#but with Calypso time must have been dragged on so slow for him | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

couvers · 4 years ago

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dialogue prompts: 25 with leo/cal please?

25. “I’m going to kiss you now.”

"Aren't you supposed to be doing this with your shirt off?"

Calypso had her elbows resting on the side of her truck and when Leo glanced up at her from the work he'd been doing on the engine he was met with a pair of massive, round, brown eyes with lashes fluttering innocently. He straightened up, wiping a little sweat from his brow with his forearm – his hands were already covered in grease, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to the elbows. Not an hour had passed since he started working, and Calypso had been out there helping by handing him tools as he needed them. He had been surprised to discover she knew most of them by their proper names, very pleasantly surprised.

"It's like fifty degrees out," Leo replied, an eyebrow quirked up. "You want me to freeze or something?"

"I thought that was how the whole fixing a girl's car thing worked," she said with a shrug. "It's just an excuse to take your shirt off and seduce her."

Three days had passed since Leo had brought Calypso home from the cabin and asked her to move with him to Massachusetts that summer. The day after their rash decisions he'd driven Frank and Hazel back to the city, then stopped for the parts he knew her truck needed and gone straight back to Montauk. Monday he'd helped her get the truck back to her family's place. Neither of them had spoken about the kiss (he was calling it that in his head even though kiss didn’t really feel like an adequate word for the making out they’d done) or his offer again.

“Fixing this truck is a serious issue, not for seduction,” Leo told her, signaling to the engine with his wrench, and then to himself. “You’d just be disappointed if I took this off, anyway.”

“What does that mean?” Calypso asked, her lightly teasing tone fading into something more genuine, with an edge of annoyance he knew very well.

Leo flashed her grin before leaning back over the engine to pick up where he left off. “I’ve seen the guys you’ve dated, Calypso. Hell, I live with one. The body under this hood is not of the caliber you’re used to.”

She scoffed, all her humor disappearing. “Is this because you think I’m shallow or because you think that lowly of yourself?”

“I’m being realistic,” he answered. It wasn’t just Percy that he’d seen Calypso with over the years. There had been other boyfriends, or flings, or whatever they were called. All of them had been big and buff to one degree or another, most of them tall and attractive enough to be models.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Calypso straighten up, crossing her arms. “So, realistically, do you think I’m shallow?”

Taking a deep breath, Leo also straightened up again, leaning on the truck. “No, I don’t think you’re shallow.”

“Then what?” she demanded, head cocked to one side and jaw clenched. “What are we even doing here, Leo? Because I’m pretty sure I made it clear on Saturday how I feel about you, but then you came back, and you acted like nothing happened, and now you’re being all weird and insecure when I’m very obviously trying to flirt with you, like it wasn’t me who kissed you.”

“You’re trying to flirt with me?” he asked, unable to keep a smile from beginning to form on his lips.

Since that kiss Saturday afternoon, Leo had been terrified Calypso would change her mind or start to regret either agreeing to go to Massachusetts with him or, even worse, the kiss. When he had made the offer, Leo had harbored no expectations, but then she had kissed him, and it had been the single most amazing moment of his life. He wouldn’t have been surprised, or even blamed her, if it had all happened in the middle of some moment of weakness brought on by the emotional upheaval of seeing her ex-boyfriend happy with a new girlfriend. Days later, with a clearer mind, it would make sense for her to realize she’d made a stupid call agreeing to move to another state with, and then kiss, a guy she had only just barely tolerated for years, and who she could do much better than.

Calypso took a slow, deep breath in her nose and then exhaled through her mouth. “Yes. I’ve been trying to flirt with you pretty much the entirety of the last two days.”

“You,” Leo said, pointing to her with his wrench, then back to himself, “were trying to flirt with me.”

“For someone so smart, you really are a dumbass,” she replied. The tension went out of Calypso all at once, not because her anger had faded, but because she no longer had the energy for it. “Whatever. Finish fixing the truck if you want. Call me again when you get a clue.”

Leo stared after Calypso for several seconds as she started to walk away, his mind trying to catch up with the implication of her flirting with him. She wouldn’t be flirting if she didn’t really like him, and if she really liked him, she must not be regretting the kiss.

“Wait, Calypso!” he called, setting his wrench on the engine block and starting toward the bed and breakfast’s backdoor after her. “I’m sorry, okay. I just– I don’t really–”

She stopped halfway up the walk and turned to face him, the anger in her expression morphed into hurt. “You don’t really what?”

“I don’t get it,” he confessed, even though the words felt thick and dangerous in his throat. Leo wasn’t sure he wanted to poke this particular beast of an issue, but he didn’t think they stood a chance if he didn’t. “Why now? Why me?”

“You are the most infuriating person I have ever met,” Calypso replied, the huff and her tone making it clear this was just the beginning of her answer, which Leo thought didn’t really answer anything. “I never understand a single thing you do or say. Like, it boggles my mind and drives me crazy, to the point I can never get you out of my head. Seriously, Leo, I think about you constantly. When you told me I probably wouldn’t see you this coming summer, it terrified me. Just the thought broke my heart.

“And you’re full of this stupid kind of bravado, that I have no doubt turns off just about every girl you talk to, but underneath it all you’re quite possibly the sweetest, most thoughtful and considerate person in the world. Again, I don’t get it, because it’s like you don’t want people to know those good things about you? All you want them to see is the stupid, annoying act you put on. Why don’t you want people to know? It’s not like you’re good at hiding it. I figured it out like the first week I knew you.

“Then there’s your– your stupid–” Calypso paused to take a few seconds and wave her hands around her head, her hair and her ears and face. She was worked up, her face beginning to turn red, and Leo thought this was the most adorable he’d ever seen her. “Your hair is always matted. And you’ve got this smile – not the fake, weird, cocky one, but this really sweet and boyish one that seriously just lights up the whole world. There’s always grease under your fingernails, which should be so gross, but it’s not? It’s honestly a little hot. Then there’s your ears, and they just– Every time I look at them I want to–”

When she huffed out her nose in indignation, Leo smiled. “You want to what?”

“Nothing,” she said, shaking her head.

“No, keep going, Calypso. I wanna know,” Leo insisted.

“Why do you keep calling me that?” she asked, deflecting his question.

The deflection was effective, because Leo’s smile fell and he stared at her for a couple seconds in dumbfounded silence. “It’s your name.”

“Everyone calls me Cal,” Calypso replied. “You used to, too.”

Leo shrugged. “I don’t want to be everyone anymore.”

“Definitely the most infuriating person I’ve ever met,” she sighed, just barely above a whisper.

“Does it bother you?” he asked, worried he’d been screwing up the whole last two days without even realizing.

Calypso bit her lip, eyes narrowed at him, and Leo waited on edge for her answer, ready for her to rip into him. She didn’t. “I love it.”

It didn’t seem quite fair that she called him the most infuriating person she’d ever met, because Calypso was the most infuriating person Leo had ever met. She made him crazy, too. He had basically never stopped thinking about her since the day they met, years ago, and he still had no idea what was going through her mind at any given moment. Not knowing scared him. He also found it absolutely exhilarating.

"I'm going to kiss you now," Leo declared. He said it partially to give her a chance to call him off, but mostly to psych himself up. If he didn’t say it aloud, he would very likely chicken out.

She met his eye, head held high, daring him to follow through. Leo did. He marched up to her, took her by the waist and pulled her to him. His grease stained fingers were probably going to make a mess of her t-shirt, but Leo didn’t care. Based on the way she cupped her hands around his neck and dragged him down the last couple inches to kiss her, he didn’t think she cared either.

Leo kissed her more intently than he had over the weekend, lips moving, rough and demanding. His confidence had grown exponentially since then, and his insecurity about Calypso changing her mind continued to fade by the second. This was real. He’d loved her for years, from a distance, hopeless, but Leo was beginning to think that she’d loved him a little all that time, too. She certainly kissed him like that was the case – as if she’d been waiting for the chance for years and still kind of feared she might not get it again.

When she pulled away, Leo tried to follow her with his lips and she laughed. Her hand reached for his as she slipped out of his hold, and then Calypso turned to lead him further up the walk, toward the door.

“Where are we going?” he asked, glancing back at the unfinished truck. It needed another few hours of work, at the very least, and the light would be fading before long.

“To my room,” she answered, and suddenly Leo didn’t give a flying fuck about the truck. “It’s warmer up there. You won’t have to worry about freezing.”

#apt 305 #set the spring break after everyone went home from montauk (between chapters 64 & 65)#funny story #i actually had this prompt requested on twitter with the same pair #thought that was cute lol #dialouge prompt #amy writes

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border-spam · 5 years ago

Text

Wolf in wolf’s clothing

Gift fic for the lovely @artisthicc-nikyri of her oc’s Ari and Jameson, and her Troy!

Make sure to check out her art blog for more of her amazing shit

Jameson had been right.

This was so much easier than working in the kitchens...

Ari snorted to herself smugly as she popped another piece of hard candy into her mouth, lazily eying the slow crawl of the progress bar on her monitor as the file continued to render.

This was a piece of cake, this was so chilled out in comparison.

She’d thought at first it would have been terrifying, that working in such close proximity with the God King would have been even worse than dealing with the head cooks, but man, she’d had nothing to worry about in retrospect. A whole month now since she’d joined the editing team, and she’d not seen Troy once.

The other editors in his media team had filled her in, and it seemed for all J insisted God King Calypso was a “Pretty normal person under all the bullshit”, he was an enigma to work for. Fair, but weird. Quiet, but frightening. If you handed in your projects on time and didn’t get in his way? The job was piss as long as you had the skills he wanted. Safe lodgings within the main COV compound, food and medical care, and a position in the God King’s own media team was something followers would tear each other’s faces off for, and did according to the footage she was currently working on.

If you didn’t pull your weight though?

Well.

They’d not gone into details, but made clear through hushed warnings that she really should make sure she didn’t fuck this up.

Bobbing her head in time to the music thrumming through her earphones, she slid further into the huge custom chair, pulling her knees up to her chest with a shiver in the cool dark of the editing room. It was always cold in here she’d found, aircon set to suck the heat out of the machines and consoles that lined the rows of editing desks in the dim glow of the sleep mode displays, while Calypso’s throne-like personal station flickered data across the wall of monitors it faced that she’d yet to actually see him use. Helios had been so pompous and insufferably showy when it came to displays of wealth, but even living on the station for years with J before they ended up on Pandora, she’d never had access to tech or setups like this before. “The God Twins provide” really did have credence when you worked directly under them. Everything from the top end rigs to the leather high-backed editing chairs stamped with Troy’s emblem felt like it cost more than she’d ever earn, a sad reality she considered while running her thumb along the bottom row of keys on her backlit keyboard.

Ariana Serino shone at her from the custom board’s base, pulsing red light against matte black just like everything else in the room. For someone who was literally never here, Troy clearly had a tight grip on the department’s aesthetic.

She had hated the kitchens, she really had.

The head cooks were egotistical shitheads with superiority complexes who like so many of the Twins’s followers, saw any step up in authority as somehow being closer to their Gods. They knew she was like a sister to Jameson, and they knew how close Jameson was to Father Troy. It had painted a target on her she’d rather have avoided, and they had never, once, gotten off her damn back.

ANYTHING they could berate her over had been used against her, anything to make them feel like they were better than her. Better than someone so close to the King’s Pastor.

J knew, he’d seen how tired she had been, how stressed. It had been him that had gotten her this sweet gig, and she’d made sure to work her ass off for the last month straight. No one seemed to have actually noticed, but then again, no one was screaming abuse at her either, so she must be doing a good enough job. Troy didn’t come across as the sort of boss to hold back in letting her know if she wasn’t.

Checking in on her next task with a quick click on the flashing mail icon on her screen, she sighed and rolled her stiff shoulders with a stretch, tapping the keybinds to begin the asset download as she scanned the mail contents. _ _

“Let’s Flay 22.12.NL, due scheduling & upload 48 hours fn.

Focus on clip 4, 7, & 11, Ty closeups, keyframes 4-gore use @ clip 1-2. Get that shit visceral.

GKT” _ _

She’d certainly not had any negative feedback from the God King at least, then again, she’d not had any words from him bar these shorthand communications, and they seemed identical to the ones he sent to the full editing group. She’d wondered more than once how much he actually knew about her based on what Jameson had told him in order to get her this position, or, if he actually even knew about her at all.

J loved to gloat to her about all the effort he’d had to labor over to get her in, all the late night convincing and grandiose bullshitting he’d done in her favor to the God King’s ear, wheedling her into the editing team like his own personal project, but honestly? She was pretty sure Troy didn’t even know her name, let alone much else. She was a symbol on his mailing list, a faceless employee to pump out fuel for the COV media machine at his behest, and being so unimportant had some sweet benefits.

Ones like the 3am flashing on the wall clock facing her across the room, neon numbers burning red through the inky darkness.

Mannn, she thought with a smirk as she checked the open messenger app on screen. She’d had such a good lay in today…

Not being important meant no one actually cared when she showed up for her shift. She’d realised last week after oversleeping and arriving hours late in a panic, then not having anyone so much as bat an eye. Shifts here didn’t seem to actually matter. They had assigned ones, but people just seemed to really come and go as they pleased. Long as they clocked in the required amount of hours and sent on their completed tasks, there apparently wasn’t any consequences, and that suited her perfectly.

She could sleep as late in the day as she wanted, drag her ass out of bed and to her desk, and work away till the early AM hours. A nice empty editing studio with no distractions, no colleagues to deal with, and no J pinging her 40 times an hour with silly chatter, she confirmed as she checked the empty notifications in the chat app. He must be asleep, it was literally the only time the guy shut up, not that she’d change that for the world. Jameson filled the sad silences of Ari’s life with infectious positivity. She owed him so much…

The sudden flash of fluorescent light as the room’s door swung open startled her out of her thoughts, and immediately into habits formed a decade ago on Eden-6. She froze, silent, heart slowing as her eyes narrowed and then shifted smoothly towards the danger on the other side of the room as she heard the door slam shut.

Padded, heavy footsteps marked someone’s approach along the side of the low walled editing desk rows, and she sunk lower into the darkness of her cubicle, flattening her silhouette like dad had taught her years ago as she slid the headphones down around her neck. Stay low. Stay quiet. Listen closely. Don’t move. It won’t see you. You won’t be eaten.

She felt her heart skip a beat as the shadow appeared before the predator, the dim lights of the editing room just enough to cast it on the floor as they approached, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she for a moment recognised the narrow height of the shape prowling towards her row. Jameson. Thank God, for a second she’d thought…

No, not Jameson. It was still coming, and the silhouette was only getting larger. Jameson wasn’t this tall. Jameson wasn’t this graceful. She’d convinced herself for a moment that she was safe, but she wasn’t.

Ariana felt her bones turn to ice as the harsh light of the data flickering across the throne’s monitors revealed the towering outline of God King Troy.

He shifted slowly, back turning towards her as he faced his desk, unaware of the woman watching him from under the gaps of her monitors.

He looked.. tired? Smaller, softer. Not exactly as terrifying as she had prepared herself for, not as imposing in a loose sweater and low set glasses as he was in raised collars and draped fur. He was still very clearly Father Troy, but like he’d shucked off a heavy costume after a long day. Neater, less makeup, hair looser and not as spiked. No chains or accessories hanging from his belt, just his slacks and a rolled up sweater sleeve his massive prosthetic was connecting to its socket through.

She trembled nervously as he stiffly lowered his weight into the hulking chair in front of her, settling the cup of coffee he’d been carrying down next to his flesh arm as he deftly hit keys with the cybernetic fingers of his right and began to pull up files across the monitors flashing to life in front of him.

He had no idea she was here Ari realised, beginning to calm as the scent of his coffee filed the room alongside the quick tapping of his mismatched fingers across keys. What was she meant to do…?

He clearly thought he was alone here. She’d never heard of the God King looking like this, the twins were always pristine in their curated appearances when around others. Grunge psycho-chic or draped in gold and jewels, but never average. The idea of Troy looking relatively normal like this? It felt like she shouldn’t be seeing it at all. It felt private. She pressed her palms harder against the flat of her desk and eyed the distance between the curve of his shoulders and the entry doorway she was considering bolting through.

“Shit” she hissed through gritted teeth. He’d catch her, he’d either see her from the corner of his eye or hear the automated door as it opened for her, she was running out of options. If he caught her trying to sneak out, he’d probably be even angrier, right? He’d prefer if she just broke the silence and apologised for interrupting him, she decided as she swallowed the nervous lump insisting on tightening her throat. J said he liked it when people were honest. He liked it when people didn’t bullshit him, and J knew Troy. She should just.. greet him. Dad used to say it was better to face a Tyrant head first than die with its teeth in your back when you tried to run, right?

She slowly straightened, lifting her chest off the desk and leaning silently back into her seat as she carefully tucked her hair behind her ears and flattened out her tank. Wide eyes not leaving the back of his head as he hunched over his station while she began to pump herself up.

You got this Ariana. You’ve faced bigger fangs than this asshole has, he’s just a man. He can be reasonable, just say something.

She breathed out slowly, steadying her lungs before breaking the silence.

“Forgive me your majesty, I didn’t know y-”

She startled out of her sentence as he whipped round to face her, unprepared for the violent speed of his reaction as he rose out his seat.

“WHY ARE YOU HERE??” Troy bellowed over her quiet greeting, and her brain stalled in trying to respond as he stormed towards her desk.

“I.. I.. I’m just.. working some overtime, Father Troy, catching up on som - Ah!”

She flinched as he yanked the mouse out of her hand, ice cold metal digits tearing it out of her fingers and onto the desk in front of him, expertly pulling up her activity monitor script over the chat window where Jameson’s afk profile pic still flashed.

“Overtime? Fucking bullshit.” he growled, flashing gold capped teeth as he sneered inches from her face. “LOOK.”

She cleared her throat quietly, cowering under his looming torso as she snapped her eyes to the onscreen log he was referring to.

“You clocked in 3 hours ago.. Bunny..” -Her chat nick? He’d seen oh god this was so embarrassing oh g- “Overtime means working after your shift, not starting it in the middle of the fucking night. Did you just lie to me?!”

Wow. She was dead. This was it. It was the end. Why’d she ever listened to J, he was an idiot. She should have just run. She was going to be ripped apart by this lanky asshole and it was all J’s fault for insisting he was nice underneath. She was going to haunt that green bitch for the rest of his life. Nothing left to lose now, she accepted with finality. Just be honest. He was either going to break her neck or not.

“I’m.. sorry.” She whispered, then continued as she realised with rising surprise that he was waiting to hear the rest.

“I was very late today and I just wanted.. to make sure I finished these edits for you for tomorrow. I don’t have the right tech in my quarters, it felt like the right thing to do was just stay here and get it done..”

Ari waited as the silence continued, swallowing tightly as she raised her eyes slowly, hoping for a positive reaction. He was quiet, still hovering above her and leaning heavy on the massive prosthetic still resting on her desk as he massaged the bridge of his nose with his human fingers, but his face had relaxed, his mouth no longer a tight grimace. He just looked.. sad, and tired, and like he was done with this.

“You’re Ariana, right?” he muttered through an exhale as he pressed his fingers tighter into the corners of his closed eyes under the glasses.

“Yes Tr-SIR! Sir. Ariana Ser-”

“I don’t care.”

She jumped slightly as the metal limb to her right lifted off the desk as he stood.

“I don’t care when you get the work done. It’s fine.” he sighed, voice rough and quiet.

“I don’t shift people late because I don’t want people here late, but you can stay till you get your shit done.”

His hand dropped to his side as he looked down at her, meeting her worried gaze over the frames of his glasses.

“..but don’t ever lie to me again. You’re here because Jameson recommended you, and as much as a pain in the ass as he can be, I trust Jameson. This is your one strike.”

She slowly felt the tension relax out of her joints as he turned and began to walk back towards his station, flopping down into the massive chair with a sigh as he raised his eyes to hers again.

“If he hadn’t, and you were anyone else and lied to me like that? …You’d be dead where you sat.”

Ari twisted her fingers between her hands nervously as he swiveled towards his monitors and began to type once more. How the hell had she survived that. How had that worked out when she’d been so close to getting the axe, figuratively and literally. She checked the chat app once more while beginning to settle back into a more comfortable position. Jameson was still offline, he was probably sleeping soundly through the most stress she’d had in years, typical.

Opening the editing software again, she began to work on the next clip in her log, painfully aware of typing as quietly as possible so as not to interrupt her new colleague.

As the minutes ticked by, she found herself relaxing slowly. The atmosphere stayed desperately tense, and the God King’s heavy silence punctuated each harsh snap of a key or frustrated sigh he made all the more as they continued to work together. Troy was noticeably on edge, fidgeting in the corner of her vision every now and then, tugging at the rolled shoulder of his sweater or trying to sweep his hair forward as if his appearance was upsetting him, making him feel awkward in some way.

He was angry with himself, more than anything. This was Jameson’s friend. This was his only friend’s closest companion, the person he described as a sister, and this was going to be her first experience of him?

He hadn’t meant to snap earlier. She’d just caught him so unprepared. No one was meant to be here tonight, he should have been able to get these final shots compiled and queued for upload in peace. Instead, he was sitting in the same room as someone he’d probably just terrified, trying to work while hyper aware he was out of character, and he hated being out of character around others. He didn’t even have his fucking hair done, he looked like a tool. This was not the kind of cringe he enjoyed, and he had no experience in how to deal with this situation.

Should he say something? He wasn’t sure, she probably didn’t want to talk to him anyway he worried, glancing over his shoulder at the back of her monitors, just able to make out her hands working away under them. Jameson would tell him to say something, but he didn’t know what that something should even be. What if he just made this worse. This wheedling grip of anxiety in his gut was one of Troy’s least favorite feelings. It was the kind of stupid, unmanageable worry that left your heart beating just a little too fast, your palm sweaty, it was horrible. He liked to be in control, always. Of everything, but especially himself. Feeling like a nervous child in his own damn editing office, where he had come to clear his mind tonight so he could possibly get some sleep later? It was bullshit, and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat and tapped his fingers against the empty coffee cup to his left, trying to focus on what he should say rather than how awkward the atmosphere was. “You.. uh..”

He winced to himself at how his voice caught in his throat. Great start, God King. Fuck. Get your act on!

“-Ahem- You know Jameson a long time, right?” He prompted, noting the sounds of her typing had stopped in response, and the slight squeak of leather behind him meant she had shifted in her seat.

“Yes sir...” Ari responded meekly, barely audible over the wall of monitors between them.

“Troy. Troy is ok right now. It’s not like there’s anyone else around, huh?” He called back, feeling his confident act begin to fall back into place as his practiced nonchalant speaking tone shifted over the tightness in his voice from a moment ago.

He felt the pull of a smirk at the corners of his mouth as he heard a soft breath of a laugh from Ariana, and the tension beginning to disperse from the room.

“Yes, si-Troy! Sorry. Troy.” She called back, louder this time, and he leaned back a little more comfortably into his seat. “Yeah we’ve known each other a long time!” She continued, voice tilting upwards in obvious excitement.

“We met on Helios, when we were kids.” Ari offered, noting the slight turn of the Holy Twin’s head towards her as he listened.

“Well I was a kid, he was a bit older, but we were in the same class in what passed for a school on that place. He didn’t have many friends his age I guess, and I had no friends at all, so he kind of just attached to me! You know how some people are just like that?” A quiet snort of agreement from the desk in front of her making clear that yes, Troy knew exactly what ‘kind of people’ Jameson was exactly like.

“We just adopted each other then.” She followed. “We’ve kind of always been together since. He talked too much, he said, and that I talked too little! He’s been trying to make me get better at that.. actually.. uhh..” she trailed off, feeling a rush of returned awkwardness in the fact she was currently monologuing at a deity who could rip in her two if she irritated him.

He shifted further in his seat, turning far enough for her to catch the reflection of his monitors in his eye as he glanced back at her. “No, go on.” he encouraged reassuringly. “Kind of interesting to hear someone else’s opinion of the caustic tool for once.”

She caught the wolfish smirk before he turned back towards his screens, and felt a genuine smile of her own blossom in the relief that she wasn’t talking too much, he actually seemed to be enjoying this in some way. “Sure. Umm... Oh! We left Helios before everything went crazy up there, not long after all that shit happened with Jack. I think the COV was just starting up around then..” she mused for a moment, then let out a short laugh. “He’s my brother now I guess, and like you said before, he’s a pain in the ass, but I wouldn’t trade him for anything!” Ari chuckled, before excitedly continuing. “Oh man! Sorry, I-I mean, I don’t need to explain that, do I! I guess you of all people know all about that kind of feeling for someone like a sibling, right?”

Her smile faded as the seconds ticked by to no response, just the quick tapping of his fingers across the keys as he continued to work. That cold tension began to creep back into the air, and for a moment, she wondered if she really should have shut up earlier. “Where were you before Helios?” he prompted, voice controlled and tone unsettlingly blasé as he deftly opened up 3 more windows and dragged clips into them, his head subtly moving with his eyes as they shifted from file to file. “You clearly weren’t born there.”

The misdirection didn’t escape her, but she knew he was purposefully attempting to put her at ease by continuing the conversation, and it wasn’t a gesture she’d reject. “No, no I was born on Eden-6. I was there my whole childhood with my family before we all moved to-”

His raucous barking laugh interrupted her mid sentence, and she blanched, unsure of what she had said that was funny.

“Eden-6! Mannnnn!” he balked, hiccuping laughter rolling into a growling chuckle. “Dude, sucks for you, that place is a fuckin’ swampass shithole.”

He broke into laughter again, tilting his head back and running his hand back through the thick hair that she realised had been falling in front of his face this whole time, and Ariana saw red.

What the hell was funny about Eden-6? They were living on fucking Pandora by choice, and he calls Eden-6 a shithole? Seriously? She squeezed her fists shut and barely registered the bite of her long nails as they dug into her palms, completely aware she was losing the battle to keep quiet and not say something she’d regret.

“Wow. Funny. So what kind of up-its-own-ass wealthy bullshit homeworld did you come from?” Ari snapped back, before almost instantly reeling from how stupid an idea that outburst was.

She recoiled back into her chair as fear crept up her spine again, and felt her stomach drop even further as he slowly stood out of his seat, turning towards her.

His icy eyes met hers as he crossed the distance between their desks, half hooded and lazy above the rims of his glasses, maintaining their contact as he stopped in front of her monitors and calmly reached his prosthetic over before gently plucking the empty soda can off the desk beside her. She felt a wave of confusion as he turned with one last glare in her direction, before he began to walk towards the wall near the entrance door. She finally noticed he was carrying his coffee cup in the other hand.

Oh.

He wasn’t going to kill her. He was just.. getting more drinks. For both of them it seemed, considering she could hear the hiss of the team’s coffee machine in the dark, and the quiet open and close of their small stocked fridge. Ari stared down at her hands in her lap, cringing with each step as she heard him approach, desperately embarrassed by her overreaction.

She winced as she heard the clunk of the soft drink can he’d placed on the desk inches in front of her, and muttered a breathy “Sorry.”, still avoiding looking at him directly. The tap of his prosthetic’s finger on the rim of the can was a clear signal he wanted her to however, and she reluctantly raised her eyes to meet his, painfully aware of her flushed cheeks.

“Don’t worry about it.” he chuckled, still looming over the rise of her monitors like a lanky predator eying up its next meal. “J said you were good at speaking your mind. I kinda appreciate that with the people I have here. Means the feedback I get is uhh” he raised his eyebrows as he thoughtfully looked to the side “.. actually useful at times.”

“Besides, you’re wrong anyway, little miss thinks-she-knows-shit.” he scoffed, smiling into his coffee as he sipped from the refilled cup, then letting his gaze shift afterwards from the hot drink back to the extremely confused Ariana. “I’m from a shithole too.”

It took her a second for what he’d said to really register, and then Ari laughed. Really laughed, deep from her guts in snorting, gasping bursts. A moment later, he joined her, and for the first time that night it was truly genuine from him, even if it was quiet and tired, and still a little awkward.

The pause after was comfortable, and he stalked back to his chair, slumping into it as he nursed his drink. She eyed the can he’d brought her, the exact same energy drink as what had been empty on her desk, and the realisation he had been paying such attention felt oddly flattering to Ariana, like warmth deep in her belly. She reached out and touched the can, only the sounds of Troy sipping his drink and the fans and quiet clicks of the machine components around them breaking the silence. It wasn’t something she was used to. She was used to not mattering enough to notice things about, and wasn’t sure how to really handle this feeling. It felt welcoming, but frightening. Like being on the precipice of something. Like change.

“By the way” he smoothly interrupted her thoughts as he called over to her “I’m here most nights, around this time. If, you know, you do prefer working late, just keep in mind I’ll be around too. Long as it doesn’t affect your work, I’m ok to share the editing room with you like this.”

Ari was unsure why exactly, but that did something to her. It was innocent, it was an olive branch of friendship, she knew, but the reaction was visceral. Her instincts kicked in once more and a thrill of cold ran up her spine, prompting her to stand quickly and finally attempt to take her leave, approaching his desk nervously to bid her farewell.

“Troy, um, God King, thank you! For.. the chat, it was .. fun?” she stammered while eying the exit door as he lazily watched from over his raised cup.

“I’ve finished the tasks you queued for me so I’m going to, um, go to sleep hahhh.” she laughed unconvincingly, wringing her hands together as she awkwardly sidestepped towards the door, slowly turning away from him as she edged closer to her escape.

“Mmhm.. sure. Night.” he mused, cocking an eyebrow as he considered her with deep set interest, before continuing just as she reached towards the door controls.

"Oh, and Bunny?“ Troy drawled, watching as she stopped in her tracks and slowly turned to face the editing chair he was draped over.

"Keep all of this - " He gestured lazily between them, and raised a finger to tap the frame of his glasses as he locked eyes with her over the lenses. "- to yourself."

"Being cute doesn't stop wolves from eating little rabbits alive... Understand?“

There was a pregnant silence as Ari parsed the threat, the roaring of her own pulse overpowering the background hum of the cooling fans thrumming in the darkness of the almost entirely empty editing room she was so close to escaping from.

"Yes... sir” she swallowed shakily “ I understand."

She winced at the streak of blue light that pierced the darkness when Troy's metallic canines caught the monitor's glow as his mouth split into a vicious grin.

"Good girl. Sleep tight then. Night night." the God King sneered through those sharp, sharp teeth...

---

But Ariana didn’t sleep tight, and she spent all night trying to work out exactly why.

************

If you enjoyed this I’d love to hear comments or feedback, and you can check the rest of my twins writing:

Here

#borderlands #borderlands 3 #bl3 #troy calypso #calypso twins #ariana-serino #jameson-black #my hcs #my writing

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clownsgobeepbeep · 7 years ago

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Treasure

First Pirate AU drabble, yay! This is just something really quick I thought of, might continue it or write a drabble that's completely different ^^

"Let go of me!"

"Sorry Highness, but it's for your own safety ." a girl's voice said to the woman who was currently being held with her arms tied behind her back.

"Dragging me to a ship's jail cells will not aid me in safety! Let go of me, please!"the first voice said before

"I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request." the second one spoke again before giggling. "That means no. Heheh, your lover Roger taught me that!"

The hostaged woman, Bella, stopped her struggling for a moment before turning to look at the one holding her.

"Lover!? That damned pirate is no lover of mine nor do I-"

"Ah, yada yada! Stop yer yapping and walk already! I don't have time to hear you talk about him. I got other things to do."

Bella let out a yelp once she her holder shove her forwards and she luckily was able to catch herself, and she continued walking towards wherever she was being lead as she heard the wooden floor creak under her as well as loud laughter above her. She looked around the noticed that there wasn't very much to work with, the area was crowded with cells holding previous prisoners, alive or well...not so alive.

She glanced to the side and let out a quiet gasp once her eyes landed on what appeared to be a hook stuck to the wall, a rather sharp one that could have helped. Bella turned to look at the woman holding her who only gave her a smug expression as she hummed to herself, and she turned back to the front to look at the hook that they were slowly approaching.

Her eyes remained on it and right when she was a few feet away from it, she lifted her leg backwards and heard a grunt of pain after she had kicked the woman's shin and was soon released. Bella ignored the fact that the woman was down trying to soothe the pain on her leg and ran towards the hook from before and turned so that her hands were now in front of it. She risked her hands and fished around for the hook, cutting her palm which made her wince, but she bit her lip before the hook cut her ropes and she was free.

Bella wasted no time and dashed the way she had been escorted through, shoving the other woman away to the side to run towards the end where there was a stairway. Although rather than running up, she ducked behind it to hide in the darkness as the other woman now looked around for her but did not find her anywhere. Bella saw that she stomped her boot before running up the stairs which made Bella sigh in relief before she circled around the stairs and slowly began walking up, making sure to not make a single sound nor be seen.

The higher she climbed, the louder the laughter above sounded which made her heart beat faster. She gulped and walked up, looking around and thankfully saw nobody which gave her the sign to continue on her way. She realized that she was now on the second level of the pirate ship she was forced onto, and there was a bit more light which helped her sea the swords that were scattered on a pile.

Bella turned again to make sure she was safe before she leaned down and grabbed one of them so that she now had a way of fighting her way out. She pivoted her body and let out a loud yelp once she saw a tall figure standing in front of the stairway she planned on using to go onto the deck.

"Where do you think you're going, princess?"the man said with crossed arms and a smirk, though his smirk disappeared once Bella revealed the sword she had gotten. Though he let out a dark chuckle.

"Move out of the way, and I won't cut you! I am not afraid of you!"

"You should be but here, I think there's another pirate you should be scared of."he replied as his eyes looked behind her, so she quickly turned before she lifted the sword to defend herself from-...oh no.

"My little angel, where are you off to?"

"That is none of your concern!"she yelled at the other man who slowly walked towards her with his arms behind him, and he held a smug expression as he chuckled to himself, then stopping once a few feet away from her.

"Why, it is very much my concern. I got you as my pet, and it's now my responsibility to nurture and care for you. Can't have these dirty pirates doing anything to you, now can we?" he said before taking another step, a very slow one as if trying to scare her.

"I am nothing of yours! Now let me go before I-"

"You, what? Duel me with that petty little sword of yours?"he asked in a mocking tone before he brought his arms out, the right one reaching to his left side before he pulled out his own sword. "Because please be my guest, and entertain me with whatever you have up your sleeve, angel."

Bella furrowed her eyebrows and frowned, but did not take action until she heard the other man behind her walk towards her. She stepped forwards and swung her sword at the man in front of her, though he easily deflected her attack before also disarming her which made her eyes widen as her sword flew off and clanked against the floor.

"Tsk, tsk. And to think you'd be a lot more prepared."the pirate said before putting his sword back into its holder, then giving her slow claps. "Horrible foot work if I do say so myself, and that attack was just so...wrong it's pitiful."

The pirate, who she learned to be named Roger, lowered one hand down before the other that was still up snapped its fingers.

"Grab her and take her to her cell." he said and before Bella could react, the other man from behind grabbed her arms.

"Let go of me you brute!" Bella yelled as she struggled getting out of his grip, though he proved to be a lot stronger than the woman from before.

"Now, now, I don't think that's a very nice thing to say sweetheart."Roger said as he brought his hand up to stroke her cheek with a smile, but he then stopped and looked at the other man. "Abraham, be gentle with her and make sure she's comfortable...or I'll be dealing with you later myself."

"You got it."the taller man said before pulling Bella away, and she groaned after giving up because she knew that there was no way out of it this time considering the size of this giant pirate. She turned and saw Roger who now walked up the stairway but stopped when the woman from before walk down with another prisoner in her hands.

"Where are you taking them Maggie? Stellar gave orders to not bring them down to the cells."he said before the woman shrugged.

"Dunno, I was told to bring 'em down to the cells."

"Well don't, Stellar said he wants to talk to Captain Tennant here."Roger said as he smirked at said person who glared down at him.

"Aye aye Cap-I mean, Roger!"she said before turning and walking up with Roger following behind as Bella was taken back down to the cells with a frustrated expression.

"Must you continue holding me in such a position?"the prisoner said before Roger shrugged to himself as he now walked in front of them and Maggie.

"Is there a problem with being held that way?"

"It's far too uncomfortable and it hurts my wrists, along with the idea that you know there is no need to hold me!"

"Lighten up Harley, it's all part of the act!"Maggie exclaimed, but they then pulled their arms away before rubbing their wrists.

"I know that quite well, but the entire crew knows that I mean no harm nor that Stellar plans on harming me."

"Yeah, they know it so well that Abraham's spread the rumor that either of you's might be eunuchs heheh."

"Roger this was a crew secret!"

"Thought Harley might as well know considering nobody knows what these two do in Stellar's quarters."

"Would it be alright is we ceased the talk on the topic of Stellar and me? Where might you all be going and why would I be needed in your journey?"Harley interrupted with a reddened face before Roger cleared his throat.

"Since we've finished ravaging your precious little bay,it's time that we head back into the sea."he started before turning to look at Harley. "We're visiting big sis."

"Coraline? I thought you only-"

"We only visit when the sun is out, I know. But there's been storms meaning she's not in the best of moods, and we happen to have to many bodies on board."

"We're feeding Calypso!"Maggie said in an excited tone.

"The Kraken!?" Harley exclaimed in full surprise, especially when they remembered the girl that was dragged through the ship earlier. "And you're feeding that poor girl to the kraken as well!?"

"Oh no, not her."Roger said when a chuckle. "Bella is...a sweet little angel I happened to pick up while on the shores...a treasure she is...and I plan on keeping her all to myself."

#belinda the ballerina #maggie the clown #ace the clown #pepper the clown #cuckoo the clown #pirate au #huehue #damn all my titles suck lmao #belpepper

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lady-adventuress · 7 years ago

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Books I Read in 2017

Alphabetical list here, reviews under the cut in chronological order:

Almond, David: A Song for Ella Gray

Bardugo, Leigh: The Grisha Trilogy, Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom

Cline, Ernest: Ready Player One

Cloonan, Becky, Brendan Fletcher, and Karl Kerschl: Gotham Academy Vol. 1-2

Cluess, Jessica: A Shadow Bright and Burning

Coulthurt, Audrey: Of Fire and Stars

del Duca, Leila and Kit Seaton: Afar

Dragoon, Leigh and Jessie Sheron: Ever After High: Class of Classics

Flores, Chynna Clugston, et al.: Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy

Gaiman, Neil: American Gods

Gaiman, Neil and Chris Riddell: The Sleeper and the Spindle

George, Madeleine: The Difference Between You and Me

Gilmour, H.B. and Randi Reisfeld: T*Witches #1-10

Hale, Shannon: Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World

Hicks, Faith Erin: The Nameless City, The Stone Heart

Jensen, Michael and David Powers King: Woven

LaCour, Nina: We Are Okay

Larson, Hope: Chiggers, Mercury

Lubar, David: Sophomores and Other Oxymorons

Riordan, Rick: The Trials of Apollo #1-2, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #2-3

Shea, Lisa: Ever After High: Once Upon a Twist: Cerise and the Beast

Stewart, Cameron, Brendan Fletcher, and Babs Tarr: Batgirl Vol. 1

Stoker, Bram: Dracula

Sugiura, Misa: It’s Not Like It’s a Secret

Turtschaninoff, Maria: Maresi

Weir, Andy: The Martian

West, Hannah: Kingdom of Ash and Briars

I also listened to a lot of audiobooks as I was working this year, but since I have terrible audio comprehension, I stuck to books I’ve already read and know I like:

From Tamora Pierce, Alanna: The First Adventure and the Trickster series, read by Trini Alvarado. The Protector of the Small series, read by Bernadette Dunne. The Immortals Quartet, Sandry’s Book, and The Will of the Empress, Full Cast Audio narrated by Tamora Pierce. All of them were good, but I especially loved hearing the Trickster series and all of the Full Cast books. I absolutely recommend them. Immortals was my favorite.

From Eoin Colfer, the Artemis Fowl series, read by Nathaniel Parker. I liked it a lot. It’s nice being able to hear the accents and remember that Artemis is actually Irish.

T*Witches #1-10, by H.B. Gilmour and Randi Reisfeld. Twin witches who were separated at birth meet at age fourteen and must learn magic to protect themselves from their evil uncle. This is a series from my childhood that still holds up in a cheesy nostalgic way. I always found the attempt at teen slang baffling, but at its core the story is still about family and girls supporting each other and trying to do the right thing. Excellent and complicated relationships between both biological and adopted families, excellent and complicated supporting characters.

Dracula, by Bram Stoker. An ancient vampire brings death and evil to England while a group of mostly-bumbling protagonists try to stop him. It’s hard to read a book like this without being influenced by the cultural interpretation, but one thing that really threw me off is the importance of characters that seem to get really downplayed in adaptations. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the book, but I did enjoy how ridiculous parts of it was.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World, by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale. A fourteen-year-old girl tries to make new friends while keeping her squirrel tail and superpowers a secret. I love Shannon Hale’s children’s books. Squirrel Girl had the charm of her Ever After High work, surprisingly without being as over-the-top. Doreen isn’t the type of protagonist I tend to relate to and I always get a little weirded out with anthropomorphized animals, but the book was fun and funny with distinct voices and an appropriate amount of camp. Also, footnotes.

The Difference Between You and Me, by Madeleine George. The closeted popular girl and school outcast are on opposite sides of school politics, which causes problems in their secret relationship. I feel like there are tons of fanfictions like this, so I was glad when this book didn’t run into the overused tropes. Unfortunately, it didn’t really have much in the way of conflict at all, which was surprising when it seemed like every single character’s opinions were meant to be deliberately polarizing. I thought that situations and characters were set up really well, but none of it really came together in a satisfying way.

Chiggers, by Hope Larson. Graphic novel. A girl navigates summer camp drama and befriends the girl no one else likes. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Hope Larson, but I couldn’t like this book even though I was trying to. It felt like nothing was happening for most of the story, and I’m not sure what was accomplished in telling it. The elements of magical realism were interesting, but it wasn’t enough to carry the story, and neither was the mundane drama. There wasn’t enough time to invest in the characters.

Mercury, by Hope Larson. Graphic novel. A girl’s experience with a mysterious gold prospector affects the life of her modern-day descendant. The story was thought-provoking, even if it took me a while to get into it, and the magical realism was well-integrated. I don’t love Larson’s cartooning style, but I thought it was much more readable than Chiggers without sacrificing its uniqueness.

The Nameless City, by Faith Erin Hicks. Graphic novel. A boy befriends a native girl in the city his people conquered. Hicks’ visual storytelling skills are excellent, and I love how her characters and expression can be both subtle and cartoony. The story was thoughtful and deals with political realities in a way that doesn’t demonize or alienate anyone. Jordie Bellaire’s color palettes are beautiful.

Unfortunately, the sequel The Stone Heart doesn’t quite live up to the first book. The art is still excellent, but the pacing and plot seemed less well-planned, especially since the story now seems to be heading in a more predictable direction. There’s a third book forthcoming, so maybe that opinion will change.

Batgirl Vol. 1: Batgirl of Burnside, by Cameron Stewart, Brendan Fletcher, and Babs Tarr. Trade paperback. A college student tries to reinvent her vigilante identity while dealing with being the personal target of a mysterious villain. This was definitely not a bad book, but it also didn’t feel like a Barbara Gordon book. If you’re writing for characters with decades of history, that legacy deserves to be respected, and I’m not sure Stewart and Fletcher accomplished that in the writing. Separate from preconceptions, the plot was solidly set up with good dialogue and distinct characterization, although I thought Barbara’s arc had a weak resolution. Tarr’s art is great, though, and I can definitely see why this series is so popular.

Gotham Academy Vol. 1-2, by Becky Cloonan, Brendan Fletcher, and Karl Kerschl. Trade paperbacks. A girl investigates a haunting at her school, which is connected to a mysterious summer experience she can’t remember. Kerschl’s character acting is excellent, and the relationship between the protagonist Olive and her ex-boyfriend’s sister Maps is immediately compelling. The cast is well-rounded and interesting, and I enjoyed reading a comic set in a superhero world without being a superhero book. Plot elements are set up from the first issue, and the story is a lot of fun overall.

A Song for Ella Grey, by David Almond. A modern version of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth is told from the perspective of Eurydice’s best friend. Almond is an excellent writer, but I felt like this was a story that didn’t need to be retold, especially with his addition of a tragic unrequited queer romance. The protagonist doesn’t have any agency within the storyline so it felt like a series of events happening in sequence rather than a narrative. I did think the formatting shift at the turning point was interesting, but the myth dragged unnecessarily in order to fill the length of the novel.

The Trials of Apollo #1: The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan. The Greek god Apollo is sent to earth as a teenager as punishment for his arrogance and is bound to the service of a young girl. It’s hard to enter into the Trials of Apollo series without prior knowledge of Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus, and even as a fan of the other books in the universe, I had a hard time engaging with Apollo as a protagonist. The narration fit the character well, though, and Riordan deals with serious subjects without resolving anything prematurely. I liked that each chapter was introduced with a haiku rather than a title.

The second book in the series, The Dark Prophecy, is similar in tone to the first. I would say the biggest change is the addition of Leo and Calypso from the prequel series to finish off the classic trio of heroes. That dynamic was interesting, and I also really enjoyed the appearance of my favorite Percy Jackson character.

We Are Okay, by Nina LaCour. A girl deals with grief over her grandfather’s death and reconnects with her best friend during winter break of her first year of college. It was a slow start and I had some trouble keeping up with shifts in the narration, but I ended up liking this book a lot. The writing is atmospheric and captures the protagonist’s thoughts well. The setup for the mystery is subtle and doesn’t take focus from the characters.

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. After three years in jail and his wife’s death, a man takes a job that involves him in a war between old and new gods. I really like Gaiman’s writing, and Shadow is a protagonist that is engaging despite his relative passiveness. Even so, I wouldn’t say this was a book I actually enjoyed all that much, and plot twists were well-developed to the point that they weren’t particularly surprising or satisfying. I’ve seen a lot of stories modernize gods, so Gaiman’s treatment didn’t seem as unique as I’d been led to believe. That being said, maybe I would have enjoyed this more if I’d read it earlier.

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Hammer of Thor, by Rick Riordan. A teenager resurrected as a Viking warrior goes on a quest to retrieve Thor’s hammer. This series in particular seems to depend on pop culture references, so while I liked the writing, I wonder if it will stay as relevant as Riordan’s other books. I did really enjoy the cast and the expansion of their backstories, and this book sets up what seems to be more of a crossover with the Percy Jackson series.

Book three, The Ship of the Dead, was also really fun. The closing of The Hammer of Thor was a little misleading in that the crossover elements were limited to the beginning and end of the story as usual, but by this time the characters are more than capable of standing on their own. It seems like this book is the last of the series, and it managed to close out the plot pretty well.

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, by Leigh Bardugo. Six teenagers are hired to break a political prisoner out of a foreign country. Not only is this an excellent heist story with a really detailed plot, but each of the characters are fully developed and they all have their own arcs throughout the books. Bardugo’s cast is inclusive and intersectional without feeling like she’s checking off a list and the writing is witty with clear voices. Both the characters and plot drive the story. I can’t say enough good things about this duology.

The Grisha Trilogy, by Leigh Bardugo. A teenage soldier discovers an elemental power and becomes part of a plan to overthrow a corrupt monarchy. This trilogy takes place before Bardugo’s Six of Crows books, but it was disappointing in comparison. I really disliked the protagonist, and there was a lot of focus on a frustrating romance, to the point that it overshadows the interesting worldbuilding. The plot dragged in places, despite being too thin to fill three books. Even so, there are a few really great supporting characters that almost made it worth it.

Sophomores and Other Oxymorons, by David Lubar. After a successful freshman year, a teenager’s overconfidence causes problems at his high school. This is the belated sequel to Sleeping Freshman Never Lie, which is one of my favorite books. Sophomores seems more self-referential and has a subplot that doesn’t seem to fit the tone as well, but for the most part it had the same witty charm that I loved about the first book. Of course, the best part of the series is still Lee, the female lead.

Maresi, by Maria Turtschaninoff. An abbey novice discovers her calling when a new girl with a troubled past arrives. This book was originally published in Finnish, I believe, but I think it must have lost something in the translation. The narration is distant, and even though parts of the world are described, it was hard to picture any of the setting. Overall it didn’t really hold my interest.

Kingdom of Ash and Briars, by Hannah West. After gaining magic powers and immortality, a girl becomes responsible for ensuring peace throughout three kingdoms. I really didn’t like this book. It treats the female characters poorly, especially the antagonist, and although the plot is ostensibly about duty, it’s heavy-handed, relies too much on tropes, and is really obviously motivated by romance. A lot of this can be overlooked if it’s ironic or just done well, but it never came together and ended up being very frustrating.

Of Fire and Stars, by Audrey Coulthurst. As she enters an arranged marriage, a princess has to hide her magic and her attraction to the prince’s sister. Even though the two protagonists are supposed to have equal weight, I ended up almost actively disliking one of them. The plot isn’t terribly engaging, but because I couldn’t get behind one of the characters, the romance couldn’t carry the novel for me. It wasn’t bad, but I wish it was better.

Princess Academy: The Forgotten Sisters, by Shannon Hale. A commoner-turned-princess takes an unattractive job to teach court manners to three royal sisters. This book is the third in Hale’s Princess Academy series and it is just as excellent as the first two. The plot is set up well across multiple books, and Miri is an excellent and flawed protagonist who is capable without overshadowing the other characters. The romantic plots don’t feel forced and the narration accomplishes a lot of interesting worldbuilding. Another book with girls supporting one another despite not necessarily understanding each other.

The Martian, by Andy Weir. An astronaut is stranded on Mars after an early mission evacuation and must survive until he can be rescued. I was skeptical about the premise, but everything is well thought out and clearly explained, without sacrificing either reader engagement or scientific accuracy. The protagonist has a great voice, but as soon as the perspective shifts away from his first-person mission logs, it’s easy to tell that Weir isn’t a very experienced writer, since the other characters and third-person narration are not nearly as well-defined. Overall, though, it was still a good book.

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. A high-schooler who is desperate to escape a dystopian future dedicates his life to solving a virtual reality puzzle and becoming the heir to a video game empire. There were two things that I really disliked about this book, the first being the protagonist, who seemed like a terrible person for most of the book. The second is that, despite being ostensibly a celebration of pop culture (and especially 80s pop culture), the overall viewpoint seemed really rigid and judgemental. The writing was fine, and there were some really interesting puzzles, but in the end I felt like it was male nerd entitlement in novel form.

Ever After High: Once Upon a Twist: Cerise and the Beast, by Lisa Shea. The daughter of Red Riding Hood and the son of King Charming are forced into the roles of Beauty and the Beast in order to escape their midterm exam. Cerise and Dexter seem like an odd pair, which sometimes works in the Ever After High universe, but didn’t really here. Part of this I think is because this book is written for an even younger audience than the original so the characters lost a lot of their nuance. The only part of the story that surprised me was almost immediately negated by a soap opera-worthy plot device to prevent the status quo from changing.

Afar, by Leila del Duca and Kit Seaton. Graphic novel. A girl tries to fix problems caused by her newfound ability to project herself into different worlds, while keeping her younger brother out of trouble. There is a lot of visual worldbuilding here, which I thought was very well done. Plot wise, it felt like the protagonist’s arc was maybe just the first act of a much longer book, but the characters were solid all around.

Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy, by Chynna Clugston Flores, Rosemary Velero-O’Connell, Kelly Matthews, and Nichole Matthews. Graphic novel. The ensemble casts of Lumberjanes and Gotham Academy work together to free their teachers from a girl’s attempt to relive a disastrous birthday. I think this book is set up more for fans of both series, and since I’ve only read a little of Lumberjanes, I felt like I was playing catch-up for some parts. I did really like the parts that showcased the Gotham Academy characters, though. I felt like the art was missing the lushness and texture of what I remember of the regular series, which was disappointing.

Ever After High: The Class of Classics, by Leigh Dragoon and Jessi Sheron. Graphic novel. The children of popular fairy tales learn more about their parents by using magic to relive parts of their high school experience. This book was very disappointing compared to other parts of the franchise. The art is minimal and flat compared to the webseries, and all but one of the anthology-esque stories felt like retreading old ground. I also really disliked the narrative hoops the audience was expected to jump through just to keep anything significant from changing.

It’s Not Like It’s a Secret, by Misa Sugiura. After moving from Wisconsin to California, a Japanese-American girl struggles to build a life she is happy with while keeping secrets that could ruin her family. This book was a bit surreal to read because specific parts of it were identical to my high school experience, while other parts were completely foreign. Still, the writing is solid and thought-provoking, and I liked that there is no easy answer to the protagonist’s problems.

A Shadow Bright and Burning, by Jessica Cluess. A newly-discovered sorceress takes on the role of a prophecized savior in a fight against enormous apocalyptic monsters. I found it a little difficult to get into the characters, especially since there is only one girl in a large group of boys and the gender difference is a large part of their interactions. I disliked the romantic subplots, which seemed to take over the narrative, even though the worldbuilding and political aspects of the plot were really interesting.

The Sleeper and the Spindle, by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell. A queen postpones her wedding to deal with the sleeping curse that threatens to spread from the kingdom next door. The story begins as a mix of archetypes from Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, but Gaiman’s atmospheric writing elevate it even before the surprising finale. Riddell’s illustrations and other visual choices for the physical book are beautiful and tell the story meaningfully. Highly recommended.

Woven, by Michael Jensen and David Powers King. After his murder, an aspiring knight goes on a quest with a spoiled princess to stop the universe from unraveling. This book had an interesting premise, but its execution filled me with rage. Although it pretends to have dual protagonists, the princess is treated horribly by the narration without any kind of self-awareness. She is given a thin veneer of fighting ability but no agency in the story and is constantly being rescued without payoff. The writing and pacing also seemed flat. Overall extremely frustrating, especially because of the hints of interest.

#literature #book review #tamora pierce #immortals quartet #artemis fowl #grisha trilogy #six of crows #gotham academy #ever after high #percy jackson #magnus chase #twitches #dracula #neil gaiman #the sleeper and the spindle

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angelaiswriting · 8 years ago

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Back again | Charles Vane x Reader (part 1 of 2)

[Gif not mine] - READ PART TWO HERE

Requested by Anon: “First off I want to say how amazing your blog is!!!! I’ve been looking for stuff like this since the end of Black Sails! I was wondering if you could write an imagine where the reader brings Vane back from the dead (Kinda like Calypso & Barbosa In POTC) and Vane ends up falling for the reader. Thanks !!” + “Vane is Made Pirate King of Nassau and makes reader his Queen”

A/N: I thought I’d mix these two requests since I received them seven minutes apart and I had the feeling you were the same person who maybe forgot to add that second part + I apologize for any mistakes too. Also @selldraug would like to say "And Claudia said: bitch stop, you're gonna write a book" and I might. I MIGHT, because I’m just so in love with this request haha (part 2 might contain some smut because when Claudia requests I obey)

Fandom: Black Sails. Pairing: Charles Vane x Reader

Warnings: what if in which Vane is still alive. Nothing else I think ?

Word-count: 2887

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Charles felt uncomfortable. Something hard was behind his back – or beneath it: he wasn’t quite sure which of the two options was correct.

He clearly remembered dying, or at least standing on the gibbet. The Englishmen had hung him in front of the people that had once been his comrades or his enemies in the search for power and treasures that had led his – and still led theirs – life. He remembered saying something to them, something along the lines of ‘just kick their fat asses after I’m gone’, but he couldn’t quite grasp the exact words he had used.

His skin prickled. His neck hurt as if that damn rope were still around it, blocking the air from reaching his lungs.

Then it hit him. A strange smell of smoke. It wasn’t quite the smoke of cigars, or of bonfires, to which he had once been used to – it was sweeter, almost heavier, but smoke nevertheless. It felt like it was cuddling him, lulling him to sleep.

He had never believed in religion, in the distinction between Heaven and Hell, in the fight between God and the Devil, Good and Evil. He had never been quite a good person either – he had killed, kidnapped, robbed, hurt. He had been petty and violent. He had been enslaved, but he had eventually redeemed himself.

God had never been there for him – all his life he had believed only in himself, in his fellows and in his enemies, even. He’d send Him to hell if only he could.

That’s why he didn’t think he had ended up in Heaven.

Heaven would be too good for someone like him. He’d feel too much at peace there – Heaven was not a place for someone like Captain Charles Vane, restless, needing people, rum, gold, miles under his belt and under his Ranger.

He had probably fallen asleep, even though he had yet to open his eyes.

It was just too peaceful, laying or standing there like that – wherever he was. He didn’t even care if he was in a coffin six feet under or at the bottom of the sea. He felt like he had earned some sleep, some rest. Because let’s admit it: being a pirate and a captain is not an easy thing. You always had to watch your back, to grant the crew what they needed (which almost always was gold to buy rum or to bang a whore). You had to plan the assaults, to keep away from His Highness’s ships and bounty hunters, for you almost always had a bag of silver hanging above your head and a whole bunch of bigots who wanted you dead.

And he had died, to their utter joy.

They got rid of Charles Vane and they were now free from that terror.

Or at least that’s what they might have been thinking, Charles told himself.

Days had passed. Maybe centuries. Charles didn’t even know – time felt like it was flowing terribly slowly, it felt dilated, heavy. He didn’t know and he didn’t even care. He felt like it didn’t matter. And if this was eternity... well, he’d have to put up with it.

Then, suddenly, almost unexpectedly, his eyes fluttered open on their own accord.

For a moment the bright light blinded him and he squinted his eyes.

Now that he was wide awake he could feel something under his back, something soft, not hard as he had perceived it before. Peeking from under his lashes he saw the hem of a brown blanket covering him, rising and falling with each breath he took.

Did he just come back from the dead?

It was a silly thought, but a hope nevertheless. He wasn’t done with life. Heck, he’d never be done with the sea – it was still out there, somewhere, waiting for him, calling him like a siren, needing him to sail it again.

And maybe God – that God in which he had never believed before, that God who had always been against him – was the only one to actually know how much he still needed it – the sea, the sand, the rum, a ship under his feet. He still needed the world and whatever it had to offer. And he’d always be there to catch its gifts.

A low hum distracted him and he immediately closed his eyes shut, slowing his breath down, pretending to be asleep.

He felt someone entering the room, shuffling things around, humming an old tune he had already heard somewhere in his past – or maybe it was just an impression since he couldn’t remember the moment or the person who had once hummed it.

“My God, Charles Vane,” a woman’s voice huffed. “If only had I known you’d take so long to wake up from the dead, I would’ve never brought you back.”

Another sigh.

Then he felt the mattress underneath his body lowering, something warm – probably her body – sitting just millimeters from his left leg.

“I had heard you were a good company,” she went on and Charles heard the noise of moving water. “But I must be honest with you: you’re actually not.” She moved a little in her spot: what Charles thought was her thigh got closer to his own and he thought she had turned to look at him.

Him? Not a good company? Who the heck was this girl?

“I mean, I know that coming back from death is no walk in the park, but come on!” She got closer and pushed his thigh a little. He felt the blanket being lifted from him and the hot air in the room hit his chest like a slap. “I know I shouldn’t because let me tell you – you have a great body,” she spoke again and something wet started to clean his chest. “Scarred and all, but a great body indeed,” the woman added. “But, you know, I’m tired of cleaning you up. I can’t even get it – you’re always sweating.”

Charles tried not to frown – who the hell was she? What did she want? The urge to shut her up was so strong he literally had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from opening that damn mouth he had.

He let her wash his chest and when he felt her movements go lower, he opened his eyes.

He only had a couple of seconds to take in her Y/H/C hair before he grabbed her left wrist in a swift movement.

She jumped in surprise and the cloth she was using to wash him fell on his abdomen. She struggled to get free and ended up knocking his groin with her elbow. The grasp on her wrist disappeared all at once as Charles closed his legs and eyes, cursing under his breath.

Y/N jumped on her feet. Before he knew it Charles Vane had a gun pointing at his head.

“Don’t move or I’ll send you back where I took you from,” she growled, but he could see the fear in her eyes, hear it in her voice.

Charles got up on an elbow, one hand still on his groin. Damn, he didn’t come back from the dead to be kicked where the sun doesn’t shine, he thought. Or at least he hoped. “Who the hell are you?”

“Well, no ’thank you’?” she pouted, gun still aiming at him.

“Thank you,” he mocked her, sitting up. His eyes hurt like hell and they were so sensitive that they were watering.

“I’m Y/N,” she answered. “And close your eyes, they’ve not recovered completely yet,” she added, throwing him a dark bandage and lowering the gun.

She stared at him for a minute or so before reaching the bed again. Charles recoiled a little, scared he might get hit again, and dragged the blankets with him. Y/N simply bent down to grab the washbowl full of water but didn’t dare to retrieve the cloth she used with him.

The young woman reached the doorway and moved the curtain she used as a door. She had already taken a step forward when she stilled for a second. She turned to face Charles Vane and smiled. “Sleep now, you need to rest.”

A week had passed by quickly.

Charles had already started to go outside, even though Y/N always tried to stop him. He had just come back from the afterlife – the whole ritual had exhausted her and she couldn’t even start to guess how weak he had to feel – but he needed to go back to the world.

She almost liked him better unconscious. Those first three weeks had passed slowly, but at least he had been silent. Now he had turned out to be a huge pain in the ass. He whined about everything, had her to sleep on the uncomfortable couch she had in what could’ve been called a living room, and did absolutely nothing to help her out.

Charles sat by the sea, not knowing where he was. She told him they were still on New Providence Island, but in which fucking part? He was fuming: he had to go back. Go back and check on the Englishmen. Help out those who wanted them dead. Kill Eleanor himself.

“Make yourself useful,” Y/N’s voice grunted and a second later two big fish brushed against his head while falling.

He turned around and grabbed her by her ankle, stopping her from stomping away. “Who do you think I am?”

“I brought you back, Charles,” she growled, freeing her foot. “Show more gratitude or I’ll send you back. People like you cast me out. I helped you because I thought you could change the things on this stupid island,” and she knelt down in front of him, eyes burning, rage furiously flowing with her blood in her veins. “You’d better show me you deserved being saved because I’m no lady and I can be your worst nightmare.”

And with those words, she left.

“I’ve been a dick,” Charles said out of nowhere that evening, while the two were having dinner.

The fish he had cleaned was delicious and Y/N would’ve loved to have more of it, but that frigging pirate was starving and she had to cede part of her food. And she understood it, really – being dead and coming back, remaining unconscious for weeks and drinking somehow only fish soup didn’t sound like easy things, but...

She sighed. “Yes.”

“I’d like to apologize,” he continued, pouring more water into his wooden glass.

“You better,” she mumbled before standing up. She took his dish and hers and reached the sink in the adjoined little kitchen.

“Sleep in your bed tonight.”

She turned towards him and frowned. Was he kidding? Or did he really mean it? “You don’t fit on the couch,” she pointed out, raising an eyebrow. Was he going to sleep on the floor? She’d laugh: Captain Charles Vane sleeping on the ground just so that she could have her bed back. She shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t worry about me. Just think about your health: the sooner you recover, the sooner I kick you out of my house.”

They slept together that night. It wasn’t romantic, it wasn’t for sex – they just laid in Y/N’s bed, side by side, and they both fought to fall asleep.

They talked for a while – she told him how she had found his corpse a few feet from her door, that she had no idea who could have brought him there. She didn’t exactly tell him how she brought him back – and sure as hell all she wanted was to forget the things she had done to reach her target – but she explained how she had taken care of him before he woke up.

He let her talk and kept his gaze fixed on her face only because he knew she had her eyes closed. He like the sound of her voice, it always calmed him somehow. And when her voice did its magic he always realized how he had needed it without even knowing.

Her skin was pale, even though the sun burnt New Providence and everyone and everything on the island. She had the skin of a lady, one of those you could find in a big city, with a nice house, a rich husband and kids she didn’t have to look after.

He brushed his hand against her arm, but she gave no sign of feeling his touch.

“Why did you take me back? Why did you think I was worthy of it?” he suddenly asked, voice tired.

She managed to shrug her shoulders even if she was laying. “You were strong, determined. No one even dared to stop you, everyone feared you. But you cared for your people and followed your heart, doing what you thought was the right thing to do,” she answered and turned her head in his direction, eyes wide open. “I thought... maybe you were the right person to free Nassau, to bring order.” She snickered while adding: “To get rid of those Guthries.”

They both laid in silence for a while, him staring at the ceiling and her staring at his profile.

“And because you were a slave and freed yourself,” she whispered. “I wish I had your same strength back in the days.”

He frowned and tried to ask her what she meant, but she yawned and snuggled into the cushions.

Before he knew it, she was sound asleep. In the dim light of the candle still burning on her bedside table, he saw a pale long scar on her right cheek.

A month had passed since his resurrection, but Charles couldn’t accept the idea of leaving Y/N and the peace of the place where she lived.

It was quiet, no one ever came. Isolated God knows where her cottage was small but comfortable. A vegetable garden was the first thing that would welcome you when you reached her house. Tomatoes tanned under the sun, herbs scented the air, flowers shone like stars.

Charles had never thought of having a house, or a wife. For a long, long time his house had been the Ranger, his wife – the sea. His crew had been like an extended family – they were the only people he’d ever need, the only people he had trusted, the only people he had wanted by his side.

But now... with each day he felt himself falling harder for the young woman who had resurrected him. He almost felt the need to stay with her, to even just stare at her while she did whatever she did every day. He smelled the sea on her skin and that salty water – which he had loved all his life – smelled differently, it changed her scent and she changed its.

He had never been the romantic guy some women wanted. He was rough, he was vulgar at times, he was more like the raging sea than a man. But with her by his side, with peace filling his days, with nothing to worry about... a thought flashed in his mind, almost like a wish, like a hope: he could stay here forever. He could go to sea and come back to her, and in those days in which he'd remain home he could smell the scent of the unknown on her skin, see distant places in her eyes, hear in her voice the sound the wind makes when it caresses the sails.

“What are you staring at?” she asked, smiling, and sat next to him on the shore.

She was bare feet and wore blue cotton trousers and one of the shirts she had given him.

“You,” he blurted out before he could stop his tongue.

Her cheeks turned red, but he wasn’t quite sure whether it was because of the hot sun or because of his words.

He caught himself thinking how cute she was, with red cheeks and light freckles dotting the skin of her face.

She averted her gaze and turned towards the sea.

Waves were washing the shore and the sun looked like fire on the water. Seagulls were flying and screaming above their heads.

“Was it hard?” he asked, hoping to get her to talk.

“What?”

“Bringing me back.”

She looked at him and smiled, then shrugged her shoulders. “No,” she answered, but Charles knew she was lying.

“What’s that scar on your face?”

“The past,” Y/N sighed. “And the past stays in the past,” she added. “You’ve quite recovered.”

She looked sad while she stared at him. The wind was blowing from the sea against her face and her hair flew behind her in a Y/H/C mess.

He nodded and this once he was the one to stare at the sea. “Do you want me gone?”

Y/N sighed. “No, I’m not sure. I’ve been alone for years and it’s good to finally have someone to talk to, even if that someone’s just got back from the dead.”

“I like it here,” he confessed, wrists resting on his knees. “With you.”

She smiled and threw some sand in his direction.

“But I have to go back to Nassau,” he added, turning to face her.

She sat still for a moment and he saw her swallowing hard. Then she nodded.

“And I want you to come with me. I’ll need your help to take the port.”

#charles vane #charles vane imagine #captain charles vane #black sails #black sails imagine #black sails imagines #imagine #imagines #charles vane x reader #reader insert #writeblr #requests

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percyjacksonfan3 · 7 years ago

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Finding Home (Part Two)

Part One: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home

Leo did not feel good.

His head felt like his dad was stuck inside of it, trying to break out with a hammer. He missed Calypso, his sleep had been plagued with nightmares and a creepy voice telling him to go back to Camp as soon as he woke up and on top of that he had been woken by a huge, metal, fire-breathing dragon stomping and flying around acting like a crazy automaton.

Oh and of course, Percy was missing. So there was that.

Gods, the guy needed one of those tracking bracelets or something, Leo thought to himself. Seriously, going missing once when an angry Queen of the Gods kidnaps you is understandable. Twice is practically a hobby.

Did that stop Leo from looking for the guy? Heck no! If it wasn’t for the fact that Leo actually liked Percy (when the guy wasn’t staring at him with a weird, uncomfortable look on his face) it would have been because Annabeth was back to being the scary version of herself, one willing to kill to get her boyfriend back; (and Leo was not in the mentality to handle that, he was too young and good looking to die. Besides, Calypso would miss him).

Of course the risk of death obviously wasn’t a strong enough motivator for Leo to close his big mouth around the scary blonde.

“Alright, that’s Festus ready.” He said tiredly, wiping his eyes. It was dawn and while he’d been loading their things up the others had been standing around coming up with a plan. “Let’s go.”

Annabeth’s bag, one Leo had wisely let her keep, was hoisted onto her shoulder. “Be careful guys.”

“Wait, what?” Jason placed a hand on her arm. “Annabeth, you heard Chiron-”

“Chiron’s wrong.” Annabeth interrupted. “I’m not leaving Percy stranded out here.”

“Babes, he could be anywhere by now,” Piper said softly, watching with worried eyes. “We should go back, try and track him-”

“No.” Annabeth’s voice was final. “Look, I told you two about what Percy and I discussed,” her eyes flicker quickly to Leo and he opens his mouth to ask but a look from Piper quickly has him snapping it shut. His head hurts enough without being yelled at by her too. “I have my pack. I have drachma for Iris-messaging. As soon as I get him I’ll let someone know.”

“Annabeth, we need to go.” Leo said. “Chiron doesn’t want you left behind and-”

“Leo, I’m not-”

“And something weird happened.” Leo said. “Look, my head’s killing me and I can barely remember anything from last night, okay, but I know I dreamt some weird voice telling me we had to leave. Now.” His tone and look softened at the slightly desperate look in her grey eyes. “I know you’re worried, we all are. But it’s not safe out here, Annabeth.”

She swallowed visibly. “I’m not going with you, Leo.” Her voice was soft.

“We’re not leaving you here alone.” Leo says, forging on. “Annabeth, we can come back as soon as we’re done talking to Chiron. We can get help from the others and have everyone out searching. But we won’t let you go alone, not when there’s something out here hurting people and kidnapping them.”

“Whatever it is could be hurting Percy right now-”

“I know.” Leo said gently. This was becoming familiar territory, talking to Annabeth when she was stressed out from her missing boyfriend, and Leo couldn’t say he liked that. Gods knew he’d spent enough time with her working on the Argo II that he was well versed with this side of her. “And how do you think he’d feel if you were kidnapped with him? If he had to watch you be hurt. Do you think that would help him?”

She pauses, the logic getting through to her, making her hesitate. “At least we’d be together.” She says weakly.

“Annabeth,” Piper breaks in. “Come with us. We’ll come back right away, I promise. We’ll break out of Camp if we have to. But we need help, we need to regroup, none of us can do this alone. None of us know what we’re up against.”

Again she hesitates and Leo tries to pout the way he’s seen Percy do when he wants something. “None of us want you to go missing too. We packed for a scouting mission, not a retrieval. We need help”

Annabeth stares at him for almost a minute before sighing, her pack falling from her shoulder to land on the ground. “Fine,” she mutters, adjusting her sword on her back and then grabbing the pack to climb on Festus. “But tomorrow I’m coming back here.”

Nobody argued with her.

It was a quiet journey back to Camp. Leo could practically hear Annabeth making plans where she was sitting behind him, and he couldn’t see or hear Piper and Jason.

When they landed Chiron, Mr. D and Grover were all waiting for them. Leo left Festus to curl up in the sun in front of the Big House and followed the others to Chiron’s office.

After Jason had explained in detail what had happened in the past day Chiron nodded. Leo glanced around and noticed Mr. D watching the centaur carefully, a shrewd look in his eye and Leo wondered what that was all about.

Grover was nervously chewing on his shirt and Annabeth was holding his hand, both of them watching Chiron closely.

The sight made Leo sad. He wondered what it was like for them, having lived this way for over 10 years. Having friends and loved ones disappear, never to come back. Unravelling strange prophecies that didn’t make sense, fighting war after war, saving the world again and again, never getting any rest or time to be with their family. Losing Percy, not once now, but twice.

He saw the fear in Annabeth’s eyes, and he hoped with everything he had that she wouldn’t be without her boyfriend for six months again. He hoped that they’d find him tomorrow, maybe a little scratched up but smiling and waiting for them all, like Percy always seemed to be doing. He’d have the monster killed, the threat would be gone and he’d have escaped and saved everybody once more.

Before Leo had met Percy he’d heard countless stories about him. He’s heard about the quest for the Lightning Bolt, the one through the Sea of Monsters, of going after Annabeth and fighting the Titan Atlas to get her back, making his way through the Labyrinth (something Grover had done twice now, Leo couldn’t even imagine) and finally helping defeat the King of Titans. The absolute love and respect the camp and it’s occupants had for Percy was something Leo hadn’t seen the equivalent of anywhere else, and having him ripped away from them not once, but twice was too heartbreaking to really seem possible if they’d been anything other than demigods.

He’d seen what it was like last time. The slow loss of hope, the way every big announcement had people perking up only to fall harder than their hopes had risen when they found out the news wasn’t involving Percy’s recovery. They way people had looked to Annabeth to guide them but Annabeth had been too lost to take that on her shoulders, so they’d started to look to Clarisse, Katie, the Stolls, (before most of them went back to school), Drew and the other older campers instead.

Leo had never seen anything like that before. He’d been to so many schools that he thought he knew what to expect from a group of teenagers. The popular ones, the geeks, the different cliques that all of the adults liked to think got along but really couldn’t stand one another. The was what Leo was ready for when he arrived at Camp Half-Blood. More snotty, stuck up girls who would be mean to Piper because of her ethnicity. Big, bulky tough guys who would look down on the demigods who couldn’t fight as well and make fun of Leo for being scrawny. A teacher who would turn a blind eye to bullying, or encourage it to make demigods harder, tougher, stronger and used to the hard things in life. A part of Leo had assumed, wrongly, that if so many people missed Percy it must have been because he was top dog here, The Popular Guy™. A part of Leo had been prepared to dislike the guy on sight.

Now that Leo knew him, now that they’d saved each other’s lives and been through a war with one of the oldest entities of the world, Leo could say he’d been totally wrong.

Percy was a super powerful guy. One who had tons of friends and loved ones, and he was popular. But he wasn’t the jerk Leo had been expecting.

Which is why, sitting in Chiron’s office, Leo knew they had to get him back, no matter what. Percy was his friend, but more than that, he mattered to the people here, he made the Camp better. Leo couldn’t just sit back and do nothing, no matter what voices in his dreams said.

The only thing that surprised Leo was that Chiron didn’t seem to agree.

“Percy is capable of taking care of himself.” Chiron said once Jason was done explaining and the rest of them had butt in with any details the son of Jupiter had missed. The centaur had gotten up and was staring into a fountain in the corner of his office, lost in thought. “I will think on what to do tonight, but right now I see no reason to rush back into danger. You will all stay here until I learn more.”

Annabeth stood up. “What is wrong with you?” She demanded, eyes sparking, and Leo shrunk back in his seat at the disbelief and anger on her face. “You would never- last time you were frantic when he disappeared-”

“He disappeared from the protected borders of our Camp.” Chiron said, not turning to look at her, the falling fountain water a steady background noise to their voices. Chiron continued in what was almost a monotone. “We had no idea what it could have been and that meant the other campers were in danger. Yesterday Percy disappeared in the middle of nowhere on a dangerous mission. Sometimes we just have to accept losses.”

Every jaw in the room dropped.

Except Mr. D’s.

“There you go demigods, you have your orders.” He stood up and walked to Chiron, dragging a hand through the water of the fountain, making it ripple and causing Chiron to blink and look up at the sudden proximity as Mr. D clapped him on the shoulder. “Luckily it’s early enough we can have one last game of Pinnacle before lunch, my dear centaur. Why don’t you start setting it up for us?” The god turned his eyes on them as Chiron gave them all a last smile before making his way to the porch. Dionysus sneered. “The rest of you may go.”

“If you think-” Annabeth started, but Mr. D stopped her.

“Except you, Annabeth.” All eyes shot towards him when the wine god used her correct name and Mr. D glanced around in obvious dismissal. “I have a couple of things to discuss with you, girl.”

Grover stood up. “I’m not leaving Percy out there.” He said. “I can’t-”

“Underwood, I am ordering you to go back to your activities in the strawberry fields.” Dionysus turned on the satyr and Grover cowered. “Annabeth will go to check on you directly after I finish speaking with her, is that understood?”

“Mr. D-”

“Is that understood?” The god repeated in the same tone of voice.

Grover’s mouth closed. He stared at Mr. D, glanced to Annabeth who met his gaze and something unspoken passed between them before he nodded. “Understood. Sir.”

Dionysus nodded. “Show these three out.”

Piper and Jason had been silent throughout the entire confrontation, and Leo looked at them both, seeing the mutiny in their eyes that he was sure showed in his as well. He wanted to say something, but Jason looked from Annabeth to Grover before shaking his head.

They all got up and went towards the door. “Close it on your way out, please,” Dionysus called, and Grover didn’t turn back but he did pull the door of the office so that it gently hit the frame, leaving only the tiniest sliver of light to come from the office into the Big House hallway.

“You go on,” Leo told them all quietly, stopping just a few feet away from it. “I’ll tie my shoe and catch up.”

They all glanced at his feet, seeing him pull the lace untied on one shoe. Grover glanced towards the almost shut door, chewed his lip for a second and then nodded. “Hurry,” he told Leo, before going out with the rest of them.

Leo backed up quietly, crouching down to grip the loose laces, ear to the crack between the door and it’s frame. Dionysus was speaking quietly but Leo heard him anyway.

“I don’t have much time, so you must listen to what I tell you the first time. Chiron is not himself.”

Leo heard one of the move and then Annabeth said, “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” the god’s voice lowered, only barely audible over the sound of the fountain. “He is not himself. Those are not his words, this uncaring frontier is not his. I first noticed it when he ordered you all to return here- I have been with this centaur teaching you miserable rats at this camp for decades. Not once has Chiron abandoned one of you in a time of need or left someone in danger. He is not himself, child, do you understand my meaning?”

There was a beat of silence. “You think he’s possessed.”

“Not quite.” Another shuffle. “I think something is taking control of him at intervals and releasing him at others. There is no way of telling when it happens, but I am quite sure. Which means someone must look over him.”

“The same thing happened with Leo, on the mission.” Annabeth said, surprising Leo so much he rocked back and sat down. He listened as Annabeth described his sudden desire to leave the area, the way he said his head hurt and he dreamed that horrible voice… The pieces clicked and Leo was horrified.

He’d been possessed before by the eidolons. He never wanted it to happen again. Not controlling his own actions, watching from afar as somebody else wreaked havoc through his body… it was the most powerless he’d ever remembered being.

“Something is wrong here,” Dionysus said. “And somehow the responsible party has gotten to Chiron. I must stay and watch over him, but we cannot leave Perseus alone to face whatever it is. Which is why I give my permission for you and other demigods of your choosing to leave Camp and get him.”

A gasp. “You what?”

“You escaped the Harpies at 12 years old, I am sure you can do it again.”

“That’s not what I- you would give me permission to go and get Percy back?”

Seconds ticked by and Leo pressed his ear closer, wondering if he’d missed Mr. D’s response.

A throat cleared. “Poseidon would be absolutely insufferable if I allowed the brat to die.”

Another moment of silence. “Thank you, Mr. D.”

“Go.” Is all he said. “Get whoever you need, as a child of Athena you’ll have a good idea of what will be best to take and who. Recover the missing barnacle boy and make sure he is brought back safely. I will watch over Chiron and do my best to stop any interference here in the Camp.”

Leo heard a chair scrape and got up from where he was sitting, ready to get out before Annabeth opened the door, but he didn’t hear footsteps yet. “You’ve never taken an interest in our lives.” Annabeth said. “Even when Tantalus was here, you never seemed to care, and you definitely wouldn’t have let us leave. Not once have you helped us unless the gods were in danger. Why are you doing this now?”

Leo wished he could see Mr. D’s expression when he replied. “I suggest you make haste, Annabel, your boyfriend may be strong but he’s no longer invincible.”

A clear dismissal, one that Leo was able to interpret without even being in the room, and, realizing no more was going to be said, he turned and hurried from the Big House, intending on telling Grover, Jason and Piper everything he’d overheard.

By the time his foot touched the step his mind was blank and he couldn’t remember what he’d been doing in the Big House at all.

oooOOOooo

When Percy got over his surprise at the giant’s words a pit of fear pooled in his stomach.

Instead of showing it though he cracked a smile as best he could. “You might have to write that name down for me.”

Aristaeus grinned back at him, amused at the joke. “It is quite a mouthful compared to your modern way of saying things. Strange names you have now. I heard someone say they were named Diamond the other day. What an odd thing, to be named after an allotrope of carbon. But no matter, Aristaeus is the name my mother gave me and I must honor it, just as you honor your mother by answering to Perseus.”

“Actually it’s Percy,” he told the giant, still not completely back to his senses. Was he really introducing himself to this guy? “I go by Percy.”

“Ah, Percy.” The giant tried it out and nodded. “If that is the form you prefer I will do my best to follow it. It rolls of the tongue strangely, but I am sure I will grow accustomed.” He clapped his hands together again, changing the subject suddenly. “Now! I have many questions for you, demigod, if you would be so kind to answer them, but first, let me tell you a story.”

Percy raised an eyebrow. “A story?”

“The best way to gain understanding is through a story, you should know this better than anyone. Has it not been you telling the camp scribe your tales? You know better than most that history must be recorded.”

“How do you-”

“I wish for you to understand what I am doing here.” Aristaeus cut him off, eyes searching. “Then any questions we have for one another will be answered.”

Percy had no choice but to listen as Aristaeus shifted, getting into a comfortable seated position. The giant hunched forward, putting his face directly in front of Percy’s, meeting his eyes steadily and ensuring Percy was paying full attention.

“I was young when my brothers and sisters first amassed together to overthrow the Olympians thousands of years ago. My mother was angry you see, so desolately angry, and my family was born from that rage. I was not the youngest, nor the oldest. Never the wisest or strongest. It was not me who was dear to all of my siblings, I was not the leader and I was not the scribe. There were few my mother doted on out of us all, and I was never one of them. I was not special out of my siblings. There were better archer's, axe-wielders and sword fighters amongst us. Many of them were better with words, most were smarter and almost all of them were more passionate for our cause. We were created for one reason and one only; to end the gods.”

Annabeth would know all of this, Percy thought. She would know exactly who Aristaeus was, what god he had been created to overthrow and what would kill him.

Annabeth’s not here, he reminded himself, and relief swept through him once more at the thought that she would be spared all of this. He refused to acknowledge the small part of him that wished she was with him, the selfish and scared part that wished he wasn’t doing all of this alone.

“My siblings, the Titans, were the reason for this.” The giant continued. “Kronos has always been Mother’s favourite child. Out of us all it was him who shone in her eyes. He was much like her, but easily malleable to whatever whim she had. When his father, Ouranos, my father’s old rival, grew greedy and paranoid and fell to preying on his children it was Mother who formed the scythe and molded Kronos into what he became. Powerful, to be sure, but short-sighted. He fell prey to his fear as his father did and eventually his wife and sister, Rhea, who was truly lovely, did what she could to save her children and stashed Zeus away to overpower his father. Just as Kronos did to his father, Zeus did to his own, scattering the Titan to the wind and securing his own throne. The God King built a palace in the sky and the mortals worshipped him and his siblings.”

“You must realize,” the giant turned grey eyes on Percy and blinked. Percy jolted back as he saw the third eyelid, sliding closed from one side of the eye to the other, before being covered by the two outside lids. Like an alligator, Percy remembered. Annabeth had told him once that they had three eyelids and showed him a video of an alligator blinking. It was almost exactly the same. “Not to worry, demigod, the story only gets worse,” the giant said, misinterpreting the movement. “No matter. You must realize,” he repeated, “that the Titans were horrible to the mortals and all beneath them. Kronos led the Titans to believe they were masters of not only the world but the universe, more powerful than Chaos itself. They were more powerful than any other beings alive, their parents encouraged them in all of their doings, revelling in the torture of the mortals. Animals lived in fear, the mortals lived in more than that, suffering constant terror. When Zeus defeated his father and the gods defeated the other Titans who rose against them it was hailed as the Golden Age. The mortals were saved, and the gods, well. They didn’t treat them as equals, but they treated them well. Fairly, in many’s eyes. And mortals accepted it, anything was better than the subjugation the Titans had enforced. They didn’t know any better.”

“Of course Zeus was terrified and grew paranoid as well. He never feared his children would overthrow him, but he did fear the mortals would. He split them in two. Instead of having two heads and hearts, four legs and four arms, you were half of what you once were. Instead of having two minds and being twice as strong and intelligent as you are now, you were left weakened. Instead of having room in your heads and hearts to think of other things, your biggest goal in life was now to find your other half, your split half, a journey, I have heard from my siblings, that mortals now call looking for your soulmate, as your reincarnations still wander the world, searching for one another.” For a second the giant sounded almost wistful, looking past Percy to the back of the cave before suddenly turning his eyes back on the haggard demigod before him.

“Do you see what I am saying, Percy?” Aristaeus asked him. “Every ruler of our world has fallen prey to their emotions. They have not played things smart at all, but given in to fear and allowed it to corrupt their minds and make foolish decisions. If Ouranos had not begun consuming his children, he would still be the most powerful being in the universe. Now he is left alone, still powerful, but never able to reign over others again. His son is the same. Kronos could have had the world for eons and instead he got a meager few millennia before his children overpowered him. Zeus is not quite so foolish, but still victim to his feelings. How strong could his army of demigods be if he had kept humans in their original forms? Mortals could have fought for him, defended him, and their offspring could have been a gateway between themselves and the gods, keeping the two groups faithful to one another, cementing them as allies. Instead Zeus cuts himself off from the mortals and treats them as disposable and useless. Demigods like you are nothing but pawns in allowing the gods to survive for a few more millennia. Who cares for your death when there are countless more to take your place?”

Percy doesn’t mean to flinch, doesn’t want to give any sign that the words are affecting him, but he does. Aristaeus notices, his eyes rake over Percy, but he chooses not to say anything.

“I am saying, demigod, that all rulers must fall. All dynasties deserve to fall, eventually. My siblings and I were made to be a part of the gods disgrace from the heavens- never the force behind their loss, only the tool used by all to follow the rules of nature. We were created by Gaea to destroy Olympus and everybody on it. To avenge our brother and sister Titans and right the balance of power. Mother gave us the tools we needed and sent us on our way.”

“Twice now, my family has been overthrown. The first time we were overpowered because we did not know just how strong the gods and their allies were. The second time… we should not have lost at all.”

The giant’s eyes narrowed. “My brother Kronos should never have been defeated. He was the closest any has come to making Olympus crumble, yet he was stopped. Stopped, even though the gods were too busy fighting Typhon to even spare Kronos a glance. Stopped, despite the fact that the Triumvirate was supplying enough money, demigods and materials for the army to win without ever needing to ask for more. Stopped, Perseus, by you. Because you were born.”

Percy looked at him helplessly as the fear came back.

“It’s not all your fault.” Aristaeus assured him, seeing the look. “I do realize that, believe me. I understand your point of view. It was your father on the line, and even if the gods have never treated you well, you heard terrible things of the Titans and believed them to be worse. I cannot fault you, as I am sure in your situation my siblings and I would have done the same as you and your family.”

“But I ask that you look at it from my perspective. You continually thwart our champion, Kronos. You are the sole reason for his demise.” Percy started shaking his head but the giant tut tutted at him and waggled a finger his way. “You are, I assure you. Without your birth the Fates would have woven my brother’s victory. After that you antagonise my mother while she brings us all back to make another attempt on Olympus, once again ensuring our downfall. Without you, Percy, the two camps never would have gotten along. You helped form a bridge between them, one Jason Grace could not have accomplished himself, and that means it is on your shoulders the blame must rest. From there you fall into Tartarus, a place I have been forced to call my home for eons, fought and escaped my father and come back to lay rest to my mother and siblings. It may have been your blood that awakened her, but it was because of you that she was scattered as well.”

The giant looked away. “I was the sole survivor of the first giant war,” he confided. “I escaped the gods and heroes and went to Sicily, where I lived the rest of my life out in peace. It may have been cowardly of me, my siblings certainly thought so when we reunited in Tartarus, but our joy at being together soon overpowered their resentment. In Sicily I was at first alone for a long time. However, eventually I made friends who helped me realize there is more to life than fighting and revenge, than power and ensuring a throne. There is more worth living for. Those friends, who I later thought of as family, came to teach me many things.”

“If you realize that then why am I here?” Percy croaked. “Why are you doing all of this?”

The grey eyes turned back to him. “Perhaps I would have allowed you to leave with the others,” he said. “But you are the root of too much, you are the cause of every strife my kind and I have faced in the past 5 years. You are a plague to us and our allies, Perseus, and I could not allow you to escape when you were so nearby.”

Percy’s thoughts stuck. “The others?” He asked. “They left?”

Aristaeus considered him. “They did. The morning after, almost as soon as they realized you were gone. I was quite surprised in fact. Do demigods usually abandon their own so carelessly like that?”

Percy’s mind reeled, trying to figure out what that meant. Did they try and look for him and give up? What did they think happened to him? Was his disappearance enough to spook them off? Were they looking for him now?

Had they even tried to find him at all?

He jerked his head to the side. No, Annabeth was with them. If anything she would have tried to find him. She would have done everything she could, and if she left it was only to come back and try again. She hadn’t given up on him after six months, there was no way she would after two days.

Which meant Percy had to do all he could to help her.

“You know they left?” He asked again. “How?”

The giant smiled and it almost looked bashful. Percy was disgusted. “During my exile in Sicily my friends taught me many things,” he said again. “Among them was the use of magic. A very powerful, very useful and varied branch of magic.”

“Magic.” Percy said. He remembered Thalia and Hazel manipulating the mist, Hazel’s description of her encounters with Hecate. “To fight?”

The giant grinned. “Among other things. I can scry and look upon your friends from the safety of this cave. I can reach into their minds and twist their thoughts and actions to my will. I could do it to you right now, though there’s no point. I can cloak this cave from all eyes, I can cloak you from anybody trying to find you. That rainbow goddess is nowhere near as powerful as me, and empathy links are a snap of a finger to dissolve. If you’d still had the Achilles Curse it may have been a little trickier but I’m sure I could have managed to remove even that. I’m smothering your powers right now, the very things that make up your soul, with only a little strain.”

Then Percy’s heart stopped. He gasped and tried to breathe air in, but the action was empty. His lungs expanded, full of fresh air, but his body screamed in protest.

“That’s me,” Aristaeus said, a glint in his eye and pure joy and excitement on his face. “That burning in your lungs, the slow, treacle feeling of your brain, that’s all because I can stop your heart with a single thought.” He smiled and Percy felt his heart pump forcefully again, blood flooding through his veins and he gasped from the sudden pain of it, breathing in air greedily.

“I could end you with a thought, I can look through your mind and control you just as easily. I am like no foe you have ever faced demigod, believe that.”

Percy kept gasping but he managed to raise his watering eyes to meet the giants. “Then why am I alive?” He croaked. “Why aren’t I dead by now?”

The glint left the giants eye and for a second he looked almost nervous. “I am the last trick the Triumvirate had. They may be gone, but I am all that’s left of the final uprising. Without them the Titans couldn’t have risen, the giants couldn’t have almost won the second giant war, Apollo would not have been weakened as he was and the gods could never have been so divided over their children, their morals, actions and history, as they are now. They would not have closed Olympus to you all and betrayed you. They would not have put you in danger and made you so resentful of them, you demigods never would have lost the numbers you have and been forced to such helpless anger.” Aristaeus looked at him curiously. “I saw the darkness rise up in you Percy, when you were in Tartarus. That anger, that rage, I know what you feel. It’s inside of you now, I can tell without even going in your mind.”

Percy flinched, ignoring the words. “You still haven’t told me why I’m alive.”

“Because I will not destroy this for everybody. I am the last hope my family has, and if I have learned anything from history, it is that recklessness causes destruction. I will think out every move I make, use every shred of knowledge I can to win and bring my family back. The gods will fall, as they inevitably must, by my hand. Whether you call it chaos, Ragnarok, the end of the world or doomsday, every being knows the end will come, one way or another. I am going to be the cause of the god’s end. I may hate what you mean for my family, what you have done to us and what you represent, but I don’t think I hate you. I hate what you allow, what you have achieved and everything you lead others to accomplish in your wake, but I honestly see good in you. It’s a dilemma. I have not killed you because I don’t have all of the information yet, nor am I at my full strength. My beastie has yet to bring back another mortal and I have to make plans and backup plans. I have to see whether or not I can convince you to join my side, to see things the way I do and become an ally. You would be a valuable asset if I can make you see reason. Then, Perseus,” Aristaeus stood up and moved to the back of the cave leaving Percy to watch him go, “and only then, will I decide what to do with you.”

#finding home #pjohoobigbang2017 #percabeth #more of the seven #yay!

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