#the leaven of Halloween

[mondoreb]

End Times Prophecy Headlines: October 12, 2023

HEMI-DEMI-SEMI ISSUE End Times Prophecy Report HEADLINES THURSDAY March 18, 2021 –COLUMBUS DAY (U.S.) And OPINION “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.” —Matthew 24:4 “The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison.” —Fyodor Dostoevsky ===INTERNATIONAL UKRAINE: We Need to Reframe the Debate Over Ukraine RUSSIA:…

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#evalluating the true worth of a politician&039;s word #Hillary Clinton&039;s history #the joy of printing money #the leaven of Halloween #voice of delusion #young women and mental illness

[literaticat]

How scary can I make a picture book? Do you have any favorites that lean more to the scary side?

Kinda scary! But hopefully not terrifying, and also it should be leavened with some humor and/or a twist that leaves the little reader with a sense of relief at the end, rather than a feeling of like, UNRELENTING DREAD or EXISTENTIAL HORROR.

There are approximately 90 bajillion scary picture books at various levels of scare, so if I were you, I'd just read a whole bunch and figure out what YOU like and think works.

I emailed my friend Noah, age 4, who is OBSESSED with scary books, and his mom replied with a list of his current favs:

Modern Picture Books: I Want To Be in A Scary Story by Sean Taylor

The Wolf's Secret by Myriam Dahman scratches the itch for longer attention spans (this is a UK title)

Zombie in Love by Kelly DiPucchio 

There's a Ghost in this House by Oliver Jeffers

The Rock From the Sky by Jon Klassen

(Not to mention the crop of Halloween books that gets trotted out every Fall about every kind of witch and ghost and goblin that might be dreamed of!)

Classic Picture Books:

The Amazing Bone by William Steig

Hansel & Gretel by James Marshall

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams

Bony-Legs by Joanna Cole (out of print, but truly excellent, worth ordering a used copy of IMO!)

(I also might add TAILYPO -- yikes -- and THERE'S A NIGHTMARE IN MY CLOSET -- and there are many, many more!)

Early Readers In A Dark Dark Room and Ghosts! both by Alvin Schwartz

The Skull by Jon Klassen

Once Upon a Zombie by Debora Underwood

[tohrinha]

ignore me, just making excommunication party menu ideas

devil's food cake

deviled eggs

devils on horseback

chicken fra diavolo

deviled <food> - heavily spiced

pumpernickel (the 'devil's fart')

clearance Halloween decor

rainbows

wine, grapes, and wheat are banned. leavening heavily encouraged

#suggestions welcome

[discoveringthebible]

A Deeper, Biblical Meaning of Thanksgiving

In America, we are getting ready to start Thanksgiving Week. It commemorates the first meal our colonists had with the natives roughly 400 years ago. However, Thanksgiving has become a stressful time for many. It is just weeks after Halloween, and just weeks before Christmas, and this time of year can be hard on people who do not have close family or friends to celebrate with. 

Growing up Christian, Thanksgiving wasn’t associated as a Christian holiday, as its roots are not based upon religion, but of a time of necessity for people who came to a new land, looking to survive. 

I want to propose that Thanksgiving can and should be a religious holiday, especially that for Christians, or anyone who worships God. Next week starts Advent, the season that prepares all of us for the coming birth of Jesus Christ--the day we celebrate that the Savior was born in a stinky, smelly barn, most likely carved out of rock in the mountainside. Easter celebrates the day when Christ was raised from the Dead. These two holidays bring about Thanksgiving in the hearts of us today, but when we read the Bible, we see that Thanksgiving wasn’t just a season or a specific time of the year, but that God’s people were always, or should have always had thankful hearts, and I believe we should too. 

King David came from humble beginnings and because of God’s blessings, David became King. But David’s life wasn’t glamorous or perfect, or sinless. In fact, there were a lot of things in his life that could have turned off David’s heart to being thankful, but instead, even in the middle of running from his life, or when his mistresses’ baby died, David still found reasons to celebrate and be thankful that God was on his side. David wrote many of the Psalms we find in the Old Testament. In the ones that are attributed to King David, many of them recite David’s Thankfulness for God and for God’s provisions, even when some of them were consequences of David’s sinful choices. 

Psalm 51 is David’s Prayer of Thanksgiving, even after the sins he committed because of his lust for Bathsheba. 

In Psalm 119, we read, “I praise You seven times a day, because Your Law is right” (119:164, NLV). In Hebrew, ‘Mishpatim’ is the word we see as “law.” However, there were and still are two different types of laws that the Israelites and Hebrews obeyed from God. The Mishpatim were the laws God set in place that God explained why that law was created. These laws “made sense” to the Hebrews to follow. However, there was a second type of law that was made that King David apparently didn’t refer to: the Chuckim laws. These laws were God-Given as well, but their explanations were not given as to why the people were commanded to follow them. Regardless of which laws David was referring to, what I would like to point out is the fact that David was committed to thanking God for His laws seven times a day.  

If David praised God 7 times a day because of the laws, how many more times a day was David praising and thanking God for other things? How many times a day do you praise and thank God? I certainly can testify that I do not praise God enough. I don’t count it, but I know it is not enough for all the wonderful things that God has done for me. 

The book of Leviticus, which records many of the offerings that were required of the Hebrew people based upon the sins in which they had committed also lists a Thanksgiving Offering, listed under the Peace Offerings in Leviticus 7. The Thanksgiving Offering was the same type of animal sacrifice as the Guilt offering, but also included leavened and unleavened bread. 

In the New Testament, we are called to Praise and Thank God, most by Paul. Paul, like David was in a habit of praising, worshiping and thanking God for everything in their lives--the good, the bad and the ugly. And they called us to do the same: Ephesians 5:20 says, “And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be Thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:1: “I (Paul), urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.” 

The Bible calls us to live thankful lives. I am urging us Christians, especially American Christians, to live thankful lives, not just for this time of year, or because of everything that God has blessed us with, but thank God for everything that is going on in our lives, especially for the things that we don’t find good. Because God is still in and through everything we have going on. 

Peace and Blessings

Cody Marie

#christianity #the bible #thanksgiving #old testament #new testament #king david #paul the apostle

[viewer-of-many]

Got some new botbots ocs and I need some names

A chunk of bloby dough (not baked or fried) that's... Head empty...

A decorative skeleton head that acts like papyrus the skeleton from Undertale

A geode that looks like a geisha, she's willing to help anyone release stress

A lava lamp that's aggressive, but still a softy, willing to hangout with anyone...

A shuttlecock that pretends to be brave but actually a chicken

A light pink smartwatch, that sometimes like to pull pranks

And a deviled egg, not sure who summoned him...

Leavenglu(leavening and gluten)

Resquro(a font that's good for a Halloween vibe)

Oshirmal(oshiroi, the makeup geishas use, and hydrothermal, which could be involved in the formation of both igneous and sedimentary geodes)

Pālit(the type of lava that lava lamps look like is called pāhoehoe)

Birvado(Shuttlecocks can also be called birdies, and bravado means fake bravery)

Hahawei(Huawei is a brand of smartwatch)

Földi Övörg(Földi Ördög, a type of demon that can come from an egg[specifically, one of the three types of Lidérc], and ovo, which relates to eggs)

[puzzlenation]

The Best Puzzle Solvers in Horror Movies

In today's blog post, we look at some of the most clever puzzlers in horror movie history!

[Image courtesy of Hayden Scott.]

Seven Halloweens have come and gone since I started writing for PuzzleNation Blog, and with an eighth one only a few days away, I’m writing a post about horror movies for the very first time.

Why did I wait so long, given the appropriate seasonal subject and the fact that I’m a huge horror movie buff?

Honestly, it’s mostly a matter of tone.

Horror movies by…

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#10 cloverfield lane #a nightmare on elm street #Bones #bret #cenobite #clarice starling #cloverfield #crossword mysteries #cube #diana #elm street #erin #Escape room #Halloween #hannibal lecter #hellraiser #horror #horror film #horror movie #joan leaven #kirsty cotton #lament configuration #leaven #Lights Out #michelle #nancy thompson #NCIS #ncis new orleans #new orleans #puzzle box

[vampire-girlfriend-please]

Tw: body shaming, SH, abusive friend, tic mention.

This isn’t even all of it.

I know barely anyone will see this and if they do they’ll scroll past it but I really need this off my chest.

I had a abusive manipulating ‘friend’ who I can’t seem to shake away. I’ll start from the beginning.

When we were in the fourth grade we became friends I don’t remember how but we were friend no the less.Being the twitchy kid no one really liked, saying I was excited was a understatement. She talked a lot but being I had no other friends I listened. We did everything together. Everything was…fine.

The sixth grade was werid. The teacher favored her and she had some family stuff going on. I still listened and stayed by her side. I had other friends and even when we were that young she would talk bad about them. I was her best friend and I wasn’t leavening. She started talking about her father more. Her father lived stares away and wasn’t allowed in the state we lived in. I felt bad for her so I tried to cheer her up and defend her when the other kids inevitably went after her.

The seventh grade was the first time I left. It was shortly after Halloween and she had found herself a boyfriend. She would poke at my stomach and make me feel gross for eating. She would point out my quirks and trigger my tics. So I stopped talking to her. I found new friends and I met a guy I really liked and still do. I never asked him out because I was still afraid of what she thought of me. I started talking to her towards the end of the school year she had a new boyfriend and he was older. She bragged about the things they would do and make fun of me for being a virgin.

The eighth grade it got really bad I started using unhealthy coping mechanisms and tensions between her and her boyfriend were rising. There was another boyfriend sometime this year and they were messy. I think it was January when her older boyfriend decided to let go of his life. She didn’t cry in fact she laughed. The briefing ex-girlfriend with a bitchy attitude. I offers to drive her to the funeral, she declined and didn’t go.

The pandemic happened later the same year.

Freshman year. Was werid and exciteing. It was a whole new world for me. During the pandemic I came out to myself and even got into spirituality. The summertime was even better. I hung out with real friends that didn’t judge me and I felt loved. Life was better then. I look back on those memories everyday to remind myself what I fight for. I still had my quirks that couldn’t be ironed out. But no one judged me. Then school started. I was fine for the first few months but she was in every class I had. Against my better judgement we became friends again and I broke again. She was like a relentless storm that took hold of me. Me and her new boyfriend often talked and had good banter. Soon enough she broke him. This was when I first recognized the pattern. She would meet a person and slowly break them down. It’s like she was draining the life from the people around her. My and her boyfriend stopped talking once they broke up. We briefly exchange conversation now and again but when I look in his eyes I see a man who was deeply abused by this monster disguised as a girl. My heart reaches out to him I had watched the whole thing and done nothing. I even threw him under the bus to protect her. The leash was tight but wearing

Sophomore year (now) is better I’m at a different school with different friends but her influence still looms over me. She broke me it’s silly to say but as I look back I realize that it was her. She gave me my Issues with food. She jump started my bad habits. She made me feel stupid and small. I don’t hesitate to call her my abuser. She’s the reason I don’t let people in. She was “ captain” of my colorguard team. She wasent chosen as captain she just had the most experiaance (by a month) so the terrible coach we had named her captain. She mocked my tics and accused me of faking. She later told me she had tics. She got into spirituality and would often judge me on MY practice. I didn’t let her get to me but her words slipped through the cracks and I broke again. This time I went off on her and she played the victim. I broke again and again as she kicked me as I was down. Marching band is over now. I don’t have to see her. A part of me wants to do musical this year and be better than her the other part of me wanted to have a moderated conversation. The largest part of me wants to erase her from my mind. I don’t know if I can keep putting myself back together over and over again but I’m going to try if not for me than for those who love me.

Sorry for the rant I just really need to say this.

#frindship #tw vent #tw tic mention #neurodivergent #neurodivergency #tw #tw sh relapse #tw self destructive behavior #tw sewerslide

[m0nstrousneeds-a]

@narcoleptixs​   said  :    “ 𝚢𝚘𝚞   𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢   𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎   𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎   𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢   𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚗   ?”

𝚋𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚑  𝚒𝚜  𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚝  𝚊𝚜  𝚒𝚝  𝚏𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍𝚜  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚜  𝚘𝚏  𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚞𝚋𝚒𝚌  𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚎𝚔𝚜  and  honeyed  hues  are  cast  downward.  she  bites  down  on  her  smile  before  looking  back  up  to  him.          “i  know  it’s  the  most  cliché  ---  goth  girl  goes  to  the  cemetery  for  halloween.  𝑜𝑜ℎ,  𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑦,  𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑦  𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠.  but  i  swear  it’s  more  than  that.”            the  crunching  of  fallen  leaven  beneath  their  feet  is  the  only  sound  to  be  heard  now,  𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑒  𝑓𝑜𝑟  𝑡ℎ𝑒  𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟  𝑜𝑓  𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑  𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡  𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑠  𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ  𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑚𝑦  𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡  𝑎𝑖𝑟.  her  palms  stretch  over  the  straps  of  her  backpack  that  rests  heavy  along  her  shoulders.  up  ahead,  a  small  clearing  of  patchy  grass  that  she  aims  for  in  her  steps.        “have  you  ever  heard  of  dia  de  los  muertos?  the  day  of  the  dead?”          fishnet  clad  knees  press  into  the  grass  when  she  kneels  in  it,  𝑡𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔  𝑡ℎ𝑒  𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑘  𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚  ℎ𝑒𝑟  𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠  𝑎𝑛𝑑  𝑠𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔  𝑖𝑡  𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛  𝑖𝑛  𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑡  𝑜𝑓  ℎ𝑒𝑟.  she  speaks  to  him  softly  as  hands  work  at  drawstrings  and  buckles.            “dia  de  los  muertos  is  a  celebration  of  the  people  that  have  passed  on.  in  mexico,  it’s  a  day  of  tradition  and  family.  it’s  the  day  after  halloween,  which  is  why  we’re  here  at  11:55  --  just  in  time.”          she  gives  him  a  smile,            “it’s  tradition  to  leave  marigolds  on  the  headstones  of  those  you’ve  lost.  𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑟𝑒  𝑎  𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛  𝑜𝑓  𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒’𝑠  𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦  𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒  𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦  ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒  𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ  𝑎  𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡  𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑚.  but,  it’s  impossible  to  find  them  here,  so  i  got  yellow  roses  instead.  it’s  probably  stupid  but  ---  i  like  to  leave  one  on  every  grave  in  the  cemetery.  i  don’t  know  anyone  buried  here,  but..  i’d  want  someone  to  do  that  for  me,  even  if  nobody  ever  came  to  visit  but  that  one  time  of  year.”            she  laughs  at  herself,  𝑎𝑡  ℎ𝑜𝑤  𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑦  𝑠ℎ𝑒  𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡  𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑,  𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔  ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒  𝑟𝑒𝑑-𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑘𝑒𝑑,  𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔  𝑜𝑓  𝑜𝑙𝑑  𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠  𝑎𝑛𝑑  𝑛𝑒𝑤..  her  backpack  lifts  and  she  gently  dumps  it’s  contents  along  the  grass  ;  a  waterfall  of  long  stemmed  yellow  roses.            “anyway,  i  thought  maybe  you’d,  uhm,  𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍  𝚒𝚝..  𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐.”

#narcoleptixs #/ just helena things ~~ lmao

[miraculous-rewrite]

Miraculous Rewrite- Fear Factor

And at long last! the Halloween Episode! if Zag was unable to deliver it, it’s our turn! It’s also the first episode made entirely by The two of us without any basis in canon

We open to a scene of an unfamiliar apartment, the lights all out, and the glow of a television, very muted, clearly a dark scene on the screen. We slowly enter the living room, flipping around to the back of a couch, a bundle of blankets, and the back of a somewhat familiar head in the center of the bundle, smaller heads on either side of this familiar head. The camera pans up to the TV screen, just in time for a jumpscare, and two childish shrieks of fear. 

Now we get to see the couch head-on, and surprisingly, it’s Kim and two younger siblings sitting on either side of him. The kids were the ones that screamed, though Kim’s biting down on his hand to prevent himself from screaming and making the kids more scared. On the floor is one more kid, this one with wide eyes, clearly terrified, but this kid’s attention isn’t on the TV, but on her phone, held tightly with shaking hands. There’s a jumpscare video that just reached the end of the video on her phone, one of those cliche “watch the video and pay attention to this part of the screen” sorts. The kid taps out of the video, and then backspaces out of that message chain to see the rest of the active chats she’s in.

She has five more new messages to read from sep. contacts, all of them video links. Most of which being mislead like ‘cat on a trampoline’ and ‘parakeet working with dog to steal treats’ some with misleading intro comments like ‘don’t get too scared! Use this to calm down :)’ and other such cruel things. Kim leans forward, chin on her shoulder to ask what’s up, and she jumps a mile, looking over, clearly startled, at her brother.  She mutters that its nothing, and moreso, that this stupid Movie isn’t even that scary! It’s just a bunch of… dumb blood and guts stuff! In a surprising moment of Observation Kim asks if she’s sure, and you know.. It’s okay to be scared. The rest of them are shrieking up a storm!

“Of course I’m fine! Those two are only scared because they’re babies! And you’re only scared because you’re a dummy! I’m the smart person here!”

Kim of course takes this mostly as a joke and ruffles her hair. “Yeah okay Tam. But if Xuan and Vihn are babies, that must make you a toddler! I’m the only one here over thirteen, therefore I'm the only big kid in the room!”

Tam scrunches up her expression and turns pointedly back to her phone. Clicking the next link, right after sending a message along the lines of ‘was that supposed to be scary?’ to the group she was in. Posturing herself unafraid.  

Kim gives her one last look of concern, before the two younger siblings tackle him from either side, sending him flipping over the back of the couch comically, the tense atmosphere leavened with laughter. The only daughter in this sibling group looks at the antics with a sigh, before getting up and heading for her bedroom.

Tam grumbles to herself and flops onto her bed. Startling as another spooky video plays; this one just a disturbing images narrative ends with jumpscare where the monster of the abandoned house eats the homeless man who came along for shelter.  She closes her eyes and takes a breath before sending ‘spoopy ooOOoooOOooooOOOO’ to the group so she seems unaffected. 

 We come next to The Grand Paris, specifically one of the party rooms within the hotel. Chloe is quickly spotted going through a checklist, Jean trailing behind her. 

“The decor is looking lovely, worn down and creepy, lovely ambiance.”

“Thank you.”

“Are all the snacks lined up?”

“Of course.”

“Music?”

“M. Lahiffe has volunteered his services for parts of the night, provided he can ensure a babysitter for his younger brother.”

“We’ve got an automatic playlist just in case?”

“What do we look like? Amateurs?” Jean grinned slightly down at Chloe, to which she returns.

“Okay, last but certainly not least, Guest List?”

“Your classmates have all RSVP'd excepting Miss  Kubdel, Miss Boureal, and Prince Ali.”

“Though that was to be expected, I just invited him so he wouldn’t think we were treating him differently.”

“Miss Rossi has put herself down as a ‘maybe’”

“I’m sure she did… Probably gonna… come in way past ‘fashionably’ late and try to steal the spotlight.”

“Sad for her that there’s no spotlight planned.”

“I know enough about America to know Halloween isn’t about spotlights!” Chloe agrees. 

But before she can continue who else darts out from the shadows of a creepy pillair, but Amber. A Ghoulish mask over her face.

“It’s about Scaring each other!” Amber continues before there’s a brief pause. “....That didn’t work did it?”

“I’ve faced scarier, You weren’t around for Horrificator or Mirrormaker, it’s fine.” Amber crosses her arms and pouts a bit, but chuckles when Chloe takes off her mask and turns it over in her hands. “Did they do big parties in America or was it more of a close with the family type thing, like All Souls Day?”

“Some people do parties, Mom did at least. Most kids I knew growing up went Trick Or Treating…” At Chloe’s pensive look Amber continues. “It’s uh.. Kids will dress up and go door to door, asking for candy, and they have to say ‘Trick Or Treat!’ I never got to go, but I heard it was fun.”

“Huh… We should do that next year, rig up the hotel and let kids do it.”

“That would be fun!” 

But before we linger for too long on that we cut to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. And of course, many thematic pastries lining the shelves. Spider Macarons, Skull cupcakes, Sesame balls with Jack O lantern faces on them, the works. Most of them are halfway if not entirely empty, and Sabine and Tom are having a ball. Marinette is seen in the kitchen with them, carefully frosting little spiderwebs on a batch of sugar cookies, when a familiar voice calls into the bakery. 

“Luka!” Marinette, sometimes PAINFULLY her age, immediately puts down her frosting bag and darts into the front of the store. Her excitement dies, and is replaced with a shriek of horror, and when Tom and Sabina Turn to see what happened it becomes obvious.

Luka seems to be bleeding from some sort of horrible head wound near the edge of his hairline, his face ghostly pale, and eyes rolling back into his head.

The horror only lasts a few more moments, before Luka snickers, and wipes his face off with his forearm, revealing the white face paint and fake blood for what they were.

Tom laughs, Sabine chuckles behind her hand, and Marinette makes a loud noise of anger. 

“Got you~”

Marinette nearly vaults the display cases, barely able to constrain herself to instead actually use the counter doors to Smack him on the shoulder angrily.

“Don’t!” Smack “Scare!” Smack “Me!” Smack “Like!” Smack “That!” she could pack far more of a punch than what she’s actually expressing, but she doesn’t want to actually hurt him.  Just show her annoyance. “It’s Halloween! For all I knew some horror themed Akuma got to you!”

Luka chuckles and finally fidgets with the ‘wound’ near his hairline, peeling off the polyester gash. “I’ve been told there was a party tonight for half of the Lycee?”

“Yeah, Chloe’s hosting.”

“Huh, we should have gotten an Heiress earlier. Costumes or nah?”

“You’re plenty scary as is.” Cue Luka gasping in mock offense. 

“Well now I simply must come!”

“Good because I do have an outfit I need a model for. How do you feel about Frankenstein?”

Before we can see what this costume looks like, we pan away to the Cesaire residence, and two pint-sized menaces running around with parts of a costume, and Alya chasing after them. 

“Give it back!” “No!” “I need that for tonight!” “It belongs to the Sapotis now!” 

“Ella! Etta! You little punks!” Before the two can make their way out the door, they run into a brick wall. Said wall also going by the name of Nora. 

“Woah, Hold up munchkins!” She grabs both of them by the backs of their shirts and lifts them into the air. “Is that your sister’s Halloween costume?”

“........Yeeeaaahhh”

“Did you take them before she could change?”

“....uh huh.”

“Hm… Then The great Goddess of Magic casts a spell on the two of you!” She shakes the twins around, they giggle as she lifts them higher and higher. “So Says the Goddess Hecate! These two children shall Return their stolen costume back to their sister and go to the couch to watch Scary Godmother with me!” 

Ella and Etta giggle as the ‘magic’ takes root, and hand Alya back the component parts of her costume, before pretending to be zombies and shuffle their way over to the couch. 

“Honestly sometimes I feel like they’d listen to me if I made more Lady Wifi jokes around here…”

“Are you and Turntables matching costumes tonight?” 

“Mmmhm.”

“And you’re that one Addams lady?”

“Morticia.”

“Right...I could probably wrangle Ella and Etta into the kids if you were okay with-”

“I’m going to a party, I’m not babysitting too!”

Nora laughs “Fine! Fine!”

As Alya returns to her room to change we cut to the Agreste Manor. 

Adrien is carefully doing a skull makeup in the mirror. Plagg and Fidde happily chomping down on either of their treats. Plagg savoring a slice of Camembert, and Fidde happily munching on a fun size chocolate bar. 

“I’d say you look rather frightening Adrien!” Fidde chirps as Adrien pops in a pair of spoopy white contact lenses. 

“He looks like he got hit with his own Cataclysm.”

“Oh hush Plagg! Let him have his fun! It's Samhain!”

“Samhain?” Adrien asks.

Fidde blinks for a moment “Do you not call it Samhain anymore? The last day of autumn, the pagan festival to welcome in the snow? The reverse of Beltane in the spring? All Hallows Eve?”

“It’s just Halloween now you mongrel.” Plagg grumbles. “You’re out of touch.”

“Plagg, didn’t you say it’s been half a century since you were last out in the field?” 

“Yeah well it’s been centuries plural since this mutt was out and about.”

From behind, Fidde pounces on the Cat Kwami, and the two end up scuffling on the ground as Adrien rolls his eyes. 

“Okay guys, You might wanna find your places to hide in the skeleton suit, because Kagami’s gonna be over any minute now.”

Finally, we cut to Nino, as he arrives at the lobby of the hotel. He’s carrying some of his DJ supplies, but not everything. The Turtle wielder is also already dressed up, too, lacking his hat for the first time in, really, ever, sporting a black pinstripe blazer, black pants, and a little Gomez Addams mustache drawn onto his lip. Running a hand over his hair, he makes his way to the elevator, pressing the button for the floor in question. 

He hits the party room just at the right time, the final electronics for the sound mixers going into place. He greets Amber (in a half assembled Devil costume) Asks Chloe where She wants him set up (In a half assembled Angel costume) and is placed a little off to the side, atop a pile of gloomy looking gravestones. He slides his headphones on and quickly starts his own sound check. 

And of course the first to arrive are the rest of the Team Miraculous, Luka in a ‘Punk Frankenstein’ Costume, partnered against Marinette with a ‘Werewolf Little Red Riding Hood’ look. Adrien in his Dapper Skeleton outfit, next to Kagami’s surprisingly simple look, a cough mask on her face, juxtaposed with a bloodstained cardigan and skirt. She has a pair of plastic yet very shiny looking scissors poking from her pocket. Kuchisake Onna for those who know their urban legends.

And last but certainly not least, the Morticia to Nino’s Gomez. Amber and Chloe excuse themselves to finish putting together their costumes, but soon enough the next to join the party, Kim in the gaudiest vampire costume you’ve ever seen, bursts in. And it’s time to play the music. Time to light the lights, time to do the monster mash, at the halloween party tonight.

It’s gotten dark, and when we check up on Tam, she’s wrapped up in her blankets on her bed, it’s not bedtime yet, and she’s still trying in vain to prove her bravery to her “friends.” 

“It’s not scary, It’s just a monster! We face Akumas in this town, we’ve seen meaner things!” 

Her phone beeps at her side, and she jolts, biting back a pre-emptive whimper, reaching over for her phone, before curling up under her blanket. And it’s because she’s curled up tightly under her blanket, that she doesn’t see the butterfly that sneaks into her room, a butterfly that lands on her blanket. 

“Fear Factor, I believe you. You’re not afraid of anything, You’ve never been afraid of anything. It’s really such a shame how easily frightened people can be over such silly things. Wouldn’t it be far easier if they were all like you? I can give you the power to take away people’s fears, if you so choose. All I ask in retur-”

“You want Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous’, yeah yeah, we all know what you want. I’ll get them for you.”

A woman can be heard chuckling in the background. 

But we cut back to the party quickly. Showing various shenanigans as the music blares. Alya has climbed up the gravestone platform and is currently play-flirting with Nino (to make their act look more realistic!) Amber is chatting with Sabrina (wearing a witch costume) who looks maybe a hair uncomfortable and is happily staying in the corner. Chloe doing the hostess thing, wandering around chatting people up, making sure everyone’s feeling good. Kagami and Adrien are carefully helping each other with snacks, as to not ruin his makeup or her fake slit mouth. 

But we settle on Marinette, huffing for breath and sitting down heavily in a chair near the edge of the party. 

“Ohh little red! Bluh, Bluh! I vonder if your bluhd is as red as your ‘ood! Ah! Ah! Ah!”

“Hi Kim.”

Kim sits down in the seat beside Marinette. “Hey Mari, where’s Loverboy?”

“He got roped in by Rose and Juleka to be a three peice band for the night when Nino takes a break. Ivan said no and I don’t think they even tried with Adrien.” She glances at him and smirks slightly “Where’s Ondine?”

Kim chuckles, revealing his fake teeth being those glow in the dark kind “She got stuck babysitting. Her cousins apparently got super into the Ringu movies and threw tantrums when their parents tried to get them to go out to dinner somewhere; they’re terrified and needed Cousin Ondine to fight away the ring lady.”

“Ooohhh sucks to be her. Lucky me My dad’s an only child and my mom’s family is in Shanghai.”

“Big Mood.”

They chat for a bit longer, to which Kim admits that Marinette’s lucky she’s an only child, that he’s got no idea how to handle his siblings sometimes. Xuan and Vihn are easy, since they’re just rambunctious and he can get their energy out easily. But Tam is so grown up sometimes, it feels like she might secretly be older than him!

“Well if babysitting has taught me anything, it’s that no matter how ‘mature’ a kid wants to be, they show their true colors the second they laugh when you tell them you have a secret to tell and then whisper ‘farts’ in their ear.”

Kim chuckles. “That works?”

“Kids love gross humor.”

It’s nice, you do get the feeling that the two of them really were friends when they were young. Eventually one can see Nino climbing down from his post and lifting Alya into his arms as the Kitty Trio takes the stage. Before they can even declare the song they’ll perform, the doors burst inwards.

Before anyone can properly take in what it was, a beam of black energy zips through the air and knocks Luka off of his feet. Juleka and Rose crouch down beside him, but it’s only a moment they get to worry, before Luka’s eyes pop open, the milky white of death in his eyes before on stage, gruesomely, he seems to change. His features turning sallow and green, the stitches on his face going from eyeliner made to seemingly real, and the bolts on either side of his neck turning very real as they dig into his skin. 

“Arise Frankenstein! And fear no more!”

LukaStein lets out a groan as he shambles to his feet, loud thumping noises with every footfall. 

He starts to shamble off the stage, unable to be held back by Juleka or Rose (whom are a knight and princess respectively) but before anyone can try to swarm the Akuma, or even run, the akuma begins to spam their transformation powers, until only a few were able to make it out alright. Unfortunately for Team Miraculous, Chloe was hit before they could make it out the door, turning to a tiny angel that rests on the Akuma’s shoulder. Fortunately Amber did have the comb today so they’re not down a hero. As the rest of the team cleared out, they could hear the voice ring “I am Fear Factor! And all monsters shall heed my call! Tremble before you turn as you shall be set free from fear!”

Just as Marinette shuts the door, there’s a shadow blob effect pulsing, the color the dark blue of sentimonsters forming. 

“Did… did this Akuma use the fan spoke on the party hall?” 

As the dark blue magic fades, the door turns into a victorian looking heavy oaken door, a sign that reads ‘death awaits’ hanging crooked on the door.

“Now I see why Americans go nuts over these parties!” Adrien chuckles, to which Amber smacks him. 

“Okay, so worst case scenario” Alya starts “Every person in there is now a monster of some kind.”

“And surprise surprise, they probably obey… What did she say? Fear Factor?” Nino continues. “Do you think they have the same weaknesses?”

“Well we’d better get out of our own costumes before any of us get hit.”  Marinette surmises. But one flash of light and transformation sequence later something occurs to Marinette. 

“Actually, hold on a moment, I have an idea…Lay low, see if Fear Factor has an Endgame, I’ll be back.”

We actually don’t see what Miraculous Marinette is rushing off to get, we instead focus in on Chat. He takes a breath and turns to the team. “Okay, while Ladybug is doing.. Whatever she’s doing, we need to set up a perimeter. Carapace, Stay here, throw up Shelter if anything tries to escape. Rena, I need you on the outside, grab the balcony on the other end of the party room. And Bell, you and me are gonna take any of Fear Factor's potential targets away from them. We gotta hitch through the staff corridors and get as many people out of danger range as we can. Ready? Break!”

The lot of them split up, Alya running one way, Adrien and Amber another, and Nino leaning against the wall, folding his arms, and glaring at the door. At first we follow Chat and Bellflower. Darting through staff corridors and informing everyone they find that the second floor party room is an Akuma hotbed, To go to other floors if they must, but out of the hotel itself is best, Chloe Bourgeois got hit and she knows this hotel top to bottom. 

“So!” Chat chirps as they steadily creep closer to the edge of the party room. “We don’t really get to hang out much outside of the group! You wanna be a pair on the next world history project?”

“Sure, Hey, this part is going dark, do you wanna take point?”

“Yeah, no worries.”Chat blinks and his night vision is on. 

“Everything looks clear so far...According to the map we’re like… maybe ten meters tops from the door to the party room.. Maybe they haven’t decided to go this route yet?”

“Watashi Kirei?”

Chat jumps in place, and looks around, before spotting Bellflower looking into the darkness, she looks startled.

“Not funny, Bell.”

“Th-That wasn’t me!” Chat looks around in the darkness, and finally spots her. It’s Kagami, huddled in the far corner, nearby the door to the party room.

“Watashi Kirei?” she asks again, she looks up and peers seemingly directly at Chat.

“Kire-... uh… Yeah you’re… You’re beautiful.” Kagami slowly, deliberately stands up.

“Who is that? Chat what’s going on?”

“It’s uh… it’s Kagami... I think.”

Kagami slowly undoes her mask, letting her jaw hang loose, and with it, showing the scars push and pull with her. 

“Kore Demo?”

“I… uh… You never told me which version you thought was the right answer…”

Kagami starts to shamble forward, but just as her feet thump hard on the corridor beneath them, Bellflower takes the reins. “Okay that’s enough, Swarm! Capture her and stick to that door!” the room lights up a soft yellow as the bees erupt from Bellflower’s trompo, quickly capturing Kagami and zipping her over to cover the door. 

“Staff corridors aren’t safe anymore, we gotta evacuate the hotel.” Bellflower summarizes as she pulls Chat back the way they came. 

Chat thankfully pulls things together quickly and activates his communicator. “Hey  ‘pace, pull the fire alarm we gotta get everyone out of here quick!”

We don’t see this illegal use of a fire alarm, instead panning to Rena pacing on the balcony, trying to peer into the now-ornate windows of the balcony doors, the glass artfully frosted over in fancy designs, making it nearly impossible to see through them. Eventually, she gives up, leaning against one door and balancing her flute on the back of her hand, whistling a little. 

She doesn’t spot the other door opening, a shadowy figure stalking out part-way, but she does feel the hand that grasps her wrist, a white gloved hand, but before she can shout out in alarm, another hand is smacked across her mouth, and she’s dragged inside, the door snapping shut behind her. 

The hero is dragged further down the halls of the twisting labyrinth of a haunted house sentimonster, until eventually reaching an empty room, decked out like a vampire’s crypt, coffin and all. It is here that she finally squirms enough to stomp her heel on her captor’s foot, spinning out with the intention to smack her flute against the monster’s head, but rather than a proper monster, she sees… 

“Kim?!” The athlete is hopping on one foot, both his hands holding the foot that had been squashed under her boot-clad heel. 

“Dude, c’mon, that hurt!” 

“Then why’d you grab me like that?!” 

“Uh, ‘cuz I saw my little sister tell some ACTUAL monsters to go and capture you, that’s why!” 

She blinked, clearly shocked, before smirking. “How do I know you aren’t a monster yourself?” 

Kim rolled his eyes, before popping out his fake fangs for proof. “I got her fooled for now into thinking she hit me with the rest of ‘em, but I dunno for how long.” 

“So do you even HAVE a plan or are you just trying to hide out until it passes?”

“I don’t know! I was just rolling with it! You’re the superhero, you tell me!”

Alya huffs quietly, before taking the top off of her flute and leaving a quick message. “Hey Ladybug, it’s Rena, apparently the vampire kid is playing the double agent game, and was able to trick Fear Factor into thinking he transformed. Kim, I think his name is?

“His name IS Kim!” Kim chimes in.

“Anyway, unless something changes. He’ll be okay if we make a push on this thing.”

“Good, stay where you are, I’ve got a secret weapon and I’m glad we’ve got someone handy.” 

Of course just as the call ends some shuffling is heard from the other side of the entryway, so in a panic, Kim shoves Rena into his coffin, and plucks a candelabra from the wall.

“Bleh Bleh! Yes, Vhat do you vant?” he pulls back the curtain, and Rose is on the other side, Fear Factor’s monster magic turning her into a sort of ‘Sleeping Beauty Gone Wrong’, eyes shut but leaking black tar, hands and fingers covered in needles picked upon her skin, and a brambles and rose crown on her brow.

“Illustrious leader has an inquiry in regards to the villains that besiege our home.”

“Bleh Bleh, Vhat does Vear Vactor vant to know vrom me?”

“Rena Rouge, mage of illusions was spotted near your window briefly after her orders came to capture her.”

“Bleh Bleh, Vell, I don’t know Vhat you Vant from Me Princess Rose, Zhe Fox vas nowhere near my vindows from vhat I saw. Maybe Lukastein got to her first. Did you try MummyMax?”

“I shall check with our cohorts, thank you for your time, DracuKim”

“Bleh Bleh, Yes, yes, please come again, now if you do not mind I haf some very important brooding to do as a creature of zhe night.”

And sure enough when Princess Rose leaves and the curtain gives them privacy once again, Kim pops open the coffin for Rena.

“Sorry about that Rouge.”

“It’s fine, you’re lucky I’m not claustrophobic like Chat.”

But before Rena can be helped out of the coffin, a more zombie-like groan of ‘Dracukiiimmm’ comes from the second doorway, as Kim’s Crypt is only one room of a haunted house. And acting fast, Kim Shoves Rena back in and sits atop the coffin.

Finally, we cut back to Carapace. He’s still watching the door, but so far nothing has needed to be intercepted. 

“Maybe it’s like the horror movie thing, where they don’t come out, but they draw people in...Wait no, the staff corridors got fucked with..so why hasn’t anyone tried to get out? Do they know i’m here?”

Carapace takes a step closer, then another, the ‘Death awaits’ sign hanging ominously in front of him until he’s nerely flush with the door. 

Slowly, tentatively, Carapace places his hands on the door and leans his head in, pressing his ear against the side. 

“Why listen in? We’re right here!” a voice whispers on the other side of the door. 

Carapace shouts and immediately throws up Shelter, it takes the form of a wall between the door and him. “This is stupid this is stupid this is stupid this is stupid this is stupid.” He mutters to himself over and over. He’s officially on the clock, but he’s terrified. 

 “You’re so scared!” The voice on the other side coos. “It’s alright! There’s no need to be afraid! We might look scary on the outside, but we’re all free of fear on the inside!”

Another voice says softly, right beside his ear, “we’re already here with you.” 

Carapace’s screams echo throughout the hotel. 

This scream is heard by Ladybug, as she finally returns to the scene, a worried look on her face, though she doesn’t stand around for long, quickly yo-yo-ing her way up to the balcony, and meeting Kim there, who quickly drags her into his crypt before anyone can spot her. 

“Who was that?” Ladybug asks, voice a harsh whisper.

“Carapace, definitely, I know my boyfriend’s girly scream anywhere.” Rena, still sitting in the coffin, says, borderline flippantly. “So we’re down another team Member.”

“Another?”

“But not for long.” Ladybug opts to say instead of answering Kim.  “I’ve learned that often, when scared, the best thing to do is find the absurd in the middle of the fear, and turn it into humor.”

“Wait- hold on Ladybug” Kim starts “that’s my sister in there, She has a hard enough time expressing ANY emotion, let alone turning fear into laughter.”

“Well then,” Ladybug smiles at him “It’s a good thing we have you here Mr. Vampire.”

 And before Kim’s eyes, Ladybug presents him with a wooden box.

“Le Chien Kim, this is the Miraculous of the Monkey, it will grant you the power of Sabotage. You must keep your identity a secret, and return this to me after the fight is over. Will you take up arms to help your sister recover from her fears?”

“...oh hell yeah I will!”

Quickly Kim opens the box, and meeting him is a golden circlet. His eyes pop open at the design.

“Hey this looks like-” He’s cut off when the bulb of light bursts forth, the monkey forming after taking Kim in.

“Well Hiya there!” Xippu greets Kim. “I’m Xippu! Who are you? A silverback Gorilla?”

“Oh! I’m uh.. I’m Kim.” he looks up at Ladybug, she nods at him, and he carefully removes the circlet from the box. “I guess we’re gonna fight together today. Did anyone ever tell you that your crown looks like-”

“If you compare me to Sun Wukong again I'm going to scream. He’s a good hero don’t get me wrong, but I hear it ALL THE TIME. I’m not a shapeshifter. My power is called Uproar, and well… It lets you see the fun in everything!” 

“Cool!” It seemed at Kim’s acceptance, the band in his hands shifts, turning into a red and white sweatband. “Ooohh! Super cool!” he slides it on, his fangs falling from his mouth as he calls out “Transform me!”

We don’t get to see Him transform fully though, because we cut back to Chat and Bellflower, Bell has two stripes left on her comb, but they have otherwise successfully gotten the majority of the hotel out safely. 

“Okay, now time to-”

Either of their weapons ring, Ladybug. 

“What’s up Bugaboo?”

“You got your secret weapon, Ladybug?”

“Yup, Carapace has been compromised, so I’d suggest staying away from the front door. Go in through the balcony, we’ll meet you there.”

“LB I’m almost outta stripes, and we’re still trying to check for stragglers. I’d be no help in the fight.” Bellflower chimes in, peering over Chat’s shoulder, and Ladybug nods. 

“I’ll send Rena out to help you, then, stay safe and be careful when you’re searching, and if you spot Carapace, take him out for the moment.” 

Both of the blonde heroes nod, and the call cuts out, Chat salutes Bellflower and makes his way for the balcony, while the Bee continues to search for any remaining occupants. It’s not long before a familiar Fox joins her. 

It’s rather quick that Chat ends up on the balcony, and quickly pulling him in are, of course, Ladybug, and Kim.

“Well you’re certainly new.” Chat humms, to which Kim nods and places his hands on his waist happily.

“I’m… The Great Sage Equal to Heaven! No that’s too long… uh… I ammmm the Pilgrim under the Sun! No that’s worse…. You know what, just King Monkey will do.”

“King Monkey? In English? You sure you wanna keep that?”

“Don’t tease him Chat, Let’s go, he can change it if we call on him again.”

“Right!” So they’re quick, darting quickly through the rooms of the haunted house, Kim calling out the direction they need to go in next. It’s set up like a maze, there are some dead ends in that strain. They’re trying to get to the heart of the labyrinth, that’s where Fear Factor lies. 

Ladybug calls up Lucky Charm as they run, and a clown’s honkey nose falls into her hand.

“Well it’s on brand.”

“Yeah because clowns are creepy little-”

But then there they were. 

The heart of the labyrinth was as one would expect, a stone tablet on an altar of sorts, surrounded by torches and ugly gargoyles. Think, the ending of Ghostbusters. There’s a pit seemingly full of swampy algae and slime on one side of the altar, and on the other a horses’ stable. It’s quiet. No one seems to be here.

But then it begins, a chuckling, low and deep, slowly, slowly, it gets louder, higher, until the voice is positively shrieking with laughter. 

“What’s the matter, heroes? You look so frightened!” From behind a pillar, a horse clip clops out into the light, and the rider of said horse lifts up it’s hand, revealing Juleka’s head being held on by the hair. “Nothing to be afraid of here! Your swampy friend agrees!”

And sure enough, at the summons, the swamp on the side of the altar starts to ripple, disturbed, and a green, webbed hand shoots out, grabbing the edge and pulling Carapace from its depths, a Carapace that looks more like the creature from the Black Lagoon.

And descending from the ceiling, wrapped in a dark cloak, a small fairy-like Angel sitting on her shoulder, descends Fear Factor. She’s a creature of pure shadow, scraggly dark energy and wide white eyes glowing from where her head should be. 

“You don’t have to be afraid anymore. It’s okay!” Fear Factor purrs. “Soon you guys can be fearless too!” She pauses for a moment. “Hold them down!” Juleka’s horse rears back and whines before charging for Ladybug, Carapace makes a lunge for Chat Noir, but before little Chloe could try to fight King Monkey, he takes to the air, jumping high enough to get out of range of anything but long term attacks. And at the very crest of the jump, he summons Uproar. Falling into his hand from the tip of his staff is a peach, He humms in confusion as he begins to fall, but shrugs and tosses the peach at Fear Factor.

It bounces harmlessly off her head. 

“You think that’s funny?!” Fear Factor shrieks, throwing out her hand to blast him with a transformation, but the only thing that rises from her hand is a stream of purple silly string. 

“It’s hilarious!” King Monkey responds. “Hey Ladybug! Toss me the honkey nose!” 

Ladybug glances down at the honkey nose in her hand, and quickly realizes kim’s plan through her own Plan-vision. Highlighting Kim himself, the nose, and Fear Factor’s cloak.

“Be careful with it!” she quickly tangles Juleka’s horse’s Legs up in her yoyo.

King Monkey of course, puts the nose on his own face, honking it once as he stars, what’s arguably a comedy routine. He’s telling stories about his classmates, silly little anecdotes careful not to mention anyone’s names. Fear Factor summons more monsters, Mummy max tries to wrap him with bandages, but Kim tosses his peach at him and the wraps turn into ribbons. Lukastein shambles forward toward him, but he leaps out of the way and lets him and ChlAngel run headfirst into each other. MerLila is the one that gets the closest, but he’s able to grab her and throw her into Witchbrina right as she was about to throw a potion at him.

“And you would not BELIVE how stupid I can be as a big brother! My brothers, they’re fine, we wrastle, I let them play around if nobody starts screaming, but my little sister! She’s a tough nut to crack. Sometimes I think she was born scowling, a little adult in a child’s body!”

“She doesn’t like admitting when she’s scared either. Just like you.”

“I’m Not afraid of anything!” Fear Factor throws her hand out again and more silly string comes out, this time coating Kim's face. 

“Pssshhh You totally are.” He struts forward, this time purposefully slipping and landing comically on the ground. Fear Factor is taken aback, and As Kim chuckles about how clumsy he can be, it draws the attention of a few monsters. 

He tries to get up but then ‘accidentally’ slips on some of the silly string on the ground, flopping back onto his butt. “Ohh the gods hate me!”

From their little pile on the ground, MerLila and WitchBrina start giggling. They glow slightly as slowly, the transformation undoes itself. 

“Are you kidding me?” Chat grunts annoyedly “I’ve been holding back all my quips while fighting my best friend and LAUGHTER turns them back?!” 

CaraSwamp tries to swipe at him again, this time Chat grabs hold of his shield. The two make eye contact for a moment, before Chat smacks his lips, as if to kiss Carapace. Of course, this startles him into laughing. 

“Hey King Monkey! Keep up the physical humor!”

“You got it Ladybug! So here’s the thing about my parents. My mom when I’m in deep trouble, she doesn’t really chase me with her legs, so much as she chases me with her ARMS”  this routine continues for a bit longer, monster by monster getting summoned into the room, laughing at either Chat or King Monkey, and turning back. Until Fear Factor, finally fed up, gets up from her tablet and storms over to King Monkey.

“You’re Not Funny! You’re just a dummy!”

“Maybe, but this Dummy has a secret for you!”

Intrigued, Fear factor lets him lean down, cup his hands over his mouth, and whisper to her.

“Farts”

And finally that does it. Fear factor collapses to the ground, the absurdity of a secret simply being ‘farts’ being too silly for even her. The shadows and spikes begin to recede, until all that remains is Tam a dark cloak over her pajamas. 

“I’ll take that little one.” Ladybug walks up and rips the cloak in half. “Hey Chat! Have you found the spoke yet?”

“Yeah i think it’s under the pillar here…yup! Right there in the ground!”

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

“Black Cat Plague!”

As Miraculous Ladybug sweeps the land King Monkey takes the still giggling Tam in his arms. “Hey buddy, why’d you let that ol’ bully Hawky mess with you anyway? You seem like a cool kid. Too cool for him.”

“Cuz I wasn’t scared, and they kept trying to make me scared.”

“They?”

“My friends. They kept sending scary videos trying to make me scared, so I wasn’t.”

“...Maybe you should tell that to… your brother later, he’ll have something to say to those kids.”

“Kim’s a dummy. He only ever plays with Xuan and Vihn.”

“...maybe he just doesn’t know you want to play with him. You should try telling him, he might surprise you.”

“Okay Monkey man.”

Soon enough it’s a quick minute later, the party, having lost most of its time to an Akuma, now wrapping up with slow dance songs. Marinette is seen carefully storing Xippu’s box away in her Little Red Basket. 

“Heyyy Mari.”

“Huh? Oh hey Kim.”

Kim sits down beside her again.

“I’m surprised you’re still here.”

“Mom wanted me to come home, but Tam felt bad that I had to miss the party playing Dracukim and insisted I stay.”

“In a way I kinda feel bad that I got away when I did, the haunted house stuff sounds like it would have been fun.”

“It was very stressful actually. But I guess it wasn’t too bad.” Kim shrugs “got a lot of laughs out of the end.”

“Oh?”

“You were right about the whole ‘humor conquers fear’ thing. I played the clown all day until laughter saved the day!”

Marinette looks unimpressed for a moment. “I thought there was a new hero that came in and saved the day.”

Kim freezes, realization and horror. “....Please don’t tell anyone, Ladybug will never trust me again.”

Marinette thankfully finds this hilarious and pats his shoulder. “It’s fine, You’re secret’s safe with me.”

“...Do you wanna dance to a slow song and get near the stage to make your boyfriend super jealous and wish he didn’t get pulled into the live music?”

“Obviously.” 

But we’re not done just yet. Finally we clip back to Agreste mansion. Adrien parting with Kagami at the door and walking inside, most of his makeup is smudged,  his hair is a mess under the tophat, but he looks content. “Goodnight Nathalie, I’m taking a shower and going to bed.”

“Goodnight Adrien.” Nathalie seemed to be fighting off a headache from her desk. 

“G’night Vladamir.” Vladamir raises a hand for his goodnight signal. Adrien stops in the doorway to his father’s office. Nervously (yet obviously) he starts tugging at his leather choker, and pokes his head in.

“Goodnight Father.”

“Goodnight Adrien. I’m sure you enjoyed yourself?”

“Yup. There was an Akuma, I turned into a skeleton for realsies and was healed with laughter.”

Shot of Gabriel’s grip on his screen tightening. “Well, Be more watchful next time. If you insist on going out, then I can only do so much to ensure your safety.”

“I know father.” Something seems to occur to him. “Hey… it’s been… a year now.”

“We’ll find her Adrien.”

“...What if we don’t.”

“We will.”

“What if she’s-”

“That’s enough. Go to bed.”

“...Fine. I just would like to mourn my mother’s death since Tomorrow’s All Souls Day, but I can see why you’d rather deny it ever happened. That’s totally the best way to move forward.” 

“Good. Night. Adrien.”

“Yeah… Good night.”

#Miraculous Ladybug #Miraculous Rewrite #Rewrite #Mod Vega #Mod Aimee #Fear Factor

[weirdletter]

Trickster’s Treats #4: Coming Buried or Not! Edited by Louise Zedda-Sampson and Geneve Flynn, Things in The Well, 2020. Cover image by Adobe Stock, info: thingsinthewell.wordpress.com.

Here comes the fourth Halloween anthology from the Trickster! Filled with thirty-two dark and quirky stories and poems about buried things, and edited by Louise Zedda-Sampson and Geneve Flynn, it comprises an international line up of authors, including many award-winning and award-nominated. Trickster’s Treats 4: Coming, Buried or Not! is an unearthed delight raising funds to support literacy in Australian Indigenous communities. All proceeds will go to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

Contents: Dreaditorial by Louise Zedda-Sampson and Geneve Flynn   COMING... In a Cave Wall by Dominick Cancilla Requiem Aeternam by R.S. Pyne Bury My Heart, Somewhere Deep by Ian A Bain Burying the Well on the Wings of a Crow by Herb Kauderer The Crows of Las Cruces by Kurt Newton The Box Born Wraith by Kevin David Anderson The Toddling by Kurt Newton The Raving by Sheri Vandermolen Pythia Speaks by Jenny Blackford Frostfire by Aline Boucher Kaplan Drowning by Liam Hogan   BURIED? Digging Up the Past by Chris Mason Till Death Do Us Part by Kellie Nissen Digging Up the Dead by Edward Ahern Buzzing by Lynn White A Guilty Conscience Needs No Accuser by Fiona Jones A Light for the Grave by Aristo Couvaras Whole by Andrew Cull The Little Helper by Kali Napier The Garden by Kurt Newton Tender Age in Bloom by Matthew R Davis   OR NOT! To Leaven His Bones by Amanda Crum The Witch Tree by Alyson Faye Jimmy’s Boys by Laura E Goodin An Afterlife of Stone by Jenny Blackford Shaft by Kev Harrison The House Whisperer by Robert Kibble Playlist by Stephanie Ellis There is No Such Thing as Dead by Lucy Ann Fiorini Dead Set by Steve Dillon Sleeping with the Dead by Alicia Hilton A Streetcar Named Lugosi by Mike Sheedy Biographies

#book #anthology #charity anthology #weird fiction #horror fiction #dark fiction #dark fantasy

[oberlincollegelibraries]

Sunday Edition: Creepy Short Story Collections

The nights are getting longer and Halloween is getting closer, so if last week’s Sunday Edition of horror films didn’t quench your thirst for everything and anything spooky, here are some suggestions for creepy short story collections. 

American fantastic tales : terror and the uncanny from Poe to the pulps edited by Peter Straub: Forty-four classics of fantasy fiction, including selections from Washington Irving, Willa Cather, Kate Chopin, H.P. Lovecraft, and others

Best Ghost and Horror Stories by Bram Stoker: Selection of 14 spine-tingling stories by author of Dracula.

Triptych of Terror: Three Chilling Tales By the Masters of Gay Horror by John Michael Curlovich, Michael Rowe, David Thomas Lord: A gay teen in a conservative small town discovers that Halloween means so much more than costumes and candy. In an industrial town, an overzealous televangelist learns that on Halloween you might not get the chance to "do unto others" before they do unto you. A Celtic legend born on Pride Day takes out its vengeance on the streets of Greenwich Village on Halloween. 

There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya: Vanishings and apparitions, nightmares and twists of fate, mysterious ailments and supernatural interventions haunt these stories by the Russian master Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, heir to the spellbinding tradition of Gogol and Poe. Blending the miraculous with the macabre, and leavened by a mischievous gallows humor, these bewitching tales are like nothing being written in Russia-or anywhere else in the world-today.

Night Shift by Stephen King: From the depths of darkness, where hideous rats defend their empire, to dizzying heights, where a beautiful girl hangs by a hair above a hellish fate, this chilling collection of twenty short stories will plunge readers into the subterranean labyrinth of the most spine-tingling, eerie imagination of our time.

For more spooky collections, swing by the PS648.H6 section on the second floor of the Terrell Library where you will find many more collections!

#sunday edition #horror stories #ghost stories #scary stories #halloween #oberlin college libraries

[mondoreb]

End Times Prophecy Headlines: October 13, 2022

End Times Prophecy Headlines: October 13, 2022

End Times Prophecy Report HEADLINES THURSDAY October 13, 2022 And OPINION “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.” —Matthew 24:4 “The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison.” —Fyodor Dostoevsky ===INTERNATIONAL UKRAINE: Ukraine war: Zelensky calls for more sanctions after ‘new wave of terror’ RUSSIA: Russia’s…

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#modern journalism #the deception of the decimal point #the joy of printing money #the leaven of Halloween #the media decption and UFO propaganda #USA: providing the shock troops for the end times one-world beast government

[copperbadge]

docbeeski replied to your post “snowytumble replied to your photo “A) yogurt-flavored Ramune is...”

Re: the egg-whites aged for gingerbread - I had a hunt on your tumblr but couldn't find the original post - I'm curious, what were your finding? Was it better with 'aged' whites? (My brain is totally rebelling at the thought of it, but I'll admit I might be down for more things than I realised if they lead to good gingerbread...)

LOL, I know the feeling! Unfortunately the testing I did was on a meringue recipe, not a gingerbread recipe -- he just mentioned the gingerbread recipe in passing (I would assume it’s a gingerbread where you whip the egg whites as part of the leavening, much like an angel-food cake). 

But Chef said that the best way to make meringues was to leave the egg whites out for three weeks, so I thought I’d give it a try. I didn’t have all the posts tagged, but a complete account of the Eggsperiment is here. The short version is that while I did not give myself food poisoning and there was a definite difference in aged vs. non-aged eggs in meringue, I didn’t feel it was necessarily a big enough difference to materially matter. 

That said, it’s not like aging egg whites takes much work, so I might set out a few now and try my hand at a gingerbread recipe round about Halloween time! 

(Also if you google “aged egg whites” you get a ton of home-baker blogs telling you that macarons don’t need aged egg whites, where “aged” means “leave on the counter for two hours”.) 

nefersitra replied to your post “A late query regarding your latest Cooking Day escapades, Sam. For the...”

You can make curd with any sufficiently acidic fruit. I've been meaning to try Passionfruit Curd but I tend to just eat the passion fruit.

Yeah, I’ve made cranberry curd before, but at the end of the day even if it’s not lemon it’s still basically frosting, which it’s hard to eat a whole jar of before it goes bad :D 

songscloset replied to your post “songscloset replied to your photo “I knew mum had a copy but I...”

Oooh, I don't think I've tried the blondies one, and I'll certainly give the sugar cookies a try. It's hard to find a good sugar cookie recipe.

I can’t vouch for their quality -- we haven’t made them in years and my family had weird taste in cookies to begin with -- but I recall them being pretty good.

#docbeeski #nefersitra #songscloset #food

[fromthedust]

Maila Nurmi (Vampira)

1922-2008

“Her break came at a Halloween party in 1953. Dance choreographer Lester Horton (famous for his work in the Tarzan films of the 30s) invited her to his annual Halloween ball. For the occasion, Nurmi created an early version of Vampira, a prototype creature with long black hair and a black cocktail dress, a kind of bride of Dracula . . . she won the grand prize for best costume and Hunt Stromberg Jr., a producer for Los Angeles’ KABC TV, had the idea that he could use the character in connection with a late night horror show he hoped to create. Stromberg wanted to show horror and sci-fi films, B-pictures mostly, to late night audiences. The pictures he could show without risking copyright infringement were mostly dreadfully shot and acted. He knew he needed a gimmick, a host to leaven the celluloid lump with humor, maybe a little sex and something indefinable that would give his wretched list of flicks some sizzle.“Dig Me, Vampira” was like nothing that had yet appeared in television’s brief existence. Premiering on April 30, 1954, it became an instant hit in the Los Angeles area.”   “She introduced every show with a scream, a bloodcurdling extrusion that had to issue out of some cavern too big, dark, and lonely to live inside her impossible 36-17-36 figure. She screamed and looked directly at the camera, a goth Garbo who seized the eye of the audience . . ." 

     W. Scott Poole

     The rise and fall of Vampira, dark goddess of horror

boingboing.net/2014/09/03/the-rise-and-fall-of-vampira

#Maila Nurmi #Vampira #Hollywood #TV #1950s

[nathanalbright151]

On The Leavening Of Heathen Ways

On The Leavening Of Heathen Ways

It may seem somewhat odd, but until very recently I was unaware of the tendency for contemporary computer users to praise an entire month as being fit for Halloween memes. While it is not something I usually make a big deal of, I do not celebrate and am in fact quite hostile to the celebration of Halloween for a variety of reasons. Like May Day [1], Halloween represents an example of the tendency…

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#culture #legitimacy

[beatrizestrada-blog1]

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

By: Kelly Barnhill

Bibliography:

Barnhill, Kelly. Girl Who Drank the Moon: Winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal. Place of Publication Not Identified: Algonquin of Chapel Hill, 2019. ISBN: 978-1616207465

Plot Summary:

In The Girl Who Drank the Moon, the people of the Protectorate are afraid of the witch from the woods.  They offer the newest baby as a sacrificial offering in order to keep the witch from terrorizing the town. The people always do this offering without realizing that the witch from the woods is a good witch.  Xan, the good witch whom lives with a Tiny Dragon and a Swamp Monster, always rescues the babies and finds them a good, loving family who’ll care for them.  On their journey back home, Xan feeds the babies starlight.  Then one year, as the youngest baby was being offered to the witch, her mom was lost in her sorrow.  She was locked down in the tower and was taken care by the Sisters of the Star.  Xan, on the other hand, rescues the beautiful baby girl that was left in the woods.  On their way back home, Xan accidentally feeds her moonlight, which gives her extraordinary magic powers.  Due to this, she decides that she’ll raise her and names her Luna.  As the years passes and Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her magical powers become apparent, while Xan begins to deteriorate. Meanwhile, Antain, a young man from the Protectorate, finds the courage to end the Day of the Sacrifice (as his son is the next baby to be offered to the witch).  He’s willing to take all measurable accounts in order to keep his family safe. What will happen to Xan once Antain finds her in the woods? The readers will be surprised to learn who the real witch is, and they will be amazed at the unexpected ending of this graphic novel.

 Critical Analysis:

The Girl Who Drank the Moon is a fantasy fairy tale which includes witches, dragons, monster, enchanted objects and magic. Barnhill did a fabulous job creating characters that are lovable, delightful and courageous and others that are despicable and evil. With these characters, Barnhill was able to display relationships between the love of family and true friendship.  Barnhill describes the immense feelings of a mother who lost her beloved daughter.  The pain that Luna’s mom felt as she was separated from her daughter made filled her with sorrow. But deep down in her heart, she knew her daughter was alive.  She constantly reminded herself of that as she said, ‘She is here, she is here, she is here.’ She also describes the bravery of Antain to defend his growing family. He was willing to do everything in his hands so his wife could keep their baby without offering it to the witch.   He was willing to change the offering of the Day of Sacrifice by defeating the evil witch.

Barnhill describes the settings of the novel as a safe place, the Bog, the town of the Protectorate and the convent of the Sister of the Star. The author states ‘In the beginning, there was only Bog, and Bog and Bog.  The Bog was everything and everything was the Bog.’  This makes the reader believe that the Bog is a place where there would be no conflict.  Then, there’s the town of the Protectorate, where everything seems to be in order and then the convent of the Sister of Star, where they care for people.  The reader will come to the true conclusion that ‘things are not what they seem’.

Review Excerpts:

Winner of the 2017 Newbery Award The New York Times Bestseller An Entertainment Weekly Best Middle Grade Book of 2016 A New York Public Library Best Book of 2016 A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2016 An Amazon Top 20 Best Book of 2016 A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2016 A School Library Journal Best Book of 2016 Named to KirkusReviews’ Best Books of 2016 2017 Booklist Youth Editors’ Choice

“Impossible to put down . . . The Girl Who Drank the Moon is as exciting and layered as classics like Peter Pan or TheWizard of Oz.” —The New York Times Book Review   “A gorgeously written fantasy about a girl who becomes “enmagicked” after the witch who saves her from death feeds her moonlight.” —People    “[Barnhill’s] next middle grade sensation.” —EW.com   “With compelling, beautiful prose, Kelly Barnhill spins the enchanting tale of a kindly witch who accidentally gives a normal baby magic powers, then decides to raise her as her own.” —EW.com, The Best Middle-Grade Books of 2016   « “Guaranteed to enchant, enthrall, and enmagick . . . Replete with traditional motifs, this nontraditional fairy tale boasts sinister and endearing characters, magical elements, strong storytelling, and unleashed forces.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review   « “Rich with multiple plotlines that culminate in a suspenseful climax, characters of inspiring integrity, a world with elements of both whimsy and treachery, and prose that melds into poetry. A sure bet for anyone who enjoys a truly fantastic story.” —Booklist, starred review   « “An expertly woven and enchanting offering.” —School Library Journal, starred review   « “Barnhill crafts another captivating fantasy, this time in the vein of Into the Woods . . . Barnhill delivers an escalating plot filled with foreshadowing, well-developed characters, and a fully realized setting, all highlighting her lyrical storytelling.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review   « “Barnhill writes with gentle elegance, conveying a deeply emotional and heartrending tale with accessible, fluid prose. Characters are skillfully developed: the heroes are flawed, the villains are humanized, and they are forgiven for sins they may or may have not intended. The swamp monster and dragon provide plenty of moments of humor to leaven the pathos, while the setting is infused with fairy tale elements, both magical and menacing, and given a tragic history. Fans of Barnhill’s The Witch’s Boy and Iron Hearted Violet will find similar intersections of love, loss, and identity here.” —Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, starred review   « “The Girl Who Drank the Moon takes a probing look at social complexity and the high cost of secrets and lies, weaving multiple perspectives, past and present, into one cleverly unfolding fairy tale. Barnhill crafts wonderfully imperfect characters with poetic prose, warmth and wit. The resiliency of the heroes may be partly because of magic, but also because of critical thinking, empathy, deep love and the strength of family in all its unconventional manifestations. Thoughtful and utterly spellbinding.” —Shelf Awareness for Readers, starred review  “A modern fable about a witch named Xan, who accidentally gives a baby moonlight instead of starlight, and the child, Luna, who grows up to be magical and dangerous. Factor in a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, a swamp monster, a not-so dormant volcano, and a mysterious woman with a tiger’s heart and, well, you’ve got something truly magical.” —NW Book Lovers   “Barnhill’s impeccable writing makes for effortless reading, while she spins her plot with perfect pacing. Packed within the story are some tremendously thought-provoking themes which elevate this quite beyond an ordinary fantasy and make it a superb choice for a middle-grade-and-older book club.” —OrangeMarmaladeBooks.com   “Barnhill is a fantasist on the order of Neil Gaiman.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune “[The Witch’s Boy] should open young readers’ eyes to something that is all around them in the very world we live in: the magic of words.” —The New York Times “This spellbinding fantasy begs for a cozy chair, a stash of Halloween candy and several hours of uninterrupted reading time.” —The Washington Post

 Connections:

Gather other Kelly Barnhill books to read such as:

v  The Witch’s Boy ISBN 978-1616205485

v  The Mostly True Story of Jack ISBN 978-0316056724

v  Iron Hearted Violet ISBN  978-0316056731

v  The Unlicensed Magician ISBN 978-1848639188

 Classroom Connections:

v  This book can be used at the beginning of a Reading Lesson.

v  This book can be used as a Writing Activity.