#thread: wolf and spider

[zap2zeitgeist]

[C O N T I N U E DF R O M: Reposted From]

Virgil was a nerd, has been since as long as he could remember and like most nerds, Virgil had gargantuan amounts of anxiety when it came to those that he had feelings for, being Bisexual in Chicago meant that anxiety sky-rocketed from it’s post of the nerdy stratosphere. Whether fortunate or not, Virgil also had a tendency to talk more when he got nervous. And boy was Virgil nervous right now and it showed. It showed his whole hand and his feelings right now. Virgil was devastated, embarrassed. Wishing he could find a hole to just crawl into. His host didn’t seem to mind, although Virgil was certain that Jamie wasn’t interested and his heart sank a little. Well that was until Jamie smiled and Virgil melted. I Guess we’ll see where th’ night takes us indeed. Virgil keep some hope and at the very least he had grained a new friend who happens to be a fan of cinema, and a potentially new ally to help Virgil be Static, t’ boot. So all is not lost even if Jamie is  not in fact interested in Virgil.

“Mhmmm” Virgil hummed in amused agreement with Jamie’s assessment of them seeing where the night goes.

“Hell yeah! Expansive. Sounds like this’ll be a blast and a lot better night than I had planned.” Virgil chuckled. When Jamie asked him to help out Virgil’s eyes lit up and he sprang into action.

“Yeah! Sure thing, man!” Virgil slide past Jamie and into the kitchen. Then trying to move again but without the traction Virgil began sliding in place until he put is hand out and snapped, causing a small spark of electricity to pop and send him sliding toward the fridge, where Virgil grabbed the fridges and slide safely to a stop. Virgil chuckled to himself, as he had fun, the quibbles still in his stomach from sliding across the floor. Popping open the fridge, Virgil makes a face at the choices, he grabs a few more of what they had been having. They weren’t bad but they weren’t what Virgil was used to drinking but he’d never let Jamie know any of that. Virgil closed the fridge and headed back to Jamie and the coffee table, walking this time, sans sliding. Virgil puts the beers on the coffee table, two in front of Jamie and two where he was about to sit on the couch, giving Jamie some space, if he were to sit on the couch, with plenty of elbow room, but also not so far that if Jamie wanted to sit closer…

@vintertsarn [Jamie Barnes]

[sinligh]

You seek approval,

my subconscious implemented in my dreams. you build up illusions of yourself

and like a bridge thread of a spider web you give them to others

silky, sticky yet somehow,

you’re smooth enough to lure them to wrap you in all that you desire,

even if it’s their own pleasure.

you’re not stuck you’re waiting, for an ending or a beginning

an unsolicited death, an indefinite life

you fear your own madness but the edge of it is what you live for.

you wait, and wait and wait for love to visit the fragile home you made for yourself in this temporary world

but it’s not what you want, is it ?

because the moment it knocks on your door you rush to the arms of another,

paranoia or melancholy? It doesn’t matter.

you writhe and hiss until you shed a skin of a past life that you held on

For acceptance alone, if nothing else…

what is it that you truly desire?

•••

• Quotes: Susan Sontag/ Edgar Allan Poe/ Emily Dickinson/ Halsey/ Sylvia Plath/ Christa Wolf.

• Original context: Sinligh

• Art reference:

1. Art by Edward Burne-Jones. 2. Art from Sedmikrasky (Daisies). 3. Dave McKean, "Sandman" graphic novel. 4. Art by Roberto Ferri. 5. Painting by William Oxer. 6. Craww's "Woven".

[blondephil]

hello (one of the) resident phannie data analyst(s) here with some parasocial stats on dnp’s movie tastes! following: distribution of dan and phil's ratings overall, movies they each rated 5 stars, their lowest-rated movies, and the similarities + differences in their tastes

(lore moment: yes i am a data analyst in my real job. yes i surprised myself with wanting to do this in my spare time. but then i remembered when we read dracula in college (yes i was an english major) and i graphed like, how many times dracula was referred to as vampire versus monster or something. so i shouldn’t be surprised.

first up, their overall rating patterns and by ~special status~ (i.e., wall-e, kill bill, avatar, lmao, plus big hero 6 for the fun of it)

dan’s rated 304 movies and phil’s rated 305. both of them have mean and median ratings of 4 with min 1 and max 5.

both rated kill bill vols. 1 and 2 a 5. wall-e got a 4.5 from dan and a 4 from phil (phake phans). both gave avatar a 3.5. and big hero 6 3.5 (dan) and 4.5 (phil)

rating distribution:

i did analyses here by genre but i need to fix the output (i’m writing all of these based on the markdown document from my phone on the subway, but i need to fix the outputs and i don’t have my computer. so those are pending but there are other genre analyses that i could do & haven’t yet!)

while i was sorting through the data i got the impression that dan overall rated movies higher than phil. so, among movies that they've both rated, here's some information

number of movies dan rated higher than phil: 65

Empire Strikes Back, Blade Runner, Return of the Jedi, My Neighbor Totoro, Back to the Future II, Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story, Phantom Mence, Donnie Darko, Attack of the Clones, Finding Nemo, Oldboy, The Notebook, Batman Begins, Brokeback Mountain, WALL-E, (500) Days of Summer, Up, The Hangover, Drive, The Cabin in the Woods, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Life of Pi, Skyfall, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Whiplash, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Room, The Hateful Eight, The Force Awakens, Manchester by the Sea, Deadpool, La La Land, Moonlight, Rogue One, Call Me By Your Name, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2., Wonder Woman, Spider-Man: Homecoming, I, Tonya, Thor: Ragnorak, Phantom Thread, Roma, The Favourite, The Lighthouse, Toy Story 4, Midsommar, Ad Astra, Knives Out, Soul, The Green Knight, No Time to Die, Don't Look Up, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Turning Red, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, Glass Onion, Beau is Afraid, Barbie, Oppenheimer, Poor Things

number of movies phil rated higher than dan: 55

Star Wars (New Hope), Blair Witch Project, Requiem for a Dream, Memento, Ocean's Eleven, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Moonrise Kingdom, Iron Man 3, Gravity, Prisoners, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Imitation Game, Nightcrawler, John Wick, Gone Girl, Big Hero 6, Jurassic World, The Martian, The Revenant, Nocturnal Animals, Split, Get Out, Baby Driver, The Disaster Artist, Dunkirk, The Shape of Water, The Greatest Showman, The Last Jedi, Ready Player One, Crazy Rich Asians, A Star is Born, Rocketman, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Joker, The Rise of Skywalker, The Invisible Man, A Quiet Place Part II, Greenland, Tenet, Malignant, Eternals, The Matrix Resurrections, Scream (2022), Nope, Prey, Talk to Me, Avatar: The Way of the Water, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

number of movies they rated the same: 99!

Alien, ET, Gremlins, Back to the Future, Top Gun, Aliens, Home Alone, Silence of the Lambs, Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, The Lion King, Se7en, Scream, The Fifth Element, Titanic, The Truman Show, The Matrix, Magnolia, Spirited Away, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Spider-Man, Lost in Translation, Kill Bill, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Mean Girls, Howl's Moving Castle, Children of Men, The Dark Knight, Pontypool, Inglourious Basterds, Avatar, Toy Story 3, Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Black Swan, The Social Network, 21 Jump Street, The Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook, The Conjuring, Snowpiercer, Her, Thor: The Dark World, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Boyhood, It Follows, Guardians of the Galaxy, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Interstellar, Ex Machina, The Witch, Avengers: The Age of Ultron, Mad Max: Fury Road, Inside Out, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Your Name., Arrival, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, mother!, It, Blade Runner 2049, Hereditary, Black Panther, Annihilation, A Quiet Place, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, Us, Avengers: Endgame, Parasite, It Chapter Two, Marriage Story, Uncut Gems, 1917, Black Widow, The Suicide Squad, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Dune, Last Night in Soho, The Batman (2022), Everything Everywhere All at Once, X, The Northman, Top Gun: Maverick, Bullet Train, Barbarian, Pearl, M3GAN, Dungeons and Dragongs: Honor Among Thieves, Evil Dead Rise, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3., No Hard Feelings, Saltburn, Priscilla, Society of the Snow, Saw X, Leave the World Behind

i didn't analyse this by genre or anything, but i could -- so if you're interested lmk!

the 5 movies with the most different ratings between dan and phil

- Iron Man 2 (dan: 2, phil 3.5)

- The Greatest Showman (d: 2.5, p: 4)

- Malignant (d: 3, p: 4.5)

- Scream (2022) (d: 2.5, p: 4)

- Beau is Afraid (d: 3, p: 1.5)

Interesting that even though dan has more higher rated movies, 4/5 of these ones phil rated higher.

next, their 5-star movies

dan's five stars: 80

Alien, Empire Strikes Back, ET, Blade Runner, Gremlins, Back to the Future, Top Gun, Aliens, Stand by Me, The Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbor Totoro, Back to the Future II, Home Alone, Silence of the Lambs, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Jurassic Park, Nightmare Before Christmas, Schindler's List, Pulp Fiction, The Lion King, Toy Story, Fargo, Scream, The Fifth Element, Hercules, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Titanic, The Truman Show, The Matrix, Fight Club, Magnolia, The Emperor's New Groove, Donnie Darko, Moulin Rouge, Shrek, Spirited Away, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Finding Nemo, Kill Bill, Oldboy, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Shaun of the Dead, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Howl's Moving Castle, Revenge of the Sith, Brokeback Mountain, No Country for Old Men, The Dark Knight, Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Tree of Life, 21 Jump Street, The Avengers, Life of Pi, Skyfall, Under the Skin, Whiplash, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Interstellar, Mad Max: Fury Road, Sicario, The Hateful Eight, La La Land, Arrival, mother!, Blade Runner 2049, Avengers: Infinity War, First Man, The Favourite, The Lighthouse, Parasite, Midsommar, Uncut Gems, 1917, Dune, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Top Gun: Maverick, Oppenheimer, Poor Things

phil's five stars:

Star Wars (New Hope), Alien, ET, Gremlins, Back to the Future, Top Gun, Aliens, Home Alone, Silence of the Lambs, Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, The Lion King, Scream, The Fifth Element, Titanic, The Truman Show, The Matrix, Magnolia, Requiem for a Dream, Memento, Spirited Away, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Kill Bill, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Howl's Moving Castle, The Dark Knight, Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 21 Jump Street, Interstellar, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Arrival, Dunkirk, mother!, Blade Runner 2049, Avengers: Infinity War, Parasite, Uncut Gems, 1917, Dune, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Top Gun: Maverick, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Shawshank Redemption, Gladiator, Little Miss Sunshine

overlap: 39

Alien, ET, Gremlins, Back to the Future, Top Gun, Aliens, Home Alone, Silence of the Lambs, Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, The Lion King, Scream, The Fifth Element, Titanic, The Truman Show, The Matrix, Magnolia, Spirited Away, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Kill Bill, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Howl's Moving Castle, The Dark Knight, Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, 21 Jump Street, Interstellar, Mad Max: Fury Road, Arrival, mother!, Blade Runner 2049, Avengers: Infinity War, Parasite, Uncut Gems, 1917, Dune, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Top Gun: Maverick

& their lowest rated movies...

dan: matrix resurrections (1) , thor: the dark world (1.5), the rise of skywalker (1.5)

phil: crimes of the future (1), attack of the clones (1.5), thor: the dark world (1.5), don’t look up (1.5), the matrix resurrections (1.5), doctor strange in the multiverse of madness (1.5), beau is afraid (1.5), black bear (1.5)

not even chris hemsworth could save thor the dark world, i guess (kat dennings, though…)

movies they logged on the same date:

note that this is like, non-exhaustive, because this is only based on their diaries that list the date. i think in reality they've watched most of these movies together. frequently dan logged a couple days after phil which aren’t shown here. procrastination queen

Pontypool, Eternals, The Northman, Nope, Barbarian, The Banshees of Inisherin, Glass Onion, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Beau is Afraid, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3., Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, Saltburn, Poor Things, Priscilla, Saw X, Leave the World Behind

movies that one logged and not the other:

dan but not phil: 85

The Exorcist, Stand by Me, The Grave of the Fireflies, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Home Alone 2, Schindler's List, Fargo, Romeo & Juliet, Hercules, Men in Black, Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Mummy, The 13th Warrior, Fight Club, The Emperor's New Groove, Moulin Rouge, Shrek, Legally Blonde, Monsters, Inc, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Scooby-Doo, 28 Days Later, Matrix Reloaded, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, School of Rock, Matrix Revolutions, Saw, Shaun of the Dead, Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Revenge of the Sith, The Devil Wears Prada, Borat, Casino Royale, No Country for Old Men, Death Proof, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, There Will Be Blood, Tropic Thunder, Slumdog Millionaire, Moon, District 9, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The King's Speech, We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Tree of Life, X-Men: First Class, Prometheus, Argo, Les Miserables, Django Unchained, World War Z, Pacific Rim, Under the Skin, 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, The Babadook, The Lego Movie, x-Men: Days of Future Past, 22 Jump Street, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Theory of Everything, Green Room, Sicario, Spotlight, The Big Short, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Conjuring 2, Train to Busan, Hacksaw Ridge, Doctor Strange, Hidden Figures, Logan, You Were Never Really Here, Game Night, Isle of Dogs, First Man, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Suspiria, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Glass, Hustlers, Pig, Violent Night

phil but not dan: 86

Jaws, The Terminator, Beetlejuice, Die Hard, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Groundhog Day, The Shawshank Redemption, Leon: The Professional, The Usual Suspects, The Frighteners, The Sixth Sense, Being John Malkovich, American Beauty, The Green Mile, Gladiator, Catch Me if You Can, Elf, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Little Miss Sunshine, Pan's Labyrinth, The Prestige, Zodiac, Spider-Man 3, Iron Man, Juno, Lake Mungo, Twilight, Zombieland, Kick-Ass, Brave, Evil Dead, The Great Gatsby, Now You See Me, Monsters University, Man of Steel, About Time, Dallas Buyers Club, Edge of Tomorrow, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, The Boy, Raw, Finding Dory, Suicide Squad, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, John Wick: Chapter 2, Lady Bird, The Ritual, Happy Death Day, Deadpool 2, Ocean's 8, Ant-Man and The Wasp, Bird Box, Booksmart, Crawl, Spider-Man: Far From Home, The Platform, Black Bear, Palm Springs, The Empty Man, The Innocents, Titane, Old, Free Guy, The Black Phone, Fresh, Watcher, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Ambulance, Aftersun, Crimes of the Future, Fall, Bones and All, The Menu, Sanctuary, Do Revenge, Smile, Hellraiser (2022), Mr. Harrigan's Phone, Plane, Missing, Infinity Pool, Past Lives, Knock at the Cabin, Scream VI

i’m interested to see how this varies by genre!

miscellaneous non-statistical things that made me parasocially emotional and/or laugh during this process:

they watched nope together on christmas eve 2022 <3

dan rated moulin rouge a 5 <3 nature boy <3

he also rated shrek a 5. of course. (valid).

4.5 from dan and 4 from phil from the notebook

5 from danny for brokeback mountain <3 and a 4.5 from philly

cmbyn, yes, has its issues, but dan rated 4.5 and phil 4

the shape of water got a 4.5 from monsterfucker phil lester (dan gave it a 4)

surprisingly phil rated rocketman higher than dan! surprising because dan liked so many musicals

dan gave hustlers a 3.5. i don't know why i think this is funny, but i do. phil doesn't have it logged or rated, lmao.

a 4 (d) and a 3.5 (p) for barbie!

phil gave twilight a 3. lol.

phil also gave do revenge only a 3.5. tragique.

phil watched a LOT of horror alone in october 2022 (aka while dan was on tour). anyway he's just like me <3

[ice-cream-writes-stuff]

■□▪︎COURTING▪︎□■ Part 1

{Miguel O'hara/Reader}

《You decided to screw around with biology/Your attempts at trying to wooTHEE Miguel O'hara.》

-

"Pav, Hobbie, Gwen! Hiya!" Your enthusiastic voice calls out to the younger Spiderlings. Jess, who sees you happily taking the teens in a group hug. It catches Miles off guard but reciprocates the hug. Gwen flinches, but relaxes in your hold. While Pav snuggles into your warmth, Hobbie groans playfully, patting you on the back.

You chuckle and let them go, before smiling brightly at Jess and waving at her stomach. "Hi little buggy! Your mom is doing an amazing job! Don't make it hard for her!" You tease, causing Jess to lightly chuckle at your antics.

˚Female Wolf Spiders have a strong attachment to their children since they (unlike most spiders) carry them around in their egg sac and do not abandon them. They even protect their newborns after they hatch."

"So... How did the first mission go?" You said warmly, gazing at the teens pridefully. Miles smiles, chatting excitedly. Even pulling out a small art book he had brought with him, drawing a small doodle of what the villain looked like.

"Oh, oh!" Pav excitedly raises his hand, taking your attention.

"Yes?"

"How's it been going with getting the bossmans attention?" Hobbie interrupts with a playful smile directed at Pavitr. "I wanted to ask that!" Pavitr whines as all the young Spiderlings gaze at you.

Jess laughs as you smile happily.

"It's been going well! I think-" You pause as a small noise alerts you.

"I'll have to tell ya'll later, I was assigned another mission, see you soon!"

As soon as you left, Miles turns the page of the paper as little notes and comments are written all over the place. A small doodle of Miguel in his spider suit glaring at you in your own spider suit.

"It oddly feels like bingo.." Gwen remarks. Laughing slightly at her own set of notes, she added.

"I mean, you can't blame us! (Y/N) is literally pulling out all the tricks to get Miguel!" Pavitr says, adding a small heart between the two doodles of you and Miguel.

-

■ Attempt one!■

Males in a few species locate a female and unceremoniously run to her and mate, others court by rhythmically plucking the threads of a web. After the female approaches, he pats and strokes her before mating.

After a long and stressful mission and capturing another anomaly. Your team follows behind you, groaning tiredly and a bit slow to your up-beat pace.

"Miguel~!"

The futuristic Spider-Man eyes your group, nodding to them for their job well done.

Miguel then growls when feeling you pounce on his unmoving body. You hug his waist tightly as Lyla snidely. Your group, afraid of your well-being, beg you to let go. Fearing that he'd kill you, or the more plausible idea, throw you into a wall.

Miguel scoffs as your grip becomes tighter, struggling to get you off of him as you squeal happily.

-

■Attempt two!■

Wolf Spiders perform a mating ritual that are a combination of visual display and vibrations akin to a courtship song. IF the female denies, she may eat the male.

You twirl and swing beautifully in the air, singing to the song playing in the background as you and Miguel track down a music themed Vulture.

When a male jumping spider encounters a female—literally any female—he launches into an elaborate courtship dance, including rhythmic flailing of limbs and complex vibrations.

Miguel rolls his eyes at your small movements that look like you were dancing. Your groove, not being thrown off as you manage to pull Miguel into a clumsy one-sided waltz as you kick the (finally) tied down Vulture.

His mean comments not helping your dancing as Miguel quietly chuckles at your actions.

-

[Part two will be released soon! This is gonna be probably one of my best series yet! Taglist is open for ONE HOUR. Comments are highly appreciated and need to keep this series going! Thank you guys so much!]

(Also, (Y/N) is GN! Miggy is male.)

[a-twistedheartslonging]

Could I ask for courting/relationship headcanons for my pathetic boy Idia in your AU?

Sorry, this took a while.

Man, poor OG Idia already has it hard as a cursed human, he's not the type to make the first move, even with his brother providing him with all the evidence and statistics showing him that you would accept his feelings.

But now we're adding him being a big spider with those courting and mating instincts that conflict with the guy's other anxiety-driven instincts telling him to avoid it all and that everything would go wrong and that you would tell him “Ew no, you're a gross spider that’s blue all over.” and then poke him with a stick.

Most spiders tend to be solitary creatures, they don't live in groups and only come together when it's time to find a mate. It doesn't happen all the time but it’s common for the males to get eaten after mating or even before they have the chance to when their advances are rejected. Now that is for regular spiders but there might be a chance of it if you go up to the wrong person and these guys still have those instincts telling them to be warry thanks to their ancestors. People always say “The worst that can happen is they say no.” But really there's the chance they might say “Ew no” which is way worse. Or the extra way way worse when you are a spider cuz your crush might get freaking aggressive with you and take a bite out of you. You being a little human def ease his worry about the latter, but not the former.

It's later after you guys start to hang out that he starts to be a snarky little shit, who knew such an anxious guy could have so much sass. He’s a weird combination of having issues with self-loathing while also having a big ego. It's one of those times where he starts mouthing off that you do actually try to bite him, he was legit scared for a sec but once he saw those little teeth of yours couldn’t even make a scratch on the exoskeleton on his arm, he gets super freaking smug, and now he’s even more of a shit when teasing you.

With Idia romantic feelings will develop slowly over time after becoming friends though. It's def a new feeling for him, he gives me demi-ace vibes and I think this would be the first time he had this kind of interest in a real person, it was always fictional characters before.

But also I feel like with him it could turn into him thinking these fillings are just how it feels when you have a best friend since he’s only had his brother for all those years and you're the first person outside of his family that he felt this comfortable around and when he actually does these courting behaviors its subconscious and his instincts are kicking in and his brother is actually the one to point it out.

The male of the orb weaver family (Araneidae) and some others court by rhythmically plucking the threads of a web. After the female approaches, he pats and strokes her before mating. I head canon that not only is he able to create webs but they are cool and glowy and he makes a cool hammock for you to chill in sometimes or even hang out with him on one he made for himself…and then without thinking when you're leaning against him and enjoying the soft blue floof of his legs he gives you a few gentle pats and baps with spider paw and Ortho lets out a gasp and startles him. Oh, he gets so embarrassed once Ortho starts asking him about how long he’s been courting you and how he’s so proud that he made the first move despite his anxiety. Hopefully, he does his questioning after you're out of the room.

(Oh, to be patted by one of his cute spooder paws.)

Or perhaps…he pulls a male wolf spider and ends up doing that purr after you say or do something that hits him in those feelings and oh boy, he is so embarrassed when he realizes he did it thanks to your excited reaction to hearing it. Though it hurts his ego a bit when you squeal about how cute it is…I mean…even if he didn't mean to do it, it was supposed to be sexy…still with spiders if you're rejected you either get ignored or attacked…even though he knows better, the inhuman part of his brain is telling him your positive reaction is a “yes” to getting with him which lends to him actually considering that this might actually work out and that Ortho is right. 

(Tbh I don't get why the video says it's creepy, it kind of sounds like bird sounds to me.)

Silk-wrapped gifts and offerings, expect snacks and games. Though admittedly he’s going to give you ones that he wants you to play with him. Beating a boss in co-op counts as a date…right? Right. Best believe he’s gonna be getting you hard-to-get items in game, armor, and whatever else. It’s easy to forget his rich until he gets you some decked-out gaming computer or that handheld you wanted, all wrapped in glowing blue silk of course. Actually, driders giving gifts made of their silk is very much a thing they do but Idia mostly does small simple things, expect to get really cool bracelets and hair ties infused with his scent. He gets so happy and so smug if he sees you wearing them.

I found out recently that another thing some males will do is do sort of a silk-involved message, though I think that is another thing he would do after you guys start dating and not before to...get you in the mood.

The massaging motions of the spider are officially called mate binding. Basically, the male massages the female, so that she'll allow him to mate with her, without killing him before he gets the chance. The male spider releases silk over the back of the female as he massages her. The same study also suggested that it was the feeling of the massage that soothed the female, and not the smell of the silk as some scientists suggested.

NSFW: I just found out that Darwin’s bark spiders figured out they're less likely to get eaten by ladies if they do oral. Do with that info what you may.

[19burstraat]

Ok we all know guild me, build me exists due to my artistic abilities being very lacking in the visual arts, so rather than drawing the crows in the komedie brute, I had to write kaz in. however I had ideas for the others that I couldn't get into a fic, so I've put em down here

Kaz: (description ripped from guild me, build me):

a heavy black cape, sewn with stolen chains and jewels so that it jingled upon every movement (...) It was marked up and slit here and there, on the edges and at the collar, to give the impression of crow’s feathers, and it was made of some kind of shiny, velvety fabric that had the oily shine of crow’s plumage. The gloves were the same material, thinner and more embroidered than Kaz would have ever entertained, and the cane was a plain, inaccurate copy– (...) the mask; a silver crow’s head (...) crooked over the eyes and nose, almost like a Kaelish plague mask. But it left the mouth unblocked; of course it did. Dirtyhands needed to talk.

Inej:

Light and flimsy dark (doesn't have to be black; could be blue or grey) fabric for the veil and cloak. Has an element of spiderwebby fraying to it which is a nod to her being... Well, a spider lmao. But also meant to look ghostly and insubstantial, can sometimes see a metal shiny suggestion of knives underneath it. The veil can be parted just down the side of her face, so you can occasionally see a bit of her face, but never the whole thing. Would not be a practical costume to climb or spy in; too long and bothersome, the same way Kaz's Dirtyhands cloak would not be practical to pickpocket in. Sometimes productions get her a few cheap sheath knives.

Jesper:

Rabbit head mask, short cloak in some batshit colour like green or pink, lined w rabbit's fur and threaded with gambling chips, 'lucky' rabbits feet, coins, and stray bullets. Adornments tied on loosely so they swing everywhere when he moves. This way there's also a real risk of the Kaz and Jesper actors getting tangled together if they interact, which is not symbolic, just funny. This is our get-along Komedie Brute costume :) (we are stuck)

Wylan:

A once-fine red cloak with a high ruffly collar-- now tattered and singed and gone to seed. Little bits of wiring or string or pouches of powders etc sewn into it; sneakily embroidered with the Van Eck laurel around the edges. Mask, while elaborate and matching with the cloak, only covers the top half of his face, as if he's not quite as all-in as the others. For similar reasons, the cloak is half-length.

Matthias:

Wolf's head mask ofc, white fur cape a lot longer and more substantial than Jesper's, with heavy furring around the neck (made to bulk out the actor if they're not the right stature, which most will not be). Likely they also weight his boots to make his tread sound more imposing. Possibly a wig if they can afford one, since Druskelle are known for the long hair.

Nina:

Porcelain-doll Venetian style mask (you know the ones!) with a single black tear-- referential both to that bit in CK when they identified themselves that way in the crowd of Mister Crimsons, and the Queen of Mourning thing. Mask is covered with a very light veil, and she wears a long heavy silk cloak with a bit of a hint of a kefta, but not enough to get the Komedie Brute in shit from Ravkan Grisha lmao. Entrance usually heralded with a blue corpselight.

I imagine dependent on the production and the costumier they could look great and beautifully elaborate, or they could look cheap and shit lmao.

Bonus: I got bored and made a mock-up of a page of a Komedie play. I edited over the first folio for this, yes. Sorry to the Big W.S.

[see-arcane]

“You know,” Dracula hums by the fireplace, the flames a shade dimmer than his own eyes. “I do believe I am becoming paranoid in my old age. Yet I keep my things in such precarious order, all things where they must be.” A log pops. His eyes flash. “Where they should be. And so I have noticed that my own bedroom was disturbed during the day.”

“Oh?” Voice level, Jonathan. Voice steady, Jonathan. Surprise. Concern. “How so? I was under the impression the door was locked.”

“So it was. And yet, I can tell something was...” His nails drum on the mantel, the click of claws, “...different. Meddled with somehow.”

Something between foolishness, sleeplessness, and a smoldering kernel of ire sparks in Jonathan’s chest. Its embers travel up to his tongue.

“Nothing was stolen, I hope. I admit I had a mild scare some time ago, when I realized I couldn’t find certain things in my luggage. Only it occurred to me that your servants must have already taken them away to clean and hold aside for my departure.” A smile so easy it borders on suicidal curls on his face. It feels like a rictus. Maybe it will see him dead right then. “The people here are the most discreet I’ve ever encountered.”

Dracula raises a snowy brow.

“That they are. As discreet as spiders minding their web.” Then, a sudden swerve out of the growing cloud. He oozes mirth. “Have you seen any here, my friend? Spiders?”

“None.” He hadn’t. Dust, motheaten holes, but no spiders.

“That is because of my people as well. More, it is the work of local aid.” His grin has too many teeth. “The bats quite love them. Whenever I or my servants come across a spider indoors, we save it for them. All those that would dare to come crawling along the outer walls?” He snaps his fingers. “They are eaten before they can spin their first thread. It is a most lucrative exchange.”

Jonathan fights not to swallow, not to acknowledge the cold twisting in his stomach.

“I’m certain.”

“A hypothetical question for you. Which would you rather be, my friend? Of the two, I mean.” Dracula’s hand is on him again, itself a titanic white spider. Cold and immovable from his shoulder. It squeezes just short of bruising. “A spider or a bat?”

“I wouldn’t know, Count. Neither is the best choice."

“No?”

The hand is tighter.

“No.” Under the table, Jonathan crosses his fingers. “The best choice is a cat.”

The grip lightens and amusement sketches a change in the Count’s expression.

“Why a cat?”

“They can get away with much more,” Jonathan’s traitor tongue flies. He bites it. “If only for the fact of their comparative harmlessness as they serve their masters as they entertain and accompany. This, while it provides a more handy service in hunting pests of all sorts, be it spider and bat or beetle and rat. In exchange for doing the dual work of tending to the home and being pleasant and defenseless, the more powerful keeper ensures they’re housed and,” he gulps down glass, hot coals, acid, “and loved. A cat can only do so much, but it does just enough.”

Dracula shakes his head.

“Enough to get themselves in trouble, perhaps. No, my friend, if we must leave the smaller creatures behind, I must say a wolf is the better choice. He eats all in his path and has no master at all.” The cold hand gives another squeeze, the nails dimpling cloth and skin...then relaxes. Strokes. “But cats have their place as well. If kept in their proper place...”

The night goes on in this way for endless hours. And still Jonathan’s fingers are crossed out of sight. He has a fondness for cats. Even for spiders. He appreciates all creatures who take it upon themselves to hunt and cull those things that infest or take lives by little bites. But more than either, he has always had a fondness and fealty to dogs.

As the moon drags itself slowly across the sky, he imagines he hears their barking and baying meeting the wild cry of the wolves, and shepherd teeth sinking deep into bloodthirsty throats.

[dragon-susceptible]

Different Path Taken Ch21 P1 Wonderstorm

I was real tired for a few days and couldn't finish it but here's part 1 of the next chapter. This chapter should finish out the events of Season 1 of the show, once I'm done with it.

“There it is!” Ellis said brightly, pointing up at a twisted tree silhouetted in moonlight on the horizon, far up the slope. “That’s the tree I hid in with my Ava, where the miracle healer found us!  Well, the Guardian.”

“We should be able to make that within the hour.” Runaan estimated.

Privately, Callisto suspected he was overestimating the children’s capabilities.  It hadn’t escaped their notice how heavy little Ezran’s steps were and how the boy’s head hung down as they walked once they had caught up with the scouts.  Besides, they had other obstacles to deal with.

“Spiders.” They muttered like a swear as they used their glaive to cut away some webbing from the path ahead, keeping it at arm’s length.  Should they be using their full length glaive with one hand like this?  No.  Were they doing it anyway to stay away from the damned spiders?  Yes. “Why did it have t’be f- spiders that survived over here?”

Ezran tilted his head at them. “Are you afraid of spiders, Callisto?” He asked curiously. “They’re not so bad.”

“I maintain that anyone with an ounce of sense is at least a little afraid of spiders,” Ram insisted from ahead of them, also scowling at the webs with his ears laid back, and waiting while Rayla rolled her eyes and cut a path for him with her longer swords. 

“Anyone?” Runaan prompted with an amused sort of tone. 

“Yes,” Ram said haughtily. 

“I’m not afraid of spiders, I’m just reasonably cautious of things that can kill me,” Rayla retorted. “Which is what you should be.” She pointed at him with her sword and an unimpressed expression.

Callisto growled with their own ears lying flat. “I actually almost agree with him.  Spiders are a blight upon existence and I for one am terrified.” They cast a halfhearted glare at Skor, who was closest to them, and found him just smiling fondly at them.  Their cheeks heated up under the soft look and they quickly turned back to the path and yelped as they almost ran into a thread, ducking quickly around it instead. 

Corvus was staring at them in confusion. “What kind of spider could make a web this big?” He asked suspiciously, examining some of the webs closely. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Magical spiders,” Runaan replied with no small amount of amusement.

He was taking far too much pleasure in all of their distress, in Callisto’s humble opinion. 

“Did you hear that?” Ram yelped. 

“No, everyone’s too busy talkin’.” Rayla replied spitefully.

“Hush!” Callum shushed her, looking around suspiciously.  Ellis and Ava were even quiet, with the wolf’s ears laid back.  Callisto cursed in their own mind as they pricked their ears up to listen, grip tight on their glaive. 

The rustling of the webs sent a chill up their spine.  It was the spiders.  They knew it was the spiders.  How many were there, to have built a nesting colony this size?

In the distance there was a voice.  Someone moaned as if in pain and Callisto swore under their breath out loud. 

“Did you hear-?” Callum asked, worriedly.

“Yep.  Ignorin’ it.  Keep walkin’.” Rayla ordered, finally sounding a bit tense herself, and marched ahead.  Smart kid.  Those voices weren’t real.  They were never real.  There was no reason for anyone else to be up here.

“But what if someone really needs help?” Ezran protested, tugging at her arm. 

Runaan put a hand over his mouth briefly, his eyes sparkling entirely too much, and Callisto frowned at him.  That was out of character.  In what world was it funny for a small child to be concerned about someone’s life?  Someone needed to explain to Ezran that these voices weren’t . . .

“Ezran, ye have a good heart.” Rayla was telling the boy sincerely, and then her expression and ears both went flat as she added, “It’s super annoyin’.  I guess maybe a couple of us can go check.”

“No.” Callisto snapped. “No one’s leaving the group.  There’s no reason for anyone else t’be up here.  It wasn’t real.  Whatever we heard, it’s not real.  You know that, Rayla - this is a place of power just as much as Moonshadow Forest, we don’t follow the voices.”

Her eyes widened at the reminder and she winced. “Right.  Yeah.”

“There’s always voices in the Forest and few of them are real,” Ram explained for the human children’s benefit, though he had both his daggers in hands and he only spared them a glance while searching the webs for the things they could hear shuffling around them. “If you follow them, they pull you into the darkness, into the wild, and then - well.  Most don’t come back.”

“That’s enough of those stories,” Runaan admonished. “We keep moving.  Do not split up.  If you hear something, check with the rest of us.  If no one else heard it, neither did you.”

They kept walking.  Callisto hugged close to Skor’s path, letting him cover their wounded side.  He did so without complaint, even conceding to pulling out his sword for their comfort though his eyes crinkled with amusement when he did so.  The human children were sticking quite close to Runaan now.  Ram and Rayla were scouting ahead, attached at the hip, and Andromeda and Corvus walked together as well, both seeming hardly bothered by the spiders.  The human looked a bit unsettled by the sheer scale of the webbing, but Andromeda was just wary.

Thus it was that Rayla and Ram were the first to actually confront the spider.  Ram shrieked while Callisto’s eyes were on the children and they flinched, brandishing their glaive up only to see him hiding behind Rayla.  The girl was facing off against one of the largest spiders they’d ever seen and it took every ounce of discipline in their body not to recoil from it as well.  How could something that size have survived in Katolis of all places?  Most every magical creature in Katolis was stunted and small compared to their Xadian counterparts, without-

Wait.  The spider chittered and postured but it wasn’t outright attacking even as they all scattered for cover.  Callisto wasn’t immune to the panic, darting behind some rocks with Skor as soon as the others moved, their heart pounding in their chest as their nerves warred between not wanting to take their eyes off it and wanting to get away. 

How could something that large have survived here?

A brief glance around revealed nothing but desolation under the webbing.  There was nothing for it to feed on but the magic of the Nexus, and while that was necessary, it wouldn’t be enough to support a physical creature.  Spiders still needed to eat.  One this size would have a corresponding appetite, too, it would be willing to feed on things as large as drakes in Xadia.  What even lived on this side of the breach that was big enough for them?

Unless - 

Runaan had been amused.

He’d mentioned a training exercise.

Callisto glanced at Skor suspiciously.  He raised his brows at their expression at first, and then a slow smile spread across his mouth as he nodded slightly. 

They peeked around the rock at the spider, which hadn’t moved, and was still blocking their direct path up the slope, chittering aggressively. 

A glance over at the rock behind which Runaan was hiding, nearly standing straight behind the stone in order to give the gaggle of children around him room to cower, revealed that Ezran didn’t look afraid either.  Neither did Callum or Ellis.  If anything, Ezran looked a bit delighted, and was giggling about something.

The Guardian of the Nexus used illusions to keep humans afraid of the slopes.  This creature wasn’t behaving like a normal spider.  There was nothing around that it could eat. 

“It’s not fucking real, is it?” They hissed to Skor.

His smile broke into a fond grin and he shook his head.

“What are we going to do?” Ram’s voice had gone up several octaves and when they managed to find him, he was cowering behind a tree and Rayla this time, wide-eyed and nearly panicking. 

Runaan at least had the decency to look a bit concerned at that, but Callisto didn’t want to gamble on his mercy when he’d apparently decided they all needed a lesson in being observant and aware of their surroundings.  They all should have realized that a place like the Moon Nexus would be rife with illusions just like their forest was, especially with the Guardian shaping those illusions into reasons to keep the humans away. 

“It’s not real.” They called irritably. “It’s an illusion.  The Guardian’s using it to scare the humans back down the mountain.  Why else would a creature this big be wandering around here where there’s nothing to eat?”

Andromeda groaned deep in her chest and audibly facepalmed. “Oh, we should have realized.”

“What about the creature down the -” Ram broke off and growled, glowering at Runaan. “That other creature that we passed before, that was dead - that wasn’t real either, was it?”

“No,” Runaan admitted, smiling gently at them. “It wasn’t.  I was a bit disappointed you all didn’t realize that.  There isn’t enough food around for a creature that size, either.”

There really wasn’t enough food around for anything to be confined to the mountain, except perhaps some birds.  Callisto groaned and rubbed their own face. “You’re a cruel, cruel teacher sometimes, Runaan.”

“You did figure it out eventually,” Runaan replied placidly. “And no one was going to get hurt.  My apologies to you both, though, I didn’t realize the next creature we would encounter would be a spider, or I might have had second thoughts.  I know the two of you are -” there was that damned smile again - “uncomfortable with the creatures.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Ram gingerly lowered himself from the tree with a distrustful glower at the illusion spider, which appeared to be stuck in their path, making the same few chitters on repeat. 

Callisto scowled at Runaan too. “Absolutely bloody terrified,” They corrected, and flinched momentarily when they felt something on their shoulder before realizing it was Skor’s hand.  Before he could remove it they tucked their glaive into the crook of their arm and grasped his hand to hold it there, looking over at him gratefully.  While he’d clearly known as well, he had at least been there to comfort them through their fear. “Thank you.” They murmured softly to him.

Skor smiled much more softly than Runaan, and nodded, giving their shoulder a squeeze.  He brushed his hand down their arm.  It wasn’t quite a proper scent mark but it was as close as they generally got these days, and they took comfort in his assurance.

“Don’t worry, Ram,” Rayla was teasing him, smirking broadly. “I’ll still protect ye from the big scary illusion spider.”

Ram wrinkled his nose at her but he did, in fact, keep her and Callum between himself and the spider as they moved past it.  Callisto couldn’t help the way their heart beat faster and the terrified quiver in their ears as they had to walk towards the creature, and then walk away with their back to it while it kept making those noises.  It helped that Skor walked right at their heel and kept his hand on their shoulder or arm, something to remind them he was there to help.

“There should be nothing on these slopes worth fearing, anymore,” Runaan said with a note of regret as they left the spider behind. “The only thing we left worth protecting was the Nexus, and the Guardian’s illusions have been all that’s necessary to protect it for centuries now.”

“Centuries?” Corvus asked, frowning curiously.

“Magic is a muscle or a skill like any other, for an elf,” Runaan said, with a bit more chill in his words than when he spoke to Callum about the topic. “Those who exercise it more gain a greater well of it within themselves.  Over time, a creature of magic may become more magic than flesh - and the flesh ceases to age.  The Guardian of the Nexus has held her post for over three centuries.”

“So . . . how old are you?” Ellis asked. “You can do magic too!  We saw you!  When your hand glowed around that other thing, it did it did!”

He had fucking known all the way back there, the bastard.  Callisto huffed, but tilted their head, curious how he would respond with all the humans present.  It really wouldn’t tell them much, they supposed, so there was no real reason to keep it a secret, but it also was the sort of personal information that assassins usually wouldn’t speak about outside of the forest.  

Runaan seemed to be having a similar internal debate before just sighing. “I’m thirty-five.  I don’t have nearly the magical stores that an Archmage like the Guardian has - I just know a thing or two about illusions.”

“A thing or two,” Andromeda echoed almost mockingly. “Not as though you’re the best in the Assassins’ Guild with illusions or anything.”

Rayla scoffed. “It’s true though, he’s pretty weak as a mage compared to - uh.  Compared to his husband.”

Callisto barked a laugh at her casual roast of her guardian, as Runaan scoffed in disbelief. “That’s enough of that,” Runaan said loftily. “We’re starting to get into the sort of information we don’t share outside the Forest.”

“Sure,” Rayla teased. “That’s why ye want me t’ stop.”

Callisto chuckled and focused on the path ahead, once more secure in the knowledge that the creatures they were hearing were nothing more than illusion.  Perhaps Runaan was right, in that case.  His estimation of how long it would take them to reach the rim made a lot more sense now.  They’d make the peak before dawn. 

[astra-ravana]

The Magick of Spiders

Spider Totem

Spiders are very delicate creatures that play an important role in the myths and legends of many peoples as the teacher of balance between past and future, the physical and spiritual. To the Native Americans, Spider is Grandmother, the link to past and future.

With its gentle strength, the spider spins together the threads of life with intricate webs. The spider shows that the past affects the future and vice versa. It tells us to make use of our creativity and weave our dreams imto destiny.

For many Native Americans "Spider Woman" stories are important creation mythologies. One of the common features of those are wisdom symbolized with spiders' webs (she taught humans how to weave). Also generally accepted are the ideas that her thread connects the human world and the world of the spirits or the "above world and the below world". The Spider also weaves the relationships of the Web of Life and all beings.

Spider Symbolism

Web of life: The spider reminds us that all paths are connected. You are on the right path because all paths lead to the same place. The spider's 8 legs represent infinite possibility, the gifts of the web of life. Be patient, accept life's trials; you are on the right path.

Eight/infinity: Neverending possibilities, abundance, balance, control, creating your reality.

Keywords: Creativity, feminine power, patience, persistence, emotional awareness, strategy, wealth, attraction

Meanings: Spiritual transformation, evolution, being present, protection, alignment, manifestation, you are the creator of your own destiny

Shadow side: Vampirism, calculating, manipulation, venomous thoughts, ensnarement

Associated crystals: Labradorite, kambaba jasper, obsidian, epidote, howlite

Associated herbs: Spider plant, spider lily, aconite, sunflower, foxglove, fern, ivy, vervain

Seeing a spider is usually a lucky sign, most often associated with creativity, money, and protection. "If you wish to thrive, let the spider go alive." Conversely, money will be lost if the spider dies.

Spider Sightings

Garden Spider: Garden spiders are bold, bright, and beautiful and similarly their spiritual meaning carries a message of confidence and courage, with a dash of charisma as well. Don't be afraid to be seen in your full, authentic glory, even if it catches some by surprise.

Black Widow: Seeing a black widow spider can carry spiritual significance related to the power of persistence and transformation. Ancient wisdom instructs us to look towards this spider for motivation, reminding of the power of our shadow, that no matter what life throws at us, we can persist, adapt and integrate. Through these teachings wa can connect to our darker, feminine aspects, and gain strength of spirit to move on despite hardships and difficulties.

Wolf Spider: The spiritual meaning of the wolf spider insists that we pursue our objectives now. Now is the right moment, so it is best to take action using all of your creative abilities. Wolf spider also assures us we will be successful, regardless of how obtainable the goal may seem. Do your diligence and strike when you see your opportunity.

Daddy Long Legs: Daddy long legs remind us to keep balance in our lives and be patient. They show us the beauty of moving through life with grace, encouraging us to stay connected with our world. Their presence is a gentle nudge to slow down, observe, and find harmony in our busy lives.

Jumping Spider: Embrace their agility and adaptability to navigate life’s twists. Channel patience as you manifest your dreams. Let their courage fill you with boldness, and their ingenuity spark your creativity. Stay curious, explore new horizons, and strive for balance and precision in all you do. Let these tiny, spirited arachnids remind you of the vast potential that lies within your own leaps of faith.

"In the beginning there was the dark purple light at the dawn of being. Spider Woman spun a line to form East, West, North, and South. Breath entered man at the time of the yellow light. At the time of the red light, man faced his creator. Spider Woman used the clay of the earth to create people. To each she attached a thread of her web which came from the doorway at the top of her head. This thread was the gift of creative wisdom. "

[autumnslance]

FFXIV Write 2024: 9 Lend an Ear

The Emperor of Garlemald was meant to be the most powerful man in the world.

It was instead poor comedy, of the kind his grandfather used to watch with such glee—the more subversive and borderline treasonous, the better.

Now Varis understood why.

His very much alive—for some meaning of the word—grandfather swanned around the palace now, stepping out of the shadows to taunt and lecture Varis. He never thought he would prefer the days when the old man ignored him, trying to deny his existence because he was no more than a memory of his dead father.

Another eldritch manipulator wore the body of Varis’s son. The monster’s death was no real loss, and Varis acknowledged the role he had played in Zenos’s development—but that boy had been wrong from the start. Perhaps due to the tainted influence of their bloodline.

And where did that leave Varis?

A pawn who had been made aware of his nature by ancient beings who used his name, his throne, his people, in their games.

There had to be something he could do. He was the Emperor. He had fought tooth and nail, wresting the crown from his uncle and cousin in order to continue the path to glory and greatness, to conquer those realms that had eluded his grandfather’s grasp and bring the light of civilization to the savages who had defied them.

He had wanted to prove himself better, prove that Solus had been wrong about Varis. But Solus zos Galvus had been a mirage, and Emet-Selch’s plans for Garlemald were far more insidious.

Every servant was a potential spy. Every soldier and guard as well. The walls had ears and eyes, and a hundred masters to report to. These had been facts of life for as long as Varis could remember, but now the webs were not obstacles to be navigated, weapons to command.

They were cocoons, and he the fly caught in the spider’s web. The more he struggled, the tighter the binding.

Gaius was gone; he had been Solus’s loyal hound, but the man’s honor and dedication to the role of Emperor itself, the mentorship he had granted Varis years ago, might have made him an ally, had his own ambition not been tangled in Ascian schemes and lost to the Eorzean Champion’s hand.

Regula...that loss still stung. He had fought beside the Black Wolf’s killer, sacrificing himself in favor of an Echo-bearer and his soldiers. Damn the honorable fool. Varis had been aware of Regula’s carefully-concealed sentimentality, his morals and honor, his drive to prove himself as much as Varis—it was a reason they had become true friends as young men, despite the disparity of their births.

He walked across grand courtyards, along ostentatious promenades, to the severe edifice of the family mausoleum. The people whispered of their Emperor’s respectful devotion due to the frequency of the visits.

It was where he went to get away from his shadowy puppet masters.

He ignored the grand central chamber, the crypt where his grandparents’ bodies were entombed. It was difficult to dismiss the idle thread of thought about the real Solus Galvus. Had he been dead when Emet-Selch occupied his form? Had he been alive but buried beneath the Ascian’s persona?

(Would he have loved Varis as a grandfather should?)

He shoved the speculation aside as always, continuing along the chambers shaped like the omnipresent chain links to where his parents and wife lay. He barely remembered his father, but his mother had always stood with him, even arguing with his grandfather on Varis’s behalf, and aiding him in his bid for the throne until the day she died.

She had found and arranged his marriage to Carosa. The demands of royalty, and their son’s...behavior had strained the relationship, but they had persevered, and her loss was one of the few times in his adulthood that he had allowed himself tears. His mother’s death had been another.

He stood in the chill of the mausoleum and imagined their faces, warmer than the stone likenesses, ever willing to listen and then aid in planning a course of action. So many of the servants within the palace and among the high houses had been their spies, and he had lost those networks on losing them.

Gaius. Regula. Mother. Carosa. The few he could have relied upon, could have trusted. All gone.

He said nothing of his troubles and frustration. The dead could not hear, while even these walls might, and he still had to maintain the charade of implacable Emperor. But allowing his roiling thoughts to run rampant here, in sight of their memorials, was soothing in a way he could not justify. It simply was.

He turned to begin his slow return to the palace. He stopped. Someone else had entered the mausoleum, intruded upon his solitude. Varis strode into the central chamber. If it was one of the Ascians daring to infringe upon this space—well, he could inconvenience them with a bullet again.

He stopped short as the lightly armored figure turned to regard him. Brunette instead of blond, but the features were similar enough to his own, and as strained as ever. “Forgive me for the intrusion, Your Radiance,” Nerva said, bowing low. “I was hoping to find you here.”

“What do you want?”

His cousin straightened. “To serve my Emperor, for the glory of Garlemald, as ever.”

Varis snorted derisively. If only Nerva had an inkling of how hollow that “glory” was.

“I know,” Nerva said, hands raised in supplication, misunderstanding Varis’s reaction. “My father fought you for the crown. But you won, and he lies dying for his trouble. We can, and should, put that behind us, for the good of our people.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“A fair question. Mayhap you shouldn’t, given Father’s scheming. But,” Nerva let out a breath, and with a slight shift, the demeanor of the Senator was gone. “Cousin, there are strange rumors about. And some lick of fondness from our childhoods remains enough that I am...concerned.”

Varis glowered.

Nerva shook his head, smiling thinly. “Of course, you can take care of yourself, and always have but...The things being said about your son. Some rather ridiculous ones about Grandfather’s shade haunting the palace. All while provinces secede unhindered and many of our troops stand stalled on Eorzea’s benighted doorstep. Varis—”

“None of it is your concern.” He walked forward again, tromping past Nerva. Who grabbed his arm.

Soldier’s instinct had him grip the offending limb, twist, spin, and Nerva grunted as he hit the wall, pinned by Varis. “You arrogant arse,” Nerva gasped. “I’m offering my aid—”

“It is none of your concern,” Varis growled. “The throne is mine, its troubles are mine.” He then looked Nerva in the eye. “You should leave,” he said, softly. “Take your father, your household, your loyal arms, and go.”

Nerva stared at him, then narrowed his own eyes. “You know I cannot do that. No more than you could. We are of House Galvus, and have our duty.”

If only Nerva knew what that truly meant. For a wild moment, Varis entertained the idea of telling him the truth, of confiding in his cousin, and urging him again to leave. Or keeping him as an ally.

Neither outcome was likely, and the second...Once, it might have been reasonable. But not since the civil war.

Varis shoved away from Nerva, turned, and walked out. As much as he wanted an ear to hear his troubles, to offer advice and aid, he couldn’t trust his cousin—nor did Varis want him entangled in the Ascian schemes. Nerva and Titus had managed to escape the worst by failing to win the throne. This was the closest he could come to protecting what remained of their family.

The confidantes Varis wished for were long gone. This was his burden, and the price of his victory.

[s-che]

If Systems Don’t Matter, Why Are You So Embarrassed?

hey gang. this play report is, as you may know if you've been paying attention, coming in just about two weeks late, which is not ideal. this happened because i have been very busy with work, because i am poor. if you like what i do here and want to make me more busy with this kind of stuff and less poor, maybe consider tossing me a couple of bucks? it would mean a lot. Now back to ur regularly scheduled content.

Sometimes it’s fruitful to have a collaborator in order to riff, bounce ideas off each other, and generally intellectually pollinate. Sometimes it’s good to have someone who can fall on a sword so you don’t have to. I’d be remiss if I didn’t start this month’s reflection on the Dream Library book club by calling out the tremendous amount of work the internet’s own @marvelousmsmolly has been doing in the last little while to keep things afloat.

We played, talked through, and read Vampire: The Masquerade this month, along with some guest excerpts from Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Hunter: The Reckoning, and probably Unicorn: The Saturnalia for all I know. These collectively make up a small part of something called the “World of Darkness,” a universe which I’ve been told is entirely separate from something called the “Chronicles of Darkness” in ways I don’t entirely understand. They were published by a company called White Wolf until White Wolf was sold, and then a team called White Wolf inside a series of larger companies until they were summarily — and rightly — dismantled following the spectacularly bad decision to pin real-world Chechnyan anti-gay purges on in-universe vampires. We’ll get back to all that in a second. 

I picked the game — Vampire, that is — to close out our fall semester on Monster(fucking), advocating for it in part because I suspected it would make big claims about what it could do narratively and fail mechanically to deliver. And, while I was right on that count, what I couldn’t have predicted was how hard the bug (the vampire?) would bite, and how seriously Vampire-mania would sweep the Dream Library.

I think @wildwoodsgames hit the nail on the head at the very tail end of our discussion thread, when they called Hunter: The Reckoning “a game playing with a lot of very potent ideas that it is not super responsible with.” 

This is a statement could be truly made about every scrap of World of Darkness I’ve read (which was none, to be clear, before we started this month). They’re games which constantly sit on the edge of juiciness and fail spectacularly, stumbling instead into some of the most short-sighted and often willingly edgy alt-history stuff I’ve ever seen. But — like I said — I’m going to have to come back to a lot of that later. 

I have two big takeaways about VTM:

I. VTM is comic books

Intertext and serial fiction get a bad rap, sometimes, in our current moment of bloated and collapsing franchises — of Glup Shittos and Marvel’s Sony’s Spider-man’s The Avengers. But before the content mill gets really grinding there is a real joy to be found in reading something and seeing the shape of a whole world fill out behind you. I know a lot of people find that pleasure in the EU Star Wars novels. When I was a kid, I found it mostly in Middle-earth — except, I should say, for one long summer at my grandparents’ house when I tore through my cousins copy of Marvel’s (Sony’s Spider-man’s) The Runaways. 

Big 2 Superhero Comics  — because they’re serial and because they’re short and because they have a long history — have a really lovely way of finding interesting niches in old worlds and running with them. In a real way, VTM tries to do the same thing. The whole structure of the World of Darkness relies on the fundamental premise that a big interlinked all-happening-at-once world is, in fact, cool. But it also — maybe because of the way the game is inviting you to make your own OC and carve out your own niche — tends to focus on the thing comics does, finding an interesting nook or cranny where more stories could be told rather than flattening everything down into one grand “Skywalker Saga.” 

By way of this interest, VTM resists the narrative black hole that so many “worldbuilding” IPs fall into. There are no Jedi to take center stage, no Aragorns into whose narratives the lovely story of The Hobbit disappears. And if there are — well, I haven’t read about them. I don’t have to read about them. Vampire gives me the space to do my own thing. It also gives its writers the space to make massively bad decisions — and, holy shit, there are so many bad decisions in these books. Famous instances, yes: the Vampire Chechnyan thing and Werewolf’s relationship with indigeneity — but also small corners full of some of the stupidest ideas you ever heard. Moses Maimonides, Mossad agent. V5’s inexplicable fascination with 9/11. An entire Wraith section on the Shoah. Some of this stuff swings around and is almost juicy again — but who on earth who ever greenlight it?

2. VTM is embarrassed to be a game

It isn’t a new take to say that VTM fails to deliver on its compelling setting with an equally compelling set of mechanics, but it did astonish me to realize how much the actual text of the game buys into the narrative that rolling dice and thinking about rules is a secondary function of a game in comparison to the almighty narrative. You see this in suggestions geared to streamline combat, but you also see it in the eighteen pages of in-universe fiction which come at the start of the book before the rules narrator can get a word in sideways. VTM exists setting first: they are desperate to prove that you could strip away all the numbers and still be playing VTM. I have two thoughts about this:

There’s a certain appeal to the way VTM seems to think about this, which we could call a Brennan Lee Mulligan “get the rules out of the way and let me RP” approach. The fact that Brennan and VTM have this in common is, more or less, unsurprising to me knowing that Brennan has a background in large-scale LARP, where clearing the explicit mechanics to let roleplay happen is a massive design priority. VTM has its own long history of LARP and I do think it’s radical to recognize that there is something to a game beyond the mechanics. To play in the VTM world — whether with a d10 or a cloak or by writing fanfiction — is to play VTM, and I’m glad to see a system take pleasure in that (especially because its explicit mechanics aren’t very good).

That being said, I wish participants in this sort of “clear the rules” roleplay-first style recognized more explicitly the mechanics they aren’t getting out of the way: social dynamics, narrative structures, relationships to knowledge and authority and the ability to hold a room’s attention which absolutely structure freeform RP as much as any “then roll Xd10.” The presence of these social dynamics, especially, has been a massive recurring theme of our Monsterfucking unit as a whole, as game after game seems to really struggle to design for their inevitable presence.

All in all, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed VTM — although I liked reading it and thinking up a character more than the live play. I think it’s a game that’s perhaps uniquely ill-suited to the Dream Library’s format and the rapid cycling-through of games it entails, but there’s something to be said for the way the setting itself gripped me. I wanted to tell the story of a little freak’s descent into evil, even if I didn’t have the time for it. Maybe I’ll go play 1,000 Year Old Vampire.

Next up — well, more like currently — the Dream Library is taking a little winter break. Not an actual break, of course: we’ve already had a festive session of Wanderhome, Molly is hosting a session of Never Stop Blowing Up set in a mall around Christmastime soon, and then maybe Hanukkah Goblins? We’ll see.

If you want to get in on any of that, hey. Click this link.

If not, I’ll see you here next month.

Peace

[too-many-rooks]

I LOVE werewolf river omg

I AGREE I'm always such a sucker for any kind of supernatural creature AU and I think werewolfism just suits him so well.

It's the need to be a part of something, the need to be told he's a good boy, that he's helpful and useful. Being too loyal and trusting to the people he cares about, or respects, or defers to as an authority, and getting fucked over by them, bc his loyalty is never returned. How Frank and his pack(/cult) could come into his life and it's like this missing piece, finally understanding exactly why he's felt so lonely his whole life, and how tempting any kind of offer of family would be.

How much he loves fucking running all the time, how he can take a beating and shake it off fairly quickly, how good he is at the hunt, at tracking people down and following them without them recognising he's there.

Anyway I started rambling a bit too much about the many fun werewolf River ideas developed with @countessrivers that we’ve been batting back and forth in the tags, but decided to add a bit more detail and contained it under the cut where I elaborated a bit (a lot) more

One evolving thread of an idea is one where River gets stuck in werewolf form at the end of S3 after he gets exploded/nearly killed. Transforming and flipping out a bit and eating a bunch of Chieftain guys (and maybe Nick Duffy also.) Louisa chasing after him to explain to Shirley and Marcus that the massive wolf currently munching on Head Dog's liver is River, and please don't shoot him, but also - considering how he unbothered he was by Chieftain's bullets, probably won't do much but annoy him.

River snapping out of his bloodthirsty rampage once the smoke has cleared and the immediate threat is gone, but having some difficulties when it comes to 'okay, now be a human again' (The idea being this is perhaps the first time he's transformed not during a full moon.) Kind of switching into silly puppy mode, not at full human brain capacity, not particularly bothered by anything - he's had a hunt, and a meal, and now some of his pack is here! Great! Maybe him and Shirley play fetch, have a little play fight, I think that would be cute.

Louisa sending Shirley and Marcus off to publish the file, her sneaking River out and into her apartment. River going through the indignity and betrayal of being showered and just a Sad Wet Wolf in the bathtub, but Louisa refusing to let him near her furniture/floor when he's so gross and still covered in blood and gore and whatever was on the floor at that facility. The heartbreak continuing when Louisa won't let him sleep at the end of her bed. Louisa pointing out that he didn't exactly bring his clothes with him when he turned into a giant fucking wolf, so when he wakes up tomorrow morning - hopefully back to normal - she doesn't exactly want her colleague/just about friend naked on her bed! (River presumably sneaking on/being let on anyway, the puppy dog eyes have got to be killer)

And then the next day coming; and River's still a big stupid werewolf. Louisa and River ending up at (a not dead) Spider’s apartment, who may or may not know about his lycanthropy already, but knows it’s River pretty quickly either way. River busy terrorising Spider’s wardrobe by ripping up all his ties and gnawing on his shoes, but eventually Louisa needing to leave. River and Spider engaging in their standard pettiness and humiliation rituals around stuff like Spider trying to make him eat dog food/from a dog bowl, trying to make him wear a collar bc they need to go into public and River’s a literal giant wolf so he needs one for his doggy disguise so people don’t start screaming on the tube. (And obviously, the many ways River might be collared by all these various people and all the fun uses for/implications of it)

Spider needing to go to the Park, and having to take River with him/not trusting him alone in his apartment. Not resisting the opportunity to make fun of how the only way River’s allowed back in now is as an office pet, (someone overhearing and realising he’s named his dog after his work frenemy/rival he has always had a… weird kind of obsession with and just like. Okay then.)

Spider getting intercepted by Diana who sends him to do something for her, but not letting him take his dog with him, that would be deeply unprofessional- no, she’ll look after it, presuming it’s house trained.

Diana thinking how she’d quite like to have some additional back-up in a meeting she’s got later that day with Whelan/Judd, whoever might benefit from being growled at by a big scary dog, sending him to the fancy dog groomers to get a blow out to make him look all dignified and fancy to act as her particularly intimidating accessory.

River not, *not* enjoying being a guard wolf for Taverner and having her scritch his ears and tell him he’s a good boy. Her taking him back to her place, cottoning on to who exactly he is eventually, bc, she’s a smart lady, and maybe he can get away with responding to ‘River’ but also responding to ‘Cartwright’ being pretty much a dead give away.

Diana thinking about how River could be useful to her now, could be a solid asset, especially if she’s seen footage/evidence of what he did at the facility wanting a loyal dog of her own after everything with Duffy, and now Flyte (and perhaps the ‘dogs’ being a very literal name and them being werewolves too, who rejected River bc he doesn’t smell right bc he technically belongs to a different pack, also a potential thought.)

River finally turning back in Diana’s apartment, feeling extremely awkward being naked and in her home, fashioning some kind of toga from a blanket to protect his dignity/not flash his boss.

Diana not really caring, instead giving him her pitch/job offer, and it’s to work for *her* directly, to cover her back, to protect her, even when that means protecting her from the service/Lamb. Potentially playing into any latent mummy issues/general need for the approval of authority figures in his life to push him along. It not being how he thought he would/wanted to go back to the Park, but it being an opportunity he can’t really turn down.

And then, how his connection with Frank would be different, him presumably being a werewolf in the first place bc he inherited it from his dad. And how River, who I’m imagining having been a lone wolf his whole life, potentially never even meeting other werewolves, so Frank coming into his life and it being kind of this revelation, and he’s fascinated by him, and all that he could teach him, and the idea that he sort of knows River better than he knows himself worming it’s way into his brain.

And, if it’s carrying on that earlier plot line I laid out, Frank getting involved as River is coming back under Diana’s sway, and moving back toward the Park in the space between seasons 3 and 4, Diana needing someone to train her new pet werewolf, Frank hearing about that through the grapevine and assuming MI5’s untrained pup is probably his boy, and wanting to check in.

Frank being presented as like ‘the werewolf specialist’ here to solve all their problems, but saying he needs to take River out of London to be able to train him properly. And, don’t worry, he’ll totally give him back. (Maybe he will, maybe it’s more of a split custody/River getting the Mi5 jobs, but very definitively belonging to Frank/being part of his pack/cult.)

So River slotting into life at Les Arbes, and finding out about Frank being his dad and meeting his half-brother(s) and becoming a part of a pack for the first time in his life, and feeling like part of a big family, and like - having friends his age, and them perhaps being playfully and physical affectionate, scrapping and play fighting and cuddling in a way that River’s always craved but never really had access to, bc it’s just like, basic werewolf socialisation.

And obviously, you know, there being, a kind of unsettling vibe - it’s clear that they’re some sort of off-the-books paramilitary werewolf squad, but perhaps the super intense cult stuff is turned down a bit when not in a time of crisis, and for River’s sake, and perhaps it’s not as necessary in an a werewolf AU where there’s more pack ties to each other and submission and obedience toward the pack Alpha is kind of innately ingrained.

But how River could sort of… accept all of that, the part of him that is desperate for action, and craves fieldwork - getting that at Les Arbres, even if it’s more shady than the career he had planned. And perhaps being able to dismiss any kind of strange cult-y interactions as being a part of like, werewolf culture that he knows nothing about, (like he can shrug off all the weird kissing in the book as werewolf socialising, bc wolfs lick each others mouths as a greeting,) and wanting to integrate so much he doesn’t want to question it all. (And then uh. How different social conventions/rules/relationships are. For freaky horny reasons. And just, much potential there. Sorry not sorry.)

Anyway that’s sort of one thread of an idea that has many spin-off and tangent and adjacent ‘what if’ ideas, some of which involve a lot of fun vampire stuff which I won’t share for risk of spoiling a potential upcoming fic I’m very excited for 👀

But yeah, long story short anon, same.

[by-speaker]

Stepping out (ENG. VER)

Prompts by @raven-cincaide-words

Life in the nursery has always been quiet for Missa, it was him, the soft little rag doll, Roier, Cellbit and Bagi, the spider and kitten stuffed animals in little clothes, Maximus, a little wooden horse, and Mariana and Charlie, a Barbie and Ken, well until Chayanne came home to his little girl, Tallulah, and brought with him Etoiles, Pierre, Antoine, and Baghera, an army of little wooden soldiers, Foolish, a big rubber shark, Philza, an action man, and Vegetta, a stuffed wolf.

In Missa's simple opinion, the boy toys were savages, lacked manners, and never minded his delicate seams, well maybe almost all of them except Vegetta, the wolf was a true gentleman.  

Chayanne was an energetic and chaotic boy, always creating passionate stories, tales of pirates, intergalactic ships and knights in shining armour, Philza was always the hero of those adventures. 

Now that Chayanne and Tallulah were playing together, Missa found himself being the helpless victim more and more often. Missa didn't mind because he usually sat comfortably in his little chair and waited to be ‘rescued’ by Philza, but the knight was anything but a gentleman.  

‘Watch out!’ shouted Chayanne, as he slammed Philza's hard plastic body into Missa's rag, making popping sounds, ’I've come to save you Missa!’ 

‘Chay! Missa is a little rag doll,’ Tallulah shouted back, snatching the doll from her brother's hands, ’you have to be careful with him.’ 

Missa felt the warmth of the little girl's hand caressing her rag doll skin, and if his smile wasn't stitched, he would have smiled wider.

‘If you want to play with me, you play the way I want,’ the boy told her, for all the mother-of-pearl buttons, how rude boys were, Missa thought. 

Philza lay on the ground, unmoving and oblivious to the fight, but Missa could swear the knight's plastic was itching to spring into action, to jump up, stand at attention, shout ‘hangar’ and draw his sword. 

Tallulah stroked the woollens on Missa's head, ignoring her brother for now, his girl smiled at him, and murmuring said, ‘Ignore them Missa, I'll take care of you.’ 

Though he could not answer her, Missa felt it. Tallulah's words were like a silent promise that echoed inside him. Every time the girl treated him with such affection, Missa felt lucky to be her favourite toy, safe from the turbulent and frantic stories that Chayanne and Philza brought with them.

‘Kids, dinner!’ That was one of the children's parents, that meant bedtime was approaching and everyone's favourite part of the day in the nursery toys was beginning. 

‘Come on, Tallulah!’ shouted Chayanne, quickly forgetting the squabble. 

‘I'm going to say, good night, first.’ Said Tallulah, Ay, coloured threads, at last, thought Missa.

‘Ugh!’ How rude, ’Girls, always so sentimental.’ Said the boy then ran off to the dining room. 

Tallulah picked Philza up off the floor, ‘Sorry, Sir Philza, my brother isn't very careful, but don't worry, you can spend the night with Missa, he's soft.’ 

Tallulah set them both down on a little bed, ‘Goodnight Missa, goodnight Philza.’ Said the girl, giving each of them a kiss on the forehead. 

‘Good night, Cellbit, Bagi and Roier,’ said the girl, changing them into their nightclothes and tucking them into their beds. 

‘Good night, Maximus, tomorrow morning I will bring you more hay.’ Said the girl, combing the mane of the wooden horse. 

‘Good night, Mariana and Charlie,’ the girl tucked the plastic dolls into their doll house. 

‘Good night, Etoiles, Pierre, Antoine, and Baghera, you can rest now, soldiers.’ Said the little girl, taking off their little hats and putting away their weapons. 

‘Good night, Foolish, may you dream of little fishes.’ Said the girl, stroking the shark's fin.

‘And good night, Mr. Vegetta,’ said the little girl giving the wolf's fur a kiss, ’have a nice night and sweet dreams, little toys.’ The little girl said goodbye. 

As the little girl stepped out of the nursery, the toys came to life.

[honey-minded-hivemind]

In a reboot/reimagining of X-Men Evolution, what if the Spider-kids were there, too, with maybe Aunt May and another Spider-adjacent adult, and they were their own group, along with the Brotherhood and X-Men... And then there is Reader, a spider mutant, who is now stuck in the middle of the three groups, and is trying to stay neutral and out of their way? More-or-less wanting to stick to themself, but not cold or aloof, just someone who may be slightly uneasy around them, yet is friendly or at the least amicable?

Like, imagine the Spider-kids consist of Peter Parker/Spiderman, Miles Morales/Spin, Gwen Stacy/Ghost Spider, maybe with their friends/enemies as Spider-kids too, like Harry Osborn but with Carnage, or a green crab spider or orchard spider theme, Mary Jane Watson or MJ with her symbiote or with a trapdoor spider theme, maybe Flash with the Venom symbiote or with a tarantula theme... Reader I can see being a wolf spider, orbweaver, or jumping spider mutant. Especially if they are related to or an experiment involving the DNA of one of the adult mutants.

Would the X-Men and Brotherhood try to get the Spider-teens at some point to join their groups? Probably. Would it work? I think it depends on what the options are and how stable their powers are. Would they be more spider-like? Yes. The Venom symbiotes could be anything from aliens to experiments to even an alternate personality. Or they could be with the adults? It's undecided as of the moment.

Characters that won't be included in this au are Eddie Brock and Miguel O'Hara. I like them, for the most part, but I'm not sure how to write them. I do like Venom, but I'm sticking more along the animted versions of him, as that works better with this AU.

A name for this AU could be the 🕸Silken Threads and Venomous Webs🕷 AU...

Either way it goes, it sounds like a fun AU to me, and I hope to be able to bring it to life a little. Thank you for reading, and have a great day or night 💛🧡🍯🐝

[dumbgoondog]

Cursed AU (Part 3)

Cw/Tw—Blood, death, malnourishment, bones, very exaggerated bodies

Ft. Choso and the Curse Womb Death Paintings

Yuh yuh yuh

Thanks to Sukuna and Yuji, all death paintings incarnated. Giving them each enough cursed energy to survive so they’d no longer be weak all 9 brothers are alive and are each acting members of the Web’s royal court. I also have a little head canon that the more humanoid a curse the more powerful+sentient they are. This means all the other 8 brothers are similarly human to Choso!

(I will NOT be adding all the death paintings unless enough people want em.)

The 9 death paintings are basically spies, the secret police, and intel gatherers. They spy on sorcerers, keep tabs on what’s going on between clans and tension, check out locations they might want to snag. They also act as guards, patrolling the edges of the Web’s veil. They also keep tabs on the citizens of the web and report that as well, though that job is mainly done by Yuji. The death paintings specifically serve Yuji, seeing him as family, knowing he’s the secret prince, and out of respect.

Choso Kamo

Looks relatively the same but there are some differences! For starters lengthen his ears to almost be elven like. He’s supposed to represent the first stage of death, which… he just looks kinda emo. So we’re amping it. Flower growths. We’re talking flowers growing from his skin on his body, white chrysanthemum and when he uses blood manipulation they turn into red spider lilies(Tokyo Ghoul reference). This is for the flowers left for the dead and in Japan these are the two common flowers left. Next, give him that little triangle bandana thang. Increase the deathly look around his eyes, like that one art Gege Akutami did. Now we’re done.

Technique doesn’t change. No changes to his dick.

Eso Kamo

He’s tan and not orange… give his nose a matching mark to Choso. Give him a full head of hair! Also give him the triangle thang too. He can stay cunty with his outfit.

Kechizu Kamo

Actually humanoid this time! Has a hunched walk and keeps his hands in his pockets. Full black eyes, black mark over nose, mouth and mark are always leaking blood. He has a tooth gap.

Noranso Kamo

Sickly hue, yellowish green skin like he’s about to puke constantly. Mark over nose and more marks along his shoulders like claw rakes. Triangle hat thing. Very thin body type, malnourished in appearance. Like theres nothing in him.

Sho-so Kamo

Limbs ombre into red thread like skin to mimic muscles. Mark over nose, shoulders, and forearms. Black clawed nails. No eyes, empty sockets, he can see tho. Triangle hat.

Tanso Kamo

He looks like a mummy, dresses in torn draped cloth, no guts just his spine but there is skin over his ribs. Really tall and long limbs, the tallest brother at 6’11”. Empty sockets, no eyes, can see tho. Triangle hat.

Sanso Kamo

Bird claw like arms and legs. Oni tusks, very sunken features that almost make his face look like a skull. Long, long hair that he ties in a wolf tail. Triangle hat.

Kotsuso Kamo

Omg hi Sans the skeleton. Kotsuso is just a skeleton. The bones do have marks tho! No hair, wears a very loose and messily done black yukata like some whore. Triangle hat.

Shoso Kamo

Shortest brother at 5’5”, the longest hair at 5ft in length. It’s just blowing all around and the edges smoke and flicker like incense. Face is hidden in shadows like it doesn’t exist like Yuji and Sukuna. Is blind. Skeletal bird clawed hands, muscular bod like Choso tho. Also is growing flowers but his are just red spider lilies and don’t do anything special.

[buildingxsandcastles]

Wrapped in Shadow

Pairing: Shadowheart x f!Tav Summary: Beneath the ghostlight of the Sussur Tree, Tav and Shadowheart share a quiet moment in the Underdark—tense, vulnerable, and too honest for comfort. A conversation wrapped in shadows and softness, where neither of them says quite what they mean, but both feel it all the same.

Track inspiration (by Tetsugaku): www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnzsFa56_6c

The blue glow of the Sussur Tree pulsed faintly in the distance, painting the jagged walls of the Underdark in hues of ghostly light. A soft hum echoed through the caverns, too low to be music, too present to be silence.

Tav knelt near the edge of the rocky path, her fingers brushing over a patch of bioluminescent moss. Caine, a dire wolf, padded a short distance ahead, ears twitching at every skitter. The cave floor crackled underfoot, dry and brittle in places despite the damp.

Behind her, Shadowheart’s boots whispered across stone.

“You shouldn’t wander off like that,” she said quietly, voice low but not unkind. “It’s easy to get lost down here.”

Tav turned, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “I wasn’t far. I just wanted a moment to breathe. It’s quieter near the roots.”

Shadowheart stopped beside her, folding her arms and gazing out toward the tree. “Quiet, perhaps. But not safe.”

Tav nodded. “Nothing down here is. But it’s… strange. The tree doesn’t feel threatening. Not like the rest of this place. It feels sad.”

She glanced up at Shadowheart. “Like something that lost its way.”

Shadowheart didn’t answer at first. Her dark hair caught the soft blue glow. “You see emotion in everything,” she said—not as a criticism. There was something almost admiring in it.

“And you keep yours wrapped in iron,” Tav replied gently, not pushing. Just… stating a truth they both already knew.

A long silence stretched between them before Shadowheart spoke again, softer this time. “This place… it doesn’t allow for softness.”

“No,” Tav agreed. “But sometimes we carry softness with us. Even if it gets a little battered.”

She reached up and plucked a stray thread of spider silk from Shadowheart’s cloak. “Even if it’s wrapped in shadow.”

Shadowheart’s brow furrowed slightly, but she didn’t move away. “You’re not afraid of me, are you?”

The question lingered in the dark.

Tav met her eyes. “No. I think I just… don’t like the thought of losing someone like you.”

The cleric blinked, then looked away, as if caught in a moment she hadn’t prepared for. “Don’t say things like that,” she said—softly, but with warning behind it. “Not down here.”

“Then when?” Tav asked, voice just above a whisper. “When we’re back at camp? When we’re not surrounded by things that could kill us? Or when it’s too late to say anything at all?”

Shadowheart’s jaw tightened, but not out of anger. “You care too easily.”

“And you punish yourself for caring at all.”

The words hung between them like a drawn bowstring—taut, delicate, waiting to break.

Shadowheart turned back to the Sussur Tree. “We should move. It’s not wise to linger in the Underdark.”

Tav stood slowly. “Of course.”

But her voice was softer now. Not pressing—just present.

Shadowheart didn’t look back as she started walking. But her hand brushed Tav’s arm—fleeting, deliberate, gone.