#didn't you hear? they literally invented romance

[andi-o-geyser]

A compilation of my favourite Perc’ahlia lines because I’m such a sucker for them:

“She is my heart and my judgement and the future that I have chosen.” (Percy)

“Darling, take the mask off.” (Vex)

“Every time I thought I would sink, I would see your face- your face, the first time I truly lost control, and you told me to take off the mask.“ (Percy)

“You're a good person and you're not broken anymore. All right? We're filling each other's gaps. We'll be the glue.“ (Vex)

 “Never forget you’re my favourite.” (Percy)

“I’ve known a lot of people with money, and they are definitely not worth you.” (Percy)

“Nice shootin’, stud.” (Vex)

“You’ll have to amend that one name, just to be fair. It’s Lady Vex’ahlia. Lady Vex’ahlia, Baroness of the Third House of Whitestone and Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt.” (Percy)

“My heart is someone else’s.” (Vex)

“I should have told you: it’s yours.” (Vex)

“There was a hole in my heart, and I truly believe the only reason I didn't perish from it was because you were holding my heart so tightly. I thank the gods I gave it to you. It is yours, forever and always.“ (Vex)

“I just scream, I scream.” (Vex)

“I need you here now, I need you here.” (Percy)

“You still have a little blood behind your ear.” (Vex)

“But I don’t want to be here if you’re not. Whitestone still needs you, darling. I still need you here.“ (Vex)

“You’re far too wonderful for an idiot.“ (Percy)

“He’s married, to me, and I will cut you.” (Vex)

“You have given me a future I had cheaply sold away.“ (Percy)

“You allowed me to be a part of the thing that you hold dearest. And I was so proud.“ (Vex)

“Vex, I heard you. It was the only thing I heard.” (Percy)

“Were you going to fight the Raven Queen for me?” (Vex)

“I promise to walk into the future with you. I promise to build a family with you. And I promise to always be here for an adventure with you.“ (Percy)

#all the ways the say ''i love you'' without saying it <33 #the ship of all time. fr. #didn't you hear? they literally invented romance #if it doesn't take 70+ 3 hour long episodes for them to first kiss each other then what's the fucking point #the most well built relationship i've actually every seen #they mean so so SO much to me #it's all the little moments that mean so fucking much #you can literally watch them fall in love in real time #they have an *oh* (italicized) moment! a real fucking *oh* moment!!! like?!?? #this fully married couple with 5 kids is in such a slowburn portion of their relationship i feel like i may start breaking shit #relentlessly posting perc'ahlia #perc'ahlia #percy de rolo #percival de rolo #vex'ahlia #vex'ahlia de rolo #putting his full name just for the fuck of it #percival fredrickstein von musel klossowski de rolo iii #critical role #cr1 #vox machina #tlovm #tlovm spoilers #the legend of vox machina #andis thought geyser

[eyes-of-mischief]

weekly fic recs | 41

fandoms: bsd, dc, hp, svsss, tgcf

bsd

A Game of Chance by freefan1412

Instead of following Oda himself, Dazai arranges for his life to be saved by making a call to someone who has the means. That has consequences, chief among them that he could not have handed Mori a better card against him if he tired.

dc

Brother Wanted by Vamillepudding

Well-behaved boy (10) is looking for big brother (11-15). Must meet up with me three times a week, for at least two hours each. Overall duties include helping me with homework, playing videogames with me, and showing me how to play catch. 10$ per hour.

Tim, lonely and in desperate need of company, decides that if his parents are not going to give him a sibling, he's going to hire one instead. Luckily, Jason Todd-Wayne shows up in the nick of time.

hp

family and other wonders by resonance_and_d

Harry was supposed to pick- move on and be with his parents, or go back to finish the battle with Voldemort. But even Dumbledore doesn't know everything, and Harry finds that there are actually a lot more options than those two.

Harry wants more than what he got. He wants a home. He wants a family. He wants a chance to be happy. He isn't sure he deserves all that, but he's going to try anyway. If only to spite Dumbledore and Voldemort's plans both.

OR: Harry Potter wakes up ten years old but with all of his memories from age seventeen. He immediately begins to make Mistakes.

my head is bloody, but unbowed by NorthernRanger

Once again, she lifted the spell, and the wizard behind him moved forward. He reached down and took hold of Harry’s arm, pulling his shaking body up and twisting his arm behind him. “We should take him to the Dark Lord,” he said, and Harry’s heart beat wildly. Voldemort was dead. The war had ended. What was going on?

Ouroboros by NovusArs

(mature) (graphic depictions of violence)

Salazar Slytherin woke up in the body of a three-year-old boy with the most ridiculous head of black hair & a runic scar carved into his forehead. The last thing he recalled was dying. Now it is over 900 years in the future. There are a million things to deal with between new inventions, lost knowledge, missing spirits, & parasitic dark lords.

svsss

hey. by Nomette

(explicit)

After a strange artifact transports Shen Qingqiu to a world where the Peak Lords are demons, he is captured by Demon Lord Liu Qingge of the Burning Valley. Demon romance ensues, and Shen Qingqiu is forced to confront the fact that maybe he didn't know his world's Liu Qingge as well as he thought he did.

take me home, bury me there by nyoomerr

(mature) (graphic depictions of violence)

When Shen Qingqiu transmigrates, he finds himself in a world where heartbreak can make a person fall apart - literally, since those who are heartbroken crack open starting from the space over their heart, and only cultivators can survive the blood loss by using their qi to hold their blood inside their bodies where it belongs.

Having a physical indicator like this that alerts Shen Qingqiu in real time of the hearts he's breaking... well, it changes things.

Luo Binghe, somehow, still ends up suffering more than Shen Qingqiu ever wants him too.

tgcf

Something Foreknown by crowdedcafe

E-ming is born with a hole in his heart and an emptiness in his soul. Through centuries of hearing stories about Hua Cheng's beloved, E-ming grows to love the man he was born missing.

Whoops, I Almost Killed You Again 天官赐苦，鬼拂🈲️忌 by TentativeWanderer 

As if on cue, the silver chain snapped for no reason whatsoever. Xie Lian startled and attempted to catch it as it fell, but a burst of bad luck ensured that it slipped through his fingers and went tumbling merrily down the slope. Catch me, come catch me, the ring winked in the sunlight. Naturally, Xie Lian attempted to do so. Naturally, he stubbed his toe on a root, toppled over, and rolled down the hill in hot, uncontrollable pursuit of the ring.

For a ghost, giving your ashes to a loved one is a high-risk decision. Giving your ashes to the God of Disaster is a tremendously high-risk decision.

Hua Cheng is the most qualified being to make that decision. And, as Xie Lian discovers, a Ghost King does not do take-backsies.

💍🔪💍☄️💍☠️💍⚠️💍🎭💍☢️

#weekly fic recs #no prompt #bsd fic recs #bsd #dc fic recs #dc #hp fic recs #hp #svsss fic recs #svsss #tgcf fic recs #tgcf

[bitegore]

woah I just finished reading licanius and I'm feeling lightheaded. do you want to yell about licanius because I want to hear you yell about it. I'm prepared to be so so normal about nethgalla

GOD. AHAHAHAHAA. i always want to yell about licanius

okay first my personal hashtag licanius hashtag experience is worth adding because it explains a lot about which parts i am most insane about. So I first found the first book Shadow of What was Lost back in the ancient years of like 2015 or 2016 or whatever before Islington got his book deal while it was still self-published on Kindle Unlimited instead of being published by any kind of publisher. Back in these years it was just the first book and the others weren't out.

....and surelyt you remember that fucking epilogue thing that Islington loves to do where he puts the Big Reveal right at the end of the book, right? So i spent like a full three or four years going absolutely Bat Shit about just the whole "caeden is also aarkein devaed" bit and then . book 2 comes out and. AUGH. AUUUUUUUGHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAAAAA the fucking. MALSHASH is CAEDEN is AARKEIN DEVAED is TAL'KAMAR why does this man need to be every character. and THEN the fact that CAEDEN DOES NOT KILL DAVIAN. HE GETS HIM FUCKING SELF.

insane. this series makes me insane. literally foaming at the mouth insane.

nethgalla was just like. okay actually i cant lie i kind of love that she fucked up every romantic plotline caeden/tal could've been involved in because i am so glad he did not have any actual romance plot with karaliene or anyone else but how do you invent a character as cool as The Demon Shapeshifter From The Torture Dimension and then fuck it up by being like "and she's obsessed with this guy and exists mostly to be a femme fatale" like come ON. come ON you FLUBBED it. i wish she had more going on with her because even just the idea that she's tied to bhim because he summoned her by fucking up resurrecting his dead wife is like spicy as fuck but then the actual execution is so. like. mid at best? it truly saddens me especially because when Tal shows up she's lame about him but every other time she is SO badass. when she's pretending to be that one hunter she was so badass. when she was tormenting ashalia in the name of making her stronger that kicked ass. they should've kissed. i said what i said

also FUCK LMAO MELDIER AND ALARIC AND ISILIAR AND THE OTHER VENERATE i am SO not normal about them I am obsessed with them I want to put them in my mouth and EAT THEM. i wrote a crossover where Vortex gets recruited into their ranks for an exvent once. i love them so dearly. i spent multiple years bullying my girlfriends into reading the books exclusively so i could get them to write fanfiction about them for me. i love them i want them so dead i'm so glad the story went the way it did but also they deserved better and i wish it didn't happen in the first place. literally the best fucking tragedy ever. i wish we got to watch Wereth's death and Andrael's betrayal and i also wish everything were worse and there was more bad. i am so normal about them.they are so important to me

the fucking shape of this narrative also. this is so circles ever. it makes me lose my fucking mind. look at it it is a self-contained loop (derogatory) (aspirational) this thing is soooooooo the chicken and the egg. its so. its so! i am normal and not insane about it i promise come closer etc etc

#red replies #licanius spoilers #under the cut anyway #garden-ghoul #i am SO GLAD you've read them :D i fucking LOVE these books they make me so . extremely

[kali-writes-meta]

The Executioner and Her Way of Life

This is different. I've never seen anyone pull off a DND fantasy, psychological thriller, and lesbian romance combo before. Lesbian thrillers are having a very ironic Moment in the current culture. Thrillers tend to operate in conditions similar to Cold War espionage, and Cold War espionage was directly responsible for one of the first official calls to decriminalize homosexuality. But I didn't expect to see a lesbian thriller in any kind of DND fantasy setting, let alone an isekai.

Welcome to the world of Where-the-heck-are-we, which has the decidedly mixed blessing of being a dumping ground for isekai'd Japanese schoolchildren. Sometimes they make contributions to society, but all of them are given enormous powers they eventually lose control of and become a danger to the world. The Church has finally had enough and started sending out assassins to wipe out the school kids before they blow up like a-bombs.

At least, that's the official line.

Right away, that story is as shady as a burqa. The world has trains and streetlights, supposedly invented by these kids. The trains alone took more than one lifetime to set up, and that's not counting all the groundwork that had to be laid in terms of making high-quality steel and other parts. No way could it have been done by a literal kid who's a literal walking time bomb.

But this is a thriller, and that means that you can be pretty sure the first story you hear is a lie.

Menou is one of these executioners. As the traumatized survivor of one of the biggest isekai-made disasters, she's not given to self-reflection or asking questions. Her current target is the recently arrived Akari, but Akari can reset time and prevent her own death. And even though they just met, why has Akari been showing up in Menou's dreams her entire life? Menou has to string Akari along while she plans Akari's seemingly impossible death, but Akari has secrets of her own that threaten to unravel the web of lies the entire world is built on.

I wasn't expecting a thriller, but this one is a nice change of pace and a really good story.

#Shokei Shōjo no Ikiru Michi #anime #isekai #the executioner and her way of life #review #lgbtq

[musewrangler]

AO3 First Lines Tag Game

Tagged by: @brievel and @afaroffsong Thank you both!

Rules: Share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written fewer than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.

I'm assuming here ALL fan fic, so that will include a few yet unpublished things. ;D

Working from past fic to most recent:

10--Sanctuary

Veers watched tensely as the medics guided the grav sled onto the shuttle out on the vast landing platform connected to the medical station.

"You must stick to the schedule I've given you," Doctor Yara said sternly, tapping the specialized medical scanner. "No deviation. He ought to have had four days in the bacta, not 24 hours. You need to understand if you rush things it could literally kill him."

9--Forging Further Ch. 29

Piett looked up as the doors to his office slid open and Veers marched in. Any other person would have stomped, but as this was the 'Iron General' one didn't term this stomping. It was marching. Definitely.

8-- To Strive, To Seek, To Find, and Not To Yield

She clung as closely as she could to him in the dark and terrifying hold of this ship. She had utterly no idea where they were going, but she could guess the purpose. They were alive after all.

With beings like this it wasn't a mercy.

7--What We Say Without Speaking

"Sir, I have to admit this is making me rather nervous."

He could hear the Admiral making small movements to his left as he piloted the lamda. And he definitely heard heard the amusement in Piett's voice as he answered.

"I'm hearing a distinct lack of trust, Mr. Scraps."

6--Whiskey Diplomacy

It was entirely possible that diplomacy had been invented as a way to torture beings in ages past and all records of its inception had been lost. Thus, modern societies just assumed it was a normal way of conducting their affairs, slowly and torturously wearing each other down until they all got a mostly dissatisfying conclusion.

At least, this was Han's theory, as yet another senator rose to drone about all the virtues his planet brought to whatever deal they were trying to forge here.

5--Captain's Log: Tales Set in the World of Horblower

First Lieutenant Archie Kennedy was not someone who enjoyed the cold. His fiance loved the snow and found all sorts of romance about it. He could indeed appreciate that from beside the comfort of a warm fire or reading about it in a book. But she actually liked being out in it, and again, he could appreciate that for a while. But he was ready for the indoors after thirty minutes.

4--The War In The Shadows

Deep breath.

In.

Let it out slowly through the nose.

Lips arranged in a fixed and falsely pleasant smile.

Chin rested on gloved fingers interlaced together to portray interest in the speaker.

3--A Shield Not A Sword

"Sir," his weapons officer whispered in terror. He was a specky kid no older than eighteen. "Sir, what do we do?"

Piett stared out the viewport at the five Imperial Star Destroyers surrounding his tiny little assortment of ships. Four Gladiators and one Victory class. Typical for this part of the galaxy and more than enough to turn his smaller ships into tiny particles.

2--Yet to be titled long fic

Firmus Piett was not a man much given to the idea of romance. He acknowledged that it happened and other people seemed to like it---but he didn't understand the obsession with the shows on the holonet, or soul mates, or love at first sight.

1--Yet to bet titled one shot

"Plase, Max," his friend pleaded, gripping his jacket with surprising strength to keep Veers near him. "Plase. Ah know the ship went down intact. Ah saw it. Ya canna lave him..."

His Axxilan friend slipped back into his old accent when he was very tired, rather drunk, or downright terrified for his people.

Tagging with no pressure: @winterinhimring @hollers-and-holmes @chaosgoblinhours @klarionthewizard @alexx-dax @kanerallels @oftincturedwords @oh-great-authoress @mathmusic8 @themummersfolly

#tag game #first lines #fanfic #writing #writers #authors #ten fics #writing game #my writing #star wars #firmus piett #maximillian veers

[wanderingnork]

for end of the year book asks: 3 and 14 :)

3: Top five books of the year

Oh damn...that's TOUGH considering how much I read. Let me give it a shot. In no particular order!

Thick as Thieves: #5 in the Queen's Thief series. It's an amazing roadtrip story, full of beautiful invented mythology, wonderful character growth, lovely prose, nuanced worldbuilding, politics politics and more politics, and one of the best all-but-openly-stated romances I've ever read. The local himbo fights a lion barehanded...for really no good goddamn reason. Local nerd spends the entire book trying not to fall in love with said himbo and fails miserably. Mythological figures literally follow these two around. The book recontextualizes all FOUR of the previous books in the series, somehow. Absolutely buckwild and so much fun.

Tongues of Serpents: #6 in the Temeraire series. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding here, and I loved...getting to see the protagonists happy. The previous book was HARD to read, though of the best technical quality in the series so far, so I can't call it my favorite. In this one, we start to see the protagonists' character development come into focus and really inspire them to take meaningful action. The ending is peaceful. The prose is GORGEOUS. The backdrop of international politics is elegantly handled without overrunning the central storyline. Just a lovely read and a breather in a series prone to being very serious and complicated.

Never Home Alone: A nonfiction book discussing the tiny life that lives around us and on us and inside us. It covers the tiny biomes and webs of life that surround us even when we can't see it. From house crickets to viruses, it's a loving examination of things we consider creepy and often overlook. Did you know that your hot water heater more than likely contains bacteria of the same genus that live in hot springs like Yellowstone, because the conditions of a hot water heater so closely resemble those? What I TRULY loved about this book, though, is that it didn't condemn readers or offer hopeless proclamations. I read a lot of ecological nonfiction and those are things I see a lot. This book offered gentle, straightforward, and meaningful suggestions for people who may not have easy access to The Great Outdoors or the resources to take huge action. It encourages closer study of the things that share our homes, opening our windows to invite the outside in, and offering compassion to things that we find creepy--because they're part of our homes and lives and just as important to the health of our planet as the bigger, cuter, easier-to-see life.

Otherlands: This is a beautiful book that takes readers on a journey into deep time. It takes a narrative journey through a variety of pre-human places and times, starting with the plains of Alaska 20,000 years ago and ending in the Ediacaran seas 555 million years ago. It offers a glimpse of many lesser-known places and times around the world. Not just the iconic locations like the Burgess Shale or the Morrison Formation, but places where our understanding might be based on just a few small fossils--like fossil filaments from the Yaman Kasy sulfide deposits in the Ural Mountains of Russia. The author reconstructs an environment of the ancient life around hydrothermal vent deposits laid down 435 million years ago, in the Silurian period. It's a wonderful journey into the past. I could have done with a little more "what can we do to fight climate change" and hope toward the end of the book, but that's a personal quibble.

Empire of Ants: A book about ants and why we should love them. It talks about the unique life cycles of different species, the diversity of ants, the wonderful complexity of their lives. Sheer adoration just shines out of every word in this book. We learn about how entomologists actually study ants, hear anecdotes about collection and study, and what experiments can look like and why we care about them. The author, though, freely admits she just loves ants for the sake of ants. Ever since reading this book, I've felt nothing but affection for the little insects. I find myself looking down more often and studying the ants I see. After learning about how leafcutter ants have an almost janitorial class in their nests to maintain their fungal farms, I--as a janitor by profession--have started calling leafcutter ants my professional colleagues. It's not entirely a joke: their industriousness and care of their colonies genuinely inspires me. That wouldn't have happened without this book.

14: What books do you want to finish before the year is over?

Due to personal events right now, I'm not actively reading any new books. But!!! I've started a reread of the early Legend of Drizzt books, since my love of Forgotten Realms and specifically the Underdark has been reawakened by Baldur's Gate 3, and I'll be reading those through the end of the year. It's not taking in something new; it's reacquainting myself with old and cherished friends. It's been a long time since I read them, and I'm definitely looking with new eyes. I haven't lost any affection for them, but...I can definitely say that my style has outgrown these early books. I could do without some of the weirder aspects of drow society and I can see ways to alter or do away with them *without* destroying the overall plot of the books or Drizzt's character and narrative. But the descriptions of the eerie, monster-filled-yet-wondrous Underdark, the fantastical city of Menzoberranzan, and the marvelous monsters...yeah. Those still hold up and ring true.

Also, I can really see where I got my style writing fight scenes. I have no objections to that. They're good.

#nork rants

[aerithisms]

for the doctor who one!! 3, 4, 13, 14!

thank you bestie!!!!

3. who is your favorite doctor? why?

twelve my babygirl <3 it's funny because back when his era started i wasn't sold on him for a long time but now i have no idea how i watched the "please just see me" scene from deep breath and didn't immediately love him. i blame being 14 and stupid i guess. but that scene really is the key to why i love twelve so much - he's got all of this outward grumpiness and hardness but not so far beneath that, he's bone weary and he's frightened and he's lonely and he's vulnerable and he just wants to be seen and understood and loved. all of the doctors love their companions but twelve's nature as having been forged BY clara essentially manifesting him into existence leads him to be the one who nearly destroys himself for that love. and i love his arc of learning how to be himself again, of clara teaching him how to be himself (again they are intertwined! she is the architect of what it means to be the doctor!) and how he is eventually able to pass on those lessons in s10 to missy and bill. his arc most closely interrogates what being the doctor actually means by correctly asserting that the doctor has always been created by those who love him and then suggesting that what makes him special as a hero is how he pays that love forward. he is a beautiful thesis statement on the character and i love him!!!

4. who is your least favourite doctor? why?

given that i've only seen a few classic who serials here and there i feel like i have to answer this with a revival doctor so unfortunately my answer is thirteen. which i really hate to say because i do not want to be associated with the Not My Doctor crowd who hate her because they're bigoted weirdos but unfortunately this take on the character has just never worked for me. there's a lot of elements involved from the absence of compelling companion relationships (which you can see from why i love twelve i think are pretty essential to a good doctor) to the absence of overall vision for what this version of the character is meant to be. i think jodie is a fantastic actress but her performance in this role has always felt off to me, almost like she's playing a caricature of the doctor, which i think has everything to do with chibnall's lack of direction for her incarnation. i don't envy her what she had to work with and i wish we could've seen her do it in the hands of a different writer.

13. what is your favourite romance involving a companion?

i used to dislike amy/rory but now i really like it. i do still have plenty of issues with its execution (e.g. imo the divorce subplot was a good idea that left a lot to be desired) but the vision is clear. rory williams literally invented devotion. he was a wife guy before that phrase entered the lexicon. i love that he is amy's companion before he's the doctor's companion, which assigns amy the greater narrative weight in the relationship. i love that he (unlike many members of the audience unfortunately) has so much patience for amy and remains committed to her. i love seeing amy's equal devotion to him and she learns to better express it. they're a bit of a mess but they are my mess <3

14. what is your favorite serial/special ?

i can't tell is this is meant to mean just favourite episode or specifically special? if we're just talking episode, then hell bent apologism forever. it's genius feminist metanarrative it's heartbreaking character drama it's television ahead of its time etc and the girls who get it get it. but if we're talking specifically specials then - HEAR ME OUT - time of the doctor. i know a lot of people don't like this episode and matt smith has even recently suggested he wasn't entirely happy with it as a swan song but i REALLY love it. i love that the explanation for the whole era-spanning silence plot is explained in like two sentences so that the episode can focus on being about what doctor who should always focus on being about - the doctor and the companion. i love the parallel to amy when barnable asks if eleven will come back, and this time he does. i love that clara has taken the narrative role of the doctor, dropping in on a friend in that magic blue box while he gets older and she stays the same. i love how whimsical and twee and befitting of eleven's era it is for him to go out defending a town called christmas. i love that the big question of how the doctor will get past 13 regenerations is answered with the power of love because i am a sappy bitch and also, again, love is what this show is about! not wiki-page lore. i love the scene where clara helps the doctor pull the cracker because it makes me feel like i'm going to collapse each and every time i see it. i love this episode and i will be a defender of it forever <3

#blahs #dw #answers #this is so long. i have many feelings about the blue box show

[nealiios]

The Supernatural 70s: Part I - Corruption of An Innocent

"We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us - we're soldiers writers."

-- with apologies to the screenwriter of "Stripes"

Dear reader, I have the darkest of revelations to make to you, a truth when fully and wholly disclosed shall most assuredly chill you to the bone, a tale that shall make you question all that you hold to be true and good and holy about my personal history. While you may have come in search of that narrative designer best known for his works of interactive high fantasy, you should know that he is also a crafter of a darker art, a scribbler of twisted tales filled with ghosts, and ghouls, and gargoyles. I am, dear innocent, a devotee of horrors! Mwahahahaha!

[cue thunderclap, lightning, pipe organ music]

Given the genre of writing for which most of you know me, I forgive you if you think of me principally as a fantasy writer. I don't object to that classification because I do enjoy mucking about with magic and dark woods and mysterious ancient civilizations. But if you are to truly know who I am as a writer, you must realize that the image I hold of myself is principally as a creator of weird tales.

To understand how and why I came to be drawn to this sub-genre of fantastic fiction, you first must understand that I come from peculiar folks. Maybe I don't have the Ipswich look, or I didn't grow up in a castle, but my pedigree for oddity has been there from the start. My mother was declared dead at birth by her doctor, and often heard voices calling to her in the dead of night that no one else could hear. Her mother would periodically ring us up to discuss events in our lives about which she couldn't possibly have known. My father's people still share ghost stories about a family homestead that burned down mysteriously in the 1960s. Even my older brother has outré memories about events he says cannot possibly be true, and as a kid was kicked off the Tulsa city bookmobile for attempting to check out books about UFOs, bigfoot, and ESP. It's fair to say I was doomed - or destined - for weirdness from the start.

If the above listed circumstances had not been enough, I grew up in an area where neighbors whispered stories about a horrifically deformed Bulldog Man who stalked kids who "parked" on the Old North Road near my house. The state in which I was raised was rife with legends of bigfoots, deer women, and devil men. Even in my childhood household there existed a pantheon of mythological entities invented explicitly to keep me in line. If I was a good boy, The Repairman would leave me little gifts of Hot Wheels cars or candy. If I was being terrible, however, my father would dress in a skeleton costume, rise from the basement and threaten to drag me down into everlasting hellfire (evidently there was a secret portal in our basement.) There were monsters, monsters EVERYWHERE I looked in my childhood world. Given that I was told as a fledgling writer to write what I knew, how could anyone have been surprised that the first stories I wrote were filled with the supernatural?

"The Nightmare" by John Henry Fuseli (1781)

My formative years during the late sixties and early seventies took place at a strange juncture in our American cultural history. At the same time that we were loudly proclaiming the supremacy of scientific thought because we'd landed men on the moon, we were also in the midst of a counter cultural explosion of interest in astrology, witchcraft, ghosts, extra sensory perception, and flying saucers. Occult-related books were flying off the shelves as sales surged by more than 100% between 1966 and 1969. Cultural historians would come to refer to this is as the "occult boom," and its aftershocks would impact popular cultural for decades to come.

My first contact with tales of the supernatural were innocuous, largely sanitized for consumption by children. I vividly remember watching Casper the Friendly Ghost and the Disney version of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I read to shreds numerous copies of both Where the Wild Things Are and Gus the Ghost. Likely the most important exposure for me was to the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You? cartoon which attempted to inoculate us from our fears of ghosts and aliens by convincing us that ultimately the monster was always just a bad man in a mask. (It's fascinating to me that modern incarnations of Scooby Doo seem to have completely lost this point and instead make all the monsters real.)

ABOVE: Although the original cartoon Scooby Doo, Where Are You? ran only for one season from 1969 to 1970, it remained in heavy reruns and syndication for decades. It is notable for having been a program that perfectly embodied the conflict between reason and superstition in popular culture, and was originally intended to provide children with critical thinking skills so they would reject the idea of monsters, ghosts, and the like. Ironically, modern takes on Scooby Doo have almost entirely subverted this idea and usually present the culprits of their mysteries as real monsters.

During that same time, television also introduced me to my first onscreen crush in the form of the beautiful and charming Samantha Stevens, a witch who struggles to not to use her powers while married to a frequently intolerant mortal advertising executive in Bewitched. The Munsters and The Addams Family gave me my first taste for "goth" living even before it would become all the rage in the dance clubs of the 1980s. Late night movies on TV would bring all the important horror classics of the past in my living room as Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man, the Phantom of the Opera, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Godzilla all became childhood friends. Over time the darkened castles, creaking doors, foggy graveyards, howling wolves, and ever present witches and vampires became so engrained in my psyche that today they remain the "comfort viewing" to which I retreat when I'm sick or in need of other distractions from modern life.

ABOVE: Elizabeth Montgomery starred in Bewitched (1964 - 1972) as Samantha Stephens, a witch who married "mortal" advertising executive Darren Stephens (played for the first five seasons by actor Dick York). Inspired by movies like I Married a Witch (1942) and Bell, Book and Candle (1958), it was a long running series that explored the complex relationship dynamics between those who possess magic and those who don't. Social commentators have referred to it as an allegory both for mixed marriages and also about the challenges faced by minorities, homosexuals, cultural deviants, or generally creative folks in a non heterogeneous community. It was also one of the first American television programs to portray witches not as worshippers of Satan, but simply as a group of people ostracized for their culture and their supernatural skills.

Even before I began elementary school, there was one piece of must-see gothic horror programming that I went out of my way to catch every day. Dark Shadows aired at 3:30 p.m. on our local ABC affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma which usually allowed me to catch most of it if I ran home from school (or even more if my mom or brother picked me up.) In theory it was a soap opera, but the show featured a regular parade of supernatural characters and themes. The lead was a 175 year old vampire named Barnabas Collins (played by Johnathan Frid), and the show revolved around his timeless pursuit of his lost love, Josette. It was also a program that regularly dealt with reincarnation, precognition, werewolves, time travel, witchcraft, and other occult themes. Though it regularly provoked criticism from religious groups about its content, it ran from June of 1966 until it's final cancellation in April of 1971. (I would discover it in the early 1970s as it ran in syndication.) Dark Shadows would spin off two feature-length movies based on the original, a series of tie-in novels, an excellent reboot series in 1991 (starring Ben Cross as Barnabas), and a positively embarrassingly awful movie directed by Tim Burton in 1991.

ABOVE: Johnathan Frid starred as Barnabas Collins, one of the leading characters of the original Dark Shadows television series. The influence of the series cannot be understated. In many ways Dark Shadows paved the way for the inclusion of supernatural elements in other soap operas of the 1970s and the 1980s, and was largely responsible for the explosion of romance novels featuring supernatural themes over the same time period.

While Dark Shadows was a favorite early television program for me, another show would prove not only to be a borderline obsession, but also a major influence on my career as a storyteller. Night Gallery (1969-1973) was a weekly anthology television show from Rod Serling, better known as the creator and host of the original Twilight Zone. Like Twilight Zone before it, Night Gallery was a deep and complex commentary on the human condition, but unlike its predecessor the outcomes for the characters almost always skewed towards the horrific and the truly outré. In "The Painted Mirror," an antiques dealer uses a magic painting to trap an enemy in the prehistoric past. Jack Cassidy plots to use astral projection to kill his romantic rival in "The Last Laurel" but accidentally ends up killing himself. In "Eyes" a young Stephen Spielberg directs Joan Crawford in a story about an entitled rich woman who plots to take the sight of a poor man. Week after week it delivered some of the best-written horror television of the early 1970s.

In retrospect I find it surprising that I was allowed to watch Night Gallery at all. I was very young while it was airing, and some of the content was dark and often quite shocking for its time. Nevertheless, I was so attached to the show that I'd throw a literal temper tantrum if I missed a single, solitary episode. If our family needed to go somewhere on an evening that Night Gallery was scheduled, either my parents would either have to wait until after it had aired before we left, or they'd make arrangements in advance with whomever we were visiting to make sure it was okay that I could watch Night Gallery there. I was, in a word, a fanatic.

ABOVE: Every segment of Night Gallery was introduced by series creator Rod Serling standing before a painting created explicitly for the series. Director Guillermo del Toro credits Serling's series as being the most important and influential show on his own work, even more so than the more famous Twilight Zone.

#horror #70s #occult #supernatural #television #writing

[emometalhead]

Love this! Thanks for the tag, Fiona!! @odearjohn

1. Who was your first favourite artist?

Technically my first favorite song was Since You Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson, so I'll go with Kelly! My obsession with Dance Dance by Fall Out Boy came at about the same time, so I'm going to count them both lol.

Who are your current favourite artists?

Taylor Swift, Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park, Seether, Shinedown, Stone Temple Pilots, Guns N' Roses, Grandson. I could go on lol.

Are you into musicals? Which ones?/Why not?

Not at all. I wasn't raised on them. They don't interest me. The only musical I like is Grease, and even then I make fun of it relentlessly.

Are there songs you consider so special you only listen to them very rarely?

Used to be One More Light by Linkin Park, but now I'm not able to listen to it at all.

What's your preferred way of listening to music? (time of day, medium, situation)

I'm constantly listening to music. I prefer to have it blasting from speakers. When my family is home, I prefer headphones for certain music if I know they don't like it.

What would you say is the most niche music you listen to?

I don't even know lol. And One? Mars Argo? Tribal Ink?

What's your favourite music related movie/TV show that's not a musical?

I love Bohemian Rhapsody and The Runaways! Do those count? If not, then Scott Pilgrim lol!!

Albums or playlists?

Usually playlists, but it depends on my mood!

Favourite albums?

Everything by Taylor Swift, Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park, Twenty Øne Piløts, My Chemical Romance, Imagine Dragons, and Vince Neil. Also Appetite For Destruction and Use Your Illusion (GN'R), Poison the Parish and Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (Seether), Thank You (Stone Temple Pilots), OK I'm Sick (Badflower), The Black Album (Metallica), Rubber Soul and Help! (The Beatles), Come Clean (Puddle of Mudd), No Shame (Lily Allen), Wanted On Voyage (George Ezra), Mis-An-Thrope (Ded). Should I go on? 😂 Those are the ones I listen to all the way through most.

Is there an artist you're trying to get into?

Not currently.

Whose music do you find overhyped?

I don't want to say 😂. Okay I'll bite. Van Halen,

What's an underrated song?

Save My Soul - Seether

Lovely - Twenty Øne Piløts

All In The Suit That You Wear - Stone Temple Pilots

What's a thing a bunch of songs do that you love every time?

I love when songs fade out at the end. I love a good bridge. I love a little bit of talking in a song.

What song is better acoustic?

Literally no song ever. Some acoustic songs I do enjoy are: Simple Man by Shinedown, Wicked Game by Stone Sour, and Shots by Imagine Dragons. (I didn't mean for 2/3 of those to be covers lol.)

What's the worst song of all time?

Idk something by Justin Beiber probably. I'm probably repressing something.

Do you put individual songs on repeat? If so, for how long and how often?

Every single day. It depends on my mood. Sometimes I'll only listen to a song like 5 times, and other times I'll have one on repeat for 3 hours.

Do you make your own playlists? If so, what's your most entertaining playlist title?

I do! I prefer my own playlists to ones made by others. I don't think my titles are particularly entertaining, but the most interesting are probably:

W (D) <- that stands for Women (Derogatory) lol

Drugs are bad. You shouldn't do drugs. Mkay?

Songs I Can Rap AKA White People Rap

Headphones or earbuds?

Earbuds. Headphones feel too bulky. Also I used to wear headbands all the time, and headphones don't work well with them.

Do you always sing the lead vocal or do you harmonize sometimes? If you harmonize, do you ever invent your own harmony?

I tend to only sing the lead vocals. Sometimes I hum guitar solos lol.

A music confession.

I do not care where I am or who can hear me. If a song I like is playing, I will sing along. I was caught singing along to a Weezer song at work yesterday lol.

Tagging: @metallicasbian @losers-yurio @bad-seamstress-blues @crashdiet

#tag games #music

[andi-o-geyser]

Every day I wake up and my close friend and adventuring party member who I’ve been flirting with for years who also recently set off the trap that accidentally killed me while attempting to retrieve a magical suit of armour from the tomb of the goddess of death hasn’t told me in a quiet moment together that he’s known a lot of people with money and they are definitely not worth me, nor has my close friend and adventuring party member who I’ve been flirting with for years who has also recently covered for me while facing the necromantic murderers of my family at a formal dinner stood in front of my weapon while I was possessed by a demon, ready to attack her and all our friends, touched me gently on the face and told me to take of the mask before calling out my full name and telling me to fight the monster inside of me and by doing so successfully pulled me back from the brink. also, not so coincidentally, in both cases this “close friend” is my heart and judgement and the future I have chosen. I mean like why do I even try anymore

#to be clear if there is any confusion yes i am talking about both of them #this is literally just a perc'ahlia propaganda post #didn't you hear? they literally invented romance #romeo and julliet have got fucking NOTHING on percy and vex #my standards are literally so high at this point its insane #if it doesn't take 70+ 3 hour long episodes for them to first kiss each other then what's the fucking point #i was in the shower this morning and just fully recited the entire ''ive known a lot of poeple with money'' speech forwards and backwards #and then the ''she is my heart and my judgement'' speech #and then ''i should have told you; its yours'' #the point is i'm having a slight bit of perc'ahlia brainrot #actual literall brainrot that is consuming every waking moment #this fully married couple with 5 kids is in such a slowburn portion of their relationship i feel like i may start breaking shit #good lord i love them so much #anyways. going to watch the perc'ahlia supercut again. brb #relentlessly posting perc'ahlia #critical role #cr1 #vox machina #tlovm #lovm #the legend of vox machina #legend of vox machina #tlovm spoilers #cr1 spoilers #critical role spoilers #tlovm s2 #percy de rolo #vex'ahlia #perc'ahlia #andi's thought geyser

[the-haven-of-fiction]

I have not seen Crimson Peak because I heard it's so scary and gory. But I heard this from people who don't love Tom like I do. What are your thoughts. I know you're the Expert! (My husband watched Night Manager and ISTL with me and didn't even realize they were both Tom!)

Hi there!

That’s so funny aboutyour husband!  I think that is a perfectexample of how amazing Hiddleston is.  Hereally is a chameleon.  

Regarding Crimson Peak…

I understand thatthere are people who love it the way I love ISTL, so if anyone is reading thisand they don’t want to hear criticism of it, please, stop reading.  I am here to give an opinion and my goal isnot to carelessly trash a film.  I don’t think anything I say is necessarily hugely spoilerish, but for these reasons, I’m going to put the rest as a Read More.

Yes, it is gory.  There is a lot of blood.  A lot. The ghosts are extremely unpleasantlooking.  It is very violent.  I literally closed my eyes during parts (notthe ghosts really, just other violence).

I know that those involvedwith the film tried to categorize it as a Gothic Romance in the literarytradition of the 18th c.  Butit isn’t.  It just really isn’t.  And I say that not to scoff or to imply thatwhat GDT created is not worthwhile or valid. I say it because I think he basically invented a different genre and itshould be recognized as such.  The studiochose to market it as a horror movie.  Ifind that to be closer to what the film contains.  Maybe Gothic Romantic Horror?  

In my opinion, thereare a couple key points that bar it from being accurately categorized as aGothic Romance.  The supernatural elementin Gothic romance is very much that – supernatural.  It is psychological.  It is about terror of the mind.  It is about the possibility of a monster (orghost or whatever the creature may be).  Itis about something you feel that is just beyond your physical reach or vision.  GDT absolutely crosses that boundary.  You see his supernatural.  It interacts with and has power over thephysical world.  His fear is not based onthe possibility of a monster, his fear is based on the realness of the monsterand that the monster is really yucky looking and seems like it wants to hurt you.  

The majority of GothicRomance eventually offers a physical explanation for what appears to be supernatural.  GDT also turns that on its head in away.  In fact, he talked about Jane Eyreand Rebecca, which helps to prove my point in that both of those novels do notactually contain ghosts or spirits or monsters – everything is human.  The fear or unknown has a physicalexplanation.  And really, what Daphne deMaurier did in Rebecca is quite amazing, but that’s something for anotherconversation. (GDT also plucked some dialogue practically right off the pagesof Jane Eyre, but that’s also something for another conversation!)

Anyways! I feel like Ineeded to say all that in order to address your “scary” comment.  I suppose it might be scary for some people,but GDT shows you and flat out tells you right away that “ghosts are real” andin a sense, he completely eliminates the fear or scary aspect right there forme.  Frankly, it just winds up beingunpleasant and gross to me.  

Aside from that wholeissue, I find the crux of the Big Secret to be a major disappointment and anincredible missed opportunity.  Based onthe clips that were released and the press that came out before the film, I wasreally hoping that there was some kind of larger metaphor going on about thehouse itself and the human responsibility to the Earth.

There are some verywell done aspects of the film.  The scoreis nice, the costumes are stunning and it is ridiculous that they weren’tnominated for an Oscar.  The locationsare wonderful.  Hiddleston and Chastainare terrific, as is most of the cast. Mia Wasikowska is a total miss for me. She looks like she’s acting.  Idon’t believe her for a second. Hiddleston and Chastain appear to me as though they are feeling andexperience every moment.  Wasikowskalooks like she’s simply trying to emote and even that doesn’t work.  

So, if you’re in the rightmood, give it a go.  :)  Thanks for the message!

#haven gets asks #crimson peak #opinion