#apollo x evadne

[gingermintpepper]

❄️

For you!!

❄️Share a snippet from a WIP of your choosing. 

Oough, thank you very much for participating!! I thought a lot about what I should offer and eventually settled on this snippet from my very self indulgent Apollo/Evadne work teehee: 

“So you returned.” 

The stranger laughs, “As have you.”

Lo, he sits on the edge of the riverbank, his smooth, even-coloured ankles submerged in the cool water, the fabric of his skirt folded up above his knees. Somehow, the stranger’s gotten even more beautiful since she last saw him; gone are his loose, lovely curls which lay amaranth kisses onto his shoulders and neck, now they are bound atop his head and adorned with many petalled flowers. Likewise, his already flawless face now shines with the faint gloss of cosmetics. A deep blue colour stains his lips and the corners of his eyes. It matches the splendour of his blue skirt, makes her triply assured that this stranger is no mere man, but some visiting prince or king passing through. It is the only reason one such as him would ever willingly spend time with a creature like her. 

Evadne clutches her veil tight as she stands beside him, makes certain that there is no way for a sudden wind to worry her cloth and reveal her shame. The stranger’s skin is so gorgeous, rich like a polished gem and just as smooth as its surface. Evadne’s never known a man so hairless! But then, the stranger has surely never known a woman like her either. 

“Are you just going to laze about the edge today?” she says. They’re idle words, spoken just so she stops moping about when she’s got perfectly good company at hand. Gods alone know when she’ll ever have such a thing again. “It’s sweltering today, you’ll feel greater relief if you stick more than your toes into the water, sir.” 

He laughs again, soft and calm. A quiet wind bustles over the water’s surface, he raises a fine-fingered hand to brace against the breeze. The silver bangles looped about his wrist make a melodious clatter as they settle one atop the other around the broad flesh of his arm. “I’ve no intention of disturbing you again. Just as I promised, your river is yours once more.” 

His voice is just so… magical. Like music, or birdsong. Like some pleasant thing Evadne wishes she could hear forever. “I already told you, I am no nymph, good sir.” The very idea is just as ridiculous as the first time he said such a thing. As if a nymph’s spring would ever be so pitiful. As if Evadne would ever be allowed in the same waters as a lovely nymph! “I’m merely a maiden who wishes to bathe in peace. That is all I ever was.” 

“Is that so?” Those calm eyes appraise her then, dark gaze roaming over each part of her fabric covered body ‘til Evadne is warm in the cheeks and hot all over. “When we were together last, you surely were— “

“W-What about you?” Evadne can hardly think past the heat in her face, the pounding of her stupid heart in her chest. 

Miraculously, the stranger stops. “What about me?” 

She squeezes her eyes shut, too shamed to even look at him when she speaks, “You praise my beauty when you have never even seen my face, but certainly with a face like yours, you must be a son of Desire or Beauty?”

The sweet wind blows. The river softly babbles on. Evadne slowly pries her eyes open and meets the grinning face of the stranger, beryl-bright eyes positively aglow with humour.

“You find me that good-looking, hm?” 

She takes a step back, hands covering her eyes over her veil so she doesn’t have to look at the mess she created, “Maybe not quite that handsome— “

“‘A son of the Beauty’, was it? Such high praise. I’ll treasure it always.” 

“Please forget such foolish words at once, sir!"

[gingermintpepper]

Meet-Cute

Days that pass like sand,  blowing idly by  in the summer wind

he dreams of snakes,  long-fanged, like vexed bees, stinging at his scalp “Purify yourself,”  but he has not sinned

…he does not protest

The river is green-blue. Alive. He feels its heart beating beneath the slick rock of its banks.  Old river. Gorgeous thing. Bent into the shape of a shepherd’s crook, flowing but tame A nursery for fresh-born nymphs too young to stand the ocean’s tide-pulls  or maybe a reprieve from rough Summer’s overbearing heat 

He slips his robe from his shoulders. Unbinds the curls of his hair.  There is almost regret in his heart. Almost tragedy. Almost pain.  Each ritual bath is a spectre of the first, blood sinking deep into his flesh,  poison that will never stop burning. He empties his lungs of air and steps

Light-footed, like air down the forest path she goes a-walking

she’s dreamt of violets since summer’s first dawn a maiden possess’d

“Purify yourself,” that’s what father said

...This is how they meet

(Gold  like sun slicing through the clouds  like full-grown barley begging to be picked  She’s gold and slim and gorgeous  bathing in the river

The nymph is new  like speckled flowers blooming on a rose bush  she calls to be admired  and Evadne cannot resist her allure)

-Extracts from 'The Greenhouse Floor'.

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

RAWRRRRR

Evadne is one of those myths that I get warm and fuzzy about <3333

Obsessed with the way Evadne's relationship with Apollo is described. Obsessed with the way Apollo was especially gentle with her because she was sheltered, hidden away and hadn't had any sort of experience with love prior to Apollo (and due to it being described as her 'first learning Aphrodite's joy' through Apollo', it was probably her first time even being attracted to someone). Obsessed with the way when she runs away, she stops in a violet patch to give birth. Y'know, violets, very famously the flower so strongly associated with Aphrodite that they were used in love potions? Those violets. Obsessed with the way that when Apollo realised his lover was going to have to deliver their child alone, he sent BOTH the goddess of childbirth and ALL THREE OF THE FATES to help and support her. Obsessed with the way that Apollo sends snakes to feed his baby honey straight from their fangs because Evadne abandons their son out of straight primal fear when her stepfather finds her and how the description of that honey is 'sweet venom' [ἰός] of the bees and is DEFINITELY a poetic pair/pun with [ἴον] aka violets and that every single thing about this relationship, conception and birth is a complete and utter fairytale down to Evadne's insanely overprotective stepfather having an immediate change of heart when he learned Evadne's child was an actual, legitimate Son of Apollo and the babe, after being cared for by his dad's honey-fanged snake buddies, was found perfectly healthy five days later swaddled in a blanket of violets (y'know the flowers so strongly associated with Aphrodite that they were used for lo-) and they called him Iamus aka Boy of the Violets which is AAAAAARRRR I AM GNAWING AT MY ENCLOSURE

Iamus was made of love. Everything about him was surrounded by deep and profound love and like, let's not even talk about his whole Thing of when he came of age and was like "I need to find out what my purpose is" and he literally had a Disney Protagonist moment where he ran out into the wilds and was like "Father!! Grandfather!! Tell me what I'm supposed to doooo!!" and then APOLLO FUCKING ANSWERED AND LED HIM TO ONE HIS TEMPLES ENTIRELY BY TALKING WITH IAMUS AND LETTING HIM FOLLOW HIS VOICE FOR THE WHOLE JOURNEY LIKE -

What do y'all know about the kind of SSS tier romantic escapades Apollo had fr?