#the seasons idea came from the whole Hades and Persephone myth

[devil-doll13]

(Don’t Fear) The Reaper

Ciarán x Gn!Reader.

Tw: Gender neutral reader, also reader gets kidnapped by Ciarán so yeah, somewhat Dark Romance, Stockholm Syndrome as the reader is imprisoned/isolated, Angst, reader is very autistic coded idk it just happened the fic was doing whatever it wanted, also you die at the end… Sorry. This is a bit of new territory for me so please tell me if anything else needs to be tagged!

I’m out of the writing block gulag and I present to you, this… Fic. It sort of ended up being almost fairytale-like in nature because that just made sense for this character. Hope you enjoy.

Dividers by firefly-graphics

Spring

One day, you must run away. Far away, into the wilderness of your country, and leave behind you the pains of the day.

The first sprouts of the year have perked up above the soil, but they do not bloom yet. The grip of winter still holds life captive, a thick white mist blanketing the ground in an eerie shroud. The stone walls of your haunting ground jut out of the land like the teeth of felled giants, grey and silent. Then down yonder, the slabs of the stone circle stand guard like sentinels, murky in the fog. What they protect, who can say; or perhaps it is something you are protected from, as the elders in your village have told you.

You wander over the moorlands and clamber over streams and bogs, well loved and well travelled. From time to time you sit and rest upon a rock protrusion, humming some innsong, feeling some tension leave you, watching the day go by and the birds fly free, unbothered by your quiet presence. Later you think you had better make for home again - though it may be unwelcoming to you - lest you find yourself wandering the countryside ‘till the wee hours of the morning, led astray by visions in the mist.

And strange visions you indeed have.

The air is thick with some unknown energy. Alive, it seems, with the buzz of a hundred thousand watchers. All peering at you, the foolish little mortal, who has long frequented their mushroom doors and ancient tree carvings and hidden glades glittering in the sunlight. You, so unaware, so painfully human. You have known them for almost as long, though you remain but a trifling amusement in their eyes. Only one - one as alone and bereft as you - sees you truly and wishes to know you truly, more than any fellow villager would care to know you.

Then, he appears before you; or reveals himself.

His shadow falls onto you in the fading light of the setting sun, and you can do little but stumble into the bogwater and scream before this dusky knight and his dark mare are upon you. He reaches out and captures you in his arms, deathly cold like you imagine the inside of a coffin. You struggle in vain, but his grip is a vice, cutting and metal, hard. All goes dark as you imagine you have been killed; been taken by the reaper, perhaps God has come to destroy you for your wickedness, your sins and abnormalities.

It remains dark when you awake. But no longer are you held so tightly; you lay on soft, blanketing bedsheets. Adrenaline jolts you upright and you cry out in panic at the ghastly sight of your kidnapper, the icy fire hissing and flaring at the base of his neck, the only dim source of light to illuminate the room you’re in. He towers over you, imposing, stealing your breath from your chest.

“Please, please don’t hurt me…” You choke out.

The flames hiss louder, sharper, which only makes you more frightened, but he makes no moves to harm you. He gazes over your trembling form, seeming almost nervous in the way his gauntlets fumble. Still, you grimace away when he steps closer and reveals a small handkerchief, glowing. But it is not the fabric, you realise, but what is held inside.

Golden apples, their scent so sweet and intoxicating, and water from the clearest spring. He nudges you, though not forcefully, to eat and drink; still you have no choice, you think. As you bite into the fruit, you feel it numb your senses, and soon you give in to tiredness and fear and go to sleep, hoping and praying you had been dreaming; imagination wild and disturbed.

But no Springtime dream is this; you awake there, but mercifully warm. The soft bedsheets are still draped over you, lovingly arranged. A single source of light sits atop a podium, carved in a strange, circular fashion unlike any mortal design you have known. You sit up and see it is a glass bauble full of fireflies.

Your captor is nowhere to be seen. For a while you languish in your foreign bed and feel no desire to leave it, but fear of his return spurs you to leap from it, still dressed in your travel clothes. There must be some way out of this shadowy place, you reason, and with a feverish sweat and pounding heart you seize the flickering glass ball and try to navigate your way out of your room.

You cannot tell how much time has passed since you were taken here, for you are surrounded by grim, rocky walls overtaken by black ivy. It smells of damp moss and ancient dust, and the dark, cavernous space echoes your unsure footsteps back at you. Soon, you begin to suspect you must be trapped in the bowels of some dungeon, imprisoned here. Your heart, so heavy in your ribcage, sinks ever further into the abyss as you realise there seems to be no clear path back to your home. It is a labyrinth, your route only discernible by the uncanny murals etched across the stone.

You then feel a sudden itch urging you to turn back, to seek out the safety of your new cage, and the foreboding metallic steps sounding from the end of the gloomy hallway hastens your flight away from here. You hide underneath your sheets, as if a child again, and cry bitterly. You are not brave enough to face your kidnapper, nor are you willing to endure whatever tortures he will subject you to. You, so young, so full of life before, can see no way out of this all-consuming darkness.

Summer

After some further attempts, your hope fades into apathy, and you give yourself to grim resignation. You sleep as much as you are able, and dream of better things, of your village. Burrowing into your sheets like a worm into soil, feeling twice as wretched. You wonder if you are missed - or at least if your work is missed - or if your absence is noticed at all. For years you longed to disappear off to somewhere quiet and peaceful, but not like this.

Now you regret those wishes; your most desperate plea to God is that he spirit you back home.

Your captor visits to give you food and drink, though you have lost all appetite and eye the apples warily, remembering your sleepy daze when you ate them last. More unnervingly, he lingers in your room and watches you, sitting or standing. He does nothing to you, so eventually you start to feel a little safer in his presence, but no less anxious. Sometimes you try to speak to him, to reason with him:

“Who are you?”

“What do you want from me?”

“Why won’t you let me go?”

All met with silence. He has no head; you suppose he cannot speak. You are certain now that he is not human, and though his appearance is that of a knight, you see no heraldry to mark his allegiance to any kingdom. You begin to wonder if he is some vengeful or sorrowful spirit, accompanying you in death; or if he is the Devil, subjecting you to your own personal tormenting Hell. Your nervous thoughts quickly spiral out of control, and you toss and turn without rest.

Soon you tire of laying in bed, of the neverending sleep, and with your little light source venture out again into the labyrinth. This time you take a thread from your clothing - as worn and frayed as they now are - and use it to remember your way. You still fear what may happen should your captor meet you outside of your room; though he has been docile and calm for all the time you have known him, you know the nature of such otherworldly beings can be fickle.

Perhaps now the overworld has been cast in balmy Summer, the April showers past and gentle breezes blowing fresh, warm air into the fields, crops swaying. For an unknown amount of time, you have been stuck here, and seen no face but your own, reflected back at you in the Spring water. As far as you can tell, the only other being in this place that is not your captor is his beautiful black mare. She resides sometimes in a sort of rock stable, which you come across during one of your tentative trips outside your room.

In life, you felt an affinity for animals, preferred over other people, demanding and loud. She is rarely without her rider, but in those odd moments you creep into her living space and offer her your gilded apple. You braid her black mane and comb your fingers through it, all the while wishing you were back home and with the steady workhorses. She is like none other that you have seen in your memory, strong and dark and with wise, inquisitive eyes.

One of these times, you happen upon your captor doing the same. It is far too startling to see him dote on the mare as you do, with gentleness you have never seen him display before; or never cared to notice. You leave quickly and try to dispel the memory of it, so little does it fit your fearful perception of him.

Now you begin to study the mysterious murals by light of the bauble full of fireflies; simply for lack of things to do. They tell strange tales, but they all seem interconnected somehow, and though they resemble no Christian creation, you can still recognise their unearthly beauty. Over many trips outside to decipher them, you piece together the story of a knight who, seemingly having committed a great sin, is banished from the fair courts and made an exile, cast into the dark realm you now live in…

Only too late do you recognise the knight as your captor. It hits you unpleasantly, for you spent some time filled with pity and empathising with his plight. Both of you, prisoners of this place, and now he sees fit to chain you here in fetters alongside him.

Of course. No one, human or not, would wish to live in this awful place. Not willingly. An eternity of being alone, surrounded by this gloom and reminders of your own failures, would be unbearable. You understand this so keenly, for weren’t you alone before? Loneliness, A frighteningly human sentiment to associate with that terrifying figure. How could you sympathise with him, your jailer? You remember again the gentleness with which he tended to his horse, and feel disgusted, confused.

Your stomach ties itself into knots as you stand there, thinking and feeling too much. But then, you hear again the sound of footsteps approaching, and in panic you almost drop the bauble filled with fireflies. It is too close. You sprint back along your path of string, and there you see him towering over you, and flee fearfully back to your room to drag the great door shut and prevent his entry. Far too soon, you hear a great weight thrown against it that reverberates in your very bones. You recall that sword that lies by his hip, lethal-

“I’m not letting you in!” You cry, shivering.

He stops. There is quiet from behind the door.

For a moment, you feel an icy wave of terror wash over you. Have you overstepped? Will he force his way in now, and kill you for your insolence?

“I-I’m not letting you in until you agree to let me go.”

You swallow thickly, holding fast to your momentary courage; if you have dug your own grave by now, you may as well lie in it.

Silence. Then, you flinch as you hear the metallic step of his sharp sabatons, scraping against the floor. They become more distant and faint, until you are certain that he is walking away, away into the labyrinth to do God knows what, only you hope he does not come back to punish you.

You cannot sleep after that. Fear and hunger gnaw at your senses; you fed your apple to your captor’s mare. Miserable, you try distracting yourself by humming that innsong, but you find you have forgotten the tune. Little by little, your past life is slipping away from you.

When he opens the great door, you cannot stop him. But this time, he does not pass the threshold. You watch as this massive armoured being does the most unexpected thing: he kneels before you. His flames burn brightly, as deep a blue as Summer’s night sky. In his sharp, unsure gauntlets he offers up a bundle of fabric you quickly recognise as a collection of your old clothes, and between his fingers he clutches a beautiful red poppy.

This… You stare at him, unable to think or speak.

He does not move, only remains bended at the knee, awaiting your response. Your mouth is dry. Even you recognise this as a romantic gesture. Your captor is trying to court you, his own prisoner. You want to laugh at him for his absurdity; laugh madly.

“…I’m not taking it unless you let me out.” You say.

But he does not agree; or he cannot communicate without action. Still you know that your attempt to escape is futile, and that refusing the gift would ultimately be pointless. Slowly, hands shaking, you receive the gift. The fire on his neck hisses, flaring so suddenly it would’ve made you jump in the past. Now, you expect it. As a show of defiance, you still shut the great door on him, and he makes no effort to stop you. Soon, you hear his footsteps again, fading into the dark unknown.

You look down at your hands full of items. The poppy almost appears as if it will wilt in your fingers; in this place without life or light. You know now that it is Summer, and some sense of peace and calm washes over you. Now, with your old clothing, with a reminder of the overworld, you feel at strange ease.

Autumn

By now, you have adapted well to your new routine.

There is no sun, and the only way you can measure days or weeks is by the frequency of his visits. Each time he returns, he kneels upon his knee to meet you, offering a poppy. Each time you reject him, only you ask if he will let you go, or let you see your home again. He refuses, then leaves to resume his duty. Thus begins and ends the cycle of day and night.

Your suitor is not forceful, but he is persistent. He brings you other things, too, to make your cage more homely. It is the most comfortable and warm place you know in this underneath, catered to your fragile human body. You feel betrayed by your own emotions, as you find yourself touched by his consideration. You know you are a prisoner here, but somehow you see him in new light; with no others to talk to, you have started to confide in him despite your risky position here. He stays close and endures your occasional insults, and now you suspect he delights in your better mood, or at least in the idea that you have accepted your fate.

You speak, he listens, and watches you. Before, no one would ever do this, and dismiss you. All your flights of fancy, no matter how strange, are humoured in a way you never expected. When you express a desire to see something that will grow still in this barren place, your idea for a mushroom farm is fulfilled. It gives you something to do and look at; you adopt hobbies and pastimes you never considered before, too burdened with your work.

Still, you refuse his love. But as time passes, you feel less discomforted by his presence. His aura is calm and steady, reassuring like something ancient that has been in existence forever, like the stone circle you remember from your home. Then, as you feel more secure in your standing here, you leave your room again to explore the labyrinth.

Now when you meet him here, you greet him. You are no longer afraid, for you have learned with time that he detests to harm you. He starts, as if he is just as surprised as you yourself are. Together you sit in the dark, two prisoners at peace. When you feel tired, he extends a hand to you, offering to pull you up. You hesitate for a moment, remembering how he snatched you before. Still, you take it, and though it is cold it is not discomforting like you expect, but solid and cool. Without thinking, you hook your arm into his, though he is tall and dwarfs you. He leads you happily back to your room so you may sleep, and when you watch him leave you find yourself wondering what his hand, underneath the gauntlet, truly feels like.

After that, the connection between the two of you begins to strengthen. The barrier that kept you from touching now has seemingly been broken, and when you walk to and from your chamber it is together, arms linked as if you were both on a leisurely stroll. When you pretend that it is, it makes things simpler, so that you can forget the gloom that surrounds you. Better shackled as one than divided and alone, left to rot in this desolate place.

So your affection for him is not only of the heart, but rational. You make the most of your shared imprisonment. Perhaps you forget that it was he that dragged you down here, but as he caresses your face so lovingly, it no longer seems to matter. You learn then that his embrace is strong and enveloping, and see ashen skin beneath the armour which you kiss, falling further into the abyss, losing sight of all that you had sworn to fight against. He is, to you, as devoted and passionate a lover as any human man could be, and far greater still. You no longer have the willpower to deny your heart’s desires.

Perhaps now the outside world had begun to wither and die, as the seasons change and the leaves begin to fall, rotting into the dirt. You, a trifling mortal, should see fit to be buried with them; but your fate has been altered, changed now. Loving so utterly has transformed your heart and mind, your soul, and you still eat of the sweetest fruits and drink from the clearest spring, boons earned by your lover’s exploits. You now wish to become like him, without end. To become deathless, and forget, forget it all…

Winter

Still, you recall the sweetness of spring, the fruits of summer, the colours fading in the harvest, giving way to cold and deathlike winter.

This time, when you ask him once again to bring you back to your mortal world, it is not to leave him, but to experience these joys once more before you must let them go forever. To be his forever. He agrees, though reluctantly, as if you are terribly fragile and sick; though you feel so feverishly cheerful, as if you have gained new life and new being now. Only he bids you to hold on tightly to him, gripping your hands firmly in his as he holds the reins. You obey and bury your face into his travel cloak, squeezing your eyes shut tightly. The atmosphere shifts, the air is fresh, and you breathe in deeply, crisp and serene.

Your eyes, accustomed to darkness now, sting painfully in the light. Even though the skies are grey, sombre clouds brooding over the land, you see life once again for the first time in an aeon. Dying now - or already dead - to be reborn in the next life.

“I want to see my-my old home...” Your teeth chatter. He squeezes your hands that tremble against his chestplate. It is cold; not like he is cold, but from the bitter chill of winter. Under your shared shroud of fog, the grass is frozen, you see all around you the pale glaze of white. All is still, and the howling gale quiets in your lover’s commanding presence, pacified.

Together you ride across the moor, concealed by shimmering mist. Though you still recognise your country, you soon realise it has been changed. Then, with horror, that your old house has long been gone. All is replace now with new, alien structures and colours and brightness, a future so grotesque you are repulsed by it. You regret coming here now.

How many years have passed? The familiarity, the comfort you expected to find here, is gone. All that is left now is urgency and confusion and noise. Time has abandoned you as readily as anyone you have ever known; except for him, your lover. You no longer belong here, but to him, to his world.

You look at your hands. What is your essence, now not human, but also not like him? Now you feel that you wish to turn back, return to the dark and quiet of the underneath. But your folly leaves you untethered to your lover’s cloak, and in that moment his mare draws up and you slip off her back.

Then, you fall from the horse. You hit the ground.

As your body touches bitter soil and earth, you revert entirely; for you always have belonged to the overworld, a mortal fool. Your hands soon appear gnarled and withered, your hair overgrown and grey, as you age into a feeble elder, returning once again to the dying land. The last thing you see is that black gauntlet reaching out for you, as longingly as it did on that Spring day. But Death takes you first and steals you away, a cruel twist of fate that ends your story, as pitiful and as unfortunate as it had began.

(Taglist: @rottent33th, @slaasherslut, @the-pinstriped-hood, @goldrose-star, @soupbabe, @bluecoolr, @vincent-sinclair-deserved-better, @flower-crowned-lady, @solmints-messyocdiary, @probably-a-plant-thing, @myers-meadow)

[dicenete]

I have only met them couple of minutes ago and I'm convinced that they would be like this. :) Mama and Papa Shroud are so precious. I love them. I did this doodle so fast just so I can ramble abour their helmet designs!!! Rambling begins after the cut! ^^

Okay first I just thought it was funny that we didn't get face reveals or anything like this, easy to do these like this, no need to do expressions and so on... But! Then I started to look a bit closer.... Mama Shroud has flowers in in her helmet. And that got me thinking........... Persephone?? In Greek mythology Persephone is the Queen of the Underworld and the wife of Hades. But she is also the goddess of the dead, the underworld, grain, and NATURE = Flowers. The quick overview of the myth of Persephone is that Hades fell in love with her and kidnapped her to be his bride in his domain, the underworld. Some myths say that Persephone hated the whole deal but some myths say that she fell in love with Hades after everything. (debatable topic and well ancient mythologies rarely were about roses and rainbows) But the point being: Mama Shroud is someone who isn't originally from the Shroud family, the bloodline that was cursed with the bloodcurse and the duty to look over the gate to the Underworld. And since we kinda get the idea that the Island of Woe is very guarded and rarely lets outsiders in (unless they modify their memories and send them off), if Mama Shroud came from somewhere else, she is tied to the Island of Woe now as the wife of Papa Shroud and her kids.

But I think, unless they state otherwise, I'm sure Mama Shroud can visit her relatives. Atleast for the spring to fall and then be winters in the island of woe : DDD Ya know... cause that's how Greek myths explained four seasons. :)

And when you look closer at Papa Shroud's helmet... IT TAKES SHAPES FROM HADES'S DESIGN FROM DISNEY'S HERCULES:

I just thought their helmet designs were very nice and I love the attention to detail :3

[genericpuff]

You mentioned multiple times that Persephone is a self insert of Rachel, how is that so?

Also, I love Lore Rekindled

So obviously it's not like Rachel herself has outright stated that Persephone is a self-insert, but there's a lot of narrative and visual evidence that points to this being so.

Disclaimer before I continue: a lot of this is speculation, take it with grains of salt, but understand that all of the following evidence is why so many people subscribe to the idea that Rachel is using Persephone as a self-insert power fantasy, myself included. This is going to be a long post.

First, the most obvious - Rachel and Persephone look virtually identical, especially when Persephone's hair is short. In a way that's not even reaching at this point, like there are times when Persephone literally looks like she was traced directly off Rachel's face. It's panels like these where you don't even have to squint or fill in the blanks with your own interpretations, Persephone literally looks like Rachel.

There was also that time she dyed her hair pink and her own audience called out how she looked like Persephone (unironically for the most part, which goes to show how much the implications of Persephone being a self-insert of Rachel has gone over their heads, sigh)

She's also made absurd claims in interviews that Persephone and Hades were her "muses" since all the way back in middle school.

I say these claims are 'absurd' because frankly I just don't think that's true, there's nothing from her early-mid 2000's online presence (which is still accessible via the Wayback Machine) that suggests she was into Greek myth content, most of her stuff from back then was medical fetish and lolita art and not a single piece of Greek work is mentioned on any of her profile bios, favorite book lists, or interests, not even once you get to the 2010's when she started shifting away from blatant medical fetish art and more towards marketable storybook-style art.

(she definitely mentions Lolita though 😒)

I firmly believe she's just making up that whole "Persephone and Hades were my muses" thing the same way she's made up her 'folklorist' label to hide the fact that she has no connection to Greek myth whatsoever and was just creating LO on a whim during the era of Hades x Persephone shipping prompts that were popular on Tumblr at the time. It just so happened to become massively popular so she stuck with it and tried to pretend like she always loved Greek myth as a way to justify her success when really it was just luck and circumstance.

But we can go further back than that.

You see, Rachel also really... really likes Mads Mikkelson. Like, beyond just enjoying his work and entering teenage girl obsessive cringe territory. I wouldn't be calling it out if she was a teenage girl or even a young adult, but she isn't - she's thirty seven years old.

Mads Mikkelson is, of course, her dream cast for Hades, and when you see how she views Mads Mikkelson, the rest practically writes itself.

But we can go even further back than that.

Because, you see, Rachel has old art accounts from long before Lore Olympus. Normally I try to avoid posting a lot of this stuff because it's very much old skeletons that we usually understand to leave buried, but this particular piece is very relevant to this discussion.

'Madame issue' was the screenname of her account where this drawing comes from. You may also notice this is very likely where the name 'used bandaid' came from. This character is meant to be Rachel. It was very common for her to draw herself with short pink hair back then and it seems that's barely changed now.

Just wanna also throw it out there real quick that Rachel's birthday is March 21st. Guess what date Rachel chose to make Persephone's birthday? Oh yeah, the first day of Spring, literally March 20th. Which shouldn't even exist yet as Lore Olympus is based on The Hymn to Demeter which outlines the creation of the season. But I digress.

Now, this may be a little irrelevant and nitpicky, but to circle back around to the point I made earlier about her not having any genuine connection to Greek myth, Rachel seems to have always behaved like this, in a way that tries to 'hide' the fact that she's not 'legit'. There are old FAQ's from her art pages that answer questions she's asking herself in a very arrogant "how dare you ask me this" kind of way. Like, she claims to have imposter syndrome, which I'm not saying is a lie, but if she does, she definitely uses blind arrogance as a way to cover up for it. It reeks of early 2000's 'mean because it's cool to be mean' energy and that seems to be an attitude that she hasn't left behind in the early 2000's where it belongs - she's just channeled it into 'girl boss' Persephone instead.

It's become abundantly clear after going through old LO asks/livejournal/flickr/etc. posts that Rachel herself 1.) romanticizes purity culture (again, like the Greek myth 'self-proclaimed folklorist' thing, she's trying to claim she's 'deconstructing' purity culture when her actual beliefs are the exact opposite), 2.) values naivety and youthfulness vs. experience and wisdom, especially with how she talks about Persephone and 3.) constantly tries to act like a 'boss babe' similarly to Persephone.

There's also the fact that the time skip perfectly aligned Persephone's age to be in the same range as Rachel - she's now 30 to Rachel's 37. The time skip didn't have to be exactly ten years, if it was purely to retcon the age gap problems then she could have made it far longer, but she made it specifically 10 years and I feel like it can't be a coincidence when we consider how close in age Persephone and Rachel now are. Recalling that earlier point that Rachel seems to be obsessed with naivety and youthfulness, she probably didn't like the idea of making Persephone 40 because that would be too "old".

That's not even getting into the actual way that Persephone is written. This is the part where I say there's nothing inherently wrong with writing self-inserts, even famous authors do it, but the issue lies in authors writing them as power fantasies and not actual fleshed out characters. Persephone is not a fleshed out character. She does not have flaws - at least none that are recognized as flaws - and she never loses. She does whatever Rachel wants her to do on a whim even if it contradicts previous actions or information we've been shown. Sometimes she's an inexperienced "uwu" teenage girl, other times she's attempting to be a 'boss babe' (but really it just comes across as her acting like a Karen.)

All that said, it's not uncommon for poorly written self-inserts to lack consistent characterization because the author is too hopped up on writing them to fulfill their fantasies, even if those fantasies don't align with pre-existing information. There's also the fact that Persephone herself never suffers any consequences for her actions, even when she's in the wrong, and terrible things that happen to her are more for the sympathy of the audience and less for actual character development, depth, or underlying meaning. The comic's universe and the characters that reside within it bend around Persephone and her wants and needs, and this is something that happens with poorly-written self-inserts a lot especially when they're being written purely as power fantasies and not actual character studies or reflections. Nothing bad will ever happen to Persephone, she'll never suffer real consequences for her actions, and she'll never make any real sacrifices, because Persephone is Rachel and Rachel can't write Persephone separate from herself.

This kind of goes hand in hand with the whole "she didn't make Persephone 40+ because then she'd be too old" thing, but I'd also like to mention real quick that Rachel has never written a female character who isn't like this. All of her main characters from all of her works are women, which is perfectly fine in isolation, but they're all written as the exact same woman, sharing traits of naivety, inexperience, youthfulness and innocence. None of her female characters are over the age of 21. Making Persephone a "doesn't know she's sexy" 19 year old who's often drawn very childlike was very intentional as it's the exact same kind of character she's been drawing for years now, and the fact that she's 30 now is simply Rachel trying to retcon the problematic age gap that she got called out on; with the added bonus that it makes Persephone even more like Rachel.

No, Rachel has never directly confessed to Persephone being a self-insert, but I don't think someone like Rachel - who already speaks with a veil of disingenuous arrogance - would admit to it anyways. The writing is on the wall: how she's written Persephone and every female protagonist who has preceded her is a deliberate choice based around Rachel's own beliefs and values - that women are only desirable when they're young and thin, that the "ideal man" is someone who's above everyone else in power, wealth, and status and will and should use that power, wealth, and status to get what they want, and that women should be as cute and innocent as they can be until any degree of opposition or questioning comes their way, in which they are justified in exercising outright cruelty and abuse towards those in their way, with no in-between.

And that's all I'm gonna say on that.

[antiloreolympus]

11 Anti LO Asks

1. Zeus would make a much more compelling character if RS grounded his obsession with gaining respect in the context of his childhood: He could’ve been Rhea’s favourite kid and grew a huge ego/sense of entitlement as a result while feeling deeply under appreciated by his brothers and Hera for his instrumental role in rescuing them and his care for her respectively, unable to look past his own trauma and ego to see that they too are struggling with their own demons rather than neglecting him.

2. I’m gonna have disagree with that one anon saying narrators are always a sign of weak storytelling because that’s not always the truth. Hades the game for example has a narrator and it’s used very effectively to give it an fairytale-like feel, a funny thing for zag to comment on because he can hear them and he will often comment on the rude things they say, and also provides a bit of world building. A narrator is also good if it’s established beforehand who is saying the narration, such as a storyteller or prophet, and it can establish to the audience they are viewing something from the past, and they can speak when there are major shifts in the story, not throughout the whole thing. A narrator in LO isn’t even a bad idea, the issue is it should have been established much earlier, maybe even episode one is we’re being honest, instead of just coming out of nowhere to speak of stuff in the future? It’s also pretty purposely only being there to be a cliffhanger instead of even putting in effort to make it interesting enough for anyone to care or come back without the narration there basically begging them to care what’s going on. It’s very strange and shows a lack of confidence and effort in her writing to be so literally spelled out like that.

I agree with the other comments too. The font is atrocious. LO is usually really good with fonts and they picked one that was visually very ugly and hard to read with an even worse color. I didn’t even think the fonts would degrade too like the art, and yet here we are!

3. I love how rachel dropped the cover for vol 2 of LO and its just a treasure trove of book design failures. her name is on top, giving the impression both she is the title and she cares more about getting her own name out there over the actual story, empty space where the title should be, the title covering most of hades, the title being cramped so much to cover him, persephone being covered by volume two, the list goes on. the first cover wasnt much better, but this is much worse.

4. RS is willing to change aspects of the story according to fan speculation but isn't down to do anything that would retcon out the offensive stereotypes, the homophobia, or the character-assassination of apollo.

5. I’m pretty sure Hera and Echo will have an infidelity arc followed by betrayal thanks to Echo’s role in Zeus’s meddling. It’s already established that Hera is just as willing to cheat as Zeus is and Echo’s blue colouration and short hair is clearly reminiscent of Hades. Given how RS has stated that character colour palettes are symbolic, I wouldn’t overlook this detail (the one instance of RS actually sticking to her colour rules lol). Also, Ares’ comment just seems to imply it!

6. Yo I just saw RS Insta story- SHES ALREADY MAKING A VOLUME TWO BOOK???? When the first volume isn’t out yet?????? Tbh, I never expected this 

7. Daphne has more personality than Persephone. Though both came from the same deprives mortal realm background, Daphne is thriving. Unlike Persephone, she’s confident and willing to take control over her own life (though this is only illustrated in the context of her dating life which is sad af, female characters never get any other kind of agency in LO). Perse would be a more interesting protagonist if she had Daphne’s (still limited af) personality.

8. There seems to be a lot of infighting here regarding Myth Hades and Persephone and it's 'modern retelling' or butchering by RS.

All fighting aside on whether Hades was a good husband and Persephones role (or lack of agency) in the myth of the Kidnapping - what is actually wrong with appreciating the myth as is?

(Isn't the myth there to give an explanation as to why the seasons change? As well as being a story of a mother in grief over her lost daughter? And her fight to find her?)

Also, in that context, is there really something wrong with liking the... lets say more "modern" adaptations of the Myth where Hades and Persephone loved one another, so long as one understands and respects the original canon (sources) and culture from which it originated?

9. The way Daphne is drawn went from sweet girl-next-door to model with overfilled lips and too many surgical alterations to increase her sex appeal.. Her lips look like they’ve been stung by several bees in the latest FP what is up with that? It’s especially irksome since RS normally draws very nice looking full lips (I.e Persephone) but they just look so off on Daphne.

10. So Minthe being in the story so early on (and already dating Hades) is lets say an "interesting" narrative choice. Mainly because it feels like RS did this because she doesnt want to acknowledge that Hades may have loved someone other than Persephone.

Because (as far as I am aware) Minthe does not show up until after Hades and Persephone are already married. And Hades did care about Minthe (as I believe one anon mentioned - he named a mountain after her?) - and she was stomped on by Persephone for daring to say that Hades liked her more.

It feels like RS made this narrative choice because she wanted to (mess with the myths) showcase that Persephone is Hades 'One True Love' and the only way she could think do to that was to make Minthe a vicious abuser. Which is unfair.

11. Uh …. Why are they already publishing a volume 2 or LO only four months after the first one? If they keep that rate up won’t they catch up really quick to the actual comic and run out of stuff to publish? I would be pissed to get a book with a cover with effort put into it just to get rushed nonsense in the actual book. Girl take a break.

Also the logo is literally covering up half of the couple while there is a giant empty space above them so her name is the main focus. Either Rachel is shit at book cover design (likely) or she needs to stroke her ego real bad and make sure her own name is the main focus. Good lord. 

[coldflasher]

2020 is almost over (thank GOD) so let’s talk about where im up to with fics, my fic plans for 2021, etc etc. obligatory disclaimer that i’m making a determined effort to focus on original work this year so i can’t make any promises about when any of these things will see the light of day, but hey, accountability and all that

okay okay so. current wips include:

aftermath: one shots

- one that’s set during season 4, after barry gets framed for devoe’s murder and gets sent to iron heights. len is like ‘there’s no way you’ll survive prison without me, for fuck’s sake barry, i’m coming in after you’ and basically he deliberately gets locked up alongside him. they share a cell, it’s great. basically just an excuse for prison smut, honestly. this one’s like 70% drafted and won’t need many edits, but probably won’t post until i have ALSO written:

- the second aftermath one-shot, based on 4x01 when barry comes out of the speedforce with a scrambled brain from experiencing his whole life on loop for months. the angst!! i need it!! i’m gonna write this one first bc it makes no sense to post a one-shot from mid s4 and then go back to the first episode, so. i have pretty clear plans for this one, it’ll be a little longer, but gonna try and keep it fairly tight, preferably no more than 10k. (you: helen, that’s not tight. me: IT’S TIGHT BY MY STANDARDS, LEAVE ME ALONE.)

- i’ll probably do more of these one shots as things come to me, i know people wanted me to do the whole zoom-breaking-barry’s-spine ep and len’s reaction, but honestly i am not emotionally equipped to rewatch that ep any time soon, so it’s on the list but when i’ll get to it, who knows

aftermath: sequel (michael snart)

- because over 500,000 words of content wasn’t enough for me, apparently!! len and barry’s son comes back from the future to save barry from an unknown crisis and inadvertently brings crisis with him. this is the fanfic equivalent of a strongly worded letter to the flash writers bc crisis sucked so i decided to do it my own way. current word count: 32k, aiming for around 50k. maybe 60k but please GOD no more than that. features len being a bad father but trying not to be, lots of teen angst, and dual timelines, cos i hate myself apparently.

vegas wedding one shot

- i wrote a terrible first draft of this for camp nanowrimo a few years back, revisited it during the march lockdown, rewrote about 80% of it and then... stopped. but im gonna finish it, i swear, cos i really love this one. in a nutshell, barry and len get whammied by a meta who convinces them that they’re in love and they have to get married Right Now, Actually. they run off to vegas, team flash has to chase them across the strip and try and stop them from getting hitched. super chaotic, around 20k. this one’s high priority cos it is SO close to done that i have no excuse.

coldwestallen hades/persephone fic

- hoo boy, strap yourselves in cos this one is gonna be a Long Boi. i responded to the feeling of emptiness that came with finishing one hellishly long fic by diving headfirst into another, because that’s healthy. very loosely inspired by the hades/persephone myth, with persephone spending six months with hades in the underworld and six months with her family aboveground. barry makes a deal for len’s help in a sticky situation in exchange for six months working as a member of the rogues. it turns out better than expected, so they keep making the same trade off - six months with team flash, six months as a rogue, with lots of angst as barry struggles to reconcile two very different, entirely separate lives, and two very different loves. enemies to friends to lovers between barry and len, friends to lovers between barry and iris, enemies to lovers between len and iris, it’s a lot. super slow burn, split into four parts, which will each probably be around 50k. at least, that’s what i’m aiming for. it’s also gonna be kinda Problematic, there’ll be some infidelity which i know isn’t a lot of people’s jam, so there’s a strong chance no one will read it, but bold of you to assume im writing this for anyone but myself. im deeply in love with this thing. i reckon i have about 50k for this already and it’s my new baby. god, i love it. no idea when i’ll ever show it to anyone though. see you in a few years maybe lmaooo

other than that, this year had one big casualty that failed before it really got off the ground: the devil wears prada au. i watched DWP during lockdown, got obsessed for about two months, wrote 25k of an AU with len as miranda and barry as andy, and then suddenly lost all interest. tragic, cos i really like what i wrote for it, but i have so many wips that i can’t make myself cling to one that i know in my heart of hearts i’m not really invested in any more. now i really don’t know what to do with what i already have. i’m tempted to post it, in case anyone’s interested, but also don’t wanna get anyone’s hopes up or have anyone get attached to something i won’t ever finish. i might post the bits i have with a clear caveat that this is all there’ll ever be, idk, if anyone’s interested in that let me know. saves the time i spent on it from going to waste, i guess

ANYWAY that’s where i’m at with fics right now, there’s a lot going on, and this is JUST the fics im working on and not original stuff. hoo, boy. save me. we’ll see what happens in 2021, but i hope to at least finish all the one shots i mentioned, and preferably also finish michael’s fic as well! optimistic, maybe, but hey. manifest, and all that.

[yandere-wishes]

Twisted Wonderland //Theories//

I know this is a yandere blog, but these theories will most likely tie into the characters when I do write about them.  

Jack Howl

We've already preestablished - due to very obvious clues- that Jack is a member of the Canidae family, this is nothing new. But we've yet to discover what specific canid he is. I figure most people write this off as "he's a wolf" due to the last name Howl. Yet in truth, all members of this family make howling noises. Thus not permitting us to say with an efficiency that he is simply a wolf. I think he's a wild dog/ cape dog. My reasoning for this comes from an old 1990's Disney tv show called Timon and Pumbaa. In season one episode twenty-two segment two, Timon and Pumbaa are approached by a paranoid tarsier claiming that there is a wild and dangerous predator on the loss. The tarsier goes so far as to accuse Simba (a fully grown lion at this point) of being said carnivorous beast. Throughout the course of the episode, Timon and Pumbaa try to find truth in what he's saying. Finally, near the end of the episode, Timon agrees to go into hiding in a cave with the tarsier, dragging Pumbaa along despite his disbelief in Simba's guilt. When the trio approaches the cave, their "new companion" takes off their disguise (this is a Disney show, such folie is expected) to revile that he has been the predator all along. And what spices is this predator you may be asking? Well, a greyish-white wild dog with yellow eyes! And who do we know that shares these characteristics? Jack Howl that's who! Spoiler for the end; Simba rushes in and saves his two pals, scaring off the double-crosser at the end. In conclusion, Jack may be based on this overlooked yet fascinating antagonist, due to shared family characteristics and appearances.

Ruggie Bucchi

Despite my dismay that there was only one Hyena counterpart (that seems to be a place holder for all three) I was exceedingly fascinated with Ruggie's design. In the lion king franchise, the hyenas are viewed as lawless anarchists with caliginous personalities. However, Ruggie is drawn as a pure ray of sunshine with unhealthy eating habits.  I have absolutely no idea why this is, and in all honesty, I'm not here to discuss Ruggie's features but rather where his name comes from...or so I think. Looking up the name "Ruggie" the only unmissable accounts I could find where from urban dictionary. The sources stated that "Ruggie" was derived from the word rugrat, It fits. But there was one more rationalization I discovered that seemed more just for this character. In the original drafts of the lion king, Scar (along with Zazu and the hyenas) was meant to sing a song concerning his mania towards his newly acquired position as king of the pride lands. This number was to further familiarize the audience with the antagonist. Alas, it never made it into the movie due to certain questionable thoughts flickering inside of Scar's head. The song was however sung in the broadway musical of the lion king. To cut to the chase there was an interesting part sung here.

Scar: "When my name is whispered through the pride this talk of love or regicide?" Shenzi: "Reggie who?"

Note how the spelling of Shenzi's misinterpretation of the word looks an awful lot like how Ruggie's name is written. I feel like Yana Toboso may have used many undisclosed Disney villain facts (songs, books, Easter eggs, etc) as inspiration with her reconstruction of their twisted counterparts. It could make a lot of sense if Ruggie's name came as a wordplay of regicide (the act of killing a king) and could be a reference to the hyena's role in Mufasa's death.

Sliver

With the introduction of the "Great Seven" I came up with a weird though. What if the spinning wheel form sleeping beauty somehow survived the event in the tale. Sometime later Director Crowly could have found it and used some magic to turn it into a boy. Yet Malificant’s sleeping curse still affected the spinning wheel even in human form, concluding as to why Sliver has abnormal sleeping patterns. This is more of a headcanon really but it's all I got for now.

Ortho

This theory is heavily based on canon greek mythology. I'm certain many of you are familiar with the tale of Hades and Persephone. For those of you who aren't, I won't be discussing the tale here since it has may iterations and I'm only interested in a small portion of the end. So feel free to look it up on google. The first spring that Hades had to endure after the departure of his belove Persephone was an intolerable agony for him. To cope with his trouble, the god of the underworld took to daydreaming. His favorite and most vivid thoughts were those of a daughter he wished to have with his wife. He imagined her in such detail that she sort of became a real person (goddess). Her name was Mesperyian, and she was described as being the most astonishing goddess to ever grace the earth. When word of her beauty reached mount Olympus, Aphrodite the actual goddess of love and beauty became enraged -as she does so often-. Aphrodite set to reclaim her title from Hades's daughter. Hearing of Aphrodite's scheme, he prohibited Mesperyian from leaving the underworld kingdom. Yet what Hades neglected to consider was that Mesperyian was half Persephone and thus retained a frenzied need to venture onto the surface world and experience the lavishness of planets, flowers, and overall nature. A considerable amount of time later the young goddess does just that. Once she arrives in a stunning meadow, she notices a gleaming mirror. Picking it she examines herself, Aphrodite having been watching her this whole time quickly sets fire to the mirror. Now understand that Mesperyian may be a goddess in title and does have a power set parallel to her goddess parents, but she was born from a dream thus rendering her physically not an actual goddess. This causes her to lack immunity to things all gods and goddess should naturally be immune to, such as a fire. When the mirror does catch on fire so does Mesperyian scarring her face severely and permanently. Now, this is a greek myth so when someone ends up....unpleasant they seem to quickly develop an "evil" persona. When Mesperyian takes note of how ugly she has become, she opts to become the goddess of punishment and torture, returning to her father's domain and continuously tormenting the souls of Tartarus. So let's tie this to Ortho, shall we? Ortho (in my opinion) is not precisely based off Hades. Despite appearances, there is nothing else tying Ortho to Hades. Yet he does share characteristics with Mesperyian. #1) Both Ortho and Mesperyian were created by some iteration of a lonely individual caught up in their agony and self-pity. For Mesperyian it was Hades and for Ortho it was Idia. #2) Both of them are not exactly what they were thought to be. Mesperyian was thought up to be a goddess, but in truth was not directly divinity. Despite having powers she lacked many key components of being a "real" goddess. Ortho was thought up to be a little brother for Idia, he may have been created to be an enhanced god or human, that however doesn't alter the fact that he is a sentimental robot and neither a "real" boy or god. #3) Mesperyian was based off Persephone (and slightly Hades). There is no direct evidence the Ortho was based on Idia's real brother or just another person in his life. But it is very likely that all the other theories out there might hold some truth. That could explain why Ortho does bear resemblance to Idia since at one point the "real" Ortho was Idia's flesh and blood (or whatever Idia's made of) so they would have shared genetics. This would tie up this theory.

If you guys have any theories I would love to hear them in the comments!

[thehistoricalgods]

Demeter: More Than Just An Overbearing Mother

So, I don't know what's up with this new trend of Demeter being portrayed as an overbearing, overprotective helicopter mom, and nothing else. I suppose in a way I see how it happened—the rape of Persephone is one of the more pervasive myths that essentially everybody knows, and with more modern retellings, they like to cast Demeter as the bad guy, rather than acknowledging ancient Greece was a different culture, that myths aren't meant to be taken entirely seriously—that though they tell us a lot, they're primary purpose was worship and entertainment—and that there's no real "bad guy" to this story. And because it's a more popular myth, not much else is attributed to Demeter.

So this is going to be a really long post, debunking the popular beliefs about Demeter, and sort of bringing more of her actual character to light, with a special focus on the abduction of Persephone, as the modern world is really, ah, let's say ignorant, to the actual connotations of that story.

Demeter was an agricultural goddess, associated with grain and bread, which was a staple food for the ancient Greeks. She was also, by contrast, the goddess of starvation and hunger. So she could bless your drops to flourish, or your crops would fail and hunger would quickly follow. Because of this alone, she was majorly important to the Greeks, but it also wasn't her only role. Like many gods, Demeter was very multifaceted and held many different roles throughout Greek society.

Perhaps less importantly, due to the nature of wheat in ancient societies, Demeter also presided over fruits and vegetables, with only some exceptions. Olives, as those were Athena's; grapes, as Dionysos already presided over those; pomegranates, as those were sort of her daughter's thing; and beans, which for whatever reason, was seen as impure by the Greeks. She also had some association with flowers, especially with the fruit-bearing variety, but not enough for me to say that it's her "domain."

Porridge, another staple food, was also something she had dominion over, and it was used ritually in her Mysteries and cults across Greece.

Thoughout Greece, Demeter had been worshipped as "Law-Giver," or Thesmophoros, was regarded as the goddess who instructed mankind in law.

She also came to be associated with the Afterlife, as she apparently had taught the Mysteries how to get a good deal on the Afterlife through worship and rites. It's unknown what those rites were, but in case you're curious, I'll give you some advice—don't disrespect Persephone, ever.

Either way, Demeter was majorly important to the Greeks, who saw her as a stern, doughty woman, mature, but still quite beautiful, of course.

So, that's all well and good, but you probably already knew Demeter was an agricultural goddess, often associated and appropriated to Isis, and you haven't really learned anything to contradict your opinion of her, except that she was actually one of the most important goddesses there were.

So let's talk about her mythos and her personality for a bit. Who was Demeter, exactly?

She was among the six children of Kronos and Rhea, and is the second oldest child. After being released from Kronos, she was mostly fostered in by Okeanos and Tethys, along with Hera.

During the war of the giants, she most likely either bore a golden sword and a shield, which was an epithet of hers—the Lady of the Golden Sword—or a torch and spear. Either way, she was an active participant in the war against the giants.

So...the abduction of Persephone, her daughter. First, you need some background. And not just some, but a lot, because setting the stage is sort of important here.

So, before Persephone was born, or even conceived, according to most myth, Demeter was being pursued by Zeus. She transformed into a snake to hide, but that didn't work so well. So, that was Persephone's conception story. Not so fun.

Because of this, Demeter sort of wanted to protect her daughter, because the gods were very ravenous, to say the least. And she was right—in some myths, both Apollo and Hermes asked for Persephone's hand, which Demeter outright refused. However, there's not a ton of information on Persephone as a young goddess, so there's not a ton to go off of. We know Demeter trusted her around her sisters, Athena and Artemis, otherwise known as two-thirds of the maiden goddesses, and nymphs.

But, again, we don't know a lot of Persephone's childhood, or how Demeter mothered her. We just knew, that when Persephone was kidnapped, she was gathering flowers with Athena and Artemis. Only some myths say she was hidden away from other gods. It appears the really wasn't though, just that Demeter wasn't too keen on her getting married.

So Persephone's taken to the Underworld. Now what?

Well, firstly, Demeter had no idea what had happened to Persephone. The only people to witness her kidnapping, was Helios and Hekate. So when Demeter came to find her gone, she tore off her cloak and her head-covering, as was pretty customary for grieving in the ancient times, and immediately went looking for her. No one told her the truth of what happened, I imagine because they were afraid of her wrath, as Demeter was known to be a wrathful goddess in general. So for around ten days, she went searching for Persephone, and on the tenth, Hekate pointed her to Helios, who saw everything. We also learn here that seasons already existed and that Demeter was responsible for changing them.

Anyway, Helios told her what happened and that's when Demeter exiled herself, feeling incredibly betrayed and angry with Zeus, and completely grief-stricken.

Not because she thought Hades was unfitting or because she wasn't ready to let Persephone go—because no one, god or otherwise, except Hermes, could travel between realms, at the time, and Zeus had given Hades permission, which meant the marriage was valid, but Greek standards at the time, so there was no reason to get her. Essentially, Persephone died and Demeter would never see her beloved daughter again.

She became an old woman, and sat next to a well in Eleusis, and greived. When asked, she told people she came from Crete and had been kidnapped by pirates. Eventually, she became a nanny of sorts, caring for the King of Eleusis's son, as if he were her own, and fed him ambrosia and necter, in order to make him immortal. Long story short, it didn't work out because the mother ruined her process, and so, enraged, she left, but not before revealing her true form and cursing the woman.

The obvious message here is, she was trying to replace Persephone with a new child, to fill that void in her heart.

She continued to hide away in her temple in Eleusis for one year, causing a huge famine and many mortals would strange to death in this time, before Zeus sent Iris to go talk to Demeter. She told Iris she wouldn't do anything until she could see Persephone with her own two eyes.

So Hermes goes to get her, and she returns, though only after Hades promised she could return to the Underworld and be his queen, mind you.

It was decided she'd stay for one half of the year in the Underworld, fall and winter, and then in summer and spring with her mother.

(Also during her search for Persephone, she was pursued by Poseidon. That's not super important, but just so you know.)

In case it wasn't obvious, the whole myth is an allegory for a grieving mother after losing her child—not even just to death, though that's the more relevant take away in modern times, but in marriage, because a daughter essentially left her family when she got a husband, unless she was divorced. It's got three sides sides, that myth—a mother-daughter story, for Persephone, a coming-of-age and for Hades, a love story.

Obviously, there's a whole lot more about Demeter that I implore you to read, because she's honestly a really interesting goddess, but yeah. Here's my short summary of why she's more than an overbearing mom and why that interpretation really isn't all that accurate and why she deserves better.

[illegiblewords]

Recent Shadowbringers story has me speculating a bit on Convocation of the Fourteen relative to mythology and I think I got stuff.

Heads up this spoils like crazy.

IIRC it got confirmed that the Convocation members got Greek names, although I don’t remember if they were all named for the pantheon or not.

But since Hades gets referred to using abilities known as Titanomachy in particular I’m gonna lean hard toward YES.

Who is which god though? What’s even happening? I have a few ideas and in order to explore ‘em a bit will list the names and details that strike me as particularly important. A point of note though, Hades is not an Olympian within mythology. One of the original gods born of Rhea and Cronos yes, but he literally drew the short stick that said “congrats you get to live alone among the dead have fun”.

Zeus: Youngest of six siblings born to Rhea and Cronos. Drew lots with Poseidon and Hades, wound up getting dominion over the sky as king of the gods. Had loads and loads of sex. Strongly affiliated with lightning.

Hera: Hands down has the title of pissiest of the gods, which is fuckin’ saying something. This is like 98% because she’s the goddess of marriage, childbirth, women, family, and fidelity while being married to Zeus the fuckhead. Youngest daughter of the six siblings born to Rhea and Cronos. Associated with the peacock. Commonly transformed her husband’s lovers into animals and IIRC had some ties to storms but I might be misremembering. Also notable for having given birth to Ares with Zeus legitimately (who no one likes except Aphrodite) and Hephaestus alone. She threw Hephaestus down the side of a mountain because he came out ugly iirc.

Poseidon: God of the seas, water, storms, earthquakes, and horses. Middle son of the six siblings born to Rhea and Cronos, when he drew straws with Zeus and Hades he got dominion over the oceans.

Demeter: Goddess of the harvest, fertility, motherhood, agriculture, nature, and the seasons. Middle daughter of the six siblings born to Rhea and Cronos. Hades abducted and married her daughter Persephone and she got next level pissed about it, made the world cold and barren (winter) until Persephone was returned.

Athena: Born from Zeus and Metis, confirmed more powerful than Zeus. Metis had a prophecy where any child she bore would be more powerful than the father, so of course Zeus had to stick his dick in that. Later became filled with regret and fear when it turned out Metis was pregnant, turned her into a fly and ate her. Fast forward a bit and Metis gives birth to Athena inside of Zeus, and Athena explodes fully formed and adult complete with armor out of Zeus’ head. Athena has some duality with Ares as they’re both war gods and both technically born from Zeus. Athena is goddess of wisdom, handicraft (like weaving), and strategic warfare. Virgin goddess.

Apollo: God of the sun/light and the arts, also certain kinds of performance including music, poetry, philosophy. Notable in that his golden arrows were not nearly so painful as the silver ones favored by Artemis. Twins with Artemis. Also majorly known for being associated with both plague and healing as well as prophecy. Prophecy comes up in particular through the Oracle of Delphi. Notably the reason to Dionysus’ madness in some philosophy.

Artemis: Goddess of the hunt, twins with Apollo, uses silver arrows that hurt like a motherfucker compared to the golden ones her brother favors. A virgin goddess associated with the moon, wilderness, childbirth, protection, and plague. Worth noting she could be super super pissy and did in fact turn a man into a deer to be mauled to death and eaten by his own hounds because he accidentally caught her bathing.

Ares: God of war as in slaughter and bloodlust, also of violence and “manly virtues” as in his dick r big. Has weird sibling energy with Athena because they represent dramatically different aspects of war. Only loved by Aphrodite, literally no one else likes him.

Aphrodite: Goddess of love and beauty and fucking, top tier manipulator, also affiliated with pleasure, passion, fertility, and desire. Married to Hephaestus but not at all happy about it, has a pretty open affair with Ares. Sometimes she’s a daughter of Zeus but usually she was born from the universe’s castrated dick being thrown into the ocean and making a ton of sea foam which became her.

Hephaestus: Smith of the gods, master craftsman and god of the forge. Also associated with invention, fire, and volcanos. Didn’t really cheat on Aphrodite despite her cheating on him hard. Was rejected by his mother Hera for being too ugly and was literally crippled by her.

Hermes: Messenger of the gods, a trickster, god of travelers and athletes, guide to the dead, has fucking WILD cults dedicated to him to this day including fucktons of alchemists and just Hermeticism as a whole. In other words also the god of new age and magicK. Not magic, emphasis on the k because that’s what the modern magicians in their funny hats do when they’re feeling edgy.

Hestia: Eldest of six siblings born to Rhea and Cronos. Goddess of the hearth, being fire and the home. Has probably the least amount of drama out of all the gods ever, and while that isn’t necessarily saying a lot she seriously had no drama. Possibly relinquished her seat among the Olympians to Dionysus in some stories. Was notably a virgin and had a major following of priestesses in Rome consisting of the Vestal Virgins.

Dionysus: If there is a god of chaos and insanity besides Eris it is him. God of drunks and performance and opulence/excess/parties, notably has a philosophical contrast with Apollo as the madness to his reason. Top hedonist. Has a group of violently crazy women who worship him called the Bacchantes. Do not understate violently crazy bit they have torn people to shred with their bare hands.

Hades: We know this is Emet-Selch already and have more lore on how he visualizes souls/the Lifestream (interesting term given rivers of the dead in Greek myth, though not exclusive concept to Greek myth)/the Underworld. Eldest son of the six siblings born to Rhea and Cronos, though he is younger than Hestia.

Another point of note--there are, classically, TWELVE Olympian gods and then Hades. Why then one extra and how suspicious is that with our Convocation of 14?

Normally, like I mentioned Hestia is an original member who essentially gives her seat up for Dionysus. But she’s also a much quieter goddess within mythological stories, so while she could be included it’s also possible that another god or goddess is being used to reach fourteen.

First, I’m gonna go on a limb here and say I think Lahabrea is either Apollo or Ares, but leaning heavily toward Apollo. The orator thing fits, his role within being crazy good/productive in creating concepts makes some sense (I mentioned possibly Ares because he has an affinity for certain weapons too which makes me squint), and with how much the Ascians have referenced things being foretold or prophesized at least one of them is required to have ties with that ability. Additionally, Apollo being tied to plague when there the Terminus event going on and people are speculating that creation magics had something to do with the cause has me unbelievably suspicious.

I am also going to say that I think it’s possible Elidibus is Hermes. Emissary-->Messenger as well as having a pattern of being a trickster or liar makes a lot of sense. Also interesting in that one of his other functions is as psychopomp, or escort of the dead. I wouldn’t be shocked if he was the one responsible for raising new sundered Ascians.

I also think that if Lahabrea is Apollo, Igeyorhm might really be Artemis for that twin thing + their Ascian Prime misadventure. The impulsivity makes a bit of sense for her too, as does the fact that she fucked up the entire thirteenth shard while being tied to plague. If I thought Lahabrea was Hermes I’d have pitched Igeyorhm as Aphrodite purely because it’s myth canon they made a hermaphroditic child together one time, but I don’t think that makes as much sense.

I don’t think the game is putting as much emphasis on the three kings setup for Ascians with Zeus/Poseidon/Hades because Lahabrea and Elidibus don’t really fit into the roles of Zeus or Poseidon either of them. FFXIV associates lightning with judgment in a cool way but it gets stressed really hard that Elidibus is just supposed to be an Emissary and Lahabrea has other gods he fits with better. I honestly think the ones who remained unsundered just happened to be the ones who got missed rather than that particular trio.

On WoL, there are plenty of fans having fun speculating that WoL is Persephone in the name of shipping lol. It’s maaaaaaaaybe possible because she’s goddess of spring, renewal, rebirth, nature, and the underworld. And she also goes back and forth between spending time with Hades and spending time with her mother. So that whole MIA thing might work.

Halmarut being all about plants I’ll bet 100% is Demeter. No one else makes sense.

Nabriales if he does use lightning like I remember might be Zeus, which explains his attempted sleaziness a bit and his inferiority complex being one of the sundered. But I’m a bit doubtful because he seems like he has too big of an ego to have potentially been in charge of Amaurot at any point ever. His personality and eagerness to fight remind me more of Ares. Also no one likes him lol. Dionysus strikes me as most likely overall because it would explain him being pissed at being under Lahabrea as well as his whole attitude.

Mitron is Poseidon. Cannot be anyone else, he is all about oceans and fishes. Strongest case for Elidibus and Lahabrea not being tied to the other two kings--Mitron literally cannot be anyone but Poseidon.

Who is WoL though?

Currently my big guesses are Dionysus if Nabriales isn’t (as a foil to Lahabrea-Apollo), Zeus (mightiest of the gods, lightning of judgment and huge badass), Persephone (the creation and underworld thing is neat and who even knows), maaaaaaaaaaybe Hestia because of the primordial light/fire bit, being oldest, and just not being about the drama.

I know basically nothing about Altima besides her being there but would be more inclined to figure her for Athena than any other goddess purely because SE seems to be going with matching gender stuff and with a name like Altima I’m doubtful about other goddesses fitting better. Hera is the only one beside Athena who could maybe own that.

If anyone else has knowledge/notes on Ascians and can chime in on what seems fitting feel free!

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

so what are y’all’s favorite tropes and character archetypes and also pet peeves and most hated clichés when it comes to arranged marriage stories?

favourite tropes

when the person that the mc is married to is rumoured to be this tyrant esque shit, but ends up being as the mc gets to know them come to find out that they're partner is an absolute sweetheart.

when both are little shits to each other, but as they end up spending time together and slowly learn to love each other slow burn style.

childhood rivals put in an arranged marriage end up slowly falling in love with each other during it and seeing as well as acknowledging each others flaws. most of the time it's done like shit though, so i only like it when done right.

favourite character tropes

cold and ruthless mc who slowly gets their walls broken down by the love interest.

obnoxious little shit mc that has a personality and is not a mary/gary stue.

smart, cunning mc x himbo li.

hated clichés

any persephone and hades retellings. idk i just really don't like them, specially when they don't address the incest issue or change the myth in a way that addresses the incest issue within the story because aren't they cousins or hades is Persephone uncle? idk maybe im wrong but yeah i still don't like them, I just find that most authors don't do anything new with the myth, they just keep retelling the same story over and over and add smut to make up for the lack of actual depth of their story.

when the mc is a useless little bitch with no depth to them and who are not like other girls. And I don't mean learning how to fight because fighting doesn't give depth to a character, I mean them being resourceful in some way, whether it's intelligence, stealth, street smarts, sharp wit or maybe they're just a himbo with brute force who destroys everything in their path idk, but I hate it when the protagonist is just reactive for the majority of the story and doesn't do anything apart from reacting to what is happening, and we get told how great they are, but they actually never show it in the book. like just no. like pack it besties there's alrady a thousand carbon copies of these we don't need anymore. *not pointing fingers* *proceeds to look at sjm and most female mc's in ya/na*

any ml that has the same personality of any of sjm's mls. i just cannot. when the book with arranged marriage trope gets reccomdended as perfect for fans of acotar i will not read it, idc how interesting it sounds.

well this turned out longer than expected, pardon my long rant, but i hope some of it helps. 💗

i am attempting to write (emphasis on the word attempt lol) an urban Sci-Fi fantasy IF about people with psychic abilities and this is just a fun project for me, so i was wondering if you had any favourite tropes/character archetypes/hated clichés in general when it comes to interactive fiction games. i'm kind of new to the whole thing so i would love to hear your thoughts.

Reasonable takes and tastes all around!

Will have to disagree with you on the H/P retellings though, I do agree that there aren't a lot of good ones, but I'd be a hypocrite to disparage the entire idea of a retelling of that myth because I'm writing one :') I do think that people tend to fetishize the kidnapping/authority figure part and the goth daddy/flower little girl shit, which I absolutely despise and don't plan to include in my retelling for obvious reasons. I'm more about them being a goth power couple, about the actual seasons and the main point of the myth (explaining how the seasons came to be), making Persephone into a terrifying and morally ambiguous protag, and also making Demeter into a badass Mama Bear.