“Do You Know What It’s Like To Be Named For The Dead?” James Asks His Father In The Middle Of One

Let me make this very clear:

When it comes to Hellenic Polytheism, there is no human religious authority, especially not one that stands before or speaks for the gods.

It does not matter what someone tells you. It does not matter if they claim to be a priestess/priest of X deity or a messenger for Y deity. It does not matter what their supposed past life was like. It does not matter if they claim to be the literal fucking Oracle of Apollo.

No one has the right to tell you how to worship the gods. No one has the right to assert their authority over your religion.

And most of all, remember that people can and do lie.

I have three modes of reading

Dont read

Read a 500 page book in a day

Read only fanfiction until my eyeballs drop out of my skull from exhaustion

I've had this little idea in my head for a while now, so I decided to sit down and plot it out.

Disclaimer: This isn't meant to be some sort of One-Worksheet-Fits-All situation. This is meant to be a visual representation of some type of story planning you could be doing in order to develop a plot!

Lay down groundwork! (Backstory integral to the beginning of your story.) Build hinges. (Events that hinge on other events and fall down like dominoes) Suspend structures. (Withhold just enough information to make the reader curious, and keep them guessing.)

And hey, is this helps... maybe sit down and write a story! :)

Eddie, posting to Tiktok at three in the morning: I think it’s perfectly okay if you’re a restless sleeper or you sleepwalk. That’s fine. I just think you should have goals…that’s not leaving my house.

Eddie: That makes it sound like I kidnapped someone. I didn’t. It’s just… My husband has been walking around in a circle for the last fifteen minutes

Eddie: And I want to go to bed but I can’t until he does because he has this bad habit of escaping and ending up at a hospital…or the woods.

Eddie: And yeah, I’m glad he’s not trying to break my ribs or- *flinches in surprise when a hand is suddenly shoved in front of his face*

Eddie, eyes flickering off screen: …yes?

Steve, after a long pause: Six dollar

Eddie, who adores sleeptalking Steve: For what?

Steve: Book fair

Eddie: …I have never wanted to live in your brain more than I do right now.

Humans Are Weird

So there has been a bit of “what if humans were the weird ones?” going around tumblr at the moment and Earth Day got me thinking. Earth is a wonky place, the axis tilts, the orbit wobbles, and the ground spews molten rock for goodness sakes. What if what makes humans weird is just our capacity to survive? What if all the other life bearing planets are these mild, Mediterranean climates with no seasons, no tectonic plates, and no intense weather? 

What if several species (including humans) land on a world and the humans are all “SCORE! Earth like world! Let’s get exploring before we get out competed!” And the planet starts offing the other aliens right and left, electric storms, hypothermia, tornadoes and the humans are just … there… counting seconds between flashes, having snowball fights, and just surviving. 

I swear Percy wears masks like no one else. Hes always been different and laughed at and put down at every turn but he’ll love his family no matter what

So, that scene where Harry retrieves Ron from the bottom of the lake and Percy loses his mind? Let’s look at that.

“Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them.”

“Percy seized Ron and was dragging him back to the bank (’Geroff, Percy, I”m all right!’)”

And three pages later: “Madame Pomfrey had gone to rescue Ron from Percy’s clutches.”

But you know, as Ron’s always telling us, Percy only cares about his career.

There is a very popular reading of this character that holds that he really is defined by his ambition and self-importance, and that he never does anything to show that he values his family until DH.  It’s a reading that most likely comes from taking Ron and the twins estimation of Percy as fact and it completely ignores scenes like this one.

What Rowling does here is a brilliant example of showing instead of telling.  When not in crisis mode, Percy is very verbal; he’s always talking about his accomplishments or work business that no one finds interesting but him.  Here, he’s all action.  He completely fails to act the part of a cool, impartial judge because his little brother appears to be in distress, and his affectation disappears.  What remains is a very Molly Weasley-esque kind of concern: You’re alright? Ha! I don’t believe you.  Let me smother you with affection until I’m satisfied that you are correct.

As funny as the image of Percy checking over Ron like an agitated mother cat is, my favorite part of this scene is Harry’s amazement that Percy looks young.  He’s eighteen, only four years older than Harry himself. He IS too young to be taking his boss’s place in this capacity, but Harry has bought into the affectation too. I think people sometimes forget how unreliable Harry’s point of view is.

There is no lack of evidence showing that Percy is quite different from what he pretends to be and how his siblings see him; you just have to tune out all the noise they all make about him to see it.

Sometimes listening to a song on repeat isn’t enough. I need to inject that shit into my veins. I need it engraved into my mind. Tattooed on my eyelids. Sometimes all I need is to eat, sleep, BREATHE that song

One thing I feel people miss about lord of the rings is that it’s sort of……….post-apocalyptic?

Like– the world already ended, a long time ago, and the characters are surrounded by the ruins of dead countries. They spend most of their time journeying through places that are either abandoned (Moria) soon to be abandoned (Rivendell/Lorien) or half-destroyed and falling into decay (Rohan/Gondor.) The villains are creatures that Used to be Human; I feel like Lotr’s orcs/ringwraiths have more in common with zombies than they do with DnD-style orcs, because they’re a state that “normal” people enter when they’re corrupted by a supernatural force.

Even the Shire is surrounded by ruins– the ruins of watchtowers, the ruins of the old Northern Kingdom, the ruined city near the Grey Havens. The people around there have an idiom “when the king comes back” that means the same thing as an idiom like “when pigs fly”–  “when a completely ridiculous improbable thing happens.” They’re so used to the disintegrated state of the world that the idea of a central government is fairy-tale-like and bizarre. They have their little mayors and thains; they don’t need anything else.

So yeah! I see people try to “modern-real-world- au” versions of Hobbiton by making it “a peaceful suburb” but to me, a modern au version of Hobbiton would be more like…….

You are a hobbit.

You don’t know much history, but you understand that there were Wars a long time ago that destroyed a great amount of life on earth.

You live in a little hole in the ground. You don’t know that long ago these holes used to be called “bunkers;” you decorate them with flowers.

When you want to say that something won’t happen, you’ll sarcastically say things “lol yeah SURE that will happen! And tomorrow pigs will fly, Parliament will come back into session, there will be a president in the White House, there will be a prime minister making speeches, and diplomats will intercede between all of them! ha! XD”

If you journey even a little outside of your home, you’ll find the ruins of old cities and skyscrapers. There are messages in the ruins that are written in languages you don’t speak. Human beings used to live here; they don’t anymore.

And you’re not supposed to leave the Shire because sometimes you’ll meet the things that used to be human, but aren’t anymore.

This fanart of human Alastor from one of the official illustrators who works on Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss is fueling my American Horror Story: Hotel AU with H.H. Holmes-esque serial killer Alastor...

So you seriously don’t know what podcast to listen to next? On tumblr? Alright…

Buckle up bc this is the storytelling fiction-podcast Megapost. These are all fiction podcasts that are not Talkshows or dnd podcasts, but storydriven. Some i have listened to, some I havent. Most, if not all of these, you can probably find on YouTube or Podbean.

DONE: (7)

These are podcasts that i have finished or caught up with as of March 2020. I can’t speak for newer seasons, but I’ll try to give an impression of them:

Welcome to Nightvale

(a classic and many people’s hook into podcasts. Tells the story of a strange desert town through local radio. Complete with all kind of LGBT+ representation, a gay canon main character, absolute weirdness and a lovably terrible antagonist, this still running podcast is an absolute must-try)

The Penumbra Podcast, Juno Steel Plotline

(The story of a genderfluid depressed detective on mars and his dangerous dance with a mysterious master thief, told in a beautifully sound-designed ongoing podcast.)

The Magnus Archives

(This still-running podcast starts relatively slowly but really takes off after the first season, telling one short horror story per episode and building a intricate metaplot about an asexual archivist with big dumbass energy and his assistants)

Wolf 359

(A walking pop culture refrence, a mom-friend boss, a crazy russian scientist and a glitchy AI live and work in a space station about 7 light years from earth. Besides a plant monster, mutiny and betrayal, this finished podcast also has a well-rounded and memorable cast that you’ll be sure to love)

Eos 10

(Dr Ryan Dalias is transferred to Eos 10 as part of the medical team, which formerly had been led by a drunk misanthrope and a nurse with a very particular skillset. While trying to deal with a hypochondriac royal, an abnormal Christmas tree and a terrorist, this rather lighthearted podcast has its genuine moments)

Gay Future

(a more or less sarcastic podcast based on the fanatic homophobic ideas of Mike Pence, this short podcast is set in a dystopian future in which everyone is gay and makes fun of YA books, heteronomy and a bunch of other stuff along the way)

Alice isn’t dead

(an extremely atmospheric podcast from the same people that made nightvale which follows an anxious truck driver looking for her wife. A lot of American Gothic, excellent atmosphere and genuinely heartfelt comments on love, humanity and freedom make this a true experience)

ARCHIVE 81

(For those of you that loved Nightvale and TMA but wished they were both a little weirder, comes Archive 81. What i can only describe as the american version of The Magnus Archives, Archive 81 is a interesting horror podcast following several plotlines including but not limited to an archivist, a man mostly made out of radio, a dark ritual and a man made out of static.)

IN PROGRESS: (7)

Podcasts that i am currently listening to/catching up on and thus can already reccomend, but not fully comment on.

Within the Wires

(one story per season, the first being subliminal messages being told through relaxation tapes)

The Bright Sessions

(the recordings of therapy sessions for supernaturally talented humans)

Kingfalls AM

(the Radiostation of Kingfalls, a weird little town in america)

The White Vault

(a rescue team is sent to a remote outpost in the arctic)

The Habitat

(a team of trainees is sent to live isolated in a simulation of a space station. Not fictional, real life recordings)

Start with this

(a podcast about making podcasts)

TO DO:

Podcasts that have been reccomended to me but that i haven’t tried. Feel free to add reviews or podcasts.

Wooden Overcoats

The Black Tapes

The Adventure Zone

Palimpsest

Starship Iris

Limetown

Ars Paradoxica

Kakos Industries

SAYER

The Amelia Project

Inkwyrm

uncanny County

Star Stripper

Radiolab

the Truth Podcast

Alba Salinx

The Penumbra Podcast (Second Citadel Storyline)

Zero Hours

Outliers

Death by dying

Mission to Zyxx

RABBITS

Station to station

caravan

The 12:37

Under Pressure

What’s the frequency

We fix Space Junk

beef and dairy network

the bunker

the far meridian

girl in space

mabel

Editing for some additions:

the adventures of sir Rodney the root

I am in eskew

the godshead incidental

Limetown

hello from the magic tavern

the culling

the empty man cometh

the big loop

Old Gods of Appalachia

The Critshow

Unwell

And, not to be a dirty, dirty, self promoter or anything, but if you liked the Magnus Archives, Alice isnt Dead or Within The Wires, i'm myself working on a podcast focused on possibly-fae related disappearances and a old journal and will update on my tumblr when it starts airing