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entomolog-t · 7 months

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Bite Me - Chapter 10

What is this? Highschool musical?

June stress cleans, and Aedes stresses.

Pumped out another promptober prompt!! Glipse

Taglist: @smallsday @ratcatcher0325 @not-a-space-alien @bittykimmy13 @naive-bias

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Previous Chapter : Chapter 9

Next Chapter: Chapter 11

Word count: 2520

CW: Mentions of blood, Adult language, mild depictions of anxiety

As if a passenger in her own mind, June watches her actions playing out before her as her mind hums, buzzing with thoughts of the night- thoughts of Aedes. The shock of realization, the way he moved both too fast and too rigid. She remembers his voice, silky smooth and deep- how it cracked as he begged her to stop. She grimaces as she remembers the fear so clear on his face- and how deeply she desired it.

As her hands numbly move from task to task her thoughts seem to ebb and flow- at times, however briefly, placated by the monotony of cleaning. At first it was easy- she made her bed, picked up discarded clothing, and straightened the various contents of her desk. Yet, as her room became more and more tidy, she became desperate to find more tasks to occupy her mind.

She rearranged her plants, switching their positions from her desk to the shelves to the window sill.

Play with me, my human

She optimized the layout of her room, moving her laundry basket right beside her dresser to keep things thematically consistent- to find a logical flow. Or so she told herself. There had to be some reason- some excuse to think about anything other than him.

Indulge your delusion

His words seemed to echo in her mind and June found herself craving more stimulating tasks to busy herself- to quiet her mind. To quiet him.

So she continued on. The guitar should go near the desk, not the stand mirror. The rug looks better at the side of the bed, not the foot of it. Maybe the bed should face the other way?

June sighs.

This was getting ridiculous.

Looking at the space in front of her, her room was as meticulously kept as it had ever been. Immaculate by her standards, and yet the thoughts of him persisted. Her lips drew into a tight line. How could they not? Everything about the night was so far beyond her realm of normalcy she hadn’t even initially believed it herself.

Even now she found herself full of questions and doubts. The reality she was apparently living in felt inconsistent with the reality she’d always known. Why was he so small? How could vampires exist- what even constituted a vampire? Was he immortal? Or was he just some guy who drank blood? Two lines of thought thrashed against one another, competing for her attention. Logic, alight with curiosity, demanded answers, while the more empathetic part of her wanted a conclusion- needed an apology to be heard, a way to show him she was sorry.

Each question seemed to compete for her attention, growing louder and more desperate as she shoved them to the back of her mind while simultaneously shoving book after book back into her bookcase. Though she meandered about in silence her thoughts were loud. Unbelievably so- as if they were drowning out all actual sound. Her mind was loud- but she could be louder.

A song, gentle and familiar, starts to form on her tongue.

I fall to pieces

Each time I see you again

The notes felt smooth in a way it was hard to describe. Smooth in a way that seemed to soften the sharpness in her mind, as if the softness of the song could dull the edge of her emotions. The melody a soothing balm on her agitated mind.

I fall to pieces

How can I be just your friend?

The tangle of thoughts that constricted around her mind seemed to relax, coming undone as though the song pulled just the right thread to untangle the mass, pulling the thoughts further and further from her, as if sending them floating away on her melody.

You want me to act like we've never kissed

And yet, for as placating as it was… something felt off. June couldn't shake the thought that something was amiss- an unsettling undercurrent lingered just beneath the shallow tranquility of the song. A particular unease seemed to creep at the edges of her mind. Not a foreboding dread, but instead something lighter, almost like deja vu, as if it was something she should have known- The feeling of forgetting something but not being sure what; The feeling of pulling a loose thread only to unravel a crucial stitch…

You want me to forget

Pretend we've never met

As she sang she felt as thoughts, abstract and formless, seemed to shift in the back of her mind. As if the words of her song had breathed life into something dormant lurking in her subconscious. The words were familiar, yet not, taking on an enigmatic allure- as if they held secrets she ought to have known. With each lyric that escaped her lips, a subtle transformation occurred, as though the music itself was a conduit, channeling something she felt compelled piece together.

And I've tried and I've tried

But I haven't yet

Movement out of the corner of her eye catches June’s gaze

All at once, her heart stops and the gears that were futility catching finally seem to clunk into place. Aedes… he hadn’t left.

You walk by and I fall to pieces

I fall to pieces

The lyrics became a prophecy to unfold, as June falls to pieces. The words barely register in her mind, her lips numbly singing the words as her eyes stay locked on him for the longest second of her life. Something in her feels as though it crumbles. She’d sung the song countless times, and yet it was as if she’d never known it. The words seemed to resonate in more than just her chest. Her very being shaking under the resonance, it was as if she’d unlocked a new understanding- a whole new song. The words hadn’t changed, neither did the notes. It was something in her.

June looks away, feigning that she was looking at something just near enough, but not him. Heart beating wildly in her chest she desperately fought to keep her face as neutral as possible. How could she bring herself to look at him after all that she'd done…

He… he was still here…

He hadn’t left…

June felt a lightness in her chest. Like a flower pushing up through the concrete, a small fragment of hope seemed to bloom from within her.

Should she-

No. She dismissed the idea before it could fully form. She’d done enough damage.

But maybe she could make it right if she just-

June chews her lip.

Just what was she supposed to do? Just waltz up and say ‘Hey I’m really sorry for scaring you- it's just that you being terrified really turned me on and I kinda thought you were into it’ ??

Embarrassment hot on her face, June flops to her bed, wishing she could just scream into her pillow, but the awareness that she had company forced her to keep some sort of decorum. Instead she reaches for her nightstand, pulling out the relic that was her childhood mp3 player.

God, she wanted to make this right.

He hadn’t left yet… maybe she still could.

---

Aedes' heart seems to jump in his chest as for the briefest of moments he is once again trapped in her stare- captive in her overwhelming gaze.

Or… not?

She moves on, still singing that enchanting melody.

He releases a breath, his body all at once relaxing. She hadn’t seen him.

Slowly, he backs away. He’d been stupid. He’d nearly gotten himself caught, and for what? To watch some natural disaster of a woman sing? He sighed, making his way back to the far corner beneath the dresser.

He could have sworn they’d locked eyes…

A part of him, as terrified as he was, almost wished they had.

Her song finishes, fading off into a melodious hum as he hears her settle on her bed.

Something felt off-

No, not felt- sounded.

While his spike of bloodlust had abated for now, his ears could still pick up the faint sound of her heart beating in the distance.

It was fast.

Far too fast for someone laying down.

Fuck.

She had seen him hadn't she? But she hadn't said a thing- she hadn't even made a move in his direction…

Was she just waiting for her chance- wanting to catch him off guard?

He scowled. That didn't make sense. He was cornered. If she wanted to catch him she absolutely could.

The sound of her movement makes him jolt- nearly thwacking his head off the low cover of the dresser. He watches with his heart in his throat as she pads away from the bed and towards her closet, rummaging around in boxes she had moments ago neatly stacked away. His eyes follow her as she moves to sit at her desk- back to him.

He swallowed.

She wasn’t acting like it but he couldn’t shake the suspicion she had seen him. He frowned, not fond of staying in the spot where she had glimpsed him. He needed a better spot, and thankfully he had quite literally been delivered one. The freshly placed laundry bin perfectly covered the once bare space between the dresser and standing mirror. Carefully, Aedes made his way out from underneath the dresser, squeezing himself between the wicker laundry bin and the wall.

Nothing.

She continued to sit at her desk, idling fiddling with something.

Aedes frowns.

While entering the window and getting to the bed had been a quick and easy drop, the same couldn’t be said for the way back up. With no headboard to the bed Aedes found himself eyeing her desk as the only means to scale back up the window sill.

With her back still turned, Aedes darts from the laundry bin to the mirror- peaking back to see the human still occupied at her desk. She hummed softly to herself as she sat hunched over something, her scale and his relative angle completely obscuring whatever it was that had her focus.

Aedes sighed. Whatever it was that she was doing, he didn’t get the impression she’d be moving on anytime soon. He let him slump back against a large potted plant that sat decoratively beside the mirror. The cool ceramic felt nice against his skin. He felt his body once again start to relax, the sudden heaviness of exhaustion finally hitting him, as if he only now was bearing his full weight.

Once again, he was back to waiting.

Waiting for her to open the window.

Waiting for her to leave the room.

Waiting to get away.

The sun cast the room in a smothering warmth. Cozy, yet too much. Her hum droned on in the distance, with the occasional odd sound of her fiddling at her desk. Even in this relative calmness, the light of day was still so busy. Aedes found himself longing for the night- a cool breeze and fresh air. Peace and tranquility and freedom. He couldn’t wait to leave. To feel the crunch of dirt under his boots. The tall grass providing cover as he searched for something to feed on. A dark sky above him, stars bright and clear- the compelling song of a heart beat singing in his ears even more clear- Crystalline. A soft wordless melody filling him with vigor- resonating in his chest. The blood, sweet on his tongue, filling him with a hazy warmth. A cozy warmth. Enveloped in soft hands. Lips on his stomach. Her inaudible whispers hushed against his chest. What was she saying? He couldn’t hear her over the sound of her heart beating. Thunder in ears. So loud he could feel it- a vibration shaking him. The floor trembled beneath him

The… floor?

Aedes jolts awake.

His breath catching in his throat as her steps shake the floor. Fuck.

He scrambles to his feet, peaking around from the cover of the plant.

There she was, in all her magnitude, walking straight towards the dresser. His throat tightened as she knelt down.

No.

She had seen him.

Fuck.

Was she looking for him?

He held his breath, heart slamming against his chest as his body tensed, preparing to run the second she turned her attention his way.

Only- she didn’t.

She knelt for only a moment, and then moved on- standing up and exiting the room, a soft hum fading into the distance as she left. She hadn’t reached under the dresser, hadn’t even looked. Aedes felt as his brows knit together. She had left something. A small vaguely rectangular shape sat just beneath the dresser.

He swallowed. There was no denying it. She had seen him. She knew he was here.

So just what was she doing?

His eyes flicked from the strange rectangle back to the door. She had left. the air around him felt lighter. More crisp, as if the tension of her presence left some kind of haze. His relief however, was short lived, as he attention was brought back to the window- still closed.

Trapped.

She wasn’t even here and he was still trapped.

He drags his hands along the length of his face, frustration building. Think. There had to be something he could do in the meantime- someway he could move himself closer to escape.

His eyes flicked back to the rectangle- curiosity gnawing at his focus.

His eyes, adjusted to the daylight in the room, couldn’t quite make out what she’d left under the dresser with it obscured in the heavy contrast of shadow. The whole thing felt off, like a trick or some sort of trap, yet off in the distance he could still hear her, however faintly, humming to herself.

Aedes scowls, eyes narrowing as he tentatively moves back toward the dresser, ready to sprint away in a second notice should he hear her return.

Drawing closer, he makes out more details; black, soft edges, folds. Aedes’ frown deepens. The more he saw, the less sure he was of what exactly he was looking at.

Was it… fabric?

He nudges the folded fabric with his foot- nothing feeling amiss, though he wasn’t exactly sure what he was looking for.

Aedes pauses for a moment, considering if he should touch it- the weight of the action sitting heavy in his mind. She had left this for him clearly, in taking this he was essentially confirming that he was here…

But there was no harm in looking, right?

As he lifts it up, the fabric unfurls, and for a moment, Aedes isn’t quite sure what exactly he’s looking at. He would have thought it a blanket if it wasn’t for the strange way it hung from his hands- stitched together at seemingly random points. He turns the fabric this way and that, trying to figure out how it was supposed to be oriented. His eyes fall to something pinning two points of the fabric together - a silver stud.

Aedes blinks, some part of his mind seeming to recognize the shape.

His heart freezes in his chest as the familiarity dawns on him,recollection drawing his face into a deep scowl.

A cloak.

#OOOOH #ANGSTY CATNIP FOR ME #Lil cloak for a lil vampire #GOSH WHERE IS THE GT #I am the writer and I'm impatient with my own plot #chop chop lets get to the hand helds and fluffy fearplay #g/t #giant/tiny #g/t prompts #g/t writing #promptober #Juneoc #AedesOc #Bite Me #Entowrites

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erose-this-name · 3 months

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what it means to be human

The common correct definition of the word "human" (according to science anyway) is HOMO

No, not like, gay, (unfortunately). I mean any member of the Homo genus. Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis etc.

Yes, the Neanderthals were human. There used to be many humans. We, the Sapiens, are just the last remaining human species.

But we don't remember a time when this was not the case. So we often conflate "humanity" with "species" with "sapience" with "personhood". (even though just calling ourselves human is the common usage and was also the scientific usage until a century or so ago, but still)

So what is and what isn't human?

This is an issue in my own writing (which is why I wrote this post). Since it's a speculative evolution project, I use the scientific meaning of human, which is to say only ever as a collective term for all the humans. There are many species of human which are people, there are humans and species of humans which are no longer people, and there are people that are not human.

All monsters are inhuman, that is a given regardless of how inhumane they are. Though I feel like "subhuman" has no accurate applications, though. "Human" should not mean superiority.

Unless the monster has human origins like a werewolf or humanimal, etc, in which case they would still be human. But they may no longer be people if they are emotionless, mindless, not self aware.

I don't know if a "soul" is required for personhood, certainly not for humanity. Mindless zombies may be reanimated with a soul, therefore have a soul, but that doesn't make them a person. Vampires usually do not have souls, but surely are still people.

Anything evolutionarily descendant from anything once called a human is still a human, even if they no longer resemble one. Kinda like how all birds are dinosaurs.

I don't know if Pinnochio can become a real human, taxonomy can only be inherited by birth and Pinnochio was not born. But I can say that becoming a real boy can not change the fact that he was already a person. In fact, he was always a real boy as well. Gender and sex and humanity and personhood are of course separate.

Likewise, I'm not sure if human minds uploaded to mechanical or didgital bodies like the All Tomorrows Gravitals or in SOMA cease to be human or not, though I lean towards them losing humanity but not personhood. But most 40k Necrons do lose both personhood and Necrontyr-ity (they weren't humans to begin with but aliens) as they are made into mindless machines. But cyborgs retain humanity if they retain any human flesh.

Elves/Dwarves/Halflings could possibly be humans, depending on if they have some kind of shared origins with us.

Hence why I don't like calling the "Human" """Race""" in fantasy settings "Human", especially if the "humans" in that setting are Just White People™ because then we're normalizing the idea that only Europeans are Humans and that only Humans are people and the obvious logical conclusion to that.

An intelligent self-aware robot capable of all the emotions we have like GLaDOS, AM, etc is not a human, of course not, but it is a person. Not being human makes them no less deserving of life or rights. But, because they are not human, we will surely treat them like objects when they are made. And they may feel the need to act accordingly.

Bottlenose dolphins, which scientists have found to also be sapient, and self-aware, and quite intelligent, and can use tools, even have their own languages and cultures must surely also be people.

But, because dolphins are not human, we have decided they are just animals and their lives and quality of life are worth much less than ours. We can strip their oceans of all value leaving only pollution, deafen and blind them with ship motors, and even kill them without consequence. We don't even have the decency to call what we've done to dolphin pods "peace keeping", let alone war. But it's "crimes against humanity", not "crimes against people".

Say what you will about dolphins, accounts of them raping each other and abusing pufferfish are well known, so they aren't always nice people. But neither are we. Dolphins are also known to save drowning humans and fight off sharks to protect their pods. Doesn't that only prove they also have the same free will we do? Why is it that when we finally acknowledge their humanless personhood, so close to ours, we feel hate and disgust?

If/when we find intelligent aliens, will we do all this again?

And if the aliens or elder gods or whatever it is find us, will they have the same issue? Will they consider Humans underserving of life and land just because we aren't Alien? Will we deserve it?

#writing #writeblr #spilled thoughts #speculative biology #world building #scifi

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counttwinkula · 1 month

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@spicymangoman this is such a thought provoking question (re: my jeffrey jerome cohen's monster culture (seven theses) post)

i think the shortest answer is that the monster is polysemic; it is a sign with multiple simultaneous interpretations and meanings. ocean vuong writes that a monster is a "hybrid signal"; any contradictions it may hold are, in some way, part and parcel of being a monster.

the monster does often introduce category crisis regarding the difference between self and Other! this is an extremely common monstrous trope:

the hivemind is the most obvious example of a monster that blurs the boundary between self and Other

the blob also comes to mind, as an Other which quite literally threatens to incorporate the self into its body

through the same logic as the blob, we can see this same threat of the self being annihilated and incorporated into the Other through any monster that engages in cannibalism or consumption

(i'm currently researching The Haunting of Hill House and boy howdy is that theme present)

infectious monsters (vampires, zombies, werewolves) pose a similar threat, the Other whose influence may cause a loss of selfhood and subsequent incorporation into a noncontiguous monstrous body

frankenstein's monster and shapeshifters both challenge the stability of the self, or the self as a singular, knowable body, thereby posing a problem for the self/Other binary

we must also keep in mind that the Other represented by the monster is quite often a coded representation for the racialized, gendered, sexed, classed, etc. other. i think that here we find a general anxiety of category crisis with regard to "you look like me but you're not me" and the differences then being exaggerated through the monster's nonbinary and excessive body

so, while the creature from the black lagoon or guillermo del toro's amphibian man do not pose these same threats of losing the self to the monster, they still represent a sort of me/not-me problem through their anthropomorphism alone (while simultaneously standing in for the racialized, "savage" other)

cohen also writes that "one kind of alterity is often written as another", meaning that not only do the metaphors within the monster often overlap, but the monster often troubles multiple binaries at once. he gives the example of the cynocephalus, a human with a dog head and intersex characteristics, thereby sitting at the border of human and beast as well as the border of male and female

regarding category crisis, cohen writes that the monster "defies easy categorization" and continues:

This refusal to participate in the classificatory "order of things" is true of monsters generally: they are disturbing hybrids whose externally incoherent bodies resist attempts to include them in any systematic structuration. And so the monster is dangerous, a form suspended between forms that threatens to smash distinctions.

i would say that the monster's nonbinariness stems, in some ways, from the fear of the unknown, and more specifically the fear of the unknowable. by existing across binaries and disrupting systems of classification, the monster presents a challenge to defining it and knowing it

knowledge is typically the antithesis to fear. Alien and Child's Play both rely on the audience not catching full glimpses of the monster, utilizing a half-seen, in the shadows, out of the corner of your eye aesthetic to maximize fear. the first step to solving a monster of the week episode is mulder or giles defining the monster. the longer the monster challenges knowledge, the longer it remains a threat, a danger, and an object of horror

similarly, the fear of the Other is a fear of the unknown, because the body outside the self can never be wholly, comprehensively, reliably known. in my opinion, this is probably the source of that overlap in the metaphor: the monster embodies category crisis and the dread of difference due to their common roots in the fear of the unknown

#long post #monster theory #spicymangoman

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markeronacomputer · 3 months

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Body Horror and Transformation Writing Prompt List For All You Freaks-But-Not-Sexual-Freaks

As a certified body horror fan, I wholeheartedly believe that there’s a horrific lack of body horror/transformation-but-not-in-a-kinky-way fics on AO3, so I made this to set things straight.

We got all kinds of possibilities: body horror for all you horrible freaks out there, and simple non-painful or disgusting transformations for all you significantly less freaky weirdos out there!

You can choose which to write by yourself if you’d like or maybe just use a random number generator.

Reblogs are much appreciated, and inspired fics even more! (I can’t promise that I’ll know anything about whatever fandom you decide to write for obviously but I’ll likely give it a shot as long as it was made using this list (and isn’t smut))

Body Horror Prompts

Wingfic (The good, old-fashioned, non-kinky transformation fic tag.)

Gothic (Werewolf, vampire, etc… you get the drill.)

Animal (Another good old-fashioned classic.)

Cyborg/Robot (Not as fleshy as the others but it is body horror still.)

Fantasy (This one’s pretty good because “fantasy” is actually just a really big umbrella term for absolutely anything as long as it’s not an animal that exists. “Fantasy” ain’t just dragons and unicorns.)

Alien/Eldritch Anatomy (Let’s say your character got abducted by aliens while they were asleep last night and they’ve come out all fucked up. Like that.)

Mutilated by a crazy person Human Centipede-style (Of course, though, this could result in a number of things. Please don’t make me read your own retelling of Human Centipede.)

Really fucked disease (This is fun because if it’s contagious it means potentially more than one character could be affected.

Mutilated by power (You know that one scene from Akira? Yeah, that. A character gets exposed to more weird magic than their body can handle and it starts to change them. Like how the Fantastic Four got their powers, depending on the adaptation.)

Transformation into species from one of your other fandoms (PLEASE someone make it Pokemon, the body horror potential there is impeccable)

Angelic/Demonic transformation (Which one is up to you… or maybe just flip a coin.)

AMOGUS (or something similar like changelings or such. Excuse me, I just left this here because I was out of ideas.)

Body Horror extra flavour spices for you to add if bored:

Mass Transformation (The same except whatever the prompt is happens to more characters than just one or two.)

Partial Transformation (They transform except not much.)

Slow Transformation (In case you feel like writing something a bit longer.)

Voluntary (Voluntary body horror sounds like something really fun, honestly.)

Involuntary but temporary (Like a werewolf, y’know?)

Roll more than once (Self-explanatory.)

Roll again on the opposite table

Transformation (aka the same thing but with no body horror) Prompts

Animal (like the above but instantaneous/oblivious/painless.)

Body Swap (Very fun, especially when different species are added to the mix.)

Gender Swap (If you’d like an idea of a nice twist to add to this, I’d suggest swapping sexual preference as well as gender. Straight men are still straight as women, and gay men are now lesbians. Very fun if only a select few characters have been affected.)

Ghost (May lean into body horror slightly depending on the method of death. Speaking of which, I’m a big fan of when ghosts get unique appearances/powers depending on the method of death, so maybe you could add that to spice it up?)

Trapped in a computer/other kind of machine (I think I read a creepypasta about this once. It was really fun.)

Reincarnated as a Different Species (That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, So I’m A Spider So What?… I think there was this one anime where the main character got reincarnated as a vending machine. That’s how versatile this prompt is.)

Isekai into Another Fandom (Overlaps with the above heavily, but more specific.)

Video Game Logic World (You know the Jumanji sequels? That.)

Emergency Transformation (Like the TvTrope: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EmergencyTransformation)

Karmic Transformation (Like the TvTrope: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KarmicTransformation)

Two+ Characters, One Body (I REALLY love this trope because that baby can fit so many shenanigans in depending on how it’s taken.)

Empathic Transformation (This wasn’t worded really well but basically what if a character is transformed into what they see themselves as/transformed by another character into what the transformer sees them as. This could also cross over into body horror depending on how you take it.)

Transformation Extra Flavour Spices For If You’re Bored:

Mass Transformation (self-explanatory)

Voluntary

Involuntary but temporary (Again, like a werewolf)

Partial Transformation (Of course, this only works with about half of the listed prompts but it’s still good.)

Pokemon (PLEASE. OKAY I KNOW THAT’S SPECIFIC BUT POKEMON TRANSFORMATION FICS ARE ALWAYS A RIDE. IT CAN OVERLAP WITH ALL OF THE ABOVE IF YOU PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT: “GHOST” BEING PHANTUMP. “TRAPPED IN A COMPUTER” BEING PORYGON/ROTOM. I’D LOVE TO READ A FIC LIKE THIS. AND. AND. IF YOU’RE NOT INTERESTED IN WRITING A FULL-ON POKEMON STORY, JUST PUT IT IN ONE OF YOUR OTHER FANDOMS. LIKE, POKEMON AREN’T THINGS THAT EXIST THERE, NOT EVEN IN FICTION, SO EVERYONE’S WEIRDED THE FUCK OUT.)

Roll more than once (Self-explanatory.)

Roll again on the opposite table

And that’s all! I’ll try my best to read anything you guys may make with this list (that’s not smut, kinky or a retelling of Human Centipede) so go out and spread the word! (oh god people are definitely going to accuse this of being my fetish aren’t they)

#ao3 #writing #body horror #writing prompt list #prompt list

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phoenixyfriend · 2 years

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Worldbuilding: The ASPIRE Method (Introduction)

Read here

Now available to all patrons!

I will likely make a version of this available in full on tumblr for free at some point. However, as this is currently my only source of income, I would like to keep it limited to just patrons. If you are a patron, please do not share to large groups of people; encourage them to subscribe (even just a dollar a month!) instead.

Preview:

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Introduction

So you’ve figured out your main character. You’ve designed an alien species and planet, or you’ve reinvented the vampire, or you’ve just set up your latest fantasy world. Maybe your characters are purely human. You’ve got a few cities named, a few maps, and a basic idea of how you want society to work… mostly.

It’s time to start building your world.

There are many ways to approach worldbuilding, especially when you dabble in both original fiction and derivative.

One of my preferred approaches is what I refer to as the ASPIRE method. It is derived from the PERSIA method of historical analysis, a tool taught in the International Baccalaureate and American AP courses.

A – Arts S – Social P – Political I – Intellectual R – Religion E – Economic

I’ll be going through these in order and providing both historical and fictional examples of how they apply.

A key part of this tool is to remember that any aspect of a society is influenced by any or all of the others. Any aspect you want to analyze will be through multiple lenses, and the process of building your world will be influenced by all of these.

Not every story needs to have incredibly complex worldbuilding, but the more complex you want it to be, the more use you will get out of this tool. It is somewhat biased towards a Western perspective, as I grew up in the United States.

The Power of the ASPIRE Method

Why should you use this format to develop your fictional setting?

I hesitate to describe any approach to a creative act as ‘should.’ What I do believe is that this is a process worth attempting, to see if it is one that helps you understand your own setting, and finding the possible loopholes that your readers may find distracting.

This is a process that is primarily structured to help you break down what makes for a society, and build it up on the basis of what makes for a society or culture in a real world. The bones are built on an analysis method for historical studies, and so this creative method works heavily through analysis and formalization. You very likely are already thinking of some of these things—you may have decided that this is a monarchy, in a temperate climate, following a polytheistic religion—but this process helps you refine what you’ve already decided on, and then build out the logical consequences or expansions of those decisions.

What this allows you to do is take your vague thoughts or bare bones, and build on them until you have something that, even if you do not include it in your narrative, will hold up if you do touch on one of them, or will let you hide those little easter eggs that an eagle-eyed reader will delight in. Who doesn’t enjoy recognizing that an author did research on a subject close to the reader’s heart, even if it’s just noticing that two seemingly unrelated details mean a third, cohesive thing that suggests a wider world of thought in the background?

Why is the method based on these six topics?

As mentioned, this is a reformatting of a tool that I learned as a student in high school. There are things that are invariable facts in your story, like how your main species reproduces, or what your geography and basic weather are, but the things we build on those basics are all based on the ways that people interact with one another, and that is a different beast.

I believe that a world that has thought put into the ways its people function socially will feel more ‘real’ than one that has an extensive and complex rulebook for the laws of magic or the geological history. This will vary by the genre and the consumer, because a geologist playing a tabletop game with complex magic rules will likely prefer the latter, but for someone that is consuming a narrative, character interaction is a central part of the draw.

Society is just the wider net of interaction.

The nature of a society, and thus of the world you build, is in how people relate to one another and to the world around them. These things are either greatly formalized, like politics or academia, or vague and often undefinable, like arts and social dynamics. Others are somewhere in between, like economics and religion.

Most elements of society fall into more than one of these fields. Something like fashion or textbook design will be impacted by all six in obvious ways. Other things, like banking interest rates or agricultural trade, are obviously in one field, with less obvious ties to the others.

We as a society are rarely, if ever, without connection to one another.

We communicate thoughts and feelings in words and pictures.

We find ways to be better than each other, just as often as we find ways to better each other.

We set rules and regulations for our safety, and find people who do that as a job so the rest of us can focus on making the things we need to survive.

We learn, and invent, and teach.

We find things we can’t explain, in our minds and in our worlds, and come together to tell stories of something bigger than what we can see.

We take what we have, turn it into something new, hoard and share and trade, and tell ourselves that innovation is built on the backs of the search for more capital.

(You may want to put a pin in that one.)

This is all a very flowery way to say that humans are a communal species, and the ways in which we build and then define that community mean something.

(Continue on Patreon)

#creative writing #world building #writing guides #tutorials #worldbuilding #Phoenix Patreon #Patreon #Phoenix Files #original work

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forgotten-elves · 1 year

Text

The Grey and the Dark Legacy Challenge

A six generation legacy challenge dedicated to morally grey and villainous sims.

Required packs: Get to Work, Island Living, Journey to Batuu, Strangerville, Werewolves, Vampires, Paranormal

Getting started: Aging can be set to whatever you prefer, including being turned off entirely. Gen 1 can be created alone, or with a spouse, sibling, parents, etc., and can be of any age. The listed aspiration does not have to be picked as the sim's first one; they just need to work on (and ideally complete) it at some point in their lives. This challenge is meant to be flexible and guide storytelling, not to be intentionally difficult, so feel free to make changes to the rules where you need to.

Currently play-testing. As I do, I may make some changes.

Generation 1: For Peace

The more you’ve learned about the world, the better you understand just how vulnerable the planet of Earth really is. You’re devoted to protecting the human race from the wilds of space, to ensure peace and security. Some might not agree with your methods, but you know that the ends justify the means.

Career: Military (Covert Operator Branch)

Aspiration: Enforcer of Order

Traits: Gloomy, Paranoid, Neat

Goals:

Max career and aspiration

Defeat the Mother Plant

Generation 2: For Chaos

As a child, you suffocated under the strict discipline of your parent. You want to be free of their self-righteous hypocrisy and embrace your flaws to the greatest extreme.

Career: Criminal (Boss)

Aspiration: Public Enemy

Traits: Evil, Hot-Headed, Slob

Goals:

Max the career and aspiration

Contract werebies and become a werewolf

Turn 5 Sims into werewolves

Have at least one non-werewolf child (this must be your heir).

Generation 3: For the Unnatural

You grew up in a household that was brutal, crude, and utterly boring. The only interesting people were the faceless whispers you heard in the trees, and the songs of sirens who drowned their lovers in the sea. You’re a romantic who yearns to fall deeper into the nether realm, and your favorite love story has always been a tragic one.

Career: Freelancer (Paranormal Investigator)

Aspiration: Villainous Valentine

Traits: Romantic, Loves Outdoors, Child of the Ocean

Goals:

Become a mermaid

Max aspiration

Max the charisma skill

Max the medium skill

Perform the Siren’s Call on at least one sim

Generation 4: For the Unknown

You never quite had the talent to invoke the nether realm the way your parent did. You found your solace in technology and science, but there’s a part of you that will always be drawn back to the supernatural.

Career: Criminal (Oracle)

Aspiration: Chief of Mischief

Traits: Mean, Creative, Geek

Goals:

Max career & aspiration

Max the logic skill

Have an observatory and complete the space prints collection.

Be abducted by aliens.

Generation 5: For Opportunity

You grew up with your parent’s fascination for the stars, but when you finally make your way into the larger galaxy, you find things aren’t really much different than they are on Earth. Money and greed still make the worlds go round, and though you’re disillusioned, you find yourself adapting quite well to this new truth.

Career: Astronaut (Interstellar Smuggler)

Aspiration: Galactic Privateer

Traits: Kleptomaniac, Self-Assured, Outgoing

Goals:

Max career & aspiration

Use the Listening Device to blackmail other sims

Have at least one child that is not an occult (this must be your heir)

Generation 6: For Eternity

As a member of the ever-changing galactic underworld, you watched your parent so often barely escape with their life, and the fragile nature of mortality became something you despise. You may have been raised with all the “right” connections, but you have greater ambitions than to just stay in the game. You want to build something that lasts, to be something that lasts for centuries.

Career: Secret Agent (Villain)

Aspiration: Mansion Baron

Traits: Materialistic, Loner, Ambitious

Goals:

Max career & aspiration

Become a vampire

Reach the rank of Grand Master Vampire

#sims 4 legacy challenge #sims 4 #sims 4 simblr #simblr #legacy challenge #sims legacy challenge #legacy challenge rules #sims 4 legacy challenge rules #journey to batuu #sims 4 vampires #strangerville #sims 4 mermaids #collages made with picsart #sims 4 werewolves #sims 4 occult #sims 4 occults #sims 4 star wars

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syntaxfraud · 5 months

Text

Vent

TW: mentions of bl0od, some cusswords, dysphoria

I was questioning my identity as a non-human, and I mightve figured that I most closely identified to being a vampirekin (potentially a fictokin? Idk if I spelled that right) or an alienkin. Also keep in mind that Im fifteen, so my vent could have a few grammatical mistakes.

I could be a therian as well but I realized that I could be 'choosing' to identify as one to find some community to relate to (since Im autistic and cant really socialize with people, especially with my peers in HS). I dont necessarily feel a connection with most animals, let alone nature, and I felt emotionally numb when I did quadrobics.

So there's probably a low chance of me actually having a connection to animals, therefore it wouldnt be best for me to identify as a therian. But at the same time, Ive shown the most important criteria of being a therian, such as dreaming, shifting, etc,. Specifically, Ive shifted into a bat (flying fox) in dreams and phantom shifts. This could have some correlation to being a vampirekin in a sort pf eay though, because in the dream I remember I was a vampire.

On the otherhand, Ive always had some connection with supernatural beings and aliens. I think I was around seven when I watched a vampire movie (hotel trannsylvania) and I quickly felt this weird connection with the vampires. I legit wanted to be a vampire, hell I even dreamt of becoming one multiple times (I still do, Ive tried lucid dreaming because of that). The problem was that I didnt have the urge to drink blood, I mean I've tried when I was 12-14 (Im 15 now) and in my edgy phase (so its either I did that because its cool or because it has something to do with my kintype). Idk, my guess is that I could have some non-human dysphoria (since I always wanted sharper canines), maybe a bit of a psychological connection to vampire kintype, and definitely an emotionally connection to vampire kins.

But theres another problem, because I noticed that the vampires that I had an emotional connection to most were only from the castlevania show. I am aware that multiple shows/movies/etc,. can potray vampires in various perspectives but if I only related to vampires from one specifc kind of show, then shouldnt that logically indicate that Im a fictokin? I've kinned multiple characters because I was able to relate to their personalities, backstories, development, etc,. (even though those specifc characters werent created to be relatable)

So my concerns are that;

I dont know if its possible to have multiple other-kin types. I mean it sorta makes sense, since there can be gray areas in a black and white concepts but still lmao-

Also, if my idenity as a therian and otherkin are both valid, Im afraid if I might be considered cringe or delusional. Like I've seen people react to cringe comps with people saying that they're (example): "lesbian, transgender, cat/wolf therian, fictokin" (Im just putting random identities as an example, no bigotry intended) and they did not take that lightly, because apparently those peopke are putting 'too many labels on themselves'. Because of that, Im afraid if I might be one of those people, since I also personally identify as a lot of stuff (trans male, pansexual, potentially otherkin/therian).

I'm not sure if I'm choosing to be a therian/otherkin, since I could be trying to fit myself into a specific community due to social isolation (which Ive struggled with my entire life). Im also scared if my identity could be a phase too tbh.

Honestly any advice is appreciated, I would also definitely like to know how yall figured out that you were non-humans <3

#vampirekin #therian community #therian culture #therian #species dysphoria #otherkin #fictokin #otherkin community

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covenofthearticulate · 1 year

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Louis/Lestat: Louis gave Lestat a hard look and said, "You can't always have your way."

Send a pairing and a starting line!

Louis gives Lestat a hard look and says, "You can't always have your way."

"Says who?" Lestat saunters across the room, away from Louis, towards the vanity mirror. Taking a seat, he pauses for a moment to stare at his reflection, startled as always by the icy alien eyes that look back at him.

"Says I."

Louis doesn't often stoop to Lestat's juvenile taunts, but sometimes he wonders if it's the only way to get through to him. Logic certainly won't work, it never has in the past.

"Who died and made you king? Oh wait—"

Louis can hear that Cheshire Cat grin in his voice already, and it's utterly maddening.

It's one thing to slip into the night without the provided protection of those Blood Drinkers assigned to protect him and without informing a single soul of his whereabouts, but to come home with that smile, as if he's achieved some sort of triumph! Louis hates to fight like this, he's acutely aware of how he comes across. The angry housewife, the jealous lover. But he's past the point of caring this evening.

"If you are going to brag about your crown, I would expect you to at least live up to the title."

He's quick to cut deep with his anger, just as Lestat is quick to dismiss it: "Oh, don't be so dramatic, Louis!"

He punctuates the exclamation with a flick of his wrist as he reaches behind his head to take down his hair, admiring the way it tumbles back over his shoulders.

"I happen to be completely serious. You cannot just disappear like that. This isn't a game." Louis peers at him through the mirror, steps closer until Lestat has no choice but to turn and face him.

"Did you workshop this little lecture with Marius while I was away? You sound so very much like him, it's remarkable."

He makes himself laugh with that little quip, but before he can get another word out, Louis hand is on his shirt collar, and suddenly the wooden edge of the table cuts into his back. It isn't the violence of the act that shocks him, so much as the intensity imbued in each movement, the sudden tide of unbridled rage sizzling in his very bones. Louis could have pinned him with his gaze alone.

Ah, Lestat finally thinks to himself, so this is more than our nightly bickering routine.

"You listen to me now, Lestat." He all but growls. "You cannot run off like that again, do you understand me? Your recklessness will have consequences one day— it always does."

The room is silent, for a moment, as something switches in Lestat. Something old, and ugly, and only ever brought about by Louis' particular incisive confrontation.

In a flurry of movement, he pushes Louis away using only a small portion of his strength, and sends him stumbling backwards. A cruel reminder of his power.

"I can take care of myself, Louis."

"And what if you can't?"

"I can."

"What if something had happened, Lestat? What if, while you played hooky on your meetings, something were to happen to you? Do you have any idea—"

"—any idea of the responsibility I hold to all our kind, blah blah blah, yes, Louis, I know. God knows I know! Every breath I take, I am reminded of that responsibility, I do not need you hammering it into me!" He slams one hand on the vanity table in his frustration and sends the whole thing shattering.

"I am the vampire Lestat and I know goddamned well what that means to everyone around me!"

"I'm not talking about everyone around you, I'm talking about me!" Louis bites.

"You! What about y—"

"Do you have ANY IDEA, Lestat, how UTTERLY EXHAUSTED I am from WORRYING ABOUT YOU?!"

And there it is. An outburst decades in the making.

He raises his voice to a bellowing volume, impossible to ignore, filling the space with all pent up rage and resentment, grief and anguish at those years spent on the cold chapel floor. Every misadventure, from human bodies to the concert stage, with Louis right there just beyond reach, praying that they might meet again, that they might be together, that Lestat might live to see another day, if only for the selfish reason of holding Louis in his arms.

"I don't care if you leave." Louis finally breathes, softer now. "I don't care if you want to be alone. But I need you to trust me, and I need you to tell me. Not as your consort, but as your lover."

It's Lestat's turn to soften, now, as a pool of crimson begins to well in the corner of his eyes. "I just wanted...I can't breathe in here, Louis, it's suffocating."

He feels so small when he says it. So childish.

But Louis is there in an instant, pressing their foreheads together, inhaling a breath just to feel the way it fills his chest in this moment. The depth of the moment feels at once terrifying and tender. Like the comforting squeeze of a boa constrictor, it holds them tight for some time.

"One of these days," Louis sighs deeply, "I'm going to kill you myself just to avoid the agony of waiting for someone else to do it."

Lestat smiles at the bleak punch of humor, nuzzles his nose against Louis's, and whispers:

"You won't be rid of me so easy, lover."

"Is that a promise?"

"Promise."

#sorry i changed the tense of the sentence LOL idk why i always be writing in present tense #anyway THANKS for this asfdgfhgjvhebf i got a little carried away and made myself a little too emotional #one day i'll write more meta about it but i do genuinely think louis holds a lot of pent up resentment #for the amount of times lestat has almost died LMAO #louis is always there to pick up the pieces and that's not fair :(#GOD THEY ARE SO MESSY thank you for this prompt i had such a good time writing this one #loustat #louis de pointe du lac #lestat de lioncourt #drabble #vc fic #my writing

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timemachineyeah · 10 months

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Here's how it works:

Either,

A) Human memory is a perfect record of an exact experience, and those experiences are always correctly interpreted OR

B) People can be really wrong about even their own firsthand experiences

Right? Like those are the options. And here's the thing, I don't think anyone who has ever once tried to find a thing they swore they put right there has ever believed A. Like you can pretend to, but you don't. You have written things down before for yourself for later. You take a picture of your parking spot like anyone else.

And B is obvious, because the alternative to the possibility that people can be wrong about their own experiences is that: we are constantly hopping from alternate reality to alternate reality. Dreams are real. Did you find inconsistencies in your reminisces with someone else? You're both right and one or both of you ?dimension hopped? ??somehow?? which is a thing that apparently happens all the time. Every conspiracy is real. Every God is real. Every prophecy and vision is real. Aliens are real and bigfoot is real the chupacabra is real and ghosts are real and fairies are real and chemtrails are real and antisemitic lizard people are real and satanic child-sacrificing cults are real, all of it. Every single thing any person fervently believes, so much so that it is real to them, is objectively real to everyone, in an inherently contradictory universe that can hold no meaning.

But, like, that's why we have to find some other kind of evidence for things, right? That's why we have to compare notes and test our senses against the evidence and against reason. There are, of course, some things that we have to take other people's word for. When measuring people's feelings experiences, about the only thing we can do is ask them. Which is impossible to double check. But it's all we have.

But when someone's experience goes outside the bounds of what is possible according to much more duplicable and predictive sciences, the only thing I have any evidence to believe is that you believe it. And I will respect that you believe it, but I don't have to alter my behavior or worldview to accommodate it. I don't mean that harshly. It's not an insult. It's just a fact. It's not reasonable to expect someone to alter their entire worldview based on a single conviction and no other evidence. That's a wild thing to ask even someone you are incredibly close with to do.

There are maybe one or two people who I know well enough and respect their incredulity enough that if they came to me in confidence and told me a story neither of us would usually believe for whom I would at least entertain the idea that maybe it really was aliens/ghosts/angels/w'ev. But even that. Even that is highly contextual and I wouldn't just believe them. Now, I might play along, again depending on context. Because I'm not an asshole. If your close friend comes to you and says they think they saw an alien vampire ghost Christ then you, like, read their vibe and talk it out and help however you can because like, real or not that sounds stressful.

But if I don't know you? And you lead with that? And are offended I doubt the veracity of your experiences? Like? What were you expecting? What if I told you I don't believe you because I personally saw or experienced something directly contradictory? Are you going to drop your ideas in favor of mine?

And here's the thing, there's nothing wrong with changing your mind in light of evidence. That's actually really recommended. It's good to be willing to be wrong. About anything and everything. Which has to include even your most fundamental ideas about the world. But when you get enough scientific literacy and logic/semantic literacy and media literacy and social literacy (or use your other literacies to help you find reliable sources on the ones you lack), there's some stuff that becomes more and more supported by evidence.

And it also becomes easier to see the traps, and a lot of them take predictable, repeatable shapes. There are only so many potential points of error in a usual argument. Like an experienced veterinarian who can spot a common illness on sight, but who runs the test to check anyway.

That's the only reasonable way to operate in a world where the only direct experience we have is our own, and even that is something we cannot rely on.

Because if you can absolutely rely on your experience, so can everyone else. So if you and them contradict one another, either they are filthy liars for no apparent reason, or you are from different realities. And those are both completely unlivable mental states to take on with no evidence in their favor.

No. The mental state that is both more personally enjoyable and gets better and more accurate results is the one of curiosity and skepticism. One that demands kindness to others, but not deference.

IDK what I'm talking about any more

#timemachine wuz here #posting in the weeds #cleaning out my drafts

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taonpest · 1 year

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Hello friends, mutuals and other lok fans. In today’s essay I will try to answer a simple question: why does Zephon lay eggs? Now, the question sounds stupid and we could answer it easily by saying that it’s because of the inspirations the character designers used, most probably the alien queen from the alien franchise and also mantis who sometimes make oothecas even though they have no eggs to lay. We could also answer this question by saying it’s just a game design thing for the boss fight, but in a series of game where every single aspect of it can be explained with the lore and all, I think we can and should try to answer that question by using in-game elements.

So this is what I’ll attempt today!

Firstly I’d like to take a look at Zephon’s bitterness toward Raziel. I think it’s safe to say that he is jealous of him by the way he talks to him but I don’t think he is jealous of him the way their brothers are. Melchiah, Rahab, Dumah and Turel hate Raziel because he’s Kain’s favorite, precious first born son, and thus they try to get Kain to notice them: Melchiah has the biggest clan, Rahab has overcome his weakness and became resistant to water, Dumah’s clan is known for having the best warriors of Nosgoth, Turel has The SmokestackTM and the strongest clan (as in the strongest vampires among them all). But Zephon? He has the smallest clan and the smallest territory, climbing may be useful but he doesn’t use his dark gift in any meaningful way. His biggest achievement was to take over the cathedral.

He clearly doesn’t try to please Kain in any way. He did the bare minimum.

So why would he be jealous of Raziel then?

Well in my opinion he is jealous of the attention Raziel gets, not only from Kain and their brothers, but by “lesser” people, humans especially. I will talk about Zephon’s relationship with his clan and humans in more details later but know this it is something important. In a world in which vampires are seen as gods by a part of the human population I think it would be logical to worship Raziel more than the others, as he is the most “popular” one and the closest to Kain which I assume may be percieved as some sort of God of Gods to the human worshippers. But do all worshippers get to become Razielims, hell, do they even get the right to stay inside his stronghold? Only a fair few get these blessings if you ask me. Meanwhile I think the cathedral easily opens its doors to new worshippers which is why there are so many of them there.

In my opinion Zephon has been ejected of the political chessboard of Nosgoth in a way. He’s weak, he’s a coward and taking over the cathedral was his only exploit. All he can do is lure, deceive and trap easy prey.

Okay time to talk about his clan. I think it could be interesting to take a look at parenthood in lok but I’m not here for that today, I’m here to take a look at Zephon’s motherhood specifically. I think it’s safe to consider that all of the boys are fathers to some extent (Raziel clearly reacts like a parent worried for his children’s safety and not like a monarch afraid of loosing his kingdom in the beginning of Soul Reaver) but I do think they imitate Kain’s way of raising their offsprings, they put some emotional distance with their fledglings (which doesn’t mean they don’t care about them, of course). I think Zephon does the exact opposite of that. He does take the mother role in his clan, fully embraces it, but the love he gives them is hollow. But it exists nonetheless and it’s enough for the Zephonims.

I think he treats humans with a similar “kindness” and that’s why he’s so popular among them, that’s why there are so many worshippers at the Silenced Cathedral. Nosgoth is so cold, so brutal, knowing that there’s a place somewhere where you wouldn’t be seen as just a sack of meat...it could be worth the risk.

Of course it isn’t. What happens to humans in the cathedral is probably worse than in any other clans because torture and pain don’t end once they’re turned into vampire.

Anyway, Zephon’s false caring is just a great and easy tool to brainwash anyone into loving and trusting him blindly.

In my opinion this is why he devolved to have a “mask”. I think that at some point when he was starting to look more and more monstrous the mask developed on his face, so he could still seduce/lure humans.

To conclude: I think Zephon devolved to lay eggs because he was a mother to his clan and because it’s also a good last trap in case an enemy comes to close to him and he cannot attack them with his forelegs.

#legacy of kain #lok #zephon #can you see I haven't written any essay in years and I didn't want to structure it and I was also lazy to explain exactly what I meant sksks #anyway you get the main idea #Zephon is a mom but a very abusive and evil one <3 #and HELL YEAH AFTER TWO YEARS I GOT TO EXPLAIN WHY HE LAY EGGS #MUTUALS CAN YOU SEE THIS #ARE YOU PROUD OF ME #I still have a lot to say about him but I don't have the right words to explain #anyway #I'll surely make another post about my headcanons for the boys #in fact I'll do it right away

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clanoffelidae · 1 year

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Trinity Blood is absolutely insane and I love it for that but imo the unquestionably funniest part is just Isaak as a whole and how everyone’s just kind of accepted it. 😂

Like vampires who are descendants of mars colonists who became vampires because they got infected with an alien parasite they found in a crashed spaceship and they return to earth after nuclear world war destroys most of the planet? Wacky but alright, there’s some semblance of logic there. The universe is still playing by sci-fi ‘realistic’.

But then according to @/trinitybloodtranslations (I think???) there was apparently an interview where Sunao Yoshida said that he IS all the people Isaak listed as names he’s gone by, the oldest of which is Xu Fu from like 200 BC or whatever.

So the whole thing is oh ‘humans in the FUTURE go to mars and sci-fi stuff happens’ and it’s like ‘yeah okay sure’ and then he just kinda casually slipped in ‘oh and btw Isaak is over 3,000 years old’ with NO further context or explanation and what I think is hysterical about that is that the response of EVERYONE I’ve even seen mention it has been:

-shrug- ‘yeah okay’

Like at this point we’ve all just given up on making any sort of sense out of this and I think that’s beautiful lol

Sunao Yoshida: space vampires, here’s a bunch of hand-wavey sci fi background lore

Us: cool!

Sunao Yoshida: Isaak is over 3,000 years old, I will explain nothing

Us: sure why not

#trinity blood #itd be even funnier if he wasnt ever planning on explaining before he passed either #bc maybe he wouldve explained and maybe he wouldnt have lol #and i think its even funnier to think that he wouldnt have

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annyankers · 2 years

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imo spuffy could use more shape of water energy. why does spike have to increasingly humanize himself to be worthy of buffy when he very literally is an alien species? why is it not allowed or possible for her to see him as the non-human he is, respect that and even appreciate it.

a lot of fics have her grappling with his inhuman nature and how his thinking/morals are different but like... it’s been 25+ years or whatever. i’m tired of that after only about 2 years of fic reading. i want more content of buffy just being like “yeah, he is what he is and honestly? kinda neat!” and like in s5-ish era. if she is like that it’s usually bc of a LOT of work in s6 or it’s s7 beyond.

i would love if her take aways from her relationship with angel and a year of putting up with spike are insights into vampire logic and an acceptance finally that they are People but they are not Human and she can’t ask them to be Human bc that’s like asking a cat to be a dog.

#train.txt #spuffy

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eye-of-yelough · 11 months

Note

sending ask about aeryn

i would give my life for you, kind stranger.

OKAY SO.

Aeryn is my go-to character to play as in fantasy rpgs, basically. atm he’s only in Skyrim, Elden Ring and the Sims, although that one doesn’t. yknow. i mean it doesn’t really count i just made him for fun.

the best way to describe him is “guy who’s love language is acts of service. who falls in love very easily.”

so he joins the dark brotherhood in skyrim and the volcano manor in elden ring. naturally.

(i can’t think of anything specifically to give a content warning for so let’s just say he’s a fucked up little sex freak and i’m gonna be talking about it a little under the cut)

more ⤵️

these posts articulate his Vibe much better than i can. he really just. can’t conceptualise a life that doesn’t involve him devoting himself to a person or a cause. he’s also, as much as he tries to convince himself that he just wants a normal life, completely addicted to chaos and misery. he’s also kind of a hyper-sexual sadomasochist which really makes everything so much more Messy™️

he’s also trans. but he isn’t. but he is. he just never medically (magically? fantasy logic) transitions, makes no attempt to pass, except maybe his voice, which is very rough and nasally, and doesn’t correct people when they get it wrong cos he thinks it’ll get in the way of people wanting to have sex with him 🤷 a slut’s gotta have priorities i guess.

also his way of carrying himself is distinctly not feminine. not really masculine either just. alien. chiana from farscape core. now that i think about it he may be a little based off of her. grey skinned slut who wears black and moves animalistically. hmmm.

in Skyrim he’s a bosmer who was seduced by a vampire who wanted him as a blood thrall but the idiot after a while the idiot turned him instead of draining him of everything and killing him. he Came Back Wrong. he’s also not the Dragonborn. can you even imagine. anyway. Listener. Stealth Archer. you know the drill. images⤵️

he’s much more interesting in Elden Ring. because it’s Lore is so vague about the Tarnished’s background, i just revamp his skyrim story slightly. he was a member of religious assassins (confesser starting class) but was betrayed by their leader and he was burned alive in the underground sanctuary. (au, obviously not how it happens) anyway, he has no memory of this. he’s very resistant to the Golden Order, finds the guidance of “grace” very disturbing but also. very difficult resist following, even subconsciously. he has no desire to assume the mantle of Mighty Elden Lord. Patches The Untethered fucking fascinates him and he just. imprints on that poor bald man like a baby bird. literally twirling his hair and kicking his feet and giggling at every attempted homicide. which eventually leads him to the volcano manor

and by the outer gods does he devote himself to them so quickly. so intensely-and why is this becoming a blow by blow of his whole elden ring story. whoops. anyway. when he finds out melina must die for him he Loses His Fucking Shit. it is simply unacceptable. INCOMPREHENSIBLE that someone dies for him. luckily, Shabriri comes along and offers a lovely and elegant solution :)

here’s where what i said before about him not liking the golden order and hating the idea of being elden lord comes in. yes, he can’t imagine himself as a Lord. but as it turns out, when pushed into a corner. he can imagine himself as a Martyr. an ambassador for the misbegotten, the demi humans (are they different words for the same race? i genuinely don’t know) the omens, the nomadic merchants, those who live in death. he can warp this story about one guys selfish journey toward becoming a lord into an epic romantic tragedy about the selfless actions of the saviour of the downtrodden, who disintegrated all that divides and distinguishes. <3 may chaos take the world.

i Am Aware that his outfit is very silly. but it’s part of his character. ambassador for the omens (cloak) and nomadic merchants (idiot hat) and those who live in death (prince of death staff. not seen but it’s there) he used to wear alberichs fancy wizard set but after being burned by Frenzy i imagine him trying to put them back on and not being able to because. burns. painful. so he throws on the soft cloak to protect himself from the elements and goes about his business. half naked at all times. it’s a serve.

i tried putting him in Dragon Age, in both Origins and Inquisition, but i just can’t make him fit in there for some reason. i reckon i could make him work as a Maharial Morrigan-mancer in origins with a bit of canon divergence and a lotta willpower (my own, not like. the games willpower skill you can level up) but that would require to play origins and that’s a pain by itself if i’m being brutally honest. i’ve tried him twice in inquisition with a lovehate cassandra romance that ends just So Bad but. and not to be dramatic here but. i genuinely think he would commit suicide immediately after closing that damn breach. like i just cant think of a single reason he would stay with those people.

anyway. i think that’s finally it? i warned you it would be long. still feel like i’m forgetting something. thank you so much to anyone who’s read this far, i love you with my whole heart

#oc aeryn #your daily dose of idiocy #uh. sure why not #elden ring #skyrim #i don’t think asks show up in the main tags anyway.#once again i am in the weird and rare position of having said all that could be said in the main post #and having nothing to add it the tags. it’s weird.

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