#divinity: order

[runeaxx]

I think they'd be best friends

[loracarol]

In The Iliad, Diomedes is able to fight & injure both Aphrodite and Ares with Athena's help/at Athena's command.

In Epic, Odysseus is only able to "defeat" one immortal, and that's Circe, and only with Hermes' explicit divine assistance.

Except... He did actually receive another godly order. Another god made a demand of him; Poseidon explicitly told him to become more Ruthless. You could argue it was a divine command, intentional or not.

...I joked about him being a paladin last night, but I do think there's power in stories when it comes to oaths, and what the gods tell you to do, tell you to be.

Odysseus followed through with Poseidon's demands, and he was rewarded for it, even if perhaps not the way Poseidon would have appreciated.

[olivier-with-a-sweater]

Love this goober

[utilitycaster]

I do think it's worth calling out that a lot of the arguments in favor of killing the gods treat their worshipers as the "haves" amidst a sea of "have-nots" and that's just...flat out false in Exandrian canon, in addition to obliquely pinging certain antisemitic canards I am unfortunately attuned to by necessity, even though I suspect that's largely unintentional.

There are powerful adherents to the gods, but there's a lot of worshipers who gain nothing but whatever meaning they personally draw. We saw the Schuesters in Hupperdook in C2, who were imprisoned for following the Changebringer within the Empire, and seemed to have no cleric or paladin powers; nor, to our knowledge, does Imahara Joe. Technically we learned that Molly did sort of get something out of the Moon Weaver, but he didn't know that during the campaign. Grog thinks The Stormlord is pretty neat but hasn't gotten any powers from him. We saw worshipers of the Lawbearer and Dawnfather in Whitestone and worshipers of the Wildmother elsewhere in Tal'Dorei during Campaign 1, again mostly without any specific powers. In this episode and during the Team Wildemount arc we've seen no shortage of people simply going to temples as a place to seek comfort and meaning. Hell, the Player's Handbook outright says it: "Not every acolyte or officiant at a temple or shrine is a cleric. Some priests are called to a simple life of temple service, carrying out their gods' will through prayer and sacrifice, not by magic and strength of arms."

I think a generous read is that a lot of D&D players who aren't playing a mechanically divinely connected character don't make their character religious in any way, and so it becomes easy, with a PC-focused mindset, to assume that the only religious people are clerics, paladins, and the handful of deity-connected subclasses from other classes, but that isn't true and never has been in Exandria.

[amekeii]

Criminal Minds Characters as Cocktails

SPENCER REID - ESPRESSO MARTINI vodka vanilla | coffee liqueur | brown sugar syrup | espresso

AARON HOTCHNER - OLD FASHIONED bourbon | sugar | angostura bitters | orange twist

EMILY PRENTISS - AVIATION gin | maraschino liqueur | simple syrup | lemon juice | crème de violette | cherry

DAVID ROSSI - NEGRONI campari | gin | sweet vermouth

PENELOPE GARCIA - PORNSTAR MARTINI vodka vanilla | passoã | passion fruit puree | pineapple juice | passion fruit half | prosecco

JJ JENNIFER JAREAU - GIN & TONIC opihr gin | yuzu tonic | lime wheel

DEREK MORGAN - MAI TAI dark rum | white rum | orange curacao | almond syrup | lime juice

PART 2

[fuluv]

just letting y'all know that me and @milkywaydrinker's oc betty exists in deadendia vol 3 and she's zagan's bff

[kittykatrattie]

POLYAMORY WINS

[completeoveranalysis]

[1]

xxxHolic Chapter 84!

All aboard the Spooky Yuuko Lifestyle!

I’m living for this. I’m also living for those shoes. What are those, Yuuko. What are they. 

But that aside we love appreciate the most extravagant fashion possible in this world or the next.

And then the imagery.

Yuuko poised gracefully in the largest bird cage you’ve ever seen. The shadow in the background shows the cage is completely empty. 

The cage is held up by a wing. The wing is directly in line with the bell in Yuuko’s hand. They are not the same shape. 

The cage is held up by a curling hook. It’s directly in line with another big curl that Yuuko is sitting on. They aren’t the same shape either.  

Yuuko is dressed in the most amazing style that seems to be based on a phoenix, or a peacock. She’s also just… sitting right next to one. Which she completely outshines in every way. 

Yuuko holds the bell out behind her, right through the bars, as if she could have left at any time - or as if her power could never be restricted to the cage. Or if she was never actually in the cage at all. 

It’s very much like those birds that Watanuki delivered in a much earlier chapter, but the other way around - they were only visible as shadows, but here Yuuko is only visible without a shadow.

It’s also very much like the Birdcage kingdom, which also featured giant cages and a bell that I can't quite remember the details of but suddenly want to rewatch very badly.

Like Watanuki’s previous cover, it’s playing with ideas of being between existence and non-existence, of being sometimes visible but not always, of being between the real and the imitation, of having a sort of freedom but also being contained, of being sort of brought back from the dead but stuck half way back to reality - and being on the verge of bringing it all crashing down. 

It’s exactly what you’d expect from Yuuko!

[things-methinks]

HOW about an Oscar win and Lestappen podium at Spa?

[cctinsleybaxter]

i think about that post that's like 'men are addicted to writing sad songs about a time they were clearly the bad guy' every time i listen to music

[thewormsdontstop]

GUESS WHAT CAME IN THE MAIL TODAY

[olivier-with-a-sweater]

Thank you for this delicious food, Hamish

[doveywovy]

thinking about the uchiha and the senju *not* being on equal footing for once. Indra, when chasing power, became the Daimyo of Fire instead of squabbling with his Father and Brother. His relation to the Emperor (his grandfather) ensuring the line. So hundreds of years later, the Uchiha are the ruling family of fire- over civilians and shinobi alike. They rarely, if ever, actually *serve* as shinobi, but they maintain their abilities to the highest degree possible because it's part of how they keep an iron grip on all the shinobi clans who serve under them. (The sharingan is as respected as ever, but now with the 'divine right to rule' implications tied into it's manifestation.)

Tajima is the current head, but he's coming close to retiring and having Madara take over. Izuna's been raised as Madara's advisor; assassinations are still a concern but heirs dying is much less common. They'd never put the main family into danger, so all of their siblings are still alive, but they all got married off at young ages to secure alliances. (Even before they got married off, they were raised with the mindset that they'd be bargaining tools, and so Izuna and Madara were raised separately to keep them from getting attached).

The Senju aren't a noble clan, and aren't even aware of their connection to the historical line of power. But the Uchiha are aware of it, and thus start to pay extra attention when Hashirama marries Mito. Uniting clans...it could be nothing, but it could also be a sign he intends to usurp. They're careful about that sort of thing.

Izuna presses the advantage this gives them. The Senju will have to give in to any demands they make that aren't *too* outrageous, and there's been whispering about Hashirama's brother being a genius inventor. Madara asks for Tobirama's service to their family, separating the Senju from a very useful tool if they are planning a coup and gaining the Uchiha a very major boon if there's no coup in place.

Tobirama arrives, blandly polite, covered in dirt from the road, and the presumption is that he'll get swirled away into court life. He'll either prove foolish and end up dead sooner than later, or prove clever and thus useful. In which case Izuna will keep him in mind if he ever needs something invented, or investigated, or otherwise prodded with a stick. One day the Senju's power will fade- they'll make a political misstep, lose an heir, Hashirama will turn into a tree. Then Tobirama will get returned, with the expectation to politely acquis to any requests the Uchiha make for the rest of his life.

Izuna gets attached instead. Tobirama's extremely compelling to him for all their similarities and differences. The man is a younger brother devoted to his elder; Izuna cares for his brother by handling the tricky court manipulations that elude soft-hearted Madara. Tobirama seems serve his brother by being the harsh one, the firm one, the threatening one. He's ill-suited for court. He lacks any skill at manipulation but is very adapt at biting insults, which is a terrible combination and also very funny for Izuna to watch. Izuna was raised from a young age to be careful about assassinations; Tobirama was raised from a young age to commit them.

Tobirama doesn't know how easily their positions could be reversed, if their ancestors had made different decisions, but Izuna does. He takes a very mean delight in that- especially because he fully believes the Uchiha deserve their place. They *were* the better bloodline, the divine right to rule was indeed always meant to be theirs, and it really only could be fate that a Senju would end up serving the Uchiha. It's a joke that Tobirama can never know, and his ignorance makes it funnier.

[yumespooki]

Starcatcher Gregor and Moloch -- there might be rambles in the tags

[fuluv]

altar boy

[im-just-a-ghost]

My character, after very vaguely alluding to Ifan in a relationship:

Ifan, catching on:

These two are battle-hardened warriors? They witnessed traumatizing horrors? They're literally on the run for the lives and they're getting like this just thinking about each other