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chrysanthemumgames · 9 days

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Hi again!

This time I come back after re-reading the entire thing! Of course, aside from fixes to small continuity error and other stuff like that, it didn't change much from the last time I've read it, so I won't be saying anything new in terms of how much I love it and so on! It's just awesome as usual!

But I have a few questions I'd love to delve into, that I just didn't ask when the book wasn't finished, either because I didn't think of them or because I sort of preferred to wait for it to be actually done.

Sorry in advance for the long post though! It seems I'm unable to keep things short!

On a Hades romance playthrough, especially with a reserved MC who doesn't overtly flirt… Who among the other ROs and other people close to the main cast notices or suspects that there's a spark of "something" between Hades and the MC at the end of book 1? Considering just how much of a slow burn this route is, there isn't much to see yet, romance wise, but I feel like some people may realize something is starting to "shift" there.

When dining with Hera during her visit in chapter 6, if the MC tells her they like the Undeworld and what not, she ends up commenting "A shame". This line always had me reeling, but I didn't re-ask about it after first reading the entirety of the book so I'll do it now. Did she know what Demeter had planned to do? I always wondered why she'd think it's a shame, and it's pretty clear from the climax of the story that Zeus prefers the MC to stay in the Underworld, so I don't imagine it would be something like Hera knowing her husband wants to bring the MC back against their will. And there is no reason for her to have wanted MC to be unhappy for whatever reason. So it only leaves the option of her knowing about Demeter's plan in my mind, but maybe I'm missing something?

After the whole Eurydice and Orpheus thing, Hades says "There are some fates which very much deserve the fight. I know not what yours is, but if it turns out to be one you don't want, I am glad you have the power to change it. Not that this means I wouldn't do everything I could to help as well, of course." - it makes me wonder… Since for the duo of lovers their fate should have been for Orpheus to fail and that changed in my playthrough's case with my Dionysus' influence, I was wondering if in the scope of this story, the MC's "fate" should be the original outcome of the Persephone myth, with the "spending half a year in one realm the other half in another", and any other outcome is a result of having changed fate? Or is this not a part of their story that's truly decided by Fate in this interpretation of the myth? Also side note if it's the case, I think it's funny and kind of poetic that my MC basically traded his fate with Eurydice? Because his fate should have been spending half a year here and half there, and her fate should have been being separated from the one who came for her again after he failed and returning to the Underworld alone. But here, she managed to make Orpheus sort of succeed thanks to MC and now THESE TWO will spend half a year in one realm and half in another, while my MC managed to make Demeter fail and make it so he could go back and stay in the Underworld full time.

And final one! How much did Pirithous and Theseus get to know about what happened after Demeter dismissed them? At the very least in a scenario where they actually kidnapped the MC, not one where MC followed willingly. Not only I'm curious of Pirithous reflected upon his actions, but I'm also intrigued as if Theseus was "satisfied" of sorts that MC managed to go back (if that was indeed the case), considering he seemed against the kidnapping at least to a degree. If they even COULD keep informed, since they are demi-gods living as mortals as far as I understand their situation. I was just always interested in these two since they only appear in that short part of the story but what they do is HUGE.

And that's it. Sorry again for such a long post, and thanks for indulging me if you decide to answer even only some of the questions!

So!

I think a few of the others have picked up on things. I would say Charon and Hekate definitely know something is going on there, and friend!Hermes might have picked up some vibes as well. Even Alekto might have had a passing suspicion, though she doesn't quite consider it her business, and so doesn't devote much thought to it. People will tell her things when they want her to know them, you know?

Hera didn't have specific information about Demeter's plans, but she did know that it was likely she would take some form of drastic action. From her point of view, the arranged marriage was something Zeus did to screw with her (Demeter), and he was likely to reverse his decision once he'd had his fun with it/gotten some kind of concession from Demeter. So to Hera it seemed likely the PC had just found someplace they enjoyed, but their being taken away from it was basically a given.

There isn't really an assumed or default end for the story (or rather, not one that is more mechanically likely than another), but sort of yes! The PC ending up with a different outcome from the source story could be seen as their fate-subverting power at work. :)

Pirithous and Theseus are basically aware of the trajectory of events after they left, and this is because they're eventually brought to the Underworld for trial by the Erinyes. This is dealt with in the first chapter of the sequel.

Thanks as always for your kind words, and no worries about the questions!

#ask #kind non anons

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the-lesbian-orpheus · 7 months

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(kinda sorta)

Life SMP Hadestown AU

//Life SMP Hadestown AU//

Master post for something no one may see.

Idk if this is anything but enjoy

I dunno- this and into the woods is my favorite musicals and I’ve had traffic brain rot for AGESSS and I was finally re-listening to Hadestown and this absolute fever dream of an idea dawned on me during hey little song bird

So yeah. Enjoy?

Here’s the original post when I got this idea

And obvious disclaimer this are all the character versions of these people not the actual people thank you very much for you patience.

ANYWAY

//Life series Hadestown AU//

Eurydice- Jimmy Solidarity ✨the canary✨ you see the vision. This (joke?) is what started this whole thing so.

Orpheus- Still deciding between Scott and Tango

Tango pros:

- They are soulmates

- the goat horns are kinda vaguely like music/an instrument 👀

- ranchers duo is SO SWEET always

- their lives are tethered which in a way fits the story of the show and the myth.

- idk i just like this idea

- why are you still here? It’s over. Go home.

- c!jimmy seems to be on better terms with c!tango than c!scott soooo

Scott pros:

- they were husbands, Jimmy died first tragically (very accurate to original myth)

- THE FLOWER MOTIF- specifically a red flower. It’s just so perfect

- they saw each other in the afterlife

- Scott is always attached to flower husbands which seems fitting

- he likes to sing? Empires musical? I don’t know but it seems like it works

-flower husbands and desert duo have connections (you will see why this is important)

So yeah leaning towards tango for the vibes but leaning towards Scott for actual similarities in plot and such.

(If someone wants to say Joel or someone I will happily hear you out lol)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hades and Persephone- c!Grian and c!Scar/desert duo. The characters were once in love and then it grew into a a more bitter relationship. There are lots of potential parallels with Hadestown older lovers and desert duo. Grian and scar also have flower/plant motifs.

Grian as hades- He is a watcher, which seems fitting. Creator of the games seems fitting for god of death and also the industrial foreman Hadestown has. Original winner.

Scar as Persephone- Now that he is a winner, I personally love the idea of him being the earth, which is perfect for the god(dess) of spring. I also think his secret life skins going from green to black is an accidental parallel.

The only real issue with this is I want to incorporate Grian being the sun but that’s contradictory;-;

Hermes- My main idea atm is Martyn. This is mostly because storytelling and lore is very connected to him and his character. Who doesn’t love some eyes and ears AU/lore

I am also considering pearl just because I like that idea, her being the moon and being connected to g and s, etc

And Ren because he is such a storyteller/theater kid

The Fates- I have several ideas for this

-the watchers(and secret keeper.) Obvious reasons

- the other winners

-clethubs because they are a fun/good trio lol

- ren, pearl, Scott (in case I don’t have them as Hermes/orpheus)

- the remaining Evo members: bigb (also he was so creechur in third life ), pearl, and if he’s not Hermes, Martyn (also good since pearl and martyn have won)

__________________________________________

Based on a lot of the plant motifs imagine if instead of a carnation it was a poppy.

I’m very slow with drawing and have never written any kind of fic before but if people like this idea I’d love suggestions for the AU and I’ll definitely make some character designs :)

Character designs/descriptions:

Jimmy coming soon to a theater near you

Other posts for the AU:

Full circle lol

Potential name

How to include both Scott and Tango

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esther-dot · 1 year

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"Ghost." Melisandre made the word a song."- Jon(ADWD VI).

"Of Sansa, brushing out Lady's coat and singing to herself."- Jon(ADWD XIII).

Two redhead ladies singing to direwolves.🤔

I am finally getting back to my asks @please-dot!

I re-read the Mel passage, and it's interesting that initially, Jon sees Ygritte, but Mel's voice gives her deception away to Jon only for her to successfully gain Ghost's affections. And since Ygritte was inserted in the scene, it reminds me that Jon was kinda seduced by her singing, so the voice/song idea with a direwolf, and with Jon, is a thing. Also, while I'm thinking of Ygritte, there's a contrast between her telling Jon to send Ghost away during her proposition, and Mel befriending Ghost and encouraging Jon to harness the power there during hers. And considering the scent of summer and a few other word choices, including the references to the girl in grey, I think we could argue Sansa is being hinted at in this scene. So really, we have three redheads? Also, considering Sansa's relationship with her own direwolf, I'd expect something interesting in her dynamic with Ghost that’s distinct.

Anyway, about Sansa's singing specifically, it was once a popular idea that there was some magical power there (I’m thinking it was Fedon’s meta that started that). That perhaps, singing to the Hound was not merely an emotional appeal, but a little magical, and that theory was paired with the idea that perhaps she will sing to Jon as part of helping him return to himself post rez.

I would imagine if there was something to the magic idea, it would be about contrasting Sansa with Mel, one uses magic to override a person's perception or an animal's will, and Sansa restores them to themselves (the Hound was drunk and out of control when she sang to him). On my own, I read it less mystical and more about who Sansa is that lends such power to her singing, but there's a lot of talk about songs/singers in Bran's ADWD chapters. Since myths/folktales have people singing life into things, and that connection to the Earth is something Martin wrote about, I have to think Sansa’s association with Spring (Persephone), is a deliberate invocation of that idea in some manner.

There's all this talk of warmth (in a creepy way) with Mel’s scene, Sansa might be a positive version of that. I suppose in the way that fire is a life-sustaining or a life-threatening force, Sansa's singing might be the good answer to the people who sing for nefarious purposes? Whether or not it's explicitly magical, the redheads interacting with Jon /direwolves is something Martin likes.

You know, reading your two quotes, it really does seem possible that part of why Lady was so docile was Sansa's singing, I had assumed she was just incredibly gentle by nature, but now I think about it, there are quotes about wolves singing, Dany "sings" out a command for Drogon, so maybe magical animals are meant to be drawn into this? I’m intrigued now!

#sansa’s singing #dot chat

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rudjedet · 2 years

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If someone has already asked this or you simply don't want to answer (which would be totally fine!) feel free to just skip this but I was wondering why so many people don't like retellings about Hades + Persephone? I saw you mention your dislike of it and I've seen many others do the same and I feel like such a huge dumbass because I don't get it. I had been considering writing a fanfic centered around a plot with a re-imagining of the story but now I'm not sure I should do it because I don't want to do something wrong. Sorry, I know I must sound so childish rn but seeing so many people say they really don't like something but no explanations as to why has left me pretty confused.

I think i only briefly mentioned this once so i'm not sure if you're not mistaking me for someone else, but the type of hades/persephone retellings i specifically raise eyebrows at are the ones that kinda ignore the patriarchal culture it's rooted in. It's not like... super deep or anything. I'm just not interested in them, and honestly the same goes for a lot of Greek myth retellings because it's simply not my area of interest.

Even so, you should not let others' opinions or a fear of "doing it wrong" keep you from writing what you want to write. Do you want to write that fic, yes or no? That should be your only gauge for whether or not you should start writing it.

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illumiera · 1 year

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Thehehe

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from the fanfic writer director's cut asks—feel free to send one in or reblog so I can ask you!

thank you so much, anon!! 💖

⭐the opening lines of i fear no fate—"Laat Dovahkiin wears flowers in her hair. This is the thing that throws Miraak, above all."—were the first lines I ever wrote for this story. I had this very clear image of how Apocrypha might as well be a realm of the dead, an Underworld populated with those who've long since forgotten their mortal lives, and then Miraak is absolutely taken aback by the sudden appearance of Elentari who, by contrast, is riotously, colourfully alive.

⭐ speaking of Elentari and her flowers... this is where my long-lasting love of all things Persephone jumps out. in myth, Persephone has a dual nature as both goddess of spring and Queen of the Underworld so feared and so respected that in many texts, she's referred to only by epithet. I borrowed a little from that with Ellie, who speaks softly and gently, wears flowers in her hair, and excels at Restoration magic—but as her mastery in Destruction will tell you, she's capable of being downright devastating when she wants to be, too.

(it's also not all that often she's called by name, in-universe. it is known around Skyrim, but as Miraak notices, it isn't included in any of the books written about her. those familiar with her will call her "Elentari", or "Ellie" if they're Lucien, but most address her as "Dragonborn", "Dragonslayer", "Flameheart", "Arch-Mage", or "Ysmir".)

⭐but that's not to say that the flowers don't have a lot of symbolism in-universe, too! I like to imagine that Ellie would have started wearing them a while after her resurrection, after she emerged from a months-long haze of grief: a symbol of her new life.

her choice to wear blue mountain flowers in her hair was also very pointed, I think. I've long since envisioned her going to Sovngarde wearing those same flowers, so I like to think that whatever meaning they actually have, she was using them to say something like, "hey, Miraak, whoever you are, I beat the World-Eater, and I'll beat you, too."

(cue Luke Skywalker voice saying, "This is not going to go the way you think...")

⭐ I'm a big fan of sprinkling references to fairy tales and mythology about (in case the entire paragraph I just spent rambling about Persephone didn't already tip you off...), and I intended a certain part of the fourth chapter to be something of a callback to Orpheus and Eurydice. my idea this time was, “what if Orpheus didn’t fail? what if the answer is to walk through the dark, clutching your beloved’s hand, and turn to them and see all that they are and only that way will you be able to bring them back?”

⭐ here's an eyebrow-raising one for you, or for me, at least: in the third chapter, Ellie finds herself dreaming of Labyrinthian, then Bromjunaar, which was ruled by Morokei at the time. since by intervening there, she's rewriting time so that whatever she did was always going to happen, I wonder if Morokei ever felt anything of her while he was alive? magic leaves an echo, after all.

I like to think some part of him—whatever remained behind in his lich—recognised something in the Ellie who came to Labyrinthian shortly before becoming to Arch-Mage, even though the events of i fear no fate hadn't yet started. that's why he defaulted to Dovahzul, expecting an answer, only to switch to Tamrielic when he received no response.

one thing's for sure, she'll soon be very glad she re-killed him...

#asks #long post #oc: elentari #otp: i fear no fate (for you are my fate)#i fear no fate (for you are my fate)

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themculibrary · 3 months

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The Eternals Masterlist 2

part one

a love like ours turns even the darkest coldest realm into the happiest of homes (ao3) - OceanSpray5 druig/makkari G, 42k

Summary: Humans know the myth of Hades and Persephone. What varies is what they know and how it differs from how it happened. But the truth is not a far stretch from what they see. And the love the humans describe, the love two Eternals share, retains every bit of its essence immortalized in the myth as the fable of true love itself.

Of Hades, who is only a man. Of Persephone, with wind in her hair.

And they sang it la la la la la la la…

Or, how Druig and Makkari come to be immortalized as Greek mythology's most faithful couple: Hades and Persephone.

built to fall apart (then fall back together) (ao3) - agents_cxrter druig/makkari T, 20k

Summary: My name is Makkari, she tells him, spelling each letter then offering her name sign.

“Makkari?” He repeats, name sign effortlessly rolling through his fingers.

The pleased smile she gives him feels better than any spark of remembrance he’s ever experienced.

or; in a world inspired by the comic run where the Eternals minds are wiped, Druig and Makkari bump into each other (literally).

chip chrome & the mono-tones (ao3) - dannydays sersi/dane, ikaris/sersi T, 11k

Summary: “Welcome to Highton.”

“It’s a shithole,” Druig said, affectionately.

Sersi said, “We’re happy to have you.”

(human au. dane moves to a new estate and meets the eternals. shenanigans ensue.)

Come Home, Unbeliever (ao3) - un_familiar makkari/sersi G, 3k

Summary: Because, after all this time, born anew, she remembers what it was like to share a mind with a Celestial, even for a moment. It was overwhelming space, pinpricks of light coming into being simply by will.

Re-imagining Eternals: Celestia but this time I get to talk about religious trauma metaphors. Also Makkari and Sersi are dating (Gaiman's Eternals and Eternals: Celestia SPOILERS)

Eternity Together (ao3) - certifiedglutenfree druig/makkari M, 15k

Summary: Druig hates the idea of soulmates. He especially hates that he doesn't have one, because that means his crush on the girl in the library won't work out. But the universe does seem to work in mysterious ways and maybe just once in his life the universe will be on his side.

Forgiveness (ao3) - Wundersmidget sersi/dane T, 1k

Summary: After the Emergence, Sprite ponders her relationship with the other Eternals and especially Sersi.

i'll spend forever wonderin' if you knew (i was enchanted to meet you) (ao3) - notquitegucci (AllieKitaguchi) druig/makkari, thena/gilgamesh, ikaris/sersi N/R, 7k

Summary: How the Eternals discovered that Druig and Makkari were in love.

Some of them were a little slower than others.

In Paper Rings, In Picture Frames (Oh, You're The One I Want) (ao3) - OceanSpray5 druig/makkari G, 14k

Summary: Or, Druig and Makkari get married and wait for the rest of their oblivious family to figure it out.

I take the risk to feel your heart beating (ao3) - anachronistique (924inlegend) ikaris/sersi T, 57k

Summary: During the Deviants' attack in the Amazon, things take a turn when Ikaris is targeted for his powers during the battle. He is almost killed until Sersi steps in.

Light My Love (ao3) - Redheadclover sersi/dane, ikaris/sersi T, 95k

Summary: Soteri always second guessed herself, even in the very beginning when she was born an Eternal on the Domos. Although the rest of the Eternals can see potential in her, Soteri tries to find her way while protecting the planet with her family.

Perhaps she was too gentle and kind, or that she was too reserve to fully expose herself because of her force field and teleportation ability, but that never stopped her from finding hope and love with her family members, including a brooding mind controller. Her courage and her thirst for protecting those around Soteri has pushed her over and over as time went on. However, once the Eternals broke away from one another, Soteri felt lost without her family.

Without her home.

Now Deviants are appearing once more, her fearless leader is gone, and Soteri has to find her strength to defend and protect her family like she did before. Is she willing to have the old wounds of her fragile and reserved heart be reopened again for the sake of humanity?

Missing you is like missing a part of myself (ao3) - Mimisempai phastos/ben G, 1k

Summary: As Ben receives a message from Phastos announcing his return, he thinks about how much he had missed Phastos.

No Such Beauty as Where You Belong (ao3) - Ilyann ikaris/sersi, druig/makkari G, 21k

Summary: Druig and Makkari through the ages.

on a wednesday, in a cafe (ao3) - TaraLy gilgamesh/thena T, 111k

Summary: Thenamesh Coffee Shop AU. No angst, no plot, only love (and food).

oràil (ao3) - delphiniumblooms T, 3k

Summary: “ A nighean oràil, ” Ikaris says, our golden girl. He takes a little hand into his and counts the fingers. “She’s perfect.”

set after the events of the movie, which i have no knowledge of. ikarsi have a baby!

teach me to love (ao3) - iamjustabird gilgamesh/thena, phastos/ben G, 49k

Summary: Thena has just moved next door to her old friend Phastos with her young son Druig in tow. She’s worried about how he’s going to adjust to the move and to his new school, but Phastos assures her that his friend and neighbour Gilgamesh is the best teacher a kid could ask for. She’ll see about that.

teenage headache dreams. (i want to be free). (ao3) - proud_papaya druig/makkari M, 56k

Summary: - non canon compliant eternals (2021) -

there were millennia that they had been the only sense of normalcy for each other, and then, one night, ikarus flew into the clouds, and never came back down to her. then thanos snapped, and any normalcy was gone, as well as dane. he needed to come back.

TLDR: writing various areas of ikarus' and sersi's past, both during endgame and before, and then writing the entirety of the eternals movie, except i'm not killing ikarus off, because that really made me sad, and i bet i'm not the only one. possibly going into after that, as well. enjoy <3 requests are welcome, as well.

the blues and then purple pink skies (ao3) - TaraLy gilgamesh/thena G, 4k

Summary: It’s been a month since their first conversation on the bus, how are Thena and Gilgamesh doing?

The Eternals: Prelude (ao3) - EchoVdV makkari/sersi T, 25k

Summary: A loosely interpreted collection of stories recounting the endeavors of the Eternals to reclaim Earth from the Deviants. Due to many of these characters having a major lack of personality, in the books and especially in the movies, many characters are radically reimagined, especially if you're expecting them to be similar to the movie versions.

Visiting Rites (ao3) - qodarkness druig/makkari, ikaris/sersi T, 4k

Summary: Sprite was the first to visit.

How Druig knows all the gossip about what's going on with the Eternals despite living in the Peruvian Amazon with no phone reception for five hundred years.

we will make a home someday, one full of love and light (ao3) - delphiniumblooms sersi/ikaris, phastos/ben T, 1k

Summary: Sersi and Ikaris pay Phastos’ family a visit.

#themculibrary #marvel #mcu #masterlists #eternals #eternals masterlist #druig #makkari #gilgamesh #thena #ikaris #sersi

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lamiaward · 4 years

Text

like a ship that carried me along through the deadliest storm.

Persephone

Hades wasn’t dark. It just felt dark.

The plants weren’t choking, they only seemed to be gasping for water and oxygen desperately to her lungs used to the above-air, the above-sunlight. There wasn’t silence so encompassing that she felt her heart beat sounded like dad’s thunder, it was her pulse that roared up -becoming an-impossible-to-ignore feeling so large it sounded to her ears like all of Zeus’ lightning bolts thrown at once.

She blinked. The food, she was sure, smelled delicious. But she didn’t want any of it.

That’s mom’s favourite food.

Above, mom’s style of parenting had felt suffocating. She would’ve given anything for freedom. Below here, she longed for her mom’s tendency to use any knife’s reflecting surface to check her appearance, for how her questions verged on controlling, how you just saw in her eyes that she’d always see a child looking at Persephone.

She rubbed the spot on her chin. Her mom had a matching one above her lip. The first time Persephone had noticed they were exactly the same, she had excitedly grabbed her mom and brought it to the spot on her chin. Just like yours.

Of course, her mom had answered. All the women in our family have it.

She looked a lot like her dad. But that spot marked her as her mother’s child.

She kept rubbing it as he returned. He shuffled his feet, looked at her. Then straightened. “Do you wish for any sustenance ?”

She blinked. “Not particularly, no.”

He nodded. “ All right. Are you warm enough?”

They were gods. Temperature didn’t really matter.

“ Since you’re – “

She practically felt the light bulb go on in her own mind. “ I am a spring goddess, but that doesn’t mean I’m like a mortal. Or a plant, for that matter. “ When she saw his eyes clear, she quickly added. “ But some sunlight would be appreciated.”

“There is sunlight at the Isles. “he offered.

She nodded. “Thank you.”

It seemed like folly, to be polite to a man who had yanked her away from everything she had known and loved. But she had always been raised to be polite.

Even if she had her mom’s temper (although she hid it more often behind glass-smiles; most people didn’t bother to look at her eyes anyways).

“What do you need- want?”

I want you to leave. I want you to choose someone else. Something in her chest contracted at the image that flashed to her mind. Alishe, taken by him. Her friend’s records in their running contests not helping against this man, not when he had a chariot faster than the winds’ harnessed.

She swallowed. “Would you leave me?”

He stepped towards her. “ I asked your father for permission.”

She knew it was a useless question. People thought her sheltered, naïve, simply sometimes- they didn’t know her. Her mother might have fought Olympus and Hades to keep her from ever knowing a fate like hers (like Poseidon’s crimes, his- she had heard it all, because people talked, and she had a band of friends who knew gossip could be a weapon of their own, and liked to arm her with it).

She still asked the question.

“ Did you ask my mother?”

A smile slowly appeared. “ Since when is that necessary? “

She did the thing she always did with anger. She hid it in her eyes and used a smile as distraction. “ True.”

His smile widened. His eyes weren’t the only truth, like hers. His eyes were like everything belonging to him- greedy. He sat down. Everything in her burned- her throat, her eyes- even her balled-up fists felt like they were burning. Except instead of spilling tears, she felt like they’d spit fire at his stupid-face. Her stomach felt like fire though, burning subtly, the acid raising up.

She swallowed it away. She knew how to handle men like him. Or in theory she knew anyway. From stories by her friends after they had outrun or outsmarted satyrs. But she was just-

“ I am tired. Would you –“ she cast around for the right words. “ would you allow me to retire?”

He hesitated, then nodded. “ If that is what you wish.”

He looked more like the man from the stories now. The one that was foreboding and untrustworthy and – He’s a spoiled child. The realisation was sudden. He had been kind and polite and even had a nice smile. But she also-

I’m like the pretty shiny thing he wants, and he gets upset when he can’t just have it.

She thought about her mother. How men had always been drawn to her- despite the temper, the higher-than-Olympus expectations, the vitriol she sometimes fired from her mouth. Something below her breast stabbed at her. She blinked.

She’d give a lung for her mom to even appear for a moment.

(Gods didn’t die. But they hurt.)

She swallowed, rubbing her chest absent-mindedly. She gnawed her teeth when she saw his eyes follow the motion- that greedy, contemptuous thing there again. But she pushed down the fire until she could offer him a simmering smile, warm and filled with promise (in his mind, at least. For her, it was just a smile).

She stood up, deciding that the smile would be enough. If he had known her, he’d have felt the absence when looking at that smile. Her normal smile came with crinkled eye corners and peals of laughter.

To her, the absence of laughter was deafening.

To him, she was sure, the absence of laughter mattered nought. And even if he had known her thoughts, he wouldn’t have cared enough. At the end of the day, he would still have taken what he wanted.

She pushed down the anger, inhaled through her nose. She pushed down harder, gritted her teeth. His footsteps didn’t snap her out on it-

She turned around, using the half-second before she was turned around to push all her anger in her eyes, to leave nothing of her anger in her smile.

“Lord Hades, would you permit me to retire to my chambers?”

When he stepped so close that she swear she could feel his breath on her, like lady Artemis’ wild wolves. Warm and slightly moist and always with that undercurrent you won’t like it when I get hungry.

She pushed back that instinctual reaction, to establish her dominance (and okay, because it would be very satisfying) by punching him in the throat. Father will not allow that. Father definitely would not allow any display of dominance from her. Not when he had apparently decided that the one ‘fatherly’ thing he would do in his life is gift her to this man.

Even the way he smiled – something that had seemed nice earlier, might have even been lovely if she had just chatted with him sometime- made her grit her teeth, steady her breathing subtly.

“I would gladly.”

She stepped back. Not too much, but just enough that she didn’t need to work too hard not to punch him in the face. Still, she could feel her muscles twitch a little.

“ Thank you , lord Hades, but that won’t be necessary.”

“It is no – “ he nodded. They had one thing in common so far. They could both hide their emotions well if they wanted to. Although he hid his behind distant politeness. “ Of course, my lady.”

He bowed and kissed her hand. Her smile was as poisonous as she privately thought his touch was. She inclined her head.

“Thank you.”

And left.

Demeter

The plants themselves bowed over, seemingly dead (and wishing for it even more). They wished to return their lady’s seedling from the land of the dead. They wished to escape their lady’s anger.

Demeter stumbled to her feed. Her limbs were shaken with anger, her eyes tear-and-blood shot, her hair falling in graceful waves and yet looking more like Medusa’s tresses.

A plant next to her was shaking, dew drops dripping to its leaves like the tears to Demeter’s lashes. She stroked its leaves with one finger, careful not to disturb the dew. “Fret not” she whispered. Whereas her smile was usually comforting, it now had the exact other effect. “We will get her back.”

She rubbed her forehead.

She had travelled. She had taken on a guise of old age. (gods didn’t get old, but they could feel it).

Once Hekate had found her, she had confronted Zeus. She had pleaded, earning only an eyebrow raise of the king of the gods. She would have kneeled, swallowed all her bile and pride and gladly done so if the reward had been her baby. She had grasped at his robes, reminding them of who she was. Not just to Demeter, but to him.

She should’ve known it didn’t matter. That daughter matter nought to a man who had sired thousands of them.

She had let loose of all her anger, pushing it outward flood upon flood of sharp and sharper words. It had still stuck to her , despite the feeling of emptiness.

She stroked the plant again. For a second, the tears in her eyes weren’t just because of her daughter. She wavered, then pictured her daughter’s brown eyes -so soft and so strong. And her baby’s face- always the face of a little girl, even if she was a millennium and more by now. The curls that she could never tame.

She pulled. Before her, the first flower cried out and the next and the one after that, thousands dying all at once as she retook her gift from them. She stumbled, clutching her head. Her life was intertwined with them; the recoil of all those plants dying pulled at her own life force.

But she was a goddess. She would not die.

But she was a mother. She was unstoppable.

She didn’t bother wiping away the tears. Kneeled know, before the bodies of thousands of what had once been her daughter’s friends as surely as the nymphs, the naiads, the minor goddesses- Persephone might never forgive her. But she didn’t need forgiveness.

She pushed one of the flowers to her breast. The blue already seemed less bright. She held it as she waited. Her heart hadn’t stopped beating like a hummingbird’s wings, and she felt the too-quick thuds right now, pounding at her head even more.

She knew she did not have to wait long. Dozens of humans died, and the gods shrugged and nagged about losing a favourite, only to forget when they found a new plaything. Hundreds of humans died, and the gods shuffled their feet, their eyes not entirely dry if there was a child amongst them.

Thousands died, and the gods cried out in fear.

She was summoned to the palace.

The king had servants whose sole purpose in life was to fill his cup with nectar, mortals that kneeled in supplication, gods to whose power the limit was the king’s rule and strength. But she didn’t kneel. She let him kneel.

Zeus grasped her robes, his head downcast. She took his chin, pushed it up. His eyes still shone with defiance and anger. But she didn’t care. She showed her own anger, her own defiance to his so-called power.

He broke eye contact, shivered once. Just the once.

“ Desist this Demeter.”

“You’ve asked me this before.”

“ But I have never pleaded. I am even, I a king, I am even- “. He cut himself off.

“ I kneeled too. Remember?”

“ Yes.” He whispered.

“ Mortals mean nothing to you.” He didn’t fight the accusation.

“They mean something to you. Ease their suffering. “

“If the screams if your own daughter mean nothing to you, perhaps you need to listen to more screaming to finally learn to listen.”

“I have. Entire villages are perishing. Men curse us rather than bless us. They spit in the gods’ faces by murdering even their kin for some sustenance. This cannot continue.”

“Then do something, king.”

“I need to safeguard my people.”

She laughed at the implicit threat. “ Then act.”

“ Demeter, you are taking in a way that is far worse than what Hades has taken from you.”

“Not just Hades.”

“ Mothers are- .”

Zeus crawled back when she fully straightened. “ Don’t you dare speak as though you understand a mother’s grief. Don’t you dare – you do not deserve the epithet of father, you don’t deserve the title , the- you know nothing, despite your wisdom.”

She grabbed his throat, her kneels drawing gold. She glanced at it. “ I could slowly bleed you dry and you wouldn’t have felt a tenfold of the suffering that a mother separated from her child goes through.”

She swallowed. “ Not to mention the agony of a child separated from her mother.”

She squeezed, then slowly let go. “ Free my daughter. Those are my demands. No negotiation, no compromises.”

The king of the gods looked up at Demeter, earth-mother, bestower-of-splendid-gifts, queen-amongst-goddesses. Kings are only kings as long as they rule. Queens don’t need to rule to be queens. And what is a king of the gods to a mother?

The king of Olympus slowly nodded.

Demeter arched an eyebrow. “Thank you.”

And left.

Reunion

Persephone met her halfway, barging into her.

Demeter barely felt the sting as her daughter collided with her. She grabbed the back of her head, stroking it as Persephone clung to her.

“ Mama. Mama.” She whispered.

“Korè. “

Persephone closed her eyes. Inhaled the familiar smell. Vaguely recalled when she little, and her mom would left, and Persephone would drape one of her mom’s shawls around her neck and smell the same oils she was smelling now.

She pulled back, briefly squeezed her mom’s hand.

Demeter pushed back a stray hair, smiled. Someone had once remarked that Persephone’s untameable hair matched her soul perfectly. They hadn’t been wrong.

Demeter had quickly given up on ‘taming’ her daughter’s hair, realizing rather soon that her daughter was far happier without the ritual of pretending it could be tamed.

“ Persephone. My darling baby, I- .” She nearly choked on the stomach acid that rose, didn’t even consider pushing back her own tears. Her baby girl’s mouth was stained red.

Persephone smiled, revealed the pomegranate seeds. “ Just six.”

That smile said I will be all right. I will learn to be happy.

But she was a mother. She knew to look at the eyes.

And they shrieked out a crescendo of don’t leave don’t leave don’t leave don’t PLEASE.

She sobbed in her daughter’s hair, pressing kisses against her temple. Persephone released her tears in the form of a wail, clutching at her mom’s hair. Grabbing at her hands, letting go, grabbing them again.

Don’t leave it said. Don’t leave her daughter’s wails communicated. Don’t leave, I’m just a girl, I am not ready, don’t leave her broken repeat of “mama” said.

Demeter didn’t offer words, just tears. She couldn’t promise her daughter that. It wasn’t in her hands.

I will leave. But my love for you never will.

Inspiration & Sources & Such

This was inspired by this post : https://jo-march-is-a-lesbian.tumblr.com/post/622378966306734080/finelythreadedsky-finelythreadedsky-the-myth (which is an amazing, powerful post by the way).

It doesn’t follow the idea of that post exactly, but it made me re-imagine the myth in a way different from how a lot of people imagine it. For one, the focus is on Demeter and Persephone. It’s about motherhood. It’s about that bond between mother and daughter. It was very much also inspired by my mother/our relationship, and things happen in my personal life right now.

The title is from a poem called “I am much too alone in this world, yet not alone” by Rainer Maria Rilke. I very much also considered “ they will always be your clothes without you,as we will always be your daughters without you. “ but eventually decided the current title worked slightly better. That line is from a poem called “your clothes” by Judith Kroll.

Also, when I name a few of Demeter’s epithets, that is from this: https://www.theoi.com/Cult/DemeterTitles.html#Poetic

#to ***** *****#aka to my mom #demeter #persephone #motherhood #grief #myth #re-imagined #retelling #greek mythology

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filmnoirsbian · 3 years

Text

Things read in April

Essays & Articles:

When You Give A Tree An Email Address

Even Without A Home, We Always Had A Family Meal

The "Intolerably Putrid" Making of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre

The Travel Edit

Zombie Worms Crave Bone

What Happens After A Whale Dies?

The New Frontier of Fashion Criticism Lives On Black Twitter

Will the Millennial Aesthetic Ever End? (I originally read this last year but it's always worth a re-read)

Peter Gudrunas Has Been Blowing Glass Since the 1970s. Now His Daughter is Helping to Bring Their Practice Into the 21st Century

The Ecological Imagination of Hayao Miyazaki

‘We are witnessing a crime against humanity’: Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe

This Artemisia Gentileschi Painting Spent Centuries Hidden From Public View

Jenna Gibbon on Neon Nipples and Wrestling Women

A Conversation with Curator Tam Gryn Unpacks the Innovative Mix of Art and Retail Behind SHOWFIELDS

Robin Williams and Why Funny People Kill Themselves

How to Save Yourself Another Pointless Guilt Trip

Social Ecology: An Ecological Humanism

Mystery Tree Beast Turns Out To Be Croissant

How To Cook Onions: Why Do Recipe Writers Lie and Lie About How Long It Takes For Them To Caramelize?

Breaking Myths About Black Fatherhood

A Sociologist Explains Why Wealthy Women Are Doomed To Be Miserable

Henrietta Lacks: A Doctor's Immortal Legacy

"Drop It like It's Hot": Culture Industry Laborers and Their Perspectives on Rap Music Video Production

Cairo, Illinois Was Once A Booming City — Until Racist Violence Destroyed The Entire Town

Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police

Trial By Trauma

Praise Song for the Kitchen Ghosts

Dead Man Laughing

Poetry:

Dudes, We Did Not Go Through The Hassle Of Getting These Fake IDs For This Jukebox To Not Have Any Springsteen by Hanif Abdurraqib

Parkinson's Disease: Autumn by Andrés Cerpa

Preparing the Body for A Reopened World by Ada Limón

Hypochondria Fights With Poseidon by Emily Paige Wilson

Whales Weep Not! by D. H. Lawrence

Ardana II by Kyriakos Charalambides translated by A.K. Petrides

This Is A Photograph of Me by Margaret Atwood

One or Two Things by Mary Oliver

One Sister I Have in Our House by Emily Dickinson

I Have Not Had One Word From Her by Sappho

Books:

Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane

Persephone in A Motel Room by Lana Rafaela Cindric

Disaster in My Skin by Colleen Dunlap

Losaida by Dan Chordokoff

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

#tcp #articles #an open window #losaida is an interesting view into the gentrification of 1980s nyc #and they never learn is what promising young woman could have been were they not cowards

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fruitcoops · 4 years

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MY LORD WE NEED A LILY REMUS AND REGULAS FRIENDSHIP - imagine the chaos all of them just talking so fast over something they’re exited about - and pots cap and the team just stand their like wtf

I love this ask!!! I combined it with the one below because they just fit SO well. Send your prayers to Kasey, everyone <3 Sweater Weather credit goes to @lumosinlove!

Anon 1: Loops nerding out on something (stars and planets) and unloading shit ton of knowledge to Sirius. Sirius is just there sitting and smiling (because LOOK AT MY SMART BOYFRIEND!!! ) but also actively listening to it and asking questions and doubts. that just meeelttts Loops’s heart because nobody actually listens this intently or are even interested in Astronomy

To say Kasey was lost was…an understatement. The Triplets of Terror had been talking for well over thirty minutes; their trains of thought were fully off the rails and had ground his own little mining cart of a thought process into dust about twenty minutes prior.

Thankfully, he wasn’t alone—Logan and Finn had given up to play Candy Crush on their phones while Leo napped, and most of the other guys had straight-up left the room, not that the triplets would notice.

Sirius and Pots on the other hand, had never been more whipped.

“—and then they had to change the battery type for the new rover!” Remus was saying as he flailed his hand around in excitement. Lily nodded along, but Regulus made a timeout motion.

“Wait, didn’t they redesign the entire thing?” he asked, looking to Kasey as if he had any clue what topic they had moved on to.

Kasey shrugged. “Perseverance was supposed to be the better version of Opportunity, right?”

From the looks on their faces, he may as well have admitted he was a serial killer. “Bliz,” Lily said indignantly. “Are you trying to say something about Oppy?”

“Because if you are, you need to sit your ass down and learn some shit.” Regulus narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. Kasey died a little inside. “Both of the Mars rovers are meant to take pictures and samples of the landscape—”

“—but in different ways,” Remus finished. Regulus didn’t bat an eye, though Kasey was pretty sure that if anyone else had interrupted him, they would’ve lost an eye. “And when Oppy’s battery pack died, they knew she still had valuable information and that they would need another rover to collect what they couldn’t bring back from her.”

“Which is where Percy comes in,” Lily said, as if it was obvious. “James, you’ve been watching the livestreams with me. Kasey’s wrong, right?”

James hummed his agreement, though Kasey was willing to bet he wasn’t registering a single word she said. “You’re so smart, honey.”

“What do you think they’ll do next?” Remus asked, his eyes getting the same unfocused look they did when the topic was about to do a 180-degree turn. “Like, we can’t land rovers on stars yet, but it would be pretty cool if we could plot constellations in 3D models.”

“That would be awesome,” Regulus whispered.

Sirius snorted. “The family would go batshit over that, Reg. Can you imagine how insufferable they’d be?”

“Ugh, you’re right.” Regulus wrinkled his nose. “Do we sacrifice science for even more status symbols?”

“No,” Remus and Lily said at the same time. Kasey settled back into his chair and closed his eyes; maybe he could fit a nap in while they talked.

Something smacked his foot lightly and he cracked open an eye to see both James and Sirius giving him disbelieving looks. Listen, James mouthed, gesturing to the triplets as they chatted at light speed about the origins of planet names.

“I’m telling you, Re, it should’ve been named Helios!” Regulus sighed.

“I don’t care if it’s a star, the sun is the sun and it deserves its own special name!” Remus argued. “Besides, Helios is already a system. If we were keeping with naming conventions—”

“Who cares about naming conventions?” Lily grumbled. “Pick the one that sounds the best so people remember it.”

“If we were keeping with naming conventions,” Remus continued aggressively. “The sun would have been named Apollo, and that just sounds lame next to everything else.”

There was a beat of blessed silence.

Lily bit her lip. “You’re not wrong.”

“Of course he’s not,” Sirius scoffed, still looking at Remus like he hung the stars.

“Love you too, babes” Remus leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. He practically glowed with happiness.

“Apollo isn’t lame!” Finn piped up from his couch with a frown. “Apollo is the coolest of the pantheon!”

“Which pantheon?”

“Both!”

All three rolled their eyes at the same time and James stifled a laugh in Sirius’ shoulder. “Haven’t you guys talked about this before?” he asked, bemused.

“Yes,” they chorused.

“The consensus was Athena and we’re not talking criticism,” Regulus said.

“War goddess, strategist, artist, engineer.” Remus counted off on his fingers. “She checks all the boxes.”

“And she’s a badass,” Lily added. “If Athena is in a myth, it’s gonna be good. Oh, we should do that for Halloween this year.”

Remus raised an eyebrow. “Dress up as Athena?”

“No, the gods.”

Regulus nodded slowly. “That could be cool. Dibs on Persephone.”

“Not Hades?”

“Nah. I’m not emo enough for that.”

Lily and Remus’ instant disagreements were lost in the explosion of laughter from everyone left in the room. Kasey leaned back into the cushions and prepared himself for a long, long afternoon.

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antiloreolympus · 3 years

Text

7 Anti LO Asks

1. RE: Pom Theory. If this ends up happening, it'll be framed as "she made the CHOICE to eat it! agency!" but? its just to save her skin from bigger punishment, which isn't exactly romantic, but more so it reinforces persephone is dependent on hades and his power/status as king, which says a MAN and his power is more important than even an OP fertility goddess. It ends up looking more regressive than even the old myths, which had the power of women winning over the power of men, not whatever LO is.

2. maybe its just me, but im really uncomfortable that most of the baddies in LO are (1) a demonized queer god so the male lead's myth canon crimes are pinned on him instead, (2) a loving mother who is turned abusive so the male lead's "love" is better by default (3) a poor nymph who is POC-coded and is hated for the fact she's not the "right" race/class, and even to an extent the only non-binary character who is took away poor hades' ability to breed. it just rubs me the wrong way.

3. Okay I'm not caught up on LO (no fast pass) - but here's my prediction for the following chapters based on info ive seen:

Now, I don't know how true this is, but according to FS spoilers Persephone is wearing Hades' pomegranate pin (or has the actual pomegranate on her person?) And shes being referred to by the house servants as "my lady" which is leading some readers to believe Hades and Persephone either already got married off screen or are faking it for the trial (for perks).

I think whats going to happen during the trial (cause apparently we're getting back to that plot point now) - is Zeus is going to threaten punishment (Prometheus style) and either 1 of 2 things will happen.

1. All the other gods go against this despite Zeus being the king of the gods and they overthrow his decision and Persephone goes free (and maybe there will be a small consequence on her end) and that is the tipping point for RS' to enable the "Apollo / Leto is going to overthrow Zeus plotline. Everyone hates Zeus anyway, but Apollo is no better. Zeus is the lesser of two evils. So he stays as king of the gods."

2. As suggested by some other anons, Persephone eats the pomegranate during the trial (or maybe Hades sneaks it too her and she accidentally and unknowingly eats it) as Zeus threatens punishment / threatens Demeter or something and in doing so this enables Persephone to claim she is of "queen of the underworld" and she utilizes this newfound power to get out of punishment because blah blah underworld rules.

But the story cant be over yet, (because HxP is endgame. And no one wants to see only filter of them rushing into marriage) so there's a 3rd option.

Persephone eats the pomegranate and/or she and Hades claim their married and the "underworld rules, no punishment" thing goes through and its only later revealed that this isnt the case - meaning that Persephone and Hades "marriage" in this case isnt sanctified (cause Hera or something) so that way RS can have Hades and Persephone be married but also not because its way too early for them to get married (in universe its been like 3 weeks tops) and this way Hades and Persephone get away with no consequences and if readers are mad that Hades and Persephone "got married too quickly" RS can pull the rug back and be all 'but their not actually married, it didn't count' so H + P can still date and stuff before they Really get married (because drama purposes).

4. if LO seriously has hxp get married not out of love, but rather to keep her out of jail because of sovereign immunity, isnt that just undermining the whole point of it claiming it's about her choice, especially after we're getting the conflicted messages from persephone herself that she wants to be on her own yet also being queen? so which one is it? also it would just reinforce her dependance on hades to the highest degree, not with just power and status, but also her own life. that's awful!

5. ngl i would lose my shit if rachel literally made hxp get married/engaged off screen just as some AHA moment to save her ass from jail when its like???? thats EXACTLY what the readers wanted to see for YEARS now and she'd just have it as some aside they dont even get to see?? thatd honestly be hilarious. i hope it happens now just to see how the fans would react they dont even get to see the actual romance they paid and waited years for.

6. IF RACHEL SMYTHE'S BIG IDEA TO PUSH HXP INTO A MARRIAGE IS TO FORCE PERSEPHONE TO MARRY HADES TO AVOID BEING PROSECUTED RIGHTFULLY IN COURT FOR MURDER THEN I WILL SNAP. THAT WILL BE THE LAST. FUCKING. STRAW FOR ME.

YOU-YOU CAN'T DO THAT. YOU CAN'T. YOU CAN'T RACHEL! YOU CANNOT, I WON'T ALLOW IT! I WILL NOT!

YOU CAN'T CLAIM TWO CHARACTERS ARE IN LOVE IF THEY'RE LITERALLY MARRIED TO AVOID THE FUCKING LAW!!!!!!!!!! I WON'T ALLOW THIS!!!!! I!!!!! WILL!!!!! NOT!!!!!!

In conclusion, Please say sike rn Rachel. Please.

7. ok so what i dont get is LO made a point that swallowing a fertility goddess makes you super OP, so like??? shouldnt zeus be able to easily take persephone out?? like thats what i dont get, because apparently fertility goddesses are SO powerful yet are so easily overpowered for??? which tbh i have to imagine is just to make persephone seem more ~powerful~ by default, because she can't look powerful on her own or have rachel depict it, she needs every other woman torn down to prop her up. v cool.

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical

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fairytaleslayer · 3 years

Note

Do you have any books recommendation? I like your works and I think it's a good idea to ask you for books recommendation :). Thank you in advance.

Hey!

I haven't read as many books in recent years as I used to or would like, although I'm hoping to pick it back up now that I'm finally done with school for good and at a good job. I can make a few suggestions though!

The Dark Wife, by Sarah Diemer is a retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth with Hades re-imagined as female. It's a little amateurish at times, but a quick and entertaining book that I've read a few times. And it's available for free by the author online! She has other books for sale, but none that I've read.

On my To Read list are the Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth books, which I know are kind of a given in the community these days, but they're highly recommended by my friend. Also Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, and American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

For general non-LGBT fiction, I love a lot of the classics, including most of Jane Austen's line up.

The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy is the first vigilante novel to have been written and is a long time favorite of mine (the film from the 80's is a hoot as well).

Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood is a novel from my college English course I fell in love with.

And I guess you could call it a guilty pleasure, but I don't know that I feel guilty about it, but I absolutely love anything by Nalini Singh, who writes modern paranormal romances that are very easy to get into, despite the heterosexualness of it all lol.

Thanks for the ask and thanks for reading my own works :) Feel free to come on back if you try any of those and like them! I'm always down for suggestions as well, especially for LGBT books. I mostly make do with fanfiction on that front these days since I don't even know where to start looking for that in published novels.

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itsclydebitches · 5 years

Note

Why do you like Lore Olympus? I'm genuinely curious because I've seen a lot of harsh criticisms toward the comic, from its inaccuracies regarding its use of Greek Mythology to the plethora of harmful queer stereotypes. I tried reading it myself but honestly, if you took out all the Greek Mythology references and naming, it just seems like another "far older man courts a barely adult woman" love story with bad queer rep thrown it.

Happy to explain! Let’s tackle what’s perhaps the most complicated aspect first.

As a former Classics major I can tell you that there is no “Greek Mythology.” Meaning, there is no singular Greek Mythology that can be referenced and consulted in any uniform way. Which is a really difficult thing to conceptualize in an age of print publications and careful record keeping. Unsure about whether Harry ever cursed Draco with such-and-such hex? Re-read the Harry Potter books to find out. Want to claim that Sherlock was horrible to Watson and frequently insulted him? We can comb through Doyle’s shorts stories and novels, tally every insult, and find out. These are canons and, as messy as the term “canonical” has become with more adaptations and transmedia storytelling, most characters have a set, fixed existence that we can return to and use as evidence. Not so with Greek Mythology. Born of oral storytelling, there are a hundred different versions of every myth, some changes more stark than others. Some of those versions were written down. Then written down again (differently). Then written down again (differently still). Then we realized they were almost all being written down by men and huh, I wonder if that has any impact on how they framed the story (spoiler: it absolutely does). And all of this doesn’t even take into account the issue of translation. Regardless of what Ovid may have put down on the page, you’re going to get a different experience depending on whether you read Melville or Gregory. There’s a reason why everyone was so excited over Emily Wilson being the first woman to translate The Odyssey into English. Her perspective and her experience as a woman by default changes the way she approaches the text. Even something as simple as a single description can have a HUGE impact depending on how it is translated. Take this excerpt from a NYT article:

“The prefix poly,” Wilson said, laughing, “means ‘many’ or ‘multiple.’ Tropos means ‘turn.’ ‘Many’ or ‘multiple’ could suggest that he [Odysseus] is much turned, as if he is the one who has been put in the situation of having been to Troy, and back, and all around, gods and goddesses and monsters turning him off the straight course that, ideally, he’d like to be on. Or, it could be that he’s this untrustworthy kind of guy who is always going to get out of any situation by turning it to his advantage. It could be that he’s the turner.”

Is Odysseus a poor victim turned around by monsters and fate, or is he a schemer capable of turning it all to his advantage? It all depends on how it’s translated and whoever wants to make a case for Odysseus being a “good” or “bad” guy can point to this translation as evidence… or another. Or another. There are just too many versions for anyone to definitely say what these gods and others are “really” like.

I put so much emphasis on this because the biggest criticism I’ve seen leveled against the comic is the characterization of Apollo. He would never rape Persephone! How dare you twist his character like that! Except Apollo isn’t a character that exists in a fixed canon. He belongs to an overwhelming corpus of complicated, contrary, contrasting myths… and yes, in some of those he raped. Arguably. It, again, comes down to translation and interpretation. Take this excerpt from Nancy Rabinowitz’s paper “Greek Tragedy: A Rape Culture?”

Creusa, raped by Apollo years ago, conceived a child and abandoned him… For the purposes of this paper, I have to address the question of whether Creusa was in fact raped by the god. Hermes mixes the terminology in the prologue; he asserts that the god Apollo “yoked the daughter of Erechtheus in marriage (γάμοις)”, but he also says “by force (βίᾳ)” (10-11). Ion later (1524-25; cf. 341, 325) wonders whether Creusa was really raped, or whether she was just alleging that the god took her by violence to cover up an indiscretion of her own – a similar situation could be imagined in our own day, where false allegations may arise from young girls’ fear of confessing consensual relations to their parents. Lefkowitz argues that women tend to cooperate in their seduction by a god. While it might seem obvious that Ion is simply wrong, there is the further implication that though Apollo raped Creusa, she also desired him” (11-12).

So if we’re looking for evidence that Smythe’s interpretation of Apollo is the “correct” one, it exists… depending on what you read and how you choose to interpret it: whether a mortal woman can ever truly give consent due to the power difference between her and a god, whether it was safe to say no, whether she might have lied to protect herself, whether it was something a part of her desired but perhaps didn’t entirely want, etc. It’s that last bit in particular—those difficult questions—that Smythe explores in her comic. Persephone wants to explore her sexuality. She wants a way out of her virgin obligations. But she’s also pressured into sex by Apollo. He doesn’t stop when she expresses discomfort. She doesn’t feel safe asserting herself and telling him to stop. It’s rape, but it’s a far more complicated situation than the rape scenario of “Evil man forces himself on woman in the back of an alleyway” and Smythe treats the tragedy with nuance and respect, even in a comic filled with so much humor.

The people I see most upset about Lore Olympus are those who talk about the gods and their associated mortals as if they’re characters out of a book. They read one version once—or maybe two—and, as is natural in the 21st century, decided that This Is How The Story Goes. Even though every academic would be losing their mind over such definitive statements as, “Such-and-Such would never do this.” That’s simply not how records this ancient, sporadic, political, and downright messy work. So as someone with some knowledge of how Greek Mythology functions, I’m not at all put off by the comics’ “inaccuracies.” Because they’re simply not inaccuracies, just interpretations. Not liking those interpretations is fine, but that doesn’t mean Smythe was wrong for providing them.

As for the rest, I’ll try to limit myself to bullet points:

The age difference between Persephone and Hades is definitely A Thing and I admittedly didn’t realize that was the case when I started reading. I assumed that Persephone, like most of the cast, was hundreds/thousands of years old and just had a child-like personality. I basically realized around the time Hades did that she’s so young. That being said, the issue of age differences changes for me once you reach such insane ages. That’s why I still ship Ozqrow: Ozpin is hundreds of years older than him but at that point he’s going to be older than everyone. Always. Limiting his ships to only those who are close to Ozpin’s age means you can’t ship him at all (unless you ship him with Salem post-grimm pool and… no). It’s a similar situation with Hades. Yes, there are plenty of gods his age that he could date (and indeed he does) but he is always going to be thousands of years older than Persephone. She can literally never catch up to him, so if someone has an issue with the age gap then they have to accept that it will simply never go away. They can never be a couple in which case yeah, then the comic just isn’t your thing.

Really, I think the bigger issue is not the gap itself but Persephone’s age, period. Again though, I appreciate that Smythe treats the situation with a great deal of respect. This isn’t a story of a much older man hunting a younger woman. It’s the story of a much older god who, like me the reader, assumed he had fallen for a slightly younger goddess… and then freaked out when he found out he was wrong. He’s called out for his ignorance. Others are incredibly protective of Persephone. They both try to stay away from one another and find themselves struggling. Which, to be frank, is an interesting dilemma to me. And it’s one I’m more interested in with gods as characters as opposed to humans. Because it feels less predatory to me. A man going after a much younger woman is threatening in part because we’re mortals who have so much to lose, including our youth. If you enter an abusive relationship that alone is horrible enough, but it also means you’ve lost all those years and all that experience to toxicity. When a god goes after a much younger goddess… they’re kind of static. They have eternity stretching out before them. Persephone potentially “losing” ten years to a relationship with Hades just isn’t the same thing as a mortal losing ten years to a relationship of their own. Gods, though they seem quite human, simply aren’t and thus for me questions of morality and what’s ethical in any given situation changes. We have a cast who, when Eros gets upset and murders a whole bunch of humans, Zeus shrugs and says they’ll just make more. Their concept of right and wrong differs from ours and it invites the reader to apply that to every situation: is it as wrong for an older god to go after a 19yo goddess as it would be for an older man to go after a 19yo woman? Many readers may decide it is—to some extent the text decides it is—but the story still possesses ambiguity and invites the reader to grapple with it. That’s compelling.

Connected to this, I like how much agency Persephone has throughout the series. She’s very much a character who defies expectations, particularly when it comes to her sexuality. Far from being a meek, vulnerable woman who is preyed on by Hades, she is making constant, active decisions about her own romantic and sexual encounters. Even if that decision is just acknowledging how unsure she still is: does she want to remain a virgin? Does she want Apollo? Does she want Hades? Is it okay to make out with Ares? Wear this very short dress? Get drunk? Explore a city? Invite this person over? Have feelings for your boss? Persephone is grappling with a lot of questions that don’t have easy answers and the fact that the story gives her the room to do that grappling is fantastic. I’ve spoken before about my dislike of the Strong Female Character—someone who is not just physically intimidating but who also never, EVER hesitates. She knows precisely what she wants and she’s going to take it! Which is a great portrayal of one kind of woman… but I’m not that kind. I hem and haw and am anxious like Persephone. So for me it’s refreshing to see a story that paints uncertainty as strength. She’s allowed the space to be unsure and confused and is never belittled for that.

Honestly I’m not sure what the issue with the queer rep is? Beyond the fact that Lore Olympus doesn’t seem to have any (unless I’m forgetting some. Very possible). Which, admittedly, is far from great, but if I dismissed every story due solely to a lack of queer characters I would limit a lot of my potential media. So for me, personally, that’s not a deal breaker. Taking a stab in the dark, I’ll make an assumption that people are upset about certain characterizations like Eros? Which, fair. But we also have the flip side that effeminate, flamboyant men do exist. It’s another complicated, touchy subject, but there’s a fine line between enforcing stereotypes and acknowledging that those stereotypes often do arise out of something. Some people hate the media image of the queer kid decked out in rainbows. Other people look at their own wardrobe and backpack and go, “Actually… yeah. That can be accurate.” For me stereotypes are primarily an issue given their prevalence. It’s an issue when that’s the only way queer characters are portrayed, but Lore Olympus doesn’t have that problem because, again, it’s focused on het relationships. Eros might potentially be a (non-confirmed?) queer stereotype… or he’s a battle-hardened warrior who also likes to gush about gossip while baking, the sort of complex gender portrayal that people claim to want. It depend on how you approach it. So no, Lore Olympus isn’t breaking any ground with queer rep but, as said, I do appreciate how it treats sexual assault—among other sensitive, relevant issues. It’s a trade-off. No piece of media is going to be perfect. I could say the same thing about so many great stories. The Mandalorian doesn’t have any queer rep! No, it doesn’t, but it is giving us a fantastic story about a bounty-hunter turned dad that challenges a number of Western gender assumptions so… trade-off.

I likewise enjoy that characters call one another out on shitty, toxic behavior without completely losing who those characters are. (Again, supposedly who they are based on the lecture I gave at the start lol). Meaning, it would be kind of weird if Zeus wasn’t a womanizer. That’s what we expect of him, so changing that would likewise change one of the most fundamental aspects of what makes Zeus-Zeus in the general public’s perception of him. But we still have scenes of Hera and others calling him out on that shit, so it’s a balance between modern sensibilities and character expectations.

The characters overall are just wonderfully complex. Persephone doesn’t seem so at first glance, but that’s partly the point: she’s nothing like what everyone assumes she is and it’s those assumptions that she’s learning to push back against. But overall Smythe has a real knack for emphasizing the human (or god) complexity. We hate Eros for helping Aphrodite punish Persephone. Then we feel bad for him because of his sob story. Then we pull back because he’s called out for being a dick and making himself look like the victim. Then we come to the realization that his side of the story was still accurate in many ways and finally end on… he’s flawed. He’s just a flawed person. He’s not a saint. He’s not the devil. He’s a guy who screwed up one moment and did something good the next. Perhaps it’s just me coming out of the nonsense that was Volume 7 of RWBY, but it’s refreshing to read a story where that complexity is emphasized and (most) flaws are forgiven while still being acknowledged.

Overall I just find it to be a fun, entertaining story! lol. The artwork is beautiful. The humor is great. There’s a nice balance between plot and introspection. There are issues with the series, sure, but none thus far have kept me from enjoying the experience of reading it. I fully support anyone’s right to go, “Nope. Not for me.” For any reason. But I also feel like Lore Olympus is a good example of Tumblr’s recent emphasis on pure media: it must be PERFECT. Otherwise chuck it in the bin. Lore Olympus does a lot of the things that people on this site call for. Respectful depictions of assault. Emphasis on mental health. Storytelling from a woman’s perspective. Numerous types of woman characters. Being careful about who engages with sensitive material and how (each chapter that contains such issues has a trigger warning at the start, impossible to miss). Lore Olympus does a lot right… and some things wrong. Which is what we would expect of any good story. So it feels disingenuous of me—if not outright dangerous—to paint it as worse than I actually think it is. I want media to continue to improve, but I also don’t want to scare off authors from even trying because they were raked across the coals for not creating perfection. Smythe, to my mind, is definitely trying and that should be acknowledged.

#Anonymous #rape tw #lore olympus #greek mythology #mymetas

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