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darkcircles4lyfe · 11 months

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Love in Chaos

The way chapter 393 seized me from the inside out, brought me to my knees, smiling with fierce glee—it was all the proof I needed. All at once, a checklist I didn’t even know I was keeping started getting all its boxes ticked. I’ll admit that for some time, I haven’t been sure exactly how Toga’s story should be handled for her to get the care, nuance, and dignity she deserves. So I’ve been resigned, waiting to see what Horikoshi has to say about it. I didn’t know until I saw it, but I can tell we’re on exactly the same page.

This fight between Ochako and Toga—or should I say Himiko, since ya know, they’re both on a first name basis now—it’s a kind of breaking point for the overarching narrative and its themes. Here is where the big questions about hero/villain society are not only asked, but answered. Himiko, more than any of the other main villains, was branded with that label as far back as she can remember, without her having done anything except exist. Thus, she carries the weight of their society’s problems and becomes a symbol of the injustice in prejudice and fear, the brutal agony of being rejected by the world. I’ve maintained this resolve about the story for a long time: I will not be satisfied with an ending that constitutes a return to normal, or even a slightly amended normal. I know that it would be a disservice to Himiko if she were made to fit into society again, whether that be in death or reform or containment. Society has to change for her. After 393, I can tell that Horikoshi knows this too.

It’s the way Ochako steps up to this conversation so boldly and positions herself on Himiko’s side. When Himiko dismisses her words as fickle, claims she’ll go back on them and do horrible things to punish her according to hero society, Ochako comes right back and says no, this isn’t about what you’ve done, this is about you. I see you. I see your beautiful smile and I want to protect it.

Throughout her life, Himiko has not been treated like a real person, so of course this is what she needs. No lecture on morals could disarm her the way acceptance can. It’s also extremely refreshing and reassuring to see Himiko being taken seriously. I’m so incredibly excited for Ochako to accomplish such a completely transgressive act of unconditional love against this harsh world. I could stare in awe of the panels in this chapter for hours, how they’re drawn at the exact intersection of beauty, pain, and honesty. Grotesque violence and elegance. Power and vulnerability. I was so overcome that, for a while, I failed to register a crucial implication.

Enter: The Female Vampire Carmilla

She is referenced merely in passing, but as a rejected villain name for Himiko, speaks volumes. It’s difficult for me to find the words to summarize… perhaps you’ve heard by now that Carmilla is a gothic horror novella about a lesbian vampire. THE lesbian vampire, in fact—the one who popularized the trope. Knowing this, it is simple enough to apply the story of Laura and Carmilla in parallel to Ochako and Himiko, and register it as direct proof of the dynamic’s sapphic undertones being acknowledged and intentional. I mean. Look at them.

Yeah. But that’s not all. That isn’t what really makes it noteworthy. Put in context: Himiko has been called a soulless inhuman vampire since childhood, and shunned for it. To her, this or any villain name would be a reminder of her lack of agency in identity. Add to this the overall themes of 393 I just described, and suddenly it becomes clear that Himiko is set in contrast against much of what Carmilla, as a fearful narrative about the supernatural, represents.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me provide some details about Carmilla for those who aren’t familiar. The story was written in 1872 by Sheridan Le Fanu, and belongs to a genre characterized by a revival of Gothic aesthetics in service of providing mystery, intrigue, and suspense to a very Victorian expression of fear. On top of that, Carmilla directly influenced Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and set the precedent for many vampire portrayals to come. Many female vampire characters reference her at least in their name, and the novella has been adapted and reinterpreted countless times. Because of this, it is admittedly difficult to be sure of Horikoshi’s familiarity with the original, or pinpoint any other potential influence he may have picked up from another adaptation. One could quite literally write a whole book about the many iterations and widespread impact of Carmilla. This is why, however, I believe I can confidently say that Himiko being compared to a female vampire has implications that are felt no matter one’s familiarity with the origin of the trope. Certain things are baked into the definition through generations of media. The female (lesbian) vampire implies predation, deception, lust, a danger to innocent young women. She represents an inhuman desire that must be vanquished.

In the novella, the main character Laura becomes a fast, intimate friend to Carmilla, a strikingly beautiful and captivating young lady who has suddenly appeared in her life. Laura admires and loves Carmilla dearly, but feels conflicted in moments where Carmilla is overcome by a desire that is explicitly compared to that of a lover. She talks of blood, death, sacrifice, and unity all while holding her close and kissing her. Whether or not this is hot, or whether Laura reciprocates any desire is, I guess, up to interpretation. But one thing is for sure: the ending of the story is not in Carmilla’s favor. I’d argue it’s not in Laura’s favor either. Look, I was an English major. I’m very familiar with discussions along the lines of “is ___ gay?” and “is ___ a sympathetic portrayal of ___ ?” It’s definitely gay, but the rest is unclear. There might be a tangent to go on about how Le Fanu’s complicated relationship with religion may have informed his characterization of General Spielsdorf and the other men who hunted down Carmilla’s grave and destroyed her. Regardless, there is narrative injustice in the way Laura is removed from these events, sent home and only told about what happened later. She loses agency. Her narrations become distant and clinical. In the very end, she describes being plagued by visions of Carmilla, sometimes as her beloved companion, and sometimes as a fearful monster. To me, this represents the lack of closure she has, either to reconcile these two sides of her, or mourn her loss.

There is also so much we’ll never know about Carmilla herself. The finality of her condemnation silences the multifaceted character that was only partially revealed to us. There is an inferred humanity to her, a self-awareness, a true romanticism, that gets dismissed by the people’s understanding of what a vampire is: a deception.

Keep in mind this tragedy. Fast forward through countless vampire portrayals to the present, to Himiko. What a contrast indeed. Remember, she does not want to be called “Carmilla,” or “Vampire.” To make such a reference in a chapter that is showcasing Ochako’s acceptance of Himiko implies that the trope is being broken. It is as if Laura were to go running to Carmilla’s grave herself, throw her own body over her in protection, and shun everyone else’s superstition and desire for vengeance.

(footnote: the above is supposed to say “Himiko-chan” but you know who is a buttface)

Here’s the kicker: since female vampires are so closely tied to negative and predatory portrayals of lesbians, this humanization of Himiko also suggests that her queerness will likewise be treated openly and sympathetically, because there no longer exists an allegory that could be used for dismissing it. Ochako has already made monumental assertions in this chapter. By saying she admires her openness and envies her beautiful smile, and by presenting complete vulnerability in offering her blood, she swiftly separates herself from the lifetime of persecution Himiko has dealt with. It all represents so much more than those who mistakenly call it “yuri pandering” could hope to understand. This is the real deal.

So what is this talk about romance they’re supposed to have? I firmly believe whatever Ochako says, it has to be a very surprising revelation, for both Himiko as well as us, the audience. Otherwise all the hype and mystery makes no sense. If Ochako has something so important to say, it can’t be to confirm Himiko’s assumptions. Whenever I try to dissect the exact possibilities, I get hopelessly tangled up in semantics, but ultimately I just hope to get Ochako’s perspective in full, especially as it relates to what other people think of her.

Actually, I had an idea while writing this. I saw someone on twitter (I think jokingly) bring up the All Might doll, like oh god, what if it comes up again. Ok but listen. There’s a LOT of potential symbolism in the token from Izuku that Ochako has kept being a doll of All Might specifically. We all know it calls to mind Izuku’s emulation of All Might, which resulted in the aspects of Izuku that Ochako herself admired. We can also easily infer that during the mission to rescue Izuku, Ochako saw the darker side of these traits. Okay, so here’s another wrinkle: All Might, as a near mythical figure, represents hero society. He’s the hero archetype, an upholder of the status quo, “peace,” and his weakening under all the pressure implies a flawed system.

Nighteye predicted All Might’s death, but also admitted that a strong enough collective will can change the course of his predictions. Ochako sites Nighteye’s own death as an origin for her beginning to question who exactly in this world needs saving. If you know my meta, you know that I believe All Might needs to die in symbol only. Right now, Ochako is throwing out an awful lot of things heroes take for granted. Things everyone takes for granted. The outcome of this fight could be a turning point in the war that completely changes the tone. If Ochako is to accomplish this by way of an intimate talk of romance, well…

Bye-bye, All Might!

#for the record I love toshinori so much #bnha 393 #bnha manga #mha #toga himiko #uraraka ochako #togachako #meta #lin speaks #boku no hero academia #my hero academia

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chuuyaswifeandhoe · 5 months

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You should've stayed in

Pairing: Chuuya x femreader

Warnings: pure angst, Corrupted Chuuya, grotesque images, swearing, I'm sorry

If I missed something let me know. Not proof read.

After writing something for my friend @ravencincaide inspiration came to me. Raven I have to thank you for encouraging me to write and this piece is dedicated to you.

Happy New Year everyone! (Pls don't hate me)

How did you get in this situation? You had no fucking idea. Your boyfriend told you to stay inside, the city was under attack and he had to go attend to his duties of the Mafia in order to protect the city. So why were you in the middle of the battle field again?

Right, the unsettling feeling that got a hold of your soul once Chuuya was out of your shared apartment. You told him to take care, to be safe, but this grip on your heart would not let you stay in peace. Something was about to happen, you got the feeling that you're never going to see Chuuya again so without thinking much, obviously you did not think this through, you just ran after him. Why? Ughm... You actually did not know. You were a mere civilian without any particular set of skills or anything so you definitely could not do anything to help him. But you just had to.

Now you did not like what you were seeing. There was Chuuya, yes, but in his corrupted form. It was him, but not him, your sweet, loving Chuu. Well he was definitely winning against the enemy, red globes of power shoot here and there and a sadic laugh. Hell, he was powerful, out of this world. You did not know everything about his other form, just enough to have an idea. And enough to know that once activated, Corruption could only be deactivated by Dazai and his "No longer human" ability.

You were hiding behind some debris at an acceptable distance from the destruction Chuuya was doing and clear enough to see that Dazai was not around. Your heart was racing like crazy, pounding so fast and loud that you thought it was going to burst out of your ribcage. It ached when you saw Chuuya spitting out blood, his body slowly giving up because of the intensity of the power he held .

"C'mon Dazai, C'mon". Biting your nails you looked around frantically to see his brownish coat, the only one who could save your lover. The screams Chuuya was emitting were inhumane to say the least. Your legs start moving on their own, a rush of adrenaline taking over. You had to get closer, you had to do something.

You got closer and could better see the damages his body suffered. Burn marks, cuts bigger or smaller, blood all over the place. His beautiful blue orbs were nowhere to be found. Another look around in hope you're going to see Dazai. A pit in your stomach formed when you realised that he was not here. Chuuya was going to die in front of your eyes. No, no, you were not going to let that happen. Your mind started racing trying to find a solution. Well, maybe, maybe if you could kiss him, maybe there was a possibility he could come to his senses right? Like in the movies, yes, it was a possibility. That thought continued spinning in your mind, "that pretty little mind of yours" as Chuuya used to say. You had to take this chance, you could not risk it so without overthinking it you just start running in his direction.

Luckily, thanks to some type of miracle he did not see you coming as you just jumped on him in a hug. For a moment his movements came to a halt. The big orbs from his hand disappeared. In this split of a second you cuped his face and crashed your lips to his, feeling the metallic taste of his blood. That was it, right, it would work. He stopped for a few seconds, the intensity of the power was decreasing. You made a mental dance for your win.

Then what was this sudden pain you were feeling in your chest area and why suddenly a fit of cough of blood hit you? In a flash of a second one of Chuuya's hands just passed through your ribcage tearing out your heart from its place. When you opened your eyes, you were met with the blank white ones of his, no sign of your Chuu there. It hurt. As you stumbled back, falling you saw your lover holding your heart in his right arm. Once you hit the ground you could hear a scream of pain and your name called out. So this was how you're going to die. In your last seconds of consciousness your mind focused on a memory of your and Chuuya kissing, the sounds of desperation slowly fading away. At least Dazai came, he was safe. So much of being a hero.

Yeah, I should've stayed in was the last thought that crossed your mind before the sweet embrace of death engulfed you.

#chuuya x reader #angst #chuuyaswifeandhoe #bsd x reader #chuuya angst #chuuyaswife #chuuya supremacy #im sorry #happy new year

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fakegingerrights · 6 days

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I have ✨ideas✨ so yall are getting a prompt list today. Fluff /angst mostly whump. Written with @renon4224 and @endo-bunny in mind for inspo but can be used for anyone:

TW: Starvation, emetophobia, torture, body horror, cannibalism, forced cannibalism, etc.

Whumpee who is used to being strong, being capable, reduced to a skeleton who can barely move due to starvation.

Whumper punishing a starved whumpee by forcing them to eat after days or weeks of next to nothing, their old favorite foods and laughing as they can’t keep it down.

Eating in front of a whumpee who hasn’t eaten in days

Punishing whumpee for being sick when they are allowed to eat because their stomachs can’t handle it.

Caretaker trying to get whumpee to eat and whumpee vomiting it back up, having seizures and heart failure and wildly swinging blood sugar that comes with refeeding syndrome.

Whumper making whumpee exercise, knowing they can’t complete the sets and adding more on for every failure/fainting spell/break they need.

^ building off of that, whumper makes whumpee do challenging or potentially dangerous workouts like bench presses and free bar squats and refuses to help when Whumpee is nearly crushed by the bar. Bonus points if it’s a weight they know they can handle/what would have been a warmup for them before.

Feeding! Tube! Placement!

Whumper getting tired of whumpee refusing food because it’s always poisoned/spoiled/out of sheer defiance and forcing the tube through their nose and securing it with a lock so they can’t pull it out. Bonus points if they keep giving them poisoned/spoiled food through the tube or otherwise putting things through it that aren’t meant to be.

Rescued whumpee in the hospital tearing the tube out every chance they get even though they can’t keep down solid food.

Caretakers having to learn how to place the tubes while Whumpee fights them the whole time.

Caretakers who don’t know how to react to skeletal whumpees. Do they insist they’re beautiful no matter what? Do they admit they find the concave stomach, the sharp ribs and the bloated knot of internal organs just above their hips grotesque?

S/O or FWB caretakers lying and saying they’re attracted to them no matter what but refusing intimacy ‘until they’ve recovered’ because they’re repulsed at the idea of sex with someone so jarringly fragile, so broken and unrecognizable as human.

Whumpees who were previously insecure about their weight not wanting to gain anything back because of that fear despite hating how they currently look as a starved wisp of a person.

Previously chubby whumpees who lose weight down to skeletons and have a bunch of loose skin.

Whumpers who take sick pleasure in cutting off, piercing with needles or even jewelry, pinching and stretching, or suspending whumpees by the loose skin.

Whumpers who want to starve whumpees unsatisfied by how slow they’re losing mass, wrapping chickenwire or another mesh tightly around whumpee and shaving whatever flesh pushes out against the metal off with a knife or razor.

Whumpees who are used as a meat source for a cannibal/inhuman whumper who cuts off bits at a time to eat while whumpee is still alive.

Whumpers who try to feed whumpee either mutilated pieces of other whumpees or even pieces that have been cut off of themselves.

Sorry for how heavy some of these are but they’ve been in my head for a while, had to scream into the void. Slightly fluffier shit:

Needing new wardrobes to fit them constantly as their weight seesaws in recovery. Caretaker trying to make it fun like a fashion show every time.

S/O!caretakers who insist that their love for whumpee hasn’t changed, that they don’t blame them for struggling to gain weight or losing it in the first place.

Caretakers trying their best to make as painless as possible, giving whumpee water to help them place the tube and stroking their hair the entire time whenever they have to change it. “It’s ok. Shhh, it’s in. Take a minute to breathe, there you go. It’s ok.”

Whumpees who have permanent damage from their experiences needing a tube for the rest of their life, either one in the nose or directly into what’s left of their stomach/intestines. Trying to make the best of it, picking out fun stickers to hold it in place and learning to manage it on their own.

Blankets and oversized sweaters for warmth, all the cuddles as caretaker praises them for what little solid food they’ve eaten that day.

Kisses along the boney edges of ribs, along the knuckles of cold, thin hands, on too sharp collarbones and down the bumps of the spine. Soft reassurances that they’ll soften with time, that the regained weight is a good thing.

Whumpees retiring after the torment they went through and gaining back more than they lost in a healthy layer of fat. Bonus points if they were alway on the cut defined muscular side before from being a living weapon to carewhumpers/sleezy superiors.

Intimacy for the first time afterwards, full of gentle kisses and unrushed tenderness. Maybe whumpee requests the lights off so their S/O doesn’t have to see them this way or with clothes on.

S/O telling them that they’re still themselves and that will never not be beautiful to them.

Little celebrations every time that number on the scale tips upwards.

(If you made it all the way to the end of this monster post congratulations. Have a sticker. Feel free to send me one of these with a character and I’ll see about writing it. Naruto is my current hyperfixation so those might get done quicker FYI.)

#whump prompt #whump writing #starvation whump #refeeding syndrome whump #gingerwrites #torture whump #caretaker #whumpee #starved whumpee #sick whump #sick whumpee #cannibalism whump #forced cannibalism whump #angst prompts #hurt comfort prompts #recovery prompts #whump recovery

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fireball-me · 1 year

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@a-mag-a-day

I really like MAG 171: The Garden. It's definitely one of my favorite episodes. Perhaps my #1 favorite. It ties in really well with the overarching story, doesn't fail to terrify and unsettle the listener, AND it's one of those episodes with clear connections as a metaphor for real life issues.

I'll start with what each of the "flowers" represents.

Gristlebloom Orchid: Muscular body insecurity. Reese is never able to reach the obviously impossible body standards of society, hating himself for not looking muscular enough. Thus, he can only grow into something entirely inhuman.

Bone Rose: Fatphobia. Patricia is haunted by the idea that to be wanted you must be less. She develops a "grotesque horror of her own flesh," desperately trying to get rid of anything that stops her from being perfectly thin. Losing fat becomes losing flesh becomes losing blood. Until finally, she is like a delicate flower, made of nothing but bones.

Cutaway Tulip: Anti-aging. Leopold is deeply afraid of looking old. He seems to flee decay, carving and tearing himself to stay smooth and young-looking. He cuts parts of himself away, and they become petals.

It's important to note that for the first three flowers, "harsh, judgemental light" is stated as an important part of their cultivation. This is because the terror that drives this grotesque transformation really starts from judgement from others.

However, there is one flower that doesn't need this judgemental light to experience the terror of everyone else.

Lily of the Damned: Gender dysphoria. This fear comes completely from within. "Light levels need only be high if the preoccupation with its body’s presence has a visual component." There are quite a few details in the fourth section of the episode that prove as solid evidence that the Lily is a metaphor for the transgender experience of dysphoria. Maeve wants to hide her body from everyone including herself, which is why the flower must be pulled up. All of her fear comes from that of the development of her own body, new sensations she's uncomfortable with, and becoming something she doesn't want. "She is trapped in the same soft prison of skin she has always so despised."

It's almost poetic, the way the creatively woven words create thoughts and ideas about ourselves.

(I was going to make a second section detailing what makes this episode very effective and well-done horror, but I believe my quotes and descriptions from before have served that sufficiently. I'm also not going to go into its connections to the rest of the story, as to not spoil it for people who haven't reached this point but I still think should be able to read my analysis.)

In short, The Gardener is one of my favorite episodes because it uses body horror very very well, and serves as a very powerful and thought-provoking metaphor for body fears in real life. The Mortal Garden represents the world of beauty standards in which we find ourselves forced to dehydrate ourselves, lose weight, hate the future and our very selves in order to look attractive to others. It's where the desire to not be weak, or ugly, or fat, or old, or you makes us afraid, desperate, and starving to be attractive.

It is the worst place that has ever been beautiful.

And it should not exist.

#the magnus archives #analysis #writing #mine #idk why i ended up writing it like an LA essay #mag 171 #body horror

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littleapocalypsekitten · 6 months

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I was thinking over Greek/Roman monsters and how beings like Medusa, Centaurs, Cyclopses, Argus and Satyrs started out as genuinely inhuman or even grotesque, but overtime the artists started drawing them as sexy people with monstrous features?

To list:

Medusa: Attractive woman but with snake hair. Originally had a hideous and monstrous face.

Centaur: Attractive muscle-man with horse lower halves. Originally depicted as having a grotesque human appearance as they were based off foreigners.

Satyrs: Originally long tongued monstrous humanoids with goat legs and constant erections, later attractive guys with less prominent goat legs and just as prominent erections! Sometimes just men with pointy ears and erections

Cyclops: Early artwork depicted them as grotesque giants with just an eye and mouth on their face. Later artwork, particularly in roman times depicted them as giant, but attractive chiseled men with a normal human face, but with no eye sockets or just closed eyes, and a singular eye in their forehead.

Argus: He was described as being having one hundred eyes over his body, but alot of ancient artwork depicted him as a normal man but with the eyes all over his arms and legs!

Actually that reminds me, we don't see alot of "sexy cyclopes" in modern media, hahaha, I wonder why that is?

No such thing as sexy cyclops, hmmm? Monsters are fun to play with. They allow creativity, whether you want to go ugly or beautiful. It's kind of like the "Biblically Accurate Angel" fad, isn't it? There are only a few places in the Bible where Heavenly Host are depicted as highly weird to human sensibilities, a few visions. In Daniel, if I'm not mistaken, and in Revelation - the Revelation four-faced angels stick out to me in particular because I used them as the basis for a monument / statues important to a kingdom in one of my fantasy novels. Yet, more often in the Bible, angels are just guys. Like... instances where they just look like humans because they're doing the undercover-agent thing. It's neat that the Classical Greek monsters were originally meant to be horrifying. (Personally, I find Medusa's story more horrifying than gorgons, themselves... if I recall correctly, Medusa was cursed by Athena for the crime of being raped in her temple. It was like, everything back then was to blame the woman because the Ancient Greeks were pretty horrible about not seeing women as human). Modern people making her pretty cool? It's like revenge for the original story! Reclaim the problematic myths! Medusa, as a character, is pretty sexy in Kid Icarus: Uprising, even though she's a villain.

I have a picture somewhere I cannot find of a re-wilded centaur I drew in response to a tumblr convo with @virovac I can't seem to locate it right now and tumblr is being a butt on me inserting images. (I'm lucky to have gotten what I got here... system is so touchy). Eh, for every monster, there's a monsterf*cker, I guess. Neat to find out how far back it goes!

#monsters #greek mythology #roman mythology #biblically accurate angels #creatures

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worldofthechateau · 1 year

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The Fair Folk

The Fair Folk, also known as the Fae Folk, the Fae, or Faeries, are sapient beings who live in a dimension called the Realm of Faerie. This realm has an incredibly high amount of mana, and so do its residents: the fae are capable of casting magic without a wand and can effortlessly cast complex spells such as shapeshifting, invisibility, mind control, and minor reality-warping. They also don't seem to age, or if they do, they do so very slowly.

Unfortunately for humans, faeries operate on their own bizarre and incomprehensible system of morality that often leads to havoc for mortals.

They are divided into four courts: the Summer Court, the Autumn Court, the Winter Court, and the Spring Court. Each court has its own unique appearance and behaviors. However, one habit they all share is the practice of replacing young human children with their own. These Changelings are near-indistinguishable from the original child except for their faerie morality and powers. Many neurodivergent human children were persecuted under the belief that they were changelings, with the actual changelings remaining under the radar. Why they do this depends on the court.

Now, let's move on to the four courts. The Summer Court fae are the most human-looking, with only their pointed ears, inhuman beauty, and "off" eyes giving them away. They desire entertainment above all else, and often kidnap human children to raise as pets, playmates, and musicians.

The Autumn Court resemble a grotesque blend of animals mixed with humans, and are often mistaken for werebeasts. Their main goal is knowledge, and they often kidnap humans to experiment what makes us tick. Contrary to their claimed pursuit, the Autumn Court seem quite intent on proving their existing theories correct, rather than adjusting their theories to fit the evidence. (The more scientifically-minded members of the Society of the Supernatural are rather annoyed at this insistence.)

The Winter Court are rather ugly, with long curved noses. They love gemstones but do not want to bother themselves with the task of mining them from the mines of the Realm of Faerie, so they make humans do the task instead. They also appreciate Earth gemstones, so you may be able to bribe your way out of danger in a pinch.

The Spring Court most resemble the fairies of pop culture, being around the height of small children with insect-like wings. (However, pixies, whom we'll get to in a later post, resemble pop culture fairies the best). They have a culture that values laziness and selfishness, and thus parents tend to foist their children onto unsuspecting human parents.

There is a fifth court, the Hidden Court, mainly made up of Changelings who learned human morality and chose their human families over their fae origins. These faeries come from all four courts, and act more like the fairy godmothers of tales like Cinderella than the amoral tricksters of the main courts. They do sometimes partake in the practice of swapping babies with changelings, but only as a means of rescuing abused children.

There is one rule when making deals with the fae: DON'T DO IT! They will find a way to make things blow up in your face. If you absolutely must for whatever reason, think long and hard about every possible way to interpret the deal before agreeing.

When interacting with the fae, make sure to be polite at all times, but do not say "thank you." The fae consider this to be admitting you owe them a debt. Do not give them your real name, it only makes it easier to control you. Do not lie, and always keep your promise.

However, the fae are not invincible. They are weakened and repelled by the touch of cold iron and salt. Like any living being, they will die by being stabbed in the heart or by having their head cut off. The Society of the Supernatural routinely opposes the fae to rescue their kidnapped victims, and exploit these weaknesses to full effect.

(This will probably be my only post today, I have finals to work on)

Feel free to ask me anything about this world!

#tw kidnap mention #faeries #fair folk #fae #fae folk #worldbuilding #the chateau #tw abuse mention #tw caps #tw violence mention

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hansolostrickedoutweedvan · 5 months

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Doctor Who: The Daleks

Coming hot off the heels of An Unearthly Child comes “The Daleks”, debuting way earlier then originally intended and forever damning Doctor Who to be a scifi adventure over the fun historical edutainment it was conceived as. Having left caveman times, the Doctor, still a horrendous person, decides to take the crew to a far future distant planet blanketed in radiation. Despite knowing it’s full of radiation, they all merrily leave the TARDIS and go around a petrified forest, marveling at metallic lizards and stone flowers, increasing their risks of tumours by 2 percent every second. They see a city, which the Doctor wants to explore, but he’s overruled by Ian and Barbara who point out, quite fairly and patiently, that they’d really like to go home and leave, since, you know, he kidnapped them and all.

So the Doctor fakes a mechanical failure, in order to force them to go to the city to look for replacement mercury. There they discover the Daleks, are imprisoned by them while they rapidly start dying of radiation sickness (WOW!) and Susan comes into contact with the Thals, a race of incredibly beautiful blonde, oiled humanoids who are just so peaceful and perfect. The Daleks want to leave their city, which they’re trapped in by the nature of their biology and machinery, purely so they can exterminate the Thals for being different.

Theres a lot of back and forth, with some fun escape sequences in episode 3, and a dramatic conflict in the final episode, but the serial is let down by episodes 4 and 5 which, outside of a scene of Ian convincing the Thals that pacifism is the choice of the delusional when confronting facism, are largely taken up with a slow, repetitive journey through some caves.

All in all, it’s pretty good, and the Daleks are genuinely threatening, with their eerie monotone, and fully inhuman being. A lot of the lore established here about the Daleks won’t make a lot of sense compared to things we find out later (this serial shows the very small number of Daleks, implied to be the entire population wiped out, with no space travel, time travel, or the ability to travel outside of their statically charged metal floors.) There have been numerous attempts to justify this in extended universe material, with some suggesting these are a population of prototype Daleks created by Davros and abandoned in favour of newer models when they left Skaro, as well as the truly wild claim that they are merely a convergent evolution of Dalek, another instance of the same form emerging- Skaro doesn’t have carcinization, it has Dalekization. That actually sounds like a modern Doctor Who story, thinking of it.

In any case, as the blueprint of the Daleks, virtually every key element is here from the minute go: the design is immediately recognisable as virtually identical to a modern Dalek, the voice, the use of “rels” as a measure of time, the xenophobia and xenocidal tendencies, the (not shown but described) form of the horrible mutant inside the casing. This story is probably one of the most Dalek stories out there, without the grotesquely huge scales of conflict they’d later be associated with, and I think that works very well.

Notable First: The Daleks, the Thals,

Rating: Sylvester McCoy and a half out of David Tennant

#doctor who #william hartnell #the first doctor #the daleks #susan foreman #ian chesterton #barbara wright #thals #skaro

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erabundus · 9 months

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@haereses &&. said... it's crabs. so many crabs. a tank filling gradually with crabs. their legs are scratching and wriggling, their pincers snapping and squeezing, their carapaces are many and shining with all the ochres of red and crimson and blue - so many legs, so many moving parts - a biological effacement of divinity, a display of all of carcinisation brought to its optimal, artful zenith. " Beautiful isn't it? " Dottore crosses his arms and watches the wriggling mass of bodies with something almost like awe. "Go on then. Jump in."

he feels as though he's found himself standing upon the precipice of the abyss — not the physical location ( of which he's delved so fearlessly into countless times ) but rather something more obscure, more eldritch that tests the very limits of even his DIVINE COMPREHENSION. it gazes deeply into the wanderer in turn, a hundred beady little eyes each shining with the sort of primordial malice only the mind of a particularly disgruntled crustacean can produce. he's been subjected to all manner of grotesque experiments at the doctor's behest. skin peeled back like a cut of meat, bones snapped, chest cavity wrenched open — his own alien anatomy glaring back at him, a visceral beacon of the inhumanity he once sought so desperately to AVERT his gaze from. yet even those endeavors, though repulsive and painful, were not without their shred of logic to RATIONALIZE them.

a finger taps at the glass. one crab snaps its little claws at him, as though daring him to follow the doctor's request. ren knows he's dabbled in a touch of crustacean-related science as of late ( though how dottore learned as much is beyond him ) but even he cannot possibly comprehend what either of them stand to gain from this endeavor. well. he can only assume the doctor would probably be AMUSED by his suffering — but that is nothing if not incentive to go against his wishes.

ren sneers. his reflection in the glass sneers back, as if to shame him for the course his life has taken to drive him to this point. ❝ dottore ... ❞ the wanderer finally says, voice tight — like a rope pulled taut enough to SNAP. jaw works as if he wishes to say something more, yet for all of his eloquence, for the veritable library of knowledge he's accumulated in his centuries of existence, he finds himself at a loss. there is no elegant way to describe his confusion, no sharp-tongued retort when the situation at hand is so well beyond all semblance of rationality. he glances over his shoulder and observes the glee so clearly etched across the doctor's countenance with undisguised disgust. how dare he look so HAPPY. that's more irritating than the implication he would enthusiastically hop right in.

❝ ... what the fuck — ? ❞ even he has his limits.

#haereses #𝟎𝟎𝟗 : 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯. ◟ crack .◝#( award goes to dottore for making ren swear 👏👏👏)#body horror tw

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the-shattered-seas · 10 months

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Their song is sweet and lilting as they walk over broken glass, the crunching extending from the shattered bottles and into the ground, glowing cracks marring the asphalt and concrete behind them.

The world is glass and ice and water.

Oh it’s so empty here, untended and cold. Eyes do not fall here, hearts do not warm.

And they will build their nest here. Because it sings sweet chaos to them, so who are they to not sing it back? Oh, their children, their dreamers, their aberrations left by the ruling class!

The Narrows, the Narrows, the pits of this city, like the trenches at the bottom of the sea and the water too dark for the eyes to see anything but the glittering bioluminescence of the unknown.

Yes, a proper nest! They sing into the night, their voice like the taste of autumn breezes and smell of clouds. Sweet like apples and deep into the bones of all who would hear them.

A whale song, a porpoise click, a lizard’s hiss, a dragon’s bellow, a siren’s call. Grotesque and beautiful and haunting, inhuman and familial all at once.

It’s enough to drive one mad.

Find me, you wanting, for my arms are like the hearth~ The nest is empty, lay your head upon the earth~ Mother is here for you, those hearts blue~ Hold no light to those who abandoned you~

#drabbles || the myths

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laracastrowrites · 2 years

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Inspiration: "The Sandman"

It feels good to find a new piece of art that can inspire us.

That is what I found in The Sandman, a story about stories that tells us about the human experience through the lens of anthropomorphic personifications of challenging or abstract concepts that we, as humans, have to deal with throughout our lives (or deaths). It is a classic, outstanding comic book series written by Neil Gaiman, and now, it's also a TV series by Netflix; and after falling in love with the show, I had to start read the comics, of course.

As a writer, the thing that gets me the most about very well done meta stories like The Sandman is being able to feel the passion the author has for storytelling, which is something we both definitely share.

With that in mind, one of the aspects I find the most interesting in Sandman is that Morpheus is rarely the protagonist of the stories depicted in the comics; he is the common thread that connects them all, but he's rarely their main star. As a whole, we could surely state that storytelling is the main character of The Sandman, with its rotation of protagonists and metanarrative text.

Other aspect that I'm a big fan of is the family drama. The Endless form this big family of seven siblings that just cannot get along very well when they're all together (let's just say that the family gatherings are not events they're looking forward to). Some people would call it a "dysfunctional family", or, as Neil Gaiman himself would put it: it's called a "family". This particular aspect also serves to bring more humanity and relatability to these powerful, inhuman beings, therefore we don't feel too detached from them. But also, it's always fun to see the different dynamics between these characters when all of them are together.

And the aesthetic? It speaks to my soul! The goth influence on the design of the characters, the bizarreness, grotesque, blood and gore, but also the beauty and elegance of the art is mesmerizing, attention grabbing. And on that note, we should give props to all the artists that worked on the comics, such as Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Jim Thompson, Shawn McManus, Dave McKean and many others. And as far as the show goes, I loved its visuals, with the majority of them being amazingly executed (and the casting was incredible, by the way! Side note: I just can't get over Dream's voice!)

But moreover, the big concepts that this story develops such as: Dream and Death being close, Desire and Despair being twins, Desire and Dream being foes, and the influence of dreams in our lives, are great, deep ideas to debate over and think about, with tons of space to wonder.

So wonder I did, and now I'm writing new stories that, hopefully, one day, can be as inspiring for other people as Sandman is for me.

P.S.: After I understood the context of the image above, I've never been the same again. A Game of You is a masterpiece!

#the sandman #sandman #the sandman netflix #neil gaiman #mr sandman #netflix sandman #laracastrowrites

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strange-allure · 2 years

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i am mourning my sick body still. i am angry with my smaller self for how they only saw a warped version of this form, a false reflection. i wish i appreciated what i had shrunk myself into. that destructive manipulation of weight and digits making my old frame into something worthy and adored. my body was shutting down and near full surrender to this disorder, but i saw this a fair price to feel desired. i was engulfed in a relentless pursuit of pushing my body’s limits to whatever my thinnest could be. i watched the numbers dwindle down to a weight i shouldn’t be able to attain. i knew what i saw on the scale and how i should look something fragile, but when i saw my body, my frame defied my objective thinness. i still felt i took up as much space as i did sixty pounds prior, still just all excess rolls and disproportionately swollen. grotesque and inhuman. i saw more monster than girl. so it’s hard now that i truly do carry the weight i once imagined. notable curves and softness emerge as i become more detached from my eating disorder. finding freedom in healing from this sickness, my reflection evidence of proper nourishment. these new curves should be celebrated- but i still want to regress into the comfort of sickness, to have a body thats perceived as delicate and small. i hate that i would sacrifice all my progress for thinness and how i still ache for this vain validation. to be desired is to be secure, if i am beautiful, i am wanted. i think that pretty girls are always loved.

#writeundertheinfluence #spilled thoughts #trauma vent #tw ed in the tags

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itokunii-a · 2 years

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( New muse: The sculptor / the vampire. )

NAME: Constantin Albert Nádasdy.

ALIAS: Alfred Lehmann.

GENDER II SPECIES: Male II Vampire.

BIRTHDAY II AGE: April 18th 1870 II 25 when turned.

BIRTHPLACE: Budapest/Hungary. Nürnberg, Germany.

HEIGHT: 5’11”.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Homosexual.

OCCUPATION: Artist.

DEMEANOUR: Alfred is a very calm and collected young man that values principles, politeness and manners over everything. He follows a simple rule: be respectful towards me and I shall be respectful towards you. If that expectation is met and he develops a liking towards someone, he will even show them his latest paintings ( never his sculptures, hidden away somewhere where the light won’t breach and destroy his masterpieces ) and, if he finds them beautiful, will not hesitate to compliment them on such. But this pleasant behavior also coexists with the ability to be absolutely ruthless and sadistic, obsessed with the morbid, the grotesque, the fleshly horrors; he does not mind horrifying someone with the abominations he sometimes creates. And he will see fright because he is perceptive, too.

PAST: His past is a vague and dismissive hand gesture, a shrug as he briefly recounts the tale of his parents’ disapproval of him abandoning him studying medicine to pursue art and his otherwise normal, perhaps boring life. His name is Alfred Lehmann, an artist from Nürnberg. Long ago has he shed his old skin and claimed this new identity. He is not Constantin Nádasdy, royal Count of Budapest, who has died somewhere in his escape to Germany after the First World War and the fall of the Hungarian empire or perhaps still rots in the Royal Palace when his appetite became to unbearable, too atrocious for mother and father to bear so they locked him in like Rapunzel. Or Alfie, if you really get him to like you.

ABILITIES:

- Inhuman regeneration abilities (especially after feeding). - Ability to change his own appearance and voice. - Tw body horrror & gore: His biggest strength is being able to extend his and others’ bones and use them as a shield by tearing them out of bodies and hardening them until they are as solid as metal.

WEAKNESS:

- Does not suffer physical injuries (e.g. burns) from sunlight but gets immensely weakened by it the longer he is out during the day -> can shield himself from it through clothing. - Silver through the heart will kill him. - Stakes through the heart will paralyze him.

FACE CLAIM: Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

APPEARANCE: Blond curly hair. Grey eyes. Broad shoulders but overall slim build. Mustache.

#(( there he goes #my pretty but disgusting vampire boy ))#(( no i did not prove read this asdfghjkl i like to live dangerously ))#( the bittersweetness of dawn. );; -- about: alfred.#tw: body horror

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unwounding · 2 years

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I am not sure if this is misogynistic but I'm finding a lot of the anti-aging procedures older women undergo in an attempt to look younger...if not disgusting then just highly highly disconcerting. There's just something very inhuman about it. I'm aware of course that women are urged/coerced to preserve youth and by extension beauty through surgical intervention, but the outcome is so unsettling. And I don't mean this as some cheap shot where I'm calling these women ugly it's just the work is so grotesque. I think what I'm getting at is that when the work is obvious you're struck by how unnatural it is. It's like that one part from Death in Venice

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writingwithcolor · 2 years

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(1/2) I'm playing around with making a comic about a young mad scientist botanist who fuses herself with her plants in an accident, the only thing here that's leaving me tetchy about it is that this going to turn her skin green and I've designed her to have a hooked nose -- I thought it would be cute, and it's not often seen on non-villainous characters -- but I'm worried that this might illicit some anti-semetic stereotypes? She's not Jewish, but it feels like too close a call for me to make.

(2/2) would including other characters with this feature mitigate the damage, or adding some canonically Jewish characters into the narrative help, or should I just take her back to the drawing board?

Mad scientist with hook nose turns herself green by accident

Thank you for catching yourself. The thing about That Nose, the famous nose, the nose that stares back at me both when I take glamorous selfies or look at propaganda images -- is that by nature of its curve it’s supposed to somehow indicate something inhuman, something grotesque. Think of the way Halloween witch faces look. Think of goblin faces. There’s an association in Western culture that curved nose = inhuman, and the green skin thing is often included as well.

It’s not even just about antisemitism because there are other ethnicities that have similar noses, around the Mediterranean and Middle East etc. It’s about “this is grotesque because we’re white and northern European and we said so.” That’s why I’m not sure that adding canonically Jewish characters would help in this case, because it’s not just about anti-semitism this time, it’s also anti-Arab, Greek, Italian, etc. Other hook-nosed characters, however, might help. It’s tetchy though, because of how infrequently we get to see ourselves overall on non-witch, non-goblin, non-’grotesque’ faces.

Maybe when she fuses with the plants she can have little leaves growing out of her skin here and there instead of just turning green?

--Shira

Definitely agree that there should be other hook-nosed characters. I have the Nose™, and I would love to see some non-villainous representation of it. Consider the demographic range of other characters that could potentially have the Nose™, and show them as distinct, nuanced people. Personally, I’d make sure not to emphasize her wanting to change herself to fit a beauty standard. I see people advocating for modification all the time, and it further plays into the idea that Western ideals of beauty exclude the presence of other types of facial features.

Mother Gothel from Tangled is a classic example of the trope of a villainous hook-nosed character who transforms themself in some shape or form pitted against a typical Western European heroine--think about how you write the character and understand the layers of bias that play into the scenario. Try to analyze the stereotypes you recognize in your writing and find where you can make positive change.

~ Abhaya

#Jewish #Jewish witch #witches #Jewish tropes #Jewish stereotypes #the nose #Jewish nose #noses #antisemitism #dehumanization #eurocentric beauty standards #beauty standards #racism #featurism #asks

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