Mustang/Mark. 29. He/him. Bri'ish. Disabled/Chronically ill. Currently in BloodyMary hell. Creator of 'Hail, True Body', a horror fiction series. Banner by me. Tag for my BloodyMary fic 'On Wanting To Live And Other Choices' is #owtlaoc
'Hail, True Body' is a religious horror series that focuses on what it means to be human in a world that God has abandoned. For Mark Owens, 1993 is shaping up to be the worst year of his young life - and that's saying a lot all things considered. When his best friend Cesar Hernández calls him one night in October, Mark ignores the broadcast warnings to help him out. But Cesar is acting... strange.
Though perhaps that's understandable. His mother did just die, after all.
Or: An eldritch beast tries a little too hard to be human. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
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Please be aware of each story's tags before you read. All Parts are in the order that you should read them.
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Overview/Summary of the Series (a quick guide)
PART 1: Mimicry (complete, 6 chapters)
PART 2: Where Is Your God Now? (complete, oneshot)
PART 3: Old Rugged Cross (complete, 5 chapters)
PART 4: What's In A Name? (complete, oneshot)
PART 5: The Good Samaritan (complete, 16/16 chapters)
PART 6: An Eye For An Eye (ONGOING, 3/? chapters)
(more info + reviews under cut!)
HAIL, TRUE BODY ANIMATIC by freezie!
Character Designs:
Design Resource Masterpost
All character pronouns
All character ages
All character birthdays (inc. birth years)
Mark Owens & Cesar Hernández (1993)
Cian Daniels (1993)
Mark Owens post-Mimicry (face scars)
My Boundaries
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PLAYLISTS:
(Playlists will be updated/added to as and when - you are also welcome to suggest songs!)
'Imaginary Boy' - Mark Owens' 'The Cure' Mixtape
'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy' - Cesar Hernández' 'Queen' Mixtape
'Mixtape 1964-2000' - Cian Daniels' Mixtape
'Ghoul Huntin' - Azzy's Playlist
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Other Information:
All Locations in Patmos County
Main Character Family Trees
This masterpost will be updated as and when new Parts are posted, designs are released, etc. If you have any questions please ask!
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Reviews from readers:
"really good. only almost threw up like 4 times. also a vaguely deer shaped creature gets bested by a well aimed stick so 10/10" @b0nkcreat
"this story broke me into pieces and then crushed them into a fine snortable powder for the devil to enjoy. 10/10 would read again. like bottling every feeling at a funeral and making it physical. god I love these little sillies so goober core heart emoji. i am forever changed. the person i was before is dead and buried in an open casket... darcy is cute btw" @corvidaeconundrum
"Unironically, this story made me feel emotions I forgot existed. 10/10, would recommend!" @kade-is-here
“This story made me wanna explode out of both happiness because of how great the writing is, but also out of sadness because of how depressing it gets. 11/10, would erase my memory just to read it for the first time again.” @kyliebirdie
"Reading HTB makes you appreciate the good things in life. You need some positivity to counterbalance all the angst that was just shoved into your soul. Live your life to its fullest because some of the characters didn't live long enough or lived good enough." @didasgomas
"10/10; I have gone through emotions unknown to both man and shrimp, have wanted to bash my head against the table too many times to count due to said emotions, and have placed the author on a hitlist. highly recommend. also screw the deer" @itsjustaturt
"hail true body has been the first story to make me unlock shrimp emotions. 10/10 would read eldrich beings accidentally getting humanity again" @cookierye
"amazing story makes me feel like i need to vomit <3. i hope the Deer gets eaten by bugs and that Mimic!Cesar gets to live out his greatest dream and eat concrete at some point. it's so well written and feels like a swarm of insects. 10/10 would eat if it was edible." @stormco0l
im asking you to stay here. i cannot tell you why, i dont have any other reason except i want to see you here. i want to see you as happy as you can be. please, do what you can to stay. to find happiness wherever you can. i know that it is selfish of my to ask this. but i’m asking you anyway. take care of yourself. if not for yourself, then for me
The eternal curse of wanting to yap about my fic and the worldbuilding and Simon's backstory and issues but not being able to unless I am specifically asked lmao
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
"Simon raised the shovel, aiming the blade at a small patch of dirt that was just level enough to get a good purchase, and swung down hard. The metal sunk as teeth through flesh. It was slow, tedious work, sweating under the harsh brightness of the LEDs and UV lamps, grunting with the exertion. There were moments where the soil would yield only to push back with something big and half-digested. Firm enough to provide some resistance but easy to break once Simon had kicked and stomped and whacked it a few times.
Old bones, old bodies. Some of them subpar offerings that the ground struggled to accept, mould and fungi growth reluctant and slow, leaving traces of what was usually first to go. Sunken eyes and desquamation, long strips of dead skin that tried to blunt his tool, sticking to the steel like waterlogged paper. He scraped it off along the lip of the hole he’d carved with a sigh. The walls of the grave spoke of his steady, methodical process - how he had avoided each and every living root, pruning the ones showing troubling signs of rot. He cut back the excess, the gnarled fingers reaching in at him, the arches of noses, of blue and black and grey faces he vaguely recognised but had put to the back of his mind. Pushed far away and deep down where all the other failures went, unfertilized seeds and husks of crops. Sprouts that barely had the chance to unfurl their first leaves before death claimed them.
Failure to thrive."
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Or: Simon makes his way to consciousness.
(please make sure to check the content warnings in the beginning author's note before reading!)
🔚 have you ever completely changed the direction a piece was going?
Not really! I might make a few changes here and there but it's usually to the pacing rather than anything to do with the direction of the story itself.
⛔️ whats something you try to avoid in your work?
I try to avoid not having chaacters compliment what another character they interact with is going through. For example, whilst Simon is from a cult and a killer, Grace is a scientist who never learned to take risks with his personal life, and Rocky is the last member of his crew who was left unable to do anything to help his people for 40+ years, they all share a through line of guilt. And although they all have vastly different world points, it is that core which keeps the story cohesive in its exploration of choices, grief, regret, and the concept of forgiving others and ourselves.
📚 do you ever read similar works while writing, or do you intentionally not read them?
I'm always reading something but I do avoid other fics in the same genre as mine. Not because I think they're bad or anything, it's because when I write horror I get very unhealthily contained within my own head and interacting with other fics whilst I'm actively in the writing mindset can make me lose track of where I was or cause me to forget the idea/concept I was originally trying to capture in my own work. Mostly I just stick to what I have on my bookshelf or kindle. Right now I'm rereading Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
"Simon raised the shovel, aiming the blade at a small patch of dirt that was just level enough to get a good purchase, and swung down hard. The metal sunk as teeth through flesh. It was slow, tedious work, sweating under the harsh brightness of the LEDs and UV lamps, grunting with the exertion. There were moments where the soil would yield only to push back with something big and half-digested. Firm enough to provide some resistance but easy to break once Simon had kicked and stomped and whacked it a few times.
Old bones, old bodies. Some of them subpar offerings that the ground struggled to accept, mould and fungi growth reluctant and slow, leaving traces of what was usually first to go. Sunken eyes and desquamation, long strips of dead skin that tried to blunt his tool, sticking to the steel like waterlogged paper. He scraped it off along the lip of the hole he’d carved with a sigh. The walls of the grave spoke of his steady, methodical process - how he had avoided each and every living root, pruning the ones showing troubling signs of rot. He cut back the excess, the gnarled fingers reaching in at him, the arches of noses, of blue and black and grey faces he vaguely recognised but had put to the back of his mind. Pushed far away and deep down where all the other failures went, unfertilized seeds and husks of crops. Sprouts that barely had the chance to unfurl their first leaves before death claimed them.
Failure to thrive."
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Or: Simon makes his way to consciousness.
(please make sure to check the content warnings in the beginning author's note before reading!)
Thought crimes of course aren’t real but uh. We know those aren’t just thoughts anymore once you’ve posted them publicly, yeah?
Then they’re just crimes.
sure, fictional crimes since nothing happened and no one was hurt. should we put the fictional handcuffs on? "sorry, you wrote about murder which is illegal, go spend 20 years in mind jail"
Realizing some people just straight-up do not know that the guy they are writing for is a murderer and implied to be involved in a terrorist act is wild. /lh
Dude was once doing some Evil Shit (tm). It was do or die, yeah, but it had also devolved into Space GTA at that point with the resource war (implied from Filament Station being such a long battle) and I think he was heavily influenced by the people on Eden to be worse than he wanted to be.
I love you, morally-grey Simon who has done terrible things, of whom we must ask ourselves if he's worthy of forgiveness as a moral exercise on ourselves and our values. </3
