#wip: the king of mycenae

[the-starlight-writer]

WIP Intro: The King of Mycenae

[Image ID in alt text]

Being a 23-year-old PTSD survivor covered in burn scars is hard enough without lilies talking to you in the middle of the night to tell you that your life is in danger and that Faerie demands your immediate return whether you like it or not.

Genre: Adult, fantasy

POV: Multiple POVs (initially two), third-person limited for the most part

Setting: Somewhere in the UK, maybe Nottingham, England

Themes: Fate will always catch up to you but it's up to you how you respond; love is not what makes the world go round; love is not enough but that doesn't mean it should be or can be discarded; hate is the coal that powers the train of conflict; devotion, royalty, religion, politics <33

Major characters:

- Mikae Johnass (he/him): MC. 23 year old PTSD survivor in question. Works at a garden centre and runs a plant/homesteading blog that's actually pretty popular. Sells seeds from his crops on Patreon. Non-SAM aromantic, lives with best-friend-turned-qpp Dylann. Ruthless, organised, kind. Not well but it doesn't matter, does it? - Dylann McKenzie (he, they if you're feeling it - he doesn't care): Mikae's best friend, has known him since before Mikae's accident. Had been in love with Mikae from 12 but Mikae doesn't know that he's still harbouring love for him; he thinks he's gotten over it. Physics and history double major in uni. Spacey, caring, a strange beautiful creature of a man. - Aurae d'Inciense (she/her but kinda apathetic about it): Princess of the current line on the throne, the last line if her mother has anything to say about it. Devout follower of her mother the Queen, repressed beyond the definition of the word, inexperienced in the real world but diligent. Will do anything instructed in order to try and gain approval. Acolyte. Currently tasked with returning the head of the Heir thought to have been long dead. - Sloane, no last name (he/him, the gorgeous kind): Mysterious man hired by the Crown to assist Aurae in her mission given his worldly nature and experience being a contract killer. Politesse veils smugness, ruthless and skilled, dangerous, flightly, stupid flirty. Whore. Knows how to use his attractiveness to his advantage. Drives Aurae wild /neg.

No taglist yet because I don't post very often but I'm glad that I can make an intro now :)

[period-dramallama]

WIP Friday

tagged by @theladyelizabeth thank youuuuuuu

Is this a work in progress or a technically-finished story? Ehhhhhhh well I don't have any Elizabeth scenes that are ready yet, so back to this fic it is.

-

The king relaxed. “Of course. It is right and natural that you serve me. Tigranes wanted to be served only by defeated kings, but Tigranes was a muttonhead.”

More nodded in solemn agreement.

“I don’t want to be served by kings I’ve defeated, because I want to be served by wise men. And men I’ve defeated are not wiser than me, are they? Otherwise I wouldn’t have defeated them. We shall be like Augustus and Mycenae.”

“Maecenas?”

The king frowned. “No, there was a Mycenae somewhere in the mix.”

“If it is wise men you need, I can find them for you.”

The king dismissed it with a wave. “No, you needn’t bother. The cardinal can find them for me.” He looked up at the sky sadly. “The stars have disappointed me. We shall go inside.”

-

Also I have a soft spot for the phrase "Tigranes was a muttonhead". And Henry does have a point, it must be said.

[littlesparklight]

Poured of Gold? Ἑλένης Ἀπαίτησις? Part of me just wants to ask about all of them.

Hehe I can mention two others at least briefly in connection with the Apaitesis fic! ;)

Anyway, Poured of Gold is my Perseus fic (though it'd start with Danae finding out about the prophecy, so it's more of a leadup than just her meeting with Zeus as it currently stands). I haven't added anything to it in a bit, but every time I've gotten pissed off enough at some shitty Perseus take I've had to see, I've written a little more on it. Have a snippet from the end:

Hermes and Zeus stood shoulder to upper arm as they watched the the procession carry the old king of Mycenae and Tiryns into his tomb, and though they were surrounded by a crowd, they could just as well have been alone.

"If you had asked for it, I would have granted him immortality," Zeus said, voice so quiet it couldn't have been heard by a mortal even if they should've stood right next to the two gods. Not for himself, as much as he'd loved his son, shining and perfect among mortal men, but for Hermes and his love of the man, Zeus would have.

Hermes laughed, a short bark of a noise that cracked in the air. Zeus reached out and gripped his son by the back of his head, pulling him in a little closer to himself.

"I thought about asking. Many times. It never… I never got around to it," Hermes said, staring with hollow eyes at the fire, his lips still pulled in a smile that wasn't so much desperate as pained in the baring of his teeth.

Apollo might be unable to settle, but it wasn't for a lack or fear of commitment. Hermes, however, was unable to settle exactly for such a fear, flittering around his lovers, divine and mortal alike, as a bee does visit flowers, heavy with pollen and nectar but never returning to one it'd already visited.

"I'm going to ask my dear uncle for him to be sent back at some point, though. Not yet, he deserves a bit of rest, but at some point. What do you think?"

Ἑλένης Ἀπαίτησις is my current WIP! It won't be a longfic like my other ones, but it'll be... maybe somewhere between 20-30k I think. We'll see. It's the sequel to The Sea to Carry Us, touching specifically on the time around the Achaeans landing at Troy and the embassy to request Helen back.

The title is in Greek because I stumbled over this definition of "apaitesis" while reading an article: "If on the one hand you are willing, I request; while if you are not willing, I demand back." (Andokides, second oration.) Which would be hard to encompass easily in English, so I'm keeping the Greek. (The Long Years is the sequel to THAT, whenever I get to it. Basically it'd be "the rest of the Cypria" and the nine years up to the Iliad. The Journey There would be the part of Paris' journey to Sparta that I skipped in This Pleased the Heart of Aphrodite, featuring his visit to Salamis and his short stay with the Dioskouroi.)

Snippet!

Kassandra shook her head. No, he wouldn't abandon Troy. Glancing over her shoulder, out the window which didn't actually show the plain out across the Skamander and even less at the right angle to see south towards Tenedos, she stopped pacing. Worried her fingers, rubbing the rings and her nails.

Why stop and attack Tenedos, so close to Troy? The Achaeans attacking Teuthrania had been understandable - the gods had clearly been involved, turning heads and reason to make the Achaeans miss where Troy was, and then to continue so far past it until they thought they'd found the right city. But Tenedos? It might be under her father's authority, but it certainly wasn't Troy. That must be obvious.

So why? What would happen now? How quickly would Troy fall?

Shivering, Kassandra hugged herself. Why assume Troy would fall? There were walls, thicker than any man-made wall could ever dream to be, built more finely than any mortal hands could ever produce, around Troy. And if at least some of the gods had protected them four years ago, misleading the Achaeans once, why wouldn't they now still be?

She just hated not knowing.

(This is about Kassandra, you say? Indeed it does start with Kassandra. :) For Reasons.)

[andifthestarsweretodie]

I got tagged,,,, that makes me so happy. thanks @reunalordi

Star Sign: aquarius :)

Favourite Holiday: i do not have one. i don't like any of them.

Last Meal: Beef and broccoli noodles! I'm so happy that I can get myself to eat some kind of vegetables now. It's been a long road and we're not done yet lol

Current Favourite Musician: .....hiiragi kirai (vocaloid producer). do vFlower and Hatsune Miku count as musicians.

Last Music Listened To: Becane - Yame, listened to that a second ago. Before that I was listening to Afrobeats and before that I was listening to vocaloid.

Last Movie Watched: If documentaries count, I watched "Trust No One: Hunt for the Crypto King" on Netflix a couple days ago.

Last TV Show Watched: the K-drama "Queenmaker" on Netflix. I love when women are fucked up, smart and evil.

Last Book/Fic Finished: It's been so long I don't remember. I have brain fog and chronic fatigue syndrome so reading things is really difficult at the moment. Makes me so sad.

Last Book/Fic Abandoned: Abandoned? I don't really abandon much but that's because I don't pick up much in the first place.

Currently Reading: Nothing I'd own up to (I have left too many thing abandoned for too long to say I'm still "currently" reading them). I could say that I'm reading "Three Daughters of Eve" by Elif Shafak and "So Long A Letter" (again) by Mariama Ba.

Last Thing I Researched For Writing/Art/Hyperfixation: The last thing I made a whole document about was burn scars and treatments + healing thereof. My MC is a house fire survivor.

Favourite Online Fandom Memory: saving all the anime images and memes off Google Plus in like 2014.

Favourite Old Fandom You Wish Would Drag You Back In/Have A Resurgence: Black Butler maybe? I'm not the kind to actively and actually participate in fandom spaces beyond reblogs.

Favourite Thing You Enjoy That Never Had An Active Or Big "Fandom" But You Wish It Did: I don't wish to be part of a big fandom for anything.

Tempting Project You're Trying To Rein In/Don't Have Time For: my secret project that i genuinely haven't told anyone about (that's a big thing for me because while i love being private, i have a proclivity to share things even when i don't want to), my main book wip at the moment The King of Mycenae and then my visual novel The Hyacinth Cafe. Yes that is a lot of things.

I'm tagging @monkbeauregard, @nonsensical-pendulum, @pie-bean and @voidthing <3 oh and @bluehourskyeli and @radioactive-tiefling

[streets-in-paradise]

may i ask, whats the final family? what would that oneshot, and the golden chains fic, be about?

Hi!!!

OMG thanks for asking :)

Well, to start Final Family is a concept - nickname luna ( @losersclubisms ) and i came up to name the group of Chucky survivors in an AU we are constantly working on. Is not a consistent fic with chapters (yet) but more of a concept we gravitate arround writing ideas in short oneshots or drabbles. To briefly summarize, is an AU where the adults from the movies take the young kids from the show under their wing. The nickname " Final Family" comes from the fact that they are all final people. Since Chucky dedicated decades to destroy countless families and they are all whats left, together they make one final family made of final people.

Most of the time we write comfort fics to give the characters a bit of the warm touch that the canon constantly deprives them of. In this one I was writing Lexy, Glen and Glenda playing with Caroline and accidentally giving Nica reminders of Alice that they later try to comfort her about.

Now about Golden Chains, that is the title of the wip for my 23 chapter (soon to be posted) in a precuel fic to the movie Troy (2004). This fic is x reader, but it also serves as my attempt to imagine many events from the epic cycle that were scrapped from the movie. I integrate characters that were deleted and things that were not presented, but making them fit into the tone of the film while also taking my own creative licenses.

Is, i believe, my most ambitious work so far. Is a reader insert fic, but also a space for experiment with all sorts of " what if this event/character would have been included? How can i imagine the film would have reimagined them? ". The title comes from a piece of dialogue that holds significance for the issue this chapter centers on.

In case you are curious, is this short line of dialogue:

----------------------------------------------

Hector had a more eloquent objection in mind. 

“ Golden chains are still chains, your highness. My people will not submit to Agamemnon, not by the blade but neither by the charm of a princess "

----------------------------------------------

Reproducing it out of context will not make much sense, so i will explain the metaphor.

The movie Troy makes a reinterpretation of the war that speaks less about mediterranean bronze age than of our modern world. The greeks are a metaphor for USA militar interventionism and my fic digs deep into that. In the film Odysseus is presented as a king from a satelite-like poor kingdom that follows the mycenaeans because they have no chance resisting their power.

In this metaphor the film already has where Agamemnon = USA, i'm imagining Ithaca in the position of a third world country and Odysseus as a smart leader that pretends to follow the colonialist commands, but actually serves his best interests. For so, since my fic is a precuel, Odysseus is trying to be a political bridge between the both big powers of the time ( mycenae and troy) and take his good advantage on both.

" Golden Chains " is a metaphor for this apparently convenient sounding colonialism, but also for latent fears for the possibilities of a future arranged marriage that are being awakened in the heirs of the trojan and mycenaean crowns.

Sorry it took me this long to reply, i'm gonna try to cut the ramble here lol

[mycelium-bats]

introduction post <3

hello !! I am Ado or AJ. he/him - white

• I am an 18 yr old studying conservation and ecosystem restoration. I do art and writing on the side

• I am a physically disabled ambulatory wheelchair user

• I am autistic, as well as have multiple learning disorders. I am mid-support level and ask for patience when interacting with me

• I am a trans gay man :3

My special interest is mycology PLEASE ask me about it. I promise I’ll be normal about it. My favorite mushroom species is Mycena Lucentipes. My favorite movie is LOTR: The Return of the King. I have a huge love for solarpunk/aetherpunk/sci fi fantasy settings and am always looking for recommendations.

Current Story WIP: Championing the Aether (working title)

Current Commissions Status: Upcoming

[katherinehillierillustration]

Some illustrations I made for my WIP book about ancient greek mythology, but now I’m not gonna use em, so I thought I’d post them now.

These are drawings of actual IRL ancient greek artefacts. INC:

A golden death-mask from ancient city of Mycenae, made around 1525 BC, said to be mask of legendary King Agamemnon (by which I mean there is no solid fact to support this, somebody just named it so to make it seem more cool)

Bust of Hippocrates the physician. This bust was in fact a Roman copy of an older Greek original. From around 400 BC

A painted lekythos vessel from around 530 BC

A silver Athenian tetradrachm coin. Because Athena was the patron goddess of Athens, Athenian coins often bore her symbol; the little owl. Made around 450 BC

my Instagram www.instagram.com/katherinehillierart

my Etsy store www.etsy.com/uk/shop/katherinelhx

my Redbubble store www.redbubble.com/people/sadnettles

my webcomic www.tapas.io/series/Olena

+*+ support living artists! +*+

[ersatzlace]

MMmmmm boi I am in LOVE with my new child. *o*

Top three are © Mycena Cave and by the artist King, @vitamango on Tumblr and god I am still not over how well this child turned out. QuQ

I’m still playing around with their design and character, tentatively named Ink, they’re probs gonna go through many iterations before I get something I’m truly 100% satisfied with but ey, it’s a WIP. As it is, they’re still a blank slate character-wise.

[the-starlight-writer]

TKoM Headshots

[All of these were made with the Djarn picrew and Aloha!Sushicore]

Mikae (he/him, the discolouration is from burn scars, not from vitligo)

Dylann (he/they but cis about it, poimty ears, shiny eyes)

Aurae d'Inciense (she/her) (yes those are deer ears and yes her eyes are purple)

Sloane (he/him, yes he's hot and he knows he's hot)

[the-starlight-writer]

happy worldbuilding wednesday (or if you don’t do those, just take this as an ordinary curious ask instead)! what are some common superstitions in your universe?

@rydykg

An ask!!! Oh my goodness, I haven't had one of these in ages. Okay so this will go to The King of Mycenae, my faerie wip (I've gone looking through my worldbuilding channel just for you <3):

The hair of the void god Malaran is said to make up the entirety of the night sky. In the early days of the world, Malaran had to learn to tie back their hair so darkness wouldn't be the only thing his children knew.

If you say something funny on a breezy day, you can hear the laughter of the earth goddess in the wind.

A broken clay pot in the house means someone is pregnant. You need to get a bigger pot because the house is getting bigger.

It's said that the stars and moons were made so faeries wouldn't think they were in the void and wouldn't be alone or afraid at night.

If you cut your finger, you shouldn't clean up the blood with a cloth unless it's a really large quantity: you should put it on the nearest plant to show devotion to Lady Rowan/Miele-Ara, the earth goddess.

A somewhat confusing and vaguely prophetic dream means that Malaran is watching over you and might have something to tell you so you should light a candle and pray.

Putting pollen in your tea makes you more attractive.

[the-starlight-writer]

things about dylann:

doesn't know what his sexuality is because the only person he loves is mikae, he finds women aesthetically attractive and he has had boyfriends trying to get over mikae. usually just describes himself as unlabeled.

is not nonbinary but is a lil bit. just a lil bit. cis(?)+. actually doesn't like the term "egg", he finds the term invalidating to people who don't fit the narrative.

cannot stand random gifts because sudden acts of kindness freak him out.

has pupils that are unusually shaped and are very very receptive to changes in light but no one is looking at him hard enough to notice.

keeps his paint water in an old mug because he once drank it out of a mason jar next to the other mason jar he drinks water out of.

plays with hairclips but doesn't really know how to make them suit him.

makes drip coffee and loves picking out coffee filters.

thanks to mikae, he's gotten really good at making cold desserts and no-bake cheesecakes.

physics w/ history major

loves dark chocolate, especially in cheesecake

cuts mikae's hair for him when it gets too long.

never used to celebrate christmas before he became a member of mikae's family; cried when he saw the christmas tree they'd decorated together brightly lit.

[the-starlight-writer]

more things about mikae:

has a dark, kinda sinister glint to his eyes when he's not paying attention to his expression: his version of rbf

is scarily deft with garden shears and scissors, his little sister takes advantage of that to get him to make her snowflakes around christmas time and has him enlist as part of the prop crew of her middle school drama club

is not good with knives, is actually kinda clumsy with them. he doesn't have a lot of good fine motor skills when the blade is not attached to another

sexy in an unconventional way, could get his qpp to commit crimes for him in seconds if he asked but that also doesn't occur to him as an option

deft with big needles but that isn't because of fine motor skills—it's because his fingers are heavily callused so he's not concerned about avoiding finger pricks

meal preps with his partner because his partner is also clumsy with knifes and kitchen apparatus

can't tell if he loves or hates coffee but his partner drinks a lot of it

used to be obsessed with Nintendogs

[the-starlight-writer]

friendly reminder that mikae is not a twiggy boy, he's chubby and midsized with soft thighs, his chin is round, his hair is curly and large, his eyes are dark and green even though you can barely see them, he is kind, he is ruthless, he doesn't talk a lot, his voice feels like it's cleaning out your ears and rumbling against your eardrums but it's not stupid deep, he's so much smaller than you think he is (5'5/5'6 on a good day), he moves so quietly, if you've ever seen his face sans mask, spit on the floor and then play the lottery because you must be blessed by someone; he likes flowers but he gets annoyed at butterflies (he actually likes snails more than butterflies), he has all his beverages cold but that doesn't mean they're iced, he's a chronic insomniac, he only sleeps with near threadbare blankets and has a hypoallergenic pillow.

[the-starlight-writer]

Dylkae being QPPs Masterlist

Mikae leaving flowers in the vase on Dylann’s desk in the morning before he wakes up or in the evening after he goes to bed. Just to brighten up the space.

Mikae getting into Dylann’s bed to sleep at night when they both know fully well that Mikae has his own bed.

Dylann carrying Mikae into Mikae's bedroom if he finds him sleeping elsewhere. 

The two of them walking back home from places holding hands.

Dylann making Mikae food and gradually getting him to eat warm food (he doesn't eat warm food because of his heat-related trauma). 

Making sure to do things together like going on trips, sitting in the park, having lunch together, watching movies, going to plays/movies and recitals like their friend Imogen’s. 

Meal prepping together. 

Mikae getting kisses from Dylann most days before he leaves the house.

Mikae is a little brooding, calm, subtly terrifying and even more terrifying when angry. He isn’t like that with Dylann. He often doesn’t show his emotions on his face. He doesn’t admit to being scared ever but Dylann knows when his anxiety surges. Mikae clings to his clothes more, sleeps in his bed more often, sends him texts more frequently. Dylann stays around longer. 

Dylann cuts his own hair and sometimes Mikae lets him cut his too. Mikae doesn’t often cut his hair though. Mikae’s wash day is on Thursday morning.

[the-starlight-writer]

Find the Word tag

got tagged by @charlesjosephwrites, it's nice to get back into the habit of tag games with other writers :)) My words were: name, whole, fear, sand and spirit. Following snippets are taken from the chapter doc for The King of Mycenae (minor spoilers as these will be taken from all over the timeline lol)

Find them under the cut, no point clogging your dash xox

Name:

"The princeling came in here like a soaking wet child that had just been pulled from a pond. His sibling wasn't much better but I know she'd never admit to it. Maybe it was out of necessity but Dein found comfort fast. Nion didn't. Maybe that's why the Blessed Mother dropped that child in the woods for him." He looked at Mikae. "I've made the assumption that you know who I'm talking about. Do you?" Dein was a name he'd become very accustomed to at this point but this was the first he was hearing of Nion beyond the fact she was the first born. "Yeah, I do." "Glad to see you're not too deficient in information. That kind of deficiency is more than a little dangerous around here." “So I’ve come to learn.”

Whole:

“For all your words, all your stupid gestures, all your kindness, there's been this behind it, something I was never supposed to know about. I’m sure you were never hoping I’d find out. Would we have lived our whole lives, ageing and being close, with me being none the wiser to the fact you literally wouldn’t be there if not for the fact I am who I am? Was it funny seeing me believe you? Seeing me trust you?"

Fear:

She didn’t share her greetings. Aurae preferred not to disturb those with important work to do which, in the palace, was pretty much everyone she came into contact with. Instead, she allowed her feet to carry her to her favourite section, the shelves that housed the poetry her mother preferred her not to read and the published journals of people’s thoughts, ambitions, pain. Their souls, really. Consuming people in such a way could be corruptive, her advisors always said, but if she was to become a queen, should she not know her subjects’ deepest desires, hopes, their fears?

Sand: No uses of the word "sand".

Spirit:

Mikae couldn’t recognise most of what he saw which saddened him somewhat but he was out of his depth. He couldn’t expect himself to know Faerie horticulture.  Someone had to come here quite often. He could feel love, time, tenderness, radiating from the foliage. Someone spent a lot of time here on their knees, their hands elbow-deep in compost, nails rimmed with soil and dust.  He wondered who. For a moment he revelled in the idea of meeting a kindred spirit.

Hope you enjoyed my writing <3 it comes from all over the wip progression so far. I'm not tagging anyone but if you want to do it, the words are "dust", "pain", "flowers", "horror" and "decision".

[the-starlight-writer]

I want to picrew post but i'm on my work laptop and on the clock so I can't ;'(