dark and dreadful things

We seem to be drifting into unknown places and unknown ways; into a whole world of dark and dreadful things. thirtysomething old

[anddreadful]

the girls that get it get it

[tiktoks-i-enjoyed]

Clip of Lucy Dacus on the Las Culturistas podcast.

[omgthatdress]

ily, menswear guy

[anddreadful]

bale has spent weeks courting aradia, opening up to her, comforting her, spending hours and hours researching how to help her (with a problem that’s technically breach’s responsibility), being SO tactful and not talking shit on breach at all to her, and now one week after aradia agreed to be his girlfriend he’s gonna lose her to breach because breach finally thought about it for thirty seconds and told aradia he likes her. unfortunately bale is pretty justified in becoming the joker over this so we’ll see how he takes it

[anddreadful]

he took it pretty well! all things considered! at least to aradia’s face!

[anddreadful]

it’s not that breach and adestina have no chemistry, they could for sure have a thing were aradia not in the picture, it’s just that the the thing in question is, spiritually not literally, divorce. breach and adestina are so alike in their edgy, self-centered angst and so benignly unpleasant-yet-fond with each other that they’d skip the ‘passionate romance’ thing and go straight for “couple that broke up ages ago but won’t file the paperwork because at least it’s convenient to still have sex with each other”

[narutwitter]

[fictionadventurer]

One of my biggest literary pet peeves is when historical or history-inspired fiction pretends that "courting" is a synonym for "dating". Usually it's just a one-to-one word swap--in a modern context, these characters would be dating, but this is olden times, so they call it courting instead. Sometimes they'll pretend there's a shade of difference, and that courting is a more serious exploration of marriage or something. But I read a lot of fiction that was actually written during these historical eras, and the word "courting" is never used like that.

Two people do not decide that they are "courting". One person decides to "court" someone else. It's an action, not a stage in the relationship. A man decides to court a woman because he wants to encourage her to have romantic interest in him. He's trying to win her favor. It's not an exclusive relationship--a woman could be courted by multiple men at once. She'll spend time getting to know the guy who's interested in her, but they won't officially define their relationship as one where they only show romantic interest in each other. If they reach a point where they want it to be exclusive, that's when you propose.

There's no middle ground--either you're getting to know each other, or you're committed to marrying each other. This idea of a period where you kind of commit to each other until you decide you definitely want to get married is a modern one, and it occurs in eras where they use the word "dating" to describe it. The closest equivalent I can think of are times and places where they'd talk about a couple "stepping out together", but they're still not calling it "courting". Words have meaning, and the word "courting" has never meant that, so stop using it that way!

[anddreadful]

local theater doing a new, original dracula play that’s “loyal to the book” this fall ooooooohhhhhh I BEEN WAITIN FOR THIS

[fourraccoonsinacoat]

*Me sitting down to write smut.*

But first! We must thoroughly understand this man's fractured and devastated sense of self. Only then can we truly appreciate how connected he feels to her while finger-banging the soul from her body.

[kelogsloops]

the night & the moon #brbchasingdreams

🎵 C4C x kokoro - cherie

[thoughtportal]

[gatheringbones]

[“Immersion in other people’s stories cultivates empathy. When we are reading or listening to stories being told, provided there is enough tension in the narrative, our brains release cortisol into our blood to help us focus and concentrate, and also oxytocin, the chemical related to care and empathy.

Theatre and music have long been arenas in which we examine our moralities and consider our shortcomings, as well as celebrate our virtues. Think of the tragic plays of ancient times. We watch the hero in denial of their weakness eventually fall because of their self-blindness. Think of the old folk songs, sagas of betrayal, pride, murder. Juicy morality tales, not unlike present-day TV dramas. All with lessons to teach about how best to approach the problem of living a life, that encourage us to greater compassion for those whose struggles we recognise.

Stories and songs bring us into contact with our best and worst natures, they enable us to locate ourselves in other people’s experience and they increase our compassion. But these things in a vacuum are useless. A story doesn’t cultivate empathy just by virtue of its having been thought up; it must be engaged with to become powerful; the story must be read, the song must be listened to, in order to acquire its full charge.”]

Kae Tempest, On Connection

[enmiljontystnader-deactivated20]

[beeghosts]

Nathalie Ericson

[badasserywomen]

Witches & Demons

Aradia Elder witch and Adram the Lust king

Adram belongs to @hollowsystem

[marisatomay]

sunset after 7pm today moodboard

[anddreadful]

so to recap:

Breach meets his intended betrothed, Adestina, who reminds him a LOT of himself before he met aradia (read: hot but depressed)

goes "yikes" and realizes at long last that he's in love with Aradia, actually

confesses his feelings to Aradia approximately 30 mins after deciding this (at 9am in the morning. Aradia is hungover)

Aradia cries, they make out, etc. hellhound canon, everyone cheers

Breach intends to inform all relevant NPC parties that he can't sign the engagement contract, but a big bad NPC shows up to basically make it clear that Orobos will get wiped off the map if he doesn't

so breach has to sign it, the engagement is on fr, and the evil empire is breathing down our necks about the political takeover attached to it. very cool

Aradia is off on a side quest rn so she doesn't know yet. I'm sure she'll be very mature about it

[realhumanbaby]

How do you know what you should do

You pay very close attention your body because it doesn’t know how to lie to you, and pay very little attention to your mind because it is lying to you all the time