procrastinatingwritersblog

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Superpowers AU

Juliette can control fire. This means so much more when she sees the servant’s house burning, but she can’t stop it, because she’s young and she’s dumb and she was never going to be enough to save her Nurse. When she returns to New York, she practices (but it’s still too late). On innocent buildings and at the end of cigarettes. When she sets White Flowers alight, she pretends like she can’t hear the boy of ice (but his heart was warmer than hers, always) whispering, Oh, dorogaya, what have you become?

Roma can control ice. For a boy whose heart beats warmer (and bloodier) than anyone else, it does not suit him. It places him at odds with the girl trying to win a marble from him, the impulsive girl of fire, but he falls anyway (he always does). He keeps his powers within him most of the time. He can’t let it out, because ice is supposed to be sharp and jagged and all the things he refuses to be. Even so, every time he makes snow for Alisa during a Shanghai summer, he has to feel that maybe, just this once, ice can be soft too.

Kathleen could control the stones beneath their feet. The treasured Lang son could control plants and vines. Celia lands somewhere between them both, or something else entirely. She uses her powers to control flowers, to gift her sister bouquets and watch her expression light up with joy. It is not suitable for the right-hand woman of the Scarlet heir, it’s not harsh enough, not enough like a gangster, but as Juliette tucks a daisy that Celia grew in her hair, smiling, it suits her anyway.

Rosalind can control alcohol. Sometimes, she thinks she was always destined to be just who she was—a dancer chasing tips at the Bund, never more, but never quite less either. She plays with drinks, puts on a show for the patrons, and she leaves with pockets a bit fuller (not like she needs it, not like she needs it at all). She always feels a bit lesser than Juliette and her sister. How could she not? She controls drinks, while Juliette plays with fire itself and her sister creates beauty in the world. She was always destined to fall for Dimitri’s tricks, in this world and in every other.

Marshall can’t fall. As a child, he always sprang up from the most deadly of falls with nothing but a scrape or bruise to show of it. His power came on early, so people thought he was just lucky for most of his life. His father got frustrated with him, sometimes, when he came home. But that never mattered when he had a mother who reassured him he didn’t need a superpower, even as they started to suspect he had one after all. So when he runs, he runs from more than an absent father—he runs from a disapproving one.

Benedikt can control the weather. He can’t change it, but if it’s particularly windy or rainy or hot, he can bend the temperature or the rain and wind to his will. It’s always hard to put his power into words, just like almost everything about him. He’s quiet, but he makes a little umbrella for the people he cares about every time it rains. When he meets Marshall, this time, it’s raining. It’s raining and they are two kids with early superpowers and Benedikt is offering him a dry place to stay, a roof to live under, and a lovely heart to steal.

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rb to tell ur mutuals ur fond of them

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"I, like, literally hate you." --Penelope, probably, who's joking

OPHSAU chapter three is up now! please go look at it! i promise it's super goood!

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Was curious how far Ithaca was from troy today while listening to epic the musical and rereading the illiad and I found this map

I think odysseus would have been better just to walk😭

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i wrote a twin cinema poem about two gay soldiers in wwi

context: the two sides, read separately, are the two soldiers thinking about their futures with each other. when read together, it's a reflection of their final thoughts when they die together struck by bullets <3

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so soft it hurts

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I just saw someone on tiktok say writing fanfiction is basically just playing with dolls….i can’t get that out of my head. We’re literally just playing with dolls in our heads and putting it on paper 😭😭😭

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LITERALLY M E

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*except bigots!

are you autistic and gay?

lesbian and autistic perhaps?

an autistic pan or bisexual?

asexual and autistic?

trans or non binary and autistic?

any autistic member of the LGBTQ+ community?

well guess what...

you're fucken great and I love you

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i have straight As. do i still obsessively check my grades as if I have a D? yes

anxiety is wild because i'll be like, "omg im failing all my classes i dont even want to check my grades" and then i check my grades and it's literally all As and a B but i still feel like im failing

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i have so many Opinions about this comparison.

percabeth is honestly so toxic, but the rose-colored way percabeth shippers see the ship could, possibly, be an…. odd, watered down version of our beloved odypen.

but the way they actually work? their actual dynamic? gods, no. and this post illustrates that so clearly.

Ok, so I am HOWLING with laughter.

So, have you heard? People are comparing Percy and Annabeth to................Odysseus and Penelope.

When I heard this, you don't know how funny it was to me. I almost choked on my spit. LMAOOOOOOOOOOO

Penelope would NEVER hit or insult Odysseus. She doesn't play mind games with him and they communicate properly.

Odysseus and Penelope are not toxic. Percabeth is.

Also, Rick Riordan is LEAGUES worse than Homer. Like, the guy cannot even compare to the ACTUAL GREEK POET.

And people are actually comparing the two.

Percy Jackson IS good at times, but it will NEVER compare to Homer's compositions. Literally never.

TBH that's just my personal opinion.

Also, Homer actually composed many of the Greek epics that we still read today.

I get why people would want to compare them, but there is no comparison, really. It's so fucking funny to me.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on Percabeth compared to Odysseus and Penelope?

That comparison alone has ruined the New Year for me. It's an insult to the Odyssey. Hell, it's an insult to the recently released Ithaca Saga of Epic the Musical.

But seriously, are these things actually being said? Cause that puts Percabeth stans from delusional category to brain dead.

Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey are one of history's most reputed myths of all time. And the primary source of Greek mythology for many people. I am certain Rick himself referred Homer's works for ideas and references. Even Riordan himself would be ashamed to compare his writing to Homer, in even the slightest manner.

Now to Odysseus and Penelope; the greatest couple of all time, truly and undeniably. The orignal eternal love. Even Hera, the goddess of marriage and family, considers Odysseus and Penelope's marriage bed sacred. Which Odysseus carved out of a living tree as a symbol of their undying love and so that it could never be moved.

Odysseus crawled through hell to get to Penelope and Telemachus. He survived and won the 10 year long Trojan war, defeated/ tricked a Cyclops, countless mythical monsters, Circe, Calypso, and even Zeus himself and at last Poseidon. That alone is beyond comprehension. Because Odysseus isn't a demigod or any specially blessed being. No, he is just an ordinary mortal, a genius mortal, one trained by the wisdom goddess but an ordinary mortal all the same. Yes, he is one of a kind genius, but these are literally eldritch creatures compared to him.

Let me put it this way, Odysseus is the OG Batman. He is who all smart fictional human characters aspire to be.

The Odyssey is literally about the all transcending power of human will. Of Odysseus's sheer fucking will to get back home, to his wife and son. That's it. A common desire of a common man, yet so miraculously burning and indomitable in Odysseus's mind that it alone outshines his extraordinary genius.

He quite literally died on his way there. Had to hitch a ride through the Underworld and then some.

Then he had to sacrifice his ENTIRE CREW, HIS FRIENDS, HIS COMRADES to get back to Ithaca. Mind you, Odysseus had the record of getting every single one of his 600 men alive out of Trojan War. The only one to have done so. And he had to lose some to the tragedies and then WILLINGLY SACRIFICE others to get back to Penelope.

I don't think there are words enough to encapsulate Odysseus's dedication.

Now Penelope. The thing is, she is just as bloody impressive. The Queen of Ithaca and a Spartan Princess, she is also one of a kind. Throughout Odysseus's departure and the suitors' invasion , not five, not ten, 108 SUITORS, Penelope held her own, keeping the castle, her son Telemachus and herself secure. All the while, raising Telemachus and running the kingdom on her own as well.

She tricked the suitors into an eternally futile game of trying to lift Odysseus's bow and shoot with it. Tricked them by telling them she was weaving Odysseus's shroud, which, when finished, would signify that she is picking a new husband. Each day, she would weave for all suitors to see, and each night, she would unravel the shroud. All in an attempt to stall. Among the many other ways, she did so. Including STEADFASTLY DENYING EACH AND EVERY SUITOR CONSTANTLY FOR YEARS AS THEY ASKED FOR HER HAND, NEVER ONCE LOSING HOPE OR FAITH IN ODYSSEUS.

When Odysseus returns, disguised as a beggar, she not only immediately recognizes him but subtly helps him in killing the suitors, which then Odysseus and Telemachus proceed to do.

All 108 suitors dead in a night. Add that to 600 men under Odysseus's command. 708 lives murdered and then some all for Odysseus and Penelope to reunite.

And this is me abridging the whole thing. Imagine the struggle, the suffering, the mental and physical trauma. 20 years straight. You can't fathom it.

I don't think I have words enough to state how repulsively disrespectfully wretched this comparison is. I would use an analogy, but it's so horrendous that I don't think there's one that suffices.

I literally have more than half the posts dedicated to dismantling the delusion of percabeth being a perfect ship, so I won't preach to the choir, but I mean Annabeth's fatal flaw is Hubris and Percy's is Personal Loyalty. Go figure.

If that isn't enough, Percy jumped in Tartarus for Annabeth. She fell, but Percy jumped, among the many other ways he has saved her from countless deaths. And Annabeth offers him what in return? It would have been alright if she gave him nothing in return, but somehow, the situation is EVEN WORSE.

Physical and mental demeaning. Toxic and controlling attitude and of course BLAMING HIM FOR GETTING KIDNAPPED AND HAVING HIS MEMORY WIPED BY A GODDESS. WOW, THAT SOUNDS SO SIMILAR TO PENELOPE AND ODYSSEUS.

Not to mention, Penelope accepted her husband, as he was. Even after being so completely changed by his tragic journey that he was quite literally NO LONGER HIMSELF.

And Percy when had to CHOKE AKHYLS WHO WAS DEFINITELY GOING TO KILL HIM AND ANNABETH, WAS KILLING HIM AND ANNABETH, OUT OF SELF DEFENSE AND SHE BLAMES HIM AND FORCES HIM TO PROMISE NOT TO USE HIS POWERS TO DEFEND HIMSELF???

WHAT THE FUCK??? And sure it would have been ignorable had it not had any long term effects. BUT NO PERCY ALMOST KILLS HIMSELF OUT OF KEEPING HIS PROMISE TO ANNABETH.

Call them whatever the hell you want but DON'T EVER COMPARE THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO ODYSSEUS AND PENELOPE.

PERCY DESERVES INFINITELY BETTER THAN ANNABETH. Enough said, really.

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Ok, I wanted to talk about Annabeth being the reincarnation of Odysseus.

First of all, yes, Annabeth and not Percy. Here's why: they have the same fatal flaw (hubris), fight in similar ways (relying heavily in words and tricks), as well as this comparison being made in the Sea of Monsters itself several times, in which Annabeth (Odysseus) calls herself Nobody (again) to the Cyclops, is the one that wanted to tied herself to listen to the sirens (I know that part was changed in Epic, but let's pretend not for the sake of the intention of the comparison in the book), etcetera. In addition, I know Percy going insane when someone hurts Annabeth is something the whole fandom agrees, which is something he and Odysseus share, but let's be honest, Annabeth does not play about him neither. I would say she went even more nuts about him missing in HOO than he did when she went missing in Titan Curse. Percy could also totally be Penelope, considering their loyalty.

That being said, what I wanted to focus on this post is Athena, and how she made the same mistake again with another version of her protégée, this time her daughter. If we consider that the events of Epic are what happened in PJO, not only Athena (or Minerva, so close enough) abandoned Odysseus again in The Mark of Athena, but she said to Annabeth that she wished Odysseus was there because he would understand the map (that's a line about that in the book). She compared Annabeth to Odysseus, not realising they are the same soul.

Also, if the events of Epic happened in PJO, then it means Athena gave up of creating a world where people held each other with a little more empathy, like she said she wished to do in "I can't help but wonder". She had probably tried for a few centuries, became kinder. I even think that might be why she started to have demigods children: to a child of Athena to be born she needs a real connection with a mortal, which she didn't allow herself before Odysseus. However, with the pass of time (my personal belief is that the Romans treatment towards her would be a main factor in that), she went back to be colder. She has a ruthless father who didn't support her mission to be kinder and told her to be away from her kids, as well as humans who didn't pay her the same respect as they used to.

Then it came Annabeth, this child, her child, who is her favourite, and part of that it's because she reminds her of her favourite champion, her first friend, even if she doesn't acknowledge that. Unaware to her, they are the same person, and this time she's his mother. This version of Odysseus looks up to her so much because her mortal family couldn't understand her and she still carries the admiration Odysseus felt towards her, but without any of the bad memories.

And yet.

Yet Athena breaks her (his) trust again. Yet Athena disapproves Percy (Penelope), who in any life, Odysseus (Annabeth) would do anything for. More than that, Athena is one of the main reasons that Annabeth took so long to accept Percy as the love of her life.

So Annabeth (Odysseus) resents her again, and when Athena realises who her daughter is (because I am sure she would eventually) it's already too late. She made the same mistake, and she can hear a voice in her head calling her "Selfish and prideful and vain", but this time, this voice sounds like Annabeth's.

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Odysseus: "I need her to be Mine~" Athena: "...I can introduce you two." Odysseus: "What? Really?! Wait, you know her?" Athena: "Uh, yeah? You think you're my only pet trickster? You just said she was the 'smartest girl in the game', you think I'm gonna ignore that? I'll be right back."

Meanwhile~

Penelope: "...So...The guy who has been watching me from around corners before running away is also one of your favored mortals?" Athena: "Yes, I'm sorry, he's usually a lot smarter than this." Penelope: "...Eh, You know I've had stupid moments too. I'll go say hi."

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Don’t tell me you’re not the same person You’re always my husband And I’ve been waiting, waiting

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pocgwog

F

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assigning my characters songs

I've never even published any of the original work that contains these characters, but I thought it was a fun exercise!

Aster: Non-Stop from Hamilton ('Why do you fight like you're running out of time?'

Auden: Daylight by Kansom ('Running from the daylight, running from the daylight')

Elena: You're On Your Own, Kid by Taylor Swift ('Yeah you can face this')

Kestra: Family Line by Conan Gray ('I was a kid, but I wasn't clueless [someone who loves you wouldn't do this!]')

Rayla: I Can't Help But Wonder from Epic ('I can't help but wonder what this world could be if we all held each other with a bit more empathy')

Helene: Champion by Neoni ('Woah, I was born for greatness, woah, a legend in the making')

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the prequel to love in paradise

Ody: ATHENA!

Athena: He needs my help!

*Athena pops down into the mortal world.*

Athena: What?

Ody: I've met the girl of my dreams and I need her to bemineandhernamespenelope--

Athena: ...you're kidding.