#Dresden Files: Salem

[wizardbane]

i think about the venn diagram between bob and salem the cat all the fucking time

[damienthepious]

is it cheating if i do K and M for the OC ask? probably? yes? okay-- instead: S

IT MIGHT BE CHEATING BUT WHY WOULD I CARE ABOUT THAT.

Koru and Miro, double trouble fish kids, my beloveds. What Have You Done To Me.

AND S HAS TO BE SEBASTIAN. who is also, by happenstance, from the same project as Thea! Sebastian is... he's my sonboy. my wet cat of an oc. He's a fragile little disaster who covers over his insecurities with a deeply punk aesthetic. He's like if the album Goths by The Mountain Goats was a rail-thin awkward cat. He needs so much fucking help.

I've adopted him out to play in a Dresden-files universe RP and over THERE he's developed an affinity for drumming, making him also akin with more mountain goats a la The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton, and I'm obsessed with his connections to his adopted siblings, especially his youngest sister Salem, who he is absolutely FIERCE over. He would kill for that kid.

[keptin-indy]

Dresden Files: Salem 15

I wasn’t here for this session, so some details have been left out and I’ve bullshitted some other ones that seem reasonable.  Big thanks to Eunice and Ath’s players for taking notes for me!

Previous installments

Eunice coalesced in the midst of this chaos, drawn to her anchor’s pain, and was surprised to find the middle of Salem now punctuated by forty foot tall rocks at random intervals.  She tended to her granddaughter’s wounds while berating everyone about the dangers of nighttime rock-climbing, which she assumed had caused Evelyn and Baz’s injuries.  Adler grew wings and flew off to retrieve his hippie healer friend, Moonflower Opal, dodging shotgun blasts from panicked people along the way.  Sanya took custody of the coin, again warning them that he couldn’t stop the Denarian from summoning it, and headed back to Father Macklepenny’s church, escorted by Ath.  Moonflower took over first aid from Eunice and declared that both of the injured had “good auras” and would do fine given time to heal, though Eunice insisted on at least the trappings of modern medicine, including, for some reason, taking their blood pressure.  Conan and Adler rigged make-shift stretchers (and extra arms in the latter’s case) and carried the practitioners to the Rowland Estate and their prisoner to their favorite warehouse.  The entire night was so weird that none of the townsfolk even questioned this sight.

Conan left to help restore order as much as possible amongst the frantic New Englanders with shotguns.  The unnatural disaster had left a large chasm across the North River, diverting some of its flow into a deep waterfall.  Back at the Estate, Moonflower reassured Betsy Bassam that Baz (and Evelyn) would be okay while Adler hovered over them on guard as a huge monster in case something else should try to get at the Warden while he was vulnerable.  Betsy was distraught and had no time to calm down, as the phone was ringing constantly with reports and requests for help from the Warden from the supernatural residents of Salem.  She told them that the Warden’s advisors were taking care of things, and once Ath returned from seeing Sanya off, he offered to take over phone duties to give her some much-needed time to process her son being in a coma.  Ath and Conan also took the time to explain to Eunice what had actually happened that night instead of leaving her to her delusions about rock-climbing.

Adler reminded the others that their prisoner would probably wake up soon, and they needed to decide whether to talk to her or kill her before she could summon her coin and fight them again while they were still down both mages.  Since Eunice now knew the situation, she wasn’t inclined to be sympathetic toward the person who had almost killed her last surviving descendant.  She returned to her nursing home to retrieve some drugs and a syringe, mixing up a lethal injection on the basis that the person who normally did the necessary killing was unconscious and someone would have to do it sooner or later.  Conan objected to this, reminding her that Sanya had said Denarians could be redeemed, if only they could find someone convincing enough, since the person who was best at being reasonable and reassuring was also unconscious.  This turned out not to be entirely true, as Evelyn regained a slight measure of consciousness, but was very much not in a condition to resolve this moral quandary for the others.  Conan pointed out that if they killed the woman without separating her from the demon, she’d go straight to hell but Eunice told him he wasn’t responsible for other people’s souls, presumably still miffed that he dared to be Catholic in her vicinity.  Everyone but Eunice (and Ath) was concerned that the woman may have been tricked or coerced into taking up the coin, since she wasn’t a demon when they saw her yesterday, and she couldn’t have had the coin on her when Evelyn looked at her through the Sight, so she must have gotten it somewhere within the last 24 hours.  Everyone uncomfortably considered the situation and finally Conan admitted that he wanted to give the woman the chance at redemption, but he wasn’t sure they could afford to.  Even if they did try to talk to her, if it went badly and they had to kill her after she regained consciousness, she was a practitioner and would almost certainly throw a death curse at them.  Adler insisted that it was his fault she had fallen to the Denarians and that if anyone should bear the guilt of killing her, it should be him (though Eunice pointed out there was a certain amount of evidence that she was not going to Hell).  Conan said that if they were going to kill her, they needed to do it now, and Adler took on his monster form and swiftly ripped her throat out.  A deep ancestral part he usually didn’t acknowledge felt disturbingly satisfied by the blood of his prey now coating him.  Ath took her body out into the bay to hide.

Their grim deed accomplished, they headed solemnly back to the Rowland Estate, Adler still covered in blood as some kind of penance.  Betsy Bassam was horrified to see Adler in his gory state and drew the obvious conclusion about what had happened to the woman they’d been talking about earlier.  Always a little leery of Adler, she demanded he leave the house.  Full of guilt and self-recrimination, he sat on the Estate’s roof as a gargoyle so he could continue to protect the unconscious Baz.  Conan made some roughly bat-shaped cookies to bring out to him and told him that none of it was Adler’s fault and that he was there if Adler wanted someone to talk to.  Adler was touched and gave him a stony, blood-encrusted hug, so Conan offered him a washcloth and the garden hose so he wouldn’t have to leave his vigil to bathe.

Out in Salem, chaos ensued as the earthquakes and sudden rock outcroppings had cut off water and power in addition to destroying some buildings.  One of the supernatural residents of the wreckage who was told to talk to the Warden for assistance headed over to the Rowland Estate only to be met by an animate gargoyle.  The gargoyle recognized the young man as one of the miscellaneous paranormals he knew who had been in and out of Salem a few times over the years, usually with a wildly improbable story to tell.  Adler greeted Lenny and offered the use of his apartment since he was planning on camping on the roof for the foreseeable future, but Lenny could see how miserable Adler was and offered to keep him company up there.  Adler called Conan and Ath over to meet the new arrival and was taken aback when Conan annoyedly recognized Lenny as someone he’d arrested before, but who had been released because “his evil twin did it”.  Before that dispute could go far, the group heard the sound of bells from the road which turned out to be coming from a fair rider on horseback - obviously a sidhe.  A quick argument on the roof ensued as to whether they should be honest about the Warden’s condition or bluff their way through as his representatives, but since the sidhe merely had a message to deliver to them, that decision could wait.  Oberon wished to meet with Warden Bassam to discuss “possible opportunities and conflicts” at Neutral Grounds the next day, leaving them no choice but to go in Baz’s stead.  In the meantime, however, Conan wanted to trace possible sources of the Denarius coin, but was abruptly reminded that no one - including the police - had ever gotten the woman’s name.  He sent Ath back out to where he had dumped the body to retrieve her wallet, but the water-logged and worn ID was impossible to read and the credit card was cracked and rubbed off, but still had the number.  Conan traced it and ran a purchase history and finally got the name Erin Smith, though she hadn’t made any purchases with the card during the timeframe when she had to have acquired the coin.  He did find the name of the hotel she’d been staying at and went to question the staff, who told him that she’d had a visitor in a long coat that night who had apparently upset her, judging by the way she’d left later on.  He requisitioned her room key and found a shrine to the first Denarian they had killed, along with Erin’s belongings laid out neatly and impersonally - all her personal loose ends tied up, like she hadn’t expected to return for them.  Judging by the time it would have taken to lay it all out, her visitor must have been there while she set it up, presumably after giving or promising her the coin.  With no other actionable leads, he returned to the Estate to share his findings.

The next day, the group went to Neutral Grounds to keep their meeting, bringing along Lenny to make up for their two injured friends on Adler’s recommendation (and because Conan didn’t want to let him too far out of his sight).  Oberon received them for brunch in the private room and Ath confirmed that the food wasn’t of faerie origin, which he conveyed to Conan via his unexpected touch-telepathy.  Adler had taken on a distinctly sidhe-like form for social collateral at the meeting and Oberon asked him if he had “Chosen”, which Adler denied without further explaining.  Launching into business, Oberon said that a cavern had opened beneath the city during the earthquakes and he wanted it for “personal reasons”.  Further, he was willing to fight to defend this claim and wanted to ensure this wouldn’t bring him into conflict with the Warden under the laws of hospitality.  Ath conjectured silently that if Oberon didn’t want to tell them any details, that likely meant that it was morally dubious and/or extremely valuable, possibly even what had attracted the Denarians there in the first place.  The group begged off making any binding decisions without Baz, but in the meantime, Oberon still intended to take possession and defend it, if need be, with his life - a serious promise for an immortal being.

The group left and immediately began talking about how to infiltrate the cavern, ruling out Eunice as too obvious (in several ways).  As always, they settled on asking their usual source of information: Daniyah.  They gave no details, but asked if she had a suitable spirit for getting in and out of a faerie stronghold to gather information without being seen.  Daniyah considered and said she would send a spirit for them negotiate with for this service.

Evelyn has been resigned to NPC-dom and replaced by Lenny, who really does have an evil twin, named Denny.  The two rescued a kitsune when they were young and were granted powers and a extreme knack for getting into trouble because of it, though they use those gifts in very different ways.  Lenny is frequently mistaken for his brother and ends up bearing the consequences of Denny’s actions, and so has taken to wearing various flamboyant wigs to make sure they look different.

[archaeopter-ace]

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder,  regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Send me an ask with the  title that most intrigues you and I’ll post a little snippet of it or  tell you something about it. And then tag as many people as you have  WIPs.

I was tagged by @earth-ambassador-jim​, thanks!

Oh man I wish I had a single WIP folder. Instead my works are smeared across Microsoft OneNote, Gmail drafts to myself, a bookshelf’s worth of notebooks, a small basket filled with loose pieces of paper, Word Docs (both on my laptop and on an external drive), Google docs, and now Scrivener.

Behold! The closest thing I have to a dedicated WIP folder 😭

(Most of those are from 2014 - 2016, I have mostly stopped writing on slips of paper in my back pocket)

In answering this tag game, it has been an absolutely wild ride diving back into my old works, swimming through files. There’s been a lot of ‘I totally forgot about that idea!’ and ‘what even is this, I have no memory of this.’ Also I write stream-of-consciousness on first drafts, so I’m also getting insight into the quality of the sandwich I ate on some day five years ago.

So. I am going to start with the WIPs that I am actively working on, followed by the WIPs that I did once actively work on, and I will omit things that never got their own title or doc, e.g. bits that were part of a stream-of-consciousness ramble in my gmail draft

The following are all document titles for my in-progress series, Don’t Listen to Kafka:

Kafka - Last Chance to Change Apoptosis Name

MetaEp & Intermission Act I

Apoptosis Notes

i’ve made similar documents before

Other Active WIP:

Night of the Living Stone

North Salem Possibilities

Ectober Day 9 - Mask

Ectomancy - DP x Dresden xover

Things that are more like Deadfics-In-Progress than WIPs:

The Way Things Fit Together

hey brother

GF/Trollhunters

More Impossible Things - Merlin x Flash xover

Relative Truth

88 Miles Per Hour

Peter and Jack

Gumshoe-Fly Pie

April Fools

Souvenir

Press Release

Childish Things

Things That Go Bump

Five Miles Under a Mountain

x gene horned devil matt

blue fire

GO/Lucifer

There’s probably more that I’m missing, but I have a terrible habit of giving docs undescriptive titles, e.g. “nano 2.3,″ “a new way to write,” “note bene,” “logging,” “blurb,” “news,” and “apparently i’m having 15 drafts.” So it’s kinda hard to know what is and is not a WIP

I’m tagging @rebelliouswhirlpool​, @yellowmagicalgirl​, @violetemerald​, but as always participation is completely optional!

[kissofthemuses]

Muses

Myths/Folklore:

Circe // Greek Mythology

Hera // Greek Mythology

Mab // Fae Folklore

Morgan le Fay // Arthurian Legend

Nemesis // Greek Mythology

Sigyn // Norse Mythology

The Morrigan // Celtic Mythology

Literature:

Aelin Galathynius // Throne of Glass

Athenodora // Twilight

Becky Sharp // Vanity Fair

Bree Tanner // Twilight

Didyme // Twilight

Elena Bourreau // The Vine Witch

Emilia Di Carlo // Kingdom of the Wicked

Evie O'Neil // The Diviners

Georgiana Darcy // Pride and Prejudice

Granuaile MacTiernan // The Iron Druid Chronicles

Jade Godfrey // The Dowser Series

Leila // The Savior’s series

Lucy Pevensie // The Chronicles of Narnia

Lysandra Ennar // Throne of Glasss

Maggie Dresden // The Dresden Files

Manon Blackbeak // Throne of Glass

Morgan Rowlands // The Sweep series

Sally Jackson // Percy Jackson

Sulpicia // Twilight

Susan Pevensie // The Chronicles of Narnia

Viviane // A Court of Thorns and Roses

TV:

Abigail Pershing // Good Witch

Amalia True // The Nevers

The Black Fairy // Once Upon A Time

Bo Dennis // Lost Girl

Cara Mason // Legend of the Seeker

Cassie Nightengale // Good Witch

Cora Hale // Teen Wolf

Coraline Duvall // Moonlight

Dutch // Killjoys

Eleanor Henstridge // The Royals

Elizabeth Bonny // Syfy's Neverland

Emily Lightman // Lie to Me

Emily Radcliff // The Gates

Emma Swan // Once Upon a Time

Eretria // The Shannara Chronicles

Fern Harrow // Harrow

Grace Russell // Good Witch

Ivy Lynn // SMASH

Jenny // Doctor Who

Jenny Hoyt // Big Sky

Kahlan Amnell // Legend of the Seeker

"Lady" Heather Kesler // CSI

Lily Page // Once Upon a Time

“Long” Susan Hart // Ripper Street

Lucy Saxon // Doctor Who

Marisa Coulter // His Dark Materials (show based)

Mary Sibley // Salem

Melinda Halliwell // Charmed

Melissa McCall // Teen Wolf

Molly Dawes/Iona Payne // Forever

Parker Halliwell // Charmed

The Rani // Doctor Who

Regina Mills // Once Upon a Time

Rikki Chadwick // H2O: Just Add Water

Ruby Sunday // Doctor Who

Talon // The Outpost

Tamsin // Lost Girl

Tourmaline Larou // Carnival Row

Movies:

Adaline Bowman // Age of Adaline

Ali Rose // Burlesque

Anna Valerious // Van Helsing

Antonia Owens // Practical Magic

Ava Faulkner // Ava

Doric // D&D: Honor Among Thieves (wiki link is temporary)

Edith Cushing // Crimson Peak

Elisabeth Brisby // The Secret of NIHM

Eowyn // The Lord of the Rings (movie based)

Gabriella O'Hara // Across the Spiderverse

Lucy Billington // The Invitation

Mace Browne // The 355

Odette // The Swan Princess

Sally Owens // Practical Magic

Sarah Bailey // The Craft

Star // The Lost Boys

Viktoria Clopstok // The Invitation

Disney:

Lady // Lady and the Tramp

Maleficent // Sleeping Beauty/various Disney projects

Merida // Brave/Once Upon a Time

Miss Kitty Mouse // The Great Mouse Detective

Redd // Pirates of the Caribbean

Anime:

Blue // Wolf's Rain

Kisa Sohma // Fruits Basket

Rin Sohma // Fruits Basket

Tohru Honda // Fruits Basket

TTRPG:

Annabelle // L.A. by Night

Cassandra De Rolo // Critical Role (C1)

Clarabelle Clay // Critical Role (C2)

Laudna // Critical Role (C3)

Leona de Rolo // Critical Role

Vex'ahlia // Critical Role (C1)

Video Games:

Alfira // Baldur's Gate 3

Black Cat (Clone) // Spider-Man: The Edge of Time

Lohse // Divinity Original Sin 2

North // Detroit: Become Human

Saga // Dreamfall Chapters

Misc:

Amora // Marvel

Shara Bey // Star Wars

Veronica Franco // Historical

Seasonal*

*Muse for them usually strikes during seasonal Holidays but can be requested any time

Gwen Conliffe // The Wolfman  (2010)

The Snow Queen // The Snow Queen

Original Characters:

Arabella Hawthorne // fandomless vampire

Arduinna Elvrye // D&D/fandomless Eladrin Elf

Byrony Lightfoot // LotR based hobbit

Cameron Galloway // Percy Jackson (daughter of Eris)

Evalin Galathynius // Throne of Glass

Fallon Voragran // D&D/Fandomless Elf

Freya Buchanan // Fandomless

Genevieve O’Connell // The Mummy (1999)

Haruko Masudea // Fandomless Kitsune

Isarria // Critical Role based Tabaxi

Ismae Delancey // Greek Mythology/Percy Jackson (adopted daughter of Hera)

Iûlwen // LotR based elf

Kato McBane // Percy Jackson

Moira Cauldwyn // Fandomless Witch

Nell Warren // Percy Jackson (child of Dionysus)

Persephone Turner // Charmed

Roselyn Thorn // Stardust

Sabine Thornheart // Carnival Row

Sienna // Fandomless Mermaid

Skyla Malone // Fandomless Changeling

Sofira Emberdane // The Chronicles of Narnia

Vivian // Detroit: Become Human based Android

[courtclover]

MISCELLANEOUS MUN FACTS

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: only on week 3 of my mourning for clover check back never 

FAVORITE COLOR: black and purple 

LIPSTICK OR CHAPSTICK: chappystick 

LAST SONG I LISTENED TO: ice cream by blackpink uwu 

LAST MOVIE I WATCHED: captain america civil war u w u 

TOP THREE TV SHOWS:  the rookie, motherland: fort salem, the falcon and the winter solider lmfao U v U  

TOP THREE SHIPS: fg, bumbleby and a whole lot more i know ppl are annoyed w/ me 

BOOKS I’M CURRENTLY READING: stormfront (the dresden files) by jim butcher 

Tagged by: yonked it off a lil wooper ;3 @casketdweller Tagging: rob me blind 

[bnhafantasybigbang]

Wolf’s Fantasy Notes: Modern Fantasy

Hello all! First, I want to apologize for the lateness of this post! I got behind on life things and Bang things! So without further ado:

Modern Fantasy

Aka Urban Fantasy

 This is the where the likes of the Dresden Files, Artemis Fowl, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter make their home! Darker versions include popular stories such as Twilight, Vampire Huntress Legends and the J.R Ward works! Don’t forget Tell Tale’s The Wolf Among Us game, the comic it is based off of is called Fables and it great, too!

Anime fan? Zatch Bell, Shaman King, Full Metal Alchemist are some well-known works that have an urban fantasy bent to them! Most magical girl anime are considered urban fantasy! Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura, Tokyo Mew Mew and the like fit this trope!

TV shows like Charmed, Sabrina The Teenage Witch (90s only… the other versions will be covered under dark), That’s so Raven, American Dragon Jake Long, Jackie Chan adventures, Xiaolin Showdown, The Adventures of Juniper Lee, Danny Phantom,  and the like fall under this category!  

Like movies? The Witches, The Thirteenth Year, Life Size, and Luck of the Irish from Disney fit as well! Along with James and Giant Peach! 

Look at Pixar’s Toy Story and Zootopia, too! Remember fantasy is also another way of saying the fantastic! The out of normal, the out of the realm possiblilities so things like talking toys and animals can also fit!

Basically anything that has magic or the fantastical in a modern setting is definitely modern/urban fantasy and allowed!

Looking for ways to spice up your story?

As mentioned before, try doing a different location. Most people think of cities like New York and even Atlanta or other metropolises. What about the bayous of Lousiana…? Scooby Doo made great use of this setting for their Zombie Island movie. They used a Salem like town for Scooby Doo and the witches Ghost, too! There are a ton of sprawling forests and farms… small towns and suburbs with secrets to hide!

Magic does not have to separate or hidden from everyday society, they can live side by side with each other… which can lead to plenty of conflicts to overcome for your characters.

Speaking of conflicts… in need of some?

As mentioned there are plenty of conflicts to be had between magical beings and their human/normal counterparts!

A character could be part mythical creature tasked with bring the two sides together… see the mini series The Tenth Kingdom!

Perhaps the character is cursed and needs to break it… curses are always a good way to go! See Ramna 1/2

Fish out of water tales are a favorite story archetype in these settings!

Reincarnated princes, knights, mages and such are fun to play with!

Magical beings or normal beings displaced from their home by magic or force to the modern world

Isekais and pseudo-isekais fall into this category!

Isekais and pseudo-isekais fall into this category!

(Think the recent That time I was Reincarnated as a Slime or Overload for true Isekai but think Digimon, Spirited Away, or Inuyasha for the pseudo types… the characters can choose to come and go! For an Western equivalent see Narnia or Harry Potter)

All and all, the major key to modern fantasy is that it is modern! So think 20th century until now! 

Next time, I'll cover Historical fantasy. This will discuss time periods that don’t fit neatly into the high fantasy box nor the modern one!

Have any questions about modern fantasy or something you would like me to answer about modern fantasy or fantasy in general? Hit me up in my ask box here!

See you soon! (For real this time!)

~Admin Wolf

[thevagaries]

Can someone recommend me a book?

Looking for sci fi or urban fantasy with NO romance. I like popculture/easy style and happy endings.

Love Pagan protagonists provided they are not Satanists (nothing wrong with Satanists but not what I am into- looking at you Salem and Chilling adventures of Sabrina)

Some books I’ve liked in the past are Dresden Files, Night World, Night of the Solstice, the Secret Circle( almost anything but the Vampire Diaries when it comes to L J Smith-minus the romance) women of the the Otherworld ( again minus the romance/ sex). The Martian by Andy Weir was on my love list as well. Prowlers by Christopher Golden is good, the invisible library by Genevieve Cogman to name some books I enjoyed.

All suggestions welcome.

[daizyredz]

Tagged by the awesome @kteague

1. how tall are you?

5′2″

2. what color and style is your hair?

Dark blonde, short, straight and mostly flat.

3. what color are your eyes?

Dark blue.

4. do you wear glasses?

Yes.

5. do you wear braces?

Nope.

6. what is your fashion style?

Conservative librarian.

7. full name?

I’m only going to give you my first name. Traci.

8. when were you born?

12/22/1985 at 10pm.

9. where are you from and where do you live now?

Missouri. Still live in the same house I grew up in.

10. what school do you go to?

None. I graduated eons ago.  

11. what kind of student are you?

I went from being a pretty dismal student to a pretty average student, but I made the academic honor roll a few times.

12. do you like school?

I had a love-hate relationship with school. I loved learning, but I didn’t always like my teachers’ styles of teaching (which sometimes made it harder for me to learn) or their attitude toward it when I got bullied which happened a lot. So, basically, I would’ve loved school a whole lot more if there were no people there. :p

13. what are your favorite school subjects?

English, history, and science.  

14. favorite TV shows?

I don’t really watch a lot of TV. But, I guess for the sake of keeping this brief I’ll just mention a few of the ones I did watch and liked really well. The Punisher, Daredevil, Smallville, Common Law, Dresden Files, Almost Human, Supernatural, The X-Files. This is not a complete list and is subject to change in future tag games.

15. favorite movies?

I don’t watch a lot of movies, either. Ant-Man, Ant-Man ant the Wasp. These are really the only two that are coming to mind right now. There are others, and this list is also subject to change in future tag games. :p

16. favorite books?

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, The Outsider by Stephen King, ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, Doctor Sleep by Stephen King, to save room nearly anything by Stephen King. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix, The Ragwitch by Garth Nix, Johannes Cabal series by Jonathan L. Howard, The Hunger by Alma Katsu, Prey by Michael Crichton, The Radium Girls by Kate Moore, Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero. This list is incomplete. I’m a big reader. :p

17. favorite pastime?

Reading, crochet and other fiber arts

18. do you have any regrets?

Sure.

19. dream job?

Librarian

20. would you like to get married someday?

Yes.

21. would you like to have kids someday?

No.

23. do you like shopping?

Sure, a bit.

24. what countries have you visited?

Just the one I was born in, the US.

25. what’s the scariest nightmare you’ve ever had?

It’s hard to pick because I seem to have nothing but nightmares. If I remember my dream, it was probably a nightmare. If I have good dreams, I rarely remember them. I also lucid dream, so I know I’m dreaming at the time but that doesn’t always make it less scary. I guess the one that comes to mind off the top of my head is the one that I had recur several times in a row in a single night, which was someone or something grabbing me by the ankles and trying to pull me out of bed and through the floor. Disembodied hands. I don’t know who or what was attached to them. I remember clawing the mattress and screaming for help and nobody hearing me or coming to check on me. I’d wake up and the second I’d drop back off to sleep that dream would start over again. Not the weirdest dream but a scary one.

26. do you have any enemies?

I don’t think so.

27. do you have an s/o?

No.

28. do you believe in miracles?

Current, modern-day miracles? I don’t know.

Tagging...nobody in particular. Just anyone who wants to do it, go for it. I have no idea who to tag. :p

[cunningcelt]

Cunning Celt's Witch Fiction Must-Reads

I'm just gonna list the books; no description or reviews. Just trust me, if you're a witch and you love witchy fiction, you absolutely MUST read these! - The Witches of Eileanan series by Kate Forsyth - Rhiannon's Ride trilogy by Kate Forsyth - Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman - The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman - The Witches Sequence of Discworld by Terry Pratchett - The Tiffany Aching Sequence of Discworld by Terry Pratchett - Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen - The Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy by Anne Rice - Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch - 666 Park Avenue trilogy by Gabriella Pierce - The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher - The Rachel Morgan (The Hollows) series by Kim Harrison - The Witches of New York by Amy McKay - The Lost Book Of Salem (or The Physic Book of Deliverance Dane) by Katherine Howe - The Sparrow Sisters by Ellen Herrick Feel free to add your witch fiction favs!

[kawaiitees]

Funny Baby Yoda Am Arsch Lecken Du Mich Kannst Shirt

In Supernatural, it’s mentioned that demons react negatively to the Funny Baby Yoda Am Arsch Lecken Du Mich Kannst Shirt, but the word is never mentioned again after that episode. I always thought that: as the Winchesters do more and more 'suspect' things (like straight up killing demon infested victims rather than save them/dealing with demons/selling souls), the word lost it's potency for them. There are two examples in books I like, the Dresden Files has a character who wields a holy sword which the main character cannot use because without the faith in God the sword has no power. Additionally Father Callahan in Salems Lot. Obviously Supernatural can't go that heavy on the faith aspect but the boys could "lose the grace of God" because of the things they have done and maybe have to serve a penance to get it back.

Buy it: Funny Baby Yoda Am Arsch Lecken Du Mich Kannst Shirt

Premium Trending Shirt This Is Season:

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[thenightling]

The self-insert character (Sandman related)

Let us discuss the self-insert character.  

Many authors are guilty of creating Mary Sue and Gary Stu characters.  One of the most common is the Self-insert.  It is when the author creates a character that they most connect to, physically resemble or can most freely place their own views into.

Self-insert characters can be annoying, shallow, overly-perfect, two dimensional, and perceived as lazy.  They are frowned upon in online role playing games and when done poorly you could end up with things like the famously bad fan fiction “My Immortal.”

Or Bella Swan...

Oscar Wilde created self-insert characters and as a result did not consider himself a real artist, either that or he wanted to distance himself from The Picture of Dorian Gray so the readers would not learn of his sexuality. (“Real artists create beautiful things but put nothing of their own life into them.”)  The statement is either self-deprecating or denial, depending on how you interpret his intention- whether you believe he admitted The Picture of Dorian Gray reflected aspects of his own thoughts and feelings or not.    

Many self-insert characters are terrible but some are now considered the greatest literary characters of all time.

From Watson in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:

To Abraham Van Helsing.  This one was so obvious that he had Bram Stoker’s first name.  Bram is short for Abraham.

In recent fiction there is Harry Dresden in the Dresden Files book series.

Many Stephen King novels have a self-insert hero that either resemble Stephen King or also happen to be a writer reflecting his views on his own career and interests.  You see them in Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, It, Mystery, The Shining, ect...

Sometimes they represent the good, sometimes the bad, the author’s own inner demons, doubts, and self-exploration, fears, and growth as a person.   

Sometimes the superficial comparisons between a character and his creator can be amusing.  

For example, here’s Neil Gaiman, side by side with his (probably) most well known character, The Sandman, also known as Morpheus.

Morpheus is probably one of the most successful self-insert characters of all time, reflecting Neil Gaiman’s exploration in concepts like duality, his apparently favorite mythos about religions co-existing and being dependent on the beliefs of mortals, his views on writing, his conflicted views on desire, to maybe his own wish to be a better person and uncertainty about change.  Morpheus is one of those characters who you can watch grow with his author and it feels perfectly real (the psychological development of the character), perfectly organic.   

There are key differences in personality as well, such as Neil Gaiman’s apparent better understanding of the emotions of others, and his far keener paternal instincts and behaviors (as far as I can tell) and over-all I think Neil Gaiman is probably nicer, in general, compared to Morpheus (who needs time to grow empathic and sympathetic).  A self-insert character does not have to precisely match the creator and can have key differences, sometimes darker differences.  

And of course physiological differences.  I doubt Neil Gaiman is an eons old anthropomoricized aspect of sapient life with black-night eyes.  

Morpheus is a prime example of a well crafted self-insert character as opposed to the ones created in some (not all!) role playing games and bad fan fictions that have made writers wince at the idea of a self-insert character.   Morpheus is proof that you can create a good and well-developed self-insert character. 

___________ 

That is where the original version of this post was supposed to end.  But due to two hateful anonymous messages I received tonight I must continue this post so here is the continuation.   

Of course Neil Gaiman is not literally Morpheus and vice versa.   I did not think this would need to be said but apparently it does.     

Though I occasionally like to joke about the conspiracy theory that Morpheus is living on Earth as the mortal Neil Gaiman, by no means do I want anyone to take this claim seriously, or to act on said claim.   I usually write those sort of posts just as an excuse to entertain myself in regard to the physical similarities between the character and the author.

Yes, I enjoy the idea that Morpheus managed to free himself from the burden of being Dream of The Endless and might be walking among us but the part about him literally being Neil Gaiman is always meant as a joke just so I have an excuse to post the physical similarity images.    (It’s still a novelty for me!  I’m new to the fandom!)

I do not think Neil Gaiman is some sort of retired preternatural being.  That is only a joke based on the amusing fact that Neil Gaiman physically resembles his character...

I had thought that it was understood that the claim that Neil Gaiman is Morpheus in disguise is tongue-firmly-in-cheek based on the fact that Morpheus is a very well created self-insert / self-exploration character.   Any post specifically about the resemblance and the “headcanon” that Morpheus lives on Earth as Neil Gaiman is not to be taken seriously.   

Since the first issue of Sandman was published when I was just turning seven-years-old I had assumed the fandom was old enough... No, mature enough to know where fiction ends and reality begins and also be able to tell when someone is just making light of a comparison.      

I have never had any problems with the Sandman fandom before and I suspect the anonymous hate messages I recently received are actually connected to someone in a slightly different fandom holding a grudge. 

In the five or so months that I’ve been in the Sandman fandom I’ve mostly been embraced with open arms.  I am thankful to those who welcomed me kindly and I apologize in advance that almost half this post is me trying to clarify something that is probably quite obvious to most of you.   

I hate how precise I have to word things in Tumblr because everything is potentially offensive.

Tumblr depresses me... 

[keptin-indy]

Dresden Files: Salem 14

Adler makes a bad decision and everyone deals with the fallout for two sessions.  Also I put way too much detail into documenting a bluebooking session because it’s cute.

Previous installments

Sanya asked if they wanted help smiting the demon, but Adler pointed out that they had to find her first and asked for her number from Conan, saying he was going to set up a meeting via anonymous tip.  Baz suggested going to the same warehouse where they had killed the witchhunter, since they knew it was out of the way enough for murder.  Sanya did not want to know this story, but in fairness, neither did Baz and he’d been the one doing the murdering.  Sanya insisted they find another way and Adler said that if he had one, he would love to hear it and was all ears...then proceeded to make that statement literal.  Sanya asked what manner of creature he was and Adler said that he didn’t know except that he was someone who wanted to make things better and give Baz a break.  With no other viable options, Adler called the woman’s cell from a payphone, telling her he had a tip on her dead partner, then gave her the time and place for a meeting.  She very reasonably sounded terrified and asked how he got the number, etc, etc, but he gave no more information.  The group plus Sanya headed over to the warehouse early to prepare, all armed for battle, with Conan in a ski mask “just in case” and with his blessed bullets, and Sanya kitted out with his Sword, an assault rifle, and a kevlar vest with a cross painted on it.  Baz warned him that proximity to wizards tended to break more complicated guns, but Sanya said he’d chosen a Kalashnikov for precisely its ability to keep going no matter what.  Baz asked if Sanya knew any other preparations they could take in a short time, and Sanya said that he had a landmine in his checked baggage, but not much else (making Baz very happy that he would never be on a plane himself).  Ath, the living sword, brought a knife and then proceeded to arrange the boxes and crates in the warehouse to his liking.  Adler turned into a creature that at first glance would appear to be a dog, but that could unfold into one of his horrible claw monster forms.  Baz and Adler took point, standing in the middle of the warehouse, while the others hid amongst the boxes and waited for the woman to arrive.  She eventually did, armed with pepper spray and looking exactly as terrified as a lone woman in a warehouse with a large man with an equally large sword and dog would be.  Seeing this, Baz tried to backtrack, telling her he would stay back, far away from her, and just wanted to talk.  He asked if she knew her partner had been a demon, which she denied, but Evelyn, watching from where Baz could see her, gave him a thumbs down to indicate she was lying and Adler tried to get between the woman and the door, causing her to bolt for it.  Ath toppled the precarious tower of boxes he’d set up earlier, blocking the door, and the woman begged to be let out.  At her rising distress, the ground started to tremble - evidently she was a practitioner, powerful but untrained, and directing all her raw energy downward into the earth.  Evelyn came out and tried to salvage the situation and calm everyone down, but with no easy way to tell if the woman was a demon trying to lower their guard, Baz asked Sanya what would happen if someone tried to look at a Denarian with the Sight.  Sanya told him that the last guy who’d tried had run away screaming, so Evelyn - knowing that Baz was the better combatant should this provoke a fight - volunteered and opened her third eye.  The first thing she noticed was that there wasn’t a Denarian sigil on the woman, but the lack of something was an extremely unusual and slightly suspicious thing to notice so immediately, especially when the less noticeable characteristics included skin like cracked marble and a definite sense that she was both unstable and influence by the infernal.  Evelyn closed the Sight and told the others she wasn’t a demon.  Baz apologized for scaring her, but told her that the person she was looking for was very dangerous and they had to be sure.  The group asked her some questions, but didn’t find much other than that she was searching for Bennett because she loved him even though he was a demon.  Evelyn offered her professional services, Adler turned into a much less terrifying fluffy dog, and Ath snuck out to get coffee and donuts.  Baz told her that they had killed her boyfriend and that he’d been sucking away people’s happiness and killing them with despair.  She was horrified; to her, he’d been nothing but kind, teaching her how to control her magic (though Evelyn didn’t think this was the whole story).  Baz told her she could get training from the Witches in Salem, but she said she might just want to move on, since the town had nothing but bad memories for her now.  Ath came back with his comfort food, surprising Baz, who hadn’t even seen him leave.  With the tensions now soothed, the ground tremors stopped and they all headed away from the warehouse.  Baz and Evelyn gave her their and the Witches Circle’s numbers in case she needed anything, and Ath gave her some money for a hotel room in apology for the panic they’d put her through.  Seeing everything so nicely resolved, however, Adler was unable to resist adding a touch of mystery, turning to the still slightly distraught woman while still in dog form and telling her that things were not always as they seemed.  Her tenuous calm shattered, the woman ran screaming and the tremors returned as a full-blown localized earthquake.  Adler immediately realized he’d made a mistake and turned into a bird, flying around the area to alert people and direct emergency services to anyone hurt in the quake.  Thankfully, there were only minor injuries and property damage, but Adler felt responsible for all of it, and went through a lot of effort to arrange for a hippie healer witch to take care of the worst injury - a broken wrist - because he was avoiding Baz out of guilt.

The next day - New Year’s Eve - Adler showed up on Baz’s doorstep as a dog after not having come home at all the night before.  A worried Baz asked where he’d been and Adler said there was a spot under a nearby bridge that was excellent for feeling shame because bad dogs didn’t didn’t get to sleep in the bedroom (yes they do, said Baz, with much experience).  Adler continued that he was lucky there’d only been one broken bone and that he’d found someone to heal it, leaving Baz mystified as to what was even going on.  Adler didn’t think he deserved his position as Baz’s boyfriend and Baz must surely be disappointed in him.  Baz was mostly just confused and told him to maybe not creep out people who’ve just been through trauma.  Adler finally turned into a human and immediately brightened up.  He explained that he’d arranged the healer because he felt responsible for the earthquake and didn’t want his first act as Baz’s "equal partner” to be making Baz fix a mess he had caused.  Baz told him he’d hoped his first act would be going somewhere for New Year’s with him and Adler told him that’s why he’d come back when he had.  Baz suggested they get werewolf tacos and talk more, [so they relocated to the Howling Wolf Taqueria where Adler explained that when he took on animal forms, he frequently also took on some measure of how they thought, which had led his dog-brain to believe that he had been a Bad Dog and should be much more ashamed than the situation actually warranted.  Once he turned into a human, he saw things much more clearly, though he did worry that Baz would think less of him for running away and not knowing how to handle the extra relationship aspect of these kinds of problems.  With that cleared up, the conversation wandered around, first to Conan and his willful ignorance of both the supernatural and Baz’s sexual orientation, then to whether or not they wanted to be open about their relationship and if it was polite in the modern era to publicly announce one’s dating status and the difficulties in doing so when you couldn’t use a computer.  Baz realized he would have to tell his mother, who had always been a little leery of Adler, and Adler suggested that it was only fair that Baz meet his mother sometime, as well.  Baz recounted the story of when Conan had asked out Sylvia Rowland and been soundly shot down, which turned into telling Adler what the Rowlands had been like, understandably still a delicate subject for Baz. ��Adler felt bad on Baz’s behalf and regretted that he was taking all three of their duties on himself, but Baz pointed out that with so few Wardens left, he was the only one around to do it.  Baz apologized for bringing the mood down on their first date, and Adler briefly panicked that he should have put more thought into what he looked like for such a momentous occasion, but Baz pointed out that he’d put a lot of effort into choosing his human face and Baz was pretty fond of that.  Adler said that even the Winters had liked his face, hence the stealing of it and Baz asked what the story had been there.  It was pretty simple, the Winter Court had cornered Adler in an alley and demanded he join them, then they ganged up on him and beat him when he refused, with the troll carving his face off to make a statement.  Carving his own face off later to make the same statement had been much less unpleasant, as he viewed that as suffering for his art rather than torture.  Adler was surprised that he didn’t mind being in constant danger for other people’s sake now that he was working with a Warden; he was just an actor, not a real hero.  Baz told him that being a “real hero” was just method acting as one until it became the truth.  Adler was thrilled by this bit of wisdom and said it validated his entire world view and if it were appropriate to glow in public, he absolutely would.  The two made plans to go to a dance party for New Year’s where Adler could glow all he wanted and no one would notice.  Baz laughed that he had his own little disco ball and Adler wrote him a napkin coupon for one emergency disco party “just in case”.]

Mid-evening, Sanya called Baz from the airport saying that his flight had been delayed again, which meant that something was still up.  Baz called up the others and they all met up with Sanya at the Estate and headed downstairs to the magical map of Boston they had set up to track cultists.  Without a sympathetic connection to anything demon-related, there wasn’t much they could do with it.  Adler’s sensitive ears picked up a strange keening or singing from outside and he told the others to stop talking.  Most of the others also caught snippets of it, so they headed upstairs, but it didn’t seem to be coming from any discernible direction.  They made a circle out toward the bay and then back toward downtown to try and find its source, but Ath and Conan realized that it was coming from multiple places, all of them patches of bare earth.  Baz drew a magic circle in the dirt and used it to pinpoint the epicenter along the banks of the North River.  As they headed in that direction, they could see that the landscape had been changed and more and more of those bare patches of dirt had grown abrupt and jagged rock outcroppings.  The quality of the music changed as they got closer to a large plateau of rock and they realized that they could now hear it through the air as well as the stone.  It was evidently coming from a dancing figure on top of the plateau, who they recognized as the woman from the warehouse - only now she had a second set of glowing eyes set in her forehead.  Sanya called up asking if she would please stop, the city was nice without all the new rocks.  She didn’t stop, so Adler flew Sanya up while Conan and Ath used their superhuman speed to climb the cliff face.  The woman responded by shooting a fist of stone at Sanya, staggering him before the rest of the part could even get to them.  Adler returned to pick Baz up, then Evelyn, and the two swordsmen engaged the demon, though she focused entirely on the Knight of the Cross, the Denarians’ traditional enemy.  Ath jumped between her and Sanya, taking a blow meant for the Knight, and so she retaliated by shaking the whole plateau violently.  Evelyn tried to push the demon off the cliffside with a gust of wind, but she was too solidly anchored to her creation.  The others used all the means at their disposal to take her down, Conan shooting her between all four eyes, Adler raking across her face with sharp claws, and Baz countering her earth magic with his own, but she was largely unconcerned and called up an even more powerful quake, knocking Baz and Evelyn off the plateau.  They landed hard on the ground and didn’t get up.  The others, enraged, redoubled their efforts until finally Conan brought her down with a well-placed shot which knocked her head against the stone spear she had created, Baz had thrown back at her, and Adler had driven further into her.  Sanya and Ath immediately searched for her coin, which turned out to be in a secret pocket against her skin.  Sanya wrapped it in the remains of his shirt and thanked Ath for protecting him, telling him that he’d noticed Ath was afraid of him and that he didn’t have to be.  Ath told him that was completely untrue but didn’t elaborate.  Conan and Adler rushed down to Baz and brought him groggily around.  Dazed, Baz asked about Evelyn and attempted to heal her, but was too injured himself to even move over to her.  He put himself into a healing trance and Adler called his hippie witch friend to look after them.  Around them, the town of Salem was riddled with outcroppings and spires.  The random rock spurs had destroyed several buildings, though they’d taken the magical path of least resistance and avoided wards and strong thresholds.  Conan asked Sanya what to do with their prisoner and Sanya expressed hope that she could be reasoned with and eventually rehabilitated, but warned him that once she was awake, she could summon the coin at will and start the fight all over again.

[imafoxylilringirl]

tagged

Thank you so much for tagging me @master-lux i love being included in things <3

The rules are simple: Answer eight questions and tag eight people.

Last movie you watched: Last night i watched The Lion king before bedtime with my big brother! <3

Last song you listened to:This morning started off so innocently with a Creepypasta playlist until i glanced this tag and my brother chased me away from the computer. I was going to look up Ke$ha’s Your Love is My Drug and see where the music ended by the time he left for work but i pulled up Milkshake to troll him because it was already in the search bar from a previous troll which led to My Humps(yes i am aware of the questionable taste in music i have) but the last song i listened to was Giving Him Something He Can Feel by En Vouge... think i’m putting it up on my daily song post.

Last book you read: Don’t know how to answer this, i read and listen to audiobooks a lot then there’s fanfictions. Last fanfiction i read was Take A Stand by @crewefox. If Video games are being counted in the category of reading like a novel Eternal Sonata. Last Audiobook  i listened to was The Dresden Files book 12: Changes by Jim Butcher. But the last book i actually remember opening was the bible. i am not religious but i study all religions, folklore, mythology and fairytales around the world because of being forced to be religious as a child and i like to learn about everything i can, i also study a lot of history.

Last thing you ate: i had ice cream for breakfast cuz i is an adult! Red Velvet Cupcake from BlueBunny to be specific.

Where would you want to time travel: WHERE WOULDN’T I LIKE TO TRAVEL!... except i’m 500% sure i would be hanged in Salem during the witch trials.

Fictional character you would like to hang out with: Nick Wilde, Harry Dresden, Steven and the Crystal Gems, damn, ship me off to the human zoo.

Favorite superhero as a child: Batman, Nightcrawler and Storm

Current fandom obsession: Zootopia! Steven Universe! Humanity! Harry Dresden! Anita Blake! Zootopia! 

So, who could I tag? Hm… I tag @mama-sally, @bluelightenterprises, @trashasaurusrex. @yoshifan30, @helthehatter, @carrotsinpanties, @gokhan20, @feverwildehopps

[lockheedelektra]

Got tagged by @deathga​ to do this 5 things meme

5 things you’ll find in my bag:

chapstick

pocket knife

notebook

sketchbook

expired coupon from last year, probably

5 things you’ll find in my room

books

6-inch statue of Athena with the spear tip accidentally broken off

bottle of lens cleaner

museum-quality replica of a Bronze Age Egyptian dagger

empty planter (ceramic, pink, elephant-shaped)

5 things I’m into right now

FATE, specifically the Dresden Files RPG edition

getting more informed about political issues

shawls a million

vegetable-heavy recipes

sci-fi short stories

5 things on my to-do list

do the dishes

get a second job

write every day

get checked for bipolar disorder

leave the house for something fun at least once a week

5 things people may not know about me

the one holdover from my weeaboo days is that I still say “nya” sometimes and I wish to god I could stop

I was raised Catholic but drifted away from the church before getting confirmed

every time I visit a new country, I get a haircut in that country

I have two tattoos of stylized phoenix wings on my ribs

I hate buying things for myself that aren’t food

I’m gonna tag @darth-salem-emperor-of-earth @praytosarenrae @fireballjack @mllecomtessedelafere @itrhymeswithsneak

feel free to not do this if you don’t want to, though. and if I didn’t tag you, feel free to do this if you do want to!

[thirtysecondsofforever]

I was tagged by @littlebitdodgy - thanks!

Rules: If tagged, answer the original questions and either add to the list or delete some (if you’d like), then tag more people!

Which book are you currently reading?

‘Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King. If I was to say that I hadn’t scared myself while reading it, I’d be lying. 

What’s the best beverage to drink while reading?

Tea during the day, but hot chocolate at night. 

What’s your favourite book quote?

I have a lot of favourite book quotes. One of them is from A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness. “You do not write your life with words...you write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.”

Are you looking forward to a certain book release? If yes, which one?

Yes! I already pre-orded The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon. 

What’s your Hogwarts house?

Gryffindor!

Are there any books you would recommend to the rest of us?

There are so many books. The Dresden Files and anything else by Jim Butcher, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Newsflesh and Parasitology by Mira Grant, The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon, Uprooted by Naomi Novik - I could go on and on! 

What types of book covers do you find most aesthetically pleasing?

I tend to avoid ones with people on the covers. I love clothbound or leatherbound books, or covers that are quite minimalist and don’t have much going on. 

What is one genre you want to read more of?

I want to read more of every genre, so I can really appreciate each one. 

Do you tend to easily enjoy whatever it is you’re reading or are you a hard sell?

I suppose it really depends on the book! Some are more enjoyable than others, but if it’s only focused on a narrow range of characters that are all essentially the same, I probably won’t enjoy it as much. I usually enjoy what I read, so either I’m easily pleased or I’m just good at picking books! 

What other kinds of media do you enjoy?

Music, TV, and film - I’m generally pretty easily pleased, although I don’t listen to much stuff in the charts and I’ll only watch TV or a film if it’s something I’m genuinely interested in. 

I’m not going to tag anyone in this, but please pick this up and pass it on if you want to!