#athena's own original post!

[roo-was-here-art]

I just think she's neat (Athena Epic the Musical)

Bonus wordmoji

[astraldreams-ids]

id: screenshots of tumblr/twitter posts and messaging apps, overlaid with ace attorney characters. 1) phoenix: I fell off a 50 foot ladder this morning trucy: OMG dad are you ok?! phoenix: Yes. Thankfully I was on the first step 2) ema: Do you think two girls could on purpose kissed? maya: It would be tricky but I it could be tbe done ema: Working tirelessly in the lab to figure it out 3) Apollo: Have you seen the dogs bowl? Phoenix: I didn't know they could Apollo: I am so fucking tired 4) Phoenix: now im no big titty lawyer, Mia: i am excuse me *Pushes boobily into the courtroom knocking over stacks of papers with my huge naturals* 5) Maya: Tried Wendys for the first time today… treated like burger Maya: *tasted Maya: They did NOT put on me the grill 6) gen z prosecutor: in the courted room. straight up "alleging it". and by "it", haha, well. let's just say. Your charges 7) Athena, about Phoenix and Edgeworth: Overheard in the office hallway between two older businessmen: "Don't you dare pull my shirt up, I have a meeting." Athena: You know what happy pride to those two guys Klavier: no they never explored each others bodies. he had a meeting. end id.

even MORE ace attorney text posts that have been sitting in my drafts for ages

[mask131]

The truth about Medusa and her rape... Mythology breakdown time!

With the recent release of the Percy Jackson television series, Tumblr is bursting with mythological posts, and the apparition of Medusa the Gorgon has been the object of numerous talks throughout this website… Including more and more spreading of misinformation, and more debates about what is the “true” version of Medusa’s backstory.

Already let us make that clear: the idea that Medusa was actually “blessed” or “gifted” by Athena her petrifying gaze/snake-hair curse is to my knowledge not at all part of the Antique world. I still do not know exactly where this comes from, but I am aware of no Greek or Roman texts that talked about this – so it seems definitively a modern invention. After all, the figure of Medusa and her entire myth has been taken part, reinterpreted and modified by numerous modern women, feminist activist, feminist movements or artists engaged in the topic of women’s life and social conditions – most notably Medusa becoming the “symbol of raped women’ wrath and fury”. It is an interesting reading and a fascinating update of the ancient texts, and it is a worthy take on its own time and context – but today we are not talking about the posterity, reinvention and continuity of Medusa as a myth and a symbol. I want to clarify some points about the ACTUAL myth or legend of Medusa – the original tale, as told by the Greeks and then by the Romans.

Most specifically the question: Was Medusa raped?

Step 1: Yes, but no.

The backstory of Medusa you will find very often today, ranging from mythology manuals (vulgarization manuals of course) to Youtube videos, goes as such: Medusa was a priestess of Athena who got raped by Poseidon while in Athena’s temple, and as a result of this, Athena punished Medusa by turning her into the monstrous Gorgon.

Some will go even further claiming Athena’s “curse” wasn’t a punishment but a “gift” or blessing – and again, I don’t know where this comes from and nobody seems to be able to give me any reliable source for that, so… Let’s put this out of there.

Now this backstory – famous and popular enough to get into Riodan’s book series for example – is partially true. There are some elements here very wrong – and by wrong I do mean wrong.

The story of Medusa being raped and turned into a monster due to being raped does indeed exist, and it is the most famous and widespread of all the Medusa stories, the one people remembered for the longest time and wrote and illustrated the most about. Hence why Medusa became in the 20th century this very important cultural symbol tied to rape and the abuse of women and victim-blaming. HOWEVER – the origin of this story is Ovid’s Metamorphoses, from the first century CE or so. Ovid? A Roman poet writing for Roman people. “Metamorphoses”? One of the two fundamental works of Roman literature and one of the two main texts of Roman mythology, alongside Virgil’s Aeneid. This is a purely Roman story belonging to the Roman culture – and not the Greek one. The story of Medusa’s rape does not have Greek precedents to my knowledge, Ovid introduced the element of rape – which is no surprise given Ovid turned half of the romances of Greek mythology into rapes. Note that, on top of all this, Ovid wasn’t even writing for religious purposes, nor was his text an actual mythological effort – he wrote it with pure literary intentions at heart. It is just a piece of poetry and literature taking inspiration from the legends of the Greek world, not some sort of sacred text.

Second big point: The legend I summarized above? It isn’t even the story Ovid wrote, since there are a lot of elements that do not come from Ovid’s retelling of the story (book fourth of the Metamorphoses). For example Ovid never said Medusa was a priestess of Athena – all he said was that she was raped in the temple of Athena. I shouldn’t even be writing Athena since again, this is a Roman text: we are speaking of Minerva here, and of Neptune, not of Athena or Poseidon. Similarly, Minerva’s curse did not involve the petrifying gaze – rather all Ovid wrote about was that Minerva turned Medusa’s hair into snakes, to “punish” her because her hair were very beautiful, and it was what made her have many suitors (none of which she wanted to marry apparently), and it is also implied it is what made Neptune fall in love (or rather fall in lust) with her. I guess it is from this detail that the reading of “Athena’s curse was a gift” comes from – even though this story also clearly does victim-blaming of rape here.

But what is very fascinating is that… we are not definitively sure Neptune raped Medusa in Ovid’s retelling. For sure, the terms used by Ovid in his fourth book of Metamorphoses are clear: this was an action of violating, sexually assaulting, of soiling and corrupting, we are talking about rape. But Ovid refers several other times to Medusa in his other books, sometimes adding details the fourth-book stories does not have (the sixth book for examples evokes how Neptune turned into a bird to seduce Medusa, which is completely absent from the fourth book’s retelling of Medusa’ curse). And in all those other mentions, the terms to designate the relationship between Medusa and Neptune are more ambiguous, evoking seduction and romance rather than physical or sexual assault. (It does not help that Ovid has an habit of constantly confusing consensual and non-consensual sex in his poems, meaning that a rape in one book can turn into a romance in another, or reversal)

But the latter fact makes more sense when you recall that the rape element was invented and added by Ovid. Before, yes Poseidon and Medusa loved each other, but it was a pure romance, or at least a consensual one-night. Heck, if we go back to the oldest records of the love between Poseidon and Medusa, back in Hesiod’s Theogony, we have descriptions of the two of them laying together in a beautiful, flowery meadow – a stereotypical scene of pastoral romances – with no mention of any brutality or violence of any sort. As a result, it makes sense the original “romantic” story would still “leak” or cast a shadow over Ovid’s reinvented and slightly-confused tale.

Step 2: So… no rape?

Well, if we go by Greek texts, no, apparently Medusa was not raped in Greek mythology, and only became a rape victim through Ovid.

The Ancient Greek texts all record Poseidon and Medusa sleeping with each other and having children, but no mention of rape. And the whole “curse of Athena” thing is not present in the oldest records – no temple of Athena soiling, no angry Athena cursing a poor girl… “No curse?” you say “But then how did Medusa got turned into a Gorgon”? Answer: she did not. She was born like that.

As I said before, the oldest record of Medusa’s romance but also of her family comes from Hesiod’s Theogony (Hesiod being one of the two “founding authors” of Greek mythology, alongside Homer – Homer did wrote several times about Medusa, but only as a disembodied head and as a monster already dead, so we don’t have any information about her life). And what do we learn? That Medusa is part of a set of three sisters known as the Gorgons – because oh yes, Ovid did not mention Medusa’s sister now did he? How did Medusa’s sisters ALSO got snake-hair or petrifying-gaze if only Medusa was cursed for sleeping with Neptune? Ovid does not give us any answer because again, it is an “adaptational plot hole”, and the people that try to adapt Ovid’s story have to deal with the slight problem of Stheno and Euryale needing to share their sister’s curse despite seemingly not being involved in the whole Neptune business. Anyway, back to the Greek text.

So, you have those three Gorgon sisters, and Medusa is said to be mortal while her sisters are not. Why is it such a big deal? Because Medusa wasn’t originally some random human or priestess. Oh no! Who were the Gorgons’ parents? Phorcys and Keto/Ceto, aka two sea-gods. Not just two sea-gods – two sea-gods of the ancient, primordial generation of sea-gods, the one that predated Poseidon, and that were cousins to the Titans, the sea-gods born of Gaia mating with Pontos.

So the Gorgons were “divine” of nature – and this is why Medusa being a mortal was considered to be a MASSIVE problem and handicap for her, an abnormal thing for the daughter of two deities. But let’s dig a bit further… Who were Phorcys and Ceto? Long story short: in Greek mythology, they were considered to be sea-equivalents of Typhon and Gaia. They were the parents of many monsters and many sea-horrors: Keto/Ceto herself had her name attributed and equated with any very large creature (like whales) or any terrifying monster (like dragons) from the sea. The Gorgons themselves was a trio of monsters, but their sisters, that directly act as their double in the myth of Perseus? The Graiai – the monstrous trio of old women sharing one eye and one tooth. Hesiod also drops the fact that Ladon (the dragon that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperids), and Echidna (the snake-woman that mated with Typhon and became known as the “mother of monsters”) were also children of Phorcys and Ceto, while other authors will add other monster-related characters such as Scylla (of Charybdis and Scylla fame), the sirens, or Thoosa (the mother of Polyphemus the cyclop). Medusa herself is technically a “mother of monsters” since she birthed both Pegasus the flying horse and Chrysaor, a giant. So here is something very important to get: Medusa, and the Gorgons, were part of a family of monsters. Couple that with the absence of any mention of curses in these ancient texts, and everything is clear.

Originally Medusa was not a woman cursed to become a monster: she was born a monster, part of a group of monster siblings, birthed by monster-creating deities, and she belonged to the world of the “primordial abominations from the sea”, and the pre-Olympian threats, the remnants of the primordial chaos. It is no surprise that the Gorgons were said to live at the edge of the very known world, in the last patch of land before the end of the universe – in the most inhuman, primitive and liminal area possible. They were full-on monsters!

Now you might ask why Poseidon would sleep with a horrible monster, especially when you recall that the Greeks loved to depict the Gorgons as truly bizarre and grotesque. It wasn’t just snake-hair and petrifying gaze: they had boar tusks, and metallic claws, and bloated eyes, and a long tongue that constantly hanged down their bearded chin, and very large heads – some very old depictions even show her with a female centaur body! In fact, the ancient texts imply that it wasn’t so much the Gorgon’s gaze or eyes that had the power to turn people into stone – but that rather the Gorgon was just so hideous and so terrifying to look at people froze in terror – and then literally turned into stone out of fear and disgust. We are talking Lovecraftian level of eldritch horror here. So why would Poseidon, an Olympian god, sleep with one of these horrors? Well… If you know your Poseidon it wouldn’t surprise you too much because Poseidon had a thing for monsters. As a sort of “dark double” of Zeus, whereas Zeus fell in love with beautiful princesses and noble queens and birthed great gods and brave heroes, Poseidon was more about getting freaky with all sorts of unusual and bizarre goddesses, and giving birth to bandits and monsters. A good chunk of the villains of Greek mythology were born out of Poseidon’s loins: Polyphemus, Antaios, Orion, Charybdis, the Aloads… And even his most benevolent offspring has freaky stuff about it – Proteus the shapeshifter or Triton half-man half-fish… So yes, Poseidon sleeping with an abominable Gorgon is not so much out of character.

Step 3: The missing link

Now that we established what Medusa started out as, and what she ended up as… We need to evoke the evolution from point Hesiod to point Ovid, because while people summarized the Medusa debate as “Sea-born monster VS raped and punished woman”, there is a third element needed to understand this whole situation…

Yes Ovid did invent the rape. But he did not invent the idea that Medusa had been cursed by Athena.

The “gorgoneion” – the visual and artistic motif of the Gorgon’s head – was, as I said, a grotesque and monstrous face used to invoke fright into the enemies or to repel any vile influence or wicked spirit by the principle of “What’s the best way to repel bad stuff? Badder stuff”. Your Gorgon was your gargoyle, with all the hideous traits I described before – represented in front (unlike all the other side-portraits of gods and heroes), with the face being very large and flat, a big tongue out of a tusked-mouth, snake-hair, bulging crazy eyes, sometimes a beard or scales… Pure monster. But then… from the fifth century BCE to the second century BCE we see a slow evolution of the “gorgoneion” in art. Slowly the grotesque elements disappear, and the Gorgon’s face becomes… a regular, human face. Even more: it even becomes a pretty woman’s face! But with snakes instead of hair. As such, the idea that Medusa was a gorgeous woman who just had snakes and cursed-eyes DOES come from Ancient Greece – and existed well before Ovid wrote his rape story.

But what was the reason behind this change?

Well, we have to look at the Roman era again. Ovid’s tale of Medusa being cursed for her rape at the hands of Neptune had to rival with another record collected by a Greek author Apollodorus, or Pseudo-Apollodorus, in his Bibliotheca. In this collection of Greek myths, Apollodorus writes that indeed, Medusa was cursed by Athena to have her beautiful hair that seduced everybody be turned into snakes… But it wasn’t because of any rape or forbidden romance, no. It was just because Medusa was a very vain woman who liked to brag about her beauty and hair – and had the foolish idea of saying her hair looked better than Athena’s. (If you recall tales such as Arachne’s or the Judgement of Paris, you will know that despite Athena being wise and clever, one of her main flaws is her vanity).

“Wait a minute,” you are going to tell me, “The Bibliotheca was created in the second century CE! Well after Greece became part of the Roman Empire, and after Ovid’s Metamorphoses became a huge success! It isn’t a true Greek myth, it is just Ovid’s tale being projected here…” And people did agree for a time… Until it was discovered, in the scholias placed around the texts of Apollonios of Rhodes, that an author of the fifth century BCE named Pherecyde HAD recorded in his time a version of Medusa’s legend where she had been cursed into becoming an ugly monster as punishment for her vanity. We apparently do not have the original text of Pherecyde, but the many scholias referring to this lost piece are very clear about this. This means that the story that Apollodorus recorded isn’t a “novelty”, but rather the latest record of an older tradition going back to the fifth century BCE… THE SAME CENTURY THAT THE GORGONEION STARTED LOSING THEIR GROTESQUE, and that the face of Medusa started becoming more human in art.

[EDIT: I also forgot to add that this evolution of Medusa is also proved by strange literary elements, such as Pindar's mention in a poem of his (around 490 BCE) of "fair-cheeked Medusa". A description which seems strange given how Medusa used to be depicted as the epitome of ugliness... But that makes sense if the "cursed beauty" version of the myth had been going around at the time!]

And thus it is all connected and explained. Ovid did invent the rape yes – but he did not invent the idea of Athena cursing Medusa. It pre-existed as the most “recent” and dominating legend in Ancient Greece, having overshadowed by Ovid’s time the oldest Hesiodic records of Medusa being born a monster. So what Ovid did wasn’t completely create a new story out of nowhere, but twist the Greek traditions of Athena cursing Medusa and Medusa having a relationship with Poseidon, so that the two legends would form one and same story. And this explains in retrospect why Ovid focuses so much on describing Medusa’s beautiful hair, and why Ovid’s Minerva would think turning her hair into snake would be a “punishment fit for the crime”: these are leftovers of the Greek tale where Medusa was punished for her boasting and her vanity.

CONCLUSION

Here is the simplified chronology of how Medusa’s evolution went.

A) Primitive Greek myths, Hesiodic tradition: Born a monster out of a family of sea-monsters and monstrous immortals. Is a grotesque, gargoylesque, eldritch abomination. Athena has only an indirect conflict with her, due to being Perseus’ “fairy godmother”. Has a lovely romance with Poseidon.

B) Slow evolution throughout Classical Greece and further: Medusa becomes a beautiful, human-looking girl that was cursed to have snake for hair and petrifying eyes, instead of being a Lovecraftian horror people could not gaze upon. Her conflict with Athena becomes direct, as it is Athena that cursed her due to being offended by her vain boasting. Her punishment is for her vanity and arrogant comparison to the goddess.

C) Ovid comes in: Medusa’s romance with Poseidon becomes a rape, and she is now punished for having been raped inside Athena’s temple.

[As a final note, I want to insist upon the fact that the story of Medusa being raped is not less "worthy" than any other version of the myth. Due to its enormous popularity, how it shaped the figure of Medusa throughout the centuries, and how it still survives today and echoes current-day problems, to try to deny the valid place of this story in the world of myths and legends would be foolish. HOWEVER it is important to place back things in their context, to recognize that it is not the ONLY tale of Medusa, that it was NOT part of Greek mythology, but rather of Roman legends - and let us all always remember this time Poseidon slept with a Lovecraftian horror because my guy is kinky.]

EDIT:

For illustration, I will place here visuals showing how the Ancient art evolved alongside Medusa's story.

Before the 5th century BCE: Medusa is a full-on monster

From the 5th century to the 2nd century BCE: A slow evolution as Medusa goes from a full-on monster to a human turned into a monster. As a result the two depictions of the grotesque and beautiful gorgoneion coexist.

Post 2nd century BCE: Medusa is now a human with snake hair, and just that

[theglassesgirl]

The Ithaca Saga: What IS a Monster, how it’s presented, and when fictional S.A is integral to the plot.

So -

This was originally a response to @ / anniflamma which you can still find on my page unedited. But with the new discourse surrounding the suitors, I figured I could retool it as a standalone essay to express a topic I’ve been trying to pin down for a while now; What exactly does the mean when they call a character a monster? What do they do, do the reasons matter, and how does the subject of rape affect how the fandom consider some monsters more unforgivable than others? When IS rape in fiction “necessary” and why such questions defeat the purpose of exploratory creative works.

In this post we will discuss all the major antagonists of the Epic Musical, Penelope’s agency, the label of Monster and the types of moralizing one might do when faced with uncomfortable subjects in fiction and how to prevent these feelings from blinding is about what a story is trying to say.

For those who read my original response; there’s new content to read here and posts that will be referred to, if you’d like to give it another gander!

Thank you,

Let’s begin;

I think making the threat of rape explicit was very much needed, actually.

It’s come to my attention that there are people here and on tiktok who are so uncomfortable with the subject matter in this CENTURIES old tale that they’re both refusing to accept that it plays an important part in the original poem and musical, AND are bizarrely insisting that Jorge should have magically done away with it to make more palatable.

This is beyond juvenile - it’s a clear sign of media illiteracy.

What, if I may ask, do you think it means when you say that the suitors are going to force Penelope to choose one of them to marry.

You may respond that they want to take over Ithaca. That they want to be king. But take a moment to consider what forcing a woman to marry one of them will entail. I wonder if you think that one can divorce the idea of sexual violence in this plot.

It would be…unfathomably difficult to do so. Because you CANT. There is an implicit threat of Penelope’s will breaking and having to have unwilling and reluctant sex with any one of them in the event she just gave up and picked one.

This isn’t a storyline that depicts Penelope of being willing to marry any of the suitors. She is WAITING for her husband’s return. Even if he doesn’t, she doesn’t WANT to marry someone else. Her consent is being violated by the very merit of them being in her palace, eating her food, and threatening her son.

They’re doing ALL OF THIS in order to bend her will in the HOPES of raping her as a bonus to becoming king of Ithaca.

My contention is the use of “unnecessary” when it comes to this trope in media - though themes of rape can be uncomfortable, to call them unnecessary HAVE to meet certain criteria. Which this specific instance doesn’t.

By observing various responses, it’s clear that the threat of rape went completely over many’s head in this instance of the story. So I very must appreciate Jorge making it SO clear that it’s upsetting.

This part of the odyssey, and the musical, is very much about Penelope suffering under the threat of assault for YEARS. In the same way Odysseus was (a thing I touched upon in my calypso essay, in terms of his ambiguous situation in the musical) - it’s a parallel that works as both Antinous and Calypso were introduced (regardless on your personal interpretation of what Calypso did or did not do, but that’s neither here nor there).

It has taken an emotional and psychological toll of either spouse. And the kicker is that neither of them are freed of this situation on their own - they are both rescued by outside forces. Athena/Hermes helps free Odysseus; Athena/Odysseus will help free Penelope.

The looming threat of rape is SO necessary that it helps the catharsis factor we feel toward PENELOPE’s story - it’s nothing to do w Odysseus who by now is a force of nature as big as Poseidon, his actions happen TO her, and it’s up to her to decide (per “would you love me” ) what she feels about that. She can very well reject him! She’s suffered under male violence for YEARS. Odysseus’s violence and those of the suitors toward her are basis enough for the comparison.

Do all men, including her husband, become violent? Does she want to put up with that? We know from her song snippets that she is NOT a woman that simply succumbs to the Rape Rescue trope as suggested by ignorant consumers of media - and I call it ignorance and consumerism because there’s a clear lack of engaging with the material in an intuitive way. It’s just blind consumption - as if one bites into a burger and find a pickle, which you personally don’t like, and having it removed - you can’t treat ART that way .

Penelope is a very intuitive and emotionally intelligent queen. Stop infantilizing her. Her own husband suggests that like the suitors, his actions make him just as bad as they are and presents his hope as being understanding if she rejects him on those grounds. But those ARENT her grounds. She has full autonomy and can make a distinction FOR HERSELF whether she considers her husband equal to the monsters who have harmed her.

So let’s talk about the “Monster” label as it is presented on the entire musical.

Some have erroneously suggested that Odysseus has been given an out to commit cruel and ruthless deeds with out “good justification” - he does it for his family,, after all!

Which is a misunderstanding of everything every antagonist of each saga has done.

Let’s start with the Troy Saga: Odysseus has killed a BABY. He made the choice to put his family over this child. Everything he has done and lost would be for literally NOTHING if he hadn’t, as even if he had killed the suitors and regained everything - the GODS themselves would make sure that child would come to an aged Odysseus and slaughter him, Penelope, Telemachus and his entire kingdom when he came of age.

Odysseus STARTS as a monster. We have been rooting for the man who laid Troy and its children asunder. As such, the label of a monster is NOT so much a morally subjective label - it simply a thing that IS. Or rather. It is what ALL the antagonists ARE, but it’s hardly a condemnation of any of them.

(Peep that one of the first lines Ody says refers back to in the Vengeance Saga is what he did to Troy - he STILL views his actions over there as unforgivable, so not even HE will ever see himself otherwise, the problem was that he felt so guilty over it that he became a detriment (a different kind of monster) to his friends and family when they were all guilty of the same thing and trying to get home.)

ALL of the antagonists have a “good reason” to kill ALL the soldiers (who again, have looted and slaughtered the Trojans) Odysseus and his close friends included. Whether your AGREE is almost irrelevant…because the story itself proposes that it’s irrelevant.

The next saga introduces the cyclops: his motivation is primarily that his FRIENDS the sheep have been slaughtered. You can argue in the scope of things, you can’t empathize with this but it’s his good reason. He’s the son of a god, and these sheep are all he has. His friends, who matter to him as much as Polites does to Ody, are being taken and slain, he is being drugged, attacked and maimed. VERY much was Ody goes through in the final saga. And even so.

The Cyclops is antagonistic to the party, he’s a monster who feels justified killing to avenge his killed sheep. A monster is a thing he IS.

As Poseidon’s son, he asks his father to kill the 600 men who have ransacked his home and beat on him. He doesn’t view his father as being wrong for this. In the same ways Ody and Telemachus don’t waste any time addressing the slain suitors later on. Poseidon is a monster of a god - it’s just a thing he is. Not even being stabbed 100 times is enough to repay the harm he’s done - to most everyone, not just Ody, but we are not asked to quantify that. Just live with it.

Circe has killed NUMEROUS men over the years. HER “good reason” is that something bad happened to her nymphs when she let a stranger in her islands. She doesn’t even promise that she WONT kill in the future - her song ends w the suggestion that the world may continue to need her to puppeteer! Because she does not exist to be “redeemed” - she is somewhat more reasonable and capable of empathy than even the likes Athena, who being a greater and more powerful god, does not have the one on one affection to her follows as Circe does. She’s a monster! It’s a label, a thing she IS.

So here we begin to ask; is it LOVE that gives people the capacity to do monstrous things? Because the cyclops loved his sheep friends, Poseidon loves his son, Circe loves her nymphs.

And by now you’re saying now wait a minute didn’t the Underworld Saga go over this? Why yes it did! And Odysseus decides to “become the monster” - he already IS one by the standards of the cyclops, Poseidon, Troy - they all see him as a monstrous being. But he accepts that, after being one in Troy, he held back and ruined the lives of his men, making him a monster to THEM. His “good reason” for being so!

He attempts very hard to be the General he was in Troy and prioritize them going home, sparing no sympathy towards his enemies - but in the Thunder Saga we see the gods further push him to be completely self-serving like they are. The sun gods cows are harmed, he sends Zeus in relation - his “good reason” being his friend were personally harmed.

Odysseus’s “good reason” is ultimately decided to be the same good reason he had to slaughter the Trojans - to get back home to his wife and son.

Like with the Cyclops sheep, Circe’s nymphs, The Sun gods cows, and Poseidons son, WE are shocked and made to feel some type of way about Odyseuss’s reasoning. Surely HIS personal suffering shouldn’t cost the lives of “innocent” men…but it does! It surely does.

He is a monster. It’s just a thing he IS.

Now, Odysseus spends the next seven years under the thumb of ANOTHER monster. And through calypso own reasoning, despite her tragic backstory, her “good reason” she IS a monster. She’s incapable of understanding why she wasn’t reciprocated. Incapable of empathizing with a human because as a god who has spent eternity alone, it stands to reason she, like all the other monsters mentioned before, prioritizes HER personal suffering over everyone else’s. In some versions she either kills herself or does spend the rest of eternity alone. She’s a monster. This is a thing she IS.

Now what the HELL does all this have to do with the suitors?

Odysseus started the musical a MONSTER. He’s worn different hats, but it is what he IS. It’s a label, not a moral critique.

ALL of the antagonists of every saga have a “good reason” NONE of them are ruthless for ruthlessness sake! It’s immaterial whether you agree with them or not, but to understand them for what they are.

Odysseus is the antagonist of the ithica saga, md while the suitors are the antagonist to him and his family, we see their fate form THEIR POV

The suitors could not have been depicted as “rude youthful men” like Telemachus. That Odysseus killing them should be shocking - a frightening condemnation of everything he’s done and became. But I ask once again - in what world are the suitors not implicitly set up as monsters?

Because again. They aren’t being rude for rudeness’s sake! They aren’t JUST eating Penelope’s food and sleeping in HER house. Them threatening Telemachus, as you propose, isn’t “enough” of a reason because they didn’t wake up one day beefing w this boy. Everything they do is for the express purpose of sexual violence towards the Queen of Ithaca, who upon assaulting, will make it so any one of them will be King.

You can’t separate the one from the other. You get a nonsense scenario. The whole REASON they’re there in the first place.

Even if you create a fanfic where 108 men wake up one day and raid the palace to slaughter the royal family with no intent of sexually assaulting either (because remember Telemachus is also the subject of Hold Em Down) and then fight amongst themselves to be the next king, but then isn’t that STILL a “good reason” for Odysseus to slaughter them?

Now I hear what you may be asking: but if all the monsters of the sagas, Odysseus included, have a “good reason” even though we might not agree with it, what kind of monsters does that make the suitors? Surely and clearly THEY aren’t doing what they’re doing for noble reasons.

I consider them akin to the 600 men who died under their captains command.

Because, as stated before. Odysseus views his actions in a Troy as his start of monstrosity. He did all that to finish the war and do back home. He ruined the lives of all Trojans.

So did his soldiers.

The only moment in time (even in the deleted songs) that the bulk of them repent about the war is in terms that it left them without food.

But glasses! They were just following orders!

Which is what one of the suitors suggest in song 38. Their serpents head is dead, THEY were just going with Antinous’ flow, they are innocent.

Like the 600 soldiers, the 108 suitors sacked a home that wasn’t theirs and harmed a wife and child - does them being the queen and prince pale in comparison to the hundreds of wives and children slain in Troy? Homer is a genius to ask us to see these parallels for what it is.

The suitors ARE monsters. That is simply what all 108 of them are. In the context of the story itself, their intent is to break Penelope’s will, commit martial rape, and become king of Ithaca. They aren’t there for kicks, they aren’t ignorant boys, they’re socially accepted adults abusing the hospitality rule with an express purpose.

So a GROUP of monsters are slaughtered by ANOTHER monster, and though in this instance we can argue it’s morally justifiable, it doesn’t take away from Odysseus’s fear of being rejected by his family. He has ruined the lives of the Trojans, his men, AND multiple gods! To get to this point. He IS a monster. And the story asks US, through Penelope, if he is still worth loving.

Seeing Penelope as merely his reward is so backwards and bizarre. It’s very clear that bad faith interpretations of her are based on objectifying her erroneously, when the narrative presents her as a fully developed character.

In the story both in the poem and the musical that the suitors ARE NOT her guests. She is being sequestered against her will.

In what world could the suitors be “just” murderers and not….very clearly rapists? It’s BUILT into their motivation. You would have to change the very FOUNDATION of the Ithaca plot line and Penelope herself??? To say nothing of Telemachus’s role!

What’s the proposal here? That Penelope invited these suitors? That’s she’s actively looking for a replacement husband? Okay, again, that changes literally SO MUCH of the story, but wouldn’t that put Telemachus in a position where he too has to change? Does he resent his mother for doing this? Is he helping his dad out of spite or because he wants him back? How are we meant to view Penelope in this radically new and hip Epic the Musical? Is she savvy and in her right to choose a new boo? Okay…okay, so then….you want Odysseus to be the only one unchanged and go axe crazy because….hes jealous? He kills these upstanding men….curtain call. That’s all folks!

Absurdity at its finest. You throw Penelope’s agency out the window. Her weaving and unweaving her loom is meaningless or simply doesn’t happen. Or maybe it’s that she wakes up one day and goes hey yknow what I WILL consider marrying one of these guys with no sense of dread and fear. Oh wait Oddy has killed then all! Never mind me feeling unsafe a week ago, he’s done a Bad.

Crazy.

It’s just…not going to end up making Penelope look like a well written female character if Jorge has done what you wanted! THAT would make her a mindless prop. You seem to think she is one, and that’s not the case. Historically, in fact!

She is a whole person in the poem and musical whether you understand it or not. You would have to argue so thoroughly why she sucks and let me assure you - there are entire DISSERTATIONs on why you’d be incorrect.

So, no.

No, you CANT take away the rape in Penelope’s storyline. It matters ALOT. It’s the ROOT of the matter! Could old school vegetales make something up that’s more to your sensibilities? Maybe at its peak but god, I couldn’t possibly come up with a draft that could reflect that. I won’t even try.

The rape aspect of the Ithica Saga isn’t unnecessary - it’s INTEGRAL to the plot. It can make you uncomfortable, but it’s BUILT into the royal family’s suffering whether it’s explicit or not! And it SHOULD be explicit! Because you seem to think because it usually isn’t, that the rape aspect isn’t there!

I cannot imagine coming to this kind of conclusion.

They are not random men going on a siege of the palace one day - you cannot “sanitize” the SUITORS because by the very merit of them calling each other THE SUITORS there is an implicit threat of sexual violence. Because Penelope doesn’t WANT suitors. She rejects them. They’re already violating her consent.

How the FUCK to do you censor the rape when it’s in every action they take? And I know what you’re saying: but didn’t Jorge censor the rape aspect that both Circe and Calypso commit towards him?

Further reading: suggests that ALLUDING to it is not the same as censoring, that it still FITS the PURPOSE of these characters in regards to Odysseus’s suffering under them. That after ambiguity, it is NECESSARY to make the rape aspect CLEAR in order to create both catharsis and MEANING at the end of the narrative. The THEME is still respected and present, it is not REMOVED. Please consider reading the linked follow up that answers this question.

In short.

It’s truly a matter of using one’s goddamn head when it comes to view fictional depictions of rape as “necessary” - because though some depictions can be presented BADLY, to suggest they should not EXISTS lends itself to rape culture. It silences the voices of victims. Its representation denied. Don’t talk about it, don’t even suggest it, because rape is bad.

It’s an action that happens to people. It’s a crime in civilized society. It’s a physical and psychological trauma that has always been. It happens daily, in fact. Though epic the musical is a source of entertainment for you, it doesnt exist solely for that purpose.

When Homer included it within his original oral story, he did so as a storyteller trying to get his audience to philosophize, not simply have fun.

I think we’ve come to some abysmal conclusion that men can’t write about these topics when we have historical evidence of at least one man knowing what the hell he’s talking about. And Jorge has done a phenomenal job even when he hadn’t depicted blatantly.

If you’re uncomfortable to the point of not wanting to see it at all, that is entirely on you, art and creative works allow us to explore these topics safely. Whether it’s from the POV of the assailant or one of the victims commenting on it, fiction is one of the only places we can talk about it and learn about ourselves in a way it doesn’t harm real people.

I don’t even want to BEGIN discussing all the losers who are still harassing Antinous fans or people who genuinely enjoy his song despite/BECAUSE of the subject matter. Its purpose in the story matters more than you policing how it’s presented and how it’s consumed. No amount of people enjoying themselves will take away the foundational POINT of the character and song. It’s perfect the way it is.

Like with the chaos that calypso discourse wrought, you cannot control how people treat a NOT REAL CHARACTER or the songs they sing - if it bothers you that one type of fictional villian is treated one way or another, it is on you to find likeminded people instead of going into others faces and pretending to be a self-righteous prick. You can throw whatever buzzwords you want, the CONTEXT these characters live in has nothing to do with how others want to play with them. If you don’t understand the difference between the two instances, fandom is certainly not for you and will not be changed to suit your sensibilities.

To end this post, I want to thank those who further asked me questions and bounced ideas off with me, and wow, what a phenomenal ending to a grandiose musical. I hope I can see it live, animated, streamed, developed into a game etc whatever form it takes now that the concept albums are published

Thank you all for engaging w my work💖

[zzzaru]

epic the musical actor AU anyone

Odysseus (Lead Actor): 

talented emotionally complex actor, juggling weight of being the lead while trying to be a good husband and father

he and penelope had telemachus when they were young, and his career took off shortly after, pulling away from family life

trying to reconnect with them while facing his own insecurities about being enough for them

during the scene where odysseus reunites with telemachus, the emotions hit just a wee bit too close to home, which leads to an actual breakdown

stays late a lot after rehearsals, reworking scenes, trying to be a perfectionist

Penelope (Actress)

fiercely intelligent actress, odysseus’ real life wife

balances being a mother to telemachus, acting career, and the occasional media frenzy over their relationship

while she loves odysseus a lot, struggles w the resentment of his absences

tears up during penelope’s monologue about loneliness (hits too close to home 👎)

shares quiet, intimate moments with odysseus between takes (the directors are TIREDD)

Telemachus (Actor)

a young actor breaking into the industry, cast in the musical just bcuz of his parents’ influence

determined to prove he earned his place on his own

doesn’t love being in his father’s shadow, but he looks up greatly to him

love-hate relationship with his dad

emotionally charged performance during telemachus’ ‘confrontation’ with odysseus

is more lighthearted with the rest of the cast, poking fun at odysseus’ dramatic tendencies

Eurylochus (Actor)

one of odysseus’ oldest friends, cast as his loyal (combative) right hand man.

serves as the group’s voice of reason, but his blunt honesty sometimes causes tension

uses dry humor to diffuse tension between odysseus and telemachus but privately encourages odysseus to make amends

finds himself unexpectedly emotional during luck runs out and mutiny

Polites

comedic glue holding the cast together

actually everybody’s favorite castmate

feels overlooked compared to the larger personalities around him

offers emotional support to telemachus after a tenser rehearsal

can keep his eyes open for a concerning amount of time. very good at playing dead?? actually scared his friends during the cyclops scene

Zeus (Actor)

charismatic, laid back veteran actor

mentor/dad figure

LOVES cracking dad jokes, bringing snacks to rehearsals much to athena’s embarrassment

ATHENA’S DAD STILL

incredibly approachable 

competes with poseidon during press tours

Athena (Actor)

fiercely independent (still zeus’ daughter)

trying to prove herself as a director in her own right

perfectionist

cares for the cast and crew, hates showing it

sometimes teases zeus for being overbearing

lighthearted banter with zeus on set

quiet moments where she talks to hera about living up to her father’s reputation

Poseidon

zeus’ brother and self proclaimed ‘cool uncle’ of the cast

charming, mischievous

lightens the mood during long rehearsals

him and zeus = playful rivalry

leads karaoke nights occasionally

bonds with eurylochus over their mutual love of seafood and practical jokes

Hera

graceful and respected actress

unofficial ‘mom’

ready with words of wisdom

helps penelope and telemachus work through their nerves before emotional scenes

scolds zeus and poseidon for goofing off sometimes

Aphrodite

rising star in the acting world

social media sensation

glamorous and confident, but genuinely kind to everyone

posts behind the scenes and blooper reels

teaches telemachus how to handle social media fame

organizes a cast photoshoot to help everyone look their best for promotional materials

Apollo

multi-talented ‘golden boy’ of the cast

known for singing, acting, guitar solos during breaks

effortlessly charming

somewhat competitive (friendly) with ares

challenges polites to a ‘sing off’ during a wrap party, turns into a cast wide jam session

writes an original song for the cast

Ares

high energy

loves keeping everyone entertained

fiercely loyal to his crew. also dating aphrodite

playful rivalry with apollo

surprisingly good with kids

starts a nerf war on set during downtime, with the entire cast getting involved

improvised ‘is she dead’ in god games, everyone couldnt help but laugh

Antinous

charismatic, mischievous, well liked

known for polished performances

naturally confident

relationship with telemachus started through rehearsals bonding over shared family pressure

admires telemachus’ raw talent

fiercely protective of telemachus

on stage chemistry. directors hate them

Hermes

quick witted, flamboyant

hard worker (in his own. way)

flirty. flirts with half of the crew. especially odysseus and polites

never takes things too seriously

sees himself as the ‘glue’ of the cast (he is not, it's polites)

little scenarios i've been cooking up

during god games, where athena and zeus fight physically, i'm thinking one of the props go askew. athena and zeus are fighting in scene, and then one of the props from above suddenly fall, hitting athena in the head, causing panic from the rest of the crew- she's fine of course, she wasnt hit too hard, but panic ensues for everyone, esp zeus and hermes, since athena is family. (athena is zeus' daughter, hermes is athena's brother). and of course the rest of the crew like odysseus, ares, etc)

zeus’ relationship with ares in th is AU is very much like jay’s and mitchell’s from modern family

scene with the cyclops, where the 'cyclops' is supposed to kill polites, when polites is lying there on the ground with fake blood on him he makes it seem a little too real. he gets 'crushed' by the cyclops, and then he rasps out "captain" to odysseus, desperately (acting) like there is dark fake blood dripping from his head, his fake glasses are broken and then his character dies. polites can keep his eyes open for an unnaturally amount of time, and he can make them seem lifeless so after the scene is done, odysseus and eurylochus both go to hug him just to make sure he's there and fine. they cling to him for a bit. polites is very confused, but the hugs are welcome!!

[elizabethemerald]

The Future of the Pantheon of the Gods

@prehistoric-catgirl added onto @stealingyourbones 's post about Random DC characters interacting with DP characters. Her character was Cassie Sandsmark and she created a prompt where-in Cassie is assigned to become part of the new Pantheon and to seek out other members of the new Pantheon, including Danny Phantom who will be the new God of Death.

Masterpost

***

"Is this true?" Cassandra Sandsmark asked.

Cassie, Donna Troy and Diana Prince, stood before the gathered gods of Olympus. Cassie had been surprised to be summoned alongside the original Wonder Woman and the first Wonder Girl, her mentor and greatest inspiration respectively, to stand before the Olympians.

"Yes. Though we have tried to stop the decline, the truth is the gods are dying." Zeus rumbled, ozone and petrichor filling her nose as he spoke.

Cassie hadn't wanted to bring it up, but the gods around them did seem... older... weaker than they ever had been. They were still far over any mortal, but even with all the gathered Olympians the air was suffocated by their power like it had been even a few years before.

"Is there some way we can assist?" Donna asked, looking around them and no doubt cataloging the same changes Cassie had noticed.

Hera smiled at the trio of Wonder Women.

"Your noble spirit is why we have summoned you, but there is nothing that can be done to save us now." The words had a weight of surety to them. Everything had already been tried. The end of the Olympians was inevitable.

"The worship from the mortals has declined in recent centuries." The ground rumbled and shook under her feet as Poseidon spoke. "We are not as powerful now as we were a decade ago and in another decade more our infirmity will only grow."

Hades spoke next, his voice cracking with cold that stole Cassie's breath away. "There were some of us who felt we should just fade away, if the mortals no longer wished to worship us, then they can see how well they do without our influence over our domains."

"However, the rest of us wanted to ensure our domains remained to serve the humans even after our passing." Hera said, her words like a gavel. "The solution we have reached is to pass on our mantels to new, worthy successors. Those who have some skill with our domains, unshakable moral codes, and a deep love for their fellow mortals."

Cassie pondered the words of the Gods in the following silence. Then her eyes widened and her head whipped up to meet the eyes of Zeus who smiled at them as she gasped.

"Yes, we plan to pass on our duties to heroes such as yourselves." He declared, his arms open, magnanimously.

Cassie could see that Donna and Diana were as shocked as she was, though both of them kept their gasps silent. Diana gave a short bow.

"If there is no other way, than is a duty I can bare." She said.

"Not you Diana." Hades said, his empty eyes capturing them each in turn. "You have your own purpose among the new Pantheon, God-killer."

Diana stiffened and rose to face the Olympians once more, her shoulders set. Hera was the one to speak next.

"We decided those best to handle the weight of the cosmos would be those who are young enough to grow into their new roles. There are many such young heroes in your world who could train alongside us before our decline is complete."

"And if they should fall short of your standards, you expect me to serve as their executioner." Diana's disdain could have only been more clear if she had spat on the floor.

"Yes." Poseidon snapped like the crash of wave. "The power we have, that we are offering is too great to exist without some kind of check to prevent its abuse."

"Besides," spoke Athena for the first time, her eyes still filled with power despite her declining worship. "How many problems have been created for the mortals by the petty squabbles of those who sit on these thrones? We believe you, Diana, will be a worthy mentor for our successors, but you will not be among them. Always apart, always with your sword ready."

Diana's fury burned off her in waves, hating the idea that she would have to turn her blade against some of the junior heroes that she had helped raise, and seen grow up. Cassie swore she could hear her grinding her teeth and was afraid that Diana would decide to end the Pantheon right there.

"So! Who is it you have decided to be your successors?" Donna spoke up quickly, clearly thinking the same thing Cassie was.

"We have consulted the greatest oracles and soothsayers and each of us have chosen one who will suit." Hera said. "Zeus, why don't you go first."

Zeus held his hands out towards Donna. His eyes locked on hers. He stepped down from his dais as Donna stepped back, her eyes the size of dinner plates.

"Who else could take my place other than the sister of our dear Diana, who has proven her metal through lifetimes of strength and suffering. Donna Troy, you will be the next Queen of Olympus."

Donna looked like she might pass out, but shook the shock off and stood firm, earning her a proud smile from Zeus. Cassie patted her on the back, proud of her idol for everything she has accomplished.

"And you Cassandra, daughter of Zeus will take my place as the Goddess of War." Ares declared. "As you should."

Cassie carefully kept her snarl inside, her problems with her "brother" Ares was better left for when she was away from the rest of the Pantheon. At least if she were the Goddess of War, she wouldn't revel in the violence like he always did.

"We will not transfer our power now." Zeus spoke up again, returning to his throne. "Once the New Pantheon is assembled we will hand over our mantels, retaining only a fraction of our power to train our successors."

"Your responsibilities, and the reason we called you first, is so that you may notify those who will join you by your side." Hera said, settling to the details of their mission. "Diana, you will inform the mentors of these young heroes to prevent a panic. Diana, many of these are known to you, and you are known to them, so you will be the primary contact."

Hermes and Athena stepped forward to hand off scrolls to the two of them. Cassie fought to keep her emotions neutral. She would help no one by pouting at being redundant. Diana and Donna looked closely at the scrolls, their faces journeying through emotions as they considered the names.

"And you Cassandra," Cassie looked up in surprise at being addressed by Hades. "There are other heroes that you must reach out to who are not known to your organization, including my own successor."

"Secret would be a perfect-" Cassie started, quick to suggest her own teammate before Hades cut her off.

"No!" He snapped, the word stealing her breath away, forcing her to gasp and clutch her chest. "Your companion does have skills with regards to my domain, but there is another whose power and dominion of death is absolute. He is already a king in his own right, and his connection to life remains strong enough that he would be able to sympathize with the mortals. While he is unknown to your Justice League he is know and beloved to me."

Cassie nodded her head as another scroll, this one cold as ice was handed to her by Hermes. She couldn't help but be impressed by whoever this person is. She hadn't heard Hades call anything beloved other than Persephone in all the time she had known him. She looked at the names and coordinates on the scroll.

"Who on Earth is Phantom?"

[brodorokihousuke]

Brodoroki's Big-Ass Post of Apollo Character/Plot Headcanons

because I said I was gonna do it, and by god i'm going to commit. and commit I did. this is 1.7k words long. on-brand for me tbh

I'll probably make a subpage of my blog to post this in a... more refined manner? I'll definitely do as much for my RP blogs. But having it as a post is nice too.

I will note that a lot of these things have barely any backing canonically. It's just what I've come up with over the years. Additionally this is subject to change or gain additions.

ALSO spoilers for all of AA456.

PLOT-RELATED HEADCANONS:

Pre-AA4

Thanks to him being sent to America on his lonesome, as well as his own eventual assumptions regarding the situation, Apollo has fairly intense problems related to being abandoned by, separated from, or otherwise losing people he is close to.

Partially due to this, those that he comes to see as role models often gain a sort of parental status to him, maybe a little more quickly than they should.

He has problems making new friends, thanks to how prickly and focused on his own things he tends to be.

Clay was his only friend, pretty much up until he was hired into the WAA. (yess i know capcom just doesn't care to mention the other ones he probably had but I chose to imagine it this way)

Clay is also the only person he willingly spoke with about his past in Khura'in. Due to this, he was also the one to help him through adjusting to America, on a language/accent/cultural basis.

Apollo is likely at least decent acquaintances with Clay's father, but isn't that close. They're at least on good terms.

Figured out how the bracelet worked much earlier than implied in the games. Has a rather deep curiosity regarding the object's origins (much stronger than the curiosity regarding the identity of his biological parents).

He can take his bracelet off, it just requires at least one person to help him pull it off.

AA4

Because of the parental thing noted above, Apollo saw Kristoph as at least a father-adjacent figure, up until his arrest... but the familial connection wasn't something he could completely get rid of. So, up until whenever Kristoph is executed (assuming that ever happens), Apollo visits and speaks to him in prison. Phoenix is never told about this, nor is anyone else. Even Clay wasn't aware.

He had a much brighter and cheerfully energetic personality prior to his first trial, but the brutal reality of everything that happened on that day turned him a bit bitter. He does still show that side of himself sometimes, but only rarely.

After Turnabout Corner, the Kitakis and Apollo (and the WAA in general) stay on good terms. Wocky assumes he and Apollo are great friends, though Apollo probably thinks less... Anyways, the office often receives gifts of baked goods from their bakery, due to this.

While Apollo did consider Phoenix to be a sort of parental figure fairly quickly, him being a cryptic asshole for the entirety of the game was not lost on him. At least until the start of AA6, his feelings on the man remain mixed, though he refuses to talk to him on the matter.

He is, however, at least happy to be part of some sort of family unit.

Since Apollo really had no guardian of sorts, Kristoph had been listed on many of his emergency contact forms. Thanks to a mix of not immediately liking Phoenix and forgetfulness, Apollo never really ended up changing it. Of course, since having a contact in prison doesn't really work... his contact, unbeknownst to anyone involved, has defaulted to, of course... Klavier.

AA5

Phoenix's attitude change was initially met with extreme distrust by Apollo, which wasn't helped by the sudden appearance of Athena (whom Wright had apparently been working with for a while now). Apollo and Athena likely talked about it at least once after the latter sensed the annoyance in his voice and cornered him about it.

Even though it's implied that no one met Clay before his death, Apollo likely introduced him to everyone at least once, with the guy maybe occasionally stopping in to the WAA.

Took off from work (the first time in months) to watch the rocket launch. Which ended up, of course, being a rather poor idea.

Since he's basically alone, couldn't take his bracelet off (see note in pre-AA4). Hence, eye bandage. He likely figured out the silly depth perception (?) thing by accident at some point, so knew that was his only option.

Aura likely pulled him aside while he was investigating to speak about the case, slowly easing into his opinion regarding Athena. They continued to occasionally speak over the next few days, meeting every time Apollo visited the space center.

Prevented himself from grieving at all before everything was over. Barely let himself rest as he didn't want to give himself any time to think about it.

As the bombing happened, Apollo was standing with his back to the explosion, though was thrown on top of Juniper as a result of the blast. His injuries included various burns and flesh wounds (shown below), as well as internal bruising, general bruising, and possible fractures/contusions.

(ignore the jank anatomy. all i meant for that to be was a diagram ngl)

Spent about half the day in the hospital before getting himself (against everyone's wishes) discharged early. He was absolutely in an excessive amount of pain, but as with his grief, he refused to let himself deal with it until everything was over.

Getting knocked out the following day gave him a concussion. It made his memories of the preceding days murky at best, as well as causing him to act with more irritability and less focus.

He was put in the hospital again, of course. By evening, he was out once more.

At the end of his testimony in Turnabout for Tomorrow, when Phoenix finally proves that Athena absolutely did not kill Clay/that the culprit is Fakebright, Apollo relaxes, gives a very genuine thanks to his boss, before collapsing at the stand. He reached his goal, after all, and let himself give in to all the pain and exhaustion he felt... while scaring the shit out of everyone in the courtroom.

His bandages stay on for the next two months, to some degree. For at least the next month, Phoenix just about forces him to take a vacation, with even a (probably not serious) threat to fire him if he finds out he's doing any work.

Sort of assumes everyone in the WAA hates him for a bit after the game ends.

Apollo grows closer to Klavier after the game ends, wanting a friend to fill the hole that Clay left who also isn't a WAA member. Whether their relationship is entirely friend-level or romantic-level depends on my thoughts at the time... but they are at least good friends who meet once a week to talk over things.

As an extension of this, Apollo may at some point speak to Klaiver regarding his past in Khura'in, just needing someone to speak about it with.

Speaking of his past, Apollo briefly gets incredibly hopeful/desperate for Dhurke to show up after the end of the game. With Clay gone, he longs for the man who raised him, to just spill his guts about all his issues, to be comforted fully. He feels awkward thinking about talking to Phoenix on a personal level, and he doesn't want to break down in front of his closest non-coworker friend (Klavier). Of course, this never happens, and Apollo soon grows bitter regarding his past once more.

Scars from the bombing cover his arms and some other spots. Prefers long sleeves afterwards, as he doesn't like to look at them or explain them.

AA6

Apollo still keeps up with news regarding Khura'in, just barely. He also practices writing and speaking the related language, enough to stay fairly fluent.

At least one keepsake from the country was also kept, even though Dhurke hadn't been fond of the idea. While still bitter about his whole situation, Apollo has kept it safe this entire time. Not sure what exactly it is, but it's likely something deeply personal. Maybe a little craft or carved figure Dhurke gave him? An eagle, maybe, since I've implied that's one of his favorite animals.

Athena and Trucy likely picked up Apollo's prickly-ness regarding Khura'in at least once, though he always refuses to explain himself. While they stop asking after a certain point, they're definitely curious.

This curiosity becomes much stronger after the incredibly suspect behavior of both him and Nahyuta during the Magical Turnabout. Both men absolutely had odd tics and tones to their voices while speaking to one another during the trial, and with the ladies being both the co-counsel and defendant, they'd get a front-row seat to it all.

Given the comments Apollo & Nahyuta make to one another at the end of the trial, along with everything else, they can assume the two were very close at some point in time, early in life. Athena and Trucy likely talk in private to speculate on this (and might drag Phoenix or even Blackquill into the conversation).

While the games leave it pretty vague, I do think Apollo genuinely considers Nahyuta and Dhurke (and sort of Datz, in a weird uncle sort of way) to be family. Vice versa, as well. While Dhurke's death leaves him devastated, he's happy to be in contact with the two others, as well.

Building upon something mentioned above, even though they really barely talk about it in-game, the occurrence of Dhurke Dying not even a year after Clay leaves him in shambles. After the decision to stay in Khura'in, he quickly starts to regret his decision, breaking down in front of Nahyuta after the latter checks on him, when he doesn't leave his room for an entire day. They have a very long, serious but heartfelt talk about both of their lives, and their hardships, and everything. It lasts hours, and is emotionally taxing on the both of them, but leaves them more accepting of everything that has happened as of late.

Actually remembers when that one photograph of him, Dhurke and Nahyuta was taken, even if barely. It was the first time he had seen a camera, at least a modern one.

MSC. HEADCANONS

Likes spicy food.

Knows a few low level magic tricks, thanks to Trucy teaching him.

Would rather be busy than idle. Troubling thoughts bother him more when he has nothing to do. Thanks to this, he didn't mind offhandedly doing chores around the WAA... but he started to get annoyed when people started to expect such a thing from him 24/7.

Favorite season is fall. Summer is a close second.

Frequently gets too little sleep, though it doesn't seem to adversely affect him...

...though it does make him prone to napping in odd places.

Doesn't like coffee. If he's drinking anything, it's tea.

Low tolerance to alcohol. Barely drinks it anyways.

Favorite animal is some sort of eagle or hawk.

Okay at cooking.

Bi, demiromantic. Never has been in a relationship before the games.

[srvbryn]

Hey, whoever requested the last one did great but now it's my turn, I can ask for the same thing in a Luke Jealous mission but in my case it would be Dark Luke.

Luke Castellan. If I kill someone for you

Dark!Luke Castellan X Aphrodite!Daughter!Reader

Summary: talking with you is one thing, but flirting? The audacity of a man.

Reader and Luke are not in a relationship.

Warning: 16+, obsessive behavior, Luke is a pervert, canon universe, non-canon quest, Reader doesn't have a lot of dialogues, original character(s), not beta read, one shot, no smut obv, issues, jealousy, I wrote this instead of sleeping, GDoV, murdering, Luke is a killer, a murderer and a man known for his beauty 🤭🤭, Luke can't stop yapping 🤷, implied manipulation, ooc, cnc

3 posts in a day? Shockers, I'm a champ now mom 💯

A/n: since some of the requests are "Jealous Luke" and "Dark Luke" I decided to merge it into one! Also feel free to request other characters. Fyi, you can request Bianca/Leo/Nico/Will/Etc & gender! It can be M/F/Non-bi , you can choose which gods you want to be the godly parent too 🎀 I don't have a life and I'm free 24/7

One thing that Luke Castellan knows about you is that you are most likely Aphrodite's favourite daughter, - you shine so brightly that others are drawn to you, you're gorgeous and everyone knows that.

He, himself, can't help but worries his own obsession with you has turned worse since the past few years since he first saw you.

He starts stealing your belongings, particularly your undergarments. It was supposed to be a normal thing, like stealing your pen and your used shirt, but when he saw the laundry basket next to your bed, he couldn't help but reach for your pretty pink frilly panties.

He was glad he always wore cargo trousers. It's easy to hide your undergarments that way - a smirk appeared on his face at the thought of it.

Fortunately, no one was present when he left the Aphrodite Cabin. That is, until he heard Chris call his name. "Hey man - Mr.Chiron called us for another teammate's quest selection".

"Oh? Let's go," he says with a forced smile.

Well that was a few days ago and now he's stuck with a dude from Apollo Cabin and most importantly he's stuck with you.

He extended his hand. "(Name), isn't it?" he asked. "Camp Half Blood golden boy isn't it?" You tease.

Luke's gaze darted around the forest clearing, and he blushed; he hadn't realised your hand was shaking his extended hand.

Ethan Calixto. He's such a sight for sore eyes. Flirting with you in front of Luke. 'The audacity of a man', he thought to himself.

He pursed his lips, a slight furrow between his brows as he stared pointedly at Ethan, and with an icy coldness.

"We're here to go on a quest, not flirt," he scoffed.

If Luke had wanted to, he would have killed Ethan. Oh my gods, he has so many ideas, but his favourite is definitely killing the poor dude!

To show how satisfying it was to watch Ethan slowly slide against the wall with his back, leaving straight, thick red lines behind. His trembling mouth was trying to say something. He vomited a lot of blood, and the light reflections on his irises faded away.

But that was just one of his million ideas and he isn't trying to spend his time on a dude who's not worthy of your present.

Being Aphrodite's daughter does not imply that you are only an expert in Amokinesis, beauty, and French. You might just be Athena's daughter, based on the way you make plans.

Ethan, in an attempt to impress you, denies your plans and instead devises a terrible plan that he believes is a good idea. Luke dismisses, "Just because you can doesn't mean you should".

Now that irritates Luke. Ethan's ideas were terrible, but since this is his quest, you simply accept them, and Luke follows your lead, not without considering murdering Ethan in a different way.

★

Luke's eyes flickered with irritation, but he maintained composure. "Charisma is just one aspect of a successful quest. Cooperation is equally crucial."

As preparations began, tension lingered in the air. During another strategy meeting, Ethan emphasized his ideas, seemingly ignoring Luke's input. The latter bit his tongue, suppressing his desire to straight up murdering Ethan.

In the forest, while navigating a maze of twists and turns, Ethan made a questionable decision. Luke couldn't hold back any longer. "Ethan, are you sure about this path? It seems risky," he suggested, his patience wearing thin.

Ethan waved him off. "Relax, Castellan. I've got it under control. Your input isn't necessary."

The words stung, but Luke remained composed. You observed the escalating tension between the two. Luke, determined to prioritize the mission, restrained himself from confronting Ethan directly.

Ethan, with a sly grin, addressed Luke. "Castellan, do you have any issues with how I'm leading this quest?"

Luke sighed, choosing his words carefully. "I just think we should work together more closely. It's about teamwork, not individual glory."

Ethan chuckled condescendingly. "Teamwork, huh? Maybe if you were more decisive, we wouldn't need this discussion."

That causes Luke to snap. While you were sleeping like a sleeping beauty, Luke took advantage of the opportunity to photograph you with the stolen phone he was holding.

"For the latter," he thought to himself, chuckling.

Given that Ethan is also sleeping at the moment, Luke decides to murder him. Why? Because he was a nuisance standing in the way. One thing was certain: Luke was glad he asked Demeter's son for a poison plant a few weeks ago. He used the excuse of wanting to study about it.

Hemlock a relatively common plant that has been used to execute criminals throughout history, most notably the Greek philosopher Sokrates in 399 BC. By pulverizing the fruit after shelling it, then spread a thin layer of the powder over a cup of water. It takes approximately 0.5 grammes to kill an adult.

How would he die? It paralyses the spinal cord starting at the feet, and he dies within 30 minutes to 5 hours. What's the cause? Respiratory paralysis occurs while fully conscious.

And that was something Luke Castellan enjoyed about murdering. This is his third victim, and he's only 19 years old, but who are the gods to judge his actions?

"are you awake yet?" He said with bitterness. Ethan's groggy eyes snapped to Luke as he realised he was tied to a tree.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Ethan yelled out. "Hmm? I wonder what I'm doing." Luke ponders.

Luke smiled as Ethan struggled to free himself from the tree. "You shouldn't do that y'know, you're letting out too much noise to my liking"

Luke continues, "I thought Apollo's children were known for their foresight? Can't you see your future? I thought you were smart.."

"Shut the hell up Castellan, my dad's going to murder you!" Ethan's voice was strained as he yelled at Luke.

The realisation dawned on him, "fuck" Ethan cursed, and he lost feeling in his legs.

"What did you do to me, monster?" he spit out. "Oh I don't know just some Hemlock" Luke says with a grin, "I can't wait to see you die in a few hours!" He said that with a crazy look on his face.

"FUCK YOURSELF CASTELLAN"

Luke quickly returned to you and noticed you rubbing your eyes. "Good morning sleeping beauty, did you get a good night's sleep?" Luke teases.

You groaned, "What time is it?".

"It's only 2am way too early for you y'know go back to sleep."

You look around your surroundings and notice that Ethan is not with you. "Where's Ethan?" You speak up.

"nothing you should worry about, I think he's just taking a dump somewhere" said Luke with a laugh.

You chuckle nervously, noticing Luke's facial cuts and bruises. You decide not to be a busy body, you simply return to sleep, which Luke appreciates.

"good girl" he grinned.

Waiting for a few hours was boring, so Luke decided to visit Ethan again because why not? It's enjoyable just to see the man cry out in pain.

Luke quickly made his way deeper into the forest, noting that there were no signs of yelling or grunting. "oh? dead already that was fast."

Of course, he didn't want the cops and detectives prying into his life, so he sloppily buried Ethan near the trees, removing all traces of human presence.

He wasn't Demeter's child, so he doesn't know how to properly bury someone, and he couldn't care less about Ethan fucking Calixto.

Now he can have you all to himself, with no one to disrupt your interaction. It was finally 7 a.m., and the sun was casting a warm glow as you rose, just like a sun god would.

"Luke?" You groaned. "Hmm?" He sat there with food in front of him: toast with a sunny side egg. "Is that food or am I in heaven?" You make jokes.

"I cook this for you being the eldest makes me a great cook," he says, flashing his perfect pearly white teeth to you.

You immediately felt at ease and decided to sit next to him and eat your food quietly.

"I wonder where Ethan is?" You ponder.

"Are you not charmed by my present that you need another man?" He snapped. Oh, oh his bad side is beginning to emerge.

"w-what no! I'm worried because he chose us for this quest to keep him safe and fight alongside him." You explained.

1 minutes.

Another 4 minutes have passed.

Making it 5 minutes already and Luke Castellan is not helping.

It is beginning to bother you that he did not look for Ethan. What if he died due to your incompetence? What if he was killed by a bear while sleeping? But. When was Luke ever asleep? He couldn't possibly have murdered Ethan, could he?

"don't worry your pretty head" he finally breaks the silence.

"what did you do to him?" You muttered. "Ethan? Oh not so much" he said softly trying not to scare you.

Your tears were threatening to fall any second now. "D-did you k-kill him?" You gulp. "Maybe," he smiles, placing his hand on your cheeks.

His hands make you all soft and putty. "I know you're scared, my sweet girl." He presses a kiss on top of your head. "I will take care of you. You do not need to do anything. Okay?"

He's such a sweet talker that you're worried you'll excuse the fact that he murdered someone. You don't even mind the fact that his hands are engulfing your thighs, palms running up and down the exposed skin in mindless motions.

His brown eyes are staring at you. "Can I kiss you?" He asked. You may have been scared, but that did not stop you from mindlessly nodding.

After all, you were a little messed up in the head, just like him.

[thesunlistens]

I really love @gigizetz’s Warrior Penelope AU (for those who don’t know, it’s Epic/The Odyssey but Odysseus and Penelope swap places and some of the other characters swap too) and I have some questions that would have been too long for an ask:

• Is it based more on Epic or the original Odyssey? (If it’s more the original then you can disregard some of my Epic-specific questions.)

• I’ve seen you post a drawing where Ares is Penelope’s mentor (side note: I love that you accurately represent Ares supporting women! It really annoys me when people assume that male+violent=misogynist when actually supporting women is his main trait after violence!) Is Athena still Odysseus’s mentor in this AU? Because I’ve been giggling to myself imagining this happily married couple whose divine mentors are huge rivals and don’t like each other! Like, they would both invite their mentors over whenever they had a party or something and the two gods would spend the whole time glaring at each other while their mentees are in love and oblivious to the tension. It’s making me laugh!

• If this is the case, who does Ares have to convince instead of… well, himself, in God Games? You could just switch them, but if Athena is still Odysseus’s mentor, she wouldn’t really need convincing because she wants him to be happy, and besides, I can’t see her being paired up with Aphrodite. So who takes his place (is it someone else with a connection to Aphrodite, or is it reworked so she and the new god have separate verses?), and what’s their argument?

• I saw that you posted a really cool Iris design with Penelope - am I right in assuming she’s this AU’s version of Hermes since they’re both messenger gods?

• Are Odysseus’s suitors the same people as Penelope’s suitors, or do they swap places with the people who tried to seduce him in the original (Circe and Calypso)? And if it’s the second, how does the slaughter of the suitors work considering that, as Calypso says, goddesses can’t die?

• Are the crew the same people, or does Penelope have her own friends? And if they’re different people, who are they?

• Are there any other characters who swap places? Considering that the roles that are swapped mostly seem to be gender swapped, I can see Cassandra taking the place of Tiresias if her curse ended when she died, but that’s just an idea.

• Have you thought about reworked lyrics, e.g. a few times in Epic, “my wife” is used as the rhyme, what would the rhyme be for “my husband”? Or when the name of a character who’s swapped with another is the rhyme, e.g. what would replace “arena”? (I’m imagining something like “fight if you dare, he’s” something, but again, just an idea.)

• If you haven’t thought about reworked lyrics yet, can I work with you on it? I like writing, especially lyrics!

• Are there any major changes to the plot aside from the role swaps?

[localicecreambiter]

demi god LU time

the law of hyperfixations says you must combine interests at every given chance

adding a cut here as to not clog feeds!! its a real long post

i wanna hear thoughts too! so dont be afraid to comment. these are my personal opinions and i wanna hear if anyone agrees or disagrees :D (apologies for all the tags btw)

edit to add the stupid doodle

the gods all have favorites, and ironically none of them are their own kids (save for hades: he loves his kid. doesn't make him a good parent, but you know?)

In a more Zelda timeline abiding setting; Originally they weren't all at camp halfblood at the same time, but time shenanigans decided they were to be brought together

Imagine Chiron’s surprise when 7 of his dead campers waltz into camp (this happens EVERY SINGLE TIME they enter camp. Dionysus is completely unfazed, knowing the bs time shit the gods are dealing with atm)

By the time they enter camp in Wild’s Hyrule for the second time he kinda understands (Wind and Sky didnt have a Camp Halfblood, for the record, for obvious reasons)

Alternatively, its some form of modern au where they’re just from different parts of Hyrule (skyloft, downfall, ordonia, windfall peninsula, hyrule town (different from castle town), the list goes on) which would make a lot more sense for this kinda au (the world would’ve just had a LOT of calamities within the span of a few years, some of the heroes knowing about camp and others not so much)

(i think Legend, Wars, Time, Wind (post WW) and Four would’ve known about Camp Halfblood while the others were just kinda on their own until after their quests) meaning over half of them didn’t have prophecies and just went to deal with the issue themselves, possibly meaning on their journey they learned of camp

Ok well, all of them but Wars, who grew up at Camp Halfblood

All Zelda’s are children of Athena, save for Skyward Sword Zelda since she's the reincarnation of Hylia (yeah, im keeping the original Zelda goddesses! What of it?)

At some point fairly early on, a Zelda only had a son, who got together with Athena at some point and boom

Sky: child of Zeus 

self explanatory 

God of the skies? his name is literally Sky

not to mention how fucking powerful he is?

he was the "first" Link; Zeus was technically the first God, it makes sense (this is such a stupid reason)

The skies are his home, Zeus finding someone on Skyloft and “falling in love” with their love of the sky too results in this bad boy right here

The demise fight? Only a zeus kid could harbor lightning like that

A camp counselor in the modern setting (ik typically once you’re 18, you’re no longer a camper really, but shhhh)

Wind: child of Poseidon 

Don't roll your eyes, i've got a reason!!

the 4 wind gods throw a fit anytime he's sent on a quest (they all love him even if they won't admit it)

A world purely ocean and islands? Poseidon would have a fuckin ball

The Great Sea needed a hero, Wind was brought about more for necessity than out of the want to have a child (this leaves a hard disconnect between wind and the gods, knowing his dad didn’t really have him out of love for his mom but because the world needed to be saved)

The irony of Poseidon being the patron of pegasi and horses and Wind not knowing what a horse is will never not be a funny thought

Has more control over the wind than he does the sea (for now) 

he, like Legend, pointedly ignores that he's a demi-god, especially since he comes after the Hero of Time (kinda hard to live up to that, even outside of a demi-god au)

The ocean and winds are his mood ring: you upset him the wind gods are after you

In a modern setting, the same reason applies kinda; a quest under the sea would be virtually impossible for anyone but a child of Poseidon, and hell knows a cyclopes isnt gonna be sent (gotta love those prophecies) 

OR!! OR AND HEAR ME OUT

Wind isnt a demigod

The wind gods still adore him, but he doesn't have the hero’s spirit and i think that’d kinda translate to not being a demigod, yet still being the one who was destined to go on the quest because there just weren't any demigods to do it

Still not set on which id go with

Legend: child of Hades 

Ah yes, child of the big three goes on so many quests trope. Love to see it

he's Apollo's favorite favorite (Warriors is jealous as hell. Thats his dad! Wdym he likes Legend more????) 

Pointedly ignores the fact he's a demigod (at least, he definitely tries to)

Blessed by (and beefing with) so many gods from his quests

probably one of the few heroes who's spoken to their godly parent (trust me, it was out of obligation rather than free will)

Prefers helping out the more minor, underappreciated, and not as needy or bitchy gods (like Hestia, for example)

curses the Olympians constantly, they've learned to ignore him, hes their best questing kid

Sort of a general camp counselor since Hades doesn't really have kids (its technically his last year but hes been there the longest out of everyone)

Managed to block the oracle over iris message

After his trip to the dark world and lorule, the gods go haywire around him, much to his delight (because it means they leave him alone)

Hyrule: child of Hecate 

adopted by Hermes (much to the dismay of all the Hermes children)

I was on the line between Hecate, Apollo, and Hermes; Hyrule’s affinity for magic and the blood curse resulted in Hecate to win 

Very detached from the gods, the help he receives is never outright but more subtle blessings

The gods like to ignore Downfall after Legend died tbh (outside of modern, obviously)

Well, they still ignore Downfall as a city/country. 

Only learned of camp thanks to Legend, otherwise he wouldn’t have had a clue it existed

Wild: child of Athena 

Also adopted by Hermes 

One of the more chaotic children of Athena

The idea of Athena being his godly parent sourced from his resourcefulness and quick battle (or just general) strategies, along with his pre-calamity self being stoic and more on the critical side

Completely forgot he was a demigod and just let loose, Athena is more than slightly perturbed by him and yet so infatuated

Supervises archery at camp

Warriors: child of Apollo 

exemplifies almost 0 traits of his father other than his looks and his affinity for medicine (shit archer, shit musician, can't write poetry)

blessed by Athena during the war since he was struggling so much, she always has a soft spot for the heros since they fight to protect her daughters so hard (aka pity blessing) 

Actively beefing with Ares 

Aphrodite likes to keep an eye on him, mostly for entertainment (she woulda eaten the whole Cia debacle UP)

Very notorious in camp considering he was a war captain at the ripe age of 17; once learning of the whole Camp Jupiter has apartments and college for half bloods insisted and led a project at CHB to get something similar built (which is where he, Sky and Twilight stay after turning 18)

Twilight: child of Demeter

His love for ranch animals and caring for his farm lead me to this decision

Also the whole wolf thing, that also counts

Appalled by the fact Wind doesn't know what a horse is considering he's literally the son of Poseidon (jealous the kid can talk to Epona and he can't)

After his journey to the twilight, the gods kinda flicker between Greek and Roman around him so they tend to avoid him like Legend

blessed/cursed by Lupa, hence the wolf thing

Teaches foraging lessons at camp

Four: child of Hephaestus

He's the smithy, I couldn’t not say he's a Hephaestus kid

received a lot less help from the gods since he was one of the first 

started advocating that heros receive help from the divine after LU concludes so those after him have a fighting chance (not in the modern setting)

I havent played many of his games, but the kinstones sound like a thing Hephaestus would scatter across the earth as scrap from his creations

Not one of the fire wielders (the only one that can wield fire is Red when split, mostly because of the elemental bs in minish cap)

After drawing the Four Sword, Janus (despite being roman (i like to think the four sword would be a roman artifact, it just feels right)) was suddenly pretty interested and bestowed what wisdom he had for the demi-god

Vulcan, Neptune, Aeolus, and Ceres all came together to forge the elemental stones; the Minish were still the ones to bestow the sword to Hylian people

The gods tend to avoid him too, for the same reason they avoid Twilight and Legend (dark world shenanigans and the Four Sword)

He loves the damn forge at CHB, and was ecstatic seeing the one at Camp Jupiter

He was asked by Chiron if he would be interested in running a forge class for young demigods (be it his siblings or anyone interested) but sadly declined 

Has that air of responsibility to him, being a seasoned quester (and while his 3 doesn't stand to Legend’s 6, its still pretty sizable) hes looked up to by the younger campers

Time: child of Demeter Kronos? 

The Kokiri were so Demeter core dont even tell me they werent

I guess they’d kinda act like nymphs and dryads in a sense??

His abilities use to relate to his mother until the events of his first quest: the Ocarina of Time was designed to slowly corrupt the user, being a creation of Kronos’

However, it wasn’t really designed with a demigod in mind sooo…

Also self explanatory, the titan of time? Duh… huh?? what do you mean he was taken over?? What do you mean he was a child of Demeter?? No he wasnt lol that Neverrr happened

the reason he's the only “child” of a titan is mainly because of the fierce deity mask literally making him god-like, meaning he has a lot more power harbored in him sooo (the second he dawned that mask he discarded his old identity for that of a titan’s child, since it was also cursed object)

Don’t ask how he came to being Kronos’ kin, no one knows, not even he does (I do) (no, it does not imply a Hylian wandered into Tarturus and got out alive to have the baby)

Avoids interacting with the gods at all costs, he's weary of them as they are of him (even if he saved the world twice)

Extras :)

Ravio: child of Pluto 

blessed by Minerva for his natural quick witted nature and clever war strategies, if her own daughter can't succeed she might as well make sure ONE does

can tell if a rupee is real or not by glance alone

Sheerow scares the fuck out of the gods, which in turn means Ravio puts them on edge, a thing very few can achieve

the gods never gave him much thought until the events of albw, to which he suddenly gained like four pair of godly eyes on him

can and will plan one of the worlds most successful heists, refuses to participate 

also beefing with Ares (not Mars, Ares)

Based on my personal HC that Ravio’s some sort of artificer (be it replicating magic dungeon items or just flat out creating new ones) i think Vulcan has his eyes on him too

Hilda: child of Minerva 

by far the strangest child Minerva ever birthed

exemplifies the traits of a hero rather than a ruler

a little jealous her mother likes Ravio more than her

gods be damned, she's not going to let them neglect her kingdom anymore 

a force of fucking nature that single handedly forced a meeting with the gods and somehow forced them to agree to start restoring Lorule (she got the idea from Legend, who has done this multiple times for multiple different reasons)

[mer-acle]

Okay it's that time. I just kinda wanna talk about the nightmare sequence in this chapter of Fighting to be Loved, specifically what's real/ what actually happened bc I love to yap about what i wrote whoops

1. The athletics festival where Pallas got killed did take place in the courtyard, and Zeus, Hera and Poseidon were all there for it.

2. Someone pointed out that it's implied that Athena rewatched the moment of Pallas's death with time dives many times, and that person is correct, that's exactly what happened. Like the goddess of strategy wouldn't try to analyze her own mistake in that moment, trying to understand what went wrong.

3. Athena doesn't really speak or cry as she tries to staunch the bleeding, both of which she originally very much did. The nightmare is kinda meant to take her voice away bc she feels very powerless right now.

4. Pallas did call Athena "Thena" in reality. Nobody is surprised.

5. The whole scene with Triton is unfortunately pretty accurate to reality as well, he was very rough with her in that moment both verbally and physically. So yeah. That slap did happen.

6. Also her kinda flashing back to learning to dive is in reference to what I laid out in this post. I'm kinda just sighing at Triton in tired exasperation.

7. When Triton demands Zeus to take his daughter back, that's pretty much where we leave reality and enter the fucked up world of Athena's guilt-ridden mind. Bc in reality Zeus yielded pretty quickly (Poseidon was like 'you cannot ask them to keep her, not under these circumstances')

8. So yeah actually Zeus said exactly nothing of what he does in the dream. Surprising, I know. The thing is, he wouldn't even taunt Athena with her love for others bc he just expects her to be cold, so if anything she'd be scolded for it. Which still sucks. He made a big fuss about the whole "Pallas Athena" situation so he actually never acknowledges that title of hers, not even in anger, bc he is personally offended that she insisted on it despite him not wanting her to.

9. Also the most obvious, literally nobody in the family made any prayer even close to this one.

10. Zeus definitely makes comments along the lines of "I shouldn't have let you out of my head." when he's angry at Athena. Very much the "be grateful I birthed you" route. So yeah. Athena has like all the reasons to feel unwanted in general bc honestly the only parental figure who unconditionally loved her is literally the immortal equivalent of dead. Poor owl

So yeah that was that fucked up scene I wrote, stay tuned for more LOL.

[gnomeonamelon]

Hello! I wanted to post some designs for my versions of the PJO trio! For the sake of reference: Annabeth and Percy (in that order) are 19 and Grover is 32/16.

These designs are meant to be a fusion of their TLO and their HoO designs (Percy and Annabeth both have their new weapons but old hair and Grover's missing his Lord decor)

ANs Below! (idk if you need a spoiler warning if you're here but abandon all hope, ye who enter for there are secrets abound)

All of their colors were taken from their animal inspiration of choice (hence why everyone has a different shade of orange). The only one that had an added color was Percy because Skyrian horses don't have a shade of blue in them (despite their names)

Percy:

Since I'm already talking about Percy, given that everyone in a mile radius seems to have a crush on this teenage boy/ young man, he ends up being a bit of a badboy heartthrob (at least in appearance).

In this universe, Hera severs the connection between Percy and Riptide, causing her to not be able to return to Percy's pocket (and she can bond with a new wielder, but we'll come back to that). When he joins The Legion, they cut his hair significantly, brand him, and he eventually gains an imperial gold spatha (a massive Roman sword typically used by cavalry/ on horseback)

He and Annabeth keep the streaks of white they gained in The Titans Curse >:(. Percy also gains a new scar from Luke/ Kronos (mirroring his own).

Annabeth:

It was mentioned in The Hammer of Thor that Annabeth was noticeably growing her hair out which makes me think it was originally much shorter.

Since Athena is a virgin goddess and a goddess of the arts, I imagine that she and her siblings were sculpted in Athena's and their mortal parents' images and brought to life Galatea style as a gift to her favored. Annabeth was probably originally made of marble before being brought to life.

Annabeth originally wields the xiphos/ dagger Luke gave her and makes up for her lack of brute strength and speed with sneakiness (invisibility). Percy would teach her to use a sword and, when he goes missing and is presumed dead by the general Greek public, she wields Riptide (a makhaira), taking advantage of her hard-won skill and brutality, no longer hiding behind her cap.

Grover:

All of his shapes are so round <3 Beloved <3 His pose came out a little strange, but the ideas are all there.

He's considered part of the staff, being paid by the camp to be a Searcher for them (he uses his pay to fund his search for Pan when he's not looking for demigods).

His skirt mirrors the length of a male Greek chiton and he is both more comfortable in mortal clothing than other satyrs and pants are not suited for his leg shape (also just a little wink and nod at Zoe saying Grover's not a boy in TTC). He also loses the Rosta cap just after Battle of The Labyrinth as those horns will not fit bestie.

After becoming Lord of the Wild, Grover wears leaves and flowers in his hair and horns (there's definitely some juniper in there) as well as probably gaining a new outfit or potentially loosing clothes entirely.

Their Ages:

I decided that the reason all the campers are roughly the same age is because their powers develop roughly in line with Erik Erikson's Stages of Development. The gain power boosts at roughly 2, 6, 11, 18, 25, and 65 (if they live that long).

Grover found Percy when he was 11 but didn't bring him to camp until he was actually attacked by a monster when he was 13 (almost 14).

I decided to add a normal summer where there are no quests, and the Trio can just train in between TLT and SoM.

The Prophecy has been changed to 18 (when the Big Three demigod becomes an adult psychosocially).

[literallyjustforlurking]

Maiden, Mother, Man

Artemis stared at the screaming man in front of her, he looked insane. When Annabeth Chase had fallen off the cliff with the manticore she had been saddened by the loss of a strong maiden and had presumed to have to deal with the possibel grief of her questing partners but the way the boy was acting was.... confusing.

He looked like he had gone insane and for some reason this....upset her. She walked over to the maiden, mother, man who looked as if was considering throwing himself of the cliff after the man, father, maiden while the saytr was busy dealing with the young demigods for whom the manticore had originally been after.

Standing behind the Queen, Demigod she called his name that had been echoing across Olympus since his claiming "Percy Jackson," The name felt bitter on her tongue, it felt wrong. It was the name of the son of Poseidon but it did not seem to match the child who sat in front of.

The demigod turned to her and she saw the recogniztion in his eyes a moment before it appeared in her own. "My apologies you have lost your husband again," Penelope smiled up at her, "It would no use trying to lie to you would it?"

"I may not be the god of truth like my brother but I can recognize a maiden in any form."

The queen smiled at her again, but this time it seemed more subdued.

"It is always a pleasure to see you again my lady, but would you mind keeping the information of our return to yourself, I would prefer the sea god not know of my past and I do not believe my husband is ready to see Athena so soon."

Artemis thought on it "I must tell Zoe about the return of her freind but no other god shall hear about your return from me, I swear it."

The queen below her looked relived and than shocked, "Zoe still lives? Would you take me to see her?"

"I belive she would be more than happy to see you."

Artemis as the goddess of maidens is able to see that P!Percy is both Penelope and Percy but since Atremis only knows Penelope she'll mostly being using Penelope's name.

I'll also be expanding of Penelope and Zoe's relationship in another post.

Artemis understands just how much chaos a revelation of Percy and Penelope's return could bring to Olympus and since they are in the middle of war preperation they can't afford that right now. And at this point no one (other than Thalia herself) knows Thalia is Clymestra. So she and Zoe and she and P!Percy still have their rivalry's going on for now.

I will be doing another on for Apollo and H!Rachel but this one felt to long already lol

[drksanctuary]

DRK-SANCTUARY'S WIP/FIC MASTERPOST:

FINISHED/ WORKS IN PROGRESS:

BANDITS AND SHERIFFS:

Completed western AU for the PJO BigBang back in 2014. Around 50k words, collaboration with @thomas-life. Fictional "western setting" not historically accurate American west.

Original post for it HERE.

Link to Fic on Ao3: HERE

Title art HERE.

Character art HERE.

LIFTING THE MIST CURSE COMIC

(Mist Comic): A fan comic that chronicles an alternate timeline where Nico Meets Al after the event of BoO. Al comes to CHB to have people help him Lift the Mist Curse. (Rated M)

Chapter 1 HERE.

Miscellaneous Mist Comic:

Sketches

Excerpt with Al and Dionysus

nicobaster comic "Oreo Meme"

Nicobaster fluff scene

Dreams "amv" comic.

SON OF MAGIC VOLUME 2

(SoM V2): similar to mist comic Al and Nico meet after BoO (but waaay after in their early to mid 20's). Al is mired in the Olympian Underground/black market, Nico who is just trying to be a good camp recruiter gets dragged into Al's problems, but he kinda likes it. (Rated M)

Chapter 1 (TBD)

Miscellaneous SoM V2:

Post with better context

cover sketch draft

misc sketches and context

Al's updated club outfit

Silly meme

Excerpt from (likely) chapt 2

THE NEW GOLDEN AGE (Titan AU)

Al and Nico meet during the titan war, Titans end up winning with the help of the Giants. Like PJO but infinitely more YA novel about it. (Rated T)

Prologue: A03 post and link HERE, Regular Tumblr Post HERE

Chapter 1: HERE

Chapter 2: HERE

MAKING YOUR MARK ON ME (Tattoo AU) (EXPLICIT)

AU where Nico and Al meet as adults well after the wars. Alabaster Torrington owns a Magical Tattoo Parlor/Magic Shop. Nico di Angelo is a frequent customer, but when Nico goes there this time, it’s not for business… it’s for pleasure. (Rated E for language and sexual content. You have been warned)

Chapt 1 SFW (just the picture): HERE

Sketch of Alabaster SFW: HERE

Chapter 1: NFSW (Pic and fic) tumblr post HERE and Ao3 link HERE (rated M, really)

Chapter 2 (Actually rated E): on Ao3: HERE

HIDDEN GEM CAFE

technically the fic is a little fluff piece entirely written by @thomas-life not me but I drew the picture. link HERE. (Rated G)

CAMP CHTHONIC

More AN RP blog than a fic but if i do fics they will be posted on the sideblog: @campchthonic

OUT OF TARTARUS

A comic we started after the release of Mark of Athena. Nico escapes tartarus and immediately runs onto Alabaster. (rated T)

Chpt 1 Part 1/Pages 1-10 HERE

Chpt 1 Part 2/Pages 11-20 HERE

Chpt 1 Part 3/Pages 21-27 HERE

Chpt 2 Part 1/Pages 28-37 HERE

Chpt 2 Part 2/Pages 38-47 Pages HERE

Chapt 2 Part 3/Pages 38-57 (and bonus pg 58 posted later) HERE

A PIECE OUT OF PLACE

Victorian AU Jasico and Bianca/Alabaster (i know its odd but trust me it made sense). also i know, NOT NICOBASTER??? wha??? (Also rated M)

Jasico Week Picture And Summary HERE

Jasico Dramatic Kiss pic HERE

Jasico steamy scene pg 1 and 2 (kind of NSFW) HERE

Victorian Sketches HERE

Victorian Sketches (old) has Piper bc it was before we changed it to Bianca HERE

Cute Jasico Sketches HERE

Victorian Jasico Meet-cute HERE

Jason and the wolves HERE

SNIPPET FIC/IDEA DUMPS

CHTHONIC CAMP AU (fanfic for a fanfic)

Not to be confused with the camp Chthonic blog above these are all the links for stuff I did for my interpretations and headcanons and AUs for @gutsybitsies Chthonic Camp AU. Their original fic HERE.

Jason and Nico and Al. HERE.

Nicobaster ficlet. HERE

Nicobaster looking bamf. HERE.

Alabaster being extra: HERE

ANCIENT CHTHONIC NICOBASTER (rated M)

"But your highness our love is forbidden" pic. HERE

APHRODITE NICO/THEMIS AL

Original post: HERE

Post with Drew (Nico's sister): HERE

Aprodite!Nico and Mars!Jason: HERE

JACKSON HOUSE NICOBASTER (rated M ig)

Idea post HERE

SLUT AU (rated M)

Idea post HERE

NICOBASTER FANFIC TO ORIGINAL WORK PIPELINE

MEDIEVAL PJO (KnightSlayer)

"A bastard shall be king." ....So reads the Prophecy of the Ages. But with a war on the horizon and Hazel to feed, Nico has more to worry about than kings and their bands of upper class sycophants. That is, until Percy comes along, and suddenly he finds himself right in the middle of it all... (rated M)

Ao3 link: HERE

Al and Nico Meeting: HERE

Nico and Percy (kiss). HERE (might be considered mature by some)

Nico backstory. HERE (rated M for Violence)

Chapt Pictures i had planned. HERE

Ball Sketches HERE

Nico Backstory 2 (sad) HERE

Nico and Percy Thestral encounter HERE

Miscellaneous Medieval AU Nico Sketches: Sketch 1 HERE, Sketch 2 HERE, Sketch 3 HERE.

MERMAID AU (Through the Sea Glass)

Like "the little mermaid" but with extra fantasy world building and the prince (Nico) ACTUALLY falls in love with the Sea Witch (Alabaster) instead of the mermaid (Percy) rated G

Summary with pictures HERE

Octokind Alabaster HERE

PHANTOM AU - (Phantom Haven)

Nico's near-death experience endows him with powers and now he has to be a Savior which means he has to fight phantoms to keep people safe which would be a doable job, BUT that's not the only task of a Savior. He also has to uphold the integrity of the Savior System (ugh),Do good deeds and report them to his supervisor (double ugh), train his Lumen (dead eyed little thing doesn't like to listen to him so...ugh again!) and last but definitely not least he has to dedicate his life to figuring out how to use his endowment to cure a great societal problem... to perform... a MIRACLE TM. (yikes on bikes, no pressure). Will he be able to live up to the expectations of greatness that has been thrust upon him? or will he fail?

Character concepts 1-6 HERE

Character concepts 7-8 HERE

CHIP AU - (No original title yet)

Modern Human AU in which an aimless Nico's life is changed for the better when someone abandons their little baby girl (Hazel) on the steps of the refurbished fire house he now lives in. Years later he finds a little kid named Frank and adopts him as well. Now he just needs to navigate life as a single parent which he is mostly fine with until Bianca tries to set him up with her fiance's best friend (Alabaster). Will this romance stay the casual fling it started as or could it blossom into something more? (Rated M)

NIco with bb hazel HERE

CHURCH AU - (no original title yet)

An AU where Nico sells his soul to save his family from dying, when he meets his untimely death however he finds that Hell is not what he expected, its a quarry, and is he does his quotas, he can ascend the ranks, and even make it to heaven. Each Level comes with its own set of rules. The level right before heaven, which requires Demons to go to earth to collect evil humors that taint people's souls, has the MOST rules. With him being unable to see his family, not knowing what he's doing, and finding out that his childhood friend has grown into a handsome...Preist in training?!? Nico finds that he can't keep the all of the rules straight, especially because he's not. (Rated M)

Nico as a Demon pic HERE

There's quite a few more AUs but the above shows most of them.

If you'd like to know more about the above or about the ones not mentioned please subscribe to "Nicobaster premium" for the low low price of Free.99! And if you are 18 or older and interested I also have Nicobaster Premium 18+ (for the same price for all your smutty needs. Tee Hee!)

That's all, Nicobaster Houshold!...FOR NOW!

[skepticdoe]

Felt the absolute NEED after seeing you post about epic, BUT HERES MY PROPOSAL TO YOU

Which South Park characters would you cast as each epic character (and why if you’re feeling ambitious)

HII!! sorry for the late response, life has absolutely been putting me through the wringer 😓

IVE ALREADY POSTED MY SOUTH PARK EPIC CASTING BUT IVE INTERACTED WITH A FEW OTHER EPIC FANS AND MY CASTING HAS CHANGED A BIT! :)

okay so apologies if this is messy and disorganised lmfao

Odysseus: Stan Marsh for obvious reasons

Penelope: Wendy Testaburger again for obvious reasons

Telemachus: Their child!! -> this would be an original character I guess :p

Athena: Kyle Broflovski -> angsty platonic style 😈 *rubs hands together menacingly*

Hermes: Kenny McCormick -> I dare you to come up with a better casting can you imagine Kenny singing dangerous?? We all know he’s got that Holy Moly ;)

Eurylochus: Tolkein Black -> I feel like Stan and Tolkein have this rocky relationship in general. Tolkein would be loyal to his captain but also has morals of his own.

Polites: Butters Stotch -> he’s that one comfort character that dies at the very start (does this make OdyPoli Stutters (Stan x butters) 🤔)

Posideon: Craig Tucker (Polyphemus and the sheep are like his Guinea pigs lmao 😭) -> I REALLY REALLY wanted Creek to be in this au but I cannot for the life of me fit them in anywhere. One of my very lovely mutuals and fellow spxepic fans recommended Craig as Posideon and the sheep as Guinea pigs (which is genius and I love btw) but then tweek as Polyphemus would be odd considering he’s Craig’s child. Polyphemus and his siblings are just giant Guinea pigs in this for now 😭

Calypso: Leslie Myers -> who better than her to be the manipulator and emotional torturer?

Tiresias (the prophet): Micheal (I just found out he doesn’t have a last name what) -> Tweek actually had this role first but Micheal honestly gives off emo dead prophet vibes.

Circe: Red McArthur OR Henrietta Biggle -> they both give off witchy girlboss vibes but im not sure which one of them would resort to lust for persuasion

Aeolus: Heidi Turner (?) OR Nichole Daniels -> I’m purely unsure of this because I also want to cast Heidi as Hera and Nichole would be a stand in (don’t get me wrong I love Nichole)

Zeus: Eric Cartman -> um. egotistical, sadistic maniac? Who does that sound like? I also like to make this epic au also a stick of truth au so Cartman is currently so powerful only because he currently possesses the stick.

Aphrodite: Bebe Stevens -> she was originally Circe and I still think she’d fit her pretty well too but I needed an Aphrodite and Ares stand in ship and Clybe was the only one that would fit

Ares: Clyde Donovan, for the shits and giggles 😭 -> I literally giggle every time I think of this casting because Clyde the crybaby as Ares is hilarious. He literally only got this role cause of Bebe. But they are both arrogant so in works in that way I guess??

Hephaestus: Christophe the Mole -> passionate weapon master who is all about loyalty and war? Christophe.

Apollo: Jimmy Valmer -> we HAVE to give the role of music god to our local favourite bard

Hera: I was going to cast Heidi here too because Zeus as Cartman and Heidi as Hera and her part in God Games would fit PERFECTLY

Antinous: either Damien or Trent Boyett 😕 -> I needed angry characters that want power and these two are what I’ve got

so yes!!! This is my official unofficial South Park epic casting 😋

I also have an alternative k2 au with Kyle as Odysseus instead but I guess this one is like my MAIN headcanon/casting

I would LOVE to hear your opinions and casting (along with anyone else who’s interested :>)

Thank you so much for this ask and feel free to spam my inbox whenever!! 👍🙌

(this is so goddamn long omfg)

[lunadetta]

even though it’s older I still like this collection of Nyx drawings!

now for lore time:

Nyx is a (supposed) rabbit who comes from a small island, Tewabbit, from the middle of the sea. They eventually meet three other characters during high school, from various places in the magical world, and the four of them form an extremely tight knit friend group!

Nyx may not seem super intimidating or anything, and that’s perfectly fine with them! Nyx has natural social abilities which can disarm even the coldest hearts. They love bright, colorful, and loud things, and is a talented music composer!

However, Nyx has their own issues. The bright exterior is definitely a cover-up for their chronic nihilism, and deep down, Nyx LOVES horror and dark things, alongside all the cutesy stuff. They are also horribly depressed, but that’s okay! “X3”

the other three will be formally sketched and introduced soon ;3 I have fuller reference sheets as well to share, maybe when I’ve given a small intro on everyone else

nyx.

nyx.

They/them btw