#because we all know in the myths humans and gods usually don’t go well | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

waywardsummoner46 · 2 years ago

Text

Evader of the Endless

Pairing: Dream of the Endless x (?)reader, future all Endless x reader (maybe)

Summary: “(Y/N) (Y/L/N), Evader of the Endless, Challenger of Ancient Laws, it has been no easy feat locating you. Prepare yourself for each of us, we are quite unforgiving of those that dare defy our ways.”

Word Count: 1754

Warnings: Nothing extreme yet. Future violence, gore, blood, dub/con, mind manipulation, imprisonment, neglect, abuse and definitely way more and worse

A/N: The Sandman has taken over my life, help. Expect more of this, Eternity, and an Our Beautiful Girl part two within the next few weeks. Let me know what you think and be sure to tag along, this one will be intense.

“So, let me get this straight, you think that there is some sort of mystical higher power out there that hasn’t presented itself because… why?”

You sighed exasperatedly. “That is not what I said and you know it, Gabriel. All I said was humans suck, so if there is a higher race, I don’t blame them for not showing themselves, you know?”

Throwing his head back with laughter, Gabriel struggled to understand your logic.

“Don’t laugh at me, Gabe. What I’m saying is completely sensible,” you pouted playfully. When his laughter never ceased you raised an amused brow and crossed your arms challengingly. “I can’t help but feel as though you aren’t taking my words seriously.”

Only after you hit him did he stop laughing. “I’m sorry, I really am but that is seriously some dodgy logic, (Y/N).”

“Oh yeah? Enlighten me then, oh-great-one, how is it dodgy?”

In typical Gabe fashion, his posture immediately straightened, his jacket was dusted off and his throat cleared quite dramatically. You barely withheld a sigh of affectionate frustration. “First of all, if there was a more intelligent race than us they would most definitely either invade or make themselves known because of how much humans suck. They would undoubtedly assert their superiority over us and, honestly, would probably make fun of us. I know this because… well… I’ve lied to you, (Y/N). I am actually a martian,” he jokingly raised his hands and went to tickle you but thanks to your quick reflexes, you evaded his attacks.

“I was genuinely willing to listen to you, then. You’ve ruined it now, well done, you idiot.”

Poking his tongue out at you in retaliation, you decided not to engage in any further unintelligent conversation with someone who won’t do the same. As a result, you declared you were going to get another round of drinks as you needed to get away from his brainless arguments (by now, you were used to them so you didn’t mind that much).

Gabriel was an extremely questionable person but he was a good one, nonetheless. Having known the guy since you were eleven, suffice to say he was one of your closest, if not the closest, friend you had. Unfortunately, life went by and you both went your separate ways to your individual colleges - it was only now that you’d finally met up. Words couldn’t describe how happy you were once you realised the ease in which you both fell back to your usual dynamic.

It was that reason that you’d got on the subject of your otherworldly opinions; randomly, aliens were brought up and the conversation just stemmed from there but you made a solid argument with solid beliefs.

Hypothetically speaking, if aliens or beings of a higher power or even Gods of old myths exist, why would they reveal themselves to an already dying race? Humans were slowly killing themselves off anyway so why would they either try and redeem the irredeemable or conquer the slowly dying? Like pieces in a puzzle, the logic coexisted in your brain and you felt a childish sense of pride with your hypothesis (it was also highly entertaining garnering a reaction from people).

However, at the end of the day, the entirety of it was a fun little theory and while it does bring you some comfort to think that humans aren’t the most intellectual beings in the universe, your realistic brain realised that nothing would ever come of it.

“Alright, my darling? How can I help you?” The friendly barman asked you as you sat on the barstool. Smiling at him, you requested the same again and nodded gratefully when he went about it.

Life was very monotonous. It was fun and full of pleasant surprises but monotonous, all the same. You loved it, though; especially the familiarity of a pub’s atmosphere. Like a warm blanket, the blurred voices of the pub’s regulars danced in your ears and as you glanced around the bar, a small, fond smile at how at peace everybody seemed inside of the White Horse.

There, your smile remained as still as frozen as a painting… but then, you saw him.

Him in all his otherworldly glory. Him with the beautiful contrast of his black clothes against his pale skin. Him who looked so out of place in the small tavern. Him who carried himself with the self-respect of a king… and him, whose gaze was as piercing as any dagger, who was looking directly at you.

That realisation snapped you out of your unabashed admiration and bewilderment long enough for you to turn away and back to the bar. Biting your lip, you cursed your staring and lack of social awareness; the embarrassment of having been caught churned in your gut and you did not dare ponder on how he felt.

Glass hit wood and you raised your head. “Here you go, love,” the bartender kindly said.

Unfortunately for you, your eyes were still a bit dissociated and he noticed. “Everything alright?”

Immediately, you jolted to attention. “Yes! Yes, sorry, everything’s fine…” Trailing off, you glanced behind you again to where the striking man had been (sighing in relief and disappointment when you found him gone) and the bartender followed your gaze.

He didn’t comment on your suddenly flattened demeanour but he did pat your back with something akin to support. Smiling gratefully, you grabbed the drinks and turned to make your way back to your table.

Halfway was about all you managed before the glasses fell from your hands and crashed to the floor with a deafening shatter.

The man was… sat… at your table, chatting idly to Gabe although all of his attention was seemingly on you. He also seemed to be the only one who had even registered you dropping the glasses as no one else had even batted an eyelid at your humiliating lack of self control. Bravely, you tore your eyes away from the man and looked around the room once more; everyone was either extremely kind or unfathomably oblivious to their surroundings. Good to know you weren’t the only one with no public awareness.

Suddenly, cool sensations could be felt in each of your hands and your eyes nearly left their sockets when you beheld the glasses, the fully intact glasses, resting innocently in your hands. Beneath furrowed brows, you also noted how there was no liquid or broken glass anywhere on the floor leaving you to not only be confused, but slightly scared of what was happening to you.

“You dare to challenge us so, little challenger?”

If you hadn’t been so hyper fixated on the surreality of your situation and more focused on your distinct and newfound affiliation for this man, you probably would have fainted on the spot. You may still do that, except it would be because of the barely concealed threat within his words you how erratic your breathing was becoming.

A tickling sensation across your face temporarily calmed you. It was light and danced across your face like dandelions floating in a breeze. Once your rapid blinking stopped, you noticed, through increasingly heavy eyelids, that the man was now standing away from the table and had a dark, grainy substance in his hand, Gabe was slouched in his seat sleeping and snoring lightly.

Sand. This nutjob had blown sand in your face if his lowering hand from his mouth signified anything and it was causing you to grow terrifyingly tired. Was it mixed with some sort of air-bourne sedatives? Did those even exist?

Your growing panic didn’t seem to be lost on him before you, as he glided effortlessly over to you and began circling you. You were the prey and he was, undoubtedly, the predator.

Luckily, you still possessed enough coherent thought to notice his hand raising once more so you staggered backwards with the instability of a newborn deer and fell back against the bar. “No! Don’t blow anymore of that… stuff at me,” you mumbled weakly through drooping eyelashes. “What did you do to my friend?”

Onyx flooded your already shrouded vision. Hopelessness overwhelmed you so you thought it best to look in the eyes of the one who’d started all of this. Swallowing your remaining cowardice your lethargic head tilted up and up. Up to the almost ethereal look of his cloak, then to an entrancing light emanating from a gorgeous ruby that hung from his neck. In your peripheral, you registered his pouch of sand but that’s not what held your attention. No, it was the grotesque, skeletal, utterly ghastly mask that he now wore upon his head.

There was no way to describe it apart from nightmarishly haunting. It was not dissimilar to a gas mask except, the eye sockets were just a little too wide, too red, and the “canister” resembled someone’s spine too much for you to even begin to comprehend just what had presented itself to you.

“Please… don’t hurt me,” you whispered. Tears now flowed freely down your cheeks. The fear you’d felt before now multiplied tenfold as your eyes shut for the final time, leaving you blind to his movements.

Bafflingly, there were no sounds of rustling fabric or distorted breaths from beyond the mask. In fact, there were no sounds at all. The creep was toying with you, how dare he take advantage of your vulnerability? Degrade you even more by delighting in your helplessness?

More grains of sand fluttered across your face and you quickly found yourself descending deeper into the abyss of sleep. At least you won’t be able to feel the pain, right?

Stuck on the bridge between consciousness and unconsciousness, you felt an arm snake beneath your knees and another supporting your shoulders. The distinct feeling of your head lolling into something that felt worryingly like the junction of someone’s neck and shoulder would’ve caused you to snap out of your exhaustion but, for the life of you, no effort to wake was rewarded. If anything, you plunged further into sleep and into a realm that should protect you. Instead, you had an inkling that whatever awaited you in sleep would not be for your benefit.

“(Y/N) (Y/L/N), Evader of the Endless, Challenger of Ancient Laws, it has been no easy feat locating you. Prepare yourself for each of us, we are quite unforgiving of those that dare defy our ways.”

You never heard his warning, sleep had already overtaken you by then. When you awake, who knows what will happen?

#dream of the endless x reader #dream x reader #the sandman x reader #morpheus x reader #desire of the endless x reader #death of the endless x reader

115 notes · View notes

youkaigakkou-tl · 2 years ago

Text

The Kyoto Arc Analysis Post (Part 1)

In other words, “OP has been consumed by wikipedia rabbit holes for the past 3 months”

Starting writing this in September, now it's November. Also this thing is nearly 7000 words.

TLDR: This is basically a crash course on ancient Kyoto, the mythology then, and stuff that details in this arc points to. Chinese philosophies and mythology are mentioned too, when relevant.

Spoilers for chapters 82 to 94.

I keep hitting image limit so this has been split into multiple posts

This part covers the urban planning of ancient Kyoto, what the four gods are, and some locations shown in ch 83.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

(If you want to read the whole thing in a google doc, here's the link)

Warning: I’m not a historian, just some rando on tumblr, I’ll probably get some details wrong. If you have anything to add or anything to correct, please do, also don’t get too mad at me.

Also, if this shows up in the searches for some of the other mangas I namedrop, I’m sorry!

If there’s a concept you’re interested to know more about, just google it. I’m bound to leave out stuff bc not everything is relevant (and there’s already plenty of irrelevant stuff in here sobs), people write whole books about this stuff, I’ll be here for 1000 years if I were to bring up all of it.

I Don’t Know How To Start This

I guess I’ll recommend some other manga that have to do with gods, Shinto, that stuff.

Well. Everyone knows what Noragami is. If you don’t, go read/watch it. If you do, go read/watch it again. It’s probably better than you remember it being. That’s the curse of monthly manga, it feels like there’s pacing problems when you read it once a month, but usually when you binge it you find it’s structured pretty well. Strangely I don’t find this with youkaigakkou, but maybe because I think about it 24/7.

Touge Oni, or “Primal Gods in Ancient Times”. This manga leans heavily into ancient Japan, Shinto creation myths, stuff like that. Tonally it’s kind of like Mushishi, in the way that powers beyond human comprehension just do crazy shit. Anyway, great manga, highly recommend.

Wow, The Actual Manga, Right

Just some trivia to start with. This is going to wander quite a bit, because there’s a lot about history and mythology, which means everything is connected to everything else. You know how it is.

Shinto shrines are called shrines, 神社 -jinja, meaning “place of the god(s)”

Buddhist temples are called temples, 寺 -dera or -ji.

The temple they’re staying at is called “Bonnou-ji”, or "worldly desires temple". As far as I can tell, this isn’t a real place, nor could I figure out what temple it’s based on just from the scenery we get to see. (We don’t even get a general location of what part of Kyoto it’s in.)

Heian-Kyo

You may have noticed South is oriented at the top on this page.

I have a guess, but I can’t be sure it’s right.

Why does it matter? First of all, we have to talk about the other thing Seimei mentions about Kyoto: It’s built in a grid.

(By the way, this is an insane thing to say. What does he mean?? Does he mean “ah yes city was built like this over 100 years ago so one day someone could use this specific spell involving a grid to subdue a giant booba monster”?)

Also, the word he uses for “grid” here is “碁盤目 (gobanme)”, which in the literal sense means “shaped like a Go board”, which is cute. I want to see them play Go.

Heian-kyo (the name for Kyoto back then), like Japan’s previous capital of Heijo-kyo (now Nara), was modelled after the Chinese capital of Chang’an (now Xi’an).

For the record, they probably didn’t call themselves “Heian-kyo” back in those times, and started calling themselves Kyoto around the 11th century. It’s kinda like how we call it “ancient Japan” but they didn’t call themselves that. To them it was just “now” and “the capital”. Why make a name for “the capital” when there’s just one capital that will be capital forever? Makes sense.

(Just for reference, the layout of the streets and where Heian-kyo would be compared to modern Kyoto.)

The emperor’s palace is in the northernmost part of the rectangular city, with the main street Suzaku-oji going down the center of the city to the southern gate.

The reason behind that is the idea that left (east) is more important than right (west), and that the emperor should sit with his back facing the north star (Polaris), so that the sun rises from the left (east) and sets on the right (west).

What Heian-kyo and Chang’an are both based off is the urban planning fengshui idea of “shijin-so-o”, which translates to “four gods topography”, which is the very same four gods we’re talking about this arc.

There are two very similar versions of this philosophy, the original one and the one derived from that.

The original version is based off the idea of “zofu-jusui” meaning storing wind and water. There is to be mountains in the North, hills in the East and West, and a body of water in the South, creating a sort of jug.

The expanded version is:

Seiryuu to the left, flowing water in the East Byakko to the right, thoroughfare in the West Suzaku to the front, lake in the South Genbu to the back, mountains in the North

Basically, a city is to be bounded by mountains in the North, a river in the East, a road in the West, a lake to the South. Also, again, left and right in this definition is based off the emperor’s perspective, which could explain the direction labelling on that page.

In any case, both of these definitions apply to Kyoto.

Also, Chinese maps traditionally were oriented with south at the top, I can't say for certain if Japanese maps did too, but it's likely!

However, if you look at maps today, you may find that there’s no major body of water south of Kyoto.

In the past, there used to be the Ogura-ike pond south of Kyoto, which symbolised Suzaku. (Despite being called a “pond”, it was more the size of a lake, 4km by 3km). In the 1930s, it was filled in because of land reclamation, to create more farmland.

In a sense, Kyoto had “lost Suzaku”.

Intermission

It’s also BECAUSE of this very philosophy that Kyoto nowadays gets abnormally hot in summer (above 35 degrees celsius for 15 days a year on average, compared to 5 days everywhere else).

Because it’s inland and blocked by mountains on all sides, on hot days, cool air can’t flow in from elsewhere so it just keeps getting hotter. Sounds like a stupid trade-off for stupid philosophy, but the practical reason behind the philosophy was probably that surrounded by mountains, Kyoto would be harder to invade.

Suzaku-oji

The main street, Suzaku-oji, also gets its name from the four gods. The main entrance to the palace, connected to Suzaku-oji is also called Suzakumon, or Suzaku Gate.

Speaking of Suzakumon, it shows up in the manga!

It’s where Byakko brings the gang when they go to the Seimei shrine. (Albeit a surreal version) The text on the plaque over the door is hard to read on this manga page, but it’s clear in this chapter promo art.

I believe it’s also where Shutendouji appears in ch 89. The text over the door is even harder to make out, but the building itself looks just like in that promo art.

Back to Suzaku-oji. Looking at modern Kyoto, you may notice that there's no major road down the center, instead there’s that major road to the right (in yellow). Zoom in! Enhance! What’s that road called!

Karasuma-dori street. Corresponding to Karasuma-koji of Heian-kyo, and has replaced Suzaku-oji in modern times as a main street of Kyoto. You know, like Karasuma Ranmaru. (launches myself out the nearest window)

So anyway, what gets me hung up about why south is at the top in that page, is that it just does not correspond to the map under it.

Left side is a miniature model of Heian-kyo, it’s basically a perfect match. And you can see Suzaku-oji right there on the miniature model, that big wide road, stretching from the palace gate towards the south, which would mean that south should be at the bottom of the page instead of north.

So why is it like that? idk

ALSO, IF YOU LOOK AT THIS PANEL FROM CH88, WHERE IS THE MAIN STREET???? This panel drives me insane. YOU KNOW WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE? If you took that top half, the palace, and just pasted it at the bottom. And also the sides. DID THEY THINK NOBODY WOULD NOTICE? You know what they had a point. Canada “most sane yohaji enjoyer”, OP of this blog, who spent 2 months looking for sources on ancient Japanese and Chinese urban planning in 3 different languages, is an outlier and should not be counted.

What does this have to do with Kuji-kiri?

Honestly? I don’t know! There’s not a super obvious connection.

Kuji-kiri is the grid thing Douman does, “kuji” means nine words, “kiri” means cut. It’s a version of the kuji-in (nine hand seals), where the kuji-in is nine hand signs paired with nine words or phrases, the kuji-kiri is 5 horizontal and 4 vertical lines, drawn alternating, starting with a horizontal line.

It’s said to be derived from the principle of yin-yang in Taoism, which Onmyoudou as a whole comes from. (Onmyou and yin-yang use the same kanji)

Specifically, the 5 horizontal slashes are yang and offensive, the 4 vertical slashes are yin and defensive.

Worth mentioning, Onmyoudou also incorporates the philosophy of gogyo (five elements). Will elaborate on that later.

9 is a symbolic number in Taoism, said to be the perfect number in divination for yang, or the nine planets, or the seven stars of the big dipper plus two guardian stars, believed to be the gateway to heaven. There is the most tenuous of connections here, in that 9 was an important number in Chinese philosophy, where an ancient Chinese urban planning guide states “9 li x 9 li squares” (“li” is a unit of measurement) and “9 vertical and 9 horizontal streets in the city”

To that end, I assume the connection is simply that Kyoto is grid = Kuji-kiri is grid.

Four Gods

Four gods, auspicious beasts, symbols, guardians, whatever. The idea originated from China, and didn’t change all that much when they got to Japan. They don’t have this many names in Chinese, it’s just called “si xiang”. “Si” means four. “Xiang” doesn't have a great exact translation.

Not to be confused with any other mythical figures that come in fours that China/Buddhism/whatever seem to love so much, for all that “four” is an unlucky number.

Like a lot of other Chinese mythical things, while associated with Taoism, the four gods didn’t really originate from any religion. In that sense, I think they occupy the same cultural space as Japanese youkai, in that while sorta connected to religion, they’re not the focus.

They’re not gods of any religion, so what are they?

They’re constellations.

In Chinese astronomy, much like the western zodiac, the night sky is split into parts corresponding with the Earth’s position throughout the year. (Albeit, based off the moon rather than the sun.)

The night sky is split into 4 quadrants and 1 middle section, the middle around polaris symbolizing the emperor, and each quadrant is one of the four gods.

As said before, this is relevant because it’s part of the fengshui stuff behind the layout of Chang’an, which was inherited into the layout of Heian-kyo.

What does this have to do with Abe no Seimei?

Well. Onmyoudou is just divination, which is just astrology.

The four gods are very much tied to the Gogyo (five elements), which is half of the basis of Onmyoudou (the other half is yin-yang).

We know it's specifically the Taoist Gogyo and not the Buddhist Godai (another thing with 5 elements), because Seiryuu specifically says his domain is “wood” and “wood” is not present in the Godai.

If you’ve seen other media with Abe no Seimei, you may have heard of the 12 divine guardians (or divine whatevers, you get the idea). They’re shikigami employed by him, four of which are these four gods. I’m not entirely sure if it’s these four gods themselves, or if they just share namesakes.

(Also not to be confused with whatever other figures in Buddhism/whatever that come in twelves)

These 12 divine guardians also each correspond to a direction and the Chinese year zodiac.

The idea of the four gods is oddly extremely tied to Abe no Seimei, I assume because of the astronomy and astrology connection, so much that the gate to the Seimei shrine is the “shijinmon” or “four gods gate”, and also the pillars with the four gods carvings that show up in the manga as well.

Abe no Seimei tangent! According to legends, Abe no Seimei's mom was a white fox, Kuzunoha, often considered a youkai, but also sometimes said to be the envoy of a god or is a god herself.

In other words. What I’m trying to say is. I want to see fox Haruaki. (OP's worldly desires)

Also, look at this fun story about how Seimei died.

Tbh, I don’t know how much of this is common knowledge. I’ve seen a pretty big variety of people reading youkaigakkou, from people who are hearing about youkai for the first time to people who know absolutely everything about onmyoudou and onmyouji. I guess in this essay so far, the Abe no Seimei stuff is more towards the “everyone knows this” end of the spectrum and the Heian era urban planning is “who the fuck knows this”.

Youkaigakkou Geoguessr

That was a lot, so here’s me messing around on google maps for a little bit.

This panel was changed slightly in the volume release, but these are the Toji pagoda, the Fushimi Inari Shrine torii gates, and Kyoto Tower.

At the start of ch83, they’re at Nijo Castle.

When Haru hears Byakko’s voice and runs off, this is probably where this panel is. I can’t get an exact angle from google street view, but it probably looks like the panel if you’re on the sidewalk. The parking sign, tree, and road sign line up almost exactly, and the building looks roughly right. (Seimei shrine also marked on the map for reference)

Mans casually sprinted 1.5km. You go king.

Seimei shrine is pretty cool. Sensei got to go there for photo references. It never really occurred to me how weird featuring real places in a manga would be, as cool as it always is, all the paperwork you probably have to do. (They have a link to apply for that on the website) They have a wall with Ema (wooden plaques) written by actors, authors, filmmakers and mangaka that feature the shrine in their works. I wonder if Tanamai sensei got to write one.

This page was also changed in a pretty big way in the volume release.

I mentioned this in my TL note, but this is referencing the reports of taxi drivers ferrying ghosts, especially after major natural disasters.

Yasaka shrine, roughly 3km straight line distance from Seimei shrine, 5km on the road. I’ll take the manga at its word as the closest Ebisu shrine lol. That panel in the manga specifically would be the west gate, which lines up with the road they probably took (straight south and then east).

The main deity enshrined there is Susanoo-no-Mikoto, but there’s a bunch of shrines on the grounds dedicated to different gods, one of which is to Ebisu.

Specifically, it’s the “kitamuki-ebisu-sha”, or “north facing Ebisu shrine”. Because it… uh… (checks compass) faces north… I guess…? The interesting trivia about this is that Ebisu is written like “蛭子” instead of “恵比寿” (though it’s read as “ebisu” all the same)

蛭子 is more commonly read as “Hiruko”. (Anybody watch Summer Time Rendering here?)

Ebisu is thought to originate from the first child of Shinto creation myth big names Izanagi and Izanami, Hiruko, meaning “leech child” because he was born without bones, and was cast into the sea and floated ashore somewhere. In a popular version of the story, he washed ashore in Hokkaido, to be raised by an Ainu guy called Ebisu Saburou. (Or sometimes this guy is an Ainu deity? I cannot find a reliable primary source for this. This name comes up fairly frequently but I can’t pin it down.) I’ve also seen claims that “Saburou” is a generic name meaning “third child”, and since he is definitely the first child, that the “first two” are Izanagi and Izanami.

In any case, this would make him the older brother of Susanoo-no-Mikoto, who I’m not saying has any connection to any Mii-kuns we know of, but you know.

I got to the image limit, so the post gets split here.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

#youkai gakkou no sensei hajimemashita #a terrified teacher at ghoul school #yohaji #rambles #analysis

32 notes · View notes

mask131 · 2 years ago

Text

Cold winter: Pakkanen

PAKKANEN

Category: Finnish mythology

Pakkanen, also called Pakko or Pokkanen, is considered to be the Finnish equivalent of the English Jack Frost. And yet, you won’t find much about Pakkanen when searching.

There isn’t much info going around him on the Internet. You’ll find that the name Pakkanen means “cold” or “frost”. That Pakkanen himself is the spirit of winter, or the embodiment of the cold, or the personification of the “cold winter weather”. You will find that he is the son of Puhuri, the North Wind, which usually takes the shape of a giant eagle; and maybe you’ll find that his mother is “Louhi the witch”. And you’ll find mentions of how traditional Finnish poems ask Puhuri and his son Pakkanen to be gentle, and to not inflict humans chills or frostbites.

But not much more…

To learn about Pakkanen you actually have to look at The Kalevala, THE epic of Finnish culture, because Pakkanen is actually a character in this poetic reconstruction of Finnish myths.

For more information about the Kalevala, I invite you to look at my previous post about the Finnish sorcerer-hero Väinämöinen, in my “Magical Summer” series. Now, Pakkanen appears on the 30th canto/section of the Kalevala.

In this section, Lemminkäinen (another one of the sorcerer-heroes of the Kalevala) decides to take revenge on Louhi, the wicked witch-queen, who attacked his people and nation. So he sails on a boat towards Louhi’s realm, Pohjola, in an attempt to vanquish or punish the dark sorceress. Louhi, noticing this, summons Pakkanen and orders him to go freeze the ocean on which Lemminkäinen sails.

Now, Pakkanen is described Louhi’s beloved son, who was taught and instructed by her, and he is described as both a “son of evil parents” and the hero/champion of evil. If you look at an English translation of the Kalevala, you might not see the name “Pakkanen” appearing due to how this word literally means “frost”. It is a similar way to how Nyx or Ouranos from Greek mythology can be literally translated as “Night” or “Sky”. As a result, to make clear we are talking about the mythological character, translators we don’t settle with a “Frost” with a cap can mention things such as “Great Frost”, “Dark Frost” or “Frost-Fiend”.

On his way to the ocean, Pakkanen is described as taking all the leaves off the forest, robbing the flowers of their colors, stripping the meadows of their verdure. Arriving at the sea-shore, Pakkanen takes several nights to do his work. The first night he freezes the lakes and rivers, as well as the ocean-shore, but he can’t touch the sea itself ; we have to wait for the second night for him to “grow important” enough and turning into a “fierce intruder” – the “fearless invader” then starts to freeze everything, using the cold of the north to petrify the waves, filling the sea with thick ice, covering all fields and forests with snow… With his ultimate goal being the order of his mother: freeze the boat of the hero, and petrify Lemminkäinen himself into a block of ice.

However the warrior-sorcerer becomes quite angry at seeing Pakkanen’s attack, and so decides to fight back. He seizes the “black frost”, and hurls him at the “fire-god”, throwing him in a “fiery furnace” and holding him into a “forge of iron” (I think it might refer to the sun ; as to defeat the spirit of frost the sorcerer literally throws him into the sun). But physical feat on its own is not enough to stop such a force of nature, and so Lemminkäinen has to use his magic. If you followed my Magical Summer series, you’ll know that Finnish magic takes the shape of poem recital and sacred singing: by describing things you can affect them, and by narrating the story of their birth or creation you can gain power over them. And so this is precisely what Lemminkäinen does to the frost spirit.

At first he lists to Pakkanen all the things he CAN and is allowed to do: freezing swamps, lakes and rivers, making birch lose their bark and pines explode, turning even the hottest stones cold, freezing iron mountains and the flames themselves, petrifying boiling waters and sacred streams. But Lemminkäinen immediately describes what Pakkanen is NOT allowed to do: freeze him, remove the blood from his extremities, hurt, petrify or kill him in any way – the frost spirit has to let the sorcerer pass unharmed. To assert his power, then Lemminkäinen describes the genealogy and the story of the birth of Pakkanen, which would give him all powers over him: he describes Pakkanen as the evil son of the north, and as the “dire and only son of winter”: he was conceived over willows on the borders of Pohjola (Louhi’s realm) from a sinful father (the North Wind as described previously) and a dishonored mother (Louhi). Pakkanen was not fed by his own mother, but rather fed and nursed by adders, as well as foul and slimy serpents – while the North Wind rocked his cradle to put him to sleep. And so “evil-born and evil-nurtured”, Pakkanen grew up in willow-marshes and forever-flowing spring as an “evil genius”, until he was named “Frost”.

And once he was named, the “young lad” started to live in hedges, weeds and willows. In summer he hid in springs and the borders of marshes, but when winter came he “stormed among the glens and forests”, freezing all trees and plants, “raging and rattling” among the “sacred birch-trees and alder-branches”, eating all the leaves of the woodlands, peeling the bark off willows and destroying stalks and blossoms.

Once this whole description is over, Lemminkäinen looks at the spirit he holds in his hands, and he notes that since those times Pakkanen has grown “much larger”, becoming “too tall and mighty”. And in a magical “back-at-you”, Lemminkäinen gives orders to Pakkanen to return from the land he came from, to return to his mother’s castle, and there to freeze cauldrons and coal, freeze babies and dough, freeze the hearth and the colt. To have his order obeyed he threatens to use on him all sorts of fiery magical weapons, and he also says that if Pakkanen’s doesn’t follow his exact words he’ll banish him into the forge of Lempo (a fiery smith-god) who will crush him into tiny pieces among his chimneys and burning coals ; or, he might also as another punishment imprison him into a land of perpetual summer.

And “Wicked Frost, son of Winter”, seeing the “magic bird of evil hovering over his spirit” (aka feeling the threat of Lemminkäinen’s magic), agrees to a solemn oath according to which none of the two parties shall harm each other as long as “the moonlight glimmers on the snow-capped hills of Northland”.

Once this frost-fiend is vanquished, then Lemminkäinen keeps on with his journey, by walking over the frozen waves to the land of the witch-queen.

- - - -

It is quite interesting to see that in the Kalevala, evil is ofte associated with birds. Puhuri, the North Wind/Winter, could be depicted as a giant eagle. Louhi, the evil witch-queen, has among her abilities the power to turn into a giant predatory bird. And in the fight between Lemminkäinen and Pakkanen, the curses and magical threats of the sorcerer are metaphorically described as an evil bird looming over the frost-spirit.

#cold winter #pakkanen #finnish mythology #kalevala #louhi #puhuri

28 notes · View notes

mnkiss · 2 years ago

Text

A quick list of animes I watched and don't want to forget 2:

Spoiler, duh

OG post here:

Corpse party - similar to Another: I watched it and forgot about it…kids being creepy and killing a lot (i think) (2/10)

Yuri on Ice - loved it for the romance and the soundtrack but couldn’t care less about the skating lol Cute anime tho, I recommend it (8/10)

Kimi no nawa - cute, I cried of course, but i really wish we could have learned about their relationships more. I wanted to see them falling in love slowly and helplessly, not just a montage haha. Maybe a 7/10. Wasn’t thaaaaat great.

Dororo - I’m not as a big fan as others, but it was an interesting journey on the historical side with a much less repetitive story than I expected. It’s an old tale, a myth, told by an old man about demons and humans, and two children’s (well, an adult-ish boy and a kid) fate and character development. The show shows war and all it’s gory, terrible reality so be ready for some depressing episodes… The message of the anime is very clear and heavy. This is a remake, there is supposed to be a much older version of the anime with not 12, but 48 demons and missing body parts, but I’m not really sure if I want to watch it again. (7/10)

Citrus - Yuri, cute, well-done, but 1) Yuzu is sooooooo ugh, she is nice and kind but so easy to influence jesus she really is not the sharpest tool in the shed and that got soo annoying around ep7. >< 2) The story is weirdly written, they introduce characters as they go and as it gets comfortable for the plot, which feels like a rookie mistake but ok. Only 12 eps, two sweet girls and lots of sexual tension between them. Btw some people have misconceptions about the manga/anime. There is no incest as they are both teens and strangers when they happen to become step-sisters, and sexual assault does not get romanticized because if somebody is uncomfortable they struggle and voice that they don’t feel comfortable. That being said “You should consider other people’s feelings” is a fucking stupid answer to “Hey I don’t want to have sex with somebody”. Also the silent treatment? AND always coming with the “I had a bad childhood” shit? I’m treating the kindest, dearest person on earth like shit just because I was rejected once? Really? Fucking Mei lol. Yuzu deserves better. Like Harumi. You know, somebody who actually cares about her. 5/10

Baccano! - Gory mafia stories are always amazing but this one is like… dude. Watch it. It’s beautiful, has an amazing opening, wonderful characters (Naaa Miriyaa!!!! Neee Isaccu!!!!) and weird ties to the supernatural. No tears only happy smiling even during the 13th episode. One of my favourite stories of all time. (Oh and if you're one of those weirdos who love it when animes use weird brand names instead of the real ones [like hollywood becomes woodland, daily mail becomes daily days, hersheys becomes baccano] then you’ll love the small details lol) (11/10)

Tower of God - S1 is only a prologue :/ I usually don’t care about isekai or isekai-like stuff but this story is pretty immersive. I loved that there is only a moderate amount of gore even though people dying is half the anime. All the supporting characters are easy to remember, have enough screen time and we learn their history so we do care about them, the main character has all the characteristics a shounen protagonist needs but the anime itself is not in the shounen category. The soundtrack is phenomenal except the opening (sorry stray kids). Yeah, go watch it and be ready for the webtoon, they say its super long but worth it (8/10)

Wolf’s Rain - i love animals/shapeshifters in animes, but this was boooring. I was hoping for a crazy adventure with ancient legends and animaguses and stuff instead I got bored cuz nothing actually happened. I got to 17 episodes and just stopped watching. The story had potential, the wolfish behavior was fun. Maybe I'll try watching it again...later...some day (5/10)

Cyberpunk Edgerunners - Found family? Check. Cute girl? Check. Worldbuilding, sexy superpowers, neon lights, awesome action, greedy capitalism? Check. But for 10 episodes you’ll have the feeling that something will happen and yes, that thing indeed will happen (8/10)

Jujutsu Kaisen - S1 only yet. I'm - again - more invested in the adult's story and scheming behind the scenes. Character development? It is there, baby, and it is not just thought-provoking/brooding all the time. Competent enemy? There it is, the menacing, cunning, sexy-sexy enemy. Bro time? There is some healthy, masculine bro time! (9/10)

Chainsaw Man - This is a Jujutsu Kaisen 2.0. Teen boy gets adopted to an organization that uses dark superpowers that come with a price and they kill demons but they also are too crazy for the world and die easily. Also 2 boys 1 girl, the girl is nonconvenional but looks cute, the black haired friend of main character is super cold on the outside but has a heart of butter and is like a strong brother for the MC... I'd also really love if they'd STOP FUCKING KILLING ALL THE CHARACTERS. Seriously what's up with that nowadays?? They show you how friendly and happy they are together, and the next episode is just filled with deaths. However the story is fun, I like the pacing, the artstyle, the enemies and the music sooo S2 when? (8/10)

Spy x Family - Superduper cute, feel good anime with some badass characters. Some second hand embarrassement is in order tho lol (9/10)

Sailor Moon (90's series) - It's. So. Good. Such a comfort show. It has it's problems (the combat seems very... repetitive, the girls forget about their new powers, SM doesnt do much except in the movies), but a) this show is gorgeous b) it has characters that you wish they were your friends c) it's long so the story is well paced. It has good humour, super powers, a long and immersive story, surprisingly well made character arcs, ammmmaazing opening (and overall the soundtrack is ICONIC), 90's aesthetics and lots of gay vibes. However, it's extremely romance-centered, so probably not the best choice if you are in search for an action anime (9/10)

Soul Eater - 51 episodes of a surprisingly good story with surprisingly bad characters. The ending was disappointing, and the most powerful or intriguing characters just... weren't used? The monologues made no sense? Guy who can't die literally only fought 2 times? Madness wasn't mad? Brave girl wasn't brave? Like what even happened in this show? (5/10)

#im making a new post bc i can never find the reblogged one #corpse party #yuri on ice #kimi no nawa #dororo #citrus #baccano #tower of god #wolf's rain #cyberpunk edgerunners #jujutsu kaisen #chainsaw man #spy x family #sailor moon #soul eater #anime

12 notes · View notes

hikarikeeper · 5 months ago

Text

oh guess what kind of old crap i found, let's suffer now: a tag!

Ange: ..here we fucking go again.. Shade: sup. Ange: oh no not you again 🐶 What would your OC do if they were chased by a dog? -Ange: First of all, i wouldn’t even provoke the dog to start chasing me… i usually get along well with them, or at least i don’t start running in the worst case. -Shade: ....do you really expect me to run away from this insignificant creature? More likely it will run away from ME.

💋 How would they react to getting a kiss? (can be platonic or romantic)

actually it's very individual, but let's assume if it's from someone that Ange likes. Ange at the moment of the kiss: aw, nice :3 Ange after a few hours/days: *sudden realization* wait a minute... they did WHAT- -Shade: kiss me and it will be posthumous, I guarantee.

🌲 What would your OC do in a Minecraft world/server? -Ange: *explore every corner without missing a single pixel on the map* -Shade: *aggressive loot-goblin sounds* everything is good, everything is bad, everything goes to my lair -Corrupt: c... caaaattssssss....... -Shade: where the fuck did you come from. it's for OCs??? -Ange: just let him be. as if anyone even reads the everyday life of this 'shizophreny server'.

🎤 Can your OC sing? -Ange: ... uhh... -Shade: he can. only you ain't gonna get to hear it 'cause that catass is too shy. ...me? No, you'll go deaf. Ange: ....because you're too loud.

💃 Can your OC dance? -Ange: i guess no?.. i don't usually dance. -Shade: what is this for. Let those who like it and who are not deprived of grace do it better than me.

📚 Would your OC cheat in an exam? -Ange: in what kind of-? -Shade: Ange is too honest. I won't even do any kind of exams.

⚡ What mythological god would you associate with your OC? -Ange: i would prefer not to be associated with the gods... -Shade: good question, too bad I don't know much about your gods, I'm not very interested in myths.

🎬 What genre would your OC be into? -Ange: *whisper* .. in what- -Shade: what kind of movie you probably may end into. -Ange: Ah, well.. adventures? -Shade: and me possibly an action movie.

✨ What kind of aesthetic do they like? -Ange: nature and sunsets~ -Shade: THERE WILL BE BLOOD-♪ SHED-♪ -Ange: ... *facepalms*

✊ Would your OC win in a fight against an ostrich?

-Ange: …..??????????????. *connection with the brain was lost* -Shade: Why the hell should I fight an ostrich? Did it rob me? Did it challenge me? If yes, this creature doesn't stand a chance. If it just exists, then what the fuck is wrong with you.

🐾 (If human) If they were to turn into an animal, what animal would they be? -Ange: a cat! -Shade: I'm 100% immune to magic, your morphification will not work on me. -Ange: ..you're not funny -Shade: Oh really? How about I'm going to start entertaining you with some filigreed russian swearing. -Ange: please don't- -Corrupt: ...We have enough of the crap you already taught Glitch. - Shade: not my fault that he learns pretty quickly :>

🦄 (If human) If they were to turn into a mythical creature, what mythical creature would they be?

-Ange: phoenix~ -Shade: dragon ofc -Corrupt: they didn’t ask you, you’re already a dragon. -Shade: why are you still here. - Corrupt: *the image of the middle finger flashed through your mind*

💌 How would they react to a confession? -Ange: (if it's from someone unfamiliar) *got confused and pretended to be a currant bush* -Ange: (if it's from someone sympathetic) * won't believe in the reality of what is happening, won't find anything to say, will be happy, perhaps, or confused - it is difficult to predict- it’s not like there was a lot of confessions to him... i don’t even remember the last time this happened.* -Shade: "?" "You clearly have shitty taste buddy." "Think again." "I don't recommend it." "Not interested."

💗 How would they confess? They wouldn't :> -Ange: i'd rather not hope for anything mutual, or even try at all. i'm tired of getting my soul broken... -Shade: just no. love is just a way of manipulation and weakness.

💀 If they were one of the 7 sins, what sin would they be?

-Ange: ...wrath. :3 -Shade: wrath, maybe greed. ..who came up with these stupid sins? -Ange: oh no... -Shade: I can call greed a real sin, but the rest? ridiculous. -Ange: let's just finish this poll already-

💘 What kind of person is their ideal type?

-Ange: honest and sincere... -Shade: it doesn't matter anymore anyway.

🎁 What kind of gift would they give at birthdays? -Ange: something made with my own hands to show how important a person is to me.. -Shade: a chance not to die from my claws.

👹 How much patience does you OC have? Are they patient? Or are they easily irritable?

Ange is the living embodiment of patience. Shade, on the other hand, tolerates only those whom he respects, while others, if they do something that he openly doesn't like, will cause him instant irritation.

☠ How petty are they? And what length of pettiness would they go for?

-Ange: i always couldn't understand this concept correctly.. and honestly, i don’t know for sure, maybe it depends on the situation... -Shade: hardly.

🔪 (More than one OC) If your all of your OCs played among us, who'd be the best imposter? And who'd be the worst?

Ange: worst Shade: best

🛌 What kind of sleep schedule does your OC have?

-Ange: ... sleep schedule?. -Shade: sleep?

🍽 What kind of food do they like?

Both: fried and spicy!

🍻 Do they drink? If so, how strong is their alcohol tolerance?

Ange drinks in moderation; he cannot drink more than a bottle of something too strong at once. Shade's alcohol tolerance is VERY strong tho, he can drink about a box of strong alcohol and barely get drunk because his dragon body burns it as fuel.

🍺 If your OC drinks, what is their go to alcohol?

Ange: i'm neutral about it, for me it's nothing more than a painkiller for the soul. Now that everything is back to normal, i don't need it... Shade: it's just fun for me. it wasn't uncommon for me to win a drink bet. haha, they didn’t even know who they were messing with... :> ...Wow that's all already? whatever- as always, tag youself if you want lmao-

1 note · View note

lesfeldickbiblestudy · 2 years ago

Text

Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 2 * PART 1 * BOOK 73 INCARNATE CHRIST: GOD BECOMES MAN - 1 Genesis 3:15 and Galatians 4:4 Okay, it’s good to see everybody in the studio this afternoon. We trust that the Lord will bless you richly. Again, we want to welcome our television audience in to study with us. I always like to make it plain for new listeners that we’re just an informal Bible class, and we don’t have a church service. We don’t have music. We just simply teach the Book. And again I have to thank all of you out there, as well as all of you in the studio, for all your letters and prayers. This last month was a big month. Most of you across the country know we’ve had some health problems. But along with that, it was my 80th birthday and our 54th wedding anniversary, so we’ve been covered up with cards and letters in all three categories. We just thank you from the depths of our heart. We do. We read every one of them. Takes a good portion of the day sometimes, but that’s the way we operate. We don’t slough anybody’s card or letters aside as unimportant. And the same way with so many of you, you complain that you can only give $5.00 or $10.00 dollars, well, sometimes I just write a quick note back – never forget that with God small things become mighty. Don’t ever apologize for not being able to give more. Okay, now I only have one or two announcements. Again, we like to keep our people aware of the one and only book we’ve ever put out. It’s the Question and Answer Book of 88 questions for a small cost of $11. And if you are not in our computer and getting our quarterly newsletter, just call the office and give us your name and address. You will not receive junk mail. You will not receive appeals for money. It’s simply a quarterly update on our stations and our seminars, and the girls in the office usually put in a note. Laura usually puts in a note. That’s all our newsletter really is. It is just to keep you up-to-date with what we’re doing. Okay, I think that’s all the announcements. We’re going to look at something a little different today. At the last taping you’ll remember, the last four programs were on the Theophanies in the Old Testament – how God the Son stepped out of the Triune Godhead and appeared temporarily in various times and places up through the Old Testament and then went back into the invisible Godhead. Now we know that beginning with Christ’s earthly ministry, of course, He became the incarnate. I had Sharon put it on the board—incarnate. Again, it’s not a word you’ll find in your Bible. It’s a word that has been coined by the theologians down through church history. It simply means God became man. We refer to Christ, then, as the God-Man. You know, that’s one problem that so many people have. They can’t understand how He can be God and Man. But He was, because He was God. And I always make the point that He never let the two supersede each other. In other words, when He spoke from humanity, or if He got in a tight place like at the temptations and He was hungry, He never let His Deity override His humanity. Always remember that. When He spoke from humanity, He was totally human. He prayed. He suffered. And we’ll be seeing all that. But on the other hand, when He acted as God, He was totally God. And He knew everything from beginning to the end and all in between as God. And we’ll be looking at that throughout the afternoon. We’re going to look at the incarnate Christ. But before we look at Him in the New Testament, we’re going to start back in Genesis chapter 3 and see how that this old Book is not just a bunch of myths and stories like a lot of people are trying to tell us, now, but it is the inspired, supernatural Word of God. And I never get tired of emphasizing that. So, if you’ll go back with me to Genesis chapter 3. Adam and Eve have just eaten of the forbidden tree. Sin has entered. Death came by sin Romans tells us, and along with that the curse fell.

Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden. But at the very same moment that all that took place, God did something tremendous. He promised a “scarlet thread of redemption” all the way from Genesis 3 to the last book of our Bible. So, if you’ll go with me a minute to Genesis chapter 3, we’re going to see the first prophetic statement concerning the incarnate Son of God. How He had to become flesh in order to bring about mankind’s salvation. All right, Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, and God is speaking to the serpent. Genesis 3:15a “And I will put enmity (In other words, a constant line of demarcation between these two forces that are going to be at enmity from here until the end of time.) between thee and the woman,…” Now I’m fairly well convinced, although I don’t put it in concrete, that this is already a reference to the Nation of Israel. Otherwise, I can’t see why there would be a line of enmity just between the female of the species. But I think the woman here is a definite forecast of the demarcation between Satan and Israel, and how there will be a constant, constant battle between the two. Genesis 3:15a “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed;…” Now, you say, well, now that doesn’t fit Israel. Yes, it does. Because after all Mary, even though this is the woman that it may have been referring to, Mary was a citizen of the Nation of Israel. She was a Jewess. So, I think it fits all the way through that here’s the promise that God would put enmity between Satan and the woman. Genesis 3:15b “…between thy seed…” And I think that’s just a reference to all his demonic powers. Now we need to jump all the way up to Ephesians for a moment, because this question comes in every once in a while. What is the seed of Satan back in Genesis 3:15? Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 6. This is a series of verses I’m sure just about all of you know. I think these best answer the question and is probably the best biblical answer to Genesis 3:15. What is the seed of the serpent? Ephesians 6:12 “For we (Now remember, Paul always writes to the believer. He never writes to the unsaved world. Writing to us believers he said,…) wrestle not against flesh and blood, (not just the ordinary physical opposition) but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Now, all of those are references to whose underlings? Satan’s. They’re Satan’s powers. This is our main opposition, and especially as we see today, even in our seminaries and in the tops of our denominations. That’s where Satan is working overtime. Always remember, if Satan can bring one rotten professor into a seminary, and that guy influences a lot of these young men preparing for the ministry, and they go out across the country filling pulpits, and they pass on the rot that they got from that one professor, what’s the end result? Satan’s the winner. This is what we’re up against. I may, if I’ve got time, refer to something on that order later today. But here is what I think was already referenced back in Genesis, where there was going to be a running controversy between the seed of Satan and all of his demonic hosts and the seed of the woman, because that is what is really referenced. Come back to Genesis a minute. But since you’re in Ephesians, keep your hand in it. I’m going to go back to Romans in about ten seconds. But come back to Genesis chapter 3, again. This is immediately after the fall. Adam and Even have just been expelled, and we have an immediate response to the spiritual side of it all, where God will put-- Genesis 3:15b “…enmity between thee (Satan) and the woman, and between thy seed (or Satan’s seed) and her seed; (or the seed of the woman.) it (the seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head, (Which, of course, was a reference to Christ defeating the Satanic powers at Calvary.) and thou shalt bruise his (the redeemer’s) heel.” This, of course, was the suffering that He had to endure at the cross.

All right, now in view of the fact that this took place right after the fall, I have to take you back up to Romans for a minute. I just couldn’t get away from it as I was preparing for this. I wasn’t going to, and then I’d come back, yeah, got to. So on the way up this morning, I think the Lord just laid on me—we’ve got to use Romans chapter 8. The point I want to make is that as soon as the curse fell, God set in motion the plan of redemption. Immediately! There was no afterthought to it. It was immediately transacted. All right, Romans chapter 8 and I love these verses. I could teach them every day. We’ll just start at verse 18. Romans 8:18 “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Now when people write or call and say, what’s our Heaven going to be like? Can I answer them? There’s just not much in this whole Book concerning the eternal Heaven of the Heavens. There’s a lot of information concerning the 1,000 year reign. In fact, this is how people can twist the Scriptures. While I was sick, somebody sent me some books, quite a few in fact. I got most of them read as fast as they came in. But one was, What is Heaven Like? What do you suppose he used for all of his Scriptures describing Heaven? The 1,000 year earthly kingdom, every one of them. That’s all he could use, because this is as close as we can get to what our eternal abode is going to be. All we know is that it’s going to be glorious. That’s all. We don’t know: are we going to be living in homes? Are we going to be having fig trees to sit under? See, those are all kingdom promises, but we do know it will be glorious. Well, I just have to do that when I see these things. Romans 8:18-19 “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in (or to) us. (Now, here it comes.) 19. For the earnest expectation of the creation (Now, I know the King James has got creature, but I feel creation is a better word, because that’s what it’s going to involve, the whole creation.) waiteth for the manifestation of the sons (or the children) of God.” All right, we’ve got to go back up to verse 14 to explain that verse, don’t we? Go back up to verse 14. We’ve got plenty of time. Romans 8:14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons (or the children) of God.” In other words, believers. You and I as believers in the Gospel have received this position as children of God (although it’s called sons here in the King James.) All right, but now he says in verse 16. Romans 8:16 “The Spirit (Capitalized, it’s the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit Himself) beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the (What?) children of God.” Now, we don’t become God’s like a lot of New Agers teach, but we become children of God. All right, verse 17: Romans 8:17 “And if we’re children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; (What’s a joint-heir? Like a husband and wife, isn’t it? Aren’t husbands and wives joint-heirs? Sure. That’s going to be our relationship in glory. We’re going to be joint-heirs with Christ.) if so be that we suffer with him, (And that’s why he’s speaking of it in verse 18.) that we may be also glorified together.” All right, now take that concept of the believers as children of God, and when the kingdom opens up, it’s going to be the putting under the spotlight this relationship between Christ and His bought ones, the saved by virtue of the Gospel. All right, so verse 19 again. Romans 8:19 “For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation (or being put into the spotlight) of the children of God.” And when will that happen? Well, at the onset at least of the Kingdom, when Christ will return and set up His Kingdom and the curse will be lifted. Satan is locked up, and everything reverts back as it was in the Garden of Eden. All creation is looking forward to that place.

Now that’s hard for us to comprehend, but that’s what the Book says. All of creation is waiting for the day when the curse will be lifted, because it’s the curse that’s brought in all of man’s and the ecology’s misery. You know that wild animals didn’t kill each other before the curse. They all lived in harmony. This is all precipitated by Adam’s fall. But it’s going to be reverting back to the beginning. And that’s what all of creation has been looking for. Oh, I could sit here for another half hour and share some of the things that have upset me the last week or two of what’s going on in the world, even with regard to the animal kingdom. How cruel human beings can be to God’s creatures! It just disturbs me to no end. But anyhow, I haven’t got time to go into that. But this is the case; all of creation is waiting for this glorious day when the curse will be lifted. Now the next verse: Romans 8:20a “For the creation (God’s creation) was made subject to vanity, not willingly,…” What does that say? What’s the vanity? The curse. The upsetting of everything that was so perfect. It became corrupt because of the curse. All right, so the whole creation was subjected to the curse, not willingly. They didn’t do anything to bring it about. When Adam fell, God dropped the curse, and everything in creation came under it. Not because they deserved it, but because of Adam. All right, now here’s the verse, the part of the verse, that I want you to see—when the creation was subjected to the curse. Romans 8:20b “…but by reason of him who hath subjected the same (all of creation. What are the last two words?) in hope.” So, what’s the hope? That one day it’s going to end—this suffering, this corruption, this wickedness, and all that’s been taking place for 6,000 years is going to end. It’s going to be brought into a glorious, pre-fall existence once again. All right, read it again. Romans 8:20-21a “For the creation was made subject to the curse, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. (That one day that curse will be lifted.) 21. Because the creation itself shall also be (Now watch the language.) delivered from the bondage of corruption...” Well, what’s the bondage of corruption? The curse! My, in my seminars a lot of times it’s the younger people that will come up and say, “Les, if God is such a God of love, why does He allow war? Why does He allow famine and disease?” Well, that’s all God does, is allow it. He didn’t precipitate it. What precipitates all of our problems? The curse. It’s the curse that brings in war. It’s the curse that brings in sickness and famine and disease. God doesn’t, but, yes, He does permit it. But it’s the curse that has plagued the whole creation, not just mankind, but everything in it for the last 6,000 years. All right, our time is going fast. Now verse 22, Paul writes: Romans 8:22-23a “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23. And not only they, (The other parts of creation, see, that’s why I know he’s talking beyond the human race.) but ourselves also, (and especially those of us) who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, (we who are believers) even we ourselves,…” As we are living and operating day by day under the curse even as believers, we get sick. We have accidents. We have pain. We have sorrows. We have death in the family. It’s all because of the curse. Romans 8:23b “…but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, (or that big transaction, that is to say) to wit, the redemption of our body.” And that, of course, ushers us into the eternal abode. All right, let’s get back to the subject at hand—the incarnate Christ as He has now been foretold back here in Genesis. As soon as the curse fell, God set in motion a plan of redemption. This plan of redemption would require a God who could experience humanity.

Only a human could go the way of the cross. That’s why we have to have the incarnate. We have to have God becoming flesh. All right, let’s stay in the Old Testament for a little bit, yet. Go from Genesis up to Isaiah chapter 7, a verse that I’m sure is quite familiar. Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14. This is still prophecy. Up until now God the Son has never appeared in any other way but a theophany. He appeared to Abraham, Jacob, and Moses in a temporary physical form, and then He relinquished it and went back up into the invisible Godhead. But now we have the Old Testament prophets also looking forward to the time when this invisible person of the Godhead would become flesh. He would become the God-Man. Isaiah 7:14a “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign;…” Now, I’m always reminding my listeners. Who were always looking for signs? The Jews. Israel. Well, who is Isaiah writing to? Jews. Israel. He’s aware of the fact that they were a people who looked for signs. Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Now remember, this is 700 years before the fact. What does that tell you? This Book is supernatural! This Book is a divinely inspired Word of God! They can scoff at it all they want. And I’ll ridicule them all I want. They should know better. Here we have a prophecy clear back 700 years before Christ that a little Jewish, virgin girl would conceive and bring forth the God-Man. Immanuel. And what does Immanuel mean in a translated form? God with us. Those Jews should have known that. This reminds me, I think I’ve got time. Jump all the way up; I wasn’t going to do this. Go all the way up to Matthew. This is where we started our last several seminars. I did it again last Saturday in Albuquerque, because everybody is interested in current events. Why this? And why that? Why all the violence? All the killing and the murder? And everything? Well, this is the way I approach it—Matthew 16 verse 1. This is during the Lord’s earthly ministry. And of course the Pharisees and the Sadducees were His greatest opponents, and here again in verse 1. Matthew 16:1 “The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting (or testing. Trying to get Him to somehow paint Himself into a corner where they could say, okay, now we’ve got you. They were always at it.) desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven.” See, there it is again. Show us a sign from heaven that you are who you say you are. Now look at the Lord’s answer. Matthew 16:2 “He answered and he said unto them, When it’s evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.” They were pretty good at forecasting twelve hours. The weathermen can usually do that today, can’t they? Twelve hours—if you look out the window and see a big black cloud in the west, you know it is coming. But beyond that, they still don’t do a very good job of it. But anyway, they were forecasting the weather. And then He says: Matthew 16:3 “And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern (or you can read) the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”What’s He talking about? They should have known that everything was in the timetable of the Old Testament prophets for the appearance of their Messiah. They should have known the prophecy in Isaiah had been fulfilled. They heard the rumors of Mary and Joseph. Here this young girl is pregnant and the father says he’s not the father. Don’t you think those people were just as normal as we are today? They should have been able to figure out from the Old Testament prophecies; this is the fulfilled prophetic promise of a Messiah. Another sign of the times that they should have been able to read was the political system. My, what did Daniel foretell 600 years before? That there would be four great Gentile empires coming down through history.

The Babylonians. The Medes and the Persians. The Greek and the Roman. Well, did the Jews of Jesus’ day have any doubt that it was the Roman Empire that they were under? Why, heaven’s no. Those Roman soldiers were everywhere. What should they have been able to do? Hey, we are in the political system that’s going to bring the Messiah. They should have been able to do that. They should have also said, now wait a minute, that young girl wasn’t pregnant by accident. It was foretold. But did they? They were no different than people do today. Listen, the signs of the times are all around us. Number one is Israel in the land and in the news everyday. That’s the sign of the times. Can people read it? They haven’t got a clue. They haven’t got a clue, and it’s so sad that the Scripture is so explicit and people cannot understand.

1 note · View note

itwasagoodjoke · 1 year ago

Text

no because it’s my roman empire too. you touched on basically everything but i wanted to add a few thoughts that i’ve been thinking about for a while.

i’ve not read the books yet. i’ve only seen the movie so bare with me here.

so when we see jack rise, it’s night time. we know that time has passed because 1. it’s a different time of day and 2. because where he fell has been completely frozen back over. this means that it’s been a a little bit at least, based off of how long it would take a lake to completely freeze over again. but it still looks like the same time period so it hasn’t been that long.

and imagine how confused he must have been. it probably would have been terrifying. being alone with no memories and hearing a voice in your head that apparently is the moon! only to have it never talk to you again! that would have been so scary!

and like you said, he was obviously just left there because no one could get to him, so imagine how his little sister felt. having your brother not just dying in front of you, but dying for you. if he didn’t take her place on the crack it would have been her that died.

and what happened after? did she just go home and tell their mom? does he have other family? friends? how did she react? they never even had his body.

and based off of the context clues, i don’t think the other guardians have died. i have more feelings and thoughts about this but i do t know how to put them in to words right now.

but how would they react if they knew he died. he DIED (!) and he became a guardian because? what? because he was joyful and playful in life and died to save another child? it’s not like he knew he was gonna die.

and the loneliness part oh my god don’t even get me started. so when he is chosen as a guardian the others react like they hate him. so that means that they’ve all interacted or in toothfairy’s case at least heard of him (well tooth doesn’t seem to hate him, she just seems really interested in his teeth. and i have more thoughts on that whole situation i’ll get on in a bit). bunny knows of him as just an annoying good for nothing spirit who always is causing trouble and is at fault for causing a terrible blizzard on easter of ‘68. idr if sandman knew him previously but north has. north knows him from him being top of the naughty list. the yetis know him from jack trying to break in on numerous times. so he’s been known for and interacted with other spirits and guardians for a little while. but that’s nothing in comparison to the fact that he’s been a spirit for around 300 years.

i’m gonna ignore the like myth and legends aspects of like winter spirits and the conflict with the other seasons and how they’re usually disliked.

so let’s say jack has been known as a spirit by other spirits and guardians for like 100 years. that’s still 200 years alone. not even the man in the moon to talk to. as he said in the beginning of the movie, “he told me who i was, and that’s all he’s even told me in 300 years.” or whatever idr what exactly he said. that means he was talked to once and then never again by the thing that made him who he is. how cruel is that (i tried to look up the quote from the beginning of the movie and it recommended me a video called “how the moon was needlessly cruel to jack frost.” and yeah.). manny essentially was like i’m gonna create you and then leave you. and we know he’s friends with the wind, but for how long? he was alone for a VERY long time. like you said, he’s gotta be at least a little nutty. it might be different for spirits but still, there’s absolutely no way he would act normal while being around and talking to others. but you know maybe he has practice since he’s been talking to the humans around him. but with no one talking back you still would not be okay.

and i totally agree! manny would have HAD to take his memory away from him. i don’t think we could possibly imagine what that would be like. to not just die, but in front of your sister. still not just that, but to then be resurrected and INVISIBLE to all those around you. to have someone walk THROUGH YOU! WHAT THE HELL!

and oh the thought of him following her descendants and watching out for them is something i’ve never thought of before. that is so sick. he could have still had him family kind of (i did see this headcanon somewhere where someone said that jamie is a descendant of jacks little sister and that made me happy for a bit but still). he could have watched over his family, his little sister, what would have been his nieces and nephews. he could have at least had that! but no, mannny took that away. i can see why he did but both options suck.

i also kinda hate mim but yk that’s a talk for another day

his whole thing makes me crazy and i will try and find you some fics cause i know i want them too. i might even already have a few bookmarked.

Rise of the Guardians/The Guardians of Childhood is low-key my Roman Empire.

Like, specifically in the movie verse, there's just... so much that was never elaborated on. It's one of the unfortunate side effects of being kid's media, things get dumbed down for no reason.

Like, Jack Frost in general as a character. He died. DIED. He DROWNED in a pond saving his sister and??? Nothing. The entire moment when he remembered became "Oh I'm the fun guy that had a family and saved my sister!" AND DIED. Very important part that is completely glossed over other than the idea of sacrifice. Like, the other guardians were "chosen," did they not die too? Did Jack lose his memories because he died, but the others were chosen while alive, chose to leave their lives and remembered?

And just, what were his early years? For a very long time, at least a decade, he probably thought he was totally invisible, that he could never have a true conversation with another person, because I doubt that he stumbled upon another spirit/legend for a while.

Like, that would have driven him INSANE. There's no way he wouldn't be super socially awkward from the isolation, much less just totally mentally well. Are spirit's brains built different? They'd have to be, but I don't think they should be able to withstand that level. Like what was the mim thinking??? Seriously just abandoned a TEENAGER he resurrected with no memory or possibility of support, that's wrong.

And on that note, let me reiterate that Jack died. In front of his little sister. Who had to go back home and tell her family what happened. Did he have a father too? More siblings? Friends and family? They had a funeral no doubt, mourned him. Because he died.

The worst part? He was right there. The whole time. Jack came back to that pond and settlement for hundreds of years, even when it became Burgress. He probably watched his funeral not knowing what was going on, saw his family mourn him without knowing it was for him. He was there when they died, not knowing who they were to him. Did he realize later on? I can only imagine the devastation.

The worst part is Manny probably had to take his memories, because Jack would have been DEPRESSED. He would've tried everything to make them believe, and they probably never would. His parents would probably never see him again, they were adults. His sister was plausible, but she's still mortal. She would have died, Jack would have seen his little sister grow old and die while he stayed eternally young. He might've not ever recovered from that, mim taking his memories distanced him from the pain for when he remembered 300 years later.

But he also could have moved on, grown and loved her descendants and honored her. The mim took that choice away, and that's pretty fucked up.

Then yeah, 300 years of pretty much no acknowledgement. Going into live blind with no guidance or memories, trying to figure yourself out but being ignored by the once who brought you here. Jack would realistically be a little nutty, because wow. It's shown the even other spirits didn't really talk to him, he made them acknowledge him by playing pranks and pissing them off till they confronted him. Maybe it's in spirit's nature to be recluses, but it's not in Jack's. He wanted attention and to be seen, but no one wanted to or could give it to him.

That's why Jamie seeing him for the first time always makes me tear up. This is the first time for HUNDREDS of years that a human has acknowledged him, not an out of touch spirit, but a regular person Jack can connect with, that chose to see him, to believe. That's beautiful, and special.

There's just so many layers to this story that we never got to see, and I'm forever sad DreamWorks abandoned the franchise.

(If anyone has any good fics that explore topics like this, especially Jack's family, please share)

#rise of the guardians #guardians of childhood #jack frost #man in moon

216 notes · View notes

theoi-crow · 3 years ago

Note

Hello! Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Hercules' myth involves him being mortal before becoming the god of strength. Does this mean humans can ascend to godhood?

Hi! Sorry for the late reply, I've been busy but this ask is fascinating!

Hercules or Heracles (the Greek version of his name) is a demigod.

His mother, Alcmene, is human, while his father is Zeus. He was already part god like Perseus, Bellerophon and Achilles. Hercules was only able to ascend to godhood because he was already halfway there and while humans like Patroclus and Sappho can be possibly venerated as heroes or past ancestors, ancient Greece is very explicit on making sure that any human who ascends to godhood is a demigod, even if they are said to have a human mother and human father, like the story of Theseus whose human father was Aegeus but many myths claim it was actually Poseidon: (LINK)

So, can humans who are not already demigods ascend to godhood? No, according to the ancient Greeks, they can't.

This does not mean people didn't do extraordinary things, it's just that the ancient Greeks assumed whoever did extraordinary things was a demigod. This happened because when people accomplished something extraordinary in ancient Greece, the public considered that person to be someone who went beyond human limitation and thus considered more than human. People started suspecting a god as a possible parent.

Sometimes the person claiming to be a demigod did it for political reasons, like Alexander the Great who claimed to be the son of Zeus. Did people actually believe him? Not until he was able to prove his superhuman ability by creating one of the largest empires in human history at such a young age and in such a short time: (LINK)

Another thing I want to mention is how important ancestry was to the ancient Greeks.

Every Greek person only had one name and sometimes multiple people had the same name. So in order to differentiate between two people with the same name, their "last name" would be the name of their father, for example: "Theseus son of Aegus."

When someone didn't know who the father was, they would go by the mother's name, but if the person did something extraordinary, then people would start claiming they were the illegitimate child of a god (usually Zeus) and they would speculate and make stories about them emphasizing their status as a demigod (this is one of the reasons why there are a lot of stories about Zeus and rape. To the ancient Greeks, rape ment "going behind the father's back" even if the women wanted to be in a union with the god because to the ancient Greeks women did not have autonomy so their father's permission was very important).

Classifying a person who did the impossible as a demigod was very important to the ancient Greeks for a few reasons:

1. It would create the idea that only living demigods can do impossible things and thus disencourage "regular" humans from thinking they can also do that and thus keeping them in line for the politicians in power who ruled every aspect of their lives.

2. It cemented the idea that the gods still interact with their people and future demigods will be bestowed with their blessings and thus their hometowns would also benefit from said blessings.

3. Adding to reason number 2, it was also used for tourism.

4. It kept the honor of both women and children who didn't have a man claiming to be the head of their household and thus allowed the father of the mother to not have a shamed lineage.

5. It was especially used by kings to keep tyrants from taking over and kept civilians from rising against them for fear they would be cursed by their divine parental figure.

6. It was used to explain the unexplainable and as a way to keep people from thinking they could do something without the influence of a god and thus letting it get to their heads as we see in the cautionary tale of Bellerophon who grew impatient with his accomplishments being accredited to his father Poseidon and people assuming it was because he was a demigod and not because of his own efforts. After growing so frustrated over losing so much personal credit, he demanded a place on Olympus because of all he accomplished and was sent a gadfly by Zeus for using pegasus to force his way into Olympus and thus falling to his death after the gadfly bit pegasus who bucked Bellerophon off: (LINK)

WARNING!!!:

The idea that a human can be a god is very dangerous and one often used by toxic cults forcing their will on others. They push the narrative that someone is the reincarnation of Apollo or the child of Zeus and will use that narrative to try to force people to do things they don't want to do because a living "god" told them to do it.

People who believe they are a god are often described as having a "God Complex" (LINK). Not only is having a god complex dangerous to the person and everyone around them, but it's often associated with an extreme form of narcissism (LINK)

Why are god complexes so dangerous? Every human is fallible. We make mistakes and we grow and learn from those mistakes when we admit to them. People who have god complexes usually believe they are so perfect it's impossible for them to make mistakes so they blame everyone else around them and never take responsibility for themselves. As someone who grew up with very narcissistic adults with god complexes, it's frustrating to be gaslit and blamed for things you never did. They also don't believe in consent or believe they are above needing consent because they are a god and "know better."

If you meet someone claiming to be a god

RUN!

Seriously, run. Everyone has the ability to do and create extraordinary things but people with god complexes do not understand consent or how to respect the will of others because they think they are above other humans. Although I'm not a big fan of Witchtok, here's a little jingle that helps explain more about people with god complexes. (Tw: mentions of violence) (LINK)

Demigods are best left to mythology and storytelling.

They can be very inspiring, but a living "god" is very dangerous because they force their will onto others and are not above intimidation tactics. Here is a list of people who had been worshipped as living gods in the past and this includes Hitler, so you can see why the idea of "living gods" makes me very uncomfortable: (LINK)

These Delphic Maxims address god-complexes:

11) Φρόνει θνητά: Think mortal thoughts.

141) Εὖ πάσχε ὡς θνητός: Do as well as your mortal status permits.

The way that I personally interpret these two maxims is as a reminder that humans are human with human limits. It therefore asks that we not act like a god because that's assuming we no longer see ourselves as human.

It also asks that we not assume we can think like a god because that's over simplifying the way that the gods operate by applying human morals to them when they are beyond our comprehension and know things we'll never know, so they are a lot more complex than we'll ever understand, and assuming we know is to limit the gods.

But overall the main message is to respect the will of others by not thinking you are way better because you are more god-like than they are. EVERY person has the ability to be spiritual and the ability to create in such extraordinary ways that seem almost "god-like" to others but we are still human with human limits.

I personally believe human limits are beautiful and one of the many reasons why the gods are so fascinated with us. The gods get to see what we accomplish with such fragile lives, small limits that are carried by strong wills and big hearts.

I hope this helps!

#demigods #Greek gods #greek mythology #Hercules #hellenic polytheism #tw cult #tw cult mention

105 notes · View notes

prof-peach · 4 years ago

Note

I don’t know if you know the answer to this but this question has always plagued my mind. Why are people allowed to catch legendaries? Like I get needing to fight them if they threaten the safety of the world but You’d think those things would be on the do not catch list. Not only because they hold way more power then any 10 year old should be allowed to wield but they kinda have jobs to preform. Like I presume some kid having Arceus in a pokeball might hinder it in usual job of being, you know god.

It should be illegal, and is the reason i don’t condone people owning, capturing or containing them in any way shape or form. IDK if you've caught previous posts about it, probably not as i tend to avoid the subject a lot, but the whole ‘let a human control a god’ thing that comes with catching legendaries and myths ticks me right off. Each one has a serious role to play within the environment, and often serve as protectors for local species and ecosystems. If one is caught, poachers are more free to enter the area without threat, harming many pokemon, and leaving devastating damage to the surrounding area with their haphazard methods of capture. The damage of removing one from their role in nature is quite frankly selfish, its one thing to scan them with your dex and learn more, or to photograph or document them, but even this can lead to poachers finding them and putting the rarest species at risk if your notes are stolen or discovered.

Theres a lot of study done when these creatures are snapped up by people, proving that over time they perish in captivity, where as in the wild they can live for hundreds, even thousands of years when left alone. They require great space to roam, socialising we can’t often provide, feeding routines that are unusual and often difficult to manage, not to mention containment. All pokeballs have a range, most people catch these unique and rare pokemon, the pokemon runs, and thats it. Gone. You cannot do anything about it, and the legendary will just avoid you and the area for a long while until they feel safe to return.You throw everything out of whack catching them.

I wont even go into how you're suppose to control and train a legendary effectively. Their powers are unfathomable next to average species, even well trained ones, and its laughable that we think they will listen to us puny humans.

In short you're right and you should say it.

((I will say it now, the games are broken in regards to how the world would function in reality regarding myths and legends, so i tend to ignore them a fair bit))

#ill take this opinion to the grave #pokemon #prof.peach #peach talks

263 notes · View notes

cipheress-to-k-pop · 4 years ago

Note

Hello there! Can you write hcs for Tim with a demigodess!reader please? Congrats on your 600 followers btw^^

Tim Drake x Demigoddess!Reader

A/N: Thank you so much! So I’m totally dense about greek myths and stuff and I was gonna make her Thor’s daughter at first but then I forgot about that I did Hades but when I remembered it was already written so oh well

You were the daughter of Hades and Persephone

You had kind of a weird childhood

Don’t get me wrong, it was a great childhood

Being princess of the underworld and the daughter of the only sane people in all of Olympus had its perks

But compared to everyone else, it was weird

Hades was extremely protective of you because you were a mortal

Meaning that you could die

The thought of having to greet your soul when you died filled him with so much grief

So, he kept you sheltered, kept you safe

Never letting you lift a finger

As princess you had everything you ever needed and everything your heart desired

Since birth you had been trained by Athena and Aries under your father’s watchful eyes

When you were 16 and you finally wanted to see the rest of the world, you begged your parents to let you go to the mortal world

It took months of begging and when they said no, you’d get so upset that all the flowers in the underworld would wither

Persephone seeing how much you wanted to see the world

So, she convinces Hades to let you go

And he agrees but just as long as you promise to visit

You go to the human world and you’re so oblivious about human life that it’s concerning

Walking around in a floor length dress wondering why everyone else wasn’t dressed the same way

This is how you meet Diana Prince

She recognizes you immediately when you arrive at the Smithsonian, looking mildly confused

Your eyes light up when you see a familiar face

You stay with her for a couple of days before she decides that you’d be better off at the cave

That’s exactly what happens

Even though you whine a little and say you want to stay with her

She just knows it’s because you’re nervous about being in a new place

You know that if you were in any real danger your parents would inflict rage on the mortal world

Feeling mildly comforted at the idea

Diana doesn’t tell them to add you to the group

She just tells them that you need a place to stay and someone to help you find your way around

The first people you meet are Batman, Nightwing and Robin

Immediately being comforted just by looking at them

Batman reminded you of your dad and Nightwing of your mom

And Diana trusted them so you did too

You end up following Tim and Dick around for the next couple of days like a lost puppy

Dick finds it amusing

Tim is kinda unsettled but thinks you’re stupid for some reason

It isn’t until he actually talks to you, he realizes you’re much more profound than he gave you credit for

You don’t officially join the team

You just live there

Everyone thinks that you have no training whatsoever

And that you’re just a princess

Which you technically are but

Until you’re watching them train one day and then remember the days you would spar with Athena

It looked like so much fun

Immediately you wanted to join in

Some of them rolled their eyes and thought you were wasting their time

The others were happy to let you join in

They wanted to make Bart spar you but you looked around contemplatively before pointing at Tim

“If it is alright with you, I wish for you to be my partner.”

Tim blushing because what you said sounded like you were choosing him as a life partner, rather than sparring partner

Of course, Bart teases him for it as well as the others

When Tim walks up to the middle, Dick subtlety tells him to take it easy on you and he nods

The match is over before he can even make a move

You had the speed and strength of a god, it wasn’t a surprise

Not to you at least

To everyone else, kind of a huge surprise

Standing over him and giggling

“I want a rematch.”

“But of course.”

Spending the rest of the day sparring with him

He doesn’t beat you even once

And the others just watch you throw him around for an afternoon

After a while it stops being funny and Nightwing is almost concerned

It kind of hurts his pride but you still acknowledge him

“You know, for a human, you’re very skilled.”

“Uh, thank you?”

After that you go through the other members quite quickly

Some of them gave you a little trouble, like Conner

But you managed to be undefeated

They all think you should join the team after that and you agree

Spending more time with Tim that way

Always talking to him about your family’s history and stuff

Telling him all about your parents love story when he asked to hear about it

You talk so fondly of it and he’s honestly just kind of shocked that Greek Mythology isn’t mythology

I mean, he knew it was real because of Diana

But he never really understood how real these gods were

He falls for you

He loves the way your eyes light up and you smile at him

He loves the way you’re always eager to learn

He loves that you’re so kind and gentle but can also beat people up without even trying

He asks you out but it didn’t go as well as he was hoping

“Do you want to go out with me?”

“Yes, a walk sounds lovely.”

“(Y/N), I like you.”

“Aw that’s so sweet Tim, I like you too, friend.”

Everyone else starts enjoying the way he crashes and burns all the time

And Tim would stop asking usually

But he knows it in his bones that you like him too

But he has no other way to tell you aside from marching up to you and kissing you

Makes that Plan B tho

Plan A is getting you a bouquet of your favourite flowers and telling you that he likes you

Romantically

Not platonically

You grin widely and tell him you like him too

Kissing you just as the sun set that day

It’s one of your favourite memories

His too

Everyone being extremely happy and supporting of your relationship

You can tell Batman is trying to threaten you

But your father is god of the underworld and you have a three headed dog

So, when you and Tim are caught kissing in some hidden crevice in the cave by him and he tries telling you off, you can’t help you smile adorably

“Don’t worry Batman, I have no intention of dishonouring your son.”

Batman is like ???

And Tim is either like “Please don’t speak like we’re in the 1800s.”

or “Please dishonour me.”

He buys you pomegranates as a joke but then you prank him saying that if he eats them, he has to return to the underworld with you

Dick (Nightwing) approves

You like falling asleep in his arms so more often than not you plead with him to stay at the cave and sleep with you

He knows relationships in Olympus generally move a lot quicker so he ends up having to sit you down and explain everything to you so you know his boundaries

Totally accepting them and never going farther than he wants

You appreciate the small things

Like sitting in his lap and eating breakfast

Or being the small spoon

You become the team’s resident couple

Being part of a team, a family is honestly so much fun

Everyone thinking your invincible and practically indestructible

Until one day you’re hurt on the battlefield

Everyone freaking out and getting you back to the cave so you could be treated

The next morning, Tim goes to check up on you and finds something shocking

He’s not sure what to be more surprised by

Cerberus napping at the foot of your bed

Or you crying

Even though the giant, three-headed dog freaks him out, he still sits beside you and asks what’s wrong

“My father demands that I return home. He cannot stand the thought of me being hurt.”

His heart stops

He likes you so much, even bordering on love

And he doesn’t want you to leave

But who was he to stop the God of the Underworld?

Comforting you when you cried, hugging you tightly

“Shh it’s gonna be okay.”

You return home after that and it breaks Tim’s heart

You don’t officially break up but it’s kind of implied because you can never return back to the mortal world

Him being depressed for the next few months but he hides it well

Even though everyone knows how he’s feeling

Things aren’t any better on your end

Your heart aches with every second your away from him

Until one day it happens

Your soul wants to be with Tim

So, it tries to leave your body

You have a heart attack that night and nearly die and it horrifies Hades

He goes all the way to the mortal world to find Tim

Tim doesn’t quite understand how you could have a heart attack from missing him

But is still worried and agrees to go to the Underworld to see you

When he gets there, you’re in so much pain

But once he brings you into his arms you feel sated

When he kisses you, everything fades into a dull ache

Hades wants Tim to stay in the Underworld after that but you argue and tell him to go back to the land of the living

This wasn’t the place for him

“I’ll give up on you, I promise, but you can’t stay here any longer my love.”

“I don’t want to leave your side.”

“I’m sorry, but you know we can’t be.”

Tim goes the next morning and it breaks your heart but you know that it’s for the best

You spend the next few weeks in such sorrow that all of Persephone’s plants die

Hades and Persephone both see how much you love Tim and they are reminded of themselves when they were younger

Making a joint decision to let you go back to the mortal world

But you have to live a long life

That’s the one condition

You running into the cave and crashing into Tim’s arms

Kissing him there and feeling everything go right in the world

You fulfil your parents wish

And live a long, happy life by Tim’s side

Forever Taglist:

@simonsbluee

DC Taglist:

@emmacata

@p--e--a--c--h--e--s

@sometimeseverythingsucks

@sokkas-honour

@unstable1902

@lostgirlheart

542 notes · View notes

devouredbyflame · 7 months ago

Text

I don’t usually reblog things but I had to for this one because the first question is something I’ve been thinking about as well when it comes to my work with the Gods.

It is my understanding that the myths were never truly the hard and fast truth and were never really meant to be the only format to tell the stories of the Gods. The Gods Themselves were consulted and once They stopped being consulted, humans took the stories and twisted them to meet their own narrative.

The Gods were known by humans because They were around them enough to know the cause and effect They had on the world around them. How They were around is not something we practice these days as often as the humans before Christianity because Christians taught that the answers about their God came from a book and that other humans had the answer about the book, not the God Himself.

This created a new normal in religion where it was demonic and pagan to consult the Divine Themselves in their religion because it was not beholden to the power dynamic they wanted to build around the religion where humans that were directly connected to God was more powerful. I mean, Protestants did try to take it into their own hands by saying that they didn’t need a priest to go through to be with their God and they can just do it themselves, but they lost the point when Calvinists became doctrine and fear-based and that just took hold of a lot of major religions in general because fear is an easy sell.

We as pagans tend to not ask the Gods a lot of things and only relate to Their myths because all we know from our religious background and affiliations is that texts know the answers sooner than the Gods Themselves who we are in contact with.

However, I am kind of in the process of writing about how we can go about doing this. It is a new understanding I’ve arrived on lately about why we don’t ask the Gods who They are and why we only go through other humans for answers. We don’t have a solid culture around bringing the Gods to us because we’re scared of being wrong and we’re scared that we’d be told we would pay for our sins, and if we aren’t scared of the Gods, we’re scared of other people taking advantage of us. However, I believe if we did start asking the Gods again to tell Their story, so many things would start to change about who They are in relationship to humans and why we don’t need to operate from a place of fear and shame.

Also, per your second question which I may as well answer here, the Deities in my experience have acknowledged other pantheons. They do normally even work together because They are not based in a single culture anymore unless you are working with a pantheon that has been an unbroken tradition like some African Diasporic religions, Hinduism and Shinto. But even then, the Gods do seem to know about other Deities and relate to Them because the cultures don’t exist in a vacuum anymore and technology gives humans the means to go about sharing ideas a lot easier than they did back then. The Gods likely always knew about each other, because why wouldn’t They? But in this day and age, the people who call out to Them can have Gods across pantheons because it doesn’t matter where they come from anymore.

This is probably more than you ever wanted to know, and I’m sorry for going on a long tangent but hopefully that gives you some sort of understanding.

I’ll also note that I’m not coming from any certain documented tradition and most of my understanding comes from my experiences as a whole and arrive at conclusions based on already existing evidence of the Gods’ natures and inclinations. When it comes to the pantheons that are most popular among neo-pagans I don’t adhere to any sort of doctrine based out of the texts we have because whatever practices we belong to don’t really have any meaning anymore and it would be in our best interest to ask the Gods more about what They want as a whole.

Can someone who does deity work answer me some questions? I tried doing deity work before but failed (well it was a long story) and there are just a few questions I've been DYING to ask.

1.Why don't the deities themselves answer controversial questions of their own mythology and explains how certain things happened?

2.Do deities from different religions acknowledge each others presence or maybe even know them? If so what do certain deities feel about others?

If someone can answer these questions I would REALLY appreciate it they have been on my mind forever😭

#pegan #deity work #witchcraft #greek gods #norse gods #norse paganism #deities #deity devotion #divine communication

15 notes · View notes

comfyswitcherblanketfort · 4 years ago

Note

Comfy, my darling, I come requesting the delight that is Jaskier as Persephone! Please and thank you 🐺🌼

HAPPY FUCKIN BIRTHDAY BABE!!!!

Ily and i’m very glad we’re interweb friends!!!

Pomegranate Seeds

I took some heavy creative liberties here and twisted the myth a little bit for the sake of the vibes. Geralt is Hades, Jask is Persephone and that’s the only character crossover bc I wanna give them all my attention. There will be more too 🥰

Warnings: ...none? jask runs away? its greek but like we got rid of the shitty bits.

______________

Geralt seethed as he stalked up the winding path through the gardens of Mt. Olympus. He liked the underworld. It was his home, his realm, and more importantly, his brothers never ventured there without warning. He grumbled about the ‘fucking humans being needy and bothering him’ as he cut through an orchard.

As he neared the largest tree, he slowed his walk, feeling his irritation melt away little by little as he heard an entrancing voice floating from its upper branches. The song was sorrowful and filled with a simmering resentment Geralt had never heard anywhere but his own thoughts. He came to stop under the tree and leaned against its trunk, listening in rapture.

When the voice went quiet, he spoke without thinking, “That was beautiful.”

There was a yelp and a couple cracking branches before a young god dropped almost gracefully to the ground, “It’s rude to eavesdrop.”

“Is it?” Geralt chuckled, still leaning against the tree and watching the god closely as he righted himself and brushed his soft brown hair out of his eyes, “I live with the dead. They don’t talk much.”

“Oh?” there was a flirtatious glint to the younger god’s blue eyes before he finally put two and two together, “Oh! Oh no, you’re- shit- My apolog-”

“No need,” Geralt interrupted, “I intruded on your singing,” he hummed with a sly smile as he brushed past the confused god to amble along his path to the wretched meeting he was due at.

“I- well, yes you did! Why?” the god seemed to get his wits about him as he jogged to catch up.

Geralt shrugged, slowing his walk, “I… appreciate the lyrics.”

“I’m Jaskier. By the way,” the singer bounced along in front of Geralt, walking backwards as he chattered, “You appreciate my mourning the loss of my autonomy? That I am forever to be singing in a garden to make things grow just because of my mother?”

“Demeter’s Jaskier?” Geralt frowned, knowing very well how Demeter liked to control her human pets. He couldn’t imagine how… well yes. He could imagine what kind of a controlling mother she would be. Gea had been no picnic after all.

Jaskier wrinkled his nose and nodded.

“You don’t want to sing?”

Jaskier spun on his heel and fell into step next to Geralt, “I love to sing. But I want to do it for me. Making it a duty sullies the… the…” he trailed off for a bit, staring at the blossoms and fruits in the trees with his tongue peeking out of the corner of his mouth. Geralt found it unreasonably endearing and waited patiently for him to find the word.

“When I sing for myself it is cleansing. When I do it for others it feels disingenuous and wrong.” Jaskier decided. Clearly, he had been spending time with the muses.

Geralt nodded, “You want more than what you’ve been offered here.”

“Yes!”

They had, to Geralt’s dismay, come to the edge of the orchard.

Geralt stopped and faced Jaskier, a slight upturn in his lips, “Maybe you should find what pleases you.”

Jaskier smiled like the glittering diamonds embedded in the walls of Geralt’s palace, nodding fervently as Geralt turned to go. Just before he was out of reach he heard the singer whisper, “I think I just did…”

Geralt paid even less attention to the discussion than usual, his mind wandering back to Jaskier. He decided, as he glared at his brother boasting of his bastard child and that bull thing he’d made, that he would find Jaskier and… and what? He wanted to whisk him away to his realm and spoil him with fine jewels and the most delicate of silks. He wanted to hear that voice and see that brilliant smile everywhere he went.

But that was selfish.

How could someone so full of life and ambition ever be happy in the underworld? He couldn’t possibly expect Jaskier to leave the color and warmth of the surface world behind for a shadowy cave system that barely qualified as Geralt’s palace. There would only be Geralt and the Furies for an audience, for the most part, and the only trees in his courtyards were haggard at best. No child of the harvest would flourish there.

He left the way he’d come, hoping to find Jaskier in the orchard again, but he was long gone by the time all the other gods had aired their ‘concerns’.

Weeks passed and Geralt found himself even more withdrawn than usual.

His time was spent glaring down at his pathetic little courtyard with the one tree still bearing fruit. He had always been resentful to have been stuck below ground, where the humans feared him and the other gods judged him for having made a home. Bitching and moaning wouldn’t make anything better, so he played the hand he was dealt and enjoyed his solitude. But now? Now he was simply bubbling with rage. Had he been made god of the sea this wouldn’t be a problem. He would pick a comfortably private but not secluded inlet, build his lovely little singer a castle, and spend all their free days wandering the beach.

Not that he’d laid awake at night thinking about it.

He dealt with his duties with a biting tongue and vicious sneer as he pondered what to do with himself.

Nothing seemed to satisfy.

Finally, he made a decision. He would pay Jaskier a visit and ask to hear the song one last time. Just once before he promised to leave the lively singer alone.

When he arrived at the gates to Mt. Olympus, he expected to have to search for Jaskeir or at least search out his voice.

Jaskier, however, was furiously charging down the path, his angry scowl turning into a feral grin when he recognized Geralt, “Oh! Hello! This is perfect! I was just coming to find you!”

Geralt blinked, “Find me? Where would I be but home?”

“Here. Apparently,” Jaskeir pointed out, with raised eyebrows.

“I’m here to find you,” Geralt smiled, feeling something akin to hope soothing the loneliness that had nested in his chest.

Jaskier positively beamed, “I have chosen to find what pleases me. And now that I’ve found you, I would be eternally happy if you absconded with me to your realm.”

If he were nervous or hesitant in the slightest, Geralt couldn’t see it even as he looked for any hint in his features.

“You want to come with me to the underworld?” Geralt frowned, not believing his ears.

“Sounds more fun when you say it my way,” Jaskier answered, rubbing at the back of his neck, that little bit of embarrassment and worry finally showing through his facade, “but yes. That is exactly what I want.”

“I have no gardens.”

“All the better.”

“I would be your only audience.”

“You’re the only audience I’ve cared about since I met you,” Jaskier’s tone became defiant as he puffed up his chest just enough for Geralt to think he did it unintentionally.

Geralt let himself melt a little bit more with his every reply, “The sun doesn’t warm your face in my home.”

“Are your eyes not a brilliant golden warmth enough?”

Geralt blushed for the first time in centuries, “If it is truly what you want…”

Jaskier hesitantly stepped closer, staring Geralt right in the eye, “I want you.”

#geraskier #geraskier greek au #geraskier greek mythology #geraskier greek myth au #greek mythology au #soft geraskier #geraskier meet cute #geraskier au #the witcher #the witcher geraskier #the witcher fic #geraskier fic #geralt of rivia #jaskier #geralt as hades #jask as persephone

443 notes · View notes

there-must-be-a-lock · 4 years ago

Text

Lessons Learned

Spencer Reid x (female) Reader (but reader doesn’t actually appear in the scene, that’s more of a postscript thing)

Word Count: 1225

Warnings: Non-explicit discussion of sex, in an oddly sweet and wholesome kinda way.

A/N: In which Emily gives Spencer some advice!

Inspired by @softspence / @homoose and this ask / this fic! Because it’s been a while (or, y’know, a week) since I wrote about the importance of communication during sex, and then I got to thinking about the whole “men being threatened by vibrators” thing, and... fic happened.

“I swear to god, Kevin’s eyes just about bugged out of his head when he saw mine,” Penelope is saying, as Spencer slides back onto his chair.

“They get so threatened, right?” Emily exclaims. “It’s a tool, not a competitor.”

Penelope sighs. “God. Men. No offense, Spencer.”

“None taken?” he says tentatively. “Um… what are you talking about?”

“Vibrators,” Emily informs him, and Spencer chokes a little bit on absolutely nothing. “And the time a man told me female ejaculation is a myth, and all the other reasons I prefer having sex with women.”

“Maybe I’ll just — um,” Spencer mutters, looking around desperately for an excuse to be somewhere else. For a second he considers joining JJ and Derek on the dance floor, but that’s its own kind of hell.

“Which part of that statement made you uncomfortable?” Emily asks, laughing. “C’mon, Doctor Reid, I’m sure you have some statistics on the female orgasm.”

Spencer grimaces, but offers, “Women orgasm during heterosexual intercourse roughly sixty-one percent of the time, compared to eighty-six percent during lesbian sex.”

“There you go,” Emily says, slapping her hand on the table with a grin. ��And I bet it’s only that low because women don’t always expect reciprocation. Sometimes I just want to go down on a chick, you know?”

Spencer just looks at her, wide-eyed, feeling like a deer caught in headlights.

“I’m gonna go get another drink and get my dance on,” Penelope interrupts with a giggle. “Be back in a bit. Spencer, try not to die of embarrassment while I’m gone.”

“I should probably switch to water,” Emily muses, draining the last sip of her drink. Once Penelope is out of earshot, she adds, “I’m sorry, Spence, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“No, it’s not that, exactly.” Spencer frowns down at the table. “It’s just — never mind.”

Emily is studying him, uncomfortably sharp even though she’s way past tipsy. “You still haven’t, have you? Gone down on a girl, I mean.”

Spencer’s entire face is hot. “That’s… you’re correct.”

“You’ve had sex, though,” Emily says.

Either Spencer’s been saying some embarrassing things in his sleep during jet naps, or she’s… well, a profiler. Right.

“She wasn’t —we didn’t — once, and it was a… perfunctory experience.” He sighs, dropping his face into his hands, and admits all in one breath, “Idon’tlikebeingbadatstuff.”

When he looks up again, Emily’s smiling at him, not unkindly. “Are you looking for some advice?”

“I know the theory, but —”

“Not something you can learn from a book. Yeah. Believe me, Spencer, I am happy to talk about this stuff,” Emily says. She’s obviously sincere, and Spencer feels some of his embarrassment melt away. “Not enough men want advice, and that’s part of the problem.”

Spencer shrugs. “Then… yeah, I’m asking you for advice.”

Emily nods and folds her hands, sitting up a little straighter; she means business.

“Lesson one: make sure your fingernails are clipped and filed and clean,” she says authoritatively.

“That makes sense.”

“Second: take your fucking time. Okay? Don’t just, like, faceplant tongue-first onto the clit.” Spencer almost chokes on his drink at that, and Emily smirks before continuing, “Women are beautiful, right? Seems obvious to you and me, but a lot of the time, they don’t believe that they’re beautiful, and when they’re naked, they tend to worry about whether you think they’re beautiful.”

“Huh.”

Yeah, none of the books ever mentioned that.

“So take your time getting there. Appreciate the rest of her body. Kissing, touching, licking, just — looking, and exploring, and letting her know that you like what you see. That you like all of her, and not just what’s between her legs. If you can make her feel comfortable — not just comfortable with you, but comfortable in her own skin — that’s going to make it a whole lot easier for her to enjoy herself. Got it?”

“Got it,” Spencer says softly.

Emily takes a sip of her drink and clears her throat.

“Okay. Here’s where a lot of dudes get tripped up: fucking communicate. Just ask her what she likes, and then actually listen to what she says. There’s nothing wrong with not being confident. It’s a whole lot better than being over-confident.”

“Yeah, I don’t think over-confident will be a problem for me,” Spencer says wryly.

“Good. Because way too many guys go into sex assuming that they already know how to blow her mind, or whatever, and that this is a chance for them to, like, amaze her with their moves, and a lot of the time, they got their moves from porn and they suck.” Emily’s getting a little rant-y. She takes a deep breath and continues. “Anyway, just — just ask her. She might not be comfortable, at first, saying it bluntly like that, so listen to her body, too, right? Touch her in different ways and pay attention to how she responds. Fingers, tongue… suction, penetration… everybody — every body — is different.”

Spencer nods, and hesitates before saying, “I’ve heard a couple men talk about it, and they always make it sound — intimidating? And not necessarily… enjoyable.”

“Men are fucking weird,” Emily says bluntly. “It’s awesome. Not like jizz tastes like chocolate and strawberries, anyway. But, like, it’s… human, you know? There’s something hot about it, even if it’s not what you’d usually enjoy. And the wetter she gets, the longer you spend down there, the better she’s going to taste.”

Spencer’s cheeks are burning again. He rubs his eyes, trying to cover his discomfort. “And how — I mean…”

“You’ll know,” Emily says wryly. “And also, when it’s over, she’ll be sensitive, and she’ll push you away, because it’ll be too much.”

“Oh.”

“And it’s not — it’s not necessarily comfortable, you know? Feels like you’re gonna fucking suffocate, sometimes. You’ll have her thighs around your head, and she’ll be all trembly, trying to move her hips, maybe pulling your hair, but —” Emily’s smiling now, equal parts dreamy and smug. “— feeling someone just fall apart like that, feeling their whole body shaking — making them feel good — it’s amazing.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Spencer mumbles.

“Really, though,” Emily says seriously. “The most important thing is that you take your ego out of the equation. Stop worrying about being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at it. Whether it’s your fingers or your mouth or your dick or her fucking vibrator, ask her what to do, and then do it. Understood?”

“Yeah. I understand.” He gives her a grateful smile.

Emily studies him for a moment and then says, “For what it’s worth? Just knowing you as a friend, knowing how much you care about people, I think your future partners are in good hands.” It’s unusually earnest for her and it catches Spencer off-guard, but before he can think of a response, she flashes him a bright grin and adds, “If they want to thank me, though, my favorite flowers are roses.”

Spencer laughs. “I’ll remember that, if I ever meet someone special.”

“You will. Don’t worry.”

“Thanks, Em.”

Sure enough, he meets you a few months later.

Your breathless, “How did you do that?” was meant to be rhetorical, but he tells you the whole story anyway. You have a huge bouquet delivered to Emily’s apartment, along with a bottle of wine and a card that says, “Can’t thank you enough.”

More CM fic here. If you enjoyed this, please reblog or leave a note here!

#criminal minds #cm #criminal minds fic #spencer reid fic #spencer reid #emily prentiss #emily prentiss fic

288 notes · View notes

barbarianprncess · 4 years ago

Note

“Forget it, you’re a fucking asshole.” and “Nobody’s seen you in days.” that would be inchresting 👀👀

for mari my beloved,

(aka @chironshorseass )

as you know this sort of got away from me. one second i was writing a drabble of angst, the next I'm on the 16th page with no end in sight. so this maybe isn’t what you were expecting but have 5k of post-botl/pre-tlo pining idiot besties who are in love :).

(also this hasn’t been beta’d and i'm welcome to volunteers i just finished and got so excited i had to post.)

(dear one anon who asked for 'forget it you're a fucking asshole' too, if you're reading this, don't worry yours is coming too i promise)

(final s/o to @posallys for letting me scream about them)

24 hours

read on ao3

enjoy <3

...

Percy is fucking exhasted.

He was supposed to be back at camp four days ago. The deal was he’d spend weekdays at camp to plan and train and weekends at home to relax. But, he kept putting it off, opting to keep the weight on his chest that’d been pushing him down since last summer bearable, and not crushing the way it always was at camp. So, when he gets through the barrier, aside from nodding hello to Beckendorph and Silena, he makes a beeline to his cabin. He manages to keep his eyes down until he’s standing at his porch steps- and that when he sees her.

Annabeth is pacing on his balcony. She’s wearing jean shorts and her camp shirt, but instead of her typical ponytail her hair is in two intricate braids that reach her breastbone. She’s muttering to herself and wringing her hands together and for a moment Percy forgets. He forgets the past year and all the arguing and the bitterness and he sees Annabeth is worried about something and he reaches out as if to hold her. To wrap his arms around her and tell her that everything is going to be alright.

But then he remembers.

He retracts his hands.

He clears his throat and Annabeth startles. Her grey eyes are as intense as ever and he can almost see her defences come up. He hates that it's because of him. Annabeth is the first to break the silence.

“Hey.” Her voice is small but clear. Not yet vulnerable, but gives Percy the sense that it could be soon.

“What’re you doing here?” He isn’t sure he said it out loud until she ducks her head and flushes.

“Nobody’s seen you in days.” It’s not the accusation he expects. It's also not an answer to his question. Just an observation.

“I’m here now.” He says it like it’s an invitation. He then becomes incredibly aware that he's still looking up at her from the bottom of the steps, so he grabs his duffel, bounds up the stairs, and opens his cabin door. He hesitates and meets her eye with another silent question. She answers by stepping inside.

He drops his bag by his bed and turns on the light. The air is charged with unasked questions and unfinished conversations. He can’t stand it. He’s about to attempt small talk when she says something that nearly knocks down where he stands.

“I miss you.” She’s wringing her hands again and she won’t look him in the eye, but takes his silence as confusion.

“That’s what I came here to say, that I miss you.”

Percy isn’t sure what to say. Percy isn’t sure this conversation is really happening, she’s broken so many of the fragile rules they’d been following all year. He’s 98% sure this is a really vivid daydream to cope with…. well everything.

He decides that on the off chance this is real he should play it safe so, he states the obvious.

“I’m here. We’re here, together. We’re together and-” She cuts him off and begins to ramble.

“Strained and awkward and it's like there’s this chasm between us of all these things from last summer. From our kiss, to you dying, and then you not dying, and Rachel, and Luke, and Luke being Not-Luke, and it’s like we can’t have a conversation anymore and that sucks ‘cause..”

She pauses for the first time to look up at him and her eyes are shining.

“You’re kinda my best friend. And I miss you. Everything sucks and I'm tired of fighting. And I really miss you.”

Percy’s too shocked to say anything. It occurs to him that he should respond but he can’t find the words. All the unspoken rules they had in place and Annabeth had just steamrolled right through them. Percy realizes his mistake in staying silent as Annabeth flushes and turns to leave.

“Forget it, you’re a fucking asshole.” And oh no Annabeth had just swallowed her pride (which he knows better than anyone is no easy feat) to say everything he’d wanted to hear and he can’t let her walk away.

“I miss you too.” The words tumble out of him, clunky and a little awkward but earnest. Annabeth stops and faces him, eyes suspicious in the way that breaks his heart a little bit.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Really.”

Annabeth exhales and shoots him a tremulous smile he hasn’t seen in forever, and oh he’d forgotten what it did to his chest when she did. Before he does something stupid like tell her he thinks her smile is the best this he’s ever seen, he clears his throat.

“So…. this chasm you said, what do you propose we do about it?”

“24 hours. For 24 hours everything that I listed before is a non-issue. After that we can go back to…..whatever it is we’re doing now. One day, where we’re just two friends spending a day at camp together..”

“Best friends.” He corrects without thinking. She rolls her eyes, and he almost giggles because he’d missed her eyerolls too.

She holds out her hand to shake, all business-like and gods he missed her.

“Best friends. 24 hours.”

He takes her hand. Her shake is firm, her palms are warm, her eyes are bright, and she is beautiful.

“Where do we start?”

...

Apparently it starts with homework.

After he asked where they’d begin, Annabeth had flashed him a wicked grin, damn-near dragged him off the porch, and made a beeline to the Big House. Before last summer, Annabeth had been “tutoring” him. Once a week they’d head down to the Big House and spend hours combing through myths and legends, practicing Ancient Greek, and all things Demigod 101. It probably wasn’t ever that useful considering Percy barely remembered any of it, but Annabeth had always insisted. After last summer they’d non-verbally decided to take a break from it (eachother), and they’d never started back up.

Usually he’d halfheartedly complain that it was pointless and say some form of ‘I know enough to not die and that's good enough for me’ every five minutes, but today he nods dutifully along as Annabeth talks animatedly about Orpheus, and Theseus, and all the other -eus’s. He’ll ask a dumb question that they both know he knows the answer to, but she answers him anyway. He watches the wisps of hair that refused to be tied down, and counts the tiny sunspots across her nose and the way she wrinkles her eyebrow when she forgets a name.

It’s not terrible. It’s kinda the opposite. He’d forgotten that she made studying not terrible.

He’s so screwed.

...

The stables are almost empty when they get there.

After 2 hours of studying, (one hour of studying, one hour of laughing and talking and calling it studying) Annabeth declared it was his turn to pick the activity. Tired of sitting still Percy lands on tending to the pegasi. It was one of his favorite things about camp plus he got to teach Annabeth something for once. Annabeth was comfortable enough around them but she never spent anytime with them that she didn’t have to.

When they entered the barn, Blackjack gave him a look and he blushed remembering all the times he’d come to the stables with Beckendorph to vent about how much he missed Annabeth, (He didn’t even know horses could give looks but here we are) and silently told him it was a long story and to be cool. Annabeth had stopped next to one of the cleaning stations and was looking at him expectantly. He cleared his throat and they got to work. He showed her how to brush them and how to get tangles out of their manes, where to scritch them and where not to scratch them. He showed her how to check their feathers and make sure their wings were healthy and how to get them to be still enough to check.

Annabeth was excellent with them, gentle hands and kind eyes. Whenever she approached one she would look them in the eye and talk to them like the intelligent creatures they were. Each time she got started taking care of a new steed she’d gently reach for the muzzle and say in a soothing voice:

“Hi, my name is Annabeth and I'm going to groom you today. Don’t worry, I'm friends with Percy, and he taught me exactly how to take care of you. If I’m doing something wrong, let him know and he’ll tell me how to fix it. I promise I’ll do my best to make sure you feel like a brand new pegasus.”

Frankly, it was fucking adorable.

Pork-pie had taken a special liking to Annabeth, telepathically asking Percy if she could groom him more often. When he told this to Annabeth she’d beamed and enthusiastically agreed to come down whenever she could. Percy had off-handedly suggested that they take them out for a bit and Annabeth immediately started to release Pork-Pie from his stall.

They flew over camp for what could’ve been minutes or hours. He was lucky that Blackjack could fly himself because Percy couldn’t take his eyes off his flying partner. Her braids held firm, but a few rebellious curls were now whipping with the wind. The atmosphere combined with the speed they were flying, made her cheeks red and splotchy. Her smile is brighter than the sun, and eyes- gods her eyes were going to be the death of him. The sun and her mood (he had this theory that her eyes changed color based on her emotions) had made them almost blue, they are full of laughter, and Percy adores her. And when she directs her sunshine-smile at him, Percy can’t help but smile back.

(He doesn’t stop smiling until they land.)

...

As they're putting their pegusi back in their stalls, Blackjack decides to give him some advice.

“I know I don’t understand all of your fragile human emotions, but I know enough. There’s a lot of bad in this world of ours, and from what you’ve told me about this war business it's only gonna get worse. You gotta make the most of the good.” He tilts his head over to Annabeth who is cooing at a preening Pork-Pie.

“You and ladyboss, you’re good together. And really nothing else matters.”

He doesn’t have time to even think about a response when Annabeth is walking over from Pork-Pie’s stall, and telling him it's time for a picnic.

...

(“What did Blackjack say to you? You looked kinda flustered when I got you.” Percy almost drops the plate he’s piling with food from the buffet. He’s gotten three pointedly confused looks at the sight of him and Annabeth together and not strangling each other and a thumbs-up from Grover. He and Annabeth are getting their food and then they’ll go sit by the beach.

“Oh,” He clears his throat and goes with the first thing he thinks of. “Blackjack calls you ladyboss.” Good that's good, not technically a lie either.

“Huh. Weird.” Annabeth, seemingly satisfied with this, returns her attention to the grapes she is adding to her plate.)

...

“Where do you go?” Annabeth asks. She’s sitting next to him in the sand brushing crumbs off her fingers. They had been eating and watching the ocean in comfortable silence and Percy furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “Lots of days when you’re at camp for lunch and sometimes dinner you just disappear for hours. And I know you aren’t going home because your stuff is still in your cabin. Where do you go?”

It’s not an accusation, just a question. Percy gets the feeling she doesn’t want to know so she can disturb, she just worries. Percy knows her. He knows she’s always planning for the worst and she needs to be able to get to him if there's an emergency.

(It strikes him that she notices when he disappears and he feels guilty but also just a little hopeful. Because she misses him as much as he misses her.)

He stacks their plates and rests them on the blanket they’d been sharing. Percy stands up and holds out his hand, gesturing for Annabeth to do the same.

“C’mon, I’ll show you.”

...

He tells her to close her eyes. She gives him a skeptical look but obliges and holds out her hands, a silent request for him to guide her. It’s almost easier to take her hands in his without those trademark eyes on him. But it’s not any less intense. As soon as their fingers interlock sparks of electricity lick up his arm. Now that her eyes are closed he can look at her face up close without fear. Her curls had gotten more unruly as the day went on, and the ringlets that framed her face blew lightly in the ocean breeze. He leads her slowly towards the ocean, using his powers to dry any spot she walks on. He sees her brows furrow when she notices how far they’ve walked towards the ocean without their feet getting wet, but she doesn’t say anything. He parts the water for her to walk through, and when the water rises above their heads, he forms an air bubble that moves with them, keeping them dry. When they get to a good spot, squeezes her hand signaling for her to stop with him, but tells her to keep her eyes closed. Then he closes his eyes with her and calls out to the ocean's creatures, making himself a beacon.

Here I am, he thinks. The son of Poseidon.

Come to me.

Minutes pass.

“You can open your eyes now.” He whispers.

She does, and lets out a soft gasp, “Oh, Percy.”

He smiles and looks out at the scene before them. He’d come down here after a particularly bad day and just wanted to sit in silence. It was an accident, calling the creatures to him. Subconsciously, he must have sent a message along that he was feeling alone. And all sorts of sea creatures - from greek monsters and to great white sharks to your average cod had flocked to him. And he didn’t feel so alone. So now, whenever he couldn’t take the human world, he’d come down here and talk to the fish.

This time he’d actually concentrated on getting a message out and they did not disappoint. He couldn’t count all the animals that had heeded his call but it was a sight to behold. He had willed some glowing coral from the deeper ocean to stay in that spot, which created a multicolored tint to everything around them.

Normally they come right up close to him, but this time they were hesitant. And as he listened to the creatures and heard more than a few whispers of Athena and stranger, he’s suddenly reminded that she’s the only person he’s ever done this with. It’s his favorite place, and she is the only other person ever to see it.

“It's okay guys, she’s a friend.” He reassures them. When he looked back at Annabeth, her mouth was still hung open and she was staring out at the scene in front of them in wonder. He smiles at her dazed silence and uses the hand he’s still holding to tug her up to the barrier of the bubble. The first creature willing to accept Annabeth is a baby spotted dolphin. He swims towards the clumsily with eager fins and pokes at the barrier with it’s snout. Annabeth's eyes widen in fear and look up at him and it takes a second to realize she isn’t afraid of the animal, but of their bubble popping.

“Don’t worry, the bubble won’t break unless I break it myself, and it’ll last however long I want it to.” He reassures her. He senses her hesitation so he guides her hand up to meet the snout of the baby dolphin who seems fascinated with Annabeth herself. He reaches his snout and head bumps directly into the spot on the bubble where her palm is placed.

Annabeth lets out a laugh, the kind of laugh that sort of bubbles out of you without warning and it’s the best thing Percy’s ever heard. He watches as the shock fades for her features and she pets the infant creature through the sheen of bubble keeping them dry. The animals begin to warm up to Annabeth as well, and as soon as they figure out she’s not some evil Athena agent sent to destroy the ocean, they join in on the fun. Hundreds of ocean creatures of all sizes begin doing tricks, nuzzling up to the flexible barrier, all vying for Annabeth’s attention. Annabeth herself is happy to oblige. Ever consistent, she introduces herself to each creature she meets. She smiles and laughs and reaches out to all the animals she can. Percy is happy simply to watch her and keep the bubble up but then she turns to him, eyebrow drawn together in concern, pointing to a particularly awnry seahorse, and asks what it's saying.

“He says his name is Frank and that he’s ‘too pregnant for this shit.’”

Annabeth stares blankly.

“His words not mine.” Percy offers hands up in surrender.

Then she snorts and then they’re laughing, they’re laughing harder than they have in years, and it's that kind of hysterical laugh where everything around them makes it more funny, and soon Percy’s clutching his stomach and Annabeth is beet red. As soon as it subsides enough to get words out Annabeth is shaking his arm saying “Do that one! What's he saying? Oh my gods what even is that? Does that one like me? That ones majestic, what's his name? Oh Percy, look!! Look at that one!”

So he translates and they laugh and he teaches her different species and Annabeth nods along like it’s very important stuff. She pets the baby dolphin through the bubble and listens intently to all the animals telling her stories, even though she can’t understand a word until Percy tells her what they said. And when it’s time to go he sees the tears in her eyes and tells Percy to promise the baby that she’ll visit all the time, even though they both know she can’t.

(Apparently the baby dolphins name is Arnold, and according to his mother, he was so enthralled by Annabeth because when he first saw her he thought she was an angel.)

(Percy thinks he’s not too far off.)

...

(“That was incredible Percy. Thank you so much for sharing that with me.” They had been walking in silence as they made their way back to camp using the bubble, enjoying the afterglow of their adventure.

“Yeah, of course.” She smiles at him and looks ahead.

He’s not sure why he does it but without looking at her he reaches out and ever so carefully, and brushes her fingertips with his.

Her breath hitches, but she doesn’t say anything.

Then suddenly, miraculously, her hand tilts and their fingers are interlocked.

And there's no pretense of guiding her somewhere, they’re just….holding hands.

And it's perfect.)

...

Percy thinks if he’s not in love with her, he’s pretty damn close.

Because this feeling, the one he gets in his chest when he looks at her, is what love feels like.

...

When they resurface, they’re met with twinkling lights and the last three stragglers singing softly at the campfire. It’s almost time for lights out.

Oh.

Oh no.

Annabeth seems to be coming to the same realization, as she clears her throat and lets go of his hand. He misses her fingers immediately.

“So, I guess we should start heading to bed.” She looks at him, hopeful but he’s stuck. Stuck in the feeling of dread at the idea of waking up tomorrow and not having his best friend. Suddenly the idea of leaving her side is so unbearable he can’t speak.

“Goodnight, Percy.” She’s turning around and backing away when the words lodged in his throat come unstuck.

“8 in the morning.” She turns giving him a ‘what are you on about’ look.

“That when you came and got me at 8 in the morning. We agreed on 24 hours. It's only been 12.”

She smiles slow and wide, “You know you're right, that math checks out.”

“We had very clear terms. We even shook on it.”

“Yes we did.”, she nods gravely. “It’s a binding agreement, we can’t just ignore it.”

“So what do we do?”

She flashes a wicked grin. “You aren’t the only one with a secret spot.”

...

Percy arrives in the Big House 20 minutes after curfew was called, exactly as Annabeth had instructed. He felt her presence before she re-materialized in front of him and in a low conspiratorial whisper tells him to follow her.

They sneak down to the basement and Percy is confused when she keeps walking towards the corner. She lifts up a floorboard and starts climbing down a ladder. She beckons him to join her and when he makes it down the ladder, he can’t help the smile that breaks out. It’s a sort of underground attic, complete with a worn dusty couch, blankets and an old TV.

“I found it my first year at camp by accident. I was down doing chores and one of the broom strings got caught under it. I didn’t have many friends except for….” She lets him fill in the blank rather than say the name out loud. “And when he wanted to be with kids his own age, I’d come here. There's only five movies down here and I memorized them.” She looks down at her shoes. “I know it’s not the sea floor but..”

“Are you kidding? It’s awesome. What are the movies?”

They dig around and end up finding two more that apparently seven-year-old Annabeth did not think worth the time. They watch Die Hard first, (“Oh my Gods I can't believe you haven’t watched Die Hard. This is a travesty. It’s a classic Annabeth.”) then Pulp Fiction, ("I can’t believe it, all the shit you gave me for not seeing Die Hard, and you haven’t Pulp Fiction?? You absolute heathen!") and Clueless. ("What? It has to be full of violence and toxic masculinity to be good? It’s a good movie Percy, shut-up.") Before he knows it, it’s 3:54 am shaking with hysterical silent laugher at Annabeth's impression of Dionysus.

“Oh my gods oh-OH! Do you know what we’ve got to do?”

“Uh-oh, what?”

She grins impishly and a little deliriously. “We’ve gotta go to our spot.”

“Ah, of course. Yes, our spot, totally.” He says in a voice he hopes is neutral, in an effort to gage if she’s serious.

“Oh my gods.” She gasps, offended.

“What.”

“I can’t believe this.”

“You can’t believe what?”

“You forgot our spot.”

“I’m sorry Annabeth, until four seconds ago I wasn’t aware we had a spot.”

“Oh my gods. I can not believe this-” He can tell she’s messing with him, and not actually mad.

“Annabeth, just tell me where it is.”

“I simply can not believe this, you absolute heathen-”

“Stop calling me a heathen, and tell me where it is.”

She smiles, “I can show you.”

...

“Oh, of course! This is our spot!”

Annabeth chuckles, “I told you.” They’re standing at the edge of the forest at the tallest of the rock clusters to the far left. It's the one they used to go to after their first quest, the place where Annabeth taught him the constellations. The place where he made his first real friend. Not people he hung out with to avoid getting picked on. Not a searcher who happened to like the demigod he found. His first real best-friend.

They climbed up easily and lay down looking straight up at the sky. Annabeth points up at the floating memorials, and Percy dutifully recites the legends of how they earned their place in the sky. They're shoulder to shoulder and their fingers graze each other for longer than necessary. And slowly they lull into comfortable silence, arms overlapping, at some point Annabeth's head lands on his shoulder. Percy freezes for a while, staying absolutely still as if she’s a wild creature who could bolt at any moment. But then he relaxes, and she relaxes and he’s pretty sure she’s asleep until she takes in a shaky breath and whispers, “Hey, Percy?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re gonna be okay right?” He can tell she's trying to mask the vulnerability in her voice. And he can’t see all of her face from the angle they’re laying, but her nose is on his collarbone, and her hair is tickling his chin.

He closes his eyes, and he thinks. He thinks about Luke and Rachel and how nothings been the same since Percy blew up that mountain.

He thinks about seeing her for the first time, grey eyes wide hair falling off her shoulders and how even after everything he just went through, he felt safe. He thinks about ‘you drool when you sleep’, and the way she looked at him when he was claimed- awestruck and pitiful at the same time. He thinks about rolled eyes, stamped feet, and frustration always just under the surface. He thinks about silent truces, and letting guards down, and shared oreos in the back of a mobile zoo. He thinks about sweaty palms gripping each other in the Underworld, and shaky hands giving him a good luck camp necklace. He thinks about camp fires, stupid jokes, learning about the stars, and how the just fit.

He thinks about postcards and iris-messages, and how she punched Matt Sloane square on the nose. He thinks about how despite the arguing and the confusion about Tyson, she was always there when she needed him. How she didn’t hesitate to sneak out of camp with one of the first species he ever learned to truly fear, because he asked her to. He thinks about her in a dress and how tongue-tied him in guinea pig form. He thinks about her broken sobs and how she clutched at him in their underwater bubble. He thinks about winning a chariot race, the softest of cheek kisses and how in this world of gods and monsters, she’s the only thing he was really sure about.

He thinks about how she was the first girl he ever danced with, and how light everything felt when she was around. He thinks about how it felt strangely familiar when she fell off that cliff, and how only days later realized that it was the same desperation he had when Hades took his mother. He thinks about how gutted it was when he found out she was thinking about joining the Hunters. He thinks about his visit from Aphrodite and how even though she changed form, her hair smelled like lemons the entire time. He thinks about when he saw her on that cliff it was like the sun came out. How he saw her face and it was smudged with dirt and cuts but she was alive and he could breathe again. He thinks about how his throat closed up when he thought Artemis was going to pick her for the Hunt. He remembers how when they danced on Olympus, for a song she was prettier than Aphrodite.

He thinks about planning a movie date, and how he discovered Annabeth doesn’t get any less pretty when she’s mad at him. How she sat right next to him at dinner and how when she fixed his armour, his neck burned wherever she touched him. He thinks about falling in a whole and holding her hand and how they’d done it before but it felt different that time. He thinks about ping pong table meetings and how he became aware of the fact that he’d follow her anywhere. He thinks about the determination in her when she faced the Sphinx, and how the same fire was in them right before she kissed him. He thinks about how she tasted like smoke and salt, and how for the 3.2 seconds that his lips were hers, the first thing he thought was ‘we fit like this too’. He thought he was going to die but it was okay. It was okay that he was going to die, because he had gotten to kiss her. He thinks about Calypso’s Island, and how he dreamt about her every night. How when he crashed his funeral, she held like she couldn’t bear to let go and how that was fine with him. He thinks about the blur that was the labyrinth, full of unshed tears, words that cut, and how despite all the scream fights and the terror, and the barely contained rage, none of it lessened the fierce protectiveness he feels for her. How despite it all, she's still the best thing that's ever fucking happened to him. He thinks about the last line of her prophecy, and how she thought it was about him.

He loves her.

He’s not sure if he’s in love with her because he’s 15 and he hasn’t exactly had time to date around but he knows that for a fact. Knowing Annabeth, loving Annabeth has made him who he is. She is burned into his DNA. Somehow the 12 year old with princess curls and eyes that cut, crawled under his skin. He knows he’s done the same to her, even though they’re both too stubborn to say it out loud. They could never really leave each other, even if they tried.

So Percy shifts so he can see her face in the pale moonlight, brushes a curl out of her face and says,

“Yeah. It’s us Annabeth. We’re gonna be alright.”

She smiles soft and real because she knows him, so she knows he means it. He’s not sure who reaches out this time, but they're holding hands and staring at the sky in a silence that speaks volumes.

They stay like that until it’s sunrise and they have to sneak into their respective cabins. Looking at stars, fighting sleep, and forgetting about the rest of the world.

______________

(They hold hands all the way back to her cabin.)

(He doesn’t stop smiling the whole way back to his own.)

______________

if your still here hi! thank you for reading. send in prompts from this list, or any sentence starter you want to read. ask box is open for those and if you just wanna say hi :)

#IM LITERALLY SO SORRY #my writing #percabeth #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percabeth fic #fic rec #rbs are appreciated!#mari tag #prompts

173 notes · View notes