Mighty Mad Mouse

Dracula in cargo:

sold

OK

final one

for all the marbles,

this one doesn't have an illustration bc i think it was just a kids novel but i haven't been able to find ANYTHING about it on my occasional internet queries:

kids is staying with his (grandmother?) in the woods and she warns him not to look a fox in the eyes bc they're tricksy and will swap places with you. obviously that's the first thing the little boy does and gets body snatched by a fox who uhhhh proceeds to pig out with his new little boy human hands and the boy has to trick the fox into looking him in the eyes again to switch back...

i cannot express how much these are from memory, that's how internalized these artists and writers have become, they're a part of me now

The second one is likely Stellaluna.

I have to admit that I have never seen this here after the start of Dracula Daily, yet this can occur since nautical horror has a western british coat to it and sometimes the nationalities of secondary characters are seen as interchangeable, but in the case of the Demeter section they are not.

It's very important both in text and meaning that the Demeter crew were russians and romanian because their nationalities are part of the theme of superstitions vs modernity. The crew being russian is a neat detail that expands on their attitudes of continuing their jobs despite the inexplicable horror that surrounded them, not in the context of stereotypes but in the cultural perception of russia in the victorian era. Ironically enough, the british view on russia was of an aggressive and expansionist empire that threatened english interests with their "insatiable" ambitions for power. However, the russian crew are not presented like any of the negative stereotypes of time (which is noticeable since Stoker has already included negative stereotypes for other characters), instead they are presented as any other working man of the time trapped in an impossible situation.

The first mate being romanian is different, since unlike the captain and the others he does have a good idea of what is happening, and how truly dead they were. We don't know how much he remembers about the "superstitions" that were around his childhood, but if we go with his attitude throught the whole journey the first mate absolutely remembered the kind of evil that haunted his country. So far, the novel has shown how "civilized" english people react towards the belief of people they deem culturally inferior, of how legends are nothing but mussings of old with no basis in reality, and since england was an imperial power that could softly expands this perception upon other countries the more time passed then it's very likely that the first mate never tried to tell anyone about his suspicions since he would have been dismissed at best, or ridiculed at worst.

I will never render a sword this well again

also ass

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER MOBILE GAME 🦇

don't be afraid. don't be afraid. go to work. go out to eat. don't be afraid.

They weren't killed by the slashing of the CDC. They weren't killed by the administration's demonization of masks, that brought on by the vanity of one man who didn't want his bronzer to come off. They weren't killed by an industrial food system which will only do things Right if it's forced to, if it's inspected and made to, and over which there are far fewer watchdogs than there used to be. No! Don't worry. They were killed by underlying conditions.

don't be afraid. don't be afraid. the engines must keep running. don't be afraid.

Don't think about the fact that 12% of the population, or just about the same percentage of the population that marked themselves as Black on the 2020 Census, has diabetes. Don't think about the fact that 10% of the US population, or approximately the same percentage which has blue eyes, has at least one autoimmune disease. Don't think about the fact that 6% of the adult US population, or approximately the same percentage as 'people under the age of five', has a chronic heart condition. Don't think about the fact that the CDC says that 40% of the US population is obese, and that is an "underlying condition," too. That percentage? It's about the same as every US resident between the ages of 25 and 54.

don't be afraid. don't be afraid.

"Underlying conditions" is a way to wave away responsibility, yes, but it's more than that. It's a way to put separation between the average citizen and the two people -- so far -- who have died from food infested with parasites, the two people who literally shit themselves to death because the Trump administration has fully abandoned all of its proper functions in order to strip down everything it can get its hands on and cart it away for itself. It is not enough to grift billions through American Liberty World Financial Bitcoin, Gold Shoe, And Bible-Printing Emporium. It is not enough to set up a literal "please bribe the President" ATM for foreign governments to shovel cash in via cryptocurrency. They have to grab everything they can that isn't nailed down, and to do that, they have to rip everything they can out of the walls, fire everybody they can get away with, and shuffle the money into ICE, and from their into the pockets of friends no-bid contracts.

It is not enough, and so they whisper "underlying conditions," because that tells so many Americans, "Hey. Don't be afraid. It's okay. You don't have 'underlying conditions,' right? You are good and virtuous. You have done Everything Right, and are thus blessed with Good Health. You have Worked Hard and Been Proper and thus you will not be touched by the seemingly-random hand of fucking death hiding in a bag of Kroger lettuce." It's the same voice that says, "You don't want those layabouts getting disability and cheating you out of your money, so we should make it harder," except now it's saying, "Actually, just like COVID, the only people who died were the people who were sick already, and obviously you only have underlying conditions if you weren't taking care of yourself, which you are, so don't worry! We don't actually have to do anything. This will sort itself out."