#wip; epyllion

[achilleid]

EPYLLION { wip intro }

audience: new adult, adult (explicit violence and sexual content) genre: dark fantasy pov: trio third person limited, past tense rep: bisexual characters, gay characters, transgender character, character with emotional intensity disorder, multiple characters of color inspo: shadow of the colossus, gangs of new york, bloodborne, shadow and bone, final fantasy pinterest board: link spotify link: link tag list (+/-): @ladywithalamp @bebewrites @faelanvance @reowrites @pinespittinink @cream-and-tea @flowerprose @touchingmadness @measlywritingblog @inkingfireplace @muddshadow

Prologue and first four chapters: link

☾ SUMMARY ☽

Born without power in a land that covets nothing else, Shio Moravek has been outcasted and ostracized since the moment she was declared to be an illuni. "Moonless". One who can not manipulate the threads of reality to her will. Her position as the grand general's daughter provided her with protection, protection that vanishes in one night of bloodshed that will shake the foundation of her world to its hollow core— again.

✩ SETTING ✩

Argo is a wonder of Eldred making, the last remaining walled city built by the precurser race that came before. The final bastien of safety in a world of monsters and darkness, the city is Mavros' shining jewel... and the world's most desired conquest. The armistice between Mavros and the neighboring Illyrius has held true since the marraige of the Illyrian Emperor's daughter to the Mavronian king, an armistice that trembles on the brink of destruction. Outside the walls of the ancient city, the world has all but ended. The Eldred, in their hubris and desire for more power, had thrown the world to the edge of an abyss. A rift in the fabric of reality shattering the land and pouring out unnatural creatures and foul, incurable diseases that poisons what little remains to rot. And beneath? Beneath the hollows of this dying earth lays the Below. As mysterious as it is deep, it has held the secrets of the extinct Eldred for centuries, entombed in shadow. This is a world that has ended. A world shuddering its final death rattle while those lucky few cling to its last remaining life raft.

☾ Main POV Characters ☽

Shio Moravek; eldest daughter to Leos Moravek, the grand general of Mavros. Raised on duty and expectation in equal measure, Shio has always strived to be what she was expected to be— until the day she failed her testing and was proven to be an illuni. With her background mired in rumor, the proud and cold nobles of her homeland have shunned and rejected her all her life. Through her father's friendship with the king, she was admitted to the prestigious Anthea College to study spherence despite having no sphere of her own.

Leonores "Nell" Moravek; youngest daughter to Leos Moravek and the second most powerful spherest to be born in a century. Having inheirited her father's kineti abilities, much is also expected of Nell and her future as a protector of her homeland. Unlike her sister, Nell chaves beneath the chains of honor and duty, wishing instead for a freedom she may never be afforded.

Enoch Volkov; The thief lord's boy. The king's bastard. All Enoch's life, his parent's titles have proceeded his own identity— an identity no one is keen to let him forget. All his life he has been treated as a chip to cash, a favor to call in, ignoring at all times the gnawing desire in his chest to be more. To be the heir to a destiny of his own making... a wish he may grow to regret.

#wip; epyllion #writeblr #wip introduction #wip intro #current wip #there are three other 'silver trio' characters #but ill cover them in another post EVENTUALLLLY #the first book is 125k words long approximately #and ive edited 50k #im hoping to have it ready to be published sometime at the end of 2023 but WHO KNOWS #so essentially we spend the first half introing everyone and the world and then a coup happens and these three have to go on the run #with the kings bastard and a relic of the old world #it is very much part political intrigue part journey to the center of the earth #dark fantasy #original writing

[rhaenyratargeryn]

A major factor of the story I’m writing is that when the main guy in this enemies to lovers is faced with the choice to fix it, to stop and to change his mind, to pick another way, another side, he takes it.

AND HE DOESN’T FUCKING DIE AT THE END.

#wip; epyllion #writeblr #writing #I took all my frustration with reylo and darklina #and said GET FUCKED #I’m gonna make a sad dark haired boy so bad #and then make him SO GOOD #granted he is never really ‘bad’ #more at cross purposes #and kinda an asshole about it

[achilleid]

Penguin Classics Tag Game

stolen from @magefaery !!! because it's too cool Edit: AND APPARENTLY I WAS TAGGED TOO-- so thank you @flowerprose !!!!

This Website allows you to input your name, the title of your WIP, an image, and additional details, and it’ll make a cover for you in the style of the Penguin Classics covers!

Tagging: @faelanvance @bebewrites @ladywithalamp @firstdraft @cedar-west @peresephones @reowrites @thanatostouch @b-a-pigeon @the-finch-address @blueinkblot @yennas @cream-and-tea @flowerprose and any and all other writeblr folks!

#tag game #wip; epyllion #wip; itsotv #wip; paleblood #wip; empyrean #granted only two of these will see the light of day #the other two are gratutious fun for me when i get tired of trying to make something publishable LOL

[achilleid]

OC Tea Game! ✨🍵☕️🫖

Rules: Use this picrew to make some tea that your OC would drink, or one that represents them aesthetically.

Snagged from @pinespittinink !!

I did Shio, Enoch, Nell, Mira and Sascha~

Tagging: Tagging: @faelanvance @bebewrites @ladywithalamp @firstdraft @cedar-west @peresephones @reowrites @thanatostouch @b-a-pigeon @the-finch-address @blueinkblot @yennas @cream-and-tea @flowerprose and any and all other writeblr folks!

#wip; epyllion #picrew #writeblr

[achilleid]

Was tagged by @bebewrites to do this princess picrew!!

So we have Mira, Nell and Shio from Epyllion! None of them are actual princesses, but Shio does become queen through marriage( hence her crown).

I’m at work so I can’t look through to tag folks but I will come back and add some once I’m home!! 🙏🏻

#tag game #wip; epyllion #picrew #oc; shio moravek #oc; mira kaur #oc; nell moravek

[achilleid]

#FridayKissTag!!!

Shio turned to face her next enemy with a ragged scream, her blade a flicker of light in the darkness as the lumonium caught and splintered off what parts of its surface were not blackened with blood and gore.

It was not the thunk of flesh and the wet resistance of muscle that met her sword, but the solid, unmovable surface of another blade. Shio had not even the time to register the clang of metal as she drew her arm back and struck thrice more, the madness of battle, of survival, still thundering in the pulse of her temple.

Her breath nearly rushed from her lungs when at last her eyes registered who it was that met her blows– who parried them with the practiced ease of familiarity.

All at once the fight went from her arms. The sword clattered from her hand, her knees buckled and she would have hit the hard rock floor soundly were it not for his hands that relinquished their own steel to catch her.

“It’s you– it’s you…” Shio sobbed, hands curved into claws as she tore at Enoch’s shirt, at his arms, forcing herself up so she could look at his face. Warm, dark brown eyes met her own, wide and wild, the same exertion that panted through her own lungs heaving from his own.

“Are you hurt?”

His voice. His scent. His warmth. Things she had never thought she would miss now crashed against her so fiercely she cared nothing for her wounds. Nothing for her hurts. Only that he was here.

Shio shook her head, too overwhelmed to even try and form words. She slid her palm over his face, felt the coolness of his skin beneath her fingertips before seeking out the silky softness of his hair. Enoch was equally preoccupied, his own hands moving over her arms, her shoulders, eyes checking off each place she might be injured. She felt his sphere fall over her like a warm rain, cleansing the ache from her sore arms, the sting of cuts and at last finding the painful mass of bruises around her ribs.

“Oh Shio… three of your ribs are cracked,” Enoch said, his voice broke with a wince of sympathy, “And your shoulder…”

He had discovered the damage there no doubt from her resetting the joint.

“I will live,” Shio croaked and smiled crookedly up at him, hoping to make him laugh. Hoping to clear the storm clouds that thundered around him and darkened his eyes. Instead, he kissed her, brief but warm, on her lips.

He pulled back to speak against them, every word ticklish, “...Don’t ever do that again.”

“Fall into a chasm?”

“Leave me.”

In those two words was more than a simple request. Shio felt the weight of them, heavy and purposeful in the way he said them and the way he looked at her now with the face of a man whose heart had been hanging, halfway between whole and broken… waiting to know if she had lived or died.

“I will never leave you,” Shio whispered fiercely, watched as her words lit a flame behind Enoch’s eyes.

She kissed him. Bit him. Marked that promise into the soft yielding skin of his mouth. When she pulled back there was a demand there in her eyes. A question. Awakened from the daze her touch had left him in, Enoch at last seemed to understand what it was she wished to hear.

“...I believe you.”

#wip; epyllion #wip; empyrean #pair; Enoch x shio #Friday kiss tag #my writing #long post #I hated this when I first wrote it but now rereading months later like damn #shit bangin #this takes place in book two when they are venturing in the below and Shio ends up separated and falls through a cave in

[achilleid]

“Killing me— killing my son… will it undo your loss? Will it bring them back?”

“…No,” Shio said, her blade lowered a fraction, “… it will not.”

She smiled then, wicked and sharp, the expression wholly unnatural upon her face. It marred her. Scarred her. Turned her into something twisted and dark and merciless.

“But it will make you dead.”

Rough draft of how this little exchange will go when Shio is in a position to have her revenge~

#wip; epyllion #writeblr #we stan ‘I want my father back you son of a bitch’ revenge arcs #oc; shio moravek #writing excerpts

[achilleid]

I love how Enoch and Shio’s romance was originally planned as very much a slow burn rivals to friends to enemies to lovers… and then it literally just became “two young people who obv are attracted to each other emotionally and physically proceed to be too Traumatized™ to overtly acknowledge this fact for 3/4th of the duology despite constantly exchanging dramatic professions of loyalty and devotion and oh yeah the k i s s i n g”

#pair; Enoch x Shio #wip; epyllion #these two literally out here in their own personal romantic drama #while everyone else is being normal and worried about ya know WAR #writeblr #Enoch was originally supposed to betray Shio and dip to the other side #but he looked me in the eyes and said ‘I simply will not’ #so that got thrown out but honestly it’s better that way #THEY KISS MULTIPLE TIMES AND JUST— #NEVER ACKNOWLEDGE IT FOR A REALLY LONG TIME

[achilleid]

0 draft!Enoch: I will destroy everything you love.

2nd draft!Shio: Start with yourself.

2nd draft!Enoch, behind 0: 🔪 anything for you Beyoncé

#wip; epyllion #they were a TRUE friends to enemies to lovers in zero draft #Enoch was BAD like DARKLING bad #there was some pretty bad stuff he did that at the turn point to enemies #and vice versa #but then as I learned more about his character #and he changed as I wrote and I realized things about his narrative #he crossed his arms and was like ‘I’m not doing that’ #but you have to do that this is the betrayal arc in the enemies to lovers portion #‘I don’t want to be her enemy’ #yeah but you are at cross PURPOSES— #’nope. i wanna do what she wants to do.’ #……. this isn’t how this is suppose to go #*shrugs at me* #oc; Shio Moravek #oc; enoch volkov

[achilleid]

With nanowrimo approaching I’m hoping the write ins and getting to be around all my usual local folks will help kick me into gear. I wrote 1440 words exactly today of the new chapter eight (editing sometimes means remaking whole chapters dhdhdhsbsb)

It’s just a lot of material I need to cover to lay the ground work for the rest of the plot and it is difficult finding a balance between using the time to further plot and using it to do some character developing.

Lots of major players for the BIG plot are introduced these next two chapters, so I am trying to really get it right.

#wip; epyllion #progress journal #I’m just in a rut #I will just 1000 word a day my way out of it hopefully #or legit skip this chapter again and work on editing the ones that are done

[achilleid]

#fridaykiss tag game

thank you for the tag @bebewrites <3 have a snippet of Sascha and Nell pre-FWB. Aka the first time Nell tried to sleep with him she got a bit uncomfortable and so instead they snuggled and kissed... which is NOT Sascha's usual brand, but he finds a lot of his "usual" gets disrupted with her.

Rules are that you post a smooch between your OCs for Friday. It can be as light as a peck or intense as a makeout. It can be romantic or platonic or familial. As long as a smooch takes place it’s free reign!

“Guess I should let you get some sleep,” Nell said quietly, not much liking the idea of leaving the warmth and comfort of his bed for the plain hammock that waited her in the general bunks.

“Mmm, stay and talk if ya like. I’ll fall asleep either way when it’s time I do,” Sascha turned onto his back and extended his arm out behind her. It dawned on Nell after a moment that he intended her to come closer. When she hesitated he began to pull back again.

“Wait,” Nell said, shifted the sheets and scooted up flush against his side. She caught just a glimpse of his grin before she rested her head on his shoulder. He traced lazy circles on her upper arm, his hold loose and comfortable.

Familiar, but not.

Intimate, but passionless.

Sascha liked her and he was attracted to her, that much Nell was certain. But it wasn’t the incessant and needful attraction of the king, nor was it the detached, calculated courtship from those who had attempted to bid for her hand at court.

Sascha's kisses had felt good, warm and comfortable… and at the memory, Nell found she wanted one again. Sascha obliged her happily, trailing his hand up to cradle the base of her neck as he lazily reciprocated her testing touches. Nell hadn’t much experience with kissing, but if he noticed he did not make mention of it.

Nell touched the tip of her tongue to his bottom lip the way she had spied couples do in the past and was pleased when Sascha simply opened his mouth and gave her a cursory lick back. He made no demands of her. No urgings. He simply lay beneath her and let her set the pace, until her hands began to wander, smoothing over his chest and down across his stomach. He caught her wrist gently then.

“Too much touching… and I’ll never get to sleep,” he said, but the sigh that passed from his lips was deeply contented.

“Sorry,” Nell mumbled hastily, but Sascha shook his head.

“Don’t apologize, I’ve enjoyed this. It has been… surprising. Good surprising,” Sascha said softly, his eyelids fluttering down every so often in an effort to keep open.

“Yeah?” Nell pressed, but her words went unanswered accept for one last affirmative hum. Sascha’s breathing was deepening and this time when his pale lashes touched his cheeks, they did not open again.

#wip; epyllion #pair; sascha x nell #writeblr #writing excerpt #fridaykiss tag game #tag game

[achilleid]

Progress Journal - 08/08/2022

Words edited: 53k/125k

I have outlined the plot points I want to alter for chapters eight, nine and ten, and outlined the bits that were unwritten needed to tie together the completed chapters. So definitely more progress than I originally felt I was gonna make today.

I’m still not sure how I feel about a particular scene/pacing. Originally, the coup happened a few days after the queen’s birthday, but now I am making them all happen the same night. It feels much more like it has higher stakes and things are chaotic and sudden the way they should be in this kind of event.

Also, I rewrote the obligatory dance scene between our rivals to lovers, Enoch and Shio:

“Are you mocking me?” Shio asked at last, uncertain what to make of him.

“Not today, Shio.”

“Oh? And what is the fine occasion for this reprieve?”

The slow spin came again and Shio noted this time he wrapped his arm so securely around her waist, they were hip to hip. He was so close now… close enough that she could smell the spicy, clean scent of his cologne and see fully the way the darkness of the room made his eyes an all consuming, endless black. Something like adrenaline rushed through her chest and sent her heart into a frenzy. She only hoped he could not see it– could not feel it.

“Can a man not dote upon his intended?” he breathed, and mixed in his own warm scent, she caught something else– something sharp and strong. Familiar.

Chacha.

“You are drunk.”

He winked at her.

“Yes.”

Tag list: @bebewrites @ladywithalamp @reowrites @faelanvance (msg to be added or removed!)

#i have yet to come up with a sufficient fantasy name for Georgian pomace brandy so I just use chacha which is what it’s called #IT IS VERY STRONG #wip; epyllion #progress journal #writeblr

[achilleid]

House of the Dragon is really helping me get into Irina’s head space. She had Enoch very young— young even by the fantasy-realm standards of Epyllion (she was fifteen). So seeing Alicent’s relationship with Aegon is really helping me decode even more how they feel.

There is love, but there is resentment. A bond, but a kind of lack of true familial relationship. But there is love. Oh goodness there is love. Not the soft kind, but a feral love with a mouth full of teeth for any who would hurt her child.

The idea that her hands could more easily kill for him than they could ever hold him.

#wip; epyllion #oc; enoch volkov #that’s a BANGER LINE IM USING THAT

[achilleid]

Ship song tag game

Rules: tag the song you associate most with your ship — I was tagged by @bebewrites !! I will do this for Epyllion! There aren’t very many canon ships tho djdjdbsn

shio/enoch - surrender & yellow lights, for when these two finally let their walls down and trust that the one who understands and wholly sees them has been right there the entire time.

sascha/nell - shut up, for when they realize, almost too late, that this “casual” thing? Isn’t so casual anymore.

#tag game #wip; epyllion #writeblr

[achilleid]

#FridayKiss Tag Game!!!

Tagging: @faelanvance @ladywithalamp @reowrites @chazzawrites @blueinkblot and @thanatostouch (no pressure!)

I was tagged by @bebewrites so have Enoch and Shio’s first kiss~

“I…” Enoch began, his eyes moving from her eyes to her lips and back, “...accept your oath.”

There it was. No matter what happened now, Enoch was her king. She would keep this oath. She would honor it. She would not lose anyone else.

She kissed him once, lightly on the mouth. It was not meant to be anything more than an act of ceremony. A gesture blending Heng and Mavronian custom into one.

Shio had been kissed before. Cal was the first, a young Zenith boy who had done so when they were little more than children, play acting at love. There was Shugen when she was seventeen. They had spent seasons stealing away in shadowed corners, trading touches and kisses where no one could see. There had been Nikola too, cold and obliging, leaving her shivering and not in that tingling pleasant way she had heard other girls describe. Innocent. Safe. Passionless. That is how Shio would have described them each.

None of those words could express what kissing Enoch felt like.

It was as if she had broken the dam. The second kiss spilled forward in a rush as they both met in the middle. ​​It was every hot rush of adrenaline before a sword-fight. It was the heart-pounding mix of fear and power Shio had felt when she challenged him the first time, a memory that felt a lifetime ago.

Their lips slid from one kiss into the next, and the next, until her tongue was curled behind his teeth and his arms were locked around her. Enoch was everywhere. His sphere engulfing and somehow still sharing the same space as her own. She felt his influence pull through her veins, sliding through the valves of her heart as if he were memorizing every beat, every breath.

This…

Either from sensing her tension or for need of breath, Enoch drew back.

“... this is a terrible idea,” he whispered, awed. Somehow he was once again speaking aloud what she too was thinking.

“Yes,” Shio said, feeling the thunder of his pulse in time with her own. There was a pleasant tingling on her lips, a warmth curling and lancing through her core– a sharp pang. It was nice– distracting. It was hard to think of anything else when she was full with this feeling. She didn’t want to think of anything else. He held her face in his hands and brought her near again— so close when he spoke his lips brushed hers.

“…Do you want me to stop?”

“No.”

“Are you cer—“

She kissed him— or rather bit him. Catching his bottom lip with an impatient nip. Whatever resolve Enoch had left faltered.

#tag game #writing excerpts #writeblr #wip; epyllion #pair; enoch x shio

[achilleid]

Rivals to begrudging friends to forced spouses to begrudging friends to lovers—

Tag list: @ladywithalamp @bebewrites @faelanvance @reowrites @twoseeds

“Why stay?”

It was as good of a time as any to ask. If he felt like being honest, let him be honest about this.

“You made your dislike of me known often enough. So why stay?”

“I told you before that wasn’t the case,” Enoch mumbled.

“Then why?”

“... I don’t know.”

“You don’t know,” Shio repeated flatly, “That’s not good enough.”

Enoch’s brow pinched. He pushed a hand roughly through his hair and huffed out a sigh.

“That’s the problem isn’t it?” he spat bitterly, “You’ve answered it yourself.”

“Is that what you think?”

“It’s what you think. It’s what all of you think.”

“Don’t tell me what I feel,” Shio snapped back, “You don’t know how I feel. You never asked me. You never even tried to know me or talk to me before all this. You– you laughed at me. Attacked me. Made me kneel to you.”

At the mention of what he had Ires do to her, Enoch looked away. He could not meet her eye even as he spoke.

“... you knew what I was. Don’t pretend it didn’t matter to you. Not when you used it against me. Not when you called me ‘bastard’ as surely as anyone else did.”

“Anything I ever did or said to you was in defense of myself,” Shio pressed, her voice raised, “What else would you have had me do?”

He said nothing.

“Do you think I genuinely care at all about that? It does not matter to me, Enoch,” Shio found now it was her turn to look away, “... it has never mattered. You are an incredible sanguis. You are clever, but above that you are intelligent. Tactical. And you can even be quite amusing when you aren’t being insufferable.”

Shio shook her head, “And when it mattered, you stood and you fought. Despite everything, you defended those Heng soldiers. You could have run, could have used the confusion to escape but you– you stayed.”

There was a stretch of silence. Shio did not dare look at him, not then.

“... of course I stayed,” Enoch said, his voice tight, “Of course I stayed. How could I not after–”

The ships of refugees. Their friends, their people– the stories they told of ash and smoke. Of the city of Argo– fallen.

“You are an ass, Enoch Volkov,” Shio said, a faint lit of humor in her voice, “... but you could be a good man. A good king.”

Shio looked up to find Enoch looking back at her, a wry smile on his lips. His dark eyes, always hard and sharp, appeared to her to have a gentleness in them– fondness even. She flushed under his gaze.

“Well– maybe.” she amended. He laughed.

“Even if I told you that wasn’t true, you would simply argue with me, wouldn’t you? Stubborn as you are,” Enoch said and crossed the distance between them, “Everything I’ve done has been for myself, has it not?”

He tilted his head slightly, tapping his index finger under Shio’s chin to get her to look up at him.

“Maybe I only stayed and fought because I have nowhere else to go.”

“Neither do I,” Shio countered. She didn’t know why, but it made something flicker across his expression. A small fracture. A tiny break.

“You are…” Enoch began, his voice fading in a sigh, “... so unbearably constant.”

“Which is just a nice way of calling me stubborn again.”

Enoch huffed another laugh to himself.

“I will wear on you eventually.”

“You wear on me now.”

“That’s marriage I suppose,” Enoch said with a feigned air of thoughtfulness, “Good thing I am so devastatingly handsome, yes?”

“Your attractiveness does not absolve you of all your less pleasant attributes.”

“So you agree, you think I am devastating,” Enoch grinned, delighted at his victory. Shio tried to ignore the heat inching up her neck.

“I agree to nothing.”

#writing excerpts #writing excerpt #writeblr #pair; enoch x shio #post fight banter~ #imagine they are both very tired and roughed up fhhh #this scene probably won’t appear until book two #wip; epyllion