#fucking terrifying lmao

[themarginalthinker]

Just Breathe

(Michael might be a vampire now, but that doesn't mean his body has quite caught up yet. David takes him to a place to get a feel for it.

Headcanons: vampires can technically breath, but it takes a bit for the body to recognize it doesn't have to, and David helps Michael adjust. tw: deep water, lightless water, drowning technically but they're immortal and fine.)

Vampires are not human. This, Michael knows.

But sometimes the extent of how much 'not human' and what that exactly means, still surprises him.

"It used to be an old quarry," David explains. "So the water should be still enough for you."

The both of them, really, but Michael and his stupid little bane especially. (Fitting, he sometimes thinks. David with his extra aversion to sunlight, and Michael with his extra aversion to running water. What a pair.)

The quarry in question lies before them, the lake that's been made from it a mirror disk of silver and black in the night. It stretches on quite far, having been purposefully flooded years and years ago when the company decided to stop carving stone. As they pick their way down the slight slope to it, they pass massive chunks of rock - marble, Michael was told - laying around beside the water. Time has weathered them, plants an green moss and fungal lichens having reclaimed a lot of it, though the rectangular stonework is still visible.

They come to the waterside, a level, sandy, dirt bank that leads down into the unknown. David starts stripping, Michael following him after a moment. He still cannot help but flick eyes about, to the shoreline, listening deeper into the woods. Just to be sure.

"If there's anyone around, they won't get an eyefull of much before we're below," David says, having heard Michael's concern through the bond.

Michael smirks a little. "More than you," he says.

David throws a boot at him and it nails him pretty good in the head.

"Jerkwad," Michael says, smarting, but still smiling.

"Dipshit. Finish up," David replies, waiting.

He does, folding his clothing neatly and setting it beside David's. Michael pads over to David, closer to the water's edge. Naked as the day he was born.

Believe it or not, this wasn't the first time he'd been skinnydipping with anyone - even outside of the boys. But it certainly wasn't with this specific purpose. The humor of the banter drains a little from Michael as the ground under him goes damp and cool.

David's hands are at his arms. He's quiet when he speaks, pressing against Michael's mind knowing he needs it.

"So, I know we talked about it before, but it's worth saying again. You're not gonna like it, but we gotta do it."

Michael, ironically, takes a breath.

"Yeah. I know. You...said this was better than what Max did?"

David scoffs, humorlessly. "Oh yeah. Hand around the throat, crushed trachea and everything. Surprised the motherfucker didn't use a garrot."

God, damn. Michael had only met the man twice in his life, and he still shivers remembering him.

He and his ghoulish 'teaching' methods weren't why they were here tonight though. No, why the two vampires were standing by the lakeside of a flooded quarry in the middle of the night, was a tad more pleasant. Ish.

David was going to teach Michael how to stop breathing.

Apparently, even after becoming a vampire, the body...didn't just stop. Even after having descending into the void, a place with no time or memory or concept of real being, when you pulled back into your body again, life still wormed its way into the cracks. Vampire's hearts beat, though so, so slowly. And they breathed. Especially new ones.

Which could become a problem if they couldn't purposefully stop it when need came time.

Michael had tried doing it before, but failed.

"No, no, you're not not breathing, you're just holding your breath," Paul had said when they'd attempted it a few times before.

"I don't understand what the difference is?" Michael had asked.

"It's not- like, it's not just not breathing, it's like...you don't want to breath."

Made little sense, and had been even less useful in getting him there, so David was taking the approach he did with the rest of them. Gentler, he'd said, than how Max had taught him.

So, to the bottom of a lakebed they went.

David stepped first, wading in, and then, the water glinting in the moonlight at his pale skin, and then, glancing back, dipped under.

Michael took another breath. Fuck. Against the point, here.

He took to the water, baring his teeth against the cold of it, even in summer. The 'floor' of the lake here was gritty, the same sand, but quickly moving to mud, soft and his feet sinking in. Soon the water passed his knees, his hips, his chest. He kept feeling along the bottom, waiting for the dropoff that he knew was there.

He didn't get there on his own.

Michael's yelp is rather pitiful in the quiet night air when two cold, clammy arms wrap around his waist from below, and yank him under.

Michael flails for a moment, knowing, knowing it's just David, but still not expecting it. He kicks out, elbowing the vampire back, who gives him a little space.

Hands move around him, and Michael reaches out for them with his own. They grab each other, and having gotten his bearings, Michael lets David pull him. Down.

Down, down into the inky blackness. Even during the day, light wouldn't filter too deep here. When above, there's always some kind of light for them to see by. The moon, the stars, firelight or streetlights from the town, always a bit of skyglow their sensitive eyes could pick up on.

Here, there is nothing. A wall of blackness swamping the senses. Water dulling sound into odd vibrations Michael swore he could feel against his skin as they went, constant sensation of currents and movement. Lake plants, rocks.

Unknown Things in the blackness.

Michael could feel it in the back of his head as they reached the bottom. The wet, loamy settled material at the lakebed sunk between his feet as he slipped, and 'fell' backwards at David's pushing. Their bond practically hummed between them, the only form of communication open to them now. Calm. Settle. Everything's fine.

Yes...Michael knew that on an intellectual level. But as the moments ticked by, as David's hands on his arms didn't leave, as Michael kicked to keep himself from floating back upwards, he.

He couldn't help but feel it. The need to open his mouth and take in air.

Michael knows it's not necessary. It's an old reflex, that was still useful to have of course to talk and smell and look human and all those things. But it didn't want. To turn off.

He makes a sharp jerk, and David's suddenly wrapped around him. He's heavy against Michael, even in the water. Shoving back when Michael shoves up, spinning them back around to square one when it seems like Michael will wiggle free.

Air, fuck, Michael could feel the panic he didn't want building in the back of his head, quickly starting to build to the front, he needed air, he would figure something else out, he had to get away-!

A knee connected with Michael's sternum, and the impact rocked through him. A cloud of bubbles erupted from his chest, popping as they went.

Cold, cold water flooded in.

Like ice and lead at the same time. Michael feels it fill him up, a shaking convulsion at a time, grit sliding past his teeth, a weight settling into his chest. Heavy. Full. Cold, and sinking, and. Calmer. Too heavy to push against at the moment.

And just like that, Michael knows stillness.

No breathing.

A heartbeat so slow it was more like the swaying of the water around them.

There are hands at his shoulders. A ringing apology in the bond for the roughness, but he understands now. Before, when he'd been human, summer at the pool or riverside meant that getting water up your nose, breathing it in, meant burning, rough hacking. A pain as the body tried to expel the offending contaminant. A person can drown in a couple tablespoons of water, after all.

Michael was not drowned, now. He moves his arms, slowly, his legs. Pushing off the bottom, but he doesn't rise. No buoyancy to carry him up, save for his own power.

Like without air, he's part of the water, surrounded inside and out.

Suspended.

David's hands shift, to his face. Michael does the same. Across the bond, so strong now here, in the black utter silence it's almost visible, almost audible, their thoughts to each other, a question is asked.

Michael agrees.

Might as well explore some while they were here.

[tolerateit]

it's such a tragic irony that swifties, who rallied so hard for regulations on AI usage - because we all knew and experienced how dangerous it can be in the worst possible way, still continue to use AI to generate songs and alarm sounds and album/song covers using taylor's voice like it doesn't violate her artistry at all. and then defend it by saying this is different because they're doing it with positive intentions. there's literally nothing productive about using AI to generate any kind of content, especially not when that content is a blatant (and disgustingly shallow) impersonation of someone swifties claim to love and respect so much

[tradingjack]

From the firmament above, a blood-red eye looks down upon us.

[elbdot]

Hello I am back with more lore questions about your comics if u wanna answer 👀 (I looked back, but couldn't find this mentioned so sorry if I just missed it 😅)

I was curious since the comic starts after all the main plot stuff has happened: we know El is the Champ of the Alola League, but did she also do the island challenge trials like in the game or was she just traveling around with Hau while he did his? If she did do the trials did you make up a reason why the kahunas would let her, despite being well over the age limit for it? If she didn't was there some other motivation for her building her team up enough that she could beat the league when it was finished?

We're basically playing out the original story of SM with some changes!

Originally El just wanted a FUCKING VACATION and came from Hoenn after receiving a letter from her mom, to come to Alola and help her move into their newly bought appartement. But then Kukui busted through the door to welcome them and El's mom insisted on her coming with Kukui to get to know the locals while she'd continue setting up the place in the meantime. El didn't have any of her old Pokemon with her, as she heard of the strict laws of letting "invasive species" into Alola and she didn't want to deal with the paperwork, especially since she assumed she'd only stay in Alola for 2-3 weeks at best. Kukui showed her the way to Iki Town, talked about their customs, wanted to introduce her to the island Kahuna. When they couldn't find him, Kukui suggested he might be up Mahalo Trail, but stays behind in case Hala might come back from Hauoli City instead. El checks it out, she meets Lillie, the saving-Nebby-scene plays out where Tapu Koko rescues Nebby and El, El unexpectedly receives the sparkling stone from Tapu Koko that Hala makes a Z-Ring out of. Due to the incident, Hala encourages El to partake in one of Alolas oldest traditions as a way to get accustomed to Alolas culture but also to welcome her into it and keep an eye on her, with Halas and Kukuis interest being sparked by the appearance of their deity. The fact that she's way over the age of regular trial goers is not a problem, Tapu Koko must have given her that stone for a reason so Hala simply follows the will of the Tapus and is interested to see how El's journey will play out.

El feels honored being so welcomed by the Kahuna himself and is also too polite to decline partaking in the island challenge, even though she wasn't really interested in going on anther journey and building a new team of Pokemon...wasn't this supposed to be a vacation aside from helping out her mom??

But her mother is surprisingly supportive of El going on the island challenge, as she feared strangers like them from Kalos might have a hard time fitting in and making friends with the locals. She's okay with El not being able to help out setting up the house, as in her opinion "You're doing your part by learning everything you can about the region and getting to know our new neighbors."

After getting to know Hau the next day during a Festival in Iki Town, El starts to feel more like Hala specifically put them together so someone would keep an eye on Hau while the old Kahuna is unable to. Babysitting it is then. GREAT. But the innocent sweet little sunshine that is our Malasada Boy QUICKLY grows on El and she takes looking after him VERY SERIOUSLY and becomes the Mom-friend of the group. She downright enjoys looking after the shy Lillie and the joyful Hau while getting to see so many of Alolas amazing sights. She also greatly enjoys Kukuis company I might add...

Until she finds out he's taken. FUCK. GODDAMNIT. OF COURSE HE FUCKING IS AAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG "No Hau I'm not depressed. No I don't act strangely hostile towards Burnet what are you talking about nooooooo pass me the Malasada Hau. EW. It's BITTER. WHY'D THEY SELL THAT. I HATE IT HERE"

Don't worry, she recovers... El really starts to get into the challenge after a while. She was never a fan of challenging Gyms and greatly enjoys the different Trials she gets to go on instead. Alola quickly becomes her favorite region for the lush beautiful nature, the incredibly kind people and the Pokemon she meets along the way. Her team is unbalanced, but that's what makes her grow more closely together with her Pokemon than any previous team she had before. Beating trainers is a challenge due to the many bug-and flying-types on her team, she has to strategize more than ever before to make it work and be able to defeat the Kahunas. Her Oricorio Sweets would become her Partner Pokemon in the end, when she survived multiple hits from Kukuis Incineroar, holding on to 1 HP multiple times because of how determined the little bird was and how much she loved her trainer, defeating Incineroar in the end.

(This was my OG Team, only Sweets and my Golisopod Titan made it into the comics in the end, her Decidueye and Vikavolt are on Mohn's Pelago, Fletchinder I'd actually still like to include at some point)

El didn't expect to stay in Alola. She didn't expect to build a new team or even join the League or becoming CHAMPION of all things... Let's be real, Kukui didn't really give her much of a choice in joining. After Hau and El finished their island challenge, it was more of a "might as well join the League I just finished building" from the Professor, since before it was built, the final challenge WOULD have taken place on Mount Lanakila anyway. But what surprised El the most, was the fact that, after winning, she was offered the position of Champion by Kukui at all. IF she would have won, she thought, surely they'd not let a stranger like her actually keep the title and defend it. But NOPE. All hail Alolas first champion El I suppose. And with this, it was clear that El had to extend her stay in the region. For an...unforseeable time.

[emblazons]

It’s “realizing that Will’s struggle in S2 with being infected with a virus that spreads and will kill him quickly (but doctors don’t care) is a metaphor for how gay men were treated during the aids crisis” hours

—right alongside Mike (who comes from a family with a Reagan sign in their front yard + a mom who outwardly supported Margret Thatcher), who sat at his now confirmed gay best friend’s side the entire time he was sick and watched as people were willing to let him die because he was viewed as expendable……and now has an ongoing storyline where

1) his relationship with his girlfriend is falling apart because he doesn’t love her romantically

2) he’s staring longingly and pushing toward the freedom his gay best friend embodies for him, and

3) he cannot bring himself to tell anyone around him something because “what if they don’t like it” + dehumanize him for telling the secret truth he cannot bring himself to externalize, despite now knowing something that scares him about about himself:

(Bonus points for the fact that the first time we see Mike push Will and himself toward a girl is after he watches how people were willing to let his gay best friend (and him, by extension) die should they not confirm to expectations)

[bixels]

I feel like I've seen most of what interests me in FiMFiction for the time being, so I read through some good ol' reliable Stardew Valley fanfics last night, only to realize.

Haley x Female Farmer is basically Rarijack. Rarijack adjacent.

[tending-the-hearth]

"you think you had to ask?" "just making sure."

[i3utterflyeffect]

Imagine if victim somehow trapped c!Alan in the computer in ava 1?

all that i can say is it wouldn't go well! i still am going to be firm on the fact that i won't venture into c!alan's family in this measure (don't feel comfortable with including real people who haven't been explicitly included), but he would be really freaked out and want to go home. iirc, he was like, 13 around the point of ava 1? so it's a bit of a hellish situation especially considering he doesn't really get any sympathy from victim

[puppetmaster13u]

Been talkin on my discord server with some friends about a DC A/B/O au. But like, Gotham just says fuck gender.

Like they just straight up are mixtures of dynamics or change, depending on their mood, because there's so much chemicals everywhere along with so many curses in Gotham. Like they are straight up messed up down to a biological state. There is a reason that no one wants to go to Gotham and why they leave them alone for the most part. Like people even moving there eventually start to lose their dynamic or starts shifting as well, and it freaks people out.

Not to mention that Gotham horrifies those that believe they should still follow 'traditional' norms. Omegas are often far more violent and larger than the alphas, bettas egg on others instead of calming them. Or at least that's what Outsiders always see.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

love thinking kipperlilly spends her afterlife looking for lucy in a familiar forest

[possamble]

do you have any particular thoughts regarding marcille being a half-elf? its interesting to me considering the fact that she seems self-conscious about being a half-elf, but denies it when its brought up

i remember marcille looking visibly uncomfortable over laios simply asking her how old she is, which i think the only reason she might feel nervous about this is because it might reveal her as a half-elf to him.

she's never corrected anybody whose called her an elf either.

never mind the circumstances of the reveal, in which thistle goes on about how half-elves are inferior and accusing her of wanting to become full blooded elf, she seemed particularly upset like he struck a nerve-

i wish the half-elf thing was built upon more. also, underrated marcille line:

okay so i revisited this sequence just to make sure I could back myself up and it's just... man. there's a lot going on.

the first reaction we get from Marcille is this huge panel that takes up half of the page

she is viscerally affected. flushing to the tips of her ears with the intensity of it. and we see it again, a few pages later

so it might seem like she's embarrassed about it and lying to herself, but... I really think it's just that Thistle is accidentally hitting sore spots. If you really look at what he says to get these reactions

"you'll live out your entire life [...] and die that way too"

"a hundred years from now, nobody will be there"

Hear me out. I think, if he stuck to harping on about her inferiority without bringing up how terrifyingly long-lived she is, she wouldn't have been as bothered. But right now, Thistle is accidentally hitting all the marks on Marcille's deepest fears-- and this is after the Winged Lion promised her that her dreams could come true in an extremely vulnerable moment, so it also hits her slightly guilty conscience as well.

I do truly believe that Marcille isn't bothered about being a half-elf the way that people assume she'd be bothered by it. To her, the biggest problem with being a half-elf is that it's isolating.

On one hand, it's not hard to imagine why she'd distance herself from elves in the west. A lot of them can clock her as a half-elf on sight, unlike other races, and therefore she's always branded with this weird stigma of being Othered -- I would even say that she considers herself lucky for being born outside of elven culture instead of having to grow up in it. I mean, just... look at the way elves talk about her.

Skipping past the uncomfortable implication of what 'not tolerating the existence' of half-elves would actually entail, this is incredibly fucking annoying. You can see why she wouldn't want to be around elves much. You see a lot of Marcille reacting badly here, but honestly, almost all of it can be attributed to her freaking out that her bluff completely failed. She's honestly more paying attention to Izutsumi's footsteps and trying to coordinate an opportunity to escape.

And in the end, you see her built-up frustration at being asked if she wants to be a full-blooded elf like 2-3 times in a row.

Yeah, yeah, "the lady doth protest too much," and all. But we know Marcille. We know that she's a lot more embarrassed and horrendously unconvincing when she's being prodded about something she's actually self-conscious about.

Moving onto the flipside of things, it might seem weird that she "pretends" to be a full elf around other races, but it's not really that strange if you think about it. Again, people are weird about her being infertile or whatever, and a lots of them don't even know much about what sets half-elves apart from everyone else. I mean, look at how uncomfortable Laios is just asking her about it

and look at how exasperated and resigned she looks

And like... she's right. Where would that come up in normal conversation? Why would she go out of her way to tell them? She's functionally a normal elf to other races anyway -- got the ears, the abnormally long "childhood", and the huge mana capacity. Unless it's directly relevant or important for people to know, I don't think it's all that strange or indicative of insecurity that she prefers not to bother with it.

(This combined with her sense of being an "outsider" to elf culture also explains why she thinks elf superiority is embarrassing. She sees the way elves treat short-lived races from the "outsider" perspective nonetheless, and thinks it's obnoxious; especially more so because she usually has to play the elf around short-lived races and deal with the reputation of arrogance that elves have built up.)

The sad thing is, this all means that... she doesn't actually fit in anywhere. She doesn't like going out West much because of how elves treat her. But she's also an outsider in the continents she was born in, treated like this exotic long-lived alien choosing to live among short-lived races for some reason. She is always an outsider, the Other, no matter where she goes. Add in the fact that she'll live longer than literally anyone she knows, and it's honestly kind of heartbreaking.

And I think that's the crux of it. Marcille really doesn't act like she's at all self-conscious about being a half-elf because of any feelings of inferiority or being half-made or whatever. She considers herself a perfectly legitimate being and might even, in some ways, consider herself superior to normal elves because she's not blind with elf supremacy or whatever. (And whatever "elven biases" she displays, all of them are born more out of the fact that she's kind of bad at conceptualizing how other races age and mature compared to herself, not that she actually considers herself better or more mature simply for being an elf.)

I think that whatever self-consciousness Marcille has about being a half-elf is, instead, related to terror and loneliness. The reminder that it ensures she'll never truly belong anywhere for the rest of her very long life. The reminder that, in truth, even she's not actually sure how old she is by other races' standards (hence the discomfort when asked how old she is). She doesn't want to not be a half elf, or be a full elf or full tall-man-- in her ideal world, she's still a half-elf. She just gets to live out her life at the same pace with the people she loves and doesn't have to say goodbye again and again and again until she dies.

and one last very important panel, right after Mithrun tells her that all her desires would be devoured

In her ideal world, she's still a half-elf and reality magically starts marching at her pace. But failing that, the second best thing is that she's still a half-elf-- but one who is able to accept reality and let go of her fear.

(But the rest of the story pans out the way it does because, to Marcille, taking reality apart and reshaping it was less scary than simply and fully reconciling with it.)

[ghosts-cyphera]

for a split second I looked at a picture of Ghost with my desperation and sinful thoughts for this man turned off, and… we are insane. besties, we need professional help. we are off the hinges. tell you what, at this point we don’t even have any hinges because what had to go wrong with us for us to go “yup, this man right here, please” out of all the fucking options out there LMAO

[askblueandviolet]

you kill Your own daughter, You are the worst type of bastard, the bastard's king

MASTER POST

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[nikoisme]

slavic folklore stories are fucking insane dude. it's basically "if you don't do the thing this creature is going to fucking kill you and leave you in a ditch, and if you do the thing this creature is going to fucking kill you and leave you in a ditch. good luck surviving till morning when a rooster crows three times asshole"

[clownprince]

love this panel he is sooooo babie <3

[vaggieslefteye]

THEY ARE LITERALLY 5 YEARS OLD LMFAO