#ephaedro

So my question is (and you've probably answered this before, sorry I forgot) how old are the characters and how exactly does the timeline work with everyone's age at the different parts and with the war/abandoning of slavery? I understand this probably needs a longer answer but I would appreciate it so much, thank you in advance!

I don't think I have answered this! I never know how much anyone is interested and I don't like just posting to the void because I don't want to be annoying. but I'm always happy to answer or post stuff people are interested in! ❤️

Who is the most important person in your life and why?

Who are your friends? Describe them.

Teunis

Teunis is capable of being polite to people he's just met. The better he knows someone the more they get to deal with unvarnished Teunis.

For past Teunis, the most important people are his parents and then Gaius because his whole life gets restructured around Gaius. For present Teunis it's probably Kal both because they're closest friends and their finances are tied up together in the shop.

Past Teunis has a group of similar-aged boys and girls in the neighborhood where he lived who he'd run with or do chores with. Present Teunis has ride or die besties Kal and Cyril, close acquaintances like Calla/Thisbe/Elion, and then a wide circle of people he's friendly with but not especially close to. He's a many acquaintances, few friends kind of person.

Ephaedro

Ephaedro treats everyone the same, very politely :) because what if there are consequences :) :) because even if it seems like nothing bad will happen what if it does :) :) :) (Teunis will find out how Ephaedro is with people he fully trusts much later)

Ephaedro's most important person is Gaius and then becomes Teunis later.

Ephaedro kind of doesn't have friends at the point where Teunis meets him. He's close with Sebastos but not friends for reasons that will come up later.

Kal

Kal is pretty reserved with people he doesn't know well and isn't trying to seduce. He comes off as a little cool and very put together for people he doesn't know well, unless he's in charm mode. For people he does know well he's much warmer but also much more of a mess and his default state is kind of an asshole.

Kal's most important person is Marcus basically no matter what point in time and he hates admitting this up until they're married (and sometimes also after).

Pre-Marcus Kal had a lot of friends that I wish I'd fleshed out in the original but I hadn't given much thought to at the time. Marcus-era Kal was kind of isolated or felt like he couldn't make friends for fear of Marcus' jealousy and he's only just recovering from that when Marcus shows up again.

Marcus

Marcus is always in polite and charming mode with people he doesn't know well, and then the better he knows someone the more comfortable he is being snippy or less formal.

Kal is Marcus' most important person. Arguably this is why Kal and Marcus are such a mess.

Who is the person you respect the most and why?

Ephaedro: before meeting Teunis, definitely Livonia. So important, so smart, feels like she rescued him from a very bad situation. After meeting Teunis it's definitely Teunis. Smart, brave, ride or die loyal.

Teunis: some mix of his parents, Livonia, Thisbe, and/or Kal, but complicated depending on how he feels about himself at the time.

Cyril: definitely Eubelia. He's a wifeguy if that's still a thing in matriarchy world.

Kal: Thisbe or Alida. He wants to be a mean woman when he grows up.

--

“Kallius,” Ephaedro whispered, shaking him. “Kallius, you can't do this again, master will be so angry.”

Teunis swam back up to himself muzzily, trying to focus on what Phaedro was saying. Kallius, that was him, because the master said so. Again–the fever?

Phaedro helped him sit up even as Teunis winced at the pain lancing through the switch marks across his back. His whole body throbbed as Phaedro helped him drink. Cold water, almost too much on his empty belly, and it felt good right up until it gave him wracking, shivering chills.

“Kallius, you can't,” Ephaedro said, starting to cry. “He said he'd sell you if you got sick again, you can't.” Phaedro stroked Teunis’ hair as Teunis leaned against his shoulder and closed his eyes.

5. What is the most evil thing you have ever done?

Ephaedro: thought really mean things about Gaius being a big entitled baby sometimes :( (plus the, you know, enabling Gaius and blaming of Teunis for abuse)

Florian: really ripped into Marcus' brother at the end and told him exactly what a stupid, vapid, selfish asshole he is. Not so much evil as perfectly justified but Florian hasn't done much that would qualify.

--

Teunis should have been less drunk to open it.  Or maybe more drunk. He spent the evening pacing the little parlor and bedroom of his boardinghouse rooms after a tense supper with Elion; he had trouble focusing on Elion with the unopened letter in his pocket, unable to make himself speak of it.  It lay on his parlor table while he drank, first small glasses and then straight from the bottle even as he knew he shouldn't.

--

My darling Kallius,

A friend attended a rather remarkable exhibition this spring in Leucarnum and she said the funniest thing.  She said one of the pretty boys running errands for that detestable Thisbe ad Claudiae woman looked remarkably like my favorite little assistant.  I didn't think it could possibly be you, since you were always such a good, polite boy and I know you'd know better than to get mixed up with such a horrible woman causing so much trouble, but I thought I would write to you at the address my friend provided because I have some rather important news I thought you might like to hear, in case it truly is you mixed up with so much trouble.

Our dear Ephaedro has for some years been visiting your lovely mother and father, who I understand are very anxious for any news of what happened to their precious boy.  Ephaedro has spent many holidays with them since they came to enquire about you, after your unfortunate disappearance.  Your charming parents seem very affected by your absence and comforted by Ephaedro's visits.

Your poor parents, like Ephaedro and so many of your unfortunate class, have never managed to learn to read nor write, but I would be more than happy to pass them news of you if you're able to find someone to write your reply for you.  A part of me hopes that my dear friend was mistaken and that you are not entangled with that horrid radical ad Claudiae woman, but another part of me hopes this has reached you so that your poor parents have news of you after all these years.

--

Teunis stumbled out of his rooms after he read it, the walls narrowing as the floor rose up to meet him.  He made it out to the cold back garden before he threw up.

Love,

--

Teunis could tell when Kal saw it downstairs, from the way the tap-tap of his heels as he tidied the shop's front parlor paused suddenly. Teunis decided to ignore it, just like he'd decided to ignore the damned letter. He had an underdrawing to paint.

Kallius, damn him, was studiously casual about it when Teunis brought their little shared lunch down later. Kal sat at the parlor worktable doing the books and smoking a cigarette, dawdling over it so he could pretend he wasn't lying in waiting for Teunis.

Kal waited until they were eating to say anything about it. “You've got a letter,” he said without looking at it over in the mail rack on the wall.

“I know,” Teunis said to his bread without looking at it either.

“You're not going to open it,” Kal said, picking at his food.

“Would you?” Teunis snapped. Having the thing in the shop felt like a bomb waiting to go off as it was.

“Not addressed like that, no,” Kal agreed, not entirely stupid.

The letter was addressed to Kallius ad Gaius Artemidoriae, same as the tattoo on his chest, and there were only three people alive who'd write to Teunis under that name. The thought of two of them knowing where to send it made his skin crawl.

“Do you want me to get rid of it?” Kal asked after a while, fiddling with his coffee spoon without meeting Teunis' eye. He was so much like Ephaedro sometimes it made Teunis' chest hurt. Sometimes the only redeeming thing about Kal was he was enough of an asshole Teunis couldn't mistake him for Ephaedro for long.

Teunis sat back in his chair, looking over his shoulder at the letter. It was just a letter, just ink on paper. “It might be from Ephaedro,” Teunis said finally. Kal knew what that meant.

“I can open it for you if you want,” Kal said.

--

Teunis sat with his chin resting on his knees to watch the crowd, cheek still stinging because the dealer had slapped him and told him buyers wanted to see his pretty face, not the top of his head. He didn't want to be bought, he wanted to go home to his parents, but his father had told him to be good.

Teunis pushed the thought of his parents away, to keep himself from crying again.

“Well aren't you pretty,” a woman said, and tipped Teunis’ chin up with her walking stick. He looked up at the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, her dark hair piled on top of her head and spilling around her face and dark eyes. “Stand up, pretty, let me take a look at you.”

The dealer came to hover as Teunis picked himself up; behind the lady buyer were another woman and two men looking bored, and a helot who looked exactly like Teunis watching eagerly over their shoulders. “Livonia, we'll be late,” one of the men complained.

“I'll just be a minute, don't fuss at me,” Livonia said. “Has he got all his teeth?” she asked the dealer.

“Of course, madame,” the dealer said. Livonia grabbed Teunis’ jaw and had him open his mouth, peering in at his teeth. She smelled like jasmine.

“Take off your tunic, sweetheart,” Livonia said when she was done.

Teunis blushed to the roots of his hair. He knew why he was there–had seen plenty of other helots stripped and inspected at the market while he'd been waiting to be sold, but no one had done it to him yet.

“Ah, and you're even prettier when you blush,” Livonia said, in a warm, pleased voice even as the dealer frowned. Teunis kept his eyes down and took off his tunic, conscious of the other helot’s eyes on him over her shoulder. “Has he got any training?” Livonia asked the dealer. “Music, embroidery, reading?”

“He's a virgin,” the dealer said as Teunis stood there naked, tunic at his feet. He wanted to say that he could sew, that his mother was a tailor's assistant and Teunis could sew as well as his father, to make this beautiful rich lady want to buy him, but he knew the dealer would slap him again if he opened his mouth.

“Turn around, lovely,” Livonia said. She made a thoughtful noise as Teunis turned his back. He tried to ignore the bored murmur of the two men with her, talking about the play they were going to be late for. She stopped him when Teunis faced her again and cupped his balls and tugged. He felt like he was going to die. No one had ever touched him before; no one else would ever touch him for the first time. “He's completely intact?” she asked the dealer as Teunis’ cock stiffened in her hand.

“I think he likes you, Livy,” the other woman laughed. The man who'd said they were going to be late made a disgusted noise. Barbaric, one of them muttered. Livonia laughed and flicked her hand for Teunis to put his tunic back on.

“He is, but I can have him castrated for you if you like,” the dealer said over Teunis’ bent head as he dressed.

“No, I'll take him as he is,” Livonia said. Teunis’ stomach lurched. The man who'd said they were going to be late rolled his eyes as she paid for Teunis, but the helot boy behind him looked delighted.

“You'll have a whole harem soon,” the man said, displeased.

“Oh shush, Gaius, he'll make a good model. Ephaedro, darling, take the new boy home,” Livonia said as she patted Teunis on the cheek and the helot boy came forward to take his hand. They were almost the same height, like looking in a mirror. Livonia took a few more coins from her wallet and gave them to Ephaedro. “Buy yourselves some candies and get him settled at home. The housekeeper will get him a collar.”

“What's his name?” Gaius asked, frowning at Teunis.

“Boy, for all I care,” Livonia said with an airy wave of her hand, already starting to leave. “You pick it.”

“Kallius, then, since you think he's so pretty,” Gaius said to her nastily as the little group of them turned away.

Ephaedro squeezed Teunis’ hand and gave him a smile. He led Teunis away from the dealer's stall, winding away through the crowded market. “Come on, we've got all afternoon. What kind of candy do you like?”

“Figs?” Teunis said. His mother's domina had bought them sometimes, if they were overripe and cheap. “I've never had a candy before. My name's Teunis.”