the more I dwelve into Phix's major cast, the more intrigued I am. like; Phix, Calimonstro and Gorgonya are obviously living beings that depend on air, food/water and with flesh (or keratin with Calimonstro) and all that, Rollin' Rocco's a robot with specific contraptions (and them mechanisms) and OS/strings of code (though, I feel like Rocco'd be the tin man) Senor Shogun is either some spirit with own anatomy and life force, or like Bishamon from darkstalkers, which is some demonically possessed armor with human vessel
Then what Mr. Powder and Cleric's whole race are supposed to be? in cleric's case, I bet it's some demigod race or psychic race that worship the macguffin (or unseen entity that made magnia stone in first place). Or those gummy humans are somewhat generic and the cleric himself is the ascended demigod/chosen one in his community.
I like to think Powder's a resurrected spirit (by magnia stone) sort of, thus, more or as ghastly as Shogun, but Powder's body is almost all fire and carbon monoxide
Hi, I love your Penelope posts and I'm curious about how you potray her relationship with her in-laws, since in one of your older post I remember you saying you want her relationship with Ctimene to parallel hers with Iphthime
I also want to say that I absolutely love your Penelope posting, she is such a fascinating character and it sucks seeing her either being reduced to Spartan girlboss or just Odysseus' wife so your blog is literally my life-saver 🫶
Hello!
My Penelope's relationship with Odysseus' family is very much hinged on something I remember sil mentioning once — something about how it would be interesting when Penelope, who so readily left her beloved homeland for Odysseus was faced with the impact of that choice. (And her own depiction of those character dynamics, they really are fascinating!)
And so I really do like a relationship that was initially characterized by strain, due to two factors:
(read more cause this got long as hell)
#1 being that OdyPen having a child took far too long a time (It's one of those rare popular fandom headcanons that i actually like). My timeline goes: Helen's ceremony -> The start of the war ten years later. Four years courting, six years married. So it essentially took five years for Telemachus' conception, which is one of the main factors of this strain, considering Ithaca being without an heir would of course be detrimental to the kingdom.
#2 is partially because of that courting taking four years, but also not exactly. It's mainly because Penelope's family very openly dislike Odysseus, Icarius especially. Their treatment of him is apparent, and so of course it reaches Ithaca.
The reason for this dislike is partially because they don't know Odysseus, Ithaca is so far away, things like that. However the main reason being that OdyPen are so incredibly scandalous. I have a fic from a couple months ago that I want to revisit — and it's one where Clytemnestra and Thoas find OdyPen in Mycenae's gardens, very heavily inspired by that one scene with Anthony + Daphne and Simon in season one of Bridgerton lol.
But considering Odysseus is older, and general bias towards Penelope they mainly blame him. But it is not as if they can simply go around announcing the reason why they hate him either, after all Penelope too was complicit, and any news of this would ruin her as well. So they keep it as quiet as they can.
So essentially, to Anticlea and Laertes and Ctimene, Odysseus is being disrespected again and again for literally no reason? After going through challenge after challenge and sending gifts after gifts for the sake of winning Penelope's hand. And so when they first meet, their first impression of her is already skewed, and the lack of a child worsens it.
As for the Ctimene/Iphtime parallels, I see them both as contrasting Penelope — just in different ways. We know from the Odyssey that Penelope is an outlier among women, and I like to think that that bleeds into her earlier life too.
Essentially: Iphtime is what Penelope is not. She is the quiet, obedient, responsible daughter (which is why I also made her the eldest, for that sense of duty and all), whereas Penelope is loud and rebelling and very much irresponsible in her interactions with Odysseus. They aren't close because of this and some other things, but there is love, as we can see from that one scene in the Odyssey! (I just personally prefer Penelope being closer to Cly and Helen).
So the same goes with Ctimene in a way. She is not at all quiet or shy, she too is a descendant of Hermes and Autolycus after all, however she is still obedient and sort of 'knowing of her place' as a woman in society. So when we add in the first two factors + her seeing Penelope constantly push back on Odysseus' politics/governance/decisions and sort of matching his energy, it leaves another bitter taste in her mouth. Odysseus may not take offense to it, but Ctimene has already seen her brother disrespected by Penelope's family, and so this simply feels like another form of it.
During the war though, it does get better! Though not completely. Penelope's relationship with Anticlea and Ctimene remind somewhat warm/familial, but of course the former dies before anything more, and when Ctimene then remarries following a lack of a return, Penelope completely cuts her off because in the latter's mind, it's another person confirming that they took think that Odysseus is gone, and hearing that from one of the people she thought would share her hopes stings her to no end.
With Laertes, they grow somewhat close. It was he who helped her with the Kingdom's politics from time to time in place of Mentor before his grief got the best of him, so they got to bond over that (along with their shared adoration of Telemachus ofc. That too counts for everyone though, and the mentioned politics part is what got Pen and Laertes specifically to bond)
This got way too long lol, but I really do appreciate the chance to headcanon dump! One of my favourite things to do fr — and thank you so much about that Penelope posting part too! I really do understand the feeling, finding my equally Penelope-loving people was legit one of the best things that happened to me last year, I love our girl to no end lol
Now I very much agree that Odysseus and Telemachus do indeed have a very interesting dynamic in their own right, however I also feel like the larger fandom is sleeping heavily on Telemachus and Penelope's relationship.
Because imagine this — Telemachus is an infant, barely five months old, perhaps six, and he is crying. He is crying, and his father is gone and he cannot sense him and his Mother does not hold him either; she has the nurses rock him to sleep, but they are unfamiliar and he keeps crying and his Mother too sobs behind another door, both of them longing for a man who is not there.
Then he is five, he is five years old and one of his earliest memories is seeing his Mother obsess over a tapestry, spending days weaving and weaving and refusing to either sleep nor eat. Sometimes he finds that she has torn whole sections of it away, several times even. She murmurs to herself that his eyes are not right, that his visage is not properly captured. He does not understand anything. He is only five, but his Mother has started forgetting his Father's face and her obsession goes on for weeks.
Then he is eight, he is eight and he wakes up one morning to find that his Mother had locked herself in her bedchambers again. She had been fine yesterday, she had been happy yesterday —and she had promised to go play with him in the beach but her door is shut and Eurynome gently implores him to leave her alone. He does not want to. He does so anyway. He knew how these days played out by now — he just needed to wait for a day or three. Sometimes a week. But she always returned eventually.
Telemachus is nine. Everyone calls him his father's son. Everyone says he has his father's visage. He spends hours at the mirror, amazed by their compliments yes, but also looking for something — anything — that was part of his Mother within him. He is disappointed when he realizes he can scarcely find anything.
Then Telemachus is ten, Telemachus is ten and the war is over at last and his grandfather almost collapses when he hears the news and his grandmother cries and his mother smiles and they wait and wait and wait —
And the celebrations slow. Diminish into nothing at all. They continue to wait. Two months. Six. A year. Two years —
Then in the mere blink of an eye, Telemachus is twelve. Telemachus is twelve, and they have waited for two years now and his father still has yet to return. His Mother insists she waits still, though her sorrowful cycles return and his grandparents stay away in their secluded estate in the countryside and one morning, they find his grandmother beneath Ithaca's cliffs.
Telemachus is still twelve, his grandmother is dead, and the grief suffocates him like a noose. They say she must have fallen, but Telemachus is twelve and Telemachus was young but he was not a fool. How could he be? He was the son of Penelope. He is the son of Penelope, and he wakes after a nightmare one night and wanders the halls in search of his Mother. He hears her confess then, to one of the handmaidens, that she could understand why his grandmother had done what she did.
He clings to her harder the next morning. The next day. The next few weeks. When she finally asks why, he simply cannot answer.
Then, in another blink, Telemachus is fourteen. He is fourteen, and suitors have started invading their palace, calling for his Mother's hand. When the first of them arrive she wounds herself by shattering a mirror. The sight had nearly terrified him to the arms of Thanatos. There are bandages on her hands the next morning. Mother does not say a word about it. Neither does Telemachus.
Then he is sixteen, he is sixteen and his home, his beloved island, is being ravaged by wolves and he hates it and he hates it and he hates that his Mother still waits and waits and allows this to happen to their kingdom, his kingdom —
He brings up the idea of him taking the throne one night during dinner. His Mother, who had scarcely taken even a bite by that point, suddenly stops eating and tells him no. He insists. She leaves. She does not speak to him for a week and he too is furious.
He is nineteen now, nineteen and older and the suitors are getting more violent and he cannot bear to leave the palace because his Mother is no longer safe, she has not been safe for years. All he wishes to do is protect her. She refuses, say upon her throne, as stubborn as ever. It is for Odysseus. It has always been for Odysseus. He still spends most nights hating the knowledge that if she would have to choose between him and Odysseus, it would always be the latter.
Telemachus is twenty. He and Penelope argue most days, she spends others weeping. A goddess comes to him and insists that he go find his father. The only reason he is able to leave is because surely a goddess, this goddess who his Mother revered and who guided him now, would keep her safe.
Then Telemachus is twenty still, and Lady Athena was right and his father is home and it has been a week and they are partaking in the morning meal together. It is a peaceful day. He has not had a peaceful day in years.
Then suddenly — his father makes a jest, one that slips past him in truth, though it is not the jest that makes him still, it is that Penelope starts laughing, and he has not heard her laugh in years and even on the rare occasions she used to do so, he does not think he has ever heard her laugh so genuinely, so brightly.
Telemachus is twenty. His mother is laughing, and when he looks at her he feels as if he is looking at a stranger.
Clytemnestra approving Menelaus' marriage to Helen because she knows that he is warm and kind and gentle vs Clytemnestra disapproving Penelope's marriage with Odysseus because she does not know him at all (and she has hated seeing strange men around any of her sisters/cousins after Theseus)
Headcanon that Penelope still wears veils and heavier/less revealing clothing despite the sweltering Ithacan sun even after the Odyssey — because part of her swears she can still hear the suitors laughing everyday.
