was never curious about the character or the people around her because I knew this story. They already told me what story they were telling so I could practically sing along, especially as a millennial that had to grow up watching little videos and skits in school about the evils of bullying. And when you are going to tell a trope-ish story, and you tell the audience what the trope is, it becomes "say the line" writ large. This isn't me advocating for super twisty unexpected plot arcs (looking at you, Supernatural). Far from it. You absolutely should tell a story in such a way that the audience understands how you got from point A to point Z, even if there are some surprises along the way (See Sixth Sense for that masterclass). Rather, what I'm missing from this (and frankly a lot of the Silent Hill games and honestly... media in general these days) is a sense of restraint. A sense of trust in their audience to "get it." They can't just plonk us in the fog with a radio and a stick and say "You're here to find your best friend/dog/cousin/wife/business partner. Good luck. Here's a weirdo to prattle cryptically at you in order to unsettle you immediately. Bye!" No! They have to tell us what kind of story they're telling and what themes are important. They can't just... give us a Silent Hill Game and trust that we know what to do with it. It's... insulting frankly. Especially as a longtime fan of the franchise who remembers when they did trust us and they did have faith in their work. I will say this in compliment to Short Message. The environment design was pretty cool. Especially the sticky-note hallways... they looked like leaves... and sometimes teeth... and like tightly packed bones in an ossuary. It didn't... say anything really. But it looked cool. And you can't go wrong with Akira Yamaoka's soundtrack. But... while I'm on the subject of design. Y'all. An animate sakura tree in an oversized hoodie is not scary. But bless you for at least having the restraint to not make her Pyramid Head.

#silent hill #silent hill 2 #silent hill 4 #silent hill short message #horror #writing #story telling #suspense #video games #video game design #horror games

[ccasey0]

OKAY. I did it. @thr-333 i finally did it. i made your lil guy. AND i gave him lore.

but before i show you i want you to see the mass amounts of concept sketches i came up with cuz i couldnt figure this guy out for the life of me.

haha this went in so many different directions. i wanted him to look young, but any time i drew him like that he looked weird. so i tried a teenager. that just looked terrible. eventually i got it right tho :)

oke, lore time! i gave this boi trauma so brace yourselves! also, imma try to make it mostly as a fic cuz i wanna see if i can actually write like that. oh, btw for context go here :)

The altar was beautiful. A tiny hut with no front wall. a large cork board on the back wall with pretty charms hanging from it. and a solid stone table in the center with lavender growing around the edges and corners. it would have been a wonderful sight.....if it wasn't Tommy's final resting place. two large men in black robes and masks covering their faces ushered Tommy forward. His hands were bound, and he was too weak to get away. the men shoved him to his knees, their hands gripping his shoulders hard and mercilessly. the priest stood behind him, speaking out to the crowd. nobody seemed to care that Tommy was just a child who didn't want to be here. he knew he would die one day. but he expected it to be from starvation or some sort of sickness from living on the streets. not like this. not as a sacrifice for some stupid Moon God. The priest finished his speech. shit. Tommy struggled against the ropes. please. i don't want to die. let me go. i know i wasn't good. just please don't kill me. i wont do anything bad again. i promise. please. don't kill me. i don't want to die. tears ran down his face, as he tried to plead with the people all staring at him. words failed him. he couldn't speak. suddenly his whole body went numb with shock as the priest poured a bowl of freezing cold water over his head. the man chanted some words in a strange language as Tommy coughed and tried to reorient himself. he opened his eyes and looked up, trying to see the priests face and plead with him. all he saw was the dagger coming down on his head. the world went silent. time seemed to slow down as the blade reached the space between Tommy's wide, teared up eyes. blood splattered onto the stone floor below them. people cheered, all chanting the same words the priest had spoken. Tommy fell limp. he was dead. his body slumped and flopped onto the ground. the priest picked him up, raising his dead body up for everyone to see. he then laid him down on the altar. saying a prayer and then turning back to the people to preach to them again.

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the two stars frantically tried to tell their story to Casey. two farmer stars. Casey had no idea what either of them were trying to say, as they were both talking over each other. He raised up his hands, gesturing for the two to stop and back up. "okay, okay, slow down. uh, you." he pointed to the one on the right. "what happened?" the star began to recite what she had seen. a boy. dead on an altar built by an obsessive cult village. the small star finished her story and casey folded his arms. "well shit. both of you stay here. tell the others what happened and have Ally and May meet me at the Tree Shrine." There were a few stars that Casey knew the names of. but that's only because they usually followed him around everywhere they could. Casey then looked up at the small owl sitting on his head. he sighed, already dreading the convrsation he and his sister were going to have in the future. "go tell Dellta." the small owl, Abby, nodded slightly and flew away. Casey then held his hand out over the blackness under his feet. he was standing on the barrier between the Night and the Mortal World. a hole formed below him and he fell through, the other side leading to the woods surrounding the Cult Village. he looked around. it was dark out. Casey's time. the Nighttime. perfect. he walked through the forest, moss and mushrooms growing everywhere he stepped. it was cloudy tonight. the moon wasn't out. Casey moved quickly, just a blur through the trees to anyone who might see him. finally, he reached the altar. it was built up on a short cliff, and casey was at the bottom behind it. he jumped up to it, the wind blowing carrying him upward so he could land on top of the structure. he then hopped down to the stone floor below, drifting slowly until his feet reached the cold surface. he turned to see the boy. there he was, laying dead on the glossy stone table. a small incense fire had been lit on his chest and had already begun to burn him. Casey immediately brushed it off of the child, putting out the fire and dusting away the ashes. he stare down and the boy, whose face still had blood stains running down from between his eyes and splatters all over his skin. Casey brushed the hair away from his forehead. he then wiped off some of the blood with his thumb and pressed it to his forehead, painting the mark of the Night. Casey whispered the same words Celestial had spoken when they made Casey and Dellta spirits. the mark glowed and turned from blood to a permanent tattoo on the child. Casey then carefully lifted the boy up in his arms, holding him gently and making his way back to the spirit tree.

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The boy opened his eyes slightly. everything was blurry and way too bright, and he had a horrible ache in his head. his gaze drifted upward as he tried to figure out who was holding him. his vision was still too poor to see them clearly. whoever it was, they seemed gentle. and their hands were very cold. their figure was dark, although their eyes seemed to be glowing yellow. the child tried to speak, but he couldn't even open his mouth. all that came out was a muffled "mmmm....mfff..." The figure slowed down for a second, looking down at him. "ah. you're awake. don't worry, Konton. you're safe now." their voice was tired and draggy, yet somehow warm in a strange way. wait...Konton? is that....my name? Konton. I like it. Chaos in japanese. wait, how do i know that? i don't speak japanese? what is going on?? The boy- Konton squinted his eyes to look at the person holding him. fur, ears, four eyes. what the fuck?? his vision was ever so slowly coming back to him....and his memory. he hadn't even thought of trying to remember what happened until now. it came in flashes. the men. the altar. the water. the knife. He didn't even realize he was crying until the person stopped next to a tree and set him down. the knelt down, reaching forward and brushing a tear off Konton's cheek. "hey. you're okay. no one will hurt you now. but i need you to listen to me for a bit, can you do that?" Konton nodded, bracing himself for whatever this strange person had to say. judging by their face, it was going to be long story.

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To be continued..

Holy shit that took forever. Fics are very time consuming. hope you guys liked it tho! please tell me if ya'll want more of this! i know i should work some more on posting HBT, but the Spirit Au is just so much fun! this kid was originally just a lil guy i made for @thr-333, but i liked him enough to make him canon, just like the stars! also, @allyheart707 @kitmay05 and @icequeenabby have all been included in this as their stars! sorry to the other stars, i just felt like these guys would fit best for the roles i had for them.

also! i was doobling the other day and made this :D

onii mask cuz why not? it's not a canon mask, i was just messing around :) that side profile looks like shit lol. but if you look closely you can see the scar from the incense fire on his chest. Konton doesnt remember the fire since it happened while he was dead. although he remembers everything else about his life except for names. even his. he can remember faces, but no names whatsoever. not even pets.

there is a lot more story to this and i might even continue it if y'all are interested. i also have a funky lil comic cooking in the background that i definitely haven't been procrastinating all weekend haha why would you ever think that :D

#HOLY FUCKING JESUS AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD IN HEAVEN ABOVE THIS WAS BOTH SUFFERING AND PURE HAPPINESS #i know this fic was incredibly short but all the art and all the brainstorming and all the worldbuilding leading up to this took AGES #im having so much fun tho #fuck #school starts again tomorrow #i wont have as much time to draw or be on tumblr and magma #:( #imma still draw a ton in class tho and hopefully make some stuff fo the eclipse since it happened literally right over where i live #SO MANY PEOPLE came here to see it #I saw a license plate from FRANCE #cool right? #it looked so different from the ones im used to #lots of people from tennessee as well #anyways have a good night/day #spirit au #my world #Not HBT related #First fic! #oc #:)

[camusscigarette]

Gimmie the Bedelia and Hannibal Headcannons 😈

Hannibal and Bedelia and their life as Parents:

Inspiration :Vous, you, toi, @starlight-nerd

Now, imagine Bedelia didn't have an abortion (reference to God knows what part of the Florence HCs), she would still hide the pregnancy from Hannibal. She's pregnant, she's anxious, he killed two people before her eyes she couldn't help but worry she might be next. So what if he ate her and her unborn child? No Bedelia would go insane.

She hid the pregnancy for two months. Fainted on the 4th,actually, late 4th almost at the beginning of her 5th month of pregnancy. They had an opera. No dress would zip fully. She wore a shape wear and a corset. Silly of her to think she's survive in the corset when her dress already had an imbedded corset as well. She fainted. I mean, to be fair, they had a wedding in plain daylight, everything smelled too floral,the sun was Killing her, and she the glass of champagne she had in hand to make it seem like she's drinking was drowning her poor nostrils. Oh, and she was on an empty stomach.

When he found out he gave her the silent treatment. Even when she cried and explained why she did what she did, he still gave her silence. He needed time to.process things. But don't confuse silence with neglect. Oh no. He was overprotective. He watched over her. Made her more Gelato because she has been eating those. the most during her first four months That disgusting craving of Vanilla ice cream with olive oil and sea salt. (His heart broke every time he combined those three ingredients in a bowl. Also, I think I started the Bedelia and Gelato cult on accident? Slay). Oh and baths. He wouldn't dare touch her stomach though.

She nagged his ear off when he was giving her silence. It lasted five days. She confronted him on the fifth with pure rage (also because he had messed up her favorite soup and she was utterly heartbroken by the change of flavors). He apologized and took her to bed that night. Spending a few hours in-between her legs and tending to her plum breasts. Because..well ..she grew more sensitive. Think smart not hard guys. (He thought both ways. He was hard all the time hearing her moan like that)

When it came to gender reveal, I know we all collectively agree she'd be a girl. She'd name her after a Targaryen. (Wasn't her idea it was Hannibal as her hair was such a bright colour of golden it looked white in the sun. Daenerys. Her name's Daenerys.)

The first thing they agreed to have in the nursery was a Library

The decoration in there is very.. Angelical.

Her labor was.. difficult. Very difficult. She was in Labor for three days. She refused to tell him she was in Labor. She was terrified. The last month she's been having nightmares about him hurting her and she refused to tell him, she refused to let him in, refused to let him take her to a hospital. She gave birth all on her own. At first, her baby didn't cry, but then, after a few gentle spanks she woke up. Her cries filling the room and that's when she allowed the midwife Hannibal had brought in to come and help.

First few nights were absolutely exhausting, he'd wake up with her and soothe Bedelia back to sleep once their daughter would fall back into slumber herself.

Hannibal took responsibility for her meals when she reached the age recommended for her to start with solids.

Bedelia produced a lot of breast milk, and pumping was exhausting and always left her sore. So...he may or may not have volunteered to soothe her on certain nights (certain? mhmm.....)

She discovered once a photo book of her journey, her pregnancy . Filled with pictures from every months. She keeps it in their private Library.

Hannibal does all the hair braiding. A Targaryen deserves Targaryen braids. He'd tell Bedelia.

Hannibal has a dramatic Victorian portrait of them when Daenerys was a baby. He plans on having a few more done when she's 5, when she's 12 and when she's 17-18. His princess deserves princess treatment.

He got her baptized in an Orthodox Church. To him it was symbolic. Bedelia couldn't care less.

Bedelia is a great mother to her child. She understood her so well. Yet she was slightly overprotective over. A tad bit too much. Afraid that her daughter might get taken advantage of, which is why she tossed away every other hobby and told Hannibal she wants her to take self defense. So they started with Boxing, then Muay Thai and Jiu Jiutsu.

Every once in a while (At the end of every month quite literally), Hannibal would get both Bedelia and Daenerys flowers. Peonies for Bedelia and Hibiscus for Daenerys.

Bedelia taught her how to garden. And how to shoot a gun.

Hannibal taught her how to cook. Unfortunately for him, she loves seafood more just like her mother.

They brought her teachers to teach her more languages. Hannibal spoke to her in Lithuanian sometimes and Bedelia in French. (Though he's learning High Valyrian for the sake of her name)

And that's possibly it? Idk, I'm not used to fluff 😭. Hope you liked it!!!!

#bedelia du maurier #hannibal lecter #bedannibal #hannibal #gillian anderson #canon? what is that #violets for roses #mads mikkelsen #hannibal headcanons #hannibal asks #parents #love them #bedannibal asks #bedannibal headcanons

[oneslimybastard]

Ghetsis facts:

>At least two grunts are scared of him (musharna being able to spook them off with visions of being scolded by Ghetsis)

>His speeches does in fact convince some people to release their pokémon or at least second-guess their view on the trainer-pokémon relationship

>Tells the grunts to give Bianca's Munna back

>Persuasive enough to essentially wiggle some of his Guys out of arrest in Driftveil, even if Clay does it reluctantly

>Knows Reshiram and Zekrom would not fuck with him so he picks up a miracle child from the forest to do it for him instead. Raises said child kind of like his own but also kind of not, there's a deliberate distance put between them

>Did make this wonderchild who can speak to pokémon and are clearly very empathetic towards them hang out with pokémon who had been mistreated for the purpose of instilling an ideology in him.

>Randomly has 3 ninjas who are just ride or die until the end of time for some reason

>Lots of team plasma is ride or die for him actually, otherwise Neo Team Plasma wouldn't have been a thing

>He rubs the death of Alder's partner pokémon in the mans face. All cheeky beaky like. Because he can.

>He will tell the teenager his Adopted I Swear Not Related Promise son is fixated on as a rival all about how he basically groomed say son into doing all of this dragon bullshit while having them cornered on a bridge. Then just casually walks off. His ninjas are there too.

>Will also happily tell said teenager they probably aren't that special or chosen or whatever, lol lmao, seems like ur dragon haven't woken up yet, dw maybe it will, lol.

>Cannot take an L to save his fucking life. Will lash out at everything and everyone around him and build a stupid airship with a stupid laser powered by the crinkly old grandpa of the dragon trio and do a terrorism before taking an L

>Refers to himself as being PERFECT while inhaling massive amounts of copium

>Needs a cane in bw2 and is only ever seen using one of his hands, so probably physically disabled to some degree

>Strong enough to jam the butt of that cane into the solid frozen earth of a cave. Probably just kind of a visual metaphor for him being threatening but also Hear Me Out What If He's Fucking Built-

>N is ride or die for him enough to still try and get through to him during the bw2 climax despite having been utilized as a silly little pawn yet again. This does not work, because as previously mentioned, man just cannot take that L

>When faced with literally no other option but to take an L, he passes out. His ninja squad punctuates this with him probably not being a threat anymore.

Ghetsis interpertation:

I think all of these things weave together into just a very fascinating person when you look at them a little deeper. Someone who's clearly charismatic enough to acquire that much loyalty, love, and fear — but also not equipped to handle the shame of failure in the god damn slightest. When threatened he devolves from a calculated cult leader above it all to a snarling animal fighting for its life, because he's probably rotted away behind a mask of perfectionism for years rather than done any significant growth as a person. He's clearly intelligent, probably highly emotionally intelligent because if he wasn't he wouldn't be able to pull this shit, but all of that shatters and breaks and splinters with one (1) crucial failure. He tries to recuperate but can't, the survival instinct is breathing down his neck because to him the shame of being a human like the rest of them rather than the perfect ideal he's been forging is scarier than anything that could actually physically kill him. He blames N, he blames MC, Colress, just about anyone and anything that doesn't end up pointing back to his own shortcomings.

And still! N probably loves him! And it's probably genuine! He wants to connect with him and breach that gap and give him ibuprofen because even if he's shown himself to be cringe, that's still his father, which is something he values enough to try and hold on to. And the ninja guys remain ride or die, so there's clearly something to him other than schemes and trickery, something genuine and beautiful that might not in practice be worth fighting for but it sure feels like it.

A beautiful man who's warped himself into a demon because he couldn't stand his own humanity because he's probably autistic and traumatized from his undefined childhood, and when he's beat down, rather than taking that L at long last, he'll curl up in his little cage, continue to snarl and tell himself over and over that this is what he is. What he will always be. He couldn't become god so he resigns to dying a devil. Because even still, that is preferable to him over taking that L, admitting to himself he is just a little guy like other little guys with problems he couldn't cope with, and that it caused hurt and destruction.

Devils don't feel regret or shame, humans do. And he'd have a loooot of that to chug through if he decided to face it. So he won't.

which is just very sexy and milfy and babygirl of him i think. this is my "why ghetsis is like so sexy actually" manifesto, without even tapping into the juice that is him going "nuh-uh" over his own dang disabilities but that too ties into how he can't cope with his own imperfect humanity so u know. Also that he's just kinda sassy and petty. Amazing. 10/10 best written character not in the games but in my brain.

#snail rant #long post #ghetsis is canonically hot and this is just true #pokemon black and white #ghetsis harmonia gropius #ghetsis #i guess this is meta but actually its just me grabbing you by the throat and preaching the gospel of why this old man makes me go BARK BARK

[gaydiation-poisoning]

FAITH: The Unholy Trinity is one of my favorite pieces of horror media ever, I adore it. Tbh I'm a big fan of 'Christian' horror (also see the Mandela Catalogue)

But holy shit you can TELL sometimes that these games were made by a Christian guy. Even if he doesn't have the full set of conservative views some of that Catholic bias is definitely still there. (I'm pretty sure Airdorf was a missionary ffs ew)

Like these are cool, incredibly well made games with a overall solid story and a simply unbeatable artstyle.

But it's not exactly subtle when a major plot point is an abortion clinic being used as a front for a cult harvesting child sacrifices for the antichrist. No I'm not joking.

#like what #faith the unholy trinity #faith the game #abortion mention

[cipheramnesia]

Good Queer horror movies?

I've probably got like three other asks like this floating around but what the hell we got halloween around the corner, let's take another spin.

Like, how good and how queer right? For example, I would put Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation solidly in the queer category. However, they do require a little bit of background reading and review to grok the queerness. There are also buckets of old movies with queer coding and queer subtext, but I lean more modern, so I'm gonna put down some favorites where the queerness is the text. The down side is it means I'm missing out on some movies I probably should recommend, but I can't sit here and parse out fifty titles.

Anyway, off the top recently I would say Sound of Violence has been a huge favorite of mine, with a queer and murderous protagonist, following an exploration of body horror and synesthesia of sound evoking a sexual response. This isn't for everyone but I adore it.

All Cheerleaders Die is a regular recommendation of mine on queer horror, although parts of it haven't aged very well. But on the other hand the theme of love and queerness is delicious, with a witch whose powers and love for her girlfriend are so strong they literally bring her back from the dead. More recently released is Seance, which is good but a bit middle of the road insofar as horror goes. Still and all, has a bit of the vibe of All Cheerleaders Die but with less of the tone deaf bits.

Der Samurai is, probably unintentionally, my favorite transfeminine horror movie. One trans woman, one katana, one cop trying to repress his queerness, one small town of bigots, and one night of explosive bloodshed. I've watched this movie three times and it always leaves me breathless.

Equally beautiful is Titane, a transmasculine horror movie with strong body horror elements and a great deal of unreliable perspective from the camera. While we can't tell everything that is real all the time, the hallucinatory journey is full of moments of heartbreak and beauty. I actually had to turn it off a moment in overwhelming happiness at the line "you have always been my son."

The trans horror that gave me the most intense experience, and the most trauma, was Boarding School, about a child experiencing the first sense of being trans, but while also undergoing a combination of abuse and trauma and generational trauma at a school where parents leave children they want to forget they have. Between the throughline of the protagonist's Jewish heritage, the moments of self-discovery which transform swiftly to shame or violence, and the moment of claiming themselves for themselves like a phoenix, if you are trans, this movie will both fuck you up and call you out really bad.

I recently saw Jamie Marks Is Dead, a gay ghost story that is also a wonderful illustration of how limited the idea of horror being about "scary movies" is. It's painful and sad and true and had me weeping. Spiral (2019, aka "the good one") is an excellent killer cult / satanic panic type of movie which also really explores the differences of the gay experience a white guy has vs a black guy, with a big heaping of gaslighting and PTSD. While I think Jamie Marks is a more soulful movie, Spiral stands apart as a great example of how a horror movie can be a very good conventional horror movie that happens to have queer protagonists, while including lots of juicy subtext to make it a deeper and richer experience.

There's a few more solid wlw movies I'm gonna toss in at the end here, which I think are pretty good but don't have the energy to go into a lot of detail: Thelma, Raw, and Bloodthirsty. Of course there is one widely Tumblr-popular wlw horror movie that you might notice hasn't been included in the body of this text. The omission is intentional, and judgemental.

#queer horror #horror movies

[inkedobsidian]

~ Mr. and Mrs. Smith ~ M.R

prompt: 33. “I could punch you right now.”

requested by: @stilessbaseballbat

summary: good old sexual tension

pairing: Mitch Rapp x Reader

warnings: slight nsfw due to tension

word count: 1,584

a/n: Requests are open! Prompt list is there if you guys want extra ideas!

Master-List - Prompts

Despite it being 2 am it wasn't unusual to find Y/N and Mitch in the sparring area. They'd been partners in training and the field for almost 3 years by this point. People were surprised at how easily they clicked as partners but the truth is in the files. Just under 3 years and a comprehensive list of at least 45 eliminated targets left them no time to relax, not even in between jobs. That's what leads them to working out, sparring at 2 am.

"You know if you keep hitting me like a child you're gonna lose your touch in the field," Y/N said hopping in between stances in front of Mitch who'd previously just been bitch-slapped across the face. Most other times this would be inappropriate but in under a second of thought Mitch had picked up Y/N across his shoulder and slammed her on the ground letting all the air leave her chest.

"You know if you keep bitch slapping me I'm gonna put my knee under your spine next time," Mitch said without a sliver of sarcasm as he helped Y/N back up off the floor. It was very entertaining watching 2 trained killers express affection in a very twisted way. Any normal human would think they're trying to kill each other.

"Next time my ass." Was the last word uttered before Y/N sent an uppercut straight to Mitch's chin. This then led to a solid 10 minutes of very intense sparring while also a very intense battle of quips as if they were both in a buddy cop movie.

That was until Mitch landed a lucky punch that split Y/N's lip. He noticed the second he did it and so did Y/N as she felt the skin-pop. It wasn't a big deal to her people get injured while sparring it doesn't make a difference but it makes Mitch feel bad every time she gets a cut due to sparring.

"Okay, we're done." Mitch said taking his knuckle wraps off and walking away. Y/N always gets fed up when he ends sparring early to due an injury, but she knew he means well. Y/N walks away without another word and heads to the kitchen walking through the forest from the sparring gym to the cabin again. By the time Mitch had cleared up and followed her out of the gym Y/N was already sitting down at the island in the kitchen with a bag of peas over her mouth and 2 glasses of whiskey in front of her.

"Here you go, princess," Y/N said throwing another bag of peas towards him to help with the shiner that she'd left on his right eye. He catches it with a wink and puts the bag on his eye taking his seat next to her, and taking a sip of the whiskey she poured for him. So they proceeded to sit in silence sipping their whiskeys with different bags of peas on their face numbing the pain of different injuries when Hurley walked in to get an early morning glass of whiskey before he inevitably went back to sleep.

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith," Hurley said nodding to them both as he passed to grab his own drink. Y/n had heard a range of nicknames for her and Rapp over the past 3 years, Cosmo and Wanda was her personal favorite, but this was a new one so it was difficult for her to stifle a laugh. Mitch however didn't get the reference, of course, he didn't. He didn't question it either, not until Hurley left that is.

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith?" Mitch questioned Y/N. She just turned to him with a confused face wondering why he repeated what Hurley said, unless…

"Have you never seen that movie?" Y/N said pulling her whole body back in shock at the audacity. Mitch just shook his head slowly worried for her (over) reaction to him not seeing a hailed 'cult classic.' This sprung Y/N into a 10-minute synopsis of the movie filling her whiskey glass up as they'd already drunk it and refilled it twice. By the time Y/N was done with her explanation she looked to Mitch to gauge his reaction and obviously she got nothing, considering he'd had a hard time following along with what she was saying as he was too busy looking at the bust lip he gave her… or maybe he was just looking at her lips. He shook his head after that thought but realized the shake seen dismissive and followed it with,

"Never seen it, sounds interesting." He said covering all bases considering he didn't actually pay attention.

"I swear when we're back from this mission I'm making a list of movies we need to watch, starting with Mr. and Mrs. Smith," Y/N says putting the bag of peas on her neck. Mitch hadn't even noticed there was a bruise near her neck until that moment, or maybe he was noticing the drop of water from the outside of the bag fall down her neck and further down unt-

"What I have to spend MORE time with you outside of our job?" Mitch coughed out trying to talk about literally anything else. Y/N looked fake offended for a moment which was really just putting her lower lip down in a frown, which led Mitch back to the cut on her lip… or her lips. "Okay fine you got me movie night it is," He said breaking trying to get a change of conversation as quickly as he could.

"Wow, didn't think you'd be THAT easy Rapp. Interesting." Y/N drew out the last syllables to annoy Mitch, and it worked. He moved his body to face her more and dropped the bag of peas to give her a full condescending stare. That was the first time Y/N had actually looked at the bruise on his face and when she did her face softened in empathy for the pain. Mitch didn't know what she was thinking about he had just seen her entire body relax and her face softens as she looked straight at him. He watched intently as she reached out to press around the bruise to see if it was going to grow any further, thankfully it didn't seem to hurt where she was pressing but it was burning in a way he couldn't understand at the moment. Maybe it was just the whiskey making his skin reactive to warmth, that had to be it.

That was until Y/N stood up to get something from the cupboards to make food and Mitch's body got up without his mind telling him to. He ended up standing directly behind her his breath hitting the back of her neck where the ice had just been meaning she felt it intensely across her back. She expected him to move as if he was just shuffling past her but she was wrong, he just stood there not really touching her no matter how much her mind begged that he would. She decided in a moment of weakness to turn around and face him and there he was, not moving a muscle just observing her.

"Awfully close there Rapp, I could punch you right now," Y/N said laughing hoping that the sarcastic threat would elicit the same response from him and would snap him out of whatever was happening. She was ultimately wrong as the comment made Mitch close the distance he's left, but as she also stepped back she realized there was no more room as her back was to the kitchen counter. Mitch just watched her for a moment not understanding how it's taken him this long to truly notice her features individually. Of course, he was aware she was attractive he wasn't blind, they'd been partners for years and he'd seen her dressed for balls and all sorts of occasions but there was a difference between attractiveness and pure beauty. Maybe it was the sarcastic comments she made as they were fighting to make him less anxious, maybe it was the way she always defended him to Hurley in their earlier days, or simply maybe it was Hurley referencing them as a couple that he began to think about them in every way a couple exists.

He brought his hand up to her cheek swiping his thumb across her lip and cleaning up the excess blood from when it re-split as she laughed. That was when it clicked in Y/N's head, or at least she thought she was right. She was hoping at the moment that it wasn't just the alcohol and the testosterone from working out. Although maybe the aftermath would be easier if he was just drunk and being a bit more confident than usual. Both of them knew it wasn't the case as the air around them shifted and the tension seemed to turn quite quickly to lust even though all they were doing was looking each other in the eyes. People underestimate the intimacy of truly looking at someone and letting them see you for who you are, and that's what Rapp was doing for the first time he was truly looking at the same woman who'd been in front of him for years and he finally let her see him.

"Yeah.. you could." was the last thing he whispered before he closed the space taking her lips on his ignoring the bloody lip, and the fact they were in the cabin with Hurley just 2 doors away.

#mitch rapp #american assassin #mitch rappxreader #mitch rapp x y/n #mitch rapp x you #mitch rapp fanfiction #mitch rapp fanfic #mitch rapp imagine #dylan o'brien #dylan o'brian x reader #dylan o'brian imagine #dylan o'brien x y/n #dylan o'brien x you

[ace-writer-lani]

Sneak Peak at my Son of Persephone Nico AU:

(This is the main fic and part 3 of my Blooming from Darkness series)

Excerpt of Chapter One: Aquamarine (Bianca's POV):

“Who said we are going anywhere? We don’t even know who you people are and you’re trying to recruit us to join your cult?” Bianca paused, remembering Percy’s own cryptic words. “Are you trying to recruit us for a cult too?”

“Yes. I mean no!” he stuttered, “I guess the army he’s trying to force you into can be considered a cult, but I’m just here to save you guys and bring you to a place made for people like us.”

Bianca took a step away from him, tugging Nico with her. “People like us? You just made it sound even more like a cult!”

Percy gave a frustrated groan and opened his mouth. But before he could say anything, whether it was to defend his not-cultish-camp or not, something solid and completely invisible rammed into them, knocking the three of them to the ground.

A new voice rang out, shouting “For Zeus!” and Bianca looked up to see a girl with short, spikey hair. She had an almost raw aura to her, radiating a sense of authority and power as she charged at Dr. Thorn with a large spear and shield. There were two other kids that fought alongside her: one was another girl with blonde curls that almost seemed…familiar, and the other was a boy with a wispy goatee that ran weirdly. Percy sighed at relief at the sight of them, so they were probably with him.

As if today could get any weirder. Bianca knew she and Nico should’ve gone with her plan to fake being sick so that they wouldn’t have had to go to the winter dance in the first place.

It was too late for that though and now she had to deal with three possible cultists and whatever Dr. Thorn was because he was starting to transform more and more into something definitely not human with every blow he took. He looked as if someone had a baby with both a lion and a scorpion at the same time, which was a combo she wished she had never gotten the chance to see.

“What is going on?” Bianca cried, shielding Nico from another black spike that whizzed through the air. “What is that?!”

The blonde drew a dagger from a holster strapped around her thigh. It was the same bronze color as Percy’s sword and flashed under the moonlight.

“He’s a manticore!” she said, and Nico gasped, “Watch out for the spikes because they contain poison.”

“Oh really, Annabeth?” Percy muttered, drawing his blade. “That would have been nice to know before I got stabbed in the shoulder.”

“Normally people tend to, you know, avoid sharp things whether or not it’s poison, Seaweed Brain.”

“Is that really a manticore?!” Nico asked, eyes wide. He tugged on her sleeve repeatedly. “Bia! Bia! It’s just like in Mythomagic! Manticores have three thousand attack power, plus five to saving throws, and-”

“Please, not now fratellino,” Bianca whispered calmly (because she could not lose control). Then she stepped forward, making sure Nico was within her sight and out of the line of fire before she clicked the button of her ring. It transformed into a crossbow in a fluid motion, and she started to shoot at the manticore.

“What the fuck?” yelped the spikey-haired girl when an arrow nearly hit her after the monster dodged it. If Bianca’s hands weren’t currently occupied, she would have immediately covered Nico’s ears at the profanity. “Who gave her a crossbow?” She gave Percy a glare. “Was it you, Jackson? Did you think it was a good idea to give a dangerous weapon to a child?”

“Again, you're at a military school. Plus, you guys are literally children too-”

At the same time Percy said, “I didn’t give it to her! She already had it! Why do you always assume I did something wrong?”

The girl ignored him, turning to the other boy who was blowing a set of reed pipes. It was a bright little tune that clashed with the atmosphere of the situation they were in, but when Bianca looked harder, the music seemed to be controlling plants…unless Bianca was starting to hallucinate.

(Maybe she was the one on drugs.)

-

The rest of the chapter will be posted on my ao3 either tonight or within the next few days so stay tuned ;)

Update: first chapter is posted here!

#writers on tumblr #fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #fic writing #nico di angelo #bianca di angelo #writing #blooming from darkness #The Children of Spring and Destruction #pjo fanfic #pjo #son of persephone nico #yes im giving bianca the character and development she deserves #bianca deserves better

[gas-stxtion]

Tales From the Gas Station (Vol. 1) Starters

a series of starters based on volume one of the Tales From the Gas Station series, because no one else was gonna do it, so. here we go. one quote from each chapter of the first book!

content warnings: mentions of murder, death, and drugs.

“I’m not inclined to lose my job just because you didn’t escape captivity with a little spare change in your pocket.”

"The scariest thing of all is realizing the monster was in the room with you the whole time."

"Whether or not you are a hallucination is none of my business, and I'll leave that up to you to decide."

"At least they didn't throw a beer bottle at me this time."

"I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but I don't really care for cults."

"[Name] has been dead for two days. His body is in the trunk of my car.”

"You're putting words in my mouth, and I don't like when other people put things in my mouth."

"He just stared at the ground with a sheepish, guilty look on his face like a toddler that just got busted for dealing drugs."

"Even as a child, I wasn't gullible enough to believe that birthday wishes were real."

"Carrying secrets makes you too old too fast. You wanna talk about it?"

"What purpose do we as humans serve other than to eat and wait to die?"

“The doctor was just doing his job. His creepy, voyeuristic job.”

“Joke’s on you. People already think I’m crazy.”

“I’d say the package was just about the right size for a dead cat.”

“Well, if I accidentally kill you, that’s probably my bad. If I accidentally kill you twice, it’s a hell of a coincidence. But if I accidentally kill you three times? Three times? Well that’s on you. You gotta take some personal responsibility.”

“I recently learned that I am somewhat Internet famous.”

“Imagine, if you will, the sound of a butcher’s knife hitting a watermelon. Like a solid, wet, thwack. Now imagine the watermelon gurgling and falling to the ground like a sack of potatoes.”

“I never expected to take anyone’s life, but now that I had, the act turned out to be way more inconsequential than I could have ever anticipated.”

“We’ve never done that thing normal friends do. I hear people call it ‘hanging out.’”

“The name of the game was avoid and evade. Confrontation and eye contact. Just like prison.”

“Hey, guys, I gotta go. I think I heard a baby crying somewhere outside.”

“There’s a guy on the ceiling. His skin is all gray and he’s just lying there on the ceiling.”

“Don’t trust your eyes. You may see something that looks impossible. It probably is. There may be a dead loved one trying to call you outside. Don’t listen to them. They aren’t real.”

“He was the nicest guy that had pointed a gun in my face all week.”

“Great. Now let’s talk about the guy living in your supply closet.”

“Are you about to do the villain thing and explain everything that’s going on?”

“I know it’s a cliche, but ignorance really is bliss.”

#rp memes #starter memes #sentence starters #//feel free to rb this from me if desired lmao #//i'm not a meme source normally but i might make a couple more of these #//for specific arcs and short stories #//or even other weird obscure shit i'm into #you know this whole thing is one big experiment‚ right? and you're the little mouse? {ooc} #i don't think you know how the internet works {memes} #//if any of my mutuals rb this i am sending some. of course. i have no fucking choice.

[mantisgodsdomain]

For the choose violence ask game: 5, 24, and... 16.

(Choosing Violence)

5. worst discord server and why

Listen we have a VERY SOLID answer for this one specifically for BF but we have been in some Very Bad Discord servers over the years. Fandomless, it would have to be [server we were in that gradually devolved into something that counted as a cult by BITE model] or [pokemon server we were in once where a guy called us a faggot for saying that he was getting way too worked up over random NPCs blocking the path]. For current-fandom servers... we're like 70% sure that it we name it it'll get back to the One Specific Guy that made it so very miserable to Be There but uhh

We were once in a BF server which was actively hostile to human life in a way that slowly crept fingers into your skin until it hampered your capacity to communicate with other people and it may have had lasting impact in making us significantly more reactive to people having certain takes on The Hive because we got used to not being able to bring it up in any even remotely negative context without One Specific Guy appearing to tell us not to slander the hive like that.

We are still working on undoing that particular damage but The Hive is one of those places where we find it VERY hard to be even remotely charitable about them because they Suck Very Hard in a way we're personally familiar with so it's likely that the best we're going to get there is, like, "comfortable enough to write a very long essay on how the structures seen present in the hive would harm its inhabitants".

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

...we're pretty sure that having any opinion at all in the Rain World fandom opens you up to being shot on sight? Like, we're not affiliated with the fandom as a whole anymore, but we're WAY too familiar with their Attitude towards takes. Part of the reason we don't participate anymore, actually.

In all seriousness, this is one we've posted about Recently, actually! Every time someone brings up Vi's age and how it's handled in-game, it tends to kick up the WORST discourse. Like, every time, it tends to devolve into a lot of, like... people who have Strong Opinions on What A Child Should Be and a lot of arguing about, like. "if you think she's Not A Kid then it's because you're a creep" and whatever.

We're well aware we've contributed to this, as we have strong feelings on the matter, but we may not be The Best at cohering them into speech - we don't really have the proper tools vocabulary-wise to fully cohere how we feel on the matter, so we tend to just stay away, even if it sucks to see people being Wrong On The Internet.

For our opinion... we've said this before, but we don't really think that a Discord post from 2019 should be taken as gospel for this, and we REALLY don't think that being 17 should mean she should be, like, treated the same as a twelve-year-old or something similar.. A lot of people, to be quite honest, act REALLY WEIRD about this, and we have VERY little patience for the infantilization that crops up constantly in these conversations for reasons we've mostly already stated in aforementioned Recent Post.

It's the sort of thing where, were it any other situation, referring to Vi as A Child would just vaguely annoy us with the modern internet's complete and total lack of any categories between "cute innocent child" and "totally 100% responsible adult" and make us mark someone as a sort of guy we're Very Much not interested in engaging with, as she's Very Obviously aged out of the bracket where she SHOULD be being called a kid, but with the situation as is it makes us lose our mind because Holy Shit, Have You Not Seen The Same Scenes As Us, There Is Baggage Attached To That Word You Have Clearly Not Thought Through.

We wish that this territory of fandom sucked Less. Unfortunately, we occasionally click on works that make us feel like we've just reached into a Get Attacked By Monkeys Box. That is a young adult who commits tax evasion. Please don't treat a woman who worked at a factory for years and was a known patron of an underground bar like she's an eight-year-old who doesn't know what sex is. We've been through this with Papyrus and we really don't want to do it again.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

WHAT is the appeal of Modern Without Magic??? Why the fuck would we ever want a Human AU of anything??? Why is this a genre??? Why are normal human high school AUs a thing why is it so appealing to reduce characters that used to be something Interesting down to Human High School Guy #627482 we don't understand

#asks #we speak #ask game #fandom bullshit #hi we have opinions. this took A Bit to answer #if we word things poorly here then please dont kill us about it

[rachelbethhines]

60 Years of Doctor Who Anniversary Marathon - Martin: 3rd Review

Origins - Comic 

I got the graphic novel version of this one, and it includes all four main issues and the bonus Free Comic Book Day story.

The Free Comic Book Day issue acts as a prologue of sorts, but doesn’t really add much as it originally was intended to be a separate standalone story. So I’m going to talk about it as such.

I hope you enjoy today's special: two reviews for the price of one!

FCBD 2022

The Fugitive Doctor lands on Earth in the year 1962 and saves a bunch of children from a group of alien invaders... or rather the little kids save themselves and she just captures the bad guys afterward. She’s then deemed ‘cool’ and invited to ‘hang’, but she can’t stick around. Though she does reflect how Earth is starting to grow on her just a bit.

Then we cut to the First Doctor and Susan first arriving on Earth in 1963. The End.

I understand what they were trying to go for here; that the Doctor chose earth as his first adventure with Susan, because he subconsciously remembers being Martin, but it doesn’t really work. Mainly because Martin’s Doctor doesn’t work as a pre-Hartnell incarnation. Even if you buy The Other/Timeless Child/Morbius Incarnations ect., she still doesn’t fit.

Look, for the sake of augment, let’s pretend that the Master and the Matrix wasn’t lying (even though they always lie); any pre-Hartnell incarnations wouldn’t call themselves the Doctor, they wouldn’t have a tardis that looks like a Police Box, and they wouldn’t have the same moral code that we associate with the Doctor.

Hartnell is called the ‘First Doctor’ because he’s the person who grew into the Doctor. Both in the meta sense and within the canon of the series itself.

He wasn’t called the Doctor until Barbra and Ian gave him that name. He didn’t form his moral code until he met them and learned form them. And the Tardis didn’t become a blue Police Box until it landed in that junkyard in 1963.

To suggest otherwise is to shit all over 60 years of character development, and that is where I draw the line.

Mess with continuity and the lore all you want. Reset the retcon button each era. I don’t care. But do not erase the development of the main character!

Fortunately, it’s all so incompetently done that it’s easy to ignore.

The connection between Martin’s Doctor and Hartnell’s Doctor is so vague and disconnected that you can just assume whatever you want. 

Look, I like Martin, I like her Doctor. I’m happy to have her. But give me any other explanation for her other than Pre-Hartnell, or worst, mealy mouthed allusions with no resolution. Please, I’m begging you show.

Origins

Thankfully the main story is far better.

The Doctor is tasked by the Division to ‘eliminate’ a terrorist cult that threatens Gallifrey.... Only to find out that said ‘cult’ are really just Gallifreyans themselves, looking to leave their home planet and start life anew.

This deception, of course, is what inspires her to break ties with the Division and is supposed to lead into The Fugitive of the Judoon.

Well not quite. Lee is absent, so we’re meant assume that other stories exist between this one and Fugitive of the Judoon.

Instead we get Taslo as the Doctor’s companion.

I really like Taslo.

She has a lot of layers to her and a nice arc.

Similar to Romana, she’s a Time Lord fresh out of the academy and assigned by the High Council to assist the Doctor in her mission.

And that’s where the similarities end. They have two completely different personalities, skill sets, and character developments. 

Taslo is primarily a solider, an undercover agent. Like all Time Lords she is smart, but not smarter than any other Gallifreyan. You get the feeling that she’s decidedly average by Gallifreyan standards, but was chosen for the job because she’s inexperienced and young, and therefore easier to manipulate by the Division.

That’s interesting.

Like, that’s really, really interesting. A Time Lord that isn’t amazingly special at first glance; who’s neither a renegade nor a person of political power. She’s just normal... or at least normal to a Gallifreyan.

And that’s fascinating because it gives us more of a glimpse into Gallifreyan culture than perhaps any story ever has before. How the machinations of those in power are viewed by the everyday citizens, and how someone who isn’t intended to be a female Doctor clone (sorry Romana fans, but it’s true) would behave.

The dynamic between her and the Doctor is also great. It’s another mentor/student relationship, but its handled really well.

Over all I’m sadden that she’ll most likely wind up as a one off character.

Anything else? Oh I do like the idea of Time Lords being able to reintegrate to match their environment. That’s cool.

All in all I highly recommend this comic. Especially fans of Martin’s Doctor. Also, the graphic novel version is probably easier to get a hold of. I went for the digital copy myself. 

#doctor who #nuwho #jo martin #fugitive doctor #The Other #the timeless child #Taslo

[kineticallyanywhere]

Hi there! I've not kept up with marvel but I was wondering how moon night is. I've seen bunches of fun art and was curious to what's it about/and how like connected it is to reg marvel Thanks!

I LOVED it. I love it. It is 6 episodes made with clear love and passion.

As for what it is, think a combination India Jones-eque thriller and deep-dive character study. There are scenes basically spending solid minutes of screen time in what cannot be described as anything other than horror, but then it's also funny (and not as a means of just breaking tension) and also some of the best hugs I've seen on TV. Big emotional moment between two guys where you want them to hug but Hollywood prepared you to be disappointed? Hug. There's also romantic moments that exist and play a role in the space but also don't take up the whole dang plot. LAYLA EL-FAOULY. Woman with her own priorities who refuses to be sidelined and is allowed to look however she wants on camera. She has EYEBAGS and HAIR OUT OF PLACE and FIGHTS LIKE A SURVIVOR and I LOVE HER FOR IT.

What it's about: this is kind of light spoilers, since the first episode tells you jack and lets you be hella confused and it's wonderful for it, but basically: A guy discovers that he's not the only person in his body, and the guy he's headmates with is the Avatar of an Egyptian god and is also kinda in the middle of stopping a cult from resurrecting another Egyptian god[dess] who will kill a ton of people. The plot is technically about stopping the cult, but the meat and the bones of the whole thing is learning about Steven and Marc, where they came from, and how they want to live when it's all over. and also BREAKING MY HEART

MCU?: What MCU. don't worry about it. this show does not want to be bothered with whatever everyone else has got going on. there's some references to the greater mcu in the background and in one or two off-handed lines that you'll miss unless you know what to look for, and the pedestrians aren't calling bloody murder every 2 seconds, and that's it. They don't even mention the blip or tell you who got dusted (though I did a search and it sounds like the writers wrote as if they did not get dusted, they survived)

other IMPORTANT: check the content warnings. Episode 5 in particular is heavy, and I'd hate for someone sensitive to the content to waltz in unprepared. In most episodes, the main warnings are just for flashing lights and/or violence, but episode 5 also prominently features: suicidal ideation, visually clear intent to commit suicide (which is stopped), emotional child abuse (on screen), and physical child abuse (taken off screen before followed through on, though there's a very brief moment of audio iirc). They also play with elements of questioning what is or isn't real, so if that's something you don't want to be exposed to, this may be worth avoiding.

there are other things about the show worth looking into that I hold myself back from rambling even more about cause I've gone on for a while already and am not the most qualified to talk about them, those things being the show's connection to dissociative identity disorder, the main characters' Jewish heritage, and the depictions of Egypt and Egyptian characters. there are lots of great posts around about all of those things (most I've seen being very positive! though I know I'm still reading for more) written by people who know their stuff, I've got some in my likes Ive been meaning to reread and reblog

I could also go on about the cinematography and the acting and the choreography in the fights but

tl;dr it's my favorite MCU property

#ask ka #me talking #moon knight