#short Odysseus my beloved

[honeymilkbubbletea]

Penelope and her little man AKA Odysseus 💖

I had to draw something happy after listening to The Underworld Saga...

And also to have a break from my usual contents, I hope you're not disappointed 💀

[deadbaguette]

More relevant information

I feel like this is relevant information for my Diomedes goes to Ithaca AU, but I could not tell you why

[dootznbootz]

Silly Ctimene Headcanon :3

As some of y'all know, my Odysseus has long, curly af auburn hair. It's something he gets from Anticlea (who got it from her dad who got it from Hermes). It's a cute lil thing with Laertes having his beloved 3 tall, red-brown puff balls lol.

But unlike Odysseus and Anticlea who love their luscious locks, Ctimeine HATES it.

It's too hot. It's thick and heavy. It gets messy and frizzy with humidity. It hurts to get combed. Who on earth would purposely keep what feels like a woolen blanket on their head during the warm season?!

Odysseus hears her rants about how much she hates it. Both are tenderheaded but she is more upset about getting it styled than he is. When Odysseus is around 12-14 and she was around 10-12, hearing some more of her rants, he was basically like "…Well…what if your hair got cut by 'accident'? 👀 "

And then he basically has it set up where "oh no, My sister is stuck and all snarled with her hair in this bush! How will I get her out????"

And it's just basically him pulling a "chop chop" for her. Very uneven and in one swoop. like from "Tangled" >:3

And ofc, Anticlea and Euryclea are sad. Probably even crying a lil.

"This was on purpose, I KNOW it was, Odysseus. How could you do this to your poor lil sister?! 😭" "Because I'm a horrible and mean older brother >:3" winks at the camera while Ctimene is bobbing her head side to side and kicking her feet, giggling about her shorter, much lighter hair "You will be punished severely." "…yeh 🥲 "

I know haircutting wasn't really a thing unless grieving BUT they were kiddos and stupid 👀 This may just be a one time thing but I also really love short hair Ctimene. :)

[preseriesdean]

if you don’t mind me asking, could you share some of your favorite fanfics or authors? thanks ❤️

oh hi hello!! yes of course!! i actually haven't read any spn fic in a while but i have spent a lot of time organizing my bookmarks. i'm going to assume that you meant samdean fic but i'll add a few non-samdean ones at the end.

authors!

@zmediaoutlet (deadlybride on ao3)

candle_beck (ao3)

@goshen-applecrumbledore (ao3)

whereupon (livejournal)

Linden (ao3)

sevenfists (ao3)

there are so many more great authors but these came to mind :)

fics!

i am going to list my forever-favorites first - the ones i would recommend to anyone and everyone, screaming-from-the-rooftops kind of love - and then many many more under the cut.

beloved by urchinesque (2016, 1.9k, NR, warning: death) It might be the gentlest thing that's ever happened to them.

in my opinion everyone should read this once. it's quick. they die. it's-- happy, somehow. beautiful. i think about it all the time.

Last Day on Earth by candle_beck (2009, 10.8k, E) A list of things to do if you only have one day to live, presented in inconvenient non-list form.

last year my best friend and i were pondering which fic felt quintessential to samdean for us and somehow settled on this one. i still agree with the choice.

Odysseus, American by coyotesuspect (2010, 10k, M) Dean finds Peter O'Toole's recording of the Odyssey in a bin marked “Audio" in Casa Grande's only used bookstore. The place smells like cigarette smoke and old books, and it reminds him of Sam. Stanford era.

my favorite stanford era fic. i think it captures dean's loneliness and desperation beautifully.

A man with his insides out and his outsides off by britomart_is (2016, 5.3k, E, time travel, underage) They say there are only two stories in the world: man goes on a journey, and stranger comes to town.

another fic i want everyone to read. it's so short and feels like a novel. sam is messed up and dean is in love and everything is miserable.

Breathing Hard by whereupon (2009, 9k, E) The day Dean figures it out.

this is so simple and yet-- everything to me. i can't think about dinosaurs without thinking about this fic, which doesn't tell you much, but you'll see. sometimes this is really all you need.

The Last Outpost of All That Is by gekizetsu (2008, 59k, E) The world ends while they’re asleep.

this fic has stayed with me my whole life. i thought about it even during my years away from spn and fandom entirely. they're alone and you don't know why and they build their life together and you end up wondering, is this hell or heaven? whenever i come across a screenshot of the last couple of paragraphs i want to cry.

see things so much clearer by deadlybride (2020, 11.7k, E) Sam's been acting oddly. Dean learns how to use the history on an internet browser and finds out why.

this is a fic that hits the spot for me personally so well. another favorite preseries fic. i love the idea of sam using livejournal, and of dean finding out this way.

Stay The Distance by lazy_daze (2011, 24k, E) Sam is dependent on Dean's touch and closeness after the wall falls - Dean's presence reminds him of why he chose to wake up, and keeps the memories at bay, allowing Sam to function.

i love enmeshment, and i love that here it's literal. i love that they're just sort of fine with it.

more fics below!

in absolutely no particular order whatsover. please check the warnings and tags on these before reading!

Recall by De_Nugis (2012, 6.3k, E) Sam's having a hard time telling what's real and what isn't, especially when it comes to some voicemails from Dean.

Living in god's blind spot by applecrumbledore (2022, 25k, E) Of all the situations Dean didn’t need his dad to see him in, ‘getting off to being pushed around by a guy’ was in the top three. And ‘a guy’ was a massive glossing-over of reality. Any guy—any other guy—would be bad enough, but Sam was fucking cataclysmic.

Almost At Home by balefully (2008, 24.3k, E) Sam graduates from high school in early June in rural Tennessee. He and Dean start the summer with an all-nighter of celebration; the day after, while both fight hangovers, John calls to assign them their first hunt by themselves.

they said it was the fall of man by jukeboxhound (2016, 7.4k, M) Sam gets his soul back on a Monday.

When I Fall Asleep It Is Your Eyes That Close by britomart_is (2009, 1.9k, E) Post-Season Two. Sam is alive. Dean is happy.

Life As We Know It by sevenfists (2007, 13.7k, M, curtain fic) On the morning that Sam woke up, Dean ran five red lights on the way to the hospital, his half-empty coffee cup sloshing in the holder.

tied up like two ships by orphan_account (2014, 3.1k, E) Dean liked to hold hands.

Gospel Truth by Cerberuss (2020, 15.2k, E, case fic) ‘DOES YOUR BROTHER KNOW THAT YOU WANT HIM?’ Individually placed letters, bold and tinged brown with the weather. Sam can’t look away and he prays, dream dream dream.

Buy You A Mockingbird by candle_beck (2011, 10.3k, M, underage, outsider pov) A genuine horror story.

because you want to die for love by hathfrozen (2021, 27.3k, E) Sam and Dean settle into their Heaven—and into each other, too.

the constant vow by deadlybride (2022, 119k, E, fem dean-ish) They've just finished up a pretty standard job and are killing time in snowy Wisconsin when Dean wakes up no longer looking like Dean. That's just the start of their problems.

This Fortress Made of Us by mickeym (2009, 10.8k, E) Sam really didn't do very well without his brother. Coda for Mystery Spot.

State of Love and Trust/As I Busted Down the Pretext by cormallen (2010, 2.9k, M) When you know exactly what your brother's thinking, there are some chances you just don't take.

Quiet with the Rain by Linden (2014, 5.3k, T) Dean can spot an undercover cop at thirty paces, a hooker at twenty, and rims that will match his baby's at ten. But the fact that his little brother is in love with him—that, he can't see worth a damn.

have a cigar by deadlybride (2020, 5.6k, E) What happened with Andy and Ansem unsettles Sam. Dean doesn't seem worried.

Heart Shaped Balloon by winsive (2022, 18.5k, E, underage) Sam and Dad are fighting. No surprise, but it's the weekend before Valentine's Day and Dean isn't missing out on the chance to bang a cheerleader just to console his bratty little brother. He does bring back a heart shaped balloon for him, though. It's not supposed to be cursed.

Bare by gracerene (2022, 2.2k, T) Of all the things Dean hasn't done before, Sam never expected something as innocuous as skinny dipping to be on the list.

Speechless by candle_beck (2008, 11.2k, T, case fic) Dean loses his voice and their rapport is only moderately impaired.

Like It Was Yesterday by nomelon (2014, 4.9k, T, fem dean, amnesia) Sam can't remember a time when Dean wasn't there. Dean is always with him. Sam's whole life, there's never been anyone else.

Like a Ghost with Two Voices by Dyed_Red (2022, 46k, E) To cure Dean from the Mark of Cain, Sam has to let Dean, in all his demonic glory, possess him for 28 days. It goes about as well as expected.

Breathe You In (Choke You Down) by orphan_account (2021, 5.9k, E, pwp) Dean really likes the way Sam smells.

lost in yesterday by margaryes (2023, 1k, NR, john pov) John hasn’t seen his youngest son in 18 months.

Unraveling by Linden (2017, 855 words, E) No, he’d said, the first time Sammy had tried to kiss him, sixteen and half-drunk and stupidly beautiful, even though he’d wanted so badly to say yes.

pack up the moon by deathdreamt (2021, 5.9k, T, pre-slash) Sam storms back out from their room, his backpack on and his duffel hanging off his shoulder and isn’t it kind of tragic that his whole life fits in two bags. He looks suddenly much younger than he is, eyes shining. John is back at his guns, whiskey at his elbow, and Dean can hardly believe how rapidly his life is cracking down the centre.

Yesterday, minnesota by applecrumbledore (2022, 30k, E, case fic) Any initial awkwardness filtered away over a hundred miles of highway as Sam thumbed through the missing witch’s diary again. Some people had secret coke habits or secret second wives, and some people had passionate, pitch black, no-kissing sex with a family member every four to six months and never talked about it. You had to find ways to cope.

All Heartless Spectres, Happiness by orphan_account (2021, 5.6k, E) Lisa Braeden receives an email with the subject line, "You Deserve to Know." It contains a single video file and nothing else. (soulless sam)

The Palm Oasis by fictionallemons (2022, 12.3k, E, underage) John strands Dean and Sam at a middle-of-nowhere motel while he investigates possible demon omens in Arizona. The place is nothing to write home about, but at least it has a pool. Dean resolves to think of this as a vacation for him and his studious little brother, but when their money runs out sooner than expected, he considers turning tricks at a nearby truck stop so he can feed Sam.

Other Brothers by homo_pink (2020, 7k, M, underage, outsider pov) A callow boy can go from infancy to someone’s lover in the space of two wildflower summers.

Leader of the Pack by astolat (2007, 14.9k, E) Teaching old dogs new tricks.

Underground Wires by eggnogged (2012, 15.8k, E, fem sam, underage) It’s hard enough being a teenage girl even without all the extra crap: they move around all the time, her family is as far removed from normal as it’s possible to get, and she’s in love with her older brother. Sam has no control on any of it, she’s just trying to stay afloat.

Multitude of Sins by Linden (2015, 4.4k, T, outsider pov) Every now and again, Jim Murphy would look up from his altar and find the Winchester boys at the back of his church.

Like Arrows in the Hands of a Warrior by ADeedWithoutaName (2018, 10.3k, E, underage, dub con-ish, john pov) John Winchester loves his boys, and would take a bullet for either of them. He knows that he's doing it right, the way he's raising them, the things he's teaching them. Not every problem, however, has an easy answer. Like what to do after an incubus case in which their target got his pollen all over both of John's sons.

You Can't Lose What You Never Had by nigeltde (2016, 5.6k, E) You can't spend what you ain't got, and you can't lose what you ain't never had.

Flagstaff by Linden (2014, 7.3k, T, pre-slash, john pov) John tracked Sam down in Flagstaff, four days after he got home to find him gone.

I'll take my chance on a beautiful stranger by fleshflutter (2007, 3.8k, M, outsider pov) If Chase were a better friend, he might try to end the game now, before Brendan loses even more money. But if Brendan is a dick at Stanford, it’s nothing compared to how he is on break.

Cupid's Got A Gun by geckoholic (2012, 13.5k, E, non-con) Fuck-or-die, set in early S4. But they've been fucking for years, so that shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong. Ever since hell, Dean's in no hurry to get that show on the road again.

Someone Else's Blood by sevenfists (2006, 6.7k, E) The first time, of course, was an accident. (pretend dating)

How Many Floors to Realize by lazy_daze (2009, 26k, E, swesson) AU from the end of It's A Terrible Life, in which Zachariah decides to keep stringing them along a little while longer, because damn if they aren't somewhat entertaining, right?

Worthless cartography by applecrumbledore (2022, 15.6k, E) Dean didn’t know what finally made him go for it. The djinn’s dream was a catalyst, but the call was coming from inside the house, and he’d been letting it ring for a very, very long time. (They get one night together right before Sam is taken to Cold Oak. Dean has to deal with that.)

The Space Between Sense and Memory by orphan_account (2021, 4.8k, T) There are a hundred unwritten rules on all the acceptable ways brothers should touch each other. There are hardly any ways at all to break them. Or; five times they follow the rules and one time they don’t.

Ions in the Ether by nigeltde (2019, 10.9k, E, case fic) When was the last time you trusted happy.

Crossed Wires by rivkat (2015, 10.9k, E) Dean thinks Sam is dead.

Crown and Anchor Me (or let me sail away) by Sena (2010, 23.7k, E, underage) Sam Winchester is fifteen years old, at yet another new high school in yet another state, he doesn't get along with his distant, distracted father, he's figuring out that he likes guys just as much as he likes girls, his clothes never fit and his limbs ache at the joint ever since his growth spurt started, he has to study for the PSAT and, oh yeah, he's a little bit in love with his brother, Dean, who's taken a break from hunting monsters to work at a local garage for minimum wage.

Wear Him Lika a Habit by sevenfists (2008, 2.2k, M) Their first kiss isn't an accident. It's anticipated well in advance, discussed for weeks, argued over, second-guessed.

Amor Prohibido by phoenixflight (2020, 3k, M, underage) They spent the spring of Sam's sophomore year living in a shitty apartment south of San Antonio. Every Friday night the clearest channel played three hour marathons of a Spanish soap called La Casa del Corazón. There was a mutually understood truce about watching it, because the alternatives were infomercials or creepy kids’ cartoons that futzed into static every fifteen seconds.

Open Road by Mollyamory (2010, 2k, T) Sam's old enough to know what's good for him.

It's the Blueprint of Your Life by queenklu (2011, 38.4k, time travel) Sam jerks awake in the middle of the night and everything goes to hell. Well, not literally, though Dean is staring down the barrel of less than a year before his deal comes due. In the midst of dealing (or not dealing) with his impending death, a killer ghost ship, and Bela showing up out of the blue, Dean also has to figure out what’s going on in Sam’s head to make him so twitchy, why he’s suddenly breezing through this case while writing endless notes in a notebook he won’t let Dean see.

North of Wednesday by Mollyamory (2008, 3.5k, G) Sam's behind the wheel before he realizes he doesn't have the keys. Coda to Mystery Spot.

non-wincest fic.

dean/omc. We Drank a Thousand Times by glorious_spoon (2010, 43k, M, warning: death) They meet in a bar fight in North Carolina when Dean is nineteen, broke, and desperate, then again when a hunt brings the Winchesters into town a few years later. Neither one of them ever puts a name to it but every once in a while, through the years, Dean finds his way back.

dean/cas: terror & desire intertwined by rupertgayes (2022, 39k, M) Faced with Castiel suffering a fate worse than death, Dean makes the decision to let Cas use his body as a temporary vessel. All things considered, Dean thinks, it could have gone worse.

gen, sam&dean: what lasts by deadlybride (2021, 17.2k, M) Not long after they move into the bunker, Dean loses a leg. Most of a leg. After the hospital, Sam brings him home, and they figure out how to live with what remains.

gen, dean-centric: To Repair Broken Men by procrastin8or951 (2015, 3.1k, T) Dad and Sam keep fighting. Dean can't fix his family, so he fixes things around the crappy apartment they are staying in.

dean/michael: our hour came round at last by orphan_account (2015, 1.8k, NR, pwp) "I want to be inside you," says Michael, low and velvet and hungry and that really shouldn't turn Dean on but it does.

dean/lucifer, dean/cas: exploratory by sp8ce (2022, 4.9k, E, non-con) One night, Castiel proposes he and Dean have sex. Except it's a little more complicated than that.

dean/cas: for a healthy heart by Askance (2013, 2.4k, T) A strange black box appears in Castiel's bedroom one afternoon.

gen, sam&dean: charmer & gentle by Askance (2015, 3.7k, G, outsider pov) The afternoon girl calls them Big and Tall, the strangers who come in late every now and then, buying this or that. The night girl doesn't think those names fit quite right.

dean/cas, past sam/dean: whose wings, though tattered, shall carry me home by fleshflutter (2009, 2.2k, T) There is a breeze moving across the field. It stirs the long grass in lapping waves like the sea. Castiel runs his fingertips through it and remembers flying.

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

The Wisdom Saga: My Thoughts

Hey all!!!! Here are my thoughts on the Wisdom Saga from EPIC: The Musical!

Overall it isn’t my favorite (Circe/Thunder my beloveds), but it’s still pretty good imho!

Legendary

Love how upbeat this one is. MICO as Telemachus is VERY good, and I especially liked the little trembles/voice cracks (?) as he sang! Gave Tem a “young” vibe.

also loved that “L-L-L-L-Legendary” lol

ITS THE ANIMATIC FROM THE REFERENCE VIDEO :D

The Suitors’ voices 👌 also ANTINUOUS JUMPSCARE. HOW DARE YOU CALL PENELOPE A TRAMP WHEN YOU’RE THE ONE TRYING TO GET INTO HER BED.

Antinuous’s lines are the perfect ick. The ToA Discord and I were all typing out various amounts of EW, ICKY, GET OUT at his parts.

Fight Little Wolf

This is possibly my favorite from this saga! I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, and I was really excited for it! Athena coming in was brilliant and I love it :3

We’ll Be Fine

ATHENA CALLED ODYSSEUS FRIEND. OWIE.

Anybody else pick up on a similar melody to Open Arms? Because ow.

Love In Paradise

LOVED the flashbacks at the beginning!

The unhingedness Gigi gave Calypso LMAO Zero social interaction does that to you lol

“Last I checked goddesses can’t die!” Stream gets censored

I PANICKED AT THAT LMAO

all I hear are screams…the ptsd is real

“Stay in my open arms” and then IMMEDIATELY triggering an Open Arms reprise. HOW DARE YOU JAY.

NOT ONLY THAT. BUT ALSO EURYLOCUS REPRISING LUCK RUNS OUT AND ANTICLEA’S WAITING. OUCH.

God Games

This is in battle with Little Wolf for favorite Wisdom Saga song lol

THE INTRODUCTION TO THE GODS SLAPPED. WOLFY YOU WONDERFUL WOLF THAT WAS AWESOME.

APOLLO GIVING A LIL BOW AND CASUALLY WAVING TO (us) HIS ADORING FANS (also us)

don’t mind me fangirling he’s my favorite and he was GORGEOUS

Hephaestus being voiced by Jorge’s dad!!!!

I really liked how Luke Holt delivered Ares’s name. Very gritty and perfect I love <3

APOLLO’S LITTLE SMIRK WHEN HE SAYS “GREAT.” I’M DEAD I’VE DIED RIP ALDER

APOLLOOOOOOOOO

his part was sadly short, but honestly? It makes sense why it would be! Apollo really has no beef with Odysseus, and the Sirens are a little out of pocket, like he was assigned to play the game but is throwing Athena an easy thing to counter so he can get back to Orestes and also Athena owes him a solid so EPIC’s explanation for Athena helping Apollo in the Oresteia? 👀 I’m a nerd connecting the dots leave me be

“If that’s true then release him 🙄💅” Apollo has no time for this bullshit he’s like “come on dad why did you pull ME into this?” Lmaoooo

Hephaestus’s part about trust!! I love. Also the lyricism here and in Apollo’s is very very good <3

APHRODITE. Unlike Apollo and Hephaestus, who were rather quick to support Athena, she’s moments away from going “no ♥️💋”

ARES’S ENTRANCE WAS SPETACULAR NO NOTES I LOVE

DISCO HERA!! ANNIFLAMMA THAT WAS SO GOOD AHHHHHHH THE STYLE THE SWAG THE SASS 100/10

THUNDER BRINGER REPRISE AHHHHHH WITH BEAST MODE ZEUS

Also Athena ain’t dead lol she comes back in King isn’t it? Also she’s a GOD. Who CAN’T DIE.

I’ve seen criticism about Zeus attacking Athena, and about how he wouldn’t do that because she’s a favorite…but the thing is, in The Iliad, he does threaten to blast her and Hera off their chariots at one point…plus Apollo’s a favorite too, and he was nearly thrown into Tartarus by Zeus! Being the favorite doesn’t automatically mean you can get away with anything and everything, so I headcanon that Zeus got a bit more peeved than usual because of just how quickly Athena swayed the others (this can connect to the Odyssey then too, because the majority of the gods already agreed that Odysseus had suffered enough and were quite willing to let him go).

I have additional thoughts on God Games, but that’s for another post since it detracts from the actual livestream, but overall I really enjoyed this one! It’s the first livestream I’ve seen in full, though I do think Thunder Saga was more impactful to watch (I watched that livestream too, but came in at the end of No Longer You).

Two sagas to go!! I’ll be updating my tier list sometime soon as well, so stay tuned for that!!

[knight-of-the-graces]

I’m reading through The Odyssey properly for the first time since we read it in school, and I have… some thoughts. A lot of thoughts, actually. Here they are.

Firstly, Athena. Just… Athena. What are you up to.

The fact that she —disguised as Mentes but obviously knowing who Telemachus is— immediately comments on how tall Telemachus is after questioning if he’s really Odysseus’ son…

Odysseus really is a short man, isn’t he. Even his patron goddess is making fun of him for it. Disguised, but still. Do you think Mentes ever has to pay for the comments Athena makes while pretending to be him?

(Plus Telemachus immediately gets philosophical in his own defense, which… excellent. Excellent. Good job.)

Also Athena’s solution to all of Telemachus’ problems is literally just “Hey, why don’t you take a ship and go find your dad? He’ll murder all these guys for you, trust me, I know the guy. From, uh, childhood.” And Telemachus is like “Hm… okay, I’ll think about it.” Definitely living up to ‘goddess of war’, aren’t you?

And when she leaves, she just… turns into a bird and off she goes. Athena. What. You are in a crowded hall full of people. How is Telemachus the only one who noticed this. Divine magic and the power of alcohol, probably, but… what.

(Also why is everyone except the goddess being referred to as ‘godlike’? Like, we’ve got Nestor, then Telemachus, now Penelope. Seriously, how many of them were ‘godlike’, except for the goddess herself?)

Also Telemachus is definitely being a bit of a broody teenager. Like, come on, if a song is making your mom sad you just change the song. I get that you’re the man of the house, but still. If my brother said something like that to my mom she might actually kill him. And she’s not the formerly Spartan queen of Ithaca.

(And now the bard is godlike too. What is up with you guys, describing people as godlike. Are you trying to offend the actual Greek gods, ’cause we all know how that’ll end for you. You were literally talking about how offending the gods goes like, ten minutes ago. Why are you all like this.)

Then when he’s basically saying ‘get out of my house’ Antinous tells him “Zeus will never give you the throne” and Telemachus’ response is basically “Yes he will”. Boy… I mean kinda, but wow.

Also, Eurymachus, you do not get to call someone ‘friend’ when you’re trying to marry his mom, living in his house against his will, and basically stealing his stuff. Excuse me. What. And if you were paying enough attention to notice ‘Mentes’ how didn’t you notice the whole ‘turns into a bird and flies off’ thing?

The sheer audacity of literally everyone I’ve met so far is definitely something. I’m remembering why this book killed me to read in school now, with the sheer Audacity and Chaos so far.

And Telemachus is immediately called ‘Odysseus’ well-beloved son’ in book two— all I can think of is him introducing himself to people as ‘father of dear Telemachus’ in The Iliad—

(Also don’t try to read The Odyssey through online libraries; the formatting is so messed up it’s actually painful. Alas, I will suffer.)

[multifunctionalnitroglycerin]

The Locked Tomb Series Names and Symbolism #4

Hiya folks! Hope you are all doing fine and dandy. This series ofc couldn’t be complete without our beloved Sex-Pal in the count. Now according to wiki there are two figures that inspired the Master Warden, Παλαμήδης, the Greek mythological hero that took part in the Trojan war, and Palamedes the Arthurian knight. I am more well-versed in the Greek myths than I am in Medieval plays, I admit, but I will do my best to do justice by both these inspirations.

            But first things first, some etymology. There are two most prominent versions for the etymology of the name Palamedes or well, Παλαμήδης. In the first one, it’s a derivative of the verb παλαμάομαι meaning devise/contrive and invent. Aka the inventor that devises plans (Or concocts schemes, depending on how you want to see it). In the second one it is believed to derive from the verb παλαίω => παλεύω aka fight and μήδομαι => σκέφτομαι, συμβουλεύω aka think and advise. So, Palamedes would be the one that thinks abt the battle and gives advice for it. Both etymologies I feel fit our inventive strategist, The Master Warden of the Sixth, to a t.

Let us now begin with the Greek hero from the Trojan war. And no my pals, this is not yet another Iliad reference, for our proclaimed hero does not actually appear in the Iliad. His first appearance is in what has been known as the Κύπρια, a well-known epic of the ancient Greek literature that despite being quite famous during the classical period, has been lost to the sands of time. Long story short, this epic is a part of the Trojan circle and follows the conclusion of the Iliad. Palamedes’ story is one of many included in the epic that counts I think 11 books.

            Truth to be told, Mythological Palamedes did star in quite a few epics, tragedies and other works that refer to the Trojan war or the time after it, but for the sake of keeping the post relatively short, and since I do not quite have the time to hunt down every ancient text reference and draw a parallel to the Master Warden, we’ll mostly reference the most relative ones and I’ll leave a list in the end, in case some of you do want to go hunting ancient texts.

            I’ll start with a fun fact. According to a Trojan priest of Hephestus, Dares the Phrygian, Palamedes was described as tall, slender, wise, magnanimous, and charming. Now I cannot speak for everyone, but well, to me that sounds like Palamedes Sextus.

            In general, there are not many direct parallels that I can make between Palamedes the Euboian and Palamedes Sextus, bar for the most obvious one, that they are both ingenious. Palamedes the mythological figure was accredited with inventing part of the Greek Alphabet, lighthouses, navigation, coins, the division of time into months days and hours and a few board games, with κύβοι being one of the most prominent (to my understanding it’s the equivalent to dice). Palamedes Sextus on the other hand, figured out the secret to Lyctorhood, necromantically bound his soul to his skeleton, saw through Cytherea’s ploy, exploded himself, created a bubble in the River in which he persevered until Camila could glue his skull back together and he figured out a way to co-exist with her, in her own body, without killing them both, plus the Grand Lysis and Paul’s creation.

            What mostly sticks with me from the above, among others, is navigation. One Palamedes is the inventor of it, and the other, though by that point is Paul, seems to know a way to the Tomb via the River. The river that even God struggles navigating – at least with other people on the way. So, could it be, that Palamedes -that beat even Cassiopeia in time survived in the River – figures out a way to truly navigate this sea of the dead?

            Two smaller parallels we could draw from mythological Palamedes are 1. Pal seeing through Cytherea’s ploy, the same way that Palamedes the Euboian saw through Odysseus’ ploy when he wanted to avoid fighting in Troy and played mad, plowing the earth with a horse and an ox throwing salt in the holes.   2. The syphoning challenge. This story also includes Palamedes butting heads with Odysseus – not going to lie to you, they were evenly matched in genius – although according to some accounts it’s Palamedes who was the brightest and most ingenious of the Greeks - , but Odysseus never forgave him for uncovering his ploy and may or may not have orchestrated Palamedes’ murder – only in this analogy Pal is Odysseus. In a time of great hunger for the Achaeans, Odysseus was sent to Thrace to find wheat and returned empty-handed. Palamedes mocked him, and Odysseus replied that for all his ingenuity he too would return emptyhanded. Palamedes did embark on the quest and was successful, returning with shiploads of supplies. In the syphoning challenge, Pal is Odysseus, the one who turns up empty handed, refusing to risk Camila’s well-being once he figured out how the test worked. And he is also the one that tries to talk Harrow out of completing the challenge. Harrow much like the mythological Palamedes jumps in the opportunity to prove herself – through the challenge’s objective had little to do with proving one’s self, as we saw – and succeeds, obtaining the key.

            All in all, the biggest parallel’s we can draw here, is that Pal like his mythological namesake is a genius inventor and strategist, a bright necromancer and brighter scholar still. He is the Odysseus in Harrow’s Palamedes and vice versa.

            And now that I drew the parallel with Odysseus I cannot unsee it. He made his body the Trojan horse that exploded in Cytherea’s face. He was stranded in the River – the sea of the undead, of the souls and corpses and all that nice stuff – for however long it took Camilla to piece the skull together, like Odysseus lost in the seas. He found his Ogygia in Camila’s mind where he stays safely stored until his stop in the island of the Phaeacians – Naberius’ body. A brief stop gathering supplies, gathering courage before going home. Back to Camilla, but now as one. There is no him and her anymore. They have had a home in each other, and it’s time he returned to it, burning down the ruins of the past, and getting reborn as something new, together, as one. (Cam and Pal are a phoenix metaphor if I have ever seen one.)

            Onto the Arthurian Palamedes now, our friend was a knight of the round table, and makes his first appearance in an expansion of the Tristan and Iseult legend, as a knight vying for the princess’ hand, much like our beloved Sex-Pal wanted Dulcinea’s affections. There are no Trsitans in this world however, merely Cytherea as an imposter.

            Now what is interesting about the Arthurian Palamedes, is that according to various tales he is the hunter of the Questing Beast – a multi animal snake like monster that he, Percival and Galahad are tasked with exterminating. In most versions the hunt is futile and bears no results. After Palamedes converts to Christianity however, releasing himself from the worldly entanglements, he is finally able to slay the beast after the other two trap it in a lake. My theory here is that the Questing Beast, Beast Glatisant or whatever you want to call it, is a Resurrection Beast, perhaps even Varun the Eater. And the Warden has “converted to Christianity” by ascending, aka completing the Lyctorhood process. He shed his mortal shell, disentangled himself from the coils of mortality and worldly needs, becoming very much the equivalent of the “converted Palamedes”.

 Practically, to sum up, Pal through Lyctorhood and Paul could be the one to slay the Resurrection Beast that is Varun the Eater. With the help of two other individuals – for some reason I feel one of them would be Pyrrha – they trap Varun in a “lake” – could be the Tomb, could be the First, could be yet another metaphorical body of water – and he is the one who end the RB that allegedly killed and consumed Cassiopeia the First.

That’s the post folks, now the list of ancient Lit that I promised:

Ἀπολλωδώρου, Βιβλιοθήκης Ἐπιτομή, 3.7 /  Apollodorus, library epitome 3.7 (But he, not wishing to go to the war, feigned madness. However, Palamedes, son of Nauplius, proved his madness to be fictitious; and when Ulysses pretended to rave, Palamedes followed him, and snatching Telemachus from Penelope's bosom, drew his sword as if he would kill him. And in his fear for the child Ulysses confessed that his madness was pretended, and he went to the war)

Ὑγίνου, Μύθοι, 105/ Hyginus' fabulae 105

Παυσανίου Ελλάδος Περιήγησις,/ Pausanias' guide to Greece

Γοργίας, Υπέρ Παλαμήδους Απολογία / Gorgias Palamedes’ Defense

Ovid, Metamorphoses pp. 13.34-60, 308-312

Virgil, Aeneid pp. 2.81-85

Plato, Apology 41b

Take care of yourselves! See ya on the next one!

[jarondont]

Waiting for Love (part 3)

Part 3: Alone

Odysseus was alone. Out of six hundred men — six hundred — he was the lone survivor, floating away to who knows where on his makeshift raft. For ten whole days, he kept coughing up salt water, choking on his tears, and being reminded of his mutinous crew.

Every time he thought of them, he couldn’t help but feel guilty. Guilty for not being able to save them. Guilty for cutting their journey short. Guilty for making their families at home wait for someone who won’t ever come back.

He could only hope that his family wouldn’t experience the same thing.

But underneath all that guilt, he felt … different. He hated to admit it, but he had changed. He thought, deep inside, that his crew deserved their fate. That they deserved to die. Especially Eurylochus.

Odysseus hadn’t wanted to fight him — he had thought of him as a brother. And how had he repaid him? By doing the one thing he had told him not to do — eat Helios’s cattle. It was his own fault he was dead.

Or was it?

What if it Eurylochus and the rest of the crew wasn’t to blame? What if the person to blame … was Odysseus? What if he had become who Poseidon had wanted him to? What if he had become ruthless?

What if he had become a monster?

So Odysseus pondered, drifting along on his raft, watching an island in the distance slowly draw nearer. He hoped he’d find some food there, or shelter, or even just a little company.

Hope — that was all he could do now.

•••

The second Odysseus washed up on shore, his makeshift raft splintered apart, the pieces drifting back into the wine dark sea.

There goes my only way home, he thought to himself, his heart sinking.

He wandered along the shoreline for a while, trying to find some sign of civilization. Eventually, he came across a small hut where a fire burned inside.

“Hello?” he prompted.

No response.

He took another step forward, cautious. Still no response. So he looked around, thinking he’d find something useful.

And he noticed a scroll of papyrus sitting on a desk.

His mind was suddenly flooded with thoughts of his family, of his kingdom. How he longed to go back to them, to see them once again. It’d be a while before he got to do that.

But in the meantime, he could write to them. He knew they’d probably never see his letters, but it was the only way he could feel somewhat connected to them while he was away. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be away for much longer.

He started to write.

Dearest love of mine, I know I promised I’d be home soon. I know I broke that promise. But I am still trying. Still fighting. If it wasn’t for my mutinous crew, I’d be in your arms right now. They opened the bag. Then they slaughtered the sun god’s sacred cattle. We were thrown off course, and my entire crew was struck down by the son of Cronus’s lightning. Only I was spared — I and Eurylochus. Eurylochus, whom I treated as close as a brother — I was betrayed by him. Do something for me, Penelope. Tell Ctimene I’m sorry. Tell her that as much as I didn’t want to fight her husband, I was left without a choice. It was either me or him. Tell her I’m so very sorry. As for yourself, my love — wait a little longer. My journey is not over yet, but I will get back to you. I promise. I will get back — even if it means I have to fight the entire world. Wait for me, Penelope.

He finished his letter, his lips forming a slight smile as he brushed his thumb over his beloved’s name.

A clatter snapped Odysseus out of his thoughts. He whipped his head around to see a woman — a gorgeous one at that — standing behind him, a look of surprise on her godlike face.

Surprise that quickly transformed into a smile.

Odysseus’s hands began to tremble. His gut twisted. He knew that smile — he’d seen it on Circe’s face before.

And he didn’t like it.

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[thenoeyebunnynobunsusmaingallery]

Dunwich Record (Fanfiction)

*This short story is a fanfiction for the Dunwich Horror by Hp Lovecraft, which is now a public domain. I must say I both love and hate Dunwich Horror, first because my beloved son is this in this story and second is because Lovecraft nerfed him… So I decided to write my own version for my own AU. There are a lot of adaptations in this fiction, so if you are interested in the original story, please go check it out. 

Warning : I'm not a professional writer. There might be some plot hole and may not make sense. And English not my first language, it would be broken, I'm sure...

Since the very beginning, apart from my mother and my grandfather, no one has ever truly loved us. As soon as I stepped out of my house, those disgusting eyes stared at me. The voices of those stupid dogs kept barking at me as if they had never made such a cry in their lives.

Of course… 

Before them was a monster born from man and something that was above all else… Wilbur Whateley, the goat boy that everyone loathed. They did that because they were afraid… Afraid of something they didn’t know and didn’t know how to deal with… Isn’t it pathetic?

Ever since I was born to this world, not only did four-legged creatures not want to get close to me, but the villagers happily gossiped about my father, who they called “stupid” for falling in love with my mother, who was unstable in their eyes.

They should be thanking her. If it weren't for my mother, perhaps the hatred and contempt they had for me would have driven me crazy and shot them with my pistol instead of those dogs. Those four-legged creatures didn't welcome me at all, and sometimes they seemed to take advantage of me when they saw that I wasn't doing anything. Once, they ran up to me and bit me directly. And yes, I always had them line up with pure lead bullets for breakfast. The sound of the trigger had become soft and familiar to me when I was learning magic. To be honest, as I got older I started to collect guns. Not for hunting or anything, I just enjoy collecting them. but when something went wrong I would always use them.

I have a twin brother. At first, he didn't have a name because when he was born, his body was invisible and couldn't be seen by the human eye. My mother once told me that only I could see him because when we both were born, I was holding my brother's hand tightly. When she touched him, she realized that there was a body there.

Later, Adam named him ‘Ortis’ after a character in Homer’s Odysseus. I’ll just call him Ortis.

Ortis’s body I saw at that time was like a cloudy jelly that looked like a soap bubble in another way. He had three bright red eyes that looked strange and contrasted sharply with the white of his skin. But with that body, he couldn't go out and meet anyone. To be honest, he looked more like a monster than me with goat legs and a tail with a mouth. This little trouble maker had a big eater. The cows that my grandfather bought for him to eat were gone very quickly. He also seemed to grow faster than me, even though they were twins. It wasn't long before he had to move into the barn that my grandfather and I had just repaired.

It sounds like he was grounded even though he did nothing wrong, but it was really necessary… otherwise he would definitely go out and eat people. On the other hand, he had his own room, and it was a whole barn. Sometimes I envied him because of that, but I still went to see him. At night, when everyone was asleep, I would bring the books out and go straight to the barn to read them to my brother. 

Even though I often heard siblings fighting, to me, Ortis is like my own reflection, he is my twin, and I don’t want to lose him. Because in this world, there might only be the two of us who are monsters, and no one can save us except ourselves. So I love and care about him very much.

My little brother was learning as fast as I was. He could read and talk very quickly, at least that helped him communicate with the people in the house, telling them where he was and what he was doing. But because he was getting bigger and bigger, we still met at the barn quite often. Many times I would fall asleep while reading with him and Mom would come in and wake me up for breakfast.

I used to wish that everything would stay the same, or sometimes I wished that something better would come into my life. For example, my father… I knew who he was even though I had never seen his face.

Yog Sothoth

The Key And The Gate

The All In One And One In All

His details came from the Necronomicon that our family had. It had been eaten by termites over time. No matter how much we repaired it, it would not be as good as getting a new one. However, whenever I asked about my father, my mother would always tell me about him without hiding anything. She would always be happy when she thought of him. Her purple eyes sparkled beautifully like the starry sky at sunset. It was so beautiful that it engraved in my heart. It must have been the reason why I wanted to bring my father back to us, hoping that being with him would allow me to see her happy like this more often. I started studying the Necronomicon that had become worn out by termites and learned from my grandfather, who was known as Old Wizard Whateley. Later on, I became skilled in magic and started performing rituals on the hill all the time. Of course, it didn’t work at all…

There are many times when thoughts have run through my mind when a ritual has failed or nothing has happened even though every step was done correctly.

“Why doesn't he come?”

“What was wrong with it?”

“Or maybe…”

“He has never cared about us at all?”

Over the years, it had all failed and failed. And it was even more hopeless when I found out that Grandpa was sick badly. I dragged Dr. Houghton into the house to try to save Grandpa's life. Mother was crying, and those whippoorwills were screeching like a banshee waiting to take his life. I didn't know how to express my feelings about this. I just looked out the window and listened to those birds. But in the end... they flew away, along with Grandpa who passed away…

“They didn’t git him,” I said with a laugh of relief, but it shattered like shards of glass.

Before grandpa had gone, he told me to take good care of Ortis and to take care of the barn after him. Of course, I accepted it even if he didn't ask me to. Who else could take better care of him than me? He also mentioned summoning my father... Page 751 of the Complete Necronomicon…

Of course I don't have it. Our books have all been eaten by termites. Let alone, even if they didn't eat them, they wouldn't even reach page 700. So the only way I can make it happen is to borrow the complete book from somewhere else.

Many letters were written one after another to many universities and libraries asking to borrow the book, but no one thought to reply. At that time, it was even utterly mystified. I tried to go out to find books in general stores, but most of them were incomplete and contained only content that an average person could read. And it wasn't that detailed. I tried going to the city library, but it wasn't what I had hoped for. Moreover, people's eyes look at me with fear and disgust... It made me crazy…

"Stop looking at me…!" I screamed in my mind as I walked home.

It was so overwhelming that even though I knew how to make my wish come true, the one thing I needed most was missing, and I couldn't find it. Every evening, I would come back to my room, filled with piles of letters trying to write all over the state to find that damn book, and then fall asleep from exhaustion.

By the time my hopes were finally answered, it was after my mother passed away. I had run out of options, from my grandfather who was no longer there to teach me, to my damaged books that I could never replace, and then… my mother… Ortis ate her when she brought him Halloween candy, but he seemed so hungry that he ate her. He had no idea what he was doing… and I, who knew everything, was going crazy.

Until now, he still doesn't know that he ate her, and I don't brave enough to tell him the truth. I tried to forget about her death, but in the end, seeing Ortis's face made me realize that she was still inside him…

A letter from Miskatonic University came to me after that. To be honest, I didn't have much of a mind to do anything else after mom passed away. But what kept me gritting my teeth and going forward was my only younger brother, Ortis. I decided to summon my father back so that we could be together in a dimension beyond human perception. Or, if possible, I would like to send my younger brother there. But if possible, I would like to open a dimensional portal to summon the other gods to Earth and create a place where Ortis can live without having to hide.

Because this is not our place, and we were not welcome here from the very beginning…

Dr. Henry Armitage was the one who replied to my letter. He looked very old and could die anytime soon, just like my grandfather who had just passed away. But in my current appearance, even though I was 15 years old, I looked as old as a middle aged man. Maybe that’s why he didn’t treat me like his students in the university. But at least he let me see the complete Necronomicon that I had been looking for a long time and yet he let me copy it. Everything would have been fine if that old geezer hadn’t stood there watching me write like a nosy old lady in the neighborhood. Do you know what privacy is?! And what’s worse is that he wouldn’t let me borrow the book or even take the copy back.

Once again, I wanted to tell him to thank my mother because if it weren't for her raising me, I would have punched him to death with my bare hand. I took a deep breath and immediately asked to leave.

On the way back, the sky gradually darkened until it was dusk. It was like me, no longer had any hope. I wanted to cry right now, but I couldn’t… No one was there to listen to me anymore. Grandpa, Mom, or Ortis who didn’t know anything. I couldn’t tell anyone anymore. But even so, my tears still flowed when I entered the village.

Father… Why?

Why does it have to be like this?

Don’t you love us?

Don’t you love Mom?

Many questions gradually came rushing in, and my knees buckled in front of the door. Then I noticed a white envelope tucked under the door.

It was very strange, apart from the letter from the university, none had been sent to this house. I carefully picked it up before being surprised by the smell of fragrant wood on the paper, along with the sweet smell of icing sugar. I paused for a moment before starting to put my nose close to sniff it again. It was a strange smell, it must be something you can't find in this area. It must be from someone from another place. Without waiting, I started tearing open the envelope to read the letter from the sender.

The cursive handwriting appeared before my eyes. It was as beautiful as a typewriter and as graceful as cursive. It was a letter from a writer named Adam Alderidge.

"Dear Wilbur Whateley, We've heard from people that you're looking for a copy of the Necronomicon. If you don't mind, we'd be happy to lend it to you."

That was the content of the letter. Without hesitation, I turned and ran out of the house immediately, heading straight to the destination the writer had mentioned, which was Adam's house, it was quite a distance away. Because of my inhuman body, I arrived at his mansion in the early morning of the next day.

Perhaps the reason I came this early is because I began to have hope. The hope that appeared when we had nothing left. It was like a miracle that the Lord of mankind often spoke of.

At the front of the Alderidge mansion, which was quite a distance from the nearby town, I walked straight to the gate, feeling exhausted. Then I pressed the doorbell before I heard an old man's voice calling back from the answering machine, his voice not very pleasant.

"Who's that?"

"Greetings, I'm here to see Mr. Adam."

"I asked ‘Who is that?’"

"... I'm... Wilbur Whateley. Mr. Adam wrote me a letter."

I replied, just as irritated as the old man himself. Maybe it was because of that geezer Armitage? But he let me in anyway. I opened the gate softly before walking inside, arriving at the door in no time.

The old man who had spoken opened the door for me before he was startled when he saw my face, which looked no different from a beast in human skin. He immediately moved away from the door. I looked at him without feeling anything towards his rude behavior, just sighed and looked away. I was used to this kind of thing anyway… 

"Where's Mr. Adam?" I asked.

"He's in his gallery. Go to the right and then turn left. He's at the end of the hall."

That was all the old geezer said, and he led me, seemingly reluctantly, because he didn't even want to get close to me. As we walked through the halls of the luxurious mansion, I caught a glimpse of the paintings hanging on the walls of his house. It wasn't often that I saw such paintings, and it excited me and made me feel hypnotized.

I used to draw before, but it was charcoal drawings that I had collected from the stove, and they weren't that pretty. It was strange to me to see such colorful paintings.

"Do you like it?"

A soft voice of a man asked, as if to wake me from my deep thoughts. When I turned to look at the owner of the voice, I saw a rainbow of light reflecting in my eyes. He was a small, albino man, dressed neatly and formal, but he looked  comfortable. His body was slightly stained with those colors. I guessed that he was an artist and had just come out from his working room. He gave me the same feeling as the paintings hanging there when I looked at him. He looked more elegant than a human being. Especially his eyes, which were white and sparkling with rainbows like opal.

"You... Mr. Adam?" I asked him after I came to my senses.

"You don’t have to be formal with us, Wilbur. We're all brothers. Just call us Adam."

"B-brother? What do you mean?" I asked, and the young man giggled innocently. 

"Oh... that's right. We just met. How about we talk in our room? We'll explain everything."

"U-um..."

Mr. Adam smiled at me as he invited me to his room to talk. He had already prepared tea. I had never done anything like this before, and I felt really nervous. But looking at Mr. Adam made me feel like I was in a trance again, just like before.

"Here," he handed me a cup of tea.

"... Actually, there's no need to be formal. I just want to borrow your Necronomicon."

"We know, but it's our first time meeting our blood brothers. That's why we want you to stay and talk."

"So what do you mean by that?" I asked, but he just smiled and said, "Oh, son of Yog Sothoth. Go on and try to guess what it means. It's not beyond your ability."

How did he know I was the son of Yog Sothoth? 

Brother? 

Don't tell me…

he's… 

"Son of Yog Sothoth too?  Are you asking that?"

He could read my mind?

"We were created from a part of his knowledge, but now we're using the body of our friend Adam as our vessel." Adam explained with a smile as he slowly sipped his tea.

“So… is that why you could send me a letter even though we didn’t know each other…”

“Hmm, we’ve known you for a long time.”

“Then why… Did you just send it now?!”

As soon as I shouted like that, Adam fell silent, and his hair and eyes turned gray immediately.

“We can explain that, but will you accept it?”

“…”

“No? Isn’t it?” He smiled sadly.

“Please… tell me. I want to know…”

Adam was silent for a while before he started to explain everything.

“In human language, it’s a fate that has already been determined, and we, who are just his children, have no right to change it unless it’s himself…”

“Wait a minute… If that’s the case… Grandpa and Mom’ dead… It was all determined by our father?”

He nodded sadly and continued.

“We know you’ll be angry. ‘Why? Even though you could have made things better, you just ignored it and let it happen?’ If we had to make an excuse, no matter which way, if it was clearly determined, It will always be like that. There is no solution. And to speak ill of him, he didn't care about this from the very beginning and didn't want to do anything about it either."

"... Then... All these years I've done it... What was it...?" I asked.

"Even though I'm sure that I've done the ritual correctly, he never replied... Is it because he didn't love us from the beginning?"

When I learned the cold truth, I started to cry. It was true that the old ones saw humans as just dust in the universe, but... When that perspective came from my own father, it felt like the whole world was falling apart.

"We can't tell either. Even though we are a part of him, sometimes we can't understand his thoughts..."

Adam explained, taking a sip of his tea. While I was lost in my thoughts, I took a sip of the tea in the beautiful glass. But then it was like I was pulled back to reality. My eyes widened slightly in surprise. It made the pale-skinned young man smile.

"Do you like it?"

"I've never drunk anything like this before."

"Margaret bought it for us. You can take it back."

"No..."

I put the cup down and looked at him.

"I'll say it again. I want that Necronomicon... "

"Even if you know the whole truth?" he asked back.

"It's not for him to come back now," I replied.

"Since I can't call my father back, then I'll send my younger brother to live with him instead. I have no one left but him. My grandfather is dead, so is my mother. And he's the only one I won't let anything bad happen to him."

I replied in a firm and serious tone. That made the albino man in front of me go silent for a long time.

"We're sorry. Adam stole it once and we returned it. Plus, the one we had is no longer here."

"What did you say?"

"We know you want it, but it's no longer with us."

Then why did you call me here in the first place...?!

"Watch your language, Wilbur."

"... Sorry..." He answered what I was thinking in my mind, so I couldn't continue. Then I cleared my throat to relieve embarrassment a little, and continued,

"... Then I came for nothing, didn't I?"

"No, we can help you."

"Don't tell me you remember it?"

"Of course we remember its details, but you have to do something for us."

"Of course, what is it?"

"Talk to us."

It was like he was provoking me. If all the gods were this difficult to understand, I couldn't even imagine what my father would be like. I frowned slightly in annoyance before slowly regaining my composure and accepting his request.

"How's your brother?"

"He's fine, but he's eating a lot these days. And after he ate your mom, I didn't dare look at him anymore."

"But you never left him."

"That's true, because he's my only brother right now."

"What about us?"

"... Is it okay to call you like that?"

"You don’t like us?"

"You're a god..."

"Why? Do you have a problem with it?"

"...No... But I..."

"Wilbur, listen."

Adam got up from the couch and walked closer. It made me jolts. I've never looked at anyone this close before, except for my family. Once again, the rainbow light reflected in my eyes. Adam knelt down and stroked my cheek with both hands.

"If you've studied, you'll know. We treat everyone in this dream as a friend. But you're different. You're our sibling, which isn't very common. That's why you're important to us. The reason we want to talk to you is because we want you to know how much we care about you."

I didn't reply to him, but slowly raised my hand to touch Adam's hand and stroked it gently.

"Your hand is soft... like my mother's..."

"Is that so?"

"... She's stroked my cheek like this before. I remember it..."

Adam gave a faint smile before standing up and walking to a nearby bookshelf to get the Necronomicon.

"Wait a minute... You said..."

"It's not the one we're talking about. This one was written by Adam when he called us. The other one isn't really with us anymore."

I widened my eyes when I saw him holding the book I wanted. My body trembled with eagerness. I wanted to take it right away, but I had to control my emotions when I slowly took it from Adam’s hand. But I was shocked.

"No... It's... It's not complete..."

"Let me see." He took it out of my hand and looked at it page by page.

"We haven't opened it for a long time, so we  haven't reviewed it. Let us add more details."

"... Why are you helping me?"

"Siblings should help each other. That's all."

After he finished speaking, the young man walked over to pick up a pen to add to his writing. I just stood there, staring at him silently, without saying anything, but my heart was beating so fast that it was going to explode from my chest. After a while, Adam handed it to me, which I humbly accepted and opened to check the details before looking up at the young man in surprise.

"Is it complete?" He asked.

"It's... complete. How did you remember it? When I copied it, it was so much!"

"We are part of Father's knowledge, have you forgotten?" He smiled and cocked his head slightly as if to show his pride. It made me smile. Finally... it came true…!

"I'm relieved." He smiled and rubbed my shoulder when he saw that I was starting to tear up.

"Thank you... Thank you so much."

"You're welcome, Wilbur. You can come here anytime."

"I think I'll come to you all the time... yeah... bring him with me… My brother, that gremlin would be happy to know that we have another brother."

"Great, we'll wait."

I smiled back at him as he giggled, then excused myself from the room, feeling much better than before. Maybe it was the first time I didn’t feel so alone. That geezer who was standing outside the room jumped when he saw me rushing out of the room. I shouted goodbye to him and jumped out of the building through the open window.

This is amazing!

I’ve never felt this good in my life.

It was like a whole mess had been lifted off my chest.

It was like my body had never weighed anything before.

Can this be called “high”?

Since childhood until now, I never thought that God really existed, and he was my brother.

Adam! Thank you!! Thank you very much!!

My vision started to blur as I ran back to Dunwich with all my might. It was because the tears streaming down my face were not of sadness, but of joy. I got the Necronomicon I wanted! I could call my father! Now, Ortis and I could finally get out of here!! Or even if that geezer didn't care about us like Adam said, I still had my brother like him who would be with us.

Goodbye to this world, the world that called us a monster, the world that didn't accept both of us. We could finally get out of here!! I jumped around and laughed like a maniac the whole way. It was a good thing that no one was around, or else people would have looked at me strangely. But who care?! It didn't matter anymore. If I could, I would have shouted at those idiots!!

The distance between Adam’s mansion and Dunwich was quite far, but with my strength that was greater than a human's, it would only take a day to get there. But when night came, I saw lights shining from the valley of Dunwich.

It's impossible.

Why did a village so far away from civilization have such lights shining out?

Or is it-

"Ortis!!"

It was as I thought. At the end of the village, the house in my memory was burning. The smoke was thick and the sky was dark with ashes that fell like snow. In front of them, there were many people holding torches. I tried to break through the path to go straight to the house.

"Wilbur! That's Wilbur!!" The villagers shouted before trying to grab me.

What happened?! Don't tell me it's because I borrowed the Necronomicon?! It was that old Armitage's work?! How did he know?! Because of what I copied?! How could you know that much?! I pulled out my gun and shot anyone who tried to get to me. I finally made it to the house. No one tried to follow me, which was good. I ran up to the second floor, which was rapidly collapsing. I saw Ortis sweeping things onto himself. He cried out, but when he saw me, he ran over to me.

"Brother!!" He shouted.

"What happened?! Why did they do this!!" He asked.

"There's no time to explain. We need to get out!!"

In addition to the burning sound, I could hear the barking of dogs outside. It made me shiver, but there was no time to be scared. The safety of my only brother came first! I picked up Ortis and rushed out the window. Then I jumped into the deep forest behind the house and stepped on a branch. It seemed that someone had noticed that we had escaped. We had to race against time!

I jumped from one branch to another. At least those stupid dogs wouldn't be able to hurt me if I didn't step on the ground. The branches broke off one by one. The villagers' voices and the bullets chased after me. I tried to quicken my pace. The hill was getting closer and closer, but I noticed that there was a light on the hill itself. It wasn't a torch, but a flashlight. The full moon shone down on the hill. I saw a man in formal clothes standing there. It was that old geezer Armitage and his group.

I stopped in front of them. In their hands were a shotgun. My pistol definitely wouldn't be enough. They also had magic powder and Necronomicon. Don't tell me they knew how to get rid of the old one?! And then there were the villagers who were chasing after me along with the dogs. We were cornered... We were cornered.

"Old bastard..." I gritted my teeth in anger. I didn't think that an old man close to death like you would be able to stop me.

I couldn't open the book because I was holding Ortis. Even if I used my tail, it wouldn't be in time. It would take only a split second to deal with them before they shot me with a shotgun. But if I could deal with them, the approaching dogs would definitely get the chance to attack me. And if I ran, we wouldn't have a chance to perform the ritual. This place would be destroyed when they found out our entire plan! Either way, we'd die or turn into jelly.

This is bad!!

This is bad!!

"B-Brother, these people are-"

"Ortis..." I hugged him tightly, trying to hold back the tears, but I couldn't. Thinking that this would be our last moment, I couldn't accept it anymore.

"I love you... I'm sorry we didn't get to see our father together."

"What did you say?!"

I threw Ortis away from me as far as possible, then picked up the Necronomicon to summon my father. At least if I died, Ortis would be with him. As soon as I opened the book, it was at the same moment that the librarian's group aimed to shoot me. The book was pierced with many holes by the bullets. And at such a close range, my body must have been torn apart. I saw my own blood splattering and everything gradually darkened.

Humans are afraid of death because they cannot escape it. Ortis and I, being creatures that never aged, were curious about that. Until the day my grandfather and mother passed away, I understood how scary it was.

I was scared...

I never thought that darkness could be this scary.

I tried to open my eyes.

I tried to move my body.

But it didn't work.

I couldn't move.

I couldn't control my body.

This must be the same as the day my grandfather passed away. He was lying lifeless and motionless on the bed. Am I going to be like that too? I don't hear any whippoorwills around here. Does that mean they won't get my soul?

Ortis...

What about Ortis?

Will he…

"..."

"You're awake now?"

That voice is…

"A-Adam?"

"Good morning, my dear brother."

The first light of dawn should be the sun, but I see Adam's light shining in. At first, I thought I was dead, but when my sight was clearer, I found myself in a clean bedroom. It was definitely not mine, and this wasn't my house either.

"What happened? This is..."

"Our mansion."

"H-huh? W-how is that? Ortis? What about Ortis?!"

Adam pointed to me with a smile. When I looked back, I saw Ortis lying next to me, but his body had shrunk to the size of a child, and my body had also been healed. What happened? I turned to Adam in confusion.

"Ortis helped you escape."

"H-huh?"

"Last night, he held your body and successfully escaped. His body got smaller because he spat out what he ate to buy time. And as you can see, he brought you here and waited until you woke up."

"How long did I sleep?"

"Two days."

"..."

This is a miracle.

A complete miracle!

We both survived and were rescued!

I found myself smiling. How long has it been since I smiled like this? It must have been after my grandfather passed away and my mother... Adam slowly got up and hugged me while lightly stroking my back. It made me cry.

How long has it been since I felt this tenderness?

Adam let go of me and said he would prepare food for me and Ortis to rest comfortably and I did that because it was the first time I felt safe and warm after it was just me and Ortis. I lay down and lightly stroked his hair before saying goodnight to him and falling asleep.

After that day, news about Dunwich Village appeared in the newspapers, saying that someone had attempted to perform some ritual in the high valley of Dunwich, which was the rural village of Arkham. The culprit escaped, but Dr. Henry Armitage had gone insane and had to be admitted to the asylum. The others in the village had fled the area, thinking it was a curse. I think the reason that old geezer went insane was because he saw the real form of Ortis after using the magic powder. It serves him right because he puts himself into this mess in the first place.

We continued to live with Adam after that. Everything was fine until that old man,Graham, passed away, and Adam decided to sell the mansion to travel. Of course, I had no problem with this. As long as I was with him and Ortis, I am ready to follow him anywhere.

[babyrdie]

What do you think will happen to Deidameia and Neoptolemus in your genderbent Patrochilles universe

Oh, girl, you better be ready. I made, like, a whole story to justify Neoptolemus' existence while keeping similar themes to the original while also considering the gender changes. It’s a LOT of text. First of all, I know that most people would rather get rid of Deidamia, make Achilles dislike her or make her a friend he's never had a sexual relationship with, but that's not my case. I like exploring polyamorous dynamics. And just as I normally consider Deidamia and Achilles, I'm going to consider them in this universe as well. So yeah, probably something that those who don't like polyamory shipps won't like this headcanon post. Secondly, there may be writing errors as the text is very long and I'm not fluent in English. Third, Phyrra has some attitudes that can be seen as questionable, but it is intentional.

The thing is: I think Neoptolemus is still necessary. Achilles' prophecy wasn’t about him destroying Troy, as Apollo makes clear when he knocks Patroclus off the walls of Troy while saying that not even Achilles is destined to enter it (and he does die beforehand), but about him being a great warrior who would prove himself in Troy. Yes, the Greeks wanted him, but because of the great warrior part and not because he was prophesied to be the cause of the fall of Troy (indirectly, he did end up being, but there is nothing to indicate that without Achilles there wouldn’t have been other means as far as I know. For example, Diomedes, Odysseus, Big Ajax etc were also indirectly the cause of the fall of Troy but they weren’t  prophesied as obligatory participants). So Achilles not being in the war changes A LOT, but not necessarily the result. That is, the way Troy is destroyed is changed, but in the end it’s still destroyed.

“[...] For my mother tells me, the goddess Thetis of the silver feet, that two fates carry me to death’s end; if I remain here to fight around the city of the Trojans, my return home is lost, but my glory will be undying; but if I go home to the beloved land of my father, outstanding glory will be lost to me, but my life will be long, nor will death’s end come on me swiftly. [...]”

The Iliad, 9.410-416. Translation by Caroline Alexander.

As stated, I’m not considering this prophecy for Phyrra. This is because, as already explained in another post, the prophecy explicitly states that Thetis has a SON, something that Phyrra isn’t. Phyrra is a daughter. Therefore Phyrra is far from Achilles' problems, she doesn’t have to choose between living a long obscure life or a short glorious life. But Neoptolemus? He and Philoctetes were explicitly prophesied by Helenus or Calchas (usually Helenus) as essential to the fall of Troy. Some examples:

[...] Next Odysseus lies in wait and catches Helenus, who prophesies as to the taking of Troy, and Diomede accordingly brings Philoctetes from Lemnos. Philoctetes is healed by Machaon, fights in single combat with Alexandrus and kills him: the dead body is outraged by Menelaus, but the Trojans recover and bury it. After this Deiphobus marries Helen, Odysseus brings Neoptolemus from Scyros and gives him his father's arms, and the ghost of Achilles appears to him. [...]

The Little Iliad, frag 1. Translation by H.G. Evelyn-White.

NEOPTOLEMUS: If that man comes to Troy, how do I benefit? ODYSSEUS: The only way the city can be captured is with his bow and arrows. NEOPTOLEMUS: So I am not the one who'll take that city, as you told me?  ODYSSEUS: Yes, but you need them, and they need you.

Philoctetes, 138-141. Translation by Ian Johnston.

So speaking, in his place he sat him down; then rose up Thestor's son, and in the midst, where meet it is to speak, stood forth and cried: "Hear me, ye sons of battle-biding Greeks: ye know I have the spirit of prophecy. Erewhile I said that ye in the tenth year should lay waste towered Ilium: this the Gods are even now fulfilling; victory lies at the Argives' very feet. Come, let us send Tydeides and Odysseus battle-staunch with speed to Scyros overseas, by prayers hither to bring Achilles' hero son: a light of victory shall he be to us."

Posthomerica, 7.62-74. Translation by A.S. Way.

[...] The Greeks received an oracle that Ilium would not be destroyed earlier, unless they took the bones of Pelops from Elis. An oracle fell to bring the cotyledons of Pelops and the bow of Heracles, which Philoctetes had to Greece, and Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, since otherwise they would not be able to destroy Ilium. [...]

Ad Lycophronem, § 54.

He wasn’t wanted because he’s the son of Achilles. If that were so, why didn't the Greeks go and get Telemachus and Orestes, for example? No, he was sought out specifically because it was prophesied. Therefore, I believe that Neoptolemus must still exist since his presence in Troy is something immutable if the fate is to be the same. For that reason, I necessarily had to change Deidamia's gender so that she would follow Achilles' gender change and thus they could have a child. I have a name for a man Deidamia, by the way. I'm going to call Deidamia Daimen, a variant of the name Damon. The reason, besides starting with D, is that both are theorized to have derived from δαμάζειν (damazein) "to tame" from what I've researched (1, 2, 3). I chose the variant Daimen over Damon simply because I think it more closely resembles Deidamia.

Anyway, if Pyrrha DOESN'T need to hide in Skyros, how could she have a child with Daimen? Initially, I thought about having them get married somehow and then have Neoptolemus, but that would conflict with Neoptolemus' age in the the Tojan War. He's already very young in the mythology originally, but this way he would be EVEN younger. In a vague timeline, Pseudo-Apollodorus says that Achilles was 15 when he joined the Achaean army and generally the duration of the Trojan War is 10 years (I say generally because there are timelines that put the total at 20 years), with the tenth year being when Neoptolemus and Philoctetes are sought and the year in which Achilles dies. Therefore, I generally consider that Achilles dies around 25 years, since I don't consider time for things like travel time and etc etc because otherwise it would be an infinite calculation. Not even the ancient Greeks made a point of considering it, so why would I? Anyway, the marriageable age for women in Mycenaean Greece is unknown as far as I know, although one of the oldest sources is from Archaic Greece and belongs to Hesiod:

Hesiod Works and Days, lines 695-705. The poet advises that a girl should be given in marriage four years after her first period (which occurs at around age thirteen to fourteen). On this point cf. Brulé 1987: 361 ff.

The age of love: gender and erotic reciprocity in archaic Greece, by Sandra Boehringer and Stefano Caciagli and translated by Anne Stevens.

In Gregory Nagy's translation, the passage referred to is as follows:

Make sure that you are the right age [seasonal, having the right hōrā] when you bring home a wife to your house, when you are not much less than thirty years old nor much more than that. This is a seasonal marriage. The wife should have four years after puberty, and then she can marry in the fifth year. Marry a virgin, so that you may teach her the ways of affection. Try your hardest to marry someone who lives near you. And take a good look all around you, so that you will not marry someone who will become the occasion for jokes by your neighbors. There is no better possession for a man than a wife who is good. And there is nothing worse than a bad one, one who sneaks away the dinner for herself. The man, no matter how strong he may be, is burned out by the fire of such a woman. No need for a torch! And she brings him to a raw old age.

In other words, the age recommended by Hesiod is 18 years old. However, I will not consider 18 years old as the minimum age for the relationship between Phyrra and Daimen. After all, Neoptolemus himself in Greek mythology was conceived when both Achilles and Deidamia were ridiculously young. In the case of Pseudo-Apollodorus, for example, just think that Achilles left Skyros at 15 and got Deidamia pregnant before that... he was really very young when he became a father. The fake marriage between Achilles and Iphigenia also happens when both are really young, just see how both are portrayed as very inexperienced in Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides. Achilles is so socially awkward that he doesn't know how to behave with Clytemnestra and Iphigenia is so childish that she wants Agamemnon to play with her and Orestes. And while ancient sources indicate that men tended to marry around the age of 30 (something Hesiod himself also mentions), we have mythological examples of male characters who married considerably younger than that, such as Perseus. Clearly mythology doesn’t follow social rules strictly.

It would have been possible to have Phyrra get married at 15 because that's not uncommon...in fact, Iphigenia probably wasn't much older than that when she got falsely engaged to Achilles, and Deidamia herself is married to Achilles in some sources before he left Skyros. But I wanted something more dynamic. So no post-wedding Neoptolemus, and I came up with another idea instead. First, I wanted to keep the interesting Phyrra/Achilles gender confusion idea from the original myth of the Achilles hiding on Skyros episode, because I like the idea of ​​Deidamia being interested in Achilles even though she thinks he's a girl, and I wanted Daimen to be interested in Phyrra even though she thinks he's a boy. I also wanted to keep the early pregnancy and pre-wedding themes that the original has, although this time with the roles reversed since Phyrra is the one who's pregnant. And yes, Thetis still has a role in this.

In another of my posts, I explained that I imagined Phyrra and Cleopatra traveling and dealing with various things and gaining fame because of it. They traveled alone, although they had Balius and Xanthus at Peleus' request, and Thetis kept an eye on them as a precaution whenever possible. However, around the time the Greeks were recruiting suitors, Phyrra felt tempted to go after glory. Knowing that she couldn't take Cleopatra with her (since, unlike Patroclus, she doesn't fight), she gave up and chose not to go to war. As the days passed, however, Phyrra's decision became uncertain and she considered leaving. She thought that, well, this war couldn’t last that long. She would soon be back with Cleopatra, but with more fame. Noticing that Phyrra was going back on her decision, Thetis wanted to prevent that. Although there was no prophecy of death, as in the case of Achilles, she was still very mortal. Thetis then convinced Phyrra to first live alone with Cleopatra for a while, so that she would certainly see if the decision was worth it (yes, Thetis knew about them). Then Thetis came up with the following idea:

Phyrra and Cleopatra must leave Balius and Xanthus on Pelion, where Chiron will take charge of their care. They cannot take the horses with them, as they would be recognized because divine horses aren’t exactly common. They also cannot return to Phthia to leave the horses with Automedon, who was normally in charge of them in Phthia (during their journeys, it was Cleopatra), since Peleus would be worried if they were to travel without them and would want to know what they intended to do, which would disrupt the plan. With Chiron, they would be well looked after and, on the way back, the idea was to stop by Pelion to recover them and continue to Phthia with them, as if they had never deviated from the usual journey.

They must go to an island, as there would be less chance of being discovered since there would be fewer people to recognize them since they would not have been to the island. Skyros, conveniently, is an island. To facilitate the process, it was possible to have the help of Thetis, who can transport them with the sea animals that the Nereids keep as company (in mythology, they are usually dolphins and seahorses).

In Skyros, where no one knows them, Phyrra will pretend to be a boy, as it would be more convincing for her to be a boy than Cleopatra. Since Phyrra's masculine form, Phyrrus, would be too obvious a fake name, she named herself Achilles because Peleus once commented that this would be the name if the baby were a boy. Cleopatra named herself Myrto (this is a reference to a version of the myth in which Patroclus has a sister named Myrto. If I'm not mistaken, Plutarch was the one who mentioned her).

If they stay long enough on Skyros to get Peleus' attention, Thetis will have one of the informants give Peleus and Phoenix false information about Cleopatra and Phyrra being somewhere on the mainland healing someone, as is their custom. There is no way to tell Peleus the truth, as he doesn’t know about Cleopatra and Phyrra's relationship and it would be difficult to explain why staying on Skyros would keep Phyrra away from the war.

Phyrra didn't tell Cleopatra the reason for this (she didn't want Cleopatra to think that Phyrra didn't care about her), but Thetis had already spoken to Cleopatra because she knew that she would help her with this. So, while normally Cleopatra would think this plan was crazy, she accepted the idea since she knew the real intention was to prevent Phyrra from going to war.

It wasn’t hard to find a place to stay in Skyros, since Phyrra had money easily. They stayed there for a while, pretending to be a young and inexperienced newlywed couple, and Cleopatra even wore a veil most of the time to emphasize her married status. The thing is, in Skyros, the king had several daughters and a son. This son was Daimen, our male version of Deidamia. Being the eldest, Daimen was particularly affectionate with his sisters, but he also missed male company. Because of this, he would occasionally leave the palace to go for walks, taking the opportunity to interact with other boys and, if possible, buy something for his sisters.

During his visits, he met Cleopatra and Phyrra. This was because Cleopatra argued that it would look suspicious for a young, supposedly non-wealthy couple to never be seen working. Phyrra then took up work as a fisherman, which was not difficult because her proximity to the water made her excellent at water-related skills such as fishing, swimming, and sailing. Then, they both cut the fish properly, something Phyrra had learned from Chiron and taught Cleopatra. The fish would then be sold at the market, with Cleopatra taking care of talking to the customers because she was better with people while Phyrra kept track of the prices. In addition to fish, they would catch any other sea creatures they could find and they also began making accessories with shells.

Daimen eventually befriended the two, fully believing that they were an unexpectedly young straight couple. He saw Cleopatra as someone to give him tips on what to buy for his sisters and Phyrra as a guy his own age to interact with. The problem is that, as time went on, there was a sort of pseudo-flirtation and this caused Daimen to have a sort of sexual crisis because, in his mind, he was interested in a guy. Cleopatra wasn't jealous, in fact she was worried that Phyrra would get too close and end up ruining the plan. People weren't exactly receptive to two girls in a romantic relationship. Daimen seemed nice, but who could guarantee his reaction? But, well, Phyrra is still as impulsive and sentimental as ever and Daimen recovered from the crisis only to discover that it was the most useless crisis of his life since Phyrra was actually a girl. Well, at one point they were alone and it happened. It was only once, but unfortunately for both of them, Phyrra got pregnant. Cleopatra wanted Phyrra to marry Daimen, because it wouldn't be good if they found out that Phyrra had gotten pregnant without a husband, but Phyrra didn't want to be a wife or a mother. Calling Thetis, they then fled Skyros. Daimen didn't know that she was pregnant, so it was as if they disappeared out of nowhere.

Phyrra wanted to go to Pelion as she saw Chiron as a comforting figure, but Thetis didn't think it was a good idea because Peleus was close to Chiron and he might visit Pelion and end up discovering the pregnancy, which Thetis was determined to help hide to avoid bad press for her daughter. When she thought that the moment in Skyros would make Phyrra unable to go to war, that wasn't what she was thinking. I imagine that she took Phyrra and Cleopatra to some island, although I don't have a specific one in mind, and together with the Nereids she followed the months of pregnancy until the moment of birth. Obviously Peleus was worried because they never took so long to appear in Phthia, but Thetis always informed him that they were fine and, since Thetis was known as a protector mother, it seemed strange to doubt her in this regard. Eventually, Neoptolemus was born (by this time, the Greeks were already on the expedition against Troy and Phyrra was already about 15 years old). She, however, still didn’t want to be a mother. Thetis knew what it was like to be committed to an unwanted pregnancy, and although in her case she ended up loving the child, she felt that she shouldn’t think that the same would happen to Phyrra. So she took Neoptolemus to Skyros, where she met Daimen secretly and revealed that the young woman was Phyrra, princess of Phthia, and that she had been missing because she had had a son and she showed Neoptolemus to him.

Daimen was angered and frustrated by Phyrra's attitude, but agreed to keep Neoptolemus while keeping the identity of the child's mother a secret. Luckily for them, Neoptolemus looked more like Daimen than Phyrra. He then named him Phyrrus, claiming it was because the boy had red hair like his (Phyrrus is a name that refers to red hair) when in fact it was to remember the frustration of having gotten involved with what he thought was the wrong girl at the wrong time in the wrong way. So, just as Deidamia had to raise Neoptolemus without Achilles because he left her for the glory of war, Daimen had to raise Neoptolemus without Phyrra because she left him to continue living her adventures. Lycomedes and Daimen's sisters helped and Thetis visited them too, although discreetly so that no one would suspect the identity of Phyrrus' mother.

Phyrra spent time recovering before returning to Phthia, where, despite her dislike of lying, she had to lie about various adventures to justify her being away for over a year. She didn’t travel again for a while, as it seemed unfair to her to leave Peleus so soon. Cleopatra was still uncomfortable with the idea of leaving the child, but didn’t try to dissuade Phyrra. She tried to rationalize that at least he would grow up as a prince on Skyros.

When Phyrra was about 18 and Cleopatra was about 21, there were official suitors. Phyrra is a princess, so she has no claim to the throne in the way a male heir would. Peleus needs her married. Sure, Peleus has another daughter, Polydora, who was his daughter with Antigone (first marriage. Not to be confused with the daughter of Oedipus), but this Polydora had already become a princess consort in another kingdom and could not be used as a means of securing a son-in-law heir. Phyrra was initially reluctant to marry. Most of the time, getting married means taking on responsibilities like a home and children, which would prevent her from running around in the woods while hunting. It’s no wonder that huntresses in Greek mythology avoided these types of relationships. That’s exactly why she abandoned Neoptolemus, after all (although Thetis, at her request, updated her on Phyrrus’s growth). However, the council would insist that this decision be made and it would be hard to keep rejecting this for too long. So Cleopatra came up with a plan: try to trick the suitors by asking them to do something impossible. Since no one will do it, she won’t get married. Remembering how Atalanta and Oenomaus (father of Hippodamia, Pelops’s wife) made the suitors (in Atalanta’s case, hers. In Oenomaus’s case, his daughter’s) compete for something and, if they lost, they would be killed, Phyrra tried the same thing. Phyrra's hand would be won by the one who managed to score more points than her in the following events: running, wrestling, archery, chariot racing, and quoit. Since there were 5 of them and therefore an odd number, there was no way to tie the results. You either won and got married or lost and died. The problem was that at least two of these sports were guaranteed to Phyrra: running, since she was very fast, and chariot racing, since she had divine horses (Balius and Xanthus) in the competition. But while it was still possible to beat her in wrestling, archery and quoit, it's not like it was an easy task either. Having learned to hunt from a young age on Pelion and keeping the habit, she had great aim. She had also learned wrestling from Thetis (Thetis actually knows how to wrestle. There are representations of it on pottery) so again not an easy task. The result is that inevitably the suitors were killed.

[For context: Atalanta made the suitors race against her and killed everyone who lost. Since she was faster, she always won and always killed the losers. The only one who managed to marry her was Melanion, because he asked Aphrodite for help. The goddess gave him golden apples to throw along the way and Atalanta kept bending down to pick them up, which slowed her down and made her lose the race. As for Oenomaus, he was a demigod of Ares who challenged his daughter's suitors to a chariot race and killed everyone who lost. He lost when Pelops managed to convince Oenomaus' charioteer, Myrtilus, to sabotage his chariot in exchange for a bribe.]

Although Cleopatra had suggested doing something impossible, she hadn’t exactly suggested it. She thought Phyrra was overreacting with her decision to kill everyone who lost, but Phyrra was proud and saw the mere idea that these people genuinely thought they could beat her as an insult. Something like “well, he thought he could outdo me. I’ll make sure he never has the slightest thought of that again.” Cleopatra had hoped that perhaps, seeing how Phyrra was acting, the suitors would give up and the ridiculous situation would stop. However, Phyrra was immensely beautiful, having taken after her goddess mother, had incredible abilities and great wealth, and therefore wasn’t  really a potential bride that people would ignore.

Hearing about this, Daimen asked his family to take care of Phyrrus, now a small child, because he was going to visit Phthia. Lycomedes thought that he might try to be a suitor, so he made him promise not to offer himself, already knowing how Phyrra killed losers. But this wasn’t Daimen's idea, so he calmly promised that he was just curious to see if the young princess was really that impressive and would take the opportunity to go to new places and promised to bring something for his sisters and Phyrrus. He was welcomed by Peleus, after all he was a prince, and the situation was strange. Phyrra was desperate at the idea of ​​him telling anyone what had happened, while Cleopatra actually saw this as a plan. After long days of strange encounters in the hallway, of fights in private rooms (“you came, made me question who I was, then revealed that I didn’t even know who you were, then you disappeared, then a goddess came back with a child, then you didn’t want me or the child, and then you went to get the fame you so desire by defeating bandits, facing centaurs and who knows what the gods know”), of venting between four walls (“Cleopatra, I don’t hate my son. I just don’t want to be trapped inside a room with a child in my arms. He said I didn’t need to get married, that I just needed to keep in touch and be honest. But what am I going to do, keep sending messages?”), Cleopatra finally conviced Phyrra of an idea.

Daimen already knew that they were two women in a relationship and not only did he not tell anyone, but he apparently didn't care. He already had a son with Phyrra and, although their relationship was currently bad, it had once been good. He had fallen in love with her thinking she was a boy, so he would supposedly be prepared to have a relationship with someone who had typical male duties. She thought that if Phyrra agreed to marry Daimen, then she could have the heir that the council was pressuring her for, Phyrrus, the freedom to continue doing what she liked to do and she could still maintain her relationship with Cleopatra, since Daimen would offer the security that Phyrra was already committed to a man while she could have Cleopatra at the same time. Convincing Daimen was a little more difficult. He grew up thinking about staying in Skyros, because, as the only son and the eldest, it was natural that he would succeed Lycomedes. But if he were to marry Phyrra to fulfill Peleus's demand for an heir, he would have to rule Phthia together with her. But he managed to convince himself with the idea that it was impossible for Lycomedes to be dissatisfied with Daimen getting a wife of Phyrra's caliber, especially since Skyros was an island that wasn’t politically prosperous and such an alliance would be immensely valuable.

They ended up getting married without Daimen having to challenge Phyrra (she refused to lose in front of everyone on purpose, too much humiliation for her), it was very convenient for the three. Daimen and Phyrrus moved to Phthia. At one point, it was revealed that Phyrrus was in fact Phyrra's and not some bastard son. Since she was already married to the child's father, it wasn't as controversial as it would have been. Phyrra loved Phyrrus, but she was really... complicated as a mother. Thetis and Cleopatra took better care of him, at least. Phyrrus was then raised with a lot of love, a rather protected child, although not in a very traditional family. When he was 10 years old (Phyrra was 25, Daimen was 26, Cleopatra was 28), Odysseus appeared promising glory and claiming that he was destined for it. Daimen didn't want to let Phyrrus go because he was certainly too young, just as Deidamia didn't want to let him in Posthomerica. However, Phyrra, like Achilles, loves the idea of ​​glory and didn't try to stop him even with Daimen and Cleopatra arguing against it. Phyrrus ended up going with the Myrmidons to Troy, because in his case it’s really necessary for him to go to Troy for the Greeks to win, and was renamed Neoptolemus in reference to being a young warrior (Neoptolemus means New Warrior). He’s different from the canon Neoptolemus in that he is no longer obsessed with following his father's ghost, since here Phyrra raised him and is alive, so I imagine he was a less cruel person. However, I think that growing up he always knew that his demigodess mother gave up great glory for that life, and he wanted to bring home the opportunity for eternal glory that she had to give up. Either way, Neoptolemus continues to be motivated by the idea of ​​making Phyrra/Achilles proud.

So, basically this is what happens with Deidamia and Neoptolemus. Neoptolemus still exists and still wants to make Phyrra/Achilles proud and bring glory, but the context is different. Deidamia is a man, but he still had the problem of Phyrra/Achilles' identity and he was still left with a child because the child's other parent chose the sword and shield/bow and quiver. The reason all this happens is still because Thetis wants to keep Phyrra/Achilles from going to war, not because of the prophecy but because of mortality. I imagine Daimen is a good prince in the managerial sense, but he's not really a great warrior. And having grown up mostly with an old father and younger sisters, Daimen has gotten used to the role of being the caretaker and is even relatively "motherly" and sensitive. He's not a traditional super masculine man, basically. This is also reflected in the fact that he doesn't want glory for his son if it means he'll be alive, whereas the prophesied opportunity for glory would be something many would want for their son. Him not being bothered by Phyrra getting involved with Cleopatra, even though at the time men tended to be very bothered by the idea of ​​their wives having lovers (even when the men in question had lovers), also has to do with him not really feeling the need to reassert authority as much. And Phyrra was the one who trained Phyrrus, not Daimen.

Of course, I have other ideas, but this is a summary to explain what happens with Deidamia and Neoptolemus in the universe. So, for example, details of the relationship dynamics weren’t explained.

[kaz-identified]

Odysseus throws the raider away, snarling out a feral growl as he plants six shots into it's chest. Nothing would come between these refugees and safety. Not while he and Atticus where here. He stamps down on the skull for good measure, this thing is not getting back up. He pauses for a second, panting, scanning the battle field.

Nine Fallen remain, five vandals, three shanks, and their Captain. Five refugees were still in the area, gathered terrified against a wall where Atticus stood, brandishing an auto rifle. She fired wildly at the shanks, screaming at the refugees to run, get to safety further from the fight. Her spray and pray method payed off, she managed to shoot two of the damned drones down from the sky. Odysseus lets out a soft sigh of relief. She's fighting well.

He turns his attention to the remaining Vandals, throwing himself into the air and tossing a grenade down at the feet of two of them. It detonates in a burst of fire, atomizing them in mere milliseconds. He lands softly in the snow behind the corpses, firing shots into the remaining. They fall easy. He grins, teeth bared like a snarling animal. He's getting stronger. Athena would be proud.

His self congratulatory celebration is cut short by a scream.

Pained, panicked, intense, full of hatred and intent to doll back the pain sevenfold. No fear, not in her voice. Not in his son, she would never let herself sound scared in a fight. But he would. He felt a cold chill run down his spine. Terror gripping him like two skeletal hands grabbing at his throat, clawing at his chest, tearing his breath from his lungs, pulling his heart to a stop. Atticus was hurt.

"ATTICUS!" He howls, lurching forward. Fire pools in his palm and he throws it through the Captain's chest, burning away flesh and metal, leaving nothing but smoldering remains. He stares down at them. And then stares ahead, at his sister, his beloved son, clutching her stomach with one hand and desperately comforting a child with the other. "No no no no, don't cry kid! It's ok! See?" she points to him, directing the small boy's gaze. "He got them all! You're all safe." She offers a smile, blood pooling between her fingers.

She wipes the boy's tears away weakly, careful not to streak any blood on his face. "You're alright, little lion. You're tough. Odyssues will get you guys to safety," she promises, her voice fading. She struggles to her feet, stumbling over to him. "Keep 'em safe, yea? Please?" She asks, looking up at him with wide, pleading eyes.

"No, no, no NO NO NO," he says, grabbing her arms. "No. You aren't dying. Come on, Minerva, can't you do something?" he asks his Ghost, staring at her with pleading eyes.

She shakes herself. "Not to her. I can’t heal her without the light. Atticus… I'm so sorry,” she looks at the girl, her shell tilting down in grief.

Atticus gives her a bright smile to reassure her that it’s ok. But it’s not OK. It will never be OK again.

Odysseus feels the world shutter to a freezing halt. Ice in his veins, frost climbing down his throat to freeze his heart. The fire burning within him dying, embers growing cold. He feels something within him die.

"…Atticus, please," he begs, quietly.

She blinks slowly, leaning into the arm he has on her shoulder. "The wall. Get them past it, please. To the settlement Athena told us about. Keep them safe."

He blinks back tears, feeling even the sorrow die in his chest. "Of course, my lady."

She grins at him. "Good man."

He pulls her into a hug, sinking to the ground with her. He cradles her body, quietly. Finally, he feels her breathing shallow, and stop. He looks down at her body. This girl, so kind and brave, devoted entirely to protecting those around her, using her dying breathes to beg him to protect. His son, stolen from him. His sister, dead in his arms. At the hands of Fallen. He presses his forehead against hers. "I'll see you starside, Telemachus," he whispers like a promise.

He lays her gently in the snow, bracing her body against one of the rusted cars. He can't give her a proper burial, not with refugees to protect. He leans her head forward, gently, and carefully unties the leather ribbon she tied her hair back with. He'll keep her with him, in some way. He ties it around his upper arm, a promise he will keep. He raises to his feet, ready to lead the refugees on, to bring them to safety. When he stops, a glinting of light catching his eye. The Captain's charred remains, the gun that had tore through his sister's body glistened in the light. But more importantly, a symbol remained on it's body. The crest of the House of Falcons. Odysseus narrowed his eyes, a promise forming in his throat. He stalks over to the remains, kneels at it's side.

"You stole the reason for my life, you murdered my sister, my son, so callously, without second thought. You have stalked those I protect too long. I will hunt every last one of you down. Try to fly away, little bird, I will break your wings," he hisses out a growl.

He would contact Athena as soon as he got these refugees to safety. And then he would cast these cruel birds from the sky.

He stands, brushing snow from his legs. He forces a smile on his face as he looks at the refugees. "Well, you heard the girl. I've got to keep you all safe."

[criticalrolo]

first pass at Odysseus, abyssal tiefling cowboy

[hangesophtalmologist]

beautiful names for women

im sharing my list of original & multicultural names that i found & like, for the female characters in the books i write. I thought it could help some other writers :) There are plenty of different origins and meanings, so that you could find one that fit a character's ethnicity and essence. I love short names a little bit too much, so its mainly one or two syllables here.

SOURCES (mainly) :

nameberry.com

babynames.com

dont hesitate if you want to correct on things that you think are wrong <3

Aitne

origin : greek (mythological name)

meaning : one of the moons of Jupiter, named for a nymph that Zeus seduced. Aitne was the daughter of Oceanus. It is from her name, sometimes also spelled Aetna, that the Sicilian volcano Mt Etna derives its name

Baeg-Ilcho

origin : korean

meaning : "zinnia" - refers to the zinnia flower

Calypso

origin : greek

meaning : "she who hides" - Calypso was referred to as the 'goddess of strange power and beauty'. In Greek mythology, she was an island nymph, a daughter of Atlas, who delayed Odysseus from returning home

Cerys

origin : welsh

meaning : "love"

Delja

origin : polish

meaning : "daughter of the sea" - diminutive of Kordelja

Dione

origin : greek

meaning : "divine queen" - in Greek mythology she is the mother of Aphrodite by Zeus, and also one of Saturn's moons ; this is an astral name quite distinct from the better known Dionne

Dwyn

origin : welsh

meaning : "wave" - diminutive of Dwynwen

Elska

origin : norse

meaning : "love"

Eowyn

origin : old english

meaning : "horse lover" - said to be created by J.R.R. Tolkien

Ersa

origin : greek

meaning : Ersa, daughter of Zeus and the moon goddess Selene, is goddess of the morning dew.

Esme

origin : french

meaning : "beloved"

Farai

origin : african - bantu of zimbabwe

meaning : "rejoice"

Fevziye

origin : turkish

meaning : "triumph"

Gwenore

origin : welsh

meaning : "white shadow, white wave" - variation of Guinevere

Haviva

origin : hebrew

meaning : "well loved" - alternative of Aviva

Hayoon

origin : korean

meaning : "sunlight"

Heli

origin : welsh

meaning : "saltwater"

Ishi

origin : japanese

meaning : "stone"

Ismay

origin : french? (variation of Esme)

meaning : "beloved"

Jael

origin : hebrew

meaning : "mountain goat"

Janan

origin : arabic

meaning : "heart, soul"

Jemsa

origin : spanish, english

meaning : "gem, precious stone"

Kali

origin : sanskrit

meaning : "black one, maiden" - Kali is the Hindu goddess of destruction, the fierce side of the goddess Devi

Kore

origin : greek

meaning : "maiden" - original form of the name Cora, and alternate name for the goddess of the underworld Persephone

Luz

origin : spanish

meaning : "light"

Maz

origin : french?

meaning : "harmful spirits, blue" - nickname of Mazikeen, a name invented by Neil Gaiman ; and Mazarine, a French color name

Meena

origin : hindi

meaning : "blue semiprecious stone, bird"

Merel

origin : dutch

meaning : "blackbird"

Mija

origin : slovene

meaning : "drop of the sea, bitter, or beloved" - diminutive of Marija

Naiad

origin : hawaian, greek, basque

meaning : "dolphin, to flow, wave, sea foam" - variation of Naia

Neoma

origin : greek or hebrew

meaning : "new moon, pleasantness"

Neri

origin : greek or hebrew

meaning : "burning light, ocean spirit"

Ngaio

origin : maori

meaning : "reflection on the water"

Nhi

origin : vietnamese

meaning : "little one"

Nika

origin : slavic

meaning : "bringing victory"

Noor

origin : arabic

meaning "light"

Ntsako

origin : african - tsonga of central africa

meaning : "joy"

Numa

origin : arabic

meaning: "delight"

Ojai

origin : native american - chumash

meaning : "moon"

Öykü

origin : turkish

meaning : "story"

Parvati

origin : sanskrit

meaning : "daughter of the mountain" - Parvati is the Hindu goddess of fertility, love and devotion. She is the gentle and nurturing aspect of the Hindu goddess Shakti and one of the central deities of the Goddess-oriented Shakta sect. In Hinduism, she is the mother goddess

Pasha

origin : greek

meaning : "ocean"

Patzi

origin : native american - omaha

meaning : "yellow bird"

Queniva

origin : old english

meaning : "wife, woman, queen"

Rajani

origin : indian

meaning : "dark, of the night"

Rhea

origin : greek

meaning : "flowing stream" - in Greek mythology, she is the Earth, mother of all the gods

Rokia

origin : arabic

meaning : "charm, magic, superiority"

Sedna

origin : native american - inuit

meaning : "goddess of the sea" - in Inuit mythology, she is the goddess of the sea, marine animals, and the underworld

Selkie

origin : scottish

meaning : "sea folk" - in Scottish folklore, selkies are mythical creatures that resemble seals in the water but assume human form on land

Sena

origin : korean, hindi, arabic, african

meaning : "this world's beauty, grace ; army ; to praise ; bringing heaven to earth"

Sereia

origin : portuguese

meaning : "mermaid"

Shashi

origin : indian, sanskrit, nepali

meaning : "moon, having a hare"

Skadi

origin : old norse

meaning : "harm" (possibly "shadow") - Skadi is an anglicized spelling of Skaði, a Scandinavian goddess associated with winter, skiing, bowhunting and mountains

Thebe

origin : greek

meaning : Thebe is the name of more than one daughter of Zeus, according to some myths, and is also the name of a moon of Jupiter

Tonwen

origin : welsh

meaning : "white wave"

Topaz

origin : greek

meaning : refers to the topaz gem

Uma

origin : sanskrit, hebrew

meaning : "nation, light, peace"

Umi

origin : african

meaning : "servant"

Uyen

origin : vietnamese

meaning : "deep (knowledge), elegant"

Vaani

origin : sanskrit

meaning : "full of energy and life" - in Hinduism, it is another name of Goddess Saraswati

Venus

origin : latin

meaning : "beauty, love" - it is the name of a heavenly planet and the Roman goddess of beauty and love

Willow

origin : english

meaning : "willow tree"

Wyome

origin : native american

meaning : "plain"

Xiao Hong

origin : chinese

meaning : "morning rainbow"

Xio

origin : spanish

meaning : "ready for battle"

Ying Yue

origin : chinese

meaning : "reflection of the moon"

Yumiko

origin : japanese

meaning : "child, bow and arrow, beautiful"

Zafirah

origin : arabic

meaning : "successful, triumphant"

Zajak

origin : polish

meaning : "rabbit"

[musecraft]

                               🪐 — message recieved from @lighthouseborn​ ;    Hi hello if you don't want to play with the dmtnt lore-mess that's fine you may skip this question w/o offending me but I am curious, if you were to engage with it, how ((if at all)) you think Calypso and Poseidon relate? Are they equivalent to their mythical counterparts (Poseidon a god, Calypso a nymph, etc.) or would you think there's a truth that differs from the legends man created out of it? Are they maybe even technically the same figure evolved over time? Or something else?? Is Calypso even really a name of hers or something misattributed? Is she of all the oceans or specific to the Caribbean? ( for instance, Poseidon used to be considered specific to the Mediterranean! and then per dmtnt they find the weapon in Poseidon's Tomb so maybe there were as many ocean deities as their are oceans ((like how there are pirate lords for each- maybe that's an echo/imitation of the gods themselves?)) and maybe Calypso was the last still standing and that's why binding her gave the lords 'control' of the seas?) tl;dr I would like to see the essay and whatever other thoughts you may have ok ty I hope you have a nice day!

        HI HELLO FRIEND thank you for this lovely question  &  inviting me to write the essay on my beloved ocean goddess !!  i adore  &  appreciate your curiosity  &  will do my very best to answer all that you asked as best as i can — however i want to preface this with the disclaimer that i haven’t actually seen the potc films after the original trilogy, so... while i know some of the broadest strokes of the plot of dmtnt,  the real reason that i discard the canon after the trilogy is out of straight-up ignorance to it. so bear in mind that everything i say will be coming from that very limited perspective.

          in my personal portrayal of the goddess known as calypso, i am compliant to what the canon of the trilogy gives us  ( which is admittedly limited on lore )  but also heavily influenced by the character of Καλυψώ as she appears in ancient greek myth  &  literature, with heavy inspiration drawn from homer’s the odyssey,  & with some minor insights from the price of freedom novel thrown in there as well. therefore, the short answer to your question is that i do tend to follow along with my understanding of the greek mythos.

      therefore, in accordance with greek mythos, not all deities are created equal. while poseidon is one of the twelve gods of olympus, calypso is a nymph — her father being the titan atlas ( a pre-olympian god )  &  her mother being pleione, an ocean nymph. now, nymphs, according to greek mythos, are essentially lesser goddesses with traces of human blood who are tied to some specific element of nature. there are all kinds of nymphs,  &  calypso herself would have been one of the fifty nereids, or sea nymphs, who often accompanied poseidon, the olympian god of the sea.

       it’s important to note that even being a lesser goddess meant that you had abilities that the humans could never truly understand,  &  would therefore be understood best by them as magic. for example, in the odyssey, calypso has a years-long tryst with odysseus ( in which she highkey takes him prisoner ),  &  is shown to have many powers of enchantment, including control over animals  &  the weather,  &  even shapeshifting ! but it’s important to remember that these are powers that all ocean nymphs would have. so for as incredible as her abilities are in relation to humans, poseidon’s divine abilities would easily supersede her own.

      i definitely think that there is an element to the gods that mortals will never be able to explain or understand — is it truly magic ? or a scientific explanation involving beings that exist on different planes of existence  &  experience ? we will never know. but they did at least understand that there is a bit of a hierarchy within the divine beings — namely that the so-called “olympians,” like poseidon, are truly divine beings, whereas nymphs like calypso have both divine  &  mortal blood in them,  &  are therefore closer to humans. if the desire is to think on it scientifically instead of religiously, i think it could be conceptualized as having characters like poseidon as extremely powerful beings who originated in another dimension — one where the laws of physics are different than this one — that were able to cross into our dimension. in contrast, nymphs  &  other lesser divine beings are beings that were born of these beings but in the mortal world, meaning that they cannot travel between dimensions because they are linked to the mortal world. another example would be that while nymphs do not age, they can die if they are removed from their elemental homes, whereas poseidon is a truly immortal being who cannot die ( but who may have the ability to leave our dimension behind ).

      while i think it’s a really cool concept that there are ocean deities for the separate seas similar to the pirate lords, the mythos points to there actually being a lot more ocean deities than there were lords, calypso being one of fifty. however, it’s important to remember that all the nymphs were distinct and individual beings. calypso’s sisters all had their own personalities,  &  my personal headcanon is that calypso was always one of the most headstrong  &  unpredictable of her nymph sisters. ocean nymphs like her would be capable of travelling throughout any connected seas, &  even stepping onto land as long as they stayed near their sea, & calypso would have been one of the most adventurous of her sisters, leaving their group frequently to explore on her own. she also would have been one of the most interested in the mortals, even having trysts with mortal men,  &  frequently showcase her abilities in front of mortals, earning her reverence as a goddess in various cultures all over the world. this is how i came to the belief that, over centuries of traveling, calypso  &  other ocean nymphs like her came to be known by several names — ran, yemanya, cato, oshun,  &  more — with different cultures giving them different names  &  applying their own belief systems to explain their abilities.

     of course, eventually calypso made her way to the caribbean  &  met davy jones, the fallout of this particular tryst would lead to her being “bound” in a single mortal form. i understand that this might be a controversial take on the pirate lords “binding” calypso, but i really don’t think it had the effect they think it did ? confining her in a mortal body did remove her abilities to control the ocean — which did admittedly make her stop throwing temper tantrums about jones that became hurricanes capable of sinking fleets of ships at a time — but the sea wasn’t really “tamed” when she was bound. there were still storms  &  things. it’s just that she personally wasn’t causing them.  &  by that time, most of the still surviving nymphs from ancient greece had learned to avoid humans if they wanted to live, so she was one of the only ones still brave enough to show herself  &  her powers to mortals, which is why the pirate lords thought she was the only one,  &  taking that ability away would mean the sea would be calm all the time. but the east india company taking control of the caribbean  &  squashing piracy in the region was actually not the direct result of calypso no longer having her powers, it was just straight up the result of imperialism babey ! but i digress.

     finally, you asked about her true / original name. i do believe that calypso ( or rather, kαλυψώ ) is the name that mortals gave to her, as are the other names she has gone by over the years. i do believe she has a true name, but it is in the written language of the olympians,  &  it would be literally impossible to translate it into human language. ( i realize this might feel like a cop out — sorry if it does ! )  but it should be noted, she doesn’t really care what name the mortals call her by. she knows exactly who she is, even if the mortals she befriends will never truly know her back.

         ok, i know that was LONG.  i hope i answered all your questions to your satisfaction !  thanks again for sending, i loved this opportunity to detail my thoughts on calypso’s lore !

[lostcybertronian]

can you hear me, achilles?

Sequel to Here in His Place, Achilles’s reaction to Patroclus’s death.

Also posted on my A03.

---

I drift. Now that my body is shattered, atoms scattered to the cosmos, I find my consciousness splintered into a million different pieces, each able to watch at its leisure, independent of the whole; part of me observes the battle-- what’s left of it. Once the Hokumoros was destroyed, fighting ceased nearly altogether and another piece watches our enemies rejoice in the death of “Achilles.” Yet another turns its gaze to our allies, who seek to reclaim the splintered shards of what used to be me. 

    Achilles? We call. All of us, all of me, all at once; roar, sob, whimper, float silent and quivering through the unending black. Achilles?

    Some shred of me is fused to the fractured hull of the ship; atoms of cells of miniscule bits of tissue and bone melded with half-melted metal. This is the part they tow back to the station, those of us that remain. Traveling past smoldering stars and dying nebulas, through wormholes that spit us back out at the opposite edge of a galaxy that isn’t quite our home, but has fallen just shades short of it after all these years of warfare. 

Achilles— Achilles? Achilles?— waits impatient on the station, pacing the landing bay. He waits for restored honor, he waits for renewed adoration. Mostly he waits for his beloved philtatos. 

The kings dock first, the massive Agamemnon nearly eclipsing the smaller, wolfish Odyssey. Hokumoros is not among them, nor are those familiar, dark curls amid the Myrmidon men who spill from yawning hatches.

Ajax emerges, toting a twisted, burnt chunk of metal. It is no corpse dangling limp from his arms, no single, bootless foot streaked with charred red, no stray strands of brown matted and dyed black with blood. There was no body to retrieve; I’d been obliterated by the blast. But Achilles knows; that fragment of the Hokumoros is as good as a chest gone still.

“Patroclus!” I never knew my name could be wailed in such a way, so struck through with agony, palpable. Achilles lunges forward, but Odysseus has appeared out of nowhere and is wrestling him away, muttering inaudibly into his ear in an attempt to calm him.

But Achilles will not be calmed. He weeps and screams my name until it isn’t a name anymore, until it isn’t those simple three syllables that have tumbled from his mouth a thousand times before in joy in lust in ecstasy, until it’s no more than a continuous sound, raw and aching.

It isn’t until hours later that he falls into a troubled sleep. Tears coat his beautiful face and his golden hair clumps, unbrushed. He twitches and jerks as if trapped in a nightmare.

I long to reassure him. To take him in my arms and soothe the grief. But I cannot. 

I’m here, Achilles.

I love you, Achilles.

Can you hear me, Achilles?

More than once, he wakes. Mostly, to weep and reach for the empty space beside him. Once it is with teeth bared, nostrils wide. He reaches for a weapon-- any weapon-- before realizing that he doesn’t have one; he gave his gun to me, and Odyseus took his blade. I fear he looks to kill himself, or to kill Hector. The terrible knowledge that Hector has not long to live weighs on me; Achilles is sealing his own fate in his thirst for a vengeance that I do not need. 

But there is nothing I can do, fraction of a remnant that I am. I can only whisper, and hope to ease.

I’m here, Achilles. 

I love you, Achilles.

Can you hear me, Achilles? Can you?

[back-and-totheleft]

An epic memoir for an epic life

In a 1992 interview with Arthur Miller, Charlie Rose asked him what quality the great playwrights have shared in common, distinguishing them from the not so great ones in any given age?

After a pause to gather his thoughts, Miller replied that the “big ones share a fierce moral sensibility” and that “they are all burning with some anger at the way the world is.” “The littler ones,” Miller continues, “have made their peace with it. The bigger ones can’t make any peace.”

Oliver Stone is an artist whose work (his early work especially) is, as with Miller’s and all the “bigger ones”, suffused with the passion and fire of a man who refused to make peace with the world he both experienced and observed around him after serving two tours in Vietnam as an infantryman, prior to emerging determined to live life on his own terms or not at all.

The period covered in Chasing the Light runs from Stone’s his childhood and formative years all the way to the mountaintop that is Oscar night in 1987, when he picks up the Oscar for best director for Platoon, which also wins the award for best picture, editing, and score. In between we are taken on a journey of Sisyphean magnitude as he battles to overcome personal demons as a result of fraught-ridden teenage years in the midst of his parents’ divorce, which shatters any semblance of security and certainty he’d enjoyed as a child of relative privilege and affluence. Those demons were key in his decision to volunteer for Vietnam, which he does bent on either death or spiritual rebirth in this hell of his own choosing.

Greek mythology is a key theme in the book and in his life during this seminal period — in particular the epic character Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin), hero of Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey, and also a key character in its prequel, the Iliad. Stone uses Odysseus as his inspiration in choosing to forego the safe and steady path of convention and instead embrace the wisdom enshrined in Nietzsche: “The secret of realizing the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously!”

Stone’s struggle to mount the ramparts of the fortress that is Hollywood would have broken the spirit of all but those in possession of the kind of adamantine tenacity and perseverance that takes you to the edge of madness. Reading of his struggles, his years of rejection, of climbing the ladder of hope only to be kicked off it again, you are reminded of the agony of Vincent Van Gogh, expressed in his letters to his brother Theo, or of Knut Hamsun in his classic semi-autobiographical novel Hunger, chronicling his early failed attempts to establish himself as a writer.

To wit: Hamsun: “I was conscious all the time that I was following mad whims without being able to do anything about it … . Despite my alienation from myself at that moment, and even though I was nothing but a battleground for invisible forces, I was aware of every detail of what was going on around me.”

Stone: “I drew hurt and perverse pride in being able to take rejection. Yet my wounded ego interfered with my ability to understand the reasons for these rejections….Beyond the paper world of rejection, there was also the in-person wound of being told no in face-to-face meetings — when they could be had — the hard-to-come-by lunches, the unreturned phone calls.”

In one the most powerful passages in the book, Stone garners renewed strength from visiting his beloved grandmother in Paris on her deathbed. Amid the flux and tumult of his parents’ split during his adolescent years, she had been both sanctuary and emotional anchor.

But then: Meme [grandmother] wanted me to go — quickly, before it was too late. I couldn’t hear but it was clear what the shades were saying: We, the dead, are telling you — your lifespan is short. Make of it everything you can. Before you’re one of us.

After many fits and starts, Stone’s breakthrough comes through his writing — first with Midnight Express, for which he wins the Oscar for best adapted screenplay in 1979, and then Scarface in 1983, a cult classic to this day. The writing in both movies crackles with a rare kinetic energy, jolting you out of your comfort zone with the unvarnished truth of the human condition in situations of extremis. If the famed and controversial Method system of acting has its parallel in screenwriting, Oliver Stone was perhaps its first and still most notable exemplar.

But despite his success as a writer, Stone’s calling is as a writer/director, with his fierce sense of how his words and vision should be captured on screen driving him on through setback after setback, until in 1985 with Salvador (released in 1986) his moment of truth arrives. The drama involved in getting it over the line more than parallels the drama captured onscreen.

At the time, Salvador’s impact on the conscience and consciousness of America when it came to the disjuncture that exists between the mythical depiction its role in the world as a force for good, and the grim truth of its litany of crimes in places that most Americans, trapped in a bubble of celebrity culture and a news information ghetto, don’t even know exist, can’t be underestimated. Salvador was crucial moment in my own political awareness, as someone who grew up in Scotland on a diet of American pop culture and Hollywood movies, becoming imbued in the process with the idea of America as the place to be, the place where you had to be if you wanted a shot at an exciting, meaningful and fulfilling existence.

When it comes to Platoon, there really is nothing more to say or write that hasn't already. It remains the Paths of Glory of our time, a withering riposte to the flag-waving, chest-beating, unthinking patriotism on the part of those whose belief in the myths of Americana personified by John Wayne and the heroes of Iwo Jima has trapped them in a prison of false consciousness. Platoon — not only a masterful movie in its own right in terms of its writing, acting, cinematography and brute authenticity — exploded in the midst of Reagan’s America as a subversive and delicious j’accuse, levelled at a status quo which two decades on from the social upheaval of the sixties, had sought to repackage and resell Vietnam to the American people as a noble if failed attempt to thwart a Communist drive for world domination in service to the God of democracy.

The movie’s depiction of the internecine struggle that rages within a combat platoon polarised along racial, class and cultural lines mirrored and still mirror the faultlines which continue to polarise American society today. In this respect, Platoon is as much social commentary as it is a dramatic piece, retaining its force and relevance thereby.

Throughout the book Stone writes with commendable candour about his fears and insecurities, his relationships, and also his lapse into Hollywood hedonism and drug use, which all serves to make him three dimensional and relatable in equal part.

Ultimately, in reading Chasing the Light, you are reminded of Theodor Adorno’s admonition that “Behind every work of art lies an uncommitted crime.” If Stone had not succeeded as an artist and his creative powers applied constructively, you come away from his story convinced that those powers would have found destructive expression, given what he experienced in Vietnam and his struggle to readjust thereafter. Given his remarkable body of work, we can only be thankful that the former rather than the latter prevailed.

-Jon Wight’s review of Chasing the Light, Medium, Aug 31 2020 [x]