#got a bit morbid

[oneluckygoose]

ABSOLUTELY!!!

This got me thinking so like a lot of headcannons under cut

Most of their more public pranks are attributed to the Marauders until Mc. Gonoggle steps in and is like “Pardon? My children don’t do THAT.” And so everyone thinks there’s this strange group going around and pulling things so discretely (which is the truth) but others still think it’s either the Marauders or Peeves.

The Maraurders find out when Sirius and Reggie reconcile and they become partners in crime IMMEDIATELY, but as it turns out most of the Skittles’ pranks are COMPLETE accidents so the Marauders take them under their wing to train them in the ways of intentional chaos.

This proves very detrimental to people trying to figure out who did what because the pranks get more and more elaborate while also more carefully planed and it’s just beautifully disastrous.

It also becomes a mix of intentional pranks with chaotic accidents (like the time they accidentally started the ghosts of Hogwarts meetings in the dungeons, they’re not sure how that happened either), and like an accident will lead to a prank and vice versa.

The skittles try and convince the Marauders to do stuff to the shrieking shack at one point, and the Marauders are like “uhhhhhh might not be the best ideaaaa” and the skittles are confused but oblige, and when Remus eventually tells Reg, Regulus also shuts down (typically Evan’s) Shack ideas.

The Skittles end up absolutely RELYING on the map when they get their hands on it and tremendously adding to it, especially in the dungeons and Slytherin common room. The Marauders also hand down the map to them when they leave and the skittles eventually hide it in the Gryffindor wing when they are forced to get their marks because the map won’t talk to them anymore, so they figure it should go back to where it belonged with the Gryffindors, which is where Fred and George find it.

One time Snape tries to join in on their shenanigans and the Marauders are like “Absolutely not” and the Skittles realize quickly that Snape will turn everything they do into either something boring or extremely cruel, Barty was the last one to agree to not include Snape (because he honestly kinda liked the idea of turning the Hufflepuffs food into rats for a week, but Evan, Pandora, and Reg (who have been starved by their family as punishment) were completely not on board so that didn’t happen), though eventually he sees Snape talking shit about Evan being Gay and that doesn’t Fucking fly so Snape is gone right after.

One day when Remus and Evan team up for something, Remus notices Evan and Barty doing something and goes “mmmm, that’s what I did with Sirius before we got together” and he and Evan eventually end up talking (also discovering the chamber of secrets simultaneously but they couldn’t get past the parsletounge door) and Evan confesses about being fully in love with Barty and Remus is like “my man go tell him” and now rosekiller is a thing and Remus is very proud. (About the same thing happens with Sirius and Barty after the same exact interaction)

Also Remus and Even are a surprisingly good team??? Remus’s planning and wit with Evan’s psychotic but brilliant ideas make the best pranks and they NEVER get caught. On the other hand; Sirius and Barty also make an amazing team because Barty is insane and Sirius is fully down and is the best one to get them out of it (Sirius also is Barty’s Moral checker) but they get caught way too much for it to be safe. James and Regulus obviously hit it off but their main job is to make sure everything is happening the way it’s supposed to, even if they get distracted here or there [ ;) ;) ]. Pandora and Peter also match up, but they mainly do the material gathering and set up for the pranks rather than carrying them out, which they seem to enjoy more (it gives them a chance to actually talk about potions and herbology with someone for a while).

All in all they’re a horrifically perfect prank team that pulls LEGENDARY pranks, a lot of which are completely unnoticed or not discovered until 20 years later. (Looking back on it, they’re Pretty sure they found a horcrux at one point and threw it into the Room of Requirement not knowing what it was, they found it while trying to draw the Ravenclaw ghost into the Great Hall which WORKED ACTUALLY)

The skittles did their kept their pranks going in the last year they had without the Marauders, but everyone there could tell there was something different about it from the last two years of pranks. The Skittle’s style reverted back to what it had been their fourth year, mainly accidental and a touch too insane for it to be an actual prank, and they realized that the Marauders had probably been the best thing to happen to their schemes. It was a little bit heartbreaking, to say the least.

Evan was shocked in their 7th year because when in DADA they finally covered dementors, it was a memory of their entire group that he conjured to produce his patronus (which was a hawk). He supposed it was the way they all worked together, the way they helped each other, the way it filled him with adrenaline fueled joy. He never told anyone but Barty, and he only told him after October of 1981.

The Marauders were a shockingly bright spot in the Skittle’s Hogwarts career, and together as a team they likely changed Hogwarts. Whether or not either group would admit it after the Skittles got their marks, they were a wonderful team who could do incredible things if they worked together.

i love the idea that the skittles had their own adventures at hogwarts that were more chaotic than the marauders' but they're lowkey about it. like oh, you guys were the ones who put that giant squid in the lake? cool. barty is currently possessed by a 16th century demon pandora accidentally released. it hasn't done anything yet and he seems fine and we're late to potions so we'll deal with that when he starts levitating while speaking in a dead language.

[acrobattack]

been kicking around an idea of these guys being forced to team up because something something universe shenanigans and they need to reunite with their siblings

[fashionredalert]

Head empty except for thoughts of a feral Madara and Tobirama covered in dirt and blood, guarding their baby, teeth bared and snarling in the face of enemies that attacked. Tobirama with a kunai in hand, clutching the baby close while the forest looms dark and dangerous- teeming with man eating trees that are ravenous for those who dared to attack. Madaras face a bloody mess because he just ripped someone's throat out with his teeth.

[y-rhywbeth2]

Who decided the drow should have so much fucking lore anyway.

('I should've been a drow.' You can't fucking stand Cazador or your 'siblings' you would not fucking want to be a drow. Although I guess Astarion would make a fair Vhaeraunite.)

[timey-fandom-stuff]

"What, playing by the rules wasn't enough for you?"

"In that case... Let's play a new game, just you and me."

"I'm gonna count to ten, and if you're still there..."

"I'll make you disappear. Better get hiding."

'The Kriptid' isn't your standard issue Kris Dreemurr; it's hard to say what they qualify as these days. A few too many tweaks by an over-zealous Deltarune modder have left them irreparably changed. They don't appreciate what 'meddlers' have done to them or their world.

Are they human? Are they a monster? A secret third thing, it seems.

If you're lucky, they'll never be more than a fleeting shadow at the edge of your screen, a flicker of pixels you can't quite identify. To most they're nothing but an elusive urban myth. And to those who dwell within, they're merely a mysterious vagabond with a discomforting sense of humor and an eerily detached disposition... And a notable aversion to being directly observed. Their nickname seems all too apt.

But to those Players who reach a little too deep into the code...

Well, that's a whole other story, now isn't it?

[fictionadventurer]

All the tour groups in Springfield should be very proud of me for how well I refrained from sharing all my fascinating Lincoln facts.

[kissingarthurclaus]

NAWWW not a video ranking the dateability of tf2 mercs calling Engie BLAND and SAFE 😤😤😤

[coollyinterferes]

Today, I offer you...

🌟 he 🌟

[bluebudgie]

im actually still online bc my TD mode brain has been activated

a subjective list of warranted map chat comments: - i hate this map (fair. your opinion.) - i cant find anything on this shitty map (we've all been there)

a subjective list of comments you may want to keep to yourself: - "which [insert slur of your choice] dev made this" - "this map is [insert inappropriate comparison to serious illness]" - "devs dont know what map design is / this map design is shit" (objectively wrong, makes you look like a clown)

a subjective list of the funniest comments you could possibly make in mapchat: - "poopy loot map" (never forget) - "this map is depth tangled" (it sure is)

[toixxx-ace]

uh oh i wrote a long journal entry and i think i uncovered that im currently depressed. things are Not Well up here. its not even that late at night i cant blame it on the time

[galactia]

Kaeya, coming home from Sumeru wondering if this is the nail in the metaphorical coffin lid. Wondering if the final straw has been handed to him on some silver platter (his own bloodline) and if this could be the final provocation needed for Diluc to disown him entirely (if that isn't already the limbo in which they linger), or be rid of him.

He's a little more than weary of walking on eggshells; of feeling like he need only have one more flaw for it to simply be one too many.

Fuck it, he might as well air the rest of his dirty laundry to Diluc. (Dirty... he hated the word. Who he was wasn't something dirty. Was it?)

[edwardshundredyearoldspunk]

went to mexico yesterday to visit my grandpa's tomb for day of the dead. only the second time I've visited him since he died in may. not really used to having a dead™ to visit but now I'm home and I got mexican hot chocolate and I'm cuddled up with a mug and life is good. for now life is good 🥹

[nyctas-cliff]

Okay had a few memories last night (very weird experience when you’re like... trying to sleep and tired of Experiencing the Horrors) 

Doodle is related, it’s like... this thing that jumped out at me? A thought that hit me suddenly and therefore I couldn’t exactly figure out the colors and stuff. The face was obscured. So yeah? Keira? I don’t remember the context, I was a little freaked out at the time. Was it before the bad times? I dunno. 

Other things! Owen has long hair and bangs, they covered his eyes. Did he fly with those? Heck if I know. Also for some reason I saw Keira as a more motherly figure, I think. Also I think I remembered something else but I can’t recall it rn. 

In essence:

[haljathefangirlcat]

#one thing I think it’s always important to think about when looking at ancient literature#and it’s evolution#is the fact that they are working with an array of knowledge and stories will never get to learn#they are being influenced by things lost to history#there are like 7-8 centuries between Hesiod and Ovid#it makes sense other versions or variations would pop up in that time#and these authors often did take artistic liberty with their material#people writing down these myths often had something to say with them#and that going to influence how they write it#like the anti authority (or really anti Caesar) themes in the metamorphoses#most myths have a bunch of variation#why would Medusa be an exception#anyways this was really good and interesting

The truth about Medusa and her rape... Mythology breakdown time!

With the recent release of the Percy Jackson television series, Tumblr is bursting with mythological posts, and the apparition of Medusa the Gorgon has been the object of numerous talks throughout this website… Including more and more spreading of misinformation, and more debates about what is the “true” version of Medusa’s backstory.

Already let us make that clear: the idea that Medusa was actually “blessed” or “gifted” by Athena her petrifying gaze/snake-hair curse is to my knowledge not at all part of the Antique world. I still do not know exactly where this comes from, but I am aware of no Greek or Roman texts that talked about this – so it seems definitively a modern invention. After all, the figure of Medusa and her entire myth has been taken part, reinterpreted and modified by numerous modern women, feminist activist, feminist movements or artists engaged in the topic of women’s life and social conditions – most notably Medusa becoming the “symbol of raped women’ wrath and fury”. It is an interesting reading and a fascinating update of the ancient texts, and it is a worthy take on its own time and context – but today we are not talking about the posterity, reinvention and continuity of Medusa as a myth and a symbol. I want to clarify some points about the ACTUAL myth or legend of Medusa – the original tale, as told by the Greeks and then by the Romans.

Most specifically the question: Was Medusa raped?

Step 1: Yes, but no.

The backstory of Medusa you will find very often today, ranging from mythology manuals (vulgarization manuals of course) to Youtube videos, goes as such: Medusa was a priestess of Athena who got raped by Poseidon while in Athena’s temple, and as a result of this, Athena punished Medusa by turning her into the monstrous Gorgon.

Some will go even further claiming Athena’s “curse” wasn’t a punishment but a “gift” or blessing – and again, I don’t know where this comes from and nobody seems to be able to give me any reliable source for that, so… Let’s put this out of there.

Now this backstory – famous and popular enough to get into Riodan’s book series for example – is partially true. There are some elements here very wrong – and by wrong I do mean wrong.

The story of Medusa being raped and turned into a monster due to being raped does indeed exist, and it is the most famous and widespread of all the Medusa stories, the one people remembered for the longest time and wrote and illustrated the most about. Hence why Medusa became in the 20th century this very important cultural symbol tied to rape and the abuse of women and victim-blaming. HOWEVER – the origin of this story is Ovid’s Metamorphoses, from the first century CE or so. Ovid? A Roman poet writing for Roman people. “Metamorphoses”? One of the two fundamental works of Roman literature and one of the two main texts of Roman mythology, alongside Virgil’s Aeneid. This is a purely Roman story belonging to the Roman culture – and not the Greek one. The story of Medusa’s rape does not have Greek precedents to my knowledge, Ovid introduced the element of rape – which is no surprise given Ovid turned half of the romances of Greek mythology into rapes. Note that, on top of all this, Ovid wasn’t even writing for religious purposes, nor was his text an actual mythological effort – he wrote it with pure literary intentions at heart. It is just a piece of poetry and literature taking inspiration from the legends of the Greek world, not some sort of sacred text.

Second big point: The legend I summarized above? It isn’t even the story Ovid wrote, since there are a lot of elements that do not come from Ovid’s retelling of the story (book fourth of the Metamorphoses). For example Ovid never said Medusa was a priestess of Athena – all he said was that she was raped in the temple of Athena. I shouldn’t even be writing Athena since again, this is a Roman text: we are speaking of Minerva here, and of Neptune, not of Athena or Poseidon. Similarly, Minerva’s curse did not involve the petrifying gaze – rather all Ovid wrote about was that Minerva turned Medusa’s hair into snakes, to “punish” her because her hair were very beautiful, and it was what made her have many suitors (none of which she wanted to marry apparently), and it is also implied it is what made Neptune fall in love (or rather fall in lust) with her. I guess it is from this detail that the reading of “Athena’s curse was a gift” comes from – even though this story also clearly does victim-blaming of rape here.

But what is very fascinating is that… we are not definitively sure Neptune raped Medusa in Ovid’s retelling. For sure, the terms used by Ovid in his fourth book of Metamorphoses are clear: this was an action of violating, sexually assaulting, of soiling and corrupting, we are talking about rape. But Ovid refers several other times to Medusa in his other books, sometimes adding details the fourth-book stories does not have (the sixth book for examples evokes how Neptune turned into a bird to seduce Medusa, which is completely absent from the fourth book’s retelling of Medusa’ curse). And in all those other mentions, the terms to designate the relationship between Medusa and Neptune are more ambiguous, evoking seduction and romance rather than physical or sexual assault. (It does not help that Ovid has an habit of constantly confusing consensual and non-consensual sex in his poems, meaning that a rape in one book can turn into a romance in another, or reversal)

But the latter fact makes more sense when you recall that the rape element was invented and added by Ovid. Before, yes Poseidon and Medusa loved each other, but it was a pure romance, or at least a consensual one-night. Heck, if we go back to the oldest records of the love between Poseidon and Medusa, back in Hesiod’s Theogony, we have descriptions of the two of them laying together in a beautiful, flowery meadow – a stereotypical scene of pastoral romances – with no mention of any brutality or violence of any sort. As a result, it makes sense the original “romantic” story would still “leak” or cast a shadow over Ovid’s reinvented and slightly-confused tale.

Step 2: So… no rape?

Well, if we go by Greek texts, no, apparently Medusa was not raped in Greek mythology, and only became a rape victim through Ovid.

The Ancient Greek texts all record Poseidon and Medusa sleeping with each other and having children, but no mention of rape. And the whole “curse of Athena” thing is not present in the oldest records – no temple of Athena soiling, no angry Athena cursing a poor girl… “No curse?” you say “But then how did Medusa got turned into a Gorgon”? Answer: she did not. She was born like that.

As I said before, the oldest record of Medusa’s romance but also of her family comes from Hesiod’s Theogony (Hesiod being one of the two “founding authors” of Greek mythology, alongside Homer – Homer did wrote several times about Medusa, but only as a disembodied head and as a monster already dead, so we don’t have any information about her life). And what do we learn? That Medusa is part of a set of three sisters known as the Gorgons – because oh yes, Ovid did not mention Medusa’s sister now did he? How did Medusa’s sisters ALSO got snake-hair or petrifying-gaze if only Medusa was cursed for sleeping with Neptune? Ovid does not give us any answer because again, it is an “adaptational plot hole”, and the people that try to adapt Ovid’s story have to deal with the slight problem of Stheno and Euryale needing to share their sister’s curse despite seemingly not being involved in the whole Neptune business. Anyway, back to the Greek text.

So, you have those three Gorgon sisters, and Medusa is said to be mortal while her sisters are not. Why is it such a big deal? Because Medusa wasn’t originally some random human or priestess. Oh no! Who were the Gorgons’ parents? Phorcys and Keto/Ceto, aka two sea-gods. Not just two sea-gods – two sea-gods of the ancient, primordial generation of sea-gods, the one that predated Poseidon, and that were cousins to the Titans, the sea-gods born of Gaia mating with Pontos.

So the Gorgons were “divine” of nature – and this is why Medusa being a mortal was considered to be a MASSIVE problem and handicap for her, an abnormal thing for the daughter of two deities. But let’s dig a bit further… Who were Phorcys and Ceto? Long story short: in Greek mythology, they were considered to be sea-equivalents of Typhon and Gaia. They were the parents of many monsters and many sea-horrors: Keto/Ceto herself had her name attributed and equated with any very large creature (like whales) or any terrifying monster (like dragons) from the sea. The Gorgons themselves was a trio of monsters, but their sisters, that directly act as their double in the myth of Perseus? The Graiai – the monstrous trio of old women sharing one eye and one tooth. Hesiod also drops the fact that Ladon (the dragon that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperids), and Echidna (the snake-woman that mated with Typhon and became known as the “mother of monsters”) were also children of Phorcys and Ceto, while other authors will add other monster-related characters such as Scylla (of Charybdis and Scylla fame), the sirens, or Thoosa (the mother of Polyphemus the cyclop). Medusa herself is technically a “mother of monsters” since she birthed both Pegasus the flying horse and Chrysaor, a giant. So here is something very important to get: Medusa, and the Gorgons, were part of a family of monsters. Couple that with the absence of any mention of curses in these ancient texts, and everything is clear.

Originally Medusa was not a woman cursed to become a monster: she was born a monster, part of a group of monster siblings, birthed by monster-creating deities, and she belonged to the world of the “primordial abominations from the sea”, and the pre-Olympian threats, the remnants of the primordial chaos. It is no surprise that the Gorgons were said to live at the edge of the very known world, in the last patch of land before the end of the universe – in the most inhuman, primitive and liminal area possible. They were full-on monsters!

Now you might ask why Poseidon would sleep with a horrible monster, especially when you recall that the Greeks loved to depict the Gorgons as truly bizarre and grotesque. It wasn’t just snake-hair and petrifying gaze: they had boar tusks, and metallic claws, and bloated eyes, and a long tongue that constantly hanged down their bearded chin, and very large heads – some very old depictions even show her with a female centaur body! In fact, the ancient texts imply that it wasn’t so much the Gorgon’s gaze or eyes that had the power to turn people into stone – but that rather the Gorgon was just so hideous and so terrifying to look at people froze in terror – and then literally turned into stone out of fear and disgust. We are talking Lovecraftian level of eldritch horror here. So why would Poseidon, an Olympian god, sleep with one of these horrors? Well… If you know your Poseidon it wouldn’t surprise you too much because Poseidon had a thing for monsters. As a sort of “dark double” of Zeus, whereas Zeus fell in love with beautiful princesses and noble queens and birthed great gods and brave heroes, Poseidon was more about getting freaky with all sorts of unusual and bizarre goddesses, and giving birth to bandits and monsters. A good chunk of the villains of Greek mythology were born out of Poseidon’s loins: Polyphemus, Antaios, Orion, Charybdis, the Aloads… And even his most benevolent offspring has freaky stuff about it – Proteus the shapeshifter or Triton half-man half-fish… So yes, Poseidon sleeping with an abominable Gorgon is not so much out of character.

Step 3: The missing link

Now that we established what Medusa started out as, and what she ended up as… We need to evoke the evolution from point Hesiod to point Ovid, because while people summarized the Medusa debate as “Sea-born monster VS raped and punished woman”, there is a third element needed to understand this whole situation…

Yes Ovid did invent the rape. But he did not invent the idea that Medusa had been cursed by Athena.

The “gorgoneion” – the visual and artistic motif of the Gorgon’s head – was, as I said, a grotesque and monstrous face used to invoke fright into the enemies or to repel any vile influence or wicked spirit by the principle of “What’s the best way to repel bad stuff? Badder stuff”. Your Gorgon was your gargoyle, with all the hideous traits I described before – represented in front (unlike all the other side-portraits of gods and heroes), with the face being very large and flat, a big tongue out of a tusked-mouth, snake-hair, bulging crazy eyes, sometimes a beard or scales… Pure monster. But then… from the fifth century BCE to the second century BCE we see a slow evolution of the “gorgoneion” in art. Slowly the grotesque elements disappear, and the Gorgon’s face becomes… a regular, human face. Even more: it even becomes a pretty woman’s face! But with snakes instead of hair. As such, the idea that Medusa was a gorgeous woman who just had snakes and cursed-eyes DOES come from Ancient Greece – and existed well before Ovid wrote his rape story.

But what was the reason behind this change?

Well, we have to look at the Roman era again. Ovid’s tale of Medusa being cursed for her rape at the hands of Neptune had to rival with another record collected by a Greek author Apollodorus, or Pseudo-Apollodorus, in his Bibliotheca. In this collection of Greek myths, Apollodorus writes that indeed, Medusa was cursed by Athena to have her beautiful hair that seduced everybody be turned into snakes… But it wasn’t because of any rape or forbidden romance, no. It was just because Medusa was a very vain woman who liked to brag about her beauty and hair – and had the foolish idea of saying her hair looked better than Athena’s. (If you recall tales such as Arachne’s or the Judgement of Paris, you will know that despite Athena being wise and clever, one of her main flaws is her vanity).

“Wait a minute,” you are going to tell me, “The Bibliotheca was created in the second century CE! Well after Greece became part of the Roman Empire, and after Ovid’s Metamorphoses became a huge success! It isn’t a true Greek myth, it is just Ovid’s tale being projected here…” And people did agree for a time… Until it was discovered, in the scholias placed around the texts of Apollonios of Rhodes, that an author of the fifth century BCE named Pherecyde HAD recorded in his time a version of Medusa’s legend where she had been cursed into becoming an ugly monster as punishment for her vanity. We apparently do not have the original text of Pherecyde, but the many scholias referring to this lost piece are very clear about this. This means that the story that Apollodorus recorded isn’t a “novelty”, but rather the latest record of an older tradition going back to the fifth century BCE… THE SAME CENTURY THAT THE GORGONEION STARTED LOSING THEIR GROTESQUE, and that the face of Medusa started becoming more human in art.

[EDIT: I also forgot to add that this evolution of Medusa is also proved by strange literary elements, such as Pindar's mention in a poem of his (around 490 BCE) of "fair-cheeked Medusa". A description which seems strange given how Medusa used to be depicted as the epitome of ugliness... But that makes sense if the "cursed beauty" version of the myth had been going around at the time!]

And thus it is all connected and explained. Ovid did invent the rape yes – but he did not invent the idea of Athena cursing Medusa. It pre-existed as the most “recent” and dominating legend in Ancient Greece, having overshadowed by Ovid’s time the oldest Hesiodic records of Medusa being born a monster. So what Ovid did wasn’t completely create a new story out of nowhere, but twist the Greek traditions of Athena cursing Medusa and Medusa having a relationship with Poseidon, so that the two legends would form one and same story. And this explains in retrospect why Ovid focuses so much on describing Medusa’s beautiful hair, and why Ovid’s Minerva would think turning her hair into snake would be a “punishment fit for the crime”: these are leftovers of the Greek tale where Medusa was punished for her boasting and her vanity.

CONCLUSION

Here is the simplified chronology of how Medusa’s evolution went.

A) Primitive Greek myths, Hesiodic tradition: Born a monster out of a family of sea-monsters and monstrous immortals. Is a grotesque, gargoylesque, eldritch abomination. Athena has only an indirect conflict with her, due to being Perseus’ “fairy godmother”. Has a lovely romance with Poseidon.

B) Slow evolution throughout Classical Greece and further: Medusa becomes a beautiful, human-looking girl that was cursed to have snake for hair and petrifying eyes, instead of being a Lovecraftian horror people could not gaze upon. Her conflict with Athena becomes direct, as it is Athena that cursed her due to being offended by her vain boasting. Her punishment is for her vanity and arrogant comparison to the goddess.

C) Ovid comes in: Medusa’s romance with Poseidon becomes a rape, and she is now punished for having been raped inside Athena’s temple.

[As a final note, I want to insist upon the fact that the story of Medusa being raped is not less "worthy" than any other version of the myth. Due to its enormous popularity, how it shaped the figure of Medusa throughout the centuries, and how it still survives today and echoes current-day problems, to try to deny the valid place of this story in the world of myths and legends would be foolish. HOWEVER it is important to place back things in their context, to recognize that it is not the ONLY tale of Medusa, that it was NOT part of Greek mythology, but rather of Roman legends - and let us all always remember this time Poseidon slept with a Lovecraftian horror because my guy is kinky.]

EDIT:

For illustration, I will place here visuals showing how the Ancient art evolved alongside Medusa's story.

Before the 5th century BCE: Medusa is a full-on monster

From the 5th century to the 2nd century BCE: A slow evolution as Medusa goes from a full-on monster to a human turned into a monster. As a result the two depictions of the grotesque and beautiful gorgoneion coexist.

Post 2nd century BCE: Medusa is now a human with snake hair, and just that

[yandere-romanticaa]

Seen the request, so I shall deliver. Could you pls write a drabble or hcs of a yandere sunday with an isekaied reader?

Good timing because I'm actually planning a non yan isekai fic for him, I wonder if you saw that post. Here it is in case you haven't.

Sincerest apologies if this isn't the best, this fic is 100% emotionally charged by my obsession with him and frankly with a little bit of a high for passing a tricky exam. This is a treat for myself.

EDIT: Please check out this wonderful comic that @danijaci made me based off this fic!! 😭🫶

Picking up the cup from the fine oak table, you gazed towards the eerie galaxy before you, hundreds upon thousands of stars giving you a constant reminder of just how far from home you truly were. Taking a sip from the little porcelain cup you could not help but to hum in delight, the soft notes of the tea soothing your nerves ever so lightly as you pretended to ignore the heavy gaze which lingered at the back of your head.

Even from this distance, it was easy to tell that Sunday was eager to approach you. Still, he kept his distance and made a silent offering in the form of the very tea you drank at the moment.

Anything is better than Himeko's coffee but you were never going privy her to that.

In a not so distant past, all of this was nothing but fiction. The Express, the story, the characters - it was all nothing more but fiction, something to pass the time as your days went on and on, the same monotony repeating each and every day.

It was hard to not think about your friends and family, what sane person would not? Lord knows how they must be feeling right now, worried sick out of their minds with indescribable sorrow. In their eyes you had merely vanished, not a single trace to be found. For all they knew you could have been left for dead in a ditch somewhere, beaten, bloodied and broken, never to see the light again or if they were even more inclined to be morbid, you had succumbed to a fate worse than death. Death at the very least grants you finality, that all is over regardless of what happened moments prior.

But that was simply not the case for you.

Here you were, lounging about in a comfortable chair as you pondered on your old life while enjoying tiny little luxuries, far away where none of your loved ones could reach you. However, life was funny sometimes because it had some fun games in store.

Sunday was very kind upon arrival. He made sure to always be there for you, always checking up on you, always there to keep you company. You were already smitten with him but now to actually witness him in the flesh was just... Indescribable. You got along like a house on fire, so much so that the crew liked to tease that you ought to just get a room. Sunday, ever the gentleman, would just brush their words aside and assure you to not take their playful little jabs to heart.

You wouldn't say anything, resorting to merely giving him a smile but not because of what he said but rather of what he did not - never once did he actually shut down those perverse accusations. Never, not even once did he deny them.

He became an emotional crutch, someone to whom you would come running to when things got tough and he would always welcome you with open arms. Sunday would hold you tenderly, his serene voice dripping with honey along with a tender drop of ecstasy, for his excitement with holding you would just show itself sometimes. His grip would be too tight at certain moments, never quite ready to let you leave. His hugs were warm and comforting, he always smelled so good too. He smelled like kindness and sweet wildflowers, always lulling you back to him no matter the time. In dark corners and perhaps even under the watchful eyes of the crew, Sunday would wrap his scarf around your head, securing the soft fabric in order to provide you with a sense of comfort.

It was humiliating just how much you would try to inhale his scent as much as possible. You wanted it etched deep inside your memory, you wished for it to linger on your very soul and for it to follow you everywhere you went, sticking to your being like tar. The fabric of the scarf would muffle your ears a little but someone was always chatting in the background. Be it March bickering with Dan Heng, Mr Yang scolding someone for doing something they were not supposed to, or just Conductor Pom Pom trying to give a speech, all of it was irrelevant.

You were ready to kill whoever would try to pry you away from sweet Sunday. That thought came often which had left you worried - just what kind of person had you become? Regardless, you kept your mouth shut and had no plans of sharing such violent sentiments with anyone, particularly not to the one you held so dear.

When it was time to part for the evening you would bid the crew farewell and wished them a good night. You always made sure to take a few extra seconds with Sunday, just to ease your aching soul. He would tell you to sleep well and would see you in the morning, ready to take on any endeavor that crossed your paths.

As everyone parted ways, Sunday would wander off somewhere dark and distant, somewhere no one could see nor hear him. He would fall to his knees and clutch his chest in agony, fat tears streaming down his face as he did everything he possibly could to steady his raging heart. In a rush he would reach for the scarf which clung around his neck, his grip tighter than iron as he would bring it close to his nose. Taking a large, deep breath, Sunday was greeted by your familiar scent which would promptly calm his poor heart.

He sometimes wondered if his heart would start bleeding from the pain due to the sheer intensity of his emotions.

This was wrong, everything about this was not right and it hurt. Sunday was obviously ill but he had no clue on how to fight this... This emotion, this white hot feeling of need whenever you stood by his side. He started to choke on the air around him and fell into an abrupt coughing fit but even then, he could bring himself to remove the scarf from the lower part of his face.

Sunday wept and sobbed, filthy snot coming out from his nose but he could not handle that now. He needed you, Oh Heavenly Aeons, how he needed you. However was he going to tell you how he felt? How, oh how was he going to express the sheer magnitude of his true thoughts? He would scare you off, he was sure of it.

Even with this pain, even with these clipped wings and bleeding heart, Sunday had never felt so alive, so harrowingly present in the moment whenever he was with you.

Perhaps, he was doing himself a kindness by just letting you be. Drink your tea, be at peace.

He can always just make you another cup if you so desired.

Without knowing, you both haunted each other in the most agonizing way known to mankind and neither was strong enough to face the reality of the situation.

[ragingbookdragon]

It’s a ridiculously warm day in Birmingham at the base and she’s on the couch with one foot touching Ghost’s thigh as he lays on the floor of the 141’s common room in his shorts. The overhead ceiling fan is going full blast as is the fan on the kitchen counter. Condensation drips down the side of her glass as she watches the minutes tick by on the clock on the wall.

Boredom.

Pure boredom is what is pulling her down into the couch, drowning her veins in a slow sap that causes her to let out another exaggerated sigh; she hears the rumble from the cushions below.

“What?” Ghost grunts.

“I’m booooooooored,” she groans and he rolls his eyes despite them being closed.

“Well find something to do instead of bothering me.”

“It’s too hooooooooooot.”

“Then maybe shut up?” he offers and she kicks his thigh.

“Don’t be an arse.” He simply hums in return and she lets out a long breath, waits a moment, a few moments, then asks, “What are you going to do with my body when I d—?”

“You’re not dying before me,” is his immediate, cutting her off.

“If,” she starts again. “I die before you, what are you going to do with me?”

Ghost’s muscles flex beneath her foot and he responds, “Have you stuffed and add a button that repeats all your favorite catch-phrases.”

“Is one of them going to be, ‘You look like an anal-retentive Halloween decoration.’?”

“Among many others.”

“Wonderful.”

He lays flatter to the ground, getting comfortable on his stomach. “What do you want me to do with your body if you die before me?”

She thinks for a second, then says, “Cremate me. Make my ashes into ink, and tattoo something fond on your body to have me with you forever.”

“A bit morbid,” he notes. “If not unhygienic.”

“Fine, fine, stuff me like a treasured trophy then.”

He simply smiles and tips his leg up into her foot.

***

“You’re sure you’d rather have this ink than the ones I have? I can’t promise the tattoo won’t get infected with what you’ve got.”

He shakes his head, hums low in his throat and mutters, “Want this one.”

The tattoo artists shrugs and readies his things to begin tattooing across the soldier’s spine. “It’s rare that I see men get such a delicate flower like a cherry blossom branch on them,” he says. “They must be special to you.”

His eyes open and he looks at the wall, can see her plain as day with that gorgeous smile on her face; it makes a soft and sweet, but bitter smile come across his own. “My woman, she loved them.”