#pulled out my old classic greek myths book to go over the mythology for this and man...

[golyadkin]

Sons Of The Labyrinth or The Things Our Fathers Do To Us

[sunflower-swan]

Wolfstar Chapter 18

A/N: Here’s what you need to know: I created this story for Writer’s Month 2020. Every day is a new prompt, and therefore a new chapter. This is an AU Wolfstar where Remus is a tattoo artist next door to Sirius who manages a flower shop. James and Lily are alive in this universe and own a coffee shop across the street. And to make parts of the story work with the prompts, Remus is about 10 years older than Sirius. It also takes place more or less in present time, minus Covid-19.

This is chapter 18 of a multi-chapter work. If you’d like to start from the beginning, here is chapter 1.

Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters. I just like to play with them.

Day 18 Prompt: Myths

Rating: Teen and Up

Word Count: 1115

Tags: fluff, date night, dessert

Chapter 18

Sirius

Goo Goo Dolls, “Iris”

And all I can taste is this moment

And all I can breathe is your life

And sooner or later it's over

I just don't wanna miss you tonight

Remus’ face flushed.

It was true, what Sirius had said. Everything Remus had done and been through, made him the incredible man who sat before him. And Sirius wouldn’t want him any other way.

“I recall a mention of strawberry shortcake,” Sirius said.

Remus chuckled and looked down at their now empty dinner plates. “Yes, there is still strawberry shortcake.” He looked back up at Sirius and gave him a half-smile. “What if I make some tea, and we have dessert in the living room? I have some Chocolate Hazelnut Decaf Black Tea I’ve been saving for a special occasion.”

“Sounds good.” Sirius gave Remus’ hand a small squeeze before standing up. He collected both of their plates, “I’ll take care of these while you take care of the tea,” and walked over to the sink.

“You know,” Remus said, still sitting at the table, eyebrows raised. “You are my guest. You don’t have to help clean up.”

“I know. But I’m going to anyway.” Sirius shrugged. Consider it repayment for all the times you took care of me the last couple months. Instead he said, “All things considered, it’s the least I can do.”

“Ok.” Remus laughed. “I’m not going to argue with someone who volunteers to wash my dishes.”

He patted Sirius on the back. It was a brief moment, but Sirius could feel the warmth of Remus' hand through his worn Pink Floyd shirt long after the hand was gone.

Sirius hummed quietly as they finished their tasks. Whatever popped into his head in the moment: Def Leppard, Montley Crue, Poison, Joan Jett...the classics. The kettle whistled at the same moment he finished cleaning the last dish, and they retreated to the living room to enjoy the tea and strawberry shortcake.

“Did you know strawberries are one of my favorite foods?” Sirius asked. He sat in the middle of the couch, and stretched his left leg out and propped his heel on the coffee table.

Remus sat to his right, with his back to the armrest. He tucked his left leg under his right. “I have to admit, Lily might have mentioned it while she was convincing me to invite you over tonight. Luckily for you, this entire meal accounts for about half of what I am capable of cooking decently.”

Sirius snickered. Of course Lily had a hand in this. She was entirely too clever for her own good. Not that he was complaining. He put a big bite in his mouth.

“Mmmm...this is really good, Remus.” The shortcake was firm on the outside, yet soft and melty on the inside. And the strawberries...well, it’s hard to go wrong with those.

“Thanks.”

“So,” Sirius leaned back and turned a little toward Remus, “here’s something I’ve always wondered, but never had anyone to ask. If a person can only become a werewolf by being bitten by another werewolf, then where did the first werewolf come from?”

Remus nearly choked on the bite of shortcake in his mouth. He coughed and washed down the offending bite with his tea.

“Sorry,” Sirius said. Merlin, Sirius. Really? What the hell, man? “I didn’t mean...it’s just…” That all sounded a lot better in his head, now he heard it come out of his mouth. “Shit.”

He didn’t mean to sound like an insensitive prick. Being this close to Remus did something to him that was more than nerves. His body was still humming from holding Remus’ hand at the end of dinner. Now, sitting next to him on the couch, it was as if every atom in his body was vibrating. Apparently a side effect of this was blurting out whatever was floating around in his brain. Sirius took a deep breath, and set his partially eaten desert on the coffee table.

“Remus, I’m sorry.” He ran his hands through his hair and twisted to face Remus. “That didn’t come out the way I wanted it to. I’m just...trying to understand.” He gently placed his hand on Remus’ knee. The same warm humming sensation began in his hand again.

“It’s ok. I get it.”

For a moment it appeared Remus would almost put his hand over Sirius’, but at the last second, settled it on his leg right next to and almost touching.

“I have actually done some research on the topic,” Remus said. He stood and walked to the bookshelf. “I was a little worried you might pick out one of these and ask about it before.”

He scanned the stacks with his finger before pulling one out. The tome had a worn leather cover, and no title. He brought it back to the couch. When he sat back down, he was closer than before. Sirius’ flesh tingled warmly where their legs contacted.

Remus opened the book on his lap and leaned over it. Sirius leaned over to get a look, too. He placed his hand on the small of Remus’ back, and traced slow, lazy circles there.

“This is an old book on Greek mythology. So, this,” he pointed at a picture of a regal looking man, “was King Lycaon. Lycaon was a prideful king.” He turned the page. “One day he tried to trick Zeus into eating the remains of a sacrificed boy. Zeus did not fall for it, and became angry. As punishment, he cursed Lycaon and his sons into wolves.”

Sirius rested his head in his hand, his elbow propped on his knee. He had sat in silence, enthralled by the tale.

“Wow,” he said, and angled his head to look at Remus.

The lamps in the room cast his face in a warm glow. For the first time, Sirius noticed faint scars across the bridge of his nose. Remus also had a light speckling of freckles across his cheeks. Why had he never noticed before? Sirius swallowed.

“So, Lycaon was the first werewolf?”

Remus closed the book. “Probably not. It’s only a Greek myth. But it makes for a good story.” He smiled at Sirius.

Sirius felt his breath steal away.

“Does it --” Remus picked at the cover of the book with his thumbnail, “-- does it really not bother you...that I’m a werewolf?”

“It really doesn’t,” Sirius whispered.

“What about --” Remus took a deep breath. “-- the age difference. I mean --” He looked at Sirius with a raised eyebrow. “-- I’m a lot older than you. Wouldn’t you rather date someone...more your age.”

“Remus, I’ve dated people my age. None of them made me feel the way I do when I’m with you.” The flame that had been growing slowly in his chest since the day of the bunny tattoo suddenly burst into a wildfire.

Next Chapter: Chapter 19

[daringyounggrayson]

boycott love

It’s @flashhwing‘s birthday and they wanted a birdflash fic about warm summer nights and conversations under the stars and things left unsaid. Happy birthday Ash!!

Anyone remember the YJ tie-in comic where the Team went camping to bond and share their backstories? Yeah, I’m doing a missing scene birdflash style.

(AO3)

The sleeping bag rustles as Dick pulls himself forward to rest on his elbows. He’s inches from Wally’s face when he whispers, “Psst, hey Wally, are you still up?”

There’s no response except for the slightest pause in breathing, proving that Wally is in fact awake.

Dick pokes at Wally’s cheek. He whines, “Waaally.”

“Shh, cut that out, I’m sleeping.” He rolls his head away to protect it from Dick’s finger. “Not all of us are training to be part-time vampires.”

Dick puts his hand back down and debates about how he should handle the situation. Usually, Dick can sleep whenever—even if he’s in a different time zone or if he would normally be awake and patrolling; attribute that to a mix of growing up in a traveling circus or his current “sleep when you can or else you won’t get your eight hours” vigilante lifestyle—but everyone talking about their pre-hero lives brought up some unpleasant memories. Some disturbing anti-sleep memories.

He decides to be selfish. Wally can sleep later, plus, the guy kind of owes him for all of the ass-saving over the years.

“C’mon,” Dick says, letting a pleading tone enter his voice. “I can’t sleep. Walk around with me for a bit?”

Wally sighs, taking the bait. “Okay, fine. But I was serious about the not-training-to-be-a-vampire thing—besides, the weekend is when I catch up on my sleep.”

The rustling gets louder as the two of them crawl out of their sacks. “You know that’s a myth, right? You can’t actually catch up on your sleep. Besides, it’s summer.”

“Whatever. Do you want to go or not?” The tent unzips and they climb out.

Dick starts walking in the opposite direction of the cave, careful not to step on any branches and wake the others—wake Supey—and Wally follows suit. He doesn’t know exactly where he’s headed, but he’s familiar enough with the area that he’s not nervous about getting lost.

They walk silently for a long time before Wally comments, “It’s nice out here.”

“Hmm,” Dick agrees. It was hot earlier in the day, and even though it still feels kind of humid, now that the sun has gone down, it’s a comfortable instead of overbearing warmth. He looks up, notices the stars poking through some of the less-crowded branches. “Look, you can see the stars.”

Wally looks up, stops to examine what Dick is staring at. “Wow, they’re really bright out here. By my house, you can usually see the stars, but not like this.”

“You can barely see anything in Gotham. Too many lights. The manor is better, but in the city—eh.” Dick tilts his hand side to side.

“We should find a clearing,” Wally suggests. “Man, I haven’t stargazed since I was a kid.”

Dick snorts. “Your fifteen-year-old status probably means you’re still a kid.”

Wally sticks his hand in Dick’s face, making him laugh. “Shh, you know what I meant. Follow me!” Wally picks up his pace and Dick matches it with ease. He lets Wally lead them to who-knows-where, more focused on breathing in the fresh night air and listening to the chirping crickets than where they’re going. Something about it makes him relax.

They find a relatively clear area closer to the beach than the woods and sit down, side by side and shoulder to shoulder as they look up into the sky with a sense of awe. For a precious minute, that’s all they do.

“So, do you wanna tell me why you can’t sleep?” Wally asks softly, bumping Dick’s shoulder a little without looking away from the sky. “You were quiet at the fire.”

He thought he’d want to talk to Wally about it; he’s done it plenty of times before. But right now, it feels raw and ugly, and he doesn’t want it to ruin the mood that the night’s atmosphere—Wally—put him in.

So instead of answering, he shrugs and falls down onto the soft grass. “Show me some constellations?”

He hears Wally sigh again, but less forced than earlier. This one almost sounds defeated. “Okay.” Wally lies down next to him, and after a few seconds, he lifts his arm and points at a patch of stars. “That one’s the big dipper.”

“Always a classic,” Dick comments as he spots it himself, a hint of teasing in his voice. “Ooh, show me the little dipper next.”

“I would hit you if I didn’t like you so much,” Wally warns him.

Dick snickers.

“Hasn’t Bats already made you learn a ton of these in case a star-themed villain shows up in Gotham?”

“A few, yeah.”

“Then you show me some,” Wally huffs. “I was into constellations when I was like eight; it’s been a while.”

“Please?” Dick asks. “I don’t want to think.”

Wally turns his head to look at Dick, frowning. “Is everything okay?”

“I’m fine. I just need a distraction, you know?”

“Say no more. Alright, I know there’s a dog out here somewhere.” Dick waits for a couple of seconds while Wally scans the sky. “Got it.” He lifts his arm, pointing toward the constellation. “See that really bright star?”

“That’s Sirius, right?”

“Uh-huh, and if you follow it like this,” Wally traces the sky with his finger, “you’ll see Canis Major. It means the greater dog in Latin.”

Dick smiles, thinking about a tiny Wally with a giant book, reading about this constellation for the first time. Learning the proper name and meaning, probably the myth that went with it. “What’s its story?”

“Umm,” Wally starts as he thinks, eyes presumably looking up and back as he scans his mind for information he hasn’t accessed in years. “So I’m pretty sure in Greek mythology that this was one of the dogs who followed Orion, who was this great hunter. It’s chasing a hare, AKA the Lepus constellation over there,” Wally puts his hand up in the air again. Now that his mind is primed, the constellations seem to be coming to him faster. “See it?”

“Yeah.” Dick tilts his head. “I guess that kind of looks like a hare if you know it’s supposed to be one.”

Wally huffs a short laugh. “Back to Canis Major. It’s associated with Laelaps, the fastest dog in the world who was supposed to be able to catch anything it pursued. One day it was sent after this uncatchable fox, right? But here we have a paradoxical situation because, supposedly, this dog can catch anything and this fox can’t be caught, so they’re just stuck in this never-ending race. Zeus eventually has enough and turns them both to stone. He puts the dog in the sky and—boom—constellation.”

Wally shows him all of the constellations he can remember and find which, honestly, aren’t that many. But it’s fun and eases the tightness in Dick’s chest. Wally’s still-sleepy voice is soothing, and the stories that go with the constellations pull Dick in even farther. For about fifteen minutes, Dick is just a kid looking at stars. For a while, Dick feels like there’s nothing in the world except for Wally, Dick, and the stars.

“I’m running out of content here, so I think this will be the last one,” Wally warns, and Dick hums in understanding. Wally raises his hand, “That one over there is the Apus constellation, AKA the bird of paradise. Apus means footless in Latin, and people used to think that birds—or maybe just birds of paradise? I can’t remember—didn’t have feet.”

When Wally lowers his arm without continuing, Dick asks, “No myth with this one either?”

“I don’t think so, no. But, it’s a bird like you, so maybe it was a vigilante? Let’s say that as a thank-you from the universe, he got to fly forever in the night sky when he was too tired to keep fighting.”

“I like that.”

It’s quiet for a moment; Wally lost in the stars, Dick lost in his thoughts pretending to be lost in the stars. He used to do this with his cousin a lot—or maybe just a few times. It’s hard to remember. It’s been . . . it’s been a while. He was little.

His thoughts bubble up in his chest again, making his eyes water. “Thanks for coming out with me.”

Wally turns his head, the smile he was sporting when he was talking about the constellations has slipped into a sad expression (again), telling Dick his own sadness leaked into his voice (again). Amateur. “You can talk to me. About anything.”

“I know,” Dick says, and he does. Wally’s always been easy to talk to. Had been?

“So, what’s got the Boy Wonder down?” Wally asks, propping himself up on one elbow to look at Dick better. Wally has a soft, trusting smile on his lips and his eyes are scanning Dick’s face for something he doesn’t (can’t) find.

Dick doesn’t move, but he does say, “I used to stargaze with my cousin sometimes.”

Wally’s face falls. He says, “Oh,” in the same way someone would say “oh shit.”

“No, no. This was a good idea; I’ve been thinking about them—him—all night.”

“Oh.” This one is more sympathetic and understanding than anything else.

“We used to climb on top of the trailers and stargaze. We didn’t really know any constellations, so we’d make up our own.” Just like with clouds. “Never with stories, though. John was more into telling ghost stories. I think he made them up; custom-made to scare me.”

Wally laughs at that; it makes Dick smile. “That sounds fun. You guys got along and everything, then?”

“Most of the time, and we were close, too.” Raised more like typical siblings than cousins, what with the close living quarters, hand-me-downs, and dumb squabbles. But there was also teasing and inside jokes and pictures of them in matching outfits and an unbreakable bond they wouldn’t appreciate until they were older (or one of them died).  “I never thought about it, but he was really nice to hang out with me so much. There weren’t a ton of kids at the circus, but there were a couple who were around his age.”

“How much older was he?”

“About four years.” He would be thirteen now, the same age as Dick. “I remember I was really jealous of him for a while because he got to do the routine without the net. But now.” Now, not so much. He became jealous again during the funeral, and that stuck around for about a month. He switched from feeling left behind to guilty and then left behind again.

He’s over it now. Most nights.

“Hey, why don’t we get out of here?” Wally interjects, getting to his feet. “I’m starving, and I bet we can find something that’s still open if we try hard enough.”

“I don’t know . . .”

“Come on.” This time, Wally is the one who gets Dick up. Wally grabs both of Dick’s hands and pulls him up. Dick puts up a show of resisting, but he’s already given in. “I’ll give you a ride.”

“Ugh, fine.” Dick pulls his shades out of his pants pocket and slips them on. “But wherever we’re going, we better be getting fries too.”

“I am offended that you would ever think that I wouldn’t do that.”

Dick rolls his eyes, climbs onto Wally’s back, and then they’re off.

oOo

“Alrighty, here we are, two milkshakes and an order of fries,” their waitress—who hadn’t even so much as blinked when two pajama-wearing teenagers walked into the diner at three in the morning—says, moving the items from her tray to the table.

“Thank you,” Dick and Wally say in unison, each pulling their own milkshake closer to themselves.

“Can I get you boys anything else?”

“I think we’re good for now,” Wally says.

She smiles, says, “Enjoy your food,” and then she’s gone again.

Dick picks up his cherry, pulls it free from its stem with his teeth. He’s still chewing when Wally’s lands in his glass. “Since when don’t you like cherries?”

Wally shrugs and grabs the bottle of ketchup, squeezing it next to the pile of fries. “It just looks like you’re having a two-cherry kind of night.”

Dick accepts the gesture and pops the gifted cherry into his mouth, then he starts on the fries before Wally can eat them all.

“What time do you have to be back tomorrow?” Wally asks.

“Sometime before dinner. I might just head back after training, though.” Dick mixes in some of the whipped cream with his straw, then takes a sip. “What about you?”

“Just by curfew. It’ll depend on what the others are doing, I guess.” Wally finishes his milkshake with a loud slurp before licking the last of the whipped cream off of his straw. “Hey, do you know what we’re doing for breakfast?”

“Why are you thinking about breakfast? You’re literally eating.”

“We should all always be thinking about breakfast; it’s the most important meal of the day,” Wally says, pointing his now-clean straw at Dick seriously. “And I was just thinking that the food is pretty good. I bet their pancakes are good too.”

“Then order pancakes now,” Dick suggests. “I kind of doubt we’ll go out. Saturday mornings are kind of crowded, plus I don’t think it’s in the Team’s budget.”

“Fair point.” Wally thinks for a second. “Maybe we should find a 24-hour store. Buy some cereal and pancake mix. I kind of wiped out most of the kitchen and I have no idea what M’gann keeps in the pantry. Or how much. How much do Martians eat anyway? Do you think she’d take it the wrong way if I asked?”

“Wow, I can’t believe she hasn’t shown interest in you yet.” There’s a giant and completely un-hidden grin on Dick’s face.

“Hey! First of all, she hasn’t said she doesn’t have interest. And taking it slow is all part of the Wall-man’s plan.”

Dick raises an eyebrow. “Alright, Wall-man. Wasn’t this camping trip supposed to just be you and M’gann?”

“Again: it was supposed to be a private camp-fire, which I’m still blaming you for crashing.” Wally punctuates his accusation by throwing a fry at Dick, who catches it in his mouth.

“Again: M’gann invited everyone.” Dick throws a fry into Wally’s mouth.

“Maybe she asked to be nice and you guys were supposed to politely decline?” Wally suggests.

“Hmm, that doesn’t sound right. Besides, I think she wanted to hang out with Supey.”

“Like I said earlier, I would hit you if I didn’t like you so much,” Wally warns, but there’s no real threat. “But I guess the outdoor-camping thing turned out to be better than I thought it would be, and it was probably more fun going as a group because it took some of the pressure off.”

Dick would never say this to Wally’s face, but he gets why M’gann isn’t interested in him. At least that loud, flirting version of him. The real Wally, the one across from him right now, is different. He’s sweet and smart and funny and understanding and the best friend a guy could have. He’d make a great boyfriend.

“Do I have something on my face? Hello, earth to Rob.” Wally’s hand is waving in front of his eyes.

He drops the hand that had been propping up his chin. “Sorry. Just thinking.” He diverts his gaze, drums his fingers on the table for something to do.

Wally seems to hesitate on something, but then he brings his hand up and rests it on top of Dick’s. It rests there and Dick looks at it for a little too long, the back of his neck feeling warmer than it should. And he has no idea why he would have that kind of response; he and Wally are both very openly tactile. He’s just trying to comfort Dick, why does Dick have to read into it like that? Why can’t anything feel normal between them anymore?

(It’s because he’s crushing—hard. Refusing to acknowledge it is making it worse, making the feelings build up until they bubble out in forms of jealousy or frustration or or or. But doing something about it could ruin everything, so Dick’s planning to tough it out until he gets over it. Because, at the end of the day, they’re friends. Just friends, oh dear confused and hormonal teen-brain, friends.)

“Here’s your bill,” the waitress says, causing Dick and Wally to quickly pull their hands apart. “Are you all set with these?”

“Uh-huh,” Dick says, voice cracking a little. He pulls out some cash while the waitress takes their dishes away.

oOo

Fuck puberty. So far, all it’s given him is acne, a voice that cracks, and these new, confusing feelings that could potentially destroy his friendship with Wally like it’s a tower at the end of Jenga. He honestly doubts being able to grow facial hair will be worth it.

oOo

As Dick and Wally walk back through the woods, side by side, Dick realizes that he has never wanted to reach out and hold Wally’s hand more. He pulls his shades out of his pocket, fiddling with them to keep his hands occupied.

“We should do this again,” Wally says.

Dick scoffs. “What? Invite everyone camping and then ditch?”

“No—hang out! Obviously,” Wally clarifies. “Not necessarily the camping thing, but we should definitely do that diner again, it was fantastic. And stargazing was fun, but I’ll have to brush up on some more constellations first. Maybe next time you’ll share some of your ghost stories?”

“Deal.” Dick is smiling, looking up at the stars. It would be nice to make some new memories of things he used to do with his family. “Should I anticipate third-wheeling on you and M’gann? I could get the fourth and fifth wheels on board, make a whole thing of it.”

“Nah, just the two of us.” Wally throws his arm around Dick’s shoulder, a familiar weight. “Not counting tonight, I don’t think we’ve done that in, like, at least a month. I know you don’t have a lot of free time these days, but I kind of miss you, dude. And don’t get me wrong, the other guys are great, but. I don’t know, it’s different.”

“Yeah.” Not bad, just different. And new. But alone with Wally—it’s everything Dick wants and needs desperately to avoid. Ugh, he hates this. Feelings. No wonder Bruce has chosen to boycott them.

oOo

“Hey Wally?”

“Yeah?”

“. . . night.”

“Night. Let me know if you can’t sleep again; we’ll go in—" Wally cuts off with a yawn, “—inside and play video games or something.”

Dick hums and settles down. Wally’s breathing sounds like he’s already asleep again, but Dick . . . Dick has a lot to figure out.

[lowkeyorloki]

Mythology Nerd

Anonymous requested: Could I request a Loki x reader where the reader is secretly a Mythology nerd and so they don't talk to Loki very much (either because they're a fan or intimidated or something else) even though they talk to Thor (bonus points if thor knows about their love of mythology) but then one day Loki catches them reading a norse Mythology book super late at night? Anyhow, I love you! Your work is amazing and I hope you're having an amazing day!

A/N: Thank you sm I love you too!!! I loved doing this request! I actually studied Norse Mythology for a year (that’s why I love Loki so much) so... !!!!

~

It was bad enough Thor knew.

The book of Norse Gods had been given to you by a history teacher a long time ago after they saw you tearing through Greek myths. It was old, bound by  leather, and had been one of the few personal items you had brought with you to Avengers Tower. 

Which had been before Thor moved in. 

He had found you reading the book in the kitchen one day and smiled. He jokingly asked if you wanted his autograph.

“That,” you said, “Is exactly why I didn’t want you to know. You knowing I like these myths is like me being a creepy fan for a teen show... It’s weird.”

Thor shrugged. “Honestly, Y/N, it’s comforting. You Midgardians seem to have forgotten the truth ever since my brother and I arrived. My people are more than my own family squabble.” You smile at this. “Speaking of my brother...” Thor continues, wriggling his eyebrows. “I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to hear of your disposition of us. I’ll just-” 

“No!” you lept forward, grabbing Thor’s hands. “Please, don’t tell Loki.” you beg. Thor looks confused.

“Why not?” he asked. You stutter, knowing no matter how hard he tried, Thor would tell Loki of your feelings for him if he knew.

“I... Can you imagine what this would do to his self-image?” you say. “It would be higher than it already is... We don’t want that.” Thor nods, and you breathe a sigh of relief.

“You’re right.” he says. “My lips are sealed.” you nod, and pots and pans crash behind Thor in the sink. When he goes to see what happened, you scurry out of the room, berating yourself for being stupid the whole way. 

~

“Have you been reading anything good lately Y/N?” Loki asks you the next night over dinner. You nearly choke on your food, coughing so much Thor slaps his hand on your back. Loki looks unamused.

“Um,” you say after downing a glass of water. “Nope... Just training as much as I can.” you nod, praying Loki will turn his gaze elsewhere.

You quickly excuse yourself. As you walk out of the dining hall, Thor is (not so) subtly mouthing ‘good save’ to you. Through gritted teeth, you smile and give him a thumbs-up. 

~

When you’re certain everyone, especially Loki Laufeyson, have gone to their rooms, you go to the couch with your book in hand. The couch has the softest blanket ever, as well as an amazing view of New York.

You’ve been sitting for around fifteen minutes, the floorboards creak, and you look up suddenly. 

Shit. you think. Loki stands in front of you, wearing no expression.

“Mind if I sit?” he asks, gesturing to the seat next to you. You pull your knees to your chest, wordlessly saying yes. Loki sits and stays silent for a few minutes, breaking it with “Is there a reason you avoid me?” 

You scoff, shutting the book on your lap.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” you tell him, knowing exactly what he was talking about. Loki turns so his whole body faces you, and you notice how relaxed his arms look in just a simple tee shirt.

“Is that so? Y/N, you talk to me less than you talk to Hawkeye. And he’s retired.”

“That’s not true.”

“Really? Tell me, what’s the difference between me and my brother? I at first thought you were intimidated by a god, by you aren’t scared of Thor at all. What’s different about me?”

“Um, maybe your criminal record?” you retort. Loki chuckles. 

“Fair enough.”

There’s quiet once more, before Loki points at (godamnit, godamnit) at the book in your lap.

“What are you reading?” you quickly drop the book on the ground.

“Oh, just an old classic. Nothing important.” you say. 

“Hm.” Loki tuts. “Because I could have sworn it was-” he snaps, the book appearing in his hands. “My history, yes.” he opens the book to the drawing of Yggdrasil, flashing it at you. You groan, upset you’ve been caught.

“I’m sorry I kept it from you, it’s just that-”

“There’s no need to be sorry Y/N.” Loki interrupts you with what sounds like feigned innocence. “I understand. It would do horrors to my self-image. “ he smirks at you. “You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

“How...?” you ask, trying to figure out how Loki could have heard you say that. “The pans! Were you in the room with us?!” Loki shrugs once more.

“You should know from these, I am a shape-shifter.” he says.

“I’m sorry.” you admit. “I... Shouldn’t have said that. It wasn’t nice.” Loki smiles.

“Well, Y/N, I’ll accept your apology on one condition: You tell me why you didn’t want me knowing about your penchant for the tales of my people.” You freeze. All the time Loki had been in the the Tower, you’d manage to keep your feelings for him hidden. You weren’t going to throw all the stolen glances and secret swooning away for some banter happening at 12:03 a.m. 

“No.” you say. Loki’s expression hardens for just a moment before returning to normal.

“Very well.” he says. “Hm, what myth are you reading now? I hope you don’t mind if I...” Loki begins to open the book to the page you have marked.

“No, Loki, wait!” you jump closer to Loki than you’ve ever been, but it’s to late: Loki’s eyes narrow, and his knuckles have turned white as he grasps the old leather.

“Ah.” he says. “My torture.”

You look to the page, the image of Loki chained to a rock as a snake dripped venom into his eyes. 

“That was one of Odin’s worst punishments, I’ll admit.” he says. Loki begins to get up. “I think I’ll leave now-”

“It’s my least favorite myth.” you say. Loki looks at you, your faces so close your noses almost touch. You shake your head.

“Why?” he asks.

“I’ve always hated the idea of you being in so much pain.” you whisper. Loki’s face begins to relax, but soon looks distressed. “Odin intended to leave you there forever.” you rest your hand on Loki’s knee. He does nothing.

“I always dread that part of the book.” you continue. “And for what? You’ve been so mistreated Loki, and I’m so sorry.” you’re combing through Loki’s hair now, moving your thumb up and down his leg. “I’m sorry.” you repeat. “They won’t even accept they’ve wronged you... It’s always made me upset.” Loki looks into your eyes, and you bring your other hand up so you’re holding his face. Slowly, you lean forward and press a kiss on each of the god’s eyelids, where the venom had dripped so long ago.

Loki breathes out, grabbing your wrist.

“I want to kiss you.” he tells you. “I have since I arrived...” he pauses. “Odin’s punishment was horrible, but I’d take it any day over denying myself of you.”

“You don’t have to.” you tell Loki.

Loki closes the little space that had been between you, pulling you onto his lap. He smiles, which makes you do the same into your kiss. 

“What was it you didn’t want to be?” he asks. “A creepy fan, was it?” you rolls your eyes and swat at Loki’s chest.

“Shut up.” you say.

“Make me.”

You do.

[rayonfrozenwings]

The Interconnection of ACOTAR and TOG and what this means for Kingdom of Ash

Welcome to Renee’s theory on how its all connected!

Masterlist to my official theories here. (aka the ones I spent time writing up)

Preface: Now it’s important to note that over time, as new ideas emerge - older theories may become less relevant. Before I start writing - I go in with the perspective that each new theory is on its own. I don’t require the information from other posts/ideas unless explicitly stated in the new theory.

So for this theory, I may refer to other theories I have already written, I may explain them here in a new context, and change my thoughts on them. I even have different paths available for the direction SJM can go. I’m pretty open to everything being a possibility until it is dis-proven in Canon. I paraphrased a fair bit. But if you know TOG well i’m sure you will remember the parts I’m talking about, and if possible I have put in brackets what book said what. CONTAINS REFERENCES TO BOTH TOG AND ACOTAR BOOKS. Also warning - I don't want to accidentally spoil anyone if I actually end up being right about anything, so maybe don’t read this until after KoA. haha. Well you can. But if I manage to get something right, I feel like I have warned you. :P Please Understand that I am trying to take things back to their simplest form, and there are links to wiki articles if you want to do your own reading for better understanding. Hellenistic philosophy for example makes my brain hurt, but if you want more I have linked it. I refer a bit to ancient Greek myth etc too. Tagging: @miladyaelin @bookofmirth @paperbacktrash @therapeuticrambling @lady-katkat @illyrianbeauty @photofeesh @slytherclaw713 @nephelle-warrior-scribe (I just tagged people who might be interested, I will not be offended if you don’t want to read it. :D)

So to start I’m going to propose that the Worlds of Acotar and Prythian are connected. 

That they are linked. How? They are not the “same world” but neither are they different. A year ago I wrote a post called “Erilea” (here). Through discourse and discussion with other people in the fandom on this post, we came up with some cool ideas on why Prythian and Erilea look similar in terms of geography.

Ice age - Change in the Sea Levels. Making Erilea and Prythian the same world at different times. Either Prythian came first or Erilea. Either was an option.

Parallel worlds - multi-world theory, They are the same place with small differences in their history that changed the make up of those worlds (a sliders reference). These worlds can be connected to each other through a Wyrdgate or wormhole. 

But now I have a third theory. A theory about Why Prythian looks a lot like Erilea. And it’s a little Fantastical and I love it. I will be happy if this is not the case too - but it’s always nice to try and solve a puzzle. I believe if the worlds are linked we will find out in Kingdom of Ash. So BEWARE : IF MY THEORY IS RIGHT THEN THERE MAY BE KOA SPOILERS. Of course - i’m just a fan of these books who loves theory - so it’s possible I just have an overactive imagination as well. :D

But First I need to take a step back. 

I need to look at how the Universe for these books is made. (I have written 4000 words in a separate document and its too complicated with lots of open ends and possibilities so I’m trying to simplify here and provide the details that make the most sense. - warning I failed to make it shorter, but at least its in bullet points).

The origins of the Throne of Glass Universe.

There are gods. (all books reference at least one) 

Aelin and co. are in the “third movement” of an unfinished game between these gods. (QOS) The gods guide people to make certain decisions and take certain actions. (EOS)

The Gods do not have physical form but are trapped - At this point in the story anyway. (EOS)

There are mortals in the story - fae, humans, shapeshifters, people who have a vested interest in the material world in which they live. (all books)

There is the idea that the worshiped gods change over time - or who is worshiped changes over time. There are 36 gods in the Southern Continent (TOD) and the Khaganate says that they never eradicate old gods but rather assimilate them into their own religion.

Could this mean that we have three sets of 12? 12 Gods.  Perhaps the same 12 gods at each new re-incarnation (since we have three movements in the unfinished game) or a new scion or mortal to speak through for each of these gods.

But we know that there are 9 on the Pantheon at Mistward (HOF) - So what happened to the other three gods? 

In the “lock” / “witchmirror” Elena is looked over at the obsidian passes by 12 Gods and Goddesses! I think Maeve has been re-writing some history in Wendyln, or not all 12 are worshiped. Time forgets those that aren't seen as important. Which is true of our own histories. The Greek Olympians changed over time and Dionysus was seen more in later pantheon’s for example.

Creation of the universe

Neoplatonism is the idea that the universe is made from an initial thought - The One. There is void and nothing and then necessity/ fate/ the One comes into being. From this point the universe expands out. Creating more and more. Beings that make up essence and soul - I like to think of them as primordial gods/goddesses, life and death gods. Then there is a creator from this - someone who is used as a tool by necessity to craft creation, a physical artisan. Do not confuse the creator with God. The creator is merely an artisan, with the skills and the tools needed to do the work of the necessity. And then more specific Gods form from this.

It is called the Celestial Hierarchy. - see below and link to more info here.

((Celestial hierarchy[edit]

Later neoplatonic philosophers, especially Iamblichus, added hundreds of intermediate beings such as gods, angels, demons, and other beings as mediators between the One and humanity. The neoplatonist gods are omni-perfect beings and do not display the usual amoral behaviour associated with their representations in the myths.

The One: God, The Good. Transcendent and ineffable.

The Hypercosmic Gods: those that make Essence, Life, and Soul

The Demiurge: the Creator

The Cosmic Gods: those who make Being, Nature, and Matter—including the gods known to us from classical religion. ))

Source: wiki: neoplatonism

So What does this mean? I think that this means that Erilea was created by a artisan or creator, and since then there has been a war going on between the “cosmic gods” - So the god of Storms, The goddess of Light, the god of Wild things. These gods had a kind of civil war - either with themselves, or with higher beings. I am ever hopeful that when SJM releases the book “The world of throne of glass” that it shall have all the mythology and story behind how this works because it is complicated to decipher. I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to nail down these influences in her books (jewish bible/ christian bible/greek myth/welsh myth/slavic myth - seriously, i’m going crazy here).

Thanks to the Bone Carver (acowar) we know that there are multiple worlds and that his world turned to dust a long time ago and he cannot return (this might be Erilea, it might not). The Celestial Hierarchy idea above can have more than one creator, the cycle can continue over and over again as long as necessity is guiding something to happen. I believe the reason Prythian is so diverse in its populations is because it’s a combination of things to do with its creation. But that's for me to explain a little further along (I was going to come back to this point - but it’s already super long, and I don't want to head down another path - basically, more than one world, feeding into tartarus = lots of different beings from multiple worlds, and all the worlds could now be dust. Like Angels - aka Amren)

(Also if you love this idea of being guided by necessity and doing the ultimate good then check out David Eddings Belgariad and Mallorean series, because its got those elements fine tuned).

Multiple planes of existence

Another Idea that has been floating around is the idea of multiple planes of existence. Kind of like a Olympus / Earth / The Underworld / Tartarus type of scenario if I use greek myth as an example. There are these realms or planes of existence that exist independently of each other but you are able to access them via certain avenues - like dying, becoming a god, secret passageways, ascending Olympus. This one is pretty cool. Because it means that creatures who find their way into Erilea (think Wyverns through the ferrian gap, Valg creatures in Morath and that monster/serpent under the lake/Mountain in Heir of fire.) They either accidentally or on purpose find their way into Erilea through the darkest places in the world. Dark Tunnels. Gaps in the fabric of Creation. Similar to how it was thought humans could travel to the underworld if they knew how - and still be living. Like Orpheus (ovid’s metamorphosis) traveling to the underworld through a dark tunnel to get back his wife Eurydice. Or Hercules for his various tasks.

The idea of the underworld being a physical place isn’t uncommon. We also get certain days in TOG where the absence of light means that the spirit world is closer to Erilea. Samhain is one such day, and the day of a solar eclipse also has Mort talking in a voice that is not his own or Elena’s. So who’s is it? with the veil between worlds so thin? There are many possibilities - maybe it is even necessity itself. So it is possible that Prythian is a “Underworld”. In fact with the quote “everything tastes better above the wall”- ACOMAF.  I would even say that the seven courts of Prythian could be the Elysian fields. I feel like this idea isn’t new, or at least it has been rattling around in my head for a long time so I feel like I’ve heard it before. The Prison in Acotar has always appeared as Tartarus to me. A place deep deep under the earth, even deeper than the underworld, but the entry is in the underworld. This place is a prison to the worst kind of creatures. The creatures that go against the natural order. Tartarus (wiki link for those wanting more) is believed to be the abyss, the darkest place. I believe Tartarus and “The Prison” are the same.  Interestingly enough Tartarus is said to be a god in its own right often dwelling in Tartarus. The third primordial Deity, preceding Eros (love/desire) That is why Feyre and the others are to be scared of those that dwell there. It is even said that “the watchers” - fallen Angels were imprisoned in Tartarus, and with Amren’s “Angel-ness” coming to light in ACOWAR and the fact we know that she escaped the Prison, makes me even more keen to think that the prison is in actuality Tartarus, and therefore Prythian - the underworld.  OK So all that is the background I have  tried to decipher - for a very very very long time. I have a lot of other theories and ways things might interconnect but I’m just going to leave that for now because - I don't want to get confused. So My next step is Kingdom of Ash and what I think might happen.

What does this mean for KoA?

I suspect that we have an amalgamation of ideas here and that The void and land of cold, ice and Darkness where the Valg come from is actually Prythian (simply known as the Abyss containing Tartarus before Kingdom of Ash’s events.) and Prythian gets a makeover thanks to Aelin. Prythian exists but not as we know it, before the events of Kingdom of Ash. So not only are Prythian and Erilea not the same world but they also do not occur at the same time. 

To be honest - we can get a split here as well.

Aelin makes prythian from scratch

Aelin re-forges Prythian, using what is already there and re-shapes it. 

More Kingdom of Ash Spoilers ahead - if I’m right.

Forging of the Lock.

So how is Kingdom of Ash going to tell me about the creation of Prythian? Well there is a mural in ACOTAR that Feyre finds and describes for us - Chapter 13 of ACOTAR. Here are some quotes from that:

“It told a story with the way the colours and shapes and light flowed, the way the tone shifted across the mural. The story of… Prythian.”

“It began with a Cauldron.”

“A mighty black Cauldron held by glowing, slender female hands in a starry, endless night.

Those hands tipped it over, golden sparkling liquid poured out over the lip. No - not sparkling, but … effervescent with small symbols, perhaps of some ancient faerie language. Whatever was written there whatever it was, the contents of the cauldron were dumped into the void below, pooling on the earth to form our world …” “The map spanned the entirety of our world - not just the land on which we stood, but also the seas and larger continents beyond. Each territory was marked and coloured, some with intricate, ornate depictions of the beings who had once ruled over lands that now belonged to the humans. All of it, i remembered with a shudder, all of the world had once been theirs - at least as far as they believed, crafted for them by the bearer of the cauldron. There were no mention of humans - no sign of us here. I supposed we’d been as low as pigs to them.”

“In the centre of the land, as if it were the core around which everything else had spread, or perhaps the place where the cauldrons liquid had first touched. Was a small, snowy mountain range. From it arose a mammoth, solitary peak. Bald of snow, bald of life - as if the elements refused to touch it. There was no more clues about what it might be; nothing to indicate its importance, and I supposed that the viewers were already supposed to know. This was not a mural for human eyes” - acotar.

A lot of people (myself included) have thought that this mural was the key to linking the worlds. And I think this is the Key to what is going to happen in Kingdom of Ash. Aelin is the creator - the artisan - the wielder of the cauldron. There are two ways/reasons I can see this happening.

Aelin Erupts and has managed to destroy the “darkness” in Erilea, through the creation of the Lock  But Light creates darkness simply by being present. Casting a shadow, and because of this if your remove one then you must also remove the other - like calls to like, made and unmade, a never ending cycle. Rules of balance in the universe etc. She has “unmade” something if she destroys all the Darkness in the world. If this happens, and light is removed then Erilea will cease to exist (think about acowar - near the end with some Cauldron destroying the world type stuff ;) Feyre(light) and Rhys(darkness) work together to save creation). And Aelin either by accident or not -  will need to find a solution to this destruction, a solution to “unmaking” something, to the end of the world as they know it. So she creates prythian to evacuate to, to save the people she can. The void exists on the other side of the Wyrd gate and she uses this as a place to “create” prythian.  

OR The battle is over and Aelin needs to send back all the monstrosities into the void through the Wyrd Gate. She doesn't try to destroy them - only contain them. But as their land has nothing but Darkness, Ice and wind, Aelin needs to create a place for the creatures to live. Not all who have Valg in them are evil - the witches being the perfect example. A cross-breed of darkness and light (Fae and Valg). To banish ALL Valg - surely the witches would need to be vanished too? That seems like a pretty awful alliance, if you help out the saviour and then they banish you!

Note that this does not mean ERILEA and PRYTHIAN are the same - simply that you might be able to reach one through a Wyrd gate if you wanted to. So with those two worrying thoughts. How does she do it?

We know you cannot UNMAKE something that is MADE. And like calls to like, as is said in ACOTAR. Essentially - you cannot have good without evil or light without Darkness. So Aelin needs to find a way to contain and not destroy, because she doesn't want to destroy the entirety of creation.  

Now, Aelin is the first to raise her hand for a wild plan that saves the day - and the gods have said that they will take the dark king with them (EOS) when they are returned home from the eternity stuck in an astral plane. But Aelin has to give up her mortality to do that - she has to give up Rowan - Her life - Her future. Aelin ain't going to do that. She hates being told what to do, if she can find a way out - she will.

Aelin needs to make sure the natural order is restored.   So using the Acotar mural as reference  - She forges a Cauldron using her powers from Mala Firebringer acting as the forge, using iron from the ironteeth witches as they evolve and change. 

The last Crochan queen (Manon) melts the iron inside her as she yields, giving all the iron to the cauldron. Manon is the only being who has inside her - The LIGHT and the DARK. She is an IRONTEETH witch and a CROCHAN witch. She is both good and Evil. She is the Bridge between Aelin (the light) and Dorian (the darkness). 

Iron also contains magic in Erilea, it prevents it from working. The iron doors and iron coffin, stifle magic, so the iron of the cauldron would act to ground the magic, to bind it to the mortal world. The raw magic from the realm of darkness (Dorian) combines with that of the realm of light (Aelin). Together the three of them create a cauldron to hold the wyrd keys and fill it full of glittering liquid that is the liquid of creation. And a female with Slender pale arms becomes the Creator of Prythian (I’m assuming it's Aelin because she is the “saviour”, making the sacrifice and is also “nameless in my price” and no-one remembers the creator’s name in Prythian).

Then with the cauldron, Aelin creates Prythian.

She either goes through the gate and pours the liquid (or pours the liquid through the gate) out of the cauldron and into the darkness of the void, landing on the top of a sacred mountain.

Tartarus (underworld) is already there, drifting in the abyss, but she makes the Elysian fields - she makes the underworld, she makes the promised land, Prythian. 

From the Darkness Aelin creates a new land in the image of her home land.

In an image or Erilea.

Her thoughts - her words become the essence of creation.  

Aelin hasn’t traveled far, but the places she has been to she pours forth from herself into this new place. Using the magic of the cauldron to shape creation - she remakes what has been made before. She pours Xandria and the Desert (Hybern), a place she only reached by sea, now an isolated island. She pours the Omega and her sacred forest (Oakwald), she pours in the mountain ranges, and the coast in s familiar shape, she includes Wendlyn and the sights she saw there. She pours her heart and soul forth as she includes Terrasen, the library of Orynth and the mountain home from which those gods and goddesses once looked over Erilea, the Staghorn mountains in the distance (night court). And the constellation that always guides her home - the Stag of the North, to look over the people and guide them. Always looking over Terrasen and now their new home.

She knows she can’t replicate everything as she hasn't seen the entirety of the world.

But she tries her best.

She makes Prythian as best she can.

A reflection of the World she knows - a reflection of Erilea.  

Then she finds ways to trap and bind Maeve and Erawan (Death Gods - Styrga and Koschei)  who she must send there too.

Because Aelin won’t make a deal with the gods, she is forging her own path.

Ensuring her own survival.

She binds the primordial gods to a location so they may not harm the inhabitants. So they may not repeat what they did in Erilea. 

Here there is a split - Either point 1 or point 2 from above (depending on whether the entire world is turning to ash - or she is just banishing the valg). 

(Point 1 - Erilea turned to ash)

She takes a part of the death god’s essence back into the cauldron, diminishing their power.

As many as possible are sent through the gate to save them.

She Banishes Maeve to a forest, to be watched by the little folk who choose to guard her. 

She banishes Erawan to a Lake/”silver” on the Continent.  

When it is over - she has drained all her magic.

All the godly essence given to her from Mala is gone. 

The gods are gone. Released from their eternal torment (if Erilea is destroyed). 

Dorian has used all his raw magic and Manon has used all the power her body once contained. Manon no longer has any iron and is a true Crochan witch, no ironteeth remaining.

They open the gate to all who wish to step through, to a new world, made in the image of the first. As their own world turns to dust. They cross over into Prythian on the Sacred Mountain where the Cauldron’s glittering liquid first touched the land.

OR 

(Point 2 - Banishing valg)

She takes a part of the death god’s essence back into the cauldron, diminishing their power.

As many as possible are sent through the gate.

She Banishes Maeve to a forest, to be watched by the little folk who choose to guard her. 

She banishes Erawan to a Lake/silver on the Continent.  

When it is over - she has drained all her magic.

All the godly essence given to her from Mala is gone.

Aelin can choose to trap the gods in Tartarus or the Prison forever - a kind of payback.  

Dorian has used all his raw magic and Manon has used all the power her body once contained. Manon no longer has any iron and is a true Crochan witch, no ironteeth remaining.

They go back to their kingdoms and castles and try to live in a world without Valg.

They put the Cauldron back in the Abyss, never to be used again. The wyrd keys hidden inside it’s feet. 

Then we have the story of ACOTAR - A story set in this new world. With the gods having vanished or have been “redistributed” throughout creation. Re-emerged into new people, new bloodlines, getting a second chance.

If point 1 comes to pass then we get our happy endings. Fresh starts made by the saviours. The living beings are what matter, not the land itself. And Erilea has long ago turned to dust and the survivors are in Prythian - living their happily ever afters and facing new challenges. Their bloodlines continuing through generations. Feyre Archeron having the blood of that fae warrior who saved all - long ago, imbued with light. Joins with the darkness (Rhysand) to save Prythian (in ACOWAR). A darkness that soothes, and isn’t evil. Creating a perfect balance of light and dark in Prythian. A fresh start.

“There are different kinds of darkness,” Rhys said. I kept my eyes shut. “There is the darkness that frightens, the darkness that soothes, the darkness that is restful.” I pictured each. “There is the darkness of lovers, and the darkness of assassins. It becomes what the bearer wishes it to be, needs it to be. It is not wholly bad or good.”  ACOMAF.

The Acheron Line is human I hear your say - Is that because Aelin gave up her immortality to live? Her power transferred to the cauldron and as a gift she was able to live a mortal life? I could speculate on who is descendant from who, but I’m not going to do that here. I’m going to wait and see if this theory has any validity once Kingdom of Ash comes out. If not. That’s fine, I look forward to being surprised. Either way I am going to love this book.

So why would SJM say the worlds aren't linked? Because she doesn't want to give away the ending for Kingdom of Ash. She doesn't want to spoil us! And here I am doing my digging and making my stories. (by the way if I’m wrong - That's cool, I love to be surprised! I think this would make an amazing story though - anyone want to write an AU? :P haha).  

If Point 2 comes to pass, then there is a lot of rebuilding. Prythian can still be created by Aelin, but what happens to our Favorites is still up in the air. And some things - like Feyre’s ancestry don’t appear to make much sense, when it is implied that she came from the “ancient fae warrior[s]” blood line. Maybe some people get stuck in Prythian but not all, and Erilea doesn't turn to ash. That’s cool. Not sure how the book will finish happily ever after though. (not that it needs to). Will we get split perspective of the two sides of the Wyrd gate or just loose contact with those not in Erilea anymore?

The problem with me is this - I get more questions than answers... it happens when I think up a theory. 

Great - This is cool. But what about this and this? questions come unasked to the forefront and I pull out my hair. 

For example -  What about what the Stygian spiders and Brannon said in Tower of Dawn and Empire of Storms? Both are secondary sources of information. Stories. And while I think each has an element of truth, they are flawed as they come from a person/creature that is mortal. It is important to note that in neoplatonism there are different tiers of beings. Brannon, The stygian spider, Aelin and co. are all on the same tier. They are all mortals stuck trying to so the best with the reality they are given - with the information that they are given at the time. The only direct contact we have with a Goddesses is Deanna losing her cool and possessing Aelin in empire of storms and telling Aelin to find the lock and therefore - see the truth. And then those memories from the Witch mirror. 

And then SJM does a fade to black! What the HELL! So the reader doesn't get the FULL truth from a source that would have all the information - these beings that are not limited by time or space!! (Renee gives SJM the side eyes and takes a deep breath).

So here are some Questions my digging has thrown up for Me:

Question 1: Why did Brannon not like Gavin?

Is is because Gavin has an association with the Sin Eater (Who I think is Erawan’s brother that later gets banished by Maeve (maybe leaves himself? I’m still re-reading so I might be missing something here) - and also possibly the Bone Carver by another name). 

If it is because of this association then what does this mean for Gavin and Gavin’s bloodline? Did he trade something to become king? A no-name human, was it for a sword to defeat Erawan? but he couldn’t wield it against Erawan as he destroyed his hand at the obsidian passes? The reason I ask this is because the description of Damaris in COM is strangely familiar. “Damaris. The legendary sword of Gavin. Its hilt was silvery gold and had little ornamentation, save for a pommel in the shape of an eye. No Jewel lay in its socket; it was only an empty ring of gold. Some legends claimed that when Gavin wielded Damaris, He would only see the truth, and that was why he had been crowned king. Or some nonsense like that..” The Scabbard is also decorated with Wyrd marks. Yes eye imagery is common in SJM’s books and it could mean nothing. But we Know Gavin was at the Sin Eater’s temple because of Queen of Shadows scene. Does the bone Carver and the prison have some sort of link to the night court? The night court heir’s blood is keyed to the lock.  Feyre has an eye tattoo on her hand that allows Rhys to connect with her. On the cover of ACOWAR Feyre has an eye on her belt - meaning that the eye has a lot of symbolism for the ACOTAR universe. Is that because certain characters are linked to this eye, or is the eye something more? 

I could jump to a conclusion about bloodlines and that The Night Court is descended from Manon and Dorian. Raw magic and Fae (a witch without her iron). Later splitting into fragments - Their heirs - like The Morrigan, being connected to “truth” just as Dorian is. The eye- being a symbol of the night court and also of Gavin’s sword. Dorians powers of darkness, ice, cold - Just like Rhysand’s. The crowns in ACOWAR  - one being a crown of stars and the moon, similar to how the blueblood heir wore a crown of stars herself. I’m not sure of this as they would be presiding over the land that was once Terrasen - but maybe this happens when the saviour of the world fades from memory? And if there is a link between the Night court and the Bone Carver, then there would also be a link to Stryga (the bone carvers sister). 

Which Leads into this Question 2: Why is Dorian as important as Aelin?

(I touched on it above but I feel like I need to justify him as having more than just the power he wields).

In Queen of Shadows, when Aelin and Co are in the Shadow Market -  it talks about how Brannon is Blessed By Mala- he and his sword, Goldryn. Then there is this quote “What if there was a god of truth—a Sin-Eater? What if he blessed Gavin, and this sword?” -QOS. 

So If Gavin was Blessed by the Sin Eater just as Brannon was blessed by Mala, then it would make sense that some of his descendants (Just like Brannon’s) are also Blessed. So Dorian’s power is that of the Sin Eater - The God of Truth.

Truth is often associated with the first thought in some mythologies as well. Aelin is the bringer of light - the heir of Mala light bringer / Mala Fire bringer. She embodies the first light in the universe. So we have two beings - blessed by Light and Dark, between Darkness of the Void - and initial thought and the Fire from Creation.

When Aelin is Holding Damaris in the Sin Eater’s temple, she has to drop it as it turns cold. Damaris is not her weapon (Which we know since the events following Queen of shadows). Damaris is for Dorian - heir of Truth and the Sin Eater, Just as Aelin is heir of fire and light. And Aelin wields Goldryn the sword blessed my Mala for her heir.

Dorian and Aelin Fusing their power

The power displayed in Queen of Shadows when Aelin rescues Dorian is amazing but destructive. These two have the ability to create the world.  

“there was fire and light and darkness and ice” is how Dorian describes the ring destroying the Valg inside him -QOS. 

And then in chapter 77 I think we have a pretty big piece of foreshadowing for Kingdom of Ash 

“They joined hands. So the world ended. And the next one began.” QOS.

“They were infinite. They were the beginning and the ending; they were eternity.” - QOS. 

They are one with creation. They are one with all of the realms.

This next quote helps solidify my idea of at least three realms being present at this time. 

“But they held tighter to each other, past and present and future; flickering between an ancient hall in a mountain castle perched above Orynth, a bridge suspended between glass towers, and another place, perfect and strange, where they had been crafted from stardust and light. A wall of night knocked them back. But they could not be contained. The darkness paused for breath. They erupted.”

Past - The realm of the gods, the Past. Like Olympus or a sacred mountain, the gods/goddesses watching over their people.

Present - The Glass Castle - This moment.

Future - Stardust and light. This could mean Erilea turns to dust and all that remains is stardust and light. Or it could mean their future is in this third place, created from stardust and light. Or it could even be Dorian and Aelin ascending to the stars like those spirits the Night court watch on Starfall.   It really depends on whether Fate is predetermined. At this point in time, the future could still be written? Or is the only answer to have a world that turns to dust? Or is it nothing and again I am looking too closely at something.

Their power - while amazing is also fairly contained. Yes Aelin wasn’t at full strength and neither was Dorian when they destroyed the Glass Castle. So will they erupt - and have it be felt across worlds - just like Amren said of Nesta. Or will they use their power to find a way to create something new.

Question 3: If Prythian is formed from Erilea and Aelin, then how come Iron has no power in Prythian when it does in Erilea?

I think because the cauldron is made of iron and contains the essence of Prythian’s creation, it has become a part of creation. It has merged with magic. So it no longer holds any power over it.

And I’m going to stop there- because this slightly organised mess is as far as I have gotten. I tried to group Ideas together, but for the sake of Flow, I have put some ideas at the end under those questions. 

Basically in summary  - multiple planes of existence. Step through a Wyrd Gate. Dorian, Manon and Aelin Forge the Cauldron. Aelin makes Prythian. (My belief next) Aelin turns Erilea to Ash, they escape into Prythian. Aelin is made mortal. 

[theonyxpath]

  Wow. We are indeed closing in on a month of visiting the red planet via the Cavaliers of Mars Kickstarter campaign!

Now, the KS is closing in on its last few days, and we raised quite a bit more than expected (wow 700%+) and were able include some cool extra Stretch Goal projects so far. Really looking forward to see what the usually energized last days will bring.

Most importantly, thanks to our KS backers, Onyx Path can now be sure that we are able to fully bring a complete new world to all the gamers out there looking for sword and sorcery, pulpish fun, but with a modern sensibility appropriate for our community today.

That’s really what this is all about, and why Rose’s idea for this game was so appealing. I want Onyx Path to have the range to handle huge expansive settings and also be able to create a focused, “jewel box” of a game, and Cavaliers is just that. Even the system, which Rose and I discussed many times, is something designed to work specifically with the other game design in the game and reflect and complement the setting. (Rather than using an existing system, as was the case several times as Cavaliers of Mars was iterated upon during its creation).

So please join us before the KS ends Thursday, here: http://ift.tt/2jF6HdQ

        Michael Gaydos illustration for Prince’s Gambit

  But before Thursday hits, we have our weekly Wednesday sale day, and while I usually let the info in our BLURBS! section do all the talking about what is going on sale, this week we have something I wanted to highlight for ya’ll.

Maybe for obvious reasons considering my background as an illustrator, art director, and visual designer, but I’m just really impressed by The Art of Mage: 20 Years and More art book that Satyr Phil Brucato has written for our M20 line.

As you should expect from Phil, not only is it lusciously illustrated by Mage: The Ascension artwork from the first edition core book all the way up to our latest M20 releases, but it is an in-depth and interesting read filled with personal anecdotes from Phil’s years interacting with artists and the original WW‘s and Onyx Path‘s production departments.

There is even a one-page breakdown of each stage of the creation process for a book that we’re intending to pull out and link to in the future so everyone can get a better idea of each of those stages we list below in the progress list on this blog. (Page 11, if you have the book).

When you order it, I strongly suggest you go for the Premium printing version, the way that reproduces the art will be well worth it!

    V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart illustration by Pat McEvoy

    Like I mentioned last week, I spent this Saturday at the Save Against Fear convention in Harrisburg, PA, and had a great time. As always, it is not a big con, but the attendees are energized and willing to come and game for days for a great cause. Here’s my friend and the prime motivator of the convention and the Bodhana Group, Jack Berkenstock:

He is just such a huge nerd.

One of the highlights was sitting down in a circle with a huge bunch of other game designers and answering questions on publishing, game design, graphics, and I was once again able to elicit gasps by describing Pugmire as a world where an entire culture is sitting at the window waiting for the masters to come home.

Actually, Pugmire continued to be a huge part of what folks were talking to me about at the con, even though most of the people I talked to got started with WW and Onyx Path through the old WW game lines. That was very cool. Also cool was being able to pick up the Havenfall deck-building card game set in an 8-bit medieval-fantasy world that was just getting started two years ago when I talked to creator Joe Yzquierdo. Going to be playing this with my kids soon, but you have got to see the 8-bit art Joe and his wife Emily have created for the game: http://havenfall.com

It was really great to see how they brought their game to fruition, and there were actually a surprising number of folks who have created very different games there, with really different systems and subject matters. And watch out game designers: the smartest designer I met there is in his early teens!

      Beckett’s Jyhad Diary illustration by Ken Meyer, Jr.

    Finally, a huge shout out to remind folks that our own Black Hatt Matt McFarland’s new Kickstarter for his Undead supplement to his company’s new version of the classic Chill is in its last two weeks, and could use your support to get it over the top! Check it out here, and pledge if you love incredibly well written horror: http://ift.tt/2zuDvdk

And with that, I only want to leave you with one more thought, our Onyx Path motto:

Many Worlds. One Path.

    BLURBS!

ON SALE!

It’s very SPOOKY here!

Welcome to DriveThruRPG’s Halloween Sale!

First, we have a super sale on Mummy: The Curse: http://ift.tt/2zej9nV

And then the big sale itself! Over 170 Onyx Path PDFs discounted! It’s terrifying!

http://ift.tt/2zuDvKm

    YOUR COVER IS BLOWN! The Demon: The Descent Bundle of Holding  runs until the 23rd – unlocking new books as it runs!  http://ift.tt/ZkIwwy

      KICKSTARTER:

  The Cavaliers of Mars Kickstarter is in its final week! Over 700% funded with Stretch Goals including an Exclusive T-Shirt, an increased art budget, Postcards from Mars, and we’ve passed the goal that completes an additional book: City of the Towered Tombs, describing the bustling canal city of Vance, from the brooding waters and desperate criminals of the Dredge to the beautiful environs and macabre spectacles of the Hangman’s Garden. Delve into the affairs of colorful nobles and the schemes of the desperate criminals in this look at Mars’ greatest remaining city! If all that sounds interesting to you, here is the link: http://ift.tt/2jF6HdQ

    ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook stores on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble). Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

  And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

  Andand six more more:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

  And even more books are now on Amazon and the Nook store!:

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

        We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

http://ift.tt/2w0aaEW

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages! And Screens…so many Screens!

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://ift.tt/1pOsnTb

    ON DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

For over 20 years, the artists of Mage: The Ascension have conjured spirits and constructed hypertech that can transform reality on a whim.

Within this retrospective, those artists and images depict the ever-changing face of magick. From the debut edition to the twenty-first century, this book explores the people behind the pictures, the process of putting such books together, the story behind Mage’s Tarot iconography, and more.

Featuring the artwork of Echo Chernik, Joshua Gabriel Timbrook, Michael Gaydos, Mark Jackson, Leif Jones, Michael Kaluta, Steve Prescott, Alex Sheikman, Christopher Shy…and many, many more.

The Art of Mage: 20 Years and More manifests this Wednesday on DTRPG in PDF and physical book PoD versions!

      A Land Where Legends Walk

Drawing enthusiastically on Greek mythology, the revised and re-imagined Scarred Lands nonetheless retains its place as a modern fantasy RPG setting. This is a world shaped by gods and monsters, and only the greatest of heroes can expect to be counted among them. The most populous continent of Scarn, Ghelspad, plays host to vast unexplored regions, hides unsolved riddles from ancient cultures, and taunts adventures with the promise of undiscovered riches hidden among the ruins of older civilizations.

Yet the myths of the Scarred Lands are relatively recent events. The effects of the Titanswar still ripple through the world, and the heroines and villains of many of these stories are part of living memory, if not still living.

The Award-Winning Fantasy Setting Returns

Scarred Lands has been a favorite fantasy setting since the release of the Creature Collection for the d20 System in 2000. In subsequent years, over 40 titles were published for Scarred Lands, making it one of the most fully supported fantasy RPG settings ever and the premiere product line of Sword & Sorcery Studios.

Available in both 5th Edition and Pathfinder compatible versions! PDF and PoD formats available NOW!

http://ift.tt/2fEO9YJ

http://ift.tt/2fELqyx

  Heroes, Villains, and Others in Between! 

This tome is a revision of the original book by the same title, originally published for use with 3rd edition rules for the world’s most popular roleplaying game. In this revised edition of The Wise & the Wicked, all the same characters have returned (and we’ve added some new ones, too!), for use with the Scarred Lands Player’s Guide. 

Champions of Gods and Titans 

The Wise & the Wicked introduces a rogue’s gallery of the Scarred Lands’ movers and shakers, characters who carry out the will of the gods or the fallen titans. These non-player characters can be friends, enemies, or simply convenient resources for the player characters in your game.

Inside, find villains such as King Virduk of Calastia, the Black Dragon, along with his wife, the beautiful (and black-hearted) Queen Geleeda; the Grand Vizier to King Virduk, the wicked warrior-mage Anteas; and the sinister general of Virduk’s northern armies, Archduke Traviak the Steel-Fisted. At the other end of the spectrum, meet the gracious Lady Ariniel, the Swan Knight, champion of Madriel; Kimer the Shatterer, bearer of the Earth Sword of Scarn and tenacious foe of the titanspawn of the north; and King Thain the Just, the Aleking, ruler of Burok Torn. And many others beside!

Here you’ll find a fascinating compendium of characters from the Scarred Lands, but easily transported into campaigns set elsewhere. In addition, find multiple appendices full of new magic items and artifacts, class archetypes and prestige classes, new feats, new creatures and races, and more.

Available in Pathfinder and 5th Edition versions! PDF and PoD formats available NOW!

http://ift.tt/2zdVHXS

http://ift.tt/2zeEpd8

      From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: God’s Own Country (Geist: The Sin-Eaters New Zealand 1950s). World War II is over and a new age of technology is coming, but a hidden storm threatens to overwhelm both the Maori and the European New Zealanders, flooding the world with the restless dead. The Bound are the last line of defense between a spirit-world gone mad and a sleepy island nation concerned with the advent of rock and roll and mourning their lost soldiers.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2kCGjSn

      EX3 Music Suite #1: Fanfare for the Chosen sounds off long and proud on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2fHws8A

Fanfare for the Chosen includes inspiring soundtrack themes for each of the ten types of Exalted (Solars, Lunars, Sidereals, Dragon Bloodeds, Abyssals, Exigents, Getiminans, Liminals, Infernals, Alchemicals), to set the tone as you encounter these Exalted in your games or are seeking inspiration for new stories.

        From out of the Dreaming, the C20 Jumpstart: Yours To Keep PDF and PoD are now live on DTRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2fmlF3s

There is magic hiding everywhere. You just need to know where to look.

You are a changeling, a faerie soul hiding in a mortal body, fighting the chill of Nightmares and the oppressive weight of Banality with the pure creative power of Glamour. You have lived many lives, but the story of this one? It outshines them all.

In this hidden world, knights in steel and leather clash sword to sword outside the homecoming dance, dragons fly between skyscrapers, and fantastic castles rise from suburban lawns. A world of magic, intrigue, and adventure, and now that your fae side has awakened, it’s your world too.

“Yours to Keep” includes a rules and setting overview, as well as pre-generated characters and a complete introductory scenario for Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition. It’s perfect for jumpstarting a new Changeling chronicle!

    The PDF and PoD versions of C20 are now on DriveThruRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2w4Eq2m

Twenty years ago, White Wolf published Changeling: the Dreaming, the fifth of their promised five game-lines that together comprised the World of Darkness. Seen by some as a lighter, more fantasy-based setting in the modern-day, and by others as the darkest game White Wolf had yet created, players had to face the question of what happens once creativity and magic fades from their world.

This 20th Anniversary Edition of Changeling: the Dreaming returns to that deceptively bright yet terrifying world and both compiles and completes the concepts of the previous two editions. Led by veteran White Wolf and Onyx Path developer “Blackhat” Matt McFarland, our writing team consists of longtime Changeling creators like Ian Lemke, Jackie Cassada, Nicky Rea, and Peter Woodworth, as well as familiar names such as John Snead, Maggie Carrol, Matthew Dawkins, and Krister Michl. One and all are dedicated to making Changeling: the Dreaming Twentieth Anniversary Edition the most playable edition yet – while not losing the wonder, awe, and majesty that Changeling is known for.

A revised and up to date look at the World of Darkness through the eyes of the Kithain – what has happened to the Dreaming in the last 20 years, and what is the state of Glamour and dreams?

Rules for all of the kiths including in 2nd ed, plus fan favorites from other books: selkies, piskies, clurichaun, and both Arcadian and Concordian sidhe.

Rules for the Gallain: The inanimae, the hsien, the Nunnehi, and others!

An overhauled and reimagined system for fae magic, including new Arts and the powerful but dangerous practice of Unleashing!

New full-color beautiful artwork as well as classic Changeling illustrations including remastered full page pieces of the kiths by Tony Diterlizzi.

          Calling all Good Dogs! The Pugmire Core Rulebook PDF is now available on DTRPG.com!

http://ift.tt/2wAaAp3

And the actual physical book, screen, and dice, are available to order on the IPR and Studio2 websites!

Studio2: http://ift.tt/2w0aaEW

          What dark secrets do the eldest vampires hold? Find out in Thousand Years of Night for Vampire: The Requiem! Advance PDF version available now on DriveThruRPG.com. http://ift.tt/2sV8lZR

You may think that with a multitude of people coming, going, dying and running away, we’d be tired, done, or ready to give up. Instead, I find myself restless, looking for the next thing.  There’s always a next thing, and I for one am not yet ready to die.

– Elder Kincaid, Daeva Crone

This book includes:

• Detailed instructions on creating elder vampires, including how to base chronicles around them

• A look into the lives of elders, how they spend their nights, who they work with, and why including their roles in both their clans and covenants

• New Devotions, Merits, and Rituals for elder vampires

• The kinds of creatures that pose a threat to elder vampires, including Inamorata, Lamia, Sons of Phobos, a new elder conspiracy, and more!

          CONVENTIONS!

  Fast Eddy Webb will be running Pugmire during the online convention Gauntlet Con: http://ift.tt/2sSctbs which runs from Oct. 20 – 22. Here is the sign-up link for the event which will be live-streamed. Currently three of six seats are still open: http://ift.tt/2xt3HaM

  In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. November 2-5: http://ift.tt/2xsOnuzMonica Valentinelli (Hunter: the Vigil 2e, Dark Eras), Manda Collis (Exalted 3e), Scott Holden (Scarred Lands), Matt M McElroy (Operations Manager) and other folks from the OPP crew will be there!

  Also in November, the Onyx Path crew including Rich, Matt, Lisa, Neall, Dixie, and Meghan will be at the first ever PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, November 17-19. http://ift.tt/2kBzmfv

  In December, Matthew Dawkins, Dave Brookshaw, and Eddy Webb are going to be at Dragonmeet in London. https://www.dragonmeet.co.uk/ Expect plenty of playful class warfare as these three mix it up, represent Onyx Path, and generally redefine the term “hooligans”.

  Planning ahead for 2018, we’re heading back to Midwinter Game Convention in Milwaukee, January 11-14, where we’re going to be bringing a big crew of many of your favorite Onyx Path designers and we’ll be running demos and making some special announcements at the show!  http://midwintergamingconvention.com

    And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Monarchies of Mau (Monarchies of Mau)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

  Redlines

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Scion: Origin (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

  WW Manuscript Approval:

  Editing:

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

  Post-Editing Development:

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

DtD Night Horrors: Enemy Action (Demon: the Descent)

  Indexing:

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook

Cavaliers of Mars

W20 Changing Ways

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Scion Origins

Ring of Spiragos

Book of Freeholds

DtD Enemy Action

C20 RMCs – Art going to WW.

Changeling: the Lost 2 – Artists are arting.

Trinity Continuum – Splats for core book with Mr Jones

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Beast PG

Pugmire/Scarred Lands Community Content

VtR Half Damned 

  Proofing

Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – Inputting corrections.

Wraith 20

M20 Cookbook – Inputting corrections.

Becket’s Jyhad Diary – With WW for proofing.

  At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Scarred Land PGs & Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – On a boat to the US. PDF and PoD physical book versions on sale at DTRPG.

VTR: Thousand Years of Night – Files updated and PoD processing.

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition) – Deluxe Edition cover and Screen in the works. Getting more color density samples from the printer… and if all good, they’ll start running the interior proof.

CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology PDF – getting PDF ready.

Art of Mage – On sale this Wednesday.

Pugmire Trick, Condition, and Initiative Cards – PoD proofs ordered.

V20DA Jumpstart – PDF going out to backers this week.

Prince’s Gambit – PDF/electronic versions going out to backers this week.

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Over the weekend, our good friends Dhaunae and Lorenzo were joined in a vampire wedding! Even before Onyx Path, D&L would show up together at our “Eddy and Rich Talk On and On” panels at conventions, and they always, always, had great and timely questions to lob our way. They once missed a panel and I was pretty dejected that whole day. They make a great team, and I couldn’t be happier for them! Dark congratulations to a wonderful couple!

[ashaphros]

Mythology Asks answered for @tombsofthevoid

Anubis: How do you feel about death? Death used to terrify me. I couldn’t even go past a graveyard without wigging out. Now I hang out in them, and I feel like death really is just another part of life. I feel like our physical time is limited, so truly we should just live in the moment, because we never know when it’ll end.

Atum: What are your greatest imperfections? Feeling too much and my chubby cheeks.

Bastet: Do you have any cats? I have a cat named Critter who is beautiful and mouthy and weird and she is the love of my life.

Hathor: What brings you joy? Music, singing, roadtrips, traveling, writing stuff I’m proud of, the wind, the grass on my feet, the ocean, the stars, being intertwined with someone (but also how the slightest touch can hold so much power), feeling completely comfortable with someone, making mix CDs/playlists, when the Orioles win …………

Horus: What is one thing you’ve had to fight for in your life? My self-worth. I used to only feel good about myself when someone wanted to have sex with me, but finding value in myself without any outside influence has been a serious struggle and I feel like I’ll be fighting for it my whole life.

Osiris: Do you believe in the underworld? I want to believe, but no. I definitely believe in the spirit world and other realms besides the physical, but I don’t think there’s one specific underworld. I think it’s all around us and happening at the same time. I do carry a penny in my pocket or bra at all times though, so if you’re with me when I die, please make sure to put it in my mouth to pay Charon to help me shift out of the physical world as this current incarnation.

Ra: Do you have any major responsibilities or importance? We all important b. But, I feel like coming out to my family as bisexual is important. I have no problem telling people I’ve just met that I’m bi, but my sisters are super baptist and I hold a lot of fear that they’ll either never want to see me again, or have me around my nieces and nephew, or look at me the same. But I think being totally honest with them, to have them know they are bloodlinked with someone they believe is “wrong” will give them a different perspective on humans in general. We’re all in this together, and my heart goes out to all closeted people who choose to be out of fear.

Thoth: Do you like to read/write? Yessssssssss. I work at a library and I dunno how many stacks of books I have around the house. I’m a major defender against censorship. My favorite books are Siddhartha, 1984, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I also love fiction that takes place in the 60s and 70s (like The Girls and Crooked) and futuristic stuff that feels like it takes place in the past (like The Giver, Fahrenheit 451, and Cat’s Cradle). I loveeeeeee Greek mythology, so I’ve read a bunch of the individual myths and Myths of the Ancient Greeks by Richard P. Martin is really groovy, and I’ve been trying to make it through The Odyssey for about a year now, but I’m not giving up! I’ve been writing since I was in first grade. I’ve always kept a journal. I write poems and I’ve tried short stories but never had much luck sticking with them. I would love to travel though and gain experiences and incorporate them in my writing and it’s a goal of mine to get published one day.

Arawn: What is the most terrifying thing you’ve ever done? Probably any time I was the first person to tell someone I liked them, and especially when I loved them.

Bran: How is your health? Hahahaha, fucking shitty. I was diagnosed with colitis on Halloween a few years back, and I’m not keeping it in check, so physically, my joints (especially my knees) kill and there are times I use energy work to help my digestion when I can feel my intestines burning and yelling at me. My doctor thinks it was psychosomatic, I wanted to be skinny and I was feeding off other people’s reactions like “Oh you look so good!” when I was shitting blood 20+ times a day, that I waited so long to get looked at and my body is/was attacking itself. I was also diagnosed with major depression a couple summers ago and it was like “so THIS is what’s wrong with me”– sleeping 10 hours and still feeling tired, not wanting to plan my life or even seeing a point in it, cutting, no self-worth. I’m a hell of a lot better than I was, but I recognize that this is something that is never going to go away, and to try and focus on what brings me joy instead of what brings me down. I’ve been feeling super suicidal these past couple weeks though, to the point where I can’t even hold a knife without wanting to shove it into my stomach, but I’m still here and I’m still fighting.

Brighid: Tell us about your relationship with your father. My dad left us when I was five and it was kind of like “oh, dad’s not living with us anymore”, I didn’t really understand what was going on. I’d see him Wednesday nights and every other weekend, and I absolutely loved driving around and listening to the classic rock station in his truck. It wasn’t until I was a teenager, dealing with his alcoholism and finding out about his affair with one of my sister’s friends, that everything hit me. The day he went into rehab was the first time I cut. I don’t think he’s ever loved himself and I don’t think he ever wanted kids (he got my mom pregnant when she was 19 and I think married her because it was “the right thing to do”, instead of being honest with himself and letting his marriage go on for 17 years and three children later), and when I realized that, I was so angry, but it also brought some clarity to the situation. He’s with a woman now he’s known since he was a kid, and she’s super quirky and outgoing and cool, but at the same time, controlling and demeaning and will cut you off if you’re on her bad side, and he never sticks up for himself or me and my sisters, he just goes along with whatever she says. He lives six hours away and I haven’t seen him since January and it’s been over a month since we’ve spoken on the phone, but I believe we have this unspoken understanding that we love each other and think about each other. I just wish he loved himself more, and I’m sure he feels the same about me.

Cernunnos: What is your favorite animal? Llamas, cats, seahorses, octopi, capybaras, crows …………

Danu: What is your relationship with your mother? I held a lot of resentment toward my mom as a teenager because of our conflicting beliefs on religion and lifestyle and my drug use. But since I was 9, it’s been me and her because my sisters are so much older than me and my dad was out of the house, so I’ve been her therapist and confidant my whole life. But I’ve hidden so much from her. It’s still very hard to be completely honest with her, even though we are living under the same roof (which I’m very grateful she let me move back in). But once I start seeing that it’s okay to live the life I want and take steps to move out, I hope our relationship can flourish. We’re similar in that we’re both giving and hardworking and we look so much alike that there’s no denying we’re mother and daughter. She’s going through some health problems with her heart rn, and I’m truly scared, but she knows I’m here for her just like she has been my whole life.

Morrigan: What do you think happens when we die? I believe we are a collection of mental, spiritual, and emotional energy inhabiting a physical body, and when we die, our soul(s) search for another body to continue what we need to learn or let go of and this continues until the physical work is done. I think once that happens, we’ll be able to travel through all realms freely.

Olwen: What is your favorite flower? Honeysuckle. I love summer and it’s the sweetest tasting thing on earth and it represents intertwined lovers, which I think is so beautiful.

Rhiannon: Have you ever been betrayed? A friend in high school dated two guys I liked, one she knew I was especially into. But they both turned out to be assholes, so hey.

Bragi: What kind of music do you listen to? Mainly 60s and 70s rock (Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, Kiss, Rod Stewart, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin) but I dig Otis Redding, Sublime, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Van Halen, Pearl Jam, Eric Burdon, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Nicks ………….. I love the sitar and harpsichord and accordion and violin, so I listen to some “world music” too.

Freya: Have you ever been in love? Once, and I currently am. It’s with a guy I want so bad, I’ve built up in my head that he’s my soulmate/twin flame, but he is so hypocritical (he doesn’t want anything with anyone, but wants everything with someone at the same time) and feeds off hate, that I feel like I’m just running my heart over back and forth with my truck thinking about us being forever. It sucks and it hurts dude, and I can’t keep killing myself over him, but I continue to do so every second of every day.

Freyr: Do you have any children? I am a proud and cool aunt of two nieces and a nephew, and I just recently found out one of my sisters is pregnant. Biologically I’m built to have children, but mentally, I don’t think I’m meant to have children in this lifetime.

Hœnir: Are you a silent or talkative person? Silent for the most part, but with the right person, I can talk and talk about music and movies and books and mythology and philosophy forever.

Iounn: How old are you? 25

Loki: What is the best trick you’ve ever pulled on someone? Probably that I’ve been straight since I was 11. Uhmmmmmm when I was like 5, I hid in a cabinet in the kitchen to scare my sisters when they got home from school, and my mom and her friends were playing cards at the table and I was in there so long they forgot I was there until my sisters came in for food and I slowly opened the cabinet door and scared the shit out of alllllllll of them.

Odin: What is your family like? My mom likes watching movies and playing cards (I want to take her to Vegas, like she’s THAT good, but all she thinks that town is is drugs and hookers smh) and gardening. My dad is a really good cook, he’s sensitive and artsy. My oldest sister Lauren loves being outdoors, she has a wonderful laugh, and she is really good with a sewing machine, but her husband doesn’t appreciate her and it pisses me off. My sister Stacy is hilarious, she took me to my first concert (Def Leppard, which I’ve now seen three times), a really great photographer, but I feel like marriage and motherhood has made her a shell and it makes me sad, like she’s forgotten who she is. My niece Emery is 10 and headstrong, a painter and drawer and wrestler, and demands to be heard, she’s my snuggle buddy. My nephew Landon is 7 and sweet as can be, likes building things, and sees through the bullshit. I hope to one day feel completely comfortable in my skin with all of them and I’m striving toward it.

Thor: Would you consider yourself pretty powerful? I didn’t think so for a long time, but now I’m beginning to see that I am. Wicca and meditation and energy work and being able to see and feel the spirit world around us have tremendously helped with that. I recognize that being hypersensitive and empathetic and peace loving are not bad qualities, but strong ones.

Tree: What have you done with your life? What are you going to do with it? I feel like I’ve done nothing with my life besides give it away to other people, most of whom didn’t even ask me to. What I am going to do though is travel and sing and write and shed my light on this world.

Aphrodite: What do you think of yourself? Depends on the day or hour you ask, but I think I am compassionate and open minded, a sensualist, an old soul, musical, self-destructive, passionate, an observer ………….

Ares: Are you an easy person to anger? When it comes to judging or hating someone because they’re “different” than you, then yes, I will get pissed, but I’m pretty easy going for the most part.

Athena: Would you consider yourself an artist? Yes, I’m a singer and writer and appreciater of all art.

Apollo: Do you play any instruments? I’ve been dabbling with the piano and some percussion, but nah, I’m much more of a singer.

Dionysus: Do you drink? Yes, I love Long Island Iced Teas and piña coladas and I recently started drinking beer, I just need to learn to be patient and not drink so much at the beginning of planning on getting drunk because lately I’ve been throwing up because of it.

Hades: Do you have a bad reputation? I don’t give a damn bout my bad reputation.

Hekate: Have you ever tried to communicate with the dead? I had a dream once that I was in a house where all the relatives on my dad’s side of the family were. My grandma died when I was 2, and I heard she was a very kind lady who listened to Creedence Clearwater Revival on her tractor, and I want nothing more than to be able to meet up with her, so ever since, when I meditate, I try to go back to that house and find her. There’s also a little boy ghost I saw when I was thirteen with big brown eyes and a bowl cut that, when I told the guy I’m in love with about him, he said he’s seen him too, so I’ve been trying for the past year to contact him too.

Hermes: Have you ever stolen anything? Lipgloss from Target and a pack of Marlboro Gold 100s from my friend’s grandparents when I was fifteen. Stealing the cigarettes still haunts me ten years later.

Poseidon: Are you a moody person? Yeah, I’ve been known to be emotionally unstable and I’m trying to get a grasp on it.

Zeus: Are you a confidant person? Sometimes, but not usually. If it has to do with music or dates or actors’ names and what they’ve been in and when, I’m always like “I got this” though.

Pluto: Where do you think we go when we die? I think we go wherever our next incarnation needs to grow.

Apollo & Dianna: Do you prefer to be up during the day or at night? Night

Mars: Have you ever gotten into a fight? I never liked confrontation, but I’m seeing that it’s important to stand up for what you believe. Most fights I’ve been in have been over trying to explain something that doesn’t come out right. And I honestly would love to get into a fist fight some day, just to feel what it’s like. I really want to punch one of my exes in the mouth, like if I ever see him again, I’m gonna punch him in the mouth and then walk away.

Minerva: Do you generally give good advice? I do, and I never take my own advice.

Proserpine: Have you ever felt trapped? I feel trapped rn. I’ve never felt like myself, always trying to be what I think other people want me to be, and it’s left me lost and trapped.

Plutus: Do you have a job? Library represent. My dream job though would be to have my own radio station.

Venus: Have you ever had your heart broken? It’s breaking as I speak.

Vesta: Do you like being home or do you try to get out whenever you can? I do like staying home and reading, meditating, taking a bath, sleeping, watching the Orioles play and That 70s Show on tv, but I do love going out and hanging out in graveyards, at Waffle House, walking around getting drunk or stoned, singing in the car, and rollerblading. I feel a calling to get up and leave asap.

Morpheus: Do you daydream often? Of what? I live in a daydream. I daydream about singing onstage, of sitting in a coffee shop in a new city writing, of being with the guy I love forever, of meeting up with a shaman to help me navigate through the spirit world better, of living at a Buddhist temple and working for the monks and cleansing my negative energy, of hitchhiking, of being 100% and completely me.

[theoddcatlady]

Hades and Persephone

“I’ve been in love with you the first time I’ve saw you.”

My voice cracked, I was never good at this kind of thing. I sat across from Candice and clutched her hands. Her perfect, smooth hands that still smelled of her favorite vanilla lotion. Her nails were angel white and perfectly curved, fingers interlaced and perfectly still…

Thanks to the silk rope tying together her wrists.

I squeezed those perfect hands and ran a hand through my hair, suddenly bashful even after all this time. “Candice, do you remember how we met?”

Candice said nothing, her soft pink lips pressed so harshly together they’d gone bloodless. She was shy too. Even being the social butterfly she was in public, she was anxious alone with me. I’d reassure her. “We met during your free period. You were wearing a pink dress that came to your knees, and your green sweater. You were… You were talking about my favorite subject.”

I released her hands and pulled out a book from my bag. Candice’s eyes widened as she recognized it. One of the books you weren’t allowed to take from the school library.

“Greek Mythology.”

I flipped open the pages and halted on the page of Hera. My fingers stroked the face of the portrait there, a stylized picture of the Queen of Heaven. “You were talking about Hera, how vengeful she was to the mistresses of her husband. You admired how strong she was, and I suppose I started to admire you.”

A lock of Candice’s blonde hair fell into her face, and I paused my story to tuck it back behind her ear. “You didn’t notice me then. No one notices the school librarian, I know. But then you came in to return that book. It was another, smaller book on Greek Myths. You were embarrassed because it was late. You apologized. You were… very respectful. It was then I knew, Candice. I knew we were meant to be. I excused the lateness, just for you.”

I flipped the pages of the book.

“You want to know what my favorite myth is?”

I stopped on the page I had, so many times before.

“The Abduction of Persephone.”

It was one of the several classic works of the god and his lover, his wife.

“Some people translate it wrong, they call it the Rape of Persephone. Hah!” I laughed at that. “Rape. She wanted it. He knew how she desired him, and after gaining permission from her father, he took her from the field and to the Underworld. There she ate the Pomegranate, and became his queen.”

I got up and headed for my kitchen, returning with a bowl and a very special fruit.

Candice had not moved an inch. I carefully removed the book that had brought us together back into my bag, and set the bowl in front of us.

“That’s why I took you, Candice. Unfortunately, your father is dead. So I couldn’t ask for your hand. But I knew the way you took home from school, I knew where no one would interrupt us. And now, we can be together.” I reached across and pulled free the bonds from her wrists. “I can’t promise you the Underworld, but I can promise you every book in the world. Will you eat the pomegranate, my love? My own, perfect, Persephone?”

Candice looked at the fruit in front of her, blankly. Like she couldn’t comprehend it. Her fingers were now deeply tangled with the porcelain locket that hang around her neck… that locket was new.

I hadn’t seen her ever wear it before.

“Is that from another boy?”

I got up from the table and grabbed Candice by the shoulders. She shrieked and raised her hands in defense as I took the locket and ripped it from her neck, smashing it to the floor.

“What is this?! What is this?!” I shook Candice so roughly her head collided back with the chair. “Don’t you know I love you?! Is this you betraying me?”

“No! No!” She finally spoke. I released her in surprise. Other than the scream at the abduction, she hadn’t said a word. Candice flopped back on her chair and gasped for breath. “It’s… it’s from my fiancé. My… my father arranged my engagement before his death.”

My heart sank into my shoes. Unable to support myself, I collapsed in my chair in shock.

Candice bit her lip. “I… I like you, Mr. Jacobson! You’re a very kind man, but you shouldn’t have taken me. I know why you did it, but… but you shouldn’t have. And you shouldn’t have taken off the locket.” Her voice cracked and her eyes welled up with tears.

Now afraid for her, I got to my feet and gathered her in my arms. She went stiff and tried to squirm away but I held her tighter. I had to be there for her. “No, I won’t let your fiancé ruin this. Not for us. It’ll be okay. I’ll protect you from him.”

“You… you can’t.”

Candice finally pushed away from me and stood from her chair. She started to walk around my basement, almost like in a dream. “I met him first when I was six years old. At my father’s death bed.” Now it was her turn for a story.

“I was only a little girl. My dad was dying. Cancer. It was bad. But then his friend came to visit. My father looked at him before he… he seemed to understood, why he was there. And he said…” Candice covered her mouth for a brief moment, as if she was afraid to speak. “… He said, ‘Take care of her. I give you my blessing’. And then he passed away. The man left then, but after that, monthly, I got… toys.” Candice’s lips pulled into a smile, almost wistful. “Dolls, mostly. Lots of dolls. When I was thirteen, he told me about the engagement. He told me I wasn’t really attractive to him, I was only a dear, but as I matured, he’d honor my father’s blessing, and he’d marry me.”

She looked at the locket I’d thrown to the floor. “That… was my present. For my sixteenth birthday. After school this year I was going to go join him. I’m so sorry, Mr. Jacobson. I’m so sorry…”

I couldn’t stand this. My face had gone white. I kept shaking my head. How could this be? She hadn’t had any boyfriends, but I thought she’d done that for me. “But… but I love you…”

“I know… and that’s why I’m sorry.”

I was about to ask why when two ice cold hands grabbed me from behind.

They wrapped around my neck and nearly crushed my windpipe before throwing me to the floor. I was kicked over to my back and a solid boot stomped into my chest, knocking the air from me.

I was looking into the face of a nightmare.

His body was nothing but this black mist, with two fiery orange eyes. When he spoke, it echoed so loudly in my mind I screamed in pain.

“So, you thought you could court my bride to be?”

He lifted up his leg and brought down his boot on my shoulder. The bone snapped. He stomped down again, and again, until my arm was smashed into jelly. I was bawling in pain when he started on the next one.

I heard Candice cry.

“No! P… please! Don’t kill him! He learned his lesson! He wasn’t going to hurt me, please!”

The demon looked up, and for a moment I thought I saw pity behind those flickering eyes.

“… Go upstairs, Candice. You don’t want to see this.”

“No! Please!” Candice was crying… for me? I managed to crane my neck back to see her. Her face was red and tears were pouring down her face. “Please, if you love me… don’t kill him… he knows... he knows I’m your fiancée. You don’t have to kill him…”

The demon slowly stepped over to her, wiping the tears from her face with a misty hand.

“I’m afraid, Candice. That this grave insult, to offer my intended this fruit of lust, to ask for her hand, is not something I can ignore. Go upstairs. For you, my sweet girl, he will suffer no longer.”

Candice looked at me, before she nodded and she vanished up the steps.

The demon turned back to me.

“I promised your physical suffering would be no longer. But even as your body decays, I will enjoy tormenting your soul until there is nothing left.”

[jadelotusflower]

May 2021 Roundup

Watching

Chess: The Musical - My second live theatre experience for the year, but this time with no seating restrictions. It certainly felt weird and uncomfortable to be packed into a full house again, even if everyone was wearing masks. I've never seen Chess performed, although I have watched the 2008 concert version many times. I enjoyed seeing it properly staged and sung live, even though I suspect there may have been some illness in the cast as there was issues of breath control and strained voices on occasion. Natalie Bassingthwaighte has a good pop/rock voice and she killed Nobody's Side but was just fine with the rest (including a patchy British accent). Paulini has the pipes as Svetlana, although I do wonder if she would have made a better choice for Florence. The other standout was Brittaine Shipway as The Arbiter, usually a male role but actually working much better gender flipped and having a powerful female character outside of the love triangle (and who spends almost the entire show onstage observing).

Mank (dir. David Fincher) - A love letter to old Hollywood through the eyes of Herman J Mankcovitz as he writes the screenplay for Citizen Kane and looks back on his days in the studio system. Some familiarity with that film is required, or at least the broad brushstrokes and the main players - William Randolph Hearst as the inspiration for Charles Foster Kane, the actress Marion Davies, and Welles himself (who looms as a shadow figure throughout most of the film, shot in shadow, or profile, or in costume until the climactic confrontation with Mank). Gary Oldman is somewhat miscast as Mank imo; he carries every one of his 65 years and is just not believable as a 43 year old Mank, affected with alcoholism and a broken leg though he is. Maybe it’s that Mank (as the film depicts him) is just not very interesting - we’ve seen the self destructive drunk with acerbic wit so many times there’s just nothing new in it and feels quite tiresome. He is however a fulcrum for the other more interesting characters to work around; the lens through which we see Hollywood in action. And there’s a lot going on - the ruthless duplicity of Louis B Mayer, the writers rooms at work, the rich and powerful dismissing the rise of Nazism, Hearst bankrolling a campaign against socialist Upton Sinclair. This video is worth watching dealing with some criticisms, particularly the depiction of historical events, Marion Davies, and authorship. The rest of the cast is however very good - Amanda Seyfried as Davies, Charles Dance as Hearst, Tom Burke as an uncanny Welles. It was also nice to see Robin Hood alum Sam Troughton as John Houseman!

Seyfried has been rightly praised and she is indeed the best part of the film (aside from the bizarre Brooklyn accent and the missed opportunity to give the role to an actual actress in her 40's), so much so I wish it had been entitled Marion and about her perspective of Hollywood. Because there’s still distance, we are viewing her from afar - the bird in the gilded cage - not privy to her inner world and that’s a shame, because she’s clearly the most interesting of the lot. It should come as no surprise that this film does not pass the Bechdel test, even though there clearly was An Attempt to boost the presence of the female characters. Other than Marion Davies, we have Lily Collins as the long suffering assistant Alexander, Tuppence Middleton as the long suffering wife Sarah, and Monika Gossmann as the enabling German housekeeper Freda. Variations on a theme, all revolving around and Mank and exerting little to no agency. There’s also, rather out of place, the silent women in the Paramount writers room, topless except for sparkly pasties. If it’s meant to be a comment on sexism of the time it fails, because it is just there, like window dressing, when female screenwriters did exist and are yet somehow completely absent. Also absent are the women who wielded power at the time - the gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons who threaded the Hollywood needle much as screenwriters did. I enjoyed the film, it’s beautifully made and the time period lovingly depicted, down to the era-appropriate framing, camera lenses, music, and of course, filmed entirely in black and white. I guess I’m just less and less interested in these kinds of stories, or at least these stories told through the same old perspective. For a different take on the Welles/Mank collaboration, check out RKO 281 (that incidentally does feature both Hedda and Louella and is on youtube in its entirety). For more of the facts, The Battle Over Citizen Kane is also a very good documentary about Hearst’s attempts to kill the film. Marion Davies is also fictionalised (earlier in her career) in The Cat’s Meow, which I have not seen for many years but remember quite enjoying. Girls5Eva (season 1) - A girl group with one hit album in the 90's reunites after a rapper samples their biggest hit - this is a fun show satirising the artifice of 90's pop as well as the current music scene, with a great cast including singing greats Sara Bareilles and Renee Elise Goldsberry, and comediennes Busy Phillips and Paula Pell (who has at least ten years on the other girls, but they hang a lantern on it, and I appreciate her plot/character in no way revolved around her size). I really enjoyed it, and am still singing the ridiculous but catchy title song with big Spice Girls/B*witched energy.

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (season 2, episodes 5-13) - A meandering, hit and miss season overall - multiple characters introduced and given setup only to be shunted within a few episodes, plotlines picked up then pushed aside (Emily's post-partum depression that basically boiled down to "I'm on meds so I'm fine now" was particularly egregious) - I cut the show some slack because clearly covid interfered and caused a shortened season, which makes the latter half of the season exceptionally rushed. Alex Newell continues to be MVP, and his romance plot was honestly so much more compelling than Zoe's. I didn't really have a horse in the Simon/Max race, I liked both characters even if the OTP of the show was Zoe/Therapy, but while I'm happy the love triangle finally over, the speed of the back and forth really undermined the story. But I enjoyed the final twist and look forward to next season (hopefully it is renewed).

This is Us (season 5) - I don't expect much from this show other than soapy drama and emotional scenes engineered to make me cry, but is yet another reminder about why I shouldn't get attached to ships while shows are still airing. I have a soft spot for Smallville alum Justin Hartley, but Kevin's season of girlfriend's past is so damn tiresome. Maybe it's just that Madison has become my favourite character and I want the best for her, maybe it's the sloppy writing more interested in twists and turns than a compelling character arc. But hey, there's still the always excellent Sterling K Brown and Susan Kelechi Watson, and I continue to be impressed by Mandy Moore - I remember when she was a teen pop star breaking into acting and she's come so far, making all the right career choices (including pulling double duty as producer/choreographer over at Zoey's).

Reading

Mythos (Stephen Fry) - Fry's typically irreverent and witty take on the Classics (even though he is on occasion a bit twee), his focus mainly on the gods, their origin and exploits. I was a Greek mythology kid, absolutely obsessed with these stories although I never really graduated to a Greek mythology adult but rather a casual fan. It was nice to revisit this world, as many of them I had forgotten or had never known all the details (children's versions being understandably light on the rapes and grislier aspects). As Fry notes, these myths were not kindly to humanity and particularly women, which perhaps leads into the remainder of my Greek mythology reading month:

Circe (Madeline Millar)- A retelling of the Circle myth, the goddess best known for transforming Odysseus' men into pigs, and a book that I've finally got around to reading after many, many recommendations. While perhaps not all I was expecting, Millar's writing is lyrically beautiful and touches upon the nature of gods and humanity, parents and children, exile and freedom,and I enjoyed it very much.

The Penelopiad (Margaret Atwood) - Another retelling, this time from the pov of Penelope. I've wanted to read this since coming across a quote ("be like water") that I used for a fic, and the novel, while very short, is typical of Atwood's masterful writing style and love of multi-layered meta. Like Circe, this does not paint Odysseus in a good light, as Penelope reflects back on her life from the Underworld, her story interspersed by the Greek Chorus of the maids butchered on Odysseus' return to Ithaca, and the story is as much a vindication for the innocent maids as Penelope.

Writing

Nothing posted this month, but words written for Against the Dying of the Light (1111), The Lady of the Lake (1006), and Here I Go Again (1390). That makes a total of 3,507 for the month and 27,469 so far this year.