#The Mourning Bride

[orionchildofhades]

Andrew Minyard, Literature Major ("Hell hath no fury" , "Jean Valjean") getting a PhD just to piss off Aaron so they're both Dr. Minyard is just--

[dggmsk]

black mask sumire

[anglerflsh]

Reluctant Symbol

[the-nation-of-today]

You're the one born to save

[gothpossums]

you hold it, you hold it, you let it go

[pansyhorror]

we almost got an oingo boingo reanimator movie i feel SICK!!!!!!!!!!

[gingermintpepper]

I know everyone knows the story of Actaeon and how he met a terrible fate by stumbling upon Artemis bathing in her forest but did you know that Actaeon was Apollo's grandson? That his father was Aristaeus, lord of the bees and the rustic arts and his mother was Autonoe, daughter of Cadmus and princess of Thebes?

Did you know he was trained by Chiron? That he was considered a hunter so skilled his talent was considered divine, that he was his parents' only child and that he was loved?

Did you know the grief that consumed the household when word of Actaeon's fate reached them? That Cadmus cut his hair, that Harmonia wept and was disconsolate and that his parents... well, Autonoe walked the length of the forest, keeping a sharp eye out for her son, but all she saw were the scattered bones of a fawn. Aristaeus too, had heard his son was torn apart and so fruitlessly, foolishly searched for the bones of a man. (There was none to be found)

Did you know that it was Actaeon's ghost, unhappy and unburied, trapped on the earth, who leaned over his sleeping father and told him of his fate? "You will not find me as you knew me, gather me as a stag." And Aristaeus immediately woke his wife and told her the truth, and together they grieved all the night long.

(Did you know that this is why Aristaeus abandons Boeotia? He could not stand the sight of it and so he went to Ceos. And there he slayed the dog-star. And there he became a healing wind. All in the name of his only son, that foolish, beloved Actaeon.)

[mysterious-secret-garden]

Henri Martin - Mystic Scene, 1895.

[qilingxiong]

li lianhua messiest bitch in the jianghu i have nothing else to say

[lyricallymnded]

saviour ii // black veil brides

[saynajaye]

pining for you; hanahaki

[sunthroughdarkclouds]

[scrawnytreedemon]

Writing for this ZelZant fic I've been working on-and-off since mid-June. God these two are so fun to bounce off each other-- Not even romantically at this point, just gritting pleasantries through their teeth while simultaneously having moments of curiosity.

[I'm gonna continue rambling under the cut in case this gets very long, lol <3]

To grab some stuff directly from Discord chats:

It's just. They're so soooo. Twilight Princess' whole baseline is power, who gets it, what they do with it, and what that entails, and I find these two in particular to be especially fun in this regard, since they're both trying to project an aura of legitimacy moreso than the other main characters(Link is an Ordon goatherd who has to take up power but is not to use it beyond this liberatory purpose, Midna hides her true nature as Twilight Princess and doubts herself even as her status is crucial, Ganondorf wants to throw everything out because he recognises the whole institution as corrupt even as this version of him gestures to divine mandate as proof of his own competency, ect.).

Zelda is the would-be monarch of Hyrule, a bloody institution that, even if not responsible for the banishment of the Twili themselves, are heavily implied to have enacted genocide on the Gerudo, whom I consider Zant(and Midna!) diaspora of. At the same time, Zant himself is undeniably a cruel, oppressive figure not only robbing Zelda of her birthright, but all of Hyrule of its freedoms. He's a strongman dictator, hyped up on religious fervour and tight-lipped egomania.

This is by no means a super deep or particularly "great" exploration of the topic, but for me, in this little context, this weird topsy-turvy dynamic is fascinating. Historically, Zelda's ancestors were the ones doing the oppressing, but in the here and now Zant is trying to enact it upon her, while also leveraging this paternalistic, politely-misogynistic affect. It's everything he should, in theory, stand-against, but Zant for all his talk is nothing but an opportunist.

(He has no morals, he has no values-- He really is a Tory! My god 😭)

But like, despite all that, I do think the ways in which they are similar lend themselves to a degree of chemistry nevertheless. I think even without the backdrop of war and conquest, it'd remain stilted, and they'd still have issues with each other... But, oh!

They're fascinating. They remind me of those late-19th century early-20th not-quite-aristocratic couples forreal. Fucked up. Love that for them <3

[usagimen]

               𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝?

Kobayashi Sayuri, Special Grade Sorcerer

            The enigma of the Kobayashi Clan, her origin story is shrouded in tragedy && a tale older than the land the family resides on. Beneath a sea of violet, Sayuri is fabled to be the only daughter of her lineage to break tradition && find herself at Tokyo Tech in a political gamble. From there forth, she would discover the familiarity of love && companionship through her peers, wishing to guard this precious freedom with the entirety of her heart, she swore to denounce the God within her && cave a legend of her own. A body to rival that of stone, with an even greater fortitude, she became known as the God Hand Sorcerer. In the ruins of Shibuya, through the midst of the flames, Sayuri weaponized the grief within her heart to claim ascension to Godhood. In a torrent of fury, sorrow && utmost agony for her failure, she commanded the firestorm becoming an inferno && transcending the limits of what a Kobayashi woman could be. Neither cursed nor blessed, she was the scale of judgment in the veil of darkness only the Eclipse could bring. She would never utter the monikers of the Honored One’s awakening, instead, her hymn was a warning; in this life one should not fear the abyss, but I alone, for now you will witness true horror.   

[the-nation-of-today]

THE DEVIL LIES ALONE

[trippingthemoonlightfantastic]

Not That Sad

Watercolor On Artboard

2022, 8"x 10"

Mourning Bride, Scabiosa atropurpurea

Bloodstone aka Heliotrope Jasper