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angelic-writer · 2 years

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Ice (DEDA Files)

(Warnings: Rescue attempt, falling through ice, drowning, hypothermia, CPR, Major Character Death (?))

Thanks to @serickswrites for the whump plot. ;)

“Alison! Girl, be careful!” Dr. Diablerie called from across the icy expanse of the lake. “Go around. We’ll find a way to get to you. It’s not worth it.”

Alison shook her head violently. “N-No! I-I’m not waiting a-any l-l-longer! C-Cold. D-D-Doctor-” Another shiver wracked her thinly clothed body.

Seeing her like this - Barely clothed, her rubbing her arms to desperately keep warm - He didn’t know why, but his heart ached at the sight of her. The memory of the vampire that kidnapped her and stripped her almost naked to perform her blood ritual made the Doctor seethe with anger. She was lucky that he merely knocked her out and not driven a stake through her heart. He shouldn’t be doing this. The ice was much too dangerous for him to go across, but if he didn’t do something now, Alison will try to get across and run the risk of drowning. With a deep breath, he stepped forward, feeling the ice crackle under his shoes. He won’t let it happen again. He won’t let his bluebird fly away.

Alison noticed him walking towards her and tried to speak “Doctor, what are you doing?! The ice- Y-You said we should go around! A-Alright! I-I’ll go around, okay?! I’m sorry-” Her protests were cut off when Diablerie took off his cloak and wrapped it around her, enveloping her with warmth. All too quickly, he picked her up in his arms and started walking back the way he came.

“Sometimes, you are so difficult, girl. You’re lucky Diablerie is bound by the contract that is your life. It would be wise not to defy Diablerie or else the contract would be broken.” His movements were swift, gracefully sliding across like a figure skater. He danced his lithe body through snow piles on the ice. Alison snuggled her head in Diablerie’s chest. She was in a cold, dark place, tied to a stone monument a few minutes ago. Now, she was in safety. In warmth. They were almost there.

“You know, I’ve never gone ice skating before.” She said, taking a moment to look up at the sky. The inky blackness of the moonless sky made the stars all the brighter. “When I was with mum, she wouldn’t let me do anything outside of the house. I always have to be home at a certain time and she always told me not to show off.” She sighed. “She practically threatened to disown me if I stayed a nanosecond past 8 PM.”

Diablerie grimaced. “How strict of her to do that.”

“Strict doesn’t even cut it.” Her eyes glanced down to the ice. “Y’know, I thought of taking ice skating lessons, but I don’t really know anyone who ice skates. For some reason, you’re the first person that came to mind.”

“Foolish.” Diablerie interjected.

“From the looks of it, you’re doing so well. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were a secret figure skater.”

“Don’t try to indulge in Diablerie’s secrets, girl. It’s only going to hurt you.”

Alison closed her eyes, feeling the cold wind on her face. “After this is over, maybe you can teach me. Maybe with time, I’ll be as graceful as you.”

Diablerie bit his lip, then slowly nodded. “Yeah. We can do that. Now, come on. Let’s get off the ice. The land is solid and safe. We can talk more about this later-”

The words cut off in Diablerie’s throat as the ice shuddered beneath them. His mouth went dry as a loud crack sounded in his ears. For a brief moment, he caught a glimpse of Alison’s horrified face. Thinking quickly, he threw Alison towards the shore. He saw her body soaring through the air and only managed to glimpse her hitting the snowy ground before he was swallowed up by the dark, icy abyss.

Alison’s world was a disorienting mess of black and white. While she was in the air, she caught the sight of the ice cracking beneath Dr. Diablerie and the inky blackness swallowing him whole before she hit the ground. Her body wracked with the sudden impact, only softened somewhat by the snow. All too quickly, she scrambled to her feet, untangling herself from Diablerie’s cloak.

“DOCTOR!!” Alison screamed as she ran onto the ice.

But Diablerie couldn’t hear her. Couldn’t respond. The biting cold of the water had sucked the air from his lungs and rendered his body into a state of shock. He was confused, not knowing which way was up or down. He thrashed his limbs about, trying to find his way to the ice. He barely made any progress as he felt the water go down his throat. His body spasmed as he tried his damnedest to at least swim up so he could see the ice, but there was barely any light to guide him.

In the end, he didn’t have the energy to swim back up anymore. His vision was fading. He drifted further away from Alison as the darkness consumed him. A calm feeling washed over him. He didn’t want to leave this world so soon. He still had a job to do. He still needed to fulfill his mission.

But as long as Alison is safe, he didn’t care about any of that. He let a small smile form on his face.

Alison frantically cleared the thin layer of snow from the top of the ice surrounding the hole. She tried to spy any evidence of Diablerie, anything so that she could break through and grab him. But there was nothing. Not even the sight of his top hat or red scarf.

Alison screamed her frustration and anger into the cold night, slamming her fist down onto the ice. The ice cracked, but it didn’t break. She did it again and again, her frustration mounting, feeling the bones in her hands splintering with the force. Just when Diablerie had her, he was lost. Slipping right through her fingers in his efforts to protect her. Forever.

As the young woman beat the ice, she imagined the fear and pain Diablerie’s last moments were. She imagined her and the other agents having to return in the spring, after the thaw, to collect Diablerie’s waterlogged and bloated corpse. No! She had to get the Doctor now!

The ice cracked once more and gave way beneath Alison’s swollen and bloodied knuckles. She thrust her arm all the way up to her shoulder into the freezing water. Her fingers cast about, hoping to touch, hoping to feel Diablerie. Soft fabric met her searching fingers.

Alison cried in delight as she grabbed the fabric and pulled. She hauled a limp and blue Diablerie onto the ice. His eyes were closed and he didn’t sputter or cough. He remained still, unmoving, and completely boneless in Alison’s arms.

“Doctor...?” Quietly, with bated breath, Alison put her cold, ruined fingers to Diablerie’s even colder throat, searching for the lub dub of his heart. There was nothing. “Doctor! O-Oh god! No!!” Alison cried out, but she wasn’t giving up. They were so close. Diablerie saved her at the last second so she’ll do the same for him. She immediately laid the magician flat on the ice and, after giving him five breaths, started pumping on his chest. “Come on now... Not like this... Please, Doctor, please!”

Diablerie moved with each chest compression, but no choking breath came. No coughing out clear fluid from his lungs. Nothing. Diablerie remained ever so silent, his face peaceful from his watery grave.

“Please! Doctor, come ON!” Alison shouted into the snowy night as she pressed harder, not caring if a rib was broken, not caring that she was ruining her broken fingers more, only stopping to breathe into his lungs. His lips were so cold against hers, but the only thing that was on her mind was getting Diablerie to breathe.

And still, Dr. Diablerie remained silent. Soon enough, she could hear voices from somewhere.

“Alison!” Adam shouted as he, Victor and the rest of the agents ran across the snow-covered ground to her. They could see her leaning over something. Someone.

Diablerie.

Alison didn’t respond to Adam’s call. She was too focused on the compressions. How long had it been? It didn’t matter. She would keep going until Diablerie came back. She was getting her Doctor back.

Diablerie moved each time Alison pressed on his chest, head lolling with each movement. He was pale, lips blue and completely still beneath her.

“Oh god!” Black’s voice came from behind her. Alison didn’t turn around. Didn’t respond. She heard him dialing someone. Probably the paramedics. Good. That should give Diablerie some time before they arrive.

She heard boots behind her crunching in the snow. A warm hand gripped her shoulder. “How long?” Victor murmured quietly.

“It doesn’t matter. He’s coming back.” Alison panted, never stopping compressions.

Victor gripped Alison’s shoulder a little harder. “How long?”

“I-I don’t know. A-A few minutes, maybe?” She didn’t want to think the worst. She refused to believe that he’s gone.

Victor glanced at Diablerie’s still body. Judging by how he looked, he’d been under for quite a while. He didn’t know how long Alison was trying to revive him for. For all he knew, she could be trying to revive a corpse. His eyes caught sight of Alison’s hands which were bloody and bruised. “Oh Christ...” He muttered. He motioned Alison to step back. Once she reluctantly did so, he grabbed Diablerie by the arm and pulled him up. “Help me get him on the ground!” He shouted to Adam. The red head nodded and grabbed his other arm. They both dragged him off the ice and onto solid ground where they proceeded to lay him down. He felt so stiff under their touch. Victor began to fear the worst. That he was under for too long.

Too long. Too long. Diablerie was gone. Had been gone for too long. And now that Alison had him in her arms, she couldn’t keep him here. He shook his head.

No. He fell into an icy river. His body had already gone into hypothermia. He’d heard stories of people coming back to life when their body temperature went down to a certain level. He still has a chance. He can still be saved.

Alison moved toward the still man, but Victor barked at her “We got this!” before he started compressions.

Now that the adrenaline had mostly faded, it began to register in her mind how much her hands hurt. She hung her head with a cry, falling to her knees and gritting her teeth. She stared down at Diablerie, at her friends trying to bring him back, knowing that she had failed him so terribly.

Black had to turn away as he continued to talk to the operator. He couldn’t watch his coworkers work to bring back what was essentially a dead body.

Rawlins crouched down next to Alison, putting his hand on her shoulder. They would grieve later. Right now, they had to be there for Alison. Later, they would mourn their fallen comrade that had worked so tirelessly to find her. To save her. He came so far and him tossing her to shore was his last act of heroism.

“I-I should’ve listened to him!” Alison howled. “He was right there. I was right there in his arms. He risked his life to save me... And I wasn’t fast enough...”

Rawlins rubbed small circles onto her back, eyes never leaving his coworker’s medic brain efforts. “You did everything you could. Sometimes-”

“I didn’t! I didn’t! I couldn’t wait to find a way across the ice. Because of that, Dr. Diablerie had to come over and try to carry me across and-” She sobbed harder the more she spoke. She pressed her broken hands on her chest, feeling her heart hammering in her ribcage.

Rawlins glanced at his friends, two of them living, warm and breathing, the other cold, still, breathless... dead. His heart sunk as he realized that Alison couldn’t have waited. She had to get away from the vampire. Diablerie went out of his way to take her to safety despite the risk of the ice breaking. Despite his villainous persona, his actions that night displayed the complete opposite. “He saved you, you know. Diablerie’s not the villain he said he was.” He took a deep breath. “He’s a hero.”

Alison sobbed harder. Black passed the phone to Rawlins before he pulled her into his arms as she continued to sob into the dark and snowy night, feeling the void that Diablerie left in her life. She was consumed by grief and the realization that she had failed. All of the agents failed him. It didn’t matter how long Victor kept pumping his chest for. It didn’t matter how many breaths Adam breathed into him.

Diablerie was gone. And he was never coming back.

To be continued...?

#differently morphous #existentially challenged #the deda files #alison arkin #dr. diablerie #victor casin #adam hesketh #agent rawlins #agent black

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ryttu3k · 8 months

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tell me your feelings about all the Salubri they are my fav VTM clan next to Toreador but only the pacifist healer weenie ones

Ooh, I have some thoughts on them here! tl;dr they're fascinating, largely in part due to Saulot himself being an absolute conundrum, but also just. The general vibe, man.

How outside to the rest of Cainite society they are as a clan, how their relatively recent history has shaped them. Culturally-acceptable and culturally-respectable diablerie, it's such a difference to how other clans see it, aside from the Banu Haqim (and the Banu Haqim and Salubri have their own closely intertwined history!). Also, that's also a big thing - the Banu Haqim are my second-favourite clan, Tzimisce my first, and the Salubri have a unique and really cool relationship with them both.

Also, my all-time favourite canon-divergent official AU (from DAV20) is based around them. How goddamn cool is that?

#vampire the masquerade #salubri

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orionali · 1 year

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"Tell me, Dr. Reid, do you believe in a soul's permanence?"

"No, I don't." "

A pity. Perhaps you ought to start."

*An alternative cover to my Vampyr fic, Godsblood. Explanation on this piece’s symbolism under the cut.*

It is a fusion of all four entities that are present within Edgar's body during the events of Godsblood: Edgar himself ("demoted"), the Morrigan via the Blood of Hate, and Jonathan's and Geoffrey's "souls." I wanted to showcase the struggle all three have to go through while trying to steer/direct Edgar's physical body — all while contending with an actual goddess who can press Ctrl + Alt + Delete/ End Process on them all at any moment.

Jonathan doesn’t believe in the concept of a soul, so this whole ordeal gives him an existential crisis, as you might expect.

PS: Yes, I'm blatantly and shamelessly using VtM's lore on Diablerie here i.e. the soul of a vampire killed via blood drain (VtM: Kiss, Vampyr: Embrace) persists within their killer and can, with time, take over their body.

#aliya's art #vampyr #traditional art #copicart #there is more symbolism to that than I wrote #but I know it's intimidating to look at w/o context #so I'll try to convey the rest of it via my writing (hopefully)#also the skull banner is my version of the Brotherhood's insignia

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robotslenderman · 1 year

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So what exactly are the full benefits of Diablerie? I’m a bit new to this and my only experience with this is Night Road where I figured out the twist. Is it just an increase in the generation and blood pool or do you automatically gain access to skills/disciplines the victim knew? I’m also curious on the whole “take-over” part too since it’s a little unclear. Can they always do that or do they need to be significantly older than the drinker?

Okay so basically I'll start from the tabletop mechanics and extrapolate that into lore.

Basically when you diablerise someone in V5, you have to roll in competition to them. How many rolls you get dictates how many experience points you have to spend, and you can spend those experience points in either increasing your blood potency (eg how powerful your blood is, up to a maximum of the victim's blood potency), or in Disciplines known by the victim. If your victim's generation is lower than yours then you automatically lower your generation by 1.

From a tabletop perspective, you choose which Disciplines you wind up with. From a lore perspective, this means that the diablerist gets some of the Disciplines of their victim, though not all, and the amount of power they'd get would vary.

Back to the tabletop -- the mechanic works so basically if you fail the roll you make above (the one that dictates how much XP you get), you lose a point of humanity "for each success by which you failed." (Er. Not 100% what that means.) If you lose enough points you go to 0, instead of becoming a Wight, that's when your victim possesses you.

How this ties into the age of the victim VS the age of the diablerist is dice pool. Older victims would have more skill points, and therefore more dice, and vice versa. So if you're Monty Python COVEN, WHY DID I SAY PYTHON rolling against Mithras, you might have 3 dice to Mithras's 8. Monty rolls and gets 1 success and 2 failures, Mithras wins with 5 successes.

I'm not 100% on "for each success by which you failed" -- if it's just a fancy way of saying for each failure, then Monty in this situation would lose 3 humanity points (default 1 humanity for the diablerie in the first place, plus two more points). If it means that you take the difference between Mithras's successful rolls and Monty's (which I think it might be), then that's a loss of 5 humanity points -- 1 default, 4 because that's how much Mithras won by. So if Monty was at 5 humanity or less when he committed the diablerie, now he'd be possessed by Mithras. I think this one makes more sense as it takes the relative ages of the vampires into account while still having it make sense within tabletop rules.

Now if RNGesus failed Mithras and boosted Monty -- let's say Mithras got 1 success and Monty got all 3 successes, two of which were 10s, which would actually give Monty 5 successes -- then Monty has 25 XP to spend on Mithras's Disciplines or blood potency.

TL;DR -- By tabletop rules getting certain Disciplines isn't automatic, it's about getting a ton of XP based on how well you rolled/how bad the victim rolled; by lore we can extrapolate that to mean that the Diablerist gets SOME, but not all powers, based on how weak the older vampire was/the difference in power/how lucky the diablerist was at the time.

#VTM #no idea if any of that made sense lol

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debdarkpetal · 5 years

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Bri

(Via Brian May on Instagram).

#brian may #queen #freddie mercury #roger taylor #john deacon #queen band #brian harold may #dr brian may #diableries #book #costume #halloween #instagram post

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dopesotherstuff · 2 years

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VTMB Headcanons Part 1

1. Caine is significantly less of an asshole than he was 10k years ago. Also vampire legend does get a significant number of things wrong. Thus the world isn’t about to end so much as go through a drastic shift.

2. Regent Strauss’s Humanity is actually higher than Prince Lacroix’s. Evidence: his behavior, his ability to laugh, his ability to deal with apprentices, their still-human morals and typical apprentice shenanigans...and his ability to (temporarily, as VV apparently falls in love with new people every day or so) maintain a relationship/flirtation with a high Humanity Kindred without scaring her off. Generally Tremere tend to have sort of middling Humanity--too high and it impedes some of what they must do as Tremere, too low and it impedes not only focus and performance but relations with both clanmates and outsiders. Maintaining that “happy medium” is a practical, not moral choice. Maximillian appears to be a touch higher than average...but that still indicates that Lacroix is actually on the low end of the moral scale.

3. Evidence for Lacroix actually having dangerously low humanity that he is masking only semi-successfully, and which is a significant reason for his being an insufferable bastard: Yes he is passionate, but only with negative and self-centered emotions (rage, greed, etc). He thinks nothing of murdering or having people murdered for almost no reason (like killing off Mercurio for being beaten up if you tell on him, trying to kill off the Fledgling basically for being inconvenient, or murdering Dr. Grout on the mere suspicion that Grout was on to him, and as a convenient thing to frame Nines with). He is isolated, not only from humans but from other Kindred, except for the Sheriff/his bodyguard, when the game makes a point of showing how interacting with humanity is one of the ways vampires keep in touch with their own. His self-control is failing, sending him into fits of anger at small setbacks. He cares about exactly nobody, including openly dismissing the very real concerns of his Primogen. And most of all: diablerie is not only on the table for him ethically, but is a coveted end goal of his in the story. These are not small lapses. Fucking cannibalism is about as low as you can go morally. These are the signs of a downward spiral.

4. The reason why Lacroix has fallen so far in Humanity over the last century is standing behind his throne. The Sheriff is a Nagloper. Naglopers, besides being kin to the Tzimisce, are on their own very, very, very, very, very very FUCKING evil.

Relevant quotation from the wiki:

“They allow the Beast to dominate them, leading them into causing any debauchery one can imagine, and some were only thought possible in nightmares.“

Even other Laibon avoid them, as anyone who enters a Nagloper’s territory will basically be made into a toy.

This guy has been the only close companion that Lacroix has had for an entire century. Ghouls and even his childer appear to basically be cannon fodder to him. The Sheriff, however, is always there, and has his ear when he doesn’t even speak to anyone else. Whether Lacroix has him blood bound or not, the Nagloper is going to believe that tempting Lacroix closer and closer to falling to the Beast is doing him a favor.

So he does it. Subtly. Suggestions of viciousness. Insinuations to sow distrust of everyone but him. Helpfully hiding the bodies that pile up more and more during “normal” feeding. Slowly driving a once-promising Ventrue first to petty, cruel and murderous ambition and then, to the final frenzy.

And nobody, especially not Lacroix, realizes that he’s doing it.

#vtmb #vampire the masquerade bloodlines #lacroix #prince lacroix #the sheriff #caine #maximillian strauss #now there's a basis for a rp arc if ever I saw one #headcanons

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coltcougar · 4 years

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Inktober 28: Float. Diabolical Dr Doom demonstrates dastardly diablerie!!!

#colt cougar #inktober2020 #inktober #dr doom #mister fantastic #illustration #comics #alliteration #monochromatic #black and white art #crosshatching

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guruji-dr-arun-raghavendar-astro · 2 years

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Here's Wishing that the YUGADHI Telugu New Year will bring joy, love, peace and happiness to you. Wishing you a Happy New Year, from Guruji Dr. Arun Raghavendar. GURUJI is Famous Prasanna SPIRITUAL and OCCULT Astrologer in Chennai who provides the Best Solutions to his Clients. Guruji's vast knowledge in Black Magic Remedies, Vasigaran, Vasiyam, Eval, Seivinai, Thirusti, Pilli Soonyam (Pilli cuniyam), Voodoo, Necromancy, Wizardry, Diablerie, and Pishogue has made him the Most Preferred Astrologer in Tamilnadu. Clients can Consult Guruji Dr. Arun Raghavendar from anywhere across India and Abroad as Online Consultation with Guruji is available. No matter the type of problem, Guruji will definitely solve them for you. For Appointment with Guruji Dr. Arun Raghavendar, visit our website www.DrArunRaghavendar.com Cell:8939466099 * 2022-Apr-02_Panchangam-and-Planetary-position_Famous-Business-Consultation-Astrologer-in-Chennai-Guruji_Dr_Arun_Raghavendar (at Sri Raghavendra Swamy Temple) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb1m1eBpWAL/?utm_medium=tumblr

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rainy-days-and-cabbage · 7 years

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Some headcanons for Mevolent and his Three Generals

Mevolent: “Nefarian is my property understood?”, Wants to rule the world but also wants to bring back his gods, Is 100% done with Vile but he’s too useful to get rid of yet, Gets violent when angry, normally with the person nearest, Who is normally Nefarian, Actually quite likes Nye? Often bangs his head on door frames and low ceilings, Nobody eats meat when dining with him, not since Vile accidentally reanimated some of it and it healed into someone Dr Nye had been dissecting last week, can move really quietly for someone who is 8ft tall, really likes finding new ways to stop a person breathing like drowning, choking, removing the air from their lungs, etc. ,

Nefarian: Runs off tea and hasn’t slept in five days, is tired and done with this world, Can’t wait for his dark Gods to destroy it all, has a huge crush on Baron but will deny it to the ends of the earth, but also unironically flirts with Baron, honestly believes Mevolent gives shit about him, “Are you trying to kill me, Vile? Daww, that so sweet. Good luck with beating a man so pissed at me he gave death the middle finger and my suicidal depression in the race to kill me, tin can!”, cut off Dr Nye’s nose, actually does hate violence and senseless killing but loves the power torture gives him over another,

Baron: Cares a lot about those he works with but tries not to show it, China’s leaving really hurt him as a result, Views the Diablerie almost like younger siblings, Probably took Billy-Ray in after his Father’s arrest, Actually quite likes Dusk, Is the unofficial ‘Guy-who-adopts-lots-of-kids’ dude, Is concerned about Nefarian constantly, Wants to stand up to Mevolent but is rather scared of him and also that dude is the best shot at bringing his gods back sooo..., Has a minor crush on Scorn, Hates Vile but can’t hate him too much as he stands up to Mevolent, is a little too trusting of people.

Vile: Is constantly on edge around Nefarian, 50% wants to kill him, 10% is still scared of him and 40% wants to annoy the fuck out of him and make his life a living hell, Stands up to Mevolent because if anyone is going to harm this family murdering sadistic piece of shit it’s going to be Vile and Vile alone, Wants to kill the Faceless Ones hence why he’s helping bring them back, says rough five words over the course of a month, Pulls petty pranks on everyone, especially on Baron, Deliberately disrupts everyone’s plans, gives not a singular flying fuck, Not fond of necromancers, Learned how to fly after Nefarian declared it impossible for necromancers to do, Actually really likes the thrill of flying about,

#blood #cannibalism #violence #murder #headcanons #nefarian serpine #baron vengeous #lord vile #mevolent #swearing #abuse

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angelic-writer · 5 years

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Producer: I don’t know, guys. I just feel like this guy’s an odd match for the role. I mean, you’ve seen the movies. He’s always been a serious and calculating person. There’s no way he would do something like this-

Trilby (As Dr. Diablerie): Peanut Butter can be used to neutralize biological weapons!

Producer: ........Okay, never mind. This guy’s perfect.

#actors au #chzo mythos #differently morphous #trilby #dr. diablerie

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the-diablerie-archivist · 4 years

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Sources for reading:

The Wikipedia is a good place to get started and get a quick TL;DR of Les Diableries

Paula Flemming, Brian May, Denis Pellarin, (2013/2019) Diableries - Stereoscopic adventures in hell (2013 Original Version, 2019 Complete Edition)

ISBN: 0957424604 (2013 Edition)

ISBN: 9781999667436 (2019 Complete Edition)

I’d consider these the comprehensive source for everything Diableries Related, It contains High Quality scans of every Diablerie and the backstory behind them, I’m gonna be archiving those here though, for the general public to see without paying. However if you wish to contribute to these amazing authors I recommend you buy the book, however it is a tad pricey.

Les Diableries: 3D visions of hell is the inferior (albeit cheaper) book on diableries, fanatics can give it a read if they so please but the casual observer would definitely be better off just reading the Brian May book!

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creativinn · 6 years

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The Science and Pleasures of How We See

In looking through 3D vision, we are able to turn flat surfaces into the way we daily see the world, and there is a kind a miracle, so it appears, in that very act.

Marcel Duchamp, “Rotoreliefs” (1935/1965), mixed media, diameters: 9 3/4 in., Los Angeles County Museum of Art (gift of the Grinstein Family, © Estate of Marcel Duchamp/Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York/ADAGP, Paris, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA)

LOS ANGELES — The amazing discovery of our binocular vision, that our brains synthesize the information received by our two eyes into a single image of volume, is celebrated in the wonderful and educational new show 3D: Double Vision at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), curated by Britt Salvesen, the museum’s Curator and Department Head of the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department and Prints and Drawings Department.

This interactive show, providing the viewers everything from the standard red and blue 3D glasses, polarized glasses, stereoscopes, View-Masters, and Autostereoscopic images, features not only dozens of early stereoscopic pictures, movies, and holograms, but visual artworks that require simple movement to perceive them, or often demand that we engage with them, through movement, to comprehend their dimensions.

It’s almost overwhelming to attempt to describe the over 60 artworks covering a period of 175 years that make up this show. And everyone will find his or her personal favorites. Mine included Marcel Duchamp’s “Rotoreliefs” from 1935/1965, with their spinning, vertiginous-inducing visions (similar to what Alfred Hitchcock would later use in his film, Vertigo), Simone Forti’s “Striding Crawling,” a Multiplex Hologram image from 1975–78, with its curling and twirling figure, Pierre Adolph Hennetier’s “Les Diableries: Enfer” from 1860, and the dancing wallpaper of Peggy Weil, “3D Wallpaper” from 1976/2018.

Pierre Adolphe Hennetier, Adolphe Block (publisher), Les Diableries: Enfer(Hell) (published 1860, collection of Dr. Brian May, photo courtesy collection Dr. Brian May, digitized by Denis Pellerin)

And, of course, I loved several of the wonderful film clips on view, particularly Jean-Luc Godard’s revolutionary Goodbye to Language, wherein he not only demonstrates 3D images, but breaks them down so that we actually experience the mind unmixing the images when he depicts a character perceived only by one eye, instead of both, challenging us to make sense of the slightly uncomfortable and sudden bifurcation.

Flight of the Butterflies, Mike Slee’s 2012 documentary, reveals monarchs flying en masse to their Mexican home, often flying entirely off the screen as they appear to alight on our shoulders. And, of course, there are many wonderful Hollywood favorites such as scenes from Coraline to Hugo. The half-hour of viewing is well worth it.

Thomas Ruff, “3D-ma.r.s.08” (2013), chromogenic print, 100 x 72 3/8 x 2 3/4 in. (© 2017 Thomas Ruff/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Germany, photo courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London)

The group I was with was delighted to find their childhood View-Master© toys. And all of us were stunned by the View-Master© stereo picture of the Apollo moon landing on July 20, 1969. The more time spent here, the more technological wonders you will discover. This is a show to which one must return to again and again; and since it runs to the end of March 2019, I surely intend to do precisely that.

Ultimately, one has to ask, why do two side-by-side flat images or simply images that appear to be flat so please us when they spring into spatial dimension, when colors or special glasses force us to recognize them with both of our eyes? And is the sudden recognition an illusion or a reality that we cannot perceive in our everyday lives? It is almost as if we become amazed by our cerebral powers, our natural desire to bring the seemingly flat into proper perspective. Our joy seems to be that, in looking through 3D vision, we are able to turn flat surfaces into the way we daily see the world, and there is a kind a miracle, so it appears, in that very act.

Perhaps as curator Britt Salvesen hinted in her introductory comments to the reviewers, there is also something not only natural in that act, but almost political. In order to make sense of reality we must use both our eyes, to see things from more than one perspective, to comprehend life through more than one vision.

Combining technology with serious art, pleasurable entertainment with scientific exploration, the “double vision” of this show’s title draws us into a space that is almost difficult to extract oneself from. The various glasses that now sit upon my desk have no value in real life, yet I cannot imagine throwing them away, as if I want to enter that magical world — which strangely we experience every day in our lives — once more. In a sense, it is as if in viewing 3D images, we come closer to the way we naturally see the world — or, at least, should naturally see it.

Ken Jacobs, “The Surging Sea of Humanity” (2006), single channel video, dimensions variable, duration: 10:40 (courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York, © Ken Jacobs)

3D: Double Vision continues at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles) through March 31, 2019.

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