#it is part of the quest of finding his tools being “mortal” and such and such

[lady-ashfade]

My Oath

day six of celebration marathon

Percy Jackson x platonic!demigod!reader. (God of the unknown because I can’t help myself, he is a oc of mine for my pjo series)

-£ plot: Your father has learned of a new forbidden child. As his number one he sends you to do his bidding. until your loyalty is challenged.

-words: 1k

-£part two?

-£ warnings: angst, plot of murder, new plot, slight spoilers for readers father in “a love watered by blood”, god of the unknown, (Big spoilers. Reader is sent to kill Pecy) , also the song from Epic:the Troy sagas “the horse and the infant” is what this is based off of.

you were no oath breaker.

you bowed at your fathers feet as he sat upon his throne. the place you called home was dark and misty, your fathers doing, it was a place of mistrust but undying loyalty to him. it was you who was called on often as you served at his hand, you proved your worth as a demigod and you became something more when he took you into his ranks. no other gods dared to speak to him and he liked it that way, no fuss or chatting.

they had many secrets. and he could spill them all.

he hated his “family” and they knew it. wars have been taught over centuries and he picked a side with little care. but he did love secrets and nothing was kept from him even in the smallest corner in the world. every whisper was his to hear.

“what is needed of me.” your eyes stayed on the marble floor beneath your knee, your arms thrown over and await his command.

“i have found a forbidden child, again,” he picked at his nails, his body slumped against the throne.

“a son of poseidon, perseus jackson. make his death quick, but i don’t care if it’s painful.”

you slowly looked up at him, you examined his calm and carelessness behavior. a forbidden child was not unheard of to you, as you have been sent to watch a few over the many years. killing was easy for you, no harm came to your mind as the thought of displeasing your father outweighed any death you caused by your hands.

“tell me where to go.” you agreed to the quest.

earth was a strange place, especially since you grew up in a different time. though you watched the mortal realm in the mirror in your room, finding peaceful places and happy memories being created. but it was a curse, no matter how hard you tried to fight it, when your eyes closed you would dream about the horrors of life. maybe it was a way of life getting back at you for being the cause of destruction— a weapon to be used.

creeping into the apartment building, the widow was not able to keep you out since you had many tools. you’ve done things like this, sneak and kill, return and repeat at his command. you never failed— in fear of being destroyed yourself, a gods wrath was a hard punishment for anyone.

the room was dark and only the light from the moon shined in, making things noticeable. the clothes sticked to your skin from the weather that night. drawling your dagger, preparing to kill your next victim and without causing destress or a fight. but it wasn’t a man you saw. it wasn’t a bed.

it was a crib, a few shells hanging above the babes sleeping body.

stepping back in shock and hesitation you stare at the infant. he was so small. he looked healthily. how is he going to cause any harm? you couldn’t kill a child- a baby. someone unwilling to make decisions for themselves. your doubts and thoughts caused your ears to start ringing, the drums getting pressure built on them.

“I can sense you have your doubts,” the deep voice makes your body shiver and look down at the bracelet on your wrist. the only thing your father gifted you, a silver band with a mirror attached in the center. he could see what was happening anytime without fail. all mirrors are a portal for his eyes.

“He’s just a boy- what kind of threat does he pose?” you kept your voice low and hushed to not awake the mother of the babe.

“he is a forbidden child, you know what that entails. you’ve seen it with your own eyes the damage they cause, the wars started with unfair advantages. that child will grow into a soldier, cause chaos everywhere he steps and gets good people killed. you know I am right.” each point he made was the same he used before to justify his actions.

“don’t make me do this.” you plead. you’ve never begged before, never spared a life in all your years. but never, have you been sent to kill someone so innocent.

“you dare beg for his life to be spared? I have given you a order, so do it.”  your father snarled. not many times were you under his accusative tone. you could hear his voice echoing through the throne room along with a slam of his hand.

“i have done everything you asked of me,” you sounded so small in defeat, “but I can not do this.”

just like that you were willing to risk everything you have built. a place at your fathers feet, above others. a place to live and thrive. and for what? the answer is when you looked at him there is nothing to defend, nothing but a open book waiting to be filled.

“you don’t have a choice,” he roared through the mirror and you could feel the vibration. “kill him, now.” he demanded as his nails scratched at the chair he seat mighty on.

“after years of faithful service, I obeyed every order and command, I live alone each day in a room filled with people. you may have made me for a weapon to use, to do your job for you but I will no longer be a slave.” for the first time you spoke back.

“one day he will die, but not by my hands.” taking the watch on your hand and slipping it off of you, then letting it fall to the ground. the last thing you see is your father shouting at you, his face grim and frustrated. stomping your foot on the floor you break the glass, the item becomes useless.

glancing over to the babe who looked peaceful and wrapped up in a tight blanket. it’s been forever since you were this close to a baby. as a little girl you wished for a family of your own, only you had a life of a demigod.

but looking at him made you sick to your stomach. a pit of anger for the boy who had cost you everything. the world was his to explore.

you were left with no home, no family to go to. and you had broken a oath. you swore yourself to never fail a quest or go against his wishes but you had, for a son of poseidon?— world must have been coming to a end.

you tried to hate him, you really did. but there was no one left to fight for. the decision was yours to make, his life was worth more then yours could ever be. you left quickly after that, afraid you had been to loud.

and one day, you’ll meet the boy he became.

Taglist: @itzmeme @ravenmedows @maria699669 @purplerose291

[queen-of-wisdom]

Care to share more about your milo murohys law/pjo crossover idea? Because thats genius

It's a idea I have for some time but I don't really know the plot I just have some pieces in mind, so I'll share them now!

- Background story on how Murphy's Law came to existing: There once was a mortal man in Ancient Greek who 'played with luck' (eg was very good at gambling & went on adventures). Tyche hated him because she always felt tricked by him so she cursed him with the following: "Neither you nor any of your sons shall ever get luck. You will be cursed, the stars shall never align for you, when you scream for help it shall never be heard. I curse you and all of your sons, so that the worst scenario shall always happen."

- It's like Greek canon that curses can never be undone so it's the typical family curse.

- Every Murphy knows of it. Some just call it a family legend, some genuinely believe it, like Milo.

- The reason Milo is more affected than seemingly most of his family is because of his backpag. You know this unwritten rule, that a prophecies tend to hit you worse when you try to avoid them? It's exactly that. Because he tries to avoid the consequences of his curse with his backpag, the curse throws him under the bus while being on fire (Sometimes metaphorical but sometimes also litteraly) (he, of course, doesn't now that it's because of his backpag. He thinks that he just needs a more positive mindset and prayers to Tyche. He doesn't know, that she's grown fairly found of him. So even though she can't revoke his curse she makes sure that he gets relatively unharmed).

- Melissa is Annabeth's cousin. Obviously. (I mean come on, her last name is literally Chase, you saw that coming)

- Zack's and Grover's case is a bit more complicated but I also have a solution for that one: I always found it odd that Grover has a last name when the other magical creatures don't seem to have one (eg Juniper & Coadge Hedge). So I think that Zack's like great-great-great grandparents adopted Grover's grandpa, so he wanted to appreciate that and tool their names.

- Okay, now to the plot:

-Milo feels overwhelmed because he slowly realizes that he can't handle his curse anymore, so he decides to go to camp

- Melissa and Zack, of course go with him. They're best friends after all

- So picture Annabeth reuniting with another lost cousin (the campers think she makes it up by now)

- Grover immediately recognizes Zack because that's also like his cousin! His so excited, he never met the mortal part of his family and Zack is just confused because nobody told him that one of his ancestors adopted a dam satyr.

- Milo goes to Rachel to get a prophecy and she just screams. They find out later that Murphy's are generally banned from oracles because they kept going insane seeing the future of a Murphy.

- So Milo just asks his goddess for a quest or anything to prove himself worthy of a bit of luck or at least a but less unluck.

- Tyche, warming her cold godly heart, gives him a relatively easy and simple quest because she already knows that he probably won't something to dangerous.

- Milo, Melissa and Zack go to quest where everything, of course, goes wrong

- Tyche, screaming into a cushion, sends Percy, Annabeth and Grover to save them

- With teamwork and family love, Milo somehow ends the quest

- Tyche meets Milo. She is surprised.

"Are you not angry?", Tyche asks. "That I cursed your family, that I cursed you without any logic and empathy?"

Milo smiles. "Well, we wouldn't be the Murphys without Murphy's Law, wouldn't we?"

- Tyche asks him if he wants to be his champion, wich would pretty much outpower Murphy's Law, granting a normal life. He declines, of course, wich leads to even more favoring.

[harveybwabbit92]

[R/n brings Belial to Jotunnheim where they're immediately swarmed by these small beings who offer R/n gifts and praise as soon as they see her.]

Belial, sitting on R/n's shoulder: What are these annoying little creatures?

R/n, who is in her giant form: These are Dwarves. They're a subspecies that lived alongside my people and survived the botanic plague by staying underground.

---------

[The frost giants died out was due to a Botanical plague that turned all the inhabitants caught in it's wake into trees, R/n's grandfather created it once he realized his son (Loki) and Thor had zero intention of stopping their rampage until either the humans or the giants were dead. The people were no help as both sides had demonized each other so badly that the mere thought of a truce was completely backwards to them. So R/n's grandfather took a very drastic measure; one that he prayed he would never have to use. He warned the Dwarves of his plans before hand to assure their safety.

Then he sent R/n to Earth on a wild goose chase so he could get her out of Jotunnheim and spare her life, He then sealed Thor and Loki in the main palace's throne room along with their most loyal followers under the guise of negotiations. He only contacted R/n to apologize after he had unleashed the plague, R/n could only sit and cry anguish as she felt her entire species go silent.

She later finds out Thor survived by ripping his own arm off and fleeing leaving all his shocked comrades behind to die, pretty much proving R/n's warnings about the man not caring about any of them and that he only saw them as tools in his quest for godhood, but his escape was in vain as R/n had tracked him down months later which lead their final battle; that ended with Thor dead and R/n mortally wounded which in turn led to her regenerating/hibernation and waking up in modern times...]

-------------------------------

((The Dwarves are a species of giants that are a distant cousin to the frost giants, who have evolved to live in smaller more cramped conditions and for the most part they spend their lives underground only coming out at night to hunt and gather food.

They hold R/n in very high-regard as her mother Angrboda had convinced Loki to shelter them after Thor destroyed their home; leaving it completely uninhabitable, For the kindness that was shown to them that day they keep Jotunnheim maintained while R/n is away.

They also make sure that all the trees that were once giants are treated with the same love and respect that they were given when they first arrived... However, they stay away from the area where main palace once stood; they view it as a cursed and wretched place and who could blame them? with that ominous dark mist and patches of putrid black trees slowly overgrowing out of it.

Fully grown adult Dwarves are about 8-10m tall, so yeah they are tiny in comparison to the ultras and their Frost giant cousins))

[synergysilhouette]

An alternate take on "Hercules" (1997)

This movie is a classic, though I did want to put my own twist on this, similar to my other remakes. Granted, my version isn't really too much closer to Greek mythology, but it has a bit more tweaks in there.

Change his origins. If we're gonna be loose with Greek mythology, I'll put my own twist on it. I'd make it so that Zeus (a questionable father in any iteration, it seems) had a child with a mortal woman--who's looks and personality would be similar to Disney's version of Hera--but because she was human, she couldn't be with him. As such, he married Hera, who is bitter that she was his second choice, and is extremely jealous when it's discovered that the mortal woman sired a child with Zeus named Hercules (let's say she was born in Rome), though she changed his name to Alcaeus to hide him from Hera. When he finds out the truth, he wants to go to Olympus to meet his father, but must achieve godhood to do so. It's also explained that many Olympians have taken in interest in Hercules--namely Dionysus, Hermes, Apollo, Athena, and Artemis, plus the Muses, all of them godly children that Zeus sired before his marriage to Hera--and they assist him here and there, though they must do it discreetly to avoid Hera's wrath.

2. Change the villains. This is a complex issue; Hera is definitely a villain here, but so is Hades, and to a point, Zeus. Zeus is the "good dad, bad husband" type of person; he's a lively person and a fun friend, but not good with his relationships, ie making Hera his second priority and undermining his older brothers since he's the king of the gods. He's not evil, but he is toxic. As such, Hera sets a plan in motion: she tells Zeus that she will not harm Hercules or his loved ones if he proves himself worthy of being a god, thus setting in motion Hercules' quest (as well as wanting to find where he belongs). However, she tasks Hades and Persephone (no Pain and Panic here, sadly) with doing him in before he can become immortal. She also manipulates her sons, the neglected Hephaestus and the power-hungry Ares, into helping her bring about Hercules' doom. She also cheats by occasionally giving him unreasonable bouts of anger that hinder his progress as a hero. And since we're dealing with about five villains, the Titans don't exist.

3. Megara is different--but only slightly. Still her jaded, pessimistic self, I'd want to remove any possible arguments of her being toxic with Hercules, since I was never a fan of them together. Here, instead of Hades offering Meg her freedom, her simply forces her to do his bidding, almost like an Ella Enchanted situation. However, seeing her lack of enthusiasm for this, Hermes, Apollo, and Artemis intervene during several occasions to help her work around her master's manipulation as well as giving her tools to help Hercules if he's in a bind (since they can't openly use their powers, as it would put a target on their backs with Hera). A part of me wanted to conflate her and Persephone's character into one, making her a woman forced to be Hades' wife and become bitter as a result, and Hercules' love and kindness makes her fall for him and decidedly leave Hades, but perhaps that's too much.

4. The ensemble is different. The main cast of the original was Hercules, Pegasus, Phil, and Meg. Here, the cast is made up of Hercules, Pegasus, Iolaus (his cousin rather than his nephew like in mythology) and Meg. Phil doesn't exist here, with Apollo, Athena, and Artemis training Hercules, with Meg and Iolaus as moral support. Hermes mainly tries to keep everything discreet so it never reaches Hera.

5. The message/ending is slightly different. Zeus learns to be a better person/god, owing his treatment of others due to his own childhood trauma at the hands of his father. His redemption is kinda like it was in "Immortals: Fenyx Rising." Hades and Persephone get some kind of gratification, as Zeus vows to treat Hades better and Hades acknowledges his manipulation of getting Persephone to marry him (this version of the story varies, but if he's gonna be a villain, we may as well go that route). Hera is imprisoned with Ares, and Hera acknowledges how she mistreated her sons due to her own pain, with only Hephaestus managing to overcome his trauma and help Hercules. Hercules doesn't really "give up" his godhood for his mortal family, though--he's never forced to make a choice between them and the Olympians; I kinda hated the implication with the original ending.

Lemme know what you think! This has been rattling around in my brain for a while.

[historyhermann]

"Carmen Sandiego": An Enthralling Animated Series [Part 3]

Continued from part 2

Chief looks at a file about Carlotta Valdez, Carmen's long-lost mother

The series goes beyond a fun and low-stress 1990s game show, Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?. While there are educational geographical lessons aimed at kids, Carmen is often in mortal danger and "out of reach" of those chasing her. One fan recently counted 71 near-death experiences for Carmen throughout the series. So much for this being solely for kids!

This article was originally meant for The Geekiary. I submitted the article in mid-August 2022, on August 16, and it got sent back for edits, and even after a long conversation with one of the editors, including re-submitting the article a second time, I decided to publish it on my own (see original post for details) It was published on my History Hermann WordPress blog on Jan. 2, 2023.

Carmen does not go on her missions alone. Apart from Player, South Boston siblings Zack (Michael Hawley) and Ivy (Abby Trott), help her as part of Team Red. Zack is often the getaway driver due to his lack of experience with undercover work.

In contrast, Ivy either runs interference using her engineering skills or makes disguises. In this way, she is like Monique in Kim Possible or Tomoyo in Cardcaptor Sakura, who make outfits for eponymous protagonists of those series.

Specifically, for Carmen, the tools that Ivy provides her ensures she is prepared for any situation. This enhanced by her array of outfits, her expert skill at blending in, even she shows her face.

A major plotline throughout Carmen Sandiego is her quest to learn more about herself and her past. In a clever twist, her famous nom de plume comes from a red trenchcoat she steals from VILE's bookkeeper, Cookie Booker. "Carmen Outerwear" is emblazoned on the coat's back. The coat also says it is from San Diego, California.

She gains many other names throughout the series. Player calls her "Red". Her friends Zack and Ivy call her "Carm". Rito Moreno's inclusion as the voice of Cookie in the series is a nod to the fact that she voiced Carmen in the 1990s Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? series.

In the 1990s animated series, Carmen does learn about her past. In the final episodes of that series, she wrestles with the fact that a wealthy industrialist named Malcolm Avalon may be her father. This series explores that more directly.

Carmen carries three Russian nesting dolls with her when she comes to VILE Isle. While this might, at first, suggest some possible Russian ancestry, it is likely a red herring. In any case, her past is very important to her. VILE exploits this, hoping there will be an irreparable rift between Carmen and Shadowsan (Paul Nakauchi).

The latter is a Japanese stealth teacher that Carmen detested in crime school. It is later revealed that he left out certain details from the official report about Carmen's childhood home in Argentina being burned to the ground.

In a nod to the original series, Carmen and ACME (Agency to Classify and Monitor Evildoers) are on opposite sides. While Carmen is often running from ACME agents, in one episode she has Player hack into the ACME mainframe. It confirms that Chief, otherwise known as Tamara Fraser (Dawnn Lewis), killed her birth father, Dexter Wolfe.

Chief serves as an important secondary character. She communicates with her agents through a hologram beamed from a pen. She appears in the interactive special, To Steal or Not To Steal, if you click the "wrong" option, causing Bellum's devices to erase Zack and Ivy's minds.

Later on in the series, Carmen asks ACME to find her mother for her. Carmen Sandiego reveals in season 3 that a woman named Carlotta Valdez is her mother. In the last episode of the show, she enters an orphanage run by her mother, meeting her.

Continued in part 4

© 2022-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[critcast]

verses for seraphina.

BALDUR’S GATE 3.

Here’s how Seraphina could fit into the BG3 storyline:

Origin and Introduction

Seraphina could be introduced as a mysterious and powerful sorceress who has been drawn to the Sword Coast by the growing chaos surrounding the mind flayer invasion and the appearance of the tadpoles. Given her connection to dark magic and demons, she might initially be mistaken for an antagonist or someone with ulterior motives. However, it’s quickly revealed that she, like the player character and other companions, has been infected with a tadpole, which complicates her already strained relationship with Malphas.

Possible Introduction Scene: The party encounters Seraphina in a secluded part of the wilderness, possibly near a dark, corrupted area that has been tainted by demonic energy. They find her in a moment of struggle, as the tadpole in her mind exacerbates her battle with Malphas, weakening her control over the demon. The player might have to decide whether to aid her, and in doing so, they discover that she shares their fate with the tadpole and could be a valuable, albeit dangerous, ally.

Personal Quest: "Shadows Within"

Seraphina’s personal quest is focusing on her struggle to maintain control over Malphas while also dealing with the growing influence of the tadpole. This quest could involve hunting down ancient artifacts or performing powerful rituals that might either strengthen her control over the demon or, alternatively, find a way to expel him altogether—though the latter could come with dire consequences.

Quest Goals:

Artifact of Binding: The party searches for an ancient artifact rumored to be capable of binding a demon, which Seraphina hopes could either subdue Malphas or give her the upper hand.

The Abyssal Rift: A journey to a tear in the fabric of reality where the barrier between the mortal world and the Abyss is thin, allowing the party to confront Malphas directly in an attempt to weaken his hold on Seraphina.

Choice and Consequences: The climax of her quest could present a significant choice—help Seraphina banish Malphas and risk her losing much of her power (but potentially gaining freedom), or help her fully merge with Malphas, granting her greater power at the cost of her humanity.

Integration with the Main Plot

As the party uncovers more about the tadpoles and the Absolute, Seraphina’s connection to Malphas could provide additional layers to the story. Perhaps the Absolute is aware of Malphas’s presence within Seraphina and sees her as a potential tool—or threat. The influence of both the tadpole and Malphas could create unique challenges or opportunities within key moments of the story.

The Absolute’s Interest: The Absolute might attempt to exploit Malphas’s presence, either by trying to corrupt him further or by using him as a means to exert greater control over Seraphina. This could lead to Seraphina being targeted by cultists or mind flayers seeking to harness her demonic power.

Climactic Showdown: In a crucial moment of the game, Seraphina might be forced into a situation where Malphas attempts to fully take over, threatening to unleash a powerful, demonic force. The party could be tasked with helping her regain control or preventing Malphas from becoming an even greater threat.

Ending and Legacy

Depending on the choices made throughout the game, Seraphina’s story could end in multiple ways:

Redemption: Seraphina successfully expels Malphas or finally gains permanent control, finding peace and perhaps a path to redemption.

Corruption: Seraphina fully embraces Malphas, becoming an even more powerful but potentially dangerous force. The party might either accept this or decide that she has become too much of a threat.

Tragic Sacrifice: In a final bid to protect the party or defeat a greater evil, Seraphina might sacrifice herself, taking Malphas with her and leaving behind a legacy of both caution and respect.

[cloudenthusiast2]

To be a human - Scaramouche x reader - Part 4

You knew committing to a relationship with Scaramouche would be no easy task but you loved him dearly and unlike others, you believed he wasn't evil. But as a mortal and the devoted protector of your village you were too much of a good person, too much of a human compared to him and your differences slowly start to show.

Previous: Part 3 Next: Part 5

Length: ~1000 words

Trigger warnings: yelling

A.n.: Sorry I was a little late with this. But as a compensation it's really long! Here ya go, have some angst

You have been walking around in circles for almost twenty minutes in the kitchen when you finally decided you needed some fresh air.

You grabbed your spear - which was an essential to have even in times like this - and ran out of your home.

The house you lived in was built on a cliff so you could see everyone and everything well. Qingce with all of its beauty and treasures laid in front of you.

The first thing you noticed when you stepped out was the lack of agents.

The fatui has left the village.

Sudden pain stabbed into your heart. Before this all you felt was anger and confusion, but now... it's become official and somehow clearer too.

'What have I done?'

You covered your lips after these words tumbled out of your mouth. You desperately looked around, trying to find someone, trying to find a little shilouette with a ridiculous, huge hat...

But he was gone.

The only people standing around were the people of Qingce village. They tried to pretend they were just working or talking with each other but you could see them taking quick glances of you.

Finally one of them, an elderly, sick man you helped out multiple times looked directly up then started approaching your house.

You took a step back and realised you didn't want to talk to anyone at that moment. It didn't matter whether he wanted to thank you or ask what happened. You wanted and needed to be alone.

As rude as it may have been, you turned around and started walking in the opposite direction. Towards the huge mountains.

You escaped into the forest. Your steps became faster and faster - and suddenly you were running.

Loud gasping echoed in your head. Your hands were shaking, not being able to grab anything properly. A wet, itchy layer blurred your vision as you stumbled through bushes and rocks.

It was a miracle that you got up on the mountain in one piece. You didn't even know how you did it - in one moment you were still climbing and in the next you were standing on the cliff, looking down and being dazed by the height.

You came to this spot on days when you had nothing to do. You liked to write letters, sharpen your spear and most importantly, think everything through here.

For a minute, you were just standing there still, breathing in and out the chilly, fresh mountain air. The rough wind blew through your hair, lifting then letting it go. It fell down and covered your face. You slowly rose your hand and fixed it, staring into the distance.

The sun has reached the top of the sky. But it was still cold around you.

You had hoped the cool weather would be able to clear your mind but it helped nothing. Instead, it made you feel like you were breathing in nothing - like there was no oxygen in your chest at all.

You were suffocating.

Your lips opened to gasp for air but it felt like you were still drowning. Your legs started shaking and you immediately fell on your knees. This broke an invisible gate. Tears started streaming down your face.

He left...

Oh, how much you suddenly regretted your harsh, angry words. You could've just talked it out, you could've just explained it to him calmly...

But would he have really understood?

Loud screech as you clenched your teeth. You did everything to hold back the tears, but it was too late now, you had lost. You sobbed desperately, painfully, alone, in an abandoned top of mountain.

*

Scaramouche loudly slammed his hands on the table and there was no mercy in his ice-like eyes as he stared at the agents in front of him.

'How many times do I have to say this?! Don't start fights the Millelith! We already have diplomatic issues with Liuye Harbour because of that damn incompetent Tartaglia!'

'Apologies, my lord' a pyro agent bowed in front of him while the mirror maiden followed his example. 'We thought...'

'I couldn't care less about what you think' Scaramouche cut in enraged. 'Just follow your orders or I'll make sure you won't ever see the sun coming up again!'

Deep silence followed his words in the tent.

Scaramouche tossed his hat back to glare up at the agents. But they didn't dare look at him. They were always wary of the harbinger who was probably the most powerful and surely the most unpredictable among the Tsaritsa's followers. It wasn't hard to notice how angry he was that day as well.

The cicin mages in the camp were sure it was because of that Liuye girl but most of the agents refused to believe that. It seemed impossible that he would be so upset about splitting up with a mere mortal like you.

Scaramouche let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes for a moment to rest and think a little. He stood there silently with crossed arms and wrinkled brows.

The Millelith. A pain in the neck. How could they possibly avoid them while taking advantage of the small villages around Liuye? Villages who don't have protectors should be an easy prey...

He didn't even realise what a dangerous direction his thoughts were going. He just found himself thinking about you all of a sudden.

This was the hundredth time this day.

It's been almost a day since he turned his back on Qingce. He left the village without looking back, thinking he was free again and that he would be able to finally focus on his work.

But why were you still turning up in his thoughts over and over again? Why did he feel a constant knot in his throat? It didn't loosen, even when he yelled or coughed. He tried both multiple times.

He felt impatient. His body ached to move on, his mind tried to make big plans for the future...

But something in him still didn't want to think about anything or anyone other than you.

This was so stupid.

So unnecessary.

When did stupid humans become so important to him? He killed them off with handing out delusions not so long ago without any hesitation. It was the right thing to do. He never doubted that. Not even for a second.

You were so stupid to say otherwise! Why did you say otherwise?

For a weak moment, he tried to think from your perspective but even then, he understood nothing. All he could think of was that you were just crazy.

Humans deserve nothing. They born, they live so their superiors can make use of them.

You were no exception, he decided. It was ridiculous of him to even think you could be more than just a tool to him.

Why did he even start seeing you?

Memories started to emerge and they invaded his mind in a blink of an eye. And suddenly that weird feeling around his stomach started to strengthen again.

He remembered your smile, the playful and incredibly disrespectful way you greeted him when you two first met. He was out on a quest, alone but still recognisable. You knew he was a harbinger yet you acted like he was a regular mortal.

He hated Liuye. He got lost on his first day in the mountains and who knows what might have happened if you didn't run into him on your way back home.

After making fun of the fatui and its "clumsy" harbingers you offered to be his guide and that had to accepted even though he couldn't stand you at all. You were teasing him all the time, never taking him seriously. And most unforgivable of all, you messed around with his hat.

On the first day, he absolutely despised you.

On the second day, after you have dealt with multiple treasure hoarders without any of his help, he had to admit you were a pretty good fighter.

He was in denial on the third day. You picked violetgrass for him and put them in his pockets, claiming that they suited the boy. He threw them away in a second, getting ready to face your anger. Instead, he was shocked to see you laugh it off. You had... a not so horrible laugh.

Fourth day. Your smile was not that terrible either, he realised.

Day five was the day he saved your life. You were cllimging a mountain together when you saw a Qingxin and reached out to grab it.

He caught you by the arm in the last second. Called you stupid but couldn't hide his blush when you rewarded him with the beautiful, pale white flower.

Then the quest came to an end and he went back home.

Only a month or two have passed when the harbinger came back. He went directly to your door to tell you he will be seeing you. It was not a regular ask - he literally ordered you to go out with him.

No one could tell who was more surprised when you still said agreed to it.

You two were an odd, hard to manage couple but a powerful one.

You could've been happy.

Why does it... hurt so much?

'She's just a stupid human' Scaramouche told himself. The thousandth time that day. 'Completely... replacable.'

These were the words you were the most hurt about. But he tried not to care any more and repeated it to himself.

'Replacable.'

'My lord!'

Scaramouche flinched and looked up as if he had been dreaming all along.

He realised he had been standing there the whole time thinking about you while the agents did not leave yet.

'What is it?' He grunted loudly and all of his weird, almost sad feelings got replaced by anger again. 'What do you want?'

'Your order to stay away from the Millelith' the mirror maiden dared to speak. 'Does it apply to the Abbys as well?'

'The Abbys?' Scaramouche frowned. 'What business do we have with them?'

'It's just that we've recently stumbled upon them multiple times on our quests' she started to explain but the harbinger wasn't patient enough to listen to the whole story.

'Hurry up.'

'Yes, my lord.' The mirror maiden hesitated for a moment but when the pyro agent nodded to her she continued. 'We just think that they might about to target villages next.'

'What are you talking about?' Scaramouche growled at her. He couldn't stand still any more so he started walking around in the small tent.

'The Abbys gathered a lot of hilichurls and monsters together lately. We suspect they might attack a bigger village or town.'

Scaramouche stopped as if he got frozen in his place. The maiden continued to explain what kind of disadvantage that might be for them but he heard nothing of that.

He turned around slowly, barely being able to move his own body.

'What... places will they attack?' He asked in a hoarse voice.

'We can't be sure' the pyro agent answered. 'But Mingyun village is a possibility. And... Qingce probably as well.'

Scaramouche stared at the ground.

So many emotions. Most of them he couldn't even name since he has never felt them. The only familiar ones were anger, confusion... and fear.

Deep, overwhelming, terrible fear. It started in his stomach and slowly reached out to grab his throat with its icy fingers.

He opened his mouth but at first no understandable words left his lips.

'My lord...?'

'Get ready' he finally found his voice.

Scaramouche turned his back to them so he could hide the fact he was shaking. Something terrible froze everything inside him but the fire lighting up his eyes was burning hot when he said:

'We're going back to Qingce.'

[happi-tree]

Someone To Protect

“How did you know?” “Know what, my dear bright one?” “Your mortal. How did you know that he was the one?” Or: Sasha comes to Braddock for advice. Fae AU!

“How did you know?” You ask as you sit with her, watching the sunset, and it sounds so hesitant. 

Your voice isn’t meant to sound like that - it’s something sharp and silvery, a tool that can be thrown swifter than a dagger, more deadly than an arrow, not something so raw and vulnerable and longing. And gods, you want to hate her for doing this to you, for making the shape of your words more prey than predator, but -

“Know what, my dear bright one?” The one you call Bradach (the roguish, the spirited) replies. You seldom come to anyone like this, seldom ask anything of anyone - seldom offer up your soul on a silver platter like this, but you know that if there is anyone among your Sisters that you can trust, it is the Spirited One. 

You clear your throat, rub at your gauntlet. It’s such a human gesture, such a mortal triviality to be as nervous as you are, and you wonder if Bradach can see through you already, like mist that falls away with the morning light. But you have to know. There’s this seed of curiosity that has been planted in you (she planted it, you know this much at least), and you must see it through to fruition. 

“Your mortal. How did you know that he was the one?” You spare a glance at her expression, and her gaze softens like sunlight parting through clouds. It’s a look you rarely see on her, and you wonder what it means.

Bradach sighs, and the clearing exhales alongside her. “My Percival was sent by his lord to retrieve a weapon of legend when he was far too young. He lost his way on his quest, stumbled into a clearing like this one beneath the light of a blood moon, and found me instead.”

You know this already. The Spirited One has regaled you with her tales of the mortal realm many times before. Thunder rumbles along your spine with impatience, but you remain silent.

Bradach looks at you, and the look in her eyes is weighted, twin nimbus clouds filled with rain yet to fall. Lightning flashes through her blonde tresses as her eyes search you for… something.

You both hope and fear that she finds it.

“I knew from the moment he looked at me. Most mortals quake in fright when the veil is lifted from their eyes, but he was unafraid, startlingly so. His eyes held no terror, only awe and a strange curiosity. It has been many moons since last we met, but I have never forgotten how it felt - the connection. Strange, but powerful. Like being in the center of a storm, winds roaring and thunder booming as you stand, unmoved. You feel as if you could move the heavens and earth for them, if only they ask. Like you could fight Him and win. But you also feel content. Your mortal will tame the tempest of your heart, and it will be frightening, but it will also be wonderful.”

And you think about how she looked at you, brown eyes stained verdant from the reflection of the canopy above her. Brows raised and lips downturned in confusion and helplessness, but not in fear. Never in fear. 

Not if you could help it.

Gods, you were a fool to even question it. You already knew the answer.

“I see,” You hear yourself mutter, eyes lowering to your hands, which have somehow started fidgeting without your knowledge while Bradach spoke. Already, so much of her has bled into you, and you don’t know what to do about it.

“I should hope you do. You feel this for that mortal girl, yes?”

Your head snaps up to make eye contact with the Spirited One. Your entire body seizes with shock as if you had just stumbled barefoot over a bed of iron nails. You stammer (you have never grasped for words so desperately before).

“I - How-”

Bradach’s laugh sounds like an unfurling of wind through the trees. 

“I raised you, my bright one. You thought I would not realize?”

“Do the others know?”

“A few of the Sisters, yes, and we are happy for you. We can tell that you care a great deal for her - you and the Merciful One do, it seems. We will not tell Him - there are things he need not know, at times. Worry not, and live up to your Name. I am proud of you, One Who Defends.”

Lightning sizzles happily along your skin as Bradach embraces you, golden and bright with anticipation. It will be nice to finally have someone to protect, you think.

[callistolivia]

Asteroids Part 6; Sisterhood of Pallas Athena, Symbolism of the Asteroid Pallas Athene

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

The long overdue sixth part of my asteroid series is finally here. 

 The asteroid Pallas Athene is one of the more prominent asteroids covered in the astrological community thanks to Demetra George’s “Asteroids Goddesses; The Mythology, Psychology, and Astrology of the Re-emerging Feminine.” In this part, I will cover the asteroid’s symbolism and interpretation based on mythology, gathered research from authors such as Demetra George, and my own knowledge.

 The ancient Greek goddess Athena may have been synonymous with the Egyptian goddess Neith and possibly other earlier known goddesses. Throughout this asteroid series ( and just in general for my astrological interpretations) I’ve tried to peel back further from Greek origins and more toward Kemetic or Sumerian origins for a pure and truly ancient understanding of asteroids named after Greek deities. However, I’ve accepted that for Pallas Athene, the Greek mythologies derive important symbolism that just isn’t clearly depicted from what we know of Neith or other earlier goddesses synonymous with Athena.

The Mythologies of Athena

 Athena is the goddess of war and wisdom. She was revered by gods alike and those who worshipped her for her remarkable strength, courage, wit, and creativity. Her birth story begins with Zeus swallowing the titan Metis who was carrying the unborn Athena. After some time had passed, Zeus develops a headache that would only be cured by Hephaestus’ splitting open his skull. Out from Zeus’ skull Athena is born as a fully grown woman encompassing all of her remarkable traits. Athena was Zeus’ favourite child, for she was his creation; so purely in his image of goodness, power, and wisdom.  Like Vesta (or Hestia), she is a virgin goddess, she serves herself and is whole with herself. Though, she had a friend who she quite possibly could have been in love with and she did love; Pallas.

Athena and Pallas  Pallas was the daughter of Triton. She was equal to Athena in wisdom and the art of war. They were partners in battle and one day the gods were disputing which of the two goddesses were stronger. So the two goddesses sparred and Zeus interfered allowing Athena to have the upperhand. Unfortunately this ended up fatally wounding Pallas. Athena was so heartbroken that she added Pallas’ name to her own to honour her. While it is never mentioned in the myth between these two goddesses, I speculate the possibility that their relationship may have been more, possibly as lovers in war. In ancient Greek and Roman times, it was a known practice that soldiers would often become romantically involved with one of their peers, even if they had a partner back at home. This was because they believed you would fight better for someone you love, especially if it was to avenge the death of a lover. 

Athena and Medusa  While there are several interpretations of this particular myth, the one that I find significance with is the one that describes Athena aiding Medusa.   Medusa was said to once be a very beautiful woman who made a vow for herself to remain virginal. However, her beauty drew on the male gaze and she was preyed upon against her will. The ocean god Poseidon tried to have his way with Medusa, but Athena stepped in and transformed Medusa into an ugly creature with snakes for a head of hair, and anyone who looked into Medusa’s eyes would turn stone.   This myth often depicts Athena as jealous of Medusa’s beauty, but in truth, this would be extremely out of character for Athena who’s not concerned with how others perceive her, particularly men. Athena cloaks Medusa with ugliness as a defense– as a way to protect Medusa from unwanted attention. This myth parallels greatly with the internal struggle many people have, particularly women, with the threats and vulnerability that coincide with embracing beauty and femininity. 

Helper to Heroes  Athena often makes appearances in myths about a hero’s journey and aids the hero in some way. She often has some sort of valuable foresight or tool to give the hero. Mortals look to her for her strength, wit, and strategy.   The story with Medusa continues as Athena actually aids Perseus upon hearing he needs to take Medusa’s head. She gives him a reflective shield so he can see Medusa without looking into her eyes and turning to stone. Many of the common interpretations of this myth state that Athena hated Medusa which is why she was so willing to help Perseus on this quest. However, following the interpretation I mentioned where Athena turned Medusa into a gorgon for her protection, Athena would have been the only one to understand the circumstances of Medusa. In addition to this, in the myth itself Medusa plays more-so as a symbolic prop instead of a character. Particularly because Medusa as a gorgon is described as having snakes for hair– snakes in myths can (but not exclusively) symbolize treachery and bad spirits needing to be expelled. We see this in stories like Inanna and the Huluppu tree where people often confuse “lilītu” with the actual archetype or character Lilith; there was no Lilith in that story, just spirits needing to be expelled from a tree.

The Seer  Athena is often described by poets as being “grey-eyed” and there is symbolism behind this. According to Wikipedia the choice to describe her this way is quite deliberate; “In Homer's epic works, Athena's most common epithet is Glaukopis (γλαυκῶπις), which usually is translated as, "bright-eyed" or "with gleaming eyes". The word is a combination of glaukós (γλαυκός, meaning "gleaming, silvery", and later, "bluish-green" or "gray") and ṓps (ὤψ, "eye, face"). It is interesting to note that glaúx (γλαύξ, "little owl") is from the same root, presumably according to some, because of the bird's own distinctive eyes.” Athena is also often depicted as or with an owl which is all deliberate symbolism of her wisdom, keen perception, and foresight. There is a seer quality about Athena that is tuned into aiding justice and heroism.

Themes of the Asteroid Pallas Athene

Fear or repulsion of feminine expression in oneself

Deconstructing heteronormativity

Equality, democracy

Psychic vision, foresight

Companionship, sisterhood, brotherhood

Same-sex experiences, perceptions, and empathy

Creative vision

Justice

Intellectual power

Maternal absence

 Pallas Athene being an asteroid, only with prominence in the birth chart will her themes and the complexes arising out of those themes be noticeable. Otherwise, Pallas Athene in one’s birth chart demonstrates where one tends to have strategic foresight/vision, where one meets Pallas Athene-like characters, and where one is called to serve justice.

Aspects to Pallas Athene

Sun-Pallas Athene In hard aspects, such as a square or opposition, this contact can be quite troublesome and makes for complexes the individual will have to fight to overcome. The difficult aspects signify negative experiences with the paternal figure in their life which translates over into adulthood as having distrust in and difficulty with men. As most societies are patriarchal, these aspects tend to be harder for feminine identifying individuals. These individuals are keenly aware of the violence that can coincide with objectification, particularly the objectification of feminine expression. When this type’s innate identity is objectified, defences are put up and they reject and conceal their expression. Being viewed in a sexual nature in an unwarranted way kills the confidence in these individuals; it conflicts with how they view themselves as an entire being and their purpose. Being comfortable with one’s sexuality can be an issue in the more difficult aspects with this contact as well; there may be shame, repulsion, or rejection of one’s sexuality. To aid these complexes, therapy as well as companionship and empathy from people who share the same experiences or trauma is beneficial.   In positive aspects, such as a trine or sextile, we see the opposite of the crippling experiences in the negative ones. These individuals tend to be comfortable and even celebratory in either binary expression; they are often quite androgynous. They are also quite comfortable in their sexuality as well as they are firm believers in dismantling gender roles and heteronormativity. These individuals are fighters for people with Pallas Athene complexes and injustice in general. They have a tremendous amount of strength, empathy, and willingness to understand gendered, sexual, and political issues. These individuals can find their life’s purpose, fulfillment, and accomplishments through their intellectual creativity.  The conjunction brings out Pallas Athenian archetype within one’s character. These individuals will be very Pallas Athenian in that they will see within themselves the complexes that arise from both the positive and negative aspects. They often have quite a strong presence, cunning intellect, and the foresight vision.

Moon-Pallas Athene  In positive contacts, these aspects bring out the psychic nature of Pallas Athene– Pallas Athene’s foresight and the wisdom in part with that. These individuals are empaths and healers. In the positive aspects, this is Pallas Athene reconciled with the fact that she never knew her mother; in individuals, it is a deep connection with the maternal expression within them (through a Pallas Athenian lens) or a deep connection with the maternal figure in their life. The maternal figure in their life may have been very Pallas Athene-like or could have been a contributor to giving the individual the strength, wit, and wisdom that matches Pallas Athene’s archetype. Creative vision is evoked by emotional exploration  In negative aspects, such as the square or opposition, there can be an absence of a maternal figure. Just like Pallas Athena herself, this individual may have been raised by their father with their father’s interests on the forefront. As a result, feminine expression is often null or even despised or feared. These individuals may repress their emotions surrounding their own gender or sexuality issues. They can be quite defensive and unless the Sun has prominence in the chart, they can also disguise their expression and true identity. These individuals can be quite masculine, over-functioning, and independent; they fear depending on others and self incompetence. To aid these complexes, they need to surround themselves with people that can bring out the softer nature hiding within them; they need to see that being nurtured and loved does not diminish their strength and ability.  The conjunction brings out complexes that resemble both the positive and negative aspects, though the maternal figure is most often present like in the positive contacts. Psychic vision is very potent with the conjunction and there is an urge to serve justice with it.

Mercury-Pallas Athene  In positive aspects and the conjunction, we see individuals with immense creative intellect. These people are often leaders in the fields of science, art,  politics, and law. People look to these individuals for their ability to strategize and look at the whole picture. As Pallas Athene touches the planet of communication, these individuals will often have a powerful voice, especially for those who don’t and are in need of justice. They can make for great advocates for gender and sexuality issues.  In the negative aspects, such as the square or opposition, we see individuals who struggles to have a voice on gender and sexuality issues, or just in general. These people can find their voice by making connections with others who share similar issues and by being part of a group setting.

Venus-Pallas Athene  The Venus contacts to Pallas Athene can be quite similar to the Sun contacts in that the complexes surrounding feminine expression tend to be the same. In the negative aspects, such as the square or opposition, there is the same repulsion towards feminine expression in oneself. It stems from fears developed from observing a patriarchal society’s perception of women and sometimes trauma. There may even be internalized misogyny present as these individuals have a tendency to reject traits that could be perceived as feminine, as they equate femininity to weakness and incompetence. These individuals present themselves as tough, rigid, unlike the others, and often androgynous or hyper masculine. They fear being taken advantage of and avoid any sign of weakness at all costs. Their inability to let their guard down can hinder close relationships; these people often deny themselves of romantic connections and keep everyone at arm's length. To cope, these individuals will put all of their focus into creative outlets and put their accomplishments on a pedestal over relationships. To aid rigidity and to reconnect with feminine expression, these individuals need to surround themselves with strong figures who are very confident in their feminine expression; they need role models and will find strength in numbers (being part of a support system). Re-education may need to be involved in the healing process as well. Exploring further with where ever Venus is in the individual’s chart and honing in on Venusian activities can really benefit this individual’s self acceptance, inner beauty, and sexuality.  In the positive aspects, such as the trine or sextile, there is radiating confidence, beauty, strength, creativity and merging of masculine and feminine energies. In these aspects is where Aphrodite and Athena meet eye to eye. These individuals are often very comfortable in their sexual expression; they tend to be drawn to feminine energies. As Pallas Athene aspects tend to make for, these individuals also tend to be express themselves androgynously, but are comfortable with feminine expression. They are very celebratory over it, similar to the Sun aspects. These individuals tend to be quite independent, but definitely not closed off. There is often an urge to utilize their strength and confidence in advocating for women’s right and issues, and it should be encouraged as these individuals are often the perfect candidate to advocate on  these issues. These individuals possess some healing abilities as well and heal others through empathy. Empathy for same-sex experiences is a prominent theme for both the positive and negative aspects; the natural connectivity or alliance with one’s gender makes them feel protected and valid.   With the conjunction, many of the themes found in the Venus-Pallas Athene aspects are intensified. Pallas Athene is somewhat personified in the individual and there is a much more radical need to demonstrate their autonomy over how they choose to express themselves. Expressing themselves through creative means is often very important and almost always contains a very Pallas Athenian message.

Mars-Pallas Athene  In positive contacts, such as a trine or sextile, Mars emphasizes that accomplishments and success can be found through Pallas Athene. Individuals with these aspects make excellent leaders, people want to nominate this type of individual to be in control and make the decisions. These individuals have a lot of drive, strength, and prestige, as well as empathy and compassion that does not diminish those qualities. There’s a keen awareness for underdogs and an urge to aid those beneath them. In feminine identifying individuals, utilizing masculine traits yields success, and in masculine identifying individuals, utilizing feminine traits yields success. Strong, lifelong companionship with the opposite sex is a common theme with these aspects as well.   With negative aspects, such as a square or opposition, there can be intense strife with the opposite sex. Additionally, strife with one’s own gendered expression; either hyper masculine or hyper feminine to conceal one side of the binary. Much of the repulsion towards one specific expression is due to societal conditioning as well as upbringing; it’s a defense mechanism to protect themselves from being perceived as either too weak or too harsh. There can be a lot of anger within the negative aspects as well; it would be best to redirect this anger towards a cause, such as advocating for women’s rights, men’s mental health support, protecting children (particularly if the 5th house is involved), environmentalism, sexual freedom, religious freedom, and so on. Therapy and support groups can aid self resentment and resentment towards the opposite sex.   With the conjunction, Pallas Athene is personified in the individual when they are challenged or angry. They may be quite radical, independent, and domineering; they are always in charge. They despise being perceived as incompetent or submissive. Pallas Athene’s strategic and cunning qualities are apparent in the conjunction as well; these individuals are not people you can fool or surpass, especially when a goal is on the line.

Jupiter-Pallas Athene  In all Jupiter contacts, Pallas Athene’s psychic foresight is present. Individuals with these aspects are blessed with intuition and wisdom. They hold valuable advice and counsel to others as well as themselves. They tend to be respected by many; their companionships and kinships are their armies.  Particularly in the positive aspects and the conjunction, these individuals would do well in politics, law, and creative arts. Serving justice is particularly important to this asteroid when in contact with Jupiter. Symbolically Jupiter is Zeus, Athena’s father, who loved and praised Athena the most out of all of his children. This may translate as an individual who had a similar positive relationship with their father; a father who is particularly proud of the individual, who may also could have been quite Jupiter-like. It also signifies the urge to be the same type of parental figure to their own children.

Saturn-Pallas Athene  With positive aspects, such as a trine or sextile, there is creative focus and prestige. The hard work from these individuals doesn’t go unnoticed. Saturn amps up Pallas Athene’s urge to serve justice; there’s often feelings of responsibility over something as big as society. These individuals would do well in law, politics, or any position of leadership. Reconstruction of societal values is a common theme with these aspects. These individuals seek change for how society perceives gender expression, sexuality, and politics. On a different side of the same coin, these individuals may have a bit of rigidity within themselves when it comes to true self expression, particularly with expressing femininity. Though, the negative aspects are considerably more stark than the positive.  With negative aspects, such as the square or opposition, there is almost always issues with the paternal figure or one of the individual’s parental figures (particularly if one parent is a stern, overfunctioner). The individual may have had high expectations held against them at a young age or there may have been a preconceived notion from a parental figure that the individual is incompetent due to how the individual expresses themselves or based on the individual’s values. The individual will feel inadequate to their peers, especially to a specific sex. There is rigidity in their expression, as mentioned earlier. These individuals may overcompensate for gendered stereotypes inflicted upon them. These individuals need to redirect their purpose for themselves and not for others. Therapy may aid them in relearning that they are not put on this planet to meet someone else’s expectations. Once confidence is regained, they can reign the creative focus, prestige, and leadership qualities that the positive aspects signify.  The conjunction can demonstrate qualities from both the positive and negative aspects and is much more potent and noticeable out of all of the Saturn aspects.

Uranus-Pallas Athene  In all Uranus-Pallas Athene contacts, there is an urge to come together with people to make change. Here is where Athena builds her army and strategically conquers and destroys harmful constructs. The aspects with Uranus are all about world betterment, particularly with issues dealing with gender and sexuality.  In positive aspects and the conjunction, Pallas Athene’s geniusness is very apparent. Individuals with these aspects often find success in sciences or anything that utilizes creative intellect. 

Neptune-Pallas Athene  In all Neptune-Pallas Athene contacts, individuals can find access to psychic power and strong intuition. These individuals have dreams of prophecy and can see far into the future. These individuals also tend to have a knack for arts that require a lot of technicalities and vision such as music and film.   People with the conjunction may find their psychic powers to be particularly potent and these people are often very spiritually aligned. Their binary expression has special importance to their spirituality. Spiritual devotion is merged with their self expression; whether that be the type of spirituality they practice or perhaps a special relatability to specific deities or energies. 

Pluto-Pallas Athene  These aspects are most apparent when it’s the conjunction or accompanied with a personal planet. These aspects give an individual the urge to really explore the psychology behind Pallas Athene complexes. There is dedication to understanding difficult constructs, particularly gender, sexual, social, political constructs. This urge is accompanied with the desire to transform the world’s beliefs, similar to the Uranus aspects.    In negative contacts, these aspects can signify this urge stemming from a place of trauma and wanting to heal and rebuild the self. 

Pallas Athene conjunct or in the house of the Ascendant  Athena is personified in the individual. These are people of strength, prestige, wit, and beauty. They possess the creative vision this world needs. These people break societal norms through their self expression and defy gender and sexual stereotypes. 

Pallas Athene conjunct or in the house of the Imum Coeli  Here the asteroid is quite concealed as it is furthest away from the spotlight (midheaven) and squares the ascendant. These people tend to not outwardly express Pallas Athenian qualities unless certain aspects demonstrate otherwise. Pallas Athene’s psychic qualities are more awoken here as the individual identifies Pallas Athene inwardly.   There may be a very Pallas Athenian person in this individual’s family or they are somewhat of a Athena-archetype themselves to their family (most loved child, most outspoken, known for creative intellect, etc.)

Pallas Athene conjunct or in the house of the Descendent  These individuals encounter or even draw in many Pallas Athenian-like people. Either that because they are drawn to these types of people or their projection out into the world brings them about as a way of balancing the individual or teaching them something they don’t see within themselves. These individuals tend to have a particularly fondness (platonic, romantic, or sexual) to their own gender.

Pallas Athene conjunct or in the house of the Midheaven  Here the asteroid is furthest away from home (Imum Coeli) and squares the ascendant. These individuals may possess some of the complexes Pallas Athene signifies on gender and sexual expression. There may be maternal absence and there is almost always a hyperfixation on career and success over relationships. These individuals are often the leaders in their workplace, if not, they still walk to the beat of their own drum and tend to be well respected. They may confuse the respect they earn by how they express themselves rather than their actual accomplishments. This can cause some difficulty around being true to oneself in terms of self expression. They need to seperate who they are being a factor in what they can accomplish and be known for.

© - @star-astrology 2021 / All rights reserved.

[twin-azure-dragon-wave]

I posted 577 times in 2021

217 posts created (38%)

360 posts reblogged (62%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1.7 posts.

I added 975 tags in 2021

#sessrin - 174 posts

#yashahime - 129 posts

#hanyo no yashahime - 127 posts

#sesshomaru - 120 posts

#rin - 103 posts

#sesshoumaru - 69 posts

#setsuna - 68 posts

#sesshomaru and rin - 65 posts

#sessrin fanart - 63 posts

#yashahime season 2 - 57 posts

Longest Tag: 120 characters

#sesshomaru made rin wait around so much while he went off on side quests and now she's getting 14 years worth of revenge

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

One of the things I like about Sesshomaru and Rin’s relationship is that Rin doesn’t just show up and turn Sesshomaru’s entire worldview completely upside down, but that she does this without even intending to. 

Like, she isn’t trying to change his opinions about humans, she doesn’t appoint herself his ″here’s why humanity is worth caring about” teacher, she isn’t subjecting him to speeches extoling human virtues or explaining why compassion is important, actually.

She’s just herself. And being around her affects him deeply enough that it fundamentally alters his way of thinking. Rin’s influence on Sesshomaru is remarkable because it comes about in such a pure, organic way.

It’s also fitting because Sesshomaru’s initial, positive influence on Rin is also completely unintentional. When he asks about her bruises, he’s not trying to commiserate or offer himself up as a sympathetic figure—He’s just genuinely curious.

Sesshomaru’s original voice actor, Ken Narita said Sesshomaru and Rin were like kindred spirits and that comes across in the easy, natural, uncomplicated way their characters suit each others needs and affect positive change in the other.

138 notes • Posted 2021-09-15 11:51:16 GMT

#4

Rin and her agency as a character

One of the most nonsensical criticisms of SessRin I’ve come across is that Rin marrying Sesshomaru somehow keeps her from developing her own agency. First, because I really don’t understand how she would lack agency if she married Sesshomaru but not if she married like, literally anyone else, and secondly, because Rin already does and always has had agency in her relationship with Sesshomaru.

Hell, the entire reason Rin gets left in Kaede’s village at the end of the series is specifically so she’ll have the tools necessary to know how she should wield that agency. And during the series, the only times Sesshomaru ever makes decisions for her or tries to tell her what to do, it’s because her life is in mortal danger.

Rin always having agency in her relationship with Sesshomaru goes right back to the very beginning. From her very first appearance.

Rin is the one who finds and approaches Sesshomaru when he’s injured in the forest.

Rin is the one who shows him compassion and offers him food.

Rin is the one who persist in trying to help him even after he demands that she leave.

Rin is the one who runs in his direction when she’s being chased by wolves.

Rin is the one whose smile makes him to decide to save her life.

And Rin is the one who chooses to become a part of his life when she follows him after being revived.

The fact that Rin and Sesshomaru relationship already gives so much agency to Rin would be obvious if the “fans” actually treated her like a character in her own right and gave her the credit she deserved for the true impact she had on his character development. Rin is someone who affected and influenced Sesshomaru with her specific actions and her unique personality. And NOT because he’s some bullshit “Protector of Children.”

That’s why they need to deny that she has, or ever could, have agency when it comes to Sesshomaru. It’s the only way to justify their feelings that Rin has no business at Sesshomaru’s side, that she should be perpetually behind him, a forever child they don’t have to worry about coming between them and their ship.

141 notes • Posted 2021-10-14 10:55:32 GMT

#3

Cover designs from the official Hanyo no Yashahime manga drawn by Shiina Takashi.

(Credit: https://twitter.com/AlphaBT__inyshM)

201 notes • Posted 2021-09-24 06:00:25 GMT

#2

They released the second chapter of Takashi Shiina’s Yashahime manga today. No translation yet, BUT LOOK AT THE SESSRIN. LOOK AT IT!!!!!

207 notes • Posted 2021-10-24 17:31:43 GMT

#1

568 notes • Posted 2021-10-16 12:09:49 GMT

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[virovac]

Nature of  Ghouls

Lovecraftian Xenology #3: Ghouls [by  Leila Hann Before continuing with Carter and the Pussycats, I'm going to be taking a closer look at the creatures that made their debut in "Pickman's Model" before receiving their official name here in "Dream-Quest." This is going to be a tricky one. Reading "Pickman's Model" in isolation gives you a very strong impression of the ghouls, what they are, and where they come from. However, reading it alongside the other, earlier Dreamlands tales - particularly "Celephais" and "The Festival" - one walks away with a completely different interpretation. As for their reappearance in "Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," well. On one hand "Dream-Quest" does silly things with other stories' continuities and perhaps should be best ignored. On the other, in the case of the ghouls, "Dream-Quest" not only expands on them in much greater detail than their debut story ever did, but is also the source of their official name. As such, I'm going to be taking the continuity approach, and looking at the ghouls within the framework of the Dreamlands series as a whole. ​The funny thing about "Pickman's Model" is that while the narrator is probably reliable, he's mostly relaying information that he learned from Richard Pickman, who seems to be much less so. As I noted while reading that story, there's a very obvious disconnect between the actions that Pickman depicted the ghouls performing in his art - particularly the "Subway Accident" piece - and what they could have possibly really done. Throughout his presentation, Pickman comes across as very much a showman, trying to create fear and horror in his audience and reveling mean-spiritedly in his success. Then, there's the detail of him interacting with the ghoul who tried to walk in on him and the narrator in the same way that a circus animal-tamer would with an unruly beast; not at all what you'd expect from a man who's trying to talk down a sapient, malevolent, possibly transhuman demon. As such, I think we need to take Pickman's art with a hefty grain of salt when it comes to inferring things about his models. This is supported by the ghouls' appearance in "Dream-Quest." They are described as hideous, frightening, and generally unpleasant, but they don't seem to be all that dangerous (unlike the zoogs, who are said to be dangerous to MOST people besides Carter, the ghouls don't even get an aside to this effect). Other than their antisocial habit of eating bodies from cemeteries that the deceased's friends and families would probably rather stay in their coffins, they really don't seem so bad. As far as the stories have reliably communicated, the ghouls are thieves and desecrators, but not the murderers and causers of disaster and misfortune that Pickman would want us to believe in. In fact, everything about the ghouls, from their appearance to their diet to their penchant for tombstones, scary noises, and dark, underground spaces, says that they aren't a force of destruction so much as one of horror. And, looking at "Pickman's Model" from that angle, we can definitely see how Pickman was helping them grow stronger in their element. Camel Spiders and Harnessed Horrors There's an animal called a solifugid, also called a pseudoscorpion or a camel-spider, that came to the western public's attention some time ago. Its a scary-looking arachnid, and one that you could easily believe was deadly if you saw it. Solifugids are mostly nocturnal, and so when they're forced to venture out of their lairs during the day they prefer to stick to the shadows...including the shadows of people, which they will chase after for that purpose. They're fast enough to keep up with a running human, and the rubbing of their legs when they move creates a squealing noise that could easily be mistaken for an aggressive vocalization. They also are always on the lookout for soft fibers to line their nests with; they got the name "camel spider" by being seen climbing on the bodies of dead or sleeping camels to cut off bits of their hair. In some cultures, this association was so great that people came to believe that the solifugids had actually killed the camels themselves. Less commonly, solifugids will crawl up onto the head of a sleeping human for similar hair-stealing operations. More than one American soldier sleeping in a tent in Iraq or Saudi Arabia has been woken up by a six inch specimen crawling across their face to see it opening its deadly-looking mouthparts just below their hairline. The solifugid is also completely harmless. In fact, its one of the only members of the arachnid class to have no venom whatsoever. It can even be a beneficial creature to have around, as it preys heavily on other arachnids including spiders and scorpions that actually are dangerous. During the early to mid 2000's, there was a rash of hoaxes about solifugids growing to lobster-size, being venomous, and even using a fictitious numbing agent to paralyze sleeping humans so they can slowly disembowel them alive. Someone was finding a misanthropic delight in taking this creature, which seems to have been practically designed by nature for this purpose with its appearance and habits, and crafting it into an instrument of irrational fear. This fear didn't come from nowhere, mind. The legend of the camel-spider harnesses the very rational human fears of venomous insects and being threatened in your sleep. But it takes those abstract rational fears and uses them to prop up a concrete figurehead of horror that is, itself, irrational. I'm an amateur horror writer myself, and I fell in love with the solifugids the instant I learned about them. I even had the pleasure of meeting a few during my time in the Arava Desert. I don't think that my soft spot for these arthropods and my choice of genres is a coincidence. In the Dreamlands, the cruel realities of the universe seem to be embodied in the Outer Gods, and anthropomorphized in their soul and messenger Nyarlathotep. If the ghouls are, as Pickman's art implied, meant to be like the witches of Puritan superstition, responsible for everything that goes wrong for humanity at the whims of a universe beyond our control, then it would make sense for them to be minions of Nyarlathotep. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for Lovecraft to cast them as such in "Dream-Quest" if that was really his intent; the story already calls for Nyarlathotep's agents to appear in numerous scenes, and the ghouls could have been among them. But they aren't. Instead, Carter meets the ghouls back on Dreamlands Earth, in entirely friendly circumstances, with them as the loyal servants of Carter's (trans)human friend Pickman. The ghouls are creatures of the relatable and imaginative Gods of Earth, not the apathetic and inhuman Gods of Space. Rather than being a cause or manifestation of our problems, the ghouls might even be one of our defenses against them. The witch was created so that we would have some kind of enemy to hunt down and revenge ourselves on when we suffer a tragedy caused by impersonal forces of nature such as disease or weather. The boogeyman in the closet exists because the darkness it hides in is so much worse, and putting a FACE on the unknown lets us believe that we can deal with it in a form we understand. The ghouls are indeed connected to the nightmarish witch superstitions that Pickman referenced, but it is a metafictional connection: they are the legend of the witch and boogeyman, and an embodiment of the psychology that leads to the birth of those legends. They harness the rational fears of human powerlessness, victimhood, and mortality, and embody them as an irrational archetype-creature, and in this form - as Carter just demonstrated in the latest episode of "Dream-Quest" - our fears can be useful tools. Even if the purpose of that tool is just confronting other people with their fears for fun and (in the case of Lovecraft, King, etc) profit. At several points in both "Pickman's Model" and "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," Lovecraft described the ghouls as being "gargoyle-like." They even look a lot like Gothic gargoyles, with their doglike faces, hoofed feet, and (in the case of at least one or two specimens that Lovecraft described) devilish horns. The purpose of the gargoyles in the European cathedrals wasn't to honor or appease the Devil; it was to mock him, and thereby rob him of some of his power. Ghoul-Changelings and Pickman's Transformation Given that Earth's Dreamlands are shaped by metaphors and symbolism taken from the subconscious of human dreamers (at least in part), its hard to say what is and isn't "literally" true about its inhabitants. Unlike most Dreamlands creatures, however, the ghouls are quite active in the waking world as well if only for brief periods at a time. As such, there are some objective observations that can be made. 1) Ghouls inhabit a network of caves in the Dreamlands' deep underground that contains portals to various urban dungeons and necropoli in the waking world, particularly in the New England area where the dream-sorcerers may have interacted with or even deliberately summoned them. 2) Ghouls eat the corpses of humans and other sapient creatures that they recover from both the waking world and the Dreamlands, but seem to be less interested in live prey. They also collect old tombstones and grave-goods. 3) After they've finished eating, the ghouls toss the bones into the chasm beneath their cave complex, which over time has become positively covered in bones, and attracted giant worm scavengers. 4) Richard Upton Pickman turned into a ghoul. The former three points are fairly self explanatory. The fourth, however, raises a lot of questions. In Pickman's art, he portrayed ghouls exchanging their own young with human babies in the classic fairy changeling mould, with both the changelings and the stolen babies eventually becoming ghouls themselves. Pickman also portrayed a Puritan-era changeling that bore a great physical resemblance to himself. Some readers have taken this to mean that rather than simply being a descendant of the Native American dream-sorcerers like Carter, Pickman was the descendant of a ghoul changeling, and the character he depicted in that painting was one of his own ancestors. Others, that Pickman was himself just one of many changelings from throughout history, and that he identified himself with an earlier New England instance out of whimsy. However, I find it a bit conspicuous that while Carter identified the fully transformed ghoul-Pickman and specified that he had once been human, he never mentions the possibility of any of the other ghouls being the same. Thus, its possible that what happened to Pickman is actually unique, or at least very rare, and that the changeling scenario depicted in his art was purely symbolic of the horror-artist's role as a devil's advocate to the rest of humanity and an ambassador to the dark forces of the universe. ​ Pickman's transformation. ​I'm inclined to believe that what caused Pickman's transformation was not him being a ghoul pup switched with a human at birth, but a product of him being both a) an almost obsessive devotee of horror, and b) a powerful dreamer with access to the Dreamlands, perhaps helped along in accessing them by some recovered magic from his oneiromancer ancestors just like Carter was. It could even be that rather than his art depicting something that had or could have already happened with the ghoul-transformation, Pickman's acts of imagining and drawing a transformation were what CREATED THE POSSIBILITY for such a transformation to actually happen. An idea of his was made real through the power of his dreaming, warping his own flesh into one of his ghouls in a similar - but more visceral - manner as Kyle being transformed into Kuranes. Another question about Pickman's transformation pertains to him having mostly forgotten how to speak English by the time Carter met him again in the Dreamlands. Did his transformation rob him of his English, or did he just forget it after spending so long in the Dreamlands interacting only with other ghouls? For that matter, how long HAD Pickman been a ghoul by the time Carter stumbled into the bone pit? Months? Years? Centuries? Time in the Dreamlands seems to work in arbitrary ways, as evidenced by how Carter can be timelooped in the waking world while living through consecutive centuries as an explorer in the Dreamlands. In "The Silver Key," we learned that the Dreamlands (or at least, Dreamlands related artifacts) can even send you BACK in time. Origins? Since time in the Dreamlands interacts in very unpredictable ways with the waking world's timeline, its very difficult to say when and where the ghouls first came into existence. Since Pickman's art is also of questionable waking world veracity, we can't really tell if the ghouls have actually been popping up in the New England witch tunnels since the 1700's, and - even if they have - they could have been born in the Dreamlands from an event that had not yet happened in the waking world's timeline and popped out of those tunnels earlier in history as we waking earthlings perceive it. Another interesting fact to point out here is that Randolph Carter, Dreamlands explorer extraordinaire, only knew about the ghouls BECAUSE he met Pickman during his waking life. Its possible that the ghouls are a manifestation of some core archetype within the human collective unconscious. The Horror, the Boogeyman, the terrifying friend to artists and writers who delight in confronting their fellow humans with humanity's frailties and fears. The creatures that appeared in the dreams of H.R. Giger and caused him to wake up in heart-stopping terror on so many different nights, and yet that he adopted and came to love. Even if his own fear of them never diminished, it became HIS fear, and they became HIS monsters, and he began to feel possessive of them and delight in sharing their terror with others who lacked his mastery over them. The creatures that appeared in the dreams of Stephen King and inspired him to turn the anxieties of the modern United States against it, while cackling about keeping the hearts of fictitious young children in his study. The creatures that haunted the dreams of H.P. Lovecraft, and inspired him to write stories like "Pickman's Model," delighting in his own ability to scare Weird Tales' readers just as Pickman delighted in scaring the narrator. There is a moment in "Pickman's Model" when the ghoul walks in on them and Pickman has to go make it leave, when PICKMAN HIMSELF is described as looking terrified. And yet, despite that, he was able to reassert control over the ghoul and command it to leave him alone until he wanted it to return. I suspect that if Pickman ever stopped being afraid of the ghouls himself, they would have abandoned him and sought a fresh artist to inspire. Such is the relationship between the horrorist and the monster. There is another possibility, though. And that is that rather than being a universal manifestation of horror that serve as muses to numerous masters of the craft, the ghouls are the specific nightmare-turned-minion of one specific master of horror. Kyle/Kuranes dreamed Celephais and its people into existence, and then abandoned the waking world entirely to rule them for all time. What might another instance of this look like, if the dreamer in question was less of a sensitive too-good-for-this-world melancholic, and more of an angry misanthrope with a fixation with his Salem ancestry and an almost monomaniacal obsession with showing us fear in a handful of grave-dust? Perhaps it was just Richard Upton Pickman who loved his own, personal, imaginary monsters so much. And, through the power of the Dreamlands, they were able to love him back.​

So ghouls are a combination of guardians, Halloweentown, and irreverance of 4chan.

A more benevolent take than my past one.

[miayehoni]

God of Contracts and God of War (spoilers to basically everything)

So! Made a post earlier about Zhongli actually being the “God of Contracts” and not “God of War” and decided to clarify my points a bit. But first things first! People are free to portray him how they want in their works, it was never my intention to make it seem like I was against that. My point is: there is an actual god of war in game, she will eventually be released, and what the difference to someone getting the title ‘god of war’ by the people and actually being a god of war are

First of, Zhongli’s titles: he himself will mention in game that Rex Lapis has many names and titles, including ‘god of war’. That is actually something I would find weird if it didn’t happen; on mortal eyes, a god capable of chucking those huge land-shaping spears would have to be a god of war. However, a title is just that: a name someone gives, and that can often be passed on (like Jean being the current Dandelion Knight, of Dvalin no longer being one of the Four Winds).

Unlike his title, Zhongli won’t stop being the god of contracts, just like Venti didn’t stop being the god of freedom once he lost his gnosis. His actions are made on his belief in contracts and fairness. How he acts is always based on that, going to war is no exception. Another title example that comes from his contract-based lifestyle is ‘God of Commerce’; in his story quest, he comments on how Mora came to be only because it was a useful tool to measure fairness in a contract (not a word by word, mihoyo pls release the travel log asap).

Worth mentioning: In Historia Antiqua, Havra, the God of Salt, was considered by her followers a powerful god, when in reality she was weak and fled from battles. How a god is called/titled will change based on how the people see them, no matter who/how they actually were.

The in game bits of lore will also reinforce this, and I wanna point out two in particular: Prithiva Topaz Gemstone (Geo Ascension Stone) and Agnidus Agate Gemstone (Pyro Ascension Stone)

The description of those items are:

* The currencies that flow through this land are my flesh and blood.

For thus did I become the guarantor of the people's hard work, wisdom, and future.

This is the trust I have placed in them. Betray it, and you taint my blood.

* A pilgrimage for a wish; a battle to earn a name...

Burnt to cinders for a dream.

If the intention yet remains, achieved —'s truth he has.

Geo ascension item brings once again the notion of contracts, and the price of breaking them (just like his punishments in Historia Antiqua), while the Pyro one will make mention of battles. All ascension items have a bit of their Archon ideals, though not directly (IIRC the Hydro one does mention Justice, therefore being the exception). The geo one being about the most common contract examples and the pyro one mentioning battles is quite telling.

There are, of course, the most obvious bits of lore: Venti calling her ‘Lady of War”, Zhongli praising the Kites in the Rite of Passing and, about hers, saying “war rages like a flame”, and, the nail in the coffin to me, the Teyvat Chapter Storyline preview.

In the video, Dainsleif will call him directly “God of Contracts”, and call Pyro Archon “God of War”. He mentions all of the archons by what they are god of (the exception: Cryo Archon, but it is implied she is the God of Love. However, not only it’s not the focus of this post, but I also am not theorizing right now and going only with what is actually stated)

Another point worth mentioning is that not all geo archons will be the “God of Contracts”. That is shown with Venti and Decarabian; both anemo archons, one is “God of Freedom”, the other is “God of Storms”. What they are god of is not a ‘passable’/inheritable title, but part of who they are.

This got very long and I’m not completely sure if I managed to mention everything I wanted, but please share your opinions! Lore discussions are always fun, and people always have different views/catch different details :)

[linkspooky]

Muzan and Tanjiro: Which one of us is the real demon?

Muzan and Tanjiro like most hero and villain foils are written to oppose each other as direct opposites. However, as a writer Gotouge intentionally wrote an insane amount of details to show how much these two deeply foil and reflect each other as opposites. Everything from their motivations, to the ideas the characters each represent all reflect opposite themes in the story. I’ll explore this idea in more detail under the cut. 

1. Empathy

Tanjiro’s central definiting trait is his empathy. Even though he’s fighting against literal demons, he sees every last demon he fights as a human in the end. While he does not forgive them and still condemns them for their actions, he still acknowledges that all of them were humans at one point and tries his best to respect their feelings. 

He makes men out of monsters in their final moments. In their final moment he tries to be respectful to their feelings and show them the empathy they were denied in life, saving them in what little way they can. This is exactly in reverse to the way Muzan appears in people’s lives. 

Muzan always shows up at the weakest moments of the people he takes advantage of. He shows up when Kaigaku fell into despair over his inability to surpass his brother, he showed up when Akaza fell into despair after losing everything. Muzan acts the opposite way of Tanjiro. While Tanrjio kills the demons but offers them humanity and empathy in their last fleeting moments of life, Muzan gives them another chance to live but completely strips them of their humanity. 

Tanjiro offers empathy and understanding to everyone he meets, Muzan offers it to nobody. You can see it in their reverse reactions to Yoriichi. 

Tanjiro understands that ultimately, Yorichii is a very melancholy person who just wanted to have a family, and a small amount of happiness but was again and again called to fight even though he hated it. He saw the human side behind the genius swordsman that was Yoriichi. 

Even though Yorichii failed to protect everything he wanted to protect, his wife and child, his own brother, even though he was expelled from the order of demon slayers Tanjiro wanted to tell him that his life was not a waste. To Tanjiro, every single individual life has worth. 

Muzan however, is only able to see Yoriichi as a monster. He only sees Yoriichi for his talent with the sword, breathing techniques, and nothing else. This is how Muzan sees people. He strips them down to their use. He could not care less about Yoriichi’s life story, the person he is. He sees the sword in his hand and nothing more. 

Muzan sees all of the upper moons as existing entirely for his sake. They are tools. He refuses to see them as individuals. He sees them as merely parts of his own body. He gets frustrated when they can’t perfectly carry out his orders. No matter what they do for him he’s never satisfied, because they can’t act truly like tools. 

Tanjiro will always see others as individuals with their own feelings and stories, whereas Muzan’s consists entirely of himself. That’s the central difference between them and that leads to the way they perceive themselves. 

2. A Man and a Monster

Tanjiro’s greatest priority will always be the lives of other people around him. Muzan’s greatest priority will always be his own life. This is why Tanjiro has to absolutely reject everything about how Muzan is. This confrontation at the beginning of their fight is very telling. 

Muzan sees nobody but himself as a person, and Muzan doesn’t even see himself as a person. He equates himself to a force of nature killing indiscrimminately. 

Muzan denies his own humanity and denies the humanity of his victim. It’s important to remember the position these two begin the story at. Muzan is the strongest being in existence. Stronger than even the one who invented all of the breathing techniques. So strong he can instantly regenerate no matter how much damage he takes. Muzan simply doesn’t need to see other people as people. He believes his strength puts him in a position fundamentally higher than him. He seems himself as a mindless force of nature, a being above others, basically a god. He’s the embodiment of might makes right. Fighting against him is pointless because he’s so strong he can trample on whoever he pleases. There’s no need for him to regard the feelings of whoever he’s trampled on. 

Tanjiro who sees the humanity in everybody has to reject someone who acts completely inhuman. It’s important to look at their arcs and where they both came from as well. Both Muzan and Tanjiro started from places of weakness. Tanjiro since the start of the story has been told that if he’s not strong he doesn’t get to decide anything. He has no rights. He has no choices. That his kindness will only ever be an obstacle to him, a weakness that gets in his way and makes him unnecessarily vulnerable. 

Tanjiro is a character who has to continually fight his own weakness and struggle against it, how useless he is, how he cannot help the people he wants to help. His arc has been finding strength without throwing away his kindness, or his humanity. 

Then we see Muzan who made the exact opposite choice of Tanjiro. They both come from similiar circumtsances. Tanjiro is the lone survivor of an attack that killed the rest of his family while he was away, and even if he was there he would have been completely powerless to help them. Muzan is someone who was so sickly he was going to die before he was twenty. They were both weak and had no control over their own fates. 

Tanjiro has always blamed himself for his own weakness, whereas Muzan from the start blamed others. His very first action is to kill the man who only tried to help him. 

They were both weak and powerless once. However, strength is something that Tanjiroearns slowly, while Muzan is given it on a silver platter. All Muzan had to do was drink a magic medicine and suddenly he was the strongest being on earth. Tanjiro is someone who had to continually struggle against himself in order to go stronger. 

Muzan, always, always, always, blames his problems on the other people around him. The key difference between the two characters is how they obtain their agency, that is how they accomplish what they want to do. How they make their choices have meaning. The unfair world states the weak have no choices and no rights, so how do they reclaim both of those for themselves. Muzan gains agency by stealing it away from others. 

Muzan thinks he should have the freedom to do whatever, because he lived most of his life sickly and always chained to a bed. His goal is always to preserve his own life at the cost of everybody else’s. That’s why he has absolutely no qualms at all at taking from others. 

Tanjiro is someone fundamentally who struggles to give to others. What he wants is to be able to do something that will matter to the others around him. Even their central goals are opposite. Tanjiro wants to return humanity to his sister. He’s spent his entire quest toiling for the survival of someone else to give them their humanity back. Muzan only wants to obtain something for himself that will make his survival more likely. Muzan from the start has only ever been concerned about his own survival, and only cares about continuing his life forever. 

That’s why Muzan can’t comprehend someone like Tanrjio, or Yoriichi. He thinks individual strength means that you protect yourself and your own life above everything else. Muzan’s actions are always about continuing his own fragile life, obtaining the perfect immortal body so no one can kill him, and nothing else. However, Yoriichi and Tanjiro are both people who give all of themselves to others. He cannot even begin to comprehend how they fight with no regards to their own lives. 

Muzan is someone who lives in constant fear of his own mortality. Despite being the most powerful being on earth, he’s always afraid, he’s always hiding himself, and he’s always alone. He’s a coward ultimately. The only way Muzan can feel safe is if he has the perfect immortal body that can never be hurt or harmed and therefore he will never have to die. Tanjiro however, is someone who keeps on fighting long after Muzan has declared him dead. Not for hismelf but for others. Therefore he is incomprehensible to the demon. It’s extreme selfishness vs extreme selflessness, it’s more about the ideas that each character represents as they clash rather than the characters themselves. 

Tanjiro carries heavy themes of existentialism. What gives his existence meaning is what he gives to the other people around him. Because he is able to have connections, even though he’s an individually small and very weak person his life feels like it meant something. Not only that but Tanjiro tries to give meaning to the lives of everybody he meets, no matter how small. He sees even small and weak people as people who’s deaths matter. Even people just quietly living their heads down matter to somebody. Tanjiro also sees himself as a part of the cycle with everybody. He admits that his own life is also small as well but even if he dies, he thinks the people he’s met so far will be able to continue without him. Tanjiro utlimately sees himself as a very normal person but states that normal people just living their lives have worth. 

Muzan sees everything as worthless. The demons take a very moral nihilism point of view. This is most embodied in Doma, but Muzan has shades of it too. The people who dead are dead. It ends there. There’s no meaning. Anyone can die at any time so why fuss over it? Tanjiro is trying to give worth to every individual little life he encouters, whereas Muzan is someone who strips away worth from everyone. And once again these are existentialist ideas. What is it that creates meaning in our lives? 

Muzan views himself as someone outside of the cycle. He’s a natural disaster. He’s a storm. He’s a special existence outside of everybody else. It’s exactly because he sees himself as special that he sees everything else as worthless in comparison to him. 

They also have completely opposite thematic ideas of mortality. Muzan sees death as the opposite of life. The absolute worst thing possible. His entire motivation is to avoid death in any way possible. Whereas, Tanjiro is someone who accepts his own mortality as a part of living. He knows full well that he may die. While he finds death to be a sad thing, rather than be terrified of it and spend his entire life running away from those feelings like Muzan he struggles to find a way to live on carrying the deaths of his comrades, the deaths of his family, and the knowledge that one day he will die because death is a natural part of his life. 

This is a theme that repeats itself in the series again and again. The demons extend their lives long past the time they were originally supposed to die, but depsite living for hundreds of lives they live mostly empty lives that amount to nothing more than prolonging their own lives. 

Whereas humans who are much weaker, much more fragile, who die much younger than the demons do end up living lives full of other people because they cared about something more than just trying to extend their own lives and live for themselves. 

The humans live short tragic lives, but they find a little bit of happiness from that. The demon lives long lives but they ultimately gain nothing from it in the end. Both humans and demons leave meaningless lives, but humans create their own meaning while demons just flaunt the meaninglessness of their own lives. They’re prolonging empty, miserable lives, devoid of all the things that make human life worth living. Muzan isn’t even a person, he’s just a void, there’s nothing in his life but himself. He’s strong but that’s all he is

Muzan is ultimately someone who’s strength does not matter because he only uses it for himself. Despite being the strongest person on earth, he’s undone by simple tricks. He’s defeated by people who are far weaker than him. He’s undone by his own power. 

Muzan’s last ditch move to save himself shows him for what he really is inside. He’s not a demon, he’s barely even a person. Because Muzan’s priority is always protecting himself and never letting others in he’s basically reduced to an infant. He’s egocentric like a child. His point of view is the only one that exists in the whole world. 

Which is why Muzan dies alone without a single ally in the world. It goes beyond the simple shonen idea of “the villain has no nakama power” Muzan literally doesn’t see other people as people. He’s so fundamentally unable to connect to other people in the way that Tanrjio does that he’s infantile and immature. He’s not a demon just a total failure of a person. 

[collegeburnoutsuperstar]

Social Distancing Book Recs

I’ve been getting tons of book recommendations from friends and family to help get through social distancing/self-quarantine, so I thought I should share some of my favorite books with everybody!

Horror/Apocalyptic: *all books are ADULT*

- The Stand by Stephen King “This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides -- or are chosen” (Goodreads Summary).

- Inferno by Dan Brown “Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital, disorientated and with no recollection of the past thirty-six hours, including the origin of the macabre object hidden in his belongings. With a relentless female assassin tailing them through Florence, he and his resourceful doctor, Sienna Brooks, are forced to flee. Embarking on a harrowing journey, they must unravel a series of codes, which are the work of a brilliant scientist whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written, Dante Alighieri’s The Inferno” (Goodreads Summary).

- World War Z by Max Brooks “The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, form decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years” (Goodreads summary).

- It by Stephen King “It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real... They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name” (Goodreads summary).

- The Shining by Stephen King “Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic locations feels ever more remote... and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old” (Goodreads summary).

- House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski “[House of Leaves] focuses on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of the impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of the unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams” (Goodreads summary).

Comedy:

- Good Omens by Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchett “People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be skeptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. But what if, for once, the predictions are right, and the apocalypse really is due to arrive next Saturday, just after tea? You could spend the time left drowning your sorrows, giving away all your possessions in preparation for the rapture, or laughing it off as (hopefully) just another hoax. Or you could just try to do something about it. It’s a predicament that Aziraphale, a somewhat fussy angel, and Crowley, a fast-living demon now finds themselves in. They’ve been living amongst Earth’s mortals since The Beginning and, truth be told, have grown rather fond of the lifestyle and, in all honesty, are not actually looking forward to the coming Apocalypse. And then there’s the small matter that someone appears to have misplaced the Antichrist... “ (Goodreads summary).

- Dad Is Fat by Jim Gaffigan *PG-13* Dad is Fat is a comedic memoir that details Jim Gaffigan’s life growing up in a large Catholic family to his experiences as a husband and father (specifically parenting his five young children while living in a tiny walk-up apartment in New York). I highly recommend the audiobook (which is narrated by Jim Gaffigan), my family and I always listen to it during road trips. It never stops being funny. 

- Bored of the Rings: A Parody of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings by The Harvard Lampoon *ADULT* “A quest, a war, a ring that would be grounds for calling any wedding off, a king without a kingdom, and a little, furry ‘hero’ named Frito, ready -- or maybe just forced by the wizard of Goodgulf-- to undertake the one mission which can save Lower Middle Earth from enslavement by the evil Sorhed… Luscious Elfmaidens, a roller-skating dragon, ugly plants that can soul-kiss the unwary to death-- these are just some of the ingredients in the wildest, wackiest, most irreverent excursion into fantasy realms that anyone has ever dared to undertake” (Goodreads summary).

Middle-Grade:

- Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan (book 1: The Lightning Thief) “Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can’t seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy’s mom finds out, she knows it’s time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he’ll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends-- one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena-- Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods” (Goodreads summary).

- The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan (book 1: The Lost Hero) “Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper, and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for ‘bad kids.’ What id Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare about his being in trouble. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits during the school trip, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out. Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too-- like the curse everyone keeps talking about, and some camper who’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them--including Leo-- is related to a god. Does this have anything to do with Jason’s amnesia, or the fact that Leo keeps seeing ghosts?” (Goodreads summary)

- The Children of the Red King series by Jenny Nimmo (book 1: Midnight for Charlie Bone) “Charlie Bone has a special gift-- he can hear people in photographs talking! The fabulous powers of the Red King were passed down through his descendants, after turning up quite unexpectedly, in someone who had no idea where they came from. This is what happened to Charlie Bone, and to some of the children he met behind the grim, gray walls of Bloor’s Academy. His scheming aunts decide to send him to Bloor’s Academy, a school for geniuses where he uses his grifts to discover the truth despite all the dangers that lie ahead” (Goodreads summary).

- Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements “Bobby Phillips is an average fifteen-year-old boy. Until the morning he wakes up and can’t see himself in the mirror. Not blind, not dreaming. Bobby is just plain invisible... There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to Bobby’s new conditions; even his dad the physicist can’t figure it out. For Bobby that means no school, no friends, no life. He’s a missing person” (Goodreads summary).

Science Fiction:

- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick *Adult*  “It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill. Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard’s assignment-- find them and then... ‘retire’ them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn’t want to be found!” (Goodreads summary).

- Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton * Suitable for Young Adults* “An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them-- for a price. Until something goes wrong...” (Goodreads summary). 

Fantasy:

- The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman *ADULT* (book 1: The Magicians) “Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart” (Goodreads summary).

- The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater *YA* (book 1: The Raven Boys) “What do you know about Welsh kings?” This incredibly atmospheric story centers on a seemingly random group of teens as they uncover the mysterious and magical secrets of their small Virginia town.

- A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab *Suitable for Young Adults* “Kell is one of the last Antari-- magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black. Kell was raised in Arnes-- Red London-- and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III  in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure. Now perilous magic is afoot, and treacher lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive” (Goodreads summary).

- The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien *Suitable for middle-grade through adult* “In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord. forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken form him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom” (Goodreads summary).

- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss *Adult* “Told in Kvothe’s own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen. The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bit to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story” (Goodreads summary).

- The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch *Adult* “An orphan’s life is harsh-- and often short-- in the mysterious island city of Camorr. But youge Locke Lamora dodges death and slavery, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentleman Bastards, Loke is soon infamous, fooling even the underworld’s most feared ruler. But in the shadows lurks someone still more ambitious and deadly. Faced with a bloody coup that threatens to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the enemy at his own brutal game-- or die trying” (Goodreads summary).

Fiction:

- The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich *ADULT mystery-thrillers/romance* (book 1: One for the Money) “You’ve lost your job as a department store lingerie buyer, your car’s been repossessed, and most of your furniture and small appliances have been sold off to pay last month’s rent. Now the rent is due again. And you live in New Jersey. What do you do? If you’re Stephanie Plum, you become a bounty hunter. But not just a nickel-and-dime bounty hunter; you go after the big money. That means a cop gone bad. And not just any cop. She goes after Joe Morelli, a disgraced former vice cop who is also the man who took Stephanie’s virginity at age 16 and the wrote details on a bathroom wall. With pride and rent money on the line, Plum plunges headlong into her first case, one that pits her against ruthless adversaries - people who’d rather kill than lose” (Goodreads summary).

- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown *Adult* “While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci-- clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter. Even more startling, the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion-- a secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Victory Hugo, and Da Vici-- and he guarded a breathtaking historical secret. Unless Landon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle-- while avoiding the faceless adversary who shadows their every move-- the explosive, ancient truth will be lost forever” (Goodreads summary).

- Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle *Adult* Sherlock Holmes stories are always fun when stuck at home.

- 11/22/63 by Stephen King *Adult* “Life can turn on a dime-- or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine. While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer slaughter of his entire family, Jake is blown away... but an even more bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession-- to prevent the Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the ear of Ike and Elvis, or big American cars, sock hops, and cigarette smoke... Finding himself in warmhearted Jodie, Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten... and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful” (Goodreads summary).

Non-Fiction:

- The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson *Adult* “In 1979 a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the U.S. Army. Defying all known accepted military practice-- and indeed, the laws of physics-- they believed that a soldier could adopt a cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls, and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them. Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren’t joking. What’s more, they’re back and fighting the War on Terror. With firsthand access to the leading players in the story, Ronson traces the evolution of these bizarre activities over the past three decades and shows how they are alive today within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and in postwar Iraq. Why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners of war with the theme tune to Barney the Purple Dinosaur? Why have 100 debleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces Command Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? How was the U.S. military associated with the mysterious mass suicide of a strange cult form San Diego? The Men Who Stare at Goats answers these and many more questions” (Goodreads summary).

- Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert *Adult* (I recommend listening to the audiobook, which is narrated by Elizabeth Gilbert) “To recover from [an early midlife crisis, divorce, and depression], Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world-- all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way-- unexpectedly” (Goodreads summary).

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Jason Voorhees

(WARNING! He’s back! THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK!)

...ki ki, ki, ma ma ma...

The slasher subgenre of horror has plenty of villains, but the key to any great slasher movie (aside from quality kills) is having a memorable slasher who sticks in the mind of those who watch the film. You can’t just have some generic evil guy and expect the killer to be cool and memorable; you need to give them a fun gimmick. And in the scores of slashers who populated the 80s, there are few out there who are quite as legendary and iconic as Jason Voorhees. Jason is one of those few villains who, even if you’ve never seen a single one of his movies, you’d know on sight.

Even now, with him being absent from cinema for over a decade at the time of this writing due to legal disputes (though not from other mediums such as video games), Jason is still a household name, still remembered as one of the coolest, creepiest horror villains to come out of the 80s. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say Jason might be the greatest slasher villain of all time. So let’s take a look at the man behind the mask and see what we’ve got here.

Motivation/Goals: Jason as a villain is motivated by two main factors: a desire to make his mother proud, and a desire to get vengeance for how he was treated. The first few movies are all Jason taking out his anger over his mother’s death on anyone near Camp Crystal Lake. In earlier movies, he’d really only kill anyone who invaded his territory, but later sequels had him expand his killing range by going to Manhattan, Springwood, and even outer space. Basically, Jason is motivated by revenge against a world that persecuted him, and a desire to impress his mother. The simplicity of his motivations is actually a great strength, because it means there doesn’t need to be constant time in each new film adding on to Jason’s lore like they do with Freddy, Michael Meyers, and so on. Jason kills kids who have sex, that’s it. Simple, clean, effective, and a vehicle for cool kills.

Performance: There are a LOT of people who have put on the hockey mask throughout the franchise, but perhaps the most well-known name is Kane Hodder, the hulking actor who portrayed Jason in the seventh through the tenth films. He’s certainly the Jason that will spring to mind when thinking of Jasons, but he’s the obvious one. His actor in Freddy vs. Jason, Ken Kirzinger, was chosen because he had kind eyes and could tower over Freddy, and amusingly he actually appeared in Jason Takes Manhattan as a huge chef Jason tosses aside. Then of course we have Ari Lehman, the man who cameoed as Jason at the end of the first film in the Carrie-esque jump scare, most notable because he is so proud of his role that he named his punk rock/heavy metal band First Jason.

And these are just the few I wanted to highlight here; the original continuity is ten movies worth of actors playing Jason, and he even has multiple actors in some films.

Final Fate: It depends on the movie. His mortal life is ended by a young Tommy Jarvis in The Final Chapter, but then he comes back in Jason Lives as a zombie, a zombie who is only incapacitated until Jason Takes Manhattan where he is seemingly killed off for good by the nightly flooding of the Manhattan sewers with radioactive sludge (likely a safety measure against C.H.U.D.s). But then he comes back in Jason Goes to Hell where his original body ends up obliterated for most of the movie until the ending, but soon after he’s dragged right down to, you guessed it, Hell. But then comes Jason X, and he’s brought to space where he finally ends up obliterated for real by falling through the atmosphere of a planet and burning up. And this isn’t getting into the numerous deaths from games, comics, and so on; Jason is a man who is very hard to kill.

Best Scene: What does one pick for the best scene? His sleeping bag kill from VII? The liquid nitrogen kill from Jason X? The numerous amusing scenes he has when he actually reaches Manhattan in Jason Takes Manhattan? It’s a tough choice, but honestly. I might just have to go with his corn field rave massacre in Freddy vs. Jason. It’s just so damn cool.

Final Thoughts & Score: Jason Voorhees is one of the great early slasher villains and, most impressively of all, he managed a remarkable level of consistency until the very end, at least compared to some of is peers. Compare to Michael Meyers, who had to constantly be rebooted because filmmakers kept trying to find ways to humanize and explan his motivations to the point that franchise has a fractured timeline to rival the Zelda series, or Freddy Krueger, who deteriorated from a terrifying psychopath who treated killing like a game to a non-stop quip machine that spent more time slinging one-liners than kills. Jason, while certainly going through some odd phases – recall the time he was a weird demon worm that could surf between bodies, or the time he went to space and became a cyborg – never really lost sight of the things that truly made him effective as a character.

Yes, Jason is a silent antagonist, but he says a lot with his deeds and actions. He’s a killing machine, but he certainly isn’t mindless, and he usually seems to have some sort of ethics that perhaps we don’t understand, but Jason certainly does. For instance, in later films Jason does not hurt animals, and once he’s a zombie he doesn’t kill children either. A lot of this likely stems from Jason essentially being a child in a deformed man’s body, and this goes a long to making him an interesting, tragic figure. Jason almost certainly doesn’t understand what he’s doing is wrong, and if he does, he’s almost certainly too blinded by rage to care, especially after becoming a zombie.

I think the underlying tragedy of Jason simply being a monster who only wanted to please his beloved mother and violently lashes out at those he sees, through his warped perspective, as the ones to blame makes him an interesting and complex character… and here’s the great thing! Unlike other slasher villains, this is all established very early on, and rather than continue piling on more and more backstory, the series decides to throw Jason into interesting situations. This is a problem that befell his slasher sibling Freddy; as cool as Freddy managed to be, every new film added more and more convoluted backstory rather than trying to put Freddy into an interesting scenario he could have interesting kills in. And the less said about Michael Meyers, the better. But Jason? They gave him all he needed in the first two movies, made him a zombie in the sixth, and then spent the rest of the series getting weird and creative. Jason is a villain effective because his simple characterization and motivation means he can slip into any sort of situation, be it fighting a telekinetic girl, going to Manhattan, fighting Freddy Krueger, fighting Ash Williams, slaughtering camp counselors en masse, or going to space.

It should be incredibly obvious Jason is an 11/10. He’s a testament to what makes a slasher villain great and memorable: he has a simple yet flexible mindset that allows him to be thrust into a variety of situations, he has an iconic outfit, he has an awesome weapon of choice, and he is parodied, referenced, and known throughout the world to this day. He has killer video game appearances in the likes of Mortal Kombat X and his own Friday the 13th game, he has tons of comics including ones where he takes on Freddy, Ash Williams, Leatherface, and even Uber Jason, and despite the obnoxious legal battles currently keeping him from appearing in any media to any great extent, you’d be hard pressed to find a person without even passing knowledge of Jason.

Here’s a few interesting notes, though – a lot of shout outs to Jason have characters using a chainsaw, which as we all know is the tool of Leatherface. Jason uses a machete for the most part but is very versatile, but even so the closest he ever came to using anything remotely like a chainsaw was in VII, where he used a weed whacker. Jason also didn’t gain his iconic look until the third film; in the second movie, Jason wore a burlap sack over his head. And finally, there’s a bit of trivia I’m sure most are aware of by now: Jason was not the killer in the first or fifth films. In the first film, the killer was actually Jason’s mother, Pamela Voorhees, and the fifth film Jason was still kind of dead so a copycat killer named Roy Burns took his place. So hey, while we’re here, let’s talk about these Jason adjacent killers:

Pamela Voorhees is one of those rare female slasher villains, and the fact she is so absolutely amazing makes you wonder why there aren’t more. She’s basically to Friday the 13th what The Boss is to the Metal Gear Franchise – an all-important female figure whose actions completely and totally changed the course of history. Her quest to avenge her son’s death led to her slaughtering people at Camp Crystal Lake, which led to her death… but then it turns out her son had lived all along, and her death served only to make him into a violent, vengeful monster. Add on the fact that Pamela was using the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis on her son to empower him (supported by Jason Goes to Hell and Freddy vs, Jason vs. Ash), and Pamela is indirectly responsible for every murder in the series. Or perhaps even directly, if it really is her voice Jason hears in some of the movies and the Friday the 13th game. Betsy Palmer absolutely kills it in the role (pun intended), and it’s a shame she was annoyed by the role for years, though she apparently did eventually come around and embrace it. As one of the great ladies of horror, Pamela definitely earns a 10/10.

But now let’s take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum with Roy Burns. The idea of a Jason copycat killer is not entirely without merit, and for the most part, the movie is incredibly solid, with good kills on Roy’s part. The issue comes with the ultimate reveal of his identity, which turns the entire movie into an utterly convoluted mess that makes absolutely no sense. The lack of buildup of any kind, save for two brief scenes prior to his unmasking, makes the twist lack any sort of punch, and his reasoning for killing people is just absurd. Hell, he isn’t even targeting the one person responsible – that guy gets away with a jail sentence while Roy butchers innocent people!

 Basically, Roy fails at being an engaging replacement for Jason due to the film’s finale, which goes out of its way to undermine him and everything you just watched. It should come as no shock that he’s a 1/10. Still, unlike most villains with this rating, he does have a little bit of redemption due to being playable in the Friday the 13th game. You’re just controlling him as he kills without any worry about stupid backstory, so hey, I’ll give Roy that at least, and I can’t deny his mask is pretty sick.  

UPDATE: Ok, I was way too hard n Roy. Yes, his motivation is stupid and poorly explained, his killings are absolutely ridiculous and make no sense with his motivation, I still stand by all that... and yet, I’m watching this movie for creative kills, right? And boy does our boy Roy provide. He slaughters his way through these oneshot characters with gusto! I think I’m just still bitter he’s not Jason, but I like Season of the Witch even if Michael Meyers isn’t there, so maybe I’m just too harsh on Roy and his movie in general. I think his dumbass motivations hold him back, but I think the correct score for him is a 6/10. He is most certainly not abysmal enough for a one and I was really foolish to issue a score like that. Sometimes even I have trouble overcoming my biases.

It’s interesting, though, that both of these characters tend to be forgotten, overshadowed by Jason. In the intro of Scream, Drew Barrymore’s doomed character accidentally says Jason is the killer of the first film, rather than Pamela. And I think that while that is likely a common misconception, it’s less because Pamela is forgettable but more that Jason is so overwhelmingly cool that he overshadows anyone else in these films with few exceptions. Jason may very well be the greatest slasher villain of all time, and if you disagree, well, who won in Freddy Vs. Jason again, hmmm?

And more importantly, what slasher villain has an Alice Cooper song dedicated to him?

I rest my case.

[ianite-simp]

take it upon yourself pt. 2

part 1

Spending more time with Dianite came naturally to Jordan. Things were somehow… just like they’d always been.

 Of course, he shared more than he used to. That was a change. With Ianite, there were more secrets. No, not quite secrets, just boundaries. She didn’t take much interest in mortal affairs, especially when it had to do with the other champions. Not that it bothered Jordan. She was still learning, still figuring out how to be a goddess. He could understand her lack of interest. God knows how many times he zoned out when she was talking about growing up with her siblings.

But with Dianite, it was different. Talking to him about things was easy, simple. He’d appear randomly throughout the day, generally when Jordan was absorbed in some menial task that didn’t require much focus. It was always when he was frustrated over some thing or another, when the strain was getting just a little too much. He was almost always entirely engrossed by whatever he was working on. A soft touch on his shoulder, fingers combing through his hair, a chin nuzzled softly against his neck - the god always found some way to capture his attention.

“Stressed?” 

“You think?” There was a shadow of a smile on his face, contrary to his short tone. 

“Tell me about it?” The god’s voice was quiet, a warm whisper in his ear.

So he did. And somehow, just by talking, just by letting out his frustration about Tom’s latest prank, just by sharing Karl’s latest additions to his island, just by talking about absolutely nothing at all - somehow, it made things a little easier.

~

As the days went on, Jordan found himself settling into his new rhythm with a surprising ease. He managed his own work, until one or the other called on him to do something for them. Working with them was easy enough. That was a funny thing, when he considered it. Things had grown to a point where he wasn’t just completing tasks for them, running to do as they beckoned. No, he was almost an equal. Only when he was working, of course. He wasn’t going to drop the formalities, lose the respect he had for the pair. He knew his place. 

The only concern he had (aside from constantly having to shoulder all responsibility for maintaining peace on the islands) was Ianite finding out he was assisting her brother. As far as he knew, Ianite knew nothing of the deal he had made with Dianite. If she did, she said nothing. That worked for him. As reluctant as he had been initially, Dianite had been far more… passive than he had anticipated. None of his requests had been particularly out of the ordinary, or worrying. Yeah, spending three days searching for a very specific sort of flower for the god was annoying as hell, but it was nothing other than time consuming. Besides, the god had the tendency of rewarding him with trinkets and tools - gifts that he could pass off easily enough as something he made himself. But he knew their real value. 

It was interesting. From Ianite, he had never needed the material to understand her appreciation for him. A simple word of praise was enough. But Dianite liked to be flashy, he liked to throw in a bit of flair wherever he could.

Jordan found the gifts left just outside his house, no note or anything. Just a plain chest, as inconspicuous as any other thing on his island. Brimming with curiosity, he flipped the lid open immediately. A dark, greenish smoke billowed out instantly, and he stumbled back a step or two, coughing as the noxious clouds crept into his lungs. Probably the god's idea of a joke, he assumed. Brushing the last tendrils away from the chest, he carefully extracted the shining blade.

The taut leather wrapped hilt fit perfectly in his hand, as though it had been made for him and him alone to wield. The blade itself was perfectly balanced. “As all things should be.” He murmured, running a fingertip along one honed edge. “Thank you, m’lord.”

~

"Haven't seen much of you recently, bro. Doing good?" He cast a subtle glance around the room, quickly taking it in. The tower had changed, that was for sure. The broad windows that had once allowed bright sunlight to stream through were covered with dark drapes, the only light the flickering halos cast by the lanterns hung from the ceiling. Maybe it was just the lighting, or maybe he just needed more sleep, but every so often he caught glimpses of writhing tendrils flitting across the ground, among the drapes, across the furnaces. A faint flash of green, a shadow that almost wriggled along a surface, the closer glances he stole only put him further on edge.

"Busy with a lot." Jordan didn't turn from where he stood, rummaging through one of his chests. His response was unusually short, not quite snippy but not exactly friendly. Scratching the side of his nose, Karl squinted in the dim lighting as he studied the captain. He was normally the most put together of the bunch, clothes neatly pressed, hair combed back or at least trimmed. But the man’s hair was a ruffled mess, curling below his ears, little strands continually falling into and getting pushed out of his eyes. His clothes were just as unkempt, wrinkled and looking as though they had been slept in for the past week

"Too busy to hang out with your mates? Tom's driving me over the edge with his nonsense." He said it with a laugh, jerking his hand away from the furnace it rested on at the approach of one of the drifting smoke motes. Creepy looking things, that's what they were. Jordan didn’t seem to notice them, though, despite the way they seemed to gravitate towards him, then back, then towards him again, like some strange tides.

Jordan shrugged, pulling something from the depths of the storage. An arrow, it looked like. Leaving the chest ajar, he strode to his ender chest, where he quickly began sorting through its contents in search of something. "Just helping out m'lady, working on the island. You know, time flies."

His attention caught by something glinting in the open chest, Karl wandered over. "Woah, cool sword bro. Where'd you get it?" He ran his hand over the flat of the blade, testing the edge with the pad of his thumb. Lethally sharp.

A sharp prick in the center of his neck made him freeze. The tip of the arrowhead was cold, numbingly cold. It seemed to freeze the skin it touched, sending a tremor through his skin. A slender tendril of smoke crept over his shoulder, a swirling strand of deep green that seemed to move with a will of its own. The same smoke that curled almost imperceptibly across the captain's skin.

"Hands away from that." His voice was low, so dangerously low. Carefully, ever so carefully, he moved his hands from the slender blade, raising them defensively in the air. Sudden movement would mean certain death, he knew that much. Jordan had always been possessive of his belongings, but actually threatening him? That was… new, to say the least.

Doing his best to keep his outward appearance calm, he quickly started to say, "Bro, I didn't-"

"Stop bothering me." His voice was low, dangerously so. "This is none of your business." The point of the arrow dug against the bare skin of his neck. He swallowed anxiously, his mouth forming noiseless words as he tried to find something to say that wouldn't result in him getting shot. Jordan was terrifyingly accurate with that bow, and he didn't much fancy being skewered by it. Something about the eerie smoke told him the death wouldn't be temporary.

"Leave." One word. One command. Yet the weight behind it was all too powerfully present.

"Yeah, sure. On my way out, I'll… I'll see you around." The words caught in his throat, but he forced them out regardless. Slowly, painfully slowly, he took a step away. Then another. Then another. Then another. Then he opened the door with an impressively steady hand. Then he was outside, away from the dark. Away from the arrow at his back. Away from that terrifying, quiet, collected Jordan.

That wasn’t the Jordan he was used to. When Jordan got mad he was loud and spluttering with righteous indignation. He had no qualms with telling the world that he was upset, and that something was wrong. But that? That wasn’t normal.

Something wasn't right. But the question was what exactly?

~

There was so much to do. Always so, so much to do. It felt like every time he turned around there was another problem that needed fixing, another quest to go on, another task from the gods. It was getting to him a little, he knew. He had covered his windows, the rising and setting of the sun only reminding him of how behind he was on everything. Besides, it was so much easier to work in the cool, quiet dark, removed from distractions and interruptions. Silly, inconsequential things like pranks had long since fallen from his agenda. He was too busy to be distracted by things like little feuds. 

Now, his somewhat unkempt appearance was annoying, to be sure, but he just didn’t have the time to manage it. So he simply got rid of the small mirror by his bed. If he couldn’t see it, it wasn’t a problem. There was just no time in his schedule for frivolous things, no time to do what he wanted.

But he was doing what he wanted, wasn’t he? He was helping his goddess, and his god. Temporary god, at least. He had to remind himself of that. The deal with Dianite was just that, a deal. But for some reason, when he finally got the air stone, Dianite was just as regular in his visits. There were less requests, to be sure, but the god seemed to be intent on keeping up the temporary god-follower relationship.

Not that Jordan minded, really. The connection to Dianite was turbulent and energizing. Where his bond with Ianite filled him with a collected, calm sense of determination, that of Dianite’s fueled him with a turbulent, electric energy. It filled and satiated a part of his mind he never knew existed, a part of his mind that always wondered but never knew, a part of his mind that seemed to have always been devoted to the god.

And there was nothing wrong with following two gods, of course. He was just as devoted to his lady as ever. Almost more than ever, as though he were trying to prove to someone that his loyalty to her would never waver. He just found that a new loyalty could be forged and maintained alongside it. It added more work to his days, to be sure, but who else would do it? He was the only one who could manage it, make it all run smoothly.

A break was impossible. The only respite he got was when he would eventually fall into a deep slumber for a few hours each night, bone-tired yet with a mind still racing to sort out the work to  be done tomorrow. The dark shadows that filled the room seemed to embrace him as he collapsed into the soft sheets of his unmade bed, his wavering vision making the shadows look almost like grasping hands that curled over his torso, his exhausted limbs too heavy to move as his eyes fell shut and his vision fell to the darkness. 

But he was managing it, despite the aimless thoughts and wishes that came creeping and slipping into the back of his mind as he drifted off. Sometimes he found himself wishing that the day had more hours, or he had more hands, or had someone who could help shoulder the work. But what good could that possibly be? Because at the end of the day, he knew he was the only one capable enough to handle it. Because he was the only one who could do it all, and he knew so.

~

“Jordan!” Tom’s voice was loud, demanding, a bit annoying.

“What?” He didn’t mean to come off as exasperated, as irritated as he did. There was just so much to be done, and the morning’s quest had already taken long enough to handle. Still, he didn’t want to sound rude. He had been spending little enough time with the others, no reason to be impolite on top of that. So he sighed, muttering, “Sorry, what is it?”

“Your island, er, what’s up with that? Looking a little…” The zombie drawled the word out, as he seemed to be searching for the proper word. “Smokey?”

“Really?” A surprised look crept onto his tired face, as he turned to look back at his island, lowering his sunglasses to get a better look. Sure, it looked a little hazy, but it didn’t seem too weird. Probably just the smoke from his furnaces, he’d been smelting quite a bit of netherite recently. “Doesn’t seem weird to me.”

He turned back to the others, who were looking oddly… confused? “What?” He demanded, scratching the back of his neck. 

“Your e-”

“Nothing, mate. Nothing. Just a trick of the light. Catch you later at Hermod’s place? He said he made a new batch of mead for us.” Karl hastily interrupted Tom, an unusually friendly smile on his face.

“No thanks, got some things I need to take care of.” Jordan forced himself to smile back, though he couldn’t suppress the feeling that they were hiding something from him. He could ask them about it some time later, he wanted to get out of the hot sun and back to his place where he could get back to work.

~

“You saw it too, didn’t you? His eyes, the purple ring around them’s gone half red.”

“Yeah, I did. And the dark line between ‘em? Weird.”

“Why didn’t you let me say anything? Jordan’s a shit liar, he’d explain.”

“Because you’d piss him off, he’s been touchy lately.”

“He’s always touchy though, I just-”

“Nah, it’s different. He’s been acting weird. Cap’s a scary man, I don’t want to mess with him when he’s upset.”

“Pfft, sure.”

~

“So you haven’t given her the stone yet.” It wasn’t a question, the way it was said was too assertive, too self-confident. 

Jordan stiffened slightly, the hairs on the back of his neck raising at the sudden voice, though the faint scent of wood smoke had alerted him to the god’s presence before he even spoke. “Not yet.” He answered shortly, not raising his eyes from the sword he was polishing.

“And you haven’t given me my fire stone yet.”

“Not yet.”

“Captain, if I didn’t know better I’d say you were keeping them for yourself.” A hand lifted his chin, forcing his focus away from the blade resting in his lap. “Trying to be a god, are you now?”

“That’s against our contract, m’lord.” He said evenly, eyes meeting Dianite’s over the top of his glasses. 

The god chuckled, running a finger along Jordan’s jaw, before he dropped it to ruffle his hair. “Of course it is. But you’ve always been one to find loopholes in things like that.” Jordan was silent, returning his eyes to the cloth he ran methodically over the sword he held. He couldn’t quite ignore what the god had said to him, but he could at least ignore the god for the time being.

He was going to give the gods the stones he had promised them, of course he was. It was just that for the time being, they made it easier for him to manage things. Carrying them, he felt energized, he felt stronger, he felt powerful. They gave him a tantalizingly small dose of power - just enough to leave him craving just a little more, just a tiny bit more. It was so much easier to carry out the work he had to do in a day when he had those stones with him. So of course it left him wondering just how good it would feel to have all four, to be as powerful as a god - to be a god.

But it was only a daydream. He was content as he was. Really, he was. Dianite treated him almost as an equal, Ianite too. He didn’t need to be a god to feel fulfilled. He was only holding onto the stones for safekeeping. Because there was always a chance that Dianite would pass off a stone to Tom for a while, and the idea of Tom having the stones was almost infuriating. Tom didn’t deserve them. Tom didn’t work as hard, didn’t push himself to work as hard as Jordan did. No, he deserved to keep hold of the stones, if only for a while longer. Besides, the gods would have all of eternity to do what they wanted with the stones once they got them, he only had the lifespan of a mortal. There could be no harm in him keeping them a bit longer.

“I admire your dedication, Captain, but I must say that if you polish that sword any further there’ll be no blade left.” He was pulled from his thoughts by a quietly chiding voice, and a hand gently taking the polishing cloth from his hand.

“Sorry, I was just thinking.” He blinked a few times, standing up abruptly. No point in wasting time, he had more important things to be doing than just daydreaming.

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to the sword for trying to scrub it out of existence." The god's teasing tone reminded Jordan faintly of Ianite, the siblings had the same playful tone at times.

"Sure, definitely will do that." He rolled his eyes, as he carefully hung the sword on the wall. Before he could turn around again, he felt the god's presence directly behind him, the god's chin resting in the crook of his neck.

"Your hair looks nice."

"I need to cut it, I know." Jordan wrinkled his nose as he batted a particularly annoying strand from his eyes.

The god tsked impatiently at him, drawing back reluctantly to gather his hair up with both hands. "Just tie it back, you won't have to worry about those little flyways."

Jordan sighed, but stayed still for a moment as Dianite finished tying his hair back with a scrap of string. "As I said, looks very nice." The god spun him around, surveying his work with an approving look.

"Yeah, yeah." He pulled away from the god, a faint smile on his face. Though younger than in past realms, the god was still the same smug bastard as always. With a sigh, he pulled his to-do list from his pocket. The list scrawled onto the scrap of paper only seemed to be growing longer and longer as the days passed. He scribbled out "polish sword" with a quick gesture, before studying the remaining tasks. Quite a bit to do, but what was new there?

"I'll take my leave now Captain but… do stick to our contract, won't you? Those stones aren't meant to remain in mortal hands for too long."

"Are you saying I can't manage keeping them safe?"

"I trust my champion is more than suited to that task. I just meant that they can… alter a mortal who has held them for a prolonged period." With a small wave of his fingers, he vanished, leaving Jordan alone with a whiff of brimstone and smoke.

Jordan was entirely caught off guard, as he stood frozen in place. His… champion? Did Dianite really mean him? But he was still Ianite's champion, wasn't he? Feeling more than a little alarmed, he grabbed his jacket, which he'd dropped onto his bed due to the heat of the furnaces, burying his face into the soft fabric. A few deep breaths were more than enough to convince him that it still held the familiar scent of lavender and End static. But alongside it, almost just a strong, was the smell of smoke and sulfur.

He dropped the jacket, his hands instinctively clawing for his pockets to pull out the two stones, fingers wrapping around them, their familiar weight soothing in his palms. So what if he was Dianite's champion as well? Even if… even if it wasn't temporary, he didn't exactly mind. A quiet groan escaped him, as his eyes squeezed shut. It just added a lot more to his plate. And as tiring as that sounded, he'd just have to handle it. He had the stones, after all. That'd make it easier. He could manage it, with the stones.

~

"Give me the stones, Tom." The words were taught, as taught as the string that held the arrow steadily aimed at Tom's throat. As taught as the tension that filled the air around them, something dangerous threatening to snap at any moment.

"Sparklez, I got them fair and square." Tom's voice shook, but he met Jordan's eyes with as level a stare as possible.

"I don't care, Tom. Give them to me." Jordan spoke quietly, hardly above a whisper. Yet in the silence of the room, both Karl and Tom could hear him perfectly.

"No!" Out of the corner of his eye, Jordan could see Karl wince at Tom's obvious outrage. He tightened his hold on his bow, slightly repositioning the angle of the shot.

"The stones. I don't have all day." Without moving his eyes from Tom's, he turned his head towards Karl. "You know better than him, Karl. Tell him."

Karl's hands were trembling - either with rage or fear, or perhaps a mix of both. Yet he raised them both defensively as he spoke. "Tom, just give him the stones. They're not worth gettin' shot."

"I'll just respawn! Sparkez, you're absolutely mad." 

Jordan narrowed his eyes, his head tilting to one side. "Am I, zombie boy? I'm the most qualified one to hold onto those stones. Do yourself a favor and listen to Karl. I don't want this to get messy." He wasn't lying. The idea of shooting Tom, especially with the arrow gifted from Dianite, it wasn't pleasant. Unfortunately it had been the first to come to hand when he had stormed into Tom's house after they had found the final stone. He hadn't really thought of what he was going to do. He just knew that he had to get the stones from Tom. He was so tired of Tom gloating that he had more stones than them, lauding it over them constantly. Tom really didn't deserve to have the stones. He didn't do nearly as much as Jordan to find them, to keep them safe from Gandus and the darkness. No, he was meant to have them. He was meant to keep them safe. "My arm's getting tired." Jordan sighed, "I really didn't want to do this." As he prepared to release his hold on the bowstring, he caught Tom's eyes flashing away from him.

Without a second thought, he abruptly angled the bow at the wall, the arrow sinking deep into the wood. Within the same breath, he drew his sword from his side, spinning instinctively to his left to meet Karl's blade. With a small twist of his wrist, he quickly disarmed Karl, stopping him in his tracks with a quick slice across his stomach. In two steps he was in front of Tom, his sword buried in the zombie's chest. "I'm not surprised Dianite chose me over you, really." He breathed the taunting words into Tom's ear, as he slipped the stones out of his pocket. Tugging the sword back out of Tom's chest, Jordan re-sheathed it as he carefully extracted his stones from his own pocket.

The four stones seemed to throb with an energy in his hands, a swirling pool of power sitting within his grasp. They seemed to call out to him, with their colliding energies, beckoning him to just accept their power. 

"Become a god," they whispered, "and you'll be unstoppable. Become a god, and you can do anything. Become a god, and embrace your potential."

His palms felt as though they were on fire, melting and dissolving into pure matter. He stared, entirely entranced, at the stones in his hands. So small, yet offering so much. The sweet, cloying scent of roses filled his senses, confusing his thoughts. His vision swam before him, shadowy figures darting across the edges of his sight, small fingers wrapping around his arms. All he could see were the stones. All he could imagine was being a god. All he could do was accept their offer.

And so he did.