#pre fall of troy

[dilfaeneas]

Patroclus, Achillies and Deidamia redesign after some Pinterest searching

[whathappenstotheheart]

I'm quite pumped to start my Fic O'Clock challenge tomorrow! I'm not totally sure which WIP I'll tackle on the first day, but here's a list in no particular order of the works I may or may not poke during the challenge:

Heal - Star Trek TNG - A long-form slow burn Beverly/Deanna friends-to-eventual-polycule that's sadly been stuck between chapters 3 and 4 forever. Look forward to getting back to it! AO3 link

Another Haven - Star Trek TNG - AU Beverly/Deanna short-shot reworking of the TNG episode "Haven". Still drafting.

Unnamed O'Keiry's short shot - Star Trek DS9 - Short-shot about Miles, Kira and Nerys getting together following the birth of Kirayoshi. Still drafting but did Flufftober for it last year.

Melodies - Criminal Minds - Emily/JJ/Will friends-to-polycule fic with a lot of angst. In the planning stage.

Missed Opportunities - Criminal Minds - Penelope/Morgan one-offs showing all the ways they could've gotten together. Two already up, two being drafted.

Unnamed ER fix-it - ER - One-shot fix-it fic for a particular Kerry Weaver scene/storyline. Still planning, I can't even decide which way to go with the fix-it.

I feel like there's others I'm missing but hopefully not... I certainly won't finish them all, but hopefully I'll make progress with them all and finish a few!

[fantastic-nonsense]

I have a fun [citation needed] hypothetical for you. Say you have been granted the authority to make FIVE editorial directives for DC comics that will be followed for at least the next five years. What are you demanding?

No company events.

No major events with ten thousand tie-in comics.

No big crossover events.

No big gimmick events.

No event comics.

Okay, I kid, but only slightly. I'm actually going cheat slightly and give you five plus an extra one that needs a bit more explanation:

No company-wide crossover events or gimmick events that derail major ongoing stories in individual books shall be made. If an event comic is published, any tie-ins will be published separately from the character's ongoing/mini (for reference: like the Blackest Night tie-in specials).

Institute a lore consistency team within the Archives department. Mandate that every single creative team MUST read and utilize a character/story bible before writing any scripts. The scripts will be looked over by a member of the lore team as well as the book editor before being approved for publication.

The Young Justice generation is finally allowed to grow up and, where necessary, get new hero names. In particular, Tim Drake finally gets to age and stop being Robin. He picks 'Blackbird' as his new name, gets a cool new red-and-black costume, and stars in a rebooted Young Justice book alongside his friends.

Barbara Gordon has to formally retire from the Batgirl role and become Oracle full time again. This is handled in a way that is respectful of her character and her disability. Cassandra Cain will be Batgirl full-time again while Stephanie Brown goes back to Spoiler; Cass gets a Batgirl solo ongoing while Steph would join a rebooted Gotham Knights team book that includes her, Kate, Helena, Luke Fox, and Jean-Paul Valley.

Wonder Woman's established lore is acknowledged, respected, and re-emphasized. Diana is a clay baby again, Cassie is Zeus's daughter again, The Return of Donna Troy is acknowledged as the definitive explanation of Donna's multiple-choice backstory (while the fire origin stays the definitive origin), Artemis gets her original origin back, etc. Full acceptance of the Rucka Rebirth retcon to reset Diana's origins and childhood back to the post-Crisis status quo. No references to the Zeus origin or the New 52 Amazons are allowed to be made except in context of Rucka's "it was a lie" explanation.

In priority order, those editorial mandates probably fall out to be something like 2>1>5>3 and 4 in a tie; 3 and 4 are kinda interchangable since they collectively would fix a wide swath of what's wrong with the Bat books right now.

My "extra" mandate would be that writers must utilize existing characters where possible for their stories. No new "major" heroes are to be introduced unless a writer can prove that a book needs a new character to fill an identified gap. Prioritization should go to a) characters who used to be used on a regular basis in a given book but have not been seen in 10+ years and b) characters introduced within the past 5-7 years.

I'd want this one for two reasons: one, there's a ton of pre-existing characters who used to be staple or regularly recurring characters who have failed to get regular appearances since 2011, for a variety of reasons. Forcing writers to use them instead of creating new characters would allow DC to rebuild some continuity, bring back old favorites, and provide closure to lingering storylines that were cut short or never followed up on. Two, there's a hell of a lot of new characters have been introduced and discarded without actually building them out properly the last few years. I would honestly only put this one in place for around 3 years...long enough to force DC to actually flesh out the underutilized newbies and provide some closure and new beginnings for some old favorites.

[lexi7654]

Reading list #1: Lian Harper (aka: Shoes/Cheshire Cat)

A list of every appearance of Lian Harper. The daughter of Roy Harper and Jade Nguyen. She first appeared in the 80s and has recently made a come back as Cheshire Cat in Gotham!!

Pre-Flashpoint

New Teen Titans (1984): #21

Action Comics (1938): #615, 618, 627-631, 634, 636-637, 639 (Stories: tracks of a killer, the Cheshire Contract, Rocks and Hard Places, Exiles)

Secret Origins (1986): #38

Green Arrow (1988): #75

Batman Plus: Arsenal (1997)

Teen Titans (1996): #20

Arsenal (1998): #1-4

The Titans (1999): #1

The Titans: Secret Files and Origins (1999): #1

The Titans (1999): #5-7, 9-10, 13, 17-19, 21-27, 30-32, 34-35, 37, 39

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files & Origins (2003) (story: Who Was Donna Troy?)

Outsiders (2003): 11, 17-19

DC Special: The Return of Donna Troy (2005): #2

Justice League of America (2006) #1, 12, 17

Green Arrow and Black Canary (2009): #25 (story: Bedtime Stories)

Titans (2008): #19

Justice League: Cry for Justice

Rise and Fall (Crossover storyline)

Convergence: Titans (2015): 1-2

Infinite Frontier

Catwoman (2018): 25-28, 30-32

DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration (2021): (Story: Masks)

Catwoman (2018): 35-38, 50

Detective Comics (2016): 1069-1070, 1077-1079

Green Arrow (2023)

[do-you-ship-this-comic-ship]

propaganda:

They interacted in one (1) arc, pre-Flashpoint, pre-New 52, and as far as I know they have not interacted in any way since. I’m obsessed with it. Their team-up involved them and Donna Troy, aka Troia, Kyle’s ex-girlfriend. Kyle spent the entire team-up antagonizing Jason, thinking Jason wanted to get with Donna, because *of course* Donna would fall for his good looks and bad boy sex appeal!! He’s CLEARLY irresistible!! And he was so mad about it. Meanwhile Jason was just like, tf is up with this asshole?

[literallyjusttoa]

Apollo throughout the ages! Or at least from birth to Rome. I'm going to go ham on explaining the timeline under the cut, but I hope you guys like the designs I made for the different periods of his life!

Anyways EXTREME TIMELINE RAMBLING TIME

Baby (2591 B.C.E.): The year I arbitrarily decided Apollo was born in lmao. Apollo didn’t look like this for long. Probably only like, a minute. Just long enough for Leto to safely give birth and then he was immediately like “ew, no I wanna be big” 

2. Fighting Python (2591 B.C.E.): Immediately after being born, Apollo flies off to go fight Python for 7 days (fun!). After that, he is punished for committing murder and has to purify himself by serving as a slave for 9 years in the Vale of Tempe (funner!) Yeah, Apollo definitely had an A+ childhood. One thing in his first two designs Apollo doesn’t look entirely human. This is bc I like to think he was born with some cool titan traits!

3. Pre-First Punishment (2582-2300 B.C.E): Back from his years in the mortal realm, Apollo looks much more human. His clothes are inspired by Ancient Aegean fashions I found, as we are long before the start of what is considered Ancient Greece. Apollo is the youngest member of the Olympian council and it shows. This boyish look stays with him until after he serves under Laomedon.

Other events that happen during this time: 

Hermes is born (Around 2500 B.C.E.)

4. Post-First Punishment (2290-ish B.C.E-1500 B.C.E.): Apollo comes back from Troy influenced by their traditions, and it shows in his design. There wasn’t much I could find on how Troy differed from the rest of the Mediterranean at the time (probably bc for a while we thought the place didn’t even exist lmao) but I did find something that said an emphasis was put on those with higher status wearing jewelry. So Apollo gets pearls in his hair and golden bands around his arms. His clothes are inspired by feminine Aegean attire. 

Other events that happen during this time:

Music duel with Marsyas (Around 2000 B.C.E)

Dionysus is born (Around 1600 B.C.E)

5. Post-Daphne (1500 B.C.E-1194 B.C.E.): The introduction of the laurel. After Daphne’s death, Apollo distances himself from his family a bit, which leads perfectly into our next big event-

6. Trojan War (1194-1184 B.C.E): Apollo sides with Troy, and its influence once again appears in his appearance, this time even more pronounced. In a war against not only Greece, but his own family, Apollo keeps himself covered and constantly prepared to aid in battle. Missing his mother back on Delos, Apollo grows his hair out for the first time. 

7. Post-Trojan War and Hyacinthus (1184 B.C.E-776 B.C.E.): After Troy falls, Apollo sheds it’s influence quickly, not wanting to look like he’s supporting a side the rest of his family is either against or has given up on. He breaks his time evenly between Olympus and the mortal realm, and takes many lovers until the death of Hyacinthus around 800 B.C.E. After that, he stays up in the heavens for a few decades. 

8. “Main” Apollo (776 B.C.E-540 B.C.E): Starting with the first Olympics in Greece, Apollo is lifted as a paragon of Greece and its people. Shedding the peplos he has worn throughout his early years, Apollo wears a classic chiton and becomes much more invested in the affairs of man. This is a period of great power and ecstasy for him, but as the saying goes, pride goes before the fall. 

Other events that happen during this time: 

Death of Niobe’s children (Around 770 B.C.E.)

Music duel with Pan (Around 750 B.C.E)

Dating Cyrene (Around 630 B.C.E)

9. Coronis-Asclepius (540 B.C.E-500 B.C.E): A design that only lasts as long as Asclepius lives. Zeus is unsettled by Apollo’s influence over Greece, and starts applying more pressure against him. This leaves Apollo stressed, and that's without the fact that he is now raising a prodigy in medicine alongside Chiron. In these 40 years, Apollo attempts to balance his want to be involved in the mortal world with his fathers wrath. In the end, his father will win. 

Other events that happen during this time: 

Around 515 B.C.E - Tarquin purchases the Sibylline Books. Apollo and the Sybil of Cumae must happen before this point (not entirely sure when yet, but definitely in this period.)

10. 2nd Punishment (500 B.C.E.): Apollo serves his second punishment under Admetus. Crushed by the loss of his son and anger of his father, Apollo spends most of this time in hiding. It is only through the gentle hand of Admetus that Apollo finds some sort of healing. 

11. Late Greece (499 B.C.E-146 B.C.E.): Apollo is definitely trying to move on far too quickly from his punishment. He cuts his hair, dons his chiton, and gets right into being an Olympian. It doesn’t help that he is beginning to see the cracks in the foundations of Greece. Athens is flourishing, but only at the expense of Sparta and his own Delos. Years of civil war and threats of Roman invasion leave Apollo shaken, and he pulls away from both the mortal realm and his family, who seem more and more like strangers every day…

Other events that happen during this time:

Trophonius’ death (Around 200 B.C.E)

12. Fall of Greece (146 B.C.E.-32 B.C.E.): Rome officially takes over Greece, and suddenly Apollo’s family are all lost to him. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t think Apollo has a Roman form like the rest of his family, and I imagine the sudden switch in their personalities must have been terrifying. Rarely worshiped and ostracized from Olympus, Apollo returns to the mortal realm, spending his time in solitude as a shepherd. As his influence grows weaker, he begins to show sign of weakness. This is the only time Apollo “ages” (I gave him a beard) and I tried to take away some of the attributes that would have been considered divine. Apollo is completely covered, and he wears shoes (which gods would never do)

13. Rome: (32 B.C.E.-476 C.E.): I know, I know, Apollo should have multiple Rome designs, but I got lazy. Apollo is credited by Octavian for his success in battle against Marc Antony and Cleopatra, and worship of the god skyrockets. Now back on Olympus, Apollo is still wary of his family’s Roman counterparts. He drowns himself in luxuries, hoping to distract from his worries about his brothers and sisters. Who knows what kind of bad decisions a man might make in this scenario?!? (*cough* Commodus *cough*). 

And that’s my full timeline so far!! If there’s anything y’all have questions about (Any missing myths, questions about why I put things were) I’d be happy to answer! I put a lot of work into this, so I hope y’all like it!

[finelythreadedsky]

the aeneid as a post-apocalyptic poem, yes sure, the fall of troy is the end of a world, but what about the aeneid as a pre-apocalyptic poem???? vergil does all this ideological work setting up augustus as the telos toward which the entire arc of history bends and you can argue how he really feels about that but regardless, doesn't it mean that augustus is the end? that there is nothing beyond him, nothing after him? vergil poises himself as writing at the top of the world and there's nowhere else to go from there when that moment passes

[elucubrare]

one of the things i think is really fun about porting a pre-modern story into a modern setting is finding correspondences between story elements - "what act/object/concept fills the same niche in our society as the original element?" and i think that goes really well with my post from last night about essential elements of stories -

i think the best way to recontextualize Achilles' initial complaint against Agamemnon is that you'd be pretty mad if you did all the work in a project and someone else took all the credit, right? when he calls Agamemnon "dogface" etc it's because Agamemnon wants equal right to the glory from the war so far despite having sat in his tent at Troy the whole time.

so if I'm moving it to a college setting, it's a group project where Achilles did all the work. But grades aren't divided in the same way that plunder is - does it change the story too much if Agamemnon plagiarized and Professor Apollo says that he'll fail everyone if the plagiarist doesn't step forward? It's an inversion of the immediate cause of contention (Agamemnon takes too much credit vs. Agamemnon won't take responsibility) but it preserves enough of the spirit of the conflict (Achilles wants to be judged for his own deeds) that it counts for me.

Any retelling has to make a lot of these choices, and I think they're fun, but I also think that that sheer amount of them and their inherent subjectivity make it very easy for retellings to stumble and fall flat.

[sombrashe]

relationship troy x reader

content nonconsensual voyeurism, nonconsensual mutual masterbation, troy is a fucking creepy, daffodil is just as creepy jacking off to him smh

He was so lucky your window opened to the untilled land west of the camp. Your sounds carry on the wind into nothingness, straight into his ear canals. Such pretty little sounds. He loves listening to you like this. Enthralled in your actions unaware of the going ons just a few feet away. Whispers turn into squeals as you slowly get closer to the edge. It normally takes you about half an hour to cum and he makes sure to stay until the very last moment.

Daring a peak he freezes once his eyes rake over your body. Bare, sweat gleaming over your entirety. You’re a masterpiece. Legs spread wide as your toes curl into the sheets below. Drooling cunt soaking those same sheets like a Bob Ross painting. He can’t tear his eyes away. The hand which rubbed at your clit occasionally leaves to pinch and twist at your nipple.

He takes in the sight like a starved man. Maybe he is. No, he definitely is. A man so starved he has to hope you leave your window open. Leave it open in the hope he gets to hear those wonderful sounds. Lock them away in the vault that is his mind. Get a single glance so he can hastily scribble a drawing of you. This time he was going to commit. Take it all in. Watch you from start to finish. Watch as your body reacts to each sound that falls from your lips.

You shift and pause. A defeated huff and you're flinging yourself onto your stomach. His heart hammers loudly in his ears. He becomes nervous as you raise your hips. There was no way you knew he was there and yet here you are presenting yourself for him. Eyes tightly closed as you grit your teeth. Jaw clenched tightly as you grind against the air. Your fingers working yourself over. Pinching and clawing at your puffy cunt. Doing anything to get yourself off and he knows if you just invited him in he could satiate that need for you.

He would make you cum over and over again.

His cock head is swollen as he lazily rubs his fingertips over it. Pre cum slicks his fingers and he shamefully imagines it as your slick. Salty and sticky he imagines how you would feel wrapped around his ruddy tip. Would you suck him in as he slowly slipped inside? How would you sound squealing out his name as he finally bottoms out? What would you say if he asked for a taste? Would you say yes or shy away from him and his tongue?

“I’m not a disappointment.”

His ears perk up at your low words. The words he spat in your face hours earlier. Some simple mistake during a mission made him snap on you and your team. Something stupid he was going to apologize for if Madison hadn't stolen him away mere seconds later.

“T-troy~ hng, mmm.”

He fumbles with his belt. Yanking himself free from his zipper he doesn't let his cock a break as he doubles his efforts. He doesn't care if you catch him anymore. He thinks you wouldn't mind it either. Not after tonight. Not after hearing you beg for him. Maybe he should stick his leaking cock back into his briefs and knock on your door. Catch you all disoriented with a painful-looking tent. See if you’ll offer to help him. Let him just a moment to feel how warm you are. God, I bet they’d feel amazing.

You're humping the mattress now. So close. He can tell by the way your right leg angles itself. The tremors in the hand pumping lewdly in your pillowy cunt give you away further. Only when the tremors start do your squawks turn into grunts. When those grunts start he knows he only has a few minutes before you're pooling into your palm. Messily pumping his cock he squeezes around the base with one palm and roughly massages his balls with the other. He cums in tandem with you and he feels absolutely euphoric. Like he could float right through the window and land curled up beside your heaving body.

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[evil-youth-messrs]

In honor of Vengeance Saga cover reveal, welcome back to Moments in Epic That Make Me Go Insane ™️. In today's episode, we have The Thunder Saga and The Wisdom Saga. (I decided to split Act II in half, so the last part will be up after all sagas are released!)

Previous parts include: Troy, Cyclops, Ocean | Circe | Underworld. Without further ado, let's goo 👉

The Thunder Saga⚡️

~ee ee aaa ee ee aa aa pe-ne-lo-peee pe-ne-lo-pee~

oh, I would, but IIII've been suffering, trying to float the whole time-I would take the suffering from youuu

but only if you answer a question or two... of course!

okay, soo let'ssayIwasontherun or hiding from.... I dunno 🙄 POSEIDON! ��

he will chase you high and low so find a place he'd never go, the one way you'll get home is sailing where he's scared to roam oh, it's through the lair of Scylla *DUN* (also the way this mimics the "He will burn your house and throne..." from The Horse and The Infant)

now jump in the water! Penelope whyy? you know I'm too shyyy 🥺👉👈🎀

aah, the things I'd do for you *shoots her*

*the electronic sounds at the beginning of Different Beast*

I know underwater there are packs of you hiding

you didn't notice that your friends got snatched! WHAT 😦

we are the ones who con-quer

while on the run from Poseidon we found a ship with no crew, I realized nearby there were sirens!

spare us, oooh, spare us, pleeaase 🙏

CUT OFF THEIR TAILS! we're ending this now, throw their bodies back in the water, let them drown NOOOO

KILL EM ALLL

*pum pum pum pum* The Lair of Scyllaaa 🤲

you hide a reason for shaaame~

leaving them feeling betraayyed~

Eurylochus, light up six torches 💀

ROW FOR YOUR LIVES! DROWN IN YOUR SORROW AND FEARSSSS *the entire verse that Scylla sings* DIE IN THE BLOOD WHERE YOU BATHE

*the instrumentals in this saga are all so good omg*

look me in the eyes and tell me, Captain, that you did not just sacrifice six men 😥

then you have forced my hand *epic guitar riff*

EURYLOCHUS! EURYLOCHUS! EURYLOCHUS! ODYSSEUS! ODYSSEUS! ODYSSEUS!

*the luck runs out reprise basically omg*

aaaaah aaah 👼🙏

this statue, the god of the sun~

please don't tell me you're about to do what I think you'll do 🥺

Ody

I'm just a maaan EURYLOCHUS NOOOO

you've doomed us😦

these cows were immortal, they were the sun god's friends and now that we pissed him off who do you think he'll send?!

fullspeedahead FASTER fullspeedahe-*THUNDER*

*the entire Thunder Bringer, but especially:*

*the intro electronic brass melody*

PRIDE IS A DAMSEL IN DISTRESSSSS

in the end it's all the same once I apply all the pre-ssure

THUNDERRR⚡️ BRING HERR THROUGH THE WRINGERRRR SHOW HER I'M THE JUDGEMENT CALL THE ONE ☝️ WHO MAKES HER KINGDOM FALL

✨️enlighten me✨️, king of Ithaca

and suffer a gruesome fateOF THE THUNDERR BRINGERR...

SUBLIIIME YOU FOR YOUR ACT OF CRIMEE

CHOOSE choose? 🥺

please don't make me do this - when? does a comet become a meteor? - I can take the suffering from youu

captain? I have to see her 🥺 but we'll die 🥺 I know 😔

*can you tell this is my favourite saga*

The Wisdom Saga ⏳️

it's just me, myself and I 😊 stuck in my bedroom 😖

cause I'm stuck with your storiess~

if so, then give me sirens and a cyclops! give me giants and a hydra! I know life and fate are SCAry but I wanna be LEgenDAry

the minotaaauuur even cerberus

L-L-L-L-LEGENDARY

where is he??? where is the man who'll have you to wife???? ooOoOh???

give me a chance, a single opportunity and I'll overcome these obstacles and scrutiny and-BOY

WHATCHA GONNA DO ABOUT IT CHAMP

you'll have run of of b~o~nes to break

*tick tick* need some help? 😏

uppercut him, NOW woah HOW DID I DO THAT?? 😲😲

I just made your *thoughts* *quick* (get it)

I've seen plenty enough! to truly understand this kind of field

take advantage now and stRRRRike, little wolf, STRIKE

Athena 🥺

I've never felt strong before, you're my friend, I couldn't ask for more 🫂

I don't think he'll miiiiind

you're a good kid 🥹

keep your friends close and your enemies closer RUTHLESSNESS IS MERCY UPON OURSELVES one wrong move and you're done for anything I SONG OF PAST ROMANCE I SEE THE we won't take more suffering from you DROWN IN YOUR SORROW AND FEARS (yes this was necessary)

🪘🏝🪘🏝🪘🏝

tell me though, who's Penelope? ☺️ she's my wife 💀 ..........anyways!

from here on out you're mine, all mine-HELL NAH

last I checked, godesses can't die hihihi

bow down now to the immortal ~Calypso~

my island stays unkNOwnNO I don't belong here, there's something wrong here

*the bg music especially when he sings "I won't be drawn to love in paradise"*

it will be fine dear, come back inside dear

oooooooooh oooooooh ATHENA 😭

father, god king, rarely do I ask for favors, now I'm knocking~ on your door

divine intervention, is that what you seek? 😝😤

great - very well - eh - alright - groovy - bring it

Apollo! you all know I'm a fan of catchy songs 🕺🕺

why should I give him my support? he sacrificed his own cohort (rip uncle hort 😔)

Aphrodite~ your little high and mighty~ Odysseus

really Athena? these old tricks?

Areeees, Areeeees

what kind of sick coward! holds back his power while his friends get devoured? he didn't even fight Scylla, DIDN'T EVEN TRY TO KILL HER (his theme mathing Athena's, omg it's details like this that make this musical a masterpiece)

hey baby 💃🕺🪩

he's got the mind of a genius try harder he's pretty skilled with words you can do better than that hE's kINdA fUnNy? 🥴 ehhh never once has he cheated on his wife 💀 ...release him

no one beats me, no one wins my game! THUNDERRR BRING HERR THROUGH THE WRINGERRRR

As always, thank you for reading (this was really long, give yourself a pat on the back if you made it this far!)

We'll be back one more time! 💛

[starsarefire824]

UPDATED ST Fanfic Guide

I am JustMyName on A03! (some people have told me they had no idea) I have really come to love writing for Mike and Will these past two years. Hope you find something to enjoy! 🖤 I also enjoy Madwheeler and some other unique ships so if you're up for something different this might be the spot for you!

✨Demons of Change and Wildflower Eyes ▻ rating: E ▻ status: Complete ▻ words: ▻ship: Byler, Troy x Mike, Madwheeler, minor Lumax and Henderhop ▻description: AU. High school hasn't been easy for Will Byers. He’s had to live with the emotional scars of a loveless father and supernatural worlds, as well as the physical ones from the hands of the bullies that make his everyday existence hell. One night, when he's looking for some peace and quiet Will comes upon one of them.

Sparks fly and Mike and Will can’t stay away from each other. Yet, there are things Mike isn’t saying: about his past, about his family, about his peculiar friendship with Troy. Things aren’t always what they appear to be, and loyalties born from violence will be rigorously tested.

Will, Mike, Troy centric. (This fic is very near and dear to my heart. <3)

✨Scum Rises ▻rating: E ▻ status: Ongoing ▻ words: 6,293 ▻ Separated Byler, Mike Wheeler/ OC ▻ description:

DEMONS OF CHANGE & WILDFLOWER EYES: PART II

"I should have just killed him, Will always lamented bitterly with tears in his eyes when he was having one of his dark spells. The guilt slowly crept up between them and they broke up the year after college. It was drunken and volatile and spiteful. And shattered his heart." * * * Just before Mike turns 26, Will kicks him out. With nowhere left to go, Mike must return to Hawkins alone. There he will have to face all the demons of his past, finding a bit of grace along the way.

This story will chronicle the year that Mike and Will breakup, and how Mike finds his way back. Takes place post Demons, pre Epilogue.

✨moonflower ▻ rating: M ▻status: Ongoing ▻words: 30,913 ▻ship: Byler ▻description: Will Byers hasn't been back to the town that haunted him since he ran away to college. But years later, after he is fired from his job and his drinking starts to effect his daily life, he has no other choice but to return home. There he'll face his past full on: his family, old wounds, and a long-buried lie he told his best friend one care-free summer's night in 1987.

✨Touch Me Like You Know Me ▻rating: M ▻status: Complete ▻words: 14,894 ▻ ship: Byler ▻ description: Mike doesn't go home anymore, not unless absolutely necessary. Instead, he stays far away from Hawkins, quietly shutting himself off from the world, and burying the pain of the things he never said to the boy he'd left behind. But when his mother convinces him to return home for his thirty-fifth birthday, Mike is finally forced to confront just how much he'd given up when he runs into Will by accident. Mike-centric. Estranged Byler reconnection fic. Soft and Sweet

✨Certain Slant of Light ▻ rating: M ▻ status: Ongoing ▻words: ▻ship: Byler, Will x OC. description: Will just wants to get through his last year of high school without incident, to feel normal for once in his life, and try to survive the building tension between him and Mike that grows with every word left unsaid. On the first day of school, Will meets someone new who may finally offer him the acceptance he craves, but he’s unsure what to do when it causes his relationship with Mike to hit a breaking point, forcing them both to confront their true feelings. And to make matters worse, Vecna is always there, whispering in his ear, and letting him know his fated role in the inevitable fall of Hawkins. Slow Burn. Will-centric. Mike-centric later chapters.

✨Lay Me Down Slow ▻rating: M ▻status: Complete ▻words: 10,821 ▻ship: Byler ▻description: It's 1998 and Will is anxiously making his way to a bar to meet up with Mike, who he hasn't seen in over a decade. Emotions run high as he shares a drink with him, and when a confrontation turns violent, it leads to truths being told and the two of them finding each other again. Will POV.

✨A Burning Thing ▻rating: M ▻status: Ongoing ▻words: 5,677 ▻ship: Byler ▻description: Will and Mike are childhood best friends. As summer fades, the two join their friend group at a lake house for a birthday celebration. There, Lucas's sister Erica is making a student film. The scene she asks them to act out---a passionate kiss---will alter their relationship forever.

In the aftermath, Will, struggling with caring for his abusive father, has to come to terms with the fact that he is set to leave the country for two years. Meanwhile, Mike has a crisis of sexuality and both men will grapple with their inescapable feelings burning just beneath the surface.

✨Heatwaves ▻ rating: M ▻status: Ongoing ▻ words: 18,567 ▻ship: Byler, Platonic Madwheeler ▻description: It's the summer before the Party are all set to move on to the rest of their lives: college, jobs, leaving Hawkins for good. Will isn't sure if it's the heat or his own self-torture, but one night on Mike's stubborn, idiotic campaign to get El back, Will agrees to pretend to be her so Mike can work on the speech he has planned. When the two of them get carried away, it leads both of them to exciting and terrifying insights into who they are and what it is they truly want.

✨Beautiful Things From Broken Soil ▻rating: T ▻status: Complete ▻words: 2,175 ▻ship: Byler ▻description: Mike and Will get caught in a rainstorm on a lazy summer's day.

✨I Don't Require A Definition ▻rating: M ▻ status: Ongoing ▻ship: Byler, Will Byers/ Original Character ▻words: 2,750 ▻ description: Will reminisces about his past and a friend he met at college as he reconnects with Mike on a camping trip the summer after sophomore year.

✨An Unspeakable (Of The Oscar Wilde Sort) ▻rating: E ▻status: Ongoing ▻words: 7,125 ▻ship: Byler, Mileven ▻description: They sit there for a long second in awkward silence, and Mike bites his bottom lip. He eyes the movie. “So what did you pick?”

Will fidgets with the tape nervously in his hands. His voice catches. “Uhm, yeah—it’s just this movie that’s based off of a book I read last year. I really liked the story.”

Will’s eyes find Mike’s and he blushes. “I don’t know. It’s kind of serious. We don’t have——“

Mike interrupts Will’s shy backpedaling by snatching the VHS out of his hand and turning it over like he is going to find the summary. Instead he just finds a Family Video logo. “What’s it about?”

“Uhm—well it’s about these two guys at Cambridge in the early 1900’s and they’re—-friends.”

Mike blinks. “Friends?”

Will’s eyelids flutter and he presses his lips together. “Yeah—-like—really good friends.”

or, Will brings over a movie to watch with Mike and it leads to certain truths being addressed. Complete with a Mike Wheeler in crisis.

✨Helpless ▻ rating: T ▻status: Complete ▻words: 2,973 ▻ship: Byler ▻description: “Hey,” Mike says, shutting his bedroom door behind him gently and padding over to the bed where Will lays, freshly showered and in his undershirt.

“Hey,” Will murmurs back as he burrows himself further into the bed and pulls the sheets up under his chin, trying to ignore his heart pitter-pattering inside his ribs. He smooths the fabric over his chest nervously.

Mike smiles over at him, something shy and sweet in the way his eyes crinkle. He breathes out and folds his thin arms across his chest, rubbing along his rigid hip with his thumb.

Will tries not to stare where Mike’s worn white tank top he always wears rides up, revealing pale skin and a shock of dark hair lining his belly and disappearing underneath his stupid Star Wars pajama pants.

It’s hilarious, really, Will thinks bitterly. Stuck in a bed with your friend at the threshold of the Apocalypse, and only able to think about what hides underneath his pajamas.

It’s so unfair. It’s fucking torture.

✨You're The Only Shape I'll Pray To ▻rating: E ▻status: Complete ▻words: 3,160 ▻ship: Byler ▻description:

Hands pulling at shirts in a darkened room, a tongue licking along burning skin, moans and pants and belt buckles being unclasped.

Mike presses his knees together so hard his bones grind.

“Tell me," he gasps. "—Confess—to God—-all of your sins.” Priest AU.

✨The Pact ▻ rating: M ▻ status: Ongoing ▻words: 97,440 ▻ship: Madwheeler, Byler, Elumax ▻ description: A pact between Max and Mike gone wrong gets them both unanimously voted out of the Party and they find themselves stuck with each other the summer after Graduation: fighting, commiserating, and begrudgingly discovering they are a lot more alike than they originally thought. .

✨Death Lies in Wait ▻ rating: M ▻ status: Ongoing ▻ words: 13,322▻ ship: Arranged Madwheeler, Byler, Lumax, Mileven, Secret Ship ▻ description: Massachusetts, 1890. Max Mayfield is twenty-six years old and at the hand of her parents, settles for a marriage of convenience to a widowed lighthouse keeper. A stranger she'll be trapped with for the rest of her life on a lonely strip of land surrounded by nothing but endless, lonely sea. But, as she settles into her life, and she and her new husband try to coexist, they get wrapped up in a mysterious presence on the cape. It calls to them. It's lulling and coaxing and sings to them at night. Max discovers the secrets her new husband keeps. Mermaids and ghosts of the past come to haunt them. Madwheeler/Byler//Lumax Gothic AU- Mermaid Will.

✨the winter tree resembles me ▻rating: E ▻status: On Hiatus ▻words: 2,706 ▻ship: Byler ▻description: The Revolutionary War is underway, and the upstanding Byers family, devout Quakers in their divinity, have expressly kept themselves out of the War of Rebellion. But newly rutted Alpha Will Byers has a grave secret he keeps from his parents. He has been recruited by his twin sister into Commander Washington’s clandestine ring of Rebel spies. But when he meets an English officer possessing bewitching brown eyes at the boarding house he’s assigned to, he slowly discovers the stranger has a secret of his own, as well as a tantalizing scent Will can’t resist. Lines will be drawn-loyalties tested and allies betrayed -no one is who they seem.

✨A Derelict Mind ▻rating: M ▻status: Ongoing ▻words: 8,259 ▻ship: Byler ▻description: Will wakes up to find himself chained to a chair in a room he doesn't recognize. There are orderlies and patients and a doctor with blonde hair and a terrifyingly sweet voice. But Will is not in one of his nightmares or one of Vecna's visions. He's a patient in Pennhurst Asylum, and everything he's known to be real: his friends, his family, the Upside Down... has been nothing but a delusion of a very sick patient.

Part of "A Certain Slant of Light" Universe.

✨Kind of Best Friend ▻rating: G ▻status: Complete ▻words: 1,206 ▻ship: Madwheeler (platonic or romantic) ▻description: Mike reads his letter from Max after returning to Hawkins.

✨ Mashed Potatoes ▻rating: G ▻ status: Complete ▻ words: 1,352 ▻ ship: Byler ▻description: "Wait," Mike says, grabbing the carton of milk out of Will's hand. Will blinks, his brows creasing in confusion. "What?" he asks with uncertainty. "We need milk, don't we?"

Mike stares at the carton Will has chosen. It's labeled with red lettering and a stamp of a picturesque farm across the front. Whole milk. Mike shrugs. "I mean----yeah. But-----" he raises an eyebrow. "Whole milk?" Will huffs and rolls his yes. "Yes. Whole milk? What milk did you want?" Mike shifts on his feet and pulls at the waist of his usual black jeans. "Well, I mean----we always drank skim at our house." Now, Will's mouth opens up a little. Offended.

"Skim?!" he asks, completely appalled. "Who actually drinks skim milk? You might as well drink water."

OR, Mike and Will really think the other is wrong in their grocery shopping decisions.

✨I Held On As Tightly As You Held Onto Me ▻ rating: T ▻ status: Complete ▻ words: 7,014 ▻ ship: Byler ▻ description: After years of life getting in the way---be it by distance or choices made--Mike hasn't seen Will in almost a decade. But one cold winter's night, he's back in town and Mike cooks him a meal.

✨When We Wake Up ▻ rating: T ▻ status: Complete ▻ words: 23,428 ▻ ship: Byler ▻description: Will and Mike having to share a room while waiting for the impending apocalypse and the utter torture it is for both of them.

✨Come Away With Me ▻ rating: T ▻status: Complete ▻ words: 18,760 ▻ ship: Byler ▻ description: “Two shots ring out! BAM!-then a pause-BAM! Mike’s head snaps towards the sound, squinting his eyes to orient himself to the darkness. A guttural, pained wail echoes through the trees as if some forsaken wraith howls at him in this lonely forest, it’s voice sounding all too familiar. Then, a loud screeching roar follows close behind it. Another shot! Mike sucks in a wretched, frightened breath, his heart thrashing in his chest so hard that it feels as if it might shatter his ribs. Dread settles sickeningly in his belly. "Will….” OR: The one in which Mike gets to be Will's knight in shining armor. Tending Wounds Fic.

✨ We Are All Fools In Love ▻ rating: T ▻ status: On Hiatus ▻ words: 13,098 ▻ ship: Byler ▻ description: Fifteen years after being forcibly separated as children, William Bennet recognizes a familiar brooding face, plucked from another lifetime across a crowded ballroom. As his and Michael Darcy's paths begin to merge once more, they discover they are now separated by more than only time and distance, but faults which lie within their own hearts. Matters of pride and prejudice. Regency au of our dreams.

✨First of All ▻rating: G ▻status: Complete ▻words: 1,772 ▻ship: Madwheeler ▻description: Mike's home from break during college and he and Max have to babysit his baby cousins. It's going as well as you can imagine. Set after the events of "The Pact."

[dilfaeneas]

Priam looks out over Troy, his son Helenus can only see the fire.

[bitimdrake]

so the real post: It's the AU where Jason never died. We want him to have a team of young heroes instead of being all alone in Gotham. But who could possibly be on this team??

I put forth for your consideration that there is a simple, elegant, perfectly fitting answer to this question:

Stick him on the 90s New Titans.

No! Not the famous Nightwing-led line-up that started in the 80s. The ragtag, barely acknowledged, Arsenal-led team that formed under government supervision in the last dozen or so issues of New Titans.

So here's the thing. Attempts to give Jason a team of his own tend to fall very flat for me for two reasons.

First, they are almost all overly constrained by a restrictions that this must be a cohort of same-age heroes, Jason's equivalent of the Titans to Dick or Young Justice to Tim. This is an incredibly difficult restriction to follow, because the majority of characters around that age have already been absorbed into Young Justice. Jason really never had a 'generation' in the first place. There was no huge boom of teen sidekicks alongside him in the early/mid eighties, in the same way there was in the golden/silver ages (original titans) or the late eighties/early nineties (young justice).

Second, these hypothetical groups tend to seriously lack a group identity or coherence, beyond being a grab bag of people who could feasibly be on a team with Jason Todd. And creating a team exclusively around one character is....bad.

But we are far afield of either issue here!

The 90s New Titans (sometimes also called Arsenal's Titans? we really don't have a solid, well-accepted way to refer to them) are not a strict age group growing up together. They're a messy mix of young heroes, from young adults of the original sidekick generation, like Roy, all the way down to young teens, like pre-Young Justice Bart Allen.

Jason fits right in. He has a few solid peers in the middle, like Rose Wilson and Grant Emerson/Damage, but we're not locking him to just peers. He also gets to be a kid to teammates like Roy, Kyle Rayner/Green Lantern, and for a while Donna Troy/Darkstar. And, for the first time in his life, gets to be the older and more experienced hero to a younger teammate, in Bart.

And forget about lacking a team identity; this group already has one!

They're the scrappy, ragtag group of leftovers assembled after the previous, better known Titans combusted. They are (minus team dad/leader Roy, and Donna when she's around) relative newbies feeling their inexperience in the superhero world--including their inexperience with teams.

An identity that Jason, a Robin recruited after the previous, better known Robin was pushed out, who constantly worries about his inexperience among comparative superhero giants, aligns with perfectly.

It just fits. For the eclectic collection of members the team does have, including a Super (Matrix Supergirl), Wonder (Donna), Lantern (Kyle), and speedster (Bart), one thing they never had is a Bat. They, like Jason, lie in a no man's land between Dick and Tim.

No contriving necessary! No scrounging to create a new team! There is one ready made for you, and I can make a solid argument that Jason would have been a member had he lived.

[streets-in-paradise]

By Duty and Chance - Hector x (Fem) Reader

Troy (2004) Oneshot

Requested by Anon

" (...) Soo basically anything you write about Hector is gonna be greatt. But i was thinking maybe that hector and reader are in arranged marriage ( yk enemies to lovers) but they end up falling for each other. "

YES, YES, YES!! ( ok, I'm gonna calm myself down now).

Just because I'm a simp, the enemy vibe was reduced a bit and the core conflict happens more on them falling at different paces. She was once on the geopolitical enemy side, cause she is a greek, but the marriage happened as a first step of negociations with another greek kingdom acting as nexus before the peace mission in Sparta.

Warnings: arranged marriage, reader starts fancying Hector before he gets into her. Pre war, but it adresses the political situation going on in Greece at the start of the movie and includes mentions to some Iliad characters that weren't in it because she is from Pylos and the movie showed nothing of Nestor's kingdom.

Summary: Your concerted political marriage to Prince Hector of Troy starts as a total disaster. Ashamed of your growing interest on him while the sorrow of a lost love keeps him distant, you focus on proving him you are a fitting wife to deal with his domestical problems before the conclussion of the peace mission started with your union would signal your first political act together.

Back in Greece for a diplomatical trip to Sparta, you come across a souless marriage product of another arrangement and the impact of that meeting calls you to redefine your relationship.

Note: Inspired by the arranged marriage prompts by @creativepromptsforwriting

" My love for one person could never trump the love I have for my people."

Tags: @g-m-kaye @thorsslxve

Sailing away for marriage so nobody else would have to do it for war was a noble act, but you were given the most abnormal circunstancies for the development of the plan.

King Menelaus of Sparta had had finally convinced his brother of creating an alliance with Troy, but the sons of Atreus weren't trully well versed on the language of peace. For so, King Nestor of Pylos offered himself to start the arrangements hoping to accomplish better results. As the only of his daughters available for a political marriage, you were selected to represent the first collaborative gesture of the greeks.

Once Prince Hector of Troy would have made you his wife, he would be in optimal conditions to deal with the Atreides and pact peace as a royal with bonds to he land already established. You father and his were of similar ages, they knew and respected each other despite of standing in opposite sides of the world. It made perfect sense that you would be given to them as a good will present to start the negociations.

The journey was too long and the advice of Nestor was required by the mycenaeans for the ongoing war on Thesaly. Without him, Agamemnon wouldn't be able to persuade Achilles to do his part in the way it would be commanded for him to do. Since your father couldn't split himself in half to attend the needs of each king, the leadership on the diplomatical mission was given to one of your brothers. Antilochus, favorite of the king and your people, delivered you to Troy doing his best to provide a supportive company for you in the difficult time. However, knowing that your father wouldn't be there increased the transactive feeling of the situation.

It was all a bargain between nations, and you were an object being moved from one place to the other.

Bonded for the rest of your life to a man your parents didn't even bother in meeting face to face.

Fame spoke wonders of your future husband, so worthy of trust that your father felt relieved and genuinely happy when the news of Priam's acceptance for the proposal reached Pylos. Hector was claimed to be the sort of man that any father could want for his daughter, that all mothers would feel proud to call their new son, and any respectable lady would dream of marrying. You got sick of being congratulated for having to move to the opposite corner of the world for him. While they were celebrating, you were aware to be essentially loosing your family to live arround strangers for the future chance to share a throne you never wanted.

You hated it and you thought you hated him, untill you saw him for the first time.

Hector was the most handsome man you ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on, but he advanced towards you with the calm resignation of a man sentenced to death. He did a great job restricting himself to the formalities, but that was all. In fact, it could be said the meeting had subverted expectations. Charming him on that occasion was your task as the lady of the couple, but he managed to awake a bit of your interest without even trying. While Antilochus noticed how your complaining reduced after meeting your fiance, Paris was struggling to get a smile out of his brother by doing cassual jokes about your beauty.

Polite indiference was all you got from him, even in the day of your wedding. His kiss after sweeping off your veil felt like a handshake to seil the political deal. Logically, you weren't expecting him to hold any feelings for you, but stumbling with his coldness was frustrating. At least in a surface level, you were starting to like him, but you didn't want to humillate yourself trying to make him like you.

Nightfall brought the end of the first day of celebrations, and for the first time, you were meant to be all alone with him. Trojans had similar customs for their hymenaeus, only that the choir of girls following you with torches to light the way to the thalamus was more espectacular than what you would have pictured back in Greece.

It was a magnificent display, romantical sight that contrasted with what was about to happen in that bedchamber.

Lookwise, you were very proud of yourself once the maids finished to prepare you for him. You hair was perfect, your smooth skin impregnated with a delicious perfume, and the thin white nightgown you were wearing was the perfect balance between coverage and exposition of your body. Enough to guess what awaited underneath, but discrete enough to not present yourself naked in front of him.

The color simbolized the purity you were meant to give away for the prince's consumption in the consumation of the marriage. Many greeks would have claimed they wanted to switch places with him, it would have been a joke in the friend group of your brother if they would have seen your transformation and you chuckled to yourself thinking of that as you nervously awaited.

The arrival of your prince changed everything. Amazement of him was strong in your virginal perspective. His toned body was considerably more exposed than before, since he was then only wearing the skirt typically matching his armor, and the perfumed oil freshly applied was giving a subtle shine to his skin. You could have started to feel lucky despite your understandable nerves, if he wouldn't have appeared to be so unaffected by the sight of you in comparison.

A brief look and a smile from afar before proceeding to sit on his side of the bed was all he had for you while your eyes unwillingly feasted on his image. His feet were still touching the floor and he seemed absorbed in some contenplative thinking while staring at the opposite side of the room.

Desperate to break the awkwardness, you attempted to get his attention hoping to help him relax. As a start, you kneeled behind him to caress his neck an shoulders.

" This isn't working. " You commented in a friendly mock. " Normally, the woman is the doubtfull one and it's the man's work to talk her into it. "

Hector was perfectly able to feel the squeeze of your front against his back, how you played with him in a convincing performance of your duty as wife.

" We have to be married, but we don't have to pretend a passion for each other that is clearly not there. "

His warning didn't work to completely dissapoint you.

"I'm just trying to be nice." You excused yourself in a sweet tone. " If it works as consolation, I was the only option Pylos had to offer. I have seven brothers and two sisters: one is already married and the other one is twelve years old. Father convinced me to get here only so none of my brothers will ever have to fight you. "

That simple reference to your family life evoked something stronger than mercy. A memory of someone he loved.

Andromache was a princess and once a sister of seven brothers that had fallen in battle. The reminder that you were just trying to stop the same tragedy from falling upon yourself acted as small comfort for his crushed heart.

She would understand.

" It's not your fault, I accepted the sacrifice. " He vaguely explained. " … My love for one person could never trump the love I have for my people. "

In that simple sentence, he let you know there was someone else in his life before the arrangement and that was the cause of his distant demeanour.

You hugged him from behind with comforting gentleness.

" I was starting to wonder why the brave trojan warrior that almost all greeks fear to face seems so afraid of facing me. " You teased as reply. " Nobody would expect Hector of Troy to flee from the touch of his wife like he has never done for the strikes of the enemy. "

The provocation didn't cause the wanted effect, slnce he didn't mind to live up to his legend in the intimacy of the room.

" I think this is a space safe enough to leave my pride behind. "

He had a point, but he would have to listen yours.

" All I'm going to ask you is to accept you are stucked with me. It's not much, ladies all over the world pretend for husbands they don't like all the time. "

You gave up, collapsing on the matress to bitterly claim your side of the nuptial bed.

" … They fake ecstasy while the strangers on top of them lascerate their virgin insides with their careless thrusting. Women can hold their pain perfectly pretending it's pleasure. You, my friend? All you had to do was giving me a decent kiss for the public to cheer, and you couldn't even do that because you are just so heartbroken. Do you get the cruel irony here? "

Hector followed you, watching you closely as he meditated in your words.

" I have nothing to reproach, you were a flawless bride, but I broke a third fraction of my moral code today. This marriage confronted two of the three rules in it and I had to choose which one I could still follow: to defend my country, I had take a woman I don't love."

He approached a bit closer to kiss your forehead.

" I'll allways respect you, but ríght now I can't be the husband you expected. You have my word, I will do my best, but for a while I believe my company won't be much comforting. "

You turned arround so you could be the one avoiding him.

" I never said I wanted you, I just hoped we could resemble a marriage. "

That wasn't how things were supposed to be like. Despite you weren't a hopeless romantic, you never imagined you would end up with a man who didn't feel the most elemental attraction towards you. Lack of desire in an arranged marriage wasn't supposed to flow in that direction, but the other way arround.

A wife shouldn't be seeking the attention of an indifferent husband instead of commiting to his desires. That wasn't what you were prepared for, since you always guessed it would be expected of you to be sexually required even in a loveless marriage. Rabidly denying your discovered attraction for the heartbroken prince was all you could do to protect your pride after realizing you were useless to him on the most bassic function of your union.

During the week of partying you foud out you weren't the only greek struggling to capture the trojan sensibilities. Antilochus fancied the cousin of your husband, but the girl rejected his every attempt of flirting with frustrating disdain. Keeping the peace mission in mind, your marriage was the best possible outcome. If Briseis would have been to Pylos as your new sister in law instead, her attitude would have caused a political disaster.

The royalty of Troy habitated one strange reality in which their princess freely rejected men with amusing harshness while the youngest prince seduced the most beautifull women arround free of commitement during the celebrations for the heir prince being forced to marry you. It was as if Hector had to assume all the sacrifices so everyone else could live how they wanted. He was the warrior prince so Paris won't have to fight, he had lost the chance to marry the woman he wanted to get trapped with you in an arranged marriage so Briseis could remain a virgin as she had choosen.

The man was a sacrificial bull whose fate was never being questioned, as if he existed to save everyone else.

As his wife, at least in title, you were going to take his side. When the first voices of concern from his relatives started to raise given the obvious fact that he wasn't happy on his marriage, you were not afraid of speaking up.

" I have been going to the temple of Aphrodite every night to pray before reaching my bedchamber. " Briseis was once commenting to him, with sweet naivety. " We need a miracle, but I don't loose the hope for you. "

She meant well and you knew it, but you didn't care. Hector límited himself to thank her and smile, but you couldn't let it pass.

" How about some gratitude instead of your condescending prayers? Are you aware this could have ended up the other way arround, ríght? Under the rules of my world, you should have married my brother. Hector is stucked with me so you won't have to marry one of those warriors you look with pity. "

He couldn't believe what he had witnessed, and he felt relieved it was late enough after dinner for his father to have already retired to his bedchamber.

" You have no reason to scold her for seeking to comfort me. "

Briseis raised up from her seat.

" It's alright, cousin. I understand she is under a lot of pressure. "

If you would have to hear one more pityfull comment, anger would have made you burn on the spot.

" You wouldn't survive in Greece, girl! The life of wives there would slap you in the face and get you off your high horse. " You cutted her off. " Maybe your cousin knows it, and that's why I'm here. "

Paris almost choked in his struggle between drinking wine and stiffling chuckles, what made him an easy target.

" What's so amusing? In greek standards, you aren't even suitable for marriage. No father would give his daughter to a coward archer that only shows off his weapon for hunting. " You inmediately called him out. " I think you know that and marriage terrifies you. Charming the girls is way easier than proving their fathers that you are a man, and if the woman you sleep with is already married you don't even need to worry because the position is occupated. "

Hector slowed you down before your brutal honesty could bring chaos.

" What do you think you are doing?

" Being your wife. " You simply explained. " I couldn't help noticing that your family is a mess and I want to help you fix it. You need a rest, and some acknowledgement of your daily sacrifices ... not like any of them notice. "

The preoccupation sounded sincere and that impressed him. After all, he showed no early emotional investment in you justifying such loyalty.

" We like the mess, but thank you for trying."

For the first time since your wedding took place, Hector gave you a genuine smile expressing real complicity.

If not the wife he loved, he discovered you were at least willing to be a support in his domestic life that was different from the kind his family could provide. You were behaving exactly like your role and rank demmanded, only reproaching your surroundings because you two were the only ones submitted to such thankless pressure.

When Antilochus returned to Pylos with the crew that brought you to asian shores, Hector took the day off to be with you. The last reminiscense of your old home had left on that ship, so he conforted you by actively helping you to slowly build a new one. It was agreed that once you would be established, you would accompany him and his brother on a diplomatical tour bringing you back to Greece, but for that you had to be well adjusted to the new city and your husband.

Under that pretext he convinced himself for seeking to take you out in order to get to know you more. Excuses would pile up whenever he would decide to break the routine and show you some new wonder of his country you could experience together. The wound of his unfullfilled love story from the past remained fresh for a while, so he couldn't admit to himself that there was some interest for you already growing.

However, that didn't stop his father from trying to cassually interfere whenever he could against your mutual resistance.

Priam often approached you by himself to give you history lessons, advice, and all sort of support helping your cultural adaptation. He wanted you to autentically feel as his new daughter and, for the most, he was succeeding.

After one particularly stressfull morning Hector was returning to the section of the palace complex that belonged to both of you since the wedding and found you attending a visit of his father. The servants rushed to welcome him, but he commanded you shouldn't be disturbed.

The King of Troy was asking you news about the heroes emerging in Greece and you were storytelling for him.

" That is a complete misconception. " You were cheerfully correcting him. " Achilles isn't our strongest warrior, that's Ajax of Salamis. He is like a mountain made a man. So strong that a swing of his battle hammer can easily pierce shields."

Priam's curiosity got stronger after the correction.

" Rumours have come to my shores saying the Pelide is the greatest threat Greece has for my kingdom … What is then the cause of such notoriety? "

" He is the fastest: an hurricane bringing devastation wherever he is unleashed. " You completed the tale. " You will never see the lethal blow of Achilles coming before it's too late. King Agamemnon has conquered the majority of Greece by the edge of his sword, but they don't get along. The man holds loyalty to no country. "

The last part didn't surprise the king as much as it should.

" I guess greek heroes just can't compare to my son. "

His comment of pridefull parent purposedly encouraged you to ramble about the virtues of your spouse.

" At risk of ignoring some evidence, I think i will agree. Hector is the best warrior Troy has ever seen, but also a wise, noble, … magnificent man. Of such kind heart, and beautifull as an artwork of Apollo. "

You didn't realized of your mistake after delivering the last part of the sentence and covered your embarassement with laughter.

" … I'm so sorry! That was totally innapropiate!! "

Priam was smiling, easing you with his complicity as if you had given him exactly what he wanted to know.

" I can't blame you for rejoicing of your husband, that's how things should be. "

At that precise moment, Hector revealed himself to make you aware of his arrival.

" Most people would say Paris is the pretty one. "

Your shame was such that you would have wanted earth to swallow you.

" I was merely pointing out you perfectly fit the idea of masculine beauty preferred in Greece. "

" Are greek wives not allowed to like their husbands? " Priam teased you and glanced at his son with amusement. " I haven't visited the country in decades, but I was never aware of that. "

You tried to joke your way out of the situation.

" We are forbbiden from liking them in advance. "

Hector gave a few steps closer in your direction before replying.

" I'm not blind: I can perfectly see i'm married to a beautifull woman. "

Despite he had probably thought about that before, it was the first time he was saying it out loud.

The trip to Greece was a crucial point, not only for the mission started by your marriage, but but for your relationship on itself. It was meant to be structured in two phases. First, you were going to Sparta, where Menelaus would receive you and give you news of Nestor and Agamemnon. If the war against Thesaly was over and the rulers had returned to their kingdoms, you would continue travelling on land to visit Pylos. There, Hector would meet the rest of your family and your father would later accompany you to Mycenae for the hardest part of the tour. After Agamemnon would have accepted the terms of the concerted peace, you would return to Sparta and finish to settle the deal back where you started.

Frightening news for Troy was getting to hear Menelaus saying his brother had conquered the last corner of their country. Suddenly, Hector felt that the inconvenience of being married to a greek that was once a stranger seemed very small in the big scheme of things.

Only once he had the oportunity to dive into greek politics in person, the eldest trojan prince had fully realized what meant to be a son in law of Nestor. The eldest rulling king In the country was highly respected by everyone, and specially the Atreides. He was probably the onlyone whose opinion was completely trusted by Agamemnon, besides from his own brother, and that anecdotic detail was shared by the spartan king himself.

Relaxed on the political front, Hector found time to notice other things.

As intended welcome, Menelaus offered a great celebration that was an autentic show off his fortune. You were drinking, eating and dancing like you didn't properly do during your own wedding party. The promise you made when on the sea of keeping an eye on Paris so Hector could do the deals got sidelined by the mutual discovering going on between you and your husband. Too absorbed in each other to care, being an actual couple instead of an institutional facade.

For a brief instant that disrupted the cheer, he glanced at Helen quietly observing from her seat how everyone else had fun while her husband fooled arround careless of her. Then, Hector looked at you and realized how far you had made it together.

The woman he had in front wasn't the same he awkwardly danced with to keep the appearances on that farse of a wedding celebration. Lonely observant like the spartan queen, only daring to engage in the fun if dragged into it by her brother because she clearly felt she didn't belong there.

You have trully become his wife, his princess.

The realization came to him in the most unexpected moment, on a loud place very innapropiate to talk about feelings.

" Was that what you had in mind when you told me you wanted us to resemble a marriage?" He teased you in whispers, subtly pointing at the royal couple while purposedly leading you into taking a prudential distance from the dancing people. " I see them, and i'm so glad we didn't turn out like them."

It made you chuckle.

" It wasn't them specifically, more of an idea of how a loveless marriage works. "

Hector smirked and pulled you closer, attempting of letting you give in for a hug.

" I understand now what went wrong from the beggining. " He teased the reveal of his conclussion. " … You desired me that night, but noticed I didn't feel the same and that confused you. The uses of your home prepared you to give yourself to a man you wouldn't want, never to not be wanted. Or even less, to find yourself wanting the man rejecting you. It wasn't your fault, as it wasn't mine, but you closed yourself for self preservation after the embarassement you must have felt … And you shouldn't had to feel that way. "

You pressed one hand on his chest as a measure of distance.

" Is this some sick test, Hector?" You called him out, distrustfull. " I'm not the wife you wanted, so I should never want you. I can't do it, that's not how the world works. "

Hector grabbed your wrist softly, gesturally inciting you to accept him.

" Then our world is upside down, but that's fine." He calmed you. " I thought I was respecting the honor of my maiden bride, only to find out she was the one waiting for me. "

You groaned with exasperation, unsure of how to make him understand the real problem going way deeper than that failed episode.

" … You have no idea of how frustrating it is to love you knowing I will never match your lost love. "

The exposure of your hushed suffering made him feel a bit heartbroken for you, but you were also confessing your love for him and that was enough encouragement.

" We needed time … I was not ready to love you, but I am now. "

His metaphorical use of the phrase merged all the possible forms of love he was feeling into one. To make your amazement complete, he grabbed both of your cheeks so you won't be able to escape the passionate public kiss he once couldn't give you on the wedding.

No choir of singing girls guided your way to the bedchamber that time, but you were following Hector and your hearts were beating as one.

[hersterical]

Some of my favorite fictional friendships who I think would be willing to get platonically married (some of these I ship both platonically and romantically and some of these I ship purely platonically)

(Stranger Things) Robin & Steve: Do I even need to explain this one?

(MCU) Kate & Yelena: This is doubly true if Yelena is ace and/or aro. I could also see them getting married on an assignment or something and then just not getting around to divorcing while joking about being work wives

(MCU) Clint & Natasha: I honestly only see this happening in a situation where Laura dies in a non-Thanos related incident

(Seinfeld) Jerry & George: They sincerely believe that it was just for the tax benefits. Hard to say if they ever become self-aware enough for it to become romantic

(Community) Annie & Abed: Got carried away with the bit. Abed doesn’t take marriage seriously enough to get a divorce and Annie likes the idea of being married and being able to refer to someone as her husband. They do eventually both grow to actually enjoy being platonically married to each other. Annie might eventually want a divorce when she realizes she’s a lesbian and falls in love with a woman. Abed might want a divorce if he sees how sad the marriage makes Troy

(Lotr) Legolas & Gimli: Same reasons for why they’d get married romantically but if they had no romantic feelings for each other

(X-Men Evolution) Rogue & Kitty: I could see them actually following through on an “if neither of us are married by the time we’re 40” kind of arrangement, though it’d take quite a bit of convincing on Kitty’s part and wouldn’t happen until their 50’s

(The Good Place) Jason & pretty much anyone except for Michael (and Janet): Literally canonically happened with Tahani, kind of canonically happened with Pillboi. Eleanore would definitely go for it if it got her out of a tough situation (and depending on her relationship status with Chidi). Would probably be able to guilt trip Chidi into it if it was really necessary to get Jason out of a bad situation

(SPOP) Bow and Sea Hawk: I don’t think this requires an explanation

(Willow) Kit & Elora: Only if there’s something that stops Kit from marrying Jade or if it’s on accident

Honorable Mentions

(Psych) Shawn & Gus: Shawn would no hesitation platonically marry Gus but Gus would not be up for it

(BBC Merlin) Arthur and Merlin: Would they be platonic life partners? Yes. Would they be romantically married? Yes. Would they get platonically married? No.

(X-Men Evolution) Kurt & Kitty: They would also have an ‘if neither of us are married by the time we’re 40’ kind of thing but Kurt’s too much of a romantic to go through with it

(Community) Jeff & Britta: It wouldn’t be romantic, and it wouldn’t be platonic, but a secret third thing (probably related to spite). We already almost saw it happen in the season two premiere

(Schitt’s Creek) Stevie and David: They would consider it in the pre-Patrick era, but David’s too much of a romantic to go through with it (did they have an ‘if we’re not married by the time we’re 40’ thing in canon? I can’t remember)

(New Girl) Winston and Cece: A classic Winston and Cece mess around would go too far and Cece would demand an immediate divorce (though dependings on the timing she might let it go longer than necessary just to watch Schmidt’s head explode regularly)

(BTVS) Tara and Oz: Sincerely don’t know if either of them would actually be down for this but I think it’d be tons of fun

(SPOP) Bow and Adora: I think they’d be perfectly happy to be platonically married but Glimmer would blow a gasket and Catra’s passive aggressiveness would be reaching very dangerous levels

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 37: Ancient History XVII and Earlier

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct earlier time grouping. Basically, I'd already moved on to human history, but I'd periodically get a pre-homin suggestion, hence the occasional random item waaay out of it's time period, rather than reopen the category.

In some cases a culture lasted a really long time and I grouped them by whether it was likely the later or earlier grouping made the most sense with the information I had. (Invention ofs tend to fall in an earlier grouping if it's still open. Ones that imply height of or just before something tend to get grouped later, but not always. Sometimes I'll split two different things from the same culture into different polls because they involve separate research goals or the like).

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration. All cultures and time periods welcome.