#the afterlife chronicles

[mrhyde-mrseek]

Okay y’all… I’m about to show you one of my oldest, most beloved OCs, she’s my baby and I love her so very much

This is Loreley, her original design (2019-2022) is on the left, her redesign (2022-now) is on the right. I honestly think I’ve had her even longer than that, though, 2019 was just when I actually wrote her into a story, either way she’s gone through a FUCK TON of changes over 5 years:

First design Loreley:

Little baby writer Nikki threw her into the first fully developed fanfic I ever wrote

Because I was thirteen at the time, I of course made her thirteen as well

I don’t remember what name I gave for her species, but as you can probably tell from her design, she was a werewolf-dragon hybrid thing

She ended up as the queen of hell in the story (at thirteen? Babe what were you thinking she’s barely a teenager chill out)

That necklace was supposed to make her werewolf transformations less, like, violent somehow??

Oh yeah she could also turn into a dragon

The bleached blonde tips were a staple, as were the combat boots

Speaking of design I could’ve chosen any other color scheme, like the red, purple, and gold aren’t bad but the blue clashes SO BAD

Tbh I still think that hair is kinda cute just not on her

She’s just a little baby OP monster girl and I love her

Current design Loreley:

I changed up her backstory and put her into a WIP that ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE FOR HER TO BE IN

She’s a full-fledged demon, not a werewolf-dragon hybrid thing

Instead of being queen of hell she’s a normal soldier in one of the rings

She’s a lesbian!!!

Soldiers need armor, so I have her armor (this was my first time drawing it and I think I did pretty good!), I kept her sword but made it look a little better. Kinda sad the armor covers her muscles though

The. Colors. Are. Cohesive

Bottom row fangs >>>>>>>

She looks like an actual adult now, which is significantly less weird considering she’s a thousands-year-old demon presenting as a 20-something-year-old and not a 300-year-old monster presenting as a TEENAGER

My first time drawing locs!! I think I did a good job!!

OG Loreley would LOVE her and follow her around like a lost puppy, current Loreley would probably get annoyed fast because she’s kind of a bitch to everyone

She is my GIRL

[sentientsky]

“She never begs. She never gives any ground. She knows that she's right.”

(this is still a wip, but i’m not sure if i’ll actually get around to properly finishing it—i’m posting this here just in case)

[fanfictionroxs]

This scene is SO widely misinterpreted in the fandom istg! Grace is NOT being homophobic, LOUIS PUT HER KIDS IN DANGER, LEFT HER SON ON THE FLOOR CRYING, BROKE DOWN THE HOUSE DOORS AND TERRIFIED HER DAUGHTERS! OBVIOUSLY SHE'S HORRIFIED THAT HE AND LESTAT HAVE ADOPTED!

Grace always accepted Louis's vampire/queer nature. People forget she was really nice to Lestat & Jonah to the point that Jonah visits her after years and they have food together. She wanted to meet Lestat, teased Louis about his 'french white'. Grace tells Louis he's a 'better you' after she sees his vampire eyes. Calls them beautiful like church windows. Gives him chances upon chances. But she also lost a brother, her happy day ruined and then her older brother leaves her too. Decades of being rebuffed, her children being ignored. Having her financial situation thrown in her face at her mother's funeral by her older brother who THREATENS her. Like I love Louis, but when it comes to Grace, he ruined their relationship all by himself with a little help from Lestat. Dismissed his own sibling as 'human entanglements'. At the end, Grace only has resigned acceptance and still she leaves him with a kiss on the cheek. If I was his little sister, that damn tomb would NOT have been empty!

PS If you identify as Louis De Pointe Du Lac's little sister, you might be entitled to compensation for being abandoned lmao Grace and Claudia need to start a club. But also, do you all think Claudia better understood Grace's anger during Florence's funeral after realising that she would never be Louis's choice?

[funishment-time]

[wanderingmind867]

The greek afterlife as portrayed in percy jackson is one of the worst afterlives i've seen. You either get punished for eternity, sent to the gated community of elysium, or sent to purgatory to stand in a field and lose all individuality. God, none of those sound appealing. Those all suck. I prefer the egyptian afterlife, honestly. The way it was portrayed in The Kane Chronicles made it look a lot nicer.

Even the afterlives in the Norse stuff seem better. I don't really like Valhalla or Folkvanger, since they're for supposed heroes or whatever (and i don't see myself ever belonging there). I'd take my chances with Helheim. I trust that Hel would be a decent host. She's a bit gruesome to look at, but she seems like she cares for her charges. Also, I don't see her erasing my individuality like Hades would in his asphodel fields. So yeah. The egyptian afterlife might be best, followed by the norse ones. The greek one is probably close to last.

[completeoveranalysis]

[1]

Chapitre 195 - The Border of Worlds

The splash text reads:

That is the incident of an instant

But it feels like

One's been waiting a long time

Oh this is gorgeous. Future version of Sakura meeting and reassuring her child self? Or, alternate timeline versions of Sakura meeting?

I love the way the wings are show here - she’s flying upward, but they’re also curling around her like a snare or a trap. The younger Sakura - if that even is her real name, it seems like it isn’t - looks up at the older version of her self with an almost dreamlike glaze over her eyes, like she’s seeing the future. Maybe this is what her vision looked like - maybe an older version of Sakura showed her the future and prepared her for what was going to happen. 

And you could make your own conclusion over whether the older Sakura is drawing her forward towards a future that’s worth getting to, or comforting her as she falls into the same dark fate that got her too.  

Or I suppose the secret third option is that this is a version of the afterlife and the older Sakura is welcoming the tiny child who’s about to meet her there, but maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves!

Will tiny ‘Sakura’ survive the ruins? Will she live the next ten years with Lava Lamp? Or does something BAD happen in the ruins right now and Lava Lamp has to turn back time to fix it? Meaning he spends ten years with another version of Sakura, and everything is slightly different, and he always wished he could save THIS version of Sakura too?

At the very least we have options!

[chrisitsraining]

[whats-in-a-sentence]

All their life in this world and with their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle" - C. S. Lewis

[tenth-sentence]

Soon they became concerned not so much with glory in the afterlife as with power on Krynn.

"DragonLance Chronicles: Dragons of Autumn Twilight" - Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

[mrhyde-mrseek]

I find it so funny how few straight/cis characters I have. Like, in SMS alone, we have:

-Holmes and Watson, who are a couple (and Holmes is also demisexual)

-Griffin, who’s aroace

-Jekyll/Hyde, who’s gay

-Victor, who’s gay

-Both Harkers, who are each some flavor of queer (I can’t decide) and also polyamorous

-Mycroft, who’s aro

-Utterson, who’s bi

-Edmund, who’s pan

-And Walton, who’s a gay trans man

AND THEN you’ve got all my other stories, such as:

The Case Files

-Clara (aroace)

-Watson (bi)

-Harker (bi)

-Adam (unlabeled)

-The Time Traveller and Jekyll/Hyde (dating, TT is gay, J/H is bi)

-Griffin (aroace) (I really like that headcanon for him in every universe apparently)

-Allan (demisexual)

-Wendy (lesbian)

-Christine (ace)

-Dorothy (lesbian)

The Haunted and the Hollow

-Libra (bi)

-Koda (demisexual)

-Birdy and Lily (dating, B is pan, L is a trans lesbian)

-Henry (trans boy)

-Maya (aroace)

-Ryan (nonbinary)

-Jodie (lesbian)

-Max (lesbian)

The Afterlife Chronicles

-Sasha (bi)

-Robin (lesbian)

-Anthony (bi)

-Baz (gay)

-Morgan (aromantic)

-Loreley (bi)

-Nicora (lesbian)

-For Thanatos I have absolutely no fucking clue, he’s not really interested in romance or sex, he’s more focused on ruling Heaven and stopping the approaching Apocalypse.

-And then we also have a list of angels and demons who just muddle the whole matter up so for most of the non-humans, identity is just chaos.

Hyacinth

-Apollo (bi)

-Hyacinthus (gay)

-Zephyrus (gay)

-Artemis (aroace)

-Hermes (bi)

-Dionysus (pan)

-Thamyris (gay)

Red Sun

I haven’t actually really given this one much thought; the only two I’m positive of are:

-Sanzang (aroace)

-And Huo (bi)

But I don’t know about Wukong, Bajie, Wujing, or Longma yet.

[fiction-quotes]

“So I went over much grass and many flowers and among all kinds of wholesome and delectable trees till lo! in a narrow place between two rocks there came to meet me a great Lion. The speed of him was like the ostrich, and his size was an elephant's; his hair was like pure gold and the brightness of his eyes like gold that is liquid in the furnace. He was more terrible than the Flaming Mountain of Lagour, and in beauty he surpassed all that is in the world even as the rose in bloom surpasses the dust of the desert. Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath's sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.”

  —  The Last Battle (C. S. Lewis)

[expendablemudge]

The time to give beautiful books is growing short as the #Yule gets closer. THE DEVIL'S ATLAS: An Explorer's Guide to Heavens, Hells and Afterworlds, is a gorgeous item for the seeker who loves art, maps, mythology for #Booksgiving...look here:

[the-halfling-prince]

If I had a dollar for everytime I wanted to look up how old a certain blond guy king character was and then was hit with a spoiler of how they died, I'd have two dollars, which isn't a lot but foR FUCKS SAKE

[wanderingmind867]

Rick Riordan makes every single afterlife sound depressing, but the Egyptian afterlife seems the best of all the ones he presents. I like the idea of everything that's buried with you coming with you when you die, which is something I believe he mentions in the books. (the egyptians had some great ideas there). For me, the afterlife is like a dreamscape wherein you just get fo relive the things you did in life. You get to reread all the things you ever read, rewatch all the things you ever watched, spend time with all the people you knew, etc. Death is like life. You just get to relive the quiet, contemplative, relaxing moments for all eternity.

This really turned into more of me describing my ideal afterlife, but I still wanted to drop some compliments on the egyptian afterlife as portrayed by Rick Riordan.

[nanabansama]

Card Set Hanakotoba

Recently I was discussing with my lovely friend @istoleyourboat about the meanings behind the flowers in this new card set, and I felt the urge to chronicle them somewhere! I thought you guys might get a kick out of it, too, so this seemed as good a place as any to put it.

So without further ado...

1. Hanako-kun - Queen of the Night

The Queen of the Night (月下美人) is a cactus flower that blooms just once a year for a single night. Because of this, the most heavily associated meanings with the flower are "transient beauty", "fleeting love," and "the urge to see someone just once."

The short-lived life of this flower feels quite fitting for our ghosty boy! I also like how the flower looks both beautiful and unsettling...all around a fantastic choice by AidaIro.

2. Nene Yashiro - Strawberry Blossoms

If you have paid attention to the Hanakotoba in TBHK before, then Nene being associated with strawberries should be nothing new to you. Regardless, the prevalent Hanakotoba for Strawberry Blossoms (イチゴ) are "love," "innocence," and "you make me happy."

The "you make me happy" one makes me want to kick my feet around and squeal a little. Isn't that cute!? I also feel the strawberry is especially fitting for Nene because it seems like something she would grow in her Gardening Club.

3. Kou - Clivia

Otherwise known by the names Bush Lily or Natal Lily, the Hanakotoba for Clivia (君子蘭) are "sincere," "noble" and "good-hearted."

I think this all fits very nicely with our resident good boy Kou, hm?

4. Teru - Bird of Paradise

The Bird of Paradise (ストレリチア) symbolizes "faithfulness," "magnificence," "a bright future" and "superficial love."

Even at a glance this flower really pops out at you, making it a great fit for the ever-impressive Teru. I really, really love this choice!!

5. Sakura - Hellebore

Otherwise known as the Christmas Rose, the Hellebore (クリスマスローズ) represents "reminiscence," "never forget me" and "notice my woes."

The way this beautiful flower seems to cast its head down makes it look almost sad. I suppose that's why it has such pitiful meanings associated with it!

6. Natsuhiko - King Protea

King Protea (キングプロテア), also known as the Sugarbush, symbolizes "strength," "courage," "resilience," and "a king's quality."

If you notice, Natsuhiko always has a little crown-shaped tuft hidden in his hair, so AidaIro associating Natsuhiko with a flower that references royalty pleases me. There's still a lot of mystery surrounding him, but we can at least confirm that Natsuhiko is, indeed, strong and resilient.

7. Akane - Ivy

The plain, non-flowering ivy stands out in stark contrast to the other plants here, but that's because the hanakotoba for it is just that good. Ivy (ヘデラ) means "everlasting love," "I take this feeling to the afterlife," "faithfulness", and "marriage."

Like, if that doesn't scream Akane, I don't know what does.

8. Aoi - Hydrangea

Again, if you've been paying attention to Hanakotoba in the series, this will not be the first time you've seen Aoi paired with hydrangea. Regardless, hydrangea (アジサイ) represents "enduring love," "mystique," and "fickleness."

The hydrangea is also associated with rejection, more specifically the coldness of a person who rejects the romantic advances of another. It's just such a perfect Aoi flower, there's no wonder AidaIro is so attached to it.

💐🌸🌼🌻🌷🌹🥀🌺

Thank you for reading till the end! And I urge you to look up these flowers yourself and see if you can find any meaning to them I may have missed. You might find something brilliant that I completely overlooked!

[purrple-bat]

Had this idea brewing for a while in my head, yet I know I don't think I would be able to write it down into something solid instead of daydreaming about it as I try to sleep. Very sleepy and not double checking what I'm writing down rn.

Of Narinder finally getting his power back, finally breaking his chains; yet there is still something missing. A hole in his heart that only expands when his gaze fall back on the now still body of his vessel. The Lamb, devoid of life and of soul.

Just like Fate had edict it, the last sheep would die for a god. And Fate - just like his siblings had learned - could not be bent or broken; one way or another it would finish its job.

The One Who Waits could see his kits felt the same chasm in their heart at the loss of someone; who would spar with them daily, who would read them tales of their adventures and of past chronicles shared by their lost kins. Who wasn't afraid to butt heads with their God yet would ever be loyal to their wishes. Who passionately talked about the life on the surface, of the changes being brought back as each Bishops were slain.

Yet what the God of the Red Crown couldn't see was a single soul, a Lamb standing right by his side perceptible by none. It seems that once again, their service were needed. This time, there was nothing or noone to guide them. And so they followed their master; ever faithful, even after death, The Lamb would serve their God.

His vessel had prepared their people for the transition of leadership, and so Narinder encountered little problems. A statue doubling as a grave was built soon enough; the resting place of what noone else could ever achieve, the truest devout of the Red Crown.

Whether it was residual of the Crown or not, The Lamb could still see the solid form of devotion and manipulate it. Without anything else to do, they would ensure to help their master, bringing the devotion directly like they would when he was still chained; even taking the devotion which was pooling at their own statue and giving it to the only god who deserved it.

It was all the Lamb would do until the first death claimed the Cult. Jean, a young deer who had been born in the cult, sadly no longer having the strength to fight against his illness. His soul rested next to his deathbed, tears filling his eyes as he shook in place. That was until his blurry sight caught someone he had thought long gone, that of a Lamb sitting next to him, the picture of grace like he remembers them to be. The soul lounged itself into the arms of its once leader and hold on to it until no tears were left.

As it calmed, all that was left was a floating blue flame; one that could be held into the Lamb's palm. And with a final embrace, the flame would be ready for its way into the afterlife. A Shepard of the souls, The Lamb would be. Yet it did not stopped them from servicing their master, doing whatever they could to bring peace to him. Both him and the Twins clearly suffered nightmares. Of what? The Lamb could not tell. But if staying by their side as they slept would help, they would do so gladly; watching over with care in their heart.

This life would not be that simple for The Lamb, nothing ever was. A mystical being came to seek the Lamb, coming into the same realm that they were now residing, as noone else seem to notice them. The Mystic Seller would tell them simply, there is more then one way to reach godhood. Yes, the Crowns could help with it, making it a slow but garantied transition. Yet there was other ways, as long as Devotion, Beliefs and Fate mingled. After all, even if they did not took it, there were still many who believed in the Lamb; even the God of Death would often pay it's respect to their grave. The works of the Lamb had travelled far and wide; many knew them as a savior who would free the souls of those wrongly slaughtered. In this wide world, many already believed them to be a benevolent God.

This was now the Lamb's realm, parallel to that of the mortal plane. An infant God of devotion and loyalty, of love and care, of afterlife and justice; that is what it had determined the Lamb to be. No longer mortal, it is why no matter how hard Narinder has tried, he could not revive his vessel; as mortal, they no longer were.

My brain is getting fuzzy and tired, and surgery soon which will mean I can't use my right hand for a while so I think I'm stopping there.

The Lamb wanting to meet with the one they have fallen for (Nari) once again, doing whatever they can as they travel through the dark into their new godhood until they can learn to travel to different realms.

The Lamb becoming a protective spirit for those faithful and pure, using their skills to fight off the terrors of the territories outside of the cult grounds.