#with really dark elements

[lexiconne]

Cursed to forever have lovely video game ideas and no knowledge of the magic numbers needed to make them

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

It's all fun and games until...

[Commission for @dontheckinswear]

[veinsfullofstars]

“Lemme borrow this for a second.”

(ID: Kirby series fanart of King Dedede being a conductor of elements, including Lightning, Fire, Rock, and Ice, wielding them confidently and with ease if only temporarily. He also acts as both an amplifier of positivity - shown by a group hug from Kirby, Bandee, and several other Waddle Dees - and an enticing vessel for negativity - shown by his being possessed by Dark Matter. END ID.)

Inspired by this neat headcanon thread by @/das-a-kirby-blog and @/jojo-schmo, as well as this cool art thread by Jojo and @/veveisveryuncool. Thank you guys for feeding the brainworms. I’m a big fan of this headcanon, so I hope I managed to portray it well.

Started 11/16/23, finished 11/29/23, updated for color correction 11/02/24. NOTE: This was originally posted on my deleted account on 11/29/23.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 241

Wing au? Wing Au. With perhaps a bit of a twist. Also a hint of eldritchness perhaps. For fun! 

Ghosts have wings. Sure, they aren’t normally seen, not in the visible spectrum, but they do. Scanners pick them up, and sometimes a ghost might even reveal them, which was hypothesized to be some sort of animalistic intimidation attempt. (Something more than one Amity Parker rolled their eyes at)

Everyone had seen them at least once- the motorcycle-driving ghost’s mass of shadowy feathers, the green-haired girls matching shaggy ones, the rocker’s ones that looked like pages of music before bursting into flame. Even the box ghost’s had been spotted- feathers looking more like sheets of cardboard than anything else. 

It wasn’t until the whole kidnapped to the ghost zone that anyone saw Phantom’s, but that was another tale unto itself really. Honestly the arrival of the GIW would have maybe been seen as positive before, but the fact that many of them had looked in the mirror or gone to the doctors only to find feathers beginning to sprout on their back soured it. 

Especially as the GIW continues to prattle on and on about how all ecto-contaminated scum are less than human, less than bacteria. And well, what does that make them? Them, who have been to the realms of the dead and gods and back, touched by the swirling green energy in ways incomprehensible? Changed by that energy? 

So the people silently brush hidden feathers together, quietly rebuff the white-wearing lunatics from the city as best they can, and hope to anything listening that they can stop anyone else from disappearing. That maybe they can find the few no one noticed had been taken before it’s too late, even if they have to tear down the entire government to do it. 

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

This Fatal Kiss

spooky whimsical YA fantasy romance

a water nymph bound to the river where she drowned desperately wants to become human again, by gaining a freely-given kiss from a mortal

a brooding boy from the local town who exorcises meddlesome spirits is constantly trying to get rid of her - but after he messes up an exorcism she blackmails him into playing matchmaker for her

….but he also has a crush on the boy she chooses (who has secrets of his own)

bisexual MCs, developing polyamorous relationship

[j-artzz]

I need more of this genre of media

Sci-fi mixed with dark fantasy/eldritch horrors

[pasdetrois]

Marina Dyachenko and Sergey Dyachenko, Vita Nostra (tr. Julia Meitov Hersey) • Mircea Suciu, Camouflage (2) • Agostino Arrivabene, Immutatio • Matthias Claudius, "Der Tod und Das Mädchen" • Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare • Dragan Bibin, Pull (edited) • Maria Kreyn, Angel's Back • Franz Wimmer, Death and the Maiden • Mel Chin, Bat and Dove • Ana Sanchez, Death and the Maiden

[tardxsblues]

[manderleyfire]

– What's keeping us apart ain't even real, your daddy, his religion, it's got nothing to do with us. – It's not just his, it's mine too. I've got the same spirit in me, why don't you see that?

Alice Englert and Walton Goggins in Them That Follow (2019), dir. Dan Madison Savage & Brittany Poulton

[gruesome-beauty]

you’re my first dial after last call ringing you up just to shittalk til i pass out. now i’m mouth breathing on the sofa in the pitch dark. i love you sleeping on my dead left arm. think i’d rather stay asleep where everyone’s miserable like me. baby, can you fill me in on last night. it makes sense to wanna feel good. i love you halfway in a paper sack. changing the dose til i run into the cure.

[kanerallels]

*under my breath* Love And Monsters walked so that Civil War (2024) could trip and fall

[kikimorart]

first drawing of the year :> drew a character i had in my brain for some time, based on Mokosh. now i kind of want to make more in this series lol

[annwrites]

Been listening to Ethel Cain & watching Sharp Objects. Just hear me out: serialkiller!billy.

It would be a disturbing story & not for the easily offended. Putting notes under the cut, due to triggering content. You've been warned.

A/N, even if it shouldn't be necessary: what someone writes does not mean they necessarily condone or idolize it. Sometimes, dark topics are written about merely bc it's interesting to explore the forbidden, macabre, and the taboo. If things were otherwise, Stephen King wouldn't be a household name.

Billy idolizes reader bc she's his ideal version of womanhood: quiet, shy, sweet, intelligent...a virgin.

She'd never abandon him, he's sure of it.

After his mother leaving & his father incessantly abusing him over the years, at some point, something inside of him snapped. It started out with violent thoughts, then considerations, then planning. And then, finally, action.

It's after senior year. And two girls have gone missing. Then one is found murdered in the woods. And she has a tree branch shoved between her legs and protruding out of her stomach.

You, of course, attend the funeral, even if you hardly knew her. You merely passed her in the halls, and sat near her in one of your classes in school. But it's the right thing to do.

And Billy is there, too. The whole town is.

How could someone do something so horrific? How could someone be so monstrous?

You overhear Billy practically brushing off what happened to her, remarking that she was "a useless slut", anyway. So, no real loss.

You step away while shaking your head in silent disapproval, and miss one of his friends stating that that's insensitive, even for him. Especially here.

He merely shrugs.

"I give it a couple of weeks and no one will be talking about her anymore. She was a waste of space, anyway—only good for what she had between her legs. And even that got ruined in the end, apparently."

He nods toward you. "That's the kind of girl you marry and make a life for. The other is the one you screw a few times until you get bored and move on."

——

There's eventually a bonfire one night in the woods, which one of your friends convinces you to come along with her to.

And Billy is there....watching you.

But it's not a 'romance novel' stare, no. It's something...darker. You don't have the words for it.

"It's like he's studying you," your friend states.

"Like an animal at the zoo," you reply with a grumble.

She takes a sip of her beer. "Aw, maybe you're like a pretty little bird to him. Trapped in a golden cage."

You glance back to him and shift uncomfortably. "Or, he's the thing that feels trapped and is wanting out..."

Eventually, later in the evening, he comes over once you're all alone, and asks if you want to take a walk with him through the woods.

"No, thank you."

"How come?" He asks while sliding his hands into his pockets.

"Because it's dark out. Maybe...maybe if it was daytime I would."

"What's the difference?" He asks with a snort.

Your brows furrow. "You can see everything in the daylight..."

He considers that for a moment; mulls it over. And then he looks back to you. "Really?"

He leans in closer with a doubtful, yet somehow mocking look. " I don't think you can."

[mickedy]

happy birthday oswald

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[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

A Dark and Drowning Tide

gothic fantasy romance

a folklorist is chosen as the co-leader of an expedition to find a fabled magical spring for the king, along with 6 nobles

when her mentor, the other leader, is found dead on their boat in the middle of the night, she has to figure out who did it; while continuing the mission through the wilderness and navigating the potential political fallout

and the only one she can probably trust is her academic rival, a naturalist, who she hates

dark folktales & creatures

Jewish lesbian MC

arc from netgalley! out sep 17

putting both covers here because they’re both so beautiful!! (artists: Audrey Benjaminsen, & Erica Williams)

[ifindus]

cw: gore

"Division of territories", day 16 of @propagandistisk's hetalia goretober 2023 ✨

This is of course a reference to the wars between Scandi bros in the 1600s; more specifically the outcome of the wars predating the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The Treaty of Roskilde saw the entirety of Trøndelag (central Norway) given up to Sweden, and the region would be Swedish for two years until Trøndelag became Norwegian again in 1660 after another treaty. The treatment of trøndere during these two years has been referred to as the genocide of Trøndelag by local historians due to the large prescription of trøndish men to the Swedish army. It almost emptied the region of men overall and the large farmland region suffered greatly as many of the men were already overseas and fighting in the Danish-Norwegian army. The trøndish men in the Swedish army were then sent abroad to fight wars as the Swedish King was afraid they would rebel if left close to home. Only one third of the men would return to their homes, which by then would be plagued by famine.

The Swedes wanted Trøndelag because then they would effectively divide Norway into two parts, separated at the middle, and easier to attack in the future.