#sorry for just giving you one

[bookshelfdreams]

📒

I say this flattered and with nothing but affection but I have never had that many ideas in my life 😅🙈

But okay. You'll get the one that is more than just a vague concept, in that I have actually written some words for it (even though it'll never be finished). Contains: Ghosts and blackbonnet. Also cw for mention of suicide.

So imagine this: Ed is a world-famous author of horror novels. He's a gothic icon, got famous as more of a storyteller (he used to do live events that were half readings, half theatre performances; used to pull all sorts of tricks to make it seem like the venue was actually haunted. To this day, people who are into parascience cite his shows as evidence that ghosts are real). But lately - well, he's not been feeling it. His readings are boring now; he still does them sometimes, big live events, but he's no longer allowed to genuinely scare the shit out of his audiences. And he hasn't done one in years anyway. He sold movie rights a couple of times, and what Hollywood produced made his skin crawl but not in the fun way.

His manager is always on his ass about doing shows, doing more pr (Izzy keeps scheduling interviews for him where he just knows he'll be asked idiotic questions about his "heritage", and "There sure are a lot of queer characters in you novels, Mr Teach", and honestly just thinking about those makes him want to hang himself in front of Izzy. A little.), about how his writing needs to be "more mass compatible". All Ed wants to do is write weird, avantgarde, creepy bullshit. But he can't even do that because he's been having writer's block for months.

Sometimes it feels like he never knew how to write at all.

And then there's footsteps in his attic.

Ed spent the last few hours laying on his couch, staring at the TV; he'd turned the sound off at a commercial block and didn't bother to turn it back on.

Which is how he's able to hear the steps, slow, deliberate, heavy, like the world's most inconsiderate upstairs neighbours is testing their new wooden clogs at 11:30 at night.

Problem: Ed lives alone in his house, the attic is his workspace and there's no one in there.

This one incident could have been chalked up to Ed being mostly asleep, but things keep happening. His half-full glass of really nice brandy spilled with no one in the room. The laces of his boots tied together for some reason. Cabinets left open when he knows he closed them. Etc. Honestly not the most imaginative stuff.

And then there's the dreams.

Ed keeps having vivid, detailed dreams. In them he's in a body that's not his and that he has never seen, and keeps living out scenarios from a life entirely foreign to him, but everything feels so real. It gets to a point where his waking hours sometimes feel like they're the dreams.

In short: Ed is definitely being haunted. By ghost!Stede, of course.

Now Stede, in this scenario, owns a used bookstore. Or well, it's more of an antiquity store that has some books too. Or, if we're being completely honest: Mary threatened divorce if Stede kept cluttering up their house with his "collections", and this is becoming a serious problem, Stede, and where do you even find all this stuff? What on earth makes you think a fucking - chicken skeleton is appropriate kitchen decor?? (It's a pheasant, actually, and it's from 1875!)

Long story short, it got a bit heated (Mary did most of the shouting, and also the word hoarder was used which Stede thinks, is entirely unfair), and Stede agreed to put things into storage.

Mary divorced him anyway.

Which, all things considered, was probably for the best.

And now that he had all his books and little oddities inventoried and neatly packed away, it occurred to him that it really was a shame to keep all this fascinating stuff in a storage unit to collect dust. Wouldn't it be fun to be a shop owner? That way there'd be some turnover and he could keep collecting stuff without it ever running out of space!

He ended up renting out a little store in the old town, called it "Revenge: Books and Antiquities" even though it's more his own personal Wunderkammer. And also, he doesn't know the forst thing about running a store, but that's what employees are for, right? Haha.

(a/n: if I were the kind of person who makes pinterest boards there would be so many for Stede's shop. I see it before me and it's the coolest.)

But the Something Happens. I'm not sure what - a robbery gone wrong. An accident. The horrible part of me says, botched suicide. And Stede ends up in a coma.

So that's the setup. Half is Ed trying to answer questions like: a) Are ghosts real? b) If yes, how do I get him to stop haunting my ass c) Or maybe, I should find out who the ghost is. The ghost never leaves me, always has my back. I can rely on the ghost. This relationship is getting intimate. The ghost has seen me cry. I can tell the ghost things I have never told to anyone, and trust that I won't be judged or that my secrets will be held against me. Maybe the ghost is the best friend I ever had. d) Is the ghost single?

While Stede is trapped in an inbetween-state, not quite alive, not yet dead, slowly forgetting everything: his parents voices, his children's faces. Forgetting what it was like to be alive, to have a body, to move through the world a physical entity. The longer he stays like this, the less he becomes, and maybe that's better, maybe if he waits long enough he can just disappear.

Maybe if he forgets he ever was a person at all, that won't be so bad.

But there's Ed, who speaks to him like he is real, and Stede isn't sure anyone ever has, not even when he was fully alive.

So. It's all very aesthetic, very vibes-based, with little actual substance and I'm probably never gonna write it but I like thinking about it :)

[bakedbeanchan]

random fire nation diplomat #492 will never understand the complex and fucked up relationship between the water siblings like I do 🙄

[mokeonn]

"But if college was free, then people would abuse that and get useless degrees" hell yeah I would! If I could go to college without debt I would make it my job to get a degree in every little thing that interested me. I'd get a doctorate in film studies. I'd have a bachelor's degree for every science I like. I'd try to learn at least 5 languages with varying results. I would learn something "useful" like coding and then follow it up with a ""useless"" degree like art history. I'd be the world record speed run holder for getting every degree possible.

But I can't afford college without going into massive debt, so instead I spent the last 5 years trying to figure out what I am passionate enough about to consider going into debt over, because unfortunately being passionate about everything is extremely expensive to pursue.

[backpackingspace]

My actual favorite part of wisdom saga is telemachus trying to lean against Athena (he thought about that for .03 seconds and then was like nah !!! :D she's my friend not the goddess of war!!! Good to see that the audacity is running strong in odysseus's family) and then just passed threw her and fell on the floor. And then Athena did not move at all!!! And just stood there looking at him.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The indescribable tension between an overworked and underpaid smut writer, and his biggest fan hater.

(for @frummpets)

[batbabydamian]

Jorge Jimenez C2E2 2024 Commission!

[courfee]

17 December 1975 / 15 May 1976

[aesthetic-uni]

Miles “Who’s Morales” vs Gwen “Gwwwwanda” vs Pavtir “You seem like a nice young woman I do not know” FIGHT

[remxedmoon]

i hit 1k followers recently!!!! yipee!!!!!!! thank you all!!! so in celebration here’s all of my completed isat doodle pages, from oldest to newest. go nuts with them!! and maybe don’t look at the first doodle page too closely. it’s Old.

(no greyscale version below for once! just some mushy ramblings. you don’t have to read them don’t worry)

hhhhhha?? so many people. where did you come from. how did you all find me.

ok but seriously, thank you all so much for all the support. i never really. expected to make it this far? like, ever?? i’ve mentioned it a few times on here, but i’ve been a lurker for the past… 2 years, i think? and even before that, i never gained much traction outside of a couple posts. so this has been. very new to me!! in a nice way!! it’s weird to feel like an actual member of a community!! that people know about!

the idea of finally coming back to social media was Daunting (i literally got stress hives writing my first post lol) and the warm reception really. meant a lot?? i don’t think i would’ve ever gotten the courage to come back if i hadn’t been encouraged to by the people over at the isat discord!!

the fact that people actually care about my art still doesn’t feel real?? seeing people take inspiration from my art is just. surreal. just. auagssh. thank you all so so much for everything, i really do appreciate it!!! i’m really glad to be in this community. sorry if this all sounds sappy and long winded i’ve just got a lot of emotions about this whole thing!!

(also as a bonus for reading all this or whatever. here’s a concept page for isatscryption! it felt a little out of place next to my normal canvases so i’m putting it down here! yipee! sorry my notes here are so disjointed auauau…)

[girlwiththegreenhat]

team fortress 2 finally getting rid of the bots after 5 years

work on the team fortress 2 comic continuing after 7+ years

half life 3 development looking more likely than ever with legitimate code, file, and voicework leaks referencing a new non-VR single-player game from valve featuring a HEV suit wearing protagonist and Xen creatures and concepts

shoutout to the valve fan that found the genie lamp. you a real one

[christadeguchi]

you think YOU had a bad day at work?

bonus: sid shrieking "no!!!! NO!!!!!" loud enough to be heard in the stands and on camera

[heartorbit]

bugs when you lift up a rock

[dailyrebranded]

The baddest in the room

[lazylittledragon]

ok i swear i'm not going to talk about my breakup forever but the thing that just keeps bothering me:

i know that not getting what you need in a relationship is a COMPLETELY valid reason to end it but also. i feel like having a very vulnerable moment where i opened up about my struggles with intimacy and being relieved that i didn't have to keep doing things i wasn't comfortable with, then being dumped a YEAR later because of my lack of intimacy. is something i should be allowed to be very hurt by???

[moonilit]

Doodles and Tifa 🤍

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

You made her cry, time to die.

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