#orpheus is for the people. to me! to me!

[singerorpheus]

society if hadestown let orpheus be a woman

[lylahammar]

@ film directors now that the wicked movie adaptation is doing well may I interest u in the divine fruit..... the eden of adaptational potential...... make it good though or I'll kill you

[feelo-fick]

doodles from varying times :] kicking my feet and giggling. put your hand in my cage youre safe :]

[wolfythewitch]

In my brain somewhere the hadestown au is cyclical in a way where everyone, once, a lifetime ago or now, has in some way been Orpheus and Eurydice. Jon and Martin were Orpheus and Eurydice before tim and Sasha were, and the story was still the same. Jon turned to look and came up to the surface alone. Their Hades and Persephone were Peter and Elias. Maybe even before that, maybe Peter and Elias were Orpheus and Eurydice once. One of them must have turned. Someone will be Orpheus and Eurydice after, and maybe Tim and Sasha will be their Hades and Persephone. Orpheus will always look back. Eurydice will always forgive him

[calocera]

to be so honest venture bros deserves the annoying weird fujo fandom south park unjustly has

[crescentfool]

orpheus and thanatos 💚

[aroaceleovaldez]

my copy of the House of Hades graphic novel + custom Nico bookplate by @kanechroniclesgraphicnovel ! [Here] is the post link for anyone who might want more info on how to get your own. Look at my son boy. You too can get a son boy. or other characters. Or with our powers combined we can get Orpheus Collar to draw like a hundred Nicos. whichever.

[l3irdl3rain]

How is my best friend Arthur has he helped you baldur any gates

He’s been good! My washing machine broke last week and I hauled it out the other day in preparation for the new one and he’s been loving his new Top Secret Hiding Spot.

We are taking a little bit of a Baldur’s Gate break right now just because I was getting burnt out. We’re slowly making our way through Mass Effect Andromeda for the second time. I’m very excited to get back to BG3 tho.

I left off right at the start of Act 2. I’m playing a Githyanki monk named Ez’rai and spent way too much time coming up with a backstory for them. I’m going to be romancing Wyll this time. I think Ez’rai growing up in such a harsh culture that didn’t have room for soft romance will go together in such a fun and cute way with Wyll. A noble’s son who is just so sweet and romantic and good.

[gingermintpepper]

In light of my recent Asclepius and Apollo musings, I feel like it's the perfect time to post this, actually.

How do you build a human being? 

Bold question. Foolish question. But a question it is all the same. 

The memory of his father’s consternated expression is still bright behind his eyes, that unusually furrowed brow, the tension in his gentle jaw. He didn’t falter in his setting of Asclepius’ broken shin, hands perpetually steady and sure, but he hesitated for a conspicuously long moment as though reluctant to give an answer. In this body, he resembled Orpheus something fierce. The same flaxen curls of his hair, the same delicate eyelashes that stand stark against the dark brown of his skin. Often Asclepius wondered if his elder brother was nothing but a body built to suit their father’s preferences. The subtle wrinkle of skin around their eyes when they smiled was the same, and the steadiness of their hands, the soothing power of their presence. 

And Orpheus did not bleed like Asclepius did. The blood in Asclepius’ veins were as red as any human’s, any mortal’s, but Orpheus seemed not to bleed at all. Even when he’d suffered the same fall down the crumbling cliff as Asclepius had. Even when his skirts had ripped and jagged stone sliced into his shanks. 

Even so, Orpheus was unmistakably alive. His eyes were rich with grief fresher than any blood spilt from the worst of Asclepius’ wounds, his counsel too, was tempered with the wisdom of a life well lived. So even at the apex of his most perfect, inhuman beauty, Asclepius never once doubted that his brother was a human being. Just that he was more divine construct than flesh and blood. Just that their father had built for himself a son that would not break as easily as all the others. 

His father stayed silent for so long that Asclepius assumed it would be one of the million questions that would go unanswered. Then, just when the last of his bandages had been wrapped - 

“A human body is easy to build,” he’d had that faraway look on his face as he spoke, like he was speaking to the horizon. Or a version of Asclepius that was not quite here. Such things happened from time to time. “Any flesh would do. From men, or animals, or even monsters. Any flesh would do.” Their gazes had locked then, and Asclepius would never forget the flecks of gold which swirled in his father’s blue eyes, the weight of divine words rattling at the boundaries of their mortal apparatus, “But the breath of life, a living soul? That is beyond your means as a mortal man. You ought never seek it.” 

(Asclepius would remember these words when he revives a man for the first time at the age of nineteen. He’s surprised to find that his father is wrong for once. Souls are easy to source when they’re already eager to return to their mound of flesh.) 

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

I cannot emphasize enough how much everything In-ho did during his time in the games was in service of breaking down Gi-hun. Every glance, every story, every comment was incredibly and deliberately calculated.

His first interaction with Gi-hun immediately places the blame on Gi-hun for the games continuing: "I pressed the O because of you." He also explicitly asks for Gi-hun's help on behalf of the group. This sucks Gi-hun into being a mechanism of the games themselves (not just a player, but one telling others how to play) while robbing him of his agency to do so: whereas he was confident in helping during the first game, because it was his choice, In-ho's request forces him to share about the Dalgona prematurely, and he then has a nightmare about misleading the players. This also leads to many players becoming hostile when the game is not Dalgona, which--who could have guessed?--In-ho jumps in to stop. He orchestrated the situation so that Gi-hun would feel maximum pressure and guilt, before In-ho himself relieves it to build trust between them.

Then there are the introductions. In-ho uses Gi-hun's name before they are introduced, which may have been a genuine slip, but was very likely intentional given his response. In-ho's method throughout the games is to parallel and associate himself with Jung-bae, Gi-hun's only actual friend (he saves him during the merry-go-round games; he eavesdrops on Jung-bae's conversation with Gi-hun and directly uses the "get me a soju" line from that conversation to subconsciously build Gi-hun's trust in him during the firefight). So when he uses Gi-hun's name, he says he does so because he heard Jung-bae doing it, and Gi-hun allows him to continue--this creates the first of the links between them. But then, when they are properly introduced, In-ho laughs that "Seong" just means "last name;" in doing so, he implies to those who don't know him that Gi-hun may not be telling the truth, and in context of their conversation (focused on the significance of their names) highlights how Seong Gi-hun is "no one special." He's just an everyman.

Another reason that "slip" was almost certainly intentional is that In-ho is very deliberate about showing moments of weakness. His breakdown during the Six-Legged Race was designed to both further stress Gi-hun (and if Gi-hun had failed, they were in the very last groups present, so they could have been selectively spared as needed) and to strengthen their bond, as Gi-hun got to "encourage" In-ho; then In-ho helped Gi-hun and the team win by kicking with him the final time. Even cheering along with Gi-hun while the other teams went was in service of cementing their connection; and, any time a team failed, In-ho got to observe Gi-hun's reactions under the guise of empathy. In-ho may have felt some genuine emotions while cheering or comforting Gi-hun, but I don't trust it.

That's particularly true because of his biggest "weak" moment: telling Gi-hun why he is in the games. I've heard some people theorize that In-ho actually did join the games, years before, because of his circumstances (which would align with what we heard from his family), and that he won them himself; I like that theory, as I feel it explains why he is invested in breaking Gi-hun's faith. Even if not, though, he isn't lying about the details of his personal story--and he even gets emotional--but it is, once again, all in service of ensnaring Gi-hun and earning his trust. In-ho may not be faking all of his emotions, but he is controlling and weaponizing them, which is why none of his apparent fondness for Gi-hun can be trusted. He uses his emotions as a tool, rather than being affected by them.

The ultimate result of this manipulation is that Gi-hun is made to feel that everything that happens is his choice (even the things he didn't choose). From the beginning, In-ho has said his choices are because of Gi-hun; throughout the games, there are several moments where In-ho suggests an approach and Gi-hun shoots it down, and In-ho always coalesces. Gi-hun gets to have "his way." But "his way" doesn't seem to work, and he, like the rest of the players, is changed by the games. His final plan, as In-ho forces him to face, involves a sacrifice of some for the good of the many. Only after he admits this (through his silence) does In-ho agree to help. Then, during the firefight, when Gi-hun tries to give In-ho the ammunition he risked his life to get, In-ho asks, "Are you sure?" Gi-hun's choice to trust In-ho leads to him running out of ammunition earlier, forcing his surrender; meanwhile, In-ho still "dies," and Jung-bae is shot in front of Gi-hun's eyes. None of Gi-hun's choices made things better--they made it all his fault. He is left with the blame, as the Frontman (who is In-ho! And always has been!) tells him point blank.

But none of Gi-hun's choices have really been choices. They have all been based on lies, within a system that uses the information they have to actively orchestrate events against him. The same is true of the players in the game; their choices are not free, because their circumstances (largely caused by unfairness in the world) have trapped them. The baseness they resort to is not what they would do if they really had the choice, and some are even able to choose virtue within the hellscape, but over and over, the system facilitates the dominance of cruelty. And In-ho, the personification of that system, targets Seong Gi-hun, the "Everyman," to make him submit to it--to make him choose to believe that there is no other way.

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

when you’re sad about the state of the world and the fact that it’s gonna get even worse and also it’s officially holiday season and you’re grieving so you listen to hadestown but then stupid fucking gay people ruin the mood

[louisetaylor]

Hadestown fanfic idea that lives in my brain

Eurydice somehow finds out that Mr. Hermes has been singing the song, retelling their story, for a very long time.

"How long? How long? How long?!"

"Don't ask where, brother, don't ask when." And every time, it ends up being a tragedy.

"Every time you sing the song, you rely on Orpheus to save us all?" she asks Mr. Hermes. "You play the game by Hades' rules and wait for us to fail again?"

"It's a test," he tells her. "It's a trial."

"And I fail the test by doubting that we could survive the winter alone? I fail by selling my life to Hades to survive? Orpheus fails by doubting that I'd follow him out of hell? We all fail by not having enough hope?"

"Yes," says Mr. Hermes. "The dog you've really gotta dread is the one that howls inside your head. It's him whose howling drives men mad and a mind to its undoing. I sing those lines to warn him every time."

"So we're damned by being afraid of starving? Afraid of being alone? Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Hades, but we can't all be gods. You don't understand what it's like to be human. To need another chance."

"I fail every time I sing the song," Hermes says quietly. "Every time."

"Give me another chance," she tells him. "Let me tell the story this time. Just once. Wait for me."

"I will."

You see, unlike Orpheus, Eurydice could stand to be alone. She was no stranger to the cold, no stranger to the dark. Orpheus once made her see how the world could be, in spite of the way that it is.

She still has plenty of spite.

After Hermes' song ends, the workers gather in Persephone's speakeasy deep in the concrete heart of Hadestown and pour one out for Orpheus, wherever he is now. Eurydice finds her broken voice and says, in a voice cracked from crying, "Anybody got a match?"

Flick. The flame scrapes roughly into life in her hand, lighting her face from below and flickering in her eyes. Her face is young but set into the hard lines of someone old before their time. Her black eyes catch the flame like coals. The others are drawn to her. Orpheus could make you see how the world could be, but Eurydice knows how it is. And she's not going to put up with it anymore.

She hates being nameless on the assembly line, but...she likes Hadestown. She likes the bright lights, the heat, the smell of smoke. She'd like to keep it. They all have to go back to work on the wall tomorrow, but there's a hammer in her hand...

...and there's a crack in the wall.

[karenchasity]

i love finding people with special interests online. yes teach me about fallout and the cold war nuclear fear. this is so specific and yet so fascinating. what fallout merch did you find at gamestop im so excited

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

Any udad fans out there who also watched Autodale dystopian series and vice verse?

[demontisms]

THIS IS A 100% SERIOUS POLL. PLEASE, I AM BEGGING YOU, DO NOT ANSWER THIS AS A JOKE BECAUSE I WILL BE COLLECTING ACTUAL DATA FROM THIS.

if they were not IN an episode but WORKED ON an episode, please select the option closest to your answer.