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eoinmcgonigal · 6 months

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16: Bill/Johnny

For the prompt from @almost-a-class-act: "I think the… kitchen is haunted?"

Shoutout to this event for keeping me going when I have absolutely nothing else lol

It feels like only moments after he’s fallen asleep that Bill is woken up again. He shifts, blinking blearily in the light that’s spilling in from the hallway, silhouetting Johnny’s cautiously moving form.

“Wha’izzit?” he mumbles.

Johnny is creeping towards the bed, something off about his breathing. As Bill tries to sit up, he breathes: “I think the… kitchen is haunted?”

Bill huffs so heavily he almost collapses back down into bed.

“No, seriously!” Johnny insists. “I can hear… sounds…”

“Fuck sakes,” Bill sighs, slipping from beneath the covers. He scruffs his hair out of his eyes as he makes his way round the bed. “Come on.”

Johnny, in spite of all his usual bravery, lets Bill lead the way. “There is definitely something in there,” he breathes in a hushed tone.

“Mhm,” Bill agrees, squinting beneath the lights. He would rather be cosy in bed. This is utter nonsense, but he’ll humour Johnny. It’ll be nothing more than whatever movie Johnny has been watching and an overtired imagination. The kitchen is not haunted.

To prove his point, he flicks the light on when he reaches the kitchen. Behind him, Johnny squeaks and flinches back. Bill wants to say ‘see?’ as he casts his eye around and everything is as it should be.

“Over there,” Johnny says tightly, pointing towards the sink.

Bill crosses over to it, looking. Nothing. He picks up a bowl that was precariously stacked on two others, and has shifted. “This?”

He sets it down again, and it slides, so he leaves it.

“I wasn’t scared by the—”

Johnny freezes. There’s a noise. It’s a groan, something whining and protesting with all its tormented worth.

“There!” Johnny breathes. “That!”

Bill rubs his hand over his eyes, letting out a sigh. “Come here,” he says, walking towards the fridge-freezer.

As if frightened to be separated from him, Johnny follows. He squeaks again when the noise restarts, grabbing at the small of Bill’s back and clinging to a fistful of his top.

Bill opens the door, and the noise stops.

He closes it, and after five seconds it starts again.

“Why is it doing that?” Johnny pleads.

“You seriously didn’t notice it before?” Bill wonders.

“No?! That’s not natural!”

“It’s been like that for months.”

“It… has?”

Bill lets out a breath, ready to go back to bed. “I has, I promise.”

“Oh.”

“No haunted whatevers,” Bill emphasises. “Just a shitty fridge. Did you enjoy your movie?”

“Fuck you,” Johnny says softly, but there’s no venom in it. He is shaking, still clinging to Bill.

“Do you want me to check anything else?” Bill offers.

Johnny hesitates, and then shakes his head. “No, it’s—”

The bowl shifts again, and Johnny yelps.

“Bed?” Bill suggests.

Johnny nods, not letting go. It’s up to Bill to nudge him along, and to turn the light off as they go. So much for a nice early night while Johnny stays up to treat himself to a horror movie, he thinks, trying not to answer the shiver the ripples through him as something at the back of his own mind whispers: But what if…?

War is Helloween

#sas rogue heroes #war is helloween #johnny cooper #bill fraser #johnny x bill #document type: supplementary diary entry #once again telling silly stories saving my dumbass life #i hope they mean something to someone else out there too #will post to ao3 in a minute so you can comment there #or talk to me on here that works too #the one i've done for day 17 is very long and filthy so idk if i can bring myself to post it #it's embarrassingly self-indulgent and revealing #but this one is okay #@sam seriously thank you for doing this event

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ngtskynebula · 5 months

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ao3 wrapped asks: 3, 14, & 29!

This is the first time I've ever received an ask 😭💘 It's so exciting! Thank you, so much, for this! 😚🤗

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

I tend towards my Grand Chase longfic, 'Relíquia das Almas: O Conto da Espada'. (The title's translation: Soul Relic: The Sword's Tale.) I published it, once, but it was kinda... awful, so I deleted it and decided to rework everything.

It's much better now, but I have next to nothing written yet 😭 But I am so, so proud of how it's turning out... the plot matured a lot, along with the cast's characterization (including the OCs needed to tell the story), and, most importantly, the thematic explorations at the fic's core.

14. What’s your shortest work of the year?

I have to actually open my writing folder to answer this. 2023 was a blur.

Okay, so! I finished one (1) text this year, but I actually started it last year, on August 20th. Had it done by November, 19th, 2023 🕊🪦

It's a Seventeen oneshot. It's pretty bad, so I'll have to rewrite it.

This year I had a bunch of ideas, for Grand Chase and Seventeen, but the only one I actually began was a Grand Chase fanfic I started back in January... I wrote a whole smut scene, and then I just. Did not.

So, wait, hold on— Lemme explain 🖐

I had this Lass/Azin fic idea, right? But I was going through thooose days when my brain shuts down and I do all the thinking with my [🚫], so I projected it all on a smut fic. And then my creative energy vanished like Spider-man 😭

I wrote 2/5 scenes, 1.745 words, of the actual fic, and that's it. I still like it, though; just don't feel like writing it right now.

So: finished shortest fic — Seventeen oneshot, started last year, that ended up being 9.211 words long; unfinished shortest fic, started and written this year — Grand Chase's Lass/Azin oneshot's smut spin-off, 3.386 words long.

I can't believe I wrote more smut about the fic than the actual fic. This fic's gen, ffs 🖐😭 This is unreal 🖐😭

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Fun question! Well, recently I had two ideas that got me very excited to write: a fluffy 5+1 romantic Lass/Elesis ficlet (Grand Chase), and a saucy Jeonghan/Joshua (Seventeen) three-shot that's literally made for me to self project my libido, whenever I feel like writing it ☝️🧐

I won't share my AO3 kpopper profile, but I guess there's no problem in sharing this YoonHong fic spoiler here, even though I don't want to associate this acc with that one.

Note: I write in brazilian, so this is a translation. Sorry if it reads wonky.

🌱 "Lass Isolet and Elesis Sieghart naturally got married. When the violent missions and uncountable interdimensional travels ceased, Lass did not get used to Cidade de Prata, even though he was the local guild's master. He spent more time at Reino de Canaban than everywhere else, and, in the same vein, he did not get used to being away from Elesis. Years and years being a Chaser tattoed the warrior's presence under his skin. He wouldn't give up this comfort."

❤️‍🔥 "When Yoon Jeonghan posted a laying down selfie, with exposed boobies and lips sugestively opened, he gained 2.459 new followers, and the story received more than seventy three thousand views. Not bad at all for a profile only fifty thousand followers big."

I choose these two because I can't pick only one 😔 Both suited very well the atmosphere I was going with in these stories, so I'm pretty proud.

Again, thank you v v much for the ask! 😚💘

#this is so unexpected i don't even know how to tag this oh my god #grand chase #fanfic #i ain't tagging svt here you'll pry my ao3 kpopper acc from my cold dead hands smh #and even then there's a chance i'll just get up again and haunt you until you give up stalking my questionable ao3 history #i'm genuinely happy i got this ask 😔💘 i'll log this even on my daily bean diary entry !!!!#event*

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unproduciblesmackdown · 10 months

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the sense of having any lore about the ancient [ten to thirteen years ago] of marble hornets times like granpa granpa tell us a greentext story....the only hitch is not having stories and instead having "i guess you had to be there" tales from the fringes, unless instead of a hitch you frame this as a bit

#like what's crucial info from then? who knows. smthing neat abt mh is its iterative resurgences apparently lol. got a wavelength #from the start it was always [queer fans queer fans trans fans trans fans] etc to be sure #by ''thee start'' i mean i showed up a couple of months? weeks? before s2 started. i think amnesia: the dark descent was partly to thank to #i mean of course it is in all things no matter the topic. and i feel manesia the dark manscent in this chili's tonight #one of the more [umm] first true spikes in New Ppl was when that game with the pages got streamed a lot #not a lot to work with there re: [you are already at mh hq] but brought ppl in like umm yea it's a little youtube movie here....#Back In Those Days...when youtube had a Reply feature for videos which i would have forgotten was anything if not for tta really....#the saga of [we didn't have any crisp behind the scenes pics of tim's mask for a while so deciding what its design seemed to be was tricky]#or [lucky that alex's striped hoody had both the inner seam highlights & the patch on the waistband] re: identifying it....#the hoody was already Out Of Production lol the base masks were from michael's crafts which i hear has recently discontinued them; pensive #paper mache cosplays here we go....#anyways nothing makes a good story. one time i sprinted to beat everyone on unfiction to solve a scrambled dvd cover #i managed to post it first (here on tumblr) And Then on unfiction; where it was also first lol. this was ignored #(one reply did a nominal shoutout like ''[other user] and others'' lmao)#i blog to this day....where's unfiction (rhetorical)#they were great for crowdsourcing codes but the Analysis(tm) left many things to be desired (i mean on tumblr too sometimes of Course)#unfiction would be like ''why is this entry delayed [thinking emoji]'' & truly the answer like ''they explained the behind the scenes reaso #in this linked facebook post here (the funy saga of joseph losing the distinctive out of print hoodie before its Part Two appearance)''#and the unfiction thread would continue apace like ''hmm guess we'll never know'' yeah apparently not #unsurprisingly my best Retro Tales From Behind The Scenes would be like; that fun mh viewing party commentary bit live event....#that there was overlap w/my first coming out transly times & probably had my Best Experience w/that from the mh creators lol #that thesis simply Is the tale. the bit abides

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yesyoutubeisruiningmylife · 2 years

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one week until eurovision how are we feeling

#on purpose didnt watch all the entries this year #not even the norwegian one #just know that italy had a bop but it didnt stay in my head for long #also it feels so weird to wait for one event for a year and now its almost here????#was it not just february #eurovision

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lesbiten · 2 years

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we have officially reached dipper part of the journal

#fords last entry being that all he can do is wait for stan to come. 'and save the world. or lose my life in the process.'#man #theres more seemingly encoded stuff everywhere in here but its like. different than the bill stuff #its extremely similar so im sure its like. readable. i just have to figure that out eventually #the page in here thats blacked out and covered in fords blood and has a bunch of eyes on it. yeah thats horrifying #like it fucks. going from ford being like 'good riddance fiddleford. i dont need you. youre a coward.'#to 'BILL LIED TO ME I CANT TRUST ANYONE IM LOSING MY SANITY.'#to making an equally Covered In Blood page about how dangerous bill is #its a fun series of events #simon says

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tealeavesandthorns · 6 months

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// just a rant in the tags please ignore lol

#//so after all the shit with my new workplace and the stress this week from my new manager #they've just invited me to the 2.5 day 'retreat' they try to make all the new starters go to #//If I'm not accepting (which I'm not)#- because being in the middle of nowhere - when I can't drive and am unable to escape - with people I don't know - having to share #facilities - cook with other people and generally not get a restbite from others is my literal idea of hell #like ask me #what does hell look like for you laura #it would be a cabin in the middle of nowhere with people I don't know - forced fun and 'team building' excersizes - no public transport for #miles and having to take bullshit 'personality' tests to 'help understand a companies values and bullshit agendas'#so now I'm INCREDIBLY anxious because in order to not accept I have to email like eight different people with my reasons #the reason is simple #I'm autistic - I have anxiety and depression - I'm introverted and I HATE these stupid sorts of bullshit events #I've already got a pretty good idea of the companies culture and values I've been here four weeks and also I've read all your policies and #been to all the stupid talks #it's a literal fucking data entry job #I literally do a job a relatively intelligent monkey could do #why tf do I have to sell my soul to do it #just let me do my work and leave me alone #I can already see how the email chain is going to go #I'm going to state my reason - too which I'll get told well I really should be going and how do I know if I don't try it and we have things #in place for ND people #which #no you don't #and then I'm going to get treated like a kid that doesn't know her own mind rather than a 33 year old woman who knows her own brain inside #out because she's spent the last 19 years trying to figure out just wtf is wrong with her and has recently found out #I can't rant to my other half about this - not because he won't understand - he hated his but because I just don't want to put it on him

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annabelle--cane · 3 months

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"the magnus protocol had a whole ARG beforehand? what?"

yes! it did!

"oh so I need to have participated in this whole big thing to actually understand the podcast?"

not at all! from the official post-mortem put out by RQ, "while the ARG was not something that was necessary to participate in to understand the magnus protocol, it was designed to contain a wealth of background story and context that would enrich any player's listening experience."

"a wealth of background context that would enrich my listening experience 👀👀👀 how can I learn about this?"

SO glad you asked. sadly, many of the materials made for the arg have been taken down since the game ended 😔 (ex., the official OIAR, magnus institute, and bonzoland websites. (edit ii: I found partial wayback machine captures! see below) though @strangehauntsuk is still up!), so we're a bit low on primary sources, but in terms of learning about what happened:

for a starting point, I would really recommend this video by @pinkelotjeart

youtube

it's super accessible, it was made in real time as the game progressed and follows the solving and revelation of clues as they happened, it hits all the major points of the mystery and moments of community insanity while eliding some of the nitty gritty puzzle grinding, 10/10 would recommend.

here's the official summary put out by RQ, and I'd recommend reading through this once you've already gotten a basic handle on the flow of the story and the basic connections between major clues and events. it's got some fun behind-the-scenes info and lays out the thought process behind the puzzles in simple terms

here's the full masterdoc of all puzzles and resolutions put together in the statement remains discord server. masterdoc my absolute BELOVED, masterdoc my bethrothed, masterdoc my soul mate. I'd recommend this as a second port of call after the above video as it either contains all details about the puzzles or links to other expanded docs that do.

here's the narrative summary doc that lays out all the plot and lore discovered in three pages of plain prose. if you just want to get to the good bits as fast as you can and get blasted directly in the face by contextless lore bombs, this is the doc for you. if you don't want to start with the video, I'd say this is another good entry point.

once you've got the lay of the land, some of the game materials that I found particularly interesting include:

the in-universe east germany expat usenet forum, with all content translated into english. most of it is irrelevant space filler with occasional extremely sus lore, but I still found it fun to read through. love to soak in some fictional forum drama.

chdb.xlsx, the spreadsheet of the names of all the children the protocol 'verse magnus institute was studying/experimenting on. EDIT: here is a version of the sheet without any annotations and with all of the names in their original order, kudos to @theboombutton for catching that the commonly shared copy had the order swapped around.

klaus.xls, a (very corrupted) spreadsheet with what looks like the classifications of a bunch of old OIAR cases.

EDIT: have a few more saved materials from the game that I forgot to include.

an in-universe audio ad to apply to the OIAR that ran before archives episodes and kicked off the whole game.

an in-universe video ad to apply to the OIAR, this one is an official upload that's still up from the game itself. you can subscribe to the OIAR's official youtube channel today, if you so chose.

the robo-voicemail greeting from the OIAR's phone line.

EDIT II:

here is a wayback machine capture of the OIAR's official website.

here is a wayback machine capture of the bonzoland website.

(pretty sure both of the above captures just archived the home pages, though I haven't tried clicking all of the links. I'd say they're still worth looking at, the home pages give a good window into the vibes.)

once you start poking around in these documents, you'll find a bunch of links to others with further information, the materials I've included here just contain what I feel to be the most relevant details to getting a broad feel for the whole game. once again, huge shout out to the statement remains server, I was barely in there as the ARG was in progress and only ducked my head in every so often to find links like these. true mvps of the fandom.

#gonna pin this for a bit because every day I get 2-5 asks saying 'there was an arg? how do I learn about it?'#tmagp #video #marina marvels at life

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chuluoyi · 4 months

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✎ rivals... in love?

- gojo satoru x reader

gojo is in shambles—so suguru might have a crush on you too?

genre: high school!gojo being a menace but pls spare him he just can't take losing, you see... crack, totally jealous!gojo, justice for geto, enemies to lovers, fluff

note: people have been asking for this so this is up next! i'm writing this while listening to bigbang's bang bang bang and fantastic baby so if gojo is a bit unhinged... you know why

a part of gojo's love entries

series masterlist | oneshot masterlist

No way. There is just no way.

Satoru felt his eyes itch and twitch uncomfortably. Despite the opaque black tint of his sunglasses, he could still distinctly see you happily giggling.

“Geto-san, that’s so funny!”

With Suguru. His ride or die. Your massive crush.

Your crisp laughter rang in his ears, scorching his ego and igniting it in flames—that was precisely the reaction he had hoped to receive from you too!

"Aren't they just cute?" Yaga was suddenly beside him with a wistful smile, looking at you and his other student a few feet away. "What do the television say again... a perfect match? In this case, a perfect match made in jujutsu school, then."

And responding to your bubbly self, creating the very picture of perfect match made in jujutsu school indeed, Suguru was every bit as enthusiastic. “Nah, wait until you see this—”

"Perfect match my ass," Satoru grumbled outwardly, rolling his eyes, but he immediately dashed away before his teacher could bonk him in the head for cussing.

It was harmless conversation, or jokes, or whatever. Because Suguru couldn't possibly reciprocate your feelings. His type is women of gravure magazines—Satoru had deemed it as such.

…Right?

At this point, he wasn't in enough denial to say that he didn't like you, because he had made it so clear that he was, in fact, obsessed. He wasn’t shying away from the things he did, which included annoying you constantly, asking you out after school, helping you in missions, and sending you few pick up lines here and there.

And he thought he was certain he could whisk you off your feet. After all, who else could measure up to him and win?

Heh, no one.

(or basically that's just him ignoring the intrusive little voice in his mind that whispered, “Suguru!”)

“So what's with the nice act, huh?” Satoru blew his bangs in a huff as he questioned his best friend with a twinge of dissatisfaction. “Do you like her or something?”

Suguru quirked his eyebrow at him. “What?”

“Don’t play dumb. I have noticed how you two have been joined at the hip lately,” and with deliberate intention to spite his best friend, he made the sourest face as he mockingly recited, “Wait till you see this~”

Instantly realizing what he meant, Suguru burst into a loud snicker. “Come on, Satoru, really? Surely you aren't that petty. We were just chatting—”

“Not that. I know. What I'm asking now is that do you like her or not?”

It wasn't a rare sight to see Satoru with a pout and a frown, and usually he'd humor him. But this time, even Suguru could see that there was something different in the way he asked this. And should he say something that irked him then—

“Heh, so what if I am?”

That's the wrong answer.

Satoru halted abruptly, whipping his head around in sheer shock. "What the heck?"

“She’s a nice junior, kind, easy on the eyes,” Suguru shrugged, flashing him a dauntless smile. “Only a fool would let the chance pass up. Satoru, if you keep dawdling, one of these days, I just might—”

“Wha—hey!? That’s totally foul—!”

“Nah, they do say all is fair in love and war now, isn’t it?”

By a mind-boggling twist of events, apparently his best friend was also a guy after his dream girl. Satoru was irked, challenged, and he would never admit it, but a tiny part of him recoiled because Suguru clearly had an early start and a boost—you favored him first.

This was unexpected, and now he was conjuring up various scenarios of what he should do. He must act fast or else...

Little did he know that Suguru was thoroughly relishing his restlessness.

Everyone around you said that your relationship with Gojo Satoru... is intriguing to say the least. And especially ever since that one botched mission you two went, you also felt there was a shift in your dynamics.

And if by intriguing they mean him constantly blocking your way and invading your space, then yes, it definitely is.

"Okay, okay, but wait, just hear me out!"

You halted your steps and faced him with an annoyed frown. You really had no time for this. You were about to be sent on a mission. "Gojo, really, can't you just—"

"Okay, I know he's dashing, or whatever," he huffed, the last word he said with a hint of disdain. "But hear me out, and I'm sure you'll reconsider."

"Who are you talki—"

"Who else!? Suguru, of course!"

You couldn't possibly arch your eyebrow even higher, and before you could say anything, he somehow took it as his cue to keep going.

“First, he eats curses. Cursed spirits! He eats them like rice balls! Can you imagine just how foul the taste is?”

"Gojo, I don't have the time—"

"Then! Going from that, just imagine kissing him," he stressed, eyeing you intensely as your own eyes felt like popping out by the sheer suggestion. "What if you taste the cursed spirits rice ball?"

"You're unbeliev—"

"Wait! Can you even kiss him? What if his cursed spirits suddenly pop out of him? Are you willing to kiss his little friends—"

"He's your best friend!" you finally interjected, obviously and utterly in shock by his unhinged rambling. "How could you say all of that?"

"No, you're getting me wrong." Satoru's clicked his tongue. "I'm just listing facts why it's better for you not to end up with him."

You barked a dry laugh. "And? Better with you, you mean? That's awfully biased."

"Why yes of course! Self-promo is never bad," he blatantly retorted. "Let me just tell you aallll you need to know about me!"

He audibly cracked his knuckles and puffed out his chest. "You know already, I'm strong. I can protect you well. My cursed technique doesn't involve eating curses, so you don't have to worry about tasting the said curses on my lips."

How could he blurt all of this with that perpetually playful expression? A chuckle escaped you unwittingly and that only spurred him to go on.

"And I'm handsome!" he boldly claimed, pointing at his face with pride. "And obviously I don't need to say this, but I'm filthy rich—"

At that, you burst into hearty laughter, unable to hold it in any longer.

Satoru's eyes sparkled, lit as if someone had just made his day. "All in all, you know what I mean. Everything with me, all of it is going to be fantastic!"

Even you couldn't deny that all of this exchange had been so amusing. Hilariously so. "You're down bad, huh?" you tried to taunt, although it seemed like a burst of snicker. Yet, you were caught off-guard when he said:

"For you?" his little smirk made your insides suddenly all jumbled up. "Yes."

Huh? What is this? Your bravado faltered a bit as your heart did a somersault inside.

It wasn't supposed to thump this hard. You weren't supposed to feel this overwhelming urge to squeal too. And your face wasn't supposed to grow this hot...

Seeing that, Satoru celebrated his little win, a wicked smile on his glistening lips—that somehow looked rather attractive to you now. "How? Thinking twice now, are we?"

But he couldn't believe that after all this, you would still cunningly retort with, "Ha! You wish, Gojo Satoru."

His stunned face was so comical that you chuckled once again. You wanted to rebuff him more, but before you could, Haibara's voice called you from a distance. "Heeey! Let's go! Or we're gonna be late!"

"I suppose that's my cue," you lightly shrugged, and before you left him in a dust, you could've sworn you saw a flicker of brewing tantrum behind those glasses, which brought a smirk on your face. "See ya, try harder, and I might look at your way."

Satoru was at his wit's end as he saw you sauntering away. What more that he could do so that you could be his? To keep your eyes on him and him only?

And yet, little did he know, in that beginning of summer in 2006, even before you realized it yourself, you had already did.

Epilogue

In another corner of the school, eagerly spying on you were...

"Wait! Can you even kiss him? What if his cursed spirits suddenly pop out of him? Are you willing to kiss his little friends—"

"Did he just..." Suguru gaped, utterly in disbelief at what his own best friend said of him. "Did he just say that?"

Shoko let out a satisfied guffaw. "Oh, he definitely did."

"I can't believe he's tarnishing my name over a girl."

"Well, you know very well he could do way worse than that just to get what he wants," she threw him a thin smile, while exhaling a puff of smoke. "And hey, you lose. You gotta pay me."

Suguru turned to her in surprise. "Huh? Oh—oh, darn it. Shoko, can't you be less stingy?"

"Well, whose bright idea was it to pull that stunt on him and bet on whether Gojo would approach her in less than a day?"

-> continue to extended cut !

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see-arcane · 8 days

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Our good friend Jonathan Harker is getting ready to leave for his business trip, Mina Murray is picking out a new journal, Lucy Westenra is charming a gaggle of smitten suitors, Abraham van Helsing is wrapping up his lectures, and Castle Dracula is prepping the guest room for a very long stay.

Which must mean that Dracula Season is here again!

‘Dracula Season’ being a catchall term for the voracious reading, memeing, writing, illustrating, analyzing, and general fun-having that’s ensued since Matt Kirkland’s project, Dracula Daily, caught on with us back in 2022. The Substack had already been running before then, but it sparked a conflagration as time went on and readers old and new to Bram Stoker’s Dracula—the actual novel, not Coppola’s fanfiction—devoured it in a way that scratched an itch none of us knew we had. Stoker wrote the book in epistolary fashion, clumping sections together as needed for the pacing without perfect adherence to chronological order. Matt went ahead and put all the events in order and proceeded to set up a lovely chain of emails that delivered entries on those correlating dates.

This style of organization and pacing turned out to not only make the virtual book club that much easier to engage with, but left space in-between to stew on the story and relate with the characters themselves. Every day of waiting in the book feels weightier when you have to pace and sweat and worry in tandem with poor Jonathan trapped in the castle or Lucy wasting away or Mina running out the clock before she loses the fight for her own humanity. And while we sat with the story or the lulls between Dracula Seasons, some of us found ourselves craving more of that ghastly gothic horror goodness to the point that we figured:

“Well. Why don’t I make something?”

And then we did! Tons of creative works have been churned out in the wake of Dracula Daily’s high. I figured that while we’ve still got a bit of time to wait for May 3rd, we should check out all this new stuff in the meantime. (Plus a handful of neat stuff that just clicks with the Dracula itch overall.)

So, in the interest of Dracula Season pregaming, let’s take a look at…

FICTION

Blood of My Blood – A recent addition to the Dracula Bad Ending AU pile, and definitely one of the most harrowing and addictive group-produced narratives I’ve ever come across, Blood of My Blood is the dramatically gothic currently-WIP work of @ibrithir-was-here and @animate-mush’s devious design. Give or take a heap of other fascinated folks (hello!) adding ideas to put more Horror into the Horrors that our cast has to face. The premise:

The Transylvanian climax went fatally sour and the Harkers were forced to shelter with Dracula himself, including their half-vampire son, Quincey. Cut to two decades later, and Quincey finds himself out in modern London, smitten with Lu, adopted daughter of Arthur and Jack, and diving into certain bloodstained old documents that detail the real history of how his parents came to live in the castle. Said revelations coming not a moment too soon, as a storm is coming for him straight from the Carpathians…

Dracula Daily Sketch Collection – An array of illustrations that captures every entry beat by beat, the Dracula Daily Sketch Collection by Georgia Cook, alias @georgiacooked was dished out over the course of the last Dracula Season. Some of the most fun character designs out there.

Fanfiction Spotlight: BlueCatWriter – With a whopping 99 works devoted to the novel Dracula (so far, the number may have gone up since I blinked), @bluecatwriter is one of the most prolific and talented fanfiction scribblers out there. Romances, nightmares, and overlaps between the two seem to crop up the most, give or take a crossover. Seems fitting that those blue paw prints have contributed to BoMB too.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk – An ongoing comic in which all your favorite characters from the Classics section get together and tackle some perils ranging from the mundane to the monstrous. Started by the amazing @mayhemchicken and posted on @lxgentlefolkcomic, this series is a love letter to beloved Victorian era lit, with a spotlight on the two couples leading the League. Namely, the Harkers, ala Dracula, and the Nortons, ala Sherlock Holmes,’ “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Mina and Irene are the driving investigative and steering forces here, and still deeply in love with their likewise-infatuated husbands, just like in their canons! What a concept! Alan.

Without spoiling the full character list, just know there are going to be a ton of familiar faces roaming around before you finish reading the first arc. Said arc having conveniently wrapped up just a few days ago! Give the comic and its bonus silliness a look if you’re in the mood for a new comfort-adventure epic.

Re: Dracula – Probably the most well-known and incredible thing to come out of the initial Dracula Daily wave. This podcast is a full audio drama that follows the same format as the Substack, with episodes coming out in time with the entries themselves. And it has an unfairly cool soundtrack. They have a Tumblr with @re-dracula, a site and a Patreon to check out before the series kicks up again on May 3rd. (Also, keep an eye out for their next work, an audio drama in the same style with Carmilla.)

The Soldier and the Solicitor – Another treat from @ibrithir-was-here, this one involves a bit of time travel trouble. Quincey Harker has stumbled out of World War I and into the same dark forest where his father once fled for his life…then runs into the man himself, on that same night. Jonathan Harker, young and starved and lost, who has no choice but to trust this stranger while the Weird Sisters are at his heels…despite said stranger having no shadow. It’s a tasty emotional trek, already complete on Tumblr, but now it’s turning into a Webtoon. While Ibrithir is juggling a number of other stories, she’ll be redrawing spruced up versions of the comic and adding a few new scenes as things unfold.

Substack Stack – You know what’s better than one emailed-out public domain book club? A mountain of them. Just. So, so many of them. You’ll see that a lot of these are finished, but some are still ticking along. Either way, they’re all great picks if you’re craving some more old school lit to fill the void between undead emails.

Frankenstein Weekly – Frankenstein

Jekyll and Hyde Weekly – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Voyage of the Nautilus – Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Letters from Watson – Sherlock Holmes

The Invisible Mail – The Invisible Man

Letters from Bunny – E.W. Hornung’s short stories of the eponymous Bunny and Raffles

Letters Regarding Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster short stories, including the novel, Right Ho, Jeeves

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…The Beetle Weekly – The Beetle (NOTE: Do Not Read This.)

The Vampyres – A novella I finally wrenched through the gears of self-publication as of March this year. Starring a petite but powerful paranormal cast, The Vampyres, centers on an unscrupulous undead fellow who finds that the revenants of the world are being mowed down by an entity known only as ‘Quinn Morse.’ Between trying to save his neck and figure out where the shadowy bastard came from, the Vampyre in question crosses paths with a new paramour and handy human shield in the form of a grieving Good Samaritan. He’s even polite enough to invite the Vampyre into his home while he’s in dire straits! Surely this will end well. All the info is available here and a little author site is over here.

What Manner of Man – This is the one made for everyone who started out hoping there’d be a real love story with our good friend Jonathan Harker and the Count when he was at his most charismatic. Where that sea of wonders dried up into a mire of horror, What Manner of Man by @stjohnstarling keeps things firmly on the romantic tracks. This Substack stars the letter-writing priest Father Victor E. Ardelian as he finds himself meeting with one enigmatic Lord Alistair Vane. It isn’t long before interest turns into intrigue and intrigue into undead intimacies.

The entire novel has been completed—along with multiple epilogues in the author’s Patreon, allowing readers to choose for themselves just how the uncanny romance plays out in the end—and the Substack now has a number of other gothic goodies piling up in the meantime.

NONFICTION

Dracula Daily: A Unique Reading Experience: This one comes courtesy of @realwomenofgaming. It’s a short and sweet piece that amounts to a fun snapshot of the entire Dracula Daily ride. A cozy couple-minute read.

‘Dracula Daily’ is the One Substack You Need a Subscription To: Features my favorite Matt Kirkland interview. @mattkirkland, if you’re still floating around on here, thank you for dispatching our vampire newsletter again this year.

Dracula Daily is Tumblr’s hottest new book club: Alright, the ‘new’ part is worn out by now, but this one is still a delightful article to swing back around to. Two years on, this Polygon piece is a time capsule of those early months when people outside our bookworm bubble realized we were all happily receiving letters from our favorite classic gothic horror blorbos.

“How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” – Princess Weekes, if you ever read this, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am sending oceans of love and millions of rewatches to your video essay. If you haven’t seen it yet, “How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” is one of the most refreshing and well-made breakdowns of both the title subject and numerous other issues that have proliferated in the public view of Dracula’s cast and plot as adaptations endlessly warp or outright bastardize the actual novel. An incredibly cathartic watch.

Literary play gone viral: delight, intertextuality, and challenges to normative interpretations through the digital serialization of Dracula: A mouthful of a title for an even more elaborate article about the Dracula Daily phenomenon. This one is a full-on study that analyzes just what happened within the big bloodsucker book club surge and how its ‘wandering reading practices’ enriched the experience for participants.

“The Undying Undead: An analysis of the Dracula Daily community for a theory of online community formation and interaction” – We have a thesis on here! Look at that! @sirangelothebestest’s MA thesis used our vampiric book club as the bones for a massive brick of an academic piece that definitely deserves a look.

…And I think I’ll go ahead and cap things here.

This isn’t everything I got recommended, but if I had squashed all of it in here, I think folks’ eyes would start to fall out of their head. I hope you can find something cool to comb through here. Or, if there’s something great I overlooked, tack it onto the list! We’ve got just two weeks to go until we’re off with Mr. Harker. Let’s enjoy our respite before those castle doors close behind us.

#time for Dracula Season pre-gaming :3 #thank you to everyone who sent in their suggestions!#dracula #dracula daily #re: dracula

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