#it's driven by passion

[asgardian--angels]

Saw one of your replies on the national forests post, and had to say you have THE COOLEST job. Keep on trucking, that's awesome.

Hi there! Thanks for the kind words. I agree, it is a super cool job, and we need more young people becoming environmental scientists and wildlife biologists and entomologists - so if anyone out there reading this likes to be outside, likes watching animals, wants to help protect the nature that you grew up with near where you live, or just wonders if running around with a butterfly net catching bugs can be a job you get paid to do... I highly recommend considering conservation biology or a related natural resource/natural history field for college :)

[gingermintpepper]

Day 2: Hyacinthus

Interpretation notes and trivia below the cut!

Designing Hyacinthus as well as deciding on a personality for him was one of the first big problem I had to solve when the topic of a retelling came up. In most texts, he exists to be loved and then to die and even then, the focus of his death is not his own but rather on Apollo, the one who loses him. General modernised interpretations of him likewise tend to make him agreeable and inoffensive, the sort of character who is likeable and upright but never challenging or ornery. I didn't like any of those options, so I instead decided to build my Hyacinthus from the ground up - for better or for worse. His red hair is his most striking feature, it is his mother's divine hair colour and he is the only one of her children to have inherited it. Similarly, Hyacinthus is the only one of his mother's children to inherit her magic. While some of his siblings were born with a few passive gifts from their mother (Argalus' 'perfect' memory and Polyboea's affinity for mental calculations and projections, for example) Hyacinthus was born with a talent for sealing and warding magic and thusly, much of his life has been shaped by the pursuit of knowledge and his wish to use his talents to better his kingdom. Much of his good-nature and zeal for life and learning is destroyed by the circumstances of his death and entombment. When he is revived, he is angry, lost, devoid of most of his memories and desperate to fill the missing gaps of his soul. He's selfish and snappish, hurt and desperate to hurt others but, most importantly, he is searching. When he is revived, all the world has heard his story but he is not apart of it. They do not remember Hyacinthus, the mage-prince of Amyclae or Hyacinthus, the teacher of men. They do not speak of Hyacinthus, who charmed the gods for their knowledge or Hyacinthus whose beauty was bested only by his wit - they speak of Apollo and his lost love, Apollo and his grief, Hyacinthus, the lover of the Radiant. One can only hope that he will find whatever it is he is looking for on this journey.

Some fun trivia:

Youngest son in a family of seven, his magic was the catalyst for Clio revealing her true identity as a Muse to her children.

Actually prefers to be called 'Hyacinth' but has made peace with people ignoring his wishes and just calling him Hyacinthus out of habit or formality.

Has an intense resting bitch face and struggles with visibly expressing happiness or sadness. This is also a trait he shares with his mother, though his older sister Hegesandre also shares this feature. Cynortas was technically a part of the resting bitch face club but he practiced smiling and looking cheery so much as a child that now has the opposite problem where he can smile through anything, even pain or anger.

Left home when he was 10 to study at the Parnassus Institute for Gifted Children. The Institute specialises in training the children of the Muses, but occasionally it will take in normal people who show great promise. Hector, who becomes quite close to Hyacinth during their tenure together, was one of those people.

Was recognised by Apollo himself at his graduation and was gifted a laurel wreath. Apollo declared him the Shepherd Laureate which made Hyacinth the third Laureate alive at that time - a status shared only by Orpheus, the Poet Laureate and Asclepius, the Doctor Laureate.

Despite his title, is atrocious with animals and genuinely despises both sheep and goats. Has a mild phobia of goats in particular due to a traumatic incident when he was first climbing the mountain where a particular wild goat absolutely terrorised him. Along with following him for days, it would eat anything he left unattended and even bit and headbutted him numerous times when he would try to wrestle his food back from it. He was so bothered by the title in fact, that he asked Apollo if the designation was a joke at his expense. Apollo never denied that it was a joke but he never confirmed it either.

Exceptional hunter but prefers trapping to hunting by dog or arrow. Has never been one for weapons and much rather prefers to fight bare handed if the occasion arises.

Despite his laurel wreath being such a precious object, Hyacinth has never properly worn it. He wore them around his left bicep after obtaining them and when Polyboea contracted phthisis and needed comforting, he gave them to her as an object that would give her strength. Polyboea was buried with his laurels so he never got the chance to wear the wreath on his head.

His favourite colour is a dark oak brown and his favourite hobby is reading. His favourite food is fish roasted by a river and shared with people he loves. He died at 28 on the first day of Karneios.

[backjustforberena]

No more, but e'en a woman, and commanded By such poor passion as the maid that milks And does the meanest chares. Eve Best as CLEOPATRA in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (2014)

[ilovefredjones]

dal r’el they could never make me hate you

[beccawise7]

Wednesday Wisdom...

Absolutely Love This ~ 1000x yes.

💜🖤

"Passion creates progress."

[g1deonthefirst]

tbh i do think pyrrha/g1deon and wake rawdogged it at least once

[bluebellhairpin]

"What kind of sick coward holds back his power while his friends get devouroured?" ARES. I KNOW YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A GOOD POINT THERE SWEETHEART. BECAUSE SAME. WHAT KIND OF PERSON LETS HIS FRIENDS DIE WHEN HE HAS THE ABILITY TO STOP IT?

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I don't get why people hate the timeline so much, its not like you can't pretty much completely ignore it when you play the games. The only time it even approaches mattering to the story is when there is an explicit sequel like botw and totk or zelda and zelda 2

Hey sorry your ask got lost in the sauce of my broken tumblr, but: yeah!

I mean, I get why in some sense. It's been a heated point of debate and I think some people understandably resent the space it has taken not only in fandom discourse, but in how people began to understand the game and its narrative aesthetic choices. There is such a thing as over-rationalizing everything to hard logic, and sometimes it's just not the fandom for that --especially when you begin to forget it's all just fan theory and start to forget what the games are supposed to be like and evoke beyond just strict facts displayed in a linear way.

What I think bugs me with TotK in particular is that it both evokes and relies on continuity and the idea of a timeline, of archeology, of history itself, while being so loose and vacant with it that it both is doing Timeline Shit while also completely failing to understand why some parts of the fandom were invested in Timeline Shit to begin with.

But that's just my two cents of course!

[eosofspades]

okay i meant to make this post forever ago but my personal opinion on why so many people were so dissatisfied with lightfalll (disclaimer: i am not one of these people, i love lightfall SO much), is that lightfall was kind of subjected to a really aggressive marketing campaign.

like, stick with me here, i feel like almost all the lightfall release content (the trailers especially) were so focused on battling the witness, how this battle has been centuries in the making and this is the Second Collapse Finally Finding Us, only for there to be,,, no real resolution. the end was left on such a severe cliffhanger, but not only that, there was NO battle with the witness. the witness didn't even seem to be having a hard time at all with what we WERE throwing at it.

and for narrative reasons *i* am obsessed with this ending; in terms of storytelling i adore practically every creative decision that was made in lightfall, but i think the reason that so many people were so upset about it is because lightfall had such intense marketing and was rooted in the implication that this was the End of Days, only for us to get almost no closure, and instead so many more questions.

(there's also something to be said, i think, about the fact that the people who ARE most upset about this are like, the youtube gamer dudebros who's content is very very often rooted in the aggressive, violence-and-warfare, pvp-centric, no-interest-in-lore approach to destiny, and that the people i've seen primarily ENJOYING the narrative decisions (or at least being understanding about it) are the artists and writers and loremasters of the fandom, but i'm not quite sure,,, how to expand on that point.)

[sciderman]

How do you feel about the increase in really weird NSFW ads on here (advertising panels that look like sexual encounters, and AI art apps that pride themselves on porn) but will take down NSFW posts from their users, even if it isn't technically sexual.

i hate all social media and it's consistent prioritising the advertisers over the users and the internet simply was a better place before capitalism sunk its hooks into it

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Do you ever think about how Starline task failed successfully™ with Surge and Kitsunami?

Despite the hours of hypnotism, training, making sure they answered all his questions correctly, there was something hollow about it all. Surge could say that she hated Sonic, but she was more into the idea of rebellion and chaos and wrecking shit for fun than the idea of replacing or killing Sonic. Kit said he would support Surge no matter what. This wasn't necessarily a lie, as he would put Surge's wins first, and yet he doesn't seem as excited or passionate about it or driven as he does at the end of his original hypnosis cycle. He gets the job done as Starline asks, he helps Surge finish the training fast, which she wants, but he's just sort of playing the support role in a sense.

I think about the scene where Kit and Surge fight Starline after watching his video footage, and Starline says that this has all happened before, yet there's this implication that Kit is fighting this time.

Starline forgot about Kit during the battle.

Do you think that all those other times they found out more about themselves in Starline's files Surge was there alone, or perhaps Kit stood aside and watched as Surge fought Starline (choosing not to intervene, opting to allow Surge to face the consequences of such a move)? Do you ever think about how despite all the resets Surge and Kit managed to have a growing bond? Do you ever think about the possibility that Surge won this time because Kit was here? Do you ever think that Kit was here because their fabricated bond began to become real?

Do you ever think about how Kit is at his happiest when Surge includes him? When everything they're fighting for his about the two of them? Both of their revenge. Both of them getting to say "fuck you" to Starline, Eggman, Sonic, and the world?

Starline couldn't get Surge and Kit to work together as a team the same way Sonic and Tails do. He couldn't get Surge to perform a job to completion and efficiently rather than just trying to have fun and win, much less get her to understand that she needed to appreciate Kit as a partner and support (that it meant nothing if they didn't finish the training together). Perhaps part of it came from how he made Kit to be fixated on Surge, while Surge was meant to be fixated on replacing Sonic, meaning that by design (by even refering to Kit as support rather than a partner) they were not going to turn out like Sonic and Tails.

And yet, even by the end of Imposter Syndrome and by issue 50, they'd changed. When they were under Starline, answering to him, and doing what he wanted, he could not make them fit his designs and he could not understand why. But when Surge and Kit chose to be together. When Kit chose to support Surge, when Surge chose to keep Kit as her ever loyal support, and when they chose to pursue a goal and work together

How ironic it is that they became more like Sonic and Tails in that moment than they ever were before

They could never be who Starline wanted them to be when he was alive, but now that he's dead they're fitting the roles he'd designed for them more than ever. Funny, isn't it? Ironic.

And I think about Kit and Surge of the present. The idea of Kit, who wants the best for Surge, who wants to be by Surge's side forever, who wants her attention and wants nothing more than to wreck shit and create a life with her outside of "good" or "evil". The idea of Surge, who has gone from seeing Kit as a mere tool in her shed to someone that's hers. At the beginning it meant nothing to her, but now it means something to her that Kit was practically made just for her. Surge, the tenrec who wants Kit by her side, who wants his help, who sees him as her partner and supporter, no one else's.

They're a package deal.

[mintmatcha]

Mint mint mint does Aizawa’s (canon verse) prosthetic play into this fic at all

Idk I think it be super interesting since it’s a medical tech company I guess.

I'm so mad that I didn't think of this!!!!

It wasn't part of my original plan, but it's going to be in there now!!!!!!!!!!!

[iridescentis]

i have to try so hard not to get upset when i have conversations with my family about love and sexuality because i know they will never understand anything outside of amatonormativity but fuck it hurts

being told that i will never have a best friend who will want to be with me forever because 'everyone will eventually leave because everyone wants to fall in love and build a family' just gets to me even though i know there are people who want that but it's just so hard to remember when no one in my life does

[mittensmorgul]

There’s another post going around about this, but tumblr won’t let me reblog it but...

When I read a story written by a human being, I’m not just reading it because I want to read a coffee shop AU with a specific plot description. I’m reading it because it’s making a connection to another human storyteller and seeing a piece of them carved into the words. Storytelling is a human act of sharing joy, angst, tension, resolution, satisfaction. It’s an act of love.

Writing and reading a story isn’t just an act of creation and consumption. I hate that commercialism and AI are reducing it to that sort of transaction. Like oh, you need words on this subject and that’s the end of it. Like what we really needed was just a vending machine we can push buttons on to get a fix, as if the human creating the story wasn’t a factor. That the author’s life experience and views and feelings haven’t infused the words with their own unique touches.

I’ve read hundreds of coffee shop AU’s over the years (and thousands of fics in general). I’ve seen many similar tropes reused across stories, and just like an AI would, I’ve learned things about writing them that I will always carry with me. But unlike an AI, a human author is not just the sum total of coffee shop AU’s we’ve consumed. Even if we used the same prompt, the same sets of tropes, the same characters. I will always choose the human-crafted story over the computer generated one.

Because again, I’m not just looking for a very specific fix via a series of words. I’m looking for a human connection through story.

Unlike an AI, I have BEEN to a coffee shop. I’ve had experiences in coffee shops. I’ve had funny little meet-cutes with people. I’ve accidentally spilled coffee on myself and knocked heads with someone as we both rushed to wipe it up. I know what it FEELS like. The machine doesn’t.

I’ve also read millions of things that aren’t fanfic, or coffee shop AU’s. I’ve experienced things OTHER than going to coffee shops and having meet-cutes. And I know what all those things feel like when processed through my personal human lens of experience, which is different from every other personal human lens of experience.

All the machine can do is spit out what it THINKS a human experience is, and I honestly don’t care about that at all. Fic is not a “product” to be “generated.” It’s an art form that connects us to other people who share the same love of a thing that we do.

People who, even when all writing the same characters in the same setting to the exact same prompt, will all add something or have a viewpoint about something or bring a completely different personality and life experience to the story that no one else on the planet could. That’s what I’m actually reading.

[nicki-fin]

quick sketch bc i NEEDDDD to see ness 'heal his inner child' or whatever. also he's a ravenclaw, sorry everyone else (im projecting)

[mminu]

minu is scheming and plotting… vinny cannot function as a friend… guys i love wind breaker