#that isn't very nice

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

License to Kitty.

[mari-lair]

cook acquired!

[starry-bi-sky]

on a completely separate note; shizun luo binghe with a disciple shen yuan who fell into the abyss??? *thinks about LBH canonically stealing SQQ's corpse for 5 years* he'd hallucinate i think. like, like visual and audial hallucinations.

Keeps thinking he's seeing SQQ in the corner of his eyes, or wandering between the trees, amongst a group of disciples. Thinks he hears him calling for him, but its just the wind or another disciple.

Gets Xiu Ya reforged but patently fucking refuses to make a sword mound. Because his disciple Is Not Dead :))) There was No Body. He's Not Dead. And If You keep Insisting That He Is, He's Gonna Skewer You :). He's holding onto Xiu Ya so he can return his most favored disciple's sword when he returns. It's on his hip right next to Zheng Yang where it's supposed to be.

Also this motherfucker?? does not sleep btw. He has the image of SQQ, wide eyed and hysterical and standing at the mouth of the abyss burned into his fucking eyelids. Can't use the dreamscape to escape it either because he keeps trying to save him and either he does and it's an incredibly cruel trick to wake up to, or he doesn't and he gets his heart broken in several different pieces again.

There is no convincing this man that Shen Qingqiu is dead. Absolutely nothing at all. He is buried so deep in denial that moles would be jealous of how deep he is. He keeps making tea for two in the bamboo house only to remember that it's just him. SQQ's fans are hiding everywhere, little reminders of his presence. He goes to wake up SQQ on the mornings he sleeps in-- only to find the room empty.

[zarla-s]

Both Kabu and Larry have resting grump faces but they're misleading! Kabu's very friendly and laughs easily, and Larry is polite (if very tired) and even treats you to a meal after you beat his gym. It's just very cute to me.

[patreon]

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 131

Okay, so first of all Dan would like to say it’s not his fault. Ellie was the one to bring some unknown object into the speeder and Jazz was the one driving. Or had Sam been driving- didn’t matter! It wasn’t his fault, he wasn’t the one shooting at them, he wasn’t the one to break whatever, he was not the one to open a stupid portal, and so it wasn’t his fault! 

So why is he now like, five years old, and why is the speeder crashed in some sort of corn field. Why is everyone- except for Jazz whose now like six- also like three at most?! And- oh fuck the door just opened and… okay that’s a kid. Like, nine at most. 

A kid and an adult, who he hadn’t noticed at first so again, it’s not his fault if he hissed at them and tried to hide his not-siblings behind him. It’s also not fair they’re apparently stuck to ghost speak for who knows how long, but at least they can understand the people. 

“Martha, get some blankets, it’s happened again!” 

[jichanxo]

okay i know they went to university basically never because plot, but i'm forever amused by the idea of strangers seeing these two together and being baffled/wildly wrong about them

[sweetlullabyebye]

Charles' thing is that he wants to feel alive and that's part of the reason why he decided to never move on to the afterlife right? Meanwhile Edwin thinks Charles will move on and that he'll be alone again because 'he isn't good with people'.

But then when the Night Nurse shows up a second time Charles is ready to go wherever -including Hell- as long as Edwin shouldn't have to go back there, meanwhile Edwin refuses that they be split up, and both are okay with being sent together to the Lost and Found Department to be sorted out later as long as they're together-

[anbaisai]

Happy birthday to @crystallizsch and the lovely Yuusha! May you have another wonderful year full of happiness and currynoodles💜

[hansama]

I tried to sketch Papyrus in both my art style and @skull-otaku xD

[foundfamilywhump]

see like the thing with 'carewhumpers' as a concept to me is it just like... i know this is prrrrobably not really how it's meant but something skeeves me out about the idea that kindness or caretaking mixed in with hurting someone can somehow meaningfully complicate or dilute the harm done to the point of making that character no longer a 'whumper' whereas someone doing the same 'bad' things but not ever being gentle or caring for them would just be a straight-out whumper. when like... that's how 90% of irl abuse dynamics work? so i just... don't really get the point, i guess. like to me it implies something about the 'care' provided somehow mitigating or combating the harm done that. i just do not personally appreciate or enjoy.

[redbootsindoriath]

Oh look what day it is again!

Happy Hobbit Day to all who celebrate! Here's a rushed doodle to assure you guys that I am in fact still out there somewhere on earth.

[starryeyed-seer]

Calling this Mr Wines: lite. Mr Wines bounding. Mr Wines: "I can't wear the morphsuit constantly" edition. Happy hallowmas!!

[uncanny-tranny]

"haha, are you an art gay, a science gay, or a math gay"

Actually, I find the division between art, science, and math to be a very nebulous idea and useless when you actually interact with the universe. The more you learn about the world, the more you surround yourself with art and science and math, and you'll never be able to see it any other way and it will be beautiful. When I take your hand, it won't be the science of our atoms closing the distance between us that we will experience, but the math of our fingers interlocking and the art of our bodies that we will experience. You are math and you are science and you are art, and nothing will make you any lesser💛

[thegoldencontracts]

Canon Azul: Avid capitalist, willing to cheat others into servitude, and quite competent. Takes amusement in toying with his prey. Despite this, he does have his own pride and is ultimately a teenage boy.

Fanon Azul: Literally the biggest woobie boy ever. Will cry if you don't tell him you love him every five seconds.

Canon Jade: Rather similar to Azul in mindset. He too is willing to mess with others for his own gain. However, unlike Azul, he doesn't usually have the motive of gaining anything, he simply desires amusement. Despite his ordinarily composed demeanor, he is also a teenage boy at the end of things, and does have occasional moments of vulnerability like in his tsum event.

Fanon Jade: Literally Satan himself. The actual incarnate of malice. He eats people. He ate your grandmother. Now he's abusing you.

Just- how are the fanon perceptions of these two fairly similar characters so different? How is it that when Azul ordered Jade to wring Floyd out, it was "typical capitalist octopus behavior", but when Jade complied, it was "super messed up, it's unbelievable he'd do something like that". I swear, Jade could breathe and there'd be someone out there calling him an evil bastard for doing it, meanwhile Azul literally could commit war crimes and that same person would say "awww little capitalist tako bbg"

[ancha-aus]

RealAgeAU - Reclaiming

This is a little something I have had in mind for a while :3

TImeline wise? We are muuuuuch further. Like. late spring early summer (So the gang has been in farmtale for over half a year now!)

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We are back with Baby Pov :3 @spotaus you ready friend?

No Beta'ing or Edits. We just go with whatever i wrote >:D

*-----------------*

Nightmare sits on his little chair on the bright yellow porch of the Danielle Farm.

Ngihtmare watches as His four speak with the two nice ladies.

Ellie just sits wiht her head in her hands, she had been crying before. Dani isn't much better as she looks over their dying tree farm.

Killer frowns "I don't get it! You guys won the lawsuit right?! There was proof of sabotage! I thought you got money and everything?"

Dani chuckles as she rubs her cheek, removing some tears "It matters little... The trees are almost all dead... Even with the money... There is enough for us to live comfortable yeah.. but it isn't enough to restore the damage..." she looks back at their farm.

Horror frowns as he looks back "Any that survived?"

Dani sighs "Technically they are still alive... but they are dying... we checked all of them and well..." she sighs "only a few of our oldest cherry trees are still okay... and those aren't baring fruit anymore, probably part of why they weren't too affected." she sighs "i don't know the science behind it..."

Nightmare frowns and looks at Dust. Dust notices him and shakes his skull.

It had been going on since a month or so... The girls were beyond alarmed and panicked when they found one of their trees just dying for no reason. It got worse when it became clear that it had spread.

They thought wood rot at first and removed the sick trees but later realised their very land had been sabotaged and poisoned.

Killer frowns "And can it be healed?"

Dani shakes her head as she looks back at the trees that are still not showing any new leaves. "Maybe... but getting things for that? It is too expensive... and even than it would only save the cherry trees... and well... those aren't the real money makers and the thing we have our living with..." she rubs the perfect yellow wood.

Nightmare knows what she is talking about. THe two had combined their magic and made a new tree. somekind of mushroom tree combination.

Nightmare tugs on Cross's sleeve and he looks down "yeah nightmare?"

Ngihtmare looks at Dani "Can you make a new one? Like you made the first one?" That is how their farm started after all.

Dani smiles before sighing and shaking her head again "Our land used to be a forest... What we did was make one tree and let it... well.. infect and change the other trees around it. We eventually made sure it couldn't spread further and out of the area we wanted with magical barriers in the ground... but without new trees we can't go it again."

Ngihtmare frowns "and trees take time..." even their mushroom trees take a few years to fully grow.

Dani nods and smiles sadly at the others "We are... going to share the news with everyone later... Look for a new place and new jobs..." she rubs her eyes "new start... again."

Ellie sobs miserably "I don't wanne move..."

Dani looks back sadly at her other half.

Nightmare watches as his four think but clearly can't think of much. They had grown closer with the other two monsters. The two had often come by with extra wood for their home repairs and later with old mechinery and other things for them to repair and use as they saw fit.

The two had to drive a lot and deliver their wares a lot and got too many places. They made sure to keep an eye open for anything that others in their community wanted.

So when they heard something was up with their farm? They got to work. Horror had recognised the poison together with Crop and Dust had isolated and indentified it.

Killer had been very helpful with helpign the girls get their win in the lawsuit. Killer still has his silver tongue after all.

Nightmare hops off of the chair and wanders a bit further into the tree farm. He had been show their center tree before. THe biggest tree of their whole farm and the strongest of them all.

Nightmare stands before it and stares. It is sick. It looks a sick grey and no longer the beautiful strong branches that had made it strong. Nightmare inches closer as he stands before it.

When he first got shown this place he had been afraid he would get reminded of his mother. but it was different. These trees? They are really trees. just nature. His mother had always been strange compared to the natural trees. ironically, Nim had been something unnatural.

a whisper.

Nightmar eblinks and tilts his skull "hello?"

another whisper. it aren't words. it is more of a whisper like the wind going through leaves and leaving with a whistle. Yet....

yet...

Nightmare blinks as he inches closer "I am sorry it hurts..."

more whispers. but it isn't what he would expect... it isn't...

Nightmare tilts his skull "I don't think it can hurt me... like it is hurting you..." Nightmare finally truly gets it now. It is all connected. It are trees which grow like mushrooms. the roots are all connected and they all talk and communicate and share the magic and resources between them...

It si why they are all sick.

Nightmare frowns as he hugs himself close "I am sorry i can't help..."

another whistle. a whisper. it is a reassurance. but also an apology. The trees love the two who take care of them. Who helped them flourish. They don't want to leave the two.

Nightmare frowns before a a thought about himself returns. Something he hadn't acknowledged or even thought about in a long time. Not since he got his job as god...

He was a nature spirit. He may now be a skeleton but his core? His soul? Was still the same as when he was a ball of energy, a tiny nature spirit.

Maybe...

He slowly raises his hands near the tree "I can try to help..."

A slightly louder whistle and whisper. To be careful. To not hurt himself.

Ngihtmare touches the tree and feels the connection all over the farm. This farm is so much larger than his home. So much larger than Crop's farm!

Still. he feels along it. It is strange. He can't really interact with any of it. He just feels along it. It is strange and he is seeing double. But then he spots it. Something that is wrong. A greyness that is eating away the energy and colour of this feeling. He gets there and... and what now? He foudn it... he thinks... it is like a smudge. a smudge that eats and makes what was there before disappear...

He can't heal... but... maybe he can just... remove it?

He tugs and tugs on the thing. it doens't want to let go but eventually it stands no chance.

Nightmare feels it and it feels wrong. But it needs to disconnect from the trees! But how? He is right now kinda there with the trees connection and he has the thing and...

Ngihtamre concentrates and imagines holding it prisoner. Holding it close but seperate from his own.

It is now like a thin fill over him, still in his minds eye. His normal eyes don't see anything wrong or different of before.

Okay... what now? What is he doing anyway? How does this work?

"Nightmare!!"

Cross?

Ngihtamre tries to turn towards the voice and sees a bright light purple energy come towards him. a blink later and it is Cross normally. He looks worried.

And then he doesnt see the bright yellow of the energy of the tree anymore but just the normal trees.

He feels sick.

Cross gets to him and picks him up "Ngihty! We told you not to use your magic. It is still fragile..."

FRagile? oh.

Nightmare notices the now obvious part cyan and part purple light shinign unto the white of Cross's outfit... Woops... overdid it again...

A loud gasp "Oh no! Is he okay? I am so sorry. I didn't think... It never hurt any of us?" Dani is by Cross and looks horrified. Right... most of them haven't seen his scars.

Dust is by them in a moment and checks him over as Cross speaks "No this... this is a thing that happens if he overuses his fragile magic..."

Nightmare isn't relaly paying attention as he tugs on Dust's scarf and mutters "Dusty.... I feel sick..."

Dust frowns as he checks his temporature and skull over.

Nightmare feels something slowly crawl up his system and his magic starts to shape to get rit of it... He tugs harder on the scarf and mutters "sick...."

Horror gets it as he searches before holding up a basket by his skull. Ngihtamre doesn't wait and vomits.

Grey sludge that burns on his tongue leaves his body and he shudders. But in one go and it is all out and he feels a million times better.

Nightmare blinks at the weird grey blob of mass in the basket. Huh... pretty sure that has more mass than Nightmare has.

Cross just holds him tighter and rubs his back "that... is new..."

Dust looks at the basket and Horror looks around.

Nightmare blinks and looks at Horror "It will cause sickness." he is sure. So sure. but how does he explain. He doesn't have the words ready. He just hopes Horror understands him. His four always understand him.

Horror looks at him before looking at the basket thoguhtfully "Think we can burn it?"

Burn... kill it... Nightmare nods. That sounds good.

Horror looks at the girls "We euh..." he looks at the basket "I am not sure what this is... We need to look into it?"

Dani nods as she rubs her arms "of coruse... of course... I am so sorry something here caused him to get sick or overuse his magic and..." she then looks sadly at her trees.

Ngihtmare blinks as he already feels sleepy but still he says it "don't be sad... they don't want you to be sad."

Dani blinks and turns to Nightmare "waht... what do you mean?"

Ngihtmare hums and just nuzzles closer to Cross. he listens to the soft whistle and whisper. then he mutters sleepily "They already feel a bit better... They like you two... just rest..." and he yawns.

Killer steps over and starts speaking with Dani. Nightmare can't really hear it anymore as he falls asleep. Very tired and Cross is so warm.

---

Killer groans as he hears loud pounding on his door. God can't they just have a lay in today? He groans as he looks to the side adn sees Dust grumble angerly as he rolls further around Nightmare. Nightmare however is still completely out. Not having stirred much since the day before.

Killer checks him over first but still finds him just peacefully asleep. Nothing wrong. Probably just exhausted. Though none of them are even sure what Ngihtmare did to cause him to go so low on magic and energy.

More pounding on the door and Killer groans as he staggers over to the door. STill just in his sweats and sleeping shirt. He opens the door and shoots the other, Ellie, a grumpy look "I know I said We would be willing to help but i think i didn't need to imply to not do this at 6." or whatever time it was.

Ellie just stands there, her truck still running "It is fixed."

Killer blinks ".... what?"

Ellie shakes his shoulders as she speaks "It is FIXED. The trees! There are leaves growing! It is fixed! The whole farm!"

THe information connects. Killer stands up straight as he stares at the bunny monster in shock. He glances over his shoulder before looking abck "what?"

Ellie smiles brightly "I dom't... I don't know how! But... he fixed it Killer!"

Killer blinks before he feels panic as he grabs her shoulder "no one can know."

Ellie blinks "but... he caused a miracle... he-"

Killer nods "exactly. Ellie. What do you think happens when people learn what he did? What he could do? We don't even know he could do this."

Ellie blinks before her eyes widen and her face twists with worry "oh..." she looks thoughtful for a moment before a large grin appears "in that case. Thank you Killer! For bringing up the idea to put barriers around each tree section! We managed to get some seperation in the infection!" she then hugs him before pulling away "Thank you... I will tell Dani too." she grins and makes a zipping her lips motion before throwing away an invisible key.

She then apologises and waves before quickly rushing to her car. Killer cna see her grab a mobile phone as she starts calling. Killer waits a moment to and reads her lips as she greets Dani and tells her that what happened can not get out. That they just found a way to isolate the problem and remove the sick trees.

Something that if you knew how this thing worked probably wouldn't know but it is enough of a story to not arouse suspicion. Ellie waves and then she drives off after finishing her call. No doubt to return to her girlfriend, or are they already wives? Killer isn't sure.

Killer returns to the nest and sits next to the still sleeping Dust and Nightmare. Horror and Cross are no doubt out and doing stuff to prepare them for their first tiny harvest.

His godhood become active again...

Killer is just happy it isn't connected to that stupid balance anymore.

Though he does not look forward to trying to figure out what exactly it is.

*-------------------*

:3 the tiny god may have finally found something he likes and wants to do :3

Just because it isn't too obvious. It is restoration. After all. That is what Nightmare does.

First he restored the balance (or tried to). And then he got his boys, and isn't restoration just a way of saying mending? Which is healing? And what did the four do when they were near Nightmare? :3

I think you can see the pattern.

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[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.