#light from above

[glimpseofsanity]

I miss this time so much.

[serpentface]

The pylidaigh, a type of vampiric snow ghost, as imagined in folklore in and around the Highlands.

This is a ghost believed to come into being when a person dies in the snow and their body is not found before their soul (still trapped without its funeral rites) 'freezes' inside of it. The body then reanimates into a pylidaigh's twisted form. It looks like someone who slowly died of starvation, just a thin layer of flesh over bones. Its skin is as white as the snow itself, so pale it can blend seamlessly into a blizzard. Most of its body appears subtly stretched and lanky, save for its exceptionally unsubtle long, skinny arms, which drag on the ground behind it when it walks. After a big meal of blood, its belly swells like the abdomen of a tick.

A pylidaigh can only tread across snow and ice, and so doorways and windows are best kept clear of snowfall during the winter in order to prevent it from reaching inside. It mostly comes out to hunt during blizzards when there is little that can prevent it from catching its victims.

In spite of its fragile appearance, a pylidaigh is supernaturally strong, and can run at great speeds when it wants to. No mortal weapons can pierce its body, nor can any bonds known to craftsmen hold it in place. It is usually said that chains forged like iron but made out of ice can bind a pylidaigh and render it immobile, but this smithing technique remains tragically elusive to the average joe.

This ghost is either cast as a wildly dangerous but tragic figure, or one that is more simply malicious. In either case, it is described as experiencing nothing but bitter cold. It shivers endlessly. It retains distant memories of what it was to be alive, and it is motivated by a futile desperation to experience the feeling of warmth again.

In more sympathetic framings, it is described as using its freaky gibbon arms to capture its victims and pull them into an embrace, rather innocently trying to warm itself against their body. This inevitably fails, and the embrace becomes a bone crushing squeeze. When that too fails to warm the ghost, it rips out the person's throat and drinks their blood until the victim is as cold and drained as the pylidaigh itself.

In other cases, this more pitiable narrative of a ghost seeking warmth with no comprehension of its actions is discarded in favor of making it purely monstrous. Here it is a type of vampire with an insatiable thirst, practically a physical manifestation of the worst of winter itself. Some tales acknowledge both variants, suggesting a pylidaigh's violent attempts to warm itself may be initially devoid of malice, but turns into an act of furious jealousy of the warmth of the living after years of suffering.

The only (more or less) surefire method to permanently kill a roaming pylidaigh involves trapping it with fire. They are attracted to any source of heat, and will attempt to warm themselves with the flames (if not tempted away by a juicy living human body). The fire itself cannot kill them (as the sheer cold of their body is more powerful even than flame) but they can be trapped if kept near the fire long enough for the snow it depends upon to melt. This does not kill the pylidaigh either. The monster will remain in stuck in place (and potentially become a threat again if it snows more) for the duration of the winter. Only when the spring comes and all the snow melts does it revert into a normal human carcass (though mysteriously invulnerable to decay), at which point it can be cremated.

Pylidaigh in the wilds also revert to a human corpse during the snowless seasons, but will roam again each following winter unless it is burnt in the interim. It is of critical importance that any human corpse found in high mountain pasture is cremated- not only out of respect for the poor soul trapped as an earthbound ghost, but to prevent the threat of the possible dormant pylidaigh emerging next winter.

[kestrel-of-herran]

severance 2.06

[javierduffy]

different.

[plutonicbees]

cassie sandsmark star jorts from issue #23 of yj98 you have always been famous to me

(before pic + additional photos and unnecessary ramblings under the cut)

I made these jorts in 22 hours over the course of 3 days! pure willpower via my love for cassie sandsmark because I am a total novice in sewing and i am still not very good at it. (i really just combined various tutorials and improvised on measurements and then regretted improvising measurements later on).

I thrifted these jeans last year for cassie vibes (even though I had already made her star-spangled red bellbottoms at that point) and wasn't a fan of how they fit + I couldn't figure out how to style them. I enjoyed sewing in the panels to flare them out and then everything else (cargo pockets and sewing in stars) was hell <3

the pockets are not placed well (nor are they particularly well-made), the hem is uneven, the stars are quite janky (and I think I stitched on too many), I probably stabbed my fingers a million times, and I am so in love with them

[shakingparadigm]

NOBODY is allowed to be happy and EVERYONE is doomed

[earthfluuke]

"I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun." MY GOLDEN BLOOD (2025)

[maksimuskk]

THE ROOM IS WARM

The room is warm.

[kleinefreiheiten]

10.2015 Hamburg

[toastytrusty]

hickey wanting nothing more than to be seen and recognized yet going the entire voyage pretending to be someone he wasn't. even the status he tries to procure through the naval command hierarchy and then in his mutiny is still Not His. and in the end when he knows everyone around him is about to die he finally admits to not being who he says he is because he Needs Them To Know. he needs to be seen and recognized in his true self so that he can finally personally claim everything he has done here as his. something about his want vs need being a want to persuade and convince vs a need to be seen and recognized. he creates a fabrication of his identity to better sell himself to the people around him and get them to like admire respect him whatever it is, to make the voyage easier and bolster his ego. but that's so contrary to the whole reason he went on the voyage, which was to prove himself and gain some self respect in a world that he feels has mistreated him. but he didn't even go on the voyage as himself, and abandoned his past self and the mistreatment he faced when he made the decision to pretend to be someone else. he put ease and whatever illusion he held about a career navy man being more respectable than some rando on his first voyage over authenticity and genuine self betterment. he's so terribly self destructive and weak willed and insecure and draws the worst out of himself by being too afraid to ever be true to himself

[icewindandboringhorror]

At what temperature INDOORS (not outdoor weather) do you start to become noticeably uncomfortable (sweaty, heavy, don't feel like doing anything, etc.) and begin trying to cool off yourself or your environment?

(Like, at what point do you start putting out fans, turning on the AC, getting ice water, etc. because the indoor room temperature has gotten too high for you?)

It's starting to get warmer weather where I live, so I was thinking about it/curious how this might vary :0

(sorry if the celsius conversions aren't entirely accurate, I just used a website to look them up/am not familiar with measuring things that way myself lol)

[rosewoodrambler]

MILLIE BRADY AS ÆTHELFLÆD, LADY OF THE MERCIANS

"[...] Women, become harden'd by necessity, [and] are often more robust than Men. […] Woman may be enured to all the hardships of a campaign, and to meet all the terrors of it."

[oddestishottest]

[xanderscollection]

Ep 11 and the manga

[kainebell]

choices fandom I challenge you to complain about Valax without bringing up Aerin. bc most of your arguments boil down to “this stupid evil mary sue jezebel stole my sweet precious cinnamon roll’s screentime”. like what in the 2013 logic is this. be serious.

[classpect-sideblog]

Kris is a Knight of Doom

Susie is a Rouge of Hope

Ralsei is an Heir of Void

Noelle is a Sylph of Rage