#God this is the pettiest post I've made

[cam24fan]

Hot take: Hazel is the strongest demigod, not Percy.

Don't get me wrong, Percy is definitely very talented and accomplished, and has done things other demigods in the series couldn't even dream of. Even so, if he and Hazel were ever to fight without any restrictions holding them back, I think she'd win.

For one, Hazel has a wide range of powers. Due to Pluto, she has control over the minerals and metals in the earth. Not only can she conjure gems out of the ground, but her curse makes them much deadlier than usual too. Additionally, as a protégé of Hecate, she has mastery over Mist manipulation, something which Percy has canonically struggled with. Unlike Nico and Percy, none of these powers have downsides to them, i.e. they don't tire her nor does she ever lose control. Even her curse can come to her advantage when targeted against an enemy.

Percy may have gone toe-to-toe with a God and choked a Goddess on her own poison, but Hazel's feats are nothing to scoff at either. She was able to not only resurrect a giant without any formal training or guidance, but also both destroy it and send Mother Earth herself into a 6-decade coma, all in one fell swoop. When it comes to thinking on the fly, both Hazel and Percy are shown to be very capable. Hazel is able to recognize Gaea's manipulation and defeat her, and later negotiates with the Fates to allow her mother into the Fields of Asphodel

"But Percy survived Tartarus," you say, and yes, I admit that does tilt the scales in his favour. At least, it would, if not for the way Rick liberally expels characters to Tartarus on a whim. Percy survived Tartarus, but so did Annabeth and Will, yet no one seems to argue that they're the strongest demigods. Hell (pun not intended), Nico did it first! And twice! That too, on his own the first time.

On the other hand, Hazel does do something no other demigod has: come back from the dead. In the original series, there is an entire subplot dedicated to emphasizing how it is impossible to cheat death, ending with Bianca choosing to be reborn so that Nico would quit trying to bring her back. Sally is sent back from the Underworld as a special favour from Hades himself, and even in Heroes of Olympus, the Doors of Death being open is seen as a big deal. Yet, all Hazel needs is a little help from Nico, and she is free to just stroll out of there.

People break mentally after only a year of isolation. Hazel spends 6 decades alone as the only sentient being surrounded by souls with no memory or conscious, without even knowing that she'd be rescued. Then, she has to get used to a world completely different to her own, referring both to modern day but also Camp Jupiter itself. Growing up as young Black girl in 1930s North America alone should reflective of her emotional strength, but the rest only confirms that she has a superior mental fortitude to most.

"But Percy was asked to be a God!" Indeed. However, this also doesn't mean much when considering the way the Greek Gods are portrayed in the Riordanverse. They're shown to be a lot less competent than their mythological counterparts, for e.g. Apollo in the Trials of Apollo. If Percy could easily defeat Ares, who had thousands of years of experience as a God, then why can't Hazel defeat him in turn, when Percy didn't even accept the offer?

Hazel cannot shadowtravel like Nico can, but she might not even need to considering that the "Fastest Being On Land" (Riordan's words, not mine) follows her command. Hylla mentions in Son of Neptune that even the strongest Amazons, a warrior group noted for being indomitable, were unable to tame Arion. Arion (according to the wiki) can ride over both wind and sea, so even in Percy's domain, Hazel has an advantage he doesn't. It goes without saying that as loyal and faithful as Blackjack may be, he serves no comparison to Arion.

In conclusion, uh, Hazel >>>> Percy.

[m00nsbaby]

Pedro Pascal STOLE my GIRLFRIEND!

Marc Spector x F!Reader.

This is literally just a post from reddit that I saw and made me think of jealous Marc lol.

SPKTR:

It all started when we watched "Kingsman: The golden circle." I was interested for the plot and Colin Firth but she found Whiskey to be so much better than Harry Hart. Yes, the traitor cowboy was hotter to her than the badass Kingsman Agent Harry Hart. She said girls always found villains hotter than heroes, I was making a huge fuss over it. Okay, true but it's Colin Firth for God's sake! Days later, I catch her watching "Kingsman: The golden circle." again and says she really wasn't paying attention to the plot and wanted to understand it better. The "plot" to her was Pedro Pascal and his "seductive voice." I didn't get the big appeal when Firth was right there, but whatever, you do you. We usually watch movies when she comes over and she insists on picking the movie one day, I say "Fine, as long as is not Kingsman" thinking her obsession was only caused because of that movie. She puts on this action movie called "Triple frontier." Cool, I love action movies and then PEDRO PASCAL SHOWS UP. I'm sensing a pattern but I quietly observe her reactions when he's on screen. She's giggling, blushing, kicking her feet, the whole shebang whenever he appears and she absolutely loses it during that scene when he speaks spanish and she repeats over and over "I would have folded" NO SHAME. Like, hello? Your boyfriend is right HERE! It takes me a minute to notice she's REPEATING the scene and squealing like a school girl. Her whole face is red by this point and she's just rolling on the bed giggling excitedly, it doesn't end there, though. She starts watching Narcos JUST for Pedro Pascal. It's one thing to watch a movie for an actor but a 3 season show is downright INSANE. She soon forgets I exist and replaces the photo widgets she had of me with Pedro Pascal. That's when she crossed a line. Simping over Pascal I understand but he DOESN'T get to REPLACE ME on her phone like that. Then The Last of Us comes out and never hear the end of it. My girlfriend is a books/movies person and she's never had any interest in videogames but now that "her man", as she's been referring to him for the past week is starring in this NINE EPISODE series about a fungus pandemic, she just HAS to see it. She says it's a good way to catch up on the videogame but we all know the real reason. But fine, we see it and she's so excited the entire time. Seriously, I've never seen him so happy before. So now I'm an idiot who's indulged his girlfriend's obsession with Pedro Pascal for too long and now I'm second to him. But it doesn't end there because WHY WOULD IT END THERE why did nobody warn me about the amount of thirst traps in this series?? Her jaw drop seeing him get aggresive, the words are on the tip of her tongue, I can practically hear her say how much she wants him, so I lean over and whisper in the pettiest tone I could muster "Just fuck him." She gets embarrased and starts giggling nervously while hitting my arm softly saying "Babe, no! What? No" but by her tone it was SO OBVIOUS she was saying "I would if I could." Anyway, we all know Colin Firth is better so count your days Pedro Pascal.

sorry for tagging you in this lol

Mk's tag list :)@ninebluehearts @icreatedthisat317am @onefinnedwonder-fm @shousha133

I couldn't find the original post but here's where I saw it lol <3! https://www.tiktok.com/@requestedreads/video/7279590034729291054?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7179670435260827141

[howlsnteeth]

hi, just wanted you to know that if you ever wanted to like. interest-dump about cotl and your thoughts about the lore/storyline and stuff as ive seen you show in your art, id read PARAGRAPHS. im so curious and love to hear about people's interest in game/story/media lore and the interpersonal relationships within the universe!!! - from an autistic system who has loved your art since like. forever. (u can call us moss)

okay hi moss :3

i'm kind of due for an infodump on my cotl headcanons, so! i'll try be somewhat concise because this is going to be a long post anyway rip. i drew some pictures :D

(i can't really think of any warnings to give outside of usual cotl themes/killed race/dying/blood/etc but let me know)

obviously watching the destruction of your entire race is traumatic as fuck, also because it likely took a few weeks or months to achieve. so they died pretty underweight/weak bodied/pretty shut down. the bishops are gone by the time lamb is revived by toww, and their body hadn't quite made it to a 'body pit' (or food pit). still, they get Their Bell from another of their race on the way out. probably weren't thinking about it too hard and just desperately wanted to grab something while their eyes burned in their sockets and this red crown fit like molded clay in their hand. my lamb has a little notch out of their left ear which was caused while escaping, which ends up never healing because of a few reasons but mostly because i like it.

over the course of the game/story they start to slowly physically change. after revival it takes scars a Long time to fade, considering lamb is technically a walking corpse, and also because of their affiliation with Death (narinder, who has similar i'll mention later). they get dark marked lines under their eyes from that classic 'bleeding eyes' action during rituals/etc. their ears but especially horns get longer and sharper. their way of coping is similar to most lambs, jokes and pulled punches.

by the end of the 'main game/toww fight,' they've already made their choice, and start flexing their control/communication with the red crown itself. it gets harder for toww to view through it, and lamb gets somewhat intoxicated with the idea of an ultimate revenge, having killed all the other bishops. they've done everything they can to stop their cult members noticing signs of weakness, but as things get more stressful this kind of rubberbands around to them seeming extremely unstable. by the time they go to fight toww they're muttering nonstop, barely aware, and also they let their wool get longer and basically end up with a mullet. <3 because it's funny to me

they obviously beat toww and for them it's like a smashing of clarity, like a gripped handle let go, standing up from the river of blood. it's freeing but also the most pain they've ever been in. and instead of killing toww this pit in their stomach spares him. lamb went from a corpse to a god and now, in some sick way, they want to watch a god turn into a living corpse, just like them. because with every other sheep dead, narinder is the only one with a connection to that genocide, the cause of the other bishops doing it.

narinder hates their fucking guts. obvs. he thinks, or knows, that lamb is doing it on purpose. but narinder's body hasn't been normal for far, far too long. even before he was made death (as in artworks i've done with him), his body turned skeletal and rotted away. lacerations open all over his body, but especially down his front torso. when he's first brought to the cult, lamb gives him red robes, also because of this 'problem'. but narinder does every single thing he can against them. he gets white robes and lets them turn bloodied and disturbing to everyone around him.

even washing them stops working, and lamb does resign slightly to letting him sit in his dirty stupid robes. it's the pettiest shit. narinder also keeps his veil, and lamb can't bother with a reason to take it away. let that dumbass keep his yuck robes and veil. you can only stick him the stockade for a week before your other followers get too concerned.

over time, they do end up getting closer, but it comes from a place from both being touched and changed by Death, the red crown, and the choices of the other bishops. it takes a really long time and only after all the other bishops have been recruited (another whole thing). both of them catch themselves enjoying little things, and then having moments of all the pain bleeding through. an example is over time narinder does end up wearing darker robes, but it's fairly gradual. in this piece, it's lamb getting too deep in the countless lives that were taken from their race, triggered by blood (a whole little story thing), and narinder does make the (semi subconscious) choice to wear dark robes.

anyway you're probably looking at that giant shadow in the picture huh. it takes a long time but lamb Does end up truly becoming a bishop.

not 100% done with this design, but it has the basics. their main horns end up breaking off (thinking of a story behind that still). the main thing with them that i really like is they have multiple strings of bells on them. so everyone starts associating the sound of ringing bells as Death. so if you hear them, they're coming for you. that being said, they also have the ability to move completely silently, despite being covered in bells. which adds to the scaring-the-fuck-out-of-everyone factor.

there's a ton more i could get into with the other bishops, ratau, the duck siblings, the crowns themselves, more aym and baal, but i'm probably gonna do more artworks with them so i can talk more then :3 this is already too long lmao

thanks for the ask though!! it's nice knowing people are interested in my stuff :D (it's also worth mentioning that i am also a system and have alters of lamb, narinder, and aym and baal, who all contribute to this stuff)

[sophieinwonderland]

i think it's honestly wholesome to see you and sysmedsaresexist interacting so well and so kindly these days! as someone who would get so scared to see sysmedsaresexist's posts and sometimes even triggered, it's really nice to see how much they've changed and how positive they've become! i honestly hope the best for this community and i hope in months and years from now, we'll all be a little more positive, wholesome and kind! <3

Same!

It's been really nice to see their growth.

You know, one of the pettiest grudges I've held was over an argument with them years ago where I was citing the absorption hypothesis by Tanya Luhrmann, which discussed the way Vineyard evangelicals will use tulpamancy-like practices to make Gods in their heads. At the time, their counter was dismissing this on the grounds that some people in some Vineyard churches accused their churches of being cult-like, therefore the psychological study into members of the church was invalid.

I can't recall if it was them or just someone echoing their arguments that referred to me using "abusive sources" because of that, but that whole conversation made me want to rip my hair out.

I'm not bringing this up to rehash past drama... but to give a bit of context to why I loved so much seeing their recent posts praising Tanya Luhrmann for her work!

I just thought that particular change was really cool to see play out and needed to say that.