#eastern gothic

[vacillators-interlude]

held close all the time

[mother-lee]

photo

[mutilamb]

holy land U.S.A., waterbury CT

[ennislamore]

The blessed dark

[emotionalmoss]

concept:

an abandoned, dilapidated church that evidently hasn’t been in use for hundreds of years with a cemetary at the back. the dates on all the gravestones are worryingly recent.

[highways-are-liminal-spaces]

Moodboard for a lake out in the middle of the woods, that always seems a bit colder and deeper than it ought to be

for @catacombs-and-gelato

[swordkind]

highway gothic

-you are driving for hours. you have been driving for hours. the highway still looks exactly the same. you know you have been traveling but there’s the nagging thought in the back of your head that you’re still in exactly the same place.

-it is twilight, with the last traces of blood-red and burning gold sunset fading behind you. you are at an intersection in a suburban center. there is a mcdonalds on the corner, as well as a shell gas station and a sunoco. there is a sign for burger king in the distance. you’re not sure if the burger king is really there or not, but the sickly glow of the mcdonald’s m is enough to persuade you that you shouldn’t stop. there is a tangle of power lines and pylons silhouetted black against the fading, burning sky and it is a peculiar type of beauty that makes you want to cry.

-it is pouring. you decide to get off the road for a while. there is a garish billboard for a diner named after, you assume, someone’s uncle. you turn at the exit. the diner has a crooked roof and looks to be only luck and a prayer away from collapsing. there are newspaper clippings and thrift-store prints of benign farm animals covering the walls, as well as chintzy wall hangings that say things about god and family in a saccharine, faux-natural font. the waitress is old, and from her accent you can tell she’s lived here since she was born. there’s something a little menacing about how empty the rest of the diner is, but you push it to the back of your mind.

-the billboards do not say vengeful, apocalyptic things as much as you believed they would. for hundreds of miles they stretch on, convincing you that you need alcohol and mattresses and law firms (for when you crash), that addiction costs lives and that LifeChurch Syntheticism would be ecstatic to see you at their sunday service with Reverend Sarah Walters! after a while, you change your mind. they are every bit as horrifying as people said. you do not want to go to the casino, nor do you care that Saint Albert’s Hospital for the Ill is giving back to the community. you feel bad. you should care, but all you feel is numb.

-you pull off the highway at a green sign for gas and get lost for hours in a rural town, turning at every intersection you see, looking for the gas station. you do not find it.

-there are antique stores alongside the road. it doesn’t matter what road you’re on, they are there. not all of them are open. not many of them are open. you see a flicker of movement from inside a dark barn with a peeling, faded handpainted sign on the side, and you keep driving. you don’t want to know what it was.

-you stop at a gas station, late at night. it is dark and empty, except for the two parked cars in the lot. they look like they’ve been there forever. their windows are black, and you avoid looking at them. the garish florescent lights of the gas pumps interrupt the soft darkness of the sky. they feel cold and unwelcoming and it sets you on edge. as you pay at the pump, your eyes are caught by the bright, airblown ad stuck to the column. Combo Meal, 2 for $5!! it reads, in an off shade of bright green. you do not want pizza. you do not want mountain dew. you enter anyway. the grimy glass door squeaks agonizingly and a tinny canned bell sounds as you enter. there are pallets of water bottles and gatorade piled in the corners. the floors are scuffed and the cashier looks at you distrustfully. you pay for your lukewarm coffee and hostess donut and leave quickly.

[everydaygothic]

virginia rest stop gothic

Rest stops in Virginia are carefully placed within walking distance of each other so that you can judge your speed by rest stops per hour.  There is coffee and it is free.