The Idea That Some Pagans Have That You Cannot View A Deity As A Lover, A Close Friend, As Your Child,

Small fantasy worldbuilding elements you might want to think about:

A currency that isn’t gold-standard/having gold be as valuable as tin

A currency that runs entirely on a perishable resource, like cocoa beans

A clock that isn’t 24-hours

More or less than four seasons/seasons other than the ones we know

Fantastical weather patterns like irregular cloud formations, iridescent rain

Multiple moons/no moon

Planetary rings

A northern lights effect, but near the equator

Roads that aren’t brown or grey/black, like San Juan’s blue bricks

Jewelry beyond precious gems and metals

Marriage signifiers other than wedding bands

The husband taking the wife's name / newlyweds inventing a new surname upon marriage

No concept of virginity or bastardry

More than 2 genders/no concept of gender

Monotheism, but not creationism

Gods that don’t look like people

Domesticated pets that aren’t re-skinned dogs and cats

Some normalized supernatural element that has nothing to do with the plot

Magical communication that isn’t Fantasy Zoom

“Books” that aren’t bound or scrolls

A nonverbal means of communicating, like sign language

A race of people who are obligate carnivores/ vegetarians/ vegans/ pescatarians (not religious, biological imperative)

I’ve done about half of these myself in one WIP or another and a little detail here or there goes a long way in reminding the audience that this isn’t Kansas anymore.

( a collection of summer is ending starters or dialogue prompts. adjust phrasing as necessary.) feel free to make edits to better suit your muse, but please don’t edit or add on to the original post ♡ if you like, please consider supporting me through tips

"The sun feels different today, like it’s saying goodbye."

"Every time the summer ends, I feel like the wind tries to tell me a secret, but I never quite hear it."

"Did you notice how the colors of the sunset have started to fade? It’s like the sky is getting ready for winter."

"The cicadas fell silent today. Do you think they know it’s the end?"

"The lake looks quieter now, as if it knows it’s time to sleep."

"I swear the shadows have gotten longer. It's like even they know the sun won’t be around much longer."

"I can feel the summer slipping through my fingers, like the warmth in the breeze is fading away."

"The ocean feels colder today, like it’s pulling away from the shore."

"The last of the fireflies are flickering out. I wonder if they know this is their last dance of the season."

"It smells different now, don’t you think? Like the earth is getting ready to sleep."

"The flowers are closing earlier each day. Do you think they know the season is ending?"

"I miss the sound of summer already. The air doesn’t hum like it used to."

"Do you feel it too? The way the light is softer, as if the sun is tired."

"The wind today feels like a memory, like it’s carrying the last whispers of summer."

"The days are shrinking. It’s like time itself knows summer is ending."

"The sunflowers have turned away from the light. It’s like they’ve already given up on summer."

"The sky feels higher now, like it’s pulling away from the earth."

"Every evening, the air smells a little more like autumn. Summer’s slipping through the cracks."

"The crickets sound different tonight, almost like they’re playing a slower tune."

"I saw the first fallen leaf today. It feels like summer is already a memory."

"Do you remember how we danced in the rain that night? It felt like the summer clouds were celebrating with us."

"We spent so many afternoons chasing the sun across the sky. Now it’s slipping away from us."

"Every time we went to the beach, the waves played with us, like they knew we only had a little time left."

"Remember when we stayed up all night, watching the stars? I think they burned brighter just for us."

"That bonfire on the last night of August… it felt like the flames were trying to hold onto the warmth of summer with us."

"I still hear the echo of our laughter from that day at the lake. Do you think the water remembers us?"

"We ran through those fields as if summer would never end. Now they look so still, like they’re waiting for us to return."

"The ice cream melted too fast, the sun set too late, and we never really noticed the days slipping away."

"Remember how the sand felt like it was alive beneath our feet, like it was trying to pull us deeper into the moment?"

"We spent the whole summer chasing sunsets, never catching one the same way twice."

"Do you think the fireflies miss us? They followed us through every twilight, lighting up our path."

"The nights were so warm, it felt like the stars were sitting with us, whispering secrets we’ll never remember."

"We picked so many wildflowers, I’m surprised the fields didn’t run out."

"The last picnic we had… the air was so sweet, like the wind had collected all the fun we’d had and wrapped it up in the breeze."

"We built sandcastles like they’d last forever. Now the beach looks so empty without them."

"We never needed clocks. The long days felt like they’d never end."

In a last ditch attempt to save your people, you offer your life to an ancient god of war and blood. Unfortunately, your translation of the ancient text was a bit off. You're married now.

hi 👋 I love your art! how about Crowley and Aziraphale at the beach? I imagine Aziraphale wears one of those old fashioned bathing suits and Crowley wears speedos

In the past I've shared other people's musings about the different interpretations of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Namely, why Orpheus looks back at Eurydice, even though he knows it means he'll lose her forever. So many people seem to think they've found the one true explanation of the myth. But to me, the beauty of myths is that they have many possible meanings.

So I thought I would share a list of every interpretation I know, from every serious adaptation of the story and every analysis I've ever heard or read, of why Orpheus looks back.

One interpretation – advocated by Monteverdi's opera, for example – is that the backward glance represents excessive passion and a fatal lack of self-control. Orpheus loves Eurydice to such excess that he tries to defy the laws of nature by bringing her back from the dead, yet that very same passion dooms his quest fo fail, because he can't resist the temptation to look back at her.

He can also be seen as succumbing to that classic "tragic flaw" of hubris, excessive pride. Because his music and his love conquer the Underworld, it might be that he makes the mistake of thinking he's entirely above divine law, and fatally allows himself to break the one rule that Hades and Persephone set for him.

Then there are the versions where his flaw is his lack of faith, because he looks back out of doubt that Eurydice is really there. I think there are three possible interpretations of this scenario, which can each work alone or else co-exist with each other. From what I've read about Hadestown, it sounds as if it combines all three.

In one interpretation, he doubts Hades and Persephone's promise. Will they really give Eurydice back to him, or is it all a cruel trick? In this case, the message seems to be a warning to trust in the gods; if you doubt their blessings, you might lose them.

Another perspective is that he doubts Eurydice. Does she love him enough to follow him? In this case, the warning is that romantic love can't survive unless the lovers trust each other. I'm thinking of Moulin Rouge!, which is ostensibly based on the Orpheus myth, and which uses Christian's jealousy as its equivalent of Orpheus's fatal doubt and explicitly states "Where there is no trust, there is no love."

The third variation is that he doubts himself. Could his music really have the power to sway the Underworld? The message in this version would be that self-doubt can sabotage all our best efforts.

But all of the above interpretations revolve around the concept that Orpheus looks back because of a tragic flaw, which wasn't necessarily the view of Virgil, the earliest known recorder of the myth. Virgil wrote that Orpheus's backward glance was "A pardonable offense, if the spirits knew how to pardon."

In some versions, when the upper world comes into Orpheus's view, he thinks his journey is over. In this moment, he's so ecstatic and so eager to finally see Eurydice that he unthinkingly turns around an instant too soon, either just before he reaches the threshold or when he's already crossed it but Eurydice is still a few steps behind him. In this scenario, it isn't a personal flaw that makes him look back, but just a moment of passion-fueled carelessness, and the fact that it costs him Eurydice shows the pitilessness of the Underworld.

In other versions, concern for Eurydice makes him look back. Sometimes he looks back because the upward path is steep and rocky, and Eurydice is still limping from her snakebite, so he knows she must be struggling, in some versions he even hears her stumble, and he finally can't resist turning around to help her. Or more cruelly, in other versions – for example, in Gluck's opera – Eurydice doesn't know that Orpheus is forbidden to look back at her, and Orpheus is also forbidden to tell her. So she's distraught that her husband seems to be coldly ignoring her and begs him to look at her until he can't bear her anguish anymore.

These versions highlight the harshness of the Underworld's law, and Orpheus's failure to comply with it seems natural and even inevitable. The message here seems to be that death is pitiless and irreversible: a demigod hero might come close to conquering it, but through little or no fault of his own, he's bound to fail in the end.

Another interpretation I've read is that Orpheus's backward glance represents the nature of grief. We can't help but look back on our memories of our dead loved ones, even though it means feeling the pain of loss all over again.

Then there's the interpretation that Orpheus chooses his memory of Eurydice, represented by the backward glance, rather than a future with a living Eurydice. "The poet's choice," as Portrait of a Lady on Fire puts it. In this reading, Orpheus looks back because he realizes he would rather preserve his memory of their youthful, blissful love, just as it was when she died, than face a future of growing older, the difficulties of married life, and the possibility that their love will fade. That's the slightly more sympathetic version. In the version that makes Orpheus more egotistical, he prefers the idealized memory to the real woman because the memory is entirely his possession, in a way that a living wife with her own will could never be, and will never distract him from his music, but can only inspire it.

Then there are the modern feminist interpretations, also alluded to in Portrait of a Lady on Fire but seen in several female-authored adaptations of the myth too, where Eurydice provokes Orpheus into looking back because she wants to stay in the Underworld. The viewpoint kinder to Orpheus is that Eurydice also wants to preserve their love just as it was, youthful, passionate, and blissful, rather than subject it to the ravages of time and the hardships of life. The variation less sympathetic to Orpheus is that Euyridice was at peace in death, in some versions she drank from the river Lethe and doesn't even remember Orpheus, his attempt to take her back is selfish, and she prefers to be her own free woman than be bound to him forever and literally only live for his sake.

With that interpretation in mind, I'm surprised I've never read yet another variation. I can imagine a version where, as Orpheus walks up the path toward the living world, he realizes he's being selfish: Eurydice was happy and at peace in the Elysian Fields, she doesn't even remember him because she drank from Lethe, and she's only following him now because Hades and Persephone have forced her to do so. So he finally looks back out of selfless love, to let her go. Maybe I should write this retelling myself.

Are any of these interpretations – or any others – the "true" or "definitive" reason why Orpheus looks back? I don't think so at all. The fact that they all exist and can all ring true says something valuable about the nature of mythology.

newest issue of first years fashion just dropped

Hello I have a 🌶️🌶️ comic in the works & first few pages up on twt > link

Apologies if twt breaks the format

Rustle of morning stars

Architecture details from my inspo folder

i think that the love we lost always come back to us eventually.

yesterday i went to visit my grandparents. they live in a minuscule town and for the first time in years there was a country fair. the inhabitants are all old people in retirement, so obviously all of them were super excited.

i invited my two flat mates whom i'm very friend with. my grandparents were a bit worried we'd get bored, but we had a great time. they welcomed us in their house, asked if we wanted some tea, my grandma was a seamstress so she made little pouches to gift to the participants, and she gave three to us. she invited us for lunch another day, and my grandad gave us a lift to the station and waited for the train to arrive. they were very lovely and cute.

one of my flatmates lost all of her grandparents and she said she almost cried when my grandma gave her the gift. that made me genuinely smile and filled my heart with warm joy. that the affection and the love and the "have you eaten well?" and the smell of a cake and the handmade gifts and the kisses on the cheeks she thought she lost forever came back, even for a single day.

love always finds a way to come back.