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So it begins...

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.  Miriana had been crossing the street with a group of people one minute and the next she was in a strange dark forest.  Obviously she was at least unconscious and this was some kind of dream; at least that was what she was hoping.  The alternative was that she was dead.  Were that the case, then where exactly she was confounded her.  This certainly did not resemble any description of Heaven that she had read of, but it didn’t exactly resemble Hell either.  She hadn’t read up on all mythologies though, but she doubted Hell as supposed to look like a dense forest with lush vegetation.  So, exactly what happened and where was she?  Two questions that she hoped would be answered by someone in at least some kind of decent timeframe.

Miriana turned in a circle, but saw no path or anything that gave a clear direction out of the clearing that she was in.  There was just this jagged oval of a clearing where the underbrush was lower, then it grew higher again and the trees were closer together.  The canopy was still lush and green, keeping everything below in shade and relative darkness.  There were no sounds of birds or active wildlife that she could ascertain, which seemed odd for the middle of the day, but she wasn’t any kind of wildlife or forest expert.  Trying to decide which way to go was not easy, since she had no idea where she was and there were no ambient noises to guide her.

Finally, she just picked a direction and headed into the thicker underbrush and darker canopy cover.  There was no better or worse option, none of them seemed any different than the other at this point since there were no indicators of where she would find someone else.  Hopefully when she did find someone else, they’d be able to tell her where she was and how she got them from the middle of a busy intersection with no memory of it.  She’d never been camping or hiking, so this definitely wasn’t one of her friends playing some messed up kind of a prank, they’d know better than to drop her city girl ass out in the middle of the wilderness. Fending for herself meant using the microwave to heat up leftovers, not making her way through the wilderness.

****

“SIRE!”  A messenger came running into Djall’s  office.  He was out of breath and flushed, looking almost on the verge of panic.  This could mean nothing good for the ruler of the underworld, so there went his afternoon. “Yes?  What is it?”  He asked, leaning back in his chair.  Hopefully it wasn’t something too bad and he could get back to organizing the newest batch of arrivals according to what demon would be overseeing them.

“There was a problem with the afterlife routing algorithm and we’ve received…………a mistake.”  The color seemed to drain from the demon’s face.

“A mistake?” Djall’s dark eyes narrowed at the demon, who was nodding and simultaneously looking like he wanted to become one with the wall behind him.  “What kind of mistake?”  His head cantered to one side as he tried to figure out how they could receive any kind of mistake.  This was Hell.  Mistakes didn’t happen in Hell and you didn’t end up in Hell by mistake.  You earned your way here.

“Sir, the algorithm sent a murderer to Paradise, and an innocent human girl here.  She just landed in the forest of beasts.  She was supposed to go the other way.  There are a few beings arguing over whose fault it is, but we need to find her before the beasts do.  She’s done nothing wrong to be here, Sire.”  The demon’s back was pressed against the wall and he was truly terrified that his liege was going to cause him great pain from the look of displeasure currently upon his face.

“I have a completely innocent female IN THE FOREST OF BEASTS?!” Djall almost roared at the information.  Of all of the places for her to land, the one that was the most violent and vicious.  Of course, because having her land someplace “safe” in Hell would be to easy when the pompous pricks upstairs fucked up.  Instead he was going to have to go find her before she was hurt and he had to put a bunch of pieces back together.  Had he fucked over some deity that he’d forgotten about?  He didn’t think so, but the day was sure shaping up that way.

Pushing on the armrests of his chair, Djall came to standing.  “I will be off finding this female.  Can you please find out who I’m supposed to call once I have her back here to the manor?  Getting her out of Hell promptly is, I'm sure, on the top of everyone’s agenda.  And, also, find out how the fuck this happened!”  He gave the demon a tight smile and teleported to the forest.  This was not going to be fun, and someone would definitely pay for the inconvenience later.

Do you have any theories as to why Zeus married Hera? And why did he never kill her or get rid of her? Since she always tried something against him or his children. Anyway, I wanted to know your opinion. ❤️

It might seem shocking to ppl (including myself) but Zeus is definitely capable of genuinely loving someone. During the Titanomachy I imagine he started out only loving and protecting her as his sister but due to her beauty and fiery personality, he starts making moves on her, she rejects him, and in classic fuck boy fashion he hits on her even more. Realizing the main reason she rejects him is bc she doesn’t want to be yet another one of his lovers that he’ll eventually abandon and forget about, he insisted that they should get married and through a lot of convincing she finally agrees.

I think the reason Zeus never divorces her is two main reasons:

1. If he leaves her he’ll admit to the world he can’t control or keep his wife (and what would that say about him as a king?)

2. He genuinely loves her and can’t accept living without no matter how toxic their love would get

being a pagan witch with DID is weird as hell tbh

like we kinda. feel what our deities want to say? yk?? feeling words? hard to explain

but the Self Doubt shows up every once in a while and goes “what if that’s not a god. what if that’s an alter” while we’re sitting in bed eating nerds clusters and we put one on the altar bc loki went “hey i want one” and wouldn’t back off

and then there’s the fact that every time. EVERY TIME MY FAMILY COOKS. at least one deity does the “hey. hey can i have some of that wedge salad your mom’s roquefort dressing is bomb” and then i have to find a way to explain away why there’s a little bit of salad i didn’t eat and it looks completely intentional BECAUSE IT IS

deity work is weird as shit. rant over

Vivienne after flirting with Brynjolf: I’m sorry, does that… bother you?

Steren: Hm?

Vivienne: Me speaking like that with other people.

Steren: No…? Is it just for work or…?

Vivienne: I mean? I don’t know know? Would you be mad if there was more?

Steren: No, not really? Do you like him?

Vivienne: If I said yes would you be mad?

Steren: No. But if you didn’t like him I could offer to kill him if you’d like.

Brynjolf: *chokes on his drink in the background*

Vivienne: No, no that won’t be necessary!!!

[Image Description: Marian Churchland's Dragon Age OC template filled out with Isiik Lavellan, a dalish warrior Inquisitor. Isiik is shown from the waist up, looking warily to the side and crouching slightly. In his right hand, he holds his sword angled up and ready to attack. His left hand is braced out in front of him, the mark glowing a bright green. He is wearing a purple scarf draped over a dark purple jacket with puffy sleeves that end just past his elbows. The jacket tucks into high-waisted brown pants. Under the jacket he is wearing a pale yellow shirt. He has a shield on his back, the strap of which crosses his chest. He is wearing a glove missing its pointer and thumb fingers on his right hand. His dark reddish-brown hair is pulled back in a short ponytail except for two strands that hand on either side of his face. He has Dirthamen's vallaslin, which has smooth, flowing lines on his forehead, cheeks, chin, and along the length of his nose. He is frowning slightly and his brow is furrowed. His long elfin ears are nearly perpendicular to his head, causing him to appear slightly nervous or on edge. He has a pale scar that goes across his lips, reaching from the bottom of his chin to nearly reaching his nose and bisecting some of the vallaslin on his chin. He has heavy bags under his eyes. In the background, faint green lightning fans out from the mark. Next to his head are the words "wow this place is a freakshow. i dont respect literally any of you people." Below the quote is an attribution to "-Neopets User, 2017". Below the drawing, several traits are listed with a line between them to mark where the character falls between the two. Between cautious and reckless, Isiik is very cautious; between selfless and self-serving, he is more self-serving; between emotion-driven and logic-driven, he is more logic-driven; between forthright and dissembling, he is more dissembling; between friendly and unfriendly, he is more unfriendly; between devout and questioning he is extremely devout; and between trusting and suspicious he is very suspicious. Below the traits is a list of his main party: Cole, The Iron Bull, and Vivienne or Solas. Below that, there are a series of symbols that indicate which choices he made throughout the game. The first three indicate he is a sword-and-shield-wielding warrior, who chose the Champion specialization, and romanced no-one. The next row of five indicates he sided with free mages, left Hawke in the fade, preserved the Gray Warden order, gave the Orlesian throne to Gaspard with blackmail to benefit Briala, and drank from the Well himself. End of Image Description]

Ok! Last but not least here's Isiik (pronounced iz-ick), my Inquisitor! He has probably had the MOST change since my first playthrough. He is now an extremely jaded guy who is very much here against his will and refuses to let anyone forget that. His number one goal is getting shit fixed so he can go home and be left alone. The only person he gets along with is Cole and, at times, The Iron Bull. Nearly everyone else has said something to upset him and he holds grudges like a true champion. Basically, I'm living out my 'let me be a hater' feelings through him.

Currently, I'm designing him to be Intersex and Hard of Hearing. I am not part of either of these communities myself so I'm doing my best to research and portray these parts of him as best as possible since I really want to get this right. If anyone has any good suggestions for designing a character with these traits, please know advice, feedback, and critiques are always appreciated :]

Flat versions under the cut, since this post is already too long~

[Image Description: The same drawing as in the first image, though this time without the background or shading, making the colors easier to pick out. In the first of the two drawings, the glowing green mark remains, in addition to a glare on his sword. In the second image, both of those are removed, though a white gash remains where the mark is located. End Description.]

As always, relevant stuff will be in the replies. Thank you for the kind words and such, folks :]

Finally beat Absolute Radiance and got 'Dream No More' :) Booyah (ramble below, if interested~)

It didn't take as long as I thought it would? NKG took 3-4 hours to nail down when I first fought him on switch a few years ago and I must have retained the experience because I didn't die to either version once?? Pantheon 5 took 5 attempts, which is a far shot lower than my attempts on the switch version (closer to 50 lol). Markoth continues to be an asshole in P5 who ended two of these runs by camping my respawn point and his shields and/or nails catching me the moment death i-frames ran out... I didn't have nails flung from outside the arena like usual but having such limited room to stand and so much to dodge just makes his fight annoying.

On the last attempt it was actually Pure Vessel that got me closest to failing, mostly from my own silliness, and for Abs-Radi I just played suuuuper defensively because I've only ever fought them once (on my best switch run, never on steam) and didn't want to die after being so close with PV this time. Abs-Radi is a really intense fight! I didn't get far on switch so actually having to do the climbing phase with her lasers and then pogo stuff at the top was definietely fueled by panic and first-time instinct than actual skill lol. Absurd. Just absurd.

Definitely dedicate winning to not being on switch version (and maybe a bit to being better at video games since then lol). I used to struggle with Sly so much but with a bigger screen he's much better to work around and in general a controller is far easier to use than joycons/handheld.

i dont think ill ever be able to fully 100% hollow knight; whenever i havent played it in awhile i just. have to start a new playthrough and then ill inevitably drop it again somewhere near the end

that being said. what if i replayed hollow knight and tried to 100% it again

!! love your god au

would love to hear more about it

cults and symbolism my beloved

omg....and i'll be glad to talk abt it!

anyways i think that ash is more an import god (so as a result a lot of his myths would be him coming from somewhere long away and plus. have a bit more influence as his cult would travel to more places) and since him and red had similar-ish purposes, ash would be a secondary figure that was worshiped in the cult (and vice versa), but they'd still be their own thing bc i think they'd tackle the same stuff but differently

like i have this image in my head that ash would be a sign of death/war, while red's would be about rebirth/physical strength--similar concepts, but different ways they tackle it as you'd be more likely to worship ash is you were a war general but you'd be more likely to worship red if you were a warrior ^_^ i think that's why they'd stay separate (also because i don't like the idea of them being split off from another god or merging into 1 god bc the implications of that are uh. swagdoons would Not work well with that i think)

but ya! :D i also like the idea of them being associated with the underworld somehow, i haven't thought of creation myths for them but i just think it would be sick as hell (ba dum tss) and fit their general vibes!

Whether she believes in them or not Kisara personally likes the idea of multiple gods simply based on the sole idea that -

no one can do everything by themselves (even a god) and seems like it'd be a lot of work for only one so there has to be others to help with stuff too. Also wouldn't they get lonely if there was only one, that seems sad

And while she'll respect your opinion for whatever you believe at the same time she will stick with this a defend it.

Me: I'm finally going to make this comic I've been reworking since I was a high-schooler. Can't be that hard!

The comic: requires extensive world building, character connections so each character can exist outside of the main group, needs new villains because my old ones were never fleshed our or memorable, outfit designs, endings so I know where everything is going, and personality developments for each character so none feel interchangeable.

Me: wow really eating my words.

"South of Munich, where the green foothills of the Bavarian Alps start to rise against the massive granite wall of the Alps, there is a little valley with a river running through it. It is called Mühltal (Mill Valley). The stream is lined with unusual steep hills covered with dense beech forest. The area is especially known for its Celtic remains, including a well preserved Viereckschanze and several hill grave cemeteries. It is remarkably rich with natural wells.

Branching off sideways from the valley, there is a small road leading to the tiny hamlet of Leutstetten. It has only a few houses, a horse breeding farm and a castle owned by Bavaria’s former royal family, the Wittelsbach dynasty. At the village entrance there is a chapel standing in the middle of a small cemetery.

After entering the chapel the visitor notices an image of three women on the right wall. The image is from 1620 CE. According to local lore, it depicts three noble virgins who never married and gave all their money to church as a donation in order to enable the building of the chapel. The chapel was built and the image of the three women, who are known today as ‘the three sacred virgins’, was put inside in rememberance of their noble deed. Their names are inscribed as ‘AINPET, GBERPET, FIRPET’. Since there is a castle adjacent, one could think of three unmarried noblewomen devoting their lives to god and their money to the church, hoping for a good afterlife in paradise.

But there is something wrong with the chapel’s foundation legend. Local historians have checked it and found not a single piece of evidence confirming its truth. The three virgins were apparently neither born nor did they die. And in the church registers, which have survived into our times safe and sound, the donation at Leutstetten does not shine up.

And this makes very good sense! Because Ainpet, Gberpet and Firpet never lived as humans. Nor are they Christian saints. They are pagan goddesses, deeply rooted in the pre-Christian European past. Pagan goddesses in a Catholic church?

Well, this is a long story!

In Bavaria, the three women in the chapel are mostly known as Ainbeth, Borbeth and Wilbeth. Since their names all end with ‚ beth‘, they are usually called ‚die drei Bethen’ (the three Bethen). They also appear as,

Aubet, Cubet and Quere

Ainbet, Gwerbet and Wilbet

Embede, Warbede and Wilbede

Ambede, Borbede and Wilbede

Ainpet, Gberpet and Firpet

‘Beten’ in modern German means ‘to pray’. Probably the act of worshipping the Bethen was so important and widespread that their name left its mark on the word for praying to them. Firpet or Firbet, the name of the third woman on the Leutstetten image, in modern German sounds pretty much like ‘Fürbitte’ (intercession).

The Bethen were venerated especially in the presence of trees, wells and stones. This finds its expression in the terms ‘Bethelbäume'(Bethen trees),’Bethenbrunnen’ (Bethen wells) and ‘Bethensteine’ (Bethen stones). As we know, worship at wells, in forest groves and near unusual stones was a widespread feature in Celtic and Germanic religion, so we can safely assume that the Bethen cult has pre-Christian roots."

Tbh the darklordverse has a rich tattoo culture with varying styles and motifs that depends a lot on upbringing and region of origin, its not something necesarily expected but its very present. Tattooing is considered as an art stemmed from the belief that the gods of the pantheon ocassionally choose "champions", or more accurately demigods, by writing upon their skin expressions of the foundations of their souls, the interior self expressed on the outer self, that can cover either a tiny part or the entire body of the person. That aside, tattoos are a very personal experience and choice for the person!

Why wouldn't Terpsichore work with Apollon isn't it pretty much stated that he's beloved to all Muses? I don't remember him being a dick to any of them and he seems kinda humble witht hem. Like when he calls himself the follower of the Muses, when everyone else calls him the leader of Muses.

But what kind of dynamic do you think Ares and Terpsichore will have? I imagine Ares has a volatile personality and Terpsichore is all about discipline and order. Even without Aphrodite screwing them over, I feel like they wouldn't last long together.

I just don’t like Apollo lol

He’s too much like Zeus in the “lovers” department, if you know what I mean. Ares x Terpsichore is more of a vibes ship than anything, I don’t really expect them to be endgame, I imagine Terpsichore has a spunky personality like the one in Down to Earth 1947.

do i make my short polystory a cowboy setting for easy aesthetic refs but have to theoretically draw guns & horses.

or an ancient gods pantheon setting for harder research but no guns or horses.

still bothers me that Xero has four floating swords and yet chooses to only use one at a time like that's so inefficient dude

child of anansi child of athena battle to the death. who wins