#as Zumurrud

[filmjunky-99]

a r a b i a n n i g h t s [Il fiore delle mille e una notte], 1974 🎬 dir. pier paolo pasolini

[captaindamianos]

thank you for being such a pillar of community here on capri tumblr 💕 you’re always creating art and reblogging other people’s work and supporting everyone and being the sweetest person ever, i’m so glad you’re here bc fandom wouldn’t be the same without you! def see and appreciate all that you do 💗💖💞

I'm so sorry I was hoarding this message for a few days, but I couldn't make myself part with it.

you have no idea what it means to me that there's anyone in this fandom who feels that way about me. 😭💕 thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart.

I often don't have a great time in this fandom, and also with my art. so receiving this means the world to me. 💕 I am so glad YOU are in this fandom, because you've been genuinely one of the loveliest and nicest people here and I'm always so happy to see you on my dash and I'm incredibly grateful you're in this fandom. thank you for everything you do, for your beautiful edits, for being lovely and kind, and so so funny. 💕

[laequiem]

captive prince for the blorbo ask

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most) Laurent of Vere 💕

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped) Nicaise

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave) Erasmus 🥺

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week) Charls!!

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave) Ancel, love this ho

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason) Damen 100% this man is so easy to torment

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell) the Regent obv

[st0rmyseas]

Masterpost of Palestine info, resources & donation links I’ve found!

Masterpost — Introduction to Palestine, donations/charities, books, Palestinian culture, documentaries, films + video essays — a post by @palipunk

If you can’t donate, don’t worry, you can even just reblog this post to spread awareness and that will still be a massive help!

Underneath this paragraph, I have left some additional resources to educate yourself, a way YOU can help for free and then a bunch of links where you can donate. I will keep adding to this post as I find more resources!

Educate yourself:

Masterpost with a lot of information about Palestine + how you can help — a post by @hussyknee

Masterpost of donations, resources, education and art — a post by @puzzledjay

Educational links + donation links — a post by @stuckinapril

Information + donation links — a post by @rockabswing

Website recommendations — a post by @leroibobo

Palestine culture (food) — a post by @magz

How YOU can help for free:

Daily click — this generates donations from sponsors. Remember, you may click once a day, every day. Donations raised will go to UNRWA to assist the Palestinian refugees!

List of donations:

A huge master post of links where you can donate — a post by @faentasy-paesta

Masterpost of vetted family fundraisers — a post by @el-shab-hussein

Masterpost of vetted family fundraisers (part 2) — a post by @el-shab-hussein

Masterpost of vetted fundraisers — a post by @el-shab-hussein

Masterpost of links for Palestine, Sudan and more! — a post by @sinnabum45

Donations, petitions + campaigns — a post by @sulfurcosmos

Verified ways to donate to Gaza directly — a post by @hualianisms

Vetted fundraisers — a post by @commissions4aid-international

Vetted fundraisers — a post by @appsa

List of vetted Palestinian evacuation and support fundraisers — a post by @communistchilchuck

Verified Palestinian Go Fund Me’s — a post by @palestinian-fundraising and @describe-things

Vetted campaigns to support Gazans — a post by @fallahifag

Vetted campaigns — a post by @riding-with-the-wild-hunt

Vetted fundraisers — a post by @wutheringheightsfilm

Palestine aid — a post by @fairywithgremlintendencies

Donations + Go Fund Me’s — a post by @kyuunies

Gaza escape funds — a post by @palms-upturned

Donation links — a post by @zumurruds

Donations + Go Fund Me’s — a post by @tsaricides

Families in Gaza to donate to — a post by @qweenexplosionmurder

Places to donate to help Palestine —a post by @snarky-badger

Help a family safely evacuate Gaza — a post by @tikkunolamresistance

Fundraiser list — a post by @terroristiraqi

Donation matches — a post by @tsaricides

Unvetted but highly likely legitimate fundraisers — a post by @el-shab-hussein

Donation links — a post by @atlas-of-galaxies

Help young parents provide for their baby — a post by @imjustheretotrytohelp

Palestine fundraisers with easily-achievable goals — a post by @mauesartetc

[bluebutter-art]

winning tags on main pls and thanks

how much older than damen is kastor exactly. yes yes tragic siblings and all but was he a whole ass teenager having beef with a 2 year old. how funny is that

[gojuo]

As a mom i find it revolting that condam and hess made helaena say « i shouln’t feel sad cuz babies die all the time » wtf it’s not about babes ditng it’s about HER babe diying so if it was a childless person sying that ok but not from a mother who just lost her babe and they are making aegon the bad guy for wanting revange 👌👌👌 chef kiss just chef kiss 🙄 i am thinking that that phrase was just written so they can brush aside the kids deaths so they can justify women againts war narrative but i stil’ jave hope in humanity and that people will see what they are doing and stop sying it’s a good show like bitch if it was my daugther that was killed and i had a dragon i would burn and kill everyone just so they pay. Helaena dosn’t even look depressed like in the books so what will the excuse be that she dosn’t go burn dragonstone on dreamfyre???

That scene really rubbed me the wrong way but I haven't quite been able to put to words exactly why and how .... But @zumurruds explained it quite well here:

I've already said something on the narrative weight of B&C, and it's quite evident to me that the writers have been trying very hard in undervalueing its importance because of what zumurruds said above. If Helaena herself gets over Jaehaerys' death in the span of one day, if Aegon does, if Aemond's reckless actions that led to the assassination are never reckoned with by any character, if all that Alicent says about him is "The child's pain is ended" (to service the writers' attempt at dehumanizing Jaehaerys to make the viewer not care about him), if Otto's PR move is framed as something nefarious instead of the typical funeral procession of a member of the royal family, if we don't even see Jaehaerys' funeral like we did Luke's, then how can the viewer be anything but desensitized to Blood and Cheese? How can the viewer do anything but exonerate Daemon and Rhaenyra of this act? Rhaenyra in the episode literally said, "I would never harm innocents like Helaena!" As if this line isn't a blatant attempt at manipulating the viewer to feel a certain way about Rhaenyra's involvement in B&C by the writers, egregiously using her as a mouthpiece to absolve her of any evil she causes and has caused. Clearly whitewashing her of this act. Daemon too, because "It was a mistake! I only named Aemond!" and then having him have hallucinations in Harrenhal of Jaehaerys. We've actually seen Rhaenyra with Jaehaerys more times than we've seen Helaena with him. Like let that sink in.... And what we get from all this is that Helaena forgives Alicent? ... So basically the narrative is implicating Alicent and Criston in Jaehaerys' murder (already did tbf when the writers changed her being in the room to her not being there), but it washes Daemon and Rhaenyra's hands completely clean.

I know there are people who are trying to rationalize that scene as Helaena dissociating in order to cope with the trauma, but when you factor in Condal openly saying that he views Blood and Cheese as it was written in F&B as propaganda uttered by Alicent, and then him removing her from the event to go have sex with Cole with that being the reason there are no guards protecting Helaena's chambers so as to implicate them both in the murder .... Is that really what we can assume Condal wanted to do with Helaena in this episode?

I hate that scene. I really fucking hate that ep.3 scene.

[formlab]

Zumurrud Khatun Mosque and Mausoleum

[wimbledon2008]

tagged by @wernerherzogs @tsnbrainrot @billhaders @curlytemple 💕

rules: make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone's favorite!

tagging: @metaphorror @aheavenlyrush @thepoisonroom @freekicks @rubdown @turnpikeghosts @clytemnestraaa @irenabean @leclercari @hunybody @coldbam @azzurris @zumurruds @penult @spcecowboyyy @sincenewyorks i know that's more than five so sue me i wanna play polls with my friends

[damensource]

Masterpost

A warm thank you to all who participated in the inaugural DAMEN LOVE FEST! Your creations have brought us all immense joy and deepened our appreciation for Damen’s character.

Special thanks to rebloggers and supporters — your appreciation fuels the heartbeat of fandom.

Feel free to submit late Damen-centered works to our Ao3 Collection or tag #damenlovefest2023, as we continue to accept submissions. Stay tuned for potential future events by following this space!

Find the full DAMEN LOVE FEST 2023 masterpost below the cut to guarantee you’re viewing the latest version, including any late submissions.

Enjoy these remarkable works, and if possible, express your appreciation to our creators by reblogging and commenting on their work!

FIC

✨ A Storm That Took Everything by @irregularcollapse

✨ body in abyss by @kybelles

✨ Art + fic by @0-0malik

✨ as lovers go by @meidebenne

✨ bells for him by @kybelles

✨ bathed in light by @wrenaspun

✨ heart of gold by @noirshadow

✨ The Lost Prince by @byeugly

EDITS

✨ Survived by Damianos Vasilias edit by @chastillon

✨ Fathers & Sons web weaving by @zumurruds

✨ Akielos edit by @zumurruds

✨ Damen & Nikandros web weaving by @kybelles

✨ Homecoming edit by @chastillon

✨ Kastor & Damen edit by @laurentspeach

✨ Politics web weaving by @kybelles

✨ Akielos edit by @laurentspeach

✨ Personality web weaving by @kybelles

✨ Captive Prince TV Tropes edit by @zumurruds

✨ Relationships web weaving by @kybelles

✨ Kingship web weaving by @zumurruds

✨ Lamen web weaving by @zumurruds

✨ Trauma edit by @zumurruds

✨ Foils and Parallels web weaving by @kybelles

META

✨ Damen & Egeria meta by @meidebenne

✨ Family meta by @merrivia

✨ Akielos meta by @merrivia

✨ The Parallel Betrayals of Damen and Erasmus meta by @zumurruds

ART

✨ Family art by @cxinis

✨ Art + fic by @0-0malik

✨ Egeria art by @wrenaspun

✨ Akielos art by @cxinis

✨ Comic art by @0-0malik

✨ Lamen art by @0-0malik

✨ Damen art by @0-0malik

AUDIO

✨ Family song by @lise-thethinker

Once again, a big thank you to everyone who participated! Looking forward to seeing you next time! ♡

[notasfilosoficas]

“El todo es mente; el universo es mental. El todo es el conjunto totalizador. No hay nada fuera del todo”

Hermes Trismegisto

Es un personaje legendario de la época helenística, es una combinación de los dioses griegos Hermes y Thoth, su nombre significa “Hermes el tres veces grande” y el supuesto autor de los “Hermética”, una serie diversa de textos pseudoepigráficos antiguos y medievales que sientan las bases de varios sistemas filosóficos conocidos como hermetismo.

Hermes Trismegisto es considerado un sabio egipcios con conocimientos de filosofía, alquimia, astrología y magia y algunos pensadores medievales consideraron a Hermes Trismegisto un profeta pagano que anunció el advenimiento del cristianismo. Se le atribuyen estudios de filosofía, como el Corpus Hermeticum, y de alquimia como el texto árabe Lawh al-zumurrud.

A la literatura de Hermes Trismegisto se le conoce como literatura Hermética, y tratan temas tanto espirituales como terrenales, por ejemplo, la manera de atrapar las almas de los demonios en las estatuas a través de hechizos y hierbas.

Entre los tratados que se le suelen atribuir a este autor griego destacan el “Corpus Hermeticum” y “La tabla esmeralda”, del cual éste último sobre todo, es considerado la base del saber alquímico, cuyo objetivo primordial era llegar a la sustancia primordial (una suerte de arkhé) a través de transmutaciones de la materia, algo similar a lo que buscaba la alquimia, que era llegar a la obtención del oro, a través de materiales como el plomo.

En la obra atribuida a Giovanni di Stefano en la catedral gótica de Siena, se puede apreciar una representación de Hermes Trismegisto con un gorro que pretende evocar al dios griego Hermes, entregando un libro a dos personajes que representan a dos sabios uno de oriente y occidente, en cuyo libro se hace una referencia a Egipto como cuna de la sabiduría, así como la frase “Contemporaneus Moysi”, aludiendo a que es contemporáneo de Moises.

En 1908, el abogado y comerciante estadounidense William Walker Atkinson publicó una obra titulada “El Kybalión”, en el que afirmó sin aportar ninguna evidencia historiográfica, que creía que Hermes Trismegisto podría haber sido contemporáneo del patriarca Abraham.

Las obras de este Hipotético autor, fueron reconocidas como de gran valía por Cicerón, Lactancia y San Agustín entre otros muchos autores medievales y renacentistas (traducidas al latín por Marsilio Ficino en 1471), sin embargo, la crítica filológica iniciada por Casaubon en 1614, ha demostrado que se trata de una serie de distintos escritos debidos a diversos autores de los siglos II y III d.C., probablemente griegos, en los que se mezclan sin rigor las doctrinas filosóficas de elementos astrológicos y astronómicas de caldeos y helenísticos, de la física aristotélica y de la filosofía pitagórico-platónica, que son un ejemplo del sincretismo y eclecticismo de la filosofía salvífica popular griega, propia del período helenístico tardío.

El núcleo del mensaje del hermetismo del cual procedió todo su éxito, se centra en torno al hecho de presentarse como una doctrina de salvación unidas a unas teorías de orden metafísico, teológico, cosmológico y antropológico, basadas en un sistema teológico que estudia la salvación. La salvación que consiste en la liberación definitiva del cuerpo terrenal, consiste en el conocimiento de la gnosis o doctrina hermética, en donde antes de todo, el hombre debe conocerse a si mismo y convencerse de que su naturaleza consiste en su intelecto.

En los Oráculos, predomina el elemento mágico mucho mas que en el Corpus Hermeticum y respecto al origen de esta obra, las fuentes antiguas nos indican que su autor fue un pensador romano de nombre Juliano de Teúrgo, que vivió en la época de Marco Aurelio en el siglo II d.C. Esto se sabe con certeza por que en el siglo III d.C. estos textos ya eran citados por autores cristianos y por filósofos paganos.

Los oráculos no se remiten a la sabiduría egipcia sino a la babilónica y en ellos el culto al sol desempeñan un papel fundamental.

Juliano fue el primer pensador en ser denominado Teúrgo, concepto que difiere radicalmente del teólogo, ya que el teólogo se limita a hablar de los dioses en tanto que el teúrgo los evoca y actúa sobre ellos. La teúrgia entonces, es la sabiduría y el arte de la magia usada con finalidades místico religiosas y está estrechamente ligada con la alquimia. Mientras que la magia vulgar hace uso de los nombres y fórmulas de origen religioso con objetivos profanos, la teúrgia los hace con el objetivo religioso de la liberación del alma del cuerpo y la búsqueda de la unión con lo divino.

Los textos herméticos contienen, de forma muy parecida a otros textos religiosos, una cosmogonía, es decir una interpretación del mundo teológica, y presenta una jerarquía de dioses intermedios o emanaciones entre Dios y el mudo formada por; El Logos o verbo, (quien funge como hijo primogénito del Dios supremo), el Demiurgo (una figura similar a un artesano responsable de dar forma y mantener al universo físico), el Anthorpos (o el hombre incorpóreo que es imagen De Dios), y las almas de los hombres terrenales que es lo que hay en los cuerpos físicos.

El Dios primigenio no actúa ni es creador, sino que la creación corre a cargo del logos y del demiurgo de inspiración platónica. Estos dos Dioses actúan sobre la oscuridad y las tinieblas dejando paso al Dios Luz y construyen un mundo ordenado. Gracias a ellos se configuran y ponen en movimiento siete esferas celestiales que a su vez producen a los seres vivos.

Por su parte, el anthorpos quiere imitar a los dioses creadores y crear él también algo, está envidioso de sus hermanos mayores, sin embargo, el anthorpos espiritual cae a la tierra, a lo físico y lo corpóreo, naciendo así el hombre terreno con su doble naturaleza espiritual y corporal.

Fuentes: Wikipedia, ucm.es, encyclopaedia.herdereditorial.com, anaminecan.com

[merrivia]

Thinking today about Damen, trauma and the symbolic use of water in Captive Prince...

I was talking to @zumurruds about this, and she mentioned that we understand Laurent’s trauma as readers, but that Damen’s trauma can seem elusive to us. Which is very true, and got me to thinking about how these things might work in terms of Damen’s psyche as constructed by Pacat, especially taking into consideration Akielos is a version of Ancient Greece (with some Roman influences).

Edward Tick is a fairly influential psychotherapist in the field of trauma, especially post-traumatic stress and how it affects soldiers, and he has particularly looked at Ancient Greek rituals (and other classical and indigenous practices!) for answers as to how to heal the psychic wounds of conflict.

Firstly, this is a nice overview of some of Tick’s ideas:

“[Tick’s] argument is that in classical and native American tradition, serving as a warrior was an archetypal experience characterized by initiation of young men and, then, later, rituals of purification and cleansing that help them to undergo a sort of psycho-spiritual re-birthing process and return to civilian life, not just as civilians, but as individuals who’ve gone through a profound transformation. And that transformation was acknowledged by the wider society.”

Some (not all) of these “rituals of purification and cleansing” are literally ones that use water. And I think this can maybe helps us to understand more deeply the use of water in the novels and how it connects to trauma (Damen’s in particular).

More after the jump:

Before going into more depth I will say one thing. I think the reason Damen has coped well with being a soldier, has a lot to do with his initiation into warriorhood in Akielos. 

When it comes to war, specific rites and training would transform you psychologically. As Tick says:

“The study of worldwide mythology and the work of historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists show us that cultures in almost all times and places have deemed it necessary to have a warrior class of citizens. The formula is simple: the preparation is specialized training; the proving ground is battle. Risking death for the protection of one’s people transforms a boy into a warrior. Successful completion of the transformation makes him a man.”

What this does to you then is accelerate growing up. Interesting inversion there, as the Regent tries to keep the adult Laurent a child, and child Damen would have been thrust into adulthood early. Did that damage Damen? Depends on your perspective (I think yes and no), but it certainly gave him strength and resilience.

There is an interesting, revealing moment of Damen’s, when he has been flogged and still finds the wherewithal to speak back to Laurent:

“He felt raw, as though a protective outer layer had been stripped away; the problem was that what had been exposed was not weakness but core metal.”

“Core metal”. That’s what lies at the heart of Damen, even with the warmth of his heart. 

Tick then quotes the philosopher William James:

“War and adventure assuredly keep all who engage in them from treating themselves too tenderly. They require such incredible effort, depth beyond depth of exertion . . . that the whole scale of motivation alters. Discomfort and annoyance, hunger and wet, pain and cold, squalor and filth cease to have any deterrent operation whatever. Death turns into a commonplace matter. . .”

Damen has gone through all this; this is what forged that “core metal” in him. He is a warrior, in a militaristic society. He understands well what it is like to have courage against death and to physically endure discomfort and physical pain. I think this is why he is able to take his circumstances as a slave in Vere, and survive. Every time Damen is hurt, he compares it to his training or to his past experiences, and simply withstands it, as he knows he got through it before. He endures and endures. Even the flogging. That is what warriors do; it was what he was trained to do.

This is one of the reasons his trauma is hidden away from us; at first, Damen seems to just cope with it.

The idea of warriors, too, is so different to modern soldiers, where I think a lot of our contemporary ideas around trauma come from.

Damen has killed on the “sawdust”, suggesting he has accidentally killed when training, and he has killed in battle. He also killed Auguste. The weight of those deaths were expiated somewhat by his role- he was not shamed but made elevated by them; when he returned from Marlas, he was honoured and given a hero’s welcome. Some of the trauma Tick describes modern soldiers go through, comes from them being shoved to one side and forgotten about. 

Interestingly, another aspect of the trauma around modern soldiers, is the impersonal nature of killing. As Tick says:

In its ancient and ritual forms, warfare was often personal. Enemy combatants often knew each other by name, and the victor’s status was partly based upon the status of the enemy he had defeated. Homer’s Iliad records numerous tales of individual combat between contending champions whose families, histories, and reputations were well known to each other. But modern war is impersonal. Whom you fight, what their battle experience and status in their culture is, and how they are armed are all matters of chance.

Though we may think knowing who Auguste was makes it worse, from Tick’s perspective it is better. It becomes a matter of personal combat, a duel of honour- it is essentially meaningful. Damen fought Auguste to help end the battle, and symbolically, it was two princes fighting for victory. There is no disgrace or evil in that.

The problem comes with Laurent and with spending time in Vere, where Damen is no longer seen as a hero-warrior but a villain- someone immoral and shameful. One of the first things Laurent does to Damen in the baths is (very unfairly) make him feel ashamed for killing, and Damen has to protest and say it was “battle” and that “there were deaths on both sides” (which is true- Laurent conveniently forgets all the people Auguste would have killed on the Akielon side). That is a lot of what Damen has to battle through psychologically during the novel. He has no words to describe what he’s going through, was not trained for this, and again, this is why his trauma remains hidden to us. 

In normal circumstances also, after he had been freed, Damen would have returned home, and would go through a process of restoration there that would help him process the trauma he went through in Vere. But by falling in love with Laurent and tying himself to him, Damen is forever in a liminal state- he cannot return home, as the two countries are one which the two kings will rule together, and he is always going to be both lover and brother-killer (he now carries the guilt of killing his brother-in-law, not an enemy prince). This contradiction needs to be resolved.

Additionally, what happened to him in Vere did not carry the honour of battle. Damen could not fight back. It was pure victimisation. That is also where the trauma lies, as well having to process how Laurent is both lover and torturer (Laurent also, needs to confront this, and what he did to Damen).

So let’s talk about water.

There is a symbolic weight that water always carries in texts- life and rebirth, purification and cleansing, rejuvenation and destruction, amongst many other things. But when considering water’s cleansing and restorative processes in conjunction with classical ideas of healing and surviving trauma, I think it becomes even more interesting.

The books abound with water. The trilogy starts with Damen in baths at Akielos, and ends the same way, a deliberately cyclical structure. A rebirth. Damen and Laurent bathe frequently; sometimes this leads to violence, such as the flogging, and sometimes it is cleansing.

However, it is The Summer Palace where the richest, most definitive moment of water is symbolically used.

In the short story, Pacat shows this complex interplay between past and present; of all of what lies between Laurent and Damen. There is no forgetting of the killing of Auguste or of Kastor, or of the flogging. The two move between deep romantic desire and discussions of their painful past, fluidly.

Another quotation from Tick feels resonant here:

Ironically, doing violence to another can be a profoundly intimate act. Larry, a captain in Viet Nam, said his life’s most intimate encounter had been when staring into the eyes of a North Vietnamese officer as they grappled, their hands locked around each other’s throats. Many veterans who have survived hand-to-hand combat talk about the erotic nature of the death struggle. The violence of battle can thus constitute a kind of reverse intimacy. 

There is that strange irony at work with what happens between Damen and Laurent. Laurent, so damaged and isolated and cut off from others, first becomes close to Damen through the intimate act of violence- that’s why it’s important that he sits in front of Damen, close to him, and watches him as he is flogged in CP. It’s why Laurent deliberately baits Damen into hitting him in PG, by telling Damen Kastor killed Theomedes- afterwards his eyes are described as “glittering with triumph” as “his lips are smeared with blood” (a highly disturbing kiss with a fist, which he engineered). It’s why when they fight one another in the training room in KR, it is an important part of the carthasis they must go through in order to truly become lovers. Through violence is physical contact and those moments cut down the walls Laurent has built around himself. 

But there are of course, huge consequences for that. 

Damen admits he has not allowed himself to acknowledge much of what happened to him, particularly at the hands of Laurent. A lot remains behind a “closed door”. Yet what has been locked away must start to be acknowledged, for healing to take place. And this is done through water.

The idea that soldiers be purified when returning from war exists in many different cultures and has been practiced for centuries, including in Rome where “vestal virgins would bathe returning soldiers to purge them of the corruption of war”. For the Greeks, water in general was healing. What I think is interesting is how Pacat has (intentionally?) rewoven these strands of healing that comes from Ancient Greek culture and incorporated it into the texts. Water rituals restore and spiritually cleanse those who suffer harm- hydrotherapy of sorts. A lot of this, appears to be through gods and through dreams, water that is blessed that then touches the psyche. 

This is how Tick describes such processes:

The mysterious process behind the whole tradition was called "temple sleep" or "incubation." Those in need of healing, from the highest to the humblest levels of society, cast off the garments of their roles in the outer world, bathed ceremonially and donned white robes, and presented themselves to the therapeutes, the first "therapists," the healing priests of the temple of Asklepios..... The god was believed to visit the supplicant through a dream, or in his theriomorphic (animal-shaped) form, as a snake or a dog. Through the theophany itself (the apparition of the god) or through one of the first "prescriptions"—for instance, "after fasting for three days, the supplicant should immerse himself in the pool of Parthenius, though it be winter, and pray to Artemis"—the healing would come. 

So with no temples, gods or priests, Pacat finds an alternative.

Laurent bathing Damen, in the baths of Lentos. 

It is a restoration for them both. By doing so, Laurent is putting himself into the position of a slave (giving himself the role enforced onto Damen, an eye for an eye), putting his pride to one side (kneeling, an act he also finds difficult due to trauma) and, most importantly, confronting the consequences of his actions in having Damen flogged nearly to death. 

When Laurent washes the scars on Damen’s back, it is a transformative moment:

Nothing could wash away the past, but this took them both there, touching a painful truth, acknowledging it. 

It was gentler between his shoulders than it had been against his chest. Flesh and self were linked. The cleansing was slow, attentive, drizzling water, then soaping his skin. It was healing something he hadn’t known needed to be healed. Like breathing, it was necessary, even as the tenderness of it was too much, gentleness where he had never expected Laurent to be gentle. 

He had been braced against the lash for so long. Where he had been flayed, he was now open.

I would argue, with the absence of gods, there is only Damen and Laurent’s love, which exists as something higher, sacred, perhaps even numinous. It is a stand in for divine power, which is perhaps even more meaningful. Their love allows them that healing and rebirth, and allows them access to something higher than can move them forward. Perhaps that will keep being a journey that they do together, but it starts with this, with symbolic purification through water, and with the healing not just Laurent, but Damen, desperately needed.

Bibilography:

War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation's Veterans from Post-tramatic Stress Disorder, Edward Tick

Warrior's Return: Restoring the Soul After War, Edward Tick

The Practice of Dream Healing: Bringng Ancient Greek Mysteries into Modern Medicine, Edward Tick

[captaindamianos]

A long long time ago @zumurruds asked for Nicaise. I finally tried my hand at him

[cxinis]

@zumurruds gave me the the idea of drawing book one damen with rubies in his hair

[mangomybeloved]

Tag game!!

I was tagged by @shrikeofficial TYYY FOR TAGGING ME SHRIKEY ILUUUU <3333

rules: pick a song for every letter of your URL and tag that many people

M - Maldivas by LUDMILLA

A - After Hours by Kehlani

N - Never Lose Me by Flo Milli

G - Good Luck, Babe by Chappell Roan

O - Overprotected by Britney Spear

M - Made for Me by Muni Long

Y - You Wish by Flyana Boss

B - Be Easy by Odeal and brazy

E - End of Beginning by djo

L - Love Me Anyway by Chappell Roan

O - Obsessed by Olivia Rodrigo

V - Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo

E - Easy Lovers by Piero Piccioni

D - Deira by Saint Levant and MC Abdul

i'm going to tag mutuals i don't often tag but wanna get to know so i'm tagging @heartmug, @asteriis, @oceanfossil, @delarverie, @calculustics , @shimamitsu , @zumurruds , @psychic-jellyfish , @blessthishouse , @nemmet , @themoonsmywife , @ofbooksandstardust , @hauntedhikingsociety , @vanniez , and @fawkesofalbion !

[hewantshisbrideback]

Favorite Character Poll Tag Meme

Rules: Make a poll with five of your all-time favorite characters, then tag five people to do the same.

Tagging: @zumurruds @weirdwood @tonyloom @sobredosis @mysticalmuddle ❤️‍🔥 No pressure, ofc! And thank you @not-alesha for the tag!

[kybelles]

nine people i’d like to know better

tagged by @castironnbitch 🫶🏼

last song: god control - madonna

favourite colour: it’s a tie between purple and red tbh

last movie/tv show: i’ve recently finished heaven official blessing’s second season

sweet/savoury/spicy: this is a difficult question cause i’m such a gluttonous freak but atm i’m crazing something sweet so let’s go with that

last thing i googled: kavala cookies recipe (see the previous answer)

current obsession: yuwu by meatbun! the tempo was slow at the beginning but i’m loving it nowadays

last book: again yuwu part 1

looking forward to: see my sister in march 🥺

tagging: @zumurruds @merrivia @chastillon @meidebenne @wrenaspun @cxinis @kaligraphy and anyone else who’d like to participate ‼️