#i just kept on rendering & correcting stuff :)

[prismatic-bell]

This is probably a really dumb question. But is it okay for us non-Jewish people to reblog the very lovely quote about how it's okay not to complete the work, but we're not allowed to abandon it? Because I'm not Jewish, I follow you, and b/c of your posts I've been seeing how really shitty we non-Jews are w/assimilation and stuff, & I don't want to do wrong by anybody. Thanks, Marbles

OKAY SO.

As with all things Jewish, there’s a short answer and there’s a good answer. There also is no “right” answer, because “two Jews, three opinions” is an underestimation of how many opinions you can fit into one Jew, but this is MY answer, and I think a decent chunk of Jews will probably find it at least mostly acceptable.

For those just tuning into this program, the quote @marblesarelost is referring to is my favorite in all of Judaism, and was written by Rabbi Tarfon in a section of Talmud called the Pirkei Avot:

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Walk humbly NOW! Do justly NOW! No one is obligated to complete the work, but neither may any one desist from it.”

The “work” being spoken of is to repair the world, or in Hebrew, “tikkun olam.” It’s the central tenet of my movement in Judaism, the Reform movement.

So: you are absolutely correct that there’s a huge problem with gentiles appropriating things from Judaism. However, let’s go back to the original, actual definition of cultural appropriation, as created by Black women: it’s not just that you do a thing we do. It’s that you mock or berate us for a thing, then turn around and take that thing, strip it of all its original meaning, and use it, and suddenly in your hands it’s “cool.” When the concept of cultural appropriation first fell onto my radar circa 2016, one of the major examples was dreadlocks, and how clean, well-kept locs on a Black woman are “unprofessional” and “dirty” but the kind-of-vaguely-looks-like-locs-if-you-get-drunk-and-squint deliberately-created MATS some white people wear and call “locs” are seen as a sign you’re “boho” or “a free spirit.” This was closely followed by discussion of bindis, and how they’re treated with disdain when worn by Indian women but Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande puts one on and suddenly they’re sooooooo chic.

(Yes, in an ironic twist you couldn’t put in a book because people would call it unrealistic, the very concept of cultural appropriation has been appropriated.)

So with the actual, this-is-what-the-Black-community-meant definition in front of you for reference, take a look at these questions. These are rhetorical—anybody with the degree of self-awareness to say “I don’t know if this thing from a closed religion is for me” is probably not doing any of this. It’s just here for reference.

—do you see a problem with “Christian Seders” or do you think Jews should be flattered other people are interested, geez, it’s not like we’re being murdered?

—do you make fun of people wearing skullcaps/kippot/yarmulkes, or do you recognize it’s cultural garb?

—do you get all weird and pissy over the major Jewish holiday season being in fall rather than in winter?

—do you conflate Jews with Israel or do you recognize that these are two separate groups with some overlap?

—do you make fun of Orthodox clothing and hairstyles?

If you can honestly say “no, I realize this is a culture of its own and things I don’t understand aren’t necessarily ‘wrong’ or ‘weird,’ just different,” you’re in a good position to share Jewish voices.

HERE IS WHERE THE CURVEBALL COMES IN.

This quote is from Talmud.

And unlike things like, say….talking about a Seder you were invited to, or saying “may you be sealed” to a Jewish friend on Yom Kippur, the Talmud is not semi-closed, it’s *closed.* People study Talmud all their lives in the hope of gaining even a small glimmer of understanding. It has to be studied in the context of being well-versed in Torah and Jewish interpretation, because removing it from that context renders it entirely incomprehensible.

WITH THAT SAID.

I think this is one of the few places in Talmud where there is, at a bare minimum, a surface understanding that’s applicable to everyone. Certainly Rabbi Tarfon’s words carry additional weight with the force of Jewish learning and tradition behind them, but I’m pretty sure if you could sit down with him and say “Rabbi, your words inspired me to keep fighting for my community. When I was ready to give up your words reminded me I wasn’t alone, that anything I do in the interest of pushing forward justice and equality is a net positive, and I was able to keep going. I’m a gentile. Is it okay that I take this from your words?” he’d almost certainly be like “yes??? As you say, it’s a net positive, so why wouldn’t I be okay with you gleaning this?” It’s slightly different from a lot of Talmudic commentary in that it applies to the mitzvot of things like tikkun olam and pikuach nefesh, but these things can also be done outside the Jewish community without any reference to Torah at all. You can pay for a homeless person’s dinner and that’s tikkun olam. You can take a CPR class and that’s pikuach nefesh (or at least, preparing yourself to commit an act thereof, should it be necessary). You aren’t doing those things as mitzvot, because you’re a gentile—you’re doing them because you think they’re the right thing to do—but that doesn’t mean “don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do it all, but don’t just give up either” isn’t good advice. We don’t call him one of our greatest sages because he was an idiot. Is there plenty more below the surface? Oh, for sure. Does that make the surface reading wrong? Not necessarily.

So: 99.999999% of the time, I would say you should not reblog Talmudic quotes. They’re not going to be relevant to you or your life experience and you’ll lack the background knowledge to interpret them.

But this one, specifically? Yeah. I’d say this one is okay. Make sure it’s sourced to Rabbi Tarfon and the Pirkei Avot/Ethics of the Father, or to the Talmud.

And then go forth, and do justly now, and remember: you can’t finish the work alone. But you also don’t have the right to walk away.

Okay, fellow Jews, time for a pie fight in the comments. Have fun.

#you ask nina answers #nina blogs judaism #Jumblr

[jackfrombaskinrobbins]

baking contest w/ the avengers!!

type of writing: headcanons / scenario

word count: 1k

request: yes / no

original request: OMG CAN U PLS DO THE AVENGERS IF THEY HAD LIKE A COOKING OR BAKING CONTEST?

dynamic: avengers x teen!reader (teenage avenger series)

characters: reader, scott lang, nick fury, clint barton, harley keener, peter parker, miles morales, tony stark, pietro maximoff etc

a/n: HECK YEAH I CAN!!!! i loved this idea sm i was so excited to get this request :D i'm getting back into writing so sorry if it's a lil bad lol. also guys i'm gonna open requests again so feel free to submit!! i have a lot of muse for spiderverse stuff atm hehe so i may post again today!! tysm, hope u enjoy!!!

taglist: @shefollowedthestars @thecloudedmind @ayohitmanddaeng

(fill out this form to be on my taglist!)

-----------------------✰----------------------

so there’s this thing that the avengers do

in order to do team bonding

they’ll assign partners in the beginning of the year

& each month, a new set of partners will choose something to do

and it’s always super fun

like that’s how u ended up at the trampoline park last month

& how scott ended up with a broken arm rip king

so this month had to be something a little less dangerous

kinda funny when u think about it like it’s literally the avengers they’re in dangerous situations all the time

and while you wanted to do something different, certain ~forces~ kept preventing that

like y’all were watching a movie a couple weeks ago

and fury came on the screen 

how he could hack into it idk hes nick fury dude he can do anything

but he just looked at the camera and said “no more dumbass trampoline parks”

HAH

so yeah it had to be something tame 

anyway so this month was you and scott!!!!

best duo ever!!!!!!

so you had to plan what to do

& scott refused to go skydiving bc that was your first choice

smh scott it would be so fun!!!!

his arm was still broken & he said that was why he wouldn’t go but like…. scott we know ur a scaredy-cat

anyway you were trying to decide when suddenly he was like

“y/n!!!! i totally forgot! the great british baking show just premiered and i promised clint we could watch it together!”

and that gave you an idea

scott LOVED it

but y’all needed a couple things before 

first of all, u needed baking supplies

when i say baking supplies i mean BAKING SUPPLIES

there’s like a thousand avengers at this point bruh :’)

scott almost got one of those instacart orders for it but u hated the thought of an instacart person getting ur crazy order

so it was store time :D 

let’s just say tony’s credit card was used very well that day 😛

then it was time to pick teams

not everyone had to participate

wanda said she wanted in

so pietro joined too which was slightly concerning

the man literally burnt a bowl of cereal once

and ur probably thinking “how—”

EXACTLY

only you and harley saw it and honestly it rendered u both speechless

tony joined too

but you and scott made sure he knew that there could be NO robots 

vision asked to be a judge

scott said “vis, we really appreciate that but… uh… don’t you like not eat?”

“ah! you are correct, scott. i do not consume food in the traditional way. however, given my vast knowledge & global database, i do believe that i would be a very good judge of presentation and overall ingredient chemistry.”

“alright, you do that buddy!”

also off topic but why do i just know that tony would give vision the nickname “chat gpt”

 sorry i had to get that out ANYWAYY

you got a few more people to participate 

sam and bucky wanted to be a team, and harley peter & miles wanted to be a team too

yknow what that was fine by you

so the day came.

you had turned one of the empty conference rooms into a crazy kitchen setup

thx party city for the confetti & balloons!!! ;)

in came your loyal hosts, scott & clint

(clint begged you and scott to let him host, he kept using a british accent until you said yes & just trust me it was good that he finally stopped)

you, natasha, and vision were the taste & presentation judges

you surveyed scott’s & your work, pretty proud of how it turned out

“ALRIGHTY THEN, READY, SET, OFF THE BLIMEY!!”

vision shot you a quizzical look, but you just shook your head.

scott & clint rly were a…. hosting duo

yep, the most… hosting duo of all time

the hostiest hosters to ever host

omg the funniest thing was that they kept eating the cookie dough from harley peter & miles’ station

they literally had to push them away

peter & miles webbed their hands shut HAHA

everyone else seemed to be doing pretty well though

aside from their usual arguing, bucky & sam seemed to actually be making something good

wanda was perfect as per usual

and pietro was zipping around the kitchen, causing tony’s flour to rise up in his face

steve came over, blowing a whistle and pointed at pietro

you and scott had enlisted him to be the referee

yes, cooking shows don’t normally have referees, but think abt the ppl we’re dealing with here 😀

anyways finally time was up!!!

but you and scott still had a trick up your sleeves.

“and now presenting our special guest judge… GIVE IT UP FOR NICK FURY!!”

yes that’s right, he had said yes to this

after you promised to finish a mission report for him

and bought him some new eyepatches

which was why he was wearing a navy blue one complete with rhinestones

pietro was up first, and he placed four slices of chocolate cake in front of all the judges.

“i gotta say p, this actually looks really good!” you spoke, and he beamed.

natasha didn’t look so sure

“as y/n says, it does look alright on the outside. however, it does seem like there’s some sort of… strange ingredient in the chemical makeup… i am going to analyze for a moment.” said vision

“aw, let’s just eat the damn thing already!” fury spoke, and so you all did.

“mm, it’s good!!” you said, and natasha nodded in agreement.

but did not have the same reaction. 

he had stopped chewing, and his eye had narrowed. he was giving pietro a death stare.

“uhm… fury? what is … jolly wrong with you?” scott asked, his british accent wavering.

“yeah… guv’nr?” said clint.

“who the hell puts hot sauce in a damn chocolate cake. you better start runnin’ maximoff, because i’m comin’ for you!!” fury spoke, getting progressively louder.

“that one was supposed to be for y/n- i mean vision! yeah! oops. um…” pietro spoke, before disappearing from the room in a quick streak.

after that, fury left. 

and that's why now cooking/baking competitions are banned on the premises of SHIELD!!

-----------------------✰----------------------

#mcu headcanons #marvel headcanons #marvel #mcu #mae's requests #avengers headcanons #bucky barnes #sam wilson #steve rogers #tony stark #pietro maximoff #scott lang #clint barton #nick fury

[bzedan]

Last Year's Flash Fiction: Dreams of Falling

Storytelling Collective does a yearly challenge for flash fic, with prompts and a nice community format. Every year I complete a run I pick my ten favourites and collect them into what is basically a zine. I've got 2024's up, so now it's time to share some faves from 2023.

[ID: An image rendered in faux-photocopy style of a hand holding a pocket-sized steampunk-style watch face with multiple dials and a twist of wire along the top exposed screws. End ID.]

Dreams of falling

The worst thing about probably falling for eternity is that she remembered an incredibly mediocre short story she’d read once. Before she’d remembered the story, her main concern had been what her options were going to be if she needed to go to the bathroom. Worries about a theoretical full bladder—or worse—were wiped away by the sudden memory of some story in a collection she couldn’t remember the name of.

Like most collections of short stories, the end value was fine, more or less. The main reason she’d picked up the collection, a short that had been turned into a movie, had been disappointing. There had been a good story or two in the first section of the book but as the pages went on the quality seemed to degrade.

The one she remembered while falling had been near the end and halfway through it she’d just been skimming the words. It was about Alice falling down the rabbit hole, but the hole was endless. There were lots of descriptions and possibly? She wasn’t certain, but the text may have switched back and forth between the lyrical descriptions of the White Rabbit’s hole (she allowed herself a laugh at her phrasing) and an essay about Lewis Carroll’s work.

It made sense to have suddenly remembered this less-than-par short story as she fell. Though she wasn’t, technically, falling. Her body was pretty certain she was, but the human body is a fool and a compulsive liar. The lead that kept her safe and attached to the station had been severed and there’d been a small explosion and now here she was. Falling, or flying, or moving maybe was the most correct description. Her suit didn’t have thrusters; it was a basic mechanic’s onesie that didn’t even have accommodations for using the toilet.

The upside to the whole thing was that, as a basic mechanic’s onesie, the air supply was small. Enough in the tanks to let you pop out and take a gander at what was going on and tighten some screws or realign a whatever. Which was what she’d expected when she stepped Outside.

But when she’d got to the problem sector, she saw that it was going to be a much more involved fix than a couple of screws or the incredibly illegal but commonly used combination of a kick and a well-crafted curse.

She’d seated her magnetic soles against the hull and thumbed her radio to transmit a heads up, so her apprentice could ready what they called her Big Business Suit.

And then there’d been a weird judder through her tether and, as she’d turned to look, it felt like the hull had hiccuped. The metal skin buckled, breaking her magnetic grasp, and off she’d gone.

And now she was in the middle of nowhere, remembering a mediocre short story. Which was worse, she’d decided, than remembering a bad short story. Something that truly sucked could still get some passion going. Anger at seeing where a story could have gone, at the author’s complete pratfall of a piece, all satisfying stuff. The boring stories didn’t give you that. It would be nice to drift out into that cold nothing with some sort of vibrant feeling.

As she settled back into a sort of space approximation of the sort of posture you were supposed to take if you were capsized in a river, seated back with legs ahead, her bladder twinged. She wondered if it was uncouth to place bets on if you’d piss yourself before your oxygen ran out. Maybe. But it wasn’t like anyone would know. She smiled. This was better than remembering that story, at least.

#meche writes #writblr #flash fiction february #writers of tumblr

[lunashiba]

A bit of a redesign for Morgan, first posted on 7-13-2022. I was very, very happy with how this piece turned out actually! It was my first time using a binary brush, so I had a small bit of a learning curve with this one. I usually paint and render, so I feel pretty uncomfortable with cell shading (but this time, it ended up alright). I’ll put some processes and such below, along with some more backstory and thoughts, if anybody is interested.

A minion is dangling on her tail on the bottom right.

Above are the sketches and WIPs I had leading up to the finished piece. I really liked these sketches, but ended up deciding to fully draw out one. Morgan was actually one of my first OCs, but her design has changed a lot over time. Back when I first started to draw, I thought that OCs were a bit too far out for me- I only ever envisioned myself as a fan artist. Nowadays, it’s quite the opposite- I don’t think I’ll ever do much art of popular media and such except if it’s for friends. The friends I made when I first started drawing all had OCs though, and that was what eventually made me more keen to the idea of making one. In my mind, having a consistent character to grind out all the time would be helpful in building my consistency and speed, so it counted as something that would help me grind- not to mention all the art stuff that went into “designing a character”.

I used to be extremely into learning art in a very methodical, nearly academic way. Everything had to be very productive and effective- I had to make sure I was getting as good as I could, as fast as I could; otherwise I’d be wasting time. I think it’s pretty easy to see my mindset at the time being unhealthy, but I don’t know if I’d regret too much of it. I enjoyed finally having a “productive” hobby in my life. With my online art friends, we decided to altogether draw something of a banner, with all of our pieces lined side to side- with this opportunity, I decided to draw the first iteration of my OC, who had no name at the time.

3-4-2018

I think that this may have also been my first piece with color? Or at least, full page of color. I think I just referred to her as “the horn girl” or “the antler girl” and based it on some crazy deer stuff. I loved the little doodles I did to the side- It’s something I haven’t done as much. I used to make sure to always put a little scribble as somewhere as a joke for anybody who looked hard enough to find it in all of my pieces, but it started annoying me because I couldn’t ignore it once I posted the piece. After this, I tried to further work on my OC, opting for different colors.

4-5-2018

I liked this design actually, but it didn’t really fit my personality. I guess I don’t really vibe that well with smug characters. I like the outfit I designed for her, but I think it shows a bit too much skin- it wouldn’t really be something I’d draw nowadays. It’d take a bit for me to realize that NSFW art or anything slightly so wouldn’t really be for me either.

4-30-2018

Things started to get refined- I kept around the ponytail, and toned down her outfit. I remember being extremely happy with the satchel and the earrings, and I kept around the thigh highs. I still felt a bit unhappy, with the design, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.

10-23-2018

If you look at the dates, you can see that it took a few months for this current design to come along. I actually extremely adore this design, and I don’t think I’ll ever fully shelve it. Disregarding the hair, this is pretty much the final design of this character. This is the Morgan that truly lives through to today. I remember drawing the shoes for over an hour- maybe two hours. I worked a long time on the line art, especially regarding the shoes, making sure that I’d get it absolutely correct in both perspective and in geometry. Nowadays I’m much less of a perfectionist in some ways (though more in others). Morgan initially had more brunette hair, but I gradually transitioned to a bit more of an anime red, and I brought back the horns that I really liked. A particular artifact of this era of art was that I used to draw little triangles above the eyes, to symbolize the little wrinkles in the eyelids. I know I didn’t make it up myself, but I’m not exactly sure where I got it from. Now, I just draw the eyelid folds. From here on out, it was more just personality growths than visual design changes.

3-6-2020

At this point, I had been accepted into art school and engineering school. I couldn’t give up either of them, so I doubled majored- as a result, what I had to give up on was time. I stopped doing as much digital art for a while, so most of what I have at this time period can be seen in notebook paper or scrap paper. I was a huge workaholic, and it started to affect my health.

3-8-2020

Morgan is gay. I came to the realization that I was pretty gay too, at around this time, and I guess I wanted to show it in my art too.

3-9-2020

The day after. She is very gay still. Here, you can see the absolute beginnings of a tiny doodle of Soone. She’d be developed later.

4-19-2020

I found my favorite marker. It wasn’t anything special at all- the tip was running dry, and it was completely blank- I couldn’t find any trace of a brand at all. The terrible paper with the texture of the marker made it extremely appealing to me however, and I fell in love with it. I don’t know where it is now, but I hope I’ll find another terrible marker at some point to fall in love with again.

Bonus Soone sketch idea. I really like this design, but overall decided to not use it- or at least, not all of it. I don’t think it’s fully gone yet though.

7-19-2020

Morgan’s character design is basically completed- She is very gay. I think at this point, she was also trans, though it was much more unspoken. It’s a bit subtle, but I stopped giving her as much indication of having “a chest”.

9-4-2020

I did a bit more work with Morgan’s horns here. It’s nothing that stays around too much, but who’s to say it won’t come back? I think I stopped drawing horns like this because I was a bit lazy with horn rendering. Also, it made the design a bit busy. This outfit is cute though, and I like it as a general vibe of Morgan. She also has a tummy piercing.

9-12-20

A little in-joke between friends.

10-7-2020

A Halloween drawing. She still has red horns. I used to always draw Sharingan on everything as a joke, but it’s faded out a bit now.

1-15-2021

I treasure this comic a lot. In a way, it helped me cope a lot, as it was based on a true story. I love this design for Morgan, kinda symbolizing an earlier Morgan, maybe a bit earlier in her transition. It somewhat aligned with my life, and the mental state I was kinda living in. I want to make more comics like this.

1-28-2021

Small doodles I had lying around on another blog.

3-29-2021

I forgot I drew this until writing this post. This Morgan was a bit of a vision of how a more confident, future Morgan would be like. Regarding her future, I think she’d end up enjoying being a professor, and I felt the vibes would be nice. Who’s to say if this is canon or not- or if there is a canon. I like having fun. Her horns are red and have ridges as well. I’d like to imagine that she’s the type of professor to have photos of her wedding on her desk, along with photos of her wife and her cats.

6-14-2021

This one was for Pride Month 2021. I should draw another piece next year, since I missed 2022′s. This is probably one of my proudest paintings ever, and one of my favorite Morgan Designs. I want to draw her like this again. I dropped the horns being red also, and moved to a more white/cream color.

8-18-2021

This one I made while I was very sad. It took a lot of coming to terms regarding my family, but this sketch helped me out a lot. I didn’t have the heart to color nor render it however, so I had posted it as is. I think for all of us, many things change, but some things may always stay the same.

8-24-2021

A bit of a happier time- a bitter sweet smile.

9-03-2021

I started to draw more of my daily life as well- this was inspired from my bus rides, where I’d constantly be stressed about school, but simultaneously wanting to draw. I’ve also transitioned from drawing wired to wireless earbuds. Technology evolving is great.

1-1-2022

Happy New Year doodles. I really like all of these designs. I don’t know what to do with this like though. I could always say “Maybe I’ll turn them into Twitch Emotes since I have space,” or “I should make some Discord stickers with them,” but I think I already I’ll be a bit too lazy to do so.

4-10-2022

This was inspired by two adorable mannequins I saw at the mall- I knew right away that I wanted to draw them in these outfits, so I took a picture right away and started a sketch I never finished. It’s around this time that I slowly started to approach the Adventure Time methodology to characters. In Adventure Time, the characters always had such varying hairstyles, clothing, and outfits that I adored- differing from episode to episode. I decided that any Morgan and any Soone will still be Morgan and Soone no matter how they looked, and actually focused on less of a central design (though I still liked the central design).

2-27-2022

A bit more of a “Realistic” Morgan and Soone. I think optimally, I’d love to draw Morgan like this more. Her design here as a more androgynous character is something I really wish I could do more often, instead of falling back on the easier to draw very-feminine Morgan. I based this design a lot on the Fate character Enkidu, whose androgynous design I’ve fallen deeply in love with (specifically, this one, which is one of my more memorable adored arts that I can think of).

4-01-2022

Morgan but ACTUALLY more real. I couldn’t get the colors right, so I left things as black and white. I’m still extremely happy with it though. I initially posted it for this year’s Pride Month, but then mentally removed it, since I felt I’d rather have a fully complete piece.

[------ END ------]

There are a few more Morgan pieces here and there, but maybe I’ll place out a few posts with them, so that I can put out the process and WIPs separately. As it stands, this post has run pretty long, and ended up being a lot more detailed than I had initially planned for. I ended up finishing the draft for this post at 4:40 AM, though I had initially posted it nearly 10 hours earlier. I ranted a lot, but I think it was nice to type all this out. Not sure who’d be interested in reading all this, but thanks for sticking through. I’m glad that I was able to write out so much for Morgan though. I also hope I can draw her more often, and post her everywhere. I hope that other people also like her as well. I hope everybody has a great day and night.

Thank you for reading.

Luna

#lgbtq #art

[revvywevvy]

Here's Modern AU Pyrrha!! <3 Backstory info (and s/i meeting) under the cut [oh and since I forgot to mention in the previous post both CJ and Pyrrha are 21 at the current point, the backstory stuff is just flashbacks]

Millennia ago, during the height of the spirit swords’ reigns, a young descendant of the Alexandra bloodline embarked on a journey to destroy the cursed sword, Soul Edge. He endured many trials, and triumphed against countless foes who sought the evil sword and its power. The gods protected him as best they could, but Soul Edge’s power was seemingly unstoppable at its peak. Not even they could protect the descendent from Soul Edge, even in the sword’s defeat. The descendent had successfully destroyed the sword after a long journey; however, countless shards of the shattered weapon embedded themselves inside his body. Most of the fragments could be removed; all but one. The shard rested near his heart, and stayed there for the remainder of his days.

Years later, when his child became dependent on the cursed fragment’s energy to survive, the father sacrificed himself, ripping the shard from his body and implanting it into his child. The child lived, grew, and… was able to exist, mostly unscathed. However, the loving father’s sacrifice had come with a large side effect that nobody had seen coming. In the process of transferring the shard from person to person, the evil sword had gotten a taste of their blood. This contamination fully tainted their blood; inadvertently cursing the bloodline to come with its evil power. The child lived unaware, and fully completed their life.

Upon giving birth to their own child later on, the curse was passed down. It continued on this way, the curse of Soul Edge passing down from descendent to descendent for thousands of years. For most of those millennia, all remained unscathed, the spirit swords remaining dormant for a prolonged period, rendering the resting energy practically useless. However, as the modern age approached and countless folk discovered the existence of the swords, they were ripped from their hibernation. With that; the dark powers returned, cursing the Alexandra bloodline once more.

It was when the daughter of Sophitia Alexandra, Pyrrha, had fallen victim to the brunt of its curse. The child would die should Sophitia not act soon. As such, the determined mother battled through her own ailments from the curse, starting her own journey to save her child. The woman prayed rigorously to the gods, and had previously been a very religious woman. The gods heard her prayers, and granted her the strength to find the evil sword. She did just that, finding the evil weapon and sacrificing her life to hold the weapon back. Her sacrifice kept the wicked curse at bay, and before anyone knew it, Pyrrha Alexandra recovered.

However, then the worst occurred. One day, the little girl disappeared. As the first-born, she was the main one affected by the curse between her and her brother, and as such, countless cults and groups seeking the evil sword had their eyes on their family once the curse’s existence was discovered. It was thought that one of the many cults had kidnapped her, however, they couldn’t find a single trace of evidence linking her disappearance to the cults. Only one person had a clue of who was to blame: Pyrrha’s little brother, Patroklos. He’d seen a raven-haired teenage girl, one who he thought had lured little Pyrrha in then snatched her away. He was correct, however, no one would know what truly occurred until years later.

It was many years later when Pyrrha Alexandra had entered highschool. She was living completely across the country from where she was born, being passed from foster home to foster home. She had no memory of her earliest years, all of its happenings lost to time. The girl’s life was miserable, to put it lightly. The foster parents raising her could care less for her existence, only keeping her around for the money they were paid to raise her. She was bullied by her peers, and was oh, so lonely. There was not a friend in sight for the girl, it seemed. One day, though, a young raven-haired woman appeared, a sweet smile on her face and nothing to offer but friendship. The young teen was shocked, but overjoyed. Someone wanted to be around her…? The poor girl was so lost, so alone, that she was easily susceptible to the manipulation of this woman. Without another thought, Pyrrha happily accepted the friendship of the woman, Tira. Many others would see red flags aplenty in this ‘friendship’, with a grown woman befriending and seemingly trying to woo a teenage girl. It was odd, and especially concerning– yet, not a single person cared that Pyrrha was potentially being groomed by the woman. It just came with being unwanted, and uncared for.

It kept going like that, until one day, Tira made an offer to Pyrrha. Out there, in the world, was a sword of immense and unstoppable power. With that power, she could finally be in control of her life. She could get revenge on those who hurt her in her life. She could finally be happy! Pyrrha paused at the woman’s offer, unsure. Of course she trusted her, she was her best friend! However, Tira was suggesting things that, to put it likely, scared Pyrrha. She may have hated her circumstances, but… for the most part, she was safe. Being asked to leave everything she’s known and leave with Tira, to join her in getting that power, in getting revenge on the people who hurt her the most. Tira offered her a happily-ever-after, just her and Pyrrha. Yet, that ‘happy ending’ scared her. This was starting to feel wrong. Tira was making offers and moves that made her uncomfortable, and worried. Pyrrha quickly answered that she needed time to think it over, that she had to get to school soon lest she get in trouble with her parents. With that, she ran off, giving Tira no time to respond. The woman watched Pyrrha run off, and smiled. Soon enough. Soon enough the time would come.

That day, when Pyrrha had arrived at school, it was announced one of her classes was having a multi-class project, with two different teachers combining their classes together to help one another. Pyrrha sighed sadly. As per usual, she’d either be forced to work alone, or be forcefully grouped up with someone who clearly wanted nothing to do with her. As the two classes congregated and grouped up, one girl stood out from the crowd, her eyes on the lonely Pyrrha. Pyrrha locked eyes with the girl for a second, before quickly averting her gaze, staring at the floor awkwardly. The other girl smiled softly, tightened her ponytail, and approached Pyrrha.

Pyrrha yelped a little when the girl’s hand began resting against her desk. “Hey.” “…Um… h-hi.” “Y’looked lonely over here, got a partner yet?” “Oh! Um… n-no, nobody wants to work with me. Everyone’s, um. Already said no.” The girl raised an eyebrow at Pyrrha’s words. “Seriously? Ugh, people suck, don’t they? Screw them, wanna be partners for this? I ain’t got anyone else in my corner either.” Pyrrha looked up at her. “R-Really..?” “Yeah! Besides, you seem a lot more chill than a buncha those jerks over there. Hopefully you aren’t the type to dump all the work on one person, I’m sicka people doin’ that shit to me.” Pyrrha sat quietly for a moment. “Y-Yeah, people do that to me a lot… a-after they’re forced to work with me by the teacher. It’s not nice, b-but I kinda get it since they’re being forced to work with me. U-Um…! Anyways- we… we could work together, y-yeah.” The girl raised a brow at the latter of the comments, mentally shaking her head at the audacity of some people, but she quickly shook it off. “Cool! Name’s Colette, but you can just call me CJ. What about you?” CJ offered an encouraging smile to Pyrrha. Noticing this, Pyrrha couldn’t help but smile back. CJ was being kind to her, just like Tira had been for months. However, CJ’s kindness didn’t seem uncomfortable, or bordering on creepy. She frowned a little, but shook the thought off when she noticed the smallest bit of confusion in CJ’s expression. “Um-!! P-Pyrrha, my name’s Pyrrha!”

The two girls spent the rest of the class talking, and beginning to work on the project. They exchanged phone numbers, and it was later that day when the two girls met up again. It was their lunch break, the two girls eating lunch together in a random classroom and working on their projects at the same time. It was then when Pyrrha spoke up. “Um… C-CJ?” “Hm?” CJ pulled off an earphone, looking at Pyrrha out of the corner of her eye. “This… um, doesn’t have anything to do with the project, b-but, um… have you ever heard any stories about this, like… extreme power? In a sword, or something..?” CJ grabbed her phone, pausing her music and taking her headphones off. She looked at Pyrrha with a concerned expression. Pyrrha, seeing that expression, began to nervously backtrack. “I-I mean, um…! Sorry, does that make me sound crazy?? I-I won’t bring it up again if–” “No, I’ve heard of it. There’s been a lot of criminals trying to get a hold of it, some ancient power or something. It’s like– conspiracy theory level shit, except it’s potentially real??? Either way, it sounds like bad news all around.” CJ went silent for a second, concerned expression getting worse. “Why do you ask?” Pyrrha yipped. “W-Well, um. My friend brought it up to me.” “Really now… what about it?” “…….She wants me to go with her. To find it.” “W-What?! Why?! I mean, how could you guys even pull that off, don’t you need, like, a license or something so you can travel? We’re not even old enough for permits yet…” Pyrrha paused. “Um, a-actually, Tira has a license. She’s 29, so she’s really good at driving and stuff. O-Or so she said. She said she has enough money for us to go find it, b-but…” Pyrrha trailed off.

Upon hearing that, CJ’s expression darkened. “I… what the hell??” Pyrrha’s eyes widened and started to tear up, her hands starting to shake. “I-I dunno what to do… she’s my friend, a-and she’s so nice to me, but… she keeps insisting we go, and that I’ll finally be happy when we find it. S-So many people are mean, and Tira’s so nice to me. She keeps promising me that when we find it we can make sure nobody would hurt me again. B-But… where would it even be, how long would we be gone??” Pyrrha looked down at her lap, fiddling with her hands. “I… Pyrrha, how old are you? I mean, we’re both freshmen, so you gotta be no older than 15, right?? I- y-your ‘friend’, she’s literally 29?? A grown ass adult! That… This sounds dangerous. And wrong, so wrong. I-I mean– I know you said she’s your friend, and she’s nice to you and stuff, b-but… holy shit the project can wait, we need to tell an adult about this.” “W-What?! N-No, I don’t want Tira to get in trouble!! She’s my friend, I don’t wanna hurt her. E…Even if she does make me uncomfortable sometimes.” CJ’s frown deepens. “Pyrrha, I get that, but she’s trying to get you to join her for basically a death expedition?? So many criminals and cults and stuff are after that sword, it’s like– world domination levels of shit!” Pyrrha paused. “C-Criminals… cults… it’s all bad people after it..??” “Yeah, not a field trip you’d wanna go on, trust me.” “…H-How do you know all of that…? You’re so informed… I-I didn’t even know.” CJ started to sweat a little.

The goddess’s voice whispered in CJ’s ear, proclaiming immense danger. This was what she was warning her about. CJ’s eyes darted about a bit, and she fully understood what was going on. With a sigh, she patted Pyrrha’s shoulder. “I just… watch the news a lot. Looking stuff up online and all that.” She felt bad lying, but what else could she do?

Silently, she begged the goddess to help her, to protect Pyrrha. This… this was all part of that scheme, the ploy of the cults to gain power over the world. If they wanted something with Pyrrha, there had to be a reason why. Even CJ meeting Pyrrha, after being given such an important task. It all had to be connected. None of them, not even the goddess herself, had a clue just how closely connected the cursed ancient power was to Pyrrha Alexandra.

#913's art #ok to rb #cw grooming mention #digital art #medibang pro #♡ pyrrha alexandra #Pyrrha Alexandra #self ship au #//hopefully this is okay- today was so exhausting; having to help out for a holiday I could give zero shits about e_e #//feels like my brains melting into a puddle of goo; but I did what I could with how I felt! ^^ #//i will say her design is giving me huge lili from te.kk.en vibes- minus the rich girl part #//but hey considering if soulcalibur took place in modern day it literally would just be a rehashed te.kk.en probably- yeah #//the connections make sense lol #//I MEAN- I did listen to te.kk.en 4/5 music while drawing and writing so yeah I can see how this turned out this way