#name change saga

[altruisticenigma]

I filed the paperwork today to do my legal name change ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

I am a NERVOUS WRECK, EXCITED and FEELING A LOT OF EMOTIONS RAAAAAAAAHHHH

[mer-acle]

Zeus' Favorite AU

by @evermorecatra and @mer-acle

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If Metis has a son, he shall surpass his father in strength and usurp him as he did to his own father. Should she bear a daughter, her mind will stand tall beyond both her parents.

And Metis bore a a daughter, not a son.

Still, from the day she is freed from her father's skull, Athena is a threat, loved yet hated, raised high and mercilessly torn down at the God King's whim, so she never considers trying to fulfill her brother's prophecy.

Olympus sees the Golden Child, the perfect princess, the favorite, but Athena knows better. She's flawed, in constant need of being disciplined, taught to do better, to overcome the weakness so deeply ingrained within her. Her father is merciful enough not to make her punishments public.

Ares may think he gets treated roughest by the Thunderbringer, so may Hephaestus. Neither of them expects their eldest sister to understand the pain from more than a bystander's perspective. They couldn't be more wrong.

Of Metis' bright-eyed daughter, and the man working tirelessly to make her spark dim. Of those who stood by helplessly, those torn down in the crossfire, and the mortal man who changed it all forever.

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We proudly present, the AU concept we've been working on. We're nowhere near done, but we've got SO. MUCH. ANGST planned already. Like we are on all of Olympus' death list for this for a variety of reasons and we'll probably be on yours too XD

Feel free to ask questions about this (or yell at us already, that's okay too)

xx

[kilgarraghforever]

I am genuinely really enjoying seeing people who have clearly never read the Odyssey before reacting to EPIC's Ithaca saga. I haven't listened to EPIC myself (yet) but people keep saying stuff like "Odyseeus built their palace around an olive tree he carved into his and Penelope's marriage bed that's so symbolic" and "He really just murdered all the suitors wouldn't that piss off their parents?" Which are observations and questions that the Odyssey makes incredibly blatantly clear as to the symbolism or the answer because it's a really old poem and subtlety wasn't really Homer's strong suit.

There's something really endearing about seeing people interact with the Odyssey through the same way the Ancient Greeks did - a bard singing the story of Odyseus' nostos.

(I gather the details have changed a little, but that's what happens with oral storytelling, and that's how the Odyssey got created in the first place)

Also as congratulations have my favourite ancient depiction of Odysseus surfing with two amphemorae having stolen Poseidon's trident, being sped along by Boreas, stark naked except for a cloak he's holding onto.

[divyasoup]

very shitty role reversal sketch

[gabichanwrites]

Can you... Can you guys imagine. Get in the Water. Poseidon is MAD happy to finally get Odysseus. Get in the Water, Odysseus. Or I will DROWN your Ithaca, or I will GOUGE your son's eyes. Odysseus answers, begs. What else can he do? It's Been Ten Years, they are both hurting from loses. Why can't they stop and just... go home. Finally, finally get to the home that is so close.

But No. The god says "Die". The god sends waves, sends him under. Ruthlessness is Mercy, he said before. He will not let Odysseus get away again. There is no escaping god of the sea now, not so deep in the ocean. Odysseus can hear Polites, can hear Eurylochous, can hear his mother. All of his comrades are Waiting, Waiting, Waiting. He can't let go but he must. They are Waiting. But then something unlike the sound of trumpets - crashing waves - resonates within him. A beat like his heart but getting stronger, getting more powerful. His chest is vibrating with it when he finally hears the tick-ticking, so familiar yet foreign. Then, a voice shakes his very being. "I was promised blood." Godly wrath fills him and suddenly Ares' instruments are all he can hear, followed closely by his soldiers' vengeful cry.

[gelphieyurii]

Genderbendt thorfinn wippp

It doesn’t really look like him rn💔💔💔

[kingoftieland]

Jessica Chastain DIDN’T KNOW HER CHARACTER’S NAME in Dark Phoenix! 📛

[thegamingcatmom]

The Sisters will get a name change!

I announced this quite a while back but "The Sisters" will get a name change that is more fitting to the core of the story, which is really about personal/emotional growth, overcoming the struggles life throws at you, and staying true to yourself despite these obstacles. It´s about becoming the best version of yourself, which is why the new title will probably be as followed:

The Bumpy Road Home

Not sure if I´ll change it right away or later, but I wanted to let y´all know in advance so there won´t be any confusion or outright panic when "The Sisters" suddenly doesn´t pop up on ao3 anymore. 😅✌️

With that said:

(Hope to) Cya at Chapter 4! ❤️‍🔥

[wolf-girl]

The Cullen-Hale Clan

and their cover-up story

It's the first time for all seven of them to live at the same place as Clans of more than two vampires are not unusual, but always temporary. Only mated vampires stay together all the time.

Rosalie-Liane Halle

born 1515, in France bitten by Tanya, at the age of 23 After being reborn she travelled with the sisters until 1898. Then she and Emmett left them to live alone. in Olympic Bay she's known as Rosalie Hale - 21 years old; mechanic; Emmett's wife; Carlisle's younger sister

Carlisle Cullen Pereira

born 1640, in England bitten by a vampire he had been hunting, at the age 38 He was alone, until he met his friends Eleazar and Carmen again in 1859. Esme was with them at the time and they fell in love, leaving the other two only eight years later. They have been together ever since. known as Doctor Carlisle Cullen - 36 years old; an amazing surgeon; Esme's husband; Edan and Jade's father; Alice's adoptive father; Rosalie's older brother

Esmeralda Ana Cullen Pereira

born 1691, in Spain bitten by Eleazar, at the age of 36 she was voted to act as the leader of the Clan during their stay close by Olympic Bay. known as Esme Cullen - 36 years old; social educator, who had renovated their houses before they moved there; Carlisle's wife; Edan and Jade's mother; Alice's adoptive mother

Emmett McCarty

born in 1815, Tennessee bitten by Esme, at the age of 25 Emmett was being mauled by a black bear in the mountains of Tennessee, when Esme was in the area hunting. She saved his life by transforming him. known as Emmett Hale - 23 years old; park ranger; Rosalie's husband

Jade Whitlock*

born in 1845; in Texas bitten by Maria, at the age of 19 Jade had a rough first year as a vampire and struggled to properly control her thirst even after that. Carlisle and Esme where traveling through Monterrey and met Jasper, who seemed interested in their way of vampire life. He introduced them to Jade and she wanted to give drinking animal blood a try so, she went with them. known as Jade Cullen - 18 years old; studying history at the Peninsula College in Olympic Bay; Edan's older twin sister; Alice's girlfriend

Alice Mei Bando

born in 1901, in Mississippi bitten by Carlisle, at the age of 19 Carlisle was her docter at the asylum and transformed her in order to save her from James. Since her father had spread the lie that his daughter had died and her family never visited, he had offered her that life. Alice has no memory of her human life left. known as Alice Cullen - 17 years old; studying international business at the Peninsula College in Olympic Bay; adopted by Carlisle and Esme at the age of 15; Jade's girlfriend

Edward Anthony Masen

born in 1983, in Illinois bitten by Esme, at the age of 19 He barely survived a horrific accident. His mother died at the crash site and used her last breath to ask her colleague, Esme, who was in the car with them, to save her son's life. known as Edan Cullen - 18 years old; studying music at the Peninsula College in Olympic Bay; Esme and Carlisle's son; Jade's younger twin brother

Rosalie and Emmett live in their own house.

* Jade is my take on Jessamine, but she's also Jasper's younger sister

[altruisticenigma]

Have I changed my name into something people are going to have a hard time pronouncing? Yes

Is it so much better than having people say my dead name and it feels like a cheese grater against my ears every single time I hear it? Abso-fucking-lutely.

I love the validation and the care people have when hearing my name, either the shortened or full version. The curiosity. The funny remarks- Oh! I have a daughter also named Wednesday! - Oh, that’s so cool/pretty! - And I love that it’s the name I tell people. That I tell them I am actively choosing.

Yeah it’s a bit irksome that pretty much always, my name is gonna be a mouthful and a half, lol. But I’m slowly learning to own it. Because anything- literally anything, and especially how meaningful this name is- is way better than my dead name.

[hanzajesthanza]

it really does matter so much that fringilla vigo is nilfgaardian, beauclairoise, for many reasons, but let's start here:

her entire role is that of an illusionist; one which she would not be were it not for her family lineage, rooted in beauclair:

There was a corridor in Beauclair Palace, and at the end a chamber, the existence of which no one knew about. (...) The corridor and the chamber, disguised by a powerful illusion, were known only to the palace’s original elven builders. And later–when the elves had gone, and Toussaint became a duchy–to the small number of sorcerers linked to the ducal house. Including Artorius Vigo, a master of magical arcana and great specialist in illusions. And his young niece, Fringilla, who had a special talent for illusions.

and since her talent in illusions is well-defined in the series, as it is her who grants geralt the very silver-mounted chrysoprase amulet which saves his life in the final fight against vilgefortz:

Geralt clenched Fringilla’s medallion in his fist. The bar fell with a clang, striking the floor a foot from the Witcher’s head. Geralt rolled away and quickly got up on one knee. Vilgefortz leaped forward and struck. The bar missed the target again by a few inches. The sorcerer shook his head in disbelief and hesitated for a second. (...) ‘I didn’t know …’ Yennefer said at last, scrambling out of a pile of rubble. She looked terrible. The blood trickling from her nose had poured all over her chin and cleavage. ‘I didn’t know you could cast illusory spells,’ she repeated, seeing Geralt’s uncomprehending gaze, ‘capable even of deceiving Vilgefortz.’ ‘It’s my medallion.’ ‘Aha.’ She looked suspicious. ‘A curious thing...’

that talent is something which cannot, by far, be separated from her character. and returning back to her lineage, it is again her familial relations which place her in beauclair.

she was positioned there, ready to intercept geralt, as early as the autumnal equinox in september, by which time geralt had barely just left the town of riedbrune:

The world over, the autumn Equinox was a night of spectres, nightmares and apparitions, a night of sudden, suffocating awakenings, fraught with menace, among sweat-soaked and rumpled sheets. Neither did the most illustrious escape the apparitions and awakenings; (...) In the huge castle of Montecalvo the sorceress Philippa Eilhart leaped from damask sheets, without waking the Comte de Noailles’ wife. The dwarf Yarpen Zigrin in Mahakam, the old witcher Vesemir in the mountain stronghold of Kaer Morhen, the bank clerk Fabio Sachs in the city of Gors Velen and Yarl Crach an Craite on board the longboat Ringhorn all awoke more or less abruptly. The sorceress Fringilla Vigo came awake in Beauclair Castle*, as did the priestess Sigrdrifa of the temple of the goddess Freyja on the island of Hindarsfjall.

* Slight correction - As explained in Chapter 3 of Lady of the Lake, Beauclair is not a castle, but a palace.

and she's only invited to beauclair in such a capacity because she is a relative of the duchess:

‘I’m in Beauclair because the largest, best-stocked library in the known world is here. Apart from university libraries, naturally. But universities are jealous of giving access to their shelves, and here I’m a relation and good friend of Anarietta and can do as I wish.’

(whom, you may note, she stands by and jointly receives geralt with at their first meeting, and participates in the festival of the vat with)

and therefore, she was in a perfectly strategic position to delay geralt, keep him captive:

‘(...) Please at least tell us … has the Witcher calmed down now? Are you capable of keeping him in Toussaint at least until May?’ (…) ‘No,’ she answered at last. ‘Probably not until May. But I’ll do everything in my power to keep him here as long as possible.’

because fringilla is not just an illusionist literally, as in the magic she is naturally gifted at, but 'illusionist' is her entire identity as a character.

and as her family hails from beauclair, this specific identity is compounded with the fact that beauclair itself is the center of illusions, a dreamland, a fairytale:

‘There’s something bewitched about this place, this fucking Toussaint. Some kind of charm hangs over the whole valley. Especially over the palace (...) no two ways about it, there’s something bewitched about this bloody Toussaint.’

fringilla is an illusionist because she is beauclairoise. she not only hails from a long line of illusionists, but hails from, is related to the ruler of, the very city of illusions and dreams.

she is the illusionist not just in a literal sense, but in the entire narrative role of casting an illusion over our hero, because it is the illusion of love which keeps her and geralt in beauclair. (the tricky trick is that geralt, taking a page out of yennefer's playbook of seduction, cleverness, patience, was able to cast an illusion upon the mistress of illusions herself, free himself from the witch's spell, awake from a pleasant dream to face the harsh reality).

(sighs) and even if you want to forget fringilla's beauclairoise identity and erase her entire positioning as the illusionist which poses a threat to our heroes, entices them to complacency, her role as nilfgaardian in the sense of her academic identity and imperial service also defines her.

because it is also fringilla, the illusionist who casts the wool over people's eyes... who blinded yennefer at sodden hill.

‘We’ve already met,’ Yennefer spoke again. ‘I don’t recall,’ Fringilla said without looking away. ‘I’m not surprised. But I have a good memory for faces and figures. I saw you from Sodden Hill.’ ‘In which case there can be no mistake,’ Fringilla Vigo said and raised her head proudly, sweeping her eyes over all those present. ‘I was at the Battle of Sodden.’ (...) ‘Occasionally one happens to see another person for only a split second, right before going blind, and one takes a dislike to them instantly.’ ‘Oh, enmity is considerably more complicated,’ Fringilla said, squinting. ‘Imagine someone you don’t know at all standing at the top of a hill, and ripping a friend of yours to shreds in front of your eyes. You neither saw them nor know them at all, but you still don’t like them.’ ‘So it goes,’ Yennefer said, shrugging. (...)

fringilla's (proud!) participation at the battle of sodden is a crux of the lodge, because she alongside her good friend, the scholarly assire, they are nilfgaardians who, owing to their nationality, find challenges meshing with the northern sorcereresses. the lodge brought together representatives of magic across nationalities in the midst of a raging, bloody war between them all.

and it's so integral to fringilla's character that she has imperial biases, that she approaches even the international lodge with an imperialist view.

with no factual basis, she initially exotifies and sexualizes the northern sorceresses, despite her own prior denial of these base stereotypes:

Fringilla Vigo was putting on a brave face, but she was anxious and stressed. She herself had often reprimanded young Nilfgaardian mages for uncritically yielding to stereotypical opinions and notions. She herself had regularly ridiculed the crude image painted by gossip and propaganda of the typical sorceress from the North: artificially beautiful, arrogant, vain and spoiled to the limits of perversion, and often beyond them. (...) Her untrammelled imagination offered up images of impossibly gorgeous women with diamond necklaces resting on naked breasts with rouged nipples, women with moist lips and eyes glistening from the effects of alcohol and narcotics. In her mind’s eye Fringilla could already see the gathering becoming a wild and depraved orgy accompanied by frenzied music, aphrodisiacs, and slaves of both sexes using exotic accessories.

she even has a difficult time understanding why the northern sorceresses are upset about the nilfgaardian invasion, believing it to be a boon to their society. only through their discussion does she just barely begin to grasp the meaning of "invasion" and why she wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of it:

Some were clearly anxious about the close proximity of Nilfgaard. Fringilla had mixed feelings. She had assumed that such educated people would understand that the Empire was bringing culture, prosperity, order and political stability to the North. On the other hand, though, she didn’t know how she would have reacted herself, were foreign armies approaching her home.

all of this indoctrination into imperial beliefs, at the same time that she is an educated woman, and herself, as an imperial sorceress, known for being rebellious and an upstart within her own culture:

‘Stop staring,’ Assire said, touching her bouffant and glistening curls. ‘I decided to make a few changes. Why, I just took your lead.’ ‘I was always taken as an oddball and a rebel,’ Fringilla Vigo chuckled. ‘But when they see you in the academy or at court…’

this is such a chaotic rambling post, but all i want to say is that fringilla's character, like most of the minor characters in the witcher series, was not invented through random generation, a roll of the dice, a spin of the wheel. her specific traits - such as her nationality, lineage, talents - all relate back thematically. everything is relevant, specifically chosen to create a specific character.

if once changes her backstory (e.g., to place her at aretuza... though i don't know who would do such a thing for no reason) they would change her entire character, the series' commentary on imperialism, and because of her role she takes later on, even the entire ending of the story.

[minimooberry]

I knew you in another life You had that same look in your eyes I love you, don't act so surprised

[stpansy]

another url option…

[longeyelashedtragedy]

i swear there was a time when i used to write more normal footy fics, but now we're halfway through 2024 and i'm writing franko dissociating out of a hetero quickie till john terry interrupts by coming in with a cart full of alcohol and it's 5 in the morning. not sure if personal growth or villain arc

[rush-the-stars]

thinking about changing my main blog’s (firein-thesky) name! hiding this poll on side blog. but help me pick a new url!

[percyouinhell]

Better late than never 😭

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY S!! @lacunafiction