#bc . nico is a main queer character

[guitarsunglasses]

if nico or will dies at the end of ‘the sun and the star’ you will see me on the news !!!!!!!!!!

[minjimunji]

I’m finally reading the sun and the star rn and the tone is so different. It’s so much more mature, darker, and more somber than previous riordan books. Mark oshiro was a great addition in telling Nico’s story bc his story IS darker and sadder than most. But this book is also so full of life and love and the struggles that’s come with it. Will and Nico are so sweet together, even their conflicts are beautiful in that it only makes them closer. You can also just tell that it was written by someone who has lived the queer experience and it feels like discovering yourself all over again. I love Will’s character development of trying to cheer Nico up when he feels upset, to feeling upset with Nico and reminding him it’s okay to feel negative emotions. There’s some funny, slightly cringy parts as well that come with the signature Riordan writing style, but it reminds me of being an awkward teenager and it’s refreshing to have those moments to remind you that the main characters are still just kids themselves. I’m only halfway through the book but I’m loving each chapter more than the one before. I really need to sleep but I’m gonna rant about this more later and possibly make some fan art for one of my favorite couples. ☠️☀️

[mediumgayitalian]

I’m curious about the three days fic where Kayla says Will will back off once he gets a new crush - what happens for him to stop being like that and end up with Nico?

my idea for that one is still kind of vague, but i think will gets crushes rly rly easily. i used to be like that, if a pretty person smiled at me id be like okay im going to imagine our wedding now lol. but i think he is so determined to be nicos friend that the crush turns to somethign more, yknow? he likes nico as more than a pretty face.

HOWEVER the main focus of the fic for me is going to be on nico, bc i think it would be an interesting character study to have this queer character, plagued with catholic guilt (been there lol), hugely self-hating and internally homophobic, have to grapple with the fact that another boy openly likes him. no intention of hiding it, no shame; this other boy likes him and doesnt care who knows it. he is proud of it, even. how would nico react to someone likinghim? openly? at the very least, it would make him question the idea that no one likes him, that hes ugly, that hes revolting, that hes scary, that liking boys is disgusting, that being queer is disgusting. here is will, someone he has respect for, someone everyonehas respect for, someone attractive and unbelievably honest -- he cannot accuse this boy of lying, of trying to manipulate him. will openly liking him will literally force him into reevaluating everything he's ever known, which i think would be fascinating.

[crypticmillipede]

[percy jackson spoilers here up through Trials of Apollo and TSaTS]

listen i LOVEE the percy jackson series and its extended universe . BIG FAVORITE so trust me when i say i mean this with the UPMOST love:

gawd damn rick riordan keeps making these little choices in his writing that have me tweaking. like the way this man forgets his own lore. EGREGIOUS. pulls me out of the story. it’ll be the tiniest, most innocuous thing but it gets me everyyy time. happens more especially as you get into the later series, probably bc there’s just more stuff to keep track of. i loved TSaTS but it was especially bad there😭😭 wdym nico started playing Mythomagic in the 1940s ?? why is bianca here ?? and nico, who spends most of his time in the underworld, doesn’t know what the phlegethon is??

it’s other stuff too, i love the series but there so much missing potential for these characters that was just never fully explored.

Jason’s character had SO much potential. hello ???? child soldier trained by wolves since age 2, pressured with unwanted responsibility, forced to suppress emotions, remain stoic, be a leader. Rick could’ve done sooo much with that material. jason should get to break down, as a treat !! instead he comes off as a bit undeveloped, sort of hollow, not nearly as fleshed out as some of the other characters. he’s probably the least-liked main character in HoO, but i firmly believe that’s because Rick didn’t do his character idea justice, not because his concept was ACTUALLY boring. Not even going to go INTO what happened to him in ToA, bc i’ve GOT opinions about that but it’s too much rn.

and don’t get me started on Piper, man. the reveal in Trials of Apollo that [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER] Piper was queer? GENIUS. SOOO much potential there. but now i’m going back and rereading HoO and it’s making me mad bc we GET Piper’s pov and it’s not foreshadowed or hinted at at all. and it could’ve been SO GOOD you guys😭😭 imagine a version of HoO where Piper’s struggling with Hera-induced comphet, warring with the false memories implanted in her brain vs the way she’s expected to act as a daughter of aphrodite vs the way she actually feels ??? UGH it could’ve been so good. but instead, it’s so obvious that this was not Rick’s original plan for Piper’s character, and it was something he threw in later on. missed opportunity for sure.

in general, a lot of missed opportunities in HoO. So many missed character interaction opportunities, so much that could’ve been delved into but wasn’t! Like I wish we could’ve gotten more about Percy and Annabeth post-Tartarus, see how they’re holding up after that dumper fire.

and i LOVE HoO, it’s my favorite out of the bunch! but i think i love it for what it could be, yk?? anyways yes thanks for coming to my rant, feel free to disagree with me that’s totally fine!! this is so unserious anyways lol just me sharing some thoughts about a series i love

[readerwithsalt]

Amazing how one can so blindly miss one of the main points of the tsats and then write their own version of the book thinking it’s better. Sure, fuck Bianca and not letting Jason rest peacefully, and fuck the whole meaning of the book because you don’t like Will and your dislike for him clouded your judgement. Lol

Lol, mark oshiro wrote 99% of this book (so it’s pretty much a fanfic anyway 😭😂) so me writing an alternate version isn’t hurting anything, especially since so many people liked my take.

And the thing is: i was a Solangelo shipper before this book was out. Like hardcore.

Even if Will had been an oblivious jerk to Nico in BOO and gaslighted him into thinking no one at camp treated him the way he was treated and that ‘everything was in his head’ and that all he needed to do to be happy was ‘get out of his brooding cloud’.

Yes even after that I still thought they would make Will a better character lol. (I’m not being sarcastic either).

So the thing is, I went into this book with a very open mind. I went into this book with hope about Will solaces character development and whatnot.

If you happened to read my tsats book review since you looked over my alternate au post, then you will definitely see the things that either did not make any sense according to canon or characterization. And I’m not talking about the version of the characters ‘in my head’ I’m talking about ACTUAL CANON DEPICTIONS AND CANON EVENTS.

I’m not saying fuck Bianca, or fuck Jason lol 😂

I’m saying there were so many inconsistencies with previous canon and even within this own book that frankly it is just…. Not good. And I was so disappointed bc I believe they could have done much better and also it was very obviously rushed that I simply thought of an alternative story that a lot of people thought was cool.

And as a queer teen myself, I definitely understand that rep is important no doubt, but there was a lot of like… forced rep? You know what I mean? Like in a way that felt almost cheap in a way. And very lecture-like. The amount of noncanon, twitter meme talk, preachy morals and bad writing shoved down my throat was insane.

It exhausted me in a way that had never before happened in a riordan book. So yeah, it’s not all that amazing that one would miss the ‘main points’ of a story when it is so poorly executed.

Anyway, if you wanna talk more on our different views I’m open. I won’t change my mind that this book was just a complete mess but I also understand that people are okay with that lol.

If you don’t wanna speak more, then have a good day little anon 🙃

[ancientgreecehistorynerd]

hi moottt how was ur day?

i have some bookish questions for u bc why not

-what is ur favourite genre of literature?

-what are your top 5 favourite books?

-what are your top 3 favourite authors?

-do you have a favourite book character? if so, who are they? (feel free to list more than one)

-what is your favourite romance trope?

-what do you like to see in a main character?

-what are your thoughts on queer literature?

-what is a bookish pet peeve you have?

-do you like to purchase books, borrow them, or read them online?

-do you often read books translated from other countries?

thats all for now :) have a nice day

hello! i’m doing okay in the middle of moving tho so stressful haha

help did i never answer this? i’m sorry i’m actually tumblr illiterate like crazy

My fav genre is probably hm… def fiction haha young adult and contemporary…? it said those were genres i’m so sorry i don’t know the names of them and i’m an anxious mess! but if it’s got gay people and mental illness i’ll take it. i like dystopian as well!

top five NOT IN ORDER LOL

-girl in pieces by kathleen glasgow

-solitaire by alice oseman

-radio silence by alice oseman

-the perks of being a wallflower by soeben chbosky

-blood of olympus by rick riordan

(they change all the time haha)

-for authors i would def say

-rick riordan

-alice oseman (obv)

-and hm i haven’t read more than one of glasgows books so possibly suzzanne collins maybe? AUGHH IM SO INDECISIVE! (i do have fav fanfic authors tho haha)

NICO DI ANGELO THE SON OF HADES AND WILL SOLACE THE SON OF APOLLO THEYRE FROM RICK RIORDANS GREEK DEMIGODS SERIES(S) AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH THEYRE MY SPECIAL INTETEST THEIR COOL AS FUCK AND HE IS SO ME I AM SO THEM THEYRE MY EVERYTHING AND I LOVE THEM MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF (wait that’s not a good comparison uhh) I LOVE THEM MORE THEN FOOD ITSELF 🗣️

as someone who is demiromantic i’ve got to say friends to lovers since nothing else makes sense in my mind haha other then that hurt/comfort and just being domestic are UGH love it! SUNSHINE X GRUMPY as well. I eat it up everytime.

i love when main characters are similar to me so mentally ill gay very sad etc etc lol but besides that i would say complex? i hate it when authors make “i’m so happy all the time” characters the main character like i need DEPTH where’s the FLAVOR. so i suppose just not being perfect?

there needs to be more of it lol. i’m loving how much of it is being made to day but tbh in my opinion some authors do it wrong… i love when being queer is a major part of a characters personality because well they’re proud! but it’s when an author makes the entire character based off of that with no other personality traits. sexualizing queer relationships too like…. yikes! would love to see some more aroace and genderqueer rep that isn’t just boy/nb/girl tho!

when endings are rushed! it’s terrible i remember i loved this one book when i was younger that had the og “i’m nothing like y’all” as the cover haha. i forget what it was called sorry! but there was a great story and then it ended with her friends saying “sorry for excluding you and they went on to win the state math fair!” what. YOU JUST HAD A FULLY FLESHED OUT STORY AND YOU DID THAT??? i’m sure nobody likes them but they especially piss me off. skipping over important scenes as well and just showing the aftermath! non floppy books. FIX ITTTTT. also tbh smut? i mean i don’t mind it but that’s what ao3 is for i’m fine with the smut where they don’t show it like in charlie and nicks first time in heartstopper where it’s just kinda vague but as soon as i see a dick beint described im OUT. and books that just are smut like dude there’s so many better things you could be writing about!

ngl i am a massive book purchaser. i used to get them all from the library but thennn i got a bookshelf and discovered what annotating is… i just love being able to go back on what i’ve read whenever i want! and the covers are pretty :)

no actually! i don’t think i ever have tbh? i think the only time that happened was when i translated an official nico di angelo short story from italian haha

thank you if you listened to my yap! also i’m so sorry i didn’t see this :( also if i already responded to this and i forgot you can just kill me please and thank you. also have a good day too so sorry i didn’t see this! :(

[yonemurishiroku]

Yay!

Okay, I'll start off by saying that Jason Grace is my absolute favourite character in the whole of the camp half-blood chronicles. When I was around 12 or so I genuinely had a crush on him and now that I'm 19 I just absolutely adore him and just want to protect him lol.

Anyways.

He's been done so dirty, okay? Killing a former protagonist after his series is over is so cheap idc, especially if you kill him out of the blue after revealing that a huge part of what he fought for during hoo (his relationship with Piper) was over.

I can understand Leo and Calypso breaking up, because they met for two weeks or something and then 'fell in love'. They have a lot to unpack and a lot to work through before they're able to form a relationship. But Piper and Jason? They were together for five books, there was a genuine connection between them, they worked well together, etc. Idk, whether you ship Jasper or not, them breaking up outside of their main story for factors that weren't even mentioned when they were protagonists is a huge wtf moment.

I don't want to think this, but it feels like Rick wanted Piper to be queer, which, you know, is great, the more representation the better, but there are other, more sensible ways he could've used to approach her queerness. He could've had Piper mention she'd realised she was queer after the war but she still loved Jason because, you know, four books of relationship development weren't for nothing. Or, if he wanted to break them up, he could've given Jason and Piper more protagonism and explain their reasoning for parting ways better.

But I digress.

Jason's death was so fucking gratuitous, it makes no sense. Why would you kill a protagonist after his series is over? Why? Just to be cruel? So that his death can be serve as some stupid character development for Apollo/yet another trauma for Nico?

Also, are we going to talk about how fucking stupid it is to kill Jason specifically? My man had a very important task to fulfil after hoo: he was going to create temples for the minor gods to stop them from rebelling. You know, he was doing virtually all of Olympus a huge service and I honestly don't know how the minor gods didn't all collectively murder Apollo for letting the one demigod that cared about them die. Idk, if I were a minor god I'll go steal his soul or something to resurrect him, because everyone else is too focused on themselves to care about the minor gods. This is so annoying wtf.

And don't even get me started on how sad it is that Jason's peace was robbed of him when he's been in a shitty place most of his life: his mother was an abusive alcoholic (because neglect is abuse), he was raised by a literal wolf and trained to be a warrior ever since, he was the Percy Jackson of Camp Jupiter during pjo, he had to fight in the war against Gaia, he had to see Leo die (and obviously Rick couldn't wait until they'd meet again to kill him), and the love of his life broke up with him when he did absolutely nothing (nothing!) wrong. People may not realise it, but he's one of the characters who's had the most fucked-up lives wtf.

In conclusion, Jason is now part of Hotel Valhalla because Hera did one (1) good thing and glitched his going to the Underworld so that he could live forever. That's what I'm telling myself from crying about him 24/7.

Ok I just want to say that in some time from now unto eternity I may steal borrow that 'if I were a minor god I'll go steal his (Jason's) soul or something to resurrect him' because that's an absolutely fantastic prompt for the next book.

(Or maybe idk the minor gods wrecking havoc bc their only representative was killed off for the sake of an Olympian sounds quite nice too).

For the rest yeah you have a (many) point(s).

[thekeeperofbalance]

so while writing my prev post (here) i was reminded of how much i dislike a lot of the canon relationships

mainly bc i'm a person with an excellent eye for unhealthy dynamics (i have much experience with them, but also i'm just very good at detecting power imbalances in relationships) and i felt like discussing them.

keep in mind, i'm fine with ppl who ship (i ship quite a few as well) these. i am just not fine with them being written like they were in canon, because they were deeply unhealthy.

warning: discussions of unhealthy relationships, death relating to valhalla's to-the-death activities (alluded to), abuse, (and because i don't want people clamoring unless they have questions and want me to clarify things, which i am perfectly happy to do, unless your rude) discussions of popular riordanverse ships being toxic/abusive/unhealthy

˚.⋆ 🌱 ⋆.˚

to start: percabeth.

i'll be honest---i haven't ever read hoo, and i never will. i just don't have the patience for it. but when ppl can quote lines abt a relationship being at least toxic, and at most abusive?? i get pushed off any ship real quick.

homes will discuss unhealthy relationships, will display the characters working through the problems presented within their relationships as they grow throughout the story. but i will never, ever, write an endgame toxic and/or abusive ship.

i loved percabeth in the pjo books, for the most part---even if i think it kind of overshadows all the other amazing ships out there, other than solangelo, for the most part. i'm not leaving solangelo out of this either.

anyways, i won't write endgame percabeth. that's just not gonna happen. they'll stay friends, and i've honestly preferred it that way for a long while. they just don't really fit together. i wasn't planning for them to stay together (you will see them together, but there will be some identity shenagins that annabeth will have to realise and imma be going through canon's mess, as well), because of an idea i've had for a while, that eventually birthed the ace-/aro-spec chase joke (magnus in homes is ace, natalie is aro, etc)

˚.⋆ 🌱 ⋆.˚

next: solangelo.

so, something i noticed when reading toa, is that will carries a lot of the emotional burden in his relationship with nico. i mean, he's fucking keeping him alive!! that's not something your partner should have to do. and by that i mean, your partner should not have to bear the burden of being the only thing keeping you alive---that's a fuck-ton of emotional labour, and i will give nico points for seeking some help, but i'm still re-working their relationship.

please do note that almost every relationship change spirals from my main relationship change of alex and magnus's healthy, consensual, and very queer, but not necessarily "typical" to society relationship. most of these characters have never really had a healthy relationship in their faces during their childhoods---i mean, percy has paul and sally, but their relationship is later, and they don't exactly push boundaries to make people reconsider their relationships and emotions. (i.e. alex and magnus are in a non-heterosexual, completely non-sexually-intimate (except for the very rare kiss on the lips, but it never gets further than that), healthy relationship that has extremely close ties to the kids in question)

˚.⋆ 🌱 ⋆.˚

fierrochase.

so, i absolutely adore fierrochase. i think they are, honestly, one of the healthiest relationships displayed within the entire riordanverse (they bow to carter & zia. blitzstone, sam & amir, hazel & frank (i think), and partially sadie x waltnubis which is only partial bc they have problems to work out, btw) that are majorly present and that i consistently remember bc i have adhd shit memory.

but i also must recognise, because this is a point i wish to make for later on, that any dynamic based upon killing your partner is unhealthy. no, i don't care that they can resurrect, that is still fucking traumatising. i will mention that them killing each other/magnus constantly being killed by alex is a mostly fandom-specific plot, so congrats, rick, there's one healthy relationship that's canon (and there are quite a few other ones, but i'm mainly pointing out the idealised ones).

they respect each other's boundaries, are learning about each other, and are taking their time to figure out their relationship. it's not really shown in canon---mainly because we get so little time with alex and magnus in a more-than-friends capacity, but we still see a lot of equal ground between the two of them. which is fucking important.

˚.⋆ 🌱 ⋆.˚

anyways: mallory x halfborn.

y'know the comment i made about dynamics based upon killing your partner are unhealthy a paragraph ago? yeah, this is what i was talking about.

one of the biggest bases, if mallory and halfborn were real, of their relationship would be fear. mainly because you would fear your killer. yeah, you can get desensitized to it, but you shouldn't have to become numb to fear of your partner just to continue being with them. no one is at fault here, and i will show that in the one-shot that discusses mallory & halfborn's relationship. i'm kind of horrified that their relationship is a thing that exists. i mean, can you imagine never knowing when your partner will just to decide to kill you, and did, and has?? even if you can't die permamently, that fear would stick.

especially in homes, where the battle scars stay. magnus will have a scar on their neck from the one time (just the once, and they discussed it afterwards), all of them have scars. (why i changed this will be part of another post.)

i can't write a relationship like that. one of homes' largest themes is healing, is growth, is escaping unhealthy thought patterns and relationships. the song that backs the entire series is don't panic by coldplay, if you wish to know the ideas i'm aiming to represent.

jason & piper, and calypso & leo are also problematic but not generally idealised within the books or by the fandom, and i can cover them later because i don't see much about them (personally) and because i am running out of steam.

lark, out.

[acehardy]

@hondagirll Tagged me to share my top 9 books, which I don't think is a physical possibility for me to do. I love books and choosing my top 9 would be a crime. There are single series that I could choose 9 books from, so instead I am going to do the top 9 that I have read this year. It'll probably be mostly YA books - I don't tend to read too many adult books bc there's too much smut for my little asexual eyes.

Make sure you check TWs before reading any of these. Some of them dealt with some pretty heavy topics.

So out of the 63 books I have read so far this year, my favs are:

They Hate Each Other by Amanda Woody - This is a mm enemies-to-lovers fake dating contemporary book. The characters (or specifically, one of the characters) was a little over the top sometimes, but I adored them. They were both dealing with so much shit and there were some really mature topics that were offset by the humor. First sentence: "Jonah Collins is dancing on my table, and I think... yes. I think I'm about to lose my shit."

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas: This is pitched as Percy Jackson meets The Hunger Games, and is the first book in a duology. This book is so diverse and so queer, and I need Aiden to release the second book as soon as humanly possible. I love all of the characters, even the ones who are little shits, and I can't wait to see how the series concludes. First sentence: "First, there was only Sol among a sea of stars."

The Luis Ortega Survival Club by Sonora Reyes: This was a tough choice because I read both of Sonora's books this year. I loved their first book so much that I immediately picked this one up. But I sobbed so many times reading this book, it was a little ridiculous. I think it might have been my first time reading a book with an autistic main character, which I obviously need to work on correcting. First sentence: "The driver looks at me like he knows exactly what I just did."

Sparks Fly by Birdie Lynn: If you wanted to psychoanalyze me, this is another queer enemies-to-lovers, fake dating book. But this time it takes place at a magic school and also includes soulmates trope. Do I need to say more? First sentence: "Hit me with your best shot, Pham."

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli: I just know that Becky had a vendetta with this book, and I am absolutely thriving at the way she took the horrible way that she was treated online and channeled that into this book. This book examines the way that some people think there is a "correct" way to be queer, and absolutely challenges that. Let me catch Gretchen in a dark alley, I swear. First sentence: "I haven't quite unclicked my seat belt, but I'm getting there. Obviously."

The Sun and The Star by: Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro: What is a favorites list without something from the Riordanverse? I am so happy that we got a Nico-centric book, since he is one of my favorite characters. I also loved getting more information about Will Solace. I'm glad that Rick brought in a queer author to help make this book a reality and I really think their writing styles blended well together. First sentence: "Nico faced the worst decision of his life, and he was certain he was going to mess it up."

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler: This book was a lot. It was dark and gruesome and I spent the whole time completely horrified. It was also very real and unfortunately stands up too well to the test of time. I listened to this on audiobook and do I ever have some visceral memories of what I was doing when certain events in this book happened. I absolutely want to continue with the series, but that's something you have to be in the right frame of mind for. First sentence: "I had my recurring dream last night. I guess I should have expected it."

The Invisible Spy by Lisa McMann: This is the second book in The Forgotten Five series. I'll admit that I started this series because the author is the mother of the actress who plays Nancy Drew, but I genuinely enjoy these books. They're really solid middlegrade books and I enjoy the characters. Think Descendants meets superheroes. I like watching these kids come to terms with the fact that their parents maybe weren't the best people, and seeing how they deal with the moral quandary of having villains for parents. First sentence: "President Daniel Fuerte sat at his cluttered desk in the presidential office on the top floor of Magdalia Palace."

Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie: This book proves that picking something you've never heard of up on a whim can be a good thing. I desperately wanted an audiobook and I chose this off of my library's small list of queer books that were available at that moment. I had never heard of it before, but I adored this book. It tells the story of what happens when an almost 40 year old woman, who avoids conflict and personal relationships is faced with the very real product of selling her eggs at age 26. First sentence: "I'm lying very still on top of a hotel bed's rumpled sheets."

I'm not gonna tag anyone in this but if anyone does want to do the post, please tag me in it!

[fracturedestiny]

Honestly, I feel like we really need to start addressing the treatment of Rahim (and to some degrees, Vahim) by white love Victor fans. The second season hasn’t even been out for a MONTH and it’s become so overwhelming to deal with the microagressive or blatantly ignorant comments towards him by the white members of the fanbase. Which is even more upsetting because this is a fandom for a show about a family of color + a mostly PoC cast.

Rahim/Vahim fans aren’t upset because their ship won’t be canon, but the way that white venji fans are going about invalidating the ship and Rahim’s character is borderline racist and we need to address it. It’s completely fine to not like the character, the ship, or even prefer him and Victor to be friends, but there’s a lot of reasons why PoC fans are exciting for the character and the relationship.

It’s so rare to see an interracial queer couple between two people of color. “Interracial couple” are almost always depicted as being white/(often light skinned)PoC, and the person of color is often never seen as the main character but as a love interest, underdeveloped, etc. Not that all of these characters fit that description, but think of popular interracial queer couples on tv: Rue/Jules, Nico/Karolina, Alec/Magnus, Eric/Adam, Santana/Britney. They fit this portrayal, and while we adore these couples and their characters it’s so invalidating to never see QPOC couples. Seeing White Venji fans try to claim that it’s more important to see an white/poc interracial couple than a QPOC couple is so ignorant.

There’s a reason why Rahim points out the lack of awareness that Benji gives to his and Victor’s relationship. It’s not to “drive a wedge” like white fans are claiming he is doing (which is portraying a person of color as antagonistic), but to illustrate that benji is both racially and economically privileged compared to Victor, and his failure to realize that is dismissive of Victor’s dilemma with his mother. In fact, there’s a whole scene where Benji “apologizes” to Victor for not giving his mother a benefit of a doubt for improving, then immediately continues that behavior until Victor calls him out for it. Benji isn’t a bad person, but his lack of willingness to recognize his privilege and see Victor is very reflective of the struggles QPOC experience in white spaces/relationships.

Love Victor is an unapologetic queer person of color story, and QPOC deserve to see theirselves in Victor, Rahim, and the relationship. And if Vahim doesn’t become canon that’s completely fine, but there shouldn’t be so much casual racism simply bc Rahim “threatens” your white favs position.

[daisugababy]

Ok so... the similar scenes with Calzona or Tremmet using BASIC romcom tropes is straight culture too? (Including a knocking on the door scene) And what about Jake's film, a romcom with a gay couple that uses the same tropes? I don't get how you see this gesture as "straight"... what would be an appropriate "gay" gesture in your opinion?

And isn't his change all about wanting to express himself more because Levi is a helpless romantic and doing things that he only worked on his head all this time??? This isn't worshipping Levi, it's doing what he said back in season 15, that Nico wanted to learn that from him. And Levi is changed too, because of Nico, he's more confident!

There is just a way you can tell how a queer story is told by straight people. It's not about using basic tropes/gestures, and how (often) you use them.

It starts with the type of characters they both are. The cute, insecure nerd who gets wooed out of nowhere by the new hot guy.

If that sound familiar then you might've read an amount of self-insert fics or books around that trope. Usually from the pov of the girl who's pining for the hot guy from afar until he notices her and falls for her quirkiness. And there's nothing bad about writing or enjoying that type of story. Read/watch what you enjoy.

But for Grey's, a show that prides itself on their amazing diversity, this falls very flat. Yes, I fell for them in season 15 too, like most of us. However, ever since season 15, there was barely any progression. And especially not for Nico.

And that's because Levi is that self-insert of every fic of that trope.

He's the nerd who talks a lot and has no meaningful male friendships. Like, at all. There was Casey when the B-Team still existed, but did they interact a lot? No. He laughed at Levi putting in contacts and hung out with him once at Joe's. Not to say that no gay guy every has only female friends, but you want to tell me that after realizing he's gay, he did not look up anything about gay culture? That he never tried to even once go to an lgbtq+ meetup/hangout thing just to meet and talk to people like him? Or even if it's just online? You want to tell me that after over two years he still does not have another queer friend other than Taryn? That he has not one gay guy beside Nico in his life to talk to about his queer exprience? He's so out there about being gay, he for sure would go to pride at least once. And there he for sure would make some friends.

But then he'll suddenly becomes besties with Jo out of nowhere, because... plot says Jo needs a friend? Gay best friend trope.

Just like Nico is just the hot guy wooing the nerd. That's all there is to his character tbh. Yes, maybe he is a great surgeon who gets job interviews from everywhere out of thin air and he doesn't know how to talk emotions, but that's all we have on him. Oh, and he speaks Korean.

Their lovestory revolves around Levi. It's always about him and how Nico's actions impact him, not why Nico reacted the way he reacted. Nico's whole part in the relationship is worshipping Levi.

Whenever there is conflict either a) Nico suddenly says he agrees with Levi (we don't know why, bc we followed Levi all-episode long) or b) Levi saw a patient conveiniently have the same problem as he did and applies their solution to their relationship. Not once do we follow Nico's flow of thinking. We don't know why he does or doesn't do the things he does.

We do not know why specifically Nico decided he's suddenly capable of saying ily to Levi or what exactly changed. But we always know why Levi does the things he does, because we followed him and saw his pov during the whole episode.

And why did we see his pov? Because he's the main character in their love story. Nico is just the hot piece of meat that talks occasionally. He's the prop to launch the next storyline that relies on him being the bad guy, because no effort is put into him.

That sudden monologue and honesty during the episode? Absolutely out of character and all just to please viewers that are rooting for Levi. This was not about Nico overcoming his potential emotional trauma that had rendered him unable to express his emotions. It was about making Levi happy. If we saw his process, all of this would be a different story, but we didn't. And we won't. You just can't suddenly let this bomb drop that he overcame his fear of emotional openess with no explaination how he did it and expect people to love it.

This wasn't Nico just following up on what he said a year or two ago. There was no gradual growth for him. We went from 0 to 100 out of nowhere. This was Nico suddenly copying Levi's behaviour in hopes it will fix him and their relationship. We know Nico is a cheesy dude, so the candles were fine, but the whole speech was just a little (a lot) cringy, because we didn't see where the development came from.

Neither Nico or Levi are fully developed characters (anymore). They are there to fill the diversity quota.

I know Grey's is a joke on accuracy in general, but they are still riding the train of DIVERSITY and REALISM by dealing with current events and promoting queer couples as 'Look at us, giving you the rep!'. But none of that stuff is dealt with well or realistically. It's catering to the predominately straight female viewership who wants to see the quirky person they see themselves in to end up with the hot guy that worships them. You gotta decide if you want to be realistic or catering to your audience. But you can't have both and Grey's is the best example of it.

I can't list you 'appropriate gay gestures' as you call them. Because romcom gestures/tropes are universially applicable and a lot of fun with both straight and queer couples alike. But for them to be enjoyable, you have to actually put in the effort in writing your characters/storylines. Which is what Grey's lacks bigtime. Which is why it's just so disappointing to watch as a queer person who hoped to see a nice queer storyline on a show as huge as Grey's. But this story isn't revolutionary or representative of anything besides Levi's coming out.

In regards to Tremmet/Calzona. I mean, have you noticed how all queer couples had to deal with negative reactions from their families to their coming out? Same with Schmico. It's like they only know one storyline to write for queer couples and somehow it gets worse every time. So bad, that they even stuffed one of them back into the closet so they can milk the fear of coming out once more.

[aguecheek]

(edit 5/6/23 oh my god people are seeing this now??? i made this post in october of 2021 please don’t take this as a legitimate critique of the new book 😭😭)

what so nico can take his boyfriend to fucking tartarus to get some loser titan back but he can’t pull some underworld strings w his dad and revive jason 🤨🤨 just realized i have way more to say than i thought i did so lmao incredibly neurodivergent rant under the cut that also contains spoilers for like. every book rick riordans ever written probably. don’t reblog this it’s not thorough analysis or genuine complaints it’s just me having feelings and also autism

jason was and is my favorite character in the greco-roman series (and like my third favorite character in the riordanverse, only behind carter and alex) so i’m still very fucking bitter about the burning maze. jason was SO important to nico lmao like? nico fought SO hard to get bianca back???? only reason he didn’t pull it off is bc she chose rebirth. like okay i know nicos whole thing in blood of olympus was accepting that death is the natural conclusion to life and that it’s inescapable and irreversible. and sometimes it’s inevitable and it’s irresponsible to get in the way of that (tho he totally coulda saved octavian and it wouldn’t have changed anything but what the fuck ever lmao) but it’s not like rick hasn’t ever completely abandoned his character’s development before!!! besides. nico brought hazel back from the dead and then she was just?? allowed to stay??? i’m not complaining i adore hazel but like dude 😭 and leo died and brought himself back to life and he’s not even a son of hades so how the fuck did HE get away with it. so what rick can just bend his in-universe life and death rules for everyone EXCEPT my favorite little blond bitch of the absolute myriad of little blond bitches? EXCEPT my sweet responsible repressed roman wolf-dude? EXCEPT one of the only truly morally sound characters in the whole series? EXCEPT my favorite internalized-homophobia-having motherfucker? EXCEPT one of the only characters in the Seven who still had significant fucking meat left on their character arc? what? me? bitter?? you’re asking if I’M bitter?????yes a little tiny bit🥰 like okay i KNOW rick has killed other characters but like luke had to die for the story. zoe and bianca didn’t have to die but i get why they did. octavian didn’t have to die but i get why he did. silenas, beckendorfs, and ethan’s deaths hurt but they makes sense. like war is hell idk what to tell u. those are the only like MAIN CHARACTERS he killed off, and most of them are Not main characters, they just got semi-decent screentime. Jason is absolutely a main character and i’d argue he’s the only main character ricks killed off besides luke (and like. magnus. but that doesn’t count) his death literally did not need to happen and it comes out of fucking nowhere tonally, like all of his POV characters have had plot armor since the beginning, and that applies to kane chronicles and magnus chase too. “oh but the prophecy! he had to die! he did it to save piper!” RICK WROTE THE PROPHECY. and yes of course i appreciate that his death was in character bc he’s a self sacrificing idiot and a genuine hero and obviously he’d give his life for his ex girlfriend bc he cares abt her and Yeah he helped apollo’s character development but MAN like. there are other ways to give him that development???

oh wait. oh shit this was. originally a rant abt the new book LMAO 😭😭😭 i’m sorry i just clearly have a lot of feelings about jason grace. so okay back on track. i do appreciate rick partnering with an ownvoices author for this one so he can give us respectful portrayals of queer characters bc god knows this motherfucker has given us nothing but jacked up representation since day one. and i am really hopeful that it won’t be a bury your gays trope because like. ownvoices author and also in terms of representation. rick does. try. he does try. he doesn’t achieve, he doesn’t do a good job, but he keeps trying, and he’s aware of people’s criticisms, so it might be okay. but then again. rick fucking hates both blond people and children of apollo and he kills them off at any opportunity that arises. so we’ll just have to wait and see. okay but am i crazy bc? nobody cares about bob that much? not enough to want an entire book abt getting him back. like his story was sad for sure. but he served his purpose in the larger narrative. what is gained for the world by going to fetch him? what does it add to nico or will’s character? in what way does it enrich the universe?? people got emotional abt him staying behind and for sure i did too but like. it’s not worth a whole standalone is it???? like goddamn rick! what abt a hunters of artemis standalone where you fix the jacked up representation you gave them? where you portray them actually respectfully and yknow. humanize your female characters? give us some focus on reyna and thalia (and why reyna even joined the hunters bc dude u can’t just shove every female character left without a love interest into the hunters 😭 it’s a bad look) oh or what about the titan war from the roman side? where’s my jason, reyna, and octavian content? where’s my roman politics? what abt that one that people have been asking for for fucking years? not to mention that the tartarus chapters in house of hades were…kinda boring lmaoooo 😭 there was some cool stuff in there but i really just skimmed them the first time through, the only genuinely attention grabbing thing is the bit with the poison. but i mean i just wasn’t hooked, i didnt care, my expectations were not met—so im not excited to head back to tartarus. but like beyond that it’s just so ooc for nico to want to go back? like tartarus fucking shattered him and having a bf with built in light up sketchers isn’t gonna make it. not unbelievably horrific. i know nico liked bob but did he like him THAT FUCKING MUCH?

look. am i a little biased ? bc nico is one of my least favorite characters in the series? yes i am ❤️ do i care ? no!! <3 it’s my blog and i’ll be as pissy and biased as i want to be!!!! god. considering i pretty rarely hyperfixate on two things at once and i’m currently hyperfixated on deltarune. snd also i’ve been ‘hyperfixated’ on percy jackson for like a year now and my interest in it didn’t ever really die out since i read the books in elementary school. i’m starting to consider that it might be edging into special interest territory. which would SUUUCK😭’m not even hyperfixated on pjo and i just wrote this shit out completely stream of consciousness in like half an hour on my phone which i really can’t do w subjects i’m not hyperfixated on unless that subject is shakespeare aka my special interest so like. shit man i guess we’ll just have to see how that plays out.

anyway lol i’ve talked too long. my thesis statement is that nobody cares abt bob THAT much, not even nico, and if ricks gonna do anything involving nico snd the underworld then jason should be centered bc he had so much unfinished work and had arguably the most mileage left in his character arc out of all of the POV characters in HOO (besides Reyna) and he was an incredibly important figure in nicos life in HOH and BOO and honestly arguably even pre-series.

[a-hundred-jewels]

cruel summer ch 12: i have these lucid dreams

Ao3 Wattpad

Summary: sabrina starr, pegasuses, and oh no! the fourth wall broke! do we have a carpenter in the audience?

Word Count: 9000 ish

Tags: Rachel Elizabeth Dare/Jane Penderwick, Rosalind Penderwick/Tommy Geiger, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Jane Penderwick, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Rosalind Penderwick, Skye Penderwick, Chiron (Percy Jackson), Martin Penderwick, Elizabeth "Batty" Penderwick, Elizabeth Penderwick (senior), Iantha Aaronson-Penderwick, Ben Aaronson-Penderwick, Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Annabeth Chase, Jeffrey Tifton-McGrath, Percy Jackson, Demeter (Percy Jackson), Apollo (Percy Jackson), Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Camp Half-Blood AU, Demigods, demeter!elizabeth penderwick, demeter!rosalind (second generation), demeter!batty (second generation), apollo!alec mcgrath, apollo!jeffrey (second generation), demeter!jane (second generation), demeter!skye (second generation), all of that's in no particular order, main focus is on jane because i love her and she's so so fun to write, tomsalind is there (and stuff will happen - i can't really say what, it will really be eventful though), yes of course there's solangelo, takes place right before Penderwicks In Spring, After Trials of Apollo, more tags to come??, Minor Swearing

Notes and Full Chapter below cut:

Hello everyone and welcome back! I'll admit, this is a little later today than I'd been planning to post (was hoping to get an early start), but hey! If the Puppet History season 4 finale can be late, then so can I!

First off, a massive massive thank you to waterbottle_stickers for being the best beta reader ever. This chapter would be a mess without you. Also, if you haven't already, please check out their enola holmes fic wherever you stray, i follow it's truly wonderful.

If you've been following me on tumblr, then you'll know that, in addition to reblogging an alarming quantity of good omens fanart, I've been making some plans for fics this month. The original plan from back in august was to post every day of the month, but... ahhh.... I just don't work that fast lmao. I'll have to be content with just posting a fair amount this month. Happy october! Anyway, stay tuned.

On this fine day, we've got two lovely QUEER fanfic recommendations that I'm very excited to share. Up first is one from the tumblr blog izzielizzie (which you should all absolutely check out! especially if you're into the one of us is lying fandom!). it centers around the skye/melissa pairing and their senior prom, which Skye is said to have only gone to last minute, and also wearing a lab coat, in a passage of the penderwicks at last. featuring some oblivious lesbians and also jane. once again a massive thanks to izzielizzie, as this fic is one of my favourites!. click here to take a look! (also keep an eye on her blog in general bc her penderwicks fics are awesome!)

The second fanfic is also one I'm very fond of, as it focuses on the siblinghood of skye and jane, which is one of my favourite topics on earth. check out rolling down the ancient high street by hanchewie/ramblemadlyon (tumblr and ao3 respectively) for the sibling antics of aroace skye and bisexual jane when the latter visits the former at her college in california! and, if you like it, ramblemadlyon has two other penderwicks fics from the past couple days that look fantastic as well, and that I look forward to reading.

This chapter is dedicated to my therapist, since I've decided this will be the month of oddly specific dedications. thank you for telling me to stop referring to cruel summer as my "trash baby" and help me recognize the true worth that it holds in my life.

Disclaimer: not my characters, you know the drill. Jeanne Birdsall and Rick Riordan are lucky ducks indeed. chapter title is (obviously) from "lucid dreams" by Juice WRLD.

FROM THE POV OF JANE PENDERWICK

The woods loomed around me, seeming as tall as buildings as they invited me in further. I took another step, the sharp pain of a pinecone digging into my foot barely registered in my mind. I kept walking. A crack sounded throughout the air, and, behind me, a tree splintered round its base and fell down, only inches away from crushing me dead, and completely blocking the path out.

Frightened, I began to run, looking for a way out of the forest. But no matter which way I went, there were only trees in front of me. Where was the path? Where was the grassy hill I had walked down to get in here in the first place. Had I even walked down that hill to begin with? Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure I remembered coming here. I wasn’t sure I remembered waking up this morning, or going to bed last night, or anything besides existing in the forest. Who was I? What was I doing here? How could I get out?

Panicking, I stood in the middle of a clearing, looking frantically at the trees around me, trying to find something familiar. Nothing. I was exhausted. How long had I been here? An hour? A day? A lifetime? I collapsed at the base of a tree, sobbing as I tried to remember. Something. Anything.

Then, a voice echoed around me. “Welcome,” it said, and my mind went black.

I bolt upright in bed, a scream halfway out of my throat. I clamp it back, not wanting to wake my cabinmates. Thin light whimpers through the window--enough for me to see my white-knuckle grip on the sheets, but not enough to pass as daylight.

What time is it?

Our cell phones don’t really work here--that was one of the first things Miranda told us when we arrived, and Batty’s been gleefully lording it over us that her Mp3 player will still play music and, like, function, while our smart phones recline sadly in our duffel bags. That being said, I don’t feel quite brave enough to get out of my bed just yet and tiptoe over to the big analog clock that Rio bought at a pawn shop in Colorado. Maybe my phone will at least show the time.

I reach under my bed and fumble for my duffel, hooking my pinky through the zipper loop and yanking it out onto my floor. My phone’s in the front pocket, buried under two pairs of headphones, several gum wrappers, and some strawberry leaves (?????). A piece of gum peels off the screen as I disentangle my phone, and I mentally chide my past self for being so messy.

My phone does not turn on. Big clock it is.

I tiptoe across the cold tile and peer around the tree.

5:45 .

Jesus Pagan Christ.

It’s too early to wake anyone up (as I think this, Batty lets out a snore to rival any crabby Tyrannosaurus Rex), so I wrap a blanket around myself like a criminally attractive burrito, and creep out onto the porch, with my notebook and pen tucked into my shirt.

As long as I live, I will never get tired of summer mornings. There’s something deeply lovely about the soft light of the still-sleepy, pink lemonade sun, the quiet anticipation of the cool air, damp from dew and preparing for the upcoming heat. At home in Cameron, Skye’s woken me up many an early morning to go for a run or do soccer drills or for a grueling “Seven Minute Workout Except You Don’t Follow The Rules And Torture Your Sister by Making It Actually A Forty-Nine Minute Workout.” (But it’s okay, I’m not bitter). But, as delightful as those experiences have all been, I don’t think Skye really gets it. The beauty of the summer morning is not what it can do for your workout schedule, but rather in its gentle softening of an otherwise boiling day. It is to be appreciated in the way that I am now, sitting curled up on this frighteningly creaky porch (I mean, seriously, who built this?) and calling up the Sabrina Starr section of my brain to try and write away the residual panic from my nightmare.

Sabrina sighed as the plane took off. She wasn’t sure if she should have followed the voice in her head telling her to come here. Saying it out loud--even just thinking it--made it sound ridiculous. A dream, a voice in her mind. Barely more than a whim.

Worse than that, Sabrina wasn’t even sure where this whim was taking her. On a napkin in her pocket, she’d scrawled everything she remembered about the dream from the night before. The dark sky, lit only with spiderwebs of lightning, the shadowy figure huddled on a beach and soaked through with rain. The voice crying for help.

And a name. Aeaea.

After she’d woken up, Sabrina had looked up Aeaea, too tired to fully connect why the name felt familiar. Her heart had sunk further after reading the Wikipedia entry, and a breath of hopelessness had left her lips. According to the internet, Aeaea was not a real place. It had been the island prison of Circe. Fiction wasn’t new to Sabrina, and neither was mythology (she recalled an adventure spent with a ghost called Rainbow from a few years back).

Fictional places, though, were another matter. How could she get somewhere if she didn’t know where she was going? Was she trusting her gut with too much this time?

Sabrina folded up the napkin and put it back in her pocket. There was no point in worrying about that now. She’d looked at enough maps to make a guess at where Aeaea might be if it was real. When she got there, she could get more information. Sabrina Starr had survived this long in her career of rescues and whims. She could survive one more adventure. Worst case scenario, she said to herself, I spend a few days running around for nothing and have to brush up on my Greek.

She repeated it to herself like a promise. Worst case scenario, worst case scenario… Eventually, tired out from all her anxieties, and from trying desperately not to worry about what would come next, Sabrina fell asleep.

FROM THE POV OF RACHEL ELIZABETH DARE

“Okay, I give up. Tell me what’s wrong.” Annabeth’s voice startles me away from my plate of eggs, which I had been pushing around with a fork. Anxiety bubbles in my throat, just as it had been since I woke up, and food just doesn’t sound like a good idea.

“I--what?”

Annabeth waves her hand impatiently. “Don’t play dumb. I’ve been talking to you for five minutes and I don’t think you’ve looked up once. Also you’re always hungry in the mornings, so unless you, like, ate an entire cow before I got here, this ,” she gestures to my uneaten eggs, “is unusual behaviour.”

I give her a look. Sometimes, I get the feeling that Annabeth exists as a part of multiple different dimensions at once, like she’s having four other conversations that I can’t hear, and is still ten steps ahead of me in the one I’m actually a part of.

Or maybe I’m just easy to read.

“Nothing’s wrong.” I don’t want to talk about it. “I’m fine.” I’m terrified.

Annabeth sighs. “Is this about the prophecy?”

“No,” I spear another piece of egg, and don’t eat it. “Maybe. Yes.” I feel like going back to my cave and staying there for the rest of my life. Waiting with a book and some paints for the prophecy to get bored and go away. Maybe I’d take Jane with me, or Nico, for some company. That sounds nice.

My plate is pulled away from me as I aim my fork again. “I can’t pay attention when you do that,” Annabeth huffs. I think I wouldn’t invite her to stay in my cave. She’s too on the nose when I want to mope. Then again, she says the same about me.

“Fine,” I turn and face her. “Let’s talk feelings.” Connor Stoll, who had been making his way towards our table, abruptly turns around and walks the other way. I should get Chiron to hire a therapist. Gods know we need it.

Further proving my point, Annabeth’s eyes widen a little, before she remembers it is I who will be spilling. (I make a point to corner her later. It’s a routine we have). “Wow. You broke fast.”

I nod. “I’m tired and you’re annoying.” (False. We both know it. Another routine). “Like you said, I’m nervous about the prophecy.”

Annabeth nods. “And?”

I frown. “What do you mean, and ? There’s no and.”

Annabeth frowns back at me. A mirror, a mime, an annoyance. The nerve to look disappointed in me. “I thought you were spilling, Red.”

I roll my head back and study the roof of the pavilion, which Annabeth designed, and slowly lean my head down to stare at the table. I really don’t want to have this conversation. I go along anyways. “I’m worried about Jane.”

Annabeth leans back, triumphant. “Ah, yes. Your girlfriend.”

Maybe if I try reeeeeeeally hard, I can activate the Oracle of Delphi and freak Annabeth out enough to make her go away. “ Not my girlfriend. You know that.”

“You called Percy my boyfriend for weeks before we actually officially decided.”

I wave my hand dissmissively. “That’s different, you guys were dancing around each other for like three years. You needed a bit of a push. Jane and I kissed once! Over a week ago! And nothing came of it.” We actually haven’t really talked about it. We’re in this sort of in-between zone where we spend a ton of time together, but don’t have a label for it. Honestly, it’s been nice.

Annabeth grins, apparently reading my thoughts. “You’ve been eating lunch with the Demeter cabin, like, every other day. I saw you doing archery together yesterday. Both of you were awful at it, but you stayed there for hours. I’ve never seen you focus on something that long outside of your paintings.”

I stare at the ceiling again. Maybe Annabeth designed it so that a single square foot of rock might fall down onto my head and relieve me from this conversation. “Yes, fine, we spend a lot of time together. But that doesn’t make us a couple, and has nothing to do with what I’m actually worried about!” I can see in her face that Annabeth is more serious now, and is about to fully listen to me, when Percy and Malcolm show up, sliding into the seats across from us, and clanging several plates of pancakes down onto the table in front of them.

“Made them ourselves! Wanna share?” Percy gives Annabeth heart eyes and a kiss on the cheek when she folds a large blue pancake into thirds and bites it like a burrito. I roll my eyes at them because they are a horrifying and disgusting couple and also I kind of want to be them when I grow up. Malcolm ignores them, instead turning to me. “Were you talking about Jane?” he asks, pushing wire rimmed glasses up his nose.

I frown. “Sort of. Why?”

He shrugs, sheepish. “You know. Just, uh, just wondering.”

I narrow my eyes at him, then Percy, who tears himself away from looking at Annabeth to sigh dramatically. “Malcolm wants to ask out Jane’s sister. You know, the blond one.”

I snort. “ Skye? Seriously?”

Malcolm looks vaguely offended. “What’s so weird about that?”

“Sorry, it’s not weird.” I reach over the table to pat him on the shoulder with my fork. “Perfectly normal teenage hormones.” He glares at me and I smile sweetly back. “I just can’t imagine Skye going out with anyone, that’s all.”

Malcolm stares down at his pancake, disappointed. “Oh. You sure?”

I nod, feeling a little more normal with my friends and less doom-related breakfast conversation. My eggs are past the threshold of “warm and appetizing” but I take a bite anyway. “Pretty sure. Jane told me that she’s aroace and, based on past occurrences, there’s a seventy percent chance she’ll punch anyone who asks her out. Anyway, why the interest? I didn’t know you guys talked.”

Malcolm shrugs. “We don’t, really. She just seems cool.”

Percy pipes in, “He’s been practically obsessed with her since she won that soccer game against the Nike kids and made them cry.”

I nod approvingly. “Well, Malcolm, at least we know you have good taste.”

Annabeth pats him on the head, ignoring his complaints that her hand is covered in blue maple syrup. “Better luck next time, brother of mine.”

Piper and Leo join us next, contributing an alarming volume of grapes and a single hardboiled egg to the breakfast display. Leo grabs a pancake and wraps it around some grapes, before taking a big bite. “I hear you’re discussing Malcolm’s romantic failures,” he says around the world’s worst breakfast burrito. Piper gasps in mock offense, then swallows the unpeeled hardboiled egg whole, like a snake. (This is a regular morning routine. She’s trying to work up to being a sword swallower, since her dad did it in a movie once and she thought it looked like fun). “ Malcolm, why didn’t you come to me? I could have given you a verdict within five minutes!”

“I wanted advice on whether I should ask out that Heaphestus boy two weeks ago and you told me to fuck off.”

Piper pouts at him. “That’s on you, you caught me at a bad time.”

Annabeth holds up a pancake with the air of a respected royal and we turn to her. “As delightful as this is, Rachel and I were initially talking about her romantic prospects and also her worries and fears, and I feel that we should get back to that before she slinks off and avoids the rest of the conversation.”

I glare at her. “Why would you bring this away from the very nice conversation we were having about everyone else’s problems? Do you hate me?” Annabeth rolls her eyes. “No, dumbass, I’m just not letting you walk away from a potential breakthrough. Now, where were we? You were saying that you’re worried about Jane but it has nothing whatsoever to do with your relationship, or lack thereof.”

I give a long suffering sigh, and try to communicate telepathically with Piper that she needs to Save Me Now, but she’s looking at me in interest with her chin resting in her hands, her long fingers adorned with rings sent to her from her Mortal girlfriend, Shel, who bought them at a vintage punk store. The traitor. Defeated, I turn back to Annabeth.

“It’s just that, whatever ends up happening with this prophecy, I don’t want it to fuck her up, in the way the quests have sometimes done to us. Like, we’re used to this by now, but it hasn’t been a smooth road. I don’t exactly like going on quests, and at first I was really worried at the prospect of being included in a prophecy, since that’s fairly abnormal, but Jane was only made aware of her heritage a couple months ago! What if this turns out like Silena or Beckendorf or-or Jason, and the prophecy destroys her, and it’s all my fault because I’m the one who pulled her into all this?”

Everyone tenses up at the mention of Jason, but they continue to look at me with a mixture of concern and love that makes something soften inside of me. For the hundredth time, I think of how lucky I am to have these people who love me unconditionally. Even if they really, really need therapy.

“I know that I didn’t plan any of this, but we’re both tied in now, especially since both Chiron and I had the prophetic dream and I actually gave the prophecy that day in the woods, and, well, this isn’t her world yet. She’s only got a little bit of ichor in her, and she grew up knowing nothing of any of this. In a way, I did too, and I have no ichor, but I had clear sight. For me, it was ineffable, but she could technically leave any time, if it weren’t for the prophecy. She can leave, and I feel like it’s up to me to make sure that doesn’t change.”

“Oh, Rachel.” Annabeth reaches her arms out to me and I let myself be pulled into an embrace. “Jane’s going to be okay. We’ll make sure of it.”

Sabrina stood in line at the boat rental hut, her arms crossed and a frown plastered on her face. It had not been a successful afternoon. For hours, she’d been searching the coastal towns near where her plane landed, looking for some trace of Aeaea, or anything else she’d seen in her dream. She was used to working with dregs. It was normal for her to have to squint a little at the evidence, have to shuffle things together around big holes of “Maybe,” like she was working a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing.

But this was something else.

Sabrina had read about places where mythology shaped the culture. Places where the tourist draws were events that had supposedly happened thousands of years ago, or creatures that only existed in grainy photographs and people’s imaginations. Hell, she’d met the Loch Ness monster. Was it insane for her to have assumed she’d be able to find the same kind of thing here? All her training and years of experience had told her that, if you sniff around long enough, you’ll find a conspiracy theorist or a slightly off-the-rails guidebook.

So far, though, Sabrina had found nothing. Absolutely nothing. She hunted around, searching up library catalogs, checking every store on the street. “Aeaea,” “Circe,” even “the Odyssey.”

Nothing.

The line edged along slowly, and Sabrina ran her hands up and down her arms. The air was chilly from its proximity to the cold sea water. There were three people in front of her now. She just had to wait a little longer, then she would have a boat and be able to explore these waters herself.

Something was wrong with this place. Something was wrong with all of these places. And Sabrina was going to figure out what.

Later, Jane and I are taking our time walking to the pegasus stables to watch the riding lesson that Rosalind has reluctantly agreed to let Batty take (provided that Percy, who’s teaching today, doesn’t let her fly high enough that she’ll die if she falls off, and that Batty wears all of the necessary protective gear). Jane looks lovely, wearing a sunshine-y yellow bandana that sets off her dark curls and warm sepia skin. She has on her Camp Half-Blood shirt again, and a short green skirt, and all of it should clash horribly, but it doesn’t.

We’ve decided to cut through the strawberry fields, and I swallow a sun-warmed strawberry while Jane tells me about the dream she had last night. I think back to my conversation with Annabeth this morning when she tells me of the dark woods and the feeling of drowning, the memory warping and the echoing voice. At some point we sit down in a patch of grass, a simple circle amidst strawberry plants with a couple logs where the campers and satyrs take their breaks when they work here. Jane finishes her story and we sit in comfortable silence for a few moments, only broken by the grunts of annoyance Jane makes while trying to get her plant powers to activate again. She’s been doing that a lot.

“Well that sucks,” I say finally. “Have you been having other dreams like it?”

Jane shrugs, the neon orange fabric of her shirt wrinkling on her shoulders. “One or two, I think. Last night’s was the first one I really remembered. ” She smiles out of the corner of her mouth. “I hardly ever remember my dreams. It used to upset me. I thought I was losing potential writing material.”

I laugh. It’s such a Jane thing to think, that I can’t help it. She goes quiet, like she’s reminiscing, and I picture a tiny version of Jane, sitting crossed-legged on her summer quilt, writing. I look at her now, scrunched up nose and big brown eyes. Oh gods, she must have been an adorable child.

“My mother used to say that my imagination was the eighth wonder of the world,” Jane says. She’s looking down the hill at the cabins, plant powers temporarily forgotten, and I remember her telling me about her mother, the first Elizabeth Penderwick, who came here and was a daughter of Demeter and loved opera. The Penderwick siblings’ beloved mother who died so young.

I move closer to Jane on the log. “I can understand why she’d say that.”

Jane smiles again, a little sad this time, a little absent, but full to the brim with love.

“Bet you she’s in Elysium,” I say softly. I explained the Underworld to Jane a couple weeks ago, and she’d gotten this same absent look on her face, that I now know means she’s thinking about her mother. Jane nods, now, then turns to me. “Could we talk about something else?” Her voice is quiet, her eyes a little shiny.

“Course,” I say. “Shall I regale you with tales of dimwittery at this camp in the years past?” I told her last week about the time some Hermes kids tried to order pizza to the camp, accidently causing Chiron to think we were under attack. Jane had nearly fallen off the bench laughing.

She grins now, but shakes her head. “Tell me what it’s like being an Oracle.” I give her a look. She’s asked me before and I never really know what to say. When I give prophecies, it’s like I black out. I’m taken over by another entity who shares my body. (“Like that lady in Suicide Squad ,” Leo had said when I tried to explain it to him once, but I’d refused to be compared to such a gods-fucking-awful movie). So, in a way, I don’t know what it’s like to be the Oracle.

As if reading my thoughts, Jane shakes her head. “Not that part. I’ve seen you all green and smokey, and I know you can’t feel it. I mean the other stuff. How did you know it was you? What did you have to do to become the Oracle? That kind of thing.” I relax a little. Jane’s asked me all sorts of weird questions about Greek mythology and the gods recently. She calls it “research for her book,” but sometimes I think she’s just nosy. It’s cute.

Jane shrugs and looks off into the distance. If you tilt your head a little you can kind of see the stables from here. We have fifteen more minutes to get there, according to my watch. I decide to take it easy. “Delphi is this weird ethereal spirit,” Jane continues, “but there’s also just everyday, Oracle you, who likes paint and denim and bagels.” At that, I laugh. “I actually don’t like bagels that much. I’m just late to breakfast so often that they’re usually the only things available.”

Jane pouts at me and plays with the bracelet tied around my wrist--the one she gave me. “You know what I mean! You know all this weird shit about me because my siblings don’t shut up at lunch, and I know stuff about you, like the denim thing, which I still think is funny by the way. But you’re also the freaking Oracle! Your dormant self lies waiting!” I laugh at her, and she rolls her eyes, but I see the corner of her mouth tilting up. “Rachel, that’s very cool!”

I give in. “Honestly, there’s not much to say, that’s why I don’t talk about it.” I pause. “Well no, it’s that a lot of the stuff beyond the obvious is actually sort of creepy and weird, and not in a good way. There’s stuff I try not to think about, is what I mean.”

The edge of her yellow bandana sticks up as Jane tilts her head at me. “That makes sense. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

I shake my head. “No, it feels okay right now.” I mean it. Now that I’ve gotten into the swing of it, I do want to talk about it. Still, a small sigh escapes me. “I like being the Oracle, because that’s what brought me to a place where I feel like I belong and I have people who love me. It’s nice to know that I’m fulfilling my purpose in life.”

Jane pulls her knees up to her chest. “But?”

“But I also get lonely.” It comes out in a rush. “There are other oracles, but I didn’t know about any of them until the Apollo thing happened, and even then, they’re all supernatural beings--I know, I know, but not in the way I am. It’s not the same. Also, there are all these weird rules. Like I have to stay an unmarried virgin my whole life.”

“That’s fucked,” Jane says softly.

“I know! Chiron won’t even tell me why, just that it’s ‘the rules’” I let out an annoyed huff. “And, like, it’s not even that the idea itself bothers me. That’s pretty much what I was planning to do with my life anyway.”

“Same.”

“But it’s the principle of the thing!” I flick a strand of hair out of my face, offhandedly noticing that the tip of my pinky finger is slightly green. I ignore it. It’s not important. “Just because I don’t want to have sex or get married doesn’t mean it’s a fair rule to impose on me! Besides, why is it always the women in these things whose identities are tied up in who they do or don’t fuck? Last I checked, Grover didn’t have to sign an ‘I shalt not fornicate’ contract when he became Lord of the Wild!”

“Exactly!” Jane raises her hands and shouts up to the sky. “Don’t you fuckers realize we’re more than that?”

“The Hunters of Artemis, too!” I’m a jack-in-the-box, and something’s winding me up. “Thalia and Reyna send me letters all the time, and they seem really happy! Which is great!” I pause to emphasize the greatness of their happiness. My pinky is completely green, now. “But, they also had to make a stupid ‘ode of chastity,’ like I did!”

“Are you kidding me?” Jane’s hair flips as she turns to me. “I thought Artemis was one of the good ones!”

My voice lowers to a husky rumble, and I stare into the distance towards you, the reader. “In a broken system, there are no good ones. Abolish the police.” I clear my throat and my voice turns back to normal. “Sorry, zoned out for a second.” My green pinky has begun to vibrate.

“Happens to the best of us,” Jane’s voice is light and nonchalant. “And yeah, I know. Pretty much all of the gods have skeletons sitting on their shoulders, but it just seems out of character for her. I thought all of Artemis’s groups were supposed to be safe havens, not oppressive structures in their own right.”

I frown. “Yeah you’re right, that is weird. I’d never thought of it much beyond the gods having weird rules, but I wonder if something bigger is at play. The gods might be fucked up in the way that regular people are, and are undoubtedly responsible for all sorts of crap. But then there's more personal things, like the ‘chastity vows’ the Hunters and I had to take, and the fact that Nico was initially outed by Eros, and the weird unexplained eye condition that Piper had during some of her quests that made her eyes a bunch of bright, Eurocentric colors, rather than their natural brown. All sorts of other stuff, too.”

“Wow!” Jane says, sitting up straight on the grass. Her hand moves from where it was resting in her lap to cover her heart. “It’s almost like a bunch of genuinely good and inspiring material, such as including prominent queer people and characters of color in fun children’s fantasy, as well as having an immortal group of warrior women who support each other and are free from the gaze of men, was taken into the hands of a cis white man armed with unchecked misogyny and a fair amount of white Twitter feminism, both of which really showed when he tried to create an inclusive and empowering book series for children! Like yeah, it had its moments, and definitely some good characters, but overall, a lack of meaningful research in certain areas really made it fall flat!” Once again, I stare through the bindings of URLs and internet coding, now joined by Jane as we lock eyes with you, the reader. This time, we hold eye contact for nearly a minute, giving you time to read and process the long tangent spat out by this fanfic’s author, who, if we’re being honest, has gone just a tad off the rails right now. Finally, Jane and I look away from you, and resume our roles as fictional characters, still shaking off that strange cloud that comes with staring into the soul of those who give you life.

“Ugh, what’s going on with me today?” Jane groans at the same time I mutter, “What’s Twitter?” We turn to each other, blinking in the sunlight, then grin. This is normal. We’re fine. Jane looks up at the sky again. “I wonder if the gods are watching us. Maybe we should make them think we suck so they’ll leave you alone.”

I laugh as she sticks her tongue out, grinning wickedly at a nearby cloud. “Better yet, make them think we’re too powerful to be messed with,” I say. Jane sees me watching her and opens her mouth, sucking the cloud in between her teeth. The sky seems bluer in the space where it had been, and Jane’s eyes glitter with mirth as she swallows. “Mmm, tastes like sugar.” I giggle, feeling a small shiver on the top of my head. When I peer up, I see another cloud has floated over to me. I open my own mouth, and take it in, just as Jane did hers. “Sugar, yes. But there’s a touch of blood, too,” I say. Jane nods sagely. “What were we talking about?”

“The inherent misogyny in much of Greek mythology and the world of Camp Half-Blood in general.”

Jane nods again. “Right. A very important topic. It makes it weird when I’m writing sometimes. You know, cause I want to bring in Circe and Zeus and Apollo and all these fascinating characters, but there’s just so much bad stuff tied up with them that comes up when I research.” She looks down at our feet, which are standing in the midst of a strawberry patch. We seem to have been walking, crushing sweet summer strawberries as we go, which is odd because I don’t remember getting up. “You know Rachel, I’m feeling a bit strange.”

I look at her, and see an odd blankness in her warm brown eyes. “Now that you mention it, Jane, so am I.”

“My thoughts and words are my own,” Jane says, “But there’s something up with my body. I can’t really feel it.”

“I agree, I’ve honestly gone a bit numb.” I try to glance down at my fingers, wondering idly if they’ve gotten any more green, but find that my neck won’t bend.

Jane’s eyebrows furrow. “Yet, at the same time, I feel as though I could do anything. Grow another grass blade. Grow a flower. Grow a tree. Bend the world to my will if I wanted to.”

“Or is it the world bending me to its will.” I grin at my own philosophical point, but find that the smile won’t go away. Pretty fucking inconvenient, since the next thing I was going to bring up was part of the whole serious misogyny conversation. I decide to go for it anyway. “And I’m not the only one with weird rules!” Jane nods, as if this is a perfectly normal segway, and the only extraneous thought that floats through my mind as we find ourselves walking down a hill is how unfair it is that she still has control over her neck and I don’t. “Remember when I told you about the Hunters of Artemis?”

“Oh yeah! Your friends Reyna and Thalia, right?”

“Yeah, them! They send me letters sometimes, and seem really happy, which is great.” I pause, meaning to add emphasis, when I’m hit with a great sensation of deja-vu. “Wait a second, we already talked about this, didn’t we?” I try to remember, but something in my mind is rapidly melting. I cannot find it. I cannot find anything.

“Jane?” My voice quivers, and I squeeze my eyes shut. Oh gods, please let this be a dream. For a moment, I try to convince myself that it’s the Oracle of Delphi taking over, just like she did the other day and generally does a couple times a year. But I know that I’m lying. This is not what that feels like. “Jane, where are you?” I can barely move my mouth to say the words. I can feel nothing but the frozen fear of paralysis, of lost control. When I open my eyes, this other thing in my body has brought me to the edge of the forest. “Jane? Jane?” She could be right beside me, unable to speak, and I wouldn’t know because I can’t turn my head, can’t move my eyes, can barely even hear right now.

It’s okay, something says.

“Jane?” It’s not her voice. It’s no one’s voice.

It’s okay. You’re home.

With every cut the wooden oars made through the choppy ocean water, Sabrina knew she was getting closer. She could feel it in her bones, in her brain, a little voice that whispered in her ear. It had been three hours. Her body was worn down, energy levels dipping dangerously low, when she felt something scrape the bottom of her boat.

A rock.

Frantically, she peered through the fog that had begun to surround her boat a mile ago. The island. Had she finally made it?

As if answering her call, a peel of thunder rang out, and Sabrina’s boat began to fill with rain that pounded down from the sky. The storm from her dream. She rowed even faster, then, fear sparking a renewed strength in her tired muscles.

Just as Sabrina was about to reach the shore, a massive wave crashed over her, and her boat capsized. She came back up, sputtering, holding her sopping wet bag above her head. Another wave swept against Sabrina’s face, and she found herself spitting out a mouthful of saltwater. Finally, she washed up on the shore, heaving breaths raking through her lungs.

Sabrina blinked, pushing herself up onto her elbows. It was real. She was here.

She had made it.

FROM THE POV OF ROSALIND PENDERWICK

It’s been a pleasant day so far. Breakfast with my siblings and some of the Demeter cabin (though Jane did seem a bit absent-minded). Miranda, Florien, and Rio convinced me to practice some plant magic with them for a couple hours and I built up to growing a small sunflower. Lunch (again with Jane seeming distracted, though Rachel ate with us this time, which appeared to help). Then, Skye and Jeffrey disappeared with some of the older campers (supposedly for a regular game of soccer, but the unsettling gleam in their eyes had me doubting that was all there was too it), Jane and Rachel went to take a walk in the strawberry fields, and Batty and I were left to prepare for a pegasus riding lesson. If it had been up to Batty, the latter could have easily taken up the entire afternoon, but changing into durable pants and finding a bandana can only take so long.

After a somewhat restless hour, during which I grew three peonies and Batty rhapsodized about the stable of unicorns that another demigod camp apparently has, Batty and I arrive at the stable. We’re ten minutes early, and she’s been talking a mile a minute the whole time, not stopping from before. I swear I now know as much about pegasuses as she does. According to Rachel, the teacher today is Percy, her friend, who’s very responsible “when he puts his mind to it.” I wasn’t sure how to tell her that’s actually not very comforting, but Batty looked so excited and I figured there will be plenty of other people there, so. Why not. She’s been spending so much time there anyway.

Needless to say, I very much regret my decision now.

The stables are modest, made of wood and painted green, and I’ve been there several times by now. There’s a long line of stalls visible when we first walk in, but Batty skips straight to the far end, where a massive pegasus the color of a carrot pokes its head over the door and nuzzles Batty’s hair. She looks up at me with a smile that could melt anyone’s heart, and pats the horse on the nose. “Rosy, this is Queen Lotus Flower. Percy said we have a impenetrable bond.”

I look at the two of them with a questioning gaze. How can they both have the exact same puppy-dog eyes? I swear to god. The gods. All of them. “Batty, sweetheart. That horse is like ten feet tall.”

She nods enthusiastically. “I know, she’s so much taller than any other horse I’ve seen. Percy says she has the biggest wingspan of any horse at camp.”

I nod, slowly, wondering why my sister picked the biggest pegasus to fall in love with. At that moment, Percy pushes the door open. “Hey Batty! Ready for your lesson?” Batty leaves her post by Queen Lotus Flower to wrap her arms around my waist and nod. I look Percy over. He’s a few inches taller than me, with brown skin and curly hair. A beaded camp necklace, orange tshirt, and jeans. Weird arm tattoo aside, he’s one of the most normal-looking people at camp. I’ve only met him a couple times before, but, my nerves over Batty flying around on massive horses aside, I do trust him. Rachel seems to have a good taste in friends. Also, Batty likes him, and she’s still shy around a good number of Skye and Jane’s friends back in Cameron.

For the next few minutes, I watch as Percy instructs Batty on buckling Queen Lotus Flower’s giant saddle and looping the bridle over her nose. Not wavering a bit from the “lesson” aspect of all this, he steps back to let her show what she’s already learned from hanging around the stables so often, only stooping in to guide her when she gets confused. As the minutes tick by, more people show up for the lesson: three other students, and a good sized crowd of people who just like watching the pegasuses. By then, I’m seated on the grass outside the stables, soaking in the blistering sun and watching as Percy (seated atop a wiry black pegasus who Batty pointed out as Blackjack) darts around the large dusty enclosure, making final preparations for the lesson.

Skye and Jeffrey show up then, and sit on either side of me. I want to ask them where Jane and Rachel are, but they’re talking non-stop about a game they just played in the woods with some of the other campers, only switching the subject when Percy and Blackjack return and they begin discussing whether or not it should be scientifically possible for a horse to fly.

Just as Batty and Queen Lotus Flower begin a gentle trot around the enclosure, I feel a tap on my shoulder, and hear the familiar sound of Tommy’s chuckle. “She’s got a weird knack for that,” he says. I nod, grinning.

It’s been good with us. We’ve had breakfast together a few times, even played a game of basketball one afternoon. Our conversations aren’t the same as they used to be, and there’s a sense of newness that feels cold and strange every so often. But it’s good. It feels right. At least for now, this feels like where we’re supposed to be.

As Percy starts demonstrating how to take flight, I look around again. Jane and Rachel still aren’t here. They promised to come. (“For moral support!” Jane had said. “Wouldn’t miss it,” Rachel had added with a smile). I try to push it out of my head. This lesson is a big deal. Batty’s going to be flying.

She leans forward on Queen Lotus Flower’s neck.

They begin to run, moving together like a single being.

Just as they burst into the air, Batty’s euphoric smile lighting up the sky, Katie grabs my shoulders from behind. I shush her so I can lean forward and watch Batty silhouetted against the pegasus’s wide orange wings.

“Rosalind. Rosalind, guys. ” Something about the panic in Katie’s voice makes me turn around. Her usually tied back hair is loose and her clothes rumpled, giving the impression that she was dragged out of bed for this. (Some part of my brain distantly remembers her saying she was going to take a nap). Skye and Jeffrey turn around, too.

“What, what’s happening?” I reach out my hands, trying to calm her as she collapses into a squat, breathing heavily.

“Billie… found me in the cabin… had been looking for you guys… been running all over the camp… lucky I remembered about the riding lesson…”

Jeffrey leans over and puts his hands on her shoulders. She stares down at the dirt while her breathing levels.

“Katie, what are you saying? Why were you and Billie looking for us?”

She looks up, and I see that her forehead is drawn into well-worn creases of worry. “Jane and Rachel have gone into the woods.”

Something was wrong. Sabrina crouched on the wet sand, straining to see through the heavy rain. In her dream there had definitely been someone else on the island. She remembered the hunched figure, the sound of sobs leaking through the rain.

But she’d circled the shore at least twice by now, and there was nobody to be found. “Am I late or something?” she wondered aloud. Somehow, she’d gotten that dream It felt like it had been sent to her. Why did it show a person when there was no one?

Sabrina sighed and began to traipse inland, tucking a knife in her pocket. It wasn’t a big island, and she might as well find some shelter aside from her boat, which was now overturned somewhere on the beach. Circe lived here, didn’t she? There must be some sort of roof, especially if this kind of weather was standard.

Or maybe this was just a random island and there was no Aeaea and Sabrina’s dream had just been the unhinged work of her unconscious mind.

There was a small grassy hill set aside from the sand, which Sabrina crawled up with the determination of a dying warrior. Something was pushing her back. An invisible force, a last crumb of survival instinct, plain old fatigue, she wasn’t sure. But something wanted her out of here, and it pushed back harder and harder as she climbed.

She let out a cry of frustration, clawing at the ground, at the air, at whatever this goddamn thing was, and found a renewed burst of strength that pulled her to the top of the hill. Once there, the force that pushed back ebbed a little, like it was giving up. Sabrina let herself relax, and simply took in the view for a moment.

The hill she lay on top of gave way to a deep valley, sprawling and green. In one corner, there was a cluster of trees that looked healthy and comfortable, despite being on a random Greek island in the middle of the ocean. A modest garden lay next to it, somehow appearing unaffected by the rain, and a narrow river wound around the whole scene.

There was also a house.

Sabrina wasn’t sure what she might have expected from the lair of an infamous Greek enchantress, but it wasn’t this.

She hauled herself up on the hill and started down, rushing through the rain onto a wide wooden porch. There was a large stone vat of something dark and crumbly, with a heavy looking staff of sorts leaning against it. The door to the house was short, and Sabrina heard it scrape on the floor when she pushed it open.

The scene awaiting her was surprisingly cozy when she stepped inside. There was a fire in the hearth and rows upon rows of little viles arranged on a set of shelves beside it. A broom leaned against the wall. Sabrina looked around, noting the way that the rain didn’t make any sound as it thrashed against the roof and window, and the almost drug-like stupor that threatened to take over her brain, whispering that everything was fine, she was safe, nothing bad could happen to her.

Sabrina had encountered hypnosis before, and it only ever made her more jittery.

There was an open hatch in the floor with stairs that lead into darkness. She followed them down, feeling the air grow cooler with every step. Sabrina was quiet, taking tiny steps on her toes, and wincing when one of the stairs creaked. She didn’t know what was down there, and she didn’t want to find out the hard way. But there were no arrows flying up from the space below, no sounds of footsteps or slashes of swords.

Sabrina stepped onto a dirt floor and let herself exhale, shuffling along until her toe hit something hard. Only seasoned reflexes made her reach for the knife in her pocket instead of crying out in fear. She knelt down and squinted in the darkness, trying to see what she’d hit.

A leg.

She frowned, shaking it until she heard a low growl. “Stop that.” She stopped.

“Who are you?” Sabrina leaned closer. If they hadn’t killed her yet she was probably safe.

Instead of answering, they reached out a hand. Sabrina could see a gold ring on the thumb that glinted in a little sliver of light that had crept down from the room above. “Pull me up,” the figure said. “I’ve been paralyzed by the witch.”

Helping the stranger sit turned out to be no simple feat. They were tall and muscular, wearing a cape and a heavy metal chest plate. “The witch?” she questioned, propping them up against one of the cellar’s dirt walls. Her eyes were beginning to adust to the dark, and she could just make out their sharp chin sticking out as their head lolled back.

The figure made a noise. “The witch, the sorceress, the woman. Whatever you want to call her. I figure she sent you down too?” They snorted. “Good luck. I told Zeus not to sent mortals, but does he ever listen? You’re gonna die.”

Sabrina tried to piece together what she could from all this. The witch must be Circe, unless she’d wound up on an entirely different island. And if Circe was going around paralyzing people, then something must be going on. She must be hiding something. As for the person in front of her, Sabrina wasn’t sure who they were. By the way they talked about Zeus, and casually said “mortals,” she’d guess some sort of god? As if that narrowed it down. She’d have to be careful.

“Why did she paralyze you?”

Another weird gutteral noise. “She didn’t like my offer. It’s not the first time this has happened.”

She was growing impatient. Why’d he have to be so vague? “What?”

“Yeah, I don’t know why he always sends me. I don’t think he trusts me. He’d rather me stay her paralysed in the basement of a witch than come back home.”

Sabrina let out an exasperated sigh. This wasn’t working and she needed answers. A whole coast of people with mythology-shaped holes in their memories awaited her. “You’re going to need to be a little more specific. I don’t think we’re on the same page.”

The figure sounded confused. “What do you mean? Don’t you know who I am?”

She leaned forward and inspected them in the darkness. “No. No I don’t.”

They slid their eyes down to her face. “I am the god Apollo. I came here for Circe and she did this to me.”

“What? Why?”

The stairs creaked behind Sabrina and she felt a long nail drag up her back. “I just want to be left alone,” said a voice as deep and powerful as the smell of red wine. “You don’t mind, do you?” Before Sabrina could grab her knife and turn around, before she could even scream, strong arms had surrounded her shoulders and a hand was clamping a damp cloth over her nose and mouth. Shock made her breath in, sharply, and she smelled the sweetness of sleeping drugs.

A heartbeat, a brief struggle, and Sabrina Starr was gone.

[ofhamartia]

GETTING TO KNOW THE MUN

NAME :    Nicholas NICKNAME :    Nick or Nico FACECLAIM :    I use Chuck Bass mainly but occasionally I’ll use pokémons too.  PRONOUNS :    he / him HEIGHT :    5′9″ BIRTHDAY :    February 18th AESTHETIC :    angst, queerness, squirrels, withered leaves, physics, the universe. LAST  SONG  YOU  LISTENED  TO :   Mi Gente - J Balvin FAVORITE  MUSE (S)  YOU’VE  WRITTEN :  My favourite muse has been and probably will always be Castiel from Supernatural. He was my first and thanks to the time invested in him I’m way more confident now about roleplaying in general. Also because I met lots of great people there who helped me when times got rough so...

GETTING  TO  KNOW  THE  ACCOUNT

WHAT  INSPIRED  YOU  TO  TAKE  ON  THIS  MUSE :  mainly because I started watching teen wolf and the supernatural fandom became so toxic i just wanted to get out of there, so i was debating on whether i should play scott or stiles but then i found myself in love with allison and knew i was more of a scott kids than a stiles. as for donna, well fuck me, i’m watching suits right now and whoever doesn’t love donna and wouldn’t play her isn’t watching the same show as i am.

WHAT  ARE  YOUR  FAVORITE  ASPECTS  OF  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE :   i am a strong believer that just because a character is good and kind doesn’t mean he’s boring. scott haters are always rambling about how he’s boring but in my opinion, that’s just their hate talking. whether scott is out there doing “bad stuff” to stir up drama or not is not what makes a character interesting, being able to relate to a character, that’s another thing.  as for donna, i just wish i could be as awesome as her tbh

WHAT’S  YOUR  BIGGEST  INSPIRATION  WHEN  IT  COMES  TO  WRITING :  angst. like literally anybody who’s written with me knows that if there’s angst my inspiration goes up in a  millisecond.

FAVORITE  TYPES  OF  THREADS :    like i said angst... or maybe fluff very occasionally.  

BIGGEST  STRUGGLE  IN  REGARDS  TO  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE :  finding mains bc there are too many great scotts out there. finding suits rp blogs...

TAGGED  BY : @werekanima TAGGING : @tetheredfates @aboutwinning @aboutcaring @darkesthowl