Gold Pendant With Pearls In The Shape Of A Caravel, Patmos, Greece, 17th Century

ARCANE | Welcome to Noxus Katarina Masquerade Design | Julie Marguerie & Amélie Dadies

-Pandora-

ARCANE | Viktor's Greenhouse Concept Art | Christophe Oliver

sea butterflies, Limacina helicina (Gastropoda: Limacinidae)

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They are sooo good together 😍 Your excitement for this couple and their story is so contagious girl (totally feeling it with my own recent delulu ships too 😂) Their dynamic is chef’s kiss, and the colors and lighting here are stunning ❤️❤️

Finally I can show it hihi 💜

My OC Ava with Quaritchs 🥺💜 I am sorry for drawing them so much, but they are so cute. I am also writing on a fanfiction for them and I need the level of wholesomeness, these 2 give me 🥺🫂

I hope you like it. I try to improve my art atm and get better at shading. I hope I am successful xD

Visual development for Treasure Planet (2002) by Michael Spooner

Oh gosh girl you always know how to portray emotions so well 😮😢😢

poor Odysseus... His pain is so profound for all that happened... The way he recognized himself in such a state in his reflection and it terrified him 😢

And his extreme guilt of all that happened to the people they attacked, the victims of their rage, murdered and raped... It's clearly too much for him, not even his comrades can soothe and console him.

Flawless written as always girl! But somehow you're getting even better and better at it ❤️❤️✨✨✨

Kinda a prequel to

Originally for @prompted-wordsmith so yeah something I have been working for ages. April 1st for our poor tormented little liar Odysseus 😆

~~~

Guilt (P1)

The noise was deafening. It was a sea of people cheering and whistling; a sea dressed in bronze, leather and blood. Odysseus was pacing among these people keeping his head low. He was trying very hard to avoid gazing someone in the eye. He could hear their praise and yelps of excitement. On occasion he could feel a pat on his back.

"Huzzah! Hooray for Odysseus!"

"Man of Many Ways!"

"The one Equal to Gods! Hooray!"

"Sacker of Cities!"

"Sacker of Cities!"

His ears were buzzing. All sounds around him were silenced or blended together in a mass of unknown origins. His head was throbbing painfully and the helmet adorned with boar tusks seemed to be weighting more than all metal in the world upon it. Just a little longer...just a bit further... Blood had become one with his skin and hair. He could feel it running down still even if it was long now clotted upon him. How weird! Normally every person would be delighted with this triumph. Why couldn't he?

"Sacker of Cities!"

Just a bit further...

"Sacker of Cities!"

His previous noble prancing became a half-run now. He was almost pushing his way through the mixed people of triumph and of woe. Eventually he reached his hut and felt like breathing in relief as he ran in with his close friend coming right behind him.

"Close the damn curtains, Polites!" Odysseus ordered

He half-collapsed over the bronze bowl containing fresh water they had picked up off the river. He remained there for a few seconds, supporting his body over the metallic water container. He looked down. What he saw scared him; it was a warrior staring back at him through the dark depths of the vessel. His head was adorned with a helmet of boar tusk, stained with blood and scratched by some sword. His expression was hard and had sunken eyes in their sockets. The beard was shaggy and splattered with blood. His onyx eyes had a worrying sheen of death, of triumph and of guilt...

"Gods help me...that's me!" He thought in terror

The ambitious, flamboyant and somehow a bit arrogant young man was long gone. He had given his place to this bloodthirsty killer, the face of that man was reeking of sweat, blood and tar from weapons and smoke; the Sacker of Cities. How had they come to this?!

*

A few days before...

The room was buzzing by the men talking almost at the same time. All the Greek kings were supposed to discuss their plan on their next move but it ended up being a buzzing hive of angry bees that fought for a better place in the sun. Neoptolemus was still thirsty for revenge for hi ls father, wearing his armor proudly. The kid seemed to be one with the damn thing! Odysseus was still cursing the moment he decided to bring him from Skyros. This boy seemed less and less like a good idea for his expedition. Agamemnon was there for the glory of his nation, Menelaus wanted his wife back, this time time from a new suitor that took her as a wife, after the murder of Paris. Nestor was trying to keep them all in check, Diomedes still held a grudge against Paris even long after the mutilation of his corpse. Odysseus thought his head would split by this cacophony of tired and frustrated kings that each one of them wanted something different!

"ENOUGH!" Odysseus bellowed

The silence that followed was deafening as the king of Ithaca practically pranced through the crowded hall and grabbed the bronze scepter, pushing it to the ground.

"EVERYONE KEEP QUIET AND LET ME SPEAK!"

His voice had echoed long enough for everyone to understand that there was no stopping this man now. Odysseus took some raspy breaths as if he tried to collect himself before speaking.

"How much longer must this go on? How much longer should we keep this siege? Can't you see it? It's been a decade already! Troy won't fall! Trojans get new allies and we grow weaker by the year. Year after year after year after year we held this city and for what? How much longer will we stay here? Another 10 years? 20? I do not know about you, my lords, but I refuse to stay here that long! My wife and child waited way too long!"

"Do not wish to be king among kings, son of Laërtes!" A voice was heard over others, "you are not the only one with home and family to return to!"

"My lords, I can speak of no one else but myself. However I believe you shall agree with me that this siege lasted way too long. I have no doubt that there are many people; younger people in this council that can withhold this for the decades to come, but I have long stopped being young, my lords, and I do not intend going back to my home when I reach the age of Nestor and pass the crown to my adult son to retire. There are other kingdoms that require our attention, my lords! Not just this one, but our own!"

A series of hums passed around but Odysseus could feel it already there were some objections or some hesitations. They obviously didn't know what he was talking about.

"The war won't last much longer, Odysseus" Agamemnon the son of Atreus spoke, "we have already cut the tree of succession to the Trojan throne. Both Paris and Hector are dead, you managed to capture Helenos. Troy is losing already. I highly doubt we will stay here much longer"

"With all due the respect" Odysseus interrupted, "as long as there is the line of Priam Troy is not finished. Helen has now joined in matrimony with a new husband. Undoubtedly the widow of Hector will do the same when her period of mourning is done. And line or no line, the walls are still there, my lord, they are mocking us. We cannot break them from the outside"

"Odysseus..." Menelaus now spoke, the man who still believed in him blindly, "What else is to be done? We are not gods to transform ourselves to birds and get in"

Odysseus's eyes sparkled in a determined way as if he managed to hypnotize everyone in the room with just his fiery gaze, his voice sounded clearer than ever.

"I could take Troy in one night if the plan works!"

The seer audacity of his words was greeted with a silent shock and then a wave of chuckle.

"I believe you lost your mind FOR REAL this time, Odysseus son of Laërtes!" Neoptolemus called out arrogantly

Odysseus shot him with a warning glare. He had no idea how that insolent boy had heard about his attempt to avoid that war in the first place pretending to be mad but that was not the time for quarrel.

"I am pretty sure that the black ships of the Acheans rest in this place over a decade for nothing! We could obviously have asked you! I am sure you can also guide us inside the city yourself!"

"I have already infiltrated Troy!" Odysseus claimed.

The wave of exclamations that passed among the kings of the Greeks was delightful as it was annoying to Odysseus!

"We were protected by the gods, Diomedes and I. We disguised ourselves as beggars and walked about the city, I found their secrets, I know the passages! I plundered their temple according to the prophecy!"

With a determined move he threw the palladium of Athena to their feet; proof to his words. The silence he earned was delightful.

"I have a plan...if you choose to accept it!"

"That is not fighting with HONOR!" Agamemnon pointed out, "We do not do that Odysseus!"

"We fought with honor, Agamemnon...10 years now! And where did it lead us? We are still here; debating whether we shall live and die to the foot of Troy when the price is right there before us! If you want results, hear me out!"

As his onyx eyes stared deeply into his audience, he knew he had them now.

"I shall uproot the line of Priam from the city! We can throw them all out of the castle walls of the holy city of Troy! So, my lords, long-haired Acheans, if you want results, hear me out!"

Their silence was his confirmation.

"Here's the plan, then..."

*

Odysseus growled and snapped out of his flashback. How easy had he made that sound at that time! Even in his own ears such a promise wouldn't appear nearly as horrendous as it was proven to be! He felt a drop of sweat rolling down his chin but it was thicker. He could still feel blood... He grunted in annoyance as he removed that helmet that was crushing his head and sank his hands in the water, brushing them intensely. The water took a reddish sheen almost immediately. Blood was sticking way too much... Odysseus splashed water all over his face maniacally, even passing water over his matted with blood head. It was still there...the memory was still there... he felt dizzy almost. He rushed to the wine jar resting at the side. He broke the wax seal and filled a cup for himself without watering it first. He downed it quickly before having the chance to feel the burning sensation down his throat.

"Odysseus..." Polites started, alarmed

Odysseus didn't hear him. He filled a second cup that was gone the same quickly. He was still shaking.

"Blood..." he whispered, "Blood and death everywhere... plunders and rapes...everywhere..."

He clenched the cup in his hand.

"What have we done, Polites! What have we done?"

"What have I done?!"

"Sire..." Polites began, "this is war..."

A dry laughter escaped Odysseus's lips.

"That was no war, my friend...that was a massacre...a slaughter..."

He drained yet another cup. He was feeling dizzy and he wasn't sure it was the red wine at fault.

"Priam is dead..." he whispered as if in delirium, "...killed upon the altar of Zeus where he sought sanctuary... Cassandra raped right outside the sanctuary at the xoano of Athena...and Astyanax...the child is..."

His voice broke. He covered his face with his free hand as if that could stop the sobbing that was coming out of his thick chest.

"We're cursed, Polites..." he whispered, "Cursed...doomed! The gods won't turn the blind eye in this hubris..." he finished the cup he was holding

"Odysseus...please!" Polites exclaimed concerned, "Even so...what you say is right but still...it was war..."

"I gave them the key to this, Polites..." Odysseus ignored him, "it was MY plan that put them in..."

"Please, Odysseus...you...you didn't know..."

Odysseus chuckled. It was a dry, humorless one...

"Yes I did, my friend...I did...I just chose to ignore it..."

He refilled his cup.

"Odysseus I beg of you at least...at least put some water to your wine...don't do this..."

He placed his hand upon Odysseus's large shoulder.

"And no, that was what you feared...not what you knew. There was no way you would know the magnitude of it...you gave them the city just like you promised. What they did with it it was their responsibility."

If only it were that simple, Odysseus thought.

~~

Soon comes part 2. It will be probably 3 parts plus a footnote section!

British Columbia, Canada by david__barkman

Coda by Matias Bergara