#group: modern prometheus

[draconym]

Just told a group of summer campers about The Modern Prometheus because they were asking about my references to "a Frankenstein" and they are interrogating me for a full plot analysis. Important questions they have:

How did he make the creature?

Where did he get the body parts? Did he kill people?

Why would Frankenstein want to do that?

Why did his mother die?

Why didn't they have good medicine in the 1800s?

Why were people afraid of the creature if he was nice?

If Frankenstein's monster was really big, was his butt also really big?

[ozzgin]

wtf HOW WAS ROMULUS OZZIE Hello??????? I CANT WAIT TO WATCH ITRTR i miss david 8 tho 😓😓 “you finger and i blow” ok gorgeous whatever you say

Ok ok, I let it sit overnight so I could formulate a less feral opinion. I'll do my best to be objective, though you should keep in mind that I'm very biased when it comes to the Alien franchise.

Alien: Romulus First Impressions

Plot. The movie takes place between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). If you've seen the old Alien movies, you will notice it follows the same formula: somewhat slow beginning, a grand reveal, a lot of high-stake escape attempts, shady android behavior, and the classic, speedy succession of plot twists where you think you're safe, only to be surprised the very next moment.

While this movie is meant to behave more like the pre-2000 releases, it does bring some novel elements, which, in my opinion, helped build its own authenticity. Additionally - and without spoiling you - it will involve its own Xenomorph variation. Fantastic idea, and I cannot believe it hasn't been done earlier.

The cast is a group of orphaned youngsters who want to escape their space mining colony. You're introduced to a dystopian, grimy world of overworked humans who've never seen the light of the sun. The main character, Rain, is accompanied by her "brother", Andy, an android programmed to take care of her after the death of her parents. Here's another aspect I enjoyed: an anxious, imperfect android who seems to display an emotional bond with his human.

Rain's friends discover a shipwreck which may contain enough sleeping pods to take them away from these unbearable conditions. Their plan is to sneak in, take the pods, and speed away to a more humane station while in cryosleep. The twist? It's not just any regular ship. They have stepped into the Romulus and Remus research station, operated by Weyland-Yutani, and haunted by yet another failed attempt to contain the Xenomorph horrors.

Characters. Let me tell you, this was a breath of fresh air. Prometheus and Covenant have left me rather skeptical when it comes to a competent cast, yet from the ashes of pathetic military personnel rose a bunch of kids who are built for survival. Rain reminded me so much of Ripley - extremely intelligent, efficient, and strong. Her friends are equally brave in the face of disaster. This was a 10/10 cast, and I'm so glad they finally found the balance between being terrified and still navigating the situation without catastrophic mistakes.

Visuals. The imagery was an absolute treat. They seamlessly combined modern special effects with throwback, retro detailing. The futuristic equipment and locations reminded me a lot of Alien: Isolation. Upon further research, it seems that the director was indeed inspired by the game! It made everything so nostalgic and immersive. The Xenomorph design was flawless as usual, involving a lot of body horror.

Audio. I am desperately waiting for the album to be released on Spotify, because the soundtracks were amazing. The music was composed by Benjamin Wallfisch, who seems to have rather big movie titles under his belt, such as It, and It: Chapter Two. Safe to say this man knows how to instil terror in you. They made sure to incorporate some of the classic pieces, then expanded on that. The alert beats reminded me of Covenant, while other tracks provided their own take on the story. The intro of the movie is aided by dissonant chanting in the background, hinting at the ancient, religious imagery used for the Xenomorphs.

Conclusion. Overall, I'd say this is a must-watch for any Alien fan. It is a tribute to the classic movies, but it still offers a brand-new take to the Alien Universe. The movie had some moments of complete silence - staying true to the "In space, no one can hear you scream" quote - and everyone in the cinema held their breaths. It will keep you on your toes.

[fabronics]

Ok. So. I'm thinking about the lore this upcoming patch, and Chamber's voiceline to ally Harbor, so a few things:

I think Chamber was betrayed by his previous team during his time at Fracture.

I have yet to watch Oppenheimer or read the Modern Prometheus, but I have read about Los Alamos, and I can see that the Valorant devs drew direct inspiration from what happened in history, specifically in US history.

Most of the people who had worked on the atomic bomb did not know they were working on the weapon. Only for a few did know and chose to leave everyone in the dark of the consequences of their actions.

I'm of the opinion that, what happened on Facture is the same: it was a high risk project where only a few handful knew.

I believe thats when Chamber eventually figured out he was working on a weapon and where he lost his trust with his previous team.

A common enemy within a distrustful team is what pushed Chamber and his double to work together and put the facility to an indefinite stop. Was it right? No. Was letting them develop another weapon that could wipe out an entire world also right? Also, no.

The way I see his decision to put a stop with the project (and thus kill so many people that inevitably created Fracture) is the Trolley Problem. Regardless of your choice, you will have blood on your hands. You can choose to do nothing, which ends up with killing more people, or you choose to kill one person but end up saving more people.

Of course, the Trolley Problem is a lot more complicated, and the aftermath of Fracture is even more so, despite it being fictional.

The way I view this is the aftermath of Fracture are for those people who were anti-nuclear bombs (which is beyond reasonable), but they were also the ones to say, "well if I was in Los Alamos, I wouldn't let the development of atomic bombs happen." But these things are far more complex.

Systems have been refined to make us humans docile, happy, and content. It becomes harder to keep systems accountable when its an abstract idea rather than an individual person.

Chamber was able to see through the bullshit and make a decision. It was still an awful decision, and yet, he decided that killing this project dead is better than one or the other world to cease to exist.

Afterwards, of course, Chamber was still guilty. That was the consequences of his action, and something Chamber was willing to put himself through.

Fade's voiceline is made prominent about his dossier.

Now, for Chamber's voiceline to Harbor as an ally. I was wondering who among the Valorant team will see Habor's fallout with his previous team's betrayal, and IMAGINE MY SHOCK IT WAS CHAMBER. Chamber noted that he was glad to see Harbor trust in a new team, with the implication that Chamber himself had gone through something similar to the betrayal Harbor had gone through.

I wonder if Chamber's distrust was born out of betrayal from one person on his previous team, similar to Harbor. Initially, I thought it was a group of people, but now with the upcoming patch, I think it may be one or two people. I'm not sure, obviously. I'm waiting for confirmation for this upcoming patch, but. Its FASCINATING that from a group of people, the betrayal can be traced to two individuals who I may now have a face and name to. Or, if these two people will lead us to the true betrayer behind the scenes. Because Chamber's on the hunt and he wants to make the first "cut" as he puts it to Brimstone.

Half-Baked Works Cited

Strawberry7 on Twitter helped me out! Please check out their cool threads that help me piece together this headcanon/theory. Their thread on Fracture and the Manhattan Project. This thread helped convince me to write this lmao and I'm not just a silly guy in a tinfoil hat. Their thread on the upcoming patch lore. This thread had me occupied the past few days.

Special thanks for Kingdom Archives. Ya'll the real ones. https://kingdomarchives.com/

Under Chamber's voicelines to Harbor on match start, go check it out! Not sure how to include it here, but I had seen it also via Kingdom Archives.

[adhd-fandom-and-gay]

Sighs...long awaited intro post

But before that, can you please share this link or spare some money to donate to some friends of mine in Africa? They're apart of a queer refugee group that's running low on luck, funding, food, and hope so it'd mean the world to me and more if you could try to help in any way you can:

Thank you. Your support is everything in times like this. If you can do anything at all, it will be so much help for them all.

Now, onto the intro post:

🝰 ═════════↻ ◁ || ▷ ↺══════════ 🝯

"Dr. Jekyll has left the building—"

☢ ꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦ ⚗ ꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷ ⚛

Hi! Welcome to my blog! I made this intro post on the 15th of June, 2025, with the help of one of my dear oomfs and test tube sibling: @cultist-bones! (You wouldn't get the lore. You just had to be there when the scientists were formulating us in test tubes, y'know? /sillylilinsidejoke)

You don't get to know my names unless you learn some from a friend of mine or from me directly. It holds too much power for mere mortals (im just a cryptid like that sometimes) so just feel free to call me whatever you want until then. :>

Anyhow! I use He/They/It pronouns along with any neos—so just any pronoun besides she will do!

I am neurodivergent and have ADHD (duh), autism, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and some form of plurality! I'm the core (host? og? i dunno) of a system! No, you don't get to know the full headmate counts unless you talk to us regularly but general questions about our systemhood are fine! :3 I often have difficulty with social cues and such so please be patient and use tone tags, if possible <3

We're learning multiple languages at the moment, notably German and Russian! We aren't particularly fluent in either yet, though.

Update as of the 23rd: I also run a TGS Hyde askblog! @the-spirit-of-londons-nightshift

⚠︎ ⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⌖⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘ ☣︎

` ᝰ.ᐟ ~ Interests !

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde (Any Media! And all! I'm obsessed...)

Frankenstein - The Modern Prometheus (Any Media! Roughly the same for this!)

Tons of world history!

Any creative arts!

Character design

Music

Psychology

Alchemy

Animatic

Cookie Run Kingdom

The Most Dangerous Game (Mostly only the story but open to other iterations!)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Any Media!)

Pretty much any Gothic literature

Lots of works by Edgar Allan Poe (Cask of Amontillado takes first place.)

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

The DHMIS Two of Us! AU on Tumblr (By @/bunnieswithknives on Tumblr)

Deltarune

Undertale

FNaF

BATIM

BBIEAL

ENA

⚕ lıılıılıılıılıılıılıılıılıılıılıılıılı ⚖ ılıılıılıılıılıılıılıılıılıılıılıılııl ♾

"...Call me Mister Hyde."

♍︎ ═════════ ↻ ◁ || ▷ ↺ ═════════ ♋︎

[theoryfan205]

For Black beacon I can't quite do my Cassandra OC idea yet, as I know there's Greek myths in this game at some point (I got hephea I think her name was from the gacha, plus my friend told me where was a group called I think the Delphi oracles?) so I have to wait to get to that point. But, I have discovered something.

The tower of babel was said to be in our world from Babylon, which in modern day would be iraq. Fun fact about nasir and Prometheus! His ass is from Persia, and checking a map... Shows them to appear to be very fucking close to each other. Basically if Prometheus was in Black beacon along with roya the beacon of the tower of babel would be the closest one for his ass to interact with and do his mad scientist shit. unless he only does that after he flees his home in which case it might be the Greek one because Rome and all that. But I'm leaning towards Prometheus used to be one of the people studying the library of babel in eme-an, but his personal experiments with the beacon and the libraries effects leaned more and more towards unethical until eventually he was kicked out, perhaps fleeing into the no return trial or whatever it's called I can't remember rn, when he reemerges from the path he's fully become Prometheus and mastering his craft, making grand advancements in science, making his own clones who perfectly copy his personality, and fully becoming more of a villain.

[doodle-girl]

*cracks knuckles* Okay folks (@arkaix)

DOAI Possum Ramble 2 Electric Boogaloo: The Office

So basically if you already got what’s to know about the Modern Prometheus AU, then you most likely know about the whole “Lankmann feeling the eyes of the writers of this AU”/“If Pastra isn’t writing this story, then who is?” thing. Well, as shown in the last coupla reblogs of this thread, one idea is that we (the DOAI tumblr fandom) are basically all doing our fandom craziness in some kinda big office setting where we’re able to peer into the AUs we make via eyes, those eyes appearing somewhere in the world when we’re observing.

Cut to like an hour or smth later after @corrupteddoodles and I went ham in dms about worldbuilding >:]

Welcome to the DOAIblr Offices; where your ideas become a reality outside this one™️ (art and caption by @corrupteddoodles )

So basically what’s to know is that the inside of the building itself doesnt really follow the rules of reality all too much, it’s just doing it’s own thing to go along with our own craziness. Each member of DOAIblr has their own hallway of sorts, representing ourselves as creators. Some people’ve already started designing their own hallways!! Each hallway has doors (number of doors varying per person) leading towards different office spaces (which will be talked about a bit more later) representing the AUs we’ve created. If an AU has multiple creators, the door will manifest in several hallways.

The Sitcom AU door is pretty much a wildcard and is basically in everyone’s hallway, as that doesn’t really have a “creator” and is a big hodgepodge of everyone’s ideas and stuff (@purplechaosguardian sparked the original idea for it but being completely honest this au doesnt truly “belong” to one or a few people, it’s kind of a big group effort). It might as well be its own hallway with how absolutely huge it is.

I like to imagine that if an AU isn’t revealed to the public just yet (i.e @blazefirefox ‘s swap au as seen in her hallway), then to anyone who isn’t a creator the door kinda looks like what a door in Encanto looks like before a Madrigal kid gets their gift, if you’ve seen that movie. To a non-creator, it’s basically a regular door radiating with creative energy, if you listen closely you can hear small barely intelligible whispers of lore and ideas. Until it’s revealed to the public, only the creator(s) can see what the door really looks like, and only the creator(s) can get into it.

Getting into the offices themselves, the insides are basically amalgamations of different elements of the AUs themselves, all of them having different sheets inside for character refs and character sheets and lore and etc etc. For some decor examples, the inside of the Williams Foundation AU office would most likely be bathed in green and have various gadgets and etc for sciencey stuff™️. The Ragstra’s Show AU office would most likely resemble the backstage of a theater, with some mannequins/dolls and thread strung about.

What’s important to note is that each and every office has an Orb™️ in the center, representing the AU itself. The orb in the sitcom au basically takes up half the room with how big it is. (One thing to note: the orb for the Modern Prometheus AU starts to crack once Lankmann realizes the 4th wall/the writers)

The orb also acts as a way to “observe” and peer into the AU, said observing being how the eyes manifest into the world of the AU. Of course, the eyes shouldn’t be visible to the characters of the AU. *casually uses this as an opportunity to show off some of my own wip eye designs* *I plan to do more but this is what I did so far lmao*

These are all based on respective sonas/representative ocs ahehe (Idk what color the Tigera eyes would be but the Ark eyes are supposed to be teal lmao I just pulled it from a wip sketch) (Also purplechaosguardian doesnt have a sona iirc so in my mind theyre just Big Fuckin Purple Eyes heh)

Also this isn’t necessarily worldbuilding important but I think it’s fun to note: A potential scenario in the Modern Prometheus AU where someone accidentally no-clips out of the office and into the AU since the fourth wall is already breaking and someone has to come get them so there’s no more existential crises lmao

Aaaaaaaand that’s all I can think of for now!! As you can see we have once again spiralled into infinity with an idea and had a blast with it the whole way through :] 👍 This idea is definitely still in development and open to all to add ideas to, of course, as has been this whole thing for a while hehe <3 The possum is done with it’s screaming for now and shall be here if you need it again later o7

[ithilien-bjd]

Ref grid of my bjds!

I'm thinking the best way for me to catch up on posting my backlog of photoshoots will be to ask folks to say who they'd like to see next! I get a bit of decision paralysis when it comes to choosing the next one, which results in me not sharing at all...

Names, read across left to right and top to bottom

> Jae-Seong, Remy, Bitty Bruce, Valere

> Lorne, Eko, Kit, Kulog

> Bronwyn, Smol Simon, Moss, Harlow

> Poesy, Sascha, Damon, Jameson

A little story groups context below the cut for the character and story enthusiasts 😊

💀 - Modern Prometheus-es project: ragtag and somewhat chaotic group of friends set in modern world. The "normal" adventures of "normal" people.

🐸 - Fantasy group: each of their characters is reasonably well developed, but I'm not really sure how they connect yet.

Everyone else are mainly "i just think they're neat" dolls- love having them around but they're not my main focus.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

https://www.lifo.gr/stiles/optiki-gonia/kaos-einai-i-shesi-mas-me-ti-mythologia

Can they stop with modern labels? Every time they try to say that ancient Greece was a queer paradise where it was far from this.

It was criticised in society unless the man was powerful and rich. Like it was a tiny minority and they create this narrative of ancient Greece have over 50% being queer or something.

It's time for our xenoi friends and followers to learn another Greek term. Xenolatreia. It means "worship of anything foreign (mainly from the western countries)", which is a widespread phenomenon among Greeks for the past 2 centuries. It's the following sentiment: "Anything that comes out of western countries is good and it should be praised because we here in Greece are a bunch of illiterate monkeys who live on trees, and cannot see the Deeper Message our Superior Westerners show."

Lifo has had some decent articles over the years but this one reeks of xenolatreia. Lifo supports that the Greeks hate the series because it has queer people in it. so it goes on a campaign to show that Greek mythology had queer people. Which, sure, I don't disagree, but it misses the point. While some Greeks surely have been offended just by the existence of queerness, Lifo misses the REAL reason why Greeks in large felt their mythology was butchered by KAOS. They even wrote it in the article themselves:

"Zeus is a paranoid authoritarian dictator in mid-life crisis who fears losing his power and murders his aides to vent. Hera is a promiscuous goddess who repeatedly betrays Zeus and has mutilated mute priestesses for protection. Dionysos is a spoiled and immature zoomer who, apart from pranks, indulges in orgies with all genders. Poseidon a sadistic god of the sea, who tortures the crew on his ship for fun. Prometheus is gay and killed his lover so he could overthrow Zeus. Orpheus is a famous pop singer and Eurydice does not love him. Theseus is black and gay. The Erinyes are tough-as-nails mechs that look like they stepped out of 'Sons of Anarchy'. The Fates resemble a three-member jury in a talent show. The Trojans are a terrorist group that acts against the gods. Crete is more reminiscent of California than the Mediterranean."

Queer and diverse identities in general are nothing bad. The way KAOS mixed everything into a salad is the real bad thing, and the showrunners hide behind the queer representation when they are met with any other kind of criticism. It's the same tactic Lifo follows here. Only extremely stupid people would have an issue if Ganymees and Zeus were a couple in the show when it was also a part of our mythology. The problem about KAOS for the larger population is not the queerness.

Lifo continues:

The idea we have of Greek myths is, at best, a jumble of bits and pieces created by the Greek school: Zeus has sexual relations with mortals, Hera is jealous, Dionysus engages in revelry, Persephone for some reason resides in Hades , a bird eats the flesh of Prometheus, Aphrodite is the most beautiful and Athena the wisest of the bunch, Artemis hunts, Apollo plays the lyre: a very general and vague idea, much more chaotic than the mixing of myths which "Kaos" attempts.

What a shitty argument. Did you pay any attention in school, I wonder?? Do you know that we know our myths also outside the Greek school and that the Greek school teaches based on the ancient sources, and we often read the ancient text itself?? Also, no, the situation here is not more absurd than what KAOS does. The mythology is what it is. KAOS takes an already established thing and makes a turd out of playdoh.

Instead, we demand that a series aiming for commercial appeal follow our preferred script line and stay true to what? In our own obsessions, revisions, angulations and Christian puritanisms?

To our freaking culture, dear Lifo. To the myths we wrote and passed down for two and a half millennia, dear Lifo. They are fairly widespread and they are very difficult to get wrong.

[clean-casual-analysis]

Alien Romulus and Being Forced to Grow up

Of the three modern Alien movies post Resurrection, Alien Romulus is probably my favorite. That’s not to say I didn’t really like Prometheus or Covenant, both being very effective sci-fi horror films while taking the Alien story in a different direction. And I won’t say that Alien Romulus is a perfect movie, where I’m not sure where director Fede Álvarez’s love for the franchise begins and the corporate grown nostalgia bait ends. (The comparisons to Force Awakens and Rogue One, while blunt, are not inaccurate) But I think Romulus manages to apply the central themes of the original alien movies in a way we haven’t seen before in a very well executed way. The result is a film that deals with being forced to mature in a brutal world and the consequences of that sudden maturity.

These main characters are the youngest that the franchise has given us, save for Newt. Each one is forced to work in the mines of a Weyland Yutani owned world, which drives them to risk breaking the law and stealing from an abandoned ship. Andy goes from a kind, dad-joke cracking little brother to a cold and priority focused android out of necessity. And then, of course, there’s the offspring. The final obsical our protagonist must overcome is a mutated creature that grows from an infant to a full sized adult in minutes.

With the internet, groups of people are becoming more aware of how cruel the world can be at a younger age. The fight for a better tomorrow continues to be thrust upon people might not be prepared or mature enough to handle it. It’s easy to lose yourself in this fight, even it’s for the right cause. To become abrasive, mean-spirited or cynical is practically the easy way out. But if we choose that way out, if we fully reject “immature” ideas like kindness and aiding others in need, we risk becoming something terrible.

[cosmiischillin]

Twilight Town: The Frankenstein Twins

Sometimes I got to remember Frank and Len have been and always will be my favorites of the show and I think they’re the most popular aside from Misery and Ruby. I even drew a sketch of them from memory and now Twilight Town exists.

And since I have grouped both twins together. It’s gonna be a long one for the monster analysis. Especially since they’re based on a monster with a LOT of lore and background so let’s get started now

Why is the design part so damn long??

I always saw the twins with two different styles, especially in the Rock aesthetics. Frank would be the 50s-70s style of rock. The checkerboard and pomp hair definitely played a part there. It’s why he got jackets and more biker/greaser type style (growing up my mom used to do a happy Days musical). Len is the punk era of rock. Messy hair, flames, and just extra edge. His fashion was experimental and less clean as his brother. Aside from that I gave them different instruments. Frank has “Devil’s trophy” a golden bass and Len has “Tombstone” a tombstone styled guitar.

So when I was making the twins. The original concept had them still conjoined in adulthood. In fact most of my early sketches had them like that. They could only split apart with magic. I even had a storyline that they asked Jackie to do that and they would live non-conjoined for 24 hours. In the end, the decision would be that they would split as adults via surgery.

The choice of making them separate was the multiple struggles that would come once they’re adults. Relationships would be complicated, one sibling would have different ones compared to the other, and ultimately, they couldn’t blend in pretending to be a costume which I already made a post about, almost getting killed by humans.

The Modern Prometheus

I think I got the idea that Frank and Len were Frankenstein monsters from talking with my friend who is also the co-creator for ENAF. Honestly there was a lot of details that would work for that concept. Frankenstein’s monster sometimes gets his names shortened to be just Frank or Frankie, different illterations had him green (on rare cases blue), and even the visibility of stitches (which took me 13 years to see). So once I had them be the sons of Frankenstein’s monster (which is actually Frank 1) and Bride of Frankenstein (who is named Eliza) I did as much research and story writing about the whole family as I could. It’s why they have white hair streaks, hate fire, covered in stitchesand are affected by electricity. They get shocked and burned just as much as misery sometimes lol.

With the idea that they can eat humans is simply the fact that they’re undead monsters, almost in similarity to zombies. They’re far more intelligent and controlling than them since they have active non decaying brains and creations are different. The two have a rule with Ruby that they can only kill and eat humans who harm or attack them so they don’t just go by eating them all the time.

Background and Origins

There was a man named Victor Frankenstein. He lived nearby a monster sanction. Rather than react in fear, he was friendly to them which led to his exile from humanity. With no family to have, he created two monsters via science, Frank and Eliza Frankenstein. The couple were happy with Victor, even taking up careers in music becoming popular musicians with Victor’s support. (Oh and I have designed both parents. *yay*)

At some point, Eliza had twins who were unfortunately born stillborn due to lack of vital body functions. Since this would be likely the only chance the monsters could reproduce, Victor sewn the twins together and reanimated them back to life. The twins would be named Frank and Len and would live most of their childhood with their family before moving to Twilight Town as teenagers with a growing band.

When they were 18, they decided to undergo a procedure done by Victor that would give them two complete bodies by using their dna to replicate their bodies. After that they were no longer conjoined but no matter it, they still prefer to be close.

Next Up: Polyphemus

[crit20art]

Hiiiii I haven’t been posting but I have been drawing more lately, mostly mine and others’ OCs from a TTRPG called The Darkest House !!

I’m currently working on character/intro sheets so maybe once I post those I’ll post more stuff about the blorbos :3 I’m sooooo normal about them (<-he’s fucking insane)

Here’s a meme I made about them. hhsgsjdh

[ID: An edited version of a meme that says "Every queer friend group gotta have the: furry monsterfucker bondage guy, the modern Prometheus, Chris (he works at the union), and MISSING PERSON.” Original characters Adrian Lancaster, Fyn Carter, Craig Carter, and Abby Wright are listed under each title, respectively. End ID.]

[luxury-nightmare]

The Office

The group walked down a narrow hallway, Lux in the lead. Alex had started to look around, taking in their surroundings. The hallway was painted in the same black and purple, with stings of pumpkin-shaped lights hanging from the ceiling. Only four doors were in the hallway. One was the office they had just left, one was over to the side, greenish with a sign that read “Dreams of the Black” above it.

And the other was boarded up, locked up tight like they were trying to keep something inside. The signed above the door read “Modern Prometheus” with chipping letters. Alex looked at it for a bit, before a sharp burst of pain shot through their forehead. They stumbled back, and the other Alex, the one with angel wings, caught them.

“You okay?” They asked

“Yeah” they replied, looking back at the door. It was like they knew that door, like it was trying to tell it something.

A jingling of keys broke the spell, and Alex looked over at Lux, who was fidgeting with a key ring, standing in front of the final door in the hall. This one was much more clean, drawings and writings taped to it like children’s drawings on a fridge. The signed above it read “Sitcom Au”.

She finally settled on a key, then unlocked the door. “Alright” she muttered to herself, then turned to the group, “I need you not to freak out” she said to the group. The Alexs looked at eachother, then to Clyde, and nodded. Lux took a breath of relief. “Good” she said, then opened the door.

The group followed Lux into a large room, covered in drawings and writings. A table sat in the middle of the room, a crystal orb about the size of a basketball sat in the middle. Two other people stood across from them, next to a water cooler. One reminded Alex of a displacer beast from DnD, with grey fur and tentacle-like heads extending from their shoulders. They wore a black hoodie with red devil horns sown to the hood, and were talking with another veldigun, who looked very uncomfortable, staring into a plastic cup filled with water.

Alex knew this was them, the aching familiarity they had experienced when seeing their other for the first time had returned with vengeful force. They were very different from the other two Alex’s in the room, with bat like wings and fur that reminded Alex of the aurora borealis. Three striped trails dragged along the floor as the fellow velidgun stared into the cup. Alex felt their body moving towards the veldigun against their will.

“hey,” they said, and the other veldigun looked up from their drink, “I’m Alex, but you probably already knew that.” They stuck out their hand awkwardly for a handshake, with the other veldigun took in an equally awkward way. “Alex as well” they said, before turning back to their drink.

“So, what’s your world like?” The other veldigun looked up, and took a minute to think “it’s nice,” they said, almost sentimental, “me and spec share a house, Clyde’s still a dick but at least he is being nicer to Spec-“

“Who’s Spec?” Alex asked, and the other veldigun looked up at them in confusion

”Spec isn’t in your universe?” They asked, “who converted you then?”

“Clyde I think,” the other veldiguns eyes widened “I’m not sure if conversation works the same in our universes, but for me it was a slow and painful process”

The other Alex looked over to the side, yellow eyes wide and a shaky smile mirroring a Jack-o-lantern lighting up their face “never thought I would be grateful to be stabbed.” Alex’s eyes went wide “you got stabbed?” The other veldigun let out a shaky giggle. “Yeah, during the raid. We needed to get everyone out of the asylum, and a caretaker just stabbed me through the gut. Probably would’ve died if Spec hadn’t converted me.”

“Wait,” Alex turned to face the other veldigun “it wasn’t just Winfrey?”

“Yeah, Winfrey was being used to convert everyone else” they responded, and Alex’s eyes sparkled

“Tell me everything”

[the-chosen-none]

I have no real interest in mods aside from somewhat following the Frontier mess, but when I found out that the fairly popular old New Vegas Bounties mods included incredibly blatant references to Judge Holden and Glanton from Blood Meridian, plus a character named "Javier Sugar" who speaks several lines lifted straight from No Country for Old Men, I wanted to find out how many references to other things pop up throughout the three mods. Turns out, a LOT.

I identified some of them myself, but eventually when I realized how much time it would take for me to watch a whole playthrough or try it out myself, I decided to look up the rest on TV Tropes and put them all together in a list.

The aforementioned Judge Holden knock-off is also said to be seven-feet tall and is a child predator (though only technically implied to be in Holden's case)

The character literally named Glanton runs a group who goes around killing "tribals"

There's a character named Cormac, as in Cormac McCarthy

During the scene with "Javier Sugar", in addition to all the NCFOM quotes there's also a random quote from the movie The Outlaw Josey Wales thrown in there... to spice things up? IDK, the quote is something like "Dyin' ain't no way of livin', boy"

A character called "Harmonica" references one of the main characters of Once Upon a Time in the West

The ghoul Doc Friday references the historical figure Doc Holiday, and his revolver the Huckleberry references the famous quote from his depiction in the movie Tombstone, "I could be your huckleberry"

Marko's outfit seems to reference the character Loco from the movie The Great Silence.

The Frosthill segment of III is also lifted from The Great Silence, what with its Utah setting during the winter, the main character getting shot through the hand, and bounty hunters pretty much kill the whole town.

Aaron Flagg the cult leader seems to be inspired by Randall Flagg the Stephen King villain

The sniper Charlie Halfcocked references the U.S. Marine sniper during Vietnam, Carlos Hathcock, the previous record holder for the most kills

Tom Quigley references the movie Quigley Down Under, the titular character being played by Tom Sellick.

Enclave members Quantrill and Onoda, who keep fighting despite the Enclave's repeated defeats, are named after Confederate guerilla William Quantrill and WWII Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda, who did the same for their sides (okay, I thought that reference was pretty good)

Eileen the Fiend = serial killer Aileen Wuornos

Tony Idaho = Tony Montana from Scarface

Tommy the former Omerta enforcer who killed a made man references Tommy DeVito from Goodfellas

Alex and his gang in Freeside reference Alex DeLarge and his droogs from A Clockwork Orange

Freddie the ghoul = Freddy Krueger

Jack, former muscle for Heck Gunderson, references the villain Jack Wilson from Shane, his revolver is called "Shane's Bane"

Albert Quisling = Vidkun Quisling

Mario Barksdale = character from The Wire

Prometheus is named after the subtitle for Frankenstein: "The modern Prometheus", his Deathclaws are Mary and Shelley

Pancho Cortina = Pancho Villa

"Squirrelly" Bill Blasius references outlaw "Curly" Bill Brocius

Angel Lee is a combination of Angel Eyes from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and the actor Lee Van Cleef

Godwin, who mails out bombs, probably references Unabomber

Joe Frost = Edward Snowden

Guys fighting over treasure named Clint and Tuco

Fiend chem lab has characters Walter and Pinkman, references Breaking Bad

John Ramsey's body is put on display with a quote referencing the movie Unforgiven, "This is what happens to assassins/rangers around here".

Those are the ones that I either caught myself or saw other people list, if there's more, go ahead and add on.

Some of the historical references are kinda funny, though others are either tasteless (Aileen Wuornos) or eye-roll worthy (Carlos Hathcock = Charlie Halfcocked, GEDDIT IT'S A GUN JOKE), and the majority of the pop culture references are so blatant and so numerous that it gets annoying.

If I made my own mod or anything else, of course I too would love to stick in a bunch of references to the things I love, though I would try to be less obvious about them, put different spins on them, you know? You can't really judge mods to the same standard as the source, and I would be more forgiving if the rest of the mods didn't look like such an edgy slog.

[monsters-conquer-the-world]

[grantaireble]

Tortured Poets & "The Bride of Frankenstein"

To a new world of gods and monsters!

Alright this is soo long now and I came about this revelation the weirdest way (while watching world class color guard) but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. All of my ttpd thoughts were rattling around in my brain as we were watching videos and one group put out a Bride of Frankenstein show last year and they used this quote as a V.O:

“What do you expect? Such an audience needs something more than a pretty little love story. So why shouldn’t I write of monsters?"

And, man, something about that got the neurons firing, especially because I had already been thinking a lot about the connections between Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and TTPD. Here are some of those:

Frankenstein visuals in the Fortnight MV

“The 1830s” Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was originally published in 1818, but she made some edits for an 1831 edition

Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron were sort of their own little TPD, writing horror stories together one rainy summer.

TTPD and Frankenstein seem to reference many of the same things

Both Taylor on TTPD and Mary Shelley in Frankenstein reference the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and the albatross

“I am going to unexplored regions, to “the land of mist and snow;” but I shall kill no albatross, therefore do not be alarmed for my safety, or if I should come back to you as worn and woeful as the “Ancient Mariner?” – Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Both Taylor and Mary Shelly reference Greek Myth 

Frankenstein: “The Modern Prometheus” (often compared to the Christian story of Christ)

Cassandra: gifted the power of prophecy but cursed to never be believed

Does the headpiece above not give Medusa?

Both Taylor and Mary Shelley reference the Bible

“I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel...” (Frankenstein) / “I got cursed like Eve got bitten,” etc. 

Both Taylor and Mary Shelley reference principles of Alchemy! 

"The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted, and that the elixir of life is a chimera." (Chimera = lion's head, goat's body, and a serpent's tail, more Greek mythology)

Some lyrics from TTPD also feel like direct references to Frankenstein quotes or themes

“I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein / “I was tamed, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me mean.” – Taylor Swift, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?

“I am alone and miserable. Only someone as ugly as I am could love me.” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein / “Down bad like I lost my twin.” – Taylor Swift, Down Bad

“I am malicious because I am miserable” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein / “Because I’m Miserable!” – Taylor Swift, I Can Do It With A Broken Heart

“One wandering thought pollutes the day” ― Mutability, Percy Blythe Shelley (Quoted in Frankenstein) / “One bad seed kills the garden” – Taylor Swift, The Albatross

“This feels like the time she fell through the ice” – Taylor Swift, The Bolter / In Frankenstein, ice is symbolic of isolation and alienation.

“Wretch” or “Wretched” is a huge word in Frankenstein / “That I’m fearsome and I’m wretched and I’m wrong.” Taylor Swift, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?

“In the streets there’s a raging riot” / In the story, the Monster gets chased by angry mob of townspeople 

The First Two Pages of Frankenstein by The National (The Alcott appears on this album and The National toured it with Patti Smith)

Bonus: Dr. Frankenstein is something of an anti-hero. He, along with his monster, are also sometimes referred to as Tragic Heroes. Greek philosopher Aristotle first laid out the attributes of a Tragic Hero.

So all of this to say, I had originally only been thinking about TTPD only in the context of Mary Shelly’s original Frankenstein, even though that Fortnight imagery was definitely inspired by the films. But then that quote just really felt like it had Taylor written all over it.

So I googled Bride of Frankenstein.

It's basically an "everyone lives" AU sequel to Frankenstein lol. It's the 2nd of a trilogy (...hmmm?) although the third film Son of Frankenstein has a different director. The line I heard in the guard show is said by a fictionalized version of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, who "appears" in the Bride of Frankenstein movie, along with poets Lord Byron and Percy Shelly.

In the scene, Mary Shelley explains that she wanted Frankenstein to show its audience the consequences of mortal man trying to play god. She then reveals that there is more to the story than everyon thinks. This, of course, got me thinking about the term "playing god" and the Mastermind of it all, along with all of the religious/worship imagery Taylor uses on the album. Bride of Frankenstein also uses Christian/crucifixion imagery to convey this theme. 

The movie picks up right where the original Frankenstein left off. Both the doctor and the monster somehow make it out of the original story alive. Dr. Frankenstein, despite wanting to step away from his experiments after his horrific first attempt, gets pressured/blackmailed by his mentor to create a mate for the monster. While this is happening, Frankenstein's original monster is sort of bumbling around out in the world trying desperately to make a friend. This never works, as everyone is too afraid of how different he appears on the outside.

This is around where the queer reading of "The Bride of Frankenstein" comes in. I'm getting most of my info from this video, which definitely clicked things into place for me.

The queer reading is based on a few things:

The relationship between Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Pretorius (two men creating life together)

The monster as a figure that does not fit into the norms of society and the effects of that on his search to find someone "like him"

The director, James Whale, having been one of only a few openly gay men in Hollywood at the time

The character, Dr. Pretorius', "campy" queer coding

The Bride of Frankenstein was subjected to censorship from the Hay's board while in production and by censorship boards once released

"In the decades since its release, modern film scholars have noted the possible gay reading of the film. Director James Whale was openly gay, and some of the actors in the cast, including Ernest Thesiger and, according to rumor, Colin Clive, were respectively gay or bisexual." (Wikipedia)

This reading focuses on Dr. Frankenstein's inability to stay away from his "experiments," despite having a new wife and a potential regular life waiting for him at home. He is rejecting "the natural" in favor of "the unnatural.”

This reading also looks at the monster's deep desire and inability to find belonging in a world that fears otherness. The Monster tries multiple times to make a friend, but is always rejected.

He saves a woman from drowning but she screams in fear at his appearance.

He does befriend a blind hermit and they bond and become friends! But soldiers find the Monster there and they are separated. (At this point in the story the Monster wishes he were dead again.)

Finally, the Monster gets to meet the the Bride, who was literally made for the Monster. Unfortunately, the Bride, horrified at having been brought alive for the sole purpose of being a companion, also rejects him.

Here are some connections that relate to the Frankenstein/ Bride of Frankenstein films:

"Such an audience needs something more than a pretty little love stories" / "Are you not entertained?"

Safety Pins, Bride of Frankenstein / Hairpins, Fortnight video

“Strings tied to levers"? –Taylor Swift, Robin / At the end of Bride of Frankenstein, the Monster pulls the “self-destruct” lever, killing himself, the Bride, and Dr. Pretorious (might be a stretch, but this movie is the origin of the "mad scientist self-destruct lever")

In Son of Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein's grandson is named Peter (definitely a stretch?)

In Bride of Frankenstein a maid character, Minnie, tries to warn the town that the Monster is still alive, but no one believes her and she says "Nobody'd believe me! All right. I wash me hands of it. They can all be murdered in their beds." (It's giving Cassandra)

In Bride of Frankenstein the Monster saves a young shepherdess from drowning / "She almost drowned in frigid water" -Taylor Swift, The Bolter

Frankenstein freaks out and accidentally burns down the hermit's cottage (the only place he found human connection, hidden away from judgmental eyes) when they are found there by two hunters

Anyway this is so so long and and doesn't even include any real analysis (I might save that for a more cohesive post) but once I got started I just kept noticing things.

Right now I think the question I'm currently trying to answer is: Frankenstein Taylor Swift the Monster or the Doctor? The Bride? The drowned girl? The almost drowned girl? The Author??

[greatwyrmgold]

I've been playing a lot of CK2: After the End recently, so I decided to take a crack at my own take on a post-post-apocalyptic America. I'm not sure if I'll keep cracking at it long enough to make something cohesive enough to share, but I really like my Florida idea.

The first thing I need to preface this with: A running theme in my take is how people in future centuries conceptualize the legacy of the USA. A lot of its successor states use the USA as a source of legitimacy, as European/Mediterranean kingdoms did Rome, all the way to at least World War 1. (Both the Russian and Ottoman Empires claimed to be successors to Rome, until they stopped existing.)

The second thing is that this idea was that a lot of post-apocalyptic setting ideas have Florida (or at least a copyright-friendly version of Disney World) as a weird place where pop culture becomes religion in a really silly way. I didn't want to do that, but I did want to play off the trope by having some specific element of American culture be shockingly influential.

And third, the backstory for Florida has it first get wrecked unusually hard by the Tribulations (my placeholder name for "whatever caused the apocalypse") and then get repopulated by people either banished from or fleeing other parts of the East and Gulf Coast. So start with people who are suspicious of the old USA for failing to prevent the Tribulations, then add people who were aggrieved by various successors to the USA.

When this population looks for answers, they will be suspicious of conventional narratives, if not outright hostile. And where do people go for unconventional narratives about how the world works and why things happen? Conspiracy theorists. But most traditional conspiracy theories are ultimately supportive of at least some conventional power structures. Look at QAnon; they're big fans of the Republican Party and any government organs loyal to Trump.

So to satisfy all the emotional pressures at play, some of the old conspiracy theories need to turn inside out.

New Order Satanism

New Order Satanism, the religion of these post-apocalyptic Floridans, has a very Christian worldview. It's just a Christian worldview which disagrees on who the good and bad guys are.

The Three-Faced God is a callous demiurge figure, a creator-god with no care for humanity. Meanwhile, Lucifer becomes a Prometheus figure, a fallen angel who rejected God's commands and stole the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil for humanity.

Getting past the creation myth into more contemporary legends, a lot of conspiracy theory staples get inverted. This is particularly true of Satanic Panic urban legends; New Order Satanists use heavy metal and D&D sourcebooks and horror movie paraphernalia to commune with demons. But it can happen with anything; chemtrails are a byproduct of Lucifer's allies visiting Earth, the Moon landing was faked to fool God's servants, Marx is a major devotee of Lucifer.

This is where Florida's theme parks (briefly) enter the picture. Remember how Harry Potter was the subject of its own mini-satanic-panic in the oughts, before JKR started aligning herself with the religious right? Remember how the Universal Orlando Resort has a whole theme-area based on Harry Potter? That gets incorporated into the lore. The Wizarding World gets recast as an ancient temple to one of Lucifer's champions, alongside other pop culture figures at the Universal Studios theme parks, and also the nearby Disney theme parks.

Back to conspiracy theories. Anything too overtly sinister, like the Greys and bioweapon plagues and adrenochrome harvesting, can't be whitewashed into a pro-Lucifer worldview. (And some of it could be but isn't.) These are recast as tools of the Three-Faced God and its American servants, and serve pretty much the same role as they do in modern conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, the Jews were left in this group. New Order Satanists see Jews as the Three-Faced God's high priests and most zealous servants. There aren't a lot of great places to be Jewish in this America, but its Florida is among the worst.

...on a lighter note: The economy!

On one hand, as mentioned, the New Order Satanists revere Karl Marx as a devotee of Lucifer. On the other hand, the Three-Faced God claims loving money is the root of all evil, so a desire for wealth must be good.

New Order Satanists don't have a single unitary state, so there's no universal rules for how their economy works. But in general, they provide universal access to the essentials of life (food, housing, pre-industrial healthcare) and have a market economy layered on top of that for everything else. And people are encouraged to accumulate wealth which inevitably leads to some degree of exploitation, but people can survive without submitting to an employer, so it's probably less bad there than it is in the Louisiana Commonwealth.

The New Order Satanists don't have a formal priesthood, but they do have a lot of preachers. Many of those preachers are of a kind with many modern conspiracy theory peddlers; they're much more likely to believe what they say, but they make sure to phrase it in a way that gets people to keep listening, and maybe make some donations while you're here.

Informal social hierarchies also tend to spring up around these preachers. It's generally accepted that if a preacher you listen to runs for office or favors a political proposal, you're supposed to support them. If you don't support their politics, then why are you listening to them?

These informal social hierarchies often clash with whatever formal political institutions exist in a given region. Barring the rise of a particularly charismatic preacher with a broadly-appealing spiel, no one has the power to get a large number of New Order Satanists to work together. Which isn't always bad, but it means that the New Order Satanists are geopolitically impotent. At the "present tense" of the setting, Florida is under occupation by one of the main USA successor "states".

But that doesn't mean New Order Satanism is going anywhere.