#cut for length
Also in this series/written “universe”:
“That Thing” (Tumblr|AO3)
“Diversion” (Tumblr|AO3) [warning: nsfw]
“First Blush: Prologue” (Tumblr|AO3)
The so-called “Youth Seminar for the Prevention of Misuse of Creation Magic” was absolutely not where Hades wanted to be. The Bureau of the Architect had set it up in one of their lesser-used back rooms, where a few tables had been set up among a couple of elderly filing cabinets than nobody had bothered to remove. There was very little of interest in the room itself. And given that there were over a dozen fully masked, robed “youths” - some of them, like Hades himself, undoubtedly nearing adulthood - in the small space along with who Hades assumed was their lecturer, the fact that the room had no windows was quickly becoming apparent.
He had, of course, chosen the table furthest from the front. One of those filing cabinets was right near him, as if maybe in the middle of everything Hades could just disappear into its shadow and people might forget he was even there. It didn’t make sensefor him to even be there at all! Everyone he’d met said his prowess with creation magic was a marvel, that he was some sort of prodigy. Of course he knew how to controlit.
Unable to get out of spending his time stuck listening to some low-level bureaucrat drone on and on, the only thing left to Hades was to sulk. And Hades was exceptionally skilled at sulking.
Hades was so good at sulking that he was able to tune out the introduction of the lecturer and the entire beginning of the class. He leaned his chin heavily on his fist, feeling the edge of his mask dig into his cheek, and focused on that inconvenience and growing irritation instead.
At least until one of the other students, seated near the front, had a minor outburst. Their table was the most full, with other youths arrayed around the one that suddenly interrupted the otherwise snore-inducing session.
“Excuse me– I feel terriblefor interrupting you, of course, but might this be something we could be shown in a more practical setting, perhaps?” he asked, his voice earnest and sweet despite the fact that he was questioning their current authority figure. “Wouldn’t it be a more memorable lesson if we were to go to, say, Elpis? We could observe the creations currently under study and testing in an environment perfectly suited to what you’re trying to explain to us.”
“Ah…” the lecturer halted and stammered. “It is possible that we could ask permission for such an outing…”
“Would you, please?” the student asked, sounding genuinely excited and grateful. The chorus of polite requests that sprung up around him served to make the Undersecretary or whatever he was even more flustered.
“Please remain calm and in your seats, little ones,” the lecturer implored, before scurrying out of the room like an anxious woodland creature.
The student who had instigated everything reached up and pushed his hood back, shaking out shoulder-length lavender hair while breathing an exaggerated sigh. “That helps. It’s awfully stuffy in here, don’t you think?”
He looked around the room and smiled as he said it. From Hades’ point of view, it felt like that smile appeared when the other boy’s obscured gaze landed on him. There was something mischievous about that smile. It made Hades want to know everything behind it even as alarms went off in his head. He caught himself starting to lean forward and stopped, tearing his gaze away to study the mouldering old file cabinet instead.
Yet his traitorous ears kept listening, even straining to pick up that one particular voice amid the little conversations that had sprung up.
“That was a good suggestion, mentioning how it’s specifically devoted to such testing,” one of the still-hooded and masked students next to the instigator was saying. “I’ve been wanting to see Elpis, too. I’ve heard it has the most beautiful flowers…”
“Is that so? Well, then. All the more reason to go.” The boy hummed and gently pushed back the hood from the other’s face, then tucked a wavy lock of pale blue hair back from the revealed, but masked face. “We’ll have to make sure to find you the most beautiful specimen we can, Asclepius.”
“Aw, Hyth,” the dark-haired boy on his other side chided. “You made him blush.”
Huffing, Hades once again hauled his attention away from where it didn’t belong. He didn’t need to be at this silly lecture from the start, nor did he need to tag along on a field trip. Unlike the lot of them, he had things to dowith his time. Granted, he hadn’t had the chance yet to get to properly explore Elpis, and at least deep down in his heart he had to admit a certain curiosity. But it still ruffled his feathers to be involved in something that felt so juvenile.
Despite his best efforts - or so he insisted to himself they were - by the time the harried instructor returned and started going over the rules for conduct and the parameters by which they’d be allowed the excursion, Hades knew considerably more about the student who had so deftly derailed the entire seminar. Hythlodaeus had a sweet smile that brimmed with mischief, could sweet talk even the shy Asclepius into excited conversation, and had a partner-in-crime in the dark-haired Helios. For some reason, the way Hythlodaeus and Helios could communicate with just a tilt of the head or other tiny gestures made Hades silently seethe for reasons he couldn’t identify. He had also somehow aligned himself firmly in the camp of putting up with the seminar if it resulted in the suggested field trip.
“If you would all please return to your seats and attire yourself properly, we can continue,” the lecturer instructed. His time away seemed to have helped a little. He even squared his shoulders and lifted his chin when he requested a dozen or so teenagers sit down.
“I’ve been advised that an outing may be scheduled for a later occurrence of this seminar,” he explained once the students had settled appropriately. At the collective groan that when up, he raised his voice to continue being heard. “This day would be too short-notice, as well as there being subjects best covered in the theoretical before introducing the practical applications.”
“Can we at least open a window or something, then?” Helios leaned back in his seat and theatrically fanned himself with one hand.
“There are no windows in this–” The lecturer halted abruptly and lifted his masked gaze to the wall over Hades’ head. Despite himself, Hades turned to look along with the rest of the class.
Taking up a large chunk of the previously bare wall was a bank of windows.
Even hooded and masked into blank anonymity, the instructor’s anger rolled off of him like a wave. Hades saw Asclepius flinch and duck slightly in response. “This is precisely the sort of behavior this seminar is designed to curb,” the lecturer explained tartly. “Creation requires deep attention and the necessary Concepts in order to be executed in a manner that does not endanger our people or our city.”
Helios shrugged. “Nothing bad happened, though. And it’s stuffy in here.”
While Hades couldn’t deny either of those points, he still wasn’t sure if he agreed with the sentiment. Clearly some of those in attendance neededsuch a seminar in order to try to reduce reckless behavior.
As enjoyable as it was to watch someone else get skewered for their wrongdoings, boredom quickly returned. But for better or for worse the class had changed. The new window was open, allowing a breeze, and several of the students had chosen to drop their hoods. Hades caught his attention unintentionally drifting to the lavender bob and the pale, nimble hands that kept absently playing with it. Sometimes Hythlodaeus would twist it around his fingers; other times he would section it out and start to braid until he caught himself.
Hades gave himself a mental shake. Best to leave someone like that well enough alone. He had his friends, which was something Hades hadn’t the slightest idea how to deal with. And Hades had no use for anyone at the seminar. He was more than capable on his own and preferred to not have other people sticking their opinions where they weren’t wanted.
No, Hades assured himself. He was really better off giving all of them a wide berth and seeing how quickly he could get himself excused.
After getting to visit Elpis, of course.
Why Do We Need Heroes? - The Critical Drinker, Dec. 2, 2020 [X]
“See, we’ve been doing this kind of thing for a lot longer than you might think. In fact, ever since us humans have been able to conceive of stuff beyond our own experience, we’re been kind of fascinated by the idea of heroic characters embarking on epic adventures, righting wrongs, and defeating evil enemies. It’s kind of the basis for our whole civilization.
… And I guess this is the real point I’m trying to make here: the heroes we create are a symbol and a reflection of our human potential not human reality they represent the very best of what we can and should strive for they encourage us to reach higher to try harder to go further than we ever thought possible. They push us to see beyond the boundaries and limitations of our everyday lives to dream about what we could be instead of fretting about what we are and perhaps most importantly of all they remind us that there’s still something fundamentally good in all of humanity for all our flaws and our mistakes and our weaknesses
It’s our ability to pick ourselves up to move forward to strive to better ourselves and overcome our limitations. This defined all of our history, it’s what’s driven us to build great cities invent new technologies compose great symphonies and works of art to explore the furthest reaches of our planets and to reach for the stars. The potential that exists inside each and every one of us is as unlimited as our imaginations and the heroes that we create to inspire and motivate and guide us reflect the very best aspects of that boundless potential.”
The Hero’s Journey - TVTropes.org [X]
Full transcript under the cut.
(I’m not responsible for any typos or grammatical errors, this is the subtitle text captured with https://anthiago.com/transcript/, I added some para breaks to make it easier to read.)
“ah comic books you’ve got to love them especially in the current year whether it’s reimagining bruce wayne as an asian american teenager accompanied by his gay butler alfred or a body positive wonder woman that strikes fear into the hearts of all you can eat buffets everywhere or whatever these two are meant to be the entire industry seems to have spent the past few years self-destructing i mean reinventing itself into something more diverse and inclusive and what could be more diverse than inclusive than a year novel about the gay goth plus-sized daughter of legendary dc superhero starfire struggling to escape the long shadow cast by her famous mother and find her own sense of identity during her turbulent teenage years it’s a good premise really allowing the writer to explore questions of family legacy personal identity societal expectations the real world implications of fame and the complex and often difficult relationship between mothers and their teenage daughters so let’s take a look at this exciting new work shall we
[Music]
it does prompt a few questions though like why does her upper lip project several inches from her face why does one of her hands seem to be suffering from chronic gigantism why does this front cover look like it was drawn by me after several pints of methylated spirits i thought the whole point of ya novels is that they’re intended for well young adults so they’re supposed to look cool edgy sexy and compelling this looks like the kind of thing your weird hippie aunt would get you for christmas when you’re five years old and you’d politely dump in some cupboard and never talk about again is there a reason the author might have chosen to style her main character like this well let’s take a look at her shall we [Laughter] now call me crazy but i do detect a faint resemblance here
the thing is it would be easy enough for me to point and laugh at what’s clearly just another cringe-worthy self-insertion vanity project doomed to fall into the garbage can of history written by an author whose ego probably outstrips her creative ability and commissioned by a struggling publisher desperate to appeal to a woke audience that probably should have allocated its declining resources to something with a better chance of success like burning money i could do all of these things and probably have a good laugh along the way but really the bigger question that comes to mind for me is what exactly are we becoming if this is the new standard for our comic book heroes
See we’ve been doing this kind of thing for a lot longer than you might think in fact ever since us humans have been able to conceive of stuff beyond our own experience we’ve been kind of fascinated by the idea of heroic characters embarking on epic adventures righting wrongs and defeating evil enemies it’s kind of the basis for our whole civilization whether it’s achilles and hector and the iliad or perseus slain medusa or beowulf fighting grendel or saint george killing the dragon you could pick basically any culture on earth at any time period and the chances are you’ll find legends and stories of heroic men and women accomplishing great deeds characters who could best be described as more than human men of destiny men of great skill or superhuman strength that allows them to overcome the most powerful and terrifying enemies imaginable
jump forward a few thousand years and we’re still doing the exact same thing with a new generation of heroes and villains that we’ve created all for ourselves the classical heroes gods and monsters from our ancient legends have been replaced by modern day reinterpretations and instead of storytellers spinning their tails around a campfire now we have comic books movies and tv to satisfy our needs the technology might have changed but the basic motivation hasn’t we still have the same drive and hunger for stories of larger than life heroes and villains the same need to believe in things that are grander and bigger than our own petty existence the same aspiration to be more than we are
and i guess this is the real point i’m trying to make here the heroes we create are a symbol and a reflection of our human potential not human reality they represent the very best of what we can and should strive for they encourage us to reach higher to try harder to go further than we ever thought possible they push us to see beyond the boundaries and limitations of our everyday lives to dream about what we could be instead of fretting about what we are and perhaps most importantly of all they remind us that there’s still something fundamentally good in all of humanity for all our flaws and our mistakes and our weaknesses
it’s our ability to pick ourselves up to move forward to strive to better ourselves and overcome our limitations this defined all of our history it’s what’s driven us to build great cities invent new technologies compose great symphonies and works of art to explore the furthest reaches of our planets and to reach for the stars the potential that exists inside each and every one of us is as unlimited as our imaginations and the heroes that we create to inspire and motivate and guide us reflect the very best aspects of that boundless potential
so i guess it’s kind of sad and disheartening to watch today’s cynical nihilistic mean-spirited attempts to undermine subvert and degrade those same heroes instead of respecting and looking up to them it’s become fashionable to mock and belittle and criticize them as relics of a bygone era or symbols of oppression or discrimination without really understanding what they stood for in the first place people who once looked to our heroes as symbols to aspire to as a motivation to become more than they are now see them as an unflattering reflection of their own weaknesses and failures rather than try to better themselves and their lives through hard work courage and sacrifice they instead find perverted joy in tearing down anything that stands higher than them bringing everyone and everything down to their level instead of the harder but more rewarding task of raising themselves up and the end result of this way of thinking is a small petty envious view of the world the kind of thing that belongs in the minds of small petty envious people who hide their dark intent behind a facade of compassion and fairness the kind of people who hysterically preach acceptance of everything no matter how ridiculous harmful or pathetic
because once you accept everything then there’s no need to strive for anything and instead of the mighty and inspiring heroes we used to look up to well you end up with stuff like this
now ask yourself who exactly do you think is going to be inspired and motivated by this
anyway that’s all i’ve got for today go away now”
