#vvitches event

[goryhorroor]

"we all go a little mad sometimes, how about you?"

[vampirecorleone]

"The director Robert Eggers designed the film to be interpreted two ways: literally, as if the family were besieged by real witches and Satanic forces, or figuratively, as if the family has succumbed to a shared psychosis due to their strained circumstances and beliefs. There are small hints throughout the film that could serve as reasonable causes behind the events, beyond the obvious supernatural, such as contaminated food causing hallucinations, repressed sexual desires, and extreme isolation. The director stated it is up to the viewer to decide which interpretation is correct." Cinematography Appreciation - The Vvitch (2015) dir. Robert Eggers

[jessaerys]

honestly i think part of the reason why sam reid's and jacob anderson's acting is so striking (especially anderson) is that they aren't afraid to emote with their whole face in ways that are currently considered "overacting". the way louis's face just crumples up is so shocking because it's so rare to see on screen. i once went down a rabbithole of amateur acting advice and it was frankly wild to me that advice like "put tape between your eyebrows so you don't rely on them to emote" is extremely common. think of all the movies you've watched where people (though more often women) react to any and all range of emotional events with a beautiful, almost-neutral face except for some tears. think of anya taylor joy in the vvitch vs anya taylor joy in the menu. if i'm allowed to put on my tinfoil hat i wonder if it's because the overabundance of botox in hollywood has made people forget that like, foreheads and corners of mouths are literally there for the purpose of displaying emotions. sorry i forgot this post was about vampires. weepy helen of troy is that anything

[ophiespeaks]

MY DRS!!!

Masterlist <3

(For inspiration, ideas, or just to get to know me!!! This is in no particular order btw, just the way they’re ordered in my Lifa App.)

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*Side note, I have a “waiting room” dr too. It’s basically just a big movie theater but all the theater rooms are my different drs. But I’ve elected to not make a full section for it.*

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•1•

Dr Name: Hogwarts, 1991.

Universe/Basis: Harry Potter

Synopsis: Non-Canonical HP dr where I get to experience the magical world completely and fully with my favorite characters. There’s no war, no plot, and things have been changed to make it more desirable for me. IE: No Death Eaters/Voldemort, no one dies, etc. It’s basically just a boarding school dr with magic lol. It was my main dr for a long time and has a LOT of little things scripted in. Honestly, I’m still so in love with it and if I ever did permashift, it would probably be here.

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•2•

Dr Name: Chosen One

Universe/Basis: Harry Potter

Synopsis: Canon-Adjacent dr where basically I’m Harry. Obviously he doesn’t exist in this dr because I’m obsessed with being the main character (/hj). Things have been scripted to not be so traumatizing and awful all the time, but will loosely follow a sort of plot to let me be the chosen one in a prophecy and basically the center of attention. There’s stakes and I don’t expect to shift here for long intervals because it seems stressful, but I’m shifting to third year with a pre-written backstory for the first two years. Again, not fully canon- certain characters don’t die and the war isn’t killing innocents etc. I just like attention.

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•3•

Dr Name: Lost

Universe/Basis: ABC’s Lost TV Series (2004)

Synopsis: Canon-Adjacent to the Lost TV series, without the um…trauma. Also people don’t die. It’s basically Survivor meets Real Housewives. I live for the drama tbh. Basically the plane crash leaves me stranded with strangers and I get to meet the characters. I don’t have a s/o but I’m looking to be an adoptive daughter figure to Sawyer because emotionally unavailable selfish assholes seem to be my father-figure go to for some reason.

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•4•

Dr Name: The 100

Universe/Basis: CW’s The 100

Synopsis: Heavily scripted but honestly it’s almost-canon to the events of seasons 1 and 2 of the 100, obviously not so traumatizing though. I’m basically using this as a teenage-run society dr or maybe like a huge camping trip dr lmao. None of the 100 die like in canon, and also because I have main character syndrome Clarke and therefore also Wells aren’t part of the original delinquent mission. My s/o is gonna be Bellamy Blake, and I have a few close friends in the 100/eventually the grounders. There’s a lot of drama lmao. Also, my dad is Markus Kane and my (adoptive) brother is Murphy and my whole backstory is so convoluted it needed rewritten multiple times to even be coherent lmao.

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•5•

Dr Name: Fame (Adult)

Universe/Basis: Better CR

Synopsis: Modern-set dr where I’m a famous actress/musician in my early twenties. I own a makeup/skincare company, as well as a non-profit community oriented foundation to teach kids the arts (acting, music, performance, dance, drawing, painting, etc.) but also hosting events and drives to give back to local communities. As for my professional career, I’m a part of some of my favorite movies/shows in my cr, as well as some movie ideas I had myself and made into a franchise in my DR. I’m basically the biggest IT girl and I’m like if Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Margot Robbie were a single person. Some of my films/shows, to name a few, are The VVitch, A Star Is Born, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and Barbie.

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•6•

Dr Name: Fame (Teen)

Universe/Basis: Better CR

Synopsis: An early 2010s dr, I’m a young teen actress and get to star in some of my favorite shows and movies from that time period, as well as some adaptations I thought up myself. My dad is Matthew Grey Gubler because he seems like he’d be such a cool dad, so I’m technically a Nepo baby. I play Dustin’s twin sister in Stranger Things, I play Annabeth Chase in an adaptation of PJO, I play Prim in The Hunger Games, I’m Coraline in a live action adapatation, and a few other roles that I have planned.

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•7•

Dr Name: Assemble

Universe/Basis: MCU - Young Avengers

Synopsis: I’m Tony Stark’s daughter, all the OGs don’t die, and I’m in charge of the Young Avengers. I’ve adapted some comic book characters into new heroes, as well as adding known characters like Spider-man, America Chavez, Yelena (younger in my dr), Kate Bishop, etc. It’s basically like fanfic Avengers lmao. We all live in the compound in upstate New York, and sometimes other “characters” pop in to give us training lessons and stuff such as Stephen Strange or Wong, T’Challa, Bucky, Loki, etc. It seems so fun to just have a compound full of super powered/super-capable teenagers tbh. A nightmare for my dad tho.

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•8•

Dr Name: The Olympian

Universe/Basis: MCU

Synopsis: A more canon-reliant take on an MCU dr, where I join the original Avengers back in 2011. I’m basically a greek demigoddess capable of minor feats of magic, but through being a hero I’m eventually granted full godhood (like Hercules/Heracles in the myths) for my efforts. Fighting villains and hearing the hero drama seems so interesting. Honestly, I’ll probably be less involved in this dr than my Assemble dr, but this one’s still cool if only for my backstory here alone lol.

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•9•

Dr Name: The Games

Universe/Basis: The Hunger Games

Synopsis: Basically not canon at all lmao. I don’t want to kill anyone, that’s insane. Basically, the districts still exist (though people aren’t starving or anything) and “The Games” are basically just a big game show held in the Capitol and the winner gets money, fame, etc. This dr is loosely based off of the prequel, the ballad of songbirds and snakes, so there’s *technically* Coriolanus Snow as my love interest/mentor, but his character is so different that it’s basically not even him- I just find Tom Blythe attractive is all. Also Sejanus Plinth is my bbygirl he deserved so much better.

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•10•

Dr Name: Camp Halfblood

Universe/Basis: PJO

Synopsis: Non-Canon pjo dr. I’m a child of Zeus (I need to be the main character so bad ig. Also, I need to have an absent/terrible biological father apparently?? minus tony tho 🫶) and I’m the only one in the Zeus Cabin. There’s no quests and we’re genuinely just trained over the summer and allowed to either stay or go to school for the rest of the year. It’s basically a summer camp dr but with a little magic and stuff here and there. Percy, Grover, Annabeth, etc. are all my age and eventually Percy will be my s/o because clueless boys of unimaginable power are just so babygirl to me i guess.

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•11•

Dr Name: Bridgerton

Universe/Basis: Netflix’s Bridgerton TV series

Synopsis: Mostly canon, with a few more added families and such. My own background is also a royalty dr- I’m the princess of Norway undercover as the distant relative of Lady Danbury, and I’ve got a few completely made-up love interests because no one in the show is really in my age range??? I mean some are close, like Colin, but he’s in love with Penelope so idk. I just want fancy dresses and huge parties and high society drama tbh.

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•12•

Dr Name: The Walking Dead

Universe/Basis: AMC’s The Walking Dead TV series

Synopsis: HEAVILY SCRIPTED!!! I don’t want my people to die obviously. Zombies/walkers can’t actually hurt us and everyone smells good oof. No cannibals bc ew, it’s basically a found family dr with zombies. I/we won’t have to kill people!!! Both Daryl and Rick are sort of father figures to me, and my love interests include a few people such as Carl, Enid, Ron, and Kelly (I love Kelly sm) and the later seasons are changed to be better to live in and everything’s not constantly falling apart. Also, basically scripting out all of the Negan drama and most stuff after it, because absolutely not.

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•13•

Dr Name: BrBa

Universe/Basis: AMC’s Breaking Bad TV series

Synopsis: LISTEN!!! I just think it would be fun to fuck around in this dr tbh. I’m a high-end dealer (drugs don’t kill people and don’t have a bad effect on people either) and I just want to go to lavish parties and commit high end crimes. I think Walter White is funny as hell unintentionally and Jesse Pinkman seems like the coolest person to just hang out with (at least in the first few seasons of the show.) Obviously, it’s not even remotely canon and doesn’t follow the actual plot. I also won’t spent too much time here. Like I said, it’s just to mess around in. It’s absolutely not serious nor is it a place i’d want to be for long.

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•14•

Dr Name: Narnia

Universe/Basis: The Chronicles of Narnia (films)

Synopsis: Golden Age Narnia? Ruling a magical country, marrying my best friend (Peter), leading people, being highly respected by my court? The whole thing sounds like a fairytale. It’s basically a royalty dr but with magic. Medieval times but, as with all my non-modern drs, I script modern amenities because if I don’t have toilet paper and indoor plumbing I’m gonna scream and cry. I also love the canon Pevensie siblings and their personalities I want to meet them all so bad. Also, Peter Pevensie was my first crush ever, as an fyi.

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•15•

Dr Name: LIS

Universe/Basis: Netflix’ Lost In Space reboot

Synopsis: Canon/mostly canon with fun additions and workarounds. Adoptive/found family dynamics. I get to be a super cool badass with yet another adoptive father figure while exploring alien planets and getting to be besties with penny robinson (i’m forever a penny defender- i love forgotten, “unwanted” middle child archetypes) and getting to meet a literal 7 foot tall alien robot is gonna be SO cool are you kidding me???

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•16•

Dr Name: Stardew Valley

Universe/Basis: Stardew Valley (video game)

Synopsis: CUTE FARMING DR!!! There’s twelve canonical love interests but i’m considering adding a few more options/people in general for funsies. Basically I want to have my little farm and my little animals and run around town and meet people and go to the beach and it’s gonna be so fun i’m so excited for it. I’ve actually considered it for my “waiting room” sort of place, because only the valley itself and like three other places even really exist in canon soooo but idk. (also considering scripting johnnie guilbert as sebastian bc 🤭🤭🤭)

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•17•

Dr Name: Gravity Falls

Universe/Basis: Gravity Falls

Synopsis: Teenage dr, not canon reliant but with weird occurrences and mysteries going on all around. The twins and their friends are older but most of the other characters stay the same age. Instead of having a complicated backstory I straight up just tell Stan I shifted and he’s unbothered because he literally watched his brother get sucked into a portal and fist-fought a pterodactyl so not much can phase him anymore ig.

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•18•

Dr Name: Summer Ship

Universe/Basis: Better Cr

Synopsis: Um this one’s completely made up by me, hi. Basically me and some of my dr friends are working on a private yacht for the summer. We only work like four hours a day, get paid WAY too much tbh, and then spend the weekends/after work hours getting to live on this huge ass rich people yacht that we’re allowed to go crazy on. It’s sailing the mediterranean so it doubles as a travel dr, where I get to see places like Greece, Rome, Venice, etc. when we dock and go inland. I’m so unbelievably stoked about this one tbh.

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•19•

Dr Name: Smosh

Universe/Basis: Better Cr

Synopsis: This one’s kinda embarrassing ngl 💀 so basically, the Youtube channel Smosh is this whole big brand that’s like an office completely oriented on making fun videos, sketch comedy, playing board games, etc. and it looks SO fun to work there. Some of the people in videos/crew behind the scenes seem like genuinely nice people so basically it’s a better cr dr where I just work there too, and I’m a little older lol. Like obviously it’s a job like anywhere else, but a lot of the time their job is fart jokes and playing games.

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•20•

Dr Name: Sword AF

Universe/Basis: Smosh - DnD Campaign

Synopsis: If I thought the last one was embarrassing, this takes the cake lmao. So, Smosh runs a dnd campaign where four of them play characters and then the dm plays a bunch of npcs. I’ve scripted myself as a fantasy character to explore the dr world based off of the dnd campaign’s world. Interacting with real people who are the characters my friends play in a different dr lmao. But an ancient giant wooden robot, a blue goblin, a gay elf, and a horny older halfling lady are MY comfort characters, okay! It’s a dnd dr, based off of the Sword AF campaign.

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•21•

Dr Name: A:TLA

Universe/Basis: Nickelodeon’s Avatar Cartoon

Synopsis: guys i LOVE avatar omg. uncle iroh singing little soldier boy can make me cry on command to this day. In this dr, I’m a fire bender runaway living in Omashu. I also scripted different fire nation “countries,” like how the earth kingdom has sort of different governments set-up throughout or how the water tribes have the two separate tribes on either pole. I’m from an island tribe and because I like attention, I’m a princess in that kingdom. This dr is mostly canon??? It was a cartoon so not too much traumatizing stuff happened anyways, but there are certainly some…questionable moments.

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Honorable Mentions

(drs that i *technically* have, but have put little to no thought into the actual context of and i currently have no desire to actively shift to, just future possibilities)

-“Dog Days,” a Diary of a Wimpy Kid dr (i am down BAD for rodrick heffley)

-BAU/criminal minds dr (i have no idea how i’d POSSIBLY script this to not be traumatic so for now it’s not even really a dr, just a place i may want to go???)

-“Safety” dr (without too much detail, I’m a kid again and live in a valley home with my favorite people, with neighbor kids and the whole place is filled with flowers and it’s always summer. basically just a stress-free dreamland.)

-Sam and Colby dr. (ghost hunting but i’m a medium + getting up to some utter tomfoolery in a youtuber house)

-Daybreak dr based off of the netflix show (societies run by teenagers AND zombie survival found family drs seem to be a favorite of mine, and this is both)

-“Hawkins” dr, basically stranger things without any strange things (no way am i facing a demogorgan head on, let ALONE vecna or the mind flayer are you KIDDING???)

-The Walking Dead (game), (I love Clementine so much) (I honestly might just script twdg characters into my main twd dr so I don’t have to have multiple, idk yet)

-“Royal University,” yet another royalty dr bc i’m self obsessed ig, (made up royalty heirs in a college dr)

-Hogwarts, 1971 (undecided/not scripted marauders era dr. obsessed with andrew garfield as remus lupin.)

-Hogwarts, 2011 (undecided dr of the golden-trio era’s kids from the series epilogue/*minor* elements of cursed child, teddy lupin gets to live with his parents bc i WILL start crying)

-Youtuber Dr, (Making horror content/horror-themed video essays, will be in the same sort of circle as Wendigoon, the Lore Lodge, Loey Lane, Nexpo, etc.)

-Various short-term drs to figure out what happened at certain instances in my cr. I kind of think of them as “fly on the wall” drs just for me to be in a location to fully understand what happened there. Mainly, cold cases/unexplained events. (Jonbenet Ramsey, mothman bridge incident, phoenix lights, dyatlov pass, and several missing 411 cases mostly.)

-Cool History dr, where I can go see cool historical moments for myself from my cr. such as the building of the pyramids, the library of alexandria, the “resurrection of jesus” (since he was a real person), woodstock, stonewall, etc.

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I am always accepting more dr ideas, tbh. Any piece of media I consume is free real estate for a dr if we’re being so fr.

[remusjohnslupin]

🎃 HAPPY SPOOKTOBER 🎃

Throughout the month of October, I will post one spooky gifset per day 👻 I will update this masterpost with links to all the gifsets once they are posted. (I was completely inspired by @meliorn's Halloween Events, so a big thanks to her for letting me use her meme 🖤)

Happy Halloween, everyone! 🦇

October 1st: Trick 'r Treat

October 2nd: The Addams Family

October 3rd: Sleepy Hollow

October 4th: The Nightmare Before Christmas

October 5th: Beetlejuice

October 6th: The Sixth Sense

October 7th: Corpse Bride

October 8th: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

October 9th: Coraline

October 10th: The Haunting of Hill House

October 11th: The Devil's Advocate

October 12th: American Horror Story: 1984

October 13th: The Blair Witch Project

October 14th: Crimson Peak

October 15th: The Conjuring

October 16th: Insidious

October 17th: The Cabin in the Woods

October 18th: A Nightmare on Elm Street

October 19th: Dark Shadows

October 20th: Hereditary

October 21st: The Babadook

October 22nd: Wednesday

October 23rd: Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities

October 24th: The Exorcist

October 25th: Scream

October 26th: The VVitch

October 27th: It

October 28th: I Know What You Did Last Summer

October 29th: Addams Family Values

October 30th: Sinister

October 31st: Halloween

[katieskrsgard]

🎃 TJ MIKELOGAN'S HALLOWEEN 2023 EVENT 🎃

DAY 28: Favorite Final Girl

MY FAVORITE FINAL GIRLS

Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton in Hellraiser (1987) dir. Clive Barker and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) dir. Tony Randel

Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott in Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997) and Scream 3 (2000) dir. Wes Craven

Mia Wasikowska as Edith Cushing in Crimson Peak (2015) dir. Guillermo del Toro

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) creator Joss Whedon

Samara Weaving as Grace Le Domas in Ready or Not (2019) dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel in Sleepy Hollow (1999) dir. Tim Burton

Anya Taylor Joy as Thomasin in The VVitch (2015) dir. Robert Eggers

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978) dir. John Carpenter

Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) dir. Wes Craven

Melissa Barrera as Sam Carpenter in Scream (2022) and Scream VI (2023) dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

[fipindustries]

i think i was finally able to put into words why i disliked midsommar while i really liked the vvitch. they are both in a sense, very similar movies, both focused on women saddled with either toxic people or people who just dont get them in their life, who are in a frankly grim and depressing situation, get thrusted into a dark, possibly supernatural series of events, hounded by some nefarious entity, until finally all their ties to the other people and the normal world are severed and they become part of this nefarious thing.

now midsommar is clearly trying to achieve a sense of catharsis at the end, what with the girl finally finding some sort of emotional conection with the people in the cult, with her getting rid of her toxic boyfriend and her smiling at the end. many people who saw the movie, and indeed ari aster himself, seem to try to frame the movie as a form of twisted girl power narrative

but whatver emotional arc this movie tried to do it just simply did not work on me. i found no satisfaction, macabre or otherwise, in the movie. i just thought it was all horrendous.

now why is this not the case with the vvitch, why when i see anya taylor joy sign a compact with the devil and float into the air laughing as she becomes a witch, i find it dark and sinister but also kind of cool? a part of me cant help but feel "you know what? good for her"

i think the difference is that in the vvitch, being a witch is presented as a form of dark freedom, any was a slave to her family and her family's expectations and once the family is gone she is freed to become a witch, and being a witch is fucking awesome.

whereas in midsommar, there is no way i can find "becoming part of a cult" liberating or awesome or empowering in any sense. cults fucking suck, and this one in particular is more rancid than most.

also when it comes to the fate of the family, i cant feel too bad about them, they were old timey puritans, more religious than thou, so much so that they got exiled from their village because of this, so in a sense i cant help but feel that they did sort of bring this upon themselves. the boyfriend was kind of a douche and a jerk but is not like he was abusive or anything so i cant help but feel bad over him getting drugged, raped and then burned alive. (and then the girl acts heartbroken over him getting raped like he cheated on her or something??? like i said, hard to empathize)

[cherienymphe]

Any witchy/gothic movie recommendations?

Hocus Pocus

Practical magic

The love witch

The craft

The VVitch

Eve's Bayou

Suspiria

Mary and the witch's flower

The covenant

Stardust

The witches of eastwick

More gothic than witchy

Crimson peak

Sleepy hollow

IWTV

Bram Stoker's dracula

Dark shadows

Corpse bride

Nosferatu (1979)

Sweeney Todd

The phantom of the opera

Dorian Gray

The lodgers

A series of unfortunate events

Don't be afraid of the dark

Van helsing

[paramounticebound]

mun horror faves vs muse horror faves

lee's horror faves:

event horizon (1997)

a tale of two sisters (2003)

noroi: the curse (2005)

the thing (1982)

the silence of the lambs (1991)

the vvitch (2015)

house (1977)

the cabinet of dr. caligari (1920)

the ritual (2017)

get out (2017)

khan's horror faves:

häxan (1922)

the seventh seal (1957) [this totally counts and he will fight you]

videodrome (1983)

the cabinet of dr. caligari (1920)

cronos (1992)

the invisible man (1931)

nosferatu the vampyre (1979)

tagged by :// @godresembled (ty <3)

tagging :// @fasciinating @vuulpecula @vacantwar @starnamedlyra @dethqveen @madeofstxrs @archaeval @brittlefcrged @levixthxn-thegirl @delugenal @commandsir @warsavant @yggdrasilushxrt and YOU!

[lickoutyourbrains]

On the topic of House of Tarot Cards, I've started working on one of the sequel stories after the main fic's events!

Progress on it has been a bit choppy because of the move but things are settling down now and I can start to focus on it more.

We'll be getting a look into what one of the deeper magic's that Remus bargained for whilst under possession of the legion Argond Vvitch.

[ofcruelheart]

*     ◟    :    〔   jourdan dunn  ,      cisfemale    +   she/her    〕      VALLA    PARADISO ,      some say you’re a  THIRTY FIVE  lost soul among the neon lights.      known for being both  SHREWD  and  COLD,  one can’t help but think of  PAPRIKA  by   JAPANESE BREAKFAST  when you walk by.    are you still a    SIN EATER     at      CUTS OF PARADISE,     even with your reputation as the SIN EATER?     i think we’ll be seeing more of you and    METHODICAL CUTS INTO THE CHASM OF MEMORY, VISUAL HAGIOGRAPHIES FLICKERING ON A PROJECTOR SCREEN, COLD GAZE SWEEPING OVER A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE AS THE REST OF THE CONGREGATION WEEPS,    although we can’t help but think of BYLETH (FIRE EMBLEM: THREE HOUSES), PRIMROSE AZELHART  (OCTOPATH TRAVELER), KIKYO (INUYASHA)    whenever we see you down these rainy streets.      (      keira  ,      31  ,      she/her  ,     is this a wanted connection? nope!   ,   est    +    none  .     )

Name: Valla Paradiso Age: 35 Pronouns: She/her Orientation: Bisexual Occupation: Sin Eater at Cuts of Paradise, previously a Memory Maker Character Inspo: Mother Suspiriorum (Suspiria - 2018), Byleth (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Primrose Azelhart (Octopath Traveler), Kikyo (Inuyasha) General Inspo: Sin Eater history (x), The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi, The Final Cut (2004), The VVitch (2015), Noteworthy Traits: A stoic, unflappable, often emotionless countenance; a transparently appraising and cutting gaze coupled with lips that are neither smiling nor frowning; slender fingers perusing through memories and flashbacks as if they were playing cards, a rather old-fashioned way of speaking History: (TLDR at end)

I give easement and rest now to thee, dear man, that ye walk not down the lanes or in our meadows. And for thy peace I pawn my own soul. Amen.

Home lies at the fringe of civilization, a commune where the wind cuts and the crops are tough to the teeth. Home is isolation, a place where trust does not extend beyond the fences that encircle them. Life is governed by rigid divisions: men from women, and daily life steeped in prayers uttered in the archaic tongue of Old English. Her mother, she discovers, holds a role steeped in ancient ritual – a sin eater, a vocation she later learns has long vanished beyond the commune's boundaries. The mantle of sin, she knows, will one day be hers to bear, a legacy passed from mother to daughter.

She observes and absorbs the ways of the sin eater. They hear deathbed confessions. Each funeral, each interment, requires their solemn presence. Cakes, symbolic of the deceased's sins, are laid before the sin eater. With each bite, they absorb these transgressions, their consumption a rite that purifies the soul, allowing the departed to ascend to heaven.

To liberate a soul at the threshold of death is a role both deeply revered and intensely feared. Sin eaters, those who dare to barter with their own souls to amass the sins of others, are regarded with a blend of awe and trepidation. Such a sacrificial act, though honored, is often shrouded in whispers of dark magic, witchcraft, and dealings with supernatural forces, or even the Devil himself. To meet the gaze of a sin eater, if only for an instant, is believed to be an omen of misfortune.

Her time arrives, a solitary existence in the ancestral house skirting the village, where silence and averted gazes from the commune are commonplace and constant. She partakes in the ritual consumption of corpse cakes and wine, each sin of others adding weight to her family's tapestry, an ever-growing burden. Life unfolds in this solemn pattern, until an unforeseen event disrupts its rhythm.

The death of the commune leader beckons her to his funeral, to consume his sins, but hesitation grips her. Before his passing, he had confessed to her, revealing the repugnant abuse of his power. These confessions polluted her spirit, tainted her dreams, soured even the sweetest of fruits. Her only regret was that he met his end before she could play any role in it.

Defying all precedent, she absents herself from his funeral, a decision laden with grave consequences. When the commune descends upon her home, they find it devoid of her presence.

The city becomes her new haven, a stark contrast to her previous life. Here, there are no rigid divisions, at least not like those in the commune. Everyone bears the weight of their own sins.

An opportunity arises with Stoneage, a position for a 'memory maker.' Her expertise in the realm of confessions, sins, and raw memories makes her a strange, but fitting candidate. They take a gamble on her, and it pays off; she proves herself both diligent and prolific. But she grows curious, about what she can take and give within living human memory, and she has not yet known the finer nuances of subterfuge - she is discovered.

She is no longer a memory maker, but she still continues her work, and soon discovers it has every potential to be lucrative. It has every potential to bring back that which is familiar - sin eating. Powerful people who have died and are in need of hierographies and memorial movies to play at their funerals, their mausoleums, their museums and remembrances, and want a... clean legacy. Who want their sins absolved, forgotten by all but her.

She dubs her service "Cuts of Paradise."

Her clientele grows, now including the wealthiest seeking her unique services for more than mere memory curation. Bad deals, damning witnesses, debts too great to bear – they need these memories erased from those who would remember it. Not through violence or murder, but through oblivion.

Just forget. Forget about the bad deal. Forget about what they saw. Forget about forgetting.

She is innately attuned to this calling. Born to bear the sins of others, she navigates this labyrinth of forgotten transgressions, a guardian of erased memories, a modern-day sin eater in a world that unknowingly harbors ancient rites.

SUMMARY: Raised in a remote commune at civilization's edge, where harsh winds blow and trust is confined within rigid fences, she learns of her role as a sin eater from her mother, a legacy steeped in old rituals and looked upon with reverence and repulsion alike. Her life revolves around attending funerals and consuming corpse cakes symbolizing the deceased's sins, a rite believed to purify souls for their ascent to heaven. This revered yet feared practice defines her until an event disrupts her life: the death of the commune leader, whose confessed sins haunt her. Choosing to not perform her duty at his funeral, she faces the commune's wrath and flees to the city. Here, she initially struggles but finds a job at Stoneage as a 'memory maker,' drawing on her sin-eating experience. However, her exploration into living memories leads to her discovery and subsequent departure from Stoneage. Adapting her sin-eating skills, she starts "Cuts of Paradise," offering services to erase memories for wealthy clients seeking clean legacies or to be freed from bad dealings. In this modern world, she continues her ancestral calling, navigating a new labyrinth of forgotten sins and erased memories as a contemporary sin eater.

[revindicatedbyhistory]

iirc, the director of the vvitch said in an interview that it's meant to be ambiguous if it's real or not. like a lot of the supernatural elements are things that were claims in actual witch trials and witch hunting manuals at the time. it's also worth noting that the movie mentions their grains being damp, which hints at ergot* being a factor. so you're honestly right that it's not just a witch hassling them

*ergot being a fungus that grows on damp grains, and when consumed it causes severe hallucinations. ergotism is commonly thought to be a factor in the salem witch trials, and other similar events. though that's in doubt due to the lack of other symptoms such as vomiting, seizures, or dementia. but it's a really fun rabbit hole to fall into

yeah i was honestly straight up expecting to be a twist along the lines of the whole movie being a story the girl was telling or smth like that up until the movie ended

the ergot thing is pretty interesting since various of the characters do show signs of illness so that would be smth to keep in mind

[icarus-suraki]

for the weird asks: 4, 29, 46

Weird asks! Ask me things!

4 which cryptid being do you believe in? I'm pretty skeptical about cryptids in general. I'm very much in the "I want to believe" camp. I like thinking about them, theorizing about them, reading about them, watching low-quality filmed-on-a-potato videos of them, all of that. The Fresno Nightcrawlers have a special place in my heart. But it's always in the back of my mind that there's a logical explanation for whatever someone has seen or claims to have seen, though sometimes the logical explanations are equally weird. It might really have been ball lighting.

All that said, I'd like to believe in Bigfoot. There are so many stories from Native and First Nations communities about beings that sound an awful lot like popular culture's Bigfoot. And given that white people (like me) have a terrible track record of actually listening to Native people when they've explained things (the moai of Easter Island did walk to their places; Squirrel really did teach people about maple sap; the landscape of Australia really was different long ago and people really did preserve that memory) maybe there's something to the really old Bigfoot or Sasquatch stories. I know the stories have gotten all mixed up with European wildman stories and American folklore. Maybe the oldest Bigfoot story is a recollection of an extinct bear, but there's something in there.

Also extraterrestrials. Not that I think they've come to Earth or anything but, to borrow from Carl Sagan, otherwise it seems like an awful waste of space.

29 how do you like your shower water? Hot. Very hot. Extremely hot. Scalding. Boiling. Could make good tea in a cup of it. Just a few degrees below the temperature of lava.

But I like the air outside the shower to be cool (or even cold) because I don't want to overheat the minute I get out of the shower. So I'll open the windows in winter or turn the AC down in summer. Maybe that's weird, but it's also how I like to sleep: cozy under blankets but breathing cold air.

But yeah, mmmmm, hot water~

46 favorite holiday film? YOU WANT ME TO SAY THE CROW, DON'T YOU? Well, that's certainly a favorite holiday film. Gotta watch that on October 30th since that's when the main events in the film happen. But this low budget New Zealand-made Christmas movie called Nearly No Christmas that I saw as a small child is also very near and dear to my heart (any whoever gave it two stars, please turn on your location; I just want to talk). It's kind of about…the problems of capitalism and the benefits of cooperation? Also overthrowing monarchies.

And I love the MST3k episode Santa Claus, which is a slightly bizarre Mexican-made kids' movie dubbed into English. (I like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians too, of course, but Lupita's aggressive cuteness, Merlin's inexplicable presence, the wind-up reindeer, and all the international kids making toys are just too odd. Love it.)

Also Home Alone (the original and still the best) is always fun, even if it is a white suburban revenge story. It's a great movie, don't @ me, but it's still a white suburban revenge story. It's a bit like Hot Fuzz in that all of it's good but the payoff at the end is great.

Never been a huge fan of Nightmare Before Christmas. People have assumed that about me before, which I get, but I'm just not a fan? I'll sing along with "This Is Halloween" and have a good time with it but, eh.

There are a number of movies that I associate with holidays that aren't strictly related to said holiday. I mean, I have a litany of horror and gothic movies that I love for Halloween--like The Crow, sure, but also Crimson Peak, The VVitch, Dario Argento's giallo masterpieces, Ghostbusters (1 and 2 but more 1 than 2; or is that set at Halloween? I can't remember), Dracula (1992), Interview with the Vampire (1994), The Craft, Hereditary, A Tale of Two Sisters (which I can't find anywhere anymore, pieeeen), The Exorcist, Hellraiser (my beloved), weird shit like Beyond the Black Rainbow, non-supernatural horror (or "thriller") like The House That Jack Built or I Saw the Devil, German Expressionism but mostly just The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Asian Extreme/J-horror like Oldboy or Suicide Club or World of Kanako… I'm down to watch The Blood on Satan's Claw and The Wicker Man (1973) even though those two are set in spring. Don't care, didn't ask, bring me a snack. (I legitimately have a subscription to Shudder, which is an all-horror, all-giallo streaming service and it's pretty good so I can glut myself there. It's not all gold but what streaming service is? But they're the ones who helped fund Skinamarink, so they do know what they're about.)

Honestly, a lot of what's in the top three tiers of this iceberg is or could be a Halloween Favorite (and maybe a couple in the fourth tier if I'm feeling more like a sicko).

You know I tried to watch that Hallmark Christmas Prince or A Princess for Christmas or whatever it was when it was being talked about a bit and I found it so tedious and so uninteresting that I never got more than a half hour into it (if that).

[thetarotman]

In exactly six days, on Friday, September 13, 2024, the VVitches Ball celebrates their 13th Annual VVithches Ball. A Magickal collaboration of Moon Serpent and Bone, VVitches Ball and Diiiotima Arts come together for "Low Tide: Nautical Wretchedness." I have the honor and pleasure of joining so many wonderful and unique Readers, Vendors, Drag Queens and Witches for a glorious Friday the Thirteenth. The Market is from 6-10PM, and the Event is from 6PM-Beyond. All the info is in the comments, but if you have any questions, Email me directly at thetarotman@bluetiehome.com.

[serenemy]

panopticon as fuck

as a witch she was supposed to be outside the globe looking in. through a series of events best phrased contemporaneously as “playing herself” it had turned out otherwise

but like whyy tho??

why would anyone read a Book that doesn’t spark their magic? why would anyone pay this much attention to a character they actively dislike and engage in complicated ruses to have removed from the stories?

it pains me to acknowledge this could be some form of magic. new corrupt spells from the bad wizard? [any gender can be a witch whether good or bad. but not this person. wizard is synonymous in every way except it isn’t derived from the native tongue of the vvitche, an honor, she had pettily decided, too painful to bestow] lingering remnants of his old ones? or was there another bad wizard in the midst? or some weird wild juju of indeterminate origin and moral appropriateness?

idk

i just know it makes me uncomfortable. i’ve felt its hostile presence everywhere for like two human years. its existence made no logical sense and i used my thusly discredited sense of it to undermine me on other things in dangerous ways. the magic’s been wrong across realms for awhile

magic works both ways with a Book of Shadows. theoretically a powerful enough interaction between pages and a hostile reader could leave even a completed works altered, perhaps irreparably so, and i’m not sure i should go on

perhaps the Board has a point

here is where she is a liar because while she might not have been the only source of dangerous magic—there was at least one corrupt wizard in the region, she had mistaken to great effect for a mundane—in her secret heart of hearts she had known for a long time, maybe all along

she started it

at a minimum, she opened the door

she tried to eat and have two cakes

every propagandist in human history knows you can tell a story and manifest a thing that didn’t previously exist. in a Book of Shadows a story can weave a spell. and she was not solely a witch. she was many other things and one of them was storyteller

of course the risk would be there, in her Book, even if she told herself you’re only writing down the honorable parts and keeping the rest inside in your soul

it is the soul from whence all springs, little mouse

here is the other part where she is a liar

she knew she wasn’t really going to maybe quit either. it was different than expected, less morally pristine, more reckless. but there was still beauty and powerful good in the pages

not all the secret watchers had stained it with malevolence. some touched the works with beneficial magic so lovely it alone justified continued existence in the present form

and the muse was the right one. one she’d learned in bittersweetly painful ways to trust

and the songs still felt true and right and beautiful

as the “writer,” if she existed, it wasn’t so much surprising—

she could argue there should have been warning. the content wasn’t ready. you still as of now haven’t seen the [*BENIGN and] creative place this is going [she was like grrm. but the content was still alive. there was time]

*yinze know i use content warnings. some people love a tragic story. some feel bait and switched when they get their hearts broken by a story they loved. i write both but i don’t trick people. to me that’s a shitty click baity and unnecessary way to get readers

we don’t do jump scares here. one of my central theses as an author is that compelling, exciting fiction, with high stakes, can in any genre including smut be created around moral characters who treat each other in morally sensitive ways and via moral stories that treat their audiences morally. these stories exist, they’re gorgeous, and since i didn’t find as many as i wanted, i started making my own

i’ve broken so may “i swear i’ll nevers” along the way

i’ll swear i’ll never write anything with sex shaming language [guy character calls his sister a whore, a word i promised myself i’d never replicate in any form]

i swear i’ll never write a rape scene. it’s not the worst thing that can befall a woman. for most women, if they really thought about it, it wouldn’t be as close to the top as they expected

so can we get some other storylines?? a lot of survivors have been encountering that one their entire lives and the scenes are really really unpleasant. plus while a lot of the fiction comes from women, the idea that this is the worst thing that can befall a woman is a cultural construct originating entirely with men

the other thing is they almost always treat the event itself as the trauma. i’m not familiar with a single example pre Unbelievable that understood sometimes the worse trauma is the reaction of others. [wrote a rape scene in a romance novel. i think ‘wind river’ is powerful art the existence of which improves the world. because it showed something impossible to tell. mattress girl’s “porno” does the same and should exist for the same reasons]

i swear i’ll never write a revenge story. i just couldn’t conceive being interested. still haven’t watched old boy eg. if morality is your guiding star, it answers every question about how to respond when someone wrongs you. to the extent the genre intends to differ from a “justice” story any “revenge” story i could love would definitionally have to be the former [might have written one. turns out i have a more complicated relationship with those themes than i thought. sometimes the hero’s cause is just but the nature of the remedy demanded by the context of the storylines opens the door for hatred and anger to influence proportionality in morally culpable ways

in my novel i weighed that. the villain received notice. my hero went no further than remedy demanded. if it seemed otherwise the flaw was in the author’s storytelling, not the character’s choices]

it’d be intellectually dishonest to deny i could fail more i swear i’ll nevers in the future. what i can say is two things:

1. i have no such works in progress, in mind, or alive in my head at this time and can’t foresee that changing anytime in the foreseeable future

2. if you haven’t encountered multiple content warnings (as my villain did) you’re not going to get ambushed with content

—as it is unexpected

i’m not sure it’s a good place for an author to be mental health wise to court a cult following of hate readers for a project so experimental they can see the words *of a Book of Shadows no less* being written—and deleted—in real time

can potentially alter its course with their attention

the presence of the observer changes things—in science and in fiction

[there was a reason she’d been telling the truth when she told that prelator she only sought or wanted a few acolytes who were perfect fits for the material. she really didn’t like to lie, even to someone who wouldn’t remember. wait. wrong “character.” nvm, all fiction lies]

but i don’t know. there might be something here

something lovely and worth telling. something sufficiently moral to justify its existence

[sometimes so do all truths]

[m92-fmp]

Other media research

The Witch's House: Diary of Ellen

The Diary of Ellen is a story about Ellen's life before the events that of the main game. It depicts the story of how she met Viola and ends where the game starts. In fact some of the book is found in the games as diary entries. I want to try to make it so the cutscenes or flashbacks are portrayed like book pages. Even have the whole game play out as a story in a book.

The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015)

I was looking into story's about witches when I encountered this movie/book. It's a horrifying tale of 17th-century New England, where witches roam the deep, dark forest kidnapping settlers’ children so they can boil down their fat and bones for ointments which help them to fly. I want to use the idea of witches wanting to get children into the cauldron as the way reason for the witch to be after us. I don't think ill stick to it being for ointments for flying and would rather it be for something else but that something to worry about later.

Monster House

I was looking at how I could have the mansion that the game will take place in more scary and stumbled on this movie. A haunted house that has intent to kill you is a something I will try to incorporate in the game. The game would have puzzles and traps and A lot of them will involve the mansion coming to life and attacking you like a wall falling on you or books flying in your general direction.

Coraline

The movie had a theme of portal travel the lead to other worlds which interested me in how they did it. I like the idea of travelling to a parallels universe of sorts whilst traveling the house. I'm interested in having sections of the game where you go through an "Other world" similar to the real world that you need to travel to make progress.

Hotel Transylvania

The movie showed us how life is like in a monster society for humans and vice versa. The idea of having monsters live in their own little society is something I want to explore in my game. Like a cave under the mansion that is occupied with monsters that live there in fear of the witch.