#undead nightmare style

[lowpolynpixelated]

Bloodborne PSX One of the best fanworks on the web

Though the PS4 boasted and still boasts an impressive library of releases, for many (myself included) the system served to be bought for initially one purpose, to be the Bloodborne Machine. Most of the people in my life who had a PS4 during its generation either bought one exclusively to play Fromsoftware’s Nightmare Hunting Adventure or had initially got one solely to play the game and ended up getting more games afterward. It’s a phenomenon the game industry sees time and time again, with previous generations having swathes of fans buying entire consoles for one or two games. As far as games go though, Bloodborne is at the very least worth the price of entry. At the time, it was heralded as Fromsoftware’s most cutting-edge and impressive game to date. A gorgeous gothic world filled with creatures ripped straight out of H.P Lovecraft’s nightmares, a haunting soundtrack showcasing beautifully composed choral scores and a combat system that incentivized aggression and speed to achieve brutal and bloody efficiency. It’s no wonder then why Bloodborne still has such a large following behind it. Fans of Fromsoftware have hoped for a sequel or PC port year after year to largely disappointing results. But where the community shines is in its fanworks. 

From fanart, comics, music, animations, and even fan-made video game spinoffs, the game has been shown a monumental amount of love since its debut in 2015. One of these fanworks was released back in 2022 and has since become one of the most famous pieces of fan-made content surrounding the game, this of course, being BloodbornePSX by LWMedia. An incredibly impressive feat of coding and art direction, the game serves as a “Demake” of Bloodborne’s first Yharnam segment, made to look like and play as if it were made on the very first PlayStation console. With some custom-made areas and an entirely unique boss to boot the perfectly paced experience is both a treat to fans who have been orbiting the game since its earliest days and new fans looking for the best and brightest fanworks to interact with. 

The game has since gone on to be covered by a variety of news outlets all over the web, along with its creator receiving much-deserved attention for her efforts. One Lilith Walther (AKA b0tster on social media) holds the title of developer for the project. A long-time video game enthusiast and FromSoftware fan herself, she’s had quite an impact on the community I’m sure she’s very proud to be a part of. Later in the article, we’ve got an interview with Lilith herself about both Bloodborne PSX and her current project, “Bloodborne Kart”, but first, let’s talk a bit more in-depth about BBPSX.

(Official launch trailer for Bloodborne PSX, uploaded January 31, 2022 by LWMedia on Youtube)

Bloodborne PSX:

So, what exactly is Bloodborne PSX? To start, let’s answer what precisely a “Demake” is first. Demakes often have the goal of remaking the likeness of a game either stylistically, mechanically, or both, as if it was developed on retro/outdated hardware. Famous examples of Demakes include “The Mummy Demastered” developed by Wayforward as a sort of tie-in to the 2017 film “The Mummy” in the stylings of a 16-bit run and gun adventure against armies of the undead, and “Pixel Force Halo” by Eric Ruth games which take the prolific XBOX franchise and shrinks it down to a Mega Man-esque platformer reminiscent of the NES’ 8-bit days. Demakes are intensely attractive looking, not only into the past of video games and their developments but just how creative developers can be with games that they love and appreciate. Bloodborne PSX hits as hard as a Demake can in my opinion, blending masterfully recreated graphics with perfectly clunky early PSX gameplay quirks that go above and beyond to make the game not only LOOK like it belongs on the nearly 30-year-old console but feel right at home on it as well.

(A screenshot depicting the player character “The Hunter” facing off against two fearsome Werewolf enemies. Screenshot sourced from the Bloodborne PSX Official itch.io page)

Gameplay:

Starting off with the masterfully recreated clunk in the gameplay, Bloodborne PSX “shows its age” by hearkening back to a time when being seamless just wasn’t an option. Much like adventure action games of the past (and much UNLIKE its modern inspiration), you’ll be cycling through your inventory delightfully more than you’d expect. Equipping keys, checking items, and even the trademark weapon transformations are all done through the wonderfully nostalgic menu and inventory screens. Taking one of the foundational parts of Bloodborne’s combat system and making it such a more encumbering mechanic is nothing short of sheer genius when it comes to ways to really make you feel like it’s 1994 again. On top of this, the Hunter’s movement itself has been made reminiscent of classic action titles. Somehow, both stiff enough to feel dated and fluid enough to make combat that same rush of bestial fun found in the original, it goes a long way towards the total immersion into that retro vibe the game sets out to give the player. Anyone who grew up with Fromsoftware’s earlier titles like Armored Core and the King’s Field series will be very familiar with this unique brand of “well-tuned clunk”.

(A delightfully dated looking diagram showing off the controller layout for Bloodborne PSX’s controls. Image sourced from the Bloodborne PSX Official itch.io page)

Graphics:

Speaking of old Fromsoftware games, though, let’s talk about the absolutely bit-crushingly beautiful graphical work on display. As I’m sure you’ve seen from the videos and screenshots included in the article, BBPSX’s art style and direction are nothing short of perfect for what it aims to be. While playing, I couldn’t help but notice every little detail (or lack thereof) in the environments meant to emulate the experience of a game made on 30-year-old hardware. Low render distances, chunky textures, blocky polygonal models, just the right amount of texture warp, it all blends together to create an atmosphere that I can 100% picture being shown off on the back of a jewel CD case with a T for Teen rating slapped into the lower corner. While playing, something rather specific that called out to me was the new way enemy names and health bars were displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen while fighting. As a big fan of the King’s Field games, this small detail went (probably too much of) a long way toward my love of how everything’s meant to feel older. Other games trying to match the more specific feel of King’s Field, like “Lunacid” created by KIRA LLC, also include this delightful little detail, a personal favorite for sure. 

(A screenshot depicting the second phase of Father Gascoigne’s boss fight, showing off the game’s perfectly retro art style. Image sourced from the Bloodborne PSX Official itch.io page)

Sound design/Soundtrack:

But where would a game be without its sound and score? No need to fear, however, because Bloodborne PSX comes complete with a chunky soundscape that will make you want to check and see if your TV is set to channel 3. A haunting set of tracks played by fittingly digital-sounding MIDIs ran through filters to sound just as crackly as you remember backs up crunchy sounds of spilling blood with low-poly weaponry. Original sounds from Bloodborne have been used for an authentic sounding experience, but have also been given the CRT speaker treatment and sound like something you remember playing on Halloween 20 years ago. If you watched the launch trailer featured above then you know exactly what I’m talking about. The Cleric Beast’s trademark screech and Gascoine’s signature howl after his beastly transformation have never sounded so beautifully dated, and I’m here for every bit of it. Even the horrific boss themes we know and love from the original Bloodborne have been brought through this portal to the past. One of my favourite tracks, the Cleric Beast boss theme, might just sound even better when played on a 16-bit sound chip. It really cannot be understated just how much weight the sound design of the game is pulling. In my opinion, the only thing missing is that sweet sweet PSX startup sound before the game starts crackling through the speakers of a TV in the computer room.

(The Bloodborne PSX rendition of the Cleric Beast’s boss theme. Created by and uploaded to Youtube by The Noble Demon on March 20, 2021)

Interview with the developer:

Before writing this article, I had the absolute pleasure and privilege of talking with Lilith Walther about some developmental notes and personal feelings about inspirations and challenges that can come with the daunting task of being a developer. Below are the nine (initially ten, but unfortunately, a bit of the interview was lost due to my recording software bugging out) questions I posed to Miss Lilith, along with her answers transcribed directly from the interview. 

I’d like to start this section of the article by saying Lilith was an absolute joy to talk to. During the interview, I really felt like she and I shared some common ground on some topics regarding how media can have an impact on you and what sorts of things come with video games as an art form. After some minor technical difficulties (and by that, I mean my video drivers crashed), I started off with something simple. The first question posited was: “What got you into video games initially?” Lilith’s response was as follows: “When I was a kid, the family member of a friend had a SNES lying around. I turned it on and didn’t really understand. I was a guy on top of a pyramid, I walked down the pyramid, and some big ogre killed me. Later I learned that was A Link to the past.” and after a brief laugh continued, “A couple years later my parents got a Nintendo 64 with Mario64 and Ocarina of Time and that was it. Never put the controller down since then.” 

She then went on to describe what precisely about Nintendo’s first foray into 3D Zelda had hooked her. “I’ve heard this story so many times. It’s like you’re not even playing the game. You’re just in the world hanging out in Kokiri forest collecting rupees to get the Deku shield, and the game expects you to! It was just, ‘run around this world and explore,’ and that really hooked me.” I couldn’t agree more with her statement about her experience. Not just with a game as prolific as Ocarina of Time but many experiences from older console generations that could be considered “the first of their kind”, or at the very least some of the earliest. Lilith also described her first experience with a PlayStation console, stating: “Later on I got a PS2 which played PS1 games. I didn’t end up getting a PS1 until around the PS3 era, so I guess I’m a poser. I remember my sister bringing home Final Fantasy 9 when it was a relatively new game. If it wasn’t my first PS1 game it was definitely my first Final Fantasy game. Of course I went back and played 8 and 7 afterwards.” A solid answer to a simple question. 

The second question I asked was one starting to move toward the topic of Bloodborne PSX and its namesake/inspiration. Or at least the family of systems it was released on: “What PlayStation console was your favorite and why?” Lilith’s answer surprised me a bit. Not because I disagreed, quite the opposite, actually. But with such a big inspiration for her work being games from the PSX-PS2 generations, what followed was a pleasant bit of insight into one of her favourite eras of gaming, to quote: “I can give you two answers here.” To which I assured her she was more than welcome to, but she was set on having something definitive. “No no I’m only going to give you one answer. I can give you the correct answer that I don’t want to admit, but it was the PlayStation 3. It’s so embarrassing but I genuinely was hooked into the marketing of the whole ‘The cell processor is the smartest thing in the world’ and all that. It really seemed like the future of gaming and I was all about it. I think I owned an XBOX360 before but I did eventually get it and really enjoyed it. It took a couple years for some of the best games to come out but I really did.” A few examples she cited as being some of her most memorable experiences on the console were Uncharted 2, Journey, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Warhawk. All games I’ve seen on several top 5 and top 10 lists throughout my life within the gaming space. A delightful show of affection for a generation personally very dear to me as well, in which she ended the segment by declaring “Hell yeag”, a bit of a catchphrase she’s coined online.

Getting into the topic proper, my third question was one about her personal relationship with Bloodborne: “How did Bloodborne impact/appeal to your interests?” A question that received perhaps my favourite answer of the whole interview. From her response: ”Oh that’s a big one. Going to the opposite end of the poser spectrum, I was a Fromsoftware fan before it was cool. One of the games I played religiously on my PS2 was Armored Core.” A statement which made more sense than perhaps anything else said during my time with her. “Then later in the PS3 era everyone was talking about Dark Souls, this was when I was in college. I finally caved and got it and saw the Fromsoftware logo and thought ‘Oh it’s the Armored Core people!’ I played and beat it, really enjoyed my time with it. I skipped Dark Souls 2 because everyone told me to hate it, I still need to go back to that one.” 

It’s something I would recommend anyone who hasn’t played Dark Souls 2 to go and do. “Then Bloodborne came out and I thought ‘Alright this is the new one, gotta play this one’ and I was a huge fan of all the gothic stuff in the aesthetic. And how do I explain this, I do really like Bloodborne. I like the design, and the mechanical suite of gameplay, as a video-gamey video game it’s very good.” The tone shifted here to something a bit more personal. “But as well, I was playing it at a specific time in my life. I came out in 2019, I know Bloodborne came out in 2015 but I was obviously just playing it non-stop. It was just one of my ‘coming out games’, you know?” For those who maybe don’t understand the statement there, “coming out” is a very common term used within the Queer community to describe the experience of revealing your identity to those around you. Whether it be to family, friends, or co-workers, almost every queer person has some sort of coming out story to tell. Lilith is speaking in reference to her coming out as a trans woman. She elaborated: “Obviously I can only speak for myself, but I just feel like when you make a decision like that, that part of my life just ended up seared into my brain, you know? Bloodborne was there, so now it’s just a part of me. And it definitely influenced some things about me. It was there because I was working on Bloodborne PSX at the time, but it had an impact on something I’ve heard a lot of other Trans people describe.” She went on to describe the concept of “Coming out a second time” as sort of “finding yourself more within your identity” and becoming more affirmed in it. She described both Bloodborne and her development on Bloodborne PSX influencing large parts of her life, a good example being how she dresses and presents. As a trans woman myself, this answer delighted me to no end. I, for one, can absolutely 100% relate to the notion of media you experience during such a radical turning point in your life sticking with you. There are plenty of games, shows, music, and books that I still hold very near and dear to me because, as Lilith stated, they were there. All the right things at the right time.

Halfway through our questions, we’ve finally arrived at one pertaining specifically to the development of Bloodborne PSX: “What are some unique challenges you’ve faced developing a game meant to look/play like something made on retro hardware?”

Lilith answers: “So there’s two things, two big things. One is rolling back all of the quality of life improvements we’ve gotten over the years in gaming. Not automatically using keys is always my go-to example.” Something as well I mentioned in my short talk about the game’s gloriously dated feeling gameplay above. “That was definitely very very intentional. Because it’s not just the graphics, right? It was the design sensibilities of the 90s. Bringing that to the surface was very challenging but very fun. Another big part was, since it was one of the first 3D consoles, I wanted to recreate the hype around the fact that ‘ITS IN 3D NOW!’ So if you go into your inventory you’ll see all the objects rendered in beautiful 3D while they slowly spin as you scroll through them.” This is a feature I very much miss seeing in modern video games. 

She continued, “I think the biggest one was the weapon changes. Bloodborne’s whole thing was the weapon transformations. Like, you could seamlessly change your weapons and work them into your combo and do a bunch of crazy stuff, and I kind of said ‘that needs to go immediately.’ So now you have to pause and go to your weapon and press L1 to transform it, that was extremely intentional. So once I had those three big things down it all just sort of fell into place. Like the clunky UI and the janky controls. You need jank and clunk, and I think that’s why Fromsoft games scale down so nicely, because they are jank and clunk.” 

A point I couldn’t agree with more. Despite all the modern streamlining and improvements to gameplay, Fromsoft’s ever-growing catalog of impressive experiences still contains some of that old-school video game stiffness we’ve (hopefully) come to appreciate. She went on to make a point I was very excited to share here in the article, “It was just a lot of trying to nail the feel of the games and not just the look, right? Like I’m not trying to recreate a screenshot; I’m trying to recreate the feeling of playing this weird game that’s barely holding together because the devs didn’t know what they were doing.” In my humble opinion, something she did an excellent job with. 

Fifth on the list was a question relating to her current project, Bloodborne Kart, a concept initially drawn from a popular meme shared around social media sites like Tumblr when the buzz of a Bloodborne sequel was keeping the talking spaces around Fromsoft alight: “Anything to say about the development of Bloodborne Kart or its inspiration?”

Lilith answers: “So first off Bloodborne Kart is less trying to be a simulation of a PS1 game and more just an indie game. It’s not trying to be a PS1 game, I just want it to be a fun kart racer first. Starting off of course is Mario Kart 64, that’s the one I played back in the day. But I looked at other games like Crash Team Racing and Diddy Kong Racing, but also stuff like Twisted Metal of course. I always used those as a template to sort of look at for design stuff like ‘how did they handle what happens to racers after player 1 crosses the finish line.” The next portion of her answer was initially a bit confusing but comes across better when you consider certain elements present in BBK’s battle mode. “And also Halo, like for the battle mode. I had to do a battle mode and it kind of just bubbled to the surface. Split Screen with my sister was such a big part of my childhood. Thinking about Halo multiplayer while I was making the battle mode stuff.” 

Her answer to the previous question began to dip into the topic of our sixth question: “Are there any unique challenges or enjoyable creative points that go into making something like Bloodborne Kart?”

As she continued from her previous answer: “One of the biggest quirks of the battle mode I had to figure out was how to tell what team you were on at a glance, and that came back to Halo again. I started thinking about how you could tell in that game and it hit me that the arms of your suit change to the color of whatever team you’re on. It was just something I never even thought of because it’s so seamless. So that gave me the idea to change the kart colours, and that’s the most recent example of me pulling directly from Halo. It’s wild how a small change like that can turn your game from something unplayable to something fun.” I would agree. Tons of small details and things you don’t think about go into making seamless multiplayer experiences. Some of which we take for granted nowadays. She then made a point about one of the most challenging aspects of BBK’s development, “The most challenging thing was definitely the Kart AI. AI is just my worst skill when it comes to game development among the massive array of skills you need to make a game. It’s really hard to find examples of people coding kart driving AI, You know? You need to make a biped walk around you can find a million tutorials online but if you need to make something drive a kart, not really. I was really on my own there. A lot of the examples out there are very simulation oriented. Like cars using suspension and whatnot, but I’m making a kart racer. So I started simple, I put a navpoint down and if it needs to turn left, turn left, if it needs to turn right, turn right. And I just kept adding features from there.”

Moving onto our last three questions, we started to get a little more personal. Question seven being: “What’s your favorite part of Bloodborne Kart so far?”

Her answer was concise in what she was excited about most, quote: “The boss fights.” Short and sweet but she did elaborate. “Translating a big part of Bloodborne is the boss fights. So I made a short linear campaign which is basically AI battles and races strung together. Some of those stages are just boss fights which are unique to the rest of the game. When you make a video game you sit down and you make all your different modes of interactions, and then you make a multi-hour experience mixing and matching all those different modes in more complicated ways. I think the most interesting part is when that style tends to fall away and it ends up building something entirely unique to that experience.” An example she gave was the infamous “Eventide Island” in Breath of the wild, it being a unique experience where the game’s usual modes of interaction are stripped or limited, forcing you into a more structured experience that ends up being a majorly positive one. “That’s what the boss fights are in Bloodborne Kart. They do multiple game mechanics like a chase that ends in a battle mode. Like Father Gascoine’s fight where he chases you, and after you blow up his kart he turns into a beast and picks up a minigun.” That sounds absolutely incredible. It’s very easy to see why she’d pick the boss fights as her favorite element when they’re clearly intended to be such unique and memorable experiences. 

Our last two questions veer away from the topics of development proper and focus more on our dear dev’s personal thoughts on the matter. Question eight posits: “What’s your personal favorite part of being a game developer?”

After some thought, she gave a very impassioned talk about something she considers to be the best part of the experience: “When people who aren’t game developers think about game development they think of things like ‘oh well you just get to play video games all day and have fun’ but it’s not! Except for the 2% that is, and it’s near the end of development. When all the pieces fall into place and you start actually ‘making the game.’ Game development, especially solo, you’re so zoomed in on specific parts. Because you’re not making a game you’re programming software that’s what making a game is. You spend months working on different systems and then you actually sit down and make a level, and you hit play and it you go ‘Oh my god, I just made a game’. That part is what sustains me. It’s magical. That’s the best part when it comes to true appreciation of the craft aside from the reception.” An answer that I don’t think I could’ve put better if I tried. 

My last question is one that I consider to be the question when it comes to interviewing anyone who works on video games. Perhaps a bit basic, but heartfelt nonetheless: “Anything to say to anyone aspiring to be a game developer?”

Lilith’s answer: “Yes. Just do it. For real. This is what I did and it always felt wrong until I looked at more established devs echoing the sentiment. You cannot plan a game before you’ve started making one. The example I always bring up is the team behind Deus Ex wrote a 500 page design document for the game and almost immediately threw it out when they started development. Just start! You’re going to have unanswered questions and I think that trips people up. Don’t start with your magnum opus idea, start with something simple and achievable. I feel like a lot of people set out with the goal of making a triple-A game, and that’s good! But it can’t be your first game. Game development is creating art, just like any other form of art, and it’s like saying ‘my first drawing is going to be the Mona Lisa’ and it just doesn’t work like that. You need practice and development, and it’s difficult to see that because games take so long and so much, so it’s definitely seen as a bigger undertaking. But it’s still art. You’re still making mistakes and learning from them for your first project. Your next game will be better. View your career as a game developer as a series of games you want to make, and not just one big game.” A perfect response to an otherwise unassuming question. 

Lilith’s passion and love for video games were reflected very clearly in every response she gave during my time with her. Her dedication and appreciation for the art form can be seen in every pixel of Bloodborne PSX, as well as the development logs and test builds of Bloodborne Kart. I really do think that the way she answered my final question speaks volumes to the type of attitude someone should take up when endeavoring to make art as intensive as a video game. Whether it’s fanwork of a game that’s important to you or an entirely new concept, do it. 

(developer of Bloodborne PSX Lilith Walther, image provided by Lilith Walther via Twitter)

Closing:

If you’d like to check out the positively phenomenal experience that is Bloodborne PSX  I’ve included a link to the official itch.io page below the article, as well as a link to the official LWMedia Youtube page where you can check out Lilith’s dev logs, test videos, and animations about her work and other art. Thank you so much for reading, and another very special thank you to Lilith for setting aside some of her time to talk to me about this article. Now get out there and cleanse those foul streets!

Links:

Bloodborne PSX official itch.io page: https://b0tster.itch.io/bbpsx

LWMedia Official Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/@b0tster

Lilith Walther Twitter page: https://twitter.com/b0tster

[monsters-conquer-the-world]

OOZEPUNK

WHAT IS OOZEPUNK?

Oozepunk is the term I'm coining for the microgenre of urban heroic sci-fi horror-fantasy that first exploded in the mid-80s with movies, shows, and comics like Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Toxic Avenger, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Hellboy, Street Sharks, and others. Lots of natural crossover with Biopunk and Cyberpunk, aesthetically and philosophically.

Your childhood trauma didn't let you forget Roger Rabbit heavily featured colorful nightmare slime, did it?

A ragtag gang of weirdos (often horribly mutated--more on that soon) band together to save a city that doesn't understand them. Grimy sewers, abandoned buildings and graffiti'd brick walls are lit up by neon lights, streams of mysterious, glowing goo and/or the unearthly lights of futuristic particle weapons--ideally all of the above!

Beyond the "cracked concrete and gutters full of liquid plutonium" aesthetic, Oozepunk prankishly asks "What if catastrophic aberrations of science, particularly DUMPING TOXIC FUCKING WASTE STRAIGHT INTO THE ENVIRONMENT created fucked-up monsters... but they're HEROIC fucked-up monsters!" These catastrophic aberrations of science grant the heroes incredible powers, but COST them their place in human society. (Ghostbusters and Roger Rabbit eschew character mutation in favor of discovering that the undead and olde tymey cartoons are real [and exploitable!], respectively. 'Busters and 'Toon sympathizers alike are treated like insane idiots and/or frauds in their respective universes.)

Oozepunk heroes are challenged not only by strange supernatural beings, but by human society itself. The Ghostbusters battle with local politicians as much as they do the undead. In the recent (and delightful) TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, Splinter warns the Turtles of humans and their obsession with "milking" mutants for their blood--on top of the villainous mutants they're trying to thwart!

Crank up the creep factor in Oozepunk and you get awesome anti-establishment goo-horror like 1988's The Blob, The Stuff, Street Trash, and probably a bunch more. Toxic Avenger is a batshit crazy splatter-comedy (i.e. classic Troma)... and still garnered sequels, a kid's cartoon and toyline!

And there's a Shredder's Revenge-style Crusaders beat-em-up coming out next year??

This looks dope as shit

Ghostbusters and TMNT are the only current, "evergreen" (or radioactive green!) Oozepunk franchises I can think of off the top of my head, but Oozepunk elements are buried in almost all of the stories and settings I love the most. Heroic kaiju like King Kong, Godzilla and Gamera paved the way for our freaky friends, but so did comics characters like Fantastic Four's Ben "The Thing" Grimm, The Hulk and Swamp Thing. Hell, I think I blame SESAME STREET of all things for starting me down the Oozepunk path.

Surprise! I've loved screaming trash monsters with secret hearts of gold since I was a fucking baby, and they've ALWAYS been there for me!

But it's not just Oscar, Sesame Street as a whole is a proto-Oozepunk utopia, years before the big Ooze-splosion of the 80s. Muppets, monsters, talking animals and chill humans all live and work together to scrape by with a little dignity in a gritty-but-wholesome urban world!

Sesame Street, a decades-long reminder that educational childrens' programming can and SHOULD be cool as hell looking and loaded with all kinds of friendly mutant freakuloids.

OOZEPUNK! Whaddya think?

[ntls-24722]

ok. draw george Washington papyrus fanchild

Fuck you. I actually hate you. I want to crush your skull like a soda can being brought to the sea floor. Because I fucking drew a declarationpaper fanchild and I unironically love him.

His name is Fraktur after the "old english" font, and he is not a human, not a skeleton, but a revenant, the skeletal yet skin-bearing undead creature that Matpat theorized Sans to be in the Sans is Ness video. He's a monster, but he's an unnaturally physical one, to the point that his magic actually can't escape his body so he can only affect himself with his own magic. He only really has gravity manipulation and mostly uses it to be reaaaallly heavy, inspired by the account made by William of Newburgh in Historia Rerum Anglicarum where the revenant of a widow's husband kept visiting her bedchambers at night and crushing her with his body.

He's already unnaturally heavy though so now I'm imagining a recreation of the aforementioned where Fraktur climbs into Washington's bed at night because he had a nightmare, and proceeds to crush all of the president's bones.

Is any of his shit historically accurate? No, his getup is medieval England instead of colonial America. But maybe that kind of works, since Papyrus is an ancient-egyptian styled pseudoarchaic font and Washington is, yknow, English. Maybe that's how Font Genes work.

@truech4ra (a little bird told me you wanted declarationpaper)

[lostbetweenvampiresandmusic]

Homes and hotels

He had nightmares about that night. He heard the screams of his brother still, and the angry growls of the vampires. He still had nightmares about the what ifs. He and his friends could have been killed, or maybe if they had been lucky, they could have managed to kill all the vampires. Maybe they could all have survived, on the condition that they had to be turned into a vampire as well. But none of that happened. No one died. Well, except for Max, that is. But still, as he thought about it, it could have been a lot worse.

He was okay. Mom was okay, even if she was still recovering from a nasty break up with the head vampire. His Grandpa was okay, still happily going out with the widow. And Michael was okay. His relationship with Star had watered a little after the whole affair, but things were looking up for them.

Yeah, Sam sighed as he got out of the bathroom. Things could have been way worse. Max was dead, Michael was human again. Things were almost like before. Almost, because now they sometimes had random immortal visitors bugging them. Lucy didn't mind. She had come to like the boys and adored doting on them. Michael didn't mind, beginning to see them as friends. Sam, however, did mind. He didn't like vampires before, and he definitely didn't like them now.

This morning, he didn't think about vampires, however. He thought about how he finally had gotten access to a TV and that he was home alone this very morning. Mom had worked a lot, and since Sam had helped rebuild the house, she had decided that this was a proper - yet expensive - thank you for all the work he had done. So, Sam got dressed, styled his hair, sprayed on some hairspray, and practically jumped down the stairs, happy to finally enjoy the wonderful world of MTV once again.

He ran into the kitchen. He quickly grabbed a bowl and filled it with cereal, and quickly splashed some milk on top of it. He searched for a spoon, but when he couldn't find any, he settled for a fork. He ran to the couch, jumping over the back and landed-

"What the hell man?!"

Sam jumped up, dropping his cereal. The couch wasn't empty. Instead, a very grouchy, very tired, very familiar vampire lay on the couch.

"You?! What are you doing here?" Sam demanded, grabbing his fork of the ground, pointing it at the vampire.

"Sleeping?" Paul said sheepishly, chuckling at the fork Sam was holding. "You know that won't work right?"

"Shut up, I still got the stakes in my room!"

"Good for you kid."

"Why are you here?" Sam demanded.

"Like I said, I was sleeping!"

"This ain't a hotel, bud! Get back to the cave!"

"I can't." Paul shrugged.

"Why not? Are they mad at you?"

Paul chuckled. "No?"

"Then why don't you go? This isn't even your house? Come on, man, a couple of weeks ago you were ready and happy to kill me!"

"People change?"

"Yeah, right," Sam sighed, cleaning up the spilt cereal. As he cleaned the final bit of milk of the ground he shook his head when he saw Paul rolling a joint. "Absolutely not."

He quickly grabbed it, throwing it out with the cereal - causing Paul to whine.

"Not fair! That shit is expensive!"

"Yeah, well, we don't smoke here."

"Fine," Paul sighed, getting ready to roll another one. He was about to light it when Sam turned around, ready to grab it once again.

"No smoking! If you want to smoke you go outside!"

"I can't!"

Sam stopped, realising that Paul was right. The sun was up.

"Well, the least you can do is move so I can watch some tee-"

Sam sighed, realising that the loud snores were not faked. The vampire had fallen asleep again

"He's bloody impossible," mumbled Sam as he made sure all of the curtains were closed. "Rude ass vampire. Yeah, join a gang, Mike! It will be fun!" He sat down on the couch, folding Paul up so his spot was free. Paul's head lay not at his feet, but he just continued sleeping.

"Not like all of those weird undead friends of yours will use our house as a hotel when they bloody live in one!" Sam continued as he reached for the remote controller, turning the TV on.

"Your couch is better!" Paul mumbled.

"Go back to sleep."

"I thought you wanted me to go?" Paul moved to sit more comfortably.

Sam sighed, rolling his eyes. "Why, why am I the one with a family that walks right into the arms of a bunch of vampires?"

"Cause your tasty?"

"What?!" Sam shrieked, jumping off the couch, causing Paul to burst out in laughter.

"Nothing."

"I remind you, I still have those stakes!"

Sam sighed as he realised Paul had once again fallen asleep. As he finally turned the telly on, turning the channel to mtv, he noticed an empty bottle of liquor laying next to the couch.

"Great." He mumbled. "With my luck, I'll be dealing with a hungover vampire later."

[nyxiswrites1200]

𝑨𝒍𝒖𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒅'𝒔 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒈𝒚

Fem!Reader x Alucard Hellsing

Warnings: Vampires, biting, Mostly SFW, mild mentions of violence, Reader replaces Seras Victoria, Hellsing Spoilers, Non-canon + Canon events, making out, kissing, blood sharing, spit sharing, praise

Preferably Minors DNI

Nobody tell me this isn't canon, I'm aware, I'm delulu and I needed this, love y'all <3

AO3 Link

----

When you find yourself stuck between two evils, a vampire trying to kill you, and a vampire trying to hunt that vampire; you're not sure how you got here.

Alucard's gun fires and you feel the familiar pain in your chest- and then you jolt awake.

These nightmares have been popping up a lot lately. Of the day you met Alucard, your master. You jolt again when you meet a familiar dark presence lurking in the corner of the room.

"Master?" You ask softly, and Alucard's tall and dark figure approaches you.

"I know you haven't been sleeping well, mortal girl", he states the obvious as he reaches the table and sits down. The ice bucket with a single pack of blood still sits there, untouched by you.

You sigh and help yourself off the bed, taking a seat across from Alucard. "And you're not eating" he states the obvious yet again.

"I'm immortal now, remember?" You respond with a bit of an attitude but you forget Alucard is quite sassy himself. "Won't be for long if you don't eat" he snarks as a response.

You knew he was right, but you never wanted to go on admitting that. Another sigh leaves you as you sit back in the chair.

Alucard narrows his eyes at you before removing his tinted glasses and hat. You always forget how hauntingly beautiful this undead man is. Leading to you forgetting the way your face feels warm when he speaks to you like this, in such a personal manner.

"Listen, police girl, you have to consume blood eventually. Whether you like the idea or not, it's not avoidable" he explains, trying to be blunt but also reason with his prodigy. He knows this isn't ideal for you, nor him either. But he has no hard feelings for you, he never wants to see you hurt because of him. He kills horrid vampires, and cruel beings, and maybe sometimes whatever interests him is a good fight. Outside of that, his interests are beyond even your imagination of what he wants.

"I know, Alucard. But it's just... I know what I am, but I feel like a monster. I just can't get past that." You try to explain but find yourself frustrated in trying.

"Police girl, we are monsters. There's no denying any part of that. Do you think me a monster, an awful person, darling?" He asks as a casual smirk plays on his lips, showing his fangs a bit.

"Mm... You are a monster, master. But I do not think you are awful. You help innocent people in your own way and you protect Integra and me..." You respond as you feel the scar on your throat from that damned priest's knife.

Alucard lets out a sound of acceptance as a response before he speaks "Then there's your answer. You watched me drink from that journalist woman, you know my nature as well as you know yours. You just won't commit to yours." He explains before he holds out a gloved hand, motioning to the blood packet in front of him. "Do you need me to feed you for God's sake, darling?" He says in a mocking manner with a laugh. Though you wouldn't mind that, and your silence prompts him to get that memo a little too quickly.

Alucard chuckles, as he picks up the blood packet from the ice.

"Always have to watch after you. Such a clumsy girl you are, darling. Not that I mind, it does add some interest to my immortal torment." He adds a smirk before opening the blood packet. You're unsure of what to say when he gets like this; you just sit there with your face continuing to feel warmer by the second.

Alucard pours a bit of the blood into his mouth, getting a taste for it. It's not quite his style, considering he much prefers something fresh, but he'll manage for his prodigy.

Alucard stands from his seat, stalking over to you. You already had a feeling you knew what he was gonna do, and you weren't against it in the slightest bit.

"Do you want my help, darling?" He asks in one of his gentler tones that you can hardly believe he manages. It doesn't take you long to utter a small yes as a response.

Alucard finishes put the blood packet into his mouth before leaning down and kissing him deeply. His long tongue slips into your mouth as you taste the blood he drank. You swallowed without a second thought for once.

Alucard pulls off one of his gloves and gently holds your chin, making sure you don't spill any. You feel your breath hitch as you finish drinking the blood from Alucard's mouth. But he hasn't pulled away yet.

His tongue is still slipping against yours, making you almost drool. You find yourself tangling a hand into his long, black hair, needing to ground yourself on something.

You swear you hear him groan as he finally pulls away, a string of saliva following his tongue as it leaves your mouth.

He composes himself, you're not even sure how to compose yourself from that.

"Good girl" he praises you, as he pulls his gloves back on.

"Um... Thank you, master" you muttered, still embarrassed and unsure of what to say to that. Alucard smirks and chuckles a little at your flustered response.

"Take care of yourself, police girl" was his only response before he disappeared into a black void.

Leaving you flustered and partially confused, you just made out with a centuries-possibly old vampire...

[dontmixpaintinyourcoffee]

The queen herself!

design notes under the cut

alright, let's get started with the outfit-

The thing is that Ravens outfit is really cool, but it is a PAIN to draw, at least for me. There are some small details that come from them having to fit doll molds that drive me crazy, like the fact that Ravens shoes don't have heels but she walks like they do

I also had gotten really, really bored of drawing skirts, so pants it is

Ravens look is majority black with purple and silver accents, but I tweaked it a bit so that purple is the primary color, just for fun

The feathers were cool, but I wanted to save them for fancier looks, so instead I went with dragon wing style clamps on her jacket. It always bugged me that she was the first character with a dragon and that she didn't have any draconic features on her

Alright, so this is my explanation for the way she dresses in this interpretation- she doesn't want to be seen as evil, but her wardrobe is literally cursed to make any and all clothes she tries on as much like her mother's as possible. So she has to try and mold it to her own style, like "ok what's the most normal thing in here" but she's going through Goth Skeletor's closet and this is what she's managed to put together. I'd say she did pretty good! Cravat is a little much though

Yes she only wears one glove, that's on purpose. It was gonna be that the gloved hand is her primary spellcasting hand, but I immediately ruined that, so now I guess that's just something Raven thinks looks cool

Ok now the more character lore stuff

That weird little skull nightmare next to her is Prince! I don't have and have never read the books, but I have spent a lot of time going over wiki pages to try and find details I can incorporate into these designs. Apparently when Raven was a little kid her dad got her a puppy which she called Prince. At some point her mom decided it was unfitting for an evil princess and transformed him into whatever the hell a bone rat is. Needless to say, traumatizing. I can't stand a single even vaguely negative thing happening to a dog, so I'm deciding that Prince is alive, kind of immortal since he's undead-ish, and maintains the same memory and personality. He lives with Raven's dad when she's at school and he's a very good boy, he's just really, really weird.

Yeah I don't know where I'm gonna fit Nevermore in, I think she's just gonna have to join the canon with the rest of them in Dragon Games, cause I like Prince way more conceptually tbh

Evil Raven cause why not. I actually have some ideas on how the queen lineage would work, especially because Raven seems to completely control every aspect of her powers after signing in Way Too Wonderland. I really like the idea that as the next queen grows they gain more magic, but because they siphon it from the previous generation. Raven had a natural affinity for basic spells her whole life, but after a certain age she started to take her mom's powers, which are the new ones she can't control. Plus, I like that angle on the whole jealousy thing. The Queen isn't just bitter that Snow White is more fair than her, it's the double whammy of knowing that no matter what she does, her power will be drained away and made pointless by both Snow and her own family. Usurping based angst

[verdemoun]

You mentioned before about Trelawny accidentally creating alternate universes so what are some examples of those? I can imagine one where they’re hybrids with their associated animals (I associate animals with most of the gang but I haven’t finished yet and I would love to talk about it) or an au where Hosea didn’t die or one where he was the leader or an au where Kieran survived and was more relevant during the later missions and things like that

Shout out to the Strange Man who is the same sort of pseudo-immortal trickster god as Trelawney and is entirely aware of how many times he has fucked up the rdr timeline. Trelawney is like his annoying little brother he turns up to stare at him in silent disappointment as Trelawney realizes how bad he has fucked up. The Strange Man has much more of a code about not interfering with timelines and prefers just being an omnipotent vague god-like figure who turns up around interesting people. This includes lecturing Trelawney about how stupid he is.

some of my fav Trelawney fucked up aus:

stopped Dutch and Hosea from picking up Arthur or ever forming a gang, believing everyone in the gang would have a better chance on their own. accidentally lead to AU where low honor Arthur was the leader of the Morgan Gang, and low honor Kieran is the leader of the O'Driscolls due to Colm being killed by Arthur.

Dutch dying in 1899 due to meddling somehow resulted in undead nightmare AU. rocks up in 1911 expecting to see John Marston living happily uncontacted by the bureau because the gang fell apart naturally and instead there's zombies everywhere and The Strange Man is waiting for him because Josiah Trelawney is in trouble.

Straight up told John he was from the future and what would happen if he went after Micah, which lead to the bureau contacting Micah to hunt down the rest of the gang AU after Micah killed Dutch over the Blackwater money. Micah, being evil, wiped out the entire Marston family.

Attempted to save everyone's lives in a rdr2 time loop style knowing when they were meant to die and doing small things like shouting at Sean to duck, keeping an eye on Kieran at the party, talking them out of the Saint Denis bank job. Butterfly effect resulted in others dying seemingly in their place eg. Molly getting taken by O'Driscolls and tortured to death, Javier being fatally shot, Jack being killed by Bronte because the gang couldn't pay him. Ended in Hosea being shot in the place of Grimshaw, which while Dutch immediately turned and killed Micah in revenge still drove him as insane with grief.

Trelawney thinking he was slick and telling Micah to work with Strauss for a cut of the debt money, resulting in Micah getting TB instead of Arthur. However, because Micah is generally grosser and in camp far more often it spreads through most of the VDL gang and they drop in the following months.

Good ending AU where the gang actually made it to Tahiti, Arthur didn't have TB, everyone was alive and happy farming mangoes and it was perfect but in being such a massive part of the VDL gang to ensure everything went perfect Trelawney forgot to meet his wife and then undid the timeline just to have her and his precious children back.

[vgperson]

Vocaloid Highlights: May 2023

Catch me at the Heavenly Kitsune, asking for the Angel Club special. Highlights Archive

========== Stand-Outs ========== Tell Me Tell Me Tell Me KITSUNE Pâtissière Anyone and Everyone's All By Themselves Glitterful Chain Tentacle LVI Warning From Harborside Bug Please Play-Bite Warm Sun and Grass Idiot Communication Rabbit Hole imaginary love story Flied Chicken Angel Club Breathless Headgear Elevator Girl SLAPSTICK Dance, Flutter, Fall Squall Yellow Freak Out Hr. Miniature Corral PosiNega＊Mistakers Pink Key

========== Worth Your Time ========== Goodbye Sand Whale Agony Affection Extradimensional Space Observation Extra Stage A Flower Florists Hate Need for Nothing R.I.P. divE Doesn't Laugh Palm Planet Even Living cue Fortunately Not Lucky Nor Unlucky But Commonplace Days, and Unfortunately Both Lucky and Unlucky Uncommon Days Chrysalis BAD Balloon Alongside You Night Mode Happy Girl Curiosity Lamp Blue Urging Seeking Light Spring-Style Goddess of Aeon CIRCUS PANIC!!! Such-and-Such Railroad Evening Inherent Repulsion Candy and Whip Breathe! Breathe! Breathe! Breathebreathebreathebreathe!!! Music Eater! Color Liar naiL Talkative Silence Path of Humanity Know the Outlines (Find Yourself) Risuka Night Trip ATLAS Chain-Rhythm of Thoughts Acceptance Do You Copy? Meteor Syndrome Microaggression Iron Bullet Time Mirror Back When the Crow Caws Dangerous Ray Crescent Step 2023 Don't Obstruct the DANCE Rinzen UFO (10th anniv.) Asymmetry Means Spring Opening Being Alive Life Shift After the Rain, You Watched Me. URADORA Cloud River Zo! Kyun♡ Morganite's Exclusion Theory Vampire Girl Hunts the Night Count Girl Fantômas Starlight Al Fine Undead You're a Skyscraper Vivace Days Faulty Illumination Outpour and Dew SUGGESTIVE ACT (2023 ver.) There Was No Fairy nothing Daydream Ensemble I'll Call It Even Violet Garden Arche Reincarnate Now, In the Wind Evening Waiting Original Faker Sebastian Girlish Sentimental Argument Departure Let's Die Together With the Serpent Woman in the Manor Rickenbacker Pui-Pui Girl V!P Blueway Unloved Strawberries Rainy Days. My Toy Mate Ordure Nightmare Beginning WAGA-MAMA (Selfish) Star Magic Don't Wanna Do a Thing Clock Escort With You Just As You Are BB Disco No.39 Medicine Box Mechanical Empathy Period The Witch's Method

[amrass]

can i request some rdr2 fic with supernatural elements? any characters/pairings really, i just feel it will go perfect with your style

Thanks for the request! At first I was like hmm, so many options, what is a supernatural fic that most RDR fans could enjoy? And then I realized: Abigail/John ZOMBIE SMUT! 😎 Yeeeah

Key words: Undead Nightmare AU, femdom, undead!Abigail, slutty John, biting, zombie turning sex, happy ending 🧟‍♂️🖤🧟‍♀️

Request filled here on ao3 as part 4 of BT, named Undead Delight.

PS: If this ^ is too gross for you, anon, I'll also be writing a supernatural fic about The Strange Man and his relationship to Dutch van der Linde and Colm O'Driscoll in part 6 ☺️

[loftylockjaw]

TIMING: Shortly after Anita’s birthday party LOCATION: Mansión Mexicana PARTIES: Wyatt (@loftylockjaw) & Anita (@gossipsnake) SUMMARY: While sitting and chatting about their lives, Wyatt opens up to his friend about his nightmare problems, and Anita supports his decision to handle it with violence. CONTENT WARNINGS: very very brief drug mention

—

There were a lot of little ways that Anita had made Wicked’s Rest feel comfortable to her, made it feel as close to home as it could. Her house was the most significant part of that. Isolated from a lot of the town and out of place in terms of its Spanish architectural style, it was truly her sanctuary. Much to her dismay, the house did little in the way of giving her any sense of real community. That wasn’t to say she hadn’t built meaningful connections over the years in town but Anita missed the comfort of being surrounded by lamia. Practically she understood why her fellow reptilian beings didn’t seem to flock to the cold shores of Maine which only increased her desire to seek out the others who braved the colder weather. 

It had been no surprise that, eventually, a lamia had found their way into the Grit Pit. Anita could still recall the first time she saw Wyatt rip the limbs from his opponent in a fight - a beautifully bloody work of art. It didn’t take long for the pair to realize they had a lot more in common than just stunning scales and exceptional bone structure. They also shared a love for the miscellaneous excitements that life had to offer, which allowed for a budding friendship to take root. Anita not only enjoyed the evenings they would spend together but found herself actively looking forward to them. 

“No, no, no,” Anita corrected with a soft laugh, “I meant, like, what’s the weirdest thing that’s happened in town to you that ended up being just … normal run of the mill stupid human shit? For me, it was probably when I thought that the professor I shared an office with during my first year at the University had become some kind of undead being. I mean, the man looked and smelled like death. He kept complaining about losing time and one time I came in early and there was a strange blood trail throughout the office.” She paused, partially for dramatic effect and partially to take another swig of tequila. “Turns out his wife caught him cheating, kicked him out,  and he was sleeping in the office. I guess a science lab and sleepwalking can make for a dangerous combination.” 

—

Laughing at her story, Wyatt shrugged his shoulders. “Well damn, woman, I don’t know! There’s so much weird shit that happens around here on the daily, I can’t keep track! Sucks big time for that guy, though. You know, that’s probably as good an incentive against marriage as I’ve ever heard.” He chuckled again, trying to think of something specific. Odds were he was too ignorant of the supernatural beyond some shifters and some undead to ever peg anyone as supernatural for their weird habits, but… “I mean every really intense horror fan I meet I assume, at least at first, is a bugbear. They’re kinda hard to suss out anyway, you know? But I guess usually they’re just… weird.” He snorted, shaking his head and lapsing into silence as he sipped on the tequila they were sharing. A thought struck him then and he straightened up in his seat a bit, cocking his head at Anita. 

“Oh, by the by… I met this girl recently, another lamia. But like… freshly a lamia, you know? First one in her family. She seemed… less than happy about it.” He scoffed. “Go figure. Anyway, was thinkin’ you might have better luck talkin’ to her… I know I ain’t the most, ahh, what’s the word…” Sensitive. Tactful. Compassionate. “... well, I’m not good at talkin’, is what I’m sayin’. Anyway, sounds like she’s hopin’ for a way to reverse it, which’ll likely just get her killed.”

—

“Oh, don’t you know? All the weird shit is just part of the local, coastal charm! That’s how everyone around here seems to wanna justify it all, anyway.”  As much as Anita thought people were foolish to write off the strange happenings that happened in this town, ultimately their foolishness only benefited her. They were so willing to accept banal explanations for almost anything, so willing to justify an alarming amount of unusual deaths. “You know, now that you mention it, I haven’t come across a bugbear in town since I’ve been here. Not knowingly, anyway. I’ve had a few students who were just weird enough that I wouldn’t have been surprised though…” 

Anita smirked when Wyatt had mentioned meeting a girl, not sure of where this next story was going. And unsure she certainly was. Her left eyebrow raised at the mention of another lamia and she reached for the chilled bottle of tequila out on the table to refill her glass. “First one? That’s…well, I’ve never actually met the first in a lineage before.” The idea of meeting this woman flushed her with excitement and an odd sense of duty. The lamia before her had taught her all she knew about survival but there would be nobody around to teach the first of a bloodline. “Reverse it?” Anita scoffed, shaking her head. “No, no, she just needs someone to talk to, I’m sure. And unlike you I am very good at talking. How did you meet her?” 

The next thought made her smirk softly, always hopeful for more serpentine companions, “What kind of lamia was she?” 

—

“Yeah… that clawed foot that sprang up outta the ground like an eager tulip is real fuckin’ charming,” Wyatt argued under his breath, rolling his eyes. “I guess,” he added in a louder voice for Anita to hear, letting out a huff of breath. “Whatever keeps ‘em from askin’ questions…” 

Anita’s curiosity was good, because that meant that the responsibility of guiding this young lamia was slowly slipping from his shoulders like water off a duck’s back. “Out in the woods, huntin’. We was after the same buck, go figure.” And he’d ripped it in half to share with her, like the gentleman that he was… despite what others might say. There was the question of her reptilian form, to which Wyatt laughed softly and rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh… y’know… snake-y…” he answered dumbly, offering an apologetic shrug a few beats after. “Sorry, can’t say I’m real familiar with snake types. Didn’t know none growin’ up, was never really taught about ‘em. But. She was… pretty.” He coughed. That said literally nothing about her type. Stupid. Shut up. 

Silencing himself with a sip of tequila, the shifter pulled out his phone and started tapping through some menus before pulling up a phone number. He set the device on the table and pushed it closer to Anita, nodding at it at the same time. “That’s her number. I told her I had another lamia friend in town, so you reachin’ out won’t be totally unexpected.” The man sighed and sat back again, dragging a hand across his face. The uninterrupted hours of wakefulness were catching up with him again, and the tequila wasn’t making it any easier to not sink into his seat and have a little siesta… 

—

The fact that it was another snake that Wyatt had encountered made Anita grin. Anyone who got her talking about shifters of any kind for more than a couple of minutes were bound to hear her thoughts on the hierarchy of the species. While she hadn’t (knowingly, soberly, seriously) said so to Wyatt, Anita undoubtedly considered snake lamia to be the superior among the lamia subtypes. “Oh, come on, mi caimán. Just because you may not have known any snake lamia doesn’t mean you don’t know snakes, no? Down that way, I bet you grew up near king snakes, cottonmouths, racers,” Anita paused for a moment, the tequila straining her geographical knowledge ever so slightly, “and a bunch more, I’m sure.” 

Pulling out her own phone, Anita copied the number into her contacts, “What? You didn’t get a name?” As she put her phone away, Anita noticed that Wyatt seemed more muted than usual. Nudging him playfully as he leaned back in the chair, she quickly sought to fill the silence. “Ay, someone special been keeping you up late? Making you too tired to enjoy this incredible tequila and even more fantastic company?” It wasn’t that Anita couldn’t handle a lul in the conversation, or silence, for that matter. It was just that it made her uncomfortable. Especially lately, she didn’t want to be left in a circumstance where she wasn’t distracted from her own thoughts. “Spill.” She prompted with a smirk.

—

Sometimes he forgot how smart Anita was, by no fault of her own. He’d just grown up around rather…. uneducated types, so he wasn’t exactly used to the effortless way she rattled off different snake species that he had undoubtedly encountered down in the bayou, but never knew the names of. It did manage to make him feel stupid at times, which he couldn’t really hold against her. It was good that she was intelligent, imagine if all lamia were brutes like him? They’d probably go extinct within a decade, if no new ones were made. Sighing, Wyatt shrugged his shoulders. “Sure, Anita, sure I did. But I was more interested in eatin’ ‘em than I was studyin’ ‘em,” he explained, exasperated. “Anyway, she didn’t look like any I’d seen before. Kinda had a… a curved snout. Y’know, like a… um…” He had to think hard about it for a moment before the name came to him, “Like a hognose. But the colors were darker.” Wyatt then gave a mock-offended huff. “Course I did. Isa. Isa Caceres. Good snake name, eh? You know, what with all the hissin’. Weird she wasn’t born into it.”  

He felt Anita nudge him and couldn’t help the smile that slipped across his face, closing his eyes for a moment. “Someone special? Don’t think that’s the right word.” No one had ever been special to him like that, at least not as far as he’d let himself explore the feeling. His mind did wander to a few people, but of course they were not the cause of his exhaustion. Not… directly, anyway. “No, it’s just…” He debated how much he wanted to say to her. They were friends, and they were bonded by something different than he had with anyone else… but god, was it weak of him to admit that he was afraid of sleeping? I’ve been having these nightmares the last few months. Real bad ones. I wake up in a panic, and I’ve been waking up shifted. And it wasn’t just that. I’m having a harder and harder time telling what’s real. The birds are everywhere, and that leg in the woods… that can’t be real, right? But I see it on the horizon all the time. I don’t even know if I’m awake right now. 

“... trouble sleepin’, I guess.”

—

Anita was never the type to let people make her feel bad for who she was, and she was a lot. She didn’t know exactly what the source of the apparent exasperation that came from Wyatt’s response was, but she took no offense. “I get it. A regular snake is fair game, I suppose. Certainly below lamia on the food chain.” She knew that her curiosity, her constant desire to learn about the things she saw in the world was not something that everyone shared. After all it was the thing that drove such a wedge between herself and the rest of her family, it was something they never could understand. “Isa Caceres,” Anita responded, drawing out all of the s sounds dramatically. “I like it. She may not have been born with it, but seems as though she was destined for it.” 

The smile that came after her question was so intriguing. The question had mostly been in jest considering how the pair had often bonded over their lack of any singular special someone, and a bit of a lack of desire to be tied down to one person. Or at least that was how Anita had perceived it. For a moment it seemed as though he was going to give her some sort of real response, and Anita refilled both of their glasses with more tequila in anticipation. But instead, she got a rather lame generic answer. 

“Oh,” she nodded, lifting up her glass to take a sip. “Yeah, that happens sometimes I suppose.” Anita tried to figure out why she felt a bit strange. Sometimes she wondered if she spent so much time studying the behavior of insects and of others that she saw things that weren’t really there. Was his extended pause because he was tired? Or had he considered telling her more before deciding not to? If it had been the latter, she couldn’t help but wonder what it was about her that made him hold back. “Sometimes when I need a good night's sleep, I go to sleep without being shifted out of the mojave. I have a room with several industrial heat lamps. It reminds me of sleeping out in the desert. If you want, you could borrow the room for a night sometime.” 

—

He could sense the shift in her demeanor. His answer, vague as it was, hadn’t been what she wanted to hear. Even her generous offer, one that he was very inclined to take her up on, didn’t hide her disappointment. There he went again, disappointing the people he cared about. 

“Ahh, it’s just… it’s more than that. Obviously.” He sighed, rubbing his neck with his free hand. “Sorry. I’m… my shit has been… pretty fucked, lately.” He laughed. “Your party was a bright spot, actually.” Sucking in a long breath, Wyatt started to list things aloud. “Let’s see… I fucked up one of my friend’s lives more than it was already fucked up because I was trying to help them and I’m shit at that… I got a boyfriend, found out someone I was messing around with stabbed said boyfriend, then got dumped two days later for someone else… I accidentally killed a friend of mine during a fight because hey! Turns out I’m actually losing my mind! Which is just the cherry on top of all of this. I can’t sleep because when I sleep I have these awful fucking nightmares, so bad that I sometimes shift without meaning to. And now I’m starting to lose it even when I’m awake, or when I think I’m awake, because honestly, girl? I can’t fuckin’ tell anymore.” He huffed out another breath and gave Anita a shrug. “So… that’s the short of it. I’m probably forgetting some other terrible thing that happened, but it’s all startin’ to run together now anyway.” He raised his brows, looking at her like is that truthful enough? as he knocked back the tequila she’d poured him.

—

Despite her disappointment in Wyatt’s very non-response response, Anita didn’t really expect that her subtly was going to push him to open up. So when it did she almost didn’t know how to respond. Almost, until he complimented the elaborate surprise party she had thrown herself.  “Ay, si, the party was a bright spot for a lot of people I think. We all need a release sometimes.” But she could only beam with pride for a few short moments, as the floodgates had seemed to open and his pause wasn’t the end of his comments but merely the preamble. 

Several times, Anita opened her mouth to say something, to comment - at the mention of a boyfriend, someone getting stabbed, getting dumped, an accidental death - but the hits kept coming. For a split second, when he mentioned killing someone in a fight, there was a flash of panic in her eyes as she thought of Felix. But she had just spoken to them that morning, there wouldn’t have been any fights since that conversation, and she’d like to think Wyatt would know better than to bury the lead with that. “Mierda, that honestly sounds like someone trying to summarize a bad arc of a telenovela.” She poured herself another shot, then slid the bottle across the bar towards him. 

“Sorry, amor, I didn’t mean that in any kind of way. Just… fuck, I had no idea.” Anita was never very good at catastrophic problem solving. None of these things really seemed fixable by offering to kill someone. “Any of these friends the one you hooked up with in my guest room at the party?” That wasn’t the right thing to say and she knew it, but it was what came out. 

—

“It’s fine. It is a bad arc. It’s the shittiest arc! I’d really like to have a fuckin’ word with my writer,” Wyatt complained, smirking in spite of the shithole that was his life at present. At least someone in his life knew how to make it less grave. Maybe he’d look back on this some day and laugh. Maybe. He reached for the bottle, pouring himself some more while she asked a follow up question. One that had his brows raising and a grin appearing on his face, an actual grin, not one that felt forced. 

“Oh, that?” He clicked his tongue, deciding in that moment that he wasn’t going to be a sad piece of shit for one night, regardless of whatever waited for him outside the safety and comfort of Anita’s home. “No, no… that’s a new friend. Totally detached from all of that other shit, thank god. I don’t, ah… damn, I don’t even remember how we met.” He was really digging for it, but coming up short. “All I remember is him showin’ up at my place in a cab, givin’ me a pill, takin’ me to a club, and fuckin’ me in… a coat closet? Hell if I can recall.” The man laughed, giving Anita a shrug. “I guess he and I kinda have a pattern that we follow. Sorry to your guest room specifically.” 

—

Anita tilted her head slightly, but smiled and laughed along with her friend. For all of their distinct differences and obvious similarities, one thing that was more subtle she had noticed was that they both seemed to resort to humor and distraction when things were complicated. In a way it was nice to have someone who she could reasonably rely on to “yes, and” her delusions but she also couldn’t help but wonder if this was the kind of support that he needed. Was she being a good friend or a bad influence? 

But the story of this new ‘friend,’ was far too intriguing, pulling her mind out of more philosophical questions and back down into the reality of the evening. Her grin grew wider as he kept adding onto the story, to a more level headed person there may have been some red flags picked up upon, but Anita didn’t see any. “Now that sounds like one hell of a friend.” Having some easy, light, exceptionally enjoyable fun seemed like a good thing. How could it be anything else? “My guest room has seen far worse, it’s alright.” 

Anita pulled the bottle back across the table, not bothering with a glass and taking a shot out of it directly before pushing it back towards Wyatt. She scratched her head slightly, sighing softly as a few thoughts began to settle into place in the midst of the tequila haze. She’d been around a few mares long enough to wonder if someone might be targeting her friend.  “These nightmares. When’d they start?” 

—

See? He knew she'd forgive him. Not that that had needed proving, but it felt nice to be right about something regardless. He'd been wrong about a lot of things lately. 

Then she was asking about the nightmares. “Funny story, that,” Wyatt began, scoffing to himself. It didn't matter that he now had a lead on why they were happening, it didn't immediately fix his insomnia or deeply rooted fear of birds, of all fucking things. “A few months ago. Came out of nowhere, really. Just started having freaky dreams that were all bird-themed, you know. And they just kept escalating. Then I started seeing someone in my dreams a lot.” He paused. “Saw her when I was awake too, I think.” He threw Anita a knowing glance. “Turns out, she might be real. Might be the one giving me nightmares.” He shook his head, reaching for the bottle and taking a pull directly from it like Anita had. “Gonna try and get that sorted, yanno, quick as I can. Still don't mean I'm gettin’ restful sleep though.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. “Might… take you up on those heating lamps. Can't remember the last time I was able to get a proper sunnin’ nap in. Bet that's not helping.” He'd been running cold for months now. 

—

Anita frowned as Wyatt talked about these nightmares being what she felt fairly certain to be the description of a mare targeting him, feeding from him. “Poor, sweet, baby boy. Yes. It sounds like you have a silly witch giving you nightmares. Not a real witch,” she clarified, “but you should find this woman and you should eat her. That will stop the bird dreams.” There was part of her that wondered whether or not one of the mares she knew was the one feeding from her friend. It would not have changed her advice, though. That was survival of the fittest. If you disturb a species higher up than you, you can’t be surprised when you find your neck crushed between the teeth of a lamia. 

“It’s almost impossible in this town. Set aside the fact that it’s not even warm enough outside for more than half the year to get a good sun nap, all the good secluded spots in the forest have too much shade and the spots with nice sunlight feel… too exposed sometimes.” Anita thought about how easy it was back home, when the temperatures spiked so high that most humans stayed indoors, to head out into the desert and bask in the sun. “You can stay here tonight, if you want, and enjoy the heat. I don’t mind.” 

—

Wyatt smiled. They really were of similar minds, and while it hardly came as a surprise, it was always a comforting thing to experience. It made him feel just a little bit less alone. Anita understood him, and she didn’t judge him, far as he could tell. She was perhaps the closest thing he had to actual family around here, which meant she was filling in a rather sizable hole in Wyatt’s heart. He was glad to have found her, and glad that they’d become such fast, fierce friends. The man nodded in agreement, shaking a finger at her. “My thoughts exactly,” he answered with a grin. 

“Yeah… it’s tragic, is what it is. Came too damn far north.” Sometimes he had half a mind to go back to the swamps, but now he couldn’t, could he? He was trapped here. In that context, her offer was even more welcome than it would’ve been otherwise, and his situation left very little room for pride. Well, at least when it came to Anita. He’d bury his problems with most other people, just like he’d tried to bury them here, with her, just before opening up. It was his default setting, and he had to actively fight against it to accept charity. “That’d be amazing, actually. Thanks, my little Mojave aster,” he chuckled, knowing the exasperated glare that might be coming his way for that one. “I owe you.”

[derangedanomaly]

i’m sorry cricket i will not be taking your man but i would like to be held and also he is pretty as are all of the boys >///< /lh /nm. fluffymare in return, here ya go! yugioh anon, back again >w<

summary: inspired by chaos’s love for making food, you try out making homemade ice cream for the summer. nightmare checks in on you and unsubtly flirts with you. he chats with you while you Create. implied relationship beforehand. can you tell i got tired at the end lol it is 6:30 am i need to sleep

Dry, heavy heat surrounds you as you step out of the lush courtyard and back into the house. Sweat shines on your forehead. Summer was lovely for gardening and exploring the outdoors, but that uncomfortable air following you inside every single time was one thing you could live without. Unluckily for you, you live in a house filled with skeletons who can’t generate heat so the house is consistently just a bit warmer than preferred.

Forcing yourself to continue walking down the hall, you turn to the kitchen. A part of you would kill for something cold. You open the fridge to find… nothing. The entire thing has been emptied by someone. Scratch what you thought before, you might actually kill somebody. There’s a bit of milk, some stray fruits, a knife that you assume to be Blade ‘pranking’ Ted, and a bit of heavy cream. Wait, milk, some fruits, and heavy cream? Wasn’t Chaos talking about making ice cream soon? He bought an ice cream maker and the ingredients!

Your footsteps are just about the only sounds you hear for the next few minutes as you get out the ingredients and measure them out in the bowl. You remember a recipe saying that you can just put them in together chilled and it will work out fine, so you put your trust in it. As you’re setting the bowl back in, you see Nightmare approach in a fanciful outfit.

“Are you using the set Chaos bought, my other half?” Nightmare asks, sitting down straight in a chair as he watched you move about.

You nod and reply, “Mhm! It’s gotten so hot recently, I figured I should just make some now. I doubt he’ll complain about homemade desserts.”

The slightly sassy response makes him smile a bit, but he frowns at the comment about the temperature. He’d never admit it, but he tends to forget the requirements of the human body compared to his and all the other undead occupants of the house.

“Would you not rather a servant make some for you? If it is as hot as you say, I doubt moving around consistently is beneficial.”

You smile at his offer, but shake your head. Despite his neglectful act he oftens puts up, that concerned tone and worried stare give him away. Besides, you’ve almost finished the process so why get someone else to do it now?

“Since you have a moment, would you care to occupy me in donning a recent set of garments created by my designers?” His tone is formal, as if uncaring, but you understand the question. Nightmare wants to do a mini fashion show with you. The two of you relax for a long while, putting on various outfits and picking which look best. You both offer advice and critiques on the new style, but come out of it pleased.

When you finish making the ice cream, you set it into two bowls and hand one to Nightmare while you sink against the counter. The chill sweetness that coats your tongue feels like the core of your being is cooling down. A content smile spreads across your face. Nightmare would recoil from the immense positivity, but seeing you cooling off allows his worries to subside.

“Try some, it’s really sweet!”

“No dessert could rival your gracious attitude, my one and only.”

His cheesy words make you giggle, but you smile at him. A king of negativity, a nightmare, but your Nightmare.

Aww, never thought I'd live to see the day of Nightmare acting soft lol

Love this!

[writingkitten]

Molina-verse HCs: What cryptid/ghost/legend would they be?

Ricardo: Baihu, or White Tiger; one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations; sometimes called the White Tiger of the West; represents the west in terms of direction and the autumn season; as with the other three Symbols, there are seven astrological "Mansions" (positions of the Moon) within the White Tiger; location - China (the article wasn’t specific on regions or eras)

Doc Ock: Adaro; akin to mermen, they specifically have gills behind their ears, tail fins for feet, a horn like a shark’s dorsal fin, and a swordfish/sawfish-like spear growing out of their heads; believed to be the evil ghost of one who has died (Adaro is from the Arosi language, referring to the ‘evil soul’, which lives on as a ghost, whereas the Aunga refers to the ‘good soul’, which dies and moves on when the person dies), Adaro are said to kill fishermen by firing flying fish at them; location - Makira Island, The Solomon Islands (alt. Gegenees, six-armed giants)

Robert: Bödvar Bjarki, or ‘Warlike Little-Bear’; technically a human, but he has a fetch that is a monstrous bear, killed the king of Norway (Hring, who is technically his grandfather) and took his place, later visited his brother (who was an elk from the waist down) and was urged to drink the brother’s blood (which greatly increased his strength), went on to serve as an adviser to the king of Denmark, died in battle but not before he entered a trance-like state and had his fetch do heavy damage to the enemy’s army; location - Nordic countries, but especially Norway and Denmark

Harold: Vampire; undead humanoid with fangs, varies in style; a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living; undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods which they inhabited while they were alive; wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century; -there’s so much to this but it’s all really interesting look it up-, location - worldwide, primarily began in Eastern Europe

Harding: Caladrius; a snow-white bird; lives in the king's house; said to be able to take the sickness into itself and then fly away, dispersing the sickness and healing both itself and the sick person; location - Ancient Rome

Manuel: Incubus; a demon in male form in folklore that seeks to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women; the corresponding spirit in female form is called a succubus; The Late Latin word incubus ("a nightmare induced by a demon") is derived from Latin incubō ("nightmare, what lies down on one whilst one sleeps") and further from incubāre ("to lie upon, to hatch"). One of the earliest evident mentions of a demon sharing qualities to an incubus comes from Mesopotamia on the Sumerian King List, circa 2400 BC, where the hero Gilgamesh's father is listed as Lilu. Lilu is described as "disturbing" and "seducing" women in their sleep. The half-human offspring of such a union is sometimes referred to as a cambion. An incubus may pursue sexual relations with a woman to father a child, as in the legend of Merlin,[9] which was the first popular account of demonic parentage in Western Christian literature; location - international, especially is areas that practice Christianity.

Chandler: Barghest, or Barguest; a large black dog with fiery eyes, alt. invisible but accompanied by the sound of rattling chains; considered an omen of death; location - Northern England

Maxim: Lich; usually a form of “visually” undead, such as being zombified or as a skeleton; Lich is an archaic English word for "corpse"; creature is the result of a willful transformation, as a powerful wizard skilled in necromancy who seeks eternal life uses rare substances in a magical ritual to become undead. Unlike zombies, which are often depicted as mindless, liches are sapient revenants, retaining their previous intelligence and magical abilities. Liches are often depicted as holding power over lesser mindless undead soldiers and servants; Liches are sometimes depicted using a magical device called a phylactery to anchor their souls to the physical world so that if their body is destroyed they can rise again over and over, as long as the phylactery remains intact; location - since Liches are now more commonly seen in fiction than as a real-life urban legend, where they are varies, however I think it’s safe to say that the most popular original location for Liches was England

Big Boss: Jersey Devil; often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many variations. The common description is that of a bipedal kangaroo-like or wyvern-like creature with a horse- or goat-like head, leathery bat-like wings, horns, small arms with clawed hands, legs with cloven hooves, and a forked or pointed tail. It has been reported to move quickly and is often described as emitting a high-pitched "blood-curdling scream"; The Lenape people who originally inhabited the Pine Barrens believed the area was inhabited by a spirit called M'Sing, which sometimes took the form of a "deer-like creature with leathery wings." Then there’s the popular folklore: the Jersey Devil originated with a Pine Barrens resident named Jane Leeds, known as "Mother Leeds." The legend states that Mother Leeds had twelve children and, after finding she was pregnant for the thirteenth time, cursed the child in frustration, crying that the child would be the "devil." In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night while her friends gathered around her. Born as a normal child, the thirteenth child changed to a creature with hooves, a goat's head, bat wings, and a forked tail. Growling and screaming, the child beat everyone with its tail before flying up the chimney and heading into the pines. In some versions of the tale, Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child's father was the devil, himself. Some versions of the legend also state that there was a subsequent attempt by local clergymen to exorcise the creature from the Pine Barrens; location - Pine Barrens, New Jersey, USA

Hank: Skunk Ape; bipedal ape-like creature, similar to Bigfoot but with a distinct smell; known to raid food stores and stalk fishermen (and others probably); location - Florida, especially in and around the Everglades

Boris: Cat-sìth; resembles a large black cat, as big as an average-sized dog, with a white spot on its chest, typically depicted with its back arched; a fairy creature from Celtic mythology believed to haunt the Scottish Highlands, some believe that it’s not a fairy but actually a witch (they can only change into a cat nine times, the ninth change causing them to remain a cat forever, this is believed to be a possible origin of the “nine lives” thing), also believed to steal souls if they pass over a body before the burial (Late Wakes used as a means to keep the cat-sìth away, and no fires were lit near the body because the creature enjoys the warmth), on Samhain the creature would bless a house that left a saucer of milk out for it and curse a house that didn’t (mainly drying up the udders of cows so no dairy products could be produced), a specific cat-sìth known as Big Ears can be summoned to appear and grant the summoner any wish (the summoning, however, involves burning the bodies of cats over the course of four days and nights); location - Scotland

Arden: Mothman; humanoid, often described as “man-sized bird”; seen from November 15, 1966, to December 15, 1967 in Point Pleasant; the first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register, dated November 16, 1966, titled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird ... Creature ... Something"; there are many claims that there were paranormal events related to the sightings, and a connection to the collapse of the Silver Bridge; location - Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Dunlop: Dobhar-chú, aka Water Hound or King Otter; a large, otter-like aquatic mammal with a dark cross on its back, sometimes described as being half otter half dog, also has been described as half dog half fish; known to eat people, although the main legend goes that a woman was eaten, then her husband came and killed the creature only for its mate to rise out of the water and attack the husband… who then also killed that one; location - Ireland

Dick: Alovot; largely likened to a pheasant about the size of a chicken, with dark-brown plumage with lighter spots, has a small, comb-like crest (perhaps only in males), with short legs; a nocturnal creature, indicating that it is shy and cautious; feeds on rice, nests on stumps or logs, and its eggs are light brown and smaller than a hen’s; its primary habitat is dense forest; it takes flight with a heavy, low flight when surprised; location - Simeulue Island, Sumatra, Indonesia

Armand: Leshy; though he often has the appearance of a man, his eyebrows, eyelashes, and right ear are missing, his head is somewhat pointed, and he lacks a hat and belt. In his native forest the leshy is as tall as the trees, but, the moment he steps beyond, he shrinks to the size of grass; a sportive spirit who enjoys playing tricks on people, though when angered he can be treacherous. He is seldom seen, but his voice can be heard in the forest laughing, whistling, or singing; location - Slavic forests

Jim Bussey (ye ye I’m adding the other mortician baby): Ankou; appears as a man or skeleton in a black robe and a large hat that hides his face, welds a scythe, often seen on a cart or driving a black coach to collect the dead (accompanied by four black horses and two ghostly figures); either the first child of Adam and Eve, a cruel prince who lost a bet with Death, the king of death, or the first/last dead person of the year, often seen as a henchman of Death that protects cemeteries and collects lost souls; location - France, Wales, Cornwall

Andres: Chupacabra; depictions vary from reptilian-like to dog-like (for Andres I lean towards the dog-like version); vampiristic tendencies, specifically sucking the blood of goats and other livestock (‘chupar’ means ‘to suck’, ‘cabras’ means ‘goats’, so literally a ‘goat-sucker’); location - Mexico and Southwestern United States

Oswald: Fènghuáng; mythological bird, categorized (by Wikipedia) with phoenixes; found in Sinospheric mythology; reigns over all other birds; males were originally called fèng and the females huáng, but this distinction of gender is often no longer made and they are blurred into a single feminine entity so that the bird can be paired with the Chinese dragon, which is traditionally deemed male; a common depiction of fenghuang was of it attacking snakes with its talons and its wings spread; fenghuang is made up of the beak of a rooster, the face of a swallow, the forehead of a fowl, the neck of a snake, the breast of a goose, the back of a tortoise, the hindquarters of a stag and the tail of a fish; today, it is often described as a composite of many birds including the head of a golden pheasant, the body of a mandarin duck, the tail of a peacock, the legs of a crane, the mouth of a parrot, and the wings of a swallow; location - China

Edelweiss: Drop Bear; a massive koala; drop bears are described as unusually large and vicious marsupials that inhabit treetops and attack unsuspecting people (or other prey) that walk beneath them by dropping onto their heads from above; location - Australia

Diego: Duende; humanoid figure; comparable to dwarves, gnomes, or leprechauns; duende originated as a contraction of the phrase dueñ(o) de casa, effectively "master of the house", or perhaps derived from some similar mythical being of the Visigoth or Swabian culture given its comparable looks with the “Tomte” of the Swedish language conceptualized as a mischievous spirit inhabiting a dwelling; location - Mexico (variations seen across the world)

I took off Otto and Frank because this was already too long lol if y’all want I’ll do a part two!!

[memento-morri-writes]

hi !! I was wondering if you have any dnd characters you wanna talk about :) (in response to ur tags on my post)

ARE YOU KIDDING ME, OF COURSE I DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is going under the cut because I talk too much!

So, the love of my fucking life is my swashbuckler rogue, Rook. (art of him here and here.) He has a very, very fucked up backstory, which I talked about here. (mind the tws on that post.)

I posted several snippets of the prose version I did of my favorite session I've ever played with him here. (again, mind the tws.) (I will gladly share the link to that entire doc if anyone wants to read it, as I'm very proud of it.)

But to be brief, he's the bastard son of a nobleman who's father hated him. He ran away from home as a teen, booked it to the nearest port town, and joined the crew of a pirate ship, captained by a woman named Zara. She was his mentor for YEARS and taught him everything. She also gifted him his magic rapier.

He got named first mate, which some people took issue with since he was one of the youngest crew members. They betrayed him and kidnapped him, giving him to rival pirate captain Kora Wolf, who kept him prisoner for two years before he was able to escape.

He ran away and entered the Feywild and was hiding there for several months before he was recruited by the party.

Currently, my poor man is having a terrible time. Two of the his party members are close with Captain Wolf, and one of them bought her lies about Rook, and now doesn't trust him. On top of this, he's been cursed by a demon lord, which is currently affecting him by not letting him sleep, partly due to terrible nightmares.

He's a super interesting character because on one hand he's very paranoid and mistrusting (especially now with his lack of sleep), but he also has never been shown much kindness in life, and it doesn't take all that much for him to be willing to die for you. He's incredibly reckless and will dive into dangerous situations without a second's thought, especially to save his friends. He joined a pirate crew because he was terrified of getting stuck in one boring place, and that says a lot about him. He idolizes Zara, and I have NO IDEA how he'll react when he meets her again, since he never got to say goodbye and has changed so much in the nearly 3 years since he saw her. Our party's gunslinger lowkey adopted him, and after the scene I linked above, he told someone "I missed having someone to take care of." which almost broke me.

As you can tell, I'm obsessed with this man, and I love making his life miserable. But don't worry, he'll get his happy ending. I have plans for an Inigo Montoya-style revenge duel between him and Wolf, and it's gonna be great.

My other current character is Cyra (she/they), a fire genasi barbarian/fighter. She was raised by a cult-like warband following the destruction of her hometown as a child. Later, she ended up falling in "love" with the daughter of the leader, and having a very toxic, fucked-up relationship with her. She eventually realized how bad her situation was, and realized there was no saving her gf or changing her mind, so she ran off, stealing a sand skiff as she left. They're currently becoming buddies with our party rogue, which was completely unexpected to all of us, players and characters. Last session we left off mid-combat with undead pirates in attempts to get some cursed treasure. Oh, and they have a flaming metal quarterstaff that they can summon by pulling it out of their chest. Which a major villain (who happens to be the rogue's ex-wife) wants so badly she tried to rip it out of Cyra's chest...

As for other characters, I have some very, very fun concepts for a few, including:

Zenara (they/them): tiefling warlock who was an accidental mix of a bunch of character from Critical Role Campaign 2. Occasionally gets possessed by their patron and wakes up with no memories of the shit they've done.

Avra: shadar-kai/reborn assassin who should be dead, but woke up somehow "alive" again after a mission gone wrong.

Morana: character for a future pathfinder game that will happen someday. Autistic necromancer witch with a raven familiar. Creepy as hell and very morbid. No empathy and very practical, to a degree that other people occasionally find disconcerting. Exiled from her hometown for graverobbing and necromancy. Apprenticed under a guy who turned himself into a lich.

I have literally over 30 other character concepts, but most of them are not well-developed, and this post is already WAY too long.

Now, PLEASE, TELL ME EVERYTHING. I wanna hear about your characters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how long have you been playing? what's your favorite class? Tell me all about your fucked up little guys!!!

[brainrotsova]

Hunting Fae (α-Sova x ω-Sova) Pt.1

Notes: Fell in love with the AU of @theoasiris on Tumblr/Instagram/Twitter. I want to keep true to their vision while expanding the story and the situations that led up to it. Since this is based on the α/ω-dynamic of the Valorant lore, I plan on changing some things. Summary: Elf Sova is cursed with an near insatiable appetite for blood and flesh. The only person he can go to is his vampire counterpart. Despite them being enemies, Vampire Sova takes pity on the elf and offers help by offering his body to be devoured. Luckily for the vampire, his regenerative abilities can heal him with little to no repercussions.

Warnings: - Gore and blood -Mentions of battle Pairing: Elf Sova x Vampire Sova (Hurt/comfort or even Angst)🖤

Word-count: 3.6k words

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once upon a time, there was an curious elf who wished to make the world be filled with wonder once more. They researched many topics and spoke to many scholars. Until they heard of an artifact that could grant them their wish. The tales of this artifact made them set out on a journey to find it. However, unbeknownst to the overzealous elf, a powerful curse was placed upon it. Only the truest of hearts can break that curse and claim the wish as their own.

It took the elf many moons, but finally they found what they were looking for. The artifact, a needle and a red thread with an invisible ending and beginning, hung perfectly in the middle of a moonlit cavern deep in an evergreen forest. Hastily they made their way inside to retrieve the artifact, but the cavern knew of the elf's dark desires. The red strings coiled around the poor creature, entrapping them forever in this miserable place and transforming them into a creature of the night.

Every year, the crimson thread spun tighter and tighter around it's dark-hearted victim. The blood that dripped from them created a curse-filled mist that infected the land and wreaked havoc as far as it could reach.

The Dark Mists of the evergreen forest grew once more this year. Infecting creatures and growing its strength and size. The infected fauna made their way towards both Fae kingdoms. 

As all things in this world, the two kingdoms, otherwise known as the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, mirror each other in many ways. The Seelie, a court of light, life and joy and the Unseelie, a court of night, death and mischief. They were like the two sides of the same coin.

Two young men, and elf and a vampire, with considerable tactical skill and endless creativity guard their respective kingdoms. Both equally named Sova, the Champion of the Court. Between them and the Courts, there raged an endless war. But for the yearly threat, that is the Dark Mist, they set aside all their differences and lead their troops to battle the ancient evil.

The horde and the armies converged in a grand city. Rumbling the ground, the civilians hurriedly made their way into their homes. Shutting their doors and closing their windows. The Seelie elven Sova could hear the roaring of the cursed animals and decided to lead his elk cavalry to defensive positions. Once the dark tide of evil would approach their side of the battlefield, the fierce commander would order his soldiers to rain down arrows. The Unseelie vampire Sova and his troops would gather on the other side and ride their nightmares into the main battle. Slaughtering any dark beast that crossed their path.

Like any other year, the horde spread out and thrashed about to take anyone down with it. It would be mostly unsuccessful except the unfortunate few that fell to its grasp. If they were lucky, they would get a quick and merciful death at the hands of the two armies. 

This time it went differently however. The Elven Archers of the Seelie Court didn't stand idly by. Sova drove his elk steed to the main fight, mimicking the fighting style of the Undead Hunters of the Unseelie Court. This time, he wanted to fight the horde head on. To taste victory and elevate himself above the rest. If the lowly Unseelie can do it, why couldn't he and his troops? Did they even need the other Court to stop this yearly occurrence?

The vampire commander waited for the rain of arrows, but they never flew. Something was wrong. "Archers, to the front!" Sova yelled. He decided to take the matters into his own hands and ordered a quick reformation in their troops. The Undead soldiers readied their bows and waited for their new order. The vampire waited for a movement, searching for any disturbances or a sign from the Seelie.

Then he saw it, a lone white speck followed by an army of white fur hungrily speeding towards the mist of darkness and chaos. 'If we fly our arrows now, the Seelie might get caught up in them. Injuring or even giving them the idea we might betray them... Of course, it's always the Unseelie that will bear the brunt of the blame... His recklessness will drive our truce away.' the commander thought to himself. "There is a change of plans, we're going to follow our usual stance. Retrieve the bows and ready the cavalry once more" he orders once again to his troops. The disciplined Undead Hunters follow his orders and prepare to join the Elven Archers into the action.

The loud blow of the elven horns can be heard from forests away, the Seelie get encouraged by the bold display of their commander. They reach the gates and storm inside to face the danger ahead. Spirits high, they galloped their way into the city. Amidst their folly, a gruesome scene enfolds. Many-a soldier and beast fall to their doom. Guts, brains and any other body part flew freely in the air. The smell of the battlefield was filled with decay, rot and blood. But not that it mattered to Sova. Finally, he was able to take in the air of battle himself. Finally, he got to see the battle and feel its rush in the flesh and not on some dumb map. His enjoyment and adrenaline managed to give him an edge in battle, cutting down whatever beast he saw. 

Over-thrilled, he did not anticipate his steed to buck him off when the dumb creature encountered a massive possessed bear. The elven commander fell harshly to the ground and when he opened up his eyes again, saw his elk run off into the distance. 

Not quite recovered from his fall, Sova looks up to see the bear loom over him. He has never been this close to these cursed creatures and it sent him shivers down his spine. The crimson red eyes of the ugly creature shone brightly in the night. Never will he make the mistake of leading his troops to immediate battle, if that is, he would have another chance to see the Dark Mists. The creature bore his teeth. At the same time as the creature lunged forward to bite, the elf unsheathed the knife on his side and pierced the creature in his eye. The cursed beast still bit the commander, he yelled out a blood-curdling scream. The burning pain pulsed throughout his shoulder and he tried to stab the creature multiple times. Despite his condition, Sova heard a sizzling in the air. A lone arrow flew from the sky and pierced through the skull of the beast, killing it in an instant. He recognized the arrow. It bore the family crest of his vampire counterpart.

He pushed the carcass of him and luckily for him, a cavalry unit found him. They retrieved the wounded commander and escorted him safely out of the battlefield. On the ride, Sova desperately tried to keep his eyes open, but fell into a deep slumber.

-----

Sluggishly, the elf opened his eyes. He was greeted with the dimly lit fairy lights in his spacious white bedroom. A small fairy was supposed to keep watch over Sova and let the rest of the elves know when he would awake, but she was currently bundled up in the corner of his pillow. Sleeping soundly it seems. The elf tried to remember what transpired before and when he managed to recollect his thoughts he took a look at his arms. No bite-mark to be seen, no wounds or any traces of an injury. Trying to not make any sound, he slowly pushed the linen bed sheets aside and silently walked over to the mirror.

Inspecting himself, he saw nothing that was out of the ordinary. But something was still not right. He felt some kind of desire... Not quite able to put a finger on it. The commander wasn't sure what he was feeling... Maybe he is hungry? His body just healed after all, probably due to the gifted healers in the palace. Taking a final look onto the mirror, he walked over to his wardrobe. Changing into his usual attire, he remembered the folly of his choices before. He had no idea what happened to the horde of the Dark Mist. Nor if they even succeeded in pushing it back. Mentally he braced himself for the council once he resumed his daily obligations. Before leaving the room, he gently picked up the fairy and put her in a more comfortable spot and tuck her in bed. Silly little thing spend a lot of time being bored watching over him. He decided its best to let her rest.

The grand halls of the palace echoed his footsteps. Despite the lights and marvelous architecture, Sova felt like the halls were desolate and empty. Yearning once more to go out into the forests and hunt to his hearts desire. 

He finally made it to his destination: the kitchen. The smells of different delicacies filled the air. Many fairies were busy preparing a luxurious banquet for tonight's occasion. The sight relaxed him, it seems like the horde was pushed out successfully after all. Perhaps it's not all too bad. Walking in between the servants, he noticed a wild boar that's being currently prepared to be spit-roasted. A couple of fairies held on to the body and a few others handled multiple knives to skillfully skin the beast. He couldn't help but be mesmerized by this sight. Skinning animals is something he has done before, but this time it felt different. The gnawing feeling in his stomach came back full force. He needed to desperately eat something.

Coming closer to the table, he demanded the fairies to stop their preparation of the boar. "Sir, we need this boar to prepare the Banquet. Per tradition and all..." a small sprite softly spoke to him. "Get another one then, because I want this one for myself." he said to the sprite, while trying to contain his growing hunger. "B-but... it takes a while to prepare one... Can't we offer you something else, My Lord?" stuttered the sprite back to him. The commander shot a surprised look at the servant. How dare she refuse his command?

"Have you forgotten your place? Speak sprite, what is your name?" he yelled at her.

"Dandelion, My Lord..." she almost seem to turn into a small ball of shame in front of him. The sprite didn't mean to anger him.

"Dandelion, continue to test my patience and I'll make sure you get banished from the Seelie Court. Now, be a dear and leave this boar to me. The rest of you, make yourselves useful and help the sprite prepare the other boar." He shoos away the fairies and takes up a knife himself to cut open the body. The blood dripped onto the floor. Carefully he cuts out a rib, his hunger urging him to finish the job quicker. Once he got a decent piece, he takes a big bite out of the beast.

It felt disgusting.

His stomach churned at the taste of the boar. The hunter knew it was a fresh kill, with blood still dripping from it. But why was he so dissatisfied from this? He kept trying to eat more, biting and cutting more pieces and spitting out every single one until nothing of the the carcass was left. Up until this point he wanted this so badly, but could not bring himself to take any other bite. It was just that awful. The servants watched him in horror and shock at such an indecent display, but they knew better than to catch his anger and continued on as if nothing happened. The Seelie warrior took his loss and decided to look for his answers elsewhere, leaving most of the servants confused but relieved.

Back in his bedroom, he took a moment for himself. Sitting at the edge of the bed in order to not disturb the sleeping fairy and cleaned his face off. Blood now smeared on the sleeves of his attire. He's at a complete loss at what to do. "What happened to me?" he thinks to himself. Well, he went in to battle the Dark Mist that yearly plagues the land. Then, he got bucked off his steed and fought a cursed beast. The thing bit him, but got rescued by his sworn enemy... This is the point that got a bit blurry to him. He recalls his archers and cavalry picking him up, racing through the city to bring him to safety. But he doesn't remember the ride back... Now he seems fine as if nothing happened, except that he craves blood and flesh... But not of animals... Reflecting back on his experiences made find more questions than answers. Disclosing such sensitive information to the Council or any other person in the Seelie Court, is asking for suicide. There is only one person he can go to for these questions.

-----

The cavalry was ready to enter the city. The Undead commander hoisted himself on his nightmare and rode to battle. Once his army breached the city, they wreaked havoc on the enemy. Carefully surrounding groups of enemies and killing them. As clockwork, the commander drove through the horde and made swift work on the lesser-beasts in front of him until he heard a familiar scream. 

Instinctively, he changed his course and set out to the source of the sound. That's when he saw a giant cursed bear loom over his elven counterpart. The vampire hesitated for a moment. Should he go save him? Or should he stand-by to see what his counterpart would do... Despite the elf being his nemesis, he couldn't help but want a future where he could beat him in a fair fight. He shook his head and took out his crossbow from his back, aiming just right for it to dramatically enter the skull of the bear. Pulling the trigger, the arrow flew in the commander's predicted directory and hit its target. With this success, he decided he showed enough kindness to his enemy for now.

Riding back into the battle, he managed to grab the attention of the elves and instructed them to follow his orders. Not having any other battle tactic at the time, the elves decided its best to reintroduce structure into the fight and carried out his orders. In a once more united front, the commander led both armies to victory as they slayed every curse-filled beast in the city.

The news spread quickly in both Courts about the vanquishing. As a celebration the two Courts would alternate the hosting of the Victor's Banquet. This year, the celebration would take place in the Silver Palace of the Seelie Court. Sova was looking forward to the party. The last moment of truce before the war resumes between them. 

On the march back home, the vampire couldn't help but wonder why his mirror would abandon their near perfect strategy? They had perfected this battle down to the last details. This idiotic display made him really mad. It could have ended in a massacre, perhaps even of their own deaths... What if he hadn't ridden out to meet the elves and decided to let the arrows fly? He would have to find the time to speak to him at the Banquet. But in the meantime, he decided to keep the morale high and join in on the celebrations with his troops.

-----

The Unseelie commander was welcomed back home with open arms. Many praises later and a feast in his name, he found himself back into his study re-evaluating the battle. But his quiet moment got disturbed by a knocking at the door. He clicked his tongue, not in the mood to be bothered. By not answering he hoped the intruder would leave him be. But the knocking got more urgent. It seems like it can't wait after all. He got up from his seat and with a sigh opened the door.

A disheveled elf with hunting gear, soaked in blood, stood before the door. "Evening, am I disturbing your beauty sleep?" the elf jokingly greets the vampire.

What a joke. He dared show his face in a time and place like this. Indecently no less, after a hunting trip too. "Get inside before anyone sees you. What is wrong with you?" he hisses back at him. The Seelie enters the room and closes the door behind him. Before answering he looks around the room and smiles at the cosy interior of it all.

"So you noticed it, already?"answers the elf as he tilts his head to the side.

"What? You're drenched and you reek of blood. Shouldn't you be organizing my Banquet back in your realm?" the vampire questioned.

"Oh that... Besides it's our banquet!-"

"Ours? You mean mine, right? You fucking abandoned our plan. Do you even know what you did? Or are you losing your little fairy mind?" the vampire growled at the elf. He couldn't understand his aloofness. This is beyond insulting.

"I think I might be losing it, yeah... Listen-"

"I'm listening, but this better be worth my time." interrupted the Unseelie one.

"Let me finish my sentence, damn it. I wouldn't normally ask for a favor, but I desperately need it right now..." softly whispered the elf. The vampire didn't make a sound, but the anger he displayed before seemed to make space for curiosity. "First of all, I want to thank you for saving me... and my troops... and well the entire Seelie Court and its pride..."

"Truth be told, I was almost convinced you were putting us in a disadvantage by breaking the temporary truce we have. If it was, I was going to assassinate you at the Victory Banquet..." replied the vampire back. He was lying about the second half. He would have tried to find some kind of reason during the conversation, as he knew that Sova wouldn't just throw away a promise like that.

The elf audibly gulped. "Well, in any case... I think I've been having strange cravings and-"

A blush crept over the vampire's face. "I don't know in what fantasy world you think you're living in. But whatever you're thinking, I must immediately decli-" A hard slap hit the vampire's face.

"WHAT!? Who do you take me for??!! I need your help with uncovering the reason why I seem to have attracted vampirism!" finally revealed the flustered elf. The vampire rubbed on his cheek to soften the pain of the slap. A bit embarrassed he came to such a conclusion. But the word vampirism caught him off guard.

"You don't just attract vampirism, Sova. You're born into it. Or in worse cases, you bargain with a devil about it." He took a better look at the elf in front of him.

"... I-it must be vampirism, because otherwise I'm all out of options. I thought you had to be embraced into it. Or like bitten or something... Fuck." The elf covered his face in shame and a slight desperation came over him. "I'm so fucking hungry, Sova. It's not even funny. I killed so many woodland creatures to satisfy myself, but nothing helped. There is a creeping thought that it might be a craving for humanoid flesh and blood... I want to desperately believe it's a dream, or just some fucked up nightmare." On the last few words, the young elf's voice started to shake. He was absolutely trying to hold back tears in his desperation.

The sight of him was that of a sick puppy asking for help. The frustration and fear was palpable to the Unseelie. Something stirred in him once more. Sova was compelled to help this helpless creature. It was one thing to deal with his mischievous nature as a fae, but to also have blood related cravings is a whole other mountain to topple. It was kind of endearing that he thought he would have the best chance to learn more about his condition directly through his nemesis. Blood, the vampire could handle. But flesh too? That changes a lot.

"Why me, Sova? Can't your council deal with it?" the vampire tried to ask. 

The elf fiercely shook his head. "Absolutely, not." replied the elf in the most sturdiest voice he could muster.

"Something is still not adding up. Is there something you're not telling me?" the vampire inquires.

The elf sighs and decides to come clean. "I was bitten by a cursed beast."

"Y-you... So... Ugh" The vampire didn't know what to say. There was a reason why they always slaughtered the bitten ones with the beasts. There is no cure for the curse. 

"You're a fucking idiot." he finally muttered to him.

There was a long silence between them. Both looking elsewhere but their counterpart.

--To be continued--

Part 1 | Part 2 | ?

[multi-muse-transect]

Had CDPR continued support for Cyberpunk, I think there would’ve been a build up to a World Of Darkness crossover. Cause I remember Maximum Mike mentioned werewolves and there was a supposed cut level in Nash’s old hideout where V would fight vampire-like beings. Plus Gary kept going on about vampires too.

A part of me thinks this would result in an Undead Nightmare-style expansion with V having the option to turn into a vampire to save themselves. Which done correctly, would be an interesting ending: You cheated death by selling your soul and cut off all of your loved ones.

[xsulsulnooboo]

Sims ideas created by me with the help of ChatGPT

Feel free to use this and show me your sims when they're done _______________________________________

1. Lilith Nocturne (Vampire Witch)

• Traits: Evil, Genius, Loner

• Aspiration: Master Vampire

• Occult: Vampire

• Clothing Style: Victorian Gothic, dark corsets, long flowing black skirts, lace gloves, and high boots. Think dark elegance, with silver and red accents.

• Backstory: Lilith is an ancient vampire who secretly dabbles in dark magic. She seeks to master both vampirism and forbidden witchcraft to dominate the supernatural world.

2. Mortis Grimes (Undead Revenant)

• Traits: Mean, Gloomy, Hot-Headed

• Aspiration: Public Enemy

• Occult: Ghost (resurrected)

• Clothing Style: Ragged, old-fashioned clothing, torn and weathered. Always in shades of grey and brown as if he's crawled out of the grave. Wears broken chains and tattered formal wear.

• Backstory: Mortis was buried alive centuries ago, and now he's back from the dead, seeking revenge on those who wronged him, even though their descendants have no idea.

3. Selena Shade (Possessed Doll)

• Traits: Insane, Materialistic, Childish

• Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy (because dolls love to be adored)

• Occult: Not an official occult type but behaves like a possessed object

• Clothing Style: Dresses like an antique porcelain doll: frilly dresses, bows, ribbons, and patent leather shoes, all in faded pastel colors.

• Backstory: Selena was a beloved childhood doll, but her owner cast a forbidden spell, trapping her spirit in the toy forever. Now Selena haunts households, yearning for attention.

4. Sable Morgana (Dark Fae)

• Traits: Erratic, Self-Absorbed, Kleptomaniac

• Aspiration: Chief of Mischief

• Occult: Spellcaster

• Clothing Style: Mystical and ethereal, but with a sinister twist. Think flower crowns with thorny vines, tattered faerie wings, dark flowing robes mixed with intricate jewelry and face paint.

• Backstory: Sable is a dark faerie who was banished from her realm. She thrives on chaos, and her mischief often turns deadly. She's obsessed with causing misery in the mortal world.

5. Edgar Blackthorn (Mad Scientist)

• Traits: Genius, Insane, Paranoid

• Aspiration: Nerd Brain

• Occult: Human

• Clothing Style: Lab coats, goggles, and slightly singed Victorian-inspired scientist attire. Wears gloves and carries strange mechanical gadgets.

• Backstory: Edgar once worked on government secret projects but was exiled for conducting unethical experiments. Now, he conducts experiments in his basement, dreaming of creating life-or ending it.

6. Vespera Nightshade (Living Nightmare)

• Traits: Evil, Noncommittal, Loves the Outdoors

• Aspiration: Soulmate (twisted goal: she wants a partner to consume their soul)

• Occult: Custom-shadow demon/creature of nightmares

• Clothing Style: Long black cloaks, velvet dresses, always barefoot with smoky or fog-like aura around her. Dark purple and black dominate her wardrobe.

• Backstory: Vespera is a creature that feeds on fear. Every night she haunts the dreams of her chosen victims, slowly driving them mad. She's looking for a "lover" to torment for eternity.

7. Isaac Morrow (Cursed Musician)

• Traits: Creative, Gloomy, Perfectionist

• Aspiration: Musical Genius

• Occult: Human (cursed)

• Clothing Style: Formal, 19th-century concert attire. Old, decayed tuxedos with a ghostly pallor to his appearance. He always carries a violin.

• Backstory: Isaac was once a celebrated violinist but made a dark pact to ensure his talent. Now, he is cursed to play endlessly, never satisfied with his work, driving others to despair with his haunting melodies.

8. Ophelia Graves (Witch of the Moors)

• Traits: Loner, Jealous, Brooding

• Aspiration: Spellcraft and Sorcery

• Occult: Spellcaster

• Clothing Style: Long black robes, tattered scarves, and ancient relics. Always barefoot with disheveled hair and muddy hems. She wears necklaces made of animal bones.

• Backstory: Ophelia lives deep in the moors, feared by the townsfolk who call her a witch. She practices necromancy, longing to raise her lost lover from the dead.

9. Victor Revenant (Living Dollmaker)

• Traits: Loner, Creative, Evil

• Aspiration: Master Maker

• Occult: Human (with dark magic)

• Clothing Style: Victorian, leather aprons over classic gothic suits. Always carries tools and looks slightly unkempt, with blood-stained gloves.

• Backstory: Victor is obsessed with making life-sized dolls that are "too lifelike." Some whisper that these dolls are people who crossed him, enchanted into eternal silence.

10. Eira Frost (Ice Queen)

• Traits: Self-Assured, Evil, Loner

• Aspiration: Freelance Botanist (but she kills plants instead)

• Occult: Custom-spirit of winter

• Clothing Style: Ice blue dresses, sparkling tiaras, and crystal jewelry. Her clothing seems to shimmer with frost, and her skin has a cold, blueish hue.

• Backstory: Eira was once the spirit of winter who brought beauty to the land, but after being betrayed by her lover, she became cold and vengeful, freezing everything and everyone who crosses her path.