#anyway Asclepius is fun - a fun guy

[gingermintpepper]

Day 3: Asclepius

Interpretation notes and trivia under the cut!!

Woo boy, this guy was another difficult character to settle on both a design and an interpretation for! Asclepius tends to have two big schools of thought for his tale, either he's the tragic doctor who resorted to illicit methods in order to save his patients or he's a strict scientist who was so skilled at his art that his resuscitations were called magic but were just science. I don't actually mind either interpretation, but due to the way I personally see Coronis and the way I chose to interpret Asclepius' birth story, I chose to focus on a different facet of Asclepius; Asclepius the family man. The theme of geneology and the inheritance of 'curses' through blood and birth is one that permeates this work and Asclepius, in a lot of ways, has not only inherited both his mother and father's banes but his actions and talents create new ones for his children. Throughout this, and all the many messy crimes Asclepius will commit in the name of what he thinks is necessary and right, he will willfully ignore the warning signs staring him dead in his face screaming that he will leave the burden of his work to his children and it will be easy. After all, Asclepius has made a career out of ignoring his own father's warnings and cautions, what are a few more red flags to ignore?

Less of a character note and more of a personal thing, but for a very long time I used his teenaged design when sketching out scenes and ideas but after tidying up my timeline, I realised that he would be an older man throughout the events of the story!! Since he's properly mortal, he would have to look his age and while that was slightly intimidating since I've not drawn many older characters, it also made me very excited since characters in the 40+ age range are rarely protagonists of these sorts of adventure/fantasy stories and working in the physical differences between him and his brothers was extremely fun!

Some fun trivia:

Youngest of Apollo's children currently alive and kicking. Maybe it was because Apollo so intensely regretted the way he dealt with Coronis but he doted endlessly on Asclepius and essentially personally oversaw his education and training. Because of this, Asclepius, without a doubt, is the child with the best relationship with Apollo between the brothers and believes unfalteringly in his father even if they have many practical and philosophical differences.

Has a bit of a sixth sense when it comes to necromancy and communing with the dead and spirits beneath the earth. Because he was rescued from the torch of death when he was babe, he has retained a connection with the chthonic. While he cannot exactly see figures like Thanatos or Hermes, he can certainly sense when they are afoot. Is very aware that Thanatos cannot stand him and expects to be taken by Ker when he does finally die.

Always keeps gold coins on him on the off chance he is spontaneously struck down while doing research or healing some previously unhealable disease. His father, upon realising that his warnings would be thoroughly ignored, pleaded for him to do at least that since after Asclepius is dead, Apollo would be unable to intercede for him.

Happily married and has four children! His eldest Machaon chose to follow his footsteps and became a gifted surgeon in his own right while his second eldest Iaso chose to follow her mother's footsteps and become more of a nurse than a doctor. He's endlessly proud of all of his children and hopes his research makes the world a better place for them.

Was recognised by Apollo at 15 and became Doctor Laureate at 17. Lost said laurels at 22 after he revived his second corpse from the dead and since then has been on a strict probation when practicing his medicine. Has a mark on his left wrist that will fill itself out if he commits such an atrocity again and then he will be marked for death and supposedly tormented until he forfeits his soul.

On very good terms with Orpheus and the two often work together and catch up when they happen to meet up while travelling. Never knew Eurydice but he gets the feeling that he would've really liked her.

Despite being a son of Apollo, has absolutely zero musical talent and cannot dance. He can't maintain his hair either and would've cut it multiple times over if Apollo himself didn't stop him and chastise him for even thinking about such a thing. Epione does his hair. The little braids in his beard are courtesy of the twins Hygiea and Panacea who enjoy putting little braids in anything they can get their hands on.

Doesn't resemble his father or his mother actually! The relative he resembles most is his paternal grandfather Zeus, a fact that gives his wife endless grief because his hair is thick but not curly, a trait she covets. Asclepius having thick body and facial hair was also very awkward considering Apollo is incapable of growing body hair and, for a while, his lack of curls and cascade of body hair when Asclepius started puberty made Apollo doubt whether Asclepius was truly his or if he had saved Ischys' child instead.

Has zero self preservation and will hunt monsters and creatures for their blood, teeth, claws and hides for his medicines. Like his father, he has a personal 'wall of horrors' where he stores everything from gorgon blood to pegasus feathers to hydra venom. Sometimes gods in the guise of men will simply give him precious materials because they know Asclepius is the one who will take their unsolveable cases in the face of disaster. It is a very risky exchange and has only barely skirted by Zeus' notice because actual money hasn't been exchanged (yet).

Preferred weapon is the scalpel and doesn't like fighting humans. Has a fire-retardant mantle made from chimera skin Apollo gave him when he was a child that doubles as a very good shield in a pinch.

Favourite colour is withy purple and his favourite food is goat butter spread on bread and topped with celery, tomatoes and olive oil. Has a lot of snake themed jewellry that he's passed on to his son because he thinks they're too gaudy for his old self to be wearing.

[literallyjusttoa]

Apollo throughout the ages! Or at least from birth to Rome. I'm going to go ham on explaining the timeline under the cut, but I hope you guys like the designs I made for the different periods of his life!

Anyways EXTREME TIMELINE RAMBLING TIME

Baby (2591 B.C.E.): The year I arbitrarily decided Apollo was born in lmao. Apollo didn’t look like this for long. Probably only like, a minute. Just long enough for Leto to safely give birth and then he was immediately like “ew, no I wanna be big” 

2. Fighting Python (2591 B.C.E.): Immediately after being born, Apollo flies off to go fight Python for 7 days (fun!). After that, he is punished for committing murder and has to purify himself by serving as a slave for 9 years in the Vale of Tempe (funner!) Yeah, Apollo definitely had an A+ childhood. One thing in his first two designs Apollo doesn’t look entirely human. This is bc I like to think he was born with some cool titan traits!

3. Pre-First Punishment (2582-2300 B.C.E): Back from his years in the mortal realm, Apollo looks much more human. His clothes are inspired by Ancient Aegean fashions I found, as we are long before the start of what is considered Ancient Greece. Apollo is the youngest member of the Olympian council and it shows. This boyish look stays with him until after he serves under Laomedon.

Other events that happen during this time: 

Hermes is born (Around 2500 B.C.E.)

4. Post-First Punishment (2290-ish B.C.E-1500 B.C.E.): Apollo comes back from Troy influenced by their traditions, and it shows in his design. There wasn’t much I could find on how Troy differed from the rest of the Mediterranean at the time (probably bc for a while we thought the place didn’t even exist lmao) but I did find something that said an emphasis was put on those with higher status wearing jewelry. So Apollo gets pearls in his hair and golden bands around his arms. His clothes are inspired by feminine Aegean attire. 

Other events that happen during this time:

Music duel with Marsyas (Around 2000 B.C.E)

Dionysus is born (Around 1600 B.C.E)

5. Post-Daphne (1500 B.C.E-1194 B.C.E.): The introduction of the laurel. After Daphne’s death, Apollo distances himself from his family a bit, which leads perfectly into our next big event-

6. Trojan War (1194-1184 B.C.E): Apollo sides with Troy, and its influence once again appears in his appearance, this time even more pronounced. In a war against not only Greece, but his own family, Apollo keeps himself covered and constantly prepared to aid in battle. Missing his mother back on Delos, Apollo grows his hair out for the first time. 

7. Post-Trojan War and Hyacinthus (1184 B.C.E-776 B.C.E.): After Troy falls, Apollo sheds it’s influence quickly, not wanting to look like he’s supporting a side the rest of his family is either against or has given up on. He breaks his time evenly between Olympus and the mortal realm, and takes many lovers until the death of Hyacinthus around 800 B.C.E. After that, he stays up in the heavens for a few decades. 

8. “Main” Apollo (776 B.C.E-540 B.C.E): Starting with the first Olympics in Greece, Apollo is lifted as a paragon of Greece and its people. Shedding the peplos he has worn throughout his early years, Apollo wears a classic chiton and becomes much more invested in the affairs of man. This is a period of great power and ecstasy for him, but as the saying goes, pride goes before the fall. 

Other events that happen during this time: 

Death of Niobe’s children (Around 770 B.C.E.)

Music duel with Pan (Around 750 B.C.E)

Dating Cyrene (Around 630 B.C.E)

9. Coronis-Asclepius (540 B.C.E-500 B.C.E): A design that only lasts as long as Asclepius lives. Zeus is unsettled by Apollo’s influence over Greece, and starts applying more pressure against him. This leaves Apollo stressed, and that's without the fact that he is now raising a prodigy in medicine alongside Chiron. In these 40 years, Apollo attempts to balance his want to be involved in the mortal world with his fathers wrath. In the end, his father will win. 

Other events that happen during this time: 

Around 515 B.C.E - Tarquin purchases the Sibylline Books. Apollo and the Sybil of Cumae must happen before this point (not entirely sure when yet, but definitely in this period.)

10. 2nd Punishment (500 B.C.E.): Apollo serves his second punishment under Admetus. Crushed by the loss of his son and anger of his father, Apollo spends most of this time in hiding. It is only through the gentle hand of Admetus that Apollo finds some sort of healing. 

11. Late Greece (499 B.C.E-146 B.C.E.): Apollo is definitely trying to move on far too quickly from his punishment. He cuts his hair, dons his chiton, and gets right into being an Olympian. It doesn’t help that he is beginning to see the cracks in the foundations of Greece. Athens is flourishing, but only at the expense of Sparta and his own Delos. Years of civil war and threats of Roman invasion leave Apollo shaken, and he pulls away from both the mortal realm and his family, who seem more and more like strangers every day…

Other events that happen during this time:

Trophonius’ death (Around 200 B.C.E)

12. Fall of Greece (146 B.C.E.-32 B.C.E.): Rome officially takes over Greece, and suddenly Apollo’s family are all lost to him. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t think Apollo has a Roman form like the rest of his family, and I imagine the sudden switch in their personalities must have been terrifying. Rarely worshiped and ostracized from Olympus, Apollo returns to the mortal realm, spending his time in solitude as a shepherd. As his influence grows weaker, he begins to show sign of weakness. This is the only time Apollo “ages” (I gave him a beard) and I tried to take away some of the attributes that would have been considered divine. Apollo is completely covered, and he wears shoes (which gods would never do)

13. Rome: (32 B.C.E.-476 C.E.): I know, I know, Apollo should have multiple Rome designs, but I got lazy. Apollo is credited by Octavian for his success in battle against Marc Antony and Cleopatra, and worship of the god skyrockets. Now back on Olympus, Apollo is still wary of his family’s Roman counterparts. He drowns himself in luxuries, hoping to distract from his worries about his brothers and sisters. Who knows what kind of bad decisions a man might make in this scenario?!? (*cough* Commodus *cough*). 

And that’s my full timeline so far!! If there’s anything y’all have questions about (Any missing myths, questions about why I put things were) I’d be happy to answer! I put a lot of work into this, so I hope y’all like it!

[nasuversekinkmeme]

Weekly roundups: prompts

Tsukihime

Smut, I want that anemic twink Shiki spitroasted by Arcueid and Ciel in some odd competitive threesome thing the two got going on

Show mercy on my soul. Femboy Akiha.

Fate/Stay Night

FGO

Smut, For as much as they want her 'spear', I think Morgan should introduce Gudako and Da Vinci to it-- that is, can we have her cock vore the two of them?

Smut, incest, Karna and Vritra team up to edge and overstim Arjuna until he cries

jeanne gets some well deserved karma for her big sister beam brainwashing .

Yknow how Nobukatsu gloats over the REAL Nobunaga saying he is nothing like his as he lays dying from the poison he gave him? Something similar but this time Mitsuhide is the target and he made sure the poison was just right that it would take a very long time for him to die as he watches Or he just stabs the guy I dunno Nobukatsu deserves to kill more people

Morgan is Bored and demands carnival rides be built in Fae Britain. Entertainment ensues.

Noncon, incest, Summer Avatoria having a soft fulfilling romance with Muramasa as people who are tied by fate thrice over. Meanwhile Summer Castoria would LOVE to stop waking up filled with cum from a man she considers ber grandfather. The downsides of sharing a body you know how it is (feel free to play it as lighthearted or fucked up as you wish)

Asclepius becomes a therapist because dear God do some of these servants (and staff) need help and somebody's gotta be the counselor.

Noncon, Elaine of Carbonek, the raging bitch who raped Lancelot and mother of Galahad, is summoned. If you thought Galahad resented his FATHER, y’all ain’t seen nothing yet. Mash has to be physically restrained when Elaine refers to her as “Junior.” (Technically, Galahad would be Galahad Jr, if Lancelot ever went by his birth name. I am an Arthuriana nerd.)

Emiya realizes that Ritsuka mission are becoming too dangerous, so he locks himself there with her, she can left whenever she wants, as long as she is able to do a simple task, with all the knowledge and weapons she gathered from her servants she must kill him, proving she has become strong enough to be the protector of humanity

Salieri gets a Summer form, where instead of being the amalgamation of the rumours of who killed Mozart, he's the amalgamation of the myths of the Maenads who tore Orpheus apart.

First Hassan and Shiki killing increasingly improbable and abstract things as a friendly contest. Escalating from “the tension in the room” to Barghest’s desire to eat her loved ones” to “Artoria’s resentment of Mordred” to “Wednesdays.”

Continuation of the Grand Carnival joke: Atalanta has to marry Kingprotea, BB is in charge of organizing wedding and the rest of the Sakura Five are bridesmaids aka have to make sure Atalanta doesn't escape.

Blackbeard, Absolute Disgusting Degenerate that he is, is well aware that his kink is not everyone else's kink, and so after finding some improperly tagged Smut or Hentai, decides to make a video about the importance of tagging, what it means, and how to do it, because tagging your shit properly means that everyone can enjoy themselves in peace, so long as they use the blacklist. (This just kinda came to me TBH, Cause Blackbeard just kinda feels like he'd take proper tagging very seriously given everything about him.)

Fun fact: "thou" and "thy" and such were actually the informal register - "you" and "your" were the fancy, polite terms. Therefore, someone should write a fic of First Hassan trying to seem hip and chill and failing catastrophically because his understanding of what counts is hundreds of years out of date.

UDK Barghest gets hired to Put out a Fire (Read: Help Melusine with her Draconic Heat). Whether it goes full smut or if it goes in a comedic non sexy route is up to the author

Smut, Yu Mei-Ren has Hella Gay Sex with her Summer Variant. (Not NTR, though I'm not sure who all would consider it such anyway since its self on self.)

One of the Draconic/Lizard Servants installs a heat lamp in their room, because if you've got a tech wizard who will do anything for you, why not? After approximately 10-ish seconds of "why didn't I think of this before" from all the other Dragon-type servants, everyone immediately rushes to said room. Ensue dogpile of like, 20 lizard people (including Oberon and Rasputin for some reason??? gotta love traits) whether this is horny or not is up to the writer.

Smut, On their big day, a bride is stressed about the whole event and is this close to calling it quits. Habetrot can't have this so obviously there's one solution: cocksleeve time!

Barghest is openly lamenting in the hallway about how she can never be close to master or anyone else she loves bc of her bestiary nature and how she wishes she could keep herself in check. Scathach hears this and goes "Say no more" and puts her in a collar leash and muzzle. She's trained dogs before

Gudako tries her hardest to be Titania for Oberon. Oberon has Opinions about this. (I'll leave it to the prompt filler if these opinions are Positive, Negative, or Mixed.)

What started as a tiny fight "for charity" between Hektor and Achilles soon turns brutal as Achilles starts to truly want to kill Hektor. Paris, Manricardo, Alexander, and even Penth try to step in to stop him

Some asshole tries to threaten Guda only for them to reply and I quote "I'm not scared of Death, we have Tea on the weekends" Smash cut to them actually having tea with King Hassan, Eresh and Shiki. Whether Guda got hurt or not by the threatener ill leave up to the author.

How did Mel get access to Nemos aircraft carrier? Mysteriously kiss-covered Nemos refuse to answer (Note: all of em are adults)

Fun fact: Sastoria's NP is most effective against Summer Hokusai as she is both Chaotic, Divine, and a Threat to Humanity. Sooooo one-sided jealousy where Sastoria hates Saber Hokusai and Hokusai can't figure out why

Because I don't think we'll see him this summer. What summer side adventure is Kadoc doing? Who with him is you to the author.

Melusine's dragon nature means she likes building a hoards of all the things precious to her. now that she feels comfortable in Chaldea she can't help but gather all the people she likes to cuddle together with in bed with. Who ends up in her cuddle pile is up to y'all

Vlad is talked into going on a boat ride to relax. Everyone on the boat is very uncomfortable with this

Anything involving Ritsuka having extreme mommy issues

so Chloe's whole... thing... is "justified" in-universe as she needs magic to stay stable, so she gets it by doing... that. Ergo, I want to see something where she's summoned in Chaldea and thus hooked up to a stable magic supply, so she doesn't have to do that anymore and gets to actually Process and maybe just Be A Kid instead.

Other

I kinda just wanna say “Galehaut” and watch what the Fate fandom does with the idea of the half-giant king that only didn’t overthrow Camelot because he wanted to bone Lancelot. So I will.

Kinks are known to suddenly appear and develop with age, so: Older version of a servant helping unlock a kink for their younger self

can we get some consensual hypnokink content, perhaps? maybe someone has a kink for being hypnotized and wants so badly to hand over control for a little bit, or they're nervous about performing well during sex and just want to be more assured in themselves! how and why it's done is up to the author/artist as well as the characters, so long as there is consent established!

[occultboyscout]

A Post Where I Mock Tim Freke and I Don't Feel Bad About It

Alright alright, Time Freke might not be a bad guy. Who knows. Seems kinda weird self-help-y half appropriating whatever mystic tradition he feels like to benefit his own world view. Whatever. He might be nice.

This is a post where I compare his translation to Salaman Clement's much better (not perfect) but much better translation of the Corpus.

I might get a little mean. Trust me though it'll be fun.

The translations I'm comparing are Tim Freke and Peter Candy's The Hermetica The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs, and Clement Salaman's The Way of Hermes.

Let's start with Freke, at the beginning. Here Freke introduces our narrator Hermes and his initiatory guide who is... not the titular Poimandres? But the Way-Guide!

Bad start Tim! Really weird way to translate Nous. Also you're translating to Atum to make yourself seem cooler and more mystic. You can say God bro. We're talking a philosophy in the mix with the likes of Neoplatonism and Epicureanism (okay the Corpus probably predates both those things but the ideas were already out there), the monad as an idea is well established by this point. Whether the text is referring to the neoplatonic monad or a more Christian influenced God we don't know! Not for certain. But we do know that what you call the Supreme Mind is *of* God. Weird that you're not mentioning that.

Here's Clement

Ahhh here we go. The Nous *of* the supreme. The Mind of God as a manifest being who is separate but a part of the whole! This is what we like to see. Thanks Clement. Sounds like you've actually read some contemporaneous thinkers to the Hermetists.

Back to Tim

Here Tim boils down a lot of really complex and frankly beautiful ideas into a sort of intellectual sludge that I assume he thought would be easier for his readers. But in so doing he destroys any significant metaphysical insight someone could actually gain from the text.

Clement?

Ah here we go. A fiery demiurge, and androgyne Adam. This is the shit we come here for. This is the stuff that made this period of spiritual thought truly interesting. So much stuff getting mixed in together! Platonic thought! Christian themes and ideas! Planetary deities! A healthy dash of what would later be called gnostic by some!

There's so much depth here the compaction simply eradicates.

Okay one more comparison this post is already really long.

It's worth noting that Freke skips over ALMOST THE ENTIRETY OF THE REMAINING BOOK 1

Anyways. Here's Hermes dialogue with Asclepius in Book 2 Except Freke eradicates Asclepius from this portion of the narrative to... simplify? I guess?

Now, that's a lot of talking without making in actual points beyond a handwave to ineffability. So here's the passage I presume he was translating actually making clear and precise metaphysical claims about the nature of God.

Rather than ineffability, Clements translation retains the dialogue between the two figures to make a very clear syllogism on the nature of the divine as bodiless.

Not some apophatic rambling but actual statements about the nature of things! A universe with traits that can be observed and discussed!

Anyway this is all to say Tim Freke's a goofball please read something else. I know I rambled a lot here but it's quite late. For more Hermetic stumbling shoot me an ask. I'm going to bed.

[jurakan]

Unprompted Fun Fact!

It’s Fun Fact Friday, no one’s requested a Fun Fact, but here ya go anyway. It’s possible that a lot of you guys know this, but, anyhow!

You will often see this symbol, the caduceus, as an icon for medicine and doctors:

Yeah, that’s wrong.

Okay, so this is the staff of Hermes/Mercury, the Greco-Roman god of travelers, merchants, and commerce. And to be fair, this is a symbol occasionally for doctors for quite some time, and Hermes is sometimes said to be the god of writing, so the idea that he’s associated with the educated (like, say, doctors) is not out of left field. And pharmaceuticals, which one could argue is related to alchemy, which was once popularly believed to have been taught by Hermes Trismegistus, a figure made of combined Hermes and Thoth.

Thankfully we do often see the correct symbol, which is something close: the Rod of Asclepius:

This is the staff of Asclepius, the son of Apollo and the Greek god of medicine. He was said to have been a mortal who was so skilled in medicine, he brought someone back from the dead--for which Zeus killed him, because we can’t have people coming back from the dead all the time. He was deified (maybe because Apollo got big mad and started killing stuff again), presumably under the condition that he not bring people back from the dead anymore. His temple was a healing center, and in fact the famous Hippocrates (of Hippocratic Oath fame) was trained at one of these temples.

So now you know!

[kkairosclerosis]

uncommon things i associate my deities with~

hi guys! im back from a quick hiatus! 

i recently moved to the city, but not too far from where i lived previously in the country. living in the city, however, is proving to be a bit more difficult then i had imagined, so ive been taking some weekends to go back home and ground myself again so i can feel more connected to my craft<3.

anyways, this morning, i was sitting on the porch of my parents farmhouse, looking out onto the sunset as my idiot dog ran laps around the frost-covered lawn, feeling more connected to my deities than i had in weeks. i decided, ‘hey, here a nice post idea. maybe ill talk abt the things i associate with my deities that others might not, and hopefully inspire them to as well!’ so, here it is! 

uncommon things i associate my deities with!

hermes��—««

if this isnt your first time on my blog, you probably know: hermes is my patron. he has been for a while, even before i began to worship him. if you want to know more about why, check out this post. 

regardless, you can imagine that i hold very dear everything i associate with him.

in this case, it’s my dog. 

my dog is an...interesting border collie named oliver. i got into hellenic worship very shortly after getting him, and i have a very strong feeling he has a lot to do with it. 

i am thoroughly convinced my dog is a child of hermes. hes chaotic, but extremely smart. very, very fast, and spends hours running out in the yard. just running. nothing else. its even more intense when its windy, which, if you read the aforementioned post, you know that i associate the wind heavily with hermes. hermes is also the god of animal husbandry, and oliver is quite the farm animal. 

watching him run, i always get a strong sense of comfort. i know that the energy of hermes resides in him, its very clear. its almost as if his running brings the wind.  like hes running, and hermes says ‘hey, that looks fun! let me join!’ 

i, very regularly, ask for hermes protection of oliver. i do this because i know of the love hermes has for him. i can feel it. it makes me comfortable knowing hes safe while im not home with him. and i can tell it makes oliver feel safe as well.

aphrodite——««

aphrodite has always been dear to me, even before i started actually worshipping. i remember reading about her in the mythology books i frequented in the art room after i finished my projects, carrying them out to the field to just sit and read. she was an embodiment of beauty to me, and that has not changed since, so its natural that i associate her with one of the things i find most beautiful on this plane of existence: clouds.

when i was thinking of writing this post, i was sitting and looking at a cloudless sky. i was thinking: why is it that we most often consider a cloudless sky beautiful? is it because of the absence of ‘blemish?’ does a cloud signify a flaw? must all beautiful things be completely clear, or without mark? 

obviously, i thought this was ridiculous. clouds are so very dear to me. i mean, i have an entire album of photos on my phone of pictures of clouds i have taken. i have always been enamored. 

while i was pondering this, it hit me. beauty is unique. beauty is individual. thats exactly what aphrodite is about. these ‘marks’ in the sky are what make the sky beautiful to me. aphrodite is in these ‘blemishes’ because i find them beautiful. 

now, i dont mean to wrap this up in a corny way, but i encourage the people reading this to think this way about themselves. beauty is in your imperfections because they make you you. i have not seen one cloud that looks exactly like another i have seen, and thats exactly what makes them so beautiful to me. aphrodite loves all of you, and someone else does as well, so do not disrespect them by being mean to yourself. their idea of beauty is not misconstrued, so trust them. and if you dont think someone thinks your beautiful, know that i do<3.

apollo——««

apollo, to me, has always been sort of an enigma. i have a harder time interpreting his signs, especially recently, and i think that its particularly because of my recent falling out with my creative side. i have sort of abandoned my art, and it think its difficult for him to communicate with me through anything else.

one thing, however, i can feel him in is the sound of the birds in the morning. particularly, roosters.

as i mentioned before, my parents live on a farm. its natural to hear roosters first thing in the morning. some people find it annoying, but to me, its incredibly comforting. it means another morning has come. i’ve lived another day, and i have a whole new one to look forward to, until i hear the rooster the next morning. it means the sun is rising, and apollo rises with him. 

as a witch who particularly enjoys the sunrise, but has a hard time waking up to see it, the roosters serve as a sort of natural alarm clock. even if i do not physically get up to see the sunrise, i know it is happening, and i am awake for that first moment of dawn. it brings me comfort and a sense of small accomplishment, even on really difficult days.

and the days im in the city, and cant hear the roosters, its the morning songs of the birds in the part right next to my apartment building. this might be even more so, as apollo is the god of music. 

its a different type of comfort to wake up to the chill of the morning and hear the birds, knowing its a deity that loves me and wants to see me the next morning as well. i hope you, dearest reader, come to feel the same:).

asclepius——««

now, i haven’t talked about this much on this blog, but to me, asclepius has been such a pillar for me as of recent. with the pandemic and my own current health situation, i rely on him a lot for hope and support. i ask him to protect both me and my friends and family from illness or ailment, and in case of ailment, i ask him to facilitate a speedy recovery. thus far, he has never failed me, and i do not ever expect him to. i put my trust in him wholly. 

other than health, i find myself associating asclepius with cleanliness. while i see asclepius as the medic, i also see him as someone who is clean and organized. this is why i associate him with dewdrops.

now, bear with me in my explanation. morning dew, to me, feels clean. it feels almost pure, as it is one of the first forms of moisture a person can be met with during the day. 

picture it now. you wake up at sunrise, and venture out into your yard, the chill of the am just tickling at your face, cooling your nose to the touch. you take your first step off of the deck, and your bare feet sink into the grass, cold, and now wet from the dew. the feeling is shocking at first, as your feet get used to the new temperature, fresh out of the warm comfort of your blanket that sits invitingly on your bed inside. 

but the feeling is fresh. its grounding. its healing. 

that, to me, is how asclepius feels. 

sobek——««

i must be honest, sobek is the reason this post came to existence. i feel extremely strong about this one, particularly because i feel that sobek is under-appreciated and misunderstood as a god. i constantly encourage people to include sobek in their worship, as he, to me, has proven to be one of the most reliable gods i have ever worked with. i feel such a sense of comfort and love within him. i could sit in his energy for hours, days even. especially as a person who suffers from bouts of paranoia, his energy is one to learn to accept and become. 

for me, i see sobek in flowers. 

not many would see this, as sobek has this image of a tough, crocodile, protection god, which he is. but what a lot of people forget, is that sobek is also a god of fertility, particularly in harvest. in fact, sobek has done so much for my family’s farm. our garden is plentiful, and our harvests are more than we know what to do with. we end up making a lot of extra things with it, and giving it away to family friends and neighbors. i genuinely think that sobek creates abundance in our garden so he can give to our community. that is how loving i know him to be. 

however, what i specified was flowers. one of the most common offerings i give to sobek are roses. he seems to love them. sobek seems to protect that of which he loves, and roses are a symbol of love for me. i want to attempt to give him what he has given me. 

my family has a wildflower garden in front of our home. the morning i was sitting on the porch, i felt his presence, and i immediately looked to the flowers. delicate, yet extremely strong, and persevering. thats how i wish to be, and i can feel sobek in the encouragement of the flowers. 

i hope that didn’t come off too corny, although im pretty sure it did lol. i hope that this post was a good insight into my deities and how i understand them to be! again, disclaimer, not everyone experiences the gods in the same ways! some may agree with this post wholeheartedly, and some may have completely different experiences that make them disagree entirely! i am not one to gatekeep and define what the divine is, because the divine shows itself in different ways to different people. i hope you enjoyed this post, and have a wonderful day!

p.s. i love you and you’re worth it!

[intelligentdumbass]

Can't I Get a Break? (part 1)

(Again, beware of typos. I have no idea how this turned into what it is now, but it is what it is.)

Hermes pushed the door open and nearly tripped on one of goldie’s many stray brushes. The floor was also littered with paintings and marble statues of varying shapes and sizes scattered all over.

“Apollo?”

“You need something Herms?”

The blonde was in the corner, sitting down on a cushion, his eyes still focused on the canvas on his lap even when his brother was already standing over him.

“Dude, what’re you doing here? The wedding is about to start!”

“Eh? I thought it wasn’t until two months from now?”

Hermes stared, and wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Look, I don’t know what day you think it is, but I wasn’t lying when I said that the wedding is about to start.”

Apollo frowned, but then laughed when his instincts told him Hermes was telling the truth.

“Ah, shit. The girls are probably wondering where I am-” He immediately stood up and ran off into another room. “You can go on ahead Herm! I swear I’ll catch up.”

When the god took a glance at the painting he left on the cushion, he suddenly understood. It was a work in progress of Asclepius’ worktable covered in ashes.

---------------------------------

Olympus’ garden was breath-taking; bioluminescent flowers blooming under the moonlight. The gods were having the time of their lives, drunkenly singing under the serene night sky.

Hermes couldn’t help but subtly gaze back at Apollo every now and then. Despite all the fun the sun god was having dancing with the muses, their conversation in the studio made him felt like something was off.

Then someone caught him off guard by wrapping an arm around his shoulder, and he instantly knew who it was the second he smelled the wine in his breath.

“Jealous?~” Dionysus wiggled his eyebrows.

Hermes raised an eyebrow. “Jealous of what?”

Dionysus motions to the muses; it was at that moment that Calliope had her arms wrapped around Apollo’s neck as the god gave her a small kiss. Hermes rolled his eyes, but oh little did he know, he was faintly blushing.

The younger brother sighed.

“Look man, if you’re going to keep this up, then you‘re absolutely hopeless. I mean, at this point literally everyone except the distracted dumbass you haven’t confessed to knows that you want a piece of that-”

“Hahahaha, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Anyway, have you seen Eris? I heard she wasn’t invited-”

“Hey! Don’t change the subject.” Dionysus glanced back and frowned. “Huh, where’d he go?”

Hermes followed his gaze and sure enough, Apollo was nowhere to be seen; just the muses chatting amongst themselves, along with a few other immortals. The wine god scanned the rest of the guests at the party, and gave his friend a confused look, who just shrugged in response. Then before he knew it, Hermes was being dragged by the arm over to the group of gossiping sisters.

Urania saw them first and waved, while Thalia gave the messenger a knowing grin.

“You looking for Apollo?”

He internally cursed. His brother was right, everyone did know. Before he could say a word, his companion answered for him.

“Yeah. Wasn’t he with you guys just a minute ago?”

Melpomene and Polyhymnia gave each other a look, before turning to Calliope. She sighed.

“He said something about taking a break.”

“Apollo? A break?” Dionysus looked up, at the moon. “But it hasn’t even reached midnight yet.”

The goddess’ smile became just a tiny bit strained. “I know.”

Hermes frowned. “Did you manage to catch where he ran off to?”

---------------------------------

The garden was huge; its depths filled with paths most don’t even know of. Luckily Hermes knew his way around it like the back of his head. After all, he’s got good experience sneaking inside the garden from one of its many secret entrances.

The other deities’ slurred laughter were getting more and more muffled, until it was replaced by the crickets and the foliage crunching under his steps. Then out of nowhere came the familiar sounds of a certain lyre. His brisk walk slowed into a halt. He found the god of music sitting down on top of a small hill, back resting against the trunk of an old oak. He had a feeling he would’ve found him here. This spot was one of their favorites, because it also happened to be right in front of a giant crevice that overlooked a big chunk of the earth. The view was spectacular.

Apollo didn’t notice Hermes’ presence until he had already sat down next to him, which made him flinch.

“H-” “Hermes!” He glared.

“What?”

“You could’ve at least said something! Gods, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

The messenger resisted the urge to laugh and just innocently grinned, while his friend sighed. His gaze then went to the turtle lyre in the musician’s hands.

“I still can’t believe you kept that. I mean, it’s not just that you kept it. It’s the fact that I always see you actually use it.”

Apollo smiled, with a look in his eyes that basically said, ‘Why wouldn’t I?’

“It’s a very good instrument, even if it was just made by some annoying toddler. Besides, the other one gives me bad memories.” He pauses for a moment. “What’re you doing here? You couldn’t find someone to flirt with?”

“I was looking for you.”

“Did someone need me?”

“Nah, if that were the case then I would’ve already told you. I was just… concerned?”

The blonde seemed confused; now Hermes was the one who sighed.

“Did you really spend two months just, holed up in that room?”

“Maybe, what of it?” The lyre went silent.

Hermes frowned, but after a few moments of thought decided to stand up.

“Nothing. I just wanted to make sure you were okay, but considering what happened, you probably just wanted some alone time-”

“Nono, it’s fine.” His voice was so soft he almost didn’t hear it. “Please don’t leave.”

And so the god sat back down, this time inching a little closer so that their sides were touching. Apollo saw him glance at the lyre again.

“You want to play something? Go on ahead.” He hands it over. “I suddenly don’t.”

For a few minutes that’s all it was, Hermes strumming on his lyre while the crickets sung; Apollo staring into the distance.

“Wait.” For a brief moment, Apollo’s eyes lit up like a pair of miniature suns.

“Hm?” Hermes paused.

“Nonono, keep on playing. It was just… isn’t that the song you played to me? When you tried to convince me that it was totally worth trading half of my cows for?”

“Y-” “Yeah.” He was surprised. ‘How do you still remember that?’

Hermes continued to strum, but now his cheeks were starting to burn up. It doesn’t look like Apollo noticed though.

“Am I unreasonable, Hermes?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m one of father’s older kids, hell, his literal oldest son. You’d think I’d get used to this now.” He picks up a handful of dirt and just lets the soil fall through his fingers.

“Well, it… wasn’t really a natural death now, was it? Dude, if that happened to my kid I’d be pissed at dad too even if he had a reason for it.”

“I don’t know I’m just… I’m so tired of this.” At first it was a hand on his shoulder, but he quickly ended up hugging him; pulling him even closer and wrapping his arms around the messenger’s waist. “I’m so fucking sick of this shit.”

Despite how much that had startled him and the fact that he was internally screaming right now, Hermes still managed a smile. At this point, the blonde had his face buried into his shoulder. The younger god stopped strumming on the lyre and gave his friend a gentle pat on the back.

“I know that I shouldn’t be making a big deal out of this but-” “but I can’t not!” His rants were loud murmurs; like yelling but in soft whispers with the occasional muffled sniffs and whimpers. “I can’t stop thinking about things like this. I don’t know why. Is there something wrong with me? I know everything dies and that what Asclepius did was a crime against the fates, why can’t my brain just shut up about it!”

“Hey, Hey look at me.”

After half a minute of silence, Apollo reluctantly looked up.

“Don’t beat yourself up like that.” Hermes putted the lyre aside and wiped away some of the tears trailing down his cheeks. “You’re not unreasonable. I mean, have you seen the shit the rest of this fucked up family tree of ours has been up to? I’d argue you’re actually one of the most reasonable.”

“Oh, of course you’d think that-”

“Shhhh” He cut him off by giving him a small kiss on the forehead.

Apollo faintly blushed and then started staring off into oblivion again; resting his head on Hermes’ shoulder.

“I guess at least…” He murmured. “At least you guys aren’t going to suddenly die on me.”

“I don’t know about that. I can’t exactly guarantee that I won’t do a very stupid prank that might get me kicked into Tartarus.”

“Tch. Well, there might be a chance that I would’ve been stupid enough to do it with you, so at least with that we’ll both get chucked down into the abyss. Hey who knows, Dio might join us too.”

Hermes laughed, and even the blonde himself couldn’t help but crack a smile.

---------------------------------

“Well” Apollo sighed. “Thanks for putting up with that.”

“Of course.” He takes a quick look at the moon. “Maybe we should go back now. Someone might get worried.”

“I guess.” For a moment there, the god looked like he really didn’t want to leave.

“I mean, I don’t mind spending a few more minutes here if you want to-”

“No, it’s fine. You’re right; we really should be going back now.”

Apollo stood up first, and picked up the lyre; the messenger standing up not long after. The two deities had started to walk back when the younger god suddenly stopped.

“Wait.”

“Hm?” Apollo turned around and frowned. “Something wrong?”

“I… I need to tell you something.” He suddenly felt a little nervous, and couldn’t help but stare a little; maybe even briefly glancing at his lips.

Hermes took a step closer.

“I-” “ACH!-”

But before he could do or say anything else, he felt something hard smack him right in the face. He probably would’ve fallen back onto the ground if Apollo hadn’t caught him.

“Are you alright?”

“What…” Hermes rubbed his nose. “What the FUCK was that?!”

Then there was a distant cackle, and it sounded oddly familiar; almost like it came from a certain goddess of chaos.

Out of the corner of his eye, Apollo saw a speck of yellow on the ground. It was an apple made out of solid gold, and there was an inscription scribbled onto it, but that wasn’t why he was staring.

Once his brother had fully recovered from the shock, he let go, for him to stand on his own. The fruit glimmered and sparkled under the ambient moonlight, enticing the immortal to come closer. He crouched down and picked it up. It glowed against his hand, and it flashed against his eyes.

First he felt the heat, like the sun’s solar flares were gently flicking and liking his skin. Then he smelled the stench of thick, red, mortal blood. His limbs were heavy and his stomach tied itself into a knot; his head filled with the slow rhythmic beat of drums, except it wasn’t drums. He wasn’t in the garden anymore; he was in a temple, his temple. He knew because of the statues, but they weren’t the only company he had in this large, hollow room.

There was a stranger in front of him; their steps the source of those loud, steady thumps as they gradually got closer, and closer…

He was a god, he knew he could easily kill them, but instead he found himself backed up against a wall. Then they grabbed him by the throat, and drew their sword. In the heat of the moment, he somehow managed to catch a glimpse his reflection in the glint of their blade.

What he saw wasn’t his face.

But the face had his eyes.

Apollo instinctively dropped the apple and cursed fruit quickly fell back onto the ground. His face was drenched in sweat; his fingers twitching; breath hitching and heaving.

“Apollo? Goldie?!” Hermes rushed towards the blonde and cupped both of his hands. “Hey buddy, what’s wrong?”

The god inhaled, and exhaled; closing his eyes. He squeezed both of the messenger’s hands and forced himself to calm down. When he started coming back to his senses, he glanced around, but the apple was already gone.

“Hermes, where did that cursed piece of golden shit go?!”

Hermes blinked, surprised. “I… don’t know?”

But what he did saw, was a few black feathers as dark as the sky above them. They were scattered along the path that led back to the main event.

“…Hermes I need that fucking apple.”

“Huh? What? Why-” “Hey, HEY! APOLLO WAIT!!”

Apollo had started to run back towards the wedding, and Hermes was right behind him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next

[mountphoenixrp]

We have a new citizen in Mount Phoenix:

                               Lucas Walker, who is known by no other name;                                                    a 28 year old son of Lei King                         He is an EMT/Paramedic at the MPPD and Asclepius General.

FC NAME/GROUP: Christian Yu/DPR/Ex C-Clown CHARACTER NAME: Lucas Walker AGE/DATE OF BIRTH: September 6, 1990 | 28 PLACE OF BIRTH: Central, Hong Kong | Sydney, Australia OCCUPATION: EMT/Paramedic for MPPD and Asclepius General HEIGHT: 5'10" | 176cm WEIGHT: 165lbs | 75kg DEFINING FEATURES: He has a large amount of tattoos, his most prominent being his full sleeve on his left arm that leads to a floral piece on his chest and shoulder blade. On the inside of his left bicep is the date 12.12.16 which is the birthdate of his daughter Jasmine. He has a few other small tattoos scattered on his body. His nose is pierced, on the left side and his septum is pierced along with singles in both his ears.

PERSONALITY: Most of his life Lucas was considered the wild child, the bad boy and, the adrenaline junkie. Which were true at one point. He grew up in a pretty bad area so he’s always had a tough skin, which also meant he grew up really quickly. Underneath that tough skin is a guy who loves to goof around and have fun. He’s grown more into himself over time, losing that mask of toughness and being more himself. It slips in sometimes though. He loves to travel and learn about new cultures and loves languages. He loves to be silly and strives to be as artistic as possible.

HISTORY: There is very little known about Lucas’ past leading up to his adoption when he was four-years old, in Sydney, Australia. The letter that was left with him when he was left at the orphanage stated that he was born in Hong Kong and at barely six-months old that letter was the only information they had for him. He was a sweet baby with no name, history or family. Everyone who worked at the orphanage loved him, he was a great baby that rarely ever cried. One of the women that worked in the orphanage kindly named him after he was just deemed “baby boy” by the other women who worked there. Now armed with a name for the first time in his six-months of life he began to thrive there. Many who worked in the orphanage doted on him, simply enamored by his silly nature or cute features. He was an easy child to love.

Lucas lived in the orphanage until he was four-years old. When he was then adopted by the same woman who gave him his name. Gabrielle Walker was a lovely woman who always wanted to be a mother but, her partner passed away before they could have kids together. While trying to put herself back together after their passing she found a job that would change her life. Working at the orphanage was a blessing for her, to be surrounded by wonderful children all day was her favorite part of her job. The kind woman quickly took to Lucas when he was a small baby, giving him a name and spoiling him when she could. Eventually, she’d decided to adopt him, that way she could call him her son - even though he’d felt like it for years already.

She gave Lucas the best life she could as a single-mother. They had a nice apartment, food on the table and they were thriving. It wasn’t the life many people dreamt of but it was theirs. Until tragedy struck. She lost her job when the orphanage closed down and things began to fall apart. Suddenly their minimalistic life was even less. They moved to a bad neighborhood, she skipped meals in order to feed her growing boy and did what she could to keep a roof over their heads. Which meant she had her hands in some pretty unsavory business. Lucas was about 10 at the time and he was doing his best to survive too. He got in with a pretty bad crowd and started doing people’s homework for cash. The kid was smart as a whip and decided to us that to his advantage.

He started dying his hair, modifying his school uniform just enough that he wouldn’t get written up. Along with his bad group of friends they even gave themselves a few piercings. By the time he made it high school his mom was finally able to quit her job as a prostitute and start working in an office building. Lucas however, stayed in with the kids from his neighborhood. The group of them were basically a gang, selling exam answers and drugs, vandalizing buildings. Petty crimes but, it was enough for him to get a reputation. He rode a motorcycle and forged his mom’s signature to get tattoos. Lucas looked and acted the part of a bad boy.

Those who actually knew him knew he was just a big dork. Underneath his “bad boy” exterior he’s just an incredibly smart kid who loves life, learning, adventure and being silly. All his life he never really noticed his abnormal pain tolerance. It wasn’t until one day when he was 16, he had broken his hand after punching a brick wall in anger and didn’t notice until his mother freaked out when he got home. That was when he started experimenting with pain, seeing what he could handle. Turns out it’s a lot.

It was around that same time he started to notice those he would argue with or just genuinely didn’t like would get headaches in his presence. He eventually started practicing on his “friends” and realized he could cause people to feel pain just by thinking about it. This was something he would soon learn is not just a fun party trick.

After high school, Lucas left home to finally travel the world. He got a job with a travel company to take pictures of places people should visit on their trips. it was bittersweet for him to leave his mom but, he knew she was well taken care of now. He was genuinely happy for the first time then. To finally be away from all those toxic people in his life that bended him into someone he wasn’t and to finally be traveling the world as he always dreamed. He traveled for five years, working as a travel photographer and blogger. Learning all about to cultures and making friends in many places.

At 23 now, he went back to Sydney - for longer than just a holiday. His mom was beyond happy to have him home. She’d found a new partner not long after he went off and Lucas was over the moon for the two women who he loved dearly. Lucas settled down then, deciding to go to school to become an EMT. He figured he might as well use his brains and brawn for something that could actually help people. He thought about being a cop but, he still had a bit of record so that wasn’t on the books for him. Lucas was quick to learn he as good at it too. He enjoyed it more than he though he would. The adrenaline of working frantically in the back of the ambulance was something he loved.

Things were going well for him and he was in a good place, had his own apartment, a good job, and good friends. Until at 25, a surprise was handed to him in the shape of a little baby girl. A girl he’s hooked up with once fell pregnant and he had no idea. She kept it from until the day she went into labor. She was a friend of his, and he was under the impression she’d gotten pregnant by her ex-boyfriend. So when she dropped this bomb on him the hot summer night she went into labor, he basically shut down. Fully in EMT mode he got her to the hospital and stayed with her since her family wasn’t in the country. Things remained tense but he did his best not to upset her, not wanting to cause her or the baby any stress. As he held the little girl in his arms, he knew she was his.

He didn’t need a paternity test to know that little Jasmine was his, but they got one anyway - at the request of his mothers - and he proved she was his on paper. Jasmine was an amazing baby, beautiful, sweet and very well behaved. Her mother wanted to put her up for adoption, she was under the belief that she wasn’t ready to be a mother and he wasn’t ready to be a father. They were both still heavy partiers, too immature to raise in kid in her opinion. Lucas thought differently. As he held his baby girl in his arms he knew she was the light of his life and would do anything to give her the best life possible. So, after many arguments and discussions they came to the agreement that she would sign away her rights and Lucas would have full custody. Lucas raised Jasmine on his own (with intermediate help from his moms when needed). His friends loved her and she had all of her aunts and uncles wrapped around her little fingers.

Now at 28 and Jasmine at three years-old, Lucas was offered a job off the coast of Korea. He missed traveling more than anything and couldn’t wait for Jasmine to be old enough to travel with him. So, he figured this could be a fun adventure for the two of them, a new home, a new job - a new adventure.

PANTHEON: Chinese CHILD OF: Lei King POWERS: He has extremely high pain tolerance and can induce psychogenic pain in others. He also has the ability to call upon the sound of thunder at will. STRENGTHS: Intelligent, Adventurous, Creative WEAKNESSES: Impulsive, Stubborn, Reckless,

[takerfoxx]

Flip-Flappers episode 5, first impressions (for real this time)!

So OF COURSE me accidentally clicking on the wrong episode last time almost made me skip the one with an actual horror theme. Great.

Anyway, given that this whole romp is about exploring collective dream worlds, it makes sense that sooner or later we’d get one that takes place in a nightmare. And boy, this was a doozy! We get the classics: familiar location but everything is in drab black/white/grey shadows with occasional glowing reds, people who look and move horribly wrong, concealed faces, creepy candles for lighting, endless rain, distorted camera angles, freaky dolls that seem to move on their own, and a thunderous chiming clock tower. And to top it off, we have the whole time loop thing that seems to be brainwashing our protags. Fun times all around.

So, with this episode in the bag, you cannot tell me that this show wasn’t at least in part influence by Yume Nikki. This is something I started to notice in the desert episode, but the whole aesthetic is just so incredibly Yume Nikki looking. And as a big Yume Nikki fan, it’s definitely a welcome addition.

If I have one complaint, it’s that the creepy students turned out to be malevolent after all. I really liked how at first it seemed that as scary as they seemed to begin with, they might actually be friendly after all, but nope, it’s just part of the fragment’s defense system to brainwash the protags. Kind of disappointed about that.

We also get a little more of Yayaka and the twins. As much as they act as antagonists thus far, they are definitely going to make some kind of switch before the end, or at least Yayaka is. I mean, it’s made pretty clear that she’s just working with the twins out of necessity, and there’s not a whole lot of actual affection between her and them. But hey, she had a really good point when she confronted Cocona over her motivations. Why is Cocona doing all this? She doesn’t really know what FlipFlap intends with those fragments, she has no wish of her own in mind, so why exactly is she going along with everything? In the end, it’s because she likes Papika, and it’s what Papika wants to do, so why not? She was pretty much without direction and purpose, and working for FlipFlap provides that. Plus, it’s kind of fun sometimes. 

Of course Yayaka slaps this down in a second. Pure Illusion isn’t supposed to be fun. As weird as it is, it’s still dangerous and can really screw up your mind, and has in fact done that to Cocona and Papika three times already because they weren’t on their guard! It’s weird, but it does make Yayaka and the rest of  Asclepius seem like the more reasonable party. Sure, their stated end goal is world domination, but that can mean any number of things, and can we really be sure that Dr. Salt’s intentions are more benevolent when we don’t even know what they really are? Curious.

I have a feeling that some hidden intentions will be revealed sooner or later, whether it’s  Asclepius turning out to be not bad guys after all or something up with Dr. Salt or maybe the inverse. Regardless, allegiances will no doubt be tested. It would be interesting if Cocona is forced to choose between Papika and doing what’s right. Or hell, Papika has to make the choice between FlipFlap and Cocona. 

Also, give that girl a new hoverboard already!

q̢̻̩̻̠̇͑̍̌͘r̊̾̆̊Ȩ̷̶̱͍̱̓̃̋̈̍̄͂̀̆3̶̶̝̰̘ͦ͛T̫͑̎ͪͨ͗̕͞l̻̔̄ͩͭ͆̉͗n͊ͨ̽̋̈̋ͤ̃̒͝͠q̛̳͇̝ͩ̃s̸̜̠̠̮͛̈̓̿͆̉̕

[writing-frenzy]

Cuphead Thoughts and Headcannons.

So, I realized I never talked about my headcannons for the awesome hell game. So here we go, into something sort of canon and au-ish at the same time!

Okay, so first of all, you know how magic has to have rules, otherwise the earth as we know it wouldn't just cease to exist, but could go out and destroy everythin ever? Well, that is the same for the World of Cuphead; there are some very strict, very solid rules in place to ensure that everything stays well and happy, despite all the chaos going all around in inkwell. The biggest is the Isle Three. Asclepius on the side of good, Master of Time to act as the balance, and The Devil himself to incite chaos and destruction. These three need to stay in the world, otherwise the balance will go out of wack and make Inkwell a very bad place to be.

Now, we can see plenty of the Devil’s work and minions everywhere, but theMaster of Time we never actuall see, only his minions who can be everywhere and when as they want... As for Asclepius... well, he's a bit closer then one would think...

ever hear of the rod of Asclepius?

Geez, whatever could this remind me of? Let’s see,  Asclepius is the god of healing and medicine, so who in this game actually shows concern for you, even singing for you, something great for emotional support and health?

:D thanks to Rook from Discord for being a sounding board and suggesting these guys, it was fun making them the greatest good! (also thank you Adair for being another sounding board!)

Anyways, the reason they’re apart is because of a battle that the Isle Three got into ages ago against a Threat so powerful and destructive, they had to each work together to defeat it. Now, such a battle left effect on each of them, leaving it’s marks and scars for the big three, though they can fuse when needed.

Anyways, things are okay on the isles, great even for a time!... Until the Devil starts getting greedy, getting all these powerful souls into his hands.

Cue the Game happening... which is both probably the greatest and worse thing to happen.

Great, because the boys were able to stop the Devil and such. Worse, because they actually have the power to stop the Devil.

Yeah, the Balance is shaken.

In the end though, I like to think the boys work as a figure of Fate; They go where they are needed, doing what they can, and helping the balance stay even... for better or worse. 

Random thoughts now:

Cuphead and Mugman are actually equal in terms of power; they just each of their own strengths and weaknesses to balance each other out.

They are also the balance for each other; they keep the other even, help the other out when needed, and are always at the other’s back.

Yin and Yang to each other XD

My Thoughts on the casino crew pretty much go in line of @circateas with the group being a big family and everything, the Devil being a good boss, though still a bastard.

The Devil is the only demon to have an actual soul, hence why he is so powerful; it’s why he is able to still care and love, and all that other stuff.

When King Dice was smashing Wheezy into the ash, he wasn’t just chastising him; he was saving the man’s life, almost being killed by the bros. Ash and fire have a way of healing the cigar, so thus when Dice made him eat ash, he was making sure Wheezy wouldn’t die from the boys shots... though he did use more force then necessary because of tax season.

Master of Time, despite no one knowing what he looks like, is the sexiest being alive :D

and that is it for now, I’ll post more if I think of anymore.

[nomanicsdak]

New Post has been published on https://manicdak.com/the-face-of-boeetia/

THE FACE OF BOE(etia)

Riddle Me This

I have to talk to a man called Gorgias (who may be this Gorgias?) here in Boeotia. I’m just going to assume this is pronounced like gorgeous before I can hear anybody pronounce it! (Update: it’s not, but I’m still going with it.)

Hello, Gorgias!

After defeating a huntress camp, we find Gorgias in a weirdly modern looking ruin. In it is also the Sphynx. Apparently this quest has something to do with Pythagoras, so maybe it has to do with finding the relics I’m supposed to be finding. Who knew this was a main quest? I probably could have figured that out by looking at my menu, but who wants to do that?

Anyhows, I have an amulet that I am supposed to be finding the matching half of? Seriously, did I just doze off when I met Pythagoras? Because I remember none of this! Haha, anyway, Gorgias is worried about his Pibos, which is not a colourful euphemism, but the name of his missing apprentice. Pibos has the other half of the amulet, I guess. How ‘BFFs’ of them.

I find his body not far away. A creature killed him! Also, it ate the amulet. Why would it eat the amulet and not the guy? Maybe all that heavy metal gave it indigestion. I recover the goods from a lion’s belly in any case and head on back to give Gorgias the bad news. He’s going to be so sad. However, this amulet is the key to awakening the Sphyinx, so— I won’t feel so bad if the Sphyinx comes to life! It probably won’t though; I’m guessing it will trigger some kind of treasure door or doom puzzle or something.

Is this the Real Life?

 Okay, well—the statue of the Sphinx and Gorgias disappeared before I could even get there to test my theory. I try to insert the amulet anyway, but the game tells me to come back at night. Why are you giving away all your secrets, game? It would have taken me a thousand years to figure that out on my own! Anyway, I meditate for a while, come back at night and—

HOLY SHIT, the Sphynx did come to life! I am delighted and terrified. Is it reality, or is Alexios having some sort of fever dream? Let’s see what she has to say!

She has a challenge for me of some kind and is totally not here for my awe. Which, to be honest, Alexios probably shouldn’t be that awed. We already found like, three Cyclopses, one should be dead triangle dad, and Athena 4 Real. Literal Sphynx is just another day in life really.

Is This Just Fantasy?

Oh no. She has riddles. 

Well, they are all pretty easy, and when I solve them and touch some symbols on the wall she disintegrates and I capture a giant golden feather inside some kind of ancient Greek Pokeball. For my efforts, I get a Sphynx figurehead for my boat! 

 Sorry, snakes. She is way cooler!

Sibling? Rivalry!

Okay, Sphynx quest done and done, now time to see what I’m supposed to be doing to help out Sparta per King’s request. This cannot possibly be as fun or ridiculous as the Olympics, alas. I am only proven correct when I arrive and the general in charge is my step-bro??? or actual bro? TBH, I am confused about who exactly this dude is to Alexios, but I do know he thinks I killed dear old dad. Naturally, he punches me in the face on sight. Cool. 

OMG!

Well, we have some words, but he gives me a mission anyway and what I have to do is kill Boetian champions, so off we go!

The map tells me to head to Thebes for the one called Drakon, but I can’t find where there at is, so I go to the nearest big city which is actually Thebes! Good guess, self. Here I will be doing a bunch of quests and clearing out all the locations!

In the first spot I come away with a mace called Boetian Rhapsody. Worthy of note because, Heh. Whilst I’m in this pause screen checking out my gear, I also find a most terrifying mask. Where the hell did I get this thing???! Also, since I often talk about the cult family tree, here’s a screen shot of it. I’m just checking these guys off as I roam around. I should probably make a point of it after I finish this quest though, because I need to upgrade my spear so I can upgrade everything else with my unused points.

Cult Family Tree. Also, why does that dude on the top right branch look like the ghost from He Man?

NIPS

Next, I head towards the gym, because this is what the game is telling me I should do. Here I find Melanippos, who is worried about his one true love—Drakon. The dude I’ve been hired to assassin. On the scale of things I want to do, proving myself to my a-hole brother rates very much below reuniting these lovebirds. Let’s see if I get a choice in the matter.

Ok, so Nips over here wants to create a love potion and smear it all over the inside of Drakon’s armor so it gradually seeps into his skin, guaranteeing eternal love. Eternal poisoning is more like it. On the one hand he is wearing a Rod of Asclepius necklace, so maybe he won’t be accidentally coating the armor with hemlock or something. On the other hand, this is just a terrible idea. You can’t make people love you, bro. 

The Unintentional Saboteur

Of course, I agree to find the herbalist who has the ingredients for him. Alexios asks about how vulnerable Drakon’s going to be while he doesn’t have his armor, and the answer is, very.

 I see you, game, sussing out the tips on defeating Drakon. Here Nips is, giving away vital information directly to an assassin. 

We’ll see how it shakes out.

Here are some more clues:

 The herbs are red hot so Drakon’s affections will sizzle. Rowwwr!

How did he and Nips meet? Well, Nips wanted to become the best, so he wanted to train with the best. “But the only muscle he worked on was his heart.”

Please don’t make me kill this dude.

The last bit of info that I get is that Drakon might be at the training ground.

Okay, off to find this herbalist!

I am not surprised to find her farm surrounded by bandits. I get rid of them and talk to the herbalist. Apparently, Nips has been after this for a while. This is kind worrying. Also worrying is the singing he engages in when I get back. I get the feeling that maybe Drakon is not as into Nips as he is into Drakon. Like, did I just enable a stalker? In any case, Alexios double makes sure that Drakon will be without his armor for a time, but none of this helps in finding him.

Oh well. On to the next quest. 

HORSING AROUND & HIPPOKRATES

I’m going to help this merchant get his goods, and his horse back from some soldiers. This too leads back to Drakon, who will be mad if he can’t get his oil for his back. Also another clue: Drakon prefers the flammable oil. 

Dudes, you are making his defeat too easy. Loose lips sink ships after all.

Hippokrates’ Meds Bring All the Boys to the Yard

I get the horse back for the merchant and get another clue about the location of the training grounds. There is still one more quest that will presumably aid in my task. I have to go save and rescue a hunting party from a terrible beast for Hippokrates, who is here for some reason. I thought I left him to deal with the Plague back in Athens? 

Anyway, I find two bears fighting over this poor hunter with the rest of the party dead. I stun the bears until the brown bear goes down. The white bear on the other hand just runs away. Do I get to complete the quest if the mega bear is still on the loose? I guess we’ll find out. 

The answer is yes. I avoid mega bear whilst carrying the injured man back to bald ole ‘Krates. Incidentally, Alexios really hates these Thebans who sided with Xerxes. He keeps muttering at them for being cowards under his breath as part of the ambient dialog. I guess you can’t totally take the Spartan out of the mysthios. 

TO KILL OR NOT TO KILL…

It turns out Hippokrates is having a crisis of faith. The injured guy will survive if treated, but Hippokrates might not want to do that. You see, this fella is a slave trader who hurts and tortures people for a living, you see. Bro. Why did you send me out to save the dude? I could have just let the bears eat him!

Now I have to make choices instead!

I mean—Do no harm, right? I don’t want to be responsible for the Hippocratic Oath not being invented. Of course, this would be a really weird choice for a professional assassin to make. I’m out here stabbin’ all the time. I mean, Hippokrates could always just hire me to ease is conscience. 

LOL, on second thought, actually I don’t have a choice. 

Save him for the $$$, or save him because it’s the right thing to do are the actual choices now that I’m done ruminating on the pros and cons and actually re-read the text.

Save him for the right reasons, Hippokrates. Alexios offers to free the slaves at least and Hippokrates just runs with it. He wants to rehab the slave trader and show him the error of his ways. Well, good luck with that, pal. I have some people to free!

Swimming with the Puppies

So, they are located east of the river in the Malanippos’s camp. Nips has a camp??? Did he escape from there? I’m so confused. Let’s go there and see if we can’t figure things out. The good news is that I free the slaves and also find out Drakon is nearby so I don’t have to expend brain energy misreading the map. Also, one of the attack dogs fell into the water. So now there is an aquatic dog down there glitching, which is hilarious. Luckly, it doesn’t try to fight me underwater.

Anyway, I free the slaves and talk to their leader. I don’t remember anything she said now, but I return to Hippokrates and he is still really bummed out that the bad guy is going to live. This quest did not, however, give me any more clues on how to beat Drakon. 

I guess that means it’s time to defeat him now! Let’s get to it!

I see how it’s going to go though when I reach my destination. There’s no talking to him. I approach; he attacks. At least that’s going to ease my conscious about this task. Hopefully I will never have to see poor Nips again though.

With that finished, I am lost.

I have three other champions to defeat and the only clue the quest gives me is that I must defeat them.

Where are they? Are they all in Thebes? Would that be too easy?

TO KILL OR NOT TO KILL…part 2

Well, Hippokrates has another quest for me, so maybe if I help him out it might give me some clues.

It does not.

I arrive at some house and Hippokrates is fretting because the old man there wants his help to die. He’s old and in pain and wants his son to take over business before their rivals can take advantage of his frailty. Hippokrates, on the other hand, wants to study his disease in hopes of learning some more medicine that can help others.

I agree to help him take out the rivals and lo! I have already beaten them apparently. I love a quest that is finished before I even start it! The guy still wants Hippokrates help though, so I agree to speak on his behalf. I try to convince him to do the man this favor, but Hippokrates does not want to hear about morality form an assassin. Fair enough, my man. Fair enough.

Hippokrates and His Potential Lab Rat

Well, I guess that’s that for now. I will fetch the Hemlock that has been requested of me and see where it goes from there. Also, it’s worth noting, I suppose, that in game, Alexios knows that this is poison. Hippokrates thinks it will work great to ease the man’s pain in the correct dosage though. 

It’s taking a really long time for the cut scene to load which is a bit worrying. When it does, Hippokrates is giving me the power to decide how much Hemlock to add. This was a bad idea, dude. Why are you tasking me with this, you’re the doctor??? I guess he’s just going to have to be mad at me then.

Later, I choose not to lie to my friend and tell him that I did what he couldn’t do, and that it isn’t right to keep the poor guy alive and suffering just so he can be a lab rat… And Hippokrates agrees with me, but he still wanted to do it anyway. Instead, he just tells me of his plans to travel the world now and learn from other doctors around the lands. Will we ever meet again? Perhaps, I mean, I will be playing this game until my golden years, so who knows?

I have to leave this man’s house now though, because his family keeps coming in and gasping at my weaponry.

WHO’S THE CHAMPION NOW?

I manage to figure out that I had to select the specific champion I want to defeat in order to get instructions on how to find them, so I select the next one on the list. She is much harder than the first guy, because nobody is around to drop hints about how much she likes flammable oil and will be particularly vulnerable because some rando is rubbing love potion inside of her armor. Also, she has two companions raining down arrows on me.

I managed to defeat her once I get her alone, and come to find out she is a cultist! Two birds, one stone. Nice!

On to the next! 

Bears, Atop Tents, in the Moonlight

I go to find him and instead of getting to do the deed myself, I find that dear old Wolf dad has done it for me. I thought I told him to gtfo??? (PS. What happens if Alexios dumps dad off the cliff in the beginning? Does he survive anyway? Would I have to beat the third champion myself?? Would I have to fight my un-brother?) Oh, well, I tell him to go to my bro and give him leadership advice. Maybe this will get the dude off my back and he can stop punching me?

I guess I still have to finish the champion quest though, so let’s find the last one!

She is a hunter and has a bear. I stun the bear and then deal with her. I also find a tomb on my way back to my bro, so I complete that location too.

Back at Bro’s camp…his name is Stentor, so I can stop calling him that.

Stentor is predictably unhappy to see me. I mean, what did he expect? Alexios to die, obviously, but my job is the direct opposite of that. And I’m good at it, so sorry, not sorry, Stent. 

In any case, now I have to compete in one of those melee battles, which I am also very good at. I shall return triumphant…eventually. First I head to the armorer, because at least I’ve learned that lesson. I only have enough leather to upgrade my tunic though. Once I’m geared up, The battle still proves to be too much for me, so I decide to blow up some more grain silos and take out the leader of Thebes in hopes of weakening Athens a bit. Turns out this does not help. I do eventually win the day, and when I get back to Stentor, the dude is less than grateful.

Stentor Hasn’t the Time

In fact, he still wants to kill me, and I still don’t know if I’m related to him. We bicker like siblings anyway. Luckily, before we can cross swords and after I try to talk Stentor out of it, dear old dad decides to make an appearance. Took you long enough, dude.

Stentor still hates me, but at least I don’t have to kill him just yet. With that, Boetia is on Sparta’s side and I have to find a new quest. Dad warns me that there’s a ‘shadow over Sparta’, and I don’t want to deal with that until I have to. Let’s go hunting instead. I need to upgrade my snake bottoms. 

HOUSEKEEPING

We’re heading back to the arena for some cultists! I want to upgrade my spear already! Luckily, the cultist I have to defeat is only level 29 and I’m about 15 levels above that now, so nice. Skoura is there also, for sage wisdom about the arena and also to make me suspicious.

He has a daughter and she’s the reason he’s now just the gate guard. They lost touch…or she’s dead? I dunno, either way he looks very sad. We will perhaps get his entire story when I finish this quest, but alas, I am not equipped to fight the rest of the arena participants, so I’m off to find the final cultist I need to do the next spear upgrade! He’s off the coast of Andros, so it looks like we’re in for another naval battle.

Unluckily for me, there’s about four other pirate ships around this cultist’s boat. I try to just go for the cultist right off the bat, but his whole fleet just converges on me and sinks my ship about three times before I decide that this is definitely the wrong strategy. 

Instead, I pick off the smaller boats one by one and that does the trick. 

It is still not enough to upgrade my spear. I am frustrated looking for this information on my pause screen, so I just look it up online. I need nine shards to upgrade and I only have seven. I need two more guys, so I pick out the weakest ones, who are only one level below me at this point.

One is on a boat that I can’t find, and the other I have to face during a melee battle while fighting for Athens. I head towards this area, which hasn’t been uncovered on the map yet. Hopefully there will be some juicy quests over here, and maybe one of those statues I’m supposed to be looking for for my sculptor friend. You remember? The paranoid one I hooked back up with in Olympia, who thinks the cult is leaving him clues? 

HOW BOARING

After a few tries at this, I give up. Maybe if I weaken Sparta’s hold on the area that will help a bit, but I can’t find the leader. Instead of noodling around the area, I decided it would be a great time to take out that demon boar from earlier, since it’s just across the water from where I am.

This turns out to be a bad strategy also. How is the first legendary animal the most difficult??? I head back into town after dying a few times. I am absolutely determined to upgrade my bow at least. I do that, and also replace an inscription on one of my weapons to make me even more venomous. I promise, I did not set out in this game to transform into a snake.

I also go to the store to spend my special currency. I buy the phantom steed masthead because it looks pretty cool. 

With my poison bow in hand, I head back to the boar and finally defeat him! Like…this quest is one of those that’s slotted in one of the first areas of the game that you’re clearly supposed to leave open until later in the game after you’ve leveled up, right?? Or am I just that good at this game? Because I return to Daphnae and she gives me a legendary bow and some sweet ghostly arrows that do more damage. Imagine if I had those at the start of the game?

 I also get the option of heart dialogs with her, but I’m so annoyed that she gave me this quest, that I ignore them. I wasn’t going to when this whole thing started, but, well…being tossed around by a demon pig ad infinitum definitely is a mood killer. 

Also, She’s Kinda Rude–

It is time to head back to the melee for the cultist, but when I arrive, it is no longer available! I guess I will have to find the leader after all and burn stuff down after all!

So, I spend the majority of the next bit just wandering around trying to find the damn leader so I can trigger the battle again. I also upgrade my gear as much as possible. This time it takes me three tries to take out the cultist dude that appears on the battlefield. I don’t win the battle, but the guy doesn’t respawn after I lose it, so I will leave it and move on. 

I find the final cultist that I’ve identified on the map (There are more, I just haven’t unmasked them yet.) He’s a boat guy, so I even get to equip my new ghostly steed masthead! I am able to take him down pretty easily, but I don’t get to fight him or get the boat treasure because I sink it with my battering power.

I am all hyped up on success and my newly upgraded spear! I head on over the hill to that Cyclops lair! I have to say my confidence is completely unfounded, so Cyclops hunting is right back off the list of quests I want to tackle.

 There’s not a lot to do unless I go back to Brasidas and my mom to continue on with my main quest, so I just run around doing question marks. Me and Barny wax poetic about our home ports on the boat at one point, but he doesn’t want to tell me his own origin story.

ERRING ON THE SIDE OF GODS

Now we are on the isle of Kythera. Home of some ominous sounding purple thing. (It is dye… the ominous purple thing is dye.) There are a bunch of undiscovered locations and some new sidequest! yay! (I’m sure I will come to regret that ‘yay’ soon) 

I go to complete a fort and accidentally stumble upon my first quest: There is a guy named Empedokles yammering about how the guards stole his robe and that he is a God. I let him out so he will shut up, and this gives me a quest.

At Least He’s a Respectful God

I meet up with him later and he is stubbornly sticking to his story of Godliness. I tell him I believe him, just because I don’t want to risk it. I already met a ghost Sphynx. I am not taking any chances even though this dude seems bonkers. I agree to go meet his Godly siblings for a dinner date after I retrieve the key to his God house from the guards.

I think my instincts are good this time, because I go to select this quest in my menu and it’s a main quest. How??? Why??? I am curious now, let’s go meet this guy right away.

I go to the forgotten island to meet him and immediately fall into a sinkhole. Cool beans. This is going great already! I meet E where he’s ranting and raving at a crumbling door about hearing the gods inside. They sound more like a trapped bear that is going to eat me. Should I further indulge this guy’s ranting? 

I choose to indulge him. Alexios isn’t going to go as far as to actually believe him, but we know there’s some damn thing inside. Let’s see what it is!

 Awww, shit. It’s a cyclops. A cyclops which just straight up squishes E. Damn. I should have told him to wait outside. Well, now I’m stuck inside with this thing, so I have to fight it. The good news is that it’s much easier than the one on spear island. I do exhaust almost every one of my arrows. I do get a cool cyclops eye for my troubles though.

EWWWW

 I now wander around filling out more question marks. I find a legendary bear, which was way easier to defeat than I expected. Also, looking at the quest and there’s another boar? WHY? I head back to Aphrodite’s island for more quests and I what should I happen upon but a random Spartan soldier who thinks I killed Stentor.

Well. That’s a hell of a way to find out your brother is dead. What in the actual F, game? I know he was a douche, but— In any case, I am tasked to kill the actual mercenary who did the deed and it turns out that I already did that. Huh. You see, I’ve been trying to get my bounty up for that trophy, but I can’t seem to get it over 3 assassins no matter how many other mercenaries I take out. At one point I had all three of them and a chicken chasing after me.

Next Time: my chicken fears are coming back to haunt me!????

[singingwordwright]

Shadowhunters recap - s2ep18 “Awake, Arise, or Be Forever Fallen”

SHADOWHUNTERS Recaps Intro and Masterlist

These recaps may contain spoilers from the books (that may or may not happen in the show.) Proceed at your own risk.

Recap and meta under the cut.

Gotta give it to Max, he’s a little badass. Temper that with a bit of discretion and maybe he’ll actually live to reach adulthood, contrary to all book canon. Like, seriously Max, you couldn’t have gone to find Alec or Izzy once you realized what the hair leading you to Sebastian meant, instead of confronting Sebastian yourself?

Gratifying just how many times Sebastian gets stabbed in this episode. Of course, I’d prefer it if one of them was a mortal wound, but alas…

If Lindsay was lurking in the hall outside Alec’s office, she should have heard Max’s head crack against the desk. A blow hard enough to knock someone out and cause them to bleed from their nose and ears would be LOUD. I’ve literally heard real people hit their heads in ways that do much less damage and it sounded like a melon exploding.

Now that the banter and fun goofing around is back, so is Simon and Maia’s chemistry. I think this is the magic of Simon. I bought the Climon relationship the most when he and Clary were being giggly and having fun together. I found Simon and Maia’s chemistry in s2ep06 to be off the charts, again, when they were bantering and laughing. For some reason, whenever Simon forgets to be that guy whom women can laugh and have fun with, he loses a lot of what makes him click in his various potential pairings.

My frustration hit its peak with the fact that Sebastian was right there in the middle of everything while everyone was all, “Where is Jonathan?” There’s only so many times you can yell “HE’S THERE!!! HE’S RIGHT FUCKING THERE IN FRONT OF YOU!!!” at the TV before you just throw your hands up in the air and say, “You know what? Fuck it. You’re too stupid to live. I hope he guts you all.”

They carried this plotline right up to the brink of me hitting that point.

Current sexuality: Magnus saying, “m’lady.”

“Your crush” Oh, I’ll show you a fucking crush, you pint-sized wretch!

Let’s all take a moment to bow our heads and be grateful the producers are making a young-adult urban fantasy show and not a hospital drama. Because they would be really, really bad at it. Seriously I was cringing.

And what the fuck were the runes flashing on the monitor over Max’s head about? Are they there to remind the infirmary medics “This is how you draw an iratze. This is how you draw Nourishment. This is how…” (I’m not sure what that last one was, but it looked like some Shadowhunter stylized version of the Caduceus or the rod of Asclepius.)

Of all the times for Magnus to refuse to take Alec’s call.

Wow. I’d forgotten what an asshole Season 1 Alec could be. He’s come a long way, considering that in-universe it has literally been six weeks since he and Magnus met (No, seriously, check out my timeline if you doubt me. I did the math so you don’t have to.)

I say “asshole” in the most loving way possible, of course. He had his reasons, but he was indeed an asshole. It just goes to show how unhappy and uncomfortable in his own skin he was, and how much losing that burden of hiding himself away from the world impacted him.

Still, I sort of wanted Magnus to push back a little harder when Alec low-key threatened him. “If you let anyone know…”/“Oh, you’ll do what, Shadowhunter?” Because Magnus could almost certainly kick Alec’s ass with all but one of his little pinky fingers broken.

I’m glad we’re finally getting down to business with the whole Ollie thing. But IIRC it’s against the Accords (or Covenant?) to let mundanes know anything about the Shadow world. Which means Luke could be in trouble if the Clave gets wind of her finding out.

And why is so so eager to know, anyway? Like, why was she all up in his business?

I’m wondering if it doesn’t actually have something to do with Maia, considering the way Ollie zeroed right in on her. Say, Ollie’s a cop, but she also, idk, moonlights helping Sam (who maybe is a private investigator?) by taking on missing person cases at the behest of desperate families. Contrary to book canon, we’ve been given some indication that Maia’s parents may actually care for her, so what if they hired Sam and Ollie to track Maia down, and find out she’s gotten mixed up in what might look to be (on the surface) a weird wolf-worshipping cult?

IDK I’m just spinning bullshit theories.

I like how at SDCC Isaiah said that Luke is grooming Maia to take over the pack someday, and how we actually sort of saw that in action here.

I liked Jace’s distress here, because with the exception of s2ep08 and a pat on the head in the last episode, we haven’t really seen him and Max interact or gotten any impression of how his relationship is with Max. And his distress here feels a lot more…sincere? relatable, maybe?...than his oft-repeated bouts of brooding manpain over his upbringing under Valentine.

And, strangely, his pain feeling more genuine also made Clary’s empathy and support feel more genuine. This moment made me feel more of a connection between them than just about any other moment they’ve had on-screen together.

Funny how when you build a relationship between characters out of moments and situations that are arise organically within the plot—rather than forcing it—it just works better, isn’t it?

I feel like I should say something about Bat, but I just don’t have much of an impression of him or what part he’s going to play within the plot, yet. Kevin Alves seems incredibly sweet and eager to be a part of the show, however, so there’s that?

“Rebooting of the brain.” Really? (The part of me that actually knows something about medicine is rolling its eyes so hard right now. This was badly done. Suspension of disbelief in one area only works if you are meticulously grounded in accurate reality in other areas, and this would have been a good area to do that. Massive head trauma that can’t be magically woo-wooed away.)

I have lots of thoughts on the decision to keep Max alive, most of them not good. I was prepared for the pain of him dying, which would have struck pretty close to home because I have a 10yo son. And as a storyteller, I think it would have gone a long way to establishing the stakes for this story.

Like, Valentine wants to commit genocide, and Sebastian wants to help him. We all get that. And we’re all horrified by it. But genocide is a MASSIVE concept to try to really wrap your head around. The human brain, I think, tends to shield you from really grasping it. It’s just too much.

This is a problem faced often by storytellers who are writing stories in which the fate of the world is at stake. It’s too big. The audience can’t connect with it personally, can’t internalize it. So you take that, and you distill it to make the stakes personal. One death, of a character who is beloved by your protagonists and hopefully by your audience, an innocent with all the potential in the world that will now never manifest, stands in for the thousands or millions who will actually die if the bad guy isn’t stopped. That death becomes a rallying point for your protagonists, and a symbol to your audience of just how evil your bad guy is and how much he needs to be stopped.

In short, Max needed to die. He needed to die as tragically as possible. It would have had a lot more storytelling mileage.

God. This scene was just everything I could have asked for their first time to be. I’m pretty sure I wrote a line in a fanfic once about Magnus telling Alec that one of the rules of his bed was that you had to be able to laugh in it, so the giggling and giddiness was just so perfect. And the fact that Magnus responded “No such thing” when Alec expressed concern that he might be doing something wrong is really something else I could have written myself.

It was tender and sweet and sexy without being objectifying and I loved it.

I will say, though, I’m probably in the minority in that I never wanted or needed to see a scene where Alec was confronted with Magnus’s cat eyes for the first time and explicitly stated his unstinting acceptance of him. I always felt it would be othering to go that route. And I felt like this idea that Magnus, who is so incredibly powerful, would lose control so easily a little absurd. I always liked to imagine that the idea that Alec would find NOT being accepting of Magnus unthinkable, that he would be honestly and sincerely befuddled by the idea that Magnus’s eyes might be a Big Deal. “Yeah, he’s a warlock, he has a warlock mark, I’m not sure why that’s supposed to be something that matters.”

That said, if they were going to go there, then this was the way to do it. The thread that weaves through Magnus and Alec’s story in this episode and ties past to present is the fact that they come from different worlds, and with those different worlds come different obligations and priorities. So in this case, the othering was entirely the point and it played into that theme.

So, if it had to happen, I’m glad it at least happened within this context and wasn’t just schmaltzy.

I really loved Luke being such a badass here but I’m certain allowing Russell to live is a bad idea.

Seriously, though, Russell. Not only is Luke a badass just as a werewolf, but he’s got the martial training of a Shadowhunter. How do you imagine you’re going to win this?

Probably one of the most realistic fight scenes I’ve ever seen in terms of showing just how exhausting fighting becomes in very short order. Too many drag out too long before the combatants start to show fatigue.

I really want to know about the cooks at the Jade Wolf. Are they werewolves themselves? Is that why the kitchen staff never bats an eye at anything, including these people waltzing in and out of the kitchen and storeroom?

The scene with Maia explaining her backstory was extremely well done and Alisha Wainwright is all things wonderful and I love her.

“This is what love got me.” Let’s take a moment to recognize the symmetry of Maia and Simon’s stories though. Becoming a vampire, a Downworlder, is what love got Simon as well.

I can’t say anything about this scene that hasn’t been said before, and better, since they released it as a sneak peek. But it’s so beautiful and my heart hurts.

Magnus’s moment with the Lightwoods all together on one side of the hall and him by himself on the other is incredibly poignant but I can’t find the words to really examine it properly. This is the point at which things just began to hurt too much and my brain stopped being able to cope with it.

I’d really like to know how Jace, who can sense Alec’s happiness over things like having sex with his boyfriend for the first time, couldn’t sense the lack of a spike in grief that would have surely occurred upon Max’s death. Grrr.

The fight sequence with Sebastian taking out all the guards was amazing and Will Tudor is brilliant. Did he really use a sword that was still stuck through someone’s body to parry a blow?

What the hell was with him just using his hand to open the crypt, though? No rune or anything. Can Sebastian somehow channel magic?

This whole thing with Clary was awesome and for once she seemed to be working for her miracles so I’ll ungrudgingly let her have this. The one thing I don’t know is what finally tipped her off about Sebastian. Was the electrum nugget thing too warm after he handled it? Did she just realize she never saw his palm? What made her chase after him and check his palm?

I loved her stabbing him. Twice. I’m fully in support of stabbing Sebastian. Yes. Please. Let’s stab Sebastian more. Sebastian for Pincushion 2k17.

Sebastian continues to be a creepy-ass fuck. Seriously, WHY did they decide to go with the incestuous obsession thing? There are so many other places they could have taken that story.

I like that her Open rune that burned through Magnus’s wards also exploded the Institute security doors. I appreciated that for a couple reasons. First, because Sebastian taught her to do that, to use her runes and make them more powerful. Second, it’s also a nice little nod to the books, since we didn’t get that scene of Clary totally disintegrating and blowing up Valentine’s barge with that rune.

Sebastian has vamp speed, too?

I want to ship them, but I haven’t managed it yet. In-universe it’s been like, a week, since Clary and Simon broke up. And of course we know they’re not end-game. But the writers ended up making me buy Climon more than I ever expected to, so maybe they’ll do the same with this one.

I just don’t want to see either of them hurt, so if Simon ends up ending it with Maia, I’m going to be upset, and if Maia ends up ending it with Simon I’ll be upset. *sigh*

I hated seeing the home Simon has been making for himself torn apart like that.

This is the moment of my first death and the beginning of buckets of tears. This look on Magnus’s face after Alec says “our way back to each other.” I can’t. I just can’t. He’s just so heartbroken here.

And the way Alec’s eyes close when Magnus touches him.

And the way Magnus’s voice almost breaks when he says “I love you, too.”

And the way Magnus is trying to smile, just a little. To hold on to some of the joy he’s found with Alec. To file this portion of his life away as a happy memory. To remember Alec as a good thing and not a source of sorrow.

There are so many nuances here and every single one of them fucking slays me dead.

Alec’s disbelief and denial.

Alec’s youthful, naïve insistence that if they just work hard enough, if they’re just determined enough, they can find a way, and Magnus’s world-weary wisdom and centuries of experience telling him there’s just no chance for them.

“You once asked me what I was afraid of. It’s this.”

And here’s my second death. That all along we thought that Magnus was afraid of being alone, being abandoned, like Camille said, he never does well losing the people he cares about.

So, we’ve always thought he was afraid Alec would break his heart. Leave him. Be repulsed by him. Choose duty over him.

We should have known better. Magnus has lived long enough to have his heart broken before, and he knows he’ll survive it.

His real fear is inflicting that pain, that loss, on someone else.

My third and finale death. Alec stifling a sob is where I just lose it entirely.

So I guess what I’m saying here?

Yes, this is a break-up. That’s my read on it. Sorry. It just is.

I don’t believe it’s a permanent one. Of course it’s not. If they’re not back together by the end of the season, at least on some sort of tentative, provisional basis, I’ll be very surprised and extremely pissed off. If I’m left with this boulder sitting on my chest over the hiatus I’m not sure I’ll survive. This show is supposed to be my happy place and I think if they leave me in this hurty place for very long it’s going to ruin it for me.

I don’t think the producers will let this linger long.

But this scene right here? As far as Magnus is concerned in this exact moment as he’s walking away from Alec?

He thinks they’re done. He thinks they’re over. He means it to be that way.

Something will happen to make him change his mind, though, and that’s important. Because here’s the thing:

We’ve seen Alec choose Magnus over and over and over.

He chose Magnus in s1ep06 when he walked away from the Institute and duty to take an evening to at least investigate the possibility of doing something that wasn’t about duty.

He chose Magnus in s1ep12 when he walked away from his own wedding.

He chose Magnus in s2ep06 when he turned his back on his own fears and misgivings and plunged into this relationship.

He chose Magnus in s2ep08 when he challenged his mother’s lack of acceptance repeatedly and sent her a very pointed message about their relationship.

He chose Magnus in s2ep10 when he rejected Aldertree’s words about the impossibility of relationships between Shadowhunters and Downworlders.

He chose Magnus in s2ep13 when he risked censure from the Inquisitor to take a stand for what’s right.

Even when everything he’s ever been trained and brought up to do is telling him to do the opposite, he has chosen Magnus repeatedly.

The only time we haven’t seen him choose Magnus was with regard to keeping the secret about the Soul Sword, and even then, his choice was about Magnus, even if it was paternalistic and wrong-headed.

What we haven’t seen, though?

We haven’t seen Magnus choosing Alec. We see him clearly aware of the difficulty in their situation, especially since s2ep12, but he never really chooses to stand against it. Which is not to say he’s not committed, not at all. We’ve seen Magnus put himself on the line and expose himself and make himself vulnerable for Alec. That’s huge. But with the exception of his hesitation to keep pursuing Alec in s1ep12, we haven’t seen him make that same deliberate decision to damn the obstacles between them and make this relationship happen. His commitment has been more along the lines of ducking and covering and hoping whatever is heading toward them blows over before it pushes them to this critical juncture.

We need to see him make that choice. Everything since s2ep12 has been leading to him making that choice.

Now, I don’t want to step outside my lane, so I’m gonna tread carefully here. 

The thing we have to remember is that Alec, coming from the privileged group, is much safer choosing Magnus than Magnus is in choosing Alec. He’s got that safety net built in, so it’s easier for him. He may face censure and perhaps a decrease in some of his advantages (like being passed over for job promotions) but no consequences that he might face are on the same level of what Magnus might face.

So the two dilemmas and the choice to stand against their respective obstacles are not equal. If Magnus choses their relationship over his people, he doesn’t just face censure, he faces genocide. Pretty big difference there. The only possible way he can justifiably choose Alec at all is if he somehow discovers that choosing Alec dovetails conveniently with the best way to protect himself and his people.

My prediction is that something in the next episode, or in the finale at the latest, is going to bring Magnus to that decision point and make him turn around.

But for the moment? Right now, this scene?

I know it’s going to be an unpopular opinion, but Magnus really does mean this to be a breakup.

[takerfoxx]

Flip-Flappers episode 8, first impressions!

lol, wut?

Wow, okay. I was...not expecting that. Thought we were going with the obligatory pool episode, but instead...Huh.

All right, cards on the table. This is probably my least favorite episode so far. I mean, it’s not bad by any stretch, and I did enjoy it okay, but for me, the action has been the least interesting part of the show so far, save for maybe that fight in the clock tower. Plus, save for a few exceptions, I’ve never been into giant mecha. And this was all about that, so...it wasn’t my thing.

Still, it wasn’t without merit. And Flip-Flappers is a lot like Resonance Days in that most of it is an excuse to do whatever weird shit that the creators feel like, so after all that heavy character stuff, the creative team wanted to take a break and have some fun. Okay, that’s fine.

I did get a kick out of some of it though. Best I can figure, that was the Pure Illusion embodiment of Bu-Chan, since the planet was shaped like a brain and it even had its own pint-sized Dr. Hidaka running it. Which would explain why he looked so fucked up by the end of it.

Also, SO MANY REFERENCE! I mean, the Tron thing was obvious enough, as was Gundam and Super Sentai. But also Gurren Lagaan, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Code Geass, Transformers, and...fucking GRIDMAN?! Really? Gridman? And this was before the reboot came out, so they were referencing the original! Well, as I was a huge Superhuman Samura Syber Squad fan when I was a kid, that was a nice throwback. Let’s Samuraize, guys!

On the plot progression front, Yayaka’s expulsion and/or rebellion from  Asclepius grows ever closer. I also was amused about how she and Cocona still remain at least on speaking terms during school despite blasting at each other in Pure Illusion. Still not convinced that something nasty isn’t up with Dr. Salt. I mean, what’s with Papika’s ankle bracelet anyway?

And Papika slips up and calls Cocona Mimi! Hmmm, who is Mimi? A former partner? Cocona’s past self? Her missing mother? Does it have anything to do with that weird girl from her boat dream?

Also, Bu-Chan is a perv, because of course he is.