#I haven't made up my mind what I would want Magnus to be

[lurafita]

Mutant AU Malec

(Think Marvel/X-Men, but we don't have to slavishly follow their world's canon)

Alec and his siblings are mutants and teachers/caretakers, overseeing the care and education of young mutants that go to their school. While times have softened the general public to mutants, there are still bigots and prejudice abound. So when the school has to move to a new city/or disctrict, Alec, Izzy and Jace decide to check out the neighborhood to find out if there are possible future hangout spots for the kids.

When they find the Pandemonium Cafe, they mostly just want a cup of coffee. But when one of the customers at a table across from them finds out they are mutants and demands from the cafe's staff to kick them out -(nothing the siblings aren't used to. They won't even hold a grudge against the cafe's staff, not their fault people are shitty), - the incredibly handsome and gorgeous and cute -(so Alec has eyes; he can appreciate another man's beauty, back off Izzy, I'm not asking him for a date right off the bat!!!) - waiter/barista/owner, takes the guy by his lapels, and drags him out. Then he apologizes to the three for the inconvenience and gives them free dessert for having had to endure the asshole.

The cafe becomes the obvious hangout place for the school, both the kids and teachers. And with the help of his students and collueges, Alec eventually even manages to ask Magnus out on that date.

[copperbadge]

Supposedly, people with Anphantasia don't get scared reading scary stories, or at least not much. Is that true with you if you ever read Horror?

You know, I'd never thought about it, but I suppose it is. To an extent, anyway.

Follows a discussion of my relationship to horror prose and media; if you don't know what aphantasia is, as many people coming to this tumblr don't, I have a tag for it here that may help -- it's basically the lack of a "mind's eye", a visual imagination, so I hear/read things and don't see an image of them in my mind. If you are scoffing right now that nobody actually has a mind's eye, congratulations, you may also have aphantasia. The articles linked in the tag will be useful to you.

I have definitely been scared by prose before but it's very rare, and not much since I was a child, when the stories I found scary were preying on fears I already had. I loved the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark books, and I think it's not unusual that I found the illustrations more frightening than the prose, but the only story that ever scared me was the one about the vampire who kept trying to grab a kid through a window -- because I had a window over my bed in my childhood bedroom and I was terrified I'd look up to see someone looking down at me through it. Likewise, as an adult, the only content in horror I find scary is what I think of as "mind horror" -- the loss of faculty or the loss of awareness of faculty (think the end scene of the novel Hannibal with the brain). Which is one of my biggest fears.

I don't read much horror because generally I get bored, which has in the past made me feel faintly appalled at myself, but which now makes more sense. Certainly I have no interest in slasher-style gore in prose, because I find it uninteresting and it goes on a really long time, while I don't watch it in movies/TV because the visual is upsetting -- so if I was getting the visual from the prose I might react more emotionally. I am a fan of Stephen King but mostly his early work where he was shorter on suspense, and I was reading it because I liked the ideas and the characters. Carrie is super interesting because of the personalities involved, not because of the violence or the horror aspects. But I've never seen a movie adaptation and I can imagine I would be deeply unsettled if not distraught by certain scenes if depicted visually. Although I didn't find the Hannibal TV series super upsetting (I mostly was put off by how bad I imagined Will smelled) so perhaps body horror just doesn't do it for me.

This may also explain my hard-no on zombie media, because I'm not scared at all of zombies, I just find them boring and gross, and that leaves the post-apocalyptic humans. My hard-no on post-apocalypse anything is an aversion to imagining the end of my world, though, which isn't visual, it's conceptual, and not scary, just upsetting.

Like, people kept suggesting Zombies Run! to me when I was taking up running and -- well, one, I needed the music to keep my pace, I didn't want it interrupted. But two, I didn't see why a bunch of random groaning noises would make me run faster. If you could see zombies chasing you in your head, yeah, that'd probably be more motivating.

It kind of explains too why I haven't written much horror. I used to be very curious about how people worked out what's "scary" in horror prose and I guess part of the curiosity came from not experiencing it myself. It's tough to know how to write a scary story when stories don't scare you.

To be clear, I definitely experience fear. Reading Stephen King's "It" didn't really scare me, but there were scary moments in the film adaptations. I startle at jumpscares. There's plenty of stuff in real life that I'm scared of. And even podcasts -- I don't get mental images during podcasts like apparently most people do, but Magnus Archives got me with the "digging into your pre-existing fears" thing once or twice, and while I didn't finish The Left Right Game (I just got bored) the hitchhiker scene definitely got me. But I think, unless it's playing on something conceptual that already existed, yeah, I don't find prose particularly frightening.

Huh. This feels like the kind of thing that could have a significant impact on my creative output if I could crowbar my way into it. Knowing that I as an aphantic don't need descriptions that other people do has already, I think, impacted my editing process, but this feels like it maybe would somehow have an effect on the whole thing -- the fact that I don't experience emotions when reading in the same way other people do because I don't get the visuals is something to meditate on.

How the fuck did I ever even become a writer. Like what's up with that.

(Ironically it was X-Files fanfic. X-Files, a show that very much did scare me, for which I wrote and read a lot of fanfic, none of which did...yikes. Well, that's something to meditate on for the weekend.)

[cozzzynook]

Summary : Percpetor hadn't had his heat cycle for months. He desperatly need to know why, and seek for relieve. Fortunately for him, the Lost Light's trip on Earth will help him more than he would have ever thought... and fuck him up even more.

Warnings : NSFW, denial, humanformers, robot in heat, violence, sparkeater behavior

Pairing : Ratchet / Perceptor, Perceptor / reader, mention of Perceptor / Drift and Brainstorm / Perceptor, Dratchet

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PART 1

The Lost Light arrived on Earth after Rodimus received visions from the Matrix about some artefact (and mostly because he talked with Drift and Drift said it was some divine artefact that would bring good luck so they had to take it before anyone else). During their trip to Earth, Perceptor worked on their human avatar, to blend in amongs the species. The scientist had noticed that something was wrong with him. For month, he had no sight of his heat cycle. Usually, it always happen every two months and last a week. But it must have been 6 months it haven't happened yet. Even Ratchet couldn't give him an answer for why, what was wrong with him, and could only give him aphrodisiacs to trigger his cycle. He tried having some fun time with Drift or Brainstorm, but nothing. Not a single droplet of fluid got out from him, or normally, he is confined in his habsuit, leaking and begging for relieve, sensitive and hot.

After some time of adaptation to their new form, team Rodimus is ready to blend amongs the humans and find their dear artefact.

Oslo, capital of Norway, is a very big and splendid city. Everything is so big, the buildings are immense and yet the street are so spacious. Perceptor's favorite place is the Opera. The architecture is amazing, and he thinks that it is funny to be able to walk on it to reach to roof². What he dislikes, like his team mates, is ... how to use a human paper map... Rodimus wanted to lead his crew trhought the city, but ended up losing himself. Whirl found himself being very amused by his captain's foolishness. I was almost night time, and the street start emptying.

-Oh captain, are you really sure you are able to lead us to your little vision? Or you just wanted to show off and flex?

-Oh shut up. I'd like to see you struggling with that damn thing. Perceptor, do you think you could... translate this ?

Perceptor rolled his eyes and took the map after taking a look around them. He examines it and try to locates their position.

-We must be here, near the Historic Center. And no, i'm not saying the name of this place. I am not familiar with the language.

-Perfect, okay, cool, we almost know where we are, now we have to discover how to.... oh hell nah, I don't know.

-Rodimus, are you even sure we are in the right city?

-Yes Magnus, i can feel it in my spark-, well my now heart. But I have no idea where it could be located. I have it's name in my head but I can't even say it, it's so fucked up. Totally different from cybertronian.

-You know what? Let's ask a local. I can't stand th cold any long-

-Hum, hallo! Do you need some help?

Everyone turn to the new arrivant. A human (without surprise) approach them with a polite smile. They have a strong accent, meaning this is a native.

-Hello there, hum yeah, we need to find a place we wanted to... visit! yeah tourism. Strictly hi and bye, of course.

The human gives Rodimus a strange look, and Perceptor find himself quite amused by this. First contact with a native and he already fucks his image up.

-Okay... where do you want to head? You can visit the Opera, the Fram Museum, the museum of Edvard Munch, the Fjord,... anyway, do you have any destination in mind?

-Yeah i have it, but i litteraly can't say it.

-Oh, maybe you can write it down? Or at least try?

-Hey, it's a good idea! Hum... does any of you have a pen ?

Rung search some seconds in his pockets before giving Rodimus a pen (where does it come from, they have no idea... after all, Rung is made of secrets boxes so they don't want to know further). The captain thinks a bit before trying his best to write his vision down the map. Everyone try to take a look, including Perceptor. But he start feeling weird. His tank feels dizzy. He tries to ignore it, but a thrill runs down his back and he knows something's wrong. With every seconds passing while Rodimus try to write down with the human encouraging him, the feeling become bigger. So he has the good idea to come near Ratchet.

-Ratchet.

Hell, his voice vibrates without him wanting it, even tho he whispered. His cheeks start warming up.

-Yes Perceptor?

-I feel- hm- i...

-Are you alright ? You become red.

-I, I need to sit down...

-Yes yes, of course, come with me.

-My head spins...

-Everything is alright sir?

Perceptor heard the human voice a bit too clear. A sudden rush of heat runs throught his frame and he understood. At the moment the human, the very kind, helpfull, encouraging and good looking human, came to them and spoke, it started.

-Yes, don't worry, I think he is a bit tired, that's all, we are going to sit there.

Ratchet hold him thight by the arm and back him up.

-Ratchet, Ratchet...

-Yeah, i know. It started, doesn't it?

Perceptor could only answer with a weak whine and cover slightly his mouth.

-It was time. Even if it's the worst time ever.

Ratchet rushs him to a corner hidden from curious eyes and makes him sit. Perceptor let his helm hit the wall behind him and pants due to his effort.

-Breath, it's okay, i'm here. Just try to not make a mess of you right now. Hell, i didn't even know it could happen in human form.

-Because this form doesn't... doesn't interfere with out actual frame... so nothing of our... of our system is changed, we remain the same...

The scientist could only squeezes his tights together and breath calmly. He has to stop talking, especially about sciences.

-You're lucky I have coolant with me. It was supposed to be for Rodimus, because we never know with him, but you need it more than him right now. Here, drink. There is a straw, it's easier.

Perceptor find some strenght to held Ratchet's hand while the medic help him drink. The sensation of the straw and cool liquid on his glossa and throat makes him quiver and softly whine. He wants more. He needs more. He craves that someone touch his hot frame.

-Slow down, you're gonna choke... yeah, your forehead is burning.

The cold servo on his head feels good and refreshing.

-Perceptor, do you allow me to inform Brainstorm or Drift that your heat has started?

-... no, they must not worry for me... It's not important...

-It is. But if you don't want, i'm not gonna make it. Let's say you got a cold.

-.... Thanks you...

An other rush of pleasure makes him tense up, and he barely hold his moan. Fortunatly for him, no one is around.

-Okay, we better gotta return to base. Quickly.

::Drift to Ratchet; is Percy okay?::

:: Ratchet to Drift ; yes. He just got a human cold. He has to rest. ::

:: Drift to Ratchet ; Okay. Finally, Rodimus managed to write his stuff down and the human knows. It's actually not a place but a building. And you know what? Ratty you know what??? Guess ::

-Oh, good news Perceptor, Rodimus finally managed to write his shit and the human knows. Drift is writting me.

No answer from the scientist. Oh shit, think Ratchet.

:: Ratchet to Drift ; i don't know, Drift. Tell me ?::

:: Drift to Ratchet ; the.human.works.there. ::

:: Ratchet to Drift ; oh really ? Finally a good news::

:: Drift to Ratchet ; the only problem is that.... it's on the other side of the city...::

:: Ratchet to Drift ; okay, i take down what i said. It's gonna be an issue. I don't want Perceptor to stay outside any longer for his cold. Tell the human that it's very kind of their part and that we are thankfull for their help::

Some seconds pass, so Ratchet believes their convo is done, so he focus back on his patient, that is having a wandering hand on his thight. He takes off his scarf because it's annoying him and sigh.

-Ok, listen to me. They found what they needed, but you're not going. Obviously. So i'm gonna take you back to base and -

-Hey, i'm sorry, is everything alright?

Ratchet realises quickly that the human is coming toward them. He throw his scarf on Perceptor to hide him a bit and stand before him, making a wall between him and the human. The others autobots remained at their place, turned in his direction but looking at the map. Only Drift is looking at him.

-Yes, don't worry. We are going back to our hotel. Thank you very much for your help, it was nice to meet you.....?

-My name is (YN). I'm sorry to insist, but i'm worried for you friend. It doesn't look like a simple cold.

-I am his doctor, i know what i'm talking about.

-Let me at least give him a killer pain. It can help. I have water with me.

Ratchet reflects on his options. Looking rude and impolite, or take his human role and accept. He has no choice but to accept.

-Okay, okay, but he can't take the "pain killer" with water. He has a special drink.

-No problem.

(YN) put their bag on the ground and take out something grey. They crack it open and a little white pill comes out. Ratchet backs up to let them see Perceptor, that seems to take a bit more composure.

-Hey, i'm (YN), the one from earlier. Your doctor said you're a bit in difficulties, so i'd like to give you something that can relieve you from fiever and pain. Here, open your mouth, and don't worry i have clean hands.

Perceptor does what he is told, and when these delicate fingers brush his lips, he just want to suck on them. But instead, he takes the straw and drink quickly. Too quickly, because he choke on his drink and start coughing. This only make an other rush of need and lust travel his spine.

Ratchet quickly comes by his side and the human step back.

-.... Where is your hotel? I would not like letting you outside too long. You can crash at my place for the night, i have a spare room. It's two streets away from here. You could leave tomorrow.

Ratchet looks at Perceptor and wonder what to do. He needed to be in a room, alone. He needed to relieve himself. But with a human next to him? He wasn't sure.

Perceptor suddenly grabs his arm and makes him bend closer to him.

-Please, ratchet, I need a room...

And he could see how hard his patient try to contain his moans. His voice is needy, whispered. His entire frame is tensed up and ratchet doubt he will be able to walk on his own.

-Okay, you'll get a room and? It's you heat cycle, you'll need transfluid. And i don't think you want to do that next to a human, knowing how loud you can be. And Brainstorm is not there. And Drift has to stay with Rodimus, because he is the third in command and has to stick with his captain in this unknown world. If you return to the ship, you could get what you need.

-That's hot...

-And that's not the point.

-Sir, i'm sorry to insist but your friend is not okay. And i can't let you in the cold. It doesn't bother me at all, really.

-... Okay. Okay. To your place. I don't want him there any longer.

And so, the three of them are heading to (YN) appartement. The rest of the team is informed that Perceptor must rest because of the side effects of their new form, causing him to have some human virus and that he had to go somewhere warm quickly. Drift would have liked to stay with him, but Ratchet reminded him that his place was next to his captains. Drift tried to call Perceptor but he wasn't answering.

Just like (YN) said, their place was near, so Perceptor quickly had a room where he could hide. Ratchet had to create an entire made up story about themselves, lying that they come from America and were visiting Europe every year, and that it was common for Perceptor -now named Jeremy- to be sick in cold country.

Midnight hit, and (YN) had to go to bed. Ratchet was allowed to sleep on the couch, but he was planning to pass his night by Perceptor's side. At the moment he entered the room, he could smell this distinct smell of heat. And Perceptor had already created a nest with the coushions and blanckets on the bed. He was under a blancket, hidding himself like a cat under a bed.

-Perceptor...?

Only choked whines came out from the blancket. Shaky breaths indicated to Ratchet that his friend was desperatly trying to self-service.

-Perceptor, listen to me.

-Ratchet, ratchet the smell of the covers. It smells the human. It feels s-o good. And the covers, it's so soft and squishy under me...

-Come out of your cave and listen to me.

Ratchet had to deal with so much robots in heat that it wasn't affecting him anymore. Maybe only Drift's heat were the only one that could turn him on, but that was it. He must admit anyways that the needy and aroused tone of this usually stern and confident bot was not letting him indifferent.

Perceptor emerges from from his nest and Ratchet was now glad to be in the human's appartement. Perceptor was completly worked up, already so sweaty as he was shirtless. He was trying to get as much as friction he could on his skin with the covers.

-... Do you want me to-

-Yes Ratchet, i want you, i need you, fill me up, use me, touch me please.

-.... -call Drift... over... okay right. Trust me, id like to help, but i'll be useless. Ah and don't forget to drink your coolant.

Ratchet takes from his pocket a bottle of coolant, but before he could do anything else, a weight was sitting on his lap.

-What the-

-I want you deep inside me.

Ratchet sight, put his servo on around his waist and hold him tight before lifting him and put him on the bed. Perceptor was over excited that he didn't have to insist more to have Ratchet's spike between his fold. He already had spead his legs like a good bot and was ready to fuck throught the night.

But nothing.

Not even servos on his frame.

Not a single breath in his audio receptors.

Not a second presence on the bed, dominating him.

When he looked at Ratchet, he was standing before the door, looking at him with indifference.

-Your coolant is on the night table next to the bed and your shirt too. Try to relax, and get some sleep. I'll be in the living room if you need anything, except a good frag. I'm not the one you have to ask for it. Good night Perceptor.

And on this, Ratchet left the room in silence. He couldn't pass the night with a horny mech like that. Perceptor kept looking at the door for some second, processing what just happened. When it hits him, a growl of frustration escape him. How dare Ratchet deny him the night? How could he resist to him, or he was offering his frame to him. Brainstorm would never leave him like that. He was ready to explode. Anger flood his hydraulics. He was so frustrated that he could blow up everything in the room. He was looking for a way to vent his anger when an idea came to his mind...

Ratchet, on his side, knew he did the good thing. Because there is something different about Perceptor's heat cycle. He has some tendencies to... become violent, possessive. Not like Drift, really violent. The worst Drift could have had made was biting his neck that a bit of energon spit out. Perceptor could be worst. How much time Brainstorm came to him with a missing wing, face plate destroyed, profond dents all over his frame,... just because he wasn't in the right position Perceptor indicated him or because his hand placement was not to the taste of his partener. And this happen since Perceptor became a sparkeater. It seems like, when he is subject to strong emotions/changements, his frame react the same way a sparkeater would react.. He knew that denying Perceptor overloads this night could anger him really bad, but to his advantage, they are not on the ship. They are on Earth, in a city they don't know, in a human appartement WITH a human in it and humans all around them. He wouldn't do anything, right?

Right?

~~~~

In the morning, Ratchet went to check on his patient. He wanted to make sure he slept a bit and eventually change the covers himself before (YN) could see anything. The room was empty. He got worried, and looked everywhere where he could be. It was early in the morning, so (YN) was surely still sleeping, so he had to be extra carefull. Then he heard the sound of water. He realised that Perceptor was in the bathroom, surely taking a shower. He freaked out a bit, because hell, they are not in their house. But at least, Perceptor was up. He even hesistates to knock on the door and take some news, but he was quite scared of how he was today. So he just waited in his room, and took the occasion to open the window and change to covers. It smells heat and transfluids so bad Ratchet though he had his nose his someone's valve. When he was done, the door open on a relaxed Perceptor, with only a towel around his waist and wet hair. He sits on the bed.

-Hello Perceptor. how are you feeling today? Did you sleep a bit? I see you drank your coolant.

-I'm fine, thank you. Very tired. I am sorry for yesterday night.

-It's okay. Your heat?

-I'm... i'm still so hot, but, i believe it's in the morning and that... i could have slept a bit. And took a shower.

-Good. We wait until the human wakes up, we thank them and we leave. You need coolant, and i don't have anymore. So dress up and eat a bit. You can have them all, i already ate.

Ratchet hands him some energon cubes that Perceptor took graciously. He eats them one by one, savouring every single one of them. Oh fuck, he could go crazy again.

-Dress up. It would be embarrassing to show yourself like that.

Instead of doing what Ratchet told him, he was focused on what was happening inside of him. And a sudden question made him aroused.

-Ratchet.... it's only a theorie of mine but... do you think that... because my heat cycle came late... it might... last longer...?

Just the thought of being horny for more than a week made him all worked up again. It made Ratchet pinch his nose and close his optics.

-Urgh, Primus, i have no idea. But let's hope not. You're insufferable like that.

-Am I, Ratchet?

The medic already regrets his words.

-Please, dress up.

Ratchet walked when Perceptor grips his arm a bit too strong and pull him violently. Taken aback, Ratchet falls on the side of the bed and is pinned against it. Two bright yellow optics were staring at him with anger, lust, and the medic could only stare back.

-You're gonna pay me for this night...

A sharp pain in his wrists wake him up with adrenaline. In two seconds, Ratchet pin Perceptor to the ground with a knee on his back and his two arms crossed. It's a this moment he remarks that his hands grew claws and became a bit darker than his skin tone.

-Threat me again and I'll make sure you-

-What are you going to do, Ratchet? Call me a bad bot and punish me? I can't wait to see that.

-I was going to say that you would stay in your habsuit in quarantine everytime you'll have your heat cycle, because you become too violent during them.

A gentle knock on the door distract Ratchet, and Perceptor use it to switch their position. He is stronger than his medic, so it's easy for him to keep him there, under him. A vicious smile cross his lips, revealing sharp teeths. It was defenetly a sparkeater side effet, but who would have thought it would affect his avatar as well? His knee slides between Ratchet's legs and came against his modesty panel, and in one hand, pins Ratchet's wrists up his head.

:: Ratchet to Drift ; DRIFT, COME TO THIS ADRESS IMMEDIATLY. IT'S PERCEPTOR ::

Again, a knock on the door and the human speaking.

-Hello, i hear weird noise. Is everything alright ?

Perceptor turn his head toward the door and felt again a stronger rush of heat in his entire body. The human... yes...

Ratchet understood quickly that the human must be out of here. He looked all around the room and notice that the window was still open. He could try to sneak the mech out of there, but how? He was stronger than him, and pinned on the ground wasn't helping. He was helpless.

-Hum, yes yes, everything is alright, but Jeremy is still down! But don't worry, I can handle it!

-O-okay, ... I'm making breakfast, so, i'll be in the kitchen...

The medic felt again a sharp pain in his wrists and warm fluid coming from them.

-Perceptor, you'll have the entire eternity to make me pay for whatever mistake i made, but right now is not the moment!

Perceptor sit up on top of Ratchet and rise his hands to lick the wounds he inflicted. The sweet taste of the energon made him whimper and sucking for more. A hiss of pain escape him when the scientist bites without mercy.

:: Ratchet to Drift ; WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU !? SPEED UP!! And when you're there, you'll see an opened window. Climb and enter the room !! AND QUICKLY ::

:: Drift to Ratchet ; i'm on my way, what's happening, love? What's with Perceptor ?::

:: Ratchet to Drift ; HE HAS HIS HEAT CYCLE !!::

:: Drift to Ratchet ; ... I'm almost there. You're in the room?::

:: Drift to Ratchet ; Ratty ?::

:: Drift to Ratchet ; Ratty answer me::

:: Drift to Ratchet ; Ratchet, i'm informing Rodimus. Please, answer me!::

The medic was trying his best to escape. An opportunity opens to him, so he retract his left leg and with all of his strenght, push Perceptor off him.

He then heard something from outside and with a lot of relieve, Drift appeard in the room from the window. He gave Ratchet a bag with coolant and energon, and lock looks with Perceptor.

-Hey Percy, it's me, Drift, relax, i'm here... why don't you put on clothes huh? And drink, you must drink coolant, no? C'mon, here are your clothes.

Some seconds in silence pass during wich Perceptor was reflecting fast, then growl in frustration and accept to dress up. His optics came back blue.

Ratchet was trying to slow the bleeding down by covering the wounds with his sleeves.

-He hurted you badly. Do you need anything? I can jump out the window and-

-It's okay Drift, let's focus on Perceptor. This environnement is not good for him. Everything trigger him. We HAVE to bring him back. Plus, there is the human.

-Yeah...

They both look at the mech, shirtless, who was sitting on the floor looking exhausted and hot, optics shut, frame tensed, and intake slightly opened.

-Can you put your shirt on?

-... No...

-T's okay, let's just put on your jacket then.

-You take care of him? I'm gonna have a talk with the human. And don't fuck him.

Ratchet didn't wait for an answer and head to the kitchen, taking the time to swipe off some energon. The human was there, eating some weird looking red slices of "meat" with something oily and yellow.

-Goodmorning (YN).

-Oh, hello! How are you doing? and how is Jeremy doing? I am worried, i heard some noise.

-Well, let's say i tried to lift him up to dress him, but he couldn't stand and felt. Nothing serious, don't worry, everything is fine, i have things under control.

-I don't doubt that. Are you going to eat?

-Thank you very much, but we are not gonna use more of your precious time. We must return to our hotel.

-I understand. It was a pleasure to help anyway. How much time are planning on staying in Oslo? We could see each others, and i would make a little visit of the city? I'm in Hollidays.

-I'll see that with my friends, but it would be a pleasure. Thank you for your hospitality. I shouldn't have been grumpy yesterday. We will remember it.

-It's fine, you were stressed. If you are ready, then let me lead the way to the door.

-Yes, please. I'll check on him. Oh and, hum, sorry for the bed covers... he... he has sweated a lot during the night with hum... his fever so I took off the covers...

-No worry, i can wash them.

Ratchet returned to the room, but before opening the door, some muffled noises tingle his attention, as if a bed was shaking. Then a big moan confirmed his fears. They were banging on each others. God damn it, i'm gonna cut their spike off, thinks Ratchet.

He enters the room and close the door quickly behind him. And what he saw made him will he has some holy oil³ on him right now. For his optics's god damn sake. He wished he could see the light of Jesus fucking Christ.

NDA :

²: Oslo's opera has a special aritechture, because there are stairs directly built in it for people to walk to the roof, without going inside the building. Go see on Google, it is STUNNING.

³ holy oil : equivalent of holy water. If you didn't... understand... I believe you did but meh, i though it was funny to mention it.

------

it's not done and idk if i'll ever finish it

😳 this is a good good read oh my goodness.

Poor Ratchet and Drift.

Poor Brainstorm..poor percy..

This is very interesting! Thank you for sharing!

[emeraldmew]

Hey, sis.

#also someone remind me to make my Cosmic Horror Toddler theory into something coherent

Whenever you have the time.

Okay. So bear in mind we're only like seven episodes in and I have no evidence and really no thought behind this beyond "would that be fucked up or what?" and "ooh I'd love to see what an eldritch abomination growing up is like."

There are also like, all of the spoilers for the original TMA below so like, if you're just listening to Protocol you might want to skip the rest of this post.

Tenuously connected point 1.

One of the things from what Jonny and Alex have said about Protocol is that it's supposed to involve exploring "what makes a person" right? And we also already know Jonny's answer to this question from his, uh, cannibalism discussion.

Short version: a "person" understands their actions as something that actually does things to the world around them beyond simply fulfilling a want like hunger/capable of choosing to do evil.

Tenuously connected point 2.

In the Archives universe, a point is made that the Fears "don't think. Not like we do." They work off instinct.

Tenuously connected point 3.

While I never looked into the ARG before Protocol's release I have since looked into the summaries of what it revealed. Among other things the ARG revealed Magnus Institute of Protocol was studying children via... psychological experiments of dubious morality. Aside from this being why Sam is snooping into the Magnus Institute (for those who haven't looked into the ARG yet, his name is among the children researched) the experiments are pretty much looking into how children at various stages of development display empathy and whether they conform to orders or choose not to and stuff like that (I'm sure I am not wording this part right someone with a better background in psychology can probably expand further).

Anyway, my point is the idea of choices and such is being studied in relation to psychological development in children.

Tenuously connected point 4.

The way the cases so far have played out in Protocol does seem to show a difference compared to Archives.

Smirke's original categories don't seem to fit quite right anymore as each of the cases seem to have stuff that doesn't cram into the original boxes. As the blurry categories were already a major point in TMA regarding creating the Eyepocalypse and even Sam calls out the categorization the OIAR use in the first episode this isn't surprising. But it does suggest that the Fears have changed from what they were before.

Quite a few people have also suggested that in the cases we've seen sometimes the incidents seem to fulfill a desire (in a monkey's paw way, of course) rather than simply finding a random victim. This might suggest the presence of intent rather than only instinct.

So what?

I'll admit it's just sort of my own "ooh wouldn't that be messed up? let's explore that further" thought process doing the talking here, but The Thing that was Fear has existed since things could feel afraid. It's ancient. But it's also a cosmic horror entity that has been shown to grow from it's initial state to what we saw in Archives (see ep 200).

It's something on a cosmic level. Maybe it wasn't done growing. The Fears don't think "like we do"...

but neither do babies.

What if by Protocol the Fears have developed more after leaving their cradle? To a point where they can at least begin to think or choose.

What if the Fears are eldritch toddlers and they're learning how to play?

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

I need to insert my rsv pookies everywhere and since you can finish the main storyline with the spirit world and stuff pretty early in the game, in my mind farmer gets them to collaborate with the expanded adventurers and vice versa. I'm sure there would be ways to convince the heads of each organization, be it Belinda and Rae, Camilla and Magnus, or Marlon and Lance. Magnus has already worked with the ninjas in the past so it's not like they don't know of each other's presence. It could be done since they all want to defeat the evil forces threatening the balance, only maybe using different means. Farmer could act as a mediator, perhaps, and everyone could participate in different kinds of missions depending on what they are.

I know the two storylines will never intersect but a girl can dream 😭😭 In my mind they could be curious about each other and end up with some interesting fun group and even couple dynamics.

Imagine Jio stuck with Isaac on outpost duty. The vibes would be so rancid I just know it lmao. Those two grumpy idiots do NOT trust each other despite their bosses telling them to work together and collaborate. And Daia would love the Highlands, she'd sneak into the diamond cave and take samples for her geology studies, yes, but if she sneaks a couple of diamonds here and there to gift to her besties at Ridgeside... no one's going to stop her 😘✨️ I can also imagine Alesia shocked over the fact that one member of the cult is a trained assassin and a literal CHILD. When she sees her skills on the battlefield she's impressed but still can't help but worry.

Idk Mouse I'm going crazy lmao. Hades2 updated a couple days ago and I haven't even touched it because these idiots have me in a chokehold 😂

Yes, yes, yes! YES!

I've definitely written previously about the relationship between adventurers and mages with cult members, but it's mostly been either an unspoken truce/unwillingness to provoke conflict, or the two groups distrusting each other. As for the almost official co-operation, that's a cool idea, and has huge potential to be both serious fic and crack, hee hee~ 😁 Especially if Isaac and Jio are in the same place, you're so right.

Camilla and Belinda definitely had a past together, and I like to think of them as frenemies - different views on "best for the world" but both very strong, stubborn, and respectful of each other. Daia, with her interest in rocks and gems, would definitely be happy to travel with Lance and do some territory training (and teasing, heh). Alesia would begin to doubt that co-operating with the cult was a good idea, because... a child assassin... was beyond her comprehension. Though has a deep respect for Helen, even if she doesn't always agree with the Cult's methods. Jadu will run after a squeaky Kiwi in order to question the unusual Junimo (until shurikens fly in his direction, lol).

And then there's Jio and Isaac... Oh, that's a separate story. Constant arguments, reaching serious fights, when both sides need to separate these hotheads, complaints that each of them "coped with problems on their own, without outside help". Well, and then - my favorite part - there's the unforeseen circumstances that still made the noxious elf and the equally noxious adventurer work together, and they made a pretty good team. I even thought about starting some sort of romantic relationship, but I don't think it's going to go any further than a crack ship. Buuuuut, I said the same thing for Lance/Isaac... 👀

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 12: TWO SNAKES SAVE MY LIFE

Annabeth was fiddling with the ends of the pages, letting them run through her fingers as she nervously stared at the title. Great, just what she wanted, more of her screw-ups on display, now from Luke's father himself. Gods knew what else about her past mistakes had been shown in Percy's life she hadn't gotten to yet. This was going to go so well!

"So," Alex broke the awkward tension in the room. "We're not even close to being half done with this one, and Percy's already invincible. I say we start placing bets now on how many more times he should have died."

"At least three more, minimum," Jason grinned.

"We have three, do I hear four, where's four?" Alex grinned in delight, still pointing at Jason and doing a fair impression of an auctioneer.

Annabeth sighed, very loudly, and started reading. Knowing Percy hadn't died was only, like, her fifth worst thing about dealing with this considering it made a living ball of anxiety in her snap taught every time it had almost happened.

It didn't help her problem Alex immediately started snickering again at the chapter title. "George and Martha make an epic return apparently."

"I bet Percy doesn't even offer George a rat, again. You're so ungrateful," Thalia mock wagged her finger around.

"I'll make sure I have plenty for you Thals," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Unless it's two other random snakes who just happen to be in the right place at the right time. I think a rat snake would come in handy," Magnus said with the hope the traitor would be revealed already before any more damage was done.

"We haven't even started yet and I'm already one-third of the way on my bet," Jason nodded at Percy, clearly impressed.

"And you're probably lowballing it for the gag," Percy rolled his eyes.

I love New York.

"Wow Percy, I never would have guessed," Thalia gasped, planting her hand against her forehead and falling back in her seat.

"It's not like it crosses your mind every other thought we hear or something," Jason smirked.

"You can both kiss my big apple," Percy rolled his eyes.

You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping along behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny.

"I swear your brain is made of Mist," Alex snorted. "That would happen anywhere, they don't see her!"

"I don't mind him like this," Magnus chuckled, "I feel like it'll be really easy to tell if he's ever body swapped someday if he doesn't mention New York and forgets how the Mist works."

"Is that something you're concerned with happening a lot Magnus?" Annabeth asked with interest.

"More than you guys give credit for," he said seriously. He wouldn't put anything past these gods.

Of course, the Mist helped.

Percy stuck his tongue out at these guys, but none of their smiles faded much. He still seemed like a goofball for being surprised by it years later.

People probably couldn't see Mrs. O'Leary, or maybe they thought she was a large, loud, very friendly truck.

"The only garbage truck I'd ever want on my block," Will grinned.

I took the risk of using my mom's cell phone to call Annabeth for the second time.

"You used a cell phone while exiting the Underworld?" Annabeth looked ready to cry at him. It really somehow felt worse hearing he put no thought into tempting the world with his insanity.

The others were more confused why she was surprised at this point anybody else would be his call.

"And you didn't pick up," Percy told her with a tragic expression. "What were you doing that was so important? Prepping another war council or something?"

"It was on the charger," she scowled rather than admit she hadn't checked it for nearly an hour because she'd been running all over camp trying to figure out where he'd vanished to when she'd come knocking on his door for exactly this reason and he hadn't been there!

The amount of minutes she'd spent at camp wondering where he was had probably worn out the string on her life by decades.

I'd called her once from the tunnel but only reached her voice mail. I'd gotten surprisingly good reception, seeing as I was at the mythological center of the world and all, but I didn't want to see what my mom's roaming charges were going to be.

"With any luck and hoping you'd call, she probably has unlimited data?" Magnus said with only some idea what he was talking about, homeless shelters occasionally handing out phones. He usually just traded his away for food, but he might keep the next one if Annabeth asked if he had a number.

"Either way, she won't care when she finds out why you were calling from the center of the Earth," Will agreed.

This time, Annabeth picked up.

She'd only just heard his first message when he did call the second time, and there had been a horrible split second where her mind swiveled to it being Sally and having to explain she didn't know where Percy was before she snapped open the phone fast enough to break it in relief. She patted her empty pocket miserably now.

The only thing getting her through the past week was her daily phone call with Percy's mom, neither of them having an update, but the same hopeless hope in both their voices promising the other he was still alive somewhere out there. Now Annabeth couldn't pick up her phone still resting on the charger again to promise her it was true.

"Hey," I said. "You get my message?"

"Percy, where have you been? Your message said almost nothing! We've been worried sick!"

Annabeth read that with a little to much oomph in her voice. Like she wasn't just reading that, or saying it from memory. A large part of her still felt that, and Percy leaned forward automatically. He wanted to put his hand on hers like she had for him, hold her close.

She was radiating unapproachable. He'd pissed her off one to many times in his recent memories and now with Luke's dad on the horizon she clearly wanted nothing to do with him.

He sighed and slouched in his beanbag all the same, shifting his weight to be as close to her as he could without being 'in her space.'

It seemed to do the trick. Her voice relaxed a notch as she kept going.

"I'll fill you in later," I said, though how I was going to do that I had no idea.

"Hopefully you start with the part where you ran into Nico and then go in chronological order?" Magnus frowned in confusion.

"I get the feeling if Percy tried to give Percy back his own memories it wouldn't be half as coherent as these are," Alex snickered.

Percy couldn't even deny it.

"Where are you?"

"We're on our way like you asked, almost to the Queens—Midtown Tunnel. But, Percy, what are you planning? We've left the camp virtually undefended, and there's no way the gods—"

Jason's head hurt. The kind of splitting, aching feeling that made him wonder if he'd crash landed without a helmet recently.

His vision kept wanting to double up, overlay proper war efforts, a whole group of people dividing duties. A girl with dark hair and a purple cloak at his side- his vision was blurring with tears and pain he quickly swiped away. They'd seen. He knew for a fact his ragged breath hadn't gone unnoticed.

Thalia was studying him with heartbreak in her eyes. It had never occurred to her to ask what the Roman kids had been up to all this time. Their camp was right under the base of Mount Tam. Did their Greek Titans attack them? Or would they have been safe in some cosmic ignorance?

Judging by the fact that he was here, that Oceanus could even pull him in here, Thalia suspected otherwise. She was sort of hoping, and just as afraid to hear of what he'd been up to during this time.

Both of them stared longingly at the other pile of books, a deep feeling of want to know how the parallel battle had gone.

Patience. Jason grit his teeth and pushed his problems aside, a feeling he managed with clear cut precision that should have worried him some other time. Percy was nearly caught up, no way would he interrupt with his little problem.

"Trust me," I said. "I'll see you there."

I hung up.

Annabeth could practically still hear Malcoml asking her if he'd told what the plan was and she'd had no good answer for him. He was so frustrating she'd nearly thrown her phone out the window.

My hands were trembling. I wasn't sure if it was a leftover reaction from my dip in the Styx, or anticipation of what I was about to do. If this didn't work, being invulnerable wasn't going to save me from getting blasted to bits.

"Percy, what do you do?" Jason tried to ask while pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Sounds like an average Wednesday for him to be honest, don't know what's got your panties in a twist," Alex snorted.

It was late afternoon when the taxi dropped me at the Empire State Building. Mrs. O'Leary bounded up and down Fifth Avenue, licking cabs and sniffing hot dog carts. Nobody seemed to notice her, although people did swerve away and look confused when she came close.

I whistled for her to heel as three white vans pulled up to the curb. They said Delphi Strawberry Service, which was the cover name for Camp Half-Blood. I'd never seen all three vans in the same place at once, though I knew they shuttled our fresh produce into the city.

The first van was driven by Argus, our many-eyed security chief.

"I'm curious if you've just stopped bothering to try and count his eyes or you finally believed your brain when they said they move and regrow," Thalia grinned.

"Little of both," Percy admitted, squinting suspiciously at nothing in here as his mind was still convinced a new eye had either grown between his nose and lips, or it had moved from his cheek.

The other two were driven by harpies, who are basically demonic human/chicken hybrids with bad attitudes. We used the harpies mostly for cleaning the camp, but they did pretty well in midtown traffic too.

"I will not be able to unsee every New York driver as a human/chicken hybrid now," Magnus sighed. "How did you even get those guys there?"

"Just like every other monster, they showed up, but we manage a symbiotic relationship," Annabeth shrugged. "We get lucky all they want is the trash scraps. Chiron said the Criocentaur that he paid before kept stealing all the kid's clothes and it just wasn't working out."

Magnus felt like his brain was rebooting with an outdated modem as he debated whether to ask what the heck that was before Annabeth took the option away and kept reading.

The doors slid open. A bunch of campers climbed out, some of them looking a little green from the long drive.

Will chuckled, he'd almost felt nostalgic being back on a bus. Katie had gotten a sing-a-long going, it had sent him back to some of the best times being in that old van with his mom as he passed out cold water and advised some of those more woozy it helped to focus on a singular spot inside.

I was glad so many had come: Pollux, Silena Beauregard, the Stoll brothers, Michael Yew, Jake Mason, Katie Gardner, and Annabeth, along with most of their siblings. Chiron came out of the van last. His horse half was compacted into his magic wheelchair, so he used the handicap lift. The Ares cabin wasn't here, but I tried not to get too angry about that. Clarisse was a stubborn idiot. End of story.

Hopefully not the very end, Jason tried not to shiver as Annabeth's words sat haunted in him. For all Percy knew, this was going to be the main battle and Kronos would still send forces to destroy the camp while they were all there, and they'd come back to see their home salvageable, with the Ares cabin obliterated.

I did a head count: forty campers in all.

That number didn't sit any better in Jason's mind. He'd always known in theory there was something fundamentally different about this place he'd never understand, never be able to comparatively wrap his brain around. Forty? Only forty warriors in total? That wasn't even a portion of- his brain slammed a metal gate shut on wherever that thought was leading, leaving him unsettled more with every word that progressed.

Not many to fight a war, but it was still the largest group of half-bloods I'd ever seen gathered in one place outside camp. Everyone looked nervous, and I understood why. We were probably sending out so much demigod aura that every monster in the northeastern United States knew we were here.

"Yeah, but, they were already on their way for this big showdown," Alex said unperturbed. Magnus genuinely wondered what it would take to make him perturbed.

As I looked at their faces—all these campers I'd known for so many summers—a nagging voice whispered in my mind: One of them is a spy.

Percy bit back a groan of pain. His brain was a tilt-o-whirl of all their faces flashing through his mind making him more sick than any New York driver could manage. The worst part was, he didn't even want to know the answer.

But I couldn't dwell on that. They were my friends. I needed them.

Then I remembered Kronos's evil smile. You can't count on friends. They will always let you down.

Annabeth came up to me.

Percy chuckled deep in his chest, that she always managed the best timing, that she seemed like an exception to every bad thing in his life. His eyes flickered to Will, who still had his arm casually around Nico. Less like he was holding him in place these days and much more like they were just chilling. His guilty thoughts then flickered to Annabeth and his traitorous arm and how that probably wouldn't feel like just a casual thing.

She was dressed in black camouflage with her Celestial bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder—ready for stabbing or surfing the Internet, whichever came first.

"I have faith she can do both at the same time," Alex nodded with confidence.

"Only after I'm interrupted the third time," she said with a wicked grin of a little to much seriousness.

She frowned. "What is it?"

"What's what?" I asked.

"You're looking at me funny."

"Hate to break it to you cuz," Magnus grinned, "but that's how he's always looked at you from day one." One of the first expressions he'd come to recognize on a stranger's face was Percy just kind of staring into space when Annabeth entered his mind.

Annabeth blushed and cleared her throat hard before continuing.

I realized I was thinking about my strange vision of Annabeth pulling me out of the Styx River. "It's, uh, nothing." I turned to the rest of the group.

Annabeth resisted the urge to smack him with the book. He called her being his lifeline nothing?! Gods, if he had told her that she would have melted to a puddle and needed to borrow crutches for the rest of this fight!

Okay, so maybe it was a good thing he hadn't told her, but she still wanted to smack him anyways.

"Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."

My old mentor shook his head.

There was a dull sense of sadness in Percy as he realized none of them were going to laugh at his use of the word old there like they had in the past. The truth was, Chiron was his only mentor, and his age was as legendary as some of the heroes he'd taught. It made the impact of this moment feel greater when his friends really couldn't crack a remark at him.

"I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"Is there a story there, or?" Magnus asked with the kind of familiar dread of not being sure if he wanted an answer.

"No, he's just very respectful like that," Thalia sounded as baffled as Magnus so often did though at clearly not understanding this concept one bit.

"But you're our leader."

He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."

I wanted to protest, but everybody was looking at me expectantly, even Annabeth.

"Are these guys nuts?" Percy asked far to late after already being inducted.

"No," Annabeth said simply with a smile.

Percy looked from her to the book and back several times dubiously. Chiron, Annabeth, Beckendorf, heck Thalia had more a claim to a leaderly role than he'd ever thought of.

Again he waited for someone to laugh, Alex or Thalia being a top contender for never failing to make sure he had humble pie shoved in his face when he needed it.

Neither of them made a peep.

All he'd been in here, heck, all he'd been his entire life was a destructive, impulsive, decent fighter. He'd never asked for people to put their lives in his hands.

He took a breath and told himself this was his Iliad. He hadn't asked for this by having Posideon for his dad, but it was as much a part of his path as bestowing the prophecy upon himself as well as this curse.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, like I told Annabeth on the phone, something bad is going to happen by tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."

Magnus tried hard not to wince at the idea Zeus was just going to blink and blast them all to bits for Percy's latest impertinence now rubbing off on the rest of the kids at Camp. The lightning god didn't seem like the kind who would take being told what to do lightly.

I asked Argus to watch Mrs. O'Leary, which neither of them looked happy about.

"I can't imagine why, we already know from Peleus he hands out the good treats," Percy said with regret.

"She just didn't want to leave you Percy, she's been enjoying your bonding," Alex said like the expert on dogs she clearly proclaimed herself to be.

Chiron shook my hand. "You'll do well, Percy. Just remember your strengths and beware your weaknesses."

It sounded eerily close to what Achilles had told me. Then I remembered Chiron had taught Achilles.

"Did I read a myth once right, that Hercules accidentally killed Chiron?"* Jason asked as he rubbed the side of his head. What a horrible time for that odd memory to resurface, but he had a feeling it tied into all this somehow.

"Almost, but Zeus told him how to heal the wound," Annabeth nodded with a sad smile. "It's how the idea of Camp actually came about, he needed a safe place to rest from his injury and Heracles helped find the place that felt sacred and safe enough."

"Cool," Percy and Jason chorused in surprise.

That didn't exactly reassure me, but I nodded and tried to give him a confident smile.

"Let's go," I told the campers.

A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading a big black book with a flower on the cover.

Magnus and Alex once again exchanged grins over a random book appearing that went way beyond and over anyone else's head. Magnus flashed up a sign and then finger-spelled something. Alex nodded slowly in understanding as he got the interpretation.

"You know sign language?" Annabeth said in understanding without taking in a word.

"Um, slightly," he blushed and dropped his hands like he'd been caught, though he looked a little proud too his cousin had sounded impressed. "Hearth's deaf, he's been teaching me."

"I've been wanting to learn another language recently that isn't hard-wired in," Annabeth grinned, still watching his hands fidgeting in his lap like a new book. Percy grinned at the way she said it like a challenge, a new feat for an ADHD kid to learn. It sounded perfect in fact, since they were all so fidgety.

"I wouldn't mind showing you the basics, that I know," Magnus happily nodded, that they might actually have something in common, might actually have a reason to hang out away from this place where they weren't forced into each other's company. Gods, it had been so long since he'd been around family, the idea almost frightened him. Hearth and Blitz had been the closest he'd had for so long, and now he wasn't even sure if they were okay. It was a dizzying kind of relief and guilt and pain all at once.

He glanced up when we all filed in with our weapons and armor clanking. "School group? We're about to close up."

"Oh the deja vu," Magnus chuckled. "I hope another fury doesn't pop in. We've had enough of them."

"You know guys, I think Chiron might have been onto something when he told me those Greek myths would be important in my life," Percy nodded solemnly as he got a chuckle out of everyone, his heart leaping with pride even Annabeth managed a small but genuine laugh as she flashed him a smile before she kept going.

"No," I said. "Six-hundredth floor."

He checked us out. His eyes were pale blue and his head was completely bald. I couldn't tell if he was human or not, but he seemed to notice our weapons, so I guess he wasn't fooled by the Mist.

"I am so fascinated by the implications here!" Jason's blue eyes glinted with their own light when his voice got that high-pitched with excitement. "Do they only hire mortals who can see through the mist? Is he like Paul and just accepts something is going on but doesn't understand what? Is he the god of security?"

Annabeth grinned at his curiosity. "I've asked on the field trips we went on, it's usually the same mortal. Chiron told us that, but Luke told me this legend about how he once darted across traffic to save a kitten and Mr. D granted him with the best pension and clear sight to keep doing his great work of keeping solicitors out."

Percy felt a wavering sense of jealousy as his eyes darted between Jason spluttering how cool that was and what other gifts she knew gods had bestowed, and Annabeth just casually mentioning Luke's name like someone else wasn't wearing his face.

Why had she attacked-kissed him if he was apparently the least interesting person in her life?

Will had gotten roped in now debating with Annabeth if that one super soft blanket everyone kept stealing was a godly gift or an enchanted item from the attic, and Thalia decided to cut in before the last dumb-struck blonde could get over his usual 'I have no clue what's going on' face to join in and this became a whole thing since Alex and Nico were being zero help and just enjoying the show.

"I thought we were all tired and wanting to go to bed?" She groaned. "This is not the kind of three AM conversation I'd stay awake for." They really hadn't even been at this that long, but Nico and Percy were dragging bad and it was only late afternoon at best.

"Only because we don't have any sugar sticks handy," Percy smirked at her. "I can go get some."

Annabeth shook herself and got back on track. "Every time you eat sugar before you go to bed you roll over in your sleep more than a rotisserie chicken."

She kept reading loudly over any lingering looks of why she'd know that.

"There is no six-hundredth floor, kid."

"Is this not the same guy who you showed off that lightning bolt to?" Magnus asked in surprise. "I thought you'd be a pretty memorable guy from that."

"It's been a few years, I've had a growth spurt despite what some people say," he shot Annabeth an aggrieved look who merely grinned. "I guess it's possible some other kids have come and gone through with purple backpacks full of godly items."

Not ones Magnus particularly wanted to meet as he tried not to crawl under his seat at the idea of being forced into this kind of job as a reward. Yeah, it sounded like he'd get to read ninety percent of the time on the clock, but the downside was, well, kids like Percy showing up out of the blue.

He said it like it was a required line he didn't believe.

"I want him to say there's no tooth fairy and easter bunny too," Alex chuckled. "I just want to hear someone say that like they hope it is true."

"I can't even help you with that Alex," Thalia grinned, "I hope they aren't real too, because I just know they'd be monsters I'd have to deal with."

Alex gave a long, exaggerated, forlorn sigh.

"Move along."

I leaned across the desk. "Forty demigods attract an awful lot of monsters. You really want us hanging out in your lobby?"

He thought about that. Then he hit a buzzer and the security gate swung open. "Make it quick."

"Has any visit to Olympus been quick?" Magnus asked. Every time he heard of the place there were councils and parties, neither of which felt like a ten-minute visit.

"The trip back down when Zeus tosses you," Percy said. Hopefully not from personal experience.

"You don't want us going through the metal detectors," I added.

"Um, no," he agreed. "Elevator on the right. I guess you know the way."

Percy chuckled as he ran his fingers over his beaded necklace. This might have only been his second time this way, but yeah, he'd say he had a pretty good idea.

I tossed him a golden drachma and we marched on through.

We decided it would take two trips to get everybody up in the elevator. I went with the first group.

Different elevator music was playing since my last visit—that old disco song "Stayin' Alive." A terrifying image flashed through my mind of Apollo in bell-bottom pants and a slinky silk shirt.

Will groaned and covered his eyes in pain at the idea while Alex of course had to escalate it, "afro, of course, and shag carpet walls, oh, oh, and a disco ball flashing a rainbow of colors!"

"Never, ever, let this one have a video camera. Our life will be over," Jason said in fascination, which Will full-heartedly agreed with.

I was glad when the elevator doors finally dinged open. In front of us, a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six thousand feet over Manhattan.

I'd seen Olympus several times, but it still took my breath away. The mansions glittered gold and white against the sides of the mountain. Gardens bloomed on a hundred terraces. Scented smoke rose from braziers that lined the winding streets. And right at the top of the snow-capped crest rose the main palace of the gods.

Percy thought Annabeth sounded fondly disinterested, like she was reading of an old lego set she'd knocked down herself for her sixth better attempt.

Because she was. She still remembered the first time seeing this place and being just as in awe...and yet mapping in her head how she would have done it different, done it better. Her mother either would have been proud of her thoughts or scorned them and she'd whispered to Luke in fear of this, and he'd smiled and assured her Athena had no reason to punish her when this wasn't the goddess's personal layout.

Now, it was hers. Annabeth had nearly finished her remodeling of Olympus. This was just an old doodle she'd find in an old scrapbook.

It looked as majestic as ever, but something seemed wrong. Then I realized the mountain was silent—no music, no voices, no laughter.

Annabeth studied me. "You look . . . different," she decided.

Nico looked at her strangely. "What are you talking about? He didn't actually look any different when he wasn't slaughtering my dad's army."

Annabeth shrugged, she couldn't have described it to him or anyone. Like someone had weaved an image of Percy together and inlaid it over him from the day before. He had looked identical, he still had that mole on the inside of his right arm, he'd still studied everything around him with those green eyes that always left her guessing what was going to come out of that mouth.

...He'd just been, different. The way he carried himself, making him seem taller. His confidence of accepting the responsibility Chiron had bestowed upon him.

"Where exactly did you go?"

"Down to the Underworld for a bath," Alex oh so helpfully reminded.

"Now where were you when I needed that answer," Annabeth sighed.

Alex laughed he'd probably been sleeping in a dumpster a few states over, which would only be funny to him.

The elevator doors opened again, and the second group of half-bloods joined us.

"Tell you later," I said. "Come on."

Annabeth still took the time to look around at Percy with a really punctual stank eye for leaving her in the dark on this the others had no choice but to laugh at when Percy just gave her an innocent smile back.

We made our way across the sky bridge into the streets of Olympus. The shops were closed. The parks were empty. A couple of Muses sat on a bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be in it. A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree. A minor godling spotted us from a balcony and ducked inside, closing his shutters.

"So, like," Magnus scratched awkwardly at the back of his neck. "When you showed up last time and they were on the brink of war, did these guys all just think that was casual Friday, or, am I missing something?"

"Zeus and Posideon throw those kinds of tantrums to often for them to care," Thalia reminded in exhaustion. "Now their either helping the war efforts or in hiding." Long, long after the fact of when they should have been.

We passed under a big marble archway with statues of Zeus and Hera on either side. Annabeth made a face at the queen of the gods.

"Hate her," she muttered.

A feeling that had only grown worse over time, the manipulative peacock she was. If Annabeth could tie her up over the pit of Tartarus and chuck golden apples at her once a day she would.

Percy was here, she reminded herself with some kind of mental calm, but it was like dropping a pebble into a creek. It barely rippled across the surface before it was rushed away into a storm of problems of who would try to take Percy away next and what all this was a plan for.

"Has she been cursing you or something?" I asked. Last year Annabeth had gotten on Hera's bad side, but Annabeth hadn't really talked about it since.

Percy glanced in concern at her now. The idea bothered him a lot of what all she'd been through out in California, what she'd never told him, or Chiron, or Thalia, or anybody because she was trying to deal with it on her own when he'd known from that first blown up bus they worked better together as a team.

"Just little stuff so far," she said. "Her sacred animal is the cow, right?"

"Right."

"So she sends cows after me."

I tried not to smile. "Cows? In San Francisco?"

"Cows are no joke Percy," Alex told him in a weirdly serious kind of voice. "More people die from cow attacks than practically any predator you can name."

"Well yeah, more people are around them," Jason said fairly. "If we hearded sharks by the thousands and actively tried to breed them with people around at all hours their numbers would be much higher."

"More people are killed by coconuts than sharks, not the best animal to pick," Thalia chuckled.

"How did we get here? How do we go back?" Annabeth sighed, before she kept reading loudly over them.

"Oh, yeah. Usually I don't see them, but the cows leave me little presents all over the place—in our backyard, on the sidewalk, in the school hallways. I have to be careful where I step."

"That sounds more like she was trying to convert you to go country than any real 'you'll regret this' vibe." Magnus wasn't ungrateful an all-powerful goddess hadn't placed some deadly curse on his cousin like Ares had to Percy, but it seemed mild in comparison from what little he'd gleaned of the big Hercules, Hera debacle.

"Well I have had practice with a gun or two if it works out like that," she chuckled at standing in her dad's camel and mock spewing a hail of bullets down on the next row of monsters before rushing off to remind him she wasn't in the car for him to be pulling out.

"Look!" Pollux cried, pointing toward the horizon. "What is that?"

We all froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like tiny comets.

"Are we throwing a concert right now?" Alex sounded mildly amused and partly concerned. "Did the god of theatrics stick around for morals and make his own audience?"

"When is it ever something so friendly and innocent?" Percy sighed.

They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out. We watched them for several minutes and they didn't seem to do any damage, but still it was strange.

"That was the most ADHD sentence I've yet heard," Will snorted. "We all just stood around and watched the fireflies get zapped in the middle of our very important mission."

"No worse than getting sidetracked to the arch, or a siren song, or- ouch-" Percy yelped more in surprise than pain as Annabeth pinched him when she realized he was only listing her sidetracks.

"Like infrared scopes," Michael Yew muttered. "We're being targeted."

"That was already obvious," Jason tried to say like this was of no real concern. Kronos had never made it a secret this was his plan.

Still, his skin twitched in anticipation at the idea of giving someone who stared down an arrow shaft a scope for better aim and a more high-powered weapon to boot to return fire. This guy was going to make some monster's life hell.

"Let's get to the palace," I said.

No one was guarding the hall of the gods.

Nico had been a little preoccupied back when Percy's first adventure had been recounted, but some part of him back then had been equally fascinated and disturbed at how easily his father's helm had been stolen as well as Zeus's bolt. The gods of myth were so lax, Percy's dream of them more like toddlers arguing over a toy felt more grounded every day.

Which wasn't a worldview he was happy to be shifting into. He worried the next time he didn't kneel before his father because he was to busy trying not to laugh about wondering what Percy would call Persephone's throne. Probably something to do with it being made out of Skittles.

The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Our footsteps echoed as we walked into the throne room.

Of course, "room" doesn't really cover it. The place was the size of Madison Square Garden. High above, the blue ceiling glittered with constellations. Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around a hearth. In one corner, a house-size globe of water hovered in the air, and inside swam my old friend the Ophiotaurus, half-cow, half-serpent.

"Bessie's back!" Alex cooed in delight. "I hope he's been getting to stretch his legs more than that little bubble!"

"I'm sure he's beach-balled around Olympus plenty," Percy agreed, slightly guilty that he was relieved his old friend wasn't wandering around the ocean getting caught in more nets and bullied by orcas. He might be under supervision up there, but at least he was safe.

...then he grimaced at his own thought. Gods, he sounded like an overprotective parent. Just because he could destroy the world didn't mean he'd ever let his dad ground him out of the ocean. When this was all over, he might have to find a way to liberate Bessie instead and throw him in the lake at Camp. Apparently it was easy enough to bust in and out of this place even when the gods were around.

"Moooo!" he said happily, turning in a circle.

Despite all the serious stuff going on, I had to smile. Two years ago we'd spent a lot of time trying to save the Ophiotaurus from the Titans, and I'd gotten kind of fond of him. He seemed to like me too, even though I'd originally thought he was a girl and named him Bessie.

"That's one of the reasons I decided I did like you Perce," Alex fondly reminded.

"Yeah yeah, my ability to entertain you has been the highlight of my amnesia trip down memory lane," Percy shook his head.

"Hey, man," I said. "They treating you okay?"

"Mooo," Bessie answered.

"I bet they give him lots of sweet grass and remind him of vegetarianism every day," Magnus nodded before they all started snickering, leaving Annabeth to sigh and give a green glare to the quest she'd missed out on the most.

We walked toward the thrones, and a woman's voice said, "Hello again, Percy Jackson. You and your friends are welcome."

Hestia stood by the hearth, poking the flames with a stick. She wore the same kind of simple brown dress as she had before, but she was a grown woman now.

There was no point in questioning why a goddess would make herself appear older in her own home than the girl she'd been when first meeting Percy, but it was still a change that interested Jason a lot. Did she always do this on The Capitoline Hill to make herself appear older, more mature, in line with her siblings?

I bowed. "Lady Hestia."

My friends followed my example.

Annabeth read that strangly to Percy's ears, because she didn't say it like it was any big thing. No laugh in her voice, no hint of agitation it wasn't her in charge, the person who obviously should be. He still found it harder to wrap his head around the idea he had his camps, Annabeth's blind trust, when about this time five years ago he'd been the whispered traitor to at least half of them.

Hestia regarded me with her red glowing eyes. "I see you went through with your plan. You bear the curse of Achilles."

The other campers started muttering among themselves: What did she say? What about Achilles?

"Bear the curse of I kill these monsters," Nico helpfully interpreted with a conspiratorial wink at Percy. "She obviously wasn't giving away you just gave yourself a massive upgrade and a huge weak spot somewhere on you in a room with a possible traitor."

"Thanks man," Percy nodded, "I'm sure that's exactly what they heard."

"You must be careful," Hestia warned me. "You gained much on your journey. But you are still blind to the most important truth. Perhaps a glimpse is in order."

Annabeth nudged me. "Um . . . what is she talking about?"

"You see Annabeth, Achilles was this hero that- okay, ow," Percy broke off in a laugh as she elbowed him.

I stared into Hestia's eyes, and an image rushed into my mind: I saw a dark alley between red brick warehouses. A sign above one of the doors read RICHMOND IRONWORKS.

Annabeth immediately knew what Hestia was about to show him. She really should have seen this coming, with the path the goddess was on to show Luke's trail. It didn't make her happy about it, as was evidenced by her hands tensing tight enough around the book like she was imagining strangling it for a few seconds rather than choking out what came next.

"Annabeth?"

She looked over at Percy watching her in concern. It instantly reminded her it didn't matter if a bunch of strangers heard this. The most important person to her already had.

Two half-bloods crouched in the shadows—a boy about fourteen and a girl about twelve. I realized with a start that the boy was Luke. The girl was Thalia, daughter of Zeus. I was seeing a scene from back in the days when they were on the run, before Grover found them.

Luke carried a bronze knife. Thalia had her spear and shield of terror, Aegis. Luke and Thalia both looked hungry and lean, with wild animal eyes, like they were used to being attacked.

Thalia laughed a noise that didn't sound pleasant in any way. Some days she still woke up in her tent with this memory the last thing her mind lingered on before she jumped into her day. Sometimes it was fondness and made her smile as she went around. Some days it made her so irritable Phoebe would threaten to tie her to a tree.

"Are you sure?" Thalia asked.

Luke nodded. "Something down here. I sense it."

A rumble echoed from the alley, like someone had banged on a sheet of metal. The half-bloods crept forward.

Old crates were stacked on a loading dock. Thalia and Luke approached with their weapons ready. A curtain of corrugated tin quivered as if something were behind it.

Thalia glanced at Luke. He counted silently: One, two, three! He ripped away the tin, and a little girl flew at him with a hammer.

"Whoa!" Luke said.

The girl had tangled blond hair and was wearing flannel pajamas. She couldn't have been more than seven, but she would've brained Luke if he hadn't been so fast.

"Annabeth," Percy said again. She looked around. He was still scrutinizing her intensely. She thought he was going to say something sweet, or profound, or even awful about Luke. "How many monsters did you manage to debrain with that? I wish I knew all these years I could have been calling you Thor."

She laughed, enchanted as always at Percy keeping her so grounded. "It was a strategy worthy of a god, if I do say so myself," she mock blew on her nails and brushed them against her grungy shirt. "See, I lured them in with that noise and caught them off guard thinking they were going to be dealing with something much bigger. I managed to nail two different monsters."

Percy laughed, and the thrill that she seemed to mean half as much to him as he did her still rocked her socks in moments like this. Where Thalia chuckled along on her other side and everything just felt right.

He grabbed her wrist, and the hammer skittered across the cement.

That had been her father's favorite hammer, the one he rarely misplaced because his years of using it had the grip just right. She'd taken it the night before and tried to bash all of those spiders away but only managed to put a hole in the wall her stepmother would have never let her hear the end of.

She hadn't bothered to go looking for it when he put her down moments later.

The little girl fought and kicked. "No more monsters! Go away!"

Percy chuckled and called her a spitfire, but Magnus couldn't manage anything but a painful wince. Gods, his cousin had really been through the kind of crap that made people never bother to think they could turn their life back around. All before he'd even been attacked by wolves two years ago.

"It's okay!" Luke struggled to hold her. "Thalia, put your shield up. You're scaring her."

Thalia tapped Aegis, and it shrank into a silver bracelet. "Hey, it's all right," she said. "We're not going to hurt you. I'm Thalia. This is Luke."

"Monsters!"

"No," Luke promised. "But we know all about monsters. We fight them too."

Slowly, the girl stopped kicking. She studied Luke and Thalia with large intelligent gray eyes.

"Was he still dangling you by your good hammer arm while promising that, cause uh, I have opinions," Jason frowned.

"Like a legitime rename of this chapter could be called hammer time," Alex snickered.

"No, he'd put me down when Thalia put her shield away," Annabeth assured.

Percy still wasn't a fan of the way she was slightly blushing as she thought back on this moment, like a part of her brain was wondering if he'd thought she looked silly while fighting for her life, but it wasn't his memory to really be commenting on to bring it up.

"You're like me?" she said suspiciously.

"Yeah," Luke said. "We're . . . well, it's hard to explain, but we're monster fighters. Where's your family?"

"My family hates me," the girl said. "They don't want me. I ran away."

Annabeth paused and licked her lips and still hated the part of herself that didn't know how to move on from that feeling at a time like this. There were far more important things going on. She knew her dad regretted neglecting her for so long, letting it get this bad, but somehow even now years later while they were trying to put together their relationship, this memory was the first time she rememebred that, oh yeah, she should tell her dad Percy's alive too. The last in the long list of people to share the best news with. And whether that would make him stop what he was doing long enough to hear her anyway.

Looking up in surprise at a noise, she saw Magnus trying to rub his nose and pretend like he'd sneezed.

Gods, her cousin was in here. A part of her family she hadn't thought about in so long he felt more like a memory than Frostine was.

She kept waiting for something that clearly wasn't coming as she smiled awkwardly at him and he did the same back. She glanced at Percy, pretty convinced if Magnus had been in here cussing her out for doing this to his life Percy wouldn't be so casual around the guy.

She just didn't know what else to expect from someone of her family being in here.

"Is it, better now?" Magnus finally broke the awkward silence as he asked. "You, um, you've been staying with him a bit, right?"

"Yeah," she agreed softly. "It's, better." Not great. She sat at the table for family dinners and was included in conversation...just, ones she had little to partake in. She was okay in school, but her brothers were doing great with their consistent methods, so that was sticky. Her dad and step-mom asked her how her day was, but there was a thinly veiled fear as they awaited her answer to know if any monster sightings had been spotted.

She knew what she was wanting, what she kept expecting to happen. The ease she had with Sally and Paul to finally lull her into feeling comfortable there. It hadn't happened yet, but she'd keep trying as long as her dad did.

Thalia and Luke locked eyes. I knew they both related to what she was saying.

"Oh really Percy?" Thalia's voice was acidic with the kind of internal frustration that she was surprised had never made her spontaneously combust. "Is that what you picked up on?" Gods, where was this boy's perception skill when Annabeth was involved?!

Annabeth gave her a sad, understanding little smile, and that just made it worse. She was smiling about this memory because it was the best day of her life, and just like that moment all those years ago, Thalia shoved everything she was feeling aside to make sure she didn't scare Annabeth off. She'd made sure that girl ate before she bothered to take a bite, she'd made sure Annabeth always had Luke to turn to no matter what she needed to get off her chest. She regretted none of it, not even when she'd given up her life for the sibling she'd finally managed to do right by.

It only angered her because looking back on all this, she couldn't even convince herself she'd done the wrong thing by not snatching the kid away and leaving Luke there. It never, ever would have happened. Percy had been right, in one of his more annoying features. There hadn't been anything different she could have done, not to save Annabeth or Luke from what happened.

"What's your name, kiddo?" Thalia asked.

"Annabeth."

Will faux gasped. "I thought we'd been transported into one of my memories!"

"You wish you could swing around a hammer in flannel pj's," Nico snorted.

"Got to keep those hopes and dreams alive somehow," Will chuckled.

Luke smiled. "Nice name. I tell you what, Annabeth—you're pretty fierce. We could use a fighter like you."

Annabeth's eyes widened. "You could?"

"Oh, yeah." Luke turned his knife and offered her the handle. "How'd you like a real monster-slaying weapon? This is Celestial bronze. Works a lot better than a hammer."

Percy hadn't a lot of room in his head from Hestia beaming this memory right into his brain for his own thoughts to get much in, but he felt a great swirl of them like someone had pulled a plug on a tub of water. Gods, she'd always looked so fierce with that knife, and she'd been given it by Luke. Why did that annoy him so much, and yet not surprise him all at once.

The fond smile on her face made any little minor problems he had with it worth everything. He'd do anything just to see her smile, it was worth any cost, including putting on a brave face and getting through this without throwing out insults on Luke.

"What's the first monster you killed with that thing?" Jason asked, holding his coin tight. He knew he was projecting, a longing he could know something like that, but he wanted to know more about her too.

"An amphisbaena,"** Annabeth smiled with pride. "A dragon with a head at each end," she explained to several confused faces. "Thalia and Luke were keeping one head distracted, and I managed to stab her deep enough right in her other brain."

"At seven?" Magnus repeated as he wondered how much therapy cost.

"Probably one of the youngest, biggest kills at camp," she agreed with pride. She still remembered telling her eldest sister at the time when she'd showed up about this and having leadership nearly shoved into her lap by the relieved girl.

Maybe under most circumstances, offering a seven-year-old kid a knife would not be a good idea, but when you're a half-blood, regular rules kind of go out the window.

"I really want to know who you think that PSA is for?" Nico snickered in surprise.

"I want to know how often Percy recreated that 'this is your egg-brain on drugs,' one," Magnus snorted.

"Enough that my mom banned me from using a frying pan for seven months," Percy sighed.

Annabeth gripped the hilt.

"Knives are only for the bravest and quickest fighters," Luke explained. "They don't have the reach or power of a sword, but they're easy to conceal and they can find weak spots in your enemy's armor. It takes a clever warrior to use a knife. I have a feeling you're pretty clever."

He'd instantly clocked her as a child of Athena, Annabeth remembered feeling pride for the first time in her life. Her dad had always described that golden cradle of her arrival as something that had been a distraction he'd never wanted, but when Luke looked at her and seen her mother's eyes he'd made her feel for the first time what her mom was supposed to be capable of.

Annabeth stared at him with adoration. "I am!"

Thalia grinned. "We'd better get going, Annabeth. We have a safe house on the James River. We'll get you some clothes and food."

"You're . . . you're not going to take me back to my family?" she said. "Promise?"

Thalia could have said what came next with Annabeth. They were supposed to be each other's family. They were supposed to protect each other from ever getting left behind again.

Her anger at Luke failing that promise, repeatedly, didn't seem to be shared though, as Annabeth read what happened next gently, like she was still leaning down and vowing the words to herself all those years ago.

She glanced at Percy and knew her little sister had still gotten her family, if not the one she'd been promised. At least it had worked out for her in the long run. It was enough to stop her feeling like the useless part in this she'd played as a tree.

Luke put his hand on her shoulder. "You're part of our family now. And I promise I won't let anything hurt you. I'm not going to fail you like our families did us. Deal?"

"Deal!" Annabeth said happily.

Magnus was happy for her, that she seemed happy now. That the problems she'd had in life all the way up to this moment didn't seem to leave her with lingering regrets because she read that with the kind of smile of someone looking back at their old stuffed animal. She didn't need that security item anymore, but she'd never replace the ice cream stains all over it.

"Now, come on," Thalia said. "We can't stay put for long!"

The scene shifted. The three demigods were running through the woods. It must've been several days later, maybe even weeks.

The best weeks of Annabeth's young life, the time that had truly carved out who she really was. She couldn't have cared less about not having a roof over her head or the array of squashed, half eaten, or stolen food. They'd listened to her.

Luke and Thalia had believed her every time she said she saw a monster on the street and either prepared for battle or rushed her away, promising they'd find out what it was at the next stop to know better. The freedom of just being able to talk and laugh, even when they did have to quiet her down when they heard something she didn't because they weren't telling her the monsters weren't real. They'd been telling her to look alive and focus on them.

She loved Camp. She loved Chiron and the campers and that place was her home. But she always still craved this adrenaline rush of speeding off to their next destination and what they'd find along the way.

All of them looked beat up, like they'd seen some battles. Annabeth was wearing new clothes—jeans and an oversize army jacket.

"Just a little farther!" Luke promised. Annabeth stumbled, and he took her hand. Thalia brought up the rear, brandishing her shield like she was driving back whatever pursued them. She was limping on her left leg.

Thalia shifted her weight around, grumbling about that old Teumessian fox. Her tail had been on fire, which probably helped a lot in that whole 'can never be caught' part of her myth. The predator learned something about her that day too though, don't ambush her little sister in their den if you didn't want a shield in the face.

They scrambled to a ridge and looked down the other side at a white Colonial house—May Castellan's place.

"All right," Luke said, breathing hard. "I'll just sneak in and grab some food and medicine. Wait here."

"Luke, are you sure?" Thalia asked. "You swore you'd never come back here. If she catches you—"

"We don't have a choice!" he growled. "They burned our nearest safe house.

"They?" Jason asked in concern. Monsters he knew the trio could deal with, but if some minions of Kronos or something had been after them all the way back then, that was even worse.

"We'd been fleeing from this fox and dog at war with each other. The fox can never be caught, she's called the Teumessian fox, and the dog always catches his prey, he's Laelaps. They're in this eternal struggle now thanks to the gods, and we happened to be caught in the middle of it."

"Aren't those also constellations?" Percy asked. He didn't know why, but he tended to remember stories better when they had stars. Maybe because of Zoe.

"Yeah, Zeus supposedly tried to end the paradox by turning them into Canis Major and Canis Minor, but you know how long that kind of thing lasts in our world," Annabeth said with a proud smile at Percy.

And you've got to treat that leg wound."

"This is your house?" Annabeth said with amazement.

"It was my house," Luke muttered. "Believe me, if it wasn't an emergency—"

"Is your mom really horrible?" Annabeth asked. "Can we see her?"

"No!" Luke snapped.

Annabeth shrank away from him as though his anger surprised her.

It was the first time he'd ever snapped at her, Annabeth frowned. In all that time, he'd never raised his voice at her, only shouting at their enemies.

It was no surprise to her Hestia was showing these memories. This is what had saved the world, Luke had chosen to remember these little moments, their family, his promise.

"I . . . I'm sorry," he said. "Just wait here. I promise everything will be okay. Nothing's going to hurt you. I'll be back—"

A brilliant golden flash illuminated the woods. The demigods winced, and a man's voice boomed: "You should not have come home."

The vision shut off.

"Rude," Alex spluttered like someone had just turned off his favorite program.

"Most things in my life tend to be," Percy nodded without surprise.

"This wasn't your life," Thalia looked around at him in consternation.

"I witnessed it, part of my life now, influxing the rudeness," Percy grinned.

"In-influencing?" Magnus tried to correct.

He was ignored as Annabeth rolled her eyes and called Percy a seaweed brain, which meant Oceanus could have popped back in and it would have fallen on deaf ears.

My knees buckled, but Annabeth grabbed me. "Percy! What happened?"

"Did . . . did you see that?" I asked.

"See what?"

I glanced at Hestia, but the goddess's face was expressionless.

"Gods forbid she show a hint of regret for throwing other people's lives on display," Nico scowled.

"Where do I sign up?" Jason sighed. He wouldn't even complain at this rate if his life was beamed into someone else's head, at least they'd explain it to him.

Nico wanted to assure him he'd get his life back, but he worried it felt like an empty promise. Nico had been trying to get his past life back for years and still only had scraps.

I remembered something she'd told me in the woods: If you are to understand your enemy Luke, you must understand his family. But why had she shown me those scenes?

Percy gulped as Thalia and Annabeth had very similar looks of wishing to smack him. "Okay, got it," Percy tried to save himself from a bruise even the curse couldn't prevent. "I was still stuck on Hermes' voice popping up at the end of that when he wasn't in the rest."

"Gods you and your one track mind," Annabeth sounded so exasperated by him like she'd been dealing with him all her life.

"I still say we should try using different treats to motivate him, maybe the right combination of barbeque and candy will open his mind wider," Thalia clearly brought up an old argument with her.

"I'm worried we'd piss off Zeus by making him even more unstoppable," Annabeth shook her head as if this were a legitimate worry.

While Percy sat between them still frowning and trying to figure out why Hermes had shown up when he did.

"How long was I out?" I muttered.

Annabeth knit her eyebrows. "Percy, you weren't out at all. You just looked at Hestia for like one second and collapsed."

I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I couldn't afford to look weak. Whatever those visions meant, I had to stay focused on our mission.

Percy jolted in surprise as everyone around him in the room sighed. "What?" He demanded, trying to shake off his vision. He'd heard Annabeth continue reading and hadn't heard anything significant.

"Never change Percy," Alex reminded fondly.

"Or Zeus might destroy you," Magnus muttered.

Percy looked blearily at them, then at Annabeth for what he'd missed, but didn't protest as she kept going again.

"Um, Lady Hestia," I said, "we've come on urgent business. We need to see—"

"We know what you need," a man's voice said. I shuddered, because it was the same voice I'd heard in the vision.

"Last time he showed up he gave you a bunch of limited edition stuff and sent you on a monster cruise to get his kid to act right, only half of which worked out as planned," Will winced. He knew nobody had even died from this visit and he still felt a pit of worry at Connor's dad showing back up in Percy's life. At Luke's dad making an appearance at the most inopportune time just like the mail he often delivered. Why did he always seem to remember to send those rare birthday cards days after the event for that extra punch in the gut?

Annabeth found that a strange way to sum up their time in the sea of monsters, but not inaccurate either.

A god shimmered into existence next to Hestia. He looked about twenty-five, with curly salt-andpepper hair and elfish features. He wore a military pilot's flight suit, with tiny bird's wings fluttering on his helmet and his black leather boots. In the crook of his arm was a long staff entwined with two living serpents.

"The saviors of this chapter, spoiler alert," Thalia chuckled.

Percy chuckled for her, but Annabeth sunk lower into her beanbag.

"I will leave you now," Hestia said. She bowed to the aviator and disappeared into smoke. I understood why she was so anxious to go. Hermes, the God of Messengers, did not look happy.

"I guess nothing in his contract says he has to be smiling while delivering in all weather, apocalypse included," Magnus said with a nervous smile.

"The real question is, what's he there to deliver?" Alex said with narrowed eyes. Judging by all appearances, it felt like it was going to be a death threat rather than a letter this time.

"Hello, Percy." His brow furrowed as though he was annoyed with me, and I wondered if he somehow knew about the vision I'd just had.

"Wouldn't surprise me!" Percy threw his hands up in exasperation. "Somewhere out there, the gods are laughing their asses off at me having to get my memories back via them! I can't do anything in my life without hop-scotching from ticking off one to pleasing another!"

He was building up miniature storm clouds over his head the longer his anger of this started to brew, gearing up for a fight like it had been Ares to appear in the room instead.

Annabeth had a feeling she knew why as she slowly lowered one arm back down to his side. The other followed reluctantly as he watched her, trouble in his eyes, but a soothing, confident smile on his face like he was just posturing.

Gods she loved him.

I wanted to ask why he'd been in May Castellan's house that night, and what had happened after he caught Luke.

'Caught,' Thalia winced at Percy's choice of words. Like Luke had done something wrong by going back there. Like his thief-like inherited skills weren't up to par by the god witnessing him sneak in and out.

The worst part was, Percy seemed to have experienced that from Luke's eyes, judging by Hestia's 'gift' to him. So Percy was still channeling how Luke might have taken all that in.

I remembered the first time I'd met Luke at Camp Half-Blood. I'd asked him if he'd ever met his father, and he'd looked at me bitterly and said, Once. But I could tell from Hermes's expression that this was not the time to ask.

"Is now ever a good time with you to ask Percy?" Alex sounded bemused. She couldn't believe Percy had once restrained himself by asking Luke all those years ago, here he was still showing he did have some self-restraint by holding back again against another god when they all knew he was more than capable of blurting out the question.

"Saturdays seem to be the go-to, just to ruin my one day off," Percy sighed.

I bowed awkwardly. "Lord Hermes."

"I feel like you only did that because you bowed to Hestia," Thalia accused. Percy wasn't known for his bowing skills.

"Hence the awkwardly part of that," Percy nodded.

Oh, sure, one of the snakes said in my mind. Don't say hi to us. We're just reptiles.

"Obviously only amphibians should be greeted, they get the most dunked on," Alex nodded seriously.

Considering Percy couldn't name an amphibian off the top of his head, he wasn't up for disagreeing.

George, the other snake scolded. Be polite.

"Hello, George," I said. "Hey, Martha."

"I do love the casualness," Jason chuckled, it still boggled his mind being that chill around a god.

"I'm more surprised Percy didn't bow to the snakes too," Nico smirked.

Did you bring us a rat? George asked.

George, stop it, Martha said. He's busy!

"Am I?" Percy asked blankly, like the appearance of Annabeth's past crossing his mind had wiped out why he was there. Which really wouldn't surprise anyone else.

"Zeus, world saving, Kronos on the way," Will helpfully reminded.

Percy shook himself. "Right yeah."

Too busy for rats? George said. That's just sad.

"Honestly though. Snackage should always be at least in the top five priorities at any given time." Alex grinned.

"Says the person who showed up in here like a talking watermelon, that doesn't surprise me," Percy snorted, not that he disagreed in the slightest.

I decided it was better not to get into it with George.

"You really should take that back Alex," Annabeth chuckled. "Percy clearly does know how to prioritize."

"Above snacking! I can't say I approve," she shook her head with such misery Percy might have chucked a cupcake on the floor.

"Um, Hermes," I said. "We need to talk to Zeus. It's important."

Hermes's eyes were steely cold. "I am his messenger. May I take a message?"

"I feel like his voice message box is always full and he'll get back to you in a thousand years or so," Thalia frowned.

"I got that vibe too," Percy sighed, "as well as the fact that any packages I might send would explode on sight."

Behind me, the other demigods shifted restlessly. This wasn't going as planned. Maybe if I tried to speak with Hermes in private . . .

"So that he can rip your bones out one by one without an audience? Jee Percy, you sure are considerate," Nico frowned. He never liked not knowing why a god was pissed at Percy this time.

"That's me, just the most helpful guy to all parties," Percy sighed.

"You guys," I said. "Why don't you do a sweep of the city? Check the defenses. See who's left in Olympus. Meet Annabeth and me back here in thirty minutes."

"Scavenger hunt on Olympus!" Alex gasped in delight.

"No Alex," Magnus frowned.

"They should at least start by building a moat and drawbridge, setting up spikes with all of Aprhitdie's infinite hairbrushes," Thalia offered.

"Yes, she gets it," Alex cackled. "Use Demeter's cows as quick plows for that, I bet Ares wouldn't even be mad if you used his sacred oak paintings of himself as material."

"We're all going to be cursed when we get out of here," Magnus sighed.

Silena frowned. "But—"

"That's a good idea," Annabeth said. "Connor and Travis, you two lead."

The Stolls seemed to like that—getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad.

"Which hopefully deterred them from doing anything to crazy," Nico said without much hope.

"Nothing got shoved down their pants, they stuck to things that would fit in their pockets only," Will said in that unhelpful way of unknown sarcasm.

They usually never led anything except toilet paper raids.

"So this really isn't much of a step up, honestly you guys, you should try giving them something of actual importance," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Next time I need to save the world I'll ask if they want to go ahead," Percy nodded.

"We're on it!" Travis said. They herded the others out of the throne room, leaving Annabeth and me with Hermes.

"I feel like the title already should have been changed to, Annabeth and Two Snakes Save My Life," Percy frowned.

Annabeth forced a chuckle that sounded like she was choking. Percy had in fact saved her life. His faith it was the opposite warmed her heart as much as she adored him for that.

"My lord," Annabeth said. "Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it."

"Your mother's not psychic Annabeth," Magnus said, then frowned and asked hopefully, "right?"

"No more than the other gods," Annabeth sighed. "Foresight of good planning."

"Your mother," Hermes grumbled. He scratched his back with his caduceus, and George and Martha muttered Ow, ow, ow. "Don't get me started on your mother, young lady. She's the reason I'm here at all. Zeus didn't want any of us to leave the front line. But your mother kept pestering him nonstop, 'It's a trap, it's a diversion, blah, blah, blah.' She wanted to come back herself, but Zeus was not going to let his number one strategist leave his side while we're battling Typhon. And so naturally he sent me to talk to you."

"I sense a bit of saltiness like Percy's dad showed up instead," Jason said uneasily.

"I want to know what Ares had to say about Athena being his top strategist," Alex grinned.

Annabeth sighed that they seemed to have missed the big picture where her mother had been right! May Zeus have mercy on them if they could actually hear this or they'd all be obliterated by now.

"But it is a trap!" Annabeth insisted. "Is Zeus blind?"

Thunder rolled through the sky.

"I'd watch the comments, girl," Hermes warned.

"Oh how the turn tables," Percy said with a delighted smile. "I see he's thinking of taking the diplomatic approach with me."

Annabeth gave him a blank look, she felt like that was a dig at her telling Hera to clear off but that didn't feel right.

"Zeus is not blind or deaf. He has not left Olympus completely undefended."

"But there are these blue lights—"

"Yes, yes. I saw them. Some mischief by that insufferable goddess of magic, Hecate, I'd wager, but you may have noticed they aren't doing any damage. Olympus has strong magical wards. Besides, Aeolus, the King of the Winds, has sent his most powerful minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods can approach Olympus from the air. They would be knocked out of the sky."

"Why can't they just put that around your camp, and, just around Kronos? Keep him stuck in one spot for good this time," Magnus frowned.

"Because that would be to easy," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Because that's the kind of direct interference they actively try to avoid," Thalia scoffed.

"Because it wouldn't hold him indefinitely, no prison ever will," Annabeth frowned at these two being unhelpful to her cousin. Poor Magnus and what all he must have been through down here.

Magnus didn't really like any of their answers though so it was kind of a moot point.

I raised my hand. "Um . . . what about that materializing/teleporting thing you guys do?"

"Excellent question Percy," Alex nodded.

Percy grinned because he so rarely got that reaction. Usually, they just laughed at him.

"That's a form of air travel too, Jackson.

"Ooo, last names, I am in trouble," Percy rolled his eyes with far to much nonchalance for a guy about to die, again.

Very fast, but the wind gods are faster. No, if Kronos wants Olympus, he'll have to march through the entire city with his army and take the elevators! Can you see him doing this?"

"Yes," all eight of them said in varying levels of confidence. He'd gone through so much already, his determination wasn't going to be stopped by a little thing like an elevator. He'd probably do something even more psycho, like take a staircase all the way up there.

Hermes made it sound pretty ridiculous—hordes of monsters going up in the elevator twenty at a time, listening to "Stayin' Alive."

"I mean, it's an apt song for them," Nico said fairly.

"I know at least Bigfoot will stay on beat," Alex nodded along.

Still, I didn't like it.

"Maybe just a few of you could come back," I suggested.

"There's some obvious answers to pick and I'm still not sure what good they'd do," Will shook his head. Posideon might have helped turn the tide on defeating Typhon, but he still believed in the idea that it took the gods and their children's combined power to stop all these threats in their own ways. Any god coming back to offer assistance would have interfered in Their quest, when a minor helping hand along the way was all that they had needed to win.

Hermes shook his head impatiently. "Percy Jackson, you don't understand. Typhon is our greatest enemy."

"I thought that was Kronos."

"Percy Jackson, over here telling the gods who their greatest enemy is," Jason sighed while rubbing his temple.

"He wouldn't be Percy if he wasn't impertinent at least once a year," Will nodded.

The god's eyes glowed. "No, Percy. In the old days, Olympus was almost overthrown by Typhon. He is husband of Echidna—"

"Met her at the Arch," I muttered. "Not nice."

"Percy Jackson, still over here casually interrupting the gods," Nico sighed.

"He wouldn't be Percy if he didn't blah, blah, blah," Thalia chuckled as she waved at Will, who still nodded in agreement.

"Are you guys done now?" Percy sighed.

"I wouldn't count on it," Annabeth gave him a stranger than usual look for asking such a dumb question.

"—and the father of all monsters. We can never forget how close he came to destroying us all; how he humiliated us! We were more powerful back in the old days. Now we can expect no help from Poseidon because he's fighting his own war. Hades sits in his realm and does nothing, and Demeter and Persephone follow his lead. It will take all our remaining power to oppose the storm giant. We can't divide our forces, nor wait until he gets to New York. We have to battle him now. And we're making progress."

"What I just heard was a painful amount of ego," Alex rubbed her ear as if it were bruised all the way down the tube.

"Godly sized, some might say," Percy nodded.

"Progress?" I said. "He nearly destroyed St. Louis."

"Yes," Hermes admitted. "But he destroyed only half of Kentucky. He's slowing down. Losing power."

"Only half you say?" Magnus asked mock brazenly.

"It needed some Kentucky fried reducing I'm sure," Alex snorted.

"You two are not funny," Jason sighed.

"I want to know how you cook chicken without power, isn't that food poisoning?" Percy said much to Jason's further dismay.

I didn't want to argue, but it sounded like Hermes was trying to convince himself.

"Glad it wasn't just us," Magnus nodded in thanks.

In the corner, the Ophiotaurus mooed sadly.

"We too should hold a moment of silence for all the sudden chicken prices that will be going up," Alex had to get one last crack in despite multiple grumbles of protest.

"Please, Hermes," Annabeth said. "You said my mother wanted to come. Did she give you any messages for us?"

"Messages," he muttered. "'It'll be a great job,' they told me. 'Not much work. Lots of worshippers.' Hmph. Nobody cares what I have to say. It's always about other people's messages."

"That was deep," Percy said in surprise, wondering if he should have thanked the mailman once in a while.

"Percy getting to witness some philosophy in person, what a historic day this shall be," Thalia snorted.

Rodents, George mused. I'm in it for the rodents.

Shhh, Martha scolded. We care what Hermes has to say. Don't we, George?

Oh, absolutely. Can we go back to the battle now? I want to do laser mode again. That's fun.

"Wouldn't that, hurt their eyes?" Magnus asked in vague concern for the godly snakes.

"George is clearly speaking Hermes' real thoughts there," Annabeth said with a nervous chuckle she tried to hide, she enjoyed hearing them laugh one last time before the fit hit the shan, as her stepmom would say about her next bumble.

"Eating rodents and all?" Percy asked with doubt.

It easily worked, and what was once a casual smile at the snake's comment easily spiraled up into laughter and Alex asking for more crazy options of what the snakes could shoot out of their eyes. She kept smiling for what she wished was a lifetime but was only a few moments more until it culminated in Nico and Jason trying to have a serious discussion if Zeus would allow different colors of lighting before Thalia threatened to shoot rats into the mouth of the next person who wouldn't can it.

"Quiet, both of you," Hermes grumbled.

The god looked at Annabeth, who was doing her big-pleading-gray-eyes thing.

"Oh he's doomed, nobody can resist that," Percy said with the kind of confidence of saying blue was the best color. The sort of biased statement that he couldn't prove but damn anyone who bothered arguing the point.

"Bah," Hermes said. "Your mother said to warn you that you are on your own. You must hold Manhattan without the help of the gods. As if I didn't know that. Why they pay her to be the wisdom goddess, I'm not sure."

"They pay her?" Magnus asked, clearly wondering how many infinity signs could fit on a check.

"Pay her in compliments," Percy rolled his eyes while Annabeth frowned at the two.

"Anything else?" Annabeth asked.

"She said you should try plan twenty-three. She said you would know what that meant."

Annabeth's face paled. Obviously she knew what it meant, and she didn't like it.

"You don't like direct advice?" Jason looked at her like she was nuts. "From your mom!" Clearly some lingering humbleness of getting any god's advice was kicking itself awake in him, Percy rolled his eyes.

"Not this plan, you'll see," Annabeth made a face. Those statues had helped, but she still saw some of them wreaking havoc in the city months later and it was nearly a weekly chore to send kids out to keep trying to deactivate them all.

This answer wasn't up to scratch for any of them who had heard it far to much and made the exact same face back at her.

"Go on."

"Last thing." Hermes looked at me. "She said to tell Percy: 'Remember the rivers.' And, um, something about staying away from her daughter."

"She's still on that?" Thalia asked mildly, clearly unimpressed.

Percy was blushing to hard to form an answer and Annabeth was smiling smugly how well that worked out to bother.

I'm not sure whose face was redder: Annabeth's or mine.

"I vote Percy's," Will said with a laugh as he watched them now.

"Doesn't count," Percy had a distinct wine in his voice. "She's not, now, and back then, I-" he felt like someone was yanking on his tongue as he kept swallowing a blush that wasn't shared, the traitor!

Annabeth just smiled indulgently at him and kept reading.

"Thank you, Hermes," Annabeth said. "And I . . . I wanted to say . . . I'm sorry about Luke."

As Annabeth had guessed, all previous enjoyment drained out of the room like Annabeth had perfectly installed and then pulled the plug.

The god's expression hardened like he'd turned to marble. "You should've left that subject alone."

"I don't think she's capable of that," Thalia muttered low enough only Percy heard, and he nodded and swallowed a snide comment of his own as his hands twitched. He wanted Annabeth's hand safely in his right now more. He could sense danger coming.

Annabeth stepped back nervously. "Sorry?"

"SORRY doesn't cut it!"

George and Martha curled around the caduceus, which shimmered and changed into something that looked suspiciously like a high-voltage cattle prod.

For some reason that one hadn't made the mention of their previous guesses of preferred weapons, though Alex had come close with the joshing comment of Godzilla sized bug zapper.

"You should've saved him when you had the chance," Hermes growled at Annabeth. "You're the only one who could have."

Percy might have switched into laser beam mode, as much as he hard focused on Annabeth. The water itself grew tense around them, as if holding all the oxygen hostage.

Annabeth didn't seem to notice. She did a terrible job of breezily reading over that as her lip trembled and one of her hands dropped from the book to wring nervously through a few curls of her hair as she kept going.

I tried to step between them. "What are you talking about? Annabeth didn't—"

"Don't defend her, Jackson!"

There were no jokes this time, though Jason bit his tongue down to stop himself from telling Percy that was three times Hermes had used his last name, which felt like a bad omen before this whole new death threat business got started.

Hermes turned the cattle prod toward me. "She knows exactly what I'm talking about."

"Maybe you should blame yourself!" I should've kept my mouth shut,

"I think that's the first time Percy's ever acknowledged that," Will was all about those helpful comments. "Progress."

"Maybe one day when he's got arthritis he'll learn to act on that thought first," Nico rolled his eyes.

"He once admitted to himself he should sow his mouth shut, something I'm still all to happy to help with," Alex reminded.

"I'd be actively considering it under other circumstances," Percy said with a leveled look at the book, no interpretation needed saying he'd rip out any stitches to keep that god's anger off Annabeth.

but all I could think about was turning his attention away from Annabeth. This whole time, he hadn't been angry with me. He'd been angry with her.

"That, is a very new experience for you Percy," Thalia sounded grudgingly impressed and slightly murderous of no one in here. "I don't even blame you not picking up on that."

"Thanks," Percy said with a wayward frown at her, his body wanting to throw him into overdrive and dive in front of Annabeth this second despite the fact she was ignoring the pair and trying to read over them as if this was as normal as his usual occurrences with other gods.

"Maybe if you hadn't abandoned Luke and his mom!"

Hermes raised his cattle prod. He began to grow until he was ten feet tall. I thought, Well, that's it.

"Those are the least most inspiring last words ever," Jason frowned at him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, now that I have some warning I'll write out a novel- oh wait!" Percy dragged his eyes away from Annabeth as he spoke to Jason with a massive eye-roll the ocean should be envious of.

But as he prepared to strike, George and Martha leaned in close and whispered something in his ear.

"Something?" Will yelped in protest. "We don't even get to hear the awe inspiring words that saved one of the greatest heroes of our time with the all mighty wise words of the snakes!"

"Who are you trying to impress?" Percy stared oddly at him.

"I genuinely want to know," he looked actually a little pouty. "Those could have been passed on to generations of impertinent demigods to stop them repeating your steps."

"I've found making your own path is better anyways, I've done better than Hercules repeatedly," Percy shrugged.

Hermes clenched his teeth. He lowered the cattle prod, and it turned back to a staff.

"Percy Jackson," he said, "because you have taken on the curse of Achilles, I must spare you. You are in the hands of the Fates now. But you will never speak to me like that again.

"That's all they said?" Will still looked like someone was dangling a candy bar above his head on a fishhook.

Percy shrugged again. "Don't know what to tell you man, guess if you want the next set of kids to live like me you'll have to push them in the Styx."

Will sighed and bit back a groan because he wasn't really sure how much Percy meant that.

You have no idea how much I have sacrificed, how much—"

His voice broke, and he shrank back to human size. "My son, my greatest pride . . . my poor May . . ."

He sounded so devastated I didn't know what to say. One minute he was ready to vaporize us. Now he looked like he needed a hug.

"The dichotomy of these gods really is, something," Magnus couldn't help but unintentionally mimic Will's exact tone on that word.

"I think it's Percy," Annabeth corrected, her voice only mildly trembling. She was pretty sure she'd never thanked him before for saving her life, but it was par for the course for the pair of them and she'd been in her own world, her own hurt during that. "I certainly didn't want to give him a hug."

She couldn't help her eyes flickering back to the text, wanting to know if Percy had wanted to hug her or yell at her for her part in Luke's life too, even if she did feel guilt for her cousin clearly wanting to chat about this more. Any other day of her life she would have been ecstatic to talk with him about this side of her life, but she needed this more. Percy needed this more.

"Look, Lord Hermes," I said.

"I always love it when you try to up the respect after they decide not to kill you," Alex's tone was a faint hint of sarcasm though showing he didn't really mean that.

"Hopefully they just remember the last thing I did rather than the whole eviscerating part," Percy shrugged.

"I'm sorry, but I need to know. What happened to May? She said something about Luke's fate, and her eyes—"

Hermes glared at me, and my voice faltered. The look on his face wasn't really anger, though. It was pain. Deep, incredible pain.

"Wow," Percy whispered under his thudding heartbeat. He couldn't help his mind instantly going to his dad, if that's the look that had been hiding under the surface when he'd said he was sorry Percy had been born. If, gods forbid, something had happened to his mom and he'd taken up Luke's mantel.

Hermes depicted himself nothing like the lord of the sea, but Percy still saw his power and sadness in the godly weight of those shoulders that all the gods must carry, whether they showed it or not. Hades had in his brief time speaking of Bianca, even Zeus whether he'd admit it or not had looked upon Thalia in their short time together with some mixed-up emotions.

The rule of the gods keeping their distance from their kids felt stupider the longer he watched.

"I will leave you now," he said tightly. "I have a war to fight."

He began to shine. I turned away and made sure Annabeth did the same, because she was still frozen in shock.

Annabeth's voice was still softened. Humbled and chagrined and tired and a million other things Percy couldn't imagine. He wished he could wrap his arms around her now and shield her face into his chest, feel her wide eyes and shaking breath warmer than that supernova of a god vanishing. Her unsteady heartbeat had been a more rocksteady hope even when he had no clue what to do about things with Luke, or even why it all mattered as the guy should be long dead in his own husk.

Good luck, Percy, Martha the snake whispered.

Hermes glowed with the light of a supernova. Then he was gone.

There was no last mentions of Geroge and rats and why Hermes would spare Percy except for some curse that shouldn't have stopped a god tossing him into outer space as a pile of dust. Percy felt an ugly feeling bubbling up in him, never far from his mind when the room got quiet and his memories of his life grew louder than the laughter of his friends. He didn't act on it. He knew he never could. He would not even look at the fork that had made Luke into Kronos's puppet.

He still wished he knew another way out of this anger, and just plain exhaustion of dealing with the godly side of his family.

Annabeth sat at the foot of her mother's throne and cried. I wanted to comfort her, but I wasn't sure how.

"A hug would be nice," she grumbled, more for herself than meaning to say it out loud.

Percy gave her a look all the same, he'd heard of course, as close as they were sitting.

His green eyes watched her, a sadness of confusion and uncertainty she'd never expected to see there that hurt as much as remembering all of her screw ups with Luke all over again.

Why did this keep happening to her? Why was everyone in her life destined to leave her or forget about her, or somehow both!

He shifted his weight around, his arms moved up with a hesitancy like he wanted to hug her now, but she sighed and kept reading. She didn't want him to do it because she'd told him to. His arms dropped back to his side as he slumped in his seat, but she'd swear she heard a sad sigh under his breath like he might regret not acting faster. Gods what she wouldn't give to be in his arms having to relive this.

What she wouldn't give up though was her patience. She'd wait for him to get there without hesitation, again. As long as it took.

"Annabeth," I said, "it's not your fault. I've never seen Hermes act that way. I guess . . . I don't know . . . he probably feels guilty about Luke. He's looking for somebody to blame. I don't know why he lashed out at you. You didn't do anything to deserve that."

"I could give you a pile of evidence this girl murdered someone and you wouldn't believe me," Nico grinned.

"That's called entrapment Nico and it's illegal," Percy said with all the confidence of one who had watched, like, two cop-drama shows. One was even based out of New York.

Annabeth wiped her eyes. She stared at the hearth like it was her own funeral pyre.

"I have a strict promise from my siblings about what my shroud should be and everything," Annabeth managed a dower joke, which Percy smiled at of course, but it was too sad to make her heart flutter like usual. He was just humoring her.

I shifted uneasily. "Um, you didn't, right?"

She didn't answer. Her Celestial bronze knife was strapped to her arm—the same knife I'd seen in Hestia's vision. All these years, I hadn't realized it was a gift from Luke. I'd asked her many times why she preferred to fight with a knife instead of a sword, and she'd never answered me. Now I knew.

"Now you knew why she didn't answer, not the oh so important distinction why she prefers a knife," Jason said with a concerned analyst smile on Annabeth like he hoped he could sweet-talk her into an answer. Percy was a little terrified he could too, so he cleared his throat and she reluctantly stayed on track.

"Percy," she said. "What did you mean about Luke's mother? Did you meet her?"

I nodded reluctantly. "Nico and I visited her. She was a little . . . different." I described May Castellan, and the weird moment when her eyes had started to glow and she talked about her son's fate.

Annabeth frowned. "That doesn't make sense.

"Which part?" Magnus gave her a confused brow. "What happened after Hermes showed up?"

Annabeth didn't answer. She gave him the sad-big-gray-eyes and he caved and instantly nodded back to the book to get her out of this subject he'd brought up.

But why were you visiting—" Her eyes widened. "Hermes said you bear the curse of Achilles. Hestia said the same thing. Did you . . . did you bathe in the River Styx?"

"Don't change the subject."

"Percy! Did you or not?"

"Who's changing the subject now," Alex sighed, completely on Magnus's side even if she couldn't begrudge Annabeth finally getting the option to share this in her own time.

"Me," Annabeth nodded without looking up.

"Um . . . maybe a little."

"Just a couple of toes, maybe his whole leg, hard to say." Nico nodded.

"I'd kill to see that actually, just him having to wield Riptide like an arc of pure destruction while having to be on his hands the whole time," Jason laughed.

"I'd just set a chimpanzee on my opponents at that point," Percy rolled his eyes at the pair.

I told her the story about Hades and Nico, and how I'd defeated an army of the dead. I left out the vision of her pulling me out of the river. I still didn't quite understand that part, and just thinking about it made me embarrassed.

Annabeth did blush faintly at that again, much to Percy's delight, and yet still looked around at him like she wanted to strangle him for not giving that detail. It really was like old times for him where he couldn't figure out anything she'd do next when it came to him, which was kind of refreshing.

She shook her head in disbelief. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"I had no choice," I said. "It's the only way I can stand up to Luke."

"You mean . . . di immortales, of course! That's why Luke didn't die. He went to the Styx and . . . Oh no, Luke. What were you thinking?"

"So now you're worried about Luke again," I grumbled.

She stared at me like I'd just dropped from space. "What?"

"What expression is that exactly?" Thalia asked with mild interest. "I'd like to see your aliens are real face."

She gave a half-hearted scowl to her sister for mocking her right now, feeling very alone in her protective feelings of Luke she'd hope Thalia would give some consideration to instead of Percy mouthing a thanks at her sister.

"Forget it," I muttered. I wondered what Hermes had meant about Annabeth not saving Luke when she'd had the chance. Clearly, she wasn't telling me something. But at the moment I wasn't in the mood to ask. The last thing I wanted to hear about was more of her history with Luke.

"And we are finally at full levels of Percy ignoring the one bit of good advice a goddess has given him lately," Nico said quietly to Will.

"Yeah, but, I wouldn't push her either," Will sighed, and not because Annabeth scared the piss out of him too. She seemed fragile right now, on the ropes with everyone, even her own past. They were taking this at Percy's pace, but her's shouldn't be discounted either.

"The point is he didn't die in the Styx," I said. "Neither did I. Now I have to face him. We have to defend Olympus."

Annabeth was still studying my face, like she was trying to see differences since my swim in the Styx.

"Those old diplomas and dolls don't appear under his skin from time to time do they?" Magnus asked, mostly joking.

"I have my own hopes and dreams to flush away," Percy said for her.

"Mastery of toiletry and all, I have faith he'll get it done," Annabeth grinned, a sight for sore eyes after this monstrosity of a chapter, so Percy couldn't even get mad at her for now adding in to bringing up that horrendous joke repeatedly.

"I guess you're right. My mom mentioned—"

"Plan twenty-three."

She rummaged in her pack and pulled out Daedalus's laptop. The blue Delta symbol glowed on the top when she booted it up. She opened a few files and started to read.

"Here it is," she said. "Gods, we have a lot of work to do."

"And the usual amount of time to do it," Jason sighed. Just once he'd like to hear of Percy and Annabeth having all the time in the world on their hands to get a plan set up. It would make them unbeatable. Even when they did everything on the fly they were wild and unstoppable about it. He'd just like to hear more of their plans in detail before they inevitably went off the rails and went to 'Crazy Plan Time.'

"One of Daedalus's inventions?"

"A lot of inventions . . . dangerous ones. If my mother wants me to use this plan, she must think things are very bad." She looked at me. "What about her message to you: 'Remember the rivers'? What does that mean?"

I shook my head. As usual, I had no clue what the gods were telling me. Which rivers was I supposed to remember? The Styx? The Mississippi?

"Hopefully you're not on the wrong side of that Naide still," Alex offered. "I bet she'd still try and kick your ass if this mess gets anywhere near Texas."

Percy crossed his fingers and nodded in agreement.

Just then the Stoll brothers ran in to the throne room.

"You need to see this," Connor said. "Now."

"I really wonder what they would have done if their dad had still been in there. Invited him along or apologized for interrupting," Thalia said with interest.

"You're all insane for never knocking," Jason frowned. Every party mentioned had a tendency to barge in on gods that would decimate someone without blinking. It was a miracle Mr. D never had to any of them.

The blue lights in the sky had stopped, so at first I didn't understand what the problem was.

"One less visible problem always equals two bigger ones on the horizon," Alex nodded.

"Why can't Godzilla and mothera ever be on our side," Percy huffed.

The other campers had gathered in a small park at the edge of the mountain. They were clustered at the guardrail, looking down at Manhattan. The railing was lined with those tourist binoculars, where you could deposit one golden drachma and see the city. Campers were using every single one.

Magnus squinted in confusion at that. Who were those for? The gods could apparently just be anywhere they wanted, and all the minor gods and other deities running around up there probably didn't have much care to be spying a thousand feet below unless they'd dropped a squirrel from that height just to see where it landed.

I looked down at the city. I could see almost everything from here—the East River and the Hudson River carving the shape of Manhattan,

Percy's skin itched on the back of his neck. He scratched impatiently, feeling as usual his brain was trying to cook him alive for nothing. What the heck did he care about that being mentioned?

the grid of streets, the lights of skyscrapers, the dark stretch of Central Park in the north. Everything looked normal, but something was wrong. I felt it in my bones before I realized what it was.

"I don't . . . hear anything," Annabeth said.

That was the problem.

Even from this height, I should've heard the noise of the city—millions of people bustling around, thousands of cars and machines—the hum of a huge metropolis. You don't think about it when you live in New York, but it's always there. Even in the dead of night, New York is never silent.

But it was now.

"Wow," Alex said with a faint smile only she could manage. One who was suddenly struck with the idea of an actual apocalypse happening, and being curious rather than horrified at the implications of what else was going to come of it.

I felt like my best friend had suddenly dropped dead.

"No, Annabeth was still standing right next to you," Will assured in a honeyed voice.

"You're lucky I don't drop kick you off there when we get back," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Oh, you meant New York," Will gave an exaggerated nod of relief. "Yeah, okay, makes more sense."

"What did they do?" My voice sounded tight and angry. "What did they do to my city?"

I pushed Michael Yew away from the binoculars and took a look.

Will's smile wavered and Percy didn't notice, looking right back at the book with somehow even more murderous intent than he'd even just felt for a god threatening Annabeth. Gods did that hurt more than he'd expected it too. Was that going to be Percy's reaction when the bridge collapsed? Just pushing everyone who had been there aside from his mind and move on to the next fight?

In the streets below, traffic had stopped. Pedestrians were lying on the sidewalks, or curled up in doorways. There was no sign of violence, no wrecks, nothing like that. It was as if all the people in New York had simply decided to stop whatever they were doing and pass out.

"Is there, a city of sleep?" Magnus asked his usual dopey question, Alex couldn't help but grin.

"Not unless Rudyard Kipling's taken over," she reminded, causing Magnus to turn to her with renewed excitement for a book dissection they could both get into guilt-free when Percy's life was done being gutted in front of their eyes.

"Are they dead?" Silena asked in astonishment.

Ice coated my stomach. A line from the prophecy rang in my ears: And see the world in endless sleep.

I remembered Grover's story about meeting the god Morpheus in Central Park. You're lucky I'm saving my energy for the main event.

"Well then," Jason said in a tiny voice. "I guess this is a mildly better interpretation?"

"Now let's work on that reaping of blades just being a nasty paper cut and we'll be gold," Percy tried his hardest not to say with a shiver like ice wasn't creeping up his spine.

"Not dead," I said. "Morpheus has put the entire island of Manhattan to sleep. The invasion has started."

Annabeth somehow managed to say that in the same tone Percy once had, Will noted in admiration. The horror, of not downplaying this sucked with a capital f, and the power behind her voice, of determination that this was the tipping point in the scale. No more games, no more squabbling. This was going to end one way or the other, and it was not going to happen quietly.

"Should we, get to bed?" Thalia asked before she tried to take the book. Nico was still rubbing his eyes a little to often and Percy was still stretching and rubbing his neck, always in need of a nap.

"It's still to early," Percy protested. Gods they weren't even half done with this one and had dealt with more interruptions than any other with it being so late in the day. He'd lived long enough with that prophecy hanging over his head and wanted this over with!

"Yeah-" Nico meant to agree with Percy, but a yawn cut him off.

"We can finish tomorrow," Percy reluctantly corrected. He couldn't be frustrated with anyone but himself here, he knew he couldn't have made it through the rest of this without a nap, but it didn't make his agitation any less. He wanted to be through with this already.

Nobody argued the point with him, and he got up and shuffled out.

Annabeth only hesitated a moment before following.

When they got to the room Percy had been sleeping in, he turned to her without surprise and grinned. She smiled in relief and followed him in, side by side, so they could curl up on the floor again.

This time, she slept through the night.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

*A myth I'm surprised never got brought up in this series, it blew my mind when I found it. The following is my headcanon/interpretation though, when in the story Chiron actually died and became the Cenatur's constellation because it was un-healable Chimera venom on Hercuels' arrow he accidentally shot Chiron with.

** If you know why I referenced an amphisbaena specifically you get a cookie. If you need time to look it up and come back, you get a cookie as well for doing your due diligence.

[beauty-and-passion]

Plans for the summer (and the winter)

Hello, everyone.

I hope the weather in your place is nice, your days are long and you are healthy and relaxed.

I am here to give you an update on all the plans I had and the ones that came out in the meantime.

------

TMA

The reactions will still go on, don't worry. I started season 3 and I plan to keep them going until the end. Then I will start The Magnus Protocol too, of course.

I'm in no hurry with this series: I like to keep it going slowly and enjoy it ten episodes at a time until the end. So the updates will keep going during summer, winter and maybe up to the next year. Just keep expecting them, I definitely won't drop the series. I want to know how it will end.

------

CCCC

This project got my attention and I want to talk more about it. In the last ask I got, I was proposing two ideas:

a very concise analysis of all the songs of Volume 1, made mostly of resumes of the obvious parts, a few considerations and me approving every time these characters show how badass they are.

a short post about how differently the embodiment of Heart and Mind are portrayed here and in Sanders Sides.

The survey is here, and you're still free to vote (if you haven't already). Honestly, I would love to write these posts alternating them with TMA/others, so you won't see just one topic, but some nice variety. Just vote and let me know which idea do you like the most - or if you want me to do them both! I'm open to do that too.

------

LORE OLYMPUS

In my last post, I said I would write a new one for when the series is over.

Well, the series is over. And my post won't be kind, nor long: I already talked about all the mistakes of the series, so all that's left is me making fun of its stupid ideas and a finale that was the epitome of "how NOT to write a story".

It will be the first post to come out after this recap, so you'll have it very soon.

------

EPIC THE MUSICAL

I just found out that The Thunder Saga will be released on July 4th, bless Jorge Rivera-Herrans for his incredible speed and his creativity. This man makes bops as if nothing, his vision is crystal clear and I respect him for that.

I didn't listen to any snippets and didn't look for any spoiler, because I want to be surprised by the songs themselves: so, once they're out, I will definitely write a post about them in a couple days.

------

THE BOOK OF BILL

Once it's out and I will get it (probably from August 2nd, since that's the delivery day on my Amazon), I will become a mess and talk about it endlessly, so I apologize in advance for who I will become.

------

A MANGA I MENTIONED

Eons ago, I said there was a manga I wanted to talk about. Well, that manga is finished. But I have to read it from the beginning, before talking about it. And right now, I don't really feel like it.

For now, I will keep this in the back. Maybe this winter (or even next year), I will talk about it.

------

SANDERS SIDES

I am sorry to say that I do not have plans for SaSi for now - well, except for hte post in connection with CCCC. Mr. Sanders is giving us nothing, so there's nothing really new I can write.

But that doesn't mean we can't talk. On the contrary, you can still send me asks and/or tag me in some posts and we can have a nice chat about anything, from details of the series to criticism. Having nothing new doesn't mean we can't have fun our way.

------

WHAT ELSE?

Those are my plans for now, but who knows what else will come in a couple months? I wasn't expecting CCCC and it came, it saw and it conquered without expecting it. So... who knows? Maybe in a couple months, I will get another suggestion and my plans will change again. I'm open to possible new things to enjoy.

As always, thank you all for sticking with me, thank you for your asks, comments, reblogs, likes and suggestions. Every feedback is wonderful and I am extremely grateful for it.

(How about a coffee? ☕)

_______________________________

TAGLIST:

@royalprinceroman @mudpuddlenl @allmycrushesaredead @aquatedia @whatishappeningrightnow @effortiswhatmatters @bella-in-a-bag @doydoune @forever-third-wheeling @payte @hypnossanders​  @idontreallyknow24​  @imcrushedbyarainbowoffical @patton-cake​  @hereissananxiousmess​  @purplebronzeandblue​  @cynicalandsarcastic​ ​@lost-in-thought-20 @andtheyreonfire​ 

@riseofthewerewolf​ @rosesandlove44​​  @chewy-rubies @groaaaaan​ @arya-skywalker  @csi-baker-street-babes @queen-of-all-things-snuggly @reesiereads @dracayd-universe​ @starlightnyx​ @stubbornness-and-spite​ @averykedavra @joyrose-fandomer @mihaela-tbg @igonnatalknothing

@thatoneloudowl @grayson-22 @softangryfuckingdepressed @theotherella  @boopypastaissalty @nevenastark @varthandiveturinn @roses-bubbles @cuter-on-the-inside @coldbookworm @snixxxsmythe @charmingcritter  @analogical-mess @emphasis-on-the-oopsie @selfdestructivecat @yangwalkerao3 @the3rddenialist

[cedarbranch]

twenty questions for fic writers!

tagged by @sunriseverse thank you!!

tagging: @figbian @shark-myths @stoplightglow @zipegs and anyone else who wants to participate (with no pressure if you don't!) questions below the cut :-)

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

currently 65! i've orphaned several over the years though. unfortunately i am an Extremely Slow Writer so i always wanna see this number go up and it never goes as fast as i want it to :') we can hit 67 this year... surely....

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

847,778! used to be higher (more in the 950k range) prior to orphaning, i'm not sure if i've actually written over a million words or not at this point? v excited for the day that milestone actually shows up in my stats though! my current wips could tip me over, we'll see how it goes... 👀

3. what fandoms do you write for?

currently hannibal and stranger things! i've bounced around many fandoms in my day, but my most significant contributions thus far have been for mcr/bandom and the magnus archives. really hoping i end up writing enough for my current fandoms that i can consider them part of that shortlist too!! :-)

4. top five fics by kudos

like a moth to light (like a beast to bait) / 2117 kudos, save that heart for me / 1480 kudos, how particular, my fondness of you / 1445 kudos, convicted criminals of thought / 1177 kudos, and questionable decisions / 847 kudos! wow, that last one took me by surprise, it was such a jokey little fic i often forget about it. nice to look back at these and see things with over 1k kudos though, i remember that being an unattainable pipe dream back when i was writing mcr in the dead era that was 2017 :')

5. do you respond to comments?

i often do! i try to respond to every comment i get when a fic is published, and i like to respond much later on as well, it just tends to slip my mind if it's an older fic. stuff gets lost in my inbox. i certainly read every comment though, and the comments left on older fics are often the ones that make me happiest!

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

hmmm... i mostly write happy endings unless they're character studies. the true angstiest ending i've written is for a fic i haven't posted yet (hint: it's a sequel to a oneshot of mine!) but i do have short fics about both michael and gerry's deaths in tma? i'll go with the gerry death fic, thinking of the sun.

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

they're mostly happy!!! but the one that ends most on a note of Joy, i think, would be rosemary and thyme, my fae!martin au :-)

8. do you get hate on fics?

nah. i have an extremely vague memory of getting a comment that made me go "omg my first hate comment" but like it's so vague that i can't tell if it's a false memory or not 😭 people have always been quite nice to me, thankfully!

9. do you write smut?

i do! i tried to avoid it whenever i could when i was younger but these days i've actually become super interested in sex as a vehicle for character studies. that tumblr post that's like "the plot of this smut fic is that character A believes himself abandoned by god" is one HUNDRED percent my approach recently, definitely expect some of that upcoming on my ao3 lolll

10. craziest crossover?

i don't really write crossovers! i like them in comic/fanart form, but i tend to be less interested in crossover fic (unless it's HEU, i do quite like spacedogs)... the only times i've ever thought about creating crossover content myself were for a couple pacrim fusion ideas!

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

eh, not really. a long time ago i did have someone basically rip the worldbuilding from one of my AUs with the serial numbers filed off, but they did ask permission - i said yes because i was like 16 and felt too awkward saying no. so that was weird! but not quite stealing.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

yes!! to steal a kiss from borrowed lips was translated into russian, such an honor :D

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i have, a really long time ago. i don't think i would do it again (unless it was with, like, one of two specific irls) bc i think i'd struggle with figuring out a collaborative workflow. part of me also thinks it could be a fun exercise though...

14. all time favorite ship?

OUGH..... mannnn what a question. it changes every few years and i feel like my response is influenced by not just the source material, but the quality of the fan content and the fandom interactions i've had... you know what? i know i have current-hyperfixation bias, but for now i am gonna say hannigram. it's just too peak.

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Too Many Of Them - but in particular, my chrissy cunningham-centric longfic. it's an entire treatise on sapphic loneliness and small-town queer isolation and i do think it'd be a fucking masterpiece if i ever managed to commit to it, but it's on the forever back-burner i think.

16. what are your writing strengths?

hmm... characterization through dialogue is the main thing, i'd say. i'm always thinking about how to match a given character's speech patterns and i think i tend to capture their voices pretty well!

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

i'm my own biggest critic so i could list a bunch, but pacing is a big one. i tend to let things run too long and i feel like i've only just managed to balance it better in my current wip... only took a decade of fic-writing to get there 😭

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

depends a lot on context. honestly too many thoughts to condense well into an answer for this djglfg but in short: usually nice if it's just a few words, but can get unwieldy otherwise

19. first fandom you wrote in?

kuroshitsuji 💀 self-insert and OC-centric fic. how very unlike me

20. favorite fic you've written?

moth to light has been the reigning champ for a while now, but i think several of my current wips could potentially unseat it!

[fandomanimatic-tournament]

Fandom song animatic tournament: Side A Round 1

Your Stupid Face - Kaden MacKay

"I just really like your face You don't have to look so happy I'm not really into love that you flaunt In some glittery font But if that's what you want Make it snappy"

Ready as I'll ever be - Tangled the series

"So gather around now (ooh) It's time to sing It's bittersweet (ooh) but it's a hell of a silver lining I tell the same old stories As y'all get your wings And I get better every time I kiss a weathered cheek And watching doves fly Sooner than me I guess I'm ready, ready as I'll never be"

Remember that we're voting on how Iconic they are for ANIMATICS, not for the song itself. In order to make things fair, the tone and mood of the song should not affect how iconic it is (for example, a serious song should not be considered more iconic than a joke song just because it's serious)

Propaganda and animatic links of the songs under the cut:

Your Stupid Face - Kaden MacKay

Propaganda:

Ultimate enemies to lovers potential as it starts with tge singer hating the other party and slowly growing to love them. Also has an excellent tma animatic (haven't watched any other animatics for it but a quick search shows there's a lot)

Animatics with the song:

Helluva Boss Stolas x Blitz

Don't Starve Together Wxwood

The Magnus Archives

DSMP TNTduo

Toilet Bound Hanako Kun Mitsuba Animatic

HFJONE Sodapack

Ready as I'll ever be - Tangled the series

Propaganda:

I can list at least three full animatics for this song for every major fandom I have ever been a part of, and still it's so hard to find them because there are so goddamn many

It's an absolute banger from the absolute King Alan Menken, originally from the pretty underrated Tangled the Series. I've seen animatics for this for like every fandom I can think of, and it deserves it because it slaps and has great vocal performances from Jeremy Jordan and Eden Espinosa.

i'm pretty sure this song is more well known than the show it came from is lol. i looked up "ready as i'll ever be animatic" on youtube just to confirm and counted 20+ of them, and i didn't even finish scrolling. it is a genuinely really good song from a /surprisingly/ good show that imo is super underrated. i definitely would recommend checking it out if you get the opportunity!

it's a fandom song that transcended its fandom and became a hit for twist villains.

The song really fosters creativity with how many animatics can create a darker AU where the usual protagonist (or a close associate) is made to be the antagonist because of injustice suffered and the other characters have to fight against them

I've seen *at least* one animatic of this song in almost every fandom I've looked into

It has a lot of Animaniacs because it is sung by an ensemble cast It is good for demonstrating a lot of different conflicting perspectives of characters for your big dramatic fight and its catchy and I love it

I mean everyone loves a scenario where one of the main cast becomes a villain for tragic reasons and the rest of the characters have to fight them while dealing with the betrayal and attempting to make them see reason

How in the actual hell does a song from a Tangled spinoff series go this spectacularly hard? More to the point, how does it have an animatic/AMV for practically EVERY FANDOM IN EXISTENCE?! Yeah, most people know it from that one Warrior Cats MAP, but there is SO much more. Not to mention the bucketloads of people who used this song for their own OCs, which is always a bonus.

Animatics with the song:

Star Vs The Forces Of Evil

Miraculous Ladybug

Sander Sides

Danganronpa V3 fantasy AU

BNHA Villain Deku Animatic

DSMP

Please keep in mind that I don't know all the media and fandoms of the animatics provided as examples and I don't have the time (nor the will) to research them all. Don't come into my notes or my ask box complaining about them being included, I will simply block you. HOWEVER, if a ship animatic includes a minor and an adult, do tell me, I'll remove it.

[shavirlight]

https://www.tumblr.com/shavirlight/770506836674740224/youre-an-amazing-writer-and-i-love-reading-your

I LOVE THIS. Thank you so much for this answer.

And as much as Louis loves him, what he did to him was ultimately assault. I think Lestat has complicated feelings about that, even if he isn't explicitly aware/wouldn't admit it to himself.

This frustration, as well as the intense jealousy he feels for human beings for having everything he now cannot, prompts him to want to take it out on them

This makes SO much sense, and I was actually wondering if it was something like this, if Lestat has feelings we haven't seen explored yet (I remember you saying something about what the characters THINK they feel not necessarily being what they really feel).

I think in a lot of ways the Lestat's turning in this AU was better, but in other ways it was worse. It is a stain on his and Louis' relationship, and one that neither of them has ever acknowledged, or even begun to deal with...

YES it is somehow both better and worse! It doesn't have the same exact horror and violation-in-every-sense of Magnus, but in a way it's maybe worse to have someone you love and want to be with do that to you--take your life and change you into something else without asking. And Louis feels so horribly guilty, obviously (and there's the added horrible irony of it happening at least partly because he'd been starving himself, though now I'm wondering how much it was part of him wanting to turn Lestat and part of him not wanting to acknowledge that desire...), but he isn't actually dealing with it, as you said. And Lestat doesn't WANT it to be a horrible thing because he loves Louis and this is his life now, so of course he doesn't want to dwell in the awfulness of it.

Okay now I am even MORE excited to read the rest of your fic and see how this plays out and what happens when they finally address it. :D :D :D

Thank YOU for asking such a thoughtful question. Often when I write I don’t actively think of the reasoning behind my narrative decisions beyond ‘will this be compelling’, I just kinda do what feels right. So messages like yours really prompt me to think more deeply about why I’ve made certain decisions! I find it really helpful.

I think you bring up an interesting question in regard to how much of an accident Lestat’s turning really was. It's definitely up for interpretation! In my personal opinion (which is funny to say when it’s your own fic, but I don’t really think what an author says outside the text counts for anything) Louis didn't ever think or plan to turn Lestat, not even subconsciously, BUT I think when he started starving himself there might have been a part of him that did it with the compartmentalized knowledge that it would eventually cause him to give in and drink from Lestat. I think "not wanting to acknowledge that desire" as you said is right on the money. I actually have a line planned for later which addresses this question a bit, though I haven’t decided yet if I’ll use it now or for part 2.

Also yeah. Lestat is somewhat delusional in all versions of the story I guess lmao. Even in the books, his feelings for Magnus aren’t as clear-cut as you’d expect them to be… And I think basically, Louis feels guilty for turning Lestat, yes – but that isn’t exactly the same as feeling guilty for not asking him. Does that make sense? So in his mind, the mistake wasn’t not asking for consent, it was turning him at all. Not sure that Lestat would agree with that.

Anyway, I hope you like the way it’s going to go! It’s a bit of a tough balance between wanting these things to be subtle vs making sure that they’re clear enough for people to pick up on. Thank you again for the ask <3

[mr-laveau]

Cu-wip-osity tag game >:D

@cash-n-prizes really told me to get my ass in gear and WELL, here I am so here we go!

rules: reveal the titles of the documents in your WIP folder and tag as many people as there are documents. let others ask questions about the ones that interest them, and post snippets or explain the contents as you see fit!

Tagging: there are too many people to tag and i don’t talk to that many people sooooo whoever wants can tag in. Trust me, I cannot tag that many people for this.

And Then there were three - SH, Angel & Baaabe

Roses n’ Thorns - Darlin/Quinn (past) - Darren(Darlin) used to be in a band with Quinn called Rose n’ Thorns. Yes, I did in fact write Darr being in a band with Quinn into his actual backstory, fuck timelines and canon, I do what I want.

Spell slot - Lovely(electro)/Vincent

Gotcha bitch! - Darlin/pack - poly Shaw pack - Darren (Darlin) has a breakdown when the pack throws him a surprise birthday party

In the face of eternity - Lovely(Vampire)

Who’s ya daddy? - SH/Milo (ft. Colm) - Sadhil (SH) realizes that he and Milo have daddy issues, except SH used to work for Milo’s daddy.

Pretty Girl(gn) Walk - Angel/Darlin/David(minor)

Self-portrait - Gavin/FL - Gavin has too many hobbies but this new one is fun.

Stellar Collapse - Starlight

Fed to the Wolves - David/Darlin

The importance of Couch sharing - Poly Shaw Pack - David/Darlin/Asher/Milo

Backup Generator - DAMN Polycule & Lovely(Vampire)/Vincent

Extra Lessons - Sam/FL/Darlin

Come Back to Haunt - David & SH

Do you have an appointment? - Sam/FL - R18

Hate to see em leave, Love to watch em go - Poly Shaw pack - Asher/Milo/David/Darlin - Asher and Milo talk about David & Darren (Darlin) behind their backs but they’re specifically talking about their behinds - R18

Sweet Dreams (are made of this) - Sunshine/Elliott

Dahlia Empowered Records & Profiles Department - audio project - Magnus Archives parody but make it Redacted

Honestly…no - David/Darlin

A Pack of Idiots - Poly Shaw Pack:

"I'm in love with Asher." David said. The room went quiet after that as Sadhil and Milo's eyes locked onto their alpha in disbelief–more specifically disbelief in the fact that David actually said the very thing that everyone in the pack would joke about when they saw him and his beta together in any capacity. The key word there being 'joked' because no one actually expected it to be true. Sadhil had the mind to question the statement further but got beat to the opportunity to speak. "Well no shit, Sherlock." Darren replied. "Took you that long to figure out?" Now eyes were going back and forth between Tank and David, the bigger wolf looking at the usually quiet shifter in bewilderment as they met his gaze with nonchalance. The investigator could already feel the tensions rising and if they knew both of their fellow pack members well enough then there'd be more to this. "What do you mean, long enough?" "–Darr means," Milo is the one to speak up this time, cutting off Tank from making anymore frank remarks and riling the other man up, "that we can all tell." "What?”

Running Memories - Darlin focused

Can You Roll a Charisma Check? - Lasko/Listener (pre-canon listener) - Lasko finds out that someone new has joined his DnD group and he’s definitely gonna have to roll high if he wants to impress them

Out for Blood - Sam/Darlin - R18

What if we all dated each other? - DAMN Polycule

In-Spectre - Yes I know that’s name of an anime, I’m being funny - SH/Milo:

"Why don't I take you dancin' some time?"  "You got two feet shorter than myself there, toots. You think you can keep up?" Sadhil smirks.

Bad Dog - (Dom) Darlin/ Sam - R18:

"Course not." The vampire huffs. "I know you better than that Darlin." "Do you really, doc?" Darren smiles as crosses his arms and slowly strides over to Sam from across the bar with a sly grin. "Because I know for a fact that there's a side to me you haven't met yet and he wants to make you beg like a hungry mutt." Sam Collins has never in his life wanted anything more than just to let his mate have their way with him right now. He doesn't have time to question why when the one thing racing in his mind is to let Darren use and abuse him like a bone for his wolf to chew on, and he'll be damned if he doesn't let tonight be the night for that to happen. "Where?" "As much as I would like to fuck you in one of the stalls here, I want your ass on a bed where I can have it to myself tonight."

Broke Back Mountain - Sam/Huxley

Ghostly Touches - Lasko/SH/Milo - R18

Don’t Hold Your Breath - DAMN Polycule

Two Birds - David/Darlin

Worth of Chance - SH & Colm

Sway - Vincent/Lovely 

Heart Strings - Asher/Baaabe/Darlin

Keeping Track of Things 1 & 2 - Darlin/Sam (feat. BE & Fred) 

Reset Button - Lovely(Vampire) & Sam

Ghosted - SH/Sam/Darlin

Parks & Recreation - Darlin/David

Anyways, have fun~

[johnnycagesrightnut]

You know, how you want someone to write about Jon and witchcraft...so I kinda did that, but first you need to know that 1. english is not my first language, so if it's shit I'm blaming that (I actually think it's pretty okay, but you know, maybe you don't) and 2. I haven't done a deep dive on witchcraft yet, I only know a little bit here and there, so I kind of wrote more about his relationship with witchcraft.

Anyway, here it is, one witchcraft!Jon snippet:

The thing with wirchcraft, that most people didn't know, was, that it wasn't as magical as fiction made it seem. Most of the practices involving witchcraft were more en route with psychology, only with an extra kick to it.

Jon grew up with witchcraft. The memory of his grandmother, merhodically preparing ingridients a comforting one. How she blended herbs and heated oils that smelled strong and earthy, embalmbing candles and her workstation, humming a tune under her breath, that seemed odly familiar, even when Jon heard it for the first time.

His grandmother didn't worship any god or gods, never had the mind or desire for it, but she kept a glass of water and a plate of cookies on the window sill, for the house spirits.

Jon loved to sit with her when she worked, loved the incense that she lid to ward against negative spirits (the smell fresh and floral with lavender - it took a few years for Jon to discover that he liked the stronger scent of opium much more) loved to watch the candles burn for her spells, loved to hear the crackle of the herbs she coated them in. He loved the simmer pots, the smell of lemons and cinnamon heavy in the air, and loved how his grandmother patiently explained what all the ingridients were used for. It was the only time, where his grandmother didn't mind his many questions, his insistent need to know.

When Jon was eight and Mr.Spider an ever looming threat behind doors and in his nightmares, she gave him a tarot deck for christmas. It was a battered old thing, well used and well loved and when she told him that it had been his fathers, Jon hugged it to his chest, as if afraid that she would take it back again. It became his most priced possession.

When she died (right after Jon left for college, as if she waited for him to finally stand on his own feet, so she could go) he packed all of it away and shoved it into a storage room, angry tears swimming in his eyes, making the world wobbly and hazy, his heart heavy with grief. What good was witchcraft, when the people you love leave you anyway?

(He kept the tarot deck, of course, he couldn't bear to be parted with it)

And so it went for a few years, Jon lived his life, pretended not to miss the scent of herbs and fire, but kept a glass of water on his window sill and layed tarot, sometimes with questions, sometimes for fun. He did read his grandmothers grimoire sometimes, stroking his thumb over her small and neat handwriting, but he didn't lit incense, didn't prepare herbs like he watched her do so often. He didn't do any spells and pretended it didn't hurt, pretended that nothing in him longed for it. He pretended he was fine. Funny, how he, even with this much practice, had never really been good at that.

When Jon walked down the stairs to the Archives for the first time, he stopped, his hand nervously drumming against the tarot deck in his pocket. The Magnus Insitute never had the best vibes, so to speak, but the Archives practically hummed with...something. Something malicious, something that left the taste of ash and rot in his mouth, the air clogged with the scent of old paper.

Jon shook his head, willing himself to ignore it and fully stepped into his new workplace. But he did lit some incense after the others were gone, the heavy smell as comforting and strong as he remembered.

(He pretended that it was fine that the first tarot card he turned was the tower - everytime he asked his tarot deck anything)

Years later, after worms, strangers, betrayal and hurt it was Jon's tarot deck that burned first, the explosion so loud and deep that Jon could feel it in his bones. Jon died with the taste of ash in his mouth.

The taste was still there, when he woke up again and only left him, when he read the rotten monologue of a man that had played with his life like it was his right.

When he blinked at the sky (the new sky in the new world, oh god what had he done-) and it blinked back, Jon collapsed laughing and crying, wishing with everything he had, that witchcraft was as magical as some people thought.

But witchcraft couldn't help him now. Nothing could.

OH MY GOD?????? IM OBSESSED WITH THIS I MEAN OBSESSED THIS IS GORGEOUS THANK YOU SO MUCH IM SCREAKING I LOVE IT

[speyeralling-down-thy-majesty]

OOC: Realised that I haven't updated their statement in a loooong while,and that a lot of their backstory has changed, so here it is,an updated statement

Statement of Amelie A. Liddel regarding their Becoming. Statement provided directly by subject,June 5th,2020.

My name is Amelie Alice LiddeI.I was born in London ,to a man named James and a woman with the name Celine. My father was a busy man,loving his work more than his only child,substituting his love with material goods and experiences I did not ask for,nor like. And my mother? Well,I don’t really remember her that much. She left early on,unable to stand my workaholic father.That much about myself I can remember with semi-clear ease,though a whole lot of memories are fragmented and twisted beyond comprehension.

One of the things I clearly remember, though,is how and why I ended up here, working at the institute.

You see, I always loved books.I mean,it should come as no surprise, especially given my occupation. I was raised to appreciate the written word and its beauty. When it came to why I loved them so much, though… I greatly enjoyed letting myself get lost in the unreality, drinking in the knowledge and the words. I would spend hours reading, ignoring the reality outside the pages. The reality that demanded unbreaking perfection and countless facades. With books I was safe to be myself.

My curiosity and nearly ravenous hunger for knowledge always were a big part of me. I was a curious child, sticking my nose into things I had no bussiness to, just because I wanted to know. Even when growing up,it was hard to keep things hidden from me, literally and metaphorically. I used to pry and ask and try to know until I was pushed away, until everyone got sick of me. I just couldn't stay in the dark.

Besides being a collection of knowledge,books were the perfect getaway for me as well.They were fascinating and so entrancing!! Especially old fairy tales,those were my secret favorites. Unlike the dry classics my father wanted me to read. Those were too difficult for me to understand either way. Obviously, I would have never admitted that,it would have cracked the perfect, serious academic image I was trying so hard to achieve,and made my father disappointed in me.

Ultimately I gathered the courage and decided- I want to spend more of my life being surrounded by what makes me the happiest- books. It wasn't that much of a lie for once as well, actually. Working as a librarian became my ultimate goal, something I put my everything into, just to achieve. Afterall, what's better for a book lover like me than to be surrounded by books full time? My father wasn’t too displeased with my decision either way. He had hoped for more,and bigger,but reassuring him that it’s only a stepping stone helped plenty. I don't think he would have let me leave if I told him the truth. That I did

With a fresh degree,and no experience in all of this,a silly little overambitious me applied as a librarian at The Magnus Institute, almost as a joke,just to see how badly I would be rejected.It was one of the bravest things I have ever done,an uncalculated,spontaneous move.

I was metaphorically losing my mind from happiness after receiving an answer. I was accepted! I didn't think it was real,I had no hope,considering how weird the interview was. What kind of self respecting academic institution asks their potential workers questions about their biggest fears?

Like usual, I lied my way through that as well, there's no way I could have told this creepy stranger about what really I was afraid of: disappointing everyone with the real me, having them find out how much of a loser Alice Liddel actually was.

It was all I wanted, really .To be able to work among the things I wanted,and to make my father somewhat proud by being accepted into a widely known academic place. Things were easy and smooth afterwards. Being a librarian wasn’t hard,checking out books,managing returns and new arrivals was… almost fun,I'd say. The added bonus of it being one of the apparently safest positions helped as well. I didn’t think any of the supernatural encounters I have heard rumours of would ever happen to me. What's so dangerous about some old dusty books? Oh,how wrong I was.

One day,while I was managing new arrivals, I came across the most gorgeous book. Shimmering, seemingly shifting with strange colours,cover adorned by interlocking spirals and nearly ethereal looking fractals . I needed to read it.I couldn't just put it back and go on with my day like nothing happened. Trust me, I tried. But the thought of what it promised lingered at the back of my mind, scratching like a needy cat.

So fuck it. I sneaked the book into the reading room,fully intending just to glance at it and put away. But my curiosity grew the more I examined it. Looking away was difficult. Was it something I wanted myself, or was the thought of not knowing too scary to ignore?

When I started reading it,I was enthralled. Admittedly,it was so confusing,none of the words actually made any sense,and yet I understood it perfectly. Somehow. It was almost as if the book was speaking to me personally. It’s ridiculous,books can’t speak, I'm not sure where I got that thought from at that time,but I did feel like it spoke,in its own way.

It told me things. So... Many... Things... Things that could never be possible, truths that were wrong,so,so many things that I couldn't comprehend,too much,too many and it made my head hurt. Everything was a lie,and yet everything felt like a truth. I couldn’t bear the nonsense,so I forced it close,forced myself to look away. I really hoped I won’t have any lingering effects from that. I just wanted to forget what I read,erase my mind from the overload of strange knowledge that managed to change my perception of reality.

I think it has stayed with me since.I never looked at..anything the same since. My view of reality has been twisted and I truly did not know how to cope with that. But I had to.I was everyone’s perfect little Amelie,always calm and smiling,no matter what horrors life threw at me.What I read was driving me crazy,everything felt like a lie,but I suppose it wasn’t any different from my usual life.

The strange fractals I saw haunted me every time I closed my eyes or lost focus. They.were everywhere. I even saw them on my skin if I stared long enough. Colourful and shifting,but never fully there.

Later on,I developed a headache that nothing would soothe,a mad pain. Trust me, I've tried soothing it to the best of my abilities. I took so many different types of painkillers, I went as far as disregarding my physical well being. After all, nothing else matters much when you're being driven mad by pain. You just want it to stop. One way or another. And if you can’t,you just plaster on a smile and continue on.

My dreams were haunted by books that didn't make sense. Written in symbols I couldn't comprehend,yet my mind forced me to understand them. I don't know how,but it did. Does it make sense? Probably not,my mind was already too broken by the time the dreams started. Some nights I wished I could stop sleeping,so I could take a break from the fractals and the twisted truth they spoke. My wishes came back to me tenfold,as I started sleeping less and less.

A few months later, I noticed how looking in the mirrors only showed a warped reflection… My eyes weren't the same either.They seemed to swirl in spirals of strange colours,not unlike those of the cover of the book that doomed me. It hurt to look at myself-everything seemed too bright. I don't think I could even comprehend what I saw,and how much of it was still me.

And yet,for some reason, nobody else saw anything wrong with me. To everyone else,the book was always normal. Even I was normal to them,though what do you expect when you force yourself into a facade so well you start to believe it yourself? I started to believe them. They could not see,not know,that I was becoming a twisted version of myself,so that must have meant everything was fine,the facade was strong.

Time stopped having meaning long ago,though I’m sure by the time I obviously lost it,a year had passed. I was somehow still doing my job well enough not to be questioned. Maybe the Eye helped as well? I remember the ease with which knowledge came to me,especially regarding books.Most of it was twisted,and odd,but it was knowledge that wasn’t there nonetheless. I remember feeling watched,obviously,but I just chalked it up to the overall weirdness of the Institute. In a way,it almost was comforting? Maybe someone could See,Know what was happening to me.

If you were to look at me back then,you could only tell I was stressed. It didn’t look like I was scared. But I was. My mind was the most precious thing to me. I couldn’t trust anything,anyone,even myself! It was so hard… Was that person in front of me something my mind made up to mess with me,or was it just the coworker that I didn’t interact with often? How is it Thursday already? I woke up an hour ago and yet it was Monday?? It didn’t make any sense,it was disorienting and I felt like I was in a dream. I was having panic attacks daily.

One time at work,I simply…broke down laughing. I was overcome with mad hysteria,everything in me broke. I couldn’t do it,running away from whatever madness was in me was too tiring,the facade already broke either way. What else was left to do besides welcoming the madness with open arms,letting it twist and distort anything that once was truly me? It was oddly comforting,not having to put any effort into living out a facade,it felt like I could finally be myself. So in a sense,my demise was my salvation.

Statement ends.

[electricpez]

i will say. that having a tfa shockwave fictive in our system has honestly kind of skewed the way i enjoy the fictional character.

i think people think having an introject of your favorite character is a cool and lucky thing to have but tbh it's not much different from any other alter. they aren't equivalent to their source, but he feels close enough that it becomes... uncomfortable and sad? sometimes?

rambling ahead

idk i feel like i still love shockwave (the character) but our fictive's issues with identity and discomfort with fandom portrayal and the idea of roleplay causes us to keep more of a distance from the fandom than before. i haven't read any fanfiction for almost a year, i don't really talk to other people much about transformers. at most, i'm like "yaaay yippee!!" and its genuine but i can't express anything much deeper without starting to feel guarded.

and, i am not really attracted to tfa shockwave anymore. there is still a sexual component due to our sw fictive being a protector as well as a "sexual" alter (not towards me). he is still handsome to me of course, but when we see art of him, our alter sees himself. and he does enjoy fanart when he deems it "accurate". is this egotistical? or is it because he will never see himself in the mirror? because the reality is, he will never be "Shockwave", our body is his body for as long as we live. no matter how much he looks up at the stars, he won't see Hadean. there is no Cybertron for him to return to. no megatron for him to serve under. it's not real. all he can do is adapt to living life alongside me and the rest of our system, on earth, facing the reality of what "IS" instead of his perceived "WAS".

He struggled at first to come to terms with it. it was sad to feel him mourning his "past life", and for him to finally acknowledge that he would never be able to go "home". He's doing well, now. i guess i shouldn't be surprised. After all, there is nothing logical about denying our reality. He was never the real shockwave, there is no "real" shockwave. he was born in our brain.

when it comes to fandom stuff, his standards and my standards for what qualify as "acceptable and enjoyable" are not always the same thing.

like. i dislike shockblurr. I won't unfollow people for shipping it. a lot of cool artists like shockblurr and it's a popular ship. but I don't really *get* it and i don't really like seeing it.

shockwave(alter) doesn't mind shockblurr at all. he's never once thought of blurr or frankly any autobot that way (ultra magnus, of all bots, comes close? in a hate-fuck sort of way. i don't get it tbh. dude likes old men like himself ig), but he finds it strangely fascinating and somewhat...entertaining? humorous? as long as he is portrayed "accurately" (not accurate to canon necessarily, but accurate to how he sees himself), he does not care. but still there's a level of uncanniness.

imagine reading fan content strangers made about you?? most stuff would probably be "i would not fucking say that", but occasionally you might have one that's like, "wow, that's interesting. this is exactly how i would respond in real life! that's kind of scary."

uhhh idk where i was going with this. i just felt like i wanted to say something.

anyway. my headmate shockwave and the character shockwave are like two different people to me. i love them both but in different ways. and since we can't completely separate him from source, it feels odd sometimes when our view of the character and our view of him kind of overlap.

[tys-kitty]

Well it ain't quite a cottage, but I do live in the country! It's one of those small everyone-knows-everyone towns and there are at least 5 other towns in walking distance.

I don't mind London as a day trip. During the summer my mama and I are going up on the train to visit some of the museums and see a show, but I don't think I could handle being there long term. I'm very much a homebody, you know? Most of mom's side of the family is down here with us, and I think if I didn't have that support system I would break down in a week.

I first read the Percy Jackson books when I was eleven, and I was practically vibrating waiting for the show. In the books it always broke my heart that Percy had to tell Annabeth her brother was a traitor, but honestly Annabeth being there made it so much worse! Leah is such a brilliant actress that I almost started crying!

If the picture Percy keeps of Annabeth in the next season is not one of her at Disney world, I may actually riot! "Be a kid" MY HEART

I think the angst may be one of the reasons QoAaD is my favourite. Sometimes you just need a good cry and a hopeful ending, you know?

(Also the art piece in particular I was talking about was this piece

https://images.app.goo.gl/hkPrdB6a1ad5YrB48 )

Sorry for ruining St. Valentines day for you, I guess? I know it's kind of morbid but I love the story. It's one of the only holidays I actually observe.

So I had never heard any of the songs you picked, so here's a running commentary:

Say don't go

"I would stay forever if you say 'don't go' " HOLY GUACAMOLE ITS SO KIT

"And I'm yours but you're not mine" I don't know if this is what you were thinking but I think to the Blackthorns (at least subconsciously) they're always gonna be Ty's Kit and Livvy's Ty.

"I said 'I love you'/you say nothing back" ITS LITERALLY THEM

"But you won't" it's so them it's actually painful

Into you

"A different country, yeah, maybe that'd be better" Kit absolutely heard this song and took it literally

"I wish we didn't have so many friends in common" that is in fact the downside of making friends with your crushes family and only your crushes family

"So I don't run right into you/even though that what I wanna do" it's so Kit it hurts

"I'm so defenceless when it comes to you" I fully believe Ty, Tessa, Jem and Jace are the only people to really see through Kit's guard (maybe dru, I haven't finished Secrets of Blackrhorn Hall yet)

I miss you, I'm sorry

"You said 'forever' in the end I fought it/please be honest are we we better for it?" Honestly, I think even if the resurrection hadn't happened, they still would have ended up splitting up for a bit, if only so Ty could learn to be just-Ty and not Ty-and-Livvy

"You said 'forever' and I almost bought it" I'm crying

"Nothing happened in the way I wanted/every corner of this house is haunted" screaming, crying, throwing up etc

"Everything I know brings me back to us" no but really, Ty and Kit only knew each other for what, a few weeks? Maybe a month or two at most? (I'm not good with timelines) But everything keeps coming back to each other, no matter how much they may not want it to

I know it won't work

"But it's a lot/all the shine of half a decade fading" I know it was only three years for them, but seeing them break down years worth of inaccurate mental images is going to break me

"And part of me wants to walk away 'til you really listen/I hate to look at your face and know that we're feeling different" Cassie is a big fan of miscommunication, I know this, I'm prepared for this, I'm probably still going to end up crying tears of frustration

Your song choices have left me shaking, they're so perfect it's unreal

If I had to choose?

The night we met by Lord Huron

Let me down slowly by Alec Benjamin

Oh boy. Um, can I say all of them? Probably not. Magnus and Alec, definitely, as well as Kit and Ty. The third? Probably Henry and Charlotte

My hard question: top three platonic relationships in TSC?

-☀️

(P.S. don't worry about it, you take as long as you need)

I totally relate! I‘m also from the countryside, but am currently spending a lot of time in the city because of university. (To be fair the city isn‘t that big and has about 1 Million citizens)

You definitely have to tell me what your favourite museums and spots in London are! When I visited London last summer I was extremely fond of the Fleet Street, the St. James Park and the National Gallery. And I totally understand you (I’m a homebody myself). So when I moved out last October it was really tough and the only thing that was really reassuring was the fact that I share a flat with my sister and drive home every weekend (the city is only an hour ride from my hometown so it‘s fine)

So true! I‘m actually thinking about rereading the PJO books after watching the series. And yes Leah did such a great job, she‘s just the perfect Annabeth! I‘m so excited for the next season, I always loved the second book! Which PJO book is your favourite btw? Mine would have to the fourth (I have always been super interested in the labirynth!

Okay okay, I have to give it you. I‘m currently rereading QOAAD and I absolutely love it. It‘s been four years since I read it and I totally underestimated how good this book was. It has so many interesting plot lines and I just CAN‘T STOP READING!

Please don‘t feel sorry for sharing the true Valetine‘s story with me! It‘s actually super exciting to learn new things every day!

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH OMFG! Not you listening to each song and sharing your commentary with me? 😭 I absolutely adore you for that (and sorry if those songs left you shaking - I think that‘s part of the experience)

STOP! The night we met is one of my favourite songs of all time and fits them so well! 🥹 And let me down slowly?

It fits them so well oh my lord 😭 (I love how we are giving each other song suggestions that are perfect for another nightly KitTy cry)

The really hard thing about this is to only name three because I love so many! But if I really must pick three it would be: Ty and Julian, Jem and Will, Matthew and James

What are yours?

My hard question: Your two favourite parabatai couples in TSC

[books-i-finished-reading]

(27)

City of Heavenly Fire - Cassandra Clare

( The mortal instruments - book 6/6 )

8th April 2023

"... Temper us in the fire, and we grow stronger. When we suffer, we survive."

Ty looked at him blankly. He knew what "I love you" meant, and he knew it was good, but he didn't understand why it was an explanation for anything.

"Well, what kind of thing does make you feel calm and peaceful?" ... "Killing demons," he said. "A good clean kill is very relaxing. ..." ... "No killing," Jordan said. "We're trying to make you feel peaceful. Blood, killing, war, those are all non-peaceful things. Isn't there anything else you like?" "Weapons," said Jace. "I like weapons." "I'm starting to think we have a problematic issue of personal philosophy here." ... Jordan looked at him levelly. "So you're saying that what brings you peace is war."

Alec ... staring at the screen of his phone with an expression of intense concentration. Jace ... "I've heard that if you stare at those things enough, they'll ring." "He's been texting Magnus," said Isabelle, ... "I haven't," Alec said automatically. "Yes, you have," said Jace, ... "And calling. I can see your outgoing calls." "It's his birthday," Alec said, ... "I didn't want him to think that I didn't-to think that I forgot." "You're pining," said Jace. Alec shrugged. "Look who's talking. 'Oh, I love her. Oh, she's my sister. Oh why, why, why-'" .... Jace leaned over and grabbed the phone out of his parabatai's hand. ... With a decisive move he snapped the phone in half. ... "There." Alec looked down at the shattered pieces in disbelief. "You BROKE my PHONE." Jace shrugged. "Guys don't let other guys keep calling other guys. Okay, that came out wrong. Friends don't let friends keep calling their exes and hanging up. Seriously. You have to stop." Alec looked furious. "So you broke my brand-new phone? Thanks a lot." ... "You're welcome."

"It smells like heartbreak in here," said Jace. "That's the Chinese food." Magnus threw himself onto the sofa ...

... look at her with thinly veiled hostility. They always did, as if who she was and what she represented made them almost unable to see her.

... the sharp edges of their personalities rubbing against each other, causing sparks.

Now the waiting was over. Now the war would start.

... she had steel in her veins and she was meant to be strong. Even if her parents were not there to see it, she would be strong for them.

... let the blood spill down instead of tears.

... hostage material ...

... she was too young to have so many ghosts.

"I'm the one who stabbed Sebastian in the heart. ..." ... "Are you sure you didn't miss the heart?" Robert demanded, ... It was Julian who answered. "Emma doesn't miss," ... "I know where the heart is," Emma said, stepping back from Julian and casting a look of anger-more than anger, hurt-at the Consul and the Inquisitor. "But I don't think you do."

"Heroes aren't always the ones who won," ... "They're the ones who lose, sometimes. But they keep fighting, they keep coming back. They don't give up. That's what makes them heroes."

"... Sebastian's basically invulnerable now, ... Glorious could have done it because of the heavenly fire, but currently the only source of heavenly fire is. . ." "Jace," Clary said grimly. "... So what's their plan, hitting Sebastian over the head with Jace until he passes out?" "Brother Zachariah said pretty much the same thing," Jace said. "Maybe with less sarcasm."

"... family isn't blood. It's the people who love you. The people who have your back. ..."

... longing for the physical reassurance of closeness, ...

"We work through this together, remember? No shutting me out. No epic sulks." "I was figuring I could sulk for Idris in the next Olympics," Jace said, ... "You and Alec could go for pair sulking," said Clary with a smile. "You'd get the gold."

Magnus was deep in thought. "My mind was on other things." "Whatever it is, don't do it!" said Catarina. "It's a bad idea." "And why do you say that?" "Because they're the only kind you have," she said. "... If you are planning to become a pirate again, it's a bad idea." "I don't repeat my mistakes," Magnus said, offended. "You're right. You make all new and even worse mistakes," Catarina told him. "Don't do it, whatever it is. Don't lead a werewolf uprising, don't do anything that might accidentally contribute to the apocalypse, and don't start your own line of glitter and try to sell it at Sephora." "That last idea has real merit," Magnus remarked.

"Don't throw it-please, please don't throw it-oh, God, he threw it," said Julian in a resigned voice as a wedge of potato flew across the room, narrowly missing his ear.

"That's what happens when you fall. Everything that was bright about you becomes dark. As bright as you once were, that's how evil you become. It's a long way to fall."

She was tired of pretending everything was all right.

... temporarily deprived of vocabulary.

"... Nice pajamas, by the way." Clary looked down at herself. She was wearing a pair of flannel pajamas, too short in the leg and tight in the chest, with fire trucks on them. Luke raised an eyebrow. "I think those were mine when I was a kid." "You can't seriously tell me there wasn't anything else you could have put me in." "If you insist on trying to get yourself killed, I insist on being the one who chooses what you wear while you recover," Jocelyn said with a tiny smirk. "The pajamas of vengeance," Clary muttered.

... someone who knew all the best and worst parts of his soul.

"Have you ever felt that your heart contained so much that it must surely break apart?"

"Weapons, when they break and are mended, can be stronger at the mended places," ... "Perhaps hearts are the same."

Robert reached into his jacket and drew out a crucifix. ... he held it up between himself and Simon. ... Simon reached out and plucked the cross out of Robert's hand. "Wrong religion," he said. Helen made a whistling noise under her breath.

"... she was an angel once, Lilith." "What's your point? Demons are just angels who make poor life decisions?"

... not getting in her space, but always around if she wanted someone to talk to or just sit silently with,...

"... I only have two reactions to bad news. Uncontrollable rage and then a sharp left turn into boiling self-hatred."

... the sight of the now-human Zachariah was a shock. ... He was slender, almost slight, and tall, with a delicate and very human elegance to the shape of his face, and dark hair. He looked perhaps twenty. "Is that," Isabelle said in a low, amazed voice, "Brother Zachariah? When did he get hot?" "Isabelle!" Clary whispered, but Brother Zachariah either hadn't heard her or had great self-restraint.

"You're not fine." "I have to be fine," ... "I have to be. I have to stay in control and not fall apart. ..."

Emma's gaze went from Alec to Jace, curious. "Do you worry about him?" she asked Alec, surprising a laugh out of him. "All the time," he said. "Jace could get himself killed putting his pants on in the morning. Being his parabatai is a full-time job."

"... someone who's your family, but because they want to be, not because they have to be."

"We've parleyed with the Queen before," Jace said. "You went to the Queen when I-when Sebastian had me." "And she tricked us into taking walkie-talkie rings she could listen in on," Simon said. "I wouldn't trust her further than I could throw a medium-sized elephant."

... lovers who, even while embracing, each held a knife to the other's back, ready to stab and betray.

"... feel ancient,"

"It takes more than a strong arm to make a great warrior," ... "It takes a great mind and a heart. ..."

"The wishes of our hearts are weapons that can be used against us. ..."

Alec looked ill. ... Jace grinned and tossed him a stele. "Make a fire," he said. "Cook us a pie or something. This demon-hunting is hungry work." Alec drove the stele into the sand of the pit and began drawing the rune for fire. He appeared to be muttering something about how Jace wouldn't like it if he woke up in the morning with all of his hair shaved off. ... Clary heard Alec yell from behind them, "And your eyebrows, too!" ........ "I did not make a pie," Alec announced ... "I did not make a pie," Alec repeated, gesturing expressively with one hand, "for three reasons. One, because I do not have any pie ingredients. Two, because I don't actually know how to make a pie." ... Jace said warily, "And three?" "Because I'm not your bitch," Alec said, clearly pleased with himself.

"... if people have a spark in them, then yours will burn the brightest I know. ..."

Julian huffed out a laugh. He looked at her searchingly, ... "You know," he said, "there's a way they couldn't send you away from our Institute. They'd have to let you stay." Emma raised an eyebrow. "Let's hear it, genius." "We could-" he started, then stopped, swallowed, and started again. "We could become parabatai." He said it shyly, half-turning his face away from her, so that the shadows partially hid his expression. "Then they couldn't separate us," he added. "Not ever." ... "Jules, being parabatai is a big deal," she said. "It's-it's forever." He looked at her, ... "Aren't we forever?" he asked.

"... I've never been in love with a Shadowhunter, not until Alec. For they have the blood of angels in them, and the love of angels is a high and holy thing." "Is that so bad?" Luke asked. Magnus shrugged. "Sometimes it comes down to a choice," he said. "Between saving one person and saving the whole world. I've seen it happen, and I'm selfish enough to want the person who loves me to choose me. But Nephilim will always choose the world. ..."

"... Love has to be between equals."

"... Maybe I don't care if Dad ever figures it out." Alec threw his head back and sighed. "Oh, God, I'm a cliché," he said in despair. "Why do I care? If Dad decides he hates me because I'm not straight, he's not worth the pain, right?" "Don't look at me," said Jace. "My adoptive father was a mass murderer. And I still worried about what he thought. It's what we're programmed to do. Your dad always seemed pretty great by comparison." "Sure, he likes you," said Alec. "You're heterosexual and have low expectations of father figures." "I think they'll probably put that on my gravestone. 'He Was Heterosexual and Had Low Expectations.'"

"I always thought I was happy being the dark star to your supernova. ..."

... the broken moon.

Alec moved to hug Clary, and Simon and Jace eyed each other warily. Suddenly Simon grinned-that sudden, unexpected grin that flashed out even in the worst of circumstances, ... and held his arms out toward Jace. Jace shook his head. "I don't care if I did just set myself on fire," he said. "I'm not hugging you." Simon sighed and dropped his arms. "Your loss," he said. "If you'd gone in, I would've let you, but honestly it would've been a pity hug."

"... you have truly lived down to my lowest expectations of you."

"... I wanted you more than I wanted to be good. ..."

"Straight people," Alec declared. "Why can't they control themselves?" "It's a mystery," Simon agreed, ...

"Please," Alec said, pulling out his stele. "I can read your face like a very open, very pornographic book. I wish I couldn't." "Is this your way of telling me to shut my face?" Jace inquired. "Remember when you mocked me for sneaking around with Magnus and asked me if I'd fallen on my neck?" Alec asked, ... "This is payback."

... perhaps your parents could always hurt you, no matter how old you were.

"My immortality would be gone," Magnus said. "All the years of my life would come on me at once. I would be unlikely to survive it. Almost four hundred years is quite a lot to take, even if you moisturize regularly."

"I've lived a long time," Magnus said. "So many years, and no, it doesn't feel like enough. I won't lie and say it does. I want to live on-partly because of you, Alec. I have never wanted to live so much as I have these past few months, with you." Alec looked stricken. "We'll die together," he said. "Let me stay at least, with you." "You have to go back. You have to go back to the world." "I don't want the world. I want you," Alec said, and Magnus closed his eyes, as if the words almost hurt.

"... Show them something other than harshness, and you will receive something other than hate in return!"

... sometimes even change for the better felt like a little death.

... rules were for breaking, or bending at the very least.

"... If you never tell anyone the truth about yourself, eventually you start to forget. The love, the heartbreak, the joy, the despair, the things I did that were good, the things I did that were shameful-if I kept them all inside, my memories of them would start to disappear. And then I would disappear."

"No Herondales. No Shadowhunters at all, in fact." "No Shadowhunters?" "None in my heart like you are," Magnus said.

"... They don't like people who are different,"

"... Everyone has the potential to be extraordinary. As long as you have a soul and free will, you can be anything, do anything, choose anything. ..."

"Brother Zachariah," Isabelle said. "Months January through December of the Hot Silent Brother Calendar. What's he doing here?" "There's a Hot Silent Brother Calendar?" said Alec. "Do they sell it?"

"... I didn't have to be perfect; I had to try, and that was good enough."

"There are a hundred trillion cells in the human body," ... "And every single one of the cells in my body loves you. We shed cells, and grow new ones, and my new cells love you more than the old ones, which is why I love you more every day than I did the day before. It's science. And when I die and they burn my body and I become ashes that mix with the air, and part of the ground and the trees and the stars, everyone who breathes that air or sees the flowers that grow out of the ground or looks up at the stars will remember you and love you, because I love you that much."

"Is that why you forgave me? For me, or you?" Alec said, not angry, just curious. "I forgave you because I love you and I hate being without you. I hate it, my cat hates it. And because Catarina convinced me I was being stupid."

"Did Zachariah just pick up Church?" Clary stared in astonishment. Zachariah was holding the cat, who had gone boneless, his tail curled around the former Silent Brother's arm. "That cat hates everybody!" Tessa gave a small smile. "I wouldn't say everybody." .......... "Has anyone seen Church?" said a voice in her ear. ... "I think Zachariah just stole our cat. I swear I saw him putting Church into the backseat of a car." "There's no way," said Jace, appearing beside Clary; ... "Church hates everyone." "Not everyone," Clary murmured with a smile.

"... There will always be those who want to tell you who you are based on your name or the blood in your veins. Do not let other people decide who you are. Decide for yourself."

"... freedom is not a gift; it is a birthright. ..."

"We are all the pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hopes and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss."

"Better to love and fear than feel nothing. ..."