odydio has me in a chokehold | alex | 25 | polish | she/her | my book blog: @alexfrostbook | ao3: HoloPumpkin | art blog: @srokagoesdigital | pfp by @ithacantrickster🌋
Cloud Nine – a modern Odysseus/Diomedes romance (and more than that!)
With this absolutely stunning art by the lovely @ithacantrickster, I invite you all to read Cloud Nine, which is a modern AU full of spice, love, hurt, comfort, healing, rediscovering sexuality and redefining oneself in the light of new, thrilling experiences ⛓
And it features our beloved Odysseus (a 44-year-old professor of linguistics) and Diomedes (a 33-year-old ex-military who suffered from a life altering injury ✈️
So if you can't get enough of the Odyssey you've seen at the cinema lately OR if you've had enough of it and need something fresh to recover OR if you're simply up for reading a hot M/M romance, you're in the right place!
Please, enjoy the summary as well as the links to the newly edited and polished version of the story below 💖
Summary
Diomedes is an ex-military aircraft pilot who was forced to take permanent leave after he'd suffered from a life-altering injury. Haunted by nightmares and the ghost of a recent break-up, Diomedes grows bored of his empty flat and tired of his useless self. Following his best friend's advice, he sets up a dating app profile. Once he's done toiling over the profile creation, he begins swiping. What he doesn't realise is that one of these swipes may change his life in ways he's never imagined.
Cloud Nine on Ao3
Cloud Nine on Wattpad (entered for this year's Wattys awards)
That's more likely than you think! Just submitted my hot and sweet modern OdyDio AU to the Watty Awards 2026!
If you're curious about how an unusual romance (with Odysseus) helps a 33-year-old pensioner and ex-military pilot (Diomedes) heal, rediscover his sexuality and redefine himself, go click the link under the pic! See you there c:
And even if you're not into Greek Myth too much — don't worry, this piece can be read as an og romance story <3
I think trying to make a movie out of The Odyssey (not the story of Odysseus, but The Odyssey as in the poem) is a bit of a doomed endeavour as the structure of The Odyssey simply does not jive with the structure of the Hollywood movie
I think you COULD make a good movie out of the odyssey but would need to engage w the fact that it's a work which veers back and forth between fantasy and realism; that it's a story told out of chronogical order; and also that it is a Trickster Hero story first and foremost. It is perhaps best done as a comedy but with the occasional shocking swerve into graphic violence.
The Odyssey should be a musical but ☝️only some of the time. When Odysseus is narrating? Musical. Penelope and Telemachus on Ithaca? 🙅♀️
Odysseus can break the fourth wall during the parts where he's narrating.
Movie opens with Odysseus inside Charybdis, whirling around and around clinging to a tiny raft and screaming. *Freeze frame* yeah, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got here.
