#scyllas revenge

[ljsarts]

Happy ofmd season 2!! I'm going a totally regular amount of insane over the first three episodes ( im lying I haven't been this excited for a season in a long long time)

Anyways here's my old Oc (from the Scylla's revenge art template And crew) Nero now upgraded with some romance betrayal and angst!

Aka : Accidentally saving the pirate assassin who's been sent to kill you who you totally didn't have a one night fling with at port.

Alt text :

Two pirates the right pirate where's a red loose fabric top embellished with hand sewn flowers and leaves with top surgery scars visible beneath the fabric. They have green trousers tucked into brown laced boots . They have brown hair in a loose bun and a beaming smiley expression, they look down at the left pirate figure dressed in reds and purples a loose embellished waistcoat over a grey top with red epillets and purple laced up trousers with brown belts around their thighs. A knife is tightly held behind the left figures back hidden from view. Both figures hang over the side of a ship the left figure looks distraught while being held above the ocean waves (bottom left) by the right figure who holds onto and treads on thick rope netting.

[mithrilhearts]

*Boop!!*

In my head you're 100% the backbone of the Tolkien fandom and I can only aspire to have a fraction of your writing skills and baking skills and general online people skills <3

Lemme tell you, this message is screenshot on my phone, I look at it a lot, and it gives me so much JOY!!!! 🤩

Thank you for the kind words, and I’ll have you know, your writing is super stellar!!! I still think about that Faramir/Eowyn chicken soup fic. And your Bilbo meeting Estel fic from the first year of THAUC!!!

Thank you for being so sweet, kind, supportive, and uplifting in the community, Scylla!!

[scyllas-revenge]

Just read your “leap of faith” fic for Legolas and I have say I absolutely adore your writing style! Would it be possible for you to do a drabble or some rough ideas on what he would act like in the morning after waking up?

Thank you so much!! Honestly, that wasn't a fic I really planned to write more of, but your ask got my extremely rusty brain back to writing, so thank you! I'm not sure I succeeded at the style I was going for here, but it was fun to give it a try. I hope you like it!

(and @heilith I remember you requested to be tagged in my next Legolas content, so here you go!)

Leap of Faith, Part 2

aka even more Only One Bed shenanigans

Legolas/reader (gender-neutral)

Word count: 1100

Rating: G

Read part 1 here!

Legolas wakes to the sound of his name, but does not hurry to open his eyes. Your voice is a thing of beauty, as it always is, and he sighs a soft smile at the sound, willing the outside world away.

Soon his name is on your lips again, a bit more insistently this time. He shakes his head faintly. Not yet. Mortal sleep is a new experience for him, and he would indulge in it a few moments more. 

Now your hand presses against his shoulder. Regretfully, Legolas allows himself to be jostled into real wakefulness at last, where he finds you lying beside him, soft morning light streaming in through the inn’s faded curtains.

Your body is still curled toward him under the blankets. 

Concern pinches at your brow as you study him. You have never seen him sleep with his eyes closed—is he unwell? But then, perhaps elves never feel unwell. The wry laugh in your words does not fully disguise the sudden pain behind your eyes—perhaps you are reminded, as he so often is, of the immeasurable gulf between you, mortal and immortal, human and elf.

But you were never one to dwell overmuch on such heavy matters—you rest a hand against his forehead, half-teasing, as though to check for fever. Burning up, you inform him, your solemn pronouncement betrayed by the grin playing on your lips. Alas, he is quite unwell indeed! You fear his days are numbered. He had best get his affairs in order.

Legolas does not return your laugh. He will feel unwell in truth, he knows, the moment he must rise from this bed and carry on his journey with you, pretending he did not hear you whisper his name in your sleep, pretending he did not succumb to mortal dreams by your side. But he must give you an answer, and such a confession will not do. 

He was curious, he admits at last. It is no lie—not even a half-truth, for he is burning with curiosity, has burned ever since he met you. It is a weak answer, but it seems to satisfy you, and you smile at him more earnestly. 

Your hand still rests on his forehead, as though you’d quite forgotten to remove it. 

Have you shifted nearer to him? He does not think so. Yet the distance between you now seems unbearably small, intimate, your legs half-entwined under the blankets, his hair touching yours on your pillow. Nearly a lover’s embrace.

It is improper, Legolas thinks to himself, the instinct to scramble back rising in his throat. His curiosity has always warred with nervousness around you, the desire to at once surge forward and retreat often keeping him at a standstill entirely. But you speak again, and his eyes are drawn to the movement of your lips, so hypnotizing that you are forced to repeat yourself twice before he understands. 

Has his curiosity been satisfied, then? Now that he has had a taste of mortal sleep? Your eyes crinkle with laughter, the sound dancing soft and intimate between you. Mortal sleep is quite dull, after all, and you fear he must be disappointed. You shake your head ruefully, your hand leaving his forehead only to brush, agonizingly, against his cheek as you draw away—

“No.” Legolas's hand grasps your retreating wrist before you are aware of it.

His voice is still soft, the half-hushed restraint of early morning that you, like all mortals, seem to favor, but you cannot fail to sense the change in it, a flame igniting the word, low and rasping and hungry.

You lay frozen for a moment, your lungs scarcely drawing breath. But an answering flame sparks behind your eyes, and you raise your brow at him. “No...you are not disappointed? Or no, you are not satisfied?”

Softly you return your hand to Legolas’s face, your fingers trailing tentatively over his cheekbone, his jaw, the shell of his ear, shaped so unlike your own. His heart soars at your touch, and he laughs softly for sheer joy. “How could you disappoint me?" His hand falls to your waist, drawing you nearer. "In the waking world and in sleep, there is delight to me in all you do.”

“I am glad.” Heat blooms on your cheeks, but your fingers continue to play over his face, his neck, his hair, and your smile now is a thing of fire. You lean in closer than ever, and he wishes it might burn him. “And how could I satisfy you?”

Oh, there can be no doubt, now, that you feel as he does. The little bedroom seems suddenly to be made of gold, the morning sun sinking into his skin as though this is the first sunrise ever to grace Middle-Earth, the world born anew before him. Yet for all his elation Legolas knows not how to answer—he wants too much, far more than he can ask of you, and he fears his curiosity will never be satisfied.

Smiling all the wider for his silence, you take pity on him, tapping a playful finger against his chest as though in thought. “Perhaps I might tell you what I dreamed of last night. Will that do?” 

Your touch burns over his collarbone, his neck, his jaw, until your thumb sweeps softly over his lower lip. He swallows hard. He sees your sleeping face again, branded into his memory, your lashes fluttering, lips parting as you murmur his name. No, he thinks. It is not enough. “Perhaps you might show me instead.”

There is a heat beyond fire in your smile now, a heat to rival the rising sun. You know as well as he that this alone will not satisfy either of you, that this will begin something new and terrifying, a leap of faith far greater than the one he had taken last night in lying down beside you and closing his eyes. Yet he does not mean to retreat, and nor, it seems, do you. 

“Hmm. It will do, for a start.” 

Legolas is still chuckling fondly at your answer when you press his name against his lips, tangling your fingers in his hair. As you pull his body flush against yours, sighing as he parts your lips to taste the joy and trust and desire on your tongue, his fears and doubts vanish like summer fog, for he knows you have faith in each other utterly. 

He knows that when you take this leap together, you will fly.

[markscherz]

Hello! I’m curious: when you were a little kid, was there some part of you that thought- despite all evidence to the contrary- that poison dart frogs would taste like gummy candy? I’m not saying I thought that and I’m DEFINITELY not saying I still kind of think that, but like…I have eyes. They’re the skittles of the animal kingdom

In rainforest, a frog can be hidden

as a brown or a little green thing,

so a frog that is bright and unhidden

is a warning you really should heed;

all that is bright is not tasty

not all coloured things should be licked;

Müllerian: both taste quite nasty,

Batesian: you could be tricked.

[i-did-not-mean-to]

For your writing ask: 🤔 and 💥

My friiiiiiiend!!!

🤔 Are there any new characters you want to write about?

Not really. Can you think of any? Are there any you'd want to see? :D

💥Is there a chapter, scene, or WIP you're most excited to write? Share a snippet or tell us about it!

Not really either. I love all I write...So, let me see...what can I give you as a snippet?

As it was, he suddenly felt exhausted and embarrassed. He wondered what the other two visitors might have thought about him being whisked away as if he’d cracked his head open on the ice. Did they believe him to be an overly dramatic, ridiculously fragile creature? Despite the irrefutable fact that he didn’t know them and would never see either one again, Erestor disliked that idea. “Let me down! I can walk,” he tried to convince Glorfindel once more. “You shouldn’t have stopped because of me. I'm fine.”

From one of the calendar fics for @tolkienpinupcalendar.

Thank you so much for these asks! It was great fun answering your questions! <3

-> Questions here

[sindar-princeling]

Oooh #4 and 18 for your tolkien ask please!

4. What passage in Tolkien's books or in any of the films/shows/media speaks to you the most?

Oh my god that's an impossible choice honestly... I love many passages from the Pelennor, and among them Eowyn and Merry slaying the Witch King, I love Treebeard singing the song about different creatures, I love Faramir proposing to Eowyn, I love "I'm glad you’re with me here at the end of all things" (how beautiful and open and loving is that!!), I love gimli taking about Aglarond caves... the list goes ever on and on ajsjdfjfjf

18. The magic of Middle Earth is barely ever explained. If you could gain just one of the barely-explained talents or magic abilities of a person in Arda, what ability would you choose? Would you hide it or use it openly IRL?

I'd LOVE to have either magic singing abilities or magic weaving abilities like Galadriel with the cloaks or Arwen with the standard

[fellowshipofthefics]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Hobbit - All Media Types, TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Aragorn | Estel & Bilbo Baggins, Aragorn | Estel/Arwen Undómiel Characters: Bilbo Baggins, Aragorn | Estel, Arwen Undómiel Additional Tags: Fluff, Unrequited Crush, Pre-Teen Angst, Love Letters, Slight Canon Divergence, Estel is the most awkward ten-year-old to ever live, he has the same vibes as a first grader asking their teacher to marry them Summary:

Eager for some peace and quiet from the dwarves, Bilbo goes exploring in Rivendell and comes across a moody, awkward young Estel, who's fallen head over heels in love with Lady Arwen.

Despite never having talked to her before (and despite being all of ten years old) Estel is determined to write her a love letter before she returns to Lothlorien. Can Bilbo snap him out of it?

[fizzyxcustard]

Send this to ten other bloggers that you think are wonderful. Keep the game going, make someone smile!!!

Thank you so much, lovely! Backatcha. I don’t normally send these chain messages on, purely because I worry about missing people off and upsetting them. So I think everyone reading this is wonderful! Love you all. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[southfarthing]

Literally thought "came for the faramir stayed for the faramir" and took me several seconds to notice that you'd used those as tags on your post XD

HAHAHAHAHA

[mithrilhearts]

Hey! For your ask game, garden and cruel <3

Hey Scylla!! Sorry for the delay, here we go!!

Can you believe I only found one for garden? and then about a thousand for cruel???

From my upcoming fic (at some point), Led Only By The Stars (Space AU)!

“By Yavanna’s green garden…” Bilbo breathed as he lowered his laser gun, trotting towards the wreckage out of pure curiosity and poking his nose where it likely shouldn’t be.

and from my upcoming chapter of Kurdu 'abadaz (this week!!)

And not a single pebble moved, or shifted, and for a time, Thorin had to wonder if this was all a cruel trick of embarrassment.

Send a random word to my inbox and I'll post a line/passage containing that word from a released or unreleased fic!

[i-did-not-mean-to]

*Boop!*

I love you idnmt <3 you're a a wonderful friend and pen pal and are a beacon of joy in the Tolkien fandom (and also I'm coming to visit you one of these days whether you're ready or not. i'm just gonna show up at your door and you're gonna have to hang out with me)

Boop back, my dear friend...

Did I tell you that I've written you a drabble?

Hahaha! Also, you can come here any time you want, and I'll be so happy to see you, I will faint like a goat! I swear!

Meeting you is one of my biggest dreams! You're such a precious friend to me, and I admire and love you so much

Hearing from you (even an evil boop) makes my day! You'll never know how much you mean to me! <3

[madbard]

While listening to Epic, I noticed an interesting pattern with how antagonists are portrayed, and how Odysseus’ interactions with them are coded.

In Epic, the monsters Odysseus faces are rarely fighting for their own sake. Polyphemus attacks Odysseus’ crew to avenge his sheep, and Poseidon destroys his ships as revenge for his son’s suffering. Similarly, Circe only threatens Odysseus to protect her nymphs. Odysseus does not kill any of these enemies, and while he is occasionally criticized for letting them go free, the overall implication is that he did the right thing by sparing them.

Then we hit the Thunder Saga, and Odysseus begins his arc as a ‘monster’ by killing the sirens. His actions here are brutal, and whether or not they are justified is, I think, up to the listener. However, it’s significant that the sirens are the first foes Odysseus faces on his journey who aren’t either defending or avenging what they love. They attack unprovoked, and while Odysseus’ method of execution is gory, he is never punished for it by other characters within the narrative. Apollo is the only one to protest, and even he is swayed easily when Athena says (among other things) that the sirens were “trying to do him worse.” The sirens attacked first, and while Odysseus’ response was ‘monstrous,’ his crew obeyed his commands and he was not challenged or ostracized for giving said commands. He is only treated as a monster when he yields to Scylla, who also attacked without provocation.

Thus, in Epic, the monsters fighting to protect or avenge their loved ones are protected by the very story - killing them may be more convenient, but it isn’t the answer. However, the monsters who attack without provocation, for their own amusement or satisfaction, do not receive such respect. Killing them is acceptable, and cooperating with them is monstrous.

By this logic, Odysseus is justified in his actions, however atrocious. He attacks to protect his family, and therefore deserves mercy.

The suitors, on the other hand…

[dkmbookworm]

This really makes the ending to thunder bringer stand out, because he did the very thing he was trying to avoid in Scylla

Looking his men in the eyes after sending them to their deaths.

“Eurylochus, light up six torches.”

Hang on…that sounds like Odysseus had Eurylochus light the torches and hand them out. Meaning that Ody made HIM choose, unknowingly, who was going to die. Odysseus knew what giving a man a torch would mean, and he f*cking delegated that task to someone else. So he didn’t have to look these six men in the eyes as he sealed their fate. He let Eurylochus do it instead—and Eury, NOT knowing what it would mean, probably chose six of his top remaining men.

I cannot imagine the inner turmoil that poor man went through before raising his sword against his captain. Oof.

[gingermintpepper]

Okay, let's finally talk about EPIC's Apollo

I feel very compelled to say, first of all, that I do not dislike Epic. In fact, I am very fond of Epic and have been following its production and status very eagerly! I attend all the launch streams, I watch all of Herrans' update videos; I am, at the end of the day, a fan and I want it to be known that my words are spoken out of love and passion as much as they are spoken from a place of critique.

So really, what my problem with Epic's Apollo?

In the briefest possible terms; the choice to have Apollo be defined by his musical aspect in God Games is thematically strange. And not in the 'oh well in the Odyssey, Apollo was important to Odysseus and his family so it's weird that that wasn't kept in Epic' strange, strange in the sense that Odysseus' character arc since My Goodbye has been getting more and more obviously Apollonian and so it is positively bizarre that when we get to meet Apollo, the god seems entirely disinterested in him and his affairs. So much so that he is not even defined by any station that would indicate that he has been watching over and protecting Odysseus and his family.

What do I mean by 'Odysseus has been following an Apollonian arc'? I'm so glad you asked!

Remember Them is the last song in which Odysseus explicitly uses his sword until Mutiny where he must use it to defend himself against Eurylochus' blade. He uses it to help enact the plan to conquer Polyphemus and, due to Polites dying in that battle, Polites who wished for Odysseus to put the blade down entirely and embrace a post-war life, Odysseus also retires his sword. This is an action that symbolically separates him from Athena - and the image of Odysseus as a traditional warrior set for him in Horse and Infant - as much as My Goodbye physically separates him from the goddess and her war-ways - from this point onwards, Odysseus will no longer be leaning on Athena's wisdom or methods to solve his problems. Likewise, he will no longer be able to rely on her protection.

Odysseus thusly solves most of his upcoming problems through diplomacy and avoidance. He approaches Aeolus - a strange and ambiguous god (both in gender and in motivation) and appeals to them for help. Circe too, he approaches not with wishes to conquer or for revenge, but for the safe returning of his men and an alternate way forward. In all of these scenarios, there is some Apollonian element which is subtly interweaved alongside the influence of other gods; it is with a bow and arrows that Polyphemus' sheep is slain (and thus it is this Apollonian element which is at the root of Odysseus' spat with Poseidon), it is a vision of Penelope that warns Odysseus that his men are about to open Aeolus' wind-bag, Circe's peace offering to Odysseus is to refer him to a prophet of Apollo who has since died.

In this way, Apollo is walking alongside Odysseus for all of his journey after Athena departs - even in the Underworld, he is guiding him. It is Tiresias' proclamation that is the last straw for Odysseus, it is by the power of a mouthpiece of Apollo that Odysseus decides to embrace his ruthlessness. It is with the bow and arrow that Odysseus subdues the siren who sought to trick him, likewise, Odysseus does not attempt to undermine or escape the fate of paying Scylla's passage price - he knows of the doom about to befall the six men and quite unlike the rest of the journey until this point, he does not fight against it. This all comes to a head on Thrinacia where it is a blade which sacrifices the sun god's cow and brings destruction upon the crew once more.

My point with all of this is that when I heard the teasers for God Games years ago, it made perfect sense to me that Apollo would be Round One - he is not Odysseus' adversary and has no reason to oppose Athena's wish to free him. From other teasers about what will happen in the climax of Epic, Apollo will still be walking alongside Odysseus - it is Apollo's bow that Penelope will give the suitors to string. Likewise, it is Apollo's bow that will prove Odysseus' legitimacy and identity. That bow will be the power by which Odysseus hunts his adversaries and cleans out his palace - it is Apollo who is the avatar of Odysseus' ruthlessness, not Athena.

So tell me, truly, what was the point of having Apollo raise a non-argument in God Games? Why have him appear unconcerned, aloof and slightly oblivious? Why have him appear in his capacity as the Lord of Music at all?? And if the intention was never to make Apollo an active player in Odysseus' life like he was in the Odyssey, why keep Odysseus as a primary archer?

The answer of course is that Apollo is inextricable from the fabric of the Odyssey - his influence and favour exudes from Odysseus just as much as Athena's. In Athena's ten year sulk, it would have been Apollo who kept Telemachus and Penelope safe. It would have been Apollo protecting Odysseus from Poseidon's gaze as he travelled the seas (according to the Odyssey anyway)

Forgive me for not being excited about something that I thought was being purposefully set up. I was extremely ecstatic about all of the little Apollonian details that litter the sagas because I know where this story ends up (loosely) but all God Games did was reveal that maybe those Apollonian details were not intentional at all, but merely the ghost of the Apollo who persistently haunts those he favours, even if he cannot explicitly come to their aide in an adaptation.

[fizzyxcustard]

What's your favorite book you read last year?

I’d probably say The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

[bloodyshadow1]

the thing with Mutiny, is that the actual mutiny was the right thing to do. Eurylochus as the second in command, it was his duty to mutiny against his captain for the good of the crew. Odysseus was willing to sacrifice, to basically murder 6 of his men to feed a monster so they could get away. There was no plan to defeat or evade Scylla, he fed those men, the men who trusted him, who followed him to Troy and fought beside him.

There is a difference between knowing your men are going to fall in battle, there's a difference between baiting your enemy on the battlefield and putting your men at risk. Even though Eurylochus opened the bag, or was willing to leave behind men in Circe's clutches, there is a difference between accidentally getting your men killed or not wanting to fight a goddess and risking the lives of your entire crew to save a few and sacrificing them to a monster.

Eurylochus is far from sinless or blameless, but he was in the right at the start of Mutiny. And to be clear, he and the crew deposed Odysseus, but they didn't murder him. They all still respected the man he was, but yes, they have the right to rebel if they think he's going to willingly get them killed, to make them pawns to sacrifice on his way home, not their way home, yeah, they have a right to mutiny.

People act like they were always planning this instead are desperate and terrified. they followed his orders to sail into the underworld, they were loyal until they realized how disposable they were. Yes, killing Apollo's sacred cows was bad, and I don't blame Odysseus for not being willing to sacrifice his life to save the men who betrayed him. But don't act like it's him getting revenge on the cold hearted brigands who stabbed him in the back out of greed. Everyone was desperate, everyone made mistakes, Odysseus is just the plaything of the gods so he got to survive, because the Odyssey is his story, his tragedy