#adding other Greek mythology related communities here

[ollydraws]

I want to make concepts doodles of some Greek gods so please give me some gods

I like imaging the gods have something covering their faces so it'll all be headshots showing what each gods face coverings are

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Hi! I love your posts and have been lurking around here for a while

I was wondering if you could maybe do something on hypersexuality? Unless it's too dark or sensitive of a topic for you since you're only human (please ignore this if you're uncomfortable<3)

Writing Notes: Hypersexuality

Hypersexuality - Extreme frequency of sexual activity, or an inordinate desire for sexual activity.

Although there are no established criteria for hypersexuality, traits that are commonly seen in a hypersexual person include:

Sex obsession. Spending a lot of time fantasising about sexual urges and enacting sexual behaviours.

Compulsive and frequent masturbation (one to several times a day).

Use of virtual pornography. Sources include videos, adult magazines, and the Internet (websites, webcams). Masturbation with virtual material is practised with repeated and systematic frequency.

Massive dedication in a daily time frame, planning sexual activity. One spends several hours deciding where and how to get the next sexual “pleasure”.

Use of sexual services. This already represents a more structured and pathologically dysfunctional behaviour, as sexual activities now involve direct or indirect human interaction. Behaviours may include phone sex, connections via Internet chat rooms, paying for sexual encounters, visits to strip clubs, multiple partners, or frequent one-night stands.

Degeneration of behaviour into reckless, socially objectionable, or illicit sexual activity. Substance abuse, sexual assault, or dangerous sexual activity (such as autoerotic asphyxiation) may be added to sexual activity.

Engaging in sexual behaviour that goes against one’s values, religious beliefs, or what society deems appropriate, experiencing helplessness, or inability to restrain oneself.

Manifesting paraphiliac attitudes or behaviours. These are sexual behaviours that result in psychological distress, injury, or the death of another person. Examples include exhibitionism (exposing genitals to strangers), voyeurism (watching or participating in sexual activity with others), sadomasochism (sexual pleasure in inflicting pain or humiliation on others), and paedophilia (sexual feelings towards children).

Inability to stop one’s sexual behaviour despite negative consequences in other areas of personal life, such as emotional, love, family, social, professional, or health-related relationships.

Nymphomania, Satyriasis, Don Juan

Nymphomania - In females, excessive or uncontrollable desire for sexual stimulation and gratification. The word is often used loosely to denote a high degree of sexuality in a woman, reflecting negative cultural attitudes toward female sexuality.

Satyriasis - Excessive or insatiable desire in a male for sexual gratification. Sexual activity with one person is found to be inadequate, and many other sexual partners are sought.

Don Juan - A man who ruthlessly seduces women, concerned only with sexual conquest, after which he loses interest in them (Don Juanism). The original Don Juan was a legendary Spanish libertine, the subject of literature and Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. In contrast to men with a Casanova complex, who adore women, a Don Juan may think of women as prey.

The concept of “hypersexuality” belongs to modern parlance.

According to a predominantly clinical meaning, it is understood as a psychological and behavioural alteration as a result of which sexually motivated stimuli are sought in inappropriate ways, often experienced in a way that is not completely satisfactory.

It is a psychopathological label strongly desired by the scientific community to replace terms previously used in other areas of study as well, such as nymphomania and satyriasis, the former referring to the female sexual gender and the latter to the male sexual gender.

Such terminologies draw on Greek mythological culture, referring to the nymphs, who were young and beautiful maidens whose beauty attracted the desire of many men.

In fact, according to mythological tradition, it was they who first used the art of seduction to continually procure new sexual partners and thus the satisfaction of their pleasures.

However, the nymphs, like the sirens, hid a dark side: their company was as deadly as it was pleasurable.

They often fell prey to the satyrs, bearded beings who were half-man, half-animal (goat or horse), and also devoted to lustful wildlife.

The dances of the satyrs and nymphs are depicted in very famous works, which capture precisely the peculiarity and complementarity of their sexual behaviour.

Nymphomania and satyriasis are, therefore, the female and male equivalents of today’s hypersexuality, which, in the past, was considered a morbid accentuation of sexual impulses.

In later centuries, popular tradition extolled these aspects in many artistic representations, thus giving rise to myths and stories, widely using the terms now replaced with hypersexuality beginning in 1771 A.D. in the edited work “Nymphomania. Treatise on Uterine Fury” by French physician Giambatist De Bienville.

The diagnostic criteria advanced by the World Health Organisation on the subject of hypersexuality are:

A. for at least 6 months, recurrent and intense sexual fantasies, sexual urges, or sexual behaviour in association with 3 or more of the following:

time spent in repetitive sexual fantasies, impulses, or behaviours that interfere with other important (non-sexual) goals, activities, or obligations;

repetitive engagement in sexual fantasies, impulses, or behaviours in response to dysphoric mood states (e.g., anxiety, depression, boredom, or irritability);

repetitive engagement in sexual fantasies, impulses, or behaviours in response to stressful life events;

repetitive but unsuccessful efforts to control or significantly reduce such fantasies, impulses, or behaviours;

repetitive engagement in sexual behaviours, disregarding the risk of physical or emotional harm to self or others

B. there is clinically significant personal distress or impairment in social, work, or other important areas associated with the frequency and intensity of these sexual fantasies, impulses, or behaviours

C. these sexual fantasies, impulses, or behaviours are not a direct result of medical conditions (e.g., brain tumours or dementia) or substance intake (e.g., a substance of abuse or medication)

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Thank you, so glad to hear! I appreciate your thoughtfulness. It's alright, I love doing requests on topics that I might never even have thought to research on. I always learn a lot from these. Hope this helps with your writing <3

[tee-hee-heidi]

Nymphs and Satyrs - Introduction

Aaaaaah we’re here guys! Apparently I can’t help developing Lore Trademark for everything I do, no matter how small. Anyway, I had planned a very long post about the lore of Mythical Lovers, but that would have been way too much in one single sitting, so I decided to split it into smaller posts. Let’s hope I don’t get too carried away lol.

Satyr and nymphs are a type of mythical creature I started calling Lesser Deities of the Woods, which is probably not super accurate to Greek mythology but I needed a single name for the both of them and I could only come up with this. So if you see me writing about Lesser Deities in this post (and future ones too), assume I’m talking about nymphs and satyrs as a whole.

Anyway, these Lesser Deities usually live in forests, woods, near lakes or swamps. They’re very elusive, but this doesn’t mean they hate humans, quite the contrary! While some communities are more secluded than others, most Lesser Deities don’t mind intermingling with humans, and even take human spouses. Still, they don’t really engage with humans on the regular, preferring to live far from civilisation. As Deities, both satyrs and nymphs are immortal, though they can still die from violent means or illness (something that can’t happen to Major Deities and full Gods) and while they do not die from old age, they can age! Sort of. While their body doesn’t change the way a human’s does, the older a satyr gets the whiter his fur becomes (a fully white coat is considered a great achievement for a satyr!) while older nymphs are almost completely covered in flowers. This usually takes centuries.

Moreover, both satyrs and nymphs have powers! It comes with being deities. They’re not as strong ad Godly powers, but Lesser Deities are still greatly respected and feared by humans. I’ll eventually make a completely separate post about nymph and satyr’s powers but for now the very short version

Nymph powers: related to plants. Both growing plants, reviving them, and using their natural properties to aid in various illnesses etc. A good example of their powers would be reviving a dead piece of wood, or making natural fibres bloom, or even increasing the potency of a plant, so that its natural effect is even stronger.

Satyr powers: this is still up in the air and probably subjected to change but, satyrs are really great at enticing humans and even hypnotising them with their songs and dances. Usually they use their powers either to protect their communities from humans, driving them away from their place of living, or to attract humans so they can take advantage of them. It depends. If their goal is to attract humans, their traces (hoofprints etc.) can glow, so that humans can follow them better.

Both their powers can be influenced by mood, and especially nymphs need to stay in contact with nature to be able to tap into their powers. Droughts, pollution etc. can seriously impact their magic.

And now, last but not least… children! But wait, how can satyrs and nymphs have children if they’re all male/all female?

When approaching this story I’ve kept in mind that female satyrs didn’t exist in Ancient Greek mythology. That’s a later invention (I think Roman, but don’t quote me on that), I’ve decided to build up on that when conceptualising my world, and since the female counterpart of the satyr is the nymph… I’ve technically made them the same “species” which means that unions between satyrs and nymphs are fertile and will produce offspring. Unions with humans will also result in children, but they will always be either nymphs (if female) or satyrs (if male). A Lesser Deity’s children are always Deities themselves, even if the other parent is a mortal human. The only exception would be if the other parent is a full God (like in Bia’s case)

Children are never considered bastards, even if the father is unknown. The family name (is there is one) is passed by the mother to her children.

I’m still undecided if Crino has a family name or not lol, we’ll see.

[soletlunasims]

Synopsis:

This level is comprised of a rapid changing landscape. While there are 3 locations on this level that feel familiar to the Frontrooms and seem to remain constant, the rest of this level can be extremely dangerous. Dictated by a clock tower that has a clock with no human conception of time, the level changes into various settings or, more accurately, time periods. These settings tend to be familiar to time periods found in the Frontrooms but there is often a mythological element to them. This level varies in danger depending on the space you are ported to due to varying entities and conditions. The rapid changing makes this level extremely disorienting and near impossible to navigate. There is an odd symbolic language written throughout these settings that can be found on pretty much anything from the ground to walls to small objects. The symbols closely resemble Cretan Hieroglyphs. M.E.G. is working diligently to safely explore as much of this level as possible as there is still much to learn.

Current discovered settings include: The Red Isle (Depicted) Acropolis Eternal Desert Twilight Mountains Tartarus

Entities:

Shades- The most prominent entity in Ad Memento, these inky black figures resemble uncanny humanoid figures and will vary in temperament depending on the setting. The weakest of the shades often resemble that of a standard adolescent humanoid. The strongest can be dangerous enough to level buildings in one swing. Intelligence varies from the most simplistic animal-like to that of a standard human. Depending on the setting, several thousand shades can appear on the level. Other times it may be no more than a dozen.

The Automaton- Originally thought to be created specifically for this level by an ancient civilization to maintain the clock tower, M.E.G. has changed the classification to a special (Eta) Class 7 Entity. This entity is made up of metals, pistons and gears. Perhaps one may describe its aesthetic as reminiscent of steampunk. It seems to be very protected by its body which works as an armor for its processor or 'brain'. Once thought to be incapable of thought, the entity is actually far superior in intelligence than even the smartest human beings to ever live. The Automaton has etchings about its body in symbols, when translated, seem to be the Greek and English for 'Time'. This entity is very dangerous. It is stronger than the strongest shade.

Bases, Outposts and Communities:

M.E.G Expeditionary Site 86400- The M.E.G. base dedicated to understanding how time and space works within this level and contributing to how time and space works for the entirety of the backrooms. Made up of 45 researchers who take turns leaving the safe area the base is located at to explore the level itself. Grotto Dwellers- A primitive group of human settlers who live like cavemen in the other two safe areas. They live off of the abundant vegetation of the safe settings when they find themselves able to access them. Though, they haven't been a thriving group since it is estimated that there are only 90 left of the previous 140 accounted for. They are known to be hostile so, contact is not advised. They once worshipped a broken gear dubbed 'The Relic' which came from the clock tower after it broke off some time ago. Thought to be a key to getting to this level's sublevel: Ad Memento.1., M.E.G. is now in possession of this 'idol'.

Entrances:

There is a 1 in 150 chance to come here from any point in the backrooms if the Wanderer is either holding an object related to or thinking about time OR the Minoan civilization. On level 0, finding an unusual wall consisting of cracked marble or another metamorphic rock is known to bring you here if you run into it. The chance of even finding this wall is slim, though. 0.05% of Wanderers ever reported finding this wall.

Exits:

Reaching and interacting with the clock in Ad Memento will bring you back to one of the first nine rooms. Touching the 'Relic' will transport you to sublevel: Ad Memento.1.

Link to the Wikidot:

Ad Memento | Backrooms Wiki | Fandom

[rubsjuice]

hi! who and what is the guy that made you forget greek mythology exists!

Hi, thank you for asking

(first image by @gh0stbreath second I drew over a meme)

his name is

Icarus

Also I tend to write characters more on the natural/realistic side so I hope you're not disappointed he's not a wretched fantastical beast or a dude with super cool powers he's just a guy. He could be your neighbor for all we're concerned. Read more bc I can't shut up about him

He just. Looks very normal. He's a tiny gay loser car salesman from Boston with a husband and children, negative credit score, 30k in debt and in the sights of loan sharks because he's too stubborn to get through his head that his dream of being self made and successful is never gonna be realized. He also has a penchant for religion, although he stops going to church to get more time to try to make his business work. His dream is to have a successful job, a beautiful family, and being a pillar of community – he's the guy the American Dream is marketing itself to, and the kind of guy who's most let down by it

He gets tied up in some mafia business when they put him as a front for their own business in exchange of letting his debts go and leaving his family out of it, and he promptly uses it to abandon the aforementioned family, get filthy stinking rich, invest heavily in advertising and become one of the most well-known faces in New England & the East Coast in general because his face would be in almost every ad running on TV at the time. He also had a huge liking of fashion and apparel in general so he had a bunch of clothing lines, perfumes and accessories named after him. He also developed like 5 different mental illnesses from it because by the time he was famous he was also in his 40s and he experienced the most hardcore midlife crisis ever trying to keep up with the socialites and rich kids he'd surround himself with.

Then when the mafia drops him and it turns out most of his fortune was inflated by an overcomplicated money laundering scheme he sort of starts to experience the Horrors as he starts getting increasingly desperate to keep his life afloat due to all the mental illness he's accumulated, and after a particularly bad trip on LSD where he sees every version of himself from the past and future and beats the shit out of himself he decides he needs to shape up and let this life go for his own sake. So he calls his (now ex)husband and asks to go back into his life and he goes through this whole 20 year long healing arc with a lot of therapy and finds a new and exciting gender for himself (guy who is a mom)

Some other random facts about him is that he's catty, physically fragile, lowkey slutty and loves to overindulge himself. He can be very blunt and says the most insane things. As an old man (around 60) he has a tumblr blog where he ends up being like a B-celebrity. He enjoys serious and artsy media and his favorite book/movie of all time is American Psycho. He relates to Patrick Bateman because he believes him to be the sort of guy he could turn into if he let himself stay in the rich life for longer without seeking proper help, and being able to look at that guy and go "lol glad that's not me anymore" makes him feel Normal

As you can tell if you squint, his life story more or less mirrors the tale of Icarus, with the exception of the healing arc bit (he was saved from falling in the ocean!!), plus with his whole religious theme he also gets a "fallen angel" sort of motif that fits very well. There's more stuff to his life that makes his name and theming more interesting but I don't wanna keep you here all day

Here's his playlist organized chronologically also it's full of bangers

So yeah with all these themes you can tell every time someone talks about the myth of Icarus I just go "ooooo just like my blorbo" and forget that I made him close to the myth on purpose

You can also find posts I tag as him [here]

[lacrimosathedark]

Who'd like some good old fashioned name analysis?

Okay, so, I been doing so much research for Resident Evil stuff and learning shit about fairy tales and timelines and genome editing and searching for impossible Romanian poetry I got overwhelmed and went, fuck it. Why not just look at their names? Maybe I'll learn something there.

So, here I have done it. Name meanings for characters of the Mold Saga so far aka 7 and 8 aka Biohazard and Village.

(Sorry I'm on mobile I'll put a cut here when I can)

Ethan: Firm, enduring, strong, impetuous, long-lived. An incredibly consistently common and popular name. E name just like Eveline, so could be a successor of sorts to the mold.

Mia: Derivative of numerous other names of many possibilities. Mia as a word means “mine” in Italian and Spanish. Mamma Mia is a well known Italian phrase, particularly due to the ABBA song and musical of the same name, and it being the catchphrase of the Nintendo character Mario. The phrase means “my mom”.

Winters: First and last season of the year where everything becomes dormant and cold and either dies or sleeps.

Eveline: Contains “Eve”, as in both the biblical first woman. Also means a night before an event, and the game takes place in the span of one night. The name Eve means “ life”, “living one”, “mother of life”, or “giver of life”. Another possible name origin is as a variant of Aveline, which is a diminutive of Ava, which is the same pronunciation as the name Eva as pronounced in Village.

Baker: Occupational surname. In older times consider an upper-middle class job, much like the family. Also adds the emphasis of the “food” and also how they essentially make more molded.

Jack: God is gracious, supplanter. A nickname for John and other related names, but also a name in itself. It is also a word with a couple meanings, including a heavy lifting tool, to steal something, to take control of something, or an everyman.

Margueritte: Pearl. French name for ox-eyed daisy. Derived from Margaret. Sounds like maggot.

Lucas: Light. Derived from Lucius which means “the bright one” or “the one born at dawn”. Luke is also an Apostle of Jesus and was a physician.

Zoe: Life. Came from the name Eve. Fitting as Zoe was practically pushed out of the family after Eveline’s arrival, replaced as the daughter of the family.

Joe: He will add. Was added as DLC. Short for Joseph. Joseph is the name of multiple biblical figures. One is a child of Jacob and Rachel and Jacob’s favorite son in Genesis (note: Jack is a nickname for Jacob) who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, but rose to become vizier, the most powerful position nest to the Pharoah, and forgave his family and brought them to Egypt. One is the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who loved and raised a child he knew was not his against social norms. Another is a disciple known as Joseph of Arimathea who notably took Jesus down from the cross for his burial and testified when he revived and was gone. 

Rosemary: Dew of the sea. Combination of Rose and Mary or the plant rosemary. Roses as a plant vary in meaning depending on color. Mary and its variations have many differing meanings, among them being, “beloved”, “love”, “bitter”, “rebellious”, “wished-for child”, and “drop of the sea”. There are also the allusions to Mary, mother of Jesus as she is sometimes worshipped with roses, and you say Hail Marys on your rosary which is only two letters from her name. In regards to the plant, it is relatively resistant to drought and cold, though some breeds are susceptible to frost and they don’t like too much water. They have fibrous roots, so they spread and fan out like we see with the mold. They thrive in more alkaline soils and seem to have been named by a taxonomist named Carl  Linnaeus. In stories, folklore, and tradition, the plants or flowers are often used for remembrance, specifically for the dead. It’s also been used as a spice and in medicine.

Miranda: Worthy of admiration. Latin in origin. Character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and whether she is a strong female character or not is highly debated, as she frequently defies men like her father, but often when they expect and/or want her to. She is otherwise compassionate and naive. The titular character of a Polish novel in which everyone is a mage and Miranda is a medium connected to another character, Damayanti, who is portrayed as the ideal woman and has a romance with the male protagonist, yet sacrifices her body so her spirit can experience a higher state of consciousness. Miranda can contact her soul, and disappears when she dies. Miranda in the US refers to the required practice by police of reading suspects their rights before interrogation.

Eva: Latin form of “Eve” and meaning “life”, “mother of life”, or “giver of life”.

Duke: A ruler of a duchy. A title bestowed by royalty or passed through family, often given to royalty or nobility, but can be given to anyone. In France,  the peerage system was abolished in 1789 (vive la révolution), brought back in 1814, and finally perma-abolished in 1848. 

(Note: While the wife of a duke becomes a duchess, the husband of a duchess does not become a duke. At least, from what I gather. This shit is confusing.)

Alcina: Strong-willed. Greek origin. There are two operas using the same story about a sorceress named Alcina who lives on an island with her sister Morgana and seduces every knight who comes to the island, but turns them into plants, animals, or stones when she bores of them. When the source of her power is destroyed, she, her sister, and their palace crumble to dust. The Hungarian name for Alțâna, a commune in Sibiu County, Romania in the historical region of Transylvania.

Bela: Bela Lugosi was an actor who famously portrayed Dracula. His name is Hungarian and meant to be spelled Béla meaning “heart”, “insides”, or “intestines”, roughly translating to “having heart” or “having guts” in modern terminology, as in being brave. However it is considered a male name and as Bela is female there is also the possibility of the influence of the name Bella short an l, Bella an Italian name meaning “beautiful”.

Cassandra: The one who shines and excels over men. Name of a Trojan princess and priestess in Greek mythology. She was given her gift of prophecy by the god Apollo but, in most versions of the tale, he asks for sexual favors in return, and she initially agrees but then rejects him once she’s gotten her gift. In anger he cursed her to always tell true prophecies that no one would believe and was thus thought a madwoman. She served a temple of Athena, goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and warfare. When Cassandra was assaulted and possibly raped in Athena’s temple and dragged out while desperately clinging to Athena’s statue, Athena was so enraged by the damage done to her temple and/or her priestess that she enlisted the help of both Zeus and Poseiden to exact revenge on the Greeks for failing to punish the man who attacked Cassandra and caused the resulting damage. Zeus gave her one of his own bolts of lightning and she struck them down at sea. While Cassandra was never believed, she was always right.

Daniela: God is my judge. Feminine form of Daniel. Daniela is also a genus of moth with only one species in the genus, Daniela viridis. It is also another name for the Italian wine grape Prè blanc.

Dimitrescu: Child of Dimitri. -escu suffixes in Romanian are like -son suffixes in English, it derives from parentage (ex. Jackson is Jack’s son, Dimitrescu is Dimitri’s child). Dimitri means “devoted to Demeter”. Demeter is the Greek goddess of the harvest, agriculture, sacred law (i.e. cycle of life and death), fertility, and the earth. Like many Greek myths, she is repeatedly wronged, and rather severely, by multiple male figures. Demeter in particular is a mother who has her daughter Kore, later known as Persephone, stolen away from her and goes on a rampage searching for her and those responsible.

(Note: Considering the founders had these names it’s a bit dumb seeing as this trend of parentage -escu names supposedly came about mid 19th century (1800s for those who find that confusing cuz I do), long after the Village was founded)

Donna: Lady or lady of the home. Italian name and a title of respect. Derives from the Latin term Dominus. The Romanian form of the word (not the name) is Doamnã. The Atropa belladonna aka deadly nightshade have berries and foliage that contain tropane alkaloids including atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine which are extremely toxic and can cause hallucinations and delirium, but are also used in pharmaceutical anticholinergics. Throughout history people cluelessly used the berry juice as eye drops to cosmetically dilate their pupils, giving them a seductive doll-eyed appearance. Symptoms of belladonna poisoning are dilated pupils, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, tachycardia, loss of balance, staggering, headache, rash, flushing, severely dry mouth and throat, slurred speech, urinary retention, constipation, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, and convulsions. The plant's deadly symptoms are in atropine’s ability to disrupt the parasympathetic nervous system’s involuntary regulation like sweating, breathing, and heartbeat.

Angie: Diminutive of many names containing “angel”. Angels are messengers and warriors of Heaven, a realm souls go after death. Angel statues are also common grave markers. Children are also often told they have guardian angels, a being watching over them to protect them.

Claudia: No sure meaning has been found, but some think it comes from claudus, meaning “lame”, “limping”, or “crippled”, or clausus, which means “shut” or “closed”.

Beneviento: Good wind. Neapolitan spelling of Benevento, the name of both a province and its capital city, located in the Campania region of Italy.

Salvatore: Savior. Italian name. In the movie version (I specify as I have not read the book and the movie synopsis has more on the characters) of The Name of the Rose, the character Salvatore is hunch-backed and twisted, and has a history of not-really-acceptable religious beliefs. He was also tortured and falsely accused of witchcraft. He dies when a library is set on fire.

Moreau: Moorish, dark-skinned. French surname. Titular doctor in The Island of Doctor Moreau, in which said doctor performs disturbing and torturous experiments on people and animals, especially through vivisection, to make beastial humanoid creatures.

Karl: Free man, strong man, manly. Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made notably important contributions to hydrodynamics, ferromagnetism, cosmic rays, and subatomic particles. Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, and socialist revolutionary who believed societies develop through class conflict, and in a capitalist society this is the “ruling” class (the bosses) having power over the working class. He believed people should have equal footing and should and would inevitably fight for it. Karl Jaspers was a German existentialist philosopher and psychiatrist. His humanist ideals had him dissatisfied with the medical community’s approach to mental health and worked to improve it, and philosophizing on it after.

(IMPORTANT NOTE: Since I’ve seen accusations of the RE character and his influences being so, I feel I must state it here. Karl Heisenberg is NOT a Nazi. Both Heisenberg and Jaspers lived through World War II and neither were Nazis. Jaspers was blackwalled because of his Jewish wife. Heisenberg was forcibly drafted into the Army Weapons Bureau, but pre-war he had been repeatedly slandered as a “white Jew” and his career held back, and post-war became more political, worked against traditional primacy in the education system, and actively protested the government considering equipping the army with American nuclear weapons. Capcom reps have also stated that Karl Heisenberg has nothing to do with Nazis.)

Heisenberg: Calling mountain (could not find a specific definition, “heisen” means “to call” and “berg” means “mountain or hill”). Reference to Werner Karl Heisenberg, (explained above). Likely unrelated, but another well-known (in the US at least) name thief of Heisenberg comes from the popular TV show Breaking Bad as the alias/street name for the main character Walter White who takes the name and starts selling drugs when he is unable to afford medical care for his in-need child, but grows more twisted throughout the series. Also place name.

Berengario: Italian form of Berengar, which is derived from Germanic root words meaning “bear” and “spear”.

Cesare: Italian form of the Latin word Caesar, which is an imperial title like an emperor or empress. The word Caesar itself may come from caesaries meaning “hairy”. 

Guglielmo: Italian form of the Germanic William, meaning “vehement protector” or “desired helmet”

Nichola: Anglicized form of the Greek Nikolaos meaning “victory of the people”. Also a variant of Nicholas (Considered a female variant but fuck gender roles and the description says he.). This character is also referred to as Father like a priest I looked into saints and while I found no notable Saint Nichola (meaning on Wikipedia) there are multiple Saint Nicholases, most notably Saint Nicholas of Myra, also known as the Wonderworker and the model of Santa Claus. Stories of him include gifting gold coins through a window of a home for three nights to prevent three girls from being forced into prostitution, calming a storm at sea, saving three soldiers from execution, and chopping down a possessed tree. More connected to where his treasure is found, there is also a tale of him resurrecting three children who had been murdered by a butcher who had had intended to sell their meat as “pork” during the famine.

*BONUS TIME*

By that I mean these are less important so I did slightly less research and/or didn’t  feel like typing all the research so there’s less info, but it’s still relevant, so here you go!

Chris: A rare name in its own right, often a shortened version of names like Christopher, meaning “Christ-bearer”, and Christian, as in the religion.

Redfield: Literally red field. Fitting for the trail of blood in his wake because have mercy on any of his enemies, but regrettably including many of his friends and allies (rip in peace Piers Nivans). 

Elena: Shining light. Greek origin.

Leonardo: Strong as a lion. Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese version of Leonard.

Lupu: Wolf. Romanian surname. Fitting as the surname of the man we saw become a lycan before our eyes. 

Luiza: Renowned warrior. Polish, Portuguese, and Romanian name.

Iulian: Romanian name from the Greek iulius meaning “youthful” or “juvenile”, or ioulos meaning “downy-bearded”.

Vasile: Romanian name from the Greek basileus meaning ”king”. Vasile Voiculescu wrote a poem called Schimnicul, The Recluse in English, about varcolacul.

(Note: For those who don’t recall or didn’t notice his name in Ethan’s diary, this is Luiza’s husband.)

Rolando: Famous throughout the land. Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese variant of Roland.

Elba: Spanish form of Alba, which can mean “dawn”, “white”, or “elf”, depending on origin.

Dion: Shorter form of Greek Dionysios meaning “of Zeus”.

Wilson: Lineage surname, “Will’s son”. Very common surname in English.

Charlie: A name in itself but often a nickname for names like Charles meaning “man” or “warrior”

Graham: Gravelly homestead. Habitational surname, apparently derived from Grantham in Lincolnshire, England.

John: God is gracious. The most common name ever with the most variations.

Perlman: Ashkenazi Jewish surname. Also literal, “perl” possibly meaning “pearl” thus being an occupational name, or Perl being a woman’s name making it mean “husband of Perl”.

Emily: Rival. Latin name. 

Berkoff: Could be Jewish, Dutch, or German surname. Definition not quite certain, but likely related to birch trees.

Josef: German, Czech, and Scandinavian version of Joseph.  

Simon: He has heard. From Hebrew Shim’on.

Roxana: Bright, dawn. Latin form of Greek Rhoxane and Persian Roshanak.

Anton: Priceless, praiseworthy, flower.

Sebastian: From the Latin name Sebastianus which meant “from Sebaste”. Sebaste is a town in Asia Minor and comes from the Greek word sebastos meaning “venerable”.

Eugen: Well-born.Romanian form of Eugene. From the Greek name Eugenios. 

(Note: This is the man who lived in the house with the red chimney.)

Ernest: Serious. Germanic name.

(Note: This man is noted to be missing in a letter to Luiza and his diary is found with the Cannibal’s Plunder in Otto’s Mill.)

[dr-divinae]

Spirit Guide Session

Welcome to your Shamanic Healing Journey experience where you'll be introduced to your Spirit Guides for the second time tonight!! Yeah, I used GoogleNotes for your Spirit Guide Sessions and lost all of my work but I'm not terribly off track I had wrote some of le. Details down via Grimoire for ShamanicChanneling

@cosmic-badlarry

Thank you so much 💖 for joining me this evening 💞 or should I correct myself and say late evening 🌃 night!!

I'm noticing the moon right now 😹

First Quarter Moon 🌜 in ♉⚡💜 When the moon is in Taurus we are motivated by a place of serenity, security, peace, and comfort.🌺⚡Tonight, this evening my dear Gemini child you are going to meet your most active🍂 Spirit Guides...I just pulled some Oracle Cards from multiple decks and based on their Chakra balancing and literal meaning you've got a lot of 🌸Spirit Guides in the 💙fifth Chakra💙 or the 💎Vishudha❄️, and right away we know that that's the 🗣️throat Chakra🗣️💫

And the throat Chakra represents: All sound, Vibration , Communication, Self-expression, Listening, Speaking, Writing

This to me tells me that there could be something related to yourself in the mentioned areas of voice , or vibration?

Or perhaps it's a hint of who your Spiritual Guardians are and what your Spirit Guides gifts are as far as communication goes because that's another vibe I strongly get as a result of this card pulling set.

On my Oracle Card I can tell it's Gabriel's horn... So dear Gemini 💞💖 your first Spirit Guide that's showing up today is Archangel Gabriel as he is also associated with the fifth Chakra as well. Due to his communication link in literally each and every story we ever heard of him .. and he's even known to wear this blue which actually relates to the Chakra I am speaking on so much now ,

now now I'm going to get comfortably numb 😂😂😅 no drugs needed just my regular medical medication 😭dont tell them your dr is now! It's just that I'm ready to do the most in depth part of this Shamanic Session which you've paid for ... I just need to relax , I'm listening 🎧 to a specific type of binaural beats music 🎶 that allow me to channel your most Active 🍂 Spiritual Guardians hopefully I'll really connect with your Spirit Guide ☺️ here we go it's 12: 36 now wow long process🍂💫🌜 but worth it no?

When i begin typing again it will all be channeled information all from your Special shamanic experience with your Spirit Guide.. see you there in the channel 😎...

Hello 👋 Gemini 😁 I'm glad that you have made this choice to finally meet the voice behind all of the synchronicity 🏵️ in your life🍂🍁 to meet the real reason we have met this evening and I'm glad and honored to introduce you to your Spirit Guide🏵️🌸💐

Your most active and current Spirit Guide is a Greek Goddess from this tale I'm about to share and although she's been cursed by Juno and lost her voice somewhat; She is able to repeat sentences, fragments and makes a whole lot of sense when I have her communicate with your higher self 😅 because when I first found out through this Shanic experience that your Spirit Guide is sort of speechless I was lol pretty depressed. About the direction of this Shamanic Healing Journeys for you but going forward I did find the magical method to communicate with the ever forever silenced echos of your Greek. Spirit Guide.

And it's 1:17AM EST Did you guess your Spirit Guide 🏵️ yet? No...

Name: Echo

Origin: Latin

Meaning:reflected sound

Echo as a girl's name is of Latin and Greek origin meaning "reflected sound". In mythology, Echo was a nymph who loved Narcissus and faded away until only her voice was left behind.

In Greek mythology, Echo (/ˈɛkoʊ/; Greek: Ἠχώ, Ēkhō, "echo",[3] from ἦχος (ēchos), "sound"[4]) was an Oread who resided on Mount Cithaeron.[5] Zeus loved consorting with beautiful nymphs and often visited them on Earth. Eventually, Zeus's wife, Hera, became suspicious, and came from Mount Olympus in an attempt to catch Zeus with the nymphs. Echo, by trying to protect Zeus (as he had ordered her to do), endured Hera's wrath, and Hera made her only able to speak the last words spoken to her. So when Echo met Narcissus and fell in love with him, she was unable to tell him how she felt and was forced to watch him as he fell in love with himself.

In Metamorphoses (8 AD), the poet Ovid tells of Juno (Hera in Greek mythology) and the jealousy she felt over her husband Jupiter's (Zeus in Greek mythology) many affairs. Though vigilant, whenever she was about to catch him, Echo distracted her with lengthy conversations. When at last Juno realized the truth, she cursed Echo. From that moment on, the once loquacious nymph could only repeat the most recently spoken words of another person.

Abode/Residential: Mount Cathaeron

Parents: Ouranos

Siblings: Nymphs

Children: Lynx and Lambe

Consort: Pan and Narcissus

Symbol: Crabgrass, Hemlock , the Skunk

Colors: Black, White, Blue, and Purple

The myth of the goddess is told in Book III of the Metamorphoses, and tells the story of a "talkative nymph" whom the goddess Venus admires for her magnificent voice and song. When she tricks Juno into believing that her husband, Jupiter, was in the city, Juno curses Echo by making her able to only finish a sentence not started, and unable to say anything on her own. "Yet a chatterbox, had no other use of speech than she has now, that she could repeat only the last words out of many." This is the explanation of the aural effect which was named after her.[1]

Sometime after being cursed, Echo spied a young man, Narcissus, while he was out hunting deer with his companions. She immediately fell in love with him and, infatuated, followed quietly. The more she looked at the young man, the more she longed for him. Though she wished with all her heart to call out to Narcissus, Juno's curse prevented her.[2]

During the hunt, Narcissus became separated from his companions and called out, ‘is anyone there,’ and heard the nymph repeat his words. Startled, Narcissus answered the voice, ‘come here,’ only to be told the same. When Narcissus saw that nobody had emerged from the glade, he concluded that the owner of the voice must be running away from him and called out again. Finally, he shouted, "This way, we must come together." Taking this to be a reciprocation of her love, Echo concurred ecstatically, "We must come together!"[3]

In her delight, Echo rushed to Narcissus ready to throw her arms around her beloved. Narcissus, however, was appalled and, spurning her, exclaimed, ‘Hands off! May I die before you enjoy my body.’ All Echo could whisper in reply was, ‘enjoy my body’ and having done so she fled, scorned, humiliated, and shamed.[4]

Despite the harshness of his rejection, Echo's love for Narcissus only grew.[5] When Narcissus died, wasting away before his own reflection, consumed by a love that could not be, Echo mourned over his body. When Narcissus, looking one last time into the pool uttered, "Oh marvellous boy, I loved you in vain, farewell", Echo too chorused, "Farewell."[6]

What's Hemlock?

Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) is a poisonous invasive weed that has caused many accidental deaths because of its resemblance to carrots, including the wild carrot (Queen Anne’s lace). The poisonous agents in the plant are volatile alkaloids, and they are found in every part of the plant. In addition to causing death when ingested, the plant also causes a miserable dermatitis in sensitive people upon contact with skin. Socrates drank the juice of this notorious plant to commit suicide, and ancient Greeks used it to poison their enemies and political prisoners. North American Natives dipped their arrowheads in hemlock to make sure every hit was fatal.

.........TO MOST DEFINITELY BE CONTINUED

Having technical difficulties as far as uploading and sharing this channeled session of Shamanic Healing so @cosmic-badlarry just pleeease hold on

Anybody who's interested inbox me

I can tell you who your Spirit Guide is not a problem just need to get a small fee 😊 and speak to you for a quick second of does not take long at all that part . . But my part of doing channeling does take it m afraid hours. This case I'm doing now omg I've been working since 11:33PM EST NOW ITS 5:44 EST

[biitchofthewild]

Howdy, welcome to my sideblog.

DNF IF ANY OF THE FOLLOWING APPLIES TO YOU:

Under 17, zionist/pro-isnotrael, any form of LGBTQ-phobic, exclus, transmed, believe "Queer is a slur", TERF/SWERF, anti-kink/kink critical, anti-Black Lives Matter, anti-ACAB, use religion to excuse bigotry, pedophile or support/defend pedophiles, victim blame SA/CSA survivors, turn a blind eye to predators in your community(/ies), excuse death threats/suicide bait/threats of violence, pro-"life"/anti-choice, refer to CSEM/CSAM as "C//////P" or "child p////rn, Anti-ship/Pro-harassment/Pro-censorship in fiction

(list may be added to in the future)

Basic things to know about me ->v

Name(s): Katt or Jordan, though René, Link, Grell, Harley, Mikey, and Key are also 100% acceptable

Language: English. I want to learn Korean and ASL

Nationality: American (unfortunate, I know, but it wasn’t my idea /j)

Race: Mixed. I primarily identify as Black, though I'm also part Native American (muscogee/creek and blackfoot) and white (really I'm more white than I am Native but I don't like to think about that)

Gender & Orientation: Queer (demiromantic/arospec, sex repulsed aego-pansexual gay nonbinary man); I'm Genderfluid, my pronouns are He/Him, They/Them, Xe/Xim, Kit/Kits, or literally any pronouns you see fit that aren't "she/her" or "it/its"

I am a fiction-kin. The main characters I kin at the moment are Link, Grell, Harley Quinn, Alois Trancy, Adrien Agreste/Chat Noir, and Sebastian/Glam from Metal Family. I don't believe I am these characters, but I heavily relate to them in different ways.

I AM PRO-CHOICE. If this wasn’t already made abundantly clear by my DNI/DNF, bio/description, about, or just the stuff I’ve been posting on here since, what October 2019?, this better make it obvious.

I'm a spoonie due to chronic vertigo, migraines, and possibly POTS and hEDS

I'm autistic as well as ND in other ways (not yet medically validated). I also have very low empathy (on an empathy quotient test I scored a 16.0). I use tone indicators sometimes, but if I don't and I end up coming off as mean/rude, I simply don't have the energy to mask anymore. I'm naturally pretty monotone/deadpan, even in my sense of humor, and it can and will translate into text. No, I will not apologize if your feelings get hurt.

Likes (bolded = special interest, italicized = hyperfixation): Music (especially rock, r&b, and Kpop, but I’m not picky about genre), BOTW, Animals (especially snakes), Horror, Greek mythology, Witchcraft, A:TLA, TLOK, BNHA, Beastars, The Umbrella Academy, Singing, Rapping, Dancing, Stuffed toys, Stimming, Hannibal, Sewing, Mantids, Tarantulas & Jumping spiders, Butterflies, Mermaids, Dragons, cartoons, anime, Ice cream, Cheesecake, Baking, Miraculous Ladybug, Animal Crossing (dm or send an ask off-anon for my friend code :3), MLP, LoliRock, Metal Family, medical dramas (specifically The Good Doctor, Grey's Anatomy, and House M.D.)

Dislikes: Most bugs (especially beetles), small cracks, loud noises that I can't control, broccoli

If you have any questions feel free to DM me or send me an ask off-anon so I can answer privately. Ableist bullshit will not be tolerated.

[Image ID: A gif of the character Grell Sutcliffe from the anime Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji. She is blushing, winking, and blows a kiss, making a baby pink heart appear and bounce from her hand towards the viewer, quickly moving upward. END ID]

[rainafoxfire]

Sannion has suggested that many people are in need of some direction as to starting or maintaining a devotional practice. I am perhaps not the best guide in that my own practice is rather personalized and idiosyncratic. However, I thought I would give some examples of what I do nonetheless, in case it helps anyone. (Though please, please don’t just copy my examples unless they are truly directly relevant to your own practice and spiritual relationships – rather, use this as a way to spark ideas for the types of things you might do yourself. Devotional practice should be personal, and arise from your own understanding of and history with your deities.) Some folks recently have described a single day in their practice, but each day is too different for me to do it that way. I don’t have many daily practices other than following certain taboos, a few simple things I always wear or do as I go about my day, that sort of thing. More and more, I have been led to a free-flowing sort of approach that tunes in and responds to the forces around me, rather than executing a pre-planned set of actions. This is actually trickier to do well, a balancing act. Ideally, it should lead to more devotional practice and magic, not less. I think I am only ready for this now because I spent so many years building a foundation. One thing that helps me keep the balance is my schedule of holy days. Each month, certain days (calculated by the lunar calendar) are set aside to focus on certain gods or spirits. Right now, I have eight of these, but I’m always in the process of refining it. This ensures that I never go too long without giving Someone their due. It also keeps a sort of rhythm to my spiritual life, going through the cycle over and over. Added to this are festival days (which involve more elaborate and specific rituals and activities), which are more unevenly scattered across the year. Of course, even on a day with no special focus, I might end up doing major ritual or trancework. But here are some of the smaller things I do more often to maintain and deepen my devotional relationships. Prayer Beads – I have a set of prayer beads I made about 5-6 years ago, where each god or spirit or group of spirits in my “personal pantheon” is represented by a different, symbolic bead (amber for Apollon, lava rock for chthonic Trophonios, etc.). I usually take these out on my walk to work in the mornings. I do not have set prayers. Often I simply pause at each bead and hail the entity, and perhaps talk to Them extemporaneously for a bit. Sometimes I ask for help with something, give thanks, etc. Sometimes I go through and with each one mention a certain type of thing sacred to Them, or recall the last devotional act I did for Them, or the next I plan to do, or something of that sort – almost a game, meant to keep my mind on these things. I find this practice nicely centers me in my web of divine relationships. Clothing, Jewelry & Hair – On holy days, I always pay attention to what I wear, choosing the colors associated with that deity, and anything else that seems appropriate. No matter what day, there are certain colors and fabrics that are off-limits to me, and everything I wear must align with the aesthetics of my spirits (which have slowly become my own for the most part, but definitely didn’t start out that way). Every day, I braid my hair in some way – this began several years ago as a temporary devotional practice for one of my spirits, just something to be noticeable and remind me of him each day, but then I felt strongly that I should keep doing it, and I think of the braids as intertwining myself with my gods and spirits. It is also significant to choose to make that more important than any personal preferences as to how I wear my hair. I also choose my jewelry carefully – every single piece I own has meaning, usually directly connected to a specific entity, and which pieces I wear each day are my statement of intent. No matter what else, if I go outside the house I am wearing a ring for my Husband and one for Dionysos, and when I am in my home “alone” I wear a second ring for my Husband. I wear a small piece of jewelry when I go to bed each night to connect with my dream-spirit. I also have stretched ears, which I did on request from my spirits to symbolically open my hearing to Their voices, and only wear a few simple sets of plugs, having given up pretty earrings as a sacrifice. (I also have nearly 30 devotional tattoos which state my allegiances in a permanent manner on my skin, but while I have them every day, obtaining one is obviously a more special occasion.) Images and Playlists – I keep a large folder of images that I find beautiful or powerful on my computer. I have them sorted into various folders, including ones for most of my gods and spirits. My usual screensaver is a random slideshow of all these images (since my computer is on for hours each day usually, it’s a nice way to be reminded of Them, and also useful occasionally for divination), but on holy days I set it to just the folder of that specific entity. Likewise, I keep playlists of music for each of Them and play them on Their holy days or when doing any sort of ritual for Them. I revise both of these periodically, as my relationships and understandings of Them change over time. Shrines – I have shrines for all of my gods and spirits in my house, but some get a lot more use than others. Most are just placeholders of sorts, making a space in my home for Them and an appropriate place to leave offerings if necessary, but not a focus of worship, as a lot of my worship is done outdoors. The shrines for my Husband and Dionysos however have cushions in front of them and I often sit in front of the “activated” shrine (when the candles and incense are lit) and pray and commune with Them. All my shrines developed organically over many years – the items on them tend to have deep significance and I periodically review them to make sure they still represent my current view of Them. I try to personalize anything mass manufactured (for example, by painting common statuary), and mostly focus on unique items that have a history with us, even though those are usually much less spectacular (for instance, the small lump of white marble I found on the shores of Naxos on Dionysos’ shrine, or the bowl of unusual coins I have slowly accumulated for Hermes, or the special ritual pipe for my Husband made from a bone of His sacred animal). On holy days, I light up the appropriate shrine while I am home. But I also often do this whenever I’m feeling Their presence, or want to invite Their presence. Especially at night in a darkened house, the glow of the shrine draws all focus there. Physical Offerings – I make both traditional and personal offerings to the gods regularly. At the very least, I do this on Their holy days, but with my core group I do it more often. These might include things like: alcohol (paying attention to both the type and even the picture on the label), flowers, incense, coins, stones, food, drink, etc. Each one has a wide variety of sacred symbolism to draw on. So I might pour out Stone IPA beer for Hermes, or leave figs on Dionysos’ shrine, or lay out a piece of honeycomb for the nymphs in some numinous spot outdoors. Aside from the shrines, repositories for my offerings might include bits of wild nature throughout the city, special trees or stones, the creek, or I might leave something on the street or at a crossroads, especially if it is for Hermes or might double as a glamourbomb for someone. Activities – On holy days, and sometimes on other days that feel imbued with the presence of a certain god or spirit, I try to tailor every activity to Them – what book I read, what movie I watch, even what errands I do. I might save a shopping trip for Hermes’ day, or go out dancing on Dionysos’ day. I’ll start reading a book about sleep on the day for my dream-spirit, or start an art project on the day for my collective spirits who are closely tied to my artwork. I clean the house on the last couple days of the lunar month, in accordance with the practice of taking out the sweepings on Hekate’s deipnon. Miscellaneous – I say a special prayer to Dionysos each time I consume any kind of intoxicant. On the full moon, I smudge all the animal spirits who live in my house in the form of pelts, taxidermy and bones. I only smoke cigarettes for ritualistic purposes in very precise circumstances, as per the taboo laid down by my spirits (or else I get rather ill). On certain holy days, I do not eat meat, due to Their wishes. On Apollon’s day, I have a special set of taboos and actions due to the oracular work. Almost all of my non-fiction reading is religious in nature, either overtly or somehow related to one of Their interests.  I am constantly open to receiving any omens or communications They might send me as I go about my day; I pay attention to things I see when I’m thinking of Them especially. I do divination when I need to know what They want or am not sure I’m receiving a message properly (and I find choosing the method of divination to be important in itself – runes for Odin of course, a fairytale Tarot deck for my spirits, a Greek mythology deck for my primary deities, etc.). Hopefully that’s enough to paint a general picture of my approach to devotional practice. I would very much like to see more people writing about what they do.

Dver, author of https://forestdoor.wordpress.com/

[evilkitten3]

Any spicy lore about your ocs, their story, or the world they live in?

well, there are three main sets right now. the toxic butterfly set (kochome, maiye, kadzya, jaren, nikoli, kagura, etc.), the shifters set (lev, meiling, xiuying, aabir, etc.), and the kawa kara umi he set (shashō, saizō, kōka, etc.). that’s the order their various worlds were made in, as well as the order of which one has the most lore.

the world that kawa kara umi he takes place in is easily the least developed, mostly because it’s both the newest and the one i’ve spend the least time on, but also because i haven’t fully figured out what i want to do with it. it began as a dark parody of naruto, exploring the realities of being child soldiers under the command of a fascist government, but i’ve gone back and forth on whether i want to keep the element of fantasy that naruto added or if i want something more based on real history, with a focus on a world based off of real life japan (from the sengoku period to the edo period) or possibly even actually taking place in japan. that last one could be extra interesting if i set it in the edo period, especially if i had the characters towards the end of the story coming to terms with the decline of demand for shinobi and what the future might hold. but i still haven’t put too much thought into it - it’s fun to play with, but the other two take up more space in my brain.

the shifters set has been through a few changes, most notably in terms of plot - in part because there currently isn’t one (oops). it takes place in modern day america (specifically the san francisco bay area in california, because i wanted to work in familiar terrain) but deals with other dimensions and the like, so the setting isn’t always consistent. the one thing i’ve been sure of the whole time is that i want a medley of different mythologies coming to life (this was very much inspired by rick riordan, if you hadn’t already guessed), but with christianity being on the same level as the others. frequently in mythology related stories you see people, gods, and monsters from all sorts of religious (loki from norse myths, apollo from the greeks, horus from ancient egypt, golems from jewish lore, jinn from islamic and pre-islamic arabian lore, etc.), but christianity is never put on the same level. and i thought to myself: y’know what? jesus is here. and he’s the guy running the hot dog stand outside the community college whose nametag says jesús and who knows ikea like the back of his hand. and the gods aren’t just in america because - they’re actually everywhere because travel is neat and who’s gonna stop them. also anansi is there because i grew up with my librarian reading those stories to me and his wife (aso i think) is probably my favorite character from anything ever.

the toxic butterfly universe has come a long way - i created these guys back in like middle school or something. maybe even before that. pretty much every character is massively different from who they started off as (kagura used to be a demon, nikoli and jaren used to share a body, maiye and her group were initially background characters that were an inside joke for my high school friend group, kochome was going to have a poisonous butterfly tattoo.... also most of them were japanese bc i was in an anime phase when i first made them and initially planned for it to be something like an isekai situation). i do currently have several plot points for the tb universe that i’m probably going to stick with, although the overarching plot is still pretty shaky. but some of it is still the same: jaren’s name hasn’t changed even once since i made him, kagura and nikoli were always going to be an item, the world the story takes place in was always the seven kingdoms, nikoli and jaren always had a fire/ice dynamic, maiye was always going to be the rose-haired sweetie character that turned out to be neither of those things (at least, after she was upgraded from background character to supporting character but before she became a main character), hector was always going to be the heroine’s (kochome’s) main love interest with family issues, brooke was always going to be a queen (although initially she was the queen of one of the kingdoms, whereas now she’s “queen” of a rebellion), etc. so a lot has changed, and a lot has stayed the same.

and then there are the hawthorne knights, who are technically a part of the toxic butterfly story, but are important enough to me to get a side story about their cool adventures. because they’re all lgbt+ and at least half of them were made when i was dicking around with heroforge.

[goodvibesatpeace]

Tropical/Western Zodiac or Sidereal Zodiac

The zodiac is primarily a language of symbols. It is the attribution of meaning to clusters of stars, constellations, in the sky. More specifically, the meaning is attributed, in both the Tropical and Sidereal zodiacs, to 30 degree divisions of space beginning and ending at a specific point, not the actual constellations which are uneven in size.

From what is the symbolism of the zodiac derived? The answer to that question is complex.

In modern astrology the Tropical zodiac’s symbolism is a mixture of Northern Hemisphere seasonal correlations (Aries = Spring) and loose connections between the names of the planets and Greek and Roman mythology (ie. Mars, god of war). There are also some significations that come from the symbolism of the animals or objects attribute to be revealed in the constellations. So, Taurus the Bull is stubborn and willful.

The meaning attributed to and associated with signs of the Tropical zodiac seems to be more of reverse engineering. The physical experience of the seasons is attributed to the sign and planet. However in the sidereal zodiac, and especially traditionally, the symbolism of the signs comes primarily from the nature of the planets that rule each sign. In Hellenistic terms, this means the system of essential dignities and debilities.

This is not meant to be a conversation about traditional versus modern astrology; however, it is relevant since the sidereal zodiac in modern times is, with rare exception, almost exclusively used by Vedic astrologers who maintain a fairly unbroken history of astrological practice. A major philosophical difference then, is that the Tropical zodiac reflects the earliest homogenization of a western culture, an attempt at normalizing astrological time.

One kind of zodiacal symbolism is readily experienced in the physical sense, that being Tropical. And the other, Sidereal, can be observed as a phenomenon of time in space.

The primary function of the zodiac is as a language of symbols. The zodiac is not measuring anything tangible. Words are symbols to represent concepts. They are used in place of actual objects, to communicate their meaning or purpose. But the words are not the objects themselves. And they could never  The same can be said of the signs of the zodiac. The zodiac is not the thing; the zodiac is the symbol that helps to communicate the thing.

You have been reading horoscopes based on tropical astrology all your life. It’s time you learn about sidereal astrology.

The Difference between Sidereal and Tropical Zodiac?

Most of the horoscopes you see in the United States and Europe are based on the tropical system of astrology. However, there is another kind called true sidereal astrology. Both forms of astrology contain signs named after constellations.

The difference is the tropical system is based on a fixed astrological map of the stars as they were around 0 AD. The sidereal system is based on the current position of the constellations and takes into account Precession, the Earths natural axis tilt.

The phenomenon of precession – which defines the fundamental difference between how the Tropical and Sidereal zodiacs are calculated – reflects the subjective nature of time. Tropical is convenient and orderly in a way the normalizes, or standardizes time, forsaking the shifting nature of time within the context of space for something more subjective to our experience on Earth, something more ‘universal’.

The subjective nature of time is apparent with the Sidereal, but hidden with Tropical. In Sidereal the Aries point, beginning of the zodiac, moves as the stars in our solar system move against the backdrop of the Milky Way Galaxy, thus subtly shifting where the zodiac begins as each hour, day, and year passes. But in Tropical, the Aries point remains fixed, tethered to the intimate relationship between the Earth’s rotation around the sun.

Over the years, the stars have slowly changed location relative to Earth, which means there is a twenty-four degree variance between the tropical system you are accustomed to using and the actual constellations. That means your sun sign is probably different in the sidereal zodiac than in the tropical zodiac.

According to the sidereal zodiac…

You are an Aries if you are born in between Apr 21 and May 12.

You are a Taurus if you are born between May 13 and Jun 19.

You are a Gemini if you are born in between Jun 20 and Jul 16.

You are a Cancer if you are born in between Jul 17 and Aug 6.

You are a Leo if you are born in between Aug 7 and Sep 14.

You are a Virgo if you are born in between Sep 15 and Nov 3.

You are a Libra if you are born in between Nov 4 and Nov 22.

You are a Scorpio if you are born in between Nov 23 and Dec 6.

You are a Ophiuchus if you are born in between Dec 7 and Dec 18.

You are a Sagittarius if you are born in between Dec 19 and Jan 19.

You are a Capricorn if you are born in between Jan 20 and Feb 13.

You are an Aquarius if you are born in between Feb 14 and Mar 9.

You are a Pisces if you are born in between Mar 10 and Apr 20.

If you are born within three days of another sign you are a blend of both signs and is called a Cusper.

Ancient cultures — like the Egyptians, Persians, Vedics, and Mayans — have always relied upon the sidereal system. They considered it more accurate since it is based on an actual link between the time of birth and the natural world as opposed to a theoretical position based on the seasons of the earth.

The Thirteenth Zodiac Sign

There are twelve signs in the tropical system. The sidereal system contains the same signs with the addition of Ophiuchus.

The constellation Ophiuchus is known as the serpent-bearer. It is represented as a man grasping a snake.

If you were born between December 7 and December 18, you fall under Ophiuchus. This means you are spirited, magnetic, curious, impulsive, and clever. You have a thirst for wisdom and knowledge. You have an excellent sense of humor.

However, you are jealous, secretive, single-minded, and have a horrible temper. The second you mistrust someone, you shut them out of your world forever. You are also an introvert and avoid situations where you are not in control.

The Traits Of Each Sidereal Sign

The remaining twelve zodiac signs are also found in the tropical system. Although their dates differ, the personality traits associated with each sign are similar.

Here is a rundown of each sign in case yours is different than what the tropical system led you to believe:

If you are an Aries, you are energetic, tenacious, and heroic. You are also impatient, combative, and aggressive.

If you are a Taurus, you are romantic, grounded, and supportive. You are also vain, possessive, and stubborn.

If you are a Gemini, you are adventurous, adaptable, and vibrant. You are also deceptive, distracted, and superficial.

If you are a Cancer, you are caring, helpful, and creative. You are also uncommunicative, hypersensitive, and defensive.

If you are a Leo, you are generous, entertaining, and warm. You are also arrogant, jealous, and blunt.

If you are a Virgo, you are practical, organized, and resourceful. You are also critical, reserved, and overwhelmed.

If you are a Libra, you are social, fair, and charming. You are also indecisive, manipulative, and unopinionated.

If you are a Scorpio, you are passionate, brave, and magnetic. You are also secretive, obsessive, and probing.

If you are a Sagittarius, you are optimistic, enthusiastic, and bold. You are also reckless, irresponsible, and overconfident.

If you are a Capricorn, you are responsible, ambitious, and hardworking. You are also unforgiving, pessimistic, and cold.

If you are an Aquarius, you are independent, open-minded, and inventive. You are also detached, irrational, and idealistic.

If you are a Pisces, you are comforting, sympathetic, and intuitive. You are also gullible, clingy, and self-pitying.

What Does A Sidereal Birth Chart Tell You?

There are three main components to any birth chart — houses, signs, and planets.

Houses represent the areas of life that are most important to you. For example, your house might be linked to matters relating to inner peace and connectedness. Or it might be linked to matters relating to transparency, healing, and the depth of life. 

Signs represent the qualities of your life. That could mean expressing yourself through creativity, playfulness, and sharing who you are with others. Or it could mean building a legacy through discipline, patience, and perseverance. 

Planets represent the transient experiences of your life and personality. For instance, Mercury relates to interactive learning. Mars relates to self-determined action. Saturn relates to developing structure.

When you look at your birth chart, you should also look at your sun, moon, ascendent, and chart ruler.

The sun and moon represent the fundamental elements of your personality. The sun represents your outwardly focused, expressive side. The moon represents your inwardly focused, reflective side.

Meanwhile, your ascendent represents the qualities you are developing as a result of your life experiences. Combined with your chart ruler, it tells you how your life is going to unfold and how your personality will develop based on your life experiences.

Should You Rely On The Sidereal Zodiac Or Thr Tropical Zodiac?

There is a heavy debate over whether the sidereal or tropical system is more accurate.

Even though the tropical system is more popular in Western areas of the world, Hindu astrology continues to use the sidereal system for their predictions.

However, there are problems with both systems. The tropical system is based on the seasons, which is problematic since they are flipped in the northern and southern hemispheres.

Meanwhile, in the sidereal zodiac, the constellations do not line up with the signs perfectly, so sidereal astrologers debate the starting point for the zodiac.

Everyone has a different opinion on whether tropical astrology or sidereal astrology is more accurate. You are free to follow whichever system makes the most sense to you.

Much love to all... go in peace my friends

[oceanblood]

SHIPPING INFO !!  ANSWER THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR MUSE SO PEOPLE KNOW HOW SHIPPING WORKS ON YOUR BLOG.

WHAT IS YOUR OTP FOR YOUR CHARACTER?

Percabeth isn’t just my OTP for Percy, it’s my favorite OTP of all time! They just have Everything that makes a perfect ship together from friends to lovers to the fact that they’re always bickering, everything is just Beautiful about them AND DON’T GET ME STARTED ON THE WHOLE PERCY ONLY REMEMBERING HER NAME WHEN HERA WIPED HIS MEMORIES, I’LL NEVER BE OVER THAT. 

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO WRITE WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING?

I mean, I won’t do the obvious things like incest, pedo, rape/non-con things like that, and I won’t do cheating threads either-because for one thing NO, but also-you really think Percy, somebody who couldn’t even have his girlfriend’s name wiped from his memory is gonig to cheat? HONEY BUNCHES OF NOPE. But yeah, I’ll do angsty ships, fluffy ships, all the kinds of cute ships really. Also, I just added this to my rules actually,  but for Percy specifically I will not ship him with children/step-children of Zeus, Poseidon, and/or Hades, because I know everybody is kind of related in Greek Mythology, but children/step-children of The Big three are legit his cousins so that’s a no for me. 

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?

I play Percy in his lower 20s, primarily 21-22 by default, so obviously they at least gotta be of age, but if they’re a few years older than Percy, then that’s okay, too. But I won’t go too crazy with age gaps for him, I’d say the oldest I’d ship him with is 25??

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?

Kind of?? I won’t ship just to ship, I want there to be SOME kind of connection between our muses, and I want there to be a plot behind it, too so that we can add more layers to them and just flesh them out. The fluffiness and affection of shipping is good and all, but I want those other emotions with it, that communication, those feels where they’re just growing closer together and everything. 

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY ARE CONSIDERED NSFW?

Once clothing is being removed, that’s when I’ll start tagging it with at least nsfw-ish, but once certain actions and body parts are starting to be described in much much greater detail, then I’ll give it the actual nsfw tag.

WHO ARE OTHER CHARACTERS YOU SHIP YOUR CHARACTER WITH?

PercyxRiptide, that pen never leaves his side ever 🥺 ALKGDASFKALKFASKF OKAY BUT SERIOUSLY? I ship Percy and Hannah Abbot big time, my ship with Pippa is just something that ALWAYS makes me Feel big things whenever I’m writing something for them, and just our plot for them just makes it feel so Real as well, my other big ship on this blog is with Hope Mikaelson from Legacies because I had this idea of the two of them meeting, and the two of them essentially being the only one of their kind and bonding/falling for the other after leaning that about the other and yeah, it works Big Time. And, of course Percy and Sansa because we have Sansa forever fawning over Percy, not thinking he likes her like That, only to turn out-HE DOES. But also, I have PercyxKimiko, PercyxBeverly , PercyxElla, and a few other ships that are in development as well!

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?

Yes because otherwise I’m going to be sitting here like “DO THEY SHIP THEM?? CAN I ASK THEM???” and I’ll just be here Waiting for a response from my partner about it agkdslgksa. But yeah, there’ll be times where I’ll bring up the ship as well, too, just like “Soooo I kinda ship them??” and we’ll just go from there. 

ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS?

I’d say obsessed to an extent, because I just love writing relationships in general, but it doesn’t always have to be romantic though, I’m always up for exploring other dynamics for Percy because, the boy needs Other Friends, too, tbh. But I never want anybody to think I’m only writing with them JUST so I can ship with them, that’s never the case. 

ARE YOU MULTISHIP?

Absolutely! I admire people that can be single-ship or even no ship, more power to those people tbh. However even though I am multiship, I do have a main ship on my blog that takes place in my main verse, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not open to other ships on my blog.  

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?

Aside from Percabeth? Frank/Hazel for sure, liteally any Demigod with happiness because they deserve it 

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?

TELL ME YOU WANT TO, it’s that easy. Be like “Hey so wanna ship?” or even just “Would it be okay if I sent this meme??” just literally anything to start communication between us, because chances are, I’m already thinking about shipping them, too.

Tagged by:  @commandied Tagging: @wisdomblood @melnchly (any of your blogs tbh), @hiddensteel @shekindness @tribridprincxss, and YOU

[awed-frog]

in which caesar doesn’t do anything much and all the women are named julia

[Hi, this is me stanning Adrian Goldsworthy’s biography of Caesar. I studied Classics, but not this period, so all I can contribute here are squeals of delight, a few mistakes and the occasional witty comment. If you’d like to know more, please buy the book - it’s really good and a fun read.]

PART 2

The thing is - there’s a lot of boring relevant political stuff going on in this chapter, but I’m mostly fascinated by the glimpses we get into the world of Roman women. 

As I said, this is not really my area, so I know random, unconnected facts about how life was like for them; also it doesn’t make much sense to talk about ‘Roman women’, because, as a reminder, ‘Rome’ stretches from the 14th century BC to the 14th century AD, came to include dozens of very different regions, and obviously was home to an incredibly diverse population. And if we’re talking about the late Republican / imperial aristocracy, there’s a sharp divide anyway: on the one hand, the ‘ideal woman’ is the same old model we’re all used to and heard about (silent, obedient, virtuous, chaste, a perfect mother and so on), but on the other, Roman noblewomen had a lot more freedom than, say, their Greek counterparts, so there was usually some political scheming going on - something that in Greece was reserved to a handful of very well-placed courtesans. 

(In this sense, think about the contrast between Lucretia, the mythological wife of Collatinus, whose fridging created the Republic, and Agrippina, mother of Nero, empress and all-round badass bitch.)

Anyway, this chapter made me think about women because it starts with Caesar being born and getting his name - it’s sort of an urban legend, btw, that every single Roman had three names: that was just for the Moste Noblest - and how Goldsworthy casually mentions that, unlike men, women of noble birth would just take their family surname as first name. In Caesar’s family, for instance, all the women were named Julia.

(As a reminder: his given name was Caius, then ‘Julius’ identified the tribe, and finally ‘Caesar’ was a nickname that was possibly given to his grandfather for something elephant-related. 

People whose grandfathers did not do elephant-related stuff generally never enjoyed the prestige of a funny nickname passed down through the generations.)

So it’s bad enough that twins might be named ‘Peter and Not-Peter’ or ‘Peter and Twin’, but imagine going to the park with your buggy and meeting your old friend Oldest She-Jones (daughter of Ferdinand Jones), now married to George David Taylor, and her five kids - Louis David Taylor, She-Taylor, She-Taylor the Second, She-Taylor the Third and She-Taylor Born on Christmas. So damn cute, and also the reason why the Romans never developed smartphones or social media - how the hell are you supposed to find someone on Vultocodex when every single cousin and aunt has the exact same name?

Poor management, that is.

But anyway - as I said, there’s a dissonance here because women being treated like garbage (like, not given normal names and married off at fourteen) also led to the very peculiar phenomenon: generations of (male) politicians and VIPs being raised by very forceful, strong, and ambitious (widowed) mothers. Because if you count old age, wars, trampolining injuries (let’s be honest, men have always been obsessed with attempting dangerous stunts just for the fun of it) and the general risks of Roman politics, it was very usual for a noble kid to not even remember his father at all.

(Nero is a good example of how weird and all-consuming this boy-mother relationship could become - there’s entire books about it, but I’d point 16-and-over readers to Suetonius’ Life of Nero for details.

Keep in mind 95% of it is propaganda because Suetonius hated Nero, but still. HBO-worthy stuff in there.)

All this to say - we know that Caesar had a very close relationship with his mom (named ‘Aurelia’ because - you guessed it - she came from the Aurelii family), who was a near perfect figure of virtue, intelligence, beauty and common sense. Very powerful in her own right, Aurelia raised Caesar basically on her own, because her (much older) husband was either away at war or dead for most of their marriage.

Aside from drinking in Aurelia’s wisdom, Caesar’s education also included the normal lessons noble Roman boys were required to learn: self-worth, narcissism, delusional manias, rhetoric, martial arts, horse-riding, and writing really bad fanfiction based on Greek myths.

And now for the MEANWHILE part.

(I have no idea why this gif was tagged ‘meanwhile’, but I’m not enough of an idiot to let it go to waste, so.)

Meanwhile, all sort of messes were going on.

As I’m sure you remember, at some point the consul was Marius - Caesar’s uncle and a military genius, but not much of a politician. His negotiation tactic of choice was secretly inviting groups of unconnected people to his house on the same night, serving them dinner in two separate rooms so they wouldn’t see one another and try to work out some kind of agreement between them. Whenever a new point came up, Marius would say he had diarrhoea, pretend to run to the bathroom and instead sit down with the second group and see what they thought about the first group’s proposal.

(Isn’t ancient Rome magnificent?)

A big problem Marius had to deal with was how to grant citizenship to the allied tribes in Italy without pissing off current citizens. Basically no one wanted these other guys to be given new rights, but since they supplied more than half the soldiers of the Roman army and got nothing in return, their patience was running a bit thin. At some point, Roman bureaucrats started to erase foreign-born citizens from their lists claiming they were not actual citizens (something so openly dishonest NO OTHER GOVERNMENT would EVER attempt it again), and next yet another tribune working on a citizenship reform was stabbed to death in the street. 

So the allies went to war. 

(This war, confusingly, is known as the Social War, because ‘socius’ means ‘ally’ in Latin.)

As you can imagine, it was a disaster. Most of the allied communities had been part of the Roman republic for I don’t want to check but let’s say decades, they lived side by side with Roman families and fought in the same wars, so it was more of a civil war than anything else. Some tribes chose to remain faithful to Rome, others didn’t. Lots of people died.

Caesar was too young to be a soldier, but this was Cicero’s first taste of war (bet you never thought of that weaselly weasel as a soldier, uh? appearances can be deceiving, folks!). Marius was also involved, but since he was old as shit and had famously weak and leaky guts (hahahhaha), he mostly stayed out of active combat, which wasn’t all that normal for a Roman general. In the end, the whole of Italy, down to defeated tribes, cows, dogs and random patches of mossy rocks, was granted citizenship and everyone went home. Their votes, however, were inserted in the system in such a way that they didn’t count much. 

On the whole, the one winner of this war was Lucius Cornelius Sulla, one of the military commanders, who became a consul soon after.

Another war, because this is Rome and Romans were dicks, but! this one was in the East, which means every single soldier would get super rich and also! wars in the East were considered easy because *insert racist trope here* and! Sulla had been promised that, as the big winner of the Social War, he could go there with his legions and basically enjoy this Disneyland of golden cups and ultraviolence but! at the last moment, Marius, who never liked Sulla much, managed to snatch the commandership from him, which! was completely legal but also *insert outraged emoji* and wait for it! instead of going gentle into the good night, Sulla made a fiery speech to his soldiers all like GUESS WHAT FOLKS WE’RE STUCK HERE SCRATCHING OUR TESTICULI AND THOSE IDIOTS FROM THE 25TH ARE TAKING YOUR GOLD AND YOUR UNWILLING WOMEN and! Sulla’s entire army marched! on! the! city! of! Rome!

It was the first time a Roman army had ever invaded Rome. Nobody was expecting it, and people panicked. Sulla’s men won easily, burned down some buildings, killed some people, generally had a great time; and then Sulla announced a bounty for anyone who’d disembowel his political enemies (including Marius) because he didn’t have time to go to Braavos and learn how to do it himself (remember, he still had his war waiting for him in the East).

(This turned out to be a success, btw. One guy was even killed by his slave - Sulla gave him the promised reward, then shoved him off a mountain because duh, slave and “When I said ‘anyone’, I meant people, not IKEA furniture” and “Honestly”.)

As nobody could have imagined and/or predicted, as soon as Sulla left for Greece Weak Guts Marius came back with an army and took back the city, beheading his way to the Senate and leaving a trail of blood wherever he passed. As soon as he got there, however, he dropped dead - heart attack, trampolining, diarrhoea, who can tell - and the city was taken over by his second-in-command, Lucius Cornelius Cinna.

(Man, what a ride.)

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to know what Caesar was doing during this time.

Personally, I like to imagine him in Rome - a well-dressed, grey-eyed 15-year-old, freshly orphaned, horrified and exhilarated by the violence exploding all around him - I see him running down the streets, stopping to watch the corpses float in the dark waters of the Tiber, daring his friends to go and touch the severed heads nailed to the doors of the Senate; recognizing many of those heads as friends and colleagues of his father and uncle (passing a hesitant finger on the cold flesh, remembering how they’d once laughed and frowned and spoken about boring matters from the dais). 

The truth is, Caesar was just a kid. He was supposed to learn about the Republic, and his own role in making it great, by watching his elders. 

God knows what he actually learned, and what he thought, as he was passing through Rome’s paved streets, now shimmering with blood. 

PREVIOUS — NEXT

[writingwordsanddrawingpictures]

Worldbuilding - MQTA

MQTA being my WIP “More Questions Than Answers”.

Okay, as promised this is going to be about the ‘structure’ of the supernatural / ‘deity’ world that this WIP (and potentially others - I haven’t decided yet) is set in. I’ll apologise for the areas that have gaps in them, but as I said previously I’ve only just rediscovered this in an old notebook, so it does need some more work doing on it. There should be enough here to give you a good flavour of what’s going on.

Also, I use the term “Pantheon” as a descriptor for this hierarchy. This is not designed to be a direct re-working of the Greek mythology Pantheon, I’m using it as a placeholder description - you won’t see the names of Greek gods / goddesses being used within this.

Details follow underneath the cut (as it’s fairly long and I’ve now discovered how to insert a cut!)

The above is a rough outline of how each of the different categories are related to each other. I’ll deal with each of them below:

* The Ancients: Akin to the ‘Elder Gods’ from the Cthulhu Mythos. Not actually gods, but supremely powerful beings who have existed for eons. Mostly in hibernation, awaiting ‘something’.

* Servitors: This is an umbrella term that covers ‘lesser’ servant races. They’re generally blunt tools to do a simple job. Some races may have more talents than others.

* The Illustrated: Also known as the tattooed ones. They’re not really referenced in common tomes. Living, breathing tomes of lore and more. They’re targets for everyone. This trait is encoded into human (and possibly other races’) DNA. There will usually be a set number of them in existence (5, I think) at any one time. Chosen who also have this trait will ‘inherit’ the tattoos of any Illustrated that dies unnaturally.

* The Elders: These are a variety of races / creatures that are similar to the Great Old Ones (Cthulhu, et al from the Mythos).

* The Ascended: Powerful creatures created / designed by the Ancients. They are looking for signs that they can start to awaken their creators with purpose.

* The Awakened: Humans (or other races) who are supremely talented in one or more ways. There is a relationship with Walkers and Pathfinders (e.g. they can sometimes cross rifts in the multiverse), but the Ascended are interested in them for their talents.

* The Chosen: Those with multiple talents, even a combination of Awakened and Enlightened (possibly Illustrated as well). They are extremely dangerous and rare. Multiple meanings are attached to these by cults.

* The Enlightened: Highly talented / powered sorcerers - either from birth or through training / progression.

* The Fallen: Every Mythos / religion has its ‘evil’ element. Created by accident, not design (unlike the Ascended).

* The Tormented: Meta-humans who are being ‘punished’ for some reason. They are used as unreliable tools, given their status as mistakes. Vampires, Werewolves, etc would fall into this category.

* The Abandoned: Mostly psychotic or sociopathic, but they are completely lucid when it comes to their abilities. A rough equivalent to the Chosen, but with a potential combination from Benighted and Tormented (and Illustrated).

* The Benighted: As in - lacking morals (to the extreme). A rough equivalent to the Enlightened.

* The Walkers: Slightly outside of the rest of the hierarchy, but they can be bound. While they are amoral (as we see it) they don’t deliberately do harm. They’re essentially explorers of the multiverse.

* Pathfinders: Able to navigate the multiverse and to act as a beacon. This can be a passive or active ability. They also see things as they really are (can see through glamours / illusions). They are solely related to the Walkers and not the rest of the Pantheon.

The good / evil split between Ascended and Fallen (and below) has been put in place by humans. In reality there is no such split. One side view humanity as tools to be used as they see fit and the other as playthings to be used and abused. Chosen and Abandoned are rare - those with all 3 ability types are rarer still (Chosen = Enlightened + Awakened + Illustrated; Abandoned = Tormented + Benighted + Illustrated).

The amount of power, etc. required to contact / summon Ascended / Elders / Ancients is exponentially increased. Modern communication represents a real danger of a successful Elder / Ancient contact / summoning (e-mails, mobiles, skype, etc. can be used to perform ‘virtual’ or distributed rituals).

Sacrifice - The transformation of energy from one form to another, i.e. using it to summon something, is a low-tech solution for a previously high-tech process. Methods available at the time that those who left the knowledge were last here can be achieved without an actual human (or other sentient being) if a suitable energy source is available (generator, power plant, etc.)

There are two potential parallels for the Pantheon:

1.

* Ancients = Primeval / Ancient Gods (almost like broad concepts, e.g. Earth, Love, Chaos, etc.) * Elders = Titans (from Greek mythology) * Fallen / Ascended = Olympians (again, from Greek mythology)

2.

* Ancients -> Gods * Elders -> Demi-Gods * Fallen -> Demons * Ascended -> Angels This isn’t an exact match, but for example a liquid-dwelling creature that has power over liquids could equate to the Poseidon / Neptune of mythology.

Myths and legends must be based on something, however corrupted it’s got, so why not creatures from the stars / other dimensions?

I’ve not yet decided if other fantasy creatures (fae, etc.) will be a part of this, but it’s a distinct possibility. I have a feeling that this is going to grow and develop as the story (and, hopefully, sequels) progresses.

Tagging: @therska, @bookishdiplodocus, @elaynab-writing, @kiramartinauthor, @themerrywriter, @siarven, @adie-dee, @sad-witchy-writeblr, @goddessofnothingatall, @cawolters, @esoteric-eclectic-eccentric, @stephrawlingwrites, @fukusigma, @alixismad, @lillayalightfoot, @theimportanceofbeingbookish, @seadrianwrites, @writewritewriteblr, @bexminx, @queenie-dragon

As always, if you have any comments or want to be added to / removed from the tag list, please let me know via Comment / Ask / PM / DM.

[journeysintowebcomics]

Stand Still Stay Silent Liveblog #61

UPDATE 61: Defense Preparations

Last time it was agreed it was time to leave and return home. There’s not even a bit of time to rest because Lalli alerts them ghosts are nearby, so it’s now time to run away. Onwards!

But first! It’s a family tree. Look at that! It’s fun stuff. Let’s take a look bit by bit.

There’s Trond here, the son of the flatteringly-described Ingrid ‘Low Effort Hippie’ Pedersen. I remember how I laughed when I saw that as the very first introduction in this story. Quite a thing, that was. So yeah, Trond is old as heck. He’s only one generation after Year Zero. Compared to everyone else in this story, he’s an antique! I wonder if he grew up seeing the world collapse or if when he was born everything was ruined already.

Kitty came out of nowhere, as you can see. It formed from the dew of the forest and the blood of slain trolls, like right out of a Greek mythology tale. Hah! Okay, not really. Kitty’s mom was feral, wasn’t she? She sure didn’t react well when Sigrun came to help. That cat may have never seen  any humans ever in her life.

These characters have middle names, goodness! So, Sigrun Eide the First is up there, having married Good Grandson Aksel. Three generations later, Sigrun Eide the second existed. I notice Sigrun’s second name is her mom’s. Something about the entire name Sigrun Solveig Eide sounds so nice, I like the sound of this a lot.

Hah! How nice of Michael and Signe, naming their son after their cat. Maybe I’m a bit of a sap, but I’m thinking it was because the cat sparked the first conversation they had. It’s kind of a sweet way to commemorate it. From there on, the tradition of giving M names to their children continued until present times. There’s Mikkel’s many siblings, just like he had said. No wonder he said he recognized Tuuri’s attempt to manipulate him, hah! Mikkel’s middle name is Henrik because no child of the Madsen family will be named by any letter other than M.

Before I started reading this webcomic I thought everyone in the Nordic countries followed the custom of last names being your father with ‘son’ added onto the end. Looks like that happens only in Iceland. Everywhere else they follow the tradition of adoption your spouse’s last name. Can’t say here where I live we do that, I have two last names. The thought of having only one last name is strange to me. Also, Ragnar over there looks intense, can you believe he’s the timid Árni’s son?

As Tuuri once said, Taru is family! Distantly related, but family. She’s the granddaughter of crazy pair Eino and Tuuli. In fact, she’s the daughter of the kid back then. Veeti’s grown-up face reminds me of Emil somehow. Must be the shape of the hair.

Kaino Hotakainen had no children nor spouse. I want to think she just wanted to live alone, instead of the possibility she...she died. Gotta stay positive.

There are the Hotakainens. Looks like at some point there were twins. From one came Lalli, from the other Onni and Tuuri. Also, I notice in Finland siblings tend to have some rather...similar names? Is that common? Look at that, there’s Eino, Kaino and Aino, and theeeen there’s Jukka and Juha, and then...well, Tuuri and Onni don’t seem to share similarities in their names. Worth noting Tuuri has Kaino’s name while Lalli has Saku’s. Guess Lalli inherited from Saku more than the propensity to getting sick on vehicles!

I wonder if the reason why Mia Vasterstrom didn’t take her husband’s last name is because some guy named Emil Svensson would be harder to tie to the characters introduced during the prologue chapter. To compensate, Emil was given that guy’s first name. Also, I have to wonder if Torbjorn once grabbed the cat and thought ‘ah, yes, mom said she once had pets. Misse and Bosse. I’ll name this cat Misse in honor of the cat—oh, wait, this is a male cat. Guess a dog’s name is good enough’.

Heh, overall I really like this page. Family tree with nice art! But it’s time for the story to continue, with a nice and shiny chapter opening page.

Chapter Thirteen, featuring Sleipnope the ghost horse, here depicted as a golden ghost. Significant in any manner because it’s colored gold instead of using the very pale blue normally used?

The crew is driving through the forest, looking for a better place to make their stand. They’ll want a place without trees to burn if Emil decides to use his incendiary skills, yeah? Sigrun stays calm and points at a field. That’ll be their battlefield. A good spot is obtained, inside Lalli and Reynir sit around to wait what they have to do, perhaps? Sigrun, Mikkel and Emil are ready to go ioutside, Mikkel is given a gun in what’s a risky move. Last time Mikkel was in a fight he almost broke Emil’s leg, so our dear Swedish better stay on the opposite side to avoid any unfortunate accidents.

Suddenly dog! Isn’t that Reynir’s dog?

It was a sudden transition to the dreamworld, where the dog searches for Onni and seems to be the way for Reynir to communicate with Onni even though one mage is awake and the other...possibly is awake too? Reynir omits the part where he asks if Onni remembers him and tells him they’re all in trouble and their defenses may not be enough. Onni’s help will be good if the ghosts reach them – which they most likely will. The dog fades away, possibly because Lalli just yanked him to drag him outside.

Looks like Emil and Sigrun are making a campfire over there. Sigrun must have a plan, hm! Not too far away, Lalli gives Reynir a stick and gestures on the ground. He wants him to draw.

Draw the rune. It burst on fire when the ghosts were nearby, with some ghosts it’ll happen again and incinerate trolls who try to attack. Well, if they’re lucky, that is. But still! It’s worth a try, and I don’t think the fire will spread, so it should be safe too.

Time is passing. It’s almost nighttime, they have done all they can to prepare. Did Reynir draw his rune on fire before Mikkel took him back inside the tank? I hope so. For now, it’s time for everyone to assume battle positions.

Okay, it’s drawn several times, I’m glad. If they had more time, maybe Reynir could have done that in a circle around the tank, for a wall of fire that can repel them from all possible points. No time for that, so...only in this area. I hope it’ll go well – geez, I’m kind of nervous!

Having finished the defensive plans they were able to make, everybody who is immune gathers on top of the tank, waiting for the darkness to come. It’ll be a few nervewracking hours. I bet even Tuuri and Reynir inside the tank will be afraid all the time, even though they’ll be safer than the rest.

They arrived.

Next time.

Next time: in four updates

[tyrwinthyr]

Episode 1, part 2

Sheila shivered in the thin police issue blanket she’d been given.

“Here,” the officer had said, tossing it at her. “You’ll catch a cold in that belt of a dress you’re wearing.”  He’d left her uncuffed in an interview room with one large mirror across a wall, and another smaller mirror on the far side of the room. The smaller of the two was obviously old; some of the silvering having flaked off at the corners.  Mirrors like that, backed with real silver, had made a comeback since the Fae were exposed.

It was a while before anyone else entered the room, long enough to make her drowsy.  She knew better than to fall asleep.  Criminal justice classes in college had said plainly that sleeping meant guilt.  An innocent woman doesn’t rest easy in prison, however, so she refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing her relax.

So she paced, blanket pulled tightly around her shoulders. When the officer – no, detective, he wore a suit -- opened the door, she almost breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn’t forgotten her or thrown away the key. A swift step took her over to drop into the chair while she assessed the man.

He was a tall human, salt and peppered, dressed in an older blue suit.  Maybe he’d been a lady’s man in his youth, with blue eyes, thick chin and dark hair, but now he seemed worn.  There was strain around the eyes, a tightness at the temple: his soul was as threadbare as his suit.

When he glanced into the older mirror, Sheila couldn’t help her smirk. Humans.

“Protocol,” he acknowledged, sitting across from her. “Liminals can’t use glamour… better safe than sorry, though.”  Her spine stiffened at the words.  That wasn’t ‘human’ knowledge.

“Lieutenant Zbrozek, Bureau of Nonhuman Crimes,” he continued, settling some folders in front of him.  Sheila had always known the agency as ‘BoNC,’ but also knew full well to say ‘BNC’ in front of them.  She’d been interviewed by plenty of them, as well as other branches the same organization. Not a one had a sense of humor about their name.

“I hadn’t expected the BNC to get involved in something so small,” she admitted, watching his face intently.  

“An assault in a public place by one of you is usually pretty cut and dry, yeah,” he said, removing a bit of paperwork from a folder. “You’ll be CCC’d, and that would be that.”  Sheila flinched at the reminder of her fate.  After the war, the human army had dreamed up a quick way to deal with Fae.  First was the tranquilizer, followed by iron nails in their ears and not-so-surgical removal of anything that looked like a weapon (horns, tails, claws, etc), then finally a box for transportation.  Captured, Clipped, Carted.  Sheila had a picture in her purse of a clipped faun.  Looking at his broken horns, shattered hooves and sliced ears reminded her she was fighting the good fight.

“Am I going to the guillotine?” she said, trying her best to mimic the chill she is running beneath her skin.

“Standard issue dehorner… eh,” the man shrugged, reading whatever was on the paper in front of him. “Seems unnecessary.  The crowd outside insists you were defending yourself, going so far as comparing grabbing your horns to consent violations.”

“Who…” she started, wondering who might be speaking up for her.  When the police were taking her away, she remembered seeing many of the club’s inhabitants speaking angrily to them.  At the time, she thought they were just adding fuel to her pyre.

“Guy trying to post your bail said it was essentially rape.”

Sheila wondered a moment about that.  Gaspar knew from previous interactions that bail would never be set, not for someone who could ‘walk’ anywhere she wished.

The lieutenant looked up from the paper, “Not going to go with that excuse?” He asked with an eyebrow raised quizzically.

“I work in human/Fae relations,” she explained, keeping her voice as close to level as possible. “I know the laws.”

“Then you knew butting him was a bad idea.”

She chewed her lip a moment, collecting her thoughts before answering. When she did, it was on a sigh. “Some guy grabs your dick in a bar.  You hit him, or do you worry about the law?”

That earned a smile from the detective, however short-lived. He slid the paper he was reading back in with the others, piled up the folders and pushed them to the side.

“Your father is an important Fae,” he said, licking a finger to try and clean an ink smudge from his jacket sleeve. “You don’t look like a hart, though… and definitely not a Whitehart.”  Looking up at her, he tapped the files with his ring finger. “That part isn’t in my files.”

“My mother was a fau… satyr,” she replied, correcting quickly. Lying here wouldn’t go over well. “All Fae babies are the species of their mother.  We retain some traits of our father, of course.” Other liminals, beings who combined the form of two or more different animals, would have been sent to live with their mother’s kin. No such luck for the Whitehart’s daughter.

“Ah,” he said, nodding thoughtfully. “That explains that bit.  Did your father pass down his ability?  Are you a trod walker?”  Her face drew taut, closing off from the conversation, until he held up a hand. “I’m bound.  Enchanted, actually.  Your secrets are safe.”

That explained the bit with the mirror earlier, so she relaxed a little. It was a little like her relationship with Gaspar. She had never gone so far as enchanting him though.  It was bad enough he was saddled with her secrets. She wasn’t going to expose him to the invisibles as well.

“Yes,” she replied, glancing over at the silvered mirror. “Only good thing I’ve ever gotten from the bastard.” She left out the remainder of her birthright: humiliation, anxiety, depression, and a centuries old curse.

“You could have walked out at any time, then,” he said, withdrawing a silver pen, deliberately letting her see him place it on her file. “Why are you still here?”

“It’s true,” Sheila took her hands off the table, placing them in her lap. “I could have opened a trod to anywhere, but… if you can’t control us, you put us down, right?” She caught his eye as she said that, her own green unblinking. “Besides,” she relaxed into her chair, if only a little. “Escaping would make me guilty of something I shouldn’t even be blamed for. If it was one of you people, we’d be discussing community service and a fine.”

He didn’t argue, and that endeared him to her. Slightly. “You people.” He shook his head, bemused, “Ten years ago that term meant something very different, but the intent was just the same.”

When she didn’t respond, he leaned back in the chair, one knee over the other.  He folded his fingers behind his neck, head tipped to look up at the fluorescent lights above.

“When I was growing up, Greek mythology was my favorite. Not the gods, mind you, but the grittier stuff.  Heracles crushing the Nemean lion with his bare hands.  Perseus duking it out with Calibos.  Nymphs and satyrs at a bacchanal, up to all sorts of shenanigans…” He paused there and looked back down at the satyr in front of him, expression wistful. “If you told me then that I’d ever be sitting across from one, I’d have called you crazy.”

Sheila tilted her head to the side, as if seeing him from a new angle would help her understand the point.

“Sorry, waxing lame.”

“It’s okay,” she said, trying to smile, but not doing it well. “I liked those tales too, of…”

“I can’t let you go,” he cut her off sharply.

“What?” she said, blinking.

“You can’t go back to your old life, either.  The BNC are required by law to report any aberrant behavior to your employer, as well as your landlord.”

Pulling her legs up under the blanket, she nodded glumly in agreement.  She’d thought herself ready for whatever was going to happen. But hearing it said out loud so plainly was so much more startling than simply understanding it. Under the blanket she tugged the edges of her dress, trying to make it longer, wishing she had worn some leggings.

“Best you can hope for is iron nails and cages with no doors. Since that would take a lot of work, they’ll probably just execute you.”

Glare as she might, it was hard to hide the tremble of her lips.  Did he have to be so blunt?

“Though…” he uncrossed his legs, leaning forward conspiratorially. “I have a better option for you.” He let the anticipation build before he finished: “You could come work for me.”

Sheila had seen enough television to recognize the emotional roller coaster ride he was putting her through to get the answer he wanted. But that knowledge didn’t prevent her from blinking stupidly at him.

“Wh… what?” she sputtered.  

“Your father suggested it, as an alternative.” The lieutenant offered a printed email to her, which she didn’t take.  She did lean forward to read it, though.  It was a letter to Julien Golder, a carefully written missive advising the reader that Sheila Whitehart would work for the BNC. If this magical thing didn’t happen, even though the family had supported the agency for years, such support would no longer be forthcoming.

“Of course, he did,” she muttered at last, unable to prevent a partial sneer from coloring the words.  Obviously, her father supported the same agency that helped keep her people down.  Somehow, she had always known he’d be a traitor to his own kind.

“Look, you don’t have much of a choice here.” Zbrozek leaned forward, quieter now. “You think I like supporting an organization that treats my ancestors worse than animals?  We can do good from inside, make changes.  There are real issues to deal with, and I’d like your help.”

The sneer turned into a smirking glower; she had to turn it on someone and her father wasn’t there. “What help could I give you?  Go buy a pooka. At least you know they have to help you.”

The detective immediately went to the door to say a few words to someone outside, who then walked in.   Another man, of sorts, took up a position holding up the wall with his hands behind his back.

Sheila’s confusion was quite plain as she examined the man. He was a pooka, possibly some sort of weasel.  It was there in the nose, whiskers and black eyes of his animal form, all visible even while parading around as a man.  Instead of hair, he had short, dark fur, complete with rounded animal ears on top. She’d spotted more of it on his knuckles before he’d placed them behind his back.  A long furry tail slashed in irritation against the wall.  Wearing a standard issue blue suit like the detective made him look even more out of place.

“Great, see?  You already own a Fae.  What do you need me for?” The question was irritated, agitated, offered through gritted teeth.

“I don’t own him,” the lieutenant replied, seating himself once more.

“No one owns me,” the pooka chimed in, tail thrashing more severely now.  Sheila examined him closer, and he held out his hands to her for proof. He was the first pooka she’d seen without the fancy bracelet they always wore, the one that bound them fully to their owner.

“Whipple earned his freedom in service to the Bureau.”

Sheila turned back to blink in disbelief at the detective. All her experience with BONC was the bad kind.  As the strong arm of the Department of Nonhuman Affairs, they were the face the Fae saw when something went wrong.  Pay your rent late, BONC is called.  Bump into the wrong human, BONC arrests you.  Too ugly a race to be in a fancy restaurant, BONC is waiting for you at your table.

“No matter what you think of us, I am here to save your life,” he continued, one hand held out, palm up, an imaginary olive branch in the center.

“Why, then?” she demanded, dropping her hooves down to the floor in a clatter. “Why save me?”

“He thinks satyrs are sexy,” the pooka teased, flashing a set of extremely long fangs before going back to his brooding.

“Stop it, not helping,” the man scolded, lips drawn thin. “I could say something like that, sure.  I find your kind fascinating, and the beings I work with now aren’t quite my type.”  He tried to smile, to make it a joke, but she gave him nothing, so he continued on. “I could say that we liked your work at human/Fae relations… but I’ll be honest with you, your correspondence looked like it was written by a teenager.”  That didn’t crack her, either, though it did get a slow blink.

“Fine,” he threw up his hands. “Fine, fine… I need someone working with me that can manipulate the trods.”

That at least made sense. There were very few trodwalkers.  Her direct family, some scattered cousins, and a handful of other liminals… but that was it.  That an organization like the BNC needed one was believable.

“Must be hard trying to haul in fugitives who can simply walk through a door to anywhere in the world,” she allowed after a moment.

“Unbelievably hard,” he admitted. “There are other matters around them, of course… but, there it is, cards on the table.”

“Thank you for being honest with me.  You could have led with that.  Trying to terrify me was way out of line.”

“You know what?” he asked, “You’re right.  I apologize.  When I read your file, I thought you’d be a hard ass like your father.”

That got a quick snort out of the satyr, and a hissing chuckle out of the pooka.  After casting a glare at the weasel, she returned to the topic at hand. “So, say I agree. What happens then?”

“You’d be given your freedom,” he started, shuffling through papers to find a drawn-up agreement.  Behind his back, Whipple began to weave back and forth like a furry metronome, “You’ll get room and board, a modest salary, and amazingly rewarding work.”

Sheila reached for the papers he offered. “What’s the subtext? The fine print?”

“An oath of constraint.”  The instinctual reaction to push the pages back towards him was stopped by his hand. “I have to prove you’ll stick around.  They wanted bindings, or a greater pact, but I want you to work for me willingly.”  He sighed in relief as she took the contract back. “They won’t approve your release without it.”

In her head, she began organizing the pros and cons.

Cons: Working for an organization that was holding her people down.  If she agreed to this, she’d be a quisling.  Plus an oath of constraint meant staying within a certain distance of Zbrozek. She wasn’t sure she liked him yet. He was on the same side as her father, apparently. Doing this would put her there too, and even further in his debt.

Pros: Not being CCC’d, or put down.  Possibly being able to work from the inside to change things. Then there was not being CCC’d or put down.  Not having to deal with Karen.  ‘Amazingly rewarding work.’  Oh, yeah, also… not being CCC’d or put down.

“Where do I sign?”

 “Whip,” was the first word the pooka uttered once they left the police station.  It had all gone by so quickly after she had signed the paperwork.  Lieutenant Zbrozek ushered her out of the building without handcuffs, flashing his magenta BNC badge at anyone who tried to stop them. After a short ride through town to a warehouse off the train tracks near I25, Sheila found herself in her new home.

“Pardon?” she asked as she walked around the small room. There were quite a few of these interior spaces -- some big enough to be buildings of their own! -- inside the warehouse. Other recruits, willing or otherwise?

“No one calls me Whipple,” he sniffed a bit. “Except for my brother.”

She didn’t respond right away. She was busy exploring the painted concrete that made up the side of the room.  It was still a little tacky, but not enough to leave her fingertips the same beige color as the paint.

“So, you’re Zbrozek’s whip?” she asked at last, looking back at him.  He showed her his sharp teeth again, hissing a mockery of a laugh.

“Very funny.  No, like… fast, boom!” he clapped his hands together. The sound echoed like a shot against the concrete walls. “Like that.  You were supposed to ask me about my brother.”

“Oh.” The satyr drifted to the other side of the room. Away from him, the way one does when confronted with the insane, “What about your brother?”

“He’s dead, okay!  They’re all dead!  Can I go now!”

Sheila brought her hands up in front of her when he started shouting.  She was sure he was faster than she was, but if she could hold him off long enough, surely the Lieutenant would come running.  For his part, Whip looked disappointed.

“Oh, man, surely you know that one?” His nose twitched a bit as he scratched between his ears. “Right? Aliens? The little girl?” When she shook her head, he made a sort of ‘heef’ noise across his tongue. “Damn.  I was hoping you weren’t a norm, but…” he indicated her with both hands. “There you are, right?”

In all her life, she could not remember ever having been called ‘normal.’  Outrage rose, her mouth opened… the door opened.  The lieutenant came in, followed very closely by an Asian girl.  It wasn’t until that moment that Sheila realized just how tall he really was.  The girl looked tiny compared to him, a delicate flower following a mountain.

She was pretty, the girl, with a round face and wide eyes.  She made no attempt to hide the fact she was staring, so Sheila didn’t bother to look away either.  The girl’s hair was long and straight, hanging to the waist of the flowered summer dress she wore.  It made her seem even younger, an impression finshed by bare feet.  Tucked under her arm was an Alienware laptop, shiny and chrome, with a Guy Fawkes sticker on one corner. She stepped up onto the table in the middle of the room.  Like some tiny youthful zen monk, she folded her legs together, right there on the edge of the table, and proceeded to open her laptop.

“This is Fei, our IT guru,” Zbrozek introduced, seating himself in a chair.  When the girl looked up, closer now that Sheila was moving to join them there, her eyes were the grey of storm clouds, “Hmmm… what should we call you?” The laptop stole her attention back again.

Fully seated, the satyr startled a bit, “Um, why not by my name?”

“We could do that,” Fei cut in, not looking up from her typing.  Her voice seemed as delicate as the rest of her, melodic, a tone or two away from a sing-song chant. “If you don’t mind the Toothy Day interfering with your life.”

After thinking about it a moment, Sheila asked, “You mean the Tua…”

“Ah! No!  Bad satyr!” the younger girl scolded, shaking a finger without once looking up. “We do not say their names, what they are… they are the Namers, so we don’t risk it.”  Everyone knew the Tuatha De’, the lords of the Fae, were strong, but it hadn’t occurred to Sheila to worry how strong.

“They who must not be named,” intoned Whip, who caught a glare from Fei for it.

“No.  This is not some fantasy high school, and it is not a joking matter.”  With that, she went back to angrily clicking buttons on her laptop.

The lieutenant cleared his throat to get their attention. “We need to give you a code name, for our protection as well as yours.”

“Red,” the pooka offered immediately. “That’s my vote, because, well… she is.”  Sheila couldn’t deny it while she was wearing the same red dress as the night before. Still…

“No.”

“Rojo,” he said, baring his sharp teeth at her in what passed for a grin.

“No.”

“Vermelho.”

“I don’t even know what that means!” She was losing the last shreds of her patience with him.

“It means red.”

“Then no!” Sheila’s voice was almost a shout. Close enough that Fei looked up from her screen.

“Okay, let’s… let’s think about this and come back to it,” interjected the Lieutenant. “It’s been a long night for some of us, so… let’s just call you Red for now, okay? We’ll come up with something better, I promise.”

“Seriously?” Sheila almost barked, then threw her hands up. “Fine, fine… whatever.”

“I’m going to call her ‘Rouge,’” quipped Whip, receiving a glare from all three of them.  “What… it’s like a cooler spelling of ‘rogue,’ but it means red.”

“Stop that,” Zbrozek rubbed his head a bit, hair ruffled in the motion. “God help me, there are two more of you coming today.”

“Wait… more of you?” Sheila asked, motioning towards Fei. “So, she’s Folk?  What are you?”

“I’m an IT specialist.” Fei clearly had that response prepared, not even bothering to hide the smirk that came with it.  Going around the room, she pointed at each of them in turn, “He’s the boss, he’s the muscle, and that would make you…” she leaned forward, looking down at the satyr’s barely-there dress. “The streetwalker.”

Sheila stood up, the chair falling backwards behind her. The earlier outrage with Whip kindled into fury; the tips of her ears turned red as she fought to keep control. She could see Zbrozek’s hands raising slowly in her peripheral vision, no doubt remembering what she’d done to the guy at the bar.  A shuddering breath came in… then out again. Instead of charging forward, she stepped away from the table.

“I obviously need some breakfast, and some sleep. Usually, I wouldn’t let half pint sake here get to me.” She ignored the quick offended exhale from Fei, looking down at the human in the room, “Can we do this later?”

After a moment of consideration, he nodded and stood up.  

“Okay… I should probably debrief you all at once anyway. I was hoping to find some sort of common ground for the three of you.” He looked from one to the other. Only Sheila showed any sign of contrition. “So, we’ll pick this up this afternoon.”

As they walked away, Fei called after them, “By the way, Paddy McFire Crotch, I’m Chinese, not Japanese.  Sake tastes like piss!”

As the lieutenant quickly closed the door, she could hear Whip’s barking laughter.  It sounded so wheezy it was funnier than it was mocking, and Sheila found herself smiling a little.

“Paddy McFire Crotch better not become my handle,” she grunted at Zbrozek, smiling a little.  Despite the last 12 hours, or perhaps because of it, she found herself laughing with the man as he showed her to her room.