#but also you are becoming a monster something so divorced from humanity

[go-to-the-mirror]

REJECT HUMANITY EMBRACE TRANSGENDERISM

[copper-skulls]

I love aimless cuddling but had a thought about submas in undertale?? Like what would they look like, what their attacks may be?

lions you put a Bug into my head. is that an expression in english, that might be a worm. Like, earworm but for a thought. ANYWAYS

They're still somewhat humanoid bcs they're still fundamentally Human in pokemon so I wanted to keep that BUT BUT BUT I couldn't bear completely divorcing them from their pokemon so they get attributes from their pokemon SO THAT MEANS...

ELEMENTALS! *dodges a shoe for drawing yet another fire elemental* shh shh shh i still wanted to keep them being similar to each other so elementals were obvious choice

as for their attacks, Ingo would have stuff more coming from the bottom, and a meandering sort of fire. And Emmet would have attacks coming from the top and waves of electricity. When together, Ingo's attacks could also turn orange and Emmet's blue!

I'd like to think they're running a battle club or something so they're very experienced about this (hi i think abt battles being a way for monsters to communicate Often), but despite being asked to join the guard several times they just Don't Want To. similar to how they're not in the league in pokemon but still very much high-level trainers. This also comes to - they'd be willing to fight you in pacifist routes as some sort of an optional boss, together, of course. They make it clear it's a sparring match For Fun from the beginning and would always stop before knocking your HP to zero (my Papyrus bias isn't showing). They'd also lay down their own conditions for sparing bare. SAFETY CHECK!

SPARING conditions would either knocking them both down enough (they'd each tell you when to stop, respectively), or outlasting a certain number of turns (that'd be the yellow credits sparing condition, as their attacks would ramp up with difficulty each turn).

If you dust either the second one becomes VERY distraught and attacks would become much more erratic and hard to dodge, and also lose their color element. not sparable at that point. like. congratz you killed one of the twins.

Also they're still running a train (magic, of course) through the CORE, hotlands and New Home, because they still do need to be silly train men.

* Welcome to the path under the Underground! * The Sub-Way.

[thedawningofthehour]

In tandem with my ramblings about doth being an actual separated au instead of a 'Donnie thinks it's a separated au' au and some conversation with @dryad-druid about that and Big Mama being an actual mama-yeah, I think I've thought up a pretty cool au idea.

(this is long. you will regret this)

So the classic Donnie gets separated from his brothers, Lou takes the other kids in the divorce and Draxum gets left with Donnie, but unlike other separated aus, Lou very clearly sees Draxum save him from the flames. But Lou's hurt, choking on smoke, holding three babies and Draxum is holding his baby and OH YEAH HE'S LITERALLY IN THE PROCESS OF MUTATING. Lou has to flee for the safety of his other kids.

But he fought Draxum and took the turtles for a reason, and every moment he spends with his three babies just renews his conviction. He can't let Draxum keep even one of the turtles, and he will not leave his child to the mercy of that monster.

He needs to return to reclaim his last baby...but he barely got out alive the first time. Not only that, but he has three little lives that depend on him now. Even if he was successful, they couldn't be left alone for long. And he cannot fail. He can't leave his purple baby with Draxum, and he can't leave his other children alone.

So he returns to the Battle Nexus. He tells Big Mama he'll stay, he'll do whatever she wants him to do, provided two things: she provides for his children, feed them and educate them and keep them safe from anyone who might try to harm them or use them for their own ends, including herself. And second, help him reclaim his child from Draxum.

Big Mama is ecstatic. She has Lou back right where she wants him, his boys are just the most adorable turtles she's ever seen, and she really doesn't like Draxum anyway. They get married, she gets the boys birth certificates or whatever and sets them up in luxury accommodations, and hires mercenaries to capture Baron Draxum and his remaining creation and bring them to her-unharmed, she stresses. The baby must be kept safe, at all costs.

Meanwhile, Draxum just watched his entire life's work go up in flames as he was violently divorced by the guy he sort of-totally had a crush on, who was also the father of his kids and kidnapped 3/4's of them, and is now left with whatever meager possessions survived the blaze, his gargoyles, and a single turtle.

And yes, this turtle fusses constantly and keeps pulling his hair and doesn't let him sleep for more than two hours at a time, but...he, weirdly, really enjoys it. Yes, he's exhausted and hungry and hasn't been able to take a leisurely poop in a week because the second he sits down someone starts to cry, but when he stares up at Draxum with those big eyes while he takes a bottle, when he refuses to settle down and fall asleep until he's in Draxum's arms, he just...can't help it. He's completely taken with this kid. He'd do anything for him. He's all that Draxum has left.

So when the bounty hunters come looking for him, intending to take his son away, Draxum runs.

Homeless, penniless, not daring to use even his name, Draxum goes into hiding with only what he can carry on his back and the baby in his arms. He unfortunately has to get rid of the gargoyles-he won't be able to pay them and they're too stupid to keep anything a secret, plus they sucked as nannies. So they go back to the gargoyle agency, and Draxum goes off into the night.

Hiding in the Hidden City proves difficult, considering there's only so many goat Yokai, and Big Mama's goons are nothing if not thorough. I thought maybe he could live in some fantasy-esque cottage out in the middle of the mushroom forest or something, and maybe he does for the first few years, but as Galois grows so do his needs, and he becomes increasingly harder to keep hidden. So Draxum retreats to the only place left he has a prayer of disappearing into-NYC.

Life on the surface is hard and forces Draxum to deal with-shudders-humans, but he soon finds himself benefitting from their kindness. A coat draped over his shoulders when the temperatures start to dip, leftovers from a restaurant worker who is supposed to throw them away but puts it all in a to-go box instead. He likes to think of it as fate, choosing the alleyway right outside their apartment the night before he was stumbled upon, but after the shock had worn off the couple was eager to help him, and neither they nor their daughter April treated his son any differently.

The O'Neils help Draxum get a settled in a recently vacated apartment in their building and things begin looking up. Galois and April become attached at the hip almost immediately, and though neither of them completely understand why Gale has to stay hidden, they listen to the adults. Draxum can pass for human even without his cloaking brooch, so he gets a part-time job in the evenings to at least cover some of what the O'Neils are doing for him. April goes to his apartment when she gets done with school and he watches her until her own parents get home, and the O'Neils watch Galois while his father is at work.

It's not perfect, but they have so many more opportunities on the surface. April struggles in school so Draxum offers to homeschool her alongside Galois, and her parents agree to do that for at least her elementary years. When April is twelve and Galois is ten, Draxum gives him his own cloaking brooch so he can attend middle school with her. It comes with a long lecture on how he can't let anyone know his secret, that Draxum was asking a lot from the both of them, but he felt like they were mature enough to understand how important it was.

So they go to school, then come home and learns alchemy and Yokai history from Draxum, Galois sets his curtains on fire multiple times performing experiments in his bedroom, and always seems to be learning a new subject from Youtube tutorials. Draxum gets a day job as a lunch lady and starts thinking about getting a human degree, so he can go back to doing science things or practicing medicine. Two decades ago he would have recoiled in horror if someone showed him his future, but he finds himself...weirdly content.

MEANWHILE. The rest of the boys grow up in a life of luxury, tailored clothing and endless servants and world-class tutors. Lou settles himself into being Big Mama's part-time champion and full-time trophy husband. True to his word, he does whatever Big Mama asks of him, so long as it doesn't compromise his sons. He fights, he smiles and poses for the press, he sleeps in her bed when she wants him and makes himself scarce when she doesn't. And he does what he can to ensure his boys don't get too spoiled. Taking care of them is the only thing in his life that makes him happy now.

But the deal he made with Big Mama chafes him at every turn. She said she'd never force his children to fight, but when Raphael begs her to put him in some of the smaller, no-kill fights...well, that certainly wasn't against the terms of their contract, and how could she ever say no to one of her turtley-boos?! Leonardo is clever, far cleverer than any of his nannies or tutors, with a skill in manipulation that would put most car salesmen to shame. Not to mention he's definitely the most handsome of his sons, with his bold markings and charismatic personality. Big Mama delights in parading him around, using him as arm-candy when Lou isn't available. And worst of all, she's taken to teaching him business at her side. She fixates on Michelangelo as well, but Lou can't really find anything to object to when she hangs up his artwork and brags to her dinner guests about their meal being planned and cooked by one of her sons. Still, he keeps his last baby close, so she'll have all the more trouble finding something to exploit in him.

All the while, he can't bring himself to truly be angry with Big Mama. She took him back, kept him and his boys safe when they needed it. She's his children's mother, they love her, look at all she provides them. He was the one that left those loopholes in, he was the one who failed his sons. He was the one who left one of them behind. He can't be angry with her, no.

But he knows who he can be angry with.

So that's how he passes the years. Watching his wife exploit the children she claims to love, reading report after report of every failed mission to locate Draxum and his missing child, taking his fury out on every mercenary that returns without them. He thinks about his last baby, what hell their life must be. How they must feel, knowing their father left them with a monster. He thinks about Draxum, the source of all his misery, who has eluded him and kept his child captive for thirteen long years. Lou waits. He plans. While inside him, a simmering hatred plants its roots deeper and deeper, and slowly begins to boil.

[truckfreaks]

so i replayed both chs of deltarune recently, and i can’t stop thinking about the end of ch1 where you walk around the town and talk to everyone, because talking to asriel’s old classmates reveals so much about his character in this universe that we just don’t know

and i couldn’t help thinking about how interesting it is that he’s the one that “got out” of their hometown, you know? he’s the one that “made it” or whatever, he went to school, he’s doing something with his life. when you talk to catty and bratty, they remember him as this cool, cute guy - the kind of dude everyone in a small town has a crush on. burgerpants remembers him as the kind of guy everyone wants to be friends with. his side of his and kris’ bedroom is littered with awards and trophies. it’s obvious that asriel was super popular during high school, good at everything, well liked... the kind of person that, when you live in a small town, you look at and say, “yeah, if any of us are gonna make something of themselves, it’s that guy.”

we know the events of undertale are separate from those of deltarune, but still sort of ... adjacently related, so any characterization of asgore and toriel “investing” more into asriel than into kris would require some kind of unknown, but adjacently related impetus. and we also know that certain “key aspects” of the original story are kinda reversed in DR compared to how they played out in UT, like catty and bratty absolutely hating each other and never being as tight as they were in UT. so what if chara’s “buttercup incident” was one such key event? what if, instead of kris eating the buttercups, it was asriel? this old theory points out that buttercups, when eaten, are poisonous to livestock. the implication is that, while they’re technically monsters, asgore gets very sick from eating them. and if you also look around a map of Hometown, there isn’t a yellow flower to be seen (with the exception of a single one in asgore’s bedroom implied to be from toriel’s bouquet). i think it’s possible asriel ingested the flowers as a child. i’m not yet up for speculating on *why* - whether it was a dare, or put in his food, or just typical “kids doing dumb shit for fun” situation - but i think toriel and asgore almost lost him. and as a result, especially in tori’s case, asriel was given every opportunity, every “win” - he was pushed *hard*. there’s no real indication for why tori and asgore got divorced in DR, since the defining moment in UT was that asgore declared war on humans after chara and asriel died. 

so what would the impetus be in DR? divorce rates are statistically higher for people dealing with an ill child, and it could be that tori and asgore - implied to be type A and type B in the DR universe, respectively - had wildly different reactions to asriel’s recovery and, subsequently, how he should be raised after the fact. they went through something traumatic, and it changed them, their relationship with their child, and their relationship with each other. it’s also implied that the family is pretty religious, too, in a way that mirrors catholicism - in which divorce is typically frowned upon. i think asriel grew up shouldering this pretty heavy pressure (and maybe even guilt?) to be the best he possibly could be, having been given a “second chance”, even though him living drove his parents apart (not that they wouldn’t have for some other reason, but a lot of children of divorce internalize in this way and become overachievers). he had his friends, he snuck around, he did normal teenager bullshit ... but at the end of the day he busted ass to excel in everything to “get out”, perhaps because he felt he had something to prove by being given a second chance at life. or, perhaps, to escape the unbearable pressure of being a big fish in a small pond.

[coconutwaterbending]

10 characters | 10 fandoms | 10 tags (we'll see about that last one) I haven't made a text post in so long how's everyone doing. Thank you, rj (@sidprescot), for the tag! This was a nice surprise. :)

Gosh do I have a type and they're all Old Men and Tragic Ladies my beloved. Let's go!! 1. Varric Tethras (Dragon Age 2): he shot right through my heart with that crossbow THE LITERAL SECOND he came on screen and I've been cursing Bioware ever since. He is a nonromanceable short king and I have never wanted anyone more thx. 2. Nakmor Drack (Mass Effect Andromeda): the Tempest Crew is so freaking charming, and while I love my jelly fish cat aliens the Angara, my favorite character is absolutely this old cantakerous grandpa Krogan. Whom, much like Wrex, I wish I could romance. (p.s. there is a TEASE of a flirt option and u can imagine how little that helped my case) 3. Spock (literally every Star Trek iteration): He is my Everything. Nemoy, Quinto, and Peck all bring something unique to the character's portrayal. I love him in every universe and I can never get enough of this EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED NERD.

4. Alicent Hightower (House of the Dragon): one half of my divorced lesbinems and I feel so much for her and the tragedy/complexity of both her character and the heartwrenching slow decay of her r/s with Rhaenyra. I cannot wait for S2. 5. Aerith Gainsborough (Final Fantasy VII): ooooough, beautiful, tragic, kind, funny, cool flower seller of my life. Remake!Aerith particularly stole my heart along with the show. There is this sad, beguiling mystery about her that draws you in, and she is so cheerful in spite of it all. I can't wait for Rebirth but also I am terrified lol. 6. Yennefer of Vengerberg (The Witcher): "How ravishing she is, he thought. Everything about her is ravishing. And menacing. Those colours of hers; that contrast of black and white. Beauty and menace. Her raven-black, natural curls. Her cheekbones, pronounced, emphasising a wrinkle, which her smile – if she deigned to smile – created beside her mouth, wonderfully narrow and pale beneath her lipstick…" I mean. C'mon. That is MY WIFE etc, copy paste rj's exact blurb. Anya Chalotra is the perfect Yen. She is everything and deserves the world and I will glady let her burn it all down and murder me if she wants to. 7. Zero (Final Fantasy XIV): [Endwalker patch spoilers!] who doesn't love an autistic badass goth half-human half-voidsent who has lived as a monster for so long she forgot her own identity and is learning how to be human again and finding her humanity via the power of friendship and delicious food, like. I needed more of her and I miss her already!!!

8. Kim Wexler (Better Call Saul): omg so hard to pick just one from this show (ilu nacho), but Kim Wexler SUCKER PUNCHES U IN THE THROAT with her awesomeness. She is this extremely competent, understated cool, calculating yet caring and earnest character who compliments Jimmy so well and whose nuances her amazing actress Rhea Seehorn manages to convey so masterfully. She is also tragic af, but hello it's Breaking Bad prequel lol. On that note... 9. Kim Kitsuragi (Disco Elysium): DOUBLE KIM WHAMMY!!! They're so alike it's not even funny. I'd say Kim has the stronger moral center between the two, but I love them for many of the same reasons. He is also extremely competent, understated cool, with a side of being totally game for Harry's antics once he warms up to him (my Harry build was 'himbo' so he did a lot of dumb shit but he was nice). 10. Irving Bailiff (Severance): firstable, if you haven't seen Severance yet, please do yourself the favor and don't let me spoil this for u!! Irving Bailiff is an Experience. He is a stickler for the rules and very much a stick in the mud compared to his colleagues, but his true self leaks into this version of himself slowly at first, then in surprising bursts of rebellion that become clear at the end when it is shown that his Outtie/true self is actively trying to bring Lumon down like a TOTAL FUCKING BADASS in the most delightful reveal. Also he has a whirlwind romance with another old man played by Christopher Walken.

phew!! this was fun. lol @ my answers getting longer. I'm not tagging anyone but consider this an invitation to join in on the fun anyway!

[gothamcitycentral]

your top 5 batman rogues for the send me a character and i’ll list thing

That’s be Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Man-Bat, and Bane! But since I’ve done Bane already, I’ll throw in Harley to complete the Sirens

Killer Croc

Favorite thing about them

Everything I love his theming with humanity

Least favorite thing about them

Not so great explanations on his… crocodilian-ness. Originally he had a skin-condition which kinda worded for what he was at the time, but not so much when he was 10 feet tall. Then he had “reptilian activism” which is… so bad I can’t even articulate it.

Favorite line

In Joker’s Asylum: Beauty and the Best, “… They’re the monsters… not me…. Put me back”. I can just so easily imagine with whole body shaking, voice quaking with devastation. It hurts my heart every time.

brOTP

Him and Ivy!

OTP

Definitely him and June Moone

nOTP

I don’t like him with Orca or him with Harley

Random headcanon

He’s used a stake as a toothpick before.

Unpopular opinion

Killer Croc designs with human mouths don’t look him.

Song i associate with them

This Animal I Have Become by Three’s Day Grace

Favorite picture of them

Poison Ivy

Favorite thing about them

Honestly I just like plants. Though I also love how she has an inverted struggle with humanity. While most mutated characters try to maintain their sense of being human, Poison Ivy instead wants to shed it.

Least favorite thing about them

All of her backstories where she sleeps with her college professor.

Favorite line

“They can bury me in the ground, as deep as they like. But I'll grow back.” Not crazy or anything, but I like it.

brOTP

Her and Croc, like I said. I also like her and Bruce being friends.

OTP

I’m basic, her and Harley. I also think her and Selina are pretty funny together.

nOTP

Her and Batman. Just no

Random headcanon

Poison Ivy is effectively immortal, when it comes to dying of old age. When her body should die of age, it instead regrows. Every time this happens she becomes more plant and wood like.

Unpopular opinion 

Feminine fatal Poison Ivy is really boring and generic

Song i associate with them

Poison by Alice Cooper and Its the End of the World as We Know It by R.E.M.

Favorite picture of them

Scarecrow

Favorite thing about them

A character who debuted as a man who dresses as a scarecrow and was fired from his job as a college professor because he shot a gun in his classroom evolved into one of the most queer coded Batman characters.

Least favorite thing about them

He can be pretty egotistical I guess.

Favorite line

“When the dawn comes, when Gotham lies in ruin and I turn my gaze to the world beyond, the legend of the Batman will be worth nothing at all...”

brOTP

Him and Harley! Psychology buddies!

OTP

That’d be him and Bane. Evil chemists loving each other and committing atrocities <3

nOTP

Not a fan of Mad Hatter and him, mainly because I don’t like Mad Hatter. And him and Riddler is too much white twink for my diet.

Random headcanon

Learned how to barley play an acoustic guitar to harmonize with his birds

Unpopular opinion

“Scarecrow is definitely Ace” this is the horniest old man I have ever seen

Song i associate with them

… This is Halloween, kinda

Favorite picture of them

Man-Bat

Favorite thing about them

Frankly I just think bats are cool animals I am an easy person to please

Least favorite thing about them

Kirk can be written as a pretty boring guy a lot of the time, unfortunately.

Favorite line

Something along the lines of “Well, I believe it should work, but I did turn myself into a bat, so-“

brOTP

I don’t think Kirk has friends. I guess you can count that magic squad team up Wonder Woman organized (no, I don’t know why he qualified).

OTP

Again, basic, but I think him and Francine can be pretty sweet together. Even if I find them divorcing funny.

nOTP

I suppose I’m not a big fan and him and Bruce.

Random headcanon

Post transformation he’ll occasionally wake up, drenched in sweat, and the taste of blood in his mouth. He vomits in the sink.

Unpopular opinion

All “Batman is a furry jokes” should go to him.

Song i associate with them

Don’t You Dare Forget the Sun, by Get Scared.

Favorite picture of them

I love Kirk covering the Batsignal

Harley Quinn

Favorite thing about them

I love this whole identity and personally Harley crafted for herself to ignore her trauma

Least favorite thing about them

Sometimes she just shows up in things she shouldn’t.

Favorite line

When she first appear in Jame Gunn’s Suicide Squad and announced she just took a shit

brOTP

Her and Bruce would be iconic

OTP

Again, Harlivy. Though most Harley ships are pretty enjoyable.

nOTP

…Joker

Random headcanon

She will brand for hair if she gets the opportunity.

Unpopular opinion

So I think her “new age” designs are fine as long as they maintain the diamond motif and aren’t too “this is just underwear”.

Song i associate with them

Blood // Water by granson. Well, Into the Knight Harley, but still.

Favorite picture of them

Thanks!

[themoviemanifesto]

Okay… so…

I will say that this post is definitely coming from a place of male privilege and know that I respect and believe the victims above all else…

It sucks that artists I have adored in the past have turned out to be such shitty people. The older I get, the harder it is getting for me to separate a lot of art from the artists. The Cosby Show was an essential part of my childhood. Essential. Bill Cosby, Himself was one of the first stand-up specials I watched on repeat. I did my Picture Pages on Nickelodeon and ate Jell-O Pudding Pops with glee. Now, Bill Cosby is a verified scumbag. A sexual deviant who was able to thrive due to the amount of power and influence he had. Disappointing doesn’t even cover it. The man is a human atrocity.

Annie Hall is one of the greatest romantic comedies of all time. This is, of course, partially due to the incredible performance of Diane Keaton, but also due to the witty neurosis put on display by its writer/director/star, Woody Allen. Woody Allen created so many films that explored romance and humor AND drama from such an interesting perspective. Manhattan, Sleeper, Bananas, Hannah and Her Sisters, Match Point, etc, etc, etc; all part of Allen’s genius. It’s too man the man behind them is a sexual predator. You can’t listen to the stories of abuse and truly believe they were fabrications created to sway divorce proceedings. The man was a monster and it’s hard to bask in the good of his works anymore because of it.

In high school, I felt like an outsider for a few of those years. I changed my personal style and the music I listened to as a reflection of how I felt. Marilyn Manson’s Antichrist Superstar become one of my favorite albums of all time. Dark, but incredibly creative, I found joy in its bleakness. I found a reason to keep going in its raging, nihilistic tone. The Beautiful People was the smash hit, but so much of that album resonated with me: Tourniquet, The Man That You Fear, Angel With the Scabbed Wings, and Dried Up, Tied Up, and Dead to the World. Bangers. Now I listen to that album and I think of how the adults were right: Marilyn Manson IS a terrible person. Marilyn Manson IS evil. Another sexual predator exerting his power over those younger and weaker than him. I find the stories of Manson’s behavior reprehensible and I can’t, in good conscience, listen to something that at one time meant so much to me.

The list of bad people doesn’t end there. Sadly, it just keeps growing. It is almost hard to keep up with. I try, hard as I may, to keep up with it and keep my fandom in check. I can’t say I ever was a fan of Danny Masterson — I always found That 70s Show to be irritating and off-putting — but it sure does suck to hear how awful of a human being he turned out to be, and how many people have been making excuses for him for a long time. It’s always disappointing to find out who signed the “Roman Polanski letter.” I get that Rosemary’s Baby is a horror classic, but Polanski is another terrible person. We don’t need to forgive him. We don’t need to let him back into the circle of creatives, and if he comes back to this country, it should be to face prison time.

It’s upsetting that talented and powerful men turn out to be such pieces of shit.

[overflowchute]

personally my favorite concept for any backrooms monsters is that they're just what happens when you've been in the backrooms too long, you become something like that. kind of like the enigma of amigara fault, right. the end result is a human twisted beyond recognition. like the area doesn't actually let you starve or anything, you can survive there forever but you become something divorced from your original sense or reason...

i think the nicest element of this idea is that it comes exclusively from that which is presented - there's no need to explain the realm, only to make extensions of what we see - people who fall into it and wander around pointlessly! and you can tie it to the idea that they're obsessed with finding other humans but have no idea or control over what they do anymore, they've been warped too much and just remember the urge to find other people

you could also make it so people never die but they till get hungry so there's combined emotions like the urge to find other people, the urge to eat something anything, all while you've been transformed into some sort of horrible metal crawling creature or something else. i dunno! would be interesting

[theseventhoffrostfall]

Exactly! While I admit my Institute idea has them rule over a select section of Boston and have revamped with their technology, I always imagined other places like the harbor areas would be more productive, even without the Institute's high-tech equipment. I would have loved to see fishing or trade routes from tugboats or at least steamships traveling up and down the Charles River.

But my idea with the Triggermen relies on the idea that there's some sort of real industry, something to profit off of. You literally treat these mobsters, who have no real reason to hurt you, like raiders despite them operating everything from chem-trafficking to robot races in Easy City Downs.

My version of the Triggermen has them be the descendants of usually uneducated and run-of-the-mill raiders who learned about the old Pre-War mafia families and, being so far removed from that time, saw them as these god-like examples of how raiders should be: respected, feared, worshipped. Taking examples from Pre-War books, holotapes, newspapers, and even movies, these raiders would design themselves after their gods, wearing suits, cocktail dresses, and even speaking in mobster slang to better emulate them.

As time went on, these raiders and their descendants would become as powerful and as dangerous as the mafiosos they revered. The problem, however, is that they can't tell fiction from reality. Imagine the tribes in New Vegas who became the casino families: all of them playing the roles of what they THINK people of the time acted and dressed like, rather than what they actually were. For example, the Triggermen (the word "Triggermen" would even be an old Pre-War term used to describe gunmen, but the raiders thought it referred to the mafias in general) pepper their language heavily with hard-boiled slang and mobster terms--picked up from watching and listening to cheesy mafia films. A Triggerman could literally shoot someone dead and say "His gal had gams that go all the way up, capiche?" It's word salad, it's nonsensical, but to the Triggermen, if the badass kings and queens of the mafia back then said it, why can't they?

What the Triggermen wouldn't know, however, is that one of their newest leaders is the actual descendent of a Pre-War mafia clan and he wants to take control of the Triggermen and remodel it into something that could take control of Downtown Boston and bring glory back to his family name, instead of just running drugs and running robot races.

Yeah, that's an excellent point about the harbors. The pre-industrial world is a great model to look at in terms of how vastly important trade along rivers and coasts would be for a hostile, disunified wasteland. Coasts, especially--while hostile humans are still a problem (Raiders wouldn't shy away from piracy) you don't have hostile wildlife or probably super mutants and ghouls and such. I don't think Fallout oceans have established sea monsters in them, not that that would even be a deal breaker, and correct me if I'm wrong but I think the oceans would actually absorb most of the radiation that might accumulate around or be exposed to them, so they'd be healthier places than land anyway. They should by all rights also have land vehicles, but building ships would be even easier.

Your mention of the triggermen being divorced from the stuff to support their concept (functioning communities to actually do gangster stuff in) reminds me of a complaint I was gonna mention pursuant to diamond city, in that Piper as a concept is ludicrous. She's an intrepid newsy type in a world where the news is "there are fucking mutants outside trying to kill us. Same as last week. Stay tuned for big updates in the shriveled slightly radioactive tomato industry"

But yeah, I really like your concept of the triggermen. A sort of dark reflection of the Kings, with more grounding. A focus on them being criminals rather than wastelander warbands would be a nice little change of pace, but most of all I dig the notion of a guy that wants to build a grand, profitable and glorious but huge-target empire vs. the wise guys that just want to continue modestly making money "the smart way"

[afniel]

I found your blog after looking up Lilith and how she ties into witchcraft (I’m basically just a baby witch exploring). Do you have any kinda resources you’d be willing to share that could help someone like myself out?

I...don't, at this point. I'd meant to go dig up the resources I used back in the day, but for every single one of them I found that, while they definitely gave me something to think about, I couldn't actually recommend any of them.

Working with Lilith has become a pretty fraught subject. When I started, it was generally accepted as an okay thing to be doing, so long as you didn't remove her from her original context (a Jewish, baby-killing proto-human demon). In fact more than one Jewish witchcraft blog in the past has pointed to me as The One Non-Jew Who's Actually Doing It Right. It seems like now public opinion is that there's no way at all to do it right unless you're Jewish or convert to Judaism, and why would I want to do that, just to work with a demon instead? I can't imagine that G-d would appreciate that very much, so I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing without proselytizing about it, which has never been my bag anyway. She finds who she wants to find without me just fine.

So I don't even know what to say, other than what I've always said: to look up her actual origins; don't divorce her from her original context; and remember that she's not a poor, misunderstood woman, she's a monster who became such by violently rebelling. She can be pretty cool, but she WILL be trouble.

(Also, FYI, my witchcraft doesn't really involve her so much. It's more my paganism. My witchcraft by itself is pretty secular, and I see it more like a tool. I might use that tool to communicate with various spirits, and I definitely have religious beliefs, but I actually don't associate the two that much other than they both operate in paradigms where the other is present and possible.)

[frogdaqueerfloof]

Deltarambles P.2

The soul had left undertale after freeing the monsters and giving frisk their happy ending, having realized by that point that it would be fucked up to continue on after that [after all, that was the ending of their part of the story, they weren't frisk, they're just a lost soul trying to become real]

Gaster reaches out to them, promising them a body for doing so much hard work and helping his sons reach their happy beginning.

But, after they make their body, they're told that it's discarded, and they wake up in the body of someone else again: A human named kris.

Something had happened to them before, there were a group of monsters surrounding them asking for someone named Dess. Something different with this situation, however, is that before Frisk still had their soul, it was just kept away from all the danger. This time? Kris's soul was missing.

Because of the ritual that Kris had tried, their soul had been vulnerable.

And, due to the bunker being the closest thing to the void someone can be in without being in the void, gaster had taken the opportunity to swap kris's soul with the soul he created, putting theirs in the vessel and the soul in kris to continue to try and find a way to free him.

So! Now, the soul is in charge of making sure kris's life isn't ruined by the doings of gaster, and kris is left confused and watching as they're being controlled by something else. <><><><><><>

Dess is missing, and no one can find her. not even a trace of her, its as if she had vanished into thin air Asgore, being head of police, is assigned to try and find her. But, as time goes on, no leads appear. It's as if she had been straight up erased from existence!

Eventually everything comes to a head. All of the stress from the case gets to the adults. Toriel and Asgore's [albeit already somewhat rocky at that point] relationship falls apart, and that leads to them being divorced Asgore gets fired by Dess's mom for, in her eyes, being so incompetent that he couldn't find anything

Due to all the stress and discomfort, Asriel leaves for college early, leaving Kris all alone to deal with everything by themself. once the dust finally settles, nothing is the same again

Noelle is upset due to her sister being missing and her dad being sick, Asriel is gone off to college, Toriel and kris's relationship begins to get a bit rocky due to all the changes, and to top it all off the whole situation with the soul just rubs salt and lemon into the wound.

Not long after, a new girl moves into town Susie, a monster from unknown origins who immediately becomes a problem for the school. She's mean, unruly, no respect to authority, and she's also quite the bully. She targets kris specifically, and no one seems to know exactly why.

Eventually, the whole things with chapter 1 and 2 happen

<><><><><><><>

After his experiment with Jevil failed, Gaster moved on to the next darkner he could: A short Addison down on his luck.

Spam, the adopted sibling of Click, Survey, Video, and Popup, a rare white addison who had been abandoned by his birth family due to it.

You see, White Addisons are rare both because it's a rare genetic mutation, and because white ads don't tend to sell as well, and as such don't tend to survive.

He felt as if he owed it to his family to become big, to make them proud of him. If he didn't, then to him that made him seem like a waste of an Addison, and a burden on the family that was so generous to open their hearts for an abandoned ad in need of assistance.

Gaster sees this and decides that he'd be the perfect candidate for his next experiment, but he didn't want to risk things again by making them insane. So, he decides the best way to go about things is through a translator, another darkner who could explain things and do his job for him

So, he finds such a darkner, a pair of them in fact: Mike and Tenna

Problem was, they were in entirely different dark worlds, and we've seen what happens when darkners from other worlds try to go to others.

So, he plants a phone in Spam's world for them to communicate through

[phantomskeep]

On your post about Danny having a new form... wendigo isn't the best pick. I mean, there's the Jötunn from Norse mythology (often translated as ice giants but are not necessarily giant sized). There's all variety of demons too. Using parts of a still living culture that has been routinely oppressed and had pieces of its folklore (like the wendigo) used to make racist caricatures, especially when you're not part of that culture, is something to do very carefully.

Like, I know you don't mean to appropriate or mean anything bad by it, but you have admitted that you're not part of the culture nor spoken to someone who is, and I feel if you do decide to write this, using the term wendigo to describe Danny's new form will turn people off, especially if it feels very divorced from its origin culture.

Since you're into the ravenstag as a concept, you could lean into the "sick deer" aesthetic by making whatever Danny's problem is an actual illness causing him to waste away.

Getting into why this happened can help distinguish what you're doing from the wendigo folklore. Wendigo doesn't have a monopoly on "fucked up deer" or on "herbivore eating meat" (which are things that happen in real life), and I personally don't think the association with the folklore is helpful.

Also, I can't help but but notice some superficial similarities to the beginning of your post and my own fic "Danny the Hungry Hungry Ghost." In both, Danny has a new form, a ravenous appetite, raids a grocery store early on, has member(s) of the JL wanting to keep him as a pet, and he perceives all threats as the GIW.

I think it's interesting that your Danny has enough awareness to not eat people despite having cannibalistic urges, while my Danny couldn't understand that eating people just because they're edible is wrong. In that fic, it's very fortunate that he somehow managed to not eat someone.

Hello!! If I were to actually write this prompt (which, I'm not. It's a silly idea that came into my head while I was driving. Unfortunately for me I have a lot going on right now and I suck at one-shots so the post was the next best thing to get my brain to shut up about it.) I would consult the Algonquian speaking nations if I ever did decide to write this and for the fic that I am planning on using something at least similar in concept, I still am wanting to talk to a native about this.

I am going to say that chances are, even if I wanted to just use the concepts of the deer-like popculture wendigo in something, people would associate it with "wendigo" anyways. Over the Garden Wall and Hannibal are two great examples of this - neither ever said the antlered cannibals were wendigos, but the fans considered them to be anyways. Hell, in interviews they did say "oh yeah the wendigo" even when, in the actual content, neither are given a name. The Owl House and Centaurworld also fall into this category, as it's now become a bit of a writing symbol to have an emancipated deer thing be a greedy person's "true form". Not saying this is the culturally correct thing to do, but just showing where I stand on that? If that makes sense???

This is a Monster Art Theory post based on the artistic history of the wendigo, which I think explains the previous paragraph a bit better than I could ever hope to.

I know a lot of fellow writers, world-builders, DMs, ect. have started to separate the "popculture wendigo" (antlered deer, here to just eat your bones) versus the Algonquian speaking nation wendigo (evil spirit who will possess you if you did the greatest sin - eat human flesh). That's a distinction I edited to add in my post, but again - I'm planning on talking to a member of the Ojibwe soon just for my own peace of mind about this (if they're willing to, ofc. I know not a lot of people like to spread their cultures whereas some absolutely love to. I fall into the "oh shit you want to learn about my family's culture? fuck yeah let's do it right now, hope you have 16 hours to spare!" category myself. If the person I end up speaking to doesn't want to touch the topic with a seven foot pole? Then I'll happily fuck off.

Also, I myself am not Norse but I do want to touch on what you said about the Jötunn and how you implied it was part of a dead culture? That's not true - I have a bunch of friends native to the Nordic regions who do still worship the old Nordic religion, including all their folklore. It's still very much alive, and as such using Jötunn or something along that vein would just be the same issue that comes with wendigo, in the context you're talking about. Because of the context of wanting Danny to be at least similar to an animal to make him Damian-adoption bait, then I would not be sticking close to the Jötunn lore. That's not even touching the pagan side of things because my partner would have my head if I fucked that up.

I will say, I have not read your fic but now I am planning to absolutely consume it haha. I went back to the original post you did where you pulled from Bones' prompt, and I vaguely recognized it? If you were wondering if I pulled inspiration from it, I can't say that I did. There was a video going around about a moose walking into a McDonalds and freaking out the employees which is where I pulled the "hehe something everyone is scared of goes into a place to cause chaos" idea from. The GIW was just plot convivence but if I were to actually write it out? Nah, that boy's gonna have trauma from his parents.

To be honest having Danny not wanting to eat people is just easy plot convenience. I wanted him to roll up into a grocery store, employees see the camera footage when they get to work the next morning, and to have it go viral which is how the JL found out about it. That couldn't happen if Danny just decided to go Stephen King/Supernatural "time to murder everything in sight" mode. I didn't put it in the prompt because I just wanted my brain to stop thinking about it so that I could actually focus on writing the fics I have right now (one of which I am going to use the wendigo concept for, but as I have stated many times now - I was and still am fully planning on consulting a member of the Ojibwe nation about beforehand. I honestly just expected the original prompt I made to get maybe 1 note and disappear into the Tumblr Void, never thought I would've needed to pull out all the stops to show everything I've done to not culturally appropriate haha).

Anyways, all that being said thank you for informing me on all of this! I'm not planning on using the prompt I made in a fic (because ugh I just don't have that kind of time) but I appreciate you doing your part to make sure I'm not being a jerk about it. I hope everything I've put in here helps explain my viewpoint a bit more?

also sorry if this is a bit of a ramble or doesn't make sense, I just woke up and I haven't had any caffeine haha. Brain no worky

[sophiasharp]

OH i highly recommend reading the hnk manga!! The first chapters are pretty much the same as the anime, and then the story picks up where the anime ended, so if you start from chapter 1 you’ll get the story in order ~ The plot makes you go 😵😵 (affectionate) the further you go in, but it gets super interesting, and the artstyle of the manga is kinda different from the one in the anime but it’s very unique and has some really nice panels!

So yeah if you liked the anime then you will like the manga too!! Also you said that Phos inspired the design of one of your ocs?? That’s super interesting, could you talk more about it? If that’s okay ofc 👀💖✨💖

@iidsch Oh??? Okay uh sure, fuck it, who am I to turn down a chance to ramble about my characters?

So I’m one of those people who really has one OC that just gets recycled into every single world they’re in. More often than not they’re used as a self-insert character but every once in a while I find an excuse to use them in original stuff as well.

The one I’m talking about here is actually the one my blog is named after, Sophia. She’s had a lot of different last names over the years, the one before her current iteration being Sharp.

This particular version of Her, Sophia Mancer, was originally used in a self-insert story in the Creepypasta universe. It was loosely based off of the few comic panels I ever actually read through of The Seer, since the original author used to make comic dubs of it online but since I didn’t know where to read the original comic I only ever made it through, like, the main premise. Anyway that’s more just background information which isn’t vital to the character? But helps give an idea of what kind of world she exists in.

Luckily for everyone and myself I’ve actually had reason to use this version of Sophia again recently since I’m currently in a game of Monster of the Week with a bunch of friends from College. When I saw the game’s mechanics for The Monstrous I couldn’t think of anyone who would have fit the bill better, and it gave me a chance to go back and revamp her story in a way that stayed mostly true to her original premise but removed that pesky Creepypasta label (until the dm or other players start asking questions but we haven’t gotten there yet lol.) I’ll put her whole summarized backstory along with some art I made of her under a read more in case you’d like to read it for yourself lol.

The influence from Phos comes from what happens to Sophia’s limbs at the climax of her story. You can read the specifics below but to summarize it quickly during her final battle with a demon lord trying to take over the human world, she loses all her limbs (ouch) but through sheer will and the power of the chosen one of a rival entity, she grew back her arms and legs with this viscus, inky black material that can harden at will. Since the end of the battle, she’s learned to keep her limbs in a mostly human shape with the help of clothing to keep it all contained: long sleeves, long pants, gives, boots, etc. although she can take her gloves off while still keeping her hands as, well, hands, they tend to become more claw-like without the extra aid or specific concentration on keeping them as such.

So to make a long-ass story short, I saw the utter shit Phos went through with losing her arms and getting her new gold ones and went “that’s fucking sick, I’m gonna put that on my body horror character and it’s gonna be GREAT!”

I really should try to find a place to read the HNK manga, I’m already in love with most of the characters and I absolutely adore the story and ideas behind it. If you have any recommendations on where to find copies online I’d love to hear them! I am. A bad nerd lol. It has been so long I don’t even know where to look that isn’t like Barns & Noble or something. Anyway, thanks for the ask!

Sophia knew about the horrors of the unknown long before she was told she was a Chosen One. The child of a messy divorce, Sophia was raised chiefly by her mother, with only vague memories of her older sister and younger brother who they were forced to leave behind. Her mom worked tirelessly to support them both. To help with keeping them afloat, Sophia went to college on a full ride Scholarship and worked to become a psychologist. While working in regency, she prided herself on her openness with her patients and always treating them with respect no matter the circumstances. This became helpful later on when her worldview was thrown on its head after witnessing a fight between the adventuring group of her first hunter client, Matthew Williams, and a monster they’d been tracking. Once the dust had settled, Sophia dedicated herself to being there for other people in the monster hunting field. Who else would be there to support the ones constantly going up against the impossible?

Sophia had just gotten her license to practice when the weirdness that followed her patients home every night started to follow her as well. For months she was plagued with night terrors and the constant feeling that she was being watched. After a while, it started to effect her physical health too, waking up into coughing fits and prolonged bouts of insomnia. Finally, things came to a head when in a moment of restlessness, she went out of a walk in the dead of night. During her stroll through the local park, she was accosted by demonic monsters, some more humanoid than others but nonetheless vicious. Before they could kill her, however, a masked figure intervened and killed the monsters shortly before Sophia blacked out at his presence.

It turned out the masked figure was a Herald, come to gather Sophia and tell her that she had been chosen by his master to fight against a demon lord trying to break free of the nine hells and invade the surface world. The demons, meanwhile, were sent by their master to kill her before she could come into power.

Sophia wasn’t chosen by a God, per se. Sure, they’re more powerful and keenly aware of the fate of reality than mere mortals but they’re not Gods, and while their goal is to ultimately protect humanity from evil, they are far from Benevolent. Sophia was chosen by one of The Operators, faceless beings that embody the base spirits of humanity: Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Fear. Every hundred years, one of the Operators chooses a Champion to fight back the forces of the outer planes that would threaten Earth. To protect the world in between the retirement of the old Champion and the claiming of the new one as well as helping with more minor tasks that don’t specifically call the attention of a Champion, the Operators also adopt proxies that are specialized in their master’s domain and do their bidding.

As long as Sophia was in the mortal world, she was at risk of being attacked by the Demon Lord’s minions, so to protect her friends and family, she agreed to leave her life on pause to live in the dimension of the Operator that chose her. Unfortunately for her, Sophia was chosen by the Operator of Fear, and being a mortal forced to live in a realm of pure fear, surrounded on all sides by the alien and the unknown, was not great for her mental health. It didn’t help that the other proxies of the Operator didn’t take well to her at first, and while she did eventually earn their good graces and even the companionship of a few, there was a long, long period of time where her only company was isolation and bitterness.

Eventually, after years of training under the Operator, the day of the Demon Lord’s ascent came. A battle took place within the plane between planes, the Operators against the power of the hells. It was a hard fought fight, and for a time it seemed like the demons would win. During the battle, Sophia actually nearly died- her limbs were torn off and she nearly bled out. However, in the nick of time, she became a pure conduit for the Operator’s power, growing black, clawed limbs to replace the old ones and becoming something inherently other in the process. With the newfound surge of power, they turned the tide of battle and killed the Demon Lord and sealed his forces away, not forever but for long enough. The changes made to Sophia, however, were more than permanent.

With the demons no longer stalking her every move on Earth, Sophia was allowed to return to her “old life,” no longer forced to live in the realm of Fear. She’d still be called upon every once in a while to do her Operator’s bidding, as she was still their champion, but in theory, she was free to go back to her life before officially being chosen, and for a time she tried to do that. However, having now dealt with the unknowable and being forever changed by it, both physically and mentally, she no longer felt she was able to keep her own experiences from influencing her job, especially since she still had to learn how to control her new powers. Thus, she turned to a life on the road, hopping from town to town seeking out the unknowable that inhabited there and doing what she could to protect the masses.

Here’s a piece of reference art I made for the game. It’s probably the single best piece of art I’ve ever made for Sophia in any of her iterations, I’m really proud of how it came out!

If you made it this far, thanks again for giving me a chance to ramble about my character, and to anyone else who read this far down! I don’t normally talk about many of my OC’s on main cause I never really have a reason to but this was fun! Sophia’s very near and dear to me personally- she’s been used in a lot of ways over the years and she’ll now doubt be used for many more in the years to come, but I’m particularly fond of this version of her- whether you keep the original self-insert aspects or not.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What if in the AU The non Alice cullens found out that she was almost killed by Edward, what would they do?

It's sad that I have so many damn AU posts in which Edward murders Bella it genuinely took me a minute to figure out which anon was referencing.

It's this one, by the way.

Well, part of the thing with that is Edward has Alice on his side. The Cullens aren't going to find out and it's not something any of them would ever guess either.

If rumor spreads, if the Cullens at some point visit Volterra and Aro takes Carlisle aside and goes, "You know, old friend, I don't know how to say this but... Your son murdered his wife." Then they won't believe it and Edward will easily poison the family against naysayers.

This would be believing the absolute worst of Edward and without irrefutable proof, they will not do it.

But Let's Pretend They Do

Maybe they catch Edward in the act somehow. His murder of Bella is pushing her into a beach bonfire in front of everyone. They rescue her just in time, even managing to save the leg Edward tore off and threw in there.

Well, if the other Cullens find out we end up here.

They'd be first horrified, confronted by this ugly, awful, truth and then the cookie crumbles and the coven falls apart.

Carlisle doesn't know who Edward is anymore, he doesn't know the truth about anything. Everything he thought he knew about Edward is a lie.

This is before Edward's met Aro, so he doesn't return to Volterra to find out the truth, but I do think he deliberately splits paths from Edward and offers Bella sanctuary with him.

Esme at first argues desperately against this. Edward must stay, he's unwell, he didn't understand what he was doing, they have to be there for him and help him heal. They can pull through this if they try.

Given Bella's life is on the line, Carlisle is unmoved, he's still leaving and Edward will not come with him. He's of course devastated inside, will need months to reflect on this and grieve over the Edward he's lost, but this choice has to be made.

Esme ultimately chooses to go with Edward, he needs her far more than Carlisle does, and is devastated at her marriage ending like this. Carlisle is as well, neither of them saw this coming, and yet looking at it in retrospect it seems obvious.

Rosalie and Emmett stay with Carlisle and Bella. Rosalie is appalled and horrified, in shock and not sure what to think, and still very conflicted over Bella. However, what Edward attempted was monstrous, and just as Carlisle doesn't know Edward anymore neither does Rosalie.

And where Rosalie goes Emmett goes. Emmett, for the record, thinks this is all extremely fucked up but doesn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole. If you asked him, which no one will, then he... may have seen a few red flags here and there. Just a few, mind you, Edward was always crazy when it came to Bella. Not crazy in love, either, just crazy.

Alice also goes with Edward which means that Jasper goes with Edward.

It's the divorce of the century.

Given the point of this is to save Bella's life and get her as far from Edward as possible Carlisle forsakes a) all the money b) all the properties. They all have ties to the Cullens and it'd be all too easy for Edward to track it down.

Granted, Edward also has Alice with him, which would certainly help him along but Carlisle also doesn't want to make it ridiculously easy. More, beneath all of this, is a need to break away from Edward and the Carlisle Cullen of the last century.

Edward is very dear to Carlisle and this is a huge blow.

All the memories he has of making this coven, Edward was there for, excepting his few years of absence. Edward was the first person Carlisle turned, the first person to come back to the diet, and such an important person in Carlisle's life.

Now Carlisle has essentially lost Edward, and everything he's built over this century. The homes with so many memories, Isle Esme, all of it has lost something.

Better to forsake all of it and leave it all behind.

As a result, the Cullens 1.0 get to live on Carlisle's doctor salary, the Cullens 2.0 get all of Alice's money and all the properties. Rosalie misses those cars so dearly. God, why does Edward, who tried to murder his wife, get rewarded with the cars?!

The Cullens 1.0

However, I think the first thing Carlisle does is move the family abroad. This will help with the clean break, the leaving the Cullen coven as it was behind and trying to move forward. They change their surroundings completely and go to Europe.

And they probably do visit the Volturi as Carlisle, a) needs a close friend he can talk to about all of this, b) Aro might have insight Carlisle lacks into how this could have possibly happened and why Edward would even do this, c) it's probably best he stay off the grid for a little while to let the Carlisle Cullen name die down while Edward's being... Edward.

Also, more pragmatically, for all Edward has Alice's visions he surely would not be mad enough to attempt to kill Bella while she's in Volterra. This will give time for Esme, Alice, and Jasper to get through to Edward and perhaps figure out why this even happened.

Bella's an absolute wreck, flip flopping between denial and numb apathy. She joins Marcus in the garden to stare at the wall for hours while she contemplates the fact that Edward, the love of her life, tried to murder her.

She asks Marcus if Edward ever truly loved her.

Marcus tells her that she doesn't want to know.

Carlisle tries to offer Bella therapy, but he's in desperate need of it himself.

Aro tries to offer her therapy, and then realizes that Bella's even worse off than he suspected. Though he is delighted at her gift as well as Carlisle's presence, and he enjoys Rosalie and Emmett. He schemes to get the Cullens 1.0 to stay in Volterra, to convince Carlisle of the necessity of Bella's gift for the guard.

Also helping is that while in Volterra she has sanctuary from her murderous lover. This is a very convincing argument that will see them in Volterra for a good long while.

Emmett challenges Felix to arm wrestling competitions and, while still weirded out, fares the best out of the entire family.

The Cullens 2.0

Edward has a complete meltdown. It's all falling apart. He never foresaw this, never wanted this. Instead of saving Bella's humanity she now knows he's a monster, sees him as nothing more than a murderer, and now he may never see her again.

And Carlisle, Carlisle knows just what he is! Worse, he not only knows, but he rejected Edward just as Edward feared he would. This time, it's not Edward leaving the diet and Carlisle, it's Carlisle leaving him and Edward cannot return the prodigal son. He will never see Carlisle again.

He personally ruined Carlisle and Esme's marriage.

He ruined everything.

Edward likely decides to kill himself. He has failed in everything, ruined everything he touched, and he is a monster worse even than other monsters.

Bella is now a demon and it seems she will be forever, Alice hesitantly tells him that she's in Volterra now, where Edward cannot reach her.

There is nothing for him now and he never should have become this demon in the first place. If he could kill Bella, the finest thing in creation, the least he can do is kill himself.

He forces Jasper to do it.

He blackmails Jasper, if Jasper doesn't do it, then Edward will break every law the Volturi have ever made.

He will embrace the monster he is, the monster they all know he is. He will turn hundreds of humans into newborn and set them loose on human cities, he will turn dozens of children in their cribs, he will walk naked in the sunlight and let every human see exactly what he is as he eats their women and children.

He will cause such terror and desolation that the vampire world will speak of him for decades to come.

And if Jasper relies on Alice, well, he will be forcing Alice to outmaneouver and out think Edward at every opportunity. And she will slip up, because Edward will act on impulse or else she might not be looking in his direction at a critical moment.

They have forever and Edward is patient.

Jasper, of course, does it as he does all hard things in life.

He tells Esme that Edward went to live on a farm.

The Cullens 2.0 never hook back up with the Cullens 1.0.

[johannestevans]

The #MonstrousMayChallenge 2021

Love monsters?

The #MonstrousMayChallenge is going to be a series of monster-centric prompts for every day of the month of May!

Draw, write, talk about, analyse, shitpost, critique, rec, discuss, create, consume, and otherwise have fun with each prompt.

Tell your friends, pick and choose the prompts that you like best: make art, make fiction, make rec lists, make jokes, make monsters!

May 1. What is a Monster? May 2. How to Talk to Your Monster May 3. The Vampire May 4. Iconic Settings May 5. Feeding Time May 6. The Lycanthrope May 7. Adverse Weather Conditions May 8. The Monster in Love May 9. The Undead May 10. "... and add a monster." May 11. A Baby Monster May 12. The Alien May 13. The Domesticated Monster May 14. Clothing Your Monster May 15. The Mermaid

May 16. The Gentle Kaiju May 17. Monstrous Transformations May 18. Angels & Demons May 19. Monstrous Flora May 20. The Monster in History May 21. The Hybrid May 22. Kept Captive May 23. The Human is the Monster May 24. The Dragon May 25. The Monster Dies May 26. The Hive-Mind May 27. The Fae May 28. The Monster Extinct May 29. Cultural Differences May 30. The Minotaur May 31. Happily Ever After

The full write-up for the #MonstrousMayChallenge is below the cut — for every day of the month of May 2021, there’ll be a new prompt all to do with creating monsters and monster-centric stories!

You can either go directly off of the prompts themselves, or if you want a little more inspiration, you can come check this post for more in-depth exploration of the idea in question.

For each entry in response to the prompts, regardless of what platform you post to, make sure to tag the #MonstrousMayChallenge! In the meantime, just spread the word and tell your friends to get them ready for May!

Feel free to pick and mix the prompts you like best, to skip any prompts that don’t suit you, or to swap in prompts of your own if you like — every 3rd day is a specific category of “classic” monsters, and they’re not for everybody!

“Monsters are the patron saints of imperfection.” — Guillermo del Toro (x)

The emphasis on all of the prompts below are on monster-centric and monster-POV stories. Monstrous romances and monstrous erotica are both welcome and encouraged, just as much as platonic monstrosity is, and please feel free to join in regardless of your medium, whether you draw, write, animate, or create in another way entirely!

Just a note as to what expect — this challenge is intended for those who love monsters, who identify with monsters, who feel for the monsters, and all the prompts are written with that expectation in mind.

One small note: throughout these prompts there are references to folklore and ideas from different cultures and backgrounds. When exploring ideas from cultures that aren’t your own, remember that not every representation of spirits or monsters can be divorced from its original context, and take care to do your research to ensure you aren’t harming others by furthering harmful stereotypes or appropriating ideas of cultural importance.

We’re all here to have fun, which means that using a love of monsters as a vehicle for racism (whether that’s outright or by upholding colonial and imperial ideas, appropriating from other cultures, or fetishising other races and cultures) is not what we want to see in the course of this challenge, and isn’t welcome here.

Note the above especially in regards to the Alonquian W*nd*go.

Saturday 1st May 2021 — What is a monster?

Here’s a warm-up challenge to start the month off:

For you, what is a monster? What makes a monster monstrous? What delights you, excites you, scares you, horrifies you about a monster? What fills you with affection for monster?

When you first hear the word monster, what springs first to mind?

This is a free space — talk about, write about, draw, animate, sing about, the monster(s) you love best, and why you love them!

Sunday 2nd May 2021 — How To Talk To Your Monster

How does your monster communicate?

Do they have a mouth, lips, a tongue, like humans do? Do they communicate verbally at all? Do they communicate via telepathy, via their tentacles, or their limbs? Do they speak, but at a pitch or volume or speed inaudible or incomprehensible to human ears? How is this gap bridged?

Does your monster understand humans but struggle to make itself understood? Does your monster want to be understood?

Alternate: How does your monster communicate with other, different monsters?

Monday 3rd May 2021 — The Vampire

The vampire is a walking corpse that sustains itself by feeding off the the blood of the living.

There are a thousand variations on the myth — a corpse that rises from its grave at night only to mindlessly glut itself on the prey it can find becomes a reclusive gentleman who lives in isolation in a brooding, gothic castle overlooking a Transylvanian woodland (Dracula); a sparkly immortal Mormon who likes to climb into young women’s windows to watch them while they sleep (Twilight); a rich aristocrat so intent on preserving his properties and his privilege that he clings onto immortality at all costs (Interview with the Vampire); an extremely sexy vampire in sunglasses who’s devoted to killing other vampires (Blade), and so on and so forth.

Explore your own take on the vampire:

Is your vampire actually dead? Do they just appear dead, or sleep in coffins?

What makes a vampire? A curse? A ritual? Transmission of vampiric disease — via the exchange of blood or via sex? Are they born that way? Do dhampirs (half-vampires) exist? Do vampires become vampires by choice? Is there a contract or an agreement?

Does your vampire drink blood? Cerebral fluid? Consume human flesh? Do they sap energy from others in non-literal ways — for example, do they feed off of emotions or energy, or seek to devour a soul?

If they survive off of the above, do they also eat or drink other things? Are they capable of doing so without becoming ill?

Is your vampire sensitive to sunlight? Bright light in general? Do they physically react to it? Do they burn, or crumble to dust? How do they cope with this — do they only come out at night, do they wear leathers and carry a parasol, do they use a medicated suncream?

Can vampires become ill? Sick? What weakens a vampire? What kills them?

Does your vampire have any other powers? Can they fly, hypnotise people, transform into gas or another animal?

What happens if a non-human becomes a vampire?

Alternate: A non-vampire monster becomes absolutely obsessed with vampires. They love them to pieces! Why? How do they get their vampire fix?

Some inspiration, if you want it:

Article: An 18th-century guide to hunting vampires from National Geographic

Article: The Great New England Vampire Panic from the Smithsonian Magazine

Video Essay: The Sexy Vampire Trope, Explained, from The Take

Tuesday 4th May 2021 — Iconic Settings

Imagine an iconic setting within the horror genre or without — your Transylvanian castles, your unending deserts of shifting sands, your haunted houses and their infinitely winding corridors, your unholy spires atop distant peaks, your deep and dismal caves, your roiling seas…

What monsters lurk within these settings? How do they feel about their environs? What happens if you transplant a monster from one such setting into its opposite, or combine a few of them together?

What happens if these settings are invaded, lost, destroyed, expanded, changed?

Alternate: Imagine any iconic setting you like, but instead of the monster lurking within, the setting is the monster.

The seas themselves are sentient; the caves are toothy maws of impossible beasts; the mountains themselves have eyes; the castles and houses and ancient tombs and temples are, themselves, imbued with a spirit… Is it hungry? Angry? Lonely?

Wednesday 5th May 2021 — Feeding Time

What does your monster eat?

Is it predator or prey? To a human understanding, does it look like what it is? If it eats meat, does it prefer to eat it dead or alive? If it’s not from this planet or dimension, does it struggle to find new things to eat? What does it look like when your monster eats? Is it private about eating? Does it look scary when it feeds?

Does it eat at all? Does your monster get its energy from the sun, from electricity, from magic, from something else entirely?

Alternate: From a monstrous POV, a human’s dietary habits seem monstrous and strange. Why?

Thursday 6th May 2021 — The Lycanthrope

The werewolf is a person who turns into a wolf, typically at the time of the full moon. Lycanthropy is the name of the condition of being a werewolf, or someone who turns into some other animal.

The variations on the werewolf are infinite — the core is often people bitten by strange beasts and left forever cursed with their regular transformation (for example, in The Wolf Man); but a curse is also possible, such as when kings are turned into wolves as punishment for their hubris (as with King Lycaon in Metamorphoses); or of course, a curse inherited, such as when young men who come into their inherited lycanthropy and suddenly have a whole host of new puberty concerns (Teen Wolf).

And it needn’t be a wolf at all — there are all manner of shapeshifters between one myth and the next, and as much as there are werewolves there might be werelions, werebears, werebats, et cetera, et cetera.

For your lycanthrope, why not explore:

What animal or creature does your lycanthrope turn into? A wolf, a bear, a lion, a snake, a bird? Something magical — a phoenix, a unicorn, a griffin, a dragon?

Once transformed, can your lycanthrope be distinguished from the normal edition of the beast? What are the differences, for example, between a werewolf and a wolf?

Can your lycanthrope transform at will? Is it influenced by their emotion? Is it kept to a regular schedule? Can that schedule be interrupted? For example, if it’s a monthly cycle like someone’s menstruation, can they go for periods without transforming or with “spotty” transformations? If it’s with the phases of the moon, does hiding from the moon help? What happens if you send them to another planet?

Is the transformation painful? Physically or mentally taxing?Are there any health problems associated with lycanthropy?

When transformed, how conscious and aware of themselves is you lycanthrope? Do they know they’re transformed? Do they remember what they were?

Alternate: Sometimes, another monster turns into a human.

Friday 7th May 2021 — Adverse Weather Conditions

What weather is your monster happiest in? What weather is your monster least happy in?

Is your monster native to an area that’s extremely hot and humid? Very cold and dry? Is your monster used to heavy rains, droughts and little water, sandstorms, electrical storms, blizzards? If your monster lives in space or underwater, how are they affected by solar flares or tropical storms, shifts in tides and gravitational flows?

How has your monster evolved or developed to handle these weather conditions — or, is there anything your monster hasn’t evolved for, and struggles with?

Alternate: Your monster is a house-monster, and will not be going outside. They would like a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa and a nice comfortable bed, please and thank you.

Saturday 8th May 2021 — The Monster In Love

Your monster’s in love — what do they do about it?

Does your monster have any particular mating rituals or ways in which they show their affection? Does your monster mate for life, does your monster date, does your monster romance singular or multiple partners? Does your monster yearn, do they pine? Do they bring gifts, do they do special dances, do say particular words or have mating calls?

Is their love reciprocated — is it even understood?

When one monster loves another monster, what does it look like? What does it look like when a monster is in love with a human? When a human falls in love with a monster?

Alternate: Your monster has never been in love, and is baffled — perhaps even disgusted — by the prospect. Do they do research? Demand an explanation?

Sunday 9th May 2021 — The Undead

The undead covers a lot of things under a similar umbrella, and it’s up to you whether they count as monsters or not — ghosts, ghouls, poltergeists, spirits, revenants, draugr, reanimated corpses like zombies, arguably vampires… To infinity, and beyond.

We can be talking spirits without bodies or with new bodies, corpses with new spirits in them, corpses controlled by necromancers or the like, and so on.

So, for this prompt:

For your undead monster, are they conscious, sentient? Do they control their own body? Do they remember when they were alive, if they were dead and then reanimated?

If they have a physical form, can someone tell they’re undead? Are they rotting, corpse-like, desiccated, all bones, all flesh, all muscle? Are they missing parts? Do they have any extra ones? Do they look the same way they used to? If they don’t have a physical form, can you see them at all? Can you see them only sometimes?

What sustains this undead monster? Do they feed off of anything, or are they just sustained by the air itself, by magic, by some sort of magical object or curse?

Was your undead monster once a human? Once a werewolf? Once a faerie, once a dragon, once some other creature entirely?

Alternate: Your monster is a necromancer, and they are not undead, but control and raise, in some way or another, the undead.

Monday 10th May 2021 — “… and add a monster.”

Take absolutely any iconic work you like, whether it’s a classic piece of literature, a poem, a piece of mythology or folklore, a fairy tale, a fable, a shanty or a campfire song — anything that’s in the public domain and might be well-recognised — and add a monster.

Have Sherlock Holmes meeting a vampire, reimagine Jean Valjean as a minotaur, give Mr Darcy a deep and affectionate longing for his local werewolf.

You don’t have to keep to the same characters or plots — rewrite an existing plot with monsters (Rapunzel or Cinderella, for example), have two plots crossover (what happens when the monsters in two myths team up to defeat the hero out to kill them?), add monsters or change the monsters in the narrative, or if it already has a monster, add another.

Alternate: Take a public domain domain monster and give them a break. Send Dracula on holiday, give the poor result of Frankenstein’s experiments a spa day, etc.

Tuesday 11th May 2021 — A Baby Monster

How do the monsters breed?

Do they lay eggs? Give birth to live young? Do something else entirely? Are monsters active parents? What happens when monsters interbreed, or breed with humans?

Is the breeding… fun? 😉

I know not everyone likes writing babies or kids, and equally that some people have come into this challenge specifically for the monsterfucking, so there’ll be two streams of main prompts — one focusing on the breeding for you child-free monsterfuckers, and another focusing more on monstrous baby development once an egg is laid or a baby is born, etc.

Feel free to do both if you want to do both, as one does lead into the other!

Questions about breeding and monstrous pregnancy:

Does your monster fertilise eggs for the purposes of a live pregnancy, do they lay eggs, do they clone themselves, do they breed in some other way?

If your monster has genitalia, what do they look like? Are they analogous to human genitalia? Are they particularly big or particularly small compared to the analogous human parts, if so? How compatible is your monster’s genitalia with a human’s genitalia — or another monster’s?

If there is a size difference between monster and partner, what comes of this? Are there any chemical differences between monster and partner — for example, does the monster’s touch impart a high or some kind of contact aphrodisiac?

Are any attempts at breeding viable? If the monster’s partner is filled with eggs, what happens the longer they carry them? If the partner does carry the eggs or the babies to the point of birth and laying, what happens? Is it a painful process? Will they survive it? Does the partner know they’re pregnant at all?

And the pregnancy/egg-carrying questions: how does the partner’s biology change to accommodate the pregnancy? Do they have any strange or unexpected cravings? Does their biology change in any unexpected questions?

Questions about monstrous child development:

How is the monstrous baby first conceived? Is it an egg laid, is it an egg fertilised, an egg fertilised and then carried, as the result of a live pregnancy, something else entirely? If they’re laid eggs, do they go through a larval stage or other similar development?

Are monstrous babies born alone, or in groups? Do they have a high viability rate? Do the monstrous babies eat one another? Do they eat their egg casing or their placenta, if applicable? If not, what do they eat — do they drink milk or blood, do they need their food pre-chewed by their parents, can they look for food themselves?

Are monstrous parents very active in caring for their offspring? Are monstrous babies born able to take care of themselves, able to have a sort of independence, or do they need to be cared for for a period first?

How fast or slow is a monster’s development? How long does it take for them to become fully grown? How much do they grow, and how does their body develop and change as they run through their lifecycle? Do they shed their skin or any body parts, do they change a lot materially?

Alternate: What does monstrous contraception look like? Do they have a concept of it? If they don’t, how do they feel about it being explained to them?

Wednesday 12th May 2021 — The Alien

What makes an alien?

Are they from another planet, another dimension? How similar are they to anything found on Earth? How did they get here?

Are they intelligent, sentient? Do they know they’re on a foreign planet or in a foreign dimension? How fit are they to survive on Earth? How do they respond to the animals, the new sounds, the new world, around them? What technology do they have? Do they appear to be aliens as people imagine them? Do they pilot aircraft as people think they do?

Alternate: A human (or another species from Earth) is the alien on another planet or another dimension populated with “monsters”.

Thursday 13th May 2021 — The Domesticated Monster

Let’s look at the monster domesticated.

The likes of Pokémon, fantastical creatures as beasts of burden or as steeds — unicorns and pegasi and giant spiders and dragons, for example — or other tamed monsters that have learned to live with humans, and live side-by-side with them.

Are monsters actively bred for a result, or do they domesticate themselves as cats and dogs did? Do they perform tasks or assist humans? Do they give milk or eggs or honey or silk or meat? At what point in their domestication are they? Are they happy? Are they well-treated?

Alternate: A monster gets a pet of their own — is it a fantastical species, or is it a dog, cat, bird, etc? Is it even a human?

Friday 14th May 2021 — Clothing Your Monster

Does your monster wear clothes or armour?

What sort of clothes or armour do they wear? Is it grown, made, bought, traded for? Do they wear any other kind of jewelry or decoration? Do they always wear it, or only for some occasion? What do they think of human clothes? Do they want to try wearing any themselves, or taking human fabrics for monstrous clothes?

Alternate: If your monster does not wear clothes, what do they think of human clothes? How do they feel about the fact that humans wear them? Do they have a full understanding of the separation between clothes and flesh?

Saturday 15th May 2021 — The Mermaid

A mermaid is a half-human, half-fish.

You can take this very literally, as in The Little Mermaid, with someone who has a human upper half and fishy bottom half (or the other way around…😏), you can think more along the lines of the fish-person we see in Abe Sapien from Hellboy or (also) in Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water, or you can look at different variations on mermaids — the seal-like selkie who can remove their pelt to walk on land; the siren that calls to sailors so they dash themselves upon the rocks; naiads and other spirits of the water; the rusalke of the water, and so on.

Questions for your merfolk:

Do they belong in freshwater, saltwater, brackish water? Do they stay in the seas, in deep lakes, in ponds?

Do they regularly come to the surface, or do they live very deep below? What sort of temperatures are they used to, and how much sunlight? If they live in cold water or deep below the surface, are they very large and blubbery to ensure they can cope with the pressure and the cold?

Are your merfolk bioluminscent? Fish-like, cetacean-like, cephalapod-esque? If they do look similar to humans, with a human face or human body parts, do they look or feel like human flesh underneath the skin, or is it just for appearance?

What and how do your merfolk eat? Do they eat fish, meat, seaweed, plankton?

How do your merfolk feel about humans? About fish and other marine life? About animals on land? Other monsters?

Can your merfolk step onto land? Do they want to? Are they curious about what they find there? Do the humans nearby know about them, care about them?

Do merfolk live alone, in groups or as families? Are they migratory? How far do they travel, and for what reasons? Do they build towns and cities? How do they feel humans compare to them?

Alternate: A completely different non-merfolk-esque monster lives at the very bottom of the sea. What is it? How do humans come upon it? How big is it?

Sunday 16th May 2021 — The Gentle Kaiju

Kaiju is a Japanese genre of films— your Godzilla, your Mothra, your Rodan, all of these are kaiju: strange, gigantic beasts.

This prompt is centred around any monsters of superlative size that are trying their absolute best not to harm any of the little people scurrying them about them.

You can take this literally — think kaiju tip-toeing their ways through great cities and trying not to step on anything important, huge space beasts careful not to disturb planetary orbits in case they hurt anyone, or even the likes of the human trying not to step on any ants — or you can think of other monsters trying not to harm others despite some aspect of their biology making it difficult for them — Lovecraftian beasts doing their best not to do anyone any psionic damage, for example, or Medusa-like beings desperate to avoid people’s gazes in case they do any harm.

Alternate: An extremely tiny monster or another monster very easily harmed by human activities needs to kept safe.

Monday 17th May 2021 — Monstrous Transformations

How does a monster transform?

Does in transition between one form or another, like a werewolf, or between forms for land versus water? Does it regularly transform or transition through different physical presentations? Does it shed its skin, leave its old body behind? Does it grow new teeth or claws or body parts? Does it transform in response to disease or ailment?

Does a human transform slowly into a monster? Does a monster transform into another? Is this transformation willing, conscious — is it against all desperate attempts to prevent it? Is it painful? Is it agony?

Alternate: A monster expresses deep curiosity about human transformations — perhaps the differences between a child and an adult and their scale of growth, perhaps the apparent transformation when a human changes clothes, or puts on a mask, or even make-up.

Tuesday 18th May 2021 — Angels & Demons

A demon is typically an evil spirit or devil, and are sometimes thought to be fallen angels; angels are typically benevolent spirits, often thought of as celestial messengers.

Being as they’re often thought to be celestial or infernal, do you think of them as being from another dimension? How well do they mesh with Earth, from their own perspectives and human ones? How do they look or appear? Do they have to present themselves in a strange or unusual form? How do they communicate with humans — and why? Are they evil, benevolent, or simply neutral?

Are angels and demons separate things? How many kinds of angels and demons are there respectively? If they’re separate, do they communicate with one another, balance with one another?

Alternate: A monster that is not a demon or angel decides to present itself as one or the other. What is it? Why does it present itself this way?

Wednesday 19th May 2021 — Monstrous Flora

Your monster is plant- or mushroom-based!

(Or lichen-based, or algae-based, or moss-based, or coral-based, or…)

What does it look like? What makes it different from a mammalian or scaly monster? Where does it come from? How does it move, how does it breathe, how does it eat? Does it sleep? Does it 😏… you know? Is it good at it?

Alternate: Your monster lives codependently with, or lives inside, some sort of plant. What does that co-evolved relationship look like? How big is the plant? What does it look like?

Thursday 20th May 2021 — The Monster in History

Throughout history, the perception of your monster has changed over time.

Is your monster immortal? Over the progression of recorded history, has it been this same monster recorded in one sighting after another, in art or in story? Or, is your monster the latest generation of a species or line of inheritance that has gone on for a long while?

How much has your monster’s culture changed and developed in that time — has it changed in reaction to or alongside human cultures? How accurate has human perception of your monster been as the centuries have rolled by? How has art or stories about your monster changed in their telling?

How has the monster reacted to changes in human history, or different events as they have happened?

Does your monster even notice the passage of time? Are they in some way insensible to it, or do they experience it in a way humans don’t?

Alternate: The monster is a time-traveler! How do they do this? Why?

Friday 21st May 2021 — The Hybrid

A few things are bred together to create a monster, whether that monster be sublime or an abomination before the universe!

Think about griffins, pegasi, basilisks, cockatrices, and of course the manticore — any sort of beast made by combining one creature with another.

What creatures have been combined to create this monster? Has a human been one of them? How has this combination been achieved — via actual interbreeding, magically assisted or otherwise, via alchemy, a curse, or some other magical process? Has this creature literally been stitched together and then reanimated? How have the different creatures contributing to the creature changed its behaviour or its abilities?

Alternate: An attempt is made to create a hybrid… and unfortunately this is not the result. What is?

Saturday 22nd May 2021 — Kept Captive

The monster is captured.

How big or small is your monster? How was it captured — was bait used to draw it in, such as a food stuff, a copied call? Was it herded into an ambush? Was it trapped under a cage, in drop trap, in a magic trap? How easy was it to capture — did it take a long time, were several attempts made? For what reason was the monster captured?

Now kept captive, how big is your monster’s enclosure? Is it a cage, a glass box, physical chains or bondage, something else entirely? How long has it been there? Is it alone — would it rather be alone than the alternative? Is it struggling with its captivity? Is it marking out the amount of time it has been kept trapped, screaming at its captors, harming itself in its desperation for escape?

Is it likely ever to be freed?

Alternative: A human is kept captive by a monster.

Sunday 23rd May 2021 — The Human Is The Monster

From the perspective of the narrator, the human is the monster.

Who or what is made to fear them? What makes the human so monstrous in their eyes? Is it to do with the human’s size, their appearance, their behaviour, the nature of humans as a collective?

Alternative: The human thinks they’re thought of as the monster — the real monster is behind them (figuratively or literally).

Monday 24th May 2021 — The Dragon

A dragon is a mythical creature, often large and scaly, with variations found the world over.

Is your dragon extremely big, or very small? Is it indeed scaly, or does it appear so? Is it some form of sea serpent, or does it fly? Does it have wings, fins, a tail, teeth? Does it have very powerful senses, or different ones entirely to what one might expect? Does it have a mouth, eyes, a tongue, ears? Does it breathe fire or ice, have gills? Does it have some other supernatural power — telepathy, telekinesis, affect the weather or the tide?

What does your dragon eat? Does it eat meat, vegetables? Does it feed off of magic?

Does your dragon hoard anything — gold, jewels, young people out for a wander? Livestock? Something else entirely?

Alternate: An ancient dungeon, temple, or some other monument, is marked by a huge statue of a dragon. Something else inhabits it.

Tuesday 25th May 2021 — The Monster Dies

It’s the end of the story — or perhaps the beginning.

The monster dies.

Alternate: The monster dies… but only for a while.

Wednesday 26th May 2021 — The Hive-Mind

The monsters in this one are multiple.

They share a hive-mind, whether that hive-mind is created by pheromones, by fungus or infection or disease, by magic, by telepathy, by technology, or something else entirely. How many beings are part of this collective? Do they exist in conjunction with one another, and move as a swarm or a hive? Do they synchronise their movements, and work together toward a common goal? Can they work independently, or only as a group?

Can others be inducted into this hive-mind, willingly or otherwise? Is this painful or uncomfortable? Does it wipe away what experiences came before?

If a member of the hive-mind travels far away, do they remain connected to the whole? How is this hive-mind used, when beings work independently? Can it be sensed or its effects be noticed by outsiders? What is its everyday function?

Alternative: A being once a member of a hive-mind or a collective is severed from it, and now alone. Are they grieving? Do they feel free? Are tasks suddenly more difficult or easy for them? How do they feel?

Thursday 27th May 2021 — The Fae

The fae are supernatural beings or spirits found in a variety of folklore.

The fae are often associated with woodland, bodies of water, bogland, or other particular areas, but there are variations on variations of different fae legend: elves, brownies, merfolk, y tylwyth teg, the bean sidhe, selkies, gnomes, kobolds, leprechauns, nymphs, pixies…

In a lot of modern fantasy, the fae are associated with rigidity around law and rules, certain contracts, and many superstitions are associated with fae or fae-like beings, where one offends them at one’s peril.

What makes the fae monstrous? What makes them frightening and an object of horror for others? What rules do they follow and expect others to follow? What superstitions are associated with them?

Alternate: The fae are introduced to pop culture depictions of fairies. What is their response?

Friday 28th May 2021 — The Monster Extinct

The monster has been extinct for thousands of years, if not hundreds of thousands, and based off of the evidence of them — stories, fossils, remains, old art, people are trying to back-engineer what they were like, what they looked like, how they communicated.

How accurate are they? How off?

Alternate: The monster doesn’t exist yet, or is a long way off, but has been told about in prophecy, or glimpsed in visions of the future. Are these glimpses accurate to the truth? Do they tell the whole story?

Saturday 29th May 2021 — Cultural Differences

What does cultural exchange look like between monster and human, or between two monstrous cultures?

How do these distinct cultures affect one another or interact? Are there large cultural differences between the monstrous cultures and the human ones? Are there any moral, ethical, aesthetic, economic, political, legal, or other cultural aspects that are very much at odds between some cultures and the others?

For example, do the human and monstrous cultures both have money? Do they treat money as of the same importance? Do they rank things in the same orders of importance? Do they have similar customs around politeness, greeting, language? Does each culture respect the others, or do they consider themselves superior or inferior?

Alternate: A human has never had much experience of the culture they were born of — they only know the monstrous culture they were raised by and into. What does that look like?

Sunday 30th 2021 — The Minotaur

It’s my birthday and the minotaur is my absolute favourite, so! Minotaurs!

The classical minotaur was the son of Pasiphaë and the unwilling stepson of King Minos of Knossos: born with the body of a man and the head and tail of a bull, he was declared monstrous and trapped within the labyrinthine maze beneath the great palaces of Knossos, until the hero Theseus came to slay him dead.

Today, the minotaur is the name for any half-bull half-human delight, tragic or otherwise.

Alternate: You needn’t limit yourself to a half-bull half-human if you feel the need to abandon literal perfection — go for the drider, perhaps, a half-human half-spider, return to the merfolk of several prompts above, and go half-human, half-fish, the satyr, half-goat half-human.

Whatever it is, make it half-human, half-something else, and then decide:

Is your monster cursed? Were they made this way, were they born this way? Are they happy? Are they the same as their family members, or are they different? If they are the latter, are they loved and accepted, or made an exile?

What are the benefits and negatives to their physical appearance and to their biology? Are there any aspects that might be unexpected?

Are they viewed by people in general as frightening, intimidating, unusual, strange, incredibly sexy? Are they treated as a monster?

Monday 31st May 2021 — Happily Ever After

The monster lives happily ever after…

What does that look like?

Alternate: Or, your monster has a tragic ending — because you’re the monster, apparently! 😒😭

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Thanks so much for considering taking part in the #MonstrousMayChallenge!

If you want to do any of the above prompts, or if you want to do them all, but you’re not a writer or an artist, or you are but you’re not always in the mood for art, here’s a list of alternate activities you can do to tick off the prompts!

Do some worldbuilding, analysis, meta, or discussion of common tropes within or related to the prompt

Shitpost or make jokes or memes about or related to the prompt

Do some aesthetic or graphic posts

Watch movies or TV episodes, read comics, or consume other media, related to the prompts

Make rec lists for other people of movies or TV episodes or books (or other media!) related to the prompts

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[shihalyfie]

With Digimon Ghost Game starting, I thought about how different it is from previous Digimon series, though it's still undoubtedly Digimon... and then I realized all Digimon series are like that. So I wonder, what do you think sets each Digimon series apart from the rest?

I think both Ghost Game but also the reboot have been a wake-up call for people in terms of realizing that likes, dislikes, and tastes are subjective, and I think it's especially important in terms of this fanbase that is so obsessed with this idea you can objectively rank things by quality -- especially when each series is often deliberately trying to have its own identity, so it's arguably apples and oranges -- and forcing this idea of what's Good and Not Good on everyone else (especially when there's a nasty double standard phenomenon where Adventure and often Tamers get to be so impervious to criticism that people conveniently forget they're perfectly capable of being scrutinized for a lot of things they're weaker in). Very frustrating to see everyone who likes less popular series treated as if they have to accept that they like a "badly written series" for some things and everything else is a guilty pleasure, which I find to be incredibly dumb.

The most important take-home here is that the fact each series has its own identity is always going to be the main factor in what makes it "good" or not to you, not some arbitrary bar of comparison that's based on some narrow-minded view of "good writing" (which is usually unreasonably based on Adventure). For instance, the reason why 02 is so important to me is because (see below), to me, it has the highest amount of meaningful, important life lessons and themes that it wanted its audience to remember, to the point that I frankly do not care about where the plot goes in comparison. That may not be the case for everyone else, and that's fine, but should my tastes be called unreasonable for that? I think we're also coming to realize that because of Adventure (and kind of 02)'s precedent, so many people have been judging series purely by how intimate their individual character development style is, but this is unfair because Adventure and 02's ridiculous level of character depth to psychological detail is extremely unusual and unrealistic to expect of others; Adventure and 02 only achieved this by practically considering the plot utterly subservient to its character arcs, and it's arguably why they have some of the weakest "plots" in this franchise. It's so bizarre that I can see character development in other Digimon series that outstrips even most kids' anime on the market, but it's not as much as Adventure's so apparently it's bad. And, moreover, as it turns out, some people have priorities other than characterization; just because Adventure had that as its strength doesn't mean that's the only thing anyone should care about. Is the plot fun? Is there a meaningful message besides characters (also important to me)? Do you vibe with the tone being dark, or being silly? How much do you care about resourceful usage of Digimon lore? That kind of thing. Everyone is different, so that's why everyone has their own priorities. If you’re someone who prefers darker content, you may not realize that writing good and well-timed comedy is actually a very, very difficult task, especially when said comedy simultaneously has meaning (in comparison, it’s surprisingly easy to write “dark” but shallow content).

I think it's fair to like every Digimon series for its own thing, depending on your personal tastes. I can't speak for everyone, but my impressions are that it has to do with the following:

Adventure: Significantly easier to understand than 02 due to its more straightforward plot, and focus on individual character development ("individualism" being a strong point here). In terms of characters, it goes a lot into some very real social problems (the divorce around the Ishida and Takaishi families and the pressures surrounding Jou, for instance) in a very realistic manner. Also, it has that sense of mystique and absurdism to the Digital World that's both whimsical but also mysterious, and while 02 has it too, Adventure's the isekai story that has it the most.

02: The first is its focus on the importance of human relationships and the compelling group dynamic unparalleled in this franchise, and the second is its important themes and life lessons that I think are some of the strongest in said franchise. I have a whole tag for the ridiculous amount of nuance packed into every detail and dialogue line for this series, and I think every time I've rewatched an episode I've learned something new about it because there are so many things that clearly wanted to be said in each line. The entire series is basically an unpacking of the feelings of insidious self-hatred and the crushing feeling of being subject to society's expectations, and ones that are so deep-seated that you often don’t even have a single answer to how to unpack it (for instance, Miyako hardly has a tragic single event in her backstory, but she says and does a lot of things that'll be painfully familiar to those who have experienced chronic anxiety). Almost every plot point can be said to connect to each character arc in some way, and the mantras for appreciating and treasuring your own life and living life the way you will make this, in my opinion, the strongest series in terms of speaking to those who struggle with this kind of existential crisis for reasons of depression or otherwise. (Oops, I think I went too passionate about this; my biases are obvious...)

Tamers: I think it forms an interesting study and unpacking of the kinds of things you take for granted in Digimon or the monster-collecting genre in general, and an examination of how they'd work in a real-world context (although 02 had a focus on daily life, it didn't quite merge the Digimon and the real world factors until very late in the series). Also, probably the second highest on "hard sci-fi" (the only one that outstrips it is probably Appmon, but Appmon has a very different, more simplified take on it).

Frontier: A series that lies somewhere between Adventure's scale of individualism and 02's scale of group dynamic, and one more discussing the feeling of having your heart hardened from being an outcast, and what it takes to accept the idea of opening yourself up to others again. Recommended for those who like transforming hero and magical girl stories, too. From the Digimon perspective, also the one with the most detailed and consistent Digital World mythos.

Savers: I think this is the series that most drives home "life is complicated" (i.e. there isn't a single mastermind behind everything) in the most tasteful manner, because while it drives home the point that you can't just simplify everything into a good side and a bad side, some bad things really are evil (hi, Kurata), and it doesn't change the fact that everyone's responsible for cleaning up the fallout. The portrayal of the evils of government bureaucracy is probably the most realistic out of any of these series.

Xros Wars: For those who like fun, most of all! For those who like seeing Digimon finally get more of the spotlight and individuality since so much of it had been geared and biased towards the humans prior to this. For those who really like worldbuilding, and, after all, this is called Xros Wars, so it's interesting to see shakeups on the usual formulas in the form of the different factions and their priorities. Hunters is very different in tone, but I do think they have some of these aspects in common; that said, it being closer to having single partnerships brings it a bit closer in line to conventional Digimon partnerships, and it also has more of a picture of daily life. Also, as much as Tagiru is probably your-mileage-may-vary since he's not exactly a very nice kid (I get it if you don't vibe with that), which may also rub those hoping for not nice kids to become nice the wrong way, I do have to say I find him to be one of the funniest characters in this entire franchise, and you'd be surprised how hard good comedy is to write.

Appmon: Probably one of the strongest theme narratives besides 02, since it has a very clear and obvious theme about the importance of kindness in a world where technology is dominating and we're almost encouraged to strip the feelings out of everything. (Bonus for more straightforward plot than Adventure or 02 while still retaining a lot of its elements in terms of how to characterize them.) Also the first series to be speculative about the near future instead of taking place around the time it airs, and it's very obvious it wants to provide important and necessary commentary about what we need to do in the incoming era, especially as a lot of what it has to say becomes increasingly relevant.

Reboot: For those who like Digimon mythos and null canon -- this is probably the only series to show it off in this level of detail -- and the kind of cool action fights that would usually be saved for the climax in prior series (and animated in much more intimate detail with battle choreography than prior series would have). There are a lot of people into this franchise who felt like it genuinely was not making enough use of its Digimon roster and its potential because it kept going back to the old standbys (especially Adventure-based ones), so it was a huge relief for that crowd to see attention finally being paid.