It's our HC - mine and my friends watching me drawing those - that Odysseus composed Most of Epic the musical while he was in Calypso Island (seven years are a lot), and the "All I hear are screams" he said to Calypso that day was because he was struggling for it.
Sorry. Needed to be done.
Sorry, it's something silly but i hope you like it anyway.
Remember that Penelope, Poseidon and Ody designs are from @neal-illustrator!
and that ofc Epic the musical is from Jorge Rivera-Herrans.
I like to think that because Penelope raised him mostly alone, Telemachus almost NEVER raises his voice. Never yells, never talks back to the adults in his life. Penelope raised him better.
And Telemachus only doubles down on this when Odysseus returns home, cause it's father. He's a stern warrior, of course he wouldn't allow being sassed at.
Until one fateful day, Telemachus is impatient for whatever reason, he's having a very bad day. And Odysseus says something that sets the poor boy off and he just snaps "Will you just SHUSH?! I can handle this!!"
And Telemachus instantly freezes.
Penelope's already scolding him, and Odysseus also freezes and just starts tearing up because he's so happy he gets to finally be sassed by his boy.
fanfics where penelope fell first are my absolute favorite
odysseus coming to sparta, without any real intent of finding himself a wife, encounters the cousin of the renowned helen and doesn’t think anything of her. helen is beautiful, clytemnestra is fervent and penelope is… there. modest. quiet. watching. he briefly recalls meeting her ages ago during their visit to ithaca but there wasn’t much to recall of it. he introduces himself to king tyndareus, presents his gift that’s humble yet clever and asks for helen’s hand in marriage. he’s unaware that before he even took step foot on this island, he has already secured himself a wife.
penelope knew the spot next to helen would be fought for by the most powerful of men and no doubt, if he were smart and he is, odysseus would be one of them. so she waits and waits and waits till the day the boy she fell for ages ago under an olive tree comes to sparta. there’s a flicker of recognition when their eyes meet, and he smiles, polite but dismissive. he does not think much of her but penelope doesn’t mind. she did not spend all that time just waiting; she spent it devising a plan.
penelope, who calls helen’s suitors savages and the entire proceedings ridiculous, has now begun courting. however, as tradition dictates, she can’t be the one kneeling before ithaca’s king and asking for his hand in marriage. no, it is he who must come to her. so she gets to work.
she rests in places she knows he frequents, approaches ladies within his vicinity, deliberately speaks of topics she knows he’d have interest in when he’s within hearing distance, etc. she asks the maids to watch his schedule and pretends it’s pure coincidence when she stumbles into the archery grounds when he’s practicing. soon, her efforts are rewarded. odysseus is before her dear uncle, earning his favor with a suggestion and exchanging it for her hand.
odysseus thinks it was he who fell first, that he is the one who has come to sparta, that he saw the wit of penelope and laboured to catch her attention. this is the story odysseus tells people. “my dear penelope had no idea of what was to come,” he’d say. “i had fallen for her! it was her or nobody at all that shall be my wife!”
it is only years later that odysseus is told the truth. he recounts the story once again for his son.
“your mother and i fell in love in sparta when–”
“you fell in love in sparta,” penelope corrects, not looking up from the tapestry she’s weaving. “i fell in love in ithaca.”
and odysseus, poor odysseus whose brain malfunctions too often when around the smartest girl he knows, takes it to mean in ithaca when they had wedded. he’s flabbergasted, offended even, ready to call his darling wife a liar for she had given him the sweetest confessions prior to racing her father. how could she say she had only started to love him after they had spent nights and nights laughing under the stars?
“you misunderstand me, odyseeus.” she’s smiling now, unable to help herself. it’s not often she catches the most clever of kings by surprise and it’s a delight knowing she’s able to. “in ithaca. during your coronation.”
and odysseus is in shock, abruptly standing up. he’s spinning around her seat like an eager puppy, asking her hows, whens, whys and penelope only gives him the vaguest of answers and never looks away from her work. he’s shooting out accusation after accusation (“I knew it! You must have been lying when you said you liked archery. You couldn’t even string a child’s bow then.” “Hey now...”). Had a stranger been eavesdropping, they might think the king was angry but upon close inspection, they'd see that he’s blushing and stuttering and asking her again and again to repeat how she’d fallen in love with him like he was some lovesick teenage girl. telemachus just watches his parents with amusement.
penelope fell first but odysseus fell harder. she made sure of it. UGH just penelope masterminding her entire love story with a man known for mind games makes soooo much sense to me because who else should reign beside him if not a woman with a mind like his?
Well, yes.
"Simple, my dear doctor. I poisoned the door attendant with a sly needle as we were ushered into the drab attempt at room décor. They undoubtedly are listening in on our conversation, and are now realizing that tightness in their chest is not due to a poor lunch choice. Now, there is a locked door between them and a simple Cardassian Tailor that may have the antidote. Failing that, they should turn to the closest Medical Expect, and one just to happens to be in the same room."
my brain: 45 years ago this person could've made a public access television show that ran for half a decade on the strength of this concept with the right framing device and it would've been paid for with federal arts grants and maybe even national syndication rights. now they're begging for a single minute of engagement on tiktok in the hopes that maybe someday the abstract metrics of digital media platforms will translate into a tangible career
Yesss! Cassandra truly deserved so much better. I felt terrible for her. All she did was attract the eye of an immortal. Such a horrible punishment for something that shouldn't even have been a crime.
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