#lilac fang

[caddy-crystal-queen]

Yall can pry this ship from my cold, dead fingers!

NOSFERATU (2024) dir. Robert Eggers

[artwitch-kamille]

And so it begins! I'm literally squealing over here. I don't know if I've ever been so excited to start a painting 😊

[whisperingwillowe]

People criticizing Nosferatu for 'romanticizing abuse' don’t seem to understand the essence of Gothic romance and literature. These stories aren't meant to make you feel comfortable or align with conventional morality. Gothic romance thrives in the tension between beauty and horror, weaving together the sublime and the grotesque to evoke emotions that are complex, raw, and hauntingly human. It’s not about endorsing behavior—it’s about exploring the darker corners of desire, fear, and the human condition. 🖤💀🪻

[relmint-draws]

more Nosferatu doodles

[caddy-crystal-queen]

Goddammit can we for the love of the gods keep politics out of this?! This movie/story has literally nothing to do with the bullshit going on in DC...

Keep yalls politics away from my hyperfixation please and thank you

Media Literacy is really dead when we see that some people analyze Nosferatu 2024 and the Ellen & Orlok relationship from the angle of the bizarre question of whether Ellen is a person who would vote for Trump (?), with Ellen representing the person of the people who vote (for Trump therefore) and Orlok who represents Trump that only the people can also free after realizing that he brings chaos instead of what he would have promised, like Ellen who kills Orlok at the end. No but seriously... Wtf ?!

[ashes-writing-corner]

Dang I'm like super motivated to write this cause yall are getting an update already! Thank you guys do much for all the love for this, it's so so appreciated! <3

Taglist: @exactlyelegantwizard, @xenoanamorph, @hoeia-strigoi, and @arwenkenobi48

If you want to be added to the taglist please let me know!

Chapter features Romanian as translated by Google. I am so sorry if it's not accurate! X.X

Without further ado!

Exile- A Nosferatu Fanfic

Chapter 1

And it took you five whole minutes, to pack us up and leave me with it. Holding all this love out here in the hall…

It was light when she woke again, surrounded not by cold this time but rather comfort. Ellen’s feeling of painless nothingness was pretty much gone, leaving her feeling light and weightless. But there was oddly warmth, comfort, and softness. She rose and looked around, her senses coming to life again one by one. Ellen didn’t know this place and yet there was a strange sense of familiarity. The room was akin to a dream, or maybe something she had seen in one a long time ago. It inspired that weird, familiar feeling: a feeling that this had happened before. That she had been here before. 

There was the overall lack of color in the stone walled room. Everything looked so…dull and gray. The curtains surrounding the bed were a deep burgundy, but they were covered in a thick layer of dust…or at least Ellen thought was dust at first. When she touched the curtain, it was like touching winter’s first frost. That was definitely not dust…

She pulled her hand back, almost painfully. No, not pain. Not really. She was just surprised. Ellen knew she wasn’t supposed to feel anything. She was…

She couldn’t even bring herself to think it, let alone say it. Her memory was a bit fuzzy, like looking through a dusty window, but she remembered how everything felt. It was coming back, slowly but surely as she gained more awareness, as each of her senses came to life…or perhaps unlife was the better term. 

There was something warm at her feet, something soft. Something…breathing? What did anything here have any need for breath? How curious…

She was almost afraid to look, but was pleasantly surprised when she did. A large black dog laid at her feet, curled up as if attempting to keep them warm. He was shaggy, with long hair and a rather large yet strong body. The ears were triangular, relaxed in a sleeping state and yet so acutely aware. Curious and a little afraid, Ellen reached a hand out to touch the sleeping dog at her feet, moving a little so she could pet his fur. He wasn’t cold, unlike the rest of the room it seemed. It felt like he was…alive almost. She heard a soft ruff from the animal and pulled her hand away as he raised his head. Her eyes found the silver-gold orbs of the canine, and he let out a soft whine. 

“Hello there, beauty” Ellen reached her hand out again and petted the dog softly between his ears, “Were you with me this whole time?” she asked, as if he could answer. 

The dog wagged his tail, panting softly as if to tell her he did in fact stay with her. He was awfully calm and gentle for such a large animal. Ellen wasn’t used to dogs, though she had a few of them growing up. Felines were more of her interest, as she liked their independent nature. However, she wouldn’t deny that there was indeed a sort of charm to this dog in particular. 

“Such a good boy. Thank you” Ellen whispered softly as she petted his back and shoulders, “Now I just…need to figure out where I am”. 

She stretched a little and got up, finally pulling the frosted burgundy curtain aside to finally get a glimpse of the room. Just like the rest of the world, it was so…dreary. Everything seemed to be dipped in varying shades of blue and gray. But it seemed the room had everything Ellen needed: bed, wardrobe, a rather nice if antique vanity, a small bookcase full of various books, on top of which were, strangely, various tiny figurines and dolls from her childhood. Things Ellen thought she forgot a long, long time ago. Literally a lifetime ago in this case. 

“A place where things go when they’re forgotten, perhaps” Ellen wondered aloud as she stood from the bed, the dog following close behind her. 

She touched one of the figurines, a little fairy in a white dress with dark hair. Her father had gotten it for her, calling it a miniature version of her. Ellen remembered she had thought that humorous as a child, but now it seemed he hadn’t been completely wrong. To be honest, she didn’t know exactly what she was anymore, nor was she entirely sure it mattered now. 

Not now. Not that she was…

She still couldn’t bring herself to think it. Guilt fed like a ravenous beast in the back of her mind. She had left Thomas. She chose the monster who plagued her for her entire life over him. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right. But at the same time, it had to be done. She had to do it, to end the beast’s reign of terror.

A harsh blast of cold pulled her from her gnawing guilt, her thoughts stopping for all of a moment, before she knew: She wasn’t alone, and it wasn’t just the dogs. Ellen held the figurine tightly in her hand, as though somehow it would protect her. It couldn’t be…could it? She watched him perish. 

Held him as he perished…

The memory of that last, final moment, that last breath ran through her mind. Ellen held him, trying to somehow convey thoughts of comfort and reassurance despite the pain he felt. 

“It’s okay…” she remembered thinking, “It’s okay…we’re together now…let go…let go…” She remembered thinking as the beast, the Count, bled out all over her and her bed.

Ellen blinked, her thoughts coming back to the present. She dared not turn around, the dog at her feet staying close by, but not as guarded. She closed her eyes tight, trying to think of something that didn’t scare her. There was no way he could be here…surely there wasn’t…

“You are…awake” his voice was an all too familiar sound, though it sounded different now. 

He sounded different. Gone was the deep wheezing caused by lungs that no longer functioned. The growl was still there but not as prominent. The accent was the same, and it was still slightly monotone…slightly. It wasn’t unpleasant, per se. Just…something Ellen wanted to leave behind her. But it seemed the higher powers, who or whatever they were, had some other ill plan for her and the Beast. 

“Get out…” Ellen said quietly, not even looking at him. 

She could feel his ice cold glare at her back. “You…do not…command me-”. 

“I said get out…now!” Ellen dared to cut him off with a harsher tone. 

She heard a growl, but didn’t dare turn around. She would not look at him, refused to face him. The large black dog laid quiet at her feet, ears flat, torn between two masters. Ellen shook her head, her eyes closed tight as if she were in some sort of nightmare. 

“Shall you deny me now?! After everything I’ve done?! After I pulled you from Chaos?! This is my repayment?!” the Beast demanded, “After what you did to me?!” 

“I had to do it. To save everyone…” she said, “You would’ve killed everyone! Everyone! And i was supposed to sit there idle and let you-”. 

“Ah still a neat little trick you do little one…You close off your mind and lies spew from your mouth like venom!” 

“I’m not lying!”

“About your intentions! You didn’t do what you did to save everyone. You joined with me because you wanted to”. 

“And once more you are a deceiver! If I have a serpent’s venom, then you speak with a serpent’s tongue!” . 

“And once more you deceive only yourself, suflet mic!”. 

Ellen shuddered at the nickname. “Don’t you ever call me that again! You lost the right to call me that years ago!”. 

Suflet mic…

It meant “Little Soul” in Romanian. He had once used it as a term of endearment for her, when they first found each other. He hadn’t called her that in years, not since he stopped coming to her after she married Thomas. 

A cold silence overtook the room. The air was icy with both his presence and her hatred. Ellen trembled from the sheer force of it. Her hands balled into fists, even around the little fairy figurine. 

“I said leave. You are not welcome in this space…you will NEVER be welcome in this space!” Ellen yelled, tempted to turn around and throw the figurine at him. However, she refrained…just barely. 

Without her permission, he couldn’t stay in her room, her space. This was hers and hers alone. It was one of the few rules of this place: Neither could enter the other’s space once it was established to them without consent. He stepped away from her, his footfall heavy. The Beast peered down at the black dog. 

“Furie, ține-o în siguranță…” He commanded as he left the room, compelled by this strange realm’s magic and rules. 

The dog, Furie apparently, barked in response. He would be her faithful guardian, not that there was much that could harm her here. But even so…the last thing he needed was Ellen finding her way back to the waters of Chaos. 

Away from Him…

And ultimately lost to time…

The thought disturbed Orlok in a way he had never known. To be dead was one thing, but to be lost and forgotten was a whole other fear. Chaos could take him if fate demanded, but he would not spend eternity where she wasn’t there. He told her Ever Eternally…and he meant it. She was his until Chaos decided to call for them both. If and when that ever happened…

Thanks so much for reading guys! Please don't forget to like, reblog, and comment! Your support means the world to me ^-^

[caddy-crystal-queen]

Okay but why do I wanna write a fic where Ellen and Orlok are together in the afterlife and they're kinda stuck together because of their agreement and of course how they died? Orlok gains a semblance of his humanity back and its angsty as all hell. Ellen struggles with the thought of whether she did the right thing or not, more angst on her end. And with the combined powers of angst, and a mutual sense of understanding, the two spirits slowly learn to co-exist...and maybe get the happy ending they were both denied in life...

Just an idea bopping around in my head...

[caddy-crystal-queen]

Finally someone talks about his expression as Ellen was laying down for him. There was just this sad, very human expression. I feel like he knew what was going to happen and came to terms with it, so long as it meant being with her.

the final sequence of nosferatu is everything. it's utterly and profoundly bittersweet. it's a multilayered metaphor. it's beautifully disturbing and disturbingly beautiful.

the agonizing tenderness of the kiss. ellen embracing orlok, the manifestation of her repressed identity that was shunned by society, binding her spirit and flesh to the desire that was seen as sinful and abhorred. a glimpse of something tragically human flickering momentarily in orlok's faltering gaze as ellen lies down for him. thomas' futile desperation to outrun the destiny of his beloved. orlok's desire to be one with ellen overcoming his parasitic predisposition to self-preservation. ellen and orlok being alive at least before accepting death as they unite eternally. her succumbing to his darkness and him burning by her light.

and the score accompanying it all...

the sequence forces you to feel the uncomfortable complexity of it all, and it gives you the relief as well.

god, what a movie.

[artwitch-kamille]

Guys, I am absolutely not okay.

This movie has utterly taken over my life in a matter of five days. It was everything—everything—I dreamed it would be and more. Everything I adore wrapped into one gorgeous and poignant film... 

Since I was quite young, I've been completely captivated by the Death and the Maiden archetype. I'm pretty sure it started with Disney's Beauty and the Beast, then Labyrinth, and by the time I saw Phantom of the Opera as a teen, it was a full-blown awakening. It's just spiraled from there into loving the Hades and Persephone myth, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and of course, Reylo! I think that's why Nosferatu 2024 spoke to me so deeply. It was everything Gothic romance and horror should be. And the feels—oh, the feels! I've never, ever seen such a perfect blending of the gorgeous and grotesque wrapped up into one perfect little offering.

Since I saw it last week, my inspiration and motivation have been off the charts. I'm almost finished mapping out an Ellen x Orlok painting, and I'm so excited to start it! I've also planned out three separate pieces for a new Death and the Maiden series and a Hades and Persephone painting.

Ugh, Robert Eggers is such an artist. Thank you, sir, for bringing this masterpiece into existence.💀🖤🪻

[whisperingwillowe]

[ashes-writing-corner]

I wanted to wait til I had a few chapters done but...I know a lot of yall are waiting on this so...

Here is the prologue! Short and kinda sweet but I hope you guys like it anyway! 💜🖤💜

Taglist: @exactlyelegantwizard, @xenoanamorph, and @hoeia-strigoi

If you'd like to be added to the taglist feel free to let me know ^-^

Without further ado:

Exile: A Nosferatu Fanfic

Prologue

I can see you standing honey, with his arms around your body. Laughing but the joke's not funny at all…

Cold…

Cold was what surrounded her on all sides. The deepest cold she had ever felt. Impossibly cold. It was all Ellen could think of as she laid there, her eyes unfeeling, body unmoving and yet somehow drifting. She wasn't moving and yet it felt like she was floating downward.

Sinking…

Sinking into the cold, inky blackness. No direction, no way of knowing where she was or what was happening. Ellen felt like a fallen leaf, drifting through an icy river, prepared to let it rip her apart. She opened her arms, feeling the impossible cold flow through and over her. She still couldn't see, everything was so, so dark…

Peace…

There was a sort of peace that came with the drifting. Her mind was blank. A painless nothingness had overtaken her. Acceptance threaded its way through her as her mind eased away. Images of her life flashed in her mind's eye: from her mother's death, to warm summer days in the sun, to her wedding…the happiest day of her life.

Thomas…

Her sweet beloved Thomas…

She was gone and he was alone now…

Ellen had left him alone. How could she? Why did she do it? To be the hero? To save everyone? For some half noble purpose? No…not completely. It wasn't all completely altruistic. Not all heroic. Ellen knew, from the deepest part of her, she did it to free herself. Chose to die, to save everyone and herself. And she knew it. The terror began with her, so it had to end with her.

Did it work? She had no way of knowing. And in the moment, with her mind gone and body drifting through cold darkness, Ellen didn't care. She would've been horrified, if she could feel it…

“No…i…will never…let go!” A voice, horrific like a half dying, mourning animal, sounded in her ears, piercing her mind like a large sharp needle.

She felt a hand, as cold as the darkness, grab her arm. There was a rush of cold, exhilarating and terrible all at once, before she broke through shattering, glassy ice. Ellen still found she could not see. All around her was white, all the world covered and suffocated by deep snow.

Her mind was slowly coming back. Dreadfully. No…no she didn't want it back, didn't want to feel these things! No! No no no no! Her entire body and mind raged and fought but it was like a pair of strong, icy arms held her firmly against a solid body.

“No! Stop! STOOOOOOP!”.

The roar sounded again before she fell back into darkness, her mind going blissfully unaware once more…

If you guys enjoyed this please like, comment, and reblog! This is gonna be a long fic and I honestly need all the encouragement I can get! Thank you and I hope you're having an awesome day/night! ^-^

[caddy-crystal-queen]

Love this take! Thank you! <3 granted I'm not all for analyzing movies to death but the is one of the ones I can appreciate.

I'm trying to avoid people's dumb takes on Nosferatu but I keep being exposed to the tip of the iceberg and am annoyed enough about it to rant about it.

There's nothing in there that implies she was a kid. She lived in her family home, in the room she had lived in her whole life-- very typical for an unmarried adult woman at the time, especially in a well off family. Everyone determined that this had to be Orlok "grooming" a "child" are just fixated on that interpretation because it's nasty-sounding enough that they can condemn the relationship as "irredeemable" and "problematic" without sounding like pearl-clutchers. It's the magic word that lets them look vindicated in writing the whole thing off. She's not played by a child, she is dressed and styled as an adult, and the needs she's expressing, for attention, for recognition, for physical and emotional intimacy, are in no way limited to children. She's a young woman yearning for things that everybody wants and she's been denied. Ellen having been neglected, lonely, and starved for affection doesn't negate her adulthood. Her walking into a bad situation as a result of all that doesn't make her "groomed." Plenty of grown adults wind up in bad relationships because they're naive and desperate for love.

Similarly, everyone determined that one side of the triangle here wasn't "real" or that she "actually" only felt a connection with one of them and nothing for the other is similarly ridiculous. Thomas is the relationship Ellen chooses intentionally and conscientiously and which provides her the future she wants while satisfying her physical and emotional desires in a safe, secure, loving environment. Orlok is the first love, the first major relationship that she fell into because she was reckless and desperate for affection, that at first satisfied her needs but turned sour and dangerous-- that relationship becoming scary, unpleasant, coercive, doesn't erase the good things they had together once. Ellen and Orlok is the bad breakup between people who's freak matched too well. In the normal world it'd be a bad breakup with a toxic partner; in hers he's unfortunately also a an amoral inhuman manifestation of consumption.

And as for "Orlok doesn't love Ellen blah blah he's only an appetite blah blah." Love is an appetite. Need is an appetite. Loneliness is an appetite unmet. It's all hunger!! Why the FUCK is a zillion year old ghoul aristocrat holed up in a ruin in Eastern Europe tuned in enough to immediately respond to the random calls of some nameless unimportant woman he's never met a thousand miles away?? Because he's as desperate as she is, and for similar things. He was already listening, was already looking for someone-- he was desperate and searching first. His needs are twisted because he's a literal monster, but they still echo hers. The freak is matched, the freak in this case being deep emptiness and desire to be wanted and embraced. Unfortunately for him, Ellen can look elsewhere to satisfy those desires when he no longer makes her happy and find people who will-- and she does. Orlok can only go where he is called, must be chosen under special circumstances, which, seemingly out of everyone within his considerable reach, only she has offered. If what Orlok feels isn't love, its the survival in his mockery of life of what would have been love. But what ends in real love with union, ends for him with destruction and a return to lonely solitude-- that's his curse.

Ellen saves the man she chose by rejecting their future together, by breaking their marriage vows, and by sacrificing herself. She chooses the sacrifice as an act of autonomy, but one that subverts her own desires and victimizes her. It's a tragedy, but it's also a victory. It's a succumbing to the predations of the lover who wouldn't let her go, but its also making peace with him, taking into her embrace a figure she hates and fears but still feels connected to. It's fulfilling the monster's insatiable need, granting him the union he craves the only way it can be: through his death. Orlok is loved, and betrayed, and saved. Thomas is loved, and betrayed, and saved. Ellen chooses love for both of them, betrays them both, saves them both, betrays and saves herself. All of those things can be happening at once, just as tenderness, rejection, repulsion, evil, and love can all be happening at once. Is it comfortable? No. That's the point! But expressing your discomfort with that story as "I will willfully misinterpret this movie and dismiss its themes in whatever most easy to excuse way I can because I feel uncomfortable" is the path of the hack and the coward, and I think that's the what the majority of these "takes" are really about.

[caddy-crystal-queen]

I'll just say that Bernadette by IAMX is the Lilac-Fang anthem and no one can change my mind...

[mammoth-clangen]

Next

Previous

First

Hello partially written Moon update.

Also a bear, it's been like 9 years since i drew a bear (Tokota days) cx

Next update is full comic again (bc there's like 1 speech bubble) then there's 2 more written, beyond that is TBA bc my buffer rn is small (which is probably part of the reason im anxious) QvQ

I'm putting the rest of my comment under the cut tbh bc it's sorta comic-related vent and i don't wanna bum people out c'x

Kindred of the Mammoth is on Comicfury as well!

I've honestly been suuuuper anxious about posting this update bc of the half-comic style i tried out, and bc i don't know how well i wrote this scene. I kinda like that more written media lets me give some internal Lilac thoughts, and I can hint at things he knows and wouldn't say aloud. Also this scene,,, would have killed me as a comic, idk how i'd get the emotions across c':

On the other hand im anxious. idk if people will hate it or if people will think my depiction of Burnet suffering is ok (even though it's based on my own experiences with going borderline/entirely non-verbal when faced with questions i desperately need to answer but just can't.)

and then i say "pav why do u care when u are making Kindred for yourself?" and "people (including you) absolutely adore Pinepaw and the Forgotten World" and "fam you are so gd slow even with this style?" but such is life ig

Im trying to find a happy medium bc rn i literally get home from work, draw Kindred for 7 days and that's my week off gone, back to 7x 12hr days then home to rinse and repeat.

In the words of Baymax, I am not fast c':

[ashes-writing-corner]

So...I have a new fanfic I'm about to start working on because I have a new obsession and I'm going to inflict it on you all!

Exile: A Nosferatu Fanfic

Summary: they died together, so it's only natural they wind up in the same afterlife right? Spending eternity with the monster she helped destroy isn't Ellen Hutter's idea of heaven. Neither is it the Count's. But when fate has a plan, who can possibly fight or resist it? Can these two souls learn to co-exist? Or will past actions, and unspoken grief, tear them further apart?

[jorvikwildhorse]

Artfight attack on my gf lol. Played the camp western update today and this dumb joke came to my head. Not everyone has a cool werewolf gf to keep them safe like lakshmi