Reverse transmigration Binggeyuan where Bingge doesn’t really get how his life could be a book so Shen Yuan shows him Truman Show and he has an existential crisis. He also starts integrating “good afternoon, good evening, and good night” into his vocabulary.
Danny moves to Metropolis for college and works at a small smoothie place across the street from the Daily Planet. He was using the store to hide that he was paying his debts slowly with his funds from the vault in his keep. One day Clark and Louis stop by the place for lunch when Clark is hit by the same effects as Kryptonite as soon as he meets a young cashier named Danny. He also noticed immediately that this kid's heart is barely beating and his organs sound wrong. To Superman Danny feels like living Kryptonite
"I'm telling you, Smallville, it's a great shop! I love my coffee, but if I ever want to pretend to be healthy, this place is it!" Lois said cheerfully, guiding Clark out of the room.
Clark smiled. "I can't wait to see what the hype is about, Lois!"
She brought him to a small shop across from the Daily Planet, where it was colored in bright green and purple, with yellow stars and flowers on the outside. The name of the shop was called, 'Danny's Starfruit Smoothies,' and it looked quaint and cozy.
Clark frowned the minute he started approaching the place with Lois beside him.
His stomach was feeling off and he felt heavy.
Why was this feeling so familiar?
Lois didn't notice as her gentle guidance became a dragging force as he lagged behind.
"Uh, Lois? Maybe we should... uhhh... get a coffee, instead?"
"No, no, coffee all of the time gets boring! This'll be a nice experience for us, Clark!"
The closer Clark approached, the more sick he felt. His body began to slow as his mind raced. His careful control over his senses faltered, allowing him to hear every heartbeat in the city and further beyond.
In particular, there was a slow, steady heartbeat that felt like the pounding of drums of inevitability that was far too close and far too similar to a dead man's heartbeat.
Why was his body experiencing all of the symptoms of kryptonite poisoning?
The moment the door opened, Clark gagged.
He then collapsed on the floor with a stumble of his feet.
"Welcome to Danny's— oh ancients! Are you okay?"
The nausea became worse. Clark choked on his own breath as his throat began to seize up, making stars dot in his vision.
The young man from behind the cashier, whose bright eyes were wide with worry, came running out from behind the counter towards them.
As he approached, Clark's world began to tilt and ache even further. His head pounded and his skin itched with pain.
"Sir! Are you alright?! What happened?"
Clark struggled weakly to say something as Lois was screaming for help onto the phone.
The moment the young man touched his shoulder, Clark was out like a light.
Aww, shucks.
Lois was probably going to murder him after he recovered.
Yapping about The King in Yellow and how it is so underutilized in media. And also my insane feelings on it being used in Searching For A World That Doesn't Exist
Hi yes I am autistic about the first memetic cognitohazard written all the way back in the 1800's, which is also responsible for Lovecraft's eldritch gothic horror. This book, The King in Yellow, is so old, it is in public domain. You can read it on the wikipedia sources page.
Now, before I start on the minecraft shit, I want to explain: What is The King in Yellow?
Not who. What.
The King in Yellow, the title of a book, inside the book titled of the same name, is a script of a play, with poems and songs as well as acts and scenes. The King in Yellow surrounds the Lost City of Carcosa, a kingdom lost to time, underneath a sky of dark black stars, two suns, and many moons. However, in the story, if one is to read The King in Yellow, the person will start to believe that they themself ARE the ruler of Carcosa, that they are the prophesied King in Yellow, and that they need to fulfill the prophecy, to the point where they are driven to madness.
I have only seen 3 stories (besides lovecraft, of which i barely pay attention to for Obvious Reasons [lovecraft was a racist bigot and hated italians. I am italian.]) directly mention or reference The King in Yellow.
There's a 'horror' game that Markiplier played. I put quotations around 'horror' as it is more absurdist humor that's referencing it than horror in my honest opinion. I will link it here eventually. Its got a stupid ass baby in it.
There's a very well put together visual novel about lesbian furries that has one of the characters read The King in Yellow, and proceed to lose her mind. I love this visual novel and it was my first introduction to The King in Yellow, where I then started doing my own research on it. I will also link a playthrough here when I get to it. The mc is a trans woman mouse named Trixie btw.
And then there is the main reason why I am yapping: Searching For A World That Doesn't Exist. (MORE YAP UNDER CUT)
I have several feelings on minecraft horror and the current meta.
A lot of minecraft horror and args have gotten... stale. Big scary unbeatable monster. In your world without you knowing. Corrupting your world. Killing your player character. Yada yada.
*yawn* all that jack. Minecraft horror like herobrine, the OG herobrine (who was actually said to originally be feminine but transitioned to be male. Transmasc herobrine is canon) used to stand for something. It fed on the idea that the world was empty, yet... it wasn't. There was a ghost in your singleplayer, causing little things that don't generate naturally. Putting you on edge, thinking you see someone or something out of the corner of your eye.
Minecraft horror boomer rant aside, SFAWTDE is a refreshing change of pace.
It does many things I like to see in ARGs for minecraft:
- It has an entirely vanilla experience. Yes, worldedit was used, but there are no modded in entities.
- speaking of entities; you never see what is following d3rlord3. d3rlord3 never sees what is following him. We, by all means, do not know what was following d3rlord3. Nobody does.
- no jumpscares. Not a single one. Instead, the fear is generated by the unknown.
The fear of the unknown is executed amazingly well in SFAWTDE. d3rlord3 dives headfirst into a map he doesn’t recognize, taking route after route where he doesn't know where it leads. Every action he takes, and every decision he makes, while calculated in nature, he still recognizes that there isn't a single one where he knows what is ahead.
Sure, he finds his way through the maze, he solves the cipher, and he straight up uses his pick to break through the door. He was able to figure out where the signs pointed to. He was able to know there was an entrance under a tree.
But did he ever expect any of it? The terrain was not natural.
Trees don't grow underground unless it's a modded in region, the implication of it being unmodded and vanilla makes a tree get you on edge. The blocks placed were not natural either. Smooth tuff and smooth andesite aren't natural terrain.
Not a single place in this video exists in vanilla, down to the very houses the village was comprised of.
He went into this blind. He could not have known what was there.
Not to mention that the censor bars were used unsparingly. We didn't even see d3rlord3's name up until right before he went into that dark black hall, and saw something completely censored out behind that yellow gate.
Only d3rlord3 knows what he saw. We do not.
It's this fear of something unknowable that puts one on edge. It is a real fear that everyone has struggled with at some point in time.
The references to The King in Yellow, the poem behind the cipher being the first opening poem you read in the book, d3rlord3's very name being der lord 3, der = the in german, lord, 3 is yellow in ROYGBIV, literally meaning The King Yellow, the abandoned village having yellow everywhere, including the fountain being constructed of sandstone, a very yellowy block; it is everywhere. You can dig for even more. It's there.
Wifies took The King in Yellow and redefined the horror meta.
Now, time for my personal theory on what all the references MEAN:
The Book within the book, The King in Yellow, hinged itself on people reading it and wanting to re-enact the play to fulfill the prophecy. This falls flat on its face in modern times; books are rarely ever read physically (THOUGH I WOULD LIKE FOR PEOPLE TO READ MORE PHYSICAL BOOKS AND SAVE THEM. PHYSICAL MEDIA IS IMPORTANT.) anymore. So, The King in Yellow shifted, and adapted. It lodges itself into a well known game, and plants a seed.
A seed that grows into a world found by d3rlord3. A seed that makes d3rlord3 write that note before knowing he is about to go mad with information he isn't supposed to know. A sapling that Avery finds on an abandoned laptop.
It is merely the beginning of a new era for The King in Yellow.
One of my favorite headcannons is that when they first introduced jason to Ra's, talia said "this is the demons head"
And jason heard it as D'man and no matter how many times they corrected him, he refused to call ra's anything but that. And damian, being around him so often, began calling Ra's that too.
Jason walking into breakfast: Sup d'man.
Damian taking a seat: I hope you had a good night of sleep D'man
Ra's: That's it. Send them both to gotham! Their father can deal with this now.
I cannot remember for the life of me how to find it, but there was this fic I read once where Shen Yuan admitted to the assembled peak lords that he wasn’t Shen Qingqiu and he went into detail about having been snatched from another life and after a long silence, one of the peak lord’s just said, “fuck not again.” And it came out that Shen Qingqiu regularly had qi deviations, forgot his life, and then insisted he was a new person and the peak lords just accepted that he has chronic reoccurring amnesia episodes. That was such a good fic. Wish I could find it again.
vaporwave
pixelskylines
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
