#post apocalyptic stories do some shit to my brain

[ifwebefriends]

I want to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion but I also don’t want to be horribly traumatized and depressed ever again do you see my struggle?

[xxsycamore]

👻🕸️🦇 IKEVAMP SUITORS IN A HORROR-MOVIE SETTING ! 🦇🕸️👻 (headcanons)

Happy Halloween! Yes, this includes all 17 suitors. I'm no expert on the genre but I thought this might be fun! Some of them die. I'm sorry. Warnings: everything that can appear in a horror movie really, including mentions of death, mass murder, blood, gore, torture, cults.

If you feel like reading something more goofy where everyone lives, try Pumpkin Carving Competition At Saint Germain’s Mansion or maybe even “Welcome to Saint Germain’s mansion, please have a fang-tastic night.” 

𝐍𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐎𝐍

The "okay guys, we need a plan" guy and welp, he has a sword, he is willing to walk in front, why not trust him? 👍🏻✨He's totally the one to hide being infected because come on, how are they gonna get out of there alive if the leader is down? Has a dramatic scene where he's fighting off the transformation in secret. Ends up being saved by someone and survives.

𝐋𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐎

Leonardo is the one you find along the journey, mistaking for an enemy at first as you get into his trap... when it actually turns out he's been there long before you, surviving all alone in this post-apocalyptic setting, adapted to it, prepared for every danger out there with gadgets he made himself! He might not stay alive until the end but plays a key role in the plot.

𝐌𝐎𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐓

He tried to warn them not to do anything stupid... He's now stuck suffering from the group's bad decision-making. He doesn't even know how he ended up there. Mozart is that one character that you're supposed to hate for being an asshole. At one point he falls in danger that specifically relates to a fear of his, and when everyone expects him to sacrifice another person to save himself, he does the opposite. He seemingly dies right there, breaking everyone's hearts, only to be revealed at the very end that he managed to survive!

𝐈𝐒𝐀𝐀𝐂 (credits for the idea goes to @scummy-writes guys she can write a whole fic of those I swear,, it's been such a pleasure listening to her)

Isaac needs to be saved five minutes into the movie... which writes him off as the weaker one from the get-go. This is going to be bad if the situation comes to "we gotta leave someone behind or we all die here!" - but hey, DON'T LEAVE ISAAC BEHIND IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE! Because the next thing you know everyone falls into this deadly trap that only HE can figure the way out of, using his big brain skills. His worth has been proved! Everyone loves him now! And all he wants is to go back home and never go on a trip with these guys ever again!

𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐔𝐑

I'm sorry, Arthur dies first. The others are trying to warn him about the cases of victims who've been sucked to a dry husk and he's like "later virgins, i have a date tonight". Yeah his date totally killed him. Bonus points if we're dealing with vampires here, because irony. It's fine though, he's still important to the plot after he dies, because we find his writing diary and he left important cues there while trying to escape from his killer. Maybe he even came close to the truth! He knows his mystery genre stuff after all...

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐎𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐔𝐒

Theo just does NOT believe paranormal exists, not even after witnessing it with his own two eyes. Worst part, he tries to convince the others too. "My broer IS NOT POSSESSED!" Uhuh! Okay Theo! You just saw cryptic images appear on his canvas without him even moving the brush but I guess he was just trying a new painting technique!! And he levitates too and his eyes are tar black but what do we know... Once Theo realizes the situation, he's out there swinging a bat (sexy), ready to beat the shit out of whatever caused this, and he's good at it. Don't worry about him dying.

𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓

Poor baby Vincent is every sinister ghost/demon's number-one target. Vincent listens to the voices. He sympathizes with them! He makes friends with them! Maybe he doesn't even need to be possessed at this rate... Same story with joining a cult, honestly. When their bad intentions begin to come to light, Vincent puts up a fight and is suddenly not as easy to control as they thought.

𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐍

Jean might take some bullets from our main cast while someone shouts "IT WON'T DIE!" but it's fine he's used to it... he's been dead for quite some time and not just inside. Jean is probably the result of some sick experiment about making an immortal army of warriors and. It's sad. But it's fine because he joins the protagonists now! He's friend! I hope they apologize for calling him a monster. No, he doesn't die by the end of the movie, but at what cost?

𝐃𝐀𝐙𝐀𝐈

"Oh, it was just Dazai." Of course it was, someone has to be that one idiot that scares the shit out of everyone until he becomes the boy who cried wolf. Which usually ends with death! I'm sorry Dazai. At least they can take him seriously now and pay some more attention to the strange things he kept on saying.

𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐄

A very old-school villain! Bonus points if the setting is modern yet he still has a villain's lair and all that. There's something beautiful and tragic about him and he probably dramatically lets himself be defeated even if he had a chance to escape. Everyone will remember him. Mostly for the mental and physical torture, but still.

𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐓𝐄

"But we have one hour left until the curse kills us all, how are we gonna get there on time?!" *sounds of safari jeep pulling over* "Someone ordered a ride?" - yeah. Comte is here to save the day with the power of money friendship. And not just that! Who is the one who suddenly remembers a family heirloom that is as old as time and suspiciously shaped exactly like the key they're searching for? I also want him to lose an eye or a limb for some reason... just for a little touch of gore maybe?

𝐒𝐄𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐍

Gods, Sebastian is the only prepared one, bless him for that. He's read all about that urban legend while everyone's been busy denying its existence. He is not scared at all, too... you might wonder if he's just geeking out during all of this bloody mess or something. He's so important, please don't let him die please don't let him die... he died.

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐄𝐒

The villain's aide that infiltrates the protagonists' group. By the time his betrayal scene happens and he nearly kills three members of the group with a chainsaw, we get a glimpse of his trauma and that's the key to sucessfully talking him out of doing it, eventually disarming him and catching him. He manages to escape and maybe later returns as an ally! Yay!

𝐅𝐀𝐔𝐒𝐓

Gods he's scary. I'm not watching this. Of course he's the killer, what did you expect? Has a tragic backstory of being used by an even more fucked-up killer in the past to do the dirty work for - and kept doing it even after getting rid of them himself, because that's the only thing he knows how to do. You can't fix him.

𝐕𝐋𝐀𝐃

IT'S HIMMM he's the scary little boy from the photos and the same scary little boy that always shows up in the rose garden and his soul just won't rest in peace!! Shows up in his adult form plenty too, just expect his expression to twist into something horrible every second. He needs to be sealed forever somewhere and it would take three sequels to get to know what would actually defeat him once and for all.

𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐊𝐄

... I'm sorry but there definitely is a lighthouse in this movie. And you can totally trust Drake! The poor guy's body just washed up for you to discover, tragically drowned-oh, wait no, he's breathing. He's totally not the same sailor who died around here many, many years ago. He's gonna keep you good company in the lighthouse alone for miles.

𝐆𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐎

Galileo is the one who saw the Thing™ with his own eyes, while he was watching the stars one night ages ago. He dedicated not only his massive research but also his life to this, yet noone believes him. If he somehow manages to find that one missing piece that connects everything together, he will die a horrifying death before he can even share it with the main cast. Rip...

Taglist: @arsnovacadenza @ale-teodora @kimi00twin @otomelady @privilegedpancake @g-kleran    @pumpumnnnp @thesirenwashere @ravenarld @kimmy-banana @devonares @galaxyprison @sadshaxk @starshards26 @thewitchofbooks @acethephoenix256 @ikevamp-shrine-2 @nad-zeta @crystal13unny @keen19thcenturygoatsstudent @lordsister @ikemen-banshou   @themysticalbeing @otome-scribbles @rhodolitesrose @coornn @kpop-and-otome @queen-dahlia @kisara-16 @chaosangel767 @ikemenlibrary @queengiuliettafirstlady @aurora-morning @aquagirl1978 ​ @ikemenlover24 @mcofthemansion @joy-the-reader @katriniac @ikemen-writer @tele86 @lovely-bubb1es @aria-chikage @babyblue0t7 @rhodoliteschaos @shrimpy-kitsune @nightghoul381 @xbalayage @lucyw260 @kittygrimm88 @my-day6 Let me know if you want to be tagged/untagged!

[nerdraging4point0]

Fluffy Head cannons

I'm giving you guys a small preview of each of our beloved men. My inbox is open to either elaborate or add more to these head cannons. But here we are! Let's get to it!

This work below is fictionalized ideas and stories involving real people but does not directly reflect their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors. Please keep in mind this is a work of fiction, so enjoy it as such.

Taglist: @jay02bo @asilentsiren @kingdomof-omens @the-way-of-words @thebadchic @signs-of-ill-portent @thesazzb @synthetic-wasp-570 @tearfallpixie @witchyweeb34

Okay, so, let's start with how absolutely proud of you this man is. He is so into you, so enthralled by you that he wants to shout it from the rooftops. But social media will just have to do. He Posts about you every chance he gets, while he is home, while he is on tour.

Captions: "Miss you more than words could describe. Can't wait to be home." "Touring is something else, it's a wonderous way to experience the world. And I can conquer it all with you by my side."

When he is home from tour it's a chance for him to actually sit back and relax. We all know he doesn't do a lot of that, poor boy has so many projects in that beautiful brain of his and he wants nothing more than to get it all out. Always supportive of him, but sometimes you catch him in the office-close his laptop. Take him by the hands and bring him to the living room to watch some shit show, anything where he doesn't have to use any brain cells to think. Just lays there with you and relaxes.

Popcorn fights. Movie nights would turn into the both of you tossing popcorn back and forth on the couch seeing how many each of you could catch midair.

Have you seen those old school movies where the married couple is in bed reading their own perspective books, like their life is somehow put together. Yeah. It's like that. He would be there reading his current post-apocalyptic book he picked up because it was one that he hadn't read yet, getting to the point of the book where the character is starving and on deaths door; your next to him reading your dark romance book about a Fae king who kidnapped the main character and is now currently railing her in front of his entire court. It's all about balance people.

Vlogs are all about capturing you in ways that may annoy you. You slept in and he rose early, he'd grab his camera barging into the room as your waking up "Babe, give me an update." "I just woke up, Richard." Vlogs of the trips to the grocery store, puns and jokes in the vegetable isle, taping how you have to climb on the shelves to get what you want-because let's face it, neither of you are tall enough to reach the top shelf and asking for help is for pussies. There would be random takes of you eating at the dinner table, your eyes transfixed on the TV as you watched your favorite show, close ups of your face.

[microraptorreactor]

I feel like dumping out my box of OCs like one would do a box of lps so very long post filled with very many doodles ahead!

Reference for my Rainworld oc, Lost! He's an idiot kid I made for one joke but now he lives in my brain. I think I made this reference for him last year? Idk I don't remember. I'm just now realizing that Lost snuck into my V2 characterization lmao.

Elysium art of various ages! Made between 2021-2023 I believe. This is the oc I made before I knew what Ultrakill was and everyone thought I was making an Ultrakill joke. Tbh if it wasn't for the fact that I MADE Elysium and have their early sketches I wouldn't believe they weren't an Ultrakill reference either. Speaking of which, here's some animations from when Elysium was both a quadruped and a model of robot instead of an individual. These were both made for a class in 2021.

VERY old art (2020 I think? I wasn't using my screen tablet yet) that I normally wouldn't include if it weren't for the fact my friends would explode me if I mentioned Elysium and Lost without mentioning Nerve. She was an anxiety-ridden warforged cleric who got tragically sent to the vampire realm. Whenever Nerve comes up in discussion one of my friends brings up how I made him cry with her final speech. I don't remember tf I said lmao.

Art of my His Dark Materials OC, Zurial! Art would have been made 2022 onwards. I made her WAY back in 2019 before Hazbin Hotel even had a pilot but unfortunately now she looks like a Hazbin angel and I feel weird drawing her. Which is really unfortunate because I love her dearly, she's one of my favorite OCs. She's also the only oc I have who I've made a plushie for. Why did my character design have to accidentally look like the works of famous youtube animator Vivian Medrano T-T

(here's her plushie btw. I'm really proud of it lol.)

Here's Niphit, one of my Warframe OCs! Some of y'all might recognize her as my AO3 pfp, but her design has changed since then. The bottom reference sheet is her most recent design. She's kind of conceptually similar to Baeri/Sleet/-31 from SftBT, in terms of hacking shit and having a snout and teeth. Biggest difference is that she is a whole ass hivemind, usually pretty harmless, and also considered pretty young.

Shameless CR:K fanchild OC. Her name is Golden Parmesan Cheese Cookie (Parm or Parmesan for short) and she's also, like, an AI copy of a dead person. Or a dead person's soul trapped inside an eternal simulation? Either way she's got SO many issues. I have a massive chatfic wip from when I decided to try writeing something with her.

Okay I know technically this is a Homestuck OC but I like to say she's a Hiveswap OC. Because I played Hiveswap and loved it but never read Homestuck. Anyways her name is Vintan she's a yellowblood.

Whoa an original character! Yeah this is Corion, they come from my brain. I have a whole story concept about post-apocalyptic robot cowboys (and human cowboys) that I've done a couple doodles from but never written down. Corion serves as a sort of living taxi, guiding or carrying people across the wasteland. They are a secondary protagonist, I don't think I have art of Pike and Amelia, the actual protagonists. One funny fact about this universe is it contains a character named V1 (pronounced Vi, still written as V1) who I can no longer use for obvious reasons.

But yeah! Ramble over! Not anywere near all of them I just wanted to talk about my brain children XD

[creaturefeaster]

Heyy if it's not too much to ask, could you talk about Zack? And Idk... Something with Tay? (I love them, they're my life)

I gotchya!

I'll give the rundown of Zack & Taylor's general dynamic throughout their part of the story, since that seems to be in line with what you're wanting :3.

~*~

Taylor is one of the only people that Zack can't really bullshit-- something Zack really loves to do to a lot of people, mind you,-- and as a result it's something that absolutely drives Zack up the wall. In many ways, but especially in like, yknow, a gay way.

Zack loves a challenge, but he's also good at knowing the limits of people's patience. Initially he chooses to stick around Taylor because he's interested in seeing what he can get away with, and for how long. Taylor is merely a well-known acquaintance to him at the start, and his original intention after the Fault was to use Taylor's practical nature to score free food and supplies for a while without having to put in the 100% effort it would have taken alone. Even that, though, he fails at with Taylor because Taylor quickly has none of that shit with him. So they both end up equally pulling their weight.

Zack and Taylor both don't tend to keep close friends. Zack makes a lot of people think they're his friend, but his real friends would be the ones he keeps some emotional distance on (i.e. like Taylor, before the Fault). Taylor on the other hand is just a bit of a introvert and doesn't click well with most people.

That all being said, you could consider it quite marvel that they continue to stick with each other and only with each other. In a way it could be said that Zack did get to Taylor, because initially Taylor's a pretty straight edge person with rigid morals & a very law-abiding attitude. But barely a month down the line and they're off raising a special flavor of chaos together wherever they go.

It may also be that, deep down past his conscious knowledge, Taylor's favorite kind of person is just someone who can get him riled up. Zack's naughty little tricks and schemes fire up Taylor's brain, but in a way that his post-apocalyptic self kinda loves. He won't admit it but Taylor really, really loves the freedom he has in the post-Fault world. And Zack enables him so hard.

Another reason Zack stuck around Taylor was because he just thinks he's stunning, honestly. Taylor is tall, built, has flowing golden hair and a perpetual aura of mystique irradiating from his sunglasses. So that's like catnip to Zack, someone who is very openly gay & flirtatious alongside the fact. As far as they both know, though, Taylor is straight and so Zack is on a one-sided pine train for several months. (Or at least he thinks it's one-sided! ;])

Said reason above is also a driving factor of the third reason Zack sticks around Taylor-- because he wants to protect him. It is not because he thinks Taylor is a beacon of kindness, or that he thinks Taylor is necessarily deserving of protection, but really he's just like. Okay he's hot & knows a lot of stuff so let's see how this turns out. Zack could probably survive on his own post-Fault, however reckless as he may be, but he does not believe Taylor could survive on his own. And he knows Taylor would try to make it on his own because he's an antisocial hard-ass.

So anyway, a lot of their initial journey is pretty rocky. Because neither of them keep close friends often, and neither of them stick around the same person every single day 24/7, there's a lot of tension and aggression and disagreements. But the more they go on together, the more they learn about each other, and the more they save & aid each other from harm, the greater is the bond that grows between them.

Oh and you know. Some of that tension & anger in the long run may have turned into pent up desire along the way ^^. Who's to know what they get up to when they're alone later on haha. heheheoo

🐈

[lividria]

Saw your post about that one ttyd dream you had… Tell me more about your other dreams that you’ve had

okay so naturally having been alive for 16 years i've had a lot of dreams, given the specific mention of the blavio post i assume you mean more video game dreams, most of my notable ones related to games are about games made up in those dreams and not existing games, and the ones usually taking place in existing games aren't actually that interesting, the blavio dream was a rare example of a funny one so i'd need to dig through my dream logs to see if i can find any others that are actually entertaining and not just "huh. that was odd" that you forget in 5 minutes

so i'll get around to it since blavio is on his way to becoming my most popular post, i just need to find the good ones, i have plenty of non-game dreams that are interesting that i'll probably catalog along the way though, there was an entire period of time where every other dream of mine was an entire quest with an actual "consistent" story arc

but to not leave this ask actually unanswered, i'll talk about a personal favorite of mine that isn't a video game dream (video games do come up but they aren't the focus) but is fucking crazy, under the cut because it's several paragraphs

In the dream, I was living in some weird coastal town where my backyard (and everyone else's backyard) was like a straight slope down a couple feet and into the ocean, i know it was the ocean but there wasn't any sand or anything

an apocalyptic force called The Mind appeared over this town, taking the form of a giant black & purple smog cloud thing vaguely resembling a giant face, but like the face of the lava giant from moana not like a detailed face, and it would "steal people's consciousnesses" which is basically just randomly inflicting brain death to anyone in it's region and it would get bigger each time it did that

for some reason it would create this weird like white glassy/icy material it'd coat the ground with that i remember being called Ivory and build structures out of in the main smog cloud, like weird robot things that would bring something into the cloud, later in the dream there were entire people just inside of it somehow despite it not being solid so they might've been fucking dragging people into the mind, and there was one robot that looked like an E.M.M.I. from Metroid Dread if it was bulkier and it was somehow supposed to be benevolent but it didn't do anything in the dream lol

the mind stole my stepdad's consciousness so he was just unconscious in the middle of the road as everyone just kinda stood around but apparently he got over it because he woke up later in the dream and was completely fine lol

there was a cut to the white house because apparently this was a movie, where the government was panicking in the white house trying to figure out what to do, so they called in a guy from a previous movie in the saga because he was their only hope, it was adam sandler dressed as the nostalgia critic that's basically this dream's blavio actually, and apparently his deal was he was super lucky, and he took one look at the mind and wanted nothing to do with this shit obviously and i think he actually turned them down and that was it

meanwhile me and my family casually drove away from the mind and into a town just called The Village which was for some reason completely desolate besides for a family friend who we were going to stay with until the fucking apocalypse ended i guess, i accidentally left my ipad back at home so i just played on my nintendo switch instead trying to S rank the final level in Nefarious, an actual game i had finished around that time and i actually took like a month trying to S rank that level, great game go play it but don't try and S rank it jesus christ

and the dream just kinda ended there, i have the mind recycled and reworked as an antagonist in vivlore if anyone saw my posts about those but they won't come up for a while as i work on more of those when i work on more of those

hopefully this satiates you for now

[softpine]

is this the closest we’ve gotten to seeing brandi’s ideas for a post-apocalyptic story/au? my ass will happily wait for this treat and take these crumbs yes, please, and thank you 🍞🐜 (only if ur comfortable with sharing more!!)

aww no i'm sorry it's not the apocalypse au 😭 however that's always in the back of my mind and i have a document i keep adding ideas to whenever i think of things. i still plan on doing a mini story for that someday!! the thing i'm working on right now is just a silly one-off. but since you were so excited and nice i'll give you some spoilers hehe

edit: the fact i said "some" spoilers and then proceeded to basically share my whole outline for the first two chapters is such a brandi move. sorry i'm like this

i'm going the last of us route by not having typical back-from-the-dead zombies and instead they're infected humans, but in this case it's going to be something similar to mad cow disease in that it originates in livestock and can be transmitted to humans (i'm using allllllll of these words colloquially for brevity, just know this is a massive oversimplification), where it stays dormant until it's far too late to be treated because the brain has already been compromised. the first symptoms are confusion, then problems with emotional regulation, dementia, and finally violence & insatiable hunger. however, these people don't possess inhuman strength or speed, though it may seem that way because they're working with unlimited adrenaline, so they're not slowed down by pain or fear. but you have a fighting chance! and any way that you can kill a normal human, you can also kill an infected person. it just might take longer. essentially i want it to be grounded in reality, mimicking the way a real disease spreads and mutates rather than going fully into video game-y horror (i love that stuff too, but it's not the story i feel like telling in a post-covid world lol. i'm much more interested in seeing how humans can survive and rebuild in the face of unimaginable chaos and tragedy!). the other important thing to note is that the disease doesn't have a 100% transmission rate. it's the same as if you had the flu and coughed in 100 people's faces, only a fraction of them would actually get sick. so if you get bitten by someone with the disease, it's not 100% certain you will be infected. so there is no singular special immune person, it's just a matter of chance & your immune system.

in the early days, this mysterious illness is only happening in remote areas with low human populations. meat that's been properly cooked & pasteurized dairy can't transmit the disease, so people in cities are generally safe, but improper handling of food, poor working conditions, factory farm employees, traveling, etc. all contribute to the spread of disease. though the illness can't be treated, it's easy to contain in the beginning. patients are restrained/sedated when they become violent and eventually they die (once the brain is completely taken by infection, the body dies too). however as the number of infected people grows, it becomes harder to hold everyone in basic hospitals. sanatoriums start popping up to study the disease and keep it quarantined. this is around the time where the story actually starts.

mikaela was a pediatric nurse at the hospital, but she was moved to one of these sanatoriums a few months ago. however, she's 20 weeks pregnant (with sadie) and she's nervous about continuing to work in a high risk environment. she asks to be moved back, but the hospital denies her request. that's how she knows shit is really hitting the fan. she warns everyone she cares about that something big is happening, but that's not how the disease is being reported on by the media, so no one really takes her seriously. and then the big outbreak happens.

there's a whole backstory to that but i'll skip it for now fjskjds the relevant part is that mikaela escapes unharmed and returns home to gather her family up. danny, casper (home from college for thanksgiving break), and asa (spent the weekend with his dad) are already there. mikaela is scared to stay there because it's a farm; they have cows, chickens, pigs, etc. and they still don't know exactly how the disease is transmitted. so she loads everyone into casper's truck (there's less space, but it's better for off-roading). on the way out, asa opens all the gates so the animals can have a chance at living even though he knows it's probably not a good idea. they desperately try to get a hold of caroline and beth, but the phone lines are dead, so they leave a note saying they've gone to their shared vacation cabin up north.

ummm and this is extremely long already but we haven't even gotten to the interesting part yet so.... they make it half way to the cabin before night falls. they don't want to run out of gas at night (and it's late fall, so pretty cold). so they stop in an area that's completely free of people. asa says he knows how to make a fire so they won't waste gas running the car for heat. casper goes with him for protection (he's buff college casper, not scrawny teenage casper fjksjd) to find wood. danny doesn't think they have anything to worry about because asa spends his days in the wilderness already, and he assumes mikaela is just being overly cautious because she's pregnant. so he lets them go.

okay so casper and asa stumble upon a small, seemingly unoccupied hunting cabin. they think this will be perfect to stay in for the night. but when they open the door, they see a horrifying sight: a man sitting in complete darkness, chewing on a freshly dead deer. the man lunges at them, managing to grab asa and bite his thumb clean off along with a chunk of his palm, before casper tackles him to the ground. he manages to immobilize him, but he's badly bitten on the neck in the process. it takes all his strength to just hold the man down, let alone fight back, so asa knows he has to do something. he finds a rifle in a bag that the man must've been carrying earlier, before the sickness set in, and he tries to shoot him in the head with it, but since he's never even held a gun before, he misses and it grazes casper's arm. he has to shoot two more times before he hits his target and the man stops moving. buuuut the sound of all the gunshots has attracted many others; they can hear them approaching in the distance. casper is in no state to move, already starting to bleed out from the wound on his neck (the accidental gunshot certainly didn't help), so asa does the only thing he can do; he leaves the gun with casper and starts yelling to attract the hoard's attention while he runs away from the cabin. he hopes danny and mikaela have heard the gunshots too and will find casper. he leads the infected further into the woods. on instinct, he tries to climb a tree to escape, but his right hand is effectively useless and he's in way too much pain to attempt it. he thinks he'll most likely die here, until he hears a distinctly human, non-infected voice shouting at him to follow his voice .... and that's where i'll leave it :D

[burningdarkfire]

books i read in jan 2024

[these are all short + casual reviews - feel free to ask about individual ones if u want my full thoughts or ask for my goodreads!!] 

the tail end of winter break + flights to the other side of the world and back + two week vacation means i am so fucking back, baby

prince's gambit (reread) + king's rising (reread) + the summer palace + the adventures of charls, the veretian cloth merchant + green but for a season - c.s. pacat ★★★★★ (fantasy romance)

nothing like tearing through the whole capri series to start off your year by changing your brain chemistry yet again. it's not a perfect series but it is so good at the erotic and the romantic and the perfect push and pull of tension !!

locklands - robert jackson bennett ★★★★★ (fantasy)

fantastic and utterly satisfying end to the series. i'm always trying to pitch these books as much as possible because the magic system is one of my favourites ever and rjb has an understanding of themes if i've ever seen one

[reread] jane, unlimited - kristin cashore ★★★★★ (YA fantasy)

still love this genre-bending mind-fuckery of a book. it's an interesting take on grief and a positive look at the potentiality of both the universe and individuals

a beautifully foolish endeavor - hank green ★★★★★ (scifi)

utterly shocked considering how little i liked the first book but i found this one compulsively readable and absurdly fun. it still reads like someone very online wrote it but i enjoyed the ride this time

the rest of us just live here - patrick ness ★★★★☆ (YA fantasy contemporary)

solid and pretty standard YA contemporary that has some bonus fun fantasy that made it much easier to swallow for someone who doesn't like YA contemporaries very much

a power unbound - freya marske ★★★★☆ (historical fantasy romance)

decent conclusion to the series and a hot romance that kept me invested, but the "plot" dragged and took up so much pagetime

bloodmarked - tracy deonn ★★★★☆ (YA fantasy)

obvious second book syndrome with wacky pacing and a bloated cast of characters, but it handled a lot of trope-y YA stuff pretty deftly and i am deeply curious where this plot is going to lead

moon of the turning leaves - waubgeshig rice ★★★★☆ (post-apocalyptic)

decent sequel that trades in the horror of the first book for a more survivalist bent. i don't think it's particularly interesting if you don't already like these sorts of books, but i do, so i liked this one as well

the trial of henry kissinger - christopher hitchens ★★★★☆ (political non-fiction)

def not kissinger for babies but the writing was solid and easy to follow, even if i knew nothing about the politics going in

eileen - ottessa moshfegh ★★★☆☆ (thriller)

relentlessly unpleasant to read but the frame story gave it an interesting flair. i've always found ottessa moshfegh's works worth reading even if i don't exactly enjoy them

annihilation - jeff vandermeer ★★★☆☆ (scifi)

extremely slow to start but it does eventually cohere into something? the writing was beautiful and i understand why everyone highlights it as atmospheric

small things like these - claire keegan ★★★☆☆ (historical)

complete nothing of a book to me. wasn't good, wasn't bad, totally fine, just didn't make me feel anything and i probably won't ever think about it again

the perfect crimes of marian hayes - cat sebastian ★★★☆☆ (historical romance)

the plot of this book was so so bad and unfortunately rather important to the flow but it did feature two character tropes and a romance that were exactly my type of shit. i would describe this as "if you closed both eyes and ignored the plot entirely it's almost an astrid/wulf fic" and that's how i had fun

you made a fool of death with your beauty - akwaeke emezi ★★★☆☆ (romance)

the banter and relationship with the FMC's best friend was by far the best part of the book. i liked the premise of the main romance, but it ended up being insta-love despite the incredible setup. also read like it was so concerned with being beautiful that it forgot to be horny or passionate or even interesting

lumberjanes vol. 1-2 - n.d. stevensen et al. ★★☆☆☆ (children's graphic novel)

tried to be coherent in the wrong sorts of ways and didn't lean into childish whimsy the way it should have, but the art was cute. it wasn't bad but i'd never choose to give it to a kid

[animebw]

I find it hilarious that you dropped Hell’s Paradise literally the episode before it outright addressed (and fixed, imo) the issues you have with it.

Well, I'll let you in on a little secret: it's not just that Hell's Paradise was bugging me in the gender department. It's also that it doesn't really have much to offer beyond that,

See, just because a work has Problematic Elements(tm) isn't really an indication of whether or not I'll stick with it. Fruits Basket is one of my favorite anime of all time, and we all know the kind of shit that show is capable of. What really matters, at the end of the day, is whether or not the anime in question is interesting or meaningful enough in other areas to justify me sticking with it through its ugly patches.

Example: there's another anime airing this season called Heavenly Delusion. It's this post-apocalyptic mystery thing that's like Shinsekai Yori mixed with Promised Neverland, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that there's a reveal early on where it seems like one of the protagonists might be trans, but then it swerves into gross territory instead. Basically, a younger brother had his brain transplanted into the body of his older sister who he had incestuous feelings for, and it's implied at multiple points that he still, well... has those feelings for this body, if you get my drift. It's an incredibly creepy detail, arguably worse than anything in Hell's Paradise, and I don't blame anyone who's too skeeved out by it to bother with the show.

But you know what else Heavenly Delusion has? Stunning animation, a great sense of mystery, some of the most electrifying, cinematic direction I've ever seen in TV anime, great chemistry between its main characters, and a constantly evolving story that activates my brain's theory-crafting centers like few things in recent memory. This show is a goddamn blast on so many levels that I can stomach this one gross element to enjoy all the other incredible things it has to offer. And hey, there's definitely an undercurrent of playing with gendered expectations running throughout its subtext, so this subplot might even end up going somewhere worthwhile when all's said and done. We'll see!

Hell's Paradise, though? I struggle to hold onto a single thought about that show by the time I finish watching an episode. Like, the action is neat, I guess? And the setting's certainly unique. But the characters are mostly flat, the dialogue is pretty trite all around, and despite how strong the action animation is, the overall aesthetic is just kind of ugly and unpleasant to look at. It's overly awash in dull fog and light bloom that desaturates the image to an almost painful degree; it's like trying to watch a show through a thin layer of vaseline smeared on my computer screen. It's clearly trying to do something interesting with its themes of the nature of death and killing, but it's all very Shonen Basic thus far. And with nothing else of interest to hang onto, I'm much less forgiving of, or willing to patiently wait out, its fumbled half-measures at reaching a point of Not Painfully Cringe on the gender front.

TLDR: Glad to head HP is turning around on that front, but the show's just not interesting enough for me to want to return to otherwise.

[burritosandpeppermint]

I just watched Fury Road for the first time in...two years? Maybe? It lives in my brain so much that it's hard to say, and also years? How have I let that much time go by?

I was raised on violent movies as a kid, with 'Road Warrior' being my favorite, meaning post-apocalyptic stuff, especially with cars, is up my alley...Damnation Alley.

At some point in my childhood my dad and I were watching something on TV and there was some song or another that I was bored with. In my peripheral vision I saw my dad raise his hand to his face and he was wiping away a tear. I asked him what was wrong (tears were not common at all in our household) and he replied that sometimes music did this to him now; it was just so emotionally overwhelming to him and he had to release it (but emotions were very common).

Today I started tearing up three separate times because this movie is so good with action that seems so chaotic and random but it's only because it's been carefully storyboarded and planned and rehearsed for so long and then it's tightly edited and music is added to just smack you in the face over and over and you can't look away or blink or breathe...

And in between long stretches of the movie gripping you by the throat there are actual moments of raw emotion, of characters revealing who they are with a word, with a grunt, with a look, and actual honest to goodness character development that makes you weep.

I had a good time watching the MCU Infinity Saga; they're generally pretty fun popcorn movies - films that are really good for nothing more than an excuse to go to the movie theater and get some snacks and watch something - and there's no crime in that kind of pop culture enjoyment. But for George Miller to come back to a franchise after 30 years when he would have already been remembered for his contributions to the medium, and just...make a masterpiece? What? What about directors who didn't try to make a masterpiece, just make another good movie based on a franchise from their past? Well, George Lucas famously wasn't able to do this; Steven Spielberg tried with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with very mixed results (I would say that he failed); Ridley Scott tried with Prometheus but, ultimately, I'm not too sure what story he was really trying to tell with his pretty and haunting prequel.

I'm not really trying to talk shit about the other directors, but I will say that Miller had a vision, worked with different people over years and years, and put out the movie that he wanted to make. He trusted his instincts and they were right. That by itself can be a damn miracle these days.

And if nothing else he gave people in the Bay Area the perfect gif for when we talked about pilgrimages to Burning Man:

[signalhill-if]

just started (and finished!) the demo today and just wanted to say how much I’m loving everything so far! The aesthetics and world building are my favorite parts and it’s super cool to conjure this image of signal hill in my own mind! If you don’t mind me asking, was the story and world of signal hill inspired by anything specific? I’ve gotten into reading a lot of stuff lately like other IFs and books and would love to check out some more pieces set in apocalyptic universes if you had any recommendations. Excited to see what comes next for your story!!

Hey, thank you so much! I'm really flattered that you enjoyed my little world 🥰

Unfortunately idk how much help I can be. I'll let you in on a little secret- I don't really read much 😅 I'm one of those attention deficit bitches who can't read unless there's nothing going on around me, and also can't focus on just one thing at a time without multitasking. So reading was uh... not meant for me, I guess.

I've always come at interactive fiction games from the game side moreso than the fiction side, hence why the game is... like it is. The main inspiration was Apocalypse World. It's a fucking incredible tabletop game that I will harp on about forever on this blog, but most people aren't into just reading TTRPG books, so I guess that won't work.

In terms of games, the story and aesthetics of Signal Hill are very heavily inspired by Fallout, especially Fallout: New Vegas, duh. And while it's not super similar, if you like this game, you would probably love Disco Elysium (I know I do). Playing that game seriously changed the way I write, and it has a lot of very similar aesthetics and gameplay elements, although I swear to god that I had no idea that Shivers or the Pale existed before I made Signal Hill lmao. It's not post apocalyptic but it might as well be. Also it's just better in every way. Seriously, play Disco Elysium.

Also in the realm of things that have inspired me, but an an actual book this time- @cryptotheism's book Amber Skies is absolutely stunning. I have not finished it because of the aforementioned ADHD (shit's 124k words... that's a lotta words for my big dumb brain) but I really need to sit down and power through it. It's got an incredible setting, a beautiful style of prose, and a way of humanizing body horror that really rocks. Big body horror cw, of course. But like. Go read it. Now. It's free.

I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help, but if anybody has any other suggestions please share them!

[the-kipsabian]

for the fanfic asks: 1, 8, 13, 20, 23, 25, 29, 43, 46, 72, 79 💚

1. Do you daydream a lot before you write, or go for it as soon as the ideas strike? most fics come to me in forms of dreaming while im trying to sleep, so yes. the one good thing about insomnia currently is that i get to rotate so many blorbos and scenarios in my head that i have a lot of content to write lol

8. Post an out-of-context spoiler from a wip. i have like. one current wip in docs that i might work on again at some point so here. technically its not a spoiler since its the whole premise of the fic buuuut

13. Do you listen to music while you write?  If yes, what have you been listening to recently? pretty much always? i focus better when i have matching vibes, unless im having a sensory moment but usually then i cant really write either honestly. "puppet master" is my current playlist on loop, its just my two kip playlists combined into one to fit the mood of immortal fears lol

20. Do you prefer writing AUs or canon fics? pretty much all my stuff in canon divergent on some level honestly, so i guess aus? not in a very obvious sense of aus but yeah. tho i do love me some extra sad aus too, post apocalyptic aus my beloved.....

23. Is writing the beginning, middle, or end of the story easiest? Hardest? middle part is the easiest, ending is the hardest cause i either never know when to end a story or how to end a story like. i want to have that final impact and sometimes its so hard to pinpoint where that should be. middle is just a good flow usually if i get that far and thats where all the good ideas usually happen so its my favorite <3

25. What’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)? probably the writing itself. like i can have a shit ton of good, even great ideas while brainstorming or outlining things, but usually the biggest things happen while im actually putting the words down. i really enjoy it when the story just flows and how it comes together. also i have discovered i absolutely loathe the editing part LOL

29. What’s something about your writing that you’re proud of? personally i think i can bring emotions to life really well. be it happy or sad (mostly sad tho i love my sad depressed uncomfortable bitches), i feel like i have the words for them that fit

43. Is there a trope or idea that you’d really like to write but haven’t yet? hmmmmm i dont really know? i mean i have plenty of ideas sitting in my drafts and in my brain and stuff, but i dont really think i have a lot that i absolutely NEED to write. maybe that one bunnelope fic i wanted to do about a love potion gone wrong cause girls need to be gay or something

46. If you could only write one type of AU for the rest of your life, what would it be? once again - post apocalyptic au my beloved. anything that takes place "after the world ends" in one way or another is my shit. gimme all the post apocalyptic hell i crave for

72. What’s your favorite writing compliment you’ve gotten? basically every time someone says i nailed a character im writing for the first time. cause i take a lot of pride and put in the effort to try to give them each their own voice and i study my materials and yeah. ..hence also why im so hesitant so often to write about new people cause i am a perfectionist when it comes to characterization especially ajksdnkjasd

79. Do you have any writing advice you want to share? this we discovered last week to be a really functional advice so: if you dont know how to start writing a scene, put someone in a room. make them enter a space, and start from there - why are they there, who else is there, what is their purpose in that space, what is that space?

also first drafts dont need to be perfect, everything can be edited in post, even after you post the thing if youre planning on doing so. hell some published novels have typos in them, let alone nonsensical writing and storylines. you dont need to be perfect, as long as you are writing

and obviously you are your own audience first and foremost. write for yourself yo fuck the rest (unless the rest are into it too then thats great but you should still write for yourself first and consider everything else second lol)

fanfic writing asks ~

[fullmetalwindbreaker]

oh yeah i finally watched johnny mnemonic last night. my god is this one of the movies of all time. list of thoughts

- why he got the forest gump haircut

- i understand why people say the acting in this movie is “bad” but i think it’s mostly apt (especially in keanu reeves case) for characters living in an information-saturated state of society. like effectively most of them are on near mentally disabling amounts of stimulants at all times (just like celebrities in the 90s). ice t and henry rollins are the only ones who sound anything like normal human beings to me if i’m being honest. actually now i’m thinking about the scene where he flips out at the end and i think keanu reeves is a very good actor and he doesn’t get enough credit for shit like this

- they really did molly dirty, i guess i can’t be surprised she’s just reduced to a typical 90s action movie female lead exposition sidekick forced romantic interest, but it’s still a bummer. this was a decade after neuromancer was written, there’s so much more of her character to draw on, even if only to foreshadow, than was shown in the original short story. and instead they changed her character so much she doesn’t even have the same name

- i’m glad they included the bionic lesbian bodyguards in some capacity even though they’re not dog girls and there’s several predictably transphobic stereotypical moments

- everything overall seems much more low tech than the sprawl as originally described by my main man willy gibby, i understand how this is mostly a constraint of budget and the actual technology that could exist at the time, but it’s fascinating how it intersects with more broadly popular 90s grunge aesthetic, for example the lack of visible cybernetic augmentation on the previously mentioned lesbians. and switching the lo-tek hideout to a bridge instead of the underside of a city dome is less cool, but i can’t think of second choice that better fits the near-post-apocalyptic-wasteland shabby vibe going on. even the yakuza don’t look very rich or clean or put together

- very fascinating to look back at 30 year old ideas of what cyber society would be like, untethered from the contemporary ubiquity of banal surveillance. i feel like it would be relatively trivial now to find his brain code by looking up some semi-public record or archive of the tv broadcast they used to generate those key frames, but no one in the 90s saw that coming. i’m also thinking about how in watch dogs (video game) in fucking 2014 “corporate interests are gathering seemingly trivial data about your life, especially habits of consumption, especially media consumption” is portrayed as a thing that normal people often think is crazy or outlandish

- i’m also thinking about this quaint outdated view of information saturation contrasted with my real life avoidance of watching movies due to reliance on a different style of video entertainment that prioritizes breadth and volume, drop-in drop-out pause and switch between a dozen tabs at once style, compared to the often much more focused and intentionally continuous format of A Film, which is much harder to fully understand unless you watch it straight through in one sitting, which i rarely feel like i have time or mental dedication for

- do you have parents and stuff!?

-overall i’m not upset by the massive changes to the plot, i think for a movie it’s much better paced than a 1:1 of the original story would have been. i think they did a pretty good job expanding the original premise into a story with some actual stakes, even if cyber seizure disease and mommy ghost in the machine is a little on the nose. 8/10 movie but i might have to try watching it sober too

[maryhanna]

INITIAL THOUGHTS

When watching past years cine-haiku projects i was really inspired to do something we've not really seen on our course...gore. I love horror films so much and I wanted to make something gory yet melancholic to make the most of the 30 second time limit. I thought of many routes to go down, the typical gory film stuff. I had recently approached my love for sfx makeup so I wanted to incorporate that into my initial ideas. So I decided that a zombie film would be excellent for this.

 The prompt nightfall was also very inspiring for this choice as melancholic horror would link great. Things happening in the dead of night sort of idea. I had also really wanted to use my background in sfx makeup design from high school and adapt some really interesting looks. I was quite nervous to pitch this idea with my group, i'm not the most self assured person so I needed to come up with a compelling narrative instead of a vague idea.

DEVELOPING NARRATIVE

I wanted the story to be very clear, especially with the 30 seconds we had to use, but I wanted it to be emotional but still be a little lighthearted. I feel it's hard to write horror and not get carried away with melodrama and cliche tropes. So I developed on this and came to the idea of a boyfriend who's struggling with his girlfriend turning into a zombie. It was sweet and sad, it could be visually represented very well. I thought it would also be quite deep in a way, boyfriend loving his girlfriend but she's there anymore, just a shell of who she was, maybe a small part of her does know whats going on. 

So I brought this to James, Jack and Alex and we discussed how we would break this idea up into 3 thoughtful shots. We discussed the possibility of having her arm being taped back together as well as him feeding her, but the idea we came to was him returning to their desolate apartment with a bag of mysterious meat for her to savagely consume.

PRODUCTION DESIGN IDEAS

THE DISAPPOINTING THING

I was away for the majority of the week of shooting. I had been abroad visiting family from Iraq, honestly it was a bit of an emotional whirlwind. With everyone abroad getting sick myself included and seeing immediate family members for the first time in my entire life was heartbreaking. I was very caught up and sidelined this project. Stupid brain thinking my contribution could be done whilst i was away but when i missed the shoot on my flight back home i knew i had messed up. My ideas for the film had to change and the guys adapted the story around two male friends instead of the couple. I loved what they did but I'm so upset with myself that I couldn't be there. I had so much makeup and props bought in for the shoot which I can still use of course but I felt like a total let down. Even had me in such a funk on top of the family shit that I considered taking a gap year. This was also on top of a lot of doubt I had within myself on this course, but after speaking to Zoe I felt hopeful I could still contribute to the post production process.

POST PRODUCTION

I really enjoyed working with Jack and Alex in post production and I loved the work they had done with the film, everything looked wonderful. So we proceeded with sound design! 

We got to be incredibly creative with foley. We discussed our options and what we needed to achieve this included footsteps, bag rustling and the most enjoyable crazy frantic eating noises. So I set off to gather supplies, we're talking whole heads of lettuce, oranges and a very sad banana. We also tried to capture the noises from the zombie which included my smoker lungs making an appearance. 

We also explored the idea of having apocalyptic chaos going throughout the entire film. People screaming about zombie's and gunshots firing. We recorded audio of this chaos.. the process being myself, Alex and Jack screaming in the recording booth about the end of the world, this never made the final cut however. With all the foley recorded we talked about what choices we would make that would best suit the tone of the film. We wanted it to be quite intimate. This included an emphasis on the heavy breathing noises from the zombie. Alex did an amazing job with the edit of sound, me and Jack gave notes when needed but Alex's work was great.

CRIT AND REFLECTION

Overall I think the crit went well and the response from the class was quite positive. We had notes that we used our 30 seconds really well, with lots of breathing room and time to understand the space. The colour palette was also something people touched on saying it heightened the tone of the film. The lighting also set the scene very well as we used mainly natural lighting and small LED's, however it could have been more creatively used with more contrast and luxuriant light in the final shot. Something I do agree on is that the story is very linear in terms of how we used our 3 shots. I see now that the 'haiku' idea could have been something more creatively represented instead of a 30 second film that happens to have 3 shots. With this the effect of the film had a lack of revelation and change as the events seemed too chronological.

 Looking back on this note I really think that the final establishing was good but it could have been so much more. I wish there were smaller details included in the shot and the choices made were more abstract. But the narrative was clear and people understood that which I am happy with. In terms of our notes on sound design I do agree that maybe there could have been more elements included in the final cut however we really didn't want to distract from the intimacy of the two characters.

 I do feel like the world building aspect would not have been entirely clear if it were not from the title of the film showing up before the screening which was not something we had considered at the time of naming the project.

 The general note from the crit was that the film seemed a little bare and the narrative was very linear. It was clear but our achievement in fulfilling the cine-haiku brief was a little missed due to this. I'm happy with the film, my group was great and very supportive of helping me visualise my idea.

[definegodliness]

Had a really cool dystopian dream. Post apocalyptic scenario — nuclear apocalypse this time — wherein nature had taken over the cityscape. Lots of ferns. I quite liked it, actually. It’s strange to realize I, as a kid, didn’t dare to sleep because of all the nightmares, and that now as an adult these horror scenarios leave me entirely unfazed. Every now and then my brain still gets me, but overall I tend to find ways to enjoy the nightmare. 

Grouped up with some guy and a girl in the middle of the jungle. Evolved a romance with the girl. Cute as a button, but things got messy after we fucked. Chapter: drama. She didn’t believe my feelings were genuine, and I of course was completely unfiltered in love. Dreams get you unfiltered, don’t they? Anyway, I wanted to go back to the love-dovey story, but the dream didn’t allow it. Guy got jealous, and kept testing me. 

See, the girl was afraid I was using her, and the guy kept convincing her I was. We almost got into a fight, but then the girl found a big grocery store. It was a jungle inside there too, but all the electronics were still working. We grouped up with some other people there. But that didn’t affect the dream. See, there was free food for days, so I got distracted. I floated from isle to isle, snacking and tasting (I must have been hungry). In the end I found an Italian ice cream truck. Got in, ready to taste all the flavours! But I saw raspberry, and I remembered it was the girl’s favourite. So instead of gorging, I made her a raspberry ice cream cone, and went back.

Normally my dreams deteriorate in mist-veiled seeking what’s already gone at this point, near the dreams end. So it was a pleasant surprise this time the girl was still there. It was nice to feel so infatuated. But as I handed her the ice cream, which she accepted as an apology (for what? oh well), and a means to a fresh start, there was that guy again. Stirring up shit. So this time I tackled him and punched his face in, till the girl — without addressing the violence — just took my hand. She smiled. We walked into some bright light pulsating pleasant uncertainty. Wholesome light. Not a nuclear blast or something.

Like I said, it was a cool dream.

Didn’t think much of it. Forgot about it. Then, imagine my surprise a little while ago; randomnly browsing Tumblr I suddenly see the girl. Exactly her. What kind of weird ass fate twisting oracle shit is this? Honestly, I’ve often shared my New Moon dreams on here, and they are notoriously symbolism packed, enigmatic, and pseudo prophetic, but this fucketry is so crude and blatant it makes me chuckle. There is zero mystery! Still, it is thrilling. Don’t you think? 

How fascinating life is.

Proceeds to do nothing about it.

[lepusrufus]

I will, in fact, continue to encourage you to rummage through that pandora's box of yours - only if you want to and have the mental space, life gets busy - and tell us all about that AU or whatever lore you have

And i guess I'll have to sign myself as 🦎 from now on

Not gonna lie, I absolutely do not have the creative energy for like... an AU within an AU lol I think I already have so much on my plate. What I do have though is a bunch of little ideas buzzing in my brain for zombie killing squad because I've been watching ftwd and post apocalyptic settings are my one true love so now I have a mild brainrot. And i mean zombies technically DO exist in the resi evil universe so I don't even need to jump through loopholes for it! Rejoice!

The BSAA being asses and very happy to take mild advantage of their deal with Miranda that states they can use her experiments for things? More likely than you think

They end up shooting a call to crow mom to have someone clean up an outbreak from time to time. Outbreak that can be as small as an apartment building or a whole small town

Look idk how it happens I just want zombies and I'm tired. Bia can have a break from full braincell use today

Nicole gets a rifle. She's good at not dying sure but she does need something to actually kill

Laura gets some firepower too but she's also quite handy with axes as we all know

The sisters are usually having a blast, all things considered. They do enjoy the maiming

Esteria is also often times with them because i mean... she do be powerful and scary

Anita is usually not out in the field bc she's baby and her healing isn't all the way there but she can shoot so occasional sniper ahoy

But usually she's just an involuntary blood donor bc venomous blood

Poor Alcina sits this out due to her 3m self attracting too much attention (and she very crankily waits for the rest to return, safe and sound if the BSAA know what's good for them)

Just occasional walking into a post apocalyptic looking cityscape to kill zombies yes pls

They definitely call them "zombies" mostly to mock whatever agents are with them who use a different name

"Actually we call them-" "Well we KILL them so do you want to shut up and let us clean your mess or stay here and argue about terminology??" -Bela, tired of their shit

Nicole puts too much trust in Cassandra's ability to protect her, which is how she ends up under a collapsed building but that's a different story

But also the sisters learn how to properly use guns bc the BSAA would have some firepower designed specifically for that (and for them but oh well)

That's not to say they don't keep to the classics but also dive Daniela a gun