#[ the usual disclaimer ]

[ppeanutz]

I had to.

update: you can find a refurbished version of this on my ko-fi !

[ciderjacks]

Rule #2: The locksmith will not be required to participate in battle

(read this post and this post for more context lol)

[bugboybuck]

i have received more visions from the heavens

[lucabyte]

A belief in Nominative Determinsim

[dog-teeth]

went camping

[aroaceleovaldez]

I was reading a post about CoTG and I realized: Rick has seemingly started to write every character pairing with the exact same dynamic, and he's not good at writing that dynamic and it doesn't make sense for 90% of the characters he writes it for.

It's that very specific dynamic of one half of the pair who is almost aggressive to the other party - "teasing" them constantly/insulting them, affectionately punching/judo flipping/maiming/etc, seemingly almost always exasperated with the other - and said other party usually just accepts this treatment or blanketly views it fondly, and may generally be framed as more incompetent than their partner and a little bit of a doormat (particularly relating to being insulted/teased/etc by their partner).

We start seeing this dynamic in HoO with Percy and Annabeth, as a sort of semi-inconsistent twist on their rivals-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic from the first series. Then the dynamic pattern develops further with Leo and Calypso. Then Magnus and Alex. Then Nico and Will, particularly in TSATS. And now in CoTG, it's Percy and Annabeth again but even more in this direction.

I know people have talked about Nico and Will's relationship over the series rapidly being shoehorned into Percabeth Two™, and it's extremely apparent in TSATS that Rick's doing it on purpose (including directly quoting Percabeth scenes but minorly tweaking them to be Solangelo). But recognizing it as an overarching trend in Rick's later books honestly reminds me a lot of how Rick started trying to apply the "Percy Formula" so-to-speak to nearly every protagonist in HoO (and then try to replicate similar character archetypes with Magnus and Apollo's narrations - moreso Magnus in being jaded and sarcastic, very much trying to be first series Percy. He only sounds unique because Rick failed at making him Percy 2. Apollo is more akin to later-series Percy characterization of being goofy and incompetent. Apollo [and Zeus] even got retconned to give Apollo a more similar backstory to Percy's). Rick seems to have decided that he thinks the audience wants this specific dynamic but 10 times over, except he's not good at writing it the first time because it's a bastardization of the time he did a different thing okay.

And Rick also seems aware of that too! Because he retconned Calypso and Leo at the end of TOA, probably because he realized how absolutely awful it was reading when they were written with that dynamic of Calypso just functionally hating Leo and constantly being aggressive towards him! The only time Rick's actually made the dynamic even semi-successful was with Magnus and Alex, because it actually fits within their characters, their dynamics with each other, and their environment. Alex beheading Magnus on the regular works out fine because there are no repercussions to that in Valhalla, Magnus will be fine, so it does genuinely come off as humorous. And Alex has been effectively established to be abrasive at times but have her genuine feelings shine through regularly, and that meshes well with Magnus' jaded-and-aloof-but-quietly-very-empathetic character. And Magnus has been established to, yes, not be great at combat, particularly compared to Alex. They are the only time that flavor of dynamic in that form was effective and cohesive.

Percabeth is no longer rivals-to-friends-to-lovers badasses on equal levels with shaky pasts who finally found some form of permanence with one another. Now it's super smart doting and affectionately aggressive girlfriend and her silly goofy 50%-of-the-time incompetent boyfriend who she judo flips/pushes off cliffs/etc - but affectionately~! Solangelo is trying to riff off of the early series "Poseidon & Athena are enemies" dynamic that Percabeth had but with Apollo & Hades being "opposites" but learning to accept each other, except it ends up with Will just coming off as a huge asshole and Nico being retconned to a complete doormat about it - when prior to that those characterizations would be completely contrary to their established characters (even just from TOA!). Calypso in HoO gets retconned from her PJO characterization to being snooty and aggressive, and Leo's false persona gets merged into his just normal personality except he just also becomes a doormat but more goofy than Nico with occasional haha-dark/depression-humor! Which Nico also got. Which was also a bastardized Percy trait that got redistributed.

It's exhausting. Rick write more than one relationship dynamic you can do it I promise

[azuphere]

giffing my m&g:

dan removing phil's cat ears for him <3 (video version)

[ternaryflower53]

some more thoughts about leftist antisemitism from a chinese american person:

whatever happened to "collapsing diverse communities into a monolith is bad, actually"? this seems to be perfectly uncontroversial when people talk about anti-asian racism

and yet certain people are all too happy to label every jew they don't like a "zionist" and act like zionism has one definition (that usually includes genociding palestinians, of course) and like. do you even know that there are different definitions of zionism? have you done the slightest hint of learning about different jewish thoughts about israel besides "israel bad"?

it's just. fascinating. and not in a good way.

[from-the-owls-nest]

open starter?

you hear a quiet knock at your cabin door. When you open it, you see a little girl/child in a big hoodie sitting on the doorstep. It's pulled its legs to the chest into a little ball, looking panicked and having visibly cried.

"... help?"

taglist @nico-sees-dead-people @dr-flipflops @the-eclipse-is-in-me @quinn-is-victory @demigod-jack-hearth other tags i cant remember

[strangertheories]

sick of people justifying the lack of diversity in stranger things with the fact that it's an 80s small town when they have fucking great poc characters who are either underutilised (lucas, erica) or who they just deleted off the show (kali, argyle). not to mention all of vecna's victims being fleshed out...except the Black one! and all the opportunities they could've used for rep, like vickie. this is a consistent pattern.

[raynavan]

loser. (for day 9 of Sept-Ingo: Lessons)

[negativespace06]

summer and the beach,,, makes me think of them,,,

[bugboybuck]

it was the worst of times it was the worst of times < me describing hiatus. here are some more incorrect quotes to carry us thru

[fatguarddog]

There's really something hot in being someone's porn but not even knowing about it

Being the chubby regular at a cafe who the barista gets off to imagining you fatter, the person with swaying hips someone sees every day on their way to work and fantasizes about how it would feel to sink their fingers into all that softness, the guy at the office who popped a button on his shirt after lunch last week and his coworker who hasn't stopped jerking off about it since... 🥵

[vroombeams]

free use landoscar!!

Lando's entirely-totally-completely fine with it when Oscar doesn't follow through with their little agreement.

It's kind of dumb, really, when he thinks on it. Shaking hands at the beginning of the season, both of them smirky about it. That's the deal for the rest of the year: whoever finishes ahead gets whatever they want from whoever finished behind. Gets to use whoever finishes second.

It's just that so far Lando's really the only one who's cashed it in. Like, after Miami, when Lando'd let himself into Oscar's hotel room and rubbed his dick all over Oscar's slack, sleeping mouth until he'd woken up and gotten the picture. Like at Silverstone, when Lando'd sat Oscar on his massage table and bounced on his dick like he could fuck the disappointment out of them both.

It's starting to get sort of embarrassing. A bit pathetic, isn't it? That Lando's been dragging Oscar into something that he was pretty certain they both wanted.

Maybe Oscar doesn't want it. Maybe Oscar doesn't want him.

Deeply frustrating stuff. As if Lando needs more frustration in his life.

Spa is Spa, and Lando's an idiot, and he's going to hide in his trailer until someone explicitly comes and gets him to leave. He deserves a little bit of face-down-floor-time given the circumstances. The race was bad enough, and on top of that, the team photos after—he'd looked sort of desperate, hadn't he? With his flirty little pinch to Oscar's shoulder. Batting his lashes and everything, like he could tempt Oscar into finally cashing in.

But here he is! Alonedo Norris. Sunday again, no problem.

The door creaks open and Lando doesn't lift his head. It'll be Jon—no one else just walks in without knocking. He'll figure out that Lando's not actually asleep in about two seconds, because he always does, and then Lando will have to get up. But he'll milk those two seconds.

There is, however, suddenly someone standing over him. Like, one foot on either side of his hips, squeezing a bit before they sink to their knees.

"Hi," Oscar says, and he's tugging Lando's joggers down.

Oh. Well. Okay.

"Hi," Lando says back, breathlessly lifting his hips to help, and he means finally. Finally, when Oscar grabs his arse and spreads him open, spitting a great glob of saliva between his cheeks. Is he going to fuck him like this? With just his spit? Lando's never gone quite that hard but it's in their handshake agreement or whatever, that they can do whatever they want to each other.

Oscar sighs, and Lando can picture him getting his dick out, the relief of it. He's just like the rest of them, popping boners on the podium. It's uncomfortable at best, champagne-soaked suit all stuck to your bits.

Lando braces and then tries to relax all at once when Oscar's dick comes to rest against his arse. If he breathes through it, it'll be fine. And Oscar's not stupid or cruel; he'll stop if it's awful.

He doesn't press inside, though.

It's a weird feeling, when Oscar starts to fuck between his cheeks. He's got both hands on him, squeezing Lando's arse around his cock, just enough spit to make it an easy slide.

"Oh, fuck," Lando mumbles, getting his wrist in his mouth to muffle it. It feels good—like, the drag of Oscar's dick over his hole, the way the head catches when he draws back enough, the way Oscar's already panting with it.

He sounds really, really good. It's less overwhelming than having him inside so Lando's picking up on all these sounds he's never noticed before; here and there these sharp little in-out breaths like he's been hit, long, sighing groans that barely make it to audible.

Oscar spits again. Wet splat right where the head of his dick is, slick squelch when he fucks forward.

Lando doesn't move. His dick is hard at the most awkward possible angle, pressed painfully to the floor but he doesn't move, just lets his eyes flutter shut and takes it.

Oscar moves faster. The sounds, huffing and broken, pick up until he's letting out these tiny soft moans, over and over and over.

"Pull up your shirt," Oscar says suddenly. His voice cracks and Lando would make fun of it in any other situation.

This time, he does what he's told. Awkwardly, he yanks up his shirt and it's just in time for Oscar to grunt, fucking forward once, twice, and then coming in hot spatters across Lando's back. Lando breathes into the scratchy carpet. Oscar twitches over him, dripping a last bit of come onto Lando's arse as he sits back.

"Waited long enough, didn't you," Lando says into the floor.

Oscar makes a noncommittal sound but in the next breath he's rolling Lando over, and he's getting his mouth on Lando's cock, and that's not really using him, is it? But if it's—if he's what Oscar wants, well. Lando can live with that.

now on ao3

[elder-millennial-of-zion]

Having conversations with my intelligent, well read, well meaning non-Jewish friends who assume that everyone is as intelligent and well read and well meaning as they are 😆

“Of course October 7 was horrible. But Netanyahu’s response-"

"Do you have any idea how many leftists think October 7 was a good thing and simultaneously a false flag?”

"Wait, what?"