you’ve heard of soft grunge, now get ready for:

soft goth

💀 Black makeup with a delicate shimmer as opposed to the normal flat matte shades that are popular with traditional goths. Think sparkling inky lip gloss like a night sky, or black nail polish with a lightly galactic twinkle. 💀 All the sad poetry of our goth forefathers and foremothers that we revere so much, but also a heavy focus on tragic romances and erudite and/or classical stories of forbidden love and murder. 💀 Guillermo Del Toro. Just like, everything about him. Everything he is. 💀 A clean mix of the black lace and sweeping skirts the Victorian goths have brought to the table, married to the patches and leather jackets of an 80s London goth. Lots of leather and lace mixes, actually. Consider this. 💀 Florals on black. All the florals on black. 💀 Cemetary dates, but not so the world can quiver in awe over how dark you and your love are, just because they’re pretty and quiet and a good place to talk. You’ll spend hours there walking among the tombstones and trying to piece together the stories of those laid to rest there. 💀 The music of Jennifer Thomas. 💀 Privacy, solitude, quiet reflection and occasional random crying. It’s an aesthetique now. Congratulations all, we finally made it a look. 💀 Tending to a family of crows somewhere until they begin to follow you everywhere, bringing you surprise treats of random shiny bits that they leave on your windowsill in thanks. 💀 That’s right people, you heard it here first: we’re bringing back tortured, dramatic vampires and no one is stopping us. And this time, we’re doing it right. 💀 Some people have guardian angels. Soft goths have guardian demons, hulking winged gargoyle-creatures with gleaming deep-sea eyes who watch over us as we sleep and fall in love with us from afar. Every one is specifically aligned to some concept or element that reflects the personality of their beloved charge - thunderstorms, poetry, poisons and astronomy. They send us dreams that make us think, they inspire us to do things like take up the violin, write a luridly grotesque love story that we’ll never share with anyone, to hack into an alexa until it only plays Emilie Autumn and Mary Shelley audio book files. They watch and wait, and when we die, they carry us off to the looming dark castles of our dreams that they’ve spent our lifespans creating for us. 💀 Accentuating a predominantly black wardrobe with everything but the standard blood red - emerald greens, royal blues, blush pinks, shimmering golds. 💀 The gentle, weary acceptance that sometimes life hurts a lot, and sometimes people are wretched, and sometimes really means most of the time, and sometimes all you can do about it is turn it into a pinterest board and cry it out. 💀 Soft, fuzzy black sweaters over high-waisted black jeans and velvet flats until it’s literally too damn warm for them anymore. 💀 Realizing for the first time that someone is just as strange and sad as you, that they’re the gift your guardian demon sent you to love and take care of you until it’s time to go home with them at the end of it all. 💀 Delicate jewelry made of bones and teeth and tiny bottles. 💀 The day can be so harsh, burning, unyieldingly bright and demanding. The cool, soft night is where we belong, lacing fingers into someone else’s on an insomniac’s walk through silent city streets until a coffee shop rises, glowing like the moon, on the horizon. Exhausted paramedics drink coffee inside, hoping it will distract them from all they’ve seen that night, and the pang of empathy in your chest for all of them.

D&G ss 2015 RTW

I can’t be the only one that thinks about what their D&D character’s handwriting looks like, right?? Prepping my notebook for the hopefully soon return to Eberron and your, my, our favorite disaster Paladin! Also, I can no longer blame my characters’ long names on being gnomes. It’s just an addiction I have to accept. Does anyone have recommendations for preserving autographs? Want that sweet @voiceofobrien signature to last! #dungeonsanddragons #criticalrole #eberron #tabletopgame #rpg #paladins

Same shirt, two and a half years apart. Whole lot more roomier now than it was then. It’s amazing what getting your meds right, cutting down on sugar, and getting a dog when you live in an apartment can do! I didn’t weigh myself if I didn’t have to for a long time, but apparently I’ve lost around 45 pounds since August of last year. I’m healthier than I’ve felt in a long time. I’m off my asthma meds. I went down one size in pants and possibly down another more recently. And, most importantly, I feel more myself than I have in years. Thank you Bryce, Fred, my family, and my friends, for encouraging me so much! I definitely couldn’t have done this alone. 🖤🖤🖤

Vampire Self Care

⚰ Virgin Blood Bath Bomb - $3.99+

⚰ Blood Bath Body Wash - $8

⚰ Rose Water Facial Toner - $11.25

⚰ Portland Rose Candle - $18

⚰ Cemetery Gates Coffin Bath Bomb - $9.50

⚰ Black Raspberry Vanilla Bubble Bar - $6

⚰ Tobacco Honey Perfume - $12

⚰ Rosemary and Orange Shampoo Bar - $4

❝ 𝔏𝔦𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔫 𝔱𝔬 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔪. 𝓒𝔥𝔦𝔩𝔡𝔯𝔢𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔫𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱. 𝔚𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔪𝔲𝔰𝔦𝔠 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝑦 𝔪𝔞𝑘𝔢. ❞

Tough weeks call for yummy wine, #criticalrole and ice cream! (at Downtown Bakersfield)

My technology-induced angst has a body count. (at TEC Repair Services)

Working on that “extra in a Meatloaf music video” aesthetic. #goth #aesthetic #abeautifulmess #piccollage #spoopy (at TEC Repair Services)

Happy 1st birthday to this majestic little man! Also, bonus video of him being his normal maniacal self. #frederickreginaldpercivalcharlesblakelobbhazlettiv #butyoucancallmefred #corgimixesofinstagram #corgimix (at Downtown Bakersfield)

Happy puppy day to this sweet boy! 7 months ago, you came into our lives and flipped everything upside down in the best way possible. Having you around has been the best, most frustrating, most rewarding experience ever. I hope you know how much Bryce and I love you, Fredorino! #frederickreginaldpercivalcharlesblakelobbhazlettIV #buttoucancallmefred #corgimix #corgimixesofinstagram #internationalpuppyday

If you haven’t listened to Andrew W K’s new album, DO IT NOW. #Repost @andrewwk with @get_repost ・・・ Andrew shares a motivational message about negativity on the computer, and beyond... (thanks to Kerrang! Magazine for the clip).

This has been a pretty awesome birthday. Here’s to 32 and all that it brings me. (at Downtown Bakersfield)

Regular pancakes with full sugar syrup have bested me. My whole stomach feels like one big pancake. It’s hard to imagine that I used to be able to eat two whole pancakes and still eat the sides. Really glad we’ve started eating better so this becomes way too much food. (at Village Grill)

So excited that I got to go to Bak-Anime, listen to @voiceofobrien talk about so many different things, and get him to sign my notebook. Thanks for coming out to tiny Bakersfield! We really appreciate it. #bakanime2018 #criticalrole #liamobrien #vengeancepaladinsarebestpaladins #dnd #dungeonsanddragons

Week 1 of Inktober! My theme this year is plant witches~ ^o^

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a last note from your narrator

Here is a story.

There was a woman, and she was beautiful, and as is always true in stories, beautiful was a dangerous thing for her to be. She was beautiful when she lived, and she was beautiful when she died, and so beautiful was she that the god of death plucked her soul from eternity and gave her form and took her for his consort.

(In addition to beautiful, she was wise and powerful, a sorcerer-queen of great renown. But most stories leave out that part.)

Here is a story. The woman grew jealous of her husband’s power and killed him, usurping control of Death for herself and those few she deemed worthy of her mercy. She undid his works and cast him down, creating a new realm where she might rule eternal and erasing all knowledge of her mortal being, that she might have the power to ensure that she would be remembered no longer as human but as divine.

Here is a story. The woman grew sickened by her husband’s abuses and killed him, releasing control of Death for those wretched souls held imprisoned in the afterlife. She undid his works and cast him down, creating a new realm where the dead might be at peace and sacrificing all knowledge of her mortal being, that she might have the power to protect those now under her dominion even at the cost of her own self.

(Here is a question: which story is true?)

(Here is an answer: a mask says nothing. Not even the truth.)

The gods are not all powerful.

This surprised her, once, she thinks. The idea of limitations on godhood seems to be an inherent contradiction; divinity without omnipotence.

(Of course, there was also a time when she thought gods couldn’t be killed.)

(There was a time when she did not realize she had the power to make gods afraid of her.)

She sees clearer in her own divinity. To ascribe limitless power to gods is to strip power from mortals, which, in turn, removes their ability to believe in the gods. There can be no faith without capacity for doubt. To make gods capable of forcing belief is to rob belief of any meaning.

There are moments, she finds, when she is powerless. When her divinity and her agency is worthless, and the fate of the planes rests on a single mortal choice.

(Take me instead, you Raven bitch.)

(A new-spun thread glows gold.)

Her Champion is afraid of her.

He wasn’t, at first. In the beginning, he had nothing in him but anger, burning in his heart. He defied her claim on his sister and offered himself in her place. It was only later he began to realize what that meant.

She does not want his fear. She does not feed on fear, not as others of her divine brethren do. (Not as her godly husband did when he took her as his bride.) Many mortals fear her, true, and she is, for the most part, indifferent to it. Fear of death is but one consequence of being alive, one to which she has grown accustomed over the years.

But fear from worshippers or servants is not the same as fear from her Champion.

Thrice his sister falls beneath death’s shadow, and thrice is she returned. Slowly, slowly, her Champion’s fear is diminished, from biting panic to reverential awe. When he comes to her realm a second time, speaking of undead magics and would-be gods, there is fear in him. Fear for his family, for his people, for all those facing the devastation of this Undying King. There is no fear left in him for himself.

(You have such loneliness in your eyes.)

(My beautiful thing, she calls him, and does not say, You know nothing of being alone.)

Here is a story.

There was once a (woman) (witch) (she-devil) (goddess) and she (found) (stole) (seduced) (set free) a young man, and he became her (slave) (soldier) (paramour) (Champion), and it was (tragic) (horrific) (inevitable) (good).

Here is a story. The Mother of Ravens rules over the transition between life and death, but it is only one death in a century that sees her presence. It is said she comes for kings and emperors, high priests and heroes, those whose names are writ in myth and legend long after all who knew them have passed on.

Here is a story. There is a figure to the Queen’s right hand, one that moves in shadows and whispers, one that few have seen and fewer still have known. The Raven’s Consort, it is said, has many duties: to hunt down necromancers and those who pervert the laws of life and death, to carry tidings to the Queen’s servants and those who do her work, to defend her realm from evildoers and those who seek the Queen’s destruction.

Here is a story. It is said that there are those whom the Raven’s Consort takes in death in his own hands. There is no consensus in the stories of who draws his attention or why he chooses those few souls: warriors cut down in battle, nobles passing after a lifetime of just rule, children lost to sickness before their lives had even a chance to bloom. All the stories have in common is this: those the Consort takes, it is said, are never afraid.

Here is a story. Mortals are afraid of the act of dying. There is nothing to be feared in death.

“It’s chaos. Be kind.”