xxtani16

[xxtani16]

I remember someone saying "mad scientists in fiction aren't scientists because there's never a control group"

I think if you've created an elixir that turns people into goat men you have sort have gone past the need for a control group. The control group is not going to placebo themselves into goat men. You can probably not run the control group, and safely assume that none of them would have turned into goat men. That said, having a control group for that would make the mad scientist seem extra crazy and be really really funny, especially if he was carefully testing them for goat like features from the dyed water they drank instead of the elixir

[xxtani16]

One of those nights (Penelope)

Part 1 | Part 2 (soon)

I am not sure if this should have TWs, so for now I'll let it like that, I do think the next part (that I have only planned) does, that's why I am not sure on this one.

Tw: SA trauma, I talked a bit about it here so-

I have been thinking of making this for weeks. I'm using the Odyssey tag because I prefer its version of Odysseus' time with Calypso so there's no room for discussion here. I wanted to explore their trauma a little.

I see a lot of posts saying they cuddle together when they have a hard time while remembering those years... Well... I got a take on that :) (I think it's cute, I am the one making characters suffer as a hobby.)

I headcanon several things about them and their trauma. For instance, I think of Penelope being under some subtle threat all those years with so many men around (taking the same vision as the musical just in case, but there's no need for it to be real, I put the tag as a safe measure), no so much since she is the queen, but alas. Also, how much she waited for and missed Odysseus. She has nightmares and she needs to be sure Odysseus is real and is still beside her and not a hallucination.

She needs to make sure he is tangible. She craves touches as a way of reassurance.

In Odysseus' case I decided to explore more his rejection at having Nausicaa's maids bathing him and, well, he is a SA victim. For Penelope, it could happen, but it didn't, for Odysseus, it happened for seven years. I headcanon him not be comfortable with touches of any kind even if there are innocent ones, like hugs, and even if they are from his wife. He can tolerate it if he is the one starting it and he prefers something less invasive, so holding hands like the last picture is a good solution for both of them.

They both understand each other's struggles and want the other to feel better and safe as much as possible.

[xxtani16]

FIRST ILIUM SONG IS CALLED FIRE

[xxtani16]

Epic Volleyball!

I’m Cackling-

[xxtani16]

Since we are talking about the power of learning to bullshit that chat cannot teach you, let me introduce you to maybe 8 years old me who had completely forgotten she was going to have a test the next day.

The first test with only open questions of my life.

A science test about the water cycle and something of those lines.

Not that I knew it until the teacher started writing the first question on the board.

I did not even remember doing it during class.

I read the questions and I had no idea of what any of them even talked about.

I managed to fill four pages by rambling about water. Half of that was me rewriting and rewording the question in a way that it sounded like an answer. Occasionally mixing them up a little.

And when I finished that, I made up whatever was still missing citing 'real Life examples' that were supposed to cover the fact that I had actually NOT answered the question.

There was nothing in that whole thing that was not straight up invented on the spot.

I got myself an A.

Why? Because I made my test look well written, using proper words and because I wrote so much that my teacher was actually discouraged to read it all. And even if she did, she would not notice how I had actually not written anything of interest, exactly because it was long enough that she would lose track of the reasoning.

Ai might make writing faster, but it won't teach you how to make up on the flight bullshit good enough to trick others to think that it is not, actually, bullshit.

[xxtani16]

I imagine that at some point after he gets home Odysseus and Penelope talk about the kingdom and how she has been running it (with Telemachus’ help in recent years) but still mostly on her own and he immediately wants to lift that burden of hers and so he tries to immediately get back into politics but he is so hopelessly out of the loop that Penelope and Telemachus have to help ease him back into it anyway

[xxtani16]

So, I was studying for my Physiology exam, and we had a file with all the questions in the exam in the past, so I was looking over them to see if I would be able to answer.

At one point, in our course Whatsapp group chat, they ask for the solution to question 15.

Since I had just spent the last fifteen minutes searching for the correct answer to that question and had finally been successful, I went to write it in the chat.

Someone beats me to it.

"I asked Chatgpt. It says it's C."

Me, looking at my sister's -a DOCTOR-Physiology book that clearly states the answer is B:...

....

....

Me: Well, since ChatGpt says it's C...

[xxtani16]

[xxtani16]

While the popular interpretation of Odysseus' response in 'No Longer You' is that he was primarily concerned with Tiresias' claim that Odysseus won't make it home ("I see a man who gets to make it home alive / but it's no longer you"), I think he was equally, if not more, concerned with what the rest of the prophecy implies if he doesn't return.

Odysseus is pretty upset with most of Tiresias' prophecy, but it's only after this section that he becomes truly distraught: "I see your palace covered in red / faces of men, who had long believed you're dead / I see your wife with a man who is haunting / a man with a trail of bodies."

Think about what these lyrics would sound like to Odysseus. This is a man who just spent ten years watching what happens when a woman is left vulnerable in a palace overtaken by violent men. He’s seen what it looks like when a kingdom becomes a slaughterhouse over the question of who gets to claim a queen.

Like… that is not a vision of “your wife has moved on.” That is a nightmare. That’s Ithaca overrun. That’s blood on the floors of his home. That’s a crowd of men who’ve assumed he’s dead and Odysseus knows what that means for a woman in Penelope's position as a ruler whose husband is gone. And worst of all, his wife is with someone described as “haunting,” someone who’s left a trail of bodies behind him, implying they are the one that caused all that bloodshed.

There is no way Odysseus hears that and thinks Penelope has just remarried. He’s imagining someone violent, someone who’s hurt people to get close to her — probably someone who’s hurting her, too.

That's why it becomes so urgent for Odysseus to make it home. Not just because he's been told he won't as he is, but because if he doesn't, something terrible is going to happen to Penelope (and...he's right. Antinous and the suitors would have hurt her and Telemachus if Odysseus hadn't arrived when he did.)

And the language shift that Odysseus goes through when referring to Penelope after Act I supports this in my opinion!

In Act I, he wants to get home. He is yearning and longing for Penelope. We see this in lines like "back at home my wife awaits for me," "Ithica's waiting, Penelope's waiting for me," "I would trade the world to see my son and wife," etc. It’s about reunion, about getting back what was lost.

But in Act II, after the prophecy, there is a renewed urgency whenever Odysseus brings her up. "I can't take more risks of not seeing my wife," "I have to see her," "I have to get home," "I will get back to my wife," his increasing horror when he learns he's trapped on Ogygia: "No, no, not 'til the end of time, there is no way," and this harrowing line in Charybdis: "I am almost there, my love, don't be scared."

So yeah, I think he is terrified — not just that he might not make it home, but that even if he does, it might be too late. That she’s not safe. That his absence left her vulnerable. Which makes his reaction to those lines in "No Longer You" way more complex than just anger or pride. It’s guilt. Panic. The sick realisation that his long journey might have cost them both everything.

The prophecy doesn’t just warn Odysseus that he might not get home. It shows him what will happen if he doesn’t — and in that moment, the cost shifts entirely. It’s no longer just about him wanting to go home. It’s about protecting her, his home, his family. It's not that he might not get back, but that by not returning, he’s sentencing her to Helen’s fate. And it's this that pushes him to accept his ruthlessness, above everything else.

[xxtani16]

[xxtani16]

Quick Doodles I did during school for @mistyjessart ‘s Epic Christmas AU because the idea is so wholesome and funny to me

Bonus reunion doodle:

[xxtani16]

It’s donnnnneeeee!!!

[xxtani16]

Rochi’s new animatic for ‘I Can’t Help But Wonder’ is so so beautiful!

If you haven’t seen it you need to go now, not later, now!

@rochichan

[xxtani16]

they're so stupid i love them

[xxtani16]

i'll make an actual introduction post later but for now i gotta say i really love epic. odysseus, penelope, & eurylochus specifically. i just spent two hours in my bathroom shaking thinking about how much i love them. that's my first contribution to the epic tumblr fandom.

[xxtani16]

I WAS trying to study Dinamica, but I found EPIC doodles instead...

The context for the next one ('cause I firmly believe it LARGELY expands on how much I hated this subject) is that we were discussing the anguish a child feels whenever he is left alone and/or discarded by its caregiver. And I was trying to learn how to draw infants with... Various results(And it shows)

[xxtani16]

Odysseus, head in Penelope’s lap: I miss them terribly. I hope I see them again when I die. I hope they can forgive me…I wouldn’t either, if someone damned me to spend an eternity without ever getting back home. They wouldn’t have been able to cross the Styx. I wonder what they’re doing down there now…

Penelope, stroking his hair: I’m sure they’re finding some way to entertain themselves..

meanwhile, down in the Underworld:

(Polites, Eurylochus, and the rest of the 600 hunting the suitors for sport)