NORTH of the END

A darkly despairing & irradiantly hopeful novel about how the end of the world just might be the start of your life. 

[donotusetheinternet-deactivated]

if youve never physically been in the presence of like, a real live wolf, and you probably wont get the chance to, heres some stuff about them you should know

a wolf’s fur is so unbelievably thick that you can get like, your whole hand into it while petting. and then you can keep going

wolves are a lot bigger than you think they are. think about how big you think a wolf is then just like double that

they dont really smell like dog but they DO smell and youre not going to be able to figure out if its a good smell or not

a wolf really wants to lick the inside of your mouth. he will not stop trying to lick the inside of your mouth at any cost, and generally speaking you need to press your lips together kind of tightly when he approaches your face so that he doesnt worm his damn tongue in there to give you what he thinks is an appropriate greeting

a wolf doesnt really want to look at you while you pet him but he wants you to pet him. hes embarrassed

if a grown ass wolf decides to lay down on you, you just have to deal with it and thats your life now

young wolves, much like young dogs, are overwhelmingly goofy and stupid. a teenage wolf will see your very fragile, very human shoulder and go “i can probably step on that with my full weight” and then he will do it

letting a wolf eat out of your hand is actually not remotely frightening, and youll want to do it all day

[sad-gay-potato]

I wanna know who did this research.

[donotusetheinternet-deactivated]

well, i did!

[meinenaffenhosen]

in the interest of science, have tested & can confirm

[small-town-spooks]

HOW DID YOU GET TO DO THIS

[borealing]

Men like to believe theyd be great in apocalypse scenarios but they dont even know how to sew

[madgastronomer]

Some male friends of mine were once talking about how useful they’d be in an apocalypse, and I pointed out that as a weaver and sewer and maker of stuff, I’d be pretty damn useful and they tried to tell me they could just loot clothes from WalMart and they’d be fine. As if WalMart has endless supplies without weekly deliveries.

[alls-well-that-ends-weird]

So just last night a friend of mine was talking about who he’d round up in the event of a zombie apocalypse and how I’m his go-to farmer on account of I know how to keep an entire homestead up and running and we’re talking about what kind of resources I’d need to keep a colony of about 50-ish people alive and i bring up what all goes into processing wool for clothing and such and he just kind of stops me like ‘wait, wait, we don’t need to do all of that because we can scavenge for clothes we don’t need to be able to make them’ and i’m just like, ‘dude, that works in the short-term maybe but if this community is going to be sustainable you’ve gotta have people whose job it is to make clothes and blankets and shit’

also cloth rots pretty quickly when left exposed to the elements and after the first few years or so anything we manage to scavenge isn’t going to be wearable anymore and anywho we’ve got to teach the kids everything or they’re not gonna know what to do some decades down the line when everything’s too rusted or rotted out to be of any practical use anymore, etc etc, and he’s reckoning that things like woodworking and smithing and ranching are more important than say, cleaning or cooking or dairying and meanwhile i’m just smh may all the gods have mercy on this poor fool

He also balked when i brought up how to run a laundry and what all was needed to make everyday shit like soap and toothpaste - like dude, you think this is going to be all about hunting and scavenging and being neato manly-man drifters like in the walking dead let me teach you a thing about keeping a village alive and healthy for more than a week man most of it is shit you keep thinking is non-essential on account of it being “women’s work” or “simple chores” that’re actually pretty labor-intensive and take time, training, knowledge, and practice to do successfully, let alone well, and are 100% absolutely necessary work in order for you to have any reasonably good quality of life after the world ends

[lierdumoa]

I’m reminded of this post I read a while back about some guy who thought his underwear lasted years because his wife would periodically replace his boxers and socks with identical boxers and socks when they started to look old and he just … never noticed.

[nirvanasoul785]

by Margriet Smulders

[novellaqueen]

do older generations not get fatalistic humor?? like the other day my friend’s parents were hanging around and we were joking and i was like “well no matter what i can always fling myself off the nearest cliff” and they didn’t laugh then later the mom pulled me aside and was like “maybe you should get some help, sweetie” like stfu?? help? in this economy? i don’t think so, debra

[chazzaroo47]

I honestly don’t think they get it as a coping mechanism, they think it’s a cry for help rather than actually helping.

[kingloptr]

i’d even say it’s past just coping and is also now a category of Stuff Kids Got Used To When No One Was Looking; not everyone using that humor is even covering up something bigger, we just stopped thinking fatalistic = taboo/unspeakable somewhere along the line, and most parents don’t seem to know why or how ~

[chainerstorment]

My boss opened a door and missed me by inches, he said “whoops, almost killed you there!” My result of “Oh, if only.” Led to an awkward end of shift debrief.

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

This generation shares the same humor as the goddamn Addams Family and the previous generation is the White Sixties Family™ that lives next door and runs away screaming at the end of the episode

[prof-grace-aspen]

I will say that it’s interesting because this kind of humor is very, very prevalent somewhere else…

the military.

Which is honestly a place you would expect fatalistic humor to be common and used as a coping method. You’re one “oops” away from death on the flight deck, one inch to the left and you don’t have a head anymore because the jet that just landed now owns it as a wing-tip decoration. So you joke about it because lowkey you’re fucking terrified it’ll happen, but you’re also desensitized to the danger itself because you face it every single day for 12 hours at a time.

Anyway so we all know the mindset you adopt in the military because of the danger, so to realise that an identical sense of humor has been adopted by normal people should probably tell you something very important about the amount of stress modern young folks experience in daily life.

[a-guys-random-blog]

That last one… it’s true

[thebibliosphere]

It was also common in previous generations that had to deal with say, war and economic depression on a massive scale.

One of my favorite movies is Singing In The Rain which came in out 1952, right on the tailcoat of two world wars and a looming cold one, and for all it’s a cheery happy musical, it’s got this really bleak witty humor too, things like “call me a cab!” “okay, you’re a cab!” or the scene where Don says he’ll be homeless by the next day and Cosmo cheerfully tells him not to be ridiculous…the bank bailiffs don’t open till Monday.

And then quite probably one of my favorite opening lines, where two young girls are watching Lina on screen and one says  “She’s so refined. I think I’ll kill myself.”

Which really resonates with a lot of the things we say now when talking about people we find personally attractive, meaning not only is fatalism not a new trend, but those two girls at the starting sequence of Singing In The Rain are totally there for Lina, not Don. 

You’re welcome.

[idiopathicsmile]

oh my god this is blowing my mind. singin’ in the rain is millennial humor

Don Lockwood (despairing of his career as an actor): I’m through, fellas. Kathy: Don, you’re not through! Cosmo: Why of course not. Why, with your looks and figure, you could drive an ice wagon, or shine shoes! Kathy: Block hats! Cosmo: Sell pencils! Kathy: Dig ditches!

[sarakipin]

Lady knights and their trophies for MoCCA fest

[weaux-deactivated20170327]

me getting my heart ripped out of my chest: okay first off, mood,

[ancientorigins]

Glencoe, Scotland

[ofcloudsandstars]

I woke up experiencing the weirdest and most wonderful sensations.  I could compare it to like when you have depression or anxiety and the whole world perspective is shifted. Like with depression everything seems kind of dimmer and rough and your default feels kind of tired or melancholic. And with anxiety everything seems very sharp, focused and harshly bright, with the default being restlessness. Well this was a positive shift and one I never thought I could experience ever again. I guess I could frame it in a nutshell of being in love but I have nothing to be in love with, its just the sensation. Everything looks more beautiful. I notice different smells more and how light and color come together, especially like the different hues the shadows of trees leave on the ground, like hints of deep blues and some shadowy greens and how sunlight filters through the leaves and coats things in gold. Like everything seems nicer. Its like a state of being where everything seems romanticized. Everything has a gentle life breathing into it. I haven’t had this experience in literally 5 years, I thought depression and anxiety has destroyed this part of me and I would never feel this way again. This is the type of sensation children feel when they are truly happy and experiencing something genuinely fun and lighthearted for the first time (like the first time you went swimming in the ocean, or ice skating, or ate soft served ice cream or had an enjoyable sparkling christmas with gifts under the tree and didn’t know about how horrible the world was yet and was surrounded by people that really loved you).  All I could say was that at one point like two years ago I was a zombie. And it scared me cause I realized I really was no longer living. I was so fucked up and depressed that I couldn’t feel anything. Even if I saw something really moving or a cute animal or something terrible like another suicide victim dying horribly and graphically on the MTA, I would not feel a thing. Music was just noise, food was just mashed potatoes, colors were just light, time just dictated where I was supposed to be at different times of the day. I had a realization like two years ago on a bus home how I was living for over a year like that and how I was basically dead. And so then I decided to do my best to do a lot of work, like self therapy and shadow work and ‘magic’ to try to figure out what it meant to feel again. I would do meditations on emotions even if I forgot how they felt I would fake it to at least get a reaction from myself; I would listen to what was my favorite music and try to think about what colors it reminded me of or places and stories. I kind of got slightly obsessive with celebrating seasonal changes but only cause it really connected me (my constantly disassociating self) to the environment around me and trying to enjoy life in the moment of these changes. After a slow period of time I did start to really feel music again. Like having colors coming back to your vision after being colorblind for a year. Then after I did started to feel emotions again but it took time. Now I cry all the time but I guess its more of a wonderful thing than embarrassing cause its better than not feeling anything at all. And for the first time in five years I have reached this state I have not been to since I was really young, before all the abuse and isolation and stress of college. Even further before my cynical and sour experience of highschool. Like I never thought I would return to this point. Its like regrowing a forest that was burned to the ground. 

[morbidwinter]

🌙 growing up with an eclectic witch mom 🌙

* getting flowers for every holiday. every.one. * so. many. herbs. (honestly like a big ass cupboard) * going crystal shopping together (and spending too much money and time there) (imagine my dad crying in the corner) * flowers in every room in the house. every. * so many rose quartz stones (because i’m born in may) * our house is filled with candles * drawing a protective sigil over our door every new years evening * “i accidentally spent 300€ at the florists and im not even regretting it.” (actual quote) * cutting my hair only at new moon * going to medieval festivals because they are hella cool * with like proper outfit and shit * no idea for a present? herbs. * or plants. * or candles. * bonus points if they are colour coordinated * celebrating samhain, ostara etc * living for the autumn season * convincing my dad that “yes we need that cat. totally.” * srsly how is he not going crazy * explaining my friends it’s not weed, it’s sage. * cleaning spells while cleaning the house * discussing herbs for spells in shops and earning weird stares * huge ass, gorgeous garden * “go water the flowers.” * “go mow the lawn.” * “don’t discuss with the mother witch.” * she sends me videos at 3am how to cut the cherry tree. why. i cry. * water bottles out of glass with energising crystals on the ground * her grimoire is so beautiful * like srsly her handwriting has me crying. but most important: knowing that whenever id wanted to stop being a part of all this, it would have been okay. my dad is not a witch, and that’s okay. for me witchcraft is just a part of my life and i love it and am proud to have a witch mom ♥️

[stimman3000]

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[millenialwitch-blog]

~~* Alchemy *~~

[elasan]

[rachaelstephen]

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[nsfwcobaltsnow]

[slavetomyheadcanon]

Just in case you needed a reminder of how big wolves actually are… because sometimes when there’s no context for size, I tend to think of them as a lot smaller than they really are.

[lionloveshisbear-deactivated202]

Adorable

[beautiful-wildlife]

[bettedavisgf]

me when a girl refers to her “partner”: 👀 me when i find out she was talking about her boyfriend with a beard: 😴

[northoftheend]

This is a bit dickish to bi people tbh. I'm a bi woman in a relationship with a straight guy and saying partner instead of boyfriend (apart from hating the word boyfriend) is a small way I can undermine the assumption that I'm straight.

[throughwinterfields]

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Allegory of Pneuma or Divine Breath, 1750-1800.