#character symbols: barb

[lilithofpenandbook]

Something about Snape, 31-38, with pure black hair, not a single sign of white, despite that being the age most people start going grey

Something about how he had the full dark hair of youth and died like that

Something about how he never truly grew up like he should have

Something about how he was always stuck there in the past, stuck as that Snape boy from Spinner's End, stuck as Snivellus the boy who the Marauders hated for just existing

Something about how he died there in the same place he nearly died as a boy

Something about how he died in that place, bloodied and wounded, raven black hair, no difference between him and his boyhood self

Something about how that black hair was perhaps a sign that he was still living in the past, that a piece of him was eternally frozen at 21, at 16, at 15, he died a man yet he wasn't one, he wasn't a boy but not quite a man

Something about how his portrait among all the other heads of Hogwarts is the only one whose hair is fully dark, whose face isn't lined with age.

Next to them, he is a boy. Perhaps he always was.

[thunderboltfire]

Poor battering ram of a woman, how come you've chosen so badly who to follow?

[mai-universe]

literally yesterday i was thinking of an experiment/lab au but WHAT IS THE PLOT! AI THINK OF A PLOT RN!!!

[yourfingeronmytriggers]

Ok maybe I'm obsessing a little bit I just noticed something else interesting.

When Cooper is watching his old film at the SD Mart, lost in his reminiscing, he imitates his character in the infamous scene he struggled with so much due to the sheriff killing for the first time. And when he does this he uses "finger guns"....except....

...Lucy took his trigger finger. And if you look closely you see the moment he realizes and snaps out of his daze to regard it thoughtfully. Just for a fraction of a second. You'd almost miss it, especially with the gloves on. But he VERY deliberately folds the empty gloved digit in half, emphasizing its absence further.

What do you think he is thinking in that moment?

Personally, I can't ignore the potential symbolism behind the juxtaposition of these two pivotal moments in his life. The way he watches his former, *human* self in the very scene that transitions him from the lawful sheriff to a darker character (one who kills), foreshadowing the loss/reshaping of his moral compass. Yet simultaneously becomes distracted by the loss of the very thing that represented that spiral: his trigger finger.

When he loses Barb he loses faith in the goodness of both himself and others. His world literally falls apart and everything boils down to the bottom line of the wasteland: kill or be killed. You can't trust anyone. It's becomes an inevitably etched in the stone of his heart.

But now he's met Lucy and she's surprised him. Made him question things. This woman for all her naivety and sheltered way of life did not react as he assumed she would. Instead, she proved strong enough to survive while managing to hold on to a part of herself she deemed important.

And maybe, just maybe the loss of one thing could gain him another in the future? Perhaps Lucy will help reshape his outlook once more. Restore his faith in a faithless world.

Does losing that vital piece of himself and quite literally having Lucy fill its absence portend things to come?

What do you think?

I don't know about you but I'm here to drink up every last drop of the dark romanticism being served up in their pairing, whatever the future holds for them.

[bailadeluna]

there’s something so brilliant in cooper howard’s costume design - it’s so much more than just a simple blue and gold cowboy fit.

at the beginning of the show, before the bombs dropped, cooper howard was a good person - always kind to others despite the circumstances or how he was feeling in the moment.

you could say… he was exemplifying the golden rule.

this is evident in his costuming - cooper is decked out in gold even when the bombs dropped. the golden rule is still so close to his heart - i mean come on - look at how tight that bandana is around his neck.

even in certain lighting, his hat looks gold.

cooper howard being a good person and living by the golden rule is what barb probably fell in love with (she has her own interesting character analysis and thought process which i would love to discuss later). because this trait is so admired by her and those around cooper, she probably saw him as who she would hope future generations would become as they grow up in the vaults. people like him are the better future she envisions - so it’s no coincidence that the vault suit is in his colors.

what does the blue symbolize?

well, to me, i think it’s the corporate presence in the world. there’s more blue in the suit than there is gold - hinting at vaultech’s corporate greed, capitalism, and evil machinations. (there was also blue in his old cowboy costume - i.e. the presence of the studio and how they use cooper to push a mccarthyism narrative. kinda in the same way vaultech will use him)

the blue in the suit - symbolizing vaultech’s overwhelming presence and the reason for such a bleak and cruel world - does not swallow up the gold - the small semblance of humanity’s capacity to do and be good. it’s the small hint at barb’s intentions (analogous to the road to hell being paved with good intentions).

yet the man who was an inspiration for vaultech’s workers - the man who they all wished they could be like, the man who symbolized all the “do good” ideas they pass down to their children but in the end have no intention of following them (wink wink, looking at you, hank) - was in the end stripped of all his humanity by the world vaultech created (wow, would you look at that? another analogy for capitalism!)

this man, once rich in morals now robbed of them all, wanders the wasteland a ghoul. everything has been taken from him - symbolized being devoid of layers of skin.

now, he’s nothing but the ghost of the man he once was - haunted by what has been done. everything he wears as the ghoul is frayed, tattered, and dark - symbolizing that cooper howard, that kind and caring man before the bombs is dead.

but wait - is that…

you don’t see it? Ok, i’ll zoom in some more

GOLD? (perhaps even the same shirt he was wearing during the bomb drop??)

perhaps the golden rule, those values that he once held so dearly, are still there just dormant - waiting to be awaken again.

maybe cooper howard can come back… that just maybe there’s still hope for the good in humanity…

[idliketobeatree]

dead boy detectives characters as art objects and sculptures; extended ---

hello, i remembered i made some subjective explanations and notes on few of my choices for this post, and i thought some folks might enjoy it. soo let's get into it.

1.

monty finch

author: anders krisár

pretty self-explanatory; it's a moulded male torso with visible inprints on its skin.

anders krisár’ artistry explores the themes of loss, separation, and the condition of the psyche through the lens of a human body in duality: perfectionism meets unsettlement, skin meets marble and bronze and polyester, to create sculptures spanning geological time far beyond the living's capabilities.

monty's creation by esther was already stripped of any human agency. "he was made a boy, not a person", small, almost doll-sized, with a singular purpose: to seduce and entice the chosen dead boy into their doom. the naked skin and specifically the position of its arms are mildly erotic, but in a way that makes your skin crawl. the imprints are intimate, placed possesive; notice the thumbs digging close to especially sensitive areas like nipples and the belly button.

the latter seems to connect the "creator" to the subject, the navel here as a symbol of cruel, invasive motherhood. the fact that the torso is cut off in the middle and at the neck furthers the uncanny valley feeling of a young male body, but then again. this is a realistic portrayal. so was it ever a person? what does it have inside to make dents so profound? how deep you can press until it breaks?

--- i'm leaving out crystal and edwin (for now?), but @nicheoverhere brilliantly noticed that it was the same author for both. that was intentional! because glen martin taylor is all about taking kintsugi, which is a beautiful art form of repairing fine china and generally delicate things with veins of precious metals, but with materials like— nails. scissors. barbed wire. all ugly. the repair after a great shattering is seldom pretty after all, they really are similar in this regard. ---

2.

charles rowland

author: robert hudson

okay, strap in. this funky dreamy world belongs to robert hudson, and i picked it for charles rowland because it's all first impressions. the colours? the composition? they give you the 80s vibes, almost; like something a kid would design if you asked them what a time machine would look like. it could probably move in several ways. the pieces seem mismatched, but hold themselves together surprisingly well. or maybe you underestimate it?

it's neither big nor small. you can't tell its size at all. it's a bit overwhelming to look at, at first, and at second, and after a while, but it carries that comfortable familiarity and nostalgia for— well, nothing in particular, because the longer you look, the sadder its past seems. the bold pops of contrasting colour are fighting for your attention. they want you to like it! and yet, the major material seems to be just. rusted steel. made from tools.

and look at that botched up sphere, it wants so badly to be a perfect sphere and it knows it'll never be one. fine!! perhaps it could be a football ball instead! or maybe a head. if you close your eyes, that is. and this facing-up horseshoe? a lucky charm, made to collect good luck and keep it from falling out cause god, it needs it.

---

3.

niko sasaki

author: justin cloud

---

niko sasaki, now how do i describe her? let's start by saying— she's cleary a her. this one is a she. and there's something to be said about blooming, and femininity, and delicacy, because pink is a hopeful girly colour and a surprise and a delight.

what are you doing in a gallery, little flower, shouldn't you be at home? in a field? look how pretty you are! mind you, of course there's something wrong with her as well, but you're not sure if that is because someone messed it up, or because of a different entity alltogether. was it always half-electric? its elegance seems purposeful— the iridescent metal fits all too well with the white-pink petals— but also uncanny. and oh suddenly you can't stop looking at the stigma from which a pollen should release aaany time now.

when i look at her, at her black artificial stem and the small leaves imitating the real ones, i wonder if she doesn't want to lure me into a trap. is it her fault?

the beautiful petals seem like the only thing left real of the flower. whichever way she turns, it will probably mean— death. and flowers are ephemeral. what is a flower mounted to a wall, fortified with steel, connected with cables and enfused with electrical energy, then?

i think she's a self-preserving survivor. ---

4.

the night nurse

author: elizabeth turk

---

now. the night nurse.

of course it's the only piece in the collection where the background needed to be dark. no one here is older than her. there is no inoffensive, fading-into-background white for this absolute pillar of truth. or maybe something like a totem, quite protective in nature. and it's terrifying, 'cause you're immediately hit with the feeling that you're looking at something out of this realm, something you're not supposed to witness. the perspective is all wrong. is it downwards or upwards? why does it seem unstable when the pieces are so perfectly centered and seemingly well-balanced? child, you should calm down, it's not like you will destroy it with a stronger puff of air. will you?

this sculpture is called "tipping point — echoes of extinction", and it's actually a mix of technology and sculpture and sound, with elegant visualizations of the lost voices of birds and sea mammals. the author said it "was conceived in reverence to the astounding lives the species which envelop humans have lived and the mysterious ways they have contributed to our well-being. the shadows of their memory, whether a shape or a sound, have inspired this project." so the piece deals with death. moreover, it deals with murder. it records the harsh reality and makes sure the ones that suffered horribly at the hands of humans are, in a way, celebrated. but also— categorised. like epitaphs. the birdsong, once a living sign, is only visually represented by the lines of varying lenghts in 3D, and you can do nothing about it anymore, right, you can't bring back the dead, you can't help the innocent dying in any way other than— stacking them on top of each other and moving on.

---

so that's for now, i might someday write more if anyone's curious. :")

[tbhwhocaresanymore]

“This is probably not a standard transitioning procedure but I’m going to cut his neck in half.” *sawing sounds*

“I wasn’t sure how to make them, so like a responsible adult, I left this problem for last.”

“I want her expression to say ‘oh you poor creature. I don’t care.’”

If any of the above quotes made you laugh, consider taking a trip over to YouTube and visiting my favorite channel

Enchanterium✨✨

It’s two sisters, Alex and Barb, doing doll customization. As someone who has never customized a doll in my life I find their channel FASCINATING.

Alex used to be a henna artist and her main job is giving the dolls new faces and hair styles and occasional body modifications.

Barb is an engineer going for her phd and a seamstress, who sews teeny tiny doll clothes. She’s also a talented 3D print designer who makes robot gauntlets, space ships, and a functional doll sized flame thrower.

They do all sorts of dolls! Redesigns of popular characters like Team Rocket or the Totally Spies girls, and their own original characters. If you want to check them out here’s three good starting options.

This is actually their second most popular video, it’s part of a collaboration where they all made a member of a space ship crew. Enchanterium made Tzula, the medic, who is also an alien cow. Backstory in video.

The girls were a big fan of the Winx Club show when they were younger, and now each Halloween they reimagine a winx character as their darker self, kind of like what Fate tried to do and failed miserably at. Enchanterium DOES NOT FAIL.

You can see a sneak peek of this one when I talk about Alex, it’s one of my favorite of their zodiac videos. They design the Cancer symbol as a high school student with crab legs growing out of her face because why not lol.

Anyway GO WATCH ENCHANTERIUM! The sisters are hilarious, and talk a lot in Polish, and create the most kickass dolls you’ve ever seen, and I need more people to talk about them so I’m blazing my first ever post. Hope to see some of you in the comments ✨

[devondespresso]

FINALLY

after NINE. HOURS. (NOT including meals and sleep) ITS FUCKING DONE.

A complete floorplan of the entire Harrington house. Including too much thought about random, throw-away lines from characters and squint-to-see-it background glimpses inside.

plently of stuff in the actual house is altered or straight up ignored in favor of following the fiction logic and because I Wanted To. A lot of this is motivated by my headcanons for the Harringtons and how I'm writing them in my fic, but I'm also certainly not an architect so it's by no means perfect. It is, however, unreasonably canon compliant in the few bits we do see.

Thought Process (for context):

the darker shaded floor areas are lower than the rest, some bits like the garages having stairs and some areas like the sun and dining rooms list being like a step lower. Windows are marked with dashes along the outside, sliding doors are two thin lines slightly overlapping, stairs change color as they diverge from the level we're looking at, and furniture is eyeballed so don't look to closely a the scale.

not all closets are labeled, just the ones i figured could be confusing. Steve and the guest rooms have closets i promise.

the laundry room and pantry are not the same size but by the time i noticed i was exhausted. so pretend they're both more reasonably sized.

i don't know what the floorplan symbol for garage door is and then i forgot to look so the headlights point to where the doors are and you can see them clearly in photos so yeah.

The general layout is based on the idea that the Harringtons are or were into hosting dinner parties and business meetings in their home, especially as a young rich couple looking for respect in their circles (Mr. Harrington taking on his father's business and reinforcing that power, Mrs. Harrington climbing her own social ladder and building an image).

So the house is laid out with hosting areas towards the right with the office big and near the dining room because it's more than just a workplace, it represents him as a businessman. In canon the entryway and living room both have very high ceilings and no second-floor above them, so I'd imagine they're also aware of how the top floor looks from below, hence the fancy double/french doors to the master bedroom which is in plain view from below. Steve's room and the guest room are's nearly as visible.

As for the kitchen and sun/pool rooms, I see them more as secondary hosting areas that aren't used as the main location most of the time and are more this background setting to these events that still feel rich. The kitchen is massive and mostly for dinner-parties and Mrs. Harrington's social events.

The kitchen and main bathroom's placement is based on a line Steve said to Barb giving her directions to the bathroom: "down past the kitchen, to the left". With the massive living room on the left and wanting to keep the dining and office close by, i interpreted the "to the left" part being like "find the kitchen, then turn left". And with the rest of the area being open-concept, the bathroom would be the only normal door over there and easy to find. it's a bit of a stretch with just that line, but it makes sense to me with the rest of the context for the layout.

the basement is similar to this, though not as openly displayed so I imagine its for slightly closer friends. Theres a garage door down there so I figured Mr. Harrington might have a cool car he shows off, like he's letting people in on a personal detail about himself. There's also a guest room down there (the only one still considered 100% for guests, more on that later) for those people.

beside the basement garage, there was originally one main garage that holds two cars, obvious Mr. and Mrs. Harrington's cars. I imagine they bought the house before having kids, so a third one wasn't on the mind but after having Steve they added the front one (either turning the carport into a closed garage or they never had a carport and added a whole new addition, up to you)

Both garages lead to the same part of the house, and that area is the only one besides the water heater room that is purely function over effect. It still looks good like the rest of the house but it's not made to be fancy because guests would rarely need to be over there if at all and it's not noteworthy from other parts of the house.

In my headcanon, Steve's room used to be a guest room, staying his room from nursery to present with Mrs. Harrington renovating every now and then. Its one of those places in the house that doesn't have to look perfect for all to see, so she gets creative and has fun with it.

The upstairs guest room is also unofficially Mrs. Harrington's room, based on a line where Tommy mentions a fireplace in "his mom's room" instead of "guest room" or "parent's room" or "master bedroom". I belatedly realized this could be a solidarity thing with Steve hating his dad and calling the master bedroom his mom's room, but that was after 9 hours of this and im not changing it but there you go. In this version, I imagine she leaves the master some nights because her marriage with Mr. Harrington is failing (cheating and all, I wouldn't want to be in the same bed with someone who cheated either)

the master bathroom was an executive decision, just looking at the house in canon and not having enough space in my first attempts, i decided the triangle roof part above the dining and office could fit a master bathroom.

Feel free to use or reference this in your own fics! Feel free to block out my furniture or walls and make your own version. If you share my image please credit with an @ mention!! (again, 9 hours) (thank you fhalsfhd)

[inkyquince]

anyway, durge having weird ritual blood sex with gortash. Shout out to @angrelysimpping who sent the prompt from the sex magic book they were reading because we're both insane.

characters. lord enver gortash :3

content warning. dark urge reader. pre-tadpole era. gortash being viciously down bad, because he's very willing to have sex with durge while they're covered in blood and being watched by the cultists. exhibitionism. blood play. gore mention, along with murder. 2.6k words.

"Howerever, he also added a powerful dose of Tantrism by suggesting that magical work should be conducted in the nude, with the ritual use of a flail, and that rites should be led by a High Priest and High Priestess who would literally or symbolically couple at the climax of certain rituals." The Book Of English Magic, Carr-Gomm. P. 

Gortash was not one to be summoned. Summoned, sent for, demanded to show up with haste at the whim of someone else. While he might schmooze with the Duke and hastily head over when Ravengard demands him to come talk, he is a man not to be controlled and demanded things of. 

But you always were such a delicious thorn in his side. While others, like Thorm, would try to pry it out, getting their fingers bloodied as they struggled to grip onto it, Gortash relished the sting that came with every movement. The ache, the soreness of the skin struggling to reject the barb, the trickle of blood leaking down his side. He adored it. The cushy life he led in Baldur’s Gate had softened his skin, despite the sulfur of the hells soaked into it. You were refreshing. A tinge of pain that was inflicted on him in the House of Hope by the boatload, except this time, the claws that had raked down his back as a punishment had turned into something deeply pleasurable for him. 

So when you sent for him, he’d never dream of keeping you waiting. Your letter mentioned something about needing his help with a ritual of Bhaal’s, so while he was looking forward to seeing you, he was quietly hoping that you weren’t about to blood sacrifice him or something. It would put a damper on the plans you two shared. 

Gortash knows the path down to Bhaal’s temple well enough by now. He almost basked in it, enjoying the looks the other worshippers would shoot him as he made his way down, some questioning, some openly hostile and a select few viciously jealous. But this journey down was different. No stray cultists, whispering about guts and garroting. No weird little butler scuttling after him. 

Nothing.

Except when the chanting reaches his ears. 

The low, rhythmic voices, all whispering, all culminating into something strange, something wrong, something that makes the hair on his neck stand up on end. Gods, he really hopes he isn’t a sacrificial lamb here. He refuses to spurn an invitation from you, so he continues down, down, down, the chanting getting louder, louder, louder. 

Entering the main sanctum, he finally sees all. Bhaalists crowding all the stairs leading down to the platform with the sacrificial altar, with no sign of you. Just a deep, dark, pool of blood, big enough for someone to swim in. Even more worrying. 

His presence didn’t go unnoticed. The cultists were already parting for him to make his way through, and closing in behind him, barring him from exiting. The whispers quietened for just a second before resuming, even louder as he was prodded, like cattle to continue down. Before too long he stood on the platform, his palms itching. Just when he was about to demand answers, the chanting stopped, the disconcerting whispers cutting off into dead silence immediately. 

The blood in the pool quivered and a body breached the liquid, coated in a deep, slippery crimson. 

Fuck. 

Gortash always knew you were sublime in red. But you were completely covered. Dripping blood as you step out of the pool, you don’t even push away the blood painting your face, not when you open your eyes and focus on him. 

The entire room seemed to drink you in, your naked form, glazed with the very essence your father urged you to spill. It was only a few seconds of silence before the chanting resumed, but it was different this time. As if the previous whispering had been a chorus of begging, for you to emerge, but now? It was a demand, for the ritual to resume, for it to be completed, to taint the room further. 

All the air in Gortash’s lungs had stilled, but when you came closer, it rushed out all at once. Your naked form was always deeply divine to him, no matter how many times he bedded it. While he paid for his whores and some married ladies adorned his bed, he often got tired of them, seeing them as run through, and no longer exciting. But you? Fuck. Hells, even your bloodied, nude form was already getting him hard. 

“Sorry for the vague invitation.” You murmur, as if you two were at a soiree that he just got the invitation for. “Needed someone for this and I don’t think Thorm can get it up at his age.” 

Gortash’s lips twitch, but your bloodied fingers curling around his wrist silenced his snarky retort. Nothing to say, not when you lead him to the altar. 

“What-” 

You hushed him, pressing a finger against his lips and leaving a crimson mark in its wake. 

“Don’t worry. Just a ritual for each decade that passes. Better me than Sarevok, believe me, even if he has run out of his own spawn to give daughters to.” You roll your eyes but push him back, against the altar, forcing him down as you straddle him, staining his clothes. 

He’ll never throw them out. 

The altar was no soft bed, and while he wasn’t a squeamish man, the strong smell of blood was clouding his head. It was at this angle, that he noticed the cuts along your side, looking like marks made by a flail, even though the blood you were drenched in weren’t from your own injuries. Even the dozens of eyes trained on the two of you, there was a delicious string of excitement, pulling his spine taut and tight. 

Gortash was no Bhaalist, not when he followed Bane, so while he was no stranger to certain rituals, he was unused to ones of this… Variety. He made a note to himself that he should read up on them, just in case he was about to have a Bhaalspawn of his own somehow. Not that there has never been an attempt to baby trap him in the past, but this was… Different. 

You, naked and bloodied, on top of him with wild, dark eyes, the chanting of some, excuse his phrasing, cultist weirdos echoing in his ears. The only thought his mind could form as you dragged your hand over his lips, down his throat, was that if this was a ritual purely for Bhaal, he did hope He wasn’t aware that he was the one getting hard underneath his favorite spawn. 

But that seemed to be the point. You gave him a dangerous smile, blood slipping in between your lips and staining your teeth, similar to when you’d bite him during sex and come away with crimson painting your tongue. As per usual, you had no patience for his belt, instead opting to barely loosen it and slip his trousers down enough for his cock to spring free. Thank the Gods he had, a self admittedly fat, “pretty” cock. Though, he doubts if he didn’t, you wouldn’t have bothered with him beyond your first tryst. But being humiliated in front of the dagger happy zealots was not high on his list of priorities. 

His busy mind screeched to a halt as you slowly began to pump his cock, even as he was hard as hells. Your touch, even just a nudge or your fingers brushing, felt like lightning, like something otherworldly was deigning to caress his very mortal skin. Your eyes, so delicious and darkened drank in his expression, his slow, shallow breaths as you continued to practically fucking play with him, like a mouse under your claw. 

“Don’t tease me.” He murmured, low and throaty, just for the two of you and you just smiled your wicked grin. 

Instead of heeding his request, you leaned down, as if to press a kiss to his chapped lips, and he raised his head to meet your kiss, but instead of something soft, he felt your teeth bite down. Splitting his bottom lip and letting his own blood trickle into your mouth. Even with just a few seconds of your lips against his even with the pain of being bitten, he missed it the second you pulled away. You firmly pushed him back down, but the ache from slamming his head against the stone altar was muted, when you refused to let up on massaging his cock, the pleasure seeping into his veins like poison. 

“Fuck.” He hissed through his teeth, wanting to lean his head back and shut his eyes, but there was something deeply magnetic lingering in your eyes that made it impossible for him to ever look away. 

You yourself slowly grinded against his thigh, enjoying the way the Chosen of Bane squirmed like a rodent caught in a trap. Shame he was such a charming rodent, one that nosed against your ear and chittered oh so invitingly. Your older brother hated the scurrying little things so, he used to take you aside as a child, and whisper to you exactly how to catch them, and then make them squeal. But this rodent, with his nice dark coat and fiendish eyes, the one who squirms so nice in your hand? He seems a bit too cute to crush. 

Especially with the way he was panting low and hard, his tongue dragging over his teeth. Blood smeared over his mouth and chin, and his clothes were stained similarly. Delicious. 

“Just let me fuck you already.” He gritted his teeth, his fingers digging into your bare, bloodied thighs. 

“Oh, that’s cute.” You murmured, low and heady in the way he adores so, at least in his room with the servants sent home for the day. You felt his cock twitch in your hand at the tone. “This is about restraint. Submission.” 

Gortash hissed through his teeth again, but said nothing, just drank the sight of you in. You finally took pity, with his hungry, desperate eyes that you usually only saw at the meetings, with maps strewn across the table, as he talked about the plans for the future. It’s also a look that he used to give you when you two first met. Raising your hands to his lips and kissing the knuckles, eyes boring into you. It’s a look that grew in intensity each time you met, until the night he got you alone finally, dragging his hand greedily over your side as he leaned in to kiss your throat. You’d thought it would end up diminishing but it never did. It quietened at times, but he had the look of an addict waiting for his next fix. 

Finally shifting up, you pressed his leaking cockhead against your hole. Enver could feel it slicked with blood, but his mind raced with thoughts about you getting ready for the ritual, writing out the letter inviting him down as you slowly fingered yourself, lubed up to your knuckles and imagining him. Or Thorm, since apparently he was also an option. Thank the Gods that the sight of you dipped head to toe in blood was far more arousing than that intrusive thought, otherwise he might have gone soft. No doubt if you two were ever having sex and he lost his erection, you’d butcher him right then and there. 

No, just his cockhead slipping inside of you had him struggling to concentrate, the chanting beginning to rise in volume again. Gortash couldn’t even figure out the words, it just made his head spin. 

You just watched him try to breathe slowly and evenly as you enjoyed the feeling of his cock twitching inside of you before you slammed your hips down, making him bottom out inside of you. His cock was your favorite, no doubt about it. Out of all the ones you’ve seen, flaccid and puckered in death as your followers stripped them of their belongings, hard and ready for the select lovers you picked out, unaware that they were bedding a spawn of Bhaal, his remained the best. Maybe it was because he was one of the few madmen ready to stick their dick in the God of Murder’s child, maybe it was because it was curved in a way that hit just right deep inside of you. Or maybe he was one of the few men that had the talent to back up their bragging mouth. 

Gortash couldn’t help but thrust upwards, into you, basking in the whorish sounds of your moans. Your fingers dug into the section of his exposed chest, beginning to ride him in earnest, as if there weren't the cultists watching without heat to their eyes, as if watching you do your daily chores. Wasn’t exactly a turn on, Enver thought grimly, though if you would just let him finally take you to the brothel and allow at least the prostitutes to admire the amazing work you two put into having disgustingly dirty sex. 

You rode him roughly, just watching as he struggled to look away from you, his own blunt nails digging into your thighs even more, as if trying to make sure to keep you there. Blood coated his cock as he thrusted up into you the wet slapping of skin against crimson glazed skin echoing throughout the room, the chanting drowning out your shared sighs and moans. 

Fuck, it felt too good. He was dying to fondle your chest, pinch your nipples till they were all sore and puffy and so cute. The only downsides that he could only be half sure that you wouldn’t cut off his hand for touching anywhere other than your perfect fucking thighs. The blood was slowly drying on you, the glimmering sheen giving way to a dark matte look, pieces flaking off. You looked fucking perfect. 

Gortash was clinging onto the edge, concentrating on not cumming before you did, but you wouldn’t be one of his favorite pieces of ass if you couldn’t see through him as if he was made of glass. With a nasty smirk, you leaned down again, mid bounce and kissed him right on the mouth, swearing the blood from his bitten lip. It was too much at that point. He was not some virgin who came from kissing, but fuck. Fuck. 

He arched his back, pressing his cock deep inside of you as he came, filling you up till it began to drip out, along your bloodied thighs. You sighed, low and soft, tensing up around him to the point the poor fuck was seeing stars. The chanting slowly eased off into the casual hum of conversation, as you slowly slipped the Lord out of you, letting his cum spill out freely. 

The cultists dispersed among themselves and back into the alternating halls as Gortash slowly regained his breath and sat up. 

“A little head’s up would have been greatly appreciated.” He grumbled, hiking his trousers back up and tucking his softening cock away. 

“And miss out on the chance of you chickening out?” 

“I’d never.” He finally sat up and watched as the cum slipped down your legs to the floor, mixing with the blood to make a soft pink color. “... But if I did fail to show, any particular person you’d have picked?” 

“Probably would have grabbed a random guy. Like the one who loves to skin people while they’re dying.” 

Gortash quietly made a note to have that certain one jailed for some other thing as you stretched and glanced back at him. 

“I need company as I bathe.” 

You, of course, would never ask him to give you company as you washed yourself of all the blood and cum, but who was he to say no to such an appealing command? 

[therainscene]

speaking of your famous rod phallus theory, what do you think of the gooey tentacle that comes out of the mind flayer's demogorgon mouth in s3? its dripping, oozing, its like the puberty metaphor for s3 but also very phallic and invasive. if the monsters are all manifestations of will's sexuality etc, could this be an additional rod symbol? or symbolic of rape etc? the whole s3 billy villain setup is very evocative of serial killers/rapist/abuser behaviour ('keep quiet' etc).

Hi anon, thanks for the ask!

The Flesh Flayer tentacle strikes me as a possible Alien reference -- very consistent with the sexual horror vibes of the Upside Down, which is also lousy with Alien references.

However, my phrasing in the rod analysis aside, I wouldn't go so far as to say that the monsters are manifestations of Will's sexuality, per se.

Rather, they're manifestations of toxic 80s attitudes towards non-conformist sex -- which has obvious implications for the visibly gay kid, but straight (or "straight") characters deal with sexual horror in this show too:

Nancy had conformist sex with Steve while Barb was left all alone where the Demogorgon could get her -- and was quickly slut-shamed as punishment for drifting away from that conformity in order to investigate what really happened. (To say nothing of the guilt that's been haunting her for four seasons.)

Mike largely manages to avoid the horrors, but I think it's notable that he has a few close calls in S3, all of which are associated with protecting El -- almost as though he's unhappy about performing traditional masculinity for El's sake as sexual maturity looms on his horizon or something, I dunno, I'm sure it's nothing

Billy has sex with a lot of women, but note the homoerotic tension between him and Steve in S2 -- he likes the feeling of power it gives him to sexually intimidate other men. This doesn't necessarily make him queer, mind -- the point is that he views sexuality as a tool for control and power, which makes him a perfect conduit for the horrors.

So yeah, the Flesh Flayer tendril isn't one of Will's rods -- but you're definitely not misreading the phallic symbolism there.

[thatsrightice]

As the snow fell on the countryside of Norfolk a very good thing came to the Squadron. Major Gale W. Cleven came back from the other side and sat with his men again.

The Major, who had gone down on the 8th of October, 1943, came back. He had gone down on his twentieth mission with a tremendous record of achievement and glory behind him. When he had gone down he had taken with him the heart of the Squadron as well. All the months that had slipped by since he had languished behind the barbed wire of German camps. Now he came home to us. A little thinner and a little harder—but home.

The men were satisfied and happy. And the men who had come after his disappearance had heard the fabulous tales of his legend so when he came back, they met him with interest, with speculation. Then they were glad and satisfied, too.

He hadn't changed so very much. He was a little quieter but, maybe, that was because at frst there were so many people around that he did not know. He held an impromptu session out on the grassy plot behind the supply room, talking with the men, telling what he could. They just sat in the grass and looked up at him, welcoming him gratefully with their eyes. He met everyone. It seemed as though everyone wanted to meet Cleven. The legend of his exploits had grown. He had become a symbol of the days of the first of the many. He was still very much the warrior. He was still very much the shy and diffident character when it came to being lionized, too.

—Jack Sheridan in his book, They Never Had It So Good: The Personal, Unofficial Story of the 350th Bombardment Squadron (H), 100th Bombardment Group (H) USAAF, 1942-1945

[corvidpolyglot]

fully insane abt torog rn after watching downfall. i think a cleric of his would be fun as hell to play, especially if it ends up being a mirror to the wildmother; people think of pain as something negative, but you cannot have growth or change without pain. having a holy symbol that hurts to hold, that is covered with barbs... phenomenal stuff. zaharzht was a phenomenal character thank you so much brennan lee mulligan and taliesin jaffe for that scene with him and melora

[misc-obeyme]

Remade

Happy birthday, Barbatos!!

Listen, I don't normally do things for character birthdays because there are a lot of them and I just don't usually have time. But this one worked out. I had the idea for this a while back, so I just went ahead and wrote it today. Plus this guy is my all time fave, so you know.

I still need to get Barb's birthday card... all my pulls so far have been useless, but I will keep trying because WHAT. It's so gorgeous and I can't handle him. ETA- I managed to get him finally!

Right so enjoy this fluff for my true love's birthday. It might've turned out kinda cheesy, but I still like it lol.

Barbatos x GN!MC

Warnings: minor injury

Whenever you came to the Demon Lord's Castle for tea, your favorite teacup was always waiting for you on the table. Even if it didn't match the set that Barbatos was using that day, your teacup was there, in case you wanted to use it instead. And you always did. Because you thought of that teacup as yours.

It wasn't, not really. It was one of the many teacups that Barbatos had in his collection. You didn't know where it came from or why he had it. It didn't seem to be part of a set and you had never asked him where he got it.

You had been in the kitchen when you saw it the first time, sitting by itself on a shelf among teacups that had others it belonged with. This teacup sat alone, with not even a matching saucer.

That afternoon you had been helping Barbatos make the tea, though you weren't really doing a whole lot. Mostly you were just puttering around the kitchen while he did all the work. You were used to this, though. Anytime you tried to really help he always distracted you with some menial task. You knew what he was doing, so eventually you just gave up and kept him company instead.

So you were looking at the shelf of teacups and noticed this one all by itself. You took it from the shelf and told Barbatos that you wanted to use it that day.

Barbatos didn't question you. He only smiled and brought the cup to the table when the tea was ready.

You asked for that particular teacup the next handful of times you came over, but you didn't need to ask anymore after that. Barbatos always had the cup on the table for you from then on.

Just as you never asked him where it came from, so Barbatos never asked you why you liked it so much.

The truth was that it reminded you of his tail. The way it was bright teal around the rim and faded to black at the base. Even the handle curved out in a little fork. It was like if Barbatos himself ever became a teacup, this is what he would look like.

You wondered if it was custom made that way on purpose. If some teacup maker somewhere had been so taken with Barbatos's tail that they made a teacup to look like it.

You thought about asking him, but you also thought he would have told you by now if it was something he wanted to talk about. Barbatos had a lot of secrets. Maybe this was one of them.

Still, it meant something to you that he always put it out for you. He didn't seem to be bothered that your favorite teacup, the one you considered yours, looked so much like his tail. You sometimes wondered what it meant, if the cup symbolized something neither of you had yet managed to say.

That day you were sipping tea out of your cup as usual. Normally there were others at these gatherings, but the few people who were supposed to be there with you had other things come up at the last minute. So it was just you and Barbatos sitting at the table. You watched him as you sipped your tea. He seemed just as relaxed and content as he always did.

Barbatos was sitting next to you rather than across from you, both of you slightly away from the table and turned toward each other.

"Is this a new blend?" you asked, holding the teacup in your hands.

Barbatos inclined his head. "Yes, I made it myself. Do you like it?"

You had noticed the hints of your favorite flavors in the blend. "It's delicious. Did you… ?"

You found you couldn't bring yourself to ask, too nervous that the answer might not be what you were thinking.

Barbatos chuckled. "I combined several of your favorites. Not all of them work well together, so this is only a selection. I thought it might be a unique flavor for you to try."

You smiled and shook your head. You shouldn't have doubted him. "No wonder I love it."

"I will make it for you any time you like," Barbatos said.

Every day, you wanted to say. Let me sit beside you like this every day.

You weren't paying attention to how you were holding your cup, your eyes focused on Barbatos's face. The cup tilted and some tea splashed out onto your hand. It was still quite hot and you yelped from the pain, dropping the teacup.

Both of you went to catch the cup at the same time, colliding with each other and missing it entirely.

You were practically holding hands as you watched it crash to the ground, breaking into several large pieces.

You gasped and clutched at Barbatos's hands. "My teacup! Oh, Barbatos, I'm so sorry!"

"It's all right, MC," Barbatos said, holding onto you for a moment before pulling your burned hand toward him so he could inspect it. "Are you all right? That tea was still quite hot."

His calm reaction helped you to settle a little, but you were still upset about the shattered teacup at your feet. "I'm fine," you said, your voice shaky. "It's fine. I'm more upset about the cup."

Barbatos looked up at you, rubbing his thumb gently across the spot on your hand where the tea had burned you. "You needn't worry about that cup, MC. You have been burned. Come inside now and let me take care of it for you."

You didn't argue with him. You let him lead you back inside, briefly glancing over your shoulder at the forlorn pieces of your favorite teacup. Seeing them caused a pain to run through your heart and down into the pit of your stomach.

—

You were off for days. You kept thinking about the teacup, your burned hand, and Barbatos. He had brought you inside and helped to take care of your burn, but you didn't stay long. You were too distraught over the loss of your cup. Whether you had realized it or not, that teacup had become a physical representation of your feelings for Barbatos. Watching it break had broken your heart, even if it was only an inanimate object, even if it didn't truly represent your relationship with him. It felt so much like a warning, like an indication that you had made a mistake somewhere. It was your carelessness that had broken the cup, after all.

Everyone noticed your sorry state. Levi tried to distract you with video games, Luke brought over some of your favorite desserts that he had made, and Asmo painted your nails in your favorite color. Nothing seemed to help. You couldn't pull yourself out of the feeling of sadness you had sunken into.

You almost cried when Barbatos invited you over for tea again. It hadn't been that long since the teacup fiasco; only a handful of days had passed. You were surprised, but you agreed, hoping against hope that just being with him would be enough to lift you from the despair you were in.

Despite that hope, you were filled with a sense of dread as you went to the castle that evening. You ignored it as Barbatos let you in, smiling as he always did, seemingly undisturbed. He brought you out to the garden where the tea was already waiting.

The falling stars were especially beautiful that night and it made your heart ache to see them. You didn't fully understand until that moment that you were sure Barbatos was about to let you down gently. You didn't think he would reject you over a broken teacup, but the fact that you had broken it was an indication of all the things you questioned about yourself. And you were sure that Barbatos saw all your insecurities, every last one of your flaws. How could he accept them? He wouldn't. No more than you would accept a broken cup.

Barbatos had set up the chairs the way they had been that day and you sat down in your spot, eyes focused on your hands which you kept in your lap.

Barbatos didn't say anything as he poured you some tea.

And then you saw his hands come into your field of vision, holding the tea he had just poured, offering you the cup.

Your heart stopped.

It was your teacup.

You looked up at him, eyes wide, to find him already smiling at you.

"Are you familiar with the Japanese art of kintsugi, MC?" he asked gently.

You shook your head.

Barbatos raised the teacup to your eye level, so you could see it clearly. There were bright gold cracks all along the cup, as though someone had glued it back together with molten gold.

"Rather than throw away a broken object, it is remade in a way that shows where it has cracked," Barbatos said. "It is a representation of the history of that object, a celebration of the item's flaws. Your teacup will forever bear the memory of the moment it fell to the ground here and that makes it all the more beautiful, don't you think?"

You had to bite your lip to stop yourself from bursting into tears. The teacup looked even more like his tail now than it did before, the cracks reminiscent of the lines of brighter teal that ran though it. You reached out and took the teacup from his hands, letting your thumbs rub across the golden lines.

"Barbatos," you said, your voice barely above a whisper. You carefully lowered the teacup so that you could see his face clearly. "It's perfect."

"As are you, my love," Barbatos said, leaning over the teacup to kiss you.

And that was all you needed to hear to know that all along, Barbatos had realized how you felt and what you feared. The truth of his love sank into you, a solid and firm foundation that you knew could never break.

Always and forever after, Barbatos made sure that your teacup was on the table, should you choose to use it. Every time you held it in your hands, you felt the cracks filled in with gold, and knew that even flawed and broken things could be loved.

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[the-algid]

Darkthur's Collage!!

Kind of not a character but I have a playlist for him so he gets one. This is also the more fucked up parts of Arthur, Darkthur is just when those traits take over.

Playlist link, and reasonings below cut off

The painting, or paper cut out I'm not sure, is supposed to symbolize his transformation into something monstrous. No longer human anymore.

Those arms where supposed to be chained, but I couldn't find any, I do like the interpretation of freedom. Those are supposed to symbolize no matter which arm of Arthur's i cut off one of them is going to be trapped (especially in my interpretation/au)

The hands are reaching for a wolf's jaw because I think Darkthur reaches for violence for comfort. Don't have to worry about morals, if you're irredeemably fucked up, don't have to worry about real world problems if you kill first ask questions never.

The flesh man on the right, is supposed to symbolize his cannibalism, and cannibalistic instinct. This is mostly how Darkthur in my mind is also a representation of the traits that led Arthur to eat Faust.

A fuck ton of blood, since he is known for his violence, and murdering.

The gold blood is supposed to by ichor, the blood of the gods. In most Darkthur interpretations he chops of John's hand, making a god bleed. (in my interpretation/au the ichor is more metaphorical)

Footprints in the background to symbolize the stalking of an animal, he is a hunter.

A gun since that's the only weapon we know he canonically has used.

A knife since, it's a convenient weapon. You can reach for it easily, and it's in a kitchen. a Household weapon designed, and twisted fro violence.

A rusty axe, as a call back to the time a man cut off his own head with a rusty axe. Pure debauched violence

My interpretation/au (emphasis on AU since I don't think this would be canon) for Darkthur is that the arm is still John's. Somehow Arthur got right arm cut off. The difference for others Darkthur's is that he manipulates John to kill people. He promises John that if he kills this person, he'll get the Arthur he loved when they go to bed, or just next time they have a break. Is really is fuckde up toxic yoai in this one. (highkey inspired by In My Room by Insane Clown Posse)

The barbed wire is more sharp stuff, and it's meant to keep stuff out or in. Darkthur is probably more closed off, he doesn't let people in. He also might try to keep his violence inside.

[perfectfangirl]

notes after rewatching fallout s1 ep1

so once again like a crazy person [i've done this with star wars sequels before] i've decided to take three and half pages of notes over the course of an hour. i've been a fan of the games for at least a decade and i'm actually always watching lore content between the installments though so while i do know some minute details, within the show, there was some things i was interested in and curious about that i just decided to jot down. some of this may be things discussed already and some of it might be something i wasn't sure if anyone brought up before but anyways! maybe i'll do the whole season, but here's my ramblings • them titling the episode "the end" was when i knew i'd love the show • ok but i really wonder if cooper can still do those party tricks? he was really good at them and lucy would probably love them too 🥺 • thinking back, the radio in the first scene mentions not knowing where the president is--- beginning to wonder if he was the guy sitting in on the vault tec meeting • just realized they introduced the mr. handy robot in some of the first scenes • ten years of nuclear threat according to anchor but the show is careful not to give away all the cards because why does the weather anchor make it seem like they know when the bomb will drop? idk but birthday boy mother turns off tv real "head in the sand" like • the nat king cole song that's playing though [wondering if the song is mirroring specifically cooper's feelings about barb despite everything hmm] • horse's name is sugarfoot 🥹 • him having to pay alimony... wonder what the prenup? was like... [still think he probably loves barb 😞]

• them calling him a pinko despite him being an architect of vault boy's persona, a quintessential presentation of a "man's man" acting as a cowboy, a real cowboy, a former marine--- wondering if there was a smear campaign after his situation with barb and vault tec, him working children's parties leads me to believe... • did the kid's say the birthday boy's name was boyd? [if so, there's another character in the games with this name and this is also the name of a character walton has played in another series, funny] • weather man show's up again distressed, wondering if we'll get more info about that day • everyone ignoring, cognitive dissonancing their own nuclear annihilation is so prescient if not disturbing and damning

• him teaching janey the thumb thing ☹️ • cooper's voice when he says "let me see if i can't rustle you up a piece" 😩 • janey being the only one to notice the first bomb • the fear in cooper's eyes • cooper being in denial one last time before realization sets in • people becoming animals the moment they realize what's happening--- one guy punches his friend not letting his family into the fallout shelter • people getting into their cars and cooper onto his horse to escape--- wonder how fast they could be since it doesn't seem you could outrun nuclear annihilation

• lucy being raised so well under the circumstances 😔 [hope she never becomes her father] • i haven't trusted steph since episode one • lucy being a teacher [amongst other things] and asking maximus about what happened after the bombs fell makes so much sense [and also much like another person suggested is an interesting juxtaposition to cooper's pre war knowledge] • lucy showing how skilled she is for being a marriage candidate when in reality we are seeing someone fit for the wasteland is crazy on second watch • is lucy not watching a cooper howard movie with her dad? hello??

• them reading "war and peace" in the family book club is rich • lucy [thinking] she's not good at guns, ironic • steph having to step in like a sisterly type because lucy's mom isn't there 😞 • the wedding dress on lucy being ill fitting, tight as symbolism for lucy not truly "fitting in there" and being constrained [foreshadowing] oof • the vault boy sign in the back saying "don't lose your head" lmao • didn't catch the "cousin stuff" until someone mentioned it on tumblr and twitter 💀

• the flashback we see of lucy ending up being almost a false memory, a misrepresentation of her actual memories, that she has been on the surface, in the sun • norm taunting lucy about her future husband being "anybody" and a "cannibal, crammed full of tumours" 😭 unfortunately for ghoulcy, this was some of the heaviest foreshadowing [the raider also could have been one too] • why didn't hank recognize moldaver? • so many things i still don't understand about vaults 31, 32, 33 • the growing realization they are raiders was pretty funny to me lmao

• moldaver having to sit through the disingenuous lies of hank ugh • norm going into vault 32 like they wanted them to know what was up? or is that just how vault doors work? they used lucy's mom's pip boy [that hank lied about burying] • lucy putting norm in a storage vault, she really is so strong • the handed down wedding dress getting messed up • i am curious if the raiders [shady sands survivors?] only mostly harmed vault tec aligners but maybe not • the way hank and steph retaliating a little too well • hank acting like he doesn't know moldaver when everyone really does know moldaver • moldaver telling lucy she looks like her mother is really such a tipoff

• realizing maximus is getting bullied 😭 • dane... might love maximus a little idk • from latrine duty to basically ruling over the brotherhood of steel • they really showed some dude jacking it lmao it's just normal i guess 💀 • maximus being defeated and having a rightful outburst of emotion, poor guy • the poster saying "the outside world can never harm you"--- funny • chet would've died up there 😭 • them not opening the vault back up for her, wondering if the vapourized bodies are from the initial bomb drop or the subsequent shady sands ones • dane almost gets maximus killed three times tbh • maximus joined the brotherhood of steel to get back at what vault tec did, essentially hank's doing, hank has many enemies • knowing the enclave, it makes sense why siggi is hunted • cooper the ghoul's introduction though • the bounty hunter saying his captors dig cooper up every once in a while to cut pieces of flesh off him 😞 no wonder cooper acts the way he does 😔 he's been taken advantage of, no wonder he doesn't trust anybody and is horrible to everyone • "why is this an amish production of "the count of monte cristo" or the weirdest circle jerk i've ever been invited to?" why would he say this 😭 • cooper's... been invited to circle jerks 👀 • does the bounty hunter know the ghoul is cooper howard?

• him not harming the chicken, him healing dogmeat, there's something there, folks • people only digging him up to use him again 😞 • what a coincidence he's dug up just as lucy leaves the vault • "i do this shit for the love of the game" he's a character, he's playing a character, real theatre kid • hence why cooper is introduced as "the ghoul", cooper is long gone • "us cowpokes, we take it as it comes" something about this lineee

[henry-fox-biggest-stan]

Please bear with me this is a bit long and, quoting nance, a shot in the dark.

Portals and sexuality: what do they have to say?

This post is inspired by @givehimthemedicine's portals & vaginal imagery: Nancy as El's foil and csa in Hawkins Lab analysis, definitely read that before this

Basically it talks about the portals as vagina symbolism (which is not a new theory) and what exactly does this mean, specially for Nancy and El's characters. Now, portals exist as a way to get to the upside down, however one thing can mean several things in media, which makes it fun.

When reading their post I thought perhaps portals symbolising vaginas were a Nancy thing, a Nancy thing than has been conveniently used to hint/symbolise some things for El as well.

I mean, Nancy is the only character who's sex life is plot relevant and important. We have a whole scene of her losing her virginity, of barb dying during it and Nancy being traumatised, of the cops asking her about it and her angrily confessing it to her mom, her being called a slut, her sleeping with Jonathan in s2... No character's sex life has been such in the front, but that's cause hers is relevant to the plot.

And since part of the analysis focused on her, I just thought it was a nancy thing. Until they talked about Steve + robin (+ eddie) going through the gates in S4. Steve I could get, since he was also once involved in Nancy's sex life, in an important moment as well (her first ever sexual experience with a partner, and barbs death), just like they also talk about Jonathan and vaginal symbolism in the portals, related to nance. But robin? What does she have to do with it?

They wrote: "a lesbian and self-professing nonbeliever in a higher power, exclaims "oh, thank God! that was fun!" upon passing through. I'll just. ok. / she never looked afraid, but she did have a little trepidation in being the first to climb through, saying "guess I'm the guinea pig". interesting line to give to Robin, who could also be called a guinea pig in the sense of figuring out how to date girls in a conservative small town."

And I thought huh maybe the portals can show Nancy's (and El's) relationship with their sexuality and characters’ sexual attraction towards women (or, if they are women and attracted to men, their own relationships with their sexuality / puberty etc)

And then I thought: funny to think mike is the only character to not have went through one to go to the upside down, even tho he's super principal and has known about the supernatural plot far longer than robin or eddie.

But like, what if.

Before I start,

I focus a bit more on the gate at Eddie’s trailer because I feel like it’s one of the most obvious examples of vaginal imagery. I mean, when the teens find the gate while in the upside down, the gate is closed by some kind of membrane (reminding me of the way El sees the gate at the beginning of s2).

(The gate in Eddie’s trailer as seen by Nancy, Steve, Eddie, and Robin while in the upside down vs the gate in the school as seen by El while in the upside down)

To open the gate / the membrane, they have to poke the gate with a stick until they break it. Um, yeah.

And when the kids (Dustin, Lucas, Max, Erica) opened the gate with the stick, the first to approach and the only ones the camera pans to show the reaction of, are Nancy and Steve. Nancy and Steve who slept together in s1, Nancy who lost her virginity to Steve. You get it.

(Steve looking amazed vs Nancy not looking very impressed)

Also

Interesting to mention the older teens have interacted with gates or downright went through them faster than the party. What do I mean? Jonathan saw a gate and Nancy went through the same gate in s1. The party hadn’t even seen a gate until the end of s1, when el killed (?) the demogorgon. Meanwhile Robin appeared and saw a gate all the same season, and Eddie appeared and went through a gate all the same season, while we have Michael here since s1, not even seeing one.

However, by s5 all of the party will already have interacted with gates (Mike included) and in s5 they will be the same age as the teens were in s1. Something something if portals / gates are sexual imagery something something growing up and puberty (as seen in s3 which is the season where they start to interact with gates, most of them. S3 which is extremely focused in growing up and puberty). In s2 they go to the tunnels but that’s not the upside down that’s still part of Hawkins. However it’s a step further, shows they are growing up, maturing, just a bit.

Now yes,

Dustin

Dustin saw a gate for the first time I think in s3 ep 5, the Russian gate at starcourt and his reaction is pretty average, just surprise like “I can’t believe the Russians have got a gate” which is a pretty understandable reaction.

As I mentioned before, the gate in Eddie’s trailer had some kind of membrane that had to be broken with a stick. Guess who was the one holding the stick. Dustin.

Idk if you can see it well in that screenshot, but it was him.

Dustin was basically twice on the upside down, although to me it all just counts as one time. Once in s4 with Eddie, then he climbed out, and then he went again to try to rescue him. Nothing interesting or remarkable to say about his reactions, no disgust, neither excitement, as if going through gates is normal to him, something he has done before. Well, he does seem like a bit surprised but probably because it’s something new. He gets over it quickly enough tho. I mean, I get that given the situation and everything happening he wouldn’t be worrying about the gate (he has bigger things to worry about) but going officially for the first time to the upside down after hearing the horror stories still must shake you up. But I think they didn’t add more trepidation because we as an audience already are familiar with the gates and the upside down, so why waste time?

@frogfacee said “but dustin interacts w them most, being the only party member to intentionally- and on screen- go through one” as a reply to my post where I asked about the party going through gates on screen. When I read that I knew I had to write this post because you cannot tell me that “mr heterosexual” dustin henderson going through gates the most out of all the party (and poking a gate with a stick) while mike “repressed homosexual” wheeler hasn’t even seen one doesn’t mean anything. Specially because as much as I love Dustin, Mike is the one most connected to the supernatural plot (obviously, aside from Will) out of Lucas, Dustin and him.

Something interesting about Dustin tho, he’s straight. Very heterosexual. All headcanons aside, the show tells us over and over he likes women. He had a tiny crush in Max, now he’s dating Suzie, he asked a girl out to dance at snowball, he wanted to impress girls, he talks with Steve about girls and dating, etc etc. Out of all the party, I think he’s the one who’s attraction to women has been reminded to us the most. I know people talk about Lucas (attracted to women) and Mike (gay) as narrative foils for sexuality (Lucas being how a normal heterosexual man acts regarding women and his gf vs whatever Mike has going on), but the “straightest” out of the party is Dustin. By a mile. That boy likes girls, and the duffers want you to know that. Is it surprising in any way that gates don’t seem weird, or disgusting, or confusing, or scary to him? Than he just sees one and despite the original shock says “guess that’s what I’m doing”?

Lucas

Lucas hasn’t gone to the upside down, but he sees gates twice. First at Eddie’s trailer, and then at the end of s4, after max “dies” and a gate opens.

The one in Eddie’s trailer doesn’t give us much. The one at the end of the season, tho. After max “dies”. That gate that cut Jason in half and that merges with the other gates right in front of the library.

But the thing is, he doesn’t care.

He’s holding Max, crying because he thinks she’s dead, a gate opens and his concern is grabbing max and pull her to safety, away from the gate. He seems mostly a bit scared of the way Jason is cut in half but doesn’t really do anything, it’s not his priority, Max is. There is a shot of Lucas’ face looking scared but he’s not looking at the gate, he’s looking at Jason’s torn body. I would be scared at that too.

Max and Lucas broke up offscreen before s4, and in s4 we have Lucas reaching out to max and being worried cause she’s not herself. However not once does he ask if she wants to get together again or anything like that. Instead he worries because “it’s like you’re not even there, like you’re a ghost or something”. Something is wrong with Max, she’s not telling him or anyone what it is and Lucas is worried. She changed completely after Billy’s death, became a shell of herself and stopped hanging out with them, began isolating herself. So Lucas worries, and asks, Max is his priority. Not their relationship, he doesn’t get closer to her to try and get together, but to see if she’s okay, what is going on.

Then they find out about Vecna and the priority becomes trying to save Max, stop Vecna from killing her. Lucas doesn’t even think about getting back together with Max despite still being in love with her because that’s just not important right now, not when Max’s life is at risk. He worries about her, tries to save her and help her, not because then when it’s all over they might get together again, she might date him again if he saves her, but because he loves her and he doesn’t want her to die. If someone told Lucas that she would decide she doesn’t ever want to see him again after they saved her from Vecna, he would still have helped her.

He pulls Max away from the gates to keep her safe, he pushes any romantic and/or sexual feelings he might have away because Max is the priority, Max is in danger, her life is in danger.

Max (& Erica)

Nothing much. They have interacted with gates, even if just a little. Still more than Mike. They are there, in Eddie’s trailer, and saw how Dustin helped open the gate and the teens went through it.

Erica also saw the s3 russian gate, along with Dustin, Steve, and Robin. She seemed a bit scared but didn’t remain like that for long.

And Max was present when the gate opened after she “died” but well.

I take this as Max and Erica being a teenage and a preteen girl (Max is 15, Erica is 11), growing up and coming into their sexuality and this not scaring them much, just seeing it as something normal (which it is). Probably because this coming into their sexuality means 1- their own body growing and changing which they don’t seem to have any reason to be scared of (different to el, see the tagged post at the beginning), and 2- the development of their sexuality (which so far is attraction to men. Regardless of hc’s, Max is attracted to guys, she dated Lucas, she looked at a shirtless Steve with binoculars, she also talked about how Ralph Macchio from karate kid was “so hot”. With Erica, given that she’s 11, we don’t see this many “proof” but her journey could simply be physical).

Barb (& Will)

(TW: mention of undetailed SA)

So like, I read one of the many posts talking about stranger things and sa, and something that caught my eye cause I hadn’t seen it before, is than Barb also has sa coding. I mean we all have seen the pool scene being contrasted with Nancy sleeping with Steve and we all know how queercoded Barb is. This isn’t anything new, so many people have talked about the scenes being together but yet so different to show the differences between Steve and Nancy (heterosexual sex) vs Barb (lesbian). Something something upside down as metaphor for homophobia etc we know it. However so many people talk about Will’s sa coding, and this person also talked about Barb’s. The difference between Steve and Nancy (consensual sex) vs Barb (unconsensual).

It’s interesting to see that Will, gay, has only interacted with portals unwillingly, unconsensually. With this, then Will’s sa coding gets bigger. This could also be queer coding (which has been present since s1). One thing can symbolize several at the same time. Now, I’m not saying Will got sa by a woman, just that since s1 we can see than he would not have sexual relationships with a woman, unless forced. But I don’t think that’s what that means. It’s certainly possible, but I think it’s about sa.

Barb is queercoded. Very. Like, seriously. Super queercoded for how little screen time she has. And yet her interactions with portals are negative, are unconsensual. It’s very different to Robin’s “that was fun”. Well, in a small town in the 1980s during the aids crisis, lesbian sexuality would be repressed and seen as wrong and disgusting. We have robin for contrast, who accepted her sexuality and sure, things aren’t great, but she talks about it openly with Steve (not only her crushes but also how Julie christy is “bonkers hot” in doctor zhivago, aka, expressing sexual attraction for women out loud) and her experience with portals so far has been positive. Barb, probably repressed, who we also have seen hurting herself (cutting her hand) while conforming (trying to drink beer the way Steve’s friends were) (eddie’s voice: “forced conformity, that’s what’s killing the kids”).

However Robin went through the portal on her own, while Barb was dragged. Just like Will. It’s possible the portals as sexual imagery here represent sexual assault for both Will and Barb, and I think that’s what the duffers were going with. We have seen it for Will, all of s2, other seasons as well but specially s2, but with Barb, since she died, we didn’t get to see the effects. Barb also has some similarities with Henry and El, and well, we all know the *theories regarding Brenner and the lab… ( @henrysglock and @heroesbyler have good posts on it and you can also see it in the og post)

*tbh I wouldn’t even say theories I think it’s just there but in the background.

And finally,

Mike

Oh Mike

Mike is the main reason for this post. This was actually intended as a “proof Mike is gay” post but it escalated

The thing than is odd about Mike and the upside down, is his lack of interactions with it. I don’t think he ever even seen a portal.

But, he knows about the upside down. He helps the party discover stuff and he was the first one (aside from Will) to get a connection with it out of them (he was the one to find El, and to find out El knew Will).

Mike is very close to Will, they’re all friends but we see since s1 their relationship is different. Whether you believe in byler or not, we see it in s1 and s2, there’s a different between Dustin & Mike and Will & Mike. Mike is very close with Will, helping him through his episodes etc in a way that Lucas and Dustin don’t, he’s at the hospital, he discovers Will is the spy, etc etc. Mike is also dating El who, obviously, is super connected to the upside down and gates. So it would make sense for mike to interact with gates or even go to the upside down. Yet he doesn’t.

However I think there’s something to say about how Mike is the only one out of the party (aside from Dustin) to not be disgusted by dart. That means something, I don’t know what, though, but something (perhaps the manifestation theory? x x x)

So we have Mike, one of the main characters if not the main character, who is connected to the supernatural plot and who helps the development of said plot (he meets el, el stays at his house, he discovers stuff) not interact with the upside down at all (no, the tunnels are not part of the upside down, guys), while also being an incredibly queercoded character who has not shown any attraction towards women. (“Oh, but, but, but he’s dating El!”, true, that’s something I can’t deny, in canon, regardless of what I believe, they are dating. But aside from el, has mike shown attraction towards any other girl, or just women as a whole, ever? See here)

I think you can see where I’m getting at. Mike, repressed and gay, has not interacted with portals (vaginal imagery) in the whole show. Wonder why.

If this is true then it's genius, cause it shows something is wrong in a subtle way. I mean, in a show about an alternative dimension, where side characters that appeared one season (eddie) have travelled to said dimension, and side characters than haven't been here since the start (robin) travelled to said dimension, and side characters than have known about the supernatural plot since the start (nancy, steve, jonathan, hopper, etc) travelled to said dimension (or at least, interacted with the gates), and main characters (dustin, lucas, max, el) travelled to said dimension (or at least, interacted with the gates), and that started with a main character being kidnapped to said dimension in the first ep (will), and yet, they have main character Mike Wheeler, super connected to the supernatural plot (always the first to figure out stuff, close relationship with el and will), supposed "heart" of the party and "main" member of the group (hes literally the DM), tbh probably the main character, be the only one not being shown even interacting with a gate at all??? Yeah something isn't right. I noticed this so much time ago and found it incredibly weird.

Now, they are definitely going to the upside down and Mike will go through a portal in s5, so my theory probably won't hold up (unless he acts like, super disgusted when doing it of smth) but I found it interesting.