#godly humanity

[juha-art]

ELECTROCHEMISTRY- No one will ever want to sleep with you.

Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out, Richard Siken

[hydrachea]

Do you think god lives in fear of what they've created.

[smolandweirdwriter]

thinking about how odysseus says athena is "prideful", how how pride is something zeus says he will undress, make yield, how athena doesn't say she's hoping to save "the life of one who is far from home" but a "friendship with one who is far from home", how friendship is something so uniquely human, how it makes us desperate, how it makes us forget ourselves and our place because we care for each other, how perhaps the bond of community gives us the greatest pride of all, the pride of knowing we are together and stronger for it, the pride of our shared humanity, and gods cannot be human, and how maybe athena was not punished for being too proud but for being too human

[melandrops]

thinking about how one of hayward's first lines of the show is "everyone wants a personal relationship with a god, but none of us are equipped to actually deal with that." how he only ever prayed out of routine, how he never devoted himself properly to any god, and even the cloak was just a bad attempt and making himself feel less alone. how he wished that he could have a real partner with him on his cases but all he has is a god. how he couldn't even try to make himself believe that worshipping a god would save him. and then how he found his purpose serving alongside and loving a woman who bore a godchild beneath her skin. how he birthed a god with this woman and he threw his whole self into The Cause. but it was never about the god it was always about the cause and about the person he loves. and he said that if he had to put his faith in anyone he would put it in paige. and then he died refusing to offer a prayer to a god and whispering to the gods that he was going to die on his own terms. he would never bend the knee for a god, but he would call it a gift to sacrifice his life for just a chance that paige will be safe. thinking about how he died and the only faith he ever had was in the woman he loved

[s4lv4tions]

war god sukuna has no need for you. you know this as intimately as you know yourself.

he is a monstrous god, well-suited to the mantle he was given from birth; two pairs of muscular arms as thick as the average man’s torso, two cruel faces, a gaping maw carved into the hardness of his stomach. to peer into sukuna’s eyes is to see death and famine and destruction — wars raged long before you and long after you — and live through it all.

he has no need for you. he is perhaps more powerful than the entire pantheon, even the six-eyed-one and the curse-consumer, who swallows the sky every day to bring night. you have little understanding of the sheer magnitude of his power — your pathetic human brain can only fathom so much — but you know that sukuna, undoubtedly, is the very meaning of the word. and yet, he keeps you.

you are not a concubine, though he shirks those he has in favour of your company. you are not a general, nor an admiral, nor a soldier, and yet he seeks your counsel. you are not a mage, and hardly a grand priestess, and yet sukuna finds your door instead of that of his great temple, where hundreds live and breathe to serve him.

you had only reached the status of alter-maiden before your own temple was crushed to dust; little responsibility was given to you beyond tending the hearth, studying, and occasionally helping with chores. but sukuna dresses you in the finery of high priestesses — gauzy crimson dresses that bare your stomach and chest, fine golden jewellery and garnets that appear almost black in low light — and instructs you to dance in the way your superiors did. dances of worship, dances that he does not need, because he is already all-powerful.

the dances fit you like armour fits the weedy frame of a young boy — your legs don’t quite stretch far enough, your arms can’t move with a fluidity only gained by experience — but sukuna watches you like you are a sorceress, enchanting him with each step. he hushes uruame as they try to speak, insisting on remaining undisturbed during your worship — and when you finish, panting and glistening with sweat, your god only hums in satisfaction, grin all sharp-toothed and feral.

it must be blasphemous, you think, to perform such revered dances so clumsily—

but perhaps even more blasphemous, though, is the lingering touches your god fixes upon your waist; the hunger in his eyes as you dance; the scrape of his pointed nails against your jawline; the tent in his robes at the sound of your laboured breaths after dancing.

you fear the god of war means to have you in more ways than one — and worse still, you can’t find it within you to care.

[godbirdart]

if there's one [1] thing i will be forever grateful for in the internet era it's the vast variety and availability of pose / anatomy references supplied by photographers and models

i can go online and find PERFECT references for how fat folds crease the skin or how muscles wrap around the body and as someone who habitually draws most of his OCs ~modestly lean~ and wants to hone his skill in other body types, it is literally a godsend to have those refs so readily available

seriously, thank you all models and photographers for providing me the resources i need to expand my art skills i owe u my life

[thesummerstorms]

I've been dabbling in a project, mostly world building and not actual fic because my brain is a strange creature, but I have decided that in my interpretation of the PJO universe, Athena is ... well a strategist in all things.

Including the creation of her children.

The way I'm envisioning it, creating a child from her own mind isn't really a task she undertakes casually.

Yes, she does it occasionally as a "gift" to a mortal whose mind she admires. There's no romantic or sexual relationship, but it's an intense, consuming relationship all the same.

Children born for that reason (or for just that reason) are rare though. Athena might have many favorites, but she's also proud. Who deserves a child entirely crafted by a Goddess? Only the few.

I think, in a normal decade, the number of Athena campers is actually on the lower end compared to most of the other Olympians.

None of the Campers outside of Athena's own children every really figure it out, and Chiron, who knows, would sooner die than tell them.

But when there are many children of Athena, like there are in Annabeth's childhood, it's a sign that something strange or terrible is coming.

Athena is a strategist, the right hand of Zeus, his favorite child, the one who forsees and attempts to dismantle threats to Olympians' power. She moves the pieces into place without hesitation or sentimentality.

And the easiest pieces to control, of course, would be her own children.

Other demigods have other immortal parents to listen to, no matter how strong their desire for victory or their inherent cunning. Her own children are fragments of her own mind- much more reliable. Much easier to predict.

And if in the years leading up to whatever disturbance she forsees she chooses mortal parents for her children with calculation, with an eye for the skill sets and temperaments she predicts most needing in the dark times ahead...well, the child and their parent should be honored by her forethought.

It isn't even that she has no affection for the parent or child, in so much as she is capable of affection. But Athena is always, always three steps ahead, and her actions always have intent. Her children are no different.

A demigod, ultimately, is a weapon in the hands of the gods. It's best that the ones she chooses are well-crafted.

[eikichi-supremacy]

and they were singin', bye-bye Miss American Pie // american oldie i think kuwabara unironically listens to

(low effort lyric edit im queueing here in May cos im probably gonna forget it exists otherwise)

[duncanor]

It's really interesting how Nightow talked about humans being some kinds of Gods to Plants because they created them. (Thus playing around with the trope of Man vs God)

And then having Knives describe himself and his kind as Gods or angels.

In a way, his goal was the exact same as humanity. Building a paradise for his kind to thrive in, free of the horrors and errors of the past.

However, like men were created in God's image, Knives is as human as he gets. Repeating the same mistakes and furthering the harm he and his kind received. Perpetuating the cycle of never ending violence.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

been thinking a lot of gojo’s god/human dichotomy lately hhhhh

[enbysiriusblack]

jegulily au where regulus is a rogue demon that wants to do good, james is a mischievous angel that doesn't care much for their rules, and lily is a demigod intent on ignoring her godlyness.

like i imagine regulus and james hanging out on earth all the time, regulus trying to fix things, and james causing minor trouble. and lily is just there who can very much tell neither of them are humans, but you know what? fuck that. she is not getting involved in this dangerous, supernatural world and is intent on ignoring them both. james, however, is infatuated with her and regulus and would just like to chat to them, please. and regulus keeps having to undo james' pranks and it is pissing him off at this point, angels are meant to be doing good, not playing stupid pranks, and why is there a demigod staring at him? is she a spy there to drag him back to the underworld and torture him for being a terrible demon? fuck.

[justaz]

thinking about god!merlin

the boy who did not know what he was or why he was born, questioning if he was a monster. the boy who heard of a destiny too heavy to carry on his own but doing so regardless because it gave him purpose. growing into his own power that seemed to get stronger and stronger every day. warlock!merlin noting that the druids revere him to an uncomfortable level, as if he were their messiah, their saving grace. which, according to the prophecies, is true. he is emrys and emrys is to save them all. the young man who does not abide by the laws of nature, who can create life without taking, who can speak a butterfly into existence, who commands nature with a yell, who can heal any and all ailments without punishment for avoiding death. the man who has died over and over again but keeps waking up, just a little bit off. he can feel his mortality burning away, with every spell, with every druid prayer and offering, with every death. the young boy searching desperately for his purpose and growing into the young man who kills without flinching because what is one little mortal life to him? who answers to emrys more than merlin now. who desperately craves to be young and naive and just. merlin.

[spotaus]

Coda and Ichor! (Catacombtale Style!)

These two don't have a *ton* of interaction in the Main story, but since Ichor and Balance are the only two characters I've fully designed, Coda gets stuck next to him, haha!

BONUS art jumpscare:

These two actually exist in another project I'm working on too called Codex, which is basically just removing the UT aspects of Catacombtale and doing a lot more worldbuilding and character design!

Coda is older in Codex and is marked by an old God (which should get him jailed or killed, as it means for everyone else) but he hides it for years and years before he finally flees the complex he's living in to go confront the gods and stop their destructive path. Meanwhile Ichor is much the same, only he's much more ready and willing to help Coda without much prompting. Here he's also sort of a Koi Fish! (His brother is a Betta Fish)

[zeravmeta]

the core difference between cyrus and volo boils down to how cyrus is angry but volo is malicious

[leobashi]

I am about to either completely revamp the Winter AU or make one hell of an AU of an AU hElp

[the-flower-named-fire]

Part of me wonders if the Endless's relationship with Daniel Hall would be similar to Steven and the Diamonds