astrongshipandaswiftship

[astrongshipandaswiftship]

will we ever get more POVs from other characters? Like Thous or maybe a bit more from Nous, maybe even from Penelope or Telemachus in the later later chapters

Yep!

I've mentioned before that Nausithous definitely has a POV chapter planned. In fact, it's something I thought of including for a while now! (Prepare for angst... eventually...)

We already got Nausinous' (which was his intro chapter) so I'm not sure if he's getting another one soon (maybe something in the epilogue? I can imagine putting multiple POVs in that... Then again, too early to say...) He will definitely have a whole bunch of scenes in Ody's POV though, so he won't be short of appearances (I just really didn't want to traumatize him that much in chapter 5)!

I do have plans for Telemachus and Penelope, so stay tuned for that. In fact, we might not be far off from an appearance... Telemachus' POV chapter is definitely something I've planned in detail, but Penelope's is a bit farther along, so it still has so much potential, depending on what I want to do with it (it's actually too early to say, but I am considering doing two Penelope POVs...)

I also mentioned in a comment on Ao3 (chapter 5) that I am interested in doing an Athena-centric chapter eventually (maybe a POV? Who knows!) For now, I'm focusing on Ody's for the sake of story progression, so POV chapters will be saved for key moments that I think would work best as a certain character's POV chapter. (Ex: in Nausinous' case, an intro, since we get to see his child-like thought process, so we can have the context to understand him in later (Ody-POV) chapters.)

[astrongshipandaswiftship]

Does Odysseus have any stretch marks or other scars from his time on Ogygia? If so, will they be brought up later?

Yeah, he probably does.

I feel like Calypso would try to heal his body from any harm that happens to it, since she doesn't realize how fragile mortal bodies are. Either way, a lot of those injuries leave scars.

Those that heal quickly leave thin/shallow lines that are barely noticeable, and those that don't leave more obvious marks. I imagine that Odysseus has a lot of scars, but most of them are surface injuries, while the Very Serious scars came from really bad injuries.

(Of course, some of those are pre-Ogygia, like the scar from the boar hunt on Mt. Parnassus, the scar on his side from the fight with Charops in the Iliad (Athena redirected the spear so that it wouldn't kill him), and the scar from the mutiny in EPIC, among others.)

The injuries he has on Ogygia look subtle next to the ones he had/has from other things, because it reflects what Calypso does. Unlike the rest of Odysseus' journey, Ogygia is static. He doesn't (can't) leave, and nothing is changing. The torture he experiences there is slow and subtle. Pregnancy was not something Odysseus' body had been prepared for, since it was due to Calypso's magic/power, it was definitely unnatural, so he definitely has visible stretch marks.

Some injuries specific to Ogygia that I imagine are of course bruises, though they heal eventually. He definitely has irregular marks on his wrists, legs, and arms from repeated chafing against Calypso's vines during his struggle. Likewise, he has some chafing around his neck (just like the ones on his limbs, this one leaves some discoloration/chafing scars) from that circlet mentioned in chapter one (and will be mentioned again soon) as well as scars from his unsuccessful attempts to remove it.

As for whether or not I'll mention any of this: I have a rough outline of the fic, as well as some beta chapters, but it doesn't have all the things I want include. I like to keep little things like this in mind when I'm actually writing chapters and filling in the gaps, because I might find a certain place in the fic and go "hey I can put this here!"

In terms of scars, the next chapter will most likely include one (unless it gets way too long and I have to split it into two, so in that case, it'll be the one after it). For stretch marks, it's definitely on my mind but I haven't yet found the best place to include it, though I imagine it will be during one of the later chapters, but we'll see!

[astrongshipandaswiftship]

Some info about (A strong ship and a swift ship) to take me home:

What is it about?

It's an AU where I try to incorporate Nausithous and Nausinous (Odysseus' children by Calypso according to Hesiod. (No, not the Odyssey! Odysseus doesn't have any other children mentioned in the Odyssey other than Telemachus!)) into a mix of Epic and the Odyssey. It was originally (very loosely) inspired by Akaittou's fic: Hanging on in Quiet Desperation. I read the latest chapter (9, at the time) and was inspired by the threats, and wondered how horrifying it would be if it Calypso made Odysseus pregnant instead...

And my brain went: well time to write some angst and psychological/body horror! (keep in mind that the mpreg is strictly for angst purposes! There's no kink involved bc 1) I have no idea how I'd write that, and 2) it's Calypso and r4pe is not sexy. Of course, I also tried to write Calypso getting pregnant, but I found that I wanted to keep the body horror aspect instead.)

The rest of the plot (up to chapter 5 so far) follows Ody's mental state, as well as his complicated relationships with his children and captor Calypso, all while Telemachus haunts the narrative.

Now, for those of you who are familiar, how about some more specific questions/trivia?

1) The boys' names meaning:

(One of the readers actually noticed this and commented, so I'll include my response below:)

Initially, I read somewhere that Nausithous' name was translated as "swift ship", while Nausinous' was "strong ship", so I wrote the first chapters with that in mind, but after some research, I couldn't find any translation of Nausinous' name meaning "strong ship". Instead, the academic source I found translated the name (roughly) as "smart ship". It was too late for me to rewrite it into the title by then, so instead, I just included it into Nausinous' character (his amazement with wisdom, and his imagination)(see ch 4)!

Additionally, Nausithous shares a name with Nausicaa's paternal grandfather/maternal great-grandfather, a son of Poseidon. Idk if I'll do anything with that, but I think it's pretty funny that both Odysseus and Poseidon have sons that share a name.

2) Why did I choose Nausithous to be the oldest, and not Nausinous like some other fics do? And why did I choose to give them an age gap?

Hesiod's Theogony (aka the source I found of the boys' existence, since they aren't canon to the Odyssey (I cannot stress this enough! I really don't want to spread any misinformation!)) doesn't mention who's the older one, or whether there was an older one to begin with, so it's basically fair game. I interpreted Nausithous as the older one since Hesiod mentions him first. "And the bright goddess Calypso was joined to Odysseus in sweet love, and bore him Nausithous and Nausinous." (Hesiod, Theogony, 1020)

After I already wrote up half of story, I found out that it was more popular to have Nausinous be the older one/more responsible (in the case of twins) (I still don't know why? Is there another source I haven't found? Or is it just the popular headcanon? If anyone knows the reason, please tell me!) At that point I just decided to go with my own interpretation since it felt weird to just switch the boys' names after I already gave them different personalities...

Speaking of personalities... The reason the age gap between them exists because it was easier for me to give the boys distinct personalities that way. If I kept them at a similar age, they would have had very similar roles, and I would have had problems writing the story. Instead, I had Nausithous going through the more obvious struggle, while Nausinous serves as a more subtle example of what Ogygia can do, as well as being a break from the angst (to an extent, I guess.) Additionally, the pregnancies happening twice as well as the circumstances behind them, serve as development (not necessarily good) for Odysseus, and I think it wouldn't have as big as an impact if the boys were twins/one pregnancy, or if they were only a few years apart...

3) Are the boys going to leave Ogygia/will there be a happy ending?

I get this question a lot, and I'm pretty sure it's because I keep cranking up the angst for each chapter... Oops...

Well, for the sake of not torturing you all with the what-ifs: yes, there's going to be a happy ending, and those boys are definitely getting off Ogygia.

Sure, I love angst, but even I'm not that cruel!

4) Can I send headcanons/fanart/questions about your fic or the boys?

Of course you can! I'd love to hear your own characterizations of the boys, even if it has nothing to do with my fic!

(Idk if this needs to be said, but keep in mind that this is strictly a no AI space! I'd love to see your fanart, snippets, headcanons, etc, AS LONG AS it's purely your creation! I won't tolerate anything if I learn that it's made with AI!)

And if you all have questions about my characterization of the boys/other characters (or if you just wanna chat about them), feel free to send an ask!

[astrongshipandaswiftship]

This is a blog dedicated to my fic:

(A strong ship and a swift ship) to take me home

Summary:

"Whatever you have there, I could give you here, my love." She says, laying him on the bed, cold and soaking wet. No you can't. He thinks. You can't give me my wife. You can't give me my son.

I made this blog so I can announce updates easily and answer any questions you all might have about the fic!

Feel free to send any questions, predictions, or even your own headcanons about the boys!