#same goes for rocking weird fits

[brookebitch69]

I think I benefit from pretty/swag privilege bc I get at least one compliment from someone I don’t know almost everyday… or is this universal?

[andypantsx3]

thinking about dragon shouto.

as a child you come across what you think is a weird fat lizard the size of a cat, playing in the fields just outside of your village. it's got a mesmerizing pattern of ruby red scales overlapping snowy white ones, and two little nubby horns at either side of its head.

it spends the afternoon napping on a sun-warmed rock nearby, blinking at you with strange, mismatched eyes whenever you come over to stare at it. you feed it some of the berries you'd gathered for your own snack, and it seems to like them, nosing around in your hand for more after it's finished them. when you leave, it curls its tail around itself and watches you go with a solemn stare.

you see it several more times out in the fields after that, always bringing it little treats—the crust of your morning bread, some cheese, a rainbow of berries from the bushes at the edge of the forest. it's patient when you prod it curiously, running your fingers over the strange little flaps on its back that look almost like they could unfold into wings. it seems to like when you do that, eyes falling closed, and you swear you hear it snuffle softly.

it skitters home with you then, and your family shits themselves when they realize you've dragged home a dragon. it's a toddler same as you, and a male as far as they can tell. but it's too late to get rid of him—dragons are notoriously possessive creatures, and any attempt made to separate you two is met with a flash of tiny fangs, a jet of fire, and a case of lizard stink eye so mean it's like he's trying to scald the flesh off of people with his stare alone.

and after that, you're his and he's yours.

you name him shouto—a person's name—because he seems so much like his own person, all his wants and needs communicated clearly. he goes with you everywhere until he becomes too large to fit into buildings, first reaching the size of a horse, then your family's thatched hut. by the time you reach your majority, he's the size of the smithy in the village center.

and then, not a few months after your own birthday, he comes into his majority, and with it, his full powers.

and that's how you find yourself confronted with over six feet of very naked, very handsome man—with split red-and-white hair, and two mismatched eyes, and an incredibly familiar possessiveness over you...

[lafemmemacabre]

Goth 101

🦇 tl;dr version for those who prefer that format

Goth is a music-based subculture that started out in the UK in the late 70s/early 80s and spread internationally from there. It spawned from the UK Punk scene, keeping the DIY ethics but turning the music more melancholic, introspective and experimental.

The music genres that the subculture was built around are (dark) Post-Punk, Gothic Rock, Darkwave, Ethereal Wave and a few other smaller subgenres.

While the fashion and other non-musical aesthetics are very prominent and beloved by goths, they're non-essential to the subculture. What defines a goth is the music we listen to.

Our "big 4" bands are The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus and the Banshees. However, 3 out of 4 of those bands are Post-Punk acts (Sisters of Mercy being the exception Gothic Rock band), and while very influential to the rest of the goth music scene, they by no means are the end-all, be-all of what goth music sounds like. The genre has evolved through its over 40 years of existence, creating diverse sounds. Anyone darkly inclined can find something to love, even if it takes a bit of research.

The Dark & Gothic playlist on Spotify is a pretty decent way to get started into goth music. In my old blog I had entire tags dedicated to goth music as a whole, and separately to Post-Punk, Gothic Rock, Darkwave and Ethereal Wave too. I had a few playlists based on popular goth aesthetics here.

The longer description of goth music will include playlists for each bigger goth subgenre, but please keep in mind they're made by me in a way that appeals to my personal tastes for each subgenre. I don't know every band that exists and my personal taste is biased towards the 90s.

Now, to a more detailed introduction to the goth subculture...

🦇 Dark alternative vs Goth

What a lot of people need clarified is that the goth subculture doesn't have a monopoly on the dark alternative world, nor are we the home for everyone sad, spooky and weird who doesn't fit in and might listen to any sort of sad, spooky or weird alternative music.

There are SO many dark alternative music scenes that have nothing or very little to do with the goth subculture. We've influenced a lot of them fashion-wise, but just because they copied us we look alike doesn't mean we're interchangeable.

There's no scale that goes from Prep to Goth and measures how Valid™ your inner darkness is, in which if you're anything below goth then you're a poser and lame. It's perfectly fine and cool to be dark alternative without being a goth. Goth isn't a badge of legitimacy or honor, it's just one specific flavor of dark alternative among so many.

Goth is a very small and obscure subculture despite our superficial hypervisbility (our looks and infamy are hypervisible, what we're actually about is extremely buried underground), and most dark alternative people aren't goths.

🦇 What does it take to be a goth?

There's one rule, and one rule only: LISTEN TO THE MUSIC. You wouldn't call yourself a metalhead without being a fan of Metal music, would you? The same principle applies to goth.

There are many types of alternative subcultures; some examples are fashion-based subcultures, another are lifestyle-based subcultures. A third type of subculture that's very prominent (especially in the West) are music-based subcultures.

Goth is a music-based subculture, just like the metalhead, punk, emo, rivethead/Industrial, hip-hop, rave, K-Pop and grunge subcultures are.

This means that, while the music isn't THE ONLY aspect the subculture has, in order to be a goth you have to listen to goth music, and we have a specific set of music genres that our subculture was built around, so not just anything dark and melancholy will do, as we don't have a monopoly on that, but we do have something closer to a monopoly on a specific sound and musical legacy.

You don't have to listen to goth music EXCLUSIVELY to be a goth, that'd be insane. You don't even have to limit yourself to dark alternative music either. You just have to listen to goth music to a relevant degree and be passionate about it and you're in, the rest is up to you.

This means too that the way you dress has no impact on your validity as a goth, whether you don't have the gothic wardrobe of your dreams yet or you just don't want to dress goth at all. I'm TikTok mutuals with a girl who dresses exclusively in pink-white sweet lolita coords, but who's passionate about goth music. She's a goth, no questions about it. On the other hand, a lot of the influencers you'll see online who look like a lost Addams cousin aren't goths at all, and no house decor or outfit will make them gothier if they don't listen to the music.

🦇 What music counts as goth?

From the previous points I made you probably gathered that Industrial and Metal ⁠– both genres that outsiders usually associate with the goth subculture ⁠– aren't actually part of the goth genre. So, what is goth music?

Goth music developed initially in the UK in the late 70s/early 80s off of dark Post-Punk. Post-Punk itself developed from UK 70s Punk Rock, being also influenced by Glam Rock, experimental electronic music, and many other influences more specific to each band that took part in this musical development (Bauhaus were very influenced by Reggae!).

What characterizes the goth sound are elements such as; being bass-driven rather than guitar-driven (in almost every case), guitars playing more of a decorative or atmospheric role instead of being the main focus (which contrasts starkly against genres such as Metal), preference for voices with a lower vocal range (altos, this is your genre to shine in!), optional use of synthesizers, recurrent replacing of human drummers with drum machines, and common use of lots of reverb and delay effects everywhere for an extra sensation that you're listening to music recorded in a catacomb.

Dark Post-Punk was the starting point of the goth subculture, and from it, all other goth music subgenres developed. Depending on who you ask there's a billion goth micro-genres. In my opinion a lot of those subgenres are rather meaningless (a lot of them are just specific flavors of Post-Punk or Darkwave) but the main 4 subgenres of goth music are:

(Dark) Post-Punk

Gothic Rock

Darkwave

Ethereal Wave

POST-PUNK:

Post-Punk took the standard sound of Punk Rock and its DIY ethics and made the sound more melancholic, romantic, experimental, less angry, and more introspective. Dark Post-Punk in particular was influenced by gothic literature and old horror movies (including their soundtracks, the Banshees created their characteristic guitar sound after the violins in the Psycho soundtrack).

Besides the 3 Post-Punk bands I listed as part of the goth "big 4", there's bands such as Skeletal Family, Twin Tribes, Specimen, She Wants Revenge, Sex Gang Children, Xmal Deutschland, Lebanon Hanover, Cruex Lies, The Secret French Postcards and The Birthday Party.

GOTHIC ROCK:

When goth became slightly more established in sound, Gothic Rock is what happened. Less experimental than Post-Punk, a bit more Rock-based, more decidedly dark and miserable than Post-Punk necessarily is, and finally severed from goth's punk roots. Sisters of Mercy is THE most popular and influential Gothic Rock band; they popularized the use of extremely low baritone vocals and drum machines. Despite existing since the 80s, its popularity peak was in the 90s.

Goth as a whole has its "big 4", but the subgenre of Gothic Rock has its own "big 3", which are Sisters of Mercy, The Mission (UK), and Fields of the Nephilim. Other Gothic Rock bands are Rosetta Stone, Corpus Delicti, Inkubus Sukkubus, Mephisto Walz, Angels of Liberty, Two Witches, Nosferatu, Wisborg and Soror Dolorosa.

DARKWAVE:

Goth going electronic! There's basically two types of Darkwave; the one that's more a combination of Post-Punk + Synthpop (very popular in the past decade), and the one that's more a combination of Gothic Rock + electronic music in general (most popular in the 90s). EXTREMELY danceable, but then again goths can dance to literally anything. This genre has existed at the very least since the second half of the 80s and has never stopped being relevant in the goth scene, save maybe during the Deathrock revival phase.

Clan of Xymox might be the single most influential Darkwave band. There's also The Frozen Autumn, The Crüxshadows, Switchblade Symphony, Collide, Dark, Ghosting, London After Midnight, She Past Away, Drab Majesty and Boy Harsher.

ETHEREAL WAVE:

This genre is heavily linked to Dream Pop, Neoclassical Darkwave and Shoegaze. Like with Darkwave there's basically a few styles of Ethereal Wave, I can pinpoint three; the one that's like, regular Goth Rock/Post-Punk but with a lot of extra delay and reverb and other stylistic choices that make it sound, well, Ethereal, dream-like. There's the type that has lots of Folk influences (be it Medieval/Rennaisance-ish type of Folk or "ethnic" type of Folk), and there's one that's synth-based but, unlike Darkwave, sounds like what ketamine must feel like. This genre has existed since the mid 80s but its peak in popularity and relevancy in the scene was in the 90s.

Dead Can Dance is THE most influential Ethereal Wave band, but there's others such as Cocteau Twins (started as Post-Punk, ended up as Dream Pop and Ethereal Wave), Miranda Sex Garden, Faith and the Muse, Lycia, Claire Voyant, Hamsas XIII, Love is Colder than Death, SRSQ, Black Tape for a Blue Girl and Mors Syphilitica.

What about Deathrock, Gothic Metal and Industrial?

Deathrock is goth's American twin, basically. While in the early 80s in the UK morose ex-punks were playing Post-Punk, in the early 80s in the LA Punk scene morbid and brooding punk kids were playing Deathrock; it's closer to Punk Rock in sound than Post-Punk, being more about being spooky and brooding than about being eerie and romantic. Goth is to vampires and witches what Deathrock is to zombies and werewolves.

To summarize the consensus on Deathrock and its place within the goth subculture; it's rare to find a goth who's not also into at least some Deathrock, and even rarer to find a deathrocker who's not into goth. Personally, I think Deathrock is its own separate though very similar thing, but I don't mind Deathrock being lumped in with goth music.

I made a whole TikTok video on why Gothic Metal isn't a goth subgenre, but in summary; Gothic Metal is a Metal subgenre that was somewhat influenced by goth music in its earliest stage of development, but is for the most part a cross between Doom Metal and Death Metal with lyrics inspired by gothic literature. By adhering to a Metal sound it doesn't fit the type of sound goth music has. The goth influences in Gothic Metal were mostly only present in the earliest bands and a majority of the newer acts are completely disconnected from the goth scene.

As for goth's ties to the rivethead subculture (and thus, Industrial music): We've been sibling subcultures since at least the early 90s. Both very, very small and underground scenes that despite being different, had enough similarities in music, idiosyncrasy and aesthetic sensibilities to comfortably band together for the sake of scene viability. That's why you might hear people talking about the "gothic-industrial scene".

Keep in mind too that 80s and 90s Industrial music sounded very different from how it does now (compare your average Grendel or Combichrist song to your average Skinny Puppy or Die Form song). There was a lot less influence of raver music in the rivethead scene back then, and a lot more influence from 80s dark alternative music and New Wave, which are key influences for the goth scene as well.

As told by goth YouTuber Angela Benedict (goth since 1995), every goth back then listened to at least some Industrial, every rivethead listened to at least some goth music, and they all loved 80s New Wave, so DJs at shared club nights had a very easy time entertaining both audiences simultaneously.

🦇 Trivia & other things to know

The term "gothic Rock" was being used in music journalism as early as to describe releases by The Doors and The Velvet Underground, but the word "gothic" there wasn't so much used to point to a specific type of sound at that stage, it was used to imply the mood of the music and that's not where the subculture gets its name.

We don't know for sure why this subculture began to be referred to as "goth", initially the music was called either New Wave (just a darker and more underground variety of it) or Positive Punk. However, one of the potential roots of this name for our subculture is that it comes from an inside joke from members of Southern Death Cult/The Cult about Andi Sexgang (Sex Gang Children) about how he was a creepy little guy obsessed with the macabre and dark romanticism living at the Visigoth Towers, so they called him a "goth goblin" and if he was a goth, then his fans were goths too.

From the comments that the goth bloggers/vloggers I follow get, apparently it's common for baby bats and people interested in the subculture to think that they HAVE to find a goth "type" to lock themselves into, like "trad goth" or "romantic goth" or whatever else, and if they don't, they're a poser. This isn't true at all. Most goths wax and wane between fashion styles and goth music subgenres. These terms are far more useful to describe aesthetics rather than people or music.

If you ever hear people talk about "1st/2nd/3rd wave goth/Gothic Rock"; that's an (in my opinion) outdated and not too functional terminology to differentiate between "eras" of goth music, 1st wave being between 1975-1985, 2nd between 1985-1995, and 3rd between 1995-? That terminology was used widely when I was a baby bat but not so much anymore.

"Baby bat" is what a lot of more established goths call newbies! It's NOT meant as an insult nor to be condescending. It's a loving cutesy term and while of course most baby bats are very young, it's perfectly plausible to be a very grown adult and a baby bat if they just got into goth instead of getting into the subculture as a teen.

Most goth bands are easily found on Spotify except for more underground ones that haven't been active for a while (I have so many beloved bands and songs that just don't exist on Spotify), but the real goth jackpot is at Bandcamp.

Facebook is still useful for one (1) thing and it's for finding goth events; that's where I've found out about gothic fairs, goth nights and gigs; from the largely popular ones in my local scene to the very underground ones.

The song most of the subculture agrees is THE first official goth song is Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus, which was recorded as a singular take. It was the first track the band recorded together, too.

The Batcave is infamous nowadays as a huge goth night club in Soho (London) during the early 80s, owned by the band Specimen, BUT as told by the very people who used to frequent the nightclub, the whole thing has been a little overblown and its current reputation is more legend than fact. YouTuber Gothcast has a great video on the subject that was praised by members of Specimen itself!

Most of the most iconic pioneer goth musicians HATE being referred to as goths or to have their music referred to as such. When the term "goth" was first starting to be used to describe our music and scene it was a pejorative used by outsiders and/or mostly associated with the campier and more "low brow" bands (Specimen and Alien Sex Fiend come to mind). Andrew Eldritch from Sisters of Mercy especially hates it, to the point he refuses to even say the word and refers to it as "the G word". Which is hilarious since he sounded the most stereotypically gothy out of the big 4 and looked like this at the time he started to be a piss baby about it:

Goth isn't really a "youth" subculture anymore if you ask people within the scene. Unlike people from many other subcultures, goths have a tendency to stay goth far into adulthood (even if covertly). When you go to any events, besides teens and people in their early 20s, you're gonna see plenty of goths in their 40s and older, a few of them will bring their kids along if the event is family friendly.

Besides the obvious chance of many goths being professional creatives (musicians, writers, artists, etc), for some reason A LOT of goths work in tech and healthcare!

Metalheads headbang, they and punks also mosh. What do goths do to vibe to our music together? We dance! We don't dance the same as non-goths but we LOVE to dance to our music, together or solo. There's no established dance styles to adhere to; it's just letting your body flow to the music. Some goth dancing is very intricate, some of it is very simple, it depends on the goth in question. Just in case, this is NOT like the dance gifs of cybergoths/rivetheads under that damned bridge. Think less that and more Wednesday Addams dancing to The Cramps, or the girl from the Night of the Demons movie. Here's some videos about how goths dance:

We fucking love 80s New Wave. No, Depeche Mode isn't a goth band; yes, you'll have to dig deep to find a goth who doesn't ADORE them. The only one I've come across who disliked Depeche Mode liked Soft Cell instead.

Goth IS international! Not just in the sense that there's fans of goth music basically everywhere, but that there's local goth scenes with their own local goth bands everywhere. Outside of the US + Europe + Canada, there's huge goth scenes all over Latin América (our Deathrock and Post-Punk are at times even popular among 1st world goths), and there's also smaller but still present goth scenes in Africa, Asia and Oceania. She Past Away is very much one of THE most popular goth bands in recent years and they're from Turkey.

The goth scene has always been in friendly terms with the LGBT community. Not only are many of our biggest icons LGBT themselves (the whole band Specimen, AVC from Sopor Aeternus, both members of Diavol Strâin, the vocalist from Male Tears, Cinnamon Hadley, and many more) but plenty of cishet goths (especially the men) embrace gender non-conformity and/or androgyny. In most local scenes, goth club nights are held at gay bars/nightclubs, as they don't tend to have privately owned venues. And either way, at any goth night there'll be tons of gay and gender non-conforming goths no matter where they're held. To varying degrees depending on the locality of the scene, gay and bi people are completely normalized in the goth subculture, and gender non-conformity and androgyny aren't just encouraged, but praised and coveted.

There's goths of any religion you can think of, but Neo Pagans are somewhat over-represented in our community compared to the rest of larger society (for better or worse). Funnily enough, very few goths are actually Satanists of any sort. I'd say the numbers go more or less similar to our local non-goth peers. In the West and westernized countries I'd say it goes; majority culturally-Christian atheist or agnostic goths (usually not militant about it), a few practicing Christians of whichever denomination (usually whichever is dominant in the country they inhabit), the rare but entirely plausible Jewish, Muslim or Buddhist goth, and a bunch of Neo-Pagans. Probably one (1) or two (2) actual Satanist goths per state/province/etc, tops.

World Goth Day is celebrated every year on May 22nd.

"Mallgoth" isn't a type of goth in either a musical or fashion sense. I made another TikTok about it, but in summary; it was originally hurled as an insult towards a very specific type of poser; the American kids in the late 90s and early 00s who imitated how goths dressed and called themselves goths while only listening to Nu Metal and maybe the most mainstream Industrial Metal. They tended to congregate at malls and behave particularly obnoxious to everyone there, further ruining our already delicate image (especially at that time).

Cybergoths aren't really goths either. Their music scene is centered around EBM, which is basically slightly darker and slightly more aggressive raver music that may or may not have Industrial influences. And to be honest they behaved like a rapacious invasive species in goth club nights to the point that they almost decimated the actual goth scene and it took us a while to recover from that.

Goths are sometimes perceived as too self-serious but honestly? We love making fun of ourselves and we tend to have a very silly or dry sense of humor. We're just tired of the same cheap and inaccurate jokes made by people who don't know anything about us. The best jokes about goths will often come from goths ourselves; you can only properly make fun of something you understand well! The few times outsiders get it right though? (Sad to confirm that the South Park goth kids are hilarious and I wish they were in a better show) You'll see goths sharing the SHIT out of it, such as me being obsessed with the goths from Ridonculous Race, or the clip below:

[fastcardotmp3]

Eddie Munson does do the whole rock star thing, but it doesn't quite go the way it did in the daydreams of a sixteen-year-old kid trying to stay awake in school.

He leaves Hawkins after the world doesn't end, gets himself out there, takes all the hurt and fear and fucked up shit and puts it into a handful of good enough songs to get himself signed.

It's not quite the genre he grew up with, not quite something any of his idols might have played, but only because it is so entirely Eddie, so influenced by where he's been and what he's seen that it kind of doesn't fit one specific influence.

It's new and it's good, is the point. Really good. And he skyrockets fast enough to give himself the spins.

He's recognizable and then he's famous and then he's too famous and too young to know what to do with it and too far from home and everyone he loves to really cope with it and it's just.

Eddie isn't built for it. Eddie hasn't even processed the fact that he was maybe supposed to die in that place, or the fact that he did watch people better than him actually die, but he's out here shooting to the top of the charts and being called the next big thing and it's too much.

It's just enough, at the end of it all, for him to self-sabotage his way out of being more than a one-hit wonder.

One big hit, a contract broken by the guys at the top with the fancy lawyers because Eddie has become the too much thing, just like always, and it's over as quick as it started.

He disappears, becomes one of those whatever happened to him? he was supposed to be the next big thing? stories that travel by word of mouth and then fade with the shift in conversation.

So what does happen to Eddie Munson?

He falls hard, he hits rock bottom, he crawls his way home to an uncle who deserved for Eddie to really make it, make him proud, have him financially set for life and get him into a real house with two stories and a garage to park the truck in, maybe even a yard for a dog.

He spirals and isolates and falls apart and stops letting himself make music at all and makes some personal choices that will probably have lasting effects on him for the rest of his life and then somewhere along the line a girl with hair like tangerines and terrible aim manages to smack him with her cane and says if I learned to walk again, so can you, asshole.

There are people in his life again after that, a reason to get out of bed and realize that he can make Wayne proud in more ways than the one he'd already fucked straight to hell.

Eddie watches a bunch of kids graduate high school and then he packs up and chases down some people who pulled him out of hell once before up in Chicago, crashes on Steve and Robin's couch until he gets himself a job painting houses and they can afford three bedrooms instead of just the two.

He cuts his hair, not short but shorter, and he gets more tattoos and itches for the guitar that sits in a case under his bed, ignores it. Itches for the pen in his hand, ignores that too.

He's still barely past his mid-20s and he still has some fucking around left to get out of his system, some finding out to accomplish doubly so, but he learns as he goes no matter whether it's forwards or backwards.

He falls in love and falls out of it, gets fired from jobs and tracks down new ones, gets into fights with his friends because they're all a little fucked up and codependent and weird but makes up with them for the same reasons.

The thing with Steve happens slowly, going from tolerating each other for the sake of knowing they'll always be on the same team to genuinely liking each other to discovering a care between the two of them that's a bit too strong to be normal about even if it still takes them a half-dozen so-called turning points to really name it and take it and keep it.

Eddie's 33 when they buy a condo together on the outskirts of Chicago two weeks after they fall into bed with each other for the first time, and he's over a decade on from being a kid who rose to the top too fast but it doesn't feel dissimilar, that sensation of a too-good thing that's bound to go wrong.

Only this time he doesn't try to sabotage it, tries the opposite, tries to hold it tightly in ways that would probably be too tight for anyone other than Steve Harrington with all his deeply intense feelings and inability to love at anything other than an eleven.

It's in the move that Steve finds a box of notebooks, snoops because it's who he is, and finds years worth of words that never made it past the tip of a pen but did, eventually, make it that far.

And it's not an easy thing, convincing Eddie that they're words worth sharing, because Eddie doesn't want it to be an easy thing. He can't let kind words shoved into his orbit by a beautiful man be enough to make it feel worth it, can't see a world where sharing his art doesn't end in another great big self-induced mess that he can't let happen when he's finally found something good.

He doesn't want to go on tour and get screamed at on stage and, besides, he's pretty sure the rest of the world doesn't want to scream for him anymore either, but then Steve has to go and remind him--

"You don't have to be the face of it. You can just be the words; you are so fucking good at being the words, Ed."

Which still isn't quite enough to be convincing, but it's a start in a solid six months of the words coming easier now that he has someone to share them with, someone to listen as Eddie plucks away at a guitar that sits out in the open now, free of dust.

It stops feeling like something shameful to hide, his music, and the thing is? It doesn't feel how it did back then either.

It's not an escape or a purge of violent energy or a distraction from everything he didn't know how to think about. Sure, it takes all of that into consideration because it takes the whole of Eddie into consideration, but more than anything it's just fun.

Like he's thirteen and still learning how to play the guitar, like it's just a hobby that never has to go anywhere, like it's just art that maybe deserves to be heard.

Everyone pitches in on ideas when they find out he's trying to come up with a pseudonym, and it's goofy and supportive and kind of the final straw in reaching out to old, burned bridges to see about any new artists looking for equally new tunes.

The first time Eddie and Steve catch familiar lyrics being sung by a new hotshot band on the radio, Eddie cries not because he's jealous or disappointed, but because it feels right.

He doesn't like being up in front of the crowds, had only ever walked across tables and made himself big and scary and loud out of self preservation, would always rather his biggest performances be for the people he knows really care.. Besides, after everything he's survived he's learned, albeit slowly, that he really likes the freedom of the quiet.

This way he still gets to say what he has to say, gets to throw his hat into the ring of an artform that he loves without selling his soul to a machine that tried to eat him alive (trust him. he knows what that feels like.)

Of course, someone is going to put 2 and 2 together eventually, the industry isn't as big as it looks and pseudonyms only pull so much weight when you went out in such a spectacularly messy and memorable fashion, but Eddie's got his condo in Chicago.

He's got the guy he shares it with in his bed.

He's got two cats and a windowsill full of plants he's going to keep alive this time, Steve, just you watch.

He's got his uncle settled in Indy these days, a small place with a small yard.

He's got music, too. Turns out even his own tendency to self-destruct couldn't take that away, huh?

It's what got him out of hell alive, after all.

[sugashook]

wade goes "i need you" and he literally grabs logan and is very clear and consistent on it, like i need you, all the time. i think logan needs that clarity and certainty and forwardness..honesty, someone to push him and need him. someone with transparent emotions that will get him out of his head,

and wade needs someone to be there for him no matter what a stable rock. it's like logan's no longer a puzzle piece for war, he's extremely important in wades world, his other half at the moment perhaps (bark)

wolverines entire thing is that he can take great beatings and come back seemingly fine and unaffected its like a very strong closed off person, a fortress that protects his emotions. i think he feels good having people to protect.

but that's also a bad thing because being really strong and feeling like you can take all the bullets you took in your life and bounce them off while at the same time suffering in silence seemingly unaffected by what happened to you is harmful to your psyche. and seeming this way to others as well is even a bigger issue, especially with logan who has the base need to be with people and be there for others.

and for that he NEEDS someone to dig deeper and pierce through his perfect disposition he is NOT easily open and easy going like wade he needs someone to see him and give him a chance and fight for him! wade will make way for himself in someones life, logan will go deeper into himself.

others could see you perfectly "unscathed" all the time and if they don't understand you or try to understand you and how much you can be dealing with complex emotions inside, they will grow resentful,you'll be rejected and treated badly.

wade is very fragile on the other hand, sure he regenerates, but the scars of his trauma are visible and harsh on him, he knows it , everyone knows it.

that's why he's so repulsive to others, his life beat him so hard that he can't control himself with his emotions and it weirds people out, they don't understand it and they get mad,upset,etc.

even scared just by looking at him, you survived trauma, but it shows on you how it affected you and it makes ME uncomfortable, that's pretty scary, you're different and you don't fit in anywhere. they judge him in the opposite way that logan is judged. your overwhelming presence is unnerving to me.

thats why wade hides with his suit his entire face, and the blood. dont notice me,my wounds, and the wounds i give to others. while logans suit screams "notice me!! i'm not okay!! i want people to see me!"

when he regenerates, wades body generates bad body tissue from his skin to his core. and the scars of all that trauma add new trauma so he's constantly re-traumatizing himself and it layers on. he doesn't get stronger or bounce it off himself, bad things such as trauma are just bad they create more bad and he's made out of all the bad things that happened during his life sort of, so he needs a lot of external support.

cause he has no strength left! all the trauma and SLS (shitty life syndrome) is like up to his gills. but he is very joyful and positive despite the harshness of life.

he is a little positivity clown bouncing around in wolverines fortress of solitude.

wolverine can sort of take attacks from life and endure and wade can attack life more easily, he's a positive, up beat, go getter. he loves the world and sees hope in it when there's none. and when the world doesnt love him back ,it crushes him and he cant take it. he doesn't understand how anything he tries he gets hurt by. but he never stops trying :)

logan shuts himself off from the cruel world with his perfect skin and metal bones, but the world has shut off from him as well. wade keeps being hurt and open to the world just like his open wounds and scarred body. even though the world hurts him through his openness.

[whoreburslut]

Kinktober: Day 2

•public

gender neutral reader

smut

(i think this is public enough?)

you had planned a road trip with the boys a few months ago, from brighton all the way to scotland. there was you, phil, tommy, ranboo, jack and wil, it was weird that non of you had noticed that all six of you weren’t going to fit in a regular car. so it only makes sense that you would sit in your boyfriends lap, everyone seemed to agree that this was the best solution.

packing the car up and everyone jumps in their seats, wilbur slips in the back behind the drivers seat where phil was stationed. you throw your bag in the boot of the car, grab your blanket and get situated in wilbur’s lap you drapes the blanket over yourselves and get ready for the long ride ahead.

thirty minutes in to the ride, after all the excitement has died down, wil has snakes his hands around your waist with his head nestled in to your back. you relish in his hold for just a moment before phil states that your going on the the country roads so it might get bumpy.

you thought nothing of the uneven ride until you feel wil start to slowly harden beneath you, you rotated slightly so you could see his face, he was flush and glanced at you with want it his eyes. on a particular big bump in the road send you bouncing on wils crotch quite roughly, he bites his lip and grabs your hips with force and pulls you down in to him to stop you bouncing as much.

realising that no one can see how you two are sitting because of the blanket covering you both, you decide to have a little fun. you grind down on to wilbur, causing his mouth to latch on to your shoulder so he stays silent. you reach behind you and start to unzip his pants, he lifts his hip a bit to help you shimmy them down to mid thigh.

you take his cock in to your hands softly move your hand up and down him, you look up to meet his face that’s still resting on your shoulder . his eyes are now hooded and dark and you can feel his grip on your hips tightening, surly this will leave bruises behind. after a few minutes of teasing you bring your own pants down to your knees, you lift up slightly and slowly slide his length inside you.

you take some of the blanket in to your mouth as a makeshift gag so no moans escape you, feeling utterly blissful as he bottoms out. you decide just to let the country roads do their thing, you bounce up and down his dick with the unstable road, the car goes over another large rock making you slam down on to his boner. you gasp and heads turn to you, “sorry wil pinched me” you stutters out trying not to make it obvious. everyone turns away seemingly having bought your excuse, you turn to look wil in the eyes again and he has a stupid grin of his face obviously proud of himself that he made you crack in front of everyone.

wilbur wraps his arms around you really tightly and starts thrusting up in to you, pulling you down the same time he thrusts up, this along with the harsh jolts of the car have yous both on the edge of pleasure. wil reaches his hand down in between your legs and stares touching you, you start shaking as your already very sensitive. “you can come whenever you like darling” he whispers lowly in your ear.

as soon as he says the words you are thrashing on his cock as you cum, his thrusts start to be come messy and out of rhythm, soon you feel hot spurts of cum shoot inside you. wil comes to a full stop trying to regulate his breathing, he pulls out of you slowly and you slouch in to his chest. he pulls your pants up as he knows your tired, and positions you to where he can also pull his up.

he tucks your head in to the crook of his neck and brings your legs to rest over his lap leaning slightly on the other guys, he begins to stroke your hair as your eyes start to feel heavy. you feel his hot breath against your ear once more and hear wilbur mutter one thing right before he loses you to sleep for the next few hours of the ride.

“you did so good baby”

and everyone was completely oblivious to what yous two did in the car.

[meltedbluecaterpillar]

Welcome to more Headcanons where I discuss clothing. Because it is fun for me. Today we will talk about Jade Leech and how in my mind he dresses like a serial killer; specifically Patrick Bateman. Just kidding. I will talk about that sort of fashion later. When I make these posts I plan to update them with another version of the character dressing in another way. But, let’s keep it short.

Subtle Punk/Grunge

Firstly, Jade has been confirmed in many ways to be more muscle than Floyd. So I like to personally picture him in tight fitting tops. His own mental mind game of showing you; “If I wanted to hurt you I would.” But of course image is everything.

I am desperately clinging to the Punk Jade we could have had in canon with piercings and body modifications but also… Going to a prestigious academy… Jade cares a lot about how he is seen by others on campus. The butler trope fits him very well, but what about off campus? I think he does wear subtle punk fashion when he’s out alone on the island. He loves the belts and black boots and how to layer shirts. All while asking some frightened looking cashier about what kind of mushroom spores they sell.

The reasons for the heavier fashion; A) I personally like it. And it’s okay to disagree with me. B) Jade is a merman, and in my mind their ability to regulate temperature isn’t the same as someone on land. So I would like to think that Jade has issues with cold weather. Please see his club wear card.

I get that camping can be something you need to layer for, but a coat, and a sweatshirt, and a turtleneck, and a wool(?) hat with gloves? He either has horrible circulation or mermen just have issues with cold weather. I think it’s the ladder. Jade also looks good in boots. Being in the Mountain Lovers Club, and even during the Camp event he looks good in boots. Combat boots and kicker boots are also something you usually will see with punk and more ‘aggressive’ forms of alternative fashion. He’s so used to wearing boots when he goes hiking that it feels more natural to wear something like that even on weekends when he’s out and about. Also, the heaviness is like extra weight so he can strengthen his legs. At least that’s what I think. He doesn’t seem like a jeans man but there’s also a lot of things Jade hides about himself. Now for a quick outfit!

Thrifted x DIY

I think he usually will wear things like this as it gets darker and he hangs out at underground music clubs where it’s mostly rock and alternative music playing. Now, Jade comes from money. Which can make him seem like a ‘poser’ because he is a nepo baby. But Jade also loves doing something and getting results. Like taking care of terrariums and discovering things in the mountains. I don’t think when he dresses like this he focuses on the best brand clothing wise. I think he wants to not stand out so I think he would go for darker colors while still having personality with his outfit. So I also gave him those nasty ass crust-punk jeans because I think he would have a pair he made himself and they probably smell like Fritos. He washes them… Sometimes.

Accessories… I can imagine Jade wearing small ones or thin leather bracelets with beads. But also at a music club, he probably would take time to make kandi to trade with some local emos. Rings would look nice on him. Especially big metal ones with chunky charms so if he gets into a fight, it’s like pseudo brass knuckles. He keeps it classy and clean while still upkeeping how he looks and is perceived. He wants to go all out. Shaved sides of his head and all. But he also fears… Something. I think he has to be seen a certain way for family reasons but also because of how he is seen at school. I think Jade… Lacks confidence to be himself. Even if he says he’s happy being a little weird and having such a pristine self image… Is he really? … It’s all my Headcanons and you don’t have to agree with me. But this is what I think.

[findafight]

I have an extremely stupid thought: Addams!Steve. His parents are horrified at his normalness. Everybody in the family tries to come up with ways to make him enjoy pain, even a little. They are all devastated that his interests are basketball and popularity. Usually, he isn't even cruel on purpose! His parents do their best to support him in his interests (this is why their house is so horribly decorated) and leave every time they feel the need to Be Weird or visit the family. When the Upside Down happens, they are overjoyed. Finally, a truly Addams pastime! But he doesn't seem to be having a lot of fun? Is he just trying to fit in their family? They don't want him to change for them, they just want him happy! His parents end up leaving him alone longer so he doesn't feel pressured to share the delightful portal to Hell (or keep getting involved if it stops being fun) and check in on him from time to time. He looks so delightfully beat up every time! What fun! Let's give him space. If he wants to battle hellmonsters, they definetely aren't gonna stop him! Even if it's a bit strange that he hasn't chosen one as a pet yet. Oh, no, is he secretely having a bad time? Does he not enjoy the hell portal? Look Steve we support your normal lifestyle! Do you want a job? A normal, horri- we mean, it's-totally-cool-if-you-want-one job? We won't think less of you if you do!

Steve for his part is very grateful that his family are so supportive of him, even if he's still trying to find a way to ask them for help with the Upside Down stuff without 1) secretely disappointing them and 2) his family making the situation worse on purpose. He knows they wouldn't mean to! But if he asks his mother to shut down a portal to a nightmare dimension full of flesh-eating monsters without even letting her keep one as a pet he might just make her cry, and that's unconscionable.

He's also under the impression that he knows the difference between people-normal and Addams-normal, but he still gets tripped up from time to time. Dustin keeping Dart as a pet? Duh, super normal, didn't even think about it until everyone started berating Dustin. What do you mean Jonathan and I aren't friends? We loved the same girl (who chose him), clearly we are Friends For Life.

(He'll never admit that Eddie is the first thing in his life that felt Right to every part of him. Sweet as pie the way he likes it even if his family is baffled by the preference, with a Deeply Weird appearence and demeanor that remind him of the best parts of home)

Yes yes Oh my god your mind.....

In S1 when Steve says his parents are away because dad has business and his mom went with him because she doesn't trust him it's not that his dad's adulterous it's because his mom didn't trust his dad not to, like, go grave robbing without her, (such a romantic date in the moonlight and it would be a shame to do it all alone, she knows he can't resist it though...)and they knew Steve wasn't particularly About That and also don't want him around for date night, and they don't want to do Weird Shit (their normal) in Hawkins because they don't want to have a reputation that would harm their darling normie son, AND he needed to stay in school at least for sports.

They return and he's like so I fought a demon creature from another dimension and got my shit rock by Jonathan who is now my best friend... (Because I doubt an Addams cares about NDAs within the family) and his parents are delighted! A portal to a hell dimension! Steven! You'll have to invite us along next time, and bring that nice young woman who is even MORE normal than you-oh she pointed a gun at you? Magnificent she'll fit right in! But they notice he's even more wound up than before and his mother, sister to Gomez Addams (hence the Harrington name), goes to her brother and bemoans the development.

"a hell dimension! In our own backyard, Gomez! We should all be rejoicing on our luck! But poor Steven only seems stressed. Apparently a girl died in our pool and instead of inviting her to haunt us he just feels guilty. I don't know what to do... However, the nail studded bat--complete with blood splatter, it's marvelous, you really must see it--is a welcome addition to the decor in the main room that we may be able to relax the highly attuned 'normal' look and expand from the basement."

And the next year, Dustin gets Steve to look for Dart and he's like "wait it's a baby demogorgon? Oh man my cousins would be sooo jealous. It ate your cat? Ah. I see. Eating a family member is certainly frowned upon." And Dustin is like. Why aren't you mad that it's a demogorgon u weirdo. What the hell. And Steve realizes that maybe weird carnivorous pets is an Addams Thing. In his defense Dustin got one. He'll have to tell his mom that it tends to eat other pets and isn't advisable.

Afterwards everyone is so proud! Steve helped defend some children who seem very keen on arson, which an Addams can relate to, and he always wears a broken nose so well. It is unfortunate that that Nancy girl broke his heart, but all's fair in love and war, and an Addams can bounce back! And what a tale, to have a girlfriend run away with you best friend! Worthy of a revenge plot, hmm Steve? Oh? No? You just what to cuddle and watch sad movies? Well. Alright then.

Perhaps a summer job, at that new mall will help. That is what normal people do, right? And Steve is so keen on normality that his parents can't refuse. They go on vacation, the last week of June, and tell him to just consider poisoning some of the icecream. Just a little! A bit of botulism or ecoli is good for a community! Keeps everyone on their toes.

They cannot believe they missed it AGAIN! Horrible luck, missing all the fun in their hometown. But, Steve seems to be bouncing back, (and his mother and father were both relieved and disappointed that the Russians who dared torture their sweet little pastel son and his friend were blown up before they could get a taste of Addams retribution) he's got a dear friend he works with and is overly attached too (excellent! His parents are so happy he's got someone he's mildly Weird with) and he happily drives the little arsonists around. (Steve's parents don't really meet the kids but know about them, are pleased as punch they all seem like little Addams-Harringtons Steve's taken under his wing. After all, arson, pet monster adopting, car thieving, and spycraft are all delightful pastimes for today's Youth)

But spring break of '86 rolls around and they return to their son in hospital besides another boy, who was apparently accused of serial murder, and discover that the hell dimension is gone for good (and, really, how can the senior Harrington-Addams' have such terrible luck! Missing all the fun once again, and to be told it's all over forever, well. At least their Steve was involved.) They kiss his cheeks and ask if they can get him anything, if his little arsonists are alright. They chat, telling him how little cousin Wednesday is doing and that his uncle Gomez was so thrilled to hear about the flesh monster last year and sends his love.

Eddie is there watching and once they leave he's like Steve....what is going on with your parents. Steve just shrugs.

Slowly, he falls for Eddie, sweet as pie and funny, with just the right amount of...well, freakishness, to settle that place in Steve's heart that's all Addams. Once they get to the stage where Steve introduces him to his parents as his boyfriend, he isn't even nervous about Eddie fitting in. He knows he will even if they live Steve's silly little picket fence and six nugget dream.

Steve's father is delighted by the development. "A murderer in the family!" He yells, which Eddie must interpret as some form of outrage or disgust instead of the delight it is.

He waves his hands in front of him "I didn't actually do it! All charges dropped!"

Steve's father Pat's his back in a consolatory way, "yes, yes. What a shame that is. We can't win them all. But! The reputation persists! And that is what matters. Oh, Priscilla! Gomez and Morticia will be besides themselves with envy!"

Eddie, who wore his most provocative and "fuck society and the man" outfit, on Steve's request which he assumed was to piss of his parents but...really doesn't seem to be the case now... Is. Baffled.

Steve's mother adds "indeed! You'll fit in so well with the rest of the family, dear, no need to worry that you're only an accused murderer. At least without prison time you are free to go where you wish and reap the benefits of a dastardly reputation!"

"I can't believe you didn't introduce us to your boy earlier, Steven. Look at him! Addams-Harrington material already. He even fought in the hell dimension with you!"

"you know about that?"

"of course, what's an NDA to family? We've been trying to join in the fun since the beginning." Says Steve's mother. "We've had such dreadful timing, though. And I'm still terribly annoyed that I wasn't able to give those Russians a torture session of their own!"

Eddie is...well. He doesn't actually know what's going on other than Steve's parents seem to like him? So. A win? He's calling it a win.

[things-arent-what-they-seem66]

Yo! I've been thinking of an au I'd like to share! I hope it's up your alley cause I have no one else to tell it to, but I think you'll like it 🥺

It's adamsapple (obviously). The quick run down is that when Adam dies (either in the final battle of season one or when he dies on Earth and instead of going to heaven, he goes to hell (but i think I'm leaning towards the final battle death fitting much better)), he respawns as a succubus, but he doesn't look like the one from Helluva Boss (if you know the one I'm meaning), I'm thinking more feminine, like Verosika. But still a dude (with both parts down unda for smut reasons).

At first he was a bit weirded out but the longer he lives in hell the more into it he is (he was a whore in heaven so it's only right be becomes a whore in hell).

Maybe after a few years of doing his thing, partying, fucking, wearing the hornist clothes, rocking it out on stage, Lucifer eventually finds Adam (not sure how, I like to think he sees him around a couple of times but as much as this succubus looks like Adam, there's no way he'd respawn as something that's usually hellborn- but the resemblance is uncanny?!).

Adam sees Lucifer and the hotel gang around, but of course he tries to keep away, and not bring too much attention to himself (which, unsurprisingly, he finds that hard to do). I like to think that other than Lucifer, Adam runs into Angel Dust a lot, because Vals taken a liking to him (he doesn't sign a contract but maybe Val pays him to work in some of his clubs, whether that's poll dancing or serving customers).

Angel also has the same feeling as Lucifer. "Is that... Adam? There's no way..."

He mentions it to Charlie and Husk, Charlie doesn't think too much of it but obviously mentions it to Lucifer and Vaggie. I like to think Vaggie is ready to spear this succubus just in case it is him (or she just hates him that much that she would be semi hostile to anything or anyone that looks like him), Lucifer is getting more suspicious. "If Char's friends think that succubus looks like him then maybe I should investigate more".

I would love for Alastor to be quite involved in this au as well, he's still butt hurt that Adam landed a good hit on him, and made him retreat (putting a huge damper on his public image, especially with Vox filming the whole thing).

I'm not 100% sure how they confirm it's Adam, I'm thinking Lucifer hires Adam for a night or two, but Adam does such a good job keeping his cool (even tho he's panicking on the inside) that Lucifer starts doubing that it's him, so he comes up with a plan.

Maybe Lucifer brings up Eden as conversation, knowing that's its a real touchie subject for Adam, he says lies, brings up Liliths accusations she had against Adam that turned Angel!Lucifer against Eden!Adam (him being controlling, forcing himself on her, which is a complete lie that Lilith told (I'm all for evil!Lilith lol)).

Adam gets so mad at Lucifer for telling a totally fabricated story and just goes OFF. 10,000+ years of anger, betrayal, pstd, and depression just coming out. And even tho Adam realized halfway through into his rant that he's blown his cover, he just can't stop. He's too furious.

Lucifer: so it is you..

Adam: ...well fuck *proceeds to quickly grab his clothes and runs out*

Lucifer: You're not getting away from me bitch-! (Lucifer would catch up to him, start attacking him again like he did at the final fight, but he sees how terrified Adam is. Just shaking and crying, and actually begging for his life. Lucifer stops, he's never seen Adam beg, let alone cry, not since Eden (and that brings up feelings Lucifer buried long ago)).

I like to think that once it comes out to the hotel gang that it is Adam (Charlie would try and convince him to try redemption (mainly so he can get back to heaven and put a good word in for her hotel, maybe be the go between between Heaven and Hell)), but surprisingly to everyone, he doesn't want to go back, he can finally be himself, and he isn't hating his whole succubus look, even tho it's slightly feminine but he's fine with it.

This is when I think Alastor would try and get revenge, not sure what that could be yet.

Anyway, I think I've rambled WAY too much, u hope I haven't lost you 😅

I really hope this is something that piques your interest, I just love the idea of a more feminine whore Adam, plus I love the succubus designs in Helluva boss, the wings, horns and colour's are so gorgeous to me!

Thanks for coming to my tedtalk- I love your work by the way! It's such a joy to just scroll through your page and read everything you're doing 🥺

Okay- bye!

My good anon I am IN LOVE with this idea!! Especially since Adam didn't sell his soul to anyone, he's whoring around because he WANTS to not because he's forced to.

I love everything about this.

Lucifer would SO bring up Eden shit to out Adam and of course it would work. Adam is prideful like Lucifer is.

If you're on my page you know I like one-sided Angelicradio...... Just saying. And Alastor isn't attracted to Adam because he's good looking, though that doesn't hurt, he is enamored with the power Adam had as an angel.

He would want to get his revenge anyway possible. Take that as you will.

AWWWWWWW 🥺 💖 You're so sweet anon that makes me so happy to know people actually enjoy the silly little stories I put out. You made my day 🥰

[mommalosthermind]

So I'm slowly starting to come to understand that we shouldn't censor things but also I'm still a little uncomfortable with the site allowing things like pedophilia to be written in a way that's romanticized. I get it. Avoid it since I don't like it but at what point do we say, 'hmm this isn't okay.' I mean I get it, fiction doesn't hurt people but if that were truly the case then why are we lobbying for rep/realism/etc in media? Fiction, at some point, has to have some effect on real life.

Hello darling! I got your second ask too, please don’t worry, you’re definitely not coming across as unkind.

And you’re definitely not the only one to have similar thoughts or concerns.

But my answer’s going to be the same.

There is no such thing as a little censorship, and opening that particular can of pringles is not going to end happily for anyone. It’s better to not open it at all. And yes, that means people will create deeply fucked up things. But they should have the ability to do so, just like you should have the ability to avoid the hell out of it.

(Which, for AO3, is where I start in on my tag your shit appropriately/read the fucking tags!!! Rants. Learned the hard way a million years ago when I *thought* I was reading something very very different than I was, so when I got to ‘Character has sex with a dog’ I lost my mind, then realized I fucked up and hadn’t read the tags. If I had, I would have noped out of that fic immediately. So. That entire encounter was on me.)

“At what point is this not okay?” Well, that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Who would be in charge of deciding where the line goes? Who gets to decide what goes on which side of the line?

The last anon seemed to think writing was the same as doing, and thus writing shouldn’t be allowed at all.

And then got annoyed when I pointed out how often those unsavory themes happen in movies or TV without any warning at all, and generally, people move right past it.

Fiction doesn’t hurt people. People hurt people.

My favorite comparison is still my kitchen curtains, because my curtains are still weird: fairies, trees. Very witchy. I’ve seen people do literal double takes over my curtains. I can tell by the way they squint they can’t stand them or don’t understand why I would want something so *non-traditional* in such a public part of my house. They keep their damned mouths shut though, because they know its rude to tell me to change my curtains to fit their idea of a kitchen. (And also because I’d toss them out after laughing my ass off but that’s not relevant)

Person A has an idea of what ‘acceptable’ levels are, but that’s much much less than person B. Who wins? No one.

And no one should have the power to just decide things like that.

It’s stupid o’clock at night where I am, so I’m not about to go digging for studies, but I know we’ve got pretty solid proof that media doesn’t cause behaviors spontaneously. At the risk of sounding old, but this same argument once was applied to music, too. The weird compromise was slapping content warnings for language/sex/violence on CD’s. (Y’know. A significantly less useful form of tagging?) It didn’t… really do shit for anyone. Other than make those CD’s more attractive to teens, tbh. But. The argument at the time was rap and rock were violent and would make kids go insane and violent just by listening.

It… didn’t. It still doesn’t.

Reading dark fic isn’t going to cause someone to do something out of the blue.

Someone who’s debating doing the thing might seek out media about whatever their obsession is, yes. But their obsession was already there. Fic, music, movies, they’re not going to create it. I’d wager those girls who murdered their friend and blamed ‘slenderman’ had signs long before they went that far.

Part of the problem with this entire thought is that it’s thought policing. Folks assume the thought equals the sin. And as someone with pretty wonky intrusive thoughts and a long family history of mental issues— no. I have weird ass thoughts all the time. ‘Huh, I’m up high, I should jump, maybe I’ll float.’ I’m not gonna act on them. I know they’re weird thoughts. I’m not gonna float, I’d just die. Your brain just… says things sometimes. Some of us more than others. Therapy’s helpful for folks who struggle with that.

Fiction’s got nothing to do with it, though. Fiction just represents someone else working through their lives.

Melissa Etheridge wrote a song (scarecrow) about Matthew Sheppard’s murder. She didn’t cause anyone else to go torture another lonely gay boy to death. She was working through her grief at losing another one of us. And we worked through our grief when she sang.

Art is made for the making of it. Fiction—even the kind that squicks you— is still art.

As for the other part of your ask, the representation? I’m not sure I see the connection you’re trying to make. When people talk about rep, they’re talking about making the characters more authentic, more reflective of the beautiful range of humanity at large. Not seven brown haired white guys and one bitchy white woman and the unnamed not-white side character used for shit jokes. There should be a rainbow of humans in media, because little black girls deserve to know they’re strong and smart and beautiful. Because queer kids of all sizes and shapes deserve to know they’re loved. Because boys should get to be princesses. Because people with chronic illnesses, disabilities, they should get to be part of the stories. Because white folk need to see the rest of the world as human. Folks want to see themselves in the heroes, the happiness, the successes.

Too many kids never get to see themselves on the screen or read about people who look like them.

I loved belle as a kid because she looked like me and she loved reading. I loved Ariel because she wanted to be free. I cried over encanto because I know what it’s like to be excluded, what it’s like to be the big sister. I cried over reading red white and royal blue because the gays get to live and they’re happy. Everyone should have some way to connect.

The realism bit,though, I don’t think is the consumers as a whole. Yeah, some folks prefer it, but from what I’ve seen over the last 20 years, it’s more like the people who control most popular media have decided that’s what they wanna make. I don’t care for it, tbh. Media doesn’t need to be an exact copy of the real world.

Stories are meant as a place of solace, or at least a place that is different, than your day to day.

I like stories that have soft, happy ever afters. We’ve worked through the Big Bad Thing and come out stronger for it and now we get our well deserved rest. The real world doesn’t give me those things. Other people look at the state of the world, read seriously fucked up shit, and then go, well, at least my life isn’t that. It could be worse! And this is their happy place.

So. I’m not sure I’m much help here, but tl;dr: remember the tenets of fandom:

1) kinktomato: your kink is not my kink and that is okay. (You like this, I do not, I’m gonna leave it alone, the end.)

2) DLDR: Don’t like? Don’t read. Filtering and blocking are your besties.

3) ship and let ship (or sit down) — don’t press your dislike onto the people who do like. Let ‘em alone, go find what you do like.

4) tag appropriately, read the damn tags.

5) curate your own spaces. You alone are responsible for your online existence/experiences

6) have fun. Enjoy it. Be weird. Be silly. Be fucked up. Be unrepentantly yourself. Don’t let anyone else take that away from you.

[elisysd]

Epilogue

Masterlist - Previously

A year and a half later

“And the Oscar for best actress goes to… Lyanna Michel-Leclerc for Ferrari!”

It was almost 3 am in Monaco when Charles bursted out of joy in the big living room of the house. After all the stress, the promo, the pre-Oscars interviews, the fitting with her stylist, Lyanna’s Ferrari journey could not end on a better note. Charles knew she was going to get it. There was no other options. She got every single awards for her performance there was never a doubt in his mind that she would win the Oscar. beautiful in her navy dress, a hair fallen with grace on her back he watched her as she was standing up, hugging the rest of the cast and going up that stage to receive the trophy.

Beside Charles, in a crib, a small little nine months old baby with brown hair was fidgeting and slowly waking up.

“Hey princess. Look, it’s mommy on the TV.”

The little girl looked at his father with big hazel eyes and smiled at him making Charles’ heart melt some more. He took her in his arms carefully, not without lightly touching her face with his fingers and kissing her forehead. He was totally in love with his daughter, something that caused teasing from his family and Lyanna who always liked to joke around saying that she was not Charles’ favourite woman anymore. The little girl then looked to the screen that Charles was pointing at and gave a toothless grin when she recognised her mother.

“Yes, I know, mommy is beautiful.”

Lyanna could not believe it. Everyone was saying that she was going to get it, but a part of her refused to believe it. But there she was, in the centre of the stage, with cameras pointed at her and people being genuinely happy for her. She took the awards from Anne Hathaway’s hands and started to talk.

“Fuck… sorry! It’s just… wow. I don’t really know what I’m supposed to say, to be honest. Three years ago I was in this exact same room, I remember sitting right there, and seeing Florence Pugh get the Oscar I was also nominated for. Rightfully so, she is amazing I love her, she knows that. It might not seem like a long time ago to you but to me it seems like a lifetime ago. So many things have changed for me. First I want to thank every single person who worked on the movie with us, from the writers, to the sound designers, the cameramen to the cast of course and Michael, thank you. For giving me this opportunity, for believing in me, for everything that I’ve learned and keep learning. I want to thank my mom, how cliché I know, for making me the woman I am today. Moms rock and I know that because I recently became one and I want to dedicate this award to my baby girl. Last but not least, I want to thank my husband who is taking care of our baby at home and who, I know, is watching this. It’s an honour to share your life and I could not be more thankful to have you in mine. You’re the best husband and dad a woman could ask for. I love you. So much. And now I’m coming home because I missed you and I hate being away from you both.”

Two days later, she was back home to Charles attempting to feed their daughter dinner. He was trying to make weird faces to make her laugh and Lyanna, watching the scene from afar, could not help but laugh. She loved those moments, when it was just them three, living their family life. Finally Charles spotted her and left the plate aside to get to her.

“How is my amazing, beautiful, talented and Oscar-winning wife doing?” He asked kissing her deeply, his arms hanging loosely around her frame.

“Exhausted but happy to be home. And how is my perfect, patient, incredible double world champion of husband doing?” she asked him back.

“He is doing great and slowly transforming himself into a stay-at-home dad.”

“And how is Julia? I missed her so much.”

She left Charles side to go the see her daughter who was extending her little arms so Lyanna could carry her.

“Yes, baby, mommy is back and she is not leaving you before a very, very long time.”

Charles went to them with a smile on his face. That’s what perfect family life looked like to him. He put one hand one Lyanna’s waist and the other on Julia’s back before kissing both of their heads.

“My two girls. My two loves. I’m going to miss this so much. For the first time I don’t want to go back to racing.”

“Because you thought that you were leaving without us?”

“I thought you said that Julia was too young to come on the tracks.”

“I bought everything that she would need to be safe both on the plane and on tracks and asked to her doctor if she could. No objections from his side. What did you think, Leclerc? Wherever you go, we go.”

“Whatever you said, Leclerc.” he nodded.

Yes, their life was perfect and he would not trade it for anything else in the world.

=======

author's note: 284 pages, 124 602 words later, I can officially said that this story is over. What a ride my friends, what a ride. I want to thank every single one of you who, at some point during this story, left a like, a reblog, or a comment. This story exists because of you who helped me find the motivation to write. From the bottom of my heart I could not be more grateful for that. For the last time, what would make me so happy would be to read what your favorite moment of the story is? The moment that made you laugh, cry, scream in anger? Whatever. But for now, Charles and Lyanna's story is over... or at least almost since 10 bonus chapter will come to you soon. They deserver a proper goodbye before they move on with their lives. But stay tuned, a new story is under way and maybe they will make an apparition 👀

taglist: @zendayabelova @purplephantomwolf @ru-kru @dakotali @blueflorals @aundercover @ruleroftheuniverse @fangirlika @writerscurse @elijahmikaelsonbitch @leclerc13 @karmabyfernando @stargaryenx @pitlanebabe @boiohboii @reengard @shikshinkwon

[atopvisenyashill]

i think the young dragon is even more of a dumb ass than aegon the uncrowned bc he doesn’t just make dumb shit mistakes that get him and his allies needlessly killed, he makes THE EXACT SAME MISTAKE that aegon the conqueror made re: dorne and the most stupid and frustrating thing is that aegon doesn’t make this mistake ANYWHERE ELSE.

After the field of fire, does aegon put a storm lord in casterly rock or does he allow loren the last continued rule over the westerlands? when he wipes out the gardener line, does he set up a reacher loyal only to him in highgarden or does he put a stranger there to rule over a people they don’t know and don’t understand? when he takes the riverlands, does he kill indiscriminately for years or does he figure out who the riverlanders hate, get that dude unseated, then find a neutral and respected riverlander to be the new lord paramount? in the stormlands, does orys make an attempt at peace by marrying argella, the last of the durrandan line, or does he just set up shop there and expect everyone to immediately accept his rule??

AND YET. not only is rhaenys like completely useless in dorne (while Visenya meanwhile wins several people over by figuring out what they want - appealing to Sharra through Ronnel & the threat that she can take the Eyrie on dragonback while not actually touching the place, or making sure the people of Cracklaw Point know she’s perfectly willing to give them exactly what they want so long as they don’t fight, for example!!), Rhaenys also kicks off the first dornish war of conquest by burning plankytown, the last stronghold of the rhoynar. Then, to rub dirt in the wound, instead of sticking around to figure out why half the population of dorne disappeared, he leaves a rosby and a TYRELL, the current ruling lord of dorne’s NUMBER ONE OPPS in charge and then fucks off.

so it’s like, well YEAH, first of all, of COURSE they looked at all that fire and blood nonsense and went “these dragon riding mfers followed us across the goddamn globe just to finish the job valyria failed at” bc even IF rhaenys didn’t realize the cultural or historical context of what a dragon rider burning plankytown looks like, it sure looks pretty fucking suspicious from where the dornish are standing. but secondly, aegon doesn’t think through how weird the movement in dorne is, doesn’t think through that it’s gonna piss dorne the fuck off if he leaves a reacherman in charge, he just leaves his people there and gets them killed, then throws a hissy fit for several years that is so violent, he basically ensures the ONLY way to get dorne to submit is to completely and utterly destroy the people of dorne.

THEN DAERON DOES THE EXACT SAME SHIT. he invades unprompted without offering anything - like say, a marriage match with one of his sisters - and doesn’t think twice about the way he’s purposefully and violently agitating the local population, leaves ANOTHER FUCKING TYRELL IN CHARGE without establishing ANY sort of community or common cause with ANY of the dornish lords, then after his group is completely unseated from sunspear, stupidly goes to meet with them thinking he’s got them on the ropes with no fucking proof of that, and gets his dumb ass killed.

like. absolutely no fucking brains in this dude’s head. no wonder jon is such a shitty lord commander if this is his idol akskdk

[oh-hell-help-me]

OKAY! I admit that YouTube has been addicting with the plethora of reptile videos!

It started with research for certain details of cute reptile facts (you know why). I came upon the concept of weird reptile pets and then ended up 'aw'ing over an Emotional Support Alligator an old man has bonded with him in Cheetos and chicken legs. It's so wholesome!

And then I was searching the depths of the chocolate and alligator debate.

Like, there is a long-standing argument of whether or not alligators can consume chocolate safely, and the debate is topsy turvy with cases of other alligators/crocodiles who have lived off chocolate-containing foods and SURVIVED, but that tells me nothing about immediate or long-term effects!

Like, I know they literally can eat anything from how I've seen some go after car tires (don't ask), but this whole thing has been setting off my brain for possibilities in how this applies to Bowser (and Koopas in general).

They're reptile-ish turtle-dragon-things that seem to have some gator-croc features. SO-

Let's talk about dietary restrictions, and how that can translate to the split of palates between Bowser and Luigi!

Canonically, Bowser is omnivorous, with the same tastes as humans if the cookies, meat, and other various foodstuffs seen in-game and official art are to be believed.

But otherwise? There isn't any info that would dispute the need to eat rocks like a chicken to grind food in a special organ (for Bowser to have an excuse for why he eats otherwise questionable objects in "Bowser's Inside Story"). I would LOVE to see Luigi be utterly flummoxed by the sight of Bowser taking bites out of boulders or casually shoveling in gravel!

There isn't a direct dispute for Bowser to not also include insects to that diet, like a lot of small lizards do! People also eat insects (usually crickets, spiders, and the rare scorpions), but I assume that either Luigi would be too squeamish to watch any Koopa eat it, or maybe make the effort to accept it (like, using Cricket Flour for baking)!

There is no fact that goes against Bowser actually liking raw/scrambled eggs instead of fried eggs, which he explicitly states to hate in "Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door"! Heck, it could be like Movie!Mario's thing with mushrooms, but in a way where Luigi will thoughtfully accommodate him for family-cooked meals!

Anyone could also fit in some restrictions for Luigi! Like, for sickfic/angst reasons, maybe an allergy that shows up when he does his best to eat 'normally' at first but has it backfire (as things do for him)! And Bowser could encourage him (yell at him with love) to ask for alternative food because gosh dang it Luigi you are now bedridden-!

Anyone could also give the Koopa's a high metabolism, so calorie-packed meals are the norm and the constant craving of a lot of food can add to some kitchen bonding with high-calorie meals! And the fact that some Italian dishes (i.e. not all) are considered calorie dense can be a thing to add to the roster of meals that don't overload the Koopa palette!

Just- a lot of things to do with food! In a fluffy way!

[freezingmcxn]

Have u got any tips for making ur own creepypasta character/ oc type thing?

TIPS FOR MAKING CREEPYPASTA OCS/STORIES

These are just things I do/have done, not a professional writer or anything !! just someone who likes writing a lot :) Also just for the sake of it, these are biased to what I like in a character, so it’s totally fine to not agree!

⠀⠀⠀･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･

Don’t be afraid to stray from those “common” creepypasta tropes: tragic backstory, misunderstood characters, sad emo, do not touch tail, you get it….

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New takes will always attract readers (like me) who are tired of seeing the same storylines over and over..it gets so boring.

Experimenting with new ideas or tropes can make your story stand out. Like, maybe your OC isn’t a victim of trauma at all, or maybe their motivations are more complex than just revenge/killing.

If you’re sticking to one of the common story lines one thing to keep in mind is not to drag out your character’s story.

If it goes on for too long, it becomes repetitive and boring, something that happened with a lot of older creepypastas, which is why nobody reads them anymore, unfortunately.

⠀⠀⠀･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･

If you introduce magical or paranormal elements to your characters story or world, it’s good to make some rules and limitations, and stick to them consistently throughout your story.

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For example, if you want a realistic OC but you want some paranormal touches, in my AU, I have “Portals” that characters use for transportation.

I blended them into the environment I’ve set up, there are no flashy effects or sparkles like in a cartoon, they’re barely noticeable and I don’t mention them often to keep them feeling mysterious, they’re designed to fit the tone and genre of the world I’ve created.

By keeping stuff subtle and fitting to the setting, they feel more natural and believable within the story’s context, if that makes sense (?).

If you want it to be unrealistic and crazy: ROCK ON!! GO FOR IT!!

⠀⠀⠀･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･

There’s such a weird debate about “overpowered” OCs, but in my opinion, it’s not an issue if done right.

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Even if your character has supernatural abilities or powers, what makes them engaging is how they use these abilities.

They can be incredibly strong for sure, but what are their vulnerabilities, flaws, and limits? These are what will keep them relatable and grounded.

For example, a character might have immense magical powers, but if they struggle with personal relationships or moral dilemmas, that adds depth and makes the reader see them as a character worth getting emotionally invested with.

⠀⠀⠀･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･

A character might be deeply affected by their trauma, but it’s interesting to make them grow or change throughout the story.

⠀⠀⠀･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･

If they’re stuck in a constant state of depression or anger without evolving, the story can quickly become like every other 2016 creepypasta OC.

Show how they cope (or fail to cope) over time and the results of everything that happened to them.

Leaving room for reader interpretation is always a plus in my eyes.

To me it’s always fun to see what you guys think of my OCs/characters. This helps see what your character has that is sticking out and some new ideas could pop into your head too.

⠀⠀⠀･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･

A lot of creepypasta stories begin by trying to make readers instantly feel bad for the character, usually by dumping a tragic backstory or trauma.

⠀⠀⠀･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･

This can work, trauma is what makes an OC basically ..but it often leads readers to downplay or justify the character’s later violent actions, it’s not as interesting and reduces the shock factor.

To avoid this kinda thing, focus on gradually revealing the reasons behind their behavior rather than dumping all the backstory upfront.

Using the characters actions and interactions with other characters to reveal their past/emotions is very easy to do and it effective to get your OCS lore across without sharing information randomly throughout a good story.

By sharing randomly/dumping, I mean:

“They were in a car crash, their whole family died in the car crash, they have PTSD now.”

You see what I mean? It just sounds.. ehh.

⠀⠀･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･

Thanks for reading hope this helped you!

[sixsamefacez]

BAND AU MATSUNO HCs‼️‼️‼️

honestly they're very new so i don't have like. a Ton of ideas yet and kinda make shit up as i go but ido have a few hcs buzzing around

namely that this is (personally) the only version of osomatsu i could see being bisexual HDSHRGIUREHGIU and it suuperrr plays into like. how opehn the sibs are about their identities. and ruby doesn't try to act like an asshole, he's actually a pretty responsible leader and a brother figure they all look up to. their dynamics are quite the same as they were when the matsunos were kids

if anything i'd say they started out being at each others throats and NEVER getting along… until one day they lemonade mouth'd on accident. and ever since. they're super close. It's literally reversing the dynamics between San and Kun.

this means that… oso and choro are a close duo, ichi and jyushi are still a close duo, and totty and kara are a close duo.

Due to the fact that they are not sextuplets, they do not have as terrible of identity issues and I think it's the only reason they're really better off / have their shit together and are so like, confident in their identities. If they were sextuplets it would have been just like canon. This is why I have separated them into twins. The birth order is still the same.

ages are;

oso+kara = 24

choro + ichi = 22

jyushi + todo = 20

also they did actually used to be called their original names but they legally changed them to gem names for the band and other reasons i'll get into later.

the idea for everyone having gem names comes from the fact that choros name is changed to jade in this au, and while he's the ONLY one with a gem name I didn't care for the canon names just being… Oso, kara, jade, itchy, juicy, todo. It's boring. I like whatever choro had going on

So.. their new legal first names goes as so:

osomatsu -> ruby

karamatsu -> lapis

choromatsu -> jade

ichimatsu -> agate

jyushimatsu -> topaz

todomatsu -> spinel

Their last name is Hoshino instead of matsuno; I do think they call their band !!!MATSUNO!!! though. I see a bunch of people call it fujio rock but that's not actually their band name as far as I can tell -- that's the name of the overall au / it's parodying real world festival Fuji rock.

Each of the Hoshinos have similar hair; they're actually defined by sharing similar hair dye jobs with who their closest to. This is based off of how it is in Canon too.

Ruby and Jade have half their hair dyed, agate and topaz have nearly fully dyed heads of hair with natural hair streaks, and lapis and spinel only have a few color streaks framing both sides of their faces.

Their music is largely scene, but they dabble in ska, and pop punk because they can have some very poppy aesthetics in some sets…. and also look like they'd play ska in the summerfes fit. also, whatever songs SNOWMAN makes, since that features all their live action actors.

Lastly, ruby models his hair after billy joe cobra because it's my blorbo and I get to make the weird crossover happen

[virune]

Yeah I could totally see that being on character tbh for Scourge. Especially with the jacket bit.

Also want to follow up on that question, we all know Sonic has the best soundtracks and geez, a wide variety of instrumentals. If he was in the games, what soundtracks would have the most fitting instrumentals / style of music for him? (Rush, Advance, CD, Adventure, SATBK, other ost you can think of? )

Say Sonic Adventure 2 for example, would he simply have his own version of “It Doesn’t Matter” constantly trying to one up Sonic or lean to another lyrical perspective about him entirely, the way it does to Shadow in his own stages?

as a disclaimer, i'm not super knowledgeable on music composition although i do love music, particularly videogame music, and the different themes/emotions they convey.

off the top of my head, i think scourge could have music that sounds similar to sonic's own tracks - as in, they use the same melodies here and there - but all the instruments are a weird blend of classical and (punk?) rock.

and i think this would work because it symbolises scourge's royal background (classical music, associated with wealth and finery he may have grown up with) and his repeated attempts to sever himself from it and become his own person (rock music, which is known for going against the grain and representing rebellion).

the hybridisation of these different genres might be jagged and unharmonious in some parts, as though it's painful, to represent scourge's inner struggles with his own identity. but as the "game" goes on and he gets more comfortable with himself and who he wants to be, which may involve accepting his past rather than trying to amputate it, his music becomes more harmonious and confident as a result.

i don't have any examples to show what i mean, but hopefully it makes sense!!