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theveryworstthing · 4 years

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So over on patreon Trevor asked for my take on the Addams Family and I grew up LOVING the Addams family movies so here we are. Instead of doing a straight up style interpretation, I decided to do a full on design challenge, using the characters as bases to make a black southern gothic Addams au. I actually drew the kids first, using the character bases of Wednesday and Pugsley to create some delightful kiddos I'm calling Sunday and Blanche. I of course then redesigned Gomez and Morticia into Carlisle and Mortesha.

The Addams have a very specific high aristocratic goth aesthetic (they've got a butler and nobody really works among other things) so in this re-imagining I wanted to go with vibes that run a little more middle class/upper middle class. I thought it would be interesting to think about what would be considered weird and off-putting in an entirely different culture, and how being a big ol' goth is way less controversial than it used to be.

I tried to keep this short (HAHAHAHAHAHA) so I didn't spin off into an essay about villain coded families, black people in the horror genre, and normalcy as it pertains to social survival, but just...bits of that are in these designs and lore. Keep that in mind.

Also I made the kids twins because they've flip flopped in age so much in different media and also twins run in my family (i'm the daughter of one). And let's face it, I'm pulling a lot of their southern gothic traits from living as a southern goth so *shrug*.

10 thousand pounds of lore incoming loooooooooool.

The Parents

From the moment he saw her he knew that there was a 50/50 chance of him either never making it out of that swamp alive or marrying the figure that was creeping out from under the distant willow tree in a black cocktail dress. The third time she found him trussed up in one of her traps, he complimented her rope work and asked if she'd like to go out sometime after his head wound stopped bleeding.

Or while it was still bleeding.

If she was into that.

Some kids and a mysteriously burnt down Piggly Wiggly later, their love is still as strong and inescapable as a bear trap in a sink hole.

Carlisle Guillermo (now Addams through marriage but I wanted to give him two first names for a name since Gomez has two last names) makes a vaguely described living practicing ‘law’ around town. A loophole king, people come to him from miles around with contracts signed in blood, fights over chunks of hair buried in their rivals’ yard, dehydrated primate hands, memories that seemed like dreams until the evidence of their happenings became too real, and other regular Legal Items asking for counsel which he is all too happy to give. For a price. Sometimes that price is a homemade pie and sometimes it’s a million dollars, depends on who you are. Whatever you’re asked to pay it’s worth that price, and if you try to scam him out of work or he just plain doesn’t like you? Well. He knows how to twist a contract better than anything at the crossroads.

And he always gets his due.

He doesn’t just serve the local (living)humans though, there are many things that need proper legal representation in this day and age. You wouldn’t believe how many city councils try to build on sacred burial grounds even after he lets them know that his ghostly clients are totally gonna haunt the FUCK out of the ensuing shitty condos and curse their families for all eternity. At least 50% of his energy goes towards dealing with real estate bullshit.

Carl is an excitable and good natured(?) man who loves his family, cigars, dancing, and his many knife-based hobbies. People find him very charming once they get past the feeling that they’re talking to a sultry gator badly disguising itself as a human. I didn’t put a ton of deep thought into designing him, mostly I wanted to make a middle aged dude who looked like he would have been voted ‘most likely to smooch the literal devil’ in high school. Tbh he probably has, but no demonic ex’s can compare to his lovely wife~

Mortesha Addams(her name was already perfect so I just tweaked it)is a woman of many talents. A self proclaimed homemaker, she prides herself on a greenhouse full of Concerning Foliage, a beautiful wasp apiary, and a coop full of what are probably chickens that she keeps for what are probably eggs. She’s also an avid creator of the outsider art that can be seen around the estate. She has taken on the family business of selling her homemade goods in a little stall by the road just outside the swamp with her mom, and makes pretty good money doing so. A surprising amount of poison gets bought in quaint southern towns.

Speaking of poison, people who come out to the edge of the swamp to buy it are usually carrying a lot of secrets around, and Mortesha knows most of them. It’s not like she pries the truth out of people, it just so happens that many nervous hellos eventually turn into the tragic backstory power hour if she’s alone with a client for long enough. She supposes that’s just how people are. Despite the fact that the Addams are very active in the community (whether the community likes it or not) she especially, as a direct descendant of the first Addams matriarch, is seen as…Well not an outsider because the community feels A Certain Way about outsiders and despite it all the Addams are their people, but maybe something like an exception. They feel like whatever weirdness they’re hiding can’t be weirder than any given Addams, so they get a little loose with their words.

This is amusing to her, since Addams’ don’t naturally keep the kind dramatic secrets that their surface level prim and proper neighbors do. It’s much more fun to openly talk about those things.

Do they have a sadly decrepit yet terrifying grandma up in the attic? Yeah, like three. They got a tv, all the creepy porcelain dolls they could want, and they’re close to family. Where do you keep your gram-grams?

Any bodies buried on the property? Yeah some, but most are thrown to the gators.

Any creeping through the balmy summer night with ill intentions? Yeah dude, everyone loves a nice family stroll.

What about dangerous forbidden love? If an adult Addams isn’t incorporeal then they’re either queer or in a torrid romance with some person/thing mysteriously drawn to that awful swamp. Sometimes both at the same time. Most times actually.

Mortesha would know.

The current head of the Addams family is just as outgoing as her husband but a lot quieter and harder to read. She never really seems to get mad about much and always has a genteel smile for everyone whether they deserve it or not. A seven foot tall human shaped “Oh, bless your heart”. A perfectly composed Lady even when she’s, oh I dunno, burning down a Piggly Wiggly. You know. A regular southern mom. Chat her up at the hair salon for 50% off a jar of wasp honey with your next purchase of a mysterious but foreboding packet of herbs.

Designing her was pretty easy because I just drew a lankier Grace Jones and called it a day. I had some problems with her outfit simply because if we were going HARD southern gothic then she’d probably be wearing a white/cream dress with a fuller skirt but I thought keeping the silhouette and the black was more important. She’s supposed to be an anti southern gothic southern gothic character anyway. A woman who looks like she has a million secrets who is actually the most open person you could meet. For better or worse. The red hair came from a coloring error that I really ended up liking (my mom had red hair her whole childhood that only darkened up in high school so I can buy that an Addams can be naturally fire engine red) and the veil was to get more of that classic Morticia silhouette in there.

The Children

Sunday and Blanche are the twin children of Carlisle and Mortesha Addams. Some say the Addams clan got their cursed homestead when a wealthy local businessman made a deal with the devil and lost, leaving his grand mansion to his least favorite maid and cutting his losses once he realized that the swamp would do everything it could to drag the house into the water and take what was owed with its horrible curse. Others say that the family has just always squatted there and no one really cares because man, fuck that particular swamp. Have you been in there? Absolute horror show.

Anyway.

Blanche is the more outgoing sibling and quite the engineer/mad scientist in the making. He started going grey at 2 weeks old but considering he was also rocking some extra fingers, toes, and a tiny tail (he takes after his dad), his parents just put it on the 'not life threatening' pile and decided not to worry about it. He's the kind of smart that teachers find utterly infuriating, less a dog eagerly learning and obeying commands and more a hyena who keeps teaching itself how to pick locks. He has a few friends in his school's robotics club (which they honestly allowed him to make so the school could contain his... creations) but mostly hangs out with his sister exploring the swamp. They find all sorts of neat things in there! wedding rings, suspiciously lumpy garbage bags, cloaked cultists who can't read private property signs, it's an adventure every day!

Blanche is all about experimentation with his creations, his look, and his tether to this mortal coil. Is lipstick a cool thing to try? Let's find out. Can he get out of a strait jacket fast enough after being pushed into the depths of the swamp by his sister? let's find out. He's not dead yet and confused local doctors can attest to the fact that he's rarely attained more than a bad bruise so he's pretty set on continuing to kiss rattlesnakes on their cute little heads and have his sister practice her knife throwing at him until that fact changes.

Blanche is very much a country goth. Cowboy boots (customized by his mom), knife, and lighter are daily accessories. He likes to wear the crusty swamp jewelry they find (the rust adds a splash of color!) and despite appearances he does try to keep himself neat. He's just got natural Grunge Colors and a tendency to wear clothes he likes until they fall apart. Pugsley always seemed the most modernly styled to me (which might just be because little boys clothes have been the same for a long time) so I wanted Blanche to be the most purposely fashionable Addams. Everyone else is goth by nature, but he's the only one truly familiar with goth as an alternative fashion.

I got really into designing Blanche because honestly, I find Pugsley to be the most boring member of the family. And he was hard to design! I had to mess with his vibe a lot to get him looking how I wanted. I know he's supposed to evoke an " 'evil' little boy next door who's parents never reign him in", but that's just goth Dennis The Menace. I's 2020. We can at least go queer goth Calvin.

Sunday was much easier to design. Wednesday was my favorite as a child (of course) and I really wanted to keep the spirit of her look while adding things like billowy sleeves (it gets HOT down here), big poofy twists instead of braids, and a nice tie. She's a professional after all, been running the local pet cemetery since she was 6 and the previous groundskeeper met with an unfortunate accident after telling her that tarantulas don't have souls. Her specialty is creating beautiful naturalistic animal funerals similar to those that Maquenda (https://linktr.ee/artofmaquenda) makes, and she takes pride in creating miniature dioramas of her subjects after each burial which she uses as a kind of 3D catalog for future clients.

She really wants to try out her skills on humans one day. Well. Publicly try out her skills. Lotta random bodies float into the swamp. None of them have turned down her requests for diorama models so far. Most seem downright flattered. Plus, she usually figures out which graveyard/crime scene they floated over from and gets her parents to give them a lift back. She'll even help enact terrifying revenge from beyond the grave on whoever put them there if she's not, y'know, busy.

Besides arts, crafts, and pet based funerary arrangements, Sunday is an avid lover of archery (any ranged weapon really), books where little fantasy adventure animals die dramatic deaths, and history. She is That Kid who eagerly raises her hand when asked who Christopher Columbus was and ends up being sent out of class after 15 minutes for making 'a scene'. Her favorite party trick is just picking an item in the room and talking about how it relates to either some obscure historical figure with a buck wild life or a horrible disaster. At least one charity pancake breakfast ended with children in tears after her vivid description of the Great Molasses Flood of 1919.

Social-wise, while Wednesday is the girl that people ask to smile because they think she'd, "look so pretty", Sunday is rarely asked anything at all. People just kind of assume from her quiet nature (in between horrible history facts) that she's angry all the time and that she hates everyone. This is untrue. She hates some people but she's ambivalent to most everyone else and even downright friendly if you bother to talk to her like a person instead of a terrifying cryptid. Like, she IS a terrifying cryptid but she's also a little girl.

That’s about it for now. One day I might do the other family members but for now I’m happy with the four I’ve redesigned. Making an au! Lurch in a family that doesn’t do butlers could be interesting. Over on patreon I put forth that he could just be Motesha’s mute little brother (similar bone structure) but Amy Crook had the nice idea of quote: “ a mysterious "cousin" that "helps around the house" whose origins are both long in the past and faintly unsettling. He's good for lifting heavy things, like that tank of propane you're about to throw into the burning Piggly Wiggly... “ which i now consider canon. Who's kid is he? How old is he? Not important. Anyone willing to commit arson with you is family.

Annnnyway. This challenge was a lot of fun! I love indulging in AU’s.

#long post #the addams family #Character Design #au #design challenge #i am incapable of doing a design challenge like a normal person #oh god i forgot the cut lol

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emachinescat · 3 years

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The Casket of the Armadillos (by Edgar Allan Nope)

A Psych Fan-Fiction

by @emachinescat

@febuwhump day 9 - buried alive

Summary: When Shawn confronts a grad student turned murderer, he learns a very important lesson a very hard way: Don’t piss off English nerds - especially the homicidal ones.

Characters: Shawn, Gus, Juliet, Lassiter, Henry

Words: 5,924

TW: panic attacks, buried alive, claustrophobia

Note: If you liked this classic lit-inspired Psych fic, you can always check out this one I wrote, inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird: The Finch and the Mockingbird

Keep reading here, or on AO3!

If you enjoy, please consider liking, commenting, or re-blogging, and you can follow me for more content like this! :)

I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!

- Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”

Her name was Olivia Hale, she was a twenty-three-year-old grad student at UCSB, and she was working on her doctorate in American lit. She was attractive in a cute librarian sort of way - short and petite, with long, curly auburn hair she kept in a bun and oversized glasses with thick lenses, and a smattering of freckles across her slightly upturned nose. She knew a little bit about everything when it came to literature as a whole, a rather impressive amount about American literature, and absolutely everything there was to know about the life and works of one Edgar Allan Poe.

She was also batshit crazy and currently pointing a .22 pistol directly at Shawn’s head.

“Don’t move,” she growled, disengaging the safety.

Shawn did a cursory glance around the empty classroom, looking for anything at all he could use to his advantage, to distract her or attack her with or - worst case scenario - to use as a shield. But Olivia had found him snooping around on the tiny fourth floor study room that she’d been given to use by the department chair as her thesis headquarters. She’d really made herself at home here, piling books and journals and what seemed like hundreds of loose sheets of paper on every available surface.

But he was stranded in the middle of the room, with nothing close enough to use as a weapon, and so Shawn used the most powerful tool he had, one that had saved his life and many others, wooed women all over the country, and ordered more chili cheese dogs than he could count.

He started talking.

“Look, Olivia, I get it,” he said soothingly. Slowly, in the most non-threatening manner possible, he lowered his hands. Olivia gripped the pistol tighter but didn’t shoot. “I know what happened. You didn’t mean to kill him.”

Her eyes were wide and fierce, her lips pursed into a thin line. “No,” she admitted. “It was an accident. But he was going to--”

“Yeees,” drawled Shawn, slowly raising his left hand and putting it to his temple, very well aware that he was probably pushing the limit with all of this movement after she had expressly ordered, at gunpoint, for him to stay still. “I see it. Dr. Graves was feeling guilty, wasn’t he? A fifty-five-year-old professor with a fancy PhD and tenure, and a devoted wife and three kids and two grandkids, to boot. The perfect life. But oooh, it wasn’t enough for him, was it?”

Shawn immediately answered his own question, something that he had become exceptionally good at over the years since he was usually the only one who could keep up with himself. “Of course not! What’s the perfect job and family when you’ve got a smokin’ hot, super smart student in her mid-twenties who thinks you’re the most impressive man on the planet?”

She sneered, and Shawn noticed with some trepidation that the hand holding the gun trembled just the tiniest bit. When she spoke, her voice warbled with rage. “My age and appearance had nothing to do with it - and even if it did, there was nothing wrong with our relationship! We were perfect for each other, intellectual equals. We were on each other’s levels - he was my soulmate! So don’t you dare belittle what we had like that!”

Ah. So he had hit a nerve. This could now go either one of two ways, in Shawn’s extensive experience in being held hostage: Either she would get fed up and send a bullet screaming through his body, Garth Longmore style, or she would let her emotions distract her, and cause her to make a stupid mistake. Obviously, Shawn hoped for the latter.

Now Shawn had to make a choice, because he could proceed in one of two ways: Either he could back off and try from another angle, or he could further antagonize her into (hopefully) making a mistake. Naturally, Shawn went with the latter.

“Sure, sure,” he agreed airily. “Older men and younger women do it all the time. But to say there was nothing wrong with your relationship? The man was married, and you were his student. I’m not the headmaster here -”

“Dean,” she corrected sharply, and this further proved that Shawn had pegged her correctly as a know-it-all literature wunderkind who had to be right one thousand percent of the time. “This isn’t Hogwarts.”

Shawn gave a tiny shrug. “To be honest, all big schools look like Hogwarts to me.”

“Because you have the mind of a child.” The words were accusatory and patronizing, but Shawn flashed a dazzling smile.

“Thank you,” he said. Before she could respond, he continued his earlier thoughts, “Even though you were the ‘perfect couple,’ you were furious with him for even suggesting that you stop seeing one another. The affair was too risky, and he missed his wife. He wanted to tell her the truth, fix things.”

“It would have ruined everything!” Olivia hissed, and the sound of her voice sent shivers down Shawn’s spine. There was an unhinged quality to it, something raw and dangerous that he hadn’t sensed before. He fought the sudden urge to backpedal as far away from her as possible. “We were perfect together! And if he told his wife and she let it slip, I would be kicked out! All my research, all my time and work here, everything would be gone! He had no right to make that decision for me, to take away my future!”

“Maybe,” said Shawn, and it was like he was watching from outside his body, because he knew that what he was about to say was a big mistake, but he was helpless to stop the words from tumbling from his lips, “you should have thought more about your future before you pursued your married Shakespeare teacher.”

Fury etched itself into every feature of her face, turning her from a beautiful librarian to a feral monster, but her voice was slow and measured as if it was taking every ounce of self-control she possessed not to shoot him where he stood. “He taught Southern. Gothic. Masterpieces.”

Shawn tried to backtrack, to undo whatever damage had been done by his unpredictably big mouth. “But,” he pressed. “Killing him was an accident. You didn’t mean to push him down four flights of stairs.”

She considered this. “No, I didn’t mean to kill him,” she reaffirmed, and then an odd calm smoothed out the angry crevices between her eyebrows - the peace, perhaps, of having come to an important decision that she knew was absolutely right. Shawn recognized the look because he’d seen it on others’ faces before (very rarely, if ever, had he seen it upon his own). “And I don’t think I will kill you, either.”

Whatever Shawn had been expecting, this wasn’t it. Everything about this woman screamed insane and vengeful. If Shawn lived, he would turn her into the police, and she would go to jail for a very long time. She was incredibly intelligent - surely she knew this!

And then she clarified, and the world started to make sense again - though Shawn would have honestly been perfectly content in this alternate reality where the bad guy suddenly has a miraculous change of heart. “Well,” she amended, “I won’t kill you directly. I’ve never shot anyone before - I only have this little guy here because I’m a young, pretty girl on a big college campus, and I have two night classes. Besides, your death shouldn’t be so easy.”

Shawn swallowed. “Olivia, you don’t have to do this. You haven’t intentionally killed anyone yet. If you turn yourself in now and cooperate, your sentence will be a lot shorter than if you kill me - directly or not. Because make no mistake, even if you kill me, you will still get caught. The SBPD has some damn good detectives, and they’ll bring you down even if I don’t.”

She didn’t respond to him directly. Instead, her expression was flat save for the dark gleam in her eyes, and she intoned words that in and of themselves had no meaning to Shawn, but that still managed to strike a chord of fear deep inside of his soul. “‘The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.’” Shawn was utterly unnerved by this point; it was like she had been taken over by something both sinister and incredibly well-spoken.

And indeed, in many ways she had, as Shawn soon found out, she was quoting the beginning of a story by Edgar Allan Poe.

Presently, however, Shawn had no context for her strange words or sudden shift of demeanor. His skin crawled and his heart pumped with more get-up-and-go than he’d ever been able to muster in his whole body before. “Uh, Olivia…”

“Move,” she ordered.

This time, though it was contrary to his nature, Shawn did what she said without arguing. This side of the student, with stolen words sliding evilly from her mouth, was a million times scarier than the enraged Olivia who had very nearly shot him between the eyes.

She marched him out of the room and down the three flights of stairs to the main lobby of the English building. It was dark outside, nearing midnight, and Shawn kicked himself for thinking he was clever for coming to investigate this late. He’d thought she’d be at home sleeping. He should have realized that as a grad student, sleeping was the one thing she wouldn’t have time for! And now he was in very deep trouble, alone, and no one knew where he was. He should have waited until morning, until the building wasn’t deserted, should have at least called Gus and told him what he was doing. But it was a college campus, and she was a tiny little literature nerd - it should have been safe!

As she forced him down one flight of stairs, then two, then three, and finally, into a stairwell off the beaten path that had to be unlocked with a key card - which she had - she continued to encant, her voice slowly losing its flatness and growing into something twisted and sing-songy with every word.

“‘You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point, definitely, settled - but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk.’”

“Olivia--”

It was as if she hadn’t heard him as she shoved him into the basement, and now her voice stilled from a chant to a slow, measured whisper.. “‘I must not only punish but punish with impunity.’”

Shawn wasn’t sure what impunity was, but it sure as hell didn’t sound good.

Their final destination ended up being a small, partially finished storage room near the back of the basement. Dusty boxes and rusted cabinets and archaic old computer monitors lined the walls and cluttered most of the walking space. Shawn was reminded grimly of a school supply graveyard.

Olivia stopped him when they came to a brick wall that had been busted through to fix some issue with the pipes - Shawn saw the water stains on the concrete floor near the break in the wall, and there was a brand new water pipe joined to an old, yellowed one at about eye-level in the small open space between the bricks and the drywall beyond. Shawn also noticed that the new bricks had been neatly piled up near a sealed bucket that almost certainly contained mortar, right outside of the hole. Someone was in the process of walling this section back up.

“Nice wall,” Shawn joked, relieved that Olivia had finally stopped her creepy recitation and desperately trying to lighten the mood and bring things back to some sort of normal - honestly, he’d take being threatened with the gun again to the horror movie stuff he’d just witnessed. “I bet all the other walls are jealous of it.”

It was a lame joke, but her eerie dramatics had him all kinds of messed up. He expected her to tell him to shut up, or to threaten to shoot him again, or to actually shoot him, but instead she asked him a question in that same cold, calm voice as before. “Have you ever read ‘The Cask of Amontillado,’ Shawn?”

Shawn blinked. “I make it a point not to read anything that’s not a magazine from the 80s or WikiHow articles on ‘How to Escape from Dangerous Forest Animals.’”

The corner of her lips lifted in a mockery of a satisfied smile. “Good. Then you’ll get to experience it for yourself, first hand. Just wait until you get to the ending! You’re going to love it.”

Somehow, Shawn doubted that very much.

Still holding the gun on him with one hand, she reached her free hand into the cross-body bag she wore and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. Shawn groaned.

“Come on! What college student just carries handcuffs in their school bag?” Then he remembered that this particular student had until recently been having a passionate affair with her teacher. “Wait - never mind. It makes perfect sense.”

She laughed, even though what he said wasn’t even remotely funny. The sound of it was strange and discordant - light and tinkly with a threatening undertone that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Then she gestured at the hole in the wall and ordered, “In.”

Shawn had known it was coming, but had tried to shove that knowledge into the corner of his mind - something that was quite difficult to do for someone with a photographic and eidetic memory - in an effort to convince himself that even she wasn’t that cruel. He tried to appeal to her one last time: “Olivia, it’s not too late to stop this. I mean, are you really going to do this to another human being - seriously, look at this place - it’s dusty and moldy and I’m almost certain there’s no room service! If you’re going to chain me to a pipe, why not do it in a five star hotel?” When she nudged him with the gun, eyes gleaming with something dark and triumphant, he reluctantly stepped into the small space and implored, “I’ll even settle for a seedy motel off a poorly lit backroad. I’m not too picky.”

She didn’t answer him as she stood on her tiptoes and handcuffed Shawn’s wrists around the pipe, cinching them so tight that the metal dug into his skin and he doubted that even his dad’s lessons on escaping handcuffs wouldn’t be much help here. Already he could feel his fingers going numb, and his shoulders and back had started to ache from the hunched position he was forced to take due to the height of the pipe and the awkward angle of his arms.

Well, Shawn thought glumly as she smiled at her handiwork and carefully backed out of the small space, maybe all wasn’t lost. Surely someone would come down here and find him. This place was dusty, but it couldn’t be abandoned - work still needed to be done down here, after all. And he could always yell for help once he was sure Olivia was gone. She was booksmart, but maybe she wasn’t criminally minded. He might be in for an uncomfortable night, but in the morning someone would find him and he could have his vision and the cute little psychopath would go to jail for a very long time.

He waited for her to leave, but instead, she used a crowbar to pry the lid off the bucket of mortar, and the pit in Shawn’s stomach became a whole-ass trench. He should have seen this coming - his heart pounded madly against his rib cage as if trying to free itself, with or without him. He couldn’t blame it. “Olivia, please,” he said, and this time, there was no joke, his voice imploring and terrified. “You don’t have -”

Again, she cut him off. “How would you like to hear a story before you die, Shawn?” she asked in a tone so casual that she could have been asking him if he wanted to grab a taco.

“How about you tell me a story and then I don’t die?” Shawn bargained weakly.

“Mmmm… If you stay alive, my whole life will be ruined,” Olivia reasoned. “And I have worked far too hard to allow that to happen. So. You just stand there - quietly - and I’ll tell you the story of Poe’s most beloved tale of revenge. I won’t tell you word for word, of course - we don’t have time for that - but for posterity, I do have it memorized.” She sounded grotesquely proud of that fact. “It’s my favorite of his stories, after all.”

And so, as she slowly began to brick up the hole in the wall, with Shawn trapped, helpless and in a dissociative state of panic, she told him the story of two men with really stupid names that Shawn somehow managed, despite his raging fear, to file away for later as possible nicknames for Gus.

“Our story starts in Italy, during the carnival, and our narrator is a man named Montresor, who has a grudge against his once-friend, now-foe, Fortunato…”

The story was an interesting one, even to Shawn, who preferred watching over reading and especially over listening any day. And as it turned out, Olivia was a really good storyteller. If he had been in any other position, Shawn might have actually enjoyed the suspenseful tale of revenge.

But as he stooped there and was forced to listen, all he could think about was about how terrified this Fortunato guy must have been, and then he started wondering how long it had been before the man hadn’t been able to hold his bladder or… other things… anymore, and then about what had happened when he was too tired and dizzy to stand up, if the manacles on his wrists had pulled so hard against his flesh that they cut into him, and if lack of water or oxygen killed him first, all the while he knew that he wasn’t asking these questions for the sake of the fictional character. He was asking them for himself. Olivia had made it exceedingly clear - for a literature scholar, she was surprisingly un-subtle about any underlying meanings or motives - that Fortunato’s story was now to be his story.

It wasn’t until she had begun discussing with rapture the brilliance of Poe’s use of the Italian carnival as the setting of a story about murder (because of its abandonment of social order, whatever that meant) and had built up all but the last two bricks, leaving a hole around Shawn’s eye level, that came to the most horrifying realization yet. He’d been so focused on his own thoughts and fears with Olivia’s words washing over him like an acid bath that he’d barely registered that the dim light in the hole had been darkening incrementally with each new brick placed. Now he came to the bone-chilling understanding that once she placed those last two bricks, he would be completely in the dark.

He was going to die, alone, terrified, and in utter darkness with fear as his only friend. He thought in that moment that he might die of a heart attack before he could even think about dehydrating or suffocating. Honestly, it sounded like an easier way to go.

“Well,” said Olivia finally. “I can’t say that it’s been a pleasure to meet you in any way, Shawn, but I suppose I should thank you. Ever since I found out about this unfinished wall down here, I’ve had this unscratchable itch to recreate the titular scene from my favorite Poe story. You gave me the means and justification to do it!”

Shawn was so overcome by the surging sea of fear and early-onset claustrophobia that he couldn’t even muster up the gumption to make a joke about the word titular. Instead, as Olivia knelt down next to her bag, rooting around for something, he jerked madly against the handcuffs, desperately searching for any give in the metal or the pipe he was handcuffed to (or even his wrists, at this point he wasn’t picky). But the pipe was new, and it was sturdy, and so was the fitting that connected it to the old one, which itself didn’t seem too keen on budging, either.

A sick grin teased at Olivia’s parted lips. “Oh, Fortunato tried that too. But then he stopped crying and struggling and chose to die with a shred of dignity. But I highly doubt dignity is something you’re capable of.”

And then, with the finality of fitting a lid to a coffin, she slapped a piece of fluorescent pink duct tape over his mouth and a fresh wave of panic ravaged Shawn’s everything. He didn’t remember this happening in her retelling of the story! Then again, the Fortunato guy had been sealed into catacombs deep underground. Shawn was in the basement of a heavily trafficked university building. Someone would actually hear him if he called for help, so she took his voice away from him too. He couldn’t even sing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” to pass his time or distract him from the inevitable. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he would die in the dark, he would die in the quiet too - and silence was, as his incessant need for chatter plainly proved, Shawn’s worst enemy.

“Goodbye, Shawn,” Olivia said, and she added one brick, layered on the mortar, and then gave her captive one last satisfied glance before adding the last brick and leaving Shawn in total, impenetrable darkness. He would never forget that last, terrible look in her eyes before his world went black - she was no longer human; she had elevated herself to the level of the storytelling gods and she relished in the twisted power she held over the life of another human.

As her footsteps clipped away, her voice, obscenely gleeful, called out, “In pace requiescat!”

***

The next ten hours were the worst of Shawn’s life, and they consisted of five main elements all bundled together into a nightmare that would stalk him for the rest of his life.

Cold. It was the middle of January, and though it couldn’t have been less than forty-five degrees outside, the basement - especially behind the walls - was chilly, and with the musty smell and the dust and the pitch black, Shawn was reminded far too much of a grave and knew that he might as well be in one, because this was going to be his. It was the kind of cold that bit deeper than the skin and wormed its way into the very core and dug its icy fangs in and refused to let go - the chill of death, an open invitation from the dead to join them in their home beneath the ground. He shivered a lot, but he couldn’t be sure if it was the cold, or the panic. It was probably a little of both.

Dark. The darkness that surrounded him had an unreal nature that could easily trick the eyes into thinking that they were already closed. It was oppressive and thick, pressing in from all sides, inky black water dredged from the depths of the sea.

Shawn had never been a fan of the dark, but neither did he exactly fear it. That changed the second that the last brick was put into place and he found himself in a darkness so severe that were in not for the feeling of floor beneath his feet he could have been suspended in the depths of space so remote that not even stars could reach. The darkness swarmed his senses - it had a physical presence, and it didn’t lessen, never permitted Shawn’s eyes to adjust to it in the slightest. It just hung there, surrounded him, assaulted his mind with its infinite arsenal of nightmares.

After experiencing true darkness, Shawn would never sleep without a nightlight again (which unfortunately meant he couldn’t judge Gus anymore for using one, either).

Pain. At first it was just the pull of his shoulders, the ache in his back. Then, about five minutes after he’d been sealed up, he realized his wrists were screaming with agony - he must have torn them badly when he fought to get away, but the adrenaline staved off the pain until now. He vaguely wondered how deeply the cuffs had cut - it felt like the skin on his wrists had been flayed - but quickly remembered that it didn’t matter where he was going.

Then there were the hunger pangs, and they mingled with the cramps from holding his bladder longer than he ever had before, and at some point muscle spasms in his arms and chest and legs joined the choir of suffering. At one point, he shed a few tears, but they could have just as easily been from anxiety or exhaustion, which itself produced its own kind of pain - he longed to sleep, but his body refused to allow him even that comfort until the very end, right before he was rescued, as if he were being forced on pain of death to endure the pain of death right up until the very moment of his painful death.

At least he didn’t have too much trouble breathing. There must have been a crack somewhere in the wall in front of or behind him, because fresh air was entering somehow. He did, several hours into his imprisonment, begin finding it difficult to pull in a full breath, and by the time he was rescued he was giddy with light-headedness, but he didn’t know if it was from the air quality or exhaustion or panic or from being forced to breathe only through his nose for hours, but he really didn’t care.

Quiet. Even worse than the cold and the dark and the pain was the quiet. The tape over his mouth prevented him from doing the one thing that could bring him comfort in even the most difficult of situations. Talking was what Shawn did - he utilized mindless prattle to distract bad guys, to make people underestimate him, to quell fear and panic in himself and those around him, to annoy and wheedle those whose opinions meant the most to him (and who he was most afraid to be real with), and most importantly, to distract himself from all the pain and baggage that his exceptional memory had filed away for him throughout the years. Talking nonsense meant that he wasn’t thinking about or acknowledging the parts of himself that arguably needed the most attention, those bits that were scared and unsure and hurt and vulnerable.

Shawn had always detested silence, and now it had invaded so intimately that even he could not drive it out.

And all of these culminated in a constant, agonizing state of absolute, unrelenting fear.

Panic attacks are horrific things that take your natural instincts in potentially dangerous situations and turn them against you in the cruelest of ways. They suck the air out of your lungs and make your heart pound so fast and so hard that you are convinced it’s going to give out in pure fatigue and never make it to that next beat. It makes your skin crawl like there are thousands of spiders nesting there, and your chest hurts and your breath is short and stunted and you know you are dying, that the next breath will be your last, but it isn’t, and the fear just continues and sometimes you curl into a ball or rock back and forth or scratch at your skin.

Panic attacks generally last anywhere from five to twenty minutes. Shawn was stuck in a state of raw, unfiltered panic for ten hours. When the EMTs at the scene took his heart rate, it was 160, had been the entire time he’d been buried in a collegiate tomb, knowing that he was going to die.

Put simply, Shawn Spencer spent ten hours in his own personal hell.

***

It was nearly three in the afternoon when Detectives Juliet O’Hara and Carlton Lassiter, with the help of a frantic Gus and a worried Henry that tried his damndest not to show how worried he was, made the final connections in the case and tracked down the woman who had slept with and then killed her lover like a hyper-intelligent, book-loving black widow. Juliet and Gus remained on the college campus to continue investigating while Lassiter and Henry went on to the station to question Olivia. She had refused to say where the missing psychic detective was, however, and only offered one bitter phrase, spoken in another language that sounded to the questioning party like a curse being placed on their heads:

“Nemo me impune lacessit.”

It was Gus who figured it out after Lassiter related the cryptic saying over the phone.

“I know that phrase!” he exclaimed to a swell of raised eyebrows. “It’s Latin! It means no one wounds me with impunity!”

“You speak Latin?” Juliet seemed impressed.

“Not much. But I recognize that particular saying, because it’s from a story that gave me nightmares my entire sophomore year of college.” He shuddered. “It’s from the second-most terrifying Poe story.” He didn’t elaborate on what the first-most terrifying one was, largely because he didn’t want to give the others fodder to use “The Tell-Tale Heart” against him like Shawn already did. Then the full implications of the words sunk in and he gasped, “We have to find Shawn, now.” The horror in his expression sent a chill down Juliet’s spine.

“Gus - what the hell are you talking about?” Henry was no longer trying to hide the panic in his voice.

“It’s from ‘The Cask of Amontillado,’ Gus clarified, his own panic making it difficult to express himself clearly.

“Guster, this is hardly the time for you to have a glass of wine,” Lassiter barked. “Now stop talking in riddles and just spit it out!”

But Juliet had now made the connection as well and answered for Gus. “Oh my gosh - isn’t that the one where the guy is sealed into a wall and left to die?”

The dread in Gus’s eyes said it all.

“He’s got to be somewhere on campus,” Henry reasoned, and his voice shook the tiniest bit. “Lassiter and I are on our way back to you now. In the meantime, check with the school and see if there are any places that are easily accessed and under construction.”

No one said it aloud, but the possibility that her words hadn’t been a hint at all and that Shawn was somewhere else entirely hung in the air amongst them. It was funny, Juliet thought - though it wasn’t funny at all - she urgently needed Gus’s theory to be right, because otherwise they would have no leads, but at the same time, she was terrified of the implications if it were true.

Her heart felt as sick as Montresor’s when he placed the last brick as she and Gus raced to the administration building and prayed they weren’t too late.

***

When they broke through the wall, the sight that greeted them was one that would never leave them - any of them. Even Lassiter, who made it his sacred duty to remain unfazed by anything his job threw at him was visibly disturbed.

A moment of silence, a beat where time stood still and everyone was afraid to move, and then -

“Shawn!” The four rescuers surged forward as one, but Henry got there first, his trembling fingers groping for a pulse - thank God, but it was racing, dangerously fast, and in the background he heard Lassiter radioing for an ambulance.

Shawn woke up as Henry gently peeled the hideous pink duct tape (an affront to all duct tape everywhere) off of his mouth. It wasn’t a gentle waking, a flutter of eyelashes or the murmuring of a name - it was violent and erratic, fueled by terror.

Henry had had to deal with panic attacks before - mostly Gus’s when he took the boys camping together, but once or twice when Shawn was really young and he’d had a bad dream. This one was the worst that he’d ever seen - Shawn woke with a muffled yell, panting through his nose, writhing, tears streaming down his face, eyes squeezed shut against the trauma he’d been subjected to, and he threw himself against the handcuffs so fiercely that Henry feared he’d break his wrists.

Soon his wrists were freed, though, and Henry, with the help of Lassiter, helped a weakened Shawn out of the wall and into the basement and lowered him to the floor. Henry sat with him and rubbed his back and spoke quietly to him, Juliet took his hand, and Gus reassured him while Lassiter ran up the stairs to check on the ETA of the ambulance.

Twenty minutes later, Shawn had been placed onto a stretcher and carried up the stairs and out into the sunlight - sensing the warm rays, he opened his eyes only to pinch them shut again as the brightness after so many hours in the dark nearly blinded him. He had been given something to calm him down, and he would be going to the hospital to be checked over and observed overnight, and a psychiatrist would be sent in to evaluate him in the morning, and everything was moving so fast that Shawn leaned over the side of the stretcher and deposited the remnants of the last thing he’d eaten, nearly twelve hours before.

“There’s one thing I still don’t get,” he gasped as he was eased back onto the stretcher. “Where do the armadillos come into her plan?”

The EMTs exchanged a concerned look at the stretcher, probably wondering if there had been some carbon monoxide poisoning after all. Gus, however, just rolled his eyes.

“Amontillado, Shawn. It’s a kind of wine.”

“The story is called ‘The Casket of the Armadillos,’” Shawn argued stubbornly, going so far as to cross his arms over his chest, pulling at the IV in his right hand.

Gus was going to argue, to insist that he’d actually read the story (and why the heck would someone fill a casket with armadillos?), but then Gus saw the plea in Shawn’s hazel eyes, that need for jokes and silliness, and understood that his best friend was clinging onto his last shreds of control.

“You know what - I forgot,” Gus corrected, shaking his head and giving himself a light smack on the forehead for good measure. “It is ‘The Casket of Armadillos.’” He glared out at Henry, at Lassiter and Juliet and the EMTs, defying them to challenge his claim. No one did, but they all shared a similar baffled expression.

Well, they could deal with their confusion, Gus thought protectively as he watched Shawn and Henry disappear into the ambulance. Shawn had been through a night of unspeakable horror, so if it was armadillos he wanted, then it was armadillos he was going to get.

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sledgefuweek · 4 years

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Hi everyone! As we mentioned a couple days ago, Lea and I thought it’d be helpful for everyone if we made an informational post about the prompts for Sledgefu Week, just in case people were either confused about the prompt itself or maybe looking for some inspo!

Here is the AU prompt list: I’ll pop it under a read-more just to save your dashboards, but do go ahead and check it out! And as always, any questions or comments you may have, our inbox is always open :~)

PIRATE AU

Pretty self-explanatory, and a really popular suggestion on the google form that came before the poll, so I’ll assume most of you have a pretty good idea of what makes a pirate AU! This is a fun prompt to pair up with other ‘ocean’ themed prompts, I’m thinking of sirens, mermaids, sea monsters, however many tentacles you want to introduce into this thing. I think Pirate AU can encompass all of those, plus all the various different degrees of piracy that can be had, ranging from the big bad Captain Hook style of piracy down to something a little more Treasure Planet... the AU doesn’t stipulate anywhere that it has to be on land/water after all ;~) My favourite childhood pirates were the sky pirates from the Edge Chronicles series! Really, the only limit with this prompt is your own imagination, feel free to push the envelope!

SOUTHERN GOTHIC

This is one that I’ve seen a few people be curious about, and honestly as was I! Maybe if you’re American you may have a better understanding of what makes a Southern Gothic story different from a conventional (European) Gothic novel, but I know a lot of people here aren’t American, including myself and Lea, so! I did a little research (but if any of this doesn’t quite ring true to what Southern Gothic is, don’t hesitate to correct me! There’s only so much the internet can tell me haha). It’s my understanding that where Euro Gothic is more heavily rooted in the fantastic, Southern Gothic tends towards magical realism instead. It’s more heavily entrenched into the culture of the South than Euro Gothic is necessarily about European culture. Its essentially preoccupied with examining the values of the American south, so it’s important to exercise some sensitivity and care with some of the themes which can come up when looking at the history of the south; namely racism, and slavery -- for obvious reasons. There are plenty other ways to approach Southern Gothic without making comment on these aspects of the genre if you aren’t appropriately knowledgeable about them... the genre stems from European Gothic after all, which means that although it is focused on the south, it is also characterised by explorations of madness, fear of the outside world, decay and despair, the impact of the past on the present, and events stemming from or relating to poverty, crime, alienation, or violence. It has an absolute wealth of generic characteristics that, once combined with the magical realism that is unique to Southern Gothic, can be really fun to play with. Think Wuthering Heights, you know?

VAMPIRE AU

Another pretty classic one, and an AU that I think warrants very little explanation. I think the fun in Vampire AUs is in making it new -- there are SO many various vampire stories out there, what do you want to do with yours? Draw from popular culture, draw from history, draw from your own imagination... just as with the pirate AU, there’s really no limit to where you can take this prompt. Imagine the impact of an all-vampire company in a canonverse story! Or how would a newly-turned vampire navigate his new condition in the modern world? Plus, the whole immortality thing really lends itself to some great slow burn opportunities here. Or, hey, Twilight AU?

PARANORMAL AU

Okay, so: I know now that this looks similar to our Supernatural AU from last year, at a glance. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like they’re two very distinct prompts! It’s always been my understanding that supernatural is monsters: werewolves, witches, etc. whereas paranormal means ghosts, and aliens? Either way, if you already have an idea planned for this that tends towards the werewolf rather than the ghost, don’t worry about it. However this is the time where the angst can come in... I feel like The Pacific is kind of a perfect piece of source material to base a ghostfic on -- not to be morbid but well, you know. And of course, it isn’t limited to one of the characters being a ghost -- as I said, my understanding of ‘paranormal’ always encompassed ghosts, but also aliens, and cryptozoology. Now, wouldn’t Eugene being so interested in birds translate nicely into cryptozoology? Wouldn’t Snafu, being the paranoid legend that he is, quite possibly be into weird internet forums about aliens? You can interpret the prompt as loosely or as closely as you like :~)

COFFEE SHOP AU

I feel like I don’t need to explain this. Do I? Are coffee shop AUs still as popular as they used to be? The real challenge of a coffee shop AU is actually this: how will you make the employee of the coffee shop feel anything less than distain for the customer that is the would-be love interest? Fellow customer service workers know exactly what I mean. (But for real, this can be a fun prompt despite how oftentimes overworked it can seem, and that’s because it leaves a lot of room for creativity. Is your character a poet doing a reading at a local coffee house, catching the eye of the person in the audience? Are they a musician, a stressed-out student, a caffeine-hater who is gritting their teeth after every sip just for a chance to speak to the cute barista? There’s tons of options, and I’m excited to see where people go with it.)

GHIBLI AU

So this is quite simply an opportunity to write an AU for any Ghibli movie of your choice! It’s actually my prompt (I was super happy to see it make it up there in the polls!) so I can explain why it’s nice and vague :~) I didn’t like the thought of having to limit every single person who wanted to contribute to the ship week to a specific AU for a specific Ghibli movie: they have such a huge catalogue of movies, and everyone seems to have their own particular favourite! So basically, you have the freedom to pick from any movie made by Ghibli to turn into an AU here. And these AUs can be as close to the source or as far away from it as you like. Want to write Gene and Snaf as background characters ordering bread from Kiki? You got it. Want to have them fighting in the war that features in Howl’s Moving Castle? Your mind. It’s completely up to you! And if you’re not familiar with Ghibli movies, you’re gonna have a great time if you do decide to watch a couple :~) They’re all on Netflix in the UK, but can’t speak for other countries sadly.

ENEMIES TO LOVERS

A time-honoured classic. Who hasn’t read an enemies to lovers AU? If you haven’t, and you’re unfamiliar with the concept, it’s pretty self explanatory! It’s pretty much about two characters who have an oftentimes very long history of conflict with each other, (though the ‘long’ part doesn’t really matter much) that eventually resolves into, well, love! The enemy relationship gets swapped for a romantic relationship. I always associate this prompt with slow burn fic too -- it’s always so good if it’s a gradual descent into affection. Now, this is a very broad prompt, which means it can be applied really nicely on top of other AUs! Just glancing at the list here, you wanna write a centuries long Vampire AU where they start out enemies and become lovers? Go for it!! It’s easily one that can be made unique and really fun by applying it to other AUs if you want to. I always think of Spy AUs or things within that genre too!

MYTH AU

This is another pretty broad one that I think covers a lot of bases, simply because there are SO many myths out there lol. If your culture has specific myths, this’d be a really nice time to get creative with them and also let people learn a little more about myths they might not know! There’s also obviously a ton of myths centralised around the American south so that would be fitting for both characters, but don’t be afraid to branch out! Really, you can apply this to any kind of folklore you want, and it’d be perfect! Obviously Greek myths are super popular and always cool too -- imagine an Achilles/Patroclus AU! But I think what makes this prompt really nice is tha it leaves you some room to actually have a go at making your own mythic tale up. So fall back on the real myths that kinda build up our world, but if you’re feeling really creative, take a stab at crafting your own!

#sledgefu week

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mintymiknow · 5 years

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Scintilla - ch. 1 | Bang Chan

summary & more info | masterlist

Characters: Stray Kids, Reader

Pairing: Bang Chan x Reader

Summary: After another boring day, you plead with Changbin to take you out of the castle. He does, and while you do find yourself enjoying, you also find yourself in a rather complicated situation.

Genre: Royal fantasy [Red Queen AU]

Word count: Approx. 6.3k

Warnings: Slight violence as the reader gets into a fight; mentions of death and murder

A/N: Ch. 1 for you all! No bias, but I really like writing for Minho’s character here uwu. Anyway, in case my descriptions were vague (for the places), the inspiration behind Elysium are French villages like Riquewihr and England’s Clovelly Village. District 9′s aesthetic is inspired by Barri Gotic, or Gothic Quarter in Barcelona. If you have any questions or want to talk about this AU, my asks are always open :>

Council meetings were always a bore to you. Yes, you were to be queen soon, but all the Council ever talked about was how they should address the problem of increasing Newbloods and Reds. Besides, they never listened to what you had to say.

“Why are these geezers so bothered by multiplying Newbloods and Reds? It’s their choice to make babies anyway.”

Of course, you don’t say that out loud, but Seungmin happens to read your thoughts at that precise moment, and he tries his best to cover a snicker. You purse your lips at his reaction, allowing him to read your mind again.

“What? It’s true!”

Seungmin smiles at the ground, shaking his head. You giggle, and lean closer to Minho on your left to whisper, “Hey, Minmin, tell these oldies that Newbloods and Reds making more babies shouldn’t be our priority.”

Minho side-eyes you, his glare sharp and steely. “You ever think about something that indecent again and you’re in big trouble, y/n.”

Your fingers fiddle with the chains embellishing his uniform, “We should be addressing our crumbling ties with neighboring nations, but the Council is busy making plans to lessen Newbloods and Reds. Tsk tsk tsk.”

Minho cranes his head to finally face you, an eyebrow raised as he whispers, “Since when were you interested in diplomatic relations?”

“How dare you.” you fake gasp.

“Is there anything you’d like to share, Your Highness? Lord Minho?” one councilor asks sternly.

You shake your head and use a more formal tone, “Oh, I was just thinking that perhaps we should be addressing the issue of our weakened ties with the Southern nation instead of discussing how Newbloods and Reds are multiplying.”

Minho nods, “The princess has a point, Sir.”

The councilor sighs in exasperation before agreeing to the shift in topic.

When the meeting ends and all the other High House councilors have left, you, Seungmin, and Minho watch as Hyunjin is whisked away by the daughters of said councilors. “I’ll see you guys soon!” Hyunjin shouts, his wave drowned out by the multitude of ladies.

Seungmin chuckles to himself before bowing to you and Minho, “Father needs me back home, so I’ll be going as well.”

“Bye Minnie.” you hug him, and Minho gives him a curt nod.

When Seungmin leaves, you turn to Minho and smile. “Aren’t you proud of me?” you tease, “I didn’t say anything inappropriate.”

“But you also spaced out a lot.” Minho counters, face devoid of any emotion.

You roll your eyes and huff. The smirk on his lips taunts you before turning into a gentler smile. Lee Minho did not smile a lot, but when he did, you knew he was in a good mood. “I’m just kidding, y/n. You did better than the other meetings we’ve had.”

“Compliment accepted.” you grin, “Now I’m going to find Changbin.”

“Why didn’t he attend?” Minho asks, a knowing look in his eyes.

You shrug, “He told me wasn’t feeling well.”

Minho knows better – you and Changbin have been friends with him for quite some time, and observant as he was, he already recognized both your habits. So as you explained how Changbin was feeling sick, Minho knew better; Changbin was making excuses so as to not attend the meeting. He probably hated it more than you.

But Minho let it slide. “Tell him to get better.” Minho sighs before offering you a small smile, “I’ll be going now as well.”

You pull him into a hug, “I heard you’re going to the Lakelands.”

“Yeah.” Minho nods, “Father and I will be making negotiations for an alliance.”

“What for?”

Minho knows that particular tone in your voice – worry mixed with exasperation. “For future purposes.” he simply states.

You sigh, “It’s not like we’re planning on waging war on other nations anytime soon, Min.”

“But others may wage war on us. What did I tell you? Always be prepared, right?” Minho lectures you yet again.

“Fine, fine.” you let out another sigh, “Just stay safe. You can never predict what goes on in their land.”

The male unhooks an earring and gently places it in your palm. He did that every time you were scared or anxious. “Promise.” he smiles again.

You detach your arms from around Minho, and as he walks away, he smirks, “Behave yourself, princess.”

“Oh, you know me.” you laugh, “I definitely will.”

“Changbin.”

Your voice startles the young prince, and you snicker at his reaction. You enter his room and cross your arms, “Good to see that you’re feeling much better.”

Changbin chuckles, fastening the last button on his casual shirt, “I highly doubt Minho bought that for one second.”

“No, he didn’t.” you laugh, “But I guess he has more urgent matters to attend to. He even said ‘tell him to get better’.”

Changbin laughs, an amused grin stretching across his face, “Of course he would.”

You nod at his shirt and tilt your head, “What are you up to?”

“Nothing much.”

Seeing as to how you were unsatisfied by his answer, Changbin sighs and plops onto his bed, “I’m going out…to Elysium.”

You smile, “Yeah, ok. You do know that we can’t go without a Royal Guard, right? Minho is going to freak, and Seungmin will lecture us ‘til night.”

“But I don’t want a guard following me around all day.” Changbin explains, fiddling with his fingers, “From Elysium, I go to…well, you see…I go to District 9.”

Changbin braced himself for your screaming outburst or disappointed glare, but he was not ready to see your eyes gleaming with wonder. You run over to him, grabbing both his hands in yours, “You’ve been to District 9? In person?”

“Y-yeah…” he stutters; confused was an understatement.

You giggle, “Elysium is perfect and all, but I’ve wanted to see the home of the rebels for so long! Is it as interesting as it seems? Are the other Silvers correct in thinking that it’s a horrible place? Oh, please, take me with you!”

“No.” Changbin shakes his head fervently, “Minho is going to wrap me with his chains and slice me into cubes to be served on a silver platter if he finds out I brought you out.”

“He’s not the boss of us. And technically, we have more authority over him. We’re the Royal Family.” you place your hands on your hips, “Come on, Bin. I’ve been dying to go there. I promise I won’t wander off without you. For your big sis?”

“I hate you so much, but fine. Don’t blame me if you get scared or something.” Changbin whines, but you see the smile peeking at the corner of his lips.

Squeezing his hand tighter, you flash your younger brother a grin, “Thank you, Binnie!”

“You can’t go in that dress though. It’s too eye-catching and luxurious.” Changbin points at your elaborate red gown, “Please tell me you have something simpler.”

“I believe I do.” you reply, “I’ll get changed. Where do I meet you?”

Changbin whispers, “The garden. Trust me.”

You nod and excitedly head for your room. Once in your own chambers, you go through your closet and pull out a plain, mauve dress – despite its simplicity, it still managed to fall gracefully at your knees. You discard your heels for worn-out boots and gently place your tiara inside your little treasure chest before tying your hair into a loose ponytail.

You peek out your door to make sure no one was roaming the halls. Once it was clear, you quietly made your way to the garden. It was times like these that you wished you were a Silk – sneaky and light-footed – like Hyunjin. Thankfully, you made it to the garden with no one seeing you. Changbin was already there, standing by the balustrade. When you fall into step in front of him, Changbin points down the garden balcony’s wall, “This is our way down.”

“You’re saying we jump?” you look at him with disbelief.

Changbin holds back a snicker, “Of course not. Are you crazy? I discovered that apparently, there’s a blind spot down this wall. No Royal Guards nearby to see it – I don’t know how they don’t notice – but anyway, it also lands directly below to an alleyway with no people.”

While staring down from the balcony, you suddenly remember the male you saw from a month ago; he was in an alleyway as well – not this one, but it was also an alley nearby. You hum in amusement before turning to Changbin, “Ok, Captain. How do we get down?”

Changbin gestures towards the left, “Use this vine as a rope and slowly climb down.”

“This is safe, isn’t it?”

“You’re not even out of the castle walls and you’re already scared?” he teases.

You roll your eyes, “I’m just making sure it doesn’t snap and I fall to my untimely death. What an embarrassing and undignified way to die.”

Changbin offers to go ahead, saying things like he’ll catch you or something. As he expertly climbs down the wall, you follow suit, making sure to keep a tight grip on the vine. Once you reach the ground, you smirk at your brother, “Might I ask how and why you discovered this?”

“Don’t.” Changbin laughs, “Come on.”

You both walk hand-in-hand, maneuvering through the alleys in utmost secrecy, making sure no Silver laid eyes on you. The whole thing made you smile to yourself the tiniest bit; you felt like those assassins or spies the councilors always told you about.

After tip-toeing, hiding behind stalls, skirting around people, and keeping your head low, you both arrive at the grand gate that guarded the whole of Miroh. “Oh, how are we going to get past those Royal Guards?” you ask.

Changbin scratches his chin, a sheepish look on his face, “I may or may not have busted a part of the wall before. Again, don’t ask.”

Without another word, Changbin ducks under a few trees lining the wall. You tilt your head in confusion – the wall seemed to be in tact – until Changbin placed his hand on a particular part. He gave it a push, and a few large rocks came tumbling down. You stifle a laugh before following him through the hole. While Changbin places the rocks back in place, he smirks, “I chose that particular part ‘cause it’s covered by the bushes and shrubs. Who’s the smart one now, Seungmin?”

You laugh at his little joke, “Ok, genius. We’re officially out of Miroh, so that means we can walk all the way to Elysium?”

“Yes, we can.” Changbin grins.

You were expecting the journey to be tiring, but perhaps the excitement and adrenaline made you feel way too energized and preoccupied to even feel exhausted. You pointed at almost every unfamiliar thing, asking Changbin to explain for you.

“Is that the famous Kin River Hyunjin was talking about?”

“Seungmin mentioned something about a farming village! This is breathtaking.”

“Ohhhh, look! Minho told me about this small village!”

“Bin, why are there so many horses here?”

“Oh my gosh, is that a Newblood? The one Father always told us about? She’s making little sparks of electricity! Silvers can’t do that!”

Changbin patiently answers each of your questions and listens to your little outbursts of awe, finding himself chuckling at your innocent curiosity. You were older, but at this moment, it seemed like you were the younger sibling. He didn’t blame you though – ever since the king’s death, you had to live up to the Council’s expectations and carried a lot of responsibilities, not being able to enjoy your youth, per se. You were prohibited from leaving the castle unless on a political trip, and even then, you had to be accompanied by Minho or the Royal Guard.

Seeing you free and released from all the royal responsibilities made Changbin feel better about bringing you out. He slung his arm around your shoulder as you approached the borders of Elysium, “Get ready to really enjoy this, sis.”

You chuckle and wrap your arm around his waist, “I trust you, baby bro.”

Elysium was just as magical as how everyone described it. Yes, it was a simpler and less luxurious than Miroh, but there was an aura of peace and happiness to the paradise city. Beautiful trees could be found everywhere. Clean and smooth cobblestone streets snaked around the whole place. People were bustling about their daily activities, some relaxing by café porches and sipping tea as flowers danced around them. You looked to the right to see a canal winding around a few houses. Couples and groups of friends sat in several boats as someone paddled for them. They were laughing and enjoying the little leisurely activity, even reaching out to dip their fingers in the crystal-like water.

Just then, one male who had his fingers in the water raised his arm, and the water followed his movements. You gasp, eyes wide in wonder – he was a nymph, and nymphs were Silvers. He swirled the water around and made a little water flower, showing it to the woman next to him. She giggled before her eyes turned to the water. As soon as her eyes fell to the water’s surface, little explosions were made. No Silver could ever do that as Oblivions had to make contact with whatever they wanted to blow up. She was a Newblood, then.

You were too busy watching their little interactions to notice that you had let go of Changbin’s hand. Completely forgetting about the whole “sticking close to him” promise you made in your head, you absentmindedly wander around. You pass by an open field littered with various tulips; some of which were colors you’ve never seen in Miroh. Children run across and squeal at each other while their parents watch with joy. A vendor nearby gently pats your back, offering you a yellow rose. “For me?” you ask in surprise.

The jolly, aged vendor smiles, “Yes, yes. I can tell you like roses.”

“I do, thank you.” you laugh, waving as he attends to other customers.

You go on to walking down an inclined path that leads you to a view of the ocean. You find yourself smelling the salty breeze as it dances around you. You watch an elderly couple stroll by the shore, their wrinkled smiles causing you to grin to yourself. A sudden tap on your thigh catches you by surprise, yelping before you actually turn to the culprit. You unclench your fist when you see a small girl tilting her head to the side, a pretty smile gracing her lips. “Oh, hello.” you chuckle.

The girl points at you, her grin growing wider, “You’re very pretty! You look like a princess. Are you a princess?”

You feel the panic in your stomach. Changbin mentioned that you had to try your best to keep a low-profile. With a forced smile, you bend down to the child’s level, “I am a princess.” you wink and tuck the yellow rose behind her ear, “But then again, so are you.”

A giddy giggle escapes her lips, “One day, I will be a princess who will make this place magical.”

“Oh?” you chuckle, “You’d make a wonderful princess.”

The little girl smiles proudly before hugging your thigh. She waves shyly before skipping away. The grin you had slowly faded into a frown. Her words stuck to you like magnets.

“One day, I will be a princess who will make this place magical.”

“If only it were that easy.” you muse to no one but yourself.

You shake off your thoughts and force a smile once more. You’re here to enjoy, not think about your duties, after all. With that in mind, you venture back into the city proper, admiring the way the houses and buildings vary in color. You pass by cafes, stalls, quaint shops, bookstores, pubs, inns, and much more. A few questioning eyes glaze past you, but you simply smile and continue your little adventure.

All the sunshine and fun, however, ceases when you find yourself in an isolated street with barely any villagers or townspeople nearby. You breathe out and ready yourself to find Changbin, but as soon as you turn around, you collide with a rather firm chest. You stumble backward, only for you back to collide with another figure. You didn’t need to think twice – this was trouble. “Ain’t you the princess of Norta? The Seo daughter?” one man asks, a sinister tone to his voice.

You keep your mouth shut and ignore his question. His partner – the one behind you – shoves you forward, “No doubt, this is her.”

“Leave me alone.” you glare.

It doesn’t do anything because both men are now gripping your arms and dragging you towards a darker corner. You kick and try to wrangle your way out, but the men are stronger. You could instantly burn these strangers to crisps with your flames, but Changbin told you not to use your abilities. House Seo were the only Burners – using your abilities would be a dead giveaway. “Should we just kill here right here?” one male snickers.

His partner smirks, “I wish, but I think our leader has other plans.”

Screw it. You narrow your eyes and ignite a small fire in each palm and shoot it towards the men. They temporarily let go of you, and you use it as a chance to kick both of them in their weak spots. You break into a sprint, but before you can reach the end of the alley, another figure pops up, blocking your way. You slowly back up, but when you hear the sound of explosion, you quickly turn around. One of the men who had previously taken you laid his eyes on the wooden crate next to you. It exploded instantly, and your eyes widened; that man could do that to you if he willed it. The man next to him shook his hands, sparks of greenish-blue dancing around his fingers. “No point in hiding it, I guess.” you mumble, urging your flames to grow bigger.

Not long after, you find yourself locked in a battle with the two men. You mentally thank Minho for all the training sessions he had with you as you were able to keep up with the attacks they were throwing at you. You, however, seemed to have forgotten about the third stranger. Just as you aim a punch at the electricity-wielding man, he disappears into a puff of smoke. You aren’t given a second to react as you are pushed forward by a small explosion behind you. You hit the ground harshly, hissing in pain. When you look up, there are now five strangers – all of them were the electricity-guy. You rapidly blink, but the fives figures remain there. You shoot fireballs at all of them, but they all turn into smoke again. “What?” you panic.

You scream when you feel a jolt of electricity from behind, and then a punch from in front of you. From the corner of your eye, you see a knife being thrust at you. You don’t react quick enough to evade it, but you manage to block it with your arm. Your shiny, silver blood trickles down the blade as you pull it out, gritting your teeth in pain.

You see the three strangers circling around you. Hating the feeling of helplessness, you exclaim as a burst of fire erupts from you. The blazing heat and brightness gives you ample time to get up and limp away. “Bin! Where are you? Bin!” you call out.

You try to ignore the pain and start to brisk walk. You look behind you to see the men catching up, so you start to sprint. “Changbin!” you cry out, desperation in your voice.

You fall to your knees when Mister Explosion causes another blast near your feet, the bits of shattered rocks wounding your leg. “Changbin, please!” you panic.

Just as you stretch your arm out to burn the men behind you, a younger male appears before your very eyes. “Come with me, ok?” Before you can respond, the male puts an arm around you, and you vanish from sight.

You miraculously land at a crowded marketplace, gripping the younger male’s shirt tightly. “Oh my gosh, what the – where am I? How did – ”

“Please calm down.” the male whispers, “You can trust me. I’m your brother’s friend.”

“Brother?” you ask, “Where’s Changbin?”

“I’ll take you to him, but you have to stop freaking out…Your Highness.” he offers you a small smile, freckles glowing with the golden sun.

You slowly nod, and the male wraps an arm around you again. “Here we go.”

After apparently teleporting from one place to another, you arrive at a drearier place – drearier than Elysium, anyway. You’re standing in an old-looking hallway with vines and moss covering the walls. The hallway forms a small square-shape with a garden in the middle of the open-spaced, quadrangle-like area. The young male turns to you with concern, hands gently gripping your shoulders, “Are you ok?”

“Mhmm,” you nod, “Where are we exactly?”

“Uh…District 9.”

“District 9?”

The male chuckles, “Yes, District 9.”

“Wow, I’m really here.” a small smile forms on your lips, “But where’s Changbin?”

“Right here.”

You spin at the sound of a familiar voice, rushing into his opened arms. “Gosh, I told you not to wander off!” he says sternly, but despite the anger in his voice, you see the worry in his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” you force a smile, “but your friend here helped me.”

Changbin sighs, “I know. I asked him to help me look for you.”

The young male steps behind you and smiles apologetically, “She might want to have her wounds cleaned though.”

“Wounds?”

“Oh, these.” you point to the scratches on your face, the wounds on your leg, and the stab on your arm.

Changbin shrieks, “Minho is going to murder me!”

“Relax, I’ll handle Minho.” you assure your brother.

Changbin lets out a deep breath before pulling you into another hug, “Whatever. At least you’re here now.”

“And welcome to District 9.” his friend grins.

The younger male then teleports both you and Changbin to another room – a dark, barely lit room. It had a rather eerie and gothic vibe, but you didn’t complain. You walked over to the foggy window and scanned the streets. It was less lively than Elysium, but you could see a few individuals walking around. The sky was gloomy and overcast, but no rain fell from the sky. You turn around and smile at Changbin’s friend, “I never got to ask your name. You did save me, so thank you.”

He grins, “I’m Lee Felix. A Newblood who teleports – a Jumper.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Felix.” you grin before raising an eyebrow at Changbin, “And how did you become friends with my brother?”

Felix chuckles at Changbin’s speechless reaction before answering, “I don’t know if you know or not, but Changbin has been sneaking out of Miroh for about a month now, and we kind of bumped into each other when I was exploring Elysium.”

Changbin continues, “We got along well and eventually, I went with him here, to District 9. I made friends with other Newbloods because…well, you can only take so much of the damn Silvers.”

Just then, another person enters the room. He gasps upon making eye contact with you, and you tilt your head. “The…the princess is…the princess is here.” the boy gapes, looking at both Changbin and Felix.

Felix laughs, “Yeah, some people were trying to kill her, so I had to rescue her.”

“Oh.” the boy nods, “Wait, she’s the one with the injuries?”

“Yup.” Changbin replies.

The boy shyly makes his way to you, asking you to sit down. He carefully cleans up your wounds and scratches. You welcome the silence; it was something you needed after a rather unexpected twist in your day. “Yikes.” the young boy mutters to himself, tending to your injuries.

You pout a little, “Yeah, whatever. This other guy could make things explode by looking at it, and I don’t know what the third guy did. The lightning guy suddenly multiplied into five.”

“The blowing-up-guy is a Bomber. The third guy must have been an Illusionist, which explains why you were seeing things out of the ordinary.” Felix explains.

You seem interested to learn about the Newbloods, but another male barges into the room, slamming the door. “What do you mean the Seo princess is here?”

You look at the male, waving at him. He gasps, ignoring your wave, “Felix, what were you thinking? We can’t just bring a Royal Family member into the base!”

“But you all were ok with Changbin.” Felix shrugs.

The male runs his fingers through his hair, “Yeah, but it’s because he proved that we can trust him. I don’t know about princess here. Isn’t she the one inheriting the throne? What if she’s conspiring against us? A spy!”

You wave your hand dismissively, “Calm down. If I wanted to kill you, I could have done it seconds ago. Besides, if you can trust Changbin, you can trust me. We…”

You look to Changbin, and he finishes for you. “We share the same sentiments, if you know what I mean.” he plainly states, a small smirk on his lips.

The male warily squints his eyes before breaking out into a friendlier smile, “If you say so. But, if you do anything sketchy, I will not hesitate to zap you.”

He playfully makes electricity form in his palms, and you point at the sight. “Someone tried to kill me with that ability. Is it a Newblood ability? Silvers can’t do that.”

Felix nods, “Jisung is an Electricon – manipulators of electricity and lightning. Jeongin, who just patched you up, is a Shifter or Skin Changer – he can physically turn into absolutely anyone.”

Jeongin smiles and demonstrates his ability, transforming himself temporarily into Felix. “Whoa.” you say quietly, “I’ve never seen these abilities. It’s amazing.”

“Well, not all Silvers think so, so thank you.” Jisung chuckles.

“Not all Silvers want to spite you, you know?” you grin, “My father didn’t want that.”

Jeongin gently smiles, sitting cross-legged on the floor, “We know. I think that’s why we ended up liking Changbin. He reminded us of King Seo.”

You giggle, “He’s more like Father than I am.”

“So, what were you doing that made you end up nearly getting killed?” Jisung asks.

You shrug, “I wanted to go to Elysium since Changbin said he goes to District 9 from there. I was just going around and sight-seeing when suspicious men came out and attacked me. I mean, I’ve been trained for combat but I couldn’t react well since I’ve never battled with…Newbloods before.”

“And why’d you want to go to District 9?”

“I’ve heard stories,” you start, “about how it was a mysterious place where nothing good happened. Of course, those were stories from Silver elitists. My father thought differently, so I wanted to see it myself. I mean, they say rebellions rise from here, but so did heroes, right? Who wouldn’t want to go to a place where heroes came from?”

“I like her already.” Jisung jokes, his laugh lighting up the room.

Jeongin furrows his eyebrows as he speaks up, “But you have to be careful. Not all the Newbloods and Reds in District 9 are as accepting as we are. If you step out onto those streets without any protection, I guarantee that there will be some Newbloods who are more than willing to see you dead. Especially the princess.”

You shiver at the thought of it, “I mean, I was nearly killed in Elysium, so yeah, I can see that happening here.”

“We won’t kill you,” Felix reassures you, “SKZ, our little group, does not like violence. We do rebellions peacefully.”

“Felix!” Jisung and Jeongin’s eyes widen.

Felix makes an “o” shape with his mouth, but you and Changbin simply chuckle. “So, you’re a rebel group too?” you smirk.

“I…um…” Felix stutters.

You wink at the male, “That’s amusing. I’m talking to rebels.”

Jisung looks speechless as he faces you, “You’re not going to snitch on us, are you? Are you going to tell the Royal Guard about us? Is House Lee going to go after us?”

You shake your head and smile gently, “I’ve always wanted to meet rebels…well, rebels who weren’t after my head, anyway. I didn’t know I’d actually meet some.”

“I am genuinely puzzled by you.” Jeongin chuckles.

Changbin shrugs, “She’s not your typical princess, Innie.”

“Why aren’t you…you know…disgusted by us?” Jisung asks innocently, his child-like expression melting you.

You look out the window, “Father wasn’t. Besides, I don’t see the point in segregating our blood. Silver, Newblood, or Red, it doesn’t matter. I want to unite both people, but…the High Houses – the Council – thinks otherwise.”

“And that is why you being here is a threat to us.”

Everyone in the room snaps their attention to the commanding voice. Another figure – blond and maybe a little handsome – leans against the doorframe. You watch him cross his arms and quietly say, “You…I’ve seen you before.”

“Yes,” the man smiles slightly, “and may I say thank you for keeping your promise and not telling the Royal Guard about us loitering around your city.”

“Wait,” Changbin looks at you, “you’ve met Chan already?”

You shake your head, eyes still on this Chan person, “Not quite. I just saw him in the streets one evening, but that was it.”

Chan pushes himself off from the doorframe and sighs, “I appreciate it really, and while it would be nice to chat with the princess herself, you can’t be here.”

“Why?” you challenge.

Chan looks at you as if it were obvious, “Like I said. You’re a threat. SKZ is still a rebel group, but just because we’re not blowing things up and attacking your city doesn’t mean we should be friendly with you.”

“Then why does Changbin come here often?” you raise an eyebrow.

“He doesn’t mind losing the throne. He doesn’t mind if there was no more hierarchy in the kingdom. He doesn’t mind going against the Council at all. I don’t think I can say the same for you, Your Highness.” Chan explains.

You stand up and argue with the male, “It’s not like I approve of what my people are doing either.”

“Not liking what they do is different from actually doing something about it.” Chan states, “Sure, you don’t like it, but what are you doing about it? What we hear from little talk around places is that you simply go along with what your Council or what Lee Minho tells you to do.”

You look down on the floor and try to form your words. Chan speaks again, gentler this time, “Your Highness, District 9 is not a place for you. It’s a threat for both you and the people here.”

You look at him straight in the eye. There it was again – the burning fire in his dark eyes. You had the same look in your own as you leveled his stare. “How am I a threat when Changbin isn’t?”

“Changbin isn’t going to be the ruler, my dear.” the term Chan uses causes shivers to tingle down your spine, “He’s discarded all rights to the throne quite publicly already and would rather not be prince. He has no obligations to the kingdom and isn’t tied down by it. His status is really just a title. You, on the other hand, are going to be ruler whether you like it or not. You have an obligation to the throne and kingdom. Obviously, rebels have to be more wary of that. Just because you don’t hate Newbloods doesn’t mean you can’t turn against us one day.”

Chan is now standing in front of you, staring you down, “As rightful queen, your loyalty will always be with your own people.”

You manage to glare back, though the intensity of Chan’s eyes startles you for a second. He’s so calm on the outside, but you can feel the dominating aura to him. “You can’t tell me who I’m loyal to or not.” you whisper.

Chan’s smile turns into a smirk, “You’re much feistier than I imagined, Your Highness. It’s been fun arguing with you, but you really need to go back to Miroh. The day’s almost over.”

He reaches up to touch the earring on your ear – the earring Minho gave you. His fingers ghost over the skin near your tensed jaw. His face is still stern, but his eyes have softened, “Wouldn’t want Lee Minho biting your head off, do we?”

He retracts his hand from your jaw but instead leans closer. Being the Sounder that he was, Chan manipulates the sound around everyone, making sure that once again, only you can hear his words, “I do have a feeling I’ll be seeing you again – just not here.”

You take a step back to pierce his eyes with your own burning stare. The intensity causes Chan to smile again as you whisper, “You still manage to pique my interest. Just like that other night.”

He smiles before turning to Changbin, “Changbin, I think you and your sister need to go.”

“Yeah, ok.” Changbin nods, grabbing your hand firmly.

Felix walks over to the both of you, “I’ll take you as far as Elysium’s borders, ok?”

Jisung whispers a soft “bye”, and Jeongin waves with an unreadable expression. When you make one last glance at Chan, the male simply nods his head, a slow smile making its way to his lips. His pale hair reflects the moonlight, and if you weren’t so pissed at him, you would have thought he looked damn ethereal. Felix grips yours and Changbin’s wrists before you disappear.

“Well, that was heated.” Jisung jokes, scratching his nape, “I like those siblings.”

Chan smiles to himself before exiting the room, “We shall see, Jisung.”

After several “jumps” – as Felix would like to call it – the three of you arrive at Elysium’s borders. Felix smiles at the two of you, “Safe travels, you two.”

“Thank you, Felix.” you offer him a small smile.

He grins back before giving Changbin a hug and some sort of handshake. In an instant, he “jumps” away, disappearing from your sight. Changbin then holds your hand tightly as he starts to walk down the road. As you walk, you mumble, “I really don’t get why that Chan guy doesn’t like me there when you’re obviously of royal blood as well.”

Changbin sighs, “It’s like he said, sis. I may be prince, but I don’t have an obligation to the throne. If I choose to defect and rebel against you and the Council, they’ll brand me as a traitor. Maybe imprison me if they manage to catch and find me. Besides, I openly told the public that I don’t want anything to do with ruling and the like.”

He turns to you, whispering, “But for you...if they find out you rebel or even interact with Newbloods and Reds, I doubt it’s going to be as lax as my case. The consequences for you are heavier since you are bound to the throne. I think Chan’s was just trying to protect you. He’s like that.”

“Yeah, ok, I understand his point,” you say, “but I can handle myself. These are my choices. How am I a threat to them when you’re not?”

“It took a while for them to trust me.” Changbin explains, “You just met them now. It took almost a month for them to trust and accept me. You have a greater impact, per se, since you are technically queen. It’s like…if you weight it, your threat is heavier because you hold more power than I do.”

When you fall silent, eyes glued to the ground, your brother gives your hand a squeeze, “I know you want to befriend them like Father’s days, but not everything is like before, y/n. It’s going to take a while.”

“I know.” you smile at him sadly, “It doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying.”

“I knew you’d say that.” Changbin laughs.

You both laugh all the way to Miroh, sneaking into the gates without the guards noticing. You snake around the streets again, laughing and smiling with Changbin leading the way. You climb up the vines on the walls again, and you find yourself standing on the garden balcony. Changbin’s room is closer, so you drop him off first. He hugs you goodnight before you slowly make your way to your room. Laying on the bed, you shut your eyes as today’s memories replay in your head.

You expect to wake up tired and anxious the next morning – you did sneak out, so what if someone actually saw you? But when you did wake up, you felt…normal. Not exactly happy, but not upset either. You were just your usual self, probably a bit empty. You get washed up and change into a flowy, red dress before heading over to the dining hall for breakfast.

Though your friends are almost always in the castle as their parents were part of the Council, you were surprised to see Seungmin and Hyunjin already in the dining hall. Changbin was also there, minding his own business and eating his bread. “Where were you yesterday?” Hyunjin asks, genuine curiosity in his tone.

Seungmin’s eyes bore into yours, and it’s all he needs to read your mind. His eyes widen the slightest.

“You did what?”

He asks you through telepathy, and you give him a look that tells him to keep it shut. You smile at Hyunjin as you answer, “Exploring Miroh. I wanted to see what was going on in the city.”

“I think you meant another city. You wanted to see what was going on in another city.”

You mentally curse at the sound of that steely voice. You remain silent when Minho walks up behind you, and though you can’t see him, you can feel the way his eyes send shivers down your spine. “Don’t bother lying to me, y/n.”

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richincolor · 5 years

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Vampires & Monsters & Zombies, Oh My!

It's October which means my favorite holiday is almost here - Halloween!! All sorts of spooky celebrations are happening this month which made me think about spooky YA novels with POC leads. Unfortunately, I had to do some serious thinking and some super sleuthing to find a few, and then....to my surprise, I discovered that Renee Ahdieh's vampire novel, The Beautiful, is coming out next week. I don't know why I thought it was next year, but I am so happy! I love vampires and am so happy that they are on the return. So, to celebrate Halloween & the return of vampires, here is a list of books (including some series) that are scary good fun!

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's leader, the enigmatic Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien's guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret. When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface. At once a sultry romance and a thrilling murder mystery, master storyteller Renée Ahdieh embarks on her most potent fantasy series yet: The Beautiful.

Dread Nation & Deathless Divide (out in 2020) by Justina Ireland

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations. But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.

A Blade So Black & A Dream So Dark (The Nightmare Verse) by L. L. McKinney

The first time the Nightmares came, it nearly cost Alice her life. Now she's trained to battle monstrous creatures in the dark dream realm known as Wonderland with magic weapons and hardcore fighting skills. Yet even warriors have a curfew. Life in real-world Atlanta isn't always so simple, as Alice juggles an overprotective mom, a high-maintenance best friend, and a slipping GPA. Keeping the Nightmares at bay is turning into a full-time job. But when Alice's handsome and mysterious mentor is poisoned, she has to find the antidote by venturing deeper into Wonderland than she’s ever gone before. And she'll need to use everything she's learned in both worlds to keep from losing her head . . . literally.

Five Midnights by Ann Davila Cardinal

Five friends cursed. Five deadly fates. Five nights of retribución. If Lupe Dávila and Javier Utierre can survive each other’s company, together they can solve a series of grisly murders sweeping though Puerto Rico. But the clues lead them out of the real world and into the realm of myths and legends. And if they want to catch the killer, they'll have to step into the shadows to see what's lurking there—murderer, or monster?

The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring

Simmering in Patagonian myth, The Tenth Girl is a gothic psychological thriller with a haunting twist. At the very southern tip of South America looms an isolated finishing school. Legend has it that the land will curse those who settle there. But for Mavi—a bold Buenos Aires native fleeing the military regime that took her mother—it offers an escape to a new life as a young teacher to Argentina’s elite girls. Mavi tries to embrace the strangeness of the imposing house—despite warnings not to roam at night, threats from an enigmatic young man, and rumors of mysterious Others. But one of Mavi’s ten students is missing, and when students and teachers alike begin to behave as if possessed, the forces haunting this unholy cliff will no longer be ignored. One of these spirits holds a secret that could unravel Mavi's existence. In order to survive she must solve a cosmic mystery—and then fight for her life.

Shadowshaper Series (Shadowshaper, Shadowhouse Fall, Shadowshaper Legacy) by Daniel Jose Older

Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra's near-comatose abuelo begins to say "Lo siento" over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep.... Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on. Sierra soon discovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits via paintings, music, and stories. Her grandfather once shared the order's secrets with an anthropologist, Dr. Jonathan Wick, who turned the Caribbean magic to his own foul ends. Now Wick wants to become the ultimate Shadowshaper by killing all the others, one by one. With the help of her friends and the hot graffiti artist Robbie, Sierra must dodge Wick's supernatural creations, harness her own Shadowshaping abilities, and save her family's past, present, and future.

#ya horror #WeNeedDiverseBooks #ownvoices

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terramythos · 4 years

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TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 2 of 26

Title: City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris #1) (2002)

Author: Jeff VanderMeer

Genre/Tags: Weird, Short Story Collection (kinda), Horror, Fantasy, Metafiction, Mushroompunk (yeah), LGBT Protagonist, First Person, Second Person (sort of), Third Person, Unreliable Narrator.

Rating: 8/10

Date Began: 1/7/2020

Date Finished: 1/17/2020

This edition of City of Saints and Madmen is a collection of 4 short stories and a massive “appendiX” of other stories/notable worldbuilding pieces, all of which explore a fictional city called Ambergris. Ambergris’ world is not unlike our own, with technology that somewhat mirrors ours, but is nevertheless distinctly surreal and fantastical. One Ambergris’ most notable elements are creatures called the gray caps (or “mushroom dwellers”), who are basically humanoid mushroom people that play a role in each of the stories.

More details and a look at each of the stories under the cut.

Surely, after all, it is more comforting to believe that the sources on which this account is based are truthful, that this has not all, in fact, been one huge, monstrous lie? And with that pleasant thought, O Tourist, I take my leave for good.

I’ve read VanderMeer before-- the Southern Reach trilogy (which he’s most well known for) is one of my favorite series of all time. While I haven’t seen it yet, the film Annihilation is loosely based on the first book, and I hear it’s quite good as well. This will be my first foray into other stuff he’s written.

While this may put some people off, one thing I really liked about this book was it DIDN’T paint a clear picture of Ambergris. Each of the stories focus on particular details their respective protagonists find important, so the view we have of the city is always incomplete. There are tenuous and sometimes contradictory connections between the stories that often made me wonder what’s true/real, a recurring theme throughout the stories. Several of the stories are works of fiction within Ambergris, which skews perceptions even further. To me, all of this made the setting much more interesting, and the actual revelations more rewarding.

My personal favorite stories were The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris, The Transformation of Martin Lake, King Squid, and The Cage. I’ll go into more detail on all the individual pieces under the cut, but rating them individually doesn’t much sense due to the weird format.

The Main 4 Stories

Dradin, In Love

An unsuccessful missionary priest named Dradin comes to Ambergris to plead assistance from a former mentor. However, when he spots an unknown woman through the window of a shop, he becomes convinced he is in love and becomes obsessed with her. As an event called the Festival of the Freshwater Squid looms, the city itself begins to change in startling ways.

From what I can tell skimming other reviews, this one trips people up because Dradin is just... a piece of shit. He’s terrible. There are some sympathetic traits to him -- he’s a fish out of water with no one to help him, he had a traumatic childhood, etc. But the more you learn about him the worse he becomes. He believes he’s superior to pretty much everyone he meets, has committed various atrocities you gradually learn about in the story, and he believes he’s in love with someone he’s never met and spends a great deal of the story fantasizing about her and their future relationship. It’s pathetic-- but it seemed pretty clear to me I’m not supposed to like him, so I read the story knowing that.

Anyway, this wasn’t my favorite, but it is an interesting introduction to Ambergris. It’s from the perspective of an outsider, so alongside Dradin you learn things about the city such as the various religious sects, the gray caps, and the Festival. It is jarring when the Festival starts out as this whimsical parade and then goes full Purge for the rest of the story. That feeling pretty much lasts the rest of the book.

The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris

The conceit of this one is that it’s a travel pamphlet written for tourists to provide a quick rundown of Ambergris’ early history. But the writer Duncan Shriek is so obsessed and passionate about the subject that he goes into way more detail than necessary. He also makes extensive use of the footnotes (often longer than the actual page) to (1) insult the reader, who he assumes is a stupid tourist who will skip them, (2) go on long rants about various other historians, and (3) go into intricate, intense detail or speculation about seemingly innocuous things in the main text. Honestly relatable.

Personally, I love a good history text, so a well-done fictional one is lots of fun. The stylistic choices are engaging and a great characterization tool. The “story” really came together for me in the third act. Super eerie and surreal, and a lot of details about the gray caps and a vast underground kingdom-- but there’s still a sense of unreality, because the account exploring this may or may not be a fake. Anyway, I really enjoyed this one.

The Transformation of Martin Lake

This one is technically two stories at once. Martin Lake is an unknown painter looking to make his big break in Ambergris, when he receives an anonymous letter inviting him to a beheading. Alternating with these novel sections are excerpts written by art critic Janice Shriek (recognize the name?) which analyze the creepy and grotesque paintings made by Martin Lake-- Ambergris’ most famous artist.

This piece was by far my favorite of the main four. Janice evaluates various paintings created by Lake and speculates on the meanings behind them. The Gothic horror story sections star Martin, and the events within reveal the true origins of each painting. The horror story is very creepy and well written, and I really like Martin more than most of the protagonists. It’s also amusing to see just how incorrect Janice’s analyses are. Overall this was a very well structured and entertaining read. (Side note: to whom it may concern, this is where the LGBT Protagonist tag comes from.)

Also, Janice and her brother are apparently the central characters in the next book? I enjoyed both of them so I'm excited for that.

The Strange Case of X

A psychiatrist interviews a mental patient known simply as X, who believes he has invented the world of Ambergris, and he’s actually from a place called Chicago.

I'm torn on this one because I feel I accidentally ruined it for myself. The premise sounds like a pretty cliche setup, but there's a twist at the end that keeps it interesting. The only problem is I went into the story assuming that twist was the case. It's not even like I guessed it or picked up on hints or whatever... I just assumed the twist for whatever reason, so I got to the reveal and was just like "...yeah?"

Anyway, this one’s a good read, just not my favorite. X is obviously a fictionalized version of VanderMeer. I didn’t find him as important in the context of this story, but notes found in his cell make up the appendiX. I *did* really enjoy the story excerpt within this one that starts like a children’s book with very simple sentences, then slowly evolves into more complex language over time until it’s like the rest of the book. The swap between third and first-person in the story, then the narrator commending himself on how clever he is, was pretty funny and good characterization.

The appendiX

Dr V’s Note + X’s Notes

Technically this is 2 “stories” but they’re presented together. Dr V’s note is just an outline of the stories in the appendiX, which are apparently various notes, pamphlets, writing journal excerpts, and pieces of paper he found in X’s cell. He speculates on the meaning behind some of them. It’s a handy reference that I turned back to a few times. X’s Notes are literally just some misc author’s notes/ideas. The final note, though, draws back to the surreal scene I mentioned from The Hoegbotton Guide, which implies it is in fact real.

The Release of Belacqua

This one is about an actor named Belacqua who’s been typecast into a specific role, which he plays every single day. One evening at his hotel room home, he gets a super weird phone call from a woman looking for someone named Henry. Based on what happens in the story, I’m guessing Belacqua was probably supposed to be a character in one of the stories but got scrapped, and this story is literally about scrapping him. It was kinda meh for me.

King Squid

No, I’m not transcribing the entire title of this one -- it’s, uh, quite long. This one is sort of like The Hoegbotton Guide, except it’s a biological treatise written by a man named Frederick Madnok about the King Squid, which is Ambergris’ main economic staple. Like The Hoegbotton Guide, the author goes into intricate detail on what he considers important and makes extensive use of footnotes. The thing is, Madnok is clearly going through a nervous breakdown as he writes, and the footnotes and tangents grow weirder over time, often delving into vague memories and details about his home life as a child.

I think this one really shines when you get to the bibliography and notice it’s longer than the rest of the story and seems to list every single book Madnok has ever read. Personally I found a lot of the titles funny, but you could be forgiven for skipping them. However, certain titles have side notes, supposedly to point out notable things about them. Some of these, however, are disturbing and clearly unrelated to the title. Eventually, Madnok goes into a full breakdown and starts to describe himself transforming into a squid -- a phenomenon he described earlier in the text. His breakdown, juxtaposed with the absolutely immaculate formatting of the story, really made this one stand out to me.

The Hoegbotton Family History

The Hoegbottons are a merchant family. Their company Hoegbotton & Sons is basically the Wal-Mart of Ambergris and is present through multiple stories. This text is interesting for some context for the next story, but not particularly notable on its own. V’s notes at the beginning say as much.

The Cage

One of the early Hoegbottons visits a mansion which has been condemned after an attack by the gray caps to purchase the remaining assets to resell. Among the items he finds a strange, seemingly empty birdcage which he can’t stop obsessing over.

This was my favorite story by a long shot. It was insanely creepy and surreal with the best visuals in the book. There are references everywhere to fungi and decay, and there’s something very odd going on with Hoegbotton’s blind wife that defies explanation. And obviously, the cage itself and what’s going on with it is very disturbing. Contains very very very good body horror which is apparently just A Thing for me. Of all the stories this one had the most Southern Reach-y vibe.

In The Hours After Death

This one describes what happens to a man after he dies, and it’s not quite what you think. It’s a short piece and I liked the writing; very melancholy and surreal. It’s one of those stories that just incidentally takes place in Ambergris, but would be a good story outside of it, too. Until the end, that is, which ties it back to the gray caps in another creepy way. Thanks.

The Man Who Had No Eyes

This one is notable because apparently, in the original release, it was written entirely in code. You had to use page numbers, paragraph numbers, and lines in the rest of the book to decode it. Because this edition is an updated re-release which shifted the pages and format around, it doesn’t work anymore. Instead Dr. V provides a decoded version. However, some of the words are wrong, and the final paragraph is still in code (supposedly because V was afraid to keep going). I had to look up the story online to get the full picture.

Anyway, I suspect this story is foreshadowing for stuff that’s going to happen in future installments. It describes the gray caps taking the city back over and flooding it, and how they mutilate a writer living in the city so he has to find alternative ways to keep writing. It mentions the goddamn cage again. It’s kind of fever-dream creepy.

The Exchange

Depicts a short story about the Festival of the Freshwater Squid (remember that?). Apparently this story is provided by Hoegbotton & Sons for people who purchase a safe house to avoid getting straight-up murdered during the Festival. The story itself is entertaining and has a great twist at the end, but what’s interesting is someone’s made extensive annotations to the piece describing the fallout between the author and illustrator. I found it most fun to read the base story, then go back and read the annotations-- it felt like I was seeing the same story from very different perspectives.

Learning to Leave the Flesh

This one’s referenced in The Strange Case of X. Unlike every other story, this actually doesn’t take place in Ambergris, but our world. However, like The Strange Case of X mentions, details and names from Ambergris seemingly appeared in the story even though he had no recollection of putting them there.

Honestly, it’s an OK work of fiction but was probably my least favorite. Mostly it felt like lengthy flavor text for a story I’d already read. The ending was pretty good, though.

The Ambergris Glossary + A Note on Fonts

Putting these two together. The Glossary actually answered a lot of questions I had and clarified some events from the various stories. (”What the fuck is with the Living Saints. What the absolute fuck-- oh.”) It’s implied that some of the entries are written by Duncan Shriek. Hi, again.

A Note on Fonts describes the various fonts from different stories as if it’s a wine tasting, which was hilarious.

#taylor reads #2020 reading challenge #8/10

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mythicallore · 5 years

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The real story of the Demon from The Nun: Valak

One of the great scary modern horror movie antagonists is the creepy entity called Valak, from the hit horror films The Conjuring 2, in 2016, Annabelle: Creation in 2017, and the 2018 spinoff The Nun. With her menacing and supremely creepy scowling face and her nun’s garb, Valak immediately resonated with audiences as a sinister demonic presence to be reckoned with, an instantly iconic horror villain, and will probably appear in many more films to come. Yet, is there any basis in truth to the mythology of this demon presented in the movies? Was Valak ever real in any sense at all or is this just a purely Hollywood construct? The answer to this might surprise you.

It might interest some to know that the evil force from the movies known as “Valak” is indeed based somewhat on real mythology, although of course the film makers took quite a few liberties with the source material. The demon Valak, called variously Valac, Ualac, Valu, Volac, Volach, and Coolor or Doolas, has been described in various grimoires through the ages, first mentioned in a manuscript called The Clavicule of Solomon or The Lesser Key of Solomon, which is mostly dedicated to magical means of summoning and controlling spirits both malicious and benign. Within this grimoire’s pages are listed the names of 72 demons that were defeated by the King Solomon of the Old Testament, as well as rituals and spells for how to conjure and banish them, and the 62nd demon listed is none other than Valak.

The demon Valak

This particular demon is described as the Great President of Hell, controlling legions of demons and possessing extreme strength, intelligence, and the power to find any treasure. In some later texts Valak was given the ability to control serpents, and indeed those who summoned the demon were also said to be imbued with this power. In appearance Valak is in no way nun-like, appearing as a cherub-faced winged boy riding atop a formidable and frightening two-headed dragon, and indeed the decision to make the demon look like a nun was a completely creative decision made by the film makers. In fact, Valak has never been depicted as looking like a nun in any of the real historical lore surrounding him and has nothing at all to do with nuns. The Lesser Key of Solomon says of Valak:

The Sixty-second Spirit is Volac, or Valak, or Valu. He is a President Mighty and Great, and appeareth like a Child with Angel’s Wings, riding on a Two-headed Dragon. His Office is to give True Answers of Hidden Treasures and to tell where Serpents may be seen. The which he will bring unto the Exorciser without any Force or Strength being by him employed. He governeth 38 Legions of Spirits, and his Seal is thus.

The sinister and diabolical Valak would go on to be mentioned in many other grimoires, such as Johann Weyer’s Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, the Liber Officium Spirituum, the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic, and the Fasciculus Rerum Geomanticarum, and the original text in which he is mentioned, the Lesser Key of Solomon, was considered so offensive and heretical to the Church that it was placed on the Vatican’s Indexes of Prohibited Books in 1599. Interestingly, it was conversely perversely popular with priests of the era, and many kept secret copies sequestered away within the darkest corners of their libraries, and it was actually a very popular book in Europe overall.

Some of the demons mentioned in The Lesser Key of Solomon

So in the end, although the Nun from the films is loosely based on the mythology of Valak the demon, it has been quite twisted and warped in is depiction in the movies. Indeed real life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are also characters in the movies, have never made mention of Valak in any of their real case files, and the demon was merely a way to tie together the Amityville and Enfield Poltergeist cases that they actually really did cover. Interestingly, another piece of dark lore from the films connected to Valak is presented in the film The Nun, and takes the form of a sinister and spooky looking old abbey in Romania, the dark halls of which the titular entity is terrorizing in the 1950s. This is also a creative liberty with the demon of lore, as Valak is in no way connected to any such monastery and this was simply a way for the filmmakers to make a sort of supernatural version of the movie The Name of the Rose, based on Italian author Umberto Eco’s novel of the same name, but the location is actually still based on a very real place, which has a spooky enough history as it is even without demonic nuns running around.

The monastery is called Cârța Monastery or the Abbey of Cârța, it does lie within Romania in southern Transylvania, and it is every bit as gothic and ominous looking as it is depicted in the film, although the movie was not actually shot there. The former Benedictine monastery, now a Lutheran Evangelical church, was built in the early 1200s by Cistercian monks, also called the Benedictines and the “White Monks,” and it quickly accrued quite a lot of lore in the region. It was said that the secretive monks who called this remote place their home would fast all year-round, and that they all slept upon hay in a single room like animals. Their days were spent in labor and prayer, their only food supposedly cheese and beech leaves, and they were well-known for their agriculture, metallurgy, and the brewing of ales. Theirs was a life of extreme humble austerity, meant to reflect the strict observance of the Rule of St Benedict, and a simple existence and hard manual labor was a way of life for them, which they continued until they were eventually banished in 1474 by the king of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus. The complex would go on to be abandoned in the 17th century, after which it was renovated and turned into a church by locals in the 18th century.

The Cârța Monastery

The monks buried their dead out in the courtyard of the monastery, which would be joined by the remains of soldiers from World War I and oddly two skeletons found of men that measured an estimated 7 feet tall, and considering the gothic architecture and mysterious history it is easy to see why this place has developed a reputation as a haunted place. The most commonly reported paranormal occurrence is walls that shake and vibrate and furniture moving on its own, especially in the cellar, although sometimes apparitions of monks in white robes are also seen roaming about the grounds. Although much of the original monastery is no longer standing and has become feral, weed-ckoked ruins, a bell tower erected in 1495 still remains, and the site is a popular destination for tourists from all over Europe and indeed the world. Looking at the place, although the demon Valak has no relation to it whatsoever, one can see how this spooky locale might be chosen by filmmakers for a supernatural thriller.

So there you have it. Although the movies take creative license and change the core mythology, they are nevertheless based on real historical lore and places that are just about every bit as scary as anything depicted in the films. It is interesting just how much actual scary history is often incorporated into our fiction and movies, and Valak and the haunted monastery of Romania are no exception. It all certainly gives one something to think about the next time you watch any of these films.

#paranormal #supernatural #demon #valak #the conjuring

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ayearofpike · 6 years

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The Last Vampire 3: Red Dice

Pocket Books, 1995 193 pages, 17 chapters + epilogue ISBN 0-671-87268-0 LOC: PZ7.P626 Las 1995 OCLC: 32331239 Released March 31, 1995 (per B&N)

Sita has just ended the reign of terror of a horrible sociopathic self-made vampire, but his killing spree did not escape the notice of the military. It seems they already know who and what she is, as well as her unwilling accomplice turned against his will to save his life. When he’s captured, she resolves to save him before the military can do horrible things with his blood. This mission is all the more urgent when she realizes that the scientist leading the research efforts is an old friend. Like, a REALLY old friend.

It was about here when I realized that Pike didn’t actually have a single plotted story for Sita, that he was just writing her adventures as they came to him. I might be misremembering this, but I feel like we’d been led to understand that The Last Vampire was going to be a trilogy, like Remember Me and his favorite title-drop Lord of the Rings. (I have not been keeping track of LotR references, but there’s one in almost every book. Reread @mildhorror‘s recaps if you don’t believe me.) Getting hit with another “to be continued” was sort of a gut punch.

But beyond that, the way it puts an old character in a new situation made me aware that this was becoming a serial rather than one story. This book doesn’t really do anything new to tie up loose ends. That door was mostly closed in the previous one, when she dispatched the original vampire. But as soon as she turned a dude, it created new loose ends that Sita now has to shear off before the story closes up. It’s a perfectly fine self-contained story, if a lot more actiony and cartoon-violent than most of Pike’s work, but it’s not exactly clear how it belongs to the previous storyline (or whether it even does).

Let’s see if I can find or assume some context for how this book ended up getting constructed.

In 1995, the public at large had just been exposed to Quentin Tarantino’s stylized violence, with Pulp Fiction coming off a controversial Oscar loss and becoming a sleeper hit. Seeing how this was received by the teens who were ostensibly Pike’s audience, it makes sense that he would have wanted to incorporate some gory battle scenes. Especially as Interview With the Vampire had also just come out — I have no doubt Pike wanted to differentiate his cool-young-adult vampire from Tom Cruise’s brooding Gothic.

Spooksville would start in October of this year. I’ve mentioned this series before, but its importance to Sita’s story is that it tells semi-related juvenile horror tales linked to a handful of main characters living in a town where this kind of stuff happens. That is to say: the main kids are the only real common link between the events. I expect that he’d already started writing the series at this point, and that the structure affected how he told The Last Vampire stories (and probably in turn his love for Sita helped him define the structure of Spooksville; after all, Goosebumps didn’t have the same protagonist in every book.)

In any case, it’s both drastically different from the suspense thrillers and mysteries that Pike’s mostly written to date, and game-changing in terms of what we would now expect about Sita stories. I think I already made this analogy: The Last Vampire is Pike’s Final Fantasy, an inspired tale about the end of an era that would seize unexpected popularity and spawn sequels unto eternity.

So let’s try to blaze through the recap, because there’s not a whole bunch of plot. Sita wakes up the day after her battle with New Vampire with a tube still stretching between her and FBI Dude. She realizes she’s been out for nearly 24 hours because it was midnight when the fight started and now it’s still dark but her watch says it’s just before twelve. But also she hears police cars, and knows that they need to escape before they’re asked a lot of questions. (I have one: if they knew what she was, which they probably did, why wouldn’t they come at NOON?) Sita prefers to keep a low profile, because she knows that if someone suspects her supernatural abilities, she’s going to get tested and dissected and someone is going to try to make more (like the coroner’s assistant already did). She doesn’t need to be responsible for that.

But since she’s dealing with a baby vampire who thinks he can use the government bureaucracy to his advantage, they don’t get out. Instead, they’re thrown into an armored van with five armed guards (three in back with them, two in the front) and a driver behind bulletproof glass. This within a caravan of armored vehicles and under surveillance from a helicopter. Of course Sita has escaped from worse situations. She’s handcuffed and shackled, but her eyes are free, and that’s what she uses to hypnotize the guards into pointing their weapons away long enough to break the ankle restraints and kick two of them dead. The third she kills just by telling him to die, which is when she realizes that Original Vampire’s blood is starting to give her new and stronger powers. Because FBI Dude is squeamish, she knocks out the other two guards and then learns from the driver that they’re not going to jail, but to a high-security government facility.

This is where the book turns into an action movie. Sita has the driver crank a turn into a narrow alley and then floor it. They makes it across two streets before smashing into a fruit truck, which gives her enough cover to jump out of the van and start shooting. This clears out a police car from ... unidentified somewhere for them to steal, and they lead the chase into the basement parking garage of a tall building, where they hop an elevator to the top floor. Then Sita breaks a window and jumps across the street to the roof of another building, and roof-hops along that side of the street to one with a helicopter pad on the roof. She steals one and comes back for FBI Dude, and they take off into the desert. So much for that low profile.

The police (or government agents, or whoever it is) pursue them but don’t try to catch up or engage. We learn why when, as they cross over southern Nevada, they’re set upon by two military combat helicopters. More questions: why not a fighter jet? Nellis is right there, and a jet is faster and more heavily armed than a chopper. But anyway, they cripple Sita’s chopper, forcing FBI Dude to bail into Lake Mead, and before she can crash it and escape herself they blow it up with a missile. When she wakes up she’s pinned underwater by the helicopter’s wreckage, but her unconscious mind has had the presence to not let her drown. She surfaces in the middle of the lake to see what’s up, and sure enough they’ve caught FBI Dude again and are throwing him in another armored van. Frickin’ baby vampires can’t do anything.

She steals a truck from a nearby campsite and follows the new military caravan out to some secure facility in the middle of the desert. She watches FBI Dude get trucked out and displayed to a uniformed general, and it’s confirmed that yes, the military knows what they are and yes, they were trying to take them alive. FBI Dude gets shunted into one of the buildings, and Sita takes special note of the scientist that the general talks to afterward. Just one scientist, yes. He leaves shortly afterward, and she goes to follow him, but realizes something weird as she gets in her truck to follow him.

She’s glowing.

That’s right, all y’all that were pissed about Edward Cullen! Pike did it first! Granted, this is in the moonlight and not the sun, but STILL.

She decides to worry about it later and follows the scientist to a casino, where he loses too much money and drinks too much, then to his house just before sunrise. If she’s going to use this dude to get close and figure out how to save her buddy, she needs to redo her identity again. So she gets her secretive business manager or whatever in New York to set her up with new ID, new credit cards, new hair, new clothes, the whole shebang. Yeah — from here until the end of the book we’re supposed to imagine her as a redhead, which is hard to do because we’ve already got two books of blonde Alisa Perne.

When the scientist goes to work, she follows him to see where he goes in, and then breaks into his house and sees a strange model. It looks like DNA, but it has twelve strands instead of two. She recognizes it immediately — it’s the same as a model made by an alchemist she knew seven hundred years ago in Italy during the Catholic Inquisition, a monk who she took as a lover, to whom she revealed the secrets of her life and her history when he watched her heal a kid’s broken spine. So if this guy has a similar model, they must have another vampire and have already been researching, which means Sita has more to save and/or destroy.

She goes back out to the military compound to try to plan an attack, and the glowing skin makes her curious, so she takes off all her clothes and watches her body light up and start to become transparent and feel lighter. She assumes this is another unexplainable power conveyed by Original Vampire’s blood, but to what end? She doesn’t have time to figure it out right now; there’s a scientist to seduce! They gamble for a while, then Sita buys him dinner and they go back to his house, where he tells her just enough about his research to make her feel both sorry for him and further set in her need to rescue FBI Dude ASAP.

While everyone’s asleep, Sita finishes the woeful tale of the alchemist. It seems that he drew some of her blood and used it to heal incurable illnesses in combination with crystals and moonlight. But then he went too far and tried to use it on someone healthy — the boy from before, in fact, with full midday sun streaming through. This ended up creating a monster ruled by fear, and Sita had to kill him, and the inquisitors took the alchemist and she never saw him again.

This wouldn’t be a Last Vampire book without two things: drinking blood and Seymour. She gets the first from a hapless high roller, first by beating him at the card table, then insulting him, then inviting him to what appears to be a desert gangbang, then scaring off his bodyguards and mercilessly drinking her fill. Seymour comes in because she’s not sure what’s coming next with the scientist and the military and the moon-glow, so she calls him to get some ideas and assistance. He says that the only way to be sure they don’t keep vampire blood is to blow up the entire base with the nuclear bombs they probably have on site, this being a secret military facility in Nevada and all.

So now she’s got a plan, and she needs to figure out how to carry it out. When the scientists opens up about his concerns about their test subject and what the scary general wants to do with his blood, Sita tells him everything. Like, literally everything: what her name is, that she’s a vampire, that she’s five thousand years old, that she was turned by the original vampire who she just killed this week, that she knew Krishna, the whole nine yards. In return, he tells her where they’re keeping FBI Dude and the other vampire they’ve had for a month. Her plan is to sneak into the compound in the scientist’s trunk, pose as a tech on loan from the Pentagon, and somehow break out the two vampires.

It all goes according to plan, except there’s only one vampire in the cell. At least until Sita opens the door and goes to rescue FBI Dude, at which point the door slams shut and the scientist talks to her in Italian. Yep! The other vampire he had was her, way back in the thirteenth century! He used her blood on himself, although imperfectly, so in the last seven centuries he’s aged about twenty years. And now he’s got her right where he wants her, so he can keep doing his experiments and improving humanity through vampirism.

The general doesn’t care about any of that shit — he just wants to be stronger than anyone else. This is his weakness, knowing Sita’s power and being afraid of it until he gets it for himself. So she manipulates the guards into panic (more powers she didn’t have before, being able to hypnotize someone without even seeing them) and then breaks all the lights in the cell and starts pounding on the door. So they amass a whole fighting force and open the door, but of course Sita has used her magical vampire powers to ... hide behind it. She has to kill a guard slowly and messily to keep up the fear paralysis, and then she mows most of the rest of them down with a machine gun. All the killing is starting to upset her, or so she says, maybe because of Squeamish FBI Dude, because it doesn’t stop her from planning to nuke the joint.

The general is already upstairs, trying to escape, so Sita JUMPS THROUGH THE CEILING and shoots him in the leg so he can’t go anywhere. Then she gets him to take her to the weapons stockpile and arm a nuclear bomb with a timer, supposedly long enough for everyone to get away from the blast. She has to fry his brain with her hypnosis to get him to do it, but now Science Alchemist is in command and he’s got orders from the president to not let her get away under any circumstances. (Like he might have otherwise, right?) The nuke’s ticking down, and they’re in a standoff, but she finally convinces him to let the rest of the troops get out and away, so now it’s just Sita and FBI Dude and Fried General and Science Alchemist, waiting for the bomb to go off.

And Sita starts glowing again.

This time, she lights up all the way, becoming light itself, and floats off the ground and away in the wind, saying her goodbyes to the old monk who has stolen her blood and the new friend who she turned against his will and the military leader who she has effectively lobotomized. By the time the nuke blows, she’s long gone.

The next thing we see is Science Alchemist’s basement. No, Pike doesn’t explain how Sita reassembled her body or whatever after floating away as a being of light. No, he doesn’t spend any time on what it means or how she should use it. Yes, it would have been a perfect time to close with an epilogue about how she’s come back to Krishna and her life is complete, along the lines of the dreams she has throughout these books. But instead, she’s in a basement in Las Vegas, where there’s a complicated array of crystals and mirrors, and she’s going to turn human with Seymour’s help (and blood). So she falls asleep doing it, and when she wakes up, someone is pounding on the door insisting she let him in. And that’s it!

So, I have to say it, and you should imagine the clapping emoji between each of the words in the following sentence: THERE WAS NO PURPOSE BEHIND SITA TURNING FBI DUDE EXCEPT TO KEEP THE AUDIENCE HANGING. Seriously, his name should have been Plot Devicerson. He gave us a springboard into the third book, he gave Sita a reason to act throughout it, and now he’s fuckin’ dead. He’s not even a tie to her life before, any more than a divorce lawyer is a tie to a marriage. The whole book could have conceivably done without him, although it would have admittedly taken a little more thought to get her out to the military installation in the first place.

You know, I wish Pike would have called a spade a spade with this series. If it had been a stand-alone serial novel set called The Last Vampire, I would have been totally fine. The stories themselves and Sita as a character I don’t necessarily have a problem with. But they DO NOT FIT TOGETHER. And by now it’s too late to retcon this into another Baby-Sitters Club or Nancy Drew type of series, so he’s stuck attemping to link one unique narrative to another.

It’s gonna be another year before we see Sita again, so I have to deduce that Pike just couldn’t bring himself to kill her off even though he didn’t know exactly what she would be doing next. And it’s OK to keep that door open — if you just admit you’re doing a serial rather than a continuance. In retrospect, I think that’s what annoyed me so much about these books, even if I didn’t realize it at the time. I guess we have to wait and see if Pike can save this series as a continued story, sometime in the next ... six books GODDAMMIT.

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carruth00 · 3 years

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Brookledge to Hold May 8th virtual fundraiser for Magicians

Brookledge Cares Virtual Fundraiser to Put a Little Magic Back Into the Lives of Magicians Impacted by COVID-19

From the Historic, L.A. Estate, Brookledge, Featuring Penn & Teller, David Copperfield, Neil Patrick Harris, Dick Van Dyke, Paul Reubens & More!

Virtual Event Includes Tour of Brookledge, a Rare Glimpse Into the Location Considered the ‘Forerunner’ to World-Renowned Magic Castle Clubhouse

( Editors note.. I just received this from my friends at Greenleaf & Associates. Please note the event will be archived so you can watch it at a later date. This is the PERFECT way for magicians to help other magicians. I hope you support it and I hope to see you Saturday.. Rick Carruth )

HOLLYWOOD — May 3, 2021 — For Immediate Release: A star-studded, virtual fundraiser, Brookledge Cares, will be held by the historic Brookledge estate, May 8 at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET. Cost is $10 per ticket. Presented in part by the Jack Oakie and Victoria Horne Oakie Charitable Foundation, supporting The Magic Castle for nearly four decades.

Proceeds from the Brookledge-style salute to variety artists will benefit the Dai Vernon Foundation, which provides financial aid to those pursuing an education; launching ambitious performance, research or historical projects; and those in difficult circumstances or suffering hardships. It also conducts community outreach via performances at hospitals and other charitable organizations. Over the years, the foundation has provided grants to hundreds of magicians, performers and employees in need, including 165 COVID relief grants over the past year.

This benefit will feature a who’s who of magic and Hollywood, including Neil Patrick Harris, Dick & Arlene Van Dyke, David Copperfield, Penn & Teller, Paul Reubens, Larry Wilmore, Jason Alexander, Michael Carbonaro & Peter Stickles, Puddles Pity Party and Moby. Special appearances by Rob Zabrecky, Marawa Wamp, Basil Twist & Ken Ard, Shoot Ogawa, Steven Banks, Aaron Grooves, Armen Ksajikian and more. Hosted by Two-Headed Dog (Jim Turner & Mark Fite) and Liberty Larsen.

The event will also offer a personal tour by Liberty Larsen, a rare glimpse into the location considered the “forerunner” to the AMA’s world-famous clubhouse, The Magic Castle, the historic Brookledge estate, owned by the Larsen family, founders of the Magic Castle.

Donate & buy tickets at: http://www.DaiVernonFoundation.org/Brookledge

(** Please note - the fundraiser will be archived so you can watch it at another time.. )

Although on hiatus during the pandemic, The Brookledge Follies, an invitation-only, “contemporary Vaudeville,” variety-and-magic show, is performed once a month (April-November) in the estate’s small theater. The free show has become one of the hottest tickets in town and is frequently attended by such Hollywood elite as Sophia Vergara, Joe Manganiello, Ryan Gosling, Jason Alexander, Christina Hendricks, Jason Sudukis, Danny Elfman, Matthew Gubler, Randy Newman, Paul Reubens and director John Landis, to name a few.

Launched with a bequest from the estate of renowned close-up magician Dai Vernon—the only magician to ever fool Harry Houdini—upon his death in 1992, the Dai Vernon Foundation, a 501(c)3 charitable organization, aides, elevates and recognizes practitioners and supporters of the art of magic at all levels and in all walks of life.

The history of the Brookledge estate …

The Magic Castle was founded by writer, actor, magician and entrepreneur Milt Larsen (formerly a writer for the 1956-77 television show Truth or Consequences); his late brother, Bill Larsen, Jr. (a former producer of the Danny Kaye and Jonathan Winters variety shows); and Bill’s wife, Irene, who remained the Castle’s ever-gracious hostess until her death in February 2016.

Members of the Larsen family have been performing magic continuously since the mid ’20s, with the fourth generation now on stage. Milt and Bill’s parents, Geraldine (“Geri”) and William Larsen, Sr., both performed as professional magicians and are noted pioneers in the art. Beginning during the Depression in the late ’30s (the Vaudeville era), the family—now including Bill, Jr., and Milt—began touring as the “Larsen Family of Magicians,” playing upscale, resort hotels in southern California.

A stage constructed at their historic Brookledge estate—built in 1933 in L.A.’s Hancock Park and purchased by the Larsens in 1942 from the founder of the Thayer Magic Company, which they also acquired—became an informal gathering place for the magic community of the day. Virtually every famous name in illusion visited and performed at the estate, often referred to as the “forerunner to the Magic Castle.” Retired from life on the road and managing the magic apparatus company, Bill, Sr., dreamed of opening an elegant, private clubhouse for magicians, but died at just 48.

In 2009, Erika Larsen (Bill, Jr.’s daughter), who resides at the estate, created The Brookledge Follies, a “contemporary Vaudeville” variety-and-magic show performed once a month (April-November) in the small theater, which holds just 60 people. Although currently on hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, attendance is by invitation only, but the free show has become one of the hottest tickets in town and is frequently attended by a who’s who of Hollywood like Moby, Sophia Vergara, Joe Manganiello, Ryan Gosling, Jason Alexander, Christina Hendricks, Matthew Gubler, Randy Newman, Paul Reubens and director John Landis, to name a few.

About her childhood, Erika recalls magic’s most famed faces around the Larsen home and laughs, “We did see the best of the best in magic, but I grew up in a bubble. My siblings and I just thought that’s what people did—Make things disappear and carry a deck of cards everywhere.”

The elder Larsens launched Genii magazine in 1952 (its circulation considered a loose affiliation of magicians that later became the AMA’s initial membership), which is the longest, continually published magic magazine in the world.

The Magic Castle was originally constructed as the Rollin B. Lane residence (a wealthy banker and his socialite wife), built among Los Angeles’ orange groves in 1909-10. Externally, the Gothic Renaissance chateau is the mirror image of the Kimberly Crest house and gardens in Redlands, Calif. The Hollywood mansion had fallen into disrepair by the late ’40s (even serving for a time as a boarding house). In 1962, Milt Larsen approached his brother about reviving their father’s dream of a private club for magicians and, after securing a lease from the owner of Hollywood’s Yamashiro restaurant (next door) with a handshake, began restoring the landmark mansion to its former opulence.

The Magic Castle intertwines illusion and mystery with the history of the Los Angeles area. Much of the ornate décor was rescued from the wrecking ball on construction sites or from Hollywood studio sets before being dumped into the trash (long before the practice of salvaging became chic). John Shrum, former art director for NBC and The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, was also an avid Castle enthusiast. (Look for the famous talk show’s original “cityscape” backdrop in the Owl Bar.) Many other AMA members, also well positioned within the entertainment industry, have left their personal imprints on the Magic Castle as well.

https://www.MagicRoadshow.com

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Best Books of 2020

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In 2020, we needed good stories more than ever: To escape, even for a little while. To subvert and question the status quo. And to remind us of the joys of being human. The books listed below fall into one, some, or all of the above categories. We had our contributors select the stories that meant the most to them this year and polled you the reader to compile a subjective yet comprehensive list of some of the year’s best. Here are the books, organized by genre, that broke through the cacophony to mean something to our Den of Geek contributors—and to you—this year…

Quick note before we begin: Like many other areas of the media industry and economy, the independent bookstore industry was hit hard by the lockdown caused by the pandemic, as more people than ever flocked to Amazon to get their reading fix. If you are inspired to purchase any of the titles we gush about below, consider using Bookshop.org or other sites that support independent bookstores (especially Black-owned ones) to do so. They need your help more than ever!

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Best Horror Books of 2020

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic was the buzziest release of the summer – and with good reason. Her lush prose, descriptive settings and disturbing plot combine for one of the most compelling – and likely uncomfortable – reads you’ll experience this year. (If you love mushrooms, I’m really sorry in advance.)

Set in 1950s Mexico, the novel follows the story of the vibrant debutante Noemi, who must journey to a remote mountain village to check up on an ailing cousin, whose mysterious husband keeps insisting she’s mad. If you’ve ever read any Gothic literature before, you know many of the beats that come next: The isolated manor, the creepy servants, the dark dreams, the gaslighting, and the constant sense of rising dread. There’s even a cruel housekeeper that could give Mrs. Danvers more than a run for her money.

Moreno-Garcia uses nearly every conceivable Gothic trope to her advantage, telling a familiar tale whose often predictable elements still somehow manage to feel fresh and new. This is largely due to the deft way that the author weaves the political and the fantastical together, reckoning with larger issues such as racism, British colonization and Mexico’s fraught history with eugenics. A good story, well told, with more going on beneath the surface than one might expect.

– Lacy Baugher

Devolution by Max Brooks

World War Z author Max Brooks takes on Bigfoot in this excellent eco horror which comes with added resonance during a pandemic. Like in his zombie bestseller, Brooks approaches the story as if it were real—it’s the novel equivalent of a found footage tale with the events that befall the residents of isolated eco community Greenloop documented in the diary of our protagonist Kate. Greenloop is a remote idyll of smart homes powered by sunlight and waste and controlled by phones and tablets where deliveries arrive via drone, but when the eruption of active volcano Mt Rainier cuts them off from the rest of the country the groups survival skills are tested. The trouble is, most members of this wealthy community don’t have any. And that’s before the family of sasquatches turn up…

This is a violent, vibrant horror with carefully drawn characters and an escalating sense of dread. Though there is humour here Brooks manages to make the Bigfoot group scary rather than faintly ridiculous, while the mirroring of the devolving eco society and the rise in power and confidence of their feral counterparts is handled skillfully. Intercut with interviews and real life stories of broken boundaries between man and wildlife it’s a cautionary tale that tells us never to underestimate nature, be wary of an over reliance on technology and that humans have animal instincts too.

– Rosie Fletcher

Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay

Tremblay completed his infection horror Survivor Song long before the pandemic hit but the novel is unsettlingly prescient. An outbreak of a deadly and fast acting strain of rabies has swept the country. Citizens are told to isolate at home while hospital staff are vastly overstretched and are put at risk due to a shortage of proper PPE. But when Doctor Ramola hears that her very pregnant best friend Natalie has been bitten by an infected human she’ll do anything in her power to help deliver the baby safely.

This is an incredibly poignant road trip novel, of sorts, which takes place over just a few hours. It’s a love letter to friendship, an anti-fairytale and a careful character study drenched in Tremblay’s characteristic ‘sad horror’. One ‘interlude’ section, which features characters from Tremblay’s earlier work A Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, is so utterly devastating you’ll want a biscuit and an episode of Schitt’s Creek just to get over it. If Tremblay’s A Headful of Ghosts was his take on the possession subgenre, Survivor Song would fall loosely into the zombie category, though it’s likely to be the most gorgeous and literary zombie novel you’ll read all year.

– Rosie Fletcher

Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Despite the slightly twee title, Hendrix’ latest is an evocative and often very frightening tale of a small town terrorized by a violent outsider. Based in the same world as his coming of age masterpiece My Best Friends’ Exorcism this tale is set in the 90s and focuses on the mothers of the small Southern town of Charlston: bored housewives whose work is often denigrated and overlooked.

At the centre is Patricia, who spends her time looking after a senile mother-in-law, almost grown kids and an ungrateful husband. She, along with neighbourhood friends, forms a book group who discuss true crime stories which provide handy knowledge and insight when Patricia begins to suspect handsome stranger James Harris is up to no good. Charleston is where Hendrix grew up so he paints the town vividly and with affection while acknowledging the oppressiveness felt by the women there, and the systematic racism experienced by the black community, whose children are disappearing and who are not being taken seriously.

Across his work from Horrorstor, My Best Friend’s Exorcism to We Sold Our Souls, Hendrix has proven excellent at writing women and girls. It’s no different here, where the Southern mums of Charleston are heroic and fearsome and their friendship is all powerful – if anyone can take on a vampire it’s them.

– Rosie Fletcher

Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims

This extraordinary debut by Sims is a both a multi-genre anthology and an overarching haunted house story. Centred around the mysterious Banyan Court, a housing complex consisting of a thirteen storey luxury high rise and the poorly built and utterly decrepit affordable housing unit hidden behind it, the book introduces us to various residents or people connected to Banyan Court, each of whom receives a mysterious invite to a dinner party on the top floor hosted by the strange and reclusive billionaire who owns the complex. At the end of this party, we are told, the billionaire will plummet 13 storeys to his death, and none of the guests will have any recollection of what happened.

This is a very smart first book, showcasing Sims’ talent in a range of different horror styles and bringing multiple voices without ever feeling overcrowded. There’s the eerie tale of a little girl and her imaginary friend, who might not be as imaginary as you think, the loyal door man and his violent alter ego competing for supremacy and the art dealer who becomes obsessed with a strange painting. Characters interweave in pleasing ways building to a grotesque but satisfying denouement which ties all the stories together. Sims is an exciting new voice in horror who is definitely one to watch.

– Rosie Fletcher

If It Bleeds by Stephen King – READERS’ CHOICE

The people have spoken!

Stephen King is not only one of the greatest writers of his generation but also one of the most prolific, and nigh a year goes by in which at least one of his stories—either new or adapted—isn’t in the cultural conversation. This year, it was If It Bleeds, a well-rounded horror collection of four previously unpublished stories, including one that features King universe character The Outsider‘s Holly Gibney (in the story that gives the book its name). The novellas revisit many of King’s most popular themes, from supernatural cell phones to the cost of creativity, and manage to feel both modern and nostalgic at the same time. If It Bleeds hit bookshelves in April and, in the midst of the real-life horror that was the pandemic, the continued killings of Black Americans by police officers, and the American presidential election cycle, King gave us something gloriously fictional to be afraid of. Whether you’re a longtime King fan or have never read anything by the horror master, If It Bleeds is well worth your time.

– Kayti Burt

Best Science Fiction Books of 2020

Riot Baby – Tochi Onyebuchi

One of 2020’s most incisive works packed more power into a novella than a book thrice its size; and while its particular story has a dystopian feel, it is actually keenly of the moment: not just the current protests against incarceration and police brutality, but the vicious and violent cycles that imprison, murder, or otherwise cut short Black lives. In an NPR interview at the start of the year when Riot Baby was published, Onyebuchi discussed how well-meaning white people talk about broken systems, when instead Riot Baby concerns “a system working just as designed.” That is, a system that cannot be overturned except possibly by superpowered means—and even then, not always easily.

Ella has a Thing, an otherworldliness to her that allows her to glimpse the fates, positive and negative, of those around her; to astrally project across the country and into others’ minds; to control unimaginable forces. But she can’t break her brother Kev (the “riot baby” of the title, born during the 1992 Los Angeles riots) out of Rikers Island. She can’t stop him from getting arrested in the first place, struggling as an adolescent not to transmute her rage into her powers and hurt those she loves, even as her baby brother is targeted for the color of his skin.

That tension and futility drive this slim account of not just their lives, but of the Black experience, projecting back to the roots of their family tree and forward to the authoritarian near-future in which Kev struggles to build the foundation of the rest of his life. Riot Baby is brutal, but it still nurtures hope—and it’s a necessary read for well-meaning white people like me.

– Natalie Zutter

Star Wars: Shadow Fall – Alexander Freed

This might seem like an odd pick, as it’s the second in a tie-in trilogy, and not particularly accessible if you haven’t read the previous book. But I’m true to myself. This was certainly one of my favorite books of 2020, with the caveat that sometimes favorite means “heavy enough that it, artfully, made me extremely miserable.”

It’s not what you might expect from the generic title. I’m often fascinated by genre writers who try to tackle writing about aimlessness in genre, whether that be slacker heroes or the existential ennui faced by Alphabet Squadron between spaceship gun fights. It’s such a plot-heavy genre that writing about questlessness sounds very hard. And Shadow Fall has done that magic trick. To quote my own tweet, this book is about people who act on mistaken assumptions and concoct entire non-existent relationships in their heads and hurt themselves in fugue states. All of the relationships are intense, but splintered and sideways all the time. Each character is their own carefully defined brand of amoral and brittle. I’ve rarely seen awkwardness portrayed so well in a book without the story itself coming off as edgy and misanthropic.

It’s also a good adventure story, with set-piece battles, a mysterious cult, and a genuinely surprising take on how the Force works from a series that isn’t at all about Jedi. Start with the first book, Alphabet Squadron, don’t mind that title either, and make sure you have some calming tea ready.

– Megan Crouse

Sex Criminals Vol. 6: Six Criminals by Matt Fraction + Chip Zdarsky

Really, this is celebrating the end of Image Comics’ raunchy-yet-surprisingly-heartfelt series about Suze and Jon, who find out they share the same gift: Their orgasms stop time. So, of course, they start robbing banks—only to discover that it’s not just them with this gift, winding up on the lam from the Sex Police. But rather than treat this audacious premise like a fleeting dirty joke, Fraction and Zdarsky built out a deceptively simple metaphor into a thought-provoking exploration of lust-versus-love, money and class, the chasm between finding someone who “gets” you in the bedroom but not outside of it. With cheek and heart, they boiled all this down to Suze’s refrain of “This fucking guy” that makes me tear up every time I read it.

And it wasn’t all just bodily fluids and dangly bits—Sex Criminals also consistently delighted in pushing its own envelope in all things meta. Drawing in post-it notes to obscure the Queen lyrics they couldn’t get the rights to for a scene they’d already drawn; a sequence in which huge dialogue bubbles physically knock extras out of the way; even turning Fraction’s anxiety attack about writing a key scene between two female characters into its own mini-comic—this team often turned their probing gaze on themselves.

In the Sex Criminals universe, robbing banks was small potatoes, foreplay even—the final volume ascends beyond the initial crime, transforming into a treatise on grief and time and retreating into memory. As the final issue posits, take any significant moment between two people and you have to expand the frame, to look at every single other person who brought these two together, whether for a one-night stand or “to have and to hold.”

In fittingly 2020 fashion, the series concludes bittersweetly, but the final moments come back full circle to where the series started: wanting to prolong that particular pocket of time and space in which it’s just you and your person, the rest of the world be damned.

Yet Sex Criminals’ greatest legacy is that it’s not the last comic to delve into the intersections of sexuality and science fiction. Vault Comics’ Money Shot, from Sarah Beattie and Tim Seeley, is a clear successor with its story of underfunded scientists having sex with alien species in order to subsidize their interstellar teleportation research. As another series about copulating to undermine capitalism, Money Shot carries on the horny torch that Fraction and Zdarsky lit way back in 2013.

– Natalie Zutter

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Queer western speculative fiction. Need we say more? Sarah Gailey, author of Magic for Liars, is back with an all-too-brief tale of Librarians, the only truly free women in this version of the American west, and Esther, a stowaway escaping her small town and plenty of secrets. Nothing is as it seems, including those running the book wagon – one’s a trans guy with they/them pronouns who must masquerade as a woman for his own safety whenever authorities or other prying eyes are near.

While the noir of Magic for Liars made that world feel inevitably dark, Upright has a more hopeful outlook and a wide-open setting that feels full of possibilities, even as the Librarians make their way delivering books in the kind of dystopian setting you might find in The Handmaid’s Tale or The Grace Year. In a year so full of doom, the Librarians are capable and even swashbuckling in their adventures, teaching our newcomer narrator and maybe even making her swoon with their swagger.

– Delia Harrington

The Resisters by Gish Jen

In AutoAmerica, a not-so-distant future where everything is connected to artificial intelligence and the have-nots are meant to be good consumers and nothing more, a young Black-Asian woman with a gift for pitching baseball becomes the eye of the storm when her country decides to bring back the national pastime and compete in the Olympics.

Come for the underground baseball league, stay for the sly pop culture references. The world is built out so fully that the inevitable movie or limited series version of The Resisters might even be better than the book – blasphemy, I know, but so many concepts and kinds of tech are dropped in that a showrunner and crew would have a field day bringing to life.

It’s rare these days for a man to narrate spec fiction, and he certainly has the least interesting story here, but perhaps he has the best vantage point to admire his talented wife and daughter, the former a lawyer who repeatedly takes on Aunt Nettie, a defiant nickname for the government-backed AI who runs their lives, and the latter, a young woman who was raised in a defiant household, whom he hopes won’t fall for the allure of Aunt Nettie’s promises.

– Delia Harrington

Best Fantasy Books of 2020

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

In a year where we are all struggling with how we feel about Harry Potter and its complicated legacy, Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education has arrived to offer us an entirely different and thoroughly exciting magical boarding school tale. The first in a trilogy dubbed “The Scholomance” after the magical school at which it takes place, the story is sort of like Harry Potter’s dark twin, featuring a difficult female heroine, a unique magical system, and a very dark take on the world of teen magicians. (Plus, it features the sort of effortless, matter-of-fact diversity that more authors – both YA and adult – should emulate.)

Galadriel “El” Higgins is a powerful, potential dark sorceress in her junior year at the Scholomance. Here, students must fight for their lives from the moment of their admission against the horrifying monsters known as malificaria that roam the school halls trying to eat them on their way to class and graduation is simply a test of who can escape a roomful of the largest and deadly creatures in the school. El is powerful enough that she could probably wipe out all of them on her own, but she refuses to embrace her natural affinity for dark, potentially world-destroying spells – no matter how many of her fellow students think she already has. Novik’s prose is as propulsive and fun to read as ever (consider this an additional, belated plug for her icy fantasy Spinning Silver) and A Deadly Education manages to put a fresh spin on what otherwise might feel like a staid, overdone setting. From its prickly heroine to the very real stakes that surround her classmates – most literally won’t live through final exercises – there’s so much here that feels unexpected and new. The sequel cannot come fast enough.

– Lacy Baugher

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

It’s rare that a story truly feels like magic, but such is the case with Alix E. Harrow’s lush and enchanting The Once and Future Witches. Part period piece, part celebration of sisterhood, and part feminist manifesto, the story is a love letter to women of all kinds, everywhere.

Set in an alternate version of America in the late nineteenth century when witching of all kinds is banned, this is a story about three sisters finding their voices and staking a claim to their own futures. It is also about accidentally summoning a magical tower and returning witchcraft to the world, healing the rifts between sisters and exposing the cracks between people who claim to want justice, but who actively work to oppress others. And it is about the power of community – the great things that can happen when women honestly see one another, support one another, acknowledge the challenges inherent in saying yes to help, and work together to make the world a better place. Isolation is dangerous, both for ourselves and the world we inhabit, and this is a novel that will make you want to call your personal coven and thank them for being there when you needed them.

Once upon a time, there were three sisters and they starred in a remarkable book, full of fairytales and folklore and old stories made new. In 2020, perhaps more so than ever, the idea of once and future resonates more strongly than it ever has before, the people we were and are, and what we might become – but only if we hold on to each other along the way.

– Lacy Baugher

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

Multi-perspective fantasy novels are all the rage right now, but Andrea Stewart’s The Bone Shard Daughter is truly something special. Not only does it deftly weave what initially seems like five separate stories together into something powerful and thrilling, the novel contains precisely the sort of compelling characters and rich worldbuilding that make this genre so much fun to read in the first place.

The first installment in the “Drowning Empire” trilogy, The Bone Shard Daughter is set in a sixteenth-century kingdom comprised of migrating islands that float through something called the Endless Sea. A story of empire and identity as much as it is a story of magic, the book at first follows Lin, the heir to the throne of Phoenix Empire, or, she will be as soon as she has proven she can properly use bone shard magic.

It’s this central magical system that makes this book so compelling – it involves commands being etched on pieces of human bones harvested from the general public in annual trepanning ceremonies, which are then used to power “constructs,” chimaera-like beings cobbled together out of various animal parts. If that wasn’t creepy enough, these shards literally drain the life energy from their doners to keep the constructs alive, a sort of human battery system that is horrifying to witness. (Especially when it appears that many of the more complex constructs have something like sentience of their own.)

Creepy and thoughtful, The Bone Shard Daughter grabs your attention from its opening lines, dumping you in a complex tale with lots of moving pieces that only gets messier as it goes on, and expects readers to keep up. For those who can manage it, it’s more than worth the journey. (And did I mention there’s a magical aquatic cat?)

– Lacy Baugher

The City We Became – N.K. Jemisin

Jemisin is a master of fantasy world-building, and she turns that eye to the real world in an unsubtle, masterful New York City under attack by lovecraftian horrors. Funny, weird plot twists abound. This book starts with someone screaming on top of a roof, beautiful mystical singing from his point of view, and a neighbor yelling at him to shut up. There’s a musical beat through the whole thing, and all the ways that music can be added to or enhanced by the city noises all around it.

Along with living in the city herself, Jemisin meticulously researched its history and quirks. She’s great at digging into detail, but also knows when to go broad, adding pop culture and references that seem obvious in hindsight but not too goofy to maintain the tone of the story. It’s fast-paced, especially toward the end.

This is distinctly a novel for today, talking about racial tension from a variety of perspectives, and addressing the kind of harassment that comes with those conversations. It’s a snapshot for what’s been talked about on Twitter, what’s being talked about in art galleries and publishing houses. And it’s a snapshot of the city — kind and cruel, raucous and serene. It probably helps that part of this book made me feel some rare home state pride.

– Megan Crouse

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood

The Unspoken Name by K.A. Larkwood sets itself apart in two major ways: its setting and its characters. Priestess Csorwe is fated to be sacrificed to the eldritch god her people worship. But when she’s rescued from that fate with a wizard with ambitions of taking over a kingdom, she becomes a servant to a different master entirely — and has the chance to become far more than a sword-wielding minion. (There’s some cool sword-wielding too.)

Surrounding her are people motivated by power, ambition, the unknown, the experience of living always in the shadow of the unknown and their sense of what is known becoming askew because of it. It’s about emotional abuse and people who want things and people they shouldn’t and can’t have. At the core is Csorwe, refreshingly straightforward but wonderfully complex in her own way.

This story plays out in a world the author describes as an “eerie hyperspace labyrinth” that also does great things with some more familiar, but under-explored fantasy elements like flying ships and orcs. Full of strange magic and fascinating creatures, it’s truly inventive. The world may have orcs and elves, but it never feels derivative of the fantasy greats. In more ways than one, this is a book that exemplifies what secondary-world fantasy can be in 2020.

– Megan Crouse

Wicked as You Wish by Rin Chupeco

It’s a rare thing when I encounter a novel that feels as though it’s written exactly for me. The first time this happened to me was when I (belatedly) read American Gods. Wicked as You Wish is the second book I’ve ever picked up where I immediately felt as though I were the target audience, and the story was just for me.

The story opens with the budding friendship between Tala Makiling Warnock, a girl who can nullify magic, and Alexei Tsarevich, heir to the throne of Avalon, in hiding after a terrible spell froze his kingdom. The Makilings are allies and protectors of the throne of Avalon, and Tala’s family is dedicated to keeping Alex safe—at least until his sixteenth birthday, when the Firebird will arrive and help him come into his powers. But the Snow Queen of Beira, Avalon’s enemy, is eager to finish the war she started, and Alex is keeping secrets of his own.

Rin Chupeco’s world draws on mythological and literary traditions including Wonderland, Oz, and Tala’s Filipino magical heritage, blending them into world building that’s contemporary and relevant (there’s a scene with ICE—at the behest of the Snow Queen facing off against Tala’s immigrant family). And while the book is marketed as YA and would certainly appeal to that audience with it’s predominantly teenaged cast, Chupeco’s sophisticated third-person omniscient narration gives readers insight into the motivations of the adults, who come through as strong leading characters as well. It’s an incredibly smart fantasy novel, and if it requires a little work to keep up with the worldbuilding and twists the story takes, it is absolutely worth the effort. The next book in the series cannot come out soon enough.

– Alana Joli Abbott

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Yoon Ha Lee is better known for writing stories in space than fantasy, but based on his blending of space and mythology in his middle grade novel, The Dragon Pearl, I’d been looking to his first fantasy novel. I was not disappointed. Phoenix Extravagant follows Jebi, a non-binary painter trying to succeed in an occupied nation; when trying to assimilate gets them thrown out of their house by their sister, and fails to get them a well-paying job they’d applied for, Jebi’s at a loss. Jebi has no desire to work at the Ministry of Armor, aiding the war effort that continues to oppress their people by painting the magical commands for automata. But the Minister leaves Jebi no choice: join, or their sister—who, unknown to Jebi, is a revolutionary—will pay the price.

Jebi’s gift for painting allows them to communicate with a dragon automata, who was painted with pacifist instructions, and the two make plans to escape the conflict all together. Lee’s story tackles themes comparable to Peter Tieryas’s “United States of Japan” trilogy and Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire, especially in the way both of those series look at ideas of assimilation and the justice—or injustice—of dues one pays to their government. Lee gives no clear moral answers in the tale—Jebi’s sister seems to prioritize revolution over family, Jebi’s lover has killed people Jebi cares about, and the antagonist may have valid reasons for his evil plots—and that’s part of what makes the story so compelling to navigate. The novel is planned as a standalone, but I’d love to read more set in this world.

– Alana Joli Abbott

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Reading Black Sun was like opening a new door in my mind. This is an epic fantasy series opener, and a lot of the tropes are familiar, but they’re all presented with different structure and framework–enough so that the novel feels like something entirely new. The story centers on Serapio’s journey to the homeland of his mother, where a bloody destiny awaits him; the efforts of Sun Priestess Naranpa to revolutionize her priesthood and make them more relevant as true servants uplifting the people of her city; and Xiala a ship captain whose supernatural origins make her both feared and targeted, but whose earthy attitude grounds the story. While Naranpa and Serapio are set up by the cosmology to be enemies, Roanhorse depicts them both so sympathetically that readers will hope for both of them to survive–and thrive–despite whatever fate has in store for them.

Roanhorse draws on indigenous American and Polynesian cultural and physical geography, which makes the world feel rich and new in a genre that has traditionally drawn on classical or feudal Europe for its influences. Using language that tends toward poetic, she plays with time, so that the narrative moves backward and forward around the events rather than in a linear fashion, which means the reveals of the narrative come not as the story progresses, but as readers progress through the story. Don’t be surprised to see this one on all the award lists in 2021.

– Alana Joli Abbott

Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

A girl makes a deal with the devil to live forever, and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. It’s the kind of premise a book could coast on, but V.E. Schwab has never been a coaster. From the very beginning of her career, the 33-year-old fantasy author has elevated engaging plot with unforgettable prose, resulting in stories that stick with their readers long after the book has been closed.

With The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, the story is a particularly ambitious one: spanning 300 years, from 18th century France to modern New York City, we follow Addie as she learns how to live an existence in which she cannot hold a job, cannot rent an apartment, cannot have relationships. “We tell these immortality tales of men where all of a sudden they’re immortal and it’s just like, go get rich, go have fun, go have 100 mistresses and just sleep your way through eternity,” Schwab told Den of Geek earlier this year. “But women would never have that option.”

But this is not just Addie’s story. It also belongs to Henry, the only person Addie meets in three centuries who can remember her. Henry is a millennial living in New York, living with mental illness. In a story whose only other two main characters are an immortal woman and a devil, Henry is our human.

Ultimately, like so many of Schwab’s books, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is not quite what you expected: romantic and Romantic, modern yet classic, Addie was one of the unforgettable books of 2020.

Best Young Adult Books of 2020

Ruthless Gods by Emily Duncan

Emily Duncan’s “Something Dark and Holy” trilogy is everything YA fiction is not supposed to be: Dark, frightening, unsettling, and very, very bloody. Its second installment, Ruthless Gods, is a complex tale of war, betrayal, and heartbreak – a story that is not particularly hopeful, gory in a way this genre is rarely allowed to be, and populated by heroes who are often anything but.

The novel follows three lead characters: Nadya, a young mystic who talks to gods but can no longer hear them; Serefin, a king whose country has long been at war with Nadya’s and whose life and consciousness are no longer entirely his own; and Malachiasz, a deeply disturbed boy who either wants to destroy the gods, become one himself, or something in between. Over the course of the story, their lives become intertwined on what feels like a cosmic level, as politics, religion and the very survival of humanity collide.

Duncan’s prose is rich and lush, full of gorgeous descriptions of eldritch nightmares and frightening visions, with a fair amount of body horror thrown on top. For YA fans, this is a series that is unlike most anything else you’ve encountered this year.

– Lacy Baugher

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow

There aren’t a lot of books I read this year that captured the feel of 2020 as well as The Sound of Stars. There’s no pandemic in this book, but the alien invasion that results in humans being locked inside their apartment buildings, unable to socialize, their normal lives taken from them because the world outside just isn’t the same? I’m sure Dow never intended that to be a metaphor, but it worked for me!

The title takes its name from a fictional album performed by fictional band The Starry Eyed, whose media presence before the alien invasion provides a framework for the book. The story centers on Ellie, a black girl determined to help her human community escape through the illegal borrowing of books, and M0Rr1S (Morris), an Ilori labmade, responsible for vaccinating humanity to prepare Earth for Ilora habitation. Morris, unlike other Ilori, is emotional, and loves music; immediately Ellie intrigues him with her bravery and willingness to risk everything for the sake of stories. When he enlists her to steal hidden music for him, their uneasy friendship begins, and as the stakes get higher, Ellie and Morris travel across the country on a mission to save humanity.

The story is fantastical and earnest and hopeful, and it was especially wonderful to experience in the audio production, which featured two excellent voice actors telling the story of stories and music and love.

– Alana Joli Abbott

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

“I know the exact moment of inspiration for [Cemtery Boys],” Aiden Thomas told Den of Geek about his YA debut. “[A Tumblr writing prompt asked], ‘What would you do if you summoned a ghost and you couldn’t get rid of it?’ And you see people commenting and stuff and they’re like, ‘Oh, this super spooky, scary thing.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, but what if he was cute?'”

Cemetery Boys is not only breaking new ground when it comes to explorations of trans identity and Latinx culture, it’s also a delightful read. The story of Yadriel, a trans teen boy determined to prove himself a brujo to his traditional Latinx family, Cemetery Boys has the best inciting incident: Trying to get answers about his cousin’s mysterious death, Yadriel attempts to summon the ghost of his cousin. Instead, he summons the (cute) ghost of school “bad boy” Julian. Julian has some questions of his own he’s looking to answer and, when he refuses to leave, Yadriel’s mission gets a little more complicated… especially once Yadriel realizes he might not want Julian to go.

Romantic and hilarious, sweet and suspenseful, Cemetery Boys has so much to fall in love with: from its diverse cast of characters to its vibrant and complex world. Thomas wrote the novel, in part, so that young, marginalized readers would have a story not only to escape into but also “where they see themselves as being incredibly powerful, supported, but very importantly, being loved.” Cemetery Boys is a gift to us all, and a reminder of what is possible when the still far-too-inaccessible publishing industry lets more people in.

“No, it wasn’t the end. It was a better beginning.”

Best Non-Genre Books of 2020

The Darling Killers by Sarah McCarry

Over the summer, mere weeks into lockdown and in the phase of the pandemic where it felt like you couldn’t trust anyone or anything outside of your precarious bubble, author Sarah McCarry began serializing her latest novel The Darling Killers via a weekly Substack newsletter. The sparklingly clever title tells you plenty, but in short, it’s a female-perspective Talented Mr. Ripley by way of Los Angeles’ glittery world of young adult authors whose mastery over words has earned them obsessive fandoms and access to the endless party life.

In the style of the best thrillers, this lush novel provided the perfect escapism as antiheroine Sofia Bencivenga arrives in LA and immediately falls in with a trio of talented, haunted writers: ethereal Alison, bitchy Judith, and charismatic Jaxson. Sofia goes from shadowing their weekly writing dates to conning her way into emerging-writer status, but when Alison dies under suspicious circumstances at one of Jaxson’s fabulous parties, Sofia has to pause in her pursuit of vicariously living through Alison’s life to consider its dangerous flipside.

It would have been enough for the book to skewer the particular cult of YA author celebrity, to mock how every supporting character nurses their own dreams of writing—or at least acting out—The Great American Novel. But McCarry also gets to the heart of yearning to create worlds and characters, the ache of writing-as-processing, the thrill of trying on other stories and lives—she grabs that heart out of your chest and shows it back to you, thumping obscenely but recognizably. Back when the rest of 2020 stretched out ahead of us, especially uncertain, waking up to each installment every Tuesday morning was one of the few things keeping me looking forward to the next week.

– Natalie Zutter

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Beach Read is perhaps the worst misnomer of any book title on this list, and the cover doesn’t help. The lead characters only go to the beach near their adjoining properties once, maybe twice! Emily Henry’s gem lies somewhere between romance and literary fiction, mirroring her characters’ work. In Beach Read, next door neighbors find themselves uncomfortably close – they can see in one another’s windows, when they’re both on the deck they can easily chat at normal volume – and of course their first interaction is fraught.

It doesn’t take long to find out they’re both writers – she, romance; he, literary fiction – and amid an argument about whose work is easier, a challenge to swap genres unfolds. Throughout the heat of the summer they teach one another about their respective genres and open up about their lives. It’s darker than the average romance – he’s writing about a cult where pretty much everyone died; she’s cleaning out her dead father’s home – but if you’re looking for something with adult sex/romance and adult relationships and emotional pitfalls in equal measure, Beach Read has you covered.

– Delia Harrington

Yes, No, Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed

In a year when politics was inescapable and inescapably miserable, Yes, No, Maybe So provided political escapism that soothed my soul in the form of a romcom about a state senate race. While the setup might sound contrived – two teens, a Jewish boy and a Muslim girl volunteer to knock on doors together and fall in love – the book itself featured well-drawn characters. Trading off narration by character and corresponding author, we learn about their home lives, friends, hopes and fears, why they’re invested in this race, and how they really feel about one another.

Taking place mostly during Ramadan, the book has some fun easter eggs for veteran canvassers and field staff while doing a decent job explaining some of the inner workings of a state-level campaign for newcomers. Anyone interested in getting more politically active will find numerous examples in the book of how to do so, and it certainly helps that as Jamie and Maya face their respective fears, they make getting involved seem easier to the reader, too. The book is incredibly earnest, tender and sweet, both about politics and their romance, especially under Jamie’s narration, but Maya and their circumstances bring in a dose of realism to help balance things out so it’s not too saccharine.

– Delia Harrington

What were your favorite books of the year? Let us know in the comments below.

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A Short Description of the Government and Society of Nihwar

IN THE MANNER of such Travelers that have gone before me, as the learned Hythlodaeus and the doughty Gulliver, I offer here a Brief Account of my journeys in a far-distant Land, which is known in its own tongue as NI-HWAR; its people being one of those Ancient and Lost Tribes of Europe, viz., the OSTROGOTHS. They, like me, stumbled across this Rugged and Remote Island while wandering in the Carpathians, being Accosted by an emotionally unstable Wormhole--I, on my Summer Holiday, they during one of their ancient Migrations through the Dark Forests of the Long Medium Aevum. Blessedly, though they perforce settled in that rugged country, they have in the intervening Centuries made it a Hospitable and Modern Civilisation, and I was able to catch an Easy-Jet Flight home. Though my Sojurn in those parts was but a few Weeks, I found that, though their language was Uncouth, their Manners Strange, and their Mores Foreign, I found it most Instructive on matters pertaining to the Ideal State of the Human Animal, and its relation to Society and Government. In the Spirit both of such Journeys as Mine, and as a Concession to Modern Aestheticks, I have elected to render the remainder of this Account in the Manner of an Article from Wikipedia.

[This started out as an attempt to collect semi-realistic ideas on a practical utopia, from the grandiose to the mundane; it ended up mostly as a parody of the Wikipedia article on Iceland, littered with puns based on shoddy historical linguistics. Make of it what you will.]

Niwhar (/ˈnɪhʷar/), officially the Oathbound Kindreds of the Woodlands and the Windlands (Nihwaran: Aithbundana Kunja þize Widiwlanda iþþize Windlanda) is an island country located in the [REDACTED] Sea. It has a population of 162,511 and an area of 25,201 km. The capital and largest city is Nibaurgs. Located near the Mid-[REDACTED] Rift, Nihwar is volcanically active. The southern, western, and eastern fringes of the island are bordered by high mountains, and the northern coast is cut off by ice nine months of the year. The only warm-water port on the island is Grewsteins, on the eastern shore of Rignwato Bay.[1] The interior of the island is a mix of boreal forest in the south and tundra in the north.

According to the ancient manuscripts of the Skitagsailandboka, Nihwar was settled by a band of wandering Ostrogoths, whose chieftain refused to ask for directions,[2] “even long after it became clear that this was not the way to Italy.”[3] Over subsequent centuries, the small population of Goths was augmented by Viking exiles, Inuit fishermen, and a boatload of “very confused” Maghrebi pirates. The island was loosely organized into often-feuding chiefdoms until the beginning of the 14th century, when Heidrek the Hairless united representatives of the entire island at the First Thing (Nihwaran Gothic: Þingamaidjig). Although occasionally interrupted by civil strife, constitutional crises, war, and abuse of the rules on filibusters, Things continually met at semi-regular intervals until the early 1800s. In 1811, due to political disorganization caused by a growing population and influential new political ideas imported from Europe and North America, a constitutional convention was called at Nibaurgs, which after three years produced the Constitutions of Niwhar, the basis of its modern government.

Political reforms accompanied economic reforms, and Niwhar expanded from a primarily subsistence-farming based economy to one based heavily on mining, lumber, and fossil fuels. Modern Nihwar is one of the wealthiest countries in Eurasia, with the 12th-highest GDP in the world.

Nihwaran culture is founded on the nation’s eclectic heritage and industrious, if occasionally rowdy, spirit. The main language of Nihwar is Nihwaran Gothic, a highly conservative East Germanic language which has remained almost unchanged for the past twelve hundred years.[4][5][6] The country’s rich cultural heritage includes traditional cuisine,[7] the Nihwaran saga,[8] and small, careful arrangements of rocks.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 3 Geography 4 Politics 5 Economy 6 Demographics 7 Culture 8 References 9 Further Reading

ETYMOLOGY The origin of the common name for the country, “Nihwar,” is unrecorded, but it is noted in the Skitagsailandboka that it was “considered appropriate for the condition and climate of the region in which we found ourselves.” The formal name of the country is a reference to the oath sworn to the national constitutions at the First Thing, as well as the various chieftaincies and tribal divisions which formally constitute the federal structure of Nihwaran government.

HISTORY The Settlement Period: ca. 550 - 800 See also: Scitagsailandboka

This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

Feuding Chiefdoms See also: War of the Horse, War of the Bucket (Nihwar), The Fight Behind Athanaric’s Barn (1104), War of the Insult to Gryggja’s Mother, War over Who Gets Granny Hervar’s Silver, The Fight Behind Athanaric’s Barn (1202), The Fight Behind Athanaric’s Barn (1211)

This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

Early Modern Period See also: Rediscovery of Nihwar, Second Rediscovery of Nihwar, The Existence of Nee-Warr: Fact or Fiction? (1602)

This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

Constitutional Convention This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

19th Century This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

20th & 21st Centuries This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

Geography This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

POLITICS Nihwar has a multi-party political system. Its most recent election was in 2016, resulting a parliament led by a center-left coalition, and the re-election of the incumbent Lawspeaker, Ragnagild Thiudareiksdauhtar. The largest party, and the leader of the governing coalition, is the Nihwaran Citizen’s League.[9]

Politics on the cantonal and municipal level tends to be heavily contested in Nihwar, and many regional, local, and single-issue parties exist that do not contest elections on the national level. Some national parties, like the NCL, tend to be formed by shifting coalitions of smaller parties, while others are of longer-standing duration.

By law, all campaigns in Nihwar are publicly funded, and restricted to the 60-day period before each election.

Constitutions Nihwar has two constitutions. The first and elder is the Grundlags, adopted by the Thing in 1811 (subsequently heavily amended). The Grundlags lays out the structure of federal government, the rights of the cantons, and the shared competencies of the cantons and federal government. The second constitution, the Mannareihtsleistan, adopted in the 1920s, enumerates individual rights of citizens and residents of Nihwar, including rights which the federal and cantonal governments are obligated to protect, as well as rights which are also protected from infringement by private agents.

Federal Government Nihwar is a federal republic comprised of nine cantons (six of which are divided into half-cantons), organized under a presidential system, though it is sometimes characterized also as a semi-presidential system. The head of state and government in Nihwar is the Lagsogareis, elected every four years by popular vote, who administers foreign policy, the diplomatic service, and acts as head of the armed forces should the need arise. The legislature is the Kunsamnonunga, which is elected every two years. The largest party in the Kunsamnonunga, if a majority, or the largest coalition of parties, has the right to select the Kunsogareis, who administers domestic and economic policy. Although formally the Lagsogareis is responsible for the appointment of heads of executive departments, in practice executive appointments are the result of consultation between the Lagsogareis and the Kunsogareis. In the event of the death or incapacity of the Lagsogareis, the Kunsogareis can temporarily assume the powers of the office.

The Kunsamnonunga is elected from single-member districts using range voting. Before 1996, Kunsamnonunga elections used the single-transferable vote system. Range voting was adopted as part of the 2005 electoral reform package, which first applied to the 2006 federal election.[10] Candidates are assigned ratings from 1 to 5, with 5 indicating highest preference; multiple candidates may be assigned the same number. The candidates with the highest overall ratings are elected to office. In addition to being the legislature, the Kunsamnonunga is responsible for reviewing executive and judicial appointments, via constitutionally prescribed standing committees.

The cantonal governments are also entitled to send representatives Dailsamnonunga, where each canton has two votes, which must be cast together in the case of unified cantons, and are cast separately by each half-canton in the case of divided cantons. The Dailsamnonunga acts primarily as a coordination mechanism between cantons on matters not of particular relevance to the federal government, and is mostly used to negotiate and formalize inter-cantonal compacts and agreements.

Appointments to the federal judiciary are made by the National Judicial Committee, which is by law nonpartisan, and drawn from academic bodies, like the Law Faculty of the University of Nibaurgs, and senior federal judges. After an initial term of office, voters are required to approve newly-appointed judges as part of biennial federal elections, or their term immediately expires.

Federal law and civil rights case law mandates that electoral districts in Nihwar be drawn by nonpartisan committees, and observe the requirements of equal size, contiguousness, compactness, and geographic orderliness.[11]

The Lagredas is Nihwar’s supreme court, functioning both as the court of final appeal and the constitutional court. Laws may be referred to the Lagredas for review either by lawsuits, the Judicial Committee of the Kunjasamnonunga, or by the Lagsogareis. If a law is found to be unconstitutional, it is referred to the National Judicial Committee for revision, if it can be revised to be in harmony with the constitutions; if the NJC determines a law cannot be made constitutional without fundamental alteration, it is automatically repealed.

Cantons Nihwar has nine cantons: Nurþrata Windlands, Austrata Windlands, Tibrans, Fairgunjalands, Fonhullu, Bitrawidu, Sunthrastranda, Eisahwos, and Wostinjos. Six of the nine cantons--Tibrans, Fairgunjalands, Bitrawidu, Sunthrastranda, Eisahwos, and Wostinjos--are divided into half-cantons, their principal cities having a degree of autonomy that reflects the substantially different demographic and political makeup from the surrounding region.

Nihwaran cantons have wide latitude on culture, education, and land management; they share competency with the federal government on matters of transport, housing, criminal and civil law, foreign relations, and infrastructure. The federal government has exclusive competency on healthcare, defense, economic policy, and the national UBI.

Cantons are divided into Landkraitos and Baurgkraitos (municipalities and rural districts). Municipalities are governed by municipal councils, in conjunction with nonpartisan Municipal Planning Departments. MPDs are normally tasked with observing and forecasting local economic trends, in conjunction with the National Office of Statistics, and providing regular reports to the municipal council in order to formulate policies to avoid or ameliorate negative future trends: for instance, to encourage the building of additional housing, if a housing shortage is on the horizon. The NOS also furnishes MPDs with model land-use schemes to discourage urban sprawl and encourage efficient, mixed development.

Enclaves and subcommunities By law, any community of individuals has the right to establish an enclave outside an existing urban area, or a subcommunity within an urban area, either to “maintain a distinct cultural, philosophical, religious, or artistic identity,” or “for the purpose of pursuing a special artistic, scientific, academic, or spiritual aim.” Enclaves cannot be established on federally managed land, but enjoy exemption from many forms of local, cantonal, and federal taxation. Charters for enclaves are granted for 20-year intervals, and enclaves must meet specific criteria in order for charters to be renewed. Subcommunities, being dependent on urban infrastructure, enjoy fewer autonomous rights than enclaves but otherwise function in largely the same fashion.

Enclaves and subcommunities have consultative rights within cantonal assemblies and the Kunjasamnonunga, but do not have distinct voting representation.

Budget and taxation The primary methods of taxation in Nihwar are a Georgist land tax, based on the unimproved value of land, VAT, and an income tax on incomes above NWM 100,000 per annum. Financial transaction taxes and the Nihwaran Sovereign Wealth Fund are also used to fund certain social programs.

The primary government expenditures of Nihwar are the national UBI and the national healthcare system; these programs, as well as the civil defense budget and the internal development budget have their size fixed by law. Discretionary spending is determined biennially by the Kunjasamnonunga based on the General Tax Survey, in which citizens roughly indicate how they want the discretionary portion of the budget spent by allocating their tax returns to one or more general categories of spending.

Foreign Relations Nihwar has trade agreements with the European Union, Russia, Canada, and the Nordic countries. In addition, its cantons are permitted to conduct separate foreign policy in certain matters of particularly local interest; this has mainly been used by coastal cantons like Sunthrastranda to establish fisheries treaties with nearby nations.

Military Nihwar does not have a standing military. Disaster relief and the unlikely possibility of national defense are first and foremost the responsibility of the National Civil Defense Organization, a national service organization which also helps manage federal land, administers infrastructure projects, and conducts aid work in foreign countries.

Although there is no draft, at least one year of service in the NCDO exempts Nihwaran citizens from specific tax penalties after age 30 which scale with income, intended to prevent wealthier citizens from being more able to avoid service. By statute, service in some capacity, however ancillary to the main projects of the NCDO, is open to all citizens; the NCDO also provides job training in specific areas.

The NCDO is organized into pseudo-military “regiments,” each regiment drawing from as broad a cross-section of the population (economically and geographically) as possible, and each regiment cultivating its own unique espirit de corps. Regimental associations formed by former members of the NCDO are a significant feature of Nihwaran social life.

In the event of an invasion, defense would primarily be the responsibility of the National Sea Institute (the Nihwaran coast guard, a branch of the NCDO) and the Ranger Corps of the NCDO; the NCDO maintains a small body of trained officers and special forces personnel, intended to form the backbone of a larger military mobilization in the event of a serious military conflict.

Nihwar’s intelligence service operates primarily by leaking information on foreign governments to their local press or to international human rights watchdogs.

Criminal law Prisons do not exist in Nihwar.

The only classes of crime which can permanently deprive a Nihwaran citizen of their rights are public corruption or the infringement of human rights. Conviction for serious crimes in this category may result in the loss of the right to hold public office.

Immigration and naturalization Nihwar has open borders; anyone arriving at a sea port or airport in Nihwar is assumed to have the right of entry, and will not be refused unless it is discovered that they are wanted for a serious crime that is also in contravention of Nihwar’s laws, or they carry a serious, highly-contagious infectious disease (in which case they will simply be quarantined and treated).

Anyone born on the territory of Nihwar, or its isles and seas, is automatically a citizen of Nihwar, as is anyone born to a Nihwaran citizen. Anyone ordinarily resident in the country for one year or more (defined as registering their address at the local Kraitmelþogahausjands or online, or being able to demonstrate long-term residency through other criteria) can apply for provisional citizenship, which expires if one de-registers or moves away from Nihwar. Provisional citizenship can be converted to permanent citizenship after three years of ordinary residence in Nihwar. Nihwaran citizenship can also be granted by an act of the Kunjasamnonunga, or by order of the Lagsogareis.

ECONOMY The economy of Nihwar is mostly based on lumber, mining, oil drilling, and tourism.[12]

Currency The currency of Nihwar is the Nihwaran mark (NWM), equivalent to approximately EUR 0.80. The mark is managed by the Bank of Tibranbaurgs, which is part of the National Department of Statistics and Planning.

Healthcare Nihwar has a universal healthcare system, administered by the Institutes for Public Health. Healthcare is generally free to the end user everywhere in Nihwar.

Pharmeceuticals in Nihwar are prescription-only only if 1) the IPH has determined there is a high likelihood for abuse which could constitute a public health hazard, or 2) the drug is both sufficiently dangerous when improperly administered, and is difficult to correctly administer. In general, many more pharmeceuticals are available for purchase in a Nihwaran pharmacy than in most other countries. Recreational drugs are regulated under a similar regime.

Transport Eisarnreda Nihwar provides high-speed rail transport throughout the country. Municipal light rail services are available in Nibaurgs, Tibranbaurgs, Grewsteins, and Bitrasteins. An Eisarnkarta can be purchased in Nihwar, or online before traveling to Nihwar, which provides unified access to all buses, taxis, trains, ferries, and airline flights within Nihwar’s borders.

Privately owned automobiles not declared as a business expense for tax purposes are subject to a high annual tax.

Communication and advertising Radijonati Nihwar provides a free national broadband network and, in conjunction with municipal governments, local broadband and WiFi access; higher-speed providers are regulated by the Nihwaran Communications Authority. By statute, as many government services as possible must be accessible online.

The National Standards Agreement is an agreement negotiated by the government between Nihwar’s media outlets not to sensationalize coverage of mass violence, terrorism, or suicide.

Outdoor advertising is banned throughout Nihwar.[13]

Corporate governance The Nihwaran tax code strongly encourages the Nihwaran model of corporate governance, which involves employee ownership and the election of managers up to and including the senior management. Foreign companies operating in Nihwar are not required to conform to this standard, but will find their tax liability is somewhat reduced based on the percentage of their employees that belong to a Nihwaran union.

Labor relations are overseen by the Nihwaran Business and Labor Alliance, a non-governmental organization.

DEMOGRAPHICS This section is a stub. You can help by adding to it.

CULTURE Education Education is free from kindergarten through university; specialized professional job training programs and apprenticeships are also common in Nihwar, and 1 to 3-year non-university training courses are the means of entry into most non-academic professions. Further technical education is provided both through third-level institutions and the NCDO.

Language Nihwar has no official language, though Nihwaran Gothic is the major language of politics and academics. The minor dialects of Nihwaran Norse, Nihwaran Arabic,[14] and Nihwaran Greenlandic are spoken by about 35% of the population.

Sport The most popular sport in Nihwar is Nihwaran Skull Cricket, organized by the International Nihwaran Traditional Sports Association. The INTSA has been sanctioned repeatedly since the 1970s by international human rights organizations, mostly due to fallout related to the quadrennial Skull Cricket championships.

REFERENCES [1] ^ “The World’s Six Worst Vacation Destination” Buzzfeed.com, retrieved March 11, 2015 [2] ^ “The ‘Shitty Island Book’ and the Foundation of Nihwar,” Joseph Wright [3] ^ ibid. [4] ^ “Nihwaran Language Academy rejects neologisms proposal, will continue to refer to computers as ‘magic rocks’”, BBC News, January 5 2010 [5] ^ “The NLA: Linguistic Conservatives, or Linguistic Reactionaries?”, Journal of the Germanic Linguistics Association, June 2011 [6] ^ “Nihwaran Language Academy Barricades Conference Room Door, Won’t Stop Quoting Edmund Burke”, Nihwartimes.com, retrieved October 13, 2011 [7] ^ “Nihwaran Rock and Twig Soup, and other specialties,” Food.com, retrieved May 15, 2009 [8] ^ “Nihwaran Literature: A Mistake?” Joseph Wright. Wright notes that the Nihwaran saga is a primarily oral art form, and usually continues until someone in the back of the audience shouts “Bullshit!” They primarily concern feuds over cattle, the division of inheritance, and “stories about how Grandpappy froze to death back in aught three.” [9] ^ “Elections in Nihwar,” The Economist, March 15, 2016. The NCL is composed of several centrist parties, including the Sozjal-”Deimakratisk” Party (Marxist-Leninist), Niu Nihwar (Blairo-Clintonian Post-Socialist Chickenshit), and the Liberal-Allajans (Nakedly Plutocratic). Despite repeated complaints from the political leadership, the power of the Nihwaran Electoral Commission to add punctuation and snide commentary to the names of Nihwaran political parties remains immensely popular with the electorate. [10] ^ “Nihwaran President: ‘It Worked for Hot or Not; Why Not For Us?’” BBC News, October 11, 2005 [11] ^ Nihwar lacked gerrymandering rules until the 1960s, when a fortuitous coalition deal and an ambitious party leader managed to net the Nihwaran Miner’s League control of the national electoral comission and, subsequently, three Kunjasamnonuga majorities with less than four percent of the vote each time. The NML was subsequently banned and entire party leadership deported to Svalbard. [12] ^ VisitNihwar.su, accessed September 23, 2002. The current slogan for Nihwaran Tourism is “At Least We’re Not Svalbard,” which replaced its previous logo, “Come For the Cheap Cigarettes, Stay Because An Unpronounceable Volcano Grounded Your Flight.” The slogan before that was “Not As Depressing As The Pictures Make It Look.” [13] ^ “Protecting the Scenery - Sort of,” The Economist, June 2010. “In a new proposal pushed as a way to protect Nihwar’s natural beauty, the country’s president has proposed legislation that would ban outdoor advertising across the country. Critics from within the country have answered mostly with ‘what natural beauty?’ But the real pressure seems to be coming from the Nihwaran Union of Poster Stickers, who have reported a record number of cases of summer frostbite this year, and whose leader seems to be old friends with Mr. Skildus.” [14] ^ “Nihwaran Arabic,” Journal of Obscure Languages, Autumn 1983. “Nihwaran Arabic is unique in two respects: first, it is the only Afro-Asiatic language spoken above the Arctic Circle; second, it is the only language--on Nihwar or anywhere else in the world--written with runes. Considering that the Nihwarans have never used runes to write their language, and Arabic speakers did not arrive on the island until the runic alphabet had been extinct elsewhere in Europe for centuries, the use of runes to write this peculiar dialect has never been satisfactorily explained.”

FURTHER READING The Living Goths: Nihwar, its Land, and Peoples, Joseph Wright, 1906 Al-Jazirat Al-Qabiha, Ibn Musafir, 1662 “The Forgettable Land,” National Geographic Magazine, Ann Bancroft, 2001 The Atlas of Remote Islands 2: Why Bother?, Judith Schalansky, 2014 The Oral Poetry of Nihwar: An Anthology, Penguin Books, 1992

#ramblings and doggerel #fiction #nihwar #abuse of the gothic language #tanadrin's fiction

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resonanteye · 4 years

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horror movie talk with LFR

My friend Lucy F. R. has really great taste in movies.

I don’t say that lightly. You all know (if you’ve been reading me a while) how fussy I am about horror/weirdshit and how many movies I’ve watched. It’s my actual hobby, unrelated to anything else I do, purely for enjoyment. It’s hard for me to find people to talk about movies with, really- my uncle, who first introduced me to horror movies, and weird cinema, and one or two friends. So I’m really happy to have a conversation here about movies with someone.

Sal doesn’t take any shit from no man. (Beyond the Valley of the Ultravixens)

(R: me, L:them)

R: you’re on a grimy southern/grind horror kick right now. But what genre do you like best? What feeling are you after?

LFR: Horror is my favorite genre, I just get very into specific branches. I always want to end up saying to myself “this is a GOOD movie”.

R: What’s the best of the batch you’ve been into recently?

LFR:The Dunwich Horror (the 70’s one), Ghost Galleon, House By The Cemetery, Werewolves On Wheels, and Tourist Trap.

R: Tell me about Werewolves on Wheels. I just watched Dog Soldiers again, and I’ve been on a werewolf kick.

(Swamp Water)

LFR: Wait, you haven’t seen it? It’s about a small biker gang that are on their way to the desert and come across a monastery that they think is abandoned but come to find out it’s not and a mysterious cult interacts with them. The cult takes one of the biker girls and puts her in a ritual. The bikers take her back from them and go back on the road, but don’t know that ~one~ of them is now a werewolf at night.

R: People reading might not have seen it. I usually try to explain a little when I start talking about stuff, especially the lists I make.

I feel like this could turn into a list?

I saw a short film recently also with a werewolf- soldiers are in WWII, surrounded by Nazis in an old police station. There’s a woman in a cell that’s locked herself in and they get stuck in there with her. She’s a werewolf and they turn so they can beat the Nazis.

I feel like- the older werewolf stuff, I think 60s to early 80s, a lot of it was hippie panic. Manson references.

I felt like Werewolves on Wheels is also backlash on feminism, like a lot of gory stuff from that time.

LFR: It felt like a backlash on feminism and hippies.

(Vamp)

R: with werewolves and vampires there’s the whole homophobic/transphobic thing too. “secret monsters” and all that.

what movies would you compare it to? what’s close to it, in feeling?

LFR: In feeling as in how it made me feel while watching it for the first time: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House Of 1,000 Corpses, Ghost Galleon. I just know it’s a movie that I’ll recommend to everyone and watch over and over.

Aesthetics and mood-wise: Warriors, Clockwork Orange, Hammer Film movies.

R:yeah it’s got that grit to it. easy rider/warriors. I actually haven’t seen Ghost Galleon. Rip it up for me a little.

LFR: Oh man, so

I get really into bands and for the past few years I always look up what my favorite band member’s favorite movies are, or movies that feel like the music genre. So recently I’ve just been super into doom and stoner metal, naturally I’ve been listening to a lot of Electric Wizard. I asked a bunch of doom metal fb groups “what’s the most doom metal movie you’ve seen” and eventually I somehow found Ghost Galleon. It’s a movie that is not good. Very low budget. Like Ed Wood status. But it’s REALLY good.

These swim suit models go out on a shoot and stumble across a ship that should not be afloat still and is completely abandoned. They get stuck on the ship so friends come looking for them. But the ship’s crew is a satanic cult and they come alive and, to keep from spoiling, all hell breaks loose. And it’s THE most doom metal movie you will ever watch. It has it all- mood, aesthetic, and story wise.

R:so bad, it’s incredible. sounds perfect.

LFR: it’s on prime.

R: FUCK YEAH

you guys are always using my prime and my Netflix and my Hulu. you think this is a costume? this is a way of life

R:when I started watching musician friends’ recommendations I ended up discovering Green Room.

The last time before that, it was Pighunt, which is to this day one of my favorite movies.

LFR: You told me to watch that one years ago. I recommend it to basically anyone who will listen to me.

R:it’s like the least sexist least racist southern-USA monster movie ever made.

LFR:Les Claypool’s roll in that has forever changed how I see him. When I saw Primus all I could see him as was a hillbilly preacher.

R: yep completely.

let’s talk about art horror. the weird shit. seen anything good there lately?

(The Horde)

LFR:The Girl On The Third Floor. It was weird and a little comical, but I enjoyed it. I Am The Pretty Thing Living In The House is REALLY good but it’s a little weird and a major slow burn. And, Society, but that’s more body horror than art house horror.

R:Society is a classic. Body horror and class war. So amazing. I thought I am the pretty thing was a lot of fluff- I understand the drive to slow-burn right now, it’s nostalgic. But I think it’s one of the movies where they went too far into the slow burn.

If I’m going to wait 90 minutes, that girl better taste some damn butter. You know?

LFR: I can see why but I also saw it as more of a classic gothic horror story so the pace didn’t bother me too much.

R:I kind of got tired of Gothic horror at some point. The slow burn. I think I was too interested in French and Korean extreme and gore for a minute.

LFR: I’m a sucker for gothic horror and black and white universal monsters.

R:I liked Late Phases- that kind of straddled the line for me really well. Which brings us back to werewolves, strangely enough.

I have been seeing more elderly characters in movies, which I like a lot.

LFR: I love creepy old women and demonic children in films. I feel like The Visit sparked people’s interest in elderly characters in horror.

R: yes! I agree. I really like variety- diversity. ” 5 teenagers on a road trip ” movies… it gets tiring. Bland.

not to mention that there’s actually Black people and elderly women in movies now.

LFR: Road trip gone wrong horror is good but, you gotta do it right.

R:tell me about one that you think gets it right.

LFR: The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It paved the way.

R: it did pave the way. that there were pockets of deep weird hate in this country- I think the suburbs were really shocked by it. but if you grew up in bumfuck nowhere it was less shocking.

I think Dead End is the ultimate “road trip gone wrong” movie. Urban legend plot, Ray Wise, Lin Shaye. Just incredible pacing.

LFR: I haven’t seen that one, I’ll have to watch it.

R:oh, you’re going to love it.

I feel like the Hills Have Eyes deserves a mention here. though it’s more a “trapped on purpose” movie than a road trip.

LFR: That’s a “vacation gone wrong” horror movie, and it’s definitely one of the best ones. Vacation and road trip movies are two different branches of a genre to me.

R:I think of them as “wrong turn” vs “bad directions”. like they stumbled into trouble is one genre. they were purposely hunted/trapped, is another.

LFR:Yes, exactly!

R: like a vacation movie that’s a trap- hills have eyes a vacation movie that’s an accident- Jurassic Park

Texas chainsaw massacre is both a road trip and a vacation, an accident and a trap.

tell me about a movie that’s got a plot hole, or has kept you thinking afterward, lately. for me it’s been resolution/the endless, and residue. residue in particular. how do they keep that book? why such a dumb ending? resolution/endless bugs me and I have to watch it again- time loops force me to do math, and I end up a little obsessed with figuring out timelines.

(Requiem for a Vampire)

LFR:Horror wise, 3 From Hell. I keep thinking about how different of a movie it originally was going to be. But also, still, HOW did they survive the shoot out from Devil’s Rejects just… miraculously??? And how come this new Firefly brother was never mentioned previously whatsoever??

R:OMG yes. I couldn’t. I got too wrapped up in plot holes to enjoy it!

LFR:I still enjoyed it for what it was but yeah, I was like WAIT WHAT??? every ten minutes.

R:what about not-horror?

LFR: Picnic At Hanging Rock.

We’ve come for the crites.

R: oh yeah. that’s the kind of movie you think hard about the rest of the day. what’s your theory on the ending?

man I just went to find a photo from it and they made a show? what the hell.

have you seen The Fields? It’s set where I grew up, it’s got…a vibe. Stuck with me.

LFR: Honestly? I can’t come up with a theory on what happened. It just really feels like they simply vanished.

I haven’t seen it. Tell me about it.

(The Fields)

R: There’s a menacing thing in the cornfields. A kid has shitty parents and is sent to stay with family. The farm is in the middle of all cornfields… there’s an abandoned little amusement park that lures him. It’s based on an actual place- a tiny amusement park that flooded and was shut down. it’s still there abandoned, right next to the town I grew up in!

cornfields are extremely creepy. it’s so easy to get lost in them.

The main characters- it’s got all the bad mountain people shit going on, abuse, drinking, violence, and then more because of the presence in the fields. pretty good stuff.

not a slow burn. a medium burn.

LFR:I’m definitely watching it

R: you’ll like it. big Jughead mood.

(and then I got tired and they I think did too, so that’s all for today)

I hope I get to do this again soon: I fuckin LOVE to talk horror.

Not your baby.

If you want to support LFR in some way, wear a mask, stay the fuck home, support BLM and trans rights, and get your government reps to continue unemployment payments for gig AND other workers. Seriously.

#halloween #horror #horror art #horror movies #interview with the artist #morbid art #movie reviews #weird #deep thoughts #journal #learning #love #macabre #posts with lists in them #reviews #true stories

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