#I have so many ideas but I'm unorganized | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

elderberries-and-honey · 4 months ago

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𝙈𝙮 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 & 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜

A while back I received this question asking if I'd mind explaining what my creative process is like and some wanted further explanation about what goes into planning multiple generations & arcs. I do apologize that this is so overdue, and it's literally taken me months to get to. My process is always changing, and I'm constantly adding in pieces that help make the process easier. Because of this, the way I answered the question back then is also quite outdated, at least in terms of how I plan each shoot/post, and I'll hopefully provide further clarification below the cut.

However, first and foremost, I want to say I am by no means an expert and different processes work for different people. Your creative process might look totally different than mine, and that's okay! Whatever keeps you coming back and sharing your work is always going to be the best & most efficient way of doing things.

But I do think it's helpful to get insight into what works for others when you have no clue how to plan things like this, or where to even begin. So, without further ado, here is my process.

Mainly, I use a website called Milanote. It's super helpful for organization purposes, and it's mostly free. They have free templates you can use, or you can make your own. The only downside to it is you're limited on the number of "cards" that are available to you. They do have a promo that you can use where if you get someone else to sign up, you get more cards, which is what I did.

My main folder basically looks like this:

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙀𝘼𝙍𝘾𝙃

The research folder is an unorganized, organized mess and basically just looks like this:

This is where I keep all my resources, and all of the things I've researched for my story. As you can see, this includes various sources like YouTube videos, various articles, quotes, photos and even some music as well. I like having this all in one place so it's easily accessible for me, but you could just easily keep all of this in a Google or Word doc if you're low on 'cards'.

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘼𝙍𝘾𝙎

Next we have these two sections. Obviously, I had to cover them up to avoid spoilers but I did label them to hopefully provide insight. Essentially, for this decade in particular, there are going to be various arcs happening at once, especially since the children will be growing into adults and laying their foundation is going to become crucial to the story. However, I'm trying to limit myself from having too much going on at once, which is why I try to limit myself to only four arcs playing out at once.

I will also say that Plot's A through C are interconnected, or at least they will be eventually, while Plot D concerns one of the children and will impact things later down the line. This is super important for really tying different ideas together, and making sure random plots don't seem to just pop up out of the blue.

The table for myself helps a lot with this, so that I can easily see what arcs have been started, and how many 'scenes' each one has. I find this to be useful because then I know that none of the arcs are stretching too long, which ones might need more fine tuning and which ones have yet to flourish or even begin.

Each arc basically has something like this going from beginning to end, essentially following the classic three act structure. Not all of them have five components, some more or less, but generally it ends up being five. Now, this doesn't mean every plot is only five posts or anything like that. Most of the time, the timeline of events needs to be broken off into bite sized pieces and that's okay.

The resolution doesn't always mean a happy ending, and can also serve as a way for me to introduce any new arcs for a specific character, which would then start the process over. You can kind of think about this when watching a lot of television shows. We watch all this build up starting on episode one, and things get more and more intense until we finally reach the season finale. And then woah, with two minutes left of the episode, we see that the character they just thought was dead is actually alive?! Which then leads us into season two.

I do think planning this way could feel really tedious for some, but I like to map things out before I start introducing any arcs so I at least know it isn't a quick "one shot" plot, something without actual purpose or an arc that doesn't really seem to have any sort of end goal that makes logical sense. It also just helps me remember what everyone's up to, especially when there are so many characters to keep track of.

𝙎𝙃𝙊𝙊𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝘾𝙀𝙉𝙀

Before I go into the game, I basically write out a "rough draft" of sorts. This includes dialogue, any background noises (things like a clock ticking or the tapping of a pencil), a brief description of each shot/photo (including any post-editing things like adding blur effect), and a summary of what's happening in each panel.

Because I only use one document for this, and clear it out once I complete a scene, I do not have any examples to show from The Baudelaire Legacy, so I created a mock-up scenario in which Ozzy flunks a difficult test at school, as seen below.

Once I have that written, I plug it into my 'scene planning' board. However, I only include the shot/photos, and the short summary. On Milanote, I also plug in the location, time of day, attire and any pose accessories I might need (so that I remember to create an extra outfit for it). This ends up looking like the example below.

I typically will only have this open on my second monitor while I'm shooting the scene, and I just tick the boxes as I go along. This is really nice if you have to stop mid-shoot, and helps me pick up where I left off without getting confused.

I do also edit each panel in-between shooting to make sure I'm getting the shots I want, however, I don't encourage everyone to have Photoshop and Sims 4 open at the same time.

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙎

Then we have the character sheets for each of our characters. Right now, I'm only focusing on Lawrence & Winifred (though, the children's arcs are in a 'idea dump' document).

For me, this is the most important piece of the story. One of the reasons shows like The Sopranos and Breaking Bad are considered some of the best writing in television history, is mostly due to the fact that, in my opinion, they prioritize this as well. It's always good to have a strong character in mind before you begin, and this is because you don't want them to step outside themselves.

Of course, your character can change and bend within their environment or plots happening around them, and they certainly should, but you also need to ask yourself if it's being done logically. Asking yourself, 'Why did they end up this way?', 'How did we get here?' and 'How would this character specifically react to an intense situation, stress or hardship?' is crucial when writing a character that feels alive.

Having something like this helps me build their "character arc" and map it out so no one ends up being left in the dust and makes sure that everyone is important in some way. Each of the children will have a sheet created for them once they reach the teen life state as well.

I also use this page as a way to record any quirks, or habits they have. These don't have to be major or super important either. So for example, on Lawrence's character sheet, I have it written down that he wears glasses to read; a very small thing casual readers probably wouldn't even pay attention to, so it feels like an important detail to me.

𝙈𝙔 𝙎𝙋𝙍𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙀𝙏𝙎

In addition to Milanote, I also Google Sheets/Docs. This is where I keep my spreadsheet and write / keep a hard copy of my story.

My spreadsheet is basically broken up into four different tabs - one for the main sims information (the Baudelaire's), side household information, my story posts and my ageing table.

My information tables look something like this:

For story posts, I use @aheathen-conceivably's method of tracking, which you can read about here. The only thing I have added in addition to what she has is a "notes" section, and this where I include any sort of post that doesn't specifically fit into any arc but is still important - things like birthdays, marriages, holidays, etc.

𝙈𝙄𝙎𝘾𝙀𝙇𝙇𝘼𝙉𝙀𝙊𝙐𝙎 𝙄𝙉𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙈𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

In addition to all of these things, I also use Pinterest to create moodboards for each decade, as well as each character. I like to include all sorts of things like any inspiration I'm drawing from (so, things like Greta Gerwig's Little Women or HBO's Gilded Age), photos, quotes, etc.

Annnnd that's basically it! I'm hoping this provides some good insight, and is helpful in some way. I know it seems like a lot, but the more you do it, and the more you plan, the more natural it will start to feel. Again, I am not an expert in any way, and it's always difficult to explain your process in this way (and probably why I put off trying to do so for such a long time). So, please feel free to ask for clarification in regards to any part of the above.

Happy Simming ‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃

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fluorescentbalaclava · 10 months ago

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training season's over

Chapter 2: Charlie Foxtrot

Summary:

Charlie Foxtrot / CF / cluster fuck Chaotic situation with all plans disintegrating in all directions.

TF141/female reader

spy reader, forced bonding, slow burn, slow build, militar inaccuracies, sugestive language, language, canon typical violence, second chance

previous: chapter one "Ground Zero"

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Everything felt relatively normal...for one month. You tried to avoid Ghost to the best of your capabilities, considering that he ( allegedly ) lived on the floor above yours. Awkward lift rides occurred but weren't so frequent.

After spending three weeks in your new home, you were called back. The task wasn’t hard at all, just to pose as a sniper while a small team of rookies conducted a RIF on a Konni base, which apparently held some important cargo that soon was going to be on the move. Your duty was to back up the team in case things got hairy and to observe the strength, deployment, preparedness, determination, and other tactical data of the target for a future raid.

You packed up only the necessary, as it was a short affair, and once you were ready to leave, you double checked all the entries on the flat, to make sure it was all locked. Once in the hallway you pressed the down button in the lift, and you weren't surprised at all when you saw Ghost going down as well, you just sigh to yourself, standing next to him as the door closed behind you. Does this man live in this lift?

"Going somewhere?" He asked, checking you from the corner of his eyes.

"With some friends for the weekend" You answered nonchalantly, looking up as the lift went down. Just one more floor.

"I see," He answered, leaving it there. The door opened and you basically sprinted your way out of the building.

After taking a nap both on the transfer and the plane to the safe house close to the target, you were all equipped and ready to go. Your face mask leaving only your eyes uncovered, your hair in a bun, your dark blue uniform on and the case where you kept your sniper rifle hanging from your back. Your station chief gave the team their assignments before leaving. The scouting team had weapons free order, while you were given weapons hold order, only engage when engaged.

The recce team were in motorcycles, the idea was doing a hit and run, and see what the Konni soldiers used to fight back, and how many were visible. You were dropped midway by them, and you walked to your position. The warehouse was surrounded by fields, some wind turbines could be seen in the distance, and you made your way to an abandoned watchtower that was the perfect sniper nest.

"Sage to Control. I'm in position, I have visual." You said as you settled down on your stomach on the floor of the dome of the top of the tower.

"Copy, Sage. Control to Delta team. Delta, you're clear to engage." The voice on your comm answered.

After the order was given, you could see through your scope three motorcycles from the Delta team, each one with two people on them, one driving and the other shooting, quickly approaching the place.

"Delta-1 to Control. Control, we have contact." The voice came through the comm followed by the sound of shooting, and you could see through the scope the whole scene.

"Control to Sage. What do you see?"

"Six armed personnel. Automatic weapons...they don't seem very prepared." You said as you zoomed in on the scope, and you could tell everyone there was caught by surprise, unorganized men rushing to shoot back, no heavy weaponry in sight. They sure are disorganized for people guarding an important cargo.

After a few more minutes of combat, two hurt Konni soldiers, and with no changes in the defences, the team was called back to retreat.

"Control, how reliable was the intel? These poor bastards couldn't even defend themselves against an angry dog" You said as you kept looking at the warehouse, everyone looked as if they were angrily talking to each other, clearly still on edge.

"It was a tip, reliable source so we thought it was worth a check. I'll tell Delta to pick you up on their way back”.

"Thank you very much" You said as you stood up to start disassembling your rifle, carefully putting it back to its case, and hanging it in your back.

As you came out from the tower, you were greeted by a very heavy and unexpected hit on the face and when you felt something warm and salty in your mouth, mixed with the sharp pain that made your head hurt and left you stunned, you were pretty sure it broke your nose. Your mask was starting to get wet with blood, as you fell on your back on the floor, and when you focused your sight you saw a big figure towering over you, with a knife. You quickly kicked it on the stomach, a deep grunt was heard, and they answered with a cut on your leg that made you hiss in pain, but you used the same leg to kick their arm, throwing the knife across the room, hitting one of the walls. The figure was already charging at you again when a shot impacted on the wall of the tower, prompting the figure to quickly flee to the woods.

"Motherfucker...fucking shit, fuck" You took off your mask, whimpering at the pain. You spit a mix of saliva and blood to the floor, as you tried to clean your mouth with the back of your hand, which made you wince in pain as you accidentally brushed your nose.

"Jesus Christ, Sage, what the hell was that?" The man that you only recognized as Delta-1 approached you quickly, lowering his gun, looking down at you at the floor.

"Do I look like I fucking know?" You shot back, glaring up at him. This was not the first time you got punched in the nose, however it was the only time where you got it broken, and the pain was making you dizzy.

"They left their knife," Delta-2 said, picking up the stray knife from the floor close to the wall. Nothing remarkable about it, just an average hunting knife.

"Come here, mate" Delta-1 said, letting his gun go from his hands and hang behind him, as he crouched over and carefully helped you up from the floor. Your head was killing you, and the cut on your leg wasn't as terrible but you felt it with each step.

Two days later, you were dropped in the corner of your building. Gauze wrapped around your nose, and some packing stuffed inside it to provide support while it heals. If you thought a broken nose was bad, it was because you haven't heard about the recovery of a broken nose. You felt like it was constantly stuffy and you couldn't do anything about it, your head hurt very often, and you could only breathe through your mouth, making it dry and your lips constantly chapped. Additionally, you were given a three-week medical leave, with no strenuous activities or heavy lifting, and some purple was starting to show under your eyes. You entered the building, bag in your back, and you lazily walked to the lift. As you were waiting, you heard heavy footsteps behind you. Jesus Christ, have I not suffered enough?

“Morning" You heard that husky voice you were familiar with behind you.

"Hey" You answered back, doing very little to hide the contempt in your voice. And as the lift opened its doors, you entered, followed by Ghost.

There were some minutes of silence, which made you believe that he wasn't going to try to be a smartass, but then...

"What happened to your nose?" He suddenly said, looking down at you.

"Rhinoplasty" You answered flatly, shrugging.

"It looks the same to me" He answered in a matter-of-factly tone.

"That's because the swelling needs to go down" You answer in the same tone.

"You're limping" He poked again, still looking down at you.

"Got fucked." You answered once again, nonchalantly, and if you were looking you could see him arching a brow under his mask at the blunt answer.

"With a broken nose?"

"Don't tell my doctor" You said as you reached your floor, exiting the lift.

Once inside your flat you locked the door behind you before laying on your couch and basically passing out on it, without even bothering to change your clothes. You already knew that Ghost knew. If he didn't know who you were exactly already, he for sure was close to it after today.

For now, you just hoped he would spare you for the night, as you slowly started to drift asleep on your couch.

You don't know how much time has passed before loud knocks at your door woke you up. You grunted as you got up from the couch, and you went to your desk and looked in the drawer for your handgun...you were surprised to see that it wasn’t there. Someone was here. You were so tired that you didn't even check.

Your body tensed, as you went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, the second-best option. You held the knife on your back, slowly opening the door.

Bucket hat = Price

You froze as you stared up at him, and when you lowered your gaze you noticed how he was carrying your gun.

"Think very well about your next actions, kid" He warned you, taking the safety off your gun. Why does everyone in that damned unit have the same husky voices?

You were a fighter, but you weren't stupid. So, you moved the hand off your back, and handed him the knife.

"Atta girl" He said as he stepped back, making a gesture with his head indicating you to step out of your flat. "Let's go for a walk.”

The next hour or so was kind of confusing. He got you into a car, putting a bag over your head, making you flinch when it touched your nose. Then, at some point in the ride, you felt a sharp pain on your neck, then everything went dark, as you heard a distant female voice talking.

When you felt yourself slowly regaining consciousness and getting back to your senses, you blinked a few times, trying to clear your blurry vision. You looked around a bare grey room, a table in front of you, a blinding light hanging over it and Price sitting across it. Behind him, a blonde woman standing against the wall, looking at you as well. You tried to move, but both your feet and hands were tied up.

"Easy, girl. Try to focus" You blinked a few more times, taking a few deep breaths, your mouth felt dry. "You are slippery and hard to find, I give you that" He added, as you tried to concentrate on him.

"Where am I?" You managed to mutter, but your words came out a bit slurred.

"Don't worry 'bout that for now..." He answered before he started. "I can't begin to explain the pain in my ass you've been these months. The higher commands have been chewing my ear off bitching about how we spent taxpayers’ money to purchase the intel from some contracting company that magically got to it first. It could have been a coincidence, yes. One time? Sure. Two times? Maybe. But seventeen fucking operations frustrated in the span of 8 months? Someone was on us."

You started to be able to see his image more clearly and the haze you were in started to wear off. You were in an interrogation room...and the camera was off. Off the records, bad sign.

"So, we started to look back, every detail, every camera, every mistake we made, anything we could find. A shadow in the middle of the smoke in shitty quality footage of some warehouse, which led us to multiple street cameras, until we saw the same figure getting in an unregistered car. The unregistered car led us to some tax haven in God knows which island, and then back to our old friends from KorTac, but your profile didn't match anyone we knew from there before...but we got a solid lead a couple of months ago and we went with it. And three days ago, we managed to confirm it by pulling some contacts, and dropping some fake tips...I'm sorry about your nose by the way, my hand slipped, and I punched harder than I was expecting to."

“Son of a bitch..." You muttered under your breath.

"When Captain Price showed me the footage, I ran your face through facial recognition..." The blonde woman that has been silent since you woke up suddenly said, before handling Price a tablet. You were sure it was the voice you heard on the car as you blacked out. "...and imagine my surprise when I saw that on our database."

You turned your attention back at Price in front of you as he showed you the screen of the device. You saw a much younger picture of yourself, when you first enlisted, and then the word "Corporal" followed by your full name.

"I spoke to your old sergeant, and he said amazing things about you. He was happy to hear about you again. He remarked on your exceptional performance and leadership abilities. And of course, he started boasting about your good records in basic and advanced individual training, and he said how excited he was for you to take the test and pass the SAS selection, and how he was even planning to write you a recommendation letter..."

You lowered your gaze; you already knew this story.

"And how shocked he was when he learnt you put your 28 days’ notice after two months of signing your contract." He then swiped his finger, showing the scan of your formal letter of resignation, to which you looked away. I already saw that bloody paper before . “Is that when you joined KorTac?"

"I wanted more liberties, not being tied up for four years" You said in an attempt to put on a nonchalant tone.

"Are you sure that’s the reason?" The woman said from behind Price, to which he turned around, and the woman nodded at him.

He then swiped again on his tablet, revealing a photo of your parents. You felt how your whole body went stiff, as you felt yourself immediately getting sick, bile threatening to go all the way up to your throat.

"Cunts" You manage after some minutes, trying to desperately free your hands from the handcuffs to the chair, the sound of metal clicks echoing through the silent room. "Leave them out of this.”

"We are not planning to hurt them." The woman spoke again, but it did little to calm down your growing anxiety. "We were worried that since you're officially MIA in KorTac's records, that they would try to...tie other loose ends" She said as she swiped through more pictures of your parents and judging by the looks of it, they have been under surveillance for weeks.

You felt nauseous, you haven’t even thought about that. Once you joined, you tried to leave all your old friendships back home, and keep the contact to your parents at minimum, since you couldn't just cut them off completely. It was easy to blame not having signal while on the move.

"They're actually very nice people but imagine my surprise when I was informed that they think you're still in the army" You started to feel like you were about to have a panic attack. All your lies catching up to you at once.

"I...W-We needed the money..." You answered after a few minutes of struggling to the strength to talk, your voice still came out strained.

“And…?” The woman said, and by the look in her eyes, you could tell she already knew the answer.

“KorTac had someone in the army, they would contact the recruits with the best performances to work for them. They showed me what they could pay me, if I joined…my parents are not young anymore, and they need money for the mortgage, bills, healthcare…I just wanted them to have a good life…I wanted to have a good life.”

"There you go, kid. Doesn't it feel nice to say the truth for once?" Price said, putting the tablet on the table and returning his attention to you. "The boys are with them right now, playing along with your lies...for now. They're going to move them to a safe house, until we can find another place for them to settle."

"Why...?" You looked between both Price and the woman. Why protect them? What's the trick?

"Your parents are not to blame for the things you've done. Legally, you should be prosecuted for high treason, and you'd get at least 7 years. And how do you think your parents react when we tell them their daughter, who they thought was serving in the army, is in prison?" Low blow. You just stared up at him, clenching your jaw. "However, Kate and I discussed your situation before bringing you here..."

“You have potential, kid" She said from behind him, still leaning against the wall.

"What is this? Some kind of intervention?" You said looking between them, anxious and confused in equal measure.

"We can always just send you to prison, if you don't want to hear us" He said, crossing his arms, and you just leaned back to your seat, staying quiet and listening, your body still tense. "That's what I thought."

"We could use a person of your abilities...and your experience." Kate said again, still glancing over you.

I'm fucked, I'm so fucked, so, so, so...

"What's the catch?" You asked, still looking at them.

"Instead of spending time in prison, like you should, you'd serve in the army again" Price started explaining again. "You'd get an ankle monitor, you can't leave the base unless someone from the team is with you or for deployment, you'd serve for 5 years, and you would be demoted, from your fancy sergeant title in KorTac back to corporal."

"So like parole?"

"Sort of" Kate answered.

"And if you break any of the terms of the agreement, you'd go straight to jail, no third chance" Price added. Both were just staring at you.

"Truth be told, you know too much. You're a liability for them and for us, however we could be more...understanding. Can you say the same about your friends back at KorTac?" Kate added, making you lower your gaze, contemplating her words.

Your leg was shaking under the table, and you bit your lip, still looking down. Your life's work goes down the drain, but at the same time you were getting a second chance, besides going back to the army would mean you'd stop lying to your parents. This is the worst day of my life.

"Would I still get paid?" You asked looking up, meeting their gazes again. The question made Price sigh.

"Yes, you would. But while on duty, your accounts will be controlled by your commanding officer, and any purchases or transfers must be authorized by him" Kate explained, making a gesture with her head pointing at Price.

You stayed quiet for a few minutes, contemplating. Not that you had many options, jail or the army. But you still stopped to try and put yourself together to meditate and try to get a thought out of the mess your head was.

"Can I talk to my parents?" You asked in a small voice, looking nervously between the both of them. Price looked back at Laswell, and she nodded.

You felt your heart beating in your ears, your hands shaking and your palms sweating. You haven't spoken to them in months with the excuse of being in deployment, it always made you nervous. They were proud of you when you joined, praising you for following your dreams. It broke your heart a little to see the glint of sadness when you explained how you couldn’t frequently talk to them, but they still supported you.

So lost in your thoughts you didn't even hear what Price said before he put the phone on speaker.

"Darling...?" You heard your mother on the other side of the phone.

You felt some tears forming in your arms, as a smile appeared in your face, your demeanour visibly softening.

"Hi, mom" You answered as clearly as you could with the knot on your throat, trying not to worry her.

"Hey, love, I'm so glad to hear you. How are you?" She said, her voice sounding worried but slightly relieved to hear you. "Is everything alright? When we saw three soldiers on the door, we thought the worst.”

The lump on your throat felt tighter, and you bit your lip trying to control yourself at the thought of your parents thinking that you were dead at first.

"Yeah, everything is alright, mom. Those are my...colleagues" You explained while looking at Price.

"They told us they're going to move us, that we should leave the house for a few months, that they will pay for a new place for a bit. What's wrong? Are you in trouble?"

Ah, mom, I'm in deep shit.

"It's for security. We just got back from deployment, and we bumped into some...dangerous people, I told them it wasn't necessary but they insisted on relocating you for a bit, everything is going to be alright, just do as they say, everything will be fine, it's just for prevention...army things as you always say" You said with a soft smile, looking at the phone. "Maybe they could even get you a place with a heater that actually works."

That made your mom chuckle, and her tone audibly was more relaxed, and it made you chuckle too, which prompted some tears to fall down your cheeks.

"Well, you're not wrong, maybe a change of air would be nice..." She added. "Did you get hurt?"

"Just a broken nose, that's why I didn't go there, had to stay for a check-up, but I'll be fine" You answered, just to hesitantly add. "Are...are my colleagues treating you and dad okay?"

"Please tell me what the doctor says...and yes, dear, your friends are lovely. We were having tea while we waited for you to call" That confused you, and you looked up at Price who had a small smile on the corner of his lips. "Johnny and Kyle are very sweet, but uh..." and then she added whispering "...is the man in the mask your colleague as well?"

You glared at Price, and he was visibly trying to hide his smile. Of course he sent Ghost.

"Yes, mom, he is... he's just a... little shy" Your unsure answer made Price chuckle softly.

"Your father invited them for a barbecue later on," She added, sounding excited.

"Of course he did..." You said with a sigh, closing your eyes. "Mom, I need to go now, yeah? I'll call you as soon as I can, please do as they say, okay?" You said as you looked at both Kate and Price.

"Alright, sweetheart. Tell me what the doctor says later, we are so glad you're alright" You smiled again, looking back at the phone. "Your father and I are very proud of you. We love you.”

You couldn't do anything to wipe your tears as your hands were still handcuffed.

"Thank you...I love you too...Bye, mom, I will call later, I promise" You answered in a soft voice, still trying not to give away how upset you were.

"Alright, love, bye-bye" She said one last time, before the sounds gave away that she must have passed the phone back to someone, to which Price turned off the speaker and put the phone back on his ear, standing up and leaving the room for some minutes. Kate walked over you and wiped some of your tears quite gently with a handkerchief, and you felt so defeated that you just let her.

After a few more minutes, Price walked back into the room, phone back in his pocket.

"Your parents are packing to go to the safehouse. Nothing out of the ordinary in the perimeter, and the guys will keep them safe." He said, his hands behind his back as he looked down at you. "Do you have your answer, kid?"

"I'm in"

next chapter: Chapter three "Foxtrot Oscar"

if you like it leave me some kudos or suggestions on ao3! <3

#call of duty modern warfare #call of duty #soap cod #cod modern warfare #cod #cod mw2 #cod mwii #simon riley x reader #simon ghost riley #simon riley #ghost cod #kyle gaz x reader #kyle gaz garrick #john price x reader #john price

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yourhighness6 · 11 months ago

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NATLA Debrief: Episode 3 (by yours truly)

Hi again! If any of ya'll are interested here's episodes 1 and 2. Thank you to those who have been following these deranged, unorganized posts, especially @phoebester (Just an fyi this will be hella long, just like the other two)

First of all, the way they framed the opening resistence scene was genuinely so cool because I immediately thought back to the cold open for the first episode. The streets are so similar that's where my mind went RIGHT AWAY and if that is not good set design and filming I don't know what is.

The resistance scene was so powerful for so many reasons besides those small details, too. The concept of a resistance within the FN was never addressed at all within the cartoon and I can't express how glad I am that they added this. It just makes logical sense that some people would resist, especially while so many are dying in war, and it really serves to humanize the FN people in a way that's reminiscent of book 3 ATLA. Perfect way to expand on the source material and introduce core themes earlier in the show (M Nite should be taking notes).

It was also a perfect way to introduce both Ozai and Azula's characters. Ozai is this menacing figure stepping out of the shadows (quite literally), an almost larger than life villain who seems to have every move planned and everything calculated. He's brutal and efficient and we can see that. Azula is conniving and smart, the kind of girl who can fool anyone and come out on top, but is ultimately still a weapon under her father's control. You can tell from the moment Ozai mentions Zuko that she is the underdog, but she is determined that it will not stay that way, and she seems just terrifying enough to succeed. (also idc what anyone says Elizabeth Yu has mastered Azula's look and general vibe. I feel like the whole 'miscasting' debacle was a mix of fatphobia and being shown the wrong stills before the show came out. She looked sort of sweet and innocent in those but I get absolutely none of that from this scene)

Ugh the exposition was great and then they have to give us this. What the absolute hell did they do to my Katara? Like there was a whole ass episode in the cartoon devoted to her getting mad because she wasn't progressing as fast as Aang and then in this fucking adaptation the maddest she sounds is when she emotionlessly declares, "I don't get it" to convey mild frustration. I'm sorry Kiawentiio, you're acting is great but the writers clearly have no fucking idea how to put your emotional range to good use. The same problem was present in the last episode and I just don't see them being able to fix it significantly enough at this point, even if they have a desire to. Not to undermine that, but there were a couple good points in this scene: Aang mentions something about bending being "beyond thought" which gives bending a more spiritual aspect that I like, and Katara's PTSD is brought up again in an intelligent way, but still, that doesn't matter if they're going to completely butcher her character. (side note: when is Aang going to learn waterbending? they haven't shown him training at all and I'm getting worried)

This scene was fine or whatever but what in the absolute fuck is going on with Zuko and Zhao? Are they not going to do the agni kai? Like I know there's still animosity there but they were really just sitting there (semi)-calmly enjoying a cup of tea and demonstrating only mild dislike for each other. All I have to say is if they remove the agni kai altogether I'm gonna be so fucking pissed it'll bug me forever and I'll be fucking insufferable.

Also Zuko is so mean to Luitenient Jee for no reason. I know it's because his abuse makes him see any kind of comradery as weakness so it's a good detail if that's what they're going for but ngl I also find it a bit funny. Like what did he ever do to you? And Zhao taking three tries to pass his officer exam is so perfect too like what a fucking looser lmao.

Ba Sing Se looks beautiful. There's something so mystical about it, especially in the way Aang describes it as they walk up to the gate. It's this hub of culture and science and art, but it's also incredibly militaristic and so changed due to war it's almost unrecognizable to someone who was there a hundred years ago. The adaptation of cultures during times of change is something ATLA does so well and I'm glad to see that it's continuing in the LA.

AHH Katara was so awkward during this whole scene and I loved it. For one thing Sokka's commentary was absolutely hilarious but it's also this reminder that Katara has been relatively isolated from other children her age and her brain is like "cute boy flirt how" and its so fucking funny. It might not be the same Katara as the cartoon who is effortlessly comfortable wherever she goes but this is so much more realistic and if she's going to be a bit different this is probably the best thing for them to change (now keep the awkwardness and give her back her anger Netflix I'm begging you)

I am slightly concerned because it looks to me like they're trying to condense at least four episodes into one and I'm not sure if that's going to be a cohesive plotline or a complete mess or not but if handled carefully I think they might be able to pull it off.

Ooooh the explosion was super unexpected and totally cray cray thanks for keeping me on my toes. I'm assuming it was Jet that planted the bomb although I cannot for the life of me think why. Anyways Teo was adorable I'm adopting him.

Also I am so so so happy that they gave him a little more depth beyond just 'happy glider kid' and gave a bit more nuance to his character. Of COURSE kids who grew up in war are going to be desensitized to the bloodshed OF COURSE they're going to be a little vengeful and be thinking about ways to win the war OF COURSE Aang is going to be uncomfortable with that because he didn't grow up with that militaristic mindset even if he did loose everything OF COURSE that's not going to change the fact that kids grow up hearing about death and experiencing loss as extremely young children versus Aang being suddenly thrust into this responsibility and grief because he didn't grow up like that he grew up in peacetime it just makes sense. Good job Netflix this was wonderful this was perfect I loved it.

Okay don't get me wrong I love the way Aang wears his heart on his sleeve I love how their in-the-face storytelling makes a bit more sense with how open and emotional of a person he is it's just part of his character that was improved upon by the LA in my opinion but this is also just... such a misunderstanding of the group dynamic. Like why isn't Katara seeing these people and thinking "I can help with this I have to help with this" and Aang giving this speech to Sokka jumping on the bandwagon? I would even accept them seeing the destruction together and mutually deciding that they need to help the people there (this would probably be best as it allows us to see both character's compassion) or Aang saying something about it and Katara immediately being like "ur absolutely right" but of course they can't do that all we need is a lengthy speech from the protagonist while Katara stands there like robot girl. My mistake.

STOP because her mocking face is so fucking perfect I love Elizabeth Yu she's perfect. Anyway, I think that they're kind of... adjusting her trauma a bit? I mentioned earlier how I feel like she's shown as a little more scrappy and an underdog as opposed to perfectly calculating and not a hair out of place, but after this scene I feel the need to expand on that. In the cartoon, Azula's abuse from her father centers around his unattainably high expectations for her that eventually cause her ultimate breakdown and the conclusion to her devastating character arc. But in the LA, they're portraying her as less of a prodigy and more of a hard worker. She still has incredibly high expectations, but in this version, she never meets them all the time. Her brother is almost leveraged against her in a way. Even if she feels like she is the best and has the constant need to prove she is the best to her father, there's always going to be this nagging insecurity that she won't be good enough to measure up to her brother. She's not being told she's worthless like Zuko, but she's not reaching every goal like cartoon Azula, either. This also might explain why she has arrows. In the cartoon, weapons are viewed with disdain by firebenders, making Zuko using them so controversial, but Azula definetely doesn't seem to be hiding her talent for the bow and arrow and even if it was a her-sneaking-away-to-practice sort of situation that's not very in character and I don't think she would do that. I think in this version she probably has them because she's trying to find every possible way to prove herself to her father beyond just firebending, and mastering a weapon is a way to do that. I'm not sure how I feel about these changes but she is clearly a different character in this version than in the cartoon and moving forward I'm going to treat her as such. (I've noticed this a bit with all of the characters except possibly Sokka: they're different people. I think this actually might be intentional. [even so I still don't like their characterization of Katara her trauma hasn't changed very much to my knowledge she should still have the same core drives and character traits])

As well done as Azula was, there was relatively nothing in the Ty Lee and Mai department. They're just kind of existing, watching her train. Ty Lee is vaguely cheerful (and her costume is great btw) and Mai has one line about exploring the world that gives a bit of insight into her character and has a monotone voice. They're both clearly a little scared of Azula but that's basically it. Hopefully we get more on them soon.

Back in Ba Sing Se, I noticed a bit of a parallel between Teo and Katara. The Mechanist mentions that they lost his mother due to the war, which reminded me specifically of Katara. Throughout this scene, we see that Teo remembers his mother's philosophy and adopts it into his own mindset far more than his father's. Their situation is different because while Katara is arguing for compassion Teo is arguing for fighting back, but they are both fundamentally saying the same thing. It's not enough just to accept their lot in life and try to survive or fight, it's about the big picture, and about defending the things they love. While Katara and Teo both approach this subject from a very different front, the core idea is the same. It's also telling how they are dismissed initially as idealistic for their values when they are really upholding what their mothers stood for in their eyes: for Teo, a symbol of hope in her retellings of the stories of the avatar, and for Katara, a symbol of kindness in her reminders to remain empathetic despite the horrors of war. Make of this what you will, I just thought it was a nice little parallel.

Anyway, allow me to have a few words on the whole Jet thing (in bullet points because I don't have enough brain power to do this)

I'm glad Jet got his freedom fighters outfit. I was a bit worried when I saw what he was wearing in the first scene he was in because the fit is iconic, and so are the swords

God he's so fucking dramatic "they call me Jet" while the sun glints off his swords and he turns slightly for affect it was so funny I laughed out loud

He and Kia have no on-screen chemistry I'm sorry. Like even the fight scene was so awkward and every time they speak to each other they sound so stiff. They're good actors independently but whoever was watching their chemistry check (I'm assuming they had one pre-production but judging by this crap I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't) was either asleep or it was their first day because there is NOTHING there

What the hell did they do to the Freedom Fighters? They're so cheesy and the costumes are so bad (especially Smellerbee's). Like seriously that entire fight scene was so awkward idk what the hell happened there but it was nowhere near the quality of the rest of the episode so far

Overall, I'm not a huge fan. Also where is Sokka I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be there somewhere

Okay here's Sokka finally. Are they just taking him out of the Jet shenanigans entirely? I wouldn't be surprised considering how many episodes they had to condense but still I would have liked to see that. Oh well, I guess they had to have Katara do something in this episode instead of just stand around while her brother and Aang have huge plot points. Anyway, this scene was very interesting to me. Sokka and the Mechanist bonded in the og but not to this extent, and I honestly liked that they did something a bit deeper with it considering they don't have as much screentime to establish Sokka's daddy issues (for lack of a better word). Anywho the Mechanist mentioning that there are other career paths to take besides just being a warrior was super cool and I think we can glean a lot from it about Sokka's future character arc. Maybe in this version he doesn't perfectly live up to his dad's expectations and instead finds his own way? It was nice to see Hakoda proud of him in the original but if they go down this path I definitely won't be mad. It's interesting while staying true to the character, it's just a different direction.

The scene with Aang and Teo was cute. They're both good actors who play off of each other nicely, and Teo talking about how he doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps lends a bit of insight to the conversation the Mechanist had with Sokka. He probably mentioned Sokka's dad because he wondered if his parents were engineers too and maybe is looking for a bit of an apprentice since his son doesn't take after him as much. This is also another way Teo conflicts with the Mechanist's way of life and may be more similar to his mother.

The jetara scenes at the Freedom Fighter camp had a much better dynamic. I think the fight scene was probably just them figuring each other out as actors, it just sucks that it seeped into the final take. I confess I was a bit disappointed that the Freedom Fighters didn't live up in the trees, but I guess that would be a bit difficult to engineer. I also noticed how Jet repeated Teo's "if not us, then who?" statement, which is probably just your basic commentary on how the future generations are our hope blah blah blah. It's a major theme so I shouldn't be as disinterested as I am in it but as it stands I'm still not totally thrilled with the Jet plotline as a whole and I think that may be affecting it. I feel like Sokka should be here to add some variety and spice things up a bit it's kind of boring.

The last jetara scene was definitely the best yet. I can't get over how happy I was to hear Jet say his mother taught him to fight. So often we hear how dads or older brothers are teaching the women in their family to fight but here we have a canonically badass male character saying that an older female relative was the one who taught him. One of the major complaints I have from the cartoon was how for all its talk about women being able to fight and its supposed feminist message, there were no women of the older generation fighting at all except for Jun, who wasn't even a particularly moral character like all these older men. We do have to remember that the cartoon started production over twenty years ago so it is a product of its time, when feminist issues weren't very mainstream. Another factor that might have contributed to the lack of feminism in the original was the generational discrepancies; millennials were the first to have widely accepted equal educational opportunities in the US, and even though educational opportunities are still affected by sexism, college became the norm for both male and female students at that time. This isn't to say women older than millennials didn't go to college, but this is around the time women and men started to become relatively equal as of percentage seeking higher education. Basically, they were the first generation of women expected to have careers, and therefore the writer's minds were probably shaped alongside a similar number of female peers, but primarily by men. This could have contributed to the lack of older women, but as times changed, so to did the amount of older women in professional fields. This line is a reflection of that, and I hope we continue to see more badass older women and older warrior women and women in power as the LA continues.

Other than that, I did take my shipping goggles out during this scene at the "sunrise" bit, and it wasn't about jetara. I heard from other fans in the zutara tag that the "you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun" line was removed but I keep thinking about how Katara is legitimately drawing power from remembering the sun rising, a time when the opposite element, Zuko's element, becomes more powerful. I know I'm reaching, but while I mourn the loss of our beloved "you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun" I have to find a new version. Anyway I think we should call this sunrisegate lol

Also, the way Katara is extremely hesitant to talk about her trauma whereas Jet seems completely fine with being emotional and dumping out exactly what he was feeling may have been a device but it does remind me of something I read about how ppl with PTSD will often react very differently when sharing their trauma and the same is true for many other trauma induced disorders. It was probably unintentional but I still thought it was a nice detail.

Anyway on a less serious note Iroh and Zuko's dynamic is still top tier. I've seen a lot of people complaining about Iroh's character but I don't see anything wrong up to this point. I might be in for a shock in future episodes but I have genuinely no idea what they find so off putting. He's a great actor and the character has legitimately not changed. The line above was a bit undercut by the fact that he's standing in the middle of an enemy city with a cloth half wrapped around his face to keep part of his face from being seen, but I'm just gonna take it at face value (haha pun). I think the thing Zuko despises most is cowardice, and it affects his perception of the war in a huge way. He calls Aang a coward for escaping from prison because he was running away or whatever and I've never considered Zuko a particularly logical character but it's like... bruh he's outnumbered like fifty to one what he is gonna do? Anyway his definition of cowardice is directly tied to his honor and his perception of it in relation to his trauma and the way he held back in the agni kai and him perceiving that as cowardice maybe... Ya'll got me? This isn't fully formed because I obviously haven't seen this new rendition of the agni kai but I'm guessing the events are basically the same. Do with it what you will.

I skipped over the Azula and Zhao scene because I don't have any groundbreaking commentary except to say that I liked it. It ties Azula into the story nicely and gives Zhao something actually interesting about him (I don't hate him as much as I did in the cartoon so whenever he comes up on screen I just sort of yawn).

Anyway, it was nice to see Katara get a bit angry. I think this captured the gaang dynamic pretty well. Aang being relatively neutral/ quiet while the siblings argue and Katara gets twice as mad as Sokka. Also he may have had the last word but she had the last laugh:

Again, the sibling dynamic was really great but I didn't feel like Katara was carrying it as much as in previous episodes. Sokka actually played his part in making it interesting and realistic. I don't think this single argument is enough to redeem Katara's characterization in my eyes but at least we know now there is a little spark there.

AHH THE SCARF SCENE! Scarfgate was everything I could have asked for and more. Like why does he appear directly behind her like that unless he's trying to fight her? Why does he just let her go by like that? Why does he hold out his hand in the first place? Truly is the Watergate of our time it deserves that name. (also in the same episode as the whole sunrise thing? come on) I'm probably being baited but at least I'm enjoying it.

So I was right about the bombings! I can't believe all those cute little kids are terrorists but I couldn't believe it in the cartoon either so I guess that checks out. Either way I find the bombing far less forgivable than trying to take out the Mechanist. Innocent civilians were hurt and even though I know there was a real possibility that civilians could have been hurt in the attempted bombing for whatever reason it just seems... more brutal somehow. Like the first one was in the center of town, you know? Anyway terrorism is wrong I hope Jet finds his way.

(I was worried about how they were going to tie all the seemingly unrelated plotlines together but I think they pulled it off. Again my main problems were all concentrated around the Jet plotline but when the Mechanist was tied in it became a lot more interesting)

When I heard this I was like "son ur about to get ur ass kicked" but the funny part is he was kind of right. Like when neither of them were bending he was winning. I guess in all fairness he is a lot bigger than Aang but I don't feel like that was an accidental detail. Anyway, I think this fight scene was the most entertaining yet and so much better than jetara against the firebenders earlier. Maybe the affects for water are just worse than air and fire (it feels slower somehow) but I'm very partial to this fight. And that's saying something because I usually fast-forward through fight scenes or just kind of tune them out or barely watch, so you know it was really good.

I think the reason I liked it so much was that it was funny, honestly, not in the same way or to the same degree the cartoon was but I laughed out loud a couple times. For instance Zuko gets hit in the face three times in the span of ten seconds, once with a plate, once with a wicker basket, and once with his own little stick thing. Aang also put a basket over his head and some random ass lady started whacking him with a fan. Kudos to whoever choreographed that it was the best.

Also I liked how Sokka and Katara saved the day together. Cute sibling bonding excersize. And it ended on a cliffhanger with the characters separated! My favorite kind of cliffhanger! It definitely left me wanting more.

Anyway, to recap, things I didn't like:

No Zuko and Zhao agni kai

Mai and Ty Lee were just sort of there

Katara's characterization is still so-so

Jetara plot line was boring and chemistry was not the best

It was kind of a lot for one episode, even if they managed to do it well

Things I did like:

Opening scene

Azula characterization

Teo

The Mechanist plotline

Teo and Katara parallel

Katara DID actually seem a little bit more firey in this episode

SCARFGATE

Zuko and Aang fight scene

Surprisingly good handling of all those loose ends

Cliffhanger

Overall, I would give it a 9/10. That's the highest score I've given an episode so far and I'm standing by it. I know others might have a very different opinion on it since it was condensed so much and differed a lot from the cartoon, but I agreed with many of the changes they made. One thing I would urge everyone to remember is that these are different characters from the cartoon. They're going to act slightly different and have slightly different journys and that's okay. I think it is worth comparing to the original, as it is an adaptation, but we need to remember that an adaptation is not an exact replica, nor should it be. That in no way means that we should make allowances for anything we found negative or mediocre, but it is going to be different and change in it of itself isn't a bad thing. Anyway thank you guys so much for sticking with me! I'll probably have the next episode's debrief up by tomorrow.

#natla debrief #emmie babbles #scarfgate #zutara #aang #sokka #katara #zuko #jet #jetara #natla episode 3 #natla analysis #natla meta

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clobertina · 7 months ago

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Fellow Dino Nerd ruining y'all's prehistoric childhoods lol

-its not scientifically backed up that raptors hunted in coronated packs. They most likely hunted in an unorganized mob behavior and likely even killed eachother over carcasses.

-Group hunting is not the norm.

-Ceratopcid dinos could not ram into things like rhinos, otherwise it would have shattered their skulls.

-Dinosaurs could not roar, but can make bellowing sounds etc. Roaring is a mammalian thing.

-The raptor's sickle claw was not used for disembowelment, it was only sharp enough to puncture the skin but not slice it. It's been theorized that it was used to pinning it's prey down as the creature ate it's prey alive as well as for helping them climb.

-Most dinos didn't have protruding teeth like you always see in media, they had lip coverings, otherwise their teeth would dry out. One of the few creatures like Crocodilians who do have their teeth protruding out; their skulls and teeth do not match with those of dinosaurs. In fact, most skulls of carnivorous dinos have these little holes above their teeth, something found in animals that have lip coverings.

-Troodon is a Nomen dubium, meaning that it is not a valid genus. Sorry to all the Troodon fans. This is because Troodon was made from a single tooth, causing many scientists to lump in all things with similar teeth into that genus, causing major problems in the long run. It is now refered to "an Arctic Troodontid" instead of just "Troodon".

-The Brachiosaurus you see in most dino movies, (mainly Jurassic Park/World) is NOT ACTUALLY A BRACHIOSAURUS. The dino you keep seeing is ACTUALLY a Giraffatitan!

-It is unclear if Triceratops (and I mean Triceratops specifically) lived in large herds. It is more believed that they lived in smaller groups.

- "Pterodactyl" is not a real word, dinosaur, or a real genus. The real classification is called "Pterosaur". In fact, Pterosaurs are not even dinosaurs lol. Pterosaurs are actually reptiles and it's even been found from fossilized eggs that they layed soft-shelled eggs like snakes!

-Spinosaurus looked like this (at least as of now, this Dino keeps changing fr lol)

To make up for that, here's cool prehistoric facts.

-feathers make dinosaurs more dangerous believe it or not. Feathers can break their fall, make them more silent, protect them from the cold, and more.

-Mosasaurs are not dinosaurs and are, interestingly, a distant relative to Monitor Lizards, they even have a forked tongue!

-T-Rex was pretty intelligent, had incredible vision, incredible since of smell, and can run as fast (or slightly faster) than the average human. They where the irl Mary Sue fr lol. That said, they weren't unstoppable and just an animal. (I'm side eyeing the T-Rex fan boys so hard rn lol).

-Fossilized chemicals give us an idea of some dinosaur's actual colors! Sinosauropteryx is the most common example!

-T-Rex was an ambush predator and would be much scarier than the Hollywood counterpart. This is because they would be much more silent and would stalk their prey instead of immediately making it's presence known.

-Tyrannosaurids start out leaner, faster, and weaker than their adult counterparts when a juvenile or adolescent. This is because they filled a different niche. Once they age, they grow chunkier, slower, and stronger to fill in their new niche of hunting bigger creatures like Triceratops.

-Even though it is not supported that raptors hunted in packs. It IS actually supported that Albertosaurus did! While with raptors, their group remains are mostly found near other fossilized animals, Albertosaurus Fossils have been found in LARGE groups of numbers of other Albertosauruses.

-Smilodons actually had smaller brains compared to modern cats

-Dimetrodon was related to mammals

-Irrirator (a relative to Spinosaurus) had a split jaw to swallow bigger prey whole.

DISCLAIMER: Science is ALWAYS progressing, so some of these could be disproven in the future. It is always important to make your own conclusions.

#fun facts #dinosaurs #dinosaur facts #paleontology facts #paleontology #dinos #science #I spent too much time writing this LOL #Paleontology is a HUGE passion of mine btw

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nezz-cringe-crib · 9 months ago

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teru mikami analysis bc i love him

hi i'm just here to rant about how much i love teru mikami's character because he's genuinely such a well written character. this is probably gonna be unorganized and just rambly. i might rewrite it later but for now i just need another reason to procrastinate and focus on my silly emos.

(oh yeah also spoilers if that isn't obvious)

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mikami is probably one of the best representations of religious trauma (at least imo and from what i've seen). i haven't read the manga yet and a lot of this might just be me projecting, but either way he's still the top in my books. there's SO many scenes and details about him that remind me so much of myself when i was still heavily involved with christianity (and to be clear, this is my own interpretation, not me tryna shit on any religions. that's a big wompwomp no-no. respect ppl hoes). so here's some random bits about mikami that make me go "OH SHIT ME-CORE ALERT!!!!":

the entire thing with his mom. i know that when he reflects back on his mom's death, he talks about how he's happy the whole thing happened because "she's evil and god killed the evil for me thanks god" but i completely believe the whole thing is just him brainwashing himself. like think about it for a second. his mom just died in the same car crash that involved his main tormentors, and this was also right after he was holding a slight grudge against his mom for defending said tormentors (she obviously didn't do that. she was just trying to help mikami view the world from a more realistic point of view to keep him out of trouble, but when you're that young and that passionate about justice, to him it'll seem like she's defending the same evil he's trying to fight). when you combine these things together, this is just gonna lead to a WHOLE lot of conflicted and lost feelings, and we see that in mikami. he had just been through a rough conversation with his mom, and she died before he could even get a chance to really think about said convo. all he is left with is a mixed feeling of loss, resentment, and fear. however, on the other hand, her death meant that the tormentors she was defending had also died. so to him, it has to mean something, doesn't it? the group of bastards that had been ruining his and others' lives and had finally been rid of. and if this had happened right after his mother had been defending them, it has to be a sign, right? there has to be a reason for all this hurt, right? when mikami is viewing the world through these lenses, it makes sense that'd he'd suddenly want a reason to justify his mom's death, even though it feels unbelievably cruel. so he finds a reason, and he finds that reasoning through god. this is honestly something that i used to do a lot when i was still heavily invested in my church, and i'm sure there are others who have been in the same situation. when the world is unjustifiably cruel, people will make up justification for it. it's a fear tactic that many people fall prey to in religious environments, and if not treated, it can fester into much more toxic environments for the people around them.

^^^ tldr: mikami copes with his mom's death by telling himself "it's okay that my mom died!! she was working for satan and god had to kill her!! thanks god!!" and if that's not the most religious-trauma-core shit out there then idk what is.

ALSO LITERALLY JUST EVERYTHING WITH LIGHT'S DEATH???? YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH THAT SHIT HURT MAN. the realization that your god is not the god you thought you had been following used to be some of the scariest shit out there to me and mikami had it thrown right at his face when light died. not only was his god gone, but his god was never a god to begin with. he was just some guy. some pathetic guy who was now bleeding out and screaming on the ground. he had dedicated his life to this thing, and it was never real to begin with. and so he dies with it. because when the god revolving your life is gone, what other life do you really have? mikami was the perfect fucking example of that and i need it to be talked about more fucking please guys he's literally just like me fr i swear.

that's all i can think of right now tbh. if there's any typos in here no there isn't you're wrong nuhuh. anyways i fucking love mikami's character. he might be an antisocial autistic boyloser edgelord but he's MY antisocial autistic boyloser edgelord and i will defend him with my life. that hoe did EVERY wrong thing but your honor he is just a silly guy.

#teru mikami #death note #dn #analysis #rambles #your honor that hoe is just like me fr #cw religious trauma #nezz brainz

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itslittlegiggle · 6 months ago

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vega omg i need to hear ALL your aot thoughts im obsessing so hard over this show (/not forced)

*cracks knuckles* let's gaoux (thx for being patient bb)

I feel like this is going to be So Unorganized but I just have so many thoughts that it's inevitable at this point lol

so first off,,

as you can obviously tell, armin is my CHILD. my son. my reason for being tbh. so I'm gonna start with him

I love the idea of armin being like, stupid ticklish. he gives like "you just look ticklish" vibes, impossible to fight me on this. obv eren tickles him the most, and sometimes mikasa, ever since then were kids. also reiner tickles him fairly often (lowkey realllllly love reimin or arurei or whatever their ship name is lol), and jean also to a lesser extent (also love jearmin!). armin is really ticklish everywhere but his thighs are his WORST spot, like he just breaks down into helpless squealing laughter. his knees and hips and sides are also pretty bad. idek man I'll probably have to make a separate post for him sometime bc I have 1000000000 thoughts tbh and I want to do other characters in this post too hahaha

EREN okay eren. I'm always torn between his ribs and his neck and his tumby for his worst spot, depends on my mood I guess lol but he is also ticklish everywhere. he is DRAMATIC when he's tickled, like he yells and swears and makes threats, even when it's just someone like armin or mikasa tickling him which he doesn't even really mind. when it's someone like jean tho he goes actually feral, will bite 100%. is also totally the person to deny he's ticklish, like armin will poke his ribs to get his attention (not even meaning to tickle him) and eren will YELP and when connie or someone is like "woah, are you okay?" mikasa will just go "oh yeah he's fine, he's just really ticklish" and eren goes red and he's like "SHUT UP MIKASA NO I'M NOT" also will probably have to make an eremin specific post at some point lol

okay reiner. literally reiner is the best ler, he's so fun but careful and he's def the resident tickle monster (so is connie but in a more annoying way lmao). tickles armin quite a bit, like he's made it his mission to make armin smile (bc armin is CUTE), but he's more like fun and gentle when tickling armin. when it's eren or berthold or connie he's way meaner lmao like he will make them scream on principle alone. reiner is most ticklish on the backs of his ribs, makes him laugh super LOUD and DEEP and it's actually awesome. but bc he can turn the tables so easily if the others want to get him good for longer than 10 seconds they have to like, dogpile him lol

random segue to levi, idk I just thought of him next lol. most ticklish on his hips and the sides of his back. like if erwin really wants to make him squirm he'll tickle the sides of levi's back suuuuper gently with his nails until levi actually whines (and then punches him lmao). honestly canon-verse I don't think anyone tries tickling him.. in a head canon-verse where he and erwin are together (like the hc I just gave lol) I feel like erwin tickles him a lot when they're cuddling or early in the morning, whenever levi's guard/aggression is down more, and his laugh is all stutter-y and raspy and it's actually really really cute. these are pretty much my only thoughts on levi bc I feel like his character is hard to add tickles to without it being super out of character (super impressed when people write tickle fics with levi that actually feel levi-esque, definitely not something I could accomplish so it always leaves me in awe) , but they're Very Important to me and I stand by them!!!

ummmmm okay I have so many more TOO MANY MORE this is too chaotic. I could make this 10000 pages long

KAZ PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT SPECIFIC CHARACTER OR SCENARIO OR EXTENSIONS OF THESE IN MIND FOR HEADCANONS OKAY I NEED TO SCREAM ABOUT THIS AND I HAVE UNLIMITED THOUGHTS FOR MY AOT BABIES!!!!!

#aot!tickle #attack on titan tickle #tickle headcanons #armin arlert tickle #eren jaeger tickle #reiner braun tickle #eremin #arurei #reirmin #reimin #? idk lol #jearmin #levi ackerman tickle #MORE!!! PLEASE GIVE ME MORE!!!!

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ifbench · 5 months ago

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Miscellaneous things a PMD fan has found strange about mainline Pokemon games

To preface this, this is not a true retrospective. This is just me rambling about some things I found odd in the mainline Pokemon games I've played so far, including those I have not yet finished.

This is likely going to be much shorter and more unorganized than my mainline Pokemon retrospectives, so be warned.

If you'd like to read my mainline Pokemon retrospectives, you can read Emerald here, X here, Firered here, and Black here.

Why is move relearning so restrictive in so many of the mainline Pokemon games? In Emerald, X, Firered, and Black, it requires an entire Heart Scale in order to let your Pokemon relearn a single move. And unless I've been very unlucky, Heart Scales are very hard to find.

Not to mention how in Firered, the Move Reminder is on Two Island, so you can't reach them until you make it to Cinnabar Island, which is very far into the game.

Shield allows your Pokemon to remember moves for free any time you go to any Pokemon Center, and Legends Arceus and Violet makes it even more accessible, with moves being adjustable anytime, anywhere.

Is it just early installment weirdness stuff? But why did it last so long? It was in X, so it lasted at least until then. I can't imagine it lasted much longer than that. Hopefully Alpha Sapphire, Sun, Ultra Moon, and Let's Go Eevee have more accessible Move Reminders.

On the topic of moves, learning them to begin with is weird too. So many move tutors are functionally just early-gen TMs, with them saying that they'll only teach the move once. It makes me nervous and less likely to ask them to teach my Pokemon moves, because move relearning is so difficult, and I don't want to waste this one chance to learn these moves.

I also recently encountered a Roaming Pokemon for the first time, in Soulsilver. I had just left Ecruteak, and my immediate first encounter was Entei. I had no idea what to do, and it was much higher leveled than any of my Pokemon, so I just used my Furret's Run Away ability to flee before it could decimate my team. But apparently Entei always flees if not trapped? So I wasted a rare encounter.

Speaking of Entei (and Raikou), I don't understand their pathing at all. They seem to travel completely randomly on the map, seemingly teleporting several routes over every time I enter an area. How am I supposed to corner them and encounter them? Or is there some other trick to it than clever maneuvering?

There's so many baffling things about mainline Pokemon, from the perspective of a primarily PMD player. I'm still enjoying these games a ton, but there's a lot that's confusing about them to me.

#pokemon

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teecupangel · 9 months ago

Note

hiiiiiii teecup! How are you? I hope you're doing well.

I wanna ask you so many things, and have so many ideas to dump, but those ideas involve plot and I cant afford to write right now so I'll just asking something lighthearted.

I just finished reading all the Catboy!Desmond AU posts and my...... bunny-maid-costume days came rushing back to me..... (those were some... unique times haha. not that the things I'm into right now are considered normal...)

so I was thinking about a Bunny!Desmond AU. Bunnymond? Bunsmond?? Oh God, Bunsmond sound so cute TT o TT

(I'm sorry if my English come off as awkward it's not my first language!!)

I'm doing alright thank you! Feel free to leave asks in my inbox. Just note that I am a month late hahaha

Considering this came into light because of catboy Desmond, I’m going for bunnyboy Desmond in this one instead of Desmond being reincarnated as a bunny.

Desmond would be wearing his hood all the time and wouldn’t speak because he is only able to converse using bunny noises because we show our love for him by making him suffer.

He would try his best to not get caught and pretend to be a nameless informant/thief.

And then…

He got into an accident with the Assassin of your choice and they both fell on the waters. After a moment of panic because neither of them expected to fall into the waters, they manage to get themselves out.

They’re both drenched and Desmond’s hood had fallen off his head.

And two pairs of long rabbit ears greeted the Assassin.

Unorganized Notes:

If you want Desmond to be able to hide his ears easier, his rabbit fur can be the same hue as his hair. Otherwise, he’ll have white rabbit ears and tail.

Desmond can jump really high as a perk of being a bunny boy.

The whole ‘fuck like rabbits’ thing? Yeah, we’ll give that to Desmond because it would be funny and it would annoy him so much.

If he wears a mask, he’d wear a white rabbit mask because Desmond thought that he could pretend his ears as part of his mask.

I don’t know how yet but we’re going to give Desmond a maid outfit one way or another lol

… wanna make it harder for Desmond to hide his ears?

Make it longer.

Better yet.

Make it longer AND bigger.

Make it impossible for Desmond to hide the fact that he is a bunny boy XD

#bunnyboy desmond #assassin's creed #desmond miles #ask and answer #teecup writes/has a plot #fic idea: assassin's creed #i don't have the pompom one #but the gloomy bear bunny?#i got one when i was in japan #my younger sister took it too TTATT

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halothenthehorns · 3 months ago

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Chapter 26: WE SAY GOOD-BYE, SORT OF

Let’s all just pause and take a moment to exult that I’m done with one set of books! This is an accomplishment I will never fail to revel in no matter how many more I have to go! It’s been a ride I wouldn’t trade a word for!

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Alex, who had started all of this by picking up the first book she remembered fondly, took it from Magnus casually with a hopeful smile as she read, "We Say Good-Bye, Sort Of. That's just like you Percy. Gods forbid you commit to anything."

"I commit to important things," he promised with a casual kiss on his girlfriend's temple.

Camp went late that summer. It lasted two more weeks, right up to the start of a new school year, and I have to admit they were the best two weeks of my life.

Alex couldn't help but read that with a tinge of confusion to her voice though. She had about as much clue to that idea of a solid length of time being happy as Percy had to a normal life. She liked it better when he was killing math teachers, at least that she could wrap her head around.

Of course, Annabeth would kill me if I said anything different,

"For just a moment I thought you were done holding people hostage at knife point Annabeth," Thalia said with, wagging a 'for shame' finger at her. "Let the poor boy go this instant!"

“I’m relieved, can’t let her go getting soft now that she’s in love,” Jason snorted.

"A lesser person would hold you to saying that as some kind of blackmail Thals," Annabeth chuckled.

but there was a lot of other great stuff going on too. Grover had taken over the satyr seekers and was sending them out across the world to find unclaimed half-bloods.

Jason felt a giddy sense of pride that his reaction all the way back at the beginning of this hearing how unorganized they were had been given its own resolution. Gods he wanted to shake Grover's hand and meet him so bad to see what his chart looked like covering all of this.

So far, the gods had kept their promise.

"For all of two weeks," Will nodded seriously. "Yeah, we were shocked too."

New demigods were popping up all over the place—not just in America, but in a lot of other countries as well.

"We can hardly keep up," Grover admitted one afternoon as we were taking a break at the canoe lake. "We're going to need a bigger travel budget, and I could use a hundred more satyrs."

Alex resisted the urge to joke about an orgy with great restraint. Grover was a real person to Percy, not just an abstract joke.

"Yeah, but the satyrs you have are working super hard," I said. "I think they're scared of you."

Grover blushed. "That's silly. I'm not scary."

"You're a lord of the Wild, dude. The chosen one of Pan. A member of the Council of—"

"Stop it!" Grover protested. "You're as bad as Juniper. I think she wants me to run for president next."

"And I'd vote for his hindquarters!" Nico snorted. "He'd do wonders for environmental issues."

"Given you and Thalia are the only one's here old enough to vote, I guess we'd just help put up campaign signs," Percy chuckled.

He chewed on a tin can as we stared across the pond at the line of new cabins under construction. The U-shape would soon be a complete rectangle, and the demigods had really taken to the new task with gusto.

Nico had some undead builders working on the Hades cabin. Even though he was still the only kid in it, it was going to look pretty cool: solid obsidian walls with a skull over the door and torches that burned with green fire twenty-four hours a day. Next to that were the cabins of Iris, Nemesis, Hecate, and several others I didn't recognize. They kept adding new ones to the blueprints every day. It was going so well, Annabeth and Chiron were talking about adding an entirely new wing of cabins just so they could have enough room.

Jason felt like getting up to high five Chiron. Of course Percy had been right, change was happening!

The Hermes cabin was a lot less crowded now, because most of the unclaimed kids had received signs from their godly parents.

"What a concept, all the kids having a bed and a whole foot of space for themselves," Nico said dryly.

"I hope you're not expecting a thank you card," Percy rolled his eyes.

It happened almost every night, and every night more demigods straggled over the property line with the satyr guides, usually with some nasty monsters pursuing them, but almost all of them made it through.

'Almost all of them,' Magnus shook his head sadly he couldn't even feel real surprise and shock at how casually that was just put down.

"It's going to be a lot different next summer," I said. "Chiron's expecting we'll have twice as many campers."

"Yeah," Grover agreed, "but it'll be the same old place."

He sighed contentedly.

I watched as Tyson led a group of Cyclops builders. They were hoisting huge stones in place for the Hecate cabin, and I knew it was a delicate job. Each stone was engraved with magical writing, and if they dropped one, it would either explode or turn everyone within half a mile into a tree. I figured nobody but Grover would like that.

"Define, everyone?" Alex asked clinically, wondering if it would work on the cyclops, who were already nature spirit adjacents.

"Been there, done that, don't recommend," Thalia huffed.

"I'll be traveling a lot," Grover warned, "between protecting nature and finding half-bloods. I may not see you as much."

"Won't change anything," I said. "You're still my best friend."

He grinned. "Except for Annabeth."

"That's different."

"Yeah," he agreed. "It sure is."

"I miss him," Percy needlessly told her. "We need the three amigos out in the world!"

"I have a feeling you'll get your wish soon," Annabeth promised, but with the kind of smile that at least made him hope it would be fifty fifty on the fun/ death scale.

In the late afternoon, I was taking one last walk along the beach when a familiar voice said, "Good day for fishing."

My dad, Poseidon, was standing knee-deep in the surf, wearing his typical Bermuda shorts, beat-up cap, and a real subtle pink-and-green Tommy Bahama shirt. He had a deep-sea fishing rod in his hands, and when he cast it the line went way out—like halfway across Long Island Sound.

"Hey, Dad," I said. "What brings you here?"

He winked. "Never really got to talk in private on Olympus. I wanted to thank you."

"Thank me? You came to the rescue."

"Yes, and I got my palace destroyed in the process,

Percy sighed loudly, he just knew that was going to come up again!

but you know—palaces can be rebuilt. I've gotten so many thank-you cards from the other gods. Even Ares wrote one, though I think Hera forced him to. It's rather gratifying. So, thank you. I suppose even the gods can learn new tricks."

"Yada yada old dogs," Magnus nodded.

"I'd leave at least half of them at the pound," Thalia smirked, causing Percy to laugh hard in agreement.

The Sound began to boil. At the end of my dad's line, a huge green sea serpent erupted from the water. It thrashed and fought, but Poseidon just sighed. Holding his fishing pole with one hand, he whipped out his knife and cut the line. The monster sank below the surface.

"Not eating size," he complained. "I have to release the little ones or the game wardens will be all over me."

"Little ones?"

"Game warden?" Jason felt he was asking the far more important question.

"I'll bet it's Grover," Will smirked.

He grinned. "You're doing well with those new cabins, by the way. I suppose this means I can claim all those other sons and daughters of mine and send you some siblings next summer."

"Damn," Alex snorted, "your dad is ice cold for that joke."

"He had to have that side of him somewhere, the ocean isn't all dolphins and maytai," Annaebth shrugged without surprise. Percy was to busy sitting in nervous silence to answer.

"Ha-ha."

Poseidon reeled in his empty line.

I shifted my feet. "Um, you were kidding, right?"

Poseidon gave me one of his inside-joke winks, and I still didn't know whether he was serious or not.

"He, wouldn't, have," but Jason sounded as confused and unsure as Percy did, and when this guy was on the same page as him, they were all in trouble.

Percy loved his little brother in Tyson, but a small, secret part of him had also kind of enjoyed the idea his mom was special. That it was Sally Jackson herself that had made Poseidon break his oath and sort of regret him being born until he proved otherwise.

...besides, no way could other half-blood siblings have been out there all this time, still alive and awaiting to be discovered. They were supposed to be extra monsterlicious or something. Right?!

"I'll see you soon, Percy. And remember, know which fish are big enough to land, eh?"

With that he dissolved in the sea breeze, leaving a fishing pole lying in the sand.

"Did you keep it?" Alex asked casually.

"It was probably cursed," Percy said like that was an answer.

"And?" Alex spluttered in disappointment. Percy gave her a tragic look that he felt spoke all he needed to about enticing such ideas.

She turned grumpily away and muttered some more curses, though Percy wasn't quite sure if he meant the artifact kind or the cussing him out kind. He had a feeling Alex could manage both equally well at any rate.

That evening was the last night of camp—the bead ceremony. The Hephaestus cabin had designed the bead this year. It showed the Empire State Building, and etched in tiny Greek letters, spiraling around the image, were the names of all the heroes who had died defending Olympus. There were too many names, but I was proud to wear the bead. I put it on my camp necklace—four beads now. I felt like an old-timer. I thought about the first campfire I'd ever attended, back when I was twelve, and how I'd felt so at home.

That at least hadn't changed.

It was one of those things Percy hoped never did. His love of the color blue, how much he loved going fast on his pets, how much he looked forward coming to camp every year. He expected his feelings for Annabeth to change and reform, he accepted he'd keep feeling like a freak in his own head around all these different people who saw him as something special, but it felt good to fall back on simple things too.

"Never forget this summer!" Chiron told us. He had healed remarkably well, but he still trotted in front of the fire with a slight limp.

"Errr, Percy, he's always had that limp," Annabeth told him kindly.

"What? No he hasn't," Percy frowned. "I'd notice that."

"Yeah, sorry Perce," Will agreed. "It's not super obvious, but it's there. He got it from that Hercules incident."

Percy looked at them dumbfounded and was pretty sure they were pulling his leg...but he also still couldn't prove there wasn't some secret play they put on every year he'd never heard of so he was kind of at a loss.

"We have discovered bravery and friendship and courage this summer. We have upheld the honor of the camp." He smiled at me, and everybody cheered. As I looked at the fire, I saw a little girl in a brown dress tending the flames. She winked at me with red glowing eyes. No one else seemed to notice her, but I realized maybe she preferred it that way.

"Yeah, I think Hestia is my spirit goddess," Magnus grinned.

"We can throw you in the fire?" Alex asked with mild excitement.

"You're going to save the world by being handed a jar?" Percy asked blankly.

"Screw both of you," Magnus chuckled.

"And now," Chiron said, "early to bed! Remember, you must vacate your cabins by noon tomorrow unless you've made arrangements to stay the year with us. The cleaning harpies will eat any stragglers, and I'd hate to end the summer on a sour note!"

"Do we taste sour?" Nico asked, unimpressed.

"Don't say it like that," Will whined. "Chiron doesn't join in them eating us!"

"Well I'm so sorry I didn't get the correct interpretation out of that death threat," Nico rolled his eyes. He'd left this night, it had been the last thing he heard Chiron say. It had been a pretty memorable last stance.

The next morning, Annabeth and I stood at the top of Half-Blood Hill. We watched the buses and vans pull away, taking most of the campers back to the real world. A few old-timers would be staying behind, and a few of the newcomers, but I was heading back to Goode High School for my sophomore year—the first time in my life I'd ever done two years at the same school.

"In the sea of your life, that is a particularly depressing statement my friend," Jason said with a strange feeling of not being able to relate to Percy on that one. It was nice, he supposed, not to have a deep rooted parallel lodged in him about such a sad thing to hear, but somehow made Percy's life even more tragic than his own blank one for a moment.

"Yeah, yeah, news flash at ten, traffic or whatever," Percy shrugged, but it was still a good feeling. To smile and hope that they were just on winter break and he'd be able to actually continue this trend. The world wouldn't end because he'd accomplished something, it was all he'd wanted once upon a time.

"Good-bye," Rachel said to us as she shouldered her bag. She looked pretty nervous, but she was keeping a promise to her father and attending Clarion Academy in New Hampshire. It would be next summer before we got our Oracle back.

"You'll do great." Annabeth hugged her. Funny, she seemed to get along fine with Rachel these days.

"Very, very strange, yes," Alex said in a posh, scholarly voice. "Next he'll sit around and ponder the existence of bread or something."

"Well documented history of something all human civilizations create," Annabeth helpfully said to his blank look.

"Ah, thanks," he said.

Rachel bit her lip. "I hope you're right. I'm a little worried. What if somebody asks what's on the next math test and I start spouting a prophecy in the middle of geometry class? The Pythagorean theorem shall be problem two. . . . Gods, that would be embarrassing."

"I think that would make her the most popular girl there though," Thalia grinned. "Teachers would never understand how the kids keep cheating, she wouldn't charge anyone for free answers to the test, just works out for everyone really."

"Don't get me started on how our education system is trash," Annabeth said with a sharp look at the book like Rachel was in front of her to debate this with on whether that would be of any help.

Annabeth laughed, and to my relief, it made Rachel smile.

"Well," she said, "you two be good to each other." Go figure, but she looked at me like I was some kind of troublemaker.

"You can't say anything Percy, you called yourself a trouble maker first," Thalia grinned.

"It was shocking I tell you, I'd never been labeled as such before," Percy insisted wide eyed, causing them all to laugh lightly again.

Before I could protest, Rachel wished us well and ran down the hill to catch her ride.

Annabeth, thank goodness, would be staying in New York. She'd gotten permission from her parents to attend a boarding school in the city so she could be close to Olympus and oversee the rebuilding efforts.

"Guess that living in Cali. thing didn't stick?" Magnus asked, one part nervous for her, one part hopeful she'd just finally decided where she wanted her home to be.

"Not so much," Annabeth agreed, but the sad smile didn't linger as she turned back to the book casually. She'd keep in contact with her dad as long as he wanted to. She'd even offer to say hi to her step mom if she wanted to stop and chat on the phone. She'd come around for holidays or birthdays even. It just wasn't a necessity to her. She finally had her question answered of her place in his life.

"And close to me?" I asked.

"Well, someone's got a big sense of his own importance." But she laced her fingers through mine. I remembered what she'd told me in New York, about building something permanent, and I thought—just maybe—we were off to a good start.

"Well the bones of your relationship are at least well set in good sediment," Nico tried to say that in a complimentary way, but Percy just got another 'over my head' look and Nico shrunk in his seat rather than admit he'd spent hours in a museum once looking up niche facts of where dinosaur fossils were usually discovered.

The guard dragon Peleus curled contentedly around the pine tree underneath the Golden Fleece and began to snore, blowing steam with every breath.

"You've been thinking about Rachel's prophecy?" I asked Annabeth.

She frowned. "How did you know?"

"Because I know you."

Annabeth gave a mock, tragic sigh. "Am I already that predictable?"

"I don't mind a little calm and steady see-thoroughness right now," Percy promised. He could see that feeling hadn't faded at all with time too. She hadn't stopped studying Jason with those intense gray eyes every time she was sure he wasn't looking. A lesser guy would have been jealous. Percy was secure enough to know better it wasn't that blonde hair and blue eyes holding her attention after quoting that prophecy.

She bumped me with her shoulder. "Okay, so I have. Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. I wonder who they'll be. We're going to have so many new faces next summer."

"Those poor suckers have no clue what they're in for," Magnus said with experience.

"I'm still trying to hold out hope it won't involve us," Percy groaned.

"Well then, don't give the jar to Magnus," Alex reminded with an impish grin.

Annabeth chuckled along quietly, her eyes still darting between Jason, her cousin, and Alex. To much of what Artimes had said made sense with her dreams.

"Yep," I agreed. "And all that stuff about the world falling in storm or fire."

"You don't get a choice about the world ending that time," Jason agreed sadly. "You pick your poison and you like it."

"Bet I can find a loophole where one of the poison's tastes like blue-raspberry at least," Percy offered half-heartedly.

She pursed her lips. "And foes at the Doors of Death.

"Which is a particularly strange line," Nico nodded. "The Doors of Death are always moving, they're set in no spot, in Tartarus! No half-bloods would survive down there to bare arms against each other long enough."

"Not a theory I'd like to start beta-testing," Annabeth reluctantly agreed, though it was a soothing feeling for a moment to have a niche expert on at least one line at minimum.

I don't know, Percy, but I don't like it. I thought . . . well, maybe we'd get some peace for a change."

"What on earth gave you that strange thought?" Thalia asked her in concern.

"My recent visit to the delusional land of Olympus where everything was sunshine and rainbows by design," Annabeth sighed.

"Wouldn't be Camp Half-Blood if it was peaceful," I said.

"I guess you're right . . . Or maybe the prophecy won't happen for years."

"Could be a problem for another generation of demigods," I agreed. "Then we can kick back and enjoy."

She nodded, though she still seemed uneasy. I didn't blame her, but it was hard to feel too upset on a nice day, with her next to me, knowing that I wasn't really saying good-bye. We had lots of time.

"Race you to the road?" I said.

"You are so going to lose." She took off down Half-Blood Hill and I sprinted after her.

For once, I didn't look back.

Alex smiled as she closed the book to finally indicate she was done, this one was done. It was a strange feeling of relief and accomplishment when it had nothing to do with her in particular, just one that always came with finishing a new story. Having someone else's life given a tangible place in her world was usually such a fleeting thing.

Percy jumped up and did a lap around the room, arms up in a delirious victory. He would have been shouting like a loon at the top of his lungs if he wasn't worried about drawing the cranky Titan back.

The others couldn't blame him in the slightest, letting him work off his energy as they waited for Jason to stretch and offer, "don't worry, I can wait one more day to deal with the next stretch of my mess. We can all hit bed for the night."

"Thank you," Annabeth said politely, though she and Thalia exchanged almost disappointed looks. They almost didn't want that. They'd known everything of their past, but there was a hunger in them to get a look at the other side of a gods face and see just what Jason had gotten up to.

Alex, Will, and Nico were already walking off however, talking about death auras and color theory in a disturbing crisscross conversation, and Percy was starting to slow his frantic run and rubbing his stomach, so they weren't going to argue the point tonight and let it go to take a breath at minimum.

Magnus lingered on the couch where he'd been sitting by Alex, head tipped back and staring at the ceiling with a forlorn expression.

Annabeth sunk down uneasily beside him and asked, "thinking about Hearth?"

He nodded, an uncomfortable position for his neck for sure at the awkward angle as he didn't look around. "I feel like such trash, he's my friend, and here Percy just went and made sure the world was safe for all of his, and I waved mine goodby on the word a Titan wouldn't just chuck him off the planet by accident."

"Percy isn't perfect," Annabeth corrected with a fond smile. "I know you know I once jumped on the back of a manticore, and he beat himself up over it too."

Magnus finally turned to face her, waving his hand around in the water to show how much that comparison didn't work.

"I know," she agreed. "Just, I know you're going to beat yourself up, but try to leave some skin unbruised too. If Hearth left of his own accord, I can't see him blaming you."

Magnus sighed and nodded in agreement. He wanted to believe that, at any rate.

Annabeth watched, seeing him now studying the empty seat with a faraway look in his eyes she knew all to well, the lost expression of not knowing what to do about a situation wasn't just for his friend.

"You like her," Annabeth said astutely, tucking her legs underneath her and studying him, "I could tell that after being here half a day. Have you said anything to Alex?"

Magnus bit his lip and wasn't sure how to say it.

"Is it because you're only attracted to her, half the time?" She kept fishing.

"No, no," Magnus quickly corrected. "I, find her just as intriguing on her he days. I mean, I've never been attracted to a guy before, but it's not, I mean, I like Alex, no matter what gender she or he is."

"So what's the problem?" Annabeth repeated, pure sympathy in her tone.

He clasped his hands and tapped his fingers against his chin, there was no nice way to say it. "Not sure what's going to happen when we get back. I'm still, I'm not sure if you're camp, well, up there-"

His cousin's eyes filled with regret, she leaned forward in her seat, feet spilling back onto the floor to support her weight as she automatically went in to hug him, before she hesitated and leaned right back. He smiled at her in relief and forced himself to relax, not even realizing he'd tensed up until she'd sat back in her seat, but still leaning on the edge.

"You're homeless." She said it as a statement, not a question. He didn't bother to deny it. What would be the point when she'd find out the second they got out of here? Her face flooded with the one thing that didn't send him running away though. Understanding. "Magnus, I am so sorry about that, if I'd known-"

"How could you," he brushed off any responsibility on her part. "As bad as things apparently are between your dad, if he even knows, you've had your own troubles going on-"

"I asked about you though," Annabeth insisted, she was twisting her hands up in her lap and he smiled to imagine her Yankees cap there. "When he told me about Aunt Natalie, that first summer I'd seen him in so long, I cried all night. He said he tried to find you but the system had no record of you, and my step-mom was just in the kitchen the whole time making her kids lunch like nothing was wrong, well, it didn't set a good precedent for that summer. I just thought, I don't know, you were living with Uncle Randolph, safe, I was still fighting with them so much-"

"I don't blame you," he insisted to her guilt ridden face.

"I should have looked for you," she insisted too. "You could have been at camp with us all along."

"I don't know about that," he frowned and looked up at the ceiling again, then reluctantly, the door. "That's why I'm, well it doesn't help I'm a tongue tied idiot around her, but I don't know what's going to happen when we get back. The last thing I should be worried about is a crush when, well I have no clue about my parentage and," he trailed off with his face burning red and his own hands gripping painfully tight to each other.

Annabeth bumped their knees together as she leaned forward without being forceful about it, her tone dead serious. "Chiron will not turn you four away. You'll have somewhere safe to be Magnus." Then she looked over her shoulder, and back to him with a promising smile. "I can tell you really have feelings for Alex, and you shouldn't wait on something like that."

He was blushing again even as he answered, "it's not like it's just me. Alex is, so confident, about everything! I still think she's just been messing with me! If she did like me, I think she'd say something about it, she's so bold." He was smiling by the end, he could hear to his own ears how gently he spoke of her and couldn't even find the blush to be embarrassed about it anymore, even as Annabeth's smile increased.

She still spoke candidly, but there was a hint of worry for the first time. "Maybe, well, she has feelings for somebody else up there right now."

Magnus's heart plummeted, he hadn't thought of that.

"Maybe there's, other things going on in her circumstances," Annabeth relentlessly went on, "but Magnus, you'll regret it if you don't at least ask. Trust me."

He did trust her. He didn't envy the two living through the end of the world before finding peace in each other. He didn't want total destruction to get up the courage to say something to Alex and wondered what other obstacles between near constant death by monster and kidnapping's might circumvent them giving each other a chance.

Magnus knew the moment Percy must have walked back in the room by watching her face light up, shifting around in her seat as if her first reaction were to go to him. She stopped herself and smiled back at him.

He nodded to be left alone, so Annabeth just gave him a promising smile as she stretched and stood up, going over to Percy and putting her hand in his like it was the most natural thing in the world as they discussed what they wanted for dinner with Thalia.

His mind was so preoccupied trying to figure out what exactly he was going to say to Alex on the way to her door, he had no clue how long he was standing in front of it only to see it was open. Wrapping his knuckles sharply on it anyways and very cautiously easing his head around, he called out for her with no answer.

It was as bland as everybody else's, if he hadn't subconsciously noted which one she'd come out of yesterday he'd never have guessed who's it could be, but there was also something so uniquely Alex about it he was sure he wasn't wrong. The smell of wet clay lingered in the air, there was a sewing kit resting beside the pillow, and a plate of Hershey's Kisses on top of the fridge, all unwrapped and arranged in a nonlinear way.

His first impulse was to swipe them into his mouth and book it, but this was Alex's room, and he'd never stolen from someone he wasn't pretty convinced didn't deserve it, so he instead opened up the door below.

Instead of food, what he found was a bowl. A beautiful work of pottery with intricate, almost 3D looking designs all along the side of a caterpillar weaving itself into a cocoon and coming out, only for its wings to beat for all of one image and begin withering in the very next to turn to dust, a telling story all the way until he spun it back around to start.

The kind of thing he would have scoffed and been disgusted at the price of, only someone living the lap of luxury could afford in a window. His hands felt grubby holding it.

He swiftly set it on her bed before the worst could happen and bumped into the fridge door, closing it to hide the evidence he'd found such a thing while the chocolate all moved around on the plate.

Then his mind seized in a panic, wanting to put it back before she found he'd saw it, and he had to grab something else out to prove he hadn't of course! But what- his eyes darted to the chocolate, and he frantically slammed and yanked the door too quickly, the universe glitched as it delivered so fast, but a bag of Kisses fell onto his shoe. He ripped the bag open and hastily shoved one in as he kicked the door back shut, feeling the strange crinkling sensation on his tongue and realizing he'd forgotten to unwrap it-

"Magnus?"

He choked, his hands fumbled, and for some reason his brain screamed at him to hide the evidence. The rich chocolate fell to the floor, scattering to every corner as the half-unwrapped one sat on his tongue as he whirled around to see her dark brown and amber eyes were glittering at him from across the room as she sauntered over. She stopped right in front of him, eyeing his lips clinically.

Magnus swallowed and knew he should open his mouth, say something, like why he was invading Alex's privacy and something else very important, he was sure he'd come in here to say something but really couldn't remember right now as Alex leaned in.

Alex planted a hand firmly on his shoulder and kissed him.

It was not gentle, but neither was the way Magnus's knees literally gave out on him and he fell back against the wall, his hands had pulled Alex's shirt with him, so that Alex was fully pressed into him and her lips were still a tantalizing breath apart.

She braced her other hand against the wall right by his head, he felt her shift her weight and his eyes snapped open as he began to apologize and let go only to see her nose to nose with him and smiling, not leaning back an inch. "I'm homeless," he blurted out, and gods he was the most idiotic person on earth as he licked his lips. He was surprised he wasn't choking on that wrapper and probably dying and hallucinations all this.

"I guessed that, I am too," she nodded. Some of her hair had fallen out of the updo, curling back around her shoulders. They were so close, his golden strands were twining together with hers. "I'm a child of Loki."

Judging by her reserved tone, how she was still shifting her weight around, he probably should have had some revelation to that. Even he'd heard of that god. "The god of trickery? Thor's brother?" He was running his tongue over his lip still where they tingled and had never wanted someone to move away less. Maybe he had a chocolate allergy he'd never known of.

She gave him a joyless smile, the nails on his shoulder digging in just a bit, for all the world like she was still fixing to lean back but had yet to do so. "How those Greek kids speak of children of Hades, as outcasts, untrustworthy, that's how our kind will see me Magnus."

"You're not seeing anyone else are you?" He blurted, again. He wasn't touching her anywhere but where his fingers were still holding onto the edge of her odd shirt, the material crinkled like she’d wrapped herself in foil, just the tips of his fingers.

Her smile was very sad as she leaned in and kissed him again, fully capturing his lips. The world might have actually ended by the time she leaned back again, his protection had possibly evaporated into her he was left breathing so shallowly like all the oxygen had been deprived from him. "No," she finally answered in the gentlest voice Magnus had yet heard from her. Her eyes were closed as she stayed right where she was. "Give me time to tell you about Adrian." Her breath caught on the name. Then she opened her eyes, and finally pushed off him and took a step back.

There was chocolate smeared across her lips now and he found himself swallowing none left in his mouth.

"Okay," he promised, thinking Percy would have to come in here and pry him off this wall before he figured out how to move again. "I, um, you're gorgeous," he finally, stupidly, remembered what he'd wanted to come in here and tell her, and the compliment seemed very underwhelming now.

She laughed, that same crooked smile playing across her lips he didn't think he'd ever want to look away from. "And you're an adorable goof."

"I can work with that," he nodded so much he may or may not have broken his neck.

***

Percy finally held her tight that night.

“All coming back to you?” She couldn’t even put a tease in her voice as she lovingly curled into his chest without hesitation and his arms just circled her tighter.

There was comfortable silence for a while. But they both knew. It was a pause of their earlier fight, and they were both testing the waters to see who would break it first.

Percy did, cutting right to the heart of it. He’d seen that look on her face and known what it was. “I got lost, and it wasn’t your fault.”

She said nothing, her nails digging tight into his back. He could feel the hitch in her voice as she fought back a sob.

“The day you can tell a god or goddess or Titan what to do with me is the day you get crowned Queen of Olympus, and Zeus is doing a shit job too, so, I actually like your odds better,” he concluded with the contemplative simpleness she adored about him so much. He had a very black and white view of the world, one she didn’t share but admired.

“I think what’s killing me is, that Artemis had to help,” she admitted. She could only admit this to him, since she was being honest here.

He nodded, because he understood that too. “I’m sure your mom would say good counsel isn’t unwise?” He tried and failed to offer, knowing the answer. “Your mom might never have liked my help, but she can’t claim to have never needed it. She has demigods to do her bidding too.”

“Her counsel, perhaps, but I, I don’t know Percy. I hate the idea, of not knowing what they have planned for you. Of what they’ll ask you to do before this is all over.”

“What they’ll ask us to do,” Percy reminded, she could hear the grin of his voice from the comfort of his beating heart in her ear. “Oceanus might be an idiot, but he made it pretty clear he didn’t pull all of them in here by mistake. Now, you are a part of it, and we’ll make the right call.”

“I hope you’re right,” she murmured. Her mind was on Jason, and her cousin and Alex. Her mind was on those books, and how no god’s gift came without a price. Her mind was on Artemis still, and what she’d ask of them too when they got out of here.

And that would only be the beginning.

PJOPJOPJO

I don’t want to promise when I’ll start the next set of books. I want to get into a new fandom I’ve never explored before and really get invested without fretting in the back of my mind about writing. I want to say I’ll start posting the first chapter around the end of December with a possible first bonus chapter early that month, but if I wait a bit into New Year’s don't be alarmed either. My heart is SET on finishing these, I just don’t want to force it when I’m still playing around with a few ideas.

I will give the minor spoiler and promise I’m kicking around some new characters to bring in, but I would have to take some out too, I won’t go over my limit of eight.

Tell me which you’d prefer? I’m angling to bring in Leo and Piper or Reyna and Frank, both have merits, but I know you all have your own ideas.

#pjo #hoo #Percy Jackson #Jason Grace #Thalia Grace #alex fierro #Magnus Chase #fierrochase #will solace #nico di angelo #solangelo #Annabeth Chase #percabeth

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