oughhhh literally all of the chrysos heirs (that we've interacted with) could be explored through body horror and/or sense of self, and it makes me a bit crazy.
aglaea, and how she endured over a thousand years, with her soul breaking and cracking over that span of time. losing her emotions little by little and becoming almost blind, yet she continued to push herself to the limits for the sake of others because she is so selfless. her golden threads being woven around okhema, protecting the peace it has, and everyone in it for millennia, but as time goes on, she could no longer keep up with everything. she who is the demigod of romance and beauty, but she is losing her sense of self, and her soul is so very fragile.
mydei, and not having autonomy over his own body, immortal that he is. constantly fighting and getting injured, dying but reviving again and again. he is born to the people labeled as ceaseless warriors, violent and fierce on the battlefield, as their prince. from the moment he was born, he had been fighting for his life; he had one life and millions of them all at once. one fatal weakness that would kill him permanently. would even he, who is deemed fearless by the general eye, touch his fatal point and feel fear? in his final moments, when his fatal spot was pierced once and for all, did he feel peace—that he could finally rest and stop fighting—or fear, that his life was actually over?
tribios, and her body being split into 1000 different versions, each one dying and dying and dying until it's only down to three left: tribbie, trinnon, trianne. and soon, they pass along, too. every version of herself can feel the emotions of another, so having to deal with the constant feeling of loss must be horrific, not just because of the feeling itself. but because what she is losing is herself, one by one. she who is the oldest amongst them, yet in appearance, she is a child and acts like one, because it's what she's come to know now—not by choice but by fate, and not even she, who is the demigod of passage, can change that.
cipher, and how she stole and continued to steal and hunt for precious valuables all throughout her life because through that, she felt worth, even if feigned. when she would get injured and see the golden blood seeping out of her skin, knowing she was accursed to a fate, she would not be able to change, leading her to question all that she is worth all over again. having to carry the heaviest lie anyone could ever tell, for the sake of everyone else—distancing herself from everyone who loved or cared for her because she knew that if she stayed with them, she'd break the walls she had built and they'd be able to see her lies in all their hypocritically truthful glory.
anaxa, and how he has constantly destroyed his own body and soul in pursuit of answers and truths. constantly shunned by everyone around him for having differing opinions, yet he pays no mind. he who cleaned his own grave regularly, as if anticipating he would die soon. he truly does not care much for himself; not escaping the grove when it was under attack from the black tide. instead, he puts his experiments to the test, using his body once more and forcefully placing the coreflame of reason into himself, in some last ditch attempt to prove his hypotheses, figuring that if this was his last moments alive then he would atleast go out trying to grasp truth. and he did die—only to get revived by one of the titans he so fervently destested—for them to take a place in his body and be able to control him, read his thoughts, mark their presence. anaxa's body has rarely ever been his own, by choice or not, basically donating himself to science despite not actually being dead yet.
castorice, and how she can't touch anyone, or else she will kill them. she is cold death itself, and yet she yearns for warm life; to be able to feel another's touch, to feel them alive, and to be alive with them. she was used as a means to put people to their death in exchange for a life of her own, even though it rarely ever was lively to her. the only way she could imitate life around her was through lifeless objects; the stuffed animals and dolls she creates. perhaps a reason for her finding joy in writing and reading is because through that, she can imagine herself as someone not burdened by the curse of death's touch, letting herself escape into a world where she could live like everyone else she loves so dearly.
hyacine, and growing up being told the stories of how she was born from the lineage of a great hero. learning all of her history and everything linked to it, wondering about who the supporting figures might have been and wanting their names to be seen as well. only to begin her own epic, learning of the truth of her ancestry and the fabricated lies all of it had been—in truth, she and all of her family had been the supporting characters all along, cast aside and thrown under the rug but painted in a fabricated light to keep an oath. she who had wished to remain on the ground, only to be called to the sky because of a duty she cannot avoid.
phainon, and how he lived a peaceful and loving life with his friends and family in his small village, only for all of it to be taken away from him in the blink of an eye. he was then given a new place to call home, to protect, and a newfound duty—yet, throughout it all, has he ever thought of himself as himself? or merely just the hero meant to bear the weight of the world? he had to watch his family die in front of him back then, and now he's lost the people he calls his family now. but no matter what, no matter how hard he might try and protest against it, he knows it to be his fate. because he chooses not to care for himself, and because he chooses everyone else over himself, he will never think of himself as anything more.
kaledo-art
theartofmadeline
dailybridgerton
tangentwithtanner
kianamaiart
yousharknotpass
ellievsbear
