#mellification

[crowthebadhunter]

when your friend dies to bees

[themightythornicus]

What if you locked me in a tomb and I ate nothing but honey until I died and then you mummified me in honey and 100 years later opened up my sarcophagus and ate my mellified body for medicinal purposes? 😳 haha just kidding😜…unless..?🤔

[gayle-blythe]

On the day you moved out, your father handed you a bottle of honey and a Manila folder. He told you that these two items have been passed down through the family for generations. Saying that the honey is thousands of years old and the folder holds documents to prove so, you took his word and his gift. You’re curiosity got to you a few weeks after and you decided to look in the folder. What you found you almost felt unworthy to be handling. Papers and parchments, some old, some new, and some REALLY old. Some preserved in sheets and others sealed in plastic. As you look at them you see family records among other “documents of authenticity” but what really caught your eye was that some of the other documentation was written in a different language. You couldn’t identify it yourself, but then again you’re no linguist.

On your own you came into some money and with global tensions rising, war on the horizon, you decide to prepare, just in case. Among the canned food, bottled water, survival gear, and some extra valuables, you also decided to stash your fathers honey.

As it turns out, your investment paid off. Bombs flew and as many were stopped and shot down, just as many made it through. You didn’t have time to react, you saw a flash, a cloud, and then you heard an emergency alert. You’re lucky you didn’t freeze in the panic, your body moving on its own, rushing to the bunker.

That was a month or two ago.

While you still have food to survive off of for another few months, the selection has grown slim. Still plenty of medicine, all you had used was some cold medicine, and some antibiotics when a cut got infected a while back. But that’s not the issue. Lately you gotten sick, far sicker that you’ve been and in more pain then you think you’ve ever felt. You’re not sure what’s wrong, you’ve tried everything you can think of. So you’ve deduced it must be something beyond your control. Radiation poisoning? Some sort of chemical leaking in? You can’t be sure, but whatever it is, the growing lumps and peeling skin CANNOT be good. One thing you are sure of is that you’re as good as dead.

Once you had come to this conclusion, you found your eyes drifting to that bottle sitting next to the Manila folder again and again. When you had rediscovered it upon entering the bunker, you had decided to save it. Maybe, once you could leave, it would hold value to someone, you could sell it and maybe live a little more comfortably in the post apocalypse. Or maybe just hold on to it. Make it out alive and keep it as some sort of trophy to your survival. Maybe even pass it down to your own child if you ever have one. But now it looks like those options aren’t so obtainable anymore.

You hold the cloudy glass to the light. The fluid so thick and dark only allowing little light through, but what does break through glows a deep, rich amber. You glance around the room, searching for something to eat with the honey and eventually land on hardtack, the foundation of your diet here in this hole. While it doesn’t taste horrible, after some time it began to become more of a chore to eat it and the taste began to wear on you. Especially since you ran out of any sort of jam or preserves to spread on it, so a touch of sweetness will be a welcome change! Speaking of, it has been some time since you had ANYTHING sweet down here. Pushing that thought aside you grab a spoon and some of your hardtack and sit, ready for your impromptu meal. It takes some elbow grease but you crack open the lid and immediately a pungent sweetness permeates the air. It takes a moment to adjust but once you do, you find the smell, appetizing, almost intoxicating. Your stomach growls as you suddenly feel profoundly hungry. You take your spoon and scoop a little honey out. You let it drizzle back into the jar for a moment, Alamo t mesmerized by the way it flowed. Thicker than syrup but thinner than molasses. You move it to begin coating the hardtack as your mouth begins to water. You stop and set the spoon back in the jar just before the honey leaks over the side of the cracker. As you bring it to your lips the sweet smell is stronger the ever, just begging you to taste it. And so you do. It’s the best thing you’ve ever tasted. Sweeter than anything you’ve ever had, and more rich too. It’s a different kind of sweet, one that while overpowering, it doesn’t hurt or sicken you like some sweets you had tasted in your past. It’s overpowering nature, you welcome it, crave it. You lack the words to describe it and only one word comes to your mind.

Ambrosia

You thought you had only taken one bite, but the whole cracker is gone, all that remains is some drops of honey on your fingers. You lick it up greedily. You must have more. You break off another chunk of hardtack and hold it in your hand, this time skipping the spoon and pouring straight from the jar. You let it overflow into your hands but not enough to let it hit the floor. You set the jar down and you feast. Some how it tastes better the second time. You sloppily eat the cracker, hardly chewing, lapping, slobbering, and slurping the rest of the honey from your hands.

You MUST have more

You grab the jar, fully intending to drink it all. You put it to your lips and tip your head back. The sickening sweetness stronger than ever before. The liquid flows towards your gaping maw, yet it can’t seem to come nearly fast enough. Just as the honey begins to bear your lips, you come to your senses. No. You must savor it. You must make it last until your final days here. If you were to run out, you’re not sure you could take that loss.

You screw the lid back on. As you sit, you feel full. Fuller than you’ve felt in a long time. Almost stuffed. And you feel… warm? Regardless, you feel better than you’ve felt in a while and you decide it’s time to sleep.

The next few days pass without much note. You eat some honey with each meal, but you never lose yourself as you did the first time. Just drips and drizzles, but you find it just as sweet and filling as before. Some days when you eat it, you think if your father and the rest of your family. Thinking on where this honey came from, as well as where you were before all this. Reminiscing on warm memories. These last few days, you’ve felt far less hungry, and far less cold.

Weeks pass

You’re honestly surprised you’re still alive, but you don’t question it. Oddly, you’re more worried by the ever shrinking honey reserve. You’re left with about half of what you started with. As you go to get a spoonful for todays lunch, you feel the spoon hit something solid. As not much happens in the bunker, this is new, and curiosity takes you. You begin fishing it out, wondering what it could be. A piece of honeycomb? Maybe a bottle with a note inside! Or maybe it’s just a rock. Regardless, whatever it is, it’s likely been in here since the honey was bottled. It doesn’t take to long to fish it out, but in that short time, the anticipation is still unbearable. As the spoon breaks the surface, it takes you a moment to realize what’s on top of it. You don’t recognize it at first. In shock you drop the spoon. Surely, surely that is NOT what you think. You stoop down and upon closer inspection, your suspicions are confirmed.

A finger

You feel sick, it takes all the strength you have not to puke then and there. Once you regain your composure, you close in again to examine it further. You were right, it’s a finger. You poke it and I kinda of feels like… jerky? It’s dark and slightly shriveled up but it’s been sitting in that honey for god knows how long. Is it mummified? You remember seeing mummies in a museum as a kid and this kinda looks like that, but you can’t be too sure. You pick it up, touching it as little as possible, and drop it in a can, carrying it to a corner of the bunker where you leave it. You sit there for a moment, staring at the honey, the can, and the blank concrete walls. You ATE that. You are A LOT of that. Starting to feel sick again, you decide to stop thinking about it. You close the jar of honey and set it on a shelf, telling yourself that’s the last you’ll eat of it.

A day passes

And another

You haven’t eaten the honey as you said, but you’re starting to feel… wrong. You’re cold again. You’re feeling hungry again. You need it. Deciding that if it was going to affect you, it would have already, you reintroduce it to your diet.

You wonder if your father knew when he gave it to you. You wonder if his mother knew when she gave it to him. These question fill your mind each time you eat and most the time in between.

Days continue to pass

As you go to change bandages covering open wounds in your arms, you contemplate your mortality once again. It’s been quite some time now since you were certain you’d die. Why haven’t you died? As you question this, you realize all at once that you aren’t hurting any more. In fact, you haven’t been hurting for a while now. When did that happen? You quickly unwrap the bandages and see clear as day, where open wounds and sloughing skin once was, new skin was growing. Still sensitive, but you were healing. How? You check your other wounds, the bumps and rashes and sure enough they’ve all shrunk if not completely healed. How is this possible?

Then it hits you

The jar, the honey, the finger. That’s what changed. But how, how could that possibly work. You think of what happened to you when you first tried it. Not matter how much you try to convince yourself, you can’t accept it. Yet the proof is clear as day. Did they know? If so, why didn’t your dad tell you? Regardless, you know now. You try to think of what this means, the implications and repercussions but your head is just swimming with questions. Once you calm down, an idea comes to you.

You look at the door

Surely not, right? It’s not possible. You’ll die out there. But, maybe there’s a chance. You have this… this miracle! You already know it saved you from the brink of death. What else can it do?

You stand

If there’s even the slightest chance, you have to take it right? For your father, who gave you this second chance, for your family. Maybe they’re still out there. As your hand touches the cold steel of the bunker door, you feel something you haven’t felt in a long time.

Hope

Your dad had this vintage bottle of honey, dated thousands of years. He always told you to save it for a special occasion. Trapped in a bunker about to die, you think it’s the right time.

[sordidmorbid]

" all the nerves in my brain and the blood in my veins made of CANDY "

(candy - nelward)

[bisexualmadney]

nick is so bitchy and unsubtle it's hilarious. i'm obsessed with him.

[indoraptorgirlwind]

Wesen Moodboards

Mellifer (Latin: Honey To Bear)

Mellifers are a communal race who live in small groups ruled by the Mellischwuler with the others acting as her "worker bees." In the Wesen society, they fulfill the role of clarions, sending warning calls within the creature world. Like real bees, Mellifers operate with a "hive mentality" and live in man-made, human sized "hives." They tend to build those "hives" in the attics of houses, where they harvest their own apitoxin (bee venom).

Under normal circumstance, Mellifers aren't aggressive unless they feel threatened. However, when they do sometimes go after someone with the intent to kill, they use coordinated strategies to disguise their attack. Hexenbiests are their sworn enemies, and Mellifers often kill them on sight. Mellifers also have a tendency to wear yellow or yellow and black patterned clothing, sometimes personalizing some of their belongings as well, such as cell phones, with that coloration.

Notables: Melissa Wincroft, Doug Shellow, Elliot Spinella, John Coleman

[radiojamming]

H.........Honey Mummy? what

mellification, babeyyyyy! you die of honey overdose (on purpose), someone sticks you in honey (on purpose), and about a century later you are now a medicinal treat (as in edible).

[identifying-ladybugs-in-posts]

#5 - Squash beetle

Epilachna borealis

Stylized

One of very few ladybug species that eat plants rather than hunting smaller insects! and one of only two species that are considered vegetable pests, the other being its close relative the Mexican bean beetle. More info here

beetledrop (additional beetles here)

tumblebug x 80s tracksuit | earth-boring dung beetle x talavera ponderous borer beetle x jazz | six-spotted tiger beetle x holo paper squash beetle x zellige | marsh beetle x celtic knot potato bug x nebra sky disc | comb-clawed beetle x morris & co. wallpaper

[snowshinobi]

sipping strawberry-sage kombucha thinkin this ... is what blond cranberries would taste like

[sleepnoises]

stickers that the postal system willing i will have at this year's San Francisco Zine Fest, Sunday September 1 at City View at the Metreon (tabling with the astonishing @mellific!)

i will also have tiny little ceramic guys, a few block printed bandanas, and a delicate smattering of Zines

[transgenderswagcompetitions]

Okay! So I don't have an official bracket yet, but I finally got every character written down and determined who will be automatically going on to Round 1 and who will have to compete in preliminaries. Everyone automatically moving on to Round 1 had more than 1 submission, while everyone in the preliminaries only had 1 submission.

I will put together an official bracket tomorrow, but here's the list of competitors!

The characters automatically going on to Round 1 are:

Alex Fierro from Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard (4 submissions)

Shi Qingxuan from Heaven Official's Blessing (2 submissions)

Cheery Littlebottom from Discworld (2 submissions)

Nimona from Nimona (2 submissions)

Elle Argent from Heartstopper (2 submissions)

Eolo from The Raven Tower (2 submissions)

Anthony J. Crowley from Good Omens (2 submissions)

Kade West from Wayward Children (2 submissions)

Kel Brezon from Machineries of Empire (2 submissions)

The characters that will be competing in the Preliminaries are:

Rafe from Viscera

Rafe from The House of Whispers

Ash from DIE

Ash from Girl Haven

Jerico Soberanis from The Toll

Nadir from The Thirty Names of Night

Holly from The Mellification

Petrichor from Saga

Kazuhito "Kirito" Kirigaya from Sword Art Online

Aster Vanissen from Witch Boy

Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock Holmes

Vess from Invisible Kingdom

Tonkee Innovator Dibars from The Broken Earth Trilogy

Ben Van Brunt from Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow

Shuos Zehun from Machineries of Empire

Villy from Basil and Oregano

Valentine Weis from World Running Down

Howl Pendragon from Howl's Moving Castle

Hero from Something's Not Right

Dominic Seneschal from Terra Ignota

Firestar from Warriors

Enjolras from Les Miserables

Beatrice from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Axolotl from Wings of Fire

Isa from Transmuted

Inspector Javert from Les Miserables

Addy from Basil and Oregano

June Egbert from Homestuck

Alto from Your Mind is a Terrible Thing

David from Dark Currents

Monique from The Worm and His Kings

Viola Carroll from A Lady for a Duke

Will Avery from Names for the Dawn

Qven-and-Reet from Translation State

Syd from The Heartbreak Bakery

Claire/Claude from Baker Thief

Cersei Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire

Will Treaty from Ranger's Apprentice

Starflight from Wings of Fire

Yadriel from Cemetery Boys

Zila from Aurora Cycle

Kaladin Stormblessed from The Stormlight Archive

AR/Lil Hal from Homestuck

Zoe from Sleepless Domain

Sera from Angela: Queen of Hel

Max Owen from Magical Boy

Jonathan Harker from Dracula

Diana Wrayburn from The Shadowhunter Chronicles

Abraham Van Helsing from Dracula

Never from Skulduggery Pleasant

Benji/Benjamin from Hell Followed With Us

Brick from Warriors

Sidra from Wayfarers

Sascha Vykos from Vampire: The Masquerade

Penfield from Future Feeling

Sallot Leon from Mask of Shadows

Ieshwi from The Stormlight Archive

Vriska Serket from Homestuck

Orlando from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Spencer Harris from The Passing Playbook

Jane Crocker from Homestuck

Lupe from Four Leaf

Trina Goldberg-Oneka from The Seep

Cassandra Igarashi from The Wicked + The Divine

Aya Burnstein from Dancing in the Devils Auditorium

Lucus from High Class Homos

Merlin from The Left Handed Booksellers of London

Nightheart from Warriors

Sol from Dead Collections

Max from Magical Boy

Artemis Fowl from Artemis Fowl

Teo from The Sunbearer Duology

Wanda from The Sandman

Tal Smithson from Time to Orbit: Unknown

Petey the Cat from Dog Man

Captain Artemisia Blastside from Piratica

Rosa from Threads That Bind

Alter Boi from House of Whispers

Wegg from Be Kind, My Neighbor

Loki from Loki: Agent of Asgard

Scorn from Emergent Properties

Alanna of Trebond from The Song of the Lionness

Marcia Overstrand from Septimus Heap

Sage from Strawberry Seafoam

Jules from The Chromatic Fantasy

Peter Parker from The Amazing Spider-Man

Razia Khan from Stealing Thunder

Dipper Pines from the Gravity Falls comics

Mel from Something's Not Right

Hero Shackleby from American Hippo

Kino from Kino's Journey

The Marquis de Carabas from Neverwhere

River Runson from The Melting Queen

Jonathan Morgan from All the White Spaces

Leigh Hunter from Grey Dawn

Xada from LoveBot

Ienaga Kano from Golden Kamuy

Viola/Cesario from Twelfth Night

Silas Bell from The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

Let me know if I accidentally have a character on this list twice! Also let me know if you see anything misspelled or under the wrong book or series. Basically, let me know if I've screwed up lol

Thank you all for your continued patience!

[cryptid-on-a-string]

not so unpopular opinion but spirit phone is one of the WEAKEST lemon demon albums. yeah it has excellent sound quality and u can see how neil have improved as an artist compared to older albums (this is why it's so good received by most critics), i won't lie, but it critically lacks that charm of, for example, clown circus, lfthcs, httjb, damn skippy and as well as his deporitaz/trapezoid era music. sp lacks that quirkness. i can see how neil wanted to focus on more serious topics (which his older works also had, like in dinosaurchestra and some songs from httjb too!) and i can't shame him for it. it's just doesn't work properly with spirit phone. it needs some more silly stuff too!! sp needs more meaningless, weird and obscure (do y'all even remember mold en mono?) lyrics and calling cabinet man peak of ld's weirdness is a blatant spit in the face. sprit phone is just soulless, lacking individuality of older lemon demon, for what it was so beloved.

While I somewhat agree that spirit phone has come to be overplayed and too focused-on by now, I definitely don’t think it is weak, uncreative, or anything close to soulless at all. It just happened to be the one album that became the most popular one. (I blame tiktok personally, but it could be a number of other factors, I might be biased bc I just hate tiktok and I am quick to blame it for stuff idk)

Sure, it dabbles with more serious tones than many of his other songs, but personally I think that just makes it more special in a way, and it’s fun to see Neil’s songwriting skills evolve over time, since the album took quite a few years to make. I can see where you’re coming from, saying how it needs more silly stuff like all the previous albums, however that might take away from what makes Spirit Phone so much different from all of Neil’s other works. It’s what makes SP an original and creative addition to the discography, so to say.

Spirit Phone taking itself more seriously is what makes it so outstanding, because Neil hadn’t yet done anything quite like it before.

As for the content of the songs themselves, I can kind of see what you’re getting at when you say the older albums have a little more strange content, but I still think Spirit Phone hold up pretty well in the creativity department! It’s got ghosts, (a recurring motif, with the repeating white/noise ghost sound effects sprinkled in between some of the songs), eldritch beings, corpse mellification, a death/rebirth storyline, and general unexplained mysteries, all tied together through abundant synths and overall 80’s aura to it all. All the songs still pull through nicely with their unusual motifs and intriguing narratives. Although the amount of Lemon Demon’s trademark wackiness isn’t quite as condensed in this album as the others, (with more serious tracks such as As Your Father, I Earn My Life, and Spiral of Ants), there is definitely still enough of it to make it fit in the previous albums, and enough serious content to make it stand out from the rest!

Don’t get me wrong, the other Lemon Demon albums are quite amazing and dear to me too! (Damn Skippy stands out as one of my favorites myself) but I also acknowledge how much care and thought was put into the originality of Spirit Phone. Sure, it might have come to be overplayed and memed to death by the internet after all these years, but it is still deserving of praise and genuine appreciation. I personally think it has earned its title as one of the most beloved Lemon Demon albums.

[wonderfulcinderella]

Tell me again about Aleko and him being buried in honey and how they couldn’t find his tomb? And Caesar ?

Oh boy I'm SO glad you asked! Buckle up 'cause it's gonna be a wiiiiiild ride. First things first, what do we know?

Aleko, better known as Alexander the Great, died on June 10th 323 BC (or so). His body was laid in a gold sarcophagus that was filled with honey.

Ptolemy I. buried Aleko in Memphis in Egypt; after the tomb in Alexandria was finished, Alekos body was transfered to Alexandria. Ptolemy IV. replaced Alekos tomb with a new one, and Ptolemy X. replaced Alekos sarcophagus with a glass one.

Caesar, Augustus, Septimus Severus and Caracalla have verifiably visited the grave.

Knowledge of the actual location of Alekos burial site has been lost since around the 5th century AD - and until today.

In chinese medicine, the (alleged) mellification is mentioned, after which a deceased person was preserved in honey. After about a century, the body is said to have transformed into some kind of confection that is said to have had a healing effect.

Ground egyptian mummies were proven to have been swallowed as medicine (mumia) in europe.

So, long story short: I'm not saying Caesar ate (parts of) Alexander the Great, but maybe Caesar ate (parts of) Alexander the Great.

[seeker-of-truth]

Tagged by @ghostoffuturespast to create a whimsical bus stop via this picrew by @mellific

I really like how it came out, thanks for the tag!

Tagging: @koda-shoulda-woulda-but-didnt @bloodofthepen @genocidalfetus @taetoe

[indoraptorgirlwind]

AVENGERS GRIMM AU

Woged avengers drawings

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Based on this idea

T'Challa. Balam

Stephen Strange. Zauberbiest

James Rhodes. Dämonfeuer

Hope Van Dyne. Mellifer

Didn't put Carol because i got so frustrated with her face and just couldn't draw it properly.

[radiojamming]

PLEASE tell us more about mummy types, i know ice is your fave so feel free to go ham on that but all of them are so interesting to me

drives up in my cozy coupe that has MUMMY MOBILE written in sharpie on the side (ALSO PLEASE EXERCISE CAUTION WHEN LOOKING THESE UP; SOME OF THEM LOOK VERY GNARLY)

ICE/PERMAFROST - If you've followed me for a little while, you probably know more about these than the average fella! These are your Beechey Island Trio, your Ötzi the Iceman. Ice keeps bacteria from turning the body into a smorgabord, thus keeping these people fresh (and fluid-filled) for hundreds to thousands of years. And maybe some day down the line, some nerd finds you and thinks you're beautiful and never shuts up about you.

THE BOG - It's Tumblr. You all know about The Bog. Bog bodies are essentially turned into leather purses by the tannins and the anaerobic qualities of The Bog, sometimes effectively snapshotting their causes of death (usually something violent). Special shoutouts to fan favorites like Tollund Man, Lindow Man/Pete Marsh, Yde Girl, Grauballe Man, and Windeby I. And Hozier, probably.

HOT, DRY DESERT AIR - Think the Atacama Desert, the Mummies of Guanajuato, or your pre-embalming times Egyptians. In fact, it was the natural qualities of desert air that probably tipped the Ancient Egyptians off to the fun and fabulousness of preservation. You dry out to potato chip crispness but lose all the wet bits. Also Anubis is probably repping you.

ARID, COLD MOUNTAIN AIR - Same idea as the desert as far as lack of humidity, but better for your skin. Mountaintop mummies are some of the best preserved in the whole world. La Doncella is a fantastic example, as are the rest of the Children of Llullaillaco or the Cherchen Man and Siberian Ice Maiden. Sometimes this was done on purpose (hi bog bodies), but sometimes people just go up to high altitudes, die, and stay there forever.

HONEY/MELLIFICATION - This one doesn't fit the bill of spontaneous mummification, which is what I study. Honey mummies are made on purpose, allegedly by feeding someone honey until they're dead, and then dunking them in a coffin full of honey for them to steep like tea for the next century or so, then digging them up and making medicine/snacks out of them. Lots of alleged's, but still pretty cool if you're into idk becoming one with the slime.

SALT - Human jerky! Salt does to you what it does to all the other edible meats, of which you're just another brand. Salt sucks all the moisture out and keeps you nice, fresh, and flavorful forever and ever. The Saltmen of Iran are Thee Pinnacle of this type of preservation. Bonus is that you get weirdly sparkly when you're salted like a slug.

SAPONIFICATION - You become soap. Actually, if you want to get technical, you turn into what's called corpse wax (which is a surprisingly badass name for turning into a human candle) or adipocere. Mrs. Ellenbogen of the Mütter Museum is probably the best example of this, but it also happens to, uh, cave divers. Which is another great reason not to go cave diving.

PRISTINE AIR OF A SACRED BUILDING - Catacomb mummies! Incorruptible saints! Sokushinbutsu! If you're stuck in a religious house of worship and it just so happens to have its own little ecosystem (usually pretty dry, probably full of resinous incense), there's a non-zero chance that you'll get preserved very similarly to the mountain mummies. Getting stuck in a crystal casket doesn't hurt either. (Disclaimer: this is semi-anthropogenic for those keeping score at home. Some of these mummies are preserved this way on purpose.)

TAR PITS - Like the bog, but hotter, stickier, and smellier. Go in the tar, have no oxygen causing you to fall apart, turn into another leather bag time capsule. This more often happens to animals like those in the La Brea Tar Pits than people. At least that we know of.

WEIRD, AS OF YET UNKNOWN MEANS - Can we say for sure that there was only one reason why Lady Dai/Xin Zhui's stayed so preserved for so long? What about the other wet mummies? What about ones people find in trees? Or whatever the hell was going on with Elmer McCurdy? Maybe it's not unknown, but it doesn't fit the bill of typical mummies, or there are so many factors at play leading to preservation that we can't just call it by one category.