#artemis graves

[anne-is-confused]

saw @teamingmate 's terror au pathologic posts and uh i may have started spiralling a bit

[little-mouse-adventures]

Currently thinking about Artemis's will in the code at the bottom of TLG and how it really kinda shows how strained his relationship with his dad still is. Everyone else gets something they're interested in or that Arty thinks they'd like (sound system for Juliet, frozen chicken for Mulch, ethical investments for his mother, etc) and yet for his father he leaves only bearer bonds, despite Artemis I trying to move away from a money-focused enterprise and lifestyle as of TEC. Not to mention it's Butler who would know how to disengage all the booby traps protecting said bearer bonds, further highlighting the difference in trust & familiarity Artemis has with everyone but his father.

[tramwayless]

Day 16: Lullaby

[thanatika]

yeah i agree with your point about survival mechanics and i feel the same way about the lack of combat mechanics. "why would an educated city doctor need a weapon" because shit is hitting the fan in every way impossible and pretty much everyone is walking around armed... also why am i supposed to believe the the fact that he's a man of intellect will somehow provide him with food? i don't think anyone is going to be too eager to share food during an outbreak intellectual or not...

+ follow up for the previous ask but actually my favorite quest from the original pathologic is the day 11 bachelor quest that involves shooting down soldiers. i think it really drives the point home about how this random fuckass guy who is supposed to be battling a plague doesn't even have the time to do that anymore because the people in charge are asking completely irrelevant things of him now and he's at a position where he cannot refuse what is being asked of him. like i think it was good storytelling that even as the guy who lowkey wants to deal with the plague and solve its mystery you still have other, more pressing, less interesting and or pleasant tasks to complete

i agree! honestly, i feel this way about the combat mechanics even more than i do about the physical survival (food, health, illness, sleep) mechanics. because sure, i can see how it makes sense for daniil's position of authority to mean that his basic needs are somewhat provided for -- although i don't think it makes more sense than what we got in the original game. i've never seen anyone bring up "isn't it kind of unrealistic that the bachelor isn't given lots of food during a massive food shortage?" as a plothole that needed to be resolved. the townspeople generally don't like him much, and most of the people with power don't either, except for the kains. sure, maybe it's kind of weird that you can go see the kains while broke and on the verge of keeling over from hunger, and they won't do anything to help you, but... the kains are pretty self-centered, and they're so goddamn weird that maybe they forget that you need to eat food to live anyway. and it's half-implied that the powers that be are ultimately giving daniil this role as a convenient way to kill him, so it makes sense that they would put no pressure on the town authorities to keep him alive.

(and honestly, artemy is taken under the olgimsky's auspices as much as the kains take daniil's under theirs! which is to say, selfishly, with ulterior motives that are more important to them than the well-being of their healer, but... the olgimskys are set up as the wealthiest of the 3 families financially, as well as the ones with the most access to food, given their control over the meat industry. so if anything it's "weirder" that artemy isn't more materially provided for, though to be clear i don't think there's an actual plothole there either way.)

but anyway, you could handwave it and say that daniil's position of privilege and authority gives him more perks than he got in the original game, but the amount of fighting you have to do to get through town is... kind of an unavoidable physical reality? like you're given so many sidequests that you often wind up walking around town after dark, and that's when the bandits come out. is the idea that the bandits would be too scared to attack him because he's so important? because that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and even pathologic 2 establishes that he's seen as a valuable target by the bandits:

and then there's the quests where combat plays a more direct role in the story itself, like getting involved in saving andrey from the firing squad, or killing guards to break artemy out of prison, or the quest where you have to kill var in attempt to stop the arsonists (which i include on the same tier as the other ones because i really like the quest journal entry he has if you complete it where he blames himself for willow's death. it's a good character moment.)

hell, even in pathologic 2 itself, one of the biggest Bachelor Moments is on day 11, when you have that big dramatic convo with him after he killed a soldier for the papers he was delivering. plus one of bad grief's idle dialogues in patho 2 is commentary on the bachelor being "quick on the draw" and that he "already shot someone". like he just straight up is not living a combat-free existence. and overall, combat isn't just a good tool from a mechanical perspective, heightening the stakes and placing pressure on the player (though it is), it's also pretty important for him on a thematic level imo, almost as important as artemy and his "rivers of blood". in patho classic, daniil has this early interaction with the inquisitor:

which, thinking about it from a doylist perspective, was probably the writers' attempt to make it sound more plausible that this random medical researcher from the big city was competent with multiple types of guns. and i appreciate them coming up with that hint of backstory to cover their bases a bit, but with those bases covered, i think the fact that daniil ultimately spends more time shooting people than he does prescribing medicines for them actually does a lot for him thematically? i mean, if his whole thing is that he's this "tempted destroyer", someone who frames his career as a combative battle with death rather than a quest to save people's lives, whose "default" solution is to raze the town with artillery because he's too limited by his rationalist worldview and military upbringing (and bitterness over being manipulated and sabotaged) to come up with a solution that saves the any remaining infected survivors on his own. plus the way that clara frames artemy and daniil as two sides of the same coin in being violent destroyers and killers, who without player intervention will immediately devolve to running around chasing each other down in what's either an insanely dedicated tom and jerry LARP or some really elaborate foreplay. imo, that whole dichotomy (which is pretty core to the game, as the idea of dichotomies are core to it in general) works so much better with the way they're both presented in classic, stalking around with gun/scalpel in hand. hell, not to mention the effect that spending 12 in-game days trying not to starve and getting killed by bandits or guards or worms or soldiers every day would have on the player, and the way it would make them feel about the town and their natural projection of those feelings onto dankovsky, who is a perfectly fitting vessel for them as the avatar actually undergoing those virtual experiences.

ultimately i think they are mainly going this direction out of a desire to do something more creative and original, which is fine... it just seems a bit silly to me that they keep saying "well obviously that doesn't really work for the bachelor's scenario", when, well... even as recently as patho 2 in 2019, they seemed to think it fit his narrative pretty well! i'm also guessing that a lack of combat won't be that bandits are just no longer roaming the streets at night. it sounds more like pathologic 3 is set to be more of a nonlinear experience, where you'll probably fast travel from place to place instead of having to walk across town so much? so you'll be avoiding bandits just in the sense that the gameplay will be avoiding them. i guess i'm hoping that at the very least, there's still the implication of the crunch of not getting enough sleep or food and the threat of being stabbed to death while trying to get through town occurring to dankovsky in the background, even if those mechanics are deemphasized in favor of more macro-level town resource management, time control, and sherlock holmes fruit ninja or whatever the hell they were on about back in 2022 lmao.

[the-shadows-request-candy-corn]

Okay hear me out:

Burakhovsky but also it's Danbert

[shmowder]

writing a husband Artemy fic and the fact Isidor would've never gotten the chance to see his wedding is making me kinda sad

Whatever wedding Artemy imagined must have involved his dad in some way. Isidor missed the chance to become a grandpa, to have a family again after losing his own and sending Artemy to study

[ssavinggrace]

Almost (Sweet Music) by Hozier = Lester vibes

Also Icarus by Bastille does too

[fowlblue]

I see canon’s “Fowl Senior loves Batman enough to have the original Tim Burton Batsuit in his office”, and I raise you “Fowl Senior was writing self-insert Batman fanfiction before that was even a thing”.

[andromedasummer]

sudden flashbacks to childhood as i remember the first book series i ever loved, Roman Mysteries. which in retrospect. has a lot. a lot. a LOT of issues

[bluejaysandblackbats]

That Time Again!

Harvest Moon: Wally West, Linda Park; No Powers AU, Murder Mystery AU, Serial Killer AU, Detective AU; WallyLinda; Flashfam

Wolf Tones: Laney Kent, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Conner Kent, Lex Luthor, Mercy Graves; Reunited AU, No Powers AU, Kidnapped AU; Clois; Superfam

Moon Rocks: Jason Todd, Natalia Knight, Catherine Todd, OC(s); Canon Divergent AU; Natalia Knight x Catherine Todd; Batfam

Pidge: Jason Todd, Artemis of Bana Mighdall, Kyle Rayner, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, OC(s); Canon Divergent AU, Dad Jason AU; JayKyle; Batfam

Bug Juice: Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd, Natalia Knight, Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth; No Capes AU; Bruce Wayne x Natalia Knight; Batfam

[rgraves1]

Diana and Orion by Johann Heinrich Tischbein (1762)

Orion

ORION, a hunter of Boeotian Hyria, and the handsomest man alive, was the son of Poseidon and Euryale. Coming one day to Hyria in Chios, he fell in love with Merope, daughter of Dionysus’ son Oenopion. Oenopion had promised Merope to Orion in marriage, if he would free the island from the dangerous wild beasts that infested it; and this he set himself to do, bringing the pelts to Merope every evening. But when the task was at last accomplished, and he claimed her as his wife, Oenopion brought him rumours of lions, bears and wolves still lurking in the hills, and refused to give her up, the fact being that he was in love with her himself (Orion, The Greek Myths by Robert Graves, pp 151-154).

Orion, infuriated by this betrayal, forced himself on the virginal Merope one night when drunk. Oenopion’s revenge was swift: bribing some satyrs to ply Orion with wine once more, when the hunter fell fast asleep, Oenopion put out both his eyes. An oracle told the blind Orion he would regain his sight if he turned his empty eye sockets to the sun god Helius when he first rose from the Ocean. Aided by Hephaestus’ apprentice Cedalion, on whose shoulders he travelled, Orion was able to travel to the farthest Ocean where Helius restored his sight. Unable to find Oenopion to extract his vengeance, Orion fell in with the goddess Artemis and they became hunting companions. Artemis’ brother Apollo, refusing to believe the friendship was innocent, sent a giant scorpion to attack Orion. The hunter, finding his arrows were unable to pierce the armour of the beast sought refuge in the sea. The devious Apollo then told his sister that the distant figure was a villain who had raped one of her priestesses. The goddess drew back her bow and her arrow killed the unfortunate Orion. Distraught at her mistake, Artemis set Orion’s image in the stars, where he resides to this day, forever pursued by the giant scorpion.

Graves maintains that Orion’s extraordinary adventures are several different stories, all strung together.

[little-mouse-adventures]

The Artemis Fowl series isn’t actually about a boy learning how to make friends and save the world with the help of fairies, it’s actually about a boy learning to become a fully-fledged necromancer.

[z0mbicide]

favorite songs of the menaces bc i'm finally finishing up listening to their playlists myself

under the cut y'know how it is

asterion: him by sam smith

atlas: a glorious shipwreck by pat the bunny

agri: you and i by anarbor

arven: i am going to kill the president of the united states of america by leathermøuth

aeon: fake by alexander o'neal

andrew: chateau by blackbear

ambrose: letterbomb by green day

xander: evil penguin by ballyhoo!

azur: learn to fly by foo fighters

alcor: rock you like a hurricane by scorpions

arsène: lovesexy by prince

rian: how i survived bobby mackey's personal hell by lincoln

artemis: sun and moon by jon walker

attis: protect ya neck by wu-tang clan

alata: everyone adores you (at least i do) by matt maltese

avan: beauty and a beat by justin bieber and nicki minaj

gaius: donatella by lady gaga

ardalion: polaroid love by enhypen

sunny: that's the way it is by puffy (amiyumi)

aegnis: doesn't listen to music, but i think his favorite song would be sunflower by post malone and swae lee if he did

axel: he's a whore by cheap trick

adrian: girl soldier by bikini kill

amelio: take me somewhere nice by mogwai

austin: 99 revolutions by green day

owain: stone in love by journey

[hlblng]

"Never again, never again shall I look on the light of the sun" - Euripides' Hekabe (transl. Anne Carson)

When the Greeks sail to Troy to retrieve Helen, wife of Menelaos, and lay waste to the city of Troy, the greek army is prevented from sailing on in Aulis. Artemis has been angered and demands a blood sacrifice in exchange for the winds that will carry the ships to the shores of Ilium.

So Agamemnon, chief commander of the army of Hellas, sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia at the altar of the goddess. Her death in exchange for eternal glory.

After the sacking of Troy, the remnants of the victorious greek army make ready to sail for home. But Achilles' vengeful ghost halts the winds, demanding proper sacrifice at his grave. Achilles demands blood in exchange for the winds that will carry the ships to the shores of Hellas.

So Odysseus and Agamemnon choose Polyxena, the youngest daughter of Priam and Hekabe, a princess of Troy. Her death in exchange for a homecoming worthy of the victors of Troy.

Though these two events are 10 years apart in the context of the story of the Trojan war, these two girls have always been connected with each other in my head. I imagine them at a similar age, looking similar even. I imagine Agamemnon thinking of Iphigenia as he watches Polyxena bleed out in front of him. Two sides of the same coin.