#cult literature

[flameswallower]

SELF PROMO POST #1

Human beings stand proud and alone upon the surface of this angel-haunted world, in this cosmos of wild experiment.

Ash and River are holy beings waiting for the end of the world— or maybe they’re trans runaways squatting in an abandoned house. Linden is a college student, restless and unsatisfied in their relationship with independent Nora. When a chance meeting leads to a turbulent romance between Linden and Ash, calamity follows.

Southern Gothic meets surrealism, Corrupted Vessels is a story about terrifying angels, messy realities, and queer life on the margins.

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Hey! It's my first long-form work, originally published online in 2020, and re-published with swallow::tale press in 2021. Do you like gross, fucked up queer stories? Do you wish there were more gross, fucked up queer stories specifically about trans and nonbinary people? Do you enjoy your literary fiction with a touch of magical realism and an industrial ladle-sized amount of macabre horror? Do you like really short books you can easily read in a few hours?

Corrupted Vessels may be for you! Check it out at the swallow::tale press website (print) (ebook).

General content warnings for Corrupted Vessels for those who may prefer them, and credits for the stock photos I used here, are under the cut. I cannot promise the content warnings are comprehensive because I cannot predict everything that could disturb or offend someone. I do try to get "the basics" (eg I will put if there's sexual violence, if there's suicide, etc).

Stock photos taken from Unsplash, edited by myself. The photographers were Pavel Untilov (abandoned house), Annie Spratt (foxglove), and Stormseeker (dirty hands).

Content warnings for Corrupted Vessels: Cult, murder, emotional abuse and codependency, suicidal ideation and attempted suicide, graphic sexual content (consensual + masturbation). Drug and alcohol use including a character being drugged without their knowledge. General unpleasantness related to poverty, housing precarity, past abuse, unmanaged mental health problems, etc.

[strykerlancer]

— Olivia Gatwood, from “The Lover As A Cult.”

[eye-of-the-tigerseye]

Lisa Frankenstien is to me what Jennifer's Body was to millennials what Heathers was to Gen X and I think there's something sacred about that.

[marry-me-mello]

IT MAKES ME WANT TO COMMIT A CRIME WHENEVER I DRAW HIS HAIR BC IT TAKES FOREVER

ESPECIALLY DIGITALLY I JUST-*throws drawing tablet across room and burns sketchbook*

[hardcore-gaming-101]

HG101 Presents: Arcade Cult Classics

Ever play an arcade game from decades ago that you saw once and never saw again? Ever wondered about arcade games that were never released in your home land? This book digs into the depths of 1980s and 1990s arcade history, unearthing hidden gems from developers like Irem, ADK, Jaleco, NMK, Westone, UPL, Technos, Toaplan, Gaelco, and TAD. In addition to highlighting forgotten classics when digging through the MAME library, it also catalogues many undersung titles that can be found as part of retro re-releases, like on Hamster’s Arcade Archives series or on the Evercade console. Now available!

Read more...

[orange-coloredsky]

the "3000 year old child" trope has the possibility to be genuinely intriguing and could explore the way children are treated across time no matter their apparent level of intelligence. it could be funny it could be heartbreaking it could be horrific to think about. too bad 90% of it is just an excuse to be a creep. sad!

[francisabernathysgf]

anyways i wanna start a reading cult...like read old books, get drunk, summon the ghost of Wilde and Byron then have an orgy...idk...maybe write some poems

[plushysposts]

Hey @kaifanjc-the-one-and-only , Look what I made. I kinda wanna see it when it gets crazy and creepy.

[flowersforfrancis]

Richard Papen: If I had stayed in California I would've joined a cult. Also, Richard Papen: Goes to Hampden and joins a highly exclusive greek class, with a teacher who discourages him from taking any other classes. Then proceeds to follow the plan of a guy who's never heard of the moon landing, and help him to murder his best friend.

[platypusinplaid]

Who else got their mind consumed by god-killing homosexual war criminals this year?

[chai-n-ivy]

of course I’m not immune to cults. I read The Secret History and watched Midsommar without blinking.

[the-one-who-lambs]

Since I mentioned them in my almost went to the ER in lamb cosplay story, here are the 3-fold brochures I made last year to accompany my lamb cosplay. Feel free to use them as you want or just enjoy for your amusement.

[p4r4sit3-10v3]

What is it abt poems that are so comforting? Idk but I love reading poems which is basically why I downloaded this app to begin with.

[hjellacott]

To those agreeing with what I say but saying I'm mean and "Let's just be nice" when we're discussing TRA things or feminism or J. K. Rowling... I am DONE being nice.

I was nice the first 100.000 times. Now I've been bombarded with private messages and Tumblr "post" (the envelope thingy) and general comments, plus seeing dozens of posts that I just can't be nice and patient about. Because these MORONS and some of them, actual TERRORISTS, are literary burning books, twisting the Harry Potter stories to justify their unjustifiable extremism, harassing children for being Potterheads, mocking adults for finding solace in Harry Potter, attacking and sending death threats and death wishes to everyone that disagrees with them, manipulating children, autistic, and also all kinds of mentally disabled people to absorb their agenda and mutilate their bodies, targeting the lives of people who disagree with them and attacking them and their loved ones, cyberbullying left and right hiding beneath anonymous names and pink and blue flags, burning and thrashing businesses where feminists go, turning Pride into an event where rapists are being allowed to take the mic and say to kill women (literally) and being applauded, saying homosexuality is transphobic and raping lesbians and gays, applauding men changing in locker rooms in front of little girls, applauding men taking over women's sports and spaces, applauding sending rapists to women's prisons, applauding children being brainwashed into life changing treatments, terrorising the world, imposing their own agenda with violence and threats, silencing and attacking the detrans community, manipulating the media, fucking it all up for all the normal trans people who are now thanks to the TRAS being seen as terrorists, and justifying their hatred and their violence on them having basically no reading comprehension, twisting people's words to have a pity party, and creating a self-imposed narrative to try and convince us that everyone wants them to die so it's all right for them to attack everyone else and be given free reign and justification to do so. Police can't even report that a criminal is trans any more and people are losing their jobs for reporting crimes by trans people, for fuck's sakes.

Do you know how often I've dealt with the same lazy justification to "explain" to me, a mixed race Jewish descent woman, why JK Rowling is anti semitic or racist? Or why she's transphobic? And every time one tries to nicely point out that they're twisting things and decontextualising them and inserting their own racist views, they just tell you to kill yourself. They've taken over press, media, social media, pride, women's spaces, they're going after children, attacking local pubs and restaurants... I'm not going to allow it. I'm done being nice.

I see them bullying the detrans community and shutting them up. I see how they harass and threaten the trans community that doesn't want to occupy women's spaces or that doesn't condone violence and threats and wants children to be left alone. I see how they attack women, lesbians and gays. I have a collection of articles of their rapes and other attacks, mainly to women. And they won't brainwash me.

I'm not afraid. These are a violent, terrorist mob that is taking over the left and making themselves the victims when we haven't faced a more aggressive and dangerous mob since the Nazis. Have you seen the videos of the teens and young adults crying in the US Congress, talking about how afraid they are when they see men changing in their lockers, or talking about how their breasts were chopped off and begging us, adults, to stop this nonsense? I have and I'm listening.

Like Joanne Rowling, like all the women who won't wheesht, I'm going to fight for those kids, for the normal people in the trans community, for detransitioners, gays, lesbians, mentally disabled... I'm not afraid and I'm not nice. Not any more. You want a fight? I'm full of weapons.

[marry-me-mello]

well it seemed like you all liked my previous jekyll and hyde headcanons so here's some more!

Utterson has been spotted lurking around town randomly. The actual reason he's doing this is because he's looking for ducks to feed. Everyone else thinks he's some noble guy but NOPE HE JUST WANTS TO FEED DUCKS-

Actually, I headcanon him as autistic for the same reason I do L Lawliet (death note frog guy if you don't know), the reason being that they both hyperfixate on their work, talk a lot abt their special interests, etc. Maybe I'll elaborate later?

Hyde has on many occasions climbed trees and gotten stuck in them

Lanyon usually gets him out

Jekyll had a pet cat as a kid named Henry 2.

Hyde beat a hamster with a ruler once. He was shocked when it survived and adopted it. It's name is Whiskers.

Jekyll has attempted to flush Whiskers down the toilet before.

Lanyon really likes ice cream

Enfield also likes ice cream. Him and Lanyon go out for ice cream together sometimes.

I'm going to get into specific characters, so message me for headcanons, maybe fanfics, etc! Just ask and I'll write or draw it.

[zaccosnacco]

Poisonous Fires (1)

So gonna post the first part of this little story I’ve been writing! Tell me what you guys think!!

Content warnings include: Swearing and Graphic descriptions of someone being set on fire

This is the beginning of a Holyfire/Fieryworship story (Skiddad x Ignacio)

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There was some muffled talking from beyond the window, someone was listening in on the conversation that was transpiring. Quiet, a figure in a crimson cloak got closer to the window. Inside viewed a board, evidence plastered all over it connected by thin velvet strings, that was a problem.

Two policemen were idly chatting, though it was hard to pick up on what they were talking about besides what was in front of them. One seemed to quickly turn towards the window though, suspicious of the thing lingering just outside the view of that said window. He was on to him. The other cop however seemed to roll his eyes, suggesting something and –

The two were heading out.

Now was his chance, the evidence was left sitting in the room, they didn’t even try to cover it up in case someone happened to peer through the window. They had just simply flipped the light off and left. This was almost too perfect.

Ignacio was the one who was watching them previously, he had been sent to get rid of the evidence, rid the police if necessary as well. But sadly he had to save that for another day. The cult would still be very proud that he at least did the first thing. He had no objections really, he got to set something on fire which was his specialty. If he was lucky this place will burn to the ground before the two came back.

For now he had to get inside first, which was relatively easy. Nobody was here after all. So he crashed a window and crawled through. His cloak however got caught on a shard of jagged glass before he could fully get inside, which caused him to stumble over onto the floor. Doing anything in these cloaks was hell, but he couldn’t just not wear it. It covered his identity under its crimson folds, just in case the cops were to interrupt him. Getting the fabric caught on everything was just a small price to pay. It however didn’t help with how embarrassing it was to trip around, he was supposed to be feared, not a clutz.

His cloak tore a bit as he finally forced himself inside, practically throwing himself so he would continue, and he landed right into the pile of jagged shards. Wonderful. It wasn’t too much of a big deal to him though, it was just glass. His cloak was perfect for protecting him from all the cuts too, another bonus, he told himself that.

He went to stand quietly, brushing the shards off of him for a moment before heading into the main room he wanted to be in. The evidence room, or some sort of office in this house. And to the cultists' shock there was a lot of incriminating stuff. Well it wasn’t too shocking, these policemen have been on the case for so long now. It would be a shame if it all went up in flames wouldn’t it?

Ignacio stepped closer to the board, inspecting the pictures and newspapers one by one. This reminded him of something you’d see a conspiracy nut have. But he didn’t want to look too closely, it didn’t matter in the end. They didn’t even seem that close to figuring anything out. But some of this stuff was still damning. Especially the picture of the cultist. Ignacio eyed it lightly, now how did the police get this picture?

He shouldn’t be staying in this place for too long though, he had a time limit and didn’t know when the cops would be back. So Ignacio dug into his pockets, pulling out a metallic lighter, new and shiny just for this occasion, the flame even excited dancing around when opened. His excitement easily matched the flames as he went to linger it closer to the evidence board, lightly toasting the photos before he completely set it ablaze.

The hungry fire eagerly devoured the wooden board, it barely stood a chance against the embers. Ignacio smirked as he backed up, seeing his work spread.. Really quickly. It never dawned on him how fast this building would feed the flames but now he was witnessing it.

Panic, lots of panic. He stumbled backwards, looking around for the quickest exit. He really didn’t want to get eaten by his own creation, they would have no mercy on him. This cloak was especially becoming a bigger problem. On his way to dash for his exit he ended up completely tripping over it, landing right into some of the flares.

It only seemed like a flash before the cultists cloak became engulfed in flames, the previous crimson fabric charing around the edges now. Ignacio stumbled upwards, trying to beat the fire off of him as he backed into the window he had come in from. It wasn’t working though, the fire kept spreading. It was almost surprising how he was still able to remain quiet, especially when he started to feel the flares make contact with his skin.

He urged to scream out, but instead he quickly pulled his hood off to at least protect his face in some way. The fire kept spreading though, eating at his legs and causing his knees to buckle right at the window. He slammed into that said window, more of the left over glass shattering as he fell and stumbled onto the ground beside it. His exit was set ablaze by him too, he hadn’t even realized at first until more flames consumed him.

Now they were eating at his arm, Ignacio finally making a sound of panic as the flames climbed up each of his limbs. He could feel tearing, bleeding, and an ungodly amount of pain. He cursed and cursed as he stumbled upwards again, nothing was stopping his destructive creation, it was going to eat him alive.

This whole mission was a terrible idea, he should have known this from the start. But his fiery urges pushed him forward, as a pyromaniac it felt like heaven being able to light something on fire no matter how big nor how small. Ignacio was sure the only thing he had ever loved were these flames. Yet, they were going to be the very thing that was going to end him. Almost ironic in a way, he didn’t have many objections.

He still fought desperately, to the point where it was getting hard to breathe. All the smoke, all the blaze, it was engulfing him slowly and he was sure he lost his chance to leave this house ages ago.

The hungry flames reached his torso and finally he was forced down, his legs couldn’t handle anymore of this. The pain, all pain. The fiery blaze was easily ravenging him like a lion at this point, his cloak couldn’t protect him from this. He felt like screaming now, a ditch effort? It felt pathetic though, you really are going to scream like a little bitch because you accidently stepped on an ember? He couldn’t bring himself to open his mouth, it wasn’t worth it.

Ignacio just sat against a counter, god knows when he even got into this room. Things were blurring together.

He finally did it, screaming out when the flames touched his face. His rest of his body had became numb a while ago from the scolding temperatures.

He just had to hope anyone heard him, though it was already too late in the long run. He collapsed finally, his body sliding onto its side as the flames traced the counter he had been previously against. This was it, his stupidity had gotten him killed. The very flames he loved mangled his body, chewing at the skin, muscles and.. It stopped.

It stopped, never hitting anything vital and barely reaching more than his cheek. Despite this he was still unconscious, not dead. He could barely breathe, yeah, but his body was stopping any more physical damage.

A pump of energy pulsed through him, causing him to suddenly cough and wheeze. His body trembling, but still no sign of getting up.

And no sign that he did, however it became apparent that he had been noticed as missing. Not by the police, but by the cult. They knew the place had been set on a fiery blaze, but where was the prideful culprit? It would be simply embarrassing if he had burnt himself to death, or was fed to the house fire.

Nobody will come back for him.

–

Suddenly there was that blurred reality again, his eyes struggling to adjust. Was he dead? He did seem to get eaten by flames earlier, yet his body only ached. He would almost tear up from it if he didn’t know better. He groaned lightly, pushing himself to sit up with a light tremble. Where was he?

Ignacio shook his head, looking around again. It didn’t really look like a burnt house.. But his stubborn vision still hadn’t come back to him. He just knew he was sitting on something soft, sitting against something rough and that it seemed dark.

“Ignacio.” Someone suddenly spoke, freaking the arsonist out for a moment as he scrambled to come to his senses. Someone else was here, who else was here?

He went to speak up in response, only to be met with incoherent choking. He wanted to demand who that was, but he couldn’t. It seemed his throat had taken a bit of damage during his unfortunate circumstances. But it better not be permanent, he would be miffed if he wouldn’t be able to tell people off anymore.

“Don’t speak, you took quite a large amount of damage, yeah?” The person spoke again, right they were still here. Ignacio choked on a growl in response, hostility was his nature. Though his hostility seemed to gain a chuckle from the unknown figure near him.

Now that he thought about it he almost recognized that voice. It was smooth and almost charismatic, it annoyed him with the familiarity.

Ignacio went to rub his head lightly, hearing another snicker from the person. It was pricking away at his nerves though, who did this guy think he was?

Finally the cultist's vision was coming to him, his eyes adjusting to the new location. He was outside, the prickly feeling under him being grass. It was night time still, it must have not been that long.. Or it had been days that he was out, he wasn’t sure but his body still hadn’t fully recovered.

“Ah, have you finally come to your senses? You’ve been out for a while, it's to be expected that your body is still disoriented.” The person spoke again, getting closer and kneeling over to the burnt man.

Ignacio could hardly believe his eyes, the person who was with him he did know. However last time he checked he had been in the ground.

The man before him tilted his head, that familiar smirk plastered on his face. His hair still long and black, not even looking a mess. He still wore almost all black, except for a different red turtleneck that the arsonist has never seen him wear before. Then there was the pendant, which was new too. Not like the pendants were a new thing to the cult he just has never seen this wicked man sport one before, because.

He was the cult's previous leader, Father Leviathan. Him being perfectly alive was almost shocking, especially to Ignacio who just seemed to stare in shock to the others' amusement.

“Ignacio, I can see you recognize me. It has been a while hasn’t it?” Leviathan spoke, casually holding out his hand for the arsonist in front of him. But to nothing, Ignacio didn’t even reach back, in disbelief. He was so such he was dead, did that mean that he himself was dead? Was he hallucinating? The cultist just couldn’t figure this out.

The leader didn’t seem to care that Ignacio didn’t take his hand, casually going to grab his hand himself and pull the dude up. The arsonist had found himself gasping, the sudden pain that flooded him was indescribable. Leviathan took note of this, though he seemed to be inspecting him lightly with a hum.

“Can you walk? You look shaky, and it would be truly embarrassing if you collapsed in front of me.” Leviathan asked bluntly, still holding onto Ignacio's hand as he helped him stand. He wasn’t expecting a response though, it seemed like the arsonist fried his vocal cords. He would have expected more complaining from him by now if he could talk.

Ignacio still seemed startled, a lot was going on at once. The pain, the awakening, and seeing the face of the leader again. Not to say it was very pleasant of a surprise, Leviathan had a way of getting on his nerves when he had been previously alive.

The arsonist suddenly tried to speak up again, choking and coughing a sentence that was barely understandable. “W… w-hy are.. … y-you so c… cas.. sual.” He stammered, his tone almost harsh if it wasn’t for the painful choking. Despite this Leviathan heard him completely coherently.

“Casual? Of all the questions in your mind you ask that, why you should already know nothing is a big deal, especially for me.” Leviathan replied, his signature smirk still not disappearing. He however suddenly pulled Ignacio closer to him. “I can answer the question about my previous death though, you see. The eyes of the universe would never let me rot, it came back for me, brought me back to this mortal plane with this pendant, I can tell you’ve been so curious about that too.” He whispered casually.

Ignacio went to speak again, seem to push the leader back for a moment. He didn’t like being pulled close by anyone, let alone someone that should have been dead. He went to try and speak up again though, only Leviathan beat him to it. “I know Ignacio, it seems so strange that this necklace can do such a thing. But have you ever asked yourself how you are currently alive? You are covered in burns, almost being devoured by your own flames as you trapped yourself in that house, I bet you can still feel that dreadful feeling of the fiery flares taking your skin off slowly.”

The cultist seemed to shudder in dread, not liking the casual reminder. He could still very much feel what Leviathan was talking about. His body ached, but.. It only ached, he looked down at himself. His clothing burnt and torn up, his skin however only covered in harsh burn scars from what was exposed. It hurt but he really should of not made it out of that house like the leader had mentioned. He wasn’t sure how to feel from this. He could also still feel a ghostly burning feeling even when he wasn’t on fire anymore, he didn’t like this.

“Relax, be proud of yourself, you have proved that you are capable. Look at you, pushing through the burning pain, you stand so tall despite the tremble in your core. One could be impressed by such tolerance.” Leviathan suddenly spoke, playfully elbowing Ignacio. He was being reassuring for once, a rarity only seen by the fire enjoyer himself. It seemed the leader wasn’t all cruel with his words.

Well he wasn’t cruel to someone he was so fond of, Ignacio knew that. Except he wasn’t impressed that he was fond of him, some people would die for the leader's praise but Ignacio would rather die if he was praised, well kind of. He just didn’t appreciate this to begin with.

Leviathan will surely change that opinion though. “Oh lighten up, I never understood why you always have such a sour soul. Well, I can kind of understand, but you should really take praise instead of complaining about it mentally.” He hummed simply, going to push the shorter man's chin up so he was looking at him again.

Ignacio gave him a surprised look, of course as the cult leader he could read someone so easily.. Even someone like him who was hard to figure out. Of course this was still suspicious, how did he know what he was thinking?

Leviathan just hummed in response. “Oh my you are just filled with questions, aren’t you? All will be answered in do time, let's just get you up and out of this forest, shall we tread your place?” He suggested, his head tilted to the side lightly again, pulling Ignacio over again before he could even think of a response.

Looks like this was gonna be a long day.

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2800 words!! Please if you like this start to the story tell me!!