#like one of them is probably dead the other one is trapped in limbo

[gokuisahimbo]

rainy days

(idk how to draw backrounds dont look to closely)

[bleue-flora]

I just watched the finale again and what was the idea of c!drunz killing the server and reviving the server again supposed to mean, was that whole saw trap scene staged? because how were they gonna gather everyone and kill them all, and then revive them till they got their simple peaceful family and life back and if is staged, why even say all that to c!clingy if they were sick of c!clingy fighting c!dream all the time and seeing him as the big bad. If its not staged, why is it something that they thought would work? I feel like I've misinterpreted it as like c!drunz gathering everyone around like they're sheep into a pen lmao. Another thing is, they wanted to test the heroic/sacrificial limbo but the way they phrase the conversation is as if the person that died is gonna die forever while the other person leaves to tell everyone what happened which makes me believe that part was also staged because lets say if c!tubbo stayed behind and died making the sacrifice, then they'd revive him, find out the limbo and then would they like kill him again? like what would they do, put him in prison, let him be free, treat him like vikk and lazar despite saying that they made a mistake with those experiments and revived and killed too many times.

And if the server is off balance by revives and kills why would they want to kill everyone on the server then revive again to begin with. I'm just a little confused on the plan and I think you were the blog that said that it was all staged iirc and I wanted your insight into it because oh man I am struggling here. I do get their plan isn't meant to make sense though I feel like I missed something which has made me more lost.

Hmmm asking all the good questions. Well I should say to start that while I do think we should look at what staged duo does and says with skepticism, after all these two have shown they are liars especially to clingy duo so there are a lot reasons to doubt them. On the other hand 1) technically it can’t really be staged because it wasn’t super planned out, clingy duo came and they were not expecting it. 2) It is the finale and the content creators would know this so they would try and give us at least some answers…

Anyways while their actual Plan remains unclear, though I have some theories and thoughts about it [here], there are things we can determine pretty reasonably are legit or not, because we know they tell both lies and truth. For example, we know they experimented with Lazar and Vik - so they do spill truth obviously. It’s just how to determine what is and wasn’t true.

The biggest thing I can say we probably can say pretty strongly is that that saw trap was such a load of bs. For starters, it wasn’t meant for clingy duo, and when I’m thinking about characters who are willing to be selfless and die a hero, that would be significant enough to Dream or Punz to do this, not a whole lot of options come to mind. I’ve talked about it [here] about who it could be for, but since then I’m starting to wonder if it was supposed to serve a different purpose entirely… anyways the other thing and perhaps most noteworthy is that staged duo doesn’t seem to give a damn about the trap one way or another. When Tommy shows up in the finale and says Tubbo is dead, Dream doesn’t believe him, double checking with Punz to make sure he checked [clip] (checked what? No freaking idea, limbo I guess or more likely to see if there was a body probably… I don’t know). So the fact that they seem to care so little about their experiment and clingy duo in general is telling to me. The other thing is that the variables that change limbo seem to me to be pretty minor differences, like I’m not even sure if there’s a way to replicate and make it back to the same limbo, if it matters both on how you die and what happens before. I mean multiple people have died to a sword or axe, presumably specifically Dream’s sword or axe, I mean how different is Tommy dying in the finale to him getting beat to death in the jail cell with a potato, I mean plus technically Ranboo’s death could be seen as selfless right? Dying for his son seems kinda selfless, (but they didn’t even go talk to him in limbo anyways, so do they really care about limbo that much?), therefore I don’t really think that point matters. Hell even if it did, I don’t see why they couldn’t test this on Vikk or Lazar (maybe that was their original plan?…). I mean it just sounds so stereotypically evil - especially the way he presents it, the way he says they couldn’t test it because they are evil [clip], and the fact that it aligns with the hero dynamic fueling Tommy’s ego and such. In other words, playing into his world view. And whenever they are doing that I’d say it’s a major red flag. So, the saw trap I think we can say pretty reasonably, based on what we do know is facetious, the question of what the room is for and who however remains up for speculation.

As far as them killing everyone, I don’t think this is true either. I mean for starters why not kill Tubbo and Tommy to start the process, why not kill Sapnap like he talked about to Foolish, while on his own. Like if the goal is to kill everybody why let someone go tell everyone to come after them. Killing Sam, Sapnap, Foolish, Quackity… etc is a lot easier than trying to kill then all teamed up together. And we know unless they have some super weapon that they aren’t confident enough to even kill them all as they said in the finale and here [clip]. So unless they plan on trapping them in the prison and nuking them, or summoning a freaking dragon, or teaming up with XD or something, I don’t think that’s a feasible plan and they may be very screwed up mentally but they aren’t stupid.

They also are all about the balance but yet have no issues bringing Tommy back after he gets murdered, and they seem just in general so calm to whatever unbalance of such is going on. I mean we do know to some extent that it’s truth, XD tells Foolish his lives are limited because he’s low on power and he needs more death to fuel him, and we know the book is directly connected to XD since in the prison podcast it summoned him. So the unbalance is pretty confirmed as true even if perhaps their ‘solution/plan’ may not be. All the best lies have truth in them.

Which brings us to more questions than answers. Why bring clingy duo to prison in the first place? What and or who was the saw trap actually for? What was the actual plan? And why monologue to clingy duo at all? To which I unfortunately have little satisfying answers, which trust me frustrates no one more than me ;). What I can say perhaps their reason for lying and putting on a show at all was that I think they planned on letting someone go and for some reason wanted them to tell the others. And I base this on two things - their utter nonchalance, the way they just don’t seem to even care about clingy beyond being infuriated by them murdering Dream , and just the absolute unhinged way they act at times. The villainous, “This is so cute. We shouldn’t interrupt them” [clip]. The way they talk about the saw trap/experiment - “we’re just too evil” and like Punz’s ominous “choose wisely” as they leave [clip].

I don’t know but a good portion of that monologue feels very - we were practicing our evil laughs backstage before we walked out here, ya know… ;D

[snailstrailz]

HI! Okay so I’m currently being dragged away by another fandom, but nonetheless, what type of headcanons do you hold about Gregory? Or maybe some other, more to-the-sides character like Kabuki Bonsai? I really do adore hearing headcanons from others!

Ah yes, Gregory! I have a few for him

🕯️I mentioned he's a demon in my original post, to elaborate: he's a mid ranking demon (his mother ranking higher than him of course.) who gets his power from trapping souls and making them lose all hope of escape.

🕯️in that way, if you're determined enough, he holds little power over you. That's why he locked up Neko Zombie in the first place. Gregory holds so little power over him that he can only try to break him by imprisoning and abusing him, though it hasn't worked... Yet.

🕯️he's not allowed to harm a guest directly, unless they're completely hopeless and have become a husk. Then he can deliver a "finishing blow" To wich he usually hands their body over to Hell's Chef for meat and extracts their soul to give to his mother.

🕯️ That rule exists because of the balance between heaven and hell. The hotel is a form of purgatory, after all. If Gregory broke the balance he'd be destroyed and swiftly replaced, probably by James.

🕯️ Gregory resents his mother specifically because she exploits him for the souls he gathers, not letting him have any of the spoils of his work. Also she wasn't a very good mother to him.

As for side characters I'll do a few!

🌳 Bonsai Kabuki isn't a guest, rather a separate entity that occasionally pops in to feed on the fantasies of the guests. He's pretty sneaky about it too, lest he gets shooed off by a broom-weilding Gregory.

💀 Dead body is one of the more insane guests. He wasted away in life. He's not too far away from having his soul collected...

🦜 Inko and kinko have held onto their sanity particularly well, because they managed to sever their connection to the hotel, though they ruined their chances at escape by doing that. Their souls are just suspended in eternal limbo.

[forgotten-lumis]

Man Istg if Quadratum is in the Black Box then… I don’t even know man…

Like- it would make sense, no? Is this already a theory-

I think I’ve maybe sort of seen it around…?

MoM wants to trap the strongest Darknesses, and eliminate them, right? So… think of it like this;

Trapping Darkness in a place that doesn’t exist, aka Quadratum, would technically make the Darknesses literally not exist as well. Since you can’t physically kill them because they’re formless, then that would be the only way to get rid of them.

That kind of makes the Black Box a Pandora’s Box parallel, which, yeah, I’ve already seen that comparison floating around. It’s also literally shown as a kinda joke in Olympus in Kh3 when Pete and Maleficent dig it up lol.

Also, they said the Black Box contained “Hope”, which was the only thing left in Pandora’s Box after it had been opened in the original myth, and Pandora’s Box has been used to trap the “evils” of the world, aka Darkness.

Also, MoM calling this chance to trap the Darkness “Hope” makes a lot of sense, since it’s a means for him to reach his goal.

Though, there’s also the other aspect, the “unreality” part.

I feel like the Black Box is also kinda being used as a “Shrodinger’s Box” by the Master of Masters, to ensure that whatever is in it stays unreal, or unknowable.

You know, the whole thing with the cat where if you seal the cat in the box, then the cat is simultaneously dead and alive because you can’t know until you open it. This state of mind fits pretty well with the Kingdom Hearts universe as a whole. But in this case, we would also not know that there was a cat in the box in the first place so it’s even more mysterious.

By telling Luxu to never open the box, he’s keeping whatever is inside in this sort of limbo, since we know that in Kingdom Hearts you only need to be “seen to become real”. Through connecting with others, you exist. So if you are never seen, then wouldn’t that make you unreal? If no one ever sees Quadratum, and MoM disappears from reality to there (the only one who could have possibly even known what was in it, and that it existed), and tells Luxu to never open the box to even possibly know of its existence, then wouldn’t that make it “Unreality”? Since, from their side (of the box), it’s fiction, and never existed in the first place because no one ever connected to it? No one even knew about its existence at all, it exists outside of everyone’s reality and is therefore Unreality.

MoM also already trapped the other Darknesses in KHUX in a realm of Data, so it definitely works with the whole untold story of FF Versus-XIII linking to this narrative. If the world of Quadratum is perhaps a data work in the Black Box, and is that of Versus-XIII, but is one never seen by the world, then that whole story probably also exists in the realm of “Unreality”. It was never told and therefore people were never able to connect to it, so it exists outside of our realities.

In computing, a Black Box is also defined as a box that you cannot know the internal workings of, something that you can’t see into, but also can’t see out of.

From reality inside the box, whatever is outside would be “Unreality”, or fiction, because you can’t know about it and see out of the box, and it doesn’t exist within your own reality. So it’s a two way street, and Schrodinger’s cat doesn’t even know it’s in the box.

Also, the Black Box as a gaming console makes a lot of sense. You can’t interact with the Video game characters, and they can’t interact with you. In your reality, they’re unreal. And in theirs, you, the player, don’t exist either.

Imagine if Luxu had just been dragging around a really fancy looking PS4 with the only copy of FF Versus-XIII being run on it for all these years lmao.

Oh yeah, Quadratum also means “square”, so that’s fun. You know a square, like- a box- If you’re in Quadratum you’re literally “boxed in” there-

Anyways- yeah. We really cannot know anything because like- nothing has come out about it. But theories are fun and I literally cannot stop thinking about this. It is actually an issue, please- someone help me-

Maybe KH theorizers were the ones trapped in the box all along… I know I certainly am.

[plaidpyjamas]

fuck it, Avengers Dead Dove Do Not Eat fic idea/outline

This is mainly an AU for my Avengers OC Desmond - he grew up in a lab and has a regenerative mutation because of it. In his main story/universe, Tony and Pepper unofficially adopt him and his life is able to finally turn around. The set up is the same here, except that Tony Stark is a Monster with Too Much Power I can try and write it as an "x reader" fic if people want, but portions of it do hinge on Desmond and his own origin story, plus I'd need a beta reader to go through and swap pronouns over. Anyway here's some quick thoughts on the fic, laying down a little bit of groundwork as far as Desmond's situation goes. I can't guarantee I'll actually write it though hhhhh TW: NON-CON (the focus is Desmond's sexual assault at the hands of Tony & Bruce), transphobia, and probably a whole load of other stuff if I do write it

DARKFIC – Tony x Desmond x Bruce Non-con, DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT

Desmond is taken in by Tony around the same time [somewhere around Avengers2012?]

Because of all the tech and money Tony has provided SHIELD he’s gained too much freedom and power – no one is really able to stop him from doing what he wants, because he could rip away nearly all of SHIELD’s resources at this point

What Tony wants, in “adopting” Desmond, is a plaything (he also brings Bruce into it- he's in this weird limbo where he still joins Tony in assaulting Desmond, but he apologizes nearly the entire time, which makes Desmond feel worse)

 Fury feels partly responsible for what Tony (and by extension Bruce) is doing to Desmond – he’s unable to do anything and the guilt eats at him - Fury's constant apologizing and trying to “make it up to him” just makes Desmond feel worse (are you noticing a trend)

Pepper is also trapped – first in her job and now in her marriage w/ Tony – she and Desmond, while living together and going through the same things, aren’t able to do anything to help each other, aside from sympathetic glances now and then (Tony doesn’t allow them together unsupervised maybe?)

Pepper tries to comfort Desmond when she can - by making him food or other small things. She genuinely cares about Desmond, but is really doing these small things for him so she doesn't have to think about her own suffering

Tony won't let Desmond get any of the gender affirming surgeries he wants - claims it's simply not possible with his healing abilities and won't let him talk about it past that - Tony really just wants more control over him (potential forced pregnancy?)

Tony does not allow Desmond to see Loki at all, so sadly that relationship never has a chance

Luckily though he does still meet Bucky - they keep their friendship a secret and Bucky really wants to do something about Desmond's situation but he can't without risking Desmond losing his one single solitary genuinely safe place (Bucky's room) so he's stuck just trying to comfort Desmond and be there to put him back together whenever he needs

Steve either does not notice all of this or he is in denial, so Desmond can't go to him (there has been at least one incident where Desmond felt safe enough to vent a bit to Steve - Tony knew everything by dinner that night, rip)

Steve's unwillingness or inability to see how awful Tony is towards Desmond and Pepper causes a rift between him and Bucky

Potential happy/bittersweet ending - Bucky somehow manages to help Desmond escape and they flee to.....idk somewhere. Maybe they're just on the run from then on. Maybe they go to Wakanda? Maybe Shuri and T'challa take them in and hide them?

I really want to try and find a way to work Loki into this, since he's such an important character in Desmond's canon universe, but idk how I'd go about doing that - unless!!!!! Thor finally catches wind of what's happening and offers to take Desmond to Asgard (Bucky too cause he's not leaving this poor guy all by himself). I guess that could still happen, but it could be like a failed escape attempt? And after that, Loki gets involved in trying to help Desmond or something? I'm hesitant to give Desmond more people who want to help - I feel like that makes it less dark? And if I write this thing I'm going whole-hog like it's gonna make me sick to write it I bet lmao someone help me

idk I haven't really thought about a coherent plot line, just this absolute nightmare scenario lmao

anyway if this sounds like something you'd wanna read please tell me!!! I have so many ideas for this but I don't wanna write and post it if nobody wants it, yknow?

[dontlookheswatching]

AU List

Current AU count: 16)

(This number will probably change daily as new au's are created. I have genuinely a bunch more than listed, but I'm only selecting certain ones as some are still in development)

---

Main AU - The main AU that this whole blog is centered around. This one will be seen the most. There is no tag for this one, so if you wanna check if what I'm posting is an au or not, check the tags.

Highschool AU - An AU where the Creeps all have pretty much the same stories and appearances, but they're back in they're teen years and younger, living the rest of their lives they never got to have. #Highschool au

Zombie AU - Heavily inspired by my favorite show, The Walking Dead. A outbreak happens, and the under realm where the mansion is destroyed as Slenderman vanishes, leaving the Creeps to fend for themselves. #Zombie au

Afterlife au - Inspired by Heaven, Hell, and what's in between the two, Limbo. Also a LITTLE inspired off Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss. The Creeps are split among the races of Angels, demons, and hybrids. A war is ongoing between Heaven and Hell. #Afterlife au

Fantasy AU - An AU where, similar to the Afterlife AU, an entirely different world is used. It's built off fantasy creatures like elves, centaurs, spider people, fairies, and many others. There's one singular royal family that rules over the entire continent, the majority of the castle citizens being elves. Every other species as a tribe leader that rules over only their species. However, there's a mafia ready to break the peace of the continent to try and overthrow the royal family. #Fantasy au

Band AU - An AU where the Creeps are split among band groups and fans. The under realm doesn’t exist, nor does Slenderman. They live in the normal world; Their stories have been altered to fit that statement. #Band au

Modern AU - An AU where everything that happened to the Creeps were accidents. They lived through them without doing anything too horrible. They live normal lives and have families and jobs and what not. Slenderman doesn't exist. #Modern au

Prison AU - The Creeps are split among Citizens, Police Force, and Prisoners. It's possibly one of our most chaotic au's- #Prison au

Insect AU - Everyone are turned into bug people. A whole new world is used. I'm gonna be honest this AU only exists because I found out some cool facts about bees and I drew Ben as a bee because of it and I personally thought it was really cute so😭 #insect au

Infection AU - A ripoff MLP infection au but with murders. They're all TRAPPED in the under realm with no escape and Slenderman vanished once again. I used a wheel to choose who was dead and alive and infected and such so some of my favorites are dead:( #infection au

Pirate AU - The Creeps are split among pirates, mermaids, sirens, and other creatures. #Pirate au

Shapeshifter AU - Multiple Creeps, not everyone, but several, are shapeshifters who all have a selected animal form they use as a disguise to go around and do whatever they please without the human consequences, the only consequences and issues they face include being hunted, caught by animal control, etc. The shapeshifters are not under Slendermans control and have no contact with the ones who are unless they stumble upon each other. #Shapeshifter au

Split AU - The Creeps are split among those who work for Slenderman, Zalgo, or are unaffiliated with either but still exist. This one is actually based on an old cosplay youtube channel who had an old Tumblr account and would answer asks in the form of cosplay. They had cool lore that inspired me and my Boyfriend. I don't remember the name of the YouTube account or Tumblr account, but I do remember the main star being Toby. #Split au

ACNH x CRP AU - This one doesn't actually have a bunch of deep lore, it exists only for design purposes. Maybe one day I'll develop more lore into it! #Acnh au

Pokémon AU - This one is loosely based off Pokémon Sword. Not the DLC though because I'm broke. Maybe one day though😔 The main characters are Ben and Jeff, Ben as the 'player' and Jeff as Hop. Liu would be Leon, Hop's older brother. A bunch of other Creeps are used for other roles such as Gym Leaders or other supporting characters. My apologies if your not familiar with the game and have no idea what the hell I'm rambling about😭 #Pokémon au

TOTK x CRP AU - I had to. Im sorry but I had to. My two favorite fandoms, there was no escaping. Ben takes the role as Zelda and Jeff takes the role of Link because honestly I find it fucking hilarious. Other Creeps are other supporting characters from the game. #Totk au

[ghostbustersreborn]

Chapter 2.

Tara woke up, letting out a sharp gasp.

"Egon, she's awake."

The three surrounded her.

Her eyes widened when seeing their bullet hole wounds.

She let out a small scream, backing away from them.

"It's okay sweetie. It's us, we're not going to hurt you." Ray assured her.

Her eyes darted between the three of them.

She looked upon their wounds again. She slowly gazed down to hers. Her stomach was ripped open, it was barely a stomach any more. Well, at least she didn't feel any pain.

She looked back up at them, tears ran down her face.

"I know sweetie, I know." Ray sympathized with her.

"Come on." Egon motioned.

She crawled towards them.

Ray held his arms out for her.

She buried her face in his chest.

"Are we dead?" She asked, her voice coming off muffled.

Egon breathed out a sigh. "Unfortunately, our demise has been met." He confirmed.

*

The four with Tara in Ray's arms stood amongst all the other deceased.

"Let me get this straight, Ray. You're sayin' we're dead?" Winston double checked. "Because, I always pictured Heaven a little more.. soft and cloudy, I guess."

"There's the rub, Winston. We're dead but our souls most likely weren't scheduled to arrive in the afterlife for quite some time." He explained as they went down the stairs.

"Obviously, according to popular belief. We've been shunted off to purgatory." Egon stated.

"Purgatory, huh." Winston hummed.

"Think of it as a giant waiting room. An otherworldly limbo; in essence, a cosmic, karmic containment unit to house our souls." "Until, such time as we'd have been rightfully judged." Egon continued.

"I can't believe we're actually here!" Stantz gushed. "I would never have thought when I woke up this morning that by tonight we'd all be murdered and sent to purgatory! You have to admit, it's pretty wild."

"Yeah, pretty wild to be dead by thirteen. I had a whole life to look forward to, y'know?" Tara snapped.

"Exactly, what part of being dead do you not understand, Ray?!" Winston barked.

"Winston, makes a strong point, Ray. It's not like we hit the lottery here. Those ghosts set a trap for us and we strolled into it like a bunch of amateurs." He lamented.

"Biggest mistake of my entire life." She lamented.

"No sense beating ourselves up. What's done is done. (He switched Tara to the other hip.) We've been in tough spots before. Not quite this bad, sure, but if there's a way out, we'll find it, if not.. no sense crossing bridges before we have to." Ray encouraged.

*

Eight hours later.

"Man, that was a lot of stairs. My thighs feel like melted-" Winston cut himself short when he hit the back of his head when what felt like a bug bit him.

"Hold still, Winston!" Egon stopped him. "Ray, are you seeing this?"

Ray walked over and looked at the squished bug in the palm of Zeddemore's hand.

"It's another dead thing. Add it to the list." Little Venkman grumbled.

"Is that a mosquito? This is mind blowing!" Ray gasped.

"It.. is?" Winston said in confusion.

"How many insects get killed before their lifespan plays out?" Egon began to theorize. "It makes sense now that I think about it. It's highly probable that there are dogs and cats and all kinds of different forms of life trapped here."

Ray looked closer. "Hmm. It's definitely not faking." He made sure of.

"Put me down. You're excitement over our deaths is making me depressed." She requested.

Ray set her down.

She went to go latch onto Winston. Which was new, but he was the only one being realistic here and not excited over them being freaking dead.

Winston wrapped an arm around her, he felt bad for all that she had to go through today. She was only thirteen and had seen too much. A little too much.

"Egon, Winston (Tara shot him a look.) and Tara. The ramifications of the mosquitos 'death' pose some incredibly far-reaching questions." He began. "If it's possible for a soul to die while in purgatory, what do you suppose happens then?" He put out. "Could there be different levels to purgatory? Or what if this is all there is? What if dying twice removed one completely from the circle of life? Man! What I'd give for a copy of Tobin's Guide right about now."

"Uhh.. guys?" Tara went, looking to the group of people that were now standing in front of them.

"I think we've got company." Winston announced.

There was a younger boy who looked to be around Tara's age, an older man, an old lady, and two men who were identical twins that were attached at the hip like quite literally?

"Pardon our interruption, dears. By any chance, would you nice boys be the Ghostbusters?" Asked the old lady. "We were told to expect three of you wearing khaki flightsuits and a little girl in a shirt and jeans arriving right about now. Which one does that make you, Igor, Ray or Winston? And she is.. Tara I believe."

Tara stifled a laugh when the grandmom mistakenly called Egon Igor.

"It's Egon, not Igor." Egon corrected her. "This is Ray (he pointed to his left) Winston, and yes this is Tara (he pointed to who was standing by Winston's side.)" He properly introduced everyone. "If you don't mind my asking, what's this about? Someone told you to expect us?" He questioned.

"Come on! We could'a done this already!" The twin on the left whined. "If you blow my shot at crossing over, I swear-" The other began to say before the old lady shut them up.

"I just wanted to be sure we didn't consign the wrong ones to an eternity of oblivion."

"What do you mean by the wrong ones?" Tara asked.

"Sorry, dears. After a few months here, you could hardly blame us." She said.

"Excuse me." Ray stepped in. "Blame you for what?"

The group charged at the Ghostbusters.

"This!"

*

The group of ghosts were literally beating the shit out of the Ghostbusters.

The kid ghost in the blue cap was getting the shit kicked out of him by Tara.

Nobody messes with Tara.

"Nothin' personal, Igor!" Said the old lady.

"It's E-urf-Egon!" He corrected her once more.

The twins were punching Ray in the face.

The kid in the blue cap threw Tara out from under him having her face flat in the pavement.

"Ouch." She mumbled.

"The bosses figure you four are a threat to the status quo- even in here, dearie." She explained. "Try not to worry. They say oblivion is like diving into freezing cold water. It's unpleasant at first, but once you're numb, you won't mind so much."

Like that was going to make them feel better.

Now, the kid wearing the cap was on Winston's back trying to choke him.

"Madre De Dios! Sorry, Tommy!" The black ghost apologized when he accidentally punched the kid in the face instead of Winston.

He fell to the floor, sobbing for his dead mother.

Winston bopped him in the jaw, throwing him to the ground.

"Hang on, Ray!" He cried.

He ran over and slammed the twins heads against each other.

"Back off, man!" He ordered.

They dropped to the floor, moaning in pain.

"Winston, Thank God. For a second there, I could have sworn I was back in tenth grade." Ray admitted.

"You got beat up by conjoined twins in High School?" Winston inquired.

"You're telling me you didn't?" Ray said shocked. "Man, what kind of school did your parents send you to?"

"I have no-" "Rhetorical question, Winston. Come on, we better help."

Egon had his foot pressed into the old woman's back. He had Tara in his arms. The old lady had gone for Tara and he wasn't having it.

"Egon!" The guys yelled.

"Snap out of it Egon, this isn't like you at all!" Ray said pulling him away.

"Guys?" Egon said, snapping back to reality.

"Yeah, it's us. Take it, easy. It's over." Zeddemore assured him.

"Over? We'd only just started, dears. You have no idea the level of pain bearing down on you." She seethed.

"Let me at her!" Egon growled as they held him back.

"Egon, don't drop me!" Tara cried.

"Egon, no she's not worth it." Ray pleaded.

"Ray's right, man. She's just trying to rattle us. Maybe, keep us distracted until reinforcements arrive?" He guessed. "And you are also holding Tara." He reminded him.

"You're right, Winston. I lost my composure, sorry. She just kept pushing me and pushing me. I didn't want her to hurt Tara." Egon apologized. "We should go in case they're not done. We need room to figure out what exactly we've stepped into here."

They looked over seeing a crowd of people.

"Head for that crowd, we should blend in there!" He said.

*

In the crowd of people

"Stay together. It would be pretty easy to lose each other in here." Egon commanded.

In the midst of the crowd, they saw the familiar ghosts who beat them up not too long ago.

"Uh, oh guys." Ray directed their attention.

"This way." Egon began walking. "The deeper we go, the harder it will be to pick us out."

"We've got company, looks like the apple dumpling gang isn't done with us yet." Ray exchanged.

"All right, no problem. Just keep our heads down and stay together." Egon relaxed. "Winston can you-"

There was no sign of him.

"Winston?" Tara called for him.

"Where's Winston?" Spengler asked Stantz.

"He was right here next to me!" Ray claimed.

"Winston!" They began yelling for him.

"Winston, can you hear me?!"

*

Later.

They were sat up against a mountain, having given up on the search for their friend.

"Frankly, Egon, this whole affair has turned out to be a disaster." Ray said. "Being murdered and consigned to purgatory really hasn't lived up to my expectations." He vented.

Tara sniffled.

"Careful, Ray. It's been scientifically proven that negative thinking brings back negative results." Egon informed him. "Look on the bright side. At least we finally managed to lose that crazy old lady."

"...And Winston." Tara included.

"You know what else? I miss Venkman. He'd say something sarcastic and clever right about now and things wouldn't seem so bleak." Ray added.

"I miss him too." Tara teared up. "T-that ghost had the audacity to pretend to be him just so he could shoot me."

Egon wrapped his arm around the young girl, she rested her head on his shoulder.

"I have to concur, Peter does have a way of lightening the mood." He agreed with Ray.

"Poor Venkman. Who knows what even happened to him." Ray said. "In my head, I know this is the point where we've been slapped down. The odds are against us. It's time to stand up, fight back and save the day."

"But, we're dead. So, what's the point?" She shrugged.

"I hate to admit it, but I know how you feel. How you both feel." Egon confessed.

He then looked up to see a group of ghosts with a group of very familiar ghosts.

"Shit. Just when I hypothesized this day couldn't get worse.." He sighed.

"Why can't they just leave us alone?!" Tara whined.

"You're only making this harder on yourselves, dears. Why fight the inevitable?" Asked the lady.

"Could someone please explain to me what the deal is with this old lady?" Ray requested.

The three quickly jumped up and began to run for it just as the ghosts came after them.

"No more messing around, get them!" She demanded.

They began to climb up the mountain. They had no choice.

"This way, Ray!" Egon motioned. "Clearly, this is one of those times where discretion trumps valor."

"This has got to be karma! Egon, we have must have killed her dog in another life or something." Ray guessed.

"Or we killed her?" Tara put out.

"I don't know. She said something earlier about her bosses thinking we're dangerous." Egon recollected. "More likely, for whatever reason, there's a bounty on our heads."

"Yes, thirteen and being wanted for something I have no idea what I did. Such a great milestone for me, isn't it?" Tara asked herself.

"Well, that takes care of that dears."

"What the hell is she on about?" Asked little Venkman.

"They're conceding defeat! We did it, Ray!" Egon proclaimed.

"Ha! Next time, we'll be ready for-"

Standing before them was a big red monster.

"Well, here we go dying again!" Tara cried.

"The borders shall not be breached!" growled the monster.

"-eep!" Squeaked Ray.

"The first rule has been broken. You will be punished!" It jumped towards them.

It pinned them to the ground, salivating at them.

"Egon, this thing is amazing. Someone, find me a camera!" Ray requested.

"Are you kidding me, Ray?! This isn't exactly a good moment to ask for a camera!" Tara snapped.

"Excuse me."

"Pardon me."

"Coming through here."

"I can't move, Ray. I think this might be it." Egon told him.

"Yep. Death #2 can't wait." Tara said sarcastically.

"Negative thoughts bring negative results, Egon and Tara. Remember?" Ray reminded him.

"Back off, beastly. These are my family you're about to devour!" Came a familiar voice.

A hand came forward tugging out the tongue of the beast.

The three stood up, their eyes widened.

"P-P-P" Egon struggled to say.

"Ok. Safe to say that's about nine different kinds of gross." Ray commented.

Tara's eyes welled up with tears.

"Daddy?" She said, hoping it was him.

"You really must be really confused right about now. I know I was when I first got here. Who wants to know what's going on?" Peter offered.

Tara smiled.

*

[iamcinema]

Howdy, freaks and creeps.

I hope everyone is doing well. I can't say things have been going well for me, so I'm just in this weird limbo stare where I don't know what's going on half the time. While I'm absolutely having days where I'm forgetting to do (or if I even did) basic things like remembering to drink enough water or if I showered or not, I'm at least trying to shift my focus again to watching movies so I can keep my thoughts in line.

This lead to a triple feature yesterday and one movie in particular was on my mind the entire night because I still have no idea what to even make of it. Mind you, I'm buzzing and probably unhinged - so bear with me. The movie in question is Willy's Wonderland and goddamn, do I have some quebstions. This will have spoilers, so I'll put everything below the jump in case anyone hasn't seen it and doesn't want anything ruined for them. I'm just. What's happening.

Okay, so I get it. I get it. This is one of those movies that knows exactly what it is. It's stupid and weird for its own sake. It's not meant to be taken seriously. I mean, look at it. It's absolutely something you need to go in with total suspension of disbelief. If you try too hard to make any sense of it, your brain might melt. Mine's long gone, so that's not a problem.

But here's what gets me, and if anyone is a fan, remembers finer details, or has better ideas - let me know. Okay, so here we go.

#1. What's the deal with Hayesville?: We never get a true sense of what the town is like both size and population wise. My only guess is that it's probably more rural than anything or one of those very small places that are under, say 5k residents.

I ask because the way they frame it, especially the murders, a good portion of the town was eradicated if they didn't move. Also, why did it, apparently, take the police so long to investigate Willy's if people were disappearing? For me, if friends, family, and neighbors said the last time they saw their loved ones was at this specific location and it became a trend with other missing persons cases - that would have been the first place I'd ask questions.

Speaking of which, just how many people were reported missing before they did the raid? How fucking bad is your department if you let it get that bad considering how small of an area you are? Also, what's their economy situation like considering so many people have moved out or died?

#2: Why was seemingly "everyone" on-board with being accomplices to murder?: There's so many other things they could have done, and yet, fueling some supernatural bloodlust was the way to go. If you were concerned with the well-being of others and the town, essentially trapping random people passing by is such a ballsy move.

If you're remote and get next to no traffic, just how long are you waiting for targets? But also, just, why? If you want to end it, you could very easily set the place on fire like others tried. Just...why? Oh, and why was the Sheriff so quick to get pissed at Nic Cage's character for Liv's friends being dead if the whole purpose was a blood sacrifice being made? She had no qualms with them being there, knowing they could die, and only gave the slighted change of heart when Liv got mentioned. I get that they took in drifters so there's no emotional connection, but the job was done.

#3: What's Hayesville's economy situation like?: This ties into the first part. If the town is drying up, then wouldn't it have just made more sense for them to either (1) bring in an actual cleaning crew to bring the place back to life or (2) turn it into a tourist trap and cash-in on the murders. Liv outright said that Willis was a prolific serial killer and given the notoriety of the murders and his team, that would make for both incredible (and exploitative) television and a travel destination for true crime enthusiasts. They already did their part to contribute to the posthumous killings, so them having an ethical dilemma about that feels so off to me.

#4: What's the deal with Nic Cage's character?: Don't get me wrong, I totally relate to running out of fucks and being so acclimated to how much of a shit show my life has become that the only glimmer I have is a case of energy drinks and an old pinball machine. But, it just has me wondering what his line of work is for him to not be fazed at all by any of this. This is just Tuesday for him. I don't know. Like, what's happening?

Anyway, that's all I kind of have for now. I'm just tired. I have too many questions about this weird ass movie.

[thelonelyme]

♤𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚 𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐬♤

.

𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞: ディズニー ツイステッドワンダーランド[Twisted Wonderland]

𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐨/𝐢: Malleus Draconia, Silver (Vanrouge), Lilia Vanrouge, mc.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭: Malleus reacts to mc's awakening from silver's kiss. [mc x Yandere Malleus Draconia]

𝐀𝐕𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐙𝐄: FEM READER, This is the second part of "Spoiled", so if you haven't already read that, make sure you do. Yandere content, scenes of explicit torture, threats, physical and psychological violence, misogyny, explicit scenes of murder.

𝐓𝐚𝐠𝐬: @banjovamp ;)

"And tell me... How would it be possible? Tell me... Tell me if it's possible when what I've been doing for the last ten years was just trying to break that spell. Tell me, Tell me, TELL ME." His fingertips had turned white from how much pressure he was putting on your hand.

He most probably broke it already, but at this point, even a single grimace, a scream of pain, an involuntary reflex- anything would be fine.

By now you seemed more dead than alive, your skin had begun to cool down your arms, gathering the necessary heat in your chest and stomach. You hadn't eaten for years, decades, but you didn't age. Your fingers were completely frozen, if somehow you would come back, surely there would be a lot of problems in rehabilitating them; your lips once so sweet and rosy, so kissable and lovable, were now colored a pale blue, not so obvious but still quite visible.

Malleus could no longer look at that pitiful sight.

A woman as charming, beautiful, fantastic and tameable as you, reduced to a thread of death by none other than your self-proclaimed husband, the one who, by ruining your life, has filled his.

In an eternal limbo with no way out, if not by an impossible means. He should have been the one you should have loved, otherwise this would never have happened; if you hadn't turned against him nothing would have ever happened, if only you weren't so stubborn, ungrateful, ignorant and stupid, nothing would have ever happened. In fact, you would both be sitting in the gloomy castle garden as you snuggle up to watch your adorable son play with Lilia and annoy Sebek as he gently rubbed your swollen stomach of his love for him.

"Malleus, I know what you are going through, I know what an immense pain it feels to realize that all the efforts made are only in vain, I have been through it. But the only thing I can advise at the moment is not to obsess over the matter even more; you are spending more time with her than you should with your child! He is growing up with no one, and you more than anyone else should know what it feels like. You are bringing an entire kingdom to destruction as yourself, now you spend more time in this room, without letting anyone in. As much as I hate to say it, you absolutely have to take your life back in your hand and that of your people as well as that of your children, they are still small, but they are beginning to no longer believe the lies we are telling them. I am not speaking to you as an army commander, I am not speaking to you as an honored knight, but I am speaking to you as a father, make the right choice, now, your majesty, goodnight. " With this, the elder fae left the room, being followed by the two knights in the corridors of the castle to put to sleep the two kids.

To let go.

He could never let you go, your bond should have been forever, but then, why are you separated by this invisible wall?

"The spell can never be broken except by the kiss of true love."

If it wasn't him, who? Who would ever be that peasant who would have lured you into his trap? There would be thousands of possibilities, one more terrifying than the other for the dragon king.

But from that thought an idea was born, one that, however convoluted it might sound, would be able to solve both problems.

Finding a new calm, the fae cured your shattered hand bones with a twist of his wrist, then brought his face close to your sleeping one, making the two hot breaths collide with each other, and lovingly whispered that they could finally reunite once and for all.

· ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

The next day, the monarch of Briar Valley made sure he knew who it was that had captured his soulmate's heart. As much as his draconic instincts were screaming and wriggling inside of him, he resisted the temptation to slit those filthy people who were now taking turns kissing your hand.

He consoled himself knowing that he would then take care of the punishments himself that, despite having sent the order himself, that useless dust of society would have to pay for even thinking of looking at HIS lovely wife.

Unfortunately this could only have happened with the inhabitants of his kingdom, after all he would not even want to have to deal with useless and boring battles against other countries in the world of him.

He called for the occasion all his former schoolmates, from the now successful businessman Azul Ashengrotto to the now athlete Jack Howl, to figure out who that person was to take revenge.

No one will ever be able to take his wife from him, or they will be eliminated like those useless creatures that they are.

Peasants, nobles, dukes, even duchesses participated in the very unusual event. But none of them had been able to wake you from the cursed sleep.

Finally losing that thin thread of patience that was left to him, he ordered that all the people who had even dared to touch you before, were trapped in the castle, while he headed into your rooms with your body softly asleep and modeled on his strong arms. As hot as the situation was, Malleus could do nothing but soften at the tender sight of you and your children sleeping together.

Even if for just one moment, he thought that this was not the result of a spell, but that it was the result of an eternal love between him and you.

"Don't worry, my love, everything will work out soon, so we can be real family again" He said softly whispering in your ear, aware that you couldn't hear him, and tenderly kissing first your forehead, then the bridge of your nose, and finally your cheeks, before leaving the guard of your room to one of his most trusted knights.

When the young monarch was gone, young Silver entered the room.

He knew you hated him, and he hated himself too: he hated himself for never trying to stop this, he hated himself for not having stopped his master in time, and he hated himself for ignoring everything.

After all, even if ignorance is bliss, it will always lead to an inner emptiness and regret for not having known before.

"Sorry ___, sorry, please forgive me-please, please.." Silver sobbed faintly, slumping along your figure, staining the palm of your hand firmly in his hands with silver tears.

You would never have deserved all of this pain.

You never did anything. He'd rather be burned alive a thousand times over than let you go to your fate.

"Sorry.." He brought his face close to yours: his cheeks were red and wet from crying, while he sobbed slightly at every memory of your requests for help. He didn't want to do it.

He kissed you.

"You are forgiven"

"W-w-what? What ever- How?"

"I forgive you" You said hoarsely, not having used your voice for years. But for Silver, those simple words would have been heaven on earth.

As if by magic, the doors to the room swung open. Malleus entered. He knew something was wrong. He knew that brat was dealing with his wife. All those glances, even if helpful, all those words you thought he could never hear.. A fae couldn't be less if he didn't have senses amplified than a humble human.

"YOU BASTARD!" Malleus lunged at the man, biting his throat. Silver screamed. At that moment he couldn't care less of you, he finally had between his fangs the filthy traitor who had got in the way. You screamed in terror as the delicate skin on Silver's neck began to peel off his neck. If no one were to intervene instantly, he would be dead.

But neither Lilia nor Sebek did anything.

With one last yank, Malleus tore a large piece of flesh from the now dead human. Blood was everywhere and still flowing from the huge gash in his neck.

Nobody cared, as long as it wasn't too long, he could easily bring himself back to life with an ancient ritual, which, fortunately, Malleus didn't know.

"I advise you to go and change, you wished you could be in a more pleasant condition to atone for your betrayal."

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

[speaking-theoretically]

OK, OK, OK, another fic idea I'll never end up writing...

Peter has a younger sister. Sister is our protagonist/reader/oc.

She is in the upside down, living a suspiciously normal life, pretty much alone.

Peter as Venca isn't actually killing people, it only looks like that, what he's really doing is dragging their souls to the upside.

So these people, Barb, Billy, Etc are waking up in the upside down and being found by our protagonist and she essentially looking after them, making friends; "nursing them back to health"; introducing them to her way of life.

Think of the upside down like Limbo. They are not alive but they're not dead either.

Prog is so innocent and in her own world it hurts. Not really living but existing, Contentment and daily routine. Think cottage core but the aesthetic is all off.

When they ask why cant you/we just leave she's like 'I don't know, I just never found a way out, never thought of leaving either. Besides Peter is here some where'

She doesn't realise that Peter is Venca. But she isn't afraid of Venca like the others.

Now it isn't until our boo Eddie turns up that things get cray cray. Cause he's got more deets than the others and he's like 'what the actual fuck!?' He also probs super, super baffled by her, doesn't trust her. And questions why they all made this seem like it's normal, when it's not.

Eleven doesn't know oc exists, because she's totally off radar. I'm thinking something to do with pre upside down, and the reason behind her being there. Like a trauma response, she's able to hide, the only person she doesn't hide from is her brother and for that reason Venca just casually watches from afar which spooks the others.

They all think she's trapped like them. When she probably could actually just walk out. But unlike the others she feels safe in the upside down.

Even better twist she could let them all go back, but she's actually really lonely and that's why they are stuck. No one, even herself realises that. Imagine the tension as soon as they find out.

The tears when she realises what's she done, who venca is and what's actually going on. Like waking up and loosing your shit, emotional angst. Abandoned again. The guilt, omg the guilt. The loss of all these friends she thought she had made.

I feel like out of them all Eddie would pity her and be the first to trust her again out of all them. Because yes its fucked, but none of them really knew what was going on and she had been wrapped up in it the longest that she had normalised it in her head.

They 'get over it' when they realise she can help them get back. And once they are all out she's back to her lonesome again.

We could go really sad and she let's them all go, while she returns to the upside down to keep her brother there.

Or

A slightly happier version of rediscovering the world and naturally making friends not the ones practically being held hostage. Finally the cottage core aesthetic is back on tract . Self discovery, healing- yada yads

I don't know about love interest l, probs doesn't even need one.

[the-final-sif]

I've always thought that ghosts weren't real as well!

My personal idea is a bit different, though. I kind of thought/think that ghosts are parasites that feed off of emotions (probably negative ones). Regardless of headcanon, they definitely aren't anything good.

Suffice to say, I was unambiguously happy when Dream revived Wilbur because I was so unnerved by Ghostbur.

I think that's a valid take on it too!

My concept of ghosts on the SMP comes from the canon that DreamXD eats souls. If he does that, then it'd make sense for people to be trapped in limbo, he's feeding on them. The revive book lets people escape limbo, supposedly for no cost (although I refuse to believe the revive book has no cost unless DreamXD is openly simping for c!Dream, I'd buy that because it'd be very funny). DreamXD wouldn't want people leaving, because then he's hungy :(. So!! Ghosts!! Faint impressions of the person who once was, designed to convince people to leave the person dead. Each ghost has a different Tactic for this:

Ghostbur - Guilt, being a more appealing option/seemingly a better person than c!Wilbur, being agreeable and easy to get along with, etc (ineffective b/c c!Dream doesn't care, might be aware of this tactic)

Ghostboo - Try to convince other players that he's happier now that he's dead, try to convince other people he isn't really dead, hiding from c!Dream (?), (well, might be working but honestly still seems like he'll be getting revived at some point)

Ghost Schlatt - Just make a bet with c!Quackity, assuming he'll fuck up the assignment so badly that he'll not only fail to get the revive book, but almost guarantee Schlatt will never get revived (somehow the most effective strat so far).

[unit-zero-two]

Thematic links of the Crypters and their Lostbelts

One of the things I liked about Olympus is how prominent the Crypters all are (at least the ones still alive) and how we learn more about them and their relationships to each other. Like, the scene where Europa was captured by Limbo and brought to Zeus to be tried. Kadoc is torn between trying to figure out why she doesn't just throw him under the bus and running to find Wodime to see if he can save Europa.

When he saves Chaldea in Olympus he's constantly talking like a fucking tsundere who only happened to be passing by, claiming he did it for his own goals to progress. Because while he pretends not to, Kadoc cares about other people. He's too soft. It’s a running character struggle with him where he’s trying to kill the side of him that cares, to be a selfish nihilist, but he can never actually manage to do so.

Kadoc knows how the mage world is supposed to work, cutthroat and merciless, and tries to emulate that so that he can survive and thrive in it. He sees it as the reflection of how the entire world functions. Those who can swim in this environment are strong, and those who can’t are weak. He’s trying to constantly kill his own weakness. When he sees Ritsuka, who is much closer to him as a person than he is to the magus of the Clock Tower he gets self-conscious and lashes out. He projects his insecurities and rejects the proof that you can be soft and a powerful mage. He’s literally drowning in mage style toxic masculinity.

And thinking about Kadoc like this got me thinking about the thematic links of him to his Lostbelt, and how you can see similar links with the other Crypters.

- Lostbelt 1: A world of beasts, where it's dog eat dog and only the strongest survive. This reflects how Kadoc, a mage who tries his hardest in a cutthroat world without any exceptional talent feels. Constant pressure that if you fall behind, you will be killed and disposed off. Only by constantly proving yourself and being the strongest can you survive. Anastasia sees Kadoc for who he is, and the value he has as himself. - Lostbelt 2: A world tended by a parent who allows no steps out of bounds. This is how Ophelia, raised in a strict mage household, is trapped. She does, and wants, nothing for herself. She constantly reviews the actions she didn’t take in her life, unable to step beyond the bounds of what is proper. Everything is chosen and fated for her. Napoleon shows her that it’s okay to be selfish and create a future for yourself. - Lostbelt 3: An ancient world stuck in the past that has advanced to a dead end of the past, unable to imagine a different future. This is where Yu Mei Ren, a woman who has only ever found two people in the past who understood her, is trapped forever. SIN has paused in development of society, technology and culture. Yu had cut herself off from humanity, long traveling alone through the centuries, avoiding others until Marisbury reached out and invited her to Chaldea. In her bittersweet reunion with the most important people to her, she gets a chance at a life full of others by becoming a Heroic Spirit with a pact to Chaldea. - Lostbelt 4: A world spiraling to it's end where a god took in all others and has long gone lost his humanity. This is how Pepe, a person using a fake name and who refuses to think too hard on their bloody past, spirals through their days. Pepe is an observer, watching the other Crypters and giving advice, but never pursuing their own goals, because they have none. An empty vessel with a bright smile. Ash shows Pepe what allowing yourself to feel emotions really means, and Pepe starts to act genuinely on their connections to the other Crypters.

If you’re looking for more information on the Crypters, definitely check out the manga one shots that expand on each Crypter, and their relationships to their servants and Lostbelts. Kirschtaria is getting his own post for sure. And it’ll probably be just as long as this one...

[sojourner-between-worlds]

Half headcanon, half theory? Or something...

So one of the things that always bothered me about the second half of the series is that for about five seconds at the tail end of one single episode we get Yusei recognizing the fact that just maybe Dad isn't actually dead dead, and then it's just...never so much as mentioned. Ever again.

So anyway, I've built a theory about how that all works.

The things we actually know: 1. Papa Fudo is just kinda hangin' out in limbo probably. 2. Momentum is generated from dueling, specifically Synchro summons. 3. Yusei meets Papa Fudo three times, all in near-death experiences, all in some way involving Momentum.

The theory: Papa Fudo is hangin' out in the Duel Monsters Spirit World.

(All in all, not a bad place to be stuck in limbo, really.)

Synchro summons basically opened a door to the Spirit World in a way other types had not previously. The Planetary Gears allowed for that door to stay open, allowing energy to flow freely through it, thus creating a 100% clean and renewable energy source via syphoning it off of another world. (These "open gates" would also allow people like Luna to travel between them.)

If the positively spinning gears "produce" energy, then it makes sense in the final arc why a negative spin would result in the opposite: rather than syphoning energy from the Spirit World, they would be sending energy to the Spirit World. Why in one arc this caused a catastrophe and in the other it didn't is up for debate. I don't have an answer for that. I'm not sure the writers even have an answer for that. The only idea I have is that in the first half, it was an overload of power being sent back crashing into energy trying to come in that caused everything to explode, whereas in the last arc it was a gradual shift and shut down, but that's the best I've got, haha.

Why Papa Fudo got sucked in instead of killed like everyone else is also beyond me, BUT it is stated that the souls of the people killed in Zero Reverse are, in fact, trapped there, as well, though they appear to have lost their agency. Which could actually mean that a lot of people didn't technically die but rather were also trapped there and essentially turned into zombies over time, their souls corrupted by revenge and bitterness.

Further supporting this, is -again- that first meeting. Yusei defeats Rudger, Rudger blows up the bridge, Yusei fall into the old reactor/generator. And where does he end up? This very other-worldly place that we don't actually get to see very much of. We know from Luna, however, that there are a lot of different places that have very unique looks to them in the Spirit World, so its entirely possible that could have been a part of it she had simply never been to before. We also see how easily the Spirit World can be influenced/destroyed by events in NDC, so it's reasonable to think that maybe that desolate place where Yusei meets Papa Fudo was also destroyed by Zero Reverse.

So anyway. Yeah. He's just kinda hangin' out in Spirit World. No big deal.

Let me know what ya'll think, or if I there's some fatal flaw in my reasoning. There probably is, lol.

(Just gonna casually tag @the-kings-of-games because it's not a hc necessarily but also I want to know what you think, lol.)

[bamfdaddio]

Uncanny X-Men Abridged: 1982: Fairytales & Nightmares Edition

The X-Men, those fantastical mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. We’ve been untangling that history for a while, but sometimes, you really want a more in-depth look. Interested? Then read the (un)Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 153 & 160) - by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, Josef Rubinstein, Bob Wiacek, Brent Anderson

I love how every character gets hit with a good dose of magical fairy dust except for Wolverine and Nightcrawler, who get turned into the Tasmanian Devil and a horny smurf, respectively

1982 is a pretty arc-based year. Most of it is dedicated to space operas, the Brood and Shi’ar politics (yawn), but there are a few outliers. Most notable of these two exceptions are issue 153 - Kitty’s fairytale - and issue 160, the introduction of Limbo. I’ve chosen to highlight these two issues because they are fun, fascinating and, moreover, they are sort of dark mirrors of one another.

Both feature Illyana as a catalyst for the action; both of them feature someone spinning her a little fairytale..

Both feature alternate takes on X-Men: one high fairytale, the other grimdark.

Both are standalone issues that barely feature into the main Shi’ar-plot of 1982 -- seriously, you can take them out without disrupting any narratives -- while still introducing plot points that would become a part of the X-Men mythos. (The Lockheed dragon; the bamf and, most importantly, the introduction of Illyana as Magik.)

It’s funny how the Brood saga takes up almost 80% of the narrative space this year, whereas the whole Limbo/Belasco/Illyana-thing is almost a throwaway plot that is arguably more iconic for the X-Men currently than the Brood are.

Anyway, context. The mansion is in shambles after the attack on the Hellfire Club. Illyana hasn’t returned home after being kidnapped by Arcade -- perhaps to give Colossus a little relief of his homesickness. Illyana then tempts fate:

Take note of that stuffed Fozzi toy, wocka wocka!

Illyana prefers Kitty to tell the story, and I get it. Colossus is a sweetheart, but the dude’s not exactly light of heart. Piotr would probably tell something dreary and fatalistic about three old sisters in a decaying orchard, while Kitty is a lot more fun.

Claremont shows that he is familiar with the workings of the teenage mind, because when faced with the challenge to tell a story, she does the same thing I did when I was thirteen: she goes for a self insert. And she incidentally writes in the boy she has a crush on as her boyfriend.

Look, all I’m saying, we’ve all been there, right?

Anyway, Kitty’s fairytale. Kitty is a pirate, Peter is her shipmate and they stumble upon a quest when ruffians accost a blind prince -- Scott -- and a wizard on his own personal flying carpet -- Xavier. They help out and get roped into the prince’s quest to save his princess from an evil corrupting influence. Sound familiar?

In true Final Fantasy-fashion, all the other party members are introduced one by one. Kitty calls upon a dragon called Lockheed she befriended while Piotr saves a weather goddess trapped in a bottle by the cursed princess. Best highlights, however, are Kitty’s versions of Kurt and Wolverine.

Way of X, I love you, but take note. Kurt was never meant to be puritan.

One of the best parts of this issue is the reaction shots of the other X-Men who listen in to Kitty’s tale. Most of their alternative versions fit stock fairytale characters, although Bamf is more a Disney sidekick than anything else. Wolverine is straight up a Looney Tune though:

At some point, someone looked at this character design and first thought of Sabretooth, right?

The kicker of all of this Kitty wasn´t actually there for the Phoenix Saga: she only met Jean once, briefly, when Jean saved her and the other X-Men from Emma. Kitty never met Dark Phoenix, she only ever heard the details secondhand. Still, she gets it mostly right: prince Scott and princess Jean are star-crossed lovers until Jean is cursed by a corrupting force. As Dark Phoenix, she is hellbent on stopping wizard Xavier and the prince in their tracks, lest they lift the curse by confronting her with her one weakness.

THE HUMANITY

Xavier uses Jean’s humanity to fight off the dark Phoenix and, in this particular universe, they succeed. Scott and Jean get the happy ending they didn’t get in the actual timeline: Kitty even cures his cursed eyebeams. It’s kind of funny that this is the only happy ending the X-Men will ever get during Claremont’s reign.

Speaking of a lack of happy endings, the dark counterpart of Kitty’s fairytale also starts with someone telling Illyana some sweet little lies:

I’m assuming that the whole Stranger Danger-campaign only got big after the eighties? Illyana has all the self preservation skills of a lemming.

Kitty notices that Illyana has vanished and is curious, following her. She steps on a strange light disk and vanishes.

As a slightly piquant aside, I was pleasantly surprised when reading this one digitally. I own a copy of this comic in Dutch (straight from the eighties) and apparently, they censored the version for the low lands. In a comic with creepy assaultey Nightcrawler and many, many, many naked Storms and Wolverines, this page was a bridge too far:

Look, maybe they weren’t entirely wrong. Last time three guys were bouncing around me and I invited them for a shower, I wasn’t entirely innocent either.

I was “also not welcome in that gym again” but that’s besides the point.

Who knows, maybe they just wanted to cut out the clunky exposition of storylines recent. In any case, the X-Men decide to investigate and they are also whisked away: those disks of light are apparently teleportation circles.

Also, can someone please tell Chris Claremont that German sometimes does have i before e?

They’re pulled into a pocket dimension where time and space are treated as guidelines rather than hard and fast rules. While Belasco taunts Kitty (and pulls her skeleton from her body to keep her from escaping), the other X-Men get separated, wandering about this utterly foreign dimension and encountering future/alternative versions of themselves.

I still love how alien this first version of Limbo is. The comic is titled ‘Shoots & Ladders’ and it’s exactly like that, except in creepy, never-ending tunnels and topsy-turvy, shadowy caverns.

Both Wolverine and Colossus are confronted by their dead selves, killed by S’ym, Belasco’s brutish lackey. The alternative Nightcrawler, meanwhile, has been perverted into a freaky little toady who has no qualms about touching Kitty inappropriately. (He's essentially the creepy, disturbing version of a Bamf.) Storm, meanwhile, is aided by an older, jaded version of herself. She’s also the one in charge of teleportation disks, which she uses to aid the X-Men:

Kitty’s casually waving skeleton always sends me

Storm is furious with what Belasco has wrought onto Kitty, her Mother Bear Instincts activating. She wants to give chase, but that’s when older!Storm intervenes. She warns Storm that this is a crossroads. In her variant universe, the X-Men chased after Belasco and it went badly for them: Wolverine and Colossus died, Nightcrawler turned evil and Storm became trapped in Limbo.

There’s no word of what happened to their Kitty or Illyana, but I think that’s because Limbo does not play by any of our regular rules. See, if Belasco wanted Illyana, wouldn't he have one now? But he doesn’t. So maybe Limbo is the Schrödinger’s place, where the X-Men both did and didn’t chase Belasco. Because if they didn’t give chase, they wouldn’t have the older Storm to tell them they shouldn’t give chase, which they end up not doing. But if they don't, there wouldn't be a Storm to warn them from not going, so they would. But they wouldn't.

Got that?

Just when older!Storm prepares to send them home, Belasco returns with an army of demons.

See? I told you that paying attention to that Fozzi-toy would pay off! (Wocka wocka)

And it ends there, with Illyana rescued from her nightmare, but with the promise of more darkness in her future.

I love how Chris Claremont takes a soap opera trope -- aging up a child in the shortest amount of time possible to an age where there’s more to do with them narratively -- and makes it fit into his crazy X-Universe.

And that’s it. Two relatively pared down stories where the normal rules of reality take a backseat: one to lift Illyana’s spirits, one to break her beyond belief. In a year that’s defined by space opera, these two stories have always stuck out to me, simply because of the way they break the mold of the X-Universe. More importantly, they've given us Magik. And Bamf!

Next up: Brood, Brood, Brood, and Shi'ar.

[of-fluxions]

♫ - fatima by kanako ito

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inception x steins;gate | dreamshare + time travel [@inception30daychallenge; day 11 + 18]

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crack taken a bit too seriously, oops. _

background

there are multiple parallel timelines. there are also ‘attractor fields’ which are like bundles of timelines where certain major events are always destined to happen, although across the various timelines there’s some variation in how this happens.

time travel related activity can send you to another timeline, although everyone’s memories will be different in another timeline.

cobb has the unique ability to preserve his memories of other timelines.

the core time travel mechanism here is the dream leap; i.e. overwrite a dream in the past with memories from the future, effectively allowing someone to travel into the past since when their past self wakes up they’ll have knowledge of the future.

plot (?)

disclaimer: this was not well thought through

sometime after the fischer job, saito shows cobb & the team some dream leap theory he’s had for a long time and they eventually complete a working prototype.

cobb leaps back to try and prevent mal’s death, but he’s in an attractor field where she will always die. even if he doesn’t incept her and they return from limbo, she eventually becomes obsessed with her totem, ends up thinking she’s trapped in her own dream and commits suicide. he watches her die over and over and keeps trying to save her. (you are not responsible for the idea that destroyed her xd)

in each timeline/iteration he’ll always meet saito/the rest of the team along the way, who help him complete the prototype (since they’re in the past where this doesn’t exist yet, but saito has the theory). saito gives cobb key triggers for contacting him so even if they’re in a different timeline where saito doesn’t remember cobb, he’ll still help him.

eventually (based on something saito said?) cobb realizes that he needs to return to the root of the idea - to become mal’s totem instead of the spinning top. that way she’ll never lose her grip on reality as long as she has him. this works, and cobb prevents mal’s death.

but now they’re in another timeline where saito is dead. since mal never dies in this timeline, the events leading to cobb meeting saito and finishing the time travel theory never existed.

cobb is devastated, but also no longer has the means to try again since saito isn’t here. after all his time spent seeing mal die he decides to just give up and live peacefully with mal, but is constantly haunted by regret.

all is well now right? lol no. turns out saito’s death results in fischer-morrow monopolizing energy. they also took saito’s theory with them and eventually build a real time machine, and become the only ones with the means to run them, leading to total global domination.

someone from the future (phillipa probably) comes back to warn them of the dystopian future and persuade cobb to save saito. but cobb’s haunted by seeing mal die all those times and doesn’t want to mess with the timeline anymore. he just can’t deal with seeing someone he cares about die over and over again whether it’s mal or saito. :(

ariadne, resident genius, comes up with the idea that he just needs to deceive his past self into thinking mal died, which will lead him onto the chain of causality to complete the dream leap theory

so they travel back to prevent saito’s death and perform inception on his past self to believe mal died (but she’s actually fine). (i guess at this point the timeline is fixed so the people who went back don’t exist anymore. but the idea remains with past!cobb).

return to the end of the actual inception film, cobb gets home and get the memories of a cobb from a distant future through dream leap. he realizes what happened, mal is right there waiting for him and not actually dead...cue tearful reunion etc

but his knowledge of the future reminds him they still need to prevent a dystopia, so the whole team all ends up working with saito to make sure the dream leap theory never falls into the wrong hands.

ot3 happily ever after?

[elderkale]

do you have any headcanons for Ariadne of Inception? about their background, what their favorite type of architecture is, or anything general about their likes/dislikes?

ohohoho i sure do. long post time, buckle in.

(assuming this was prompted by my transmasc ariadne fic which is here if you're interested)

first off, i will say with my whole chest that ariadne is québecois. i know this in my soul and will not take criticism. no i will not elaborate.

moving onto architecture: i feel like, given that she lives in paris, it's been kind of assumed that they would lean towards more classical styles? HOWEVER, whenever we see her building on her own in dreams (bridges for cobb, city hotel and fort for the fischer job) they always seem to lean towards more modern styles (i.e. hard lines, steel concrete and glass).

so headcanon number 2 is that she prefers modern architecture styles (maybe bauhaus? at a stretch?) to classical one (which is also pretty fun thematically since cobb seems to be more fond of the latter). even when they're building from memory, the glass door is a pretty darn contemporary touch.

i also love that you can see the designs becoming more and more modern and unconventional as they go through the levels of the dream, like ariadne's being given more freedom to do what she really wants (city has some classical/fusion elements, more normal, while the snow fort's completely balls to the walls).

i mean look at that shit. that came out of their head. can you imagine the meeting they must have had where she tried to convince them this was necessary. i love her.

also i'd personally believe that she doesn't really jump back into dreamshare immediately post-inception. it's a fun thought but my hc is that she tries to go back to "normal" architecture for a bit and cracks slowly. tries to do some more legal jobs as a side thing because she can't dream on her own without a pasiv, but it still isn't enough, and eventually ends up having to flee paris because of Crime Stuff. could probably go an angsty route with this but i feel like they end up okay, as a very fanon eames-ish criminal who's doing just fine.

gender/sexuality-wise, i'm kinda drawing a blank? i mainly wrote daedalus as a thought experiment for myself, and i don't really have any set-in-stone hcs. i personally like to see them as bi though, and very loose about pronouns (i just think dreams are gender).

likes and dislikes: watches old sitcoms religiously. owns a box set of i dream of jeannie. probably recreated the full house house in a dream just to figure out what the other side of the living room looks like. the only thing holding her back from mentioning 3rd rock from the sun during the fischer job was professionalism and also arthur's gun. unironically likes the big bang theory.

one last thought: out of everyone we've seen in limbo (on a scale of saito: become old to mal: become dead, with cobb: become gaslighting manslaughterer and fischer: become tied up and confused somewhere in between), ariadne seems to be the one who had the easiest time getting in and out (as in literally the only one who remembered how). definitely hc them experimenting with more dream levels and bringing limbo closer to the surface once they're more experienced (don't have much experience myself but i'm guessing that shooting your boss's dead wife probably isn't the best memory to dream on). how successful they are depends on how angsty i want to make things. i don't think she'd ever get trapped permanently, but i do think she'd reach a point where she'd start losing time. not quite like the dreamers in yusuf's den, but close.