#And please don't ask me anything about Gabe now

[lieutenant-amuel]

Do you have a favorite OC to write?

Valerio.

I mean, I do love all of my characters equally and I don't struggle with writing any of them (well, most of the time), but Valerio is special and his each scene is a breeze to me.

[froggibus]

Hey can I request headcanons for overwatch characters and if their gf was drunk and asked them "would you still love me if I was a worm" with the overwatch men please (you don't have to do all of them but PLEASE include McCree and Reaper)

“Would You Still Love Me If I Was A Worm?” - Overwatch Boys

Includes: Cassidy, Reaper, Genji, Zenyatta, Ramattra, Hanzo, Lucio + Baptiste (w gn! reader)

Genre: fluff/kinda crack?

CW: general crack, kinda dumb tbh, suggestive in Genji and Baps, Ram is Ram (lmk if I missed anything)

been in a little bit of a writing slump but this was too good to pass up lol. I want to get a bit more writing done this week so who knows how that will go. anyway, enjoy <3 hope you like it anon!

————

Cassidy:

“what kinda question is that??”

looks at you in flabbergastation 

you pout and bat your eyes at him and of course, he breaks 

“you’re really not gonna let this go, huh? alright—of course I’d still love you, darlin’. I’d keep you in a lil jar and you could accompany me on my missions”

a jar????

now you’re the flabbergasted one 

jars don’t have air—he’s gonna let you suffocate?? 

what are you?? rainbow dash (sorry)??

somehow leads to him going out into the yard despite it being the middle of the night to try and find a worm

somehow finds one??��

keeps it in a jar as a pet just to prove he would love you as a worm

even names it after you and pets it’s head and calls it “my wriggly little y/n”

weirdly wholesome experience would try again

Reaper

“of all the stupid shit you could have asked me…”

he says that but he’s already considering it after the question leaves your mouth 

would he love you as a worm? 

“what kind of worm”

what do you mean what kind of worm?? does it matter?? 

obviously the pink wriggly kind 

he has to ponder this 

sits in his chair stroking his chin trying to think of how you would be as a worm

“would you still be able to talk and think or would you be an actual worm”

????

“it would be me if I was a worm, Gabe”

more pondering 

“I’d love you platonically but you would probably have a short life span. I’d throw you a worm funeral.”

better than any response you could have expected but would not try again

Genji

“would we still have sex”

please hit this man

he’s joking of course—he’s not that weird 

“why would you be a worm tho”

just answer the question, Genji

green cyborg ninja dude has no idea what to answer 

will you be mad if he loves your worm self more than your current self?? would you be weird if he said he would love a wormy version of you??

“I would get myself turned into a worm too and then we could have a wormy life together and a wormy wedding and little wormy kids”

“you just want to have wormy sex” >~>

“that too”

at least he’s honest?

exactly as you expected, would not try again

Zenyatta

“a worm? like the insect?”

“yes? what other worms are there”

considers this

“is everything okay?”

poor omnic boy is so confused. are you planning on turning into a worm??? 

please reassure him it’s just a hypothetical and you’re not turning into a worm

goes on a ten minute tangent about how we are all the same in the Iris, and that he will love you no matter what form you take

honestly so wholesome + cute 

“i will care for you in this life, and the next, and all of the ones after that. even the ones where you are a worm.”

good enough would try again

Ramattra 

“No”

way to sugarcoat it, babe

it’s only when you get upset that he sighs and pulls you into his lap

“why would you ever become a worm? is someone trying to harm you? you know I would never let anyone bring harm to you.”

you try to explain that it’s just a hypothetical but he’s already going on a tangent on what he would do if you got turned into a worm

talks for five minutes alone on how he would defeat your enemies and defend your honour 

says he would “put you out of your misery”????

“you would KILL ME?!”

“as an act of honour”

babe….

0/10 would not try again

Hanzo

“why”

idk bro just answer the question 

lots of sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose

“would I also be a worm or am i still human” 

only gets more confused when you say he’d be a human and you’d be a worm

probably looks up worm life expectancy and if worms are capable of love 

“would you even know who I am if you were a worm”

has to ask a million questions before he can give his final verdict 

lets out a long sigh before looking you dead in the eyes 

“…yes”

cute in the end but would not try again 

Lucio:

“would you still love me if I turned into a frog?”

that’s not the question 

somehow it turns into a discussion on if he would eat your worm self if he was his frog self? 

he insists he wouldn’t and would let you ride on his back but you insist his frog instincts would be too strong 

“babe I’ve once seen you almost eat your own finger while eating chips”

“ok and??”

says you guys could live in a swamp together and he would protect you from evil

“I could be like your own frog superhero. I could even sing you little froggy songs”

makes up this entire life of you guys living together as a frog and a worm and him serenading you by croaking songs at night 

honestly it’s the best reaction you could have gotten, would try again

Baptiste:

“i would find you a cure and turn you back into a human”

honestly he’s very amused by this whole situation 

“but what if I want to be a worm”

“if I cure you and you want to turn back into a worm, that’s on you”

fair enough

insists he needs to ‘examine’ you so he knows you’re not turning into a worm 

makes a lot of jokes at your expense too

finally sighs and admits he would keep you in a little terrarium with all the food and nutrients you need 

“ha, so you would love me if I was a worm”

“love is a strong word”

good enough, would not try again

[yannisrandomstuff]

Hey girly ! I was wondering If you could do me a favor and use that awesome skill of yours🫵, and please make me and make yan alt Cesar and Gabriel with Angel s/o who is incredibly oblivious. You don’t have to do this , you can add anything that makes you comfortable. Please take care of yourself and have a nice day or night.

-🫵👰‍♀️🎚️

Yandere Alternate Gabriel with An Angel s/o

I didn't include Alt Cesar since I don't write for him. Once again this blog is for Gabriel

Tw: possessiveness, control , toxic love, Alt Gabe being a jerk

It all started when you are created by God, you are one of the most divine being that he created. An Angel with 4 pairs of wings that shine under the moon. An angel with pure innocence, gentle and beauty.

Eventually you started to learn more about the God's creations, then you met him.

He is beautiful, he has 6 wings that the sunlight shine so bright. You learned that his name is Lucifer, the Morningstar.

In his eyes you are beautiful. He felt warm when he's with you, hearts beating faster whenever he's around with you but he keeps calm.

You are the most beautiful being after himself he ever saw.

Everytime that the two of you were together, you always seem to look at him with those mesmerizing eyes. Whenever you praised him with compliments instead of just saying thank you like he would do to any ordinary angels he returns the compliments to you with a heart warming smile.

And that moment he promised to himself. He will raised above God's power and have a throne for himself to rule the world, he also had an idea that he wanted you to be his Significant Other

Unfortunately his plans failed. And he thrown in the depths of the earth many angels saw his fall like lighting and he was never to be seen again. Or so they thought.

One day you were preparing the instruments for the choir for the angels to use when they sing. You can't help but remember Lucifer. He is one of the Singing Angels, it felt really different now that he was gone.

You bump into the Messenger of God Gabriel he asked you if you were alright, you assured him that you are fine. The two of you chat a bit he tells you some of his missions and jobs . The two of you are having a great time chatting it made you happy knowing that the angels did not hate you for your friends rebellion against God.

At that moment you felt something strange something not right at all you figure it out immediately Gabriel's Voice is much lower than usual you just brushed it off.

Strange things been happening lately, angels that you were close with have gone missing, you feel like you were being watched all the time. And your things have been disappearing. Gabriel seem to be much more clingy to you

Everynight you have a dream about someone telling you that he will comeback for you

And later on, Someone Overthrew God out of his position.

Every now and then you will always wake up with bite marks everywhere, mostly around your neck and inner thighs. Some of them have blood stains in them.

And also a bit wet down there.

Another familiar scent will always be in your body

After Gabriel successfully destroyed heaven, you and the other angels manage to survive including the other archangels. You weren't sure if Gabriel The Archangel have survived. (He didn't he's trapped lolol) you haven't seen him in centuries. And now you have been caught by him

he will lock you up in a fancy bird cage 5 times your size but and will always visit you

That bird cage is like a mini room, it had a bed, and furnitures and things that you love doing (like painting, creating songs, writing poems, and other angelic stuff)

This yandere will always in control, always controlling your every moves

He gets upset whenever you disobey him.

But he always make it up to you whenever he hurt you

He tends to be extra sweet and clingy around you when you obey him

He gets so happy when you talk to him and eat the food he makes for you.

He hopes that one day you will submit to him

He visualizes a family with you

And everyday will be the same

So you can't really survive this because he loved you so much that you cannot escape

Bro I'm back

[yankstrash]

it isn't uncommon for hockey girlfriends to dread development camp over the summer

for a lot of girls, this it the time where their boyfriends have to join their team in another state or worse, in another country, for the teams dev camp, meaning time spent far away from them and a hectic schedule for the boys

however, if you're amelia, you look forward to this time

because dev camp for gabe is a short 20 minute drive from amelias parents house, where she spends her summer break

how perfect is that.

her week is perfectly planned out

she wakes up, with gabe beside her.

goes to dev camp, with gabe on the ice in front of her.

lays by the pool, with gabe rubbing tanning lotion on her.

and falls asleep, with gabe on top of her.

each day is like the last, and amelia wouldn't have it any other way.

her boyfriend gets to attend dev camp for his future nhl team 20 minutes away from where amelia grew up and lives over the summer

thank you rangers for drafting gabriel.

after camp ended today, gabe drove back to amelias house, where a home cooked meal made by her mom was waiting for him

he was no doubt her future son in law, and both of her parents loved gabe like he was their own, so they were more than happy to host and cater to him while he was working hard at camp

"gabe how was camp." amelias mom asks as gabe eats the dinner she prepared for the family while he was gone

amelia was about to open her mouth and ask the same question, but just like every night he's been here, her parents beat her to it.

gabe smiles, "it was good, i like my teammates a lot. we have a scrimmage tomorrow which i'm excited for."

amelias mom nods, "i heard, drews mom told me about that. i invited them over for dinner tomorrow after you boys have your scrimmage. it's been too long since we've had a family dinner with them."

amelia smiles at the mention of that

it has been too long.

not only does amelia get her boyfriend while he's at dev camp, she also gets her childhood best friend drew, whose families house is just down the street from hers

drew came over yesterday after camp to go swimming, and amelia got her fulfill of entertainment watching the two boys push each other into the pool and argue over whose team is going to win in the scrimmage

amelia reaches her hand over and drags her nails up and down gabes back in a soothing manner as he eats

"just don't get too buddy buddy with your ranger teammates and decide you'd rather be with them than in boston for another year with me." she jokes, only a hint of seriousness in her voice

gabe smiles over at her, shaking his head

"you know that's not happening, baby. my mind has been made up even before i got to bc last august."

amelia nods, knowing he's right

gabe has always known he wants to play at least 2 years of college before going pro

even if he wanted to leave now, it's no guarantee he would even make the rangers roster, so why rush anything

she nods, "i know i know, just saying.."

"that's right gabriel, stay put. spare me a few more years before i have to see my daughter in a rangers jersey, please." amelias dad says as he walks into the kitchen, giving gabe a pat on the shoulder

"dad." amelia gives him a look, but he and gabe just laugh

"what? it'a a valid point."

gabe looks at his girlfriend and shrugs, "it is."

"it's not. but if it will keep him in boston, then sure. spare him, gabriel."

her dad smiles, patting gabe again, "all good, the isles got eiserman in the draft. we'll be fine."

amelia grins at the mention of his name knowing what gabes current facial expression is

and she's right as she eyes her boyfriend at the exact moment he's rolling his eyes and shaking his head

"god bless cole eiserman, dad."

"no. not god bless cole amelia stealing eiserman."

amelia laughs at gabes complaints

eisy is her little munchkin, and gabe hates the ginormous crush he has on her, even though it's the most harmless crush ever

he really only flirts with meels to annoy gabe, and it works everytime

"you really let that kid get under your skin, babe." amelia says, rubbing gabes arm

he groans and rolls his eyes, "he's a shit."

"he's a kid. my kid."

"he's our rival."

"you love him."

"no.. sometimes. on occasion."

~

gabe and amelia laid in bed that night while he let out his anxious thoughts about tomorrows scrimmage

"i don't even know why i'm so nervous, it's not like i'm trying to make the team this year. but still... next year. or the year after." he says as he buries his head in amelias neck "i just hope they still think i'm as good as when they drafted me."

amelia chuckles lightly, rubbing her boyfriends back and playing with his hair

"baby, if anything they're going to think you're better than when they drafted you. you took a huge leap your first year at bc and it definitely did not go unnoticed by them, trust me."

"i don't know.. i didn't even make top 10 for hobey finalists."

"well you and i both know that was a load of crap that you didn't, and i'm sure they do too. and who cares. that shouldn't have an impact on what they think of you."

"it matters."

"not that much."

"meels."

"gabriel.. go to sleep. you have a big day tomorrow."

like always, gabe listens to his girlfriend.

like always.

~

the next day, amelia sat with her mom and dad along with drews family at the scrimmage

it was like she was back in grade school watching her best friends hockey games with both of their families in the stands

only now, she got to watch her best friend and her boyfriend

what a lucky, lucky girl.

"mee mee do you have your drew fat head ready for this season?!" drews mom leans over and asks

amelias cheeks redden at the memory of her bringing a gigantic drew fathead to his games when they were younger

"oh we kept that, it's tucked away somewhere. i'll have to dig it out." amelias mom says with a huge smile

"orrrr it can stay tucked away." amelia says

"no no, i think it needs to be brought out, and a gabe one needs to be made too. we need all the encouragement we can get this season as the boys make a second run for a natty."

sometimes, the mention of the natty still makes amelias chest ache. while it's a distant memory at this point, amelia still can't seem to shake the look on her boyfriends face when she saw him after their loss to denver.

she had never seen him look so defeated

he had never been so defeated since meeting her

the closest he had been was when bc lost to bu in the beanpot, but even the look on his face after that game didn't pale in comparison to the look on his face after they lost the national championship

it was hard for her to see, and still hard for her to think about, but the boys are loaded and ready for a second shot at it this year, even with the losses the team took since the season ended

at the thought of that, amelia snaps a pic of the rink and sends it to her buddy smitty

from: meels

"the two knuckleheads are on opposing teams." she writes after the picture

he replies in seconds

from: smitty

"oh boy... what does the loser get?"

from: meels

"kicked into the pool later and an embarrassing story told about them at dinner."

from: smitty:

"yikes... sad i'm missing it. miss them and you."

from: meels

"miss you nerd. how was your dev camp?"

from: smitty

"a lot of fun, actually. i'm excited for this year."

from: meels

"good. i'll send you another pic at the natty."

from: smitty

"i will be there watching, dw."

from: meels

"too bad you won't be playing when they win."

from: smitty

"hardy har har. maybe i'll coach."

from: meels

"no thanks, we wanna win."

from: smitty

"🗿. i do not miss you."

from: meels

"ditto, loser... ❤️"

~

the scrimmage ended with gabes team winning, earning him bragging rights over drew

once the boys were showered and changed, everybody went back to amelias house and had dinner

after dinner they all had a fire outside

amelia sat comfortably in gabes lap, snuggled under a blanket and swallowed up by his hoodie

"less than a month left until she leaves us again." amelias mom looks over at meels and pouts her bottom lip "the summer is flying by."

amelia can't help but grin to herself at the mention of going back to school soon

she adores her parents and loves being home, but she is so excited to be back at school in boston with all of her friends and her boyfriend

if sophomore year is anything like freshman year, she's in for round two of one hell of a good time

soon, they will all be back together at bc

minus a few, but she is still so excited

amelia rolls her eyes playfully, "mom, i'm only a few hours away."

"i know i know.. and you love boston. i'm so glad you feel at home there."

amelia smiles, then directs the smile up at her boyfriend

"i do." she says barely above a whisper

gabe smiles back, leaning down and placing a gentle kiss on her lips then one on her forehead

"can't wait for a whole nother year of this." he whispers to her

"me too... and lucky me getting to have you so close to me during this week in the summer too."

"aren't you a lucky girl, amelia grace."

"i am."

[dawnthefox24]

Okay so I just remember there was voiceline between Cassidy and Ashe with Ashe telling him he promised he would write too her even though he said he tried I do think that Cassidy wanted to write too Ashe but he didn't know how too.

So I decided to make this little story prompt 

~~~

Cole: *is struggling on how to write a letter to Ashe As there  crumpled balls of paper on the ground all around him*

Gabe & Ana:*watching him struggle *

Gabriel: He's been at this all night even skip a few training lessons thought the kid was playing hokey or something.

Ana: Did you ask him what he was doing or did you get mad at him? 

Gabriel:*stays quiet and advert eye contact since Ana already knew the answer *....

Ana: *sighing* okay you got mad at him, I'll handle it

Gabriel: Ana wait I don't think-  ~~~

Ana:*ignores him and knocks on the open door before walking in * Cassidy?

Cole: *looks over at Ana annoyed  as his eyes are blood shot red and it looked like he's hasn't gotten any sleep* What!?!…

Ana: *doesn't react too his attitude* Are you okay? You've haven't gotten any sleep.

Cole: Why do you even care…you're only gonna get mad at me….

Ana: *walks over to him but kept her distance* Or maybe I won't, Cole you can tell me anything 

Cole:*looked at her and seemed very hesitant to tell her* 

Ana:*raised her hands slightly up* You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I grew worried since you missed out on training so I did bother you.

Cole:*looks at her and seemed a bit scared but decided to rip off the band-aid* I…I'm trying to write too a friend of mine…

Ana: *nods a bit* okay and who is this friend?

Cole: *seemed very quiet and felt tears building up as he quickly wipes the tears away* please don't be mad….

Ana: *walks over to him before crouching down * Cole look at me, I wont be mad okay. So you can tell me who it is okay

Cole: *looked at her and nods before taking in a deep breath and exhaled slowly * I'm writing to my gang…I just don't even know what to say…I promise Ashe I would write…

Ana: *didn't seem mad but looked at the paper and see that Cole was struggling * okay, how about this you take a break from writing right now. You seem stress if I were you it'll come too you freely so take a break for now and sleep

Cole: B-But I need to write it I- Ana: *Raised her hand up making Cole stop talking* It'll come to you soon, this stuff takes time. You're forcing yourself to write it, but it's only making you stress Cole:*look down and sighs softly nodding* I don't know how too start it Ana: *Feels bad for him but has an idea* Tell you what, how about we and I go out and spend time together. Sometimes keeping yourself busy will help you think of something and if you want I can help you write the letter okay. Cole:*hugs Ana* Thanks and don't tell anyone that I hugged you Ana:*smiles and hugged him back before pulling back* My lips are sealed okay, now come on clearly you didn't eat and the fact you missed out on special training with Reyes and I isn't good so I'll let it slide and I'll try to convince Gabe too understand okay Cole:*nods* Thank you miss Amari Ana:*smiled and ruffled his hair before leaving his room* I'll give you time too collect yourself ~~~ Gabriel: So how did it go? Ana: He's still a kid Reyes, give him time he was a bit stress over a letter. Gabriel: *pinched the bridge of his nose*A letter? Really? Ana: Reyes don't start now, give Cole a break poor soul is stress, after all we were young too. He's still learning so give him time Gabriel:*sighs softly* Alright Ana: *smiles softly but decided to tease him*Thank and I know you have a soft spot for Cole Gabriel: Don't start Ana:*chuckles softly* Alright I won't

[raes-secret-pjo-account]

You Are In Love

Chapter 1; working part time waiting tables

Pjo mortal au.

Percy works at Friendly's, and he meets a very pretty girl there.

(First chapters are kinda bad lmao just stay with me.)

PERCY

Hi my name is Percy Jackson. Right now I'm working at Freindly's with my mom who also works there. My younger sister, Estelle is home with my step dad. Now you may be wondering "Percy, where is your real dad?" If your talking about Gabe he isn't my dad. He died of "mysterious circumstances" Paul isn't my dad either. My dad if a fisherman. My half brother Tyson lives with him. I work with my mom. Her boss loves me so he let me work there.

I was doing my thing waiting tables when I went to the front stand to cover for Nancy who called sick for the 100th time this week. A party of 3 walk up to the podium. A punk looking girl with short hair and a leather jacket. A scrawny looking boy with goat-ish features I recognized him from my environmental science class. I think his name was Grover. And then I saw her. A girl with blonde hair and Grey eyes. She looked like a disney princess. I was so caught up in her beauty that I had to get snapped out of it by Grover who loudly cleared his throat.

"OH um hi welcome to Friendly's how many?" I said as I had many times.

The girl in the leather jacket chimed in, "three," she told me unconvinced.

I grabbed 3 menus and led them to a table. "So can I get you any drinks to start with?" I asked smiling at the blonde girl. She didn't say anything only stared back at me.

The punk girl responded, "Can we have a second?" I nodded and I went to talk to my mom at a different table.

"Hi Percy how you doing?" She asked with a warm smile and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey um mom do you know who that blonde girl is at table 4?" I asked sheepishly. She looked over and saw her.

"I don't know everyone in New York Percy," she responded, "but she is pretty you should go talk to her."

I smile and give her a quick peck on the cheek before going to wait another table. I went back to their table and asked again what they would like to drink.

"Coca-Cola" says the punk girl.

"Water please" Grover asks.

"Strawberry milkshake," the girl says.

As I write down their orders I notice the blonde girl has a Yankees cap next to her.

I smile, "Yankee's fan," I ask her. She looks up at me and smiles. Her smile is so pretty.

"it was my mom's I'm from Virginia," she explained.

"Oh that's cool. I'm from Manhattan so go yankees!" I replied awkwardly and we both laughed half hearted and then I walked away and gave there order to the cooks. I left to go wait on other tables but I couldn't help but continue glancing at her.

I returned with their drinks, "alrighty Coca-Cola for the punk, a water for the guy in my class, and a strawberry milkshake for the princess," before I continue I would like to add that I give all the customers funny nicknames. It's my gimik people love it, but the princess comment was entirely on accident.

"What did you just call her?" The punk girl asks looking slightly annoyed. I couldn't tell if my face was red or not but I tried to explain.

"oh its like my thing I call people by like names or something it adds like character I guess. . ." I didn't sound very convincing. The punk girl glared at me. I looked at the blonde girl and she was looking away from me and drinking her shake.

Suddenly Grover chimed in and broke the silence, "you are in my class aren't you, environmental science right?" He asked with a warm welcoming smile that reminded me of my mother's.

I smiled back and spoke, "yep it was a required course for marine biology,"

"oh cool!" Grover chimed, "I want to go into the environmental science field, I want to research clean energy, we got to save the planet you know," he sounded very enthusiastic about it.

"Yeah man!" I agreed, "thats really cool, my name is Percy," I said holding my hand out,

"I'm Grover, he said taking my hand and shaking it with the same exact warm smile as before. In that very moment I knew that Grover would be my best friend someday. And I was absolutely right.

"PERCEUS JACKSON!" I heard my mom shout as she walked over, "you have other tables to wait young man! You can't just stay at this one," I heard the blonde girl snicker.

"Okay," I said and turned back to their table, "I'll be back," I winked at the blonde girl and went to go wait my other tables with a smile on my face.

A little bit later, the punk girl stopped me as I walked by their table, "hey Perceus," she grabbed me and lulled me to the table.

"it's just Percy but how can I help you," I asked.

"We're ready to order," the pretty girl says. I take there order down,

"would you like a refill on any drinks while I'm at it?" I ask as I reach for the girl's empty cup.

"I didn't say I wanted a refill~" she notes teasingly,

"well I just thought you might want another shake, on me," I reply and try to mimic the warm smile my mother always wears and she just looks at me and chuckles, "be my guest."

After a little bit I came back to their table with their food I handed them out to each of them and handed the pretty girl her shake, "here you go princess," I said with a warm smile again. She rolled her eyes at me.

When they left I got a 15% tip plus some. I went up to my mom, "hey remember that table with the pretty girl?" I ask her.

She chuckles, "you mean the princess?" I must have blush cause she laughed some more "Yes what about it?" She asks as we get ready to close up.

"Well I got a really good tip from them, and that guy with them is in my environmental science class maybe I can ask him about that girl."

I Continued closing up before my mom places a light kiss on my forehead, "sure, thing Percy, I think it's good for you to get back out there, I mean after the whole thing with Rachel an-"

"do we need to keep talking about that?" I cut her off. Incase you didn't know Rachel is my ex. She and I broke up over a big thing. She and I are still friends but it's kinda awkward since then.

My and my mom clocked out of work and went home. I lay in my bed and went to sleep. You'll think I'm crazy but in my dreams I swear I saw glimpses of that girl and me, in a boat floating through a dark tunnel, somehow we were kissing underwater, I saw her fudo flip me, I saw us covered in blood and dirt in some kind of dark pit. Some reason it felt familiar. Like some kind of distant life I used to know. Go ahead you can call me crazy but I swear I saw these memories go by like they actually happened.

When I woke up I was determined to find out more about her

[tam0111]

Clementine x gn!reader

Part 1

Author's note: I wanted to write a short Clementine oneshot for myself but it turned into a 4k fic(for now). I felt that it would be a shame to leave a story that long for just me to read so I decided to post it here. I'm not a professional and wrote it just for fun so it's probably messy, also tried to make the reader gender neutral. English is not my first language so sorry for all the mistakes.

Since it's so long (and ending is in writing) I will post it in maybe two or three parts.

Warnings: Swearing and spoilers for season 3 and season 4

Word count: 1325

I don't remember much from when the apocalypse started.

It was just a normal week. Eating breakfast, watching cartoons, and playing with my best friend.

I would give anything for it all to go back to the way it used to be.

But then again, it's been 9 years since it started. I don't think it's gonna end anytime soon. Maybe it was destined to happen. Like the stone era, ice age...

Or maybe I'm just saying that to make myself feel better. A hope that it will all go back to normal. Where you don't see people eating, killing, and betraying each other.

That's all we have left in this fucked up world.

Hope.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"Can you remind me again why I'm going?"

It was too late for this shit.

Everyone let out a tired sigh.

"What? Do you think I know the way to this mysterious place or something?"

"Didn't you say that you used to visit someone in West Virginia? You can help us find our way around there." David said.

"Well yeah, my uncle but how the fuck does that help? I don't suppose your friends now live in my uncle's house do they?" (Name) sassed at him.

Javier placed a map in front of them.

"Do you at least know the area or a town that you used to go to?"

(Name) took a look at the map. They couldn't remember what the city was called but maybe if they saw a name it could refresh their memory.

"Here." They point to Morgantown "He wasn't from there but I remember we went there with him."

Javier nodded. "Ok, so we go to Morgantown, then find the river from there and follow it until it leads us to the school."

"Can someone please explain what's happening and why we're going to a school by the river?" (Name) asked while yawning.

"And why Gabe's going with us?"

Gabe gave them a side glare.

"I got some info from people we captured. Asked for some information about their community, 'The Delta'.

They told us most of their soldiers are kids who were stolen and trained." Javier began.

"What kind of a sick fuck would do that?" Kate shook her head.

"We were also told one of their lieutenants was having trouble with a community that consists of teenagers. Said she got defeated by them but is planning on attacking them again with more soldiers." Javier explained.

David took over. "We know the communities leader and owe her so we thought we could go there and see what's the situation. If needed we could get more backup and help them." (Name) hummed and looked at Gabe for explanation.

"Gabe wants to go because when this leader was here he had a huge crush on her," Kate added.

They looked at Gabe and awed.

"That's so cute." "Fuck off."

They chuckled and looked at Javi "So when are we going?"

"Tomorrow morning, as soon as the sun rises. It's a long journey." Tripp finally spoke up.

"And who else is going?"

"David and me, Gabe, you, and Tripp," Javi says. "Ava is gonna lead with Kate while we're gone."

(Name) sighed. "Well okay then. I'm going back to bed to prepare for tomorrow. Wake me up in the morning will you?"

"Maybe we'll forget to." Gabe said.

They chuckled "Nah, I wanna annoy you during the trip so I'll be sure to wake up. Good night everyone."

They said their good nights and went back to planning for tomorrow's trip.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••��

As soon as the sun rose, the group was up on their feet, getting everything they needed and preparing to leave.

Javier gave instructions to Kate and Ava and with that, the group set out on the road. It was gonna be a long trip.

Tripp did the math and said that they should arrive there in 5 days, including all the stops they make.

(Name) wasn't pleased with that information. Hearing Gabe whine for 5 days wasn't exactly how they intended to spend their time.

But then again they owed Javi. He accepted them into their community and his family when they had nobody.

They can't say no to him.

Plus it would be nice to meet the kids who managed to beat 'the Delta' lieutenants' ass on their own. They must be so cool.

(Name) wasn't exactly a skilled fighter. They mostly ran and hid, trying not to engage any Muertos. David did teach them how to handle a gun but that was it. No way they could fight a Delta army.

They were snapped out of their thoughts by...Gabe's whining.

"It's going to take us 5 days to get there?!" (Name) groaned.

Tripp looked at him. "Look kid, if you're going to complain all the time you can go back."

"I agree with Tripp. Why don't you go back Gabe." They smirked at him.

"No way! I wanna see Clementine!"

Clementine huh? That name sounds familiar...oh right!

"Aww, her name is Clementine? Are you gonna serenade her when we get there?"

"That is actually a great idea (Name). You could woo her with your singing talents Gabe." David said sarcastically.

He rolled his eyes at his dad's teasing.

"Yeah, come on I'll even help you practice."

They cleared their throat.

"Oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling Clementine~" Everyone chuckled while Gabe was looking at them unamused.

"You are lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry, Clementine~"

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

5 days passed pretty quickly.

(Name) tried to keep everyone entertained and messed with Gabe the whole time so it wasn't dull.

It was important for him to be prepared to sing his heart out.

Luckily the group didn't encounter many Muertos along the way. Few single ones here or there, and some tiny groups.

They thought it was the perfect time to throw in a dad joke.

"Hey, guys why do Muertos group in three? Because they can't even."

Only Gabe didn't laugh so (Name) felt accomplished.

When they arrived in Morgantown (Name) couldn't believe the state it was in. It was unrecognizable. They quickly passed it, avoiding Muertos, and went on their way to find the river.

When they did find it, (Name) suggested they take a small break. They took their chance and threw Gabe in it, much to his dislike.

They followed the smaller river that split into the forest because Javi said the soldiers mentioned the school was in the forest so luckily they were going in the right direction.

Now it was (Name) who whined.

"I hope we're close. My ass hurts." They pouted.

"Who is whining now?" "At least I'm whining after 5 days. You whined after like, few hours, so please, shut up."

They kept bickering until David shushed them. "Be quiet."

The group fell silent. Then a gunshot fired.

"EVERYONE DOWN!"

They all got down from the horses and hid behind trees.

(Name) took their gun out. This sucked.

"I would surrender if I were you. You're outnumbered." A male voice shouted.

"And let you kill us? No way." David shouted back.

"Have it your way then."

Multiple shots were being fired. (Name)'s head was ringing from them, not used to it.

"(Name) get the horses! Follow the river and send backup!"

They nodded and whistled. Horses were still spooked by the gunshots.

They took a deep breath and made a run for it.

They didn't get far when they felt a sharp pain in their abdomen.

(Name) quickly put their hands on the spot that burned and dropped to their knees. Their head was ringing.

They couldn't hear anything but muffled voices and loud gunshots.

Someone was shaking them and then they felt someone pick them up. Their eyes felt so heavy, it was too hard to open them so they didn't. They felt tired.

(Name) knew they probably shouldn't, but the pain was unbearable, so they let sleep take over.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

[andiinaraethtash]

please tell me about your favorite wip ?

Dude that is like the hardest question you could ask. I'm gonna say top three (though one is a bit cheaty bc it's a series rather than a single wip, but none of the parts of the series are done, so the whole series is a series of wips. It counts).

To Ash and Dust--Okay, I love this one, and it has great angst and humor just built into it. Basically the premise is that the Battle at the Acropolis in BoO goes very, very badly, to the point that they completely lose, so the Fates, in what little time they have, basically do a massive loop with the threads of Fate for the surviving heroes--meaning, of course, Percy and Annabeth. They wake up like. A few weeks before Annabeth, Luke, Thalia, and Grover make it to camp, and of course Annabeth has very conflicting emotions about Luke, bc on the one hand, she did love him, and he did sorta redeem himself, but on the other he betrayed her and got so many of her friends killed. Percy, meanwhile, woke up at the apartment he and his mom, who is dating Gabe at this point, share, and immediately is like, "idk whats going on but i need to get somewhere safe" and so he sneaks out and calls a pegasus to take him to camp. He shows up, giving Chiron a heart attack followed by a migraine, refuses to tell him pretty much anything, just his name, and then waits until Annabeth and the others get there, and in the middle of the storm, proceeds to take down as many monsters as possible to get the other four into the safety of the camp. Bear in mind, he is seven. And a kinda scrawny seven at that. Annabeth's immediate reaction is to just kinda squawk, "Seaweed Brain?" and he grins and shoots back, "Hey, Wise Girl," and Thalia, whose pov that section is written from, is like. "wtf how does Annabeth know this kid, why is this seven-year-old kicking so much ass, and also holy Styx that is a seven-year-old--" That's about as far as I've written, but there are other fun moments in store, though I've yet to decide what to actually do with Luke. (Advice would be appreciated :D)

And Yet, a Second Try--This is the one I've been working on for the last couple of days, and I'm sort of going back to my roots here, with a Star Wars time travel au. Basically, Obi-Wan and Anakin both wake up, a few months after the year on the run happens, in their younger bodies (Obi-Wan is like. 19, and Anakin is three) but the last thing they remember is their respective deaths. Neither knows the other is back, and Obi-Wan doesn't know that Anakin redeemed himself. So Obi-Wan almost immediately sneaks off to Tatooine, so he can rescue Anakin and Shmi both, and of course Anakin is suspicious, bc why is Obi-Wan here now, he's not supposed to be here now, but he doesn't say anything... at least not until some of the other kids are talking and one of them echoes that line that Anakin says in TPM, the "no one can kill a Jedi" and Anakin just. Gets up and leaves without a word, and he vanishes in the three seconds Obi-Wan and Shmi don't have eyes on him, and Obi-Wan manages to find him and they kind of both realise that they remember the future, and there's a lot of crying. It's very cathartic.

The Obani Chronicles--so this is the wip series, and my gosh, when I say this is a labor of love, I mostly mean it's a labor. There are several parts to it, some that are like. Alternate universes to the main one? Anyway--It's focused on an oc of mine, Kestrel Obani, or Kes, who was a Padawan, friends with Cal and Caleb. When Order 66 went out, she barely managed to escape in a fighter, then commandeered a pirate ship in the middle of an asteroid belt, set the autopilot of the fighter she'd stolen to shoot through the belt so it would crash, and successfully faked her death. She manages to lie low until shortly before the events of JFO, when she gets turned over to the Inquisitors after having to use the Force to escape a fight against a gang on Nar Shaddaa. So she's in the Fortress Inquisitorius when Cal and Cere break in, and manages to escape in the chaos, meeting up with Cal and Cere, who don't recognize her immediately (it's been five years and escaping the cell she'd been in had required an explosion which had burnt the left side of her face, neck and shoulder). After they escape, Cal is unconscious (bc he got skewered by his own lightsaber) so there's no reunion, but Kes gets to meet Merrin and Oh, Boy, do I love their dynamic. Merrin doesn't trust her, and she doesn't trust Merrin, and then they just sorta bond over how danger-prone Cal is, and of course once Cal does wake up there's that whole reunion, and that's about the summary of the first part of the series. From there, the main storyline has like. Two more main parts, and one that kinda explains where Kes was during the events of the second game, bc I am not going to try to rewrite that, thank you very much. In part two, they get a group of visitors on Koboh who call themselves the Spectres, which is so much fun. Part three covers the events of Ahsoka, which I did rewrite a little bc I have Thoughts about how that would go if Kes and the others were involved. Anyway I love them all so much and as much as I want to share this series with everyone, literally none of the parts are finished, so...

[boqvistsbabe]

Update Time

Alrighttttttyyyyyy

Hi everyone, I hope y’all are doing great. I just wanted to make a little update about a couple of things. I’m going to try and organize my thoughts as much as I possibly can so bear with me, please.

Refresh:

For starters, I am going to be doing a blog refresh. Not just like changing my theme and whatnot but more like updating linked posts and things like that to make my blog easier to navigate for everyone including myself lol. So over the next couple of weeks when I have time I will be trying to go through and change/update little things. Just doing little things to make it more functional and aesthetic. I was planning on doing it this summer, but things like work got in the way so it’s happening a little later than planned, but at this point, I’m just glad things are happening lol. 

Writing/Other Content:

Okay so like the refresh I was planning on doing a lot of writing/drawing/etc this summer. Once again, did not happen for various reasons. I still am planning on continuing to put out all sorts of content. I have so much planned that I want to get out because I’m really happy with it. While I still do have plans, for things I am always open for requests for anything (fics, playlists, etc.). I am trying to get a plan together for writing and things to make it easier on myself. To get a little deep for a second, part of the reason I always have so little motivation for writing is because I didn’t ever really think I was good enough/people didn’t actually like what I was writing. That’s a long story short, but either way, I am trying to not think like that anymore and instead just write for my enjoyment, and if others like it then that’s cool too. For my Gabe lovers... there's stuff planned don't you worry

Another blog?! 

I will at some point be “launching” another sideblog. Once again I am trying to organize things and I feel like that would help especially with me bringing theme days back and other things like that. I don’t know when exactly I will like actually “launch” it, but it will be some time/during the refresh of the main blog.

Life Update:

Okay we are going to end things off with an actual life update. For starters, I’m in college now! I def like it more than high school. I feel like I can breathe a little more if that makes sense? Like my workload is a lot lighter almost and my schedule is a little more forgiving. Also with my schedule being more forgiving I will have more time for writing and such so I am def happy about that. I’ve also been having a lot of friend drama going on lately (since October last year) which is not the best but at the moment I am just rolling with it (any of my closer moots feel free to ask if you want lol, I think some of y’all know part of it). My mental health has been like happening lately. Not too bad not too good, better than during high school but there’s things ya know? We are going to end on my favorite update of all… drumroll please….. I’M GOING TO MY FIRST NHL GAME THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited. It is technically a preseason game but still. I am going with a friend (one that is a big part of the friend drama lol) and we are going to make a day of it. I can’t wait for this weekend and I’ll def let y’all know how it goes. Anyway, thank you all for sticking with me and I appreciate y’all so much.

Also if you are newer, I love talking to people so if you wanna slide into the inbox or into my messages feel free! 

Also I’m totally stealing the update idea from @kolsmikaelson so sorry about that but it was a good idea  💀 

I am going to tag some moots, I am totally forgetting some people so I am sorry for that (if y'all could reblog that would be amazing)

@2manytabsopen @krugstrash @jimmystrudel @andreburakozy @sidneycrosbyhoe @fallinallincurls @timstuetzle @typical-simplelove

[night-market-if]

so if the milo/malcolm/mc polyam route is a v, who isn't the "connecting" piece? like if the mc is romancing milo, then they don't get with malcolm, but he is with milo? or milo and malcolm are both with the mc but they don't start anything serious with each other?

lol sorry if this is stupid, the date day on patreon just had me thinking it was more of a triad 😅

Okay, let me clarify this a little more because that ask was written out before coffee this morning and now my inbox has exploded. LOL!

I spoke a bit out of turn. As of right now, there is no relationship there that can be considered any form of the poly. There probably won't be for a while. When there is the option for one, you have the choice to either have it a v poly (i.e, you are in a romance with one but not the other, but they are both in a romance with each other) or, you can work towards a triad. But, the triad would probably take a little bit more time and more work and won't come to fruition for a while. That's why I made the comment about a v poly because that seems to be the one that will work in the beginning portion.

Also, this is more up to the reader. I plan to give options for both the poly routes (Bella and Gabe) and it is kind of up to the reader to define how they see their relationship forming with their partner or partners. I can speak for the RO's but I can't really speak for your head cannon or choices.

That all being said, this is all subject to change. I hesitate to answer questions like this sometimes or I give a bit of a shorter response, because when it comes down to it, I have an idea of the direction I will be going in, but, that does not mean it is going to pan out that way at all. And in recent history, readers have been taking these asks as law. So I want to state as much as I can, that this is all up in the air right now. Please don't take this as solidified. I want the characters to naturally develop and I do not want to lock them into something that I've discussed on Tumblr, if that makes sense.

Hopefully that kind of clears it up. The best advice I can give is ask for maybe a bit more clarification when we are getting into the meat of book 2. Because given how book 1 ended, there really isn't an option for a poly at the moment.

🪷✨🪷✨ If you want to support me 🪷 ✨🪷✨ 

Demo ��� Patreon 🌿 Ko-fi 🌿Discord🌿Kickstarter

[jetsteelyourheart]

I've been working on this for more time than I'd care to admit cause I've been formulating like... 4 separate Fan Casts, but when @easily-distracted-ivashkov posted an ask about Casting I had to submit something. Then it got too large for an ask so here I am.

I'm not done with my TV/Film Fan Cast, but welcome to...

The Bloodlines Musical Theater Fan Cast

*Complete with vocal part & music samples

*all casting has purely been based on my completely mid level of musical actor knowledge and voice. Like 90% of this is all voice. I can't stress that enough

I also have two separate casts for this because its changed over the years. I call them the "Fancast 1.0" and the "Fancast 2.0 - Its Gayer This Time." And of course like with any good casting situation, when you use a couple different actors you need basically a whole new set for everyone else so... Please find them below:

Fancast 1.0:

Adrian - Tenor : Aaron Tveit

Think old school Aaron

-> Gabe in Next to Normal Aaron

-> Fiero in Wicked Aaron

-> Roger in RENT Aaron

And you know... maybe think some more recent Aaron...

Sydney - Mezzo: Barrett Wilbert Weed

Now, I don't want to start anything because Broadway Tumblr is notoriously... dramatic... but this is my fancast and frankly I think if I was a broadway actor people would get mad at me too for having boundaries and less than perfect vocal health so... give the samples below a chance

-> Wildflowers from Fugitives Song Cycle Barrett

-> obligatory Veronica from Heathers Barrett

-> Winnie from Everlasting Barrett

Jill - Mezz/Soprano: Joy Woods

-> Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors Joy

-> Cathy from The Last Five Years Joy

Eddie - Tenor: George Salazar

-> Grover in The Lightning Thief George

-> Obligatory Michael in the Bathroom George

-> Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors George

-> Where do the Lonely souls go George

Nathan Ivashkov: Brian Darcy James

-> Something Rotten Brian

-> Dan Goodman in Next to Normal (with bonus Aaron as his son for direct comparison!)

-> Barrett from Titanic (for something different)

-> Shrek from Shrek because I just like reminding everyone he was in Shrek

Tatiana Ivashkov - Caroline O'Connor

-> Countess Lily in Anastasia

-> Velma in Chicago Caroline

Trey - Everyone is a Tenor Now: Dan Domenech

(sorry for the closest thing I could find to a gif of him without heathers text)

-> speaking of have some JD in heathers Dan

-> Joanne in RENT Dan

Angeline - Is Sassy technically a vocal type? (Sop?): Andrea Macasaet

-> Obligatory Anne Boleyn in SiX Andrea

-> Mimi ... in RENT but like... in concert with Anthony Rapp as Roger?? Andrea

Jackie Terwilliger: Eden Espinosa

-> Elphaba from Wicked Eden

-> Cassandra from Tangled the Series (Her vocals tho)

Brayden: Matt Doyle

He's got it. I don't know what it is. But he has it.

-> Jamie in Company

-> Hanchen in Spring Awakening. Look its not singing... but its Brayden

-> Jasper in Jasper in Deadland to be nice because its a character that isn't annoying and he's a good actor

Micah: Alexander Brightman

-> Cut You A Piece Alexander (but also I just fucking love this Sydrianesque song to death)

-> A Little Bit Alexander

.......................................................................................

Same in Both Casts:

Jared Sage: Patrick Page

Ok but like, how could I NOT.

-> Frollo in Hunchback because Frollo is one of Jared Sage's past lives

-> Hades in Hadestown Patrick

-> Green Goblin Patrick because its on the same level as Brian D'Arcy James Shrek

Abe: Ricky Rojas

Listen, I've never seen him do scary, but I believe he could do it. He's definitely got fun and cheeky down. I'd love to see him dress like a mobster. And look how expressive he is. I fully believe Abe can Tango.

-> Ricky (and Aaron) Singing Tennessee Whiskey because listen to that man siiiing

-> Santiago from Moulin Rouge but just the audio cause youtube aint got any videos

Marcus Finch: Alex Joseph Grayson

Tragically Tumblr has no gifs and thats a travesty

-> Hercules in Hercules

-> Jim in Parade (THOSE RIFFS)

-> Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar

Zoe Sage: Sophia Anne Caruso

But literally exactly in the vocal tonality of Beetlejuice. I don't make the rules

-> Obligatory Beetlejuice

Sheridan: Orfeh

This might be a surprise. Maybe. But like. Imagine all of Sheridan's war crimes. All of her actions that raise the Geneva convention to the ground. Now picture those words coming out of the mouth of someone who sounds like the Nanny Named Fran mixed with some kind of Bostonian Dolly Parton. JUST IMAGINE IT.

-> Paulette from Legally Blonde

-> Orfeh Singing from VOTE!

-> Audrey...2 in Little Shop

Donna Stanton: Natalie Mendoza

Ok so it almost more her acting than her singing, but hear me out: Natalie Mendoza does an amazing job on stage portraying that she's keeping her real thoughts hidden. Its almost a waste to make her Donna stanton because her comedic timing is top notch and underrated. Also she can sing.

-> Ok I couldn't find any examples on youtube... but trust me on this. She's fantastic

Malachai Wolfe: Chris Sullivan

Yeah, that guy. He also played Taserface. Do with this information what you will, but also hear him in the Off-Broadway Hadestown

-> Hermes from Hadestown Chris

Lee: Jeremy Jordan

Listen, I know its a small part for Jeremy, BUT he goes from 0 - 100 on the little nerd man to deranged murder man and Lee needs that

-> Seymour from Littleshop (again) but this time Jeremy

-> Clyde from Bonnie & Clyde Jeremy

-> Light from Death Note the Musical Jeremy. This is not a joke. (second singer)

Clarence: Danny Burstein

-> Adolpho in The Drowsy Chaperone

-> Tevye in Fiddler

Carly Sage: Christy Altomare

-> Freedom Inside MV

-> Wendla in Spring Awakening

Rowena: Rachel Zegler

-> As Maria in West Side Story

Emma: Taylor Lauderman

-> Little Miss Perfect

Duncan: Derek Klena

-> Jagged Little Pill

Alecia: Sam Pauly

-> Obligatory SiX Katharine Howard

-> Come From Away

-> The Wild Party

Lissa: Ashley Loren

The Sparkling Dragomir ~*~**

-> Satine from Moulin Rouge

-> Belle (with cats) from Beauty and the Beast

-> Elsa from Frozen

Rose: Anna Uzele

-> Catherine Parr in SiX

-> Francine in New York, New York

Dimitri: Christopher Jackson (circa In the Heights Era)

I don't like Dimitri, but if he's gonna be there, I'm gonna get an Actor that makes me like him. He better have killer fuckin pipes

-> Benny in In the Heights

-> Obligatory George Washington in Hamilton

-> More Benny because I'm obsessed

Neil: Jamie Muscato

He's like the musical theater Hugh Grant of the west end. I'm gonna get flack for this, I know, but the guy is like the watered down British polite version of every character he plays. Its a whole vibe on its own, and frankly, its very Neil.

-> Evan Hansen Jamie

-> Enjolras from Les Mis Jamie

Chantal: Ariana DeBose

-> Tony's Opening Number

-> I MEAN SHE EARNED THAT OSCAR IN WEST SIDE STORY

Keith:

[theshimadaslovers]

~FROM CAKES FOR REAPER~

GABRIEL REYES

Part 4

*At Overwatch base*

*Reaper sitting in a chair while everybody look at him suspecting*

Reaper- Can everyone please stop looking...is annoying.

Ana- I'm sorry, Gabe, they wasn't...emotionally prepare for you to be in here.

Hana- Yeah! Do not try anything here! Back off!

Jack- I got you in my sight, Reyes...

Baptiste- *chuckle* I think he got soft.

Reaper- I didn't...

Tracer- So why you saved y/n? I mean, I'm genuinely asking...

Reaper- *grows looking away* I didn't have choice...

Jack- You're a psychopath, Reaper! Of course of had another option!

Rein- Tell us your intentions with her, Reyes. *cross his arms*

Reaper- I don't have intentions with the girl!

Lucio- Right! You save her twice, dark lord! You want something!

Mercy- Well...*Enters the room, Reaper immediately stood up*

Reaper- Well?! How's she? She's alive?

Mercy- Yes, she's alive...I cleaned her body. She almost got a coma *sighs* she still unconscious, but it will wake up pretty soon.

Reaper- Can I see her?

Jack- You're not going anywhere, Reyes.

Mercy- Let him go, Jack...He cares about her.

Jack- Just go with him, Angela. I don't trust him at all.

Mercy- Can't you let the past on the past for once, Morrison?! *annoyed*

Jack- ...*clean throat* I'm sorry.

Mercy- Gabe, you can go.

Reaper- Hm...thank you, Angela.

*Reaper become the shadow going to the room and close the door seeing you unconscious on the bed. He get closer to you noticing some purple veins in your neck because of the poison. He sighs grabbing his outfit in hatred. He would kill every single Talon member if he could, right now. He grab your hand gently and take of his mask to give a kiss*

Reaper- I should have protect you more...I tried, but I failed. I won't let them hurt you again. Never. Forgive me, y/n...I failed you.

*Mercy was listen on the door, she smiled thinking that finally Reaper could be Gabriel Reyes once again. She would help him, she needs*

Mercy- I'll never give you up, Reyes *she whispers taking her hand to her chest feeling her heart warm by Reaper's words to you*

*Reaper hold your hand for a long time, he wanted to make sure that you're warm enough, it means that you were alive too. The door open and Mercy smiles to Reaper that looks at her over his shoulders*

Reaper- She will not have any sequels, right?

Mercy- We don't know yet. We're happy that came back, Reyes.

Reaper- I don't think "happy" is the right word now.

Mercy- I know Jack didn't gave the best welcomes to you, but...he missed you. Trust me, Gabe, you mean to him a lot.

Reaper- My past started to burn...I realize that being Reaper wasn't my choice. I was tortured and I erased every bad things from Talon, manipulate myself because of my ego and hatred for Overwatch.

Mercy- You want to be Gabriel Reyes once again?

Reaper- If I could, I would.

Mercy- You can and we will. I believe that Y/N helped you a lot in that.

Reaper- *sighs* she's the reason why I'm back. I wonder why she treated me like human all this time.

Mercy- She went to Talon because Jack Morrison is like a father for her and she cares for his happiness. He told her your friendship and he said that missed you...he missed his grumpy brother.

*Reaper felt surprised and put back his mask on turning around*

Reaper- I'm in love, Angela.

Mercy- *chuckles* I know...

Reaper- But I'm too old for her...she's a kid.

Mercy- Well, we must find out.

*At Mercy's lab, Reaper was shirtless sitting in a chair with a lot of things sticking on his body, like the first...with Moira. He was nervous and scared. Mercy get into the room and look at his body in shock*

Mercy- What is...?!

Reaper- Surprise...I'm decomposing every second....

Mercy- Mein Gott...! *she approaches* What did she...?! What she have done to you?!

Reaper- "Experiments"...

Mercy- This is awful! *walk fast to her a computer* You cells are constantly dying and regenerating! This is worse than I thought!

Reaper- Yeah...

Mercy- I can't even imagine the pain...

Reaper- Don't imagine.

Mercy- *sighs and look at him* How could you live like that? You won't take the mask off?

Reaper- It helps me breath...

Mercy- Oh dear... *feel anguish and wipe some tears* Well...! I'll restore your cells from completely, take off whatever she puts inside of you to burn the cells. We'll starting with the cleaning and try to figure it out what's in your body.

Reaper- You think that...I'll be back as 50 years old man?

Mercy- *smiles* you really want to be with her, don't you? I believe that... *look at the computer* For the fact that you're in this process since your 30's, you never aged.

Reaper- Hnm...Great.

Mercy- When you have your cells 100% healthy and in normal process, you can take off the mask and those black warm clothes. It may take a few months.

Reaper- Why take it so long? Moira did it in weeks...why the difference?

Mercy- Is much more easy to kill than keep it alive. This is what Moira said once.

Reaper- Sounds like her. A demon.

Mercy- Let's starts, Gabe...that'll take some hours. Have you eat?

Reaper- I don't actually feel hungry...

Mercy- Any side effects will be normal, your body is trying to get back to normal and it may not accept very well some things, but...I'll try my best to be painless.

Reaper- I'm use to pain, don't worry about that.

*at your room*

You- *slowly opening your eyes* Gab...?

Jack- Hey, little one...

You- Hi, Jack...*smiles*

Jack- How do you feeling?

You- Dizzy...but better. I can feel my body...tingling.

Jack- Little by little doctor Angela and cleaning your body, is not 100% yet. You need to stay in bed, ok?

You- Ok...I can't really move.

Jack- You're weak... I bring some snacks if you want *Show to you a bag full of food*

You- *chuckles* "some" snacks?.

Jack- Yeah...*laughs and grab a chair to sit closely* I grab everything you like...

You- Thanks, dad...

Jack- *chuckles and blush* So...I wanted to talk about...Reaper. Why you did that? Why you throw yourself into the lion's cave?

You- After all the stories about Overwatch...I wanted to bring your partner back.

Jack- The past stay in the past, y/n... he's no longer Gabriel Reyes.

You- He is Gabriel Reyes... still. Trust me.

Jack- How you get his trust?

You- *smiles* Friendship... He needed that. I gave him a surprise birthday party.

Jack- You what? *laughs* Wow...! How did he reacted?

You- He liked *sighs* I baked him a cake and cookies.

Jack- *sighs* You did it nice...

You- Now he's back.

Jack- We will see...*get up* I can't trust him like before.

You- Makes sense *Jack leave the bag with food on the side of the bed* Thanks, dad.

Jack- Stop calling me "dad" *laughs* I'll get weak for you. Rest well, little one. *He bent down kissing your forehead* Anything, call.

You- Yes, sir.

*back to Angela lab*

Mercy- How are you feeling?

Reaper- *laying down* Hm... weird.

Mercy- Why?

Reaper- My body is tingling.

Mercy- Well, good to know is not pain. Starting cell renewal, measuring blood pressure to normal and calculating heartbeats.

Reaper- Hm...Ah! *Felt twinge on his chest* The fuck was that?!

Mercy- Well...it looks like your heart wanted to give up.

Reaper- What...?! How you say that so naturally?!

Mercy- *chuckles* I forgot to tell you...*look at him* You may die for a few hours.

Reaper- WHAT?!

Mercy- Is part of the process! You'll literally revive as Gabriel! Your body system has to be restarted...

Reaper- I must die to be with her?

Mercy- ...*suprised* Oh...technically...yes.

Reaper- I'll do it.

Mercy- You were that romantic with your ex wife too?

Reaper- I didn't had this life anymore. Forget it.

Mercy- Right...*smiles* Starting all over again, Reyes.

*Later, you finally get up from the bed being helped by Ana and Baptiste that came there to help you. You body were cleaned 90% now and you were worry about Reaper*

You- Are you sure that everything will be ok with him?

Ana- Dont worry, darling, Angela knows what she's doing.

You- I miss him already.

Ana- *chuckles* You got attached to him, don't you?

Brigitte- I told you, she made him a soft *smiles*

Hana- Soft? This psycho?? Haha!

Ana- Enough of hatred, Hana... *sighs* Well, I believe that Gabriel is back and Angela is doing everything to help him. He accepted our help, after all. We just wait.

Continue...

[yannisrandomstuff]

OK OK I HAVE RETURNED

Could I get some angst for toon gabriel, we know HES HOT and he's nice. So other people would want him, what would happen if he's getting flirted with in public when he is s/o isn't around, and when they come back they see that ans the other person is being really touchy with him, and IT JUST LOOKS REALLY BAD AND WRONG, and his s/o angrily leaves, what would happen?? I WANT HIS COMFROT!!

I love angst 😔

Note:flirting , angst , fluff

Misunderstanding

You and Angel Gabriel goes out to buy groceries. Both of you are having a conversation about what's tonight's dinner and both of you agree that he'll cook, then he'd be the one grabbing the stuff that he'll use for ingredients, you always like him cook since some of the food he makes are delicious.

The two of you have already finished getting the stuff and is now on the line to pay, then you remembered something very important.

"Uhm gabe I gotta go grab something we forgot I'll be back in a minute okay?"

"Of course dear I won't go anywhere but hurry alright?"

And that you left

.

.

.

After 5 mins you finally find Mini Brie Wheels

"Damn this is hard to find I better hurry back now gabes waiting he doesn't have a wallet with him" You thought to yourself. Thankfully it isn't our turn yet but something caught your eye that makes your heart hurt, a teenage girl who seems no older than 19 have been flirting around AngelGabriel and He seems unaffected by what is happening around him, he seems to be enjoying it, you walked towards them with an annoyed face, Angel Gabriel noticed that you are coming so he called you "ahem. What's going on here?" You asked "Oh is this your partner?" You rolled your eyes "yes they're my partner" Angel Gabriel stated happily "I see~ well then I'll take my leave now Mr. Gabriel nice chatting you, see you next time" Then the girl left

Angel Gabriel looked at you smiling " so there's a next time huh?" You said irritation visible to your voice, he now have a confused look at his face "I don't want to see her next time dear, I'm not even comfortable with her talking to me like that," You handed him your wallet "here take this I will be waiting in the car.." "I- uh alright please be careful" he sound really worried.

.

.

.

you get inside the car and pause for a sec, angry tears coming out at the thought of your boyfriend cheating on you, no that's impossible he wouldn't do that but I still have my doubts you just silently stare at the window and notice him going back to the car along with the groceries. You open the door for him and help him place the groceries in the back seat without talking or having eye contact to him "Dear? Are you well?"

"..." "....if this is about earlier I promise it is a misunderstanding you've got it all wrong" "explain why you're smiling while she clings on to you like a sloth" "I'm uncomfortable when she did that and ithought it would be quite rude to just glare at her, but I did told them that I am already taken and wishes them to go away but they are persistent." He let out a heavy sigh and place his hand to his significant other's face " Look at me my dearest" You obeyed him make eye contact with him " you're the only person I will only love in this world alright?, no one can change that. Please remember that." He then hugged you close "shall we go now?, wipe those tears in your face I don't want you to cry and I promise that it will never happen again. I'm sorry I love you" "I love you too I just don't want to lose you, yknow"

"Hahahah I don't want to lose you too, now let's get going so that the vegetables won't rot" and that both of you buckled your seat belt and you drive back home

.

.

.

Yes angel gabe does not know how to drive

.

SCHOOL IS COMING TF OUR 1 WEEK BREAK IS OVER😭😭😭

Sorry this took so long it will probably be the same with the other requests

I had to search on Google to find "what's the most hardest things to find in a grocery store" since I can't think of anything BWHAHAHAHHA

[yankstrash]

shoutout @olliemlvr for the inspo 😋😋

it's 9 pm on wednesday night and gabe is packing for the roadie this weekend. the team would be gone thursday-sunday

he's been on many many roadies since he and amelia started dating, but they never got easier for her. she hated when her boyfriend was gone. they spend so so so much time together that it just doesn't feel right when he isn't with her.

like she always does when he's packing for a roadie, she's sat on his bed, pouting.

she's watching him fold a hoodie and put it in his bag, when she reaches her hand out to stop him

"can i keep this one for the weekend babe?" she asks before he can put the hoodie in the bag

gabe smiles and nods his head, handing it to her

"sure princess"

she smiles and takes it from him

then continues watching him

she huffs, making gabe look away from what he was doing and look at her

"you okay meels?" he asks

she nods her head slowly, keeping her lips in a tight line

"i just hate when you leave.." she admits. "never gets easier."

gabe grins at her before letting out an "aww" and bringing her into his arms

this is his favorite part

he begins to laugh, and amelia looks up at him confused

"what?" she asks

"nothing, just funny remembering who didn't want anything to do with me at first and now she cries everytime i leave"

amelia rolls her eyes at his comment

"do you seriously have to bring this up every single time?" she asks, slightly annoyed

"mmhmm" he hums, leaning down to kiss her lips. "i do, because i love it. miss "i don't date athletes", "i don't want anything to do with you", "i'm not going out with you" now begs me for hugs and kisses everytime i have to leave."

amelia gives him a look, clearly not entertained.

"gabe.."

"yes, princess?" he says with a smirk

she looks at him with sad eyes and pulls her lip between her teeth

"can you please just love me before you have to leave?" she asks

gabe feels bad when he sees her expression

he loves joking with her, especially about this, but he knows how genuinely upset she gets when he has to leave

"of course baby. let me finish packing and i'm all yours" he says and kisses her head

[into-the-blorboverse]

Holloway Sibling Dynamics

The Holloway family consists of 6 kids, 4 boys and 2 girls, and their mother and father. Their dad was in the military and is often pretty strict on all of them. The siblings bonded over their hatred of waking up god awful early to go run laps around the neighborhood. Hand-me-downs and very limited shower times was the norm for these kids. The family tries to all get together at least once a month for family dinners, which probably became a tradition now that the parents are now grandparents.

Michael is the oldest, and while he had plenty of responsibilities around the house he was also, the first rebellious one. But he also didn't push it very far, either. He just partied and went out with friends on occasion ((has had to run several laps hungover much to his chagrin)) and tried to play a few instruments in hopes of getting into a band at some point. He gives his drums to Gabe when he moves out lol score. Once he left the house, he didn't have much need to rebel and prove himself, he's settled down now and doesn't look back with regret that the band thing never came to fruition. He's married now and has a son! Turns out being a dad can be fun and isn't about being The Big Boss Man! 👍

Rebecca rushed into getting married to get out of the house when she hit 18. Safe to say that didn't go well in the end, and she's divorced now. She's got an attitude problem and a bad habit of "borrowing" money without asking, and yet... still manages to be the perfect angel in her parents eyes by faking her sweet little persona to them. 😇 Most of the siblings see through this act...

Raphael is just tryin to make it through this you know? He spends his money as soon as the paycheck comes in, weird, wonder if any siblings forced that to become a habit somehow idk... He doesn't take the best care of himself or take things seriously, but he's having fun. His parents are literally begging him to learn how to balance a checkbook. huh, wha? 😎

Gabriel is our main character here lol most of the dynamics below will be his perspective. :) He was the easiest to pick on as a kid, and didn't talk much due to a speech impediment (so true buddy). He has a complex about this, but if you see him not talking much nowadays you’d probably just think he’s the strong silent type. He was diagnosed with narcolepsy as a teen, but only after the struggle of his parents Not believing that anything was wrong, chalking it up to him being a lazy teen. Christ.. Rebecca still seems to see him this way and finds it Annoying when it comes up. CHRIST. Anyway Gabriel becomes more rebellious and fed up with this shit when he gets older, yay! His parents don't like that he quit his job and joined a band, and that's not even mentioning the full sleeve of tattoos... but it seems like he's stable and all so they don't express their disappointment too much... He feels it though! 🥴

Hannah was lucky that by the time she was born the parents had let go of the expectation that they may have another child (and daughter especially), and let go of the many hand-me-down clothes she would have inherited. She gets to get a whole new wardrobe, yay! She doesn't know how she wants to style herself, though. Rebecca tries to help and loves to take her shopping, excited to have a little sister! Hannah dislikes that people won't take her seriously because she looks younger than she is. Please! Like a true 18 year old's mentality, she thinks she knows it all now that she's An Adult. She is however. Very 18 still. 🙄

Noah hm.. so far Noah is just chillin, and he takes things in stride. Like a true 15 year old's humor... He's always jokin around and he easily shrugs off any teasing that comes his way from his older siblings. Their father sees a lot of potential with Noah seeming so athletic, maybe his son will be interested in becoming military like him?? But really he's just got a lot of energy to burn. 😂

Okay that was a fun intro to the characters... actual dynamics time under the cut!

Gabriel and Michael get along ... okay. Now that they're older they're kinda building back what could have been. Michael realizing and admitting what Gabe went through was shitty, actually, and he promises he'll try and treat his son with more respect than what their parents gave Gabe. Gabe thinks his wife is nice and he loves having a little nephew. If ever the family dynamic otherwise imploded, I'm sure Gabriel would still try to be in touch with Michael and his newer tiny family. Michael's very excited that he's "following in his footsteps" drumming and getting into a band. Well, this is farther than his footsteps ever got, so good job lil bro!

Rebecca doesn't respect any of these bitches except Hannah. Michael and Raphael didn't really take any of her bullshit, but growing up Gabe always felt easier to pick on anyway. She continuously stole money from him as teens and she just played innocent to get away with it. Gabe avoids her as best as he can nowadays..

Gabe and Raph are closest in age and shared bedrooms growing up! Being in close quarters so often has given them the tightest bond between all the siblings. Despite having different interests, they still got along most of the time which made it work. Gabriel may not have specifically confided in Raph about being queer but Gabe knows that he can trust him with that information, however he learned about it. Context clues such as the posters on Gabe's walls and the Gay Ear piercing is all making sense now... They still hang out with each other pretty often.

When Hannah and Noah were young they were affectionately dubbed The Ketchup Kids by Gabriel and Raphael, because of their need to put ketchup on everything, as children do, of course. Gabe liked to tease them a little, since he got so much of that from his 3 older siblings, to varying degrees. They grew out of this phase but the name still stuck! Hannah is embarrassed by this now, but Noah fully embraces it. Amen, brother, pass the ketchup. 🍅

Gabe always wanted to be the Cool Older Brother TM that would take the lil guys to get ice cream for lunch, like Michael would do with him on occasion after he got his license. (Michael and Hannah being 7 years separated from Gabriel in either direction seems especially meaningful) But with his sleep disorder, the possibility of him learning to drive has flown out the window and the kids, not really thinking critically about the actual reason Gabe wants to hang out (being like 10 and 7 after all) just think "why would we take the bus with you we can just get mom to take us to the mall lol" :) haha... ha....... He takes this to heart and has a complex about it (as is tradition). When he confides in this to Michael, Michael offers to drive the whole group to get ice cream but god thats not the same you're still gonna be the cool brother who can drive and I can't!!!!!! It's fine...

Gabe doesn't reach out much now that they're older, he doesn't know them well and feels they won't have much in common. But they see each other at family dinners so not all is lost. There's still hope for them, seeing how Michael and Gabe's relationship is doing better, and him and Raph are still going strong... Maybe they just need more time to grow!

If you liked this deep dive into OC Families, Darla also wrote one about the Song siblings! Feel free to ask about other families you'd like to hear about, or leave comments if you enjoyed these, teehee!

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 6: AN OLD DEAD FRIEND COMES TO VISIT

"Percy!" Jason grasped his arm firmly, the current around him was starting to pick up speed and it was a useless impulse not to be thrown into the wall more than anything. "No killing us all, remember?" His voice didn't shake one bit at the knowing impact though.

"Maybe I should!" I sneered and jerked his arm away as he got up, but took deep breaths all the same, his sword hand still steady, the wickedly sharp point at least still aimed at the ground. "Damn Oceanus and Poseidon, and Tethys, and anybody else keeping us in here! Where is she! Why isn't Annabeth here, or Grover! Maybe that stupid titan and god would learn their lesson about locking me up if I caused enough of a disturbance!"

His spiteful words had soothed his temper though, he was gasping and fell back into his seat with exhaustion for just getting that out of his system as the water stilled once more.

The awkward silence hung, the book was sitting flat against the wall soaking wet and with a cracked spine while Nico was sitting close to Will and watching him steadily. "Sorry," Percy whispered as the stares lingered. "I didn't mean that."

"We know," Rachel promised. "Annabeth means the world to you, it's shitty and awful they're keeping you two apart right now, but I believe it's for a reason Percy. We'll find out what's going on, I promise."

"I wish I could say something better," Thalia sighed. "I do know what you're going through Percy, I promise. I'm worried sick about her too, and I still remember where she is right now," she tapped pitifully at her temple. "The gods are up to something and I want to be there for her, but I promised her I'd do everything in my power to get you back, and I'm going to do that no matter how much of, ah, a disturbance you cause."

"You think a pile of bodies would be easier to help her find me?" He asked with an almost twisted smile, but he shook himself and got up slowly this time so as not to startle anyone as he went to grab the book. It dried, but the damage didn't revert itself, a few of the pages were already threatening to fall out as battered as he'd already made it when he sheepishly handed it to Will while looking at Nico. "I am sorry."

He looked ruffled, his black hair in his eyes and his jacket twisted up and oddly tucked into itself, but shook himself as if no worse for wear and gave him a shrug of indifference. "You've done worse to me."

"Um, okay," Percy had no idea what to make of that and went to go sit carefully back in his seat, gently on the edge like the bomb he was about to go off.

Nico and Thalia exchanged a miserable look. They wished they could explain it wasn't even really his fault, the curse of Achilles amplified his powers insanely high, more than he'd yet practiced before this happened to him. He was yawning, pale, and kept rubbing his back, but all he wanted as his eyes landed back on Will was to find out where his girlfriend was.

"Do you want a break?" Thalia still asked. "Get some food?"

"No," he muttered, crossing his arms as sullen as ever, and that more than anything showed them all just how upset he was. "Just keep going please."

Will gave him a promising smile to get on with that as he read the chapter title.

"My money's on Luke," Alex stage whispered. "Percy can kill across continents."

"I'm trying to think of any other dead friends," Jason was fidgeting with his fingers. "Gabe wouldn't count."

"Please don't be a zombie invasion, please?" Magnus muttered.

Nico grimaced and was more relieved than ever none of them knew who his dad was or they wouldn't shut up about it as Rachel already gave him a curious, confused look like he was the first thing that came to mind.

The next morning after breakfast, I told Grover about my dream. We sat in the meadow watching the satyrs chase the wood nymphs through the snow. The nymphs had promised to kiss the satyrs if they got caught, but they hardly ever did. Usually the nymph would let the satyr get up a full head of steam, then she'd turn into a snow-covered tree and the poor satyr would slam into it headfirst and get a pile of snow dumped on him.

"As long as everybody enjoys the game equally," Alex sighed, though she clearly didn't think it was as funny as Will and Jason snickering up a storm.

When I told Grover my nightmare, he started twirling his finger in his shaggy leg fur.

"A cave ceiling collapsed on her?" he asked.

"Yeah. What the heck does that mean?"

Grover shook his head. "I don't know. But after what Zoe dreamed—"

"Did he make an empathy link with her too?" Magnus asked with twitching lips, though he had a suspicion of the real answer. Boundaries weren't a very common commodity when you lived on the street and could literally wake up to any number of people watching you sleep. He was one of the lucky few where it was usually his friends, but he'd had the occasional creepo or an old lady trying to draw bad energy from him.

"More like he was dreaming of her and it became reality," Alex scoffed.

"Whoa. What do you mean? Zoe had a dream like that?"

"I... I don't know, exactly. About three in the morning she came to the Big House and demanded to talk to Chiron. She looked really panicked."

"Wait, how do you know this?"

Grover blushed. "I was sort of camped outside the Artemis cabin."

Thalia looked a little squeamish herself and decided she needed to go around and thank Juniper for helping to keep at least her friend from this behavior anymore.

"What for?"

"Just to be, you know, near them."

"You're a stalker with hooves."

"I am not! Anyway, I followed her to the Big House and hid in a bush and watched the whole thing.

"He gets how that's the definition of a stocker, right?" Alex asked.

"Is goat stocker so bad? Gawker?" Percy chuckled.

"Don't," but Alex couldn't stop a smile as she rolled her eyes.

She got real upset when Argus wouldn't let her in. It was kind of a dangerous scene.

I tried to imagine that. Argus was the head of security for camp—a big blond dude with eyes all over his body. He rarely showed himself unless something serious was going on. I wouldn't want to place bets on a fight between him and Zoe Nightshade.

"Connor did," Will sighed, "he and that Ares kid almost got into a fist fight over it until Chiron came around to break it up."

"What did she say?" I asked.

Grover grimaced. "Well, she starts talking really old-fashioned when she gets upset, so it was kind of hard to understand. But something about Artemis being in trouble and needing the Hunters. And then she called Argus a boil-brained lout... I think that's a bad thing. And then he called her—"

"Now I know it was bad," Will grimaced, "I've never heard him talk, I've heard rumors he has an eye on the tip of his tongue."

"Ew," Jason informed him.

"It's not like I put it there," Will shrugged.

"Whoa, wait. How could Artemis be in trouble?"

"I... well, finally Chiron came out in his pajamas and his horse tail in curlers and—"

Percy made a noise like a buzzer with a rewind motion, but Will just chuckled and kept reading without surprise Percy hadn't let that go at any point in time.

"He wears curlers in his tail?"

Grover covered his mouth.

"Sorry," I said. "Go on."

"No I'm not," Percy corrected, though he did suppose this was a little more important.

"I now have more questions about Chiron's nightly routine than I will ever ask," Magnus sighed.

Alex just couldn't let it go though and demanded, "do you think the party ponies do that too? Or is Chiron showing his domesticated side?"

"I can't say he's ever advertised this for us to ask," Will shrugged. He vowed to never share this information with Connor though, or it would be painted on the side of the Big House.

"Well, Zoe said she needed permission to leave camp immediately.

"I didn't know she really needed permission?" Jason said. "They're sort of free agents under Artemis's command right?" He confirmed with the one in here.

"And her last orders were to go to camp," Thalia answered softly. "They are bound to that until released for a quest, camp rules."

Chiron refused. He reminded Zoe that the Hunters were supposed to stay here until they received orders from Artemis. And she said..." Grover gulped. "She said 'How are we to get orders from Artemis if Artemis is lost?'"

'Lost in the land without rain,' the words echoed uncomfortably in the back of Percy's head and he winced as his mind tried to jump to Annabeth lost, how could a goddess be lost too? Then finally settled on Nico and scolded himself as his breath came out too sharp. No, enough, stop trying to force it, he reminded himself. He didn't want to hurt any of them again!

Nico already looked too pale under his olive skin again like he'd been expecting another tsunami to the face and Percy winced with guilt.

"What do you mean lost? Like she needs directions?"

Percy grinned benignly at the seven blank stares he got for that.

"Gods you are something else," Alex informed him.

"That's rich coming from you," Percy snorted.

"No. I think she meant gone. Taken. Kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?" I tried to get my mind around that idea. "How would you kidnap an immortal goddess? Is that even possible?"

"Very," Will sighed, "it happens more frequently than they want to admit. Even to some of the Olympians, like Hera and-"

"Don't," Thalia interrupted with an exhausted sigh, "we don't need an index of what happened to each god too."

"Speak for yourself," Jason grumbled as he rubbed in agitation for his jolting brain.

"We won't be getting one," Percy reminded in personal relief, like they needed more things to read and memorize!

"Well, yeah. I mean, it happened to Persephone."

"But she was like, the goddess of flowers."

Grover looked offended. "Springtime."

Nico crossed his arms and grumbled to himself for a moment what a pain she was. Will paused for a moment to look on at him, but quickly kept reading to not give away Nico might have a connection there. Still, he filed it away in concern what his stepmom had done to deserve that reaction.

"Whatever. Artemis is a lot more powerful than that. Who could kidnap her? And why?"

Grover shook his head miserably. "I don't know. Kronos?"

"Or Kronos has gained more lackeys than Ares," Jason uneasily reminded. Who knew how powerful he'd gotten since they'd last seen him, maybe he could do more than just whisper and manipulate. What if he could full blown convince someone like Oceanus to be taking godly prisoners?

His temple flared in pain, Nico and Percy shifted uncomfortably on either side of him and he didn't notice why as he schooled himself to pay attention.

Percy didn't pay it much mind, he might not have even felt the shock as much with his impenetrable skin and it had just been an involuntary reaction, but Nico rubbed his side and watched Jason curiously again for a few paragraphs as Will cluelessly kept going over what happened.

"He can't be that powerful already. Can he?"

The last time we'd seen Kronos, he'd been in tiny pieces. Well... we hadn't actually seen him. Thousands of years ago, after the big Titan—God war, the gods had sliced him to bits with his own scythe and scattered his remains in Tartarus, which is like the gods' bottomless recycling bin for their enemies. Two summers ago, Kronos had tricked us to the very edge of the pit and almost pulled us in. Then last summer, on board Luke's demon cruise ship, we'd seen a golden coffin, where Luke claimed he was summoning the Titan Lord out of the abyss, bit by bit, every time someone new joined their cause. Kronos could influence people with dreams and trick them, but I didn't see how he could physically overcome Artemis if he was still like a pile of evil bark mulch.

"I don't know," Grover said. "I think somebody would know if Kronos had re-formed. The gods would be more nervous. But still, it's weird, you having a nightmare the same night as Zoe. It's almost like—"

"They're connected," I said.

"You are so lucky Zoe wasn't gawking you two or she would have shot you for implying as much," Alex smirked.

"I'll take the switch if it'll get us one step closer to figuring this out," Percy huffed.

Over in the frozen meadow, a satyr skidded on his hooves as he chased after a redheaded tree nymph. She giggled and held out her arms as he ran toward her. Pop! She turned into a Scotch pine and he kissed the trunk at top speed.

"Ah, love," Grover said dreamily.

"I have concerns about what this guy will do when he meets Pan," Magnus frowned. "I'm worried he'll just drop dead from a heart attack."

"You wanted to know about satyr customs," Jason shrugged, but he was smiling for these dumb fawns not being so otherworldly to him.

I thought about Zoe's nightmare, which she'd had only a few hours after mine.

"I've got to talk to Zoe," I said.

"Um, before you do..." Grover took something out of his coat pocket. It was a threefold display like a travel brochure. "You remember what you said—about how it was weird the Hunters just happened to show up at Westover Hall? I think they might've been scouting us."

"Scouting us? What do you mean?"

He gave me the brochure. It was about the Hunters of Artemis.

Alex snorted a painful noise. "Oh gods, she advertises herself?"

"I think Apollo made them as a joke once and she kept them," Thalia shrugged.

The front read, A WISE CHOICE FOR YOUR FUTURE! Inside were pictures of young maidens doing hunter stuff, chasing monsters, shooting bows. There were captions like: HEALTH BENEFITS: IMMORTALITY AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU! and A BOY-FREE TOMORROW!

"I found that in Annabeth's backpack," Grover said.

Percy whipped around to look at Thalia with a look of betrayal that wasn't at all joking. "Is she- she's not-"

Thalia shamefully pressed into her seat and couldn't look at him. She wouldn't lie to him again, she couldn't joke this off or it would just make him mad again. She just had silence.

"Westover Hall," Magnus remembered with dread, "she was talking about-" he was looking from Thalia to Percy too as he tried to understand if this was what she'd meant. She'd be staying at that school the rest of the year or camp, maybe, if she didn't what? It wasn't such an awful thing to him really, it didn't sound like the worst deal anyways and he'd still get to see her a bit, but his cousin wouldn't be abandoning somebody she already never thought about.

Percy was still looking at Thalia and going concerningly gray with the lack of answer going on, so Will grandly interrupted, "saving her first Percy, then worrying about her eternal maiden hood."

Percy's breath hitched, but he had to remind himself to keep breathing through it as he didn't protest.

I stared at him. "I don't understand."

"Well, it seems to me... maybe Annabeth was thinking about joining."

Thalia had looked natural in her silver camo gear the moment she'd arrived. Trying to picture Annabeth in the same getup made Percy's heart stumble worse than his dancing. He'd already lost her during this, and now it turned out no matter how long it even took to get her back, she might leave him again forever! Had that kiss in his memory been one of goodbye?

I'd like to say I took the news well.

"You would be lying," Jason informed him, he still looked like he was trying to inhale cement in here.

The truth was, I wanted to strangle the Hunters of Artemis one eternal maiden at a time.

"I'll be first in line," Thalia sighed. She knew Percy didn't mean it really, but she'd still step in to deal with him first if he needed to get this out of his system on her crew.

The rest of the day I tried to keep busy, but I was worried sick about Annabeth. I went to javelin-throwing class, but the Ares camper in charge chewed me out after I got distracted and threw the javelin at the target before he got out of the way. I apologized for the hole in his pants, but he still sent me packing.

"Is that kind of thing mandatory?" Magnus still asked nervously.

"What a poor teacher," Will sighed, which wasn't an answer.

"Better than how my first time went," Nico muttered, the guys hair had mostly grown back, but he still told anyone who would listen Nico had nearly scalped him.

"This is the day we met though, in arts and crafts," Will brightly recalled. "You were trying to make a figurine out of, what was the one you didn't have then?" He pretended not to recall, lest he be the one to draw the Hades connection now when Nico was getting far to close to having that outed before he wanted already.

"How would you even remember that?" Nico asked in exasperation. "You spent the whole time trying to stop Connor and Travis throwing clay at each other, and then shoving it in that nymphs pot."

"I still introduced myself after class, I'm very good at multitasking," he promised. Like right now, as he kept reading and kept watching him out of the corner of his eye.

'I'm going with yes,' Alex slowly but confidently signed to Magnus when an answer clearly wasn't forthcoming.

I visited the pegasus stables, but Silena Beauregard from the Aphrodite cabin was having an argument with one of the Hunters, and I decided I'd better not get involved.

"I wouldn't either," Jason promised with trepidation. "There's two sides of a coin I'd stay far away from."

After that, I sat in the empty chariot stands and sulked. Down at the archery fields, Chiron was conducting target practice. I knew he'd be the best person to talk to. Maybe he could give me some advice, but something held me back. I had a feeling Chiron would try to protect me, like he always did. He might not tell me everything he knew.

Thalia smiled at Percy's scowl, because she agreed with their trainer, and knew he wouldn't want to hear he should enjoy whatever ignorance he had left to cling to. It wasn't much at that age. She on the other hand had never been given a moment of such innocence.

I looked the other direction. At the top of Half-Blood Hill, Mr. D and Argus were feeding the baby dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece.

Will looked around in instinctive concern to hear someone chocking and quickly went through in his head what tools he'd be able to use down here to help before he saw it was just Magnus freaking out again.

"There's just a dragon now casually at your camp?" He looked abut ready to cry. "This is just a thing now, and nobody bothered to mention it before the wine god and the guy with a hundred eyes was told to be feeding it?"

"Sums it up, yeah," Will grinned.

"Dionysius apparently won him playing a game of cards or something, we didn't even need that monster add," Percy shrugged. "He was only a baby, but he still looked intimidating enough. His name's Peleus."

Magnus just watched him like he was waiting for the rest. When apparently that's all the explanation that was going to be given, he just said, "kay," and gave a deep sigh. He never would have thought all those hours in the library wishing to be on another planet would come true in quite this way.

Then it occurred to me: no one would be in the Big House. There was someone else... something else I could ask for guidance.

Magnus looked at him appalled he'd go back to that cursed corpse, but swallowed any protest he would have made. He would have been right behind him if he thought it would help Annabeth too.

"Is there a second body hidden up there?" Alex wasn't sure if Percy considered the Oracle a friend enough for the chapter title to work. She was clearly still stuck on the idea and wondering if some poor dead camper was about to be discovered from that traitor of Luke's apparently around. It hadn't been mentioned in a while, but she firmly remembered, and could only hope they'd gone home for the school year instead of sticking around to screw up any plans.

My blood was humming in my ears as I ran into the house and took the stairs. I'd only done this once before, and I still had nightmares about it.

"I would too," Jason promised, this thing gave him maximum creeps about this camp, and that was really saying something compared to every other backwards thing going for this place.

I opened the trap door and stepped into the attic.

The room was dark and dusty and cluttered with junk, just like I remembered. There were shields with monster bites out of them, and swords bent in the shapes of daemon heads, and a bunch of taxidermy, like a stuffed harpy and a bright orange python.

Will cringed into his seat in disgust as Alex leaned forward and eagerly asked, "who killed and stuffed the dodo? Do they keep count of all that?"

"Katie Gardner over last summer when she was caught out after curfew," Will sighed, not looking much happier for the distraction. "I will neither confirm nor deny how often people go up there to do any sort of checks."

Alex beamed at the news and they were all pretty sure she would now be leaving camp with a suspicious duffle bag if she ever chose to visit.

Over by the window, sitting on a three-legged stool, was the shriveled-up mummy of an old lady in a tie-dyed hippie dress. The Oracle.

Rachel had an old, fond look on her face for her predecessor. She hoped her spirit now rested peacefully.

I made myself walk toward her. I waited for green mist to billow from the mummy's mouth, like it had before, but nothing happened.

"Hi," I said. "Uh, what's up?"

I winced at how stupid that sounded. Not much could be "up" when you're dead and stuck in the attic.

"I think she would have at least said thank you for that," Rachel told him. "It's always, just give me my prophecy and let me run, at least you took the time."

"I hope she isn't too grateful, I don't need any extras," Percy shivered.

But I knew the spirit of the Oracle was in there somewhere. I could feel a cold presence in the room, like a coiled sleeping snake.

Will tried hard not to wretch, and thanked Apollo and anybody else who wanted to hear Rachel didn't give off that aura, so long as she wasn't spouting a prophecy. Then he and all his siblings had a preference of leaving the room.

"I have a question," I said a little louder. "I need to know about Annabeth. How can I save her?"

No answer. The sun slanted through the dirty attic window, lighting the dust motes dancing in the air.

I waited longer.

"Wow. Cold shoulder from a mummy, that's a new one," Alex offered no sympathy as she studied the book for why that could be.

"Damn, can't even be grateful for no future nightmares," Magnus was scowling right along with Percy it felt like nobody was trying to help get Annabeth back!

Then I got angry. I was being stonewalled by a corpse.

"Uhho," Jason muttered, now imagining him pitching the head out a window.

"All right," I said. "Fine. I'll figure it out myself."

I turned and bumped into a big table full of souvenirs. It seemed more cluttered than the last time I was here. Heroes stored all kinds of stuff in the attic: quest trophies they no longer wanted to keep in their cabins, or stuff that held painful memories. I knew Luke had stored a dragon claw somewhere up here—the one that had scarred his face.

"I wish you'd carved his guts out with it," Thalia scowled.

There was a broken sword hilt labeled: This broke and Leroy got killed. 1999.

"RIP Leroy," Will offered.

Then I noticed a pink silk scarf with a label attached to it. I picked up the tag and tried to read it:

SCARF OF THE GODDESS APHRODITE

RECOVERED AT WATERLAND, DENVER, CO.,

BY ANNABETH CHASE AND PERCY JACKSON

Laughter, subdued but finally present once more after long chapters of tense silence bubbled up amongst them. Nobody had really taken a second thought to it after it was mentioned, to many other things had been going on as they adjusted to each other, these books, and quickly after Annabeth's dire fear of spiders being revealed.

She'd kept this in her bag though, her own way to commemorate their first quest, something she'd dreamed of going on since she was little. Percy had a soft smile on his face, trying to guess what that could mean. She'd stashed it away because she had no use for that goddess, would happily follow Artemis's way? But she'd kept it the whole quest. As a trophy, or a memory?

I stared at the scarf. I'd totally forgotten about it. Two years ago, Annabeth had ripped this scarf out of my hands and said something like, Oh, no. No love magic for you!

I'd just assumed she'd thrown it away. And yet here it was. She'd kept it all this time?

And why had she stashed it in the attic?

To confusing to keep on hand, Thalia kept to herself. Annabeth's crush on him had already been full swing ahead by this point, especially as she talked with other boys and still always brought up Percy in some way. Her little sister had been so new to the idea that having the scarf made her too confused, but she hadn't wanted to throw it away. Thalia vividly remembered her telling she was going to ask Chiron where to put it, and here was her answer.

I turned to the mummy. She hadn't moved, but the shadows across her face made it look like she was smiling gruesomely.

I dropped the scarf and tried not to run toward the exit.

"I'm sure you succeeded so well at that," Jason gave him a commiserating smile.

"I failed," Percy said shamelessly now. "Had to much practice at making grand exits."

"So you're saying we should be lucky you didn't blow up the Big House on your way out," Alex smirked.

"Gods, Chiron would tell Dionysus to kill me," Percy sighed.

That night after dinner, I was seriously ready to beat the Hunters at capture the flag. It was going to be a small game: only thirteen Hunters, including Bianca di Angelo, and about the same number of campers.

Zoe Nightshade looked pretty upset. She kept glancing resentfully at Chiron, like she couldn't believe he was making her do this.

"Confirmed, participation in all of this is mandatory," Magnus sighed.

"I'm guessing no desserts on the horizon for all of the hunters," Rachel winced.

The other Hunters didn't look too happy, either. Unlike last night, they weren't laughing or joking around. They just huddled together in the dining pavilion, whispering nervously to each other as they strapped on their armor. Some of them even looked like they'd been crying. I guess Zoe had told them about her nightmare.

"Do multiple people have the same nightmare?" Jason asked.

"It's possible," Thalia shrugged, "I think we dream of what's important to us, so the other Hunters could have had the same vision."

On our team, we had Beckendorf and two other Hephaestus guys, a few from the Ares cabin (though it still seemed strange that Clarisse wasn't around), the Stoll brothers and Nico from Hermes cabin, and a few Aphrodite kids.*

"It's ironic the sun kids weren't memorable enough to be named in the lineup," Nico snarked.

"Malcom was there too, I kept seeing him out of the corner of my eye and it was freaking me out," Percy shivered, and they were beginning to suspect he'd been deliberately averting his eyes from all blondes recently.

It was weird that the Aphrodite cabin wanted to play. Usually they sat on the sidelines, chatted, and checked their reflections in the river and stuff, but when they heard we were fighting the Hunters, they were raring to go.

"Never underestimate cabin 10," Will agreed with a reluctant smile. "When they get a wild hair up their butts and want to remind us their mother was the first primordial god, we all know not to laugh at their tips anymore."

"I'll show them 'love is worthless,'" Silena Beauregard grumbled as she strapped on her armor. "I'll pulverize them!"

"The purest kind of love," Thalia snorted.

That left Thalia and me.

"I'll take the offense," Thalia volunteered. "You take defense."

"Oh." I hesitated, because I'd been about to say the exact same thing, only reversed.

"Typical," the two said together. At least they could still agree on something.

"Don't you think with your shield and all, you'd be better defense?"

"The best defense is a good offense?" Jason raised an inquisitive brow how this was going to turn out. The Hunters theoretically had the better advantage given what they did and most of the campers were trained, but with little actual experience outside of playing with each other.

On the flip side, this was their home turf, and the Hunters had not made friends. An enemy with an ax to grind was a dangerous thing.

Thalia already had Aegis on her arm, and even our own teammates were giving her a wide berth, trying not to cower before the bronze head of Medusa.

"Well, I was thinking it would make better offense," Thalia said. "Besides, you've had more practice at defense."

I wasn't sure if she was teasing me.

"She was," Thalia confirmed.

I'd had some pretty bad experiences with defense on capture the flag. My first year, Annabeth had put me out as a kind of bait, and I'd almost been gored to death with spears and killed by a hellhound.

"And Clarisse isn't even around to commemorate the event," Alex gave a tragic sigh. It wasn't all fake, Annabeth wasn't around either.

"Hopefully the hellhound isn't either," Percy shuddered.

"Yeah, no problem," I lied.

"Cool." Thalia turned to help some of the Aphrodite kids, who were having trouble suiting up their armor without breaking their nails. Nico di Angelo ran up to me with a big grin on his face.

"Percy, this is awesome!" His blue-feathered bronze helmet was falling in his eyes, and his breastplate was about six sizes too big. I wondered if there was any way I'd looked that ridiculous when I'd first arrived.

"No, never," Will tried his level best to say without cracking a smile.

"You're a good friend Will," Percy snorted.

Unfortunately, I probably had.

They busted out laughing along with the others, Nico hardest of all. It was surprisingly fun to look back on these first few days, when he'd just been treated like any other camper. Before Bianca had left and he could just pretend his sister was sorted into a different cabin. Before she never came back.

Before he came back, and everyone wouldn't stop whispering and staring at him.

Nico lifted his sword with effort. "Do we get to kill the other team?"

"It's apparently frowned upon," Jason said without concern.

"Well... no."

"But the Hunters are immortal, right?"

"That's only if they don't fall in battle. Besides—"

"It would be awesome if we just, like, resurrected as soon as we were killed, so we could keep fighting, and—"

"Wow, tell me how you really felt about your sister?" Alex was looking at him in almost concern the kid had went there that fast.

Nico quickly looked away with knots in his stomach. Gods he'd been such an idiotic child, and Percy's next words to him had really struck that home.

"Nico, this is serious. Real swords. These can hurt."

He stared at me, a little disappointed, and I realized that I'd just sounded like my mother. Whoa. Not a good sign.

"An important sign of growing up," Will sighed, "he needed to hear that." The amount of kids who got hurt those first few weeks because of dares, lack of supervision from the elder kids, and trying to recreate their favorite movies kept the medical staff in constant motion, and he was almost grateful he hadn't met Nico like that. Percy had clearly left an impression as he watched Nico swallow and tap on the pommel of his sword in frustration.

I patted Nico on the shoulder. "Hey, it's cool. Just follow the team. Stay out of Zoe's way. We'll have a blast."

Chiron's hoof thundered on the pavilion floor.

"Heroes!" he called. "You know the rules! The creek is the boundary line. Blue team— Camp Half-Blood—shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis—red team—shall take the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please!

"The manners really drive that point home," Magnus snorted. "I hope he says thank you after every game too."

"Not this one," Thalia muttered under her breath.

All magic items are allowed. To your positions!"

"Sweet," Nico whispered next to me. "What kind of magic items? Do I get one?"

"Nope," Nico informed his past self, but then, he wouldn't have been happy with anything less than an exact replica of Riptide back then. At least he'd never gone snooping through Percy's cabin as he'd daydreamed about doing multiple times, he was pretty sure Percy would have conveniently forgotten the whole 'swords are dangerous, don't stab people' spiel if he had never nicked Annabeth's hat.

I was about to break it to him that he didn't, when Thalia said, "Blue team! Follow me!"

They cheered and followed. I had to run to catch up, and tripped over somebody's shield, so I didn't look much like a co-captain. More like an idiot.

"But you always look like that Percy, two left feet remember?" Rachel oh so helpfully reminded.

"You weren't even there when I danced with her!" Percy poorly protested.

"I didn't have to be," she chuckled.

We set our flag at the top of Zeus's Fist. It's this cluster of boulders in the middle of the west woods that, if you look at it just the right way, looks like a huge fist sticking out of the ground. If you look at it from any other side, it looks like a pile of enormous deer droppings, but Chiron wouldn't let us call the place the Poop Pile, especially after it had been named for Zeus, who doesn't have much of a sense of humor.

"Percy, you're supposed to be describing our capture the flag game, not my dad," Thalia grinned. At least she hadn't inherited his sense of humor.

"My apologies, I'll try again later," he nodded.

They both missed Will and Nico wincing upon this thing being mentioned. Nobody went near the place now, it was considered cursed after Kampê was killed there, and Nico wouldn't have been to fond of the place he fell into the Labyrinth anyways.

Anyway, it was a good place to set the flag. The top boulder was twenty feet tall and really hard to climb, so the flag was clearly visible, like the rules said it had to be, and it didn't matter that the guards weren't allowed to stand within ten yards of it.

I set Nico on guard duty with Beckendorf and the Stoll brothers, figuring he'd be safely out of the way.

Nico gave a disparaging sigh even if he couldn't disagree. If he'd had some horrible accident and Hades had claimed him, well, he doubted things would have gone as well for him as it had Percy. He might have been shoved into that pile of rocks head first that moment. He doubted Bianca would have stopped them.

"We'll send out a decoy to the left," Thalia told the team. "Silena, you lead that."

"Got it!"

"Take Laurel and Jason.

"Not you," Will said swiftly to Jason as he did a double take. "I swear, I've never seen you around camp before. One of Silena's siblings."

"Ah, yeah, common name," he nodded, but he was starting to feel paranoid. He kept waiting for an explanation of why he was here. Probably just an accident like those Norse kids, right?

They're good runners. Make a wide arc around the Hunters, attract as many as you can. I'll take the main raiding party around to the right and catch them by surprise."

Everybody nodded. It sounded good, and Thalia said it with such confidence you couldn't help but believe it would work.

Thalia smiled at the compliment and Percy grinned back, but it was still pretty disheartening to him he knew if he'd even given the exact same speech it wouldn't have sounded nearly as convincing. She was always better than him at something.

Thalia looked at me. "Anything to add, Percy?"

"Um, yeah. Keep sharp on defense. We've got four guards, two scouts. That's not much for a big forest. I'll be roving. Yell if you need help."

"And don't leave your post!" Thalia said.

"Unless you see a golden opportunity," I added.

Thalia scowled. "Just don't leave your post."

"Right, unless—"

"Percy!" She touched my arm and shocked me.

"You two are going to kill each other," Rachel said in a bit of awe.

"We have our moments," Thalia said blandly. She was pretty sure they wouldn't have...but she also couldn't think what else would have stopped them in their tracks aside from Annabeth appearing out of nowhere.

I mean, everybody can give static shocks in the winter, but when Thalia does, it hurts. I guess it's because her dad is the god of lightning. She's been known to fry off people's eyebrows.

"I have not met these people," Alex said with regret.

"I hope to not be one of them," Percy muttered as he rubbed his arm in remembrance.

Will was starting to look a little pale as he watched the two, and he knew how it all turned out. That outcome was why! Gods did he never want to be so close to that Oracle again. Thankfully he didn't have to with Rachel around now, he really wished he could thank her for that more.

"Sorry," Thalia said, though she didn't sound particularly sorry. "Now, is everybody clear?"

Thalia gave Percy the stank eye and clearly bit back a biting comment. He had a feeling he followed his own advice, and really hoped he hadn't been the dead friend in some weirdly twisted way like meeting a mirror monster of himself. Thalia would have a little to much joy in killing that right now.

Everybody nodded. We broke into our smaller groups. The horn sounded, and the game began.

Silena's group disappeared into the woods on the left. Thalia's group gave it a few seconds, then darted off toward the right.

I waited for something to happen. I climbed Zeus's Fist and had a good view over the forest. I remembered how the Hunters had stormed out of the woods when they fought the manticore, and I was prepared for something like that—one huge charge that could overwhelm us. But nothing happened.

"A show of force isn't a guarantee of victory, and they wouldn't be predictable," Jason murmured, his fingers tapping out a rhythm like he actually wished he could be taking notes over this.

I caught a glimpse of Silena and her two scouts. They ran through a clearing, followed by five of the Hunters, leading them deep into the woods and away from Thalia. The plan seemed to be working.

"I'm so glad I have that in writing," Thalia muttered to herself.

Then I spotted another clump of Hunters heading to the right, bows ready. They must've spotted Thalia.

"What's happening?" Nico demanded, trying to climb up next to me.

My mind was racing. Thalia would never get through, but the Hunters were divided.

With that many on either flank, their center had to be wide open. If I moved fast...

Thalia was rolling her eyes so hard it looked like it hurt. They'd moved past a stupid game, she really wasn't holding a grudge this impulsive lunatic had gone off and ruined her plan.

It still didn't make this night feel better hearing his explanation! Her plan would have worked!

I looked at Beckendorf. "Can you guys hold the fort?"

Beckendorf snorted. "Of course."

Percy was grinning and leaning forward in his seat, a manic smile on his face they'd all missed this entire morning as down as he'd been.

"I'm going in."

The Stoll brothers and Nico cheered as I raced toward the boundary line.

"Remind me to shock their eyebrows off when I visit next," Thalia sighed at them for encouraging this.

"One of them is right there," Rachel reminded.

"Nah, he gets a pass for being new and following these idiots lead," Thalia shrugged.

Nico couldn't decide if he was touched by that or not.

I was running at top speed and I felt great. I leaped over the creek into enemy territory. I could see their silver flag up ahead, only one guard, who wasn't even looking in my direction.

I heard fighting to my left and right, somewhere in the woods. I had it made.

The guard turned at the last minute. It was Bianca di Angelo. Her eyes widened as I slammed into her and she went sprawling in the snow.

Nico gave a bitter smile. Even though he himself had been disappointed in losing the game, the highlight of his night had been seeing his sister covered in snow at the very least.

"Sorry!" I yelled. I ripped down the silver silk flag from the tree and took off.

"But not that sorry!" Percy cheered, so high on his adrenaline rush he leaped out of his seat for a good reason and was smiling so excitedly at Will he sent another blast of water floating through the room rotating the furniture again.

Will just laughed it off, even knowing they lost, he was having fun just because Percy was.

I was ten yards away before Bianca managed to yell for help. I thought I was home free.

ZIP. A silvery cord raced across my ankles and fastened to the tree next to me. A trip wire, fired from a bow! Before I could even think about stopping, I went down hard, sprawling in the snow.

"Percy!" Thalia yelled, off to my left. "What are you doing?"

"Checking it's not yellow!" He called back.

She rolled her eyes harder than ever and fought back the urge to stab him. It wouldn't hurt him, but would make her feel better.

Before she reached me, an arrow exploded at her feet and a cloud of yellow smoke billowed around her team. They started coughing and gagging. I could smell the gas from across the woods—the horrible smell of sulfur.

"No fair!" Thalia gasped. "Fart arrows are unsportsmanlike!"

"Please tell me you have one on you now?" Alex's eyes went wide as she all but begged.

Thalia hesitated, knowing she should lie, but then ultimately sighed and dragged one out.

Alex gasped in delight and jumped forward, nearly spearing herself on the tip, and then activating it without warning.

The good news, it only clouded her air bubble.

There wasn't any bad news.

They all got a chuckle out of the look she got on her face for her own demise as she coughed without a trace of regret, and then she grinned and went back to her seat, used arrow still in hand and jabbing the point against her fingers out of boredom.

"Is it technically a lie if I still say I've never used one of those on someone now?" Thalia asked innocently.

"Nah," Jason covered for her, "she did it to herself. I do really want to know why you girls have those."

"Good for evasion. Helps corral and repulse certain monsters sensitive to smells," she shrugged.

I got up and started running again. Only a few more yards to the creek and I had the game. More arrows whizzed past my ears. A Hunter came out of nowhere and slashed at me with her knife, but I parried and kept running.

I heard yelling from our side of the creek. Beckendorf and Nico were running toward me. I thought they were coming to welcome me back, but then I saw they were chasing someone—Zoe Nightshade, racing toward me like a cheetah, dodging campers with no trouble. And she had our flag in her hands.

"No!" I yelled, and poured on the speed.

I was two feet from the water when Zoe bolted across to her own side, slamming into me for good measure.

Percy groaned and fell back into his seat in disappointment. He was going to be hearing about this one for weeks!

Nico was studying him with interest. Considering Thalia had immediately started blaming the whole thing on him and Percy had fought back like a literal god to him, it wasn't a surprise in retrospect he'd blotted out this loss even with the others muttering nonstop about it that night. He'd still seen Percy as the winner who could do no wrong, when really Beckendorf had given him permission to go, and been unable to hold the forte. He wasn't even convinced now they could have won even with Percy there, it was like Zoe had come straight from the shadows, Connor and Travis had gone down from unseen arrows before he and Beckendorf had even seen her running away.

The Hunters cheered as both sides converged on the creek. Chiron appeared out of the woods, looking grim. He had the Stoll brothers on his back, and it looked as if both of them had taken some nasty whacks to the head. Connor Stoll had two arrows sticking out of his helmet like antennae.

Will still couldn't help but laugh at the fond memory of how he'd talked Connor into staying in the medical cabin for an extra few days as he kept checking him over long after the ambrosia had healed him, but now for the snide comments Connor had given more than his mischievous company of constantly trying to pocket cotton balls and band-aids.

"The Hunters win!" Chiron announced without pleasure. Then he muttered, "For the fifty-sixth time in a row."

Percy sunk lower in his seat and groaned like death was upon him as Thalia huffed sharply. 

"Perseus Jackson!" Thalia yelled, storming toward me. She smelled like rotten eggs, and she was so mad that blue sparks flickered on her armor. Everybody cringed and backed up because of Aegis. It took all my willpower not to cower.

"At least you succeeded at that," she grumbled.

"What in the name of the gods were you THINKING?" she bellowed.

"He was not," Rachel helpfully reminded.

Percy didn't look up to deny it as he kept rubbing at the bags under his eyes.

I balled my fists. I'd had enough bad stuff happen to me for one day. I didn't need this.

"I got the flag, Thalia!" I shook it in her face. "I saw a chance and I took it!"

"I WAS AT THEIR BASE!" Thalia yelled. "But the flag was gone. If you hadn't butted in, we would've won."

"Sounds like Zoe was long gone with yours before you made it there," Jason reminded, still imagining a map with different colored dots vividly in his head. "Sheer running seemed the only winner, and Zoe had the advantage over both of you in that way."

Percy shifted around and looked up again, but Thalia still didn't look convinced her plan wouldn't have worked. She knew the place better, she'd had a head start until Percy ruined it.

"You had too many on you!"

"Oh, so it's my fault?"

"I didn't say that."

"Argh!" Thalia pushed me, and a shock went through my body that blew me backward ten feet into the water. Some of the campers gasped. A couple of the Hunters stifled laughs.

"Oh boy," Rachel muttered. It was now an actual miracle neither of them were dead.

"Sorry!" Thalia said, turning pale. "I didn't mean to—"

Anger roared in my ears. A wave erupted from the creek, blasting into Thalia's face and dousing her from head to toe.

"I second that," Magnus was eyeing his seat like he might have to use it to shield himself in a moment.

At least Percy and Thalia weren't actually instigating this fight now. Percy was rubbing his chest and looking anywhere but at her, and Thalia just seemed resigned, like if he did it again she knew she'd take it with dignity this time. They'd grown past this.

I stood up. "Yeah," I growled. "I didn't mean to, either."

Thalia was breathing heavily.

"Enough!" Chiron ordered.

But Thalia held out her spear. "You want some, Seaweed Brain?"

"Oh shit," all six of them muttered, now Thalia was screwed. She even had the grace to look abashed at such a rash...nickname. They weren't really sure what Annabeth's intent was calling him that, a pet name? An insult? All they knew was it related to the missing girl Percy was distraught over.

Somehow, it was okay when Annabeth called me that—at least, I'd gotten used to it— but hearing it from Thalia was not cool. "Bring it on, Pinecone Face!"

"And the impertinent side wins again," Jason groaned into his hand. Some vague part of his mind was scolding him for thinking a child of Neptune had a chance against her, but it was very small and quiet, almost nonexistent at this point.

I raised Riptide, but before I could even defend myself, Thalia yelled, and a blast of lightning came down from the sky, hit her spear like a lightning rod, and slammed into my chest.

I sat down hard. There was a burning smell; I had a feeling it was my clothes.

"Thalia!" Chiron said. "That is enough!"

I got to my feet and willed the entire creek to rise. It swirled up, hundreds of gallons of water in a massive icy funnel cloud.

Nico still grinned at Percy for that, of course he didn't look up at him long enough to notice or care. Gods he was amazing, and he didn't care if Percy never thought the same of him.

"Percy!" Chiron pleaded.

I was about to hurl it at Thalia when I saw something in the woods.

Will sounded just a tad breathless at that abrupt end. If it had gone on any longer he was pretty confident they would have leveled the camp, though he still optimistically thought they would have stopped if somebody had stepped in. He'd personally been hoping Chiron would literally step between the two any second, before.

I lost my anger and my concentration all at once. The water splashed back into the creekbed. Thalia was so surprised she turned to see what I was looking at.

Someone... something was approaching. It was shrouded in a murky green mist, but as it got closer, the campers and Hunters gasped.

"Oh gods, the zombie lives," Magnus looked like he was going to be as sick as Will felt. "You said she didn't move! She isn't supposed to be running around!"

"You're telling us!" Percy was squirming around in his seat like Thalia was still shocking him. "What the hell?"

"This is impossible," Chiron said. I'd never heard him sound so nervous. "It... she has never left the attic. Never."

"Oh you know it's bad when you shock Chiron too," Rachel laughed and gave Thalia a light poke. Thalia grinned, but she was still repressing the urge to shiver too. It was all fun for her to laugh about her spirit taking a stroll, to them it had been nightmare fuel, and that was before she'd spouted the prophecy.

And yet, the withered mummy that held the Oracle shuffled forward until she stood in the center of the group. Mist curled around our feet, turning the snow a sickly shade of green.

None of us dared move. Then her voice hissed inside my head. Apparently everyone could hear it, because several clutched their hands over the ears.

I am the sprit of Delphi, the voice said. Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python.

"Trust me, nobody needed the reminder," Will said faintly, his voice getting quieter every word, and they still hung on him with bated breath.

The Oracle regarded me with its cold, dead eyes. Then she turned unmistakably toward Zoe Nightshade. Approach, Seeker, and ask.

"Wooow!" Alex drew the word out to really emphasis her point. "I didn't even know you could get spurned from a mummy once, let alone twice!"

"Please don't be three times, please don't make it three," Percy groaned.

Zoe swallowed. "What must I do to help my goddess?"

The Oracle's mouth opened, and green mist poured out.

Will couldn't help a gag and nearly threw the pages away from him as the cold, dead, smell of snakes lingered in his nose even now. If he hadn't been paralyzed in fear he'd have run out of that clearing screaming for his life.

He took a deep breath and kept reading though, instead of reaching out and wishing he could take Nico with him. This was the prophecy, the one that basically ruined his life. He wouldn't leave the burden of reading this on anyone.

I saw the vague image of a mountain, and a girl standing at the barren peak. It was Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to the rocks. She was kneeling, her hands raised as if to fend off an attacker, and it looked like she was in pain. The Oracle spoke:

Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,

"Why is it always west? Can't you ever go south to find a god?" Jason groaned, he still had a headache from the last time Percy went that direction, hopefully he didn't wind up out in California again.

He was shushed and ignored by Percy, the dark water around them starting to take on a horrible smell like that fart bomb had leaked out of Alex's arrow...except it smelt more menacing. A coldness to the air that would send wild animals fleeing before the people knew why.

One shall be lost in the land without rain,

Nico winced, a sharp pain that had never left his back wiggling in just that bit deeper. Had Bianca remembered this line and not cared? Had the group sent her off remembering and ignoring the outcome? He'd never asked, he'd never wanted to know, and now he was being force-fed every detail of how she'd left him.

The bane of Olympus shows the trail,

Campers and Hunters combined prevail,

"You know it's bad when even this thing is telling those girls to work with you," Alex said for Percy. He didn't look around. They'd swear the darkness was literally swelling around him as he waited on tenterhooks to hear even a word about Annabeth, and what it would be. He wouldn't be distracted for anything right now.

The Titan's curse must one withstand,

And one shall perish by a parent's hand.

Then, as we were watching, the mist swirled and retreated like a great green serpent into the mummy's mouth. The Oracle sat down on a rock and became as still as she'd been in the attic, as if she might sit by this creek for a hundred years.

"Chapter's over," Will whispered as he slowly lowered the book. He could feel the shadows leaping off of Nico now in more powerful waves than even Percy had done, but his brown eyes only looked at the son of the sea god as Will gently placed his hand on the back of the couch again, letting his fingers brush delicately at the black jacket as he waited for Jason to offer to take the book when he was ready. Will wasn't leaving his side.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

I give up. My brain just keeps latching onto these two and I should just throw everybody else out.

Except Alex. I need my chaos character around. And Magnus has to stay with her/ him.

And Percy can't leave, it's his story, it would be rude, and Thalia and Jason are his counters and should be around for each other.

And Rachel can't leave now, she has so much potential I keep getting sidetracked away from!

You see my problem?

*I know I keep saying Will was there when he obviously wasn't mentioned, but neither was Chris Rodriguez in the first book when Percy apparently knew him well enough to recognize his voice on the cruise ship in the second book. Kids obviously are there off screen, and only nine are named at camp, so there's plenty of wiggle room for one or two lone Apollo kids Percy never would have cared enough to name until RR invented them later.