#the character and their greco-roman figure thing

[reddamselette]

aftg character x greco-roman figure/myth analogy and comparison

jeremy knox and apollo

obviously the main thing we get from both is that they're considered the sun. sunshine incarnate, bringing sunlight into everyone's lives, and so on.

apollon is the olympian god of prophecy and oracles, music, song and poetry, archery, healing, plague and disease, and the protection of the young. his most notable myths are typically apollo and hyacinthus, his birth on delos with his twin sister artemis, daphne, the slaying the serpent python, and his role in the trojan war where he brought down plague to the greeks and directed paris' arrow to kill achilles—just to name a few. apollo is a god of the sun but he is not the sun god. that's helios. just as artemis is not the moon goddess (which is selene) but a moon goddess. but they are gods of sunlight and night light.

when sunshine characters are often talked about, there's rarely anything that ever mentions the downsides to this. off the top of my head, there's will solace from percy jackson and the olympians whose a good example of this (the irony that will and jeremy are literally the same person in different universes is not lost on me). and i say this because sometimes these sunshine characters can be used as comedic relief or used as primarily an optimist and sometimes watered down to be part of the sunshine x grumpy character couple trope. i don't see this all the time but it's still there.

so with jeremy and apollo having relations to the sun, it isn't a bad thing that their good qualities are spoken about. the smiles, the laughter, the talkative trait to keep a conversation going, to be the kind of person people gravitate towards and undeniable trust with their lives. this is also something that's portrayed in will but also james potter (three top fandoms coming out in full force here, expect a lot of marauders/pjo comparisons).

for example, in a lesser known myth and most likely one of modern retelling but a myth nonetheless, apollo would often visit delos to which he and artemis play music and dance with the muses and their mother leto by their side. then there are the others with his loves like daphne, hyacinthus, hestia, cassandra, adonis, etc. and i won't say it's forgotten that apollo is a god of many things that contradict one another much like the sun does (grants warmth but can burn through anything, grants light but can possibly blind others {through eclipses of course}) but it's also not the main topic of conversation. apollo speaks of poetry and music, paintbrushes and canvases, healing touches and outstanding medicine, even of archery and shapeshifting capabilities; but not the plagues and diseases, not the ability to give health to someone to immediately take it away, not the very action of setting things ablaze. he is a god of many things but like all gods of many pantheons—apollo can be argued to have the wrath of the sun.

which brings me to jeremy knox.

jeremy is all counts of a person is kind and patient, he's caring and determined, enthusiatic and friendly and takes his responsibilities as captian seriously. he's bright and like it was mentioned before: he's the sun.

no one is inherently good or bad—divine beings like the gods of the greek pantheon are not meant to fit the human standards of morality and the philosophical views we have and not to say jeremy isn't a good person because he is from what we've seen so far and it's safe to say he won't chase after someone only to have that someone turn into a laurel tree or you know, cause a plague to wipe out a greek army. however, he is the sun. how can anyone be sure that his good traits won't contradict themselves the way apollo's domains do? if apollo and jeremy are to heal, and we know apollo can make people hurt, jeremy can too. we don't know the details about his scandal yet nor about his family but he did make some people hurt. whether it was himself and/or others. if apollo and jeremy are to bring light and warmth—and we know apollo had a temper no matter how big or little the circumstances and situations are (the reason for plaguing the greeks being related to a son of his/a priest of apollo {i forgot specifically because there's a lot of versions there for the trojan war so take what you will, i just know the plague wasn't exactly unprovoked})—who's to say jeremy's light and warmth won't be suffocating at some point? unbearable even? like you spent nearly the entire day outside with no clouds or shades and you're already so tired and over the sunlight and the sheer brightness that hurts your eyes and makes you sweat.

the only difference is, is that jeremy exercises patience. much like will solace and james potter do. each of them have their own bad traits that correlate with their good ones. they're overbearing at times but they have big hearts to care for thousands of people and constantly try and try and try for their european partners (jean, nico, regulus/lily). but how much patience can one man hold until it spills through the blinds and engulfs the land?

this doesn't mean i'm implying some sort of like rage in jeremy or i'm speculating he's the reason for the red card theory or anything like that. i'm just saying that the difference between apollo and jeremy is that jeremy is human. mistakes and such emotions are natural. that part of his rage is simply food for thought and up for discussion.

each and every sunshine character are inherently the same on the surface. with the other side of the sun, with several layers of that side of the sun, each and every sunshine character functions differently, they have their counterparts and their contradictions (james cares but he can hate as well. will heals but he has the power of plague). jeremy has a lot of things to hide and sunshine character is what he is. but i think it's not that kind of sunshine character.

i think jeremy knox is the kind that leaves a mark on your skin forever.

taglist: @disastersappho

[aroaceleovaldez]

i honestly wish rr would just write for something that has nothing to do with pjo not the same characters not the universe just go and write something new bc i really liked daughter of the deep and i think he's wrung everything out of the pjoverse yk? he's a good writer but he needs to go do something different

I agree - the problem with Rick's writing is he's heavily reliant on his writing being derivative. He struggles to write original stuff. PJO, HoO, ToA, etc are all derivative from Greco-Roman mythology/history. MCGA is Norse mythology/history, TKC is Egyptian mythology/history. Daughter of the Deep is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. And he's not terrible at it! The problem is that can't go on forever. He runs out of material to work from over time and suddenly the quality of the franchise tanks dramatically. Especially as he loses overarching connecting threads to tie the plots together, so it just becomes this soup of throwing references at the wall with no cohesion to see what sticks. And it's bad!

We started seeing it in HoO, also in part due to Rick trying to combine too many disparate inspirations to the main plot to begin with and didn't know how to make them mesh well (Seven Against Thebes, Gigantomachy, Argonauts, Odyssey). TKC and MCGA were okay because they're only three book series, so that's plenty of mythology to draw from with stuff left over, and the majority of their companion novel stuff is ghostwritten anyways. The shorter series span means less filler required so less mythology is used up and there ya go. In the longer series, Rick has to spend those five books filling in the gaps of that overarching plot and he runs out of material fast - that's why by the end of HoO it was just turning into blatant Marvel references. Now that we're getting into a fourth installment in the main series collection, even though it's only a three-book series, Rick has basically written himself into a corner because he doesn't write anything else. He ran out of places to go with the franchise like two series ago! So now he's just throwing literally anything he can think of at things (literally just plucking random mythological figures and pop culture references or tropes), or if he can't think of anything, apparently just blatantly lifting stuff from the community.

At this point the only possible Greco-Roman series I think he'd be able to do without it being total garbage would be a 3-book Roman series set during SoM-TLO/The Second Titan War. I don't think he should do that and I don't want him to, but based on everything that's probably just what would have the best likelihood of success. It just seems like the only place he can go. Anything else he'd have to do something actually original, and he's shown time and time again that he's not interested in doing that and isn't very good at it anymore.

[tsartistry]

So there is a character in Niobe Fic that I have not really mentioned at all, and I don't think any of you care, but I care and I wanna talk about Elmer. I think he's neat. I will be honest upfront, this is me indulging in one of my favorite friendship tropes:

Small Precocious Child and the Big Beefy Bodyguards who will protect them at all costs.

More than anything, Niobe needs to make sure no demigods get anywhere near Lester, so she hires monsters as security around her home/business. After all, monsters can smell demigods from miles away. She pays them handsomely, and includes very delicious and filling meals as part of their compensation so they won't be compelled to wander away and hunt for food.

Periodically throughout the Riordanverse we get glimpses of the monsters having an entire underground society (Monster Donut, the serpent on the train in TON, etc.) It seems like the majority of them want nothing to do with Demigod Bullshit and just want to live normal lives. So I think Niobe had no shortage of Monster Applicants wanting a Normal(ish) Job that pays Actual Wages instead of whatever Kronos was paying them (if he was paying them at all.)

Elmer is a Manticore that Niobe hired to be Lester's personal bodyguard. He has one job: If he smells any demigods, get Lester out of there.

Of course, Elmer has no means of sniffing out any other kinds of special children. So when Lester starts hanging out with Carter and Sadie, Elmer is just like "Well, the kid does look pretty lonely. He should have some normal human friends. As a treat."

Lester, being a mortal who doesn't remember anything about Greco-Roman myths being real, doesn't see Elmer for what he is. Which makes things very awkward for Sadie, who can see his true form almost immediately.

But Elmer seems pretty fond of Lester, and pretty chill in general so... maybe he's not dangerous? But there's definitely something WEIRD about Lester's life that she wants to figure out.

(and for those just joining us, Lester has a service dog because the process Niobe used to erase his memories gave him literal brain damage, so now he has a seizure alert dog)

[sarafangirlart]

Now that’s just some bullshit

So you’re telling me that this director got mad at a guy in his mid forties for developing a dad bod for the character WHO IS A DAD???? Honestly I feel so bad for Sam Worthington, this made me realize it’s not his entirely his fault that his depiction of Perseus was so bland, he wanted to have a more human and flawed portrayal, he didn’t want to get constantly typecasted as a stoic emotionless protagonist, he’s just given nothing to work with.

This is just another problem with these movies, not only do these characters not act like their mythology counterparts, they don’t even act human, why get so angry over an actor letting himself go when the character himself has done the same thing? Ppl love mythology bc of how flawed and HUMAN these figures are, not bc they are constantly beautiful and strong like Greco-Roman statues bc they’re not.

I doubt the belly was even that bad bc he looks fine in the movie.

[agnoscoveteris-vestigiaflammae]

Okay this might mean nothing but…get your red string ready cause this is my Doctor Who S14/S1 theory masterpost

*Disclaimer in case of inaccuracies, I started writing this before Dot and Bubble was released and then I got busy and more things happened and now it's release day for The Legend of Ruby Sunday (which won’t be available to watch in my country until this evening) and I didn’t want it to go to waste so I finished it lol okay thanks* 

I’ve been thinking a lot about @waywardwes9 ’s theory regarding Ruby Sunday and other character names in this series of Doctor Who. So we’ve had Ruby SUNDAY, MUNDI (Monday) Flynn in episode three, and MARTI (Mardi/Martes/Tuesday/etc) Bridges in episode four, with dialogue bringing attention to the uniqueness/significance of each of their names. So when the casting list was released for episode five, ‘Dot and Bubble’, I couldn’t help but notice…Cooper Mercy, a slightly adjusted form of the words Mercury, or Mercredi (fr)/Miércoles (sp)/Mercoledì (it)/dydd Mercher (welsh)/etc. all of which means Wednesday!! So up until episode six, ‘Rogue’, this theory appeared to be holding up. It then became difficult to speculate further as we had little to no character backgrounds for these individuals and the cast lists for the remaining episodes are still incomplete but twice is a coincidence, four times is a pattern. 

Now we know that in the ancient Greco-Roman tradition, the days of the week were named after the sun, moon and planets which were in turn named after certain gods:

Monday - Moon - Selene/Luna

Tuesday - Mars - Ares/Mars

Wednesday - Mercury - Hermes/Mercurius

Thursday - Jupiter - Zeus/Jove

Friday - Venus - Aphrodite/Venus

Saturday - Saturn - Cronus/Saturnus

Sunday - Sun - Helios/Sol

Because of her surname, Ruby Sunday would be aligned with the Roman God ‘Sol Invictus’, who was considered the most supreme or important god for several decades of the mid to late Roman empire. So I decided to do a little research into this deity and found out that his feast day and the main festival dedicated to him, ‘Dies Natalis Solis Invicti’, occurred every year on December 25th… The day on which at the stroke of midnight, baby Ruby was discovered in a snowy churchyard, after being abandoned by her mysterious mother. This could just be a coincidence but it’s interesting nonetheless as it adds to the themes and theories regarding the “Pantheon of Discord” which includes godlike figures such as The Toymaker and Maestro. Could this suggest that Ruby is secretly a member of the Pantheon of gods? Or maybe she was created to be a pawn, a messiah-like figure, in their masterplan? Or maybe she’s a part of an antithetical pantheon of ‘good’ gods?

So returning to the characters named after weekdays, we may have expected a character with some variation of Thursday/Jeudi/Giovedì/dydd Iau/etc. as their name to appear in Rogue but unfortunately, there appeared to be nothing at all that would correlate to this theory… until people began to notice that the ring which Rogue uses to propose to The Doctor is emblazoned with The Caduceus, the staff of Hermes… also known as Mercurius or Mercury. 

It seems that our story has become stuck on Wednesday instead of continuing with the remaining weekdays, but why? Why could Wednesday or Mercury be significant?  Well gang, guess what the god Mercury is known as…

THIS IS HOW THE TRICKSTER TRUTHERS CAN STILL WIN !! Additionally, Rogue’s name originates from the DnD archetype, ‘Rogue’, who is regarded as ‘the trickster’. Very Inch Arresting. but we’ll return to the Trickster as ‘The One Who Waits’ theories a little later on.

The theory regarding The Caduceus can also play into the theory about Rogue possibly being an incarnation of The Master, or signalling the return of The Master. The Caduceus symbol, which can represent travel, thievery and mischief (which aligns with characteristics of The Rogue, The Trickster and The Master) is commonly mistaken or used in place of The Rod of Asclepius, which is used by healthcare organisations as it represents healing, care and the duties of doctors (which obviously aligns with The Doctor). 

These antithetical yet similar symbols could easily represent the Doctor and The Master and their shared past and turbulent relationship, or alternatively could represent the theme that things that appear too good to be true usually are, but who knows.

Now if you’ve made it this far, stay with me for this part because we’re about to get even more delulu, but I promise we’ll come back around into more plausible theory territory very soon. 

So with all this attention being drawn to character names, I decided to do some further research into the names of the characters named after days of the week and found something interesting. In the case of Mundi Flynn, we can presume Mundi is intended to mean Monday but Flynn actually means…Red or ruddy/reddish, which would make her name Monday Red… or Red Monday… just like Ruby Sunday. This got me extremely excited…until…I couldn’t find any connections to the colour red within Marti’s surname ‘Bridges’. However… Marti is named after Mars, which is known as… The Red Planet! Which would still make her first name Red Tuesday, or even Ruby Tuesday just like the famous song by the Rolling Stones. Now That is a stretch but we persist nonetheless by going even deeper into delusional valley with Dot and Bubble’s character: Cooper Mercy, Cooper…an uncommon name that is very close to the word ‘Copper’.. another shade of red, making her Wednesday Red/Ruby Wednesday. Also worthy to note that the character Cooper had red hair, which was a purposeful choice as it is not the actor’s natural hair colour. Okay, last one… while there doesn’t appear to be any weekday names mentioned in Rogue, (as we seem to be stuck on Wednesday) I couldn’t help but notice that ‘Rogue’ is an anagram of Rouge… the french word for red. Listen, either this all actually connects or RTD has quite literally been sprinkling RED herrings throughout the narrative. So what could this mean? Personally, this kind of repetitive naming convention reminds me of a dream-like logic or storytelling convention centred around Ruby,  which could play into everyone’s TV show/fairytale/dream theories (which are too expansive to get into and I don’t have much to add).

*I’ve heard that the Identity of Susan Twist has been revealed in today’s episode but thankfully I haven’t seen any spoilers yet so just ignore this if it’s completely off the wall lol*

However, this could also link to the idea of Susan Twist as a show director or writer, making cameos throughout her own work. In this light, she could be considered The Storyteller… TS… but if you physically twist the initials around…ST… Susan Twist.  

Then, there is of course the theory that Susan Twist is a physical manifestation of the Tardis. Particularly because in The Legend of Ruby Sunday she has been listed as Susan Triad, S.Triad, an anagram of Tardis. Could it be that the tardis is broken down or malfunctioning and is creating these scenarios to keep itself, the Doctor and Ruby entertained? I guess I’ll find out tonight hehe.

Okay getting back to The Trickster theory. By now most people have probably seen other posts that show that Ruby’s musical theme is almost identical to The Trickster’s theme from SJA, that the Doctor invoking a superstition at the edge of the universe could have brought back the Trickster,  that RTD could be using Ruby as a replacement for Sky from SJA, the baby that Sarah Jane discovered abandoned on her doorstep and adopted, who was originally supposed to be revealed as a child of the Trickster and a trap for Sarah Jane, and as well ofc that the hooded figure that drops baby Ruby off obviously resembles The Trickster. 

But another thing I can’t stop thinking about is the theme of the fragility of memory and existence that has been popping up throughout this series, particularly in the first few episodes, and how this correlates to the powers of The Trickster. In Space Babies, we see how the doctor’s memories of the night of Ruby’s birth are manipulated in real time to show him something totally different. In 73 Yards, we see how the Doctor is zapped out of existence, and then brought back through a future-past paradox. In several episodes we see the blurring of reality, the past and fiction with events such as the snow from Ruby Road appearing in places where present day Ruby is. We see on two occasions how history is changed by the simplest of actions such as stepping on a butterfly or a fairy circle. And of course in 73 Yards we hear Kate’s cryptic “This timeline is suspended along your event” line. All of these elements appear to correspond with the Trickster’s powers of time and memory manipulation as demonstrated in SJA, to the point that I’m actually gonna be disappointed if all this build up doesn’t result in an appearance from everyone’s fav SJA villain lol. 

Another thing to consider is The Doctor’s continuous references to the sea constantly getting closer to the land such as the “Everywhere is a beach eventually.” line from episode three and the “The war between the land and the sea” comment in episode four, the latter of which could of course just be a nod to the forthcoming dw spin-off series of the same name… or… could in fact be a reference to ‘the one who waits’. The last time the Trickster was defeated he was locked up in a box and thrown into the ocean, where he could be waiting patiently to return to the shore, to claim what he wants. Could this also be linked to Mrs FLOOD, whose water-related name may suggest that she is the one who waits for the oncoming flood. Who knows ! I’m just throwing things at the red string board and hoping something sticks. 

Okay that’s all for my crazy wacky wild bananas bonkers theories today. Can’t wait to see how many of these are disproven in approximately one hour lmaoooo. If you made it this far, I commend ur patience <3

[ancientpersacom]

Self indulgent AU idea

Still trying to decide what monsters the others would be. I think I’ll make Sacagawea a thunderbird or something similar. Idk what to make Larry, but I figure he’d be the headmaster since night guard = leader kinds thing. Maybe he can be some king of light related monster (bc flashlights??) but here’s what I have so far.

Ahkmenrah is obviously a mummy. He’s 4018 so the equivalent of a senior/year 12. He just transferred from a monster school in England that had a program for newly awoken mummies to learn English. He’s here in New York (boo York haha) to study monster history. He has a mummy specific disorder known as CMS (chronic mummification syndrome) typically found in very ancient mummies who experienced some kind of complication during the mummification process. Hence the cane, his joints are stiff and sore, he experiences brain fog and is always cold with dry skin. This tablet doubles as a case for his organs and it keeps him alive.

Jedediah is a headless horseman, able to remain alive and moving even without a head. A year below Ahk and part of the schools equestrian club, often found in the stables with his horse. He and Octavius had a past rivalry over their clubs funding, but things smoothed over once the school found a solution to the issue and was able to fund both clubs. From there they became friends and eventually, boyfriends. He’s originally from the south, but moved into the city for school.

Octavius is a naiad, a type of minor water deity from Greco Roman myth. Originally from Rome, he’s in the school after winning a scholarship. He’s captain of the swim team (the MH gladiators) and is in the same year group as Jed. He leads the team like an army, strict and hard working but he’s fair about it, understanding people need breaks at times. His leadership has lead the team to absolutely THRASH other schools in competitions, so he’s quite highly respected by the sports department.

Thats all I got atm, but I do want to expand and give the other characters a monster type. I’m just not sure who’d be what yet.

[shadowqueenjude]

me and sjm are about to have a world building problem because she's killing me she obviously takes inspiration from ancient civilizations and geographical names around the Mediterranean, like the greeks (Eris, Helios, etruscans (literally their goddess of dawn is named thesan). Tarquin the last king of rome (and ironically the opposite of acotar Tarquin). Adriata should then come from the Adriatic sea and their architecture seems greco-roman. But then she mixes it up and gives the court fae brown skin (by the way, what kind of brown, this tells me nothing, i don't need like pantone, but slight more description) For the night court, she's just weird with it. the clothes Feyre is initially given by Rhysand kind of read to me like what you find when you search up 'sexy belly dancer'). Same with all of the clothes she wears when visiting Hewn City. I feel like she was trying to incorporate some more "exotic" things but it doesn't match the rest of the court. It seems like there's a couple different groups with completely different aesthetics that are completely separate from one another. Both Illyria and the court of nightmares seem like vassal states to Velaris and aside from Illyrians having tan skin and being called something around the lines of savages (very POC-coded), there is little to no evidence of any aesthetics that could be considered non-European. Not architecture-wise, name-wise, or (for the most part) fashion-wise. Now, it is a free country, SJM can write however and about whatever she wants. But I feel like there is just such a loss there. No matter where in the world you go, there is evidence of different cultures. Rich cultures which someone could easily take inspiration from!! I just wish she took the time to go down some of the rabbit holes fic writers go down, learning a multitude about what ends up being a small part of your story. Right now, her POC characters feel like an afterthought where she had her story written and then just inserted the word dark/tan on a couple characters. (Also I had no idea Amren was east asian until someone said she was on here and I do have to ask, where is the east asian exotica? Normally if you have one you have the other.) Also her in-universe world building is so convoluted and i hate it and nothing makes sense. I love magical objects as much as the next person, but some of these are one-and-done objects that you definitely could have had more use over. I think she has a vague plan and is just doing whatever she thinks of first to get to each plot point. (me in essays) Also, someone should make an anti-inner circle timeline with all the fucked things they've done so we don't forget. (And hope in the next book, sjm writes about a war crime tribunal for the past... century) thanks for listening to my rant, I've just been struggling to figure out how characters and courts play out and getting more frustrated as I continue.

Anon, you summed up all my frustrations perfectly!

Sjm writes her worldbuilding and tropes like she’s still writing fanfiction. I try to write fanfiction of her stories and I realize I know nothing about the places we’re supposed to be exploring.

Sjm takes inspiration from many many things but then she doesn’t commit to anything. She cherry picks shit to utilize based on vibes and together it doesn’t make sense. It’s really annoying when you see inspiration from your culture that could’ve been used so much better.

As for the IC, they’ve committed so many crimes it would require a thorough reread of all the books to note down all of them.

[teecupangel]

This is because @ma-du who tagged me on this post with the idea:

Everything is the same, but the gang is reborn as Marvel characters

I am going to assume this means that the characters' personalities stay the same, it's just that they have been reborn to live the lives of Marvel characters (Assassins versus Templars plot optional XD)

Alright.

First of all, we’ll focus on MCU characters because having the ability to choose from the entire Marvel roster will… well… it would require more research that would probably take too much time XD

Also, I will primarily be using Phase 1~3 MCU characters (focusing on the Avengers with some exceptions) because the post did have Infinity Saga MCU characters (yeah, that’s the main reason why).

Alright, let’s give everyone some new problems!

Desmond: Moon Knight. Okay, he’s the main reason why I said ‘with some exceptions’. I mean… come on. Come oooonnn. Oh course, Desmond will still suffer thru the Bleeding Episodes which would lead him to be the AC equivalent of Moon Knight. Not to mention, just imagine the absolute fuckery he will suffer thru when he meets up with the reincarnated versions of his ancestors while he still have his ancestors in his brain as the Bleeding Effect. Instead of Khonsu though, I suggest we go for Ra (for the sun irony) or, if you wanna stay in the Greco-Roman mythology that was strongest in Desmond Saga, may I suggest Minerva (to make Minerva suffer with him) or Dionysus?

Altaïr: Doctor Strange, hands down. Used to be an arrogant overachiever? Taken down a peg by some kind of tragedy? Still a bit of an asshole but now has an entire subject he could spend the rest of his life studying and be the top expert still? Becomes leader of a secret-ish organization trying to protect the world in what amounts to a short time all things considered? OP powers with a lot of glowing gold accents AND holds an OP artifact? Altaïr is, hands down, the nearest Doctor Strange we will have on this list. Sidenote: Malik gets Wong’s job of being the usually annoyed dude that has to keep Altaïr from bending the rules too much. The Sanctum Masters are the Rafiqs of Damascus and Jerusalem + Kadar. Karl Mordo will have to be Abbas (sorry Karl Mordo) while Al Mualim would either take the Ancient One (if we plan to keep him good in this one) or Kaecilius.

Ezio: Iron Man. He comes from a rich family with lots of connections, is actually smarter than people usually assume he is, flirts a lot but also carries a torch for a specific person in his life, and a tragedy in his life changed him. Of course, his father wasn’t a dick to him (up to you if we gonna kill Giovanni and Maria off for drama), Federico gets reborn as Happy (who is still Ezio’s brother but preferred to be his security officer), Claudia is still his sister but has Pepper Pott’s job (although, everyone in Auditore Industries knows it’s really Claudia who takes care of the everyday operation, Ezio is the inventor and the face of the company, Claudia is the shadow queen) and Cesare gets to be Justin Hammer. Petruccio can be the kid in Ironman 3 or he's just living his life as the third Auditore child who has cool 'toys' to help his weak body that his brother made for him.

Ratonhnhaké:ton: We can go for Hawkeye/Ronin, the normal human who can keep up with everything that’s happening (also, he would make a good parental figure for the Frye twins). Also, even if we call him ‘normal’, we all know he could kick everyone’s ass thru sheer determination and stubbornness alone. Another option would be Black Panther but I kinda want Adéwalé to be Black Panther?

Haytham: … is it weird I kinda want him to be Nick Fury? Like… he’s the all-time suffering man in charge who doesn’t actually have any authority over any of the superheroes he ‘conscripted’? I just want Haytham to suffer while, for once, not being on the other side.

Edward: Okay… I mean… I know there would be a Phase 1~3 character that would work for him, the easiest would be making him part of the Asgardian family drama but, may I suggest a non-MCU character? Daimon Helstrom. Because Edward’s actor Matt Ryan is sooo good as Constantine that I will always think of him as Constantine. Helstrom is the nearest Marvel equivalent to Constantine and he’s also a free agent type which works well with Edward’s character for most of Black Flag. (plus I got “canceled after a good season 1” deja vu with Helstrom as I did with Constantine). If you really want him to be part of Phase 1~3, Antman (Scott Lang) would work with Jenny taking the place of the daughter Cassie.

Shay: If Haytham is our Nick Fury, Shay gets to be his Maria Hill (second-in-command, normal human that can kick so much ass, and… that tight outfit) or Phil Coulson if you wanna go down the route of Shay doing his own thing.

Arno: Spider-Man because I think Ezio mentoring him would be a nice touch and… his first love Élise being a Templar is kinda similar to how Liz was the Vulture’s daughter. Still thinking about who his Ned should be though.

Evie and Jacob: Look, we’re talking about twins here so I’m pretty much obligated to make Evie and Jacob Wanda and Pietro. Although, this time, Jacob’s not gonna die. XD

Bayek: Steve Rogers (no, he will not be called Captain America, think of a more ‘universal’ superhero name) because he’s an all-around good guy, his default weapon in AC promotional images has him using a shield, and he started out as a man who just wanted to do what was right and protect his people that got sucked into the overarching plot because of a tragedy. Also… Aya as a badass normal human like Peggy Carter, hhhmmm?

Kassandra: You know, I was thinking that Kassandra could be Steve Rogers with Alexios becoming Winter Soldier. (Which I think would still work, we’ll just have to change Bayek into someone else…) But Kassandra has to be Captain Marvel, right? The OP powers and “not to be a lesbian but oh my god oh my god” vibes she gave off just made her suited to be Captain Marvel more.

Eivor: She’s gotta be reborn as Thor, right? Like… sure, Odin is right there but Eivor’s love for fighting and her loyalty to her people feels more like Thor than Odin. (Let’s not make AC Odin reborn as MCU Odin. I’d even go for Varin to be reborn as her father again or even Sigurd to have a bit of arrogance at this point)

Basim: Look. We all know Basim’s gonna be reborn as… Korg. Of course, I’m kidding. He’ll be reborn as Loki as we all expected. XD

Clay: Deadpool. He’s supposed to be dead, his mind got shattered after receiving his ‘superpowers’, and… he’s the only person in this cast other than Desmond that actually remembers who he was before. His whole ‘knows about the fourth wall’ shtick is connected to the fact that he still has access to the Calculations and that’s actually what broke his mind… again.

[beigepear]

saturn in bungou stray dogs

saturn is a malefic (strict and uncomfortable), masculine planet, ruling capricorn and aquarius. being the last visible planet, saturn is all about boundaries, limits, and containment. in a personal chart it signifies areas where the native might be restricted.

in a very literal, extreme sense of it, saturn is handcuffs, chains, shackles, and this exact imagery is very present in bsd. atsushi is being literally nailed down and locked. it's also his tiger that's being restricted and locked down; and then, atsushi being out of the orphanage, there is a discernable boundary between him and byakko that he is yet to overstep.

dazai is also repeatedly shown restricted—handcuffed, attached to a wall, immobilized, imprisoned. he seems to be thriving in containment, he uses it, expects it, provokes it. he's playful with saturn all throughout the narrative, and it's reflected in the way he views life. what is the ultimate restriction if not death? death contains the freedom of being, and dazai seeks it, just like at times he seeks literal containment in order to realize his plans.

there is also a connection between saturn and being deceitful and manipulative, it's a communicative restriction that is also used by bsd characters a lot, either in order to survive or to reap a benefit.

saturn is the only planet with rings, and restrictive things are often circular. think handcuffs. or wedding rings. it makes me think of dazai's bandages—a literal barrier between his skin and the world, entwining him, like second skin. skin, functionally, is saturnian, because it contains our organs, muscles, and bones. if there is a boundary, there is a reason for it.

saturnian limitations can also be associated with poverty, hunger, and being orphaned. the influence of this type of limitation can vary in a personal chart. a well-behaved saturn makes a person aware of their fate—they recognize how unlucky they've been and they try to make best with what they've been dealt. a less functional saturn can make its native stingy, cynical, and envious. in both cases, people afflicted by saturn are extremely aware of reality. they have never worn rose-colored glasses, they will never be able to.

in a way, one of saturnian themes is doing your best in a chaotic world, therefore, in less extreme cases, saturn is about things that contain chaos, like moral, ethical, and legal restrictions. in bsd, morality is one of the essential themes, and it's contained in legal structures that disagree, clash with each other, but need each other nonetheless.

moral duty is saturnian, and kunikida's philosophy is one of the examples of this theme in bsd. his ideals let him restrain the harrowing chaos of life, and he feels obligated to act on them, otherwise he would be too aware of the world crashing and burning around him. in a way, he's similar to dazai in how they both embrace the saturn of it all, but dazai is more nihilistic about it, while kunikida is deliberately saturning his way through life.

it's interesting and meaningful that kunikida used to be a teacher, because teaching, mastery, and apprenticeship are huge for saturn. it's about tradition and continuity. the dynamic between a mentor and a mentee is omnipresent in bsd. saturn is often associated with father figures and authority figures, and the discipline imposed by them is not always pleasant. the moon is caring, it facilitates growth by giving, but saturn refines you by imposing rules and limitations. when dazai disciplines akutagawa, he's a saturnian figure. saturn doesn't care if you like him, saturn cares if you respect him. when there's a boundary needed, dazai quickly becomes restrictive about atsushi's emotions too.

it's compelling that bsd takes place in a seaport city. water is a natural border, and in greco-roman tradition it was believed that saturn also rules water bodies, ports, and trade. it's also interesting that we first see dazai after his attempt to drown, because drowning is very saturnian—they say that mars is dying in a fire, saturn is dying by drowning. of illnesses, it's said that saturn is responsible for those that arise from coldness and moisture.

another little thing about saturn: some astrologers believe it patronizes clowns. it sounds silly, but it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. as saturn deals with social restrictions and common sense, it patronizes everything and everyone that dances on the border of socially acceptable—the marginalized, the mad; holy fools and clowns. a clown is something between a birthday party and terror. clowns are funny because they rebel against common sense; clowns are terrifying because they rebel against common sense. of course, the first connection i make is gogol, and his aquarian perception of reality. sometimes your common sense aligns with the acceptable social paradigm, then you're lucky. and sometimes it doesn't align at all, then you're revolutionary or an outcast or both.

this reminds me of irl!dazai's quote that also reflects a lot about bsd!dazai: "as long as i can make them laugh, it doesn't matter how, i'll be alright. if i succeed in that, the human beings probably won't mind it too much if i remain outside their lives."

the ultimate lesson of the planet of saturn is about fate. destiny is jupitarian, it's the direction you're growing in. fate is saturnian, it's the cards you've been dealt, it's a car that can't be uncrashed. saturn teaches you about the limits of the world around you and of your own psyche, and then it poses a question: if it's hard and painful and unlikely to result in anything, will you do it anyway? if you can't do it the easy way, will you try at all?

[eleemosynecdoche]

Hecatia and the Lunarians

Blame/credit @sukimas for expressing interest in this...

Okay, so, Hecatia gets to talk for a few paragraphs in Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia about Hell's history, and by implication, her own. Eirin and Toyohime each get a full chapter in Cage in Lunatic Runagate and they convey quite a lot of things about the Lunarian mindset and worldview. One thing that's struck me recently is that, although Hecatia is explicitly anti-Lunarian on a far deeper level than any other character who's gotten dialogue (Yukari's probably equally anti-Lunarian but she's less talkative about why), Hecatia is also positioned as a similar kind of entity to the Lunarians.

Firstly, they both tell origin myths about their associated locations which are straightforwardly contrary to both the familiar mythology and a more secular historical analysis. Hecatia talks about Hell originating not as a place of punishment and rehabilitation, but as a construct by powerful people who were uninterested in living according to conventional virtues.

What Hecatia probably means by Hell here is the Greek Tartaros (or Tartarus), which undergoes a historical transformation from an abyssal realm where defeated godlike powers are imprisoned indefinitely (eg in Hesiod) to a place where mortals and some minor immortals who transgressed against the gods were condemned to ironic torments in the more Classical Greek mythological writings.

But Tartaros is just a primordial place in Greek myths at every point. Like Kaos, or Gaea, or Aether, or Ouranos, it's both a deity and a space, part of the early structure of the universe before there are really personalities. Nobody built it.

Similarly, Toyohime tells a story about how the Lunar Capital was created by the great sage Tsukuyomi and their* desire to avoid the spread of impurity and death, and also tells a story identifying the Lunar Capital with the undersea Dragon Palace of Japanese folklore. And this is, in its way, consistent both with the textual tradition in which Tsukuyomi is the killer of the food goddess Ukemochi out of disgust with how she vomits food out, and also the fact that Tsukuyomi is a god without much cultic presence, a figure mostly in primordial mythology, unlike their very active siblings Amaterasu and Susanoo. (There are a couple shrines to them, especially as subordinate parts of large Amaterasu shrine complexes. But not many.)

But it's also not really derived from the mythology directly, and it's not quite drawing upon a clear historical transformation- Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto seems to have always been primarily a literary figure, distant from practical religion.

Now, the Lunarians reject divinity, in the sense of rejecting the obligation to humans that being a kami in a shrine requires, the interactions and subordination to ritual. Hecatia also describes her original Hell as a place where people reject rules they don't like. So we also have this interesting convergence- these two sets of figures who assert a separate history of their own existence, disconnected from what ordinary humans thought then or now, also share in this kind of symbolic disconnect.

So one way of looking at their alternate histories is to treat them as assertions about the world and the universe more than statements of plain fact, which is definitely workable within the fictional context as well- Hecatia is manipulating Aya in her interview, Toyohime doesn't know the full details of the "history of the moon" and is to an extent repeating what she's been told. There's been quite a lot of good meta about those worldviews you can go read.

But another similarity that falls out of this analysis is that both sides of this pair exist in a state of relative freedom within Touhou cosmology, because the Lunarians are figures of literary myths who don't have to be reconciled with their behavior at the shrine, and Hekate is a famously confusing and difficult figure within the Greek and later Greco-Roman mythological complex- Hesiod presents her as a kind of universal helpful figure, as does the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, but other sources from early periods present her as sketchy or hellish. Still later, she would become treated as a nearly-omnipotent goddess in some of the Greek Magical Papyri- but what we know about her cult and position today is limited and even contemporary writers seem confused.

Hecatia is thus free in the cracks, because human imagination and human history have left her with great latitude, just like the objects of her distaste, the Lunarians. I suppose in a way it's the contempt bred of familiarity- you have all this freedom and this is how you use it? etc.

*Tsukuyomi's gender is unclear, according to Wikipedia in English, even given early poetic sources that refer to them in masculine terms. So I suspect there's some real uncertainty going on in the scholarship too.

[mask131]

Body Fat in Greco-Roman Antiquity (transcribed article)

A long time ago I made a post about the depictions of Dionysos/Dionysus/Bacchus as fat. You can read it here if you want - but that was just me going on about stuff taken left and right, nothing too serious, just thoughts.

I want to bring you today a serious article about the perception of the fat body in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. This article is actually a page hosted on "Google Arts and Culture", titled "In the Flesh: Body Fat in Ancient Art". It was created by the J. Paul Getty Museum, and you can read it all here. But the website has a really specific design that makes it hard for some people to read the page, so I thought why not help share it around by copying it below. Of course, nothing belongs to me, I am just transcribing it all (plus copying the images). All credits go to the J. Paul Getty Museum.

In the Flesh: Body Fat in Ancient Art

Ancient Greek and Roman writers criticized bodies of different sizes for a variety of reasons. But in works of art, body fat was often depicted in ways that defy our expectations.

A Different Ideal

Terms like "overweight" and "underweight" originate in modern medicine's concept of an ideal body weight. Calculated to minimize mortality risk, this medically desirable weight varies based on such factors as height, age, and fitness.  Ancient Greeks and Romans compared the appearance of their bodies with respect to a more abstract ideal.

For the ancient physician Galen, measurements for the ideal body were expressed centuries earlier in the Canon, a treatise on statue proportions by the 5th-century BC sculptor Polykleitos:

(Male torso, about A.D. 100, Unknown)

"[Neither the overweight nor the underweight body] is in due proportion. But the body which equals the Canon of Polykleitos reaches the summit of complete symmetry."  — Galen, Ars Medica K 343

For the ancient Greeks, precisely measured weight was less important than the perception of symmetry and balance.

They had a term for this desirable state of wellness: εὔσαρκος (eusarkos), meaning "well-fleshed" or "fleshy."

(Mosaic floor with combat between Dares and Entellus, A.D. 175-200, Unknown)

Because the Greeks prized moderation in all things, bodies or behaviors that stood out from this ideal were targets of criticism. Perhaps surprisingly, this criticism also applied to muscular athletes, such as wrestlers and boxers, who required constant high-calorie diets.

(Statuette of a boxer, unknown)

Big Bodies in Comedy

Mockery of those who ate more or less than necessary was one way to impose social compliance and maintain political order.

(Apulian red-figure bell krater, 370-360 BCE, Cotugno painter)

Many Greek and South Italian vases often depict comic actors wearing "fat suits" (as well as a mask and a phallus) to embody popular character types.  Actors used such props as comic gags, and vase painters often represented them with great care. 

On this Apulian mixing bowl, lines extending across the actor's chest make clear that his large, sagging breasts are artificial. His belly is unnaturally circular and hangs too low — further evidence that he is wearing a costume.

It seems that the painter wanted to pointedly emphasize the exaggerated nature of such costumes. 

Ample Satyrs

Not all depictions of larger bodies were mocking. Animal ears and the double flute identify this figure as a satyr, or a woodland deity. He reclines in a pose that would remind viewers of the satyrs' master, the wine god Dionsyos, who is often depicted reclining at a banquet. 

Instead of on a fancy couch, the chubby old satyr rests on a full wineskin!

(Fragment of an Apulian squat Lekythos, 350-325 BC, Darius painter)

Under tufts of gray hair, lines accentuate the curving folds of the old satyr's body. Unlike the ridiculously artificial bodies of the padded actors, the satyr's big, hairy body is gentle and soft.

Like the plump pillow on which he rests, the satyr appears comfortable and at ease. This scene is meant to be lighthearted, and does not appear cruel or mocking.

(Fresco fragment depicting an old Silenos with kantharos and thyrsos, AD 1-79, Unknown)

Similar attention to detail can be seen in this Roman wall painting of the old satyr Silenus. The painter’s skillful use of red shadows and pink highlights builds up the volume of his chest and stomach, which appear both soft and sturdy at the same time.

These fleshly older satyrs were symbols of pleasure-seeking and leisure.

Fragile Bodies on the Margins

Skinny or underweight bodies were also criticized, in part because of the association between emaciation and illness. Thinness could also negatively reflect on one's character.

(Miniature skeleton, unknown)

Ancient authors often noted a person's skinny frame as a way of pointing out their intellectual or social irrelevance.

The association of thinness and powerlessness is sometimes exploited in representations of enslaved individuals, domestic servants, and those otherwise marginalized in society. 

(Finial with a resting youth, unknown)

On this figurine of a resting youth, the individually shaped ribs might suggest that the figure is undernourished.

In depictions of older individuals, such as this statuette of an old woman, underweight features are often used to indicate frailty. 

(Statuette of an old woman, 100-001 BCE)

Such subjects were popular in the Hellenistic period  (c. 330-31 BC) —a time of unprecedented social inequality — and consciously aestheticized: 

"When we see emaciated people we are distressed, but we look upon statues and paintings of them with pleasure, because imitation, as such, is attractive to the mind's nature."  - Plutarch, Quaestiones convivales 5.1.

Size and Gender

Body fat was also linked to gender, especially in the Roman Empire. While bodies of women were routinely criticized by Roman authors, fluctuation in weight did not render them less feminine. By contrast, both fat and skinny men were explicitly mocked as effeminate, lacking either physical strength or stamina.

Biographies of unpopular Roman emperors often weaponize their body size in this way. Of the emperor Galba, the biographer Suetonius writes, "it is said that he was a heavy eater," immediately before turning to rumors about his inclinations towards "unnatural desires." 

Such fat-shaming seems not to have mattered to the emperors themselves. Their official portraits show little concern for concealing the fullness of their faces.

(Torso of a cuirassed statue, unknown)

The situation may have been different in military affairs. The anxieties Roman men felt about their bodies can be seen in their choice of armor. Their bronze breastplates were decorated with chiseled pectorals and washboard abs, creating the illusion of a skin-tight fit. 

It is unlikely that such breastplates were meant to deceive, any more than the fat suits of comic actors. What they offered to their wearers was the illusion of inhabiting — for a moment — the ideal body of a Polykleitan statue.

Divine Softness

A closer look at ancient art reveals that the bodies of gods were sometimes less harshly judged than those of mortals.      Depictions of certain gods regularly focus on the softer parts of their bodies.

(Bowl with a medallion depicting Dionysos and Ariadne, unknown artist, -100)

The maker of this Hellenistic silver medallion went out of their way to show the curvy bodies of the wine god Dionysus and his wife Ariadne, engraving lines under their bellies to highlight the sensuality of their encounter.

Some popular representations of the love goddess Venus, such as the so-called "Crouching Venus" type, unquestionably emphasize the fleshiness of her body. 

Statue of a Crouching Venus Statue of a Crouching Venus, Unknown, A.D. 100–150, Provenant de la collection : The J. Paul Getty Museum

Modern observers have highlighted the positive associations between fleshiness and fertility expressed by a variety of Greek and Roman authors, but there is more to the story.

The rolls of flesh on the goddess's belly also gave the ancient sculptor a means of creating a very intimate encounter between viewer and goddess.

To ancient viewers of all ages and genders, accustomed to seeing gods represented solemn and upright, the crouching pose allowed a glimpse into the goddess's private world.

The crouching goddess seemed more approachable to worshippers, in part because her body moved in ways they could recognize from their own lived experience. The softness of Venus’s body made the cold, hard marble come to life.

[aroaceleovaldez]

What godly parent would be good for a set of triplets oc?

There's a lot of options you could go for! Depends on what type of theming you prefer, I suppose. Lucky for you, Greco-Roman mythology loooooves things in threes. The original version of this post got long so I'll make a (slightly) shorter version:

Honestly, any deities that are twins/etc, or have twin/triplet/quadruplet/etc or otherwise large thematic groupings of children, or are part of a thematic triad (which Roman mythos has a few of)/etc, all easy options.

Hecate is an obvious one cause of the triple form. Selene, Persephone, and Artemis are also all associated with her as a triad. Selene also sometimes is seen as mother of the seasons, which is a grouping of four. Artemis is obviously a twin herself and Apollo is the father of the muses of the lyre, who are three sisters if not triplets (Cephisso, Apollonis, Borysthenis. Or Hypate, Mese, and Nete). Not to mention just the Muses in general. Janus is more twos/doubles but you could work with that. I've been enjoying playing around recently with children of Feronia (Roman goddess) concepts, because one of her mythological children had a triple soul and had to be killed thrice to truly die.

Zeus is another who often has children in thematic groups, also commonly in threes - the Fates, the Graces/Charities, etc. Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra, Castor, and Pollux are quadruplets (who sometimes have different fathers and hatched from like one or two eggs, depending, fun fact!) and sometimes Helen is specifically a child of Nemesis. Also you could totally use that myth as thematic basis for your triplet characters just straight up having different godly parents.

Nyx has a ton of kids who are sometimes thematically grouped. Fates were already mentioned, the Furies, the Oneiroi (which are basically literally endless cause they're dreams), etc. Hypnos and Thanatos are twins. The Somnia are 1000 children of Hypnos/Somnus (also dreams) and include the notable triad of Morpheus, Phobetor/Icelos, and Phantasos. The Horae are also often a triad - Thallo, Auxo, and Carpo. Eunomia, Dike, and Eirene. Pherusa, Euporie, and Orthosie. Iris and Arke are more twins. The Erotes have a lot of variation in them - Anteros is sometimes Eros' brother/twin, sometimes Eros, Himeros, and Pothos were all brothers. The Algea could be interesting if you want a darker triad. Astrape and Bronte aren't necessarily twins but are a duo. Deimos and Phobos are twins. Sometimes Ares and Enyo are siblings- and Enyo is also sometimes one of the Graeae, who are another trio of siblings! You get the picture.

As I said, any mythological figure that's known for having children that form a thematic group, or just a really large bunch of children could totally work. Or anyone who's a twin/triplet/quadruplet themself, or their parents, etc etc. And again, see: Leda's kids. Technically there is nothing saying you have to make them all have the same godly parent while keeping them triplets. You can get as funky as you want with it.

[vixnovacoda]

Doctor's Medicine || Chapter 11

Hannibal Lecter x Original Character

Word Count: ~2k

CW/TW: NSFW 18+, graphic, disturbing content, dissociation, canon-typical violence.

[Chapter 1][Chapter 2][Chapter 3][Chapter 4][Chapter 5][Chapter 6][Chapter 7][Chapter 8][Chapter 9][Chapter 10]

[ao3 version here]

They were barely through the second glass when Hannibal tried to change the topic from favourite wine flavours and European countrysides. He lowered the wine from his lips, holding it how a trained hand would. “We’ve yet to touch upon the subject of your parents,” he said abruptly. 

   “Or yours,” returned Emma with the clashing of her nails against her wine glass resounding loud against the vastness that was Hannibal’s living room and its gothic decadence. The whole place was decadent, an oasis in concrete, filth-filled Baltimore - there was no sensible way that being a psychiatrist paid for this all on its own. It was made clear then that she didn’t know him well at all. Just bits of him.

   He took his time drinking, body turned to face her as he sat upright and perfectly poised on the other end of the sofa. The whole time, he sipped while she gulped. Not once had he broken form like a careful man being a gentleman with nothing to give away. “You don’t like opening up, do you?” assumed Emma.

   Then it broke briefly. Hannibal looked away from her. She could barely see the look in his eye, but it was clear enough by how he chose to focus on the skulls of dead prey, their lives having been taken away from man to be used as decoration, that he was questioning something. Maybe letting her inside this room while he had still been awake. It wasn’t clear what exactly. It was never always clear with him. Hannibal Lecter, the man who chooses horse hooves for chair feet. The man who designed his living room to be a forest; his hunting grounds. A place meant for calmness or to take home a meal. But she knew she said something he wasn’t expecting.

   “Then in that, we share,” came to utter Hannibal unexpectedly.

   “I suppose,” responded her. “However, I just simply don’t like getting close to people.” She lingered on him as the open fire painted the contours of his face like it were some greco-roman sculpture. If his head wasn’t so attached to his body she’d donate it to sit amongst the greats at a museum. “… Not anymore.”

   “Am I not ‘people’?” asked Hannibal in his usual manner, in his usual way that had you giving more of yourself up to him than he ever would; charming. Hannibal’s words were a bait she openly ate from.

   “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

   His head slanted, ever curious. “And what is your assumption so far?”

   The details of his sculpted lines turned less blurred. “A hunter,” she answered, her hand grabbing the back of the sofa between them as her body shifted closer. “You wait. You watch with care. You stand in a world of prey and take the ones you need in search of something, maybe you enjoy it, maybe it brings you calm. Either way, you’re alone.”

   “I am?”

   “It’s hard to find someone willing to hunt alongside.”

   The firewood crackled in the silence where they were at a stand still. Embers broke and sparks flittered, seen reflected in the only clear thing of that man she called a hunter, his eyes. Deep, dark forces of nature. Flecks of red. So much red in them. So… familiar.

   A bathtub, marbled by blood spilling, pouring over under my knees. I sit in it. I stare. There’s the body, then me. Fingers dip like toes in water, testing the climate. Eyes float to the surface. Iris of blue turned a glaring red. I bend closer, and it almost bleeds into my own.

   A hunger.

   That’s what it was. She had seen it before back in that house she was supposed to call home. Years passed where she might have almost forgotten. But, how could she when he was right there in front of her to remind her. Hannibal had that same look in his eyes, she was sure, and not a reflection like Will. Just, similar. Which meant he was one of the only people that understood her and what she felt. He had to. He just—

   With a grip larger than her own, Hannibal coerced the half-empty glass from her teetering grasp before she could taint the expensive upholstery or the remnants of his stripped-down suit – in which the shirt (a couple buttons undone) and trousers remained – and there she remained without moving an inch. Any closer and their knees would be touching. Then, a buzzing, tingling. A warmth filled her cheeks. She couldn’t help herself, but what was she doing? She barely knew this man she labelled as a friend mere hours ago. 

   Embarrassment swallowed whatever feeling she had while reality came rearing its head in. “But, what do I know? Maybe I am just projecting,” Emma stammered and lurched herself back, resting her tiring body over what was her side of the furniture. “Or deflecting the original question. After all, there's a lot of revealing oneself in discussing parentage, no hiding from the truth where the pieces come together. Even when buried, it never dies.” Though she wished it did. Then none of this would ever have happened. No pain. No tragedy. No dead Alex.

   The alcohol made light work with her, festering in all the nooks and crannies of her body, and the unrest fashioned lead from her frame as she slumped with a heave, spine curving against the armrest. Emma never believed in spirits, but as her heart felt cold while the tips of her fingers and the fireplace burnt, she might have sworn it was Alex. But she would never be so cruel to leave Emma at odds and staring at where heaven laid between the clouds that was Hannibal's ceiling for an answer. It had been this way not too long ago in the spare bedroom Hannibal had provided. Wide-eyed and brain ticking, she had stared at that ceiling. Unable to sleep, Emma was the one to search for the bottom of a bottle and Hannibal the one who indulged her thirst by uncorking a vintage when he probably shouldn’t have. 

   “Why are we still awake?” questioned Emma. Why am I alive?

   Hannibal’s voice waded through the confused silence like an echo. “I think only you can answer that one.” Followed by the pour of more wine. Drop after drop.

   It wasn’t a difficult answer when there was pause and alcohol in the air and the warmth of another who was in reach. She knew, like she had never known before. “… Company,” admitted her with newfound lucidity being consciously aware could never give her. “The world sounds different when I’m with you.”

   “What does it sound like?”

   “Like… Like a symphony.”

   The sofa sighed under the shifting of his weight as she swore he moved closer. “Harmony. When the right notes mix with the right instruments under the direction of the conductor, it is a cacophony of delight that is profound to the senses,” assuaged Hannibal.

   Makes a part of you from deep inside feel as if you could finally breathe , added Emma mid-thought.

   “Everything in sync. Everything right.”

   “See, you understand.” Too drunk with enlightenment under her breath to care, Emma threw herself upright to the rhythm of a bounce and eureka. “You’re the only one who sees me. Is it so bad to want to understand why? To be curious as to what you have buried when you’ve already begun digging up mine? Tell me anything of your parents, then I shall tell you mine. Is that so hard?” pressed Emma as she leaned forward, hunching slightly like a blind beggar to assuage and bend his gaze from above as predators pretending to be as innocent as prey ought to often do. This was the time. She was sure. He’d finally give a little; a test to their bond. To their friendship. Or whatever it was that they had and pretending was friendship. Survival.

   He looked at her.

   She looked back.

   And there was that look again. That hunger . When was the last time either of them had consumed? Too long, but Emma’s hunger was stronger, enough to beat Hannibal by a mile. He sighed through seething teeth. Just this once. That’s all she needed. That’s all she’ll get. “It was snowing the last time I saw them. Our home was covered in thick layers of its pure colour that you could barely see the horizon at dawn. A guise of innocent ongoings, one might say, or the blessing of god,” divulged Hannibbal, straining, like he was slicing off a part of him and serving it up to her raw on a platter. The act softened her. It was the closest she had gotten to understanding him, and sure, he could have been lying to get her to divulge something deeply personal. But only God would do that and he wasn’t God. He was far better than Him.

   Emma swallowed the hardened lump of salt in her throat. “There was a storm when my mother was murdered. It flooded our moors like an ocean. No one could leave,” she confessed.

   “Did you think it a blessing?” he asked.

   “Did you?”

   They stared amidst a revealing quiet, their eyes piercing through reflections.

   “Death is no blessing. It is just death,” spoke Emma through dry lips, suddenly more thirsty than she’d ever been.

   Hannibal slid her lipstick-stained glass across the table.  “I find that it is an end and a beginning.”

   “That’s one way to think about it, certainly.” Nodded along Emma half-heartedly and took glass to mouth; rapid and fast. Anything to completely satiate herself to completion. It wasn’t often she had told someone about her mother and she did not like this strange feeling that came to occupy her because of it. This bitter bile stuck within her like a rot, like a shame. Her fist clenched the wine glass stem with ferociousness. “I prefer to just let death be death.”

   “My, you really are a persistent force in the face of a battle, Emma Darcy,” commented Hannibal, with his sliver of admiration seeming all too genuine.

   Suddenly smiling and all too proud, Emma said, “I get that a lot. People are often surprised to find how unwilling I am to lie down and play dead.” She raised her glass almost triumphantly as she pushed down the rising rot.

   “And nor should you be forced to be something you are not.” Peering past the lip of the glass, she could see the beginnings of a smug smile like he knew something she didn’t. But, no sooner than downing the wine glass’s remains did the red liquid wash away the sight and her vision blur around the corners with a swallow. Light-headed and weightless. Unaware and buzzing. She didn’t seek to stop. The alcohol numbed the pain of her chrysalis – the pain that followed her existence, the pain she had come to stop. The change that was the end of her. Though it was less of a change or evolution and more of a breaking free from an ill-fitted cage.

   “Emma, are you still there?” came the sound of Hannibal’s dulcet voice, distant and far off, ringing and echoing, come to pull her back to the surface.

   “Yes.” She tried to follow it. Dragging, squeezing. Rising, and rising, and, then, free. Blinking away an old layer of a blurred world and struggling to centre her body upright, she repeats herself with a newfound conviction. “Yes, I always have been.”

   With reality rearing back in, she could feel the palm of his hand on her forehead, the other on the small of her back, as the warmth of his body melding with the closeness of hers. The beginning of early daylight cracked into rays behind Hannibal’s head and seeped into the smile that flitted across his lips. This version of herself, the one that had been begging to be let out – the one that found an easy way through the cracks of drunkenness – owed its life to him, and she matched his delight with awe and thankfulness at her saviour.

[yamayuandadu]

who was nergal syncrestised with in hatra? apparently it was the iranic god verethragna but verethragna himself was syncretised with heracles. is it possible that all three deities were syncretised with each other?

First things first, I must admit I've been really enjoying the recent wave of very focused questions. It's actually easier to answer these than vague ones like "why was Inanna important". The worship of Nergal in Hatra is a complex topic because the city arose very late, there's only evidence of settlement from the final centuries of the first millennium BCE. Lucinda Dirven in her study of the matter basically characterized the local Nergal as "a Herakles-figure (...) worshipped in Hatra under the name of Nergal" rather than as outright the same deity Shulgi built a temple for in Kutha. She notes most of the art of the god follows Greco-Roman Heracles iconography, and anything resembling the classic Mesopotamian Nergal is uncommon. Ted Kaizer in his slightly earlier article questioned identifying the Heracles figure with Nergal altogether, though Dirven considers this too extreme. So, in other words, we have a deity who seemingly was called Nergal (multiple inscriptions confirm that directly), had Nergal's traditional roles tied to war, death and punishment, but looked enough like Herakles for this to be a very murky matter. And there are peculiarities which are strictly local, such as the association of dogs which is exclusive to the Parthian period and has no real precedent in Mesopotamia (medicine goddesses were associated with dogs, and Marduk has four attack dogs in his court, but Nergal has nothing like that at any earlier point in time). I think Dirven's "Nergal-Herakles" label is warranted and explains the situation best. Association between Nergal and Heracles was not limited to Hatra, and pops up in a few other cities in Hellenistic times; Heracles was associated with various fully divine foreign figures though, so it should not be surprising (see ex. the case of Sandas from Tarsus as another example) An additional problem is that some of the Herakles figures are actually inscribed with the name Gad, but that's a whole other can of worms, and here this might simply be a designation of the god as the tutelary deity of specific families, not a reference to Gad understood as an independent deity. As for the Iranian side: one of the best attested epithets of "Nergal-Herakles" in Hatra, Dahashpata ("lord of the guards" or "executioner"), seems to originate in an Iranian language. The connection to dogs might be borrowed from an Iranian milieu too, though more from the general perception of these animals as guardians of the dead etc. rather than from their link to a specific figure. I see no reference to Verethragna in Dirven's paper, and Shenkar's Intangible Spirits and Graven Images doesn't mention any connection between him and Nergal either - it just mentions that he was identified with Heracles in Commagene, Mesene and presumably in various locations in Armenia, but that even this was not universal because they're two different deities in Kushan sources which probably reflect a preexisting Iranian tradition. To sum up, I cannot really give you a straightforward answer. The god worshiped in Hatra definitely combined Mesopotamian, Greek and Iranian elements. However, even though Nergal, Heracles and Verethragna definitely show some similarities in terms of character, and Heracles could be viewed as analogous to both of them in different contexts, but I can't find any evidence that they were regarded as a three-way set of equivalents the way, say, Enlil, Dagan and Kumarbi were understood as in in the second millennium BCE. The closest point of connection between Verethragna and Nergal is the fact both of them corresponded to the same planet, as pointed out in Encyclopedia Iranica, but I am unable to find any recent source arguing this was anything like the Tishtrya-Nabu situation. In the light of the recently proven lack of any real connection between Anahita and Ishtar beyond sharing the same planetary symbol I'd be very cautious with similar claims about other supposed pairs.

[the-lunar-library]

TO THE RAVENS

Parrhesiades, or Pas to his friends, a seeker of the divine but a skeptic of prophets. As a priest of the goddess Kybele, himself a member of a sect sometimes viewed with disfavor by the Romans, Pas quickly takes an interest in Alexandros' dramatic new cult. Particularly when he realizes how inextricably his old friend Akantha is bound up in it.

While To the Ravens isn't a religious book (as in, it's not here to proselytize), religion is an important element, and I wanted to study it from a variety of sides. So where Genesius is a spiritual skeptic and Buca is open-minded to a fault, Pas is here as someone with deep religious convictions, the sort of person who does believe in supernatural things, prophecies, magic, stuff like that. But he doesn't believe in them indiscriminately. And now he's faced with this unprecedented new cult of Alexandros', and he's equipped to levy both a personal and a professional judgment on it.

The galli, priests of Kybele/Cybele, are notable in Roman history because they were AMAB folks who dressed in feminine clothes, even at a time when there were fewer distinctions between men's and women's clothing. Which is intriguing, particularly the question of how they might have identified had they lived today – and how I, with my modern sensibilities, should speak of them. Historical texts aren't very useful in that respect, defaulting to masculine pronouns and assuming masculine identities, and the modern resources I looked at took a similar line. The concept of a person changing genders or having multiple genders did exist in both Greco-Roman myth and philosophy, but I (possibly I wasn't looking in the right places) didn't find anything when it came to the real trans people who just lived their lives in imperial Rome. The galli are also famous for castrating themselves in service of their religion. Which feels very significant, but I didn't want to presume that they all were, across the board, trans women. In Totr's glossary, I clarify that Pas, who uses masculine pronouns, is just one gallus and isn't meant to represent all of them. My own feeling is that there could have been a spectrum of identities among the galli, but it's a gut feeling without any evidence.

I'm not shy about having favorites, and Pas is one of my favorite characters; I enjoyed every scene he was in. He's thoughtful, outwardly calm, generous, and has a patient listening ear for other people's problems. At the same time, he's often cutting and stern, and he won't lie or compromise to make others feel better. He's an intellectual who obeys logic and his principles, but he has a deadpan sense of humor and a love for the absurd.

As for his name, it was drawn right from Lucian – Parrhesiades, “free speaker”, underlining his willingness to call things as he sees them, regardless of others' opinions. But I figured that was way too much of a mouthful. The first part of his name, though written here as “Par”, is the Greek word “pas”, so he goes by Pas. And as for his design, he's tall and graceful, and despite not being rich he dresses as beautifully as his budget allows, both because he enjoys it and to glorify his goddess. He typically wears a full face of makeup, which, depending on what you've just said to him, makes him look softer and more gracious, or harsher and more warlike. My portrait caught him at a sterner moment because, really, he finds a lot to question in this book.

[frowningfox]

For the artist ask: 3, 13, 19

3. your favorite piece(s)?

THIS ONE. It's my all time favorite and a redraw of an older all time favorite. Looking at him and his small crooked toothy smile just makes me so happy I instantly smile. I'm pretty happy with the technical skills I pulled off with it too but the character and the emotion is really what makes this a happy piece for me.

And these two pieces! I am growing quite fond of my linework lately and I really feel that with both the Line version and the Color version I really brought out the different aspects and emotions I wanted to with each version. And I pushed myself and for the color version tried working with colors in the background/lighting that I don't often use.

13. talk about a wip you like!

REALLY OLD EXAMPLE. I have LONG since finished this piece but I loved the WIP more than the finished version so I kept it. I think I've even deleted the finished piece off my social medias, but I just love the in between stage so much that I am still holding onto it years later. uuuuh I could probably talk more about it but I'm gonna add a more recent WIP that is actually unfinished and talk a bit about it.

And yes. I still draw rough muscle diagrams as my first sketch layer.

Now this one I sketched out on my birthday, it's just a little stickynote sketch, so a thumbnail sketch, but I really really want to finish it I just havent had TIME. I have big plans for it, it's a companion piece to another drawing, the flip side of the monster, and I want to re-compose that one to more closely match this one, and THEN, stickers and prints of course but I want... I have two crappy side tables with square wooden plank tops. I want to figure out how to stencil the two pieces' line art onto them and woodburn them onto them... maybe paint idk. I've not painted in forever.

19. where do you find inspiration?

While first off as you can probably tell from the first WIP, muscle diagrams and greco-roman statues.

But in many places, mostly in traditional 3d forms of art or have an element of 3d in their process. My biggest inspirations are statuary and carousels, and for 2d, woodblock print art from old fairy tale books!

I also take quite a bit of inspiration from various religions' artwork. Painted/carved Reliefs, stained glass, etc.

Lots of artwork that's meant to capture a moment and freeze it under a layer of heavy iconography and symbolism. A lot of times when I draw my characters, it's on purpose not exactly how they look, but using in-lore stylizations to convey certain things and to keep their appearance somewhat the same despite some of the important things on their person constantly changing over the course of their story (for example the small braids on Asim/Yunuen typically being portrayed as pinned up in two loops with a set amount of beads and rings. it's an iconographic choice denoting their connection to the House of Fate, as well as maintaining that they cherish the tradition of the braid despite not having one anymore after having it forceably cut off/just recently starting one and only having one or two beads on it)

That big aside aside, I also find so much inspiration from so many artists I stumble across on tumblr! Usually just tiny little things, like how they draw certain hair types, or how they do certain cloth folds.

And uh. Like two years ago I binge watched HunterxHunter and it permanently changed how I approach drawing lips and hands.