#like did you know minerva is a roman goddess

[mask131]

Hey you want to be let in onto a little secret?

Arachne? The story of Arachne, her legend, her entire character?

...

Well it is very, very likely she never was part of Greek mythology and only belongs to Roman mythology.

Because there is no text from Ancient Greece that mentions her, and no visual depiction of her in Ancient Greek art.

You want to know where her story comes from? OVID. OVID'S METAMORPHOSES. Yes, THE defining Roman work of Roman literature that shaped Roman myths. That's literaly where Arachne comes from: Ovid. As a result, there are two possibilities. Either A) Ovid completely invented her (which is something he did other times, he did invent some characters we consider today to be part of Greek mythology) or B) He took inspiration from an actual Greek legend but twisted it and rewrote it in a weird way (This is what happened with Medusa. He wrote Medusa's story taking inspiration from the Greek legend that was told at the time, but changed the context entirely to fit his own literary and political goals. As such from a story of Medusa being turned into a Gorgon by Athena for being too vain and for boasting (a crime of "hubris", very Greek), Ovid wrote a story of Medusa being cursed for having been raped inside the goddess' temple (a crime of "impurity", much more Roman in values and notions).

However... It seems very unlikely to be either of those since, again, we literaly have no recording from Ancient Greece about Athena ever being involved with an "Arachne" or with spiders as a whole.

In fact, it seems that the closest answer to where Arachne comes from might be C) She might have been woven out of a purely Roman tradition projected onto the Greek myths.

Because the only other literary mention of Arachne ever in Ancient literature is Virgil's Georgics (Virgil being the other founding-father of Roman literature and literary Roman myths, thanks to his Aeneid), and Virgil doesn't even write of Arachne as a proper character or as a human. All he wrote is literaly, in a side-detail, in a brief mention, that Athena hates spiders. No explanation why, it is just "the spider is hated by Minerva". Given it is said so casually as a detail with no explanation, it is very possible this means this was a reference meant to be caught and understood by the Roman reader "The spider, this animal hated by Minerva as we all know". So... it seems very likely that the creation of Arachne as a character stems from a non-Greek, older tradition of the goddess Minerva (the proper Latin Minerva, the solely Roman goddess) having a problem with spiders.

And when Minerva was associated with the Greek goddess Athena, and the Roman had their authors rewrite or invent myths to have their own mythology (or rather their own AU on Greek mythology)... The tale got spread far enough and popular enough that everybody threw back the story onto the Greek Athena. After all, Arachne was a Greek name right? IT MEANS SHE WAS GREEK RIGHT? Well no, she was Roman :p That's another thing of Ovid, whenever he invented a character he made sure to give them Greek names so that it sounded like a real Greek character.

So yeah, while Arachne became one of the famous characters and legends of Greco-Roman mythology as a whole (what many call "Classical mythology"), she actually was NOT part of Greek mythology, and only existed from Hellenized Roman mythology onward. You're welcome.

[averagewriter-inthedark]

Love Across the Galaxy 🌌 | Helmut Zemo Imagine

Contains spoilers for GOTG Vol.3

Link to my Marvel masterlist

Characters & Pairings: Baron Helmut Zemo x Roman Goddess/Guardians!reader (romantic), The Thunderbolts—Baron Zemo, Bucky Barnes, Thaddeus Ross, Valentina Alegra De Fontaine, John Walker, Ghost, Justin Hammer, Taskmaster, Yelena, & Red Hulk (platonic), The Guardians of the Galaxy—Quill, Mantis, Nebula, Drax, Rocket, Groot, Kraglin, & Cosmo (platonic)

Content Warnings: profanity, light angst, fluff, mentions of death, fighting & violence, spoilers for GOTG Vol.3 (don’t read if you haven’t seen it!) | female!reader (she/her) | wc: 4.9k

Requested 📨 yes/no (rules for requests)

Premise: In which Baron Helmut Zemo, hater of the Avengers and desire to rid the planet of enhanced beings, becomes a member of the antihero team led by General Thaddeus Ross & CIA Director Valentina Fontaine where he meets the legendary group of misfits turned Guardians of the freakin Galaxy and loses his heart to a Goddess with a love for 80s music and talent for cutting of limbs.

Note: GOTG Vol 3 has permanently altered my brain chemistry and I cannot stop thinking about it. Truly the best film since Endgame & it’s inspired me cause I’m also back to loving Zemo again. I refuse to believe Marvel would give us a Thunderbolts film w/o Zemo so I will make sure he’s in this team.

After learning about all the Gods in Thor: Love & Thunder, picture you are Minerva, the Roman Goddess of Wisdom & War (Roman equivalent to the Greek’s Athena) and has cosmic powers similar to the Eternal’s Thena and has been with the Guardians since the events of the first GOTG film.

————————

Fall 2023

“I don’t see why we need these people to help us,” Zemo rolled his eyes, strolling beside General Ross with the rest of the team around them. Once outside the cool breeze hit him, ruffling the lapels of his coat as his eyes squinted from the bright light.

Ross lets out a tired sigh, “Because, Zemo, as much as it galls me to admit it this threat is far beyond what we can deal with. It’s not terrestrial and chances are these…” he had trouble coming up with the word, “let’s just say they’re more experienced for this situation.”

They all stop before the flight line. It’s clear all around them with no sign of an approaching vessel.

“Who are these guys again?” Justin Hammer popped some jelly beans in his mouth. John looks down at the file in his hands, making a face as he does.

“They call themselves…The Guardians of the Galaxy.”

“Oh God,” Bucky moans, immediately making mental notes to protect his mental arm knowing a certain talking animal was on the hunt for it. He was gonna have to sleep with one eye open.

Zemo raises his brow, “Friends of yours, James?” Bucky is not pleased by the assumption.

“I wouldn’t call them that.”

“Aren’t they part of the Avengers?” Ava’s tone is slightly disapproving. While Scott Lang and the Pym/Van Dyne’s helped her, she still got bad rep despite doing what she did to survive.

Zemo, not happy with the idea of working with Avengers, snatches the file from Walker.

“Not technically,” Ross replies while Zemo reads over the page. “They arrived with Thor in 2018 against the first battle with Thanos, remained an associate to the team while continuing whatever the hell it is they do in space, and returned in 2023 to defeat the purple bastard once and for all.”

“Did you fight with them, Bucky?” Yelena asks from beside the soldier.

“Yeah,” the memory appears in his mind. Specifically where he grabbed Rocket by the scruff and spun them in circles to cover more area as they fired off their guns. “Our interactions were brief…but memorable.”

The Baron had seen many things over the years, like the rest of humanity with the formation of the Avengers and reveal of intergalactic and enhanced beings, but to stay he wasn’t thinking, ‘what the fuck?’ by the picture in front of him would be a lie.

An earthling turned ravager, a blue mercenary, a woman with antennas, a genetically engineered raccoon, a living tree, a gray alien that could take down Thor, a man with a metal Mohawk, a telekinetic dog, and an exiled sword wielding Goddess. All misfits and outcasts, mostly space criminals turned superhero guardians of the cosmos.

Well….they were quite the bunch.

“They are not still with the Avengers, I take it?” Zemo wanders around, eyes lingering on the Goddess. White streaks adorned her natural hair color, eyes gold and lips painted with what appeared to be a permanent smirk. She wore a gold and white headpiece that had an owl extending its wings.

Name/Alias: Minerva, Goddess of War; Race: Deity; Planet of Origin: Caelum; Age: approx. 2500 yrs (39 Earth yrs); Occupation: Warrior/Mercenary/Defender of the Andromeda Galaxy; Allegiance: The High Council of Caelum (formerly), Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, God of Thunder, The Avengers (formerly); Abilities: Cosmic manipulation, enhanced strength, agility, speed, & durability, thermal detection & mental teleportation; Specialization: artillery and battle strategy.

Ross let out a sigh, “only when the planet is about to go to shit due to an intergalactic threat. Which we’ve now got on our hands, but considering the Avengers are all on sabbatical I’m sending you in,” he checks his watch, “but I need all the extra hands and like I said, they’re experienced.”

Zemo stares at the blank sky, “How will we know they've arrived?”

“Believe me,” Ross mutters under his breath. “You’ll know.”

A loud rumbling noise caught everyone’s attention, gazes turning upward as a hexagon shaped breech in the sky revealed a very large spaceship in its wake, followed by the distinct lyrics of AC/DC’s ‘Back to Black.’

“Back in black. I hit the sack. I’ve been too long, I’m glad to be back. Yes, I’m let loose. From the noose. That’s kept me hanging about.”

“Oh my,” Yelena breathed out, hair flying back from the gust of wind. Zemo lifted a hand to cover his face from the leaves, as did the others, many wide eyed.

“I’ve been looking at the sky. ‘Cause it’s gettin’ me high. Forget the hearse ‘cause I never die. I got nine lives. Cat’s eyes. Abusin’ every one of them running wild.”

“Great song,” Justin voiced, grinning from ear to ear. The ship made its descent, music getting louder.

“‘Cause I’m back. Yes, I’m back. Well, I’m back,” it approached the tarmac, “Yes, I’m back. Well, I’m back, back.” wheels hit the tarmac, engine powering down but music still blasting, “Well, I’m back in black,” the ship doors opened, revealing steps extending to the ground, “Yes, I’m back in black.”

It was almost like a scene from a movie. Slow-motion if one will by how the Guardians exited their ship and stepped foot on the tarmac with AC/DC on full volume. All dressed in their new suits of red and blue leather with the Ravager flames on the chest.

Arriving in style.

Quill led with the rest flanking his sides. Drax munching on snacks while Nebula looked menacing and Groot towered over everyone. Cosmo had her tongue out in excitement, Rocket carrying his gun strapped to his back. Mantis’s chin held high, like she was on top of the world and Kraglin trying not to appear lost. Lastly Minerva was drinking a caprisun, Ray Bans covering her gold eyes.

Zemo tilts his head in amusement at the sight. He expected the Goddess, of war nonetheless, to have a more menacing approach like Nebula considering her reputation. But she was just as relaxed and laid back as Drax.

The Guardians walked several paces until they were directly in front of the Thunderbolts. It was then the music stopped, Ross being the first to address them. “You sure know how to make an entrance.”

Quill gave a smug grin, “We know.” Hands go to his hips, “You’re wearing a suit so you must be the boss man. Although I believe there’s also a boss lady we’re here to do business with.”

“Director Fontaine is currently occupied. She’ll be arriving in the morning.”

“I assume we won’t be knowing a damn thing until that happens, huh?”

Ross tightens his lips, “You assume correctly.”

“I told you we should’ve handled it on our own,” Minerva’s glances to Quill annoyed. Surprised by her voice, Zemo's eyebrows raised at her sudden input. Her accent was slightly Italian given her mythological origin is Roman.

Quill clicked his tongue, “We don’t have authority here, Minnie.”

“Midgard is part of the Andromeda Galaxy. Technically we should.”

Now the man was giving her a pointed look after Ross’s body language turned defensive, “I’d rather not get our asses thrown in Earth’s prison system. We go by the rules—the ones we established.”

Minerva grumbles under her breath, finishing the last remnants of her juice pouch, “Would’ve finished the job faster. They wouldn’t even know we were here.”

“Okay well, we’re doing things this way. We’re here as a team to work with a team. Right, Mr. Secretary?”

Ross’ disapproving eyes linger on Minerva, who in return rolls her own, before turning his attention back to Quill, “Yes. Now let’s move on shall we?”

He lets out a breath of relief, “Agreed.” Bidding a warning look to each of his teammates, they all wait for what the man in the suit has to say. Ross extends a hand to the people on either side of him.

“This is my team. All with different levels of skill and experience. Justin Hammer is our tech and weapons specialist,” Justin gives a wave, “Yelena Belova,” Ross points to the blonde in a white tactical suit, “former Black Widow and master assassin.” At the mention of Black Widow Rocket, Nebula, and Minerva all tense, faces becoming solemn at the memory of Natasha. They were the three remaining Guardians during the blip, becoming close with the Avenger.

“Ava Starr, she can phase through anything,” they all look impressed, finding the talent cool. “Antonia Dreykov, who we like to call Taskmaster.”

“Why’s that?” Kraglin asked intrigued.

“She has photographic reflexes and can mimic your fighting powers. Basically use your own moves against you.”

“Niceeee,” all the Guardians echo. Ross points to the two individuals in between Zemo and Yelena.

“Our super soldiers, Captain John Walker and I believe you all know Sergeant Barnes.” Bucky tightens his mouth with a curt nod.

“You still got that arm on ya?” Rocket muses, earning a nudge—well more like a kick—from Minerva. The rest of the Thunderbolts besides Bucky all become wide-eyed at the talking Raccoon…even though it said on the file he could.

But how the fuck else were they suppose to react to a talking raccoon?

All Bucky does is glare, “Don’t even think about it.” Rocket shrugs, “Worth a shot.”

“Why is that one carrying a giant frisbee?” Drax’s mouth is filled with Zargnuts. Walker, the man in question, becomes visibly offended.

“It’s a shield not a frisbee.” Zemo bites back a smirk at the soldier's tone. Not to mention the Guardians' reactions were priceless.

“A shield?” Mantis repeats confused.

“It’s a frisbee,” Drax mumbles.

“Like that circular object Minerva conjures to deflect attacks,” Nebula tiredly explains. Mantis’s mouth forms the shape of an ‘o’.

“And lastly,” Ross sounds just as exhausted as the cyborg, “Baron Helmut Zemo, former intelligence operative.”

“I am Groot,” Zemo’s attention goes to the tree alien, confused by his words. Minerva, seeing his expression, addresses it, “He says he likes your fancy cape.”

‘Cape?’ He thinks, but doesn’t comment on it and his perplexed reaction makes Minerva smirk. Instead Zemo says, “Well, I appreciate the compliment. Thank you.” Groot’s pleased, grinning wide like a child.

It’s then Quill’s turn to formally introduce the Guardians. The Thunderbolts bite back their own amusement at the nicknames and surprise of hearing the dog, Cosmo, speak through her suit with a distinct Russian accent. Afterwards Ross leads them all into the hangar, Minerva removing her sunglasses now that she was inside, allowing her gold eyes to be visible.

From there they all interact, awkwardly for the most part as they have no idea what the hell to do as they wait for further instruction. It soon becomes bickering and even challenging someone in hand-to-hand combat.

Well, what can you expect when a team of heroes meet a team of villains/anti heroes? Rivalry at its finest.

“Any day now, Quill,” Minerva groans, relaxing her stance. Across from her several feet away was Walker, confused by why she was taking so long to attack. They were standing in the middle of the squared off area with the teams surrounding them, but giving enough space to avoid being in the crossfire. Quill was scrolling through his Walkmen.

“What’s he doing?” Zemo whispers to Kraglin, eyes flicking back and forth from the human Guardian and the Goddess.

“Trying to find a good fight song. You know, get the vibes going.” Out on the square Minerva lets out a loud huff signaling her annoyance was increasing.

“Just give me another second—.”

“Quill.”

“I almost got it.”

“Pick a goddamn song!”

“Fine!” Quill shouts, randomly selecting the first one his finger hits. A second later Duran Duran’s ‘Hungry Like the Wolf,’ blasts through all the speakers attached to the Guardians arms. The antiheroes become perplexed, while also noting the song choice. Justin and Yelena started to bop their heads.

“Darken the city, night is a wire. Steam in the subway, earth is afire. (Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do)”

Minerva smirked, retaking her stance. As she lifts her hands, cosmic energy around her consorts to physical matter, taking the shape of a spear and shield in either hand. Wide eyes take over the Thunderbolts.

“Woman, you want me, give me a sign. And catch my breathing even closer behind. (Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do)”

“Wow,” Justin exhales. “In touch with the ground. I’m on the hunt, I’m after you.”

“That’s so cool,” Yelena muses, others muttering in agreement. “Smell like the sound, I'm lost in the crowd. And I’m hungry like the wolf.” Keeping his admirations to himself, Zemo watches the scene unfold in silence.

“First one to step or get thrown out of the square loses,” Bucky shouts over the music, “Ready….” Walker clutches the strap of his shield, Minerva twirling her spear once, “Fight!”

“Stalked in the forest, too close to hide,” Walker lets out a cry, charging at the Goddess. “I’ll be upon you by the moonlight side (Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do,” Minerva blocks his attack, pushing back slightly only to crouch to swipe at his legs, “High blood drumming on your skin, it’s so tight,” Walker dodges her spear, but fails to avoid her kick to his chest, sending him backward. “You feel my heat, I’m just a moment behind.” He brings his shield up in time as her spear barrels down at him. “Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.”

They continue their one-on-one for several minutes, both coming close to getting the other out of the square and the song changing to ‘Cherry Bomb’ by The Runaways—a favorite amongst the Guardians. The entire time Zemo was mesmerized to say the least. Every move she made was effortless, showcasing strengths and ability to predict Walker's moves.

He hadn’t felt such attraction to a woman in so long. And here he was experiencing a feeling that was almost unfamiliar.

Ultimately Minerva wins the battle in what one would call a divine move. At the peak of the song, Minerva’s golden eyes glow bright resulting in the eyes of the owl headpiece to also glow and become animated. It takes form, coming to life and soars straight at Walker, throwing him off by covering his face.

“What the—uuugh!!” He’s flying through the air, back meeting the harsh ground with an audible groan. The owl leaves him, returning to Minerva and consorting back into a headpiece. When it does her eyes dim back to their normal hue. Her team broke out into whistles and hollars, meanwhile Walker’s were unimpressed.

“Guardians for the win!” Rocket cheered.

“I am Groot!”

“Never underestimate the power of Duran Duran!”

Minerva helps Walker up, “Not bad, soldier.” As she turns to head off the pad, her eyes lock with Zemo’s and a wink is sent his way. Heat rises in the Baron, glancing away to hide his smirk.

Oh boy, trouble was on the horizon.

Next Yelena went against Nebula. Their fight was even more intense and nearly ended in a draw. Eventually Yelena overpowered the cyborg and got her to step out of the square. It was a tie. Groot and Rocket teamed up against Ross in the form of the Red Hulk—which took a lot of convincing—the two claiming the win after fooling the General. Taskmaster beat out Quill, handing his ass to him which had the Guardians in a heap of laughter.

“I enjoyed that more than I should have,” Minerva teases, crossing her arms as she takes a spot beside Zemo. He glances at her, mirroring her expression.

“Not a common occurrence for your friend to lose a fight?”

She scoffs, “You’d be surprised by his record.”

Lastly Bucky went toe-to-toe with Drax, and of course Rocket had to yell, “Take his arm and give it to me!” And well….it ended with them tackling each other out of the square.They didn’t know who won at that point, so the teams were tied 2-2 initiating a debate on who should be crowned the best.

“Okay, let’s call it a day,” Ross announces, ending the squabbling between the groups. “Night’s upon us and frankly I could use a drink. We’ll return here first thing in the morning—7am sharp to discuss the threat and where to go,” he turns to Quill, “we’ve got sleeping quarters arranged for you all if you please. Otherwise my guess is you’ll remain in your ship?”

About an hour later, after both teams settled for the night, Zemo decided to take a walk around the flight line. It became a habit of his since joining the Thunderbolts. A way to clear his mind after a long day of briefings and training. He basked in the peace that came with being alone, but there were times he felt lonely and longing for company to share the peace with.

Ten years since losing his family and the pain never strayed. Yet, he managed to live with it. He accomplished his goal in 2016 when he tore apart the Avengers. Likely is to blame for the loss against Thanos resulting in half of the universe’s population turning into dust for five years.

Did he feel remorse for the consequences of his actions? Possibly. Did he regret it? No. At this rate he’s accepted the reputation he painted himself to be.

“Zemo, correct?” The sudden intrusion spooked the Baron, jumping slightly by the glowing eyes in the darkness. A moment later Minerva stepped into the lighting, eyes dimming to normal. She was still in her suit, though her hair was pulled back, white streaks seeping through the natural color.

“Yes, but you may call me Helmut,” he replied, nodding in greeting to the Goddess.

“Helmut,” she tests the name, “like the headwear people use when they ride bikes or spacesuits?”

“That’s one way to look at it, but yes I suppose so.”

“Interesting. What brings you out this late in the evening?”

He shrugs, “wanted to get away from the constant complaining of my comrades,” eyes go to the sky, “and I like to admire the stars.” Minerva moves to his right, glancing up as well.

“They’re much more incredible up close.” He peers down at her, not bothering to question her judgment. She lives in space after all.

“I bet so. I’m sure the view from here is nothing compared to what you’ve witnessed.”

She shrugs, “These stars you don’t even know if they’re still alive. It took years—possibly millions—for the light to reach Earth.” Zemo looks back up, focusing on the North Star.

“For all we know they burnt out ages ago.”

Their eyes connect, Zemo feeling a weight on his chest by the intensity of her gaze. It’s followed by unease when she says, “Natasha told me about you.”

Instantly he looks away, feeling an unfamiliar wave of dread. “Ah.” Here was a discussion he was not expecting, nor willing, to have.

But Minerva didn’t show criticism. In fact, her gaze and tone resembled understanding. “How do you do it?” The question took him aback.

“Do what, exactly?”

“Align yourself with people who go against what you stand for?” Minerva’s tone wasn’t condescending at all, only curious. “Most of your team are enhanced individuals—two are super soldiers to be exact. You went to many lengths to disband the Avengers and put an end to superheroes,” there’s a slight tilt of her head, eyeing the Baron with intrigue, “but you join a group consisting of people who fall between the spectrum of hero and villain where most are the exact thing you wished to eradicate. Not to mention led by two people you wouldn’t say you share similar moral values with. Why join them?”

For the first time in his life, Zemo was at a loss for words. Not a single word uttered as he tried to comprehend what Minerva had just confronted him with. How could he explain? Hell, he didn’t even know the real truth other than wanting to stay out of his cell. A big price to pay in exchange for freedom.

Minerva spoke again before he could respond, “I once committed an act similar to you,” the surprise is evident on Zemo, “Vengeance against those who were responsible for the death of my loved ones. It’s why I was exiled,” a frown appears, her attention returning to the stars. “So I understand you, probably better than anyone here. Understand why you committed those acts to destroy the Avengers. I don’t fault you for what you did—if I did it would make me a hypocrite. You’re not the villain Ross and the Avengers made you out to be.”

“How so?” His voice is strained, “what have you lost?” He didn’t mean to come off as defensive, but the conversation was bringing up emotions Zemo didn’t want to face.

“As Goddess of War all I knew was bloodshed. How to prevent it and how to fight it. Battle strategy was my domain, and the High Council knew better than to question my judgment,” she releases an exhale, “but Mars, the God of War and my brother, was my ultimate rival. He hated how much our father doted on me and agreed with plans I coordinated. It made him feel inferior. He’d do anything to prove himself.” Her tone remains neutral despite the painful memory surfacing.

Zemo remained quiet, picturing the scene as Minerva relayed it. Though stoic the Baron could see the pain and sadness lurking behind her eyes. Managing it as best she could for the sake of her friends. Who knows how many years it’d been since she lost whoever it was close to her. But the hole would always remain.

“To put it short,” she started again, bidding a glance, “Our home was under attack and his rash decision to slow down the enemy led to the death of my family—my husband and children.” Sympathy arose in the Baron, understanding her anguish, “An intentional move on Mars’ part because he believed I wouldn’t be fit to remain on the High Council after stuffing such a loss, therefore he would take my place as Head Commander of our armies and my father’s second Command.”

“He wasn’t exiled?” The question left Zemo before he could stop it. Confused by how the God avoided persecution for his crime, Minvera was shunned. “Your family was targeted.”

Minerva’s smile was bitter, “because their deaths were a result of war, the High Council viewed it as collateral. They failed to see Mars’ responsibility, believing he didn’t intend to kill them. So, I took it upon myself to bring justice. Not only to Mars but also the High Council.” Her smile fell once more, “I made sure they would pay. And they did, but it was far from over after finishing the job. Those who survived didn’t hesitate to throw me out to the wolves once I was contained.”

Zemo nods his head, “where did you go afterward if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I was imprisoned on Xandar for some time,” well they certainly had some things in common, “Once I escaped I became what your people would call a bounty hunter. Where it led me to meeting those clowns I now call my family,” she pauses before adding, “and escaping prison for a second time. Only it was to save the Galaxy.”

The laugh that escapes Zemo surprises him, “I guess it all worked out then.” Once more they lock eyes, twinkling against the stars shining down above.

“I suppose it did.”

Three Years Later

Zemo raced out the door the moment he awoke to rumbling that shook the foundation of his home. After three years he’d recognize the sound in an instant, only this time it was without warning.

An action that rarely occurred.

Throwing on his coat and house slippers, the clock read 2:30 am, flooding the Baron with worry. ‘What is she doing here at this hour?”

Usually when Minerva drops in she gives Zemo a heads up. A day or two’s notice, but recently he couldn’t get a hold of her and passed it off as the Guardians on a job. With the unexpected visit, so late at night, Zemo instantly knew something was wrong.

Hurrying out to the front lawn right as her ship landed, Zemo jogged to where the stairs extended. When they did, the doors revealed his Goddess, still wearing her suit, standing before him. Zemo noted the exhaustion painting her demeanor. Dark circles beneath her eyes, which appeared dimmer than usual, and scars indicating recently healed wounds.

His arms are around her the moment she’s within distance, her own around his neck, “This is a surprise.”

“Sorry I didn’t call,” the exhaustion was evident in her voice. Barely above a whisper causing Zemo to tighten his hold.

“It’s alright, darling. I’m just glad to see you are okay,” his hand runs along her hair, “wanna tell me what happened?” He hears her sniff, increasing his dread, “Close call?”

“Too many,” her voice cracks and there’s a pause. “We almost lost Rocket. We saved him thankfully, but then we nearly lost Peter. And I almost—,” she stops short, not wanting to relive her near death experience. “This was…it was too much for all of us, Helmut.” A kiss is pressed to her head, offering comfort.

“Let’s get you inside, mein schatz.” Zemo leads Minerva into the home, sitting her in the living room while he goes to put a kettle on the stove. Filling two cups of cherry blossom tea, Minerva’s favorite, he joins her in the living room.

After taking her first sip of the brew, Minerva removes the headpiece from her hair and makes herself comfortable before giving Zemo a play-by-play of the past three days. He stays quiet, listening intently but visibly reacts with each awful detail Minvera relays to him. From the unexpected attack from Adam Warlock, to the disgusting abuse Rocket endured at the hands of the High Evolutionary, to Quill nearly imploading in space had it not been for Adam’s change of heart.

Zemo’s knuckles turned white when Minerva spoke of what happened to her. Anger consumed him and he wished he had been there to protect her. Seeing his distress Minerva placed her hand on his, gently squeezing, “I’m okay, Helmut. I’m here now and we all made it out. There were many close calls, but we’re all alive and that’s what matters.”

Taking her hand, Zemo brought it up to brush his lips against her fingers, softly kissing her knuckles. “I don’t know what I would've done if I lost you, Minnie. I—-,” he stops himself to exhale, squeezing his eyes shut, “I would’ve found a way to fly across the galaxy to avenge you.”

“I know you would,” she murmurs, removing her hand but positioning herself in his lap. Arms snake around his neck, pulling him so they were inches apart. “I’d expect nothing less. Also I’d be a hypocrite considering I would do the same for you.” A playful smirk formed, “I was already plotting when Ross let you get captured by those bastards last year. Had it ended any other way, Ross would cease to exist.”

Zemo snickered, “I see we haven’t really changed completely despite our friends believing the opposite. Neither of us hesitating to return to old ways if it comes down to such circumstances.”

She smirks, “No, I don’t suppose we haven’t.”

“What a pair we are,” leaning in, his lips meet hers in a soft caress. Warmth seeping through his veins. That effortless high he believed he’d never have again after the loss of his family.

But he found it with a Goddess in the stars. Where love swept across the galaxy.

When they pull away after a moment, Zemo keeps his forehead against hers. Gold meeting brown. “I’m not sure I can let you go now, liebling. At least not for a while.”

“You never have to anymore,” her words have him startled, the man pulling away slightly to get a better look at her.

“What are you saying?”

Minerva’s gaze turns soft, though there’s slight nervousness, “After everything we all realized something. We found the family we were searching for, but some of us needed to find ourselves. Peter’s here on Earth to find his grandfather. Mantis is off on her own adventure. Drax and Nebula are on Knowhere to help raise the children we saved from the High Evolutionary. Rocket and Groot are leading a new era of the Guardians. And me,” she stops, emitting a gaze full of love that takes Zemo’s breath away. “I’d like to be here. With you, Helmut. If you’ll have me.”

If his heart could explode from the happiness Zemo was feeling it would. Tears were threatening to prick his eyes, the Baron willing himself to remain composed. “Oh, Schatz,” he croaked, cupping the side of her jaw. “I should be the one asking you that. Of course I’ll have you. I love you more than every star in the galaxy.” With that he kisses her, putting all his love and passion it causes her own eyes to water.

“I love you too,” she kisses him again. They remain on the couch, falling asleep eventually curled up in each other’s embrace. Their last thoughts filled with joy as they awaited the new adventure on the horizon.

An adventure just between them. A reinstated Goddess and a fully pardoned Baron opening the next chapter of their lives. Together.

[sapphicscribbles2222]

Latin significance in THG that nobody asked for

Went to Rome on a school trip and realised exactly how much of THG relates to latin and roman stuff so I decided to make a post so I can rant about some of the instances. Also, please be aware that my knowledge isn't perfect, so there might be some mistakes, but this is just a bit of fun really anyway.

Also spoilers for all of the hunger games books

Panem- probably the one everyone knows about, it's the name of the country, and means "bread" in latin, which I find ridiculous. That's like me calling my country "Victoria Sponge" or something (I'm British :) )

The Capitol- Probably less well known, it's named after the Capitoline Hill, considered one of the most important places in Rome. It was where there was a temple to all their gods (I think). There's a museum there now. So, sort of narcissistic to name your capital city after that? Idk.

Caesar Flickerman- Pretty self explanatory, Roman dictator, got stabbed. This man should under no circumstances do TV appearances on the 15th March

Seneca Crane- Ok, this one's kind of ironic, because in the books, Seneca is head gamemaker and close to Snow, right? But Seneca (roman) was a philosopher who wrote a satire and criticised roman habits (one prescribed source for the course I'm taking is literally him being annoyed at roman gladiator fights), so the character and historical figure are pretty different here

Plutarch Heavensbee- Another head gamemaker, also kind of ironic. And based off another philosopher. Plutarch (roman) wrote a load of letters and things commenting on stuff like who got voted in for things, who did what. He, unlike Seneca, didn't write satire though (to my knowledge). So I guess the whole thing with them is giving the name of the satirist to the law abiding citizen and the average philosopher to the rebel, which I find kind of amusing.

Coriolanus Snow- It fits tbh. Coriolanus (not Snow) might have been a real historical figure, idk enough about it, maybe not. He appears in the works of this guy called Livy, who wrote stories for model romans, but his is more of a cautionary tale. Essentially, Coriolanus was a great roman military general, but then decided to betray Rome and go work with the guys they were fighting, who were called the Etruscans, and now they're sieging the city. The roman woman figure out he's betrayed them, and go beg for help from his wife and mother. They agree to help, and the roman women, Coriolanus's mother, his wife and their two sons go to the Etruscan's camp to try and persuade him to stop sieging the city. They get there, and his mum proceeds to yell at him for betraying her and Rome. Coriolanus hears this, and is like, "ok, I'll stop sieging your city. But you, mother, will never see me again." So he gets the Etruscans to leave, then proceeds to get killed by them for backing out. Honestly? I can see it.

Sejanus Plinth- Don't know of any Sejanus specifically, but it may be a reference to Janus, god of doorways and paths (kind of fits, given that he comes from D2 but lives in the Capitol, so that's sort of like a doorway between livelihoods). That's the best I've got, but I think it fits.

Arachne Crane- This one works as well, in my opinion. Basically, Arachne was a weaver, but she was kind of prideful, so she starts boasting that her work is better than Athena/Minerva's (y'know, the literal goddess of weaving?). Anyway, Athena/Minerva challenges her to a competition, where the loser can't weave on a loom anymore. Athena/Minerva wins (obviously) but she sees how upset Arachne is and takes pity on her, turning her into a spider so she can still weave. Honestly, the whole thing kind of fits, since they both basically have the same fatal flaw of superiority, which leads to Arachne getting killed in tbosas, and Arachne getting turned into a spider in the myth.

That's all I've got for now, folks (also congratulations for reading this far). There's probably way more references to myth and roman society in the series, but these are all I can think of at the moment. Anyways, hope you have a good day, thanks for stopping by :)

[everlastiingiimmortals]

well!! thanks Ventium for enabling me

I'm rather fond of the lore of Rationality's Fall, one of the Curios in the Simulated Universe:

What is truth? No one truly knows. Supposing that "stupidity" is an incurable disease in this world, then disseminating knowledge counts as a treatment for the universe. But can "books" mend all living things? According to the Intelligentsia Guild's historical records, the Philosopher Union of the Laurel Wreath Galaxy once erupted in civil war, and blood and machine oil had stained all the books in the contemplators' corridors. Uncountable numbers of scholars died, and the IPC employees who witnessed it all deemed this occurrence "Rationality's Fall" — Through such absurd means, books cleansed a world of its impurities once more.

I think it's not a very difficult leap to assume that this Curio has some direct relations to Ratio, what with the very mention of his philosophy and the Greco-Roman associations (the Laurel Crown of Planar Shifts is similar, what with the mention of laurel as well as the obvious planar shifting, something Ratio is clearly familiar with due to his ability to effectively utilize a spark of the Phase Flame). I like to imagine that Ratio's home is in this Laurel Wreath Galaxy (honestly why did they name it that...) and that, perhaps, this Philosopher Union is very much tied to his world's history. Whether or not the Philosopher Union remains today is left to interpretation I'd assume, since we have nothing, but I find it interesting that blood and machine oil are referenced here -- clearly, the Philosopher Union comprised of both organic lifeforms and Intellitrons. These people would kill to prove a point, and these very same people are referred to as 'impurities' -- those flawed enough to lose sight of their wisdom and be blinded by hubris.

(The mention of machine is very fun because I like the contrast and deeper relation it has the potential to bring between Ratio and Screwllum, as Screwllum is curious about the origins of sentience and the workings of the human mind and yet these machines like him are equally capable of succumbing to irrationality.)

But how so very ironic it is, then, that Ratio takes up this very same mentality, shares a similar aggression? Though he would claim he is above such primal brutality, that he would never succumb to the same follies that destroyed his predecessors and have led to the ruin of countless Genius Society members (oh, how he would say this with such scorn), he is also the same person who very casually comments that a "robust constitution always proves its mettle" -- and yes, this could be taken as a funny euphemism, haha having a "debate" in bed etc. etc., but it's pretty clear that Ratio means he has gotten into blows over a debate. That if not for self restraint and very, very firm morals, he could do worse over a debate.

And so I wonder, then, if this aggression is perhaps more a trait of his people, of the Laurelians (????), and if his clear enjoyment of a pursuit ("Do you know what to do with cornered prey? Hunt it... to the death.") is at least somewhat innate in nature, made only stronger an instinct by his personality and goals. Perhaps his people are of a widespread type, not unlike the Xianzhou with their several planet-sized ships, able to colonize multiple habitable planets within this galaxy, and thus diversify and war with one another...

And of course, Ratio proudly wears the face of a bright-eyed owl affixed to his pauldron. Not just a symbol of wisdom, but a symbol of Athena/Minerva, a symbol of the Greek/Roman war goddess -- of strategy and foresight and heroism. I wonder then, if he does not worship the Aeons because he would rather instead invoke the wisdom of the owl to stay his hand, to favor his cunning, to not let him fall prey to the mindless rage and bloodshed of those who came before him. Does he worship any god by name? No, I don't believe so; rather, the owl is a source of calm and a reminder of home, a reminder of how far he's come and how much further he needs to go, and what is required of him to get there.

[that-cunning-witch]

Know any good sources on Celtic (specifically Gaulish practices)? I know it’s not your area, but you seem like someone who might know some people who dabble in that sort of stuff. The area I live in has some celtic archeological sites, but sadly not much is known about the local religion or culture. I am trying to put together a Romano-Celtic hearth cult, but it’s difficult finding practices and deities that feel right.

Gaul is a larger Celtic area of Western Europe (modern-day France and parts of modern-day Belgium, Germany, and Northern Italy). I say this because the Celts, when invaded by Rome, took in a lot of Roman religion including Hellenic and (rarely) Kemetic beliefs as well. When the Celts did this, so did the Gauls.

If it helps at all, the specifics you're looking into is called Gallo-Roman, which is part of the larger Romano-Celtic area.

This selective acculturation manifested in several ways. One of the main ways we see this is with the melding of Greco-Roman deities with Gaulish (Celtic) deities. Gaulish epithets for Roman gods (Jupiter Poeninus) and Roman epithets for Gaulish gods (Lenus Mars). Roman gods were given Gaulish god partners (Mercury and Rosmerta & Apollo and Sirona). Towards the east of the Gauls, many mysteries were formed, including one for the Greek hero Orpheus, the Iranian (or Persian) god Mithras, and the Egyptian goddess Isis. In other words, a whole lot of syncretism.

When it came to the Gauls (and the Celts overall) a main part of their belief system was the heavy use of animal imagery. More specifically, zoomorphic deities. However, we see a lot more human-looking representations of the gods because the Romans (and Greeks) weren't too keen on the idea (see Greco-Egyptian).

As for specifically Gallo-Roman hearth religious beliefs, the Lares (Lar singular) is a good place to start. They're the equivalent of Agathos Daimon in Greek religion (Hellenism). Essentially, they're personal household deities that are connected to the hearth.

A majority of the information we have about the Gaelic culture and the eventual melding of the Gallo-Roman culture stems from two sources: artifacts and Julius Ceasar, who wrote all about in what we now call the "Commentarii de Bello Gallico". The gods that he mentions the Gauls worship (like Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Minerva) aren't really the Roman gods that the Gauls are worshipping at that time but rather the closest thing Ceasar can connect. For example, Caesar may say that the Gauls worshipped Mars, when in reality they were worshipping Lenus, a healing god that quickly became associated with Mars because of Caesar and the Roman Empire. However, not all of them were caught. Gobannus is the most well-known example we have, with him being the equivalent to the Roman god Vulcan or the Greek god Hephaestus and yet Caesar makes no comment on the Gaulish god.

One other thing, the specific time we are taking a look at was prior to the overtaking by the Anglos, Saxons, and Jutes (aka pre-Anglo-Saxon times). Because of this, Germanic (Norse) gods weren't known to these people yet. Odin, Thor, and Freyja were unknown to them at this point in time.

Other than that, the last thing I can give to you are articles and books that I stumbled upon that may pique your interest. I do recommend a couple of Wikipedia links, but just know that I recommend using Wikipedia as a jumping-off point. Hope this helps! :^)

Becoming Roman: the origins of provincial civilization in Gaul -- Greg Woolf https://archive.org/details/becomingromanori0000wool

The gods of the Celts -- Miranda Green https://archive.org/details/godsofceltsar00mira

Gallo-Roman Religious Sculptures -- A.N. Newell https://www.jstor.org/stable/640758

Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity? -- John Drinkwater & Elton Hugh https://www.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/91018375.pdf

Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War: literally translated -- Frederick Holland Dewey, A.B. https://archive.org/details/caesarscommentar07caes

Category:Gaulish gods -- Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Gaulish_gods

Category:Gaulish goddesses -- Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Gaulish_goddesses

sources: https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/1999/1999.10.34/ http://www.deomercurio.be/en/dii.html https://www.britannica.com/topic/Celtic-religion/The-Celtic-gods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lares https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lar-Roman-deities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallo-Roman_culture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallo-Roman_religion

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

Where do you find info on the myth of Choine, ive been trying to research them but all that comes up is stuff about Chione

Okay so the Chione (i spelt it wrong before oops those pesky o's and i's) I was referring to isn't the snow goddess, who I usually spell as Khione (though it can also be spelt with a C, making things CONFUSING) to keep things straight - BUT for our friend Chione with a C, I can help you out there.

Here's a wiki page she shares with other Chiones

Her father's wiki page expands on her more

And here's the Theoi.com page she's in as well as a couple screenshots:

Chione is also known by two other names, Philonis and Leuconoe, but they're all basically the same person because they are all given the same story, give or take a few differences.

The oldest version, that I know of, is written by Hyginus in his Fabulae, where she sleeps with Apollo and Hermes and has Philammon (father of Thamris, a suitor of Hyacinthus btw) and Autolycus (grandfather of Odysseus). The first is Apollo's son, and the second is Hermes's.

Ovid also tells her story in his Metamorphosis - however, he also does it from a different angle (it's too long to put in as a screenshot you can find it on the theo.com page).

Before we continue, I would just like to say that Ovid purposefully wrote the gods in a worse light as a criticism of Emperor Augustus (they had political beef). So those myths where the gods are complete assholes mainly originate from Ovid - like Medusa's rape at the hands of Poseidon (Neptune), for instance. Or Athena (Minerva) punishing Nyctimene when her father raped her.

Both of those stories have older, very different accounts. Medusa had always been a monster in the OG Mythology, and Nyctimene first appears in Hyginus's Fabulae and Athena doesn't turn her into an owl to punish her, but to make her Athena's life-long companion.

(Trust me, I did the research on this - the Fabulae came before the Metamorphosis. Ovid was born towards the end of Hyginus's life, so while I couldn't pin down a specific date the Fabulae was written, we can infer it was probably before Ovid.)

In Ovid's telling, Chione was raped by Hermes (Mercury, since this is Roman) and later that night she slept with Apollo who was disguised as an old women (apparently she was into that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ you do you Chione) and then gave birth to her sons.

In both accounts, we get the story of how she dies.

Later in life, she boasted that she was more beautiful than Artemis (Diana) because she caught the attention of two gods. Artemis, enraged, shot an arrow through her tongue and killed her.

RIP Chione. Hubris strikes again.

[icedcoffeeandsunshine]

Hey, can you do a character analysis of Minerva Orland? I barely see much of her on here smh

hi yesss ikr, i feel like she’s an underrated female character in the series and barely anyone on tumblr posts about her as far as i’ve seen :( but i hope you like whatever i’ve written.

MINERVA ORLAND - Character Analysis (Requested)

CANON ANALYSIS

in the gmg arc, minerva at first is seen as possessing some traits similar to her father. she is calm and confident but also has a sadistic side as seen in the naval battle. minerva is also portrayed as the type of person who would do anything to achieve or get whatever she wanted. minerva also seemingly has a superiority complex. i think these traits were embedded in her because of the cruelty of jiemma during her childhood, like he ingrained the desire for superiority and power and the idea that so-called “weaker mages” are below her into her mind from a young age and i do feel all of this has been hard to unlearn for her.

we do see a considerable change in her personality in the end of the tartaros arc (minus the whole neo minerva thing) and alvarez arc. she is now definitely more self reflective, caring and considerate. she even apologised to kagura and lucy for the way she treated them during the grand magic games and becomes closer to her guild mates.

MY HEADCANONS FOR THEM

minerva is either lesbian, bisexual or pansexual. she does not give me straight vibes in the slightest

it says on the wiki page that she speaks an old and archaic form of japanese but “minerva” is the name for the roman goddess of wisdom and is of latin origin, which is why i will fully believe that this woman is half italian

minerva is also the smartest in the guild, more so than orga, rufus or rogue (i’m sorry sting bbg)

her hyperfixation is makeup. i don’t know where this came from but i can just see her having a big space filled with all types of makeup and see her experimenting

i also think minerva would be really good at history

but i also totally imagine her geeking out to k-dramas with yukino.

these are so fucking random and messy i’m so sorry

MINERVA IN LOVE + FRIENDSHIP

i have nothing against rogue (he is my favourite character yall) or straight ships but i just cannot get with the roguerva ship like y’all ‼️ did you not feel the sexual tension between minerva and erza or yukino

minerva would be a confident but also shy lover. she’s highly insecure of the fact that she was not a good person beforehand (talking about gmg arc and prior) and does not deserve to be showered with love and affection. her s/o will reassure her but it’s like a voice in her head type of situation. therefore i feel like it’d be really hard for minerva to fully open up to dating unless she knew you really well.

if she was to date someone, it had to be someone really understanding and empathetic. someone mature and not irrational. she would totally be super protective and all but is not great at showing emotions so i think even if she is protective and jealous, she’d suppress her feelings.

i feel like as a friend, she’d be protective as well. but it takes her lesser time to open up to and get comfortable with a friend as compared to a s/o because obviously, dating is scary and minerva sees commitment as something that is formal. so if you are a friend, especially a best friend, get prepared to have your ear talked off.

i will die on this hill but minerva is 100% very very…not insecure but let’s say hesitant, in her relationships because of the negative connotations of her past actions. she fully believes that one day people might abandon her and that freaks her the fuck out. at the same time, she doesn’t like to be vulnerable so not everyone would know about this. but overall, she is a sweetheart and her love language is acts of service. she will never fail to make her s/o or friends feel appreciated.

WHO DO I SHIP THEM WITH?

yukino, kagura (as a crackship) and erza, but mostly yukino because i feel like the dynamic is the best here.

PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT THE CHARACTER

i loved her character development! minerva is actually criminally underrated and i wish we get more of her (not as rogues love interest) in 100yq. she’s also a character i have many headcanons for, and amongst my favourite sabertooth members (the bar is not really high though)

[melias-cimitiere]

Wait Medusa isn’t dead ? I thought she got her head chopped off, I mean I know immortal beings can come back from that but wasn’t she one of the only mortal gorgons ?

And if she can come back from that if she did how long before Pazuzu is out causing trouble again ?!

nothing ever just stays dead

Hello, and thank you for the question. Yes of course she is dead (the original one). People think she's a goddess, obviously they didn't read the mythology or cared enough to investigate. However, as a spirit, she can persist, going through cycles of inactivity. As for the original myth, it's disputed as there are versions where the supposed rape never occurred and she always was born as a monster. Most sources say she was a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. There are said to be 3 gorgon sisters to be born to these deities, which are Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale. Born as monstrous and said they have a hatred for mortals. Later on Ovid, a Roman Poet, said she was a beautiful woman who was raped by Neptune and cursed by Minerva to be a monster. This is wrong for obvious reasons: a) Ovid is a poet, and not a priest or occultist. b) he was Roman, meaning that he reinvented the myth and made a poetic variation of it, in a similar manner that the stories about Arthur are made, turning the real person into a figure of legend in later centuries and attributing christian characteristics. (We know this because Uther Pendragon, his father, is mentioned in the year 580 AD, while the legends of the Round Table are centuries later). and c) nobody in ancient Greece loved Medusa, she was supposed to be an intimidating monster, which is why a hero is sent to kill her and why also Athena has a depiction on her shield. Later, Athenians also drew Medusa's head on their shields. This led to modern fallacies because people don't bother to study history of the ancients but only superficially: it's the same use as an Apotropaic Idol, something evil to repel evil. To say that they liked Medusa is like saying that the catholic faith like gargoyles (whereas they are used as an Apotropaic statue, to repel evil) - apotropaic /ˌapətrəˈpeɪɪk/ adjective supposedly having the power to avert evil influences or bad luck. "apotropaic statues" Pazuzu on the other hand, is a demon; demons, like angels and deities, can come back, after decades or so, since they slowly reform. But for now he's very dead (2 years ago).

[nono-bunny]

Started playing Cupid Parasite yesterday, and as per my nature I'm playing by following both a guide and the most common recommended route order, so it's gonna be like. A LONG while until I fully get the answers to absolutely all the mysteries of the game, but!

I thought it might be fun, if not for others to read then at the very least for sake of posterity as something I can to come back to in the future, to log my thoughts, feelings, and predictions!

So: let's get started!

I called Allan being an incubus from essentially the very beginning. I don't even know what about him gave it away so quickly for me, but. Yah I suspected it long before he even mentioned Jupiter or specifically seeking out Lynette

So like, I imagine we're all in agreement about Minerva ABSOLUTELY being what's-her-face Love-Sensei ™ who's just out here being the ultimate wingwoman for Kyu-chan, right??

The translation sucks SO bad it physically hurts me sometimes lmao. Also the inconsistencies in how they translate things have me constantly doing a double take, istg wtf the least they could have done was settle on one way to portray the Shotafication™ of Glamor Parasite (whose name I'm totally blanking on rn for whatever reason??? Give me a break alright, I'm not even past the common route 😭)

The secret route is just Chii, right? Like. It's absolutely just Chii becoming a person called Peter and talking in the funniest "How do you do, fellow humans" pattern. Like initially I thought it might be Owen because voiced bishi but then I realized that literally everyone in this game is gorgeous so. Yeah now I'm like 99% certain secret route is just Kyu-chan getting together with her fucking pet of 8 years or something lmao that should be. Interesting, can't wait for him to absolutely lose it on her for using him as a neck massager lmaoo

Incidentally, no clue who Chii is a spy for, but he ABSOLUTELY is one, or at least, started out as such. No clue what made him take human form either, but like. Ya'll, I'm certain he's Peter. You can't fool me with that generic white text layout, game!!

Wtf is up with that weird lady in disguise and when is Kyu-chan going to realize it's either her absentee mom or her work partner or whatever the fuck Hera is to her, because like. Yeah that lady is absolutely not just some random human, she's either Hera or Venus

Oh god this game has me all mixed up with it using both roman and greek names, ffs it's a nightmare keeping it straight in my head even though I've always been into mythology

Raul, my bro, I get you. We can be special interest pals!!! I'll geek out about it with you and won't slap you for your bad takes!! His "parasite issue" really does feel like it's just him being ND, huh?

Minerva gave SUCH strong Biblical Snake vibes when we first meet her and I HATE it because I think she's either managed to convince me she's just an ostracized goddess who seeks change and is only playfully spiteful in a non harmful way but. Honestly she may very well turn out to have just been playing 4d chess using Kyu-chan the entire time, it'd suck tho because I LOVE MY GEEKY AUNT/MOTHER FIGURE/BGF (BEST GODDESS FRIEND)

Consequently, Mars is either just an asshole of an old fart for no reason or Minerva is just. Genuinely bad news and he was actually the good one all along. UNLIKELY, but always possible. Also did he fucking kidnap Kyu-chan??? What's her relationship with her mom even like??

The game gets 10/10 for style, like 4/10 for being practical and easy to see. Fr good god I have to zoom enhance AND squint from like one cm away from the screen to see some of the stuff. Same goes for the sound design, tbh- mixing is a mess and I'm constantly fiddling with the settings, but by god(s) does everything sound GREAT! Also the car honk absolutely sends me every time I hear it, and that's. A lot fjxjksbwjz

It's so much fun!!! Truly living up to its name as a romcom so far but I'm not an idiot and I can sense the angst coming from a mile away lmao

That's all I can recall for now, might repost with more stuff or updates later on, might not, tbh I just wanna get back to the game, so!!!

Edit because literally as soon as I opened up the game I remembered something else:

Oh god Gill is REALLY toeing the line between absolutely stealing my heart and earning a restraining order lmao

[percabeth4life]

hii i just read the post you rebloged i think 2 days ago, and you ended it saying that minerva’s portrayal was offensive. could you please explain why?? i would really love to know, tho it’s no problem if you don’t

Yeah sure! (This is written on my phone so it's a bit rougher than my normal formatting)

Okay so first off an important thing that Rick completely doesn't understand is that the Roman Gods are not just "changed Greek Gods", most are a cross between Greek and Etruscan Gods. A lot of the aspects that are different from the Greeks are because of the Etruscan God part, or because of conflating several Gods.

While the Etruscans were certainly comparable to the Greeks in several ways with their Gods, they also had a lot of key differences that are important to keep in mind. As this is focused on Minerva I shall be resisting the urge to info dump.

So, with Minerva. She's not a reduced Athena, she's evolved from Menrva.

Menrva ruled over many things, but it's a bit difficult to state exactly what she rules as many disagree. Commonly stated (and supported) realms include: war, wisdom (and/or memory), weather, art/crafts. Health is also a likely contender and philosophy and commerce are commonly cited as well.

(the weather part can be debated but at the very least she WAS associated with lightning, alongside 8 other Etruscan Gods)

[note: it can be said that Menrva is in part adapted from the Greek Athena herself, and that would be true, but to say they are the same is to ignore the many key differences that show that she is not the same at all]

[differences include her association with lightning/weather and the fact that overall she is far softer than Athena]

[how prevalent war was in Menrva worship is difficult to say but it is certainly an aspect of her]

Minerva who came from this rules many things, beyond just crafts and weaving. She also rules trade, the arts, medicine, poetry, and handicrafts, and some include general healing as something! And theres even more stuff beyond that. She was called the "Goddess of a thousand works" by Ovid.

She is a Goddess of Peace, and when she became associated with Athena, War.

Minerva originally did not have a war or martial aspect, but thanks to being conflated with Athena she gained one.

Minerva was a war Goddess though, and Rick does her a disservice to say she isn't. In fact she was important as a war Goddess and it is likely part of what gained her her position in the Capitoline Triad.

In doing so she overtook Mars' position in the Archaic Triad (composed of Jupiter, Quirinus, and Mars).

In doing this you could even argue she was more important as a war Goddess than Mars, who was in fact a very important War God.

Minerva is considered by many historians to be one of the most powerful/authoritive Gods of Rome. Being put on the same level as Jupiter and Juno.

She had several festivals as well, chief amongst them being the Quinquatria. Interestingly this festival used to be for Mars, but in time became Minerva's. This is another sign of how powerful she is.

The shift to Minerva being one of the central authorities of the Roman pantheon comes alongside a shift in Roman culture. The Romans began to put more focus on maintaining their empire, and the patient wisdom of Minerva was preferred over the powerful, but more violent, Mars.

In this way Minerva is also a bit of a different war Goddess to Mars. She is not one to go out and conquer, she is one to be prepared for war, to guard them home and maintain your land. She is one who seeks peace but is not afraid to do what she must.

Overall Rick completely misunderstood Minerva, turning one of the most important of the Roman Gods into a discount Athena, and it's very frustrating. It is an insult to her to turn her into... That mess from the books.

Sources on Menrva: one, two, three, four, five, six

Sources on Minerva: one, two, three, four, five, six

[mask131]

Roman gods are not Greek gods: Minerva

MINERVA

When Riordan wrote about Minerva in his “Heroes of Olympus” series he got one thing right: the Romans stripped Athena of all of her military aspects. But he also got one thing wrong: Minerva wasn’t just some secondary or minor goddess… She was actually one of the big shots of the Roman pantheon.

Minerva is actually one of the “ancient” Roman gods, with roots dating back to the Etruscan religion. In fact, she was “introduced” into Rome thanks to the Romans defeating one Etruscan city that had Minerva as their patron-goddess – the victorious conquering Romans took her statue into their city, and this is why the oldest nickname of Minerva is “Minerva Capta”, the captive Minerva. And she quickly climbs up the religious social hierarchy – quickly making her way into the Capitoline Triad… What is the Capitoline Triad? It was one of the two big main triads of gods in “classic” Roman religion, a triad so called because they were worshiped on the Capitoline Hill, and which consisted of Minerva, Juno and Jupiter – it was a reflection of an earlier triad of Etruscan gods (Tinia, Uni and Menrva) – and it was basically the tip-top of the gods, the king, queen and “princess” of the gods, a divine royalty who was supposed to protect the Roman city and act as “guardians” of the Roman Empire itself.

As everybody knows, during the Hellenization, somewhere around the third century BC to be exact, Minerva was assimilated to the Greek goddess Athena – but unlike Athena, who was a military goddess, Minerva was not a deity of war. I talked about it previously in my breakdown of Mars, but basically all of Athena’s military attributes (goddess of strategy, of victory, of a civilized and lawful, reasonable war, of a war only here to maintain or create peace) were already carried by Mars, so they didn’t need a second deity like that. Rather, the Romans focused on two other attributes of Athena, which were the two big domains of Minerva.

First one was intelligence – Minerva was the goddess of wisdom and the “high thought”, a patron of schools and students, and her knowledge also made her a goddess of doctors and healing – Minerva Medica (which was rather the attributes of Apollo and Asclepios in Greek mythology). And the second one was crafts: Minerva was THE goddess of craftsmen, industry, and by extension had a hand in commerce, Mercury’s domain. Craftsmen guilds revered her very particularly – during her day, the fifth day following the ides of March, her supposed “birthday”, all the craftsmen went to her temple to offer her a sacrifice, and it was why it was called the “artificum dies”, the day of the craftsmen. Plus, at the crossroad between intelligence and crafts, Minerva was also a goddess of the arts, and a patron of musicians to be precise (with a special care for flute players, reflecting Athena’s association with the flute, and trumpetists). In general, Minerva is so close to Athena’s portrayal (minus the war aspect) because she was directly uprooted from the Etruscan mythology, which itself had been Hellenized before the Romans arrived. So it was easy to project a lot of Athena’s figure onto Minerva: her perpetual virginity, her sacred bird (the owl), her association with Arachne or Medusa. In fact, a very important piece of knowledge: the story of Athena being the one transforming Medusa into the monster she is today is wrong. Wrong because in Greek mythology, Medusa was born a monster out of monster parents, and Athena had nothing to do with her until Perseus arrived. The whole story of “Medusa was cursed for being raped in a temple” is actually Roman in origin, and so it was Minerva to blame, not Athena.

Mind you, due to the Hellenization, the “military” nature of Athena did not completely vanish from Minerva, even though it became minor and shared – the only real military aspect of Minerva shows up during her festival, the Quinquatrus or Quinquatria, five days around the equinox of spring, during which the goddess appears in arms, weapons are purified, there is a forbidding of spilling any blood or fight with any weapons, and there are young soldiers fighting in an arena in her honor. BUT the thing is that this festival was co-shared with Mars, the actual god of war – and these soldiers fighting in honor of Athena were fighting in Mars’ field, so there is a confusion as to which god belongs which part of the festival… Except for the fifth day, the Tubilustrium, which is all about celebrating musicians, and especially those I called the “trumpetist” earlier – actually the players of the “tubae”, ritual trumpets that were said to have been invented by Minerva, and wich were used during sacrifices, funerals and the fights organized in honor of the goddess.

But despite these leftovers of a military aspect, Minerva stays for all Romans primarily a “prudent and courageous goddess watching over everyone’s home” and, as Ovid puts it, “the goddess with a thousand jobs”. Ovid notably heavily described Minerva as the goddess responsible for the education of young roman children, and the deity little boys and girls should pray to obtain wisdom and knowledge; he also describes her as the inventor and patroness of the art of weaving (thanks to the Athena projection), adds that she rules over all jobs, from sculptors to healer passing by magistrate, and that finally any manual craftsman should never forget to honor the goddess and offer her a part of his salary, else he’ll lose an arm – but if he does, he will win the favor of the goddess of “professional success”.

Speaking of Ovid, he told a very specific story about Minerva and Mars that shows another specifically Roman side of the goddess… According to him, Mars had fallen in love with Minerva, but since she seemed to reject any of his attempts at courting her, he asked help from a secondary Roman goddess, Anna Perenna. Now, Anna was lusting after Mars herself, and so she organized some sort of secret night rendez-vous/union/marriage, where she disguised herself as Minerva in order to… let’s say “access Mars’ bedchambers”. But then Anna Perenna revealed her true identity – and openly laughed and mocked Mars for thinking he could ever get in Minerva’s bed. While it seems on a surface level a bawdy story of trickery, humiliation and rape (Romans love rape), actually it is also a reflection of the de-militarization of Minerva. Anna Perenna doesn’t just mock Mars because Minerva doesn’t love him – Anna Perenna’s mockeries actually reflect how a deity of battle and wartime such as Mars will never be able to form a couple with such a peaceful goddess of crafts and household as Minerva.

Interestingly, while Mercury seems to have found a huge “provincial” success in Gaul, Minerva also seems to have found a similar “frontier success”, but in Britain, where she was heavily worshiped as a healing deity and associated with local goddesses of healing waters and hot springs.

As a final point, we see again here the “practical” nature of the Romans applied to Minerva, in a similar way to what I described with Mercury. If you remember, Mercury’s eloquence isn’t the one used by messengers, ambassadors or thief and tricksters, but rather the one of peace-negotiations, merchants and traders ; and here, while Minerva shares Athena’s “intelligence and wisdom”, it isn’t the one of cunning heroes, philosophers or strategists like Athena – but rather the intelligence of doctors, of school pupils and of talented craftsmen. A much more “practical” intelligence.

[timelesslords]

surprise! Under Freezing Stars Chapter 31.5

Remember how on monday I said there might be a surprise with the regular update? Well this is it! I had a feeling people were going to want to see this particular scene play out and since Annabeth wasn’t conscious for it I gave writing from Percy’s perspective a go. It didn’t quite fit in the main narrative and I didn’t want to deviate from Annabeth’s perspective in the main fic, so I’m only posting it on tumblr as a bonus scene. 

This takes place immediately after chapter 29 but you should read it after you read chapter 31. The scene is below the cut to avoid accidental spoilers. Enjoy!

For a few horrifying moments, Perseus thought that he’d been too late. 

He should have never turned his head when the jar broke, never let Annabeth go off without him. By the time he’d realized she was gone, stumbling forward like some invisible force was compelling her, she was already too far to hear his broken warnings. 

He’d barely managed to grab her, to jolt her eye line from the worst of the goddess’s form, before she’d collapsed. 

Perseus caught her before she could hit the ground, but those scarce moments it took to lower her to the floor and check her pulse were some of the most terrifying of his life. 

His own heart seemed to skip several beats before he confirmed that hers was still beating, however weakly. Her breathing was shallow, her eyes closed. Perseus had gotten there in time, but she was going to slip away if he didn’t do something, and fast. 

He already knew what she needed. He’d known from the second she’d collapsed. 

The dust was still settling, but he could hear the desperate calls of the others from across the split he’d made in the floor. The earthquake had been an accident, and he still had no idea how the others had made it in the cavern at all, but right now he didn’t care about either of those things. 

“Fai!” he called out, coughing as falling dust caught in his lungs. 

Fai had the nectar. Fai could save her. 

It would come at a cost, a steep one. There was something unbearable in knowing he was taking the choice out of Annabeth’s hands, but there wasn’t a way around it, not if she wanted to live. He was fully aware that she might hate her for it, but right then, watching her life force slip away with each unsteady beat of her heart, Perseus didn’t care. 

She could hate him forever, never speak to him again, as long as she was alive. And if the others had a poor reaction… 

Perseus steeled himself. He had Riptide. There was no water nearby, but he could cause another earthquake if he had to. Gods knew he was desperate enough to, even after how much energy the last one had expended. 

Over the past week he’d come to consider these people his friends. He even cared for Piper, who he was fairly sure hated him. He didn’t want to fight them, and he prayed he wouldn’t have to— but he wouldn’t let Annabeth die over something so asinine as Roman law either. 

“Fai!” He called out again, his throat still burning from the dust he’d inhaled before. He was starting to panic now, terrified that Fai couldn’t hear him. He could carry Annabeth closer, but he couldn’t take her across the crevice he’d made in the ground, not by himself—

“Perseus!” 

Relief washed through him, closely followed by dread. It had been Jason’s voice that had responded, not Fai’s. But Jason could still get over the gash in the floor.  

“Help!” he screamed anyway, “Over here!” 

Every second that passed before Piper and Jason stumbled out of the dust and darkness into view felt like an eternity, though it couldn’t have been more than a minute. There was barely even time for the shock to register on their faces before Fai and Hazel followed behind, Fai shifting back into his human form from some winged animal. 

“Annabeth!” 

Piper surged forward, but Perseus could only look at Fai, desperately searching for the leather pouch that Perseus knew he’d been carrying, that Fai had to be carrying. And it was there, strapped to Fai’s belt. Perseus almost cried in relief when he saw it. 

“What the hell happened?” Jason asked. He was kneeling beside Annabeth, across from Perseus, two fingers on her wrist. His expression looked the same as it always did, hardened and neutral, though he couldn’t hide the shake in his voice or in his fingers. 

“She looked, she looked when the jar shattered,” Perseus said, trying to ignore how his voice was shaking too, “She needs—“

“She looked?” Hazel cut in, horrified, “How is she still alive?” 

“I blocked it, right before the end, but she— she—”

Perseus felt bile rise in his throat. He swallowed it down. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him, but the words were sticking in his throat. Annabeth’s hand was starting to grow cold. He hadn’t even realized he’d been holding it.

“She what?” Piper asked, desperately. She was kneeling beside Jason. Perseus had no issue reading the fear that was spelled plainly across her face. 

“She needs nectar. Right now,” he said, preemptive dread pooling in his stomach. 

He knew he should be paying attention to Jason and Piper, that their reactions could make the difference in this moment, but Perseus found himself looking at Fai instead, silently begging him to understand.

Unlike Jason and Piper, Fai hadn’t kneeled down next to Annabeth. He was still standing, frozen almost, expression a mix of confusion and fear. He made no move to unfasten the nectar from his belt, and neither did Hazel, still standing next to him. She looked just as shocked.

“She can’t have nectar, she’ll die,” Piper said. Looking back down at her, Perseus was almost surprised to find bewilderment on her face. He’d expected anger, but maybe that would come once she understood. Jason didn’t react at all, or if he had Perseus hadn’t seen it. 

“No, she won’t,” Perseus said. The words were coming easier now, maybe fueled by desperation, or maybe just because the initial seal had been broken. There was no going back now. 

“She’s a half-blood. She’ll survive it— she needs it.” 

“She’s mortal,” Jason said, somewhat forcefully. 

“No, she’s not—” Perseus started, but he never got the chance to finish. 

“Of course she is,” Piper insisted, “She is mortal, she’s said so a hundred times, why— why would you say that?” 

Tears were starting to pool in Piper’s eyes. Jason was finally starting to look scared, or at least Perseus thought so. He’d never had much luck reading Jason’s emotions before, but he could at least tell that something in his expression had changed. 

Perseus looked back down at Annabeth. Her chest seemed to rise less with each passing breath, and his own felt like it was shortening with it. He could sit here and argue with Jason and Piper all day and they still wouldn’t believe him— not without her word. 

Or not without the whole truth.

There was no time to be delicate about it. He was going to have to tell them everything, explain everything.

He made a silent apology to Annabeth before speaking again. 

“Because she lied to you,” he said, looking back up, “She thought her mother was Minerva, she didn’t see another choice. Can I have the nectar now, please.” 

Perseus reached out desperately, ignoring the shock on Jason and Piper’s faces, but Fai still didn’t move. He was frowning, confused. 

“But Minerva—” Fai started, hesitating like he wanted to take a step back. 

“That’s not possible,” Jason cut it, shaking his head, “Minerva, she can’t—”

Perseus bit back a curse. That had been the wrong move, the wrong calculation. They all clearly understood the implication of what Perseus had just said, and it seemed to be bothering them exactly as much as Annabeth had predicted. He wished more than anything that Annabeth was here and awake— she would have known exactly what to say, which risks to take and which secrets to hold back. But if she were awake, Perseus wouldn’t be in this gods forsaken mess in the first place.

He felt his hand not holding Annabeth’s tighten around Riptide. 

“No,” Piper said, shaking her head violently, “No, she can’t be, that’s— that’s insane. You’re lying.”

“I’m not lying,” Perseus said, finally standing, Annabeth’s limp hand falling out of his. It almost physically hurt to let it go, but they were out of time. He held out his free hand to Fai, the other still gripping the hilt of his sword. 

“Give me the nectar. Now.” 

Something in Perseus’s expression must have been convincing, because Fai gulped, his hand shakily moving towards the pouch still fastened to his belt. Hazel just watched, her expression blank and unreadable, though her eyes followed the movement of Fai’s hand, her sword steady by her side. 

“No,” Piper said, standing now too, putting herself between Perseus and Fai. Her knife was in her hand, still bloodied from the previous battle, “You can’t give that to her, she’ll die.” 

Fai stood, paralyzed, the pouch of nectar still in his hand. Perseus couldn’t bear to look down at Annabeth again, to know if he was already out of time. 

Perseus considered telling Piper that Annabeth had already had it, but he had a feeling that would just make matters worse, add more confusion to the already chaotic scene. Instead he took a deep breath, trying to push down the insistent panic in his throat. 

He didn’t know what to say to Piper, but he didn’t have to. Jason said it for him, standing up just like the rest of them.

“She’ll die without it, Piper,” Jason said. His voice was tight, expression unreadable once more, but he seemed to have made his own calculation, and he’d decided that trusting Perseus was their only hope of getting Annabeth out of here alive. 

“Not like that, though,” Piper said, her voice wavering. She was looking back down at Annabeth, tears finally streaming down her cheeks. “You said mortals can’t drink it, you said they’d— they’d burn, she can’t die like that, she can’t—”

“Or she won’t die at all,” Jason countered. He was looking at Perseus, like he was trying to search for something. Perseus suddenly got the feeling that this was not as much news to Jason as it was to Piper. 

“She’ll live. She needs it to live,” Perseus said, holding out his hand yet again.

Piper gave Perseus one last look, like she was still considering stabbing him right in the stomach. Then she allowed herself to be pulled away by Jason, her knife subtly confiscated seconds later. She almost seemed not to notice, still staring at Perseus.  

Fai, still statue-like, suddenly came to life, handing the pouch to Perseus, who took it carefully and quickly. He lowered it to her mouth, cradling her head against his knees as he poured the golden liquid into her mouth, letting it trickle down her throat. There was still a mouthful left in the pouch when he finished, but he used more than maybe he should have. It was hard not to when she was so weak— so close to not breathing at all.

For a couple of agonizing seconds, nothing happened. Then Annabeth gave a shuddering gasp, color flooding back into her cheeks. Her eyes didn’t open, but Perseus could already see her breath returning more fully, could feel her heartbeat growing stronger beneath his fingertips.  

Perseus almost choked on his relief. He half wanted to burst into tears— he could feel them rising in his throat, an uncomfortable lump forming there. But he couldn’t afford to lose control, not yet. 

He looked up at Jason and Piper, still standing over the scene, still with Jason half-holding Piper back. Jason had a grim look of understanding on his face, Piper looked like something had broken inside of her. 

“I don’t understand,” she muttered, tears shining in her eyes. They looked darker than Perseus had ever seen them, irises almost as black as her pupils. 

“What did you mean before, when she said she thought her mother was Minerva?” Jason asked, his eyes finding Perseus again. They were steely blue as always, though something in them now felt more intense, like lightning about to strike. 

Perseus considered lying, making something up to explain the discrepancy. But he had a feeling Jason wouldn’t take well to mistruths, and he had an even worse feeling that Jason would know if he was lying.

“She… she believed that for a long time. That’s why she didn’t tell you. But her mother isn’t Minerva at all, it’s— it’s Athena.”

Piper didn’t seem to comprehend his words at all, just stared at him with the same broken disbelief as before. But Perseus could see the subtle flashes of understanding in Jason’s expression. 

“So she’s Greek-born. Like you,” he said. 

“Yes,” Perseus confirmed, “Athena was different. The way she had children with mortals, it was different. No oath was broken.” 

Greece was different too, Perseus thought to himself, bitterly. Even if it had been broken, they wouldn’t have killed Annabeth over it.

Jason gave him a strange look at Perseus’s words, one Perseus couldn’t quite decipher. But then it straightened, hardened. Formed back to the blank one Perseus couldn’t quite read, except that now he almost felt like he could see twinges of anger there, pressed beneath the surface.

“We need to get out of here,” Jason said, a clear indication that the conversation about Annabeth was over. Perseus couldn’t help but agree with the statement, even if Jason’s reaction worried him.

Piper still looked borderline catatonic. Hazel had a grim expression on, Fai still a shocked one. 

Perseus had a distinct feeling that Annabeth’s fate wasn’t set yet, and that it wouldn’t be until she woke up.  But for now, for right now, he didn’t care. She was alive, and he intended to keep her that way.

[firstknightss]

GWAINCELOT ESSAY THREE???

[commentary voice] ah yes and this gwaincelot essay.... which turned into a fic was inspired by @nextstopparis and @little-ligi

GWAINE TEACHING LANCELOT HOW TO READ. and thats how they actually CONFESS.

imagine gwaine seeing lancelot trip up reading leon’s plan for the day, seeing him trying to understand it. and gwaines, hes a little in love. Hes. Hes a little hit with feelings for this Noble (tm) knight. So OF COURSE he CANT EMOTION and he tries to show his affection for lancelot without yknow being in ‘loVE’

he comes over with his swishy hair and bantery tone like “oooOhHh LANCELOT! Lancey! Hey! Hello! Can’t read leon’s goddamn awful handwriting huh?”

And Lancelots embarrassed and flushes red and gwaine thinks hes Fucked Up (and he really doesn’t want to fuck this up, this is the first time he’s actually felt emotions this deep for someone) and tries to fix it panickedly, like the Anxiety Clown He Is.

He keeps on saying sorry and apologising, and Lancelot, the EVER CALM KNIGHT GUY, goes “it’s fine, it’s okay. It’s nothing to do with you...” and then he hesitates. He HESITATES. “....it’s just that...” and then he BITES HIS LIP and gwaine thinks he might just faint there and then, “...i cant read.”

and now it hits him, gwaine, gwaine, who thought literacy was something trash and something he didn’t really need, realises how important it is. and so, yknow because hes kind of wrapped in those Emotions (tm), he pulls lancelot’s sleeve after practice, when they’re alone in the changing room. (and if lancelot wasn’t so tired and miserable, he would have easily seen gwaine BLUSH)

And he, shyly asks if lancelot wouldnt mind being tutored by him.

Now Lancelot is OVERJOYED, and he’s borderline CRYING because lancelot, poor old village boy lancelot who’d been kicked out of the knights of camelot, and had to become a MERCENARY and fight for masters who didn’t care for him, has NEVER HAD someone literally CARE about him so much. (Apart from Merlin. He loves merlin <3)

so now imagine lancelot waking up an hour early the next morning, and showing up into gwaine’s room. He knows gwaine literally doesnt sleep with a lock, so he just barges in, and starts shaking gwaine.

Now GWAINE sleeps like a Log (had so much shit going on irl, time to sleep it away) and when he opens his bleary eyes, seeing lancelot in one of his stupid v neck shirts over him, hes like “....h...helo??”

and lancelot’s all like. “We- werent YOU gonna give me reading lessons.” And gwaine nods, yawning (and in that moment lancelot thinks gwaine looks unimaginably cute, so cute that he wants to literally ruffle gwaine’s hair and run his hands through how silky and brown it is.)

THEN gwaine pulls on the dont care-ish mask, and makes his arms into a pillow under his head, as he leans against the wall behind his bed, in some kind of somewhat???flirty??? manner??? [i dont...i dont know what hes trying to do. On the other hand! Not does Lancelot :) ]

Lancelot, does not realise this is gwaine’s poor attempt at flirting - since he’s seen gwaine ACTUALLY flirting and this is like. Nothing. And its also poorly executed. Which is NOTHING like gwaine.

So he pulls gwaine’s arm, and half hauls him out of bed.

As gwaine’s head crashes into lancelot’s stomach, he can smell lancelot’s clothes. They smell of flowers, and cotton and everything so natural and gwaine, who literally smells of wine, and wood and Tavern. (And aftershave, or the 500AD equivalent)

[see here, see im trying to bring themes of dionysis okay. OkayyyyyyyyY. yours truly likes looking at greek mythology. And both these two complete dionysis]

Gwaine, in his sleepy stupor, nestles his head on Lancelot’s hip, who gives a sigh and stands there. One hand clutching gwaine’s, leaving the other free.....

....to rake through his soft, flowy brown hair. And twirl his fingers through its waves, and Gwaine cuddles in further.

And since Lancelot left the door open, Leon (the other bitch who wakes up at 4am to do idk nothing) sees them two...like that, illuminated by the SUNLIGHT behind them, and smiles a little.

And then he trips over the stairs, the moment is lost.

Gwaine and Lancelot pull away at the same time, and gwaine’s face turns back to “ha ha im a Jerk (tm)” and if he wasnt too busy trying to hide how flustered he was, he’d see Lancelot looking at him the way he used to look at GWEN.

They both blink and look at each other, understandingly, neither of them to speak of this again.

And then Gwaine drags himself out of bed, and Lancelot raises his eyebrows as he watches him (totally not checking him out) haul out a book from his cupboard.

Gwaine’s too sleepy for this, he keeps yawning and rubbing his eyes (looking like a cat, Lancelot notes) and Lancelot takes a deep breath, his eyes understanding.

“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

“Lancelot, I love..” he bites his tongue, cursing his half asleep mind “..doing this, and love hanging out with you...I just cant stay up this early.”

Reading lessons, from now on, are at 1:30am-whenever Gwaine and Lancelot stop rambling about Odysseus and Circe and Telemachus

[i dont know any other ancient books apart from like. Ancient greek/Roman ones. So i guess. Its not historically accurate,,,,BUUIT this is a fanfic for a pair who had like no scenes together SO i think i can take some ✨creative liberties✨]

Lancelot has heard of the journey of Aneas from travelling bards, singing songs in his native old english. Gwaine’s eyes are quick at latin, and he learnt the flaws of Romulus and Remus in his pure latin. Gwaine’s a good teacher, and lancelot is a quick study, and it’s not long before they’re arguing over which Goddess caused the most harm in the Illiad.

Gwaine’s never met someone who he could reveal that he loved reading to, he loved doing.

Lancelot’s never met someone who he could tell he couldn’t read, and ask if they could teach him, love learning.

They make it work.

The other knights notice, of course they notice. Percival notices how Lancelot stumbles into the Gwaine’s room at night, bright eyed. Elyan notices Lancelot and Gwaine’s voices from Gwaine’s room opposite him; sometimes slow, Gwaine speaking slowly and Lancelot following; sometimes heated and passionate.

(They’re arguing. They’re arguing about how to pronounce Minerva)

Merlin finds the two, in the early hours of the morning - when the birds are figuring what song they sing today - on Gwaine’s bed.

Gwaine leaned against the bedframe, his trousered legs splayed over the sheets. Loosely braided, long brown hair fell over his closed eyelids, his mouth in a small smile.

And Merlin follows his arm draped over Lancelot, snuggled beside him, his head on his broad shoulder, every breath of wind pushing against curly black hair, making it almost /bounce/. His eyes are covered by the other man’s hair, and he looks...content. More content than Merlin has ever seen him.

He slips out as quietly as he came in, and smirks, hes gotta tell arthur they finally got their shit together oh GOD

Its no surprise to anyone but them, when Arthur pulls Lancelot out of training, and into his chambers.

“I’m glad you’ve found someone Lancelot.” He starts, his face geniune, his voice giving away hints of relief. (He thought he was never going to see his knight smile again after all the ordeals that had happened to him)

“Oh...” Lancelot’s heart sinks, “...how did you find out, Sire?”

Arthur blinks, taking in the change of mood in Lancelot, maybe it wasn’t anything important, maybe they were trying to keep it casual, hell they didnt want the king knowing.

“I- uh, I just noticed...” Goddamnit Merlin, and Goddamn his need to tell him everything he saw. (Merlin had advised him not to do this, as they sat on his bed after a long night. This was really his fault.)

Lancelot pales, and he places his hands down on the table beside him, palms slapping stone as he did so.

“Well, I guess I should tell you the whole truth then,” his voice is quiet, and Arthur steps closer, “Sire I am not of Noble birth, and was born in a village - as you know.”

Arthur nods, his arms crossed, but his Kingly Bravado fell away at the sight of his knight, and one of his closest friends, being this vulnerable.

“Yes I know, but what does this ha-“

“And we children in the village we-“ he falters, “-we were never taught to read.”

“Yes, no I understand, I-“ he pauses, Lancelot’s words hitting him a bit too late, this was about literacy?

This, this whole conversation was about literacy?

Not being gay?

Merlin was going to have a field day

“Sire?”

“I understand Lancelot, and is this why you feel a little out of place with the other knights?” He carries it on, with a smile, he has a few questions to ask merlin.

“Yes, and that’s why I asked Gwaine to tutor me from time to time, although, the sessions carry through late into the night, which may have been affecting my performance at practice. I’ll have you know that this is a temporary th-“

“It’s fine Lancelot,” Arthur places a hand on his shoulder, “You are still exceptional at practice,”

“Thank you Sire,” Lancelot twinkles.

✨

“Theyre, theyre not together?” Merlin cant stop laughing, tears streaming down his face, “theyre not TOGETHER?? oh my God arthur what did you DO”

They sit together on Arthur’s bed, drinking wine from stemless cups together, with Arthur recounting the events of the day; red faced.

“I mean, it was your idea Merlin.”

“I just saw them, and I assumed...I didnt...I didnt think youd ASK them.”

“What do you think I’d do then?? Let them be on their merry way.”

“Yes!”

✨

“Do you like me?” Gwaine asks, unexpectedly, one night, the moon vibrant against the loud sea.

“You’re...tolerable...” Lancelot says, a smile tugging at his lips, as the silver moonlight falls against his hair, a halo around him.

✨

The knights give them the look every morning, as the two of them stumbled out of the same room, more frequently than ever.

Sometimes Lancelot would throw on Gwaine’s shirt, when he’d crumpled his own beyond repair. Sometimes Gwaine would put some of Lancelot’s hair oil on, when his hair was frizzy.

They gave each other knowing looks when Gwaine and Lancelot started whispering and giggling like a bunch of schoolgirls.

✨

And then Stupid gwaine had to go get fucking stabbed, and their delicate dance was like trying to waltz through a minefield.

Lancelot clutches onto Gwaine’s arm as Merlin feels his forehead with shaking hands.

“He’s burning up.”

“Infection...?” Lancelot sounds broken, and nods, fumbling with his pack to find some bandages.

It was just a simple quest; a save the day, get the girl, do various harmless shenanigans type of quest.

He’d half expected Gwaine to get the girl, and he cant help but give out a half choked laugh. Gwaine had no idea what hit him when she turned out to be the evil one all along.

He tries to forget that Gwaine showed no interest in her, he tries to forget that Gwaine’s been less frequent at the Tavern, he tries to forget that he hasn’t seen Gwaine with anyone since months now.

Gwaine, his beautiful Gwaine was lying on his lap, hot red blood rushing from his side, staining his polished chainmail with dark, sticky blood.

He’s been out for nearly an hour now, and Lancelot remembers carrying him, through the entire forest, forgetting his sword and his helmet and just grabbing Gwaine and getting the shit out of there.

Gwaine’s lack of self preservation was really rubbing off on Lancelot nowadays.

Merlin watches as Lancelot holds back tears, his own eyes stinging. Gwaine can’t die like this, he can’t die like this....

“hælan beorn adl”

Merlin’s eyes flashed gold, and Lancelot could feel warmth coming back into the fingers he was grabbing.

He was coming back.

And then the weight of everything hits him.

He was in Fucking Love.

✨

“Hey.” Gwaine’s voice is rough from disuse, but Lancelot nearly sobs when he hears the voice.

“Don’t fucking do that to me again, amor meus.” He puts his head down on Gwaine’s chest; finding the hammering of his heart calming.

He shimmies onto Merlin’s bed, which Gwaine had been lying in for the past few days.

“Did you mean, ami meus?” Gwaine sounds tired, too tired to be awake.

“Huh? Did i say something else?” Lancelot decides to play dumb, a sparkle in his eyes,

“I thought I heard amor meus,” Gwaine pushes his nose into Lancelot’s hair, taking in the wonderful smell of coconut.

“Well then, at least your hearing’s okay, amor meus.”

Gwaine gulped, and was sure Lancelot could hear his loud swallow.

“Lancelot, I hope this isnt a big joke with me teachin you latin and all,” Gwaine’s voice is a little wobbly from the slee deprivation and the magic and the pain numbers, “because I’ll have you know that I really love you, and I cant go on like this any longer,”

“Its okay Gwaine, I learnt latin from the man I love, of course it’s not a joke.”

“The man you love? Who’s tha-“

Realisation hits him like a brick.

Oh.

Oh.

“Me?” His voice cracks, and Lancelot looks up, a smirk on his face.

“Of course dumbass.”

“Like I’m meant to know that,” Gwaine tries to keep his dont care-ish aura, but they both know he’s too exhausted to keep that up.

“mmm?”

Gwaine kisses him on the nose, and he wraps himself around him.

And thats how Merlin finds them later that day, eyes blinking as he stood there.

✨

“I’m glad you’ve found someone, Lancelot.” Arthur coughs.

“Is that what that whole talk was about???”

“Answer the question.” His words sound harsh, but he’s barely hiding a smile.

“I’m glad too, I’m Glad I found Gwaine too.” Lancelot blushes, turning to gwaine.

“Why are you asking anyway, Princess?”

“Oh just, making sure this time.”

[rpcrimeboys]

{static}“We’ve been out here in space now, for, four days, it's getting more exciting by the minute. The new technology has been such a help in getting to this mysterious asteroid, that the renowned scientist James Carter has named Minerva, after the Roman goddess of wisdom and war. Me and the team are doing well and we are only about six days away from the asteroid now. We have reason to believe that there are signs of life on it.” I right clicked on my computer, I had been recording an update for scientific reasons, at least that's what I'd told myself it was.

Hey, It wasn't my fault that I’m sixteen years old and on a space mission. Ok, It is but, still. I Stood up and stretched, then closed my laptop. I signed up for this mission a few months ago, expecting not to get in, especially with my grades, but it turns out that I did. Mostly because there were really no other teenagers willing to risk their life “just” to see an asteroid and experience the wonders of space, maybe I’m biassed. My mom and brother were astronauts and my dad is an astronomer, so my whole family is into this kind of thing.

I start to walk towards the kitchen, I say kitchen, it's basically just a microwave, two ovens and LOTS of storage. I walk past the masc cadets room on my way and the three of them are sitting playing uno. I turn to the right and reach the kitchen. Kristie is heating up something in the microwave. She’s doing that dumb little dance thing she does while waiting.

“Hey"

“Greetings” she answers.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting food.”

Oh, forgot to explain, we can eat 3-4 meals a day no problem, and whenever we want. They aren't very strict with it because it’s a ship full of teenagers.I head toward the cupboard to her left and grab a cup of pot noodles and sit it next to me on the counter.

I turn to face Kristie, her shoulder-length brown hair is in a ponytail today, as per usual, so is my hair, It’s the most practical.

[TIMESKIP]

“We’ve arrived” I hear those two words ring through the ship. It had only taken ten days, and now, we could be the first humans to make contact with an alien species. “Kristie, Ethan, Max, Kyle, Maisie get ready”I heard a couple clunks as I got up from my bed and ran to get into my spacesuit.After getting ready all five of us stood by the exit talking to the pilots through the intercom about safety and all that junk. I feel like I could do a thousand cartwheels. I can’t wait.

They open the exit and the first thing I see is the vast darkness above us, the thousands, millions of stars above us, they are shining like fireflies in the sky. The ground is hard rock as to be expected, no visible signs of life yet. “1…. 2 … 3… jUMP!” we jump down off the ship that's slightly raised off the ground and all hit the ground at the same time. We set up the equipment cautiously, one of us always on the lookout. It's my job to take samples but I just want to explore. I stray away from the group looking to see if I can find anything interesting or unique about this asteroid.

One of my gizmos (I don't know what to call it sorry) Is acting strange, picking up signals. I start walking forwards and it gets stronger, so I continue walking around, Often in circles until I find a spot where it is strongest. It's rather like that level in Mario Odyssey.

I put down my case of supplies and grabbed a small shovel and clear plastic bag to put the sample in, and began digging around the area. About twenty minutes later I hit what seems to be a blue crystal, it sparkles and is semi transparent. I heard chatter through the intercom again, I hadn't realised it went silent. I chipped away part of the crystal without digging too much further.

“Maisie?MAIS-” I heard Kyle shout down the intercom, and the muffled concerned voices of the others.

I quickly shoved the sample of the sky coloured crystal into the bag and closed my supply case. I tried to answer but my mic had stopped working. I ran as fast as I could towards the ship but I soon realised I couldn't see them, there was no sign of life, Nobody but me and the stars. I ran to the left as far as I could, getting increasingly panicked. I ran for what felt like hours, eventually I saw the ship. I shouted with whatever strength I had left that I could muster. Kristie spotted me from the distance and ran towards me. She reached out for me and embraced me in a tight hug.

“Hey, are you ok?” She questioned, tears in her eyes.

“Yeah?”

“You were gone for a full day, where did you go?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Ok let's get you back into the ship”, She could hear my heavy breathing I guess.I handed my samples over to her and stumbled back up into the ship, I changed out of my gear pondering what had happened, It had only been minutes to me, but to them it was hours. I lay on my bed and slipped off into sleep.A while later, (Around 3am in earth time) I got out of bed and ran to the kitchen to eat so I can head to the lab. Kristie's bed is empty so she’s already there I assume.

“Hey,” Ethan says leaning on the door frame.

“Hello, what’s up?”

“Nothing, you seemed really spooked yesterday, and you disappeared for hours, what was that about?”

“I was headed to get samples and found one of my gadgets picked up an odd signal, so I followed it and it lead me to a specific area that, underneath a layer of rock there was a interesting crystal-like stone, I gave it to Kristie”

“Ok, don’t do that again”

“I won't,” I promised.

He stood up properly and walked away in the direction of the boys room. I continued getting breakfast, nothing special, just some toast. I finished my food quickly and walked out towards the lab, excited to see Kristie, and see what tests that are left to do on the sample. As I walk into the room I see Kristie hunched over a microscope with no lights but the overhead ones on. I turn on the light and walk up to her.

I tap her on her shoulder, she jumps slightly but once she realises who it is she relaxes.“I thought you were an alien or something” She mumbled, pushing away a strand of her hair that was blocking her view.“Nah, It’s just me.”“That’s a pity, come here and look at this” She gestures toward the microscope and hops off her chair, heading to the other side of the room to read some papers that were stacked messily in a pile. I peered into the microscope basically mimicking the position she was in moments ago.

There was a small sample, I examined it, it resembles a piece of blue zircon quite closely, but something is off ab0ut it. There’s another factor here that I can’t figure out. Kristie places a small bundle of papers on the desk next to me. I pushed the lense away from me carefully and picked up the page from the top of the stack. I could hear her fiddling with things behind me, I've never really understood why she came here. Kristie is incredibly pretty, in a strong yet dainty way, her eyes are a deep brown, like the colour of chocolate, they look beautiful in the sunlight. There isn't much sunlight here. But anyway that’s not important. I read through the paper and see that she’s run a few tests already, such as spectral fingerprinting. It seems to give off a small amount of radiation, nothing lethal, or enough to be dangerous. She weighed it, it's about 20 grams, and seems to be around- “Attention, We are planning to explore this asteroid again; PLEASE BE READY IN THREE HOURS, AND DO NOT STRAY TOO FAR FROM THE SHIP WHILE ALONE.”

[TIMESKIP BROUGHT TO YOU BY KRONOS]

Again the five of us, and one of the pilots, set off onto the asteroid. After doing the tests, both me and the rest of the crew are incredibly intrigued by this, especially since we didn't pick it up at all, even after landing.

The six of us split into groups of twos, me and Kristie, Ethan and Kyle, Max, and the pilot (Their name is Asher). We each had the gizmo that picked up the crystals frequency? Earlier and were searching for more. Me and Kristie started walking (as closely as possible) to the way I had gone yesterday. Kristie was walking right next to me, her beautiful warm brown hair was plaited today, it’s already quite short, but tying it up is more practical.We walked for what felt like hours, until we found a spot where the signal is stronger and went in circles until we found a consistent trail of the signal.

We walked together for another while, Kristie spoke to me about her life on earth, She’s from England, She has two younger brothers and really enjoys physics. Her favourite book is A good girls guide to murder. I really like that book too. We get along surprisingly well. I’ve always felt a stronger bond to Kristie than the others. My thoughts were cut off.

BEEEP BEEEEEEPPP BEEEEEOOOOOP

We had found the area I was at from earlier. You could see the spot I had taken the sample from. Only now it wasn’t blue, It was a deep orange colour, that’s very strange.“Is this it?” Kristie questioned.“Yeah.”Our mics were still working, it seems like that it was just a fluke earlier.

I held the device closer to the ore, It started shaking violently and the signal got stronger and stronger until it suddenly stopped. In confusion Kristie held hers closer and it repeated the same thing, almost exactly, the shaking, the signal, and the breaking. Why is this happening? The two of us set to work, hoping to take more of the crystal for testing and monitoring.

Kristie grabbed some bright yellow yarn from her case and started marking the area. She marked about 5ft by 5ft from the edges of the crystal I had revealed. I began clearing away the layer of debris that was over the rock. We worked in silence, until I spoke up.

“Kristie? I think I’ve found a weak spot, It looks like there’s some sort of cave there.” I point towards the area in front of me,

“That’s odd..”

“You think??"

“Yeah, I do. It seems pretty solid everywhere else… Do you.. Do you think that maybe there could be something there?” She asked.

"Maybe..”I leaned forward and began to dig deeper into the crystal and suddenly a chunk of it fell down.

Before I could realise what had happened I had fallen into a cave, it was surprisingly bright, you know, considering I was underground. The walls were covered in the deep orange ore, and it seemed to sparkle.I called Kristie’s name and waited for a reply.

“Maisie? Are you ok?” She shouted.

"Yeah! I think so anyway.”I stood up and brushed off my suit with my hands. My mic was cutting in and out, I could hear Kristie above me contacting the others. My body aches a bit, but that’s to be expected after falling into a cave. The cavern resembles a large geode, and is rather spectacular. As I’m taking in my surroundings, A rope drops beside me, And Kristie climbs in, with one of our kits tied to her waist.

[suofeiart]

Open collab with https://instagram.com/foxtailmichi?utm_medium=copy_link

In this spring theme, I really wanted to reflect on the meaning of the gods. Therefore, I chose the goddess who most fully describes Juliette.

Minerva is the ancient Roman goddess of wisdom and war, the patroness of artisans, better known as the Greek goddess Pallas Athena.

Juliette is an inventor and spent her entire youth in the "war" for a place in the sun, she fought for her right to be a carpenter, master shipbuilder, engineer and mechanic. From a puny nerd to the head of a corporation.

However, the men she met along the way were only help, to whom she did not feel a burning attachment, and did not let herself be fooled.

Only a couple of times she gave up, like an ordinary girl dreaming of love. Burn yourself once and blow on the water. However, everyone knows the difference between first love and true love, and most often these are not synonymous)

Meet Juliette in the form of the goddess Minerva, may she shed light on all your undertakings and “May good luck always be with you” (sounds as good as possible)))