Want some cool new bookmarks?! Here is some you can print off and laminate (packing tape works great for DIY laminator!) They are (In order) Anita Blake and Jean-Claude from Anita Blake; Vampire Hunter, Bonds that Tie, dark romance (general), salty, monster fucker (sapphic), A soul to heal (duskwalker brides), Her soul to take, stfuattdlagg, feyre/rhys, nesta/cassian, elena/azriel, stfuattdlagg, suriel, feyre back tattoo, lightlark, haunting adeline, certified monster fucker, ghost face, deaths obsession, scream for us, Duskwalker brides (front back).
Wouldst thou like the taste of . . . butter? A pretty dress? Wouldst thou like to live deliciously? Yes. Wouldst thou like to see the world? What will you from me?
Dost thou see a book before thee?
THE WITCH (2015)
Written and directed by Robert Eggers
well hello everyone!! after the post earlier today I thought it was a good time to properly introduce myself! my name's jane, my pronouns are she/her, and I'm in my late 30s, so I've got that goin' for me! for over a decade I grew medicinal cannabis by day and bartended by night. I have an amazing fiance who I've been fortunate to have at my side for almost 15 years now, and we've spent the past 12 of those years raising the sweetest & cutest puppy. to say I'm obsessed with my little dorkasaurus would be putting it very mildly🐕
I've been writing and building complex worlds in my head and then later, notebooks and apps, since I can remember. the first story I wrote and finished was called the Teddy Bear from Hell, so I've obviously always been drawn to the darker and more twisted elements of stories.
I draw heavy inspiration from horror (right now I'm more into body horror and cosmic dread) and unknowable elements of supernatural/paranormal. music also plays a huuuge part in my life and how I write. for Bad Witch specifically, I drew lots of inspo from —takes deep breath— Practical Magic, Hellraiser, Lorde's Melodrama, Friends from College, the Craft, synthpop, Gossip Girl OG, TR0N: Legacy [movie & soundtrack], Alexander McQueen, St Elmo's Fire, Suspiria, vaporwave, Rocky Horror, and the magic school that shall no longer be named.
anywho like I keep saying, I'm sooo excited to finally be sharing this story with everyone! next up, I'm focusing on getting the new demo out and going forward from there. I'll be following the major arcana so there will be a prologue and 21 chapters. I don't want to make too many plans about how and when the chapters will be released, but I'll be working on it full-time so it should be pretty consistent but I'll have a better idea after the first few chapters are in the rearview. I'm rambling again but I just wanted to thank y'all for joining me on this wicked ride 🖤
shein has taken down the selling of the israeli flag, stopped its collaborations with the country's influences and also cancelled free delivery services to the country. do you know how fucking insidious you have to be for SHEIN to cut ties with you??? SHEIN???!!!
it makes me physically ill. a Palestinian on twitter's last post was about burying their six-year-old cousin without his head. a Palestinian boy on youtube dreamt of 100k subscribers on his gaming channel. and yesterday he reached 500k, but he has been killed in the bombing of the gaza strip. the class of 2023-24 in Palestine has ended early because there is no student left alive. literal children who were the teachers, artists, doctors, scientists, scholars, writers, engineers of tomorrow.
when is it enough? statistics released by Palestinian officials about the numbers of martyred isn't enough. photographs and videos of fathers scurrying to piece together their children by gathering their body parts isn't enough. presscons surrounded by dead bodies beside a bombed hospital isn't enough.
yet, somehow, the narrative they are pushing is conflict between two faiths. it is absolutely not. this is no religious conflict. this is colonization, occupation, genocide. it's systematic oppression of Palestine and its people.
the word peace has never angered me as much as it has now. and it should anger you too. there can be no peace under violent oppression. there can be no peace after 75 years of ethnic cleansing. there can be no peace in occupied Palestine.
peace is the product of white supremacy, they prod and kill anyone other than them but when retaliation occurs, it is suddenly rabid savages, unjust savages...
Hey Witxhes! So the votes are in and first of all, I can't tell you all how much I appreciate the time you took to read & vote for the samples. The process was very illuminating, to say the least, hahah.
I'll start with the voting results! With 64.8% of the vote, 2nd person POV came out on top (which isn't too surprising!).
Next up, winning 66.7% of the vote, y'all made it VERY clear that you would much rather have your MC in their lab, working away at trials of the Hangover Cure.
Now, onto the tricky bit... OG vs AU. It seems you guys had as hard of a time deciding between them as I did, leaving the vote split pretty evenly.
So that being said, I'm gonna go back to the storyboard to see what threads I can take from the OG and AU stories to weave into something new... something that combines the best elements of both. A new story where the reader can choose if their MC has been closer or more isolated from the Silverlakers, among some other things. But I'm excited and really intrigued to see where this new story format ends up taking us!
And as planned, I'll be adding a bunch back to the prologue so the reader can get a better feel of the Silverlaker dynamics, right off the bat.
Alright, onto the most frequent thing I was asked about during this run... Ash. Soo I heard a lot of feedback from some readers having issues with MC having an established relationship in their teenage years, that was out of the control of the reader/MC. And while I'm not trying to take away your character's autonomy, I am trying to tell a story that begins a specific way.
I know that this story is new, and our relationship as writer and reader is also new and tentative and vulnerable, but I'm asking you to trust me with the story I'm telling. There will be sooo many options, dearest readers, for you to explore all of the ways your MC's relationship with Ash was or wasn't... whatever. And how MC feels about it now. Nothing will be assumed or shoe-horned, as there will be lots of choices, questions, and room for customization.
So! While I work away on the first rewrite, I'll be posting character profiles. ROs & Silverlakers to start with, and then family & some of the outer Witching World. As for the actual demo, I'm going to try to have it written and posted for Friday 3 May. But if everything aligns and I finish it before then, I'll be running over here to share it with y'all. So thanks again, and please don't forget about me & the Silverlakers in the next couple weeks 😅
Apparently people who don't have executive dysfunction think that actually working on something is the hardest part of doing something. And that's why they get mad that you call the rest of the project "easy" after you've finally worked through doing the plan and know what to do when you're working.
So when you're through with the epiphany of how to make it physically possible to make the thing you're making, and you're sharing the plan with excitement, because the hard part is over, and now you only have to get your hands moving and do it, they get mad at you like
"it's not that easy! It's a lot of hard work! >:C"
they mean it, because
to them, working is the hardest part.
They don't have to fight their brains to get started. They don't have to fight their way through making the choices, making the plan, making yourself make the thing. People who don't suffer from executive dysfunction think that the hardest part is actually doing the thing.
when you have executive dysfunction, it’s like... you’ve just clawed your way up a long steep embankment of loose gravel, and you flop exhausted into the construction site, and you’re like “oh thank fuck, time to lay some bricks, i absolutely could do this all day” and the guy who drove to the site goes “what’s wrong with you man bricklaying is hard graft!”
not as hard as crawling up the gravel mountain bro
there’s also good hard and bad hard. doing the thing might be hard, but at least you’re doing it; it’s good hard. just getting to the thing in the first place is hard and it’s fucking miserable. executive dysfunction puts so many bad hard things in your way before you can get to even the good hard things.
sometimes i describe it as my transmission is broken, every thing else works fine but no matter how hard I pump the gas pedal, I ain't getting anywhere because I can't
"Trying to actually start doing the thing" is also the bad kind of hard because it has the ADDITIONAL problem of "what's wrong with me, I should be able to do this, I'm a failure as a human being", and that goes away once you START doing the thing.
It's like you're in a race of distance X, but you need to run distance Y to get to the starting line (thus for you the distance is X+Y), and all throughout the Y portion, your most-hated elementary school teacher is driving alongside and yelling at you.
If you ever find yourself in a horror scenario, remember to blush really hard when the ghost/demon/monster appears. If you do that fast enough you might be able to shift the genre.
This is a story of excess & indulgence. Luxury & depravity. Lust & love. Horror & debauchery.
But mostly it's a story of rediscovering your inner witch.
Bad Witch is set in a matriarchal, gothic universe eerily similar to our own, where magic runs the world. And at its core, it is a love letter to the incredibly strong and vibrant friendships that we forge in our youth, and how they ultimately shape the people we become.
Witches dominate the upper echelons of society, and magic has seeped into every facet of day-to-day life, for witches and humans alike. Humans were relegated to a lower class of living and as witches tend to be quite opulent & over indulgent [and more often than not revelling in their own personal vices], the bougie Season of the Witch began. Witching Society flourished and quickly overtook over the world, trickling down to influence even those without magic.
SO WILL YOU BE A BAD WITCH, OR A GOOD WITCH?
Currently there are two versions of the initial demo. I've been working on this story in some form or another for the better part of the last decade. To say that it's a labour of love would be an understatement. I was first introduced to interactive fiction in early 2020 and like most interests or hobbies that I've collected over the years, the obsession took over.
I devoured story after story after story and fell in love with the medium, as well as the incredibly diverse and inclusive community built up around it. And so naturally, I started thinking about my favourite linear stories, and how they would change with the availability of choice.
Bad Witch immediately came to mind, as it seemed ripe with opportunities for meaningful choices to really impact the story and how the MC progressed through it. But along with that, a slightly altered plot started coming together. But me being me, I could never decide between the two, and once I began editing the prologue and first chapter with choicescript, I had the probably terrible idea to put it to a vote. To share both versions, the original as well as what I’ve been lovingly referring to as the fanfic. I’ll leave them up for a month and keep the poll running just as long.
You were born to one of the most ancient and thus, important witching families; the only child of a famous mother and an even more infamous grandmother. Your ancestors were among the very first witches to lead the revolution, desperate to create a world where their children would never again die by human hands. Your childhood was rather lonely and spent under the tutelage of the worlds best witches and academics, whilst your mother did her best to ignore your existence whenever it didn’t directly benefit her. And so years later you would often joke that your life really began once you were accepted into Ariadne Academy, the premiere school for exceptionally gifted witches.
You were placed in a coven with eight of your peers; girls and boys who would quickly become your family, until it was almost like you couldn’t remember a time before them. They shared your all-consuming hunger for magic and knowledge and experiences, traits that made your coven [nicknamed the Silverlakers] an unstoppable force within the Demonhall arena. Everything was going so perfectly until it suddenly burned down around you, leaving your coven a husk of its former self.
Aaand this is where the stories splinter off.
OG DEMO — In the OG demo, your coven is still somewhat intact. MC’s feelings towards them may or may not have changed, but on the whole, the Silverlakers are still functioning as the overachieving badasses they were at the academy. They’re still your best friends, your soulmates, your lovers. You love them and they most definitely love you — it’s just one big lovefest.
As a master alchemist you tediously work through trials of your newest potion while still coasting off the success of your last serum, the wildly popular Moon Juice. The story focuses on the unnaturally strong bond that exists between the remaining Silverlakers, and the powerful magic you’ve wrought because of that. The incredibly deep but complicated friendships that you built are maintained to this day, and still just as co-dependent... or have they been making you feel stifled or claustrophobic?
You can choose how your relationship with Ash progressed post-breakup. Was it messy and dramatic, or did you keep going back to them, again and again? Have you and Ori been just the bestest friends all this time, or have things gotten a bit awkward?
AU DEMO — In the AU demo, your coven was broken following the loss of one of your own. You all went your own ways and everything that you shared was left by the wayside. You’ve spent the better part of a decade running away from your Silver Lake family, the only real home you ever knew. But now, against all of your better judgements, your returning to York. Only for a few days, of course. A couple weeks, tops.
You haven’t returned since you absconded after graduation, when you used a somewhat controversial but entirely contrived excuse for your disappearance. And as if The Fates themselves had seen to it, you once again find yourself thrown together with the other witches formerly known as Silverlakers. Their reactions to your return are not at all what you had expected, and you’re left second-guessing what actually happened all those years ago.
No matter how deep of a rift was left between your coven, Ori was the one who really refused to give up on you. In their very unique way, they practically strong-armed you into maintaining some kind of contact. Of all your former covenmates, you are hands down closest to Ori. Your breakup with Ash, no matter how it was done, was shocking and cut deep. You can choose whether to stand by your past actions or try to make amends with your first love.
Both the OG & AU stories will feature opportunities to reconnect with: the former childhood friend turned academy rival; as well as the young professor from your university years. And despite their shorter and more mysterious descriptions, they are both main RO’s, along with Ash & Ori.
Will you try to repair the broken connections plaguing your coven, or forge a brand new path? Will you decide to confront the nightmares of your past face on in the Demonhall arena, or continue to ignore the literal demons that chase you?
The grandiose and horrifying Demonhall is a favourite pastime for Witches young and old. Two opposing covens enter the arena (or as it's lovingly called by fans, the Demon Dome) and are sealed inside. Usually a timer is set for 6 hours, but some exhibition games run a 'last Witch standing' simulator, that can go on for days.
At the core of every Demonhall arena lies it's true power, a demonstone. The crystalized heart of a demon powers and creates unique and dangerous environments for covens to progress through. Whether it's a futuristic, neon playground; the dilapidated ruins of Titans; or a much too lifelike version of the floor is lava, each unique setting has been randomly and lovingly crafted by the demonstone.
Just as each demon is unique and come with their specific set of baggage challenges, so do their corresponding arenas. Some are more manipulative in luring you into their traps, while others don't waste time in throwing everything they've got at you.
The object of the game, quite simply, is to challenge & toss opposing witches out of the match, using whatever spells & curses, or hexes & charms you keep in your arsenal. All while avoiding the real terror of the Demonhall, the demon itself.
For over a decade, your life revolved around Demonhall. You were the Lead for your coven, meaning you often bore the brunt of whatever the demonstone was hurtling at you. Your Silver Lake coven dominated the amateur Demonhall circuit for the better part of a decade. You and your covemates were elevated to a level of celebrity that few others at Ariadne Academy could relate to, as you were splashed across dozens of magazine covers before you were 18.
You planned your life around your obsession and love of the game, and as your graduation approached, you fielded dozens of offers to play for top-tier professional teams. But then... the unexpected happened during a match and you lost a member of your coven.
~ Fully customisable character — you can currently play as a woman, man, or non-binary person; straight, gay, or bisexual. Customise your character's personality, style and how they reacted in major moments of their life leading up to present events.
~ Choose how to react to your current coven dynamics — fight to save your soulmates & strengthen your long-established bonds, or play around on greener pastures with other witches
~ Meet your familiar and decide which form it takes, with your familiar's animal impacting the story
~ Set up a cozy, witchy corner to call your own! Choose between a relcaimed lighthouse, luxurious penthouse in the sky, or a secluded cabin in the woods**
~ Continue to cross sexual conquests off your lists of Lovers to Bed, or get serious and pursue a more serious bond. There are currently 4.5 love interests [all gender variable] as well as an optional poly route. I'm also considering bringing back a character who was cut from the OG story... TBD!
~ Decide what happened to MC's relationship with A, in the years since graduation. Have they drifted apart while leading separate lives, or have they been on-and-off for the better part of a decade?**
~ Get answers & closure by chasing down ghosts from your past. Give yourself over to your career as a cryptozoologist, or fight to find a balance between your life and the monsters at the gate.
~ Explore the ever-changing hellscapes of Demonhall and confront your demons, or keep those traumatic memories in the past where they belong
~ But above all else, choose which path your character takes going forward. Chase your dreams and loves, or turn your back, light it up & watch the world burn around you.
** — choice available in the OG story
During your time at Ariadne Academy, rumours swirled nonstop about your coven.
You got along too well.
You loved each other too hard.
Some people said you were a bunch of weirdos, others whispered that your parents had bribed the Witches Council to put you all together in one coven. But back then you couldn't give a shit about anyone or anything outside your Silver Lake home.
You found your first love within your coven, as well as seven other soulmates. And for a long time, that was all you needed.
♡ Aisling DeLoach {f} // Asher DeLoach {m}
☆ Bellamy Bower {m}
♡ Oriana Helyr {f} // Orion Helyr {m}
☆ Hazel Trout {f} — Deceased
☆ Elias Ahmed {m}
☆ Margarita Stills {f}
☆ Suki Aoki {f}
☆ Vyn Majors {f}
☆ The First Love☆
Aisling DeLoach {f} // Asher DeLoach {m}, 31
Ash was your first love. You dated for several years during your time at Ariadne Academy. You grew up together in your Silver Lake cottage and soon after you met, you found it hard to deny your teenage crush.
You bonded over a mutual (rather mad) obsession with Demonhall, and it didn't take long for that bond to translate onto the arena. The Silver Lake Demonhall coven dominated the competition, thanks in large part to the connection you shared with Ash.
You made plans together to follow your passions after graduation, and even courted the interest of several top-tier professional clubs. They wanted you both, and were willing to restructure their teams around you & Ash.
But life happened, and you surprised everyone when you suddenly broke things off with A and the Demonhall teams. Instead you followed a secondary love and traveled across the world in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries.
In the decade that you've been working out in the field, Ash has been named Demonhall MVP for three years in a row. Their legions of adoring fans have only multiplied. Is there room for you in their life nowadays, or is it truly too late?
☆ The Best Friend☆
Oriana Helyr {f} // Orion Helyr {m}, 30
Ori has been your longest and closest friend. No matter what your relationship was like with the rest of the coven, you could always count on Ori having your back. And sometimes being a shoulder to cry on, during the rockier parts of your relationship with Ash. In a way, it's always felt like the three of you had your own kind of connection, but at times, that could put Ori in the middle of your shit with Ash.
Ori is a highly sought after Master Architect, one of only two in the country. They’re instrumental to the buildings integrity and the future success of it’s residences. Ori often spends weeks onsite, crafting intricate enchantments around the bones of the structure, ensuring not only structural safety but doing everything in their power to position them for prosperity.
There's never been any fronts or facades with Ori, just transparent (sometimes brutal) honesty. You've never had to pretend around them and you might even be your truest self when you're with them. And then the two of you would stay up all night, talking and watching movies, and polishing off copious amounts of alcohol. In fact, many of those nights ended up serving as inspiration for your new experimental potion, a cure-all hangover draught.
In the years since the academy, Ori has tracked you down across the globe too many times to count. It always seemed like they had some magical way of knowing when your life was going to shit and they'd spontaneously turn up with boxes of wine & chocolate, immediately taking over your kitchen to cook up something utterly delicious
☆ The Lifelong Rival☆
Viridian ‘Poe’ Black {f/m}, 31
Poe was one of your very first friends, long before the academy. Your mothers ran in the same high society circles and so you were often left to your own devices. For Poe that usually meant running off into the woods to scout for berries and beasts, or tirelessly watching or reading up on anything to do with Demonhall. And in fact, decades later, you've still never met anyone as obsessed with the game as them. Even as a kid, Poe was haughty and overtly snobby; they always knew exactly what and who they liked, and rarely strayed outside the lines.
But for some reason or another, you were someone they happily tolerated and actually seemed to like. Much to their delight, Their Demonhall fanaticism eventually infected you as well, and you spent countless hours debating the various forms, methods, and positions of the beautiful but deadly game. The two of you would often daydream about your future life at Ariadne Academy, and their eyes lit up with unabashed glee when they spoke of how together, you would bring about a new era of Demonhall. But then came the week before coven placements. And even after all of their extensive testing, you & Poe weren't placed together.
After that Poe very rarely spoke to you and altogether stopped responding to your many messages over the years, and just like that, the delicate friendship you once shared was snuffed out. And while they'd always been sarcastic and biting, that had rarely been directed towards you. Until you were put in competition, both academically and in the Demonhall arena, and then you were introduced to an entirely different side of Poe. The one that knew your weaknesses and just when to exploit them, who seemed to take a particular happiness from your defeat.
☆ The One That Got Away☆
Hunter St. James {f/m}, 35
The two of you have a rather torrid history. Or at least, you might in another universe. In this one, sadly, your love affair was cut prematurely short after one perfect night. Before it could even begin.
Shortly after arriving in Iceland but before your apprenticeship could officially begin, you found yourself alone in a pub. Suddenly Hunter slid into the booth opposite you, apologizing profusely while begging you to let them stay on a moment while they avoided a rather cantankerous individual. You didn’t stop them from ordering a drink, and then one turned into two, and two into three, until neither of you could say how much time had passed while you’d been talking away.
You talked of magic and philosophy, theology and literature, and no matter the topic, there was never an awkward pause or break in conversation. And not once did they bring up Demonhall. It was somehow exactly what you needed at the time, just weeks following your graduation from Ariadne Academy and everything that had had transpired in the weeks before.
That night you both felt on the verge of something so much more. Before it was complicated by running into a colleague of theirs out with their wife. She was an acquaintance of your mother's and expressed shock that you'd be seen out and about with Hunter St. James, the newest and youngest junior professor in the university's history, and a somewhat big deal in deity and divination circles.
