#((I guess I don't think as much when I watch them (though I could roast XY&Z for DAYS) because the main media of the series is the games.))

[faithfulren]

tent troubles

hi everyonee!! i just wanted to thank you for 50 likes, its a start and it truly means the world to me. i'm so glad you guys like my stuff and i deeply appreciate it, and i hope you guys continue to support me! :) <3

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as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting a golden hue over the forest, class 1-A set up camp. laughter and chatter filled the air as everyone pitched in, erecting tents and preparing for a night under the stars. you were excited, the prospect of camping with your friends bringing a smile to your face. that smile, however, faded when you realized you were paired with katsuki bakugo.

you and bakugo had always had a irregular relationship. his fiery temper and your headstrong nature often clashed, leading to more arguments than you cared to count. but aizawa-sensei, in his infinite wisdom, had decided that this trip was the perfect opportunity for you two to learn to work together.

"just stay out of my way," bakugo grumbled, dropping the tent supplies at your feet. he was already annoyed, and you knew better than to poke the bear.

"sure, bakugo," you replied, trying to keep the peace. you bent down to pick up the tent poles, but he snatched them away before you could grab them.

"i said stay out of my way," he repeated, more forcefully this time. you bit back a retort and stepped back, crossing your arms as you watched him struggle with the poles.

minutes passed in tense silence. bakugo was clearly having trouble setting up the tent, but his pride wouldn’t allow him to ask for help. finally, with a frustrated growl, he threw the poles to the ground.

"do you want help now?" you asked, unable to keep the smugness out of your voice.

"shut up and just… help me," he muttered, glaring at you.

together, you managed to get the tent set up, though not without several more snide comments and glares from bakugo. by the time it was finished, the sky had turned a deep indigo, and the first stars were beginning to appear.

you sat down by the campfire, feeling exhausted but somewhat accomplished. bakugo sat across from you, his scowl softened slightly by the firelight. the others were busy roasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories, the atmosphere light and cheerful.

"here," bakugo said suddenly, holding out a stick with a perfectly roasted marshmallow. you blinked in surprise.

"uh, thanks," you said, taking the marshmallow from him. It was uncharacteristically kind of him, and you couldn't help but wonder what had prompted the gesture.

"don't read too much into it," he snapped, looking away. "i just didn't want to hear you whining about not having one."

"sure, bakugo," you replied, a small smile tugging at your lips.

the night wore on, and eventually, everyone headed back to their tents. you crawled into your sleeping bag, trying to get comfortable on the uneven ground. bakugo was already lying down, his back to you.

for a while, you lay in silence, listening to the sounds of the forest. You were almost asleep when you heard bakugo's voice, quiet and hesitant.

"why don't you hate me?"

you turned to face him, confused. "..what?"

"i said, why don't you hate me?" he repeated, louder this time. "i’m always yelling at you, and you never fight back.. why?"

you thought about it for a moment. "because I know there's more to you than just your temper. you're a good person, bakugo, even if you don't always show it."

he was silent for a long time. then, just as you were beginning to think he wouldn't respond, he spoke again.

"thanks," he said softly, almost too softly for you to hear. "and… sorry.. i guess."

it was a small apology, but coming from Bakugo, it meant a lot. you smiled in the darkness, feeling a warmth in your chest that had nothing to do with the campfire.

"goodnight, bakugo," you whispered, closing your eyes.

"goodnight," he replied, his voice gentler than you'd ever heard it.

and for the first time since you'd started at UA, you fell asleep feeling like maybe, just maybe, you and bakugo could be friends after all.

[sneezypeasy]

*sigh*

Y'know, this really doesn't/shouldn't matter, but as this particular accusation keeps getting thrown at me over and over again - oh fuck it, I'm gonna take the bait this one time and set the record straight once and for all. Honestly my "appetite" in this context is truly not anyone's business (and if you don't care to hear about it this is the one warning you'll get to click away lmao) but I've reached the point where if you really wanna attack my credibility based on who you think I enjoy fantasizing about, I'm gonna throw you a bone and tell you exactly what type that is - cuz as much as I'm sick of the ad hominem attacks the Aussie in me is even more sick of watching them miss so fucking hard. If you're gonna roast me, the least you can do is hit me where it hurts, goddamn it. Get it right or go home you uncooked noodles. Capiche?

When it comes to my taste in men, my "type" is: big, strong, hairy brutes. There, I said it. Give me lumberjacks, give me cavemen, I want my Jason Momoas, I want my Ma Dong-Seoks, I want them broad shoulders and tree-trunk calves and I wanna see those muscles bulge. If a fictional character ever gets me biting my lip at the screen, it's never gonna be a fine-featured pretty boy, it's gonna be a good thick daddy who can take my wrists, pin me against a wall and [--------------------------------‐---sustained bleep sound effect---------------------------------]

1:38-1:51 🤣

Personality wise, I'm a basic bitch who has approximately zero defenses for the "jerk with a heart of gold" stereotype. Gets me every time, without fail. The smooth-talking playboy who flirts with everyone and who could bed anyone he wanted, but who only lets you see him at his deepest, dearest, most vulnerable moments? Sorry, am I supposed to not fall for that shit or something? Well frankly I don't understand how and I'm not ashamed to admit it. If he happens to be built like a fortress on top of that? Yeah, I'm done. Have me bathed and brought to your tent, sir, please and thank you.

I admit, it's rare that a character with the physique I like also has that heartbreaker personality I'm a sucker for. Guys in fiction are usually strong and mean or they make up for their lighter frames with silver tongues and barbed promises - rarely do writers create a character who's stacked with both brains and brawn, so to speak. Makes sense though, as while irl people can max out any combination of stats that they put effort towards - in fiction a character who's too good at too many different attributes can come across unbalanced or Gary Stu-ish and will fail to resonate with audiences unless the writer really knows what they're doing.

That being said, there really isn't any character in ATLA who fits my type - either of them, actually. There are some bit characters like Chit Sang who get close in terms of physical build - but Chit Sang has very gaunt, angular facial features that I'm really not a fan of and tbh, while I get that I can't expect all my big buff boys to also be masters of wit and cunning and charm, being dumber than a box of rocks does seal it for me, sorry. In terms of personality, I guess the closest character would be Jet, and he's cool and all but yeah, the whole "would go as far as killing kids" thing makes him a bit of a hard sell for me too. (And yes, it's worth questioning the writers' choices to create him with those flaws to begin with but look, that's a discussion for another day 😂)

All this to say, if you wanna tease me about coveting fictional characters and allowing thirst to cloud my judgment - COME AT ME BOYS. But not with Zuko, for fuck's sake. The character that makes sneezy.exe blue-screen ain't him. It's actually the late great Carthaginian General Hannibal Barca, the man the myth the legend may he Rest in Peace if anyone's seriously wondering. Look, I do like the scar, and the awkwardness is endearing - he's definitely not ugly or unappealing by any means so please don't misunderstand, I'm not trying to bash him or nothin' - but if I'm being brutally honest, he's not my type! Not physically, not even emotionally. If I ship Zutara, it's because aspects of the ship appeal to me that are unrelated to my personal opinion of Zuko as an object of fantasy, which if you must know (and now you do, congratulations, you're welcome), the kind of boy I do fantasise about when I'm in the mood for that sort of thing could literally and figuratively sweep Zuko off his feet - and then sit on him. In either order.

P.S. While we're on this topic, the character I personally relate to most heavily is not Katara either btw. It's Toph. If you're going to accuse me of bias, questioning my views on Toph would make the most sense for that reason. But really, it's hardly my fault that she's basically the most perfect flawless irreproachable badass in ATLA or practically all of animation as a whole. Come on now. *whistles innocently*

[jetsteelyourheart]

My top 5 Crackships

Inspired by my top 5 8 characters thing going around, I want you all to vote on your favorite of my Top 5 Questionable Rare pairs

I will be providing excuses reasoning excuses below the poll, so if you feel like roasting me properly seeing my justifications, do that - or don't!

And remember, they're fictional characters, so it costs nothing to be normal about this and have fun

*Not all of these are controversial, but those that are? watch out!

Excuses:

Zuki:

If you follow me then you know I'm an OG Zutara fan, but on the rare occasions I'm feeling Cannon Compliant, Zuki is my go too ship. This has all to do with the comics, where basically Zuko's only confidant is Suki and you get wild panels of them looking at each other like this:

I was devistated when Korra came out and it seemed like Sokka and Suki didn't last, but if the above is why, then I'll take it.

Stobin:

I am going to get so much flack for this one I think. BUT. Consider: The cannon ships in the show are generally not well written. I like Hopper/Joyce, I like Max/Lucas, but Nancy/Jonathan and especially Mike/Eleven do literally nothing for me, they are so bland. I do see the irony that one of the things that makes Stobin well written is because its one sided on Steve's part because Robin is gay. But their interactions are literally the reason to watch the show if you ask me. Pushing past these excuses though, I just kinda dig the ship. In my head its an open poly situation for certain, but sexuality is so wild and fluid and weird, and Gold Star status is gatekeepy at best anyway, so like, why the fuck not. I had a great aunt who had an open marriage with a gay man, (big beard behavior) and they had kids and did everything together. Its like... Platonic soulmates + if you will. And that's what I want for Stobin. Platonic soulmates + and a big ole polycule surrounding them. Or maybe its just my incoherent bisexual ass talking

(If I could put fan-art with the polycule in it I would but I wouldn't repost someones art like that... so I'm stuck with cannon images)

Zacknei:

No one has played this game. When people think Zack, they either ship Cloud or Aerith, and honestly I ship both those as well (though ClAerTi will always be my top for them). But I love Cissnei. She has big Sydney Sage energy for me, and all of Zack's emotional beats in the second half of the game surround her (...or cloud) not Aerith (just for the record). Also if you join all the fanclubs and work hard you get invited to your own fanclub and I'm pretty sure there's evidence that Cissnei is the president which is hilarious. I just love their interactions and was DEVASTATED at the end. Analytical Girl & PuppyDogHimbo is a beautiful ship dynamic. Also Rick Gomez will always be my Zack Fair VA. I hate the new guy so much (and its not his fault!! Sorry man!)

Aquarella:

So the section is really short. But my god. Cinderella and Aqua have the most chemistry of any character in that game series bar none. I'm including Riku and Sora in this. I'm including Roxas and Axel. Ok, not really this is not the hill I want to die on. BUT. At least in Birth By Sleep, this is the emotional high-point. Aqua taking her hand like a gentleman at a ball? The way Aqua saves Cinderella from getting run over by her demonic carriage??? The way she lovingly protects Cindy's body with hers? Did you see Prince whats his face doing any of that ? NO. And then. If Aqua were a guy everyone would've seen it when this game came out (but I guess gay people weren't invented until 2015 or whatever.

look how devastated Aqua is when Cinderella goes to Charming at the end. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THEM.

Sorayla:

I really do like Raylum, but this is a poll on my hot take rare-pairs, not cannon compliance. Let me start off by saying, no, I haven't seen this season yet, it only came out twelve hours ago whats wrong with you? This pair grew on me starting in Season 4 after the time skip. I think it goes along side my preoccupation with tough smart girls and their dumbass golden retriever himbos. They have a nice trajectory, and with Callum going a lil dark and edgy on us recently, I like their banter a lot. Especially in Season 4 I was surprised by them and I crave more adventures with the two of them alone. I don't think it will ever happen, but I like it none the less. They bring a certain... Sokka & Suki vibe to the party that I'm here for.

Anyway, I tag @ebbilayart @retiredficwriter & anyone who decides to do it!

And if no one feels like setting themselves up as a target, that's good too!

[quill-is-brainstorming]

Quill reads:

The Eight Arrow

Chapter 1: Out of Depths

Part 2/2

Part 1 in case you missed it

I'm sorry Diomedes is BLOND???

"Diomedes knew when to shut the fuck up. Unfortunately for everyone however, I did not" - literally Odysseus

Damn, this'll be My Goodbye all over again, won't it?

LOOK AT ALL HIS HOPES AND DREAMS BEING UTTERLY CRUSHED BY ATHENA, GODDAMN-

Oh, alright so Athena is literally their mom, okay-

Honestly though, the "my sons" aside, this really feels like a mother telling her 9 year old children to go do something for her like taking out the trash and the kids taking it way too seriously.

"You've come to guide us out" :D

"Ah, you wish"

"But what are we supposed to do? We don't even know the way..."

"Yeah that's the point Diomedes, you absolute fucking moron."

Goddess of Wisdom? More like goddess of spitting absolute bars.

Athena, these two have been sitting in a flame for 3000 years, no need to roast them any further.

(Also watch as Athena is later on revealed to be like the Virgin Mary or something-)

Alright so this kinda confuses me.

Athena says they'll be teleported to the first circle of hell, "where the small-souled chase the wind", which I'm assuming is the actual first circle of hell, because the people there are basically forced to live in a tornado (very banal explanation of it, I know).

But then she mentions the entrance of hell...which isn't in the first circle. The first thing you see among entering Hell through the door is the Anti-Inferno, aka: the place where all the people that did neither bad nor good in life and that were forgotten stay in. Then you move down one circle and you find yourself in Limbo, the place where all good Pagan souls go. And only THEN you end up in the first circle.

Sooooo, which is it?

I mean I guess I COULD read ahead, but I'm trying to savor the experience little by little so we'll see.

I actually genuinely don't know if I want them to visit Limbo or not actually. Because on one hand, that's where all the Trojans (- Paris, he's in actual hell because Dante thought he was a pussy) are, which could be pretty interesting. On the other hand, I'm assuming this is where Penelope is (because you can't tell me she doesn't show up come on now) and I don't know if I want them reunion to happen so soon...

Again, we'll see :P

And yeah that's pretty much it for chapter 1. It was pretty short so I don't think I have a fully formed opinion on the book yet, but so far I'm having fun. As someone who's currently studying Dante's Inferno in class (and that likes it too), I am very curious to see where this goes.

[flyingspicerack]

Inside Job Pt2Ep3 Myc Analysis Pt2

FIRST PART HERE

IM GETTING RIGHT INTO IT!

OK SO!! ASSIMILATED MYC HUH?! First of all, the color palette change..... i like it in what it represents, its a good way to depic that he's different without having to keep that like, blue aura aura around him. HOWEVER, it makes me feel weird because THIS ISN'T MY MYC!!!

Also his voice...... not.... not for me. BUT I LOVE THE warbling echoey quality they gave him right when attuned. A lot of this is gonna be me PRAISING what the writers did, but me being pupsetti cause thats not my babygirl

AHHHH Brett's face here is so cute, hes so excited to be included in girls night!!!! Also! I feel like at this point the Hive isn't tapped into anyone but Myc so... does Myc genuinely watch Sex and the City? I think so.

MYC'S TOWNHOUSE! UOGHHHHHH OKAY SO FOR REALS!!! Does he have one? I GUESS SO? Is this what it looks like?? I DONT KNOW! Could the hive be making something up? Maybe?? But like, how would the hive know what to make up if they have been in the hollow earth for centuries, they have to tap into Myc. SO, is this REALLY what Myc's townhouse looks like? Or is this what he want's his friends to believe it is?? Because all of this is a hallucination so?? Like they cater to Brett and Gigi with the rock wall and bookshelf, so would he cater it to look like something he wants? THEN AGAIN! We saw Myc's little nook in his office in the beginning of the episode and that was classy as fuck with his little couch and the record player, so who's to say if this is mostly a REAL depiction of his brownstone. I will say though, it's fucking hot as hell and I think it IS at least the floorplan, like i think the floorplan is the same, whether or not its decorated like this? HHHHHHHHHH I dunno?? BUT I LOVE IT EITHER WAY BECAUSE I LOVE HIMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

MYC APRON MYC APRON MYC PINK APRON THE PINK APRON ITS AN APRON AND ITS PINK AND HHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"... mainly because all of my orifices are interchangeable" .... what... what WHAT WHAT??? Baby ..... WHAT DO YOU MEAN????? YOU HAVE HOLES???? YOU HAVE... HFHSEOUGHG;HJSD;LEG OHHHHHHH LORDLY LORDY LORD THE WRITERS HAVE GIVEN ME SO MUCH MORE THAN I COULD EVER ASK FOR HUIGREHJOSGJ'SG

I genuinely think this mural is so.... SO beautiful, if I could have it as a poster or a tapestry i fucking would. I also wanna know what the writing system is like.... UGH ITS SO PRETTY

ANYWAY I THINK its so so funny that they totally retconned the whole thing about the mushrooms being aliens, like at first Myc would get so mad and say they weren't but then now they are?? lmao and the whole lore they made of early apes eating mushrooms and then evolving? FUCKING GREAT

I just like myc's house.... look at his fancy kitchen ... AND IS THAT A FIREPLACEEEEEEEEEEEE uoghhhh

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ANDRE MISSES THE OLD MYC, AND YES! HE DID ROAST OUT OF LOVE!!!! ANDRE KNOWS CAUSE HE KNOWS THAT HE LOVES ALL OF THEM!! AND NO ONE DENIES IT!!!! HE LOVES THEMMMMMMMM (yes sure next glenn says out of hate but listen-)

Also!! I reallu like these weird globby mushroom cave wall things, theyre soooo cool

"Who wants some fucking dirt to eat? I'm still being nice, I like dirt!" BABY GHUIDSRHNS;G HES STILL A LITTLE BITCHY?????? HUAOGHH Baby i will eat dirt for you, i will eat it and like it

OKAY HERE IS SOMTHING I HAVE CONFLICTING THOUGHTS ON!!! THE poetry night thing. I saw another post (here) about the gang actually being there and Myc not sensing them, and i like that take, but ALSO I like the idea of them genuinely not going because they don't like him and dont think his poetry would be good, and Reagan is just talking out her ass about it? Like, I can see both ways being real good, IDK!!!

And then the thing specifically ANDRE said.... the jacking off in the break room over the pic on a box of mushroom calzones.... baby, honey.... that is somehow both so pathetic and so hot i don't know what to do with myself other than save this information for later

This image.... HURTS THE ANISE he genuinely looks SO upset, sad, distraught, deflated, this is THE SINGLE MOST upsetting image of Myc IMO, because its HIM in there that's being tormented and the hive is trying to fight it, but Myc is just.... he's actually SO sensitive and he cant handle a roast WITHOUT HIS DEFENSE MECHANISM OF HIS PERSONALITY THAT THE HIVE TOOK AWAY FROM HIM!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

LOOK AT HIM!!!! HE IS SO!!!!!! UAGHFEFFS HES IN PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT ALSO!!! You can see with the blue glow that the hive is trying to regain control of the situation and he's glowing blue

Mmmmmm yeah, Myc was right to get really mad for this, Brett went too far, and I think thats why he said it, to break him... I just think it's so interesting they went with a roast to get Myc back because it seems like roasts are like .... a bygone era? Like i bet if youre watching this show in your mid-late 20s you can remember when roasts were like, on tv all the time, but now you dont really see the concept all that much?? Idk i think it's interesting I guess. Anyway comparing Myc to Jar Jar Binks is a hate crime and im gonna beat up brett for it <3

oh my GOD look how curled in and angy he is.... his little fists....

SIDEBAR!!! Eberyone SO HAPPY that he's back, like all of them so fucking.,... LIKE I SPECFICALLY want to talk about GLENN of all people. Like dont get me wrong, all of them are really pleased, but GLENN? Like.... look at how SOFT his face is?? Like he is so genuinely glad to have this fucker back,,,,,, hgusehkl;s and also andre.... oh dr lee dont make that face ur gonna have me actin up ohhhhhhgggh hes so satisfied

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

HANDS ON HIS HIPS!! SO SASSY!!!!!!!!!!

Aaaaaaaaaan, boom goes the dynamite

HE DOESNT HATE THEM HE DOESNT HATE HIS TEAM HE LOVES HIS TEAM HE LOVES THEM SO MUCH THEY ARE HIS FOUND FAMILY THEY DONT BULLY HIM THEY ACCEPT HIM AS HE IS THEY LOVE HOW MUCH OF AN ASSHOLE HE IS, HES THEIR FRIEND, AND HE LOVES THEM AS MUCH AS HE SAYS HE DOESNT HE LOVES HIS TEAM THEY ARE HIS BEST FRIENDS AND AAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IM GONNA BE CRYING FOR THE NEXT 5000 YEARS AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

LIKE LOOK ATT ALL OF THEIR FACES WHEN HE SAYS HE DOESNT HATE THEM!!!!!! LOOK AT GIGI!!!!!! LOOK AT ANDRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I AM CRYING REAL TEARS AND ITS BECAUSE I LOVE MX MYC CELLIUM

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS GET BACK AT YOUR HIVE!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE MOST INTERESTING!!!!! THEYRE ALL CHUMPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SO! ANOTHER THING TO NOTE!!!!! When Myc is getting ready to do this whole spore process thing, and use his big powers here, he very slightly switched back to his hive color palette.... but then a moment later we see him in his normal one, so im thinking he is like.... getting all of the hives influence just.... out of him for good? maybe i dunno but i like that

god god god god. okay HERE his voice is SO CALM so!! JUST SO!! He understands that Reagan isn't insulting him, he knows that she really cares..... he makes me MELT ANS THEH NUN THE HEHPFIE:SJFKNK ANDS THEN AND THEN AND THEN IN THE NEXT SCENE IT CONTINUES OKAY

THIS IS HIS HIVE THIS IS HIS HIVE RIGHT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HIS FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEURE HIS HIVE AND HE CARES BOUT THEM HE LOVES THEM SO MUCH FUREIHTGL; GHRDGR;LGHSDGBKJ;EDGHWSLK; LOOK AT GIGI LOOK HOW HAPPY SHE IS GHRODSGS;GN; AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I CANT WITH THIS AUGFHRS;DKGFL;FVS

MMMMMMM YES podcast myc ,,,, love this guy LOVE HIM LOVE HIM SM SMS SMSMMSMSMSMSMSMSMS AWOOOOOOOOOOGA I AM THE NUMBER 1 LISTENER OF FRESH DIRT UAGHHHHHH (i would also like to know if gigi and reagan drunk kiss pls)

AND YALL THOUGHT THIS WAS OVER!!!! SPECIAL BONUS ROUND WHERE I MAKE ONE (1) COMMENT ABOUT THE OTHER THING

pregnant myc.... aright i am gonna give my OWN motherfucking opinions abt this because im TOO SERIOUS about it....

Myc is a mushroom, hes not a man, while he may use he/him pronouns, hes a mushroom first and foremost who canonically uses Mx. instead of Mr. like all of this is canon. He ALSO when finding out he is preggers, he says he wants to be a mother, a MOTHER, he wants to experience the joys of motherhood.... NON BINARY LEGEND! FUCKING mushrooms have NO TIES to human gender, so TEACHINALLY this cant really be considered mpreg, and it ISNT in my eyes, fucking label it mpreg all u fucking want but I DONT FUCKING AGREE OR BUY IT, dont come at me for this ill bully you into the ground

Anyway, my name is Anise and I want to thank everyone for their time for reading my Myc Cellium analysis. This character means more to me than anyone on the internet or even Shion Takeuchi herself can fathom.... and as far as IM concerned, i love him more than ANYONE ever will, whats that post? If Myc has fans, im one of them, if he doesnt, that means im dead, or whatever. I DONT KNOW I JUST KNOW that I love him more than EVERYONE and that is a FACT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway if you like inside job and like self insert shipping content folow me to see my silly little guy kiss this stupid mushroom and stream inside job on netflix <3

[lorichu]

The Spice of Life

I don't usually do anything with prompt lists, or post any full chapters here, but even so, here we are! I've seen some works based off bittykimmy13's Promptober list, and decided to pick a word (Spice in this case) to write something with. If you're interested in more with these characters, you can check out their gallery over on my dA account. Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

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The late afternoon rain storm had brought the steady flow of business into the coffee shop to a dead stop. Lyra had been out on the counter for a while now, but as the final hour dragged on, she was ready to exchange the colder, professional comfort of the coffee shop for the warmth and intimacy of their home upstairs. Though he was more immune to the disconnect between the spaces after having grown up in them, John was very much of the same mind.

Keeping his hand loosely draped around the tiny woman, John grabbed his phone and stared blanky at the time displayed on the screen. He chuckled to himself and immediately caught Lyra's eye when he looked back at her. "What do you say to one last drink before we start shutting down?"

"Oh, sure," Lyra answered automatically, "but..." She glanced off to the side and did a quick sweep of the shop. "Do you think this time I could make it for you?"

John snapped to attention and rapidly blinked his eyes. "Um, I mean, I guess...? But why would you want to?"

Now that his hand had pulled away the only source of heat warming Lyra was the blush streaking across her face. "Pam's been teaching me," she confessed. "I know how all the machines work, but I'd never tried to use them on my own, so she helped me figure it out." Lowering her gaze, the Mintran woman shuffled her feet. "It's stupid, but since I can't really do much else for you, I... I at least wanted to be able to make you a cup of coffee."

His heart a puddle on the floor, John's smile lit up the room. "How can I refuse an offer like that?" Leaning in closer to kiss the top of her head, he knelt down to look her in the eye. "Is there anything you need me to do?"

Lyra lifted her head slowly as she wrung her hands. "Just pick whatever mug you want to use and put it right there." She gestured down the counter, over to the space right in front of the towering carafes.

While John did as she asked, Lyra rushed back over to the birdhouse, maintaining her momentum as she leapt up to the entrance. She was only inside for a couple of seconds, then reappeared with her tool bag slung over her shoulder and her apron already on. Not wanting to be in her way, John backed up and watched in awed curiosity as she finished putting herself together.

'You know what you're doing,' Lyra told herself as she started marching towards the mug. 'Just like you practiced. You got this.'

As she reached the carafes, Lyra slowed to a stop by the corner of the coffee machine. It still irked her that she couldn't use the massive piece of machinery, but she and Pam had come up with a good enough alternative. Reaching into her bag for her normal climbing rope, she pulled something else out with it that John had to squint to make out. It was a small, rounded magnet, which she secured to the hook on the end. She swung the weighted end back and forth a few times before tossing it up over her head. There was a thunk as the magnet hit its mark, and after getting a running start, Lyra climbed up the side of the machine without missing a beat.

A flick of her wrist detached the hook from the magnet, and Lyra looped the rope over her shoulder as she got situated on top of the Dark Roast carafe. The mug John had chosen wasn't exactly in position under the pump, but she had a solution for that as well. Planting her feet as best she could, Lyra lowered the hooked end of the rope and began gently swinging it like a pendulum. Once its arc was big enough to reach the mug's handle she flicked the rope, twisting the hook so it caught the ceramic. All her strength was needed to pull the mug into the right spot, and with another expertly precise flick the hook came free.

Lyra dared to glance up at John, and almost immediately she wished she hadn't. His jaw was hanging slack, and his bright blue eyes were wider than she'd ever seen them. The blush creeping over her face made her heart skip a beat, and despite her strong stance she felt her knees wobble. 'Focus,' she scolded herself. 'You're not done yet.'

The carafe's pump needed nothing less than her full weight to press, and while she didn't need to jump on it, Lyra took great care while using it. Once the mug was mostly filled she took a step back, using the brief pause to catch her breath. Out of the corner of her eye she saw John start to move closer with his hand raised. Firing a sharp glare his way, Lyra quickly shook her head. He arched an eyebrow, then slowly backed up to his previous spot by the other counter. She sent him a quick smile before returning to task.

After hooking the magnet again, Lyra was back on the countertop. Her gaze had followed John and was now locked on the flavored syrups lining the counter behind him. This was always her least favorite part, but she knew she could do it. A deep breath didn't quite fully steel her nerves, and she tightened her grip on the rope. Now she was twirling the hooked end in a tight, vertical circle beside her, picking up speed with each rotation. When she eventually let it go, it flew across the chasm and latched securely onto the topmost drawer's handle, just like she'd planned.

She'd expected John's started gasp when she took a running jump off the counter, but it was honestly astonishing that he didn't try to grab her out of the air. He watched transfixed as she climbed the rope while she fell, which adjusted her trajectory at the same time. When she reached the opposite side, she was most of the way to the handle, and hadn't smacked into the drawers like John had feared. His heart was still pounding as she clambered up to the countertop. She ducked behind the syrups' shelves to grab a small, lidded vessel, then continued her ascent between the glass bottles. He was too busy watching Lyra's graceful movements to pay close enough attention to which flavors she was getting, but in the end he didn't really care. Whatever she ended up making, he was going to drink it.

Unbeknownst to either of them, someone else was in the shop. Bret had been upstairs helping Pam move some furniture and had wanted to check in with his friends to lend a hand closing up for the day. However, as he watched Lyra move about the much larger space, he'd become just as entranced.

In all the years he'd known Lyra, and all the things he'd watched her do, Bret had never seen her like this.

'Everything she used to do was out of necessity,' he mumbled. 'Every move she made was calculated just so to be precisely what she needed, and nothing more. Anything extra would just been wasting energy she needed to survive the night...' Bret's heart lurched. 'We all would've punished any kind of expression. It'd have been more fuel, something else to twist and use against her to get what we wanted.'

But right now, in this moment, the smaller woman truly looked alive. She carried her freedom in her shoulders as much as she wore it in her smile. By simply being given the opportunity to exist, she'd found a place to thrive.

Hollowness settled deep in Bret's stomach. 'It's amazing there was anything left of her when John got there,' he muttered bitterly. 'We were killing her in every other way, but he still found something to resuscitate. He's a stronger person than I could ever hope to be. They both are.'

Lyra screwed the lid back on to her container before carefully maneuvering her way down the final bottle. Gathering up her rope again, she repeated her trip back to the main counter. She set the container next to the mug and strolled away with purpose. With a mixing spoon braced against her shoulder, Lyra attached her hook onto the grating of the coffee machine's drip tray and used the rope to repel down to the small fridge built into the cabinet. Once again, she needed her entire body to open the door, creating a gap just big enough for her to slip through.

Curiosity finally got the better of John. He crouched down and opened the fridge's door the rest of the way so he could see inside. Somehow Lyra had pried the lid off the container of extra whipping cream and was now wielding a generous spoonful of it. She replaced the lid and climbed back out with the spoon carefully balanced between her arms. Instead of making her struggle through closing the fridge on her own, John pushed the door shut once her rope was clear. A silent look passed between them, but there was a glimmer of appreciation in that small pair of gray eyes.

Hefting the spoon back onto her shoulder, Lyra marched down the counter to the still steaming mug. She set the spoon down for a moment and rushed over to the containers of dry seasonings to grab the cinnamon. Its unruly size made portioning a problem, but she was able to measure out what she wanted. That went into the coffee first, then the syrups, and finally the spoonful of whipping cream. Leaving the utensil submerged, Lyra stirred the cup like it was a cauldron, looking very much the part of a tired but pleased witch. Once the ingredients had been fully mixed she removed the spoon, tapped it on the mug's rim for good measure, and backed away to present the beverage.

John had completely forgotten that she was making something for him to drink and didn't actually return to reality until she nervously cleared her throat. Rushing over he scooped the mug up in both hands and happily took a sip.

He immediately straightened up, his eyebrows rising almost clean off his face. Subtle notes of spice blended beautifully with the soft cream and sharp cranberry to create a flavor unlike anything he'd ever tasted. "Lyra, this is good. Like, really good," John chuckled. "Did you come up with this on your own?"

Long strands of her blonde hair fell into a shielding curtain as she dropped her gaze, but it couldn't fully hide her blush. "Pam helped a little, but it was mostly me."

John took a longer drink, savoring the unique taste and letting the heat spread out to warm his entire body. On its own it was phenomenal, but the fact that Lyra crafted it herself made it taste that much sweeter. Lowering the mug, he gazed longingly at the woman still doing her best to avoid looking directly at him. "We should write this down," he said in a softer voice. "I'd hate to lose it."

"Your mom already took care of that." Lyra glanced up slowly, meeting John's eye without flinching away. "I-I... If you liked it, I wanted to say that you could sell it to customers too, i-if you thought it was good enough for that..." She shuffled her feet and brought her hands together. "I know all your specialty drinks have names, so I tried my best to think of one, a-and thought that maybe "All Nighter" would work, but you can name it something better if you don't like that."

The mug landed with a heavy clunk when John set it down on the counter. His freed hands were headed straight for Lyra. "No, it's all perfect. Just like you."

Instead of welcoming his very obvious affections, Lyra loudly cleared her throat and took a deliberate step backwards. Her eyes stayed locked on his, except to dart off to her left in a subtle play to direct his attention. Following the motion, John finally realized that they weren't as alone as he'd assumed.

"O-Oh, um, Bret. Hey..." he mumbled, pulling back from Lyra as well. They tried to keep their PDA minimal to the point of nonexistent around their former museum coworker more out of convenience than anything else. It wasn't likely that Bret would ever press either of them for more details about their relationship, but that didn't mean they would willingly hand that information over either.

Called out and fully embarrassed that he'd been watching for so long, Bret shifted backwards as well and lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck. "Yeah, um, hi. I'd finished helping your mom, so I came back to see if you wanted any help t-too." He inched along the wall slowly until he reached the corner. "I, um, could start on the bathroom..." Without needing to look behind him, Bret opened the door and ducked inside without a word.

John's hand was already mostly around Lyra milliseconds after they were alone again. Fingers curled to delicately support her weight as she was lifted off her feet. Waiting for her was a pair of blue eyes as deep as the ocean and twice as beautiful. They beheld her so tenderly as John leaned in to kiss her.

[thesevenwondersofawitch]

The Brothers Sun e5

The mom looks so done when Bruce explains that Sleepy is like Shakespeare and says LOL😂

Bruce: "I need a mental health day."

Mom, holding his face in her hands: "Stop being a baby."

Bruce:"this isn't like when you sent me to school with chicken pox to preserve my perfect attendance record." Damn😂😭

The mom's face when she said "when have I ever been wrong." 😭😂😂

Ouchy, Charles looks like he's in so much pain. I'm guessing he's at Alexis's house?

Yup he is😂

Awwww, she got him shrimp chips

I love that Charles is kinda impressed that she got away using spicy noodles to the eyes😂

I feel like a little bit of Charles' soul died as he watched her cooking food wrong 😂

Xing is so done with baby sitting duty😂

Poor TK😂😂😂😂

THE MOM IS CALLED ROLODEX? SO COOL

Michelle Yeoh is amazing, and I love her sm

Oh shit

Damn you right you're a coward

Bruce asking Xing if she wanted to talk about her mom not replying is great 😂

I. Do. Not. Trust. Grace.

Xing saying if she was Bruce she would've had sex a lot with Grace😂

MAXWELL SHEFFIELD?(From the nanny)

Oh Charles is watching a movie 😂

Oh it's a show, Charles' face when he realizes he has to wait😂

Oh god, he's going through all her boxes 😂😂

That letter 🥺

He's putting up shelves 😂

And decorating?😂

Oh wow, he's also gonna cook, Alexis if you don't marry him I will😂

Aw, the dude who kidnapped the mom is making her tea? WAIT IS THAT TK? It kinda sounds like him

Wow,

I don't think she's nervous at all, not even a bit

Bish did he call her an old woman?

I love how she's ruining them so easily by dropping facts😂

"Oh shit," yeah lil boy, you in trouble!

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww 🥺 Charles is making Alexis baked goods🥺

He also got a flower?😂

He's watching The Great British Bake off 😂

Yeah, I too would be in heaven if someone did this for me

I love how she's not even questioning him organizing her house

The shirt she got him😂😂😂

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, Bruce is consulting the mahjong ladies😂

Damn, these ladies just roasted Xing😂

Oh, I am uncomfy with the comment about Bruce pounding like a bull

Oh yeah, these guys underestimated her big time

Who indeed

"We're the Boxers."😂

"Who the hell is that?" Love how she's settling in more because she's curious

That's so sad how Charles's dad didn't even talk to him unless he could be useful in the family business

It's adorable that he was taught how to bake from someone nice 🥺

Also, the fact that Bruce would've been taught stuff by their mom, but she didn't teach her other son🥺

Hong is an ass, especially laughing at Bruce

OH SHIT

Bruce slammed the guy's hand down ouchy😂

"You went straight from asking him once to impaling his hand?" But then you did too, Xing 😂

Damn, Mama lasted 16 days? And two of her interrogators ended up in a mental institution? Somehow that is so

"What should we do for dinner?"😂

OH SHIT BLOOD BOOTS?!🥺 NOOOOOOOO

She can't tell them the names🥺

NOOOOOOOO MY BOY

The blood on his boots🥺😭

The big guns are the mahjong ladies?!😭😂

Oh noooooooo Bruce doesn't want to leave him🥺

It was so genius having all the ladies come in to get her🥺

Love how Charles is having some nice stuff with Alexis while

Ok, it was fucked up how Alexis immediately tried to get Charles to tell her stuff

Wtf, Alexis?! You're really going to betray him after everything that happened? I mean, I get it that her job is important, and I guess she does care more about it than she does other people, but still that's crappy(I do kinda admire her though cause that's clever)

The shelf falling is a perfect example of the situation they're all in

Poor Bruce

Huh, I guess your mom does drink🥺

I think Bruce is done with all the bullshit, and I hope he stands up to his mom now for how she kept so much from him

It was better for Charles to stay, but it wasn't better for him🥺

Her writing is so pretty 😍

Poor Bruce is gonna be dreaming those names up🥺

[tame-a-messenger]

Hey, thanks for taking me submission. I guess it’s not really an ask other than please share your thoughts too! Just have to get something off my chest.

There have been a lot of comments on YT, Reddit and Twitter about Damien not being in as much content and not being listed as Games Producer for the last three videos.

First one is honestly to be expected as he was sick. Second one is interesting. I follow his streams and sometimes watch when he guests on Podcasts. He’s been saying he’ll have more time to stream, he has some major projects coming up and he’s going to create his own content on his own channel.

Some of the community thinks Smosh demoted him because he actually posted about the current events over in Israel/Palestine but I personally think he just wasn’t able to fulfill the role of producer the way he wanted. (Perfectionist - something I find Angela has in common with him.)

Anyway, all this to say, I think Damien is stepping back from Smosh a little. I am hoping it doesn’t mean a reduction of content that he’s in but you never know. I think being responsible for coming up with content in addition to appearing as talent is really hard on his time and he’s reached a limit.

The funeral was a big example of this. To appear in the funeral wasn’t just showing up; many livestreams mentioned rehearsal after rehearsal and attending several writing meetings. I just don’t think he had time.

While I think the halftime show of the funeral with Chanse and Angela was awesome, Damien could have come in and support it or I was thinking he could have showed up as backup for Anthony with his vampire cosplay. It would have been great but I get why he didn’t do it.

Anyway, more damngela content with Sword AF coming in three days!

Thanks for sending in a submission! I love chatting about stuff! keep em' coming!

I've been seeing people talk about Damien not being listed as producer last 3 vids, I've also been hearing whispers of Damien doing more streaming and videos on his own YouTube channel.

I don't think he'll fully leave Smosh anytime soon, maybe he's going to be strictly talent from now on (like how Angela and others are "just" talent, she doesn't produce or direct just shows up to do shoots) I hope he'll do that if anything.

I saw a clip of him from his stream the other day and someone was asking why he wasn't in the funeral roast and he said he was in the audience (not sure if that meant physical on set audience or online audience) watching! I wont lie, also was wanting him to show up in it though :(

I think it'd be great to have Damien as mainly talent! recently he seems more chill so if that because he's taken a step back then I'm all for it! Maybe it'll be like the inverse of what Kimmy did, instead of being talent she became a producer, and maybe he'll become just talent? as long as he stays at Smosh ill be happy :)

Quite honestly I feel like hiring more strictly producers is really good for Smosh and the people on the cast, they say their shoot week is SUPER draining so if its better and healthier for them that's great! Plus having someone solely dedicated to finding and sourcing games for them to play, we'll probably get better content! (something about overworking and echo chambers makes for stale content something something) my point is if they're happy and healthy I'm happy :)

[fatuismooches]

My thoughts on Scara's voice lines on the Harbingers

If you didn't know, Scara has voicelines on all the Harbingers!! Of course as someone desperate for crumbs I wanted to talk about them a little!! (Under the cut in case you don't want to see them)

Thank you to 🥝 anon for the summary <3 (you can also watch the voicelines on youtube if you want!)

Okay so first of all, I was kinda shook when Scara said he casually took many trips into the Abyss?? The same place that traumatized Childe??😭 I guess it was so much worse for Childe since he was just a little boy (I wanna hug him so bad)😔 I wonder what the Fatui could be doing down there though...?

My thing is, would Scara even be able to kill any of Dottore's clones? They all seemed very strong to me🤔 But wow, I'm still sad they're gone bruh,, rip Webtorre, Boattore, and Lazzotore 🙏

Anyway, Capitano on his way to be the most respected Harbinger once again🤪 I wonder why they like him so much? Maybe bc he doesn't yell at them like Signora and Scara eheh. He just seems very honorable to me!

Also not everyone being wary of Columbina?😭😭 She seems very mysterious and kinda crazy... anyway I love her. She seems to be very scary when shes mad idk

Also Arlecchino seems to be crazy as well?? Scara says most people who have seen her 'true, crazy self have gone poof' 😭 She looks so interesting! I love her eyes too, I'm real interested in how her 'true self' is

Also the voice line abt Pulcinella kinda destroyed me..😢 I'm just gonna ignore it and pretend he just actually cares about him cuz I canttt Papanella is real in my heart💔

Please he was so mean to Sandrone😭 My girl don't deserve that... she seems similar to Dottore with being only dedicated to her research and such! I think she might have a very sarcastic personality, and also kinda rude. And I also like to think she created the Katherynes' as well.. Dw Sandrone you're great to me😔

Also, Scara really said a lot about Pantalone! (Maybe because.. we'll see him next?🤔) The fact he works closely with Dottore really intrigues me, it makes sense cuz he needs those funds to research lol.. i didn't expect for that to be said in game tho. Also he really hates the Gods lol he wanna mess everything up (go king)

Well for Childe, he just straight up roasted him saying he's simple and not very strong😭😭😭 Man is always out to get him💀

For Signora, there is a quote about her! He says, "Nothing remained in her ashes. I have no interest in those who have lost their future."

... I have nothing to say to that. Signora my queen you deserve the world.

[fff777]

watched wayv on the kstar next door (second time)

chenle told kun about going on the kstar next door. but what's more, chenle kept putting on the first episode of dream on the kstar next door while they were eating 😂 chenle really likes the show a lot

i didn't know that am plaza was a show for aunties. that's awesome though, yangyang getting recognized immediately after

so ten is pronounced den in thai

i'm going to say it, but it feels a bit :( the way that winwin hasn't been acknowledged in the comeback. i know it's the kpop way but it still bums me out. we saw pics of the group during on my youth in their spotify appearance but they never acknowledged him. here, they played a clip of the last wayv appearance and they didn't call out winwin but like, they're not editing him out and letting him stay in the close up shots. better than nothing i guess :(

legitimately this did not mean what i thought it meant lmao. i was along the lines of what jonathan was thinkgin

LMAO THE KUN ROAST BEGINS

i snorted, this is the most old man thing to do, where kun was standing behind a car and signalling to their manager when it was parked right

LMAO kun clears his throat like an old man 🤣

i don't know that this is necessarily old man-ish, it's just kind of funny

the guys are NOT letting up, ten had a story about how he once found kun asleep while watching tv

aw ten tucked him in and turned off the tv :3 kunten <3

the most old man thing to ask

revisiting the time xiaojun got kabedon'ed by yuta

dejun defending himself through some roleplay

jonathan looks so afraid 😂

kunten bickering continues!!!!!! ten thinks kun's aegyo is cringey and that kun does too much when a simple heart would do

oh??? is xiaojun gonna spill some tea??

aw they moved on lol

hendery the collateral damage of a kunten fight

oh my godddddd they are really going to kill each other because every time ten says that kun does something kun has to interject like i did NOT

for once ten admits he's mean lmao

omgggg kun's feelings were very hurt

LMAO THE COKE INCIDENT!!!! the other culprits were jungwoo, sungchan, and eunseok

LMAO for two months they just drank coke flavoured water

pets time!!!

it was just a segway for yangyang to make animal noises lol

them rotating the picture of ten hanging from the pole and when it got to a certain rotation ten flipped the picture down 😅

the wayvs saying that they're going to be performing in korea more

hendery wanted to act with jonathan but was a bit disappointed that he didn't get to :P

the nighttime concerts are always so amusing lol. the karaoke vibes.

this episode felt kind of short, but i wonder if it's because there were more members on this time, so not everyone could have the same screentime

[invisibleraven]

sleep under the stars, roast marshmallows and stargaze for Peterpatterlina?

"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right," Luke said. "You wanna go camping?"

"Yeah!" Reggie replied enthusiastically. "It's supposed to be a really nice weekend, and there's a meteor shower Saturday night, so I figured we'd go up in the hills and watch it, maybe toast some marshmallows, sing some songs..."

"I think that sounds lovely cariño," Julie stated. "Really get away from it all, a nice quiet weekend in nature."

"I think it sounds like a way to get eaten by mosquitos... or worse," grumbled Luke.

"You're such a city boy," Reggie said with an eye roll. "We can take some citronella stuff to keep the bugs away, do it in a park with minimal wildlife, and if it really sucks, we can always come home. Come on, we went to that awful symposium for you."

"I didn't know it was gonna be so boring!" Luke protested.

"Mi vida, it was on the history of rock, most of which you could quote to us in our sleep, of course it was going to be boring," Julie said with a patronizing tone, but she capped it with a kiss to his cheek, so Luke was mostly mollified.

"Fine," he sighed. "We can go camping I guess. But if I get covered in poison ivy, I am dragging you both with me to another symposium."

So Saturday morning they packed up the car, and headed up into the hills towards the closest state park. It was a gorgeous day, with minimal traffic, and even Luke had to admit the forest was nice. "i forgot what real trees were like," he admitted.

Julie and Reggie shared a look at that but wisely stayed quiet.

They found a site with a big clearing above, perfect for stargazing, and set up camp. Of course, none of them were really adept at setting up a campsite, but between Julie figuring out the tent, Reggie starting the fire, and Luke ensure their supplies were secure and everyone was coated in citrus scented spray, they admitted it was a job well done.

They brought sandwiches and hot cocoa, feasting on them as the sky started to turn a magnificent pinkish hue. Reggie brought out his camera, claiming he wanted some shots of them at 'magic hour' and even posed for a few himself. Though he was sure that the best one was of the three of them, squashed into the frame, smiles bright as the light started to fade.

They sat around the campfire as the sky darkened. Julie vetoed hot dogs, given the guys' history with food poisoning after some bad street dogs. But she was all for s'mores.

Well, until she learned Luke liked his marshmallows burned black that is. She screwed up her face at the thought, and couldn't even watch as Luke scarfed his down. She'd stick to her golden brown, thank you very much.

Reggie suggested a few ghost stories, though none of the ones they told were very good, so it wasn't long before Luke broke out his acoustic, the three of them serenading the woods with covers of their own stuff, some songs Julie had learned in Girl Scouts and Reggie remembered from camping trips with Pop-Pop.

"When does the meteor show start?" Luke asked after they had exhausted themselves singing.

Reggie checked his watch. "Any minute now."

"Can we get some blankets first?" Julie asked, shivering. "I wanna stay up, but not risk frostbite."

They all slung on some extra layers, sliding their feet into the ultra large sleeping bag they had engineered, and wrapped blankets around themselves, looking up to the heavens. The sky was dotted with stars, but then... a streak shot across.

"Here they come!" Reggie whisper shouted. They clasped hands, watching as the meteors began lighting up the sky,

"Should we make a wish?" Luke asked.

"I don't think this counts as shooting stars, but why the heck not?" Julie said. Squeezing her eyes shut, she made her wish, to always be here, between her two guys, happy, in love, and not needing anything more.

Reggie tried getting a few shots with his camera, but he wouldn't know until he developed the film if any came out, but he had used his high exposure lens, so he had high hopes for a few good pictures.

Eventually the shower ended, leaving the sky looking almost dim in the aftermath. "That was gorgeous," Julie breathed out.

"It really was," Reggie said.

"Totally worth the trip," Luke admitted. "Good idea Reg."

"Well you'll love my next one, let's go snuggle in the tent and go to sleep," Reggie said. "We can go for a hike tomorrow before we head home."

"What, you don't want to sleep out under the stars?" Luke teased.

"I think I'll stick to the covered tent and our nice comfy air mattress, thanks."

"I'm with Reggie," Julie said. "But you can sleep out here if you want."

"And miss out on the snuggles?" Luke replied. "No way!"

They all laughed, and waddled into the tent, snuggling together, and falling asleep quickly, despite the cold.

It was Luke who awoke first, yawning as he stretched, smiling down at the brightest stars in his galaxy. Then started writing a new song idea, with Julie and Reggie adding to it as they slowly stirred.

And when In Your Starlight won them a major award, Luke made sure to thank Reggie for having the brilliant idea to go camping as their inspiration.

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 14: WE HIRE A NEW GUIDE

"We'll that's not a mystery at all," Alex huffed as Will read the new chapter title.

"I think we've had more than enough suspense to last a lifetime," Magnus sighed.

"Did Rachel get paid for her services?" Thalia chuckled at the phrasing though. "Chiron certainly never paid me to guide you through any quest!"

"He snuck along, it negated the contract of pay," Jason grinned. 

Percy was more than pleased too if these stupid things would stop tormenting him, especially because it didn't give him much of a clue what was fixing to happen. Was he really such a horrible person he was going to ask Rachel to go back into that maze with him? And who was we? He hoped to gods it was Annabeth...but that meant he was also wishing for her to go right back into that maze with him too?!

Hours later, my raft washed up at Camp Half-Blood. How I got there, I have no idea. At some point the lake water just changed to salt water. The familiar shoreline of Long Island appeared up ahead, and a couple of friendly great white sharks surfaced and steered me toward the beach.

"Your life is a children's book," Magnus told him casually. "Literally anything could happen to you at this point and I just would not bat an eye. The only thing you're missing is a purple crayon."

"Hope you're ready to test that theory Magnus," Percy grinned. He did not expect his life to get normal anytime soon.

When I landed, the camp seemed deserted. It was late afternoon, but the archery range was empty. The climbing wall poured lava and rumbled all by itself. Pavilion: nothing. Cabins: all vacant. Then I noticed smoke rising from the amphitheater. Too early for a campfire, and I didn't figure they were roasting marshmallows.

"I always assume there's marshmallows wherever I go," Alex sniffed.

"And that's why you live in constant disappointment," Magnus grinned.

"Who needs therapy when I got you explaining all my life problems to me," he chuckled.

I ran toward it.

Before I even got there I heard Chiron making an announcement. When I realized what he was saying, I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Literally?" Jason asked in concern. "Because at this rate you're a mortality statistic all your own."

Percy pinched the skin on his forearm and wiggled it around for a moment before shrugging. How would he know?

"—assume he is dead," Chiron said. "After so long a silence, it is unlikely our prayers will be answered. I have asked his best surviving friend to do the final honors."

"Oh shit," all seven of them said at once with nothing but heartfelt sorrow and fear. It was the one and only way they ever would have been sorry to hear Annabeth was alive and back at camp.

I came up on the back of the amphitheater. Nobody noticed me. They were all looking forward, watching as Annabeth took a long green silk burial cloth, embroidered with a trident, and set it on the flames. They were burning my shroud.

"That's, almost cool," Magnus said with a sad smile. "How many people get to say they attended their own funeral?"

"Not worth it in the slightest," Percy shivered.

Annabeth turned to face the audience. She looked terrible. Her eyes were puffy from crying, but she managed to say, "He was probably the bravest friend I've ever had.

"Probably?" Only Alex could manage to say that with the perfect amount of levity that didn't feel mocking, but was clearly mocking. "You only get a probably? Man Perce, I demand a round of applause and strippers at minimum for my funeral."

"I don't know Alex, I guess I'm okay with her even admitting we were friends." Percy grinned as he touched his lips again, the hint of more just on the horizon that somehow terrified him more than the volcano.

He..." Then she saw me. Her face went blood red.

"He's right there!"

"That couldn't have been any more dramatic if you'd burst out of a cake," Jason snickered.

"I am all for you stealing Annabeth's invisibility hat and playing this up for at least an hour or two," Alex smirked.

"You two are awful," Thalia's tone was more exhausted than scolding. She'd lived through the frantic Iris message of her little sister trying to explain what happened and Annabeth's assurance she shouldn't come, the priority was finding Luke, finishing the mission...Thalia had followed her lead and sent Hunters to stake out every known entrance to the Labyrinth while scouting for new ones, but even when she got an update later Percy was alive, it hadn't erased the fear still buried in Annabeth's eyes of when this was going to happen again.

Heads turned. People gasped.

"Percy!" Beckendorf grinned. A bunch of other kids crowded around me and clapped me on the back.

"You have no idea how relieved we are you're back Percy," the way Will spoke present tense gave Percy a jolt. He knew he was missing again, but it didn't fully click with this moment until now. Then Will said with the same sincere tone, "You have no idea how stressful auditions were for the reenactment with the bar you keep setting."

"Will," Percy spluttered. "Stop with the- tell me that's a joke man!"

He kept reading as if he hadn't heard a thing.

I heard a few curses from the Ares cabin, but Clarisse just rolled her eyes, like she couldn't believe I'd had the nerve to survive. Chiron cantered over and everyone made way for him.

"Well," he sighed with obvious relief. "I don't believe I've ever been happier to see a camper return.

"Hey, you trumped Annabeth at last!" Nico smirked. "Official favorite of the camp, ask to get that in writing."

"Do you guys want Annabeth to duel me to the death?" Percy asked in exasperation. "Because this is how she will decide that is necessary."

But you must tell me—"

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Annabeth interrupted, shoving aside the other campers.

'Bed empty, no note, car gone,' Alex snickered to himself as he signed all that to Magnus.

'He could have died! He could have been seen!' Magnus happily finished with his own before they burst out laughing much to everyone else's confusion, even Thalia's. Knowing the signs didn't mean she knew the quote.

I thought she was going to punch me, but instead she hugged me so fiercely she nearly cracked my ribs.

"We now have a very clear warning sign for when Annabeth's about to show you affection," Thalia chuckled. "Every time you think she's about to slug you."

"Piss her off to get her attention, classic misbehaved child 101," Percy agreed with clear relief. He'd take a hundred broken ribs if he could just have her back already.

The other campers fell silent.

Annabeth seemed to realize she was making a scene and pushed me away.

"I—we thought you were dead, Seaweed Brain!"

"I'm sorry," I said. "I got lost."

"What I just heard was never, ever give this boy a map," Jason snorted.

"He took a wrong turn at Albuquerque," Magnus smirked, causing Will to snort hard with laughter at the referance.

"He got blown into the stratosphere without a compass, I'd give him a minor pass," Will composed himself enough to say. At least he'd come back.

"LOST?" she yelled. "Two weeks, Percy? Where in the world—"

"Annabeth," Chiron interrupted. "Perhaps we should discuss this somewhere more private, shall we? The rest of you, back to your normal activities!"

"Funerals over, chop chop, back to your regularly scheduled program of trying not to be next," Magnus said in a pretty good imitation of an announcer's voice.

Without waiting for us to protest, he picked up Annabeth and me as easily as if we were kittens, slung us both on his back, and galloped off toward the Big House.

"I now desperately need to put Chiron into a weightlifting competition," Jason burst out laughing. "Can he carry a whole cart of supplies on his lower half and another half on his human back?"

"He does carry that Camp's responsibility on both his backs all his own," Will said sadly. It's not like Mr. D was any real help. "Wouldn't surprise me if he could take over Atlas's job for a bit without real strain."

I didn't tell them the whole story. I just couldn't bring myself to talk about Calypso. I explained how I'd caused the explosion at Mount St. Helens and gotten blasted out of the volcano. I told them I'd been marooned on an island. Then Hephaestus had found me and told me I could leave. A magic raft had carried me back to camp.

All that was true, but as I said it my palms felt sweaty.

"Aw Percy, I never really suspected you'd lie to Annabeth," Magnus admitted.

Percy licked his lips and kept his thoughts to himself. He didn't resent them for knowing about Calypso, the more who knew about her curse the more likely it could be fixed.

He still wanted Annabeth in here every other word, he'd trade away every intimate moment he had to get one paragraph with her.

But none of that changed a hollow feeling he now knew he'd always have in him. It had grown smaller with time, he'd learned to live around it, but an island-shaped spot he didn't know how to shake, let alone talk about with Annabeth.

"You've been gone two weeks." Annabeth's voice was steadier now, but she still looked pretty shaken up. "When I heard the explosion, I thought—"

"I know," I said. "I'm sorry. But I figured out how to get through the Labyrinth.

Will sighed at Percy just glossing over Annabeth's fear of his mortality. She had been through a lot with Luke and Thalia leaving her behind, he wished Percy had given her a chance to express herself.

Percy didn't seem ready to hear it though, as he continued rubbing at his necklace, each bead flipping between his fingers with nerves. Will knew he was beating himself up over there for scaring her so much and yet a part of him was still guilty over leaving behind Calypso. He left Percy in peace and kept reading, for now.

I talked to Hephaestus."

"He told you the answer?"

"Well, he sort of told me that I already knew. And I do. I understand now."

I told them my idea.

"Was it a good one?" Alex cheerfully sarcasamed even knowing the answer.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Percy grinned along.

Annabeth's jaw dropped. "Percy, that's crazy!"

"As opposed to every other plan he's ever had," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Why is the book being cryptic about it?" Jason asked blankly. "There's only been two mortals that have clear sight. You've yet to bring your mom on an adventure, and you now go to the same school with Rachel. It's obviously going to be one of them with my money on Rachel."

"Don't look at me man, I didn't write them," Percy shrugged. His mom hadn't even crossed his mind. The moment he understood, he knew Rachel was the one to ask. It all fell into place a little to perfectly, running into her twice in a row.

Chiron sat back in his wheelchair and stroked his beard. "There is precedent, however. Theseus had the help of Ariadne. Harriet Tubman, daughter of Hermes, used many mortals on her Underground Railroad for just this reason."

"I seriously need an entire history class from Chiron right now," Jason sighed with longing.

"I will ban you from this camp if you try to set up classrooms," Percy scowled.

"Volunteer classrooms?" He pleaded.

"No! Annabeth would spend all her free time in them!" Percy insisted.

"Boys," Thalia patiently cut in. "Time and place you two. Kill each other over this later." Besides, Percy already knew it was a lost cause by the defeated look on his face. Annabeth would have a blast designing such a thing, let alone being in them, and he'd never deny her that.

"But this is my quest," Annabeth said. "I need to lead it."

Nico's face twitched with the urge not to scowl at this pompous princess, just like Zoe had been. Not wanting to admit she needed people just because she didn't like them- wait. Oh gods. Was he like that too?!

Percy noticed Nico's sudden dumbstruck expression and asked, "What?" Before he could think better of it.

"Nothing," Nico said quickly. He'd just drawn everybody's attention however, and did not like it.

"Uhuh," Percy frowned, but he hadn't a clue what to make of it.

Will cautiously kept reading, leaving Nico to stew alone in his thoughts for now as he realized he might have the same kind of trust problems as two people he'd never liked.

Chiron looked uncomfortable. "My dear, it is your quest. But you need help."

Then Thalia just made it worse with her half-hearted laugh. "Oh if only she'd met Zoe and could hear how hilarious this was."

"Or Clarisse," Jason agreed. Though apparently her siblings had refused, she'd never asked the obvious duo who would go and tried to do it alone instead. "Only Percy has avoided this problem so far, and it's kind of worrisome."

"Percy will take any shmuck on a quest, I don't know how much of a good thing that is," Magnus shook his head. "He'd take me if I asked."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Percy grinned. "An untrained guy who would just run around screaming would be a great distraction while I kill the monster."

"Thanks, happy to help," Magnus sighed while Nico still struggled to get his composure back in place to much to laugh along like he'd want to now.

"And this is supposed to help? Please! It's wrong. It's cowardly. It's—"

"Hard to admit we need a mortal's help," I said. "But it's true."

Annabeth glared at me. "You are the single most annoying person I have ever met!" And she stormed out of the room.

"I think that means she agreed," Will stage whispered.

"I think she's imagining ripping his lips off next," Thalia snorted.

I stared at the doorway. I felt like hitting something. "So much for being the bravest friend she's ever had."

"She said probably," Alex would be remiss not to remind. "I'm sure she's rethinking that list now."

"Yes! Number one again!" Thalia cheered while Percy easily redirected his annoyance onto her instead of the building structure while Will kept reading to avoid any hitting.

"She will calm down," Chiron promised. "She's jealous, my boy."

Magnus chewed on that with a terrified kind of guilt. He'd grown up with Annabeth as his cousin, but hadn't seen her in over ten years. He had more immediate memories of spending time with Percy than her. Gods he was suddenly grateful she wasn't here, because this sounded like an awful situation to be in the middle of as Percy stammered over his frustration in here, and he could not imagine how she'd be taking this trip down memory lane, which bothered him as much as anything.

He could expect Percy to be blushy, confused, and embarrassed, but he had no clue how his own cousin would be right now. Jealous still? Resentful at all of their mild laughter? Demanding of him or Thalia if she'd really been that obvious? Any outcome possible made his stomach curl with stress because he just didn't know the right answer not to make her angry at him.

"That's stupid. She's not...it's not like..."

Chiron chuckled. "It hardly matters. Annabeth is very territorial about her friends, in case you haven't noticed.

"Vibrantly," Thalia sighed.

"Personally," Percy huffed with the same side-eyed look at her, but he didn't get how that related to this moment.

She was quite worried about you. And now that you're back, I think she suspects where you were marooned."

I met his eyes, and I knew Chiron had guessed about Calypso. It was hard to hide anything from a guy who's been training heroes for three thousand years. He's pretty much seen it all.

"I'm coming up blank on an instance where you have surprised Chiron," Jason agreed.

"Which is clearly something Percy should strive for," Alex nodded seriously.

"We won't dwell on your choices," Chiron said. "You came back. That is what matters."

"Tell that to Annabeth."

Chiron smiled. "In the morning I will have Argus take the two of you into Manhattan.

"Does Annabeth try to blow up a bus with you inside it this time?" Alex chuckled. "That'll teach you to make her jealous."

Percy looked a tad horrified for a second as he really wasn't sure if the answer was no.

You might stop by your mother's, Percy. She is...understandably distraught."

My heart skipped a beat. All that time on Calypso's island, I'd never even thought how my mom would be feeling. She'd think I was dead. She'd be devastated. What was wrong with me that I hadn't even considered that?

Percy had in here, he frowned as he rubbed at his temple, but he still felt selfish for not having so back then. Gods, he didn't deserve his mom more and more with every crazy stunt he did. Maybe it would have been better if he'd stayed on that island, where Annabeth would have moved on in peace rather than wanting to throw a bus at him and his mom constantly in fear for him... it would have just been a relief to them both if he'd-

Thalia smacked him. Hard. "Focus Persnickety," she snapped.

"Right," Percy rubbed absently at the spot as he nodded his thanks. What's done is done, he had left. While he still had half a mind of going back and helping Calypso and maybe using that place as a secret bunker to get away from his life some time, he knew without a doubt he'd still never be able to stay there permanently no matter how many peoples lives he messed up.

"Chiron," I said, "what about Grover and Tyson? Do you think—"

"I don't know, my boy." Chiron gazed into the empty fireplace. "Juniper is quite distressed. All her branches are turning yellow. The Council of Cloven Elders had revoked Grover's searcher license in absentia. Assuming he comes back alive, they will force him into a shameful exile."

Percy looked like he was trying to chew up a metal fork in Grover's absence. He was so agitated at himself for leaving those two behind, at that stupid Council for not caring what state Grover would come back in.

He sighed. "Grover and Tyson are very resourceful, however. We can still hope."

"Someone should start a Make a Wish Foundation for as much as Chiron says that," Will grumbled. It wasn't bad advice, sparingly.

"I shouldn't have let them run off."

"I do not think you could have stopped them," Thalia reminded.

Percy wanted to argue, that he should have gone with them rather than the fiasco he'd caused. Maybe they would have found Pan and he would have given them the same secret of how to properly navigate the labyrinth without his fiery sidestep.

He had already lived for days in the question of what if though. It had yet done him a single bit of good.

"Grover has his own destiny, and Tyson was brave to follow him. You would know if Grover was in mortal danger, don't you think?"

"I suppose. The empathy link. But—"

"There is something else I should tell you, Percy," he said. "Actually two unpleasant things."

"Is there an actual limit on this?" Percy groaned. "Have I not hit my cap for a lifetime?"

Thalia was patting him on the shoulder as Nico thought to himself he hadn't yet, and he was pretty sure he would first.

"Great."

"Chris Rodriguez, our guest..."

I remembered what I'd seen in the basement, Clarisse trying to talk to him while he babbled about the Labyrinth. "Is he dead?"

"Not yet," Chiron said grimly. "But he's much worse. He's in the infirmary now, too weak to move.

Jason wanted to protest his own parent hadn't shown up to try and mend this...but the answer felt juvenile flitting through his mind. Like he may as well be disappointed in Santa for not bringing a gift. Something of this felt normal in a way that didn't feel good, desensitized. He was used to the Gods uncaring what happened he supposed.

 I had to order Clarisse back to her regular schedule, because she was at his bedside constantly.

Will's mouth twitched unpleasantly as Chiron shared that private information. He was sure if Clarisse were here she'd have turned them all into powder by whatever means necessary rather than letting those looks of pitiful sorrow linger in here for a second.

He doesn't respond to anything. He won't take food or drink. None of my medicines help. He has simply lost the will to live."

Magnus closed his eyes to try and hide how hard that hit him. He saw way to much of it, knew how easily it could happen if left alone with your own madness. He didn't know anything about Chris, but he had been him for a cold minute. Magnus hoped he met Clarisse now, to try and tell her it wasn't her fault, even if she punched him in the face for it.

I shuddered. Despite all the run-ins I'd had with Clarisse, I felt horrible for her. She'd tried so hard to help him. And now that I'd been in the Labyrinth, I could understand why it had been so easy for the ghost of Minos to drive Chris mad. If I'd been wandering around down there alone, without my friends to help, I'd never have made it out.

Alex fidgeted with his hair for a moment as he tried not to feel called out. That he'd have probably jumped into that labyrinth by himself and possibly ended the same way. He didn't usually think of himself as a conceited person, but he never excused himself from proudly proclaiming to be a lone wolf.

"I'm sorry to say," Chiron continued, "the other news is less pleasant still.

There was no jokes or sarcastic commentary for what that might be. They were all tired of the constant stress and bad news that was Percy's life.

Quintus has disappeared."

Percy made such a blistering sigh they were surprised not to see a trail of smoke from his lips. Alex felt much the same, he had really been hoping the badass demigod with the coolest dog ever who had outlived a life expectancy of teenager wouldn't turn out to be an evil bad guy, working for Kronos or otherwise.

"Disappeared? How?"

"I'm assuming you will not take the answer, into thin air?" Thalia snorted.

"I'm over here hoping he just went for some cigarettes and is never coming back," Jason scowled.

"Three nights ago he slipped into the Labyrinth. Juniper watched him go.

"I hope Juniper is getting paid for all this espionage stuff," Nico huffed.

"I'm not sure if she'd know what to do with anything other than extra fertilizer," Will admitted.

It appears you may have been right about him."

Percy wasn't particularly thrilled somebody, Chiron of all people, was admitting he was right. It was like if Annabeth ever admitted he was right about Luke. It just wouldn't feel good in any circumstances where he didn't want to be right.

"He's a spy for Luke." I told Chiron about the Triple G Ranch—how Quintus had bought his scorpions there and Geryon had been supplying Kronos's army. "It can't be a coincidence."

Chiron sighed heavily. "So many betrayals. I had hoped Quintus would prove a friend. It seems my judgment was bad."

Thalia knew exactly how Percy was feeling. She didn't want to hear Chiron was, 'human.' That he had faulty judgment and could still be fooled after all these years. That his kinder, gentler side had a weakness.

"What about Mrs. O'Leary?" I asked.

"What do you mean what about her?" Alex looked at him like he was nuts, which was not a new expression by any means. "He took his dog."

Percy no longer had the whistle on him, but he toyed with the icy cold of it in his mind. He was missing some connection there as that hellhound and Annabeth tumbled around in his thoughts.

"The hellhound is still in the arena. It won't let anyone approach. I did not have the heart to force it into a cage...or destroy it."

Alex made a deep noise of anger quite close to a growl. That Chiron had slipped into calling her an it the moment he saw her as a monster again, that Mrs. O'Leary had been abandoned, that nobody was likely ever going to trust that dog again and she was going to just vanish into the forest never to be seen again.

"Quintus wouldn't just leave her."

The stuttering noises of surprise around Percy didn't cover his own feelings.

Annabeth didn't talk about her first few months at camp, but he got the sense Luke had been more distant than he was on the streets. Quieter. Annabeth blamed herself for not spotting what was coming sooner as much as she denied nothing had to change permanently.

Quintus had raised that dog when he didn't have to. Something about him abandoning her after giving him a whistle to summon her to danger felt callous and unloving, and yet did not match with the man he'd met who had thrown himself in front of that massive dog and kept her around all these years as a companion.

The connection felt obvious, but the pieces didn't fit.

"As I said, Percy, we seem to have been wrong about him. Now, you should prepare yourself for the morning. You and Annabeth still have much to do."

"Glad you're back, now get lost," Magnus muttered.

Nico poorly smothered a laugh he felt the same way. They usually skipped to step two with him, but it was nice to hear Percy didn't have week long parties because he came back.

I left him in his wheelchair, staring sadly into the fireplace. I wondered how many times he'd sat here, waiting for heroes that never came back.

Jason didn't know how to share his own troubled thoughts with that. To hope that anyone even missed him already felt like asking a lot of the world. He had no feeling, no connection to the idea of a kind old mentor like this centaur was to so many.

Before dinner I stopped by the sword arena. Sure enough, Mrs. O'Leary was curled up in an enormous black furry mound in the middle of the stadium, chewing halfheartedly on the head of a warrior dummy.

"That poor baby," Magnus said with all his heart.

"When you find Quintus, I need you to punch him in the face just for this," Alex told him.

"It is on my to do list," Percy sighed.

When she saw me, she barked and came bounding toward me. I thought I was dead meat.

"I hate to be the one to inform you of this Percy, but you are very alive meat," Jason informed him.

"Yeah, she's a good girl like that," Percy chuckled.

I just had time to say, "Whoa!" before she bowled me over and started licking my face. Now usually, being the son of Poseidon and all, I only get wet if I want to, but my powers apparently did not extend to dog saliva, because I got a pretty good bath.

"About time," Thalia plugged up her nose. "We were about to stage an intervention."

"So I'm curious," Alex began in a very dangerous, curious tone. "When you do get in the shower, do you have to concentrate the whole time on the water getting to you? That sounds like an exhausting and fair excuse to do so sparingly."

"Usually I just have to think about it when I get in," Percy said in a long suffering voice like Nico was still following him around all these years later trying to interrogate him.

"Whoa, girl!" I yelled. "Can't breathe. Lemme up!"

Eventually I managed to get her off me. I scratched her ears and found her an extra-gigantic dog biscuit.

"Where's your master?" I asked. Her. "How could he just leave you, huh?"

She whimpered like she wanted to know that, too. I was ready to believe Quintus was an enemy, but still I couldn't understand why he'd leave Mrs. O'Leary behind. If there was one thing I was sure of, it was that he really cared for his megadog.

"You'd kind of have to, to pick up after her," Will agreed with a sad smile. He was guilty of leaving plates of food around for her. She growled if he got to close, but the eggs and bacon were always gone when he came back.

I was thinking about that and toweling the dog spit off my face when a girl's voice said, "You're lucky she didn't bite your head off."

"The amount of times Percy is lucky a she didn't bite his head off has its own chart," Jason grinned.

"And the he's?" Alex asked with interest.

"I will not reveal my data until all is complete," his grin widened, "but slim in comparison."

Clarisse was standing at the other end of the arena with her sword and shield. "Came here to practice yesterday," she grumbled. "Dog tried to chew me up."

"A worthy challenge Clarisse took to with nothing but pride I'm sure," Nico said.

"Hey, what better practice than the real thing," Percy agreed.

Will snorted and declined mentioning the camp was out of sausages for a month after that day.

"She's an intelligent dog," I said.

"Funny."

Jason gave a theatrical sigh and an imaginary check mark.

She walked toward us. Mrs. O'Leary growled, but I patted her on the head and calmed her down.

"Stupid hellhound," Clarisse said. "Not going to keep me from practicing."

"I heard about Chris," I said. "I'm sorry."

Clarisse paced a circle around the arena. When she came to the nearest dummy, she attacked viciously, chopping its head off with a single blow and driving her sword through its guts. She pulled the sword out and kept walking.

"Those dummies won't be bothering anybody anymore." The last time Percy had said that, it was to someone he liked a whole lot more. He'd learned to respect Clarisse's pride a bit over the years, but even saying that again in a joking manner felt like a bad omen for some reason.

"Yeah, well. Sometimes things go wrong." Her voice was shaky. "Heroes get hurt. They...they die, and the monsters just keep coming back."

She picked up a javelin and threw it across the arena. It nailed a dummy straight between the eyeholes of its helmet.

Nobody had needed her to punctuate her point like that. The endless cycle she spoke of could relate back to a hundred things in the rest of the world. Nico knew intimately he could dismantle every machine Hephaestus had ever built and the god would never stop making more, nor would the act bring his sister back.

She had called Chris a hero, like he had never gone over to the Titan's side. It reminded me of the way Annabeth sometimes talked about Luke. I decided not to bring that up.

"Look at you valuing your life for once," Thalia shook her head, while Jason made another check mark.

"Chris was brave," I said. "I hope he gets better."

She glared at me as if I were her next target. Mrs. O'Leary growled.

"That, is seven layers of terrifying," Magnus shivered. He would have been hauling out of that room like he was a dummy with a brain.

"Those two are not to be trifled with," Alex said cheerfully.

"Are we doing baking puns now?" Percy asked blankly, absently noting Magnus never corrected Alex on his stupid grammering. "Why is that a thing?"

"You know you want to jump in Perce, your mom's a killer baker," Alex grinned.

Will kept reading in the silence and Percy wasn't going to be the one to argue the point.

"Do me a favor," Clarisse told me.

"Yeah, sure."

"I cannot begin to imagine what kind of favor Clarisse would ask of anyone, let alone you," Jason admitted.

"To come up with as cool a nickname as Prissy," Alex smirked.

It probably wouldn't kill them if he just flicked their couches over, Percy thought to himself. Just a tiny flick of his finger, that's all it would take... Will was saving a lot of lives today by reading through his thoughts.

"If you find Daedalus, don't trust him. Don't ask him for help. Just kill him."

"Clarisse—"

"Because anybody who can make something like the Labyrinth, Percy? That person is evil. Plain evil."

"Growing more relieved by the page Clarisse did not come on this quest with Annabeth," Thalia said. They absolutely would have murdered each other by now having a too spirited debate about the outcome of all this.

For a second she reminded me of Eurytion the cowherd, her much older half brother. She had the same hard look in her eyes, as if she'd been used for the past two thousand years and was getting tired of it.

Nico wondered if she'd prayed to her dad for help about Chris and got no answer. If she'd spent countless hours considering any method worth it to get Chris back...

He finally had to reach the conclusion it might be something other than Stockholm's syndrome making him want to return to camp and stay there if he could find something in common with even Clarisse.

She sheathed her sword. "Practice time is over. From now on, it's for real."

Magnus had never believed for an instant any of this was playtime and funsies. Maybe it was just because he was hearing all of this from Percy, the kid who had been chased there by a minotaur and had his mom nearly killed for it, but this camp had never felt so much as a safe sanctuary to practice in as a ground for warriors in training to survive with silly arts and crafts tables to make it seem less dower.

Clarisse was always a huge part of that too. From the beginning she came across rough, the military brat who was going to get away with everything and make everyone's life miserable for it.

Instead she got a touch more human every time she interacted with Percy, leaving Magnus with a guilty feeling he wasn't immune to preconceived judgment.

That night I slept in my own bunk, and for the first time since Calypso's Island, dreams found me.

"You make it sound like they stock you," Jason said with a touch of sympathy.

"It's Grover, he's gawking everybody now," Thalia said with a hint of hope that's all this would be, more horrors showing their favorite satyr alive with Tyson.

I was in a king's courtroom—

"Someone's going to either threaten to decapitate someone or shout for guards by the end of this, it's inevitable," Will sighed.

"If Percy were actually in there, you know something unpredictable would happen," Jason managed to say like it was a compliment. "Maybe confetti would rain down or something."

"I walk around with glitter in my pockets just in case I need to throw someone off," Percy nodded seriously.

"How much time do you spend in courtrooms?" Nico asked Will, completely ignoring the two of them.

"The judge has put a gag order on me from answering," Will said a little too innocently.

a big white chamber with marble columns and a wooden throne. Sitting on it was a plump guy with curly red hair and a crown of laurels. At his side stood three girls who looked like his daughters. They all had his red hair and were dressed in blue robes.

The doors creaked open and a herald announced, "Minos, King of Crete!"

I tensed, but the man on the throne just smiled at his daughters. "I can't wait to see the expression on his face."

"Yeah, neither can I," Percy said with his stomach in knots and dread in every syllable. He still had no idea how Daedalus had been in the dungeon of Minos in the first place, but getting more of this story didn't seem to be easing towards a good outcome no matter the original cause.

It was only the tiniest bit better than following the inventor himself to see who he'd murder next.

Minos, the royal creep himself,

"I really hope somebody went out of their way to spray-paint that on his throne at least once," Thalia chuckled.

swept into the room. He was so tall and serious he made the other king look silly. Minos's pointed beard had gone gray. He looked thinner than the last time I'd dreamed of him, and his sandals were splattered with mud, but the same cruel light shined in his eyes.

"Because if that wasn't there we'd know he was an imposter or something," Nico huffed, still bitter at Percy for constantly describing this guy as cartoonishly evil like he'd been to dense to notice.

He bowed stiffly to the man on the throne.

"Does one king bow to another?" Percy asked blankly. He'd been a little detached in his dream to care.

"There's some politics involved and a hierarchy I have no clue about," Thalia shrugged.

"King Cocalus. I understand you have solved my little riddle?"

Cocalus smiled. "Hardly little, Minos. Especially when you advertise across the world that you are willing to pay a thousand gold talents to the one who can solve it. Is the offer genuine?"

Minos clapped his hands. Two buff guards walked in, struggling with a big wooden crate. They set it at Cocalus's feet and opened it. Stacks of gold bars glittered. It had to be worth like a gazillion dollars.

"Do you know what the difference between a million and a billion is Percy?" Magnus asked with amusement. "A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years."

"So a gazillion is enough to make it far into the future where Godzilla has brought about world peace," Percy grinned.

Cocalus whistled appreciatively. "You must have bankrupted your kingdom for such a reward, my friend."

"That is not your concern."

"I think that sounds like a general concern to the commerce world," Magnus offered. He was vaguely confident enough economy's had a way of bouncing off each other.

Cocalus shrugged. "The riddle was quite simple, really. One of my retainers solved it."

"Father," one of the girls warned. She looked like the oldest—a little taller than her sisters.

Cocalus ignored her.

"Cocalus is going to die," Jason said with a weird amount of confidence. This guy going around ignoring someone just kind of spelled it out.

"Everybody dies eventually Jason, keep up," Nico snorted.

He took a spiral seashell from the folds of his robe.

A silver string had been threaded through it, so it hung like a huge bead on a necklace.

"That's one hell of a fashion statement," Alex snorted, making Magnus immediately envision him wearing one and then fighting not to blush.

Minos stepped forward and took the shell. "One of your retainers, you say? How did he thread the string without breaking the shell?"

"He used an ant, if you can believe it. Tied a silk string to the little creature and coaxed it through the shell by putting honey at the far end."

"That was the height of science back then huh?" Percy snickered.

"How much farther have we really gotten?" Thalia rolled her eyes. "I won't be impressed until we can thread a silk string through a blackhole."

"Ingenious man," Minos said.

"Oh, indeed. My daughters' tutor. They are quite fond of him."

Minos's eyes turned cold. "I would be careful of that."

I wanted to warn Cocalus: Don't trust this guy! Throw him in the dungeon with some man-eating lions or something!

"Those poor lions," Will said tragically, "they'd have indigestion for weeks."

"It's to fast and painless a death for him anyways, cats always go for the neck," Alex said with way to much confidence.

But the redheaded king just chuckled. "Not to worry, Minos. My daughters are wise beyond their years. Now, about my gold—"

"Yes," Minos said. "But you see the gold is for the man who solved the riddle. And there can be only one such man. You are harboring Daedalus."

Cocalus shifted uncomfortably on his throne. "How is that you know his name?"

"He is a thief," Minos said. "He once worked in my court, Cocalus. He turned my own daughter against me. He helped a usurper make a fool of me in my own palace. And then he escaped justice. I have been pursuing him for ten years."

"At what point is a grudge going to far?" Jason asked. "Six months? A year? A year and three months?"

"I have to grudgingly admire anyone who can dedicate their life to something, I know I don't have the attention span for it," Percy scoffed.

"I knew nothing of this. But I have offered the man my protection. He has been a most useful—"

"I offer you a choice," Minos said. "Turn over the fugitive to me, and this gold is yours. Or risk making me your enemy. You do not want Crete as your enemy."

Cocalus paled. I thought it was stupid for him to look so scared in the middle of his own throne room. He should've summoned his army or something. Minos only had two guards. But Cocalus just sat there sweating on his throne.

"How big a country was Crete?" Magnus asked. "Would it be like North Dakota vs South Dakota, or like Asia versus Australia."

"The, first," Thalia answered as well as she could. "More like Crete is California and Cocalus is the King of New Jersey. One is infinitely more big and powerful than the other, but they are connected."

"Well now I'm not sure I want Cocalus to come out of this on top though," Percy frowned. Thalia smacked him and threatened to staple a New Yorker pin to his head as Will tried to keep going.

"Father," his oldest daughter said, "you can't—"

"Silence, Aelia." Cocalus twisted his beard. He looked again at the glittering gold. "This pains me, Minos. The gods do not love a man who breaks his oath of hospitality."

"The gods do not love those who harbor criminals, either."

"Depends on the god?" Nico said with an awkward smile.

"Yeah, got to give him that one." Percy sighed. He could just imagine Zeus harboring a criminal and breaking every oath of hospitality if it suited him.

Cocalus nodded. "Very well. You shall have your man in chains."

"Father!" Aelia said again. Then she caught herself, and changed her voice to a sweeter tone. "At—at least let us feast our gust first. After his long journey, he should be treated to a hot bath, new clothes, and a decent meal. I would be honored to draw the bath myself."

"If anybody falls for this, they deserve what happens to them next," Alex rolled his eyes so hard it looked like it hurt.

"Yeah," Magnus agreed with a pained wince. It didn't feel great to blindly condone whatever mayhem was bound to happen next, but if the crown fit...

She smiled prettily at Minos, and the old king grunted. "I suppose a bath would not be amiss." He looked at Cocalus. "I will see you at dinner, my lord. With the prisoner."

"Now what, oh what could be hiding in that bathtub?" Alex's eyes lit up at his favorite game of guessing the next carnage. "Piranhas? Is someone going to get soap in his eye? Is he going to be stabbed in the shower?"

Percy began making a terrible recreation noise of the Slasher theme while the others all laughed, and Magnus was the only one wondering if they were all kind of terrifying for laughing at the probable murder that was about to happen.

"This way, Your Majesty," said Aelia. She and her sisters led Minos out of the chamber.

I followed them into a bath chamber decorated with mosaic tiles. Steam filled the air. A running-water faucet poured hot water into the tub.

Magnus was immediately distracted from his thoughts of psychopaths to ask, "they had pipes and hot water?"

"Plumbing is as old as the gods, confirmed," Percy snorted.

Aelia and her sisters filled it with rose petals and something that must've been Ancient Greek Mr. Bubble, because soon the water was covered with multicolored foam. The girls turned aside as Minos dropped his robes and slipped into the bath.

"Ahh." He smiled. "An excellent bath. Thank you, my dears. The journey has been long indeed."

"You have been chasing your prey ten years, my lord?" Aelia asked, batting her eyelashes. "You must be very determined."

"I never forget a debt." Minos grinned. "Your father was wise to agree to my demands."

"Oh, indeed, my lord!" Aelia said. I thought she was laying on the flattery pretty thick, but the old guy was eating it up. Aelia's sisters trickled scented oil over the king's head.

"She was literally just arguing with her dad against this," Jason rolled his eyes. "It's almost sad how easy this guy is to kill, all Daedalus had to do was flatter him for a moment and he could have stabbed him."

"Might have worked on Daedalus too," Percy muttered. If he was willing to murder a kid who had insulted his ego, it might have worked the other way too.

"You know, my lord," Aelia said, "Daedalus thought you would come. He thought the riddle might be a trap, but he couldn't resist solving it."

"Why does it not surprise me all children of Athena seem to have the same flaw," Alex said rhetorically.

"Because it would be ridiculous if one of them got the opposite, but a lot more interesting about their mortal parent," Will said curiously anyways. They might have very well gone off on a whole talk about it if Thalia hadn't cleared her throat to keep them on track.

Minos frowned. "Daedalus spoke to you about me?"

"All flowery language and very polite I'm sure," Nico smirked.

"Yes, my lord."

"He is a bad man, princess. My own daughter fell under his spell. Do not listen to him."

"He is a genius," Aelia said. "And he believes a woman is just as smart as a man. He was the first to ever teach us as if we had minds of our own. Perhaps your daughter felt the same way."

Minos tried to sit up, but Aelia's sisters pushed him back into the water.

"I didn't realize the Greeks had gender problems," Magnus admitted. "They worship goddesses, a goddess of wisdom. How do they also think girls shouldn't learn and shit?"

"I have whole pamphlets on that mess from Artemis's time back then," Thalia rolled her eyes while Jason and Magnus looked ready to wrestle over who would read them first.

Aelia came up behind him. She held three tiny orbs in her palm. At first I thought they were bath beads.

Alex burst out laughing hard at the idea they were going to turn the water blood red to hide what they'd done and everybody in the palace was just going to think he was taking a long nap.

But she threw them in the water and the beads sprouted bronze threads that began wrapping around the king, tying him up at the ankles, binding his wrists to his sides, circling his neck. Even though I hated Minos, it was pretty horrible to watch. He thrashed and cried out, but the girls were much stronger. Soon he was helpless, lying in the bath with his chin just above the water. The bronze strands were still wrapping around him like a cocoon, tightening across his body.

"That is terrifying!" Magnus stated with every confidence. "Do the beads activate by water? Why did she have those?"

"I'm guessing Daedalus gave them to her for protection," Percy said with interest as he wondered if he could get his hands on some.

"Gods, what circumstances did he plan for these girls to sporadically give him a bath to make them?" Magnus was looking more traumatized by the second.

"They could just be activated some other way and we're not getting the whole blueprint," Thalia shrugged, plenty intrigued by these little things herself and wondering if Artemis would consider making them.

Magnus sighed, resigning himself to the fact he was in a room with a bunch of heroic murderers.

"Might name my first born child Aelia now," Alex said with pride, and Magnus somehow still sunk lower in his seat.

"What do you want?" Minos demanded. "Why do you do this?"

Aelia smiled.

"Is that not obvious at this point?" Jason snorted.

"One minded goal," Nico shrugged. Minos hadn't gotten over that even in death, everything Daedalus had ever done to wrong him was pretty much all he talked about when he wasn't guiding him on his powers. Gods, he'd been an idiot for not realizing the trick sooner.

"Daedalus has been kind to us, Your Majesty. And I do not like you threatening our father."

"Gods do I hope this girl got to rule her kingdom," Will grinned. "She's ruthless but compassionate, she sounds perfect."

Nico found himself mentally jotting that down with no real idea why.

"You tell Daedalus," Minos growled. "You tell him I will hound him even after death! If there is any justice in the Underworld, my soul will haunt him for eternity!"

Nico made a bleak noise of a laugh. Justice? In the Underworld? Minos had only made his way through there by scheming and lying to the right people just like on the mortal plane. Justice was an equal death for all he'd tried to evade. Minos was lucky Hades didn't always have the time to deal out justice for every soul who passed him and set up the judges instead.

"Brave words, Your Majesty," Aelia said. "I wish you luck finding your justice in the Underworld."

And with that, the bronze threads wrapped around Minos's face, making him a bronze mummy.

"Yeah, no," Magnus rubbed hard at his arms. "I am never taking a bath near a red head now, not happening."

"I hope one day you have to explain that and I'm there for every detail," Alex continued laughing without a care in the world.

The door of the bathhouse opened. Daedalus stepped in, carrying a traveler's bag.

Percy whistled impressively. "That is one way to get away with murder, not even being in the room."

"His invention, someone else's execution," Thalia agreed. "They should all go down, but he is a genius, no denying that."

"I'm actually disappointed he was just like, standing on the other side of the door or something," Will frowned. "Getting those girls to do his dirty work while he couldn't even watch. I'm glad if he's reformed and can't stand the idea of more murder he's caused, but that felt cowardly."

"I'm with Will, he should have looked him in the eye," Jason agreed with a feral smile.

Magnus once again sighed...but then conceded he wouldn't be a normal person if he was ever left alone with the god who had sicked wolves on his mom.

He'd trimmed his hair short. His beard was pure white. He looked frail and sad, but he reached down and touched the mummy's forehead. The threads unraveled and sank to the bottom of the tub. There was nothing inside them. It was as if King Minos had just dissolved.

"He definitely deserved something like flesh eating bugs and having all of his organs put in a jar before such a death," Alex scowled.

"The full mummification process was actually reserved for nobility, or very high class," Nico corrected. "It's a less dignifying death this way he got no special treatment."

"Fair," Alex shrugged.

"A painless death," Daedalus mused. "More than he deserved. Thank you, my princesses."

Aelia hugged him. "You cannot stay here, teacher. When our father finds out—"

"Yes," Daedalus said. "I fear I have brought you trouble."

"Oh, do not worry for us. Father will be happy enough taking that old man's gold. And Crete is a very long way away. But he will blame you for Minos's death. You must flee to somewhere safe."

Magnus didn't think that sounded like a very fair deal to Cocalus and his kingdom, now likely trapped in a war that was going to cost him all that gold if he wasn't over run when Crete found out that's where their ruler had died, but it also probably tied into a lot of factors he couldn't begin to guess at like if Crete would even care such a cruel man was dead and the power vacuum would be a more pressing concern for them.

"Somewhere safe," the old man repeated. "For years I have fled from kingdom to kingdom, looking for somewhere safe. I fear Minos told the truth. Death will not stop him from hounding me. There is no place under the sun that will harbor me, once word of this crime gets out."

Nico's mind spun around that for a moment. He'd never expected to have something in common with Daedalus. He wasn't even sure if he knew what the feeling of safe was anymore. His time at Westover Hall in ignorance was as close as he'd come before here.

"Then where will you go?" Aelia said.

"A place I swore never to enter again," Daedalus said.

"And that's why you shouldn't swear kids," Thalia snorted, "or at least only reserve it for serious situations."

"Like stubbing your toe, or making life binding vows," Percy grinned.

"My prison may be my only sanctuary."

"I do not understand," Aelia said.

"It's best you did not."

"But what of the Underworld?" one of her sisters asked. "Terrible judgment will await you! Every man must die."

"Perhaps," Daedalus said. Then he brought a scroll from his traveling bag—the same scroll I'd seen in my last dream, with his nephews notes. "Or perhaps not."

Percy wasn't sure if they'd gone as far into the past as they were going to with this guy, he could never tell with his dreams.

He didn't feel like he'd learned anything spectacularly inspiring about why he might still be in the maze to this day. For all he knew Daedalus still thought flip flops were the main form of travel and didn't even realize how much time had passed...but that answer didn't feel right. He was sure he was still missing a part of this story, and yet was in no way looking forward to the rest. Which didn't bode well for the rest of this quest.

He patted Aelia's shoulder, then blessed her and her sisters. He looked down once more at the coppery threads glinting in the bottom of the bath.

"What happens when they fish those out?" Percy mock whispered.

"I assume they don't use them to invent cable, but who knows?" Thalia shrugged.

"Find me if you dare, king of the ghosts."

"Hadn't Annabeth said something about that in her prophecy?" Alex well remembered she had, and didn't look pleased at this answer. "This is why? Because he's a ghost with a vengeance? I bet there are plenty of them like that."

Percy looked plenty troubled by that declaration. It felt off, misplaced, and his mind felt instantly pained for trying to understand why as Nico pursed up his lips rather than answer in any way.

He turned toward the mosaic wall and touched a tile. A glowing mark appeared—a Greek ∆—and the wall slid aside. The princesses gasped.

"You never told us of secret passages!" Aelia said. "You have been busy."

"The Labyrinth has been busy," Daedalus corrected. "Do not try to follow me, my dears, if you value your sanity."

"Have I mentioned how much I dislike everybody calling this thing alive?" Magnus sighed.

"At least he gives good advice for a murderer," Alex said cheerfully.

Well at least that meant Alex did value his sanity, not all of them were so sure about that before.

My dream shifted. I was underground in a stone chamber. Luke and another half-blood warrior were studying a map by flashlight.

"Yeah, I wanna go back to talking about the guy who helps girls study to be serial killers," Magnus scowled instantly at this guy popping up again.

"Seconded," Percy said with a low, dangerous tone to his voice once more.

Luke cursed. "It should've been the last turn." He crumpled up the map and tossed it aside.

"Sir!" his companion protested.

"Maps are useless here," Luke said.

"So, why was he looking at a map?" Nico asked in the same idiotic tone he would have asked Annabeth constantly trying to apply logic to this place.

"Bad influence? Hopefully Saturn is just as useless," Jason tried to say with some vague hope.

"Don't worry. I'll find it."

"Sir, is it true that the larger the group—"

"The more likely you get lost? Yes, that's true. Why do you think we sent out solo explorers to begin with?

"Personal entertainment," Thalia spat.

"Horrible strategizing," Jason said again. He really hoped Saturn was that bad.

But don't worry. As soon as we have the thread, we can lead the vanguard through."

"But how will we get the thread?"

Luke stood, flexing his fingers.

"Did he have his sword back on him?" Alex asked critically.

"No," Percy frowned at the still empty scabbard even in a place like this. He was either the cockiest bastard alive...or Percy was really missing something.

Or Luke had lost it and didn't have his mom around to magically find it behind the washing machine for him.

It was definitely one of those.

"Oh, Quintus will come through.

There was a collective shiver of disgust around the room. Nobody was happy the camp was double crossed like that.

All we have to do is reach the arena, and it's at the juncture. Impossible to get anywhere without passing it.

"Percy got several places without passing an arena," Magnus frowned.

"Nowhere important in the maze," Nico clarified. "You can wander in a circle all your life, but if you have a destination in mind, you can't get to it without passing through there." He had avoided it by dipping in and out of the underworld and mortal world as needed. His heritage and the help of the ghosts were the only reason.

"Great, details about the sentient maze and how it wants you dead, my favorite," Magnus muttered.

That's why we must have a truce with its master. We just have to stay alive until—"

"Sir!" a new voice came from the corridor. Another guy in Greek armor ran forward, carrying a torch.

Will was selfishly grateful for a moment Nico was still on that farm, safe away from this. He felt the tight pain of that the more he lingered on it. He never knew the number of how many kids were on Luke's side, he'd never wanted to. He certainly hadn't sat around and liked to think of Luke surrounded by monsters all day, but having kids on lookouts at every deadly corner still felt worse. Who was it that time? Little Tommy who kept saying he was going to grow up to be a doctor too? Jack who had plans to build a building-sized robot? Any of the kids who had just vanished over the years and were never seen again.

"The dracaenae found a half-blood!"

Luke scowled. "Alone? Wandering the maze?"

"Like he did to kids?" Thalia mock gasped, her voice acidic. "Is he going to see what he did to his own scouts?" She certainly hoped he'd had to face what he'd done to kids like Chris.

"Yes, sir! You'd better come quick. They're in the next chamber. They've got him cornered."

"Who is it?"

"No one I've ever seen before, sir."

Luke nodded. "A blessing from Kronos. We may be able to use this halfblood. Come!"

They ran down the corridor, and I woke with a start, staring into the dark.

A lone half-blood, wandering in the maze. It was a long time before I got to sleep again.

Percy chewed hard on the cap of his pen. His mind instantly jumped to Nico, but he was supposed to be safe at the farm, so he was very grateful it couldn't be him. That just left hundreds of other faceless kids who were scared beyond all reason, lost and alone, in there for any reason or no reason at all and about to play right into Luke's hand like he had.

Was Luke going to be charming to them? Friendly and inviting into his cool I Hate Gods Club with a pin and everything?

Or was his face going to be in shadows, his scar flickering in their torch light as he commanded the kid be used as a human sacrifice to shut up a pesky monster complaining about being hungry?

How was this random kid going to be of any more use then the ones already on that side of the war?

Thalia finally had to get his attention by taking the rest of his pen away, so that Riptide sprang to full form in her hand and nearly into the roof of his mouth if she wasn't so swift, while the cap dangled from his lips without a single bite mark on it.

He spat it out and snatched it back from her in betrayal, but at least now as he scooped up the top and put it back in his pocket they were sure he was paying attention again and not making the water darker and recede towards him like a hurricane on the horizon.

The next morning I made sure Mrs. O'Leary had enough dog biscuits. I asked Beckendorf to keep an eye on her, which he didn't seem too happy about.

"He'll warm up to her real quick when he straps a tool belt around her with literally every kind of hammer," Will chuckled.

"He should put a radio on her back, subwoofers," Thalia laughed.

Percy groaned and covered his ears like that was really the worst thing he'd ever heard while he poorly covered his laugh that matched everybody else's.

Then I hiked over Half-Blood Hill and met Annabeth and Argus on the road.

Annabeth and I didn't talk much in the van.

Percy felt like he was still finding sand from Ogygia in his pockets for days afterword's, and most of all in his mouth right now as he swallowed dry. There had been so much he wanted to say to her at the time...and now he couldn't think of a word.

Argus never spoke, probably because he had eyes all over his body, including—so I'd heard—at the tip of his tongue, and he didn't like to show that off.

"What a shame," Alex said, dearly wishing he could make an eyeball on his tongue right now.

Annabeth looked queasy, as if she'd slept even worse than me.

"And that takes some massive talent," Thalia shook her head.

"She always has to be better than me at everything," Percy sighed.

"Bad dreams?" I asked at last.

She shook her head. "An Iris-message from Eurytion."

Nico was surprised the old cow-heard had even noticed. He hadn't been unkind to Nico, but he'd been in his own little world, enjoying coming and going from the house as he pleased for the first time in a very long time. Always inviting Nico to sit down and eat dinner with him, but clearly enjoying his peace and quite as Nico had only stirred beans and brisket around on a plate.

"Eurytion! Is something wrong with Nico?"

Nico was ten times more surprised that was Percy's very first thought. Not that Quintus had showed up, not that Geryon was back already for revenge, not even that Nico had burned the place down in a fit of madness.

If something was wrong. If he was okay?

Will's voice was an instant spike of concern as well, and he was sitting right next to this doofus. It was so...he couldn't even think of the right word for it.

"He left the ranch last night, heading back into the maze."

"Nico was gone before he woke up. Orthus tracked his scent as far as the cattle guard. Eurytion said he'd been hearing Nico talk to himself the last few nights. Only now he thinks Nico was talking with the ghost again, Minos."

Nico sighed as he waited for the verbal abuse any second. He was such an idiot, how could he fall for that again?

It didn't come though.

For once he felt odd defending himself, because he didn't really feel like he needed to. "I, um, he convinced me you and Annabeth were back in the maze, he could sense it, and you two idiots were going to get yourself killed if I didn't come save your butts. He, he said he wanted you out of his maze before you figured out how it worked." He stopped and bit his lip as Percy watched him curiously, a smile on his face?!

"So, you came to help us?" Percy finally confirmed.

"I, yeah, if you put it that way," he quickly averted his eyes, swallowing a scowl and plenty of other snide answers. The guy had just helped him talk to his sister, his only wish, he'd felt he owed him. No. Other. Reason.

Nico sighed hard though and admitted to himself the other reason.

He'd been hoping to save Percy. Maybe to impress him. Show he wasn't just a weak kid.

It hadn't worked out that way...but he had helped...

"He's in danger," I said.

"No kidding. Minos is one of the judges of the dead, but he's got a vicious streak a mile wide. I don't know what he wants with Nico, but—"

"That's not what I meant," I said. "I had this dream last night..." I told her about Luke, how he'd mentioned Quintus, and how his men had found a half-blood alone in the maze.

Annabeth's jaw clenched. "That's very, very bad."

Nico's fingers fiddled with his ring, then drummed on his sword. A quick, agitated pattern. Very, very bad because he was now in Luke's clutches as a child of Hades? Or very, very bad because he was now in Luke's clutches as Bianca's brother?

Annabeth didn't know him at all, it was most likely the first. She was a strategist at heart, it was most likely the first.

But the way Will read it was the same tone he'd used to try persuading him to eat, the same harsh concern when he'd found out he planned to eat as little as possible.

Will seemed to think it was a very, very bad thing because he could get hurt. Judging by Percy's suddenly pale face, just like the one he'd had when he'd taken off into the forest by himself, so did he.

He wanted to tell them both he'd never been around Luke, he hadn't been captured and no cell could hold him...but he didn't want to mess with Percy's memories when he'd gone a decent amount of time without nearly killing them lately and he didn't want to be the one to break that streak.

"So what do we do?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Well, it's a good thing you have a plan to guide us, huh?"

"She sounds soooo sarcastic," Magnus laughed, and he wasn't even there to hear it. "I hope it's an unstoppable plan that goes off without a flaw Percy, or she's never going to let you hear the end of it."

"Yeah," Percy tried to agree with his usual casual smile, but something of it made his stomach quiver, ready to run for its life. He really hoped Rachel agreed to help...but then that would mean he'd be trapped in that maze with Rachel and Annabeth?!

It was Saturday, and traffic was heavy going into the city. We arrived at my mom's apartment around noon.

Percy watched the others startle in surprise. They'd all seemed pretty confident he was taking Rachel into the maze with him and probably just expected a phone call or something in mention.

He smiled though and asked Will to pause as he got up, stretched, and went off. He was only gone for a moment before he was back with a massive plate of blue cookies he seemed more likely to inhale up his nose before they made it to his mouth. He passed them around with the same strained smile his mom would have, Sally Jackson might have had batter on her own apron as she fussed over them.

The boy was plain homesick, and after so many back to back instances of feeling like he should be everywhere else, he sat back into his seat and munched on the closest thing he could get.

When she answered the door, she gave me a hug only a little less overwhelming than having a hellhound jump on you.

Will read that with a kind of unsure lilt to his voice, like he didn't know of what exactly he was reading for the first time. This was more weird and fantasy than the constant monster attacks.

He still wasn't sure if his own mom would recognize him walking down the street, he had no idea what kind of emotion to inflict into that.

"I told them you were all right," my mom said, but she sounded like the weight of the sky had just been lifted off her shoulders—and believe me, I know firsthand how that feels.

"It sounded something like, urgh, argh, owww," Alex helpfully reminded. "Your mom was speaking actual words."

Percy brushed the grey streaks of hair out of his eyes and shook his head at Alex without the usual eye roll. He could never really begrudge any of them when they talked about his mom like she was a more foreign concept than outer space.

She sat us down at the kitchen table and insisted on feeding us her special blue chocolate-chip cookies while we caught her up on the quest.

It was the end of that sentence that caused Percy to nearly choke on his own cookie. This should have been the afternoon he missed out on with Annabeth, after the movie. This was the exact scene he'd envisioned at the start of this trip down memory lane.

Now everything was all twisted and messed up. He'd already blown up another school and a volcano to boot, Annabeth was pissed at him, and he had no idea if Grover and Tyson were even alive.

As usual, I tried to water down the frightening parts (which was pretty much everything), but somehow that just made it sound more dangerous.

"How do you even begin with that?" Nico asked with interest. He'd never tried to tell a story to anybody and was struggling to imagine this scenario more than digging up a grave.

"Practice and fudge," Percy sighed as he tossed another morsel in.

When I got to the part about Geryon and the stables, my mom pretended like she was going to strangle me. "I can't get him to clean his room, but he'll clean a hundred tons of horse manure out of some monster's stables?"

A short but honest round of affectionate laughter went around the room, Thalia of course escalating the joke by demanding of him, "can't you reenact just this one scene Percy? For those in the audience who don't have a live performance!"

"Not a chance Thals," Percy chuckled as he remembered his moms eyes sparkling with amusement. It had been happening a lot more often with Paul around, but it still hadn't gotten old.

Annabeth laughed. It was the first time I'd heard her laugh in a long time, and it was nice to hear.

Percy sighed as he could still remember the exact moment too, her meeting him outside the school he'd set on fire. Laughing about him bumping into her. Even more recently...maybe...was the memory of her kissing him.

He hadn't actually gotten to hear her laugh since he woke up though, and a part of him that worried if he'd ever get out of this place began to gnaw at him if he ever would again.

"So," my mom said when I was done with the story, "you wrecked Alcatraz Island, made Mount St. Helens explode, and displaced half a million people, but at least you're safe." That's my mom, always looking on the bright side.

There was a joke somewhere in there about Apollo hitting on her next Thalia just didn't have the heart to put out. She struggled to pull up a memory about her mom, let alone one she didn't hate.

"Yep," I agreed. "That pretty much covers it."

"You skipped over being chased by Kampe and threatening to shoot Braries and how awesome Calypso was huh?" Jason asked. "Those could have been important details Percy." Like he was chastising someone not filling out a whole report.

"I also left out the part about Hera showing up and scolding me for not figuring out the obvious, and Janus making us miserable, and the toilet water that led to Tartarus. You know, all the minor details," Percy rolled his eyes.

"I wish Paul were here," she said, half to herself. "He wanted to talk to you."

"In what tone?" Alex's voice sounded territorial and a little scary and Percy's mind flashed up the horrible image of Alex strangling Paul with that garrote if he so much as raised his voice.

"I did blow up his school," Percy said quickly and fairly, "I'm pretty confident he would have just, you know, scalded me."

"I really hope you mean scolded," Magnus sighed, and when Percy laughed he realized that's exactly what he'd meant. There was that missing baking joke he knew he was capable of. The carefree noise set them all at ease. Percy had no clear memory of what did happen and obviously wasn't the least bit concerned about it, so that was of some comfort.

"Oh, right. The school."

"Back when your biggest concern was Rachel and cheerleading vampires," Will sighed.

"Oh the good times I never know to cherish," Percy mock agreed.

So much had happened since then that I'd almost forgotten about the high school orientation at Goode—the fact I'd left the band hall in flames, and my mom's boyfriend had last seen me jumping through a window like a fugitive.

"At least you didn't pull a gun on anybody and run off to join a gang?" Magnus offered.

"He does wear color coordinated outfits and has a kill count, I wouldn't count that last one out," Jason snorted.

"Says the guy with a mysterious tattoo," Percy smirked. "You could have ties to the mafia for all we know!"

"And won't that be a fun adventure to sort out together," Jason spread his arms wide with a mock smile like he was waiting for a group hug.

Thalia socked him in the ribs and told Will to get reading as she smothered her panic she had no clue what had happened to Jason all this time and she just didn't have it in her to laugh about it.

"What did you tell him?" I asked.

My mom shook her head. "What could I say? He knows something is different about you, Percy. He's a smart man. He believes that you're not a bad person. He doesn't know what's going on, but the school is pressuring him. After all, he got you admitted there. He needs to convince them the fire wasn't your fault. And since you ran away, that looks bad."

"So, despite an eye witness and a teacher who knows you and was first on the scene vouching you didn't do it, somebody still wants to blame you instead of the cheerleader," Alex clarified in disgust.

"Sounds about right," Percy said sullenly. He glared at the book for several long moments. His life had always boiled down to what others decided they knew of him on paper, everyone except his mom. Nobody had ever asked him why he'd beaten up that guy with a basketball because he had metal talons for nails. Nobody had ever wondered why he'd run away screaming from the principle's office because he kept showing a forked tongue. 

It was just the delinquent Percy Jackson, causing more trouble at every school.

 He wished he could have gotten Chiron on the phone, to go up there and tell them with Mist what 'really happened,' but he only just now thought about it right this second. He had a lot more on his mind back then.

Annabeth was studying me. She looked pretty sympathetic. I knew she'd been in similar situations. It's never easy for a half-blood in the mortal world.

"How, similar?" Magnus asked in concern.

"One time she dropped a whole bookshelf on a custodian because he was really some kind of four eyed monster she did not want to get a closer look at, he was coming at her with a trash bag." Percy sighed. He sounded quite proud all the same her younger self had managed that at all, "of course all the librarian saw was her seriously acting out and she had to get picked up by patrol cars and taken home because nobody could get her dad on the phone. She was almost about to spend the night in some random foster house before he showed up."

Thalia and Will had similar stories from their younger days in school while the others watched in miserable silence. Did every card have to be stacked against kids like them from the beginning?

"I'll talk to him," I promised. "After we're done with the quest. I'll even tell him the truth if you want."

"Can't get any worse?" Nico agreed in a tone that still expected it to.

"Nico, why would you say that?" Percy looked as hurt as if he'd just cussed out his mother.

"I, um, meant the quest," Nico scrambled to cover, because at least he knew Percy survived that. "Your quest can't get any worse, I was not saying any commentary at all about the rest of this situation in an effort to jinx you," he finished all in a rush.

Percy laughed, a good-faith noise that didn't hold a hint of a grudge against Nico for even hinting at that. Grudges weren't Percy's thing.

My mom put her hand on my shoulder. "You would do that?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, he'll think we're crazy."

"He already thinks that."

"Then there's nothing to lose."

"Who's mocking his own existence now?" Will smirked.

"Me," Percy sighed, "why do you think I couldn't blame Nico for doing it? I can take what I dish out."

The others all laughed now, a friendly noise that soundly oddly supportive, but Nico was probably just imagining things.

"Thank you, Percy. I'll tell him you'll be home..." She frowned. "When? What happens now?"

Annabeth broke her cookie in half. "Percy has this plan."

"Taking her feelings out on the cookies," Alex said in betrayal. He'd been breaking them off in chunks to savor every bite.

"She ate the whole plate," Percy said with no regrets. "I was lucky I got four and all my fingers."

Reluctantly I told my mom.

She nodded slowly. "It sounds very dangerous. But it might work."

"You have the same abilities, don't you?" I asked. "You can see through the Mist."

My mom sighed. "Not so much now. When I was younger it was easier.

"How interesting," Jason said in the tone of someone about to do a whole thesis on this.

Magnus and Alex exchanged confused looks. They'd been pretty confident he meant Rachel at first, but now they weren't sure why Percy wasn't taking his mom. If she still could see through the Mist and Percy had even stopped by to see her and tell her everything, well, it would make sense to bring along someone Annabeth trusted wholeheartedly as well.

One look at Percy was the answer though. She'd lived to long in danger of her life having Percy in her home for short bursts. Percy would never indulge the idea for an instant putting her in any kind of harms way. If either of them had suggested it he'd think it treason.

But yes, I've always been able to see more than was good for me. It's one of the things that caught your father's attention, when we first met. Just be careful. Promise me you'll be safe."

"There's a broken promise before it starts," Thalia shivered at the last time Annabeth had promised that and she'd gone over the cliff with a manticore.

Percy had the exact same feeling wash over him and swallowed hard. He couldn't even fool himself the danger was even close to over.

"We'll try, Ms. Jackson," Annabeth said. "Keeping your son safe is a big job, though." She folded her arms and glared out the kitchen window. I picked at my napkin and tried not to say anything.

My mom frowned. "What's going on with you two? Have you been fighting?"

"It would be weirder if they weren't honestly," Magnus admitted.

"How you two ever went from insults to innuendos I haven't guessed yet," Alex agreed suggestively.

Percy turned a whole new color to blush as he tried to splutter a denial there were no innuendos or any 'in' or 'un' or 'dos' in sight, but he wasn't doing a great job even before Will put him out of his misery.

Neither of us said anything.

"I see," my mom said, and I wondered if she could see through more than just the Mist.

He got 'yes's,' and 'absolutely's' from each of his friends in various degrees. Percy sighed with odd pleasure they knew his mom and this situation so well. It made him feel a heck of a lot less like a disaster waiting to happen anyways they knew all the important details of his life instead of just the horrific ones. They knew him as more than just Poseidon's kid, like his friends at Camp, and didn't seem to give a rats fart about his record no matter how many details were shown.

It sounded like she understood what was going on with Annabeth and me, but I sure as heck didn't.

Thalia face palmed hard as she weighed in her mind putting the boy out of his misery and trying to explain it to him now. Only weighing the pro's and con's in her head of constantly reminding herself it would hurt him more than help him right now stopped her, but it was a close race.

Percy watched her for several minutes with mixed hope and dread for whatever the outcome, and was just as relieved as her when Will kept going in the dubious silence.

"Well, remember," she said, "Grover and Tyson are counting on you two."

"I know," Annabeth and I said at the same time, which embarrassed me even more.

Percy still looked marginally embarrassed in here over that. He expected Thalia to whistle and someone else to make a goofy joke about their minds melding.

They were all just kind of sad though. Annabeth was as intricate a part of his life as his mom, and they wished she was here for him.

My mom smiled. "Percy, you'd better use the phone in the hall. Good luck."

I was relieved to get out of the kitchen, even though I was nervous about what I was about to do. I went to the phone and placed the call. The number had washed off my hand a long time ago, but that was okay. Without meaning to, I'd memorized it.

"I can't get you to remember I don't like olives," Thalia said in exasperation. "Your dyslexic ass is over here memorizing phone numbers a random girl put on your hand!"

"I'd remember your phone number if you'd stop sending me messages via hawk's that leave shit on top of my cabin," Percy scoffed.

"It's more my style, I could never pick a ring tone anyways," Thalia shrugged.

We arranged a meeting in Times Square. We found Rachel Elizabeth Dare in front of the Marriott Marquis, and she was completely painted gold.

"What is it with this girl and these fabulous entrances," Alex said in delight. Magnus was suddenly, selfishly glad Rachel hadn't stuck around as he averted his eyes to the ceiling for a moment.

I mean, her face, her hair, her clothes—everything. She looked like she'd been touched by King Midas. She was standing like a statue with five other kids all painted metallic—copper, bronze, silver. They were frozen in different poses while tourists hustled past or stopped to stare. Some passerby threw money at the tarp on the sidewalk.

"Oooh, now that's pretty cool," Will said in full excitement.

"Why would you want to pretend to be a statue?" Magnus asked with distaste. He wasn't a fan of them himself. They were all over Uncle Randolph's creepy house, usually near the windows he peeked in at, not to mention that stupid bronze statue of Leif Erikson with his metal bra. Nope, he could do without admiring statues, thank you.

The sign at Rachel's feet said, URBAN ART FOR KIDS, DONATIONS APPRECIATED.

Magnus's heart instantly melted though as he realized this was some kind of charity event for kids and Alex began happily shouting about what a cool fundraiser this was and where he could sign up. Darn if he wouldn't have wanted to drop a few sticky, coke drenched pennies he'd found onto that tarp himself just to help some other kid out.

Annabeth and I stood there for like five minutes, staring at Rachel, but if she noticed us she didn't let on. She didn't move or even blink that I could see. Being ADHD and all, I could not have done that. Standing still that long would've driven me crazy.

"I guess you don't have any future as an artist," Alex sighed tragically. "It takes a lot of concentration and hours of sitting in one place. Annabeth can manage it over her blueprints, I'm sure you can if you set your mind to it," he even sounded hopefully encouraging.

"Cooking, maybe, that's as close as I've ever gotten to anything arty," Percy shrugged without much hope for himself, and he really wasn't curious enough to try at it all.

It was weird to see Rachel in gold, too. She looked like a statue of somebody famous, an actress or something. Only her eyes were normal green.

"Someone should have busted out the gold contacts for that girl to go all the way," Jason couldn't hold back anymore and began applauding her dedication. She was going to make a great addition to the quest already!

"They probably agitated her eyes, or I bet she would have," Will smiled, he'd seen how intense she got over her cave at camp.

"Maybe if we push her over," Annabeth suggested.

Nico and Alex couldn't help a surprised laugh while Magnus grimaced uncomfortably. He was still half hoping Rachel would refuse to go on this quest now. Annabeth might push her into a monster if that girl started talking to Percy to long.

I thought that was a little mean, but Rachel didn't respond.

"Dedication," Alex said every syllable with a proud smile for that girl. Magnus swallowed the comment he could ignore people too, because, you know, that wasn't very impressive when he could just walk away. "I wonder if people on the streets try to make them laugh like those British guards with the funny hats?"

Magnus started laughing in surprise at the idea of Alex cracking out every joke to break their stance and felt weirdly better for it, even knowing Alex wouldn't do it if he admired their work that much.

After another few minutes, a kid in silver walked up from the hotel taxi stand, where he'd been taking a break. He took a pose like he was lecturing the crowd, right next to Rachel. Rachel unfroze and stepped off the tarp.

"Hey, Percy." She grinned. "Good timing! Let's get some coffee."

We walked down to a place called the Java Moose on West 43rd.

"Their cups better be big enough to worthy that name," Thalia said weirdly serious. "One should not take the name of a moose in vain with puny coffee cups."

"Note to self, Thalia is weirdly serious about her coffee and meese," Percy chuckled.

"Moose, Percy, the plural of a moose is still moose," Magnus sighed, while Thalia rolled her eyes and scoffed, "please, like you'll remember that in five minutes."

Rachel ordered an Espresso Extreme, the kind of stuff Grover would like.

"Girl got addiction issues," Will sighed in commiseration.

"The first step is admitting it," Nico shrugged.

Will looked vaguely offended, like Nico was threatening to take away his Expresso Extreme. Nico decided he would have to fix that idea right out of Will's mind by making sure there was one next to his bed when he went to sleep tonight.

Annabeth and I got fruit smoothies and we sat at a table right under the stuffed moose.

"Why?" Jason asked with the intense kind of interest they'd learned to associate with him picking up on something personal, and indeed, his hand was already tracing his tattoo.

"Caffeine makes ADHD kids chill, more relaxed, it has the opposite effect on us," Percy shrugged. "We did not want to go back into those tunnels sleepy."

"Huh, thanks," Jason nodded as he smacked his lips together in thought. Did he know that? Why did he have a feeling that related back to him. It wouldn't surprise him in the slightest if he was ADHD, he got along with Percy and Thalia on that distracted quality a little to well.

Nobody even looked twice at Rachel in her golden outfit.

"Oh please, that went without saying," Thalia rolled her eyes. "New Yorkers walk past people ten times stranger in the last hour. Don't baby us on your city Percy."

"Okay, okay," Percy raised his hands in surrender. He really couldn't wait to give them all a personal tour...but then his brain tried to fry him for a moment as he struggled to remember if he and Thalia had ever been in the city before together for any reason...

"So," she said, "it's Annabell, right?"

"Missing Mr. D slightly less yet?" Will grinned.

"No," Percy said flatly. It had been extremely nice to walk around camp and not worry about what that old jerk was going to say to him to ruin his day the short time he'd been there.

"Annabeth," Annabeth corrected. "Do you always dress in gold?"

"Not usually," Rachel said. "We're raising money for our group. We do volunteer art projects for elementary kids 'cause they're cutting art from the schools, you know? We do this once a month, take in about five hundred dollars on a good weekend. But I'm guessing you don't want to talk about that. You're a half-blood, too?"

"Shhh!" Annabeth said, looking around. "Just announce it to the world, how about?"

"And don't get us started on the conversations you probably over hear," Thalia looked a tad bemused at her panicking over this when Thalia had once summoned a lightning strike on a clear day and the mortals had scattered in fear without looking back. Two weeks later, Luke had been chased by a giant leaf monster he'd finally managed to escape by jumping through oncoming traffic. A car had blown right through the beast, scattering orange, gold, and green leaves everywhere. A semi had come right up next and crushed the trophy of the medallion that had been left in the center.

Not a single car had hit the brakes as Luke made it to the other side.

"Okay." Rachel stood up and said really loud, "Hey, everybody! These two aren't human! They're half Greek god!"

"She says that like being Greek isn't a real person," Will chuckled.

"Well we don't eat briam on a regular basis, so there's some kind of distinction," Nico rolled his eyes. He hoped the Camp did do a few non-American dishes from time to time, he enjoyed his tastes of the world.

Nobody even looked over. Rachel shrugged and sat down. "They don't seem to care."

"That's not funny," Annabeth said. "This isn't a joke, mortal girl."

"Hold it, you two," I said. "Just calm down."

"I'm calm," Rachel insisted. "Every time I'm around you, some monster attacks us. What's to be nervous about?"

"That's, entirely fair actually," Magnus said sheepishly for his own jealousy.

Alex made a pssh noise. "Percy loses his cool all the time and we're plenty calm, she just needs a little bit more practice."

"Oh yeah, we're cool as ice about all this," Nico rolled his eyes while Percy tried not to look to stung over how right they were.

"Look," I said. "I'm really sorry about the band room. I hope they didn't kick you out or anything."

"Nah. They asked me a lot of questions about you. I played dumb."

"Was it hard?" Annabeth asked.

"Dam!" Alex laughed like a punch had forced it out of him. "Did Annabeth fail a personality test while you were gone?"

Percy looked ready to eat his straw before he answered.

"Okay, stop!" I intervened. "Rachel, we've got a problem. And we need your help."

Rachel narrowed her eyes at Annabeth. "You need my help?"

Annabeth stirred her straw in her smoothie. "Yeah," she said suddenly. "Maybe."

"And that's as close to a win as you're going to get," Jason said with confidence.

"I took it," Percy promised.

I told Rachel about the Labyrinth, and how we needed to find Daedalus. I told her what had happened the last few times we'd gone in.

"So you want me to guide you," she said. "Through a place I've never been."

"Well when she puts it that way it sounds ridiculous," Percy sighed.

"How did you phrase it?" Thalia snorted.

Percy considered for a moment before repeating, "you can see through the mist and guide us through a path we'd be fooled by."

"Yeah, I guess that does sound better," Thalia conceded.

"Rachel's still right for calling you out and you know it though," Jason smirked.

"Yeah," Percy sighed.

"You can see through the Mist," I said. "Just like Ariadne. I'm betting you can see the right path. The Labyrinth won't be able to fool you as easily."

"As easily?" Magnus sighed. "As in she still might be?"

"I can sometimes see through the mist and I get tricked," Percy shrugged, "I wasn't betting on this all the way."

"And if you're wrong?"

"Then we'll get lost. Either way, it'll be dangerous. Very, very dangerous."

"Sell her on this a bit more Percy, I think you almost got her hooked," Nico said like a weirdly good used car salesman. "You haven't even mentioned the monsters and Luke's army running around and the moo mobile you might find again."

"That's part of the premium package, it costs extra," Percy tried to convince himself. It did not work.

"I could die?"

"Yeah."

"It's nice though, that you're not sugarcoating it," Nico said much more seriously this time. Percy nodded in agreement as the two shared a rare smile.

"I thought you said monsters don't care about mortals. That sword of yours—"

"Yeah," I said. "Celestial bronze doesn't hurt mortals. Most monsters would ignore you. But Luke...he doesn't care. He'll use mortals, demigods, monsters, whatever. And he'll kill anyone who gets in his way."

"Nice guy," Rachel said.

"He's under the influence of a Titan," Annabeth said defensively. "He's been deceived."

"Is that what she tells herself every night?" Jason wouldn't have dared say the disparaging comment if she'd been here, but she wasn't, and Thalia flinched at her dismissing his part in this like Luke hadn't thrown himself into this and then bullied, threatened, and manipulated the two of them to join ever since.

Percy shivered at the uncomfortable silence and scent of electricity in the air. He had a feeling Annabeth and Thalia hadn't talked much about Luke...he had an even worse feeling about what might happen if they ever did.

"Cut her some slack, that's her hero," Magnus sighed. It sounded like Luke had been there for more of her life than anyone. Her own dad, Thalia even, maybe only Chiron rivaled.

"And we all know by now you should never meet your heroes, let alone blindly follow them," Nico said not unkindly. He was still dealing with the fallout of confronting his own and it did not feel great. He was once again the most surprised of anyone to find himself relating to Annabeth of all people and swiftly waved Will on from a conversation that wasn't headed anywhere pleasant as Thalia narrowed her eyes at Magnus.

Rachel looked back and forth between us. "Okay," she said. "I'm in."

"Hope this girl never gets a job as a lawyer," Percy laughed to break the awkward silence. "She folded like a house of cards."

"One uses up all their dedication for their passion projects and becomes a lot more carefree in the rest of their life for it," Alex said from experience. If Rachel was anything like her, it seemed they'd get along great.

I blinked. I hadn't figured it would be so easy. "Are you sure?"

"Hey, my summer was going to be boring. This is the best offer I've gotten yet.

"What were the other offers?" Magnus asked in mild concern. "Trip to the zoo? Jet skiing not entertaining enough anymore? Roller coaster on a skyscraper? Is she an adrenaline junkie?"

"Possibly?" Percy looked just as concerned, but a lot more grateful, enough he wasn't going to question this to hard.

 So what do I look for?"

"We have to find an entrance to the Labyrinth," Annabeth said. "There's an entrance at Camp Half-Blood, but you can't go there. It's off-limits to mortals."

She said mortals like it was some sort of terrible condition, but Rachel just nodded.

Percy felt quite a large bit of hurt Annabeth was treating her this way. She'd been as kind and polite to his mother as ever, loving even. Annabeth surely didn't secretly loath his mom, so he knew this was just a problem she was having with Rachel, not all mortals. He just couldn't figure out what that problem really was, and why she was choosing now to act like this when they had such a huge quest ahead.

"Okay. What does an entrance to the Labyrinth look like?"

"It could be anything," Annabeth said. "A section of wall. A boulder. A doorway. A sewer entrance. But it would have the mark of Daedalus on it. A Greek , glowing in blue."

"Like this?" Rachel drew the symbol Delta in water on our table.

"That's it," Annabeth said. "You know Greek?"

"No," Rachel said. She pulled a big blue plastic hairbrush from her pocket and started brushing the gold out of her hair.

Percy vividly remembered the movement of each rough tug she gave to her hair, watching the gold flakes flutter around her in the bright sun, the blue handle of her brush held in a strangle hold as she violently began yanking it through her thick red locks of hair without breaking conversation.

He felt like giving himself a mental slap as she'd pocketed it without getting even half the gold out. He wanted to blame his ADHD for lingering on such a random detail, but couldn't quite convince himself that's what it was.

"Let me get changed. You'd better come with me to the Marriott."

"Why?" Annabeth said.

"Because there's an entrance like that in the hotel basement, where we store our costumes. It's got the mark of Daedalus."

"Of course it does," Magnus sighed. "Is the Marriott haunted?"

"It's not on any watch list I know of," Nico shrugged like that was a casual thing to keep track of.

Jason kept the comment to himself he hoped things would go better down there now they had a guide as Will began chatting happily with Nico about that list and where he'd traveled, to distracted to hand the book over. Jason took it and went back to his seat, but didn't quite make it as the next chapter caught his eye and he froze in horror.

[ataraxiaspainting]

https://www.tumblr.com/xxsabitoxx/722943826706169856/get-to-know-me?source=share

if you don't mind, maybe do this ask game? c:

sure!! i love getting asks like this, so thank you very much!! <3

i'll only answer like half of this because some of them were already answered previously!

❤️ how tall are you?

unfortunately 5'4.

🧡 what is your sexuality?

asexual!

💛 what is your favorite feature on yourself?

i guess my eyes! the blue shines in the sun and the brown part looks like honey. <3

💜 describe yourself in five words or less!

hmm... emotional, girly, creative, imaginative, and curious!

🩷 dream job?

definitely a therapist! i genuinely just like helping people.

🖤 favorite hobbies outside of your blog

walking, going to farmers markets, and cooking/baking!

🎂 when is your birthday?

november 13! <3

🌙 your zodiac (Sun, Moon, Rising)

scorpio sun, aries moon, gemini rising

💉do you have tattoos and/or piercings

yep! i wanna get more in the future too!

🚗 can you drive?

yes.... but i think everyone should know that if i drove a car without an instructor or some other kind of supervision, we would all see me on the news. so technically no.

✈️ favorite place you’ve traveled

definitely pennsylvania or upstate new york! cottagecore vibes all around in those areas. i think i just love the animals, and nature is always nice to see especially with a floral skirt flowing in the spring/summer breeze. i don't support the amish though. i've seen the documentaries so 🙅‍♀️. i'm also not saying japan because i was very little at the time and i wanna visit for real someday.

🎤 have you been to a concert

YES!!! i wanna go to more now that i have my own adultbankaccount™. i've seen the beach boys, mitski, some k-pop groups, yungblud, bring me the horizon, scene queen, and queen! i really want to go to some more k-pop/j-pop concerts but ticketmaster will continue to be my generational curse for decades to come.

🎵 favorite artists

my music taste is all over the place, but the most consistent artists i follow are: sir chloe, mitski, lana del rey, tyler, the creator, yoasobi, charlie xcx, will wood, kendrick lamar, and depeche mode.

🎧 last song you listened too

swan song by lana del rey!

📺 last show you watched

the legend of vox machina with the fam!! i'm only a few episodes in, but i really like these godless chaotic neutral mercenaries. vax is my fav but his sister is also very hot.....

📝 last thing you wrote

i'm working on some yan overhaul stories right now, and then some requests + self-indulgent birthday writing.

🔐 something no one would guess about you

um...... that i have depression? i think i'm a pretty positive person when i'm with my friends, but the real ones know i'm the personification of that sad bow hamster image.

🧟‍♀️ scariest thing that’s happened to you

men. that's it, that's my answer.

🔥 craziest thing that’s ever happened to you

weird people having crushes on me. especially in high school. people are just weirdos sometimes.

🍓 favorite food

tomato soup with rice!!! omg.... my ultimate comfort food. i don't like campbell's tomato soup though, tastes like a bowl of ketchup with cream mixed in. so i make it myself, and if i'm feeling fancy i add some roasted garlic and potato on top <333. god tier.

🍅 least favorite food

i feel like i'm gonna get crucified for this, but milk and white chocolate. way too sweet for me, though my family all loves them.

🍊 favorite season?

fall!!! it's colder but all the leaves are so pretty, and the bugs go back to hell where they belong. pumpkins and apples are such a big plus too!

🍋 favorite genre to read / watch / write

horror/thriller definitely! ever since i was little, i've always loved the yandere theme and psychological themes in general. seeing the world through someone else's perspective is quite interesting to me.

🍐 if you could make one character real, who would it be

uh........ i think ash lynx (banana fish) or shouko komi (komi can't communicate). i do kin them, but i do also think we'd be best buds. ash especially deserves better.

🫐 some place you’d love to visit

california, iceland, and france!! i would also say australia but i hate bugs. sorry. the birds are really pretty though.

🍇 a word your friends would use to describe you

comfort i guess? idk, that word is common among my friends.

🍒 what is your earliest memory

running after a stray cat in egypt as a toddler. didn't get very far, but i did get to pet it eventually. it grimaced at my family, but i can swear it didn't with me.

🍌 what is one talent you wish you had

definitely public speaking. i freeze up and cry for the rest of the day when i do so.

💌 why did you start this blog?

i've loved writing horror/thriller for the longest time, and i think most characters i like have plenty of potential to be scary.

✏️ when did you start writing fanfic

oh god..... basically in the womb. kidding, around eight or nine after i got really into tokyo mew mew.

🖇️ what are your favorite asks to answer

definitely oversharing asks! i love talking <3

📚 how do you come up with the fics you write

mostly from reading!! i love learning descriptive language and such from horror authors. films too, but not as often.

🔍 what character do you enjoy writing for the most

🕷📕 guess from the emojis....... it should be an actual legal offense how much i love him.....

🖊️ what character do you not enjoy writing for

don't get mad at me, but gojo. idk. people make such wonderful fics about him all the time, and i think i fall for the comparison trap. that and i'm more of a geto girlie.

❤️‍🔥 what character do you simp for most often

megamind forehead antichrist wannabe. as my older sister said, my taste is so broken.

🧚‍♀️ favorite characters of all time

a lot um...

ash lynx, shouko komi, chr*ll*, yashiro nene, makima, luka (alien stage), shizuku murasaki, aya (bandori), casper (a date with death), odile (swan lake), pakunoda, machi, arlecchino, lilith (the owl house), amity (the owl house), hero (omori), blade, eddie gluskin (outlast), falin, stolas (helluva boss), angel dust (hazbin), sebastian (stardew valley), aventurine, hannibal lecter, johan liebert, verosika mayday, feitan, kafka, geto, gojo, ai hoshino, kokomi (genshin), alexandrina sebastiane, shalnark, andrew and ashley (the coffin of andy and leyley), illumi zoldyck, jobu tupaki, violet evergarden, heather chandler, monika (ddlc), scar (the lion king) sephiroth, sunday, haruhi fujioka, isabella (the promised neverland), astarion, topaz, il dottore, scaramouche, zhongli, diluc, kaeya, alhaitham, columbina, shadowheart, homura akemi, yor forger, lyney, gabriel (the mandela catalogue), xiao, robin (hsr), kurapika, mahito, kenzo tenma, deathstroke, vincent edgeworth (vincent and the secret of myers), vincent (dead plate), pariston hill, griffith (berserk), emperor belos, dr. ratio, satou (happy sugar life), power, jinx, childe, furina, alastor, albert krueger (therapy with dr albert krueger).

i'm gonna be so honest, i just listed every character i have a playlist of on spotify. my taste is all over the place.....

🪐 favorite shows / series of all time

hannibal, hunter x hunter, banana fish, and arcane!!

🌝 a show you would recommend to anyone

definitely the og avatar the last airbender! it's good for all age groups and the writing is just spectacular.

🌚 a show you’d tell people to stay away from

uhhhhhhh........ i'm thinking vampire knight or diabolik lovers. as a young teen i watched both, and they definitely both had plenty of problems. many. not shaming anyone though!

☂️ your favorite fanfic from another writer

definitely cogency of the deluded by my friend @teabutmakeitazure! her writing style is so good i can eat it with a spoon. nom nom.

thank you for asking for this, anon!!

[shayneysides]

if you're up for it, every odd question on the smosh question thing 👀

YESSS OMG IM SO UP FOR IT

1: Ian or Anthony?

You know it's gotta be single mom wet cat etc Ian. Honestly though that's mostly because I never really watched old smosh so I barely saw anything with anthony in it, I really do love them both now

3: What's your favorite channel between main/pit/games?

Easily pit, it has all my favorite series. Recently I have been enjoying games and main more, but I've always loved the unscripted content more than anything

5: Do you have a favorite Smosh video? What is it?

ohhh my god this is hard but I absolutely do. TNTL #9 feat. Damien, I rewatch it at least once a week. it's what originally got me into smosh, I clicked on it because the thumbnail had girls kissing and then my life was changed forever. the bits are genuinely so hilarious and I think really do it's one of the best tntls they've done. shayne's pizza place divorce and damien's detective stand out to me, when i was in middle school i would recite those bits from memory to my friends and it always went over like a lead balloon. 10/10 video i've loved it for years

7: What is your favorite series on Smosh (main channel)?

The funeral roasts! My favorite series are always the ones where they kind of just let the cast loose to do fun characters and bits and I like the semi-scriptedness of it where everyone gets to write their own script. They're always a good time and somehow they never feel too mean to be fun

9: What is your favorite series on Smosh Games?

I feel like current Smosh Games has way fewer running series, so if we're talking current SG it's the trivial pursuit TNTLs but if we're talking old SG uhhh probably maricraft?? specifically the superhero series they did

11: What's something you want to see come back?

SMOSH AND ORDER!!! AND SUMMER GAMES!!!! the cast is finally big enough again that these could totally come back and it would be such a fun time, and it would also feel less like just some reboot of their old content bc the new cast would make it so that it's not just the exact same thing again. please i need them back

13: Do you ship anything/love any friendship pairs?

I am very much not one for RPF but I do care so much about shayne and damien as friends!! Their bits always just work off each other so well and their history is so obvious when they're joking around with each other, it's just so much fun to watch them onscreen. I do also love shayne and noah's friendship bc it's genuinely just crazy to me that shayne fully watched noah grow up, i just think they're very sweet

15: What castmember do you think you are most like?

So my name is shayne . If i'm being actually honest though probablyyyy damien or olivia? It's honestly hard to say though bc to be a youtuber it's kind of required to have a big personality and be very charismatic and i'm like?? not crazyyy quiet irl but also definitely not either of those things

17: What do you want to see now that Anthony's back?

Honestly??? I kinda want to see not much change? the only big change i want to see is in the main channel sketches, but i've been enjoying pit and games so much recently i honest to god hope they don't change that much.

19: Is there a video/series you really loved when you were younger?

Uhhh not?? really?????? I started watching when I was like 12 or 13, but my favorite series then were like. TNTL and Board AF or whatever, stuff I still really enjoy now, so??? I guess Squad Vlogs since those aren't really a thing anymore

21: Did you ever watch Smosh the movie?

NOPE!!!!!!!!

23: Tell me an unpopular Smosh opinion.

Uhhh. uhhh uhhh i honest to god can't think of any? or at least any that i would be willing to put on here? bc i have unpopular opinions along the lines of like . i don't personally find this cast member that funny. but those are fully just like my personal tastes and feel too mean spirited to just say on my blog? and I really can't think of any else sorry

25: It's food battle time. You picking a pink frosted sprinkled donut, or some stick-shaped food?

uh uh uh stick shaped food obviously <- has never watched food battle

[miraculouscontent]

Pokemon anon again! I'd like to hear anything you have strong opinions on (either your personal ships, ones you dislike, etc). I just really like reading your thoughts, so whatever you feel like sharing is fine.

Welcome back, Pokénon!

And sure, I can do that!

Alright, so in terms of ships I dislike (I’m going to go with the English names just so I’m not constantly using both names)...

I guess I should get the obvious ones out of the way, because I’m not really a fan of either “Ash ship” extreme:

Poke//Shipping (Ash X Misty) and Amour//Shipping (Ash X Serena)

I don’t like either of them.

For Poke//Shipping, I have never liked aggressive tsundere characters and Misty is basically a textbook example of that. It’s not that I have a problem with strong/tomboy-ish (though honestly I don’t consider Misty a tomboy anyway) female characters, which I know it sounds like that when I have a distaste for characters like Alix too, but when they’re brash and angry and just so generically “TOMBOY GIRL POWER,” it grates on my nerves.

The idea of having an aggressive character - y’know - be aggressive to their love interest and then cue the sad music when the love interest argues with them or makes any sort of hurtful implication just... no.

Like, I want you to imagine the most sarcastic Clarity possible and then picture me as a little girl watching the scene where Misty is officially leaving the group, because that was literally just me like, “oh noooo, she’s goooone.”

It’s the same reason I don’t do Rocket//Shipping (James X Jessie). One character is too aggressive and the other character doesn’t even come close to balancing it out.

There’s also the fact that nothing comes out of Poke//Shipping. Misty is canonically crushing on Ash (*flashbacks to the friggin’ second movie where they shove it in your face*) but it’s just... there, not to mention that scene where Misty is talking casually to Ash like, “you and I will be married too someday,” which came completely out of left field and - whether for a joke or not - made little kid me very uncomfortable.

Like I said, it’s just there and doesn’t go anywhere, and Ash is already so oblivious that of course he wouldn’t get that Misty is in love with him. It’s basically a long-running gag of Misty pulling a surprised Pikachu face whenever Ash doesn’t understand that she likes him/wants to stay with him/literally wants anything specific from him.

As for Amour//Shipping, I did admittedly like it at first, but just--ugh, oh boy.

First, it’s shipping fanservice, kinda like Pokemon 2000 throwing a bone to the shippers except now it’s the whole two seasons. My followers know how I feel about fanservice just for fanservice and that’s basically all that Amour//Shipping is. That’s why Serena was already made to have met Ash when they were children; so the writers could get a “headstart” on all the blushy fanservice they could squeeze in on Serena’s end.

I fell off the ship sometime around Wulfric, particularly with the scene where Serena comforts Ash. Just that whole, “this isn’t like you,” and then trying to compare her contest losses to Ash’s battles as if Ash hasn’t been at this for seasons upon seasons and battles aren’t a completely different category because they involve actually watching one’s Pokemon get physically hurt (Pokemon battles are a sport, yes, but it doesn’t change anything; Ash also has a special Greninja so of course he’s going to be upset that having all this experience still isn’t enough to just sweep). Like, to relate to someone, yes, it helps to have something you can use as a mental comparison, but that comparison is (usually) supposed to stay mental.

Anyway, after Ash shouts at her because she doesn’t know how he feels at all (because she doesn’t) and he just wanted to be left alone (because he did), Serena throws snowballs at his face and that apparently helps make Ash feel better because Serena can do no wrong here and that just so happened to be exactly what he needed.

(I mean, that whole gym battle and what follows is already pretty trash but that solidified it for me. Basically everything XY&Z added were things I just didn’t care about.)

Oh, and Serena is also implied to steal a kiss from Ash at the very end of the season and you guys know how I feel about that. It’s mostly the fact that she’s so non-apologetic about it, just smiling and blushy and all happy whereas here’s me like, “Wait, I’m pretty sure we just missed a crucial step here??? Since when were you sure that Ash had a thing for you???”

So yeah, I’m not a fan of either ship. I have vague opinions about basically all other ships (The ship between Ash and Iris aka ”You’re such a kid” girl can rot), but Poke//Shipping and Amour//Shipping are the ones I have the strongest negative feelings for.

Brock being shipped with basically anyone is a no no for me. The guy flirts with anything that moves and I have never found it funny or charming. The closest thing young me ever came to a ship with him was Luck//Shipping (Brock X Pike Queen Lucy) but that’s basically it, and it honestly could’ve just been me thinking the idea that Ash and Brock both getting together with Battle Frontier people (I was for Ability//Shipping - Ash X Sailor Maiden Anabel - at the time) was a neat idea and both episodes that featured the respective ships had BLUSH FUEL.

I recall being into Advance//Shipping (Ash X May) when I was young (I was a multishipper back then, you see) but I avoided thinking about it too much because I wasn’t a huge fan of Max (aka “Iris before Iris existed”) and Norman’s game counterpart infuriates me even to this day so I just didn’t want to imagine Ash having to deal with those sorts of things. Plus, looking back on it, he and May were little too similar (then again, maybe that’s why I liked it?).

I expected to enjoy Aurelia//Shipping (Ash X Lillie) when I was getting into the Sun&Moon seasons but it didn’t really do anything for me. I guess maybe I was so burnt out after Amour//Shipping that I wasn’t in a shippy mood anymore? Though, it could also be that their relationship isn’t as “balanced” as I would’ve liked.

Anyway though, as for the ships I actually really like instead of just being indifferent towards or outright disliking, the big one really is just Pearl//Shipping. I suppose it makes sense given that I’m not a multishipper, don’t like Brock enough to ship him with anyone, and most other travel companions are ones I either hadn’t gotten attached to or that I’d paired with Ash long enough that, once I got older, I couldn’t really picture them with other people because my memory of their moments wasn’t strong enough.

Yeah though, PEARL//SHIPPING, I ADORE IT. Like, I’ll try to explain it as best as I can without rambling, but basically:

Dawn doesn’t make excuses when she wants to go with Ash. No “my bike," no meandering, just really casual.

THEY SING THE JAPANESE OPENING TOGETHER AND IT’S RAD. “High Touch” is like, my favorite opening theme???? And they do a duet for it??? I just???? Yes???????

It’s the little things. High-fives are like, their thing. They traded Pokemon with each other which is like, really rare for the series and it made total sense. They both have a Pokemon they keep out of their Pokeball who doesn’t want to evolve (Piplup was the Eevee partner from Let’s Go before it was cool) and no, Misty’s Togepi doesn’t count because it was Gold and Silver’s posterchild. Ash and Dawn also both gave up a speedy physical Pokemon (Primeape and Ambipom respectively) so they could participate in some sort of Pokemon sport that doesn’t exist in the games while I scream in the background because I really like said Pokemon.

DAWN IS ASH’S CHEERLEADER. SHE LITERALLY CHEERS FOR HIM DURING GYM MATCHES. THAT’S PRECIOUS.

They help and get ideas off of each other, which I think is really cool. Them trading Pokemon just furthers that sort of dynamic.

Them just supporting each other in general. There’s a moment where Dawn takes a pretty harsh loss and Ash can be seen sulking like he really gets how she’s feeling.

It also helps that Diamond and Pearl were one of the better seasons of the anime. Paul is a solid rival, I really like the creative battle techniques like spinning and countershield, and just Chimchar in general honestly. I remember the baking episode “Cooking Up a Sweet Story!” vividly and all the feels it gave me.

Yeah though. It’s not any sort of OTP pairing or anything, but out of all of the anime Pokemon ships, Pearl//Shipping is probably my favorite. I’d probably ship them a lot more if they were a little older (like, on par with the protagonists of the Black & White games, who are closer to 14/15; it’s just easier to get a gauge on personality that way).

[mysteryshoptls]

SR Rook Hunt Apprentice Chef Personal Story: Part 1

"Master Chef"

Part 1 (Part 2)

[Cafeteria – Judging Venue]

Master Chef ― Rook Version ～Let's Make Sweet Potato Tart 1～

Rook: It is finally time to begin our practical application. I've been highly anticipating this moment.

Cater: You look like you're in a super good mood, Rook-kun～ I thought a majority of students here took this class 'cause they had no other choice.

Rook: Any new challenge I can face warms my heart. I feel as though I could recite an impromptu poem at any moment.

Chef Ghost: Haha… How about we make some food instead of poetry. Let's go, Rook-kun.

Rook: Oui, monsieur.

Rook: Then, Cater-kun, I will see you later. A very good luck to the both of us.

Cater: Yeah. Work hard, Rook-kun～♪

[Kitchen]

Chef Ghost: You've had a smile on your face for some time now, Rook-kun. Did something good happen?

Rook: Quite. I've not had much familiarity with working in a kitchen. So every single thing here is new and refreshing for me.

Rook: My heart leaps for joy, as if I've found myself in a new land of adventure!

Chef Ghost: A new land of adventure, huh. Then I guess it's my duty to guide you, as someone who is very knowledgeable about kitchens.

Rook: Oh, how wonderfully reliable you are! Merci, Chef.

Rook: But all things considered… You say we are working with sweet potato? What an intriguing kind of tart.

Rook: It's quite the unique concoction to use a potato as filling. Will this be a savory tart meant more for meals instead of a sweet dessert?

Chef Ghost: Nope, not at all. This will be a sweet tart. How about first, you try some of these potatoes we just finished boiling.

Rook: Oh là là, this potato has such a dark yellow hue! And it's quite moist. This is my first time trying this.

Rook: When was the last time I've eaten a potato without using salt or butter? I'll deeply enjoy savoring the flavor… [chew, chew]…

Rook: ….........TRÈS BIEN!!

Rook: I'm surprised. I never knew there were potatoes this sweet that wouldn't need any seasonings! I can't get enough of this flaky texture.

Chef Ghost: This is a potato that is widely cultivated in the eastern countries.

Chef Ghost: We'll make a tart with this as filling. Don't you think it'll make a delicious treat?

Rook: Marvelous… There's certain to be still more delicacies that I have yet to learn about!

Rook: Fufu, I didn't expect to discover something new so quickly from the start… My excitement continues to grow.

Chef Ghost: It fills me with joy to teach you when you say such things. Alright, let's get to making the filling.

Chef Ghost: From what you've said so far, am I right in understanding that you haven't had much experience with cooking?

Rook: Yes. I've done some simple outdoor cooking, but it's only ever been small tasks like cutting ingredients or roasting them over a fire.

Chef Ghost: Wow! So you like to go camping. It's pretty fun to eat outdoors, isn't it?

Rook: I am so pleased you can relate, Chef! I can never tire of that peculiar brand of tension no matter how many times I experience it.

Chef Ghost: Mmm… I'm not sure if I understand what you mean about the tension, but… Well, I guess everyone enjoys things differently.

Chef Ghost: Well, anyway, if you don't have much experience, I probably should explain the cookware to you. Do you know what this is?

Rook: This is a potato masher! In a stage play I watched before, there was a scene in which one was used quite forcefully by a chef.

Chef Ghost: Oh good, so you knew what this was. Then, I'll have you mash the peeled potatoes with this.

Rook: Please leave it to me. I've nothing but confidence in this type of task.

Rook: The golden yellow potatoes, combined with the sugar, eggs, fresh cream, and butter makes for a beautiful harmony!

Rook: How does my filling look, Chef?

Chef Ghost: Yep, it looks like it's mixed very thoroughly. So, next, we'll add some brandy and vanilla extract to give it a nice aroma.

Rook: The filling's aroma has gotten far richer now. This smell is surely increasing my appetite.

Chef Ghost: Now I'll have you fill the pâte sucrée with your delicious looking filling. Make sure not to put overflow it.

Rook: Oui! I want to make sure this tart looks beautiful, as well as tasty, after all. I'll make sure to completely fill the tart with this filling, leaving no gaps.

Chef Ghost: You seem happy, Rook-kun.

Rook: Why, yes… Fufufu. How utterly fortuitous this kitchen is!

Chef Ghost: Hm?

Rook: The tart is inching closer to perfection with each passing moment. The joy of creating something as delicious as this lifts my heart!

Chef Ghost: It really is a great feeling to watch you learn, especially with how enthusiastic you are, Rook-kun. Your excitement is contagious.

Rook: Oh là là, it is wonderful how easily joy can spread to another. Cooking is so wonderful!

Part 1 (Part 2)

Requested by @starshiningsirius.