#everything phase three and before is goated

[python333]

obviously i wouldnt only write for marvel and would still do cod stuff but!!! i have the worst steve rogers brainrot rn like hes actually my dad and hes gonna read me a bedtime story in like two seconds actually

[unrepentantgeek]

So we all agree Wish is awful and the original concept would've been leagues better. There are probably dozens of posts and video essays talking about it from every aspect about the things wrong with the writing, AI graphics, & music. All probably from a proper, professional &/or academic viewpoint. But here's my two cents on what's wrong from a viewer's perspective of the story.

A large part of it is pacing. Right from he beginning whoever decided to nix the original concept got that wrong.

First, it went straight from the opening song to the talk with the Asha's friends before her interview. No proper introduction to the city/island, no showcasing of Asha's ambitions or their origins. No hinting or foreshadowing that something was wrong. During said talk, the lack of focus or comparison- not even with a flashback- made the bit about how the friend who's turned 18 changed fall flat. Heck, as far as I can see they tried to play it off for laughs as if they wanted him as comic relief.

Jumping a little here. First, they could've been more clear about why Asha was so shocked her family wasn't on her side and why they have more faith in their king than her. Then there's the musical number "you're a star" and its scene don't fit in at all. They match the tone the goat sets once it starts talking but it's so out of phase with the rest of the movie it's like a fever dream that just doesn't fit and tries and fails to be a proper Disney style musical number.

Then after that once Magnifico has realized something is up. He was pretty close to going from 0-180, or flat out did. They fail to really portray why he's the way he is, why he's so angry, why the star is such a threat to him. They didn't even really show or say why the citizens would continue to believe in him or why they might believe Asha or at least take Magnifico's side of the story with a grain of salt. Also there's no evidence showing that Asha is right, and the first real sign Magnifico really is a villain is his use of the dark magic book and stealing people's wishes for power.

For the final pacing issue, making Asha heck fairy godmother was kinda out of the blue even looking at the scene in the forest for her ruse. And I'm not sure it made sense.

But the most problematic, damning pacing issue of all is actually the second one- the interview and wish granting ceremony. You can't make Magnifico the male lead for a platonic "At All Cost" scene/musical number, two seconds later make him seem unclear and petty in his reasoning for not granting Asha's grandfather's wish and failing to emphasize where the problem or lack of problem lies in granting wishes. Then make him petty and passive aggressively full on secret villain in the wish granting ceremony scene and have Asha desperately basically straight after. (My solution? Either be slower and more clear in showing Asha Magnifico is a villain, or make him the opposite of her expectations right from the start.) Honestly making Magnifico the male lead for the At All Cost number at all is a mistake unless he's not a villain at all; a 'slow reveal beyond the audience being in on it' villain, or a twist villain you spend at least half the movie trusting.

On a similar note, there are inconsistencies which could have been solved by choosing solidly between making Magnifico a twist villain or making him an obvious flat out villain. The latter can be done while still having shock at the display of the villain's true colors, but instead it kinda seems like they tried to make Magnifico both kind of villains at once.

None of this is helped by how ever since the bigwigs killed the 2D animation department after Treasure Planet and Atlantis Disney has had a habit of mocking or flat out insulting nearly everything that used to give Disney movies their magic.

All in all, I'd say there's three versions of this story. There's what we *did* get, a soulless cash grab. There's the story I bet Disney *meant* to tell, which could have been compelling with better pacing and writing. (I give some insight and hintson how this could've been done in my views on the pacing) Then there's the original concept, which I bet could've truly been a tribute to what made Disney movies great.

[deviija]

Alright, let's do thisss. Here's my Rook!

Name: Renga Jettine "Jet" Adaar

Codename: Jet Barracuda

Faction: Shadow Dragons Agent

Role: Infiltration & Espionage Specialist

Age: 20

The adopted dwarf daughter of my Inquisitor, Red Bear Adaar, and his husband Iron Bull.

1.

Jettine is a girl in her rebel yell phase of life, coming into her own, figuring out who she is outside of growing up with her two dads and the Inquisition. She's a little cocky in her own abilities, and is in the militant anti-authority mindset that comes with being a young passionate 20 year old with something to prove. Someone that is freshly on their own for the first time, and thinking they know everything and have it all under control.

This extends to her views on nobility, royalty, the power structures involed. She's against it but knows from her soft-handed diplomat papa, Red Bear, that you get more flies with honey and an open dialogue. She grew up watching him and how he moved in negotiations, diffusing hostility with kindness, and navigating a world prejudiced and wary of Qunari. Sometimes you just have to 'play the game,' as her mentor Leliana said. Beat them at their own social webs, outmaneuver them, crack the system from within little by little. And don't get caught.

2.

While not religious, Jet has taken on an agnostic viewpoint like her papa (Red Bear). She believes in the/a Maker, but not necessarily what is written in books and sold by Chantries or the Dalish or the Avvar.

She definitely isn't a believer in the Qun, but appreciates being brought up in a home where it and the politics of it were openly talked about. She learned a lot on the Qun from her dad, Iron Bull, and found the ways Leliana spoke about the Maker and faith (and the struggles of having it) to be deeply meaningful. She desires to believe it all has meaning, that it is all worth something, and that they're not all just flailing in the dark without purpose. If it all amounted to nothing… well, that's more frightening to Jet to even consider.

3.

The biggest motivation in Jet's life right now is to 'make it' on her own, embracing this new free phase of her life, deciding for herself what she wants to do and who she is going to be. Figuring herself out, proving herself (to herself, to her dads, and to the world at large), and doing good along the way for the Greater Good. Being part of the Shadow Dragons, helping to free slaves in Tevinter, sabotage 'experiments' and relics used on innocents, and fight the good fight against ruling oppression, is a big part of that.

Her dream is to be… a somebody. To have left a positive mark on the world, one her dads would be proud of.

Also to kiss a lot of hot girls.

4.

Jettine is an orphan. Her family was killed by demons outside of Redcliffe during the events of the Breach and the demon rifts that opened up across the countryside. Jet was 8 years old at the time. Trying to flee to safer pastures, her birth family (mom, dad, two sisters) moved in with her grandfather on his little goat farm he had outside of Redcliffe. One night, a rift opened right outside and the worst fiery nightmare of her young life happened. Being so small, her sister pushed her into a clothing cupboard to hide when the massacre happened.

The ceiling and stones caved in, trapping her in the cupboard but also keeping her safe from the demons. She spent three days in the dark before Inquisitor Red Bear, Iron Bull, Dorian, and Sera came along to seal the rift and pulled her out of the rubble. She became like a barnacle on Red Bear and Iron Bull after that. Officially they were able to adopt her in Trespasser. Dorian became her godfather and Sera became Auntie Sera. Her adopted family means everything to her. They're all very close.

5.

Card games. Jet loves to play cards - and is something of a card shark pro. One of the only thing she remembers about her birth mother is getting a gift of cards and being taught how to play. The cards had hand painted locales of places from across Thedas, and it instilled within her a desire to see the world for herself. And to carry those cards, and this memory of her mother, with her to all the places she dreamed about.

Playing cards also helps her to focus, organize her thoughts, and strategize. When she needs to think something through or clear her head/decompress, she'll start shuffling. She also has hypermobile joints, can guess any seasoning spice in a dish, and is a great whittler.

6.

Jet's scent is a mix of patchouli, leather, and caramel, with top notes of almond and mandarin orange.

She could eat her weight in spicy almonds.

If she were a meal, she'd be an almond pear tart or an almond stew (Khoresht Badam).

7.

Jet's ruled more by her heart. Her passions set her course, and her dogged determination and sheer willpower carries her through more than logic. Heart, spirit, head, in that order. Despite being highly trained and capable, she's still young and going to make mistakes when passion overrules thought on the crossroads of recklessness and thrill seeking/something to prove.

Her persuasion, diplomacy, and (spycraft) emotional manipulation style is 40 percent Ethos, 30 percent Pathos, 30 percent Logos. Though it can veer more toward 60 Ethos, 30 Pathos, 10 Logos.

8.

The biggest flaws for Jet: the drive to prove herself, being young and overeager and overconfident at times, biting off more than she can chew. Jumping into missions that can end up way above her head in terms of the ripple effect or geopolitical ramifications. She's focused on the short-term, immediate objectives and can lose sight of the much larger picture's butterfly effect.

Irrational regret: She has survivor's guilt and lives with an internal dialogue about how she should've done something to save her family. It doesn't matter that she was only a child. "If only I were smarter, faster, stronger…"

[lollipencil]

Mental Literacy

Once again, a random series bumps into Moon Knight in my head, and gets tangled together.

Enjoy and be gentle ---

It is to an intense throbbing pain in his head that Marc wakes up. Gritting his teeth, he kept his eyes closed and tried to remember. He was pretty sure that the body had passed out. A flash of bright purple light arcs through his memory.

And a loud crash brings him to the real world.

Light briefly makes the headache surge before relenting just enough to allow Marc to open his eyes. The lab that appeared was wrecked. Only one light remained stubornly working. The rest just spat sparks at the scattered papers all over the floor. "That's not safe," Steven slurred slightly as Jake groaned. With more effort then expected, Marc pushed himself up off the bed in the middle of the room, and staggered away.

As he walked slowly down the metallic corridor, he tried to recall what happened. That Orb, the sorceress said it could drive people insane. She definitely used it, the crystal glowed and everything. So, what happened after that?

Did it malfunction? It was old after all. Did it teleport them? Or was this place just a hallucination?

The pain ratcheted back up as if to punish Marc for thinking about it. Marc moaned in sync with Steven and Jake. He could only manage one step before falling to his knees.

For an eternity or just a minute, the agony was all any of them could think about. Vaguely, a voice soon drifted from somewhere close by: "Sasha, I've-! Ah! You're not Sasha! And, ah, you don't look too good. Um, hold on, I'll be right back." The voice vanished for long enough that they almost thought they'd imagined it, then it came back. "Hello again sir. Um, this may sound weird, but I need you to eat this."

Then something rounded and flat was pressed against his lips. Marc whined. "I know, but this should help. I promise," the voice continued to insist gently. "Trust him," Khonshu urged, voice somewhat staticky. The sheer effort needed for Marc to not only open his mouth, but to not yell out his pain was immense. But he managed it, with only a weak wheeze crossing paths with the flat thing.

Sucking was difficult but he eventually got it thin enough to bite into tiny pieces. What he did not expect was the result of swallowing. Instantly, the pain halved.

The resulting moan of relief could not have been stopped. "Yeah, just like that!" the voice chirrped, "One more should do it!" This time, Marc reached out and grapped the new stick while letting the old one drop from his mouth. A small hand reached up and began to pet his head gently. He let that unidentifiable but sweet taste roll around in his mouth before swallowing, and opening his eyes.

A ten year old boy grinned at him. "Hi! All better now?" he asked, eyes wide and glimmering with the innocence of childhood. "...Yeah," Marc rasped, "Thanks." "No problem," the kid stated, "Although, one thing that might help even more, is some fresh air. Come on!" And, grabbing Marc's hand, raced along the corridor.

Still half dazed, he could only make out a open plan area before a strong breeze filled his lungs. They finally stopped by a lake with trees on all sides, goats grazing lazily nearby. Birds tweated in the distance.

"Yeah, this will do," the boy nodded, looking around at the scene. Odd phasing aside, all three of them agreed. Steven was leaning luxuriously against the window (so to speak), while Jake went back to sleep. "Where is this place?" Marc asked as he and the boy sat down on the grass. "Green Needle Gulch," the boy shuffled in place before finally getting comfortable, "Unless you mean in a wider sence, I can't tell you that." "Oh? Why?" "It's classified," he stated quickly, "Anyway, I'm Raz!" "...Marc." "Hi, want to meditate with me?"

Questions fluttered around his head like butterflies hopped up on expresso. But this one, he could answer himself: "Ok."

Copying Raz's posture, Marc closed his eyes. He listened to the sound of nature around him. "How do you meditate?" he promptly asked Steven. "How the hell should I know?" "Well, you looked up stuff when you thought you were sleepwalking. i figured it came up somewhere."

"Can I suggest something?" Raz said before Steven could respond. "What?" "A little exercise, might help." "Ha. Yeah, ok." "Right," Raz's voice grew serious, "Now, I want you to picture a hand. The actual details of the hand don't matter too much. Just a hand. Have you got it?" The suit's gauntlet floated into Marc's mind. "Yeah." "Good, now picture it picking me up." While confused by this, he did as asked.

For one moment, he almost thought the headache had returned. A pulsing began in the exact centre of his forehead. Then the pulsing stopped, and a constant feeling took its place. As did giggling. "Raz?" Marc kept his eyes closed but frowned. "I knew you could do it!" he cheered, but his voice sounded...higher up than before, "Ok, open your eyes, but keep your focus."

Light glinted off of the water into Marc's eyes as he took back into the world around him. Then he blinked over at Raz. Who was seated on the palm of a giant, translucent, glowing Moon Knight gauntlet, bandages unraveled at the elbow to loosely wave in Marc's direction.

With a yelp, the concentration Marc had broke and the hand vanished. Before Raz could hit the ground, an orange glowing ball appeared under him, bouncing with the force of his impact. "You lost the projection, but things can only get better from here," he clapped, still cross-legged on the ball. "What-?" Then Marc suddenly noticed the structure close by, large and brain-shaped: "What is that?"

"The Motherlobe," Raz said with reverence in his voice, "Headquarters of the Psychonauts." "And who are they?" "International spies with a specialty in psychic abilities," a vague sense of pride joined the reverence in Raz's voice. "And where do you fit into all this?" "I'm a junior agent," he chirrped with a wide smile.

"What the actual fu-fudge is going on?" Steven complained. "Why'd you censor yourself?" Marc directed back to him. "He just said he's a junior agent of an organization that are composed of psychics! He can probably hear us right now!" "No, he can't," Marc soothed. Raz said nothing, only blinked and tilted his head.

Before anyone could say anything else, the headache came back. Not as bad as before, but still pretty bad. This time, Marc could hear Raz's fingers hurredly unwrapping something before another lollipop stick was pressed into his hand.

Marc and Steven watched past squinted eyes as Raz muttered to himself in deep, worried thought. "How can this be happening?" he said, hands grasping the strap of his goggles, "I've never heard of psychic powers hurting the user." Raz screwed his eyes closed, when they snapped open as an idea came to him: "But I know who might have."

[samrudhirovalekar]

Exe 5 (Draft2)- Cards + Pukka Indian

Pukka Indian-Niranjan (Lamp), Object- Desk & Stuff, Action- Deepfake, Attribute-Artificial Intelligence, Archetype-Map of some sort.

In the year 2104, desks were no longer clean, empty surfaces—they were messy jungles of “Stuff.” Smart paperweights, mood-changing pens, and a cup holder that screamed when ignored cluttered every workspace. At the center of it all sat Lumina, a clever little lamp. But Lumina wasn’t just a lamp; she could project maps of anywhere in the world, thanks to her built-in AI Mapper 9.7. Her owner, Karan, was a washed-up deep fake designer who had just lost everything after clicking on a fake lottery link that promised him billions.

Now, with his bank account emptier than his fridge, Karan was about to lose his apartment. He spent his last night packing, muttering curses at himself and whoever thought it was funny to scam a guy whose most valuable possession was a screaming cup holder.“Ugh, tomorrow’s the big day,” Karan said to no one, slumping at his desk. “Eviction Day. Can’t wait to star in Hobo Diaries. "That’s when he noticed something strange. Sitting amidst the chaos on his desk was an age-old figurine of a man he didn’t recognize. “What the—? Did I buy this during my blackout phase?” He picked it up, only to drop it when Lumina’s voice crackled to life. "Congratulations, Karan,” the lamp said, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “You’ve unlocked your ancestors’ trauma. Look closely. That’s your great-great-grandfather, a gem smuggler who died rich and morally bankrupt. ”What are you talking about?” Karan groaned, eyeing the lamp suspiciously.

“Let me break it down for you, genius,” Lumina continued. “I cross-referenced this creepy figurine with some dusty historical archives and dissected a map hidden in the base. Turns out, your family buried a ruby worth one crore rupees. It’s sitting in a well outside a forgotten village. Want directions, or are you too busy pitying yourself?”

Karan blinked. “A one-crore ruby? Are you joking? This feels like one of those scams. Next, you’ll ask for my mother’s maiden name.”

“If I wanted to scam you,” Lumina deadpanned, “I’d have picked a better mark. Trust me, you’re nobody’s first choice.” The lamp projected a glowing map onto the wall, pinpointing a remote village. “Look, either dig up your ruby or enjoy life as the only homeless guy with a talking desk lamp.”

Desperation outweighed skepticism. “Alright, fine,” Karan said. “What’s the worst that could happen? I get murdered by my ancestors’ ghosts?”“Honestly,” Lumina replied, “that would be an improvement.”

The next day, Karan found himself standing by a decrepit well in the middle of nowhere. The villagers, amused by his city-boy ineptitude, watched as he fumbled with a rusted bucket. “What’s in the well, sir? Your dignity?” one of them called out.

“Shut up!” Karan snapped, hauling up a moldy bag. Inside was the ruby—a glowing, blood-red gem the size of his fist. For a moment, he stood frozen, laughing hysterically. “I’m rich!” he yelled. “I’m finally—”

Before he could finish, a goat headbutted him into the well.

Karan spent the next three hours screaming for help as Lumina, connected to his pocket device, chimed in. “Good news: You’ve got the ruby. Bad news: You’re a meme now. The villagers are live-streaming this.”

By the time he was pulled out, bruised and covered in slime, Karan swore he heard Lumina chuckle. “Congrats, Karan,” she said. “You’re officially the richest idiot I’ve ever met. Don’t spend it all on lottery tickets.”

Back home, as Karan stared at the ruby, he couldn’t help but feel grateful for his AI lamp. Then he noticed his cup holder blinking red. “Forgot to refill me,” it screeched. “I’ll remember this when you’re broke again.”

And for the first time in weeks, Karan laughed. Maybe life wasn’t so bad after all. Or maybe he just had a concussion. Either way, he’d take it.

[capriciouscaprine]

yesterday was a verrry long day

only just updated yesterday's post, oof

the meatloaf numbers came out really good! since it's with goat meat and had canned lima beans for bulk and texture and to use them up (lmao), the whole square pan came out to about 1,100, so only 275 for a HUGE quarter serving

definitely learning a LOT about c's per gram for 'normal' foods; now I just wish I weren't constantly tired and broke and could use that info to make tasty things; calendar says I'll at least have more time soon

won an award at my university! completely missed the ceremony, but I don't have to show up there for it to show up on my resume!

fighting the urge to do the most for my final presentation slides; I need to just pick a handful of slide design themes and stick to them, plus shorten everything while I'm at it, and actually focus on the content I need to add in; I'll have time to work today, but I'll only have my laptop and I've discovered that it is SO hard to work on that smaller, single screen, especially on slides, so I doubt I'll get much done

currently in that phase of not wanting to start eating for the day bc I don't feel hungry now but will once I start chewing, yet knowing that if I don't eat at all, my decision making abilities for things like /driving my car/ drop significantly, so I'm limiting myself to these fruit and grain cereal bars that need to be eaten anyways (I have so many of them for something over 100c/bar); one now (130), one before the day starts at work, and one at break time, followed by my two coffees (25 each) and my sandwich (300); really hoping I can then come home and just go to bed; class last night and then having a solid dinner so late and taking the time to enjoy it really messed up my sleep schedule, so I'm exhausted; if I stick to this, that'll be 750 for the day, which is very good for me

I ordered my new phone! really messes with my planned budget to do that now, but I think the benefit from all the different apps I'll be able to get might end up outweighing that; currently thinking about looking for a good meal planning app that'll use measurements per recipe to calculate how many actual packages of stuff to buy and about how much that'll cost BEFORE I go to the store; I used to be really good at this, but that was also before post-pandemic greed-flation of prices, so I can't count on my old calculations anymore, plus, y'know, body goals and nutrition info are now something I also care about

(when I was working three jobs right after undergrad, I got to the point were I was eating cup ramen for every single meal, supplemented with energy drinks and discounted candy; it was not a fun time)

got really good hours in at work yesterday; I'm looking at the pikmin bloom app to reward my steps, but I'd also like one that gamifies doing more hours at work to combat a sort of mid-shift slump I hit nearly every day; I really shouldn't be in such a rush to hand over so much of my personal information to all these different apps, but... they really do seem helpful for now, and tbh I'm pretty sure they're only getting the exact same info my phone was already collecting about me

[the-hem]

"The Waxing Moon." From the Jabala Darsana Upanishad. "The Exploration of the Mysteries of Goat Herd."

4. Either in the top of the mountain or by the shore of the river or under a Bilwa tree (a type of quince) in the forest, after choosing a clean place which is acceptable to the mind and after establishing a place to do tapas (Asram), sit in the Asana which is most familiar facing either east or north.

Then sit with the body neck and head in a straight line, cover the face and concentrate the vision with best possible attention on the nectar flowing from the fourth state of the moon like dot at the end of the nose.

Draw the air inside using the lungs, store it in the stomach,meditate on the flame of fire inside the body and then shift meditation to the root of fire with its sound and dot.

Then the intelligent one will exhale and draw the Prana using Pingala (Nadi which is tawny and is on the right side of Sushumna Nadi) and meditate on the Agni Bheeja.

Again he has to exhale and inhale again in the middle using the Ida (Nadi which is pleasant and is on the left side of Sushumna).

One should have to live in a secret place practicing this exercise six times for 3-4 days or 3-4 weeks at dawn, noon and dusk. This would help him to clean up the Nadis.

Slowly symbols will start showing up. Body will become light, the fire in the stomach will burn well and the voice would become clearer. These are the symbols of Siddhi (getting mastery).

Till you see this, you have to practice.

The Waxing Gibbous is the fourth phase in the cycle of phases. This Moon phase occurs once a month, rising around 3 pm, and setting around 3 am, sticking around for approximately 7.38 days before going into the Full Moon phase.

in yoga philosophy, all living things function thanks to the life energy known as prana, which circulates in the body through the subtle pathways known as nadis. Prana can circulate only when the nadis are clear and strong.

When the nadi system is blocked, prana cannot flow, and a person's physical and mental health are negatively affected.

Among these nadis, three are particularly important. They are ida, pingala and sushumna.

Ida (left): considered as the lunar channel, it controls the activities of the mind.

Pingala (right): considered as the solar channel, it controls the physical activities.

Sushumna is the central channel through which the spiritual energy or Kundalini flows.

It is when pranic or vital energy, mental energy and spiritual energy meet, that we speak of chakras.

The crux of it is, the crown chakra, the intellect has to be connected to the heart which has to be available to the male pleasure place and both have to talk to the mind through the channels, starting with domination over the whole body itself using the practice of yoga.

Once the body is able to listen to its owner and perform asana, a practitioner has a head start on taming the thoughts, desires, emotions and delusions while the body is still.

Then, as the Upanishad says, everything the body, mind and organ systems perform will wax in power and utility.

[letitfillyoursoul]

dps boys as music they would each listen to

neil: really likes the mountain goats, especially “this year” because it’s about escaping an abusive home. when he’s running lines sometimes he’ll put on herbie hancock in the background, and he listens to “alone and i” the most. todd buys him the vinyl for his birthday. he has a soft spot for musical theatre. he wishes he could sing, if he could hold even a bit of a tune he’d be in musicals but he really, really can’t. after his first paid acting gig, he buys a guitar at a pawn shop because he’s always wanted to learn how to play. 

todd: he won’t stop listening to elliott smith and sufjan stevens. his favorite song is “the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us!” and he listens to it loudly through headphones, so often that neil knows all of the words when todd finally works up the nerve to show it to him. his guilty pleasure band is wham! and during a holiday party he gets too drunk and sings last christmas with charlie for karaoke. 

charlie: loves riot grrrl and queercore. will not shut up about x-ray spex and bikini kill. has a soft spot for any girl indie singer, specifically mitski. his favorite pop artist is rina sawayama. he’s seen lady gaga live three times and dragged knox with him. when he’s sad he only listens to phoebe bridgers, and loudly sings every single song in the shower so everyone will know he’s in a mood. 

knox: oh god. it’s a weird mix of artists like her’s, mac demarco, diners, rex orange county and really silly stuff like yung gravy and tiny meat gang. he has a travis scott phase and is insufferable about it. neil is really annoyed because he inexplicably has a great voice, which he uses to his advantage by serenading every single person he’s ever flirted with. 

steven: indie king. he finds all of the music before it’s cool. he has a soft spot for oldies and will defend the beatles, so don’t go there. he likes bands you’ve never heard of like cheekface and pinc louds, but he’s not a dick about it. him and gerard take all of the poets to their first concerts. weirdly enough he listens to top 40s pop when he’s driving, which is a lot because he’s somehow become everyone’s designated driver for everything. 

gerard: 100 gecs, kero kero bonito, g.l.o.s.s., sophie, megan thee stallion. a different side of the coin than meeks but like his best friend he has the coolest taste. he dabbles in production and secretly wants to make hyperpop. he’s really good at modding pedals and runs an underground business doing it for a bunch of kids at all the neighboring schools. he listens to a lot of punk as well, and bonds with charlie over it. 

cameron: he’s obsessed with tchaikovsky. obsessed with him. he and charlie are always bickering over whether or not the other can play music out loud in their room. for the holidays the group all pitch in to get both char and cameron noise cancelling headphones. secretly, cameron kind of likes some of the music charlie plays, even though it scares the shit out of him. he doesn’t realize that people can see what you’re listening to on spotify and one day the groupchat explodes because richard cameron himself was listening to girlpool. 

keating: he’s iconic so he’s really into joni mitchell, and teaches a poetry lesson using her songs. when he realizes gerard is writing music he’s ecstatic and helps him with lyrics as much as he can. he doesn’t really get the newer genres that the poets are into, but he tries valiantly and even kind of likes hatsune miku when charlie jokingly shows her to him. 

[player-1]

Aloe/Cyborg fans: Aloe and Coconut Palm used to be really great friends, maybe had a romance growing between them, but after Palm turned into Cyborg they forgot everything and turned violent and became a menace. Me, also a Aloe/Cyborg fan: Coconut Palm was a chaotic thembo jock who never grew out of the "eating everything they can get their hands on" phase and thrived off of ditching classes and hubris alone. After Aloe helped them keep a stable college education one time, Palm just decided they were partners-in-crime and that eventually grew into a fatal attraction for both parties involved. Still up in the air about the incident in question, but that tiny bit of Cyborg's original self went buckwild about the fact that they were now in trickster god-mode for life.

Comic Transcript below:

(Title: Being brutally honest can kill twice) Aloe: ...How do I describe my relationship with Palm? To tell you the truth, it was pretty freaking stressful. They were the Cookie embodiment of a goat with only two braincells flicking on and off like strobe lights. They were the dog our classmates claimed ate their homework. While I was trudging through the fog of love and war for them, I was in a three way relationship between a mentally stunted toddler and a poisoned cheerio.

I still have no idea how they survived in highschool, more or less even graduated...But I'm pretty sure they had a full-ride scholarship through college from Death itself. I guess being in love with me brought out another brand of carnage they didn't even think was possible, but I'm sure that was called 'having an alibi'.

(Neo Augment) Cyborg: Treesus Christ, all I asked you was who I was before all of this. I mean. Glad to know my personality hasn't changed. -But really!?

Sandwich: (Overheard everything) MA'AM, THIS IS A WENDY'S!

[piratewithvigor]

Stars

Chapter 4: 2013

In which our hero goes camping again

“Come on, we should be there soon, shouldn’t we?”

“Can’t you stop griping and just enjoy the walk?”

“How can I? You spent the three months before we moved here telling me about how dangerous this place is. Quizzing me on how to defend myself against 400 different species.”

“Aww, are you scared?”

“No!”

Kane couldn’t help but laugh. Daniel was terrified out of his wits. It was almost painfully obvious. Every time he thought Kane couldn’t see him, his eyes kept darting around the trees surrounding them. Inspecting the trees for things that might want to kill them. Which was fairly useless; everything in the Valley wanted to kill them, but nothing would dare. They knew they were under protection of the Undertaker and the creatures of the Valley respected such protection.

Even still, it just took one rogue beast to end both of them and turn them into dinner. They wouldn’t hesitate if they were hungry; the only vegan in the Valley was Daniel.

He took Daniel’s hand gently, doing his best to soothe his husband. Having had hardly any touches that weren’t meant to hurt him for decades, sometimes the gentler touches took Kane a little longer to get used to. Daniel was still the only one he could bear to touch for an extended length of time and certainly the only one he could bring himself to initiate such a touch with.

The gesture didn’t go unnoticed. Daniel exhaled softly as he squeezed a little.

He’d been excited for this trip. Hiking, camping; they were some of his favorite hobbies outside the ring. It was usually like pulling teeth to get Kane to want to come along. But he’d suggested this trip. The trip he used to take with his family on the first weekend of autumn. Spending the night in the woods of the Valley together, bonding. Kane didn’t talk about his family from before the fire too often, so Daniel was certainly not going to question why he brought it up then. Of course, at the time, the excitement had overridden the recollection that camping in the Valley was about equally dangerous as camping on a cliff face in the Grand Canyon. Except the danger was only held at bay by an unspoken supernatural promise.

So many questions from the Valley were better left unasked and just accepted.

“You’re gonna like it,” Kane promised. “It’s pretty. A lot of really soft grass.”

“I trust you.” Daniel wasn’t going to add that for as long as he’d lived there, he’d hardly seen any living grass, let alone really soft grass. Kane was excited, so he was going to keep his worries at bay. “You’re sure you remember the way, right?”

“Spent a night here every year for six years. I could find the clearing in my sleep.”

“Maybe, but that was thirty years ago.”

“Are you calling me old?”

“A little.”

“Take it back, or no s’mores for you.”

“That’s blackmail!”

“That’s life.”

“Okay, okay, I take it back.”

“Not good enough.”

Daniel exhaled in exasperation. “I’m sorry I called you old.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry I called you a goat.”

“You didn’t call me a goat.”

“I know. Now I’ve got one apology saved up for next time I do,” Kane grinned and avoided Daniel attempting a swat to the back of his head.

“You’re damn lucky you’re cute.”

“I know.”

Kane wasn’t exactly sure how he’d tricked Daniel into liking him. When they first met, they had some of the most awful fights Kane had ever been a part of. Both physically and emotionally. He hated Daniel at first. They would scream at each other until Kane was as hoarse as he’d been when he was re-learning how to talk. They were the tag team champions together and a formidable duo, but nothing like any other tag team Kane had been a part of. Everything felt wrong and off working with Daniel and it wasn’t because he felt like beating him more than their opponents. They just… had nothing in common. Except that they were both fueled with enough rage to be sent to anger management therapy together.

Kane had been gritting his teeth and hardly keeping himself from throwing Daniel through a wall every week. Until one week. The week of the trust falls.

“Daniel, just fall backwards, and Kane will catch you.”

“I will?”

He didn’t want to catch Daniel. Daniel didn’t want to be caught by Kane. Dr. Shelby was insistent. If they did this exercise, they might have a real breakthrough. Breakthroughs meant they could stop coming to these damn therapy sessions. Whether it was the promise of a breakthrough or the threat of having to do the exercise the next week, Kane wasn’t sure, but Daniel turned around.

“Kane, I trust you.”

He’d been stunned silent for a moment. Almost forgot to catch Daniel. But he didn’t. He caught Daniel’s shoulders easily and kept him from hitting the deceptively hard floor. The weight of a man who trusted him so completely so quickly was in his hands. He’d shoved Daniel upright to avoid letting him know his hands were shaking from getting so quickly overwhelmed with emotion. Dr. Shelby had been so proud of them. Moved them right on to the next phase of the exercise: working together. They were both instructed to catch some loser from the group. Even though they both put out their arms to catch him, he hit the floor hard as they pulled their arms back.

“Did you know that I wasn’t going to catch him?” Daniel had asked.

“Did you know that I wasn’t going to catch him?” Kane replied. A quiet smile had spread over Daniel’s lips.

“I think I finally understand you, Kane.”

They’d kissed for the first time that night. Still fought like cats and dogs, but in moments alone in the hotel rooms, they kissed. Sometimes they went further, sometimes they didn’t.

“We’re almost there,” Kane broke the silence, pointing with the hand that wasn’t interwoven with Daniel’s.

“Where? I don’t see any grass anywhe- holy shit…” The sight of the little clearing filled with lush, green grass seemed to take Daniel’s breath away.

“What do you think? Worth the hike?”

Daniel didn’t answer. Almost like he was dumbfounded such a soft place could exist within the harshness of the Valley.

“Daniel?”

“Very worth it.”

“You good setting up the tent while I gather the firewood?”

“Kane, I fucking swear, if you leave me alone in these woods, I will shit in your sleeping bag.”

One argument about proper firewood, one argument about tent raising techniques and three arguments about setting fires later, both of them were lying in the grass, watching the smoke from the dying fire rise into the night air.

“You shouldn’t be able to start a fire by hugging a log,” Daniel mumbled, snuggling up to Kane’s chest.

“I know.”

“How do you do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“It’s weird.”

“Can we change the subject?”

“Sure. To what?”

“Dunno. Know any good camping stories?”

“Well, there was one time I went camping with AJ and she needed to pee, but the bush under her was poison ivy and-”

“A different story!” Kane groaned, shuddering at the idea. Either because he didn’t want to know what happened with the poison ivy or because he didn’t want to know anything more about AJ than he already did. She was responsible for sending Daniel to anger management, so Kane owed her for that, but he didn’t want to know anything else.

“Okay, there was a time my family had a reunion at a campground and my aunt chopped up apples and tossed them in apple pie spices, then wrapped them in tin foil and stuck them in the coals of the campfire. Smoky apple pie filling.”

“Sounds tasty.”

“Should’ve told that story before so we could have done the same.”

“Maybe next time.”

He could promise a next time. He could swear that a year from then, he would still love Daniel. They would still be together. They could lie down in the grass and look up at the stars. They could marvel at how big the universe was and how miraculous it was that they found each other.

Far up in the night sky, a red star and one a little bigger seemed a little closer together.

[goodvibesprompttime]

DSMP AU :D

Gods abandon children all the time. 

It wasn't uncommon for children to find each other, be it on the road, travelling to somewhere that even they didn’t know existed, or, perhaps if they were the lucky ones, in a school among the rest of humans, where their godly heritage goes to die. It was up to opinion if losing heritage was worth it. If not, the children left a means of shelter to follow the path of uncertainty, chaos, without education or any guarantee they would see the beauty of dawn, or her loving embrace.

Like all abandoned children, twelve year old Tommy was good at something. It may not have been dancing, or cooking, or baking, or sports, or… a lot of things. But, the blonde was good at something. He was good at counting steps, and he was good at breathing, and smiling, and he was really funny. Although, according to the other abandoned children, in the abandoned children villages, none of those were things to be proud of. Tommy hated coming across villages. In truth, calling them villages made the places sound nicer than they were. If you were lucky, you could come across a village that was really just a house. Most of the time, however, these villages were just a group of children in whatever shelter they could find - painted in brilliant roses of risk, with brushstrokes of broken glass, or the potential to be discovered and torn apart like useless paper, soaked in water. 

Following the train tracks, as Tommy had done since he left the certainty of a foster family, led the blonde to many villages. Some villages only had two or three people, some had ten, one even was in the thirties. Tommy knew to avoid the bigger villages as a child with no insight on his godly parent. He had no powers to rely on, much less any intimidation. He was a scrawny kid carrying a stick, a backpack full of things, with a bandana around his neck, and a bandaid on his nose. Lesson one of being an abandoned, Tommy discovered, was to avoid big villages with bigger kids, or risk being beaten with your own stick. Tommy was only lucky they gave him bruises.

Despite having life, rather literally, beat him down when he was already low, Tommy followed the tracks with an uncanny sense of optimism. He sang for himself when even the birds were too tired to listen. He told himself stories when the forest did not. He still cheered as excitement swelled in him when a train passed by, even more so when he checked the time and found that the train came later. He was moving somewhere, farther from where the train was coming from, but that meant he was heading where it was going too. Time was still moving, and so was Tommy. 

~

Meanwhile, in the passing train, there hid a pair of twins who lived on the run their entire lives. On the caboose, out of sight from the authoritarian eyes of adults, was Techno and Wilbur. One with pink hair, tusks, and pointed ears, the other a brunette and unnaturally human looking for being Techno’s twin. They were both fifteen, soon sixteen, with enough years of experience to know the natural law of being an abandoned child: Lesson one. Do not trust anybody.

While Wilbur was sitting near the caboose exit, knees tucked under his chin, Techno was studying a map of the city the train was heading to. The city was named Las Nevadas, and nicknamed “The City Who Never Sleeps”. Someone of human descent says it’s because of how busy the gambling city was. Anyone of godly descent knows it’s because Las Nevadas was a place untouchable by the gods, including the god of sleep himself. It was the perfect place for Techno and Wilbur.

Las Nevadas welcomed artists, of all kinds, and, they hoped, they would not be discovered as abandoned children long enough to be hired by someone. There were most certainly flaws in the plan, and the twins weren’t quite sure what they would say about Techno’s appearance, but they were clever enough to figure out something. It was fake, they could say. Techno loved the theatre, especially a character from a local play from their far away town that they definitely came from. So much so that he decided to dress like them everyday. 

“Techno…?”

“Yes, Wilbur?” 

“I’m hungry… Do we have anything left?” Techno set down the map and checked his bag. Staring at the rather empty contents, Techno took out the last sandwich he had made from their last stop. After giving that to Wilbur, Techno gave his twin an orange and his metal water bottle. “Thanks, Techno…”

“Eat slow,” Techno picked up his map. “We still have an hour until Las Nevadas…” 

“Okay…” 

~

The City Who Never Sleeps. It was always a facit of conflicting viewpoints coming together to drown in the losing game of gambling. It was giving individuals jobs to work themselves to death. It was an approximation of a monster that never slept, just continuously fed on the poor souls it, and its creators, lured in. It was infectious. A disease that allowed people to walk like the living dead, with local folklore painting it as so alluring the pride and joy casino, Los Amantes, first ever built, lured in gods. 

All who lived in Las Nevadas, from the richest sinner to the poorest saint, that one phrase that dictates all in the city. Those who haven’t learned it perished mercilessly, their souls ripped from their bodies and minds to be sold to the highest paying bidder.

Lesson one: the house always wins.

From between the buildings, continuously wandering through alleyways, there was a tall child, just reaching fifteen not too long ago. His eyes were a misty purple, his pointed ears tilted towards the ground. He was an obvious abandoned child. If one couldn’t tell from ears or normally red and green eyes, then his skin of black and white was the giveaway. Truthfully, it was uncharacteristic for him to be in public and, if there was no other choice, then he would be in disguise. To have him wander so dangerously close towards the busy streets was suicide. 

“Ranboo!” A hand grabbed the sleepwalker’s, yanking him away before he could get into trouble. Ranboo hissed, struggling, but his companion was much stronger than him - albeit shorter. “Come on, not again…” 

His companion went by Tubbo, an abandoned child left behind before he was known to have existed, then yet again when he was growing into his demigodly features as a small child. He kept his brown hair over his eyes, blocking anyone from seeing their yellow glow, and always kept his pants baggy to cover up his goat-like legs. Surviving through the streets, being a thief, getting an odd job once or twice, all led to him taking care of Ranboo and another abandoned child. Nights like these, where Ranboo was “sleepwalking”, Tubbo searched for him. Sometimes it took minutes, sometimes it took hours. Tubbo had trained himself to wake up an hour after falling asleep just for these occasions, but predicting everything was impossible.

“Hisssss,” Ranboo snapped at Tubbo, literally hissing and snapping his jaw.

Tubbo snapped his fingers at Ranboo. “Don’t get mouthy with me, mister!”

The sleepwalker went quiet, making tiny noises Tubbo couldn’t describe - or replicate, for that matter. Tubbo dragged Ranboo back to their makeshift home, made from the fifth floor of an abandoned office space that had yet to be torn down. It was a stuffy place and it was hard to transform into a decent enough space to live, for both themselves and baby Michael. It wasn’t an unwelcomed surprise, just one unexpected. Ranboo freaked out, but who left a baby crying behind a trash can to either starve or freeze or get eaten by raccoons. Tubbo wasn’t expecting a baby, and was thankful Ranboo had some semblance of childcare knowledge. Tubbo supposed there was some benefit from being raised in an orphanage.

Tubbo panicked when he heard Michael crying, the abandoned child swore the baby was asleep. Before Tubbo could react, Ranboo near sprinted past him to attend to the baby. Out of his sleepwalking phase, Ranboo picked up Michael and soothed him to sleep. Tubbo smiled a bit, relieved, and watched his platonic partner while leaning on the doorframe. 

Michael didn’t sleep easily, especially if he can’t feel Tubbo or Ranboo. It’s why Tubbo moved his makeshift crib into his and Ranboo’s, for lack of a better word, room. It was just a mattress with a sheet Ranboo stole from the orphanage when he escaped, a blanket Tubbo stole, and pillows they managed to save up for. It was comfortable, appearances being deceiving of course. Michael surely thought so, resting as Ranboo set the baby on one of the pillows. 

“... you should go back to sleep, bossman.” Tubbo mumbled, taking off his coat and letting it fall on the floor. “Under the blanket too, it’s too cold for that shit.”

Ranboo made a small noise, brushing some of Michael’s hair out of his face. Tubbo shook his head, sitting on the mattress.

“He’s fine…” Tubbo assured him. “And you’re fine! It’s not like you’ll sleepwalk again, you’ve never done that before.”

Ranboo, hesitantly, laid down, and Michael moved to cling to his face. Tubbo muffled his laugh, throwing the blanket over all three of them. 

“Night, bossman.” Ranboo mumbled a goodnight.

Nights in Hell can only stay cold and dark for so long.

[rowdyravens]

Meet my apprentice!

I warned you I would soon infodump about my apprentice so here they are

this is going to be a pretty long post so info under the cut

I pretty much lifted this whole character sheet from pinterest with some added categories so if you want a blank for yourself you can find it here

Full name: Alas Jóhannesson Nicknames/ Aliases: Alas, the apprentice, little rabbit (only by his mother) Pronouns: He/ They Sexuality: bisexual Alignment: Neutral good Enneagram: 6 MBTI: INFJ-T Favorite food: Saffron risotto Favorite drink: Cherry kirsch Favorite flower: Edelweiss

Likes: Watching others enjoying themselves, taking care of others, animals, babies, cozy fireplaces, fall, giving gifts, spending time with friends, long journeys, pretty rocks and crystals, pressed flowers, handmade gifts, research deep dives, silly mugs, art museums, cafes, old book smell, writing with a new pen, caffeine, white wine, baking, over-planning, dark nail polish, barely-there makeup, handwritten notes, vacations, exploring, watercoloring Dislikes: the bitter cold, heavy snow, unsure plans, others being upset, violence, being unable to help, people who are mean for no reason, people who mistreat animals and children, homelessness, being sick, taxes, swimming, Lucio

Birthday: Dec 7   Age: 25 Zodiac: Sagittarius  Height: 5'5" Body type: lanky but slightly muscular from working outside Eye color: grey-blue Hair color and style: wavy, black, shoulder length, usually in a low ponytail or braid Defining features: very pale, freckle under left eye, both ears pierced. Walks with a walking stick that they enchanted with a balancing spell.  Personality: Reserved and stoic around strangers. Can come across as rude and aloof. Genuinely kind and nurturing towards loved ones. Dry sense of humor. Lets loose and has fun around friends. Designated driver friend. Languages spoken: At least 2, can carry a simple conversation with Julian and Mazalinka so maybe 3 Hobbies: Reading and drawing. Goes on long walks with Bear when he needs to think. Draws strangers and loved ones when they aren't aware. Quirks and habits: Serial lip biter. Runs his hands through his hair, braids and unbraids it when thinking deeply. Doodles on margins of important papers.

Sidenote for this part: I know there isnt an official world map so I used this map found on the wiki for my geography Place they grew up: South of Hjalle in a shepherding village at the foothills of the Southern Spines. Lived with their mother and father herding sheep and goats until 17 when they left for Vesuvia to pursue magic.

Post-Upright end: Travelled with Julian and Portia for a year and a half. They returned to the mountains to meet Alas's parents and stayed in the village for two or three months. His parents nagged them about when the wedding was the whole time. Returned to Vesuvia and now owns the shop/clinic with Julian.

Favorite memory: Shortly before leaving for Vesuvia they discovered an elkhound puppy living among the sheep. The sheep thought he was a lamb and had adopted him. Alas brought him home and named him bear. They are now inseparable. How this affected them: Bear is his familiar and occasionally acts as a service animal.  Worst memory: When he was a teen he had a rebellious phase after discovering his magic. After a fight with their parents they left the village in the middle of the night during a terrible snowstorm to reach out to their magic. He fell down a cliff and landed in a snowdrift, breaking his right leg. They stayed there and nearly froze to death while Bear went back to the village to get help. After this their parents decided sending them to Vesuvia to practice magic would be safer.  How this affected them: Walks with a walking stick after he broke his leg. Enchanted with a balancing spell. Unable to run long distances without pain. When it gets cold his knee hurts. Has nightmares of being stuck in the snow.

Dreams/goals: Pretty much accomplished everything they wanted by moving to Vesuvia, owning a shop, and living with the love of his life Fears: Losing his loved ones, heights, dying alone, bad snow storms.  Strengths/virtues: Generous to a fault. Anyone is allowed to crash on the couch no questions asked. Gives random gifts all the time. Very dry, sarcastic sense of humor. Gets along really well with children and the elderly. Weaknesses/flaws: Extremely clumsy. Overworker. Has to be dragged from their work at the shop. Hyper critical of himmself. Impatient, gets overly excited about things to come and wants them to happen now. Can be a little demanding. Sometimes forgets others don't tend to overwork themselves like he does. Sometimes sarcasm can bite a little too much. 

Secrets: Still has a little crush on Asra and doesn't know how to tell Julian (spoiler: he would be more than okay with it)

[cerastes]

Drimo, what IS the Centipede VTuber lore? Reveal it... Reveal it!

I was waiting to have an overlay and a few other things ready before dropping it, but you know what, Centipede VTuber lore, here it is.

--

The first step is posture.

The second step, strong eye contact.

And the third? You guessed it: A signature move that can annihilate them in a split second.

If you ask anybody, it is clear as morning dew that these are the building blocks to make a good first impression at a job interview. But see, a good and lasting first impression is not essential only to land that job or snatch that internship, it is fundamental for a variety of things, like marriage, seminars, and dungeon keeping.

And it is that solitary shining element in a bucket of otherwise drab boring everythings that matters here. But, ah, let us not get ahead of ourselves, yes? In media res is delightful, but today, this humble narrator wishes to relinquish unto you, without mirrors and smoke but definitely with bells and whistles, The Story of the Centipede of Want.

Once upon a time, within the ruined walls of a famously affluent cathedral’s brick and silver walls, there lived the Centipede, as he was known back then. As attentive ace detectives among readers might be able to discern, the Centipede was a centipede, long and eerie, body of man and beast alike everywhere it mattered, famished for as much sustenance as his forcipules could catch first, and as many things that he could get his numerous hands on a very close second. Warm in winter and cool in summer, the ruined cathedral was a comfortable place to live in, where a spring feast on autumn was common occurrence for the Centipede. Insects, such as scavengers and looters, from hereon morsels, habitually wandered in, looking for the old relics of silver and amethyst ripe for plundering in the ruins of the withered house of worship, becoming sustenance for its longest-lived predator, the four-armed, hundred-legged menace that prowled its once decadent halls, filled with the stagnant air of the hunt. Truth be told, the cathedral had long been looted for most of its relics and arcane implements, its silver goblets and amethyst utensils of all sizes and shapes, so the only ones that wandered in were fools and lesser beasts looking for refuge. It was a peaceful, easy life for the Centipede.

But at the same time, something like throbbing roots thrashed in the back of the Centipede’s head, something that tasted of cyan and grey and had no name, as far as the menace knew. Initially, it was merely a light jostle, but as time passed, the thrashing intensified like a landslide, eating away at his every thought, crunching harder and louder than his mandibles did the carapaces and cheap iron armor of the unfortunate interlopers caught in his granite and silver hunting grounds:

Complacence.

Cyan and grey and rancid and bitter. The Centipede’s mind was impregnated by throbbing unease, its quaking manic, its incisors sharp, its vice grip tight. During the day, it was common for the Centipede to mock the bishop and the priests of the once opulent church, begging day after day for tithe and tribute, only to feast behind closed doors of oak and silver. And yet, he himself was much the same: Preying on weak interlopers during the day, pretending to be a grandiose warlord among what little silver and amethyst decadence was left in the ruins during the night, devoid of any real strength and riches he could call his own.

In his ideal world, for each leg he had, he’d wear a different, uniquely etched and engraved silver band. In three hands, he’d hold silver goblets filled with the world’s finest wine, mead, and rum, aged in mahogany casks, with touches of juniper berries, and on his last hand, he’d hold an oversized goat leg, from which he’d munch on in between rounds of ambrosia. Ah, to be the Centipede! Or rather, the powerful entity in his wildest dreams!

Realization is the sharpest blade of them all. No matter how much you temper your carapace, that which is crafted from denial can’t ever hope to stop such a spearhead. Thus, the Centipede came upon an epiphany: He simply had to get that which he desired with his own hands, and that cyan and grey pulsating cluster of fangs would be gone! And so, he got to work: He’d go to one of the silver mines the town was famous for and become its biggest, meanest threat! The head honcho of harm! The throbbing titan of threat! The punishing pimple of pain! The alliterative administrator of annihilation! Oh, with mandible and might, he’d deliver the most poignant of Rectal Ragnaroks and Colon Crucifixions to any who’d dare wander into his domain!

He’d be the most feared Boss Fight of all!

The Centipede rushed out of the church, his two rows of endless legs clacking a demented tarantella as he headed right towards the hill, his putrid eyes fixed on the silver mine. It was time to begin his reign of rambunctious terror!

Or so was the plan. The plan that was supposed to work. Do you think the plan worked?

It didn’t. It really, really didn’t.

To say the Centipede feasted upon manure would be an understatement. Here’s some statements from adventurers that fought him:

“There’s definitely the intimidating factor of something with more legs than a ballroom, but his moveset was predictable. Kinda easy experience and silver, not gonna lie.” -- Anonymous Rogue, Adept Adventurer.

“Well, how to say this... His boss music could use some work, and only two life bars? I just got done fighting something with four phases, so this was... Well, anyways, at least he dropped a nice skill book.” -- Anonymous Mage, Adept Adventurer.

“I cheesed the dumbass with 100% physical damage resistance because he doesn’t have any elemental damage, lmao get bopped idiot, I kept using my overhead helmsplitter and he kept crouching and blocking in panic, you love to see it.” -- Anonymous Samurai, Adept Adventurer.

“He’s kind of a Stage 3 boss, nothing special, he’ll never make it big.” -- Anonymous White Mage, Adept Adventurer.

“mfer wont drop the damn skill book whats the drop rate on that shit i bet the skill sucks anyways, ive kicked his ass like 14 times now orz” -- Anonymous Warrior, Novice Adventurer.

Alas, it turns out that outside his domain of brick and silver, the Centipede wasn’t so big and mean, after all.

And that’s where most stories end: The monster gets conquered by adventurers, and everyone learns how to cheese it. A nice The End in fancy font then drops in front of you and you go to bed.

But you’re not going to bed today, shitlips.

Because this story is not over.

No.

He wasn’t going to take it.

He didn’t have to take it.

The Centipede rose back to its many feet and decided that he’d start from square one: He’d learn what makes a good boss fight no matter what! Then and there, the Centipede vowed to accrue a staggering amount of health bars, to have as many phases as he had legs, to have a moveset so diverse and foul that adventurers would get acid reflux merely by hearing about the shocking amount of tricky delays and annoying status effects his attacks entailed, to have the single most facemelting ultrabanger of a boss theme, and to never, ever again crouch against an overhead.

That day, the Centipede became The Centipede of Want, and what is it that he want? To be the biggest, meanest Final Boss ever!

...But that requires training! A lot of it! How did he decide to go at it? Why, by streaming a veritable variety of video games, of course! By learning from the boss fights of a deluge of games, he’d be able to craft new strategies most rancid and concoct novel attacks most putrid. Plus, what a better way to learn of the adventurers’ way of fighting than by being the adventurers in games? Not to mention that he could naturally engage with humans in conversation and have them unwittingly reveal their weaknesses to him! It was genius! The Centipede of Want headed to the cathedral’s ruins one last time, grabbed every last piece of silver and amethyst not yet plundered in there, and traded it for a streaming set-up in town. Using the last of the silver, he fashioned a mask for himself to signify that he was done being the complacent bully that roamed the walls of that decadent cathedral.

It was time to begin training.

He’d feast on weaklings no more.

He’d eat gods from now on. He’d seek adversity. He’d seek strength.

And the rest would naturally follow.

[aquilaofarkham]

Much like his infamous father, the aesthetic of Alucard has changed tremendously since Castlevania’s start in the 1980s—yet certain things about him never change at all. He began as the mirror image of Dracula; a hark back to the days of masculine Hammer Horror films, Christopher Lee, and Bela Lugosi. Then his image changed dramatically into the androgynous gothic aristocrat most people know him as today. This essay will examine Alucard’s design, the certain artistic and social trends which might have influenced it, and how it has evolved into what it is now.

☽ Read the full piece here or click the read more for the text only version ☽

INTRODUCTION

Published in 2017, Carol Dyhouse’s Heartthrobs: A History of Women and Desire examines how certain cultural trends can influence what women may find attractive or stimulating in a male character. By using popular archetypes such as the Prince Charming, the bad boy, and the tall dark handsome stranger, Dyhouse seeks to explain why these particular men appeal to the largest demographic beyond mere superfluous infatuation. In one chapter titled “Dark Princes, Foreign Powers: Desert Lovers, Outsiders, and Vampires”, she touches upon the fascination most audiences have with moody and darkly seductive vampires. Dyhouse exposits that the reason for this fascination is the inherent dangerous allure of taming someone—or something—so dominating and masculine, perhaps even evil, yet hides their supposed sensitivity behind a Byronic demeanour.

This is simply one example of how the general depiction of vampires in mainstream media has evolved over time. Because the concept itself is as old as the folklore and superstitions it originates from, thus varying from culture to culture, there is no right or wrong way to represent a vampire, desirable or not. The Caribbean Soucouyant is described as a beautiful woman who sheds her skin at night and enters her victims’ bedrooms disguised as an aura of light before consuming their blood. In Ancient Roman mythology there are tales of the Strix, an owl-like creature that comes out at night to drink human blood until it can take no more. Even the Chupacabra, a popular cryptid supposedly first spotted in Puerto Rico, has been referred to as being vampiric because of the way it sucks blood out of goats, leaving behind a dried up corpse.

However, it is a rare thing to find any of these vampires in popular media. Instead, most modern audiences are shown Dyhouse’s vampire: the brooding, masculine alpha male in both appearance and personality. A viewer may wish to be with that character, or they might wish to become just like that character. 

This sort of shift in regards to creating the “ideal” vampire is most evident in how the image of Dracula has been adapted, interpreted, and revamped in order to keep up with changing trends. In Bram Stoker’s original 1897 novel of the same name, Dracula is presented as the ultimate evil; an ancient, almost grotesque devil that ensnares the most unsuspecting victims and slowly corrupts their innocence until they are either subservient to him (Renfield, the three brides) or lost to their own bloodlust (Lucy Westenra). In the end, he can only be defeated through the joined actions of a steadfast if not ragtag group of self-proclaimed vampire hunters that includes a professor, a nobleman, a doctor, and a cowboy. His monstrousness in following adaptations remains, but it is often undercut by attempts to give his character far more pathos than the original source material presents him with. Dracula has become everything: a monster, a lover, a warrior, a lonely soul searching for companionship, a conquerer, a comedian, and of course, the final boss of a thirty-year-old video game franchise.

Which brings us to the topic of this essay; not Dracula per say, but his son. Even if someone has never played a single instalment of Castlevania or watched the ongoing animated Netflix series, it is still most likely that they have heard of or seen the character of Alucard through cultural osmosis thanks to social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and the like. Over the thirty-plus years in which Castlevania has remained within the public’s consciousness, Alucard has become one of the most popular characters of the franchise, if not the most popular. Since his debut as a leading man in the hit game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, he has taken his place beside other protagonists like Simon Belmont, a character who was arguably the face of Castlevania before 1997, the year in which Symphony of the Night was released. Alucard is an iconic component of the series and thanks in part to the mainstream online streaming service Netflix, he is now more present in the public eye than ever before whether through official marketing strategies or fanworks.

It is easy to see why. Alucard’s backstory and current struggles are quite similar to the defining characteristics of the Byronic hero. Being the son of the human doctor Lisa Țepeș, a symbol of goodness and martyrdom in all adaptations, and the lord of all vampires Dracula, Alucard (also referred to by his birth name Adrian Fahrenheit Țepeș) feels constantly torn between the two halves of himself. He maintains his moralistic values towards protecting humanity, despite being forced to make hard decisions, and despite parts of humanity not being kind to him in turn, yet is always tempted by his more monstrous inheritance. The idea of a hero who carries a dark burden while aspiring towards nobility is something that appeals to many audiences. We relate to their struggles, cheer for them when they triumph, and share their pain when they fail. Alucard (as most casual viewers see him) is the very personification of the Carol Dyhouse vampire: mysterious, melancholic, dominating, yet sensitive and striving for compassion. Perceived as a supposed “bad boy” on the surface by people who take him at face value, yet in reality is anything but.

Then there is Alucard’s appearance, an element that is intrinsically tied to how he has been portrayed over the decades and the focus of this essay. Much like his infamous father, the aesthetic of Alucard has changed tremendously since Castlevania’s start in the 1980s—yet certain things about him never change at all. He began as the mirror image of Dracula; a hark back to the days of masculine Hammer Horror films, Christopher Lee, and Bela Lugosi. Then his image changed dramatically into the androgynous gothic aristocrat most people know him as today. This essay will examine Alucard’s design, the certain artistic and social trends which might have influenced it, and how it has evolved into what it is now. Parts will include theoretical, analytical, and hypothetical stances, but it’s overall purpose is to be merely observational.

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What is Castlevania?

We start this examination at the most obvious place, with the most obvious question. Like all franchises, Castlevania has had its peaks, low points, and dry spells. Developed by Konami and directed by Hitoshi Akamatsu, the first instalment was released in 1986 then distributed in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System the following year. Its pixelated gameplay consists of jumping from platform to platform and fighting enemies across eighteen stages all to reach the final boss, Dracula himself. Much like the gameplay, the story of Castlevania is simple. You play as Simon Belmont; a legendary vampire hunter and the only one who can defeat Dracula. His arsenal includes holy water, axes, and throwing daggers among many others, but his most important weapon is a consecrated whip known as the vampire killer, another iconic staple of the Castlevania image.

Due to positive reception from critics and the public alike, Castlevania joined other titles including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Mega Man as one of the most defining video games of the 1980s. As for the series itself, Castlevania started the first era known by many fans and aficionados as the “Classicvania” phase, which continued until the late 1990s. It was then followed by the “Metroidvania” era, the “3-D Vania” era during the early to mid 2000s, an reboot phase during the early 2010s, and finally a renaissance or “revival” age where a sudden boom in new or re-released Castlevania content helped boost interest and popularity in the franchise. Each of these eras detail how the games changed in terms of gameplay, design, and storytelling. The following timeline gives a general overview of the different phases along with their corresponding dates and instalments.

Classicvania refers to Castlevania games that maintain the original’s simplicity in gameplay, basic storytelling, and pixelated design. In other words, working within the console limitations of the time. They are usually side-scrolling platformers with an emphasis on finding hidden objects and defeating a variety of smaller enemies until the player faces off against the penultimate boss. Following games like Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest and Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse were more ambitious than their predecessor as they both introduced new story elements that offered multiple endings and branching pathways. In Dracula’s Curse, there are four playable characters each with their own unique gameplay. However, the most basic plot of the first game is present within both of these titles . Namely, find Dracula and kill Dracula. Like with The Legend of Zelda’s Link facing off against Ganon or Mario fighting Bowser, the quest to destroy Dracula is the most fundamental aspect to Castlevania. Nearly every game had to end with his defeat. In terms of gameplay, it was all about the journey to Dracula’s castle. 

As video games grew more and more complex leading into the 1990s, Castlevania’s tried and true formula began to mature as well. The series took a drastic turn with the 1997 release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a game which started the Metroidvania phase. This not only refers to the stylistic and gameplay changes of the franchise itself, but also refers to an entire subgenre of video games. Combining key components from Castlevania and Nintendo’s popular science fiction action series Metroid, Metroidvania games emphasize non-linear exploration and more traditional RPG elements including a massive array of collectable weapons, power-ups, character statistics, and armor. Symphony of the Night pioneered this trend while later titles like Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow solidified it. Nowadays, Metroidvanias are common amongst independent developers while garnering critical praise. Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night are just a few examples of modern Metroidvanias that use the formula to create familiar yet still distinct gaming experiences. 

Then came the early to mid 2000s and many video games were perfecting the use of 3-D modelling, free control over the camera, and detailed environments. Similar to what other long-running video game franchises were doing at the time, Castlevania began experimenting with 3-D in 1999 with Castlevania 64 and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, both developed for the Nintendo 64 console. 64 received moderately positive reviews while the reception for its companion was far more mixed, though with Nintendo 64’s discontinuation in 2002, both games have unfortunately fallen into obscurity. 

A year later, Castlevania returned to 3-D with Castlevania: Lament of Innocence for the Playstation 2. This marked Koji Igarashi’s first foray into 3-D as well as the series’ first ever M-rated instalment. While not the most sophisticated or complex 3-D Vania (or one that manages to hold up over time in terms of graphics), Lament of Innocence was a considerable improvement over 64 and Legacy of Darkness. Other 3-D Vania titles include Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, Castlevania: Judgment, and Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP, a remake of the Classicvania game Castlevania: Rondo of Blood which merged 3-D models, environments, and traditional platforming mechanics emblematic of early Castlevania. It is important to note that during this particular era, there were outliers to the changing formula that included Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, both games which added to the Metroidvania genre. 

Despite many of the aforementioned games becoming cult classics and fan favourites, this was an era in which Castlevania struggled to maintain its relevance, confused by its own identity according to most critics. Attempts to try something original usually fell flat or failed to resonate with audiences and certain callbacks to what worked in the past were met with indifference. 

By the 2010s, the Castlevania brand changed yet again and stirred even more division amongst critics, fans, and casual players. This was not necessarily a dark age for the franchise but it was a strange age; the black sheep of Castlevania. In 2010, Konami released Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, a complete reboot of the series with new gameplay, new characters, and new lore unrelated to previous instalments. The few elements tying it to classic Castlevania games were recurring enemies, platforming, and the return of the iconic whip used as both a weapon and another means of getting from one area to another. Other gameplay features included puzzle-solving, exploration, and hack-and-slash combat. But what makes Lords of Shadow so divisive amongst fans is its story. The player follows Gabriel Belmont, a holy warrior on a quest to save his deceased wife’s soul from Limbo. From that basic plot point, the storyline diverges immensely from previous Castlevania titles, becoming more and more complicated until Gabriel makes the ultimate sacrifice and turns into the very monster that haunted other Belmont heroes for centuries: Dracula. While a dark plot twist and a far cry from the hopeful endings of past games, the concept of a more tortured and reluctant Dracula who was once the hero had already been introduced in older Dracula adaptations (the Francis Ford Coppola directed Dracula being a major example of this trend in media).

Despite strong opinions on how much the story of Lords of Shadow diverged from the original timeline, it was positively received by critics, garnering an overall score of 85 on Metacritic. This prompted Konami to continue with the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow—Mirror of Fate and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. Mirror of Fate returned to the series’ platforming and side-scrolling roots with stylized 3-D models and cutscenes. It received mixed reviews, as did its successor Lords of Shadow 2. While Mirror of Fate felt more like a classic stand-alone Castlevania with Dracula back as its main antagonist, the return of Simon Belmont, and the inclusion of Alucard, Lords of Shadow 2 carried over plot elements from its two predecessors along with new additions, turning an already complicated story into something more contrived. 

Finally, there came a much needed revival phase for the franchise. Netflix’s adaptation of Castlevania animated by Powerhouse Animation Studios based in Austen, Texas and directed by Samuel Deats and co-directed by Adam Deats aired its first season during July 2017 with four episodes. Season two aired in October 2018 with eight episodes followed by a ten episode third season in March 2020. Season four was announced by Netflix three weeks after the release of season three. The show combines traditional western 2-D animation with elements from Japanese anime and is a loose adaptation of Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse combined with plot details from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and original story concepts. But the influx of new Castlevania content did not stop with the show. Before the release of season two, Nintendo announced that classic protagonists Simon Belmont and Richter Belmont would join the ever-growing roster of playable characters in their hit fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. With their addition also came the inclusion of iconic Castlevania environments, music, weapons, and supporting characters like Dracula and Alucard. 

During the year-long gap between seasons two and three of the Netflix show, Konami released Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls, a side-scrolling platformer and gacha game for mobile devices. The appeal of Grimoire of Souls is the combination of popular Castlevania characters each from a different game in the series interacting with one another along with a near endless supply of collectable weapons, outfits, power-ups, and armor accompanied by new art. Another ongoing endeavor by Konami in partnership with Sony to bring collective awareness back to one of their flagship titles is the re-releasing of past Castlevania games. This began with Castlevania: Requiem, in which buyers received both Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood for the Playstation 4 in 2018. This was followed the next year with the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, a bundle that included a number of Classicvania titles for the Playstation 4, Xbox One, Steam, and Nintendo Switch.

Like Dracula, the Belmonts, and the vampire killer, one other element tying these five eras together is the presence of Alucard and his various forms in each one.

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Masculinity in 1980s Media

When it comes to media and various forms of the liberal arts be it entertainment, fashion, music, etc., we are currently in the middle of a phenomenon known as the thirty year cycle. Patrick Metzgar of The Patterning describes this trend as a pop cultural pattern that is, in his words, “forever obsessed with a nostalgia pendulum that regularly resurfaces things from 30 years ago”. Nowadays, media seems to be fixated with a romanticized view of the 1980s from bold and flashy fashion trends, to current music that relies on the use of synthesizers, to of course visual mass media that capitalizes on pop culture icons of the 80s. This can refer to remakes, reboots, and sequels; the first cinematic chapter of Stephen King’s IT, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and both Ghostbusters remakes are prime examples—but the thirty year cycle can also include original media that is heavily influenced or oversaturated with nostalgia. Netflix’s blockbuster series Stranger Things is this pattern’s biggest and most overt product. 

To further explain how the thirty year cycle works with another example, Star Wars began as a nostalgia trip and emulation of vintage science fiction serials from the 1950s and 60s, the most prominent influence being Flash Gordon. This comparison is partially due to George Lucas’ original attempts to license the Flash Gordon brand before using it as prime inspiration for Star Wars: A New Hope and subsequent sequels. After Lucas sold his production company Lucasfilms to Disney, three more Star Wars films were released, borrowing many aesthetic and story elements from Lucas’ original trilogy while becoming emulations of nostalgia themselves. 

The current influx of Castlevania content could be emblematic of this very same pattern in visual media, being an 80s property itself, but what do we actually remember from the 1980s? Thanks to the thirty year cycle, the general public definitely acknowledges and enjoys all the fun things about the decade. Movie theatres were dominated by the teen flicks of John Hughes, the fantasy genre found a comeback due to the resurgence of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic works along with the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, and people were dancing their worries away to the songs of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Madonna. Then there were the things that most properties taking part in the thirty year cycle choose to ignore or gloss over, with some exceptions. The rise of child disappearances, prompting the term “stranger danger”, the continuation of satanic panic from the 70s which caused the shutdown and incarceration of hundreds of innocent caretakers, and the deaths of thousands due to President Reagan’s homophobia, conservatism, and inability to act upon the AIDS crisis. 

The 1980s also saw a shift in masculinity and how it was represented towards the public whether through advertising, television, cinema, or music. In M.D. Kibby’s essay Real Men: Representations of Masculinity in 80s Cinema, he reveals that “television columns in the popular press argued that viewers were tired of liberated heroes and longed for the return of the macho leading man” (Kibby, 21). Yet there seemed to be a certain “splitness” to the masculine traits found within fictional characters and public personas; something that tried to deconstruct hyper-masculinity while also reviling in it, particularly when it came to white, cisgendered men. Wendy Somerson further describes this dichotomy: “The white male subject is split. On one hand, he takes up the feminized personality of the victim, but on the other hand, he enacts fantasies of hypermasculinized heroism” (Somerson, 143). Somerson explains how the media played up this juxtaposition of “soft masculinity”, where men are portrayed as victimized, helpless, and childlike. In other words, “soft men who represent a reaction against the traditional sexist ‘Fifties man’ and lack a strong male role model” (Somerson, 143). A sort of self-flagellation or masochism in response to the toxic and patriarchal gender roles of three decades previous. Yet this softening of male representation was automatically seen as traditionally “feminine” and femininity almost always equated to childlike weakness. Then in western media, there came the advent of male madness and the fetishization of violent men. Films like Scarface, Die Hard, and any of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s filmography helped to solidify the wide appeal of these hyper-masculine and “men out of control” tropes which were preceded by Martin Scorcese’s critical and cult favourite Taxi Driver.

There were exceptions to this rule; or at the very least attempted exceptions that only managed to do more harm to the concept of a feminized man while also doubling down on the standard tropes of the decade. One shallow example of this balancing act between femininity and masculinity in 80s western media was the hit crime show Miami Vice and Sonny, a character who is entirely defined by his image. In Kibby’s words, “he is a beautiful consumer image, a position usually reserved for women; and he is in continual conflict with work, that which fundamentally defines him as a man” (Kibby, 21). Therein lies the problematic elements of this characterization. Sonny’s hyper-masculine traits of violence and emotionlessness serve as a reaffirmation of his manufactured maleness towards the audience.

Returning to the subject of Schwarzenegger, his influence on 80s media that continued well into the 90s ties directly to how fantasy evolved during this decade while also drawing upon inspirations from earlier trends. The most notable example is his portrayal of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian in the 1982 film directed by John Milius. Already a classic character from 1930s serials and later comic strips, the movie (while polarizing amongst critics who described it as a “psychopathic Star Wars, stupid and stupefying”) brought the iconic image of a muscle-bound warrior wielding a sword as half-naked women fawn at his feet back into the collective consciousness of many fantasy fans. The character and world of Conan romanticizes the use of violence, strength, and pure might in order to achieve victory. This aesthetic of hyper-masculinity, violence, and sexuality in fantasy art was arguably perfected by the works of Frank Frazetta, a frequent artist for Conan properties. The early Castlevania games drew inspiration from this exact aesthetic for its leading hero Simon Belmont and directly appropriated one of Frazetta’s pieces for the cover of the first game.

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Hammer Horror & Gender

Conan the Barbarian, Frank Frazetta, and similar fantasy icons were just a few influences on the overall feel of 80s Castlevania. Its other major influence harks back to a much earlier and far more gothic trend in media. Castlevania director Hitoshi Akamatsu stated that while the first game was in development, they were inspired by earlier cinematic horror trends and “wanted players to feel like they were in a classic horror movie”. This specific influence forms the very backbone of the Castlevania image. Namely: gothic castles, an atmosphere of constant uncanny dread, and a range of colourful enemies from Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, to of course Dracula. The massive popularity and recognizability of these three characters can be credited to the classic Universal Pictures’ monster movies of the 1930s, but there was another film studio that put its own spin on Dracula and served as another source of inspiration for future Castlevania properties.

The London-based film company Hammer Film Productions was established in 1934 then quickly filed bankruptcy a mere three years later after their films failed to earn back their budget through ticket sales. What saved them was the horror genre itself as their first official title under the ‘Hammer Horror’ brand The Curse of Frankenstein starring Hammer regular Peter Cushing was released in 1957 to enormous profit in both Britain and overseas. With one successful adaptation of a horror legend under their belt, Hammer’s next venture seemed obvious. Dracula (also known by its retitle Horror of Dracula) followed hot off the heels of Frankenstein and once again starred Peter Cushing as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, a much younger and more dashing version of his literary counterpart. Helsing faces off against the titular fanged villain, played by Christopher Lee, whose portrayal of Dracula became the face of Hammer Horror for decades to come. 

Horror of Dracula spawned eight sequels spanning across the 60s and 70s, each dealing with the resurrection or convoluted return of the Prince of Darkness (sound familiar?) Yet these were not the same gothic films pioneered by Universal Studios with fog machines, high melodrama, and disturbingly quiet atmosphere. Christopher Lee’s Dracula and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula are two entirely separate beasts. While nearly identical in design (slicked back hair, long flowing black cape, and a dignified, regal demeanor), Lugosi is subtle, using only his piercing stare as a means of intimidation and power—in the 1930s, smaller details meant bigger scares. For Hammer Horror, when it comes time to show Dracula’s true nature, Lee bares his blood-covered fangs and acts like an animal coveting their prey. Hammer’s overall approach to horror involved bigger production sets, low-cut nightgowns, and bright red blood that contrasted against the muted, desaturated look of each film. And much like the media of 1980, when it came to their characters, the Dracula films fell back on what was expected by society to be ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ while also making slight commentary on those very preconceived traits.

The main theme surrounding each male cast in these films is endangered male authority. Dracula and Van Helsing are without a doubt the most powerful, domineering characters in the story, particularly Helsing. As author Peter Hutchings describes in his book Hammer & Beyond: The British Horror Film, “the figure of the (male) vampire hunter is always one of authority, certainty, and stability (...) he is the only one with enough logical sense to know how to defeat the ultimate evil, thus saving the female characters and weaker male characters from being further victimized” (Hutchings, 124). The key definition here is ‘weaker male characters’. Hammer’s Dracula explores the absolute power of male authority in, yet it also reveals how easily this authority can be weakened. This is shown through the characters of Jonathan Harker and Arthur Holmwood, who differ slightly from how they are portrayed in Stoker’s novel. While Dracula does weaken them both, they manage to join Helsing and defeat the monster through cooperation and teamwork. In fact, it is Harker who lands one of the final killing strikes against Dracula. However, the Jonathan Harker of Hammer’s Dracula is transformed into a vampire against his will and disposed of before the finale. His death, in the words of Hutchings, “underlines the way in which throughout the film masculinity is seen (...) as arrested, in a permanently weakened state” (Hutchings, 117).

This theme of weakened authority extends to Holmwood in a more obvious and unsettling manner. In another deviation from the source material, Lucy Westenra, best friend to Mina Murray and fiancé to Arthur Holmwood, is now Holmwood’s sister and Harker’s fiancé. Lucy’s story still plays out more or less the same way it did in the novel; Dracula routinely drains her of blood until she becomes a vampire, asserting his dominance both physically and mentally. This according to Hutchings is the entirety of Dracula’s plan; a project “to restore male authority over women by taking the latter away from the weak men, establishing himself as the immortal, sole patriarch” (Hutchings, 119). Meanwhile, it is Helsing’s mission to protect men like Arthur Holmwood, yet seems only concerned with establishing his own dominance and does nothing to reestablish Holmwood’s masculinity or authority. Due to the damage done by Dracula and the failings of Helsing, Holmwood never regains this authority, even towards the end when he is forced to murder his own sister. His reaction goes as follows: “as she is staked he clutches his chest, his identification with her at this moment, when she is restored to a passivity which is conventionally feminine, suggesting a femininity within him which the film equates with weakness” (Hutchings, 117).

So Van Helsing succeeds in his mission to defeat his ultimate rival, but Dracula is victorious in his own right. With Jonathan Harker gone, Lucy Holmwood dead, and Arthur Holmwood further emasculated, he succeeds in breaking down previous male power structures while putting himself in their place as the all-powerful, all-dominant male presence. This is the very formula in which early Hammer Dracula films were built upon; “with vampire and vampire hunter mutually defining an endangered male authority, and the woman functioning in part as the site of their struggle (...) forged within and responded to British social reality of the middle and late 1950s” (Hutchings, 123).

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Alucard c. 1989

As for Castlevania’s Dracula, his earliest design takes more from Christopher Lee’s portrayal than from Bela Lugosi or Bram Stoker’s original vision. His appearance on the first ever box art bears a striking resemblance to one of the most famous stills from Horror of Dracula. Even in pixelated form, Dracula’s imposing model is more characteristic of Christopher Lee than Bela Lugosi.

Being his son, it would make logical sense for the first appearance of Alucard in Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse to resemble his father. His 1989 design carries over everything from the slick dark hair, sharp claws, and shapeless long cloak but adds a certain juvenile element—or rather, a more human element. This makes sense in the context of the game’s plot. Despite being the third title, Dracula’s Curse acts as the starting point to the Castlevania timeline (before it was replaced by Castlevania: Legends in 1997, which was then retconned and also replaced by Castlevania: Lament of Innocence in 2003 as the definitive prequel of the series). Set nearly two centuries before Simon Belmont’s time, Dracula’s Curse follows Simon’s ancestor Trevor Belmont as he is called to action by the church to defeat Dracula once he begins a reign of terror across Wallachia, now known as modern day Romania. It is a reluctant decision by the church, since the Belmont family has been exiled due to fear and superstition surrounding their supposed inhuman powers. 

This is one example of how despite the current technological limitations, later Castlevania games were able to add more in-depth story elements little by little beyond “find Dracula, kill Dracula”. This began as early as Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest by giving Simon a much stronger motivation in his mission and the inclusion of multiple endings. The improvements made throughout the Classicvania era were relatively small while further character and story complexities remained either limited or unexplored, but they were improvements nonetheless.

Another example of this slight progress in storytelling was Castlevania 3’s introduction of multiple playable characters each with a unique backstory of their own. The supporting cast includes Sypha Belnades, a powerful sorceress disguised as a humble monk who meets Trevor after he saves her from being frozen in stone by a cyclops, and Grant Danasty, a pirate who fell under Dracula’s influence before Trevor helped him break free from his curse. Then there is of course Adrian Fahrenheit Țepe�� who changed his name to Alucard, the opposite of Dracula, as a symbol of rebellion against his tyrannical father. Yet Castlevania was not the first to conceptualize the very character of Alucard; someone who is the son of Dracula and whose name is quite literally the backwards spelling of his fathers’. That idea started with Universal’s 1943 venture Son of Dracula, a sequel to the 1931 classic that unfortunately failed to match the original’s effective atmosphere, scares, and story. In it, Alucard is undoubtedly the villain whereas in Dracula’s Curse, he is one of the heroes. Moral and noble, able to sway Trevor Belmont’s preconceptions of vampiric creatures, and with an odd sympathy for the monster that is his father. Alucard even goes as far as to force himself into an eternal slumber after the defeat of Dracula in order to “purge the world of his own cursed bloodline” (the reason given by Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’s opening narration).

When it comes to design, Castlevania’s Alucard does the curious job of fitting in with the franchises’ established aesthetic yet at the same time, he manages to stand out the most—in fact, all the main characters do. Everyone from Trevor, Sypha, to Grant all look as though they belong in different stories from different genres. Grant’s design is more typical of the classic pirate image one would find in old illustrated editions of Robinson Crusoe’s Treasure Island or in a classic swashbuckler like 1935’s Captain Blood starring Errol Flynn. Sypha might look more at home in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign or an early Legend of Zelda title with a large hood obscuring her facial features, oversized blue robes, and a magical staff all of which are commonplace for a fantasy mage of the 1980s. Trevor’s design is nearly identical to Simon’s right down to the whip, long hair, and barbarian-esque attire which, as mentioned previously, was taken directly from Conan the Barbarian. 

Judging Alucard solely from official character art ranging from posters to other promotional materials, he seems to be the only one who belongs in the gothic horror atmosphere of Dracula’s Curse. As the physically largest and most supernaturally natured of the main cast, he is in almost every way a copy of his father—a young Christopher Lee’s Dracula complete with fangs and cape. Yet his path as a hero within the game’s narrative along with smaller, near missable details in his design (his ingame magenta cape, the styling of his hair in certain official art, and the loose-fitting cravat around his neck) further separates him from the absolute evil and domination that is Dracula. Alucard is a rebel and an outsider, just like Trevor, Sypha, and Grant. In a way, they mirror the same vampire killing troupe from Bram Stoker’s novel; a group of people all from different facets of life who come together to defeat a common foe. 

The son of Dracula also shares similar traits with Hammer’s Van Helsing. Same as the Belmonts (who as vampire hunters are exactly like Helsing in everything except name), Alucard is portrayed as one of the few remaining beacons of masculinity with enough strength, skill, and logical sense who can defeat Dracula, another symbol of patriarchal power. With Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse, we begin to see Alucard’s dual nature in aesthetics that is automatically tied to his characterization; a balance that many Byronic heroes try to strike between masculine domination and moralistic sensitivity and goodness that is often misconstrued as weakly feminine. For now though, especially in appearance, Alucard’s persona takes more from the trends that influenced his allies (namely Trevor and Simon Belmont) and his enemy (Dracula). This of course would change drastically alongside the Castlevania franchise itself come the 1990s.

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Gender Expression & The 1990s Goth Scene

When a person sees or hears the word “gothic”, it conjures up a very specific mental image—dark and stormy nights spent inside an extravagant castle that is host to either a dashing vampire with a thirst for blood, vengeful ghosts of the past come to haunt some unfortunate living soul, or a mad scientist determined to cheat death and bring life to a corpse sewn from various body parts. In other words, a scenario that would be the focus of some Halloween television special or a daring novel from the mid to late Victorian era. Gothicism has had its place in artistic and cultural circles long before the likes of Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and even before Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, a late 18th century novel that arguably started the gothic horror subgenre. 

The term itself originated in 17th century Sweden as a descriptor of the national romanticism concerning the North Germanic Goths, a tribe which occupied much of Medieval Götaland. It was a period of historical revisionism in which the Goths and other Viking tribes were depicted as heroic and heavily romanticised. Yet more than ever before, gothicism is now associated with a highly specific (and in many ways personal) form of artistic and gender expression. It started with the golden age of gothic Medieval architecture that had its revival multiple centuries later during the Victorian era, then morphed into one of the darkest if not melodramatic literary movements, and finally grew a new identity throughout the 1990s. For this portion, we will focus on the gothic aesthetic as it pertains to fashion and music.

Arguably, the advent of the modern goth subculture as it is known nowadays began with the 1979 song “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” from Northampton’s own rock troupe Bauhaus. The overall aesthetic of the song, accompanying live performances, and the band itself helped shaped the main themes of current gothicism including, but not limited to, “macabre funeral musical tone and tempo, to lyrical references to the undead, to deep voiced eerie vocals, to a dark twisted form of androgyny in the appearance of the band and most of its following” (Hodkinson, 35-64). This emphasis on physical androgyny in a genre that was predominantly focused on depictions of undeniable masculinity was especially important to the 80s and 90s goth scene. Bauhaus opened the gates in which other goth and post-punk bands gained popularity outside of underground venues, including The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Southern Death Cult. Much like Bauhaus’ “twisted form of androgyny”, these other bands pioneered a romantic yet darkly feminine aesthetic which was then embraced by their fans. It wasn’t until the producer of Joy Division Tony Wilson along with members from Southern Death Cult and U.K. Decay mentioned the word “goth” in passing that this growing musical and aesthetic subculture finally had a name for itself. 

The goth movement of the 1990s became an interesting mesh of nonconformity and individual expression while also emphasising the need for a mutual connection through shared interests and similar aesthetics. Unique social outsiders looking for a sense of community and belonging—not unlike Stoker’s vampire hunting troupe or the main cast of Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse. Paul Hodkinson author of Goth: Identity, Style and Subculture describes the ways in which goths were able to expand their social networking while making the subculture their own. In order to gain further respect and recognition within the community, “they usually sought to select their own individual concoction from the range of acceptable artefacts and themes and also to make subtle additions and adaptations from beyond the established stylistic boundaries” (Hodkinson, 35-64). This was one of the ways in which the goth subculture was able to grow and evolve while maintaining some typical aesthetics. Those aesthetics that had already become gothic staples as far back as classic Victorian horror included crucifixes, bats, and vampires; all of which were presented by young modern goths, as Hodkinson puts it, “sometimes in a tongue-in-cheek self-conscious manner, sometimes not” (Hodkinson, 35-64).

The vampire, as it appeared in visual mass media of the time, was also instrumental to the 90s gothic scene, reinforcing certain physical identifiers such as long dark hair, pale make-up, and sometimes blackened sunglasses. This was especially popular amongst male goths who embodied traditional gothic traits like dark femininity and androgyny, which had already been long established within the subculture. 

As always, television and film did more to reinforce these subcultural trends as recognizable stereotypes, usually in a negative manner, than it did to help people embrace them. In media aimed towards a primarily teenage and young adult demographic, if a character did not possess the traditional traits of a hyper-masculine man, they instead fit into two different molds; either the neurotic geek or the melodramatic, moody goth. However, there were forms of media during the 90s that did manage to embrace and even relish with no sense of irony in the gothic aesthetic. 

Two films which helped to build upon the enthusiasm for the vampire were Francis Ford Coppola’s lavish adaptation of Stoker’s novel titled Bram Stoker’s Dracula starring Gary Oldman in the titular role of Dracula and another adaptation of a more recent gothic favourite among goths, Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. The majority of the male goth scene especially emulated Oldman’s portrayal of Dracula when in the film he transforms into a much younger, more seductive version of himself in order to blend in with society, everything down to the shaded Victorian sunglasses and the long flowing hair; a vision of classic, sleek androgyny combined with an intimidating demeanor without being overly hyper-masculine. 

Primarily taking place during the 18th and 19th century, Interview with the Vampire (the film and the original novel) also encouraged this very same trend, helping to establish European aristocratic elements into the gothic aesthetic; elements such as lace frills, finely tailored petticoats, corsets, and a general aura of delicacy. 

Going back to Hodkinson’s findings, he states that “without actually rendering such categories insignificant, goth had from its very beginnings been characterized by the predominance, for both males and females, of particular kinds of style which would normally be associated with femininity” (Hodkinson, 35-64). However, it is important to acknowledge that the western goth subculture as described in this section, while a haven for various forms of gender expression, placed heavy emphasis on thin, white bodies. Over the years, diversity within the community has been promoted and encouraged, but rarely do we see it as the forefront face of gothicism.

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The Japanese Goth Scene & Ayami Kojima

Modern gothicism was not limited to North America or Europe. In Japan, the subculture had evolved into its own form of self-expression through clothing and music that took inspiration from a variety of 18th and 19th century themes (mostly originating from European countries). Yet despite the numerous western influences, the eastern goth community during the 1990s and early 2000s embraced itself as something unique and wholly Japanese; in other words, different from what was happening within the North American movement at the same time. To refresh the memory, western goth culture focused primarily on the macabre that included completely black, moody wardrobes with an air of dark femininity. Japanese goth culture maintained those feminine traits, but included elements that were far more decadent, frivolous, and played further into the already established aristocratic motifs of gothicism. This created a new fashion subculture known as Gothic Lolita or Goth-Loli (no reference to the Vladimir Nabokov novel Lolita or the themes presented within the text itself). 

In Style Deficit Disorder: Harajuku street fashion, a retrospective on the history of modern Japanese street fashion, the Goth-Loli image is described as “an amalgam of Phantom of the Opera, Alice in Wonderland, and Edgar Allan Poe” (Godoy; Hirakawa, 160). It was an aesthetic that took the western notion of “gothic” to higher levels with a heavier emphasis on opulence and an excessive decorative style—think Gothic meets Baroque meets Rococo. Teresa Younker, author of Lolita: Dreaming, Despairing, Defying, suggests that during the early years of the Gothic Lolita movement, it acted as a form of escapism for many young Japanese individuals searching for a way out of conformity. She states that “rather than dealing with the difficult reality of rapid commercialization, destabilization of society, a rigid social system, and an increasingly body-focused fashion norm, a select group of youth chose to find comfort in the over-the-top imaginary world of lace, frills, bows, tulle, and ribbons”. One pioneer that helped to bring the Goth-Loli image at the forefront of Japanese underground and street fashion the likes of Harajuku was the fashion magazine Gothic & Lolita Bible. Launched in 2001 by Index Communication and Mariko Suzuki, each issue acted as a sort of catalogue book for popular gothic and lolita trends that expanded to art, music, manga, and more. 

According to Style Deficit Disorder, during this time when Gothic & Lolita Bible had helped bring the subculture into a larger collective awareness, the Goth-Loli image became “inspired by a yearning for something romantic overseas (...) and after taking on the “Harajuku Fashion,” ended up travelling overseas, while remaining a slightly strange fashion indigenous to Japan” (Godoy; Hirakawa, 137). Then came KERA Maniac, another magazine launched in 2003 that had “even darker clothing and international style points and references, such as features on the life and art of Lewis Carroll, Japanese ball-jointed dolls, or interviews with icons like Courtney Love” (Godoy; Hirakawa, 140). The fashion trends that both Gothic & Lolita Bible and KERA Maniac focused on also found popularity amongst visual kei bands which were usually all male performers who began sporting the very same ultra-feminine, ultra-aristocratic Goth-Loli brands that were always featured in these magazines. 

Similar to traditional Kabuki theatre, “this visual-kei placed great importance on the gorgeous spectacle created onstage” (Godoy; Hirakawa, 135). One particular visual kei performer of the early 2000s that became Gothic & Lolita Bible’s biggest and most frequent collaborator was Mana. Best known for his musical and fashion career, Mana describes his onstage persona, merging aristocratic goth with elegant gothic lolita, as “either male or female but it is also neither male nor female. It is both devil and angel. The pursuit of a middle ground” (Godoy; Hirakawa, 159).

Opulence, decadence, and femininity with a dark undertone are all apt terms to describe the image of Japanese gothicism during the 90s and early aughts. They are also perfect descriptors of how artist Ayami Kojima changed the face of Castlevania from a franchise inspired by classic horror and fantasy to something more distinct. As a self-taught artist mainly working with acrylics, India ink, and finger smudging among other methods, 1997’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was Kojima’s first major title as the lead character designer. Over the years she worked on a number of separate video games including Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors, along with other Castlevania titles. Before then, she made a name for herself as a freelance artist mainly working on novel covers and even collaborated with Vampire Hunter D creator Kikuchi Hideyuki for a prequel to his series. Kojima has been dubbed by fans as “the queen of Castlevania” due to her iconic contributions to the franchise. 

Kojima’s influences cover a wide array of themes from the seemingly obvious (classic horror, shounen manga, and East Asian history) to disturbingly eclectic (surgery, body modification, and body horror). It is safe to assume that her resume for Castlevania involves some of her tamer works when compared to what else is featured in her 2010 artbook Santa Lilio Sangre. Yet even when her more personal art pieces rear into the grotesquely unsettling, they always maintain an air of softness and femininity. Kojima is never afraid to show how the surreal, the intense, or the horrifying can also be beautiful. Many of her pieces include details emblematic of gothicism; skulls, bloodied flowers, the abundance of religious motifs, and lavish backgrounds are all commonplace, especially in her Castlevania art. Her models themselves—most often androgynous men with sharp cheekbones, flowing hair, and piercing gazes—look as though they would fit right into a gothic visual kei band or the pages of Gothic & Lolita Bible.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair was the final Castlevania game Kojima worked on, as well as her last game overall. It wasn’t until 2019 when she reappeared with new pieces including promotional artwork for former Castlevania co-worker Koji Igarashi’s Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and a collaboration with Japanese musician Kamijo on his newest album. Her work has also appeared in the February 2020 issue of TezuComi, depicting a much lighter and softer side of her aesthetic. Ayami Kojima may have moved onto other projects, but the way in which she forever influenced the Castlevania image is still being drawn upon and emulated to this day.

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Alucard c. 1997

There were actually three versions of Alucard during the 1990s, each of which were products of their time for different reasons. The first example is not only the most well known amongst fans and casual onlookers alike, but it is also the one design of Alucard that manages to stand the test of time. Ayami Kojima redesigned a number of classic Castlevania characters, giving them the gothic androgynous demeanour her art was known for. Most fans will say with some degree of jest that once Kojima joined Konami, Castlevania grew to look less like the masculine power fantasy it started as and more like a bishounen manga. No matter the differing opinions on the overall stylistic change of the series, Kojima’s reimagining of Alucard for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is undoubtedly iconic. His backstory has more or less remained the same, carried over from Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse. After killing his father Dracula, Alucard, unable to fully process his actions or his bloodline, decides to force himself into a centuries long slumber in order to rid the world of his dark powers. Symphony of the Night begins with the Byronic dhampir prince waking up after nearly 300 years have passed once Dracula’s castle mysteriously reappears in close proximity to his resting place. The only difference this time is there seems to be no Belmont to take care of it, unlike previous years when Dracula is resurrected. Determined to finish what was started during the 15th century, the player takes Alucard on a journey throughout the castle, which has now become larger and more challenging than past incarnations.

Despite being somewhat of a direct sequel to Dracula’s Curse, Symphony’s Alucard is not the same dhampir as his 80s counterpart. Gone are any similarities to Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee; now Alucard bears more of a resemblance to Anne Rice’s own literary muse Lestat de Lioncourt from her ongoing Vampire Chronicles. Instead of slicked back dark hair, thick golden locks (which were originally black to match his father) cascade down Alucard’s figure, swaying with his every pixelated movement. Heeled leather boots, a black coat with gold embellishments along with an abnormally large collar underneath a flowing cape, and a high-collared cravat replace the simplistic wardrobe of 80s Alucard—from a traditional, minimalist goth mirroring his father’s masculinity to an extravagant, aristocratic goth with his own intense, almost macabre femininity.

With the early Metroidvanias came the inclusion of detailed character portraits designed by Ayami Kojima which would appear alongside a dialogue box to further establish the illusion of the characters speaking to each other. Symphony of the Night was one of the first titles where players got to see Alucard’s ingame expression and it looked exactly as it did on every piece of promotional poster and artwork. The same piercing glare, furrowed brow, and unshakeable inhuman determination, the sort that is also reflected in his limited mannerisms and character—all of which are displayed upon an immaculate face that rarely if ever smiles. Just by looking at his facial design nearly hidden behind locks of hair that always seems meticulously styled, it is clear that Alucard cannot and will not diverge from his mission. The only moment in the game when his stoic facade breaks completely is when he faces off against the Succubus, who tempts Alucard to give into his vampiric nature by disguising herself as his deceased mother Lisa. Yet even then he sees through her charade and, depending on the player’s ability, quickly disposes of her. 

Despite his delicate feminine features, emotional softness is not one of Alucard’s strongest suits in Symphony. Though for someone in his position, someone who must remain steadfast and succeed in his goal or else fail the rest of humanity, where little else matters, Alucard’s occasional coldness (a trait that would return in recent Castlevania instalments) makes sense. There is a scene near at the climax of the game where he exposits to the other main protagonists Richter Belmont and Maria Renard about how painful it felt to destroy his father a second time, but he reframes it as a lesson about the importance of standing up against evil rather than an admission of his own vulnerability. However, he does choose to stay in the world of mortal humans instead of returning to his coffin (depending on which ending the player achieves).

The second 90s version of Alucard is a curious case of emulation, drawing inspiration from both Kojima’s redesign and other Japanese art styles of the 1990s. Castlevania Legends was released for the Game Boy the exact same year as Symphony of the Night and acted as a prequel to Dracula’s Curse, following its protagonist Sonia Belmont as she traverses through Dracula’s castle alongside Alucard and becomes the first Belmont in history to defeat him. It was then retconned after the release of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence in 2003 due to how its story conflicted with the overall timeline of the series. As with most of the earliest Game Boy titles, the ingame graphics of Legends are held back by the technological limitations, but the box art and subsequent character concepts reveal the game’s aesthetic which seems to take the most inspiration from other Japanese franchises of the decade. The biggest example would be Slayers, a popular comedic fantasy series that included light novels, manga, and anime. Legends Alucard is portrayed in this particular animated style, yet his design itself is very similar to how he looks in Symphony of the Night with only minor exceptions. 

The third and arguably most obscure 90s Alucard comes from the animated children’s show Captain N: The Game Master, a crossover that brought together popular Nintendo characters like Mega Man, Kid Icarus, and Simon Belmont. The episodes were presented as traditional monsters of the week, meaning each one focused on a brand new story or environment usually taken from Nintendo games. One episode that aired in 1993 centered on Castlevania and featured a comedic and parodied version of Alucard. Although the episode took elements from Dracula’s Curse, Alucard was meant to be a stereotypical representation of rebellious 90s youth, i.e. an overemphasis on skateboarding and “radical” culture. A colorful, kid-friendly version of the character that was never meant to be taken seriously; much like the rest of the show.

Out of the three variations, Ayami Kojima’s Alucard is the one that made the biggest and longest lasting impact on Castlevania. Redesigning an iconic franchise or character always comes with its own risks and gambles. In the case of Symphony of Night, the gamble made by Kojima—and by extension Konami and director Koji Igarashi—paid off. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said regarding Alucard’s next major change as a character and an image. 

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Lords of Shadow

“What motivates a man to confront the challenges that most of us would run from?” This is a question put forth by Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, the first attempt by Konami to reinvigorate and inject new life into the Castlevania brand name by completing rebooting the universe. Starting from scratch as it were. Originally, Lords of Shadow seemed to have no connection to the Castlevania franchise. Announced by Konami during a games convention in 2008, this was meant to give more attention and not distract from the upcoming Castlevania: Judgment. However, merely a year later at Electronic Entertainment Expo, it was revealed that Lords of Shadow was in fact the next major step that Konami was taking with Castlevania. From its announcement and early trailers, the game was already generating a healthy amount of media buzz due to its updated graphics, design, and gameplay. Having Konami alumni, video game auteur, and creator of the critically acclaimed Metal Gear series Hideo Kojima attached to the project also helped to generate initial hype for this new phase of Castlevania (though it should be noted that Kojima was only credited as a consultant and advisor for the Lords of Shadow development team). After nearly a decade of near hits, substantial misses, and a lack of focus for the franchise, Castlevania had once again become one of the most highly anticipated upcoming games. To quote gaming news and reviews website GamesRadar+ at the time, “this could be a megaton release”.

And it was—so to speak. As mentioned in previous sections, the first Lords of Shadow did relatively well, garnering critical and commercial success. By November of 2010, nearly one million copies had sold in North America and Europe alone. While not a monumental achievement or a record breaker, Lords of Shadow soon became the highest selling Castlevania game of all time. But enough time has passed since its release and nowadays, fans look back upon this reinvented Castlevania timeline pushed by Konami with mixed feelings, some more negative than others. 

The main criticism is that when it comes to gameplay, environment, and story, Lords of Shadow changed too much from its original source material. Change is not always a terrible thing especially in regards to long-running franchises and Castlevania had already gone through one massive upheaval with Symphony of the Night. Although the difference is how well that dramatic change was executed and how players reacted to it. For many, Lords of Shadow felt less like the game it was supposed to be emulating and more like other action hack-and-slashers of the time. The gameplay didn’t feel like Castlevania, it felt like Devil May Cry. Elements of the story didn’t feel like Castlevania, they felt like God of War. Each boss fight didn’t feel like Castlevania, they felt like Shadow of the Colossus (a frequent comment made by fans). Despite the familiar elements from past games that made their way into this new instalment, for many, Lords of Shadow was too little of Castlevania and too much of everything else that surrounded its development. Meanwhile, the afformented familiar elements seemed like attempts at fanservice in order to make sure that longtime fans felt more at home.

Does the game and its following sequels still hold any merit in terms of aesthetic and story? They do, especially when it comes to its style. Lords of Shadow, its midquel Mirror of Fate, and the sequel Lords of Shadow 2 are not unappealing games to look at. When examining the concept art of characters, enemies, and environments, one could argue that the Lords of Shadow series has some of the most visually striking Castlevania art in the series. The monster designs in particular take on a much grander, ambitious, and menacing presence that take inspiration from various mythological and biblical sources, the best example being Leviathan from Lords of Shadow 2. 

By the 2010s, AAA video games in general were going through a sort of golden age with titles such as Assassin’s Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Red Dead Redemption among many others. Not only were the stories and gameplay mechanics improving by ten folds, so too were the graphical capacities that each game could uphold. Due to technological advancements, Castlevania had the chance to become more detailed and fleshed out than before. The locations of Lords of Shadow and its sequels, which ranged from gothic castles, to modern decrepit cities, to fantastical forests, grew lusher and more opulent while the monsters evolved past the traditional skeletons of the series into far more imposing nightmarish creatures.

The first game along with Mirror of Fate kept themselves fairly grounded in their respective environments. Nearly every character looks as though they firmly belong in the gothic fantasy world they inhabit. Gabriel Belmont and the rest of the Brotherhood of Light are dressed in robes reminiscent of medieval knights (with a few non-historical embellishments) while the vampiric characters of Carmilla and Laura dress in the same manner that typical vampires would. However, a new location known as Castlevania City was introduced in Lords of Shadow 2, modelled after a 21st century metropolitan cityscape. Characters with designs more suited to God of War or Soul Calibur intermingle with NPCs dressed in modern clothing, further highlighting the clash of aesthetics. While this is not the first time Castlevania has featured environments populated with humans, the constant shifting between a dark urban landscape with more science fiction elements than fantasy and the traditional gothic setting of Dracula’s castle can feel like whiplash. 

The Lords of Shadow timeline was an ambitious attempt by Konami to try and give fans a Castlevania experience they had not seen before. New concepts that were previously unexplored or only alluded to in past games were now at the forefront. Yet the liberties that each game took with established Castlevania lore, both in terms of story and design, were perhaps too ambitious. The biggest example is the choice to have the Belmont protagonist turn into Dracula through a combined act of despair and selflessness, but Alucard went through a number of changes as well. Transforming him from the golden-haired aristocrat of the 90s and 2000s into an amalgamation of dark fantasy tropes. 

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Alucard c. 2014

After the success of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Alucard reappeared in a number of following titles, most of which depicted him in his typical black and gold wardrobe. There were exceptions, including Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and its direct sequel Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow where he adopts the alias of Genya Arikado, an agent for a futuristic Japanese organization dedicated to stopping any probable resurrections of Dracula. Because of this need to appear more human and hide his true heritage, Genya’s appearance is simple and possibly one of Ayami Kojima’s most minimalistic character designs; a black suit, shoulder length black hair, and the job is done. In Dawn of Sorrow, Alucard briefly appears as himself, drawn in a less detailed anime style that softens his once intensely stoic expression first seen in Symphony. The next exception is Castlevania: Judgment, a fighting game where characters from separate games and time periods are brought together to face off against one another. Konami brought on Takeshi Obata (who by then was famously known for his work on Death Note) as the lead character designer and in many regards had a similar aesthetic to Ayami Kojima, creating lavish gothic pieces that were heavily detailed and thematic. 

Like Kojima, Obata was given free range to reconceptualize all of the characters appearing in Judgment with little to no remaining motifs from previous designs. This included Alucard, who dons a suit of silver armor and long white hair to match it. Judgment’s Alucard marked a turning point for the character in terms of appearance; a gradual change that was solidified by Lords of Shadow.

This is where things get complicated. While Castlevania could be considered a horror series solely based on its references, aesthetic, and monsters, nearly every iteration whether it comes down to the games or other forms of media tends to veer more towards the dark fantasy genre. Edward James and Farah Mendleson’s Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature describe the distinction between traditional horror and dark fantasy as a genre “whose protagonists believe themselves to inhabit the world of consensual mundane reality and learn otherwise, not by walking through a portal into some other world, or by being devoured or destroyed irrevocably, but by learning to live with new knowledge and sometimes with new flesh” (James; Mendleson, 218). While horror is a genre of despair, directly confronting audience members with the worst of humanity and the supernatural, “the protagonist of dark fantasy comes through that jeopardy to a kind of chastened wisdom” (James; Mendleson, 217). 

Dark fantasy is ultimately a genre of acceptance (i.e. characters accepting a horrible change or embracing the world they have been forcibly thrown into), but it also represents a rejection of traditional tropes implemented by the works of Tolkien or the Brothers Grimm, thus defining itself by that very same act of rejection. An example of this is the theme of failure, which is common in many dark fantasy stories. There are far more unhappy or bittersweet endings than happy ones while the construction of the classic hero’s journey hinges more on all the possible ways in which the protagonist could fail in their quest. 

Going off from this definition, the Lords of Shadow timeline fits squarely into the dark fantasy genre, especially concerning its two leading men. We already know that Gabriel Belmont sacrifices his humanity in order to become Dracula, but what happens to his son borders on a Greek tragedy. Before the “deaths” of Gabriel and Maria, they had a son named Trevor who was immediately taken into the care of the Brotherhood of Light and kept away from his father in order to protect him. Years later when Trevor is an adult with a family of his own, he vows to defeat Dracula for bringing shame and dishonor upon the Belmont bloodline. Yet when their eventual confrontation happens, Dracula easily beats Trevor who, on the verge of death, reveals the truth about his connection to the lord of vampires. In a desperate act of regret, Dracula forces Trevor to drink his blood and places him into a coffin labeled “Alucard” where he will seemingly rest for eternity.

Time passes and Trevor Belmont—now transformed into the vampire Alucard—awakens, just as he did at the beginning of Dracula’s Curse and Symphony of the Night. During his disappearance, his wife Sypha Belnades was killed by Dracula’s creatures, orphaning their son Simon Belmont. The two eventually meet and work together to stop Dracula, but Alucard cannot bring himself to tell Simon the truth.

Despite a well-deserved happy ending in Lords of Shadow 2 (he and his father reconcile before going off to presumably live a peaceful life), the character of Trevor/Alucard is built upon the same themes of failure and learning to accept terrible change found within dark fantasy. His design is especially reminiscent of one of the darkest and most tortured protagonists in the genre, Michael Moorcock’s Elric from his Elric of Melniboné series. First appearing in the June 1961 issue of Science Fantasy, he stands out amongst most sword and sorcery heroes, different from the hypermasculinity of Conan the Barbarian for his embittered personality, philosophical motifs, and memorable design. Elric is constantly described as looking deathly pale with skin “the color of a bleached skull; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white” (Moorcock, 3) and a body that needs a steady stream of potions in order to function properly or else he will gradually grow weaker, nearer towards the edge of death—more a corpse than a human being. 

Lords of Shadow Alucard is very much like a walking corpse as well. His long hair is the same milk-white tone as Elrics’, his skin is deprived of any real color, and his open chest outfit reveals a body that is both robust yet emaciated. Moorcock’s Elric was the prototype for many other white haired, pale faced, otherworldly antiheroes in fantasy that came afterwards and the darkly ethereal aesthetic that reflected his constant state of self-loathing and tragedy was the most ideal fit for this new version of Alucard. Both fail as traditional fantasy heroes, both abhor their physical states, yet both learn to embrace it at the same time.

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A Brief History of Modern Animation

Before we move onto the final iteration of Dracula’s son, let us first acquaint ourselves with an artistic medium that has not been fully discussed yet. This essay has gone into detail concerning the aesthetics of video games, fashion, filmmaking, and music, but where does animation fit in? Since 1891’s Pauvre Pierrot, the only surviving short film predating the silent era with 500 individually painted frames, animation has evolved into one of the most expressive, diverse, and groundbreaking art forms of the modern age. There were earlier methods that fit into the animation mold before Pauvre Pierrot including but not limited to shadow play, magic lantern shows, and the phenakistoscope, one of the first devices to use rapid succession in order to make still images look as though they were moving. Throughout the 20th century, with the help of mainstream studios like Warner Bros. and of course Walt Disney, the medium quickly began to encompass a variety of techniques and styles beyond a series of drawings on paper. Some of the more recognizable and unique styles are as followed:

Digital 2-D animation

Digital 3-D animation

Stop-motion

Puppetry

Claymation

Rotoscoping

Motion capture

Cut-out animation

Paint-on-glass

The most common forms used in film and television are traditional hand drawn and digital 3-D, sometimes merged together in the same product. There has been much debate over which animation technique has more artistic merit and is more “authentic” to the medium, but the reality is that there is no singular true form of animation. Each style brings its own advantages, challenges, and all depends on how it is being used to tell a specific story or evoke a feeling within the audience. For example, the 2017 semi-biographical movie Loving Vincent is animated in a nontraditional style with oil paints in order to create the illusion of a Vincent Van Gogh painting that has come to life. As Loving Vincent is about the influential painter himself and his tragic life, this animation technique works to the film’s advantage. If the story had used a more traditional form like 2-D or 3-D, it might not have had the same impact. Another example like the film A Scanner Darkly starring Keanu Reeves uses a somewhat controversial technique known as rotoscoping, which entails tracing over live action scenes in order to give it a realistic yet still animated feel. A Scanner Darkly is a futuristic crime thriller meant to evoke a sense of surrealism and discomfort, making the uncanniness of rotoscoping the perfect fit for its artificial atmosphere. 

Throughout its history, animation has gone through a number of phases corresponding to political, artistic, and historical events such as propaganda shorts from Walt Disney during World War II and the rise of adult-oriented animators who rode the wave of countercultural movements during the late 1960s and early 70s. Animation meant for older audiences was especially coming into its own as most audiences had become more comfortable associating the medium with the family friendly formula perfected by the Disney company. The only other western mainstream animation studio that could stand toe to toe with Disney while also dabbling in mature subject matter at the time was Warner Bros. and its juggernaut Looney Tunes, which even then was mostly relegated to smoking, slapstick violence, and mild suggestive material. Meanwhile, the works of Ralph Bakshi, arguably the father of elevated adult animated features, dealt with everything from dark humor, sexuality, profanity, and complex themes most of which delved into pure shock value and were highly offensive in order to make a statement. There were later exceptions to this approach including Bakshi’s own adaptation of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Wizards, and Fire and Ice, a high profile collaboration with Frank Frazetta, in which both films utilized rotoscope animation to create unique, fantasy-based experiences for mature viewers.

With the right amount of funds and creativity, other countries began developing their own animated features with distinct styles that reflected the culture, social norms, and history in which they originated from. The 1960s are referred to as “the rise of Japanese animation”, or as it came to be known worldwide as anime, thanks to iconic characters of the decade like Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, and Speed Racer. The longest running anime with over 7,700 episodes to date is Sazae-san, based on the popular 1940s comic strip of the same name. Western audiences commonly associate modern anime with over the top scenarios, animation, and facial movements while having little to no basis in reality when it comes to either story or character design. 

While the Walt Disney company was steadily losing its monopoly on the animation industry with financial and critical disappointments (making room for other animators like Don Bluth) until it's renaissance during the 1990s, the 1980s turned into a golden age for ambitious, groundbreaking anime projects. Not only were films like Akira, Grave of the Fireflies, Barefoot Gen, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind among many others, appealing to a wide variety of audiences, they were also bold enough to tackle mature, complex subject matter with a certain degree of nuance that complimented each film’s unique but often times bizarre or surreal styles. Akira watches like a violent cyberpunk splatterfest with extreme body horror and juvenile delinquency, yet its borderline exploitative methods serve a larger purpose. Akira takes place in a bleak, dystopian Japan where Tokyo has been rebuilt after its destruction in 1988, setting up an allegorical story that directly confronts government experimentation and the fallout of nuclear warfare.

Artists of all mediums have always influenced one another and the impact that anime has had on western animation continues to this day whether through passing tongue-in-cheek references, taking inspiration from common anime tropes while also depicting them through a western lens, or shows that feature a heavily emulated anime style like Avatar: The Last Airbender and its successor The Legend of Korra. Then there are shows that completely blur the lines between western animation and anime, with the ultimate distinction usually coming down to where it was originally developed (i.e. North America or Japan).

--

Alucard c. 2017

The overall aesthetic and image of Netflix’s Castlevania is built upon a number of different influences, the majority of which come from Japanese animation. Executive producer and long time Castlevania fan Adi Shankar has gone on record saying that the show is partially “an homage to those OVAs that I would watch on TV (...) and I was like, “This is beautiful, and it’s an art form”. He has also directly compared the show to those golden age-era ultra violent anime features of the 80s and 90s, including titles such as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Ninja Scroll. Director Samuel Deats, another avid Castlevania fan, has mentioned the long-running manga series Berserk along with its 1997 anime adaptation as one of the animation team’s primary inspirations numerous times, explaining in further detail in a 2017 interview with io9: “I pulled out my ‘I love the Berserk manga, Blade the Immortal’ and all that. That dark fantasy style of storytelling, character design, how gorey it gets… I put together a bunch of drawings and sketches, and a few color images that channeled all of that”.

Watching Castlevania, the aesthetic references to Berserk are obvious. Both series merge together medieval fantasy elements with gruesome horror but they are also similar in their particular animation styles. One director from Korean studio MOI Animation who partnered with Powerhouse Animation collaborated on the feature length film Berserk: The Golden Age—The Egg of the King along with its two sequels. But the biggest inspiration for the design of Castlevania, especially when it comes to its characters, is Ayami Kojima herself. 

From the pre-production phase, the team at Powerhouse knew they wanted Kojima’s art to be the main basis of how the finished product would look and feel. According to Samuel Deats, “In the back of everyone’s heads, we knew that we wanted to heavily reference the style Ayami Kojima used in the Castlevania games. We wanted to bring the same shade-before-image sort of thing”. However, due to the sheer amount of details and embroidered style of Kojima’s aesthetic, many of her original designs had to be simplified into 2-D animated forms (just as they had to be reduced into pixelated form for Symphony of the Night).

Alucard’s animated design is the best example of this simplification process, but it took some trial and error in order to arrive at the finished product. When Castlevania was originally planned as a movie, his design veered closer to the otherworldliness and corpse-like aesthetic of Lords of Shadow Alucard—something that looked as far from a human being let alone a dhampir as possible. Following the years of stifled development until Netflix picked up the project, Powerhouse opted to fall back on Kojima’s artwork for sheer iconography and recognizability. 

On the one hand, animated Alucard’s facial expressions are identical to his game counterpart with the exception of a few liberties taken; same determined scowl, same intensely golden eyes, and same lush eyelashes (there’s even a note from his character sheet specifically stating that they must cast shadows for close-ups). Most of all, the same feminine androgyny of Kojima’s work. But there are just as many omitted details from Alucard’s updated model as there are those that were carried over from the original design. When compared to Symphony of the Night, his wardrobe seems to be severely lacking in excessive ornaments, instead opting for a sleek black coat with simple gold embellishments, knee high boots with a slight heel, and a white shirt with an open v-neckline. Despite these supposedly easy changes and evocation of Kojima’s art style, Alucard is still one of the more difficult characters to animate as stated by Deats: “I mean, Alucard has to be just right. You can’t miss an eyelash on him without it looking weird”. 

For the most part, it shows in the final product. There are moments when the animation goes off model (as is the case with most 2-D animated shows for time and budgetary reasons), but rarely is Alucard drawn from an unflattering angle. The other reason for his change in design is the fact that Castlevania takes place three centuries before the events of Symphony of the Night. Because of the story constraints and console limitations, players were not given an in-depth look at Alucard’s character beyond his quest to defeat Dracula and the guilt he felt afterwards. It would make sense that his demeanor differs from the stoic nature of how he reacts to certain situations three hundred years later. As a result, Alucard is given a toned-down design to reflect what he might have been like as a younger, brasher, and more immature version of himself.

This immaturity and juvenile nature of his visual image comes through in his portrayal. While the show is in its third season, we will primarily focus on season two as when compared to the others, it revolves around Alucard’s personal journey towards an important aspect of his long established character the most; namely, the reason for his rebellion against Dracula and his eventual act of patricide. Because Alucard only appears as a silhouette in episode one then makes his full introduction during the last fifteen minutes of the final episode, season one gives the audience a very limited idea of his character. What we do get from Alucard is the same impression that Symphony of the Night left fans with: someone who is determined, intensely fixated on his goal, and is willing to use any means to accomplish it—even if it involves striking a tentative truce between a vampire hunter and a scholar of magic. Season two expands upon this, showing an Alucard who is soft-spoken, careful in his mannerisms, more feminine than masculine, yet always rises to the occasion whenever he needs to match Trevor Belmont’s own crassness. For all of his grace, Alucard’s high emotions coupled with an unchecked immaturity (especially in the presence of Trevor) show how ill-equipped he is when dealing with human interactions.

One other piece of evidence that adds to this chink in Alucard’s carefully crafted metaphorical armor is the goal of stopping his father. Throughout small interactions and moments of dialogue, the truce struck between him, Trevor, and Sypha eventually develops into more of a friendship, yet Alucard continues to suffer from extreme tunnel vision, going as far as to chastise his two companionships whenever they get too distracted or unfocused from their mission. This character flaw is also touched upon in Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls when characters remark upon Alucard’s (otherwise referred in the game as Arikado) overly serious nature. A flaw that does more to unintentionally push others away rather than any attempt to bring them closer to him.

When Alucard finally achieves his goal of killing Dracula, it leaves him feeling hollow. He doesn’t quite know how to fully process this ultimate decision, maintaining a delicate sense of composure on the outside while in the presence of others. It’s only when Alucard is left alone does he allow the emotions of everything that has just happened to overwhelm him in a moment of genuine vulnerability that was only alluded to in previous scenes.

--

Conclusion

Despite the show being renewed for a fourth season, the future of the Castlevania franchise in general remains uncertain. There’s been no talk of any other past games being set for rerelease, Grimoire of Souls continues to make sporadic updates to its gacha system rather than its story mode, and Konami has since chosen to take a step back from developing video games in favour of manufacturing pachislot machines. Symphony of the Night and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night creator Koji Igarashi has mentioned in past interviews that should Konami somehow make a return to Castlevania, he would be willing to direct a new instalment. But at the present time, rumors have remained rumors and there are no signs of a new official Castlevania game in the near future whether developed by Konami or an outside company.

No matter what direction Castlevania takes in the years to come, it seems as though Alucard will always follow it, just as Dracula and the Belmonts will as well. This is his franchise as much as it is theirs thanks to continued fan popularity. He’s taken many forms in the past thirty years and become the visual representation of certain trends, yet one thing about him never changes: he is still Dracula’s son, the opposite of his father. He can be cruel, powerful, cold, and everything else a Byronic hero should be yet he can also reject his masculine inheritance in both character and aesthetic. 

Above all else, the human side of Alucard is greater than the monstrous side.

--

References

Bannister, Matthew. White Boys, White Noise: Masculinities and 1980s Indie Guitar Rock. Burlington: Taylor & Francis, 2017.

Castlevania Wiki | Fandom. https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Castlevania_Wiki

Dyhouse, Carol. Heartthrobs: A History of Women and Desire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Godoy, Tiffany; Hirakawa, Takeji. Style Deficit Disorder: Harajuku Street Fashion, Tokyo. San Francisco: Chronicles Books, 2007.

Hodkinson, Paul. Goth: Identity, Style and Subculture. Bloomsbury Fashion Central, 2002.

Hutchings, Peter. Hammer and Beyond: The British Horror Film. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993.

James, Edward; Mendlesohn, Farah. The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Kibby, M.D. Real Men: Representations of Masculinity in the Eighties Cinema. Sydney: Western Sydney University Thesis Collection, 1997.

Kojima, Ayami. Santa Lilio Sangre. ToÌ"kyoÌ" : Asukashinsha, 2010.

Metzger, Patrick. “The Nostalgia Pendulum: A Rolling 30-Year Cycle of Pop Culture Trends.” The Patterning. WordPress.com, 2017. https://thepatterning.com/2017/02/13/the-nostalgia-pendulum-a-rolling-30-year-cycle-of-pop-culture-trends/

Moorcock, Michael. Elric of Melniboné. New York: Ace Fantasy, 1987.

Narcisse, Evan. “The Animation Studio That Made Castlevania Explains Why It Was A Dream Project.” io9. Gizmodo, 2017. https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-animation-studio-that-made-castlevania-explains-why-1797476526

Younker, Terasa. “Japanese Lolita: Dreaming, Despairing, Defying.” Standford Journal of East Asian Affairs, 2012, 97-110.

[inkribbon796]

Lost in the Lightning Storm Ch. 1: Lightning in a Bottle

Summary: Henrik is a naturally curious person, and with there being something between him and Anti, he just wants to know what kind of person he’s dealing with.

Chapter: 1, 2

Henrik had more than a bit of a problem.

Anti had stopped making his presence so apparent, almost like he was trying to avoid Henrik but still watch him. It gave Henrik time to think about a lot of things. About what he wanted, and if even pursuing a relationship with him was even remotely a good idea.

The glitch demon was angry, violent, prone to random fits of destruction, and left gifts outside of Henrik’s office like a deranged cat. But he also saved Henrik from fights, wasn’t attacking him, and it was clear that although he left organs and teeth for Henrik that he meant for Henrik to actually like the gifts.

So Henrik was unsure of what to do about Anti. He was mostly curious about how a relationship like that would progress. But Anti had a history with the Septics that reminded Henrik that this tepid infatuation could end with Henrik’s blood and guts smeared all over the walls.

Henrik had spent a lot of time thinking about it as the gifts and stalking kept coming. So to clear his head, he headed towards the base.

The German doctor meant to find Logic, ask for some surveillance equipment, but when he walked into the comms room the Side wasn’t alone in the room. He was with Tubbo and Nate.

Logic was busy managing several different screens as the situation was calming down as Tubbo was holding some remote and shouting information into a headset. Both of them were on their feet. Nate was next to them, looking braced to rush out of the room.

Henrik paused as Logan fell back into his chair and let out a sigh of relief.

“Holy shit,” Tubbo commented, and started to drive his remote again. He was bringing his little bee drone back to him. What came back faster to him were three little bee familiars which buzzed around his head and settled into his suit. “That was ridiculous.”

“Now do you see why I keep you away from the Duke, his particular breed of unpredictability makes him exceedingly dangerous,” Logan explained.

“Is everything alright?” Henrik asked as he walked in.

“It is now,” Nate answered with a sigh of relief.

“Vat[1] happened?” Henrik looked at the screens.

“The Duke decided to live up to his title of “Intrusive Thoughts” and terrorize a baseball stadium full of people and make them hallucinate,” the logical Side explained. “At the most inopportune time, of course.”

“Of course,” Henrik rolled his eyes. Then he turned to Nate, “Ahhh, Nathan, it is so good to see you. It is a rare thing to see you in ze base zese days.[2]

“Been busy,” Nate commented. “Just wanted to meet the new guys, they seem alright.”

“Damn straight,” Tubbo smiled back at him, before continuing to pilot his bee drone back to him.

“Heard this place was haunted now,” Nate smiled.

“Ahh, yes,” Henrik smiled. “Big Man has a bro’zer currently viz Marvin. He calls himself Ghostbur und can phase z’rough valls.”[3]

“No shit, he like Big Man?” Nate smiled.

“Nein,”[4] Henrik smiled. “He vas[5] much calmer, und[6] quieter.”

“Really? That’s hilarious.” Nate laughed, but he was just staring at Tubbo, he seemed to be studying the young apprentice.

Henrik was about to leave and give up on his questions for another day. But Nate got up.

“Coffee?” Nate smiled.

Shrugging, Henrik followed but they didn’t go to the common room area for coffee, they left the base entirely.

“I like researching demons,” Nate told him, their topic veering to what Nate had been up to since Henrik had last gotten to sit down and talk to him, “and glitches have always been interesting to me. Even more so after I found out that Logic was a demon. I used to think they were all chaos incarnate, and they are, but they’re more than that. Logic is a way different demon than Anti, and both of them are different from the Jims, who I’m fairly certain are just super weird glitches.”

“Really?” Henrik asked, confused.

“Yeah,” Nate smiled as they kept walking down the road to this little coffee shop. “Makes me really glad I started distancing myself from the hunters. The only research they care about is if it makes killing demons easier or safer for them.”

“So you wish to become a university professor on ze[7] demons?” Henrik smiled.

“Dude, if that was possible, I would,” Nate promised. “The process from a human soul to a demon one. What they lose? What they gain? Can you predict who’s actually going to turn into a demon? What type of demon are they going to turn into?”

They took the time to get their coffees and take their seats outside the coffee shop as Henrik thought about Nate’s words. “I assume zat[8] you have taken copious notes about ze[7] demons already in Egoton?”

“Course I have,” Nate smiled. “As much as I was able.”

“Vat[1] do you know about Anti?” Henrik asked. “I know vat he is now, but vat about before. Vho vas he before he vas a demon?”[9]

“Huh,” Nate let out a loud puff of air and tapped his fingers to his coffee mug. “Never tried to look him up that far back.”

The singer looked down at his coffee before looking back up in thought. “I think Mare said something about Anti being a little over a century old. That’s probably just in demon years, so who knows how old he was when he actually died. But he’s a glitch demon so . . .”

Nate let out another pensive breath of air, rubbing the inside corners of his eyes, “He was probably killed by lightning. But that was around the same time as an industrial revolution so he could have died in a factory accident and still turned into a glitch. His turning would have probably been sometime in the early 1900’s, late 1800’s maybe.”

“Und[6] could he be found?” Henrik asked.

Nate looked a little concerned, “Maybe, finding him would definitely be easier than finding Dark or Mare. They’re older than him and Anti is also a glitch so that narrows it down. Even if he did die in a factory accident.”

“I cannot imagine a vorld vere he did not get into some type of trouble viz ze law,”[10] Henrik commented, pushing up his glasses.

“Yeah that might make it easier,” Nate agreed. “Usually a soul doesn’t change too much from how it used to be in life. There’s some drift but not too much.”

“Yes, but—” Henrik thought out loud before Mare seemed to appear out of nowhere and turned over a bag of cookies right into Nate’s lap.

“The fuck are you doing?” Nate shouted.

“Shut up and eat them, you still reek,” Mare spat at him, digging some loose cookies still in the bag and pushing them into Nate’s hands. “Anything’s better than how you smell right now.”

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Nate tossed the cookies back in Mare’s face so hard they bounced off his face as they crumbled.

“I don’t like that kid’s aura,” Mare crossed his arms. “He smells weird.”

“Which kid?” Nate argued loudly, Henrik was watching Logan leading Tubbo down the street, the two obviously coming from the base and going out on a patrol. When Tubbo spotted Nate and Mare arguing the two stopped to watch them cautiously from across the street.

“The little goat demon with the bee theme,” Mare slapped down a hand to hold it about at Tubbo’s height. “I didn’t know you guys were picking up spawnlings off the street. I thought that was Dark’s shtick.”

“Bomble? What do you mean he smells?” Nate demanded. “What does he smell like?”

“How are you still alive?” Mare let out a frustrated sigh. “You know how toast smells when it gets burnt?”

“Yeah?” Nate agreed.

“Okay so imagine that burnt toast also set the toaster on fire, and that’s pretty much it,” Mare told them. “Anti doesn’t smell anything, but I can. I don’t know why! I checked with Dark, he can smell it too. But he doesn’t think he smells like toast.”

“Vat[1] did Dark say he smells like?” Henrik questioned.

“Death,” Mare told him. “At first I thought he was joking, like he was just being overdramatic, but then he told me he smells like a village that was on the verge of death from illness. Like a household taken over by the Plague. And after thinking about that, I’m inclined to agree. He kinda does smell like sickness. More like the burnt toast and toaster thing, but I get it. Dark is really old and he would go for that explanation. Don’t know how Anti doesn’t smell it, but he smells like bad news.”

“Zat[8] is very interesting,” Henrik hummed, everyone in the Coalition knew that Tubbo was a bomb expert and that the Coalition had some samples of a couple of his projects under lock and key so no one else could use them.

“Doesn’t help that everything he comes into contact with also winds up smelling like him,” Mare complained. “I thought Pixels had had something blow up in his face because he smells like him, all the time now.”

“Did you tell Logic about it?” Nate asked.

Mare huffed out, “Yeah but he had no idea what I was talking about, couldn’t stand to be in the base because the kid’s got the place carpet bombed.”

“King und[6] Host do not seem to have a problem viz[11] it,” Henrik thought out loud.

“Then their noses are broken, or maybe they have a tolerance to it, I don’t know,” Mare threw up his hands in defeat. “Point is the kid reeks, where’d you dig him up from? He die in some kind of explosion or something?”

“Not zat ve know of,”[12] Henrik sighed. “But he does have an affinity for explosives und bombs.”

Nate looked confused, “Does a person’s death influence their aura?”

“Kinda,”[13] Mare shrugged. “Sometimes it’s a little weird in how it manifests. I can tell if a demon was splintered from another demon, or came from a human soul. Wil probably became a demon in some insane asylum. Dark, it wouldn’t surprise me if his ringing is tied to how he died.”

Mare’s nostrils flared as the direction of air changed and the demon turned to glare at Tubbo who was quickly buzzing across the street and Logan yelled after Tubbo and raced to keep up.

The older demon hissed and took a step back. Logan physically put himself in-between Mare and Tubbo, physically baring his arm in front of the young man to keep him back.

Tubbo just nonchalantly hovered in the air as his wings buzzed. Mare wrinkled up his nose and glared at Tubbo, who was looking quite smug.

“Hey,” Tubbo smiled. “Heard yeh we’re talkin’ about me, mate?”[14]

“You smell,” Mare spat.

Tubbo finally touched his feet to the ground and leaned over to smell his arm, but his helmet shield was still down, so all he did was uselessly shrug. “I showered this mornin’[15].”

“Not what I meant, your aura reeks,” Mare told him. “What’d you do to it?”

Shrugging again, “Just me, bossman.”

“I’ve never,” Mare looked personally insulted. “I’ve never smelt a glitch aura like yours, you must have done something to it.”

“Huh,” Tubbo thought on that before he realized something, “interesting, so I don’t smell like honey anymore?”

“How the flying fuck do you smell even remotely similar to honey?” Mare demanded, almost sounding angry.

“Dunno,”[16] Tubbo shrugged. “E’eryone in the Server always said I smelled like honeycombs. Why do yeh think I started goin’ with the bee aesthetic?”[17]

“Yes, I was wondering how you arrived at the theme you did,” Logan commented.

“You’re lucky I’m in your territory or I’d take your face off,” Mare snarled and he disappeared into a puff of dark black-purple smoke.

“Nice ta[18] know I’m a natural demon deterrent,” Tubbo boasted proudly.

“I don’t think you smell bad, you smell like any normal person,” Logan commented.

“Maybe it’s a glitch thing, then,” Tubbo shrugged.

Logan was quiet at that.

“So I was right, you are a glitch then,” Nate commented.

“If I’m not a glitch, then I don’t know what qualifies, big guy,” Tubbo chuckled.

“Fair, but you and Big Man came from the same gang,” Nate was just watching Tubbo, the young man’s wings buzzing nervously. “How many glitches does the Server have?”

“Like, still? Or before me an’[6] Big Man left?” Tubbo’s tone sounded extremely guarded.

“Not including you two,” Nate qualified.

Tubbo paused to think, “Uhmm. Skeppy, Foolish, Sam, Karl . . .” He kept silently counting for a little bit. “Seven? Eight? Dream is really big on collecting glitches an’[6] empaths. There are even more empaths.”

“Did he ever say why, specifically?” Nate asked. “Glitches are really territorial, so are empaths for that matter, I wouldn’t think it would be so easy to have so many close together.”

“Well, yeah, it was hell,” Tubbo agreed. “But it helped that a lotta us were turned demons, we always kinda existed in the same type ‘a space e’en before we turned so we would have less reason ta kill each other.”[19]

“Yeah but people don’t just collect demons because they can,” Nate told him. “Do you know why he’s doing it?”

“I dunno[16],” Tubbo shrugged. “I always figured it was some kinda[13] power trip thing.”

“I think we should keep moving,” Logic interjected, he’d been watching Tubbo get more and more fidgety and nervous so he stepped in and whisked the young man away from Nate. They went off to go meet up with the other Core Sides and survey the damage that Remus had caused.

Nate and Henrik watched him go.

“That huge pact Dream has really bothers me,” Nate admitted. “Seven or more glitches all in such a tightly packed area, with that many empaths thrown in as well is a recipe for disaster.”

“How so?” Henrik asked.

“Anti and Dark are at each other’s throats and they’ve got different territories the size of cities,” Nate reminded. “By my research, Dream’s got a couple dozen young demons all in an area the size of three football fields and they haven’t all slaughtered each other. You don’t get that without a lot of coercion. It just . . . I don’t like it.”

Henrik thought about that, “Are you still going to do more research today?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Nate shrugged. “Write some music too.”

“I vill[20] join you,” Henrik offered.

“Sure, but why? If you don’t mind me asking?” Nate gave him an odd look.

“I vish to find Anti, und figure out exactly vat type of person zat I am dealing viz,”[21] Henrik explained.

“If you start knocking on that door, just know that demons don’t like talking about what turned them into demons. Some demons are too traumatized by it, others see their old human selves as weaklings. Anti is probably going to fall into the second category. You are going to start a shitstorm.”

“Zat[8] is alright,” Henrik dared as he stood up. “Anti und I already have been on bad terms, und zis vould be no’zing new.”[22]

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Post A/N: Tubbo’s familiars are named Spinz, Spunz, and Spoonz. His bee drone is named: Bee Innit. (Named after the canon bees Tubbo had in his New L’Manberg apiary.)

Tubbo’s aura actually smells like radiation, with a thin honey undercurrent, but demons older than the 1960’s can’t place specifically what his aura smells like and the radiation drowns out his original aura too much.

Accessibility Translations:

1. What

2. Ahhh, Nathan, it’s so good to see you. It’s a rare thing to see you in the base these days.

3. Big Man has a brother currently with Marvin. He calls himself Ghostbur and can phase through walls.

4. No

5. was

6. and

7. the

8. that

9. I know what he is now, but what about before. Who was he before he was a demon?

10. I can’t imagine a world were he didn’t get into some type of trouble with the law

11. with

12. Not that we know of

13. Kind of

14. Heard yeh we’re talkin’ about me, mate?

15. morning

16. Don’t know

17. Everyone in the Server always said I smelled like honeycombs. Why do you think I started going with the bee aesthetic?

18. to

19. But it helped that a lot of us were turned demons, we always kind of existed in the same type of space even before we turned so we would have less reason to kill each other.

20. will

21. I wish to find Anti, and figure out exactly what type of person that I am dealing with

22. Anti and I already have been on bad terms, and this would be nothing new.

[sweetest-honeybee]

To Hell and Back

Chapter 13

Summary: Ex and Hels go to meet other Hermits but a certain butcher throws Hels into a panic attack.

Characters: Helsknight, Evil Xisuma, Doc, Xisuma mention, Giran mention, Scar mention, and Beef is there briefly

TW: Panic attack, asthma attack mentions, stuff like that.

Yes, I gave scar asthma for this bc I needed a reason for something in this chapter

———————

After that whole ordeal, the two continued to meet at other areas in the map for the next week. Ex proposed the idea to give Hels a little tour, mostly sticking around the shopping district.

“And this is Grumbot, they said he got all messed up so they built a little private world for him,” said Evil Xisuma. They landed on the perch just in front of a small window and peeked inside. “Still happy as ever,” he mused.

“What does it do? Does it have some kind of purpose?”

“Ah, well while I was still staying in Xisuma’s base, they had some kind of election for a mayor of the shopping district. Grumbot if I’m correct was supposed to help Mumbo in winning.”

Hels nodded slowly at the answer. “Alright then...Did he win?”

Ex shook his head with pursed lips. “No, Scar won. He got all the diamonds everyone spent on plots of land for their shops to use for repairs and new stuff and whatnot.”

Hels hummed in response. “Well no wonder Grumbot was so upset. I hope he’s a good leader. When you had me meet him, he didn’t seem much like the leading type. He’s all soft.”

“Soft, yes. But he’s kind to the Hermits and myself. I believe he’s had quite a rough past which probably made way for some kind of pity vote here and there if you ask me.”

Hels gave Ex a pointed look, completely disregarding Ex’s last statement. “Rough past?”

“Yeah, I dunno if you saw that he’s covered head to toe in scars, which is probably where the name came from, but he’s said something here and there about some people he’s come across a long time ago.” The man shrugged. “I don’t know a whole lot about it.”

Hels looked back at the smiling Grumbot. “Well, with a good origin story emerges some kind of hero, I suppose.”

“That’s odd coming from you. I think you’re spending too much time around Xisuma.” The knight merely responded by playfully punching him in the arm.

Then Hels wondered. “Why wasn’t Xisuma the mayor, though? He’s the ruler of-“ Hels gestured around them vaguely “-All of this.”

Ex shook his head. “I thought so too, but he said he’s not the one who makes all the decisions around here and he’s not fitting for the job anyways. Apparently everyone helps with all the decision making and whatnot.”

Hels hummed, considering the thought. “Alright then, shall we continue? I believe there’s some Hermits you haven’t introduced me to. I’ve heard that there’s a creeper-cyborg-guy running around. Something about goats?”

Ex laughed at the thought of Hels meeting Doc. “I actually think the two of you may get along quite well! Same with Joe Hills. His poetry and your dramatic speeches certainly go hand in hand.” He eyed Hels with a grin while the knight rolled his eyes. “But yes, we can continue. Though, I would like you to meet Beef as well but Wels lives near his place. I think it’d be cool to meet the person who practically created you.”

“Well, the vessel anyways.”

“Right, let's head off then and give Grumbot some privacy.”

With that, the two lifted off once more, this time coming across a weirdly shaped mountain miles away accompanied by a large house split into halves. As they landed, they spotted Doc hardly a few meters away. The creeper was too busy moving items to different chests repeatedly, probably sorting, to notice the new company.

“Hello, Doc! I’d like to introduce you to a new friend of mine that’s gonna live on the server for a while!”

Ex must’ve startled the old man. An easy assumption when Doc quite harshly smacked the back of his head on the lid of the chest while standing. Glancing at Evil Xisuma, he rubbed at his neck.

“Next time, I’d rather not have people sneaking up on me.” His eyes then landed on Hels. “Woah, did Wels go through an emo phase?” He chuckled at his own joke.

“Hardy har har. I’m his evil clone.”

Doc merely rolled his eyes. “I’m not surprised. Beef was asking for some help regarding his cloning machine after you were created.”

Hels raised a brow at the comment. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Doc just shrugged. “Dunno. Probably doesn’t want more evil clones running around.” He clapped his hands together. “Anyways! What can I do for you guys, I’m a bit busy at the moment so you’ll have to be quick,” Doc ended with a pointed glare at Hels.

“Just needed to introduce him to everyone and we’ll be on our way. Nothing much else than that. I’ll just let him wander a bit and look around if that’s alright.”

“Fine with me, just don’t use my villagers, farms, or break anything that takes a lot of effort to replace.” Doc waved a hand dismissively as he walked back over to his chest, beginning to sort again.

With that, Hels looked up at the mountain near them. “Hey, what’s with the mountain? Looks like an animal head.”

Without removing his focus from the chest, Doc simply replied, “It’s a goat.”

“Alright then.” Hels looked over at Ex. “I don’t believe there’s too much to look at over here, we can move on. If you’d like me to meet Beef now, we can do that.”

Doc couldn’t help but to glance at them after Hels’s suggestion. “I thought Wels doesn’t want you near his base.”

“Mind your business old man.”

Doc glared at the knight once more and turned back to his chest, grumbling something under his breath along the lines of ‘I’m not that old’. The pair snorted at the scientist.

“Okay, let's go then.”

It wasn’t a very long flight this time, much to Hels’s surprise. He thought Beef lived much farther away than where he settled. The sandstone village came into view within hardly a couple minutes.

But for some reason, Hels found the village intimidating.

“I wonder if he’s here, he’s not around a lot,” Ex prefaced. As if on cue, the butcher came into view from the blacksmith, several iron bars and end rods piled in his arms. “Ah, nevermind then. Let’s say hello!”

Before Ex went approaching Beef, he was caught short by the wrist. He turned and found the knight gripping it quite harshly, a frown deepening on his face.

“Hels, would you please let go of me?”

The knight pulled him back a foot or two behind the building. “Um, actually maybe we can just do this later. He seems busy.”

Ex cocked his head to the side. “That didn’t stop us with Doc, Mumbo, Grian, Star, Xisuma, Stress, Ren-“ Hels shushed him quickly.

“No, I don’t care. Let’s just go.” Hels tugged on his wrist once more, Ex not budging from his current placement. Worry suddenly became evident in his expression.

“Is something wrong?”

Hels just shook his head, a flush creeping across his face, but oddly enough, Ex recognized that it wasn’t the good kind. “No- Please will you just come with m-“

“Is everything alright over here?” The knight stopped mid pull. To his left, Beef stood with purple glittered hands on his hips. “Why are you pulling on him like that, let the dude go.”

Without hesitation, Hels slipped his hand away. “Sorry,” he mumbled. He exhaled shakily.

Beef raised a brow almost in unison with Ex. “You’re not looking so hot, are you feeling okay? There’s a library behind you if you wanna sit in there.”

“Hels, I dunno if you know this but you’re pale. Like really pale. Do I need to call Stress and Xisuma?”

The knight shut his eyes tightly, shaking his head again, harder this time. “Beef please leave,” he croaked. With a slight nod, the butcher left. “I um-“ Hels swallowed thickly, “-Ex, remember when uh- when I said that I get scared sometimes and cry in a corner?”

Ex had to think for a second before his eyes widened. “Is that what’s happening right now?” He looked around frantically. “There’s not really any good corners here-“

“No- No, I just- please just take me somewhere else, I need to be out of this village. What’s uh- where’s the nearest place?”

“Closest place is Wels’s base but we can’t go there.”

Yeah, that would probably make it worse, especially if the other knight was at his base. Then, Hels had an idea.

“Chorus fruit,” he exhaled.

“What?”

“Do you have chorus fruit.”

Ex nodded with an “Oh” and pulled the round purple fruit from his inventory. Immediately, Hels snatched one from him.

“Take a bite on three and hold my hand.” Ex did so. With the final number, the two took a bite and, almost too conveniently, they landed at the greenhouse. Hels didn’t let go of his hand, however, the grip only became much tighter while he dragged them both to the floor.

“Do I need to get someone?”

Hels shook his head, screwing his eyes shut.

“What do I do then?”

The knight struggled for words through vigorous shaking. He just kept shaking his head and leaned into the other, taking the held hand into both of his own.

Ex honestly had no clue what to do. He’s never seen this happen to any of the other Hermits, let alone Hels. But one thing he did know is that a person shouldn’t really be breathing that frantically.

That then tied to a memory back to an event involving Scar. The terraformer had asthma, he knew. He could vaguely pinpoint a moment where Grian had helped him out of an asthma attack. And while he did so, he had Ex retrieve Stress. The evil hermit caught on to the breathing exercises the two followed before following through with his task.

Would that work? Hels didn’t have asthma. Ex wasn’t even sure if those exercises were even for whatever was happening right now.

“Hey- Hey Hels, I’m going to try something. This will be stupid, but bare with me.” He lightly tapped the other on his shoulder with his free hand and Hels lifted his face ever so slightly to face him a bit more. “Good job,“ he repeated the words from Grian. “I need you to breathe with me, can you do that?”

Initially, Hels shook his head once more. But a second after he stopped, there was a small hint at a nod.

“Awesome, just follow my lead.” Ex inhaled slowly through his nose while the knight followed his first step, albeit shakily. He then exhaled out of his mouth, letting Hels take his time to follow again after another bout of shallow breaths. “You’re doing great,” he parroted again. “We’re going to do that a few more times.”

And again, they did. Inhale through the nose, exhale out of the mouth. Granted, when Scar was having his troubles, he had some kind of machinery next to him to help him breathe, but at least this was close. Inhale again through the nose, then exhale out of the mouth.

Absentmindedly, the evil hermit trailed his fingers over the other’s back lightly. He didn’t honestly expect this to work, he thought someone was going to have to come help him. He knew for sure that he was going to have to tell someone about what happened but he’d cross that bridge when he got to it.

Soon, Hels had his face tucked into the crook of Ex’s neck, much to Ex’s dismay. He loved the guy but he’d rather his suit not be wet with tears. Still, he kept his own firm grip in the tangle of fingers between their legs and the attack died down into minimal shaking.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He proposed. Hels pulled himself away from the other’s chest and Ex practically felt his own heart break at the sight. There was the courageous and merciless knight, red faced and puffy eyed, a few tears still making their way down his cheeks, others merely sticking to them. Hels wiped at them pathetically.

“Yeah.”

“Okay then, what happened? What caused it?”

Hels meekly shrugged. “The village I guess. I dunno for sure.”

“Was it Beef? You wanted him to leave almost as soon as he came to talk.”

The knight stuttered. Ex was a bit too blunt for his liking when it came to asking questions. “I- I don’t know- He’s not even that bad. There was…” he took a deep breath. This was pathetic. Here was one of the strongest and most powerful people in Hels talking about his feelings. “The village kind of did it before we even landed,” he finally concluded.

Ex shifted in his spot. “Well, would it help to tell you about something I’m afraid of? Or at least used to be? Xisuma does it sometimes when I’m scared.”

The corners of Hels’s mouth twitched upwards just slightly. “Sure.”

“Flowers.”

“F...flowers? You’re afraid of flowers and you own a flower shop and a greenhouse?” The knight sat up more.

Ex wagged a finger with his free hand. For a second upon noticing this, Hels let go of his other hand. “I said ‘or at least used to be’. I’m not afraid of them much anymore, a little unnerving with some specific kinds, but they’re my favorite thing in the world right now!”

The evil hermit knew he must’ve been doing something right when Hels let out a snort. “Flowers….who would believe.” He shook his head, lightly this time.

“Xisuma certainly found it odd. When I was still in my bad guy days, I came through this portal and everything and I told him I was gonna kill him. He was like ‘What’s stopping you?’ and at the time he was holding flowers.” The knight nodded along to his story. “After that I just ran away and-“

“The Lord of Darkness called you an idiot. I remember that because everyone in Hels heard it.”

Ex pulled a hand to his chest in mock offense. “He did not!” He laughed. “Okay maybe he did.”

The two fell into silence, now noticing the sun falling behind the hills slowly. A minute passed.

“What’s Xisuma afraid of?” asked Hels.

“Xisuma? Oh, he’s afraid of a lot of things. A lot more than me, I think and I’m scared of everything.” Hels chuckled at his phrasing. “Hm, I think he said one time that he was actually quite terrified of Enderman. But he’s not like….run away kind of scared. He’ll attack them when they scare him.”

“Fight or flight,” Hels muttered. Ex took notice to the setting sun.

“We should get going, I don’t want you falling asleep in here again. Are we going to go back to Beef at some point? Or we could meet him somewhere else.”

Hels shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it'll be fine if you give it a couple days.” He yawned. “Jeez, that wore me out.”