#son of heaven asks

[rin-eko]

hey! i was wondering if in soh the reader and haru have children?

In my mind they had many children. Haru has to ensure that succession is locked in, y'know?

But also because he really can't keep his hands off her and loves seeing her in the role of a mother. She also loves watching him grow into his new responsibilities as a father even in the most challenging times. I think they'd be good parents who rely on each other and fill in what the other lacks so they can raise the children well 💛

[monhiio]

Day 6 of Feng Xin week, Nan Feng!!

@fxweek

[gingermintpepper]

As usual I read your tags always and so you said Apollo did not ask for resurrection of Asclepius and Hyacinthus so i just wanted to share this. About Asclepius death I read it on theoi.com, that earlier authors don't make him resurrect as a god but that's a later development mentioned only by Roman authors like Cicero, Hyginus and Ovid. But still Apollo has a role in Ovid's version

Ovid, Fasti 6. 735 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : Clymenus [Haides] and Clotho resent the threads of life respun and death's royal rights diminished. Jove [Zeus] feared the precedent and aimed his thunderbolt at the man who employed excessive art. Phoebus [Apollon], you whined. He is a god; smile at your father, who, for your sake, undoes his prohibitions [i.e. when he obtains immortality for Asklepios].

So here it is actually because of Apollo the decision was taken to resurrect him as god. And with Hyacinthus, I don't think I've read about Artemis playing the primary role. I know in Sparta there was a picture of Artemis, Athena and Aphrodite carrying Hyacinthus and his sister to heaven.

This is not on theoi.com but I saw on Tumblr it's from Dionysiaca by Nonnus

Second, my lord Oiagros wove a winding lay, as the father of Orpheus who has the Muse his boon companion. Only a couple of verses he sang, a ditty of Phoibos, clearspoken in few words after some Amyclaian style: Apollo brought to life again his longhaired Hyacinthos: Staphylos will be made to live for aye by Dionysos.

So since he is singing inspired by amyclean stories it probably means in that place it was believed Apollo was the one to bring back his lover to life.

Apollo as god of order was very important so i think it shows how special these people (and admetus too) were to him that he decided to go against the order for them 🥺

ANON!! Shakes you like a bottle of ramune!! BELOVED ANON!!!!! I'm littering your face with kisses, I'm anointing you with olive oil and honey - you absolutely made my night with this because, not only did I get the pure serotonin shot of having someone interact with my tags (yippee, wahoo!!) I also got to have that wonderful feeling of "oh wow, have I misunderstood something that was integral to my understanding of this myth/figure this whole time or is this a case of interpretational differences?" which is imo vital for my aims and interests as someone who enjoys mythological content and literature.

I'll preface my response with this: Hyacinthus is by far the hardest of these to get accounts for because his revival itself, as you very astutely point out, is generally accounted for in painting/ritual format which muddies the waters on who interceded for what. I wasn't actually familiar with that passage from the Argonautica - and certainly didn't remember it so thank you very much for bringing it to my attention!

That said, what I've come to understand, both about Hyacinthus and about Asclepius is that in the accounts of their deaths, Apollo's position is startlingly clear.

For Hyacinthus, it is established time and again that Apollo would have sacrificed everything for him - his status, his power, his very own immortality and divinity. Ovid writes that Apollo would have installed him as a god if only he had the time:

(Ovid. Metamorphoses. Book X. trans. Johnston)

Many other writers too speak of how Apollo abandoned his lyre and his seat at Delphi to spend his days with Hyacinthus, but they also all agree that when it came to his death - he was powerless. Ovid gives that graphic account of Apollo's desperation as he tries all his healing arts to save him to no avail:

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book X. Apollo me boy, methinks him dead. trans Johnston)

Bion, in one of his fragments, writes that Apollo was "dumb" upon seeing Hyacinthus' agony:

(Bion, The Bucolic Poets. Fragment XI. trans Edmonds)

Even Nonnus in the Dionysiaca speaks constantly of Apollo's helplessness in the face of Hyacinthus' fate where he writes that the god still shivers if a westward wind blows upon an iris:

and when Zephyros breathed through the flowery garden, Apollo turned a quick eye upon his young darling, his yearning never satisfied; if he saw the plant beaten by the breezes, he remembered the quoit, and trembled for fear the wind, so jealous once about the boy, might hate him even in a leaf...

(Nonnus, Dionysiaca, Book 3. trans Rouse)

And the point here is just that - Apollo, at least as far as I've read, cannot avert someone's death. He simply can't. Once they're already dead - once Fate has cut their string - all Apollo's power is gone and he can do nothing no matter how much he wants to. And this is, as far as I know, supported with the accounts of Asclepius as well!

Since you specifically brought up Ovid's account, I'll also stick only to Ovid's account but in Metamorphoses when we get Ovid's version of Coronis' demise, he writes that Apollo intensely and immediately regrets slaughtering Coronis. He regrets it so intensely that he, like he does with Hyacinthus, does his best to resuscitate her:

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book Two. Apollo's regret)

And like Hyacinthus, when it becomes clear that what has happened cannot be undone, Apollo wails:

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book Two. Apollo wept.)

Unlike his mother, Asclepius in her womb had not yet died and so, with the last of Apollo's strength, he does manage, at least, to save him.

(Ovid, Metamorphoses Book Two. Apollo puts the 'tearing out' in Asclepius.)

But it goes further than even that because Ocyrhoe, Chiron's daughter, a prophetess who unduly gained the ability to directly proclaim the secrets of the Fates, upon seeing the baby Asclepius, immediately prophesies his glory, his inevitable death and then his fated ascension:

(Ovid. Metamorphoses, Book Two. Ocyrhoe's prophecy. trans Johnston)

Before she too succumbs to her hubris and is transformed by the Fates into a horse so she can no longer speak secrets that aren't hers to share.

These things ultimately are important because it establishes two very important things: 1) Apollo can't do anything in the face of the ultimate Fate of mortals, which is, of course, death and 2) even when Apollo is Actively Devastated, regretful, yearning, mournful, guilty or some unholy combination of all of the above, when someone is dead, he accepts that they are gone. Even if he is devastated by it, even if he'll cry all the rest of his days about it - if they're dead? Apollo lets them go. In Fasti, when Zeus brings Asclepius back, he does not say Apollo asked him to - Zeus, or well, in this case Jove, brings Asclepius back because he wants Apollo to stop being mad at him.

(Ovid, Fasti VI. Apollo please come home your father misses you. trans. A.S Kline)

Even Boyle's translation which you used above in your findings hints that Zeus made Asclepius a god because he wanted Apollo to stop grieving. (i.e 'smile at your father', 'for your sake [he] undoes his prohibitions')

And like, Apollo was deeply upset by Asclepius' death - apart from killing the Cyclops in anger, in book 4 of the Argonautica, Apollonius writes that the Celts believe the stream of Eridanus to be the tears Apollo shed over the death of Asclepius when he left for Hyperborea after being chastised by Zeus for killing his Cyclops:

But the Celts have attached this story to them, that these are the tears of Leto's son, Apollo, that are borne along by the eddies, the countless tears that he shed aforetime when he came to the sacred race of the Hyperboreans and left shining heaven at the chiding of his father, being in wrath concerning his son whom divine Coronis bare in bright Lacereia at the mouth of Amyrus.

It all paints a very clear picture to me. Apollo did not ask for either of them to be brought back. Though bringing them back certainly pleased and delighted him, they are actions of other gods who are moved by Apollo's grief and mourning and seek to mollify him. Him not asking doesn't mean he didn't want them back which I think is a very important distinction by the by, but it simply means that Apollo knows the natural order of things and, even if it hurts, he isn't going to press his luck about it.

Which, of course, brings us to Admetus. And I'm really not going to overcomplicate this, Admetus is different because, very vitally, Admetus is not dead. Apollo can't do a thing once Fate has been carried out and Death has claimed a mortal but you know what he absolutely can do? Bargain like hell with the Fates before that point of inevitability. And that's what he does, ultimately for Admetus and Alcestis. He sought to prolong Admetus' life, not revive him from death or absolve him from death altogether and even after getting the Fates drunk, he's still only able to organise a sacrifice - a life for a life - something completely contingent on whether some other mortal would be willing to die in Admetus' place and not at all controllable by Apollo's own power.

All of these things, I think come back to that point you made - that Apollo's place as a god of order is very important and therefore these people are very special to him if it means he's willing to go against that order but, I also wish to challenge that opinion if you'd let me. Apollo's place as a god of order is very important and therefore, I would argue, that it is even more important that it is shown that he does not break the divine order, especially for the people that mean the most to him. The original context of my comments which started this conversation were on this lovely, lovely post by @hyacinthusmemorial which contemplated upon Asclepius from the perspective of an Emergency Medical personnel and included, in their tags, the very poignant lines "there's something about Apollo letting go when Asclepius couldn't that eats my heart away" and "you do what you can, you do your best, but you don't ever reach too far" and I think that's perfectly embodied with the Apollo-Asclepius dichotomy. Apollo grieves. He wails, he cries, he does his best each and every time to save that which is precious to him but he does not curse their nature, he does not resent that they are human and ultimately, he accepts that that which is mortal must inevitably die. There is nothing that so saliently proves that those who uphold rules are also their most staunch followers - if Apollo wants to delight in his place as Fate's mouthpiece, he cannot undo Fate. And, if even the god of healing and order himself cannot undo death, what right does Asclepius, mortal as he is, talented as he is, have to disrespect it?

The beauty of these stories isn't that Apollo loved them enough to bring them back. The beauty is that Apollo loved them enough to let them go.

[incorrect-koh-posts]

I really like your interpretation of Saladin as a tired dad who doesn’t get paid enough for this shit, it’s genuinely delightful

Ahahaha, thank you, I'm glad we're in agreement there!

Saladin really doesn't get paid enough to deal with all this shit. I mean, not only does he have to shepherd all his troublesome family relations around (Taqi al-Din, Tughtakin, al-Afdal, al-Zahir ...), there are also those pesky Franks clinging to the Holy Land like barnacles to the hull of a ship. Ugh. Can a man not be a horsegirl and play polo in peace??

No wonder he developed such a magnificent side eye.

He is so majestic yet so utterly done(TM) and I want him to do unspeakable things to me.

[ranticore]

i really love the 'it came to me in a dream' moments when writing.. i had just made the main human knight character for this story and named him but had no appearance in mind until i woke up this morning already 100% certain that he looks EXACTLY like george harrison

[xielian-gets-his-own-blog-now]

Do they bite ankles? Also, Im concerned they might eat paint at your grandmas house!

It was actually a wrestle between stopping Xie Lian from eating the paint and stopping Hua Cheng from painting a mural of Xie Lian! Also!! Xie Lian is known for biting my ankles the moment I turn away from him while he's free from the bag. Hua Cheng only bites ankles when he feels as though my son is being mistreated. He's a good boyfriend.

My little goober!!! Wait....

Oh no.

[kashilascorner]

GET HIM

[kibutsujidemon]

"shit! i was know that hayato suo is official hualian love child!"

[blue-rose-soul]

Wait I just realized something, for grown up together au: would alastor attend meeting with the angels with Charlie?

He'd insist on it. Both when she went to met the representative, Adam, at the embassy, and when she went to Heaven to meet with the higher up angels.

I mentioned before that Alastor's a tad protective of Charlie in this AU of an AU. And while he's willing to offer her material support with the hotel, he doesn't really believe sinners can be redeemed. Partly because he thinks that some people are just genuinely beyond redemption, but also because he doesn't have any faith that Heaven would accept reformed sinners. So naturally, he's a bit wary of angels.

In the first meeting with Adam, Charlie makes Alastor promise that he'll let her take the lead. That lasts as long as it takes for Adam to start talking about the women he's fucked.

"No one here wants to hear you talk about your excruciatingly juvenile sexual fantasies."

Cue an angelic temper tantrum from the first man-baby before he declares the next extermination is being moved up and he kicks both of them out.

When he accompanies Charlie to Heaven, he's not allowed in the courtroom which, after what happened in the embassy, fair. But aside from that, he sticks pretty close to Charlie the entire time they're in Heaven, including when she and Emily go to the zoo. And there, he runs into a familiar face.

It takes Alastor a few minutes to recognize his mother. Nicaise doesn't recognize him at all, despite admitting there's something familiar about him. Alastor doesn't quite know how to break it to her that he's her son and he's been living in Hell this past century. Knowing he just has this one day in Heaven and that he'll have no way to contact her again in the future, Alastor decides to simply enjoy this one last day he has with her. He won't put her through the pain of telling her who he is, just to be separated again.

[deus-ex-mona]

farewell, my idiot son…

[myfaveisfuckable]

Wait I didn't realize you were reading mxtx books! Which one did you start reading after heaven official's blessing's novels?

Grandmaster of demonic cultivation (bc I wanted to watch the tv show but didn't want my idea of the characters too colored by it) but I'm not super far in .. tbh so far I like heaven officials blessing better

I have scum villains self saving system bookmarked to read as well but I suspect it'll be a while until I get to it

[rp-guzi]

We should totally go flower picking sometime!!

Yeah, that would be really fun! 〜(^ ∇ ^ 〜)

I have to be careful when I go out by myself because dad says it's not safe for a kid like me down the mountain alone, but I'll have you there to protect me, right?

Do you have a cool sword? I like swords!

If you don't mind spiders, maybe I can take Cao Tui (That's what I'm calling the spider Yaoguai now) with us. I doubt we will find any flowers big enough for her to crawl inside this time, hehe, but who knows, she might have fun! (ᴖ u ᴖ๑) don't worry, I'll tell her not to bite you!

I can't take too long, though, because dad says I should nap before tonight. We're going out on a mission!! (•͈ᴗ•͈ ୨୧) He doesn't usually let me come along, so I'm very excited!!!

[walk-to-gallows]

Jimmy Novak rip my heart out why don't you

[legolasghosty]

Okay but consider: Cat Café AU

I AM CONSIDERING SO VERY MUCH!!!

Anddd you never said no magic involved and I'm frigging sick and tired of the real world right now, so...

Julie is the proud owner of a small cat cafe in Los Feliz. Lots of great drinks, super sweet cats, plenty of comfy places to sit. To the outside viewer, it seems like a pretty standard setup, if surprisingly well funded. What is less common knowledge is that shapeshifters are also a thing and Dahlia's Sip and Purr also acts as a sort of safe house for many.

Reggie and Alex are the main two other front employees, with Flynn working there too on the business side of things. They take turns working the front counter and taking care of the cats, Julie hopping in with either job when she can. Everything on the menu has silly cat pun names, most of them courtesy of either Reggie or Carlos, Julie's little brother. (She regularly gets texts from him with no context, just a cat pun drink name. They've gotten more frequent since he moved out for college.)

About half the cats that come through the cafe are shelter cats, who are healthy and mostly adoptable but don't have proper homes. They have a board on the wall of which cats people can adopt. Julie has a great relationship with the folks at the nearby animal shelters, cause she takes great care of the kitties and often finds them good homes after a bit!

A couple of the cats are a bit older and have just been with the gang for long enough that they've gotten attached and Julie or Reggie and Alex (they live together) have officially adopted them. Julie lives in a studio over the shop, so she just kinda takes her babies up with her at the end of the day.

And then the last handful of cats... aren't full-time cats. Shapeshifters aren't super common, but they tend to find each other. Most of them have 3-5 forms, depending roughly on age. The first two forms (human and some animal) usually are based on genetics or whatever, and the shifter has no control over what the animal form is. But when they get a grip on their first nonhuman form and start learning a second one, a lot of folks will go for some kind of domestic animal. Both because they're generally small and easy to get away from bad people, but also cause no one is gonna ask weird questions about seeing a housecat in their backyard. At least not like they would if it was like a wolf or something. So most shifters have some kind of house pet form by the time they're teens/young adults.

Given both the high percentage of shifters who have a small cat form, plus the high population density of LA, plus the fact that being a shifter isn't always genetic and often comes out of nowhere... there's a fair amount of unhoused/exhausted cat shifters around Dahlia's. So when Julie and Flynn were daydreaming about running their own cafe in high school, Julie was like, "Okay but if we do the cat thing, we gotta have a way we can help out shifters somehow."

Julie learned about all this as a kid, cause her dad is a shifter (first form was a black bear, which caused some chaos... now his most commonly used ones are a big grey cat and a raven), and Carlos inherited those genes as well (first form was a badger, these days he spends his animal time mostly as an orange and white tomcat). So while Julie and her mom didn't actually change shape themselves, it's just kinda a part of life.

Alex and Reggie are both shifters and met Julie and Flynn in college. Julie sorta found out by accident when she came into their dorm room and saw zero human boys and two cats curled up together in a sunbeam. But now they're her employees/coworkers, having a good time working and also having a safe space to cat in. (Alex's first form was actually a cat, a jet black shorthair. Reggie's first was a hampster, but he much prefers being a dapper tux tomcat). They also know all the signals and stuff to let other shifters know that it's a safe space, which Julie really appreciates.

So yeah, some of the cats in the cafe are humans some of the time. These include :

Luke, who is also best friends with the main gang but absolutely hates customer service so he splits time between the cafe and writing music for a couple of indie bands in the area. Or sometimes both at the same time.

Willie, Alex's boyfriend (yes his first form was a raccoon) and another bestie of the gang. He teaches art classes for adults, but those are mostly in the evenings when people are off work, so he'll hang out as a cat and play with silly humans in the daytime (also skate around getting into trouble but that's fineee).

Bobby, who happened in one day in their first couple weeks of business and lowkey never left. He's a security guard officially for a museum or something nearby, but he mostly works the night shift, and well... the sunbeams are nicer at Julie's cafe than his tiny apartment. So he hangs out a lot and has gotten adopted into the gang. He and Alex are great nap buddies and customers like cooing over their lil yin and yang cuddle pile.

Coming along with Bobby, we have his twin sister Carrie, who is not a shifter but was kind of freaking out about her brother disappearing so much (she knew about the shifter thing) and ended up following him to the cafe about six months after he started going. Cue drama and chaos, but eventually things settled and it all got straightened out. Flynn and Carrie are dating now, so she's around a decent bit.

She also introduced Kayla, one of her dancers who was also a shifter, to the cafe. Kayla had gone for a dog form when she was younger, but started working on a cat after hanging at the cafe a bit cause it's just so cozy.

And well... the shifter community may be quiet, but it's got its rich people too. After finding out about the whole thing, Willie's adopted dad started subtly pushing business Julie's way, along with sponsorship deals and stuff. And well, when Caleb absolutely cannot get ahold of his kid, he usually knows where to go. Even if he's not actually there, Julie or Alex have usually seen him recently and can pass along a message. (Caleb is absolutely a shifter btw.)

And well frick this got WAY too long, I'm sorry!!! I shall shush now and leave you in peace!

[xielian-gets-his-own-blog-now]

MEOW

Cat 😌

[nekrotikon]

3. What makes your character’s skin crawl?

gonna do this for lucifer. when the first night happens—he's pretty freaked out by that, especially because the earliest celestial bodies were made out of him technically. but michael finding it super pretty (and not knowing that those were made from the excess of lucifer's first body) actually kinda helps lucifer relax!