#el yaps

[mostlyelliott]

I love rich I love rich i love rich I love rich I love rich

[the-gods-and-me]

flashback to when i was on holiday visiting the beach and i did a "Cabin 3 For Life!" (for context; Cabin Three is Poseidon's cabin in Percy Jackson and The Olympians) in the sand.

i turned to leave, said goodbye to Poseidon, and the water came and absolutely soaked my shoes.

i later go surfing, i give Him a sandcastle and it's some of the best waves i've ever caught.

i go surfing again, but i'm running on 3 hours of sleep. i'm feeling incredibly ill and i can barely compose myself. i give Poseidon another sandcastle.

the waves aggressively push me back to shore, knock me off my surfboard and i hear a voice in my head saying "nope. nope. nope. back to land you go."

this is the same holiday where i made my first libation: all this happened in the span of 3 weeks.

flash forward and Hermes comes to me with a message. a message from Poseidon.

"thanks for the sandcastles."

the Gods are so wonderful, They're there even when we think They're not <3

[florenceandthejellybean]

I love when people tell me to take care of myself ,like tysm!! I'll be doing exactly the opposite of that 💕

[sonderhere]

i just want to say that i am genuinely so pissed off that the pair of Converse i bought in high school are still going strong. the tread is worn and they've been with me for over 10 years now, but they're still a solid shoe option.

flash forward to 2023 when i bought a pair of platform converse. within 6 months they were falling apart. i bought a new, identical pair. another handful of months later, there's holes in the seams and the laces literally snap if i tug them too hard. i'm on my third pair of converse in 2 years. and then i go into the back of my closet and i pull out my ol' beat-up chucks and

i'm just pissed off

[thatfunkylilfey]

and if i said we're gonna start incorporating Poe into the trilogy for flair, what then?

[thelittlestfey]

do not. ask for my thoughts on something. if you’re not going to engage constructively. or just. ignore me when you’re the one who asked for said thoughts???

[thatfunkylilfey]

✦ here's a link to a guide to my main wip, mothlight (x)

A shapeshifter and a mercenary captain reunite in a quest for revenge where no cost is too great.

looking for active writeblrs 🦇

i’ve had quite the break from writeblr. now i’d like to join some wip tag lists, read, and support others who are actively writing!

reblog / like with a comment describing your wip in one sentence (i know it’s hard) or link to your wip so i can check it out!

bonus if it’s fantasy, rivalry-themed, or has some world-building.

[mostlyelliott]

I have so many red and frantic feelings about how mischaracterized most of the bmc girls are ❤️☹️

[the-gods-and-me]

did anyone else think Florida Water was water from Florida or is it just me being a bit of a dumbass

like i thought Florida Water was just water from Florida

like Australian water would be Australia Water

or Wisconsin Water

idk lol

[florenceandthejellybean]

I don't think ppl talk enough abt ED culture among teenagers (and teenage girls especially)

Like no one bats an eye when someone gives away all their lunch?

Or dissappear to the bathroom after every meal?

Sometimes ppl literally talk abt going to puke and I've heard discussions of how to do it easier??

And no one eats breakfast

No one eats.

This rly rly needs to change 🙏

[mostlyelliott]

Okay I'm actually gonna rant about this because I feel like it.

Squipemy is morally wrong. It's shipping a teenager with an actual robot, who's portrayed as an adult. Keanu reeves, is currently like what, 60? And these actual freaks are shipping him with a 16 year old??

And they justify it saying "oh they're not real it's not hurting anybody." How do you know it isn't. How do you know people aren't being influenced into staying in their own toxic relationships? You don't. You are promoting toxic relationships, and therefore, people are being hurt from it. People don't understand the power of the internet these days, how influential it can get.

You're normalizing abuse. The squip verbally abuses jeremy the entire time he has it. They arent cutesy. It's gross. Relationships shouldn't be composed of telling the other what to do. The squip is so controlling. Does

that sound like a quality relationship to you?

How I sleep knowing I’m not a squipremy shipper:

[sonderhere]

saw a wig in a tree today. seems like an omen

[thatfunkylilfey]

real life has been a little hectic lately but i’ll have time to respond to tags and messages this weekend

thankue to everyone who does tag me in these writing games!! i do, genuinely, look forward to them🩵

[finchwoodmac]

[the-gods-and-me]

what they said!!

just sayin' if the gods were totally against any sort of media with Them in it Athena wouldn't have basically claimed me into Cabin Six. Hermes and Athena wouldn't bop to EPIC: The Musical with me if but They do.

just saying that if Athena didn't want me to think of Her as a mother, She wouldn't actively encourage me calling Her mom.

this is our religion, yes, but we shouldn't be tolerating Lore Olympus' fans bullshit because they've been misinformed. ignore them, correct them, just don't provoke them. be civil.

i understand the point, and religious appropriation of pagan and folk religion is an issue.

but religion and fandom can coexist.

What Non-Pagans Need to Know About Fiction Featuring Pagan Gods

In light of Marvel's Loki show dropping a second season and a new Percy Jackson series on the horizon, I want to say some things about how fandom spaces can be respectful of real-life pagan religion.

Let's get one thing out of the way: literally no one is saying you can't enjoy fiction that uses pagan gods and heroes as characters. No one is saying, "Stop writing stories about our gods." In fact, many ancient cultures wrote fiction about their gods -- look at Greek theater or the Norse Eddas. The act of writing fiction about the gods is not offensive in itself.

But please remember that this is someone's religion.

The gods are not "just archetypes." Their myths are not "just stories." Their personalities are not a matter of artistic interpretation. For many pagans, the gods are very much real in a literal sense. I don't think Thor is a metaphor or a symbol -- for me, Thor is a real, autonomous spiritual being who exists outside of human perceptions of him, and who I have chosen to build a relationship with. Even if you are a hardcore atheist, I would hope you could at least be respectful of the fact that, to many modern pagans, the gods are both very real and very important.

When authors are not respectful of this fact, they reduce the gods, these very real objects of worship, to fictional characters. And here's the thing about fictional characters: they are fundamentally tools for authors to use to draw a desired emotional response from an audience.

Dracula's personality and behavior is wildly different depending on who is writing him, because different authors use Dracula to create different reactions in their audiences. In the 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi, he's equal parts alluring and disturbing, a symbol of America's mixed desire and disdain for foreigners. In Nosferatu, he's more strictly frightening and disgusting. In Francis Ford Coppola's movie, he's a tragic, romantic figure clinging to the last scraps of his humanity. In Netflix's Castlevania, he's an incredibly powerful being who has grown bitter and apathetic in his immortality. All of this is Dracula, and all of it is fine, because Dracula is not and never has been a central figure in anyone's religion.

Let's take a look at what happens when authors give this same treatment to real gods:

In Hellenic polytheism, Apollo is one of the most beloved gods, both historically and today. Apollo loves humanity, and humanity loves him back. He is the god of sunlight and of medicine, but also of poetry and song. He is one of humanity's most consistent defenders when one of the other gods gets wrathful. And while he does have dangerous or wrathful aspects of his own (he's also the god of disease, after all), he's also kind and soft with humanity in a way other gods often aren't, at least in some historic sources.

In the Lore Olympus comic series, Apollo is a villain. He's characterized as an abuser, a manipulator, and a violent man child. LO!Apollo is downright hateful, because the author wants us to hate him. Lore Olympus is a retelling of a myth about an abduction and forced marriage. Lore Olympus is also a romance. In order to get the audience to sympathize with Hades and root for his relationship with Persephone, Rachel Smythe needed to make someone else the villain. Apollo is the most obvious and extreme character assassination in Smythe's work, but several other gods (notably Demeter) also get the asshole makeover to tell the story Smythe wants to tell.

Here's where this becomes a problem: Hellenic polytheism is a fairly small religious community, while Lore Olympus is a massively popular webtoon with 1.3 billion views as of August 2023, print books available from major retailers, a TV adaptation in the works, and a very active online fandom. Rachel Smythe currently has a MUCH bigger platform than any Hellenic polytheism practitioner. Smythe and other authors are shaping how modern culture views the Hellenic gods, and that has a very real impact on their worshipers.

This means "Apollo is an abusive asshole" is becoming a popular take online, and is even creeping into pagan communities. I've personally seen people be harassed for worshiping Apollo because of it. I've seen new pagans and pagan-curious folks who totally misunderstand the roles Apollo, Hades, and Persephone play in the Hellenic pantheon because of Lore Olympus and other modern works of fiction.

There are tons of other examples of this in modern pop culture, but I'll just rattle off a few of the ones that annoy me most: Rick Riordan depicting Ares/Mars as a brutish asshole hyped up on toxic masculinity; Rick Riordan depicting Athena as a mother goddess; Marvel depicting Thor as a dumb jock; Marvel depicting Odin as a cold, uncaring father; DC depicting Ares as purely evil; whatever the fuck the Vikings TV show was trying to do with seidr; the list goes on.

All of these are examples of religious appropriation. Religious appropriation is when sacred symbols are taken out of their original religious context by outsiders, so that the original meaning is lost or changed. It requires a power imbalance -- the person taking the symbols is usually part of a dominant religious culture. In many cases, the person doing the appropriation has a much bigger platform than anyone who has the knowledge to correct them.

When Rick Rioridan or Rachel Smythe totally mischaracterizes a Greek god to tell a story, and then actual Hellenic pagans get harassed for worshiping that god, that's religious appropriation.

Religious appropriation is a real issue. This isn't just pagans being sensitive. To use an extreme example: Richard Wagner and other German Romantic authors in the 19th century used the Norse gods and other Germanic deities as symbols in their work, which was a major influence on Nazi philosophy. Without Wagner, the Nazis would not have latched onto the Norse gods as symbols of their white supremacist agenda. To this day, there are white supremacist groups who claim to worship our gods or who use our religious imagery in their hate movement. We are still reckoning with the misinterpretation of our gods popularized by Wagner and other German Romantics almost 200 years ago.

Again, no one is saying you can't enjoy fiction based on pagan mythology. But there are a few things you can do to help prevent religious appropriation in fandom spaces:

Above all else, be mindful that while this may just be a story to you, it is someone's religion.

Recognize that enjoying fiction based on our gods does not mean you know our gods. You know fictional characters with the same names as our gods, who may or may not be accurate to real-life worship.

Do not argue with or try to correct pagans when we talk about our experience of our gods.

Don't invalidate or belittle pagan worship. Again, this mostly comes down to recognizing that our religion is totally separate from your fandom. We aren't LARPing or playing pretend. Our sacred traditions are real and valid.

If you see other people in your fandom engaging in religious appropriation, point out what they are doing and why it isn't okay.

Please tag your fandom content appropriately on social media. Always tag the show, movie, book, etc. that a post is about in addition to other relevant tags. This allows pagans to block these fandom tags if we don't want to see them and prevents fandom content showing up in religious tags.

For example, if I'm posting about Athena from the Percy Jackson books, I would tag the post #athena #athenapjo #percyjackson #pjo. You get the idea.

And if fiction sparks your interest and you want to learn more about the actual worship of the gods, you can always ask! Most pagans love talking about our gods and trading book recs.

If you are writing fiction based on real mythology, talk to people who worship those gods. Ask them what a respectful portrayal would look like. If possible, include a note in your finished work reminding audiences that it is a work of fiction and not meant to accurately portray these gods.

[eloise175]

I love these panels so much, I’m never getting over them not only because of how beautiful they are, but also due to their meaning and how it perfectly shows the characters' feelings.

It’s the part where Penelope tells Callisto she doesn’t love him and his face crumbles, he’s so taken aback by it but for all the wrong reasons, let me elaborate;

(contains some novel spoilers!!)

From the beginning, Callisto knew that Penelope’s confession about how she fell in love with him at first sight was bullshit.

He knows she lied to him on multiple occasions but doesn’t mind at all; it’s stated later on in his pov that despite all the rumors and her deception, Callisto too found it surprising how he didn't get angry.

They also had this conversation in the cave and many other occasions when he teased her about it and she kept on saying that she wasn’t in love with him anymore.

However each time Penelope claimed to not be in love with him, Callisto was either amused or grumbled about it playfully.

It’s the setting that changes things. Back then it was all teasing and her getting fed up with him and his successful attempts at eliciting some sort of reaction out of her.

As the story progresses, their interactions become more tense due to the friction and tension being products of their feelings for one another.

We can see the first signs of Callisto ‘wavering’ during his birthday banquet as Penelope is about to reject him.

He looked crestfallen when she brought up love because he still can’t make sense of it, convinced that his feelings of fondness can’t be related to love—or more like, he’s trying to convince himself it’s like that.

Knowing what is about to come, he shushed her, while admitting to the fact that he knew she was going to reject him, hence why he told her to give him an answer on her coming of age.

It’s all because Callisto hoped she would change her mind and her answer would be the one he hoped for, basically her accepting.

Then in the greenhouse things become more serious. The talk about Penelope’s condition had an impact on the build-up of it.

Penelope is completely serious and firm about her rejection, she is more apathetic due to the impending deadline of hard mode’s ending and things falling apart continuously.

She doesn’t have any control of the things happening around her and it makes her grow more and more anxious, to the point where it all becomes too much and it leads her to resign to her fate.

Callisto’s reaction to it is so strong not only because Penelope kept on pushing him towards another woman (which he doesn’t even know) when all he wanted was to be with her, but because she disregarded his feelings in the process as well.

Penelope goes on to say that she doesn’t love him, and that’s the real nail in the coffin, Callisto is actually in love with her but fails to realize it, but his subconscious seems to be aware of it given his reaction.

It’s a “…she doesn’t love me?” slap in the face realization.

I’m saying this because later in the novel, Callisto reveals that he hid his desire to be with Penelope behind the guise of an arranged marriage because he was afraid to admit being in love with her due to what happened to his parents. You could say he has always loved her from the moment they first met.

➺ chapter. 201 from the novel:

Anyhow, Penelope talks about her circumstances and past, saying how while wanting love she also needs and wants someone to take her out of the hell she’s in.

She tells Callisto he’s not that person and he’s absolutely devastated by that statement. He even gets described as dazed in the novel when this scene happens.

It’s a point of no return for Callisto because he still refuses to acknowledge his feelings as love for Penelope.

He can’t have her unless he admits to loving her, but he’s afraid to do so due to his past, he's convinced that if he confesses then she would end up like his mother.

Callisto needs a push, and that push is the fear of losing her forever which comes in the form of Penelope’s poisoning on her coming of age ceremony.

It all boils down to “don’t make any assumptions about my feelings” and “you don’t know what/how I feel” but we don’t get that since Callisto is suppressing it.

He’s angry and rightfully so and Penelope’s earlier apparent indifference doesn’t help either.

But yes, Penelope’s rejection hurt him so much because loves her.

Callisto is conflicted and in denial. It’s like he’s already having an inner battle about his feelings and then Penelope comes and deals the final blow, stomping all over his heart while pushing him away.

"I chose you, Penelope Eckhart. Not your household." and “Does my proposal mean so little to you?” are so telling because it’s clear that he’s been strongly impacted by all of this.

Callisto genuinely wants to be with Penelope and get her to the safety of the palace but went about it the wrong way.

They’re so miscommunication, it will be so long before they get to talk properly about their feeling and we get that love confession I’m not okay T_T

Thinking about all the things that will happen before that is making my head hurt, I’m going back to reading my comfort fanfics…see y’all tomorrow when the beginning of the end begins with more yearning and angst as Callisto will come back :,)