#meanwhile in rome

[victusinveritas]

Pope Francis told Vance "Fix your heart or die." And then he died. Absolute power move in theology, politics, and televised competitive ballroom dance.

[jajeczkooo26]

let's work it out on a remix

[introspectivememories]

thinking about that one post that's been popping off about greek/roman cultures getting sorted into this weird binary of "greek = literature&humanities" and "roman = weird alt-right guys. war!!!" and like op is goes into way more depth and originally i was going to leave this in the tags but i didn't want to like word vomit in the tags but to add my 2 cents u can see it in children's books too. look at fucking pjo/hoo

chb gets to be the fun summer camp where 'children grow into heroes!!!' and all that jazz but cj is the strict military camp??? chb gets to have fun elective classes like underwater basket weaving and canoeing but cj brands you with a spqr mark and a bar for every year of service???? not to mention how weird that is when rr's lame ass wrote that cj fought for the confederacy??? chb has capture the flag! cj has war games. chb's oracle wears paint splattered jeans lol 🤪cj's oracle is power hungry and brutally mutilates stuffed animals 😐

and not only did he write the camps like this. the charas from each camp is written like this too!!! percy is fun and charming. jason is there. annabeth is spunky and witty. reyna is... stern. dakota has an alcoholism problem but bc it's a children's book he drinks kool-aid instead??? the satyrs bravely guide the greek demigods to their home at chb. the romans have to face The Wolf b4 coming to cj. and if they fail? they die. they just die. and they've been doing it that way forever. there's a wolf who kills their fellow demigods bc she deems the weak and everyone in cj just fucking goes on with their lives. the gods interact with chb. do they even know that cj exists???

imperial gold, the main metal used by the roman demigods, is constantly in shortage? they have to go on quests to find more of it???? meanwhile, there never seems to be a shortage of celestial bronze???? if you choose to stay at chb, you might die an early death but you can still interact with the world at large. if you choose to stay at new rome, you'll be safe but you're essentially isolated from the rest of the world.

okay that last point might be a little unfair but like this shit drives me crazy!!!! he just wrote the romans like they were temu chb. chb with all the sparkle gone. like he didn't even try. as if the romans didn't have their own myths. as if the romans didn't write poetry or make graffiti. as if the romans weren't their own separate culture!!!!

[catilinas]

have just remembered in 2020 when i made hornblower's character change in the last two films make sense To Me by translating the title 'duty' into latin as 'pietas' and thinking really hard about aeneas. as one does

[magpie-trove]

the thing I don’t like about a lot of women’s history is. They seem to have forgotten the women.

[petercushingscheekbones]

watching succession be like;

Roman is the most pathetic man to exist

oh no kendall is the most pathetic cringefail son to live

slay shiv

no no m poor baby Roman, whats wrong with him

Ken can’t keep from fucking up. The most pathetic human ever

what the fuck Connor? Just shut up

[aroacettorney]

au where bretus kindom took marias selmore as hostage to blackmail casey and have her track down heathcliff van bretus for them

[naomiosakas]

rome 2024 wta quarterfinals

[fruit-salad-ship]

Monster Rome AU

I woke up to an overwhelming amount of ideas from y'all, and i love it.

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I think i really like the minotaur grey idea, i keep mulling over other options for him and it just doesnt suit as well, gives me Ferdinand vibes, a mean looking huge monster of a creature, who just wants to sit under a tree and feel the breeze and get pets and love. Also then we can branch into the whole 'someone goes to slay him' story, Grey tries not to fight, cant help it to survive and ends up becoming feared when hes actually very docile, rince and repeat story line.

This is where plum comes in, I 1000% cant see her as anything other than a full blown godess, her energy, her demeanour, everything about her point to a deity. She is kind and calm and finds humans fun little things to intervene with, perhaps a little mischevious, somewhat of a trickster but never with harmful things, more just little pranks. She sees Grey is lonely and sad, and feels for the creature, perhaps she made him, perhaps she knows who did, and they didnt accoutn for his gentle heart. But she does. She sees he's stuck in a loop of vioence and needs to be freed, but she cant do it, she's got to send a champion to meddle.

Enter demigod peach, a very tired, very well trained fighter, who simply wishes for the same thing, peace and quiet. I'd like to think years of fighting and a slow aging process make her wise but worn out, totally burnt to the very end of her wick from fighting endless battles, perhaps even other gods messed with her to make her a champion to battle things she never wanted to fight. Almost a puppet in some game, she doesnt have any control of her choices, and its made her very jittery and uncertain in social settings, kind of a massive nervous introvert, despite her skill level.

She's been crushing on plum for ages, but thats a literal god, and Peach is just some little fragment of one, not even someone who'd catch her attentions. She gives up that attempt to win a shred of plum's attention without even starting, its destined to fail, shes a tired, worn out scarred and nervous person with nothing to offer, she knows that Plum's out of hr league, so much so she's not even playing the same sport. But when the goddess she looks so fondly towards asks her for a favour, to go and free the minotaur trapped away, she does it for once with a bit more enthusiasm, Plum asked kindly, she wasnt pushy or bossy like the others, and that gentle touch was enough to make Peach (dare she say it) eager to help. At first theres a mix up, peach thinks "freed" meant kill, thats what shes known for, its why they ask her to perform such dangerous tasks so often, but she see's Grey sat somewhere quiet making something, he's intelligent, and kind, and curious, so she doesnt take out her sword. Grey's instinct after many years of being targeted is to lash out, but Peach doesnt retaliate, and he slowly realises this one is different. They become fast friends, he shows her all the things hes made in his isolation, he's actualy rather inventive, with a fine eye for craft.

The pair start to fight together, he swears his sword to her, and she's...a little taken back by this but fine, if he's sworn to help her he can leave his current location and prison, he's technically freed if her orders are to live and enjoy more. Besides, she too has travelled and worked alone for many years, maybe some company would be nice, especially company that likes the same stuff as she does. She finds he likes a good scratch on the neck, and doesn tmind her putting little briads in his hair. They have a petience for anything nature based, sitting and watching birds, or making cool carvings from wood, finding interesting rocks or spotting a deer out in the forests. It's like they were cut from the same cloth. Peach never got on with humans, and the gods were out of reach or if they did pay attention to her it was never for good reasons, always taking from her, and she only ever recieved trauma in return or a new scar, or a new level of fear and exhaustion. Other demigods like her often came off arrogant or entitled, they had more favour with the gods more often than not so they felt better than her. She never found her people, but maybe her person was a monster? A very kind one.

We also get to have some low key fun with a little monster fucking going on there. because why not, for the spicy side of this all. both of them are total outcasts, covered in battle damage, who find common ground in the soft touches and gentle moments. Things neither have much experince with.

plum becomes very fond of this little demigod whos done as shes asked and then some, how Peach had gone unseen for so long is a question she'll ask the other gods sometime, she cant even find out which god is her relative, its been redacted, no one will speak of her, as if Peach is taboo, and everything she came from is too. Perhaps she's some secret disgrace, or maybe an heir to something far bigger than she ever could have imagined. For a demigod she shows incredible strength and resilience, things that have killed others like her almost slide off her back. Whatever she is, wherever she came from, shes less human than others would like to say, and her lowley status despite this means theres certainly a secret to be found there, someones not telling the truth here. Plum would 100% dig for more on this strange little demigod, and start asking questions about her that get her called up by far more important gods who tell her to stop sniffing around, that Peach is a child of a disgraced match, nothing more, they do not speak of her. Plum doesnt believe it, shes too strong, holds no power amongst her own despite that, she should be high ranking, well renown, in a better position, and yet. Bottom of the pile, essentially thrown away. Plums got to know the truth.

Perhaps its a child of prophecy situation, but Peach is clueless, she just gets orders, and her and Grey go off to do the jobs. Plum gives them as much protection as she can, and at every point possible, spends time with them, theyre sweet and compelling, and she can sense Peach is totally nervous around her, its very sweet for someone so big and tough. Grey loves this god, he finds out she was the one that got him out, and becomes a big soft puppy of a monster with her, brings her little trinkets, makes her stuff, shares his stories which plum loves, all the while peach is quiet, more so than normal, polite and kind but very stoic, her personlaity reverts to how she behaves with all the other gods, theyre above her, she retreats in on herself, doesnt make eye contact, doesnt argue, doesnt express opinions, just shuts up and behaves. Plums nice but shes still a god, and peach has been subject to their wrath a few times too many to push her luck here. Shes simply happy that nothings gone wrong, and that Plums not quick to anger, her old crush on this woman gets shoved down and she just plays the part handed to her. Just some lowley half human who has no place to even look her way, that she gets to sit with someone so special is in itself a gift.

Grey doesnt seem to have the same fear peach does, nor the reserved behaviour, in fact he picks up when plum is around, gets excited and jolly, this is a kind lady and he likes her attention, wishes his dear friend would feel the same. Notices Peach just shuts down a lot, never brings it up, just tries to include her when this happens, not that it usually works.

Plum would get frustrtaed at her champions quiet behaviour, she's seen her without that mask on, when shes less tightly wound, and its so much nicer. she'd out right ask why she does that, peach dancing around the truth that she gets nervious around someone so pretty. Greys defo worked it out, hes not the best at social, but hes got a good eye for Peach now, teases her for it a lot.

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this setup defo feels like it can retain that tired sad beaten down peach energy original Rome AU had, which i LOVED, shes always so emotionally durable, so like, i like to make her weaker, and more unnrved and unsettled, she'd not understand recieving affections, or kind gestures, or anythign other than orders.

i may toy with this a bit more if i get five!

Thank you everyone for the great ideas and notes and messages, its helped me feel like i can dip my toe back into this kind of an AU without being pooped on for it.

[victusinveritas]

[silvercaptain24]

Growing up is weird

[cakebatteronabrickwall]

I gather Mark Mylod is a Kendall Girl which, you know, good for him I guess

[non-un-topo]

Bro how the fuck do I have roughly 16-24 readings (some 15-30 pages each, some webpages), a novel to read, 3 assignments, 3 forum posts, and some additional independent research all due in the next 4 days. I haven't even procrastinated????

[nnato]

[emperornero]

oh yo the colliseum! my legs stopped working there and i almost got left behind lol. they got better.

the power of rome was too much for you.. glad you didnt get lost lol

[1canadanus1]

I just finished reading Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome by Richard Bauman. The last sentence is so good!!

It was not by accident that the criminal law missed out on the accolade that greeted its private counterpart over the long centuries following the fall of Rome.

Everyone loves Roman civil law more than Roman criminal law and they do got a point...