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evilios · 11 months

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Thargelia (θαργήλια) is an Athenian and Ionian festival celebrated in the city of Athens and on the isle of Delos on the 6th and 7th of month Thargelion, which corresponds with late May. This year, Thargelia falls onto the 26th and 27th days of the month.

Traditionally thought to celebrate the birth of Artemis and Apollo Patroos, or, in some versions, venerate Helios and the Horae, this festival is a two-day long celebratory occasion focused on a cult sacrifice, rich offering, and devotional games given to the Gods in hopes of appeasing Them.

Thargelia, like many other celebrations of the Ancient times, is an agricultural festival. At the beginning of this celebration, Demeter was praised by the people, and the name of the festival itself, Thargelia, according to grammarians, translates into “fruits/grains of the earth”: Θαργήλια εισί πάντες οι από γης καρποί.

The specific harvest given attention to during this celebration was that of the first fruits of the earth, symbolically connected to the heat of the sun. Due to the connection between Demeter’s celebration and that of the Twins, it was customary to annually send an offering of fresh corn to Delos.

The festival of Thargelia has ritualistic sacrifice of two individuals as its nucleus. The individuals, called pharmakoi (φαρμακοὶ) are sometimes said to be picked from the “ugliest and vilest” of the citizens, as to associate with all that is negative, unhealthy, and plague-ridden. After an extensive ritual, the pharmakoi would be either driven out of the city or, if the festival happened to fall onto a plague year, thrown into the sea or burned alive.

There are two possible origins of that tradition. According to Istrus, there was a man named Φάρμακος who had stolen the sacred vials of Apollo and was later discovered by Achilles’ men. He was, allegedly, stoned to death for the theft, and the sacrifice of Thargelia is meant to commemorate that happening.

According to Helladius, expiatory (made to offer atonement) offerings were a common custom of offering to the Deities in order to purify the city of diseases, such as plagues. Epimenides, for example, attested a different pair of sacrificial youths, Cratinus and Ctesibius, who were allegedly put to death to stop the plague that overtook the Athenian army earlier.

The origins of Thargelia are as Ancient and unclear as the origins of the ritual sacrifice given to the Twins during the celebration. We can only assume that this is a very old festival celebrated with the aim of both asking the Divine for rich harvest of ripe fruits - and safety during the times of contagious diseases.

The ritual of Thargelia starts on the 6th with an offering of a sheep to Demeter Chloe (Δημήτηρ Χλόη) followed by a large purifying sacrifice when two people are put to death or exiled.

The rites of this particular ritual are definitely old, as all human sacrifice goes deep back into the earliest civilizations of the world. One of the pharmakoi (sometimes called σύβακχοι), sacrificial humans, was to represent the women of Athens, the other - the men. They were either both men or a man and a woman, as accounts differ. According to the Ancient writers, on the day of the sacrifice these two, picked from the most unpleasant parts of the society, were led to the temples of Apollo Patroos, Apollo Delphinius, and Apollo Pythius, and then - towards the seaside, followed by a flute melody called κραδίης νόμος.

The pharmakoi were richly dressed in garlands of black and white figs, and as they walked through the city they were whipped with rods made out of fig-wood; some account that the citizens would throw objects at them. They were given honey cakes, cheese, and figs before being burned on a ritualistic funeral pile made of fig-wood. Their ashes were scattered to the winds or thrown into the sea. Some writers state they were thrown into the sea alive while some argue that they were in fact exiled to never return.

Is it possible that an actual sacrifice only took place in the years of calamity where appeasing the Gods with a bloody offering was necessary. It’s hard to say who the pharmakoi were: some say convicted criminals, some call them τὸν πάντων ἀμορφότερον (the ugliest), some say they were φαύλους καὶ παρὰ τῆς φύσεως ἐπιβουλευομένους (or simply physically deformed).

The second day of the festival was meant to be devoted to offerings of thanks given to the Sun God, that is, Apollo or Helios. Children took part in the celebration, carrying εἰρεσιῶναι - olive branches wrapped in wool that were hung up before the doors of houses. One of the best sources on the occasion, Porphyrius, lists a large number of offerings given to the Gods on that day, including ἰλύς - moist soil from which all is born.

A choral procession of men and boys (agon) performed solemnly during the second day of the celebration. This supposedly involved some sort of competitive air to it, as two masters of chorus were given two different tribes, which they were then to supply a chorus from. Whoever succeeded was given a tripod meant to be dedicated at the temple of Apollo. Chorus of women and young girls was also present.

Adoptive parents could properly register their children into the gens and phatria during Thargelia.

Solemn sacrifice was not the only focus of the festival, as it also included the so-called Delia (δήλια), which is the name of festivals and games held at the great panegyrics at the island of Delos. Initially it seems that there was a religious center formed around Delos for the sole purpose of worshiping and securing the worship of Apollo, θεὸς πατρῷος (Father-God) of Ionians. The Delia were held every five years and were supposedly happening during the birth of Artemis and Apollo.

This celebration included gymnastic and musical contests, choruses, and dances. Men, women, and children participated in the festival in equal measure, and the members of the religious assembly of Delos and neighboring islands were welcome. Athenians took part in the celebration from the very early times, as suggested by historical records; they also sent out a “sacred vessel” (θεωρίς) to Delos annually, claiming it was the same as legendary Theseus sent out after returning from Crete. These celebrations were stopped at some point, having been reignited by Athens later on. After Athens took control over the Ionian confederacy, the leader of the Delia became a picked Athenian, and the superintendence of Athenians at the local sanctuary became prominent.

Sources and further reading: 🌞 🌞 🌞 🌞 🌞 🌞 🌞 🌞 🌞

#FESTIVAL : THARGELIA 🌞#greek mythology #delos #thargelia #apollo #artemis #demeter #Sort of demeter deity

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tsarinatorment · 3 months

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okay so-

on the discord i was scrolling through past convos in a desperate search for a link that i've seen before, and i came across another one of your and fsinger's aus starring Michael👀

It was like a Kronos Wins/Time-Travels AU where Michael, Thalia, Bianca, Nico, and Hazel are the MCs and I was like !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and then when the first main plotpoint was basically Michael going "SAVE MY DAD" my FIRST thought was that one Puss In Boots: The Last Wish scene;

Michael, about Apollo: I will save you!

Every other god, suffering in Tartarus: Save us too!

Michael: ...if it's convenient!

like. gnawing on this au rn. i gnaw on all of your aus. this one and the Lee Lives/Apollo Becomes Mortal/BotL Au are officially my favs (Eclipse at this point is basically canon to me lol)

but yeah. I know this au has a BUNCH of beloved characters die, which would have admittedly upset me like, three years ago, but now?

now i merely eagerly rub my hands as my brain imagines how this scenario goes down eheheehhe

Ah yes, this AU! Not one I've thought about in a while, but still a fun one!

Fun fact, for you if you missed the origin of it, and also for anyone else who might be reading this and hearing about this AU for the first time - this is an AU spinoff of my AU fic Tears Will Not Wash Away Your Crimes, where defeated!Kronos from canon timetravels back to the start of TLT to take Michael out before he could become the threat that saves Olympus (see: my long rants on how by being the one to realise Williamsburg Bridge needed to break, Michael stopped Kronos winning on the first day of the siege). In that fic, he succeeds in making Luke kill Michael, and while the fic never goes on to state it, it does become an alternate timeline where Kronos does, in fact, win (due to various factors such as Luke's betrayal not being discovered because Percy wasn't there to survive being poisoned and reveal that he was the traitor, etc. and also Kronos knowing how the demigods/gods operated and basically having the cheat code of being able to squash anything they try before they try it).

But also I am a perpetual Michael!lives fan, so with the enabling of @fearlessinger, as you mentioned, another AU spawned off of this, whereby when Luke carelessly mentioned Apollo by name, he caught Apollo's attention and the god himself turned up to whisk Michael away to safety. In the end, though, it doesn't stop Kronos from winning, because no-one knows enough to trump what Kronos knows. Hence, Kronos wins!AU.

But then!

There are some key changes that go down because of Kronos' prior knowledge... Change #1: Thalia is not restored by the Golden Fleece. Kronos did this because he wanted her as his host, but he tried that last time and it failed - he won't try again. Change #2: The di Angelos do not leave the Lotus Casino. No Thalia in the running suggests that Hades may not have bothered to pull his own children back into the prophecy race - if he really wanted them to be feasible as prophecy children, he'd have brought them out when Percy was claimed, as that would make Bianca a similar age to Percy and therefore viable as an alternative. Bringing them out a year or two later makes his kids younger than both Thalia and Percy and doesn't actually make sense, unless it was a response to being the only Big Three god with no kids involved... Change #3: Daedalus doesn't die, because Nico isn't around Change #4: All our Greek Hero demigods (and the Hunters) are dead, barring the above, and Michael, who was kept safe on Delos the whole time.

And these changes all line up quite neatly into a ridiculously large plot, based on the following consequences:

Consequence #1: the gods are thrown down into Tartarus Consequence #2: the triumvirate's deal with Kronos for their support involved getting Apollo as their prize so Caligula can still claim the sun god spot and Commodus gets his revenge. Apollo is passed to them, instead of Tartarus Consequence #3: Michael is rather pissed off about all of this

What happens after that, well. Imagine Michael, no longer trapped on Delos because the twins aren't there, making his way to Delphi. Imagine Phoebe initially reclaiming Delphi, before Kronos realises she was never on her side and instead release Python to reclaim it; Michael has enough time to speak with his grandmother, but only very little before he's forced to flee into the Labyrinth to hide.

Imagine Daedalus trying to atone for all the deaths he's caused by keeping this one demigod still alive, hidden in the Labyrinth while Michael tries to work out how the fuck he's supposed to save the gods, but never even considering not doing it ("the gods", of course, meaning "Apollo, mostly").

Imagine Apollo weakened, but still able to make dream contact. Apollo not being able to dissuade Michael from trying to save him. Apollo with nothing left to lose except his one son he can't protect himself, so he gives Michael knowledge, things to help him stay alive.

Knowledge, like how the daughter of Zeus is a tree but isn't dead, can be healed by that golden fleece (Percy, Annabeth and Grover retrieved it still, but the tree was not sick and so it was never hung upon it). Knowledge, like how there are two more Big Three kids trapped in a place where time doesn't move.

(Imagine Apollo chained up and forced to be his own oracle as his divinity is drained away. Imagine a little girl with sickle-rings on her fingers being drawn to him anyway, this captive god of the Beast. Imagine the god that still wants to save a child, if only he had the chance)

Imagine Michael healing Thalia with the fleece, the pair of them fleeing from the remains of camp (the remains of Michael's home) as Kronos realises he's there. Imagine Michael and Thalia edging into a casino that's too bright, too jovial compared to their broken world, and pulling two younger demigods back into the timestream. Imagine lurking in the Labyrinth, in the Underworld and discovering a dead girl who still remembers when she shouldn't.

Imagine these demigods plotting, scheming, desperate, and the power of three children of the Underworld combined, pooling their powers together until they can go anywhere the shadows touch.

Imagine them rescuing a god, and the little girl coaxed along with them.

And when they've got one god back... it's only a matter of time before they get the rest.

(And when Kronos discovers it's Michael, again, that foiled him in the end... Well. Some Fates can't be denied)

#firealder2005 #michael yew #pjo apollo #thalia grace #bianca di angelo #nico di angelo #hazel levesque #meg mccaffrey #pjo kronos #au #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo #trials of apollo #toa #i will never write this it's entirely too big with too many moving parts #but it's fun to imagine

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cs-oc-blank-random-posts · 3 months

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CARMEN WEEK DAY 5: AU

@jackie-shitposts

BLACK SHEEP LOOKS SO...AAAAAAA MORE INFO AB THIS LORE SWAP AU:

Black Sheep's Lore (in this AU, also not exactly the same as my OC's orig lore, just similar, just so it can fit Black Sheep's character) - has issues with family - her father, Dexter Wolfe, is a crimelord. and Isabella wanted to follow in her Father's footsteps, but Wolfe was ofcourse against this so Isa ended up running away from home to pursue her passion for crime - she was nurtured by a gang of Thieves, one of the thieves secretly being a Seasoned operative looking for recruits, said operative didn't expect to see such amazing Thieving skills from a person as young as 10 years old (yes Black sheep ran away at 10 years old, my oc did in my original AU so yh) - she worked hard just to even be considered by Vile, and was admitted to the school with strings attached (having to go through extra classes due to the fact that she started being a student at Vile academy at the age of 13) Carmen (Blank) Sandiego's Lore (In this AU) - similar to Black Sheep, Blank's Father was a Crime lord/Vile Faculty member - His Father, (Codename: San Felipe Delos Reyes, often called just Reyes) a Vile Faculty member had been planning to leave Vile. and just as stated in the show, No one ever leaves Vile. i think you know the rest - Blank was given his code name because he came to vile as a Blank Slate (the same as the my orig AU)

EXTRA Devineaux: LA FEMME ROUGE! CS!Blank: uh. correction, l'homme en rouge Devinaux: EH?!?!!? THEN WHY IS YOUR NAME CARMEN SANDIEGO CS!Blank: it just is okay?! stfu!

#OC LORE + CANON LORE SWAP #carmen sandiego #carmen sandiego netflix #carmenweek #carmen week #10leon13 #blank #carmen sandiego 2019 #carmen sandeigo 2019 #self insert oc #self insert #art #carmen sandiego blank

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jokeroutsubs · 4 months

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ENG translation: "When I'm on stage, I know that I have to be here and only here"

An interview with Bojan Cvjetićanin in Slovenian newspaper Delo, originally published 31.10.2021.

Original article is available here for Delo subscribers. Original article written by Beti Burger for Delo; photos by Blaž Samec; English translation by a member of Joker Out Subs, native proof reading by IG GBoleyn123.

If you repost quotes from the interview, please link back to this post! And if you repost the photos, do not crop out the photographer credit.

Bojan Cvjetićanin, frontman of Joker Out, says that the success happening to them is not the result of something that happened overnight.

When he's standing on stage, he doesn't know what's actually going on. Even though after the concert, he realises that he was on it, and remembers certain moments, he's actually in a zen-like state: his head is somewhere else, and his brain does what it wants to do. Young, reflective musician Bojan Cvjetićanin believes that he was born to write music and lyrics and sing them on stage. "What I enjoy the most at a concert is when we play a new song from start to finish with the band for the first time and we're 'vibing'."

And if some of the lines above did not have context yet when we talked the day before the first concert, and sort of 'hung in the air', in packed Cvetličarna it was crystal clear what he had wanted to say. They were 'vibing' not only when they played well-known hits - Omamljeno telo, Umazane misli, Vem da greš - but also to new songs from the album, when they felt the strong energy and heard the audience was singing the new songs with them... She'll find herself there, where no one knows her, where the road always carries the smell of fresh rain (...) where pearls are in seashells, not on necklaces (Barve oceana).

Bojan truly, as he said, seems a little distant on stage, as if he's in his own world, but also in contact with the audience at the same time. He is both confident and childishly playful at once, with a wide smile on his face, with the charisma of an experienced frontman. His friend and member of the band, bassist Martin Jurkovič, with whom they started their musical journey as young teenagers already, described him well in an interview as someone who "draws all the attention to himself and the band during a concert". When the band members look at each other during a gig, they recognise each other's exact thoughts, and a kind of perversion of pleasure happens. We witnessed this exact thing at the album presentation.

"On stage, I feel sexy, I feel free and accepted. I'm on autopilot and I'm never thinking about what my next move will be, it's when I'm 'free as a bird' because I am surrounded by friends who know me very well, so I don't have to be ashamed of anything. It's also a good feeling when you know that there is a crowd of people in the hall who came to our concert because they like something that we give them. This mutual accumulation of love and energy is very strong." Are there places where he doesn't feel accepted, I query his words. "I think that we all sometimes find ourselves in a situation when we feel like we don't belong there and we ask ourselves what we're even doing there. When I'm on stage, however, I know that I have to be here and only here."

Bojan Cvjetićanin Born in 1999. Frontman of currently the most in-demand young Slovenian band Joker Out which, with their shagadelic rock'n'roll, a genre they actually invented themselves, sold out Cvetličarna twice last week with their just-released album Umazane misli. Even off-stage, he's the 'joker' in a group, optimistic and talkative and an occasionally childishly playful young man. His lyrics (and music) are mature, sensitive and empathetic. The Ljubljana resident, otherwise a sociology student, has been making music for almost half of his life. Last but not least, a listener can quickly recognise that he actually grew up exactly where he feels the best: on stage.

Tired and sleep deprived, just a few days before the concert in Cvetličarna, which had been postponed (more than once) due to Covid-19 and which seemed like it would never happen, he had a nightmare. He dreamed "that there was one song that we just could not start and we tried again and again". He really had a lot of stage fright before the first concert this year. At the end of April and beginning of May, it still looked like there wouldn't be concerts in the summer, and then everything started to open up. They've never had as many concerts as this summer. "Those concerts hit us like a train, because we were neither mentally nor physically prepared for this many performances. We'd got used to rehearsing all day long and being completely self-sufficient. It was pretty hard before the first sold-out concert in Čin čin in Ljubljana, because the audience's expectations, as well as our own, were high. We performed with a new drummer for the first time, so the tension was even greater. When we stepped on stage, however, an enormous wave of energy that reflected from the audience washed over us, you could feel and see that people had been locked up at home, that they needed to relax, needed concerts."

"In these times, when the internet and media constantly bombard us with so much information, that defines us pretty strongly. So it seems like any kind of thinking for yourself, about anything, is already a dirty thought."

The epidemic was also a time when changes happened in the group, as during the creative process, they realised that not all members of the band have the same creative drive, so in the end, they switched their drummer. Since then, they have significantly changed the way they work. They have created, even if not completely intentionally, a spirit of band co-production, they've become more dependant on each other. They've realised that music demands that they help each other. It's also important that, when they start to grow wings from all the congratulations and praises, they pull each other back to solid ground. In interviews and articles, he is described as "the most recognisable voice of the new generation of Slovenian rock" or as "a rising star" and he feels honoured by those compliments, but in truth, those titles don't really tell him a lot. Hearing that from the people who listen to their music is what means the most to him. He says that it's not the sea of congratulations that caresses your ego, but rather certain moments and situations when you actually feel strong and in your own skin. "In the moment when the light shines on you on the stage, the feelings are indescribable, you feel like a god. That's the 'awesome' thing, not when someone tells you that you're a god." He adds that he thinks he's still the same Bojan he was years ago, when all those congratulations and titles didn't exist yet.

"The bassist Martin and I have been making music for almost half of our lives and I think that with time, we've managed to work through everything that happens during the evolution of a band. Our current success didn't come overnight, it is the result of a long period of work." The pivotal year for Joker Out was 2017, when it first started looking like this band could truly become 'something'. "From the start, you want it to be something more, but it's usually just a distant wish, like Cvetličarna used to be." Back then, however, after the single Omamljeno telo, all the positive response gave them the feeling that everything was being taken to a higher level. And there were several of those levels, they have jumped over many of them. "If I look at the situation objectively, it seems crazy to me that we sold out Cvetka (Cvetličarna, a.n.) twice with three singles." As he says, however, nothing that they do in the band is left up to chance. "Very early on, we put our heads together and had an in-depth discussion, first of all about our relationships with one another, and then about our duties, and we promised each other that we would never be afraid to tell each other what we wanted. When we determined our wishes, we turned them into goals, which we are now achieving." In his words, something that definitely contributes to their success is that they're surrounded by people who love what they do. "Now we work as a team, and if a team works well, it can't miss." In the future they want to release another album, and they're also drawn beyond the borders of Slovenia, to the Balkans.

As a band, they want to give people the things that drive them as artists - currently the prevailing theme in their lyrics is love, but also self-reflection and musings. These are very general, many songs talk about how young people sometimes feel constricted or lost and are looking for their place in the world. "We're currently not interested in politics and we don't plan to define ourselves politically one way or another, although our songs do feature some messages about society. We think that our job is to spread love and that people can, based also on our lyrics, come up with their own political opinion, without our imposition," he says.

And when I challenged him to use one of their songs to describe his current feeling before the concert (adrenaline, fear, uncertainty, expectations), he said that "there's a butterfly in my head that's just swimming through a weird universe. It feels like people around me are buzzing and not actually talking." Metulji ('Butterflies') is actually his favourite song. He wrote it at the same time as Omamljeno telo and it already meant a lot to him back then. He wanted to hear a recording of it, but today he says that he's happy that they recorded it later, because back then it wouldn't have been anything like it is today. "Now, the song is exactly as we imagined it back then, but didn't know how to embody it."

As the singer, Bojan Cvjetićanin is also the most recognisable and exposed member of the band. On the Slovenian scene, his role models are (were), among others, Tomi Meglič from Siddharta and Gregor Skočir, the singer of the band Big Foot Mama - "today I can already call them friends, they feel respect for us, as we do for them and for both bands. They come to our concerts, we hang out in private. Even though some people say that you shouldn't meet your idols, because then everything falls apart, now that I know Tomi and know who the person who made all that music is, I like listening to it even more." Among foreign frontmen, his favourite is Liam Gallagher, who became famous with the band Oasis. He was actually his inspiration for keeping his hands crossed behind his back while singing on stage. "I had a period of that 'Liam pose'... I didn't know what to do with my hands on stage, and when I put them behind my back once, it seemed like a good trick. Today, I grab the guitar more and more on stage, so I don't have an issue with what to do with my hands anymore. (smile)." What, then, are the key characteristics of a good frontman? "He has to be honest, genuine. There are many types of lead singers, Mick Jagger, for example, gives himself away completely, goes crazy and dances, while some others stand still constantly, but they both completely enchant you." He doesn't think about this too much, he simply exists on stage.

While some musicians, actors, or other performers are completely different, introverted, in their private lives and in the backstage, Bojan is generally very talkative and smiley. "Even as a little kid, as others have told me, I talked all the time, I wanted to socialise, with older people too, so it seems like I really never had issues with making connections. Now it's actually the same, there are just more people in front of the stage." At Poljane High School, which, as he has stressed many times, shaped him a lot as a person, he performed in a theatre group, so he already experienced the stage in the role of an actor, later he was on TV in the role of a host. These days, he still often says, half-laughing, that - if music won't be what he earns a living with - he'd like to be a sociology professor at Poljane. "But I heard they just got a new one, so I don't know how realistic the chances are."

But for now, he doesn't have to do anything other than make music. Bojan Cvjetićanin is also the author of the lyrics of most of the songs, in which, as he said, he's a kind of medium who conveys others' pain. While he did say not long ago that as a songwriter, he sometimes lacks unhappy emotions and that he doesn't know the pain of a broken heart, it's different now. "I got my dose of inspiration for quite some time..." He says that when making songs, it's almost always the music that comes first, and then the lyrics. "Most often, I take the guitar, lately I also sit at the piano, and I try to find the chords that sound interesting to me in that moment, and then I also sing along. Usually, associations form in my head and it feels like it suddenly becomes clear to me what the lyrics will be, sometimes I "accidentally" sing some lines that end up staying in the song and define what I will talk about." The lyrics are mostly, as mentioned, about love and self-reflection, but there are also a few slightly different ones among them. Aleppo, the duet with Omar Naber, who has been by his side from the beginning and helped him record demos, was created differently. The song, which talks about the city Aleppo in Syria, which is ravaged by war, was created when, in a TV report about what was happening there, he saw a young girl that inspired him. Then, he immediately started writing.

As someone who is sensitive to feeling other people's pain, does he ever fear that he could lose this empathy in the rather apathetic world we live in? "Just last year, there was a moment when I thought that I was completely alienated from myself, and I felt like I was never going to fall in love again. For a while, nothing excited me, I thought I had gone numb, but then something suddenly changed, I just waited for that natural 'click'." When songs become evergreen, hits that everyone sings and that connect generations, is it also important how much empathy the lyricists have?

"Absolutely. You have to have enough empathy to be honest with yourself. If you're honest, some people will connect very strongly with your lyrics. Nowadays, so many songs in the musical world are written just to be written. Not because they carry a real story within. And you can really feel that. It's that easy."

If you repost quotes from the interview, please link back to this post! And if you repost the photos, do not crop out the photographer credit.

#bojan cvjeticanin #bojan cvjetićanin #joker out

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marvelmusing · 11 months

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Take Your Pick

Pairing: Shapeshifter x Fem!Reader (featuring Billy Russo, Aleksander Morozova, William Thurber, Logan Delos, Benjamin Greene, Caspian).

Summary: Your boyfriend has a very interesting ability, and every character he can shift into has a special place in your heart. But which one do you want to spend the night with?

Warnings [18+]: alludes to smut, slightly suggestive.

A/N: a tiny little drabble, don’t ask me what this is because I have no idea but I liked the vibes.

My Masterlist

»»---------------------►

“I can be anything you want me to be.”

“I just want you,” you say shyly, looking down at your lap.

“Oh really?” His voice is coy, a low purr of faux consideration as the hint of a smirk tugs at his lips. He leans closer, practically caging you to the couch with his arms on either side of you.

His mouth grazes over your pulse and your eyes flutter shut as he mouths confidently over your neck, a grin blooming over his face.

“You don’t want me?”

A New York twang has entered his voice and when you look down to meet his eyes a shiver runs through your body at the almost predatory glint there.

“Hi Billy.”

“Hello darlin.”

He leans forwards capturing your lips in a determined kiss. His grip is tight on your chin and you can sense the moment he shifts into Aleksander as his hand releases your chin to cradle your cheek with the entirety of his palm.

His body presses firmly against yours and the two of you cling to one another as he furthers the kiss.

“Sasha,” you breathe out in a soft whine. “Please.”

He chuckles darkly.

“Moya milaya, always so eager.”

His hands settle on your waist, keeping you close as he unbuttons your blouse. Ducking his head down, he begins to kiss over your collarbones, leaving gentle bites over the skin there, nuzzling at the hollow of your throat.

When his lips begin to lower themselves down towards your breasts, and the prickle of Aleksander’s facial hair becomes a soft scrape of closely shaven stubble and a neat moustache, you thread your hand through the salt and pepper strands of hair on his head.

“William,” you gasp.

His mouth closes over your clothed nipple, tongue rolling over the nub hidden beneath the fabric of your bra. Warm brown eyes flick up to meet yours, an admiring and adoring softness filling his gaze.

He lowers his head back down, nosing over the edge of your underwear. His hair darkens to Billy’s slicked back locks and he bites down into the material keeping him from exposing your breasts.

As you tug on his hair, a low groan rumbles in his chest and with a wicked grin Logan reaches behind your back to unclasp your bra with practiced ease. He gropes at your breasts eagerly, large hands grasping at your soft skin and sensitive nipples.

“Which one of us would you like to take you?” Aleksander rasps against your ear. He nuzzles his way down your neck, mouth drifting back up to your other ear.

“It’s me, isn’t it?” Logan goads, tugging on your hardened nipples.

A whimper catches in your throat at the thought of having to choose one of them. He hums quietly, biting down on your earlobe, tongue soothing the sting there. He grasps at your breasts, returning to your other ear as he shifts again.

“It’s definitely me,” Billy states with a confident smirk. “Right, darlin?”

He leans down to kiss your lips and you instantly know that it’s Benjamin. He kisses with the same vigour as Aleksander but he’s much more vocal in his enjoyment, a small whimper catching in his throat as he cups your face intently.

Both of you are breathless, chests heaving as he nuzzles his forehead against yours with a bright smile on his face. There’s a tiny scrunch at his nose and you can’t suppress the urge to kiss it gently which makes him blush.

“Hi Benji.”

“Hello love.”

Breathing out a soft laugh, you tilt your head at him.

“Are there any other contenders for me to consider tonight?”

He laughs softly, the corners of his eyes creasing adorably as he does. Then he kisses you.

As soon as his thumb begins to stroke over your cheek while you kiss, you realise he’s shifted into Caspian. His kiss lingers, sucking lightly on your lower lip as you part from one another.

Threading your hands through his long hair, you breathe out a soft smile as he brushes his nose affectionately against yours. As your hands continue to play with his hair, twirling the soft strands between your fingers, he moans quietly.

When he withdraws, it’s Billy who you’re looking at. His eyes are darkened with a wicked smirk on his lips. His gaze is heated as it rakes over your body, drawing a blush to the surface of your skin, thrumming down your body.

“So, which one will it be, darlin?”

»»---------------------►

marvelmusing Tag List: @dreamlandcreations @blanchedelioncourt @idaofinfinity @slytherheign @ellooo0ooo @vixenofcourse @dumb-fawkin-bitch @jane-arthur @ilikefictionmen @budugu @watersquirtpewpewboomm @mysweetlittledesire @dhampiravidi

BB Characters Tag List: @rachlovesactors @noortsshift @aikeia @weallhaveadestiny @two-unbeatable-beaters

#billy russo x reader #aleksander morozova x reader #logan delos x reader #benjamin greene x reader #caspian x reader #william thurber x reader

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bookishblogging · 1 year

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ALL ABOUT: Apollo ☀️

"Phoibos (Phoebus) [Apollon], of you even the swan sings with clear voice to the beating of his wings, as he alights upon the bank by the eddying river Peneios; and of you the sweet-tongued minstrel, holding his high-pitched lyre, always sings both first and last. And so hail to you lord! I seek your favour with my song." - Homeric Hymn 21 to Apollo

Απολλων - APOLLON

Apollo is the olympian god of prophecy and oracles, music, song and poetry, archery, healing, plague and disease, and the protection of the young. He is often associated with the Sun. More specifically: Apollo is the god who punishes and destroys. The god who affords help and wards off evil. The god of prophecy. The god of song and music. The god who protects the flocks and cattle. The god who delights in the foundation of towns and the establishment of civil constitutions.

His parents were the olympian Zeus and the goddess Leto. He has a twin sister, Artemis.

His surname is Lukêgenês, meaning either “Born in Lycia” or “Born of Light,” though his birthplace has been argued among scholars and traditions. But the opinion most universally received was, that Apollo, the son of Zeus and Leto, was born in the island of Delos, together with his sister Artemis; and the circumstances of his birth there are detailed in the Homeric hymn on Apollo, and in that of Callimachus on Delos. The myth states that Hera was enacting revenge on Leto for sleeping with her husband, so that Leto couldn’t find a place to peacefully give birth- until she ended up on the island of Delos. Apollo was believed to be born on the 7th of the month: hebdomagenês. The number 7 is sacred to the god.

Apollo has many titles and epithets, many of which can be found here.

Symbols of Apollo:

Bow and arrows

The lyre

The raven

Rays of light radiating from his head

Branch of laurel

Wreath

Want to read more? Check out my sources!

Theoi Apollo Page

Apollo’s Epithets

Symbols of Apollo

Apollo Facts Britannica

Apollo Wiki Page

Apollo Olympian Facts

Origin of Lukêgenês

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apollosgiftofprophecy · 10 months

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Sup any angsty Apollo hc you have? I’m hungry and desperate for yummy angst to gobble up and cry myself to sleep :]

Okay, this took a little while because life, college, and July fourth happened lmao

So. I like to think about just when the purposeful emotional/psychological abuse started and when the physical abuse started between Zeus and Apollo so...TW for abuse talk.

Because, well, when Apollo was young there isn't really a need for Zeus to crack open the bolt - however, we also know from canon that Apollo was subjected to the bolt in his younger years.

Now. To the headcanons!!!!!

During the first thousand or so years of Apollo's life, Zeus was an actual good dad to him (especially compared to Ares). He spoiled both twins excessively because sweet! A couple of kids who aren't failures! Look at them!!! They're already so good with a bow!!! They're so talented!!!

In the Discord, it was mentioned that in Ancient Greece fathers usually took charge of their sons while the mother taught the daughters, so if we apply that to Apollo's life, I think we can assume that maybe, perhaps, there was some psychological abuse going on, but nothing hardcore - probably along the lines of "make me proud or earn my eternal disappointment" *points at Ares*.

The first time Zeus has to actively punish Apollo was because Gaea ordered it - Apollo killed her son Python, and Zeus (being the guy he is) would cave to her wishes. I actually have a fic in store for this convo so here's what I'm thinking:

Zeus would, of course, instantly point the blame at Gaea and deny he had any choice in the matter (even though he has gone against her wishes before...eyes the Titans in Tartarus).

Apollo, who's only paternal figure so far in his life is Zeus, wouldn't question this and only think about how unfair Gaea is (and to be fair, Python had it coming...).

When Apollo returns and he and Artemis are goofing off on Delos, the events of And By The Sun's Light happens and this, I believe, is when it starts slowly trickling into physical abuse zone.

Think about it. You are Zeus, powerful king of the gods, a new, proud father to a couple of twins that you already favor so highly.

Then one day, they both - by happenstance - gain a new domain at the same time.

Oh shit. You think. That's strange. But you shrug and hand them off to Helios and Selene, two of the most powerful Titans on Olympus.

Of course, you still keep an eye on them. You're not stupid, and get biweekly reports from their mentors on their progress - and the unease starts to trickle in.

It increases, in particular, when Apollo starts to amass other domains alongside his music, poetry, prophecy, healing, youth and light.

Truth, knowledge, harmony, ect. are all absorbed into his power arsenal and you, the king of the gods, are now sweating.

This was not suppose to happen, so now, I believe, is when Zeus started to use the "light" zaps (as stated in-series) from his bolt to keep Apollo in line. He doesn't want him to get any ideas after all.

Unfortunately for Zeus, that isn't enough to deter Apollo.

(Sidenote: I also think Zeus didn't want Helios to take "his" place - after all, abusers don't want a positive version of themselves in their victim's lives)

Enter stage left: The Olympian Rebellion.

Ohohoh...

"shit I need to ramp it up" thinks Zeus as he stares at the faces of his wife, brother, and his favorite children.

And ramp it up he does. Of course, Apollo's first stint as a mortal happens here, and man. is it bad. Troy's king is the perfect tool and metaphor for Zeus's own rule to give Apollo (and Poseidon) a taste of what else may happen if he (they) continued to defy him.

It sucks, of course. Apollo's very adamant about it not being a picnic. And for a while, after it's all over, it seems like all's well.

Of course, Zeus doesn't lay off the zaps every now and then, but it's nothing compared to later in Apollo's life.

He even considers Apollo's request to free Prometheus and grants it, because isn't he just such a considerate father?

Really, the first time he had to go gunho on Apollo with the bolt was when he and Heracles got into a fistfight - but really, what kind of king would he be if he hadn't prevented Apollo his sons from tearing Heracles each other apart?

After all, he can't show favoritism now can he?

*insert huge THIS IS SARCASM sign here*

But then...Asclepius happens. This upstart thinks he can meddle with what belongs to the gods? Well, Zeus will teach him a lesson on death - and how permanent it can be!

...he didn't take into account how Apollo would react to his son's death.

Nor the rebelliousness of the action itself.

*Alder rubs her hands together*

alrightly gang. THIS. This is it.

Apollo is turned mortal for a second time, but to Zeus's displeasure, it's actually a pretty good time for him. Admetus is friendly, and the two hit it off rather well - too well, if Apollo's very blatant, embarrassing affection is anything to go by.

Well. This just won't do!

Hmm...Thinks Zeus. What's another punishment that will let the lesson sink in?

He looks down into the Underworld.

Perfect.

So Apollo becomes a god again. He's still pretty sad, but he's feeling better - even moreso when Zeus says he's decided to make Asclepius immortal! He'll be the god of doctors!

Ecstatic, Apollo immediately agrees...and then is forced to watch as Asclepius is locked up and he's forbidden from seeing him.

Not only that, but now...Zeus brings out the eagle eye and the big guns. He alternates between nitpicking Apollo, and praising him.

And he also cranks up the voltage on the bolt, so the lesson lingers.

The Trojan War happens. Zeus simultaneously indulges and denies Apollo's wishes.

And then. *Alder gleefully rubs hands* AND THEN.

ROME HAPPENS.

BUCKLE UP THIS IS WHEN IT GOES DOWN.

Helios fades, and Apollo inherits his power. Think about that. Apollo, an already powerful god inherits the power of a Titan. And not just any Titan, but Helios.

That's a hella lotta power.

...and that's a hella lotta threat in Zeu-oops, sorry, Jupiter's eyes.

(Now Jupiter I think has differences from Zeus, but I haven't really devoted any time to drawing that line between them so stuff may change here. However, Jupiter/Jove had a emphasis on family, so my little spin on that...is right here >:))

Jupiter, like Juno, has the domain of family in Rome. He's seen as the Ultimate Dad TM. And you bet he uses that to manipulate the hell out of Apollo.

"A good son wouldn't do [insert perceived slight here]"

"What kind of example are you setting for your brothers?"

And most of all...

"What would your mother think of your attitude?"

Ow. Talk about a punch to the gut.

So yeah. Rome is when things got BAD. The bolts became a lot more constant. The emotional/psychological abuse was unbearable.

Apollo barely had anybody to go to. His options were limited.

...but the one place he did feel comfortable in was with Commodus.

(hahah, yes, I managed to reel Copollo into this too lmao)

In a classic Apollo move, our favorite god goes from one toxic influence (his father) to another (his boyfriend), really showing how ingrained the normalization of abuse/toxicity in Apollo's life is.

He has no red flag sight. He has no alarm bells.

He could walk right into a situation where the word "abuse" is labeled in CAPS and Red and he'd just go "oh shit, what did I do now?"

And his father is all to happy to "let him know" what he did "wrong".

Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk hoped this was a good ride! :D

#the oracle speaks #riordanverse headcanons #the trials of apollo #harmony & order #apollo #zeus #abuse #emotional abuse #parental abuse #physical abuse #asclepius #commodus #helios #copollo #artemis #leto #toa python #python

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astrequa · 2 years

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— Falling in love with you !

Little things they do when they realize they have fallen in love with you

୨୧: Childe, Dottore, Eula, DIluc [Flower edition]

A/notes. I enjoy writing for Eula, and with her rumored rerun, couldn't be happier ♡ Referring Childe as Tartaglia,, Dottore part took place in Sumeru Akademiya !

#. TARTAGLIA : Monoceros Caeli

He would show you in any obvious way like— calling you pet names, bringing you on romantic dates, or buying you some expensive stuff. He acts as Zhongli's wallet so it's normal for him to spend a lot of mora(s) in 1 day. He teases you 24/7 about it.

"Why would you like Mr. Zhongli? Don't you think I fit perfectly as your boyfriend or even husband?"

I see him sending you a lot of flowers and some cheesy pickup lines.

#. II DOTTORE : The doctor

He never interested in love or falling in love once, every day he busied himself with experiments and theories so when it's come to this topic, he's hopeless. Grow you a flower that matches your eye color and said he doesn't mean to. Don't take it seriously, he just doesn't know what to do, the feeling in his chest is unbearable. He yearns for your attention and your love.

"You know today I received a one-of-a-kind flower that looks like a crystallize one" "And? It's not like I'm the one who gives you"

His heart would explode if you kept his flowers and decorate them in your dorm

#. EULA LAWRENCE : Aphros Delos

She doesn't want to rush things, so she takes her time and makes sure she truly loves you. Seek Amber's advice with this; due to her surroundings, she isn't particularly skilled at expressing affection. Not a fan of physical contact, but for you? Your exclusion. She would pat your head or hold your hand. If she sincerely wants to express her love for you, she will give you a present. Mostly flowers since that's what Amber told her; flowers also can act as the language of love. Ask her what the gift was for, and she will state that it was merely a friendly gift.

"I starting to think there was another reason behind this..." "You think to much, it's simply a friendly gift"

I say that Cecilia will be the main flower, a beautiful flower that suits you as they are also hard to get it.

#. DILUC RAGNVINDR : Noctua

Doesn't actually believe that he falls for you. He just can't picture himself in a relationship due to his past. Kaeya would notice this as soon as possible; his brother? falling in love, he teases the red-haired man. Diluc will begin slowly by showing a different side of himself, such as his patience for you, asking how you are, or how protective he is when it comes to you. Deliver a banquet or anything else that reminds him of you to your place in secret.

"I feel like I have a secret admirer" "What makes you think that?" "I got a banquet of flowers again this week" "Ah, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about that"

Kaeya definitely gonna tell you that Diluc likes you.

Tagging. @strawberryswirlss

ⓒlychme. Do not copy/translate/post my works on other platforms.

— Reblogs, like and comments are much appreciated !

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badmovieihave · 1 year

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Bad movie I have The Ultimate Underdog Collection Volume 2 It has The Great Gold Robbery Episode1&2 (1964), The Big Shrink episode 1&2 (1964), and The Marbleheads Episode1&2 (1966)

#The Ultimate Underdog Collection Volume 2 #George S. Irving #Wally Cox #Allen Swift #Norma MacMillan #Ben Stone #Delo States #Donny Texanidi #Kenny Delmar #Sandy Becker #Mort Marshall #Larry Storch #Don Adams #Bradley Bolke

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lildoodlenoodle · 9 months

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First things first(spoilers for spiderverse/spidergeddon and comic noir storyline) this is a long post but you’ll have fun I promise. As always feel free to engage with the post, I’d love to hear different theories/opinions/conclusions on this in the tags or comments. Sorry it took so long!

Now I’m gonna say something morbid:

Spider Noir’s death in the comics was hilarious

Jarring, but hilarious. Like why’d he grab him like that. I physically had to shut off my iPad and go for a walk after this scene when I first read it.

But to my point, you know how some people say your birth mark is how you died in your last life?

Well post resurrection we might have A, B, and C:

(Now before anyone gets on me for, why would you do that/even think of this? In my defense, I couldn’t remember where he was grabbed, it’s been a while since I’ve read these. I thought it was gonna be on his back or shoulder and I’d give him a burned on handprint going all ‘gripped you tight and raised from perdition’ which is cool, fun, sexy, and conveniently hidden. Then I reread it and it’s basically a permanent face palm. Also pretend his face looks the same in every one. Couldn’t decide on hair either lol.)

Either way post resurrection Peter should have physical after effects of his resurrection. Either lines all over his body from having the life force sucked out of him or birth/burn marks on his face. I think this would be hilarious, angsty, and interesting. I also hate when people are just resurrected willynilly. LET THE TRAUMA OF DYING AND COMING BACK TAKE ITS TOLE. Especially if it’s multiple times.

In MK: Midnight Mission they, pretty recently, came up against this problem with the MK system being resurrected over and over again and facing really no visible consequences. But then we find out, there isn’t really a limit(ignoring the whole Khonshu imprisonment), but eventually mentally, there will be nothing left to resurrect. And the mindless mummy warrior creatures we meet from Khonshu’s ‘world’ were old avatars that wasted away from resurrections. It explains the alterations and perversions of the MK system’s mental conditions, because they are actively being altered and changed, to be brought back, by a multidimensional creature that doesn’t care about their mental health/state(that Khonshu takes advantage of, knowing what he’s doing). Sound familiar?

Now, time to get philosophical. Ship of Theseus.

What is it? Ship of Theseus is an ideological/philosophy problem about a king, Theseus, who saved the children of Athens from king Minos and the Minotaur and then sailed his ship to Delos. Then each year Athenians would sail that same ship from Athens to Delos in celebration of the myth. Over time they kept replacing parts of the ship for maintenance purposes, till every plank had been replaced, so they could still make the voyage. Now the question is, is it still the same ship? At what point did it stop becoming that original ship? And does it matter?

Applying this philosophical exercise to resurrection, with what we know above, we can get an interesting dialogue going. But, with that said, it’s important to keep in mind that the resurrection process in this context with these multidimensional gods isn’t explained with enough detail to really take it apart. Like what happens to the soul? Is the brain damage we know Marc has from repeatedly dying and his brain repeatedly going without oxygen or is it from just interacting with a multidimensional god? Is the spider god comparable to Khonshu? Is the spider god even real, if not what or how was Peter actually resurrected? And if it is real, what is its main goal? At least with Khonshu we know he has an agenda. What does it want, what’s its end game?

But let’s get into it anyways.

Now, you may be wondering, why do I keep saying multiple resurrections in regards to Spider noir? I am so glad you asked! I believe Peter's initial spider bite killed him. He had to go to the afterlife to actually see the spider god. That’s why we really only see them three times, at the initial power conception, Peter’s resurrection, and when Peter goes to the ‘underworld’ in the 2020 run. We see something similar with Khonshu in Midnight mission, while he’s in space jail, Marc can only see him during resurrections or while he’s dead. And while we’re comparing the MK system to spider noir, when Marc got his powers, he basically had to die first. That was implied to be his first resurrection. So this wouldn’t be a one off situation. We have some rules.

What we don’t see with Moonknight and Khonshu is visual physical change. Outside of the ghost bird skull armor the boys aren’t visually changing. Meanwhile, Peter has physically turned into a monster before and turned completely back. In #4/5 of the 2020 noir run the cicada stone/pink meteor turns people into monsters, but not everyone. Huma turns, Shocker turns, Peter turns, and all the resurrected villains(one guy just explodes). But Hu-Ri and Checkpoint Red don’t, until Hu-Ri touches the stone. Huma and Peter are both in close proximity to eldritch beings, them turning into inspired versions of those beings make sense. The Shocker turns because he spent so much time holding onto the stone, whereas Red hasn't. But notice Shocker and Hu-Ri don’t turn into an animal inspired version of themselves like Huma and Peter do, he becomes more of a hulk like creature, because he isn’t attached to an other-worldly being. And when Peter turned back he essentially said “that hurt like a bitch” and kept moving.

If we want to keep with the canon noir timeline and going with the idea that the Spider god is either continuously changing Peter, or just changing him during resurrections this would explain the webbing and mood/personality change from the 2009 comics to the 2020 comics. But that’s boring and too simple and I hate the time jump so fuck that shit.(again another post).

So let’s focus back on ‘Ship of Theseus’ in the context of resurrection. We have too many questions about the process of resurrection for spider noir to properly have this conversation, but I’m going to try anyways. Let’s hit what we know again: resurrection changes your brain chemistry/structure, the spider god is changing Peter throughout the series, Peter has possibly had three resurrections, the spider god resurrected Peter from a different dimension, which confirms this is a multidimensional being(if she exists but shhhh). So now that we’ve established that there are changes happening to Peter(one way or another) we know that the spider god is ‘repairing’ Peter throughout the series or ‘replacing his boards’ so to speak.

At what point is this no longer Peter? Is it when he is no longer recognizable as a human? Or is it when there is nothing left in his mind to resurrect? Or has this never been Peter, or rather not since his first resurrection when he got his powers? Is this change sudden or slow? Is it the resurrection that turns him into something else, is it slow build up like an Iodine Clock titration and one day he just wakes up no longer human, or is it a slow process of subtle changes? But if the latter, what’s the change that does it? What defines Peter’s humanity? Does it matter if he’s human or not? Does it change anything for him if he’s no longer human in body and mind?

Part of the answer may lie in the villains we see through the 2009 and 2020 runs. In the first run the main villains were the Goblin and the Vulture. Both who were implied to not be human or having physical inhuman qualities(but I’m partially ignoring the whole carney thing cause honestly it’s ableist and boring). In Eyes Without A Face, the second run, the main villains are the Crime Master and Dr. Octavious, both humans with no inhuman or supernatural qualities. For simplicity sake, let’s focus on Octavious and Goblin. In comparing the two I think most people would agree Octavious is the more heinous of the two. Goblin takes on the role of a mob boss. He runs a crime empire, exploiting the defenseless in New york. It’s nothing new and he’s even somewhat sympathetic ‘I’m finished with freakshows’, you can understand how he got where he is. This is not to say he isn’t a villain but he very much fits the ‘villain with a tragic backstory’. People look at him like he is a monster, we, the reader, start out the story knowing what he is.

Whereas Octavious is not even remotely sympathetic because there is no empathizing with how he ended up there and why he does what he does. He is not only othered by his actions but also by the narrative for his disability(it’s important to acknowledge the ableism in his story but that is another post). Ultimately his delusions and the acts he commits make him a much more sinister monster than Norman, despite Norman actually having stereotypical qualities of a monster.

Then we have Huma and Shocker from the 2020 run. Huma is the closest person we see who is in a similar situation to Peter in terms of the spider god. While we don’t know all the details, whether she is the same as Peter, bearing a curse of power, or the actual god. Either way she presents as human and is not treated differently than any other human woman. At the end of the series we realize how corrupt she is and that she’s been working with Nazi’s, not necessarily for the ideology but to achieve what she wants. Her transformation is the nail in her coffin of her monsterous perception. The question is did we need her to look like a monster to see her as one?

In general we are left with more questions and theories than answers.

But onto my subjective answers to the questions. My answers might change over time so don’t hold me to them.

Of course it matters if Peter has humanity. Peter Parker across the board is one of the characters who HAS to hold himself to a moral code or he falls apart and becomes the villain(well maybe not the villain but you know what I mean) of the story. He holds back during fights and has a no kill policy for a reason.(Good men don’t need rules, today is not the day to find out why I have so many.-dr.who) But noir Peter isn’t your typical Peter. He kills, he maims, he doesn’t hold back. With that said, he still is held together by his morality. It’s just different than what we are used to seeing from Peter, but don’t mistake that as a lack of morality. However, do I think it’s a very real possibility that this morality could be eroded over time especially considering his home world and the above circumstances? Absolutely. Peter is someone who historically needs someone to ground him and ‘make’ him human. This is normally May Parker, Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, occasionally Harry Osborn, Daredevil, Johnny Storm, and Flash Thompson, and the ghost of Ben Parker. Dude lives by a passing saying of a dead relative, he clearly doesn’t have a super solid moral compass. I think this is part of the reason the noir comics kept his relationship with May and Mary Jane(I disagree but whatever whatever), because he needs support to stay grounded.

Now, under what circumstances is Peter no longer Peter? I’m going with the Iodine Clock titration theory. Just drop after drop of ‘changes’ and morally questionable decisions that don’t seem to hold much weight, until he does something truly off the reservation. Like seeing himself do something truly horrific that a couple years ago he would have never done and shocking himself out of it. Or looks in the mirror and doesn’t see a person staring back. For either circumstance, because he’s appalled with himself or struck by the fact he doesn’t really care. This is not to say I don’t think he could come back from this but holy shit will it be a process.

But it brings us back to ‘If there is too much power then it is the responsibility of the people to take it away.’ Peter losing his humanity puts him in the Goblin’s place as the one with great power that cannot be trusted from the first comic. Whether it’s the resurrections, the spider god ‘replacing’ parts of him, or him just being pushed to the brink mentally that does it. Whether the change is physical, neurological, spiritual, or mental. This ‘Peter’ is not the Peter we first meet in 1932.

This is a different ship, and you can sail and stay on the same course in memory of, or under the false pretense of being, the original as many times as you want, but you cannot bring back the parts you replaced and undo the ‘improvements’ you made. But that doesn’t need to make Peter a monster.

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my-name-is-apollo · 3 months

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I have heard that Apollo and Artemis being twins was a relatively later development, so have you come across any versions where they are not twins? Another question I have, is Artemis being the eldest twin have evidence?

In the older versions, it's very likely that Artemis and Apollo were born separately , either at different times or different places, or both. But in a lot of later sources, they are stated to be twins. And yes, there are accounts where Artemis was born first and helped Leto give birth to Apollo. But I will also talk about why I think Artemis might be the younger sibling in Callimachus' works.

So these are the authors who make it very clear that Apollo and Artemis are twins: Pindar, (Pseudo) Apollodorus, Strabo, (Pseudo) Hyginus, Ovid, Servius, Antoninus, Nonnus. Servius and Apollodorus also say that Artemis was born first. Except for Pindar, the others are from a relatively later time period. Half of them are Roman authors.

Let's take a look at some of the older sources:

According to Hesoid, the 7th day of the month is sacred because that's the day on which Leto gave birth to Apollo, but he does not mention the birth of Artemis or that day being dedicated to her.

The Homeric hymn to Delian Apollo, which describes in great detail the troubles Leto went through to birth Apollo, never mentions anything about Artemis' birth. Eiliethyia is the one who helps Leto during childbirth, so we can assume Artemis was not in the picture at all. In another Homeric hymn to Apollo, it's explicitly stated that they both were born in different places:

"Rejoice, blessed Leto, for you bare glorious children, the lord Apollo and Artemis who delights in arrows; her in Ortygia, and him in rocky Delos, as you rested against the great mass of the Cynthian hill hard by a palm-tree by the streams of Inopus" (trans. Evelyn-White)

Now some later authors do mention that both are names of the same place. Ortygia was renamed Delos after the birth of Apollo. There are also sources that clearly state Artemis was born on Delos. But in this hymn at least it seems clear to me that they are presented as different places and the twins (?) were born separately.

Theognis also, mentions only Apollo being born on Delos.

Coming to another hymn that gives a detailed narration of Apollo's birth - the Hymn to Delos by Callimachus. Callimachus' works are dated later than Pindar's, but he also goes with Leto giving birth only to Apollo on Delos. Again Artemis is not mentioned anywhere in the very long hymn. Adding to that, in the hymn to Artemis, he says that Artemis was born without causing any pain to Leto, which is why Fates ordained her to ease women's birth pangs. So if Artemis was indeed born along with Apollo, I don't see why that detail would be omitted from the hymn to Delos.

Now here onwards starts my "hear me out" thoughts: In the Callimachus' hymn to Artemis, Apollo seems to already have enough renown. She asks Zeus to grant her some gifts, and one of them is that she must have as many titles as Apollo does:

"when sitting on her father’s knees – still a little maid – she spake these words to her sire: “Give me to keep my maidenhood, Father, forever: and give me to be of many names, that Phoebus may not vie with me." (trans. Mair)

When she is three years old, Leto takes her to the Cyclopes to get her bow and arrows:

"Therefore right boldly didst thou address them then: “Cyclopes, for me too fashion ye a Cydonian bow and arrows and a hollow casket for my shafts; for I also am a child of Leto, even as Apollo." (trans. Mair)

This implies that the Cyclopes had already given a set of bow and arrows to Apollo, and Artemis is asking them to do the same for her. ALSO adding to that, in Callimachus' hymn to Apollo, he says that 4 year old Apollo built an altar made out of horns of the goats that Artemis hunted. So if Artemis started hunting at 3, and Apollo built that altar at 4 - maybe they're like a year apart.

(Most of the sources that I have mentioned can be found here.)

Personally though, I prefer them being born as twins. But the concept of then being born separately is very intriguing to me. I'm gonna end this with vase paintings that support both the ideas, because why not?

Leto, Apollo and Artemis - with Apollo shooting at Python from his mother's arms.

Leto and her twins fleeing from Python

#asks #anon #the twins #Artemis #Apollo #apollo info

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evilios · 4 months

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We're so used to referring to Apollo and Artemis as Divine Twins, but did you know that the earliest known Ancient Greek sources do not explicitly denote the two as being twins?

That isn't to say one text depicting a myth is more correct than the other - but I so rarely see mentions of Apollo and Artemis as not twins that I find it all the more dear. There is beauty in Solar and Lunar twins - but I also see the same beauty in siblings who are not predetermined to be each other's mirror by the fact of birth.

The first mention of Apollo's name in the Ancient Greek texts is in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (3), trans. by Hugh G. Evelyn-White:

Here's a link to the original.

They are not explicitly called twins and They have different birthplaces: Apollo's birthplace is Delos, Cyclades - Artemis is born in a place named Ortygia. It should be stated that only Apollo's birth is given any sort of detail, and it is unclear where Ortygia was.

Ortygia (center of modern Syracuse named after the Greek word for quail) in Sicily has been known to Greek colonizers since around the 8th century BCE, Homeric Hymns date to approximately the 7th-6th century BCE. It's possible that Artemis was born there. In this case, the locations are separated by the Ionian sea and a large part of Greece. Delos is a small island to the North from Naxos and right at the Southern ridge of Mykonos, Ortygia in Italy is the Eastern part of Sicily:

Ortygia could also be attributed to a large number of other places. Strabo (63 BCE - 24 AD) in his Geography (10.5.5) stated that Ortygia is but an old name for Delos or for Rheneia, a small island in the Cyclades:

Rheneia is a desert isle within four stadia from Delos, and there the Delians bury their dead; for it is unlawful to bury, or even burn, a corpse in Delos itself, and it is unlawful even to keep a dog there. In earlier times it was called Ortygia.

Though earlier in the same book (6.2.4) he argues that Ortygia might also be in Sicily. He gives a detailed explanation of what we now know as the Old Town of Syracuse:

Ortygia is connected with the mainland, near which it lies, by a bridge, and has the fountain of Arethusa, which sends forth a river that empties immediately into the sea.

— The Geography of Strabo, Books 1-5 translated by Hamilton and Falconer

Ortygia is also a placename attested to different parts of Greece. For example, in Homer's Odyssey (5.123), a much earlier text, Artemis kills Orion in Ortygia and the place is not anyhow noted to be connected to Delos:

<...> until in Ortygia chaste golden-throned Artemis attacked with her painless darts and killed him.

— The Odyssey of Homer, translated by James E. Huddleston

Hymn to Apollo is not the only Ancient text predating any mention of "twins" that did not specify that the two were born at the same time. Hymn to Artemis (27) calls the Gods a brother and a sister while Hymn to Artemis (9) indicates that They were raised together (ὁμότροφον) without a notion of the circumstances of Their birth. Those are the earliest sources we know of, but there were many other authors and traditions that followed, some of which were:

Homer in the Iliad makes Them a son and a daughter of Leto

Hesiod mentions them being born from the same mother

Neither describe the two as twins.

Apollodorus in his Bibliotheca (1.4.1.) makes Artemis be a first-born so She serves as a midwife for Apollo

Plutarch in Pelopidas states that Apollo was born in Tegyra, Boeotia

Some later sources (Callimachus, Servius) consider Artemis to be first-born while some (Hyginius) do not specify on time of birth.

The first - and most prominent - author to speak of the Divine Twins is Pindar (518-438 BCE) in his Olympian odes (3.35), here he refers to Them as twins of Leda. At the same time, in the Nemean odes (1.1) he calls Ortygia in Sicily Artemis' birthplace and "sister to Delos" (might be metaphorical, as in sister-state). Orphic Hymn 35 to Leto (1st-3rd AD?) also calls Them twins.

It should probably also be noted that the cult of Artemis and the cult of Apollo are not always interconnected. While some locations (such as Delos and Ortygia, Sicily) have a history of implementing both Deities into the same votive tradition, some (Didyma, Claros) have worship of the Gods completely disconnected from each other. It is likely worth another post, but worship of Apollo didn't necessarily imply His sister, and vice versa.

With all of this being said, I do not believe that one version of the story is above another. And while I do find it fascinating - and logical - that the idea of Apollo and Artemis being twin-Deities has taken root, I do appreciate other, older and not, versions of the same legend.

#HISTORIA 📔#I have an insane aesthetic rule with golden text but. I hope you can see underlined text; those are all links.#greek mythology #greek gods #artemis #apollo #artemis deity

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littlesparklight · 17 days

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Some headcanon thoughts/considerations on (some, lol) deities and their favourite cities in myth:

Hera Argos (the area, and then the city in particular, founded by Phoroneus) is, after Samos, Hera's first favourite city, stemming from Inachos judging her the goddess of the land against Poseidon.

Lakedaimon founds Sparta in honour of his new wife, but they dedicate the city to Hera. First because of Sparta's mother having been fostered by Hera*, and Sparta is her local nymph priestess in the area. Second because Lakedaimon, as a son of Zeus and now marrying a nymph that is important to Hera, wants to honour her. Hera takes surprisingly well to this, and wholeheartedly claims the city Sparta as her own, becoming one of Lakeidamon's main deities. *Sparta's mother being Kleta/Klete, one of a set of two Lakedaimonian Charites/Graces. For myself, I made her and her sister(s)' parents Helios and Aigle, but Hera and Zeus fostered them.

Perseus makes Mycenae into a proper city and fortifies it (it was mostly a village with a palace-like building on the rise for Mykene and Arestor earlier), dedicating it to Hera in the name of his marriage with Andromeda, and much like with Lakedaimon and Sparta, she takes to the dedication very well; the city becomes one of her three favourites.

Apollo We all know how/why Delos and Delphi is one of Apollo's favoured cities, so there's no need to touch on that. But I do think it's interesting how in one version of Meleager's death, Apollo is said to kill him during the war between the Kuretes/Pleuronians and the Kalydonians (sparked from the dispute over the hide of the Kalydonian boar), having come to the defense of the Kuretes. How come? Vaguely wondering if it's because of a connection of this region to Acarnania and Actium/Aktion, which was a major center of worship for Apollo. Otherwise we're left with little to make any connection, so in this case Apollo apparently just. Decided he liked them and the city of Pleuron.

Troy is an interesting case, I think. Because while Poseidon clearly takes complete and total umbrage at Laomedon and feels no further connection to or affection for Troy and its inhabitants, Apollo does. He apparently was imagined as having built more than just the wall, and we have his connections to the royal family through Hektor, Kassandra, Helenos and Hecuba, and Troilus. Hektor was among quite a few authors (Stesichorus, for example, so this was an early idea) thought of as Apollo's son, so perhaps no wonder that he would in that case be defending Hektor so intently. For my own headcanon I imagine that Leto, later being associated with especially Lycia and such, preferred to stay on the coast here when the twins were young, and so met Xanthos - and this led to especially Apollo, but all three becoming focus of worship for the population of the Troad forward.

Zeus His special connection to Dodona I headcanon springs from back when he was presented to Kronos before the war, pretending to be something he wasn't. Zeus makes himself out to be a local water divinity of the place, and he keeps that connection, it being one of the few places he directly (instead of through Apollo's oracles, later) expresses his oracular knowledge.

Troy again, and of course you've got his plain statement of how he's been/being honoured in Troy and by Hektor. We also have the comment that Dardanos was one of his most loved mortal sons, so a continuing fondness for the city and the ruling family would make sense. Too, though, we have Xanthos/Skamander. This river god is the one of only three river gods who are said to be born of Zeus instead of Okeanos and Tethys (and the other two in rather later sources, Xanthos is in the Iliad). While I did decide to go with the Okeanos+Tethys parentage, what I did to lean into the Iliad stating Xanthos is a son of Zeus is to have had Zeus being Xanthos' foster father. And Xanthos is the father of the first (mortal) king of the area in myth, who's daughter is married to Dardanos and Xanthos then marrying a number of naiad daughters into the royal line.

#greek mythology #hera #apollo #zeus #greek myth thoughts

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tsarisfanfiction · 3 days

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Beyond Help

Fandom: Trials of Apollo Rating: Gen Genre: Friendship/Hurt/Comfort Characters: Will, Miranda Even Demeter's daughter can't heal the flowers of a god's soul when they start to fade. TOApril day 26 - Wilting Flowers. This one is actually set between BOO and THO. Apollo equates his sense of self to the Curse of Delos, so what would that look like while he's being stripped of his godhood?

“I’m sorry, Will.” Will swallowed at the despondent sound in Miranda’s voice as he forced himself to look at her.

She still had her fingers buried in the soil of the planter on the window sill, but there was no sign of the usual spark of life the daughter of Demeter could bring. The flowers stayed drooping and faded, as though they were mere moments from losing their petals and drying up into the shrivelled brown stems of dead plants.

It was normal, a part of nature. Will was familiar with the seasonal nature of plants the same way most people were, used to different flowers blooming at different times of the year, always with some colour to display proudly somewhere.

He had never, ever, seen these flowers wilt before. Logically, he knew that they weren’t the exact same flowers that he’d first seen when he was seven – they’d moved around, had different shapes and clusters – but whatever happened to cause those changes always happened without his notice. Will suspected overnight, when the flowers took on a silvery hue in the moonlight, but he’d never seen them to prove it.

They were his dad’s sacred flowers, as eternal as the god himself. In eight years, they’d never faltered.

But now they were changing, wilting and losing the inherent life that always thrummed through them, and Will’s heart felt like it was being constricted by an ever-tightening serpent the longer it went on.

He’d known that Miranda probably wouldn’t be able to do it, when he’d finally caved and gone to the Demeter cabin for help. They could help any plants to grow, revitalise the soil, whatever was needed – but this was different. This was the flowers of a god, and Will had the horrible, sinking feeling that it was no coincidence.

None of his siblings had heard anything from Apollo since before the Argo II had left camp for the Romans, and their father’s silence had persisted long past the end of the war and Gaia’s defeat.

Still, there was a significant part of him that had hoped she could produce a miracle and restore the life and vitality of Apollo’s flowers. The fact that she couldn’t wasn’t the resigned dull ache he’d thought, but a far more vicious pain.

“It’s okay,” he told her, pushing past the way his heart felt like it was cracking in two, the separating parts being crushed together by serpentine coils as though an organ could compound fracture. “Thanks for trying.”

She pulled her fingers out from the soil, dirt clinging to her skin like it couldn’t bear to be parted from her. Most people would brush it away, but children of Demeter weren’t most people when it came to soil, and Miranda didn’t seem to even notice the specks of brown on her hands.

“Is there still no sign?” she asked him, gently because that was Miranda all over – gentle and caring even if she had a spine of steel behind it. Will thought the state of the flowers was answer enough for that, but he humoured her and shook his head.

“Nothing,” he admitted, feeling his lip tremble slightly. “He’s still silent. The dreams haven’t started again.”

“There must be a reason,” Miranda said. “I’m sure he wouldn’t go silent without reason.” She didn’t even know Apollo, but she’d been in camp long enough to know how close Will and his siblings thought they’d got with their father.

“Yeah,” he said, despondently. “A reason.”

It wasn’t that he thought Apollo suddenly didn’t love them, or had never loved them. That was a thought process too far, even in the current silence, although Will wondered if that was the better option.

Because the other option was the one that haunted Will. No-one had heard of Apollo since the giant banes started appearing, and on top of whoever Apollo’s giant bane was, there was also Delphi, and Python – because Python wasn’t a giant. Delphi was one of Apollo’s seats of power and it had fallen, and no-one had heard anything from Apollo since.

Will liked to think that he’d, somehow, feel it if something had happened to his dad. That the sun would feel different against his skin, or a feeling with an unmistakable meaning sinking into his bones.

(The hurt that came from the wilting flowers, the squeezing snake around his breaking heart, meant something, but Will ignored them, because he wasn’t strong enough to handle whatever they were trying to tell him.)

Miranda fumbled a little bit, a good friend but not one equipped to deal with Will facing the hell that was the rest of his life without the father that was supposed to be immortal, before resting a dirt-covered hand on his shoulder.

She couldn’t promise everything would be okay. Neither of them would ever have believed that, not after two wars and the deaths of too many siblings (Will had lost more, yes, but Miranda hadn’t lost none and even one was one too many; grief wasn’t a competition and Will had never let himself fall into one). “You’ll get through this,” she said instead, with a quiet confidence. “Whatever has happened, whatever will happen, you’ll get through this. And if it gets hard, remember you’re not alone.” She pulled him into a secure hug, and Will felt his shoulders start to shake in companionship with his lip.

He didn’t cry, but it was close.

“I know,” he said instead, with a voice that shook. “Thank you.”

#trials of apollo #trials of apollo fanfiction #riordanverse #riordanverse fanfiction #toapril #toapril2024 #tsari writes fanfiction #will solace #miranda gardiner

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