From Death, Life.
From death, life.
They stand before her, and they brandish their weapons callously, carelessly. She knows they mean to kill her – she’s of no use to them. “Don’t run and we’ll make it quick, little girl,” one of them says. “You can join your family.” She knows that he is lying. The world is open before her, and she knows all that may be known.
She can see the silence behind them, the darkness. Death. The void awaits.
The men smirk. They are empty of life and humanity, worn to blood, bone, and sharpened teeth by violence. They expect her to beg. They do not know.
She stands before them, small. Her spine is straight, and her head is high. She meets his eyes.
“No,” she says, and her voice is strong and clear. It is still a girl-child’s voice, but there is something more behind it.
He is taken aback, but something nasty quickly enters his eyes. “More fun for us then,” he tells the others.
“No,” she says again.
“I am not afraid to die.” She tells them, and there is a universe under her skin. She feels her life like a star in her chest, and death like tides in her blood.
They roar with laughter and start forward. They step with heavy feet on soil rich with death. They do not know.
The darkness is behind them, within them, between every atom in the air and in the earth. It is within her. The silence.
“I am not afraid to die,” she repeats, “but today is not my day to die. It is yours.”
The raucous laughter enters the air again, but she can see something like fear rising in the eyes of the wiser ones.
The time for words is over. The silence is here.
She closes her eyes - and breathes. Life is here, she thinks. Death is here, she thinks. Truth rings strong in the silence.
The darkness rises in her like the tides. The empty space between the stars is here, between the pieces of the universe. Void calls to void. The hungry dark will devour all. The shadows grow, and –
She opens her eyes, but there is nothing to see. The dark presses like a living thing against her skin, but she is not afraid. She is part of it, and it a part of her. There is no sound, because the dark and silence swallow all. But she can feel them. She can sense their light growing dim. Their fear grows, as the darkness within answers to the call of the darkness without.
She holds both death and life, light and dark, silence and sound, void and star – in her hands and in her heart. Her light does not fade as the darkness grows. There is no fear in her. She has already passed through the void and emerged.
The lights in the darkness are gone. The sense of nothing presses against her skin. She waits. She knows it is not yet done.
She waits, and the dark waits also, hungry. It is restless and chaotic, and it would consume her given the chance. She remembers the star in her chest. And waits.
And in the consuming darkness, the void of chaos and nothingness, something starts to grow. She smiles in the blackness, and breathes in, bringing air into her lungs where there was none. The light in her chest flares. Her star fills her whole self. The shadows recede. She blinks in the sunlight. There are no men in front of her. There are no more bodies in the streets. There is only rich black soil.
She steps forward and kneels, brushing the dirt away from a bright green seedling. Life.
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So I feel more or less the same way about Medusa and I wrote a little snippet reframing Medusa’s story. Athena didn’t turn her into a gorgon to punish her for defiling the temple. She did it to protect Medusa. Feedback would be appreciated!
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His eyes sparkled green in the light. Her tears blurred the sight. It hurt. It hurt.
When he was done, Medusa still lay crumpled on the floor. She was silent now, but her face was wet with tears, and her thighs were slick with blood. He surveyed her with disinterest. “Maybe I’ll see you again, pretty. Or maybe not.”
And like the sea breeze, he was gone, as though he had never been.
Medusa sobbed once, loud and broken. She struggled to get up. The pain was too great to stand, but she pulled herself into a kneeling position. There was a strange silence in her mind, as pain and rage warred with disbelief. Rage won out.
Her voice was hoarse as she let out a ragged cry. She raised her fists and slammed them into the stone. The anger still burned within her, so she did it again. Tears ran down her cheeks. She felt useless and small. She had been nothing but a toy to him. How dare he?
“Athena,” she whispered. “Goddess, my goddess. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” She bowed her head and wept.
“Do not apologize, my child.”
Medusa looked up so fast the room spun. She focused on the figure standing in front of her. A woman, with a terrible, fearless kind of beauty, wearing a sword at her hip and a shield on her back. Athena knelt before Medusa and took her face in her hands. “You have done nothing wrong,” she said, lowly, fiercely. “I would have my vengeance upon Poseidon and the other gods for every woman they have hurt, but even I cannot challenge them so.”
Medusa drank in every word. “What am I to do, goddess? I can’t…I can’t bear to endure this again.”
Athena’s face was thoughtful, inscrutable. “The temple has been defiled. You cannot return to your old life.” Medusa bowed her head in sorrow.
Athena continued. “The punishment of Poseidon is beyond me. However, I can grant you a gift. I can give you the power to protect yourself and others. Your rage makes you strong. I can make you my weapon against every man who would bring a woman low. But the price will be high. Are you willing to pay it?”
Medusa hesitated, looking up. The eyes of mortal and goddess met in perfect understanding. Every woman, no matter how high or low, knew the sense of helplessness and rage that men engendered. Medusa would give anything to fight it. Her face hardened with resolve.
“Yes,” Medusa said, and her voice grew stronger. “I would pay any price. Never again.”
Athena’s face bore a sad kind of pride. “Never again,” she agreed.
She rose to her feet, and placed her hand on Medusa’s head.
“I gift you with the power to wreak vengeance. You will stop any man dead in his tracks. I name you Medusa, protectress of women, and executioner of justice.”
And as she lifted her hand from Medusa’s brow, Medusa began to change. Her beautiful red hair, the envy of Athens, morphed into dozens of wriggling snakes. Her nails grew into sharp metal claws.
Athena stepped back. “Rise, my daughter.”
And Medusa rose. She looked up. Her eyes were yellow, and slit like a snake’s. Her lips were red as blood.
“It will be a lonely path that you walk, Medusa. To the west, there is an island called Sarpedon. Make it your sanctuary. Remember that I am proud of you, and be brave, my child.”
She bent and kissed Medusa’s brow…and then she was gone.
There’s evidence that Medusa was actually worshiped in Ancient times as more or less the Patron Goddess of Rape Survivors and a protector of women and I vote we Reclaim The Fuck out of her story.
A 2,500 year old ancient olive tree on the island of Evia was destroyed today in the ongoing wildfires consuming the region. The ancient tree was located in the olive grove of Rovia, and was such an enduring symbol of the landscape that the ancient geographer and philosopher Strabo featured it in his writings.
The tree was large, with a trunk so wide ten people could fit along its diameter. The tree was fertile with olives all the way until it fell victim to the wildfire.
The tragic loss of the Evian tree was posted to Twitter by Apostolis Panagiotou, and the evocative image quickly gained over a thousand likes, with many Greeks leaving responses mourning the impact of the fires.
I grew up in northern California and I say crayfish
why are there so many terms for crawdads
This is beautiful! I love this song; I learned the lyrics a little while back and it’s such a pretty language to sing in. (I’ve kind of made a hobby out of learning songs in several different languages.)
I’m also a trained dancer, and I’ve been fascinated with hula for a long time. It’s so different from the kinds of dance I’m familiar with, and it’s so graceful and rhythmic! If I ever got the chance to learn about hula dance in a respectful and authentic way, I would definitely do it.
I read the Enola Holmes series in one afternoon like two years ago, and I really enjoyed it! I’m excited for this movie. I’m sure some things that I liked in the books will be missing, since that’s just the way of movies, but I really think I’m going to like this movie anyway!
I’m gonna re-read the series before I watch it though.
(Also Henry Cavill is playing Sherlock?? So Superman is joining Iron Man and Dr.Strange in being Sherlock Holmes and I think that’s fun)
So a lot of people are rightfully unhappy about the possibility that Katara will be aged up in the new Netflix version of The Last Airbender. That has a lot of issues and I’m glad people are talking about it.
But truthfully, I’ve always had some issues with how Katara’s relationship with Aang was handled. Generally, ATLA did very well with its female characters and gave us a lot of strong girls and women to admire, but it still had its flaws.
Specifically, the thing that bothered me the most when I first saw it as a child was the scene in Day of Black Sun where Aang kisses Katara without warning and without permission. That always made me uncomfortable.
There’s also the way the writers handled the development of their relationship. Throughout the series, it is made very obvious that Aang has a major crush on Katara. But while Katara cares deeply for Aang, she is pretty much never shown to have romantic interest in him - except for that time that the fortuneteller tells Katara that she will marry a powerful bender and Katara is reminded that Aang is a powerful bender, plus that time they dance together in the Headband. But honestly, neither of those carries a lot of weight, in my opinion, especially compared with other scenes. Katara explicitly has a pretty negative reaction to the idea of a relationship with Aang in the Ember Island Players episode - where, again, Aang kisses her without permission, right after she said she was confused. Again, she reacts negatively to the kiss, and to Aang’s pushiness regarding a relationship. It’s kind of hard to see how they could move from this point to a full blown romantic relationship over the next few episodes. (Honestly, I hate that scene for Aang. It’s a pretty negative characterization for him. This scene made me uncomfortable as a kid as well. Actually, I might have hated this scene more than the Day of Black Sun scene.)
Anyway, for most of the series, Katara acts more like an older sister or mother-figure to Aang. And then at the end of the series, Aang defeats the Firelord and suddenly Katara is all in for a relationship? I remember the first time I saw it, it seemed sudden within the context of the story. Outside of the context of the story, it pretty much looks like Katara was treated as a reward for Aang - the hero saves the day, gets the girl trope. I don’t think I need to explain why that’s bad. It was also weak within the story’s plot, because it’s not well-supported by Katara’s character arc.
So the two main problems with the Katara/Aang relationship, in my view, are these: one, Aang’s treatment of Katara within the story; and two, the writers’ treatment of Katara from outside the story.
(Plus, a 12/13 year old dating a 14/15 year old comes off kinda weird to me. A couple years difference matters at that age.)
This is honestly my biggest criticism of the series. It was still a great show, and I loved it, but as iconic as it was, it wasn’t perfect.
Want to learn something new in 2022??
Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)
40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)
Excellent basic crochet video series
Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)
Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)
How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)
Another drawing character faces video
Literally my favorite art pose hack
Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??
Introduction to flying small aircrafts
French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding
Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)
Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)
Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)
Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:
Calculus 1 (full semester class)
Learn basic statistics (free textbook)
Introduction to college physics (free textbook)
Introduction to accounting (free textbook)
Learn a language:
Ancient Greek
Latin
Spanish
German
Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)
French
Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)
the forever sky
I would rather choose To love and lose - Than to never have loved you.
me
I wrote this a long time ago, but I went to see How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World today, and this suddenly seemed very appropriate.
Love - real love, the kind that lights your chest up and rushes in your throat and is selfless - is always worth it. We lose everything in the end. Some things we lose sooner than others, and some losses are more painful than others. But the choice to love is always worth it, even when it hurts.
reblogging to keep this for reference because I’ve been getting into embroidery lately
Sophia Drescher on Instagram
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