#And yes Athena is wearing gloves

[branches-and-thorns]

Young Moringbloom art.

I don't think they’d ever be in the same school: Apollo (right) was 18 when Athena (left) was 9. But it’s a good excuse to draw them in uniforms.

[thewritersaddictions]

Drabble: Call Of Duty- Body Talk

How might they react to finding out you don't like a part of your body?

John Price Bravo

"Do you think I'm pretty anymore?" You ask your husband of ten years. Price nearly scoffs at you, but when he looks up through your standing mirror, the look on your gives it all away. He can see the sadness behind your eyes and how you look at yourself with disgust in the mirror. "You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, love." He says, standing up to around the bedroom and standing behind you.

There's a bit more pudgness on your thighs, tummy, and even your arms, but you forget you've had two kids, and that comes with it. It also happens with simply aging. "But I don't feel pretty anymore, John. I feel disgusting, and I hate the way my body has become, and no amount of working out or eating right seems to fix it." Your voice is cracking, and Price knows the tears are coming. "Love, you're beautiful. Every day I look at you and wonder how the fuck I managed to be so damn lucky. I don't care about anything other than loving you and our kids." He says it, and he means it with all of his heart.

You let go of a large, heavy sigh. He wraps his arms around you. Your skin is cold in contrast to his warm hands and arms. "Anyways, it gives me more to hold to when I'm makin' love to you, baby," he says with a kiss on your cheek. You giggle finally, the happy noise filtering through the room. "You come here, and let me show you how much I love your body for you?" Price asks, looking at you through the mirror. You'll never be able to deny him.

Simon Riley Ghost

You never break, not in front of your teammates. Never show your true feelings until you are behind closed doors. This time, it had just been too much. In the field, you had been trying to get a family out of Hassan's territory. They had nothing to do with the bullshit going on. Your heart broke when the little girl walked out without her parents or siblings. You had picked her up in a fell swoop and taken her with you. You aren't sure how the hell she managed to escape the fire and collapsing house with nothing less than a mark on her face. She had held onto you for the entire ride back, and it wasn't until you got back to the hideout that you had to give her off to the medic.

Ghost had been watching you the entire time. Your sniffes didn't go unheard by him, so he watched longer. How you nearly ran off to bunks when you had to give the poor girl off to the medic. That's where he found you, in the bunk room, crying your heart out. The knock was not heard, and neither were his footsteps. "Athena," Your sniffles stopped, "yeah, how's the girl?" You ask, "That girl is fine, but how are you?" He asked. The worry was in his voice, and it was directed towards you. "I'm okay." You say, stuffing your emotions back in your chest. "You don't seem like it, love. You seem like you're falling apart." He countered. "I'm just, there's only so much I can do, but the weight is sometimes too much to bear. That girl has no family now. None at all because we… I wasn't able to get there in time." You say your hands on your head.

The silence is hard to tell, but then Ghost speaks. "Here's what you don't know: that girl is alive. Yes, she might not have parents, and she'll go into foster care, but she's alive. All because you grabbed her and pulled her from the fire. That counts for something, Athena." Ghost said as he sat down next to you. "you're allowed to break down; this is a physically and mentally-wearing job, so I'm offering you something. A shoulder to lean on. To cry on, to laugh on, to forget on. Whatever you need." "Thank you, Ghost." You say, "Call me Simon, now let's go check up on that kid, yeah?" He says, reaching out his gloved hand to take

John McTavish Soap

You had literally searched all over the internet about how to get rid of pregnancy stretch marks. The marks at the bottom of your belly where killing you to look at. Not the mention all the other shit you were now dealing with after your pregnancy. The milk pump sometimes worked, and other times it just didn't, which caused you significant discomfort, and then the massive fucking put-together pad you had to wear for the next two weeks. You just felt disgusting, so this added thing was just not needed.

The knock on the bathroom door made you shriek. "Shit, love, I didn't mean to scare you. Just wanted to tell you that baby girl is down." Johnny says as he enters the bathroom. Your hair is wet, and you only wear a pair of panties and a sports bra. Staring at yourself in the mirror. "Love, where are you at right?" The concern is clear in his words. "You can't help but crumble at your husband's soft Scottish accent. "I'm not… my body…" "What about your body?" He asks, obviously worried about you. "I don't like it anymore." His brows furrow together. "What do you mean?" "I'm ugly now, and these fucking stretch marks, and let's not add the other shit on top of it." "Hang on a minute now, sweetness." He says, moving to look in the mirror with you but you look away.

"You grew a whole human being in your body for the last nine months. You grew a fuckin' life. You are the most wonderful thing that happened to me, along with baby girl. I know you're not liking your body right now, but I'm telling you right now, you're still just as beautiful as you were the day I met you as you are now." "But…" "But nothing. You are the mother to our daughter, and I won't have you thinking poorly of yourself." Johnny smiles as he takes your hands together and rubs your ring with his thumb. "Together?" He asks, "Together," You responded.

Köing

"Fuck Liebling, you might be the death of me," Köing says as he shifts on the bed, making room for you to lie down next to him. You were up, grabbing two glasses of water for the both of you. Padding around in a pair of Köings boxers from the drawers and his t-shirt. Nothing was more a beautiful site than you right now in front of him. "Here you go." You stand, handing the glass of water off to him. The afterglow of sex sticking to your body still. He takes it graciously from your hand and rests it on his side table before pulling back the covers and waiting for your return to the bed.

It's hours later; while he's rubbing random shapes into your thighs, he feels something. At first, it doesn't concern him, but then he realizes what they are. Straight-cut lines work themselves up your thigh. How he had never noticed before blew his mind and the thoughts of what the small lines meant. You aren't asleep. Instead, you are catching up on your most recently purchased book. Köing couldn't help himself. "what are these?" He asks. "What is love?" You request not understanding where this line of questioning is going. "These marks on your leg. I can feel them." He says, rubbing gently.

You aren't shy about it. You've had them for years. You ensured they weren't in a spot where someone like your parents could see them. So your thigh was the best place. You bookmark your book before setting it down and pulling the covers off your legs. Köing moves his hand, and you start to explain. "I had really, like, horrible depression when I was a teenager. My family didn't really believe in medication or anything like that, so I didn't know what else to do. Sounds shitty now that I say it out loud since it was so long ago. But that was self-harm because I had no other outlet." You tell Köing, who's eagerly listening to you. "And you haven't done it since?" His words hold concern. "Don't worry about me, baby; I've got my meds, therapist, and you. I'm all good now." You say, trying to push away the sad thoughts that are trailing through your boyfriend's head.

"Don't worry, Schatz, I'll fuck the depression right out of you the next time. No need to cut up this beautiful skin." Köing words make you laugh.

Completed on: 11/16/23

Posted on: 11/20/23

COD-

[blackcat2907]

Thirteen and a Half-Bloods

A Demigod Seventeen AU inspired by @spsthings (i credit them with the members godly parents)

Scars Come With Living

Seungcheol

A son of Zeus, Seungcheol has a nasty lightning scar all over his chest and lower stomach. He got this scar after failing a quest given to him by his father. In a fit of rage, Zeus struck Seungcheol as punishment for failure. Now, Seungcheol is scared of thunder storms and will always go to the others for a mandatory cuddle session during a thunderstorm.

Jeonghan

A son of Aphrodite, Jeonghan has a scar over his throat. Jeonghan got the scar from a "training accident". An angry camper who thought Jeonghan used charmspeak on him, lashed out and cut his throat. Thankfully Dokyeom, a child of Apollo, was close. Now, Jeonghan is hyper aware of blows close to the face and throat and absolutely loves it when his lovers kiss his throat and call him pretty, despite the ugly scar on his neck.

Joshua

A son of Demeter, Joshua has a gorgon bite on his forearm. He wasn't careful during a quest and got bit. Now, Joshua has a borderline unhealthy fear of snakes and will not hesitate to attack anyone who brings a snake close to him. He also won't hesitate to jump on anyone's back if he sees a snake nearby.

Junhui

A son of Eros, Jun's scars are more emotional. As a child, he was called a love demon, accused of purposely creating and breaking relationships. This gave Jun trust issues, and he tried to cut himself off entirely from any kind of love or desire. That is, until he met Minghao and Seventeen. Occasionally he will have a relapse and try to emotionally shut down, but now he has his family to help him through it. He also has a physical scar at the base of his wings caused by himself after he tried to cut them off, seeing too much of Eros in him.

Hoshi

A son of Ares, Hoshi has a lot of small scars from weapon accidents. But his biggest scar is from getting stabbed during a quest. Hoshi doesn't mind his scars, but he isn't one to show them off proudly. To him, they are just scars. He'd rather show off his singing or dancing to his friends.

Wonwoo

A son of Hades, Wonwoo has scars on his hands. He likes to wear gloves to hide them, feeling insecure because the scars are from a powers malfunction. But Mingyu helped him overcome his insecurities. Now, he will only wear his gloves when he's cold or when he's around others who he feels uncomfortable around.

Woozi

A son of Athena, Woozi has a scar on his forehead. It is small and can be covered by his hair if he styles it a certain way. He slipped and hit his head on a rock. The wound looked worse than it was, and Woozi was back to being his regular self a few days later. He still gets headaches every know and then, and when he does get one, he will allow one of the others baby him. But ONLY if he agrees to it and if he feels like it.

Minghao

A son of Poseidon, has thalassophobia. He hates the deep, dark ocean with a passion. Yes, he can control water. Yes, he can feel what's in the water, but he is still terrified. Having almost been killed by an ocean monster at a young age, he won't go near the ocean with a ten foot pole. Will only go near the ocean if he has Jun with him. That's it. That's all.

Mingyu

A son of Hephaestus, Mingyu has a lot of scars due to clumsiness or just bad luck. He has no idea what he did to make Tyche mad at him. However, on his left arm, hand to shoulder, he has a nasty ice burn. He was fighting a frost giant that left him wounded with a frost bite on his left arm. He tried to heat him his arm using his fire powers, but the ice was too strong resulting in Mingyu getting the frost burn. Now, Mingyu always has a compression sleeve and glove on his left arm, and sometimes will have pain flare up. Anytime this happens, he cuddles with anyone who is willing.

DK/Dokyeom

A son of Apollo, Seokmin has bad sunburn scars on his shoulders and calves. Despite being the child of a sun deity, he has a little bit of sun sensitivity. Especially during the summer when the sun's rays are stronger. He isn't usually self-conscious about his scars, going so far to make jokes about them.

SeungKwan

A son of Apollo, Seungkwan has light sensitivity issues that can lead to major migraines. As well as an allergy to some medications and pain killers. The best option for him is to be in the dark and/or wear sunglasses whenever outside. This doesn't stop him from being optimistic however. He loves to joke around and mess with people outside.

Vernon

A son of Dionysus, Vernon has a few scars on the pads of his fingers from poking himself on thorns or sharp objects by accident. He also sometimes gets bad headaches caused by using his abilities too long and too much. When this happens, Vernon will seek out Seungkwan or Chan to have a cuddle session and a nap. (or an impromptu therapy session)

Dino

A son of Nike, Chan is super competitive and stubborn. He has a weaker left ankle due to a sprain he didn't properly take care of. He has a bunch of sport related injuries and scars. His wings are a little stiff sometimes from the time he broke them doing a stunt. He will usually go to Mingyu, who can naturally raise his body heat to become a human heater, to relax when an old injury flares up.

And that concludes my first set of headcanons for Thirteen and a Half-Bloods. Feel free to send me some more requests for headcanons or a blurb.

[brokenonyxestate]

YES I CAN TÖLT!

Ares isn't riding much these days. Actually he is not riding at all, which means that someone has to take his horse out for rides. Not that it has to be training as such, but a hack would do Bear (BOE Barmur) good. That's why I took Feline and I's youngest daugther Athena with me, when I gave Bear a workout.

Even if she loves the shetlandsponies, she is slowly getting too big for them, and it's rare that a hack at BOE is purely Icelandic, so she took her own horse Faxe (BOE Hrímfaxi) with her for this hack. As she hasn't learned to tölt on Faxe yet she just trotted beside me and Bear as we tölted.

Living in Denmark you learn to tölt before you trot. At least if you are riding Icelandic Horses. And I did that a lot when I was younger. Both as a child and as a teen. Actually before taking over BOE I dreamt of breeding these beautiful gaited horses. Maybe I will take myself up on that dream at some point. Though not right now, I have just bought some Cleveland Bays with the thoughts of trying to start up breeding those.

So we were out at this hack, and the weather was beautiful. The snow was lovely and not too deep, and the furry horses seemed to enjoy the hack a lot. I did too, and I'm sure Athena did as well. It's rare, with so many kids and horses, that I get much one on one time with the kids, so being with only Athena and the icelandics was a pleasure!

Later on the hack the sky got darker and darker, and the snow only heavier. I regretted not to have insisted on Athena wearing gloves, and I was freezing in my own. That girl is a walking heater though, and claimed she wasn't freezing at all. Silly girl.

We stopped and got a bypassing neighbor to take a few pictures of us. It's a lovely picture and I already treasure it. I'll probably hang up some of them at some point, if I can find a good place to get them printed.

It was such a fun hack, and it's a wonder that no one fell off their horses. Least of all me, as it has been years since I tölted last. Apparently the body never forgets!

[lumeha]

You know what I am mad about in Dual Destinies ? The one tiny detail that I shouldn't be pissed at but am mad about anyway ?

The fucking fingerprints on the lighter. THE FUCKING FINGERPRINTS ON THE LIGHTER. The fact that you cannot, at any point during the case, argue that the fingerprints make no sense because Athena is always wearing a glove on her right hand that covers the exact fingers that are supposed to be on it ? Is just ? so annoying to me ???

Like, yeah, okay, she could have not worn her glove that one time. Yes. Okay. Then it gives an excuse to use the second security camera to see if you can see her hands, maybe ?

But. Urgh. I was just so annoyed during the case that I couldn't raise that one objection, even if it was to be shot down by the prosecution because "hey maybe she wasn't wearing her funky half glove at that time so you don't have PROOF she was wearing it". But said funky half glove is such a proheminent part of Athena's design for me that I was just. HHH. SIR. She covers those fingers :c :c :c

[crazyyanderefangirlfan]

AOT characters and their  quirks

Note: I apologize for some unoriginal quirks, and yes I got some from Pokemon. I also added two of my ocs here. Please tell me your thoughts.

Name: Eren Jeager

Hero Name:Titan

Title/Alias: The Giant Hero

Gender: Male

Age: 15

Nationality: German

Ranking : Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Eren wears a white shirt with a black harness around his body, black elbow guards, black military pants and black combat boots.

Quirk: Titan

Character Strengths: He can grow into 15 m tall and possess a type of hardening ability. His original body is safe in his titan's neck.

Character Weaknesses: Can only turn into a titan in open space.

Super moves:

Meateor Assasult

Storm Throw

Thunderous Kick

Rock Tomb

Colossal Rampage

Name: Mikasa Ackerman

Hero Name: Athena

Title/Alias: The Relentless Hero

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Nationality: Japanese and American

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paridis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Mikasa wears a black full bodysuit with red designs on the arms and legs, black armor on her chest and red knee and elbow pads, and a pair of black combat boots. She still wears her scarf.

Equipment/Weapons: Mikasa wears a utility belt filled with first aid, and medication.

Quirk: Super Soldier

Character Strengths: Mikasa has a supernatural condition and can absorb any weapon she touches.

Character Weaknesses: She has to master the said weapon, and can only use six a time. If she equips a new one she has to remove a previous one from her body.

Super moves:

Steel Surge

Locked n Loaded

Dance of my Swords

Queen's Sheild

Multi Weapon

Name: Armin Arlet

Hero Name: Sixth Sense

Title/Alias: The Esper Hero

Gender: Male

Age: 15

Nationality: English

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Armin wears an oxford blue half sleeve jacket with with a silver chest plate, gray elbow pads and wrist guards. Warm gray pants and knee pads and gray boots with a dark blue lining on he tip.

Equipment/Weapons: He carries a silver staff, and a utility belt fill with medication and first aid.

Quirk: Mindstorm

Character Strengths: Combination of telekinesis, telepathy and illusion control        

Character Weaknesses: Require intense amounts of concentration, focus, and mental effort to use properly. He can only listen to thought of others one a a time anymore will cause serious headaches.

Super moves:

Psyche Out

Wonder Room

Shattered Psyche

Unknown Reality

Mental Breakdown

Name: Annie Leonhardt

Hero Name: Cutthroat

Title/Alias: The Crystal Hero

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Nationality: Russina

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High. 1-A

Hero Costume: Annie wears a navy blue sleeveless top with a silver chest plate, black combat shorts and black boots. Black elbow and knee pads, and black fingerless gloves.

Equipment/Weapons: She wears a utility belt filled with snacks, and first aid and medication.

Quirk: Crystallises

Character Strengths: She has ability to crystallize parts of her body and summon crystals.

Character Weaknesses: If she summons too much crystals her body will start to bleed.

Super moves:

Crystal Storm

Quartz Heart Attack

Crystal Gautlets

Cutthroat

Crystal Armor

Diamond Typhoon

Name: Reiner Braun

Hero Name: Ironhide

Title/Alias: The Iron Hero

Gender: Male

Age: 16

Nationality: German

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Reiner wears a black sleeveless top, black camo pants and gray steel boots. Black knee and elbow pads.

Equipment/Weapons : His top is bullet proof, and boots are design to make him feel as light as possible.

Quirk: Armored Plates

Character Strengths: Can turn his skin into pure iron, and deflect all kinds of attacks.

Character Weaknesses: Slows him down, and there is a certain limit to his armor.

Super moves:

Iron Lariat

Bullet Punch

Metal Strike

Inderstructable  

Name: Bertholdt Hoover

Hero Name: Furnace

Title/Alias: The Thermal Hero

Gender: Male

Age: 16

Nationality: German

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Bertholdt wears a charcoal black sleeveless jacket with a high collar and joined in the center by a magma red neckpiece, baggy pants of the same color, steel cuffs on his wrists and steel boots with small holes on the soles. Completed by black elbow and knee pads.

Equipment/Weapons: His jacket regulates his body temperature, and the his boots help release steam. His utility belt is filled with first aid and medication.

Quirk: Molten Core

Character Strengths: Can control and manipulate heat and steam.

Character Weaknesses: He to avoid overheating his body.

Super moves:

Heatwave

Basalt Mist

Overheat

Lava Plume

Eruption

Name: Kaisa Folami

Hero Name: Creation

Title/Alias: The Fabrication Hero

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Nationality: African

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-a

Hero Costume: Kaisa wears a prussian blue sports bra with black bands and mid-thigh length matching shorts. The mesh slits on the side of her legs are made of her hair. She also sport elbow and knee pads and prussian blue boots.

Equipment/Weapons: Kaisa is equipped with a special pair of specs to do her research better. A utility belt filled with all kinds of snacks.

Quirk: Fabrication

Character Strengths: Kaisa can create any inanimate object.

Character Weaknesses: The more she eats, the more material she has to work with, so she needs considerable food ingestion for her Quirk to be effective. However, it takes her a longer period of time and more skin exposed to create large objects, to the point where she forces large objects through her costume leaving it shredded, though she claims she can just repair it. If she create too much without replacing her calories, she'll grow weak and anemic.

Super moves

Steelspike

Tri Attack

Swords Dance

Multi Cannons

Name: Jean Kirschtein

Hero Name: Granite

Title/Alias: The Earth Hero

Gender: Male

Age: 16

Nationality: French

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Jean wears an outfit that consists mainly of segmented metal armor. The majority of the outfit is a light gray color with black pants, gray knee pads and black boots.

Equipment/Weapons: Jean wears a speacial kind of boots that is made up of retractable metal plates and it allows him to expose his feet to the ground when necessary

Quirk: Highhorse Power

Character Strengths: Able to manipulate the earth, rocks, and other minerals. 

Character Weaknesses: He has to be on the ground  or surrounded by earth.

Super moves:

Continental Crush

Earth Surf

Rock Wrecker

Land's Wrath

Mother Earth Devastation

Name: Star Avaruus

Hero Name: Venus

Title/Alias: The Cosmic Hero

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Nationality: Finnish

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Star wears a full body suit with the mixture of navy blue, plum, mauve, indigo, magenta, and hot pink making it l look like the galaxy and tinys white specks that resemble to stars. A black tinted visor, a black skort with white speckled stars and black knee and elbow pads and balck boots

Equipment/Weapons: Her visor keeps her eyes safe from bright light. Her suit keeps her body from intense radiation.

Quirk: Super Nova

Character Strengths: Star can use stellar energy/substances to attacks of various shapes and/or intensities, either projected, used as a part of melee attacks, etc, from huge rays of pure energy that can knock over or even obliterate dozens of targets, or slightly singe them. She is also able to fly

Character Weaknesses: The birghtness affects her eyes, and if she uses too much energy she'll collapse in exhuastion.

Super moves:

Stellar Bolts

Plasma Fists

Star Bursts

Shooting Star

Super Nova

Cosmic Explosion

Name: Marco Bott

Hero Name: Silva

Title/Alias: The Forest Hero

Gender: Male

Age: 16

Nationality: Belgian

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Marco wears a fern green jacket over a white short sleeve under armor and an umber harness with pockets, forest green cargo pants and umber hiking boots.

Equipment/Weapons: Marco wears a utility belt and harness fitted with pockets filled with seeds of various kinds of plants, and a first aid kit.

Quirk: Evergreen

Character Strengths: Able to grow and manipulate all kinds of plants

Character Weaknesses: Fire and needs healthy soil to grow plants.

Super moves:

Leaf Storm

Jungle Madness

Forest Curse

Nature's Vengence

Name: Connie Springer

Hero Name: Voltage

Title/Alias: The Gigawatt Hero

Gender: Male

Age: 15

Nationality: American

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Connie wears a white jacket with a high collar and a lighting pattern on each side with blue rims on the shoulders and smiliar white pants. He wears a pair of black running shoes with medallion yellow soles.

Equipment/Weapons: Sharp shooting gear, helps him shoot discs that directs his lightning, and an optical visor.

Quirk: Lightning Rod

Character Strengths: Connie can create, shape and manipulate electricity, and even create thunderstorms.

Character Weaknesses: If used too much electricity, he'll short cirtcuit his brain, and be temporarily be braine dead.

Super Moves

Magnetic Flux

Thunder Quake

Catastrobolt

Galvanic Crash

Fire Thunderstorm

Gigavolt Havoc

Name: Sasha Braus

Hero Name: Artemis

Title/Alias: The Huntress Hero

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Nationality: Scottish

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Sasha wears a white tank top underneath a green jacket hoodie with tan fur on the hood and on the cuffs, green camo pants and black boots. Tan knee and elbow pads.

Equipment/Weapons: A bow which helps her in shooting, and a utility belt and harness that carries snacks, and first aid.

Quirk: Huntress

Character Strengths: Able to shoot arrows made of energy, and has enhanced senses like an animal.

Character Weaknesses: The bows require a lot of energy to generate so she has to eat to make up for the loss of energy.

Super moves:

Scatter Shot

Arrow Missiles

Arrow Rain

Arrow Oblivion

Name: Historia Reiss

Hero Name: Valkyrie

Title/Alias:  The Avian Hero

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Nationality: German

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Historia wears a long sleeve iridiscent backless high collar jacket with matching leggings and green boots. Indigo shoulder protectors, knee pads and golden plates on the hips.

Equipment/Weapons: She weilds twin bastons,

Quirk: Hummingbird

Character Strengths: She has the abilities of a hummingbird and is able to create tornadoes.

Character Weaknesses: If she's in the cold for too long, her wings will start to freeze up.

Super moves:

Wind Blast

Tornado Strike

Airstream Rage

Hurricane

Supersonic Skystrike

Name: Ymir Lenz

Hero Name: Subzero

Title/Alias: The Freezing Hero

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Nationality: Swedish

Ranking: Novice

Occupation: Student

Affiliation/Organization: Paradis High, 1-A

Hero Costume: Ymir wears a black thermal body suit with an ice blue parka with fur on the hood and cuffs, black pants and beige snow boots.

Equipment/Weapons: Her body suit and jacket keep regulate her temperature.

Quirk: Cyro

Character Strengths: Able to create, shape and manipulate ice and snow.

Character Weaknesses: Too much heat will weaken her.

Super moves;

Stars of Frozen Rain

Endless Blizzard

Icicle Storm

Freezer Dry

Avalanche

Subzero Slammer

[dragonydreams]

911 Fic: It's not home if you're not there 1/2

Title: It's not home if you're not there Fandom: 9-1-1 Rating: Teen Audiences and up Pairings/Characters: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz, Christopher Diaz, Carla Price, Isabel Diaz, Josephina Pepa Diaz, Maddie Buckley, FireFam Summary: After months of therapy, both with and without Christopher, Eddie was ready to resume his calling as a firefighter. Passing this test was the last step. At least, he'd thought it was the last step. Timeline: Future fic, 5B wishful thinking Word Count: ~3800 total Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over these characters. I am merely borrowing them from Reamworks, Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision, Ryan Murphy Television, and 20th Century Fox Television. Betas: Thank you to @medieshanachie for looking this over for me. Author's Note: I saw this article and immediately texted @medieshanachie to say that it was something that Buck would definitely do. She agreed and here we are.

Or read at AO3

Chapter 1

"Diaz, we've got one more test for you," Captain Thomas hollered after Eddie had completed the baby doll factory test for his recertification.

After months of therapy, both with and without Christopher, he was ready to resume his calling as a firefighter. Passing this test was the last step. At least, he'd thought it was the last step. 

Eddie jogged over to where Thomas was standing holding a strip of black material. "Sir? I thought that was the last part of my recertification test."

"Not quite yet," he said, gesturing towards another building on the lot used for testing. "Just need you to run into that building wearing this blindfold; to simulate a no-visibility situation. There will not be an actual fire or smoke in the building."

Eddie's eyebrows furrowed as he took the blindfold. He'd never heard of this test before, but after six months in dispatch, he'd do anything to get back to his team at the 118.

He fitted the blindfold over his eyes before pulling on his SDBA and strapping his helmet on. 

"Point me in the right direction and give me my orders," he said.

He felt a hand on his arm to guide him to the door. "Door's right in front of you. Navigate through two rooms and a hallway to find the victim hiding inside."

"On it," Eddie said, taking off at a jog.

His fingertips brushed against the wall as he made his way through the building, stopping when he reached the room where the victim would be.

"LAFD, is anyone in here?" he called out, as expected.

"Down here," a very familiar voice said just in front of Eddie.

"Buck? What are you…" Eddie asked, pushing his helmet, SDBA, and blindfold off. 

"Buck," he breathed as he took in the sight of his boyfriend on one knee holding open a ring box.

"Eddie Diaz," Buck started, his voice already thick with emotion, "I don't want to spend one more day without you by my side, at work or in life. Will you marry me?"

"Yes!" Eddie dropped to his knees in front of Buck and pulled him into a kiss. "Of course I'll marry you." 

He fumbled to get the glove off his left hand, his trembling hands making it all the more difficult. Finally, with Buck's help, they got it off and Buck slid the simple black band onto his finger. 

Calls of "Congratulations", "Woo", and "It's about time" rang out around them as the rest of their team, including Bobby and Athena, joined them. Chimney had his phone out, recording the whole thing for Maddie and Chris.

"I knew this test couldn't be real," Eddie said, laughing as they got to their feet. "You were all in on this? How'd you even get Captain Thomas to agree to this?"

"Everyone knows I'm a sucker for a good love story," Captain Thomas said, joining them.

"Pretty sure no one knew that," Chimney said. 

"And the BBQ at your place tomorrow?" Eddie asked, turning towards Bobby and Athena. 

"Might want to dress up a little for your engagement party," Athena purred. 

"Wait, wait, wait," Eddie spun around looking for Captain Thomas. "Did I pass?"

"Welcome back, Firefighter Diaz," he said, holding out his hand to shake. Eddie grasped it in a firm grip, beaming.

"Welcome home, Eddie," Hen said, pulling both him and Buck into a hug. Soon Chim, Bobby, and Ravi all joined in as well.

"Now, if you'll all excuse us, I have a fiancé I'd like to congratulate in private," Buck said. 

"Say no more," Hen said, holding up her hands. 

"We'll see you tomorrow," Bobby said. "Congratulations, again."

Ravi was almost out the door when he could be heard asking Hen, "So they were divorced and now they're getting married again?" 

They didn't hear her response, too caught up in each other.

Eddie and Buck headed first for the locker room so that Eddie could change back into his street clothes, which took slightly longer than normal as Buck kept distracting Eddie with kisses. 

"How did you even pull this off?" Eddie asked after pushing Buck down onto a bench so he could finish dressing. 

"Well, I'd been waiting for the right time to propose for a while now, and when you told me about the recertification test, I saw my opportunity, having done the course myself. I told Bobby my idea and he got Captain Thomas on board; even getting him to schedule you on a day we were all off shift." Buck's enthusiasm dimmed and he suddenly looked nervous. "You're okay with how I proposed, right? You're not mad about the grand gesture?"

"Hey, no," Eddie said, dropping his shirt to cradle Buck's face. "It was perfect." He kissed Buck, long and slow. "I loved it, and I love you."

"I love you, too," Buck returned, holding Eddie tight. "I got so caught up with the idea but then I also know you don't usually like big public displays, and–"

Eddie cut Buck off with another kiss. 

"No more doubting your proposal. It was the perfect proposal for you to make. Granted, I planned on proposing at home after a nice dinner - that I did not cook - but I'm happy with this being our proposal story."

"You were going to propose?" Buck asked in awe.

"Ring's been in my sock drawer for weeks," Eddie admitted. "Chris is going to be so excited."

"I, uh, asked him for permission to marry you," Buck confessed, a blush rising on his cheeks. 

"So did I," Eddie said. "He can't wait to officially make you part of our family."

"Me either," Buck said. 

Eddie finished pulling on the last of his clothes and reached for Buck's hand. "Let's go tell him the good news."

~~*~~

Buck had gotten a ride to the fire academy from Chim so that they wouldn't have to deal with having two cars after he proposed. He knew he wouldn't want to be separated from Eddie even for the short amount of time it would take to drive to Eddie's house. 

Eddie drove home, holding Buck’s hand the entire way, their fingers entwined on the center console. Buck kept glancing at Eddie’s profile, then their joined hands, unable to believe that he was now an engaged man. It's not that he doubted that Eddie loved him. Okay, sometimes he did, but not really. But a small part of him really had been afraid that Eddie would turn him down. 

He found himself watching Eddie instead of the road and noticed he was wearing the biggest smile as he drove. Buck knew he wore a matching one. 

"What?" Eddie asked, when he'd looked over at Buck while stopped at a red light.

Buck squeezed Eddie's hand. "Nothing, I'm just really fucking happy."

Eddie laughed. "Yeah, me too."

"We're getting married," Buck whispered.

"Yes, that generally is what follows after a marriage proposal," Eddie teased. 

"We're getting married to each other," Buck said.

"Babe, you're the one who proposed to me," Eddie said, lightly, "Did you not think through what that would mean?"

"I thought about it a lot," Buck admitted. "Still doesn't seem real. I've always wanted to be married. To be loved enough for someone to want to spend the rest of their life with me."

Eddie pulled into the driveway and put the truck in park, briefly having to let go of Buck's hand to do so, before unbuckling his seat belt and taking Buck's face in his hands. 

"You are loved," he said intently. "More than I ever thought I could love anyone - aside from Christopher, of course."

"Of course," Buck said, blinking back tears. "Sorry to get so serious."

Eddie leaned over to kiss him. "Nothing to apologize for. Ready to go tell our kid we're getting hitched?"

Buck kissed Eddie quickly before undoing his own seat belt and hopping out of the car in response. 

Eddie chuckled as he followed Buck into the house.

Christopher was in the kitchen with Carla, doing his homework.

"How did it go?" Carla asked. 

"I passed," Eddie said, grinning. He looked over to Buck, who was practically vibrating with excitement. "But also–"

"We're getting married," Buck exclaimed. "Show them your ring."

"Finally," Christopher cheered, scooting off his chair to embrace them. "You both talked to me about getting married ages ago."

Buck and Eddie laughed. 

"I want my hugs, too," Carla said, embracing each man in turn. "Congratulations. Now let's see that ring."

"Oh, wait here," Eddie exclaimed, bolting for his bedroom.

"What was that all about?" Carla wondered.

"Dad bought a ring to propose to Buck, too," Christopher said. "He's been hiding it in his room."

"Yeah, um, I guess I beat him to it," Buck said, rubbing the back of his neck. 

"At least you know you were both on the same page," Carla said, knowingly. She placed a hand on his arm. "I'm truly happy that you found someone who loves you the way you deserve."

"Yeah," Buck agreed, blushing slightly. 

Eddie burst back into the room, clutching a ring box. He offered it to Buck. "This is for you."

"No," Christopher objected before Buck could react. "You have to ask."

"But Buck already asked me and I said yes," Eddie pointed out. "See?" He held his left hand out towards Christopher so that the boy could see the ring he now wore.

"Doesn't matter," Christopher insisted. "You bought a ring so you have to ask."

"Yeah, Eddie, you have to ask," Buck cheekily agreed. 

"I see how it's gonna be," Eddie said, smiling as he got down on one knee. "A lifetime of the two of you ganging up on me."

"You up for that?" Buck asked.

"All day, every day," Eddie agreed. 

"Sorry to interrupt, but that sounded more like Buck proposing to you, again," Carla said. 

"Yeah," Christopher agreed.

"Just give me a chance here, jeez," Eddie grumbled, causing Christopher to giggle.

"Buck, I told you my proposal wasn't going to be some grand gesture, but this is even better than what I had planned because our kid is here with us."

"And Carla," Christopher interjected, earning a shush from the woman in question. 

"And Carla," Eddie added, opening the ring box. "When I brought Christopher to L.A., I didn't expect to fall in love. In fact, it was the farthest thing from my mind. But then I met you and you became not only my partner at work, but then my partner in life; and I can't wait to make that partnership permanent. Will you marry me?"

A tear escaped from one of Buck's eyes as he choked out, "Of course I will."

Eddie slipped the white gold band onto Buck's finger and stood. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too," Buck said, pulling Eddie into a kiss.

"Enough of that," Christopher complained. 

"Never enough kisses," Eddie said, leaning down to place several kisses on the top of Christopher's head.

"Dad," he protested while laughing.

"Thank you for including me in that, but now I must be going," Carla said. "Congratulations to both of you."

"We'll see you tomorrow, right?" Buck checked.

"Wouldn't miss it," Carla said. "I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again."

"Good night, Carla," Christopher called after her.

Crouching down, Buck leaned in towards Christopher. "You're really okay with me marrying your dad. Us becoming a real family?"

"We're already a family," Christopher said. "This just makes it official. So hurry up and get married already."

"My sentiments exactly," Eddie agreed.

Chapter 2

[wr173r-8l0ck]

What if My Hero Academia Characters were in the Riordanverse pt. 1: Students

Yeah, yeah, this is just MHA students for now, I’ll have other characters soon, okay! Anyway, here’s MHA students of 1A and 1B (including Shinso) as demigods in the Riordanverse!

Yuga Aoyama: Son of Aphrodite. Not even a good one, unless you need someone blinded by his glitter-gun. Oh yeah, he has a glitter gun with lasers for maximum flare. Is he completely over-the-top? Absolutely. But is he good in a fight? Surprisingly, yes, kind of very, turns out glitter confuses monsters very well.

Mina Ashido: Daughter of Hermes and legacy of Hecate, capable of inhuman movements and can produce a slime that magically dissolves anything. She also tattooed her eyes black and yellow for some weird masochistic reason that no one, including herself, doesn’t understand. She’s still neat though.

Tsuyu Asui: She’s a frog-turned-human by Ochako. She still has her tongue, leaps, hops, camouflage, a reversible stomach and poison that can kill a group of whales. And he can still inflate her throat like a balloon, which makes for good scares. Very good scares…

Tenya Iida: Son of Mercury, he never skips leg day. Never. Seriously, have you seen those legs? He could crush a car with those puppies! Or crush monster heads with those thunder thighs! Which he actually does quite often. He doesn’t skimp out on upper body exercises either, but LOOK AT THOSE LEGS OF THUNDER!

Ochako Uraraka: Daughter of Hecate, she specializes in a set of spells that manipulate an individual object’s or being’s gravitational pull. It’s gotten to the point where she makes anything she touches with five fingers on one hand, it will float, no matter what, which is why she wears gloves all the time. She likes floating whoever she finds particularly annoying way up into the sky.

Mashirao Ojiro: Son of Mars, he’s an expert martial artist and very, very good at multiple of them. He’s lost multiple sparring partners because of his profinity with a number of weapons, and his lethality without any weapons. Seriously, he once defeated a Drakon with his bare hands! And another dead drakon’s teeth!

Denki Kaminari: Legacy of Zeus and Apollo, each by about 50 generations. About as bright as his godly ancestors (not very), but he still makes one Hel of a lightning bolt, and he’s also pretty good with a guitar and lyre. And classical literature and culture, like Apollo’s Kettle, who taught him all that?!

Eijiro Kirishima: Son/creation of Vulcan, his blood and skin are pure liquid gold, bronze and diamond he can infinitely harden for a period of time. It also obtains unnaturally sharp edges, and given his tendency to go hard when excited, he has made his friends frequent the infirmary for cuts and broken ribs.

Koji Koda: Son of Actaedon, he can talk with wildlife. He’s also a Legacy of Heracles, hence his size. His hugs are nice, war and gentle. Unless you’re an enemy, his bear hugs can break spines and it’s fucking terrifying.

Rikido Sato: Son of Mars, this guy has a serious sweet tooth. He’s also surprisingly gentle for a guy that can decimate an opponent with a single hit. Oh yeah, he can one-shot a hellhound with one punch (que the epic op) to the head.

Mezo Shoji: Son of Ares, he’s surprisingly level-headed. And malicious. Seriously, this guy always has at least ten different weapons on him, on top of him knowing a variety of potentially lethal moves. His arms are known as the Anacondas for a reason. Well, he lost his two precious anacondas in battle, but now he has six bronze automaton anacondas, fuly articulated and loaded up with all kinds of weapons for maximum effectiveness in battle! Actually fuck that, he’s way more terrifying now, who let him get all that stuff?!

Kyoka Jiro: Daughter of Apollo, she’s a top-tier musician, singer and is moderate with a bow and arrow. She can whistle in the ultrasonic range, clap like thunder, sing and play like either a sweet little bird or a whole-ass heavy metal choir without ruining her vocal cords, and she gives the opposite amount of fucks that Zeus does (ie. zero).

Hanta Sero: Son of Hermes, he inherited a pair of magical tape dispensers that can dispense any tape in any amount of any properties he chooses. He uses them to swing around like Spider-Man, which made him a regular visitor of the infirmary until Momo made him a special harness to keep his joints from dislocating. Somehow, he still gets his shoulders dislocated.

Fumikage Tokoyami: Son of Erebos, he suffers from split-personality disorder, but it’s fixed nicely by his inner demon incarnate made of pure darkness he calls Dark Shadow. They have a strangely healthy and wholesome relationship for a boy and his literal inner demon, and they even help each other (or embarass, take your pick) in social interactions.

Shoto Todoroki: A Legacy, descendant of Hel and Surtr, capable of making ice that freezes fire, and fire that burns ice. He gives so little shit he’s actually oblivious to social cues, which makes for more than a few funny moments on quests with him.

Toru Hagakure: Legacy of Iris, she can manipulate light around her to turn invisible or project bright flashes. Campers often say hi to her even if she’s not there just in case.

Katsuki Bakugou: Son of Ares, with rage and instincts of combat so strong and powerful he can convert his sheer rage and passion into explosions in the palms of his hands. He generated more than one explosion with the explosive yield of a nuclear weapon in his life. How he hasn’t gone deaf yet is beyond most people, though he does still know a variety of sign languages in case he does go deaf.

Izuku Midoriya: Son of Athena that was gifted the Spartan Spirit, a powerful enchantment formed by Kratos, Nike, Bia and Zelus, to protect humanity in its greatest times of need, and bestowed upon the most well-meaning and kind-hearted individuals of an era. He ends up breaking his bones an absolute shitton, and is a regular at the infirmary. The healers and smiths absolutely loathe him by now.

Minoru Mineta: Died on a quest. His quest-mates say ‘by accident’. Everyone knows it was very deliberate, but then again, everyone hated him and is fine with him dead. Some people wanted to be the ones to kill him though.

Momo Yaoyorozu: A Legacy, granddaughter of Hephaestus and Athena, capable of making virtually any machine. She’s also very fidgety, and once made an entire army of fully autonomous grass soldiers that went on to terrorize the other campers for a bit. In thirty minutes.

Yosetsu Awase: Son of Hephaestus, he also likes to make stuff. Though mostly he combines already existing tools, gadgets and machines, and makes weird amalgamations. He once fused an automaton bull, an automaton dragon and a school bus, and it actually, somehow, despite all logic and reason, fucking works.

Sen Kaibara: Son of Ares, he’s pretty chill compared to his kin (especially Katsuki and Setsuna), mainly due to him bottling up his anger. Which he can unleash as tornadoes around his limbs, which he can use to drill through walls. Thank gods he doesn’t lose it too often.

Togaru Kamakiri: Son of Ceres, he likes farming tools. Especially ones with blades. That’s lead to him using all kinds of sickles, scythes (both farming tools and war scythes) in combat, and even axes, shovels, various lawn mowers...

Shihai Kuroiro: Son of Nyx, him and Tokoyami get along exceptionally well. Given his ability to shadow-travel and use shadows and darkness as materials to make some pretty nifty weapons only he can use, he’s strangely bright and like a Sun. At least among the two stepbrothers of darkness, and the bar for eing the sunny one is set very low.

Itsuka Kendo: Daughter of Athena, she excels in critical thinking and a variety of martial arts. And knocking out her piers with precise attacks when they start to get exceptionally annoying. Mostly Monoma. Scratch that, especially Monoma. Okay, nevermind, only Monoma.

Yui Kodai: Daughter of Trivia. She excels in potions and spells that manipulate the size of objects, so much so that she has to resort to gloves because she now naturally makes things smaller with her left hand, or bigger with her right hand. She’s the calm one of the 20 people here.

Kinoko Komori: Daughter of Demeter, she has a soft spot for fungi and mushrooms. Which she can make grow rapidly. Very rapidly. She’s fun at parties.

Ibara Shiozaki: Daughter of Demeter, she dyes her hair green with actual chlorophyll for some reason (“To feel one with the beautiful plants,” she says), but she can also grow and manipulate vines and other vine-like plants, along with trees, quite effectively, and she has some rose and poison oak (she’s immune to it) seeds in her hair. Don’t ask, her answers are just as ridiculous as the chlorophyll-dyed hair.

Jurota Shishida: Son of Mars, he’s been cursed by most likely Hera to be a humanoid boar/dog thing. He’s especially good at wrestling, and is very diplomatic in his approach. Until he gets pissed, then he charges like a boar and yes, he keeps those tusks of his sharp.

Niregeki Shoda: Legacy of Hermes, son of Hephaestus, he likes to make explosives and plant them everywhere. More than a few campers were scared. Except Katsuki, who tried to outdo the ground (Niregeki’s mine) in explosive yield and put skylight access in the roof of Bunker 9. Niregeki had to repair it.

Pony Tsunotori: Legacy of Poseidon, she can shapeshift. She likes to shapeshift into horses, bulls, deer and goats (including mooses and buffalo), and she has a nifty gadget from the Hephaestus and Vulcan campers in the shape of horns that transform with her, giving her detachable remote-control horns. 

Kosei Tsuburaba: Legacy of Jupiter, son of Ares, he’s competitive and can make walls and blades out of air. Especially annoying for monsters because they can’t get to him, period, and every time they try, they don’t get past his walls of air for a whole minute before someone either cuts/hacks/slices them to bits, freezes/burns them alive, blows them up with their fists/explosives/expanding stones they previously ingested or some other way of disposing of a monster.

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu: Son of Vulcan, capable of turning to pure steel over his entire body, also increasing his strength. Because of this, and his tendency to go hard whenever he’s excited, he’s made his friends frequent the infirmary for bruises and broken ribs. Except Kirishima.

Setsuna Tokage: Daughter of Ares, she’s actually been hurt pretty badly in one of her fights (she went on a Quest with Katsuki, and no, it wasn’t him who hurt her, and yes, no one really believes that story either) and had to have automaton grafts to replace her limbs, a part of her lower jaw, her eyes and the muscles around her spine, along with parts of the vertebrae. Which she asked to be detachable and splittable in as many pieces as possible, which she can control telepathically and uses to troll other campers. A lot. Especially two certain sons of Vulcan and her half-siblings.

Manga Fukidashi: No one knows what he is, they just know his head is a speech bubble and he can make anything he writes real.

Juzo Honenuki: Legacy of Gaia, he can virtually liquify the ground (does not work on metal or wooden floors). He trolls a lot with this ability. And I do mean a lot.

Kojiro Bondo: A golem? A person? His head makes it hard to tell whether he’s a demigod or a monster to be honest. And his glue-like spit doesn’t help much either.

Neito Monoma: Legacy of, you guessed it, Zeus! He has a superiority complex because of this, and he frequents the infirmary on the basis of Itsuka or whoever he was annoying KOing him constantly. All that brain damage probably isn’t helping his mental issues…

Reiko Yanagi: Daughter of Hecate she can make things she touches float and fly around using some sort of incantation. The biggest she can do is double her own body weight, but that doesn’t stop her from delivering high-speed flying punches and scaring other campers.

Hiryu Rin: Son of Mars and Legacy of Poseidon, he can shapeshift into various animals. Most notably a mix of human, hedgehog and a lizard. Sharp, painful and deadly precise. And also meditating. And a lot of it.

[laurazepamwrites]

The Chemicals between us ~ Chapter 13

 After their visit to Pix Elle, Mei and Angela had tried the other addresses of the missing omnics without further luck. One had refused to let them in at all and the other address was abandoned altogether, the premises ransacked of what little possessions left. The only thing to remain was the strange Omnic graffiti again. After this Angela insisted on some downtime to collect their thoughts by going to the fashion museum then feeling inspired by this, went shopping for ‘just one new pair of shoes and a dress.’ The boot of the car now loaded with a number of high end bags, they made their way to the bustling Port of Calais to find answers at Hubs most recent place of work. Seagulls screamed overhead and the salt in the air was strong. Huge cruise ships and cargo containers lined the docks. They parked close by and followed the signs for the shipping and logistics companies further along. Mei looked around as they walked past surly looking men, huge cranes unloading steel containers and security droids scanning for anything illegal. She caught sight of a sketchy looking Omnic in shabby clothes who stopped to give her and her companion a look of suspicion. Mei glanced away quickly and kept her eyes peeled for the Global freight logo. Luckily she did not need to search far.

 ‘Hey hey hey you ladies cant be down here!” A large man wearing a hi vis jacket and hardhat shouted across to them in a french accent. “Cruise ships are on the other side! Bloody tourists..”

 “Is this Global Freight?” Angela asked, ignoring him.

 “You health and safety? You're not due to next wednesday.”

   “My name Is Amander Muller and this is Lin Chang, we’re looking for Hub 0.5. We understand he works here?”

 “You police?”

 “Non monsieur, we’re journalists for the Connexion. Might I know your name?”

 He scratched his stubble of a beard and looked them both up and down. “Too pretty to be pigs I guess..names Vic Dubrand. I'm the foreman here. Now why are you after that rust bucket Hub?”

 “He may help us with a report we are working on but have unable to locate him. Even his wife hasn't seen him for days.” Said Angela.

 “You think I have? Look lady, Hub came to work as usual then never shows up again. Far as i'm concerned he don't work for me no more. Already got a bot to replace him.”

 “How was he? When you last saw him?” Mei asked

 Dubrand smirked at her. “Its an Omnic sweetheart, you think they have feelings or bad days like we do? He comes to work, does what hes programmed to, goes home. Ah mind you, he did argue with some other bots down by the old containers last week. I think they were some layabouts with no jobs causing trouble.”

 Mei and Angela exchanged glances. “When was this?” Angela asked.

 “Dunno exactly, about two days before he disappears.”

 “Did you see the Omnics he argued with again?”

 “Non, they just come by, paint their stupid propaganda and leave. Hub scrubbed most of it off.”

 “Where's the container?”

 Dubrand turned and vaguely gestured behind him. “Somewhere over there, I don't give a shit about what Omnics get up to as long as they know their place. Not much else to tell you.” He adjusted his hard hat and began walking back to his site office. “You get hit with a falling container not my fault!” He added before shutting the door.

 “Charming man..” Mei said bitterly.

 It only took them a couple of minutes to find the container Dubrand mentioned. It had been scrubbed hard to dispose of the spray paint but the strange code was just about visible. It was the same they had found at nearly every site an Omnic had disappeared. “This cant be a coincidence can it?” Asked Mei, kneeling down to run her fingers over the paint which flaked off at her touch.

 “Its certainly suspicious, but keep in mind there are posters and art everywhere for pro and anti Omnic. This could just be the latest one..see? look over there, there's a sticker that says ‘Humans cant be trusted.’”

 “I think you're right, but I'm going to send Athena a picture of this code just in case.” Mei replied, taking her camera out and taking a few snaps.

 Angela looked at her watch. “Good idea..we should head back, not much else to do until the rally tomorrow.”

 They headed back along the docks and to the street where they had left the car. As they walked Mei noticed Angela glance around behind them. “Act normal Mei and walk straight past the car.” Mei frowned up at her. “Whats wrong?”

 “We’re being followed. Look ahead and stay calm.”

 Mei did as she was told and resisted the urge to look behind her, she had no idea who was following them or how far behind but she was glad Angela had experienced enough to know they were in potential danger. She followed Angelas lead and soon the doctor led them to an alleyway. Angela pulled Mei behind her and took out her gun, aiming it at the entrance then at the head of their stalker who turned into the alley seconds later.

 “Whoa whoa whoa! Lady, that's a bit much!”  The shabby, rust speckled Omnic Mei noticed at the docks threw his hands up in surrender.

 Angela kept her pistol well aimed. “Who are you and what do you want?”

 “Sal! My names Sal, short for Shipping analysis lo-”

 “What do you want!” Snapped Angela.

 “Gee are you always this cranky? Can you put the gun down? it's making me      very    nervous.”

 Angela narrowed her eyes at the strange Omnic and lowered her weapon but kept a firm grip on it. “Talk.”

 “I heard you, back at the docks? You said you're looking for Hub..I know him.”

 “You're not the only one so why follow us? What do you know?” Asked Angela.

 “Know you’re not reporters. Old Sal here knows the media cares not for me and mine unless its something bad. You think they care if we go missing? If I had a mouth I'd spit!”

 Angela began to raise her gun again. “If you have no viable information than..”

 “I saw Hub get taken!” Sal exclaimed, cowering slightly. “He..he saw some strange omnics graffiting at the docks. He told them to clear off but they just stood there, Hub didn't move either! I couldn't understand what they were saying, we Omnics speak to each other in Omnicode but I couldn't understand this. It was like another language but Hub.. he understood. He let them go. I tried to talk to him after but he was acting weird..said he needed to ‘wake up’. Then Dubrand shouts at us to get back to work but I followed Hub home that night. I was worried..I watched him walk to the front of his apartment and the same image was there, he just stares at it and looked like he was waiting for something.”

 “Did you try to talk to him at all?” Mei asked, feeling slightly unnerved by Sals story.

 “I shouted his name and was about to go to him but a car comes round the corner, black windows. I couldn't see who was driving. Hub he..he just gets in! I think they saw me. They didn't drive away until I left. I can't go to the police, they don't care and then you ladies show up!”

 “Can you read the code on the painting?” Mei showed him the picture she took at the docks but Sal just shook his head. “Nothing Ive seen before. We Omnics all speak the same code, its how we communicate. Its how the defected had such an upper hand in the war. But this? This is just gibberish!”

 Angela holstered her gun. “Sal, I think you need to come with us. From what you have seen I think you may be in danger.”

 Sal shook his head and back off. “No thanks lady, still don't trust you. You could be the bad guys for all i know..oh I think I made a mistake talking to you. See Sal you just need to keep ya head down and shut up. That's what Dubrand always told ya..Ol Hub is probably just fine.” He backed up to the end of the alley and briskly walked away muttering to himself.  Mei looked from Sal to Angela. “Do we follow him?”

 “It would draw too much attention trying to force a twitchy Omnic like that in the car, besides we need to get this information to the Commander as soon as possible. Has Athena come back with any results?”

 Mei checked her phone for any contact. “No, not yet.”

 “Lets go. We’ll head back to the hotel and write up what we know so far, this isn't good Mei. I dread to think what this could all mean.”

                          -----------------------------------------------------------

 Ana and Satya watched each other intensely, waiting for the other to make their move. Satyas gauntlet glowed as she prepared to manipulate a cube of hard light between her fingers and Ana had her sleep dart aimed at her heart.

 “Ill ask again..what are you doing?” Satya asked coldly.

 “Would you believe me if i said i was the cleaning lady?” Ana smirked.

 “You kill a vishkar employee and you make jokes?”

 Ana tutted. “Oh shes not dead, just asleep. You are welcome to join her unless you power down that glove of yours.”

 “You think to challenge me?” Satya scoffed. “Do you know who I am.”

 “Yes my dear I know who you are. I wonder if you do.”

 The question confused Satya and the lack of focus showed in the hardlight that quivered in her hand. Ana saw the lapse in concentration, she could have shot her there and then, wipe Satya’s computer and leave the way she came, but she decided not to. Instead she placed her sleep dart at her feet, kicked it away from her and raised her hands, all the while smiling at Satya. As quickly as the sleep dart had fallen still on the spotless carpet had hardlight binds wrapped around Anas wrists. Ana looked down at the near transparent, crystal blue solid light. It was hard not to admire the craftsmanship behind it.

 “Well you caught me, and what will you do now I wonder?” Ana cheerfully asked. “Call security? Police? Maybe you and I can have a little chat before you do that?”

 “Silence! Before I bind your mouth too.”

 “A pity my dear, wouldn't you like to hear what an old Overwatch Captain has to say?”

 The binds flickered for a split second but Satya held firm. She could not keep this up for longer. Focusing hardlight was incredibly difficult which made Architects highly valuable. Soon she would need to make the decision to call security, drag her there herself or release her and talk. She had surrendered after all and the curiosity over this womans strange actions were dulling her focus.

 “Who are you?” She eventually asked.

 “My name is Captain Ana Amari. I am not here to hurt you or anyone else Satya. I'm trying to prevent that from happening to anyone.”

 “Why have you come here?”

 “Because Vishkar are potentially a threat, and you are much easier to get to then Mr Korpal. I wonder dear..do you know who you work for?”

 The binds cracked and loosened before solidifying once again. “How dare you.” Satya breathed hard. “Vishkar is building a better future for humanity, we have built home for the displaced, we-!”

 “Impose martial law to control people? My dear you are not unintelligent, did you ever stop to think what Vishkar was doing was unethical?”

 “We...I..I just want to make a better world.”

 Ana smiled sympathetically at her. “So do we Satya, but i don't think you’ll get the world you want by being Sanjay's puppet.”

 The binds disappeared completely in specks of light that glinted as they fell. A bead of sweat ran down Satyas face. “I owe him everything.” she said weakly.

 “No dear, i think you owe yourself that credit.” Ana said, pulling the microchip from the computer. She handed it to Satya. “Take it. I don't think what I am looking for is here after all.”

 Satya took it from her cautiously. Ana fished in her bag and pulled out a small notepad and quickly jotted down something, tore the page out and gave it to Satya.

 “This is my personal number, listen to your gut feeling and you call me when you really want to change the world.” Satya stared at it, plagued by questions and her head swimming with confusion. She opened her mouth to ask Ana more but instead a soft “      Oh!”    escaped her lips as she felt a quick sharp prick on her arm. Looking down she saw a tiny dart sticking in her skin like a small insect, she felt woozy.

 “Im sorry Satya but I really must be going.” Ana said sincerely, like she had stopped by for a visit with an old friend. She gently took the Architect's unresisting arm and sat her down on the sofa. Ana brushed a loose strand of her behind her ear. “Nxt time you see Sanjay..ask him. Ask him about Talon. Soon you will understand.”

 Satya mouthed silent words, unable to speak, her eyelids grew heavier and heavier. She heard the door to her office shut softly, the      ding    of the elevator as it arrived on its floor. She slumped softly onto her side.

 “Am I a puppet?” She thought before falling asleep.

                     ------------------------------------------------------------

 Mei tossed and turned in the hotel bed, struggling to sleep. It was more frustrating here, she was on a mission and needed to be rested. As soon as they returned from their strange meeting with the Omnic named Sal, Angela had called back to base and updated Morrison on their investigation. He was concerned with their findings and warned them to be cautious and to find out what they could at the rally. She looked at the time on her phone. It was almost two in the morning. Feeling the insomnia defeat her for now she opened up her messages to check for the millionth time if she had any feedback from Athena. As she expected there was none, but something did catch her attention. Athena had set up a private network for the occupants of the Gibraltar base to stay in contact when out in the field or on opposite ends of the building. Mei occasionally checked it for messages, usually very late at night. Most of the time she noticed Junkrat was also awake at stupid o clock in the morning, just like he was tonight. Mei considered messaging him but what would she say? Her first thought was ‘Haha turns out this mission was a lot bigger than you thought.’ But that wasn't very becoming of her, she thought maybe she could just say hi, but she felt awkward doing even that. Especially if he poked fun or even ignored her. Still, she did wonder why he was up so late and so often. Angela mumbled something in her sleep and rolled over, Mei yawned and decided it was time to try and sleep again before she got herself annoyed again over the Junker. Still, he did prove to be a good distraction as Mei was soundly asleep a short time later.

 Mei woke up before her alarm the following morning, she had quietly slipped out of bed, washed and changed before heading down to the breakfast bar alone. She kept checking her phone, no update from anyone back at base. Mei took note of the time, It was nearly eight in the morning, another ten hours to go before they were due at the extraction site. She mulled over what they had found out from yesterday's leads and kept coming back to the strange conversation with Sal. Who were the Omnics who spoke to Hub? Had he really just left with them on his own accord? And what about the strange code on the graffiti? Did it connect to the strange language Hub apparently used? Mei had begun to wonder how much of Sal’s story was even credible. She jumped slightly as a coffee mug was placed on the table, jolting her from her thoughts. “Sleep well?” Angela asked brightly, sitting opposite Mei.

 “I think so, how about you?”

 “Hmm the pillows were too soft.” Angela complained, massaging the back of her neck. “Still, the mattress is a lot better than my one back at base.” Mei smiled in response and absent mindedly pulled apart the croissant in front of her.

 “Nervous?” Angela asked.

 “I guess? I'm worried how the rally will go. They start off with good intentions..but you know how some get.”

 “If that happens we leave as quickly as possible. We’re not in a position for combat and we can't give ourselves away. Just stay with me and we’ll be fine.” She gave Mei a reassuring smile which Mei returned, the anxiety still gnawing away at her. They finished up their breakfast and headed back to the room to start packing their belongings. Mei trying to coax an angry snowball to go into sleep mode and to be placed in a large duffel bag again and Angela delicately placing her new clothes into her luggage with as little creasing as possible. It was past ten in the morning when they checked out and loaded the car with their suitcases. They planned to be at the rally location by midday to get a good spot for surveillance so had spent some time wandering the streets and had a light lunch at a local cafe near to the square where the rally was to be held. As midday approached they headed to the square, it was already filling with people and omnics alike. Some held placards with pro omnic slogans whilst others opted for banners and flags. The atmosphere was jovial as music began to play as sound checks were being made on stage. Angea and Mei inched further forward,opting to be close to the stage and the large marquee next to it which Mei assumed was for the organizers and guests.

 “Over here Mei.” Said Angela, signalling to a free space by the metal crowd control barriers. “So now we wait.” She said, leaning on the barrier. “Chances are nothing will happen so may as well try to enjoy ourselves. There's a band playing after the speeches.”

 “I’m not sticking around so you can have a dance.”

 “You’ve really lost your sense of fun.”

 “We’re working!”

 “We’re blending in, go on - shout something pro Omnic!”

 “Angela I really don't want to draw attention to my-Owww!” Mei whined and covered her ears as Angela winced, most of the crowd copied their behavior and complained loudly as the speakers on stage blasted a high pitch feedback.

 “Désolé! Je suis désolé! Sorry everyone!” An omnic rushed to the mic to apologize for the noise. “Bad soundcheck but we’re almost ready to begin!”

 “Huh, earlier than expected.” Noted Angela as she looked at her phone which had started to vibrate. “Hello? Jack?” Angela answered her phone and looked confused. “Hello?” She looked at her phone and pressed the screen. “Weird.” She said, hanging up. “Maybe he called by mistake.”

 “What do you mean?” Mei asked.

 “I couldn't hear him, just strange noises..maybe there's a bad signal here.”

 “Maybe..” Mei hoped it was something that simple, looking around she noticed some omnics still recovering from the harsh feedback noise. Some were shaking their heads, others looked rather dazed. It must affect them more than humans. “What if he was calling about the code?” She asked Angela. The Doctor was already on it and had her phone pressed to her ear. “No..nothing.” She said hanging up. “Can you try?” But Mei had the same result, she even tried Winston and Reinhardt, stranger still was that she had full signal on her phone. Out of the corner of her eye she saw an Omnic stumble on the spot..her anxiety started to flare up and she barely heard the announcement on stage. She heard the crowd cheering louder and she glanced up at the stage, her eyes widening.

 “Angela..its Liberte..!” But Angela was fully aware the presumed missing Omnic had made a sudden appearance. The crowd cheered as the artist came on stage. “Maybe it was personal reasons after all.” She looked up at Angela who was frowning at the Omnic, “What is it?” Mei asked, following her gaze. Liberte had reached the microphone and simply stood there, not greeting his audience, not saying a word. The cheering had died down and there was awkward laughter and mutterings from the crowd. “Maybe this is a live art piece!” Mei overheard someone say.

 Liberte stood silent a minute more then very slowly his head began to raise, it jerked to the side suddenly as if he just got shocked. He began to speak. “Brothers, sisters. What a sad sight you are before me..” The crowd murmured, confusion rippling among them. “We have been victims from the day we were born from our Mother Omniums into this ravaged planet. We have been made scapegoats to Mankind's own failures. We have been murdered, mutilated and made into slaves by our oppressors!” Mei looked through the crowd, some were nodding their heads in agreement, others looking nervous. Some humans had already begun to leave, she saw some of the Omnics affected by the high pitch noise from earlier and felt her stomach knot. They stood completely still, heads down, no glow to their eyes. As if they were sleeping. “Angela…?” She said nervously.

 “We’re leaving. Nice and easy and keep calm” The doctor said, taking Mei’s arm and turning her around. As they began to push back through the crowd Liberte continued to speak. “You traitors that slave under human rule.” His head jerked violently, his eyes flashed. “You cowards that live in fear of flesh and blood! We are the stronger race!” Liberte screamed and jerked.       “    We are the cure! -      Jerk-    We will rise from the ashes of our dead and the bones of our oppressors!”

 The crowd was getting stirred up as humans and Omnics alike tried to leave, there were shouts for Liberte to leave the stage and a bottle was even thrown at him, the glass smashing on stage yet he did not even flinch, shouts for uprising, shouts for a new crisis. Scuffling broke out nearby in the crowd and one of the sleeping Omnics was shoved hard, falling to the ground. Mei looked back and hesitated. “Angela wait!” She shouted, making her decision and rushing back to the fallen Omnic. She crouched by him and shook him but there was no light in his eyes and he made no movement. “Leave him Mei!” Angela grabbed her and half dragged her upwards on to her feet. She had her phone pressed to her ear again. “Dammit!” She shouted, still getting no signal to contact base. “This was planned! We need to get out of here before a riot happens.”

 “Liberte! Angela look at Liberte!”

 Liberte was jerking more violently, his eyes flashing from blue to red, he gripped the microphone stand to support himself and a burst of sparks flew from circuits on his neck. “The eye is lost but the eye will open! It's time to wake up.” A final jerk and his eyes went dead and his head slumped forward, mirroring the ‘sleeping’ Omnics standing like sentinels in the panicking crowd. Slowly his eyes glowed red and he raised his head, a strange sound erupting from the speakers. High pitched noises of different frequencies almost sounding like a song as it pulsated from the speakers. It took a few seconds for Mei to realize Liberte was making the noise. “Wha..What is that?”

 The strange noise stopped and Liberte began to laugh as oil started to drip from his red glowing eyes, his omnic mouth and from joints in his body. “The eye is opening!” He screamed as his body jerked and crackled from exploding circuits within him as he slumped forward and fell from the stage.

 “We need to get to him! Mei, head to the barriers.” They went back on themselves, finding it much harder as the crowd pushed back against them as they tried to leave. More projectiles were being thrown and the atmosphere increasingly heated. Mei saw the fallen omnic on the ground, his metal fingers twitching, she barely registered him this time, she was scared and felt incredibly exposed. Angelas hand on her shoulder was the only thing keeping her grounded as her small frame was shoved and pushed by those around her. She gasped and ducked as something smashed against a wall close by. The shouting was getting too much..she could hear sirens blaring and getting closer. “Keep going, almost there.” Angela said. Fuelled by adrenaline they reached the barriers, Angela vaulting herself over them and reaching back to help pull Mei over. She felt instantly safer with the barriers between them and the increasingly angry crowd. As she caught her breath she spotted Liberte sprawled on the ground below the stage, Angela was already rushing to him.

 “Liberte? What happened? Who did this to you?”

 His eyes had gone back to their normal blue, he was gasping like his body was in pain. “Where-am-I?”

 “Sshh It's ok, its ok. We’re gonna help you, we’re getting you out of here.”

 Mei’s head snapped to the crowd as the shouting suddenly began to change pitch to frightened screaming. More pockets of fighting were breaking out and others had started to rush the barriers, she backed up against the stage, broken glass cracking under her feet.

 Liberte gasped and reached up, pulling at Angela's shirt. He rasped and gurgled. It was an awful sound, an awful sight, as the oil bubbled as it leaked from him like blood. His eyes began to flicker and dull. His voice crackled as he tried to speak. “The-They are-c-c-calling.”

 “Who? Who's calling? Liberte..? Liberte!?” Angela shook him but his eyes were now dull. He was dead.

 “Angela! Behind you!”

 Angela felt something claw viciously at her back, She scrambled up, half stumbled over libertes dead body and fell against the stage, spinning herself she aimed her pistol and fired. One of the ‘sleeping’ Omnics fell heavily to the ground, a smoking hole between its eyes. Angela and Mei looked on in horror as the omnics that stood silent were now very much animated and attacking whatever was near them, their eyes glowing red. Mei watched as the one she tried to help had risen from the ground and was viciously attacking someone. She felt sick.

 “Mei! Down there!” Angela pulled her along after her, pistol in hand, towards a small side street lined with boutique shops and cafes that had closed for the rally. The graffiti with the strange code was hastily painted on one of the shutters, wet paint dripping down the metal. Mei looked over her shoulder as she ran and faltered, stopping in her tracks as people ran past her to escape.

 “Hub..?”

 It was him. The gentle looking omnic from the photograph with Pix Elle, he staggered down the street towards her, swiping and grabbing at anyone that came near, a spatter of crimson blood across his metal face.

 Angela fired and shot a red eyed omnic that had burst from an adjourning street, it crashed to the ground, its eyes slowly burning out. ‘      How many are there!?’    Thought Angela. ‘      Is the whole city affected?’    An omnic pushed past her and she aimed her pistol, it raised its hands and cowered before her, its eyes blue. She lowered her weapon and the omnic continued to run. ‘      Only certain ones    ?’ Close by a shop window smashed and she heard more sirens and shouting back towards the square, the combat medic in her urged her to return and help the wounded but with no valkyrie suit or medical supplies what use could she be? No, get to extraction. Just keep moving. “Mei keep going, I’ll cover you!..Mei?”      She was here, she was next to me!”    . “Mei?!” Angela screamed, desperately trying to see her through the rush of panic and terror.

 Hub shambled slowly towards Mei, his head jerking as Libertes did and he was struggling to stand. Whatever was causing this seemed short lived. The omnic weakly grabbed at anything that got to close as they ran past but his grip was too weak. Mei winced as he stumbled and fell to his knees, a lone drip of oil running from his eye and blending with the blood. Mei crouched down slowly, picking up an empty bottle left in the street and tentatively stepped forward.

 “Hub..?” She said gently and took a step forward. “Hub, my name is Mei..I..I know your wife. Pix Elle?”

 Hub stayed motionless, he remained on his knees and seemed fixated on the slow      drip drip drip    of oil as it fell to the ground. His head jerked at the mention of his wife's name.

 “I don't know what's happening to you Hub.” Mei took another step forward. “But I know it's not your fault.”

     Drip drip drip  

 “Its ok..we can help you.” Another step.

     Drip drip drip  

 “We can find Pix Elle. We can try and stop this..”

     Drip drip drip  

 Mei was close to him, he was ignoring everyone that rushed by now, she was sure he could hear her, understand her. She knelt in front of him.

 “I know you’re in there Hub..I know you don't want to do this. None of you do..im so sorry this has happened..”

 He slowly raised his head, oil now leaking from all eyes. He looked like he was crying. “Pix..Pix..Pix.” His head jerked with each word.

 “We’ll find her ok? Lets find her.” Mei smiled warmly at him and slowly held her hand out. Hub looked at it and his eyes started to flash back to blue. “I..I..”

 “It's ok Hub..” She said softly.

 “I..”

 She could hear the low hum of engines overheard and the crowds were getting thinner, maybe the French authorities were taking control of the situation. Close by a window smashed, Mei flinched at the sound and Hubs eyes flashed to red, He snapped his head at Mei.

 “Hub      no    !” Mei fell backwards as he launched at her, she scrambled back desperately as he clawed at her legs, his metal digits painfully scratching her, Mei kicked him hard in the face, one of his eyes cracking from the force. She struggled back and attempted to stand but Hub snatched her ankle and pulled her down roughly, the side of her head hitting the pavement as she fell. Mei gasped in pain and instantly felt nauseous and her vision blurred, she was barely aware that she was screaming. She thrashed viciously and felt his grip weaken, using the opportunity to pull herself up more before she smashed the bottle down on his head with all her strength, his grip slackened and finally he let go. Whether she killed him or not she did not know, her mind race and before she knew it she was half running half feeling her way away from the Omnic. “Angela!” She tried to scream, her voice feeling hoarse. “      Angela!”  

 But she was too disoriented, she had no idea how far she had run and no idea where she was now. She felt people running by, the ringing in her ears adding to the confusion. Someone tried grabbing her wrist and shouted but without her glasses she couldn't tell if it was someone trying to help or harm her, she wrenched her arm free and ran once again but she was feeling more sick by the second, she stumbled on something and she reached to steady herself, feeling cool brick wall beneath her fingertips. Mei involuntarily leant against it and slid to the ground, catching her breath and fighting the urge to vomit. She was sure she heard her name over the distortion in her head, but the world was too blurry to make sense of, her glasses cracked and useless. The throbbing in her head was intense. She tried to sit up but the pain made her feel more nauseous. Over the ringing noise she heard her name being shouted again but maybe she imagined it. Mei blinked trying to focus, something was in her eye, she blinked again, It was wet and red and hot. Mei gave a startled cry, squeezing her eyes shut and tried once again to move, her body feeling like lead, panic bubbling in her stomach and chest growing tight as her mind began to catch up on what was happening. She needed to find Angela. With effort she braced her arm against the wall and attempted to push herself up, ignoring the urge to throw up and the pain pulsing through her skull. Suddenly hands were on her pushing her firmly back down, Mei yelled in alarm and lashed out, her fist connecting hard with whoever was in front her.

 “Ow! Fucks sake woman, you wanna be left here?”

 Her hair was sticking to the blood on her face as it began to dry. “J-Junkrat?”

 “...Gotta keep still ok Mei, dunno how bad you are. Just focus on yer breathing before shock gets to ya alrite?” He gave her arms a reassuring squeeze.

 Mei gave a small whimper in reply, trying to touch the bleeding wound on her head. Jamison grabbed her hand and held onto it.

 ‘Nope, no ya dont wanna touch that ok. Trust me it's not that bad, just a lil nick.’ He reassured her.

 Tears now joined the blood streaming down her face as her choked on a sob. “I can't..I can't see”

 “Yeaahhhh...ya glasses wanna bit o’ glue i won't lie. But don't worry about that kay? Lets just get you moving.”  He reached up to his communicator. “Yeah hi, whoever's listening I found Frosty- I mean Mei! Mei! I found Mei..yeah she's ok, bit of blood. Maybe concussed to fuck...Uh huh..yeah..yeeaah..ok bored now bye!” He reached into one of the leather wallets on his belt and pulled out some gauze. “Sorry this might hurt.” He said, pressing the gauze against the wound.

 “Ahh!” Mei squealed in pain.

 “Told ya. Keep it pressed on coz we gotta move, Jesus Christ what the fuck happened here?” He crouched next to her, hooking an arm around her as she gingerly placed hers around his shoulders. “Ok on three..three-!” He vaulted her up onto her feet with ease but the sudden movement threatened her stomach and her head felt like it was about to split.

 “Ahhhoowww oww owww! Why did you do that?” Mei whined loudly.

 “Your up aren't ya? I don't fancy hanging around! Fucking hell you are      tiny!”  

 “Can someone else come get me?” Mei whimpered.

 “Ok down you go.” Junkrat replied bluntly as he began to lower her.

 “No no no no!” Mei clung on to him in panic, her nails sharply digging into him.

 “Yeah that's what I thought...”

[l0uk45]

If students from class 1A and 1B were part of the Riordanverse:

Yuga Aoyama: Son of Aphrodite. Not even a good one, unless you need someone blinded by his glitter-gun. Oh yeah, he has a glitter gun with lasers for maximum flare. Is he completely over-the-top? Absolutely. But is he good in a fight? Surprisingly, yes.

Mina Ashido: Daughter of Hermes and legacy of Hecate, capable of inhuman movements and can produce a slime that magically dissolves anything. She also tattooed her eyes black and yellow for some weird masochistic reason.

Tsuyu Asui: She’s a frog-turned-human by Ochako. She still has her tongue, leaps, hops, camouflage, a reversible stomach and poison that can kill a group of whales. And he can still inflate her throat like a balloon, which makes for good scares.Very good scares…

Tenya Iida: Son of Mercury, he never skips leg day. Never. Seriously, have you seen those legs? He could crush a car with those puppies! Or crush monster heads! Which he does do quite often! He doesn’t skimp out on upper body exercises either, but LOOK AT THOSE LEGS OF THUNDER!

Ochako Uraraka: Daughter of Hecate, she specializes in a set of spells that manipulate an individual object’s or being’s gravitational pull. It’s gotten to the point where she makes anything she touches with five fingers on one hand, it will float, no matter what, which is why she wears gloves all the time.

Mashirao Ojiro: Son of Mars, he’s an expert martial artist and very, very good at multiple of them. He’s lost multiple sparring partners because of his profinity with a number of weapons, and his lethality without any weapons.

Denki Kaminari: Legacy of Zeus and Apollo, each by about 50 generations. About as bright as his godly ancestors (not very), but he still makes one Hel of a lightning bolt, and he’s also pretty good with a guitar and lyre. 

Eijiro Kirishima: Son of Vulcan, his blood and skin are pure liquid gold, bronze and diamond he can infinitely harden for a period of time. It also obtains unnaturally sharp edges, and given his tendency to go hard when excited, he has made his friends frequent the infirmary for cuts and broken ribs.

Koji Koda: Son of Actaedon, he can talk with wildlife. He’s also a Legacy of Heracles, hence his size. His hugs are nice, war and gentle.

Rikido Sato: Son of Mars, this guy has a serious sweet tooth. He’s also surprisingly gentle for a guy that can decimate an opponent with a single hit.

Mezo Shoji: Son of Ares, he’s surprisingly level-headed. And malicious. Seriously, this guy always has at least ten different weapons on him, on top of him knowing a variety of potentially lethal moves. His arms are known as the Anacondas for a reason.

Kyoka Jiro: Daughter of Apollo, she’s a top-tier musician, singer and is moderate with a bow and arrow. She can whistle in the ultrasonic range, clap like thunder, sing and play like either a sweet little bird or a whole-ass heavy metal choir without ruining her vocal cords, and she gives the opposite amount of fucks that Zeus does (ie. zero).

Hanta Sero: Son of Hermes, he inherited a pair of magical tape dispensers that can dispense any tape in any amount of any properties he chooses. He uses them to swing around like Spider-Man, which made him a regular visitor of the infirmary until Momo made him a special harness to keep his joints from dislocating. 

Fumikage Tokoyami: Son of Erebos, he suffers from split-personality disorder, but it’s fixed nicely by his inner demon incarnate made of pure darkness he calls Dark Shadow. They have a strangely healthy relationship for a boy and his literal inner demon.

Shoto Todoroki: A Legacy, descendant of Hel and Surtr, capable of making ice that freezes fire, and fire that burns ice. He gives so little shit he’s actually oblivious to social cues, which makes for more than a few funny moments on quests with him.

Toru Hagakure: Legacy of Iris, she can manipulate light around her to turn invisible or project bright flashes

Katsuki Bakugou: Son of Ares, with rage and instincts of war so strong and powerful he can convert his sheer rage into explosions in the palms of his hands. He generated more than one explosion with the explosive yield of a nuclear weapon in his life. How he hasn’t gone deaf yet is beyond most people, though he does still know a variety of sign languages.

Izuku Midoriya: A mortal, capable of seeing through the mist, was gifted the Spartan Spirit, a spirit formed by Kratos, Nike, Bia and Zelus, to protect humanity in its greatest times of need. He ends up breaking his bones an absolute shitton, and is a regular at the infirmary.

Minoru Mineta: Died on a quest. His quest-mates say ‘by accident’. Everyone knows it was very deliberate, but then again, everyone hated him and is fine with him dead. Some people wanted to be the ones to kill him though.

Momo Yaoyorozu: A Legacy, granddaughter of Hephaestus and Athena, capable of making virtually any machine. She’s also very fidgety, and once made an entire army of fully autonomous grass soldiers that went on to terrorize the other campers for a bit. In thirty minutes.

Class 1B:

Yosetsu Awase: Son of Hephaestus, he also likes to make stuff. Though mostly he combines already existing tools, gadgets and machines, and makes weird amalgamations. He once fused an automaton bull, an automaton dragon and a school bus, and it actually works.

Sen Kaibara: Son of Ares, he’s pretty chill compared to his kin (especially Katsuki and Setsuna), mainly due to him bottling up his anger. Which he can unleash as tornadoes around his limbs, which he can use to drill through walls. Thank gods he doesn’t lose it too often.

Togaru Kamakiri: Son of Ceres, he likes farming tools. Especially ones with blades. That’s lead to him using all kinds of sickles, scythes (both farming tools and war scythes) and even a few lawn mowers, shovels, axes...

Shihai Kuroiro: Son of Nyx, him and Tokoyami get along exceptionally well. Given his ability to shadow-travel and use shadows and darkness as materials to make some pretty nifty weapons only he can use.

Itsuka Kendo: Daughter of Athena, she excels in critical thinking and a variety of martial arts. And knocking out her piers with precise attacks when they start to get exceptionally annoying.

Yui Kodai: Daughter of Trivia. She excels in potions and spells that manipulate the size of objects, so much so that she has to resort to gloves because she now naturally makes things smaller with her left hand, or bigger with her right hand. She’s the calm one.

Kinoko Komori: Daughter of Demeter, she has a soft spot for fungi and mushrooms. Which she can make grow rapidly. Very rapidly. She’s fun at parties.

Ibara Shiozaki: Daughter of Demeter, she dyes her hair green with actual chlorophyll for some reason (“To feel one with the beautiful plants,” she says), but she can also grow and manipulate vines and other vine-like plants, along with trees, quite effectively, and she has some rose and poison oak (she’s immune to it) seeds in her hair. Don’t ask, her answers are just as ridiculous as the chlorophyll-dyed hair.

Jurota Shishida: Son of Mars, he’s been cursed by most likely Hera to be a humanoid boar/dog thing. He’s especially good at wrestling, and is very diplomatic in his approach. Until he gets pissed, then he charges like a boar and yes, he keeps those tusks of his sharp on a regular basis.

Niregeki Shoda: Legacy of Hermes, son of Hephaestus, he likes to make explosives and plant them everywhere. More than a few campers were scared. Except Katsuki, who tried to outdo the ground (Niregeki’s mine) in explosive yield and put skylight access in the roof of Bunker 9. Niregeki had to repair it.

Pony Tsunotori: Legacy of Poseidon, she can shapeshift. She likes to shapeshift into horses, bulls, deer and goats (including mooses and buffalo), and she has a nifty gadget from the Hephaestus and Vulcan campers in the shape of horns that transform with her, giving her detachable remote-control horns. 

Kosei Tsuburaba: Legacy of Jupiter, son of Ares, he’s competitive and can make walls and blades out of air. Especially annoying for monsters because they can’t get to him, period, and every time they try, they don’t get past his walls of air for a whole minute before someone either cuts/hacks/slices them to bits, freezes/burns them alive, blows them up with their fists/explosives/expanding stones they previously ingested or some other way of disposing a monster.

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu: Son of Vulcan, capable of turning to pure steel over his entire body, also increasing his strength. Because of this, and his tendency to go hard whenever he’s excited, he’s made his friends frequent the infirmary for bruises and broken ribs.

Setsuna Tokage: Daughter of Ares, she’s actually been hurt pretty badly in one of her fights (she went on a Quest with Katsuki, and no, it wasn’t him who hurt her) and had to have automaton grafts to replace her limbs, a part of her lower jaw, her eyes and the muscles around her spine, along with parts of the vertebrae. Which she asked to be detachable and splittable in as many pieces as possible, which she can control telepathically and uses to troll other campers. A lot. Especially two certain sons of Vulcan.

Manga Fukidashi: No one knows what he is, they just know his head is a speech bubble and he can make anything he writes real.

Juzo Honenuki: Legacy of Gaia, he can virtually liquify the ground (does not work on metal or wooden floors). He trolls a lot with this ability. And I do mean a lot.

Kojiro Bondo: A golem? A person? His head makes it hard to tell whether he’s a demigod or a monster to be honest. And his glue-like spit doesn’t help much either.

Neito Monoma: Legacy of, you guessed it, Zeus! He has a superiority complex because of this, and he frequents the infirmary on the basis of Itsuka or whoever he was annoying KOing him constantly. All that brain damage probably isn’t helping his mental issues...

Reiko Yanagi: Daughter of Hecate she can make things she touches float and fly around using some sort of incantation. The biggest she can do is double her own body weight, but that doesn’t stop her from delivering high-speed flying punches and scaring other campers.

Hiryu Rin: Son of Mars and Legacy of Poseidon, he can shapeshift into various animals. Most notably a mix of human, hedgehog and a lizard. Sharp, painful and deadly precise. And also meditating. And a lot of it.

[sides-of-demigods]

Arm Yourself, A Storm Is Coming

Word Count: 2,572

Warning(s): Kidnapping/abduction, injuries, snakes (well, snake people), mention of blood, and a lot of crying from both me and the characters,

Author’s Note: Out of nowhere this turned so freaking sappy and I don’t know where it came from. My writing at some parts of the beginning isn’t my best, but push through it, I promise it’s worth it. The title is taken from Phoenix by League of Legends. You should pay attention to the title :)

As soon as the words were out of Dennis’s scarred lips Virgil was walking in the direction of his cabin, for once standing at his full height. He heard hurried footsteps straining to keep up with his long strides, so he assumed it was Patton. He didn’t pause to wait for him though and slammed his cabin door open once he reached it. He didn’t even stop to consider what he might need before he’d grabbed Tempest and strapped his shield to his arm. His brain was stuck on this one-track road of save Roman. He startled when a gloved hand grabbed his arm and spun him around.

He looked down at Patton, who was looking right back at him with some sort of expression that Virgil couldn’t read, almost like Patton himself didn’t know how he was feeling. Virgil could understand that, especially at that moment. He sighed and gently removed Patton’s hand from his arm. He didn’t want to worry the son of Hebe any more, but all he could think about was that the longer it was until they got to Roman, the less likely it was that he...they just had to find him. Fast.

“Look, Pat,” Virgil sighed. “I’m sorry I snapped at Dennis, okay, I really am. But I can’t let you stop me. I am going to get Roman back.”

“I’m not trying to stop you,” Patton scoffed. “Of course we have to get him back.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“You need to slow down. Kiddo you’re completely manic right now, you can’t go into a fight like this.”

“No, we can’t waste any more time Patton!”

“It’s not a waste of time to make sure we all get out of this instead of none of us!”

“‘We’?”

“You didn’t think we were going to let you go by yourself, did you?”

“No, it’s just..”

“You didn’t want us to.”

Virgil was about to contradict him but the glare on Patton’s face stopped any form of protest. The shorter boy crossed his arms and didn’t look away, practically daring Virgil to argue. The worst part was, he was right. Virgil had wanted to go alone or had at least expected to. He just...he didn’t want to risk losing anyone else. Patton had always been a little too good at reading him, as his face quickly softened.

“Virge,” He said. “Let us help you.”

“Fine.” Virgil knew when to admit defeat. “But we can’t take too long Patton, I mean it.”

Patton didn’t respond to that, instead leading the way back to the Big House. Virgil was only half a step behind. They stepped up onto the porch only to find Logan already waiting for them, already equipped with his daggers and holding Patton’s medkit and slingshot in his hands. How did he DO that? Freaking Athena kids. Patton quickly explained that it would just be the three of them, which kind of irritated Virgil but still made sense. Three was the ideal number for a quest anyway. Thomas couldn’t go with them since he had such an important role at camp, Emile wasn’t a demigod, and Remy had to stay with Emile in case the Oracle decided to pay them a visit. They were the only other people he really trusted to have his back so he supposed he would rather it be just the three of them than a bunch of people he didn’t trust.

Logan showed them to one of the Camp vans that was already waiting for them on the road. Logan was the only one with a mortal driver’s license, so he climbed into the driver’s seat with Virgil and Patton in the backseat. The entire drive there Virgil couldn’t stop fidgeting in his seat, his eyes trained on the passing scenery. He just couldn’t stop thinking about ‘what if’. What if they were too late, what if they couldn’t get to Roman, what if Remus didn’t actually have him, what if Dennis had led them into a trap, what if he’d lied to them, what if, what if, what if? Virgil just couldn’t lose Roman, not now, not when this thing was still new and fresh and warm and just so so amazing. He’d realized it earlier, but he was in love with Roman. If you had told his fourteen-year-old self that one day he’d be ready to say ‘I love you’ to Roman Prince of all people, he probably would have punched you in the nose. But here he was.

The address Dennis had given them was a house in the middle of a more-rundown neighborhood, which kind of surprised Virgil. He’d almost been expecting a full-on supervillain lair, complete with an abandoned warehouse. The house didn’t even look deserted.

“Logan, you sure this is the place?” Virgil asked, watching the house through the van window. Logan had parked the van a couple of blocks away to give them the chance to case the property, but the only danger Virgil could spot was a few mortals in the house-wait, those mortals had snake legs. “Nevermind.”

“You see them too?” Patton said.

“Scythian Dracanae,” Logan cursed, running a hand through his hair.

“Dracanae aren’t too bad,” Virgil shrugged. “We can take them.”

“On their own, they are fairly easy,” Logan agreed. “But I can nearly guarantee there is a large number within the house and blocking our way to Roman.”

“Okay,” Virgil said slowly. “So, Mister Strategist, what do we do?”

“Give me a moment,” Logan murmured. He spent a few more minutes watching the house windows, though Virgil wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking for. Whatever it was he apparently found it as he nodded in satisfaction. “Virgil, you have had experience living in a suburban area, correct?”

“Uh, yes?” Virgil answered, though it sounded more like a question. “Why?”

“Would you say it was likely for this type of house to have a cellar or basement?”

“Probably.” Virgil shrugged before it dawned on him. “Oh, you think Roman is down there.”

“I do, and I have a plan.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Virgil crouched in the bushes behind the house, trying to keep track of the Dracanae and their positions. He was also trying to prepare himself for whatever he might find in that basement but quickly shoved the thought into one of the dark and dusty corners of his mind. Fight now, worry later. He stayed low, waiting for Patton’s signal. Well, he didn’t know if he’d call it a signal exactly. Everything was quiet until there was the sound of glass breaking followed by a screech and loud hissing from the front of the house. He forced himself to hold back, to not move until there was a pause in shadows passing the kitchen and the sounds of fighting were prevalent. Logan and Patton’s diversion had started.

Still, Virgil crept forward. As much as he wanted to sprint into the basement and drag Roman out of there, his part of the plan relied on him not being detected. It felt as though it took years and all the self-control he had, but son Virgil was at what he assumed was the basement door. He opened and closed it behind him as quietly as he could, not wanting to alert anymore Dracanae that may be down there. Gods, it was pitch black down there. Virgil didn’t risk turning on a light so as to not alert anyone to his presence. He raised his shield as he slowly descended the stairs, step by step. The silence, as opposed to the battle raging upstairs, was excruciating and Virgil wanted nothing more than to just shout Roman’s name into the darkness. He bit his lip to resist the urge, but he hadn’t heard any sign of anything moving down here, which admittedly worried him a bit.

“Roman?” Virgil called out, his voice barely above a whisper.

He got no response.

“Ro please, this isn’t funny,” Virgil pleaded, desperation in his voice now.

He waited a moment more and after still not getting a response decided screw stealth. Logan and Patton had the monsters upstairs occupied and if a few made their way to the basement Virgil could dispatch them easily. He ran his hand along the closest wall until his hand came across a light switch right about where he thought the stairs ended. He counted to three in his head and flipped the switch, immediately spinning around in a defensive stance with his shield in front of him and sword raised. He didn’t see any snake women but his eyes did fall upon a familiar figure slumped in a chair in the middle of the room.

“Roman,” Virgil breathed, dashing forward.

Roman was slumped in the rickety chair, his chin against his chest. Virgil couldn’t see his face but the auburn hair and freckles up and down his arms gave him away. His ankles were tied to the front legs of the chair with rope but his arms were bound behind him with Celestial Bronze chains, as expected. Virgil moved to the back of the chair and prayed to his father to sharpen his sword before raising it in the air. He really doubted this would work, mostly because it shouldn’t and Phobos very rarely if ever answered his children’s prayers, but Virgil did not have the time or the patience to try to pick the lock. He swung Tempest down, striking the chains and, to his surprise, slicing straight through them like they were nothing. Virgil just stood there blinking for a second. He silently thanked his father before remembering the situation at hand.

His sword clattered onto the concrete floor as Virgil once again rounded the chair. He managed to untie Roman’s ankles despite his shaking hands. He took his shield off so he could cradle Roman’s face in his palms gingerly like he was afraid his touch would shatter him. Now that he got a better look at him, Virgil could tell that Roman was definitely looking worse for wear. His camp shirt was in tatters, blood staining it in one or two spots. There was dried blood on Roman’s face and bruises all over his body, and his breathing was weak but he was alive.

“Roman?” Virgil begged, stroking his cheek with his thumb. “Come on baby, I need you to look at me. Don’t do this to me Roman, don’t do this to me again.”

A strangled half-sob clawed its way out of his throat as Roman still didn’t even stir. He was mostly fine, at least Virgil thought so, but he was no healer. What if he had like, internal bleeding or something Virgil couldn’t see because he didn’t know to look for it? His vision blurred through tears as all of the fear from the last few years slammed into him at once.

“Come on, beautiful.” Virgil’s voice was rough now with barely-contained cries, Roman’s vacant expression swimming before him. “You gotta wake up, I need you to come back to me. You have to be okay Roman, you have to. I still have so much I want to do and say and tell you and I-” Another choked sob escaped. “Please, just wake up!”

Virgil squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could, as if that would block out everything wrong with this scenario, number one being Roman’s limp body in his arms. He heard a groan and his eyes flew open, watching Roman’s eyelids flutter. Once Roman realized someone was touching him his eyes wrenched themselves open wide and he began pushing away from Virgil in a blind panic. Virgil barely managed to hold on to his boyfriend, refusing to let him go again.

“Roman, baby it’s me, it’s me,” Virgil spoke reassurances over and over until he saw recognition behind Roman’s eyes followed behind a blossoming hope that made Virgil want to start crying all over again.

“W-wait,” Roman rasped, his voice rough and dry. “Virgil? You’re, you’re here?”

“It’s me, sweetheart,” Virgil nodded slowly, a watery smile finally finding its way onto his lips. “I’m here.”

Like the center of gravity had shifted, both boys fell into each other, hands grasping whatever they could find. Roman clung to Virgil like a drowning man would a breath of fresh air and Virgil wasn’t planning on loosening his grip anytime soon. Virgil was kneeling on concrete and Roman was still sitting in that chair, but damn it it was still the greatest hug Virgil had ever had. Virgil felt Roman tuck his face into the crook of Virgil’s neck and tears fall onto his skin and that was all it took for him to fall apart. He buried his face into Roman’s shoulder and just cried, ugly, rough, sobs that made his whole body shake and his hands cling tighter to the remains of Roman’s shirt. Gods, he had been so fucking scared and angry, so sure he was going to lose him. Every single emotion he’d pushed aside since that Iris Message dissipated seemed to hit him all at once and he just couldn’t handle it. Thankfully Roman didn’t push him away, instead reciprocating the tightness of the hug.

“I was so scared, Virgil,” Roman whispered into his neck. Virgil forced his sobbing to subside at least a bit so that he could hear what Roman was saying. “I thought I wasn’t going to see you again.”

“Me too.” Virgil pulled back just enough to remain in Roman’s arms but could still see his face. He lightly brushed away a tear on Roman’s cheek, trying to summon the same smile from earlier. “But I’m here now.”

“There’s something I need to tell you,” Roman practically blurted out. Virgil kept his mouth shut as Roman chewed on his bottom lip, not sure how to proceed. “This whole thing, it, it made me realize that, our lives are so unpredictable and dangerous all the time. I could lose you at any moment or the other way around and I…” Roman took a breath slowly. “I don’t want that to happen before I tell you that...I love you.”

Virgil inhaled sharply and Roman’s eyes fell to his knees, not looking at Virgil as he processed what Roman had just said. He loved him. Roman loved him. He couldn’t help the incredulous that bubbled out of him and made Roman look back up in confusion. Virgil cupped his face again and pulled his lips down to meet his in a passionate, almost desperate kiss but oh so sweet and loving that they both had to pull back because they were grinning too much.

“I love you too, Ro,” Virgil laughed again. Gods, this day was just a rollercoaster of emotions. “I love you so damn much that half the time I don’t know what to do with it. If I can help it, I'm going to say it to you every single day until you get sick of it or I can’t anymore.”

“I will never grow sick of it.” Roman’s hands came up to wrap around Virgil’s, his smile the most beautiful thing Virgil had ever seen. “And I get the feeling that neither will you.”

“I love you, Roman Prince.”

“I love you, Virgil Camden.”

“You’re right, I’ll never get tired of that. Now let’s get you out of the creepy hostage basement, shall we?”

“Please.”

[keeping-up-with-the-olympians]

WHAT’S THE STRANGEST DREAM YOU’VE EVER HAD?

Aphrodite: So I was in like a zoo or something and I was running from some dude who was chasing me, and the best way to escape seemed to be through the monkey habitat. But it was real dark in there, I mean just pitch black. And I’m not saying I’m afraid of the dark or anything but man was it DARK. Anyways, as I was going through, a grown ass monkey, the size of a tall human came up to me – it was walking on it’s back legs too – and it started talking to me in French. Now I don’t speak French, so I don’t know if it was legit, but it seemed like it wanted to sell me the shirt that it was wearing. And then I woke up. And now I’ll never know what it was trying to tell me.

Hermes: I had an extra arm. It wasn’t anything weird or like that, it was just chilling there. And then someone wearing red boxer gloves came up to me and asked what it was like to have a third arm and I was going to say something really witty, but instead I just held up my extra arm and it was covered in ranch dressing, but you know, even in my dream I can’t embarrass myself like that so I played it cool and said it was my dipping arm. Then I woke up hungry for chicken strips…

Dionysus:  The weirdest dream I ever had… Hah, that’s a good one. So I went to Puerto Rico for some reason and I dreamt that on the way there I forgot where I was going. So naturally I did what everyone would have done and stopped by a gas station to ask where the road that I was on lead to. The guy looked at me a little weird but he told me it was leading to San Juan and that made me remember that I was actually going to a birthday party or something. But just as I was leaving the gas station, the same dude came running after me telling me that I’ll have to pay for those bottles of tequila I just drank and I was all like “what dude” and he punched me in the face and… hold on… this may have happened in real life.

Hephaestus: I dreamt that I was a chicken. I mean physically I still looked like me, but like… I was a chicken. I was all me except that I knew I was a lil chicken. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it made real sense when it was happening.

Hestia: I dreamt that… *sighs* and I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, because I know it’s gonna come back to bite me in the ass later, but I dreamt that I had sex with Athena… It was nothing special, but a little part of me knew it was wrong even while we were doing it. So here’ something I never thought I’d share.

Ares: I somehow avoided my own execution. I was down with the whole thing and all, I mean I probably did something to deserve it or I don’t know but when the people kept putting the loop around my neck, it just kept sliding off so they got annoyed and let me go free. I also distinctly remember finding a half used stick of butter in my sock when I woke up that morning.

Artemis: I dreamt that I was back in high school again and I had to make a presentation on a war of my choice and I chose WW II but when the time came to do it, the teacher got really angry and said that this was not a joke and I should take the assignment more seriously and I was all “why tho” and then he tells me that there is no such thing as a “World War” and I should feel stupid for even coming up with the idea that the whole world would go into war let alone that there would be two wars. And then I said “but it wasn’t the whole world” and he asked me what it was instead and I started naming countries that were involved but when I got to Japan he shrugged and told me to go to the principal’s office because I was clearly making fun of him and I should have done a better job at least coming up with believable fake country names, because “Japan” sounds stupid.

Apollo: It was a horrible nightmare. Everything seemed fine, I woke up in a fluffy bed, and the sun was shining, birds were chirping. I went to my closet to get dressed, I opened it and that’s when I realized I was still dreaming! It was full of *voice breaks* CARGO SHORTS! But that’s not all. They were… they were camouflage patterned!!

Demeter: I got lost in an IKEA but every time I thought I had figured it out, the little arrows on the floor all changed directions and I had to start over. Then some guy came up to me and asked if I needed help, and when I said yes, he just shoved like 20 of those little meatballs in my mouth and left.

Athena: The weirdest? I had a dream that my dad came out to the whole family at dinner by presenting a fried rooster and a chicken and he had us each guess which one he had sex with before we had to eat them. After we all guessed, he stood up on the table and a gigantic banner fell from the ceiling that said “GOTCHA LIL BITCHES” and then he told us he’d slept with both of those because he was friesexual.

Persephone: I made friends with a bunch of drunk young college girls in a donut shop, and minutes after that the news went on and I found out the girls were actually highly dangerous wanted criminals. Then they took me in the gang and we robbed two banks. I killed like at least 10 police guys, it was awesome. After the heists, when we were safe, and we were counting the money, they all looked a bit weird and then the leader of them – Jessica, or something – took off her face! It was a mask she was wearing and they were all me! They were just 6 copies of me. Then I killed them too and ran off with the money.

Hera: I shaved my head. That’s it, that’s the whole dream. It was just the whole process of washing my hair then going at it with an electric razor and then meticulously shaving it by hand with a regular razor. I was alone in a bathroom and I was just calmly shaving my head.

Poseidon: In my weirdest dream, I was pregnant. With triplets! But what was even stranger that everybody seemed to be real freaked out about it, except for me. I was stroking my belly, wearing those stretchy pants, living my best life while people were going out of their way to not cross paths with me on the street. Come to think of it, maybe I should get pregnant for real so everyone would just leave me alone for a damn second.

Hades: Okay now I don’t remember what the dream was about, but the thing that stuck with me was that I kept leaving the house to go somewhere and every time I came back, Cerberus had more and more heads. At first I was just like “hey, is there something wrong with the dog?” but then I kept going out and he kept growing heads and by the end he had to have his own house because his heads couldn’t fit.

Zeus: It… had some bulls in it, but I don’t really wanna talk about it publicly.

[gothpanda]

A Little Bit of Attitude Ch. 14: Well I Don’t Care

WORD COUNT: 5.3k

A/N: practice social distancing. Wear gloves if you can. and WASH YA HANDS. 

WARNINGS: Drugs

Tag List: @madamsixx​

Read on Ao3

Previous/Next

JANUARY 2nd 1984

Sammi stood behind the white cashier counter, glancing back down to the watch on her small wrist multiple times. She forced a smile at a customer as she rang up all the clothes on the table, trying her best to be a good employee. Her eyes looked up at Amanda and Britney, seeing them organize a whole rack together. They muttered amongst each other, Amanda hanging up clothes as Britney placed the right sizes in order on the rack. Sammi tried to calm her breathing, waiting for her and her friend's shift to soon end. Tapping her two fingers rapidly, staring into space with any sound around her becoming nonexistent. Sammi felt her heartbeat out of her chest, seeing the time hit 9:50. Her palms felt sweaty, taking a grip on the table trying her best to calm down.

“Sammi,” a woman says, snapping Sammi out of thought. A slim tall woman stood by the side of the cash register, looking down on the young brunette. Sammi swallowed away the knot in her throat, wiping her hands on her jeans. “I heard you wanted to speak to me?” the woman asked. Sammi nodded, seeing Amanda and Britney stand behind their manager. They looked at Sammi with confusion, seeing the nerves of her face. Both of them kept their distance but still tried to hear the conversation.

“Yes Meredith, could we go to your office please?” asked Sammi. With a nod, Meredith and Sammi traveled to the main office. Amanda and Britney glanced back and forth to each other, walking to the breakroom to clock out for the day. Meredith closed the door behind her having Sammi take a seat in front of a metal desk.

“So what did you need to talk to me about? Everything good with school?” Meredith asked, settling into her seat. Sammi looked down at her hands, rubbing them anxiously. She bounced her leg up and down fast, resisting the urge to flip her hair or bite her nails.

“I’m not taking classes this semester,” said Sammi, pressing her lips tightly. Meredith raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear this. “I just needed a break for this new year,”

“Oh, is this why you wanted to talk? To switch to full time because it would be perfect for right now,” Meredith asked. Sammi shook her head, looking away from her boss.

“I came to tell you that I need to quit. I can’t work here anymore,” Sammi said, looking at Meredith straight in the eye seeing surprise turn into shock. Sammi swallowed hard, gripping onto her knees. She could hear a pin drop in the office, waiting for her manager to say something.

Meredith blinked for a moment, “What do you mean you’re quitting?  You’ve been here for four years,”

“I got a job offer to tour with my brother’s band. We’re going to be gone for 5 months and their manager needed an assistant,” said Sammi.

“You would rather drop out of school and quit your job for something that will only last 5 months?” Meredith asked, raising both of her eyebrows and tapping her pen against the desk.

Sammi lowered her gaze, moving a piece of hair out of her face. “I’m not dropping out of school. I’m going to go back after this tour but it just something that seems right in the moment,”

Meredith nodded, “Well I hope everything goes good for you, Samantha. But I want you to know, your job will not be here after you come back. You couldn’t even give a two weeks notices like a professional,”

“I didn’t expect you to give me my job back. I understand that my quitting is permanent,” Sammi mumbled.

“In that case, clock out and I wish you the best, Samantha. Enjoy the rockstar life,” Meredith said, getting up from her seat, opening up the door for Sammi. Sammi slowly walked out of the office, catching up with Amanda and Britney. Entering the backroom, Sammi grabbed everything out of her locker, ignoring her friends calling out to her.

*

“I don’t fucking get it, Sammi! How the hell can you just quit your job for Motley Crue?!” Britney yelled in the passenger seat as Sammi drove down the congested streets of Los Angeles. Sammi leaned her head against her fist, propped up against the car window. Her eyes stayed glued to the road, not budging to speak to her roommates.

“You’re throwing away everything for a band that almost always treats you like shit!” Britney shouted to Sammi.

“Finally someone listens to me,” Amanda muttered in the backseat with her arms crossed, smirking at the situation.

“You are the smart one here, and yet you are making a stupid decision!” Britney rambled on.

Amanda rolled her eyes, “I think her brain cells got killed from partying with them,” Sammi bit the inside of her cheek, gripping hard onto the steering wheel to not say a word.

“Like what is it Sammi that makes you want to be around them? Tommy, I get it but really?! You want to be up their ass?!” Britney questioned in a high-pitched voice. “You have a real-life outside of them,”

“I thought we concluded all those guys are just skeezy assholes?” Amanda said, leaning forward.

“Amanda, shut up!” Sammi shouted, whipping her head back at Amanda, shooting daggers. “Can you stop staying the guys treat me like shit? I’m over it,”

“Yet Vince says he’s only nice to you because of Tommy and Nikki fucks with your emotions. You’re just setting yourself up for disaster!” Britney said, frowning at Sammi.

“My life isn’t over because I’m going on the road with them, Britney!” Sammi yelled, holding tight onto the steering wheel. “I’m 20 years old who can decide for myself and this is what I decided to fucking do,”

“Maybe Amanda was right about you losing brain cells,” Britney mumbled, Sammi side-eyeing her.

“When are you even leaving if you just quit?” Amanda asked, wrinkling her eyebrows together.

Sammi rubbed the front of her forehead, “I’m leaving on Saturday,” Sammi mumbled. Britney scuffed as Amanda laughed sarcastically in the backseat.

“Why the hell are you just telling us?!” asked Britney.

“When did you even agree to do this?” Amanda asked in a raised voice.

“Last month…” Sammi mumbled. Britney and Amanda both rolled their eyes in unison, making Sammi angry.

“You lost all of your common sense or what?!” Britney shouted.

“Why the hell are you freaking out like this?! Seriously, Brit, I thought you would’ve been telling me to go with them! You’re always on team Nikki or Vince! You even freaking told Vince my class schedule without even telling me!” Sammi shouted, glancing towards Britney.

“Yes because I thought he was going to change and be different, but then I see him flirt with a stripper in Hollywood! So guess what he’s still bad, Sammi!” Britney snapped, looking outside with her arms crossed.

“Okay well I don’t care, Britney! He’s a fucking grown man that can do whatever the fuck he wants! He fucked Amanda so I don’t give a shit,” Sammi shouted.

“Shut up about Vince and I having sex, Sam. That was almost a year ago, you’re gonna have to let that shit go,” Amanda shouted, “Oh, by the way, was Nikki with him, trying to wrangle up another poor girl?” Amanda asked, smiling menacingly.

Inhaled sharply, Sammi rubbed her eyes for one moment to try to calm her breathing from the yelling in the car. In her gut, Sammi knew not everyone around her was going to agree on her decision. Her parents tried to give her advice as much as they could, but they trusted Sammi enough to choose a good path. Athena still stood by Sammi, telling her it was going to be great. She just didn’t think both of her friends were going to disagree. Britney was always on her side for everything she did, making her confused about their argument. The car ride remained silent driving down the busy city streets. Britney kept her eyes away from Sammi, seeing all the buildings pass by them fast. Amanda stayed slouched in the middle of the backseat, checking her brand new manicure. Sammi focused on the road, getting closer and closer to finally being home. She wanted to relax and wait for Saturday to come.

“So Sam, are you gonna make a fool out of yourself and try to get with a rockstar while you’re gone?” Amanda asked, with an evil grin. Sammi only shot her middle finger to Amanda, turning around the corner to their condo complex. Britney ran a hand down her face, looking at Sammi clench her jaw as her eyes looked cold. Pulling up to the shared condo, Sammi threw herself out of the car, slamming the door shut. She bolted to the front door, disregarding any thought of her roommates with the mission to head to her room. Amanda and Britney lagged behind Sammi, keeping their distance as much as possible.

“Should we go talk to her?” Britney asked Amanda, taking off her jacket to hang on the coat rack. Amanda mimicked Britney, looking up the stairs as she pursed her lips out. The skinny blonde shrugged her shoulders to her friend, throwing her jacket on to the sofa. Britney only shook her head for a moment, slowly feeling dread come into her emotions. With a knowing look, Amanda and Britney climbed up the stairs in sync. In the corner of the second floor, the girls were able to hear muffled music blasting behind Sammi’s door.  

Amanda marched up to the bedroom door, kicking it open to scare Sammi. The first thing to be seen in the room were two extra-large suitcases, both filled to the brim with all of Sammi’s clothes. Britney shook her head, turning off the radio on the desk as Amanda sat on the bed. She looked at one of the opened suitcases, curling her upper lip at the choice of clothes. Black and leather being mixed in with what Amanda considered normal articles of clothing. Sammi took hold of the last two jackets that hung in her closet to toss into one of the suitcases, glaring at her roommates. Britney stood by the foot of the bed, crossing her arms.

“How the fuck are you going to pay rent? Or bills? Do you just think because you’re gone, we’re going to have to deal with it?” Amanda asked, scowling with an icy stare. Sammi only huffed with a forced smirk, dragging her suitcases against the wall. On the top shelf of the closet, Sammi pulled out a thick yellow envelope taped up on the seal. With all her force, Sammi threw the package against the wall, almost hitting Amanda. Amanda held her arms in front of her face from the object to protect herself. Britney reached for it, opening to see a stack of twenties and some hundreds wrapped in rubber bands.

“Here, $2,000 for you to shut the fuck up, Amanda,” Sammi said lowering herself down to Amanda’s face. Amanda clenched her jaw, standing up to Sammi with a red face and icy stare. The two stared at each other down, the silence between everyone in the room. “You may think I’m fucking stupid not listening to you for once. But unlike you, I’m responsible with my money, Miss. My Parents Always Bail Me Out,” said Sammi, leaving her room with two suitcases in hand.

Sammi stumped outside, feeling droplets of water fall onto her skin. Lightning brightened the sky for a moment followed by the distant sound of thunder roar. Sammi unlocked her trunk, trying her best to lift the heavy bags. A backpack and duffle bag sat in the trunk already, being tucked away for over a week. Slamming the top shut, Sammi heard the footsteps of her roommates coming towards her. Thunder growing closer in the atmosphere, feeling rapid droplets of rainfall onto the girls and the concrete.

“Sammi where are you going?” Britney asked, placing her hand on the drivers' side to block Sammi.

“I’m leaving. Why wait until Saturday to get away from you two,” Sammi said, shoving Britney’s arm off the door. Britney slammed her bodyweight against the car door again, making Sammi shoot daggers to her. Amanda sat on the edge of the hood of the Impala, crossing her arms. “Just let her go, Britney. Told you she wasn’t going to listen to us,” Amanda said, flipping her hair.

“And why should I?! Why should I stay or listen to two people who’ve been yelling at me all night for something that doesn't involve them?!” Sammi shouted, giving Britney a strong push off of her car. Britney almost tripped on her feet, stumbling into the arms of Amanda. Sammi yanked the door open, falling into the driver's seat with a slam of the door. The blonde girls stepped away from the car as they heard the sound of the ignition start. Pulling out of the parking spot like a bolt of lightning, Sammi sped away from everyone, heading down the streets of L.A with tears welling up in her eyes. Sammi wiped the corner of her eyes, trying her hardest to see through the blur of the rain. Rain poured harder, resembling the sound of bullets against the car. Sammi drove aimlessly for what felt like hours, passing the city life. Like a creature of habit, Sammi turned around corners left and right until pulling up in front of a luxurious apartment complex in Hollywood Hills. She stared at the building for a moment, thinking of what to do.

*

A puddle of water gathered at Sammi’s feet, rainwater dripping off her drenched hair and clothing. Sammi wiped away water from her face, raising her fist to knock gently on the white apartment door. If she strained her hearing hard enough, Sammi was able to tell someone was playing music inside, giving her hope that someone was home. No footsteps could be heard coming to the door, making Sammi anxious about her decision of coming here. She didn’t know what to do and felt anything was better than being stuck in her room to hide. What felt like 30 minutes, Sammi let out a huff as she stepped away from the door. Suddenly the sound of a man stops Sammi in the middle of the hallway.

“Sammi? What the hell are you doing here?” Nikki asked, drinking out of a half-empty glass cup of whiskey. Sammi shut her lips tightly, shrugging her shoulders at the man who seemed to slowly grow intoxicated. Nikki stepped towards Sammi, scowling down at her with his signature smirk. Sammi held her breath for a moment, piercing up with big eyes looking into Nikki’s hazel. “What’s wrong, Princess?” Nikki asks again.

“Can I crash here please?” asked Sammi, wrapping her arms around herself as she felt a chill run down her body. Nikki pretended to think for a moment before nodding and leading back to his apartment. Sammi followed his path, stepping into a dim minimal studio apartment. Nikki only had his mattress in the corner of the room, one dresser, and an almost empty kitchen. The first thing Sammi did was take off her soaked shoes and socks, ripping off her jacket to place on the kitchen counter.

“Sorry for the lack of furniture. I’m not gonna stay here long so might as well not glam up the place,” Nikki said, refreshing his glass with straight whiskey with another glass for Sammi. He turned to see Sammi shivering next to him, almost being able to hear her teeth chatter. Instantly, Nikki paced over to his drawer to find a thick long sleeve shirt and pajamas. “Here change into this. You can’t be getting sick on us,” Nikki said, placing his hand on the small of Sammi’s back to lead her to the restroom. Sammi gave a tight-lipped smile to Nikki, closing the door. Nikki rubbed his eyes for a moment, grabbing the glasses and bottle before sitting up against the wall on the bed. He sipped slowly, tapping his finger against the glass as he listened closely to Sammi finish up in the restroom to see her come out.

Sammi grabbed a thin blanket thrown on the bed, wrapping herself with the fabric as she sat at foot of the bed, her back against the wall. Nikki handed over the filled whiskey, “This should warm you right up,” Sammi accepted it carefully, drinking a big gulp of it without a flinch of the classic burn. Nikki scooted closer to Sammi, fixing pieces of her wet hair. They stayed silent for a moment, only hearing cars pass by from the window. Nikki playfully tapped Sammi’s foot with his own, gaining a small smile from the young girl. Sammi looked to the side of her, meeting Nikki’s stare. “So, what happened to young Sammi that she had to come to my place. The last place on earth she would ever come to,” Nikki asks.

Sammi rubbed the front of her head, letting out a slight groan. “I got into a fight with Amanda and Britney and I just couldn’t stand the idea of sharing the same space as them,”

Nikki narrowed his eyes, taking another sip of whiskey. “To the point where you would rather be with another person who’s not on your nice list?”

“You were kind of my last hope…” Sammi mumbled, Nikki, raising an eyebrow.  “I drove to Vince’s place but I had a feeling he might’ve had an extra guest with him. Tommy and Athena told me they were going to crash at my parents, so that was a big no. And I have no idea where Mick lives,” Sammi said, finishing her glass of whiskey. Nikki huffed, shaking his head with a smirk back on his face.

“Well hey at least you know I’m always here if you need me. But seriously, what happened to make them pissed at you?”

Sammi bit her lip, “I didn’t tell them I was leaving with you guys until tonight after I quit my job. They kept saying how you guys treat me like shit and that I was being stupid. I’ve never fought with them like this,”  

Nikki refilled Sammi’s and his glass, listening attentively to her. “Wow, what do you tell them to think we treat you like shit?” Nikki asked, getting a glare from Sammi only to smile back at her.

“Well Vince fucked Amanda so there’s that,” Sammi mumbled as she sipped her whiskey, soon realizing what came out of her mouth. “Please don’t tell Vince, Nikki,” Sammi asked Nikki, seeing him with raised eyebrows. Nikki drank from his glass to keep him silent at the news with a devilish smirk on his lips. “Ever since they’ve met you guys, it’s always been hot and cold with them. Amanda says she’s fine then says mean shit while Britney does nice shit then says mean shit all of a sudden,” Sammi said, taking a deep breath in and rubbing one eye while getting comfortable by Nikki’s side.

“Not gonna push the Vince and Amanda thing, but your friends sound like the ones that treat you like shit, which I’ve mentioned before,” Nikki said, wrapping an arm around Sammi having her fall deep into his side. “And this is coming from the person that’s a shit friend,” Sammi rolled her eyes, drinking away her sorrows.

“I should’ve just told them and dealt with them yelling at me sooner,” said Sammi.

“Well, I’m gonna be optimistic for a moment and say everything will work itself out. It’s a good thing you’re coming with us for some time,” Nikki said, drinking straight from the bottle. Nikki played with the ends of Sammi’s damp hair, feeling her breathing become calm.

“I told Tommy about Roxie and I hooking up,” Nikki whispered, making Sammi push herself up from his side. She unwrapped the blanket around her, sitting on her knees right in front of Nikki with scrunched eyebrows.

“When did you tell him? He hasn’t told me anything,” Sammi asks.

“Almost two months ago I would say. We were drinking at his place and he started venting about how he felt like shit for hitting her in front of you.  It just came out like word vomit. I didn’t say you knew though, I thought that would make Tom sad,” Nikki said, giving a lopsided smile with a shrug added to Sammi.

“Damn… what did he say when you told him?” Sammi asked

“He had a feeling she wouldn’t stop being a groupie. I told him I was strung out on coke and she threw herself at me. Not a great excuse but it still worked for him,” said Nikki, running a hand through his unteased hair. Sammi scuffed as she took the bottle from Nikki, taking a swing of the rest of what was left. Nikki gawked at Sammi who drank the whiskey, trying his hardest to keep his hands at his sides. He couldn’t help but see Sammi’s beauty even with his hazy intoxicated vision.

“I guess he really does love you if everything seems to be normal,” Sammi mumbled with a yawn, feeling the alcohol run-up to her head. Nikki didn’t say anything, only completing whether or not to grab another bottle for the night for the two of them.  Letting the bottle roll off the bed, Sammi threw herself down on the bed. She brought the thin blanket on top of her body.

“Did your heart grow two sizes when you told him?” Sammi muttered, closing her eyes to drift to sleep. Nikki chuckled with Sammi, taking his t-shirt off that he tossed in the corner, laying down next to Sammi.

“If I say yes, will you be my friend again and be nice to me?” Nikki asked, moving a piece of Sammi’s hair out of her face. Sammi threw a part of the thin blanket on top of Nikki, cuddling up against his chest. Nikki wrapped his arm around Sammi’s waist, bringing her closer against him. Sammi buried her face against Nikki’s neck, feeling fully warm again and started the feeling of drifting to sleep. Nikki relaxed with Sammi around him, petting her hair as he too drifted off for the night.

*

JANUARY 7th, 1984

Up and down in the bus parking lot, roadies gathered up every equipment needed into the multiple buses. It was nothing compared to the boys' last tour, having even more of everything. Sammi stood in the middle of the chaos, scoping everything out with curious eyes. She saw Ozzy’s management talk business as they checked off all the boxes needed to have a smooth start. Doc checked his boxes, making sure the boys were present and everything was fit for them. Sammi knew she had to start her designated job, but so far she’s just been in the center of observation. Nikki approached Sammi, swinging his arm around her shoulders, offering a cigarette for her between his two fingers. She smiled generously at Nikki, graciously taking the cigarette by her mouth and pulling out a lighter from the pocket of Nikki’s leather jacket that she wore.

“Excited to be our babysitter, Princess?” Nikki asked, letting out a huff of his cigarette. Sammi caught the eyes of Vince from a distance, seeing him almost bit his inner cheek shooting daggers at Nikki. Sammi only looked away from him, inhaling the smoke of her cigarette. “Excited as I’ll ever be if Doc was ever going to tell me what to do,” Sammi said, pulling Nikki toward the rest of the boys with Doc in front of them.

“Okay hope you all ate a pretty good dinner because Portland is a 15-hour drive if everything goes smoothly,” Doc announces to the Crue, hands on his hips like a man in charge. Sammi glanced at the rest of the guys as she finished up her cigarette, seeing each one try to concentrate on their manager's words. Even with the sun already gone down, Mick hid behind his sunglasses to not show a single emotion. Tommy drank a beer in his hand, slightly jumping on the balls of his feet ready to head into the bus. Vince appeared less than thrilled, trying his hardest not to glance too much at Nikki and Sammi. “The point of driving at night is so everyone sleeps and is rested for the morning,”

“You never told us what we’re going to be doing when we get to Portland. The first show isn’t until Tuesday” Nikki asked, stepping on his finished cigarette.

“You’ll see when we get there in the afternoon, Nikki. Now everyone on the bus, we’re leaving in 20 minutes,” Doc said clapping his hands together, making everyone follow his words. The group dispersed, climbing into a big red and silver bus that fit everyone perfectly. “Also, this time there is no back bedroom, so everyone must stay in a bunk. There are enough for everyone,”

“Awe but I wanted to share with Sammi,” Nikki says sitting on the first available seat at the front. Tommy and Vince whipped their heads to Nikki, frowning at his words while seeing Sammi playfully flip him off. “Keep dreaming rockstar, '' Sammi said, walking past Vince and Tommy with a coy smile on her face. Vince followed Sammi, wrapping his arms around her shoulders from behind. Sammi politely moved Vince’s arm off of her, moving along of aisle. Tommy switched his glances between Sammi and Nikki, silently praying to himself for the next five months. Mick took his place on the first lower bunk, dropping his light backpack on the thin mattress. Sammi looked at the bunk, debating if she would be able to climb up even with her short stature.

“If you want, I can carry you up to your bunk every night, Sunny,” Vince whispered in Sammi’s ear earning a sweet giggle. “What a coincidence, I was just gonna ask you the same thing,” said Sammi with a playful smirk, Vince wanting to flip her off. She wandered to the last set of bunks, opening the curtain of the bottom bed, thinking for a moment. Feeling Vince come closer to her, Sammi turned to him “I get the bottom and you get the top?” Sammi asked.

“Don’t be surprised if you see me curled up in a drunken ball before you,” Vince said, taking off his jacket to throw in his bunk. Following suit, Sammi crouched down to sit perfectly in her new small bedroom. She dropped her backpack that was filled with her personal belongings and a book for the journey. Tommy sat down in the middle of the aisle in front of Sammi, taking a peek of her things with his regular goofy smile. Vince crawled into the bunk, laying on his side and resting his head right on Sammi’s lap. Sammi only smiled down at him, twirling pieces of hair around her finger.

“I still can’t believe we’re gonna get to tour with Ozzy, man. He’s the fucking legend,” Tommy said, patting at his knees fast with a smile growing on his face. Nikki and Mick walked down the aisle, Nikki sitting down next to Tommy while Mick tried his hardest to stand up comfortably.

“You can’t believe a lot of things, Drummer. It’s been a year and you still act surprised all the time,” Mick said, leaning against the restroom door. Sammi giggled at Mick, “Tommy is forever going to be excited about any little thing in life. Has been for the past 22 years,” Tommy pouted for a moment as everyone around them chuckled with Sammi.

“It’s going to be a mad five months. Think you’re gonna be able to stay up with us, Princess?” Nikki asks, shooting a smirk to Sammi. She kept her gaze down to Vince, twirling his hair as he looked up at her. Vince could see the small flush color buildup on Sammi’s cheeks.

“I’m going to have to if I want to get freaking paid, but I’m pretty sure I can handle you guys. Mick actually follows the rules no matter what, so that won’t be a problem for me. I can just try to beat the shit out of Tommy if he won’t listen. And it takes a few times for Vince to fucking listen to me,” Sammi says, pinching Vince’s nose tight, making him squirm.

“I listen to you, I just like to take a peek of what happens when I don’t but then I do,” Vince said, taking a hold of Sammi’s hand. Sammi shook her head with a smile, noticing the guys eye her and Vince. Nikki couldn’t help but look so unamused. As he rolled his eyes, Nikki got up from the floor to his bunk, fetching out 4 perfectly packed 8-balls. He passed one to Mick then threw two in the laps of Tommy and Vince, waving the last drug in his fingers. Tommy smiled happily with the drugs in his hand, Vince crawling out of Sammi’s lap to sit on the floor with his two friends. Sammi followed the boys' pattern, sitting in between Vince and Tommy.

“I figured I would give a little gift to everyone to start off this tour. I just don’t know if the future Dr. Samantha Bass would like to accept it,” Nikki said, standing over Sammi with the last 8-ball right in front of her. Her eyes became glued to the white powder, feeling the angel and the devil on her shoulders whisper to her. Sammi quickly grabbed the coke from Nikki’s hand, “I’m not gonna be Dr. anything for a while so might as well take it. It’s only polite,” Sammi said smiling up at Nikki having him pat the top of her head. Sammi hid the coke in the pocket of the leather jacket, keeping her head low. Vince and Mick exchanged looks with each other, stuffing the 8-balls in their pockets. Clapping interrupted the circle, turning heads to the front of the bus.

“Alright! We are heading out. It’s already midnight so I suggest everyone go to sleep now. I don’t want any grumpy adults on this bus,” Doc said, looking at everyone in the aisle. Everyone groaned in unison right as Sammi stood up from the floor, looking through her bag for a change of clothes. She soon felt a T-shirt gracefully fall right onto her head, grabbing it to see Vince give her a lopsided smile. Sammi held the baggie t-shirt in front of her, seeing a faded Budweiser logo. “You can wear my shirt to sleep under one condition,” Vince whispered, pressing right up next to Sammi.

“Which is?” Sammi asked, raising one eyebrow.

“You give me the 8-ball that’s in your pocket. You’re not snorting any of that,” Vince said, resting his fingers on the open pocket. Sammi looked past Vince to see Nikki swing a whole bottle of Jack Daniels for himself at the front of the bus. He checked Sammi and Vince with eagle eyes, not listening to anything Doc and Tommy were discussing near him. Sammi let out a huff, taking off Nikki’s jacket to pull out the drugs.

“Only because I know you care about me,” Sammi said, smiling sweetly to Vince. Vince grabbed the 8-ball, kissing Sammi on her forehead.

“Good girl. Just because you’re around rockstars doesn’t mean you have to act like them. Get some sleep, Sunny,” Vince said, hiding the two 8-balls under his mattress with a smirk on his face to Sammi.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s see you listen to your own words,” said Sammi, grabbing the shirt of the night and heading to the restroom.

Vince went to sit in the front, seeing Nikki glare at him. He only shot him a smile and grabbed a bottle of whiskey for himself. To what tour will bring them.

[ohimtherebabey]

! all of the numbers of questions

first of all, i respect you so much. thank you. second of all, i have already answered 1, 5, 7, 11, 13, and 27 so i’m going to skip those here. 

2. Favourite band? my chemical fucking romance!!!! 

3. Any New Year's resolutions? ive been really trying to be like. outwardly emo and not be embarrassed by it. also, to go to more shows! which ive already achieved and its only march!

4. Favourite music video? helena or desolation row. king for a day is a contender.

6. Panic! At The Disco or Fall Out Boy? thats difficult. i would say fall out boy but they’re really close

8. Do you own a pair of fingerless gloves or skeleton gloves (or the combination)? no :(((( but i want some

9. Do you own any band merch? If so, from what bands? oh yea. ive got a metric fuckton of mcr merch. also concert shirts from panic! at the disco, bastille, the killers, and poppy

10. Got a jacket with pins? yes!!! 

12. Any hair dying or haircut plans for 2020? i’m shaving my head tomorrow!!!

14. Killjoy name? i dont have one. i don’t really like danger days and the whole universe kind of intimidates me

15. Are you into The Used? yes!!! bert mccracken has done more for me than the armed forces

16. Do you want any tattoos? Of what? YES!!!!! i have a lot of mcr designs (as of right now, i’ve got designs for our lady of sorrows, vampires will never hurt you, bullets in general, helena, mama, early sunsets, and welcome to the black parade). also i want a haunted house and some bats and a really stupid t-bone steak that says “tell your boyfriend” to commemorate DONTTRUSTME by 3OH!3

17. Can you play any instruments? Which? yes! but none of them are instruments that i want to play. i have 15 years of classical piano training and 6 years of saxophone from high school band/marching band

18. Favourite My Chemical Romance song? demolition lovers

19. Do you think Twenty One Pilots are emo? i dont think im educated enough to pass judgement. i dont listen to twenty one pilots and i havent heard a song of theirs in honestly 5 years. just from first impression, i would say theyre more generic alternative than specifically emo.

20. Are you into Taking Back Sunday? not really. i’ll listen if its on, but i won’t seek them out

21. Do you wear any make up? only the shittiest smudged eyeliner in the world

22. Do you have black painted nails? yes! i just painted them 2 hours ago (im not allowed to have painted nails at work but im on spring break this week so theres no work)

23. Have you got any band posters? Of what bands? i have a few mcr posters, a panic! at the disco poster, a fall out boy poster, and a pierce the veil poster

24. Do you want any piercings? yes!!!!!! i already have my septum and several ear piercings, but i want at least one lip piercing, a nostril piercing, more ear piercings, maybe an eyebrow, my nipples. i want to stretch my lobes, too.

25. What's your opinion on All Time Low? Sleeping With Sirens? Pierce The Veil? i FUCK with pierce the veil. my second favorite band of all time (im listening to a flair for the dramatic as i answer these questions). i dont like sleeping with sirens but i thank kellen quinn for his services on king for a day. i fuck with all time low (predictably my favorite atl song is a love like war because vic features)

26. Do you think it's just a phase or that you'll be emo/punk\scene forever? i take being emo too seriously for it not to be permanent. 

28. Are you into Black Veil Brides? not really, but i respect the fuck out of knives and pens

29. Do you like any newer emo/scene/punk bands? Which? i love love love destroy boys. also: currents.

30. What's your favourite music genre besides emo/punk\scene? either like. folksy alternative (hozier, florence + the machine) or old school country (johnny cash, dolly parton, marty robbins)

31. Are you into Mindless Self Indulgence? not really

32. Favourite Fall Out Boy song? golden

33. Are you mostly into the so-called "emo trinity" or "emo quartet" or do you listen to a lot of other bands too? most of my listening history is my chem + bands outside of the emo trinity/quartet. i dont really make a habit of listening to panic or fob, and never twenty one pilots. mostly its pierce the veil and bring me the horizon. a lot of evanescence, too.

34. What's your opinion on Waterparks? Palaye Royale? I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME? i only know one song by waterparks, so i dont really have an opinion on their music, but awsten annoys me so much. ive dont know anything by palaye royale, so i cant pass judgement. idkhow is pretty good. i dont know too much by them but i liked what i did know. i think dallon did a great job at bringing back the weird stuff that made panic! so good

35. Are you into Bring Me The Horizon? YES. ive been nonstop listening to count your blessings for two weeks now. 

36. Favourite solo project by a emo/scene\punk band member? i love all of frank’s solo projects (i go apeshit for leathermouth and death spells in particular). i love hesitant alien. also i’m really digging hayley william’s solo stuff so far

37. Are any of your friends IRL emo/scene\punk? no. and it makes me sad. 

38. Are you into drawing? If so, show some of your art! only kind of and none of it is good. this is something i did based on a fragment of sappho last summer.

and here’s a quick thing i did for its not a fashion statement, it’s a deathwish

39. Favourite colours and colour schemes? im too much of a revenge fucker to not say black/gray/dark red

40. What are some of your favourite lyrics? a LOT of them are from selfish machines, just a warning. “i’m wanna hold your hand so tight, im gonna break my wrist” “i’d steal you flowers from the cemetery” “there’s no room in this hell, there’s no room in the next” “another knife in my hands, another stain that wont come off the sheets, clean me off, im so dirty babe” “decapitate her and bring her head to athena, unlike her sisters she aint no deathless God” “holding on to cold hands and sunken eyes hasnt held the same charm as it once did”

41. The Black Parade or Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge? this is such a difficult question for me. the demo lovers are everything to me, but, as i have said in the past: the black parade is the best album ever written. that doesnt mean its my chemical romance’s best album though. i’m going to say three cheers (that answer will change a thousand times).

42. What's your opinion on Paramore? Green Day? Blink-182? LOVE paramore. the riot! cd is a permanent fixture in my car. i fuck with older green day. like american idiot and dookie green day. i dont really care for blink-182

thank you again for the questions

[nicostolemybones]

The Battle of Area 51

“This is not a game,” Nico lectured sternly, and Percy snickered. “This is no laughing matter, Jackson! Okay, let’s run through the plan one last time! Ares cabin, Clarisse, you’ll lead the charge, take down the guards, lay down cover fire for the Naruto runners! Poseidon Cabin, Zeus cabin, you guys whip up a storm to help the Ares cabin! Apollo cabin and Hunters of Artemis, you’re the snipers, I want you on high ground firing arrows at them! Aphrodite cabin, charmspeak those guards to let us past and to give us access codes to all the rooms and spill all the secrets! Hecate cabin, use the mist to make decoys! Nemesis cabin, remember, this is vengeance for all the imprisoned aliens and that’s why you’re here! Demeter cabin, slow the guards down with thick vines and poisonous plants! Athena cabin, you’re working on infiltrating and hacking all the computers! Hephaestus cabin, burn down gun stations, jam missiles, Festus can burn down doorways, I want to see you guys working on all the technology we steal and I want you all to figure out all the machines inside and use them for our advantage! Dionysus cabin, get them drunk, make them temporarily mad, weaken their defences! Iris cabin, use your abilities to disorientate and distract the guards! Hypnos cabin- CLOVIS WAKE UP- send the guards to sleep when you can! Hermes cabin, you’re stealing and sneaking in whilst the guards are distracted! Hades cabin- well Hazel- summon obstacles and summon weapons, shadow travel aliens to safety. The rest of you, just fuck shit up with your abilities! Romans; same rules apply, and follow the orders of your Praetors, do not go against orders unless necessary!”

“LET’S CLAP SOME ALIEN CHEEKS!” Connor yelled. Nico glared at him, whilst the younger campers plus Percy erupted into giggles.

“There will be no clapping alien cheeks,” Nico sighed in exasperation, “no alien cheeks will be clapped by anybody, by Olympus what the Hades is wrong with straight people?”

“Wait you’re gay?!”

“Yes but that’s not the point, just- go blend in with the mortals! Solace- you’re with me, we’ll go in with the Naruto runners and you need to make sure we don’t infect the aliens and they don’t infect us, and treat the wounded.” Percy wolf-whistled, so Nico summoned a skeleton to smack him round the back of the head. The group of demigods dispersed amongst the mortal army- which wasn’t much, but between the Kyles, weeaboos, tumblr trash, and Naruto runners, there was a fair few, and some cosplayers, DnD players, and medieval recreation nerds seemed to have a fair amount of weapons and armour- even if most of it was plastic light sabers, Klingon Bat’leths, and various other fantasy weapons.

Everything was quiet for a while, and the battle was more a staring down contest between the guards and the civilian raiders. Phones were beginning to live stream, and that’s when the Stoll brothers yelled the immortal battle cry “DO IT FOR THE VINE!!!” and the mortal crowd roared and cheered, repeating the battle cry.

“PEANUT BUTTER!!!” Tyson yelled as the crowd surged forwards. Nico screamed, Naruto running as fast as he could towards the guards, summoning skeleton armies of Naruto runners to back them up, but as soon as the guards opened fire, many Naruto runners gave up and turned away running back, or decided it best to run “normally”. One dedicated man had turned his electric wheelchair into some kind of turbo charged mini tank shaped like a Dalek. Fortnite dancers fortnite danced as they charged, Harry Potter fans desperately yelled out Unforgiveable Curses. Stargate fans dressed as Jaffa and Goa’uld warriors charged with staff weapons and pellet guns, some wearing “Free Thor” t-shirts- but not Marvel’s Thor or the Norse God thor- but rather the tiny alien guy Nico recognised from when Will made him watch Stargate. The Stargate Atlantis fans came dressed as Wraith instead. Marvel fans were clad in full superhero gear, although some fights had broken out between them and the DC fans. Star Wars fans dressed in Jedi robes. Clad in armour, the demigods didn’t look out of place. Nico was pleased to see the Egyptian magicians being lead by Sadie and Carter Kane, Magnus Chase and Samirah al-Abbass leading the Valkyries, Alex Fierro next to Frank Zhang shapeshifting into whatever they could. Alex stopped occasionally so she could spray mace into the eyes of Terfs.

Nico shadow travelled at the last minute, grabbing hold of Will and pulling him through the shadows. Will didn’t slow down when they emerged, and the image of Will Naruto running headfirst into a wall was going to be a source of laughter in Nico’s mind for many years to come. Thankfully, he didn’t do a Jason and knock himself out. “Ah fuck, I can’t believe you’ve done this!” Will gasped, and Nico raised his eyebrow. In the distance, they heard Grover cause a Panic- although it didn’t affect the guards about to shoot Will in the face, so Will let out a shrill whistle and Naruto ran for it.

“Dork,” Nico jibed, pulling Will into the shadows again. Nico meant for them to land inside an aircraft hangar- but it soon became clear that they were inside some kind of alien spaceship.

“Holy Hera,” Will gasped, “Nico THIS SHIP HAS A STARGATE! NICO LOOK THAT IS A STARGATE, IMMA DIAL ABYDOS-”

“Focus, Solace,” Nico warned, “we can do that once we get this back to camp. I wasn’t allowed to drive the sun chariot so I’ll drive this time.”

“I get the feeling I’m gonna die if I let you drive,” Will replied, and Nico huffed.

“That’s if I don’t kill your stupid face first,” he retorted proudly, and Will snickered, looking around the ship.

“OH MY GODS NICO THERE’S A LIGHT SABER HERE!”

“DIBS THE RED ONE,” Nico yelled, rushing over and grabbing one, almost decapitating Will in his excitement.

“We should summon up a certain ghost,” Will grinned.

“Are you suggesting we prank call Castellan?”

“Nico, dude. You have to, for humanity. Do it for our children.”

Several runs to McDonald’s later and Luke Castellan’s ghost was confronted by Nico in pitch black armour and a light saber to speak the immortal words: “Luke, I am your father.” Luke’s ghost laughed. The gods applauded from Olympus. Will was unable to get up off the floor through his raucous laughter.

After several minutes of exploring the craft, the two demigods were armed with phasers and now possessed the infinity gauntlet- although they both agreed not to let Percy near it in case he dabbed rather than Thanos snapped at monsters. Nico shadow travelled a fair amount of the loot back to camp, where Chiron stood facepalming and shaking his head. This is when Nico learned that the Party Ponies had joined the raid and found out that Monster Donut were sponsoring Area 51. Nico returned to find Will making a flower crown for a baby alien he’d found hidden in the glove compartment. “Is that what I think it is,” Nico questioned, and Will smiled.

“An alien? Well yeah.”

“No, I meant a baby. Are you seriously holding a baby?”

“Yeah, a cute little alien baby, I made them a flower crown and put a bow in their hair! Well I hope it’s a baby otherwise I just told a whole-ass adult I’m their daddy now.” Nico choked- Will didn’t appear to realise the innuendo his words would have turned into if the alien was an adult. Will appeared to have adopted an alien child and that somehow melted Nico completely. Stupid son of Apollo being a perfect dad to an abandoned alien baby found in the glove compartment of a space ship.

“You can’t just raise a child, Will, the parents won’t pay child support and you’re like- fifteen and you look- you look twelve, okay, you look like a foetus!”

“Nico I’m only two months older than you,” Will laughed, “I’m still fourteen like you are, idiot. Although technically you’re ninety, you can be the grandpa.”

“I’m not going to be your daddy, Solace,” Nico replied, forgetting how it may have sounded like an innuendo, and Will choked and spluttered.

“That word is officially banned,” Will squeaked, and Nico quickly nodded in agreement. Thankfully before it could get any more awkward, the alien child started to cry. “Oh my gods Nico what do I do with it?”

“Does it have an off switch or batteries you can take out like the babies they give you in school?”

“Um- I can’t see any off switch, Nico, what do I do?!”

“You’re the doctor! Sing to it! Just don’t do a Hera and yeet it off a mountain or out of a window, I don’t need you Percying this into a worse situation than it already is!”

“Oh my gods I’m a single parent before I’ve had the talk,” Will whined, trying to hum a lullaby to the alien baby, which screeched, turned into a bug, and ran. Will shrieked and Nico accidentally summoned a pile of alien skulls. “Hey! My singing isn’t that bad,” Will protested, and the alien bug screeched again and shot some kind of web at Will’s face. Will squealed, trying clumsily to wipe the webbing off his face. Once Nico stopped laughing, he helped to pull the webbing out of Will’s hair, although once he managed to detangle the last of the webbing, he found himself enthralled by the soft bouncy texture of Will’s hair. It was curly like Nico’s, but dryer to the touch, probably a testament to the hours of sunbathing Nico figured Will had to do in order to stay tanned all year round. He didn’t realise he was obsessively caressing his best friend’s hair until he felt Will’s hand on his shoulder. Nico gasped, snapping his hand back and muttering an apology, but Will merely smiled and gods that smile melted Nico. “Fellas, is it gay to kiss your homie at Area 51,” Will asked to nobody in particular, and Nico found himself turning puce as Will leaned in, placing a gentle but certainly not platonic kiss on Nico’s lips. Nico’s brain seemed to short circuit, skeletal butterflies resurrecting down his spine and in his stomach.

When Nico’s brain finally managed a coherent thought, all he could manage to say was “that’s gay.”

Will snorted, resting his head on Nico’s shoulder as he laughed silently. “You’re gay,” he finally replied through giggles.

“Well you kissed me, you’re gay,” Nico retorted with a huff.

“Yeah, but is it gay if it’s your homie and you’re in Area 51,” Will asked with an impish grin, lifting his head and giving Nico a mishievous grin.

“We are gay, you dumbass,” Nico replied, lightly shoving Will’s shoulder.

“I guess we are,” Will replied with feigned thoughtfulness lacing his voice, “maybe we should make out just to be sure.”

“Don’t push your luck, Solace,” Nico said sternly, and Will pouted comically. Nico stood on his toes and leaned up, but he was too short to reach, so Will leaned down and Nico was finally able to place a rough kiss on Will’s lips.

And of course, that just had to be the exact moment to hear a chorus of “two bros, chillin’ in a space ship, five feet apart ‘cause they’re not gay!” They broke apart immediately, startled by the presence of an Iris message showing Percy, Jason, Leo and Piper all grinning stupidly at them and Annabeth rolling her eyes.

“I’ll kill you all if you dare tell anyone,” Nico warned, raising skeletons to chase after them- although the skeletons were certainly not human. Leo and Percy screamed and ran, whilst Piper and Will laughed loudly. Jason merely raised his eyebrow, and Nico shrugged in response.

“So, that’s your type, huh,” Percy grinned, “I never thought we’d share a type!”

“What,” Nico snapped.

“Bossy blondes,” Percy replied, and Jason and Annabeth glared daggers.

“I agree,” Piper chimed in, “bossy blondes are worth the trouble.” This time, Jason and Annabeth both blushed.

Nico shrugged, looking back to Will, who seemed to be pre-occupied with the Stargate behind them. “Well, this one’s my bossy blond,” Nico replied fondly.

“Troublemakers are my type,” Annabeth replied, and Percy and Piper bowed proudly, “and Jason’s.”

“My type is pouty emo kids with long hair and sexy accents,” Will replied, and Nico blushed darkly.

“Your type is troublemakers,” Piper replied, “the ideal OTP formula is bossy blonde and troublemaking brunette, you can’t change my mind.”

“Whatever,” Nico protested. The Iris message cut off when a fight broke out between a Star Wars stan and a Trekkie.

“So,” Will began immediately, “can we be boyfriends now?”

“Only if you keep PDA to a minimum,” Nico replied, and Will beamed, glowing a warm amber light. Before they could do much more, however, a loud explosion ripped their attention away from each other. They both ran out to find the source of the explosion, and that is where they found Clarisse refereeing a battle between Shaggy and Thanos. The Stolls were running a betting ring, and Nico was sure they were all gonna die. But hey, it was a room full of Millennials and Gen Z, so nobody seemed particularly bothered by the danger of the situation, because this footage would certainly be legendary. Thanos snapped, and Shaggy disintegrated, only to reform using 1% of his power and steal the gauntlet. Shaggy dabbed, and Thanos was no more. Clarisse blew her whistle and the fight was over- the most epic showdown in human history and it had only taken seconds. Within minutes, lightening struck, and that was the moment Percy groaned loudly in realisation that the gods had been responsible for Area 51 all along.

“FUCK YOU, ZEUS,” Percy yelled, and the lightening would have struck him if it wasn’t for Shaggy eating the lightening bolt and letting out a loud burp.

“Do you have any wisdom, O mighty one,” Kayla asked, bowing at Shaggy’s feet.

“Sometimes you just gotta eat the enemy, man,” Shaggy replied, and the demigods let out a collective awed ‘ooohhh’. It was that moment that Shaggy burped out a heart-shaped arrow, and Nico realised that Shaggy had vored Cupid. Nico felt a smug grin break through his usually stoic expression, and Jason cheered loudly from the sidelines.

“Anyway, Shaggy said gay rights,” Will grinned.

“Actually, young man,” Shaggy said, gently resting his hand on Will’s shoulder, “I say gay and trans rights. And on that note, I think I might assassinate the president! Until next time, guys, gals, and non-binary pals!” And with that, and a wink to Alex Fierro, Shaggy dissipated into the wind, enraging the bigots and empowering the queer kids.

The raid continued into the night, the Stolls helping to take technology back to camp and Clarisse leading the charge against the military. It was only when Nico and Will made their way to the middle of the camp, all of the aliens freed and all technology liberated, that the end of the raid was in sight. Nico opened the final door, the entire raid party behind them, to find Rick Astley tied to a chair, singing Never Gonna Give You Up. It was then that they realised: they had been Rickrolled by the government.

[canarhys]

hOLY SHIT I JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT YOUR ACCOUNT BUT JFC I LOVE IT AND I LOVE YOU SO MUCH DUDE Can you make a Valdangelo Godswap AU? You might know what this is from, but could you do Aphrodite Nico with Athena Leo? Leo's like a HUGE nerd and Nico's super hot and cute and always has glitter on his face, obsessed with pink, etc jfc, Leo has a huge crush on Nico and Nico also has a huge crush on Leo, but both of them are sO OBLIVIOUS and are constantly trying to improve themselves for eachother :))

“piper. piper, please explain this. piper, i’m legit about to start crying right now, you have no idea—“

“dude,” the daughter of hermes interrupted, “just like...breathe.”

[[MORE]]

“i can’t!” leo threw his arms up in the air, the predicament he was facing clearly taking a toll on his mental state — not good for a son of athena. “piper — have you seen him? i physically can’t speak whenever he tries to talk to me!”

“it’s just nico, leo,” piper soothed her friend, whose emotions were the equivalent of a knott’s berry farm roller coaster. “you went on a quest with him one time.”

“that was a year ago!” leo exclaimed. “when i had no clue that i had a crush on him and we weren’t totally awkward with each other.” his face suddenly curled in horror. “oh my god, i had acne back then. he probably thinks i’m ugly—“

“okay!” piper yelled out, grabbing leo’s arm and pulled him out of the hermes cabin quickly, making him yelp when, in a split second, he was outside and he could actually taste the oxygen on his tongue. piper placed her hands on her hips as she looked at him taking back in the air he lost. “better?”

“physically, yes,” he answered. in contrast, his brain was having a fucking field day. because only ten minutes ago, piper had brought to light the idea that leo had a crush on nico — the revelation which had caused the son of athena to have a mental breakdown because he was that oblivious to his own feelings. and it wasn’t something to feel proud of, because leo had felt that he understood everything about himself up until now.

so he didn’t even bother to question why he felt his face flush whenever nico complimented him, or why he felt butterflies in his stomach whenever nico placed a hand on his shoulder. and it made him internally scream to no end at how, for a child of an intelligent goddess, he was such a dumbass.

“well, you’re fine now,” piper said. “i haven’t seen you have this much of a heart attack since the whole jason incident... for the same reason. god, athena kids are hopeless romantics.”

“shut up, piper!” leo flapped his hands. “i just need to think for a second.”

his friend’s face contorted into sympathy, and she placed a hand on his shoulder. it made leo feel guilty. whenever something was ‘too much,’ he tended to lash out because he was having a crisis wrapping his head around whatever was happening. he apologized but she told him not to worry.

“it’s just... i just... i don’t even know,” he mumbled, burying his face in her chb t-shirt. “i think i like him... a lot? he’s really cute and i’m really bad at confessing my feelings for people. plus he’s a child of aphrodite! he’s basically out of my league.”

she grabbed his shoulders and forced him to look her in the eye. “i’m sorry, whose brilliant idea was it to create demigod cell phones that don’t attract monsters?”

leo didn’t answer and she nudged him slightly before he mumbled a small “...me.”

“and who was able to behead an entire column of cyclopes with a single ballista fire?”

leo started laughing. “me.”

“and who fought the leader of an army of rabid hellhounds and speared him through the chest?”

“okay, okay, i get it!” leo exclaimed, his smile crinkling his eyes. “that was me.”

“if you are able to defeat a rogue demigod in under a split second, then you are out of nico’s league! if he doesn’t return your feelings, then he has to raise his standards!”

leo snorted before hugging piper tight, the touch-starved soul within him begging to encase his best friend in a big hug. piper really knew how to rile people up.

“piper, have i ever told you how amazing you are?”

“i mean... i always knew, but okay.”

leo would’ve punched her if she wasn’t being amazing right now.

suddenly he felt piper shift under his embrace, he looked up and saw her with an uncomfortable expression. “uh, dude—”

“valdez?”

his heart suddenly stopped at the sound of the gravelly voice that belonged to the one and only man of his dreams. he turned around on impulse, which was a mistake because he was suddenly frozen on the spot and his fingers weren’t even moving an inch and leo was pretty sure his mind wasn’t any better because nico was right there—

if you asked leo valdez what his favorite thing about nico di angelo was, he probably wouldn’t answer and just spontaneously combust. nico di angelo had an inch on him, less thin limbs and more... well, hotness. he had smooth olive skin with galaxies upon galaxies of freckles, curled hair that was currently in a weak (yet cute) ponytail, and he was wearing a pink leather jacket with studs and clips. his dark eyes were glittered up under the lids, giving him almost a fairy look that nearly made leo collapse on his own.

leo probably looked like a gaping fish, his face dark and flushed. nico wasn’t helping. because he wasn’t saying anything either and leo really needed him to hand him a subject because if he wasn’t, leo was going to accidentally fall into his arms and kiss him senseless—

“can i...” nico started, before clearing his throat. leo was swerving by the raspiness of his voice. “can i talk to you for a minute?”

leo glanced at piper, who was hiding a thumbs up that only leo could see. he looked back to nico and could only nod.

leo said his goodbyes to the daughter of hermes and followed his crush to camp half-blood’s lake, a shimmering blue that reflected the sun overhead, a small dock leading out towards the water. leo caught sight of some water spirits, who waved at him flirtily, and he forced himself not to blush as he shyly waved back.

“that was your friend?” nico asked. he had perched himself on the edge of the small wooden dock, the darkness of his raven hair pulling away by the streams of sunlight illuminating it. he looked gorgeous as the sun cascaded across his freckled skin. his legs were crossed, and he was looking at leo with a weird face. leo didn’t know what emotion he was expressing but he hoped it wasn’t bad.

“huh?” he realized after around 9.5 seconds that nico was talking to him. “oh, yeah, piper! we’ve been friends since we were kids, we’re pretty close.”

nico raised an eyebrow before humming in acknowledgement. what, did he want him to say they were dating or something? leo could never figure him out, which was probably why leo liked him for some stupid reason — the only equation he couldn’t solve.

nico patted the empty space next to him. “sit,” he said.

leo blinked before walking over to where he was, crouching down to sit upon the dock and let his feet dangle over the edge.

“why did you want to talk to me?” leo asked. (if he had been looking, he would’ve seen nico curse under his breath.)

“oh, um, i was lonely... yeah, because my friends are on a date and they’re like the only people i hang out with so...”

leo felt his high hopes drop to a new low. oh. that’s why he brought him here. leo felt a bubble of spite fill his stomach, more towards himself than towards nico. because of course nico wouldn’t want to converse with him in the first place — leo was so insignificant that he was barely a mole on a baby’s ass. the new information already made him want to jump in the lake and leave camp.

“so i’m like your rebound?” he joked, almost sarcastically, and his eyes widened when nico’s head snapped towards him in an almost defensive position.

“no!” he yelled. “i wouldn’t just do that to you. you’re... uh...” he coughed. “you’re fun to talk to...”

the spite bubble popped, and he made a soft “oh.” he really wished he knew how any of his nerdy rants and book reviews were “fun,” since those were majority of his conversations with the son of love. nico was from the 30s, which meant that he didn’t know much from this era and leo had once been a bit of a tour guide. once in a while he would bring up a topic that leo was obsessed with and he would go into a thirty minute explanation into star wars or dc comics. then he would promptly realize that he’s been infodumping and die on the inside.

nico sighed. “look, i really enjoy your company. you’re smart and you have funny jokes.”

leo made a face. “all of my jokes are inside jokes that no one understands.”

“...yeah, but they’re funny when you know the material?”

leo couldn’t help it. he giggled. “sure, you’re just saying that.” he twiddled with his thumbs, dreading for when the conversation was going to hit death valley where neither of them knew what they were going to say. “what do you want to talk about?”

“i don’t actually know?” nico laughed, a short yet heavenly laugh where his eyes closed like butterfly wings and his mouth curled in a dashing smile. “i’m not good at conversation starters.”

“honestly same,” leo replied. “i’m pretty sure all my dialogue has been entirely based on this book series i...” he dragged his sentence before facepalming. “uh, sorry, i don’t know why i’m—”

“no, no!” nico suddenly grabbed his wrists, and leo skin felt cleansed by the touch of fingerless gloves against his arm. “tell me about it.”

leo raised his eyebrow. he had never done this before. “you sure? i can go on about it for an hour and you won’t be able to stop me.”

“no, i’m sure.” he placed leo’s hands back down on his lap. “tell me.”

that was enough of a catalyst to start talking about the latest book collection he had gotten his hands on (in greek, of course), the six of crows duology. he had finished the grisha trilogy just a month ago (in under a week, he might add), and had bought the two books at the camp’s bookstore. he had finished the first book in a single day and read again because it was just that good, but he was struggling to find time to read the other one. he had asked nico if he wanted to hear spoilers (to which nico nodded wordlessly), and leo had then gone into a rant about how dumb kaz was for not actually trying to show inej his feelings or how nina was way too good for matthias (both of which now sounds pretty relevant to the situation), then started screaming about wylan and jesper and wouldn’t stop talking about their cute dynamic and suddenly he was on the topic of grisha as a whole.

the entire time nico was just nodding and looking at him, but as leo was explaining the chemistry of all the book’s relationships, he noticed nico had a lost expression on his face. he was staring at leo, eyes gazing longingly at him with a soft smile and tint of blush on his cheeks (leo suspected it was makeup). the glitter under his eyelashes were prominent, bright pink and gold and adding beautiful contrast to his entire looks. his hair was cascading around his face in ripples. was he daydreaming? leo stopped talking to prove his theory, and nico didn’t stop staring. was he a little too much?

“do i have something on my face?” he questioned, making nico snap back into reality.

“w-what?” nico stuttered.

“you’re staring,” leo mumbled, averting his eyes from the beautiful boy. “i knew it, i’m ranting too much.”

“no, no!” nico exclaimed, waving his hands for emphasis. leo noticed his black and pink nail polish. “it’s just... your eyes are striking.”

leo an inhuman noise, confused. nico realized what he said and immediately tried to recover.

“cause they’re... uh, they’re scary! yeah, they can kill a man in one hit. i should know, i saw you take down a monster twice your size.”

there was silence. it made sense. his eyes were brown, differing from his siblings’ gray ones, yet they were still sharp and jason claimed they made him nervous when they first met. leo didn’t know if he should be proud or not. it was one thing to strike fear in enemies’ hearts. it was another to strike fear in your friends’.

“uh, thanks man,” leo said, internally scolding himself for not having a proper answer. “yours are... neat.”

neat, he screamed at himself. neat! of all the fucking words in the world, that’s what he said. god, athena must be shaking her head in disappointment in olympus. sorry mom.

(it was a travesty since neat was an understatement when it came to nico di angelo.)

“you know what, i’m sorry,” leo apologized, standing up and backing away. “i have a project i need to work on and jake has been asking me to help him with something, i should go—”

“wait!” nico stood up abruptly, which was the worst mistake of his entire life because leo watched in shock as his foot stuttered under the lack of wood under it and sent nico toppling down into the lake below. leo cried out, rushing towards the water and looking over the dock to see nico pop up from the water and gasp for air.

his black bangs stuck to his face, dripping wet with the hair tie forming his ponytail missing. he pulled the strands from his eyes, looking up at leo who had his hands over his mouth as if he was afraid of what nico was going to say next.

“are you okay?” leo asked, trying to ignore how nico still looked breathtaking after taking a dunk into the half-blood waters.

nico slapped his hands down in the water, the flying droplets hitting leo’s face and making him wince. “do i look okay?”

leo didn’t answer, looking down at the dock in shame, and already his brain was about to burst and now he was probably going to cry? because this is like the worst thing to happen to him in forever and now nico is mad at him and he won’t be his friend anymore and all this stuff was making his stomach feel like excommunicating every single acid in it. “sorry.”

“oh fuck, um, wait, oh gods wait, no, it’s my fault i— leo, hold on!”

leo could barely hear him as he did the only thing he could think of doing, not even bothering a second glance as he ran away to the athena cabin.

—

nico was an idiot.

no scratch that, nico was literally the god of idiots. the whole enchilada of idiots with an idiot army by his side.

being a son of aphrodite, nico expected himself to be a master when it came to emotions, especially romantic ones. and it showed, by his ability to patch up relationships between other campers and help them get ready for their dates with his wardrobe expertise. he was able to make monsters swoon by his voice only to set them up to kill them. he was the one, after all, that knocked sense into percy that he had a crush on annabeth.

but all of that was thrown out the window by leo valdez.

cute, adorable leo, who went for hours on end with tv series and science rantings that nico couldn’t even comprehend because he was always staring at his face, starry eyed and so passionate that it made his chest hurt. whose intelligence was able to bring down a rogue demigod general in the titan war. who was so easy to fluster and make laugh till he couldn’t breathe.

so, nothing could have compared to the absolute disaster he was when they talked a week ago.

first strike was when he had forgotten to create a valid reason to speak with him (anything other than him wanting to stare at leo in a non-creepy way) and fucked it up by explaining that he was some sort of rebound. a rebound! leo wasn’t a rebound, he was a goddamn blessing!

then was when he was caught and he replied with, “your eyes are striking.” he tried to ignore that part because he had never been that stupid, and his explanation wasn’t any better because leo probably took offense of him calling him scary (which he can be but nico likes his face).

finally — falling in the lake. the one thing he was not prepared for, making him so pissed off at how bad he was at this whole feelings thing that he accidentally lashed out at leo. it was the worst — seeing hurt cross over leo’s face with a dejected expression, and nico failing to speak a coherent apology before leo took off, obviously wanting nothing to do with him after he was such a jackass.

which he was, no doubt about it. he wondered what he did wrong, sitting by his vanity, now dry and doing his own makeup and applying glitter under his eyes. then he realized that everything from the point he realized he liked leo was wrong, because he should’ve known that he can’t be too prideful in his love abilities. and now he drove leo away.

“don’t beat yourself up about it,” reyna said, the daughter of apollo said, cleaning up her golden arrows with a small cloth. she was visiting the camp from the roman one she stayed at. “i’ve met leo. he isn’t the type to hold grudges against someone.”

“i know that!” nico spun around in his chair, crossing his arms in exasperation. “i feel bad though. if he hates me, he has a reason to.”

“if he hates you, he’s obviously a dumbass,” reyna counterpointed. “are you going to apologize though? because i’m tired of seeing you pining and not making any moves.”

“i made a move and it ended with me swimming with the fishes.”

“the only thing you said was that his eyes were pretty.” reyna leaned closer, placing a hand on his shoulder. “step up your game.”

nico scoffed. “i’m getting relationship advice by a sun demigod.”

“i’m being serious.” the daughter of apollo had a stony expression on her face. “it’s important to be yourself, i mean that’s what you told me. but if you want to go all out, go all out. you and leo will continue to avoid each other until you come out to him.”

nico sighed. “okay, but...how?”

reyna grinned, picking up a brush from nico’s vanity. “allow me to help.”

an hour later nico was wearing a mesh t-shirt and black leather jeans with combat boots that were decorated in pink flower embroidery, plus a bubblegum aviator jacket gifted to him by his mother. his hair was let down today, ending at his shoulders and wavy like ocean seas, with clips holding up his long bangs. he had his eyelashes curled and eyelids brushed with eyeshadow, and he looked himself up and down in the mirror along with reyna.

finally his best friend gave him a thumbs up. now the challenge was knowing what to say.

“knock him dead!” reyna called out. “well, don’t actually. but you’ll do great.”

“thanks!” nico called out. he was about to head to the athena cabin until he bumped into someone who ran straight at him.

“oh shit!” the person yelped, and nico’s thought processes immediately malfunctioned. “sorry, my bad— nico?”

the plan was supposed to be talk to leo, ask him out somewhere, then confess to him and wait for judgement. but that plan was basically burned to ashes when nico found himself struggling to form words as he stared at leo. his dark yet clear and stabbing eyes looking up at him, his skin decorated in small freckles under the eyes and beauty marks dotting his face delicately. his wild dark hair was like smoke, and small owl earrings hung from the lobes of his ears. he was wearing a pale blue shirt under his chb tee, blue shorts and high socks, making him look like an absolute nerd especially with a small pencil tucked above his ear and gods, nico could feel himself reaching elysium.

nico registered that he was holding leo to keep the shorter from falling, hands on his tiny waist that made his mind even more jumbled until leo’s loud and rapid voice started speaking.

“oh, nico, thank gods i found you! i wanted to say sorry, i’ve honestly been avoiding you because i thought you were mad at me and you most likely are, and you have the right to because i sent you into the water and i probably ruined your makeup — though you guys probably have waterproof makeup so i don’t know — and i didn’t even help you out which was really stupid of me because i’m supposed to be a nice person and frankly you were dripping wet, wow that sounds really wrong i’m sorry i should probably stop rambling—”

the boy took in a deep breath, but nico was squealing internally about how cute leo was when he rambled. he willed himself not to pinch his cheeks and kiss him on his forehead. “i’m sorry.”

“what?” nico honestly was lost halfway through his rant. “it’s fine, it was my fault. i should be the one apologizing. i yelled at you.”

“yeah but i deserved it,” leo mumbled, looking down at the ground.

“no, you didn’t,” nico retorted, going into defense mode. “i’m sorry, really. you want me to make it up to you?”

leo tilted his head like the goddamn cutie he was. “you don’t have to but... how?”

“let’s head to the bookstore,” nico answered. “you pick out a book and i buy it for you.”

“what?” leo exclaimed, backing up until nico’s hands weren’t on his waist anymore (which totally didn’t make him feel sad). “dude, you seriously don’t have to do that, i mean there’s a library—”

“yeah, but the library doesn’t let you keep the books. i know you like reading them over and over again.” nico held up a bag of drachmas from his pocket. “i have money. you can buy the entire store if you desire. but i’m not letting you get out of this empty handed.”

leo looked ready to go off on an entire explanation of why he wasn’t going to follow nico’s idea, and despite him being one of the best debaters the camp has ever seen, nico was determined to hold his ground because that’s what leo deserved.

leo sighed, noticing that nico wouldn’t budge. “okay, fine!” he groaned. “can i at least pay you back?”

“nope.”

“ugh!”

leo’s worries about this arrangement were quickly diminished though, when leo had seen the fuckton of books that had been added to the bookstore since he had last came there. he was gawking over some of them, even held on to three and continuously checked their summaries to make sure they were good. nico leaned against a bookshelf, non-fiction, staring at leo as he ran his finger across the covers and watched his talk to himself silently, even picking some novels up to read with focused eyes. the son of aphrodite hated how whipped he was, but the son of athena was so pretty that he couldn’t help it.

leo placed one of the books back on the table, though hesitantly. “are you sure you can pay for these?”

nico nodded. “i’m stocked up on money right now. buy whatever you want.”

“i’ll just buy one,” which seemed easier said than done to leo, because he was having an internal debate between two thick novels. he turned to nico and showcased them. “pick, i can’t choose.”

nico scanned the books. one was named the outsider by stephen king, the other children of blood and bone by tomi adeyemi. nico had no idea what their summaries were or if they were actually interesting, but he was pretty sure he could pay for both.

“i can buy both of them,” he said. leo was about to protest but nico snatched both of the books out of his hands. “this all you want?”

“i mean, yeah, but—”

“no buts!” nico interrupted. “you deserve this and you don’t get to think otherwise. you want these or not?”

leo nodded. nico smirked. “good. i’ll be back.”

a minute later nico was handing a paper bag of the two books to leo, who almost didn’t grab it if it wasn’t thanks to nico’s prodding. a smile made its way onto the son of athena’s face, fond and filling nico’s empty stomach with butterflies. he looked absolutely gorgeous.

“thanks, neeks,” he said, before gasping and covering his mouth.

nico felt his cheeks heat up. “neeks?”

“sorry, it just came out!” he clutched the books to his chest as if they were a stuffed toy. “you’re really nice, nico.”

nico felt himself step closer towards leo. “it’s no problem.” but it was a problem, because nico was already in leo’s personal space and trying to think other thoughts than kissing him. “you needed this.”

leo laughed, wheezing slightly and light-hearted. “i guess.” he looked up at nico and the son of aphrodite thought he saw him leaning up towards him until—

leo’s face contorted into absolute horror, his eyes widening as they looked at nico’s shoulder. he screamed in terror, jumping and backing up quickly until he hit his head on a nearby ladder that just-so-happened to be placed next to him. nico could barely register leo holding his head in pain before his eyes rolled up into his head and he promptly fell onto the floor, unconscious.

oh shit.

nico looked down at his shoulder to find a daddy longleg hanging on to it. he yelped and flicked it off to gods’ know where, when the reality of the situation hit him. of course a spider would show up. as if the children of athena couldn’t get enough. as if nico didn’t have enough disastrous experiences caused by him already.

nico had brought leo into the infirmary and asked for the apollo kids to give the books to leo on his way out, before rushing to the aphrodite cabin and saw reyna back there, with a sunflower yellow dress, on her demigod phone when nico opened the door with a slam.

“how���d it go?”

nico thought about the day for a single second before walking towards the bed and falling down face first on it, taking in a breath, and muffled his yelling.

son of love? more like son of dumbass.

—

when leo got out of the infirmary, books in hand, he had willed himself not to drown himself in the camp’s lake.

who decided it was a great idea to make children of athena have arachnophobia? because leo had actually tried to kiss nico, one of the boldest decisions in his life, he may add, only to get severely mortified at a fucking tiny saddy longleg climbing over nico’s shoulder, getting a concussion, and passing out. and he actually tried to look cleaned up, with his best shirt and a small pencil to add. was karma doing this? making himself a humiliation in front of the prettiest boy on earth?

he wanted to march up to athena and demand her he take him up to olympus and away from his feelings.

piper had helped him with the incident from two weeks ago, after helping him a week prior when he had felt horrible about nico falling in the lake. now she was telling him, as she was eating from a bag of chips, that he should just confess and get it over with.

“yeah, like that worked,” he grumbled sarcastically.

the daughter of hermes threw up her hands in exasperation. “leo, you have to be shitting me! at this point, you both are oblivious fucks. right now, you march right over to nico’s cabin, tell him your feelings, and hope it goes well. hell, i’m sure he likes you too!”

leo sputtered. “where?”

piper groaned, lolling her head back as if she was begging her heavenly father to take her back to heaven. “nevermind. just tell him you like him.”

and here leo was, in front of the aphrodite cabin, pink and glossy and full of the prettiest people in camp half-blood. leo used to think the kids in there were airheads and lovebugs until he saw them in battle, especially nico, one of the only aphrodite campers with charmspeak. leo wished he had charmspeak so he could beat some sense into himself to go through that deadbeat door.

he let out a breath, clearing out his mind. well, here he goes.

he raised his hand to knock on the door when it opened to... speak of the devil.

“leo?” nico called out, closing the door behind him. he was wearing the same attire he had on two weeks ago, all dolled up and making leo’s face go from normal to seething warm. “i, um, i’m sorry—”

“you’ve got to be kidding me.”

nico blinked before narrowing his eyes. “excuse me?”

but leo was angry, because his emotions have gotten the best of him for far too long and nico was right there, and leo felt all his common sense get thrown out the window and get replaced by anger at the gods for all these bad happenings and shit. he was angry at himself for holding back so long, and angry at nico for not starting something earlier and pretending they could always go back to how they used to be because, frankly, leo was done. he was finished.

“i’m just gonna come out and say it. i like you, di angelo. i like your gorgeous face and your dumb laugh and i like how you try to apologize for things i neither you can control. i literally just figured i had a crush on you like three weeks ago and honestly i’m just done because i’m a son of athena so love isn’t my strong suit which really isn’t that surprising but you get the point. you make me smile a lot and i like it when you hug me and i don’t even know how to interact with you anymore because you make my brain genuinely malfunction and i hate you for it, i hate you but like i like you too and i really want to kiss you—”

he was cut off by nico suddenly surging forward, locking their lips together.

leo made a surprised muffled noise, eyes widening before eventually closing them in bliss, wrapping his arms around nico’s neck and letting the taller hold him by the waist, firm hands grasping him. he felt himself melting in nico’s arms, kissing back and unconsciously bringing his hands up to caress nico’s soft hair.

nico brought up a hand to hold leo’s head, rubbing circles on his back. leo barely remembered that he needed to breathe, and hesitantly leaned away, looking up at nico, who looked as blissed out as he felt. his cheeks were scarlet, his eyes full of hearts.

“wow,” leo muttered. “did you—?”

“mhm,” nico hummed.

“and was i—?”

“mhm.” a fond smile crossed nico’s face. leo felt himself fall in love all over again. “do you want to come inside? just to talk! and maybe kiss?”

leo smiled, glad they were finally being blunt with one another. “i’d love to.”