Okay I have things I should be seeing to but I couldn't help myself. In case you, like me, have not read all of these stories and would like to be amongst the lucky 10,000 today:
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers*
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson**
The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs
The Most Dangerous Game by Richard O'Connell
The Nameless City by HP Lovecraft
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K LeGuin
There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
Honorable Mention from the comments/reblogs:
All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
*note: this is actually a collection of short stories and clocks in at about 72k words
**Originally published in the New Yorker in 1948; interestingly, the New Yorker still has this story archived on their website BEHIND A PAYWALL. CAN YOU IMAGINE.
"am I evil, archivist? is a thing evil when it simply obeys its own nature? when it embodies its nature? when that nature is shaped by those who revile it?"
i love michael so much. the way he gets treated by gertrude hits home a lot and i'm generally a fan of the spiral. as someone who's been to a lot of psychology related doctors and deals w a whole host of issues, the wonderland episode is so fucking cruel and also relatable. rip michael distortion, you'd love my therapist. i too wonder if i'm evil by nature, it's lovely
i got a whole series of these! i'll add the links in edit :3
I just realized I completely forgot to share these stickers I made last year!
So when I went to TwitchCon San Diego 2025, these were the Soul Hunters I got to meet in person- So I made them stickers of their characters to give as gifts when I saw them!
(I wanted to do the same for the Soul Hunters I met in TwitchCon Rotterdam, but I didn't know I was going on the trip until 3 weeks before and didn't have time to make that many unfortunately D:)
The other night I was sleeping, as one does. And in my dreams a magnificent event came to me.
Through my unconscious mind came to me brilliant flashes and spirals of lore as an au to Pantheon Smp.
Yes indeed, quite odd seeing as the series isn't out yet. However I wanted to yap about it I suppose? I quite enjoyed the dream.
(Keep reading because this is quite long.)
So I suppose we know enough that it's ancient greece, and the players are champions to the gods and all.
In my mind it came to me in a setting before all had been specifically chosen as champions.
The dream took place with Mae (Maezes), 4c (4cvit), and Shan (Shandrealive) as the main cast to it.
The three were a close-knit trio, with Shan being the daughter of the current leader of Greece. (Or at least their location in Greece.) Mae was her attendant, and 4c a nobody from the streets who had grown up childhood friends with Mae.
Shan hated feeling trapped within her walls, and 4c knew the entire city, all of it's nooks and cranies better than anyone else in the area. So it worked out that Mae and 4c would help Shan sneak out all the time.
And then one day, the gods began to fight. (Not nessicarily an uncommon occurrence, however this was one of the most horrible spats they'd had in thousands of years.) But it would be far too devastating for the world if they were to fight themselves. And so the people were to enter lottery for who would end up fighting as champions for what gods and godesses.
And Mae was one of the names drawn.
It was at this point, entirely unclear what exactly would be done with the champions further than they were to be brought to a certain area to stand alone for a meeting with whatever god chose them.
It struck fear into the hearts of the many, a great likelihood those chosen would die. This fear included the trio.
Mae was a friend to them, an amazing friend, and they wouldn't be able to just let it go if anything were to happen to her.
Without telling Shan, 4c would collect things from around the city. Supplies he beleived would be of good use to Mae if she wasn't able to leave for a while, and knowing she would be made to fight. And he would break into the area Mae was being kept.
4c had a few different items. Among things there was some twine, a small widdled spear, some tins of preserved fish.
He hadn't set them down yet when Bast appeared. (Bast is the Egyptian godess of cats, protection, and fertility.)(Also known as Bastet, Bubastis, Ubasti, and in Greek Ailuros.)(**Would refer to her here as Ailuros, however in my dream she specifically was refered to as Bast. Interestingly enough, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Egypt not only know of each other, but were quite interactive with the other.)(Many Greeks however thought of Bast as Artemis though due to her associations with animals and protection.)
Somehow, in someway. She chose 4c instead of Mae. Perhaps it was the fact he was there because he wanted to protect his friend, or perhaps it was just the fact he had fish on him and she was the god of cats. Whatever reason, she chose him. (I'm like. 90% sure it was the fish, they were so heavily highlighted in that part of the dream I'm sobbing, like. Would it not just spoil within an hour?? Like objectively yes Ancient Greece did have food preservation, but the fish was very specifically tinned and not like. Salted and dried or anything. This part is absolutely FRYING me dude. TvT)
And then she left. And Mae and 4c were sat alone in a dark room awaiting what to happen next. It wasn't like they could just go out and lie. The godess had clearly lended some of her power to him.
Little flowers slowly grew around his feet, and he now donned a pair of ears and a tail.
And so Mae would set off to tell Shan what had happened, and 4c would be left to fight.
And then that was it. The end of the dream bruh, I'm so curious as to what happens next. Like. Idk. Feels a little bit less exciting in written form than it did in the unconscious mind, but who knows. I'll probably keep pondering this.
I may write or draw like. Some sort of more finished au or fict or something like that if yall are really lucky after Pantheon comes out. (Though obviously that would be me consciously filling in the gaps, and writing new stuff past just what I drempt.)
Anyhow, here's some art + notes based on A. Things I saw in the dream, and B. Things I researched because I didn't see them in the dream and now I get to make stuff Up, and C. Slightly modified things I saw in the dream because I was curious if they could still be acheived while working within the confines of Ancient Greece and Egypt. And D. Elements I think would be fun to add onto it.
The above / Traditional Drawings you see was the first thing I went to draw after the dream. I wanted to remember what everyone looked like in the dream.
Unfortunately there were many bits I just got to make up as I went because I didn't remember what everyone looked like in it.
What I remembered of the designs was
Mae: Green Tones in the design, and her hair was pulled back into a pony tail similar to how it was with her Bannerfall character. She also, what I remember most clearly, wore large golden hoop earrings.
4c: He wore a sort of cloak or shawl thing. It was for the most part a darker tone with a few stripes of neon on it. His hair reminded me of the way people draw his persona's.
Shan: She was tall, and there was some sort of blue motif. (However the blue wasn't really on her, it was just. Always somewhere in the scene around her.)
So then, I got to design them further, fleshing them out a little bit more. And I did a small amount of research into what clothing would look like in that time period, and how I could realistically encorperate some of the design notes I remembered.
As far as Mae goes, Green was not a common dye colour in Ancient Greece becauae ir was hard to find and obtain a decent green dye, but I do think that as a waiting girl for Shan it's possible she'd end up well dressed too to keep up the appearance of the entire household.
Meanwhile earrings were quite common for women to wear in Ancient Greece as a sign of both A. Wealth, and B. Worship to The Gods.
While not a common hair colour, red and ginger hair in the area at that time period was still present. It was simultaneously reveared as a sign of beauty, and courage. While also being thought a sign of vampirism.
And then other than that I just put her in some vaguely Ancient Greek style clothing.
For 4c, his clothing style wasn't too far off from the general synopsis for clothing in Ancient Greece, except for one thing: The Neons.
There was absolutely no way for Ancient Greece to get neons. Their most common dye colours were blues, reds, browns, and greys. Neons were out of the question.
However, this came to me in a dream. Dreams are not acurate representations of reality. It is okay that one part of the design isn't acurate. I'm not trying to portray the real world here.
After that, I lookes into things like blue dye for his hair. Blue was a common colour dye in Ancient Greece, however after darker shades of blue, lighter ones, and especially more vibrant ones were either not very good, and would fade and wash out after a small handful of days, or they were flatout impossible to make.
Meanwhile, in Ancient Greece, hairdye was quite common, especially using methods to try and bleach or lighten their hair to get a more golden or blond look to it, or using methods to darken specific parts.
If any of you here have dyed, or seen brown hair when it gets dyed a solid colour, you probably know that it ends up looking like a much darker shade of that colour, but in the sunlight it catches in such a way that it seems extremely vibrant in places. I think that's what we're going to say 4c's hair is doing in this design. š
(Or he's bleached it in someplaces so the dye he used is just lighter in areas and consequently just looks brighter there??)
After that I got to wondering if they had goggles in Ancient Greece, or at least what the cloestet thing to them they would have had because the two most iconic parts of a 4cvit character are that he's A. A slime, and B. He wears goggles.
Ancient Greece did not have goggles as far as I can tell, however they did have Sunglasses.
Not anything like the current sunglasses you're probably thinking of though. (And I was way to quick to google and move on with this next part before looking deeper.)
Ancient greece used sort of a face mask, with pins to keep light out of their eyes, however in extremely rare cases, the most elite of Ancient Greece may have used finely polished precious gems and such which could be held up to the face like a looking glass.
(I saw the latter first when googling and decided to look into it more later. Ended up drawing 4c with totally the wrong eyewear because I missed how uncommon it was. If I draw this 4c again in the future, I will make sure to draw the pin-hole eyewear for him. :thumbs-up: )(The 4c in this dream was like. Definitely not upperclass.)
And finally, Shan. Drawing her character tall isn't really something that specifically needs anything to go along with it. So I just drew her taller than the other two, and meanwhile 4c is someone who just. Gives short vibes I guess? Idk but I almost always draw him just ONE apple tall compared to others, so that worked out fine.
And then I went and started looking into different sorts of outfits and hairstyles for royalty in Ancient Greece.
Most of them seemed to be wearing loose dresses, and holding some sort of cloth so I dressed Shan that way, and then I also saw one or two pictures where the women had lots of beutiful braids pulled back into a sort of bun with gold jewelry in their hair, so I sort of threw all of those prospects onto Shan's character.
Purple was one of the most expensive and uncommon dyes in the ancient times. So much so that in today's world it still has a colour connotation to royalty, which is why I put several of the colours on Shan's character in purple. And then of course, I already mentioned this I beleive, but jewlery was very common in Ancient Greece, worn by the upperclass, but also represented respect for the gods and whatnot.
And then I have no idea what the blue motif is about, but if I ever fully write this au, I promise I WILL find a way to use it to hurt you, dear audiance. š
And then. Of course little thoughts I'd like to add in.
I imagine that one of the things 4c may have brought would have been The Ankh.
Ancient Greece was a very religious area with beleive in the gods. The Ankh however, was an Egyptian symbol. It was incredibly common in Egyptian motifs, and represented life, and protection.
In my mind, he could have brought one made of something simple like rope, or a carving as a thoughtful charm for her. Though not common in Ancient Greece, 4c's character in my dream was very curious about the world around him, and I imagine would have spoken with people coming between the two places and learning about these things. (The Ancient Greek and Egyptians traded extensively, and ancient Greece was influenced heavily by Ancient Egypt. Eventually in a time period known as the Hellenistic period Greece would eventually conquer Egypt though.)
The charm could've been another reason for Bast to gravitate towards 4c. (And in a lot of Ancient Egypt depictions, Pharaohs would give Gods an Ankh as a symbol of how they granted eternity.)
!!Okay so next thing, in the above drawing he's kinda sad, yeah. That's like. Because I think champions are probably going to get a little bit traumatized, and also. He's probably still kinda worried about Mae and Shan at that point. Especially because like. He doesn't know how many others knew it was Mae supposed to be there not him. And any of the three of them getting in trouble, especially in reguards to the gods would not be good.
!!Alright, one last thing. I imagine the Gods would like. Lend a small few abilities to their champions, similar to the way a DnD Warlock functions in a way if you think about it too hard. Which is like. Sort of what happened in my dream.
I'd like to think he got the like. Cat ears and tail, and so his balance has improved ten-fold. And he would have been already okay at climbing and so the two thinga combined are now just a deadly combination. Meanwhile maybe similar to Bannerfall Scott, little flowers and grasses just grow a little more quick around his feet.
And then in my mind I've been contemplating how to incorporate the protection part of Bastet. She's usally depicted as a black cat, which across different cultures are depicted as bad luck, and in others as good luck. So perhaps there's something there.
But I also think it would be really interesting if for no reason at all a Champion to the godess of protection just so happened to mayhaps end up feeling as if it was useless all along if he couldn't protect those around him either way. :D
Of course then. Could also just do another simple thing like small scratches heal a little bit faster or something.
Just things to ponder I suppose.
I may turn this into a full au, who knows. Would only happen durring or after Pantheon though. I do want to see how that actually goes or is first. My unconscious is quite likely to be incredibly far off from reality. (If it's far enough off I could also write it like it is as entirely it's own thing, just listing Pansmp as inspiration.)
It's a Joke on the translation of "is" and "was" in German being "ist" and "war", which sound Like the Last parts of the Word "Archivist" and the German Translation "Archivar", respectively)
The Buried - You're a psychological study because this links back to childhood somehow. You either ate dirt or had to dig somewhere every time you went outside.
The Corruption - You're always vaguely sick (Coughing, sneezing, randomly dizzy.), yet despite this you are probably prefer The Corruption as a toxicity metaphor instead of just a blatant fear of illness.
The Dark - For claiming the dark is your favorite, you sure would love a star projector. The dark to astronomy pipeline is real.
The Desolation - This is not your favorite, Agnes Montague is your favorite.
The End - Your favorite season is winter, no I'm not elaborating.
The Extinction -Ā You like making fan content after watching something more than actually watching something.
The Eye - You really resonate with Jonathan Sims.
The Flesh - š³ļøāā§ļø.
The Hunt - All your hobbies become personality traits and you're so real for that.
The Lonely - Go straight to therapy. Do not pass go. Do not get 200 dollars. Get off AO3. You know you shouldn't be reading those fics at 2AM. Yes. Those.
The Slaughter - Okay, "knows a lot about medieval torture devices and the paranormal," I see you.
The Spiral - You think spoilers make stories better.
The Stranger - You either don't like for people to know you, or your childhood was full of the fear of Ronald McDonald. Either way, there's a nonzero chance you are/were a theater kid.
The Vast - You want to be full of whimsy, but you're full of exhaustion and burnout instead.
The Web - You probably disagree with Jon's choice at the end of TMA, you probably like the directors cut of movies, and you probably tend to make the least popular choices in choice based video games because you trust your opinions even when others see something differently.
During my time in mcyt fandom, I've watched as the fandom's perception of creator boundaries has grown and shifted into a cornerstone of our fandom, and yet we don't actually have any good data on how the fandom as a whole perceives them outside of discourse posts.
The goal of this unofficial study NOT to make a value judgement on whether creator boundaries should be respected - it is to understand how the fandom currently perceives and interacts with them.* Is respecting creator boundaries important to you? Has your favorite creator made a boundary list or spoken about it on stream? Do you find some boundaries acceptable and others not? Have you ever been the target of hate for engaging with boundary-breaking content? Whether you think boundaries should always be respected or you think they're being used as tools of censorship, I want to hear from you. What are boundaries, and why do they matter so much to us?
ā
This survey is a mix of multiple choice and optional long-response questions. It should take about 15 minutes if youāre only doing the required questions, and much longer if you choose to answer the optional questions.**
If you are able, please reblog and share this survey link around. Feel free to post it on any platform, as I am currently only on Tumblr, which is not representative of the fandom as a whole. In fact, Iād love it if it reached Twitter. The more responses, the more accurate the results will be for the whole of mcyt.*** Anyone in mcyt spaces, including creators, are welcome to take the survey to share their thoughts. However, I ask that for the comfort of content creators and the spirit of good fandom etiquete, please do not directly share the survey with any creator or post the link in any creatorsā official communities. Thoughtful discussion is always valued over reactionary comments.
The survey is set to close at 11:59pm EST on August 1, 2026 - I may extend this date if there is still a high volume of responses coming in, or if there arenāt enough responses yet for meaningful data. I will aim to publish the results within a month of the surveyās close, and keep you updated on the timeline if thatās not feasible for any reason.
A huge thank you to everyone who helped beta this survey- you all gave such wonderful suggestions! I wish I couldāve kept every question, but in the end a lot needed to be cut to make this manageable. Please know that I appreciate every one of you, as this survey would not exist today without you.
ā
* Why I think this data is important to collect: The idea for this survey came to me almost a year ago, and I started developing it around February of this year. Iāve spoken with dozens of people about this topic with diverse opinions, read and catalogued hundreds of tumblr posts, rewatched streams and videos by creators and fans, and watched as opinions have shifted across fandoms in real time. I feel extremely confident in saying that every person on every side cares deeply about respecting others and creating safe, welcoming communities in all mcyt spaces. Where they differ is on how to show that respect, which kinds of expectations they think are reasonable in different spaces, and beliefs on how those in power should be using their influence. I donāt expect this surveyās results to fundamentally change anything - this debate has been going on longer than mcyt has existed. But I think itās still important to analyze the actual arguments people are making and how they affect our communities, instead of focusing on expected behavior from others based on our own values, so we can see the varying expressions of humanity in each other and work towards a better future for our fandom. I donāt think weāre as different as the discourse may have us believe.
** This survey is designed to encourage all participants to think critically about their position and the effects it has. I am aware that I have my own personal biases, so I have taken steps to ensure that the survey is as bipartisan as possible and also gives participants the opportunity to explain their answers for every question if they feel the need. Because of this, there may be questions that make some participants uncomfortable. While I would appreciate knowing why a question has made someone uncomfortable, participants are always free to skip such long-response questions.
*** Iām well aware that any recent discourse on this topic may skew results if arguments on one side are more successful than another in convincing fans of a particular position. I still think the data will be valuable even with a potential skew.
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