#a god without a temple

[huascrimsonpeony]

No temple, no incense, no prayers. Xie Lian walks through the mortal realm as a nameless god, forgotten but never gone.

He wears white, yet the world stains him in red. He is mercy in human form, yet the heavens call him a disgrace. He was never meant for the celestial halls—his place is between the living and the dead, where ghosts whisper his name and the wind carries his silent blessings.

A god who has nothing, and yet gives everything.

[diamondsunbursts-and-marblehalls]

Athena, goddess of wisdom, and all-powerful, being the only person that Annabeth could call on for help; being so cruel that she would be complicit in her daughter's death just out of spite.

Percy, age 12, weak and dying, having told Annabeth they could never be friends; not only sacrifices himself to save Annabeth's life without a minute's thought, but does it without her having to ask for help.

[fantasticgothicpeachsludge]

Sometimes I think about Cal being an explorer/archaeologist for the Order if it had never fallen and I cry

[jcollinswrites]

omg the kids back in the temple 😭 Now I have to go back and try to see how to save Tia... Even though I love this path, like the grief 😥 and the fact that mc died (??) and was brought back

Is healing + magic powerful enough to heal burns without leaving scars ?

Despite how tragic this start is, Priest MC is soooo funny... What a relatable bundle of nerves, and the interactions with Narmer are hilarious

Actually went to see the others Tia paths and

my MC wasn't hurt in the shoulder but the hand I'm p sure (stopping the ceremony before it starts but still in front of the public)

Also the formatting is off here

I'm excited to see how the other origins go, what a treat to have so many ! I can't wait to read more :3 💖

OMG THANK YOU!!!! ❤️ You are the first to report these bugs 😭 I fixed them in the last update :)

omg the kids back in the temple 😭

You got that part, hm? :')

Is healing + magic powerful enough to heal burns without leaving scars ?

Depends how serious the burn is. If it's mostly surface burn, then yes. If it goes deep, then no. Depending when you stopped the ceremony, Tia can have either of those two (if she survived).

Thank you so much for the super helpful reports and the nice message! ❤️❤️❤️

[bwoahtastic]

Do i know what story is behind this? No. But the mental image wouldnt leave me (tw: mentions of blood and violence ) (its some fantasy/pagan au lol)

Yes it's late and I'm losing it again

Oh its maxiel

Kinda

Max had always always hoped that if he were to die, it would not be at the hands of his father.

His father did not deserve the satisfaction of getting rid of his biggest disappointment once and for all, and Max did not want his father's to be the last face he would ever see.

Yet, as he laid on the grassy hill, gasping on chocked pained breaths as blood dripped down from his stomach rhrough his tunic, he did not feel angry like he had expected. He didn't try to curse his dad, didn't try to reach for the sword that laid at his side, covered in his own blood. He didn't go down fighting until the bitter end, make his dad bleed like he bled too.

Max was scared, eyes wide and filled with tears as he tried to look past his father, towards the sky. Anything better than to see the hate in his expression.

The sky was grey, bringing little comfort.

"Once you let out your final breath, I will make sure your name is burned from all books, have your legacy be forgotten by everyone who comes after. You won't even be a failure, you will have never existed." His father growled out, towering over Max. "There will be no grave for you, no place for you to be mourned. Not even your little god will remember your name."

Max's eyes darted to his left, where the temple stood untouched. He had devoted his life to worship, and still lost it to the one person had tried to escape

"A prince hiding as a god's low priest, where have I gone wrong raising you?" Father continued.

Max closed his eyes and thought of the sun, of golden rays on his face, of the heat making his skin turn pink. He thought of sun-kissed skin, of warm arms guiding him, of a smile so bright he had to avert his eyes.

Keep your eyes closed, sweet flower, you don't have to see this

The voice rang soft and warm in his mind, and Max did as it asked. He drew in a shaky breath at a wet, disgusting sound, at his father crying out in surprise and rage, and then, silence.

Warm hands grasped Max's quickly cooling skin, warming his cheeks as the same voice as before told him to open his eyes again.

Deep brown eyes watched him with worry, dark brown curls shone golden in the sun, which had broken through the clouds

"My lord-" Max rasped out, eyes tearing up. The Sun had heard him, the Sun had saved him...

"Hush now, save your strength." The god spoke kindly. "I fear you will need it still. I can save you, but it won't be painless." He explained, one hand moving down, pressing over the gaping wound to stop the bleeding.

"You don't have to save me." Max rasped. "It would be worth it, to die knowing my god did not dessert me for being a coward." The god had lifted him slightly, letting Max's side rest against hid warm chest.

"Oh my dear flower, you are one of the bravest people I have seen." The Sun whispered, before lifting a flask of golden substance to Max's lips. "Now drink. My brother would be kind to you, if you were to slip from this world and into his, but I am not ready to see you go there yet." He added, voice almost pleading.

Max looked up, dared to look into the god's eyes, dared to look at the deity he had devoted his life too after he had ran away from his family and his duties.

"I won't leave you." The god promised Max's unspoken worries. "My blood will heal you, and I will be bound to you." He added, tipping the flask forward until the golden liquid touched Max's lips.

Max drank.

[assmaster-8000]

i cant find much oc content in touchstarved because im lowkey blind but people with touchstarved ocs!!! please info dump to me in comments or dms i /gen want to hear what yall have come up with!!!!! what are their back stories? how different is it from the route you chose for them? what are they like? what do they look like? miscellaneous facts?

[shehungthemoon]

Minority Report is on again.... goddammit I do NOT have the mental capacity to get obsessed with this film again.... and I tuned in right after Colin Farrell said his "twink from the fed" line too :((((( unfair to miss that on top of it all

[gingermintpepper]

hey I hope you’re doing ok!! For the ask game, 🌈? Also perhaps ☔️?💧, even?

Hello hello, thank you for participating ☆ Once again, I can't comment on whether or not this extract is particularly fluffy but I do think it's rather sweet and it's definitely romantic so I think it's good for filling out both 🌈 and 💧!! It's an extract from what I've tentatively dubbed my 'Women and Apollo' doc which is essentially just a big running document I have dedicated to exploring themes and dynamics between Apollo and the women he's been entangled with! This extract in particular is from my Melia section 🥰

The night is a cold sheet spread across her shoulders. She wakes in pieces; first, her flesh, bracketed between the raw heat of Phoebus' bare chest and the sharp sting of the night air's fangs, then her mind, pleasure's fleeting haze quickly swept aside by panic then worry then guilt. What would Kaanthos say if he could see her now, bare breasted and stained in a male-god's desire? What would Father? No doubt she would have to cede the seat of the temple to Kaanthos. How could a carnal woman serve the people after all? And her river - oh, her sweet river! Would his waters even deign to soothe her scales when she was so completely drenched in the scent of a sky-god?

How foolish she's been, throwing everything away just because of some sweet words and a pretty face. Maybe Kaanthos truly did deserve the temple after all. Maybe Melia didn't deserve such a treasure if she was so easily seduced.

She sniffles softly, slipping gently from Phoebus' loose grip. His heat wafts off his skin like the warmth of a well-tended hearth, it lingers in her bones as she kneels in the grass of this unfamiliar field. It makes the sear of shame dig that much deeper into her heart. Phoebus had listened well to her warnings. He'd carried her someplace far away from flowing water, somewhere distant where her brother's scrying eyes could not reach. The tears welling in her eyes finally fall as she turns this way and that, utterly and completely lost without a source of water to follow. How could she return now? Even she was not bold enough to have the man she planned to reject take her back to her father's house.

Stupid girl. Foolish. How could she have been so short sighted?

"Melia?"

His voice is laden with sleep's husk, his arm makes little grabs at the grass searching for her shape. She swallows her tears and bids her voice to not betray her, "Here I am, my lord. You may go back to sleep."

The mildest furrow of his brow. When he turns his head, his hair flows like rich golden oil over the dark grass, "Come here," his hand keeps searching for hers, patting the ground, dragging long fingers over the dirt and frowning when he does not find her. "It is not yet morning, why have you fled so far from my side?"

Melia cannot help but laugh at his visage, clumsy and squinty-eyed, less the graceful gentleman who promised her a taste of change and more a bumbling kitten desperate for its mother's teat. She wipes her tears as quickly as she can muster, "If you but open your eyes, I'm certain you would find me."

He makes a grumbling noise, some cross between a boar's grunt and the crow's deep bellow, "Is this another of your games? I'm much too tired for games Melia." Finally, his finger grazes the edge of her ankle and like a child, he lights up, eyes still stubbornly closed but smile positively radiant, "Ah, there you are!" Diligently, he traces the shape of her leg with his open palm, measuring the smoothness of her calf, the swell of her knee, the broadness of her thigh, then he lays his head upon her, cheek pressed close to her stomach, heated back like warm coals against her skin. "So cool," he murmurs and kisses her stomach, throws his arm around her waist and nuzzles further into her skin, "Tell me when you've need of the water -" a dreadfully wide yawn interrupts him. "- I'll fetch it for you."

Melia finds herself laughing again, just a tiny thing as she runs her fingers through the thick waves of his hair. What is she to do now?

As for a fic idea I'd like to talk about since I don't know if I'll ever write it: Among the many, many, many things I'd like to write but probably never will, I really wish I could just sit down and write a story about Tenes and Hemithea. There's a lot of reasons why I have no plans to ever properly tackle anything regarding the Iliad - chief of which being that there's just too much information and the amount of research would be insane - but a lot of what I would potentially focus on have to deal with people and places Apollo loves and his inability to protect those things throughout the conflict starting with Tenes. I absolutely adore exploring Apollo's paternity in my writing and considering how fiersome Tenes was and how both he and Troilus would die protecting their sisters, I've just always wanted to dig into an exploration of their lives and connection with their father and how Tenes' death specifically would've affected Apollo. Like yeah, I know Troilus is usually the point of focus for such works especially because of the manner in which he was killed, but Tenes was also beloved! Also considering he was originally punished for being falsely accused of sexually assaulting his stepmother, I can't help but want to write his wrath when he realises what it is Achilles intends to do to Hemithea. Alas though, I don't think I'l ever get to do more than think longingly about it, at least right now lmao.

[araneitela]

/breathes. This icon is called killme003.png for the sake of this post because honestly, where yesterday I was rather demotivated from writing up more meta, I woke up today with the strength of all Aeons in existence (and... not-so-in-existence-anymore) for intense research. So I put my thoughts through the sternest 'let's try to shake and shoot up the perspective/logic/theory' process that I could manage, and it's still standing. If anything, I'm more certain than I was yesterday or a week ago, that MHY is doing something substantial, and vastly nuanced with this damned character. I thought I had big-brain thoughts on/for Guizhong, but I don't know if those hold a candle to the ones I have for Kafka (actually, they really do). My issue with this lady in wine though, I don't know where to start writing it all down. It's like 10 messy whiteboards that are hypotheses on her trailer, the words she uses therein, "Don't be afraid, listen to me, wasn't it you, who invited me?", "Destiny has thousands of faces, why does it choose to wear this one?", "Stealing a glance?" during someone's final moments during her spirit whisper? Like, come on, you can't tell me she doesn't play into fate somehow beyond what we've all obviously gathered. You can't tell me that there isn't a more authentic face that has been staring right at us this entire time. She borderline if not directly says it right to us, but we're almost taught to not listen anymore, to think that there's more to something, but what if writers are using that against us, what if this is an instance where we should take words at direct face value? On top of everything else, of course. Fate is "inevitable" and right in front of us always, after all.

God, imagine a being tied so intricately woven into fate (vastly differently from Elio, mind you), speaking quotes upon quotes about the inevitability of fate, and being tied to nihilism, and yet firmly holding some sort of faith into choice, and hounds us on it. I mean come on, one of the main quotes in the entire story of HSR are her words: "When you have the chance to make a choice, make one that you know you won't regret." And she directly tells us in her own SQ, and it is a confirmed truth and not a lie, that Kafka herself does not believe destiny to be predetermined. Now to what capacity? We don't know. But the contrast of this, the rich nuance in this drives me insane. The duality of this woman, the spider (which itself is already a duality of a creature) and the butterfly (not necessarily as juxtaposed as one would believe, it all depends on perspective), the curiosity/fascination opposite her boredom, the ease of her killing which is reinforced with the emotional distance of her submachine guns, and yet she speaks how we should "let morality be our (your) guide", which fits perfectly alongside the decision of having her wield a katana, a blade that was worn by those following the highest code of honor? Speaking of emotional distance, the way she speaks of humans and humanity feels so distant, along with her talk of fragility. God, I just, want to shake HVY very firmly and fiercely. The fact that her eyes are highly likely to be concealed (hello, red), the fact that her voice is altered consistently, and yet we're shown the depth and warmth of her actual voice, and the empathy it holds consistently around primarily one person (almost two).

I love writing meta, but I don't know where to begin. I don't know where to start, but I'll get there. I just wanted to show how messy my mind is, I suppose. It makes perfect sense in my head, I've seen the dots, I've connected them, I see you MiHoYo, and you're giving me everything my brain needs in terms of latching my claws into something. But my god, where do I start writing it all down.

[maegalkarven]

I'm thinking about Isobel who came back from the dead a hundred years later, who came back to the lands cursed and her father fallen into madness.

Who eminates a barely indistinguishable whiff of rot and Myrkul's power. Who was touched by the forces so repulsing she wishes she has never come back.

And who still has Moonmaiden's favor and her blessing.

Like by all means Selûne had every right to punish Isobel for her father's sins, esp considering what Isobel is, undeniably, the cause of Ketheric turning into the villain he became. Or rather, her death is.

Instead Selûne grants her enough power to battle the curse and create a small safe harbor amidst darkness. More power than the most have, as priest of Selune!Tav might comment.

Instead Selûne favors her, loves her.

Isobel is the indirect reason Aylin is enslaved and the lands are dying under the curse, and Selûne never turns her back on her.

Idk it just makes me emotional

[fightinggamegirlfriend]

I do not recommend playing Mortal Kombat Armageddon’s Konquest mode its entire level design is made to make you want to rage quit.

[cherry-chaos-cola]

I didn't really have a song in mind for Link to be playing in my ghiralink Orpheus and Eurydice fic—mostly just unnamed song in an unfamiliar language because that was easy lol—but I'm listening to Zelda music and I think it would be fun if it was Laruto's Lament :) it's a simple harp melody, and the lyrics are in Latin, which would call back to the Greco-Roman origin of the myth:

Ad idem, Ad infinitum

In memoriam, cor unum

vi et armis, vale

As is the same eternally

in memory, one heart

with strength and arms (weapons), farewell

The Latin isn't... great. Also I did the translation while listening to the song so I may be

If you look it up online the most popular translation is

Ad Idem (Of the same mind) *idk where they got mind from, and ad mean to/towards not of

Ad Infinitum (Without Limit)

In Memoriam (In memory)

Cor Unum (One heart)

Vi et Armis (By force and arms) *vi et armis is ablative, so it could be with or by, usually determined by context that doesn't exist here. This translation went for a darker interpretation

Vale (Farewell)

We share one mind

Time cannot bind us

Remember

The heart we share

Now the enemy arms destroy me

Farewell

Which isn't exactly what it's saying but works well enough!

[thats-a-lot-of-cortisol]

so solace and corentin are siblings? were they separated? if one is with wyll who is the other with?

They are! Solace barely survived Corentin attacking the family when their dark urge awakened, and was taken in by the Temple of the Open Hand because their mother had been going there regularly and the priests had been helping Tin try to keep things under control. Solace was 10, Tin was 15, and they had a 13 year old sister who didn't make it.

Corentin doesn't remember the attack because of a mixture of trauma and purposeful efforts by the Bhaalists, and I don't think they ever truly get the memories of their family back. They put the prices together eventually, though. Solace remembers the attack vividly and was conscious enough to see the direct aftermath when Corentin came to. They're actually the reason she survived: Tin threw one of the many healing potions placed around their house at her and screamed out the window for help before the Butler dragged them away. It's...complicated for Solace and I don't think he'd ever be able to forgive them (which Corentin never expected or asked for), but eventually they're able to move around each other to some degree. They're also working on elf time so by the time they settle into that pattern and make their peace very few people who saw the very beginning of all of that post-game are alive, so the way they interact around each other instead of directly is kinda just accepted as the Way Things Are among the folks in the city who notice.

I haven't decided who Solace is gonna go for yet. I was thinking about Gale but I'm not sure; they might be a no-romance run, honestly. I've got active playthroughs for all of the romances but Gale and Minthara at the moment. Wyll would actually be a good fit for them I think, but I'm not sure if the "both siblings survive" timeline will be the canon one in my head since durge dies if you're not playing as them, and the idea of Solace finding Tin's body after fighting Orin is intriguing to me. I'm not going to touch their playthrough much until I've finished Corentin's and/or gotten further in Candor and Luka's first though, so I have time to decide lol

[waitineedaname]

if you're gonna act like a clown, you better expect the whole circus to show up

[crossdressingdeath]

...Wait. Goddammit. I'm gonna have to do two bad end Kyvir runs. First for the Double Trouble Evil Bastard (Many Mistakes Have Been Made) ending with Ascended Astarion and Bhaal's Chosen Kyvir, then (since it seems like making my boy Bhaal's little pet will override any other ending he might have gotten for some reason) the If I Let My Boyfriend Turn Me Into His Thrall Forever I Can't End The World Right (Different Mistakes Have Been Made But Still Many Of Them) ending with Ascended Astarion and redeemed Kyvir.

[crippledanarchy]

It's officially been a week since surgery and I did not anticipate the euphoria to be so immediate or last this long but long story short, it feels so fucking good