thehauntingofbeasts

[thehauntingofbeasts]

You haven't updated in a while :( everything alright?

TO CLARIFY this is the out-of-game account for the ARG you've sent this ask into!

The big in-game space to ask that question would be on the Ao3 project itself or on the one in-game tumblr account ( @lsdiamonds )

As for how things are going out-of-game, These Hymns Aren't For The Holy forms a whole storyline in its current state/you can read and finish it as-is, but I've been saving the final text entry's upload for a later date.

And the planned big finale, itself, is going to take a bit to work on still, seeing as I have hard confirmation of certain things at my disposal that I can work with now.

Still, I'm glad ya asked! Grad school eats up a lot of my time, but I'm still plugging away at this project!

[thehauntingofbeasts]

what inspired these hymns? :0

Excellent question, and one I've thought about a lot!

The whole concept took some inspiration from my personal experiences in fiction-based spirituality spaces, and from my time in a cult, where the worst parts of being in said cult were wrapped up in the 'weird but harmless' things that I didn't feel like I could discuss without mockery.

From there, I also thought a bit about how people treat situations like the Snapewives, which I'll admit did have some bearing on things. I felt like we didn't really have stories on the internet that showed a sympathetic side to situations like the Snapewives, that really captured how intertwined a lot of fiction-based spirituality gets with real-world identity.

I did also want to write a sequel/spinoff to my /r/nosleep series, Hotel For The Spirits, for a while — there were a lot of elements from that series that I felt I could have done better on or interrogated in retrospect, having written it when I was still in high school.

So that was what caused me to form the initial idea of making These Hymns, which was bolstered by needing to have a final project for my Digital Culture course I was taking in my last semester of undergraduate college. Ergo, this project came into existence, having a short version that I sent in as my final project and a longer version that's the one we can read online.

Generally speaking, I took a lot of inspiration from existing pieces of online series discussing the internet in making These Hymns Aren't For The Holy.

A few that come to mind right now in the genre:

The Northern Caves by @nostalgebraist absolutely blew my mind with the way it managed to capture the outer edges of a book series that didn't exist in the most delightfully House of Leaves-ian way while still managing to tell a coherent and striking interpersonal narrative between the different forum users. Definitely inspired me to go a bit hog-wild with making fictional media for These Hymns.

What Happens Next (will shock you) by @maximumgraves, a brilliant dark comedy webcomic that has never, ever left my head since I read it. It's a chilling tale that does cover a lot of very unlikeable, very online people while still making them sympathetic in their own ways. I truly think it's one of the best works of fiction at capturing the modern era of the internet and how wacky it's become, and deserves your attention. One of the characters, Milo, was definitely in my head while plotting the characterization of quietCrocodile, the main narrator of These Hymns.

Unauthorized Fan Treatise by Lauren James: Quite frankly, if you ever want to write a web-based story about the internet, this should be at the top of your list. This was the story that made me realize that projects like this were possible, and the edited multi-media approach it took impressed me deeply. Absolutely mindblowing how well it captures shipping culture in fandoms and how it goes wrong, tbh.

I was also very strongly inspired by Umineko: When They Cry, which I was in the middle of reading when actively plotting These Hymns Aren't For The Holy. Specifically, I was thinking of Episode 1 of Umineko, where one of the pivotal characters (Beatrice) isn't fully in the narrative yet but looms over it, haunting the narrative, influencing everyone's behavior — while another character (Battler) denies her existence. This back and forth of 'is it real, is it not?' influenced a lot about how I wrote Conway/the Corrupter Without Morals (the god that the Haunting Beasts worship) in These Hymns Aren't For The Holy, the specific way he's not present and yet /omnipresent/.

And then, of course, no mention of my inspirations is complete without namedropping the works of Sealtoast, creator of Recollect: Records of the Other Side, whose characters and stories inspired the creation of the Corrupter Without Morals/Conway in the first place. :3c

Hopefully this helps!

[thehauntingofbeasts]

In which someone bites the hand they've been feeding, and an all-new context is revealed...

[thehauntingofbeasts]

Reading the comments is vital for this entry but if you choose not to, the next chapter (out on August 10th) will explain everything.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/56266462/chapters/147701098

In which quietCrocodile reaps what he's sown, in the saddest way possible.

[thehauntingofbeasts]

New These Hymns chapter, starting off the Final Arc.

In which the Haunting Beasts decry their situation, and engage in some certified complainin'.

CW for a mention of b/estiality, in a scene that feels too fake to be real, yet actually happened to the Creator's friends and the Creator itself.

[thehauntingofbeasts]

New chapter. The Haunting Beasts find out about the Callout Treatise.

[thehauntingofbeasts]

An alternate view, however redacted, of the events of Chapter 9/wild hunt, from Lucy S. Diamonds' perspective.

a moment in which i tasted perfection in body and longing [a whiteout poem compiled from a recent astral experience with friends]

by Lucy S. Diamonds, 2024

[thehauntingofbeasts]

[CW: Graphic Descriptions of Gore, religious trauma, open talk of verbal, physical and emotional abuse, brief implication of transphobia in a character's backstory, etc.]

This is an emotionally heavy chapter.

Exercise personal discretion and your own judgement in reading this chapter. There is no shame in clicking away.

The Haunting Beasts gain catharsis in an unorthodox and slightly worrisome manner. quietCrocodile begins to doubt.

[thehauntingofbeasts]

Accepting questions on These Hymns Aren't For The Holy and the wider universe of MINDSCAPE//adjacent.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have about the characters, the setting, inspirations taken in the construction of the narrative, etc.

[thehauntingofbeasts]

In which the Haunting Beasts celebrate Tanabata, quietCrocodile celebrates the upcoming birthday of Lucas Richards, and all is calm... for now.

[thehauntingofbeasts]

Some foreshadowing for one of the upcoming entries.

ventpost

im glad everybody apologized even if i don't quite know how i feel about some of the things one of them said

we celebrated tanabata yesterday. in that book that my friend sucre found, apparently it was shown as a holiday for 'one of the blessed folk'

figured we'd celebrate it regardless because cotton really likes stars and constellations

had a trip that went wrong but thankfully i was talked through it

still thinking about what i saw — tentacles and a sense of belonging, is it conway reaching out? ill have to look more into it

id better not be getting contacted by lovecraft gods or something like that im going to be so mad if this is something else taking advantage

[thehauntingofbeasts]

Posting an OOG update here as well:

These Hymns Aren't For The Holy will be taking a break for a week or so, so that the Creator may get caught up on writing chapters and the readers will have time to re-read and process what we know so far about these characters.

In the mean-time:

@lsdiamonds [Lucy's blog] will most likely receive a few updates, as an optional avenue for story interaction and viewing another side of the Haunting Beasts.

Hotel For The Spirits/For a month, my friends and I have to survive in a haunted house of our own making remains available to read in its full original form on /r/nosleep, for those who are interested in viewing it.

This blog is open for any questions regarding the story, setting, characters, OOG inspirations and more of These Hymns Aren't For The Holy, as well as the wider setting that the story is based in. Feel free to send asks in.

[thehauntingofbeasts]

Please enjoy.

[thehauntingofbeasts]

At some point tonight, there will also be a major update to These Hymns Aren't For The Holy to look forward to.

You will not wish to miss it. :]

[thehauntingofbeasts]

Young me is so wildly shocked to be typing this with my fingers right now, but I'm going to be on Slenderverse_OOG tomorrow night at 9:30pm EST alongside others like K (creator of hiimmarymary), Tim Sutton of Marble Hornets, Valeria Santiago/@vluisasantiago (creator of Stan Frederick and also various beautiful films you should watch on her Youtube Channel), and more truly talented creators that deserve attention like @jckielantern , illustrator of the Marble Hornets comics!

We're going to be talking about the state of the Slenderverse, the Slenderman's impact on internet horror as a whole, and other fun things of note. I'll also be discussing a wee little bit about Recollect: Records of the Other Side and These Hymns Aren't For The Holy on the stream, most likely, for those interested.

Hoping you stop by!

[thehauntingofbeasts]

New These Hymns update.

Our narrator breaks new ground in his attempts to cyberstalk "THE HAUNTING OF BEASTS" Discord Server by posting transcripts of private calls from the server, illuminating more of the private lives of these people in a way that our narrator cannot fully tailor to his whims...

Please look forward to an entry coming this Friday, June 28th, which promises to be the biggest one to date so far.

[thehauntingofbeasts]

Fun fact about Sucre Tansy's edit of the "H(a)unting Lodge":

The picture in the frame is artwork by the Thelemic artist, occultist and poet Marjorie Cameron, who was seen by many as an incarnation of Babalon, the Mother of Monsters.