I think the thing I like the most here is, believe it or not, the background.

It looks like a mix between black fire, and tentacles.

I'm glad you noticed!

After playing two rounds of slender, I looked at the black swirls and nearly died x.x <3 love it though!

*Shudders* Aaand there's my nightmare for the next week. I commented to Dusty how you can FEEL the darkness that pours off of her, and you represent that so beautifully in this picture!

You, I think Bobby will agree with me when I say, as soon as you had her say, "baby" I immediately thought of Jason.

Jason!!!!! Grrrrrr....

Brrrr is right. Like looking at a cobra. Beautiful, but very, very deadly. And no warmth behind those blue eyes. gen, I absolutely love how you shaded this. Very awesome.

TM

The only way for such demons to be defeated is for them to be completely ignored and thus banished to the oblivion of insignificance.

The only problem is that they have thousands of ways of making that damn difficult.

Though I must admit, I have to admire her tactics here. Open with a philosophical first strike and immediately follow up with a stroke to the id. All but the strongest of wills or most singular of minds will be unbalanced just enough for future exploitation. Diabolical, but well-played.

I'm actually reminded of a moral dilemma I had years ago (tangent alert!): is there ever a time where one's dark side would be a strength, one that good people can use? There are times where it would seem very useful; quicker, easier, more direct and gets the job done, and when it comes to matters of life and death, sometimes you need to power through and thoroughly crush that which threatens you. A friend convinced me early on that no, one should never do such a thing, and both logically and ethically, that makes sense. The ends never justify the means. If you do horrible things to achieve good ends, that just makes you a monster who thinks they're a self-sacrificing hero. Sacrificing one's morals, ethics, and virtue is far more destructive.

But now, after thinking about it and considering what my dark side truly might be, I would have to say that in my experience, my dark side is less a manifestation of pure evil mingled with inherent good within an imperfect whole, and more of an id, a "shadow self" another friend poetically described, which is everything that is impatient, cynical, angry, and afraid. It wants to take things, forcefully if necessary, because if fears being left out. It wants to lash out because it's paranoid and feels like everyone is either out to get them or doesn't care about them. It hates everything and trusts nothing because it doesn't trust itself, for it is its greatest disappointment. It wants to cry out and beg for love and attention, but it is far, far too proud to even admit such things.

In short, it is a dangerous thing to be cautiously respected, but ultimately something so pathetic that it is to be pitied.

But, suffering does beget experience, and experience begets wisdom. For all its paranoia, cynicism, and angry outbursts, one's shadow self does have some useful things to say, if one is wise enough to be discriminating with its counsel. It may be distrustful or afraid because there is a valid reason. It may be angry because of a legitimate grievance. And while the actions it demands may be stepping beyond what is ethical and just, they may come when action is indeed called for.

And, perhaps most importantly, if one is able to carefully and intelligently converse with one's dark side, it will recognize when and how the dark sides of others are trying to exploit you. Not exactly fighting fire with fire, but when you are around it for so long, you tend to learn how it behaves.

Of course, one must always take care when taking counsel from our dark sides, for it wishes to do its own thing and its suggestions are quite seductive. Ideally, we would ultimately live in a world where we would never have to rely on such counsel, but, as the perennial saying goes, we live in a very imperfect world.

I suppose this is my very long-winded, roundabout way of saying "Duh, Miss Scratch. I'm walking over there now."

So much for ignoring her.

I remember in Screwtape Letters one of the things Screwtape told his nephew was that the best way to give a demon strength is to convince a person that they do not exist. And one of the ways of doing that is to conjure up silly caricatures. A silly red thing with horns and a pointy tail is silly looking, so it couldn't be real. Thus, neither are demons.

"I was just having a bad day."

"He deserved it."

"Everyone is always kicking me around, I deserve to kick back."

or the very worst...

"You know, I really AM a jerk and so is everyone else. I might as well admit it and stop trying to be nice."

We tell ourselves that we could never be killers and the monsters we see on the news. So we couldn't possibly be bad people.


Just one last little thing... Scratch is MY dark side. The thing I have to resist when I know I could get what I want with a little twist of manipulation, a little play on loneliness and sensuality, a smidgen of sellout for a glob of greed...

"Lead me not into temptation! I can find it for myself!"

See, Gen, this is why I keep saying that you are wise beyond your years.

(in full philosophizing mode now)

I remember in Screwtape Letters one of the things Screwtape told his nephew was that the best way to give a demon strength is to convince a person that they do not exist.

What is the true source of evil in the world? Is there a malevolent force that induces people into committing acts of evil, both great and petty, or is humanity capable of inflicting such evil upon itself without such help? Do we fear the Devil or the devil that lurks inside other people?

Sometimes I wonder what I'm getting wrong in adopting a more...humanist (for lack of a better term) view of this argument. I can think of several, but that's another can of worms in itself.


We tell ourselves that we could never be killers and the monsters we see on the news. So we couldn't possibly be bad people.

Some of the best villains are otherwise very rational and sane people who are convinced that they are the hero of the story.


Scratch is MY dark side. The thing I have to resist when I know I could get what I want with a little twist of manipulation, a little play on loneliness and sensuality, a smidgen of sellout for a glob of greed...

I think I just figured out what prompted this whole response in the first place. Miss Scratch operates on manipulation, whereas one of my dark side's triggers is a paranoia of being manipulated. I get put on the defensive because she touches a nerve, using a truth to find a chink in my armor, thus provoking the whole "I see you and I know what you're doing" posturing, all while realizing that if she ever did put me on her list, I'd stand little chance. Thus, my only hope is to walk away and hope she finds easier prey.

Might I add that I'm very glad you're not Miss Scratch?

Several other good ones:

"No one will ever know..."

"It's all perfectly natural. You see it in nature all the time!"

"But MY reasons are DIFFERENT!"

Watching this come together makes it all the better..

She looks appealing. But then again, evil often does look that way.

I've always thought demons would look exactly like one of your most deepest and darkest fantasies come alive. A succubus and temptress all in one. Only if you catch on in what the demon was doing to you would they turn nasty and evil looking.

Indeed, Scratch, we've all earned the wages of our sin, too.

Wow, this looks nice Gen!

Heh. So I'm not the only one whose dark side does that? Says those kinds of things? Good to know, I guess.

Hewoo Georgouth. You rapagth here offten?

Hi, Gen,

Back in the early 80s, I stopped worrying about my occasional bouts of intrusive thoughts. One rainy day, I had just finished doing laundry. As I was enjoying the warmth of a load of clothes, fresh from the drier, I looked out a window, and saw the center-pole-and-arms clothesline frame. "I could run outside, hang all these freshly dried clothes on the line and get them soaking wet." That was so obviously a case of ideas colliding in a bad way, that I could see it wasn't because I really wanted to do that. And of course I didn't run out into the rain with my arms loaded with warm, dry clothes.

I had heard of "intrusive thoughts" before, but wondered if that was all it was, in my case. What if I were just plain evil or crazy? But years of good behavior and quiet living, and refusal to act crazily had to be considered too.

I've heard that some post-partum depression comes from new mothers having awful thoughts about their newborns. Intrusive thoughts are more likely to occur when we're exhausted, and from all I read and hear, giving birth, then tending a newborn, is very tiring. So I hope mothers are being told that they aren't awful mothers, that they aren't crazy or evil.

Scratch is something different, of course. In the story, Scratch is very real. I don't worry about my Scratch, is all I'm saying. "Let he who stands take heed, lest he fall," yes, but let's not beat ourselves up. That could just make us more prone to give in.