#Brasidas Imagine

[totally-unshway]

Even generals and mercenaries get afternoons off

[mimbotomy]

Chapter 29 of The Children of Kephallonia, Assumed Fatherhood, is now up! As you can probably imagine from the above drawing, this chapter is all about Kassandra and Barnabas. What you might not have guessed is that he spends most of the chapter calling her an idiot - albeit with good reason.

As always, more fic details below!

The Children of Kephallonia is an Assassin’s Creed Odyssey fic that starts at the beginning of the Korinth storyline, when Kassandra learns that Aspasia sent Phoibe to Monger ruled Korinth and decides she’s never letting her girl be put in danger like that again. And while bringing Phoibe on the Adrestia puts her in a whole new kind of danger, well... at least Kassandra can keep an eye on her.

Featuring:

Phoibe being the Atreus to Kassandra’s Kratos, as we deserved

a hopefully fun new interpretation of Kassandra and Ikaros’ bond

a less fun but arguably more accurate look at Kassandra and Myrrine’s relationship

Kassandra, Barnabas, and Herodotos taking turns with their shared braincell

Lots of references to Kassandra and Phoibe’s life on Kephallonia

Additional backstories for Deimos, Barnabas, Markos, etc.

Kassandra being an legitimate demigod (fuck the Isu) and a slight reinterpretation of the Cult’s MO to match

Lots of ships

fun little notes at the end of each chapter

And most importantly

Kassandra being the very best mom she can be to her beloved baby bird Phoibe

Rating: M

Warnings: Canon Typical Depictions of Violence, Mild Sexual Content, and the occasional vague reference to attempted or threatened sexual assault

Romantic Relationships: Kassandra/Brasidas, Kassandra/Daphnae, Kassandra/Alkibiades, Kassandra/Kyra/Thaletas, and Kassandra/Anais

[my-soliloquy-chamber]

I’m doing some light research into the Battle of Amphipolis (for reasons) and found this little tidbit at the end of the Wikipedia article.

I’m picturing Socrates running around on that battlefield with his robes, questioning whether there really was a battle going on or just in their minds, is a sword really a sword when you parry a blow or is it a shield, does the fighting really change the outcome or can they all just stop and go home.

I think it’s probably good they excluded him in the game or the battle would have lost some of its emotional impact.

Imagine in the aftermath when Kassandra has seen both Brasidas and Deimos die (she believes) only for Socrates to saunter up and ask a hundred questions on the validity of personal loss in the grand scheme of the world’s suffering.

[suntomemp3]

I like to imagine this conversation between Andromeda (my s/i) and brasidas

"I am nothing like Orpheus, my stars." Brasidas says this with such fierceness it takes her by surprise.

She rolls over onto her side to face her husband, who lies on the fur pelt beside her. Andromeda's face contorts in confusion as she studies the structure of brasidas' own.

"Why would you say that, my love?" She whispers, and Brasidas' eyes drop to her lips. "Would you not follow me to Hades and back?" Andromeda quips, but Brasidas stays stone still, not indulging in her jokes as he normally does.

"I would," he insists, "I would follow you to the hells and I would bring you back home. That's why I am not like Orpheus."

Andromeda doesn't know what to say. Her husband, her sweet, ever devoted husband just proclaimed he would defy the god of death for her.

And she can't help but giggle.

Now it's Brasidas' turn to be confused, allowing Andromeda to cup his face in her hands kiss him from his forehead to the nape of his neck once her laughing has subsided.

"I am serious!" Brasidas protests as Andromeda continues her barrage of kisses.

"I know you are, my love," she smiles so brightly it reminds him of Helios riding his chariot across the sky each day. "And that's why I love you."

[b-plot-butch]

an extremely fun take on kassidas that i like imagining is that kassandra is the first woman brasidas had dated and brasidas is the first man kass has dated

[storytimefromthecreed]

Rewatching AC: Odyssey rn. Here’s what I’m loving.

. Going through as Alexios this time

. Why are Kassandra, Alexios, and Brasidas so good looking? Like so many people are just so good looking in this game

. The tension between Brasidas and Myrrine 👀👀👀 like, I’m not imagining that, am I? They-they’re hooking up, they have to be. Making eyes in front of Alexios like that. Which is funny because when the play through is Kass, I think she and Brasidas are OTP.

. I forgot Brasidas death 🙃🙃🙃🙃

. Brasidas bromance. I love their connection with him, and him in general.

. This story was long as hell. There were so many parts and people, I couldn’t keep track. It was a bit overwhelming.

. Stentor, this poor loser lol I felt so bad for him lol

. Ikaros! 😍😍😍

[alethiometry]

what's this aco himym fic huh!!

kate i don't know how much you know about ac odyssey from whatever the hell i or anyone else you follow has posted about the game in the last however long it's been since it came out, so i am very very sorry if none of this makes any goddamn sense.

OKAY FIRST OF ALL i need to say that i have literally never in my life watched a single episode of himym and i do not intend to and i know nothing about it except i'm aware that people have Opinions on how it ended. it has barely fuckall to do with this fic, except that i just cannot think of a fitting title.

the short summary is that this is a kassidas fic where for some reason (have yet to figure this out) brasidas ends up with custody of elpidios and tells him all about how he and kassandra met, how their relationship developed, and how they came to be where they are now (hence the filename).

the long summary is i got WAYYYYY too ambitious with this fic and it mutated from being like a cutesy little wish-fulfillment love story to a full-blown fix-it fic where i want to address most if not all of my most vexing plotholes in ac odyssey, ranging from plot points that make no sense, to character interactions or lack thereof that had zero closure, to a complete rewrite of the very bad no good comphet dlc. and although i hated how the game handled the forced romance between kassandra and natakas, i do think there is/want to see if i can find a way to make their relationship more complex and messy and interesting by removing the romance of it but just making him a more fleshed-out character. part of my worry is that the dlc is so reviled (with good reason) across the fandom that this premise is dead on arrival anyway and no one will like it, not even myself. but at the same time, i still want the endgame of this fic to be kassidas-focused, because they are my everything and to me there is no ac odyssey without them*, and so i have to figure out a way to write some kind of weird love/parental triangle between the three of them even though i fucking hate triangles**

i waver back and forth between the himym-ness of it being due to the fact that for whatever reason kassandra is no longer in elpidios' life (thus bringing it closer to official game canon), or just waving a gigantic middle finger to ubisoft and letting kassandra actually be a mother to her son whom she loves so so much and barely got to spend any time with, but she's understandably pretty tight-lipped about her past because she's aware of the heaps and heaps of generational trauma that's plagued her family and wants to break that cycle, so it's up to brasidas to spill the tea.

another layer of complexity/difficulty in writing all of this is that i imagine elpidios to be around 7 when the story starts, because that's the same age kass was when she lost her family, so then that age becomes sort of symbolic as a milestone. which means there's also the issue of not a whole lot of ac odyssey being appropriate for a kid of that age. like, graphic violence and dark themes aside... i can't really have it be like "yeah and after decapitating korinth's biggest meanest crime lord your mother flipped me over and pegged me six ways to [whatever the ancient greek equivalent of sunday is]" and just... yeah. i don't know. i still think about what i want to do with this fic often, but i think there's a very good reason why i have barely even opened it in almost 2 years.

*this made me giggle as i typed it out bc actual historical spartan general brasidas has like 15 minutes total of screentime in a 100+ hour game. but it's also not a joke because despite all that (and also getting fucking killed at the battle of amphipolis) he still had more chemistry with kassandra than any of the other like 15 actually-romanceable characters in the game.

**another tongue-in-cheek joke/double entendre because it's revealed in the game that pythagoras who did all that triangle math equation stuff is kassandra's biological father and an absentee, deadbeat one at that. fuck that guy fr

[ainulindaelynn]

Hmm… Amphipolis or Amphipolis alt for the WIP game please - whichever you feel more comfy sharing (or both, if you like!) 😊🤍

Amphipolis 😫

I may expand the wall top scene a little and the battle to reflect history (because WOW), but right now this picks up immediately after the fight with Kleon. Personally, I needed to run back to the battlefield in that moment, and I'm furious with Ubi for denying it. Before anything, I want to capture the feeling of my childhood night terrors, where there was no ground and unless I was clinging to something I might get sucked into space... It's still eluding me, so progress has been minimal... xD

From that point forward, Kassandra stays with Brasidas, taking the role of guardian over his body through the funerary process. She's with him almost continuously, experiencing Amphipolis' initial shock and watching their response unfold as a grim bystander. This has required several OCs and more research than anything else I've done for Odyssey and my knowledge still feels woefully inadequate. I want to blend (what we know of) Spartan & Macedonian rituals and highlight the historical honors from Kassandra's view. The city's response was so beautiful in history - I want to bring life to that as much as possible. It does end early though, as Kassandra leaves the moment she can no longer see him in the cremation flames, slipping away to the mountains for solitude.

I have 10k thrown in a document, but honestly I really hate all of it, so I'm gonna skip a snippet for this one :)

----------

Amphipolis Alt

This one is very underdeveloped. It's a little AU where Kassandra says, "Hey, If Deimos shows up, he's MINE" and because he trusts her, he DOES and LIVES. Bypass death, go to Kleon's attack, and the game resumes as normal, except everyone is happy. The central conflict is around Kassandra's troubled relationship Sparta and learning to support the campaigns in shadow form (I can’t imagine military structure smiles on commanders messing around while their subordinates go without - or that Brasidas would publicly permit that discrepancy), keeping with the traditions of military structure. It would follow Brasidas future campaigns if the treaty of Nicias never happened. AND EVERYONE WOULD LIVE HAPPILY.

Realistically, I'll never write this because there's not enough tension in the story to push me through. But also, knowing myself, I would need context to play at Brasidas' next strategic step and that would be a slippery slope into dedicating my life to understanding every intricate detail of the Peloponnesian War, which I do not have time for xD

This fic is a pretty little pipe dream and a couple scattered thoughts :)

[captainlilyuniverseworld]

100 Ways (#7)

A/N: Been playing a lot of AC Odyssey recently, figured I'd dip my toe back into the fandom a bit. Not really timeline specific/bit of canon divergence. Hope you enjoy! ♥

7. “It’s okay.  I couldn’t sleep anyway.”

Alexios winced as he pressed a hand to his side. The makeshift bandage he’d made to stop the bleeding was doing a relatively good job of keeping most of the blood inside of his body. He stopped and gripped the wall, the poison slowly working its way out of his system. 

Ikaros perched on a small branch overhead. 

“Don’t give me that look,” Alexios huffed and winced. 

He pushed himself off the wall once the dizziness subsided and continued walking. He could see the villa where Brasidas and his men were residing. He knew he just walk in through the front, but he didn’t feel like putting up with all the questions from the other soldiers. 

His body was going to hate him in the morning as he started scaling the building across and made his way over the rooftops, jumping and landing on the villa. He waited until he regained his balance and climbed down landing on the balcony. 

“Malaka,” he hissed through his teeth and leaned against the wall. 

“Alexios?” 

Brasidas stepped out of the room. “By the gods,” he hurried over and gently wrapped an arm around Alexios’s waist to steady him. “What happened to you?” 

“Took a shortcut through…Akrokorinth Fort,” Alexios winced as they made the short walk to Brasidas’s room. 

“Of course you did,” Brasidas sighed and eased Alexios down onto the bed. “Don’t move.” He walked out of the room and Alexios focused on trying to remain upright. He noticed the bed was still a bit warm, the blankets discarded in the corner. 

He was doing a decent job having found a fixed point on the wall opposite to keep his attention when Brasidas returned with a small basin of water, towels and fresh bandages. He knelt on the floor in front of him and made quick work of getting most of his armor off. 

“I’m sorry…” Alexios apologized. 

“For what?” Brasidas carefully unwrapped the bandage and used one of the towels he’d dipped in the water to clean the blood.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” Alexios answered. “I thought about going to Anthousa, but I didn’t want to scare the women. And I remembered you were here and…” he trailed off and winced as Brasidas continued to clean the wound. 

“It’s okay. I couldn’t sleep,” Brasidas shrugged and wrung out the towel. “And good thing too, I’d rather you didn’t bleed out on my balcony. Could you imagine what your mother would do if she found out?” 

“Don’t make me laugh,” Alexios snorted. 

Brasidas rewrapped the wound, much better than Alexios’s quick patch job, and made sure it was secure. 

“I’d say let’s get you cleaned up but you look ready to pass out,” Brasidas moved the basin of the water to a small side table. 

“Close to,” Alexios nodded. “Poison arrow. Street thugs. Long story.” 

“It always is,” Brasidas chuckled softly and eased him into lying down, covering him with the blanket. “One you can tell me in the morning.”

[brasideios]

Writing ask: 6, 8 & 12 please

Thank you so much for the ask! 🤍

6. What do I think about the AO3 formatting and process of putting a fic up?

It used to drive me crazy, but I am so familiar with it these days, I can hardly imagine it being different. I work in basic html as a matter of course as I'm drafting, so there's a lot less futzing required before posting than there used to be; that helps.

As to putting up a fic - I loathe coming up with titles and summaries, necessary evils though they be. I vacillate between the need to disclose certain elements of the story and not wanting to give the entire story away in advance. I think I suck at it broadly speaking.

8. I answered this one here :)

12. My favourite ship.

Gods, this is a hard question.

I'll procrastinate a moment by saying that broadly speaking, I prefer ships that are complimentary rather than oppositional - opposites attract is harder for me to write (and read) than 'two similar elements make each other better in the face of terrible outside pressure.' I much prefer the idea of people being healthy and supportive of one another than any kind of 'passion,' when that passion takes the form of hurting one another.

Alexios x Brasidas is perhaps my favourite ship at the moment for that reason, though Alexios x Demosthenes will always remain very close to my heart.

[findusinaweek]

Happy Brasideia 2024! I may have had this unfinished for last Brasideia, I cannot remember. But I am thankful to have finally finished it today! While this isn't specific to Brasidas, I've painted the Battle of Pylos. There is a Soap&Skin song, "Boat Turns Toward The Port", that I have on my Alexidas playlist. The song's lyrics are as followed: Forward tales to tide The boat turns toward the port With fire and mud stained sky Bright aft time Bright aft time My whole burden is laid down Stay here Stay here Stay

I listened to this song a lot while painting this because I think a lot about how it might have felt for the Eagle Bearer (and the player) to go to Pylos, where you can see the fire from afar. I wanted to capture the beauty of that destruction and the sensations I get when I'm playing. Whether one plays Alexios or Kassandra as romantically involved with Brasidas or as great friends with him, I think there is this sense of dread and fear you feel as you approach. In my case, I imagine Alexios hoping, praying for Brasidas' safety and that he will 'stay here' with him through the battle and stay alive. The game mentions Spartans waiting for reinforcements. Whether this is just another Spartan ship, or if it is the Adrestia, is entirely up to you (I'm not good enough at details to paint specific sail patterns, but originally I wanted the sail to have the Lakonia's design, it's my favorite of the custom sails you can unlock). Acrylic on canvas board.

[ithinkthiswasabadidea]

I can't help but think that the Thaletas romance is as close to what we could've had with Brasidas, though I imagine at least a few things happening differently... still, I love how personal and passionate Spartan romance is ❤️

[alkibiadessuperfan]

ok I will join with alexios opinions because yeah he is a fun character to discuss and everyone experiences the game so differently: in my first playthrough I was pretty set on saving the entire family because I thought I could not handle the „bad ending“

aside from that there were moments where the game quite literally felt like it intended to make scenes are turning point for kassandra‘s convictions. those I can think of are indeed the scene where alexios kills perikles and also the battle of amphipolis.

the first because athens, the city we saw so majestically is being plagued, perikles father of democracy is killed by KASSANDRAS OWN BROTHER, and of course extremely important: phoibe.

the second idk if anyone felt the same but in my play through that was the one point where I really gave into one of the cruel decisions kassandra can make and drowned kleon that puddle because it felt like all the anger all the frustration all the disgust is bottling up in kassandra and about to explode also with alexios killing brasidas.

personally: I think it depends entirely on how you want to play the game of course. Alexios is a brainwashed child basically but now he is a murdering, weapon-turned, cruel adult man with a god complex terrorizing the greek world.

Family means a lot to Kassandra during this time. Wether it‘s her blood related family in a way or Phoibe. Otherwise there wouldn‘t be the entire Odyssey. It shows in her dedication to finding her mother.

I am not entirely sure right now if there is an ending scene where Kassandra kills Alexios and Myrinne is alive. I am not entirely sure which ending is „canon“ though I imagine it is that all of her family is dead or exiled because there is absolutely nothing of them after all.

In the novel which I am currently still reading (I am taking forever) Kassandra very often talks about feelings in her heart being repressed by her spartan upbringing especially whenever there is a scene with Phoibe. She feels responsible for Phoibe, she‘s like a mother figure for Phoibe and in the beginning keeps her distance but when her and Phoibe reunite in Athens there is a scene before Phoibe‘s death where they play hide and seek in Perikles house, eat food and fall asleep in a guest bed Aspasia offered them. Phoibe thanks Kassandra for the day and says how she wants to always be with Kassandra and then says she loves Kassandra. This once again is one of the scenes where Kassandra blocks herself and wishes to say she loves Phoibe too but just can‘t. The next day is the scene where she finds Phoibe dead.

Up to that point whenever danger is near Kassandra‘s first thought is making sure Phoibe is alive and okay. So yeah I think Phoibe and also Barnabas are the only characters that are truly like family for Kassandra.

This adds up to the moment you said that makes the moment even more impactful and even worse when Kassandra sees Alexios killing Perikles. Alexios is on thin ice the entire time but in my opinion a few scenes like these challenge the player to not stay „kind“ but to realise that actually Alexios is more dangerous and threatening than him theoretically being your brother „makes up for“. Challenging Kassandra‘s views on family, her own/her mothers wishes and what might be best regarding the entire corruption and war. Her family finds themselves in the eye of the storm. Most of them somewhat prepared or involved but Kassandra is pushed into it after a life entirely in exile.

ok this is a random thought about AC Odyssey but a while back I said on stream that I intend on killing Alexios bc of his 👹major crimes against humanity👹

and apparently that's quite an unpopular opinion??? but hear me out. just bc he's blood related to Kassandra doesn't actually mean shit. I have cut off so many family members irl for being horrible people and so I don't think Kassandra would want Alexios to run around murdering people left right and center *just because* they share some dna. and I also don't think that fact is enough for her to believe that he can magically turn good either.

in my brain it's the moment she sees Alexios kill Perikles that it clicks for her that he's so much worse and evil than she realised, so to me it makes sense for her to kill him lol

[b-plot-butch]

LUCIENNE obviously:) also Brasidas to mix it up

HI MI FRIEEEEND

Oh my god Lucienne. Okay so my first thought is Ribs by The Crane Wives!!!! Especially the chorus The dark doesn't frighten me / I chose to close my eyes / It is mine, it is mine / The night doesn't frighten me / I chose to let it thrive / It is mine, it is mine. The THING about Lucienne is her choices. She chose to become Dream’s raven, she chose to become the librarian of the collective unconscious, she chose to stay in the Dreaming when everything was collapsing and almost all her community had fled. None of these things have been smooth sailing. But she kept making them; she’s made these decisions every day of her existence. No one forced her to do any of it. She could have quit, say I’m out, I’ve done enough, I’ve given enough, at any moment! And yet she hasn’t!! And that’s. A lot.

Also? This first part of Sampa the Great’s cover of DNA by Kendrick Lamar.

I’ve spent the last 10 minutes scrolling through my playlists for a song for Brasidas but you know, I don’t think I have one!! :( The closest I could think of is a song I could imagine Brasidas singing to Kassandra, which is Bentivi by ÀVUÀ. And now that I’ve started thinking of Bentivi as a Kassidas song I don’t think I’ll be able to stop…oh no…

[the-good-spartan]

The background here is one of the rare times I’ve had a particularly vivid scene of Sparta in my head and succeeded to some degree to sketch it out.

In the Good Spartan, where Brasidas talks with Epitidas about Karpos, son of Isadas, they walk out of the gymnasium to stand underneath an olive tree beside the Hyakinthian Way. For some reason, I can see that scene very clearly in my mind.

The thing is, I usually think/imagine in words rather than images. In order to describe a scene, I have to consciously make myself enter it; so when I get an image in my head just of its own accord, it’s a kinda special moment.

Anyway… here’s the image without Bardas.

Though the Hyakinthian Way was no doubt paved. Maybe when/if I refine this sketch, I’ll try to capture that.

Bardas (an OC) in Sparta.

Just tinkering around with backgrounds and things.

[cogitoire]

Midnight in Sparta