#Restless Dead

[chthonic-sorcery]

People think necromancy is all "evil magic this, devil worship that" when the word itself really just came from Greek nekromanteia, where ancient Greek people tried to evoke spirits to, y'know, ask them stuff.

Throw an ashphodel flower into a burning bronze dish at the crossroads at midnight on a new moon (hail, Hekate) and boom, ya got yourself some necromancy!

Throw in some incantations for a little bit of spice, too:

"I adjure (exarkizó) you, corpse-daimon (nekudaimon) by the powerful and inexorable god and by his holy names, to stand beside me in the coming night in whatever form you used to have,

and inform me whether you have the power to perform the so-and-so deed, immediately, immediately; quickly, quickly"

And, you know, a ghost just might appear. Hopefully you have an offering so they're not mad!

☆ ☆ ☆

Learn more here

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Restless Dead by Ian Miller

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Possessed - Restless Dead

[quadrantadvisor]

Thinking about DP x DC Jason Todd being a revenant again. Here's my scenario. Jason gets called that by some ghost. He's like "what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" He's heard the term before but he doesn't know any actual lore. He googles it. He scrolls past the Leonardo DiCaprio bear movie. He opens the wiki. Sees the words "animated corpse" and gets a chill diwn his spine. He starts reading the first section.

He closes Wikipedia.

That night he has a nightmare that his family buried him, again, this time with precautions. He wakes up in his own grave, full of stones, too heavy to move, to scream.

[y-vna]

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ🫙 𓈒ིུ ✿͟❀͟ ᰯ20͟0͟7♱ ⎯⎯ Atonement ◌࣪𓇻🗡️࿔

with tears in my eyes,

I begged you to stay.

You said, "Hey, man, I love you,

but no fucking way"

creds x all notes/alt key

hi so every image to the very right of each row of images (starting from the top and work ur way down) has one part of the total 4 parts of the story I wrote to correlate with this moodboard, bc i felt like it idk. Read it if you want, but just know there's an implied trigger warning and I'm not even close to a professional writer so don't go after me. Thank you, Happy Reading!!

- all credits for this moodboard are in the alt text of the divider!

inspo for this style of moodboard and inspo for the symbol layout here goes to @/miumiudaga @/nicodefresas and others!

*lots of notes for this moodboard because I spent so much damn effort here but 😭😭

[ecstarry]

Anaïs Nin - From a Journal of Love

[cccloudsss]

i do not believe in a joy as real as it being a horrible hour to still be awake, getting into a new fresh fandom (as in you've just gotten into fandoms in general, i've known these books and shows for years) and mentally thrashing against the bars of your cage looking at the posts for it.

i feel like a school girl kicking her feet over some new person she's obsessed with. who needs love when u have snowbaz, or firstprince, or aziracrow, or the unofficial fandom ships for the last binding series, or dreamling??????

(and also grell) (currently watching book of circus and i'm gnawing on the bars of my enclosure)

(oh god there's so many tags)

remember guys... you are cringe and free. the cage is a figment of your imagination!!

[agir1ukn0w]

I like to think Hilda keeps calling Malthus “Saint” as a term of endearment even after they get married.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 39 part 2

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)  (whole thing on AO3)    

Warning! Spoilers for all 50 Episodes!

Tumblr's godawful new editor has a hard limit of 30 images in a post, so I'm splitting this episode into 3 posts instead of 2. There's a lot of important gazing in this part of the episode and 30 images isn't going to cut it. (To be fair, the old editor would start to die after about 35 images)

Funeral Time

We start off at A-Qing's funeral. The gang has found a spot right next to the road to bury her, and has managed to pull together an impressive set of funeral accoutrements.

A well-prepared cultivator always travels with apples, oranges, peaches, ceramic bowls, incense sticks, sand for holding the incense sticks, candles, a sanded & finished board for carving names into, and paper money.

It's nice of them to make sure A-Qing has a proper grave with proper offerings. You know who they don't bury properly? Shishu Xiao Fucking Xingchen, that's who. Do better, Wei Wuxian.

Jingyi and Ouyang Zichen ugly-cry while Jin Ling threatens the already-dead Xue Yang with being bitten by his dog, to Wei Wuxian's discomfort.

The three adults on the scene don't cry at the grave or even look distressed, really; after the shit they've been through, they probably don't have a lot of feelings to spare for a stranger, even Wei Wuxian, who feels for everybody.

And Lan Wangji is busy with some important gazing.

Lan Wangji is having feelings; feelings about how it's a lot better to be Lan Wangji than it is to be Song Lan. He looks earnestly and intensely at Wei Wuxian and says "fortunately" or "how fortunate" (幸好, xìnghǎo), and then gazes even more earnestly at him.

(More after the cut!)

Wei Wuxian can be forgiven for not getting what Lan Wangji is saying here, because Lan Wangji isn't actually saying most of it. From WWX's perspective, a fresh grave is probably an unlikely place for a confession of love or anything like it, although by Lan Wangji's standards this is a romantic idyll compared to the various caves where they've had most of their dates.

Wei Wuxian asks him to explain, but the qiankun bag of cock blocking suddenly distracts Lan Wangji, and that's the end of that conversation. They tell everyone to wait while they go back to the coffin house.

Wen Ning watches them go, wondering what the fuck it is going to take for these guys to get together, for fuck's sake.

It's a Sad Sad Situation

Back at the coffin house, Song Lan is dejectedly caressing Xiao Xingchen's coffin.

This scene is poignant but it's also a reminder of what nice hands everybody in this show has.

It's also an opportunity to appreciate the details of Song Lan's costume. All the costumes have such variety in the fabrics, even an all black or black/grey outfit like this has a lot of textural variation.

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian each have something important to return to Song Lan. Wei Wuxian gives him the spirit trapping bag that contains what's left of Xiao Xingchen's consciousness.

Xiao Zhan and Li Bowen each make a valiant attempt to pretend this bag is not empty and about to collapse if they hold it too firmly.

Lan Wangi watches him receiving it, with a deep and painful understanding of Song Lan's feelings in this moment.

So, I assume that Lan Wangji is probably mainly feeling grateful that he has all of Wei Wuxian (well, minus his old body, which doesn't really matter to LWJ) returned to him. But I also can't help thinking about what the Lan Wangji of ~10 years ago would have given to have a scrap of Wei Wuxian's soul that he could carry with him. I wonder if Lan Wangji is thinking about that too.

Song Lan tells them, by writing in the dirt with his sword, that he plans to travel the world to fight evil in company with what's left of Xiao Xingchen. Essentially returning to the life journey that they shared, all those years ago. Lan Wangji responds by presenting Xiao Xingchen's sword to him.

Song Lan hits the road with both swords on his back, while Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji watch him go.

We don't hear Lan Wangji's thoughts, but his expression is, I think, a reflection of the grief he carried for so many years.

We do hear Wei Wuxian's thoughts, wondering if Song Lan and Xiao Xichen will ever meet again.

I'm not sure how reincarnation works when one of you has part of his soul trapped in a bag and one of you is a possibly-immortal walking corpse, but maybe they'll manage to be reborn together in spite of all that.

When WWX and LWJ are done contemplating how shitty the world can be, they reboot by having an intense gaze at each other.

Then it's back to mystery solving.

Wei Wuxian smacks the lid off of Xiao Xingchen's coffin....which is now empty?

Maybe they buried him between this scene and the last one. Without using his coffin. *shrug*

Lan Wangji lets the sword spirit out of the bag, and watches it sink through the open coffin and down underneath it. He shoves the coffin out of the way and finds another underneath it. Bunk coffins!

This one is covered with magic shit, which Wei Wuxian uncovers so we can see the heap of talismans on top of it.

Hand enthusiasts, this really is the episode for you.

Lan Wangji, who never does anything halfway, splits the lid in half with Bichen rather than, like, opening the lid in some normal way.

The sword spirit turns into Baxia, which is a big clue that the headless corpse in the coffin is Nie Mingjue.

Note that in traditional Chinese death...stuff, it's important to have a complete corpse, so separating a corpse into parts and keeping its head in your linen closet is a big fuckyou to the dead person in question.

Side note: Wei Wuxian continues to sense resentful energy directly, in his new body; once you open the doors of perception there is no going back, I guess.

Lan Wangji still seems to depend on his eyeballs and the presence of black smoke to tell him what's up, despite probably being pretty familiar with the feel of it, by now.

Additional side note since I can fit one more image into this post before Tumblr stops me: Lan Wangji continues to be impossibly pretty.

Continued in part 3!

Soundtrack: Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word by Elton John

[notbecauseofvictories]

I'm watching SurrealEstate, because "what if real estate was haunted as a matter of law, and also haunted haunted" is a good premise, even if the show is fairly boring in execution.

[injusticeitrust]

I made a new psychology report!

Don’t worry about this too much? There’s just some new changes. Weird.

Mr The phantom, have you been feeling off lately? Or perhaps starting taking the lithium I gave you?

"I mean, I did test the lithium to make sure everything was safe. You have to be careful, of course.

At first, after taking it for a bit, I did feel a little nauseous... but that's apparently a normal short-term side effect."

[kandyvatz]

I drew these traditionally a bit back, like around the last weeks of July? They're supposed to be chibi versions of the TLB couples. I'm pretty sure I was still trying to figure out how I'd draw them in my style, so if the designs look a little diff now that's why.

[faefrosting]

WHY DID I DREAM ABOUT JOINING A MURDER CULT CAUSE ONE THE GUYS AROUND MY AGE WAS HOT AND WAS WAS THERE SANS THE SKELETON THERE???

Thank the stars I woke up when I did, I was getting paranoid they were gonna kill me, realize that I don't kill people and I'm just really fucking weird (almost everyone was weirded out by me and didn't want to be near me)

The guy I joined the cult to see realized I was there because I am stupid and I was just some weird soft marshmallow of a person

Anyways Sans tried to judge me as a person since joining the cult, I got plus ten yippee points for every person I didn't kill (I killed no one I am a soft marshmallow) tur thing messed up and said I was dead even though the guys watching my score could still see me crawling on this random ah parking lot (I had this tendency to walk around on all fours for some reason)

I miss my dreams when I don't take my meds, so chaotic

[terra-tortoise]

i think ive unfortunately scried the perfect dragon for the wyrm. tragically theres only faes with these colors on the ah AND no copies of this accent </3

[wen-kexing-apologist]

"Jack had promised Elsie he’d tell her how the Last Contract business shook out. He had promised her. For so much of his life, Jack would have traded anything to speak to his sister again. And Maud had given him the chance. He’d faced this once already, sixteen years after his sister had died, he spoke to Elsie, in front of everyone he refused to admit he cared about. So why did he still feel afraid?" __ Maud helps Jack say goodbye to Elsie.

[fat-rolls-frictions]

document added to your inventory. transcript below.

CW: referenced self-harm, implied teeth horror, torture, unreality. @fiddles-ifs

(The document is marked as CONFIDENTIAL with various administration stamps and handwritten notes on the top margin. Much of the dates and serial numbers are illegible.

A ring stain from a cup is clearly visible on the bottom right corner.)

PARANORMAL INTELLIGENCE AND RESEARCH AGENCY

TRAINEE EVALUATION REPORT

Trainee's Name: Nguyen, Kim

Subject: Mission no.06 - Simulated Interrogation

Handlers: A. Itamura, V. Wallace

(Scattered throughout are fragmented phrases. They read: "who were?" "do you even care? do you" "you did not" "remember" "do you ever? di")

Addendum-120320A: Agents reported "unexpected" degree of resistance. Preliminary injuries logged. Mission proceeded without further complications.

("They have pliers.")

Overview: Trainee's previously recorded paranoia exacerbated after preparation period. Roommates reported heightened stress unrelated to anticipation of mission; effect attributed directly to trainee. Arrangements for extraction made with regards to trainee's evals and Dr. (redacted)'s suggestions.

Proceeding:

Trainee exhibited remarkable contentiousness despite several injuries, including a fractured collarbone and mild concussion. Agents instructed to secure with force given trainee's well documented volatility. Mission hook revealed. Dr. (redacted) correctly predicted that trainee would fail to respond to accusations of collaborating, or otherwise spearheading, the information leaks. Agents instructed to proceed with physical methodologies.

Stalemate achieved approx. 0500 hours after agent Itamura di ("his hands on your this pulp is not yours"). Trainee made multiple attempts to ("retaliate / retribute / requiter / illegible text"). Evidently unsuccessful (See A-120320B below). Trainee continued to redirect attention away from mission hook, oftentimes inciting, and appearing to relish retribution from agents. Previous psychological evals point to this being a product of mere belligerence. [break] ("It's the only thing you're capable of.") Nevertheless, agents pursued this lead to its completion, as is protocol.

Agent Wallace discovered healing injuries unrelated to mission at the 0619 hour mark. Injuries appear to be self-inflicted in nature, located in both inner arms. It was surmised that [break] teeth [break] match ("you didn't mean to but it happened what kind of person do this it just happened" "you" "tear into" "fuck off") unexpected emotional and psychological reactions. Agents authorized to remove part of trainee's sleeve in order to continue the interrogation.

(Overlay in the break, nearly illegible: "they pour water down your throat and it comes spilling out then he (illegible) hands teach you again the shape of your jaws you know intimately someone stupider would say-")

Incident C133-120320 took place at 0922 hours when agent Itamura prepared to [break] after several threats to [break] if trainee did not ("repent"). Neither agents anticipated the outburst. Agent Wallace remarked that [break] ("pliers")

("-bunny". The word "bunny" repeats several times after this instance in the margins.)

("sometimes you see people they do not stop even when they should even when" "metal on molars on gum on tongue" "you are horror under a pin with not dead cells taken off piece by piece a stream of un-consciousness good for nothing but self-cannibalizing desperate for something to fill your detritus a hate for something you can't name" "a you that do not" "are not")

("sometimes you see people they forget that they are people. sometimes that is for the best.")

[break]

Addendum-120320B: Itamura submitted for performance review after mission. Agent demonstrated certain lack of discipline in carrying out the mission and was influenced easily by trainee's provocations. Additional psychological eval recommended along side with physical therapy.

Incident log C133-120320: You cannot forget how bone feels between teeth.

("something hungers in the woods somewhere and it always finds you among the trees." This sentence repeats in the background, going off the margin.)

Department of Training. 21/02/(redacted)

("you had bunny teeth. you remember

someone

calling you

puppy

though.")