#and intersect with the horrors of their actual situation

[novelconcepts]

This show is incredible, and has so many scenes that are just haunting.

[ooppo]

Earlier this year I took a spontaneous drive to go and find a town I've never been to that was deep in the woods because I really didn't want to go home. I drove for about 30 minutes and still couldn't find this town even though it was a straight drive and there weren't any other streets (besides rural driveways). Eventually I gave up and turned around in an old abandoned logging site to go back where I came. Not soon after, a fog had rolled in and I got a weird feeling in my gut. Then my first obstacle came into view. It was a stop sign at a T intersection. I was so confused because I was certain I took the correct path back. I didn't encounter any other roads or stop signs when I drove the way I came. However, the shit I was dealing with at home was so stupid that I was like "Actually if I am sucked into a horror situation I wouldn't mind. I have nowhere better to be." And just threw caution to the wind and kept driving despite my low gas and battery. Not even five minutes later the fog left and I was spat back out onto a somewhat familiar road like miles away from where I had first started. I still don't know where that town is.

[nokkihy]

JUDAS’ KISS

SUMMARY - you and ethan find yourselves stuck in the middle of the blackmoore university murders 

WARNINGS - strong language , mentions of being stabbed, blood, use of y/n (yuck i know)

PAIRINGS - gn!reader x ethan landry

WORD COUNT - 2k (damn)

AUTHORS NOTE - i hate this so much. so sorry for the rushed ending i honestly didn’t know what else to do.. anyways first fic back!!! woo we cheered 

MASTERLISTS

he knew he had to do it. to avenge his brother that sam killed. to go along with the plan. he knew that he couldn’t fight it. he knew had to be on the same train as you when you were killed by his sister. and every second of it hurt him.

-

you were terrified to say the least.

with anika and quinn dying, and all of the murders happening at your school because you just had to be in the same literature class as tara, you had a lot of reasons to be terrified.

one being that mindy had you and ethan at the top of her prime suspects list because neither of you were there when anika and quinn died. it was extremely surprising to hear coming from her. well, not really. she was a horror movie fanatic everyone knew it. and she lived through one last year, so what’s stopping her from blaming anyone?

two being that you and your friends are being tracked down by lame sickos who idolized actual serial killers and won’t stop at anything to finish what stu and billy started. the theories, the press, the reddit community pages that are filled with pictures and information about you. you barely even felt safe in your own dorm anymore.

three being that you have a boyfriend during the whole situation. ethan was amazing. both of you were apart of the same friend group, so you were hanging out basically every day. you and ethan met through chad, who you met from tara. he was very dorky to be frank and 100% and could marry his movie collection if he could, but being in a relationship during the times of all of the blackwood murders? not good.

which brings this back to the two of you being at the top of mindy’s suspect list. fortunately, you both had econ together to keep each other company. you had finals soon, so the gang should understand if you two ditched the sleepover, right?

wrong.

you decided to crash at ethan and chads apartment after class since chad was at the sleepover, studying for your econ final and donnie darko on the tv as background noise. you were sat on the floor, legs tucked underneath the low coffee table with your laptop, books, and notebook on top. ethan was on the couch, legs sprawled out and his laptop on his lap.

“what is.. the definition of the word equilibrium?” you ask ethan, your fingers typing over the keyboard on your laptop and eyebrows furrowed, deeply concentrated in the work.

“its uh, when the economic forces are balanced. like, when the supply and demand for a product are the same and the both equilibrium curves intersect.”

a ding echoes from both of your phones. it’s not important, probably just people texting in the group chat. you copy down the definition ethan gave you into yours notes, yawning softly.

“tired?” he says, shutting his laptop and sitting up right on the couch, patting the spot next to him for you to sit. you nod, closing the lid on your laptop and standing up. you walk over to ethan and sit next to him, resting your head on his lap.

ethan’s hands delicately play with your hair, his eyes fixated on the screen where the movie you’ve watched together a million times plays on the screen.

“y’know, i hope we last. like, a really long time after all this ghostface stuff.” you mutter, speaking more on the impulsive truth instead of false words. you mean it. ethan had a very special place in your heart. he was always there after a ghostface attack, he was there if you were sad, if you were hurt, anything. some people say that college relationships rarely continue after graduation, but you know that’s not true for your situation.

he just simply hums, the hand that was previously on your head tensing up, but slowly continuing to play with your hair. eventually, you both felt yourself drifting off on the couch and finally falling asleep.

7:30, your alarm forces you awake.

you get up from ethans lap, waking yourself up and stretching. you reach out to stop your alarm, the next screen showing various texts and calls from tara, sam, chad and mindy from last night and way early this morning.

-

mindsss 🤬🤬❣️❣️

“sams place asap.”

9:58pm

chad 🤫🧏🏽‍♂️

“where the hell are you?”

10:30pm

-

“shit, shit, shit.” you whisper to yourself, shaking ethan awake from his sleep. he groans, eyes opening slowly as he regains his sense of where he his.

“we gotta go. something happened.”

you arrive tara, quinn, and sam’s apartment with ethan, police tape and sirens blaring down the whole block. rushing over to mindy after seeing her sat in the back on an ambulance holding her arm, you see a black bag covering a body.

“who.. who is it?” the question comes out shaky, looking around the crowd and trying to see who was there and who was gone.

“step the fuck back, ghostface.” mindy says bitterly, looking you up and down as you approach her. ethan comes up next to you, his face covered in worry.

“ghostface? it’s not, it’s not me.” you stammer in shock, eyes widened from her bold statement.

“yeah, sure. you and your little boyfriend were both gone last night and we all know these fuckin psychopaths work in pairs. stay back.”

you open your mouth to talk again, but chad drags both you and ethan away from her and to a spot away from mindy. your eyes are still stuck on her, appalled by her sudden accusation.

“quinn and anika are dead.” he says, his hand running over his hair and breathing out heavily. you gasp, hand going over your mouth in shock.

so that’s what the text was about. shit. you knew you shouldn’t’ve been so involved in your final. you could’ve stopped it. you could’ve been there to help them fight ghostface off.

sam, tara, and mindy were now looking over in your direction, chad and ethan having a completely separate argument about what was going on. all you could think about was how suspicious you looked to everyone.

later that night, after suddenly hearing that gale is dead, you and the group (plus danny) go down to the train station to go to the ghostface shrine. the chatter and noise making it nearly impossible to hear what everyone was talking about.

tara, sam, chad, mindy, and danny all board the train, but chad notices that you and ethan are being held behind by a group of people. he tried to reach out of your guys, but danny pulls him back and the the doors shut with a loud hiss before you can rush onto the train.

“fucking hell.” you groan, watching as the train leaves you and ethan stranded until the next one comes.

“what a great day.” ethan says, eyes shut as he leans against one of the poles nearby as the two of you wait.

the next train pulls up 5 minutes later, you, ethan, and tons of other people pooling into the train cars. the amount of people push you two apart, him on one side and you on the other. you frantically try and push through the crowds of people, but the lights flicker off and everything goes dark. in the brief moment of light you get through the window, people with masks of horror movie characters on become way more noticeable. jason, freddy krueger, a purge mask.

a ghostface mask.

the lights flicker back on, your breathing quickened and eyes widened. you try and look for ethan from where you’re standing, seeing a small peek of his brown, curly hair but none of his face. you close your eyes for a moment, your arms clinging onto one of the poles near where you were standing.

the lights turn off once again. what the hell is wrong with these lights? the subtle colorful glow from a costume turns on, allowing you to just barely see that the ghostface mask you previously saw wasn’t where it was before, but sitting down and looking in your direction. you stumble back against the train car wall, praying that the lights would just turn on.

you hate how it was halloween and anyone could be dressed up as ghostface. the person staring at you could be a child, for all you know. or it could be one of those theorists that recognized you on the train and wanted to screw with you.

or maybe it was actually ghostface.

lights on. only for a brief second. you wonder what ethan is doing now. is he thinking of you? is he trying to look for you? what’s going on? lights off.

the person in the ghostface mask disappears completely from your line of sight. is it clear? the intercom announces that the train is coming to a stop and the doors are opening. you breathe a breath of fresh, weed and must infused air. not very comforting, but better than having to hold your breathe from worrying. you begin to walk towards the exit, taking a step forward before the person in the ghostface mask lunges towards you and pushes you back against the wall. a gloved hand covers your mouth, a sharp object plunged into your stomach.

a scream escapes your mouth, muffled by the tight hand over your mouth and your body slides down against the wall. your eyes are widened, tears violently rolling down your cheeks and mouth open with inaudible screams of agony. the knife is forced out of your skin, only to be stabbed right back inside. the ding goes off when the train stops, the doors hissing open and people begin to exit the train.

ghostface rips the knife out of you one last time, exiting the train and leaving you bleeding on the ground. ethan is finally in your line of vision and at first when he sees you he smiles, but when he sees you, the smile is wiped off of his face and he rushes over to you. he sees you holding the spot where you were stabbed, all over your blood on your hands and staining your shirt.

“oh my God, oh my God.” he panics, his eyes basically popping out of his head when he looks at you, but snaking his arm around your shoulders and helping you get up, yelling for a help when he carries you out of the train car and onto the station floor. you consciousness begins slipping away from you, the only thing you remember before passing out is being rushed into the back of an ambulance and ethan following behind.

you wake up to a bright room, unsure about what time it is, seeing a doctor, mindy, and sam next to your hospital bed. you try to sit up, groaning in pain at the sharp feeling in your abdomen.

“where’s.. where’s ethan?” you ask gently, looking around the room and not seeing him. was he hurt too? did ghostface kill him?

“ethan was one of the killers.” sam says, her hand laying on top of yours and rubbing her thumb over your skin. you shake your head eyebrows furrowing in confusion

“no, he wasn’t. he was on the train when i got stabbed, it’s not him. where is he?”

“y/n. it was him, quinn, and detective bailey. quinn’s not dead. she was the one that stabbed you. all of them are family. ethan is dead.” quinn says suddenly, her voice sounding more like she was trying to say ‘i told you so’ instead of trying to comfort you.

tears prick your eyes immediately after she says ethan was dead, your breath catches in your throat and the hand that was being held underneath sam’s shaking.

it was all a lie. study dates, the ‘i love you’s’, everything was a lie. and ethan let his own sister almost kill you in cold blood, right in front of him.

did he ever really love you?

nokkihy ™ all rights reserved. do not reupload, repost, modify or claim my work as your own!!!

[your-local-grinning-cat]

‘Twas brillig and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe…

You have entered the Tulgey Wood, the home of Che’nya. When the curious cat beastman is not attending classes at RSA or out bothering visiting his friends at NRC, Che’nya will usually be found here, wandering his Wood.

Make sure you keep a good grip on your mind - you wouldn’t want to lose it now! - because things are a little different around here…

If you’re curiouser and curiouser - please be sure to read the directions to be directed in the right direction… but not necessarily directly!

Know that you ignore the rules of the Tulgey Wood at your own peril! 😼⤵️

Before you go any further, you should know Che’nya is not alone in his Wood. He has kidnapped convinced his best friend, AR, to live with him! Where Che’nya goes, AR goes. AR is as much a part of the Tulgey Wood and the world of Twisted Wonderland as Che’nya himself is, so do not be surprised when AR and Che’nya interact!

AR is both a character and the roleplayer. How can AR be the roleplayer for Che’nya if they’re also a character? Well, that certainly is an interesting question, isn’t it? I suppose you’ll have to read further to find out. You were warned that things are different around here…

While all of Wonderland is Mad, there are rules here. The Queen of Hearts has made sure of it! Very loudly! And even someone as chaotic as Che’nya listens to the Queen most of the time. But these are AR’s rules and everyone is expected to follow them, even Che’nya!

Rules of the Tulgey Wood

1️⃣ There is an actual person behind this account. Remember that and be kind and respectful. If you break the rules you will either be ignored, told the rule/s you broke and directed to it/them, or outright blocked.

9️⃣ Be a decent human being to everyone - not just the person behind this blog. Racism, homophobia, misogyny, transphobia, etc. are not tolerated here. MAPs and pro-shippers are also unwelcome. If I ever do/say/reblog anything offensive myself, feel free to tell me and I will correct it! I am human and make mistakes.

3️⃣ The admin running this blog is an adult in their mid twenties. Please keep this in mind. For your safety and my own, if you are a minor, I ask that you only interact with me through asks so that I can answer them publicly. That way the entire interaction is in full view of others.

8️⃣ I do not rp in DMs. If I contact you via Tumblr DM or you contact me in DMs, I will be talking to you OOC.

4️⃣ Everything will be answered at my own discretion and time frame. Not only do I have a life outside of this blog, but I often end up putting a lot of effort into just one reply, making my response time a little slow. Because of this, I can easily get overwhelmed with notifications and burnout, so I sometimes need to step away and take breaks. Please be patient, and thank you for understanding!

2️⃣ While this blog is fairly NSFW, as I allow cursing, some smaller horror-esqe descriptions, and can speak of darker topics, one thing that I do not allow is sexual content. While Che’nya is very tactile and highly physically affectionate, the furthest he will go is kissing, nuzzling, cuddling, etc. He may also do some cat things such as scenting, kneading, kitten licks, nipping, etc., but that is as far as I am comfortable with.

6️⃣ This is a multiship blog. Which means that while Che’nya can date multiple people, those relationships will not intersect with each other, belonging in their own pocket realities. Che’nya, being self aware, is unique in that he is aware of all his partners in every reality and is honest with every partner about the situation. So, to him, it’s more like he’s in a polyamorous polycule. But, for the purpose of the blog itself, because his partners will ever interact as fellow S/Os, this blog is multiship.

5️⃣ Other rp blogs and OCs are absolutely welcome! However, if it’s your character’s first time talking to Che’nya, especially an OC, I ask that you either give a brief explanation as to who they are at the bottom of the ask you send or provide a link to an intro post that I can read so I know who I’m talking to and Che’nya can act accordingly. I am not going to hunt down information about your character if you are wanting to interact with me. It would be different if I was reaching out to you. A summary can be as simple or as long as you like. Here’s an example of a short one provided by @castaway-achlys:

“Character is a mild-mannered and typically quiet boy. Despite his past, he's incredibly intelligent and curious about the world, and always has kindness in store for others. He is 18 and in the Ignihyde dorm.”

7️⃣ Much longer rule because it comes with a little added explanation on Che’nya! But it is just as important!

Please refrain from god modding. Che’nya is my character. I do not appreciate it when you try to force him to act like you want him to, you assume he will react/act in a certain way, or you try to force your headcanons onto the character I am roleplaying. This is not the canon Che’nya, nor is this your version of Che’nya. This is my version of Che’nya.

If you do not know what god modding is, here is a link! And before you click on it, know the tone is /lh

Bouncing off of “no god modding,” people may try to complain that my Che’nya is OP because I let him metagame and seem to let him powerplay. (I will not provide links to these terms - if you don’t know them I think the link previously provided will have been enough to tell you what to do to fix that 😂) While I can’t argue with the metagaming, as Che’nya is self aware, I can argue with powerplay.

Che’nya is not all powerful… unless he is in his Tulgey Woods, where he is the Ultimate Game Master and controls everything. But that does not mean he doesn’t have weaknesses, even there. And once OUT of the Wood, Che’nya is NOT all powerful. He is still strong, but he is no longer the Ultimate Game Master. The key would be managing to catch the cat. Which would be incredibly difficult, but it could be done. This is why Che’nya does not often leave the Tulgey Wood. He is well aware of his vulnerability.

Then there is the fact that, even if he is very powerful, enough to even warp reality at times… he has also managed to get his head stuck in a teapot, summoned marshmallows and skewers to roast them but complained he had no chocolate or graham crackers so he couldn’t make s’mores, and has run face-first into walls more than once.

He may be Powerful, but he is also Mad and Silly and that can make him Stupid at times. It would be no fun if he was truly all powerful all the time.

🔟 This blog is run entirely on mobile with only a few exceptions. So please forgive any weird formatting.

Tags are important on this blog! Not only does Che’nya often speak in them (AR sometimes joins in, even when they were not present in the main post), but there are also good sorting tags to check out if you’re interested!

Tagging System

Sorting Tags - Che’nya

#che’nya meows - when Che’nya makes an original post speaking whatever nonsense comes to him

#che’nya chats - when Che’nya replies to asks sent to him… and yes, that is a play on “chat” being French for “cat,” but no, it’s not for you Rook lovers it’s a REFERENCE TO THE BOOK LET ME LIVE MY LIFE 😭

#che’nya wanders - when Che’nya leaves the Tulgey Wood to go visit other blogs and send his own asks, usually to stir up mischief

#che’nya appears - when Che’nya suddenly pops up on a post, often without warning or invatation

#che’nya grins - when Che’nya finds something purrticularly fun, funny, and/or fabulous 😸

#che’nya lore drop - my Che’nya is not the Che’nya from canon… since we don’t know much about him, I have made him my own

So, that being said…

#che’nya the [REDACTED] - when Che’nya does or says something, in the main post or the tags, that reminds us that he is more than just a silly kitty beastman… he is the Cheshire Cat

#che’nya knows no 4th wall - when Che’nya breaks the 4th wall because he is 100% self aware and does not care about architecture

Sorting Tags - AR

#ar speaks - when AR makes an original post IN CHARACTER (sometimes included even if AR only speaks in the tags)

#ar answers - when AR replies to asks IN CHARACTER (sometimes included even if AR only speaks in the tags)

#ar asks - when AR sends an ask to a blog IN CHARACTER (sometimes included even if AR only speaks in the tags)

#ar comments - when AR comments on posts they were not originally involved in IN CHARACTER (sometimes included even if AR only speaks in the tags)

#ar _____s ooc - when AR makes an original post, replies to asks, sends asks, or comments on posts OUT OF CHARACTER, explaining something that is happening to the blog admin irl

Speaking Tags - All

If only ONE person is speaking in/making a post, whether it’s Che’nya or AR, assume the person “talking” in the tags is them, even with no name identifier. However, if both are speaking, they will identify themselves.

#che’nya: Che’nya is speaking in this tag

#ar: AR is speaking in this tag - in character

#ooc: if you see this tag, I am talking as the admin and out of character, but this is not on a post I have made specifically to speak OOC

Event Tags

Whenever there is a fun situation that lasts a while happening on the blog, there will be a tag specific to the event! It will be formatted like this…

#che’nya event: [event]

Some people have been given their own unique tag. Here’s a list of those who have earned their own kind of cat bell from me that I tend to ring the most often! (let me know if you want to be untagged) There are some other people who have bells, but I don’t tag them as often.

Cat Bell Buddies 🔔

@1930sdarlin: #darlin megs 💖

@blind0raven

Foxy: #boxy foxy birdy friend

Kibby: #👑🦊

@castaway-achlys

Castor: #⭐️🔭😸

Pollux: #💫🔭😸

@disgruntled-prince: #🦁💜😸

I will make a post with more information about Che’nya specifically later to link here, but for now… I think they deserve to finally have a place of honor on Che’nya’s blog!

Relationships 😻

Nightlight - Che’nya and his Star, Castor

(@castaway-achlys)

✨🌙⭐️✨

Darli’nya - Che’nya and his Darlin, Megs

(@1930sdarlin)

✨💜💖✨

Leo’nya - Che’nya and His Highness, Leona

(@disgruntled-prince)

✨😸🦁✨

AR: Fuck my life this was supposed to be shorter than the last one…

Che’nya: Well… at least it’s more organized? And, to be fair, you did have more things to add on this one than the last one.

AR: *sobbing*

Che’nya: =o_o=

Credit and thanks to @cafekitsune for the dividers!

[acoupofowls]

Other Worlds: An Anthology of Diverse Short Fiction

Short stories by writers from marginalised and/or underrepresented communities or backgrounds exploring the theme of "Other Worlds"

KICKSTARTER NOW LIVE and SUBMISSIONS OPEN!

Other Worlds is the second print anthology brought to you by A Coup of Owls Press - home of online quarterly anthologies from creators from marginalised and/or underrepresented communities or backgrounds.

As a follow-up to Other & Different, which explored what it is to be othered, Other Worlds will be an exploration of places, situations, communities, etc, that are other. These might be actual other worlds in a science or speculative fiction genre, or a community, or a situation in the historical or modern world that feels or is made to feel alien. Encompassing a variety of styles and genres, Other Worlds will feature stories focused on the theme of being part of those othered communities - however the writers wish to interpret that.

THE STORIES

We are thrilled to confirm that we have invited five fantastic authors to contribute to Other Worlds, and our submissions for the remaining stories are open from 1st October to 15th November 2023. 

For more submissions guidelines and to submit, check out our submissions page.

Eve Morton:  Strange people with strange purposes gather in Haven (Science Fiction).

Eve Morton is a poet, professor, and parent living in Waterloo, Ontario. She likes coffee, short stories, and horror movies--in that order.  Weblinks: website

Previous publications include: A Coup of Owls, Other Stories Podcast and Third Flatiron Publishing

Victor Okechukwu: A post-civil war community feels cut off from the rest of Nigeria when a woman's only son enters a train to Jos but  may not return (Modern Nigerian Lit). 

Victor Okechukwu is a writer based in Lagos, Nigeria. His writing takes a deep setting in arresting issues of mental health that have been overlooked in his country. He's an Associate Prose Editor at Zerotic Press and is reading mass communication at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Weblinks: Twitter

Previous publications include: Gordon Square Review, Mycelia, Door-is-a-jar, and Rigorous Magazine

Von Reyes: Violence and intimacy become blurred and life might just be worth fighting for amongst a community of underground fighters (Speculative Fiction).

Von Reyes is an emergent fiction author, focused on uplifting the intersections of queer and trans masculinity and Asian diasporic identity. He focuses on genre fiction with themes of surrealism, queer sexuality, existentialism, and optimistic nihilism. He is passionate about creating a more socially conscious world where care for each other is at the core of all that we do. He hopes to tell stories that don't shy away from the horrors, but allows us to find the light within them. When he isn't writing, he can usually be found chasing the ocean and his next iced coffee.  Weblinks: website

Previous publications include: The Good Men Project. Forthcoming in Chill Mag.

Zachary Rosenberg:  A Jewish soldier and rancher must contend with mysterious monsters to build the home he longs for (Horror Western).

Zachary Rosenberg is a horror writer living in Florida. He crafts horrifying tales by night and by day he practices law, which is even more frightening. His debut novella Hungers as Old As This Land is out now from Brigids Gate Press and his second, The Long Shalom, is available from by Off Limits Press. Weblinks: Twitter

Previous publications include: Dark Matter Magazine, The Deadlands, and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Samir Sirk Morató: When an Appalachian community clashes with their neighbors—a grove of sentient, dying chestnut trees—tragedy strikes (Horror).

Samir Sirk Morató is a scientist, artist, and flesh heap. They are also a 2022 Brave New Weird shortlister and a F(r)iction Fall 2022 Flash Fiction finalist. Samir spends most of their time tending to their cacti and contemplating the nature of meat. Weblinks: Twitter, Instagram, and website

Previous publications include: Neon Hemlock, bodyfluids, Catapult, and Seize the Press.

COVER ART

We can't wait to share with you the amazing cover art currently being created by amazing artist @pangaeastarseed.

Pangaea is a life-long artist and resident of the DC suburbs. A freelance illustrator with 20+ years experience, Pan’s work focuses on figure work and visual narratives utilizing the exploration of queerness, food as a love-language, and colors influenced by their florid synaesthesia.

Pangaea’s previous work includes custom illustration commissions and tattoo designs for clients; Starseed, an original gay-porn-space-opera comic, The Alien Dick Coloring Book, sketchbook zines Cardassia Prime and Cardassia Kotok, and the Washington DC-variant poster design of The Lambda Literary Awards 2022.

Portfolio: https://www.pangaeaillustrations.com/

WHY KICKSTARTER?

We want to ensure that we produce the high quality product that we know we can! Whilst design, layout and formatting happens in-house, Kickstarter funds will help cover pay for our authors, cover artist and editor. 

REWARDS

Add Ons!

We have a variety of extras available in the add-ons, from extra copies to special collected editions.  Whilst we've tried to create reward tiers to suit everyone, the add-ons will better allow you to mix and match to your preference! 

Our own @maxturnerwrites is once more offering some of his own work at discounted prices for supporters.

STRETCH GOALS!

£1000 : at £1000 we will add an Other Worlds bookmark for each physical backer

£1250 : at £1250 we will add an A5 print of cover art (without title) to each physical backer, and an e-copy of the same to each e-backer

£1500 : at £1500 we will add an Other Worlds tote bag for each physical backer

[rokkenjimaisland]

Ren's "similar to Umineko" list! (now overhauled)(You're welcome)

Stuff on here reminds me of Umineko for a variety of reasons. If I add to it, I'll just edit this post and add the date I added it to this list. Separated by genre this time.

Under the read-more, with the "why it reminds me of Umineko" blurb after the title rather than a whole plot synopsis like I had done in the previous list

Feel free to rec stuff in tags or in comments etc. if I haven't read/played/watched it it might be hard for me to add it but I'll definitely add it to my own list of things to check out!

VIDEO GAMES The House In Fata Morgana - Visual novel, Unreliable narration, witch haunting an illusory mansion for thousands of years, cycles of abuse and trauma, Gothic setting, romance 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors - Visual novel, "The killer is among us" (lol), murder mystery scoping out paranormal/metaphysical elements and twisting them into its own crazy logic, romance NieR Replicant - It's up to you to find your own happiness whatever that means to you despite the circumstances of the world you're living in or your own birth Alan Wake - Author creates and infers reality around him, horror setting, unreliable narration, creations rallying against their creator Alan Wake 2 - see the above, it's the sequel, except Alan Wake 2 is an actual survival horror. I didn't like Alan Wake 1 much but I'm LOVING 2 so far. The Forgotten City - I haven't played this just saw someone on Twitter say to play it if you like Umineko so I'm trusting their recommendation Pathologic Classic HD - Questions of morality, wishy-washiness on the reality of the fantastical elements of the town's culture, meta universe shenanigans forcing you to contend with "none of this matters, so why do/should I care?" Patho 2 can probably go here too but I am playing that at the moment.

ANIMANGA Naoki Urasawa's Monster - "Why did the culprit do this?" over "Who is the culprit?", murder mystery, cycles of abuse, questions of character identity, the ultimate "victim of circumstances has created the monster" situation Shiki - Sleepy town being annihilated by an unknown threat, humans doing unspeakable things in the name of justice, the question of the antagonist's morality/justice is brought to the forefront and maybe they were right all along...? Princess Tutu - Characters who have been created for a story and are living out a narrative sort of against their will, the narrative as a framing device and also a prison, love love love lots of love, the death of the author and what this means for a tale and the characters within it too--if you can only call them characters I Want To Hold Aono-kun so Badly I Could Die - romantic relationships as a way to combat your personal loneliness, horror and romance and how they intersect...kind of hard to explain this one unless you've finished Umineko but this manga really reads like AU Bato[redacted] to me so far, lots of supernatural elements, learning how to find happiness

TV Succession - Rich people dealing with their abusive and unpredictable father deciding who will be the successor for the family business and dragging everyone else into it, cycles of literally every sort

MOVIES Knives Out (2019) - Rich family called to a house to discuss the ailing patriarch's will only for him to be murdered, murder mystery Haven't seen Glass Onion yet but that too. Decision To Leave (2022) - Confessions of the unspeakable as acts of love, Another time another place maybe it could have worked, I created myself to love you, tragic romance, the sea as a motif representing character worlds Memento (2000) - it's up to the watcher to interpret events as they happen and piece them together, the most unreliable narrator of narrators, just go in blind The Prestige (2006) - Magicians get into a big dick competition and destroy their relationships for the sake of greatness, branches into metaphysical territory for the sake of pursuing magic House (1977) - Group of girls visit an ancient family home, horror setting, love is always enduring for better or for worse, witches, using other bodies to fulfill your own wish

BOOKS The Locked Tomb Quartet - Cites Umineko (and 999!) as an inspiration and Muir is a very very referential reader so it's kind of hard to say stuff without spoiling TLT also so honestly just go read it. Magpie Murders - Murder within a murder And Then There Were None (duh) - Directly inspired Umineko and the murders within Umineko The Last Unicorn - Characters acknowledge they are living in a fairy tale, the unicorn is often called the only 'real' one in the group due to her immortality, dream-like narration and fantastical whimsy, ocean representing character strife House Of Leaves - The metaphysical book of metaphysical books with stories within stories within stories and extremely unconventional formatting, house as a vehicle to tell a horror story IT - Two stories in different times existing side by side to inform the reader how to read it. I never finished reading this either though sorry </3 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - metafiction play about characters and the absurdity of their existence, repeating stories, tragedy is only a story and the characters within only exist to tell that story regardless of their own individuality Wuthering Heights - toxic romance the novel, idk why I didn't have this here yet. Honestly I'm not super big on this book but it's a classic for a reason. Dread, isolated spaces, fucked up romance, ghosts, etc.

[paigemathews]

Thinking about a power swap au for the sisters and this is what I’ve got:

Prue - premonitions. Admittedly, this one has the least justification just because I came up with Piper and Phoebe’s first and this was what was left for Prue. However, I think it could still work very well! Instead of Phoebe, it’s Prue who has the most passive power. She’d have to learn to let go and trust her sisters’ abilities because she doesn’t have the power capable to win the fight by herself. In comparison to Piper and Phoebe, she doesn’t have nearly as much control over the situation and would have learn to deal with it. 

Piper - telekinesis. Meek little Piper gets the most destructive power. She’d have to learn to accept and channel her anger instead of denying it. She’s already able to temper herself, but she’d have to learn to express herself. There’s also the element of having to take charge and stand out, because her power would be one of the strongest in a fight. She can’t just hide behind Prue, she has to step up as a fighter instead of the typical motherly role she takes. 

Phoebe - molecular immobilization. Phoebe, the girl who never thinks things through and never considers the consequences, gets the ability to actually stop everything and think. Accidentally freezing time and then having to actually consider before she acts, forcing her to be more level-headed. In contrast to premonitions, she doesn’t get to see a glimpse of the future so the element of still making so many mistakes when she should theoretically have all the time in the world to think about it.

For overall storyline adaptations, I’d say there should be a definite increase with Prue’s powers and her job at Bucklands. We already see those intersect several times during the first two seasons (including, but not limited to, Feats of Clay, The Painted World, and That Old Black Magic) but imagine Prue being able to see the past in an auction house. I’m also always a sucker for magical artifacts so I’d love to get more.

Finally, I think that it’d impact the sisterly relationship. I feel like there could be an element of tension in Prue and Piper’s relationship because Prue is so used to being the one in control, the one calling the shots, but now Piper has to take charge more because she’s the one with the strongest power. Piper finally being able to stand out from Prue and Phoebe instead of letting her anxiety and shyness control her and stay in the shadows and they butt heads a little more. Phoebe, forcibly learning patience to be able to unfreeze things, having to play mediator and get in between them. Basically a lot of role swaps going on here for all of them.

+BONUS: Paige - also premonitions! Someone who is trying so hard to outrun her past and what she used to be being forced to confront it head-on. Someone who struggled to find a future for herself seeing a new one unfold in front of her very eyes. Someone who is so new to this game seeing everything in front of her, all of the horrors that they have to face, all of the tragedies that they can’t stop, all of the pain involved, and deciding if she’s willing to join as its newest player. And then someone who is so unused to being vulnerable and opening up discovering that she can use her powers to share her premonitions for others and learning to let them help her shoulder the burden.

++BONUS: also ft. a species swap for the love interests: Andy as half-Whitelighter who still dies saving them, Leo as a Cupid whose powers are originally bound, Coop as half-demon who just wants to help people and love, Cole as a Cupid that falls down a dark path and uses his powers to manipulate Phoebe, and Henry as a Whitelighter who is a bit overly cynical to be a literal guardian angel man.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

So I'm a therapist right? I mostly work with teens and adults these days, but I have a few young kids on my caseload, and I've been a case worker for foster youth before with mostly under-12s on my caseload, so school aged kids are an area of special focus for me.

Which is how I found myself trawling my union's school-age-kids current events newsletter this week and stumbling across this little gem of an article.

The article is rightly critical of the school administrators responsible for the sudden spike in kids being barred from school until they're cleared by a licensed clinician. They rightly connect this suddenly flourishing policy as an extension of the history of isolating disabled and high needs kids in rooms that range from horrific to an offensive caricature of a safe space. I actually really appreciate how careful the author was to address the impacts/motovations across the board of these kinds of policies, and think they did a decent job of holding space for the many horrors of how this came about.

I've worked with a lot of other mental health providers, and have even done crisis work like that which districts are proposing parents use to get their kids cleared for return. I've also worked with a lot of school staff and understand just how difficult it can be to meet kids' needs in many schools. There is something so emotionally devastating to me to realize that this is yet another sign of our fracturing education system post-COVID. I've been watching most of the institutions involved in the care and wellbeing of communities (esp children) limp along the road in a desperate effort to keep providing services to the millions who rely on them. I've been marking each critical failure that becomes the new normal in these systems as the confluence of factors that makes up The COVID-19 Pandemic steadily degrades our ability to do our jobs. I've been screaming as loudly as I can in every advocacy setting I am permitted in that we are watching these systems collapse in real time and we absolutely cannot allow it to continue.

It is admittedly extremely hard to do that day in and out while maintaining a sense of optimism but I'm doing my best. We all are.

I'm aware that to many it may not seem like much. And I definitely grant that this mechanism of informal removal/segregation for students isn't new. But the frequency with which it's used definitely is. And sure, it's easy to say things like "see, virtual home destroyed kids mental health they're doing so much worse now" or "schools are so understaffed and overwhelmed that they're no longer capable of managing students' needs" or "well, maybe this wouldn't be as big a problem if it weren't for the fact that 47 out of 40 US states fail to meet the well-being standards of 1 school social worker for every 250 kids" (I need you to understand that this bar is so fucking low that it makes me physically sick, being responsible for 250 students as 1 social worker is absurd to the point of cruelty to the kids and the adults in that situation, and 47 states have WORSE ratios) or even "well, of course it's awful but what are the schools supposed to DO, they can't put other students at risk even if the risk is the result of a systemic and catastrophic failure".

I don't think I have answers on my own honestly, but I do know of at least a few points of intersection that are definitely making this worse.

At least 2.6 million educators have quit their jobs since the start of the pandemic.

Child care workers died during the pandemic at a rate of about 38 per 100,000, educators died at a rate of about 15 per 100,000, and I actually cannot find rates of death among my own profession (within the US at least, I have found statistics for the UK, Canada, Spain, and a bunch of other countries and the fact that mine appears to have simply neglected to track the deaths of my colleagues and friends is sometbing I scream about into my pillow at night) but can tell you anecdotally that my graduating MSW class was down several dozengraduate students to COVID-19 deaths by the time I finished the program. These elevated death rates appear throughout healthcare, education, and essential & service workers broadly.

For many care professions there are quite literally not enough new workers-in-training to replace those lost to death, retirement, or career change related to the pandemic.

Surveys are showing that the mass exodus isn't even over yet, as some report that nearly half of remaining healthcare workers intend to leave their jobs by 2025. If we already don't have enough people coming into the field to replace who we've lost over the past 3 years, I cannot even fathom how we are supposed to replace so many more over the next 3.

A recent policy review from the Economic Policy Institute found that even in times of economic and social comfort, schools are receiving an inadequate amount of funding across the board, meaning they are unable to spare the resources to prepare for periods of economic and social hardship when funding often gets cut back even further.

Care professions are notoriously underpaid, even before the pandemic, and often rife with labor protection exemptions and workplace abuse.

I'm genuinely not trying to be alarmist, but I need people to understand that my colleagues and I are desperately trying to steer a sinking ship. There weren't enough of us to meet demand (and we ran ourselves ragged to only sort of manage it anyway) even before the pandemic massively expanded the need for our services. We died en masse. We got sick en masse. We sacrificed everything until there was nothing left of us en masse. Our systems are collapsing and we can't do anything to stop it unless people start supporting and advocating for us (and by extension for yourselves).

Many workers are considered essential by legal and social definition, and while I always love a good debate about whether and how to overhaul that, the reality is our essential systems are disintegrating under the weight of decades of popicy failure and 3 years of psychological (and physical) torture. If we don't DO something, these systems will fail altogether.

I'm not in the business of trying to predict exactly how long that will take but. Looking around myself? I think it'll be sooner than any of us would like. I'm tired. And I'm a relative infant in my career at only 7 years of service. I don't even qualify for profession-based student loan forgiveness yet (yet another factor making this worse: many of us are tens of thousands if jot hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for our undergraduate and professional/technical degrees). I help mentor and supervise the interns at my practice, and I can't tell you how many zoom calls I've sat through comforting someone sobbing their way through a breakdown and on the verge of walking away forever. I can't bear it, reassuring these kind, wonderful people that they CAN do this, that it gets easier with time, that "we all hit a wall around this time in school and you've been through so much, I'm so proud of you". I can't keep telling these newbies that they can and should put themselves through this because we need them so desperately, they deserve better.

I've lost the plot of my own post and am just drowning in grief now. Grief for my colleagues, grief for my patients and clients and everyone who needs our services. Grief for the work that I love and how it is changing in ways that threaten all the progress so many of us spend every day fighting for.

I have sat in rooms with congress people and demanded to know where the funding was on all their fucking bullshit legislation creating commities and implementing new demands on workers when we already can't meet the existing ones. I have screamed at union meetings about caseload/care ratios and the constant overtime shifts. I have stared wealthy CEOs in the face and informed them that they either need to hire more staff, up our pay, or refine our job descriptions because the current status quo is killing their staff.

I need people to see that we are hurtling towards a point of no return and help us. All of us. Every new report about services cutting corners and riding the grey space of legal versus ethical is a canary in the coal mine, and pretty soon the air is going to be too toxic to breathe.

Anyway, if you have no idea where to start learning about/advocating around these issues, most professional oversight organizations have a policy and advocacy section on thejr websites where they talk about that. Mine, NASW, can be found here. Most of our professions also have industry-specific unions, and they'll have similar pages on their sites. If you have the bandwidth and inclination, please please PLEASE, start familiarizing yourself with the work being done to protect us and you and all of our access to essential services and care. And if you have someone in your life who's an educator, a direct care worker, a healthcare worker, etc, maybe give them a hug and tell them you love them and find out if there is any daily life busy work you could take care of for them so they can have just a little more time to rest in their day.

[joculine]

DIE Issue #3 Reread (Gillen & Hans)

Issue #3 opens with a bang. Boom: Dieselpunk dragon.

The Front

I'll talk a little bit about the Front here before we get into the art. The world of Die (the game, not the comic) is split up into 20 distinct parts (like the faces of a a d20.) Each section is it's own distinct little microcosm, with its own quests, factions, characters, and flavor. These faces aren't fully disconnected though—several of these little lands are in conflict with each other. The Front is one of them.

This place is a mix of a WWI trench battlefield, a steampunk fantasy, and some Lord of the Rings for good measure. I don't think an actual world map will show up in the comic (to my memory,) but I believe it is an intersection of Eternal Prussia (home of the Clockwork Fascists) and Little England (The Scouring of the Shire, sans victory over Saruman.) Since each face of Die is a triangle, there's probably a third power in here, I would assume Angria. It doesn't come up here though.

I really like this concept. In fact, I stole it as a setting in my first real TTRPG. My players never really went there, so I ended up bring my own dieselpunk enemies to the city they were staying in. The idea was too cool not to use. I mean, evil, magical, mechs? Hobbits with infantry rifles? What's not to love.

The Art

I already shared the dragon splash piece and the battlefield from this issue, which are the main talking points. I also want to point out the way the watercolor style images continue to show off Hans's incredible eye for lighting. Check out how the outline of the dragon looms over Chuck in the smoke after a shelling:

This technique of shadows building suspense around a subject gets replicated a little later on, when an unexpected guest arrives in the trench.

And then is inverted with the eagle, shining bright like a sun among the smog:

There's some great costuming choices for Ash in this issue. Part of the plot here is that she is not recognizable as a Dictator, as a large overcoat has covered most of her dress and chest scar. I think she looks neat. Just look at those sandals!

We also see that red magic of violence show up a few times too. From the dragon itself, when Matt attacks the dragon, and at the end, when the hobbit's letter is burned.

Interesting that the eagle, who appears to be summoned by... Tolkien... does not appear as red, even though we can assume it is magical. Instead, it is golden, something that signifies are more noble intention. I'll keep an eye out for that gold color going forward too.

Hold on a second, Tolkien? Like actual JRR Tolkien is a character here?

Kind of. This is one of my favorite world building elements of DIE and we'll get more in further issues. For now, it seems as though the spirit of a very influential author to Die and TTRPGs in general is present in the game. Present and trapped even. Not unlike the situation the party finds itself in.

It's not just Tolkien himself either. Ash stumbles into a trench and runs right into Elijah Wood Frodo.

DIE isn't afraid to share what it's referencing—in fact it's so unafraid that it's tied it up in the plot and themes directly. Ash goes on a bit of an internal journey while experiencing this homage. There's never a point where she seems totally disillusioned with it, but she seems to struggle to take the whole thing seriously... or at least she says she does.

I mean, it is a bit ridiculous for her, right? She's stepped back into this fantasy realm, made by her teenage GM, and now has to deal with Frodo and the hobbits dying after a failed attempt at going over the top of the trenches. It's so overblown and on the nose, it's almost funny.

But that horror is still there. And it becomes more real to her when the face of the most influential fantasy author suddenly appears before her.

The dramatics are dramatic, the artifice is laid bare, and yet the emotion is still real.

I think it's telling, Tolkien's words about The Front and the world of Die: "[A]n orcish mockery of my elvish tale. This is not what I wanted." We can read this literally, as the character's displeasure with what Sol has made. We can also read this as a reaction to the comic itself: it's not on the same level as LOTR, but a crueler remixing of elements from those books. I think we can also look at this as Tolkien's denial of his own work as being a metaphor for WWI.

This is a really interesting statement, not only because it can be seen in so many different ways as illustrated above, but because it contradicts itself. Why is Die Tolkien, who is the master of this realm, critiquing the Front? Why did Gillen choose to put his own version of Tolkien criticizing his comic in the comic itself? Why was Tolkien in life so reluctant to compare his work to his own experiences? It's a little paradoxical, and offers messy conclusions—a great metaphor for a character trapped in an endless war.

I also see how this little story relates to tabletop games as a whole. The medium asks you to take silly things seriously and to suspend your disbelief enough to make pretend with your friends. Yet, the emotions you can experience in a session of roleplay can be very strong, positively and negatively. Tabletop has certainly had a powerful impact on my own life, even when I know it's all fake.

We'll have to hold onto these ideas of an author trapped in their work and the influence they have over a thing even after they're gone. Tolkien will not be the only one who shows up in this comic.

Ash the Dictator

We've seen Ash's Dictator power in previous issues, but this is where we really get a sense of her class's role. It's all shown in a masterful sequence where she needs to manipulate Matt's feelings to fill him with sorrow. As a Grief Knight, Matt can turn sadness to violence, which is what's needed to kill the dragon.

He asks her to use her voice, the Dictator power that allows her to implant emotions directly. She does something different. She tells him the story of the hobbits in this trench. She tells him what she knows, and what she doesn't. It bring him to tears. He kills the dragon.

This sequence would own anyway, with Ash revealing she doesn't need her powers to fulfill her role, but it's even better with the visuals. Through her time in the trench, Ash has been curled up, cowardly, and cloaked in a long coat. Little by little, she stands, undresses, and literally reveals her thorns.

Moments ago, this lady was crying in a ditch. The heel turn is so fast. She's a force to be reckoned with. In Issue #2, we saw the extreme danger in the voice with Sir Lane, but here we get to see first hand how cold Ash is even without her power.

Other Thoughts

This issue opens with a discussion on what a "dungeon" is in the context of an RPG. Ash concludes two things: 1) People go through dungeons when they have no better options. 2) The world itself can be a dungeon. This is really just great GM advice hidden in the plot of this comic. I've said that the Front was something I stole for a setting in an early campaign of mine, but this intro wormed its way into my subconscious as a way to build scenarios. Really, the only difference between a traditional dungeon and this warzone is that one has a roof.

This is also our first look at the Fair Gold system for the Neo class. This whole encounter with a dragon kicks off because Angela was caught looking for gold by a Clockwork Patrol. This gold is what powers her abilities, but it only works for so long. She's incredibly strong and versatile, but without it she's not much use in a fight.

I dunno, I never found this class's built in story super compelling, but perhaps I'll enjoy it more this go around.

Chloe has pointed out though, Angela is prone to impulsive decisions and attempts to get away from sources of trauma. We can see that with how badly she wanted to play Die in '91 after her dog died. We can see it in the divorce and custody battle with her husband. We're seeing it now with her jump to fight the dragon 1 on 1. I've got my eye out for that going forward.

It's been a lot of action so far, but next time, we'll get some roleplay.

[vdemon-weeb]

For many unrelated reasons I have been listening to this feminist on YouTube for a while. She doesn't say anything outrageous or ignorant, and doesn't seem to be a radfem type, even though she doesn't talk like most intersectional or liberal feminists I've seen online. But that could be because she talks less about theory and more about the real and exact things that do happen in Ukraine. (While it's definitely not as bad as it was say 10-15 years ago, and definitely a better place for women than many others in the world, it's very far from ideal). She doesn't even say anything that I really disagree with (maximum "eh, you're generally right, but there's some more nuance to that"). And her talks are about cis straight women, and it looks like her target audience are cishet teenage girls in the first place, so it looks fine. She didn't say anything about trans people, or I didn't find it yet, but she's definitely against homophobia (and I hope she's against transphobia as well).

Anyway, I was listening to her videos about virginity, "horror stories from gynecology" and readings of old women's magazines from the 00s and early 10s, and I caught myself thinking, when there was a topic about male partners disrespecting privacy and comfort of their female partners in bed, that "I wouldn't treat a woman in that way".

It's interesting how, despite remembering being taught and exposed to the things she talked about, I immediately put myself into the [cis] men's POV in the situation, despite technically having more in common experience-wise with [cis] women, whom I just empathize with.

Also yeah, stuff like not caring about your partner's comfort, pain and pleasure is definitely a shit behavior, and I wouldn't treat a woman (or anyone) like that lol.

And it makes me think, how in general I keep interacting with different content about straight relationships, but I don't put myself into a woman's place, only into men's. I just feel such an extreme disconnect from cishet women's POV here, it feels so alien yet familiar... While men's one as opposite - "like home", but also quite abstract because of lack of hands-on experience.

I guess that's just how gender identity works, I can't wait to actually start the medical transition (HRT should be soon, but who tf knows how to get the surgeries)...

[transient-booty]

I just watched Crimes of the Future (2022) and I’m having thoughts about Cronenberg and specifically the way he treats body horror and the intersection of sex and violence.

Body horror is often as simple as the horrors of having a body, and Cronenberg really embraces this in Crimes. Saul Tenser, played wonderfully by Viggo Mortensen, is a man whose body is growing extra organs that, as far as anyone is aware, do not have an explicit purpose. We don’t actually see these organs being grown, though we do see them removed during a performance art piece that, unsurprisingly, lends itself to the erotic.

Kristen Stewart’s character Timlin (also a fantastic performance) states explicitly that surgery is the new sex, something which is reaffirmed multiple times throughout, including when Tenser tells her that he’s not so good at the old sex.

And I think that’s one of the things that makes many people uncomfortable while watching Cronenberg’s films. There has always been a relationship between sex and violence, especially in film, but Cronenberg removes any question about it. He creates situations where the sex IS violence, or the violence IS sex, so that the intersection is less the center of a venn diagram and more just a circle. And for people who don’t want to admit to that intersection, Cronenberg’s work is especially appalling.

The work is subversive in that it shines a spotlight on an open secret and then dares the audience to deny it.

[its-actually-withered]

I liked The Midnight Club a lot, I think it's mainly because I enjoyed the characters so much. They're all so forgiving and kind to one another, the Found Families vibes mean so much to me❤️ Individually, I found some of the characters really well rounded and interesting, especially Ilonka, Anya and Spencer.

Ilonka as the protagonist did a great job. Yes, some of her decisions were frustrating and her behaviour Not Great sometimes, but given her position in combination with who her character is, I found the story really was driven by her which I think is the job of the protagonist.

She's got agency. She makes her choices, and she's honest about why she does what she does. We can follow her line of thought and feeling even if we don't agree with it.

I would've loved to delve deeper into the other characters more, particularly Cheri, Natsuki, Amesh and Kevin.

I liked Sandra okay, I think her story could've also been developed more especially with the conflict she faces in particular in reconciling her faith and her situation.

Honestly, as characters, they were all so great, and I would've loved the opportunity to know each of them the way we got to know Ilonka, Anya and Spencer.

Storytelling wise, I liked aspects of it, but the blend of different genres during the club's run was a little disorientating. It also felt like actually getting to know the characters was cast aside in order to tell the Pike stories. While I could see parallels to the characters telling the stories, we couldn't reliably Intuit what was character and what was story, if that makes sense.

I did enjoy some of the stories though, Natsuki's "Road To Nowhere" especially hit hard, and I think was the closest in paralleling her actual backstory. Anya's "The Two Danas" is also quite close, I think, and they were two of my favourite stories because of it.

Ilonka's "The Final Chapter" and "Witch" also revealed a lot about her reasoning for coming to Brightcliffe, and believing what she did. I think they did the most in emphasizing her belief in wanting to be cured and curing her friends.

The weakest point, I found, was the actual horror.

I was super excited about the cult plot because the psychology nerd in me is endlessly curious, and as a horror trope, haunted houses and cults are my jam. (Obv why I was super excited for The Midnight Club as a whole.)

Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy either aspect as much, but one thing at a time.

I didn't really enjoy the Paragon/Five Sisters cult plot line because it felt very sparse, somehow. I think a lot of the momentum created by Ilonka's discoveries and growing desperation to save Anya was lost in the sauce of the other stories being told.

Brightcliffe as a haunted house plot was also meh, to me. I really was hoping for an overrun of ghosts and strange circumstances explained away by medication and trauma, but beyond the Folie a Deux calling card and the Japanese legend, it felt. Lackluster. Wasted. The Japanese legend also came across as a cope out because there was never a link to it before.

Using the trope of Folie a Deux also wasn't that well established especially since we didn't get Kevin's perspective until much later, and even then, it was a second hand account.

Brightcliffe's overlap with the cult stuff feels like a loose thread left to fray.

I think The Midnight Club's weakness exists because of the dissonance between the character arcs and the cult/haunted house plots. We only really get an intersection with Ilonka, and to a lesser extent, Kevin. There could've been a tie-in with Anya (and previously Rachel) and later Amesh with the Shadow, but there wasn't, and again, that felt like a missed opportunity.

In my mind, I feel like The Midnight Club struggles against the standard set by The Haunting of Hill House, just as The Haunting of Blye Manor and The Midnight Mass did. It isn't quite fair to compare any of the Flanaverse shows to each other, but the overall story themselves just aren't as tightly told as Hill House, even if the actor performances are.

[theageofthemovies]

PORCILE - (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969)

I (re)watched yesterday this harsh, uncomfortable, apparently cryptic semi-unknown, if great, philosophic movie and, after the end, I confirmed and heightened the judgment I stated many years ago: "Porcile" is the most sincere (and consequently: the most outrageous) among all the movies (better: artworks) of the great Italian literate and filmmaker."Porcile" is a poor film: it was shot in a month with a ridiculous budget and has been considered by decades a Pasolini's minor movie despite, at a closer look, it appears as one of his richest to the extent that it is capable to dissect at its limits the apparent contradiction of a modern thought (his) that, indeed, cannot actually exist without continuously confronting with an "archaic heritage" that saves that sense of "sacred" (the infinite, the entirety, the inner human nature) that is crucial and essential to the soul of a poet/phylosophe.One initial stone inscription makes clear the theme: "After well questioned our conscience, we have stated to devour you because of your disobedience». that is: we (the public opinion); you( Pasolini himself).The movie is made of two separate (but intersected) narrations; the first story, set in France in the XVIII century, tells of a young man (Jean-Pierre Léaud) who, neglecting the love offering of his promised wife (Anne Wiazemsky), refuses any social behavior and has shameful sexual intercourses with pigs... ; the second story takes place in the Middle Age in a wild, desolate, vulcanic land (actually the Mount Etna) and tells of the chief of a bunch of murderous outlaws (Pierre Clémenti) who kills his father and eats his flesh. Both these transgressive "counter-heroes" will end their life eaten by animals....The meaning of "Porcile" all relies in trasnsgression; it is committed to demonstrate the statement that "the saints, like the different, anticonformist and disobedient people, don't make the history but suffer it" (PPP), they act by and for themselves and, by their diversity, they are doomed to die as victims of their anti-conformism, of their never be lined up with the masses.Pasolini's merit stands in his will to share with his readers and his audience this suffered message, the only irrepressible way that could allow him to bear the weight of the many crusades brought against him without retreating on the easy aristocratic position of "artist disengaged from the world" (and this is a reason for which we should never cease to be grateful to him).Pasolini says; "... the film bears also a political meaning; its esplicit object is Germany (its historical situation) but the target is the ambiguous relation between the new and the old capitalism; Germany has only been chosen as it represents a borderline case. The implicit poliitical content of the movie is a desperate distrust in all historical societies, consequently the genre of it (if there is one) is: apocalyptic anarchy. Being "the sense" of my movie so atrocious and terrible I only could treat it: a) by a quasi-contemplative detachment; b) with humor».The meaning is clear: after the horrors of the recent history (Hitler's Germany) we have the social desolations of the new capitalism. Julian's starvation (Léaud) is the result of this dramatic passage and his sad end (to be eaten by the pigs) blatantly tells of the impossibility of adapting to a reality in which "everything" becomes conformism (to be a revolutionary included, how the last sequence demonstrates).Similarly touching is the end of the "cannibal" Clémenti  who, weaponed by his "apocalyptic anarchy" (and the resulting general contestation on an esistential plan), kicks, bites, beats whoever would submit him to a power that unavoidably would subjugate him. He enacts a man (or an idea), that is without pity just like those who would reduce him to a state of slavery (that he could never accept). His choice is so extreme that he prefers to move freely on the cold slopes of the Etna eating butterflies, snakes and human flesh, pushed from the instinctive pulse to live in contact with a sacred nature that has nothing of "moral".A unique movie, a deep reflection on the various ways to consider the human condition.

R.M.

[sunniestshark-ocs]

🗒 — what is/are your favorite genre(s)/theme(s) to write?

🤔 — what genre(s)/theme(s) do you struggle to write the most?

Munday asks

🗒 -

I mostly write scifi/fantasy and I suppose you could say Ghosttowns is sci-fantasy! My favorite themes revolve around interpersonal relationships, the intersection of duties to friends/family/organizations and to yourself, and of course fighting against or surviving unjust systems. My main characters tend to be the kinds of people that take on harmful amounts of responsibility and have to navigate why they do that and if they're willing to let it go.

I also enjoy writing fights the most, and have a few pieces that like, completely breeze through the other stuff to get to the combat XD

🤔 -

I struggle to consciously write horror and comedy, which I find interesting because I see those genres as kind of like sister genres, they're really similar (why I think Jordan Peele is such a successful horror writer!) I tend to end up with horror due to the situations I put my characters in, but if I actually go in writing straight up horror it's a struggle.

To be honest I don't really consider myself a writer? I kind of have a complicated relationship with writing, like I'm writing Ghosttowns in story-form but I feel it would be stronger as a comic because i feel like I'm a much stronger artist than writer, it's easier for me to illustrate over describe complicated emotions and whatnot. Idk! It's a constant learning process XD

[lowat-golden-tower]

concept: a horror game where you play as a late night door dasher (based upon my own personal experiences)

Your name is ____ and you just completed yet another 9 hour shift of your full time day job. It’s already almost 10:00 PM but the siren’s call of making more money to make ends meet calls your name. You don’t have to be at work until 12:30 PM tomorrow. Sure, it’s nearly a 1 hour commute, but you can be home and get plenty enough sleep. Dinner? Well, surely there will be time for a quick bite between deliveries. Or you can pick up some snacks from a gas station. Come on, the app says it’s busy, time to make some money!

The game would start with you leaving the parking garage. It’s simple gameplay. Drive around a large open world, from city to suburbs to country, only leaving the car to pick up, drop off or get provisions. You can decide to head for home at any time, but the goal is to make as much money as possible. Which means staying out later and/or opting not to spend money on provisions.

Except the later it gets and/or the less you meet your needs, the more things start getting fucky. Late night delivering is flirting with liminal danger whether it’s the witching hour or not. When the sun goes down the world closes off and as the streets get emptier, you start feeling like they actually aren’t so empty.

Repeated visits to the same restaurants and stores will result in reality slowly warping as hunger or thirst or simply exhaustion claw at your mind.

Is that worker watching you? Is that hostess’s smile a little off? The laughter of that couple in the corner is so loud- are they laughing at you? Was the lighting always so bright? Why does the restaurant appear closed, but a voice crackles out of the drive-thru speaker at you anyway?

And that’s just the pickup. Drop-offs start to make you anxious. The creeping white light of a farmhouse in a dead silent countryside; pitch black beyond a few winking lights in the distance. You approach a house and the vicious barking of a dog starts up, only to warp into sounding something inhuman. You walk down the hallway of an apartment complex and hear breathing. You take a rickety elevator with a vent missing a grate and fear what awaits when the doors open. A woman, grinning, skips past you out the door of another complex wielding a kitchen knife. A man stands in an empty hotel lobby and greets you, saying “you’ll know it when you see it” before leaving the hotel.

And driving. Oh, the driving. Your exhaustion mounts and you can play the radio but it helps less and less as the night wears on. The numbers on your clock blur. The darkened street in some lamp-less suburb stretches endlessly before you. You pass beneath one sole light at an intersection. The streets are empty. The world is silent. You cut down city streets lined with abandoned buildings and can’t decide if it would be safer to lock your car when you leave it, or leave it running.

And as the situation deteriorates, you’re tempted to go Home. To retreat to the comfort and safety, and to sleep, and a hot meal. But every time, you hear the DING of another delivery offer. Another fifteen bucks. Look at the tip on this one! Just one more delivery. It’ll be fine. It’s only 2:00 AM.

Every little bit helps.

Of course, this could just be an experience, or it could be a legitimate challenge wherein you need to actually manage your needs and make split-second decisions when confronted with the horrors and not-horrors. After doing this for over a year now, I just find late night delivering to be its own brand of real life anxiety and terrifying situations and well. Figure it’d be fun to share with the world. :)

[tigger8900]

The Last Catastrophe, by Allegra Hyde

⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

Against the backdrop of a world growing ever more desperate by the day, Hyde's short story collection seeks to catalogue various potential catastrophes and their effects on the planet, the future, and the survivors. Experimental palliative treatments gone wrong, the intersection of rugged capitalism with the commodification of youth, and a predictive algorithm turned authoritative are just a few of the unnerving scenarios proposed in this collection of fifteen stories.

Overall, this is a fairly solid collection. A few of the stories didn't really do it for me, but the ones I liked, I loved. My favorites were The Future Is a Click Away, Frights, Colonel Merryweather's Intergalactic Finishing School for Young Ladies of Grace & Good Nature, and The Eaters. That last one actually gave me a spooky dream, so maybe don't make the mistake I did of reading it immediately before bed!

While most of the stories deal with various speculative situations, there's a few that seem to deal with the here and now, for example Chevalier. I actually struggle to see what ties those to the rest of the collection. I chose to write a description based on the majority of the content and what was presented in the publisher's write-up, but just know that the collection itself goes a little beyond those bounds. Themes range from the obvious — eco destruction, extinction, civilization collapse, technology run rampant — to the weird, such as the European researcher who intends to study American culture but instead finds herself trapped by it. On that note, I will say that this is a very US-centric collection, and readers from outside that culture may be left wondering, what about the rest of us? Well, you're not in this book, and when you are we apparently consume you. 🤷‍♀️

While not every story did it for me as a whole, I enjoyed the process of reading them all. Hyde's writing style easily draws the reader in, making even the longer stories go by in what felt like a flash. There's an element of weird and whimsy present in most of the stories, balancing the darkness nicely. While I wouldn't say this is a horror collection, due to the subject matter there are elements of these stories that certainly could strike the horror chord in readers, so read with caution if you're sensitive to that.