#i will say this I'm not following greek gods or any gods actual stories because I can't lol and all the batfam are adults in this

[junespriince]

Flowers floating in the dark void au

Dick, at his desk overwhelmed:

Wally, walking in: ah, found him Jay, thanks for the help.

Jason (Thanos): yeah, yeah, happy to help, just get him out of there.

Wally, smile: of course. *Shuts the door, walks over to Dick leaning on the desk* hey my love, it's spring time, ya know.

Dick, still doing paperwork, not listening: I'll get to it later, put it in the pile Jay.

Wally, sighs and grabs Dick's face: I don't like being ignored, my love.

Dick, blushing again (and he'll do it again!!): o-oh, sweetheart, I didn't know you were coming to visit, it's spring isn't it?

Wally, smiles again: yes, that's why I came down here. Now put this paperwork up and be with me instead.

Dick: I would, but I can't go on a date right now, I have to get these all sorted out and —

Wally, let's go of his face: I don't need you for a date, I need you to be my little bee and pollinate me, honey.

Dick, confused:

Dick, still confused:

Dick, got it: OH! I uh... *Throws paper work to the floor not caring and got up* of course, why didn't you lead with that.

Wally: thought I was being obvious.

Next meeting with the gods, minus Wally working hard that day

Dick, looking at the floor, very disheveled, bite marks and hickeys on show: I uh, I didn't get to finish my work.

Bruce, glaring at him, thinking some human has distracted him: I can see.

Jason, trying hard not to laugh:

Tim (Ares), looking away because he can't hide his grin:

Damian (Hermes), sighs in disappointment:

Steph (Artemis): oh we're so gonna have to meet this, wildflower, of yours.

Duke (Ouranos): damn,,, and I thought Hal (Dionysus) was bad.

Hal: rude!

Cass (psyche): well, at least you're not stressed anymore.

Kori (Aphrodite), smirking: I'll say.

Dick, blushing even harder: sh-shut up....

Iris (Demeter), glaring: so that's where he went.

Bruce, confused: you know which human did this to him?

Iris: he's not human.

Bruce: oh.

Bruce: OH! Iris, please, don't kill my son we don't have a replacement for his work, and I love my kid.

Dick, glares at Bruce: why my work at front? Why is it important, dad?

Iris, glaring at Bruce: yeah, Bruce, why ain't your love for your child not first?

Bruce, scared: I-I... I'm keeping my mouth shut.

Dick and Iris: good.

[msbunnat]

thank you for your answer, in any case I was already very excited by your comic and I cannot wait to read more about it!

I honestly cannot understand the people hating on your work. I feel like fandoms has been invaded by a wave of purity/moral policy that shouldn't exist anymore. it's even more wild to me knowing you're working on a greek myth, and the greek myths are KNOWN to have many versions. that's the beauty of them in my opinion, the way these authors all wrote their own versions and they passed them to us. I love the fact you picked Ganimedes, and you decided to explore both Zeus and him. And the mystery you keep about your relationship really makes me wonder which take you will follow!

and speaking of take, I really enjoy yours on Zeus. Gods are complex beings, and sure they're problematic (like duh) and bad, and everything but it's funny how people will decide which pick for who. Like everybody love Poseidon but oh boy, he can be as bad as Zeus people. So yeah, I am actually excited to read the way you're gonna write him! I don't hate Zeus, sure he does seem one of the "worse" when reading most of the myths, but my favorite thing is the way you can love one god in one story, and hate him in another. they're immortal beings. they're not just black and white. so I happen to enjoy when authors write Zeus as more than just a big bad villain. But I also enjoy when they just don't make him a "sweet lovely daddy".

Oh by the way, I didn't know the version of Metis abusing him and I'll have to look into it! We had a more "feminist" vision of her myth in my class, so it's not something that was talked about hmm.

Also, my bad for saying he died. It was a sum up because of him turning into a constellation. I cannot say we studied this myth so unfortunately I don't have sources to help you on it! It's assumed he lives on forever young but the fact he turns into a constellation is why people think he died?

Thanks! I want to post soon, but I'm so tireeed ;w; I prefer to make people wait and do a good job tho.

About the hate... People re affraid (artists have to much power kkkkk) and we live in a time that you need to share your opnion to get validation. In my case, they need to say that Zeus is bad and hate on him and me so they know they re on the rigth side and have good morals. And even after all this, I think its a good thing they just warning people, that way I can get to my real target that can enjoy characters more complex that re not good or evil, but mess up beings (that includes Ganimedes). And even if people in the end critizied my aproach, its also fine, I dont claim to be perfect and just hope that even to the mad ones, they feel inspired to create their version as well. I think they forgot that, like, they can have their version and will be as valid as mine, dosent matter the story.

(I really enjoy everything about Ganymede, if people go and do their versions, its a plus to me! More about him is best for me heheh. I came across two versions of Ganymede on tumblr and I LOVE BOTH!! I really want to do a fanart of the second one, but I'm a lil afraid if they dont want to interact with me, which is fair, but I'm just judging by the dark aproach on the myth, as a horror story).

Thanks for liking my Zeus u.u I'm really more found of him, as I think about his past, but I'm trying not to focus to much on him! He steals the scene to much!!!

About Metis, its not a version, but a interpretation. I'm looking to see if I find a sourse, but anyway, its intresting, since they met when Zeus was still young. And there re some greek myths with female abusers, so... its something.

Oooh! I see. hm... I never see the constelation as a death, so its not clicking with me, but I understand. Any way, I kinda dont like the constelation, for some reason looks wrong to me, but its a valid version and Im totally using the aesthetic kkkk

[genericpuff]

Hello, I want to say that I enjoy reading Lore Rekindled. I used to try and get into Lore Olympus back when it was starting, because I'm a huge Mythology Nerd, especially when it comes to Greek. But, even though the comic had so much potential, I really hated it. The art style was very inconsistent and messy. Like I see why it was appealing because it was striking and unique for the time on Webtoon, but it strained my eyes because it was hard to tell who was who half the time. The writing was all over the place with so many plot's that were supposedly to exist but were either settled in an anti-climatic way or just never were addressed at all. And the characters... by gosh, they act more like fake celebrities' and cardboard cutouts than their actual counterparts. It's so laughable when people say "I can relate to Persephone" like... the girl doesn't have any set traits, she's just a self-insert with no actual flaws! And the fact LO labels itself as a feminist retelling, while it pits women against each other, labels them as objects for men and vilify them for having justifiable concerns... yeah that is a laugh. And I'm not even gonna touch on the Apollo plot... you know the one. But when I heard about Lore Rekindled from Dazzling Kate on Youtube, I decided to check it out because I figured a fan version could not be any worse than what Rachel herself created. And holy Hades, I can see the un-to god effort and care this comic has! This is the complete opposite of LO: it has consistent character models with stunning backgrounds and art, the plotline makes way more sense and is easy to follow with no unnessearcy subplots, and the characters actually have separate personalities! I know Lore Rekindled is still in it's early stages, but already it has shown more promise and potential than what Rachel has created in the last six years! This is why ghost writers and fanfiction have a special place in my heart, because they care more about the stories than the authors themselves! Seriously, what you are doing is incredible! I really hope you continue with Lore Rekindled and I will be following the story because you have sparked my interest! It takes a special kind of talent to turn something that an individual like myself loathes, into a piece of work that I can find joy and entertainment in.

On that note, because I really love your story so far, I wanted to ask your permission on something. I have a YouTube channel, it's a small one but I do a bunch of things there like voice dubs, reviews, theorizes, and writing advice. So if it is alright with you, would it be okay if I could do a review of your Lore Rekindled Series and maybe potentially do a comic dub of the story as well? I'll be sure to credit you, I just want people to see this story that you worked hard on.

Ahhh I'm so glad you like it! Everything you mentioned about LO's missed or lost potential was exactly why I set out to make Rekindled, so it always brings me so much joy when people tell me it connected with them, means I gotta be doing at least something right LOL Though I've had to adjust Rekindled's update schedule to make room for other projects and priorities in my life, there's still loads left with it that I wanna tackle.

If you wanna do a review or any sort of video content with it, by all means! DazzlingKate's review took me by surprise (in a good way) because I had no idea it was happening until someone linked me to it after it was posted haha It's a little nerve-wracking sometimes to see it breach outside of Tumblr, but so far all the occasions of such have been generally fair game without any issues so I don't see why not! ~ <3

Thank you again, I hope Rekindled continues to entertain you and bring you joy ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

[godlike-enigma]

°•*⁀➷ INTRODUCING MYSELF ! ˘͈ᵕ˘͈

bani ☆ she/her ☆ entp 5w4 ☆ minor (𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 18+ 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘀 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗺𝗲) // side blog: @ilubeau

HI GUYS !! i post daydreaming-related stuff here but it's also kind of a mix of everything, i'll also post anime related stuff, i'll never really stick to just one thing but what i CAN tell you i'll be sticking to is my centrecosm mostly (my main paracosm, i'm staying loyal to the one i've been building for the past 4 years) it's also a blanket paracosm so there's loads of subcosms inside it but at the end of the day it's linear and takes place chronologically.

i have a few paracosms here and there so that's why i call myself a paracosmist but really and all they'll never compare to my main one. ಠ_ಠ

❤︎ this is a safe place for all madders (ง'̀-'́)ง, i really wanna make friends that are passionate with opening up about their little daydreaming worlds, i'll listen to you yap about it all day long.

PLEASE DO SEND QUESTIONS ABOUT MY PARACOSM(S) OR ABOUT YOURS !! i'll always reply ^-^

MY CENTRECOSM ✧

i have 60 paras (characters). yes. you heard that right. SIXTY. i have a whole pinterest board on it and i update it regularly -

https://pin.it/4Yvd42Asm

also yeah i'm a microcelebrity on pinterest idk if you've seen me around but yeah wtvr 😭😭 ALRIGHT LEMME GIVE YOU GUYS A LIL SYNOPSIS ! (i've never done one it's kinda scary)

my paracosm consists of 50 Gods, 4 archdemons, 4 archangels and God themself (God doesn't have a gender) and 5 monotheistic Gods, my paracosm has its own lore of different mythologies. greek, norse, and egyptian mythology. fiction has no limits, so i can bend it to fit my desires, i LOOOOOVE mythologies of all kinds, so i made my own lore using the names you see on the pinterest board. all of the Gods have the same power and no ones more powerful than each other except for God and Satan. the Gods are the most beautiful, ethereal, alluring individuals in heaven. Satan made it so that whenever someone who is not a God sees a God's appearance, they physically feel like they can't say anything. this is to prevent any romantic relationships. so whenever, for example, a human who is granted permission sees them, obviously, their initial reaction would be shock and the need to compliment them. right when they're about to do that, they start to feel choked up like they can't get the words out. it'll go on like that until they give up. the gods have noticed that a lot of the time when they show their selves to other people and they start reacting like that.. they start thinking its because they're ugly or something. LMFAOO, they'll be like "damn i'm THAT ugly???" and its so ironic bc they're actually trying to tell them they're more than beautiful, but they CAN'T because of Satan. he has a lot of unreasonable rules, and the Gods just put up with it because they appointed him as the leader whilst God is gone, so they kind of did to themselves... to put it in a nutshell, the Gods have never been complimented. like. ever. so 😭 its only factual that they'd feel like they're the ugliest individual alive. Satan is currently acting as the overseer of the Gods whilst God is away, so he gets to do whatever he wants to. the Gods are the main characters, the archdemons and archangels are side characters, Satan is the antagonist, and God is... mysterious. they don't pop up. ever. so the Gods just assume they don't like them. i can go on and on about this, but i feel like i'm yapping too much ... this isn't even 0000.5% of the story. sorry, guys, this is a really bad summary, but trust me, you'll find out more about it if you follow through with my posts 🙏🏽

tags i'll use (＞﹏＜) :

#𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗱 -> posts that are not daydreaming-related

#𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗶'𝘀 𝘆𝗮𝗽 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 -> original posts

#𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗱 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 -> vents about madd

#𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗯𝘆𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗶 -> art i make about my paracosm or anime and stuff

[chireikiden]

Do you think there's any reason for Hecatia being one of the strongest characters in the series? Someone from a religion that isn't believed in anymore being powerful, doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the series. If someone from a dead religion showed up in Touhou, the first question should be how they're even still alive.

I'm sure you could reverse-engineer some headcanon excuses, but my personal guess is that rather than any particular in-universe justification, once ZUN decided that he wanted to have a powerful, "independent" Hell goddess (outside the Ministry's hierarchy), it wasn't a long leap - if a leap at all - to "Okay, so let's make her more powerful than the Ministry".

I mean, I don't know what led him to go for specifically Hecate/Hecatia in the first place, so we don't really have any first principles to start from.

She didn't have to be especially powerful just to be an independent Hell goddess; could've just been someone from the middle or bottom of the pecking order. But the story of LoLK is about her and Junko clowning on the Moon, so the tone is pretty different depending on whether she's super powerful or some scrappy underdog (and DDC had just come out). I'm sure that like any other writer, a lot of the time ZUN just does things because the end result is what he wants, rather than every step following naturally from the previous one. Or hecc, maybe the only Greek goddess in the series just had some exotic prestige in his eyes that Japanese gods don't, I don't know.

If you really get into some weird... comparative mythology, you could make a decent argument for Hecate the pre-Olympian titan-killer (cherrypicking the best of all versions, as one does) to be more powerful than most of the gods we see in Touhou, but cross-mythological power level debates are probably even less fruitful than Touhou ones. The very question of characters that in human belief predate humanity and how they might come into being "retroactively", and what that actually means for their backstories or power levels, is a whole swamp I'm not gonna wade into. (This may include some Lunarians, but it's hard to say which - humans just kinda appear unannounced in Japanese mythology. In the Kojiki, they already seem to exist by the time of Izanami's death.)

Somehow the matter of fading faith and belief has never come up in relation to any characters outside Earth and Gensokyo, that I can remember. I can easily imagine that the afterlife itself and maybe the oni there still have enough belief in the present day for it to not be a problem, or that ZUN as the writer simply has other things to talk about whenever those characters appear. But whether the otherworlders are actually protected somehow or ZUN just doesn't bring it up, faith or lack thereof has never seemed relevant there on a meta level.

[taylortruther]

a little adjacent to heteronormative relationships and the public eye, what are your thoughts on how the media crafts certain narratives in balancing, say, clickability/interest with actual information being received (either by a publicist, paparazzi, or common sense)? and how those things feed into each other to tell certain stories?

obviously, there's the way taylor and travis are reported on, but i'm also thinking of someone like JLo and Ben, who's narrative abruptly shifted from "true love after 20 years" to "on the verge of divorce" and how JLo's perception as someone ( a woman, specifically) who's more fame-hungry/self-obsessed has fed into that. then you have your over-idealized young love (olivia rodrigo and her actor boyfriend! millie bobbie brown and her husband!!) (jesus christ lol) and the way the media is just so much kinder and in adoration in a way that we know isn't going to last

idk, was just thinking about how the love/hatred cycle of the woman in the relationship feeds these cycles, but wondered if you had any other thoughts about that switch from 'adored couple' to 'get the popcorn ready for DIVORCE' and how much is driven by what's actually going on and how much is driven by, well, everything else

love ur blog <3

idk! i wrote a lot! not sure if this really touches on what you wanted because tbh to me, the media drives much of it, but it's hard to say "the narratives" without really talking about "the society" that creates the narrative that the media exploits. it is a big question for one blog and i'd be interested in more thoughts because it is more fun for me when it's a dialogue and not just me opining.

i think celebrity can often cast a magnifying glass on what are otherwise normal, common human experiences. it's like when you read greek mythology, and the gods are so awful, but one of the reasons they're so awful is because they're afflicted with human flaws like pride and vanity, but with (often scary) powers. celebrities aren't all-powerful deities, but they have beauty, wealth, platform, public trust, privileges galore, at their disposal.

so there's interest in what they do because it gives us insight into other human stories. and one of the common narratives in our society (world?) is that of young love! young, sexy people being young and sexy together, who doesn't like that.

but, idk. people are judgmental. there's a lot to say about how human stories become content on the internet, but it's really more of a tale of how humans are judgy, and the internet makes it easier (and more satisfying, superficially) to do it. like, you see the same type of comments on taylor swift/travis videos as you do on jlo/ben articles as you do on the comment section of a 22-year-old influencer on instagram with 3,000 followers (or a blog on here tbh)... they can be kind, but they are often viciously cruel, about the same things: appearance, age, vapidity, superficiality, intelligence, damaging kids' psyches, whatever.

life and human experience is a narrative - we tell ourselves stories about our lives, but when we're watching someone else's, the narrative becomes clearer. jlo and ben can't just stay fun and sexy forever. the masses want a narrative: the buildup, the conflict, the climax, the comedown, the resolution. unfortunately, humans don't really get a whole story until they're dead and someone crafts a narrative about their life in retrospect. so we often get stuck in that cycle of conflict and comedown. (there's a lot to say about taylor's love for an underdog/phoenix rising from the ashes metaphor too tbh.) whether any of the conflict is real, or exaggerated, is kind of besides the point. it's not really about the celebrities as humans anymore.

and sexism/ageism is a factor too. like, society hates women. women are devalued and dehumanized as a matter of course. so, as a famous woman who literally commodifies part of herself in some way, that hatred will be loud and open.

we see that in how people talk about celebrity moms and their relationships/breakups. sophie/joe or angelina/brad are great examples of how the woman can't be trusted: she's too young, too wild, too irresponsible, lalala. meanwhile, no one truly thinks the man is essential in the parenting role (talk about a reflection of society!) so his lack of parenting, or his shitty parenting, doesn't quite damage his reputation the way lesser "crimes" affect a woman.

i also have some thoughts on how the internet has been ~gentrified~ (i use this term SO loosely/unseriously but it gets the point across) and how that changes what we talk about and how. but that's a separate topic.

eta: i will probably read this journal article when i have a good minute, because i think it articulates similar thoughts. it's about how celebrities fall from grace (like cosby), but i love the term "social myth":

Even if such determination can be questioned – stars and celebrities continue to provide cohering social myths to bind with – the issues of degradation, desecration and decelebrification are an integral part of the complex phenomenon of celebrity. Unsurprisingly the switch between steps related to consecration and degradation in celebrity life is a constant: the rise and fall narrative, a central component of star and fan identification streams, and media marketing. 

[khaire-traveler]

I just stumbled upon your blog a few days ago and absolutely love it! I hope your days get better, I'll be sending good energy your way :3

Question: How did you first get into paganism? (If its a personal story, no worries!) I got started by getting really into mythology and then it just blossomed into way more than that

Thank you for the well wishes! I'm feeling better today. 🧡

My answer is way longer than I intended it to be, so I'm adding a "read more". Apologies in advance, but thank you to anyone who decides to read it. XD

I'm more than ok answering that question! Honestly, I wasn't really interested in paganism at all for a while. I was open to it, but it wasn't on my radar. I had just left Christianity about five or six months prior, given Wicca a chance to discover I didn't vibe with it, and decided I would remain agnostic while practicing witchcraft instead. I honestly wasn't even sure if any deities existed at all at that point and didn't really have faith in anything (which I've since discovered is a necessity for me). I was also in a pretty bad place mentally and emotionally at that time.

Without warning, I started receiving strange dreams that featured Greek gods. I had literally never known anything about Greek mythology beforehand aside from Persephone's kidnapping and whatever was going on in Disney's Hercules, so having dreams about Greek gods was very strange for me. I decided to look into it further since the dream contained a lot of symbolism I honestly couldn't decipher. I spoke to the one and only pagan I knew at the time - a follower of some other Greek gods.

Now, this person sucked a lot and decided that it'd be a great idea to tell me that my dream either meant that Hermes was reaching out to me, there was some spirit haunting me, or I was going to DIE soon!?!?!?! Like, seriously, who says that to someone with literally no experience in anything pagan related???? Anywho, the first option was the actual truth.

For the next three weeks after that dream, I was in HEAVY denial that a god would ever be interested in having anything to do with me. Instead, I focused on the more pessimistic outcomes the asshole person suggested.

However, Lord Hermes was absolutely not just going to throw up his hands and walk off into the sunset. No, quite the contrary! He spammed the shit out of me with sign after sign after sign, and I continued to dismiss them, although I was getting increasingly more hopeful because I had read up on him and thought he was really cool. I remember saying aloud to myself while reading his cattle myth, "Now THIS is a god I would want to worship!"

Despite all the signs I was being sent, I kept eventually dismissing it as coincidence or a weird one-off event. Until one day, I went into my kitchen to start my day, and in the backyard, the entire ground was covered by a massive flock of black birds. They were even sitting on the fence because there was no room on the ground! They were literally everywhere; I had never seen that in all my years of living in that house, and I had never seen it again. As soon as I saw them, they immediately flew away, and Hermes' name randomly popped into my head.

I obviously couldn't ignore that.

Within the next few days, I tried my best to research everything about paganism and deity worship that I could. I tried reaching out to my shitty pagan friend, and she did give me some helpful pointers but mostly left me on my own. Weirdly, I couldn't find a lot of information on worshipping Hermes at that time. I barely had any social media (I didn't have a Tumblr yet and had never used it prior), so I wasn't sure who to ask for good research options. I tried the Hellenic Polytheism Reddit and was told to "just search it up". The reason I try to answer asks sent to me is partially because of the extremely unwelcoming people I came across in that community. I'm not sure if they've changed since then, as it's been several years, but I sure fucking hope they did, god damn.

Anyway, I often felt a presence "looking over my shoulder" whenever I'd research the topic. It honestly freaked me out a bit because I hadn't ever experienced that kind of thing so strongly before outside of some one-off experiences. I finally decided to put together a small display of offerings. I used a tealight candle and gave him quite a few trinkets I had gained over my travels. As I lit the candle, I started writing a letter to Hermes because I wasn't comfortable praying yet. The entire time, it felt as if someone was looking over my shoulder and watching me write. It was freaky at first but grew comforting over time.

I had asked Lord Hermes for help adopting a specific cat that I wanted to train to be a service animal. The cat was already used to walking on a leash and was a few years old (I didn't want a kitten at the time). I told him that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to adopt him because the adoption center seemed weirdly hell-bent on not allowing me to adopt him, despite the fact that he had been stuck there for a year already. I was financially stable enough to take care of him and could even prove it, but they were extremely unfriendly with me for whatever reason. I asked him if he could please ensure the adoption, as I had sent a message to the center earlier in the day and was hoping for a reply.

Well, I woke up the next day, and the cat had apparently been adopted by someone else, despite there being no mention of anyone else with an interest in him to me. I was crushed by this, but my mom came running into the room to tell me to get dressed and that we were getting a cat. I was super confused, obviously, but she told me that someone she had reached out to last night about literally the only other Siamese cat she could find in the state (needed that breed specifically due to cat allergies in the household) and had confirmed we could pick up the cat. The cat was professionally bred and would come with all his toys, a cat tree, all his food, and his litterbox. Instead of being $2,000 as the owner had originally bought him for, he was $500. Thankfully, we were in a place that we could make that payment.

The only downside for me was how young the cat was. He was six months old. I decided to push that aside and meet him in person. He immediately loved me. He purred loudly and rubbed against me specifically. He barely even interacted with any of the other four people in the room; it was like he already wanted to be my best friend. I can't describe how wonderful that felt for me.

Suffice to say, we brought him home lol. On the way home, we passed a sign I had never seen in the city before. "Hermés", the brand, but I took as a very literal sign that my letter had been received.

Since then, I've been worshipping Lord Hermes! He means a great deal to me and has helped me through some extremely difficult times these past four years. He introduced me to many more deities, and over time, I found myself becoming a Hellenic Polytheist rather than a Hellenic Pagan. I'm happier with my religion than I've ever been, and I'm certain that I made the right choice that afternoon that I lit a tealight candle and wrote a letter.

Thank you for asking and reading this long ass answer lol. Sorry for any typos; I decided not to proof read it. I'm glad you found happiness in the pagan path as well! Take care, and have a wonderful day/night. 🧡

[punkeropercyjackson]

CW for incest mention incase you're uncomfy with it btw:

Hey I saw one of your reblogs from another blog on a post abt incest and the generalization/desensitisation of it online, looked through your blog on similar topics and I just wanted to say thank you thank you thank you because your posts+reblogs on the topic put into words what I've been feeling for a long time now.

I genuinely hate fandom spaces so much. One of my primary fandoms (not pjo) for an anime I like alot is just an actual nightmare to interact with every time because it's full of proshippers and I feel so helpless bc i want to post my art and media of it on my art account, I want to interact with others who like the show, I want to talk to ppl who like my fav character and hyperfixation!! But you can barely trust anyone in the fandom because it's so normal to ship or tolerate incest that people will genuinely get angry if you even express disdain towards a common incestuous pairing in the fandom, much less state that you don't want to be anywhere near proshippers. Even if I find someone who doesn't support that pairing, they still actively interact with and are mutuals with those who DO. I have like no actual friends and interaction in this fandom because i actively despise incest and proshippers and refuse to interact w people who do

This is actually the last straw for me bc one of my fav mutuals on there and like one of the few ppl I got close to when i started using Tumblr for that fandom, I went thru their blog today and turns out they're a fucking proshipper this whole time and I never knew, they reblogged posts that defend proshippers. I'm so done man, I want to expand my art blog and talk to people but it makes me sick that my art for this fandom could be consumed by people who look at actual incest and think fiction doesn't affect reality when they already dumbed down an incredibly abusive dynamic to uwu twincest. It feels so gross, like I end up feeling like I'm somehow supporting this by staying in the fandom and making art.

I genuinely wonder how you stay in Tumblr fandom spaces without going insane when majority of them on Tumblr (esp what I've experienced from the Pjo fandom too) are full of toxic disgusting people who don't know if they said anything they said online to a normal person irl they'd get decked so fast. /gen

So so sorry if this ask comes off as vent-like, i just ended up rambling since this whole situation is so exhausting. You don't have to respond to this at all if you don't want to, but it would be nice to hear your thoughts too. Ty again :)

Hey Venna!!!!Like i said in my ask to you while on post limit,don't dw,my inbox is always open for fandom vents and i'm so glad i could provide a safe space for you where you wouldn't feel bad for having a backbone and taste!!!

And since you said you wanted to hear my thoughts,i completely agree with you and objectively you're right!!Being grossed out by incest is the behavior of a good person and the normalization of incest and the following pedophillia is a bi-product of terminally online gayness-Incest as a positively potrayed story element is a white supremacy thing as a reflection of it's irl status as also a white supremacy thing,both between white families and forced onto families of color by colonizers!When incest isn't a racist thing,it's either 1.Eugenics specifically('keeping it in the family' is a version of it),2.Ageism via 'punishing kids' or 3.A misogyny thing,see ancient greece since you mentioned Pjo!Pedestary only exists because ancient greek men were so misogynistic they'd rather be pedophiles than be with women,not out of any actual gay attraction,and Percy x gods shippers can look it up if you don't believe me.Note that 'purity culture' as they love to harp on actually means 'normalizing sa as a positive thing for palpability to men and forcing young girls to surpress their sexualities to make it easier for them' and by extension 'puritan' refers to 'highup self-righteous bigot who loves the fabled dark/questionable dynamics/content' so take that as you will,from an afropunk autistic trans person with bptsd

And the way i stay in fandoms is to be with my mutuals who also know this and have the same stances as me on this i.e insta-blocking with zero tolerance for proshitting.If you're interested and want a reason to stay,i can rec you their blogs and they can support your content to encourage your creativity as you deserve as all good people who're artists do and we're all tired of the Pjo proshitter gangs too as we roast them often and we do a lot of positive posting both in our Pjo writings/appreciation and other interests so who knows,you may even become friends with them too!!

[litcest]

Hello! Do you have any bipoc incest books? I only know of "the god of small things" and i would honestly prefer the characters to be black or brown because i can barely think of any book that has incest between them

I actually can't recall any incest books with black main characters, neither from the ones I read nor from the ones I saw in passing. A quick google search brought back results of novels featuring non-consensual incest among black characters, which is not what we want.

For indigenous and brown characters:

Aztec by Gary Jennings, which I haven't read but I know that the main character had a past sexual relationship with his sister (both siblings are Mexica/Nahua);

The Blue Bedspread by Raj Kamal Jha, which I have read and although the incest is very important to the story, I wouldn't say it's an incestous romance novel. Like in The Good of Small Things, the characters are Indians (not sure which ethnic or racial group, but I'm almost certain they are not Anglo-Indians);

Lavoura Arcaica by Raduab Nassar follows a family of Lebanese-Brazilians (not sure if skin color is mentioned, but I assume that they are still considered BIPOC by having Lebanese ancestry;

Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray is about Cleaopatra's daughter. Not sure if the book portraits her a Greek or as Egyptian, light skinned or dark skinned, but I'll mention it anyways.

This is what I have for you at the moment. I'll try to find more books that fit the request. Probably some books I haven't read but have compiled in my catalogue have black characters and I just don't know it.

I hope my indigenous and brown rec list doesn't offend anybody. I googled and apparently the Lebaneses don't like to be considered brown, but Lebanese-Americans mostly said they consider themselves to be BIPOC. I actually know a family of Lebanese-Brazilians, and I wouldn't call them "brown", since their skin is the same shade as mine, but TBH, in the US I probably wouldn't be considered "white", even though in Brazil I am.

[fluffykitteninabox]

Hey... I'm curious about something. How do you and your family treat Greek mythology and superstitions? 👀

Do you believe in them to a degree? If there were Gods and Goddesses, why wasn't it a full religion?

I hope this isn't rude. I'm more than happy to talk about mine.

Don't worry, it's not rude

Sorry, this took so long, it's a surprisingly hard question to answer because I needed to think about how I view Greek mythology vs how the rest of the world sees it and this accidentally turned into a rant 😅

also some of my opinions might be considered controversial but... I don't care! lol I guess the 5 Greek followers I have can unfollow me if they don't like this or whatever 😂

Anyway have some sparkles because this is kind of long oops ✨✨✨

WARNING: me trashing on Americans

The Greek pantheon was like any other religion in ancient times, but it's not really treated like one anymore. The main religion of Greece now is Orthodox Christianity, and the largest religious minorities are Islam and Catholicism. My parents and I are atheists. I'm certain there's still people that practise it, but they would probably be seen as foolish by the general public.

We are taught part of our mythology in school at the age of 8 (unless they changed it idk 😂). It isn't taught like a religion, but more like fairytales.

The way it's taught is very lacking in my opinion. Instead of explaining for example how sexism influenced the creation of these myths and what a giant asshole Zeus was, we are just told Hera was "the jealous type" and that's why she's the antagonist in most of the stories she appears in.

Achilles and Patroclus were definitely gay, but no one ever talks about it. According to our school books, they were just really close friends! In fact, this specific topic is avoided so much that I first heard about it from foreigners on the internet! A lot of people deny this, even saying that "friendship was just different back then, it was deeper"!! I'm sorry sir, I don't think I'd ever ask to be buried with the ashes of my just a friend™ no matter how close we were! Technically speaking there's nothing explicit in the original text, but Aeschylus, Phaedrus, Plato and Alexander the Great all read it as a romantic relationship and the first 3 even had their own headcanons about it, so that's enough for me!

I'm guessing a lot of these depend on what type of teacher each person has, and it's been a long time since I was 8, so teachers might be more open about it now, but if you just read the 3rd year history (mythology) school book this is the content you'll get. I don't think withholding this information is done because it's being taught to kids, it's not a "they're 8, so they wouldn't understand sexism". That would be a silly argument considering our mythology is filled with incest, rape and gore, which our school books very openly mention throughout. They are just trying to avoid it.

From 9 and up, we are taught more actual history than mythology. We focus on real historical figures and events, so most of the less know myths get forgotten. At 13-15 we're taught the Odyssey and the Iliad (by Homer), and Helen (by Euripides). Yes, that is in fact the order that they teach us these 🙃!! Supposedly it goes from easier text to harder text for each year, but I personally think that's stupid because the story is completely backwards now, and we get it translated to modern Greek anyway, so what's the point of telling it backwards???? It's not convenient, it's confusing! Anyway, these are taught in a similar way to literature. We analyse the text and characters and all that.

Ages 16-18, I honestly have deleted most of these from my brain tbh 😂. OK, not exactly, the first and third year are more historical texts and philosophy. The second year we do another play, Antigone (by Sophocles). Actually wait, the first one was about a war and there was a ton of political intrigue in there, and it was super interesting. The third one was more about philosophy.

The plays aren't exactly the same as mythology, it's more like fanfiction about historical figures and gods! I mentioned them because..... I just like them lol

I kind of deviated a lot from what you actually asked me and answered more generally. For me and my parents specifically, religion isn't really something we participate in. My grandma is very religious though. She used to go to church every Sunday before covid. Now she watches it from the TV (there's a specific Christian chanel that broadcasts church service from different parts of the country). I personally hate how brainwashed some people are by Christianity (including my grandma). Thankfully, we haven't reached American levels of religious fanaticism.

Mythology isn't really something that's on our minds often. My grandma didn't go to school, so I doubt she knows much about it. My parents probably learnt some of it. Outside of the school environment, ancient Greek mythology isn't really a topic most people think about (maybe I think about it more than the average Greek person, because I'm an art student and a bit of a history nerd). But even then, I've seen more about Greek mythology from people who treat it like a fandom on the internet and make AUs with their characters and stuff like that. Now, I know I made jokes earlier about fanfiction and headcanons, so this is probably going to sound very hypocritical of me...

However, Homer's poems and other ancient Greek plays are not the same as myths. They're not treated the same. They are theatrical performances based on historical events/figures. I don't care much about people's modern interpretations of these, because they are fictional stories. Now, myths are also fictional, I even compared them to fairytales at the start. But they were still based on ancient people's religious beliefs. People practised it as a religion, they had rituals and traditions, some of which are still done today (though they have changed and evolved over time). The myths were more like the framework for what the Gods represented in their lives. Kind of like how most Christians don't believe the events in the Bible literally happened.

I'm fine with people taking inspiration from a myth and doing a modern retelling as long as they're respectful. I've seen some modern, more feminist retellings of Medusa that I personally really liked. I've even thought of making my own version of Arachne (=spider) but without the religious propaganda and classist undertones.

What I'm not ok with, is people wearing bedsheets to "dress up as Greek"! I'm sure you can probably relate to this because Americans do this with a ton of cultures. If you want to "dress up as Greek", do this:

I'll respect you more!!

(this is obviously a joke, don't do this either, you'll get laughed at. This dude is part of a parody show)

And secondly, I'm not ok with people taking mythology and twisting it into something completely unrecognisable that doesn't even seem like it's from the culture it was based on. Basically, Americans shouldn't be allowed to make movies about other people's cultures!!! Ok, I'm exaggerating, but if you're going to do something based on mythology/religion of some other culture, you need to do proper research and be as respectful as possible.

Good example: Dreamworks-Prince of Egypt, 1998

Even as an atheist who was only taught religion in school, I can tell this is a very respectful adaptation. The team that made this met with religious experts to make sure they got it right.

Bad example: Disney-Hercules, 1997

This is the most American a Greek myth has ever been! It's more like Superman than Heracles. Don't do whatever the fuck Disney did here guys. I'm actually planning on tearing this film apart in a future review, so I'm not going to say anything else right now.

I'm not saying don't make changes. Greek mythology is very "fluid" in a way. Every myth has multiple versions, with minor or major differences between them. Changes are fine, even making a parody is fine. But I think the end result shouldn't just resemble its inspiration on a superficial level. It's not enough to have your characters wear a tunic and sandals and have them say Zeus instead of God every couple of sentences. The important part is why a particular myth exists. What is the original message? What does the story/character represent? That needs to be kept the same, otherwise the adaptation won't be an adaptation anymore. It will be a different story disguised as an adaptation. At that point, you should just make an original story.

Alright last thing and then I'm done talking I swear 😂!

You also asked about superstitions.

Here's a small list:

if you spill coffee it's good luck

if your right palm is itchy, you'll get money, but if your left palm is itchy, you'll give money. The first one is usually interpreted as like: "you'll find coins on the street or win one of those scratch lottery tickets". The second one is like: "a sign that the electricity bill is coming, or you need to pay rent". (my dad believes this one)

if you're born on Saturday, it means you're lucky (I was born on a Tuesday 😔)

evil eye: a curse when someone "glares" at you/has bad intentions. If you have blue eyes you're immune to this, otherwise you can wear an evil eye charm. (this comes from the Middle East, I think. You might know about this, because there's a ton of different countries that believe it. I personally just like the charms)

when you visit a house for the first time, you need to enter with your right foot first for good luck. If you enter with your left, it's like wishing bad luck for the people who live there. This is also done for the first person to visit the house on New Year's Day.

if you enter a place from one door you can't leave from another door, you have to use the same one. (supposedly it ruins your matchmaking if you do that)

if you're talking with someone, and you say something simultaneously, you say "touch red" and then you need to touch something red before you continue speaking. (I remember doing this a lot as a kid)

if you talk about something bad happening hypothetically, you knock on wood or say the phrase "knock on wood", so it doesn't happen

if you get served the last drop of wine, you get bitches 😎!!

There are a lot of traditions that are really old that a lot of people still follow, even if they're not religious or the tradition comes from a different religion. I'll tell you one of my favourites that's relevant right now. Every first of March people in a lot of Balkan countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia and others) wear a bracelet made from intertwined red and white threads. This is worn for the whole month of March, and it is supposed to protect you from getting burnt by the sun. At the end of the month, we take them off and leave them for swallow birds to use in their nests. Swallows are believed to bring spring.

hand reveal lol:

If you read this far, you are a legend.

It's your turn now. How do you and/or your family view Philippine mythology? What about the people in general? And also, do you have any traditions for spring?

[encrucijada]

once, future gods please 👀👀👀

once, future gods is what i call my "modern greek mythology universe". it is vague at best because the rules that apply to something like astral convergence aren't the same for, say, antigone's modern lament. it's more about the ✨️vibe✨️ and that they all Could exist in the same universe.

here are the wips that fall under this category

astral convergence: my darling. my love. in this modern au artemis and apollo left olympus and became assassins for hire after killing the children of niobe. now a group of mortals and goddesses (but Especially their stepmother hera) wants them to kill zeus, their father and king of the gods. narrated by artemis in first person referral with apollo as "you", the job is muddied by their own complex relationship with each other and towards zeus. this wip has some of my Favourite prose, i really just need to... actually figure out the sequence of events to get from point a to point b. artemis is living through a never-ending existential crisis while she grapples with her divinity, as she is relatively a very new goddess

she's history, & hyacinthus,: in like 2015 i was part of a greek gods rpg where i played the muse of history clio so naturally i became obsessed with her. in this rpg a relationship sprung between her and the bodyguard of zeus, kratos. this has 0 mythological backing but it holds a special place in my heart so now i must write for them because if i don't no one else will. she's history, follows clio's spiral after finding out she's pregnant (in the mythology she's hyacinthus' mother) so she asks kratos to get her out of olympus, all kratos can offer her is one night as he has to be back by zeus' side come morning. hyacinthus, is kind of a continuation, kind of an au where clio moves in with kratos and his sister bia and lives with them in a little rundown apartment.

oh, glory!: my iliad au where the trojans and the achaeans are rival gangs. that's it. that's the plot. i started writing this because when i took greek lit 1 in uni my class came up with this elaborate au where briseis died instead of patroclus and how or if that would change the course of events. now i'm sticking closer to the actual text but ✌️ yeah

the moon like a thin smile: sort of like an au to astral convergence?? because while being aroace is a huge part of artemis' character in astral convergence, moon like a thin smile is me indulging in some orion/artemis because deep down i will always be that 15yo girl* who got way too attached to this pairing despite it barely having any mythological backing. i did a combination of things to make it interesting: the world is recovering from the titanomachy still, which has left everything in a post-apocalyptic state, and the first ever winter (hymn of demeter!) is underway. this will have a sad ending

antigone's modern lament: a post-apocalyptic retelling of antigone by sophocles, my favourite play <3 started out as a hadestown au that sprung in my head while we watched a movie adaption in my greek lit ii course, this was 2019 and i was obsessed with hadestown at the time. so i imagined a version where antigone is "saved" from hanging herself in the cave by persephone answering her lament and inviting her to hadestown (which kills her anyways but... y'know). this short story is none of that! i am doing away with the hadestown angle and just telling it straight with the modern twist

moonburn: a retelling of the death of orion by the hands of artemis due to apollo's trickery, my Favourite version of his death just for the drama. this could potentially count as a prequel to astral convergence, as orion's death is a a huge source of conflict between artemis and apollo in that

[tadpoles-and-daydreams]

not to sound rude but if youre not a hellenic polytheist you shouldnt be giving other ppl guidance on how to worship the greek gods....... what youre doing is taking deities out of their original cultural and ethnic context and westernize them

Heyo! I'm gonna assume that you're willing to hear out my response rather than just sending this ask in hoping that I'll suddenly change my entire practice. I'm not quite sure which part of my blog you have a gripe with, so I'll just interpret it both ways;

For one, I.... don't give advice to people who aren't asking for it. I only really post for my followers, and the only time I actively "give advice" is when I either address the reader of a post (AKA my followers, not intended for people who don't like my blog) or B. when someone sends me an ask actively looking to me specifically for my advice because my way of doing deity work resonated with them. I will forever encourage my followers to just fully ignore any of my advice that doesn't resonate with them! Their relationship with their gods is their own, and not mine.

That being said, I think this ask is probably less about advice giving and more about me practicing the wrong way- you're right, I'm not a Hellenic polytheist. Actually, I'm a witch, and I can point you to the entirety of witchblr and witches on just about every other social media to say that I'm not the only one who works with deities this way. Hellenic polytheism and witchcraft are two very different things, they just sometimes include the same deities. A lot of witches work with them, as it's an open pantheon, and they're not Hellenic polytheists either.

I don't give advice on how to worship the gods. In fact, I don't think anyone who considers themselves as worshipping the Greek gods would even find my blog useful because I don't worship the gods I work with. I've spoken quite a bit on here about how I work with them rather than worship, and how important it is to my craft that I view my deities as allies and friends rather than authority figures. I take their advice not because they have any control over my life and choices, but because I trust them.

I'll be honest with you; I find the way Hellenic Polytheists practice to be something that would be harmful to me. I think it's beautiful, and believe me I've actually looked into how they practice- it works for them and I love it! But that way of practicing would destroy my relationship with my deities for reasons I won't bother rambling about on this post. (Long story short: Miasma, amongst other things)

All that to say: the Greek deities are an open pantheon and tons of witches work with them. I respect Hellenic polytheism but it isn't for me. Respectfully, practice your way and allow me to practice mine.

[genericpuff]

Unfortunately I bet Rachel is not going to give any Greek authors and creators the opportunity to tell about myths from...Greek mythology xd.

Considering hiw she treated the culture and myths in Lore Olympus as an downgrade American version is fair to say how she will treat as well other mythologies.

Also Rick is shady as well by saying how "Greek gods went to America because they go to advanced civilizations" as if saying Greece (their place of origina) is not :/

TBF, actual Greek authors and creators likely wouldn't go to her for help anyways.

It's gonna be interesting to see how the whole "Rachel Smythe Presents" thing works out, though as I mentioned already, I'm not really interested in continuing to analyze her stuff after LO. I'm trying to transition myself from hatred to apathy - I'd much rather just not give her more of my time and attention and thus allow her to fade into obscurity in my mind.

I have nothing really to say about Rick, he's also not someone who's from the culture attempting to write a "modernized version" of Greek myth, but that in and of itself was never really the root of the issue. I'll give him credit that he knows he's writing fiction for children and you won't see him advertising himself as a "folklorist" (and then using first page Google searches as his references LMAO). That probably seems like bare minimum at this point but he seems to have far more humility than Rachel.

I put PJO in the same camp as Hercules. They aren't Greek but you can tell they put in deeper levels of research and are writing Greek myth inspired stories with passion, effort, and respect for the source material. They might not be 100% accurate, but that's the fun of it all and they know they're just having fun with it (and they're still doing so relatively responsibly). And most of all, they make it clear they're making it for kids, not for legitimate educational purposes. Rachel tried to make that clear in episode one by saying not to use LO as a scholarly source, but then she never followed through on that by bragging about how she's an educated folklorist and averting her eyes when her fanbase harassed Apollo worshippers and edited Wiki articles about Greek myth to match LO. There's zero accountability happening and it seems more like Rachel used Greek myth as a way to make herself famous rather than as a way to tell stories and connect with an audience. I've said it tons of times before but she writes Greek myth like she despises it for existing.

[gorgonarcher]

10th Game - Scion 2e

A bit strange that it took me this long to get around to doing Scion 2e. But anyway, let's move on.

Scion is a game set in a modern day where all the mythologies of the world are true, even those that contradict each other. Correction: especially those that contradict each other.

Oddly, there is not a specific template for gorgons yet. Here are the options we could do:

A scion of a godly or titanic patron.

A denizen, a supernatural being but one without a patron.

A dragon of the naga wing, because they have multiple heads.

The system sort of differentiates gods and titans, but also says they can use each others powers, and lore implies that the distinction is largely more political than actual.

I'm going to go with the Godly/Titanic scion.

Step 1 - Concept

For concept we come to the basic idea of who the character is "gorgon archer" is a good seed, but we need to flesh it out a little bit here.

In this case, I'm going to go with the Theoi (Greek Gods). I've done prior versions of gorgons that were associated with either the Orisha and also as an independent tutelary scion devoted to protecting the impoverished.

In this case, where the supernatural is public, I'm going to say that she's been known as a gorgon her entire life and received some disdain for it, and as she's grown up she's been taken in by a goddess associated with the Liminal.

We're also supposed to choose some Deeds here. Deeds are goals that we have for the character over the course of play. They are a mix of the character's goals and our narrative goals for things we want them to face. So it could be "track down my father's killer" or "lose a fight."

By RAW we would create three of these Deeds. So each player would have one each of the following:

One Short Term Deed - something that can be completed within a single session.

One Long Term Deed - something that would take a story-arc to complete.

One Band Deed - something that may take several one or more story arcs to complete and is shared across every character in the same Band.

You get experience for completing these.

In any session you complete one or more Short Term Deeds, you gain 1 XP.

In any session where every player completes at least one Short Term Deed, everybody gains a bonus 1 XP.

In any session where you complete a Long Term Deed you get either 2 XP or 3 XP. This is based on how powerful you already are. Legend 0 "Origin" characters gain 2 XP. Legend 1 and higher characters gain 3 XP.

Once you gain experience for a Long Term Deed, you cannot gain experience for another until everybody in the party has completed one each of Short Term, Long Term, and Band Deeds.

------

My group tends to further homebrew this as follows:

You can have up to 3 Short-Term Deeds active at once and may switch some out at session start if they no longer feel relevant.

You can refill a list of 3 Short-Term Deeds once everybody has completed one-each of all three scales of Deed, just like for Long-Term bonuses.

The multiple Short-Term deeds is meant to provide a variety of RP options rather than laser focus on one. The limit of refilling them is to make sure no one advances far past the other players.

We're going not to use this homebrew, but I just wanted to note it.

------

So, for this character's three Deeds:

Short Term: Make an impressive shot.

Long Term: Prove yourself a champion to outcasts.

Step 2 - Paths

Now we move on to Paths which is where we establish some of the narrative backstory of the character. While there is no hard and fast rule as to what these Paths represent, the default suggestion is as follows:

Origin Path - Your upbringing and where you come from.

Role Path - What sort of skills and occupation you have.

Society/Pantheon Path - The overall society you're associated with.

Each of these paths will contain of the following:

A title that summarizes this facet of your character.

A set of three skills.

Group, contact, and access connections, people you know and places you can go.

A condition that occurs will you stress your connection to this Path too far.

I'm going to start with the Origin Path and define it as follows based on the example Suburbia origin path from the book:

Suburban Gorgon Outcast

Skills: Culture, Empathy, Technology

Contacts: Gamer clubs, the weird kids, FLGS, Doc Albricht her general practitioner that treated her and helped her deal with bullies.

Going with the default conditions of "suspended" and "revoked' for if she stresses her contacts too hard.

For Role, I'm going to go with the following as a custom made Path:

LARPing Cozy-Witch

Skills: Athletics, Occult, Culture

Contacts: Local LARPIng society, coven of witches, Martha Marrero archery and HEMA instructor.

Same default conditions of "suspended" and "revoked".

For Society, I'm going with the Theoi base, of course, which gives Athletics, Persuasion, and one my choice. And I'm going to imply her patron in the title.

Found on the Crossroads

Skills: Athletics, Persuasion, Occult

Contacts: Temple of Hecate, Isaac Finch, servant of Hecate

Same default conditions of "suspended" and "revoked".

As a note, the game allows you to have any number of Paths you want, but only three of them affect skills and it gets increasingly difficult to make each path significant to your character. So it advises not going past six paths, just for the simplicity of making sure they all stay relevant to the narrative. The leeway is probably because some of the birthrights you can take on basically function as extra Paths.

We need to prioritize these so I'm going to do so as follows:

Primary: LARPing Cozy-Witch

Secondary: Suburban Gorgon Outcast

Tertiary: Found on the Crossroads

This is going to be important in the next step.

Step 3 - Skills

We're going to set our starting skill levels. We'll get more points to add to these later and add some character, but this is what we're starting with.

This is pretty easy.

The skills associated with the Primary path get 3 dots. Those associated with the Secondary path get 2 dots. Those associated with the Tertiary path get 1 dot. These get added up to a maximum of 5. If any skill goes above 5 (which I don't think will happen here) then the excess can be applied wherever we want. Any skill with a level of 3 or higher gets a specialty associated with it.

As such this is what we get:

Culture 5 (Primary and Secondary paths)

Occult 4 (Primary and Tertiary paths)

Technology 2 (Secondary path)

Athletics 4 (Primary and Tertiary paths)

Empathy 2 (Secondary path)

Persuasion 1 (Tertiary path)

Athletics is the combat skill associated with archery. For Specialties we're going with the following:

Culture (Activism)

Occult (Witchcraft)

Athletics (Archery)

As a note, by RAW these would be the only free specialty the character gets, but my group plays such that the first time you hit 3 in a skill at any time, you get one free specialty. That might apply here when we get to the free points later on in the character creation section. For now we're finished with Skills.

Step 4 - Attributes

Scion uses the 3x3 grid of attributes traditionally found in Storyteller games. Which makes sense given that Storypath was developed out of Storyteller. This is another case of prioritizing stats.

We have:

Three Arenas: Physical, Mental Social

Three Approaches: Force, Finesse, Resilience

We assign these by choosing:

The priority of our Arenas.

Naming a favored Approach.

This gives us the following:

1 free dot in each Attribute.

2 free dots in each Attribute in the Favored Approach.

6 dots to distribute to the attributes in the Primary Arena

4 dots to distribute to the attributes in the Secondary Arena

2 dots to distribute to the attributes in the Tertiary Arena

I'm going to break my standard here and actually put her archery a bit on the lower end and make Physical her tertiary approach, Social her primary approach, and Mental her secondary approach. For Favored Approach, I think I'm going to go with Resilience since we I've established her as having weathered a lot of bullying.

And that will result in the following:

Physical Force: Might 1

Physical Finesse: Dexterity 3

Physical Resilience: Stamina 3

Mental Force: Intellect 3

Mental Finesse: Cunning 2

Mental Resilience: Resolve 4

Social Force: Presence 4

Social Finesse: Manipulation 3

Social Resilience: Composure 4

I usually distinguish favored dots with a different color and use a tiered list rather than labeling things as "Physical Force" but tumblr doesn't do that well. So I was limited to what you see and marking the Favored Approach by marking those three attributes with bold/italic.

That handles Attributes for now.

Step 5 - Callings and Knacks

Now, this is the first time we end up to a step where there's a difference based on whether you are building an Origin or Hero character.

An Origin character would get one Calling from her among her patron's favored callings and a Hero character will three Callings, one of which should be from their patron's favored callings.

I usually start from Origin and move from there, but in this case, I'm going to assume a Hero character.

This is where I'm going to say that the character's patron is Hecate, hence "Found at the Crossroads". Hecate's callings are Healing, Liminal, and Sage. I want Sage. For the second, I'm going to take an optional Calling from the Realms of Mystery and Magic supplement: Psychopomp. For the third, I'm choosing between Lover and Leader, and I think I'm going with Lover.

Note: I was going to take the Healing calling, but it is almost all about physical healing and I wanted to focus on emotional healing.

I thought about taking Titan callings, but the closest would be Monster and I don't feel this character is about predation. The way she's shaping up, she's more about sheltering.

So, one Calling gets two dots and the other two each get one dot. Callings can not be increased with XP, they only go up as Legend goes up and that goes up based on completing Deeds (each time you complete set of one Short, one Long, and one Band your Legend goes up by 1.)

I'm assigning as follows:

Lover *

Sage *

Psychopomp **

Now, each Calling gets a number of Knacks equal to their dots in that Calling. You can purchase others via experience, but your dots limit how many you can have access.

By RAW, an "Immortal" knack counts as two dots in character creation and how many they count as for being active, but they cost the same amount of experience points as a Heroic knack. So usually, my group house rules that you can take two Immortal knacks if you want, you'll still only be able to slot one at a time but you get a choice. I'm not expecting to pick Immortal knacks anyway, so this isn't going to affect this character, but did like to say it.

There are also a number of generic knacks that we can select from that I may also take. These can be slotted into any Calling we want, but do fill a slot.

So, I'm thinking of taking these Knacks:

Lover: Soothing Presence

Sage: Presence of Magic

Psychopomp: Cracking the Egg, This Isn't Everything You Are

(yes, there is an official Knack called "Cracking the Egg")

This allows her to:

Soothe feelings in an area, though this moves things toward a calmer degree so it calms positive attitudes as well as negative ones.

Detect magical and sacred energies without needing to roll.

Help encourage someone accomplish a change in their personal state and help people breaking out of a rut.

Another thing that goes with Callings are keywords and titles. Each dot in a Calling gives the Scion one keyword related to that Calling and each point of Legend (Heroic starts at 1) you get a Title which must include at least one of your keywords. Keywords and Titles can be invoked in play to improve your rolls. There is a list of examples, but you are encouraged to make up your own. Titles especially are going to be unique to each character.

So, this is what I'm going with:

Lover: Cozy

Sage: Witch

Psychopomp: Guide, Compassionate

And for her title I'm going to go with the following:

The Cozy Gorgon

It's very simple, but sometimes that's the best sort of title. I was going to get a bit clever and try to force a "Cozy Gamer" / "Cozy Gorgon" pun in there like "Gor-Gamer" but no... that sounds bad.

So... now moving on to the next step.

Step 6 - Birthrights

This is a step that doesn't happen if you're making an Origin character, because you don't normally get these until you hit Legend 1. That said, it is possible for an Origin character to start with some Birthrights as the "Finishing Touches" step provides that option, but all Heroic characters have a few Birthrights.

Birthrights in the core book include the following:

Creatures, strange supernatural beings that can perform tasks for the Scion.

Followers, people and beings that cooperate with the Scion on the scene. (Sort of function like equipment from a mechanical standpoint)

Guides, mentors and advisors, these act as extra paths and can give you access to extra purviews and callings.

Relics, magical or sacred objects associated with you directly.

Birthrights from other supplements include:

Cult, a sort of blend of Guides and Followers, people you have a responsibility to. (Mysteries of the World)

Covenant, an oath to stand for and protect a particular place or group of people. (Mysteries of the World)

Sanctum, a holy space sacred to the character, but mainly associated with Demigods rather than Heroes, so that's at Legend 5. We'll leave that alone for now. (Scion: Demigod)

A newly created Heroic Scion gets seven dots to distribute between Birthrights. I'm doing the following:

Guide 3

Relic 3

Cult 1

I'm going to hold off on designing the Cult for now, because I might add to that rating in Finishing Touches, for the others...

A Guide comes with a name, unique stunt, and Asset skills automatically. One Asset Skill at 1 dot, and two Asset skills at 2 dots. For each dot above 2 we can choose bonus Purviews, Callings, or Legendary Titles we can use as long as we have a good relationship with our guide.

Guide - Kaitlin DeVere, experienced witch

Asset Skills: Empathy, Occult

Purview: Wild

Stunt: Touch the Heart (1-3 successes) on a successful Empathy or Occult roll involving another person, you can spend extra successes to gain an enhancement bonus to your next attempt to adjust their Attitude toward you.

In this case, her guide has taught her how to reach out to the magic of nature. Probably Kaitlin is a sorcerer rather than a scion, so the scion (who we have not yet named) and she will interact with magic differently. Since one uses magic and the other is magic. The stunt lets her navigate emotional waters a bit more easily.

Now, for the Relic.

Relic - Caduceus Tatoo

Innate - This is physically part of her.

Purviews - Health, Passion (Compassion)

Motif - Turn Poison to Cure

She has a large tattoo of a pair of entwined snakes forming a caduceus on her back. The "Innate" aspect is not a RAW option, but it has been bandied about as worth about 1 Dot on forums for a while. The Purviews in the Core book each cost about 1 dot of Relic.

When a relic gives purviews, then it requries a Motif to explain how the relic's magic takes shape. So, in this case, the magic she does through her tattoo must be themed somehow with curatives or taking something toxic and purifying it. She may also require to have poisons and toxins on hand to make curatives out of them since that's how her magic works.

Not sure I thought that through... but its very thematic to a gorgon given the whole thing about blood that could be poison or cure.

As a note, all Pantheons have an innate motif to explain how they perform magic themselves. But I'll get to that in step 8.

Yes, I know we've done precious little of the archery so far, I'll get to that later.

As a note, if someone where to somehow steal her tattoo, they'd have access to its powers. There's likely magic that can do that along with more physical means.

And again, I'll handle the Cult later.

Step 7 - Purviews

As with birthrights, this isn't something an Origin character gets. Even more so than Birthrights since Purviews require Legend to use and Origin characters are Legend 0.

In any case, a starting Heroic Scion gains their Pantheon purview and one other Purview inherited from their Patron. For this character, that would be:

Metamorphosis (Theoi Pantheon Purview)

Fortune

So, this character is a bit about fate, prophecy, and foretelling and she has the ability to transform people and things.

This means our gorgon's purviews are these:

Metamorphosis (Pantheon)

Fortune (Innate)

Health (Relic Tattoo)

Passion: Compassion (Relic Tattoo)

Wild (Guide Kaitlin DeVere)

Each of these comes with a basic innate power:

Metamorphosis: Trivial characters never see through her disguises, and she suffers no Complications for changing identity regarding height, age, gender, ethnicity, or other things. Essentially, she is mutable by nature.

Fortune: Sense Fatebindings and know who is bound to whom though not necessarily the nature of the bond. She can also tell when Prophets and Sorcerers use their powers to change fate.

Health: Once per session recovers one Legend when you successfully treat a storyguide ally (NPC) and resolve an injury or ailment condition.

Passion: Enhancement of 3 to Assess emotions in people around you. And can intuit when people have Bonds with each other.

Wild: Ignore any natural plant based hazards and gain 2 Enhancement toward stealth in areas with a lot of plant growth.

Regarding Fortune detecting Fatebindings and Passion detecting Bonds.

These are separate things.

A Fatebinding means that Fate has decided that these two people should have X relationship and it will constantly throw up coincidences to encourage that relationship. Like if the Fatebinding relates to a romantic situation, then they will constantly find themselves in situations that heighten the other person's attractiveness as a partner. If it decides they're going to be rivals, then they will constantly find themselves in competition somehow. It doesn't mind control the people involved, but does play matchmaker.

Bonds are the emotional bonds and loyalties that people have actually formed between each other.

It is entirely possible to have a Bond that seems counter to a Fatebinding you have with the same person. Like fated Rivals might really enjoy the competition and form a Bond of love between each other.

Step 8 - Boons

The third step that comes for Heroic Scions that Origin Scions can't get. Like with Callings, a Scion gains new Boons as their Legend gets higher. So let's explain what Boons are.

Purviews are the way Scions shape their magic. As we discussed earlier, each pantheon performs their magic through different means. For the Theoi the motif is:

The most high may grant their favor to those who beseech them.

Which means that in order to perform magic, our gorgon needs to call on the gods by name. As her Legend gets higher, she will eventually be able to call on herself.

The normal way this works mechanically is to RP the invocation or other motif and then perform what is called a Marvel which are improvised magical effects like creating magical attacks, placing blessings or curses, changing the environment, or otherwise performing strange esoterica.

Boons are basically specialized and more efficient applications of Marvels. These are specific applications of magic that your scion is especially good with. A Heroic Scion starts with two Boons and gains more as their Legend goes up. You cannot increase them with Experience.

To review, these are our gorgon's purviews:

Metamorphosis (Pantheon)

Fortune (Innate)

Health (Relic Tattoo)

Passion: Compassion (Relic Tattoo)

Wild (Guide Kaitlin DeVere)

We can only take two Boons.

Also, note that "Passion" is noted as "Compassion". Some Purviews imply a specialization. This includes Passion, which could be things like Joy, Rage, Fear, or any other emotion and Beasts, which would name specific type of creatures.

Boons are supposed to be powers you make up for yourself, but also you're allowed to use existing example Boons but theme them to other Purviews. In this case I'm going to re-work "Heaven's Fire", a boon from the Fire purview made to efficiently create a way to attack and re-work it into something like the Gorgon's Gaze attached to Metamorphosis. It's a bit counter to her healer's theme, but I had the opportunity to work in the gorgon gaze, so I took it.

For the second Boon I'm taking Healing Hands which allows for healing physical injuries, diseases, and other such things. This extends to mental illnesses to a degree, but the implication is it only affects conditions that are, by their nature, temporary. So she might cleanse someone of the immediate shock of encountering something terrifying, which might prevent PTSD developing but if PTSD has already set in, that wouldn't be so easily fixed. She can also cleanse magically induced mental illnesses.

Personally, my favorite thing for healing long-term conditions from Scion is a Sorcerer technique where you cause the illness to manifest as a creature which you can then beat up. So, you can literally summon your friend's anxiety and beat it up so it leaves your friend alone. The urge to beat up my mental quirks is incredibly relatable.

So her boons are:

Metamorphosis: Gorgon's Gaze (Reworked Heaven's Fire)

Health: Healing Hands

Every other Purview operates through basic Marvels. So, she could still attack via Wild, but it would be more expensive than using her Gorgon's Gaze.

Step Nine - Finishing Touches

We've come back to places the Origin Scions also do... somewhat.

First, there are some Finishing Touches that Heroic Scions have that Origin Scions don't:

Legend - Every Origin Scion has Legend 0 and starting Heroic Scions have Legend 1

Virtues - Origin Scions don't have virtues yet. Heroic Scions start in the middle of their sliding scale.

For the Theoi, their two Virtues are Egoism versus Kinship. They're a quarrelsome family but they are a family and will defend each other when it comes down to it. When our gorgon acts to support her loved ones and friends, she'll slide toward Kinship. When she acts for herself, she'll slide toward Egoism.

As a note, the virtues for each pantheon aren't a matter of good vs bad. Even with Egoism vs Kinship, there's danger in sacrificing too much of yourself to the people around you and there's times you have to act for yourself. When someone is at one extreme or the other, there are certain benefits, but it does mean they are prone to some unreasonable behavior.

Virtue is a sliding scale with five positions. For simplicity and ease, going to note that as a number from -2 to 2, but she starts at 0 by default.

We already touched upon other elements of Legend in the section on Calling (her Title and Keywords) But this brings her to:

Legend 1

Virtue: Egoism vs Kinship 0

We also determine Health and Defense.

All scions get a Bruised, Injured, Maimed and Taken Out slot, plus one Bruised slot if Stamina is 3-4 or two additional for Stamina 5. Our character has Stamina 3 so she gets an extra Bruised level.

For comparisons, mooks in this game usually are taken out by 1 level of damage and Scions require between four and six levels at character creation. For this gorgon it looks like this:

Bruised

Bruised

Injured

Maimed

Taken Out

As these are filled, they will be named relative to the condition suffered like "grazed", "twisted ankle" or "contact burn" for minor things and "broken arm" or "third degree burns" as things get more serious.

Defense is based on how the character chooses to defend themselves but will be equal to which ever Resilience attribute best applies. So this gorgon's defense will range from 3-4 based on whether she uses Stamina, Composure, or Resolve.

Now, also at this stage we get:

5 more Skill points

1 more attribute point

A choice of 2 more knacks or 4 points of Birthrights.

For the skills we're going to do the following:

As such this is what we get:

Culture 5 (Activism)

Occult 4 (Witchcraft)

Technology 2

Athletics 4 (Archery)

Empathy 3 (Stress)

Persuasion 1

Medicine 2

Integrity 2

For the Attribute point, I'm going with the following:

And that will result in the following:

Might 1

Dexterity 3

Stamina 3

Intellect 3

Cunning 2

Resolve 4

Presence 5

Manipulation 3

Composure 4

So just going to max out her Presence here.

I'm also choosing to gain 4 Birthright points and assigning them as follows:

Cult +3 (total 4)

Relic 1

The Relic is a simple one, I'm just adding an extra Tag to the basic Longbow.

Soporific Bow: Arcing, Ranged, Two-Handed, Stun

The Stun is the extra tag here and it means that this bow can never kill anyone. At worst, it will knock someone unconscious. Bows normally have the 0 point tag Lethal instead of the 1 point tag Stun.

For the Cult, I said we'd get to this later, we have a total of four points.

So, this is the cult that our Scion is part of... and I'm going to name her here as "Taylor Quinn" because I've vaguely had cozy-gamer "TQ" in mind here this entire time. To be clear, I don't know what "TQ" stands for because I'm not a friend, at most I've seen her on Desert Bus or her own stream, or follow her on Twitter. But also there is a "Taylor" who is a major NPC on the Beacon Alien RPG actual play by the Streampunks (and you'll find other names from that show in this character) and maybe a passing reference to Kathleen DeVere in there as well.

My brain is simple, while I was writing this, I was watching Beacon and TQ was being active on Twitter. So....

Anyway... back to character gen.

So, this Cult is going to be one led by Kaitlin DeVere, her witchy Guide, and one that has recognized her as a sacred being chosen by Hecate. She has responsibilities to help them and they have responsibilities to her as well. I envision this as a healthy and mutually supportive cult. Probably a bunch of people that similarly felt outcast that came together as a found family.

As a note, Cult in Scion does not have the negative connotation that it does in real life. Any sort of religious organization is a cult, even if they are religious in name only, such as doing little more than patting a statue of Hermes on the way into work each day.

Anyway, back to mechanics. Cult provides the following:

Cult 1 provides a Foundation choice of Community (1 Light, 1 Shadow), Conspiracy (2 Shadow), or Company (2 Light)

Each point beyond 1 adds either 1 Light or 1 Shadow.

Three Asset Skills related to the cult.

A single Tag

A list of responsibilities for the Scion has.

Light represents public resources of the cult and Shadow represents private ones. Each point of Light must be assigned to:

Connections - 1 point per

Followers - 2 points per

Tags - 1 point per

I'm going to say the Skills associated with Taylor's Cult are: Occult, Technology, Culture and say they do a mix of game streaming and advice on witchcraft and supernatural issues. They're associated with Hecate specifically so they're a Theoi-based cult.

I think they're a Community with both private and public elements.

The tags available are as follows:

Coven - Good at finding secrets, keeps the Scion's secrets

Guild - lets you invoke Light contacts an extra time

Family Tradition - invoke Shadow access connections an extra time

Historians - Good at finding info on enemies, very traditional

Mystery Society - Light and Shadow are tracked separately for invoking

Reliquarians - borrow relics

Social Club - Invoke Shadow contacts an extra time

Temple - invoke any access connection an extra time as long as you're physically in a temple

I think since we're starting this as a public facing streaming group, we'll start this with the Guild tag.

Assigning Shadow and Light I think we're looking at:

Community base - 1 Light and 1 Shadow

Add 2 Light points

Add 1 Shadow point

Total: 3 Light and 2 Shadow

And then I think we'll assign those 5 points as follows:

Followers 1: Stream support (Consultant, Group)

Light Access: Fanbase, the fans of their gaming and occult-advice streams

Shadow Access: Private Housing, places to stay when need time out of public sight.

Extra Tag: Coven

There's one more thing I'm going to do and that's borrow and rework a persistent Condition from the Kitsune denizen. The original condition was this:

Fox Tail - You have a tail. It is fluffy.

And the version for this will be:

Snake Hair - You have snakes for hair. They are hissy.

And that leaves the total package as follows:

Taylor Quinn - Starter Hero

Role Path: LARPing Cozy Witch

Origin Path: Suburban Gorgon Outcast

Pantheon Path: Found at the Crossroads

Pantheon: Theoi

Patron: Hecate

Legend 1

Title: The Cozy Gorgon

Egoism vs Kinship: 0

Short Term Deed: Make an impressive shot.

Long Term Deed: Prove yourself a champion to outcasts.

Band Deed: (Blank)

Skills

Culture 5 (Activism)

Occult 4 (Witchcraft)

Technology 2

Athletics 4 (Archery)

Empathy 3 (Stress)

Persuasion 1

Medicine 2

Integrity 2

Attributes

(Resilience Favored, Social Primary, Mental Secondary, Physical Tertiary)

Might 1

Dexterity 3

Stamina 3

Intellect 3

Cunning 2

Resolve 4

Presence 5

Manipulation 3

Composure 4

Callings & Keywords

Lover 1 (Cozy)

Sage 1 (Witch)

Psychopomp 2 (Guide, Compassionate)

Knacks

Lover: Soothing Presence

Sage: Presence of Magic

Psychopomp: Cracking the Egg, This Isn't Everything You Are

Birthrights

The Crossroad Streamers - Cult 4

Community

Light 3, Shadow 2

Coven, Guild

Light Access: Fanbase

Shadow Access: Private Residences

The Soporific Bow - Relic 1

Longbow (Arcing, Ranged, Two-Handed, Stun)

Caduceus Tattoo - Relic 3

Innate - Part of her

Purviews: Health, Passion (Compassion)

Kaitlin DeVere, Experienced Witch - Guide 3

Asset Skills: Empathy, Occult

Purview: Wild

Stunt: Touch the Heart (1-3 successes) on a successful Empathy or Occult roll involving another person, you can spend extra successes to gain an enhancement bonus to your next attempt to adjust their Attitude toward you.

Purviews & Boons

Metamorphosis (Gorgon's Gaze)

Fortune

Health (Healing Hands)

Passion: Compassion

Wild

Health:

Bruised

Bruised

Injured

Maimed

Taken out

Defense: 3-4 depending on how it is RPed

[harmonie-writes]

The Hunt pt. 9

Werewolf! Wonwoo x hunter! Reader

Summary: After going in different directions to work on different cases, you receive an alarming call. Driving to a small town that has wild nightlife and strange occurrences you begin your search for your missing hunting partner. This case you are about to take on will rival the others you’ve completed in the past. What could possibly happen as you search for your brother in arms?

Warnings: false identity, potential violence, language, depictions of gore, death, alcohol, mentions of nudity, angst, fluff. Story is purely for fictitious purposes and doesn't portray actual people.

Word count: ~1.9k

»»————-　➴　————-««

Previously on The Hunt:

"Once you know of the unknown it's really hard to look the other way and pretend everything is normal. They showed me the ropes and took me on hunts. They essentially adopted me into their tiny family."

You didn't realize it, but a single tear had run down your cheek as you were brought back into your memories. You chuckle dryly and use your free hand to rub your face. "I guess there's some supernatural cases that even seasoned hunters don't know about."

Wonwoo glances down at you before flicking his gaze over his shoulder. He knew that the rest of the pack was listening to your story. He just knows that there's going to be more questions in the morning.

»»————-　➴　————-««

Tired eyes, with evident bags, clung to your eyelids as you glanced at the morning sun peeking above the treeline. The pyre had burned out a few hours ago, but moving from your spot meant that your childhood friend, your partner and best friend, was officially gone. Nothing more than a memory.

Shifting your gaze from the trees to the wolf next to you, you were surprised to find him already staring at you. How unfortunate for you though since he still looked like the Greek God of Adonis, while you probably looked like a wreck.

Out of your peripheral, you noticed that the rest of Wonwoo’s pack had stayed outside. Whether the reason was respect for tradition or not you weren't quite sure, but at the moment it brought a small smile to your lips.

"Thank you for staying out here with me," your voice sounded rough from the lack of use in the last couple of hours, but you were grateful for the company.

Wonwoo gave you a small smile and a gentle squeeze of your hand. "Our species may not exactly see eye to eye on things, but we do know good people when we see them."

You give his hand a small squeeze but don't make any move to comment any further. Instead, you decide that you've been out in the cold long enough and give what's left of Adam's remains a final look before meeting Wonwoo’s gaze one more time. "I think I'm ready to go."

Wonwoo brushes off his sweats before leading you back to the cabin which is now absent of the wolves that were previously on the porch.

As your feet touch the steps of the porch is the moment you can hear the hustle and bustle of what you imagine is a morning routine.

Following Wonwoo into the cabin was a little strange, you spotted the same tall wolf from yesterday prepping what you assumed was breakfast in the kitchen. The pack leader who spoke to you when you were tied up was reading a book in one of the lounge chairs in one of the morning sunbeams. You didn't really know much about the rest of the pack, but three wolves were sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching a movie and you assumed the rest had wandered off to go about their day.

A thought started forming and you realized that this is what a family looked like, only they could turn into wolves if they so choose to do so.

Glancing back around the room you noticed that Seungcheol had set his book down and was staring at you. Releasing a sigh you made your way over to him and he gestured to the couch next to him. You sank into the cushions slowly and waited for him to say something. The few seconds that went by felt like an eternity because you weren't entirely sure where you stood with this kind pack, considering you were a hunter.

Seungcheol let out a small hum before situating himself so he could face you more. "So, now that this is all done what do you plan to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're a hunter, right? You know about us."

You nod slowly, picking up what he's talking about. "If you mean about your pack, I don't plan to do anything about it." You pick at the skin around your thumb before continuing. "Your pack seems to have been around for several years, and there hasn't been one thing mentioned in any papers that would lead other hunters to believe that you exist in this town."

You look at the wolves mingling around you and notice that whatever they were doing seemed to have been put on pause as they listened to you talk with their alpha.

"You won't say anything?" Seungcheol leaned in your direction as if trying to startle you, but it didn't phase you.

"No, I don't think I will." Your gaze meets Wonwoo's and you give him a small smile.

Seungcheol seemed satisfied with your answer and relaxed back into his chair. "Are you going to keep hunting?" You're surprised that it was coming from one of the wolves sitting in front of you. You think his name is Chan, the boy that worked at the motel.

"Truthfully, I might continue hunts here and there. See if they are real threats to others," you tell him.

"My name is Hansol, and are you going to go on hunts alone?"

"Most likely. There aren't many hunters who usually have partners. Most do solo hunts if they can manage them or call for help when they're out of their depth."

Wonwoo frowns at this but doesn't comment from his spot at the bar. The wolf feeling agitated that you would still do dangerous hunts alone and away from him where he couldn't protect you.

Seungcehol nods as he takes in the information before standing and stretching. As he walks out of the room he calls over his shoulder that you're free to stay as long as you please.

Feeling a little out of your element you make your way to Wonwoo. Even though you don't know him well, really at all, there's an odd comfort in being near him.

As you stand by Wonwoo the tall wolf turns and hands you both a plate of eggs and bacon, and you stare for a moment a question bubbling on your tongue. "This might come off rude, but please correct me on this. None of you eat humans, like at all?"

"The name is Mingyu, and no. Not once have any of us tried to eat anyone," Mingyu rolls his eyes but gives you a grin anyway.

"Weird," you mumble, thinking about the things you learned in the past. Maybe things weren't how they always seemed either.

Wonwoo looks at you with a raised brow, "how's that weird?"

"Oh, it's just that most werewolf sighting hunters come across people who have had their hearts removed, most likely eaten. The rest of the body still remains intact and untouched. I just wanted to know if the things in the hunter world aren't what we've all been led to believe," you answer, lifting a fork full of eggs to your mouth.

You hear the boys in the living room gag at that piece of information you just shared.

The blond wolf, Seungkwan shouts from his spot, "We most certainly do not eat hearts!"

You roll your eyes and continue eating in relative silence, the evening finally starting to catch up to you again.

Sensing the tiredness rolling off you, Wonwoo decides that meeting the rest of the pack can't have official introductions after you get so much needed sleep.

"C'mon sleepy, let's get you to bed." He nudges you slightly, just enough to get you to your feet.

You follow Wonwoo back up the stairs and to his room. The idea of sleep sounds very nice, but you wonder if it'll actually come.

"Are you sure this is okay?" You ask, looking at his bed and then back at him.

"Of course I'm sure. I don't offer my bed to just anyone," Wonwoo tells you, a grin tugging at his lips.

"Ha ha very funny mister wolf," Your laugh is dry, but you crawl into bed. Once you're settled you notice that Wonwoo is still standing by the door looking like he's about to leave.

"Could you stay?" Your voice is quiet and unsure.

"Would you like me to?" Wonwoo asks, releasing the doorknob from his grip.

"Please?"

He sits on the edge of the bed before situating himself against the headboard.

He hears a mumbled 'thank you' from you and glances down at you, taking in all of your features.

He notes the slope of your nose, to the apples of your cheeks, and the lashes that brush against them. When he comes to the bandage that plagues your face he frowns imagining the scar that might make a home there.

In the midst of his staring, you startle him. "I can feel you looking at me Wonwoo." You open your eyes and tilt your head so that you're looking at him.

He gives you a sheepish smile but isn't sorry one bit. Instead, he changes the subject. "Can't sleep?"

You hum, "no not really."

"Do you want to talk about it?" He can hear the way you exhale through your nose.

"Just things like this, they keep me from sleeping. Too much going on up here," you bring your hand out of the covers and point to your head. You sit there for a moment before deciding to open up a little more.

"I've been on several hunts where we get there too late, see the damage created by the monster. The stuff doesn't just go away, and now there's this one to add to the collection."

The dejected sigh you let out causes Wonwoo’s heart to squeeze. The mental and emotional damage that your "job" has caused is immense. Maybe it was against his better judgment but he reached for your hand in hopes to comfort you some. Seeing as you didn't pull away he slowly ran his thumb in circles over the back of your hand.

Curiously your eyes met the side of his face. It has been a while since someone had comforted you in such a gentle way: like you were made out of porcelain and glass rather than gunpowder and lead. Closing your eyes you burrowed yourself further under the covers of the blanket, one hand still being held by Wonwoo. It didn't take long for sleep to reach you, but with the warmth radiating off the man next to you, you remained untouched by any nightmares that would normally plague your mind after horrible hunts.

»»————-　➴　————-««

Masterlist

Previous | Next

[babyrdie]

what do you think about Achilles haters?

Understandable I think? I know Achilles isn't perfect, it's normal to not like him. And I know his personality can be annoying to some. There's also the factor that some people are more sensitive to his crimes. Like, Achilles actually has a lot of horrible attitudes, so I think it's normal that part of the modern public doesn't like him. I don't dislike him for such crimes simply because, when it comes to Greek mythology, it seems like a waste of time. And when it comes to personality, I don't find it that annoying.

Like, since Achilles dishonored a corpse it's impossible for me to like him, I prefer cooler characters like Patroclus and Hector who…well, wanted to do the same thing and just couldn't. Or Achilles has slaves and I don't like him and that's why I prefer Menelaus, who is focused on Helen and has DEFINITELY never slept with a slave (Megapenthes, hi) and thankfully he was never a threat to any slave (Andromache, hi). And he killed young Troilus so I detest him and prefer Odysseus…who either kills Astyanax, even younger than Troilus, or at least gives the idea of ​​killing him. Ah Achilles showed no compassion for the Trojans, unlike Agamemnon who was… well, the one who made a xenophobic speech belittling Teucer for being the son of a captive Trojan, spoke in a less than pleasant way about them in Aulis (whose daughter made a speech talking about how Trojans were slaves, including) and, in the times when he showed compassion (e.g. Polyxena and Hecuba), he didn't actively do anything to help. Wow, but he killed Apollo's children and my god poor Apollo…yes, good thing Apollo has always been portrayed in the myths as nothing but up to modern standards of morality (Daphne can rest easy with this news now! After all, he was just running after her to say hello, I'm sure).

Like do you see how it's pointless? I stopped having crimes as a hate factor for a character from Greek mythology a long time ago because if it continued like this there would be very few people left for me to have any appreciation for. If it were a modern work in which the majority of the characters were people who were at least reasonably moral, the character of Achilles would be more detestable to me. But in his context? They're all the same thing. It seems ridiculous.

This is why I don't deny Achilles' crimes like some fans do (because if we were to take away everyone's crime there, there would simply be no story. A war without crimes? Who are we trying to fool? And I like characters like Clytemnestra, so an extremely sanitized character isn't my priority), but I also don't get so irritated with the character or whoever likes him for that reason (because, if I were to follow that logic, it would be simpler not to consume Greek mythology)

So I think it's normal to not like him and that's very okay. I'm just not mutual with a hater of his, for example, because I know that generally those who don't like him are quite verbal about it and that would make the whole thing boring. Plus, I don't see what someone who doesn't like Achilles would want from my blog, since there's practically nothing here that would interest them.

...I intended to give an example with a character that I hate and someone likes, but I really don't have characters that I hate in Greek mythology… at most the ones that I am least interested in, like least or find most annoying. Hate? Nah. Like, I don't even hate Neoptolemus, as is also common (I'm mostly indifferent to him)