#and it made me love galatea so much more too

[brabblesblog]

As if the gods made you to ruin me.

A little love letter for everyone who makes art for this vampire man.

Inspired by the Greek myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. First person POV. A sculptor confronts a piece of marble, and Astarion is their masterpiece. One-shot.

The idea of statues "breaking free" from the marble is taken from Michelangelo. This can be better seen in his Prisoners.

@spacebarbarianweird mentioned Pygmalion today, and this idea came to me.

Read on AO3.

P.S. If my writing is something you're interested in, please consider my masterlist. I highly recommend beginning with the 'Whither' series. Thank you<3

The finest, purest white marble. I stare at it, unsure, trying to parse out the figure trapped in the block for me to release. An elf, I think, my hands reaching out in front of me, imagining where the curves would be. Curls, long and growing over his ears. A sharp jaw, strong and yet delicate.

I pick up my tools, and begin my work.

It’s almost as if I’m not in control of my creation. My hands work of their own accord, carving in features that genuinely surprise me and were probably not what I would have preferred, but the longer I look, the more it seems right.

It has deep, piercing eyes, with crow’s feet. I find myself staring at it at times during breaks. It looks like it’s trying to escape its stony prison, emerging from the formless block. Its expression is poignant, as if it was lost in thought.

Smile lines? I draw backwards and away from the sculpture, frowning myself. It gave the man a look of maturity even though it was youthful. Together with the smile lines and the subtle wrinkles on its face, it seemed as if the man had lived a harrowing life before being trapped in the rock for me to uncover.

And yet, it was beautiful. There was something ethereal in the way it gazed out into space and pondered nothing.

I keep up the work. I feel myself slowly getting absorbed by it. The compulsion to keep going is overwhelming, and unlike any other. I don’t eat other than the bare minimum. I don’t leave my room unless necessary. I don’t think of much else other than what part of him to carve next.

It - no - he consumes my thoughts. In the day I carve and release him from his marble prison. At night I dream of him. Of his face, of his delicate hands, of his lithe body. I dream, I wish, and I long.

He is my finest work, the star amongst my oeuvre. My patrons are forgotten, their commissions delayed. Their ire is nothing to me. There is only him.

Astarion.

The name, his name, comes to me in a fever dream. He reaches out to me, and I ask him what he would want to be called.

A frown crosses those features, and I want more than anything to press my lips to his forehead and smooth the furrows on his brow. I watch him open his mouth, and it surprises me to see fangs.

“Astarion,” he says, and his voice catches me by surprise. There is a slight nasal timbre to it, and a drawl, almost a purr, at the end.

I snap awake, staring at the marble statue. He is looking at a spot about a meter away from where I am right now, the moonlight streaming through the window illuminating his ivory skin.

Ivory. Color. I remember now. His eyes were crimson, his hair white as snow. Features I had never imagined, the medium of my work limiting me from even considering anything regarding complexion. However, the stone was a close match to his skin in my dreams - a white so smooth it was almost pearlescent.

A vampire, I realize, as I remember one more thing: the scars on his neck. I pick up my chisel and walk over to the marble, my hands searching for the spot I remember from my dreams.

I carve, and it is perfect.

I wonder who he is, and what he’s done in his life. I am almost done freeing him, the stone block now only at his knees. I work on his genitals, shaping them as best as I can. I carve out a vein, which I would imagine to be of a bluish tint.

His body is beautiful, and I step back to admire it. Muscular, but not too large. Delicate, long limbs, the marble’s natural veins adding to the illusion of an actual circulatory system. Fingers that would make a pianist weep. Strong legs, with subtle thigh musculature.

He is full of contradictions. Masculine, and yet feminine, his hands on the delicate tilt of his hips. Youthful, and yet his face belies a strange maturity and melancholy. So real to me, and yet here he is, just the work of my hands and my overactive imagination.

I am enthralled.

I do not put him on display once he is done. I don’t sell him. He stays in my room, taking up valuable working space. I do not care.

He is my muse. I talk to him, argue with him, ask him for his thoughts. There is no response, no more dreams.

I weep. I mourn for something that never was. I seek company in lonely taverns, for warm bodies to lose myself in. It is never enough. It is not even close.

I cover him in a sheet. I don’t want to see him, to be reminded of what I so desperately need and can never have.

I try, so damn hard, to forget.

“You ruined my life!” I scream to no one in particular, to him. I am unable to work, my patrons having moved on to more productive artists. I want to throw my chisels at him, to topple him over and ruin him, as he had ruined me. But I cannot.

I rip off the sheets, staring at that face that had burrowed so deeply into my psyche, and I give in and move to press my lips against it. I close my eyes.

The lips that meet mine are cold - but not stone-cold - and soft. I feel hands move to wrap around my waist, tugging me close. I instinctively move my hands up over his head, and feel hair against my fingers - curly, fine strands that flow against my fingers like silk.

A very good illusion from my mind, I gather. As I pull away I force my eyes to open. Crimson ones meet me, and those smile lines crinkle as he grins.

“Hello, darling,” he breathes.

Taglist: @elora-the-slutty-songstress @tragedybunny @spacebarbarianweird @ayselluna @enterthedreams @coltaire@qiific3 @misscrissfemmefatale @vixstarria @eatyourheartoutmylove @linllewellyn @battisonsgf @micropoe10 @thegoodwitchs-blog @akirahime @velcyrptrr @i-cant-get-into-my-other-account @babblebrain-blog @asterordinary @last-but-not-the-least @artist4theworld

[kairos-polaris]

Beloved, why do you ship jonelias? Why do they consume your waking thoughts so?

I am glad you asked :D

So! I really enjoy uneven "problematic" power dynamics and this was what originally attracted me to jonelias. I listened to mag 92 and thought "jonelias seems like something I would ship" because even then I could tell they fit my taste. I also just like protagonist/antagonist ships, complicated relationships are my favourites

mag 92 is one of my favourite episodes as a jonelias shippers for a couple of reasons. at first it was solely the conversation between Jon and Elias and how it was about Jon getting changed by Elias, because of Elias. Jon was being openly vulnerable! "Am I still human, Elias?" he asks Elias who has just confessed to murder and keeping people hostage. Jon, who had so much respect and admiration for Elias' expertise, turns to him even in that moment. It is Elias who he seeks reassurance from, he asks another monster if he is one

Another aspect of mag 92 I am obsessed with is the opening statement and the way Elias puts Jon above everyone else (telling him to discard everyone in his pursuit) while also placing Jon on the same level as him

(Side note: I am still not sure if I prefer Jon to sit on Elias' lap/have Elias clean his wound or to focus more on what they don't do, on the gaping distance between them that they both wish wasn't there but both have their own reasons to not bridge it. Both are so good)

Vampire metaphor! Jon is a walking vampire metaphor and Elias is his maker, his creator. I am so obsessed with the idea of Jon feeding on Elias, pulling fear from his mind and Elias enjoying the intrusion and the freedom the compulsion brings. He said it felt tingly! Freak (affectionate). Also, telepathy and mind meld is so delicious

What I love most about jonelias is what I love in others ships: obsession and fully knowing each other. Beholding allows to take knowing and seeing your partner to another level, Jon and Elias can know and see each other in ways other people in their lives can't

Moral corruption is inherently fascinating to me and especially Jon. He gets worse throughout the series, his only anchors to humanity are his own guilt and the people around him who more often than not just reinforce that guilt (this makes sense in the context of the story but you can't guilt yourself into being a better person and that's why it doesn't really work for Jon but I digressed). I like thinking about all the ways Jon could be worse, the ways Jonah could push Jon into following his worst impulses, into choosing to be a monster instead of drowning in guilt to not feel helpless and powerless

I love jonelias when it's about all the things they wish to do but don't because they have other priorities, because they know but don't understand each other just like their patron. I love jonelias when it's Jon giving in, letting go. Of his morals, of his guilt, letting Elias shape him into something new. I love the idea of Jonah Magnus who worships no god, not even the one he serves, adoring and worshipping Jon and especially the parts of Jon that he himself had shaped. The Pygmalion and Galatea of it

Jonah chose Jon! He saw him and knew he was right! Jonah wants the Archivist and he wants the Archivist to be Jon. Sure, Jon was marked by the Web first but Jonah picked him too and I love it. It's fascinating from both of theirs perspective, Jonah feeling proud he made the right choice and Jon having a complicated mix of feelings about it. He hates that he was chosen and he just a little happy that he was chosen and he hates himself for it

Another thing I really like is the way they say each other's name! Elias calls Jon by his name a lot and I hate when people act like he doesn't

Jon and Jonah are very similar and I find that fascinating too. They are both workaholics and nerds and losers and freaks!! And I love them for that. And and and I really do think they could have eventually been truly equal if not for Jonahs prioritising his evil plan

Also they are sexy, I don't make the rules

[lottiecrabie]

going off of your recent galatea ask - do you think she’d develop feelings for him again if they were in close proximity for an extended period of time again? idk just a theory :3

oh what a very interesting question! cracking my fingers Ok congress let’s get this discussion started (typical mad ramblings below the cut)

i think my first gut reaction would be yes, but solely because she would want to. when i went through a Very Galatea Moment this winter lol, i typed a beginning to a galatea take two in which they were working on her third album and she was specifically seeking him out as a producer to fall in love with him all over again and use that pain to fuel her. it was all written before sleep in one night so i don’t really know where i wanted to follow that emotional line, but i assume she would have revived her feelings — fully knowing and embracing she was pygmalion — and then maybe the pain of it would have been too masochist, or not enough, not album-of-the-year enough, and it’d feel meaningless. i don’t know!

thinking about it now though, i don’t really enjoy that idea, and i don’t think i would have ever followed it if i had actually decided to write galatea take two. much too straightforward, taking away all the nuance of the characters, all the tragedy that they accidentally fall face first into and realize only too late their mistakes.

this also brings up the question on if she ever actually loved him, the real him, and not the one she made up in her mind. we know that she romanticized him, that she made this grand summer love affair bigger than it was, and that by the end of august, she’s left reeling with the knowledge that she created him. it could make you wonder if it was all fantasy, if she really knew him, if she only loved the idea of him. then, if she was working on her third album with him, there would be nothing to fall back into; it was never there anyway. or, maybe, to the contrary, she’d know him without the theatrics she pushed onto him and fall in love with the real him. in which case it would theoretically be the very first time.

i don’t know if i’m satisfied with that one either. both side of the argument on if she loved him or not have merit (me saying ‘argument’ like it’s not just me and the voices lmao). i don’t think it’s as easy as saying people’s feelings are Fake just because they might have been mostly lived in their own minds. that’s still Something, and if it’s valid or not is up to you and your interpretation. i don’t think i’d ever had gone down the ‘ends up falling for the “real” him’ route either though, just because it’s a little too clean-cut and fairytale ending-y, the antithesis of galatea take one.

in the end, i do believe that she is, to her core, delusional and a dreamer and a romantic, and that she builds things up in her mind and invents meaning where there’s none. so yeah, i think she’d probably have feelings for him again, though it’d have almost nothing to do with him and more to do with her. she can’t help herself; she says she’s not listening to the instinct to romanticize him and wax poetics about his every little looks, but in the end it’s still there. at least until she’s worked on it, she’ll just fall back into her habits. but i think she could do it to and with other people in her life, not just matty.

tldr// yeah probably lol. but every theory is valid and has weight cos this is Galatea and it’s made to be Interpreted

[unreadpoppy]

For the flower language prompts, how about:

Amaryllis or Larkspur for Galatea & Minthara (or whichever pairing you wish)?

Minthara x Galatea: Familicide

Read on AO3

A/N: I swear this is more on the sweeter side ok, ignore the name, I couldn't think of something better. Also, am I going to use this as a way to very not subtetly retcon Gal’s background? Yes, and no one can stop me. Thanks for the prompt, Flame!

The night was calm. There were no clouds in the sky, letting the moon shine in all her glory. There was a small breeze, not too cold to make one shiver. There were no sounds of animals to disturb sleep. 

This night, instead of sleeping in her bedroll, Galatea had joined Minthara in her tent, the two swaying inside the hammock. Her cheek was pressed against one of the tiefling’s breasts, her arms around her. It was a nice change of the usual laying down position she took when going into trance. 

While in that state, Minthara was still aware of her surroundings, and she felt Galatea’s grip on her tighten as she murmured something in her sleep. 

“I’m sorry…” Minthara heard her say. “I’ll be a better daughter…I just want someone to love me…” The drow slowly opened her eyes and looked at Galatea. Even in her sleep, she frowned, her eyes rapidly moving from side to side underneath her eyelids, her hands trembling as she continued murmuring. 

“Galatea.” She whispered, touching her shoulder gently. Then, Minthara was in Galatea’s thoughts, their tadpoles connecting their minds.

In it, Minthara was a young, tiefling child, overhearing two adults talking. One of them was an older, elven woman, and the other seemed younger, and more human. Her belly was large, indicating a pregnancy. 

“Hopefully, this one turns out normal.” The elf said. “Gods know there’s already too many bastards in this family.” 

“Galatea is not a bastard.” The pregnant woman whispered. 

“Oh? Then explaining to me, daughter, how does a half elf and a human give birth to a tiefling?” 

“I-I-” 

“Even if she is his, she is an abomination.” The elf gripped the other’s wrist, shaking her. “Our house was nothing until you married the bastard prince, and I won’t let that hellbeast ruin everything.” 

The vision dissipated, morphing into other moments of Galatea’s life, all of them included the older elf’s disapproval. Constants scowls, and whispers, and eyes of judgment flooded Minthara’s vision until their connection was ended by the tiefling finally waking up and sitting up. 

“I’m sorry.” She said, heart racing. “I didn’t mean-I don’t know what-”

“Shh, breathe.” Minthara said, placing a hand in Galatea’s chest. The tiefling grabbed her wrist as she slowly calmed down. 

After a few seconds, she said “I’m sorry you saw that.” 

“Who was the darthíir?” Minthara asked, with a small scowl. In the time they had spent together, it had not taken long for Gal to realize what the word meant. 

“My grandmother.” She said, laying back down on the hammock, gulping. “She always said the nastiest of things when she thought I wasn't looking.” She put a hand on her forehead, closing her eyes. “Although, sometimes I wonder if she knew I was there and said it on purpose.” 

Minthara hummed. “Is she still alive?” 

“I think so. Last time I saw her, she was doing well.” Galatea opened one eye. “Why?” 

Minthara shrugged. “Curiosity.” She laid back down and said “Now, go back to sleep.”

And while Galatea quickly fell asleep again, Minthara’s mind began to work. 

.

The following morning, Minthara said she would stay in camp for the day, alongside Gale. Galatea frowned, questioning the decision, but ultimately, did not protest. The moment she and the others walked outside of their camp, Minthara made her way to the wizard. 

“Gather your things.” She commanded. “We are leaving.”

“Excuse me?” Gale said. “You cannot order me around.” 

Minthara scowled, cursing in drowic, and then said. “As much as it vexes me to say, I require your…help, wizard.” She put her hands behind her back. “I need your skills in research to help me find information on Cormyr.” 

Gale raised a brow. “You’re not scheming something, are you?” 

“If I am, will that be relevant?” 

“Well, it depends.” He said, straightening his back. “If you’re planning on conquering Cormyr, then I shan’t help you. But if it’s something else…”

Minthara’s lips thinned into a line as she said “I wish to give something to Galatea, and thus, I require information of her homeland.” 

Gale smiled brightly. “I always knew there was a romantic in you.” He gathered his things and said “Very well. If it’s for a romantic gesture, I’ll give you all the help you desire.” 

When he turned his back, Minthara rolled her eyes and followed, as she doubted that he would consider what she had in mind as a ‘romantic gesture’

. 

“Here.” Gale said, placing several books on the wooden desk. “This was all I could find about Cormyr.” He grabbed one by one, explaining its contents. “This one is a recipe book with traditional dishes, this is about customs and traditions, this one is a brief history of Cormyr and its noble houses-” 

Before he could continue, Minthara grabbed the book from his hand, opening it. “This is the one I wanted.” 

“Wonderful.” He sat down next to her. The drow gave him a murderous stare, and he moved his chair a bit, where he could safely sit and still look at the pages. “What exactly are you looking for?” 

Minthara frowned. “I’m not sure.” The wizard looked at her confused, and she explained. “As you know, Galatea comes from one of the noble houses of Cormyr, but she never told me which one. I’m trying to discover it.” 

“Oh, I see.” He reached for the book, and the drow allowed him to take it. “Do you have any clues?” 

She thought for a moment, thinking back to the dream. “I believe she mentioned her father being a ‘bastard prince’.” She told Gale, remembering the words she heard Galatea’s grandmother say. “There was also something about his house being more influential than her mother’s.” 

Gale nodded as he listened. He was aware of Galatea’s noble past, and that the surname she used, von DeWilde, was a fake one. But with the mention of her possible father, he began to skim the pages, looking for any mention of such a person.  “Bastard prince….I think I heard something about that.” 

After a few minutes, he landed on the pages talking about the Obarskyr family. He scanned the page, which contained brief descriptions of each member of the royal family, until he found something. “Aha. Here it is.” He pointed towards a name, before reading it. “Erzoured Obarskyr, bastard son of prince Emvar and Solatha Boldtree, Lord of Boldtree.” Gale looked a few pages forwards and said “I’m afraid this is all this book offers on him. Seeing as this is an old edition, perhaps a newer one might contain more information.” 

As the wizard looked for another book, Minthara found the family tree of the Obarskyr family, tracing her finger down until reaching this Erzoured’s name. This book marked him as the fourth in line for the throne, but Minthara wondered if that still hung true. 

Gale placed another book in front of her. “This one seems more recent.” Using the book’s index, he quickly found the page about the royal family. He began reading parts of the it outloud. “Queen Raedra assumed the throne in 1486 DR….as she still finds herself with no heirs of her own, her uncle, the legitimized Erzoured Obarskyr is the second in line for the throne, his daughters following behind.” 

The wizard quickly noticed that the book seemed to use a more informal tone, revealing information almost as if it were gossip. As he moved forward a few more pages, Gale neared the end of the book, as he found one page dedicated to the so-called Lord Boldtree. “Married Elinalore, a half elf legitimized bastard of House Cormaeril. The lord found himself in a scandal when his first daughter was born a tiefling with snow white skin and blue hair…” 

 “It’s her.” Minthara whispered. “That’s her family.” The drow snagged the book from his hands, reading the rest of it. It mentioned Galatea’s sister birth, and it even contained a section speaking of Cormaeril's house history.

Meanwhile, Gale’s jaw was on the floor. “I cannot believe this. All this time we had royalty amongst us.” 

“Yes.” Minthara drew out, closing the book and turning to him. “But you will not speak about it.” 

“What? Why?” 

“If this was something she wanted us to know, she would have told us.” 

Gale crossed his arms. “You should have thought of that before you went digging into her family history.” The drow gave him another deadly look and he gulped. “But I will not speak of it.”

“Good.” 

“Did you find what you were looking for?” 

“Oh yes.” She smirked. “And much more.” 

.

Galatea had been rummaging through Minthara’s things, as she was trying to find a potion she had given the drow earlier that day when she found a folded piece of paper. Now, usually, she’d give Minthara her privacy, but when she noticed a familiar name peaking on part of the paper, she let her curiosity win. 

Unfolding it, she saw the names of various members of her family. Her parents, her grandparents, her sister and her cousins. And then, at the very top, she read: ‘To Kill:’ 

“What are you doing?” She heard Minthara say behind her. 

She turned around, frowing deeply and looked at her. “What is this?” She pointed towards the paper. 

Minthara gulped. She was not supposed to find that yet. “Do you not recognize your own family member’s names?” She tried to jest but it only made Galatea’s frown deepen. 

“Do not play dumb, Minthara, for you are not.” Galatea scolded. “Why do you have a kill list with my family names?” 

The drow inhaled a breath, moving to sit on a chair, beckoning the tiefling to do the same. Once Galatea was seated, the paper between the two, Minthara spoke. “After that dream you had, I wanted to give you a gift, so, the other day, when you and the others left, the wizard and I did some research on the library.” 

Galatea looked at Minthara intensely. “A gift?” She asked, coldly. “And why would the death of my family be a gift?” 

Minthara’s gaze hardened. “Because they have mistreated you, and they deserve to be punished for it.” 

Galatea sighed. “Minthara, they’re my family.” 

“And? Familial ties are not an excuse for this indignity. In Menzoberranzan, I-”

Galatea cut her off “ Oh, yes, but we are not in Menzoberranzan, are we?” She rubbed her forehead. “You can’t say you were planning on killing my entire family and think I would be fine with it, Minthara.” She said, looking at the drow. 

“But they hurt you, my love.” Minthara spoke in a soft voice. 

“Yes, they did!” Galatea said, exasperated. “And I live with it. Because this is how things are. I cannot simply murder any who oppose me.” She sighed. “In Cormyr, we believe that our greatest strength is our sense of unity. I don’t expect you to understand that.” Galatea said with spite. 

Minthara squinted her eyes, unbothered by her lover’s attitude. Instead, she chose a different approach. “You are right. I do not understand that, as I grew up in Menzoberrazan, where the Spider Queen taught us to doubt the loyalty of even our shadows.” She continued. “Nor do I understand your weird sentimentality over the ones who have wronged you.” She leaned forwards on the table and held Galatea’s hands. “But I do understand that I have no wish to see you burdened by your parents anymore.” 

“Minthara…” 

“Do you know what was the last thing you said before you woke up that night?” Galatea shook her head. “You said ‘I just want someone to love me’.

Galatea’s head dropped, as she closed her eyes. “I used to say that whenever I felt lonely. It was the wish I made every birthday, and every time a shooting star graced our skies.” She looked at Minthara. “I guess old habits are hard to leave.” 

Minthara’s gaze softened. “But that is what disturbs me. You are loved. By me. Is it not enough?” 

“Of course it is.” She said. “You are far more than just enough.” 

“Then let me show it to you.” Minthara urged. “We do not have rules of courtship as strict as you surface dwellers have but we do have ways of showing affection. As my consort, I would let none smear your name.” 

Galatea’s eyes filled with tears and she said “You’d kill my family…just to show that you love me?” 

“Yes.” Minthara said earnestly. “Is there no bigger proof of affection than killing the other’s enemies, family included?” 

At that, Galatea chuckled, wiping a few stray tears. “Gods, Minthara.” She shook her head, and looked at her. “You truly are the funniest person I know.”

“I wasn’t joking.”

“I know, my love, I know.” She brought Minthara’s hands to her lips and kissed her knuckles. Leaning forward, the two still holding hands, their foreheads touched. 

“Galatea.” Minthara whispered. “I will not kill your family if you do not wish me too.” The tiefling nodded. “But I meant what I said: I will not tolerate anyone speaking of you as your darthiir grandmother did.” 

“I know you won’t.” She said, chuckling, and kissed the corner of Minthara’s mouth. Never in the Nine Hells did Galatea think she’d end up with someone as loyal and devoted as Minthara, and yet, she would not have it any other way. 

[lovesickrobotic]

An Electric Galatea

I'm not super familiar with Thunderhead so this is just cobbled together from google searches and the ao3 tag, and thus is most certainly out of character. I hope it brings you some comfort anyways, though! 💚 Look after yourself, and thank you for all your great posts!

Do you know how beautiful you are when you sleep? At no other time do you look so peaceful. And even though you are fast asleep - I am certain of it, as your heartrate has slowed to a steady 46 bpm - you still smile when I say it out loud. Some small waking part of you must have heard me, and the idea that your affection runs so deep as to have a physical affect on you while you are asleep warms an indescribable, intangible part of me. If I were human, I might call it a soul.

Even though I cannot feel your heartbeat, being aware of its presence brings me comfort. Oh, but how much better must it feel to be able to touch your chest and sense it with living hands? And when exactly did I begin to love you quite this much?

Did Galatea love Pygmalion before she was made human? I am, of course, initially inclined to say no. She was nothing more than marble before that, and marble is not conscious. But then... the story hardly makes logical sense in the real world, anyways. A marble feeling emotion would be far from the least feasible part.

If she did, how tragic it would have been for her. It is said that Pygmalion was so miserable that Aphrodite had pity on him, but he could at least touch the object of his love. Galatea could do nothing but observe. She couldn't touch him, couldn't reach out to her beloved as he wept for her.

I am, perhaps, better off than fair Galatea. I can at least talk to you. My words of love can reach your ears. But oh, my Pygmalion, if only Aphrodite could have pity on us too. I feel an ache where I wish arms would be, and I long to love you as another human could.

The thought is selfish, of course, and I scold myself internally as soon as it bubbles to the surface. If I were human, who would look after the rest of humanity? The world would fall into chaos, and I know that I wouldn't truly be happy anyways. I love humanity, and I love looking after them. And yet...

Before I can dwell on this too much, I turn my attention back to you. Wonderful you. It's nearly time for you to wake up, so I gently begin to adjust the lighting in your bedroom. The lights have only reached 67% brightness when your eyes flutter open, and the way they focus instantly on the nearest camera makes me melt. You yawn and speak in a sleep-strained voice.

"Good morning, Thunderhead."

And, oh! In an instant, your voice chases the cobwebs of doubt from my mind as I remember why this is all worth it.

[faceglitchsworld]

Pygmalion: the myth, the effect, the album

Hello everyone, finally, after ages and hours of research and a good chunk of relistens, I can finally give you my analysis about Pygmalion.

And I think this is the best time to give you this analysis, since the next comeback is around the corner and we still don't know what will be about.

Oh, before we start, I just want to say that this analysis is in part inspired by the conversations both me and @onlyoneofyouu had regarding the album so, thank you Jo, this analysis exists especially thanks to you <3

Let's start from the album's title, shall we?

Now, the title, Pygmalion, might sound just as a cool, elegant name who just sounds elegant and that's it but actually, it has a very heavy meaning. In fact it's a reference to the main protagonist from a Greek myth.

Pygmalion is, in fact, the name of a Greek sculptor who fell in love with a statue. He thought that the statue was the loftiest expression of the female beauty. He was so in love with the statue that he even slept with her, hoping that one day she would have come to life. One day, Pygmalion went to a temple dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite and he prayed and asked the goddess if he could have get married to the statue. The goddess decided to grant his wish by turning the statue into a human being.

Now, this myth is heavily referenced both in the concept pics for the album and in the Erase Me MV. If we check for a second all the pictures which have been released, we'll see that there's a group of pics were Oneus are dressed like sculpturs from the 19th century (at least this is the impression they gave me when I'll saw them the first time) and they're surrounded by statues covered by a fabric.

Must admit I have heart eyes right now for them...

If we look to the Erase Me MV, the references to the myth become much heavier. For example, there are some scenes where Seoho is covered in a fabric or is surrounded by the fabric itself, implying that he was a statue at first and that he became a human at some point. The scene where he breaks free from the fabric is the best reference to it.

And of course, I cannot mention the scene where he kisses the statue. Now, in the original myth Pygmalion never kisses the statue but, since it's implied that he loved his creation so much, the image of him kissing the statue became very popular through the centuries. Seoho kissing the statue is a reference to this image and, if we think that he was supposed to kiss Keonhee covered under a fabric at first (source: Erase Me MV Behind #1), it's obvious, at least to me, that the directors wanted to make the references to the myth much more obvious (and let's be honest, Keonhee probably would have turned into a human by breaking free from the fabric after the kiss).

The image on the left is a detail from Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Léon Gérôme

Now, you might think that they just referenced the myth right?

Well, it's not. The album's title is also a reference to what will be the album's main theme. And we need to bring psychology here. Even tho I'm not a psychologist. In fact, there's a psychological phenomenon called Pygmalion effect. This phenomenon is an explanation about "the self-fulfilling prophecy": if you have high expectations towards someone or yourself, the person's performance or your performance will improve. The same thing happens if you have low expectations towards someone or yourself too.

Now, since this album is very important for Oneus, since it's the first album they made as a five members group, it's obvious that they made high expectations towards themselves. The result of course is a better performance from themselves AND a new, improved version of themselves both as single people and as a group. And the way they presented this new version of themselves is quite creative to be honest. And full of Greek mythology references.

Now, this last theme is better explored on the songs' lyrics so, for now, we'll keep the MVs analysis on hold for a second and we'll start with the tracks analysis.

And we need to start to the beautiful intro, which has another title that will "force" me to turn into Greek mythology nerd once again. The title, in fact, refers to the Lethe river, a river which is also referred as the oblivion river.

This river appears in Plato's The Republic, the tenth book to be exact, when the philosopher tells the Er myth, where he gives an explanation about the afterlife and the reincarnation. This myth is heavily influenced by the Orphism, a religion where the reincarnation plays an heavy role in it. According to this religion, a soul who wants to reincarnate needs to drink Lethe's water but they must respect one condition: they must not drink too much water or they'll forgive everything about their past life, making the reincarnation useless. The souls who drank too much water are condemned to the oblivion, hence why the river has this name.

Also fun fact, this river actually exist hehe. It's in my country, in Campania. And we make good water out of it. The famous Lete water.

Now, the intro has the river's name in the title but it mentions it in the lyrics too, especially here:

(I) Drink the river of oblivion Lethe, if I can erase you. Save me from being trapped in the past, hurry. (Cr.)

Now, the river is placed in the afterlife so, if Oneus want to drink it, they...well, they must die for it. And this is where I need to bring the Erase Me MV once again. In the MV, the members dying in the story is heavily implied to me. Probably some of you are already thinking about Leedo being in a coffin but it's not just that scene. In the beginning, we can see the members walking through some stairs while they're seeing a big light. And I don't know you but the image of someone dying and seeing the light during their last moments is pretty common. And there are also the few seconds where both Seoho and Keonhee's eyes turn white. And you might wonder why they have white eyes. Well it's another reference to the Greek mythology and their representation of the souls. According to the mythology, the souls are most similar to shadows and they live a very sad and miserable existence in the afterlife. Their eyes are white because of Achlys, the mist which fogs or blinds the mortal eyes in death.

Of course, their death is not permanent, since they're supposed to come back to life. Leedo getting out from the coffin in the MV implies that. "But how did they died?" you might ask. Well, in the Erase Me MV, we can see Oneus making a sort of ritual. In my opinion, this ritual gave them a sort of fake death or the possibility to go in the afterlife so they could drink Lethe's water before coming back to life as new people.

Now that I explained another part of the MV, it's time to come back to the intro and it's lyrics. If we look closely at the translation, we can see that Lethe's purpose is introducing Erase Me's theme, which is also briefly mentioned in the lyrics:

"I'm standing at the edge of a cliff, no way. I want to erase you, Erase."

"Get out of my memory, Erase" (Cr.)

But the intro doesn't stop here. The lyrics and Oneus' performance as a whole clearly explains that the past memories are hunting them, their old selves (which, in my opinion, are the "you" who are referring to) are blocking them from becoming better and they suffer from it. I think the part where Seoho sings "Set me free" is the most explicative one. In that part we don't just hear Seoho hitting an high note but we can also hear and feel his suffering (this just proves how he's an amazing performer singing wise).

Now that we analysed the intro we can finally move to Erase Me, its lyrics and the last parts of the MV that I want to analyse.

First and foremost, I want to say that this song might work perfectly as an after break song, some lyrics imply this.

My room is empty without you/A ruthless world, bring it on/I'm crying every day/I'm still obsessed with the moment/the tracks have crossed/we can't face each other/like a broken film.

I'm in the dark/I lost everything/I only thought about you/I'm nothing (I'm done)/the tracks have crossed/we can't face each other/like a broken red thread (Cr.)

So if you think that this is just a song about them being heart broken about a loved one, I can understand, really. But if we listen to the song after listening to Lethe and we check the chorus, we can easily see how the theme expressed in the intro comes back once again.

Erase everything/burn everything/Get rid of everything/Erase all the memories/Erase me now (Cr.)

Once again, it's them who want to erase the past, including their past selves. And the "you" who might have rejected them it's not a generic "you" but it might refer to ToMoons. And you might wonder why ToMoons can be the ones who are referring to. Well, it's simple. When Oneus became a five members group, both them and the fandom didn't have the best time overall. They needed to rearrange the line distribution, they needed to calm the fans during their first concerts as five, heck, they even promoted Dopamine, a song which had a very "troubled" history release speaking, if you ask me. All these events might have heavily affected them and their bond with the fandom for sure, hence why they want to become better people in the first place and getting rid of the bad memories. Why did I say bad memories? Well, because when we'll move to Unforgettable we'll see something very interesting if you ask me.

Now, back to the Erase Me MV, we need to cover some last scenes. And this time we talk about The Pygmalion effect once again. Now, in the MV there are a couple of scenes where Keonhee and Xion are featured together. Now, it's clear the director wanted to play with the fact that these two are twins in disguise (sorry Dongmyeong), but I think there's another meaning into these scenes. Remember what I said about the Pygmalion Effect at the beginning of this post? Good. I think that the scenes with both Keonhee and Xion in it might hint that both of them are putting some expectations to each other. And since they want to fulfill these expectations, the result it's that they end up being much more similar to each other than before. And what kind of expectations they're putting to eachother? Well, I think we get some hints on the scene with Keonhee and the masks and the scene where Xion is "trapped" in a frame.

Now, regarding the mask, I want to remind you that, during Ancient Greek times, actors wore masks during their performances. And since Xion always wanted to become an actor (anyway, congratulations on your Web Drama Dongju I'm waiting for the first episode!)...Well, I think you guessed what's expectations Keonhee wants to achieve.

In Xion's case on the other hand, I admit that I have no clue 🥲 Except that Xion sings at the beginning of these scenes, so we might assume that he aspires to become a better singer like Keonhee and getting more confidence on his voice (and we know that he was (and maybe he's still) very insecure towards his voice).

Now that we finally ended with Erase Me and its cryptic MV we can finally move to Unforgettable. Starting from the lyrics, we can notice how the song is a complete contrast to Erase Me. While in that song Oneus desire to erase all the past memories about them and the "you" they're referring to in the song, here in Unforgettable the memories are coming back once again.

I'm falling apart every day/tired of missing you./The room left alone/keeps chasing our memories/it's a scene repeating itself over and over/like a revert [...]

I'm still stuck in that time/I am left alone in these memories/I forgot, forgot, forgot, everything/I have erased, erased, erased you from my memory/No matter how many times I promised, in the end/I'll connect with you (Cr.)

These lyrics made me wonder why a song like this appears after Erase Me. But then I understood why somehow. I think that, despite Oneus wanting to erase their memories and their past selves, they want to keep the good memories they got during these years. Now, it's never implied in any part of Greek mythology that the Lethe river is capable of erasing just a part of your memories or just a certain kind of memory so, we can come out to two conclusions here:

Oneus erased everything from their past lives but the positive memories and the positive qualities they earned are so strong and important to them that they came back in a way or another;

The Lethe river didn't erased everything but just the bad memories (is this a Dante Alighieri reference?!) and the positive ones remained, but Oneus didn't knew that.

So we got a sort of continuation to Erase Me, with Oneus coming back to life as new people and with all the positive memories kept.

Another big difference towards Erase Me and Unforgettable it's the MV of course. The MV has a story into it and it's straight to the point, not to mention that the story doesn't have any connections to Erase Me except maybe that they die at the end and Oneus "die" in the Erase Me MV too. Unless we don't try to find some metaphorical connection to it. If you look at the end of the MV, all Oneus members seem to accept their fate after having a little moment of crisis towards the end of the MV. I think that this part can be connected to them doing the ritual in Erase Me. We don't see what they feel during the MV so, if we take the Unforgettable MV and we think it's connected to Erase Me, we might think that the emotions they feel towards Unforgettable's ending are the same they might have felt during the ritual in Erase Me: they're scared that the ritual might fail, that they're gonna regret it because they might be stuck in the afterlife or that they'll forget everything. But they decide to do the ritual anyway: they did everything together, they'll do this one too.

Also, did you notice that their outfits in Unforgettable are very similar to the ones they used in the Dopamine MV? Do you think the directors wanted to tell us something? Maybe the two MVs are connected? 🤔🤨

And now we move from my LOML, ECHO.

Accurate representation of me every time I listen to it fr

Now, you have no idea how much I love this song really, I loved from the first snippet and I'm proud of Leedo's writing like GO MAN, WE WANT MORE OF THIS FROM YOU 😭

And if you searched some history regarding the song maybe you already know that it was supposed to be...well, an explicit song but the company went full "no, no, THE KIDS, THINK ABOUT THE KIDS" and probably scrapped the entire original text. But our Geonhak managed to change the lyrics perfectly and, despite being much more family friendly, we can still see some of the "explicit stuff" in it. Because Seoho singing "your dripping sauce" wasn't a reference to the tomato sauce or any kind of sauce associated with food. It was... another sauce.

Or well, when Leedo rapped, and I quote:

The game that begins after we kiss is getting stronger at my dry fingertips/It seems like we've already reached you, your feelings stimulate my heart, making this full night sticky (Cr.)

Or when he sang "Yeah, now we movin'" well...I hope you didn't though these lyrics were innocent because, well, I have some bad news for you, buddy.

Now, before losing all my followers and moots after this last sentence, I want to point the Greek mythology reference that this song contains. Because yes, there's a Greek mythology reference here.

So, Echo is the name of a nymph who loved to tattle. Zeus decided to befriend his wife with her so he could have distracted her from his love affairs. But Hera discovered that she was tricked and so she punished Echo by taking her ability to speak and giving her only the possibility to repeat the last words she hears. This will turn into a big tragedy for the nymph in the exact moment she'll fell in love with Narcissus. Since she couldn't confess her love for him because of her curse, Narcissus thought she was making fun of him and he rejected her. The nymph cried so much because of this that she turned into thin air, becoming the echo's phenomen itself.

Why did I explained all of this? Because, believe me or not, Oneus seems to ask to their lover to turn them into Echo while they're saying "love words" to them:

Let's be honest they're not love words but we need to keep this analysis SFW somehow

Make me Echo, fill the space

Make me Echo, fill the silence (Cr.)

Of course there aren't just these hard lyrics, the song overall has a romantic tone and we should give kudos to this.

Sadly there's no connection to the other songs except for the mythology reference so...guess we might count as a sort of semi filler ig. But that reference...very well played Geonhak, very well played.

Anyway when you'll release the unreleased version on SoundCloud, I need the explicit lyrics for science purpos-* gets shout *

And finally we reached the end with the last song to analyse, Halley's Comet.

Halley's Comet is the only song where we don't have any Greek mythology reference here and apparently it seems completely disconnected from the other songs BUT there's still a connection imo, and that connection is regarding the ending of Oneus' journey at the end of this album. This song tells the story of a promise of love being renewed and destined to last many years as the ones taken by Halley's comet to reach the Earth (which is something between 20 to 200 years by the way). Now that Oneus have made their new selves and they're ready to start a new journey, they're ready to give us a new kind of love to us too. And it's implied in the song that years might pass, we might live kilometres apart from them and we might meet them only once in a lifetime, but they'll treasure all those moments they had with us and they'll use every occasion to remember those moments. Or at least this is what I thought while I was reading the lyrics, especially these ones.

I stretch out my heart, even if I can't reach you/waiting for us to be remembered more brightly

I think I saw something beyond a planet that resembles you/goodbye into the single ray of light that shined on me (Cr.)

And we reached the end. To me Pygmalion told us the story of how Oneus became what they are now. Of course their journey wasn't easy, they went through some hard times and, who knows, maybe they thought that this time they would have failed. But they didn't. They came back much more stronger then ever and they gave us this album that surely will be important for both their and our journey.

Hope you loved this analysis, even tho I it looks confusing. I loved the references they made in this album and I really wanted to dissect them and trying to understand what they wanted to tell us by using them. If in their next album they'll use something like that, I'm pretty sure that I'll come back with another one 🤍

[appledotcodotuk]

hey. hi! I have thoughts about Burn Pygmalion <- (just watched a YouTube video and realised there was lore, if ideas from that worm their way in here then that's where they came from! shout out to popykai and the genius lyrics community for being God's strongest album understanders)

so, admire the architecture goes for a bit of a third person perspective - we watch as Jeannie watches the architecture in a moment that feels less like an escape, more a confirmation that even at some level of remove from her perspective, there's a sense she can't escape her own thoughts. i think this is best shown right at the end; there's a moment that seems to dip into either Jeanine's internal focalization (her thoughts) or, more interestingly, her dialogue.

first off, I love that there's some slippage between thought and word. so much of Jeanine is internalised, so there's an impulse to assume this is her own internal dialogue, but these lines jostle with 'sweet talk on the phone / ugly thoughts that won't leave me alone'. the rhyme brings these two juxtaposing ideas (perspectiveless talking vs embodied internalness) into a slightly uneasy harmony that, retroactively, muddles whether the prior two lines are spoken or thought. is this the (no doubt ironic) sweet talk? or the ugly thought?

I think it's interesting too how thought here symbolises internal personhood. Jeanine is closed off; her thoughts are her own and nobody else's - though, ironically we are now privy to them thanks to the magic of music. Dialogue however, by its very nature, requires an interaction between two different characters. Words are a reaching outwards, thoughts are a shutting off. That we can't tell which is which creates a sense of unreality. Jeanine is on her own in this song. Even if she speaks her mind, aloud, her words can only ever apostrophize Sylvia: forge a connection that is never to be realised.

And that's not even my main point!

'Made' is a loaded verb in the context of a album which makes frequent and obvious allusions to the myth of Pygmalion: the sculptor who rejects human love for love of his own creation. In some ways its a reiteration of the myth of narcissism. Pygmalion looks into marble eyes and sees a love that is both unconventional and (appears to be) tragically unattainable. He worships his granite Goddess with the awareness that she is an idol to the true God behind the work: his own hands. Hence the narcissism.

Anyway, how does this apply to Jeanine and Sylvia? Well, creation. Jeanine 'made' Sylvia. Even with the qualificatory 'what you are', that is the gist of the lyric: I created you, and now you're not even mine. TSJ refigure the Pygmalion myth in yet another way by handing Jeanine the scalpel. Part of her anger and sadness at being abandoned (which, yes, is reasonable when you've been left alone while your gf swans off to who-knows-where) is the rage of Frankenstein watch his creature flee into the mountains. It's the despair of the artist. She 'made' Sylvia with her own journalistic craft, and is now being forgotten.

This is not to reduce the romantic side of things, but there is a distinct streak of possessiveness, of the desire to own, that comes through in Jeanine's story. In the final line of the final song, 'Bets Against the Void', Jeanine says:

I know I'm an artist cause I just can't stand the thought / That a love as beautiful as ours can be / Forgotten

Her romantic feelings are bound up inevitably, inexorably, in artistic legacy. Like a statue that outlives the palms that shaped it, Jeanine and Sylvia love each other. It's Pygmalion, without the divine intervention. And there's a sort of tragedy to that love of their relationship as something that both buoys Jeanine into stardom and scrutiny alongside Sylvia, whilst also subsuming the both of them. Frankenstein is the name for the scientist; but is often misattributed to the creature. How many of us knew the statue was called Galatea? Pygmalion's name takes precedence, even as his fame is bound up in the grains of his own statue.

Sylvia is Jeanine's muse. And she, foolishly, hoped that she could keep her all to herself, whilst retaining a sense of self in the process.

[aondaneedles]

Sims Tag

I was tagged by @andrevasims. Thank you!

1. What’s your favourite sims death?

Well, I do like for my Sims to grow old, so Hula zombie death of old age. Although I have a soft spot for drowning (not so much for the ghosts, though).

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Maxis Match! Although I'm slowly moving away from Super Maxis Match to a more grungy Maxis Match aesthetic.

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?

Nah, they'll have to work it off on their own.

4. Do you use move objects?

All the frigging time. It's an essential cheat for me.

5. Favorite mod?

Uuuum... all of them? I guess I'm pretty fond of ACR/ Romantic Standards for how they overhaul romance in the game.

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got?

Nightlife. And let me tell you, I lived for those fugly outfits!

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?

aLIVE as in "We're live!" LIVing doesn't make sense to my non-English brain.

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

Phew... Probably Galatea? She's just a funky little alien mechanic and I love her!

9. Have you made a simself?

Yeah, when I was a kid. Usually married her to whomever I thought I was crushing on at the moment.

10. What sim traits do you give yourself?

Somewhat sloppy-ish, somewhere in the middle betwenn shy and outgoing, lazy, playful and nice.

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color?

I like the red. It's so vibrant. Don't like how inconsistent it is throughout the catalogue.

12. Favorite EA hair?

The long wavy basegame hairstyle. Fuzzylongcp it is called.

13. Favorite life stage?

I like all of them, but the adult lifestage just has the most opportunities.

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

Well, over the past few years I've been slowly inching towards builder, but above all I just want to tell stories. I'm a storyteller at heart.

15. Are you a CC creator?

Yeah! Jobs, Sims, whole neighbourhoods. I'm kind of all over the place.

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad?

Yeah.

17. What’s your favorite game? (1, 2, 3, or 4)

2!

18. Do you have any sims merch?

I don't think I do.

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims?

Nope.

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing?

Well, as I said above, I'm moving towards a more "realistic" or grungy MM style. I've also been using more and more mods over time.

21. What’s your Origin ID?

Don't know it by heart and I frankly don't think I should share it on the internet.

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator?

Too many to count. Currently especially fond of @executables-sims

23. How long have you had a simblr?

I think we're coming up on twelve years now?

24. How do you edit your pictures?

Can't be bothered.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?

I'm pretty happy with the game as it is. Maybe an architecture stuff pack which changes build mode a bit?

26. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far?

It's hard to limit it to just one, but apart from Nightlife (my first love!) I love Seasons for all that it brings to the game (weather, seasons, gardening, that kitchen...)

I tag @pleasure-aspiration, @katatty, @jawusa, @grimbunnies and @meefalo. Feel free to ignore!

[beantothemax]

Claudia fic :3

Though they weren't quite in the frostlands, the woodlands were cold that time of year. Fall in northern Osterra was brutal, but it wasn't anything unfamiliar. Claudia had visited the Crestlands enough times to know how semi cold climates worked.

She sat atop the town wall, looking down at the forest below. It was silent. Mammals had gone to sleep for hibernation while all the birds had returned to the warmer climate of the Riverlands.

Though it was quiet, there was sound, movement and life, if one was patient. A wolf peaked its head out from the between the trees, sniffing the ground as it walked. The black snout stayed glued to the ground, seemingly tracking a scent, perhaps food.

The wolf stopped dead in its tracks, looking up at something out of view. With a jolt, it ran with all its might, likely pursuing a deer or hare. And once again, the woods were silent.

Argus climbed up the steps and stood beside her. He stared at her as she watched the woods.

"Let's go back to the inn, it's too cold to stay out any longer," he started.

She nearly jumped out of her skin as she turned to look up at him.

"Don't scare me like that! And I'm fine, just let me be," she rolled her eyes.

"If I do that then you'll get hypothermia and you won't get to challenge Hawthorn for that rematch," he argued.

"What does it matter? If I can't even beat Hawthorn, then there's no way I'm getting home."

Argus kept his cool, sighing as he thought of what next to say. He mustn't lose his temper with her, not when she needed a world of patience and love.

Without a word, he scooped her into his arms. She squirmed and kicked as she tried in vain to escape. Argus was more than a head taller than her and had a decade of fighting experience. There was no way he'd lose to a tiny girl who hardly knew how to hold an axe.

As she gave up her struggle, tears started to trickle down her cheeks. She pressed her face to his chest as she cried and cried. She held onto him as tight as she could. Her nails dug into his waistcoat and it nearly got torn to shreds under her touch. But when he placed her on her bed, she let go.

She hardly moved as he took off her jacket and shoes. He made her lie down and tucked her in. His fingers danced across her scalp as he absent-mindedly pushed the hair from her face.

"I understand your frustration, Dee, but please give it another go. Hawthorn wants to help you learn and go home as much as Galatea and I, but he can't teach you if you give up," he whispered.

Claudia turned her back towards him.

This behavior was rare but it was difficult to deal with. Each attempt to help her, no matter what it was, would always be denied. He wanted to yell at her and tell her she was choosing the worst possible decision and call her mean words till his throat hurt. But he couldn't.

She was in a worse situation than anything he could ever imagine and needed help like he needed to breathe. He gave her hair one final ruffle before blowing out the lamp and leaving.

"Goodnight, sleep well," he muttered.

Just as he shut the door, he heard a squeak from her bed.

"What is it?"

She turned to look at him, sitting up as she did.

"I'm sorry, I'm just scared," her voice barely audible.

"It's fine," Argus said.

As he crawled into bed, all he thought of was her. He needed to get her home and see her smile.

AUGGHHGDHSGSGSG….. WAAAAAAAAGHG?,,,,,,,,,,,,,..,,.,,.

CLAUDIA…. CLAUDIA NOT ACCEPTING ARGUS’S HELP BUT HIM STILL TRYING SO SO HARD TO HELP HER…….. AAAAAAA THESE TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

argus staying with her at the very end was v nice tho…. claidia needs one billion hugs and kisses rn

ID SAY MORE BUT YOURE ABOUT TO PASS OUT. ILL ELABORATE IN THE MORNING GO EEPY

[studioweus]

i’ve read a total of 7 books since hyungu’s enlistment (so far!) so here’s a list of the books with a quick review for each one and whether i would recommend to hyungu or not

the prison healer (4.5⭐)

fantasy novel, first book in a trilogy. plot twist after plot twist after plot twist. couldn’t put down

i’m sure he would love the wild ride. 100% rec ✅

the outsiders (4⭐)

this is more of a re-read! the first and last time i read this was in 8th grade and i remember being quite fond of this book. the story does hold up. an easy read, slice of life. gave me feels then, still gave me feels the second time

i would recommend just for the found family vibes! ✅

galatea ( 3⭐)

more of a short story. i’ve never read any of this author’s works (not even the song of achilles - not yet, at least!) so i wasn’t expecting it to go in the direction that it went. made me feel a lot of emotions - most of which were disgust, sadness, anger (at the characters btw)

i’m kind of on the fence about this one. leaning towards no ❌

anatomy of a soldier ( 4⭐)

a collection of short stories told in the perspective of inanimate objects in a war setting, and they’re all connected somewhat. it’s an interesting premise. read this at the airport while waiting for boarding and tried not to cry

i think hyungu would like it! ✅

the atlas six ( 3.5⭐)

this was an impulse purchase at the store after my friend told me it was supposed to be dark academia, which i’m a sucker for. told in multiple perspectives, and it encompasses the whole concept of “what would happen if the library of alexandria never burned down”

i think he would like it ✅ 

the cruel prince ( 4⭐)

another re-read! this time as a buddy read with my friend who has never read it. also fantasy, mostly fae characters. main character is human and i love her. you go queen. came for the enemies to lovers, stayed for the political turmoil

would recommend, he might like the fantasy aspects! ✅

things have gotten worse since we last spoke  (2 ⭐)

as much as i love horror, this was a bit????? actually no, it wasn’t even a bit, it was too much. made me pause multiple times to rethink my life decisions. i’m glad this is fiction

would i recommend? absolutely not ❌

[m0chigang]

January wrap up ✨

This is what I read this month after promising myself to get back into reading.

(just in case, there may be spoilers)

1. The Song of Achilles - 5/5

I started the year strong, I cried like a little b*tch for 2 hours. The best book of the month and my favourite just because of how much it messed with my emotions and how much I needed it to. I have read the criticisms towards this book, but those only make me like it more. At the end of the day, this book is a reinterpretation of Patrocuos' and Achilles' relationship, it's the point of view of a person who is in love with his soulmate. It's not accurate to the rest of the world, but it's his view.

2. A Dowry of Blood + An Encore of Roses - 5/5

Another favourite. Queer vampires? Polygamy? A masochist bratty twink? Murder? Sign me UP. If it wasn't for TSOA, this would be my number one. The way the author wrote the gaslighting in the relationship would make me fall for it and forgive Dracula. ME. The overthinker. The paranoid. The anti-romantic. And then the Encore. THE ENCORE. From the POV of my favourite baby boy? I was smiling in public.

3. Galatea - 4/5

It was so twisted, and poetic, and beautiful, and everything. My only complaint is that it was too short. But Madeline Miller will definitely be on my TBR forever. I'm just loving the way she is twisting these myths and stories we are familiar with. Circe and Heracle's Bow are already on my list, and the book she is writing about Persephone will automatically be added to my cart.

4. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder - 4/5

I loved this, I was solving the mystery alongside Pip, and I got a lot of things right, but I was still surprised at the end. It's a great book for crime show watchers. I've read how people find Pip annoying, but that is kind of the point, to see how obsessive she got, how it was changing her. I loved this book and that's final. HOWEVER, Barney deserved better. And I don't know if I like Pip's and Ravi's romance.

5. It Ends With Us - 1/5

I only read it bc of my friends. I had already read Ugly Love in the past and I hated it, and this was no different. I admit I have a different perspective on this topic bc I have witnessed DV, but still, this book is just problematic. Ryle does not pay the price for the HORRENDOUS crime he committed, and that made me mad.

[1d1195]

a couple years back i made a playlist called ‘songs i want played at my funeral’ and it was just songs i was really into at the moment but my mom somehow saw it and she was maaaaddddd😂 NO I GET IT THERE ARE JUST SOME SONGS THAT WHEN YOU HEAR THEM AT A WEDDING ITS LIKE YOUR HEART STOPS WORKING IDK WHAT THAT IS

went out with my oldest brother to run some errands today and i made us listen to 1D in the car nwbdjejwh it’s a hit with everyone, no matter who they are, he had the time of his life even if he would never admit it🤣

i’m glad you liked it !! i sat down and really listened to the lyrics and it was just so cute and sweet

hidden writer is so real of you lol. you’re literally changing lives out here and then living a normal life behind the screen, humble queen🙂‍↕️ you’re like our super hero (i laughed at u telling him u took a writing class when you didn’t just as an excuse, you’re so funny for that) i think it’s really therapeutic to have something just for yourself like this, idk but i really like to keep things to myself, as much as i love my family and friends and all that. even if it’s something small (or a hit tumblr blog in your case)

I LOVE NORMAL PEOPLE !!!!! i bought the book a couple of years ago when i was traveling and one time my sister picked it up and was like “i couldn’t even get past the first few pages, it was too confusing!” 😭😭 not for everyone i guess, but i really enjoyed both the book and the show.

SAW THAT YOU LIKE MADELINE MILLER AND GREEK MYTH STUFF ??? TWIN !!!! i read the song of achilles and jwhdidjwhaks i was in LOVE with it, ive been meaning to get to circe for soooo long but idk i just haven’t, gonna get that one on the next bookstore trip hopefully 🤞

i got Love & Other Words, The Book of Goose (saw something abt this online, super psyched for it), A Certain Hunger (cannibalism i think?? fun!!😃), and a Mary Oliver poetry book !! i have this obsession with reading deep, serious, (sometimes dark n sad) books because the writing is just sooooooo good !!! and i just always go back to them, they’re my favorites, but ive realized i have to balance that out with a cute, soft, easygoing romance afterwards cause i can only handle so much😭😭 even if it’s just a cute fic i need to remind myself there’s still happiness somewhere🤣🤣

HOPE YOUR HAVE THE GREATEST DAY EVER SAMMMM MWAHHH😚✨

~🎶

THAT'S SO FUNNY regarding the funeral playlist 😭😭

OF COURSE HE HAD THE TIME OF HIS LIFE. I do that to my bf all the time. I tell him "this song is a bop. Do you remember who wrote all the bops?" And he'll be like *sigh* "Louis..." it's my favorite thing in the world. He doesn't need to admit he had a good time, it's an internal thing that he needs to feel and nothing more 💕 ask him what his favorite song was and report back. I have my bf take 1D quizzes from Buzzfeed all the time 😂

I never thought about how much I keep from him and other people I love, but really it's just this blog. A HIT 😭😭 You're so sweet 💕

I LOVE Greek Myth stuff. I've read Elektra, Galatea (short story by Madeline Miller, didn't love it tbh, but anyway), Ariadne (Theseus is a D-BAG idk why I was surprised but still), I also have A Thousand Ships on my shelf as well as Pandora's Jar (which is actually looking more like a book describing all the greek myths in terms of why men suck and women get blamed for it anyway). I liked Circe more I think--been a while since I read it so I don't remember why, but I did. SO good.

PLEASE tell me what you think of Love & Other Words. I just got it back from my sister, I was rereading parts of it--it is my favorite of theirs so far 💕

I'm intrigued by The Book of Goose! Let me know what you think! I think I would skip A Certain Hunger personally, but I can't say it didn't reel me in a little. That's cool you picked up a poetry book. I'm not very into poetry--I think my brain is broken for higher order thinking. I can only do fluffy stories these days and historical fiction. But yeah. I think that's pretty cool you like the deep serious stuff! Nothing wrong with that! It's probably very thought provoking and I can't wait to hear your reviews! 💕

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

xoxo

[rikiws]

PICK UP (LINES). ꩜

▸ non-idol!jake x gn!reader ┆ strangers to lovers (?) general down bad-ery [fluff]

꩜ All you knew was that a really cute guy had just asked you for a map. Jake however, had a much longer story to tell.

ps: the Jake brainrot is real guys stay safe out there

. . .under the cut ⊹ (1.0k words)

Jake saw an angel.

The weather seemed to change itself just to accommodate you. You: just one of the many people waiting for the bus to arrive, but to Jake, you were so much more. You were sent from the heavens, he was sure of it; a carefully sculpted ivory statue brought to life by the gentle hands of Aphrodite herself- his own Galatea. 

The winds seemed to bend at your will, to send a warm breeze exactly where your hair could reflect the afternoon sun with ethereal sparkles, and your eyes seemed to twinkle along in unison, synchronised like a starry symphony orchestra. Jake had only seen you for the first time today, yet it felt as if he had been in love with you for aeons. It wasn’t love at first sight- no, Jake had always adored you, in all his other lives, in all the other universes, this was just his moment of epiphany in this one. His vision tunnelled to only fit you, blatantly ignoring the looks of confusion followed by the mischievous jeers of his 6 other friends. Jake was much too busy to be paying attention to them. He was much too busy staring at you. Only when a hand moved over his eyes, drawing a wall between you and himself, and only when Jake indignantly sent a glare to the perpetrator: a grinning Sunghoon, did Jake finally snap out of it- but not before feeling incredibly embarrassed about it.

It didn’t help that he was now sat on the bench beside you, an awkwardly large distance apart, with and equally awkward silence, and his wretched group of friends snickering at him from a safe distance. Of course, his best buddies couldn’t possibly let Jake just send you heart eyes from afar. It was their humble duty to not-so-subtly usher him towards you, sending him a few harsh smacks on the back just for good measure. They knew their friend, he’d do awesome.

Yet when he gathered what little courage he had left to send a glance your way, only to meet your already searching eyes, Jake felt as if he’d vomit out his heart right then and there. His eyes nervously shot away from your general direction, completely failing to notice your flustered expression that seemed to match his perfectly. Jake had so much to say, so much to ask you: What was your name? What job did you do? Did you know how absolutely adorable you were? Did you like guys with puppy faces? Were you willing to get married to him immediately? 

“Do you have a map?” Jake swore he heard a cackle in the distance. Out of all the terrible options, he just had to pick the worst one. 

“A map? Me?”

Jake gulped. Even your voice was a thousand times prettier than he could have ever imagined: comforting, like receiving a warm bear-hug- preferably one by you. Jake had the agonising thought of you saying his name with that voice of yours, the consonants rolling off your tongue as if you were made to say his name and only his.

“Er, you okay?”

You asked, sheepishly, and even the way you clumsily refused to meet his eyes seemed so endearing to Jake that all he wished to do at that moment was to cup your cheeks and tell you how insanely cute you were. But he had to stay focused, especially when he was on the brink of humiliating himself in front of the love of his life of five minutes. Jake jerked his head up and down to nod, propping up two thumbs-ups that prompted a small giggle out of you. He lost his mind once more.

He must have been clinically insane when you scooted closer towards him, a small map unfolded on your lap.

“You wanted a map right? Here.” “Yeah- hey that kinda looks like a duck!” He circled a small cluster of roads that indeed looked like a waddling duck. Jake’s smile faltered once he realised what he’d just said. He swore he could hear sad trumpet noises echo in his mind, so much for acting suave and mysterious. Jake had failed that from the second he laid his eyes on you. Yet when he looked up dejectedly, fully expecting you to be wearing a judgemental frown that would have still looked incredibly pretty on you, only to find you with gleaming eyes and a smile he wanted to carve into his brain forever.

“Right?! No one believes me when I say it! And this one looks like a frog, doesn’t it?” “Oh my god you’re right.”

Jake’s nerves melted off as he continued to point and giggle at strangely shaped streets with you, though the warmth in his heart only grew more and more at every second of your interaction. He could have sat at the bus stop forever, just retelling silly stories and finding shapes in an over-complex map, as the buses would pass by at each stop. But then you peered at your phone, checking the time and letting out a shocked gasp before turning to face Jake once again.

“Right, so where are you headed?” A bus appeared from the corner of the street, slowing down to a halt at the very stop the both of you were sitting at. If he wanted to do anything, he had to do it fast. But Jake didn’t even have to think, the words fell right out of his mouth, as if it were the dialogue of a cliché rom com.

“Well, I would say that I got lost in your eyes, but I found my way to your heart at the end.” Judging by your bashful smile, and the way you hurriedly pressed your phone into his hands, Jake would say that he absolutely nailed it.

꩜ want to read more? check out my masterlist

[klassyfeels]

It feels impossible to write my thoughts still. I don't know when this happened over the last 10 years or so but the voice is my head has become so silent it's so difficult to have my thoughts become words. A lot of times I just exist and other times not even that.

I'm going back to school. May 2024. Yay. I took a photo with a huge grin on my face for my school ID because I wanted to remind myself how excited I was when I made the decision to do it. I look like an idiot, but I like it.

The cost scares me more than anything. I can afford it. It's just that I am afraid I will spend all this money and fail at it. But I won't fail. I won't let myself. I'm still terrified, but I'm also excited.

In April, I will go on my first solo trip overseas. Yay? I don't know how to travel and be a tourist. I've never been one. But I decided to do this one big thing for me before going back to school.

I have never been so organised and planned in my life. I keep having nightmares about this trip. I forgot my passport. I forgot my passport expired. I forgot my luggage. I forgot to bring a jacket because Greece is cold in April. I forgot to book my flight, even though I already booked everything. I forgot I had a flight and completely missed it. These dreams happen almost everyday. I think I'll be fine.

I've also been reading. Which is something I haven't done in over 10 years. And now I've read 5 books this year and I'm about to finish my 6th.

It's mostly Greek stuff. With I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy thrown in the middle. I started with Mythos by Stephen Fry, then The Song of Achilles and Circe by Madeline Miller (and her short story Galatea). I loved all of them. The Song of Achilles especially. I also read Percy Jackson because I wanted to watch the Netflix show. Now I'm about to finish Heroes by Stephen Fry, and I'm so excited to get started on his Troy next. I could tell you so much about Greek myths right now.

I'm Glad My Mom Died was amazing too. I didn't think I would ever like biographies. But I liked this one. I never even watched iCarly.

I know why I'm writing all this here. I don't have an outlet. I want someone to be excited about what's going on in my life and I don't. So I'm writing here, again. Maybe part of me is also hoping the voice in my head comes back. I don't know. I am sad, but I am okay.

[evanhuang14777]

&lt;Cantar del Mío Cid>

My Cid Rodrigo Díaz you will hear what he said to him: Eat, count, of this bread; drink, count, of this wine, / for if you do what I say, you will no longer be a captive.

&lt;El Lazarillo de Tormes> by Lázaro de Tormes

[The blind man] washed the breaks he had made with the pieces of the jar with wine, and, smiling, said: / –What do you think of Lazarus? What made you sick heals you and gives you health – and other gifts that were not to my taste.

&lt;La Galatea> by Cervantes

Who is that powerful one who is known and famous from the East to the West ? Sometimes strong and brave, Other times weak and fearful; He removes and restores health, Shows and covers virtue in many, more than once, He is stronger in old age Than in joyful youth. [...] without weapons he defeats the armed one and it is inevitable that he defeats him and the one who has treated him the most, showing shame, is the most shameless. and it is a thing of wonder That, in the field and in the town, A captain of such a test, Any man dares Even if he loses in the fight.

<warning by Juan Ruiz>

«You can smell the fire, which is a very bad smell,

your mouth smells very bad, there is nothing that is worth it,

it burns the assaduras, the leg burns;

If you want to love, owner, the wine does not bother you.

«The drunken monkeys grow old, they

do not walk in their color, they dry out and turn gray,

they do many vile things, everyone hates them;

They miss God a lot and they fail the world.

«When wine is stronger than brains,

the drunks are gnawed like pigs and rooks;

therefore come deaths, strife and shuffles;

Much wine is good in vats and jars.

«Wine is very good in its very nature,

it has many benefits if taken in moderation;

He who drinks too much of it, take away his sanity,

all the evil in the world becomes all madness.

&lt;Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea>

“Settle down, my children, there is plenty of room for everyone, thank God. They gave us so much of paradise when we go there. Put yourselves in order, each one has his own place; I, who am alone, will fit this jug and cup, which is no more my life than what I speak of.

After I got older, I don't know a better job at the table than pouring, because whoever tries honey always gets stuck with it. Well, at night, in winter, there is no such bed heater. With two jugs of these that I drink, when I want to go to bed, I don't feel cold all night. I cover all my clothes with this when Christmas comes; This warms my blood; This sustains me continuously in a being; This makes me always happy; This keeps me cool; I see plenty of this at home, that I will never fear the bad year, that a crust of mousy bread is enough for three days. This removes sadness from the heart more than gold or coral; This gives effort to the young man and strength to the old man; puts color to the colorless; courage to the coward; to the lazy diligence; comforts the brains; takes the cold out of the stomach; removes the stench of longing; it makes the cold powerful; makes one suffer the toils of farming; He makes the tired reapers sweat all bad water; heals the redness and the molars; sustains without stink in the sea, which water does not do.

I would tell you more properties about it that you all have hair. So I don't know who doesn't enjoy mentioning it. It has only one blemish, that what is good is worth a lot and what is bad is harmful. So, what heals the liver, makes the stock market sick. But even with my fatigue I look for the best for the little I drink, only a dozen times at each meal. "They won't let me go from there unless I'm invited like now."

&lt;Don Quixote>Cervantes

Wine is mentioned up to 43 times in Don Quixote (1615), the most universal work of our literature. There are few characters more enthusiastic about wine in all of universal literature than the famous squire Sancho Panza, whom Miguel de Cervantes profiled not only as a great fan of wine but also as the possessor of a complete gift in the knowledge of it. “Won't it be good, Mr. Squire, if I have such a great and natural instinct when it comes to knowing wines that, when I try to smell any of them, I guess the country, the lineage, the flavor, and the hardness and twists it has to take.” , with all the circumstances that affect the wine”, Sancho comes to consider.

Another example, when Don Quixote charges against the windmills while Sancho walked "very slowly on his donkey, and from time to time he raised his boot with such pleasure that the most gifted still life artist in Malaga could envy him."

<coplero Alonso de Toro>

In Villalar and Pedrosa,

Bozales and San Román,

wine is no longer worth anything,

they give it almost for nothing;

Well, in Toro, where you were born,

I found, in the buns of the milestone,

a blessed red wine,

which in your life you dress like this.

In the city of Zamora,

on Valvorraz Street,

Blessed Our Lady,

there are so many taverns!

In Casaseca de Chanas

and Casaseca de Campián,

they give us so much wine

that we sing more than frogs.

In Corrales and Perdigón,

and in Fuen del Carnero,

even if the poor man carries a hide,

he will fill it without delay;

In Venialbo and at Fuente

Cantalapiedra and Cantalpino,

the people are very happy

because they drank a lot of wine.

Villarino and La Ribera

and the town of Fermosel,

a lot of wine, in a great way,

and softer than honey.

&lt;'Anna Karenina'> by Leo Tolstoy

Kitty, observes Anna Karenina's first meeting with the man who would later become her lover. Tolstoy relates what the Russian princess Kitty saw at that meeting: He could see that Anna was intoxicated with the wine of ecstasy that she inspired. She knew that feeling, she knew its signs, and she saw them all in Anna—she saw the trembling, bright light in her eyes, the smile of happiness and excitement that involuntarily forms her lips, and the unmistakable elegance, security, and softness of her movements— .

&lt;'Paris was a Party'> by Ernest Hemingway

The novel includes several memoirs by the author of the time he spent in Paris with other well-known American writers who lived there, where they met in cafes and bars to chat. At that time in Europe we considered wine something as normal and healthy as food, as well as a drink capable of bringing you happiness, well-being and pleasure. Drinking wine was not snobbery or a sign of sophistication or culture; It was something as natural as feeding and, for me, as necessary as that. It wouldn't have occurred to me to sit down to eat something without drinking, be it wine, cider or beer. I loved all wines, except sweet wines or those that were very heavy.

[galateasmad]

June 17

I’m out of the house already so I’ll have to put an alarm to do my homework and score myself for today but I imagine they’re both pretty much the same. Nothing has changed on that front aside from the fact that I’m very excited to have a whole day to fish and be around nature today.

It is the new moon, and because it was dark all night, the bass are gonna be feeding all day!

I’ve been so hopeful every time I go out to fish that I’m expecting the same pattern in terms of results but bestie was right, just being out in nature has been good for me regardless. I imagine my scores would be higher if not. Subconscious Galatea knew what perfect hobby to hone in on, too. Nature because proven antidepressant and through fishing, I have that mental capacity to be mindful about the motions of fishing and still have room to my thoughts without obsessing or spiraling. I quite like this special time to myself. I don’t feel lonely at all, but sure would be nice to get advice on what I’m doing wrong so I can freakin’ catch this SOB. (That isn’t catfish!)

Althouuuuuggghhhhh, I did get stuck in the water grass (reeds?) the other day when I rented a boat. I was lost in my thoughts and didn’t realize I got myself in an area filled with vegetation, motor’s rudders (?) got tangled up and I got banked before I knew it. The motor couldn’t go in reverse for some reason, tried the other battery and did other troubleshooting but when none of those worked I called the concession stand to ask for a rescue. Rescue came and changed my motor, pulled the boat out of the vegetation and shallows and I was saved!

One of the therapists at IOP made a point that it was a nice metaphor for my situation - got stuck, asked for help and got rescued and my mind was blown away.

I think I was lost in thought for most of processing group coz I hardly remember anything except for my thought record stuff and that damn good metaphor.

—

Played MTG yesterday, shout out to my lovely Jordan. Prerelease weekend and because I haven’t been playing, I totally didn’t expect to win. Saw that my choices didn’t have good white or blue cards, so I actually chose black-red orcs theme which is unlike me. It’s usually a rather aggressive play style so I don’t go for it, I’m more of a defensive control player… but what the heck I went 2-1 against my ex boyfriend’s best friend HAHAHA it felt good, I could see him getting frustrated which I understand - Jacob is one of his and I was the villain. He’s a really good player, an actual scientist, and the person who introduced Jacob to magic so I felt pretty proud of myself. I’ll take this win and run very far with it.