#also i fucking hate aeneas so

[persephoneist]

also as a followup to my last post you should always read the odyssey first bc 1. bitch was written first and 2. then you can see how hard the aeneid is ripping it off

[sora-of-uranus]

Can’t lie Dido’s suicide is the best thing to happen to both Dido and (kinda) Aeneas. Cuss like listen okay Dido lusting over Aeneas is not his fault! It was the Gods work and then Dido’s sister that convinced her to act on her divine feelings.

Is Aeneas still kind of an ass? Yes. He still took her univera status from her, allowed her kingdom to collapse since she was following him like a duck, and then go on to denounce their (tbf unofficial) marriage . These aren’t great things but they also wouldn’t have happened without Juno, Venus and Cupid.

Anyway the reason why it’s good is cuss Dido gets to be with her husband- her one *true* love. The person she swore off men for. The person who even in death she craves to be in his arms! Like sorry but her suicide is what allowed her to return to him. Not to mention it’s what broke cupids spell AND brought her so much sympathy from Juno (who yes… is to blame) that she sent Iris to cut her life thread short. Ya know. BREAKING FATE! Her death is horrible but it’s also the kindest fate she could ever have once the Gods caught sight of her.

For Aeneas it’s not so much her suicide but the leaving, he does it for his son! It’s not even for himself he doesn’t care, mercury ‘manipulates’ Aeneas using his fatherhood and leader role against him to not only force him out of Carthage but to leave THEN and there. I mean come on, Aeneas isn’t pleased with Didos death, in book 6 he uselessly reached out to talk to her and in book 11 he buries his surrogate son, Pallas, in robes SHE gifted. He doesn’t forget her. Her last mention is with the son that he could never truly have. The family he could never have *because* of Rome. It’s depressing.

But it’s better than loving a man because the Gods forced you. It’s better than watching your kingdom slowly crumble around you and you not having the ability to care. It’s better than failing as a father and the carrier of your cultures future. It’s better than ignoring the call of the Gods.

[muppetebbtide]

trojan war tumblr simulator

🌊 is-the-sea-wine-dark-today

YOU BET IT IS

#the wine dark sea!!!!!!!!!!!! #wine dark sea #wine dark sea posting

108 notes

✌🏻 ajax2electricboogaloo follow

why is achilles the only demigod who's Like That? like he's my boy but u don't see memnon or aeneas or sarpedon acting like him on the reg. why is he so maladjusted? like specifically? I saw his mother once and was so terrified by the sight of a goddess I flung myself to the ground and hid my face in the dirt til she left but I still don't think that accounts for it idk

🏘️ nobody1020

it's blonde man syndrome hope this helps

340 notes

⚔️ sonoftydeus

opening my askbox so that we can discuss strategies on taking troy!

3 notes

anonymous asked: we should all go home :)

⚔️ sonoftydeus answered:

FUCK OFF AGAMEMNON I WANT REAL SUGGESTIONS

50 notes

nobody1020 asked: do u like..... horses

⚔️ sonoftydeus answered:

odysseus do I even wanna know where this is going

45 notes

⌛ isthetrojanwaroveryet?

year 9, day 234: still no....

#all our admins keep DYING

500 notes

‼️ trojan-confessions follow

I think my wife might be sending me anon hate :/ keep getting asks like 'hope u die on the battlefield tomorrow silly slag' and 'menelaus should have curbstomped you' and in her big tapestry of warriors she made me look stupid

🐴 horsetaminghector follow

lmaooo is this paris??

🔮 cryinglikecassandra follow

kinda think helen should send MORE anon hate idk

600 notes

❓ myrmidons-confessions

I was the one who wrote the achilles/agamemnon 100k slowburn enemies to lovers rpf and put it on the group chat but now patroclus is calling me 'agachilles boy' and laughing about it and asking if I can proofread his mock bardic epic where all his dogs are heroes and killing people, so I fear I've made a mistake. I also can't look achilles in the eye anymore... but honestly I've never seen proof he can read so I might be safe

❓ myrmidons-confessions

5000 notes

👑 kingofmycenae

👍🏻 ajaxthegreat

achilles is DEAD and ur posting CRAB RAVE?????

🏘️ nobody1020

I think that's why he's posting it ngl

300 notes

😹 deiphobus42069

imagine being the achaeans and your best warrior gets killed by PARIS, after everyone else had awesome deaths at the hands of sarpedon or hector or memnon... like that's literally so embarassing I just know achilles is fucking fuming down in hades rn. I bet the achaeans are gonna put around that paris was guided by apollo, or that paris happened to hit his only weak spot..... anything 2 try and make it less cringe.... lol lol we're popping the biggest bottles tonight. hope helen's there

🐆 leopardskiniscool

???????????????

#I mean. yeah. but also. #deiphobus wtf I thought we were chill

240 notes

#hope everyone can be normal about the outcome!!! :)

340 notes

🧑🏻 randotrojansoldier-deactivated-8578543

so excited to go back onto the field of battle tomorrow! sure hope I don't encounter any of the big-name heroes

🗣️ homer follow

I hope you don't too! I'm sure you'll do great!

🐎 antilochussss

not the direct address????

✌🏻 ajax2electricboogaloo

direct address got him :(

3000 notes

💂🏻 trojanguardtales follow

fuck my job so much I hope that this wooden horse tribute to the gods turns out to have some guys inside or something just so I can DO something rather than standing here like a twat with my spear

💂🏻 trojanguardtales follow

by ares this can't be happening

345 notes

⚔️ sonoftydeus reblogged menelauskingofsparta

do NOT order achilles from shein!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#oh yeah #I was stuck with temu achilles in the trojan horse for six hours #and by hour two agamemnon had suggested killing and eating him #and odysseus was threatening to 'send him to meet his father' #and it's not even like there's any kleos in killing priam!!! #anti neoptolemus #neoptolemus defenders dni #vent tags

100 notes

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

alrighty second half let’s go!

-oh snap so cressida is a trojan but her dad is working with the greeks and wants to take her away from troy

-oh yeah i forgot that single combat thing still hasn’t happened yet

-“i don’t WANNA fight i wanna be GAY”

-“nobody likes me everybody hates me GUESS I’LL GO EAT WORMS”

-every time i hear the word remuneration i think of that one scene from love’s labour’s lost

-wait THIS is where the “one touch of nature makes the whole world kin” line comes from???

-yeah ulysses i’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that the rumor you heard about achilles and polyxena is probably not true

-OMG THEY KISSED

-well that was gay

-also i would like to point out that patroclus here is a short king

-i continue to love thersites

-this show within a show is just TOO much

-“let me bear another to his horse, for that’s the more capable creature” OOOOOOOF

-aeneas: I’M GONNA SWEAR BY MY MOM

-oh aeneas is low key pissed

-oh this is just that one scene from romeo and juliet

-PANDARUS WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS

-“hi sorry to be like this but we’re kidnapping your girlfriend” (okay maybe it’s not like that but no one asked cressida)

-see? SHE DOESN’T FUCKING WANT THIS

-go off cressida

-oh you’re making TROILUS deliver her?????? are you kidding me

-paris: bro. BROOOOOOOOOOO.

-PANDARUS STOP INSERTING YOURSELF INTO EVERYTHING

-somebody’s insecuuuuuuure

-oh this guy IMMEDIATELY started flirting with her

-ooh it’s almost time for single combat!

-“LET’S ALL KISS THE GIRL” …how about not

-look she VERY obviously does not want this CUT IT OUT

-okay i am officially no longer rooting for achilles and patroclus

-especially patroclus because that bastard kissed her TWICE

-“it were no match, your nail against his horn” DUDE WHAT

-also apparently calchas is a woman in this production and she’s just watching which made this entire scene more painful

-FINALLY WE GET THE FIGHT EVERYONE’S BEEN TALKING ABOUT FOR THE LAST THREE ACTS

-some excellent fight choreo!

-no clear winner, so…bro moments and dinner party instead???

-uhhhhhhh i have a really bad feeling about this

-okay thersites i may not like them anymore but that is not the reason you should be mad at them

-thersites dissing menelaus is funny though

-oh this is just like that one scene from much ado but somehow worse ewwwwwww

-cressida is TRYING

-someone please give her a hug

-at least troilus is trying to find a reason for this

-welp glad to see you’re taking this well, troilus *sarcasm*

-“lechery, lechery, still war and lechery! nothing else holds fashion.” …yup

-CASSANDRA IS BACK

-once again: i love when shakespeare writes about the human cost of war

-aww hector trying to protect his baby brother

-troilus screaming at cassandra in the middle of her prophecy and cassandra wrapping her arms around hector and crying…STOOOOOOOP

-the interpreter was too shocked to translate

-fuckin pandarus

-thank you for the exposition thersites

-SOUPED UP MOTORCYCLES

-“yeah you’re pathetic enough to live”

-WELP (patroclus died)

-tfw you only join the battle bc your boyfriend died

-WELL THAT WAS AN EPIC ENTRANCE

-bury your gays strikes again

-“I’M FINE WITH A 2V1”

-that is an impressive suit of armor

-“enter bastard” nice :)

-WAIT DID CASSANDRA DISGUISE HERSELF AS A DUDE TO GO AFTER HER BROTHERS BC IF SO THAT MAKES HER EVEN MORE BADASS

-might just be a production decision BUT.

-anyway i think thersites and parolles from all’s well would be very good friends

-first off: you can’t kill an unarmed guy achilles that’s bad

-second off: INSANE LIGHTING CHOICE

-and there’s the beginning of the hector-dragging

-yeah troilus is not okay

-thank you for telling pandarus to fuck off

-pandarus: *does not fuck off*

-wait that’s it???

-that was the most unsatisfying ending i have ever???

okay so i got a request from the lovely @enbymoomin to watch troilus and cressida, so…here we go!!!

more to come later

[leo-frognag]

blorbo ask thing for figures from classical mythology/the high school latin curriculum

blorbo: tiresias. this mf. transed his gender both ways and basically said fuck you to juno (deserved) and still ended up getting prophetic powers out of it. an absolute king. i love telling people his story b/c they don't fuckign believe any of it.

skrunkly: i mean if we're going Classical mythology and throwing greek stuff in there too i'm gonna say the minotaur <3 he didnt ask to be born and idk i think i'd bust him out of the labyrinth to let him run free and eat grass n shit

scrimblo bimblo: galatea is the og girlboss she recognized her man was an incel and said u know what? no <3 and left him. self-care. nobody talks about her tho (prob b/c the story has become somewhat ubiquitous), but they should. everyone needs to know that pygmalion viscerally hated women but still spent almost 100 lines of his Metamorphoses story DESPERATELY trying not to fuck a statue. and still failed. smh

glup shitto: bro back in middle school we used the "Ecce Romani" textbooks and there was this guy named Titus who was the uncle of the main character kids (marcus and cornelia). and he fucking DIED?? i always liked him tho b/c he seemed like a cool uncle

poor little meow meow: polyphemus was literally just vibing?? just sitting there?? yeah he killed people but the only reason they were even in that situation in the first place was b/c of fucking odysseus (beloathed). then the aeneid goes and says that he's still living on his little island, blind, just chillin?? and people are STILL terrified of him. smh

horse plinko: aeneas didnt suffer enough <3 like im sorry but sir you NEEDED to communicate with dido?? you fucked up a perfectly good carthage is what you did. look at it. it has suicidal tendencies. and u STILL got redemption? catharsis? you got to go to the underworld and absolve your sins?? and then proceeded to kill and maim more?? bro.

eeby deeby: gaius julius caesar <3 fuck you i never want to read another relative clause again. fuck you. hope u get stabbed. also u ruined the calender so now october isn't even the 8th month just b/c u wanted to put ur own fucking name in it. god.

[hecohansen31]

I Know The Signs Of The Ancient Flame

College Student! Michael Langdon+Classical Student! Reader.

(A/N): Hello there, lovelies!

How are you? I haven’t published the fic for a while, and I am still scared shitless about publishing this kind of things, because it doesn’t have smut and it is.. more about a ‘guilty pleasure’, than anything!

But I still hope you’ll like the idea behind it! (Also if this interests you I have done a similar piece about classical culture with Xavier, which you can find HERE).

As always: any feedback is welcomed, let me know what you think about it, whether it’s positive/negative (just remember to be kind): hearts, reblogs and comments all go straight up to my heart!

Have a nice day!

PLOT: Stuck in a tiny elevator with your ex-boyfriend, you suddenly discover that your story might be more classical than you thought.

WORDS:3,4 K

WARNINGS: Angst, Past Trauma, Break-Up, Classical Annoying Things, Claustrophobia, Claustrophobic Spaces.

You seriously should have known better than to simply hook-up with some of your fellow schoolmates, mostly when group projects were around, and you had been paired with the boy who had broken your heart: Michael Langdon.

You had started a relationship with him with no interest other than for the sex, which was amazing from the rumors you had heard, and which you could confirm with some of your own.

But then for you it had become more.

Michael had heightened your perception with a softness he had shown only to you, making you think you were special, different from a simple hook-up.

But then things had stared becoming more difficult than you had originally believed they truly were.

Michael ignited stupid fights and he would get on your nerves, making you feel like who was truly doing the most in your relationship was you.

In the end, he had just given up: one night you had fallen asleep with him and the day after that… he was gone and when you had tried to confront him, he had shooed you away.

This was enough to leave you heartbroken, even more since you shared a few courses, so you had to actually face him constantly, although you had become especially talented at being as cold as him.

That was till the day your teachers had thought it would be a good idea to set you up on a joined project for your final paper, since you had both expressed your interest in the same theme: the fourth book of “Aeneid”.

What your Latin Literature teacher hadn’t understood, other than your barely contained hatred for each other, was the different point of views you beheld on the subject.

Whereas you had a more lenient thought towards Dido, knowing all too well what it felt like to be seduced and abandoned, Michael didn’t understand her cry and need for Aeneas, decidedly classifying her as a rather maniac desperate woman.

Whereas you thought that Dido’s suicide was caused by Aeneas and the most tragic of tragedy in the entire epic poem, to Michael it was nothing more than a last gesture of revenge, a useless reply to a man who had told her ‘no’.

You weren’t in the slightest in the mood to talk with your ex about this, mostly when all he kept on doing was blabbering his own opinion as if it was the best.

After the teacher had assigned your homework, you had both insisted on the possibility of a change of partner, which wasn’t possible, since he thought that your diverging opinions would work well in a debate.

Which was stupid, according to you both, to say the least.

After you had exited the classroom, definitely scorned, Michael had followed you, even after you had suggested you two just worked on your own things and then put them together, once you were finished with your researched.

‘It doesn’t work like that!’ he had mumbled, annoyed ‘I don’t know about you, but I am honestly trying my best to get a decent grade in this class…’.

‘This is why I am telling you to leave the entire thing at me’ you had shot back, meanwhile you went through the lawn of the college park, trying to quickly get away from him.

‘I…don’t think that you should do everything alone…” something in his tone seemed rather embarrassed, but you didn’t dare to turn around to check on him: you knew all too well what his blue eyes could do to you “… the teacher actually paired us together because of our contrasting ideas…”.

‘Which means that if we work together all you’ll do is try to convince me that your stupid opinion is the best one’ you replied, moving onto the first library you could find, almost having the satisfaction of closing the door in his face.

‘… well if you start up with that attitude we certainly won’t have a nice experience’ he commented, stopping the door from closing just a few minutes before it might have slapped on his face ‘… I am no asking for you to stop this hostility, but maybe… just to soften it’.

Yeah, of course, he could come back whenever it was useful for him…

What a dick.

‘… go to hell, honestly’ you simply mumbled back at his proposal, sneaking in the elevator and again Michael managed to catch the ride with you, which would make the entire thing quite more awkward.

‘Very mature, (Y/N)’ he mumbled, meanwhile he set himself on your side, as you huffed “,,, that is why we broke up, honestly… you always see your single point of view and nothing else”.

You were ready to properly reply to him, but suddenly the elevator went black and a strange noise was heard before the elevator shook lightly, under your feet, sending you against Michael and making you both fall on the ground, you on top of Michael, before the light reappeared but not the movement of the elevator.

“What the fuck?!” mumbled Michael, meanwhile you felt him shifting nervously under you as you tried to get away from him, to reach for your backpack which you had lost due to the sudden shake “What the hell is going on?”.

“I think that it is probably an alien invasion” you joked, immediately pushing yourself up to use the emergency button, knowing all too well that in some pretty shitty situations the elevator of the college library would stop working.

All you could do was just wait.

With your ex, in the same small place.

“… did this thing just broke?” Michael looked seriously panicked at the sole thought of it being, indeed, broken and you couldn’t help but smirk just to spite him, nodding lightly.

“This shit hasn’t been working properly since I first came here, we’ll have just to sit here and wait for the technician” for which you weren’t ecstatic, since you were stuck there with your idiotic ex, but there was no other way.

You would just put your headphones on and ignore all the incoherent mumbling that Michael had to say to you.

… and then you saw him crunching on the ground, his face definitely paler than it was healthy and in an attempt at human decency you reached out, immediately startling him, with his eyes going to the closed door, blocked due to the elevator having been stuck between floors.

Nothing too bad, the electricity had probably run out and the technician would have to just push and pull on a few things to get it work again.

“… Michael… is everything ok?” his breathing was shallow and sweat was drenching his perfect curls (you had once noticed a hair curler in his bathroom but hadn’t made any questions).

“No…” he swallowed a deep intake of saliva, before his breath went back to being even shallower “… I hate… fucking… closed spaces… I am scared… shit… fuck… by them”.

The revelation honestly surprised you: he had never talked much about himself when you were together, or better… he had talked about himself a lot…

All his best points, the perfectness of his features and the elegance of his steps, the way he was so smart that every teacher loved him, whether or not they approved of his methods or not…

… but he had never spoken or confessed to you why some nights he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep till you joined him in bed, or when he would wake up from nightmare and hold you just a bit tighter…

… he had never explained to you what had troubled him and in the end it had become heavy in your relationship, one of the many reasons why you had broken up eventually, feeling like he was just withholding important information from you, and it hurt… to know he didn’t think you were worthy of that intimacy.

You didn’t have many experiences with claustrophobic people, you, yourself weren’t a big fan of small spaces, but you had learnt to live with them (mostly since your apartment was the size of a shoe box) but you thought that water and slow breathing might help.

You took out your precious water bottle from your backpack: it had been decorated with a shit ton of stickers you had gotten from Michael, who would bring them over to you at first as a joke and then as a true gift.

You had thought about getting rid of the painful water bottle, but you couldn’t help but think it would be a waste, and in the end kept it, although sometimes you would look at a particular sticker and memory would bring you back to that moment when you had been happy with Michael.

Michael seemed a bit taken aback by what you were offering him, but he took the water bottle in his hands, gulping a few good sips from it, before he splashed some on his face, gaining a bit of color, which made you let out a breath of relief and move closer to Michael.

“Everything is going to be alright” you tried to make him relax, honestly wanting to touch his shoulder, to let him know that you were there with him, but you didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, alongside that you weren’t sure that you would be able to stop yourself from touching him any further “… Michael you just need to take a few deep breaths, understood?”.

“What if the oxygen runs out and we end up dying for asphyxia?” he shot back, but did as you told him, meanwhile you rolled your eyes at him.

“… and then I was the anxious one” you muttered under your breath “… then you should better shut the fuck up”.

Michael couldn’t overlook the sarcastic annoyed tone you took and shot you back a rather pretty smirk, although it wasn’t as energetic as it would have been, hadn’t he been having a slight mental breakdown a few minutes before.

“You know that I can’t shut the fuck up to save my life”.

Oh, you did perfectly.

Michael was always the one who would say the more hurtful during your fights: he knew exactly where to hit and sometimes he just couldn’t hold his tongue to save his life, hence you hadn’t been able to stop yourself from shattering in front of him many times.

He would always come back to you, asking for forgiveness, as a child.

Those were the only times he would allow you to see the trauma he had gone through.

“… well either way, I am going to put on my headphones, so Taylor Swift will cover your voice in 1. 2…”.

“Maybe this is a sign” spoke Michael, catching your attention for the cryptic phrase “…that we are meant to discuss about the entire ‘Dido and Aeneas’ debate”.

“That’s the stupidest thing I have ever heard you say” you replied, shooting him a look that ‘kindly’ invited him not to say anything, anymore “… and I have heard you say a shit ton of stupid things”.

“Oh… I remember that you quite liked when I would whisper at your ear…” he retorted, and this time his smirk was full-blown.

“… I honestly preferred you when you were not breathing” you mumbled, although you didn’t plug your ears yet with your earphones “I don’t see how we can debate on such things: I believe that Dido was a fucking tragic heroine who got more than she bargained for, for daring to love Aeneas, a dick who left her, because Fate had plans for him… I hate that asshole and you won’t convince me in any way to change my opinion”.

For all your life, Dido had been the scream shout by women who loved too much and got, literally, burned by it, and after Michael’s betrayal, you had felt even closer to the epic heroine.

You certainly didn’t glorify her last choice but understood the way she pushed the blame onto Aeneas and did the same as you analyzed the book, from your point of view.

“Aeneas couldn’t just say to the Fate ‘hey, dude, I just have fallen in love with a girl, so maybe… I might have to stick to Carthago, for longer and never found Rome’. It was simply impossible for him… he couldn’t have done that”.

“He loved her, and he might have stuck and fought more for that feeling” you mumbled, almost burned by Michael’s affirmation.

“You are truly naïve, (Y/N)” mumbled Michael, shaking his head slowly “… you always think that a thing as small as love can fix anything: he fucking couldn’t let love blind him, he had Lavinia waiting for him on the Roman shores!”.

“But he loved Dido, he said so, the cave… the…” you were just rambling right now, the way he spoke Michael didn’t accept any objection.

“… he didn’t love her, he just found her suitable for his plans, he used her” Michael’s tone was final.

“… so, you won’t deny me, at least, that Aeneas was an asshole?” you replied definitely all angered.

“He did what he had to do” he mumbled, as if he wasn’t proud of Aeneas’ behavior, as if it had been his, some kind of sadness shining in his eyes as he sent her a little look as if he wanted to see her reaction to the entire thing “… there are some things that are waaay out of our control”.

“I think that is what weak men say when they can’t do something, because they don’t want to” you whispered, and this got definitely to Michael, who turned to you, his eyes extremely icy.

“Why can’t you just convince yourself that sometimes some things are better on than off?”.

And that, this time, got to you.

You got to your feet, immediately coming closer to him.

“… are you talking about our relationship or ‘Dido and Aeneas’?” you shout “… because I was not the one who took off in the dark of the night! I would have fought, but maybe it is, indeed, better off than on! It makes things easier, definitely”.

You then moved to turn around and seriously sat onto your place again, with headphones on, but this time Michael’s hand shot out to get to you, making you turn around, and although you were expecting him to be angry at you, he looked devastated.

“I fucking saw you being miserable with me” he commented “… yeah we had the best highs I have ever had in a relationship, you made me feel so good, but then… the lows were so ugly and too many and…”.

“You were fucking the one who didn’t want to work in that relationship!” you retorted, pointing your finger at his chest “… I was so so fucking in love with you, butterfly in the stomach and all that shit… but you were always closed off, you didn’t let me in��”.

“Because I am fucking rotten, (Y/N)!” he screamed in your face and before you knew it he was up in front of you, his face all red due not to anger towards you, but to anger towards himself, something that broke your heart.

Truly.

“… all I do is take and destroy and that was what I was doing to you, the only good thing in my life”.

Silence broke down between the two of them.

Michael also shifted his sight onto the door, pushing it so he wouldn’t be facing you.

You still were able to stare at his distorted reflection in the side of the elevator: he was a few minutes from crying and again… you searched out in your backpack to find a box of tissues.

You moved closer as if you were cornering a scared animal, holding the box between you two in order for Michael to grab it at its own pace, which he did, almost stealing it from your hand, and scrunching it closer to himself, almost pushing it onto his chest.

“… thank you” he mumbled, softly “… I am sorry for this entire thi…”.

“You thought that you were protecting me…” you mumbled, catching immediately his attention, although your words were resentful, your tone wasn’t, blocked onto a calm uniformity “... but what you didn’t understand was that I felt shitty in these months… even more than when I was with you, which might be crazy…”.

“I felt also shittier, if it might help” mumbled Michael, a weak smile onto his face and you moved down to sit next to him, your shoulder budging against his.

“It does, you should feel shitty for letting me cry over you, asshole” your tone was in no way mean, neither it held that bitter sarcastic bit it had at first, a lighter teasing one that brought some kind of beauty onto your face, making Michael beam at you.

“Oh c’mon, you might say that, but deep down you obviously still love me” he retorted, shifting his face to your side, making you smirk lightly “… you have to admit it”.

“And you have to admit that you are an asshole” you answered back, this time definitely more aggressively “…Michael, all you needed to do was talk to me, I can handle things I am a big girl”.

“It isn’t that easy” Michael’s face was again hiding from your glare “… people like me can never ‘just talk their problems out’, you don’t know how people look at me, whenever I tell them… they look at me like the monster I fucking am…”.

He got up, swiftly, and then moved to the opposite side of the small elevator.

“… maybe Aeneas just wanted to stop Dido from being hurt, that is why he ran away, he had a fucking pissed goddess on his shoulders, why would he want to involve others in his shitty mess”.

“Because she fucking didn’t care of that pissed off goddess!” you shouted back, gaining his interest and when you turned around his eyes were teary and her gaze softened “… I wouldn’t have cared and I wouldn’t have run away from you, Michael”.

“You don’t know… what I…” he tried to push you away, but you raised onto your feet.

“… I don’t care, because you took care of me when I had a fever, you made me tea whenever I was panicking and you brought me stickers because they reminded you of me” your smile was sad “I loved you, truly”.

“I still love you, truly” Michael’s word were extremely honest and you just were left with your mouth open, surprised by the thought that Michael ever loved you, and blushed, lowering your eyes, but just when you were…

… the elevator shook again, signaling that it had started working again.

You were again pushed against Michael’s chest who protectively draped a shoulder over your shoulder, before the elevator regained its power and started again his movements quickly reached the chosen floor, the door opening to reveal two annoyed technicians.

You couldn’t help but blush thinking that maybe the two must think that you might be the one who actually stopped the elevator to spend a ‘romantic moment’ there.

Michael thanked them for their work, before he pushed you away from the elevator, after he had dragged your backpack out of it with his foot and you pushed it over the shoulder, smiling politely before you sprinted away from ‘the crime scene’, Michael behind you.

You both reached a more secluded area, Michael smirking lightly over to you, although his expression had some nostalgy to it.

“Well that was a fun experience” he mumbled, his hand onto your waist, more out of habit than anything.

“You shitted bricks for half of the experience” you replied, smirking at him, before you brushed a few of his curls away from his face “…you are an idiot”.

“You liked this idiot” he retorted, and you weren’t able to deny the truth anymore.

The knowledge of his insecurities might have definitely gotten into you.

“I did”.

“We could give a happy ending to Dido and Aeneas… we could be the one who stayed together” he proposed.

You were a bit uneasy trying things again, mostly because if Michael left you again, you weren’t sure you would have survived again, because of the pain, but the smile on Michael’s face as he gripped onto your hand as you nodded, was the best thing ever.

But you stopped him from actually kissing you, as he leaned in.

“We have homework to make”.

And then you sprinted off, Michael on your tail.

You would be fine, Michael would be fine.

And it was all because “non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco” (“not unknown to being unwell, I am learning how to help those in need”).

---

So as always: feedback is precious, even more lately, when during the holidays us writers get no notes, so don’t be a bad people and share the fic if you liked it, saying something, it literally takes you a few seconds, and it makes us writers happy!

With this being said, here are the people of my stable tag-list (if you want to be added/removed, just shoot me an ask!).

@emmyrosee​ @blakewaterxx​ @lovelylangdonx​ @so-langdon​ @1-800-bitchcraft​ @rosegoldrichie​ @lathraios​ @rocketgirl2410​ @kaetastic​ @frenchbread4ever​​ @melodylangdon​

[itonje]

i cant believe i wasted an entire day of my life reading the firebrand by marion zimmer bradley

full review under the cut bbies 😘

like it had a really strong beginning i think but then as soon as the actual trojan war picked up. how it slogged! and i dont mind it when there are darker elements because there already are a lot of dark elements in the source material but. adding in...that scene at the end was completely unnecessary like the og myth is brutal enough WHY would you add on to that. like honestly that alone was the worst flaw of this book like. it made me so mad so like warnings if you ever take a crack at it. imo id rather read a book where the violence is toned down even if it fucks w the plot than where its turned to fucking 100 for no reason other than. i still have no idea why that was put in there. 

the characterizations were...alright. i thought all the girls had dynamic personalities (esp helen!! who was really well characterized. i have a different interpretation of andromache but w/e lol) which is nice to see. shoddy characterization of agamemnon BUT i will give it an excuse since its told from kassandras pov. akhilles is crazy as shit and i love to see that. wish we got more of sexy sexy #1 woman respecter aeneas. the ending is VERY rushed but im glad because i didnt want to read more of that book than i already did.

(note: the transliteration was welcome because i style it like that too but. wish it had some consistency. strange to have kassandra and akhilles without hekabe or aias.)

 the prose is..passable? sometimes it tries to do a chaotic cluttered thing when kassandra foresees things but. its just messy. i feel like the author was trying to do a thing where you write out really pretty abstract concepts but it failed literally every time she tried to do that. 

also i hate mother goddess shit i am so so tired of mother goddesses and its very obvious that the “greek patriarchal” gods is very much supposed to be christian monotheism even though like. greek religion simply did not function like that?? (not denying they were misogynists though lol) and maybe there would be something to that if it was like, idk drawing pararells to hellenization and the death of indigenous gods esp considering the real trojans probably had way more eastern anatolian influence they did greek but. whatever i suppose. some matriarchal gender essentialism bullshit i guess. 

and to fucking mention the fucking author who. when reading up bg from this book found out she did really bad shit (i will not get into) and if the previous things didnt make me dislike the book literally. this did. what a repulsive fucking person and i wonder how much of the book was clouded by...that. and if i enjoyed it before i literally cant because. god. apparently her daughter is an active anti-lgbt rights activist now.

so yeah. give it like, a -15/10 because like even if the book itself was higher literally all of it was tainted by the author. i pirated a free pdf and if you want to check it out you should do the same (this isnt worth spending money on) but. i dont recommend reading it at all. the original was better

[a-magpie-witchling]

What is a Dæmon?

Disclaimer: As it always is in witchcraft, this depends on the witch you ask. This is my personal interpretation of what a dæmon is and what it means to have one. Also I’m in one fucking big hurry, gotta go meet stranded family. So I’ll probably edit this later but I didn’t want to keep accumulating asks about it!

I tend to go down the Pullman path, and if asked, I would say the dæmon is the soul of the person simply shaped as another creature, all of what someone is plus what they need to be.

Mostly everyone would choose to see their dæmon as an animal, and I think it’s the most direct and honest approach to them.

Simply put, a dæmon is like a combination between what you would normally consider a familiar, a shadow self, an anima/animus, a totem, a patronus, a spirit animal, a fylgja, your soul, and your conscience all together (without the cultural background or connotations). It’s a non-appropriative term that is used to describe your soul in the shape of an animal.

As I’ve said before, I choose to use pop culture references sometimes to avoid cultural appropriation. The concept of the dæmon as I choose to understand is made by Phillip Pullman and then modified to my own needs.

A dæmon is the externalized visualization of your own spirit in the form of an animal. This animal changes as you grow up, and settles permanently the day you mature and become an adult (at around 14 to 20 years old). It can change again, someday, after experiencing extreme trauma or an event that would transform who we are in the deepest part of ourselves altogether.

Personally I have a bear dæmon (Aeneas), a magpie familiar (Semiramis), and a cat fylgja (Samhain). They don’t hold the same importance nor help with the same thing. I don’t really communicate in many ways with my familiar or my fylgja, I just know they exist.

However Aeneas is an integral part of my everyday life. I talk to him constantly, when things get overwhelming he helps me clear my mind.

I visualize Aeneas walking by my side, warding off bad spirits, giving me strength…

In my loneliest times, Aeneas never leaves me alone.

How to reveal your Dæmon?

1.       The Gender

The gender is probably the easiest part of the dæmon’s identity. Usually it’ll be the opposite of the person. I’m female, so Aeneas is male.

Some consider, however, that this rule doesn’t always apply to people. It’s been said that LGBT+ people can have a dæmon that’s their same assigned gender.

This is, I’ve found, especially true for non-cisgender people, not so much for gay, lesbian, bi, etc. people. And sometimes when someone is gender fluid or NB or something along those lines, the dæmon will most likely reflect it. Animals that change their coats across the seasons, animals that change their genders, animals that are more than one gender at once.

One of the most emotive dæmon reveals I’ve been a part of was uncovering a gyandromorphic butterfly for a bigender person. We cried for like half an hour.

2.       The Name

The name is arguably just a tiny bit easier than revealing the animal itself. When I found Aeneas’ name it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was minding my own business when someone said it and I opened my eyes wide and whispered “that’s… that’s it! That’s his name!”

If you don’t know the name, neither does the dæmon. After all, they know just as much as you do, they just tend to interact different with that knowledge.

My best recommendation is: don’t hurry it.

3.       The Animal

This is it. The big question. What’s my animal?

Well, there’s not one way of uncovering a dæmon. The reveal can take years. Aeneas, for example. I’ve known he was a bear since 2012 but I still don’t know what kind of bear. A polar? A grizzly? Shit, maybe I’ll never know!

When I do dæmon reveals we agree from the get go that I can’t point out an exact animal. One of the most recent reveals I did uncovered just that the dæmon was in the mustelidae family!

It can take years, and attempt after attempt.

But I do maintain firmly that discovering your dæmon must be a mind blowing experience.

You can doubt at first, but when you do sense it you’ll go “oh… oh! OOOOH! YES! THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!”.

You’ll feel it. Once you process it there will be no hesitation whatsoever. If a few weeks later you feel like it’s not your animal, then it never was your dæmon.

My method for revealing a dæmon involves a LOT of question and several days of narrowing them down.

You can do it yourself without help, but, again, it can take years.

If you’re reading this, the chances that you’re a bird dæmon is really fucking high. People that care about these things are usually bird people. Someone with an ant or a primate soul you wouldn’t catch dead trying to find out who their dæmon is.

Mostly always you’ll find that there will be three animals you’ll end up saying “yes, that’s EXACTLY my dæmon,” although it won’t be so in two of those cases (and deep down, you’ll know it).

The first one will be the animal you want to be. This first level is encompassed almost solely of beautiful, cute, or badass animals. Yes, we all want to be a stag, an eagle, a raven, a wolf, a lion, or a cat. But… most of the times we aren’t. We just are animals we don’t find ‘cool’, because it’s… it’s us. It’s banal.

Only once I’ve unveiled a tiger, never a lion, never an eagle. I’ve unveiled I think… two or three wolves. Wolves, btw, tend to belong to order enforcers or soldiers.

There are ant dæmon. And frogs, and mosquitoes, and all kinds of ‘ugly’ things. Sometimes people aren’t happy. Once I unveiled a tortoise and the person almost yelled at me. Another time I unveiled a hyena and the person basically told me to go fuck myself and then a few weeks later came and said I was right and that they had to learn to live with it. This animal usually represents who we want to be, instead of who we are.

And of course, there comes the ricochet effect.

The second animal is usually the exact opposite. It’s where the “bad” dæmon start to show up. People focus solely on their defects and the animals that they hate are the ones that they think will define them.

Eventually you reach a balance. And that balance is your dæmon.

A few pointers, though: trauma survivors tend to have dæmons with means to carry them away and escape or with the means to defend themselves. Usually a survivor has wings or claws or venom.

The MBTI personality test is one hell of a useful tool, although it doesn’t have the last word.

If anyone is interested, I do dæmon reveals (for as long as it takes, until we pin it down) for $25 in my shop and I also trade them for goods or services! It tends to take at least two or three days of constant personal questions, but it can extend up to months! So please don’t hire the service if you don’t have the time or the patience!

If you cannot afford to have a reveal, check out the daemon forum! Their method and mine aren’t the same, but they’ll surely be able to help you! There are other daemonists who also perform reveals for free!

Happy unveiling!

[teamlarl]

i feel the same? i'm not a fan of reblogging that meme, so i thought i'd just tell you in ask form that i like following you !! i know i'm elusive and take forever to reply but i love our interactions, i always want more, and i adore how much thought you put into your muses.

me: says i hate reblogging that post because it feels guilt trippy

also me: reblogs it anyway and blatantly says i’m doing it because i need some ego stroking right now, hypocrisy thy name is aeneas

But oh my god, Nine, I love our interactions. It can take a while for replies to get churned out between the two of us, sure, I’m just as guilty of that too, but you’ve been here quietly supporting me in the background for ages, which I appreciate the fuck out of.

[omophagias]

i just finished reading the aeneid.

there is so much in there and i’m really angry that i refused to read it for years. what the fuck past me get it together

i am trying so badly not to be a parody of a dreary marxist and point at everything in there while yelling “IT’S THE DIALECTIC”. however, it is, in fact, the dialectic. the ending is one big “synthesis! …wait oh no. oh no oh dear”

one of the reasons i didn’t read it earlier was because i was like, “i’m not in the mood for roman boosterism” and past me you fucking moron that’s not what this is at all. it is obviously not solely the province of We Moderns to have ambiguous and complicated thoughts about the empires we live in or under. you dumbass. i know you mainly were just cranky that hexameters are hard to read out loud. still.

my opinion is that a demigod is someone who knows they’re stuck inside a narrative and knows what their place in that narrative is.  aeneas knows he’s stuck in the aeneid and he would very much like to not be in it, but he knows he’s there. turnus knows he’s stuck in a story but is very badly confused about which story it is and who he is in it and then he gets iced

i was…underwhelmed by most of book 6, honestly because i think as a vision of the underworld it was too familiar for me—kind of the, hate to bring up tvtropes, but the seinfeld-isn’t-funny thing, where it was new once but it’s been done to death since (mostly by dante, which, no shade meant, but i was like…yeah i’ve seen this.) in terms of “scenes where you ask dead people for advice” i still like book 11 of the odyssey better. HOW-EV-ER. the bit where aeneas sees the field full of people who will be reincarnated as romans, and anchises points to one of them and is like “yeah that’s you” i? is aeneas dead? (IS HE? well…sort of) but also time is just weird in an underworld, everything’s just always-already.

i was EXTREMELY OVERWHELMED by book 2 in a horror and awe sense. the part where venus comes to aeneas and says “look. LOOK. the gods themselves are pulling troy apart” as the massive shadowy-smoky figure of neptune shatters the walls and juno leads the charge and all you can see of athena on the heights is the flash of her gorgon shield. like fucking kaiju. there is a…sense of the extended horrific and of destruction in the aeneid that either is not present in homer or i just missed it. and it’s throughout the book—the underwhelm at parts of book 6 is offset by the fact that the entire poem is extremely, extremely fucking haunted—but especially in 2.

i talked about it to my mom a bit—she taught the aeneid or parts of it in a humanities core program—and she said, it’s a challenge in a visually saturated culture, maybe, to talk about what it’s like when the only light you have to see by is the city you’re in burning down around your head.

CAN YOU HAVE HUMANITY AND ROMANITY IN THE SAME BODY? AENEAS WOULD LIKE TO KNOW (VERY QUICKLY, LIKE IN THE NEXT 5 SECONDS)

18th brumaire voice men make their own history but they do not make it as they please the tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living and yes this includes the dead generations of romans that haven’t been born yet and are all hanging around there in the underworld waiting their turn

[sereneanumati]

Now I just discovered this new BBC/Netflix series called Troy: Fall of a City

Which will be released in 2018, apparently. Just some quick remarks, likes & dislikes about the cast:

- it seems that paris will be the main character, the story begins with his birth

- alfred enoch as aeneas OMG!! He’s dean thomas from HP (if you didn’t know), and he has such a cute and kind face, he will be just P E R F E C T

- zeus is black!!

- achilles and patroclus are also BLACK (yeey), and the show creaters promised lots of intimacy and love, so I fucking hope they will be hella gay - hermes, menelaus and dolon are too hot

- i really like the casting of hector and paris (aside from the beard, paris shouldn’t have a beard), they hAVE to be good - andromache is way more beautiful than helen, but if they doesn’t portray helen as vain and shallow than i don’t really care - iphigenia is in the cast, so there must/should be a scene set in Aulis - just so we can hate Agamemnon with all our hearts

- also, troilus and cassandra, wtf?? and troilus seems to be a main character. if they really bring in this medieval story, i’m ok. but in this case, where is (the obviously third wheel) Diomedes from the cast??

- WHERE IS diomedes from the cast - odysseus seems too old, he should be in his late twenties?? ok, others are too old too, but he is too old even compared to others - hermione is also in the cast, which must mean that helen will be depicted as a mother who abandons her child when she goes to troy with paris (if they stick to the original story)

- “at a reported £6million-an-episode, the BBC is saying the series “will be like nothing broadcast before” - David Farr wrote the Night Manager script too, so now i have high expectations - please don’t fuck this (too) up 

[artemviswrites-blog]

hello! i’m hannah, and i’m back into the rp world after a monster hiatus away. i’ve got a decent amount of free time these days, so i’m hoping to find a couple of people to 1x1 with! under the cut are a bunch of plot ideas, including some fandom related things. if you’re interested in anything you see feel free to send me a message or like this post! and, if you’d like to know more about me, my about me and guidelines pages can definitely help.

i play males and females, and i do m/f and f/f. only rpers over 18, pls find the plots and ideas after the read more!

GENERAL IDEAS

i’m a sucker for anything related to spies and espionage. give me spies working for rival organizations, or agents working for an organization that isn’t what they thought it is (a la alias), or spies that are assigned on missions together but hate each other and have to work together. there is really no way to go wrong with this so long as there is lots of angst and conflict!

one of my all time favorite plots is art thieves. a pair of high profile thieves stealing art and jewelry and other expensive things from all over the world. maybe they’re a team? maybe they’re rivals? or maybe one is retired and the other comes to find them and bring them back into the ring because there’s trouble afoot?

ohhh and royalty, a modern royalty plot would be amazing. it could be any of the classic tropes -- two people betrothed to be married but they hate each other. or maybe one is betrothed to another person? secret romances are my jam.

i’m myth trash which means i’m always down for mythology-based plots that are retelling of stories or personifications of mythic figures in present day. favorites include zeus + hera, odysseus + penelope, orpheus + eurydice, artemis + athena, aeneas + dido, cassandra + helen of troy. but lbr there are so many possibilities and dynamics.

ok but i’m also fairy tale trash so plots involving retellings of fairy tales or personification of fairy tales are right up my alley. they could be the originals or the disney versions, i’m not picky. some of my favorites are peter pan, lady and the tramp, sleeping beauty, snow white and rose red, and the snow queen.

historical plots are great and one of my favorite eras is the roaring 20′s -- so a great gatsby inspired plot would be fun. give me socialites causing trouble, rich millionares throwing extravagant parties, or a journalist trying to dig up all the secrets of the upper class. soooo many options here!

old hollywood plots, tho -- actors and actresses caught up in the glamour of the film world. give me studio drama and set up romances and elaborate films with the cast having affairs. i’m all about anything related to the studio era of hollywood and beyond. think like 1930′s-1960′s.

who remember’s the iconic the wedding planner with jlo? give me something where the wedding planner falls in love with the bride or groom. OR maybe it’s something like this where it’s someone who believes in love and someone else who thinks it’s a farce?

this is always posted about but tbh i want one of my own, so something based around a mystery-solving duo/group a la nancy drew or scooby doo gang plS? two childhood rivals who both liked to solve mysteries and go off to college only to return home after being away for awhile and find themselves sucked back into the mystery business. or maybe it’s two private detectives who get stuck on a case together?

this modern retelling of tangled sounds like fun tbh. 

HP RELATED

founder’s era

rowena/helga  —  two women who are at the heart of creating a school for magic and also having to deal with godric and salazar at odds with each other? two women who end up spending so much time together that they wonder what it’d be like to be together always? i can play rowena or helga, but tbh i just really love the idea of them being in love and telling godric and salazar to fuck off. 

first war

james/lily + sirius/oc   — yeah, yeah, i know. this is a long shot, but it’s been eons since i was able to play my oc against sirius, and i’m dying to try it again. i’d really like to double up and play all four of these guys together -- i will happily play james! i can give you the full rundown of my oc as well...just ask!

frank/alice  — these TWO I SWEAR. they’re so cute i love them and i’m 100% willing to play frank or alice. give me their auror adventures and them having neville and we can au if you’d like where they don’t lose their minds or we can keep their heartbreaking ending it’s all up to you!

au’s + etc’s  — i’m pretty much open to any au’s and ships (no sirius/remus pls ty) and would be interested in playing any of these characters, so if something interests you let me know: marlene mckinnon, dorcas meadows, amelia bones, alastor moody, alecto carrow, and fabian prewett.

trio era

pansy/harry  — this ship gives me life? like they’re so polar opposites in so many ways and pansy flat out was willing to give harry up to the dark lord, but like, pansy was also the victim of jk rowling’s hate so she deserves better than that storyline. i’d love to play these two out after the war when harry and ginny are falling apart and pansy is still trying to figure her life out and feels like the outcast. (i could really only see myself playing pansy here)

viktor/hermione  — i would LOVE to see these two run into each other after the war and hit it off and end up falling for each other again. krum is still a quidditch star and hermione has a badass career and they’re just trying to navigate everything and idk I JUST LOVE THESE TWO.

cho/ginny  — IMAGINE THIS: two gals who go pro after the war and play on rival teams but whoops fall in love and become a power couple in the wizarding world. i can play cho or ginny just pls give me quidditch babes.

crackships + other  — there are so many other ships i love in this gen (alicia/charlie + penelope/oliver are the two biggest tbh yes they’re crack but INDULGE ME OK)  that i’d be willing to play, so just throw them out there. some other characters i’d be interested in playing: alicia spinnet, oliver wood, penelope clearwater, luna lovegood, daphne greengrass, astoria greengrass, blaise zabini, and charlie weasley

miscellaneous

quidditch  — this could be set during any era, any time. give me quidditch players and rivalries and falling in love and friendships. there’s so much potential here!

pureblood society  — this has always been an interest of mine: exploring the pureblood culture pre-first war. give me arranged marriages, feuding families, lavish parties, and soooo much gossip.

cursebreakers  — we don’t know terribly much about cursebreakers, but it’s such a cool job and there’s so much potential so i’d love to have a duo that travels the world tackling magic from centuries past.

original characters  — i mean, there’s so much possibility in this world that we can definitely do anything and everything. just toss out an idea!

OTHER FANDOMS

pokemon  — i have NEVER NOT WANTED a couple pkmn lines. original characters -- trainers, gym leaders, coordinators, etc. give me EVERYTHING we can make just about anything work tbh. we can even come up with a new region (just no new pkmn pls my brain couldn’t take it).

riverdale  — yes this show i loved it i love all the garbage characters and i’d love to rp some of them? we could au it or focus on what happened immediately following the season one finale. i’d love to do archie/betty, jughead/veronica, or cheryl/veronica, and i’d happily play archie, veronica, or cheryl!

gossip girl  — yes ok it’s an old fandom i’m old i get it. but consider this: ignore everything after season two. we could play chuck and blair how they should’ve been done. we could au it and have blair go to yale. my favorite ships are chuck/blair, dan/serena, and nate/blair. i’d prefer to play blair, serena, or nate!

[thefreelanceangel]

☯ Tell us all about your favorite muse you’ve ever written and why they meant so much to you.

I have written a lot of characters in the last seventeen years. Keita, Elena, Aria, Paisley, Slate, Jonas, Nathan, Jack, Thomas, Heathern, Lore, Linden, Bertram, Andrew, Aeneas, Black Robin, Seraphie, Tabitha, Bonnie Blue Eyes, Valentine, Charonte, Dragoste, Luminaria, Fish, Dia, Siba, Ax, Betre, Tamara, Honoria, Michael, Wrinkle, Savannah, Zorayas, Ferazhin…

(I had 40 characters alone for the oWoD HTML chat room.)

And while Capricia is definitely in my top five, I’d have to say my absolute favorite (who shares a lot of traits with her, actually) is Mariel Dunne. 

Back on the old mirror chat that was created after White Wolf closed the official HTML chatrooms, I made a sidhe kinain with an attitude. Originally, she was meant to be a pure self-insert. A couple of the old players and I challenged each other to make “idealized you” characters. I, being in love with Changeling: the Dreaming, went straight for the fae. 

I even gave her one of my middle names (with a little variation) for her given name. And made her pretty, of course. What’s the point of an idealized self-insert without the right appearance?

The only problem was Mariel herself. She didn’t stay me. Not even for a single chat session. Within a couple of hours, I had a snark-filled, hostile gamer girl with a bitter sense of humor and a chip on her shoulder big enough to see a mile off. 

And I started playing her more often, learning more about her as I went. Her history was, of course, melodramatic and overblown; that was one of the things I toned down a bit when I took her out of the mirror chats and put her into my fictional city, Brandenburg. 

She’s a whiz with computers–has a Master’s degree in Computer Science and specializes in B2B programming–and loves competitive gaming. Mariel’s a whiz with FPS games, enjoys the hell out of raiding and would like nothing better than to meet some of those “whiny-ass losers” IRL so she could plant a steel-toed boot in their faces. 

Mariel isn’t nice, but she’s loyal. She’s loyal to the death. As hostile and viciously sarcastic as she is, it’s hard for her to make friends. The ones she’s made are her friends for life. There is literally nothing she won’t do for Briar Dallas, her BFF. And even her ex-boyfriend, Tyler, can count on her to be there, albeit throwing snark left and right. 

I get Mariel, much as I do Capricia. (They’d throw so much sass at each other, my gods…) I get why she’s hostile, why she’s immediately ready to go on the offensive and why she takes out her anger through competitive gaming. I also get her love of music–girl’s one hell of a drummer and pretty good with composing original music–and her fashion sense. (Punk Goth with a bit of “fuck you I do what I want” thrown in.) I understand why she sneers at romance novels, wears every color in existence as long as it’s black or neon, has a few lacy skirts and hates her hips. 

And I never fail to tear up just a little when she’s loving. When she has a chance to do something nice for Briar or takes a minute to volunteer at the Brandenburg animal shelter. When she steps up to defend someone or personally hunts down whatever jackass just spawn-camped Thomas. The wealth of potential kindness in her, lurking just under that porcupine-prickly surface, is such a contrast that it’s a delight to see. 

I like complicated characters that have multiple facets, and out of all the ones I’ve written, I think Mariel’s got to be my favorite.