#I think it’s fun!

[mommy-medusa]

Athena’s Wings

So, in Medusa’s Child, Athena has wings now! And I think they’re neat, so I’m gonna talk about them!

Athena was born with a pair of sterling owl wings, and throughout her life, she gains more through accomplishments she achieves as a goddess. Before the book starts, she has twenty pairs, each representing something she did (aside from the first ones). She gets a few more throughout the story for various things, but she has twenty at the start. The way she got them are as followed:

Being born

Killing Pallas (this is damaging to her psyche as much as you think it is)

Becoming the patron of Athens

Making the first olive tree

Domesticating horses

Inventing the plow

Inventing the rake

Inventing the bridle

Inventing the yoke

Inventing the chariot

Designing the first ship

Beating Arachne in the weaving contest

Turning Arachne into a spider

Blinding Tiresias

And then 15-20 are just for various goddess shenanigans like fighting in wars and aiding some mortals.

Unfortunately, Athena loathes her wings.

For one, she sees them as a sign of hubris. That she’s flaunting her victories. And that doesn’t really sit right with her, as she feels no need to show off.

For two, they are a teensy tiny itty bitty bit excruciatingly painful.

Her wings are meant to be out and free, but instead, she keeps them hidden inside her back. This causes an extreme strain on her entire body, and she says that she can constantly feel them “writhing” beneath her skin, “yearning for an escape.”

And even when she does have them out, she still isn’t free from discomfort. Due to the amount of wings she has (remember, there’s forty of them), there isn’t much space available for all of them to be out at once. She isn’t a very big goddess, after all, and even if she was, the back only has so much skin. As a result, the wings grow over each other, fighting for room, and her flesh gets ripped to shreds. It’s a pretty (read as: extremely) bloody sight.

Her wings are also embedded with several grey eyeballs (think of biblically accurate angels). In my book, this is we’re she gets the epithet Grey-Eyed Athena (because she herself has grey-blue eyes). She CAN see out of all of these eyes, but she chooses not to, as it gives her a headache.

Her primary wings are thirty feet long, and all the rest span from fifteen to twenty-five feet. They all get smaller when they’re folded on her back and only grow to their full size when extended. This keeps her from falling over backward from the weight of them.

The only wings she doesn’t hate are the little wings she has on her head, which aren’t painful or straining or annoying.

And now, beneath the cut, for your viewing pleasure, the actual scene where her wings first appear! Enjoy!

“I didn’t know you had wings.”

The topic was meant to distract Athena from her distress, but it seemed to do the exact opposite, as Athena visibly grimaced at Medusa’s words. Her wings, sprawled limp at her sides, flinched and drew in closer to her back, as though ashamed of themselves.

“Yes,” Athena said softly. “These are my original pair. The ones I had when I was born.”

“Oh? You have more than one?”

“I have many.”

She sounded so tired when she said that. So spiteful toward her own form.

Medusa dipped the moss into the salt water, then gently dabbed at the burn on the left one. Athena jerked away, a ripple of pain causing the entire wing to shudder. When it did, Medusa swore she caught a glimpse of some strange movement from beneath the plumage.

With curious claws, Medusa began pushing back some of the silver feathers. At this, Athena let out a hissing breath and said, “I would not do that if I were you…”

She made no effort to stop Medusa, however, and, too driven by her intrigue, Medusa continued, brushing through feathers until she saw it.

An eye.

A grey eye.

The eyeball revolved around to stare directly at her, and Medusa found herself pulling away instinctively with a small gasp of fright.

Athena sighed heavily. “My apologies.”

“You have…an eye in your wing,” Medusa said as if Athena didn’t already know this.

“Indeed.” Athena raised both wings, and all her feathers stood on end, revealing the array of bright grey eyes underneath. Medusa’s own wings suddenly felt very itchy.

Athena lowered her wings, and her plumage smoothed out. She looked bitter. “Not very inviting, hm?”

“Can you see out of them?” Medusa asked. “The eyes?”

“Technically, yes,” Athena answered. “But I try not to. It is headache-inducing, seeing so many things at once.” Then, sourly, she added, “I don’t like having them out. They’re nuisances. I would cut them off if they didn’t grow back like the heads of a Hydra.”

“You say that like you know that will happen.”

Athena gave her a look.

“Oh.”

There was a small snort from Athena.

Medusa extended a hand and gently stroked one of the wings. It fluttered under her claws.

“Well, I think they’re beautiful,” she said. And then, before Athena could counter her with some self-loathing comment, she went on, “You said you have more?”

“Many more,” Athena nodded. “I am ‘awarded’ with new wings with every accomplishment I achieve as a goddess. They’re a sort of prize, if you will. But if you ask me, they’re just feathery forms of hubris. I have no reason to flaunt my deeds. And yet, the universe seems to want me to.”

“So that is why they call you Grey-Eyed Athena,” Medusa hummed.

That actually got a laugh out of Athena. “Indeed,” she said. “I used to—” Another light laugh. A finger scratched at one of her head-wings sheepishly. “I used to appear before mortals, when they would summon me, with my wings spread out, many eyes aglow and wide open. All mystical and majestic. It got a real kick out of worshippers.”

“Why’d you stop?”

“It lost its appeal after a while. It stopped making me happy, I suppose. It was all just an act. The strain certainly didn’t help, either.”

“Strain?”

Athena heaved a great sigh, and one of her wings twitched. “Having my wings out at all is a constant struggle. These,” she gestured vaguely, “are alright, as they are my original pair, but the others… They’re painful. Terribly so. The more I have out at once, the more friction they create on my body, and it feels as though my skin is being scraped off, piece by piece. My back is usually torn apart by the time only five pairs have emerged.”

Wincing lightly, Medusa couldn’t help but ask, “How many do you have?”

Athena blinked, slightly dazed, then looked up at the dark sky as though she were trying to remember. After a moment, she answered, “Twenty pairs, I believe.”

Now Medusa grimaced fully. Forty wings. Her own two wings were annoying enough at times, but forty? A sympathetic twinge of pain went through her back.

“Wow,” Medusa breathed out.

Athena gave a humorless, bitter laugh. “Indeed.”

“And you said they hurt you?” Medusa pressed.

Athena’s lips pressed into a tight line. “Yes,” she said. “They do. They are not meant to be concealed in a prison of flesh. They are meant to be out and free. But I don’t care. I loathe these mutations. And so, they wrath against me. Even as we speak now, I can feel them writhing beneath my skin, yearning for an escape. The feathers itch so vehemently against my muscles, pressing mercilessly on my bones. It’s a pain.” She lifted her head to Medusa, and her eyes looked so exhausted. “For me, it’s always like this.”

Medusa frowned. “It must get tiring, all that—”

“It does. It does get tiring,” Athena whispered. “But I don’t have any choice. I never did, and I never will.”

Medusa reached down to squeeze one of Athena’s hands tightly. “I’m so sorry, Athena.”

“Don’t be,” Athena said. “You have nothing to apologize for, trust me on that.”

For some time, the two of them sat in silence, Athena staring at the ground with a hollow expression and Medusa tending to her burn.

And then, “Sometimes I get some bad cramps in my wings.”

Athena laughed. One of her head-wings swept around her face to muffle the sound, but Medusa heard it clearly. It was like a chiming bell in a great, black void.

#this poor girl just can’t catch a break #she’s more tortured than the literal main character of the book lmao #anyway! i love this new idea for her so much #I think it’s fun! #medusa’s child #greek myth #greek mythology #greek gods #greek myth retellings #athena #gods and goddesses #ancient greek mythology #medusa #ancient greek #my writing #book snippets #book lore

[childeproof]

Going to assign my self ships mlp main six pairings

#boykujou #I think it’s fun! #self ship #selfship

[william-snekspeare]

This is so real

#unbeweevable 😔 #I want to be totally clear I am NOT making fun of this person I think they’re totally right #not snakes #reddit #weevils #bugs #insects

[badolmen]

People against piracy fail to realize that no, I can’t just ‘buy it.’ They stopped making DVDs and Blu-Rays. They’re barely offering digital copies for download. I am not spending money I could use for food or bills to pay for a subscription service just so I can always have access to a beloved piece of media. Especially not when the service will remove media on a whim without concern for how the loss of access to that piece will make its artistic conservation nigh impossible.

For example, I recently learned that Disney+ had an original film called Crater. It’s scifi, family friendly, and seems cool - I would love to buy it as a holiday gift for my little brother! But: it’s exclusive to D+ and THEY REMOVED IT LITERALLY MONTHS AFTER ITS RELEASE.

The ONLY way I can directly access this film is through piracy. The ONLY available ‘copies’ of this film are hosted on piracy websites. Disney will NEVER release it in theaters, or as something to buy, and it may NEVER return to the streaming service. It will be LOST because we aren’t allowed to purchase it for personal viewing. If I can’t pay to own it, I won’t pay for the privilege of losing it when corporate decides to put it in a vault.

So yes, I’m going to pirate and support piracy.

#ra speaks #piracy #media piracy #pirate to make hondo ohnaka proud #obligatory ‘don’t fucking pirate small authors/artists works wtf dude’ statement. #anyone who’s seen my media bitching before knows I’m a hype man for indie films this ain’t about them #this is about corporate streaming services killing physical media bc sales numbers are less impressive than number of streams #edit: USAmericans stop telling me to buy DVDs and blurays at Walmart. think outside your borders for a hot sec. fun thought exercise. #your experiences are not universal #edit: WHO GOT THIS TO 100k. I JUST WANT TO TALK (this post is my second to hit 100k woahg.) #in other news: fix your fucking posture. drink some fucking water. and go the fuck to bed if it’s late bc it’s for me rn. peace and light.

[jamjoob]

Screencap redraws for fun

#these r so fun to make cuz i don't need to think #also the sudden height difference???? #gobbled that up #marshall/marcy shorter so tru #adventure time #fionna and cake #bubbline #marceline #princess bubblegum #my art

[evidently-endless]

i think we should remind musicians they can absolutely make up little stories for their songs btw. it doesn’t have to be about them at all. you can invent a guy and put him in situations to music. time honoured tradition in fact.

#i love reading your examples! however next person to be like um actually this exists?? it’s on sight #i know it exists. i think it’s fun. that’s why i think more people should do it. #sometimes i think the confessional style loses impact because everything has to be excavated from the depths of the soul #and somehow. confessional writing seems to be going with the most disaffected bland sound possible. odd. #i love deeply personal songs! i love when songs sound like they mean something to the artist! #something something wider issue of mining trauma and being performatively vulnerable for quote unquote content #idk i don’t have the actual knowledge to write about this well there’s just something not landing for me recently #mine

[leavemebetosleep]

when I was a kid for some reason I thought Lola Bunny's last name was "Rabbit" and that she was actually Jessica and Roger's daughter. And the reason she wasn't in the original Loony Tunes is just that she wasn't born yet

I mean can you blame me. Look them and look at her. She's got a good blend of both of their features.

#thinking about toons made me remember this #who framed roger rabbit #lola bunny #looney tunes #honestly I wish this was true it would be so fun #1k post #5k post #10k post #20k post #30k post

[bellwethers]

Tough.

#forgive me if the get along shirt has been done #I think it works for a lot of characters in this show #big toph love #I had so much fun drawing her #also still working on roughing up my style bit by bit #toph beifong #atla toph #fanart #atla #atla fanart #avatar #avatar the last airbender #the last airbender #atla katara #katara #toph avatar #toph atla

[mangozic]

my dead goth son and his friendly neighborhood personified concept of insanity

#really happy with how michael turned out :] i might stick to this design #rapunzel ah glowy hair <3 #i do need to workshop gerry though orz #have been working on this during breaks from my other projects and god it took way too long to finish #fun fact the final file for this is over 2gb 👍 forgot i was recording the timelapse #i could post it if anyone would be interested #the magnus archives #tma #michael distortion #michael shelley #tma michael #tma distortion #gerard keay #gerry keay #tma gerry #gerrymichael #doorkeay #technically? i’m not one to draw ship art usually but this one’s close enough i think #tma fanart #fanart #my art #digital art #illustration #magpod

[aleatoryw]

getting blazed as fuck in public, thinking "boy I sure hope no one knows how high I am right now", and then having the jumpscare of your life when duolingo gives you this notification

#for context it says ''how high your streak is!'' but it crops at just the right point in the text and i misread it every time 💀 #duolingo #unironically though i really like the characters in the duolingo stories i think they're fun

[chloesimaginationthings]

“I assure you Mike, it's still me”

#myart #chloesimagination #comic #five nights at freddy's #fnaf #fnaf fanart #fnaf movie #mike schmidt #steve raglan #willaim afton #horror #halloween #springtrap #purple guy #promise these aren’t spoilers this was based off the trailers 🙏🏾 #I think doing horror comics with fnaf could be sm fun #love love drawin horror #and the rot sets pff

[theywontletmebeprincipal]

obsessed w james somerton saying that he blacked out every time he failed to cite his sources like he’s the dr jekyll/mr hyde of plagiarism

#sanders bullshit #james somerton #civil disk horse #HE’S SO FUNNY. HOW DOES HE THINK HE’LL GET AWAY WITH ALL THAT #to be clear I am not making fun of his head injury it’s just that That Is Not How Head Injuries Work

[demadogs]

nothing can break the bond between a friend who loves spoilers and a friend who just watched an amazing show and needs to tell someone the entire plot from start to finish

#respectfully i think youre a bit crazy if you love spoilers but ill allow it bc it means i get to yell about one of my favorite shows #i did this with st to my friend #it was very fun #1k #10k #post 10k tag: i am shocked theres more people in the tags saying theyre the ones that likes spoilers #im the one who tells someone everything

[fox-mulder-gets-pegged]

I just wanna say bc I KNOW you're somewhere on tumblr, to the teenage girl who attended Take Your Kid To Work Day at an office building in Ontario, Canada circa 2013 and had a conversation with a middle aged woman in which you showed her your Black Veil Brides fanart and fanfics and ship content and told her about different fanfic tropes including a/b/o verse bc she happened to know who Panic! at The Disco and Fallout Boy were and thus you felt the need to show her your bandblr ship art, that was my fucking mother and I had to clarify all that to her including looking my mother in the eye and trying to explain a/b/o verse without sounding like a lunatic.

It's been 10 years and I still regularly sent evil energies in your direction. Since you'd be probably two years younger than me and thus legally an adult now, please know if this post reaches you it's on sight.

#she cornered me in the car and asked what shipping was and i almost had a fucking heart attack #imagine being like 16 years old and habing to explain knotting to your mother #random emo music girl I'm glad you had fun talking about your Band Guys to my mother #bc i also attended take your kid to work day at that office and i know how boring it was #but christ alive why did you have to fuck me like that? #anyways i hope this post reaches you so at the very least you know i think about you at least once a week #this has been weighing on me for ten years #im almost tempted to blaze this post

[badolmen]

WARNING 18+

19

#ra speaks #it’s a silly joke/pun dw #we stay silly :3 #edit: #woahg. that’s a lot of notes. hi everybody o/ #10k. stop clenching your jaw and drink some water. #15k. eat some fresh fruit this week! I’m having kiwis tonight :] #20k. quit sitting like a shrimp it’s bad for your neck! sit up straight and do a little stretch every now and then #25k. I’m up at 2 AM but I’ll get to see the sunrise today :] if you can’t see that I hope you admire the sunset later today #30k. do something fun you haven’t done in a while. I haven’t drawn in months - I think I’ll paint a cat tomorrow :3

[daisywords]

One of my biggest nitpicks in fiction concerns the feeding of babies. Mothers dying during/shortly after childbirth or the baby being separated form the mother shortly after birth is pretty common in fiction. It is/was also common enough in real life, which is why I think a lot of writers/readers don't think too hard about this. however. Historically, the only reason the vast majority of babies survived being separated from their mother was because there was at least one other woman around to breastfeed them. Before modern formula, yes, people did use other substitutes, but they were rarely, if ever, nutritionally sufficient.

Newborns can't eat adult food. They can't really survive on animal milk. If your story takes place in a world before/without formula, a baby separated from its mother is going to either be nursed by someone else, or starve.

It doesn't have to be a huge plot point, but idk at least don't explicitly describe the situation as excluding the possibility of a wetnurse. "The father or the great grandmother or the neighbor man or the older sibling took and raised the baby completely alone in a cave for a year." Nope. That baby is dead I'm sorry. "The baby was kidnapped shortly after birth by a wizard and hidden away in a secret tower" um quick question was the wizard lactating? "The mother refused to see or touch her child after birth so the baby was left to the care of the ailing grandfather" the grandfather who made the necessary arrangements with women in the neighborhood, right? right? OR THAT GREAT OFFENDER "A newborn baby was left on the doorstep and they brought it in and took care of it no issues" What Are You Going to Feed That Baby. Hello?

Like. It's not impossible, but arrangements are going to have to be made. There are some logistics.

#idk what to tag this #worldbuilding #writing fiction #historical fiction #fantasy #a real-life example: my dad (a pediatrician) was once entrusted with the care of a baby who was born with a rare condition #this was in a place without great hospital/medical access and anyway they were going to fly the baby over #and he specifically asked them to bring the mother and baby #they show up with baby and...the baby's uncle #and he was like. y'all. do you think I asked for the mom to come just for fun??? We don't have formula here. what is the baby going to eat?