everythingwasalreadypicked

[everythingwasalreadypicked]

Context - I am infamous in my DND circle for having horrendous luck. Like eight Nat 1 rolls in a row level of bad luck. I just finished my first read through and finally checked out your blog.... only to realise I managed to trigger Aeran's Chapter 2 romance scenes purely by failing most skill checks and getting my butt handed to me at the end of chapter 1. Take that, bad luck!!

Fail upward! 😌

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The Miserable Siblings

Doodles from chapter 8 of iodiwwct

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Alabaster in a fancy suit, swaying on his feet and leaning against a wall because someone slipped moly in his food

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ngl I'm kind of loving ethannabaster right now, I should write smth about them

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“This is just a personal theory but… perhaps love is the most twisted curse of all.”

Blood filled up his lungs. Alabaster choked, gasping, wet wheezing noises deaf in his ears as fire licked the sides of his body. Stars burst right underneath his eyelids, the broken bodies of his siblings and friends painted beneath the flesh.

The man responsible for it all stood at the edge of his vision.

"Stay back!" He rasped, throwing the first thing that came to his hand. It skidded off the tile floor in empty thuds, the plastic container laid out near Perseus's feet.

He took a step closer, and another, and yet another—

Shaking his head frantically, Alabaster screamed.

The flames stopped.

Alabaster blinked, as Perseus leaned back, retreating his hand from the shower handles.

"Why were you scalding yourself in the shower," he knit his brows, "...while fully dressed?"

"Fuck off," Alabaster mumbled, curling on himself. His spine ached against the metal faucet.

Perseus tutted.

His head was slammed against the wall by an invisible force, dragging and puppeteering his blood, suffocating whatever air was left in his lungs.

Seconds later, his chin fell to his chest like a broken marionette, blood trickling down his nostrils. Iron bit at the undersides of his tongue as Alabaster watched the crimson swirl down the drain along with the lukewarm water poured down his head.

Calloused fingers caressed through his hair, "What were you planning to do, exactly?"

"I don't know." He tried his best to not melt into the touch, which was proving itself difficult enough, what with how gentle it was.

"Al..."

Alabaster braced himself after the sigh, expecting the veins inside his body to be manipulated once more. When it didn't came he inhaled, pulling his shoulders up to his ears. "To get myself rid of this curse, I suppose."

"Curse?!" Perseus's voice pitched higher in volume, "What curse— Who, wha—"

"Aphrodite, or any of the Erotes." A humourless cackle escaped past Alabaster's lips, "After all, love is the surest way and the cruelest curse to declaw someone, is it not?"

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I want to yap about and go in depth about my character dynamics thoughts all day. Unfortunately I'm cursed with being articulate only when I'm writing a fic about them/hj

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“I asked chatgpt” “I asked grok” Well I asked my Mother, Hecate, and she simply told me the most likely outcome. She didn’t promise me that it would occur. She only wanted me to see the options, so I would be prepared for what might lie ahead.

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river can I get some director’s commentary on Al and Hecate in Camper Al pls pls pls pls pls

Marry me/platonic

I'M SHAKING LIKE A BOILING TEAPOT TY ARTEMIS TY TY

I have decided the best way to ramble would be to go play-by-play so fasten your seat belt folks! This is getting long!

If it were not for the lack of creaking polished oak parquets or decaying Gothic walls, it almost felt like home.

From the start, Alabaster mentions how decaying gothic walls feel like home to him. This was meant to be a nod towards Hecate's church in SoM, Al has been there many many times before :D (and the parquets are from his father's house)

He knows this is a dream, and he knows it's his mother who called upon him. Presumably, because he had spectacularly failed at Manhattan and gotten their family killed. And he knows *very well* just how much her kids mean to his mother.

Alabaster let the full body shiver run through him, gulping to unknot his tied tongue. Of course his mother wasn't looking at him, of course she didn't want his show of respect. Not when it ended up being empty, not when he had taken her trust and smashed it to minuscule pieces.

He had basked under her graciously gifted trust and praises, only to give her the ashes of their cause and her children in return. Scratch that; Olympians had made sure he would be able to held neither the corpses nor the ashes of his beloved siblings.

As he has gotten her kids killed, he cannot be her son at the moment, or so Al thinks. But he can be her little general, and apologise to his goddess.

"I said. Get up!" Alabaster flinched, the echo of her tripled voice booming inside the auditorium.

Except she doesn't want that. She doesn't want his empty apologies.

Alabaster is going through a barrage of self hatred here, and in the centerpiece is how he fails to meet the imaginary criteria he set for himself on what a proper child of Hecate, much less her strongest, should had achieved.

Hecate's enthusiasm in defeating the gods and finally getting herself a throne (as much as she says she cares not for one) and finally Some Fucking Respect and her guidance of Al since childhood no doubt plays a role here.

AND MAYBE— I'm projecting here but. Hecate didn't need to verbally set expectations for Alabaster to get them. She didn't even need to insult him.

When you're so starved for attention and there's this authority figure(s) showering you in compliments. Well you don't want to disappoint them, you don't want to disappoint yourself too. You've always gotten compliments, always been the prodigy. You don't know anything else. This is YOUR thing. You have never failed and you're afraid to do so.

They paint you as a never-faltering hero. You're smart, you're capable, you've never been anything but. You're simultaneously both riding the high of the pedestal you've been placed on and writhing in agony under the spotlight.

It's great. You've never felt better. Look at all the others, the failures. You're not like them. You won't fail.

It's their fault for not studying, fighting and practicing enough anyway.

Until you do fail. And everyone is looking at you as if you've committed a severe crime, "Oh are you sick?" They say. "Has something happened to make you falter?" Because truly there has to be some unstoppable outside force to explain it. But no. It's you, you and solely you. You didn't study enough, fought enough, practiced enough. It's your fault.

What was all the compliments for then?

People say failing once doesn't mean everything is over, except it does. You've lost EVERYTHING.

And maybe. Maybe you weren't special at all.

And the compliments still don't stop, and you're left to grapple with just how far you can fall. If this did not disappoint them, then just what kind of Major Fuck Up they're further expecting of you, big enough that you'll be discarded and made fun of like the ones you've been taught to see yourself better than.

You're a fly throwing yourself repeatedly at the light of the fire and it's killing you. You don't know what else to do and you wouldn't have it any other way, regardless.

Alabaster wasn't wary of Trivia, the goddess wasn't one to have kids but she still treated Hecate's as if they were one of her own champions. Her triple forms concerned him more, though not as much as they worried him about her. He knew she only lost control of them when she was stressed.

So, I'll get to my Hecate and grief thoughts later. In another post. But basically from my Hecate characterisation, I can say; if she was a mortal, she'd be one of those parents who have gone through major emotional hurt and have no support system, so they're using their eldest as an emotional clutch + therapy.

Hecate is prone to shifting between maiden, mother, crone during times of emotional distress and Alabaster has seen it enough times to manage the situation. Sure, she's more unpredictable than usual when she's like this™ but ultimately he knows it's because she's hurting. And he's a dutiful son.

He's genuinely worried about her, because he's close to her to the point that he knows her to such degree. This sets Al-Hecate apart from rest of his siblings, as much as a good mom Hecate is, they're on a separate layer than the rest due to the level of dependency they have on eachother.

"Hold on to that pride of yours." She sniffed. "We won't let them see they got to us."

Hecate is proud to a fault, and is astonished Al's pride, while huge, is not as big as hers/hj

Alabaster would never get tired of the thrill seeing his mother letting out even the barest slivers of the power she had as a Titan brought.

Not only it fed the hereditary lust for power; it also kept him in check, kept him in line. Reminded him that no matter what he'd still not be the strongest witch. Hecate was the best, always; and Alabaster had no issues going under her service.

Huh, maybe that had been why his mentor had a problem with their mother.

(Shotout to Hayden, she will make his appearance later in the series, I promise ehehehe)

One of the several reasons Al is so loyal to his mom, is his fatal flaw: powerlust. His mother is incredibly powerful and it's drawing him in like moth to flame.

There's no separation between Al as her son, her general and her worshipper. As much as Al can be as flippant as his mom, these three facets of Als personality exists simultaneously. There is no separation between General Torrington and Alabaster the big brother and this WILL come to bite Al back later, especially when he's left to ponder if he has ever been a good brother at all.

She swirled the liquid, drinking in Alabaster's face. "War doesn't just start and end on battlefields, and the sooner you learn that, for the better it is."

For her, the war is not over at all. But for now she will try her damn hardest to keep her beloved son out of trouble. Her children are her everything. The guilt and grief of their deaths will be weighting on her for a LONG LOOONG time.

If anything happened to Alabaster in Camp Half-Blood, she'd never forgive herself Annabeth.

Though considering how the man forced him to power through and finish his meals even when they were itching and hurting his mouth on the rare occasions he remembered to feed Alabaster, maybe that actually checked out.

The childhood neglect also plays its part in Al's loyalty. I have thoughts about Mr. Torrington, let's just say that mwahahahah.

Alabaster would DIE for his mother, he just needs her to say so and he'd willingly take his own heart out and offer it to her.

Hecate, does not want him to die however. I'd like to point out how she gave him a full wineglass of nectar btw. I'm not saying she is trying to make him stay around longer by getting him to be immortal but—

This mother and son duo is in a level of codependency never before seen wahoooo <333

Hecate is very well aware of Al's hobbies, likes and dislikes and etc. She knows her son well, and as much as she wishes she could listen to him ramble, they're in a time crunch.

She's *personally* angry at Zeus, and him at her while also having a soft spot left from a time long-gone. That's why they're both so mad in the first place.

"They have to," Alabaster spat, "I'll make them at least. A cabin if nothing else."

One if my favourite parts of Alabaster and Hecate's relationship is how she values his opinion. He convinced him to fight and not surrender!

She's a goddess, she had no reason to listen to him. As much as he is her son, he is also a mere mortal. Yet she did.

To me, their relationship is SO tangled to the point people will never know which one of them's mind is speaking when listening one of them talk.

If they thought General Torrington would forgive them for their treachery they would be sorely mistaken.

His mother laughed, sharp and short, tousling his hair. Her melodic voice echoed in three before the silence buried the atmosphere of the auditorium again.

"You know," she said, "I've always wondered whether you got your temper from me or Corvus."

She also. Quite enjoys Alabaster's cruel mean streak :3

Hecate be like: Are you even a mom if you don't unconditionally support your children's war crimes?

Alabaster has definitely threatened to use people as human sacrifice in her name before and he'll continue to do so.

"I love you, Gemstone, don't you dare forget that." Hecate declared, with the same gravity of the lawyer that had informed Alabaster's father of Grandfather's death.

Hecate has had enough of her children forgetting she loves them regardless of if they're her strongest (cough Hayden cough) and is desperately hoping Alabaster will be the one to put a stop to the fratricide cycle they've been stuck in for centuries. So he best believe never ever forget that she loves him.

"Of course you did. She didn't even had to order around, I presume." He shook his head, "You would throw yourself into a bonfire if she asked you too, right?"

The level of devotion Hecate's kids have to her is very well known amongst the other gods and that! Scares them! Although for different reasons, depending on the god.

"Tea? Kid, this is diluted nectar." Dionysius snorted, "She's going to get all her children killed someday. Oh wait—"

In Mr. D's case, he thinks she is reckless with her children. Leading them to death under Kronos, giving her son huge amounts of nectar that could have resulted in him combusting on spot and dying horrifically—

The usual.

The half-healed burns on his face almost caused Alabaster to smile in fondness. He had told Harper time and time again to not aim for people's faces, clearly she had not listened. Figured. Alabaster could never manage to give an effective lecture to his siblings, always yielding too easily at their presence.

Hecate is not the only war crime encourager in the family. Like mother like son.

Now lastly, I'd like to get into the deal with Hecate's cloak. SPECIFICALLY; when it's addressed as whose.

In Alabaster's mind, his loyalty to Kronos and his loyalty to his mother is one and the same.

That's why whenever he seems more close and open to campers (besides Annabeth) it's referred to as *his* cloak; and why whenever he's digging his heels in, clinging to the ideas he has been fed it's referred to as *his mother's* cloak.

It's physically (isolating) shielding him from others.

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Smartwatermagic Domestic Headcanons

Annabeth loves cuddling her boyfriends. She also has a teddy bear and an owl plushie, she is clinging to all of them at night.

Alabaster is a big blanket hog. Unfortunately for his partners he also has a tendency to dissappear while they're sleeping and take the blanket either with him or dump it on the floor. Getting him a separate blanket DID NOT help.

Percy is the designated cook. He has a chef's hat (with a rat stitched on it) and a blue apron with 'Fish the Cook' written on. No, his partners may not help him. And no, you are not reorganising the kitchen thank you very much.

Percy likes coffee (with lots of cream, milk and sugar), Alabaster likes tea (you better adhere to his strict seeping times) and Annabeth likes them both. As in, she will pour tea into her coffee and visa versa. She's not drinking them separate.

They all have designated mugs, colour coordinated. Percy’s have blue electric bands wrapped on the handles, Annabeth’s have silver owl stickers on them, Alabaster's have green sharpie doodles. Al refuses to use any mug that had ever been used for coffee. He does not want that drink near his mouth and it does not matter how many times the mugs have been washed.

Annabeth’s architecture plans, blueprints and models are strewn everywhere in the flat, but she swears she has an organisation system and they are all right in the spaces they are supposed to be.

Percy hates the taste of toothpaste. It makes him want to vomit.

They bet on how long it will take for them to receive a noise complaint whenever a new neighbour moves in. If Al's soundproofing spells did not do anything against the volume of their arguments, then they doubt anything can.

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In hindsight, maybe Annabeth should have known that dragging the Titan army *general* along with her after the battle was over may have some consequences. Oh well, that's a problem for future her.

OR

Alabaster is doing not so well and is also making it everybody else's problem

Aka Camper Al au 2 and Al antagonising every person with an orange shirt as much as he can.

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The raid had been a catastrophic failure. Again, groaned Jason internally from where he laid on the metal floor of the warehouse Titan army used as a base.

From the corners of his eyes he could see Saturn's soldiers dragging his tied up cohort towards a corner. Cohort Four had been the ones that went first; and the ones the Fifth had to fight against as they had been puppeted by enemy forces via magic. Currently they were out cold, their slumbering bodies piled on top of eachother like broken marionettes.

Metallic clings drew his attention to his back, before he was ousted up by his magic bindings and came face to face with the smug shit-eating grin of Saturn's general.

Alabaster Torrington pushed Jason to his knees, raising his chin with two fingers.

"Well, hello Centurion," Alabaster hummed, cupping his face and turning it slowly from side to side, as if he was inspecting a prize.

Jason chose to curl his lip in greeting.

"You owe me a kiss, Grace," sharp nails dug into Jason's jaw, Alabaster's voice on an ecstatic high.

Jason blinked, "Right now? Here?"

Alabaster gripped his face tighter, his rings almost bruising Jason's skin, "If someone didn't stick his tail between his legs and run every time he tried to initiate it, there would be no need for this."

"All my cohort is watching, Alabaster." Jason hissed. Only for his breath to hitch as Alabaster drew a dagger with his free hand.

He watched with increasing nervousness and his skin burning up while Alabaster caressed Jason's cheek with the sharp edge of the blade, then went lower down his throat, to rest beneath his collarbone.

"Maybe I should give you a little parting gift," Alabaster mused, "so you will seek me out to patch you up later."

Jason glared.

"No, I love you too much for that."

Jason could never figure out if he had fallen in love with the most dramatic theatre nerd ever or if Alabaster just had a plain old mean streak.

"If I kiss you," Jason licked his lips, "will you let me and my cohort—mmh."

Alabaster's thumb was in his mouth. He leaned towards Jason's ear, sending blood rushing to his face.

"I'm not going to coerce you into anything you don't want, Jase," Alabaster whispered, "who do you take me for?"

Jason averted his eyes, nodded and glanced over the other's shoulder, his heart beating inside his ribcage. If he kissed Alabaster now... would they see it?

Jason swallowed, "Scoot over."

Alabaster gave him a triumphant smile, pulling away his thumb, and moved so he'd block Jason from the rest's vision. Jason leaned in, pressing a quick kiss against Alabaster's mouth, the other's lips burning his own like fire.

Alabaster stroked his cheekbone with his thumb, before shoving Jason to the ground. He gestured his army to retreat and shadow travelled away. Leaving Jason to cut apart his and his cohort's binds with Alabaster's knife and taste of raspberry chapstick on his mouth.

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Poseidon curled his lip. "My niece may not care if you pull down her daughter with you but I'll not standby. You and Percy will be the ruin of eachother. And by us, will I make sure it will be you who goes first."

Poseidon loves his son. He does really, and he will try to respect his choices. But what he doesn't love is his choice in partners... one partner in particular. He decides to take the matter on his own hands.

OR

Alabaster experiences the worst shovel talk in his life.

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Smartwatermagic for the requests perhaps🥺👉👈?

eehehfdhe been wanting to use this base for a while >:D

^by @mellon-soup ofc !!!!! (guys i love their bases and art so much)

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Playing around with Al not telling Percy Grover wrote to him in the war prize au. Not because of malice, but because he literally could not care less that Percy misses his friends and family ("Oh boohoo you miss your mom? That's too bad. Mine is dead because of you.") and he figured out that Percy would eventually see them and write back. Unfortunately Prince Perseus Jackson is one hell of a chronic procrastinator that worsens with guilt.

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the percethalabeth agenda compilation <33 did a doodle every duo in the percy/ethan/al/annabeth ship: ethabeth, annabaster, percethan, percybaster, ethabaster, and percabeth!

i had so much fun trying to capture their dynamics in one quick doodle each. im going to be doing one big piece of all four of them soon

hope you guys enjoy(ed) these too <3

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very angry cat and one of the few people capable of handling him