Would like to know yall's hc hehehe (tumblr game heheh)

Just like Hamlet has to step into his father's shoes in a way, Laertes has to step into his absent mother's shoes to advise his sister on matters of the heart. Then this protective brother/mother role, which blends the feminine with overwhelming masculine patriarchal duties, causes him to feel he has failed to protect his sister from abuse and suicide. He's nominally avenging his father when he fights Hamlet, but he's also punishing himself for failing Ophelia. The survivor's guilt must be immense.

@softersalt tagged me for WIP Wednesday, which was actually perfect because on Monday I'd dragged out my Laertes timeloop au for the first time all year and started trying to figure out where I want to go next with this.

Even before the first leaves drift down to enrich the earth, Laertes catches the metallic tang of knowing that he doesn't get to be so happy for so long before something happens to rip that away from him. If this were happening in anyone's mind but his own, Laertes could tell them, not unkindly, that the spikes of anxiety that turn random mornings into a wall of shadow are just that - a misfiring brain trying so hard to protect him from dangers that aren't even there. Only in his case, it's not an irrational fear, because he has the evidence of the past two lives, the past two deaths, screaming at him that this equinox marks more than just the year drawing to an end. He's ignored the warning once already and now he can't stop thinking about the future and all the things he can't control.

In honor of my dad, who inspired the character of Laertes.

This book is much, MUCH worse than what you're thinking

Odysseus is having nightmares of Prometheus

From here on, it's downhill

The writer decided to use the version where Odysseus is the son of Sisyphus. But managed to do it in a way I lost empathy for Anticlea

"He told me about the prophecy given you: that the fault of our childlessness was yours, but you were going to cast me aside anyway. I remember dismissing the servants and..."

"I groan, because the moment Mother let Sisyphus see her alone, she lost recourse to say she was raped - even if she was."

Anticlea will keep digging a bigger hole for herself

"Look at our son, husband. He is our pride, our joy!"

Anticlea you can't expect Laertes to feel pride for Odysseus 20 minutes after revealing the boy is the result of infidelity

Zeus is trying to destroy the line of Prometheus, and Sisyphus was part of it

Now get ready to lose support for Anticlea

"Sisyphus was the most charming of men. Not in a smooth, sly way, but full of energy and dynamism. He and my father were friends, and as a child I longed for a husband just like him-"

"That's why you've never loved me! You only love Odysseus! It's always him, him, him!"

She neglected her daughter Ctimene. Only caring for the son of the 50 years old man who took advantage of her while drunk 😐

"But you have to understand, I had no intention of being unfaithful."

She will contradict this line shortly after

"I wanted him, and I knew I was fertile that night." (This get's worse). "Yes, he was much older than me, but he could have awakened passion in a woman made of ice."

At this point I wanted to enter the book and punch Anticlea, because there's no way she's really that stupid

You didn't want to cheat, but you decided to have sex with him knowing it was the fertile point

Also I love that all this speech about passion and desire, but she doesn't remember the sex

"I jeopardized my entire life to create you, and I would do it again."

" 'I want my family back,' she whispers. 'I do love your fath- ...Laertes... He's my world: he, you and Ctimene. It's too late for me to start again.' "

This last line is proof you don't love Laertes or Ctimene. You would jump back into the bed of Sisyphus if he appeared now. This despair is because you're 40 years old, which means little chance of more kids, which means no one wants to marry a old cheater

Odysseus is suggesting for his mother to try to buy the king's affection back. But to be fair, she doesn't have many options

"You're so much like your real father, you know."

Anticlea... SHUT UP!! 🤬

After this whole disaster Odysseus had to run away, reached a forest, was attacked by a boar, and then Athena appeared

"And I realize that, in my nightmare of Prometheus, she's the only one of the Olympians gods who isn't there..."

So this will try to portray Athena as "not like other deities"?

Ps: at least in the first book, the love interest isn't Penelope. It's Cassandra 😐