Elizabeth Gaskell has the kind of brilliance that makes you forget how brilliant she is until you come back to her work after reading inferior authors. Her type of talent is understated skill that does everything so well that it looks easy.

She has prose that's descriptive without being flowery. Plots that take their time but also keep pulling you along. She writes about everyday life in a way that makes it enthralling without over-romanticizing it. She can take what would be stock characters in the hands of other writers and explore their upbringing and history so thoroughly that they become real, nuanced individuals. And she does it all so simply that you barely even notice how much talent it takes to write like that.

pov: you’re max jagerman after “bully the bully” in nerdy prudes must die 🔪

this was SO fun to make and it took me 7 HOURS WHAT anyway do yourself a favor and watch some starkid >:) they never fail to make my next favorite musical!!

no genuinely i think the fastest way to a Max Jägerman Redemption Arc(TM) is putting him in the drama club. literally it would help him get over his toxic masculinity AND let him be a dramatic bitch without being a bully about it. High School Musical his ass

Darkness will spare my soul

Here's all my Nerdy Prude Must Die paintings in one set! These teens live rent free in my head for all eternity. I think i have the show memorized at this point for how much I watched it while doing these.

Yes I redid Richie's painting Don't look at me . (and shout out to @to-our-own-fairytale for the banger quote suggestion)

Edit: By popular demand, I have added these as prints to my store! Find them here!

imagine max killing richie and ruth in hatchetfield high, ready to move onto pete and steph after establishing his power over the school even in death, only,,, richie and ruth are still there. they're ghosts too, bc they died in hatchetfield high, and hh is one of the black altars. so now max just has to deal with them being in the afterlife with him. he can't beat them up or anything since none of them are corporeal, so they're limited to unwanted coexsitence. his plan has backfired horribly and he is very angry about it, but there isn't really anything he can do.

then richie and ruth follow him around and do all they can to get him to stop trying to kill pete and steph, bc those are their best friends, and even if they're dead, they can still try to save the other two. Operation Mildly Inconvenience Max is a-go.

Stephanie Lauter is initially defined by her archetype as the popular girl in high school, but she must have been so lonely before Pete. Her mother is dead. Her father hates her and makes no attempt to hide it except to protect his reputation, constantly insulting, belittling and exerting authority over her when he isn’t busy with politics. She talks back to him, but doesn’t deny his descriptions of her. Miss Tessburger is the same. Her apparent friendships with the other cool kids, the kind of people who openly state the belief that looks are everything (not so different a paradigm to the one her father lives by), seem to be shallow and distant. Max rules the main popular clique with an iron fist to the point that they all stop bullying immediately and the school’s rigid social hierarchy crumbles once his influence is gone; and yet despite him having enough respect for her to try to protect her from what he believed were the undead during the prank, she was unaware of how big a problem his bullying was until she saw what he did to Pete, so she can’t have ever been that enmeshed in his circle. She dismisses her kindness to the losers as “the bare minimum” rather than lean into the potential for real friendships with them or leverage it to have power in this new group. It’s almost as if she doesn’t want to mislead them into thinking that she’s worth their time.

She’s cool because she acts like she doesn’t care about anything, and why would she? Life has never given her anything to care about. In fact, it’s punished her for caring. No matter what she does, her dad tells her that she’s worthless and stupid, so she stops trying to do well in school and starts sneaking out to parties full of alcohol and following through on flirting with the football players. She might as well make her body feel alive, as she can’t fix the fuck-up in her skull. Her phone is legitimately what she cherishes most in life. It can’t love her back or hug her or make the real world better, but at least it gives her an escape. It’s her space to control. Her pictures that she likes to look at, her music that drives her dad’s words out of her head. Her private conversations with people she chooses. At least it’s hers. (It isn’t. Her dad has been bugging it since she was twelve.)

Then Pete is nice to her, and in two weeks he becomes what she cherishes most.

Then she has to kill him. And shouldn’t she have seen this coming? Shouldn’t she have learned her lesson by now? Caring just means you have something to lose. That’s why she never wanted to love him like she does.

She pulls the trigger.

NPMD Tarot - The Lovers

Others from the project: The Devil, The Hierophant , The Star, Strength

A bit of symbolism under the cut, but I'm curious of other interpretations!!

Card that's all about forming own opinions and being authentic to self? Where the Reversed meaning is about hard choices and dealing with consequences? Even if they weren't the main couple of the musical it would've fitted them well!

There are twists in this one - major one is replacing the angel that blesses the couple with Max - still alive, threatening in all of his bully glory.

I kept the "everyone looks at someone who's looking at someone else" circle - Max is threatening Peter, Peter is in love with Steph and Steph is prepared to go after Max for what he did to Peter.

They have more nervous/covered up body language than the original card, since they aren't communicating that clearly. Steph is more open, even if nervous, Peter is on the fence, but willing.

Gun between them, pointing at Peter? You'll never guess what's that referencing :P

My headcanons for Ruth! I put her in a wheelchair cuz she deserves it <3

POV: you are about to be a victim in the "teenage prank gone wrong" genre of horror

TRICK OR TREAT

this is my perfect world. just a glimpse into my dark and twisted mind

It is with the UTMOST pride and joy that I announce to you, the project is finally finished!!! The past four months have been VERY worth the wait. I would like to thank everyone who helped make this a reality, as you are all some of the most talented people on Earth, and I would also like to thank Team Starkid for having the amazing characters who brought it together.

For the characters who did not have full names, we had their artists name them! Those characters are:

Smoke Club Girl (tgwdlm) - Suzy English Danny (tgwdlm) - Danny Reynolds Deb (tgwdlm) - Deb Hirsch Hatchetfield Bee (tgwdlm) - Eliza Florez Ziggy (nightmare time) - Ziggy Miller Gabe (abstinence camp) - Gabe Anderson Mary (abstinence camp) - Mary Shaw Noah (abstinence camp) - Noah Henry PJ (npmd) - Patricia Johnson Reese (npmd) - Reese Woods Brenda (npmd) - Brenda Briggs Stacy (npmd) - Stacy S. Murphy-Owen-Martin Brooke (npmd) - Brooke Chandler Caitlyn (npmd) - Caitlyn Hayes Angela's Drama Student (npmd) - Lily Myers Joey's Drama Student (npmd) - Ezra Richter Rudolph (npmd) - Rudolph Svensson Miss Mulberry (npmd) - Missy Mulberry

I'm linking the flip book AND the slideshow versions of this project because I feel like there's an image quality difference, and I want everyone's pieces showcased in the best possible quality. In the flip book, hover your mouse off of the pages, because when you have it on the page blurs a bit.

Flipbook

Slideshow

One more enormous thank you to those who brought this project to life: Writers: @dawningfairytale @theiloveyousong @that-was-anticlimactic @amethystunarmed @bellqmione @tnoy-keraxisraxis @icarus-o7 Artists: @mansion-of-haunts @witchstormm @booigi-boi @zstarcatsz @bird-likes-to-fandom @muppetmagic @l8dawnsovrmonroeville @nibblelinephym @notanerdyprude @peterstankoffski @ren-from-mars @astrolotte @blankensnappeas @angelwiththeblue-box @margo-mania @tipsy-agnostalgic @ratsarecute4 @rat-on-string @spigosaur @wispexists @ampers-and @ruthflemwad @feathertru @oniomn @daiwild @bajablastflavoredsaxreed @cardinaldust @thalassous @idk-tbh-idk @anispelix @lillazyboithings @cloddot @ophii @stephanie-lauter @janet-the-interplanet @alliumroze @kentucky-fried-goth-attire @nonbinarymichaelafton @spiny-dogfishes @gay-little-axolotl @vicariousscrolling @spyruce @thecrabbybarista

are you thinking about how ruths fantasising about life as a 40 year old mother because that mother wouldve lived a life. wouldve been a star at some point. but now shes dimmed and caved in.

and ruth feels like she already got to that part. shes only a teenager but she thinks shes there already. she reached her peak long ago, but she can fantasise about a life lived to the fullest before plateauing like she feels she already has. and considering what follows her song, shes right.

she peaked before she ever got a chance to live.

i used to dance.

...i used to dance.

Uh hi yeah I’ll get 50 more of these gross nerdy little freaks

DOOM PATROL (2021) ✘ DEAD BOY DETECTIVES (2024)

　↳ featuring: CHARLES AND EDWIN (& the night nurse)

a.k.a. he proteccc in every universe ♡

I’m here to report that Macbeth was truly one of - if not the best - plays I’ve ever seen. It was magically intense from start to finish and David Tennant was honestly on top form. Being so close to him and feeling his emotion as he acted is a state of euphoria I can’t even describe. This was the closeness for reference:

The next day, after we both experienced the play of a lifetime, me and my bestie @kottekonst took a trip to Camden Market where we visited some of the Doctor Who 60th filming locations - to stand in the spot Bernard Cribbins performed his last stand as Wilfred Mott was incredible.

And to top it all off - as I was getting off the train, I spotted Ruth Madeley who played Shirley in the 60th specials. Then we both watched the Tenth/Fourteenth Doctor in Macbeth, none other than DT. AND THEN my bestie spotted Peter Capaldi (?!) getting into a lift after the theatre. Coincidence? Magic? Who knows.