제비꽃의 꿈

So, hi everyone.

Call me Mirisia. Miry if you want it short. You may also call me Xenychtes (night owl), Philoskordia (fond of garlic), or whatever more epithets I might gain in the future. I came to Tumblr in order to share my writings and paintings with more people. I wish this blog shall be a lovely, cozy museum in which I myself can be free and you guys can enjoy your visits.

Before you scroll further down, I ought to give you a chance to reconsider and step back for the sake of both of us. I have several boundaries which I do not want to be crossed, and you can decide either to respect it or walk out.

I don't pick fights with others, but I don't let them use me as their doormat either. Not to mention in my own place.

I'm here to talk about things I love and enjoy, so let me be. You have every right to like what I hate and hate what I like, and vice versa. I respect your taste and values, so will you mine. If you love something and I say I dislike it, enjoy it by yourself and don't shove it in front of my nose. If you hate something and I say I'm fine with it, rant about it in your own blog instead of screaming at my face.

I'm a feminist and not afraid or ashamed to call myself one. Though I'm not going to talk about this matter frequently in this blog — cause I don't want here to be the extension of the constant battlefield I'm already facing everyday and everywhere — I have some uncompromising and radical standards and boundaries about feminism and misogyny. Which, I do admit, might be too ideal, some people might call them extreme. But women's rights, safety, freedom and independence are values I cannot and will not compromise. Above everything, I am a woman who's surviving each day through various misogynistic bullshits, after all. If we have disagreements in these topics while eventually looking at the same direction, we can accept the differences in our points of view and still be friends. Or else, if me prioritizing women's rights above all somehow makes you unbearably comfortable, you may go find people who have more moderate standards instead of bullying me.

I'm a secularist. Also not afraid or ashamed to admit. I don't have any religion, I don't plan to get any, I don't need any. Unfortunately, all my life I've been surrounded by people who dismissed my decision to live a non-religious life and took it as their lifelong mission to deliver this lost lamb back to their shepherd and savior. Let me be clear, as much as I respect everyone's freedom of religion, you will respect my freedom from religion. I respect whatever religion and spiritual values you have, I understand that to some people their religious belief means very much, and you will respect my laïcité and understand that religion doesn't mean much in my life.

If you're still willing to be my friend despite all these conditions and feel like you can enjoy your visit, then I greet you with open arms. Welcome to my little archive.

I'm a nerdy introvert Asian woman who loves stories, art and music. English is my second language. I read and write, draw and paint, sing and play the piano. I came to Tumblr to share my paintings and fanfictions with more people. I am interested in many things, including but not limited to:

EPIC: The Musical

Greek Mythology in general

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

Norse Mythology in general

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

These days my main focus is on EPIC, so I think, at least for now, I will talk about EPIC a lot in this blog. I also enjoy AC: Odyssey and the fanfics and fanarts of it. I have an AO3 account in which I post my fics. I enjoy creating original characters and alternative universes, so that's what I do when I write fanfics. I have a collection EPIC AUs which I call Mirisiverse, which is a group of multiverses derived from the same basic background. Currently there are 3 main AUs in Mirisiverse, all of them in progress and only one is posted in AO3 for now:

The Wanderer and the Seer: aka WnS. The primary one. An AU in which Odysseus picks up Cassandra of Troy, the cursed prophet, and she unwillingly joins the Odyssey.

The Trojan Tarry: aka 3T. An AU in which Cassandra of Troy burns the Wooden Horse, thwarts Odysseus's plan, and claims him as her spoil of war.

The House of Wolves: aka HotW. An AU in which Odysseus and Penelope had a daughter instead of a son, Ctimene and Eurylochus had a son, and a game of thrones which the two cousins never wanted occurs.

I also have a plan for a series of AC: Odyssey AU fanfics, the title for the entire series still needs to be decided. Unlike Mirisiverse, all of these fics are in one single universe, some of them in the main storyline and others the side stories. Currently 3 side stories are finished, one main story in hiatus/progress, many others in planning:

Here, beside me: post-ACO, Kassandra and Alexios cope with things they've gone through and talk about the hopeful future.

A tale of Moonlight: a canon fix-it AU, Phoibe survives and thrives.

Agiadaia: A Song of Sun and Moon: an OC insert fic, there was a third wheel in the family, Lysandra of Sparta, whose life was also destroyed on Mount Taygetos that night. She later ran away from her past and built a new life, until the skeins of fate started to tangle up with each other.

Not Today: a side story, what happened to Barnabas and Herodotos while Kassandra was gone?

Well yeah, I do admit my naming sense has been affected by Game of Thrones.

Though most of my fics are currently in hiatus, they are not abandoned, it's just me being a slow creator who needs lots of time to actually materialize things in my head. I'm refining my works over and over before posting the final version (sometimes even after posting the final) trying to make them as good as my humble talents allow. If you guys find my works enjoyable, I'll be happy to know that.

Throughout the history, royal marriages were arranged for political reasons more often than for love. But this doesn't mean those politically arranged couples could never find true love and affection in each other. That's the OdyPen dynamic I like. Marrying for a deal and discovering love.

Mirisiverse!Odysseus is a calculative man. He was the only male heir to the throne of Ithaca and had Athena as his mentor during his boyhood. Naturally he grew up into a man who seeks for his kingdom's benefits rather than romance and playing house in his own marriage. He courts Helen not for her beauty, but for the things the Spartan princess can bring into her marriage. Then he realizes that he's no match for Helen's other suitors from more wealthy and powerful kingdoms and houses. He's just a king/prince (Idk whether he married before or after his enthronement) of a small rocky island, not an appealing option as a son-in-law for the king of Sparta. Especially when the king is looking for a son-in-law who shall be the heir to his throne. So this clever man quickly accepts that he isn't very likely to be chosen as Helen's husband and searches for another option. Then he finds Penelope. Not as beautiful as Helen, many people may say, but she is still another Spartan princess. She may not bring the throne of Sparta as her dowry like Helen would, but that makes courting her easier. << I want this to be Penelope's first impression to Odysseus.

Meanwhile, Mirisiverse!Penelope has some family issues. This doesn't mean she doesn't love her family, but living as a cousin of the most beautiful woman in the world in that era when a woman's value was decided by how much of a wife & mother material she was wouldn't have been an easy task to do. Plus, if we are accepting the version of story which says Icarius threw her in water when she was a newborn and took her back only after a bunch of ducks saved her, and we're going to assume the Penelope later somehow found out about that incident, I think it will certainly stay in her heart like a thorn, whether or not she eventually became her father's favorite child. Anyways, what I'm gonna say is that Mirisiverse!Penelope is used to expecting that she won't be someone most significant as long as she is no more than just 'another Spartan princess'. She has already been long since she accepted that her future husband will not be someone as grandiose as Helen's, probably just a mediocre royalty or nobleman. Then Odysseus approaches her. Indeed a mediocre king/prince from a small island, not the most handsome, nor the richest, nor the most powerful among Helen's suitors or hers. << I want this to be Odysseus's first impression to Penelope.

Now Odysseus tries to court Penelope. It will be Penelope's intelligence that will captivate him. Maybe Odysseus acts like he's deeply enamored with her, and clever as she is, Penelope sees through his act. Maybe she'll comment that nobody chooses her over Helen as wife. Odysseus thinks Penelope is quick-witted and worth courting, Penelope thinks Odysseus needs more practice to be a good actor but he's somewhat cute. The two of them have a casual conversation that day. Then again maybe a couple days later. Then again. Now Odysseus stops judging Penelope as 'another Spartan princess' or 'someone worth courting' and starts seeing her as someone more than that, someone smart and witty and charming in many ways. Penelope is thinking Odysseus is a fun conversation partner and he looks cuter when his 'hyacinth curls' are slightly messy.

Finally Odysseus proposes. He is a cunning man who can easily trick and manipulate others if needed, but he doesn't feel like doing such a thing to Penelope, he at least wants to be honest and faithful to Penelope if he is about to spend the rest of his life with her. So he confesses everything to her: yes, he indeed courted Helen first, he only gave up her because he realized there was no chance that he would be chosen among all those kings and princes from greater, wealthier kingdoms. He courted Penelope because he still wanted a bride from a powerful kingdom like Sparta. But if she gives her hand to him, he will consider it as a great honor and be a worthy husband. At this point, Penelope is like "Well, he's cool and fun, and he's gonna make me a queen, so not a bad deal after all". She agrees to marry him under his promise of honesty and fidelity.

They marry like this and Odysseus takes his newlywed bride back to his homeland. There they begin adjusting to a married life and learning about each other. Then they begin to realize how they share the similar sense of humor, how they finish each other's sentences, how they feel comfortable with each other and don't need forced conversation to fill the silence between them. Before they even knew they grew fond of each other and now are enjoying each other's presence. That's how they permeated each other and fell in love.

I'm not even a Menelaus fan. I've never really cared about or been interested in him. And even I think depicting him as an abusive husband is unfair. Of course he isn't an angel, he's done his share of terrible things, I don't think he and Helen were in some ideal heavenly love (not saying they didn't love each other, I do think they were in love when they married, just not in the everlasting, match-made-in-heaven type of love that only exists in romance novels and instead the kind of love with ups and downs, the kind that people fall in and out and back in) or he started the war purely out of his love for Helen (he did it also to get his right as Helen's husband back, to save his face after being a cuckolded husband and to gain the wealth of Troy, which is realistic, I would have despised him if he decided to start a war entirely based on his emotions). But that doesn't directly mean he is an evil and cruel abuser. There are many forms of relationships else than the ideal heavenly love and the outright abuse.

Plus I also doubt that Agamemnon would have been physically violent to Clytemnestra during their marriage. I'm not saying this because I'm fond of him, I'm absolutely not, I fucking hate him and he deserved to be butchered by his wife's axe. But still. I don't think he was a wife beater. He is a man who can actually be decent when needed. Of course I don't think he was a good husband either. I do think their relationship must have been problematic or toxic beneath the surface. He did start their 'relationship' by murdering her husband and baby and then raping her. He does disrespect her openly in the Iliad by saying that he prefers Chryseis to his wife for the girl is superior to his wife in many aspects. A husband who doesn't see it problematic to insult his wife in front of everyone is never a good husband. But it doesn't always mean there is physical violence. Not all toxic relationships include beating in it.