#this is the 'fuck around and find out' subgenre

[the-witchhunter]

You know, if Spider Punk gets people interested in punk, good. We all have to start somewhere and Hobie is a damn good representation. If he is what makes a person go “hey, this seems cool, I should check it out.” good. That’s one more person interested in punk and wanting to get into it. 

That being said, if you are new to punk(hi baby punks!) some things to keep in mind

1. Punk philosophy is largely anti-authoritarian. Individual and even punk communities differ on specifics, and some are more political than others, but the core themes tend to be resisting those who would control and oppress us, and supporting and including people in your community

2. Punk fashion SHOULD NOT BE EXPENSIVE. A lot of fashion companies will try and sell you jackets for a couple hundred bucks, but that’s just corporations trying to cash in on a subculture. A big part of Punk and its history is DIY because Punk should be open to everyone and putting that behind a fashion paywall is just not punk. You don’t even need to be dressing punk to BE punk, but thrift your clothes. Make stencils and use spray paint or bleach to give it a pattern. Use old jeans to make patches. Buy your spikes and studs in bulk and go wild. Turn your old t shirt that doesn't fit anymore into a back patch. Go crazy with some safety pins. You can make more with $30 than you can buy from a designer for $300. And skill is not needed, frankly if it looks a little wonky it makes it look more punk

3. Dental floss makes for good thread for sewing on patches. It’s good for thick, stylistic stitches and is both cheap and durable. Don’t know why I made this its own point but it’s one of the most common tricks for punk DIY besides taking paint to scraps of fabric to make a patch. Honestly, if you want to know how to do more, just ask other punks how they made their vests and jackets, they’ll probably be happy enough to tell you

4. Punk philosophy and music is closely related. The communities evolved around the music scene so it is closely linked. Give some punk bands a try if you haven't already. There’s a bunch of subgenres so you’ll probably find something you like. From OG “proto punk” where the sound was still developing into what we call punk, to pop punk, anarco punk, and folk punk. There are people who say you can’t be punk if you don’t listen to the music, and there’s a whole conversation to be had about all that, but it’s just a good idea to try listening to some punk music

5, Nazis fuck off

6. Seriously, nazis fuck off. There’s a whole history behind it and why we associate skinhead punks with neo nazis. Largely we’ve made it clear we don’t want nazis in our community and the street punk music scene that nazi punks became associated with has made strides to separate themselves from that.

7. Be cool and respectful of people regardless of religion, ethnicity, race, sexuality, gender, background, etc. Solidarity with our community is important and all sorts are welcome. Gatekeeping isn’t cool and frankly women and minorities have done a lot for punk as a whole. Respect for everyone

#punk #baby punk #spider punk #hobie brown #hobart brown #DIY #punk DIY #punk fasion

[triflesandparsnips]

The thing I am fucking feral about today: this shit.

Look. Look at this.

Stede, by and large, is not a Toucher. (That’s a whole separate essay.) He’s hesitant as fuck about it, and tends to initiate contact, if at all, through some intermediary: clothing, air, etc. Later, with Ed, he’ll do incidental touches, little things that could be explained away like the brush of arms together, etc.

(THIS IS NOT THAT ESSAY.)

But look at this shit. “May I?” Stede asks, and he gives it a moment but Ed doesn’t actually hand it over. He doesn’t even answer.

And Stede just reaches out, takes an end of the silk, and

slowly

drags it

through Ed’s fingers as Ed fucking tilts his eyes upwards in complete silence, his gaze clicking from spot to spot as his heart gets unwound from his lax -- but not relaxed -- grip.

And while I like the meta where Stede has NO FUCKING CLUE ABOUT HOW SEDUCTIVE HE'S BEING, I also like the idea that for the first time in his life, because this is a Queer Situation, Stede has the glimmerings of Game. Because, my god, the forwardness of it. He didn't wait for Ed to give it to him. He just reached out and took, but in such a syrup-slow manner that Ed could’ve said no, could’ve just tightened his fingers if he didn’t want to let Stede take this precious thing-- and Stede’s giving him that time while simultaneously also making some pretty great allusions, intentional or not, to how exactly he’d make his move, if a move he ever made.

Like, “May I?" Stede would ask, and Ed (Blackbeard) wouldn’t move, wouldn’t say a word, but he wouldn’t step away either, would just watch Stede with a clicking gaze as Stede stepped forward, raised his hands, and drew Ed syrup-slow toward him, every moment one where Ed could turn away and every moment clear that Stede was here, wanting this, wanting him, and deliberate in his want.

So my god, the pure queer seduction of this scene: the intermediary object as a stand-in for themselves; the plausible deniability; the silent consent (a subgenre of plausible deniability); coded language; “innocent” touch as protective camouflage...

(It’s a little distressing to consider how much queer romantic context comes from trying to be both Open to a possibility while simultaneously trying not to get the shit beaten out of us for being wrong. It’s a powerful language. It’s a tragic one. It’s what makes it feel so special if it goes right.)

Anyway. Stede may have no idea the levels he’s playing at here, but he’s a man who was explicitly and in canon abused for displaying a particular flavor of non-masculine behavior. Even if he doesn’t know he’s queer, he knows the need for the language of safety; he’s been learning it since childhood. So he speaks it-- and Ed, who engages in at least “when at sea” levels of queer living, picks up on it like the Stede-radio he’s been tuning for ages now to find a signal that explains him has suddenly gone from static to the crystal-clear notes of Gnossienne No. 5.

Is it any wonder that Ed’s oh no moment is fucking palpable here? Is it any wonder that Stede comes away from this scene a little more certain of himself around Ed, able to argue him into staying, pull him into a treasure hunt, touch his bare arm against Ed’s when they become co-captains?

GAH these fuckheads, look at them.

#our flag means death #ofmd #meta #moonlight scene #stede bonnet #edward teach #ed teach #queer narratives #homophobia

[kooberryfields4ever]

of course first post has to be nsfw blog rite of passage…… my take on the nsfw alphabet :3 gonna go thru and edit a bunch of fics to start posting but until then have this !!!!! been thinking long and hard abt heeseung&02z …….. needed to get this off my chest rly

cw warnings : major nsfw under the cut, cumplay, masturbation, piv sex, etc etc

MDNI !

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

i don’t see heeseung as swaying particularly dominant/submissive…… not necessarily vanilla but almost lazy in the way he has sex so i don’t see aftercare being a big deal to him

ofc expect the bare minimum: cleans u up, helps change the sheets, kisses n cuddles

heavy on the cleans them up.. ..… …. can’t help but think abt how much heeseung LOVES to see his partner covered in his cum, whether he finishes on ur chest, ur belly, ur thighs or ur pussy doesn’t matter to him he just loves to see it🤤🤤🤤….. .. … so yeah cleaning u up is a necessity almost every time

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

fav part of himself is his hands…… do i even need to elaborate

just loves touching his partner and why else would he find any other body part as good as his hands when his other body parts can’t grab a handful of ur tits/ass ????

fav part of his partner’s is drum roll plz………….. their tummy

when he’s eating u out he just can’t help but reach out n press his fingers into ur hips n his thumb into ur belly….. .. though he loves to cum anywhere on u his all time favourite is ur tummy, could get him hard again easily if he sees his cum pooling in and around ur bellybutton urrtgghhhhg

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

i literally cannot see heeseung not loving cumplay . like come on

self-admitted jealous type ……… yeah it’s over ur getting painted with his cum and fucked full if u even so much as mention another man

messy with it, loves cumming inside but give him the opportunity to pull out and finish somewhere he can rly see it and it’s a done deal

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

watches league of legends porn . it’s miss fortune …. not elaborating.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

i reckon he’s experienced enough to know what goes where and all that ….. would probs be able to be vocal abt what he likes

i can’t see him getting much time in his schedule to explore his sexuality much so count jacking off and enjoying subgenres of porn as a pillar for experience as well

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

missionary DONT YAWN. just loves being able to bury his head in ur tits and fuck u slow and hard until he cums … and then guess what ……. ur tummy is right there

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

i’d say he can be a bit of a goofball, i don’t see him taking sex too seriously

not necessarily the type to just crack jokes during but not opposed to having a giggle if one of u makes a silly noise or if someone walks in

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

trims but isn’t too fussed about it really, makes him feel manly when he sees his full bush. occasional groomer of the pubes

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

can be super romantic if he rly rly misses u but idk i don’t see heeseung as the sentimental romantic type much…… likes sex cos it feels good and its an excuse to look at ur tits

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

frequent enough . he is a libra after all

probs the type to get a bit bored on his day off and have a wank after going 3/11 on a league game

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

cum cum cum cum cum cum cum

like idk heeseung seems sooo messy to me during sex like if he eats u out he wants to see u dripping onto the sheets nd i don’t need to mention the cumming on ur body thing again ….

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

his bed, he likes it best when ur both a little tired but too horny to sleep so he can just push ur panties to the side and slip in to fuck u slow until ur cumming around him

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

ur boobies . whether they’re out or under a shirt or small or big he just loves seeing them…. plays with ur nipples while u scroll on ur phone in bed, maybe pulls up ur shirt n sucks on them until he makes himself too horny to stop n he has to fuck u (and paint ur tits white)

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

anything too public … likes having u to himself and when ur in the privacy of his bedroom/dorm he gets to make u all dirty, he can’t do that without getting arrested in public unfortunately ://

probs hard dom stuff …. maybe not too shy for a spank here and there but the idea of being rly dominant or degrading u or tying u up etc is just not for him

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

loves receiving, he gets to cum on ur face and tits which is always a bonus👍

not a selfish lover but definitely gets bored of giving head sometimes …. thinks quite literally with his dick like he needs to see it stuffed in u

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

i think heeseung is generally slow and sensual but if u asked he could fuck u faster n harder

he just loves how u clench when his strokes r slow and deep nd he can press against ur cervix without bruising u and ruining the fun

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

quickies are not his forté ! he’s definitely not opposed to them but he prefers being able to take his time…. quickies mean sensible cumming and heeseung would rather wait…..

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

i cannot see him as a risk taker at all, riskiest he would go is having u bounce on his cock in the living room while nobody else is home, but even then he’s just thinking abt how close his bedroom is and how easy it’d be to pick u up while ur impaled on his dick nd take u to bed :((

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

a sturdy 2 rounds if u guys haven’t fucked for a little while, he’s still young his refractory period is in training !!!!

particularly statistically more likely to want a round 2 if he’s a) not tired and b) can see his cum plastered somewhere on ur body (source is my thalamus) …… drives him crazy nd makes him almost desperate to fill u up as well

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

got gifted a fleshlight one time for his birthday but it’s just stayed tucked away in his wardrobe…. tried it once and it was just not as good as the real deal

would be open to using a toy on u for the sole reason that it might make u squirt and he is desperate to see u get that messy

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

gives in instantly . u just need to whip out a titty and he is a goner…. very very weak willed man…..

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

main vocalist like …. do i need to say more

prettiest softest moans uve ever heard ….. breathing into ur chest and whispering how close he is and how bad he needs to fill u up into ur ear

not loud enough for anyone but u to hear tho…. but that’s fine bc u like being able to have him all to urself ^.^

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

can picture him getting randomly horny while playing games while u lay on his bed …. pulls off his headphones to face u and asks u so nicely to come suck his cock while he plays … and of course u do because how could u say no to that face :(( he ends up losing his lane and going afk at base because he’s too busy watching u swallow his entire length like a pro . sorry to his team but the 15 minute afk ban was so worth it

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

not huge but not small, average

a good 5.5 with some juicy balls

circumcised 🙏

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

pretty high but not in the way that its hard to control …… like he just kind of just always wants u

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

after he cleans u up he’s out like a light …… good luck tryna get him to wake up

just accept that ur tits are his pillow for the next 7 hours as he sleeps

#koob navi #heeseung smut #heeseung hard hours #enhypen smut #enha smut #enhypen hard hours #can you tell i’ve thought about this for ages #cannot get the thought of this heeseung out of my brain

[ladynicte]

Struggling to find the right words to express this with, but I feel like a lot of the reactions antis tend to have towards TCOAAL are mostly stemmed from two things:

First, they see incest and immediately go ew

But second, they don't really know genre expectations, I guess???

Like the game is very much so openly a horror game, there's no cutesy aesthetic, or basic anime look to it. The game lets you know from the get-go that it's a horror game.

But I feel like they don't see that.

Plus, it's more specifically a horror visual novel with rpg puzzle elements, within the subgenre of gothic horror.

Which means, that murdering parents, plagues of some sort, incest between closely related family members, occultism themes, and cannibalism, are all pretty staple to it.

It's all pretty expectable, I think

But the thing is, that all of those elements are utilized as a way to symbolize decadence, and the death of morality, that the characters, and the world around them are engaging on, to the reader.

Most of those stories actually tend to end with those characters dying pretty horrible deaths, because turns out, fucking your sister, and cannibalizing your mom aren't like super good things to do, and they can lead you down a dark, and pretty logical path.

But a lot of the critism the game tends to get, is from people claiming it is endorsing doing said things.

Which is just so weird to me, because TCOAAL is very straightforward about it, it let's you know from her very introduction that Ashley, the main protagonist, is a bad person with a tar soul, who's making pretty bad decisions, that are leading her down a life of constant decadence.

Hell, the way of getting the better endings are by making her behave differently, and change as a person, cuz, you know, character development.

And it also let's you know from the very beginning, that her older brother, and her parents are also pretty shitty people, who are decaying themselves to the point where Ms. And Mr. Graves end up getting killed by their own two kids.

Kids who totally despise them, and aren't even willing to share tombs with them, after they show themselves to have become even worse people, by abandoning their children for the sake of their own material profit, and dipping on their duty as parents.

Like, idk, for me TCOAAL is just so obviously sticking to the archetypical portrayal of bad stuff that's adept to the genre, that the fact that some people can believe that any of those terrible behaviors it's portrayed in any good light, is so incredibly blind to me.

#like surprise surprise having morals not killing people not screwing your sister and not eating your parents are good things to do and when #you do them you might just be seen and portrayed by the narrative of the story as a bad person whos doing bad things and in thrn bad things #happen to you shocking i know #the coffin of andy and leyley #andrew graves #ashley graves #ms graves #mr graves #tcoaal #has anybody read the fall of the house of usher or am i just insane #either way ignore if this makes no sense im just tryna express something i been thinking about these days #luna says

[stardropsaloongossiptrain]

Bachelor/ettes and Horror

How would our ladies and gentlemen fair with scary things?

Bachelors:

Sebastian -- He loves all things horror. Has opinions on every subgenre, slasher rankings, and probably some amount of memorabilia. He vastly prefers sci-fi horror (Alien, the Thing, Pandorum) or supernatural. Plays indie horror games on his computer. If the farmer is a horror hound, they will have a friend in Sebastian.

Shane -- He's not really the type to put horror on, but it's never bothered him. He likes goofy 70s-80s stuff best, and I don't think he would enjoy 'cerebral' horror. Thinks the special effects are cool. Will mix up the big slasher names.

Elliott -- It may be controversial to put him high, but I almost put him higher. He does NOT like anything gory or icky, but I think he would really love older horror from the 40s-50s and giallo films. There's some more artistic ones that he would probably like as well. He would prefer to read horror, and has read quite a few classics. It's not his favorite genre by any means, but sometimes gets a taste for it in late fall.

Sam -- He's not a fan. He's seen some big ones with Sebastian, but he's fairly squeamish and can't handle intense gore. Gets scared pretty easily. Really wishes he could handle them, his besties love it.

Alex -- Does not like horror. Doesn't understand why someone would want to feel scared. He isn't easily grossed out, but doesn't like seeing horror violence. Simply Does Not Get It.

Harvey -- He's baby. Easily scared, even when it's 50's era stuff. Never expects a jumpscare, too much empathy for violence, will think the house is haunted for two weeks after Poltergeist. He's comedic levels unable to handle anything remotely spooky.

---

Bachelorettes

Abigail -- On par with Sebastian, maybe even more into it. Loves all things grody and scary, UNLESS spiders are involved. Better than Sebastian at recommending stuff to people who don't know anything about where to start. Loves supernatural stuff best. Orders a lot of horror comics online.

Maru -- Lives with Sebastian, so he's definitely shown her a number of things way too early when she bugged him to hang out. Is not easily frightened, and finds science based stuff really interesting. Thinks gore effects are cool and is really interested in behind the scenes stuff. Fave is probably something like Reanimator or Chopping Mall.

Leah -- She's not super into scary movies, but doesn't mind them every once in a while. Likes artier stuff like Suspiria or Pan's Labyrinth.

Emily -- Not really a fan, but might watch an older movie around Spirits Eve. Like Elliott, more likely to read something with horror concepts than watch it. Would probably like House of Leaves.

Haley -- Does not like horror. Thinks all horror is gory slashers, will not open herself up to more.

Penny -- Gets so fucking scared it's not funny. They make her sick. Does not enjoy any type of horror, even some drama is too much to bear. Really only enjoys watching happy things.

#sdv elliott #sdv headcanons #sdv harvey #sdv maru #sdv sebastian #sdv shane #sdv leah #sdv abigail #sdv haley #sdv emily #sdv penny #sdv alex #sdv sam

[aspecriddler]

THEE Guide to Not Being a Punk Poser

Hey, so if you're reading this, you may or may not be looking to get into the punk scene, and you also may or may not be at a total loss on where to start

Well fear not! I am here with this little introduction post on how to Not Be A Poser (title pending)

FIRST UP: The Ideals

When it comes to the ideals of alternative subcultures, this graphic by @theygender (hope the tag is ok, lmk if it isn't) is the best summary I've ever seen

And if you're like me, you're solidly on the line between punk and grunge, but leaning just a bit more punk. This is fine /gen

Punk is about community. Punk is about fighting for a better future. Punk is about doing no harm and taking no shit. Punk is about looking out for the underdog. If you don't embody these values then you're not punk. The ideology of Punk is, in my opinion, the most important part of the subculture

But if you've been doing your research you already knew that. Now let's get into what a lot of people call the fun stuff: the music and the fashion

SECOND: The Music

There are a Lot of different subgenres of punk music, the most famous being punk rock and folk punk. I subscribe more to punk rock because I really enjoy fast music

Bands to look for include: Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, Pansy Division, Dog Park Dissidents, Cheap Perfume, Mommy Long Legs, Gang Green, The Germs, Rage Against the Machine, G.L.O.S.S., X-Ray Spex, The Cramps, Circle Jerks, Crass, Limp Wrist, and Pure Hell

Of course there's a lot more but those are some staples plus some of my personal favorites. You can find my personal punk playlist here

Overall the sound is Loud and it is Angry. There are many songs about killing cops and hating capitalism and it fucks. If you like funky basslines, sick ass drums, angry yelling, and shredding guitars this music is for you

PART THREE: The Fashion

Okay, okay, I had to save the quote unquote best for last. Imo the fashion of punk is the most diy out of almost any other subculture

Literally anything you can get your hands on can become fashion. Steal what you can, pick up shit off the side of the road, and if you can't/don't know how to do something get a friend in the scene to either teach you or commission them or something

Brands? The fuck is that, the only brands you need to know are Rit fabric dye, goodwill, etsy (sometimes), your local craft store, and a good spike maker (I don't deal with spikes currently so I have no good resources for them, so other punks feel free to chime in!)

Want cool metal shit? Take apart cans and turn them into spikes. Take a lighter apart and use those metal bits. Steal safety pins from walmart.

Want/need to sew something? Yarn and a tapestry needle if you can't get/don't want to use dental floss. When sewing patches do a straight stitch around followed by a hobo stitch around again and that shit will stay forever. Alternatively pin patches on with safety pins, this works pretty well in a pinch

Fabric paint is your best friend!!! Start with a white base layer and the colors will be much more vibrant. Don't think you have painting skills? Doesn't matter, you're punk and you have the audacity to wear whatever you make with pride

Invest in a leather jacket. I don't mean in terms of money, I got mine at goodwill for ten bucks. But it will change your life. I recommend getting two: one to keep plain and one to diy. Also flannels are good for diy and can also be made into vests for warm weather very easily.

Both of these flannels I decorated myself in a matter of hours. If I can do it, so can you

Also! When you cut the sleeves off of a flannel you can use the extra fabric to make diy pockets :3

PART FOUR: Community and Conclusion

So this is kind of my close out section lol

I'm not sure what kind of discord communities exist for true punk culture, so if anyone has one they wanna promote feel free

Do some research on local punk bands in your area, get your friends together and diy outfits for a concert, or just to wear. The world is your punk oyster, and as long as you or other people aren't getting hurt you can do whatever you want forever

Plz use this post to find other punks so we can start gaining more community (I'm totally not desperate lol)

#punk

[utilitycaster]

You've talked a bit before about genre and genre-expectations. If you have the time/inclination, could you talk a bit about what classifies something as horror? More specifically, what makes Candela Obscura fall into the category of horror?

As a bit of background: I am a Travis-level scaredy-cat, but I love the supernatural - ghost stories, monsters, superstitions. I tend to rely a lot on genre labels to help me differentiate, and media labelled "horror" is pretty generally a no go. I starting watching Candela out of curiosity because I'd heard great things about the characters in chapter two, and was fully prepared to have to nope out. Instead I found that it sat comfortably within my "supernatural" bubble of tolerance, and I absolutely loved it! Obviously a person's tolerance for what is "scary" is deeply individualistic, but its got me wondering what exactly classifies something as horror? (and whether there is other media similar to candela that I am missing out on because my genre expectations are skewed)

So...genre boundaries are all very permeable and take a on very "I'll know it when I see it" quality when you get to the edges. There's a poll about horror tolerance going around right now and I actually found it completely unusable because, for example, all three of Jordan Peele's films are considered horror, and while I consider myself also kind of skittish, I loved Get Out and Nope whereas the premise of Us fundamentally is on my personal "absolutely cannot" list. Basically: defining horror is tough (though I'll make an attempt, with the understanding that I am the most amateur and there are actual media studies folks in the fandom who might be a better bet) but also a lot of people, myself included, who consider themselves bad at "horror" often, as you say, actually have a very specific personal list of tolerances and plenty of horror is fine for them (and plenty of non-horror might not be!) Basically this is a great question and multiple people out there are writing their PhD theses attempting to answer it, and they probably have different answers, is what I'm saying. I also, in looking up horror on Wikipedia in order to see what that definition is, found that it defines the genre differently for literature vs. film. Short answer: no one fucking knows; scary shit.

I think horror is most generally works that are intended to build a sense of fear or dread, and I recall (possibly incorrectly) someone on a podcast talking about writing define the difference between a thriller and a horror movie is whether the protagonist succeeds; I'd modify that to say "whether they succeed without a great cost (thriller) or whether the price of success possibly outweighs the win (horror)."

Anyway, I do have a list of horror subgenres here that speaks the language of TTRPGs, namely Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and I find that horror subgenres are more helpful signposts than just the "horror" label, and I suspect you may find the same as well. I'm not going to run through them all, but, for example, "Ghost Stories" and "Dark Fantasy" are two of them, and those never bothered me and it sounds like you like those! Candela covers a lot of ground - elements of body horror, gothic horror, cosmic/eldritch horror, and occult detective stories, but it is absolutely in the supernatural realm. It is worth noting that a lot of not explicitly horror shows often dip into horror and I (and possibly you) are fine with it. The CR main campaign and D&D in general absolutely has horror elements. I only watched the Nine and Ten seasons of modern-era Doctor Who but that absolutely has episodes that are basically straight up horror (Midnight? Silence in the Library? Don't Blink? Even though, famously, everyone lives in that one set during WWII, the "are you my mummy" line is chilling.) Again: genre/subgenre lines are very permeable and hard to use as signposts.

What has been most helpful to me in finding horror works I can personally enjoy is understanding what I can't do. I don't mind blood and gore but I don't want that to be the point (I don't think I'm so much upset by slasher films so much as don't enjoy them) and I don't want to watch torture porn (which is pretty much exclusively within the realm of horror film, not literature). I have a lot of trouble with zombie films but a lone zombie in a D&D game is fine. The premise of a film like The Thing is intellectually fascinating to me but the idea that you can't trust anyone or anything is too unsettling...although also that was kind of the premise of the monsters of Candela Chapter 2 and I thought that slapped. Psychological horror is case by case; folk horror can be great or can mess me up; like Marisha I flat out don't do narrow tunnels in caves and I especially don't do caves with water in them. Cosmic/Eldritch, dark fantasy, and gothic horror are all almost always okay or if they're not it's because they take place in a water-filled cave. Honestly, I don't have a good answer of how to find things but I use subgenre, talking to people you know who watched the film/saw the show in question, and understanding your own personal issues - whether they're genuine triggers or just "this will upset me and I don't find it fun." I will say a lot of the tropes within horror that bother me bother me out of horror; the cave diving, for example, is part of a general hard line I have; I don't like zombie comedies even though horror-comedy can mitigate other issues (eg: I liked Cocaine Bear even though it's basically a slasher film with a bear because it's pretty funny).

Another really big distinction for me that might be true for you: audio horror, literary horror, and actual play horror (even if filmed), where the visuals are limited or only described, is much easier for me than visual horror. I don't know if that's the same for you, but it's very true for me.

Some other similar media I can personally recommend as someone who I suspect has similar broad preferences re: horror:

Of the Candela touchstones listed, will personally vouch for V. E. Schwab's Darker Shade of Magic series (dark fantasy books, wouldn't even classify as horror), Frankenstein (the book); Crimson Peak (gothic horror/ghost story film; I recall it having a lot of blood but not gore but I saw it in theaters so it's been a while); Penny Dreadful (is it good? debatable. Is it fun? absolutely.)

The New Weird genre is often thrown around and I don't think Candela per se falls into it, but it's certainly the same vibe of horror/fantasy crossovers that don't always fit into one or the other. Anyway: I have brought up the Silt Verses, which is a podcast solidly in that genre which I think I would not enjoy as a film but greatly enjoy as a podcast.

The Southern Reach Trilogy is...not Candela in vibes exactly but I just think everyone should read it, and it is in that weird horror-inflected sf genre space.

Twin Peaks and the X-Files which are very different stories in some ways, but are also investigations of horrors in a world where most people don't believe in that, and Spenser says his cinematic description style is using some of that lexicon, notably from the X-Files' cold opens. (The X-Files is very long and I only watched a few seasons but also while there is an overarching plot, from what I recall it's kind of ridiculous so you can bounce around; Twin Peaks is worth the watch through though I never watched anything after the original series).

I'm not going to lie, I listened to all of Alice Isn't Dead, which was a horror podcast from the Night Vale team, because the actress was so good, but the plot never totally clicked for me, but worth checking out. More worth checking out, while definitely New Weird and not horror, is Within the Wires, which I mentioned before, if you find the concept of Newfaire interesting on a sociocultural level. I am going to make a shitpost about Within the Wires in a second so just look at that. I also never finished Old Gods of Appalachia, but if you liked the Candela playlist Spenser and Rowan put out and are interested in the Bridleborne Mountains region/vibe with folk horror, it was pretty good; I just found it hard to binge, personally, and I listen to so many fucking podcasts it fell by the wayside.

Hope this helps!

#answered #Anonymous #what is horror: no clue lets get you some podcast #candela tag

[safety-pin-punk]

hi, so I’m a teen who’s starting to get into punk culture bc a while ago I was researching punk culture for an oc I was making (cuz I wanted it to be accurate) and I realized ‘oh shit wait this is really cool and aligns with my views and stuff and the music is really good too’ and i just have a couple questions about it:

What are some good punk rock bands you would recommend? (and also are there any problematic ones I should know of so I can avoid them)

2. With lace code, does combining colors change the meaning/add other symbolism (other than black and white/checkerboard for racial unity)? Like if I were to put purple laces on one shoe (LGBTQ+ pride) and green on the other (anti-racist) would that change the symbolism at all? Also does the way you lace the boots change it bc I’ve heard lace code only applies when they’re ladder laced but I haven’t had a chance to look into that more so idk

3. Are there any problematic movements/groups within the punk community that I should be aware of?

4. anything else i should know/general tips and advice for baby punks?

also I saw on your blog that it’s ur birthday so happy bday! :D

0. Thank you for the birthday wishes!!!

1. That is a *whole* question in and of itself that really deserves its own post. But the short answer is that it really depends on your own personal taste. There are a lot of subgenres of punk rock too. (This site is actually a pretty good map of the genres and how things connect)

But as far as bands I recommend: Ramones, the offspring, sum 41, greenday, rancid, afi, linkin park, misfits, the cure, magnolia park, dopamine, teenage bottlerocket, anti-flag, pennywise, the living end, street dogs, the smashing pumpkins, slapstick, left alone, dog park dissidents, the virus, hotel security

That should give you a decent mix of different sounds to check out

And in regard to problematic bands, to be honest, I try to stay away from any news like that. Sooo, Im not your best resource there. If I like the music, then I like the music. But yeah, due to the trauma of *life* thats just not my fight, ya know?

2. Gonna direct you to *this* post for lace code. But, yes it only applies to ladder laced combat boots. And a LOT of lace code rules are very subjective to your area too. (Example: I’ve never seen the black/white checkered thing.) but having different colors on either side shouldn’t be a problem

3. Every group is going to have either problematic people or some problematic ideas floating around. Thats why it’s important to be able to think critically about things, people, and ideas so that you can form your own opinions. Though, I will say that there is a reason why ‘nazi punks fuck off’ is a commonly see phrase. Punk groups are great! But it’s important to educate yourself of the signs to know when something is *not great*

4. Gonna direct you to *this* post. Its my big masterlist that sometimes gets updated lol. You can find the link to it in my pinned post as well

#mail tag

[prettyboykatsuki]

wot are ur fav shounen romances? :o

i like a lot of the classics !! kaguya sama love is war, blue flag, horimiya so i will not mention them here.

some more (imo) underrated ones

taisho otome otogobanashi my BELOVED. takes place in the taisho era between a disabled young heir of a wealthy family and the young girl assigned to be his bride. soooo fucking wholesome. very boy but in a very sweet way. really a beloved one for me. 9/10

three days of happiness (manga) - oh my GOD this manga makes me fucking CRY. touching story about a twenty year old guy who's down on his luck and finds out about a service that allows you to sell years of your life in exchange for money. the catch? the mc finds out the worth of his life is abysmally low and decides to sell all of it, save for three months so he can spend the money he earns. he meets with our mc and without spoiling they get to know each other and fall in love. SOOOOOO goddamn sad and sooo good. broke my heart 12/10

OREGAIRU. this anime is Deeply Personal to me for specific reasons irl but i also enjoy it. typical loserboy romance but there's a femboy as well. i love it soooo fucking much and i have forever okay... its so dear to me. it's about our mc who's a cringefail dweeb and his commentary on the myth of "youth" and how unrealistic that is.

the catch is that hachiman our mc actually has a fair bit of emotional intelligence and the story itself always points out that his loserish habits mostly stem from himself and call him on it all the time. i.e. it's not a shounen romance that overlooks those qualities nor romanticizes them and tends to be pretty subversive in it's own way.

the storyline revolves around him, the class president and another girl who have a club where they volunteer and offer advice. in that, hachiman gets to experience 'youth' inadvertently. it makes more sense if u watch but i just. love it So Goddamn Much. it's like peak for the shounen romance subgenre. its honestly not super romance heavy? but it also is. complicated it's 7.7/10 for me if i rate objectively. but a 10/10 if i rate on a personal level.

the fragrant flower blooms with dignity - a story about an intimidating male student and a very adorable young lady who have an interesting first encounter. it's a classic getting together story and its hard to describe what happens w out spoiling but GODDDDDD its soooo fucking cute. so cute i love it soooooo much. its ongoing !! 8/10

yankee kun and the white cane girl - crying screaming throwing up puking about them. a story about a deliquent and a blind girl. the story covers the struggles of disability with SO much nuance and character and the supporting cast have SOOOOOOOO much depth and the love story is so unbearably sweet. its ongoing and one of my faves forever and ever and ever. i love them sooo much. 9/10

im definitely missing a LOT but these are my favorites as of right now!!! the last two i follow very actively!!

#return to sender #people are always soo shocked about horimiya being a shounen its so silly to me #a.reccs

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Survival Genre

Surviving the Game as a Barbarian is a good series so far. The character has bumped up against both the limits of his knowledge in terms of, "I know a bunch of stuff about the isekai I've been dropped into but it's still a random-seed style game so I'm not some God of Destiny" and also in terms of "I know how things work when it's a game but it turns out drinking healing potions is intensely painful."

Having watched the first episode of Black Summoner yesterday, I feel a strong appreciation for how Surviving the Game as a Barbarian maintains stakes.

And...maybe that's an unfair comparison.

Back when 3rd Edition D&D was dying down, I got the Dungeon Master's Guide 2, which contained some of the most broadly useful gamemastering advice in a game manual. That was where they broke down the players into types, with ideas for how to make them happy:

The Supercooler plays to be awesome. Play up his hits, maybe even play up his misses as mighty swings the opponent just barely slides under.

The Tactician plays to see their plans come to fruition. Give them points in the story where they have advance warning of events and ways to capitalize on that.

The Troublemaker plays to act out in a safe environment. Give them an aside now and then where they can Fuck Around and Find Out.

The Explorer plays to imagine a grand journey. Describe your vistas and the wonders of where they're going.

The Lurker plays to spend time with friends and isn't comfortable getting into the game. Make their turns as uncomplicated as possible, and give them ways their in-game actions can make the other players happy.

There are three or four more, but you get the idea. When it came out I thought the DMG2 was the worst game book I'd ever read; It had almost nothing as far as new classes and monsters and...but at this point I'm thinking it was one of the best. It was teaching lessons about All Gamemastering.

Anyway imagine a similar list of gamer types for videogames. Now you can see that stories like Surviving the Game as a Barbarian are stories that play on the kind of gamer who wants to optimize. They want the main character to face impossible odds and win, which is not the same as someone telling us "That's a Tier-8 Angel" and then having the protagonist scoff and say, "Then I'll cast a Tier-9 Banishment!" and immediately win. "Facing impossible odds" is based on relative level.

But as I've said elsewhere, there's an entire subgenre of isekai these days that is based around people who escape into games in order to relax. In the isekai this escape is more explicit, but the desire is clearly the same. They want to do everything in the game the easy way. They start off with ridiculous power, and while the writer may include a token effort to show difficulty it doesn't last because it's not the point.

Anyway if you like to see your protagonist challenged, Surviving the Game as a Barbarian is quite good. It's had some hard stuff but thus far (in my opinion; Your mileage may vary) manages to skirt the line and not quite fall into Misery Porn territory. At the present point in the story, things are tough but manageable. So in spite of its minor visual similarities to Fear and Hunger (I really wonder whether any concepts were inspired by that cruel game) this isn't a particularly cruel narrative so far. And while I could be wrong I don't get the impression that the author's planning to murder all the lovable background characters. I think this will be a proper adventure, with the hero pulling and scraping to make gains and become more powerful, and then face off against incrementally more powerful foes. Which is a good vibe, if you're a certain kind of reader.

#review #webtoon #surviving the game as a barbarian

[sowritten]

𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄  𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒:  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘,  𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓  𝐈𝐈

warning:  may contain spoilers

CHAPTER  TWO:  TRUTH  OR  DARE

it looks like you’re trying to thread a needle with a packet of loose sausages.

I’m almost done, okay?

for the record, your analogies are very hurtful.

if I were a beer, where would I be hiding?

it’s my beerdar. helps me ‘dar for beers.

how am I just noticing how super lame you are?

don’t know what I was expecting.

check out my giant melons.

you just pour the vodka right in it?

it’s the most fun you can have with a hole in a watermelon... well. second most.

can’t pass up an opportunity like this.

have you ever seen a grown man crap his pants?

look, if you’re trying to scare me, it’s not going to work.

you’re not scared of clowns?

you think this is supposed to be funny?

mother hubbard!

no wonder he kept this place locked up.

think he’ll be pissed when he finds out we raided his stash?

it’s like human rights, or whatever.

did a bear do this?

you’re really gonna keep the gun, huh?

what else is in there?

dude! peanut butter fucking butter pops!

they’re like the greatest snack of all time.

they’re like their own thing. like their own subgenre of food snack.

booty? it means like treasure. or butts.

this is where the magic happens.

your wit knows no bounds.

it’s like my mom always says: if you wanna party, you gotta bring protection.

I’m not gonna fuck a bear.

is that a trap door?

it looks like a pit of eternal darkness.

you’re being dramatic.

what can I do for you on this darn-tootin’ doozy of a day?

is that your impression of [name]?

that’s a little forward, but I can see what I can do.

you’re not a little bit curious?

I can’t promise that.

what the fuck?

is [name] spying on us?

it’s not exactly secret, it’s just hidden by stuff.

it’s gotta be something juicy in here.

I’m leaving the secret lair, have fun.

it’s kind of hard to talk about right now.

it’s really very pretty out here when there’s no kids around.

they always seem to listen to you.

you’ve seen my class?

are you sure this is safe?

it’s alright, calm down!

so do you ever think about what’s next?

sometimes I just try to like... let it happen, you know?

I guess that is a little freeing in a sociopathic kind of way.

damn, [name]. you’re really good.

it’s really cool you know that about yourself.

not everyone knows what they’re capable of, you know?

I’m sure you’re capable of a lot, [name].

you’ll figure it out.

did you hear that?

it’s probably nothing.

no, listen. there’s something there.

what the hell, [name]?

that thing almost just mauled me to death!

I think she was coming onto me.

aw, you got yourself a little girlfriend!

[name] is a voyeuristic creep.

he’s got cameras hidden everywhere in a secret room.

you have no imagination.

yeah, that’s pretty spooky.

we may never see each other again after tonight.

just trying to set the mood.

big jokes take big sacrifices.

I just want to shrink you down to a little pocket person and put you in my pocket and then peep at you when I need a little pick-me-up!

where the hell did that gun come from?

pop pop! peanut butter butter pops! pop pop! pop ‘em in your mouth!

please hand me the shotgun.

what, you’re going to shoot me over them?

guess we’re gonna have ourselves an old-fashioned shootout.

I’m just letting you know, your goose is cooked.

what I say goes, got it?

I’m always hot, pencil dick!

don’t be gross!

no sweat, we all get performance anxiety sometimes.

alright, let’s see what you got.

better luck next time!

you’re very mean.

you thought this was over?

let’s make some memories!

how about the ultimate game of secrets and lies? truth or dare.

truth or dare?

you really dodged a bullet, huh?

take it easy, that’s too far.

your dare comes with a choice.

I can do whatever I want.

sorry, I don’t make the rules.

always happy to please.

alright, let’s see what you’re made of.

I dare you to take a flying leap over that fire pit.... naked.

yeah, I don’t think that’s a good idea.

I don’t know if that’s a good idea.

he’s good.

you like kissing my girlfriend?

it’s just a game!

hey, I’m nobody’s girlfriend.

[name], grow up!

you should probably go find [name].

fuck this.

I am, as always, delighted that you’re here.

sometimes one needs to be strung up in order to let go.

there’s more to show you, if you’ll let me.

I’ll see you again, you can count on that.

CHAPTER  THREE:  TROUBLE  IN  PARADISE

what are we, in middle school?

why should I even care?

you ran off.

I think that game just got a little too intense for me.

I know what you mean.

guess [name]’s had a thing for you all along.

they’re just trying to make [name] jealous. 

I was just playing along.

you seem to enjoy playing along.

I guess you found me, then.

sneaking down here was a lot more fun when we thought we could get caught, huh?

I thought we agreed that this — us — was just supposed to be some summer fun.

you just love having an audience, huh?

what are we, twelve?

you really love fucking with me, huh?

lighten up sourpuss, please!

this is not how tonight was supposed to go.

you know what, nothing. nothing. nevermind.

you can stand here, sulking and driving yourself crazy, or you could go grab us some towels.

we agreed, summer fun, right? apparently, summer is not quite over.

yeah, we’ll see about that.

we could shake it out doggy-style.

wow! you really know how to talk to a girl, don’t you?

look, you can’t just pretend that it didn’t happen.

I need a big, strong, not at all insecure man to come save me!

stop being a grump!

dick move.

I don’t want this to end.

I had a great summer with you.

if I can do a backflip off of here, you’ll let me come visit you, okay?

oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me!

it was like a scream, but not the good kind of scream.

I’m gonna go check it out.

that was some mighty fine social disruption there, I have to say.

you’re an evil genius.

what do you want to do now?

we gotta go!

can you walk?

come on, let’s get back to the fire.

just let me down, okay?

don’t hurt me, please!

oh jesus christ, what the fuck are you doing?

helps if you close your eyes.

it’s for your own good.

seems like just a blink, and you’re back to see me again.

so, what have we got?

watch your step, it could be your last.

remember, there’s always more than meets the eye.

#rp meme #sentence meme #sentence starters #roleplay meme #roleplay starters #the quarry #starters: the quarry

[folieadeuxserver]

Announcing Ten Days of Horror, Folie à Deux’s first quarterly event! We’ll be hosting a ten-day horror fest for Hannibal and HEU creators, running from October 22nd through October 31st.

The fest is open to all creators, ships, and mediums! We have no minimum requirements and only ask that you adhere to each day's general theme. How you interpret that theme and whether or not you use our subprompts is up to you! You don’t have to create something for each day, but you’re welcome to do so if you so choose.

When you post your work, please tag us and use #HannibalHorror! The fest is also running on our twitter and discord server, and we have an Ao3 collection as well.

While the goal is to post your fill on the day for which it was created, you're welcome to post late fills at any time.

You can find each day’s information and unabridged prompts below!

Day 1 (10/22): Creature Feature Calling all monster lovers! today we celebrate them all – from reanimated corpses to undiscovered species, there’s a little something for everyone.

things that go bump in the night / the monster under the bed / transformation / vampires & werewolves / trapped with the monster / an imaginary friend / the living dead / a cold, wet hand / doppelgänger / the glint of inhuman eyes

Day 2 (10/23): Bathed in Blood It would be remiss not to pay tribute to the grosser, gorier side of horror, so today is all about the blood and guts! Splatterpunk, torture, graphic violence... show us your nastiest creations!

torture porn / body horror / uncanny valley / mutilation / a slow and sickening mutation / parasites / medical horror / blood & gore / revenge / an excess of bodily fluids

Day 3 (10/24): The Twilight Zone Today’s prompts are an ode to sci-fi horror! Pay homage to classics like Frankenstein and Alien, or try out your own twist on a well-loved subgenre.

outer space / a hostile new world / technology taken too far / eldritch abominations / a parallel universe / alien species / trapped in a time loop / an unsanctioned experiment / something beneath the ice / mother nature’s revenge

Day 4 (10/25): Born This Way Today we honor the human monsters, which are sometimes the scariest of them all. Killer horror, psychological horror, slashers... Show us something horrifying and all too real.

cults / the final girl / the dark side of the human psyche / institutional horror / descending into insanity / governments & corporations / abuse of power / obsession / indoctrination / hierarchies of oppression / paranoia

Day 5 (10/26): Instruments of Torture Today’s theme honors the many weapons, torture devices, and other horrific implements spanning the horror genre!

nail bat / an improvised weapon / chainsaw / crucifix / wooden stake / shards of glass / a bloody kitchen knife / needle / meathook / whip

Day 6 (10/27): Welcome to the Funhouse Today’s theme centers around the funnier and more absurd side of horror! Comedy horror, camp, black comedy – the opportunities are endless.

splatstick / absurd phobia / parody / the horror-movie stoner / ridiculous deaths / accidental transformation / black comedy cannibalism / bumbling slasher / fuck and die / a lack of self preservation

Day 7 (10/28): Once Upon a Time Today’s theme is Dark fantasy! Bring out your Grimms-style fairytales, mythical creatures, or just a touch of magic.

fairytale gone wrong / the gods are not kind / a darker timeline / black magic / the chosen one / evil overlord / a sumptuous feast / necromancy / cursed kingdoms / forsaken

Day 8 (10/29): Occult Activity Today’s theme is all about supernatural horror! show us your paranormal investigators, your exorcisms, your folk horror AUs or characters with psychic powers.

possession / the old gods / ghosts & hauntings / an accidental summoning / cursed object / an unconventional priest / sacrifice / dreams bleeding into reality / psychic powers / the veil between the worlds

Day 9 (10/30): A Dark & Stormy Night Today’s prompts center around the impact of setting. Whether atmospheric horror, gothic horror, ecological horror, or another genre, location matters!

snowed in / sun-drenched horror / gothic horror / the purgatory of white picket fences / a house with a history / an unexplored cavern / the bottom of the sea / a town you can’t seem to leave / a condemned building / apocalyptic horror

Day 10 (10/31): Insatiable Appetites Today is all about erotic and sensual horror. Blur the line between fear and desire, arousal and repulsion, or show us flat-out sexual horror.

the sensuality of violence / oviposition / teratophilia / tentacles / succubus/incubus / wound fucking / the need to consume / hunger / traumatic insemination

#hannibal #heu #hannibal fanart #hannibal fanfiction #hannibalhorror #server challenge

[indigoinka]

Hi! I’m finally getting around to that intro post I promised months ago, and honestly, you could be here for some time.

I’m squatting on a whole bunch of social media accounts, but this is the only place I feel safe anymore, though I do have a little reader group on the Meta-hole (🤢). I wish I could get my AuDHD head around Discord, but it feels like the old Yahoo boards mated with a speeding train, and I'm just too tired for that. 

Wherever you look, I’ll be indigoinka or Inka York there.

This is me:

About me, then:

I love tea. Would I even be British if I didn’t?

I love cake. British.

And cider. British.

Yeah, and pie.

Food. I like food.

Please rec queer TV shows to me because I don’t watch as much as I should, and sometimes I just need to refill my crusty old well.

I love supporting indie authors, and rarely read trad stuff these days unless the blurb and sample are god tier.

Feel free to ask questions and tag me in writing games, or whatever shenanigans you get up to around here.

What do I write?

I write queer books, mostly urban fantasy, and usually set in the same storyworld. I also write contemporary gay romance, sometimes with an alien twist. And I’m wide with my books, so you can find them at all the major online retailers and in library catalogues.

I write what I like to read, which sometimes includes problematic tropes, but mostly includes wholesome shit like twin stories, sibling banter, ride or die friendships, a hearty mix of fluff and angst, found families, annoying ghosts, salty supernaturals, cinnamon rolls with knives, and sentient vehicles. Oh, and goats. I love me a judgemental goat.

My favourite tropes

Well, it started as a love triangle/square/dodecahedron, but now everybody's fucking (I don't know what this trope is actually called)

Forced proximity/only one bed (or coffin, in my case)

Friends to lovers (AKA idiots who took too long to notice how perfect they are)

Grumpy/Sunshine

Secret twins

Rivals to lovers

Hurt/comfort

My storyworlds

Cascade Apocrypha (queer paranormal/urban fantasy in many subgenres from pirate adventures to cosy mysteries to paranormal romance)

Feverish (contemporary gay romance)

Dracate System (AKA Gay Space Bridgerton)

My books

My first series, Not the Same River, is urban fantasy, upper YA/crossover, set in the Cascade Apocrypha storyworld. It features angels, demons, vamps, vaewolves, goats, succubus nuns, and villains to cry over. Book five is out this month, and the final book is out in February. This is the story of my heart, and the one that spurred a thousand spin-offs that I'll never have time to write.

The first book in that series, A Storm of Paper Starlings, is complete on Wattpad and Inkitt. I was gonna put it on AO3, but it feels weird because I tore all my Potter fics down when JKR started flashing her arse at the entire world, and everything I had on there felt dirty. Anyway, I digress. I might go back. Talk me into it.

I also have two other books updating on Wattpad:

🩷 Victorian Vampire Daddy (MM historical romantic suspense/Cascade Apocrypha)

🩷 My Ex & His Boyfriend (MMM/Feverish storyworld)

My other current series, Tales from the Noctuary (Cascade Apocrypha), has two books out at the retailers:

🩷 Secrets at the Door (historical mystery/suspense with lesbian romance): fat, beekeeping lesbian vampire, queer well-demon with a bad haircut, nonbinary treasure who sometimes makes bad decisions, everybody be gay.

🩷 Puddles in the Pavement (historical mystery and outright shenanigans): queer archangel brother detectives, a perky butler, an escort of indeterminate gender with the worst singing voice in the known world, a vampire duke with terrible table manners, and a Home Secretary with an unasked for appendage (let's hope that doesn't get around).

I have two more books written for this series so far, which will likely debut in my subscription.

Getting to that...

My subscription

13 Club: After Dark is hosted at Ream Stories, the only subscription platform designed specifically for authors and readers, and it is amazing.

You just click on the book cover you want, and the app will drop you into the social e-reader right where you left off, so you can comment right there inside the story. It’s like Patreon + Wattpad + a community board + extra sauce.

Honestly, I could gush about it all week.

This is also me:

So, what’s there?

Well, first, you can follow me there (which is free, obvs) and get access to:

The Weakest Link (Not the Same River #0): features the series MC’s twin sister and the coven she grew up in.

The Cursed Bones of Sergeant Boom!: a contemporary paranormal mystery involving a ghost who gatecrashed a funeral and got followed home by a necromantified corgi (as one does).

Pride’s Treasure: a series of mini adventures with characters from all the stories above, where all the chaos is your fault, because the MC of this story is YOU!

In the paid tiers, there’s 8 weeks early access to the two stories updating on Wattpad, the whole Not the Same River series so far (book 5 is updating now, before it hits the retailers at the end of October 2023). There’s also a 13 Club exclusive story called Earth Render, which is MMMMF (but not reverse harem), again set in the Cascade Apocrypha storyworld. That one features a witch with no beginning, a raven shifter with the best taste in pets, a vampire with memory issues, a vaewolf who can’t control his wolfism, and a nephilim with a huge secret. I promise not to give the Archangel Gabriel a horse penis in this story 👀

There are also physical welcome packs for some of the tiers, and all members are rewarded with After Darkling points, which they can save up each month for sweet treats, like a personalised drabble, or a one-shot featuring their favourite character, or some mystery merch. I love my After Darklings and my little club so much.

My main WIPs at the moment are:

Earth Render serial (mentioned above)

The Dryad's Curse: Pirates of Siorai trilogy (paranormal pirate adventure with romance/Cascade Apocrypha)

Gay Space Bridgerton (space fantasy romance with interplanetary political intrigue and hapless humans/Dracate System)

Almost done... maybe

That was a whole lot of intro (mate, do I love the word shenanigans), but I’m a busy goblin, and though my days are only marginally more comfortable than my painful nights, I still feel grateful that I get to do this every day.

I’d love to chat with you here, on Wattpad,  in my FB group (same name as my sub) or over at 13 Club: After Dark. My subscription is what keeps me and my writing going, so if you’re here because you already love my stories, and you have the means, I’d love to see you over there. Your support would mean the world to me, whether it’s a follow or more. I love in-story comments more than life.

I’d love more friends on here, though. So if you’re into queer media and love reading, feel free to follow and I'll follow back.

That’s it from me. I’m finally shutting the fuck up.

Come chat with me whenever you want.

Stay safe!

❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜

#writeblr #writer on tumblr #writers on tumblr #lgbt writers #lgbt author #indie author #queer author #lgbt fantasy #paranormal #intro post #blog intro #introduction #introductory post #introducing myself #lgbtqia #i'll be using the following tags for my stories #cascade apocrypha #dracate system #feverish storyworld #plus specific story tags #but there are too many to list #for busy goblin reasons #shutting up now #you look beautiful today #just in case nobody's told you so #bye then

[obey-moi]

Angels and demons can live centuries, millennia even. There’s no arguing about that. Even Solomon has lived hundreds on hundreds of years.

Another fact is that both races also have visited the human world (demons more often than angels, if I’m assuming correct).

What I would LOVE to see is what the characters got up to during the decades, what styles they would wear in order to blend into the human world, stuff like that.

(Keep in mind this all comes from a Very American POV of history, which is not to discredit or forget other events around the world. I’ll even cover Belphegor’s whereabouts despite being grounded in the attic for a while. I just want to keep this light-hearted, yeah?)

Like. 50’s gangster/beatnik bs, of course. I’m sure many of us have written plenty of 50’s AU fics. Not much I can say here. I’m sure Asmo adored Mod back then, as well as the little well-known Marilyn Monroe, and was incredibly heartbroken over the deaths of James Dean and Buddy Holly. Satan fell in love with “Catcher in the Rye” and is just behind most riots and protests in general, here and in the future. Belphie gets more and more interested in the developments between America’s and Russia’s space race.

Then the 60’s, Belphie REALLY getting behind the hippie movement, where more teens and young adults became disillusioned with the status quo and stopped working, started living in vans, and taking crazy drugs. That must have been a groovy time for Bels. Not to mention Asmo is probably one of the biggest inciters of the free love movement. Without that 57 brother duo, The Beatles, The Monkeys, all those bands might not have ever existed. Mammon gets super inspired by Oceans 11 and tries to get his brothers in on a heist plan (Lucifer shuts that down QUICK).

And when they hit the 70’s?? Leviathan discovering PONG?? Lucifer going with Diavolo to a fucking discotheque wearing those silken half-open button-downs and flared pants??? (I’M GOING CRAZY. I’M GONNA TURN INTO A BUG. I think I just want to see those two wearing silk shirts with all the sexual tension between them of the covers of gay romance novels). On the other end of the subgenre scale, Satan gets into punk and blasts The Clash and The Ramones on Lucifer’s record player 24/7 in an act of defiance.

Then in the 80’s, Mammon got up to terrible corpo-schemes, going crazy over the stock exchange. And Beel. Ohhhh god Beel is going crazy keeping up with the Fast Food development. He’s running around, going from one fast food joint to another like a strained addict who needs his next McRib fix. Asmo? Oh honey, he is WORKING. He is SERVING. He is becoming a TRENDSETTER, an ICON. The clothes, the hair, the makeup, the colours and prints and fabrics, the whole god damned EVERYTHING. Prince? Madonna? Jane Fonda? Uplifting and inspiring each other (or at least their stylists). Although, if you ever find photos of Asmo in his 80’s era, no you didn’t. (Mammon keeps entire photo albums of all his bro’s in the decades in secret. Claims it’s for blackmail or to sell to fans.) The NES comes out and it all goes downhill for Levi.

I could go into more decades, but I wanna hear from Y’ALL! I wanna read what era events or trends you can see the characters getting into and influencing/being influenced by. Please, share your thoughts!

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me! #obey me! shall we date?

[awritingcaitlin]

About me!

My name is Caitlin! I love cats, and they're my writing buddies often. When I'm not writing, I'm curating one of dozens of playlists, making aesthetics for my WIPs, or playing a video game. Currently it's still Tears of the Kingdom because there's just so much to do!

More under the cut!

I've been writing since sometime in elementary school. I completed my first manuscript in high school (a YA magic school novel) and tried to query it. It did not go over well, largely because I didn't actually edit it! (But also because I was floundering with no idea what I was doing with subgenres, similar titles, if my opening pages were the issue, if the query was the issue, if the agent I queried actually repped that category and genre... etc.) (Do not be me.) I may one day return to it, but for now I'm content to let that one stay on the shelf.

I ended up burning myself up over the project unfortunately. After that, I was in college where most of my writing was fanfiction for one of five different fandoms. (Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasies 7 and 8, Dragon Age, and Undertale.) I did NaNo a couple of stories, but never actually made it as far as querying again until much later.

Currently, my co-writer and I are revising an adult epic fantasy about marines on a mission, magical brainwashing, and a sorceress who walks the line between trying to stop the religious fanatics but also not painting a target on her back.

I had been trying to revise that alongside my fantasy heist novel, but there's too many different plotlines (not to mention characters that are in both but 5 years removed from each other) to keep track of for that to work. I can do edits and draft at the same time, but I can't draft two things at the same time unless they're a different genre. Or heavily revise two things at the same time.

I first dipped my toes into writing in elementary school. I would take composition notebooks lying around the house and fill them with stories. I vividly remember my first written story about two girls from a medieval time who got sent to the present day, but they kept trying to go back in time so they could save their mom. I've since lost that composition notebook, but if I ever wanted to rewrite that based on vibes alone I probably could.

My mom always supported me and wanted to read what I wrote. It was really easy to share stuff with her as a kid and a teenager who didn't feel particularly embarrassed about my work. Even as an adult, writing adult books with adult themes, I kind of just go "fuck it." She's an adult, who makes her own choices.

I've always been drawn to writing fantasy. I love the appeal of swords and magic (mostly magic.) I like writing epic motifs where the characters are up against seemingly impossible odds and are able to overcome. I like interweaving "real world" issues into fantasy too. Because queerness and disability is not something that only exists IRL.

I love writing characters who are bigger than themselves - people who find their magic spark; people who rise to the challenge; power so deep it's barely understandable but people try anyway; a pantheon of gods who doesn't know what they're doing and end up as characters in their own right. I love weaving in storylines, making connections, dropping in references. Etc.

I am really good at dialogue. I love writing it and it shows. Exploring how characters interact with each other is honestly one of my favorite things to do and dialogue is one of the biggest extensions of that.

To be honest, sometimes, all I have is dialogue that I throw up on a page and have to fill it out with actions and descriptions later. Sometimes, it all comes at once. A lot of it depends on where I am when the dialogue strikes me. If I'm on a bike ride or in the shower, I'll get a back-and-forth dialogue in a vacuum that I have to flesh out. This can also happen when I'm on the computer, but usually, if the dialogue is coming to me while I'm already at my computer, it's also coming with actions.

As far as outlining and researching goes, I usually start drafting and then come up with an outline of where I want it to go or plot points I want to include. At one point, I did an entire zero draft for a YA contemporary, which contributed to me writing 80k in five weeks. Still not 100% sure how I manged that in the end. But, for the most part, I have an outline that I'm drafting from, then I get a shiny idea and work to include it, so I adjust my outline and begin writing again... and then this process repeats near-on indefinitely until the end of the book. So my project folders start looking like this:

I'm one of those people though who, more often than not, will come up against a question I have while drafting, and be unable to continue until I've answered the question. I probably should get better about putting notes in brackets or footnotes and coming back to it, but at the same time, I don't think it's terribly detrimental to my process to take an evening off as a research evening. I've learned some pretty interesting stuff this way. (That said! I'm better about footnotes this current draft as me and my co-writer figure things out.)

One of the best things about writing is when I have readers telling me that they loved it. Or that they laughed. Or that they felt things. I might enjoy drinking readers' tears as they tell me I'm a terrible person for doing horrible things to their favorite character.

Writing scratches that creative itch. It makes me feel whole and complete. On the flip side, when I'm having trouble writing because of real life... I feel upset and anxious.

If I could manifest anything into the publishing world, it's a nine-book series out of this with spinoffs to expand the world indefinitely. (Why worldbuild more than once?) It might not be the most feasible thing ever, but I can dream.

If you've made it this far, have some writing advice. Which is basically... find what advice works for you and do that. Also, what works for you might not work in six months. Don't be afraid to change it up. If writing 2k words a day is super feasible because you cleared the whole month of November, great! But come December if you're feeling burnt out, it's okay to only write 100 words a day... or even take a break altogether and let your creative juices refill. If writing in the mornings works great in the summer but writing in the afternoons is better in the winter, do that! You, the writer, the creator, is more important than some arbitrary goal. (Unless you have a contracted deadline, in which case, may all the motivation be at your disposal!)

#about me

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Firestarter 1998 Black Metal

I guess ever since I learned about the history of black metal, particularly its Norwegian second wave, I've just been in a sort of shock over how popular it still managed to become. Like, clearly some of its tenets—pure evil and Satanic worship—were played up for sensationalistic shock value, and many ended up biting hard on that aspect of it, just like how lots of concerned American parents got whipped up into a frenzy over their kids listening to Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden in the 80s, convincing themselves that if their impressionable kid played the records backwards, that they could then become possessed by demons because of the imagined Satanic messaging that was hidden in the music. Just pure, laughable silliness, especially considering just how tame a lot of that music sounds today.

But early 90s Norwegian black metal was a far more serious beast, with some of the most extreme fears that were borne by that Satanic panic actually sort of coming to fruition. I mean, whether or not anyone within that Norwegian scene actually believed in their own bullshit, some of its members still managed to gain notoriety by doing some truly heinous and horrifying stuff, like murder. One of the scene's founders, Euronymous, from a band called Mayhem, and who also owned the Oslo record store where Norwegian black metal had originally started, once repeatedly stabbed a gay man to death.

And another thing that this scene manifested was a whole spate of church burnings as well; like fifty of them. Again, whether or not these musicians actually believed in any form of Satanism or held extreme anti-Christian beliefs totally becomes beside the point when they actually end up causing real world harm. But those actions that they took in order to gain credibility, by practicing what they preached in their music, caused the whole scene to become its own spectacle anyway, which is what it seems like some of its most vocal members had wanted all along; a self-fulfilling prophecy, as it were.

Now, while I viscerally tend to despise the sound of black metal itself, mostly because of its shrieking, demonic vocals, I'm not here to say that because a bunch of Norwegians took their shit way too far, that black metal, as a whole, should be canceled. I, personally, find its presentation and obsession with all things morose and evil to be really, really corny, but if you dig it, then more power to you.

But what I really struggle to wrap my head around—and perhaps I really shouldn't be as surprised as I am here—is that despite all of this violence and hatred that some musicians in the Norwegian scene themselves actually carried out in real life, that labels would still be willing to play footsie with those bands. Like, this comp, from Century Black Records, isn't from an obscure label of any kind; Century Black was a sublabel of Century Media Records, which is a very popular and diverse metal label that's now owned by fucking Sony! Like, you can easily find Mayhem's music on Spotify, the band of the guy who did that murder!

And understandably, there is a concerted effort by metal enthusiasts, and the industry as a whole, to deride and not platform black metal's Nazi subgenre, but if a dude who wasn't a confirmed Nazi committed a grisly, unprovoked killing that was also quite possibly a hate crime, and he and a bunch of others burned some churches too, well, Sony's capitalizing on their music right now. Fucking wild, right?

So, my objection here isn't to the sound or the absurdly cringy themes that black metal itself is steeped in, but it's that a label would still include a band like Mayhem on their comp. Like, isn't that some shit you'd wanna sweep under a rug, like with the Nazi stuff?! But no; I mean, do you see this album cover and title? Firestarter? What do you think they're referring to there, especially with this CD that's largely a showcase of foundational Norwegian black metal bands? Gee, I wonder 🤔.

And guess what? I didn't actually hate this album as much as I thought I would. I mean, I'm still all the way out on all of these songs once the typical black metal vocals kick in, but some of these riffs and melodies, combined with breakneck-paced drumbeats, are very impressive and satisfying to a tiny slice of me that enjoys some very heavy music from time to time. And some of these songs lean a little proggy too, which I can also get down with.

But can we please not do such a transparent allusion to one of the most truly abhorrent phenomena that Norwegian black metal begat? I mean, I understand the issues that people have with Christianity and organized religion more broadly, and I, myself, am a hardened atheist too, but can we please tone it the fuck down here by not flippantly making reference, in both the title and album art, to something reprehensible that actually repeatedly happened? Like, can we not glorify any of that extracurricular shit or present this album in such a way?! I mean, if you were making an album of Phil Spector's greatest hits, your album art wouldn't include anything that referenced the murder he committed, right?

No highlights.

#black metal #heavy metal #metal #rock #music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music