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pinkeoni · 1 year

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Why The Dragon Could Represent Will's Self Harm

TW: Discussion of self harm

This is an idea I've had swimming around in my head for awhile but I didn't start seeing the evidence for it until recently.

Why the dragon is connected to Will

This point is pretty easy to explain— the dragon in Will's painting was painted by Will.

I mean, it's a pretty simple reasoning but it's solid. Even without getting into the nitty gritty of the creation theory, you can point to the fact that since Will painted the dragon, he essentially created it. Will conjured the dragon in his painting, so he will likely conjure the dragon in some form during the climax.

It's always possible that Vecna could conjure the dragon, but dragons aren't really his MO. Vecna's into spiders, not dragons. It makes much more sense fantasy and Dungeons & Dragons to be the one to conjure the dragon. Thank you to @bylrndgm for pointing out that Will has some winged creatures (possible dragons) on his bedroom wall in Hawkinsand while looking for screenshots I found this dragon toy behind Will (in a scene where he’s being self deprecating no less)

This could also be another Vecna/Will parallel. In season 4 we see little Henry draw his spider monster before turning it into a reality in the Upside Down. Will painted the dragon, so he'll create a real dragon. Similarly, if the spider monster (Mind Flayer) that Henry created is meant to also himself, then could the dragon that Will creates also be himself as well?

How the dragon could represent his self harm

This part is going to take a little more explaining than the last part. I'll start with explaining Will's self harm.

Will doesn't really self harm in a traditional sense, rather we see him emotionally harm himself. While there are a few moments where we see Will stick up for himself, (the rain fight, Rink-O-Mania) there seems to be a line where Will no longer asserts his feelings outward but rather directs them inward and ends up hurting himself in the process. The rain fight results in the destruction of Castle Byers, and when Lucas tries to apologize to Will later, Will claims that it doesn't matter anymore. Something similar happened at Rink-O-Mania, where initially Will is able to defend himself but then later claims that he actually "deserved it."

And then, of course, we see Will harm himself emotionally when he gives Mike the painting under the guise of it being from El. Here we see a recurring aspect of Will's self harm, his self sacrificial nature.

In episode 1x01, Will sacrifices Will the Wise in the D&D game for the sake of the rest of the party. In episode 2x08, Will tries to sacrifice himself again when he instructs everyone to "CLOSEGATE" despite the fact that this would kill him. These two instances combined with the painting show how little regard Will has for his own self preservation, so long as others are saved.

What's interesting about all three of these instances of sacrifice is that they involve fire, burning, or even the dragon itself. The most obvious one being Will's dragon painting, which he uses to try and fix Mike and El's relationship and therefore hurts his own feelings.

When Will sacrifices himself in 1x01, he does so while casting fireball.

In order to get the mind flayer properly out of Will in order to properly close the gate, they do so by burning it out of him (and Will even receives a physical burn from Nancy in this scene).

Why this would manifest as the dragon

ST tends to use its supernatural and horror elements to explore themes of mental illness. The most recent and obvious example being the Vecna's Curse plot from last season, which was used to explore trauma and suicidal ideation. The NINA plot was a look at trauma and repressed memories through a sci-fi lens. In the case of Will, his true sight episodes were a supernatural spin on PTSD flashbacks. The show rarely ever has monsters just for the sake of monsters. Even the giant flesh monster from s3 was likely used as a metaphor for forced conformity and patriotism.

So then, when a big dragon gets manifested in the show, likely by Will, I don't think it would be just a big dragon for the sake of having a big dragon; I think that the dragon would likely be used to represent some kind of aspect regarding mental health. And based on what I've mentioned above, the aspect in question would likely be Will's self destruction.

How would a dragon be used to show self harm?

Something important about Will's dragon is that it has multiple heads.

It's been theorized as to exactly how many heads the dragon would have. Would it have seven heads like the dragon in revelations? Five heads like the Tiamat from D&D? Or just three heads like Will's painting? (Likely the last option) No matter how many heads, the dragon in each example has multiple heads, enough heads to be able to cause harm to another one.

Considering that the Duffers often pay homage to other sources, I was wondering if there was any examples in other media or mythology to a self destructive dragon— and then I remembered the Ouroboros

The Ouroboros is an ancient multicultural symbol that has taken on a few different interpretations depending on the culture it comes from, but is always represented as "a serpent or dragon eating its own tail."

The ouroboros usually represents the cycle of death and rebirth, but is also commonly seen as a symbol of self destruction.

Will doesn't realize that his self harm hurts others

Something that I don't think Will is quite aware of is that whenever he self harms or self sacrifices, he believes he is only harming himself but doesn't realize that he's harming others. When he sacrifices himself in D&D and subsequently goes missing, he doesn't see the pain and distraught that it brings to everyone. When Will gives his dragon painting to Mike under the guise of it being from El, he doesn't realize that he's actually hurting both of them through his attempt to save their relationship.

What this could mean for the dragon is that it could be harming itself, like in the case of the ouroboros, but it could also be causing damage to everything around it in the process. Imagine, for example, the dragon breathing fire on one of its other heads, but it ends up setting fire to part of the town. A dragon literally at war with itself whose self destruction spills outward, just like Will.

In the terms of how this works thematically, this is how the dragon could be used to show Will's journey toward selfishness. Contrasting his many instances of self sacrifices, Will learns that the real answer to saving others involve saving himself, and that's how they defeat the dragon.

Prediction for how this could happen in the show

Here's a rough timeline for how this could play out in the show:

We see Will's self destructing nature build up throughout the season

The dragon ends up manifesting at the climax, likely in episode 7

The dragon manifests at a point where Will is at his lowest, possibly considering sacrificing himself for the benefit of others. He doesn't realize that this would do more harm than good

The dragon tries to destroy itself but does damage to everything around it in the process

Will realizes that he was the one who created the dragon and has to contend with why it was created

Part of defeating it means Will has to have a personal realization

This point is a little less fleshed out but the party defeats the dragon together as part of the final battle before the final confrontation with Vecna

tagging: @howtobecomeadragon @smalltown-babygirl

#tw sh #tw self harm #will byers #will byers has powers #stranger things #stranger things theory #stranger things 5 prediction #anti milkvan #tagging for just that one part #byler #<- target audience #not byler related #but it also kinda is #my theory #long post

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lohstandfound · 7 months

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Aotearoa [Mostly Poetry] Books I Am In Love With

Some I've included a little review, some I haven't. I still love them. I will probably add to this as I read more

Thorn Boy by C T Dickons

Thorn Boy is a fantasy short story anthology featuring arch demons in hell, the house at the end of the dock, a boy who blends in like a lizard, guardian of the stars, and more. It's a wonderful and imaginative collection refined over years. (Also the cover is gorgeous)

Crude Common Denominator by Max and Olive

Hera Lindsay Bird and Sincerity/Irony by Hera Lindsay Bird

Echidna by essa may ranapiri

A mashup of mythologies: Greek, Māori, and Christianity. It is wonderful and experimental and incredibly queer. This poetry collections follows titular character Echidna as they grow up, punctuated by Maui and Prometheus' tragic love story. It pays homage and is in conversation with many other poets from Aotearoa

Super Model Minority by Chris Tse

The Surgeon's Brain by Oscar Upperton

Poūkahangatus and Rangikura by Tayi Tibble

Meat Lovers by Rebecca Hawkes

From growing up rural to moving to a big city, another lens of the queer experience, Meat Lovers was another favourite. I love a poetry collection that also tells a story.

Biter by Claudia Jardine

The modern and the classics are woven effortlessly together in Jardine's collection with scatterings of Greek epigram translations. As a lover of the classics and a lover of poetry, this is perfect

Black Marks on the White Page edited by Witi Ihimaera and Tina Makereti

A stunning collection of Oceanic writing. Have I read all of it? Not yet, but there are some wonderful pieces in here and this was one of my first true introductions to Oceanic writing. 'Pitter Patter Papatūānuku' remains my favourite.

Transposium by Dani Yourukova

The reason I made this post. A mashup of poetry and dark academia and philosophy and classics. Queer longing, philosophy rambles, thinly veiled Les Mis fanfiction.

Out Here: An anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa edited by Emma Barnes and Chris Tse

Exactly what the title says. This is the first of it's kind in Aotearoa and it is an incredibly beautiful anthology.

Scathing: A Horror Anthology by Sam Wyss

Fucking creepy. I wanted to throw my book across the room because it made my skin crawl (and I would have had I not been at work). But wonderful. 24 short horror stories set in the fictional town of Scathing. From moon mania to murder to spontaneous human combustion, to weird deer creatures. Sam is a bloody talented author and I am 100% biased in saying that.

Ship of Horrors: A Manifest of Nightmares

Just like Scathing, it was bone chilling. Made my skin scrawl. I wanted to through my book across the room. This is a collection of a variety of local authors who all had the same prompt: The UCF Carcosa has been found adrift in space, the ship's only communication is a single repeating plea, 'leave us be. For god's sake, run away'. Killer plagues, graphic depictions of spaghettification, evil plants, eldritch monsters. And I am also 100% biased in saying this one as well. (If you've seen my posts about Spores)

#lohst.txt #poetry #book recs #this is probably something better suited for main but oh well

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toujourspur13 · 3 years

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The Black family / Walburga Black / canon.

As I said before I do not care that much about canon/fanon/headcanon because transformative works by definition include a wide variety of different interpretations. However, I am forever perplexed when I see uncompromising opinions on the Black family - particularly the unwavering certainty that Sirius Black’s parents were psychotic abusers. All personal opinions aside - why is this so popular?

I mean - it’s absolutely ok to headcanon this version and to play with it - but saying 'don’t you dare say they did not physically and emotionally abuse Sirius' is a little strong, isn’t it?

This is a mystery to me. So…let’s discuss my favourite subject…Again.

Let’s stick to the facts. The frequently cited things proving the abuse in the Black family are as follows:

Sirius said his parents were awful maniacs (pureblood ideology)

he ran away from home

he was severely depressed in OoTP

Kreacher

Portrait

So…when you say that Sirius’s parents were abusive…you mean exactly what? These people got cold feet when they saw the real nature of Voldemort - I guess it somehow implies that they did not share his methods…that they were against violence as a tool to get purebloods in charge.

But then it usually goes this way: ‘well at least he was verbally and emotionally abused by his family’ - but is it so? Is this based on the portrait of Sirius's mother? She insulted strangers who took over her house and her runaway son - how does this prove anything about how Sirius and Regulus were raised and treated when they were kids? I agree it’s rather impolite - jkr did a good job showing how purebloods perceived others ( those below them) -but in all honesty, this has very little to do with Sirius and his childhood.

Why to make Sirius a victim at all? - c’mon he was tougher than this, he spent 12 years in Azkaban; are you actually saying that a portrait throwing insults at everyone is worse? I doubt that. And is it such a surprise that a mother who lost her son (that said son actually ran away and abandoned his duty) would be that furious at him when seeing him again...even if it’s only a portrait...I believe it to be a rather unpleasant experience for a parent when a child runs away.

We already talked about the portrait a lot - I don’t even want to mention it here- - I feel we should rather pay more attention to the fact that Sirius himself was not an angel.

I am not saying the colourful vocabulary of Walburga Black should be used…but Sirius himself upon seeing Snape immediately recognised his weakness and went for it without any hesitation …we are talking about Sirius who in fact was quite a renowned bully ( I mean - we know for a fact that from time to time Sirius and James got carried away)…

And it was Sirius who sent Snape to meet and chat with a real werewolf (yes, I agree - he was not thinking this through - he probably was just vexed and fed up with Snape and thought he wouldn’t go there, would get cold feet or idk run away…But it actually changes nothing. If a drunken driver hits someone it will be 100% his fault whether he means it or not. Whether he is in a fragile mental state or not - such situations are definite. It’s the same with Sirius - even if he did not mean anything bad he should have understood the cost of his mistake - all teenagers make silly things but not all of them send their classmate to meet a werewolf - James thought it not a very good idea as I recall… -

So we see that Sirius was not an angel from the start and I can hardly believe he was a victim by nature. His behaviour loudly manifested that he used to get what he wanted with no thought of the consequences.

And all those pictures of bikini-clad girls on the walls in his room prove that he was quite a spoiled boy who had nothing to fear from mum and dad. Harry himself noticed «Sirius seemed to have gone out of his way to annoy his parents». All this shows that Sirius was not afraid of his parents at all. What kind of masochist would suffer for motorbike posters? That would be ridiculous.

Let’s move to Kreacher: If Sirius’s mother had been a monster why even mention her heart? JKR wrote this for a purpose and this heavily implies that Sirius's situation was never meant to be ‘the abusive heartless parents vs the poor helpless victim’.

The fact that Sirius ran away and hence broke his mother’s heart says against the popular idea that he was not loved by his family, that he was always the second one, that they abused him. I’m 100% certain that Kreacher told the truth in that scene. Why would he say something like this if it were not the truth - something like…that his beloved mistress having been so upset over Sirius running away that it broke her heart. Just tell me one reason that would have justified such a lie - why to say this at all?

Then this: “Leave?” Sirius smiled bitterly and ran a hand through his long, unkempt hair. “Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal … my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them … that’s him.”…. “He was younger than me,” said Sirius, “and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded.”

I’ve already said it before - this ‘better son than me’ is exactly what insecure 14-year old kids like to say. Well...he’s a bit older but it’s not as if he had a life and a chance to mature. Moreover, I don’t know if it comes as a great shock but a lot of teenagers like to badmouth their parents…usually, it involves something like ‘those bloody uptight retrogrades know nothing of the real world’ (it fades away when they get closer to thirty).

To be serious, I find that it’s just another example of similarities between Sirius and his mother. They clearly did not know what it means to be composed, polite, and respectful. Yeah…I think that, on the whole, parents are owed their children’s respect (unless they are completely inadequate - somehow I don’t believe this was the case). Someone should teach both of them what mutual respect means. Anyway, there is nothing in this quote that says that Sirius was subjected to any forms of abuse - it’s about how Sirius justified his running away, how he saw the situation.

There’s also the fact that Sirius was incredibly unhappy because he was back at his childhood home and having to spend time around anything that reminded him of his family: “Hasn’t anyone told you? This was my parents’ house,” said Sirius. “But I’m the last Black left, so it’s mine now. I offered it to Dumbledore for headquarters — about the only useful thing I’ve been able to do.” Harry, who had expected a better welcome, noted how hard and bitter Sirius’s voice sounded”.

Here it comes…the severe depression that makes people question the severity of his abuse… I have thought a lot about this because it is the reason why some consider ‘the abusive blacks' canon while others believe it was more of a tragedy of the family rather than the banal brutality.

Of course, Sirius was upset in that house - but I don’t think he suffered the memories of his unhappy childhood - I think he suffered from the strong feeling of guilt. Being in that house meant an everyday reminder that he was a failure. And it’s not even a lie. If you look at his whole life you’ll see that he literally failed everyone in his life: he failed James and Lily - they were dead and he unwillingly became the reason. It was his plan that turned everything into a tragedy.

And, to some extent, he failed Harry- he was not around him like James and Lily would have wanted. Sirius did not give him the real family - he only promised they'd be the one «when it’s all over».

And finally - he failed his parents, his brother, his own family.

Is it possible to live with so much guilt in your heart?

I don't think that Sirius completely forgot who he was born to be. If the family keeps traditions and can trace its existence back in centuries you can't shake it off even if you want. I doubt Sirius switched it off just because he had griffindor friends. He was the last Black - it is tragically poetic that he was once the hope of his family and then this family died with him. If Sirius had heart (and I truly believe he had a heart) he knew exactly what it meant to be trapped in the house that represented the death of his family. A constant reminder that he was the last one.

“The others’ hushed voices were giving Harry an odd feeling of foreboding; it was as though they had just entered the house of a dying person”.

I think that the scene when he threw his father's ring away - he threw it away because it was all over for his family. It was the end of the dynasty - and for him it was all over long before he met Bellatrix for the last time.

Well, I admit Sirius' situation is open for wide interpretation but I don’t think the abusive black household is a canon thing - of course, it’s fanon. It makes Sirius a hero who broke the chains when in fact he ended up being a victim of his own life.

You know, it always seems strange to me that fandom when discussing Walburga usually overlooks the simple truth of life - that even if you are clever enough and mean good for your loved ones it is still possible to end up on the losing side, on the dark side. However, mistakes don't automatically turn humans into monsters.

To some extent Sirius’s story represents the consequences of war. No-one is protected; the whole families could be wiped off the face of the earth. It’s a simple yet profound idea. It correlates with the main idea of hp books far better than the ‘abusive psychopaths’ (there are already Voldemort and Bellatrix - there is no-one who can beat them in this department).

All I say - it’s okay to imagine them bad if you want- your right - but don’t write everywhere that it’s canon because it is not.There is no need for such inflexibility especially when it comes to the fandom - a place where everyone should be welcomed and their views on the books be respected.

#the noble and most ancient house of black #hp meta #harry potter #sirius black meta #walburga black #orion black #regulus black #harry potter meta #Order of the Phoenix #Sirius Black

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bloodwarmed · 4 years

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list of my favourite dual-meaning TMA episode titles

MAG 001 Angler Fish: Apart from the monster, it’s been widely observed that, as the very first recorded statement, it functions as an angler fish luring the archivist into setting the Eye’s plans in motion. As the pilot episode, it also lures the audience into the series.

MAG 054 Still Life: The reference to still life as an art form which, taken literally, is very appropriate for the practice of taxidermy. It is ironic in the sense that the taxidermy pieces are eventually also not 'still' and all begin to move. The double meaning of the word 'still' may also be to question whether the Stranger and its human-like manifestations are 'still (considered) life'.**

MAG 082 The Eyewitnesses: While it’s a reference to Daisy taking Eyewitness accounts, it can also be read as The Eye Witnesses, meaning, the Eye sees. This is apt because it’s the first episode that really demonstrates the Eye’s omnipotent clairvoyance: Elias / the Eye witnesses Daisy’s past crimes.

MAG 092 Nothing Beside Remains: A line from the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The title could be taken to mean Barnabas Bennett himself is now nothing, beside remains, and because he died completely alone, there is nothing beside his remains.**

MAG 094 Dead Woman Walking: I just included this because I really enjoy that the title can refer to both the un/dead woman who catalyzed Georgie’s trauma, as well as Georgie herself, whose loss of fear led to a kind of dissociation from reality / life and turned her into a dead person of sorts.

MAG 101 Another Twist: I cannot get over how the title refers to 1) the plot twist of Gertrude being the one responsible for sacrificing Michael Shelley 2) the plot twist of Michael being usurped by Helen 3) the fact that the original Spiral / twist has been replaced by another

MAG 123 Web Development: This statement is about a web developer designing a website for Annabelle Cane. The title could also refer to a development in the Web’s plot line, as it updates us on the development of Annabelle’s plans since her transformation 5 years prior.**

MAG 155 Cost of Living: The statement-giver has to pay the blood price of sacrificing another human each time she wants to continue living. At the end of the recording, Melanie reveals her decision to sacrifice her eyes to quit. The cost of Melanie’s survival and freedom - the cost of her life - are her eyes.

MAG 159 The Last: The title is a direct reference to Jon being the sole survivor of sorts, “You’re alone, Archivist. The last one standing”, as Peter mocks. Cruelly, we learn in the next episode that the title references how the Lonely is the last mark Jon has to receive to complete the ritual.

MAG 172 Strung Out: The title references both the puppet strings / web that entangles Francis, as well as their addiction. Strung out means to be addicted to a drug, and suffering from its debilitating effects.

**thanks Will @venom-and-mania for pointing these out to me

will add more as they come. FEEL FREE TO SHARE YOUR FAVES ;__;

#tma #the magnus archives #歪 #MAG 001 Angler Fish #MAG 054 Still Life #MAG 082 The Eyewitnesses #MAG 092 Nothing Beside Remains #MAG 094 Dead Woman Walking #MAG 101 Another Twist #MAG 123 Web Development #MAG 155 Cost of Living #MAG 159 The Last #MAG 172 Strung Out #meta #i think?#tma spoilers #spoilers

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ofmermaidstories · 3 years

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What’s your love languages and do u think that affects the way u portray certain characters?

Oh, it absolutely does. It affects how I portray them — and how the entire story goes. Even the story I want to tell.

My primary love language is, apparently, gift giving, with a heaping of Quality Time on the side (and words of affirmation for dessert). It’s not about the material aspect — i’m actually really goddamn fussy on the shit i let into my house lmao — but the intention and thought behind it. For my birthday last year, when I was at the height of my surrender mania (I’d just posted chapter 5: collapse, the week before, and it had been a monster of a chapter to write that I complained about, daily, in the group chat), my friends drove an hour and a half to come to the beach with me. When I met up with them, they pulled out a bouquet of flowers — flowers they’d gotten for me because they know i love them, they knew I was working on this silly little self-insert fanfic about a florist — they knew me. That extended to the decorations on the cake they’d picked out, the wrapping on my present.

It’s important to me that I feel seen by the people I love. I think it’s important to most of us, it just manifests itself differently, from individual to individual. Mine is gift-giving lmao. I think it lends an understanding to the Acts of Service I like imagining, for Bakugou, which is probably why I wrote him like i did in surrender. it’s also why he notices the kintsugi vases, in the shop window — because he sees Reader, he’s thinking about Reader. It’s even started to manifest itself in something (just like this) just in the plot outline lmao — it’s just an inherent part of how I see and filter the world around me.

Saying all that, I am open to suggestions for other kinds of ✨ 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓁𝒶𝓃𝑔𝓊𝒶𝑔𝑒𝓈✨ you guys wanna see, throw ‘em my way. I can’t guarrentee i can squeeze ‘em all in, but i’ll try!!! variety is the spice of life. 🌷

#ofmermaidstories-asks #writing stuff #saying ‘gift giving’ aloud makes me feel really materalistic and i can be make no mistake about that lmao but —#it really do be about something deeper at the end of the day #namely: the validation of being seen by the people you love #scheduled-smeduled

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hillsofuhhtennessee · 4 years

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I'm inconsistant in how I like to portray and interpret Demon because it's fun to take him in different directions and write him in different eras, but here's some more constant headcanons:

-He's very good at nonverbal communication, like a silent movie actor. He'll often use it to supplement scattered words of foreign languages to bridge the gap when needed.

-Unless I'm tying him into reality, I tend to picture Demon being more tanky and solid, but chubby on top. Not terribly defined but very big and imposing and able to take a hit or be a big teddy bear.

-Despite his association with fire, water isn't a major weakness for him. He can swim quite well, like Gene. Machines are his real weakness. He has no power over them like he does human minds and doesn't understand them well and they terrify him. Doesn't help that they're truly soulless and merciless. (Space can be similar in his braindead lunacy and be surprisingly heartless himself, in my mind, which also makes him terrifying to Demon)

-I depict him differently story to story, more or less supernatural vs psychological depending on what I feel like. But at his core I see him as fake to some degree, just as folkloric monsters generally are, just a creature meant to explain more negative human tendencies. Maybe he is just a human playing mind games and doing circus tricks. Maybe he is just a manifestation of your greed, obsession, reckless mania, paranoia, etc. He has a lot of power over human minds in any case, between his surprising religious knowledge, the media hysteria over him taking over kids' minds and such in the 70s, and just how influencial and memorable he tends to be in general. I've been listening to a lot of podcasts about monsters and their origins lately and it's given me a lot of ideas and perspective, I just haven't thought of a good way to use them in a story yet.

-I think some old magazines liked to claim Gene had a bunch of weird exotic pets like tarantulas and such (Though iirc he's only had fish and dogs irl). I really like the concept of Demon having various low-emotional maintenance creepy crawlies to keep him company (scorpions, spiders, millipedes, etc), he's usually really busy and probably would have difficulty managing a more demanding pet.

-He's very warm to the touch. Probably part of why he sweats so much lol

-He has some ability to switch to being a human (or just looking like one), I think this is a canon thing anyway though, it's basically on the cover of Unmasked lol

-90s-on Demon is a lot more externally soft and caring. Which he sometimes does genuinely, other times just to gain someone's trust then backstab them.

-I'm not sure if he's immortal or not, honestly. His spirit certainly is, but I picture him as very human and biological in physical form in that he ages and can get sick.

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turquoisedays · 4 years

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Grimscribe Aesthetic Meme

REPOST, DO NOT REBLOG AND DO NOT DELETE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION.

The following quotes and phrases are taken from the stories in Thomas Ligotti’s anthology Grimscribe. Some of these quotes were slightly tweaked for the sake of this meme. If you enjoy the imagery or writing in this meme, please support the author by purchasing his work. Content warnings for horror in general and brief mentions of blood, gore, nihilism, unreality, body horror, clowns, and insects.

Bold what applies to your muse.

Tagged by: Me, myself and I, because I’m ALWAYS A SLUG FOR THOMAS LIGOTTI.

Tagging: @choujin @mothersins @flowerytruth (You decide which muse! >:3c) @givealls (For Kazuma mayhap?) annnnnnnd my other blog.

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The Last Feast of Harlequin

A place behind the clownish mask / an enthusiastic urgency / sunny fields and farms / steeply roofed houses / a weird distortion of perspective / an album of old snapshots / a pointed hat jauntily askew / a billboard displaying a group of grinning vegetables / a neutral, bureaucratic voice / blue-green ink / a brilliant and profound circus of learning / a quotation from Poe’s “The Conqueror Worm” / a feeling of frigid numbness / dull, earth-colored scenery / the snowfalls of late autumn / black, ragged clumps of abandoned nests / the thin light of a winter afternoon / poles raveled with evergreen / holly wreaths / green lights / green streamers / peacock green floodlights / an eerie emerald haze / chthonic divinities / miniature candy canes / colored lights that bloom out of flower-shaped sockets / a chilling brilliance of manner and expression / sea-green lights / the face of an adept clown / a heart bathed in green / another coldness within the cold / warmly wrapped bodies and green-scarved necks / worried and guilt ridden glances / a wormy mass / the black void of winter / the brightness of an artificial spring / a great green rainbow / green gleaming streets / the dark immensity of a winter night / an effect of stricken horror and despair / an inhuman likeness more proper to something under the earth than above it / a festival within a festival / depressingly pallid clowns / the particular kind of hatred of resulting from some powerful and irrational memory / optimistic greenery in a period of gray dormancy / a kind of obnoxious intelligence / freezing atop an icy throne / commitment to a meaningful mania / bodiless invisibility / seeing without being seen / a sea of zigging and zagging celebrants / the darkness of narrow country roads / innocent normalcy / icy wind / trembling with cold / lanterns that beam with dazzling and frosty light / cadaverous clowns / the apex of darkness / a long snowy robe / moody malignancy / pure unlived lives / all the many shapes of death and dissolution / a dirge for existence / a sea of thin, bloodless faces / icy beauty / a moment of frozen trance / the death known to those whom the gods have first made mad / the welcoming glow of green / slow and silent and entrancing / a velvety white abyss / the paradise of the unborn

The Spectacles in the Drawer

A double-handled dagger with a single blade of polished stone / tall cabinets / ceiling-high shelves / tantalizing arcana / glistening fog / a tedious clarity / a cyclone of strange patterns and colors / spasms of sardonic hilarity / a pale-blue blade / stiff, crackling pages / a seeker of recondite knowledge / undying hope / a gutful of shame and regret / a small and silvery knife / a razor-sharp letter opener / a pair of old-fashioned wire-rimmed spectacles / everything that fascinates / the wish to look away / an infinite and overwhelming scene / the dazzling diffusion of all known universes / landscapes without end / landscapes that are themselves alive / a life unknown to mortal eyes / form and motion / design and dimension / cilia wriggling / mammoth shapes lurching in outline / an obscure oceanic niche / a mere fragment of all that there is to see and to know / labyrinthine astronomies / constant transformations of both appearance and essence / a witness to the most cryptic phenomena that exist or could ever exist / the ultimate thing waiting to be born / still greater visions / a cataclysm which will be both the beginning and the end / unbearable anticipation / ecstasy and dread / the ultimate source of all manifestation / the absolute and the wholly unknown / a revolution of all matter and energy / the visions remaining active inside you, deep in your blood / to be dazzled in the worst way / the total substance of things / an occultist auction / a disreputable quarter of a foreign city / a student of the Gnostics / artificial eyes / a malicious aim to undermine / a child’s awkward embrace / rusty scales / cockeyed bookcases / broken toys / standing ashtrays / desolate bazaars / the charm of disenchantment / a tilting mirror / a climate of dull horror / sinister whispers that make no sense yet seem filled with meaning / sensations of infinite expansiveness and ineffable meaning / astronomical emotions / a mutilated carcass / something of terrible rawness / a torn and flayed thing / microscopic precision / twitching and quivering like a gory heart / hellish giggling / a haunting, lifelong memory / unfathomable depths of feeling / to suffer over and over / a way to kill a dream / the sheltering shadows of one’s home / sobering shadows / a cold and stagnant peace / esoteric ecstasy / vulgar pain / a broad expanse of empty field / a mosaic of mirrors / a shocking galaxy / redundant reflections / dark stars on a silvery firmament / to see with countless eyes / a body ripped raw / a gallery of glass and gore

Flowers of the Abyss

The first rank scent of autumn / a glass of water / a thirsty walker of the woods / a pale flower amongst the dark summer trees / a ghostly flower of autumn / grayish planks / a pallid lily / a pulpy toadstool / a roof of rippling shingles shaped like scales from some great fish / sea-green and sparkling / attic gables with paned windows / the tip of a tear / hundreds of raindrops / light rain / an icy autumn storm / a fragrance damp and decayed / walking ahead of the clouds / the echo of hollow words / a long crooked arm / malodorous gardens of misshapen growths / an oval mirror in an ornate frame / cobwebbed corners / tilting books / something shapeless and nameless / something dampish and submerged / something swampy and abysmal / the pure cold of an autumn storm / a dusty green bottle / a sparkling glass / a world of frozen light / cool and limpid water / the hardness of a jewel / a small music box / stars of sound / twilight shadows and silence / infinitesimal flakes of light / barren decor of dead days / yellowish haze / silvery tones / a tenebrous expanse / unknown exploits / the madness of things / a vagabond of the universe / a drifter among spaces / a mess of hacked pieces / dark horizon meeting dark horizon / a universe of darkness / a convulsing tangle of shapes / the radiant entrails of hell / rain-softened soil / parted waters rushing to remerge / corrupt waters / sticky and pumping veins / slimy tendrils / aberrations of the abyss / a night-gowned figure / a crowd carrying lights / lamps and lanterns bobbing in darkness / clusters of flames / buried like a forgotten dream

Nethescurial

Delicate, crinkly script / greenish-black discoloration / dark waters / moonlit skies / earth mounds / mountain peaks / northern leaf and southern flower / each star and the voids between them / blood and bone / watchful winds / murky waters below / contorted rock formations / pointed pines and spruces of gigantic stature / sea-facing cliffs / stagnant fog / an omnipresent evil / a sleeping sense of doom awakened into full vigour / evil, beloved and menacing evil / sunshine and flowers / darkness and dead leaves / some shaping force of demonic temperament / wartlike hills / tumorous trees / oil lamps scattered about / a sacral glow / a degree of mutual ease / the verdigris of centuries / decomposing jade / pandemonism / cold gray waters / a mere mask for the foulest evil / an absolute evil whose reality is mitigated only by our blindness to it / the universe as a dream / the feverish nightmare of a demonic demiurge / an abstract monster of metaphysics / an altar of coarse stone / skinny shadows / to be actually bound in blackness / white-faced shadows / luminous smoke / glowing, ectoplasmic haze / something thick and oily and strangely colored / an ancient anonymity / spirits beyond all hope or consolation except in the evil to which they would abandon themselves / a ceremony of the chosen / an ancient, darkened mould / petrified lichen / wrought iron tracery / great overgrown gardens of writhing coral / a chaos of little carvings / a world of demonic faces and forms / oneiric visions / inkish waters / an infinitely extensive body of evil / the gods of the ordinary world / dream-induced illusions / visionary intrusions / a banquet of fear / what is squirming beneath every surface / penetrating the usual armor of objects / dark and greenish / garbled whisperings / an island of grass and trees in the middle of the city / globes of light balanced on slim metal poles / a glowing orb / set in the great blackness above / trees swishing overhead / muddied green / walking some indefinite time along some indefinite route / strings of colored lights / a tall, illuminated booth / clownish creatures / expressionless faces and dead puppet eyes / slow, monotonous phrases mingling like the sequences of a fugue / the faces of the living and the dead / wind-blown trees / the greenish darkness of the night / mold-colored smoke / a squirming, creeping, smearing shape / a great deformed crab / the black oceans of infinity / the island of the moon / the cancerous totality of all creatures / oozing ichor / dying in a nightmare

The Dreaming in Nortown

A solitary perdition / a mind to remember the stages of their downfall / a mirror to multiply their abject glory / a memoir of dreams / peculiar powers of sympathy / a decaying and spacious apartment / an ill-mapped world of dreams / a slightly infernal aroma / an acrid combination of tobacco and autumn nights / a small red glow / a long threadbare overcoat / many pungent Octobers / the remote heights or depths of an artificial paradise / the stumbling words of a returning explorer / a stuporous and awed voice / midnight assemblies / in the grip of strange mystical ecstasies / long red hair / esoteric development / a general tenor of chaos / a quality which may or may not make for good company but which always offers promise of the extraordinary / a contrived noisiness / a strange catalogue of sounds / low moans emanating from the most shadowy chasms of dream / sudden intakes of breath / the suction of a startled gasp / abrupt snarls and snorts of a bestial timbre / expressions of unknown turmoil / the calm darkness of the night / staccato groans / the entire audible spectrum of nightmare-inspired terror / mingling overtones of awe and ecstasy / a willing submission to some unknown ordeal / the deeper registers of somnolence / the smell of a freshly lit cigar / the dun colors of dawn / a flood of eidetic horrors / fleeting scenes of nightmare / a reverberating slam / a note scrawled upon a slip of paper / a disproportionate anxiety / the imagined threat of a reprimand / the frayed end of a disciplinary whip / colors twisting in blackness / a tentacled abyss / bone-colored stars / a dream-distorted voice / a spiral notebook with a cover of mock marble / mystical masochism / feats of occult daredevilry / glimpsing the inferno with eyes of ice / a doomed determinism / the striving for horrific dominion over horror itself / wobbling glitter / a field of venomous colors / the glistening inner skin of deadliest nightshade / the entrancing fragrance of fear / the city’s lurid glamor / cryptic badges whose significance is known only to the initiated / comic colors from an electric spectrum / a chilly autumn evening / engraved brass / dingy neon / a black autumn sky / scattering sparks across the sidewalk / flea-market antiquities / calling feline-voiced / colorful chaos / neon signs streaming across the night / clothed in flashing colors / a many-hued phantasmagoria / a flickering and disorderly rainbow of dreams / a multitude of indecisive thoughts and impulses / a brick and neon landscape / a frigid and fragrant October night / darkness and a voice / a coarse scream / a pulsing opalescent aura / a delirious blend of images derived from nightmare / an ominous sunrise over a dark horizon / a field of fear / a painfully lush iridescence / a burnt-out patch of earth / newspapers mutilated by time / two fresh cigars / a thin book-like box / a scene from some Boschian hell / a hideous series of transfigurations / the screaming mass of a damned soul / an abyss of nightmares / explorations in a hell of one’s own choosing

The Mystics of Muelenburg

Trees made of poster board / houses built of colored foam / mud and dust and ashes / a nightmare of nonsense / fantasy, that misty domain of pure meaning / dim and empty storage space / an ancient armchair / reposing far beneath crumbling rafters / surveying remote worlds / a burst of fireworks / buzzing like flies in the blackness / glow worms flitting in the blinding sun / to keep the sun in the sky / to keep the dead in the earth / a universal vice / a parasite of chaos / a maggot of vice / the prospect of absolute terror / men in the mouths of demons / withholding heaven’s light / the pointed shadows of peaked roofs and jutting gables / faded artifacts of a dead town / high castle turrets / grayness undisturbed / ashen twilight / the yellow light of lamps / sumptuous chambers / humble rooms / the lost luxury of shadows / an infinite vault of glowing dust / a deception by demons / old deities formerly driven from the earth / shadows streaming horribly / the twitching light of a thousand candles / prismatic jewels / a greyish whirlpool / indefinite twilight / the blackness which is the domain of death / necromantic learning / drunken dialogues / unparalleled credulity / fluidity, always fluidity / an ornamented void / the stars and moon / the legions of the dead

In the Shadow of Another World

Walking down streets at twilight / watered lawns / the edges of leaves / pale specters within a fog / the infinite sky itself / gently stirring trees / old silent houses / strange cities disguised as clouds / the depths of a vast, echoing abyss / a blurry little window with a crack in it / a tree-lined street / a pale sky at dusk / peaks and porches / worn wooden steps / dreams and vapor posing as solid matter / a fabulous overlap of properties / petrified flesh / gigantic bones from great beasts of old / chimneys and shingles / a shadow on the horizon / a thing of nightmarish beauty / impossible hopes / a kind of ceremonious desolation / translucent festivals / the faraway sounds of mad carnivals / an instinct for mystification / dubious spectacles / trumped-up histrionics / immaculate to the point of being suspect / a plush and well-tended mausoleum / where the dead are truly at rest / oppressive awareness of other times / secret conspiracies with departed spirits / the unnatural mood of twilight / sinister echoes / dark, polished floors / lofty, uncobwebbed ceilings / a malign presence in the cellar / an insane shadow in the attic / thaumaturgic curios / a hermetic chant of the heavens / no hint of hauntedness / an innocent ambiance / a spiritual wasteland / spiritually antiseptic surroundings / a twisting and tenuous stairway / shattered panes of glass / misshapen glyphs / the shadowy nuances of clouds / a twisted kaleidoscope of colors / the aura of stained-glass cathedral / some obscure desecration / prismatic lenses / that of the dead or the demonic / an eclipse of this world’s vision / a quivering translucence / iridescent sterility / the aftermath of a strange exorcism / neither hallowed nor unholy / a pristine laboratory / a science of nightmares / a small, lamplit library / night’s darkness / a voice that’s accustomed to speaking of miracles / mystical freakshows / a grave sincerity / dissonant overtones of fear / the shadows of another world / forms of specter or demon / the eyes of the flesh / a luminous hell / psychic survival / hopelessly dreaming / terror recollected in tranquility / mazy trauma / the sensations of the soul / a monstrous mystery / a theoretician of nightmares / crude and cryptic designs / a remote and shadowy stage / an adept of pasteboard visions / mucilage and gauze / pulling the strings of light and shadow / shadows gathering / a strange radiance / phosphorescent panes / superlunary light / some cosmic tapestry / a haunted world / the marriage of insanity and metaphysics / a spectral ontogeny / a pageant of nightmares / sunlit bazaars in exotic cities / transparent masks / insectoid countenances / moonlit streets in antique towns / a strange-eyed slithering / dim galleries of empty museums / a ghostly mold / the sullen hues of old paintings / sticky luxuriance / pulpy warmth / an uncanny flux of sounds / cadaverous generations / sculptures of human coral / bodies heaped and unwhole / limbs projecting without order / eyes scattered and searching the darkness / a monument to Terror / a maze of interconnecting doors / spectral monstrosities / the cover of masks / the concealment of stones / feverish properties and intentions / a framed phantasmagoria / grotesque transfigurations / a systemless cosmogony / the caprice of the immaterial / weirdly lucent rooms / chaotic fantasies / narrow, spiraling stairs / the gazing eye of some god / a pyrotechnic craze of colors / a vibrating echo of vocal utterance / swirling sights / a vacuum and a void / doubtful strategies / unknown and extravagant possibilities / occult theories / arcane analyses / the irreducible certainty of nightmare / great shadows in the stars / an infinite catastrophe / protective sigils / the full glare of starlight / stars and shadows / privileged arcana / the enchantments of hell / cold sunlight / the visionary time of twilight

The Cocoons

A gloved hand twitching / a rather unapologetic tone / egg-shaped pills / a half-glass of water / a soft grinding noise / a quietly urgent voice / blotched vapors / a growl of exasperation / unpeopled avenues / a mass of shadows / a landscape without pattern or substance / the moon shining / a doubtful glance / a devastated plain / an open field heaped with debris / bits of glass and scraps of metal / lunar spaciousness / a skeletal structure with all markings of identity scraped off its bones / a densely tangled nest of houses / the dull light of the moon / a yellowish swatch of illumination / high wooden fences / a ruined turret grazed by moonlight / a minor mania / a cobwebbed corner / a blank battered wall / warped floor moldings / a watery light / the quivering light of candles / an old-fashioned film projector / the whirring of a projector / a visual record of a scientific experiment / dark wiry appendages / a pair of slender snapping pincers / tiny translucent wings / glistening but useless / malicious eyes / a dubious look / candles flickering like fire-flies / a cold swamp of shadows / a collection of bones / dazed silence / a clockwork world / sunrise schedules / lunar routines / a pandemonium of forces / a phantasmagoria of possibilities / the shadow of a laugh / a curious hedonism that can’t be controlled / the vagaries of omnipotence / breeder of indulgence / languorous exhaustion / a psychic matter / unheard of habits / a clown’s oversized grin / bliss on the brink of apotheosis / a universal process of transfiguration / restless skittering / a pitiful delight / giddy pride / demoniac undercurrents / the grotesque ultimatums of creation

The Night School

A high, full moon shining among the spreading clouds / shadows singing with the clouds / a slowly flowing mass of mottled shapes / a kind of unclean outpouring / the black sewers of space / the wall of night / smoke, dense and dirty, rising up to the sky / the spastic flames of a small fire / a slender gentleman / a dark suit / broken bones / the process of degeneration / the mulchy rot of autumn or early spring / yellowish light / dark scabby bricks / ruined factories / ravaged mausoleums / abandoned orphanages / a blossom of the cemetery or the cesspool / guttering candles / blurred remnants of past lessons / cloacal forces / time as a flow of sewage / drowning in the pools of night / a thousand molting autumns / the melting soil of spring / a pair of yellowish eyes / undiluted darkness / a darkness far greater than the night itself / consolidated darkness / the science of a spectral pathology / a philosophy of absolute disease / the metaphysics of things sinking into a common disintegration or rising together / dark rottenness / filthy smoke from some smoldering source of expansive corruption / the scent of corruption / the nostalgic perfume of autumn decay / the feculent muskiness of a spring thaw / smoky blackness / the offal of worlds in decline / the dark compost of those about to be born / the primeval impurity In which all things are founded / native putridity / pieces of paper with strange symbols on them / the very face of a plague—pustulant, scabbed, and stinking terribly / a black fog / many voices crying and calling from total blackness / tightly packed earth in a grave / the disease of the night / bright flames / the noise of a fire and the wind / a full moon / shining bright and blurry / a luminous mold / the great sewers of night

The Glamour

A fine aura of fantasy / both blurred and brightened / a starless evening / diamonds of plate glass / old buildings of dark brick / the display window of a toy store / a chaotic tableau of preposterous excitation / mechanized monkeys / fated antics / tiny cymbals / the destined pirouettes of a music-box ballerina / a newly sprung jack-in-the-box / strangely picturesque / dreamily illuminated / sculptured frosting / a winter landscape of swirling, drifting whiteness / snowy rosettes / layers of icy glitter / a glacial kingdom / a brilliant arctic scene / a vitality of enterprise / a glossy light / the placidly enigmatic expressions of a different time / faded lighting / an old photograph / the kind of acute anticipation that a child might experience at a carnival / a possessing impulse without object / wretchedly aglow / a long, narrow corridor with a single light set far into its depths / a strange shade of purple, like that of a freshly exposed heart / a purple lamp / arterial light / a deep pink / a richly blooded brain / a beating heart / wispy shrouds / sparse hairs sticking to the scalp of an old corpse / purple-tinted glass / the darkness of a theater / a swarm of filaments / an elaborate chandelier / a sickly, liverish shade / an operating room where a torso lies open on the table / a palette of pinks and reds and purples / diseased viscera imitating all of the shades of sunset / headstones in a graveyard / endless filthy alleys / long desolate corridors in an old asylum / the dripping passages of a sewer / a dust-blinded window / a dark unvisited cellar / a mirror gone rheumy with age / facets of murky crystal / cobwebs / long pale threads / hazy purple light / the slow curling of thin smoke / a great rectangular web / the ever-mutating images of clouds / a surge of dark elation / a sudden chill announcing bad weather / a vibrant presence / an expression of avid malignance / inner webbings / swirling fibers / wild shocks of twisting hair / a portrait of atrocity / lust for sites and ceremonies of mayhem / writhing cobwebs / reaching tendrils / graveyards and alleyways / a joyous hysteria / a pale purple / sinister and seamy regions / spectral ambiance / all pervasive purple coloration / the labyrinth of a living anatomy / palest pink / a purple light / putrid chambers and cloisters / an infernal land / fleshy, gelatinous integuments / translucent tissue / the theater of a mad surgery / hair-thin sutures / unseen hands designing unnatural shapes and systems / weaving a nest in which possession would take place / the weaver and web-maker / an old puppet-master / setting a helpless creature with new strings / through eyes unknown / purple shadows / a type of degraded rapture / a seizure of debauched panic / webs of hair / great evil / an appeal for deliverance / eyes that would see what should not be seen / stray threads pulled from a sleeve or pocket / a paralytic silence / eyes gazing fierce and malignant / a purple glow / two shafts of the purest purple light / an old woman with glowing eyes

Father Sevich’s Visit

A manner at first vaguely troublesome and afterward rather attractive / the arrival of a priest / the very echoes of the air / mellow afternoon sunlight / dark wooden floors / pale contortions of ancient wall paper / invisible games / abstract dread and a bizarre sort of indebtedness / a thick maze of propositions / a well-made bed / a relentless failure / cloistral tunnels / vaulted penetralia / a single column-clutching hand / the necessary features of fear / a maddening task / a series of completely irrelevant expressions / misty-eyed wonder / cretinous bafflement / smiling in an almost amiable way at one one’s impending doom / the trap of expectation / a sleepy whisper / the sound of soft conversation / the world of good manners and polite talk / a look of incompleteness / some unfinished effigy in a toy maker’s workshop / something vital to expression / the purple-robed mysteries of priesthood / animated eyes / withered things reeking of medicine and prayer / a painfully delicate subject / varnished wood / salvation through suffering / sacred horrors / the divine destiny toward which the paths of anguish have always led / volumes of blessed agony / an attitude of prayerful pleading / torturing demons / a single squatted devil / bristling lashes that sprout like weeds / an explosion of miniature grotesquerie / a brief and calculated absence / a modest fund of moral energy / a macabre icon / profane lessons / a countenance of true terror / a ridiculously empty slate / an off-stage atrocity / a cycle of mute, incredible lore / anthropomorphic mist / an eerie lividity / unconscious hours of darkness / a chronicle of truly unspeakable things / the light of every constellation in the visible universe / the oppressive mysteries of the autumn season / thick orange crayons / black cats / black paper / a hopeless urge for innovation / a tiny white collar / dripping with fever / hat and cloak and walking stick / narrow, nocturnal streets / a fairy-tale vision / serpentine lanes / the distorted glow of street lamps / the thinnest blade of moon / a narrow niche / an unpaved lane / a small courtyard surrounded by high walls / the stars above / jaundiced lamplight / a stairway of cut stone / the earth and absolute blackness / tiny lights glimmering like stars / clouds of shadows / some golden metal / a caricature of serenity / a hand as white as the whitest glove / chaotic rays / underworld starlight / a certain expression of rarefied scorn or disgust / indignant shadows / black, ankle-high shoes / the natural nightlight of the moon / an infernal aura or an angelic halo / a planet revolving its unspeakable tonnage in the blackness of space / a small bottle of holy water / secret denial and privilege / a smile of deep contentment

Miss Plarr

Misty, drizzling days / sharp, urgent rappings at the front door / a world of darkening mist / mist-covered locks / listening with intense expectancy / the world’s chaos of faces / a seething luxuriance / dark battlements of clouds / a mute and sullen twilight / a stone-gray sky / those days all shackled in gloom / a fugue of noise / the livid radiance of moonlight / the wild shape of some night-blossom / some strange and cruel kingdom / an intimate dungeon cell reserved for the most exclusive captivity / constant, noisy marauding / sedentary or stealthy rituals / an abyss of unspoken reproaches and suspicions / some ancient seagoing vessel / an old oil lamp / a series of quite fascinating lectures / a kind of brutality and an air of exile / deliriums of earth and sky / fog-bound islands in polar seas / shadowed realms littered with dead cities / peaks lacerated by unceasing winds / a bluish slime / the proper way to behave / the great mists of spring / murky sheets of ice / a world of shadows bound in place / the sound of something that stings the air / the hissing of rainy afternoons / immense blades sweeping over vast spaces / expansive wings cutting through cold winds / long whips lashing in darkness / intangible sympathies / a dark mesh of nightmares / a foul nest in which one’s own suspicions are swarming / links to a strictly mundane order / a briskness that seems to be an effort / a heavy spring dampness / lost to the world of wholesome practicalities / a hypnotic and fateful determination / a child’s weakness for prospects of misadventure / a fog-smothered landscape / a pale, floating web / an immense and awful kingdom / a patternless conglomerate of crystals / a misty graveyard / angular and many-faced monuments / the mountainous and murky thunderheads of a rainy season / the very essence of a storm / a matter of suspicion and conjecture / atrocious potential / fogs and mists and gray heaping skies / a conspicuous stridency / a dour mystique / a gray mist / skies of hissing rain

The Shadow At the Bottom of the World

Some feverish intent / sheaves of cornstalks standing brownish and brittle in a newly harvested field / a sky of empty light / fiery leafage / something dark, something abysmal / small shadowy voices / sweet wine turning to vinegar / a hysteric brilliance / displays of thorn apple, sumac, and towering sunflowers / crooked roadside fences / a moonlit field / a bright round moon / nocturnal solitude / patched-up overalls / worn flannel / the withered leaves of cornstalks / moonlight spread across a dead field / a great idol in shabby disguise / a sacred avatar out of season / fidgeting bemusement / a leaden vault of clouds / pure sunlight / misty dreams of the past night / a vine-twisted stone wall / dormant vines / a strange network of dead veins / calculated grayness / radiant leaves / legions of local cicadas / a dark fungus / of the blackest earth / a rich loam / a bog of shadows / an abyss in the outline of a man / the feel of wind and water / a few shifting flames / flames of only the slightest warmth / black flames / the molten texture of spoiled fruit / a shriveled scarecrow / an armory of axes, shovels, and other implements / an eccentricity of the harvest / a viscous mire / innumerable insects laughing / sprouting blackness / a perverse reluctance / the great shadow of a moonless night / the dark rustling depths of the season / the glass globes of streetlamps / the dense leaves of elms and oaks and maples / blazing auras / the frigid aurora of dawn / frost-powdered earth / shadows and corn shocks / countless insects chattering unseen / the feverish life of the earth / the wrinkled grimace of decay / corrupted by vile impulses / a mound of soft dirt / the darkish grooves of ancient bark / the mottled complexion of old flesh / a multitude of crooked smiles / a freakish mask painted with russet, rashy colors / a virulent intensity / an autumn night when fields lay ragged in moonlight / moist and fertile shadows / a hollow-eyed howling malignity / the cold emptiness of space / the pale gaze of the moon / the depths of an extraordinary harvest / insecure hints and delvings / the luxuriant shadow of trees / the mocking plumage of a strange season / an array of whims and suspicions / scraps of lush color / gold and crimson hieroglyphs / deathless leaves / an ill-formed village / a hideous impersonation of a face / leprous masks / knotty shadows / a subterranean craze of roots and tendrils / an underworld riot of branching convolutions / gnarled ornamentations / autumnal decay / knives and axes and curving scythes / countless colored leaves / pronouncements of dire or delightful curiosity / a dull trance / a wild luminousness / a diamond-bright fever burning within / perennial strangeness / tenacious foliage / softly glowing against a black sky / an untimely nocturnal rainbow / a harvest of hues / peach gold / pumpkin orange / honey yellow / winy amber / apple red / plum violet / the pyrotechnics of a new autumn / a thousand glittering dreams / a rigid scarecrow / a patchwork of shadows / a quivering glow / a premature craving / an expertly whetted blade / a betrayal or deception on the part of creation itself / something buried deep within appearances / something that wears a mask to hide itself / holding a spatula like a weapon / moldering shadows / a dreamless sleep / a sudden rage of mortification / the remains of a dismantled scarecrow / an ashen autumn morning / the feeling of blood / a bottomless grave

#meme response #this took a bit but >:0 i enjoyed it #gore tw just to be safe?#blood tw also to be safe #horror cw #nihilism tw #unreality tw #clowns tw ////

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curiousmons · 4 months

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Fellow monster fuckers (through their horny posts) have brought to my attention, that centaurs literally can not pleasure themselves. It did take a moment of envisioning to comprehend the conundrum. I now want so much smut to be written on the topic about their first time with a partner pleasuring them, experiencing that euphoria, and how that may drive them wild with lust🤤

#curiousmons #monster fucker #monster kink #my monster mania manifesting #centaur boyfriend #monster lover

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a-skirmish-of-wit-and-lit · 4 years

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Book Review: Vicious (Villains Series #1) by V.E. Schwab

Essentially a friends-to-enemies framework whereby the main antagonistic duo, Eli Ever and Victor Vale (the "villains"), study, sweat, toil, and nearly kill themselves - plus each other - to test the validity of their undergraduate thesis. Pushing the boundaries between life and death, good and bad, faith and science, they both take experimental resolve to a whole new level by systematically planning then carrying out their own near-death experiences. Both of them convinced that it's the only way to prove, with certainty, how people in the world develop ExtraOrdinary abilities. Spanning a decade, theirs' is a Revive Me pact that turns Revengeful, and so much of what occurs between them occurs because of science, because they wanted to test the limits of what's known. What's possible. For my own part, I consider the metaphor there to be pretty darn delectable. Resonant in a way that makes me want to throw my hands up and scream "see, see! stress plus passion, mania plus the possibility of academic prestige makes people do crazy things!" These two characters are a prime example of that. Exhibits A and B. I mean, come on! How many of us have slaved relentlessly, obsessively, over research, or almost died completing our own college work in the hopes it would stand out? That it would introduce something new or amazing? Particularly a thesis? (Probably too many of us, I'd wager.) What a ripe and ironic metaphor about the competitive laboriousness of academia, no? It's perfect. Yet, when applied here, also uniquely twisted. Add in the transformative elements of this book *ahem* superpowers *ahem*, a girl endowed with the powers of necromancy (hey, hey there little Dr. Frankenstein 😏), family that's chosen not born, time jumps and flashbacks told from a round robin of POVs, and the ever-tipping scale of morality, of retribution, and this rapidly becomes the kind of story that's 360 degrees of engrossing. Did I mention I loved it? BECAUSE I LOVED IT. As it happens, Eli and Victor's transition from ordinary to extraordinary comes with a few disastrous bumps, with one tattered friendship along the way. Not only does it change them physically, with the former able to regenerate while the latter's capable of manipulating other's pain, but it lands one in jail for a decade, fills the other with a superiority complex so large it can only be rivaled by God himself (no, seriously), and kicks them both on opposite sides of the same moral line where they must decide what being an EO means: Human or monster? Villain or hero? Friend or enemy? What's remarkable about this story is how the characters are not singularly defined by one trait or another, but are a composite of all of them--together. Ambiguity swirls around them all, swallowing them up. So there are times you're rooting for them but cursing at them, or sympathizing then chastising them simultaneously. There are no real heroes here, no true villains either. Eli, Victor, Sydney, Serena, Mitch: they're all various shades of broken, lost, and deadly. However, the fun part is witnessing how their broken pieces manifest. The way they react to them. Sometimes they'll grab you forcefully by the throat when in other moments they'll dent you like regret, like hope, straight through to the breastbone. It's marvelous! Buckle up, y'all, because it's a wild, wicked ride that at times will flick at your soft underbelly and stitch emotion places it doesn't belong, but I'll tell you what: I wouldn't change it for anything.

4/5 stars

#ashlee bree's book reviews #recs: ashlee approved!#vicious #fantasy #adult fiction #in my favorites hoard #bookblr #book reviews

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saltine-kakyoin · 5 years

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PLEASE what is sda I’m super curious I’ve seen u mention it so many times and now I Gotta Know

ahh, ruth!! howdy! I would like to apologize if this ask is all over the place, ya girl is currently goin thru an emotional meltdown + this is my only respite 🤠

The Sergio-Divergent AU is my Baby 😭 it started out as two separate aus, actually! The first one was an "all the crusaders live" au and the second was a "joseph had a son who is josuke's father" au because I could not and tbh still can't accept Joseph cheating on the legend that is Suzi. I realized there was no reason to have them as two separate aus, so they became one.

I have a more detailed page about it all if you're on desktop, but I'll give you the quick rundown! Years after Holly is born, Joseph and Suzi have another son, Sergio! He spends a lot of his childhood with Lisa Lisa because everyone is super busy, and bc of that he gets the whole 411 about his family's history and Hamon. Joseph doesn't let Lisa Lisa send his kid through Hell Climb Pillar, so Sergio and Lisa Lisa agree on music as a good way to practice Hamon. He becomes a huge music kid because of this, which leads to him becoming really good friends with Sadao! (much to joseph's despair lol) He is mcShooken when Jotaro is born, and spends many weekends and school vacations in Japan with the Kujos bc he adores the little guy.

Aside from having Funky Breathing Powers, he has a relatively normal life until he graduates from uni! He has a mild existential crisis, but Sadao comes in to save the day and gets him a few gigs over in Japan. This is where Sergio meets Tomoko, and they hit it off really well (after Holly is able to convince him that yes, she is flirting with him lol).

There's a golden year or two where things are nice. Tomoko graduates from uni, and Sergio gets a nice residency for his compositions! They get engaged! But, things go haywire when Tomoko is like bro.. I am jus DYIN?? And they rush to the hospital to find out!! AHHH the bitch has been pregnant the whole time and her baby said yo I'm fuckin outtie! (I wasn't entirely keen on this concept at first, but this exact thing happened to my sister so I will let it be) Cue the age of madness, in which Sergio and Tomoko try to juggle their jobs, their upcoming wedding, and their newborn.

Things get even madder when Joseph rings to be like, "Heyyy... I do not mean to alarm you but we found Dio's coffin and, uh, he's not in it lol." Sergio is deeply alarmed by this bc Dio was like, the monster under his bed AND in his closet as a kid. He filed the fear away growing up because Dio was dead and couldn't hurt anyone anymore, but now!! Aha! He tries to keep sensible about it, and to his credit, he does for about a year! But then Dio makes his thotty thotty trip to Japan to go crazy go stupid with Giorno's mother and Sergio, a Joestar and big experienced Hamon user, feels his presence deeply. (Dio also senses him [and Holly, Jotaro, and Josuke but he has no idea lol]) All pretense is thrown out the window, Sergio flips his lid because not Only is dio back... but hE'S IN JAPAN AHH.

There's a mild lapse in logic here because it'd be safe to assume that Dio's in Japan to kill all of them? But right now Sergio's just like, he's here to kill ME (and then everyone else. The idea rn is that Dio's coming for him first bc he poses the largest threat, but ahh idk.) Anyhow, Sergio has a mild meltdown about it and postpones the wedding because he doesn't want to run the risk of making Tomoko a widow. Tomoko is not pleased by all of this and is like bro.. you've gotta go to Tibet and get better at fighting with Hamon, I'll go live with my dad in the meantime.

So he goes to Tibet! I need to rework this section a bit, so I won't write too much about it. But! His stand, Golden Prophet, manifests here + he is directed to Abdul by one of Abdul's childhood friends! (This is messy to read, sorry! This is an artifact from before the rework, and I haven't addressed it yet ahh) So he goes to Egpyt, and becomes good buds with Abdul as he learns how to use GP better. The whole time, he's been having the migraine and nightmare of his Life because Dio is also in Egypt! Confident (and perhaps too confident) in his abilities, he sets out to kill the family scourge once and for all. However, he's intercepted by a particularly destructive stand user, Suad, whose stand circumvents his own. He ends up suspended in mid-air by a pole through his lung, which. :( He freaks out for a hot moment bc he Knows there's no way out, and that he won't get to go home and marry Tomoko or help her raise Josuke. In the mania, he has a moment of lucidity and realizes nobody knows Dio's whereabouts except for him... So, he uses Golden Prophet to make one final spirit audio call to his dad, and spills all the beans. With his final breaths, he urges Joseph to seek out Abdul and also make sure Tomoko and their son are well supported.

The stand user, Suad, comes back into consciousness during this phone call and realizes that Sergio is not as horrible as Dio made him out to be, and that he's literally just a Dude. He's just a dad. Wracked with guilt bc she is also just a parent trying to secure a future for her child, Suad defects and seeks Abdul out herself. Abdul is familiar with some of Dio's stand users, but Suad was one of them and knows More. She tells him everything she knows + acts as one of his informants.

This is all set-up for the "All the Crusaders Survive" part of the AU. Joseph is way more cautious going into Egypt because it already claimed his son's life. The Speedwagon Foundation is way more present in Cairo, which is fundamental to Kakyoin's survival. The rest of the AU is very long and basically just follows everyone in the aftermath of the crusade and beyond!

#ahh i'm so sorry this is so long #i can never summarize smh #long post #like..#Really long post #i'm so sorry fellas

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vertebralheights · 4 years

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hi yes hello ivy please if you wouldn't mind expanding on what eros was talking about -- tell us more about this skeletons being revived from dead humans thing? :0

*Cracks Knuckles* My time has come, lads.

For ya’ll sake I’m putting this under a readmore.

SO! First of all, a disclaimer. The original idea of skeletons resurrecting dead bodies was inspired in part by the comic/au Skelechara, which you can read here! It’s really pure. I honestly can’t remember how much of my resurrection lore existed in 2015 when I first conceptualized VH so it’s best to cover my bases, as my memory is terrible and I can;t remeber when I started developing that particular aspect of my lore.

A second disclaimer is that some of this is subject to change. I’m fussing with aspects of it all the time. But as of right now, this is ~how it works~ for my version of skele-lore. I’ll be presenting it as a sort of... Bulleted? List? I guess?

A THIRD disclaimer is that for this to flow out of me, I have to throw down some not-yet-spoken about lore with some of my other skeleton ocs who I don’t PLAY but will feature in a future project, so bare with me. Links will be provided so you can take a poke around

Not all skeletons can resurrect human corpses, or any other corpses for that matter. It’s a unique skill that is pretty rare. There haven’t been enough cases of the ability to do much study on it. The skill itself is often kept hidden, as it is a pretty taboo topic as well as pretty dangerous if you don;t know what you’re doing.

As of right now, I only have FOUR skeletons in my massive skeleton roster (that is ever growing) that are capable of this ability. One is MV Boli, who HAS the ability but has never done it and is not aware that she can do it. The second is Zapfino Dingbat, her father, who has done the most research on the topic, and has had the most practice. The third is a skeleton named Jokerman, who is unique in that he himself is a made skeleton. He has three resurrections under his belt, three children named Mania, Vine and Dokdo, all of whom are VH residents.

The fourth is a skeleton by the name of Escrow who is also unique. He somehow managed to learn how to do resurrections, despite it being a skill that is unteachable. He is currently buried in some DEEP LORE but all you really need to know is that he was a colleague of Zapfino’s.

So, onto some particulars:

If a body is to resurrected, it’s best that it is complete. Missing limbs aren’t ideal, but you can work around it. If a body is too badly damaged, chances are you won’t be able to bring it back without a lot of healing magic. A very skilled skeleton healer can heal the bones of a body, even after it no longer has a soul. (Bo’s mother Lucida was one such healer.) If a human can live without it, a skeleton can too. (But if it’s missing a head, sorry pal but it’s donion rings)

The first step in a resurrection after you’ve made sure the skeleton is okay to be resurected, is removing the flesh. The SAFEST way to do this is to remove the flesh manually or ‘the old fashioned way’ which involves many different cleaning measures. HOWEVER, you can bypass this step is you expell a greater amount of magic when you perform the resurrection. This results in the flesh almost literally exploding off the body. This is gross, and takes WAY more magic than is needed. This is where resurrections can get pretty dangerous. This is the type of resurrection Zapfino Dingbat was doing during the war to make more skeletons to serve in the kinds army. More on that in a moment.

Resurrection itself is a very powerful type of magic that comes directly from the SOUL. It allows the resuscitator's SOUL to split open and release a burst of magic strong enough to manifest itself into en entirely new SOUL. Initially, this soul is quite weak, and needs time to form and grow before they can function on the same level as a regular skeleton. This is, obviously, exhausting for someone performing a resurrection. Over time ,the soul becomes permanently cracked and pitted from being opened and split so many times. Similar to a horcrux from Harry Potter, the user may start to sort of ‘lose themself’ from being spread so thin.

Once a body is revived, they often take on a mental age close to their body, but more often they act slightly younger. (A child of six may act like a toddler, a young adult like a teenager, etc. They will catch up, they have lots of time.) They seem to possess no memories whatsoever, starting essentially as a blank slate. They are capable of moving, speaking, and thinking, and within minutes of being resurrected personalities begin to emerge as their soul rapidly takes a more stable form. Personal, emotional aspects form much faster than physical ones. Magic wont start to manifest for at least a day or two, and from there it;s a matter of training and honing their skills. Some took to it, others did not.

During the war, there wasn’t time to allow for these new beings to form and complete their resurrections, so as a result they were very magically weak and died very easily on the battlefield. The original goal of Zapfino’s project was to up their numbers of strong skeleton warriors, but it became a sort of body factory, adding numbers to die, giving stronger fighters a better chance to survive. It was a cruel cycle. Not the intention, but it ended up being the reality. (This is kind of the basis for mine and Ero’s War Verse)

A first step is usually to give them a name and a brief overview of what the state of the world was. These people were pretty much told it was their purpose to fight (and die) and most of them took to it immediately as it was all they knew. If there was resistance, they would be forced to fight. It was a cruel system. Zapfino ignored how cruel it was for the sake of progress. Someday the war would end and he could do something better but for now, this is what needed to be done.

I need to reiterate that these bodies were initially VERY weak and easily killed. It was only with time that they’d become strong and essentially fully fledged monsters. All of the made skeletons alive now are fully capable of magic and are fully formed. The most recent skeleton that was made was Dokdo, made four years prior to current events.

Before I go on, I will cycle back to WHY Zapfino did this. He discovered his ability to do resurrections during his childhood after being taken in by humans black magic users. He mostly kept this talent under wraps as he grew older, only really digging into the idea of creating life, COMPLETE lives, once the war began. I HC that the war started with a different king, Asgore’s father. I think THIS king was much crueler and more violent and was more willing to do some nasty things to get ahead in the war. When Zapfino made his proposal to swipe human bodies and restore them to fight for the monsters, he IMMEDIATELY set him up with resources to do his dark work. Initially, he DID have good intentions. He wanted to rehabilitate them and give the ma REAL fighting chance but the numbers needed were too great to keep up, so they were made and sent out in rapid fire. He was working incredibly long hours doing impossible work. After the old king was slain, the damage that had been done was devastating. Sure, many lives were GAINED but just as many had been lost. He was ordered to cease. And he did. In public, anyway. After Asgore took over the practice DID continue, mostly in privacy. There were OTHER motives now. Dark, darker and yet darker motives.

During the war, many of these bodies died, but not all of them perished. Some of them even managed to live long enough to become great warriors. Some of them found love, married, had children. After the war there was a certain level of unrest within the skeleton community. They weren’t pleased with what had happened to their race, how they were made into pawns for the war effort. Zapfino become somewhat of an outcast in his community because of this, which isolated his entire family. He was still welcome with other scientists and with some of the made skeletons who were more thankful for their chance at life, but all in all, he was shunned as a cruel man. His involvement with the establishment of Vertebral Heights was seen as a redeeming effort by the public, an attempt to right the wrongs. Some, those that knew him or his wife or children, forgave him. Most didn’t.

During the colonization of the underground, as cities and settlements were built and as the core grew, skeletons as a race grew restless. In some monster communities the made skeletons were treated poorly, because the ‘reeked of human’ and ‘were more human than monster’ which unfortunately caused a lot of problems, which were only amplified my misinformation and propganda from various parties.

Eventually a decision was reached that the skeletons, made and born, would leave. The made ones especially. They were going to venture deeper underground and establish a new city. There was talk of exchanges and partnerships, but once they left, connection ceased entirely. After awhile, anyone who knew a skeleton figured they’d died off. So few remained behind, and if they tried to follow the original group down, they never came back. No one ever came back from Vertebral Heights. A search party was even sent by Asgore, and they never came back either. It was given up on, a great loss for monster kind. Or... So they thought, anyway.

SO TO RECAP ON THE BIOLOGY PART, AND SOME STUFF I FORGOT AND AM TOO LAZY TO GO ADD IN:

Can be resurrected from any corpse, human or animal as long as it it in decent working condition.

Initially the body is very weak, and they have no memories.

Memories do come back to them, often in dreams. But it’s never enough to restore them to who they were.

There is no correlation between who they were as humans and who they are now. Just because they were a violent human, doesn’t mean they will be a violent skeleton. This is especially true if the body has had time to sit without a SOUL for awhile.

Resurrection is a rare skill.

With time they can be just as strong as any regular skeleton monster (which is pretty damn strong)

The initial plan was better than what it turned into.

Resurrection can be very harmful to the monster doing the resurrection (Physically and Mentally)

The common monster probably doesn’t recall that this was ever a thing that happened.

The move to VH was inspired by mostly lies and propaganda against made skeletons.

Made skeletons are capable of having children with born ones.

If there’s anything else you want to know ask me I’m sure I’m missing beats here and there but I am so tired.

#;;Skeleton Biology #;;Lore #;;The Gang (Residents)#;;Doctor Zapfino #Anonymous

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doomonfilm · 5 years

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Thoughts : It (2017)

One of the most fascinating things about fandoms is the completely random nature they have in regards to the properties they choose to champion. I’m almost positive that when Stephen King initially wrote It, he never dreamed there would be not only multiple movies, but an extremely devoted fanbase and a general recognition of the collective fear of clowns held by the general public. Personally, I didn’t catch It-mania the first time around (even as a fan of Tim Curry), so when the recent remake hit the theaters, I felt no sense of urgency to see it. It was seeing the trailers for It Chapter Two, however, that finally piqued my interest and brought me to a viewing of the 2017 remake.

Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher) is home sick, but in a gesture of kindness, he makes a paper boat for his younger brother Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) to play with in the rain. Georgie loses the boat in the gutter, and while peering in, he is scared, taunted and eventually assaulted by Pennywise (Bill Skargard), an ominous and terrifying clown. Bill is scarred by the event, but with the support of The Losers Club, his close knit group of friends, he plans to comb the sewers of Derry, Maine in hopes of uncovering the truth about his brother. The Losers Club, consisting of the brash Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard), mother’s boy Eddie Kaspbrak (Jack Dylan Glazer), and the pragmatic Stanley Uris (Wyatt Oleff), try to console Bill and keep his mind off of things, but Bill is unshaken in his quest for the truth. Meanwhile, tomboy Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis), in an attempt to find friendship amidst a nasty rumor campaign the town has adopted about her, befriends newcomer Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor), a shy bookworm that has taken it upon himself to study the turbulent history of Derry. All the while, Mike Hanlon ( Chosen Jacobs), a young black kid from the outskirts of town, is attempting to adapt to a life under the care of his hardworking grandfather in the wake of a housefire that killed his parents. All six children are tormented by the Bowers Gang, led by Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton), the irrationally violent son of a Derry police officer. As the bond grows between the kids amidst the nightmarish attacks by Pennywise and the Bowers Gang, the newly expanded Losers Club must use all the tools at their disposal to defeat an enemy they do not understand, while nurturing a connection deeper than any they’ve ever known.

I really and truly do not know where to begin with this movie, and it is almost impossible to discuss this film without bringing up (if not making direct comparison to) the 1990 TV miniseries. I can flat out state that the 2017 film is an overall better film, and one that will more than likely escape the curse of looking dated decades down the road, save for astronomical leaps in technology. The most interesting thing about this movie, however, is the fact that it is not really a horror or suspense film, despite it having the shapings of one. No matter the nature of your enemy or villain in a horror film, there has to be a hint of reality in the mix to truly instill fear. Freddy may be over the top, but the damage he inflicts is tangible and visible to observers (we will circle back around to the Freddy thing momentarily). Jason instills fear because he never stops coming, and his attack is brutal when he catches you. Vampires, zombies, werewolves and even Frankenstein’s monster are rooted in historical lore. Pennywise, while being a fascinating villain, fails to land as a true terror due to a two-parted shortcoming : his outlandish nature makes him more of a cartoon character than a true threat, and as the kids state multiple times within the film, none of what he does is ‘real’ unless you fear him. It is intriguing how his power is, on the one hand, limited to perspective, but on the other hand, seemingly limitless due to the number of tricks he displays during the film.

For all the things that It does correctly, there is a series (and a villain) that does it better : Nightmare on Elm Street and the aforementioned Freddy. Rag tag group of high school misfits? Check. Ominous threat, based in the history of the city that it dwells in, that manifest mostly in the minds of its victims, though the repercussions of its actions are very much felt in the real world? Check. Heavy dose of the 1980s? Check. Equal doses of fear, controversy and humor? Check. That is not to say that It is not an entertaining and truly fascinating film, but with the burden of comparison to past versions of itself already on the table, it’s got enough of a mountain to climb to win over both those faithful to the creator of the property and those faithful to the original and iconic depiction of the titular character.

It may sound like I’m coming down rough on this film, but there are many things that it does quite well. For a film that displays the levels of violence that this one does, it does not necessarily glorify it or force you to dwell in it... even a broken arm is taken in as more of a realization than a focus, therefore making it easier to digest. The special effects are monumental, yet their visual integration is subtle and natural. For a film that is mostly carried by child and teenage actors, the acting is surprisingly strong across the board, even when the material is failed by forced exposition or finds itself in the realms of tropes. The sound design enhances the experience of the film, towing the line between building real suspense and reliance on jump scares with a finesse and restraint often not found in films of this nature. For a film where the villain/monster is so heavily present, Pennywise surprisingly does not wear out his welcome, remaining stunning and hard not to enjoy from the moment he pops up in the sewer until the moment he falls into the recesses of the well.

Jaeden Lieberher does a solid job as the sympathetic protagonist, finding a good range in regards to the use of his stutter, how believable he executes it, and the moments it goes away. Sophia Lillis steals the show with a confidence that bursts off the screen, and a killer smile to match. Jeremy Ray Taylor manages to dodge typecasting as the ‘fat kid’ as he proves himself to be one of the more valuable members of the Losers Club, while turning in a strong and endearing performance. Wyatt Oleff is forced to show a restraint not placed upon his costars as the groups’ voice of reason, but he does manage to bring dignity and logic to the crew, as well as a sense of rationale and reason in the midst of the mind-blowing. The joy that Finn Wolfhard is feeling in light of being given the green light to fully cut loose is impossible to ignore. Chosen Jacobs is not given much to work with, but similar to Oleff, he provides a grounding nature to the group. Jackson Robert Scott manages to somehow be one of the tougher members of the group while also leaning into his role as momma’s boy. Bill Skargard fully commits to making Pennywise as creepy, off-putting and uncanny valley reminding as he can. Nicholas Hamilton proves to be a serious threat, even as the secondary antagonist. Performances by Stephen Bogaert, Jake Sim, Owen Teague, Logan Thompson, Pip Dwyer and Stuart Hughes also stand out.

As popular as this film was, and as large a fanbase as it was able to garner, I imagine this will find life as a cult classic down the road. I’ve heard mixed reviews for It Chapter Two, and while I did enjoy my viewing of It, I don’t think I’ll rush to the theater for the follow-up. I will, however, be purchasing the two pack on Vudu when it drops, because I am certain I will revisit this film over the years.

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empyrevl-blog · 5 years

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as has been said before.

parker is king of the playground. he never meant to play the game with the other children in tow, praising him each time he climbed to the top of the structure, but he still ended up as royalty among them. not many challenge him. when recess calls and the daycare teachers ask them to line up, parker’s always first. even if he’s not the first one at the door, he’s always first.

there’s someone who’s always last of the line. villains go to the last of the line. the sticky gum stuck underneath of the playground. that’s what juyoung is.

she admires parker’s ability to be king. she wants to be king, too !! she wants to be …

ii.

❝ you can do a lot of dangerous and evil things with that quirk, you know. ❞

she knows that.

❝ that’s scary !! that’s why you got fangs, right ?? to suck the blood out of your victims, right ?? because you’re a scary monster who steals people’s faces !! ❞

stop saying things like that !!

❝ everything about you screams villain. just accept it. you’re a villain, juyoung. there’s nothing you can do to change anyone’s mind. ❞

who are you to say that ?!

❝ it’s the nature of your quirk. that’s what scares people. maybe just pretend you’re quirkless. it’s not much of an improvement, but at least, people will stop calling you a villain. ❞

how can you say that ??

please, she wants to be …

iii.

❝ shut your trap before i shut it for ya !! ❞ juyoung screams out, fists balled and ready to pounce. “ you come at me and i’ll beat ya to a pulp !! “

❝ ha ?! why are you trying to put on a brave face, you evil brat ?? your knees are shaking. everyone says you’re a villain. i don’t think so. you’re just a henchman. an igor to an evil genius, ❞ he cackles. the others laugh in agreement or ... is it compliance ?? her bottom lip puckers out but still, she stands her ground.

❝ come at me then if you’re so sure !! ❞ she yells.

they don’t hesitate. juyoung gulps. still, she rushes out in a frenzy. she throws her fists anywhere, so long as they hit something, she doesn’t care where they fly. she lashes out and bites anything that comes near her mouth. she kicks like a madman. she pulls hair and shirts and pants. she’s brawling, not fighting. she hears a voice outside of the mania that she instigated.

it’s the king.

it doesn’t stop the fighting. if anything, it gets wilder because now, explosions are going off. whose side is he on ?? is he defending her ?? is he against her ?? she doesn’t know. she can’t find out. if she stops brawling, she loses the advantage of her unpredictability. she’s gotta keep clawing and biting !!

she’s on the ground, still kicking and still pulling. they’re mostly on the ground. it’s chaos and no one knows who’s hurting who. someone’s leg reaches juyoung’s face as an instinctive reaction. they hadn’t meant to kick her. still, her jaw locks onto the calf.

she hesitates. if she does this, she’s giving into her quirk. she’s giving into the very nature that makes her so villainous. stealing blood to mimic people’s faces and copy their quirks ?? she’s got to if she plans on getting the upper hand !! at that moment, she bites down, her fangs piercing the skin. the liquid tastes like copper. it’s thick and coats her entire mouth. she swallows, hating the feeling of ingesting it.

the boy screams. it’s carnal, like someone biting a tiger’s tail. the aftermath is even more malicious chaos. her own hair gets pulled, she gets bitten. her ribs hurt because of how badly someone kicked her. still, the other kids have a black eye and a busted lip. she knows those are because of her. she has a bad goose egg at the corner of her forehead.

as she scrambles to her feet, holding on to her ribs, she rubs her nose with her thumb and grins. the others crawl away, their looks of fear a prize to her. ❝ yeah, you better run !! ❞

❝ tch, what useless extras, ❞ the king says. he glares at her, shoves his hands back into his pockets, and walks the other direction from the boys.

the king … saved the villain ?? she gasps audibly, her eyes sparkling.

she wants to be … !!

iv.

❝ leave me alone, you damn idiot !! can’t you fucking tell when you’re not wanted ?! ❞ parker yells. the use of swears feels weird on her ears, but she’s not deterred. he’s a big shot, a king, he’s allowed to use adult language !!

❝ i told you, i’m your servant now !! you saved me !! i owe you a debt !! ❞ juyoung chirps.

❝ you want to pay me back for helping you out ?? ❞ he asks. he raises an eyebrow, challenging her.

juyoung nods excitedly. ❝ yup !! ❞

❝ ... don’t mention it. ❞

❝ huh ?? ❞

❝ EVER. ❞

his eyes are steely. they’re scary, especially with the way the red seemed to turn into hellish flames. it feels like all the winds been knocked out of her as he continues on walking. she can’t move. she can’t help the tears that start to sting her eyes. she wipes them away.

she was about to turn away, walk back to the bridge to mope underneath it. no one wants her around, even after they think she’s worthy enough to save.

❝ hey, brat. ❞

juyoung looks up. she sees parker, turned to her. with a resigned sigh, he jerks his head forward, commanding her to follow him. she perks up and without hesitation, runs to keep up with him.

she just wants to be … !!

❝ it doesn’t matter. ❞

❝ huh ?? ❞

❝ as long as you come out on top, as long as you win, it doesn’t matter. “ parker says with his hands on his hips. “ you’re listening to other people when you should be listening to yourself. what do you want to be ?? ❞

❝ i want to be … a hero !! “ she squeaks out. ❝ i just want to be a hero !! i want to be a king, too !! ❞

❝ then you’re not going to get anywhere if you’re going to pretend you’re a fucking quirkless rock, you dumbass. use your quirk !! your body’s not going to be adjusted to the power like the original user, but you can still use their quirk, right ?? become a versatile jack !! you’ve got unmapped potential with a quirk like that !! who cares if it’s villainous ?? who cares if it’s scary ?? none of that matters !! ❞

❝ i … don’t have anyone to transform into. i don’t know their quirks or anything like that — ❞ she starts before blinking. ❝ wait !! i got someone’s blood during the fight !! i can transform into them and learn how to use their quirk !! like quirk training but for dozens of quirks, right ?? ❞

❝ exactly. whose blood — ❞

parker stares at equally as red eyes. his glare suddenly grows. juyoung, transformed as parker, squeaks and shrinks in on herself. ❝ i didn’t know it was you i bit — i’m sorry !! i was desperate !! i wasn’t thinking !! i just wanted an upper hand !! ❞ her usual cries were strange in parker’s voice.

parker scoffs. ❝ well, that’s fucking that then. i’m going to come out on top, brat. i’m going to win indisputably. i was going to help you so that i’d at least have a challenge on the way up but since you’ve got my blood, i’ve already given you more than i bargained for. i’ll see you later, fucking rude ass brat. ❞

❝ w-wait, parker !! ❞ juyoung cries, her voice turning to her own as she transforms back to herself. ❝ wait !! please, i still need your help !! ❞

he’s not listening. he walks away from the empty lot where they were going to train. where they were going to be friends. she wants to be a hero, she does !! she wants to be a beacon of hope, instead of a scary omen !!

but mostly … she just wants to be able to have a friend.

vi.

juyoung’s panting. she’s expended a lot of her energy.

the king has stamina like no other, that’s for sure.

❝ you dumb fucking brat !! ❞ parker yells, ❝ you think you can wear me out with my own power ?? you must have gotten dumber since our elementary days !! ❞

she smirks. juyoung runs forward.��❝ face it, i’m more agile than you !! you’re a slow, useless tank compared to my abilities !! ❞

❝ shut up, you fuckface !! ❞ parker holds his hands up, ready to send a barrage of explosive attacks. she dodges to the left and he takes it as his chance. he makes a big explosion, knowing she’d try to cancel it out with one of her own.

suddenly, an ice wall climbs upwards, the sound of it manifesting metallic and melodic. the explosions do nothing against it. parker grits his teeth. it’s what he told her all those years ago. become a versatile jack.

when the smoke clears, ❛ ricky ❜ stands triumphant, all grins with her hands on her hips. she steps back with her left foot, and with one swoop of her arm, she manifests a slew of ice aiming for parker. he keeps jumping backward so he doesn’t get stuck in the ice. he barely has time to think of a counterattack. he lunges despite no plan. once there’s an opening, he’s sure he can make a chance decision—

❝ time’s up !! your timeslot for use of the gym is over, please pack your things !! you guys are always working so hard, especially after school hours. it’s so admirable !! ❞ miss yong chimes as she opens the door. parker stumbles back onto the floor, almost falling over. juyoung laughs, having transformed back into herself.

❝ this doesn’t mean you win, you fucking brat !! ❞

❝ oh my, the king is a sore loser !! how sad !! ❞ she cackles, grabbing her gym bag and taking a drink out of her water bottle.

despite them not being friends, parker and juyoung have become formidable rivals. she hopes that one day, parker will learn that not everyone is an obstacle he has to overcome. he hopes that one day she stops being annoying. for now, it seems that neither of them gets what they want.

that’s just fine as she’s grown. juyoung knows what she wants to be now.

she wants to be a hero, no matter how lonely her journey there may become.

#〖 *:･｡✦╱ FILES 〗#〖 *:･｡✦╱ FILES: SHIN JUYOUNG 〗#〖 *:･｡✦╱ FILES: SEO PARKER 〗#blood tw #i needed to find a way that juyoung would get parker's blood and i made it. . .. a lil sad #she probably just asked ricky real nicely #and he was just *?? ?!?!?? OKAY ? ?? ?*

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