#great book i highly recommend

[starryalpacasstuff]

So I went on a bender and read an 800 page book in a day. In total, it took me about 13 hours and 40 minutes.

Out of which I read for 12 hours and 40 minutes STRAIGHT. Like, did not take my etes off the page for more than 3 minutes at one point throughout that time. I'm not okay, but simultaneously I'm high on the excellent feeling of meaningless accomplishment.

The book was excellent, its called Priory of the Orange Tree. Here's the pitch: Fantasy, dragons, and lesbians. What more could one want? Highly recommend, 10/10

Though maybe not the finsh-it-in-one-day, over-12-hours-of-consecutive-reading-part, because I feel delirious right now

[buttercupshands]

never say never I guess

had a sudden "I want to draw them"

Lyrics from "The Last Goodbye" by Billy Boyd

also a warm up that led to this, wanted to try drawing them again and somehow got inspired a bit

[aroaceleovaldez]

tbh my latest biggest theory for why HoO and onwards is such a dramatic drop in quality and consistency is just. Rick stopped making teaching guides.

Like, the Lightning Thief teacher's guide is SUPER in-depth with even stuff like sources about middle grade child psychology and exact specifications of where he's applying that, explaining what different character's goals/motivations are, their dynamics with each other and their environments, etc etc. Even specifying which specific myths certain plot elements are supposed to reference or be about.

That stuff just doesn't exist for later books. There's activity guides and smaller, significantly more simple teacher guides for later books but they don't go into anywhere NEAR the same level of depth. The TLT one is a full lesson plan that breaks down the book at every level and explains what's going on and more or less why Rick did that. The others are all basically just glossaries of terminology and some simple question guides.

And they didn't even use the TLT teacher's guide for the Disney+ show because they clearly aren't adhering to any of what's discussed in that breakdown of the book.

By creating a teaching guide alongside writing the actual book, that's forcing you to document what you're doing, why, your sources, and information about your characters and the story they're in. It's like an even more in-depth version of a series bible. But that's lacking for later books (and etc) and it shows because that level of thought and depth and attention just isn't there anymore.

[triaelf9]

Dealing with Dragons: Cimorene sketch ^_^

Been re-listening to Dealing with Dragons recently (anyone who knows me knows I will not shut up about how formative this series was for me re: many things but mostly dragons) and so I got the urge to draw Cimorene again (I sketched her like a year or so ago, but can't find it, so I thought a redesign with my new style was perfect!)

Also, my fav book reviewer (I have one of those now?? What??) Just covered the first book of the series, so if you want to check out a great reviewer AND my favorite book of all time, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMaKkwHQQKM

Not me trying to speak into existence an Enchanted Forest Chronicles graphic novel series that I get to adapt, whatttt noooo... ^_-

[secretlyofthefeywild]

love when i read a book and then i hear/read an interview w the author and they mention being on tumblr, bc it's just like. yea, you wrote a book abt a gay latino trans boy falling in love w a ghost. ofc you're on tumblr

[poetrysmackdown]

what makes a poem a poem? does it have to be written in a certain way? is this question a poem if i want it to be?

Fun question! This is just my personal sense as an avid reader and less-avid writer of poetry, but for me it’s useful to distinguish (roughly) between poetry as a genre and poetry as an attitude or philosophy through which language and the world can be understood. And of course these two go hand in hand. I see poetry the genre as essentially a type of literature where we as readers are signaled, somehow, to pay closer attention to language, to rhythm, to sound, to syntax, to images, and to meaning. That attentive posture is the “attitude” of broader poetic thinking, and while it’s most commonly applied to appreciate work that’s been written for that purpose, there’s nothing stopping us from applying that attentiveness elsewhere. Everywhere, even! That’s how you eventually end up writing poetry for yourself, after all. There’s a quote from Mary Ruefle floating around on here that a lot of folks have probably already seen, but it immediately comes to mind with this ask:

“And when you think about it, poets always want us to be moved by something, until in the end, you begin to suspect that a poet is someone who is moved by everything, who just stands in front of the world and weeps and laughs and laughs and weeps.”

Similarly, after adopting the attentive posture of poetics, there’s plenty of things that can feel or sound like a poem, even when they perhaps were not written with that purpose in mind. I’ve seen a couple of these “found poems” on here that are quite fun—this one, for example. The meaning and enjoyment you may derive from the language of a found poem isn’t any less real than that derived from a poem written for explicitly poetic purposes, so I don’t see why it shouldn’t be called poetry.

That said, I do think that if you’re going to go out and start looking for poetry everywhere, it’s still important to have a foundation in the actual language work of it all. Now, this doesn’t mean it has to be “written in a certain way” at all! But it does mean that in order to cultivate the attentiveness that’s vital to poetry, one needs to understand what makes language tick, down at its most basic levels. It will make you better at reading poetry, better at writing it, and better at spotting it out in the wild.

Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook is an extraordinary resource to new writers and readers, and a great read for more experienced folks as well. Mary Oliver’s most popular poems are all to my knowledge in free verse, and yet you might be surprised to find her deep appreciation for metrical verse (patterns of stressed/unstressed syllables), as well as for the most minute devices of sound. In discussing the so-called poetry of the past, she writes,

“Acquaintance with the main body of English poetry is absolutely essential—it is the whole cake, while what has been written in the last hundred years or so, without meter, is no more than an icing. And, indeed, I do not really mean an acquaintanceship—I mean an engrossed and able affinity with metrical verse. To be without this felt sensitivity to a poem as a structure of lines and rhythmic energy and repetitive sound is to be forever less equipped, less deft than the poet who dreams of making a new thing can afford to be.”

In another section, after devoting lots of attention to the sounds at work in Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, she writes,

“Everything transcends from the confines of its initial meaning; it is not only the transcendence in meaning but the sound of the transcendence that enables it to work. With the wrong sounds, it could not have happened.”

I hope all this helps to get across my opinion that what makes a poem a poem is not just about the author's intention, and not just about meaning (intended or attributed), but also about sound and rhythm and language and history, all coalescing into something that rises above the din of a language we would otherwise grow tired of while out in our day-to-day lives.

I'll always have more to say but I'm cutting myself off here! Thanks for the ask

[twig-tea]

Love in the Big City TV Series Episodes 3 & 4: Found Family

[Thank you again to @lurkingshan for organizing and to @bengiyo for the discussion questions in this week's discussion post ]

I talked in my non-book-club post on this section about the t-aras at the hospital after Yeong's suicide attempt moved me. A lot of us have reflected on the t-aras and how their presence in this part of the novel changes the feeling. For me, their presence really complicates my emotions. I love that they are here, and here for Yeong, especially after his suicide, but also through his confusion about Yeong Su. And at the hospital, I love how they function as a foil to his mother in that moment. When people ask about found family vs family, this scene will come to mind in future. Family is who you are raised with who have a legal obligation as well as legal privileges. Found family are those who do not have those legal privileges or obligations but who have chosen to care about and be there for us without them in place. That glass holding the t-aras back, and the t-aras being the ones who make Yeong cry, is what made me cry.

Yeong’s mother in both versions of this story tells him not to be in such a rush to die, which is such an excellent line for her. It accomplishes so much in so little; it could be interpreted as “I'm dying of cancer and fighting so hard to live, and you're trying to die? How dare you” while also saying “I don't want you to die” and even “don't worry, whatever is so hard will not last forever”. But in the adaptation, the impact of the t-aras being there right after she said that line made it so that it also felt like a reminder that he has good things and good people in his life who do love him. And that's why my emotions are so mixed up and complex about their presence, because while the t-aras being here in parts 1 and 2 make Yeong feel less alone than Young felt in the novel, it wrecks me that Yeong still clearly feels that loneliness in spite of their presence. That is so real, and so painful a truth, that the presence of people who love you are not enough to make you not feel so lonely and miserable that you want to die. When I read the novel, the later sections revealing these friendships made me feel the impact of that loneliness later, removed from the moment, but in the series I got it in real-time (even as their presence made seeing the moment play out a little easier to bear; because in the novel we had the benefit of Young's wry hindsight to aid in emotional distance).

I was also thinking about how, in this adaptation of the scene, we see Yeong's mother clock the t-aras in the hospital, and how it feels like they performed the function that Yeong wanted Yeong Su to perform in his attempt to make Yeong Su and his mother meet: they demonstrated that as a gay man, Yeong has people who love him and who are good for him in his life. I would like to think that it's their presence in the series that softens Yeong’s mother to Yeong’s queerness to the point where she kept the polaroid of Yeong and Yeong Su when she found it and let him see it in the binder of her clippings of articles about him; as though it's something she can't engage with or talk to him about but can now tacitly acknowledge. In the book, that polaroid is left out intentionally for Young to find as (at least as he interpreted it) a punishment and a warning. In the series, it felt like the closest thing to acceptance she could offer while saving face: putting that photo of him and Yeong Su in this binder of positive articles about his writing (which is all about his life as a queer man) feels like an acknowledgement that other people can love this part of him that she can't.

I've been dragging my heels on writing this because I'm not ready for Part 3. Holding all of your hands as we all dive in to getting emotionally wrecked this week!

[radioisntdead]

Hazbin characters + readers from my fics as things the people I know and I have said pt.2

Niffty: The bugs, [Name] the bugs they want my blood

Hanahaki reader: Dude, I am literally dying rn

Niffty: the bugs want your blood too, no one is spared.

......

Angel dust, allegedly taking off his sunglasses: Hello sluts!

.....

Charlie: I will personally get a job and pay for your therapy

.....

Alastor holding cursed cat Alastor: he looks at me like a disgruntled orphan.

....

Child reader: what do your sobs sound like?

Alastor: You don't need to know.

....

Unspecified reader: Alastor! Stop drinking out of the toilet!

Cursed cat Alastor: -disgruntled noises-

.....

Alastor to cursed cat Alastor after he ate his [Alastor's] breakfast: Fat boy, you are a little fat boy, fat boy

....

Cherri bomb: Chihuahua on cocaine

....

Charlie: I'm reading a book right now and I'm not giving any spoilers but I think my favorite character just died

Charlie five minutes later: He's ALIVEEE!

....

Eldritch horror reader, about Valentino: We should burn him indefinitely

...

Alastor: I've gone too deep into radio vibes

...

Sir Pentious: People try to scam me a lot

...

Alastor after learning what Ace in the hole meant: I am asexual.

...

Sir Pentious: DESPITE WHAT PEOPLE SAY I DID NOT COMMIT TAX FRAUD

....

Vox: At times I wonder what people think of me

Velvette: Personally I see you like one of those funky digital 2000's core fish screen mixed with computer vibes things if that makes sense

Vox:....

Vox: thank you.

.....

[millionsknives]

biggest jumpscare ever getting to the end of chain-gang all-stars and seeing that the author is a man

[shirayuki7]

Bought Emily Wilson's Odyessy translation and I turn it over...

Top review was Madeline Miller.

The last review was Edith Hall.

That is fucking backwards. Edith Hall, a published and reknowned historian is at the bottom and a mediocre author is at the top????

[uwudonoodle]

Me and my partner figured out how to sync both of our headphones to my phone. Now we can listen to audiobooks together when we go to the gym. Currently reading The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.

[infiniteseriesofhalfways]

been listening to a (very fascinating) nonfiction book for two days and my brain is clawing for some fun and whimsy

[bharv]

Hey people! Interested in theatre? Want a dissection of the western ideas of theatrical practice and how this can intersect with decolonising the stage to take it back to its storytelling roots?

Have a look at these free resources!

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

I know I said a while ago that I wanted to write some of my thoughts on the New Percy Jackson show out, but as time went on, I found myself having less time to actually sit down and watch it. However, now, I have finally finished the show (perhaps more than once, lmao), and I have a lot to share about it! Far more than I originally thought I would, to be honest. Honestly, I spent a couple of days watching everything over again and ended up starting and ending my first embroidery project since the pandemic started, which felt pretty good as it helped me absorb a lot more information as I worked. And, while I would love nothing more than to just word vomit everything out of my brain, I find myself physically incapable of leaving everything out of order now that I’ve had the time to properly think things over (certainly not due to the fact that I’ve been plotting story ideas for the last few weeks and can’t think of leaving anything disorganized right now). Instead of nonsensical paragraphs, I figured I would take things in four separate sections - my opinions on the characters, the castings I hope we get in the future, my favorite quotes, and a small snippet of how I would see things going down if I were to write this AU.

So, without further ado, I’m going to start off strong with…

My Character Takes:

Right off the bat, I adored Percy (Walker Scobell). I may be biased as I chose Walker as my sort of faceclaim for Bentley, but this child has Percy’s personality to a tee. I knew from watching him act alongside Ryan Reynolds in The Adam Project that he would be perfect not only for Bentley, but also for Percy and, when I finally got to see him as Percy, I knew I was right. From the iconic first line to the final moment of the series, he had me hooked. Though I missed the absolutely iconic “This is a pen!” quote from the movie, I feel like they got pretty much everything right for Percy. So many of his one-liners made me pause to laugh because I wouldn't have heard anything that was said afterward if I hadn’t, but he also has the right amount of seriousness and professionalism in certain scenes to make Percy come to life. I doubt Rick Riordan could have found a better Percy if they tried, and I can’t wait to see him in season 2. 

Now, for Percy’s parents, Sally and Poseidon. Sally (Virginia Kull) was brilliant, and her interactions with Percy felt perfectly motherly and sweet while also having a vivid personality all her own. Watching back over the show after seeing it through the first time, I picked up on a lot more subtle hints at her mental struggle as a “single” mother of a demigod (she did remarry, and I’ll touch on that in a moment). I feel like watching it back over sort of gave me the full picture and I love that little touch. Now, Poseidon (Toby Stephens, Dame Maggie Smith’s son) was also incredible. I feel like, although we didn’t see much of Poseidon initially, the way he acted was very telling of his situation (being unable to see or interact with Percy without Zeus’ permission for fear of starting another huge war), and it felt like there was a definite desire and regret that he couldn’t have stuck around for his son (if not for Sally as well). 

As for Percy’s stepfather, Gabe Ugliano (Timm Sharp), I feel like they may have tamed him a bit from the book as a way to avoid triggering anybody who grew up in an abusive household, but they still kept him on the despicable side. I always hated him, but I do feel like they could have made him worse. Instead of the bigoted, poker-playing asshole we meet in the books, we get a bit more of an idiot who wastes his money on online poker and sits around all day. I like that they kept his ending the way it was, but I sort of wish it played a bigger role in Sally's story going forward. Who knows; maybe it will in the future, but I wish they delved more into his character being genuinely a disgusting human being rather than just a loser.

Now, even though I don’t want to go too into detail on them because I don’t want to spoil anything in case you care to watch this show later on (highly recommended as there’s no need to read the books to see what’s going on), I want to touch on some of the campers and Percy’s friends. Ironically, I’ll be starting with Clarisse LaRue (Dior Goodjohn). Clarisse is the take-no-shit-and-start-shit daughter of Ares, the god of war, and is also the counselor of his cabin (Cabin 5). She’s very combative, competitive, and aggressive, which we find out is because she wants her dad to favor her despite her being a girl and all his “favorites” being boys. As stated in the show, he doesn’t even really like his kids, but that doesn’t stop her from trying to gain favor. Dior was a great choice for Clarisse, and I have to say, I think she did her great justice. The actor they had in the movies (well, movie as she was only in one despite her character being in more of the books) was good, but she wasn’t nearly as aggressive, feisty, and tough as Dior’s. Honestly, 10/10.

Luke Castellan is one character I couldn’t wait to see come to life, and Charlie Bushnell did an amazing job with him. He is the son of Hermes, the god of messengers, travelers, and thieves, and Luke is, like Clarisse, the head of his cabin (Cabin 11). Luke is one of the best, multi-faceted characters in not only the books, but in this show as well. Though he doesn’t appear in many episodes, I feel as though his character is one we’ll definitely be watching closely as time goes by. Regardless, Charlie did amazing in his portrayal of Luke, and I think he handled everything really well!

I know a lot of people weren’t thrilled when Leah Sava Jeffries was cast as Annabeth Chase (daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy - Cabin 6), but I trusted Rick’s choice in casting her as he said he knew she was the best choice for Annabeth. I have to say, he was right; she was incredible! Her interactions with everyone, the subtle ways she showed that she knew more than she was letting on, and her acting overall was great for Annabeth. I love that they included her Yankees cap as well, something I wish they had in the movies. Leah was amazing, Annabeth truly came to life, and I’m very excited to see how everything pans out!

Speaking of pans, we have Grover Underwood, a hopeful searcher for Pan, the god of the wild, satyrs, and folk music. While Grover is not related to Pan, his goal is to become a searcher so that he can follow his family’s legacy of searching for the missing god of the wild. Now, I actually loved the way the movies made Grover, but I think they did pretty well with him in the show as well. There is a certain scene I wish they had kept from the movie, but with how they made Gabe Ugliano in the show, I’m not entirely surprised they took it out. It would have been hilarious, though! I do have to say that Aryan Simhadri did an amazing job and that I was very pleased with his performance overall!

For the Greek gods that we met this season, I want to start off with the now-passed Lance Reddick, who played Zeus, the god of the sky, thunder, lightning, kingship, honor, and justice (Cabin 1). It’s sad that he never was able to watch his character come to life on screen, but he did a pretty great job in the one episode he was in. The looming threat of his presence throughout the episodes was a very effective build-up to actually meeting him in the end. He was a good choice for Zeus and, while I’m upset he won’t be in any future seasons, his acting was great. I’m sure they’ll find someone to do him good justice in the future, but those will be big shoes to fill as far as the rest of the cast will be concerned, I’m sure.

As I’ve already touched on Poseidon, I’m going to skip over to Hephaestus, the god of fire, forges, sculpture, metalworking, stone masonry, carpenters, technology, artisans, and volcanoes (Cabin 9). Hephaestus is pretty much an outsider from the Olympian family as he doesn’t really bother with the drama of Olympus, and Timothy Omudson does a great job of showing this in his simplistic, yet interesting approach. I found myself wanting to sit and talk with him - get his take on everything, in a way. Unlike some of the other gods we hear about/meet, he seems to think fairly reasonably and is pretty sympathetic, something I really liked about this portrayal of Hephaestus.

Ares is next on my list and, while I was never a huge fan of the character as the Greek myth was originally labelled as a protector of mistreated women and this version Ares was just an asshole, I feel like Adam Copeland made me like him. The first time I watched the episode we meet him in, I just sat there laughing at his personality, but the second time around, I had to wonder how on earth I found myself genuinely sort of enjoying watching him. Though I’m still not big on him overall, as his treatment of his own children is pretty shit, I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy seeing him. Also, when he talked about different wars in the diner, it felt like I was listening to my dad in history class all over again, and I kind of enjoyed that. Anyway, he was chaotic and crazy, but he has great taste in motorcycles, and I actually enjoyed him overall. Adam Copeland did a great job not making me fully hate him.

Finally, I want to talk about Hermes, who was played by none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda. When I saw that he was on the cast list, my immediate thought was Apollo, but I ended up loving him as Hermes. I wish we had seen more of him, but honestly, that’s just my Hamilton brain screeching to be let out, as I know he wasn’t supposed to be in many, if any, of the episodes this season because they were following the books. Honestly, though, Lin was incredible, Hermes was incredible, and I hope we see more of him going forward!

Future Castings:

Firstly, I want to say that my biggest hope is to see Sam Claflin as Apollo! His personality in The Hunger Games was all I needed to see, honestly. He would be perfect for Apollo, and I hope that’s who we get, but if not, I’ll just have to trust the process.

My top pick for Thalia Grace (and a semi-popular one I’ve seen floating around) is Momona Tamada.

I could see Zoë Saldaña, Tessa Thompson, or Danai Gurira as Athena. I don’t have a solid choice, but I could see them working really well as they have to play Annabeth’s mom, and they all could pull that off pretty well.

For Aphrodite, I have a variety of ideas. Gemma Chan could be pretty good, but so could Florence Pugh, Elizabeth Olsen, or Indya Moore. I feel like there are so many ways they could pull it off, but regardless of who they choose, I’m sure it’ll be great. (There is no official artwork for her, so I’m using the picture from Rick Riordan’s website, but she is known to change her appearance as she pleases)

One character I’m sure we won't see for a while, but I’d still enjoy, would be either Sadie Sink or Erin Kellyman for Rachel Elizabeth Dare. I doubt either actress will end up being chosen, as it’ll probably be a while before we get to season 3, but they were my top choices for her.

Now, I don’t have many ideas for anyone else, but I’m sure the cast will be amazing no matter what.

Quotes:

I had a lot of quotes from the show that I absolutely loved, but I forgot to write down which episodes they came from as I wrote more in the second time around and they got a bit jumbled on paper. I remember who said most of them and I was originally going to write that in as well, but I think I could use some of them later on, so I’ll just leave them nameless for now. Some of them, you can tell who could be part of the conversation if you pay attention to the names mentioned, but others are up in the air. Besides, the quotes alone are great, in my book. The different formats symbolize different people talking, as I couldn’t figure out a better way in the larger conversation points, but the ones where there’s only one person are just plain text.

--

“She fought valiantly, and she met a hero's fate.”

“She met a pinecone's fate.”

--

“So you're not a monster, what are you then?”

“A survivor.”

--

“It's not here.”

“We know. Yeah, glory's fine. Revenge is more fun.”

--

“Why is there half a goat in your pants?”

“Oh, it's... Oh! Oh, boy, she didn't tell you about... You didn't tell him about me?”

“You're early.”

“So the important thing is not to panic.”

--

“Look, this is a bad idea. They will see this as impertinent.”

“I am impertinent.”

--

“Not everyone who looks like a hero is a hero, and not everyone who looks like a monster is a monster.”

--

“He was a god.”

“You fell in love with God? Like Jesus?”

--

“I want him to know who he is before your family tries to tell him who they want him to be. He is better than that. He has better things in him than that.”

--

“This is Percy Jackson.”

“Yeah, Grover, I heard him the first time.”

“But did you?”

--

“It was your father who warned me to stay away. Said it was awful watching you struggle and feel powerless to stop it. But that sometimes… that’s what parenting is.”

--

“Are you stalking me, Annabeth?”

*shrugs* “Yes.”

--

“Look, I get that Nancy has issues, I’m just getting tired of her taking them out on me. I feel like… maybe it’s time to do something about it.”

“You could make an appointment to see Mr. Kane. He’s really good at talking-”

“I was thinking more like shoving Nancy in the nearest dumpster.”

“Oh.”

--

“I have a job!”

“Losing at imaginary poker?”

--

“Give me a second, I’m just starting a fight on Twitter.”

--

“I warned you, if you're not careful, you'll find out who I am.”

--

“Poseidon has ignored me my entire life.”

“You are his son!”

“I am Sally Jackson’s son!”

--

“Two things you never wanna be are small and scary at the same time. Things that are small and scary...get squished.”

--

“So, do we have a deal, or am I killing all three of you so I can eat in peace?”

“Ok.”

“Great!”

--

“Do you know what that feels like? To be so close to someone you love, knowing neither of you has any choice but to keep hurting each other?”

--

“I’m gonna kill him.”

“I knew I was gonna like you.”

--

“Is there a Greek god of disappointment? Maybe someone should ask him if he’s missing a kid.”

--

“This thing, Zeus's master bolt, we need to get it back, right?”

“Yes.”

“And it's gonna be hard to get, yes?”

“Extraordinarily.”

“And if the mission required someone to push me down a flight of stairs for it to succeed... you'd want someone who won't hesitate when they do it.”

--

“He isn’t here. My father, he just… didn’t show. I mean, ignoring me is one thing, but he doesn’t get to ignore you. I’m gonna make him come down here. I’m gonna make him see me. I’m gonna make him see us both.”

--

“No one comes ba~ack.”

“Dude! Don't make me come back out there!”

--

“You really don’t want the bolt?”

“Why would I want that?”

“To start a war between your brothers.”

“Why would I want that?!”

“Jealousy!”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s all candy canes and rainbows down here. I don’t really do jealous.”

--

“Take your victory. Just spare my son.”

--

“Obedience doesn’t come naturally to you, does it?”

“No… sir.”

“I must take some of the blame, I suppose. The sea does not like to be restrained.”

--

“Ares is a moron. Perhaps you noticed?”

AU Idea:

I know I've said before that I didn't have much of an idea of what I'd write if I did this AU, but I think watching the books come to life a bit has altered that. I've gone through some of the books again and sort of figured out what I would want to see happen, so I figured I would put it all out here while I'm at it. Some things in my original post have changed, such as their parents, but I also have a basic timeline down as well. I feel like the vibes would be very similar to that of Camp Wanamaker as I plan on keeping things mostly around the camp at first, but there will be some big exploration further down the road as I develop an actual storyline. I do plan on going more in-depth on topics that haven't been brought up in the show/movies as I figure that would make it easier not just for me, but also for you. I have a lot of ideas, but I'll try to work it down to the first couple of chapter ideas as I haven't gone through the whole story's plot yet.

For starters, I think I would have Royce be the new kid at camp - an almost sixteen-year-old who was brought to camp by an adult demigod who rescued him from a monster on a field trip (Butchy, son of Zeus). He's pushed head-first into camp activities, and soon finds himself getting stalked by a pair of younger demigods who have been at camp for some time and have already been claimed (Bentley, son of Apollo, and Kona, daughter of Iris). The kids eventually corner him outside the Unclaimed Child portion of the Hermes cabin (where he'll reside until his godly parent claims him) and encourage him to try different cabins until he finds a good fit. Despite claiming the whole thing is nothing but a dream he'll eventually wake up from, Royce allows the pair to drag him around, starting from the top and working his way down.

Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon's cabins are all quickly dismissed, but before he can get much further, things at camp slow to a stop as the Hunters of Artemis arrive, having been told to stay at camp until the return of their leader and goddess, Artemis. Kona is quick to tail the Hunters, trying her hardest to find acceptance within the female-only group while some others stray to their original cabins to visit their former siblings. Upon asking why the Hunters seem to be a group of relatively young girls, Bentley brings Royce to his older half-brother Miles (head counselor of Apollo's cabin) who explains that the Hunters are maidens (which can be human, god, demigod, or nymph) who have sworn loyalty to the maiden goddess Artemis. They reject love for as long as they live and, in return, gain eternal youth and semi-immortality as long as they don't break their vows, or are slain in battle. There are some who leave if they fall in love, but very few do.

Not long after, the campers and Hunters are pushed into a game of rather brutal game of Capture the Flag, where Royce encounters a small group of Hunters who take pity on him as the new kid, a tall brunette girl with a silver circlet on her head giving him a hand up when the others in her group leave the area (Vivien, Hunter of Artemis and daughter of Hecate, goddess of magic, crossroads, necromancy, and the night). During dinner that night, Royce meets her at the fire as he puts in an offering to his still unknown parent and asks the girl some questions, trading names and finding out her previous cabin before she suggests he not push his luck befriending any of the hunters as they won't be around for long, and heads back to her table, leaving him more than a little intrigued.

I do have a bit more written out, but for now, I'm going to keep it there. However, I'm still going to show some of the parental changes I've made since my last post about this idea. There are only three, but they're there. I also have some plans to add in some of my other characters that I don't write as much, if at all, but they'll come in later on as I haven't quite decided where to put them.

Kona has gone from the daughter of Poseidon to the daughter of Iris (goddess of the Rainbow and messenger of the gods). I changed this because, although I love the idea of Kona just railing people with water when they do stupid stuff, the thought of her being this artsy, hippie-esque little girl who habitually makes friendship bracelets for new campers, who enjoys going around scaring people by turning the world black-and-white or momentarily blinding them with sunbeams. It's also known that children of Iris are great with art/creativity and have a strong connection with pegasi, so I can just picture her trying to use paint or something to give each of the pegasi cutie marks like in My Little Pony or giving them dyed manes/tails.

Vivien has a change of pace as well, going from the daughter of Athena to the daughter of Hecate and a Hunter of Artemis. The Hunter part is a relatively big plot point in the story as, like I said, they give up love in favor of aiding with the Hunt. However, I'll dive into that when I write the story. For now, I'll focus on the Hecate part. Hecate is the goddess of magic, as I've said before, and where Vivien is a collector of crystals in every universe and is great with magic in my Hocus Pocus AU, I feel it's a great fit. Another thing nudging me toward this is the idea that Hecate can be a tough parent, and her children must prove their worth and study hard to master their skills in magic. I feel like Vivien's already established, rocky relationship with her mom in my other stories would come into play in this as well, perhaps playing a role in her decision to become a Hunter.

Another change that I didn't mention in the snippet above was Mick. Mick was originally the daughter of Hephaestus, but I've since changed that as I feel it makes more sense in the way I've fixed it. Now, she is the Roman descendant (otherwise known as a legacy) of Minerva (Athena's counterpart) and Vulcan (Hephaestus' counterpart). Her mother, Mack, was the daughter of Minerva, and her father, Brady, was the grandson of Vulcan. This means that Mick is not at Camp Half-Blood in New York (the camp for the children of Greek gods), but at Camp Jupiter in California (the camp for the descendants of Roman gods), something I feel suits her fairly well and gives her a deeper storyline with not only Butchy, but also her usual friends.

Final notes:

Now, in case you haven’t noticed, I adored this show as a whole! One of my nephews who hasn’t read the books, finally had the chance to watch it, and loved it nearly as much as I did, which is pretty telling. I love that even people who haven’t had an interest/read the books, are loving this show. It’s just great! I have to say, the show is pretty good at explaining everything as they go and making everything feel as though it’s flowing properly. As if it weren’t obvious by now, I highly recommend watching the first season! It’s a great show overall, everything felt realistic, and it gave me a lot of ideas for the future (which, as you can probably tell, might include a Percy Jackson AU of some kind). Anyway, I loved it and plan on going back to rewatch it more as time goes by, but for now, I’m going to end my ramblings and go back to my little one-off story that I haven’t touched in what feels like forever!

[asteracaea]

ok ok but if you play the pronoun switch game with foolish one

just imagine she's singing to a girl who is maybe confused or questioning or scared or just really affectionate and has love for taylor but doesn't know what to do with that, and taylor is hoping and waiting for her to call it what it is but the girl ends up with a boyfriend and taylor is left there gutted and confused

taylor wants to be the exception for this girl

she wants her to confess

"don't know what to call this situation"

and it's delicate (hayley k told everyone that delicate is for the gays)

cause when her head is on her shoulder (wouldn't it be more natural for a girl to put her head on her friend's shoulder like that in the 2000s if the friend were a girl?)

imagining them together when they're older laughing about young gay panic and awkward confusing sapphic feelings

but she finally admits that she hasn't let herself see the signs that this girl is not going to get into a real romantic relationship with another girl

because she has a boy on her arm and taylor in the wings, giving taylor longing glances but she'll take his ring

and maybe she did have the best of intentions

but these feelings are confusing and scary and difficult

and when it's all said and done, she just wasn't the one to be able to love taylor fully and openly

[waitineedaname]

where do u read ssvs? is there something online :0 like omniscient reader's viewpoint or one of those other digital novels?

it was originally a webnovel like orv! but it was in Chinese lol there is an official English translation though! I read the first two volumes physically through my public library, but then I got impatient and read the second two through the internet archive, which is available here! You can also download it on Anna's archive. I know there are probably also fan translations available, but I read this version!