ODYSSEUS.

THE MAN OF TWISTS AND TURNS. odysseus laertes / quorum member / of arcadia

[odysseuslaertes]

odysseus laertes, he/him, forty. quorum member. of arcadia. 

[  a brief history  |  dossier  |  wanted connections   |   skeleton   ]

written by kat (she/they, pst).

[odysseuslaertes]

diomcdes​.

Perhaps it was naive of Diomedes to believe that she would be able to attend ODYSSEUS’ panel and avoid the man himself, attempting to make a hasty getaway after congratulating Athena and avoiding the follow up to a confrontation that had been shadowing the back of her mind since it had happened. Perhaps they would have gotten away with this, too, were it not for the stolen glance they cannot help but take – realising their mistake a moment too late as their eyes lock on Odysseus’ own. Seen and understood. Reflected and distorted.

They could still run – break eye contact and pretend it had never been made. They could, and yet they don’t. Yes, perhaps they were naive, but perhaps part of them had been hoping that exactly this would happen. That a public forum would be the place where Odysseus would finally be forced to speak to them once again – that something, anything, would be better than the months of nothingness they had endured. 

“Quorum Member Laertes.” She greets in response, a stilted, professional tone to match his own. How foreign it feels, when they had once spoken openly, as friends. When it felt as though Odysseus had been the only person in the world whose vision complimented her own, who could act as an equal, a counterpart – now a polar opposite, a stranger wearing familiar clothing. “Eye-opening.” They say, “Though a little dull.”

this was wrong, he knew. perhaps, in another world, they had been on the stage together. there had never been anything so electric as when they were in a discussion, turning over the finer points of their vision for an audience. they balanced each other, two halves. but that was just as wrong. a miscalculation that needed to be filed away and forgotten. 

“you never did hold anything back,” he muttered, tapping his fingers along his tablet. except what mattered, he refused to say. for the umpteenth time, he wondered what else they kept from him. did it matter anymore? 

but he could not fully help himself. old habits stuck to him still, ruinous and unforgiving. he looked away from her before he asked, “what might you have done differently?”

[odysseuslaertes]

sccylla​.

She does not do her work in order to win, but when she does acquire victory? It tastes really fucking sweet. Odysseus shows up and she does not pay him too much mind, but she does shoot him a grin, just the once. It’s he who addresses her verbally, first, and she counts it as another small victory. “Odysseus.” She gives a nod of her head, pumping some antisceptic on her hands and rubbing it into her skin. “Why yes, I do think it’d be the polite thing to do.”

How would it be, if all those that had left or been forced out of Scalpel would still be on the team? Circe, Odysseus, Charybdis … do they look at her with envy? She certainly feels quite smug about remaining standing. About the security Aegean Waters offers, in the face of politicians with grand ideas. “Did you want to trial our product, QM Laertes? I’d be happy to personally reintroduce you to Scalpel’s technology.”

“congratulations on the sale then.” it was a different sort of selling he spoke of -- not of the company but of what it meant to keep it going. he had poured over every scrap of news and rumor that existed on the company, pieces to a puzzle for which he no longer had the edges. “i hope scalpel gets exactly what fate it deserves.” 

his job has only gotten more difficult with this new chapter of scalpel, but it was not impossible. there was a sick satisfaction to the challenge, a nauseating understanding that their paths had always been paved toward this. scalpel, rising and rising and rising; himself, sinking his fingers into it to pull it back down. he deserved this challenge. he deserved whatever pain it brought to him, when he could have so easily ended it years ago. and so did scylla. 

there was something to be said of the beautiful, horrible cost of a fight. 

“please do.” ( even more sickening than the challenge was the curiosity still humming under his skin, a habit he had never quite rid himself of. ) “how long have you been working on this particular product?” what was its cost?

[odysseuslaertes]

tyndareus​.

open to: everyone week two of the summit; after the HELE-N presentation; helicon deck

as cly stands on the edges of the crowd, his eyes follow agamemnon as he drifts around packs of what the two of them deemed important people; amon had no issue with just diving into the deep end, charming one too many faces with whatever they wanted to hear. cly can see it clearly, he smiles, they smile, he laughs, they laugh—he wouldn’t be surprised if amon’s telling one of cly’s jokes, one of many he sold him during their joint debrief this morning. still, he can’t keep his gaze away—some things never change.

just before and after the demo, the spotlight’s been mostly on his friend and cly doesn’t exactly mind—his thoughts are off doing everything but getting in order so if there were crowds of people gathering around him, eager for some insightful answers, cly would most surely fail to deliver. he probably wouldn’t even be able to answer the question of how are you. so he hope this is what the person joining him doesn’t start with. 

“hello,” he greets them, his most charming smile planted firmly on his face, plastered on so fast you couldn’t even notice the change. his fingers wrap tighter around his drink. the ice chills his skin and brings him some comfort. “how many more of these,” he lifts the glass up a little, “until it’s acceptable for me to just leave?” it’s part joke, part indication of how he feels—cly mostly tries to sell it as the former. “this is my second, mind you.”

the world changed. this was the truth. it happened, somewhere along the way between odysseus’s rise and his now; it was happening again, before he had settled. change was a tragedy, occurring before the narrative had completed, and hele-n was proof of this. hele-n was the terror of this. odysseus sat in the crowd of the presentation, and he wanted to remember all the details around him. the sly smiles, the grandiose pitches, the brilliance of the tech. he wanted to remember it all so that he might savor it later, when it crumbled. 

( and it would. it would. it was either that, or it would last forever. ) 

clytemnestra tyndareus wore a smile like odysseus expected. odysseus wanted to pry open his mouth and see the sharp teeth underneath; odysseus wanted to pull them out. instead, he smiled back -- a moment, yes, then and gone again, yes, but there. let them play this game together. 

“it is also your celebration, is it not? i’m certain i wouldn’t be the only one disappointed to see you gone so soon.” he tipped his own glass, still full, in the other man’s direction. “perhaps one more. what shall we drink to?” 

[olreid]

emily wilson, introduction to the odyssey

[odysseuslaertes]

@diomcdes​​ location: after the governance and tech in gaia panel.  time: week two. 

with the discussion finished, odysseus was left to mingle among both those bright-eyed and those hungry -- those that considered themselves wolves and those that knew how to hide their teeth. individuals stopped him to follow-up on regulations, on innovation, on that nebulous thing they had collectively dubbed the future. and he almost made it through it all, smiling as he needed and humming in consideration as he listened. none of his exhaustion showed; none of his uncertainty. he was the same he had always been, as he always would be.

odysseus would have made it through as he had made it through countless other events -- until he saw diomedes. they were not someone to ignore; they would not become someone to placate either. odysseus saw diomedes, and diomedes saw him. together, they formed a snake eating its own tail. endless, endless. 

that cold flush of anger fell over odysseus, and he felt separated from his body as he approached her. appearances, he convinced himself. it was always about appearances. 

( hadn’t she been one of many to teach him that? ) 

“quorum member delyle,” he greeted, quiet enough it might have just been the two of them. as if all the world existed in the space between them. “dare i ask what you thought of the discussion?” 

[odysseuslaertes]

@apvlllo​​ location: kalavria deck.  time: week two. 

apollo rhea was -- unexpected, to put it politely enough. for as much as odysseus had walked in zeus’s circle, he had far less experience with the rhea children. most were in another world than his, and he was comfortable with that; it was expected, it was safe. but things could never stay such a way for long, and it was with a sigh that he accepted an invitation from apollo rhea to meet.

always the question, when people called to odysseus: what did they want?

he sucked in a breath, like he was preparing for an intricate surgery instead of meeting with the son of a friend. maybe he would be surprised. hadn’t athena rhea surprised him, once? maybe apollo would do the same. 

( rarely was he surprised these days. ) 

“apollo,” he greeted, trying to get his voice to sound anything other than mildly detached. “you’ve gotten my attention.”

[odysseuslaertes]

@athenarhea​ location: after one of the demonstrations. time: week one. 

it was with relief that odysseus gestured to athena rhea -- relief that, amidst all the shining glamour of the technology and innovation conversations, there remained one whom odysseus considered a friend. ( and what was a friend, if not someone who shared the view that things might be better than this? ) tired as he was, the small smile that made its appearance was easy, natural. 

“i wasn’t too harsh, was i?” sometimes, he could hardly help himself. “i thought after my third string of questions, someone might drag me off and be rid of me. what did you think of... whatever that was?”

[odysseuslaertes]

@sccylla​​ location: scalpel’s station.  time: week one. 

something seizes in odysseus at the sight of the station -- scalpel, displayed as if they are an inevitable part of this world. something to accept, something to giggle at. people leave the demonstration with a pair of mismatched eyes or a sprinkle of freckles where none existed before, and odysseus cannot help but think how monumentally stupid it all is. he wants to shake them all; he wants to drag every quorum member here and give them a lecture on everything not mentioned by the scalpel team -- that forgotten narrative that holds more truth than... this. 

instead, he stands with the rest of the small crowd, breath in and breath out. 

“scylla,” he announces the name, quick and clean. they stand on opposite sides of the table. they know this about one another. “should i congratulate you on your new employers?”

[dilfgifs]

Oscar Isaac as Jonathan Levy SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE — Episode 1 “Innocence & Panic”