#yeah! an enthusiastic yes!

[lavenoon]

Climbing courses and falling a bunch is not a good combination with "bruises easily", sorry Eclipse. But apparently I bite super hard! :D

*self insert Aster is not a girl (he/she) *Bloodstain Fool by @naffeclipse, og detective au by sunnys-aesthetic!

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

me? watching dhmis for the 'nth time? its more likely than you think

[radaverse]

This Friday we did some real exercises (I'm absolutely useless when it comes to doing exercise)

It's Monday and my legs still don't work

[triflesandparsnips]

Mad scientist(s) for the au ask game.

Five fun facts that would happen in the story (which I'm gonna do with OFMD, unless/until someone asks me otherwise):

In this AU the mad-scientist profession usually runs in families, but both Ed and Stede are outliers. Ed ran away from home as a child and was taken in by a childless widower who claimed himself to be the great-grandson of Johann Faust (which may or may not have been true, but Hornigold certainly had enough tricks up his sleeve with regard to the alchemical arts that it might very well have been so). Ed, under his nom de science Blackbeard, rose to acclaim for his ability to conjure spirits, his medical acumen, and his likely deal with the devil. Stede, on the other hand, was the son of landed gentry and had no connection whatsoever to the grand history of mad science-- but he collected the treatises, had more than enough money to buy himself a tower and a water wheel for the electrical experiments, and styled himself the Gentleman Philosopher without any real knowledge of what he was getting himself into. He may or may not have had some mystical robes specifically tailored for this purpose. There may or may not be quite a few alchemical symbols for Mars stitched on them.

Rather than a single ghoul to help source his Dread Necessities (as Ed has Igor Izzy), Stede has an entire crew of down-and-outs who are more than happy to find him "very definitely real philosopher's stone, absolutely" and "the hand of a hanged murderer buried at a crossroads, which always very definitely look like slightly moldy turnips after a while" and "yes it's an authentic black cockerel, but don't touch it or wipe its feather or anything, they, uh, don't like that". This may seem like they are taking advantage of Stede's naivety, and that's because they absolutely are. On the other hand, though, they do their (admittedly, not great) best to let it be known throughout the nearby countryside that the Gentleman Philosopher does not represent any particular harm to the bodies or souls of the local townsfolk, being as he's just a rich idiot with a hobby and perhaps too much faith in the honesty of others-- so no pitchforks or anything necessary, yeah? Just let the man have a nice time. And if you have a particularly funny looking turnip, let them know.

It should be stated, though, that Buttons is absolutely the son of a long and storied family of mad scientists. He will on occasion try to help Stede with his Great Works, but Stede keeps trying to add more style to the proceedings than is strictly necessary. All you really need, Buttons knows, is some auspicious moon dates and the right ingredients from trustworthy sources (and here he might look very fondly at Karl, who will in turn preen smugly), and Bob's your uncle, you've got gold or good health or a shambling creature risen from the dead, whatever suits your fancy. Buttons mostly uses his family's gifts making Aqua Vitae in less time than it ought, and for this reason, the others ignore the bird and try not to mention pitchforks too often.

Mad scientists tend to stay in one spot in general -- hence Stede's insistence on the tower, even though it necessitated more ladders and dizzying spiral staircases than he'd really anticipated -- but this will often lead to local mobs and witchfinders knowing exactly where you are at any given time, which is not conducive to scientific study. Ed had long ago taken his show on the road to avoid this very outcome, and had crafted himself a very clever caravan that could be stopped and set up whenever he found himself needing to do a little work. The itinerant life was a necessity but... it wasn't fun like it used to be. And these days, he tended to leave the majority of the work for Izzy-- cooking up simples to sell to farmfolk kept Iz busy so Ed could do the important things like sit around contemplating the universe and also maybe wonder if that whole "base metal into gold" thing was just as much of a fuckery as everything else Ed had done to gain his reputation. But Ed didn't know how to be anything other than a mad scientist. So... so maybe he needed to be looking at some other options. Really study up on that "deal with the devil" thing his detractors kept rattling on about. Maybe do some work toward the life after death thing, see if there was anything he could... prepare for. And it's as the caravan rattles down the road to the next town and he's gloomily considering whether he would rather leave his caravan to Izzy or require its immolation with his own corpse (strongly favoring the latter)... that the road bends, and he sees the tower.

The Gentleman Philosopher's tower is ridiculous. It's got at least five floors, and the top has a widow's walk, crenellations, and a pole with half a dozen flags of questionable alchemical meaning strung up it. The stones appear to be made of some kind of glittery granite, nothing like the local rocks, and the mortar joining them has either been painted or, somehow, imbued with an absolute fuckton of chrysocolla to make it look fucking teal. There's a babbling brook nearby that pushes a water wheel attached to the side of the tower, except the proportions are all wrong for any of the really big ticket experiments you can do with that kind of energy -- and moreover, it looks like it's made out of some kind of cherry wood that's absolutely going to warp all to fuck in the water sooner rather than later. There's a stable out the back with what look like half a dozen exotic creatures just bleating happily to themselves -- a grove of goddamn orange trees where any sensible person would have their vegetable garden -- and what appears to be a motherfucking koi pond by the front door. Ed is fuckin' enchanted. He is, in fact, going to go up to that tower and find out everything he can about the beautiful, genius madman running the place-- --the very second he gets done rescuing the guy from the enormous mob of torch-wielding locals currently trying to set fire to his pasty-looking corpse.

...And a bonus:

Once the smoke is cleared and the townsfolk appropriately terrified of what the mad scientist Blackbeard might summon upon them for their temerity, Ed can take his own sweet time getting the unconscious and probably-not-actually-dead Gentleman Philosopher situated in his incredibly comfy-looking bed-- there to watch him, bleed him as necessary, and come up with a thousand and one questions about the guy's whole, like, deal.

Izzy, meanwhile, has been left outside to stare in horror at the large sign affixed above the tower's door. The sign, somewhat smoke-stained now, reads:

The Gentle-man Philoſofer

Behold the True Glaſs of Alchymaie!

☞ Myſteries & Wonders ☜

Galenical & Chymical Phyſick

Some Cookerie of a Moſt Delightfful Variety

Many Excellent Remedys for Scurvy Alſo

DO NOT TOUCH THE BIRDS

"What," says Izzy, "the fuck."

[lovelyspiral]

was joking about a story that starts off like it’s gonna be nonconsent/dubious consent fantasy, like a hero being brainwashed by the villain against their will or something, but it get clearer and clearer that the hero is actually really into it even without the brainwashing…and they consented…and it was their idea in the first place

“You think your precious hero can save you now? They can’t. They’re nothing but my plaything now. See for yourself.”

“No! How could you do this to them? You monster!”

“Well you see they begged me to.”

“After you tortured them?”

“No, unprompted. I guess they have a thing for villains with brainwashing powers? Anyway, they begged me to do this to them, and *you* won’t be returning them to how they were before. Because I take good care of my toys and I’ll ensure I’m the only one who gets to break them.”

[shrimpmandan]

if I see one more person misinterpret enthusiastic consent as someone going "HELL YES YIPPEE WOOHOO" prior to sex instead of it literally just being some variety of "yes" i'm going to develop a complex and it will be fueled purely by aspec and neurodivergent rage

[leonardalphachurch]

i voted no for every character on that blog besides price and caboose ftr

[southislandwren]

Yeah I was fucking right by the way, he’s liked me since like last year and I’ve liked him since October so I really could’ve done something about this sooner, and also he’s not homophobic or transphobic yayyyyy

[eldrichthingy]

blaming twitter for my severe vampire brainrot

[dan-crimes]

POV me trying to act like a normal human in order to give my OCs traits that normal people have (it isn't working and I'm overdoing it)

[glacierfront]

what do you wish you could say?

i want to be myself but i can’t. you have a secret interest or a personality trait that others wouldn't like about you. you may have shown it off once, but it was received badly, and now like hell you're gonna be vulnerable like that again. you dream of the day where someone you like will act this way too and you can finally release this lock in your chest, although that's extremely unlikely. you feel disconnected from others' reality of yourself. it's very uncomfortable.

tagging: @whinedarksea @harvestshope @ruinaa @withbeasts @wristful @motherednature @covenstrays @milehighmechanic @feralego @nitebit @sylluna @soaringstill @exspiritment @fakedsciences

[goodmode]

the bus is late!! let me go home, i already said a complete nonsense sentence trying to be polite to a cafe owner

[imabiscuitinthousandworlds]

me, realizing that i do actually now actively id as trans: fuck, yeah i am trans *a beat of silence* me: FUCK YEAH I AM TRANS!!

[freezethebeez]

What’s the public perception of humans and vampires and half vampires? How does this vary by region? Are there any diseases specific to vampires?

The public perception that humans have of vampires tends to vary from person to person.

Vampires, both half and full, are generally more accepted in modern society, although there's still a bit of discrimination against half-vampires due to the fact that some humans don't know how to perceive them (half-vampires can survive off both fully human diets, or fully vampire diets, although it is advised to have a mix of both to maintain good health).

Back in the day (medieval times and whatnot) vampires were both hunted and attacked if exposed. A human would never win a fight one-on-one with a vampire, so small human communities were formed to take down vampires. This continued into the late 1970s until it became illegal to attack vampires without a warrant (because the government saw a profit in blood banks and knew that vampires had longer lifespans than humans so they could milk more money out of them for longer! Yay corruption!).

Conservative areas are more likely to have a distaste towards vampires, whereas more liberal/democratic areas don't really mind them.

Politics aside, vampires in Catalyst are essentially an allegory for the existence of queer people, and human beliefs on them are formed as such.

As for diseases: yes, vampires can carry disease.

The disease itself does not affect them greatly. It may make their skin peel a little bit, but other than that they don't tend to feel any serious pain or other side effects.

A corpse cannot be affected by disease, it can only carry it. Vampires are technically just a bunch of walking corpses.

This makes for an interesting experience when it's pandemic season (which is every hundred years. Crazy for humans, not so crazy for vampires). Vampires are usually put under stricter regulations by the government, being forbidden from leaving their places of residence out of fear of spreading whatever disease was affecting humans at the time.

[wavesmp3]

I’m sorry if this feels weird to say or anything but… I really love your mind 😭 when I first discovered your fics I would get upset by the open endings because it was something that I wasn’t used to in the slightest. I’m too attached to having full closure by the end of a story, but after I read more of your writing I really became enthralled by it. Your style feels like I’m transported completely to a sort of dream realm. I’m not sure if it’s your wording or the way the story plays out but your fics really feel like dreams more than anything to me. If I could describe it then I would say it feels almost like “All About Lily Chou-Chou” or “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” in it’s atmosphere, what I imagine the stories look like when playing out and that sort of filter/cinematography. Hopefully that makes sense and I mean this comparison in the best way as I love both movies! eurydice was the first fic I read from you and it was such a different experience from what I usually am used to and it challenged me to think further into the implications and symbolism throughout the story. I guess your writing brought me out of my comfort zone and then I got hooked on your writing! I think the way you write is so unique and special and I’m so glad that I came across it and I really hope that you get more attention for it! So yeah, I just wanted to make sure that you knew how absolutely beautiful and captivating your writing is and how thankful I am that you’re sharing your talent with us. Keep doing what you do, you’re amazing!

hi, omg. thank you for this ask! definitely not a weird thing to say at all :) I’m glad to hear that my writing was able to push into a new kind of style I guess, that means the world to me! and i am so honored you think so highly of my writing. i haven’t seen all about Lilly Chou-Chou but I have seen (and love) eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. it’s one of my favorite movies and one that has (as you’ve picked out here lol) really inspired the way I like to tell stories. the comparison feels undeserved but thank you nonetheless. and what you said about my pieces feeling like dream….mwah. that’s kind of the goal I’m going for with my more recent and shorter pieces. im so happy it came across like that for you too.

again, just thank you for this ask! it’s always a pleasure to hear what someone thinks of my pieces. and I’m so glad you found my fics and that my fics found you :)

[sashimiyas]

osamu’s willing to trying anything once. anything.