hallo! i have been a reblog lurker here for too long i wanna make friends and post rubbish so i should probably introduce myself!
im fern! my pronouns are they/them, im 21 and from the uk
major interests:
archive 81/ dead signals stuff
hannibal
discworld
the magnus archives/ magnus protocol
other stuff:
whatever tv show im watching at the moment (you'll know cos i'll reblog 5 stuff then nothing ever again), twin peaks, woe.begone, old gods of appalachia, uk/irish punk-rock, internet archiving, otgw, adventure time, gravity falls, and lots more if you stick around!
please interact if u want to b mutuals id love it! im always happy to chat about any of our shared interests :)
The creators of Archive 81, The Deep Vault, and Generation Crossing, are excited to announce the release of their new audio drama... Conversations with Ghosts.
It follows mausoleum attendant Mal Fleming as he tries to convince the spirits of Grey Briar Cemetery to pass on. In each episode, Mal sits down with a new ghost to build a portrait of their life, their death, and their afterlife... all to help them release whatever still ties their soul to this reality. It's a mix of NYC history, horror, and really fun sound design.
(If you were wondering, no it's not connected to Archive 81, but we're pretty sure if you'll like that podcast, you'll like this one.)
The first two episodes are OUT NOW wherever you get your podcasts - Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Youtube - literally wherever: https://pod.link/1843137773
Here's the website with more info, if you're interested.
Thanks so much for all of your support, we hope you'll like it.
i have encountered this sentiment across fandoms but in the context of a81 where there's like, a dozen of us
the bridge between ace fans and/or ppl who enjoy a81 in a zero-horny way and fans who DO enjoy a81 in a horny way, is actually very easy to cross! make the content you want to see! interact with the content you like!
i mainly write porn because a. that's always been my niche and b. that's what i engage w/re: archive 81 the most easily. i like the themes and how they connect to sexuality and body horror and sexualized body horror because that's meaningful to me. it's also enriching to me because even though i don't receive a lot of feedback (this is NOT! FISHING! i'm very happy with what i produce and how people react to it), i get to share it with my wife who feels as passionately as me :)
all that to say is that like, if you find that a fandom is super nsfw because 1-2 people (it's literally 1-2 people and some fanartists who haven't been in this fandom for 8+ years) are the only ones creating for it...create for it! there IS room for everyone. and i can only speak for myself but we want your sfw and ace headcanons and stuff like that too.
and interact with the stuff you DO like! read the non-explicit works and comment/kudos them; like & reblog the sfw art. post your fic and thoughts and engage in earnest with it! that's literally the only way a fandom can thrive, and small fandoms can't thrive if people...don't interact with it.
rituals in archive 81: grow a mint plant on a west facing windowsill. while it’s growing learn pottery and make yourself a mug inscribed with the last words you said to your closest childhood friend OR your favourite homer quote (the greek one not the fictional one from the long running animated tv series “the simpson’s”). use the first leaves from the mint plant to make tea inside the mug with water from a river that flows away from the ocean. draw a salt circle around yourself and drink the tea after saying your favourite homer quote (the fictional one from the long running animated tv series “the simpson’s” not the greek one) out loud. do NOT break the salt circle until you have finished drinking the tea. if the ritual is done correctly you will wake up the next morning and understand the plot of metal gear solid with perfect clarity. if the ritual is done incorrectly your ass will instantly fall off.
rituals in the magnus archives: fuck it. slam poetry.
Absolutely phenomenal work on this week's Protocol. You've destroyed me in a way I appreciate so much.
I can’t respond to everyone but thank you so much to everyone who has reached and shared the impact TMAGP 39 has had on them.
It is no secret I found the script very daunting, but that’s largely down to just how monumentally brilliant Alex and Jonny are as writers.
I picked up on the dysphoria parallels too, and Alex and April in the recording session were very supportive and patient with me whilst I slogged through it.
I feel this episode came at the perfect time. You’re all valid, amazing and strong. We are all suffering right now, but you are far from alone. I’m with you. I will always be with you.
I’ve officially started my second master’s thesis 🎓 and I’d really appreciate your help!
I’m running a survey that takes 20–30 minutes, and I'm especially looking for participants currently living in the UK or Germany – that’s the top priority!
Even better if you're also a student, but that’s secondary.
What if the characters of Discworld were Avatars of the 15 fears from the Magnus Archives?
Now, just a disclaimer, this is just my personal opinion of which character would best fit the bill. Regardless if you agree or disagree, feel absolutely free to do so either way. Also, obvious spoilers for the books excepting Shepherd's Crown and Raising Steam.
The Web:
This one is obvious and can be no one other than Lord Vetinari himself. An absolute master of subtle manipulation and long term planning, Vetinari is the perfect Avatar of the Web. He creates a reputation of pervasive fear and makes people believe that he could do away with them at a whim, despite him never once killing a single person who wasn't an irredeemable criminal of some sort, and even then usually giving them chances to redeem themselves first. This being the case, I'd say Lady Margolotta is also an Avatar, and the one who exposed Havelock to the Web in the first place.
The Hunt:
The most stereotypical aspect of the Hunt is manifested most by Wolfgang von Uberwald, the textbook Hunter who chases and kills for the thrill of it. Both Sam Vimes and Angua hear the call of the Blood, but both refuse to heed it, and so aren't Avatars. I'd argue that there's another Avatar of the Hunt fulfilling the other role, created by the Hunt to be the perpetually hunted, the never caught but ever pursued white stag/ golden doe, the one, though not only, Rincewind.
The Eye:
One Avatar is Jeannie and every Kelda before and after her. The Kelda sees everything and knows what has happened and what will. The alternate answer is Blind Io, given his literal eyeballs that float around and also that he's cognizant of everything that goes on in the Disc, and that everyone knows he's watching.
The Spiral:
The Elf Queen. The undisputed master of illusion and deception, creating false worlds that operate on her rules, trapping people in unreal dreams they cannot escape, making them see and believe what she wants them to see and believe. Bel Shamharoth is also a possible answer given how he distorts the senses and feeds on those he traps.
The Buried:
Albrecht Albrechtsson. Knockermen are undoubtedly Avatars of the Buried, with the complex stew of fear and reverence they feel for the underground, and Albrecht is the lowest among them. Agi Hammerthief is probably the only fully realised Avatar of the Buried, who dwells beneath the Disc where no one will ever reach him.
The Flesh:
The Igors and Nutt. The Igors for obvious reasons, their affinity for tinkering with bodies, and their indisputable understanding of the fact that meat is meat, and as such can be used for a lot more than its original intention. Nutt because he is a creation of said tinkering, flesh made warped, with a living engine of meat inside him.
The End:
Mort and Bill Door, and possibly every zombie. This really needs no explanation. Mort stepping into his Master's role is the textbook descent of a human into Avatarhood, developing strange powers and slowly becoming Other. I'm not counting Death because he is the personification of the thing and isn't human enough to qualify as an Avatar. Susan is possibly some kind of Agnes Montague analogue, born from the force itself.
The Slaughter:
Carcer, the Gonne, and Cohen the Barbarian. Carcer killed for the fun of it with no care for reasoning, consequence or morality. He WAS a one man slaughter by himself. Cohen's existence was also very similar to Carcer's, albeit he killed far more people and lived by a Code that ensured that though he mass murdered on the regular, he always did it with the same honesty as a man hunting for his next meal. As such perhaps Cohen was more an impersonal personification of the Slaughter like the Piper rather than an Avatar of it. The Gonne was more an a artifact that channeled the Slaughter into whoever held it, be it D'Eath, Cruces or even Vimes.
The Corruption:
Vorbis and the Cunning Man. Vorbis absolutely embodies the toxicity and insidious creeping infestation of the Corruption. He pollutes organisations and people, changing them and turning them into versions of himself, utilising extremely unhealthy relationship dynamics in order to do so, creating an atmosphere ripe with fear, desperation and despair. The Cunning Man is similar except his method of corruption is more direct than Vorbis's ie literally taking over the body of his victim while subtly influencing the minds of those around him when he's less corporeal. His presence is filth of the mind and stench of the soul, and incites disgust and fear among those aware of his true nature.
The Stranger:
I had some trouble with this but finally decided on Susan and Lu Tze. Although one would intuitively put Susan under The End, in practice the characteristics she actually exhibits line up more with the Stranger. She walks unseen among others, unknown in the places she passes through, never usually staying very long in one place unless that happens to be her dwelling at that time. Her presence unsettles people. She doesn't fit in among others and has always been set apart. She's too undead to be truly alive and too alive to be truly undead. The only people who really know her are Death and Time. To everyone else, she's a stranger they see sometimes.
And Lu Tze, of course, is just the Sweeper. No one knows the first thing about him apart from the fact that he happens to be there. He's a part of the background of whenever he is. If anyone ever truly Looked at him, and actually noticed what they saw, that he's in fact a stranger in their midst, the first words out of their mouths would be "I do not know you"
The Desolation:
Stratford, Spider the Rat King, and Ipslore the Red. Stratford was a motherfucker who would bleed every last drop before abandoning the corpse he created. This was a bastard who, wishing to cause Vimes as much pain as he could, chose to target his son rather than seek him out directly. A man after the Desolation's own heart. Spider was out for everything the humans had. It wanted their utter ruin and destruction and was well on its way to achieving it. And Ipslore attempted to destroy the whole world with his resentment, using and abusing his own son as his instrument to do so, and would have succeeded too, if it weren't for some idiot with a half brick in a sock.
The Extinction:
The Things from the Dungeon Dimensions. The Extinction is the end of the rule of Man and their replacement with the horrifying Other. And there's nothing that fits that description better than the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions, constantly seeking to bring about exactly what the Fear is.
The Lonely:
This was difficult to decide as well, but I believe the First Tooth Fairy might qualify. Living literally locked up in a bubble separate from the rest of reality, it lives apart from everyone and everything else, keeping alone for all eternity. Additionally, I believe that every living witch(with the exception of Nanny Ogg) carries a piece of the Lonely inside them. Its influence never goes away, and those who succumb to it are the ones who become cacklers.
The Vast:
Tiffany Aching and, funnily enough, a Simon once again. Tiffany's primary source of power is that she is, at her core, something far bigger than herself. She may be just Tiffany but she is also Land under Wave, the power and will of millions of years of life before her. At her most powerful she is aware of EVERYTHING, from the bones of the flint beneath the chalk to time itself to the stars being born in the distant sky. She is small but she is also Vast. And Simon sees the whole universe and truly understands what he's looking at. He sees and understands more than he can express and his knowledge of the Vast almost approaches comprehension.
The Dark:
The one, though once again not only, Samuel Vimes. There couldn't be any other answer here. The dark walks with him. He was born in it, moulded by it... By the time he saw the light it was nothing more than BLINDING. But yeah, he is most at peace in the true dark in the pissing rain on the cobbles, even before he was literally possessed by the living darkness itself. The dark aids him and talks to him. The dwarfs and the goblins may live in the dark, but Sam Vimes looked into the Abyss, and he wasn't the one who blinked.
All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
"They're not the same at all!"
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"
MY POINT EXACTLY.
Terry Pratchett, Hogfather (Discworld, #20; Death, #4)
there were FIVE archive 81 fics that were posted for fic in a box. i'm definitely not biased at all but they're all GOOD.
if i could only forget it | dan/rat | teen | 3k | Dan struggles to adjusting to life after the City. Maybe there is no moving on for him - or maybe he chooses to get caught again.
the promise made to rearrange | dan/rat| explicit | 5.6k | a direct sequel to the pain is eased but you'll never be free | It was nice, to be understood. Dan couldn’t remember that feeling, so it bloomed inside of him, new and ever reaching, warm in his chest and into his stomach and then to the tips of his fingers both the old and the new. He no longer was certain that there was any difference between the two things, and he was glad for it; because what did he need to define himself into split parts? What would be the point, of being two separate entities? It was a relief, he thought, to be here and to sit very still with his hands on Rat’s legs.
think of love when you remember me | static man/nicholas waters | teen | 5.2k | recursive fic of rather breathe than drown in sorrow
“Hah,” Static Man said, without any real laughter in his voice. “So, like you - do you want to just deeply traumatize him in a new way, then?”
“Static Man,” Nicholas said thickly.
“Gotcha,” Static Man said, “I gotcha, you’re so full of shit, you know that?”
Nicholas looked at Static Man and thought that he had no room to argue, so he just shrugged. They were silent for a moment, before Static Man again encroached on Nicholas’ space. “What are you afraid of, exactly?” he said, and tilted his head-shape, which was especially human and made something warm and terrifying linger in Nicholas’ gut.
paint the ceiling of my brain | dan/rat | explicit | 6.9k | warnings: drug use, body horror, dubious consent
“Rat,” he said, but he didn’t know what he was going to say next. He was bizarrely close to giving in, because Rat seemed so harmless like this, and Dan did sort of want to make whatever this was a little easier on him.
“Stick out your tongue,” Rat said again, and the hand that had been tracing the side of Dan’s face and throat was now trailing along his lower lip, as if trying to bait his tongue out of his mouth. He was speaking quietly but with a harsh, almost frenetic quality to his tone that was beginning to make Dan a little nervous. “You must taste the air. Taste the colors! They’re entirely different from anything else I have ever experienced!”
witnessless me | dan/rat | teen | 3.2k
[SFX: Train rumbling off, growing fainter and finally disappearing. Panting, heavy breaths into the microphone.]
DAN: Wow. That was really something. It went by so fast, but I could see - there were passengers inside, a man reading a newspaper, a woman with a tray of coffee cups… The whole world felt like it was shaking for a minute there. I wonder if it scared the rats. But you could hear how smoothly it ran on the tracks. The rats here… They seem really quiet to me. Maybe that’s how they keep surprising me. I thought rats were chattier.
