Rotating Odysseus And Athena In My Head 24/7

1. 'It's fiction, it doesn't need to make sense!'

“All Tumblr ever does is write oneshots now” Tell the writers that you’d love to see them write longer things.

“Nobody updates their fics anymore” Tell the writers you love the fic and want to see more of it.

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

Also consider, Telemachus is totally immune, because all it does is make him beam back at her and the attention she is paying him, so happy to have her there, and Athena is physically incapable of being mad at someone so genuinely, adorably happy to see her.

And now consider her training them both, and calling them over to clarify some instructions, only for Ody to burst into tears because she has been staring at them both, (checking them for injuries) for a few minutes, and obviously, that meant he messed up again and she was about to leave him again and never come back.

And poor Athena, who hasn’t given him one of those death glares in almost a decade, and Telemachus, who they never worked on, try to figure out what on earth is going on.

Athena finally realizing and her heart breaking because this isn’t what she wanted from My Goodbye at all, but it’s what she got.

Cue a clueless Telemachus frantically running to get Penelope because now Athena is crying too and he doesn’t know what to do.

And, of course, mandatory family cuddle piles ensue once everything is cleared up and, Athena just hugging Ody, wrapping him up in her wings, like if she holds him close enough, she can protect him from any more suffering. Odysseus tentatively hugging back (because what if he did something wrong and made her mad?) and Penelope and Telemachus trying their best to hold and comfort both a traumatized Ody and their heartbroken disaster pigeon.

Penelope comes to grab them for lunch, only to find them sitting on the ground, staring at each other, heads tilted slightly, Telemachus still incredibly confused.

And Penelope laughing so hard she is in tears, because she knows EXACTLY what Athena is doing, and after so many years of holding her upset husband after those disappointed stares, the fact that their son is completely immune to them is amazing.

Athena, glaring at her: This isn’t funny. Why isn’t it working.

Penelope: Because he knows he’s loved and that normal people just talk to each other when they are upset or worried about something?

Telemachus: Wait, are you okay, Athena? Are you sad? Is that why you’re staring at me? Do you need a hug?

Athena, blinking at him in total bewilderment: What?

Penelope, grinning and ruffling Telemachus’ hair: Good luck, Athena. Because before you even ask, yes, he is serious, yes, he is always like this, and no, that is never going to work on him.

Athena, a bit frantic, because none of this is making any sense: But why? It worked just fine on Odysseus!

Penelope, eyes narrowing as familiar anger over her “training methods” rose to the surface: No, it didn’t. All it did was make him worry that he was in trouble every time someone looked at him for too long. It taught him nothing other than to be scared.

Athena: But-

Penelope: No, Athena. I don’t care if you thought it worked or not. It didn’t. You got to go home after spending 16 hours giving my husband subpar instructions and making him feel like he didn’t deserve to exist. I was who dealt with the aftermath. The only reason I’m letting you train Telemachus at all is because if you do something that hurts him, he will tell me.

Athena: ……then what am I supposed to do?

Telemachus, who had been listening to the back and forth for a while: You can just talk to me? If you tell me what’s wrong, and tell me why it’s wrong, I’ll know what to fix, and then we can fix it.

(He was right. That did work. It worked far better than Athena had anticipated, and it forced her to think back and scrutinize other methods she had once been so sure were the best possible options. The more she scrutinized, the more clear it became: she had been wrong.

Also consider, Telemachus is totally immune, because all it does is make him beam back at her and the attention she is paying him, so happy to have her there, and Athena is physically incapable of being mad at someone so genuinely, adorably happy to see her.

And now consider her training them both, and calling them over to clarify some instructions, only for Ody to burst into tears because she has been staring at them both, (checking them for injuries) for a few minutes, and obviously, that meant he messed up again and she was about to leave him again and never come back.

And poor Athena, who hasn’t given him one of those death glares in almost a decade, and Telemachus, who they never worked on, try to figure out what on earth is going on.

Athena finally realizing and her heart breaking because this isn’t what she wanted from My Goodbye at all, but it’s what she got.

Cue a clueless Telemachus frantically running to get Penelope because now Athena is crying too and he doesn’t know what to do.

And, of course, mandatory family cuddle piles ensue once everything is cleared up and, Athena just hugging Ody, wrapping him up in her wings, like if she holds him close enough, she can protect him from any more suffering. Odysseus tentatively hugging back (because what if he did something wrong and made her mad?) and Penelope and Telemachus trying their best to hold and comfort both a traumatized Ody and their heartbroken disaster pigeon.

Sorry Ody, your former mentors braincells were taken [like she was], she wont have any thoughts for a while

Odysseus is looking for her one day and finds her fast asleep underneath a mountain of pillows and blankets and soft toys, briefly wondering how she is even breathing under there before deciding not to question it and just chalking it up to divine intervention.

Every so often she will go into her room and find a new one added to the pile because Hermes found one he thought she would like, or Penelope had some extra fabric laying around.

(Bonus points, bc trauma is ROUGH, for her becoming way, WAY more attached to that first one Telemachus gave her than she thought she would. It quickly becomes a comfort object. She also won’t admit that to anyone, though, even if she DOES seek it out when she is sad. Or sleepy. Or scared. Or confused. Or cold.)

Now the only question is: What IS her first one? An owl? A wolf? Something else?

Viscous/vicious – Viscous is generally used to describe the consistency of blood or other thick liquids. Vicious is used to describe something or someone who is violent. 

Piqued/Peaked/Peeked – To pique someone’s interest is to catch or tease their attention. When something peaks, it reaches its total height or intensity. To peek (at) something is to look briefly, or glance. 

Discrete/Discreet – this is a tough one. Discrete means to be separate, or distinct, i.e., two discrete theories. Conversely, when someone is discreet, they are being secretive or cautious to avoid attention. 

Segue/Segway – one is a transition between things, the other is a thing you can ride at the park and definitely fall off of.

Conscious/Conscience/Conscientious – to be conscious is to be awake, i.e., not unconscious, or to be aware of something. Your conscience is the little voice in your head telling you not to eat the entire pint of ice cream. Finally, to be conscientious is to be good, to do things thoroughly, to be ruled by an inner moral code. 

Taunt/Taut - Taunt is a jeer or provocation, taut means to be pulled tight, or not slack

Weary/Wary - weary means tired and wary means cautious

Rogue/Rouge - rogue is a person who has unaffiliated themselves from what they were before (is the general understanding); a person or thing that behaves in an aberrant, faulty, or unpredictable way - rouge is red

Wonton/Wanton - a wonton is a dumpling, wanton is (of a cruel or violent action) deliberate and unprovoked and/or sexually unrestrained

Haphazard/Halfhazard - haphazard means to  have a lack of plan, order, or direction - the other isn’t a word

Corporal/Corporeal - corporal is a lack of plan, order, or direction and corporeal is to have a physical existence: to be tangible: of a person’s body

Peck/Pec - the first is a kiss (peck) and the second is the shortened version of pectoral (pec)

Virile/Viral - to be virile is to have strength, energy, and a strong sex drive (typically said about men) and then this last year (2020) has personally taught us, is how viral a plague can really be, so of the nature of, caused by, or relating to a virus or viruses

Vulnerable/Venerable - vulnerable means being susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm, and if a person is venerable they’re accorded a great deal of respect, especially because of age, wisdom, or character (or if you’re religious, holy)

Loose: the opposite of tight

Lose: to misplace something or the opposite of win.

A pallet is a flat carrier, often made of wood, for boxes or other goods.  It’s also a type of bed or mattress, typically crude or minimal.  

A palette is the board used by artists to mix and hold paint (stereotypically rounded, with a thumb-hole). 

Breaks are damages, or time off.  Brakes stop a vehicle (or are, occasionally, groups of bushes). 

Queue is a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed or in verb form to take one’s place in a queue. It is also a list of data items or commands in a certain order in computing or in verb form to arrange in a queue.

Bated is the past tense of bate, which means to reduce the force or intensity of, or restrain (ex. with bated breath)

Baited is the past tense of bait, which means to deliberately annoy or taunt, or to prepare a hook or trap with bait to entice fish or animals as prey

Definitely means without doubt or in a definite manner or clearly

Bear: To carry; or, a large furry mammal. Past tense: bore.

Someone can “bear witness” to a notable event. To “bare witness” is to strip the witness of their clothing.

Pouring means for something (usually a liquid) to flow rapidly in a steady stream, like pouring orange juice into a glass, or rain pouring outside.

[Image ID: The Destiel confession meme edited so that Dean answers 'AO3 will be down for 10 hours on Monday the 1st of July inbetween 7 am UTC and 5 pm UTC' to Cas' 'I love you'. /End ID]