#Even though Hermes stole and lied to him

[mischivana]

Are you just going to leave me here?

Connor Stole x Athena!reader

Genre: Fluff

Requested by anonymous

Masterlist

I was in my cabin quietly reading a book my sister Annabeth recommended to me about ancient architecture in western civilizations. It was surprisingly good, she’d been trying for a while to get someone else into architecture so she could geek out with her. Her plan had worked, I was hooked.

I was reading about Athenian architecture in the United States capital specifically when there was a knock at the cabin door. I grabbed my owl bookmark to keep my page, set down my book, and walked over to the door.

Before I could even get to the handle the door swung open revealing my best friend, Connor Stoll. With his curly hair and cheeky smile he walked into the Athena cabin and slumped down onto my bed. “Making yourself at home are ya?” I said, with a small laugh.

“You know it. Your cabin is so much nicer than Hermes” he said, his face in my pillow. “That’s because we know how to keep our cabin clean” I responded, walking over and sitting at the foot of my bed by his feet.

He flipped over and looked at me and then back at the large library room in the center of the cabin. The only part of the cabin that was any sort of messy. Looking at it, it was somehow easy and impossible to believe it belonged to the children of wisdom, books were everywhere. Unevenly on shelves, in large stacks on tables and desks, chaotic piles on the floor, you name it. There was one large circular table in the center, with a cutout so people could get to the middle. There were chairs on either side, though no one ever used them, a lot of our work was done standing. The table was littered with loose papers, torn up documents, finished and unfinished maps, stuff like that. There were all sorts of writing utensils as well. There were pencils, pens, markers, highlighters, even a few quills in ink pots. It looked like an archive had exploded but to me and my siblings, we knew where everything was and where everything needed to be.

“Clean” he said in a sarcastic tone. “I looked at him with a playful grin and said “ha ha you know what I mean,” I looked back at the room and remembered the map I had promised I’d finish for my brother and got up. “That reminds me,” I said “I needed to finish a map for Gabriel” and walked over to the table to start working.

I felt a hand grab my wrist, stopping me in my tracks. “Wait-” I heard him say. He was sitting up now, his arm outstretched to grab mine and his face tilted slightly up to look in my eyes. He continued, “you’ve been reading and working all day, you deserve a break” he told me with a sympathetic smile. Gods how I loved that smile, it always made a dark situation have a little bit of light. “I haven’t been working that long, it’s only been a few hours” I said, not moving still. “You skipped lunch, I don’t even think you realized it” he told me, starting to sound a little worried. He was right, I skipped lunch and hadn’t realized. I was reading so much and working so hard I hadn’t even acknowledged how hungry I am. “It worries me when you put work over eating,” he said.

I blushed a little, I wouldn’t tell anyone and especially not Connor himself but last summer I’d fallen for him. How funny is that? Daughter of wisdom falling in love with the son of tricksters. To know he cared about me made me feel special, but he’s my best friend, he probably was worried because of that reason, not because he loves me back.

“I know,” I lied, I hadn’t known, “but I promised Gabriel I’d finish this” I said and turned to keep walking to the table. I picked up a compass and a pencil that’d been lying somewhere on the table and started to chart the map again. I saw Connor pull out a chair and sit in my peripheral vision. I looked at him quickly and gave him a small laugh which he returned. We remained that way for a few minutes, me in the zone charting the map and him watching, before I heard let out a sigh and started to get up. I looked at him as he said “well let me know when you’re done, I have an awesome prank planned for the aphrodite cabin but I need a strategist” before turning to the door.

I dropped the compass and the pencil and grabbed his wrist, stopping him like he’d stopped me before. He turned to face me with a little bit of a questioning look on his face. “Are you just gonna leave me here? To work on this map all alone, in an empty cabin?” I said, in a joking tone. A smile crept up onto my face.

He smiled back and looked at me for a sec before dipping his head and laughing a little. He had a big smile on his face, like he was planning something. Before I knew it he’d leaned down and planted a kiss on my lips. It was short lived and over before it began,“as long as you’re done soon” and took his chair back to watch me work again.

I stood there for a moment, stunned at what just happened. The boy I'd been in love with, my best friend, just kissed me. I turned around to face him, he was in his chair looking at me with that same cheeky smile. The one that always made me happy. And I smiled back. I walked back over to the table, grabbed my compass and pencil and began to work again, him watching me with loving eyes. At that moment all my fears about him not liking me back flew out the window and we sat there for what felt like ever. Alone in the cabin, as I worked, as he watched, in love.

[my-name-is-apollo]

You mentioned apollo having a rough childhood in ur earlier posts and I’m a little confused bc I thought after he was born he went to Olympus. I love ur blog btw

No, he didn't really go to Olympus. He seemed to have spent most of his childhood on earth, on Delos. I think his early years weren't completely sad, there are definitely cheerful, adorable moments and I'm sure he had some good memories from those times. It's just that there's a lot of details given about the sufferings he (and Leto and Artemis too of course) had to go through:

- If you take into account Callimachus' hymn to Delos, Apollo was already fully conscious in his mother's womb. He could talk, feel everything that was going around him when Leto was being persecuted by Hera and team (it's even specifically stated that Apollo was "sorely angered" that no one wanted to help him mom).

- After their birth, when they were travelling and were thirsty, the peasants of the city didn't even allow them to drink water. If you read Ovid's poem, it's especially sad because there baby Artemis and Apollo stretch their hands to show that they're thirsty and request for water, but the peasants simply don't care and start throwing mud at them.

- there's also this myth where Artemis and Apollo get kidnapped by some dogs when they were infants, and then were later discovered by some shepherds who heard the whimpering of the twins (poor babies! 😢)

- And then, there are many artworks and a couple of texts that show Apollo slaying the Python when he was still a toddler/slightly older than a toddler. It's said that shortly after that he also had to kill Tityus who tried to violate his mother (this time with the help of Artemis).

- Lastly, in Homeric hymn to Hermes, Apollo says that he learnt the art of pebble divination while he was "yet a boy following herds" and that "my father paid no heed to it". I'm not very sure what it's referring to but 1) it could be about Apollo's exile after killing Python, where he had to serve as a herdsman 2) in case this isn't referring to his exile, then it shows that Apollo wasn't on Olympus, he spent his childhood on earth being a cowherd, learning divination, and by the sound of it, it looks like he wanted his father to notice him but Zeus didn't (which is kinda sad but probably for the best? Zeus giving him attention would have annoyed Hera...). After killing Python, Apollo then spent the next few years in exile, servitude and going places to get purified (Gaia also messed with prophecies so Apollo wouldn't be able to hold authority over prophecies, and according to Pindar she straight up wanted to throw apollo into tartarus)

The attacks on his mother before and after he was born, the way Zeus didn't really do anything to help Leto at any point...it must have really impacted him. He not only had to defend his mother that way, but was also punished for rightfully defending her. So yeah. It's not like he didn't have some good times, but it's just that...there were more difficulties than happy times. And it was only after his purification that he was allowed on Olympus.

[godsofhumanity]

⚝──⭒─ 30 DAY HC’S | HERMES ─⭒──⚝

HERMES | average height, leaning towards the shorter side. athletic build. short, choppy, brown hair that tends to curl. a golden band sits on his forehead with slender, mechanical, golden wings that flutter when he moves. light brown, mischievous eyes and an innocent smile. he goes nowhere without his winged sandals, and his caduceus.

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i think it's impossible to separate Hermes from mischief. in pretty much every single interpretation and adaption of the Greek gods, Hermes is always, always, always portrayed in the same way, and honestly? it's not bad.

i don't think i've got much different to say than everyone else- Hermes, in my head, is a prankster at heart. he loves jokes, whether he's the butt of them, or he's the one orchestrating it.

he loves laughter and smiling. he's playful, and mischievous, and more often than not, this gets him into light trouble.

of course, i don't think he's on Loki-levels of mischief-making, but he's definitely Olympus' resident prankster.

still, i don't think it's fair to say that he's only the class clown. i imagine Hermes to be kind-hearted, and gentle-natured.

many of the gods in Olympus are arrogant and can be stubborn at the best of times, but as the messenger of Olympus, i think Hermes is especially good at being diplomatic- i don't think he's hot-headed at all, and actually is very slow to anger or to impulsive decisions.

though he can act foolish, when it comes to serious things, i think Hermes definitely puts a lot of thought into his actions.. he considers the cause and effect carefully. i think that's the key reason why Zeus has Hermes as his messenger.

something else i've noticed about Hermes in modern media is that he tends to be depicted as a child very often,,, or at least a teenager.

i think this plays into his playful personality, but i don't think it should be mistaken for "innocence"... i think that Hermes can be deceptive and cold if he wishes- after all, he's also the god of cunning, and he's the one who gifts Pandora with the gift of lies and seductive words.

in terms of his role on Olympus, i think Hermes gets along with pretty much everyone.

his best friend, and closest brother would be Apollo i think- this fits the mythology well. Hermes has been hanging around Apollo since he first stole Apollo's cattle as a baby... and the two appear in many myths together.

after Apollo, i think Hermes would get along with Dionysus the best... this isn't a unique interpretation, but i think it makes sense given that Hermes was the one to name Dionysus, and Zeus placed Dionysus in charge of Hermes' upbringing.. so they'd be similarly-minded individuals.

though she doesn't get along with most of her step-sons, i think Hera would be surprisingly tolerant of Hermes... someone once proposed the idea to me that Hermes is the only one who truly makes an effort to butter up Hera.. and even though she knows it's lip-service, she appreciates Hermes' effort to not step on her toes.. also, she probably has to see him a lot anyways because he's always going in and out of Olympus.

Hades, i imagine, deals with Hermes the most after Zeus, given Hermes' role as a psychopomp. i think that Hades and Hermes work well together because Hermes isn't arrogant or boastful,, and though he wouldn't admit it, i think Hades enjoys Hermes' light-hearted mischief-making.

Persephone is someone else who i feel is important to mention here. Hermes, of course, plays an important role in the Persephone-rescue-mission myth, but as a psychopomp, Hermes is one of the few gods who imagine is regularly meeting up with her.

i like the idea of Persephone and Hermes having a close friendship.. i think Hermes is always looking out for Persephone especially because she seems to end up as the subject of kidnappings very often (see Hades, Pirithous).

continuing on with Hermes as a psychopomp, i think that Hermes and Thanatos get on like a house on fire... i've said before in another post (i think) that i like the idea that Thanatos, being significantly older than even Zeus, doesn't really like the Olympians very much- they're loud, and arrogant, and self-absorbed in his eyes.. there are very few Olympians whom Thanatos actually respects, but i think Hermes is one of them.

i think that Hermes has an appreciation for life, and that's something that Thanatos can agree with. i also hc Thanatos to be sort-of mischievous himself, so Hermes and him are double trouble... RIP Hades.

now, i think it was @/greekschist who shared this hc with me, but i've never been able to part with it because it's so perfect- i think that Delphin, Thanatos, and Hermes are a trio of besties. through these three, the three domains (Sea, Underworld, and Sky/Heaven) come together.. each of these three gods are "messengers" of sorts in their respective domains- Delphin is Poseidon's right-hand man/dolphin, Hermes is Zeus' chief messenger and likely most trusted member of court, and i've always pictured Thanatos as being Hades' most important subject.. after all, without Thanatos, Hades pretty much has no domain to rule over.

anyhow, so i think these three have a great friendship where they gossip and get up to no good.

so, that's pretty much all from me about Hermes.. as i said, not much different from the general consensus on Hermes haha :)

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[percabeth4life]

Not a relationship, but how would you do Percy hosting Kronos and then the Titans winning?

Hmm, okay so to start with this I would actually have Kronos good at manipulation.

Like book one is the sweet spot here. Percy has just learned about the Gods, he doesn't have any real connections to the Godly world and they're screwing him over right then. His life is being threatened for a crime he didn't commit, the camp has basically abandoned him, Hades stole his mom, and Poseidon appears to have only claimed him so he can do his dirty work.

Frankly, if Rick had written Kronos even slightly competent in manipulation then Percy would've been on his side. Like canonically there was basically nothing keeping Percy on the Gods side right then.

So Kronos speaks sweet words and promises, shows Percy how good things to be under his rule, promises to save his mom, talks up how bad the Gods are. He reassures Percy that he doesn't want death, he just wants to replace the Gods with their faulty rule. He goes on and on about all the improvements he'd make (talking animals! Plenty of food for all! No painful deaths! Peaceful afterlives!) and coaxes Percy gently to his side.

Then when Percy returns to camp and is loved, he acts all comforting. He talks about how he's so sorry Percy now has to deal with the people that abandoned him prior. And now they pretend to have been his friends? Oh wow that shroud they made for you... I'm so sorry, you deserve better. You deserve people who care.

Luke is of course assigned to stick close to Percy and be kind and supportive and to subtle talk down the camp and the people.

Then at the end of book 1, he has Luke offer Percy a position by his side instead of the pit scorpion scene. And frankly, with all the manipulation going on prior, Percy is on board.

So then Percy is by their side, and that means things like... the fleece don't work. Percy was the reason that succeeded after all. So maybe the Titan's get the fleece and that speeds up Kronos' recovery. Also Clarisse and Grover may die there (could die there, we could kill them now because how would they escape without Annabeth and Percy? And how would Annabeth get there without Percy gaining the attention he did?), but we'll say that they manage to escape thanks to their own clever skills. It's a close thing though.

And the quest in book three... well honestly they probably wouldn't have caught Thorn taking the kids without Percy so jot that down as another fail. And now two more big three kids are on the Titan's side (we get Kronos scolding Thorn for taking them by force, he was supposed to be kind. Percy is a reassuring presence, just a bit older and more than happy to talk about how things are great here).

And well, maybe the quest still happens in book 3, maybe not. Maybe Artemis decides to go off looking for the cause of whatever monster is stirring (maybe she's noticed, maybe there are rumors, maybe the Ophiotaurus dies in the ocean without Percy to rescue it).

We'll say that Artemis does go, she's wanting proof for the council that they need to mobilize. The Titans ask a girl demigod on their team to hold up the sky just for a few minutes, three at most, then shove Artemis in there and Artemis saves her and takes the sky.

So a quest is sent out, only this time Percy and Bianca aren't there, so it's only three sent on the quest. Or maybe Annabeth goes too. And it goes alright... except it doesn't also. You could say they get defeated in the museum (but we'll say they figure it out). They have no warning for the skeletons but they can see them so they flee. No Bianca means no issue in Hephaestus' junkyard so no death there. They have to walk to the dam which could slow them down. There's no one to catch Mr. Ocean shape shifter so they just have to go to the garden (they never find out what happened to the Ophiotaurus, maybe he died, maybe he's in a lovely tank with the Titan's because they need Percy and Percy wants him to live so he'll live).

And without Percy to hold the sky, Artemis is still trapped.

At this point Kronos has had the fleece for 6 months, and that thing can work miracles. Combine that with the people still joining... well Perhaps he's all ready now.

Perhaps who steps out is not Percy, but Kronos in Percy's body.

So they're facing two Titans, not one. None of them escape.

The Titan's now hold all the possible prophecy children.

And that's the end of it for the Gods. They have a missing Goddess, all the prophecy children missing, the lieutenant of the hunt missing, and Camp's main strategist missing.

They don't realize until the camp is under siege that there's an opening. Camp falls quickly, because there was no Percy and Annabeth to find the Labyrinth. No quest to find out what was going on with their enemies. Daedalus has no second thoughts.

Camp falls with Kronos waltzing in and taking over. Atlas is by his side. It's quick and brutal (but maybe not fatal for the camp, Kronos wants followers after all, killing them is counterproductive). He puts Atlas in charge there, keep them alive Atlas, and then plans to go on Olympus.

There is no Typhoon this time, no Percy to awaken him. So things are a bit harder, but also easier. Kronos can cause his own distractions afterall, and Poseidon is still trapped in the ocean battling Okeanus.

Kronos is more than capable of mimicking that situation and splitting up the Gods. Hades won't interfere, not without Nico, and Demeter and Persephone are with him. Hestia isn't a warrior. Poseidon is in the ocean. That leaves Hera and Zeus on Olympus to fight as the big six, and then the other Olympians (minus Artemis).

Hermes may go to Luke if Luke calls, how easy would that trap be to set? So Hermes is caught by Luke when Luke lies to him about having second thoughts.

Kronos targets Apollo personally because Apollo is a dangerous God to have out and about. He's put next to his sister (and takes the burden for her but she's exhausted and weakened and they're both caught still).

Before they march on Olympus Kronos is healed enough to take his own form, he leaves Percy (leaves him alive too, Percy has been such a helpful minion after all, he gets rewarded) and takes shape. He marches on Olympus himself, his forces by his side.

Percy and Luke as his right hand men.

And Olympus falls.

[aspoonofsugar]

The “One” Divided Into “Two”

Hello anons, hello friend,

these asks can be answered together!

First of all:

Hello! I just want to say that I love your RWBY metas! So I'm wondering, have you ever done metas about Emerald and Mercury?

Thank you! And yes, I have written a little bit about Mercury and Emerald here. I would also recommend this wonderful meta by @hamliet because it has an interesting Mercury theory in it.

Now. this answer is gonna mix some analysis with speculation because Emerald and Mercury’s story must still enter its climax. Once it does and we are given a specific interpretative key I will be happy to write more metas on them!

I’ll start with this:

Those two are so out of place in Salem's faction and the last look they share made me doubt that Mercury is rotten to the core and more of a kid who didnt know what he's in for. Since Em has switched sides, is it possible that Merc might follow? I really like him, so I'm hoping that he won't go down like Watts.

In my opinion, yes and here is why.

CHILDREN LOST IN A NARRATIVE

1) Emerald and Mercury have been child-coded since their first appearance:

Roman: Oh, look! She sent the kids again! This is turning out just like the divorce!

2) Both have received a save the cat moment early on:

Emerald: It's almost sad.

Mercury: Emerald, get up, we need to go. (...) Emerald!

Both child-coding and save the cat moments are often used to make characters more sympathetic and this applies to both Emerald and Mercury, even more so than Cinder.

This is why, for example, the major death they are directly involved in:

turns out to be a temporary one.

As a side note, I like thinking of Emerald and Mercury as the Cat and the Fox in Penny’s story since they act as false friends to the main cast, betray them and cause Penny’s first death. Moreover, in the novel, both characters end up suffering consequences for their life-styles. The two murder kids are the same:

At the same time, details about Emerald and Mercury’s backgrounds and motivations are given to the viewers pretty early on:

We are shown Cinder recruiting both and these scenes clearly paint them as two vulnerable kids that get manipulated and groomed:

Raven: Two children you’ve tricked into following you.

Emerald is presented as a scaredy cat and Cinder wins her over by promising the bare minumum aka some security and basic care.

Mercury is given even less aka a narrative to keep himself together:

Cinder: And you're his son. We saw your fight from the treeline. He's taught you well.

Mercury: Guess so.

Cinder: What's your name?

Mercury: Mercury.

Cinder: Mercury... Tell me, are you anything like your father?

Mercury: All my life, my father trained me to be a killer, an assassin like him. And then moments after I killed him, you two showed up looking for someone with my exact skills. Just felt like it was meant to be.

Cinder praises his abilities and frames his trauma as something that makes him strong, not broken. And Mercury has completely embraced this narrative since then.

In short, Emerald and Mercury are framed as two kids lost in an illusory narrative Cinder has crafted. That said, they are also characters in a proper narrative and they are given sympathetic backgrounds and positive qualities that hint they can be better than they currently are.

In particular, Emerald should overcome her emotional dependence on others to make the right thing:

In both volume 3 and volume 8 she is shown the destruction of a city. However, the first time she puts distance between herself and others’ pain, as symbolically conveyed by her looking from above. In volume 8, though, she is shown the same pain up close and she can’t ignore it anymore. This is why the others drag Emerald towards the people crying and light invades the screen when she finally meets the sheltered crew. She is forced to face an uncomfortable truth she wants to ignore.

Mercury should instead let himself depend on others more. He should open up to others and fight for his one positive bond:

Mercury: Back off, freak.

Which leads us to:

What do you like most about Emerald and Mercury's relationship and bond as it is explored in RWBY?

EMERCURY: COMPLEMENTARITY

Emerald and Mercury’s bond being a key one is conveyed both symbolically and in terms of their respective abilities.

When it comes to their abilities, I have written about it in the meta linked above:

In short, Emerald mostly relies on her semblance, while Mercury mostly relies on his legs and fighting prowess.

This detail adds to the idea that Emerald and Mercury have been acting as a unit and have been complementing each other. Emerald acts as the “soul” and Mercury as the “body”.

The soul is one’s personal essence (like the semblance). It is where (once again) wishes reside. The body is what protects the soul and is animated by instincts and self-survival.

They complement each other. This complementarity is shown in Emerald and Mercury’s fights.

In the Vytal festival, Mercury takes on both Coco and Yatsuhashi for a short while, so that Emerald can size her chance to fight Coco at her own terms (and she wins by using her semblance).

In the Battle of Heaven, Emerald uses her semblance to help Mercury fight and, in a sense, she compensates for his lack of one:

The human soul is about wishes, but also duties:

Penny: I feel like I wish I could do both the things I need to do and the things I want to do. Is that normal?

One must accept their feelings, but also struggle with them:

Winter: But yes Penny, we must still acknowledge our personal feelings, wrestle with them. It ensures us that we’re on the right path. It’s what makes us human.

And must do the right thing out of their own free will:

Winter: Penny. The general is making hard choices so we don’t have to.

This is Emerald’s personal struggle. She must let go of her feelings for Cinder and fight her own fear in order to do the right thing.

The human body lets people feel both others’ warmth:

And others’ cruelty:

However, Mercury refuses to feel both. He refuses to truly process his own trauma and pushes his feelings of care for Emerald away:

As far as their symbolism goes, they are linked in at least three different ways.

1) One of the attributes of the Roman god Mercury is that he is the protector of thieves and Emerald’s surname capitalized means thief. What is more:

Mercury: Ooh, Emerald! Master thief! Please don't take my money! I barely have enough to get by!

2) Mercury/Hermes is also the god of alchemy and the one who wrote the Emerald Tablet aka a tablet with the truth of alchemy on it. You, @hamliet���, have written a meta on it, so I won’t add more.

3) According to at least some traditions, emerald is the gemstone associated with the planet Mercury.

So, it is clear the two characters are meant to be important in each other’s arcs.

Let’s now look at Emerald and Mercury’s bond, as it is explored through their interactions.

Mercury clearly cares about Emerald and gets along well with her. She is the only person he shows vulnerability to.

This is what their scene in Lost is about:

Emerald: Why did you come with us, the night Cinder and I found you?

Mercury: Why are you asking--

Emerald: Just answer the question.

Emerald is trying to open herself up and wants Mercury to open up too. This is why she gets annoyed when Mercury gives her a superficial answer. Still, in that conversation, Mercury is genuinelly trying to answer Emerald’s feelings:

Mercury: I'm sorry you didn't have a mommy that loved you, but I had a father who hated me! He never went easy on me! Every day of training was a beating. And when I unlocked my Semblance, he stole it with his! "This is a crutch!" "This makes you weak!" He told me I could have it back when I was strong. So I got strong, but I never got it back! I've had to work harder than anyone to get where I am. You may not like it here without Cinder, but I think I'm right where I'm supposed to be!

Here, Mercury is telling Emerald details of his past he would not be sharing if he did not trust her. He can’t let himself be completely vulnerable, though, so he discloses them by lashing out at Emerald. He mixes violence with authentic vulnerability and also with care:

Mercury: Cinder doesn't care about you! She doesn't care about either of us!

He has seen how self-destructive Emerald can get when it comes to Cinder:

And he is trying to have Emerald move on from her obsession.

However, Mercury’s small steps towards opening up and caring for another person are constantly challenged:

Tyrian: Oh yes, the world is mean, and I'm a big, bad man now just like the others.

Mercury: How long have you been standing there?!

The moment he opens up to Emerald, Tyrian appears to threathen and mock him.

Mercury’s positive development lies in accepting his own feelings of pain and in sharing them with others, so that he can be helped. However, the environment he is in goes in the way of it:

Emerald: Mercury, I wanted to...

Here, Emerald is trying to either apologize to Mercury for their fight or to at least check out on him. Still, Mercury is not listening to her because he is too frightened by what Salem is doing.

Mercury’s current struggle is conveyed in a nutshell by the glance he gives to his left in Midnight:

Is he looking at Emerald out of concern?

Or at Salem out of caution?

It is not clear. Still, what is sure is that Mercury should focus on Emerald, but Salem goes in the way. He deep down wants to care about others, but he is too scared to do so:

Tyrian: All you ever learned was pain and violence, and now you're too afraid to leave it. Such a tragedy.

At the same time, Mercury is for Emerald what she has been looking for in Cinder:

Emerald: We don't need him! Everything was going fine!

She initially refuses him, but it is clear that with time Mercury becomes the thing most similar to a family Emerald has:

She has been so fixated on Cinder and on how she can be worthy of Cinder’s love that she has missed how much Mercury has tried to protect her all along.

This is why Hazel is important for Emerald’s development:

Hazel: No more Gretchens, boy.

His sacrifice is about breaking his personal cycle of pain. His story starts with Gretchen dying when she was only a girl and it ends with him preventing another girl’s death. At the same time, he also helps breaking the cyle of abuse between Emerald and Cinder.

Emerald is told the truth about her relationship with Cinder by Mercury. Moreover, it seems something finally clicks for her here:

She observes Salem’s manipulation of Cinder and understands Cinder has been manipulating her in the same way.

However, it is thanks to Hazel’s sacrifice that Emerald sees what a genuine parental bond should be like. It should be about the parent protecting the child:

Hazel: What Gretchen would have done. And that starts with getting you away from here. Both of you.

And not the child protecting the parent:

Emerald: I know I can’t beat you. But I can fill that thing full of holes before you take me down.

It should be about the parent caring for the child unconditionally:

Hazel: Go.

And not about the child working hard to gain a parent’s love:

Cinder: You… You brought me back here. We failed.

Emerald: Cinder, you were hurt. I was just trying to help.

At the same time, Hazel’s death has taught Emerald the pain of losing a loved one:

And has forced Emerald to stand on her own two legs:

Oscar: I've seen what you can do, Emerald. However this fight ends, we could really use someone like you.

She can’t be protected forever, but she should start protecting others. She is powerful enough to do so and she must accept this responsibility.

So

I think Emerald could be key to Mercury's redemption

I think so too. Emerald saving Mercury is the perfect objective for her personal arc. It forces her to act as the savior instead of the one being saved.

Moreover, Mercury told her the truth about herself:

Mercury: You're in denial.

So Emerald might do the same for Mercury. This would also fit with her being the Emerald Tablet. The Tablet is written by Mercury to convey the truth to the world. Here, it might very well be the inverse: the Emerald Tablet might convey the truth to Mercury.

In general, Mercury and Tyrian’s foiling has to pay off, just like Emerald and Hazel’s:

The set-up is there for Tyrian and Mercury’s subplot to be about breaking cycles as well. Mercury’s story is about a child left alone with his abuser. Nobody comes to save him, so Mercury is forced to save himself by killing Marcus. Still, this only leads to him being stuck in the idea he is nothing, but an extension of his father. Right now, the cycle is repeating, but it is possible this time things will go differently because there is at least one person who cares about him.

Not only that, but (and this is nothing, but a baseless theory) even Qrow (aka a character who has unfinished business with Tyrian) might be a thematic fit to help Mercury:

Mercury: Bad hair, used a scythe, and smelled like my dad after a long day. It was him.

After all, Mercury himself draws a comparison between Qrow and his father since they are both alcoholic. However, Qrow has started a journey of rehabilitation for the sake of his nieces and their friends.

Qrow sees himself as bad for others and fundamentally unlucky because of his background and his semblance. So, his third fight with Tyrian being about saving a kid, who, in a sense, is even less lucky than him and has no semblance might be thematically fitting.

Despite it all, Qrow found a family and a place to belong and he might help Mercury find his (Emerald) as well.

SEMBLANCE OF THE SELF

Got no gun But I gleam like a blade and I'm harder than iron

Delusion I'll steal til your blind and defeat you from inside your mind

Emerald’s best weapon is her semblance, while Mercury’s semblance was stolen, so he could become a weapon.

This difference symbolizes their respective reactions to abuse.

Emerald uses her illusions as a coping mechanism.

This mechanism is well conveyed in CEM’s fight against Amber:

On one hand, Emerald creates a child version of herself who is well dressed and owns a bike. It is a rich version of Emerald because she must think that is the kind of child others would stop by to help. She does not believe she is likable or lovable. This is why she makes an illusory alter-ego, which is both true (she deep down is a crying child) and false (she is a street rat with nothing).

In general, this is Emerald’s way to approach others:

Emerald: Just left the stadium after your amazing fight! You guys were awesome!

Ren: Because she's scared. Just like us..

Emerald: Or maybe because I know how to get out of here. Anybody coming?

She either fakes an overly friendly demeanor or acts tougher than she is. In any case, she hides her true self.

On the other hand, Emerald is symbolically trapping herself in an illusion together with Amber. Amber can’t see the dangerous thief in front of her, but Emerald too can’t see the generous woman who is offering food to a crying child:

Cinder: Follow me, and you’ll never be hungry again.

Cinder promises Emerald food and love and this lie makes the girl unable  to see the genuine article when it is right there.

So Emerald tricks both others and herself. This is how she survives abuse.

This is why she keeps believing in Cinder while she is gone:

Emerald: You’re here! I knew you’d co--

And this is why symbolically her semblance grows stronger in an abusive environment:

Emerald: I’ve been working on my Semblance. I can help. I won’t tell anybody.

Salem: You really have been honing that Semblance of yours.

After all, this is when Emerald gets a “power-up”:

She has just lost Cinder and finds herself stuck with Salem. Her reaction is to have a breakdown and to project an illusion in the minds of nine people, when she had previously stated she could only do one/two minds at most.

Mercury weaponizes his trauma.

This is why his legs are Mercury’s true weapon, while Talaria is there just to cover and embellish the pain and ugliness under it.

Mercury fights Amber with only its bare legs because symbolically his trauma is still fresh and he has yet to work out a structured coping mechanism to it. His meeting with Cinder is the first step in this construction that evolves in the following months and is still evolving:

In CEM’s fight against Amber, Mercury uses his unfeeling legs to whitstand the violence of the elements:

Fire

Earth and Water

Air

He goes through the whole cycle without feeling any pain simply because his trauma has made him unfeeling:

I'm the one That was ripped from the earth and exposed to the sun

Marcus has literally turned Mercury into Iron:

But I gleam like a blade and I'm harder than iron

Still, the point is that mercury as a metal is not as hard as iron, but (in the alchemical scale of metals) is way more refined and closer to gold. Mercury can be better than his father, but his way to survive abuse is to repress himself.

This is why his semblance was stolen by his abuser. It is because abuse has taken away Mercury’s personhood.

So, both Emerald and Mercury face abuse by masking or repressing themselves. The difference is a matter of degree. Mercury can suppress his emotions and needs more, while Emerald can’t.

Theirs is a foiling about feeling too much to the point of self-harm and of feeling too little to the point of negation.

So, Emerald must struggle with her feelings not to be controlled by them, while Mercury must aknowledge them.

Emerald’s Hallucinations is a Semblance of The Self because it hides both Emerald herself and the truth.

This is interesting because, as stated above, the Emerald Tablet should convey the truth about alchemy. However, Emerald’s environment has turned her into an inversion of herself:

I'm the one Who rose out of filth and was loved by no-one

She is a gemstone, but is currently covered in dirt. She needs to polish herself, so she can shine and fit better in her allusion.

Mercury’s stolen semblance is a Semblance of The Self because it is linked to Mercury’s self-expression, which he must claim back.

Until then, he is bound to be stuck in an abusive cycle as nothing, but a weapon.

In general, there is some symbolism around Mercury which needs unpacking:

Mercury quoting Marcus:"This is a crutch!" "This makes you weak!"

Firstly, he has clearly interiorized what his father told him here. He refuses the idea of weakness and crutches to the point that his prosthetics, which are literal crutches get turned into weapons and even covered by other weapons. However, this refusal of crutches means Mercury can’t heal. After all, crutches, bandages and treatment are necessary to become healthy once again.

Secondly, there is this: 

I'll run circles round ya, I can touch the sky

The God Mercury’s main attribute is that he can overcome any boundary. He can go wherever he wants in no time. However, Mercury is the opposite because no matter what, he can’t leave his abusive environment. This has to do once again with his father’s abuse which culminated with Marcus taking Mercury’s legs. This is symbolically why Mercury is trapped.

Like for Emerald, Mercury’s arc should be about growing into his allusion, so that he can finally be free.

Still, how to turn Emerald and Mercury in the positive versions of their allusions? The answer has to do with this question:

(I think Emerald could be key to) maybe Cinder's (redemption) too

I’M THE ONE

Emerald and Mercury are two parts of the individual (body and soul) and two parts of a Huntsman (semblance and weapon):

Ren: A common philosophy is that a warrior's Semblance is a part of who they are.

Ruby: Just weapons? They're an extension of ourselves! They're a part of us! Oh, they're so cool.

Together they make a unit. Together they make Cinder. They are two sides of her trauma, her two sins:

Emerald: Actually, I was wondering, do you have any copies of "The Thief and The Butcher"?

And the wounds behind those sins.

This is why Cinder takes them in, but also why she abuses them.

She uses them as weapons:

In CEM’s fight against Amber she lets them go in first and has them take the majority of Amber’s hits.

Not only that, but she uses them as “red herrings” she hides behind.

She acts as if Amber’s blow takes her out of the fight, while Amber focuses on Mercury who resists her attack:

She has Emerald display her semblance at full force, so that the girl becomes Amber’s first target:

She makes her own illusion where Emerald and Mercury are her smokescreen.

However, her two disciples are not just things she can use as she pleases. They are two people who depend on her:

Mercury: You mean--

Emerald: She's alive?

They are literally two kids she takes in framing their relationship as parental/hierarchical hence she is responsible for them.

However, she fails them and leaves them in a dangerous environment. This is why they both leave her out of self-survival.

Narratively, Emerald and Mercury are two kids that must grow up. Right now, they are in some kind of adolescent phase. They have started their emancipation from their “parent”, but they have still to grow until they’ll be able to truly face Cinder.

It will probably be in this confrontation that they will affirm their growth. Right now, Cinder does not need to be coddled, but to be called out. Both Neo and Watts try to, but Cinder ignores them and retaliates against them. She needs a call out she can’t ignore and Emerald and Mercury are too rooted in who she deep down is for her to be unaffected by them.

At the same time, it would mark Mercury and Emerald’s first step into adulthood. Only then they can stop being a “half” and can truly become “one”, so a whole person.

[lifeofroos]

A/N: Okay, in order for this request to work, Clarisse needed to be quite young. I think she was ten years old in a previous story when arriving at camp, but here she is nine. Sorry for the confusion. 

AO3 - KoFi

The Elder

‘Clarisse?’

She glanced over at Mark. ‘I am practicing.’ It was the first time she got to practice by herself. She didn’t want to be disturbed. 

Her brother fished the sword out of her hands. ‘Mark!’

‘Come on, Clara,’ he sing-songed. ‘Get me a coke and you’ll get it back.’ 

‘Where in hell do you want me to get a coke?’

Mark looked his little sister in the eye. ‘The Hermes cabin. They’ve got it for free, there. For the whole camp.’

Clarisse pulled a face. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Of course! It’s a well-known fact!’

‘...huh.’

‘You can go there and get it, it’s… in the mini fridge to the left. For everyone. There is also… waffles, to the right of the fridge. They’ve got little harpies on them.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘Of course it is!’

Clarisse stared at the ground. I mean, he wouldn’t know, wouldn’t he?

‘If you ask them, they’ll make grilled cheese, but that does cost a drachma. They’ve got different flavours every week…’

‘How… how do you make different flavours of grilled cheese?’

‘Like, toasted bread with different ingredients. You know, get me a… marshmallow and chocolate grilled sandwich while you’re at it.’

Clarisse tugged on her sleeve.

‘You can ask Chiron. Even he knows.’

Clarisse shrugged. ‘Why don’t you go yourself?’

Mark grinned down on her. ‘Why, I’ve got too many swords in my hands.’

‘Bastard.’ It was a word she had heard the older campers use. Mark blinked, seemingly untouched by it (Or just not sure what it meant, seeing his young age). 

He handed his younger sister two drachma. ‘Here. Get some for yourself too, while you’re at it.’

He wouldn’t just give her two drachma. It had to be real.

With the coins in her fist, Clarisse walked through camp, to the Hermes cabin. Two people were drinking cans of coke on the small veranda outside. They didn’t hold her back as she walked inside. 

Someone was asleep on their top bunk, but other than that there wasn’t anyone inside. Perhaps Mark had been right after all. On the left, she saw a fridge, with a toaster right on top of it. 

She had no idea where the bread would be, or the place to drop off the drachma. There wasn’t a bowl, or anything. But then again, this was the Hermes cabin. Mark had told her himself that the Hermes kids were all untidy and forgetful, and liars and thieves on top of that. Of course it would be a mess. Perhaps some campers stole the drachma and the bowl they were meant to be put in, and took the bread for good measure. 

She opened the minifridge. At the sucking sound, she heard a loud gasp, followed by heavy breathing. When she looked around, she saw that the sleeping camper had woken up. Somehow, she didn't want them to see her. Luckily, they were facing the wall away from her. 

There were coke cans in the minifridge, at least that was true. Clarisse took out two. Now, where was the bread?

She took a deep breath and turned around. ‘Say, where is…’

‘Aren’t you one of Ares’ spawn?’

‘...What?’

‘What are you doing here?’ The Hermes kid (It was clearly a Hermes kid, and not a random camper who wasn’t claimed yet) asked.  

‘I just… wanted a coke.’

‘So you just decided to steal it out of our cabin?’

‘I am not stealing it!’ Clarisse began to feel angry. Of course Mark lied to her, she knew from the start that he wasn’t being truthful. She knew, she knew.

‘Is this your cabin?’

Clarisse didn’t know what else to say. The Hermes kid stood in front of her. When he realised how young she was, he relaxed a little. ‘Take it. For you and for whoever told you to come here.’ 

‘No-one did…’

‘Are you sure you aren’t a Hermes kid? You fit the stereotypes. Now leave.’

Clarisse left. She felt her cheeks burning. 

-

She shook both cans of coke, hard, before flinging both of them at Marks’ head.  ‘Bastard!’

Mark screamed. ‘You little…’

‘Yeah? What? Liar, liar!’

A little soda seeped down his chin, yet Mark grinned. ‘You believed it. You really believed me for a moment, there.’

‘I didn’t!’ Clarisse held her hands over her red cheeks. ‘Of course not.’

‘You did get the coke, though.’ Wait. ‘How did you get it?’

She put her hands down. ‘One of the campers gave them to me. He said I could have them.’

‘What… really?’

Clarisse suppressed a grin. ‘Yeah. He did. For free, just like you said.’

‘You little-’ Mark walked off. The coke was dripping down his shirt. 

Clarisse watched him go. Perhaps he too would get a free Coke, or perhaps he’d get beaten up and thrown out of the cabin. Oh, please let it be the last one.

[rascherri]

alright. i feel like i just need to spit this out because it’s been replaying in my head for days. it is perfectly fine to enjoy and like hera as a character. i certainly did! her snappy sass was the best. however, what we’re not going to do is act like she’s some kind of girl power feminist icon. nor are we going to act like hermes and apollo are some how enablers of their father’s infidelity. and i’ll explain why!

apollo and hermes are both bastards, and if the show wasn’t obvious enough about it, hera despises them. it’s questionable if that’s even a strong enough word for her hatred. that said, it is so much worse in cannon mythology. 

speaking on apollo’s behalf, his mother is leto. when hera found out about her being pregnant with the twins via zeus, she makes it so leto can not give birth on any land that the sun shone on basically. when that doesn’t work, she sends a monster to hunt her across the earth after the birth of the twins. she even goes as far as to send a giant after her with the sole order of forcing himself on her. 

apollo, therefore, has absolutely no allegiance to hera on that alone. she is, in all manner of ways, “the evil stepmother.” even if we don’t bring up how he in greek mythology loves his family and is zeus’ favorite son, the above paragraph is enough, by all means, not to be on her side. that said, i also have to point out that he initially comes to his father and bids him return home at once, but says explicitly to electra, “don’t worry, i wont tell hera. i was born out of wedlock, too. just like your son.” followed by, as per closed captioning, ‘melancholic music’. he knows exactly what is to follow in the wake of hera’s rage. he knows her wrath well, and goes out of his way to minimize it. both for a woman not unlike his own mother, and his soon to be younger brother, not unlike himself. are the parallels not glaring enough to see?

hermes was born a bastard, but his most defining origin story is how he stole apollo’s cows, lied about it, and what happens after. at some point, he is brought before zeus to be chided for his theft and dishonesty. hermes swears that if zeus makes him his messenger and herald, he will never again lie. he makes hermes his constant companion thereafter, and when zeus went to earth, usually his son went with. 

so with this, we can greatly recognize that much of hermes’ life as a god is affected directly by his father. he can not lie, and that much would put him in a position to be more related to his father than hera. not to mention, hermes is a messenger god who was originally zeus’ exclusive herald, before also being asked by hades to be his. it is willfully ignorant to act as though by siding with hera over his father’s cheating that it will not automatically endanger his life as a god, if not his life in general. it also comes into play that again, hera loathes zeus’ trysts and the bastards that result. however well liked by other gods hermes is, he will always be a bastard and hera is not one to forget. 

hera has every right to be angry, and to be petty, and to be vengeful. zeus is a womanizer and a cheater. but they are both also tyrants and use the people around them as pawns. you can not expect two lesser gods, that are also zeus’ sons, to side with hera knowing full well the consequences of going against the god of olympus himself. they do what they can and they do what they must, both for those vulnerable and undeserving of what both zeus and hera intend to/have already forced upon them.

anyways. tl;dr --- hera and zeus both share the title of tyrant as much as they do villain. their own selfishness is put on display in this show, and everything after is simply everyone else responding to it. to blame apollo and hermes for deciding to do what was best for not only themselves, but for multiple (innocent) others, is gross and absurd. 

[mythologyfolklore]

Born to be a kleptomaniac!

(A/N: My take on how Hermes stole Apollon’s cows. Bad news: this includes transphobia. Good news: Zeus and Apollon say trans rights.)

.

He had just been born – though through his eyes, his birth hadn't been as joyful as it should have been.

“My daughter! My pride and joy! I will call you Hermione¹ and you will be my beautiful baby girl!”

That had been her first words onto laying eyes on her newborn.

But everything about it sounded wrong, so wrong.

Daughter … little girl … and Hermione?! Really???

Gods came into the world with fully developed minds and knowledge beyond mortal ken and they grew up extremely quickly. That was how this little boy knew who he was – and who his mother thought he was.

Speaking of her, she had just cleaned up the mess from his birth and gone to sleep off her exhaustion, after placing him in a crib.

However, the baby boy refused to just lie in his crib and be bored out of his mind – especially, when his mother had upset him so in the very first minute of his life.

So off he crawled and out of the cave (how? He was a god, that's how!), leaving his sleeping mother alone inside. She would be fine.

Once out in the sun, he couldn't help but be in awe. What a beautiful place the world was! So wide, so colourful, so full of life!

Suddenly, he tripped and fell. As he looked around, sniffling because his knees hurt, he found that he had tripped over a peacefully grazing tortoise. The pain was instantly forgotten.

The little boy laughed, as he picked the tortoise up: “Hello, little thing!”

Then he carried his new-found toy off and killed it. Poor tortoise, but her afterlife would be awesome! After scratching off the flesh, he took the shell, the sinews and a few small bones and fashioned out of them a brand new instrument. “Lyre”, he named it.

For a little while, he tried his new instrument out, plucking the strings and composing little songs.

Then he got hungry.

And wandered off to find some food.

It wasn't long until he came across a giant herd of cattle. Now that was it! Perfect lunch!

The little god grinned mischievously and hatched a plan.

With great care, he selected fifty cows that were grazing separately from the herd. And with a snap of his fingers, he twisted their hoofs backwards to make it look as if they were walking into the opposite direction (damn, was he a genius or what?).

He let them feed some more, while he lit a sacrificial fire, then picked two of them and slit their throats. After butchering them, he portioned their meat into twelve and sacrificed the portions. Eleven for the Olympians, one for himself.

Then he made haste to get home before nightfall.

Sadly, his mother was already awake, as he crawled back into the cave.

“Hermione! There you are, I was so worried! What have you been up to?”, she scolded.

The divine baby frowned at her. “Don't call me that! I'm not Hermione! Also, I haven't been up to anything! I just wanted to look at the world!”

“Of course you're Hermione! Also, you're lying! My own daughter!”

“I'm a boy!”

“No, you're not! Don't argue with me, I gave birth to you! Now tell me, what have you done?! No honest person is out at night!”

He bit his lips (yes, he already had teeth). Why did his own mother not understand? It was true, she had given birth to him and he loved her for that, but she just didn't-

“Answer me!”

He sighed: “Alright, fine! I stole a few cows from some random huge herd I found in Pieria and sacrificed two of them to the Olympians! Happy now?”

“YOU WHAT?! HERMIONE, THAT WAS THE CATTLE OF APOLLON, THE BOW WIELDING GOD OF LIGHT AND PLAGUES!!! HE WILL HAVE YOUR HIDE FOR THIS!!!”

But “Hermione” snickered, because “she” already had a plan.

“Don't worry”, he giggled. “I'll be fine and so will you! I just don't want to live in this dark and gloomy cave for the rest of my immortal life! I want more! I want to be an Olympian! And if Dad says no, I will just become a thief for real and steal their stuff, until they give in! And if Apollon gives us Tartaros, I will just bust into Delphi and steal all the pretty stuff they have there, just for you! Don't wreck your head, I have everything planned out!”

“Sweetie …”, Maia sighed and pinched her nose. Just what kind of goddess had she given birth to?!

.

In the morning Apollon descended onto the Earth to check on his cattle. But as he counted them, he found to his horror, that fifty of them were missing! But there was no way they could have just wandered off! Someone had stolen them! So the god of light went off to look for clues.

Nearby he encountered an old man, who was tending to his grapevines. Apollon assumed an innocuous mortal form and approached the old man.

“Excuse me, can you help me? I was tending to my cattle in Pieria – a herd of white cows with curved horns – but some of them have gone missing. Strangely, my bull and herding dogs are still where I left them, but my cows have strayed. Did you perchance see anything out of the ordinary? Anyone taking them away?”

The old man thought for a moment and scratched his head. “Hmm … now that you mention it, there was something. Last evening, I was digging around my vine plot to check for vermin, when something strange happened. I saw a little child – a toddler at most, can you believe this? – driving a group of cows just like the ones you described. The infant had a staff and kept jumping from side to side and driving them backwards. I know that sounds insane, but-”

“Thank you, that's quite enough”, Apollon interrupted him. “Thanks for the help. Have a nice day!”

Then the light god hurried away to find the … uh, cow-stealing infant. It was a newborn god, without a doubt – probably a new half-brother, Apollon suspected. And sure enough, a bird with long wings (underneath the sunlight he couldn't tell what species it was) flew above him and confirmed his suspicion. Apollon was the god of prophecy, he knew an omen when he saw one.

And there on the ground he found another clue: the tracks of cow hooves. The tracks were pointing into the direction of the meadow, where they had been grazing.

Beside them, there was a different set of footprint: those of a tiny child. Weirdly enough, they were pointing into the opposite direction.

In less than a second the blond god put two and two together and grew even angrier.

“That little brat is going to get it!”, he hissed and followed the child's footprints, until he arrived at a small cave in Kyllene, Arkadia.

Despite his anger he couldn't help but frown, that a small child was living in a cave – still, justice had to be served. He climbed down through the opening and was greeted by the startled face of a goddess. He knew her: Maia, one of the starry-haired daughters of Atlas and Pleione and one of Apollon's many (many) second cousins.

Right after apologising for the sudden intrusion and telling her what the matter was, he demanded to see the baby.

She shifted uncomfortably. “My daughter Hermione? She would never-”

“Let me see her”, he repeated firmly.

Unwillingly Maia stepped to the side, revealing the crib which her child lay, seemingly sleeping.

.

The little one had curled up and pretended to sleep, as soon as he had sensed a foreign presence.

He kept his eyes tightly shut and simply concentrated on the voice of his mother and the other one, which clearly belonged to a grown man (and was definitely the loveliest sound he had heard so far in his young life, but this wasn't the moment for that). That voice belonged to Apollon, no doubt.

Steps that weren't his mother's approached his crib and stopped in front of him.

He could tell, that he was being looked over, but instead of talking to him, Apollon turned to Maia: “Cousin, didn't you say this child is your daughter?”

“… Yes? Why are you asking?”

“Because this is not a girl.”

The boy's heart skipped a beat – could it possibly be …

“What is that supposed to mean?! How can you possibly know my child better than I, who gave birth to her?!”

“Him”, Apollon corrected coolly. “I'm the god of prophecy, that's how I know. And if you love your son, you will deal with it. Now, back to you, you little rascal. Stop feigning slumber. I know that you're awake.”

Damn it!

Slowly the infant cracked his eyes open and tried to look confu- holy Khaos! That expression was nothing short of murderous!

The baby had to think fast and in an attempt to appear totally cute and innocent, he stretched out his tiny arms and pretended to be completely entranced by the beauty of the older god's countenance.

“Pwettieeee!”, he squealed.

For a few seconds the older god did look disconcerted. Sadly it didn't last long.

“Nice try, but I'm not falling for that. Now …” his murderous scowl of murder returned (such a shame, it didn't suit that pretty face), “… where. Are. My. Cows? I know you took them! Spill it, or else.”

The infant pouted: “Why those mean words? I'm just a wittle baby, I was just born yesterday! I couldn't take cows! What are they anyway? I don't know them, all I know is my metera²!”

Apollon laughed, but clearly didn't believe him.

Damn it times two!

“God of lies and thieves!”, the blond chuckled. “That's what you are, little one! That's what your title will be among the Athanatoi³, you mischievous little cattle thief!”

Apollon gathered him in his arms and proceeded to carry him off, despite Maia's very vocal protests and pleas.

Still the little god was smirking on the inside, because everything was going just as planned!

He wriggled around, as if struggling in the older god's hold and with a wave of his hand sent forth an omen (how? Divine magic, that's how!). Startled, Apollon dropped him, but he landed safely on the ground. The light god descended and picked him back up, not without teasing.

The little boy pulled his wraps closer to himself, demanded to know, where his older brother was taking him and kept insisting, that he was innocent of any accusation of thievery.

Apollon only frowned: “Stop lying to me, you little brat! You stole something that belongs to me and I will get it back and you will face the consequences!”

They kept bickering like this and getting increasingly frustrated, until at last, they arrived on Olympos and bust right into an assembly.

Zeus didn't seem surprised in the least, when his favourite son strode in with a child in his arms.

The Scale of Judgement behind his throne certainly wasn't – the weights (each resembling one of the quarrellers) were swinging up and down, awaiting the decree of Moiragetês⁴.

The new-born god couldn't help but note, that Apollon was almost Zeus' splitting image (unlike himself) – same long, blond curls and body type, same knowing glance, even though Apollon's pale skin and golden eyes differed from their father's black eyes and tan.

“Hi, Dad!”, the infant cried cheerfully and unwrapped one of his arms to wave.

The King of the Skies chuckled and waved back. “Hello there, little guy!”

“ZEUS!!!”, Hera screamed and jumped up from her throne. “NOT AGAIN!!!”

“Not now, my drop-dead gorgeous, stunning wife”, Zeus cut her off and turned to Apollon: “Well, my son, what matter is it, that you're bringing in front of the Olympian Council?”

Apollon glared at the baby, before explaining to their father: “This little criminal here stole my cattle!”

“Did not!”, said criminal protested.

“Did too!”, the god of prophecy spat, “And then he had the nerve to act innocent and tell me that he didn't know, what I was accusing him of!”

“I didn't steal anything!”, the child whined. “Dad! He just burst into my Mama's cave and made false accusations and threatened me, even though I was just born yesterday! Help me, he's crazy!”

“Excuse me, how dare y-”

But Apollon broke off, when Zeus burst into roaring laughter.

.

The King of the Gods laughed so hard, that it began to thunder outside and he could hardly keep himself sitting on his throne. Just like Apollon, he saw right through the ruse – yet he still couldn't help but be incredibly amused by his newest spawn's antics.

His laughter was contagious, some of the other Olympians snickered along.

Even Hera couldn't help but grin. “He pulled a prank on Apollon and called him crazy? I like this one!”, she chuckled.

With these words Zeus' good mood was doubled.

“Why, you cheeky little rascal!”, he snickered. “Oh, you're my son, alright! Seriously though, give your brother his cows back. And you, Apollon, calm down. Siblings shouldn't have a falling-out over trivial matters like this. By the way, little one, you made a sacrifice to us Olympians last evening, didn't you? But you sacrificed twelve parts, instead of just eleven.”

“YOU SLAUGHTERED MY COWS???!”, Apollon roared, flaring with fury. “FATHER, HAVE HIM LOCKED AWAY THIS INSTANT!!! TAKE AWAY HIS IMMORTALITY! THROW HIM INTO TARTAROS!!! ANYTHING!!! HE HAS TO PAY!!!”

Zeus held up his hand. “Apollon, I thought I told you to calm down. Now, my youngest, won't you tell me, who the twelfth portion was for?”

The baby beamed at his father. “It was for me!”, he cried cheerfully.

Kronion grinned proudly and fondly: “Ah, I see! You sly little fellow, you!”

He took his newest child from Apollon's hands and held him up.

“My dear fellow gods!”, he addressed the assembled, “We shall be the Council of Eleven no more. From now on, we will be the Dodekathoi, the Big Twelve. So, what is the name of our newest member, my son?”

Of course Zeus knew, that Maia had given their child a name – but he also knew that it was the wrong one.

And sure enough, the baby shook his head.

“Very well, then. I will give you one: from now on you're an Olympian and your name shall be Hermes. Welcome, dear Hermes, to our crazy family! Still though, lead your older brother to where you hid his cows and give them back.”

.

The little boy was ecstatic: he had accomplished his goal to become a member of the council and he had a name – the perfect name!

The only thing that blemished his happiness now was Apollon – or to be specific, the light god's extreme moroseness.

Hermes lead his older brother to the hidden cattle, just like Zeus had told him to, but the blond just didn't stop frowning!

But as he drew them outside for Apollon to see, the light god seemed to relax just as little bit – however, that lasted only until he finished counting them and glowered at Hermes.

“It's only forty-eight. Where are the last two?”

Awkwardly the youngest god pointed to a nearby rock. The hides of the cows he had sacrificed still lay there, drying in the sun.

“Well, my sacrifice had to come from somewhere …”

Apollon gasped, stared at the hides, then at his new baby brother.

“Th-th – h-how?!”, he stuttered. “How the Tartaros did you – how did an infant flay and butcher two grown cows?!”

Hermes shrugged nonchalantly. “Oh, well …”

But his nonchalant expression turned into a frown, when he saw how Apollon tore his own hair.

“Letoides, stop! You'll ruin your pretty hair-”

“Holy Khaos, you're already this strong! Only a few hours old and already a cattle thief strong enough to kill two adult cows! That's terrifying! How will it be, when you're grown up?! By Tartaros, you need to be restrained!”

And before Hermes knew it, he was being fettered.

Alone, he laughed, shook the binds off himself and transferred them onto the cows instead.

The light god gawked at this display of magical power, then his face darkened yet again.

Hermes was about to tell him to stop sulking over some stupid cows, when he saw the genuine distress in the older god's eyes.

“Well, that's just peachy!”, Apollon cried, distraught, and resumed tearing his hair (lovely, rich and long tresses of gold, flowing from his shoulders like cascades). “So I can't even make you face the consequences of your actions! No, you just get to do whatever you want without repercussion, whilst I don't even get the satisfaction of making you pay for what you've done! I'm the aggrieved party! You robbed me! Where is the justice in this?!”

The god of light took his anger out on a massive boulder, hitting it with so much energy that it melted.

For a moment Hermes was genuinely scared, but only until the other just plopped down on a rock and buried his face in his hands. Sadly he regarded his older brother. This wasn't right. He didn't want him to be so upset about something stupid like this.

Suddenly he had an idea. From underneath his swaddles, he pulled out his lyre tuned it.

Apollon looked up in interest.

Hermes strummed the strings with his stubby little fingers and began to sing:

“Praise to the Mousai, fair-voiced daughters of Mnemosyne and of cloud-gathering Zeus!

Praise to the richly tressed daughter of Gaia and Ouranos who gave birth to song and dance!

Hail the goddesses of the fine arts and may they inspire me in my endeavour!

Hail to the happy Olympians, the gloriously crowned, golden-throned gods … ”

And he sang of what he knew about the gods, the sky and the earth, the dawn of creation and how everyone had received their portion and domain.

Throughout his singing he perceived, how Apollon's expression gradually softened, until the god of light was completely and utterly entranced by the music.

For good measure Hermes improvised a little hymn to Apollon to dispel any remains of resentment. The blond blinked in (evidently) pleasant surprise and laughed heartily, when the child started to wax poetic about how pretty he was.

“Am I being serenaded by a toddler?!”, the blond asked incredulously. “This is messed up!”

“No, no! I'm not trying anything weird, I just want to cheer you up! Please don't be angry anymore. I didn't mean to make you so upset by stealing those cows.”

“Those?” Apollon motioned towards the nearby cows, which were still grazing despite the osier roots keeping their legs in place. He sighed: “You know what, just … keep the stupid cows. I have so many of them anyway.”

Hermes beamed up to his older half-brother: “Really?”

“Really. But tell me, you wily, little trickster, where did you learn this? And where did you get this marvellous thing? I have never heard anything like it!”

“That's because I invented it yesterday”, Hermes explained proudly. “I'm calling it lyre.”

“I adore it!”, Apollon exclaimed, “I'm friends with the Mousai, but even their music has never touched my heart like yours just did! Such a crafty little genius you are and you've just been born!”

“Awww, thanks! You're a genius too!”

Apollon chuckled and patted his thighs. “Come here, you little coaxer.”

“Yaaaay!”, Hermes squealed and jumped onto the Archer's lap, lyre still in hand.

“I see a great future ahead of you”, the blond prophesied. “I see glory in your name. I see you as a worthy member of our Council, a proud occupant of a golden throne. I see you and your mother honoured among all the gods. And I shall shower you with rich gifts and see to it, that all of this comes to fruition, if you will listen to me.”

“You mean you won't throw me into Tartaros?”, the little trickster grinned.

The Far-Shooter chuckled: “No. No, I won't.”

“Yay! Hey, if I give you my lyre and teach you how to play it, can I be the god of shepherding instead of you? And then you can be the god of music?”

“Very well”, Apollon nodded, summoned his whip in his hands and handed it to Hermes. “From now on you're the god of animal husbandry.”

The brunet laughed heartily, handed his lyre to Apollon and taught him how to play it.

Then they drove the cattle to where they had been before and returned to Olympos.

Thenceforth the Archer and the Trickster were always of one mind.

.

---

.

1) If you're stumbling over this name, Hermione is, in fact, an ancient Greek name and the female version of Hermes. In the epic cycle around the Trojan War, Menélaos and Helene of Sparta (whom you might know as Helen of Troy) have a single child named Hermione. 2) metera - Greek for "mother" 3) Athanatoi - plural form of Athanatos ("Deathless/Undying/Immortal") 4) Moiragetês - "Leader of the Moirai (the Fates)/Guide of Fate", an epithet of Zeus (and Apollon, but mostly Zeus)

[luciferpens]

( HARRY SHUM JR, MALE, HE/HIM ) ⌇ have you seen KAI YEOH around icaria? they are the 35 year old child of HERMES. they remind me of a THOUSANDS OF FILLED BOOK SHELVES, SLIPPERY FINGERS WRAPPED AROUND A LOCKPICK, INFALLIBLE MEMORY, and A CARING NATURE. They’ve been on the island for 18 years.

BASICS

FULL NAME: Kai yeoh

NICKNAMES: K

FACE CLAIM: Harry Shum Jr.

AGE: Thirty-five

SEXUALITY: pansexual & panromantic

DATE OF BIRTH: June 1, 1985

GENDER/PRONOUNS: cis male he/him

EDUCATION: H.S. Diploma. 

OCCUPATION: Librarian

GODLY PARENT: Hermes

GODLY POWERS: Enhanced thievery; he can steal practically anything without being seen. Prophecy & intelligence: These two combined into one allowing Kai to have a perfect memory and ability to tell people small glimpses into their future or their past depending on what he needs to know to help them get to what they need. Persuasion: He can sometimes persuade people into doing whatever he wants or pushing people to do what they actually want to do without inhibitions. 

BIO + BULLET POINTS

Orphan -- dropped off the day he was born or within a day or so

Had a habit of leading parents to their perfect child -- even, no especially, if it wasn’t himself.  Think Good Luck Chuck.

He was a bit chaotic as a little kid -- either soulful guide or a pickpocket trickster. 

TW: Child abuse

At nine he was fostered; but he saw something he shouldn’t have and him, along with the bio kids, were all sent back to the foster system (they were trafficking foster kids)

Was bullied as a kid in school for being a foster kid. 

His second foster home (12) screamed and yelled. so he stole money from them

The third (13) abused him; he was sent into the hospital four times most on life support or something similar. 

The fourth (16) got him addicted to perception drugs. When he was pulled out he went through severe withdrawals but is doing good now.

The fifth (17) he doesn’t even try to think of. Its just dark. He refuses to talk about it. 

End TW

He found out around 17.5 years old that he was a hermes kid after a slip up from a caregiver. Hermes appeared after a prayer and moved him to Icaria

He met Angelia the librarian. His older sister. She treated him like a son and took care of him while also teaching him the ways of the infinite library that moves around the world. (Think TARDIS but just a huge library) 

At 24 he adopted another foster from his old home who he realized was a demigod. Her name is Dory. He’s raised her as his little girl since she was 10.

Angela died when he was 25 and he has since been the head librarian. 

Kai has no earthly idea who his parents are. Or, well at least who his mother is. He arrived at the orphanage’s doorstep on the first of June wrapped in a blanket with talaria embroidered on the blanket. All throughout his infancy he was a calm and quiet child. Why he hadn’t been adopted out right, when babies are usually the first to go? He’s got no idea. All he knows is that for the first five years of his life? Things were relatively normal for someone living in the american orphanage system. He learned to take care of himself, how to bathe, wipe his own ass, how to dress and look semi-decent. No one was going to help him do it -- not really. But, he made friends -- then saw them get adopted and rarely ever saw them again after that. The average life of an orphan in the system.

When he was five though, things started to change. It all started with a simple sentence. “I’M NOT THE ONE YOU WANT, HE IS.” It slipped out of Kai’s mouth before he understood what he was saying, his finger pointed to a boy playing with a toy a few feet away. The parents were confused but took it as a sign Kai didn’t want to go with them. They adopted the kid not long after. This started a chain of events, parents would come in, they’d look at Kai and think “I want him” but Kai would point them to a child they actually wanted, the one that would fit their family best. Think Good Luck Chuck but with adoption instead. This was a trait he kept up for the next 12 years that he was in the foster care system.

Strangely enough -- Kai was okay with it. It kept him out of bad situations with parents who would have ended up sending him back, it kept him with others and helped them find good homes. Sure, it was lonely, it was depressing and quiet at times, but he knew he was doing some good in the world by being there. Besides? Who wouldn’t want to find their perfect family? All those kids got it… he wanted it too. So he worked on himself, he tried to be a model kid, tried to be a happy-go-lucky despite being in the system. As a young boy he was highly intelligent, curious, playful and quick. He was known around the orphanage as both a leader and a trickster. His siblings never quite sure which version of him they were going to get on any given day. Would he be the clever trickster that could steal anything out from under your nose or would he be the soulful guide that helped families find their perfect child? No one knew, hell he didn’t even know.

At 9 he was fostered for the first time, unable to convince the family that he wasn’t who they wanted. (He had no recommendation because no child jumped out to him as being perfect for that family) They took him home and for the first time in his 9 years he saw what a somewhat normal family was like. It started so simply, so happily. Kai was enjoying being part of a family, of having siblings and a mom and dad. The new family took him to the doctors, took him to camps, he had sleepovers with class friends, he played sports. He actually felt like a normal child. Things had been going so well… but life had other plans and he now knows… was trying to protect him. The thing that would end up with him back in foster care, was his insane memory. He could recite anything he ever read, almost any conversation he had. This by itself, not a bad thing, a bit of a burden, but not horrible. (Imagine remembering every word someone ever said to you and feeling like your brain could be overly full at times) The issue came when his mischievous trickster side reared its head and he snuck around the house in the middle of the night when they had a babysitter.

TW: CHILD ABUSE He found things he shouldn’t have, files that talked about how the money they got was spent, files that documented previous children -- ones he saw no proof of around the house. Files that lead a curious 9 year old to recite word for word to his social worker one day on a check up -- and ended with all of the children, even the family’s biological ones being taken away from them. He wouldn’t find out till he was a teen that the family had been “losing” teens for over a decade; claiming they ran away from home and just ended up back in foster care…. When in reality they were trafficking them. Selling the foster kids to the highest bidder; he wouldn’t find out until his mid 20s that most of those kids? They ended up addicted to drugs or dead, abuse of all types having driven them mad.

Back in the home, now 10 going on 11, Kai fell back into old habits; Pointing families to the perfect kid, helping out around the orphanage by taking care of the younger kids, pulling little tricks, stealing small things when he was out and about. Kai was -- back to his normal. An orphan who did his best to hide that fact at school. The kid who stole and lied his way into any clothing or food he would possibly want. An orphan who did his best to look normal. Trying not to get bullied for the oversized, dirty clothes that were a standard of being an orphan. He went in and out of four more foster homes before he aged out of the system. Each one having their own serious issues; It had started with the yelling in the first family since almost being sold. They yelled and screamed and called him all sorts of names. Soon Kai had stopped caring what people said and only cared how they acted. And his own acts? Well he stole money all the time from the family since he felt it was a good payment for dealing with their yelling. Soon he was taken then placed in another home…. This time it was physical, they said little to him and if they did it was always cold and mean. They hit him though, bet the ever living hell out of him. He ended up in the hospital four times on life support before they took him away. The third family had actually been decent -- but the bio kids in the house abused drugs and -- well soon Kai had fallen into that as well. Luckily for Kai he was ripped from that family after a couple of months, and while withdrawal had been hell on earth, he got past it. The fourth? He was 17 when he was put into his fourth and last foster home. And, well the fourth he was there for ten days before he ran away and showed back up at the orphanage. Kai doesn’t talk about what happened in that home, he’ll ignore any references to the last home.

TW END After each incident Kai became a bit colder, a bit more closed off. He went from a happy boy to a teen who’s look could cut you, whose words made you fork over your money and who’s memory you could never doubt and never wanted to go up against (people tried but they always lost that bet.) Once he was back at the orphanage and now 17.4 years old he spent all his free time at school and trying to avoid the home. To avoid seeing kids get their happy endings with their perfect family while he was left without. He made a family of friends and spent much of his free time sleeping over at their houses but -- it was never the same. No place felt quite right. It was around this time that he came back to the home and the oldest care worker was cleaning the kitchen. She started to talk about the night he had shown up. How his blanket had talaria on it and how they almost named him Hermes until they saw the name Kai scribbled onto the blanket. She pulled the blanket out of a closet and handed it over to him. That night he spent hours looking up mythos around Hermes, about where the blanket could have come from and who his mother might have been.

The research -- revealed some interesting things. Little things he had always noticed about himself stuck out as similar to Hermes. The ridiculous ability he had to steal anything without ever being noticed, how easily he could convince people do do whatever he asked, his -- insane memory. Now, Kai had never been a religious kid, but seeing how similar he was to Hermes? He prayed that night to the greek god knowing nothing would happen….. Except it did. Hermes showed up the next morning pretending to be a parent wanting a kid and asked to see the teens. He found Kai and the two spent the next day together -- and that's when Kai learned all about the greek gods, about how HE was a demi-god, about how he had powers and skills and how there was a whole island of people like him. Those who had powers and those who would allow him to -- live his life how he wanted without the shackles of the foster system and american government.

Without a second thought Kai said he wanted to go, he had no skills, no real job experience but -- well it had to be better than this. So Hermes’ took him, he was 17.5 years old when he arrived on the island. Hermes set him up in a house and then -- introduced him to the library. A building that comes and goes as its needed. It can appear anywhere in the world at any moment, it appears, always, as a small one story building that looks like it’d be one -- maybe two medium sized rooms; but when you open the door? It’s massive, as far as the eye can see, floors reaching for the sky, thousands and thousands of rows of shelves. It was bigger on the inside. Just like the TARDIS from his favorite TV show. He was instantly greeted by the librarian, an elderly woman with a sweet smile who grabbed him by the cheeks and said “AH, MY NEW ASSISTANT. NICE TO MEET ANOTHER HERMES KID.” She was like him, able to tell what it was people needed then to give it to them. He was left with her -- and for the first time in his life he actually was home. The stacks of books and this old lady -- this was where he was meant to be.

Angelia became the mother he never had, she taught him how to control his skills; they played games of stealing things from one another without being caught, Angelia taught him languages, she tested his memory, tested his ability to figure out what people really needed -- and then she taught him how to predict the future a derivative power of what people needed and wanted but more precise. Angelia taught him how to cook, how to do basic “adulting” things, she treated him like a human and for the first time in his life? As a kid -- She let him just have fun without worrying about food, about safety and others. And Kai? Kai finally learned to relax -- just a little. He learned to trust… just a little. In Kai’s mind, there was no one better on this earth than Angelia. She was a saint of a demi-god.

For the first time in his life Kai was also able to explore who he was as a person, he came out as bisexual, slept around and actually got himself a boyfriend for a short period of time. The two were quite happy but all good things must come to and end and around the age of 24 the two broke up and went their separate ways. Since then Kai hasn’t settled back down, he’s enjoyed being single and is a frequent face in Phryne much to the dismay of Angelia who wanted nothing more than to see him settle down and get married.

When he turned 23 he met the Larsen kids and realized that one of the children back at the home was irrily similar. After a talk with their father he knew what he had to do. He rushed back and within a week had adopted Dory. Dory had been a child he had seen come in and out of the home since he was 13. A cute little girl who wanted nothing more than to be loved and understood. Her love of bees needng to be appreciated as well. But she kept getting sent back, her love and understanding of bees being to much for most families. He knew she was a demi-god like him and just needed the right family -- and and -- he was the right family. Now she was his. His 10 year old to take care of. He brought her back to the library, set her up in her own room, and spoiled her like he had always wanted to be as a kid himself.

When dory was just hitting 11 she called him papa -- and his heart melted. He became even more wrapped around her finger. He'd do anything for that little girl. Between Angelia and Dory Kai had finally found himself a family and a home. Angelia did her best to try and set Kai up on dates, trying to find him that last little bit of a missing family she wanted so desperatly to see him have. She didn't care if it was a man, a woman or someone non-binary. She just wanted to see her own "adopted" son get something she never had; a true love. Someone to share it all with. A wedding.....

Sadly, Angelia would never get to see him marry. She died just three weeks after his 25th birthday. Kai had had 8 long wonderful years with his older sister/mother. But he had to step up and become the librarian. Before she passed she had trained him in every aspect that was the library. That they had the position and honor of gathering the history of the world in written text. It wasn’t something they actually wrote so much as it was -- like a digital download. The library would appear in a country, a new book would appear on the proper shelf and they’d leave to go onto the next. Over and over again. People came and went to the library -- never questioning why they could only see it once a month, or why they seemed to forget it existed until the day it appeared. They never questioned why they always had to trade knowledge for knowledge they just -- accepted it and moved along.

Kai now is the head and only librarian. He is looking for a pupil, someone to train and help him run the library. A part of him hopes it's another Hermes’ kid… or another orphan. One he can help like Angelia helped him. Kai lives in a smallish apartment inside the library. Kai is an eccentric, fashionable and all around chill guy. He cares deeply about others but does a good job of hiding it behind a facade.

[fialleril]

You rebloged a Hades/Persephone pic a while ago, and when I came across it in my dash, my first thought was that it was Anakin/Padme. And now I'm musing on who'd play the parts of Hades, Persephone, Eurydice, and Orpheus if that play was Star Wars? Who would you fit into those roles, do you think?

I haven’t seen Hadestown (which I assume you’re referencing when you say play), so I can’t really answer on that basis, but I am a big mythology buff so I’ll talk about that.

Before I can get to the Star Wars, though, I gotta talk about the mythology.

So, I basically have two distinct versions of the Hades and Persephone story in my head. Mythology is fluid and alive so I’m not about saying that there’s an “original” version of any myth, but it is true that the ancient and the modern interpretations of the story are very different.

Most modern retellings of the Persephone myth are a love story. And I’m not at all knocking this. I ship Hades/Persephone just like everyone else on tumblr. (I am, however, uncomfortable with the fact that so many modern retellings make Demeter either the antagonist or the outright villain, when the ancient Greeks pretty clearly saw her as a victim, but one who ultimately won against the systems stacked against her. Her takedown of Zeus is pretty damn epic, okay.)

By contrast, although the myth has always had the trappings of marriage and fertility rites, the ancient story was not really a love story. It wasn’t really a rape story, either, although that is the metaphor used (and we tend to be very uncomfortable with that fact now). It really can’t even be called the story of Hades and Persephone, as Hades is less a character or even a person, and more a force of nature. Because in the classical context this is really a story about death.

The version of the myth connected with Eleusis, so far as we can tell, is indeed a fertility myth, but it’s not actually very concerned with human fertility. It’s instead concerned with the life, death, and resurrection of seeds, and its concern with humans lies in the way that they resemble seeds.

Persephone is the seed goddess. Like the grain, she falls into the earth and dies, and with the coming of the growing season she is resurrected. Hades, who was not merely the god of death but also an earth god, is the ground that the seed goddess falls into, the ground in which she is buried only to rise again. And humans, who also are buried in the earth at death, could expect to emulate the dying and rising goddess of Eleusis if they were initiated into her mysteries.

So there’s a number of different stories here. There’s the love story, which is often painted in modern retellings as between the god of the underworld and the goddess of spring (even though in the ancient world there is no evidence that Persephone was ever regarded as a spring goddess, and all of the stories about her feature her in her role as awesome and terrible ruler of the underworld, a role in which Hades himself actually appears very infrequently). And because it’s seen as a love story between a happy, flowery, bright woman and a dark and brooding man, it tends to get read onto…pretty much every female hero / male villain (or anti-hero) pairing that exists. That’s not a reading I’m particularly fond of, but it’s definitely out there, and that’s the reading I see behind most of the Hades/Persephone comparisons to Anakin/Padme.

There are several other stories present in the myth of Persephone, Hades, and Demeter, though. There’s the story of the mother whose child has been stolen away, either by kidnapping (if taken literally) or by death (metaphorically). There’s the story of a woman going up against the entire patriarchal structure of her society to get her daughter back - and winning, but not without permanent consequences. There’s the story of a dying and rising goddess who comes into her full and awesome power, and then returns to offer humans the gifts of the mysteries she has discovered, mysteries beyond even the comprehension of the immortal gods.

So…all of that to get back to Star Wars. As I said, I don’t actually see a very strong fit for this myth with canon (though the closest canon parallel with a Greek underworld myth, I think, is actually Luke in ROTJ, who is a pretty clear Orpheus figure, though he goes to retrieve his father not his lover, and unlike Orpheus he is successful).

However, my AU Anabasis is more or less a take on the Hades and Persephone myth, with a few twists. (Even the name of the story, Anabasis, is a Greek word and means “coming up (from the underworld).”) It fits pretty well into the modern version of the myth, with Anakin as Hades and Padme as Persephone, and even does the enemies to friends to lovers thing.

But it also plays around with a few of the ancient takes on the story, and mixes up a few of the associations. Anakin, not Padme, is the child stolen by a figure representing death (Palpatine). And, for the entirety of the backstory, Shmi, who is pretty clearly the Demeter figure here, believes that her child is dead. But Padme is also something of a Demeter figure in the way that she goes up against Palpatine and his entire Imperial system in order to reclaim both the democracy she loves and the child Palpatine stole. And it’s Anakin who ate the metaphorical pomegranate: he is a Sith trained in the Dark Side, and nothing can ever make that not true. He can, however, ultimately choose what to do with that and how to claim it for himself, and in that way he’s the Persephone figure, claiming her full and terrible power and entirely remaking the underworld and the meaning of death itself.

Both Anakin and Padme metaphorically “die” in their final confrontation with Palpatine (and Anakin was actually literally dead for a very brief period during surgery, before Barriss revived him). They don’t start a mystery religion in the aftermath of their resurrection, but they are both very closely associated with secrets, with hidden knowledge and the toppling of old systems. The Persephone of the Eleusinian mysteries was sometimes described as a liberator, which is a strong element in both Anakin and Padme’s stories.

As for other characters: Shmi is a close fit for Demeter, and Kitster, I think, would be the Hermes character (he’s both a trickster figure and plays the role of psychopomp). Sabe, who has a strong association with both Padme and Anakin, might fit as Hecate. Palpatine plays both the Zeus and the Hades role, depending on how you’re interpreting the myth. Most of the Jedi characters, though, don’t really have Greek analogues, and I’m not sure the other agents do either (though maybe an argument could be made for Dinsa as the Artemis to Anakin’s Persephone).

[unlikely-allies]

****SPOILERS****

4/5

I was looking for something to read while I waited for King of Scars to be released, so I chose an oldie but a goodie.

The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson seems to have been dealt a bad hand in the game of life. Diagnosed with both ADHD and dyslexia, Percy struggles in school and can’t seem to make it through a full year without being expelled. Trouble always seems to find Percy. Percy seems to have inherited some of his bad luck. Percy’s mother Sally has had her fair share of hardships. After her parents died in a plan crash when she was young, Sally was sent to live with her uncle who was far from enthusiastic about his new ward. Sally had big plans for her future. She wanted to get a degree and be a writer. Unfortunately, Sally’s uncle was diagnosed with cancer and she had to drop out of school to take care of him. Without a high school degree or money in the bank, Sally has been left to take a job at a candy shop in Grand Central Station to provide for her, Percy, and Percy’s stepfather Gabe. Gabe Ugliano (yes, ugly-ano) is the perfect specimen of the gross, lazy human being. On top of his lack of charm and nonexistent good looks, Gabe is terrible to both Percy and Sally. Sally and Percy can only seem to find happiness in each other, and especially in the days they spend at the rental house in Montauk. The ocean reminds Sally of Percy’s father who was lost at sea before Percy was born.

During one such trip to the shore, Percy and his mother experience a terrible storm. Out of nowhere, Percy’s friend Grover shows up at the door in a panic. It is clear that Grover and Sally know something about Percy that they aren’t sharing with him. The three of them jump in the car and speed away in search of safety. Suddenly, the car is attacked by what can only be described as the Minotaur. Sally tries to hold the monster off, but disappears in a golden shimmer. Not stopping to question his sanity, Percy faces off with and vanquishes the Minotaur. After his victory, Percy promptly collapses. Two days after the battle with the Minotaur, Percy awakens to find himself at Camp Half-Blood, the summer camp for demigods. Percy discovers that he is a demigod, someone who is half-human and half-god. The other kids at the camp are all children of what we know as the gods associated with ancient Greece. While the heritage of some of the campers is known, some wait to have their parent send a sign and claim them, while others never know who their god-parent is. Unassigned campers, like Percy, are house in Cabin 11, the Hermes Cabin. Though Percy doesn’t immediately take to camp, it is the first time that he has felt as though he fit in. He learns that his ADHD is in fact battlefield reflexes. His dyslexia is due to the fact that his brain is wired for ancient Greek and not English.

The demigod campers are not the only individuals at Camp Half-Blood. The god Dionysus serves as camp director, Chiron the centaur and trainer of heroes is the camp’s activities director, and creature such as Naiads, Nymphs, and Satyrs also call camp home. As it turns out, Percy’s friend Grover is a Satyr. Grover was assigned to be Percy’s protector while away from the camp. Percy’s other friends at camp include Annabeth, a 12 year-old daughter of Athena who dreams of being an architect, and Luke, a 19 year-old camp counselor and son of Hermes. Both Luke and Annabeth live at the camp full time because it is too dangerous for them to leave. The children of major gods and goddesses have a harder time living amongst humans because monsters have a tendency to come after them. The camp is protected from such monsters, but camp activities are geared towards training the half-bloods to develop the abilities to fight the monsters in the outside world.

During a very gladiator-esque version of capture the flag, Percy manages to take down several members of Ares Cabin and help his team secure a victory. It is after the game that a triton appears above Percy’s head. The triton, a symbol of Poseidon, was sent from Percy’s father to claim him as a son of the Sea God. A moment that should be exciting results in a great deal of tension. After World War II, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades agreed to no longer sire offspring because their children were too powerful. Under this agreement, Percy shouldn’t exist. To make matters worse, a hellhound breaks into camp and goes after Percy and the weather has reached new extremes. It is clear that something is amiss with the gods. Percy is given a quest by the Oracle. It is believed that Hades stole the master bolt and framed Poseidon to cause conflict between Zeus and the Sea God. Percy must travel to the Underworld and get Zeus’ master bolt back in order to avoid a war between the gods. Percy chooses Grover and Annabeth to join him on his quest, so the three of them set out for Los Angeles, California, home to the entrance to the Underworld.  

Along the way, our three heroes encounter modern versions of some of ancient Greece’s greatest myths. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover survive an attack from the Furies, flee from a Chimera, escape the Lotus (eaters) Casino, and slay Medusa. They also free several zoo animals and retrieve a god’s shield from the Tunnel of Love.When Percy and his friends leave Hades’ domain empty handed they begin to see that there are darker forces than Hades at work. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are facing a power older than even the gods. With only hours left until the deadline and the quest still incomplete, will Percy and his friends manage to prevent another Trojan War? 

The Lightening Thief is a fun middle grade novel with enough humor and action to entertain older readers. As someone who is a big fan of Greek Mythology, The Lightening Thief served as a unique, modern setting for contemporary versions of the classic myths that I am so fond of. I would recommend The Lightening Thief for those looking for an easy just-for-fun read, or for those who enjoy classic Greek Mythology.

Some thoughts I had while reading The Lightening Thief: 

• Why couldn’t I have taken Latin instead of Spanish? • What 12 year-old is taking a three hour Latin exam? • If Camp Half-Blood was actually in Long Island I probably wouldn’t hate LI so much. • Blue candy is by far the superior candy. • Need to learn to swear in ancient Greek. • “A cherub that turned middle-aged in a trailer park.” • The god of partying may not have been the ideal choice to be responsible for young children. • The Council of Cloven Elders sounds like a satanic group. • Everyone’s avoiding using the gods’ names like they’re Voldemort or something. • I’m going to start telling people my ADHD is just my battlefield reflexes acting up. • I agree with Grover, the roadside Gnome emporium is sketchy. • The Chihuahua would be a Chimera. I wouldn’t be surprised if all Chihuahuas were vicious Chimeras. • The public thinks Percy is pyro-ing his way across the country. • Struggling to picture Ares in a diner… Maybe a dive bar instead. • Never mind. The diner is easier to picture than the tunnel of love. • If being a searcher doesn’t work out Grover could have a very lucrative career with PETA. • Vegas is not the place for two 12 year-olds and a satyr with the emotional stability of a middle schooler. • The entrance to the Underworld looks like the Jersey Turnpike. Yea, no surprises there. • Poor Cerberus. Hades has been slacking on bonding time with man’s (large, scary, three-headed) best friend. 

[kolbehq]

FILE // BASIC INFORMATION

Name: Cassiopeia “Peia” Ryder.

Age: 23 years old.

Gender: Female.

Pronouns: She/her.

Species: Human.

Home Planet: Hermes.

Job: Astronomer.

Criminal Record: Age fabrication, theft, assault.

Sentence: 12 years.

Faceclaim: Tiera Skovbye.

FILE // BACKGROUND

Growing up on Hermes, Cassiopeia Ryder, affectionately nicknamed Peia by her father, had nothing but the constellations in the night sky for comfort.

See, Peia had had a rough start to life; her mother and father met while they both visited the far more scenic planet of Creon, a way for them to escape the war that raged between Hermes and Antigone, and though they lost contact on that night, they later met when they were both back on Hermes. It was a whirlwind romance that lead to them falling deeply in love and marrying a few months later, despite the disapproval of those around them. They were happy together, and although life on this particular planet was difficult, they made do with what they had. Peia’s father, Aeolus, found work in the Psychrine mines, a dangerous job but one that allowed him to bring in an income for his family. Her mother worked odd jobs, finding work whenever she could, and they made life on Hermes work. At nights, when Aeolus came home from long days at work in the mines, he would take his daughter up onto the roof of their tiny home, and he would teach her about the constellations in the night sky.

This was where Peia’s love of stars was born; when she wasn’t helping her mother with her work, she would pour herself over old and badly damaged books that detailed the stars that spread across the universe. She would devour any and all information that she could get her tiny hands on, her mother joking that she was a little fiend for it. Typically, she was too engrossed in her books to respond to the quip.

And when the reality of living on Hermes came knocking, the stars would be all that she had.

It was a freak accident, like so many that happened on Hermes, but it resulted in many causalities. Rumours were that it was an Antigone plot, but none of that mattered to Peia, as one of these causalities was her mother. She had been coming back from picking up their rations for the week when the so called accident occurred, and she never came home again. Her absence tore Peia apart, the girl going from the shy and reserved bookworm to angry and cold girl who wanted something to blame for her mother being gone. Aeolus struggled to help her, having to work more shifts in the mines to help keep them afloat all while having to tend to his own grief. It caused many fights between them, many arguments that were never resolved, and Peia’s emotions and judgement grew clouded by her grief and trauma. It was this that lead her to pick pocketing.

The rush of theft was a good emotion; the euphoria of getting away with the crime was exciting and it prompted her to keep doing it. There wasn’t much of value that she stole, simply just extra rations and a few items she was sure that the owners wouldn’t miss. In her small city, her actions became somewhat infamous, with the residents knowing something was up but never knowing who was responsible for the thefts. Peia, of course, never told her father just how she managed to come into these things – the extra ration cards, some trinkets, and so on – but he was always too tired and overworked to notice what she was getting up to. Peia should have been worried about this, but she was so wrapped up in her own actions and choices, that she didn’t think for a moment that her father could have been hurt.

In a cruel twist by the universe, a collapse in a Psychrine mine resulted in Aeolus being badly injured; with his spine broken, as well as a severe head injury that left him unable to work, keeping them afloat fell onto Peia’s shoulders. Too young to work legally, Peia had to try and find a way around this, and while at first she tried to be honest about her age and situation, not many employers gave her a second look. Desperate and on the brink of losing hope, Peia lied about her age, telling her prospective employer that she was above the legal working age, and she landed herself a job. Riding on the high of it working, Peia did it again, landing herself another job. She worked them diligently, all while looking after her father. On the side, she had her pick pocketing to help her ignore how tired she was now, the rush a temporary fix to her problems.

And Peia thought she had gotten a good handle on things, although she was exhausted from all of the work she had to do, she was relatively safe. She knew the consequences of if she got caught lying, but it was the risk she had to take to be able to provide for the person who had provided for her. She began to make amends with her father and they went back to their nightly routine of watching the constellations, despite how bittersweet it was with everything the Ryder family had been through. Although she was walking a very thin line, Peia had never thought she would be brought down by someone who had no ill will against her.

She had been mid-shift when one of her father’s work friends saw her, and approached to say hi, to ask how Aeolus was keeping. The action itself was innocent enough, but her employer managed to overhear their conversation, and subsequently found out that Peia had lied about her age. Even though she was old enough to have the job now, it was still a bad enough offence that she was thrown out of work, quickly losing her second job as a result. The only reprieve came from not being outed by her employers to the government. They allowed her to go, deeming the sentence of not being able to gain work due to her dishonesty as punishment enough. This hit her hard, as she could no longer find work that wasn’t too dangerous – and working in the mines was out of the question; if she got hurt, or worse, then there would be no one left to look after her father. So, Peia did the only thing she could think to do.

Having worked in the place for a few years, Peia knew the layout of the small business and she knew where her former employer kept their supplies - rations, food, amongst other things. After one last star watching night with her father, Peia broke into the building and began to take as much as she could. She had finally tipped over the line and she paid for it. The owner came back, having forgotten something before locking up a few hours prior, and caught her redhanded. Peia panicked, the fear of being thrown in prison and being separated from her father fairly strong, and she attacked the owner, striking up a fight that left them both hurt. Moreover, it ended with Peia being arrested.

The trial was quick, with enough evidence against her that she barely had a case to argue. Despite her listing her reasons for doing, tears running down her cheeks as she begged for the judge and jury to be lenient to her and her father, Peia was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

FILE // CURRENTLY

Prison was a death sentence in for Peia. She struggled at first, barely able to contain her emotions, being labelled as weak by other inmates. She mostly kept to herself, not bothering to try and make any friends or connections. Although she was completely broken by it, Peia lied to her father when he was able to visit her. She told him that she was doing fine and that she was coping far better than she actually was. It was her last attempt at looking after her father in the only way she could now that she was no longer physically able to do so.

She worked quietly and avoided trouble while she was in prison, hoping that when her parole hearing came around, she would have proven herself as an upstanding prisoner, and therefore, she would be able to rejoin society, the promise of not re-offending on the tip of her tongue. While there, she turned back to her books, making use of the collection the prison offered, to study more on stars, slowly teaching herself as much as she could about astronomy. It was one of the ways she kept herself calm and stable, telling herself that she would be able to talk through everything she learned with her father when she got out of prison.

Peia wasn’t directly told about the ES Kolbe’s mission but she heard other prisoners talking about it. It wasn’t the way back home that she wanted and it would take her far away from the only person she had, the only family she had left, but it intrigued her. Somewhere inside of her was the same small girl who loved the stars and saw a future in them. She toyed with the idea of putting herself forward, knowing that it could either be something she regretted or something that changed her life forever. When she brought it up to her father, after many days of deliberation, Aeolus encouraged her to go for it; to be the first of their family to live amongst the stars.

Peia put herself up for the mission, highlighting her knowledge of stars, of how the universe worked and developed, as a feature of her not so glowing resume. It seemed like a long process, sitting through every step, as she was judged by people who, technically, held her fate in their hands. Much to her relief, she was accepted for the mission, and brought aboard the ES Kolbe. To say she was excited would have been an understatement, and as they left Gaia, she found the best view that she was allowed and watched the universe unfold before her for the first time.

As an astronomer, it is Peia’s job to study the new planets and galaxies they might come across in their exploration. Through the combination of chemistry, physics, and mathematics, it is her job to work alongside the other astronomers and sciences officers to help find suitable planets for the Third Frontier to settle on.

On a more selfish note, Peia secretly hopes to discover a new constellation, one that she would name after her father.

[memphiisbelle]

STUDY    :    Willis

Repost it, do not reblog.

tagged by : stole it tagging : anyone who wants it <3

—    basics.

▸       is your muse tall    /    short    /    average ? Willis is a tall 5′9′’

▸       are they okay with their height ? It’s inconvenient, but he doesn’t mind much. It only gets in the way when he wants to enter a doorway on the ship, and when it’s time to fly.

▸      what’s their hair like ? His hair isn’t dyed. It’s soft, and fluffy. No matter how much he tries he can’t tame it, his hair is unruly and tangles, it curls and has waves. Willis’ hair is a light brown even though his younger brothers are blond and ginger.

▸     do they spend a  lot of time on their hair     /    grooming ? Yea, and no. Willis doesn’t spend much time on his hair unless he’s trying to make it look good for a commanding officer like Washington, or if he’s going out. But even then, he doesn’t do that much. Where his brothers like to go out and swing with the girls, he would rather stay in.

▸      does your muse care about their appearance   /   what others think ? Willis doesn’t really care what he looks like. He spends most of the time aboard the US Yorktown, which means he wears his uniform, and the boys see him. However, he gets self conscious when Hermes pokes fun at how he dresses.

—    preferences.

▸      indoors or outdoors? Indoors ▸      rain or sunshine? Sunshine ▸      forest or beach? Beach ▸      precious metals or gems? Metals ▸      flowers or perfumes? Flowers ▸      personality or appearance? Personality ▸      being alone or being in a crowd? Alone ▸      order or anarchy? Order ▸      painful truths or white lies? Truth, though sometimes white lies ease the pain. ▸      science or magic? Science ▸      peace or conflict? Peace ▸      night or day? Night ▸      dusk or dawn? Dusk ▸      warmth or cold? Warmth ▸      many acquaintances or a few close friends? A few close friends ▸      reading or playing a game ? Reading

—    questionnaire.

▸      what are some of your muse’s bad habits? Willis can be lazy, a scaredy-cat, and naive despite being the older brother.

▸      has your muse lost anyone close to them? how has it affected them? He’s lost many people who were close to him- good friends. The hardest was the friends he lost in Pearl Harbor. On both the machine personification side and human side. 

▸      what are some fond memories your muse has? Memories of being with Hermes, Willow, Heather, and Tucker are his fondest memories. Being with Yorktown, and goofing around with the pilots. 

▸     is it easy for your muse to kill? No, it never gets easy.

▸      what’s it like when your muse breaks down? He gets really quiet and starts to cry. He doubts himself, and anxiety takes over.

▸      is your muse capable of trusting someone with their life? Yes, even if he’s inferior to his younger siblings, he trusts them with his life as well as Yorktown and the rest of the Navy.

▸      what’s your muse like when they’re in love? He gets blushy real fast, and quiet. He wants to spend every day with them, and even purrs.

[tipsycad147]

Planetary Magic 3: Mercury, the Mind and Communication

by Christopher Penczak | Jul 29, 2013

(Originally appearing in Crow’s Calling)

Mercury may be one of the smaller planets of the solar system, but its power is great. Mercury is the power of the mind, our ability to think, perceive and communicate. Mercury rules over the power of our words and how we use them.

Time and again I’m always fascinated by the physical characteristics of the planets, and how they uniquely match the astrological energies. Our ancient ancestors didn’t have the scientific knowledge that we do, but perhaps their intuitive perceptions were just as accurate, or even more so. Mercury physically has much in common with the Moon. While the Moon rules our more emotional nature, Mercury masters the mental side. Both are the fastest moving planets, though the Moon is technically a satellite of Earth, leaving Mercury the fastest of the true planets. If Mercury represents thoughts, it shows how quickly we can change our thoughts, and how fast our thoughts travel into the universe. The planet has no real atmosphere, so if you were able to stand on it, you could see far and wide. Light is not hazed by any gases or water vapour. Your perception would not be clouded as it is on Earth. Mercury is clear, logical and detached perception, not influenced by the waters of emotion. Having no atmosphere, Mercury’s surface suffers no erosion, like the Moon. When something leaves an impression in Mercury, it is always remembered and recorded.

Metaphysically, Mercury is the archetype of both the messenger and the magician. Both images deal with communication and travel. The most popular image is of Hermes, the messenger of the gods in Greek myth. Mercury is his Roman name. With his winged helmet and sandals, he travels from the heavenly home of the gods, to the land of mortals and to the underworld, communicating and connecting all parts. In a way, that cosmology can be a symbol of our three selves, our mortal or ego self, our intuitive, or lower self and our higher, divine self. The power of Mercury connects them all, assuring good communication. Hermes is said to lead the souls of the new born to life and the souls of the dead to the nether worlds, earning him the title of Psychopomp, a shaman or magician of sorts. He is also credited with the invention of mathematics, the alphabet, gymnastics, music and gambling, truly the first Renaissance man. As a child, days old, he was so precocious he stole the flock of his brother Apollo, the Sun god. He was clever enough to trick Apollo, but was eventually caught. To make up for his acts, he created the lyre from a tortoise shell, and gave it to Apollo, giving him greater dominion over music. Apollo, in return, gave him the caduceus, the staff wrapped with a serpent, as a symbol of medicine and healing, which became Hermes’ realm. As Hermes and Apollo have a special friendship, the Sun and the planet Mercury have a special relationship. The two are never far apart from our view on Earth.

The word Hermetic comes from this god, meaning “sealed,” and now referring to certain laboratory and medical procedures. Hermes is the god of medicine. It’s less common definition refers to “sealed” as in secret, referring to a system of magic coming from the ancient Hermetic documents. The Hermetic documents and Hermes himself, under the guise of Hermes Trismegistus, is linked with the Egyptian scribe god Thoth. Thoth is the god of mystery and magic, power and creation, very powerful, yet acting as a guide for the Egyptian Pharoh gods Ra, Osiris and Horus.

Keys to the Mercury archetype are magic, walking between worlds, writing and communication. Often they have an androgynous quality to them. Sometimes they are out right tricksters, tricking us into seeing ourselves and the world as things really are, rather than living in our illusions. Other Mercurial figures are the Norse Odin, Loki, Hiemdell and Hermod; the Celtic Ogma, Lugh, Gwydion, Math and Merlin; the Sumerian Nabu; the African Legba and the Hindu gods Ganesha and Sarasvati.

Air is the element associated with Mercury, even though the planet contains no atmosphere. Air is the symbol of the mind, communication and expression. Likewise the throat chakra, the centre of communication, is its energy point. Wednesday, or Wotan’s day, an older name for Odin, is the day when the energies of communication are high. Phone calls, networking and writing are all emphasised on Wednesday. The metal of Mercury is liquid Mercury, or quicksilver. It shifts and moves quickly, but can also be poisonous if not handled correctly, just like our thoughts and words. Most modern magicians substitute aluminium in their charms instead of using quicksilver.

Mercury rules two signs, Gemini and Virgo. Gemini, an air sign, deals with communication, expression and learning. Virgo is an Earth sign, but has many Mercurial qualities. Virgo’s talents are processing information, discernment and detail-oriented work in the service of other. Virgo brings the mind down to Earth. The yearly period of Mercury is approximately August 24 to October 24, the fourth 52 day period from the Vernal Equinox. It happens to start near the Sun’s entry into Virgo. To find your personal Mercury period, divide the year into seven 52 day periods starting at your birthday. The fourth period is your Mercury time. Both times are great for change, to stimulate yourself and shake things up. Travel, education, writing, working with children or any other mentally active task is enhanced at this time.

One time to take note of is the dreaded Mercury retrograde. People with just enough astrological knowledge to make themselves dangerous will warn others not to leave their homes or do anything when Mercury is retrograde, but don’t exactly understand why. This time caused much fear and should simply be used to our own advantage. To understand Mercury retrograde, lets first understand retrograde. If you have ever been on a train that passed another train, you have experienced a retrograde. Both were going in the same direction, but due to an optical illusion, it looked like the other train was travelling backwards. It wasn’t. It simply looked that way.

The same thing happens to planets. When one planet passes another, it often looks like it is going backwards in its orbit. It is simply an optical illusion we call a retrograde. But in astrology, our perception is often more important than the reality. And from our perception, it is going backwards, so it acts like it is going backwards. The energy is introverted, internalised and often used for reflection on the past. When you try to use it externally, you are swimming up stream.

All the planets go retrograde except the Sun, Moon and Earth, at least from our view. Mercury is more feared because we base our society on extroverted communication and don’t honour private, inner time. So the universe forces us. Some people perceive that during Mercury retrograde communication breaks down, both on a personal level and communication systems such as computers, phones, etc. Travel is disrupted. Legal misunderstandings occur. Information is incorrect. Lies, deliberate and unintentional occur with this trickster spirit. Accidents happen.

Frustration abounds at this time, unless you are doing inner personal work. Then we know where we are going and can take some time to look backwards without pushing forward. But even if we are having no difficulties, others around may still affect us with their retrograde experience.

Mercury retrogrades are the most frequent kind, since Mercury is the fastest planet. It occurs about every three months, for about three weeks. Its best to relax, take things easy and plan nothing major at these times, but continue to live life. Just live a more reflective life. If you want to do Mercury Magic, to improve communication, mental clarity, memory or perception, or if you want to increase your magical and shamanic abilities, I suggest using the herbs and crystals ruled by the energies of Mercury. They help ground this mental energy into the world.

Minerals: Agate, Alexandrite, Aventurine, Green Aventurine, Orange Calcite, Carnelian, Chrysocolla, Howlite, Mottled Jasper, Kyanite, Merlinite, Mica, Snowflake Obsidian, Pumice, Variscite

Herbs: Agaric, Alfalfa, Almond, Azaleas, Banana, Bayberry, Bittersweet, Buckwheat, Burdock Root, Caraway, Carrots, Cedar, Celery, Cherry, Cinnamon, Cinquefoil, Coffee, Dill, Echinacea, Elecampane, Fennel, Fern, Flax, Garlic, Gentian, Goat’s Rue, Hare’s Foot, Hazel, Nut, Honeysuckle, Honeywort, Horehound, Jacob’s Ladder, Lady’s Slipper, Lavender, Lemon Grass, Lemon Verbena, Liquorice, Lobelia, Lungwort, Mace, Mandrake, Meadowsweet, Morning Glory, Mountain Grape, Mulberry, Mushroom, Myrtle, Nightshade, Papyrus, Parsley, Parsnips, Pecan, Peppermint, Pistachio, Sage, Sandalwood, Sassafras, Savory, Scullcap, Slippery Elm, Uva-Ursa, Valerian

(Be sure to consult a reputable medical herbal book or herbalist before using any herbs topically or internally. These are listed for their magical properties, not medicinal.)

If you would like to attune to the energies of Mercury, here is a simple ritual anyone can do. On a Wednesday, take some grain, seed, cornmeal, sugar or any other powdery substance, and draw a Mercury symbol, a circle on top of a cross, like the female symbol, but with a crescent moon on top of the circle, like horns or antenna. Throughout the day, observe your communications and thoughts. Keep a part of you “detached” and observing your thoughts, words and actions. At the end of the day, write in a journal about all your observations. All of this mental activity, along with self-introspection will align you with the powers of Mercury.

https://christopherpenczak.com/2013/07/29/planetary-magic-3-mercury-the-mind-and-communication/