#I CAN'T BELIEVE ALL THE FREAKING BEAUTIFUL ART YOU HAVE DRAWN

[jflashandclash]

Is it limiting to write TFMO after already posting TOO, is there any struggle to build the characters up to how they were in the beginning of The Whispers of a Snake?

I've been loving the younger Pax brothers and newer characters like Lou Ellen and Mercedes. It's also cool to see small differences like Pax playing more with gender which wasn't as present in TOO.

(Hi btw, glad to see you back after so long.)

HI JACE! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE ASKS! you have no idea how much they mean to me and how much they encourage me to keep at this!

*rolls up my sleeves*

*puts on my nonprescription glasses for effect*

Let's fucking GO--

Yes.

Yes there is.

Because of this-->

stoic piece of--

(I know. this is an old picture. He should have a combo of dreads, braids, and quarter shave in the old school version. And WAY less facial scars. I told myself to make drawings. one d a y.)

In my main series, you might notice that Axel....

Can be comically useless. Don't get me wrong. He's meant to be a bad ass and have so much complicated turmoil to work through. But, keep a counter on how many times he gets taken out of a final fight before he actually gets to fight. Or gets his ass kicked.

Book 1: Aphrodite kneecaps him. On a sinking ship he didn't want shipped.

Book 2: Brothers being Brothers, blasting Axel's bluster with a bullet

Book 3: he gets to fight. But. Almost dies by praetor. Almost drowns by human fire hose.

Book 4: Almost dies by childhood fear of water puppy. Almost dies by half-brother's mom's parental skills.

Most of Riordon's plots revolve around a Hero's Journey, often times. His characters are normally rising bad asses. Axel already had his hero's journey when you meet him in Traitors of Olympus. It is well established and agreed upon by the other characters that Axel is a bad ass, even though you rarely see him win a fight outright. I get a certain amount of pleasure from the "oooOoooo, he's a bad asssss, when he's fighting oversized pidgeonnnnns with a frying pannnnn--"

My secret with Axel is he spends more time In Need of Rescuing than doing the rescuing. This works (oh gods--it does work? Right? Right guys? He seems cool--please--) because he has the presence, both in how he acts and how others react, of someone who is used to being in command and can command well. People respect him because of past heroics, even if you're not seeing him kick ass here. (How many of his fights has he won against Reyna, hrm?) Otherwise, I spend four books emotionally had physically kicking the cho out of him.

..... then comes the prequel

"Oh, fuck, I need to make Axel ACTUALLY cool--"

Axel is meant to be many things. In the first four books, he was meant to be

I wanted to take figure that looked like he would embody everything of toxic Hispanic Machismo, and then make them a hyper-feminist, social justice warrior that super supports their nonbinary little siblings, someone to fight a nasty stereotype from when I was growing up

Worthy of Reyna. Yes. Axel was made for Reyna, and they STILL SCREWED IT UP--GSDI REYEL, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO--

But in the prequel, he's meant to be the parallel to the Greek's Percy and Rome's Jason. Lord knows (hail Kronos) that Riordan didn't set Luke up well for that. (I can do a different deep dive into this.) That means, not only does Axel need to progress, but he needs to rise above those around him. And he's surrounded by titans, mythical monsters, and serial killers like Jack and Flynn that can alter people's wills and health with words and songs. I'm going to end up truncating Axel's character development more than I want to, but, by all rights, he should have his own series-worth of adventures, and I believe he does.

It's just freaking HARD to go from humiliating and crushing someone for four books and then be like, "oh.... you need to... win here..."

Otherwise, Pax is relatively easy. Oh, except the Lamia thing. I might be, um, skipping over the Lamia thing. That is the one thing I just can't fit (we'll see) but the Trauma from--ehem, I mean the Massacre of Mount Othrys is more important to his character development. He has more pivot points, whereas Axel has long progression.

Jack was always meant to be a sweetie church boy that's got just a smidge of serial killer problem. Just a lil.

I'm SO freaking happy you like Mercedes and Lou Ellen. Mercedes is one of my favorite characters in Tales From Mount Othrys. <3 Her dialogue and scenes are tricky to write, but she's SO much fun to bring to life!

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR ASKS!

[ilsolefiesta]

some random astro observations

according to my observations, people who are most often approached to date on the street tend to have Gemini Venus.

the connection between Scorpio Moon/Venus individuals and dark, gloomy art is fascinating. I've seen numerous mentions that they may be particularly drawn to true crime stories. however, I would like to emphasize that this desire for intense emotions can lead them to discover thriller titles without any initial intention. it can be like: "oh, it just seemed interesting, so I started reading, and then found out there were a lot of hardcore trash in the plot."

the same placements can be perceived so differently depending on the status of a certain person in your life. my ex-boyfriend and my bestie share 85% identical positions. the issue is that these placements appeared to be so damn cool for my friend and so damn bad for my boyfriend. the main essential difference is his Gemini Moon and her Pisces Moon. and it's so fun that I'm ready to forgive HER for all the things HE used to annoy me terribly. I guess, the reason is the better match with my Taurus Moon and better understanding of emotions of each other.

it's crazy that almost every girl who has experienced falling in love or dating a Virgo boy has told me that it was one of the most beautiful, significant and traumatic experience at the same time. (I can agree, I'm also part of this team...)

have you ever experienced this too? you know that you have an excellent compatibility with some sign, but you say with conviction: "never in my life, I don't like them at all." and then suddenly have a crazy crush on someone with this sign? it's me and Scorpio sign...

I can't say for sure, but I believe this is due to the fact that my Venus, which is responsible for aesthetics, is in an aspect with my Capricorn Lilith. as we know, Capricorn is responsible for teeth... I am a complete teeth freak. teeth, occlusion - these are the first things I notice when evaluating someone's attractiveness. it doesn't have to be perfect, a person can even have problems with their teeth, but if I like it... it's 70% of success. there were so many times when my friend showed me photos of REALLY beautiful people (and I rationally understood it), but my response was something like: "yeah, but for me, there's something wrong with their teeth. I can hardly figure out what exactly is wrong. I just don't like the way they smile." That's it. Thank you for reading! Picture credits: Pinterest