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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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Question- What racism is there in SDMI? And how does SDMI only exist because of HP Lovecraft? That just doesn't make sense.

Good Day.

I did, admittedly, spend quite a lot of time last night thinking about your questions and figuring out the best way to address them. The best way I found was from the beginning, which is a perfectly good way to start according to Julie Andrews, so let’s just jump on it.

Screencaps from SDMI are either taken myself from archive.org’s postings of the episodes, or from mysteryincoutofcontext. Other pictures/screenshots were sourced from Google.

And this is going under a Read More because it’s a long read.

Real quickly, however, I’ll amend something that I learned while gathering my sources. I incorrectly called Abigail Gluk and Pericles’s robot creations Kriegstapobots, coming from mixing the German word krieg (war) and the term Gestapo, who were the former secret police of Nazi Germany. The term they use, however, is Kriegstaffelbot, combining krieg as well as staffel, meaning squadron.

Okay, so into the meat and potatoes of your questions. Let us start with my statements of racism. I may, ultimately, be missing some instances, as these were just the ones that came to my head initially. What I also realized while researching for this reply is that I may also simply be misinformed. I am white. How I see things as being racist may or may not be correct, and the final judgement should be made by people of the cultures that these are directed at. My best work is simply to point out where things can be improved.

The racism in SDMI comes in the form of jokes. There is nothing outwardly malicious stated or displayed that I can remember. Frankly, I am not going to sit back down and rewatch every episode just to catalog things for the sake of this reply to make sure of that. I hesitate to use the term microaggression out of fear of incorrect usage, but I do honestly feel that is what a lot of these boil down to.

Honorable mention to Angel Dynamite (Vivica A. Fox) who I cannot in good faith say is an example of racism but knowing the social conditions that created her character is honestly well worth looking into. Angel Dynamite is heavily rooted in the Blaxploitation genre, popular in the late 60s through the 1970s, with some notable inclusions going up until as recent as 2021. The genre is deeply rooted in the Black Power movement, with characters that are often fighting “The Man”, a nebulous and white power that is attempting to keep them subdued. There are a lot of stereotypes and high romanticization of the Black experience in this genre of film, as well as a lot of generalizations made. I feel like knowing the history behind her character archetype is worth more than boiling her down to “racist trope or not”. What I did find interesting is that Black Dynamite, the film and adult animated series that parodies Blaxpoiltation, was also distributed by Warner Brothers around this era. Her name may be a nod to it, but I could find nothing concrete on this.

Angel is, however, subject to at least one possible microaggression that I can remember. In Season 1, Episode 14, “Mystery Solvers Club State Finals”, Principal Quinlan makes a statement about how Angel is “robust” for a woman. Women of color have a history of their femininity being downplayed or weaponized, and this phrase coming from a white woman just, to me, seems a little off.

For good measure, a screencap:

Who I can more definitively point out as being a caricature is Lady Marmalade (Cree Summers) from Season 1, Episode 23, “A Haunting in Crystal Cove.” Played for comedy, she is a heavy parody of the Creole South, with her design likely taking inspiration from actual Voodoo practitioner, herbalist, and spiritualist Marie Laveau, shown below:

Lady Marmalade’s name comes from a song by the same name about a man who visits a New Orleans prostitute, made famous in 1975 by Patti Labelle. This is, ultimately, not what I find out-of-pocket. It’s the characterization. She's a borderline Mammy in her delivery, and the character’s “comical” portrayals of Voodoo – a very real and cultural practice primarily performed by members of the Diaspora – are not flattering.

SDMI is not terrible with its portrayals of Asian characters, which genuinely surprised me. Like many things in SDMI, you can see where the creators chose to wear their inspirations on their sleeves. From Showa Era film to more modern martial arts films, they take heavy inspiration and do so in a mostly respectful way.

Chen’s Coffee is the thing that keeps me from giving it a full pass. Of all the designs for a Chinese-owned coffee shop, they went with this:

Call this one a stretch if you will, but I really feel like they could have done better on this design. Crystal Cove is a tourist-trap town, and gimmicks are certainly a thing, but this really just seems to be too much. Even the Chinatown sign seems overly done in a “Get it? He’s Chinese!” way.

Bonus points for Mayor Jones calling a traditional Peking opera costume a “Geisha” in Season 1, Episode 18, “The Dragon’s Secret”. It’s a completely different culture, though Mayor Jones does have a pattern of using inappropriate one-offs as jokes. The full line, since I wasn’t able to get a screenshot with subtitles of the full scene: “Why do we have a geisha tied up in here? You know they belong downtown in Crystal Cove’s Geisha House of Terror.” Partial screencap with subtitles:

The last instance of racism that I can think of immediately is from Season 2, Episode 11, “Dance of the Undead”. In order to infiltrate a Hex Girls concert on the yacht of a Sheik, Shaggy and Scooby go under-cover. They’re harem girl outfits.

This is very much a joke context: Shaggy is explaining how, because this is a Sheik, it’s obvious that they dress up like this to get in. When they get in, everyone is dressed normally, and they stand out. It’s a decision they made informed by racism and Orientalism, and it backfires to them. In a show of good faith, I like to think that this is critiquing past cultural disguises of the duo that have not aged well. This one from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? (1970), Season 2, Episode 2, “Mystery Mask Mix-up” where they made this… choice. It reeks of Micky Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

We have come a long way since 1970, obviously. The fact that the joke is how wrong and out-of-touch the two are to think the disguise would work shows that. However, acknowledging something does not excuse it. There were many ways they could have disguised themselves to get onto that boat. The fact they went for the racist one is the ultimate problem.

xXx

Before we get into the second aspect of your question, I need to be pedantic and point out a difference in our wording. In my tags, I said: “Not to mention that the entire universe it [SDMI] exists in exists because of HP Lovecraft.” Your question is: “And how does SDMI only exist because of HP Lovecraft?“ Why am I bringing this up?

Because wording matters here. Part of SDMI’s charm is that it takes from multiple different sources to create its universe. It is a love letter to horror as a whole. From Hellraiser to The Hills Have Eyes to Twilight Zone to Alien, SDMI pulls from these iconic pieces and puts them together into something that people can enjoy even without knowing the origins. To me, that’s fantastic! It’s part of why I love it. So much referential content relies on the audience having a background with what it is referencing. SDMI does not do that.

However, the difference between our two statements is that I am stating that SDMI is a genre piece, whereas your question is attributing everything to a singular person’s work. That simply is not what I was saying and, to me, seems like an argument in bad faith. My wording could have been clearer; I was attempting for brevity due to tags, and did not think that anyone would be going through my tags, as this is a small and pretty inactive rp blog. Whether the misquoting was intentional or not, it does point to a breakdown in communication.

With all that said, let us address how SDMI is an entry into the genre of Lovecraftian/cosmic horror, and what that means regarding the genre’s namesake.

xXx

H.P. Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 - March 15, 1937) was an American writer. I do not need to tell you at this point that he was a man with some very flawed ideologies (don’t google his cat’s name). He is best known for the Cthulhu mythos, and delved into ideas that were not common in horror at the time, which created an entirely new subgenre. Victorian and Naturalist horror at that time was very much grounded in the person: The Picture of Dorian Grey, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Hounds of Baskerville, Dracula. If we want to go into the themes that create the horror in these pieces, that is a whole different ball of wax, but do feel free to ask if you’re interested.

Lovecraft’s interests regarding horror were based on the unknown. The ever present “what if”. The uncertainties that manifested into things that were utterly terrible and terrifying. Yes, a lot of this was rooted in his xenophobic beliefs and sheltered lifestyle. One can argue that he got better as he grew older: his wife, Sonia Greene, was Jewish, and did help to alter his antisemitic beliefs. There are a lot of people who argue that Lovecraft’s beliefs were simply in line with the era he grew up in. If you ask me, I doubt it. Severely. As a society, we have a way of using hyperbole to try to show how much better things are currently than they used to be. While ideologies come and go, the idea that everyone before the Civil Rights movement were a monolith of Extreme White Racists just does more harm than good and dehumanizes our ancestors.

Anywho, once the subgenre picked up and more persons began to add to it, the name became less synonimous with Lovecraft himself and took on the name “cosmic horror”. I actually really like this title more, as it doesn’t restrict the subgenre to a singular person.

So, what does this have to do with SDMI? Let us look at the hallmarks of cosmic/Lovecraftian horror.

Per Wikipedia (yeah yeah, faliable source), Lovecraftian/cosmic horror “...emphasizes themes of cosmic dread, forbidden and dangerous knowledge, madness, non-human influences on humanity, religion and superstition, fate and inevitability, and the risks associated with scientific discoveries...”. Cosmic dread here means “the result of hyperawareness of our own minuscule nature within our universe” (Puzzlebox Horror).

Frankly, I cannot better summarize the core themes of SDMI’s ongoing plot better than that list, save to add “the power of friendship” onto the end.

In the realm of aesthetics, the color green also tends to get attributed to cosmic horror thanks to Lovecraft’s use of it specifically with Cthulhu. One of SDMI’s more striking visuals, to me, is the near- consistant use of a green wash or green backlight up until the final episode after Pericles is defeated and everything goes to “normal”, and then returns after the gang set off to Miskatonic University.

Which... we get to talk about Miskatonic University.

Remember how earlier I mentioned that SDMI does not require the watcher to know everything it references to understand the show, but certainly adds to the piece if you do? This is one of those moments where knowing what Miskatonic University is gives a whole new context to the work.

Prior to the team going, they speak with Harlan Ellison, who was not just a character in the show but an actual author of cosmic horror and is known best for his short story “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” (1967). He even voiced himself in the show. Harlan Ellison’s voicework in SDMI was one of the last things he did in film and tv before his death in 2014. Ellison puts a bookend explaination on the idea that multiple dimensions exist, multiple timelines, etc., which the show had been exploring in a Baby’s First Theoretical Physics sort of way. This itself has a place in cosmic horror, fitting in that “risks associated with scientific discoveries”, as they have changed everything they know thanks to destroying the Evil Entity that had been manipulating Crystal Cove, and it does fill them with a sense of cosmic dread.

Ellison afterwards states he has enrolled the four of them into Miskatonic University, the gang repaint the van, and tavel off to Arkham, MA.

Yes. That Arkham. The Batman one. This is where it came from.

Miskatonic University is a fictional institution created by H.P. Lovecraft, and a lot of his stories, as well as subsequent author’s creations, use it as a setting. It’s an Ivy League school, on par with Harvard and very popular with the Old Money of the area, as well as those interested in occult sciences.

From the Wikipedia:

Because of the name-dropping of Miskatonic University, the universe of SDMI outside of Crystal Cove is incredibly expandid upon. I honestly recommend just taking a look at the Wikipedia article just to see how many different pieces of media interset at Miskatonic University, and from there see what they are about, and what they delve into, because it is fascinating how that informs the universe that this show now exists in.

And that universe, whether we like it or not, started with H.P. Lovecraft.

xXx

It’s 2:46pm right now, meaning I have been working on this for almost four hours. I hope that this reply has answered your questions and informed you of the meaning behind my statements.

I invite you into my inbox should you have further questions, but do ask that you do so with respect and curiosity.

I hope this finds you well, and you have a wonderful day.

- xjinkiesx

#.ooc

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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To the anon that asked about my tags:

I saw your ask, and I will respond tomorrow. It's late, and I just saw it before going to sleep.

#.ooc

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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sdmi is one of my favorite versions of scooby and i love it dearly (partially because it was my first scooby show ever) but if youre acting like its the perfect scooby adaption youre just incorrect. it has SOOOO many problems and i only trust my dootuals and myself with it

#.ooc #((No media is above critique. Development does not excuse behavior and actions.))#((2011-2013 was only 10 years ago but we as a society still have moved a long way from SSMI's era and politics))#((There's a lot in SSMI that's a time capsule. The hyperbolic concept of the SJW. The still very casual homophobia.))#((The internalized homophobia. The racism. Not to mention that the entire universe it exists in exists thanks to HP Lovecraft))#((Lovecraft's works entering public domain are honestly the best thing to happen to them imo))#((There have been a lot of attempts to separate the art from the artist regarding Lovecraft's works but still))#((We cannot forget that the universe of SDMI is one created by a xenophobic racist antisemite. Product of his time my ass.))#((Not to mention Abigail Gluk and Prof. Pericles being in Germany in 1939... and then joint-creating the Kriegstapo bots.))#((Like... there is a LOT to unpack in SDMI. It's not perfect. But I certainly still love it as well or else I wouldn't have made this blog.)

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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I was going to try to be more active here, but... with all the talk of the new series, the infighting coming with it, and just the general negativity? I think I’m going to just keep things here quiet.

#.ooc #((I'm pretty firm in my stance tbh. I have my opinions. But I'm also going to avoid speaking further on this))#((This is officially a Velma (2023) free blog.))

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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my very straight boyfriend is trying to tell me Velma is not a lesbian and is bi bc she dates shaggy

as if comp het wasn’t a thing and as if hayley kiyoko didn’t play her

#((the comphet was so real))#((and I'm glad the repression was shown as being a bad thing for all parties))#((could it have been done better? sure.))#((Hindsight is 2020 and the show is 10 years old now. A lot changes in 10 years))#((As such there was a lot that couldn't have been done in what was still being marketed as a kid's show))#((But I do think it was handled mostly well and especially so once shown against Velma and Marcie's relationship))#((but other than SDMI yeah I don't remember anything else that explicitly put Shaggy and Velma together.))#((maybe it was just fans being reactionary to Fred and Daphne? meh. I'm rambling.))

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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Send me “ mirror mirror “ to get a glimpse of my muse after they’ve turned to the dark side…

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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Scrappy and Velma get their own post as well so they don't get lost in notes

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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types of scooby doo fans

the purest, most genuine kind. usually fans that are older in age; they usually watched the original shows when they were still airing. they just think scooby is wonderful and don’t really have any fandom opinions. more often than not, they have large merch collections. literally the sweetest people you will ever meet

people who haven’t watched anything beyond the james gunn movies, zombie island/the witch’s ghost, and/or sdmi. if they’ve seen all three, they think they’re an expert and an authority on the franchise. (probably refuses to give be cool scooby doo a fair chance)

cishet fraphnes that are the most boring people you will ever meet

LGBT fraphnes that are the funniest people you will ever meet

vaphnes that are the chillest people you will ever meet

vaphnes that are the most annoying people you will ever meet (favorite hobby is making fred a far righter and picking out unfitting moments to focus in favor of acknowledging any actual chemistry between the characters in stuff like daphne and velma 2018 and the book series of the same name)

shaphnes and frelmas that are laid back and make their little youtube videos of shaphne and frelma screencaps set to music

shaphnes and frelmas who think that being shaphnes and frelmas magically gives them a personality

shelmas (derogatory)

people who definitely put the friendship aspect of the franchise aside and see scooby doo as an eternal double date narrative plus a dog tagging along (either with fraphne and shelma, or vaphne and fraggy)

bi velma truthers who only got angry about defending bi velma/supporting that hc at ALL when velma was confirmed to be a lesbian

scrappy doo stans. every single one of them is just incredibly genuine and kind. you are all my comrades and i trust you all with my life. scrappy doo nation rise

fans who keep trying to fit all the canons into the smallest amount of timelines as possible (usually just one) and who get pissed when something new breaks continuity with something from 20 years ago

the rare fan that has a favorite character that is NOT a part of the core gang. you are all so strong

people who will literally complain all day about kate micucci existing

fans who mostly stick to the older shows, almost never out of a dislike for the newer shows, but just because the older ones are their favorite

sdmi stans whose main focus (or only focus) is on that specific scooby iteration. comes in two flavors: “refuses to concede that any other version of scooby is better than sdmi (or is good at ALL) OR that it has any flaws” and “likes this particular scooby a lot but doesn’t act like it’s the scooby bible”

get a clue stans. there’s like 2 of them but ive seen them out there. keep fighting the good fight

simple plan

Scooby Doo Mistakes

#((thought I had to worry until that last sdmi bonus inclusion lol))#((love it but certainly not my end-all))#((just a horror fan liking horror themes in a way i wish I'd seen them marketed to me as a kiddo))#((also for all this talk of ships we're missing Scooby-Doo and Polycule Too))#((tell me a van full of school-skipping hippie teens weren't polyculing it up in the Summer of Love of 1969. i dare you))

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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Regarding Activity

Is it already slow? Yes. Will it get slower? For a little bit, also yes. I am going through the unfortunate process of moving right in the middle of the Holiday season. I will be leaving Florida for Louisiana, and my PC and I will be separated for a few weeks. Everything is okay; our landlord raised rent, so we just couldn’t keep the place. My roommates and I are going our separate ways due to this. There’s no bad blood, and I am and will be safe. However, consider this my official warning that activity probably will get a Little Better as I catch up on things… and then drop off all together around the end/beginning of the year.

#.ooc

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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“Me? Actually want to summon a demon?”

Well... Kind of.

Velma looked down into her warm cup of herbal tea. Her mother had a few books on the subject, ones that she hadn’t thought to give a second look. As much as she loved her mother and the weirdness paid the bills, it was insane. Impossible.

Or, so she thought, until meeting Fang. A real demon. Did this mean that other things in her mother’s esoteric tomes existed, too? Or, specifically, how much of them were still fiction?

“...I don’t know what I’d do if I did, honestly. I’ve always thought this was fake. Stuff to make money out of idiots. But I guess that’s how believers are made, right?” Cue awkward laughter. Drown it in tea.

“I guess I’m just more curious than anything.”

@xjinkiesx asked: “So… Hypothetically… How would one go about summoning a demon? You know. For fun.”

Setting her water down, the women raised a brow looking toward Velma. That was dangerous territory for someone to wander into. However she had a different perspective being what she was.

“Don’t pull what my wife did and have a Roomba move over a Ouija rug. Is there a specific one you are looking to draw into your sights?”

#yunhuntress #((She's too curious lol))

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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It really bugs me how much bad-faith is going into the Velma. There are ways to do and acknowledge tropes. Boiling characters down to one point and then playing the “subversive” card is not how to do it. There have always been queer characters in the Scooby canon. Characters have always been more than “the smart one”, “the comic relief”, “the hot one”. And this isn’t in the “we have always been here” sort of way, but explicit in the canon. There is over 50 years worth of material to draw from.

To look at the series at such face-value, criticize it, and ignore all the contrary work proves that the show runners for Velma aren’t looking for a meaningful adaptation in a different genre. This isn’t another Mystery Incorporated scenario where they’re putting a new context on everything. It’s made for reactionary shock, and a false sense of superiority simply because they’re branding it as “adult”.

There is no love in this adaptation. Just pandering, a poor sense of comedy written by corporate committee, and I can’t wait for the reason it will be deemed a failure being given as “audiences don’t want diverse/queer/adult animation”.

#.ooc #((sorry I just needed to rant. This is pissing me off to no end))

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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yunhuntress:

The flames drifted as Fang eyed around the place. Focusing, she could see beyond what others could to look for their annoyed ghost or poltergeist. Either or, the being was surprised upon realizing they were not the one with the cards at play. “You should likely put yourself right where you are and keep your eyes open. Whatever is here, they are not spectral.”

It did not take long for darkness to seep through the entire floor ending up where they were. Sounds of bones cracking echoed in that same room as something emerged from the darkness in the corner. Fang forced her flames down to the floor to encircle both herself and Velma. “Stay in the center of this ring no matter what. They are not happy with their tactics failing to run us out the door and they aren’t above seriously wounding now that I provoked it a bit.”

The flames rose a bit higher never allowing heat to effect Velma as Fang breathed and focused. Eyes glanced within the darkness to spot movement. Raising a hand, she grasped onto a large crooked hand that struck out toward them. Her hand dug talons of hers into the darkness enwrapped forearm of the other demon.

“I don’t play nice with others and you invaded my turf.” Fang snarled. As she spoke, the room lite up burning away the darkness and causing the other demon discomfort and pain. It yelled out in a horrendous fashion before attempting to swing with a weapon.

Stay put, watch out. That... was not instruction that Velma was used to. Normally, she was behind-the-scenes of one of Fred’s traps. She was involved in the catching of whoever was behind the mask. But this was not normal. This was not a greedy person dressing up as a ghost.

This was real.

The darkness crept around them, and Velma’s eyes went wide in fear and awe. An impossibly thin, bony hand, brown with age and warped skin, reached through the darkness to Fang, trying to breach the barrier she made before the demon stopped him with a firm grip.

She snarled, and the room lit with fire, temporarily blinding Velma. Amid the whiteness, something dark caught her eye. Long. Slicing. Right towards Fang.

Did she even see it?

“Watch out!” And, against the direct order to stay put, she ran to the other to push her away.

#yunhuntress #v.Crystal Cove

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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xjinkiesx · 1 year

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It was an exercise she had been thinking about for some time. Ever since Harlan Ellison stated there were multiple versions of themselves, Velma had wondered: what had they done? What had they undergone?

And as she sat awake in the New England night, curtains drawn because you do not look out into the Mist, she put pen to paper.

Dear-

Dear who? Not herself. Absolutely not! She had stopped addressing letters like that in Middle School. The act was pedantic at best and embarrassing at worst.

Tapping the butt of her pen to her lip, her mind wandered. Who from any timeline would she want to write to? Someone smart. Someone... different. Complex. Someone she could really dig into with the questions. Someone who might offer a different point of view.

She thought of a megalomaniac African Gray parrot. No... he was gone. Dead. Or, at least, destroyed. If he had not been utterly insane, she would have liked to pick his walnut-sized brain.

If not him, then perhaps someone who might follow in those footsteps? Someone... devoted to an idea. A fantastical idea. Willing to sacrifice. Willing to barter. Someone like Brad Masters... Mayor Jones...

Before she realized it, a name had appeared on the page, absently written by her own hand:

Ben Ravencroft.

“Huh...” She frowned. This was a new name. Sounded fake, too. But maybe that was the point?

Dear Ben Ravencroft,

You don’t know me. Or, at least, you don’t know the me that is writing to you. Maybe you know someone else like me. And that, ultimately, is the point.

My name is Velma Dinkley, and I have it on good authority that you met me at one point. We probably didn’t get along. Or maybe we did for a little. But that doesn’t matter anymore, because that me and this me are different.

“Yeah, Velm, you don’t sound nuts at all.”

I’m writing you because of this difference. You see, I’m… interested in the length some people will go to obtain their wants. I have met men who fabricated curses, who sold their souls to Gods. And I want to know… what pushed you to your choice? Whatever choice it was. What made you think it would work? Why this course of action?

What did you know that the rest of us did not?

Kind Regards,

Velma Dinkley

Miskatonic University

Velma took a deep breath and sat back in her creaky wooden chair. That felt so weird, and yet it felt very right. This Ben Ravencroft guy was either real in some place, in some time, or at least a very good figment of her imagination. She shook her head and folded the letter before slipping it into a blank envelope. On the front, she jotted the man’s name down before sealing the letter inside with a lick of the adhesive.

“Now… how does one deliver a letter to someone from a different dimension?” The postal service certainly didn’t take it that far. Looking around her dormitory room, her gaze settled on the box her mom had sent. Inside was a bunch of weird New Age stuff from the store back in Crystal Cove. But it triggered a memory: when she was little, and writing to her imaginary friend. Her mother had lit a candle and helped her set the letter on fire. They put it in a small iron cauldron, and she was told to imagine who she was sending the letter to.

In hindsight, the letters had been for Marcy. But if Marcy had been real, then maybe this Ben Ravencroft was… and maybe burning her letter would work.

Tired hands dug through the box. Sure enough, there were candles, a box of matches, and a miniature cauldron. It would have to work.

She took the good back to her desk and struck a match. It caught easily with the smell of sulfur, and when the flame met the candle, the wick burned tall. In Velma’s other hand, she gripped the letter.

Now came the hard part: what did this mystery man look like? Anything, probably. But what did someone with a name like that look like? Esoteric. Dark. Probably a bit nerdy if he went by “Ben”. Her cicada-obsessed High School biology teacher came to mind. Whatever his name was. But he seemed enough like a Ben Ravencroft. Certainly, it did not have to be perfect to work.

Picturing the man, she touched the edge of her envelope to the candle. The flame sputtered, moving about as if to dodge the paper. Her mother might have said this was a sign. But Velma was not going to give up. She did not write this for nothing.

She shoved the letter in further, forcing the flame to accept. Slowly, the envelope caught, and the flame grew and grew. Before the burning letter could reach her fingers, she set it into the cauldron.

A cold chill ran up her spine as she watched her letter turn to ash, the name on the front of the envelope burning last. Dread pooled in her stomach. Had she done the right thing?

“Too late now,” she muttered, placing the lid atop her cauldron to contain the ashes. When morning came, she would toss them into the garden. Bur, for now, she needed sleep.

#v.Main #((some late night writings as I attempt to bring this blog back from the Dead)

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