𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄 / 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐃 ❊

αη∂ вєαυту [ ... ] ℓινєѕ нєяє ѕтιℓℓ

[ravnswood]

                                    𝐉𝐄  𝐌𝐄  𝐌𝐄𝐔𝐑𝐒  𝐃𝐄  𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐄  . . .                              melanie  ravenswood  of  disney’s  phantom  manor                                                        written  by  stella

         come, let the burial rite be read — the funeral song be sung! —                     an anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young —                             a dirge for her the doubly dead in that  she  died  so  young …

[ravnswood]

✤ ✤ ✤          celestaei​    //   master edward gracey

       ❝ EVEN IN A HOUSE FULL OF SPIRITS,  it does get a bit lonely here, doesn’t it ? ❞  yet he still doesn’t raise his gaze from the book in hand, feet propped up on his desk as he leans back against his chair back. edward even flips to the next page, skimming the few paragraphs written on it.  ❝ no need to just stand there and hover. do take a seat if you’d like. it’ll make you more comfortable. i can guess you’ll be here for a while. ❞

❝  i  would  hate  to  inconvenience  you . ❞       her  voice  is  soft   ---   demure ,   with  the  barest  hint  of  irony .   it  would  take  a  friend  to  identify  it . . .   and  the  spirits  of  the  estate  are  not  friends ,   despite  their  unwilling  proximity .     melanie  would  not  have  come  to  this  corner  of  the  house  if  she  had  any  other  choice ,   content  with  her  bedroom  and  boudoir . . .   but  someone’s  anguished  weeping  has  filled  the  halls  for  the  last  hour ,   and  no  amount  of  banging  on  the  walls  has  convinced  them  to  stop .     ( she’s  a  bit  annoyed  ---  usually ,   weeping  through  the  night  is  her  job . )     melanie  skirts  around  the  edge  of  master  gracey’s  study ,   taking  his  welcome  for  what  it  is .   the  long  train  of  her  wedding  dress  sweeps  along  the  floor  as  she  hovers  near  the  bookshelves .      unwillingly ,   her  dead  eyes  light  up .    ❝  do  you  have  any  novels ?  romance ,   or  ---  or  mystery ? ❞

[ravnswood]

✤ ✤ ✤        @buriesman​   //     summoned a starter !!

❝  no .  he’s  gone  for  good . ❞         her  smile  is  faint ,   lined  with  exhaustion  ---  as  if  she’s  had  to  answer  this  question  too  many  times  before .   when  a  wedding  fails ,   people  always  have  questions .   ( when  the  bride   is  left  in  ruins ,   abandoned  to  an  empty  house  and  all  its  ghosts ,   they  prefer  not  to  ask . )    melanie’s  bony ,   restless  fingers  play  at  the  hem  of  her  mourning  gown   ;   an  engagement  ring  still  glints  on  her  finger ,   though  the  wedding  will  certainly  never  take  place .        ❝  death  is  quite  definite ,   i’m  afraid .  if  there  were  any  way  to  overcome  it . . . ❞         her  lips  twitch ,   but  the  smile  does  not  reach  her  eyes ,   not  make  a  dent  on  her  tragic  face .         ❝  my  jake  would  have  found  it .  ❞

[ravnswood]

✤ ✤ ✤         @prettylittlejohanna​    //     summoned a starter !!

dead  hands  preen  as  well  as  living  ones ,   if  slightly  less  nimble .   melanie’s  one  vanity  has  always  been  her  hair .   in  life ,  she  doted  on  it . . .    but  that  was  then ,   when  such  things  still  mattered .        ❝  the  dead  have  little  use  for  vanity , ❞       she  tells  the  girl  with  long ,   pretty  yellow  hair ,   like  spun  starlight .   rather  than  look  back  at  johanna ,   melanie  frowns  at  her  faint  reflection  in  the  mirror .   her  curls  hang  lank  and  lifeless  ‘round  her  shoulders .    they  would  not  stir  at  a  breeze  ;   they  do   not  dance ,  do  not  thrive .    still  frowning ,  melanie  spins  back  towards  johanna ,   hairbrush  clasped  in  bone - white  hands .        ❝  we  envy  it ,   though .   you  are  lucky  to  be  alive . . .   your  hair  will  keep  growing  longer  and  longer .   you  can  change  it  at  any  time .   even  cut  it  all  off  if  you  wanted  to ! ❞        her  dead  voice  lilts ,   something  close  to  a  laugh  ringing  in  her  tone  ---  but  her  hollow - eyed  expression  does  not  change .

[vaememes]

𝙰   𝙳𝙸𝚂𝙲𝙾𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚈   𝙾𝙵   𝚆𝙸𝚃𝙲𝙷𝙴𝚂   𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙼𝙿𝚃𝚂.

these are taken from the show with the same title, triggers may or may not be present, proceed with caution and feel free to adjust any you that you deem necessary.

you’re wrong. he/she/they trusts me to make a difference.

he’s/she’s/they been lying to you your whole life.

you can go on living among the humans. they’re the people you really care about.

it wouldn’t be an abdication; you’d simply be doing the right thing.

i know he and his witch are hiding somewhere in time.

but what are they planning?

i can’t believe you don’t like ‘80s music! some of the best music ever was made in the ‘80s!

i don’t really know where to start.

whatever it is, just tell me. it can’t be that bad.

i’m hundreds of years old. you catalog history; i’ve lived it.

humans share this planet with other creatures – vampires, witches, and daemons.

so, you’re not a superhero, just an actual vampire.

everything you think you know about it is human propaganda.

but we are real. we are everywhere.

then i feel sorry for you. i think you need help.

i swear, i’m telling the truth!

why would you reveal your true self to a human?

i had too. i wanted too.

well, now you’ll have to kill her/him/them.

she/he/they won’t tell anyone. she/he/they thinks I’m a headcase.

i didn’t ask for any of this.

you need to understand your new responsibilities.

what’s their relevance today? are they doing right now?

that’s for you to decide.

if i’m in charge, i want to shake things up.

we should be looking foward, not backward.

aren’t we breaking the covenant already by living with a vampire?

daemons giving birth to witches would be unheard of.

so, is there anything else i can help you with?

come on, i don’t bite.

what do you know of love?

i often thought about what i’d ask her if i ever met her.

i would just have to accept my fate.

i will be choosing you over everything else.

each element has its own threads, so we must discover your element.

regard the room with your witch’s sight and tell me what you see.

the others probably don’t even believe that i am a weaver.

they’ve never met your like before. nor have i.

most witches only have one element in their blood.

stay away from her/him/them. stay away from us both.

we will trouble you no further.

we don’t need to play happy families.

i’m in a city full of witches, and i still can’t find a teacher.

once you are family, i will protect you.

if the witches find you took blood without consent, you’ll be put to death.

we have a problem.

you have your hands upon someone that doesn’t belong to you.

there are old stories of witches with miraculous power.

we have been hunted down and forced into hiding.

i fulfilled that need, and i did it very well.

well, if you’d bewitched him, he would tell you anything.

listen to my heartbeat, [optional:name].

i just, i hadn’t put it together until now.

i will not tell a soul what I’ve seen up here, i promise.

i always told my students cities of the past would have smelled awful.

how am i supposed to protect you if you won’t share things with me?

where were you tonight?

i told you. i had people i had to reach out to.

i’ve never run scared from anything in my life.

i simply won’t take risks where your safety is concerned.

well, i’m not staying locked up in here.

i can’t follow in your footsteps.

so either you find me that witch, or i will go out there and find her myself.

you are the only one that i trust to do the job.

your punishment is death by beheading and fire.

that is a punishment suited for the 14th century, not the 21st!

what is this house trying to tell us?

you craved me… all this time. and you resisted.

i will give anything, anything that you want. anything, just save him/her/them!

your magic can’t save him/her/them!

can we please not pretend this is a social call?

the house doesn’t like it when we argue.

how on earth could anyone think that you’re, that you’re human?!

you’re hardly inconspicuous yourself.

you will never harm me. i’m not human, i’m powerful.

and you will never hurt me because you don’t want to; you can’t.

there’s so much we don’t understand.

i needed to step out for some air, and then BAM i was here.

do you think that you might have just time walked?

your magic works differently from my magic.

there’s nothing wrong with you, [optional:name]. there never was.

the spell was somehow tied to me, too.

i was half myself for years, and you didn’t say a thing.

did you know that i was spellbound?

only witches who were mad were ever spellbound. witches who hurt people.

we believe that you may have been spellbound.

does that mean the baby could be a witch?

do whatever it is you must to survive.

i will hunt down anyone who wishes to harm you, and i will kill them.

this is what happens to witches who don’t cooperate.

it did not escape their notice that you were powerful.

show me the power inside you, and i can teach you how to control it.

not every witch shows magical aptitude.

when you’re gone, my life will be over.

which means you’re likely, more than likely, to cast spells.

you think that lighting a fire and pouring some wine will help them?

what is it? what can you see?

beware the witch with the blood of the lion and the wolf.

speak to me or you will get no more of this.

do you know what you have just done?

your fight is now my fight.

if i do, they’ll be no turning back. you have to understand.

according to her, you’re a mix between superman and lancelot.

from this moment, we will always be one.

you keep away from them both.

if i could use my blood to save him/her/them, i would.

your life is fleeting compared with a vampire’s.

if you’re trying to frighten me away from your son/daughter, you failed.

the sooner you’re all wiped from the face of the earth the better.

do not come anywhere near me when I’m hunting. do you understand?

witch water. witch wind. it’s just more magic that my body can’t control.

leaving me isn’t the answer.

my magic started coming out when i met you.

stop. stop. why are you being like this?

you have no idea what i’m capable of.

why would anyone ever agree to that?

there were a lot more of us creatures back then.

what happens whenever creatures break it?

to my knowledge, it has never been broken.

what spell have you put on me?

that’s the first time i’ve seen you enjoying your magic.

we can only protect ourselves against humans and other creatures if we work together.

when a witch refused to plead, humans crushed them to death with weights.

your parents weren’t killed by humans. your parents were killed by witches.

you might have shown some consideration, [optional:name].

living without magic isn’t bad. i’ve survived without it.

it feels cold, like ice growing under my skin.

witch power is in your blood, it’s in your bones.

you were born to be a witch just as you were born to have [optional:haircolor] hair.

are you going to give the book to the vampire?

i’ve never felt so protective. over anyone.

you have to come to terms with it somewhere safe.

i’m going to deal with this myself.

what do you taste?

i can hear your witch’s blood moving in your veins.

when i touch your skin and it rushes to the surface.

i thought you knew about vampires. that’s why you invited me to dinner.

most legends about us were dreamed up by humans.

well, our hearts don’t beat. very often.

if any vampire is going to take her/his/their blood, it’s going to be me.

what the hell are you doing?

yes. we can be killed… if you try hard enough.

someone did something to you or you did it to yourself.

but if we created them, then we could uncreate them.

it could tell us how we created vampires.

you think whatever power i have, i should use.

i think at the very least you should try not to be frightened of it.

there are still plenty of creatures left in the world.

your friend isn’t here to give blood.

you need to calm down. your adrenaline is very high.

so you actually think it’s safe down here in the dark?

am i making you uncomfortable?

you don’t believe everything you read, do you?

how could people still be so ignorant?

some people still believe in witches, that magic is real.

i’m assuming you used more than magic to retrieve it.

it’s a warning. you need to be careful.

the witches cannot be allowed to have that information.

the reason i didn’t tell you is because we’re all in the dark.

some would want to use that to destroy us.

once the world was full of wonders, but it belongs to humans now.

we, creatures, have all but disappeared.

[ravnswood]

if she was just a little bit smart . . .   just a little bit . . .   just enough to think ‘hey, maybe headbutting things over and over again isn’t a productive problem solving method’ . . .   my puppy would give me so fewer headaches

[ravnswood]

it’s  certainly  been  a  while …    but  it’s  spooky  season ,   it’s  morbid  gal  season ,   so  to  get  back  into  the  game ,   would  anyone  like  a  starter  from  a  spooky ,  sad  gal ??

   look  at  her ! !   she’s  beautiful ! !   she’s  absolutely  doomed ! !                                                            hit  that  ♡   to  slide  into  her  dms ~

[rpmusings-galore]

                                  surely, she was too  young 

                                              to have so many    ( g h o s t s )

[ravnswood]

it’s  certainly  been  a  while . . .    but  it’s  spooky  season ,   it’s  morbid  gal  season ,   so  to  get  back  into  the  game ,   would  anyone  like  a  starter  from  a  spooky ,  sad  gal ??

   look  at  her ! !   she’s  beautiful ! !   she’s  absolutely  doomed ! !                                                            hit  that  ♡   to  slide  into  her  dms ~

[turnpage]

𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐲 &. 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫 

poetry written by may garner ig: crimson.hands — if you like these please show support to the author.

I cannot seem to find my way from underneath you, but you always find your way around me.

I am the sand and you are the tide, and you always silence me.

I cannot be the wound you dig open every time you’re bored.

Where daylight lets you see that I am real, so you’d rather see me dress down in shadows.

The garden I have tried to grow between the world and I is hopeless.

Evil lives here, right inside this heart of mine.

When I say I hurt, I bleed those words with a drip tasting at my tongue.

You open me up like I have always been yours to touch.

You want the crease of my lips, the valley along my chest, but you forgot the heart that was beating underneath.

I scream for hours on every ounce of hate I hold for you, bit it’s never enough to keep it from fading.

A kiss of the lips, a pull at the wrists, you love me until the world turns back, forget me the second the night fades.

How have you become my lover, when all you have ever been is a liar?

You are a taste I won’t find elsewhere, a type of hell that doesn’t live anywhere else.

You are everything I want, but nothing I need, more pain than pleasure in your veins.

Some days, the ache is so heavy and I cannot feel my fingertips.

My fingers are at your pulse, but your heart is not beating for me.

If alone means my heart will not longer ache, then I will stay put in my own arms.

You are the fire I continue to throw myself in over and over again.

I am calling for you, but you have already burned away.

I wish I could unscrew my head from its hinges, pull it apart, and rip out every single memory that tainted my skin.

[ravnswood]

✤ ✤ ✤        enchantedorigins​     //     lonely bride

      ❝ It is, ❞ a ghost of a voice answered, digits curling, Emily twisting the edge of her bridal veil. She still remembered the night she put it on, the way the lace lay over her hair with such great delicacy. Like a honeyed blade, the memory was painful and sweet. Velvet brown eyes met Melanie’s, kind and grieving. A faint, half-smile was offered. ❝ I wish it were not so that I could have experienced it while my heart still beat. Even now, I hope for it, a love so true as to feel the way you do. ❞ Emily had been wrong about Barkis, but she hadn’t been wrong about her belief in true love. Slippery beams of moonlight still slashed over stone and grass, through the bony, leafless fingers of the tree she waited under, while the sun beamed hopefully, stubbornly behind an aching breastbone. ❝ Your love, the one who holds your heart, what happened to them? Do they still live while you wait? ❞

do  they  still  live ?   the  question  strikes  her  through  the  ribs  like  a  blade .    melanie  ducks  her  head ,   looking  away .      ❝  once . . .   he  certainly  did .  lived ,  and  loved ,  and  gone . ❞       and  her ,   left  behind  to  bear  the  weight  of  grief .   the  dead ,   she  once  believed ,   had  it  easy .  they  did  not  have  to  mourn  ;  they  did  not  have  to  regret .   now ,   of  course ,   she  knows  better .   yet  such  a  thing  is  hard  to  comprehend ,  and  impossible  to  explain .    melanie  does  not  have  the  strength  any  longer .         ❝  he  was  taken  from  me , ❞      she  says  instead ,   voice  soft  with  lingering  grief .        ❝  before . . .   well .   before  we  ever  had  a  chance . ❞     

she  turns ,   wedding  veil  whipping  around  her  in  the  nonexistent  breeze .   beneath  the  moonlight’s  pale  beams ,   she  flickers   ---   light  and  shadow ,   life  and  death  in  a  half - skeleton  face .     it  is  hard  not  to  envy  emily  her  solid  body ,   as  decayed  as  it  is .   even  if  jake  were  standing  in  front  of  her  now ,   alive  and  whole ,   melanie  would  not  be  able  to  touch  him .    the  dead  are  forever  out  of  reach  of  the  living .       ❝  you  are  lucky  to  still  wait .   to . . .  have  hope ,   even  now .    perhaps  your  future  still  holds  something  bright . ❞

[ravnswood]

creepy bitch vibes only here!!  we love and support slightly deranged gals!!  let ‘em have it, ladies!!

[ravnswood]

                     @prettylittlejohanna​  asked  :       "Regrets just bear us down."                                 welcome to night vale starters   ( accepting!! )

❝  to  the  grave . ❞         her  voice  rings  with  morbid  certainty .   though  the  lady  smiles ,   it  rings  false  on  her  pale  lips ,   a  corpse's  grin  carved  into  rictus  cheeks .   her  eyes ,   in  contrast ,   are  perfectly  flat   ---   almost  black  in  their  lifelessness .   regret  has  chewed  the  once - hopeful  bride  to  the  bone ,   and  left  behind  a  carcass  picked  clean  of  life .   she  serves  now  only  as  a  warning . . .   an  aesop’s  nightmare  to  those  who  follow  down  her  path .

❝  there’s  no  time  for  it  in  life ,   you  know .   regret  is  best  saved  for  the  dead . . .   and  they  are  very  good  at  bearing  it . ❞        again ,   the  twitch  of  a  smile   ---  though  it  is  not  real ,   the  echo  of  a  half - remembered  expression .         ❝  of  course ,   one  can  be  dead  while  their  heart  still  beats .   regret  is  a  terribly  effective  poison . . .   and  oh ,   how  slowly  it  kills .  ❞

[actiasteeth]

“And I fell in love instantly.”

“It’s probably nothing." 

"It becomes perfect when you learn to accept it for what it is." 

"If you see something, say nothing and drink to forget." 

"And you may find, as time passes, that you remember it less and less." 

"Look, I’ve probably said too much." 

"If you don’t hear from me again, it has truly been a pleasure." 

"We are not history yet." 

"You are safe now." 

"You can let go now." 

"We have nothing to speak about. There never was." 

"I have chosen to not be certain of anything at all." 

"There are many things I wish I could remember." 

"I do not live but I exist." 

"I don’t know if he listens to me sometimes." 

"We can do this together, you and I." 

"You don’t know what to say." 

"I know what I saw." 

"Regrets just bear us down." 

"You are all to me." 

"Think nothing of it; it’s forgotten." 

"There—now you know. Has that filled an emptiness for you? Are you any happier now?" 

"I have something of urgent importance to tell you." 

"And for now, existence is enough." 

"No, not you! Not you!" 

"Please, stay safe inside." 

"I just don’t believe violence is ever the answer—it is a question. The real answer is far more terrifying." 

"We can get along." 

"I’m coming in there." 

"There must be something beyond this something." 

"I will try not to be long." 

"I don’t know where I am." 

"I told you I would be back." 

"I let that woeful beast live." 

"We have each other." 

"As with life, and as with all things, it will pass." 

"Am I in Hell?”

“I am certain that there must be more to us than just us." 

"Let’s not dwell on our corpse strewn past; let’s celebrate our corpse strewn future." 

"I probably won’t miss you." 

"Well, let’s just find out together, shall we?" 

"And it’s just no good anymore. We can’t carry on like this." 

"Nothing is real, I don’t think. Whatever; who cares?" 

"When I die, I want to have earned it." 

"The present tense of regret is indecision." 

"The future tense of fear is either comedy or tragedy." 

"I can disappear if I want to." 

"And what if the void is not as void as we thought?" 

"Time is weird; so is space. I hope ours match again someday." 

"We should all be so lucky to set our own futures." 

"I fear for what we know." 

"I fear for what we don’t know." 

"We have nothing to fear and never did." 

"It is likely I will learn nothing from this." 

"After everything that happened, I just wanted to see you." 

"It is too late for us." 

"But maybe you shouldn’t sleep in your home anymore. Just in case." 

"Your sadness will know no bounds." 

"Nothing will be the same." 

"Nothing has ever been the same." 

"When something is this weird, one shouldn’t assume to understand anything specific about it at all." 

"Ignorance may not actually be bliss, but it certainly is less work." 

"No one has ever known anything—not really." 

"I don’t know much about anything at all, honestly." 

"Everything is some level of probably, nothing is a promise." 

"You don’t know, and so it might very well." 

"Nothing ever really happens to me." 

"Thanks, that means lot. Not to me, but your words hold a lot of meaning intrinsically." 

"So it’s best just to stay away." 

"It cannot give you what you need." 

"Oh, you don’t even want to know." 

"But it wasn’t what I thought it would be." 

"I’ll be back as soon as I can." 

"You have no idea how often it is just you and me." 

"There always seems to be something upsetting you." 

"It’s not that there’s nothing coming to get you; there’s everything coming to get you. But relax anyway." 

"Don’t worry. All is as it was meant to be." 

"It was meant to be lonely and terrifying and unfair and fleeting, don’t worry." 

"This is because I am also slightly malicious. Sorry about that." 

"Thinking about it now, nothing seems good, let alone perfect." 

"And those imperfections in our reality are the seams and the cracks into which our outsized love can seep and pool." 

"And sometimes we’re annoyed. And disappointed. And that, too, is a part of how love works." 

"I just thought it was time for us to make a home together.”

[moonandserpent]

Highgate Cemetery, London, 2017.  © Moon and Serpent

[ravnswood]

           i was catching my 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡   .  .  .                                          catching my 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡

                                     i had a feeling so peculiar                                          this pain would be for                                      𝐸𝒱𝐸𝑅𝑀𝒪𝑅𝐸

                           𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭  𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞  𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝                                        𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐝  𝐛𝐲  𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚                     𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬  𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨  𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞  𝐛𝐲  @cortezruled​  ! !

[ravnswood]

me ,  looking  at  my  lovely  collection  of  drafts  from  9  months  ago :    hmm...   how  about  not ??