#explained phenomena

[onryou-onryou]

Mojo Nixon - Elvis is Everywhere

[sabrebash]

So my aunt seems to have witnessed BALL LIGHTNING and i can't get her to understand how potentially important that is

She's not a fantasist type, just a fun country gal in her 70s. So last night on the phone she casually drops that during a very intense thunderstorm a couple of nights ago, she sees lightning congeal into an orb and hover above the ground for a couple seconds before fizzling out, and she was scared of fire and for her neighbor's cows. She's just like 'Yeah it was scary :(, but anyway i saw your cousins :)' and i'm like AUNTIE, YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO GET BIGFOOT'S AUTOGRAPH THAN SEE BA--

'Yeah i wish i had gotten it on video, haha but it was very scary' AUNTIE, IF YOU HAD GOTTEN IT ON VIDEO YOUR NAME WOULD BE IN HISTORY BOOKS

[genericpuff]

I find something that annoys me is how people misunderstand why Persephone is considered the goddess of spring.

It’s because Demeter makes it spring when she returns. Not because Persephone has some awesome sick flower powers and she makes it all pretty before returning to her 10000/10 husband.

Agreed! But also, if I can offer up my own food for thought / interpretation: Demeter didn't necessarily create 'winter' as we traditionally perceive it, rather she created famine.

In that same sense, Demeter isn't even necessarily "making it Spring" when Persephone returns - she makes the land fertile again, allowing mortals to harvest their crops and thrive. Thus creating the "seasons" of harvest and drought.

Like many of the myths we've preserved and still read today, The Hymn to Demeter was a story created to explain natural phenomena that we didn't yet know how to explain. In Demeter's case, the story of her separation from her daughter explained the cycle of nature - why the clouds would no longer rain, why the ground would dry and crack, why the soil would become brittle, and why the crops would lose their will to live. It wasn't necessarily because she brought about 'winter', it was simply that she stopped performing her own duties, which were specifically dedicated to the harvest, especially that of wheat and grains (both of which are INCREDIBLY important foods that played their own massive role in the evolution of the human race - they weren't only essential to keeping both humans and livestock fed with their carb-heavy components, but could also be used to make fabrics and tools.)

Just as people prayed to Poseidon for safe travels across still waters, so too would people pray to Demeter for a bountiful harvest. Whenever there were droughts, you could understand it as the period when Persephone would return to the Underworld; or you could even blame it on yourself, or even your own fellow mortals, if you felt that perhaps Demeter had been disrespected in some way so as to bring about a drought as punishment.

This is why The Hymn to Demeter also functions as a foundational story for the founding of The Eleusinian Mysteries - a cult that worshipped Demeter, and other deities attributed to the harvest (ex. Dionysus) whose initiates were sworn to secrecy, never to speak aloud what practices were happening within the cult. And they did a damn good job of it too, because to this day we still don't fully know what went down in those cults. They're mysteries, after all :')

Demeter wasn't the only god who was attributed to the harvest and the weather patterns that would cause drought, but she's certainly one of the most popularly discussed, undoubtedly due to the fact that her story is one of the oldest and most well-preserved, and she was attributed to some of the most essential crops of that era.

But as it would happen to many myths over the centuries, the exact cultural contexts and intentions behind her original story have become either lost, or re-interpreted so many times that we can't even fully trust that Homer's version is "accurate", at least not without any way to retrieve those original oral stories that predated both him and other famous poets whose work we still study and analyze today.

But hey, that's just my own interpretation! One out of the thousands that have existed and the thousands that will undoubtedly go on to exist. I'm sure my own interpretation of it isn't perfect or foolproof, but I hope it offers up some fun food for thought!

[storytellingbadger]

The enterprising Eclipses of of Celestial Phenomena, my TSAMS AU over on AO3. Mind the ratings. Spoilers (and alternative shirtless Solar, which bizarrely looks slightly suggestive even though most of the cast are perpetually shirtless anyway) for the characters below.

Left: Eclipse, the OG threat of the Daycare, still alive and kicking and causing problems. Spiteful, wickedly clever and lethal. Complicated relationship with Sunrise.

Right: Solar, the main protagonist of the series (most of it's from his POV). Industrious to a fault and dead set on proving himself useful, no matter what. Modded his own construction to sacrifice speed for power, so he's bigger than the standard model. In love with Sunrise.

They loathe each other with every fibre of their being. Every line of code and filament of wires is dedicated to mutual animosity and venom. They do not get along.

Shirtless Solar behold...

[variousqueerthings]

very funny when people on letterboxd describe a movie as "didn't reinvent the wheel" and it's like. lisa frankenstein. cocaine bear. i just don't think that was their intent as movies youknow. i think it was to have a fun time.

[schneiderenjoyer]

This statement in Erick's anecdote goes so hard if you consider that everyone in the suitcase turns into portraits randomly...

[spookcataloger]

Tom Tom Mystery Sound (2013)

[turquoisemagpie]

Are you Shaniac or Boogara?

[clumsypuppy]

18 and 24 for the ask game :]!!

18: do you believe in ghosts and/or aliens?

24: what's one thing you're proud of yourself for?

[time-was-over]

‘actually the reason she’s getting like this is because of demons’ why are you attributing alcoholism and addiction to mythological otherworldly spirits. like? are you fucking serious?

[darabeatha]

@iappearmissing replied ; as a little treat im gonna take him to Actual Hell

NO- NO NO NO! DONT BRING HIM BACK TO THOSE DARK WOODS!!! TO THE REALM OF MALICE AND FRAUD!! OF BESTIAL APPETITES!!! HE'S SEEN ENOUGH OF THAT NIGHTMARISH PLACE!!

unless....

...

would you.... 👉👈🥺 Would you guide him then― hand in hand........ I mean; it's very dark and scary....... and depressing. But that's beside the point―

[sophiethewitch1]

no i will NOT acknowledge the early warning signs for schizophrenia warning list what do i look like I'm someone who deals with their problems?? absolutely not

[aparticularbandit]

Am now thinking about Haruhi and Mulder meeting.

This goes well for no one.

I'd like to think Scully and Kyon could commiserate, but. Kyon is a full on, if unfortunate, believer. Scully would put him in the same box with Mulder. Or a close one.

Mulder finally has someone with cryptid and supernatural hunting energy to match his. Except Haruhi sees this as a fun game, and Mulder has tragic backstory syndrome. Mulder investigates using odd methods because he knows they're real; Mulder is searching for his sister. Haruhi's here for a good time; Haruhi is looking for her tribe because she doesn't quite fit in.

....

Mulder saw Haruhi's middle school writing and launched an investigation into it only for it to be disproved when the local middle school girl was caught for writing it.

Mulder considers that the local middle school girl herself might be a cryptid. Scully is fairly certain that isn't the case.

[tosahobi-if]

You want more character asks?? WELL IF YOU INSIST

Considering where the story is going to go: how much do the ROs believe in the supernatural?

they all do! the story itself is explicitly a fantasy, so the supernatural exists alongside the real world. things like fantastical creatures and demonic forces are a reality (the great calamity literally received its name because the dead rose from their graves HAHAHA)

[feyres-divorce-lawyer]

only remembering the base plot and anti feysand evidence of acomaf and acowar, and replacing everything else with headcanons is sooooo funny cuz i’ll get harshly reminded that feyre really was Like That (derogatory) and for a split second, i’m like pardon? and then reality punches me

[tauforged]

Do you like the fantasy genre? I asked cause your profile picture

oh yeah, for sure. i tend to lean a little scifi fantasy (my icon is actually a warframe oc) cuz i’m a sucker for weird and crazy technology and have always since i was little had a passion for imagining alien worlds and ecosystems…. and i like guns and such from an artistic standpoint crazy scifi weapons are a lot of fun to design cuz you don’t need to be a skilled magic user to shoot someone with laser beams anyone can pick up a blaster and go ham…. but i enjoy fantasy settings immensely also