#bam.

Who wants to cuddle?

Erzulia is a holiday I made up back in my single days because I wanted something that didn't subvert Valentines, but included it for everyone. And because I've shared it far and wide, I still have friends that celebrate it, so it's never been dropped, and I dunno, it's probably been going over 20 years now.

HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY TIME

Every holiday's got a background, right? *pushes up nerd glasses, but cat-eye'd ones because shit's about to get witchy*

The Erzulie branch of vodun loa (sometimes spelled lwa) is varied and rich, a group of spirits that can run the gamut from being very very frightening and fierce (the Petro) to being very sweet and spicy (the Rada). Erzulia Freda is one of the latter, and her aspect has 6 associations:

love

beauty

dancing

luxury

jewelry

flowers

I don't usually mess with the loa since Haitian vodun isn't my cultural background so therefore I don't have ancestral in roads. And--like the fae or the djinn or the loa--there are some entities out there, whether I believe in them or not*, are very powerful and fickle and can change on a dime and really eff you up if you don't know what you're doing or you're not respectful. (And even if you are, they can like you and help you TOO much.) But Erzulie Freida's pretty dope and popping around once a year to celebrate the things she holds dear generally cultivates happiness and coziness and joy, so if juju is actually getting stirred, it's all good stuff. Nothing but positivity here.

*I may be into witchy shit, but I'm also an agnostic theology enthusiast that's into stories, science, and psychology, so I take everything with a lot of openness, hope, and whimsy, but also a grain of salt and evolutionist theory.

ANYWAY. That's just where the name comes from. Let's get to:

ERZULIA: THE CELEBRATION!

Six days, Monday through Saturday on the week that encompasses Valentines and therefore absorbs and/or allows for its inclusion. It is a week of celebrated self-care wherein you rock out with the 6 associations. Most people pick one a day, but some choose an incomplete set or do a bunch on one day, whatever. It's not a contest. There are no wrong answers, it's simply an individual observation of beauty, love, dancing, flowers, jewelry, and luxury. Go wild. You don't even have to include E. Freida, it's just named for her because of the 6 associations.

EXAMPLES:

Jewelry: buy that piece you've been eyeing. Wear your favorite items. Go through your collection and shine 'em up. Put on every piece you own and wear nothing else while you swan around the house.

Luxury: the aforementioned all the jewelry you own and swan about the house. Go out for a fancy meal and eat too much or make that very rich cake you've been meaning to try. Dangle grapes above your mouth and eat them off the stem while you lounge on the couch watching White Lotus. I don't know what you consider luxurious, that's not for me to know.

Beauty: look in the mirror and find out what you really love about yourself. Dress up nice just for you. Look at pictures of Wunmi Mosaku and yearn and cry. Sorry, this got personal.

Love: read some Pedro fanfic. Again. Personal.

Dancing: put on your favorite F+TM album and rock the fk out. Move your ass while you clean the house. Watch Step It Up and feel good about it.

Flowers: buy yourself a bouquet. Spray yourself and everything you own with orange blossom. Go to a conservatory on a really cold day. Tattoo a tulip on your ass.

Listen, I don't care how you do it, but the point is to do something for you. Treat yo'self. Be present with what makes you feel good and cozy and tell yourself you love you. Find warmth and nice textures and tasty treats and shiny things. Roll around in the pretty stuff of this world, feel your divine incarnation, and be a goddess of all that's good.

so what if it's like.........

"why do you look like this, like you've been out all night? almost like you've been-- partying. were you-- wait, were you having sex!? oh evan, is HE your ... boyfriend?" whispered in shock.

"no," philip says. "we know him, we know this man. this is eddie." he looks so surprised. margaret looks in absolute shock. "is -- is he your boyfriend, evan? please, how could you not tell us this was happening?"

"no, no, no. god no. he's not--" buck can't even look at eddie because-- it's too close, too real. no, eddie isn't-- he's not. "this is eddie, yes but he's--"

"can we do this any other time please? WHERE IS CHIMNEY?"

*doesnt show up for a week*

THE CASSES:

- castiel townsend: the man, the myth, the original bastard himself. w.bg player (albeit unwillingly). has not taken proper care of himself in weeks at any one moment. has homosexual relations with both his his gamerunner and his prize, which makes situations interesting quite a bit of the time. frequently not nice about things, mostly through joking about them both inappropriately and shittily. if he even sits down and thinks about his actions for .3 of a second it's over for him.

pretty extensive facial scarring from sucking ass at trying to blow up 357a.

- cassidy ???: cowboy iteration of castiel. MAY be a fraud. nobodys quite sure if he has the same connection to castiel that most cowboy iterations have to the source of their iteration. but oh well. he's the only cowboy around, and that's good enough. very cocky, very self-assured. believes what he is doing is right and proper all of the time. should not have been let loose with a gun, probably.

no noted scarring, but then again, ive no clue what he looks like naked. haven't mapped that out yet. shh.

- cassius ???: flinchite castiel. refuses to reveal what job he does at the compound itself, but he acts as a very good right hand man sort of figure. actually quite cordial, and not just in a villainous kind of a way. very put together. (this is, as with all casses, ever, a complete and utter lie. just one he's perfected.) actually on pretty good terms with cassidy. minimal death threats exchanged between the two.

missing one eye, which he covers with an eyepatch. no other noted scarring. i think.

- cassandra (has not even considered a last name): ex-compound cas. technically still in the compound. has never left the compound, and isn't looking likely to. but. minimal experimenation going on. so there's that.

capable of seeing all events in history, apparently, though without much rhyme or reason to any of it. every prediction she makes is inevitable (though not always irreversible). also the only cas to use she/her.

seemingly very docile and obedient, but with a decided cunning streak she's perfected the art of hiding in public.

- casper bofa (allegedly): an outsider to this whole scheme. not on good terms with any other cas iteration, but has convinced castiel into doing his bidding more than once. convinced he's able to disrupt the flow of time and pick his own fate. got a lot of hubris that is probably (definitely) going to catch up with him, but oh well. constantly doing his best impression of a mad scientist-esque disney villain, for some reason.

MELANIES:

the only iteration of castiel to share the 357a facial scarring- technically the only one who has experienced the future in which castiel goes ahead with it. which is technically a diversion from the normal timeline anyway.

- melanie "superwholock" lewis: w.bg player. somehow winning. internet streamer who liveblogged her challenges under the pretence of an elaborate arg, and is sososo scared all of the time at being found out. very emotionally intelligent, but cannot lie for toffee. fiercely loyal, and has a tendancy to be an asshole more often than not.

- mel "homestuck" lewis: ex-compound melanie and universal older sister figure. trying to catch up with the modern media kids seem to be enjoying these days, but doesn't wholly get it. tries to be a mediator, but has a habit of snapping at people occasionally, if tensions get too high.

delusions of grandeur

an obsession with molding the only other(s) like him into mini-hims (and discarding them if they prove unmoldable)

cloning a guy he is convinced Should™ be on his side (but is not above murdering the OG) for a hobby

murdering the clones he made for a hobby

too much power at his disposal (most definitely acquired through unsavory means)

seriously who put these fruit loops in power over the masses

a portal to another dimension in their secret lab

shapeshifting abilities

canonically gotten smacked flat by something or someone unfathomably dangerous

dark twists to the story revealed regarding or during a time travel episode

Control Issues™

mad science

"Friend(s)" On The Other Side™

a holier-than-thou accent

manipulative tendencies up the wazoo

little to no regard for anyone but himself

a secondary form with inhuman speed, strength, etc

a Distinguished Gray Ponytail

then i would have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice, right?