#honestly. i have a really good way i could kill off nico but do i want to do that

[chiistarri]

wouldnt it be so funny if i killed off valentina and connor, jasons only friends, and left leo almost dead at the end of both wars and his full recovery takes years

[willowsmessy]

nutella

summary: leighton murray x fem!reader. reader brings home a kitten off the sidewalk and is nervous to see how her girlfriend will react. (around 1.4k words)

warnings: small mention of leighton killing reader and alcohol

a/n: first time writing here in a long time and in this fandom so if anyone wants to reach out for tips or just to be friends please do!

Nobody really understood how you and Leighton were together. You were both pretty, sure, but you were so different. You were always more of the quiet, people pleaser type and Leighton was everything but that. So seeing you two together was a shock, especially to the people you guys lived with who saw that Leighton was the one person you weren’t too eager to please. You always felt that when in a relationship, your wants and needs were just as important. You could do without dating someone, but having no friends? That was a little more difficult. So when you came to your roommates, excluding your girlfriend, worried that she would be pissed at you for something you did, they were surprised to say the least.

“I just don’t know how she’s going to react, like, this doesn’t really seem to be much of her thing…” You explained. You lived in an apartment with your girlfriend and your friends Bela, Whitney, and Kimberly and let's just say that only one of the four would possibly have a bad reaction to what you had done.

“Okay, first off, who doesn’t love kittens? They’re, like, tiny fluffy angels of joy. But, um… if she’s not a kitten person, maybe we can spin this as a—uh—therapeutic emotional support thing? Or, I don’t know, is she allergic? Because if she is, then yeah, we might have a problem, but otherwise, I think she’ll come around once she sees its little face. Look at it! It’s practically impossible to be mad when it’s looking at you like that!" Kimberly argued. The kitten on your lap purred and looked at Kimberly with wide eyes.

You found the kitten on the sidewalk in front of Theta on your way to give Nico a case of beer as a thanks for helping you with some French homework and there was no way you were going to just leave the little thing there. So, you emptied out the case of beer (with help of a random frat guy) and put the kitten in the box and brought it to the vet, where you decided that you had fallen in love with it and couldn’t let anyone else have it. Telling the people you lived with didn’t cross your mind until you got home and saw three of your roommates sitting in the living room. Good thing for you, Bela, Kimberly, and Whitney were all immediately excited.

"Look, Leighton might not seem to be a cat person, or like a pet person in general… But, this kitten is about to ruin her whole icy vibe, and I, for one, can’t wait." Bela smirked at the idea.

“Oh my Jesus, Leighton is going to kill me!” You said, covering your face with your hands making sure not to crush the little brown furball that sat in your lap. Leighton’s image was very important to her and having a cute little kitten was for sure, not in her ideal look.

Whitney decided it was time for her to step in, “I mean, I get it—Leighton’s not exactly the ‘spontaneous kitten adoption’ type. But honestly, who can resist a kitten? I mean, she’ll probably be annoyed at first because she’s, well, Leighton. But once she sees how cute it is, she’ll come around. Just give her some time. Worst-case scenario, we find someone else who can take care of it.”

You took a second to think, “No I’m definitely going with Kimberly’s emotional support kitten thing. I think that’ll work.”

Just as you finished your sentence, you heard your girlfriend’s keys through the door and quickly moved the kitten onto the couch beside you and got up to meet her at the door. “God, Y/N, are you trying to give me a heart attack? Like, normal people wait at least three feet away from the door.” Leighton put her hand on her chest feigning shock and rolled her eyes then put her purse on one of the empty chairs in the living room before giving you a smile to show she wasn’t actually mad. She moved her hand to your lower back before pulling you into a short but sweet kiss, not caring that all of your roommates were able to see. At the lack of reaction from the roommates about the kiss (As used to you guys kissing as they were, there was usually at least one fake gasp every time you kissed in front of them.), Leighton looked around at all of you with narrowed eyes. “Okay, you’re being weird, what's going on?”

“Baby, please don’t be mad–” You started, immediately abandoning the emotional support kitten idea, before getting cut off as Leighton noticed the tiny, brown creature staring up at her with bright eyes. The look comically similar to a look you would give Leighton when you wanted to convince her of something.

“Y/N” Leighton started. “What the hell is that?” She asked, pointing at the kitten and giving you a tight-lipped face that, in your head, you called her ‘trying not to be mad at you’ face. 

Whitney, Bela, and Kimberly all quickly got up from their respective seats and rushed into their own rooms. All of which receiving an annoyed look from you and Leighton, albeit for different reasons.

"Okay, baby, hear me out—this tiny angel was all alone and needed a home. Look at those eyes, Leighton! You’re seriously going to tell me you can’t feel your icy heart melting just a little?" You quickly moved to pick up the kitten and held it as if it was a baby while rubbing its belly, causing it to purr loudly.

You gave your girlfriend your best puppy dog eyes, or in this case, kitten eyes, and watched some of her annoyance soften. “"Okay, seriously? You’re trying to win me over with that face? Nice try, but I’m not giving in that easily. It’s gonna knock things over, scratch up the furniture, and I’ll be the one dealing with it."

“No you won’t!” You quickly argued, “5 people live here and Whit, Bela, and Kimberly all already love her so they will for sure help out.” Her expression softened a little more, but there was still a small bit of resistance left. “And I will never make you clean the litter box.”

This promise seemed to be enough for Leighton as she reached out to pet the kitten, "Okay, fine. I’ll guess it’s... kind of cute. But don’t think this means I’m on board with turning our place into a zoo."

You gasped and gave her a bright smile, “You are not going to regret this!” She gave you a smile back and stepped closer to look at the kitten with you and you took this opportunity for another, but slightly longer, kiss.

Leighton was finally smiling at both you and the cat. “Does she have a name?” She asked, causing you to smile sheepishly.

“Nutella,” You giggled.

Leighton, while still smiling, side-eyed you. “Y/N, I said yes to the cat but I will not be having a cat that everyone ends up calling Nut.”

You look at her slightly embarrassed as you had definitely not thought that through, “Maybe we rethink the name then.”

“It’ll come to us,” She smiled back at you.

Later that night, you came out of the bathroom after your nighttime routine to find Leighton on the bed, reading a book about some new mathematical theory (that she would attempt to explain to you later and you wouldn’t even slightly understand, but listen anyway cause listening to her nerd out was always fun for you), with Nutella laying on her chest purring louder than you had ever thought the little thing could.

“Looks like you’ve replaced me,” You joked.

Leighton looked up at you and then down at the kitten and smiled. “I think there’s room for the both of you.”

You laughed softly before getting into the bed next to her. Leighton put her book on the nightstand, careful not to disturb the little furball, and turned off the lamp. You immediately took the opportunity to rest your head on the side of her chest the kitten wasn’t occupying and brought your hand, which normally sat on Leighton’s stomach underneath her shirt, up to pet your new baby. “Thank you for letting me keep her,” you spoke softly.

Leighton brought her hand up to rub your back. “Anything to make you happy, Y/N.” You sighed contently, feeling her hand. “Plus, she’s kinda sweet. It’s like a really small, furry version of you.”

You laughed softly, “I love you, Leighton.” Your smile and tiredness easily audible in your voice.

“I love you too, Y/N.” Leighton said before you both fell asleep.

[nuggetgaming]

DRDT CHAPTER 2 EPISODE 13 SPOILERS

First of all, the reveal of everyone’s motive secrets is both exciting but also very sad. Exciting in a way that all of the theories have payed off on the long run, but sad as it confirms that Hu was the hopeless child. This can help explain why she did not want to believe that David was not a ‘good person’, because much like Arei, if he wasn’t what a ‘good person’ was supposed to be, then what hope would she have that she would be.

I also don’t buy Terukos secret, as MonoTV said that they had no idea if these were even the correct matches,

meaning that if one person was to lie about their secret being for someone else * cough cough *David* cough cough * they would be able to get away with their secret safely intact. There is also the fact that (according to my knowledge) the only part about teruko’s family is that she had an older brother (again, I am probably wrong) but who do we know who’s whole family died as a result of something that they did? Xander. Who does David claim is the only good person that he ever knew despite apparently being the reason for the killing game? Xander. This could also explain why David did this face when Teruko ‘revealed’ her secret, as he knows what her secret truly is.

Also, Eden being responsible for Xander losing an eye?!?!? I for one did not expect this. All I want to know is why she did it and why does she look scared? Is it because she just realised what she had just done, or was something happening beforehand which resulted in her doing it and feeling scared in the moment.

Levi being portrayed as someone who lacks empathy is really interesting to me, as it can kinda be shown if past episodes, yet I’m sure people (me included) just chalked it up to regular antisocial behaviour. I was also surprised to find out that not only did he kill one person, but he actually killed four, and he had forgotten about doing so which adds a fun little twist on things. However I have to say that the first thing that came into my head was that Levi was essentially Sweeney Todd (a barber who would kill his clients and would have the baker who works under him turn his victims into meat pies) but without the cannibalism.

And lastly, that cliffhanger.

I am honestly not sure what to think right now, as my brain is currently running on 20% and it being close to 1:30 at night as I write this. But I am now more suspicious of both Nico and Ace, both due to the tape being used during Nico’s murder attempt on Ace, and also a compelling argument that the tape went missing when only Eden, Teruko and Ace were in the room that it was in. This may also be why Ace is positive that it was Nico, either because he is shifting the blame to them, or due to the previous attempt he instinctively believes that or, Ace (somehow) recognised the similarities in what was in the crime scene and his own case.

With that being said, I am now going to go to sleep

[prolifeedentobisa]

How Pro-Life every character is: A DRDT Ranking

Hiiii, so as the resident Pro Life Eden supporter, I thought about this for awhile and as such, I decided to make a ranking of every character from "supports killing babies for fun" to "wants to save babies".

(Note, for my own opinions, I don't really judge if you do get an abortion if absolutely NEEDED but in my opinion you need a good reason to have one (like danger to your health or the baby is dying anyway) but it should be a last resort if there's no other options. If you don't have one then I'm giving you a side eye)

Note this is my opinion and if you disagree with me that's okay X3 Tell me who you think is the most pro life in the reblogs! x3

But here we go!

16. Ace Markey

I admit, this may be a bit of a bias as I really don't like this man :c It's okay if you like him but I'm afraid I think he is pro-murder. Probably wants every baby murdered too :c

15. David Chiem

Also a bias, I'm not his biggest fan, but I believe he would love abortion sadly :c. He doesn't care for the unborn, he only cares about people who got the chance to live. However he is lower than Ace as I could see him motivating people to keep their babies and not commit murder.

14. Teruko Tawaki

This physically hurts to write. I love Teruko :c But sadly I think she would want abortion to become legalized because she probably thinks no one deserves live. I think she even HAD abortions :c I really hope she sees the light soon and becomes better :c

13. Arturo Giles

This man supports eugenics. That's my headcanon. But enough said.

12. Veronika Grebenshschikova

It's Veronika. She loves dead babies. I only have her this low because I don't think she supports eugenics

11. Arei Nageishi

We know how Arei was at the start... BUT she wants to change so... perhaps there is a chance she'll become prolife?

10. Rose Lacroix

She seems nice. I think she'd probably recommend other options before abortion. Unfortunately if you were insistent on baby killing, she'd probably send you to the nearest clinic then take a nap and not feel guilt.

9. Whit Young

He doesn't give a crap about killing babies. Do what you want, he doesn't care.

8. Charles Cuevas

This man is a man of science... but like Whit I doubt he cares. Honestly you can swap these two.

7. Min Jeung

She canonically hates kids so she might approve of abortion. Sadly I think a lot of people here are pro murder, but luckily soon we'll be into the people who are pro life! I think she'd approve of baby murder, but then I also think she knows it is murder at least. So that puts her higher above everyone else. :c

6. Nico Hakobyan

They'd direct other options to you, awkwardly. They know it's murder, but they'd try and maybe tell you to think about it first before going through? But ultimately they just want to be left alone. Though they may also bring up animals don't get abortions. xP

5. Hu Jing

She's way too sweet. She would 100% provide expecting mothers with all sorts of stuff they need. If the mother doesn't want the kid, she'd take it off them so they don't need to get an abortion. Whether she raises it herself or puts it in foster care is another story, but she would be supportive of pregnant women x3

4. Levi Fontana

Doesn't want you to go down his path. Discourages abortion. He really doesn't want you to be a killer too. He knows it's a good thing to not get abortions unless necessary.

3. Eden Tobisa

Sadly my girl is not number 1 :c. But she's still on the front lines protecting babies x3

2. Xander Matthews

It's Xander. He hates injustice. He believes in rights for all, and that includes babies! He'd also help out like Hu does!

AND FOR NUMBER ONE.....

J ROSALES

Need I say anything? She hates murderers. She hates people who happily get abortions. She wants everyone to live, and that includes babies!

Hope we all agree :3 Tell me who you think is prolife if you want! X3

Oh and Monotv thinks abortion is murder but he loves it because he loves murder

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 18: CHIRON THROWS A PARTY

Alex started shouting reading in delight, and only continued in that way, "and we all know Chiron's family throws the best parties!"

Annabeth was a third worried about Oceanus, a third worried about Percy, and a third worried about her eardrums as she gently tapered, "but Chiron's throwing the party. Perhaps he has something planned more mellow, with hot chocolate and Dean Martin."

"Odd time for a party if so," Magnus offered in peace.

Thalia was mildly impressed Alex couldn't get a hint off Annabeth about even rainbow afros in the near future. She really had her shit together.

Alex frowned at Annabeth killing her vibe but nodded and continued reading a touch more in the normal hearing range.

Midtown was a war zone. We flew over little skirmishes everywhere. A giant was ripping up trees in Bryant Park while dryads pelted him with nuts. Outside the Waldorf Astoria, a bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin was whacking a hellhound with a rolled-up newspaper. A trio of Hephaestus campers fought a squad of dracaenae in the middle of Rockefeller Center.

Those who had never been to New York just heard landmarks and monsters being smashed together like wrong puzzle pieces. They understood the gravity of what they were hearing, simply because of the look on Percy's face. As if every new crack he'd traveled over was a new vindication he sought.

I was tempted to stop and help, but I could tell from the smoke and noise that the real action had moved farther south. Our defenses were collapsing. The enemy was closing in on the Empire State Building.

The sense of gravitas in Alex's voice always did sound like she should have all attention around the campfire. Even those who were in the know had a way of listening in and left breathless at what was going to happen.

We did a quick sweep of the surrounding area. The Hunters had set up a defensive line on 37th, just three blocks north of Olympus. To the east on Park Avenue, Jake Mason and some other Hephaestus campers were leading an army of statues against the enemy. To the west, the Demeter cabin and Grover's nature spirits had turned Sixth Avenue into a jungle that was hampering a squadron of Kronos's demigods. The south was clear for now, but the flanks of the enemy army were swinging around. A few more minutes and we'd be totally surrounded.

"We have to land where they need us most," I muttered.

That's everywhere, boss.

"We've only just started this one and the horse already gets the gold star," Jason looked pretty proud of Blackjack earning that.

Percy nodded seriously. "Right, so, our options include splitting the island in half and hoping Kronos takes the part that doesn't have the Empire State Building-"

"Pass," Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Or shutting the hell up, Jason, to see what we do about it," Percy concluded.

"I'm sort of leaning towards the first option though," Thalia said honestly, "like honestly, I'd just kind of like to see you try."

"You're all hopeless," Nico said in true bafflement how they'd survived this night.

"We're all heroes," Percy reminded with pride, "hopeful, hero, hhhh-" he stammered on another H word.

"Hobgoblins," Alex offered.

"Humanitarians," Magnus grinned.

"Honorable, hopeful, heroes," Jason offered, immediately getting back on Percy's good side as he gestured to him with a nod of thanks.

Alex huffed and called them all a bunch of hobgoblins before she continued.

I spotted a familiar silver owl banner in the southeast corner of the fight, 33rd at the Park Avenue tunnel. Annabeth and two of her siblings were holding back a Hyperborean giant.

"There!" I told Blackjack. He plunged toward the battle.

"No offense to Annabeth in the slightest," Will couldn't help but say through only slightly gritted teeth, "but that's really who you thought needed the most help?"

"No," Percy dismissed at once her injured shoulder had any play in this thought...even if he wouldn't deny it either. "I came to ask her like I would Chiron on top of that hill where forces needed me most."

I leaped off his back and landed on the giant's head. When the giant looked up, I slid off his face, shield-bashing his nose on the way down.

"RAWWWR!' The giant staggered backward, blue blood trickling from his nostrils.

"Does it taste like an Icee?" Alex grinned.

"I didn't lick it!" Percy yelped in disgust.

"Your loss," she shrugged.

I hit the pavement running. The Hyperborean breathed a cloud of white mist, and the temperature dropped. The spot where I'd landed was now coated with ice, and I was covered in frost like a sugar donut.

Alex laughed in delight that further sweets just reinforced her idea of these guys showing up in the next imagining she had of visiting Canada in a complete Willy Wonka mayhem.

"Hey, ugly!" Annabeth yelled. I hoped she was talking to the giant, not me.

"Both?" Magnus smirked.

"No Magnus," Annabeth chuckled, "I meant the giant."

"I don't know, the two looked pretty similar right then, that's not a great defense," Thalia smirked.

"You weren't there, shut it zappy," Percy huffed.

"I don't need to be there to know how you look covered in donut powder, I've witnessed that mess," she chuckled.

Blue Boy bellowed and turned toward her, exposing the unprotected back of his legs. I charged and stabbed him behind the knee.

"Just as planned," Annabeth told Will.

"You planned on Percy descending from above to stab that thing while you distracted him?" He asked in disbelief.

"He's very handy that way," Annabeth shrugged. "I wouldn't have even been surprised to see him tame that pig."

Will couldn't even be mad if they were joking. The two did work best together.

"WAAAAH!" The Hyperborean buckled. I waited for him to turn, but he froze. I mean he literally turned to solid ice. From the point where I'd stabbed him, cracks appeared in his body. They got larger and wider until the giant crumbled in a mountain of blue shards.*

"Why was that somehow more disturbing than turning to dust?" Magnus asked.

"More visually destructive," Alex said with relish.

"They won't turn to dust and vanish as fast," Nico agreed.

Magnus's frown grew as he realized they were right and decided to set aside for now why that did deeply bother him about all these monsters.

"Thanks." Annabeth winced, trying to catch her breath. "The pig?"

"Pork chops," I said.

"Good." She flexed her shoulder. Obviously, the wound was still bothering her, but she saw my expression and rolled her eyes. "I'm fine, Percy. Come on! We've got plenty of enemies left."

She was right.

"Mmmmm," Annabeth closed her eyes and savored that.

"About the enemies, you only get to enjoy that half as much for not being fine in the shoulder," Percy huffed.

"Mm," Annabeth mocked, trying to sound just as savoring with a serious face.

The result caused them all to snicker like idiots.

The next hour was a blur. I fought like I'd never fought before—wading into legions of dracaenae, taking out dozens of telkhines with every strike, destroying empousai and knocking out enemy demigods. No matter how many I defeated, more took their place.

Percy had been fighting for his life since page one of this mess.

This felt like more. Heavier. Nine times out of ten Percy was outside of Camp facing down these threats, but this time Camp had come to defend his home, and it didn't feel like there was an end goal in sight this time of running them all out. Even if they won this day. More would always take their place.

Annabeth and I raced from block to block, trying to shore up our defenses. Too many of our friends lay wounded in the streets. Too many were missing.

Will fidgeted with the beads of his camp necklace. He officially had more than Micheal at the end of last summer. The assortment of colors always stood out on his neck when he looked in the mirror, like flashes of eyes he'd never see again.

As the night wore on and the moon got higher, we were backed up foot by foot until we were only a block from the Empire State Building in any direction. At one point Grover was next to me, bonking snake women over the head with his cudgel. Then he disappeared in the crowd, and it was Thalia at my side, driving the monsters back with the power of her magic shield. Mrs. O'Leary bounded out of nowhere, picked up a Laistrygonian giant in her mouth, and flung him into the air like a Frisbee.

Annabeth used her invisibility cap to sneak behind the enemy lines. Whenever a monster disintegrated for no apparent reason with a surprised look on his face, I knew Annabeth had been there.

But it still wasn't enough.

Jason felt as if he were being held captive by his own mind. The sounds and smells flashing by to fast to get a real grasp on, the emotions that kept peaking and rolling back out of him while he sat in a green bean bag at the bottom of the ocean. He knew every flick of the wrist Percy had made, but everything felt a step off from truly connecting he felt a little madness creeping in what the heck his old life really was until he forced himself to focus on Alex reading with her whole self, Percy's manic grin, Thalia lounged out in her seat still fiddling with her bracelet. This was real, at least. These weren't moments a god could take away from him again. He wouldn't let it happen.

"Hold your lines!" Katie Gardner shouted, somewhere off to my left.

The problem was there were too few of us to hold anything. The entrance to Olympus was twenty feet behind me. A ring of brave demigods, Hunters, and nature spirits guarded the doors.

Alex's voice shook rarely, but it did now as she realized this was Rachel's drawing, again. Just popping up in Percy's near future. And she was on her way there...somehow. She kept it together well and barreled through the moment, still reading with a thrill in her voice for the idea of being in that action, but Magnus saw it.

I slashed and hacked, destroying everything m my path, but even I was getting tired, and I couldn't be everywhere at once.

Behind the enemy troops, a few blocks to the east, a bright light began to shine. I thought it was the sunrise. Then I realized Kronos was riding toward us on a golden chariot. A dozen Laistrygonian giants bore torches before him. Two Hyperboreans carried his black-and-purple banners. The Titan lord looked fresh and rested, his powers at full strength. He was taking his time advancing, letting me wear myself down.

Alex felt the internal urge to puff up and hiss. To transform into a chimera and use all three heads to deal with this. To throw a slushie with some human teeth in all their faces. This entrapment down here really was starting to affect even her creativity when that's all that came to mind before she just audibly grumbled for a moment before moving on.

Annabeth appeared next to me. "We have to fall back to the doorway. Hold it at all costs!"

She was right. I was about to order a retreat when I heard the hunting horn.

It cut through the noise of the battle like a fire alarm. A chorus of horns answered from all around us, echoing off the buildings of Manhattan.

I glanced at Thalia, but she just frowned.

"Not the Hunters," she assured me. "We're all here."

Alex threw Annabeth a look of fond excitement. She'd known all along the party ponies were coming but had tried to tamper her expectations they weren't going to until the end of the chapter and perhaps only a handful of them would be there with more paintballs.

This, sounded like fun.

"No international league heading in?" Jason asked her, knowing the real answer, still imagining girls in kilts and bows showing up for his own amusement.

"Not unless I was finally unbanned from Saskatchewan," Thalia shrugged. "Long story," she promised at the many confused faces.

"Then who?"

The horns got louder. I couldn't tell where they were coming from because of the echo, but it sounded like an entire army was approaching.

Alex grinned. She read giddy, with such mayhem and delight it would have been infectious to Ethan or possibly even Kronos himself to get hyped about his own demise coming. Annabeth, at least, got a moment to smile and imagine Luke with that old challenging smile on his face to hear of an enemy being thwarted.

I was afraid it might be more enemies, but Kronos's forces looked as confused as we were. Giants lowered their clubs. Dracaenae hissed. Even Kronos's honor guard looked uneasy.

Then, to our left, a hundred monsters cried out at once. Kronos's entire northern flank surged forward.

I thought we were doomed, but they didn't attack. They ran straight past us and crashed into their southern allies.

Percy was already blinking like he was trying to get the dust out of his eyes. The monsters had already started to blur together by that time. The slightly different shades of their skin and the little details they each had in their armor had faded to nothing in his mind but where next to swing his sword. Seeing them run right past him, flee and then explode on their allies' own weapons, coating the streets in glittering sand that was dispersed moments later as more took their place amid those horns really messed with him and put in perspective while an entire army just watched in terror really had made him feel small for just that moment.

A new blast of horns shattered the night. The air shimmered. In a blur of movement, an entire cavalry appeared as if dropping out of light speed.

"Yeah, baby!" a voice wailed. "PARTY!"

A shower of arrows arced over our heads and slammed into the enemy, vaporizing hundreds of demons. But these weren't regular arrows. They made whizzy sounds as they flew, like WHEEEEEE! Some had pinwheels attached to them. Others had boxing gloves rather than points.

"Centaurs!" Annabeth yelled.

"So, I think the Party Ponies have arrived," Will said conversationally.

"And they're going to smash everything in their sight charged on the power of awesome!" Alex yelled like a child high on soda and cursed knowledge. They were already resigned to pissing off the ocean titan and letting her have her fun.

The Party Pony army exploded into our midst in a riot of colors: tie-dyed shirts, rainbow Afro wigs, oversize sunglasses, and war-painted faces. Some had slogans scrawled across their flanks like HORSEZ PWN or KRONOS SUX.

"That's going to be my license plate one day," Alex declared, reading each new thing as if a treasure trove of a lifetime. Maybe Loki Sux instead.

Hundreds of them filled the entire block. My brain couldn't process everything I saw, but I knew if I were the enemy, I'd be running.

"I'm so disappointed in your brain," Jason groaned. He wanted every messy detail of this just as bad.

"I am too," Percy nodded. He knew his friends loved this kind of stuff and really was sorry he couldn't give them better visuals. Stupid brain.

"Percy!" Chiron shouted across the sea of wild centaurs.

"Chiron and Percy, parting the sea of wild centaurs and creatures to get to each other," Thalia gave a mock sniff. "It's such an amazing story of mentor and mentee-"

"I'm going to turn you into a manatee," Percy scowled.

He was dressed in armor from the waist up, his bow in his hand, and he was grinning in satisfaction.

"I half imagined him showing up to this in his tweed jacket," Nico admitted.

"He's worn that once guys, while pretending to be a real teacher at my school," Percy chuckled.

"What do you mean a real teacher?" Annabeth looked at him in disappointment. "He's literally the trainer of all hero's seaweed brain."

"Like, grading papers, and Paul- no, but- boring, no," Percy groaned that wasn't right either and waved at Alex to just get back to the fun stuff.

"Sorry we're late!"

"DUDE!" Another centaur yelled. "Talk later. WASTE MONSTERS NOW!"

"That centaur knows how to live," Alex nodded in agreement.

"We haven't slayed one monster in here," Percy agreed in mild disappointment. "Guys, do we talk to much?!"

"Yes," they all agreed, not that it was going to stop a single one of them.

He locked and loaded a double-barrel paint gun and blasted an enemy hellhound bright pink. The paint must've been mixed with Celestial bronze dust or something, because as soon as it splattered the hellhound, the monster yelped and dissolved into a pink-and-black puddle.

Alex's laugh was subdued at best, even for that badass moment though. She couldn't recklessly laugh at that harm done anymore without picturing Mrs. O'Leary crossing her paws over her nose in Percy's apartment. Even Magnus couldn't have a vindictive laugh over this happening to a monster dog with that look on her face.

"PARTY PONIES.'" a centaur yelled. "SOUTH FLORIDA!"

"As opposed to North Florida?" Jason asked blankly.

"Bet the Flordia Georgia line is an epic meet-up spot?" Percy shrugged.

Somewhere across the battlefield, a twangy voice yelled back, "HEART OF TEXAS CHAPTER!"

Will pressed his hand to his heart and started humming something. Nico just thought what a lovable dork he was no matter the song.

"HAWAII OWNS YOUR FACES!" a third one shouted.

It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

Annabeth tried hard to hitch up a mock sob, but it came out to much as a laugh to be anything more than adorable to Percy.

The entire Titan army turned and fled, pushed back by a flood of paintballs, arrows, swords, and NERF baseball bats. The centaurs trampled everything in their path.

"Run, wild horses, run!" Will said with a static kind of energy that got the others just as hyped as Alex could. He'd been running around trying to ensure the sick and injured had gotten inside first, he'd been snatching up supplies so fast the Stolls would have been proud, he'd been having to deal with his own chaos and really hadn't even been aware these guys showed up until one tapped him on the shoulder and offered help. He was pretty sure it was one from Colorado and had still instantly said yes without question.

"Stop running, you fools!" Kronos yelled. "Stand and ACKK!"

Alex really drew that noise out too, making it sound wet and painful, leaving no one in doubt Kronos had not managed to finish saying the word attack.

That last part was because a panicked Hyperborean giant stumbled backward and sat on top of him.

The lord of time disappeared under a giant blue butt.

Through an effort Hercules would never bother with, Percy refused to let himself laugh at that like most everyone else did as Annabeth bit her lip. He was pretty sure that should earn him a free pass for laughing at something inappropriate in the future. Jason might even laminate it for him.

We pushed them for several blocks until Chiron yelled, "HOLD! On your promise, HOLD!"

It wasn't easy, but eventually the order got relayed up and down the ranks of centaurs, and they started to pull back, letting the enemy flee.

Thalia's face was flushed with joy, still panting just a bit from her laughter at Luke's stupid face vanishing under an icy ass like he wholly deserved, the ghost of adrenaline she hadn't properly felt in days still pumping through her. Once this high had worn off she'd been so exhausted she'd nearly fallen asleep climbing some stairs!

"Chiron's smart," Annabeth said, wiping the sweat off her face. "If we pursue, we'll get too spread out. We need to regroup."

"I mean, yeah, but," Alex gestured to the book and the chaos being taken away.

"I'll personally sign you up for the next scavenger hunt at Camp, nothing gets more chaotic than that," Annabeth promised.

"Deal," Alex shrugged without further ado.

"But the enemy—"

"They're not defeated," she agreed. "But the dawn is coming. At least we've bought some time."

I didn't like pulling back, but I knew she was right.

"How to sum up them dating," Will and Nico said at once before they both busted out laughing. Annabeth and Percy exchanged unamused looks at this somehow continuing long past the point it was funny, but as constantly proven, they knew when to pick their battles.

I watched as the last of the telkhines scuttled toward the East River. Then reluctantly I turned and headed back toward the Empire State Building.

We set up a two-block perimeter, with a command tent at the Empire State Building. Chiron informed us that the Party Ponies had sent chapters from almost every state in the Union: forty from California, two from Rhode Island,

"Rhode Island slacking," Alex sniffed. "It's right next door!"

"They're, congressional appointments, of centaurs," Magnus said in fascination. "Like, they sent some by population? Is there a centaur president?"

"Ah, no," Annabeth shook her head with a smile. "Don't overthink it cuz."

"Right," he chuckled, imagining that would be Chiron anyways and he already knew what a hectic leader that guy was.

thirty from Illinois . . . Roughly five hundred total had answered his call, but even with that many, we couldn't defend more than a few blocks.

"Just topple over one unoccupied building, that's all I'm asking for," Alex crossed her fingers hopefully. "Brick launcher grenade gun!"

"They could too," Jason said with mingled dread and delight for that idea.

"Dude," said a centaur named Larry. His T-shirt identified him as BIG CHIEF UBER GUY, NEW MEXICO CHAPTER.

"Are all the Hells Angels just secretly centaurs? Is there a centaur gang?" Percy asked.

"The only turf war they'd have is best licorice supply runs, I think we're safe from that," Annabeth shrugged.

"That was more fun than our last convention in Vegas!"

"Yeah," said Owen from South Dakota. He wore a black leather jacket and an old WWII army helmet. "We totally wasted them!"

Chiron patted Owen on the back. "You did well, my friends, but don't get careless. Kronos should never be underestimated. Now why don't you visit the diner on West 33rd and get some breakfast? I hear the Delaware chapter found a stash of root beer."

"Root beer!" They almost trampled each other as they galloped off.

"I got it," Thalia snapped her fingers, "they argue over which brand is better and that's why they all have to live separately!"

"How many brands of root beer are there?" Percy asked blankly.

"3,192," Alex said without hesitation.

There was a long pause before nobody decided to ask how serious that answer was.

Chiron smiled. Annabeth gave him a big hug, and Mrs. O'Leary licked his face.

"Ack," he grumbled. "Enough of that, dog. Yes, I'm glad to see you too."

"Chiron, thanks," I said. "Talk about saving the day."

He shrugged.

Nico smacked the side of his head. "I finally figured out where you got it from!"

"Yeah Nico, after the second time you've saved the world, it is kind of not a big deal," Percy shrugged.

Nico wouldn't know. He'd only kind of helped once.

"I'm sorry it took so long. Centaurs travel fast, as you know. We can bend distance as we ride. Even so, getting all the centaurs together was no easy task. The Party Ponies are not exactly organized."

"Noooo, say it ain't so!" Magnus chuckled.

"I mean, they're about as organized as Percy's camp, aka being held together by an awesome speech and the thrill of surprise attacks," Alex nodded. "I think it works."

Percy kind of wanted to be offended, but like, she wasn't wrong.

Percy kind of wanted to be offended, but like, she wasn't wrong.

"And a sense of family, loyalty, duty?" Annabeth prompted with a frown.

"Don't forget the duct tape," Thalia chuckled as Will hid his wince. Maybe Annabeth wouldn't admit they'd been fighting family amidst those monsters, but he didn't forget.

"How'd you get through the magic defenses around the city?" Annabeth asked.

"They slowed us down a bit," Chiron admitted, "but I think they're intended mostly to keep mortals out. Kronos doesn't want puny humans getting in the way of his great victory."

"So maybe other reinforcements can get through," I said hopefully.

"What other reinforcements are there?" Jason asked critically. He didn't mean to sound so sharp, but he did all the same. There was an electric storm still simmering in his brain that felt like it was zapping every part of him from the inside if he tried to concentrate on any blurry idea to long and it was giving him a serious headache.

Chiron stroked his beard. "Perhaps, though time is short. As soon as Kronos regroups, he will attack again. Without the element of surprise on our side . . ."

I understood what he meant. Kronos wasn't beaten. Not by a long shot. I half hoped Kronos had been squashed under that Hyperborean giant's butt, but I knew better. He'd be back, tonight at the latest.

"Well there goes my master plan," Alex sighed. "All those years of practice training that guy to squash things with his ass, wasted."

"Have no fears Alex, you'll move onto your next passion project soon," Magnus said with complete confidence.

"Yeah," she agreed with a longing sigh all the same.

"And Typhon?" I asked.

Chiron's face darkened. "The gods are tiring. Dionysus was incapacitated yesterday. Typhon smashed his chariot, and the wine god went down somewhere in the Appalachians.

Nico spluttered on a painful sounding laugh. "Even Chiron calls him the wine dude?"

"The wine god," Will corrected in a posh voice. "And I'm sure Mr. D's threatened to turn him into a table a few times for it."

No one has seen him since. Hephaestus is out of action as well. He was thrown from the battle so hard he created a new lake in West Virginia.

"I really hope some mortal thinks that's an asteroid bringing the dinosaurs back," Percy laughed.

"Percy, no," but Annabeth stopped with a sigh and let him have his fun.

He will heal, but not soon enough to help. The others still fight. They've managed to slow Typhon's approach. But the monster can not be stopped. He will arrive in New York by this time tomorrow. Once he and Kronos combine forces—"

That's all they'd been hearing of this problem from the start, and it somehow just got worse every time they heard it. Even if, beyond all hope, Percy had somehow stopped Kronos with one stupid decision, how the heck had that been stopped?!

"Then what chance do we have?" I said. "We can't hold out another day."

"We'll have to," Thalia said. "I'll see about setting some new traps around the perimeter."

She looked exhausted. Her jacket was smeared in grime and monster dust, but she managed to get to her feet and stagger off.

Annabeth had watched her go with such a tight pain in her throat she wondered if she'd accidentally swallowed some monster dust. Thalia hadn't even glanced back at her. She'd gone off to do her next task with the stoic, stiff shoulders of Luke watching them fall asleep and promising to get more firewood.

"I will help her," Chiron decided. "I should make sure my brethren don't go too overboard with the root beer."

"No such thing as too much fun," Alex huffed.

"I'd believe you'd find it even before the Party Ponies," Annabeth agreed.

I thought "too overboard" pretty much summed up the Party Ponies, but Chiron cantered off, leaving Annabeth and me alone.

"That was strategic," Annabeth huffed how unsubtle he was. She owed him a good nerf arrow.

"I know right, he just got there and he's already running off again," Percy huffed with a frown what on earth he meant by it. He would have thought Chiron would want to stay and chat for more of an update.

She cleaned the monster slime off her knife. I'd seen her do that hundreds of times, but I'd never thought about why she cared so much about the blade.

"Not really something I ever would have questioned," Alex shrugged. "I notice you never clean your blade Percy. Just because it's magic doesn't mean it might not like a good polish every once in a while."

Percy rubbed awkwardly at his nose and had nothing to say to that.

Jason suddenly felt the strong smell of polish in his nose and had an odd deja vu moment of being in an armory doing just this and smiled. He turned eagerly to Nico and asked, "how do you polish your sword?"

Nico grinned and started talking about more deadly rivers that could probably do worse to you than wipe your memory or kill you, like put gravel in your shoes or something worse, but Percy was distracted from listening by still watching Annabeth until someone shut the pair up.

She'd spent the entire time fiddling nervously with her hair, a long lost look in her eyes. He finally let the impulse win and traced the side of her neck with a question in his eyes. What the hell had she been through while he'd been away?

Annabeth caught his fingers and smiled but shook her head. Not now. That was okay. He'd wait as long as she needed.

"At least your mom is okay," I offered.

"If you call fighting Typhon okay." She locked eyes with me. "Percy, even with the centaurs' help, I'm starting to think—"

"I know." I had a bad feeling this might be our last chance to talk, and I felt like there were a million things I hadn't told her.

Athena, her stoic, absent mother, was far from her highest concern, Annabeth shook her head. Though of course her brain had been able to process plenty of concern all around. Chiron darting in and out and around everyone while sparing her a smile first had been that way since she'd arrived. Her dad was on the other side of the country, safe away from the monsters, from her.

It had been Percy she'd wanted, and him who had stayed right there.

"Listen, there were some . . . some visions Hestia showed me."

"You mean about Luke?"

Maybe it was just a safe guess, but I got the feeling Annabeth knew what I'd been holding back.

"I always just assume Annabeth can read your mind and has just been politely not informing you," Magnus nodded.

"That's not polite," Percy frowned.

"Um, or possible," Annabeth gave them a strange look.

"Right, that too," Percy waved off.

Maybe she'd been having dreams of her own.

"She's been having dreams about your dreams?" Will asked excitedly. "Dreamception?"

"This is somebody's nightmare around here," Nico rolled his eyes.

"Yeah," I said. "You and Thalia and Luke. The first time you met. And the time you met Hermes."

Annabeth slipped her knife back into its sheath. "Luke promised he'd never let me get hurt. He said ... he said we'd be a new family, and it would turn out better than his."

"Which, isn't going well," Magnus said in the kindest, most respectful voice anyone could make that sound.

"Right on the money," Annabeth nodded slowly as she leaned back into Percy's side, fingers still linked together. She really didn't know what she'd do without him in all this.

Her eyes reminded me of that seven-year-old girl's in the alley—angry, scared, desperate for a friend.

Thalia bit back a miserable sigh at how much she'd failed her too. Never on purpose, but enough that she wasn't in this moment and felt every hammer swing she deserved for it in the heart.

Annabeth sighed and gave her a good hard nudge with her foot. She wasn't going to let Thalia keep blaming herself for all that happened since then. There was enough to go around.

"That I can't face Luke," she said miserably.

"Hey, look how well you know me though," Thalia said with a genuine smile.

"Yes, your faith in me is everything," Annabeth said with a sad, sarcastic smile.

Thalia tipped her head and looked back at the book with the unsettling feeling this was about to get worse.

I nodded. "But there's something else you should know. Ethan Nakamura seemed to think Luke was still alive inside his body, maybe even fighting Kronos for control."

Annabeth tried to hide it, but I could almost see her mind working on the possibilities, maybe starting to hope.

Thalia let out a puff of breath and looked into her miserable eyes. "I'm not happy to be right you know."

"Well that's always good to know," Annabeth nodded as the two watched each other for a few moments before looking away.

"I didn't want to tell you," I admitted.

"But you did," Annabeth said in relief, just for him. He kissed her temple and couldn't think of anything else to say, but it was more than enough for her.

She looked up at the Empire State Building. "Percy, for so much of my life, I felt like everything was changing, all the time. I didn't have anyone I could rely on."

I nodded. That was something most demigods could understand.

'Most, but not him,' Will shook his head. He'd wondered a lot during this if Percy really knew how good he had it, the best of both worlds in his parents, all three of them.

"I ran away when I was seven," she said. "Then with Luke and Thalia, I thought I'd found a family, but it fell apart almost immediately. What I'm saying . . . I hate it when people let me down, when things are temporary. I think that's why I want to be an architect."

"To build something permanent," I said. "A monument to last a thousand years."

She held my eyes. "I guess that sounds like my fatal flaw again."

Most everyone around Camp knew that that was 'her thing.' Her go to if someone had a project, her specialty. Someone who was even paying attention could probably even piece together that was her fatal flaw.

Percy was still the only one she ever talked about this with. The one who made her feel like she could tell him anything and he'd never judge her for it. He'd shared his mortal spot with her. How could she ever be afraid to share anything with him?

Years ago in the Sea of Monsters, Annabeth had told me her biggest flaw was pride—thinking she could fix anything. I'd even seen a glimpse of her deepest desire, shown to her by the Sirens' magic.

Annabeth had imagined her mother and father together, standing in front of a newly rebuilt Manhattan, designed by Annabeth. And Luke had been there too—good again, welcoming her home.

"I guess I understand how you feel," I said.

"Liar," Annabeth chuckled.

"Yeah," Percy agreed. He knew he'd never understand every part of her, but he did try.

"But Thalia's right. Luke has already betrayed you so many times. He was evil even before Kronos. I don't want him to hurt you anymore."

Annabeth pursed her lips. I could tell she was trying not to get mad.

"And that was going so well," Jason said in surprise. She hadn't even pulled her knife back out.

"Yeah, first time for everything," Percy agreed in surprise.

"And you'll understand if I keep hoping there's a chance you're wrong."

I looked away. I felt like I'd done my best, but that didn't make me feel any better.

Annabeth struggled to swallow as his hand held hers tight enough to never let go. Gods this somehow kept feeling worse the longer they were dragged over each letter.

Across the street, the Apollo campers had set up a field hospital to tend the wounded—dozens of campers and almost as many Hunters. I was watching the medics work, and thinking about our slim chances for holding Mount Olympus. . . .

And suddenly: I wasn't there anymore.

I was standing in a long dingy bar with black walls, neon signs, and a bunch of partying adults. A banner across the bar read HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BOBBY EARL. Country music played on the speakers.

"Friends in Low Places?" Magnus nodded without surprise. It was barely even a shock to his system Percy had just been yanked out of his own head to deal with another gods mess.

"Does any other country song exist?" Percy chuckled.

Will opened his mouth with a pained look at the pair before closing it slowly, knowing that rant would fall on deaf ears.

Big guys in jeans and work shirts crowded the bar. Waitresses carried trays of drinks and shouted at each other. It was pretty much exactly the kind of place my mom would never let me go.

"In public?" Thalia said in understanding.

"Places where alcohol and those outfits are in one room," Percy huffed. "Mostly the alcohol!"

"We need to get him drunk one of these days, just to see if it'll finally be the thing to piss of Sally," Thalia rolled her eyes.

Somebody was clearly in a terrible mood. "Pass," Percy said at once. The stench reminded him of Gabe without even bothering to indulge the other stupid part of that.

I was stuck in the very back of the room, next to the bathrooms (which didn't smell so great) and a couple of antique arcade games.

"Oh good, you're here," said the man at the Pac-Man machine. "I'll have a Diet Coke."

He was a pudgy guy in a leopard-skin Hawaiian shirt, purple shorts, red running shoes, and black socks, which didn't exactly make him blend in with the crowd. His nose was bright red. A bandage was wrapped around his curly black hair like he was recovering from a concussion.

"So he blended right in like a sore thumb," Nico said, blinking spastically at the setting.

"Accurate," Percy nodded.

I blinked. "Mr. D?"

He sighed, not taking his eyes from the game. "Really, Peter Johnson, how long will it take for you to recognize me on sight?"

"About the same time as when he gets his halo," Alex rolled her eyes.

"About as long as it'll take for you to figure out my name," I muttered.

"Oh, so much never!" Magnus laughed, clasping his hands together in mock praise.

"An infinite amount of never, that's the answer to some riddle out there," Percy laughed along.

"Where are we?"

"Why, Bobby Earl's birthday party," Dionysus said. "Somewhere in lovely rural America."

"It's not a very lost Lestragonian is it?" Nico asked, vividly remembering their names had a similar ring.

"Don't stereotype Nico, lots of normal people have names like Earl, and they're just your everyday pieces of crap," Will rolled his eyes hard. If they were going to make jokes about the South he might as well get his digs in with another classic country song coming to mind.

"I thought Typhon swatted you out of the sky. They said you crash-landed."

"Yes, but Chiron never said where," Jason agreed. "Why wouldn't he land in a bar? Makes sense to me. Bars have wine."

"They're not magnetically drawn to their domain when they crash land," Annabeth sighed.

"Yeah, but I bet you anything if Hepahsuts had drawn me in for a one-on-one, I'd find myself in a very tiny tool shed with him throwing saws around and complaining about their dullness matching mine," Percy sighed.

"Your concern is touching. I did crash-land. Very painfully. In fact, part of me is still buried under a hundred feet of rubble in an abandoned coal mine.

"Huh," Percy and Jason said together with interest they'd been wrong.

Annabeth just smiled and rolled her eyes at these idiots.

It will be several more hours before I have enough strength to mend. But in the meantime, part of my consciousness is here."

"At a bar, playing Pac-Man."

"You sound a tad jealous," Alex chuckled.

"Eh, I prefer Street Fighter eating my quarters," Percy shrugged. There was a retro arcade not far from one of his favorite movie places he didn't get to visit enough, but his high score was still in the top ten.

"Party time," Dionysus said. "Surely you've heard of it. Wherever there is a party, my presence is invoked.

Percy yelped and covered his ears at the idea of such a future pain in his ass. "I take it all back! Alex and anyone else is forbidden from ever throwing me a party!"

"Awww, come on Perce, I promise to keep him in the back with an arcade machine," Alex looked like a kicked puppy.

Percy's heart instantly crumbled. "Yeah, well, fine, but nobody had better involve singing."

"Deal," she instantly agreed. She winked at Will though when he looked away, who instantly grinned back.

Because of this, I can exist in many different places at once. The only problem was finding a party. I don't know if you're aware how serious things are outside your safe little bubble of New York—"

"Safe little bubble?"

"Come on Percy, you'd know this was a trap if he wasn't delusional on all that partying," Thalia shook her head at him.

"Yeah, yeah, one thing is normal in this crazy world," Percy huffed.

"—but believe me, the mortals out here in the heartland are panicking. Typhon has terrified them. Very few are throwing parties. Apparently Bobby Earl and his friends, bless them, are a little slow. They haven't yet figured out that the world is ending."

"Don't know what he's on about, sounds like the perfect time to throw a party," Alex chuckled.

"Yeah, that tracks," Jason nodded without surprise.

"So . . . I'm not really here?"

Magnus couldn't even be upset and surprised that Percy had legitimately thought he'd just been yanked off the street like that. Considering where he'd woken up without memories. It really wasn't that far-fetched.

"No. In a moment I'll send you back to your normal insignificant life, and it will be as if nothing had happened."

"Yes please," Percy sighed. He might even be grateful for a memory wipe!

...unless Dionysus had gone to far. That actually seemed likely.

"And why did you bring me here?"

Dionysus snorted. "Oh, I didn't want you particularly. Any of you silly heroes would do. That Annie girl—"

"Annabeth."

"The point is," he said, "I pulled you into party time to deliver a warning. We are in danger."

There was another long, awkward pause where even Alex looked disconcerted because she hadn't caused it this time.

"As opposed to?" Percy finally asked into the silence.

"Um, Norwegia? Do they have anything bad going on right now?" Nico finally answered.

"To hell if I know!" Percy threw his hands up, long overdone with these gods making no sense and expecting him to keep up.

"Gee," I said. "Never would've figured that out. Thanks."

"Can't say he never helped guide you," Will chuckled.

"Yes I can," Percy huffed.

"It would just be a lie?" Will tried in vain.

"No Will, I know full well when I'm lying," Percy smirked.

He glared at me and momentarily forgot his game. Pac-Man got eaten by the red ghost dude.

"Erre es korakas, Blinky!" Dionysus cursed. "I will have your soul!"

"Appropriate reaction to be honest," Jason nodded.

"Competitive streak, locked and loaded," Percy pointed at him accusingly.

"I, well maybe, I don't know," Jason frowned before he shrugged and decided against arguing the point. He had a strange feeling he'd once strangled someone with a controller, but he wasn't sure if it was a monster or not and that was kind of bothersome.

"Was nobody going to translate that awesome Greek cuss so I know what I'm saying when I use it?" Alex pouted.

"He said go to the crows too," Nico offered with the same helpful smile as the first time.

"Oh, I see, now I know where she got it from," Alex grinned at Annabeth, who didn't bother to look embarrassed as she shrugged.

"Um, he's a video game character," I said.

"That's no excuse! And you're ruining my game, Jorgenson!"

"Jackson."

"Whichever!

"No, no, Percy Jorgenson should very much be discussed more. What's his life like?" Magnus chuckled.

"Going to Giants games, living his best life I assume," Percy sighed.

Now listen, the situation is graver than you imagine. If Olympus falls, not only will the gods fade, but everything that is connected to our legacy will also begin to unravel. The very fabric of your puny little civilization—"

The game played a song and Mr. D progressed to level 254.

"Ha!" he shouted. "Take that, you pixelated fiends!"

"Um, fabric of civilization," I prompted.

"And Pac-Man is a part of that, gosh Percy, let the man prioritize his way," Jason grinned.

"I'll set Blinky on you, don't test me," Percy promised.

"Yes, yes. Your entire society will dissolve. Perhaps not right away, but mark my words, the chaos of the Titans will mean the end of Western civilization. Art, law, wine tastings, music, video games, silk shirts, black velvet paintings—all the things that make life worth living will disappear!"

"This is not news," Thalia frowned as she looked from the book to Percy. "He didn't really think you were tempted by Prometheus did he?"

Percy shivered, something tight lodged in his throat. He couldn't breathe for several moments as his head swam, that stupid jar leaping to mind strapped into the backseat of a car-

Annabeth put her arm around his shoulders. She held him close as he leaned into her for the stability he desperately needed right now as his head swam without the rest of him.

She ran her fingers gently through his hair until his breathing labored into something more even and Alex kept going without question.

"So why aren't the gods rushing back to help us?" I said. "We should combine forces at Olympus. Forget Typhon."

He snapped his fingers impatiently. "You forgot my Diet Coke."

"Gods, you're annoying." I got the attention of a waitress and ordered the stupid soda. I put it on Bobby Earl's tab.

"Is that illegal?" Magnus frowned. "It feels like that should be illegal."

"I honestly don't think anyone here knows," Will admitted. None of them were exactly law-abiding citizens on the regular.

"Fair enough," he nodded.

Mr. D took a good long drink. His eyes never left the video game. "The truth is, Pierre—"

"Percy."

"Posey," Thalia offered with a smirk at Percy, who groaned in dismay. He just knew she'd find a way to tell his dad he'd once accidentally called him that.

"Nah, got to give him one thing, he's never called Percy a Polly," Alex said in delight. "I was thinking Peitro though, or Picholo."

"I'm so glad I wasn't named after an instrument," Percy frowned and knew he owed his mother yet another thanks in his life.

"—the other gods would never admit this, but we actually need you mortals to rescue Olympus. You see, we are manifestations of your culture. If you don't care enough to save Olympus yourselves—"

"Like Pan," I said, "depending on the satyrs to save the Wild."

"Yes, quite. I will deny I ever said this, of course, but the gods need heroes. They always have. Otherwise we would not keep you annoying little brats around."

"I feel so wanted. Thanks."

"You really should," Annabeth was blinking at him like a new riddle to solve. "I don't think he's ever said that out loud. You must have done something during the battle to really get his attention Percy." Short of creating an ocean of Diet Coke, she couldn't think what he'd done to earn this audience.

Percy realized he hadn't yet mentioned the bit where Dionysus had pulled him aside and basically told him he'd cured Chirs and he was sad his son was dead. It was one of those things he was used to the others all knowing. He'd kind of become Mr. D's fall guy for the entire camp after that he supposed. The good and the bad.

"Use the training I have given you at camp."

"What training?"

"You know. All those hero techniques and . . . No!" Mr. D slapped the game console. "Na pari i eychi! The last level!"

"And that means?" Alex asked eagerly, this time looking around at Nico expectantly.

Nico grinned in a way that already made Will blush before he said, "that one's something more in line with what Will would call Hera."

"Ah, fantastic update, thank you," she chuckled while Will sighed without much regret that was never going to die.

He looked at me, and purple fire flickered in his eyes. "As I recall, I once predicted you would turn out to be as selfish as all the other human heroes. Well, here is your chance to prove me wrong."

"Yeah, making you proud is real high on my list."

"Like, right up there with getting kissed by an empousa," Thalia said in a really good simpering act.

Percy high fived her in agreement and Annabeth really kept telling herself she should move so they'd stop doing that across her face.

"You must save Olympus, Pedro!

"Remind me to send Pedro a thank you gift," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Sounds like you might have to learn some Spanish, personally I'd just take credit for it," Jason shrugged.

Leave Typhon to the Olympians and save our own seats of power. It must be done!"

"Great. Nice little chat. Now, if you don't mind, my friends will be wondering—"

"There is more," Mr. D warned.

"Oh thank gods," Magnus clutched at his shirt over his heart. "This just wasn't dire enough yet!"

Alex patted his shoulder and knew in that moment he'd love a good theater camp.

"Kronos has not yet attained full power. The body of the mortal was only a temporary measure."

Annabeth licked her suddenly dry lips as her eyes darted around like she expected to find an angry mob with pitchforks appearing out of nowhere. It made no rational explanation, she kept trying to scold herself, but that did no good. She half expected them all to laugh at her, to throw in her face they'd known all along that Luke was just a pawn, a means to an end, and he'd deserved this.

None did, and she started feeling dizzy with her own relief until Percy put his arm around her in turn until she caught her breath and her eyes stopped burning so bad. Gods she missed Luke so much.

"We kind of guessed that."

"And did you also guess that within a day at most, Kronos will burn away that mortal body and take on the true form of a Titan king?"

"And that would mean . . ."

Dionysus inserted another quarter. "You know about the true forms of the gods."

"Yeah. You can't look at them without burning up."

"Kronos would be ten times more powerful. His very presence would incinerate you. And once he achieves this, he will empower the other Titans. They are weak now, compared to what they will soon become, unless you can stop them. The world will fall, the gods will die, and I will never achieve a perfect score on this stupid machine."

Alex read all of that without to much surprise. It really was a constant case of, 'how could this get any worse?' and then she got her answer and just moved on. It had kind of been the track record of her whole life anyways.

Nobody was really up for arguing the point with her. It's not like it was new information anymore than, 'Percy needed to save the world or we'd all be dead.'

Maybe I should've been terrified, but honestly, I was already about as scared as I could get.

Jason mock rummaged around in his pockets. "Hang on, I have a meter I need to check for that."

"Where haven't I threatened to shove that yet?" Percy tapped his chin, before he snapped his fingers. "Ah, into your belly button!"

Jason theatrically covered his stomach with a horrified expression and the two idiots chuckled for a moment while Thalia and Annabeth exchanged bemused looks.

"Can I go now?" I asked.

"One last thing. My son Pollux. Is he alive?"

Alex really hated herself for the emotion that gripped her voice. That her mind flashed to her father for just a second, then Loki, before she slammed her fist into an already destroyed washing machine in her mind that made something fall out with a clunk to scatter those stupid images away. She knew what she was telling herself, it wasn't denial, it was just anger it wouldn't go away.

I blinked. "Yeah, last I saw him."

"I would very much appreciate it if you could keep him that way. I lost his brother Castor last year—"

"I remember." I stared at him, trying to wrap my mind around the idea that Dionysus could be a caring father. I wondered how many other Olympians were thinking about their demigod children right now.

Will caught Percy's eye and held it to let him know he wasn't alone. That he'd really felt that, been thinking it too. He'd wondered how useless his prayers were while sending them to his dad. The fact that Mr. D even bothered to pull one camper aside to check in, in his own way, really made him believe for a moment that even if he hadn't gotten an answer, his prayers had been heard.

Or that Pollux hadn't been making any.

And he wasn't sure which it was.

"I'll do my best."

Magnus heard that as, when he went to visit his cousin there, he should expect to see a pudgy blonde kid chilling at a cabin alone. The one with grapevines all over it probably. Percy's best wasn't always the solution to everyone coming out alive, but it was as close as he'd ever expect.

"Your best," Dionysus muttered. "Well, isn't that reassuring. Go now. You have some nasty surprises to deal with, and I must defeat Blinky!"

"Nasty surprises?"

He waved his hand, and the bar disappeared.

"Would the gods stop doing at least that," Percy heard it in his own voice, tried to reign in the reverberating power that could easily topple the room they were in, but man was it heard. "If they know something helpful, next time start with that!"

It took every bit of his concentration not to form his hands into fists and draw Riptide and figure out how to go back to his subconscious or whatever and at least break that stupid machine!

"I don't think their brains are exactly linear like ours Percy," Annabeth reminded patiently.

"Then I'm going to start the conversation by setting three alarms so they think they're running out of time and actually tell me this stuff while the first two to go off! The third one's because I'm positive I'll actually want them to stop talking by then," Percy sighed.

"Good plan. Hope it works out for you," Annabeth sighed right with him at whatever god he decided to test this theory on.

I was back on Fifth Avenue. Annabeth hadn't moved. She didn't give any sign that I'd been gone or anything.

She caught me staring and frowned. "What?"

"Um . . . nothing, I guess."

"That really was nothing to you too," Magnus sighed. Just another day in the life of Percy Jackson, being dragged across the country only in his head to have a conversation with the wine dude who also wasn't really there!

"I know the important things in my life," Percy grinned.

I gazed down the avenue, wondering what Mr. D had meant by nasty surprises. How much worse could it get?

Magnus felt the urge to cover his eyes and whimper pre-monster arrival. Just to get it out of the way now.

My eyes rested on a beat-up blue car. The hood was badly dented, like somebody had tried to hammer out some huge craters. My skin tingled. Why did that car look so familiar? Then I realized it was a Prius.

Paul's Prius.

With every new descriptor Alex's voice had gotten a little quieter, a little more shaken. This wasn't her spooky, telling ghost stories over a fire voice where she tried to make herself sound scared to up the mood. She was legitimately upset at realizing Percy's parents could be hurt much more than some dents in the hood of a car, and Percy was as touched as he suddenly was panicked. It was a very strange feeling that stole his spurt of action but left him feeling sick with the need to do something.

I bolted down the street.

"Percy!" Annabeth called. "Where are you going?"

Paul was passed out in the driver's seat. My mom was snoring beside him. My mind felt like mush.

The fact that she was asleep was of interest to note to those not in the know, but not enough to do more than exchange surprised looks.

Rachel was on her way there, and she'd be asleep for whatever message she wanted to deliver. That was yet another disaster on the horizon while he was processing this one with his face an entire mask of pain.

How had I not seen them before? They'd been sitting here in traffic for over a day, the battle raging around them, and I hadn't even noticed.

"We don't come with built in radars Percy," Annabeth gently reminded as they held each other's hands so tight. "I've tested."

Percy gave her a shaky smile, his mind a complete mess he expected to collapse any second. They'd possibly have to start this all over again and build himself back from the ground up. But she kept smiling back and didn't let go, so that was okay.

"They . . . they must've seen those blue lights in the sky." I rattled the doors but they were locked. "I need to get them out."

"Percy," Annabeth said gently.

"I can't leave them here!" I sounded a little crazy. I pounded on the windshield. "I have to move them. I have to—"

"Percy, just . . . just hold on." Annabeth waved to Chiron, who was talking to some centaurs down the block. "We can push the car to a side street, all right? They're going to be fine."

My hands trembled. After all I'd been through over the last few days, I felt so stupid and weak, but the sight of my parents made me want to break down.

Percy had been scared plenty of times over the course of this, but it was usually coupled in with adrenaline and determination and anger. The kind of grit that made him defeat the next monster, gave him the strength to know that even if he hadn't saved everyone from his past at least he'd never forget them again and try not to make the same mistakes.

This is how Kronos could have defeated him all along, he could feel it in his bones. Yet mortals were beneath his notice, and so she'd sat by untouched but always there at the heart of all this.

Chiron galloped over. "What's . . . Oh dear. I see."

"They were coming to find me," I said. "My mom must've sensed something was wrong."

"Most likely," Chiron said. "But, Percy, they will be fine. The best thing we can do for them is stay focused on our job."

Then I noticed something in the backseat of the Prius, and my heart skipped a beat. Seat-belted behind my mother was a black-and-white Greek jar about three feet tall. Its lid was wrapped in a leather harness.

Percy glowered at the book in the kind of way that made Alex confident he wanted to throw the book in her hands out of the ocean and possibly her along with it if she held on to tight. She ignored it best she could and relied on Annabeth and Thalia to remind him why that was a bad idea. She'd actually never done something like that before, but hey, first time for everything.

"No way," I muttered.

Annabeth pressed her hand to the window. "That's impossible! I thought you left that at the Plaza."

"Locked in a vault," I agreed.

"How do you put something in a vault wrong Thalia?" Jason decided not to let that moment pass without a tease.

"When Percy's involved," she said with a straight face. "It was his magic item and he set me up to fail."

"I'm sure you deserve it for something," but Percy was so jittery he couldn't think straight, couldn't think up one instance over the past where she'd messed with him. All his mind could latch onto was his mom, dropping him off at another new school with another hopeful smile, the songs she'd hum while she was baking, the dark circles under her eyes and the sense of joy radiating off of her for a good night's work. Gods he'd be lost without her.

Chiron saw the jar and his eyes widened. "That isn't— "

"Pandora's jar." I told him about my meeting with Prometheus.

"I thought it was a pithos?" Jason felt the strain in the room and strived to do what Percy did best, give a little levity to it. "You told him about Prometheus giving you Pandora's Pithos Percy, remember how pithy that sounded?"

Maybe word play wasn't everyone's cup of tea in amusement, but he at least got a few smiles and eye rolls for his attempt, which made all the world to him to feel like he hadn't failed.

"Then the jar is yours," Chiron said grimly. "It will follow you and tempt you to open it, no matter where you leave it. It will appear when you are weakest."

"Forever?" Magnus frowned. "Like you have a new Riptide? Man, talk about something in serious need of a regift."

Percy had the brief thought that he should give it to Rachel. She'd probably paint over it and make it look more fun and tempting to open, but she'd also been dealing with hopeless situations with much more style than he'd ever have so she just seemed the obvious choice.

He got a pained spike to his brain for the thought and his eyes flickered to Annabeth with guilt instantly so he decided not to voice any of that.

Like now, I thought. Looking at my helpless parents.

I imagined Prometheus smiling, so anxious to help out us poor mortals. Give up Hope, and I will know that you are surrendering. I promise Kronos will be lenient.

Anger surged through me. I drew Riptide and cut through the driver's side window like it was made of plastic wrap.

Alex grinned at all the mayhem Percy's sword could cause he didn't indulge in nearly enough. "Did it have that smooth feeling like when scissors glide through wrapping paper?"

"Yeah, actually," Percy's smile was a tad diabolical and Annabeth swallowed in horror how many cars were going to be broken into when those two teamed up.

"We'll put the car in neutral," I said. "Push them out of the way. And take that stupid jar to Olympus."

Chiron nodded. "A good plan. But, Percy . . ."

Whatever he was going to say, he faltered. A mechanical drumbeat grew loud in the distance—the chop-chop-chop of a helicopter.

Rachel's insane deal to go to a finishing school all so she could have a chat with Percy hadn't been mentioned in a few hours, what with the constant battles and deaths and centaurs appearing, but boy did they not get a choice now but to think of all the problems, implications, and disasters that were about to happen!

On a normal Monday morning in New York, this would've been no big deal, but after two days of silence, a mortal helicopter was the oddest thing I'd ever heard.

He'd felt it in his chest, the reverberating machine that disrupted his world overtaking the rest. The ground hadn't actually been shaking, but he'd been so loopy from seeing his parents he wouldn't have been surprised to see drinks shaking and windows rattling like the arrival of that machine had smashed them back together.

A few blocks east, the monster army shouted and jeered as the helicopter came into view. It was a civilian model painted dark red, with a bright green "DE" logo on the side. The words under the logo were too small to read, but I knew what they said: DARE ENTERPRISES.

"Did you, ever get a ride in that Percy?" Will's voice was choppy as he strived for his usual cheerful voice but knew it sounded fake. Gods that helicopter crash had been terrifying. He wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to sit through another action movie with an explosion again without shivering at the heat and noise.

My throat closed up. I looked at Annabeth and could tell she recognized the logo too. Her face was as red as the helicopter.

Trouble and danger afoot, Nico didn't even roll his eyes in surprised annoyance this time because of course Percy looked to her first.

"What is she doing here?" Annabeth demanded. "How did she get through the barrier?"

"You're asking me?" Percy looked so wounded and confused as he sat deep in his seat.

"I'm asking her as soon as I can," her scowl was more light and playful than anything, but Percy felt like he was in trouble for some reason.

"Who?" Chiron looked confused. "What mortal would be insane enough—"

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," Thalia answered with pride.

"Yeah, not something I'd brag about right now," but Jason couldn't help begrudgingly sounding the same. She really was something, charging into the unknown for her friend. It was as admirable as someone could be.

Suddenly the helicopter pitched forward.

"The Morpheus enchantment!" Chiron said. "The foolish mortal pilot is asleep."

I watched in horror as the helicopter careened sideways, falling toward a row of office buildings.

Even if it didn't crash, the gods of the air would probably swat it out of the sky for coming near the Empire State Building.

I was too paralyzed to move, but Annabeth whistled and Guido the pegasus swooped out of nowhere.

You rang for a handsome horse? he asked.

"Come on, Percy," Annabeth growled. "We have to save your friend."

"Well don't sound so happy about it Annabeth," Alex said with a strained smile she still tried hard to make casual. "You should be used to this by now!"

"It was Rachel's turn for this, wasn't it," Magnus groaned as he watched Percy get up to take the book. "Gods, is there a ticking clock on this? Are you guys going to have to rescue me by association?"

"Possibly," Percy said sheepishly.

Annabeth waited patiently until he got back beside her before swatting him on the back of the head with a very calculated scowl for trying to scare her cousin.

To her surprise though as Percy flipped to the next chapter as if nothing had happened, Magnus just sighed as if he were already resigned to it. He obviously knew Rachel was fine and they had rescued her. He really was taking this much better than she ever would have dreamed.

PJOPJOPJO

*This was legitimately one of the stand-out kills for me from my first reading of the series and I tried to analyze why upon this reread and I think I've narrowed it down to this reason. Instead of dust like every other monster, it's imagining the pain and anger frozen on the monster's face as he collapses to blue shards that stayed there until they melted long after the fight was over. Something about deviating away from the usual formula I guess?

[rxyhiraeth]

SO PJO CAME OUT TODAY

and i have a lot of thoughts

this is just me screaming into the void about this show that i’ve been excited about since it’s been announced.

i haven’t personally really read the books in a bit, so if i am remembering things incorrectly or forgetting if something was in the books or not, forgive me (and correct me and my terrible memory)

OBVIOUSLY SPOILERS AHEAD

EPISODE 1: I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher

first off - chapter titles. i knew about this a while ago but im so happy we are doing this

getting the whole speech from percy in the beginning oh we are so back

blackjack??? that was blackjack right??

MYTHOMAGIC CARDS

if this gets us actual mythomagic cards we can buy, so help me god. i’m gonna spend all my money on them

i will never be able to speak highly enough about sally jackson. best fictional mom ever and i love her with all of my heart.

the “hold fast perseus. brave the storm” parallel at the beginning and end of the episode oh i’m sick to my stomach

the fountain scene felt a little… goofy? from what i remember percy just remembers her ending up in the fountain,like it sounds like he kinda blacks out. maybe that’s actually how it was in the books, but i did imagine it differently.

grover and brunner being the KINGS of gaslighting

percy is stronger than i could ever be if grover exposed me like that i couldn’t talk to him for like a year.

the biggest issue i’ve seen everyone talk about: gabe. i understand WHY they made him how he is in the tv show. it’s a disney show, they can’t have him be completely book accurate putting his hands on sally and threatening percy for money so he can play poker, but i feel like this doesn’t fit with how he ends up at the end of book 1. maybe we will see a more ‘evil’ side to him through the news interviews and stuff, or he will have a different ending, but i feel like the way he acts now doesn’t justify his end in book 1 that i expect to see in the tv show.

sally in the rain listening to olivia rodrigo i love her so much 😭😭😭

d’angelos??? it’s spelled differently but reference perhaps? i cannot WAIT to see nico i hope we get to see him in the casino

i didn’t get this until i saw someone point it out but the cuts to black were ends of chapters!! and it makes so much more sense. i will say it feels a bit odd?? but i honestly prefer it more as someone who has read the books.

i find the whole sally explaining the gods to percy interesting. it fits for the tv show more, but i love book percy just getting forced into camp half blood without any real knowledge just like “what the fuck is going on”

“Like… like Jesus?” PERCY PLS

i love this grover reveal, but the BEST will forever be the musical

“She was a fury!” “YOU’RE a furry, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR LEGS?!?”

grover dropping the fact he is 24 in a super intense scene is very grover

that first shot of thalia’s tree lit up by the LIGHTNING gave me CHILLS

the entire minotaur scene was incredible. sally’s speech to grover and percy. percy killing the minotaur. insane

not to mention sally taking percy’s jacket to throw off the minotaurs scent? such a cool choice

EPISODE 2: I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

"you droll when you sleep" YUPPP MHMM YUP

ik that the whole 'Mr. D trying to use percy to get a drink' thing is supposed to be a little joke, but its also such a good way to explain the whole "gods can get their kids to steal shit for them because they can't do it themselves" without having a whole dramatic moment explaining it.

in my head I imagined the entire camp being very heavily wooded, maybe that's just the movies having some influence over me when it comes to visualization, but it was cool to see the camp in the actually valley in a very book accurate portrayal.

OH THE CABINS MY EYES WERE GLUED THE WHOLE TIME

THEY LOOK SO GOOD

this tv show has already captured the two personally traits of percy jackson: 1. he loves his mom 2. he hates the gods

the jelly beans

seeing Luke befriend percy and be his first friend at camp luke I am in your fucking walls

I personally feel like the way they have chosen to portray clarisse is quite different from the books, but I absolutely love it. i was not a fan of her for a while in the books, but I love her immediately in this version.

also did we get to 'see' the cloven council in tlt? I don't think we did, and I like seeing it in prep for sea of monsters.

the entire scene of percy praying to his mom breaks me. oh my god. favorite scene in the entire show so far. it breaks my heart he loves and misses her so much.

"I think I've made some friends here. like real friends" luke I have a gun

the whole bathroom scene. that's it.

ANNABETH

maybe its just different seeing all these characters portrayed well on the screen, but she feels super different than book annabeth but also exactly the same. im not 100% how to explain it but there is no one better to play annabeth than leah

I am so excited to see this slowburn all over again

"she my little sister" luke please

thalia name pronunciation how are we feeling team

i have 100% been pronouncing it the other way this whole time but oh well

"sunshine" hey! when we get the first "seaweed brain" I am going to go crazy

"percy's on it. when its time he's gonna be ready" are you sure about that luke

in the books the main 'introduction scene' we got with clarisse was the bathrooms, but this scene with her in the woods feel much more like an introduction scene and im not sure if this was done on purpose, but I love her and this scene.

annabeth. I cannot stress my love for her enough

annabeth pushing him into the water instead of him falling. love her

percy FINALLY finding a place he belongs only to be forced out on a quest for his dad that he fucking hates

"good kid" from tlt musical was so right

"I am Sally Jackson's son!" what if I just started eating glass rn

anyway I am absolutely obsessed with this show already. I am so sorry to anyone who doesn't want pjo on their feed you are getting it anyway.

if this show is your first introduction to the series. read the books! or at least the lightning thief. and for the love of god LISTEN TO THE MUSICAL. I cannot stress enough how good of a portrayal of the book it is and it is my all time favorite interpretation of the books (although this show may take that top spot soon).

[nerdthatsiriuslylovesteaxx]

Helpless part 18, I really said fuck consistency didn't I?

"Am I going to regret this?"

"Definitely Seaweed brain." Annabeth dragged a blindfolded Percy towards cabin 10, "Pipes, you ready?"

"Yup, this is going to be amazing."

"Shit."

"Fear us."

"I do."

"Good." Annabeth said pushing him into a chair and pulling off his blindfold, Percy was greeted with Piper smiling like a maniac and shaking a bottle of bleach.

"Oh no..."

"It was Annabeth's idea." Piper put up her hands in surrender,

"I might as well go with it." Percy sighed in defeat, the two girls smirked. Piper started putting the bleach on Percy's hair,

“Okay so this is just a test strand, I need to see how much it will ruin your hair.”

"Annie the only reason I haven't killed you yet is because I love you.”

“I know Seaweed brain, love you to.”

"Guess I'm the little mermaid now."

"You were always the little mermaid, Jackson."

“I would try to deny it but I really can’t.”

“Exactly; okay your hair seems fine. Be prepared to become a redhead.”

“He’s ready, wait before you do that can you fix his hair a bit?"

"Yeah sure, I love how he has no say in this by the way.”

“Eh, even if I did I would probably agree with her.”

“It’s a good system.”

“Whatever works for you two I guess…?” Piper laughed,

“Percy’s indecisive as fuck.” Annabeth added before pressing a kiss to his lips. Piper started working,

“Is this meant to burn?”

“It’s bleach what the fuck did you expect?”

“I haven’t had many experiences with bleach Pipes.”

“But like….it’s bleach….” After a while Piper started to wash out the bleach, leaving a blonde-ish haired Percy.

“Does this mean I’m finally Nico’s type?”

“Don’t think so seaweed brain.”

“Annie, go outside. I want Percy’s hair reveal to be a surprise, get the others.”

“Do you have the rest of the stuff?” Piper pointed to a paper bag in the corner of the room,

“Course I do, now leave.”

“Yeah, yeah I’m leaving. Can’t wait to see your hair Seaweed brain.” Walking out the room.

“What exactly are the other things exactly.”

“Wait and see Percy, wait and see.”

“Fuck.” Piper smirked as she put the dye on his hair, it was bright but still a few shades darker than the actual little mermaid so it would look decent.

“It looks ridiculous doesn’t it?”

“You’ll have to wait Ariel.”

“Yup, looks like shit.” Piper hummed as she dried Percy's red hair, ignoring everything he said.

"You're going to love the next bit." Piper grinned,

"Honestly I don't think you can make this worse."

"Think again Jackson." Piper said tossing him a blue shirt with the little mermaid on it, in block capital letters it was written: '100% MERMAID AT HEART' Percy groaned, "That's just the start, it gets better."

"Fuck."

"Remember this wa Annabeth's idea, don't kill me."

"I mean you went along with it-" Piper grabbed a pair of scissors and put them to his neck.

"You sure you want to be saying that?" Piper laughed,

"Okay, I won't murder you."

"I like that plan, anyways here's the rest of the stuff." She handed him a plastic tiara and a shell necklace. "Go on, put it on."

"Poseidon save me."

"No one's coming to save you Percy."

"Fuck." Percy muttered as he put on the plastic tiara, Piper opened the door finding the rest of the seven standing behind it.

“Guys, are you ready for this? Presenting the Little Mermaid, aka. Percy Jackson.” Percy walked out of the room with more confidence you could have imagined for someone wearing a “100% MERMAID AT HEART” T-shirt.

“Well Seaweed brain, you look less ridiculous than I imagined.”

“Thanks I guess….?” Annabeth messed up his hair, pressing a kiss to his lips.

“Bro, it looks shit doesn’t it?”

“Bro no, you look hot.”

“No one’s as hot as you bro.”

“Aww thanks bro.”

“I love how we’ve just come to terms with this and it is now seen as normal, if I wasn’t your girlfriend I would think you two are dating.”

“I’d never leave you Beauty queen, but you have to admit Percy looks good.”

“I mean I don’t want to throw up…?”

“I’ll take it.”

“He’s hot.”

“Are you sure you’re dating him and not me Jay?”

“Di Angelo, thoughts?”

“He looks sexy, why the fuck did I say that? I was trying to say he looks ridiculous.”

“Shit…. Yeah so someone went to Lou Ellen with love problems so she cursed them and whoever they like to not be able to lie until they either kiss or one of them says they hate the other and mean it.”

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?! WHO!?”

“No clue, it’s confidential shit.”

“Fuck.”

“Good luck Nico.”

“How the fuck do I find the bitch that went to Lou Ellen?”

“You’ll have to figure that out yourself.”

“Nico does this mean I’m your type?” Nico punched the son of Poseidon in the shoulder before walking off.

“Percy I dont know how to tell you this but you look like Knuckles from Sonic.”

“I really don’t know what to say to that Valdez.”

_____

Hes, Shes, Theys and gays I present Helpless part 18, sorry for taking so long I was busy and then I got sick and just vsiwgiaotosdy. Look idk how consistently I'll be doing this, obviously I'm trying to have a part out every day but idk how realistic that is rn and especially if I don't have the fic finishes by the time school starts you may be getting very strangely timed updates.

Xx

-Siri

[11queensupreme11]

honestly like going through your asks i agree sm how underwhelming heroes of olympus was. like in the og series there was so much death, betrayal, and character development and in hoo we see percy and annabeth in tartarus (which i felt like their disappearance should have had waayy more of an affect on the rest of crew but without annbeth as their leader and percy as their glue how are they serving) and Nico's forced coming out ceremony (poor boy was tamazatized by cupid and ric didn't even delve into much more after that?).

gaea was so underwhleming and i don't belive at all that she could have been beaten after she was fully formed. like there was no actual counter against a primordial and percy and annabeth only defeated luke bcuz he killed himselves. like i don't think celestial bronze can actually do enough damage to kill a god, yet alone the earth! (divine weapons be looking a little enticing here) and at least with kronos their was a personal connection. like i get that she tried to kill the people in the prophecy like with leo but i felt like it was so long ago leo had already comes terms with his mom's death. there was no emotional charge that should have been there and the romans vs greeks was so disappointing. i didn;t like at all that the greeks were good and the romans were evil and i felt like jason was to easily accepting within greek ranks. like yeah i get it, greep camp is more chill but their was no promised internal hostility and it just felt like their big battle wasn;t that big of a mutal battle, just greeks tryan stop another invasion. and don;t get me started on the athena statue. that was written SO weird and it definitely should have been established way earlier in the series. and poor nico and reyna tryna haul it across the world when they could have contributed much more. their perspectives was such a snooze-fest and i was just like what the hell is this side-quest?

like the second series was more mature and professional writing wise so i expected much more blood and gore. every demigod was a tragedy is the og series so it was so weird to see everyone live happily ever after after. and like i felt like he forgot how to create chemistry after percbeth. like japer??? was lacking like any flavor and hazel and leo had more chemistry than frank. like frank and hazel could have been such a good sable couple if they were written better. and the foced interactions with the mini-quests in the books were so awkward. rick should have created so much more interactions with each other or killed them off if he couldn't manage that many characters.

YES 👏 YOU 👏 GET 👏 IT

heroes of olympus honestly seemed so... poorly planned to me? like with pjo, a lot of plot points connected so well together whereas hoo was a mess and i genuinely think the amount of main characters was what rick had a lot of trouble with.

the first two books, the lost hero and the son of neptune were actually pretty good and that's because both books strictly focused on just three characters and three povs each. but then when the seven finally joined, things went downhill 😭

the last book was super disappointing. the seven + gods vs the gigantes went by really quickly and most of the "fighting" was just a paragraph or two of each battle. as for the gaea battle.... yeah 💀 i think it would've been cooler if the demigods (roman and greek) worked alongside the gods to take gaea down since, like it was mentioned many times before, that gaea would've been hard af to beat once she formed 💀

A DETAILED TEAM UP OF THE DEMIGODS FIGHTING ALONGSIDE THEIR GODLY PARENT??? POSEIDON AND PERCY SQUARING UP??? ZEUS AND JASON????? ANNABETH AND ATHENA???? I WOULD'VE LOVED THAT!!! 😩 (i definitely believe athena would be nagging her daughter throughout the whole fight about how she still doesn't approve of her boyfriend and annabeth is just "omg moooom 🙄 focus on the battle!!!)

octavian could've been better written too! it was clear that he was supposed to be the "luke" of the second series with gaea as "kronos", but his death was meh to me unlike with luke who i genuinely felt bad for especially since his reasons made sense. octavian... i didn't feel any sympathy for.

rick's favoritism for piper was also an issue for me too, especially as i grew older and out of my 'not like other girls' phase 😭

pls im just hoping that if hoo gets made into a tv show too, that there's MAJOR changes to it 🙏

[novemberdevils]

So today’s media day was Something Else like I dont really fuck with merc or rb -Ferrari all the way- and it kept me wide awake just waiting for another quote to drop so while waiting I decided to comment on the chapter.

ONTO ROUND SIX WE GO!!! -not prepared for the fact we are already on race six please never finish this fic- jack wanting to blame nico because luke is looking at him suspiciously but he can’t because it would be hypocritical of him because he was participating in it, also him thinking about sending nico a picture??? Boy calm down before you air your business to the media, omg I just pictured jack in the plane with his palm covering his neck and I laughed so hard I started my cat 😭😭, “You’re being so weird about it,” he presses. “If you just told me, dude, I’d leave you alone.” No luke if you who it was you will not be able to leave it alone believe me, jack NEEDS someone and some place where he can feel 100% comfortable in letting himself go because apart from the race pressures this also is not helping; the feeling of not belonging is wighting on him more than he thinks, god jack’s inner thoughts make my heartache for him, him comparing the hotel rooms in way; the one with nico made him feel wanted in a way that when he is alone never got and honestly reading those paragraphs a stab would have been easier to handle, jack hun believe look up the heavy blankets-still dont know the term and I can’t be bothered to search for it- it would solve a lot of the problems you have when nico isnt there to solve them for you, but like talking seriously him feeling like America is not home and neither is Monaco it makes me think about how will you tackle this because as cheesy as it sounds that yeah maybe nico could be his home but I feel like he needs to find a place that he belongs in away from him.

Jack you are fucking rich dont buy a drugstore concealer that doesn’t even match, it honestly a blessing in disguise that jack doesn’t get recognised when he is racing in America because I feel like it would be his last straw, I know they are siblings and everything but realising that jack can’t escape what he says because it would be always thrown at his face even in a lunch with his brothers hurt a tiny bit, also quinn asking jack how he feels and jack answering in a media-like answer but him not taking it as the reality because sure it might be media-like but it still is his feelings, “I think Hisch is rubbing off on him.” He is doing something alright, also jack needs to get it together when people ask him about nico because he makes it so much more suspicious,  I can’t stop watching his interview clips, because sometimes, he says something nice about me, or about my driving, oranything, and I need to hear it, really, I need there to be someone in F1 who thinks I belong there, I need him to see it, to acknowledge it, I need—“Can’t you just, like— be proud of me?”Torturing me and putting lemon and salt on my wounds would have hurt less than reading this; like genuinely didn’t even think about the fact that he might be watching him because he praise him and that feels like an acknowledgment from someone who belongs in f1 telling him yeah you can race here; like please this fucking HURTS and him having to ask to be proud of him genuine tears down my face, You’re only saying that now because I backed you into a corner. Fuck jack no💔 my god I need to hug him; THEY ARE PROUD OF YOU the people around him need to tell him that more.

ONTO ROUND SIX WE GO!! -how are we already at round 6 I don’t want this fic to end- trevor surprising jack I love that rn trevor is the only one in my good books-look I feel protective about jack leave me alone-, jack makes me sit in the dark and just overthink everything about him he is such a well written character like you have killed it!! I also sometimes feel like he missed a chance? I know his dream has always been f1 but does he watch trevor and see how much easier indy racers have it in comparison to f1 drivers? Because for me f1 feels more political sometimes and indy feels genuine, like does he feel he missed a chance by not racing trevor for example in a real race?, also jack wanting to do indy500 but he can’t even tell the press about it because as soon as he mentions anything other than f1 it would be used as a weapon against saying BREAKING jack wants out!!!, and if he were to do it and perform well,then— would that be a cause for pride, or would it just prove those idiots were right all along? Fucking hell he shouldn’t have to think like this the media is AWFUL, “Well, if you don’t age then McLaren will never drop you,” jack has some jokes this was too funny 😂😂, omg jack I JUST said you need to control your reactions to someone asking you about nico because why was your first instinct is to touch your neck and then pretend you have no fucking clue what has been said, rivals with benefits is one way to describe their mess, “Does he know you told anyone?” Trevor they are idiots 1&2 they don’t talk they just fuck and choke each other without talking limits my god those idiots are causing me a headache, why do we even have a miami gp like really?? A question I ask myself each year and still don’t have an answer, i think this is the best shot jack has ever had at winning a home race and i’m gonna be there omg you broke mine and lex’s hearts how do plead? Like lex WAS THERE how dare you do this to my queen.

The double standards of American drivers being hated on if they had their flags but Europeans are ok to do it has ALWAYS infuriated me because if you are going to hate on something hate it when everyone does it you don’t get to pick and chose who to hate when both have done the same thing, I need to know what goes through nico’s head when he sends jack his room number like does he get off of having that power over him or what?, if I was an f1 driver and ot was my home race I fear that I would land my ass into the hospital because I will get sick because of anxiety; I can barely watch Monaco this year and you are going to expect me tk race yeah jack is real for feeling nervous I get him, oh you fucking knew what you were doing making him crash I will find you and let my cat at you-she will either scratch and hiss at you or would be the sweetest girl you have seen- but no like building up the fact he is the home hero and then boom-im getting ahead of myself I need to stop-, Maybe not a world championship what can I do for you to make him win the wdc? Whatever you want it’s yours as long as you let him win please, please I fucking love the couch they always put the messiest group and I eat it every single time; but having both jack and nico is crazy behaviour from the fia they are usually too soft, Are you happy to be racing at home? No he actually hates if and doesn’t want to race there next question, “but Miami is one of my favorite tracks, so I really want to do my best out here.” AGAIN HOW DARE YOU I will be sulking about this until I get something that will make me unsulk, NICO COMPLIMENTING JACK IN FRONT OF EVERYONE???? Both of them are fucking insane thankfully they’re teammates irl and can compliment each other whenever they want, omg that whole scene about the championship is INSANE I pity the other drivers for having to deal with their asses, but the way jack finally touches on the fact that the wdc feels so much bigger than him like I need him to talk about that more without media filters at all, also him feeling how everyone’s eyes are on him so he gets nico involved so he doesn’t get the pressure of everyone watching him is kinda sweet, “I didn’t get so much shit when I was a rookie for where I was from. What we both have to prove, it isn’t the same.” Nico is fucking insane wtf is wrong with him?? “Jack, do you agree? That you both have something to prove, but also, that it is different?” Okay I will go on a rant because this fucking pissed me off; the only way it would be something different to prove is because of everyone around jack putting that on him, he never asked to be American or asked to fall in love with f1 rather than an American racing if he would be able to choose he wouldn’t choose to be belittled because of the place he was born-mind you he has lived outside of that country far more than he he didn’t- so the fact that the media and some drivers might think jack needs to prove he belongs here is stupid because he did prove it when he one in the feeding series and he proved it every time he stepped on the podium and people still question whether he belongs here or not, nico hischier: professional complimenter of his active title rival lex with banger quotes as usual, nothing about this season is real neither is the real season all of them are A Mess.

Ok this would be all for today because im getting sleepy but I will be back to my scheduled puck drop and intermission thoughts tomorrow-as long as I don’t fall asleep-.

abu dhabi has been a crazy time in the real lifes. like what is all that. but it did remind me i should include the drivers' dinner when i get to abu dhabi in my fic so thanks for that

hey we are not even a third of the way done with the fic yet... i keep thinking about that as i'm writing monaco bc once i'm done with that i've written 8/24 races aka a third. and the word count is. well. what it is. which fills me with some kind of dread probably. i have never in my life written a fic this long Hello but then again one of the only times i finished the first draft of an original novel it was nearly 200k words so maybe it was in the cards

ANYWAYS. jack wants to blame nico for everything. or just Anyone, really. it means he doesn't have to take accountability for any of the things being his fault. if he does not acknowledge the thing then the thing does not exist... which is bullshit and we all know it but he really tries. he will not be calming down every day he wakes up and digs himself an even deeper grave get ready for the nonsense that is everything jack does in imola it's all crazy. craziest race so far. and i'm allowed to tease that race bc i am posting the chapter tonight no bribery necessary i am just answering this before i go finish the last things bc i need my brain to turn off

see luke really thinks that knowing would help bc he in no world is assuming that it's nico hischier. at least Not Yet. they continue to be incredibly conspicuous. oops

i do intend to explore jack's lack of feeling at home Anywhere some more as the fic goes on -- haven't totally figured out how yet, but i do think jack's character here in this fic is more of a home is people person than a home is a place person. which is some more blatant projection because i'm the same way lmao when i get homesick i very rarely miss my actual house, i usually miss the people who aren't around. i temporarily lived in florida for like 8 months of this year for reasons i will not get into rn but i was around a lot of people who would need to visit home to cure their homesickness, but for me like my mom flying down to visit me would have the same effect, i didn't need to go all the way back to my house to feel better. Anyways. my point is that i view jack as being similar, even if he hasn't totally figured it out yet. e.g. seeing quinn in miami helped him feel at home for a bit more than Being In America did, but he was also too busy just being stressed about his home race to actually settle and feel very at home at all. maybe he does need to find/build himself an actual Place where he feels at home, or maybe he just needs to realize that it's more about the people for him. idk i haven't fully figured out that whole arc yet. i write based on Vibes a lot of the time. like fun fact you'll see it in ch4 but i wrote this thing where it was clear that Someone was lying to jack about something bc only one of the things he was being told could possibly be true, but i didn't actually decide which of them was lying and Why they were lying until like midway through writing monaco lmao it is just like that sometimes. the fics do in fact write themselves, in a way

it's late and i'm exhausted and i'm rambling forgive me but i will keep going soz

jack may be rich but he is also stupid. at least he tried </3 even if it might have just made everything worse. but yeah he is kind of trapped in this vicious cycle of everyone expecting things from him. which re: jack feels more at home with specific people rather than specific places, the people who are home to him (his brothers) making him feel targeted in the same way the media (evil) does kind of robs him of that feeling. so half the comfort he should've gotten from being around quinn and luke in miami was kind of missing because a lot of the time he was stressed out and they were adding fuel to that fire. all would probably be solved if they talked about racing less or talked more Positively about racing or didn't ask all the same questions the media did et cetera but that would be no fun for My Narratives

and another fun fact but jack stalking other drivers' interviews and such to find nice things about him came before my decision to give him the world's most blatant praise kink. a chicken and the egg situation. it reached a point where -- as always -- it was writing itself, and i was like well i can't not give him a praise kink at this point... it is very blatant though. even when he knows it actually hurts him to dig up what nico says about him when he isn't listening, in rooms he isn't in, he can't stop doing it because what if the one interview he didn't read/watch/listen to was the one where nico complimented him or said another thing about how tough of a competitor he is or how amazing it is to race him. jack's very fragie ego needs those things... he will wilt without it... like the things nico does say to jack's face/when he is in the room with him aren't enough he also needs to scavenge all the others

i love trevor. he is arguably one of the only characters close to jack left who hasn't blatantly wronged him at this point. even if none of the ones who Did wrong him intended to it doesn't mean they didn't do it. such is life... and thank you i am glad you like jack's character i am very attached to and proud of him!

and maybe? i might actually expand on that in the fic in the future. jack does have a lot of jealousy in him that he directs in all sorts of directions, and one of them is for sure trevor. because he does have such an easy view into the indy world via trevor (like he's not Just perceiving it from the outside) sometimes he does wish he raced in a series that was a little more chill like that; indycar just is more chill by default because it isn't nearly as big as f1 is. they can get away with more shit because less people are watching, and it takes place at a smaller scale (north america vs the actual entire globe) so it's just. such a different animal. i could go on forever about that. and i probably will waffle about it some more in the fic thanks for the reminder to do that lmao

zak brown hires twinks and i will keep saying that. har har

I INSERTED THAT IN THERE VERY INTENTIONALLY i got real life mad when logan revealed his helmet ahead of his rookie season and he got flamed by certain corners of the internet. like oh my god. SO many drivers on the grid have their flags or some kind of blatant reference to their flag on their helmet, it's not like logan was crazy for it. it just only stood about because he was american and it was the american flag and that will always piss people off more -- not necessarily Just f1 fans. i always really liked logan's helmet... and i definitely had the I Am An American F1 Fan tax on that but also it was cool to see a driver who was not only american, but also was SO down to be blatantly patriotic about it. like yes he would put his flag on his helmet and his stupid florida accent did Not get dampened after living in europe for over a decade and at any opportunity he will go back to florida and sit on a boat idk now i'm rambling it's 2:30 am and can you tell i was always really endeared to logan .

anywho. EYE know exactly what goes through nico's head when he sends jack his room number... but it is still a secret for now mwahahaha. they will Talk about it eventually and all will be revealed. but i will say nico is also pretty terrible at expressing things. for as honest as he is he is also. he suck. he sucks really bad at some things. but he's Trying. it isn't 100% Not a power trip but he has other motivations behind it too

one of the only things in my sketchy ass outline is that jack crashes in miami. i was planning that All Along. for the narratives. hehe

and that whole excahnge is very much insane and obnoxious. a whole lot about pressure and expectations and also pressure. jack has a very complicated relationship with all of that, as you can probably tell, so of course he will deflect it onto nico. but he has no idea how to handle any of it and he kind of wants to explode. which. me too. nothing i am thinking makes any sense anymore so i should probably stop talking

i need to go. finish and post ch4. bye bye

[raspbeyes]

SPOILERS FOR EP 11 DRDT

Since I did a prediction earlier today, time to update!!

OKAY NO HiATUS WHAT NOOOOO! honestly having looked at the time during the livestream, i genuinely was questioning how they were gonna wrap this up by ep 12 like last time and started to wonder if this chapter will be longer as we spent this whole epsiode in david's extended mask off moment. as much as im sad abt the hiatus i am glad this is extended BECAUSE WE DIDN'T EVEN TOUCH THE ACTUAL CRIME SCENE OR A DEBATE SCRUM tho ughhh noo this hiatus might kill meeee

OKAY DAVID OMG bro lost it AHHHHH i really wanted to believe that david had a good/moral reason for all this but to know he did all this secret maliciously?!!? ik he's not killer for sure so i do wonder how he's gonna be used in next chapters cuz as hot as he lowkey is rn and i do love his biting sarcasm, he's gonna be geninuely such a bitchy force to deal with in future chapters. to have this man constantly causing trouble for no other reason than fun and never trustworthy, i have to wonder if there's any hope left for him. i really hope that his arc actually has him improve cuz u know, poetic irony and all that jazz. Since now we know he doesn't believe what he says, i truly hope drdt takes the time to prove him wrong cuz i really dont want a grimdark killing game proving david (and in some ways, teruko) right. and also, idk why people are surprised david would lie abt being arei's killer and want to get himself killed rn. Bro literally now has lost his career and his public image is ruined. He doesn't have a life anymore for him to go back to. He already mentions how he hates everyone there, so I see zero reason why he wouldn't lie to drag everyone down with him

ACE SLAYS ONCE AGAIN! BRO POPPING OFF WITH THE TRUTH YESSSS AND CALLING OUT PEOPLE'S HYPOCRISY FOR NOT GOING AFTER DAVID WE LOVE TO SEE IT!!! Also j saying that she doubts ace's testimony just cuz she thinks he cant be quiet makes me sadddd

ALSO NICO AND CHARLES!!!! I love that nico comes back in clutch to help actually point out david's suspiciousness. His bluntness is always needed, especially with cutting through david's bs. ALSO CHARLES YESS IM GLAD HE IS NOW GONNA BE CRITICAL TO THIS CASE!!! I like that drdt takes advantage of its video format as normally to have a character interject like that in a mainline dr game would be bad since it's interupting gameplay and taking control out of player's hands. But it works here since we're not actually playing and shows teruko and charles backing each other up and shows people actually getting involved!!!

To the actual crime ... uh i dont know ... clearly this crime is so complicated that we need a TRIAL 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO lmaoo. i mentioned before but charles's comment of "fucking up" at the end seems to strongly imply the time of the murder, and thus everyone's testimonies for that time, are now irrelevant. Since arei was alive in the evening last night (ace does claim 7:30, but i do agree with david that ace might have just said that to back up his point rather than it being true) the death happened the prior night or early that morning. it puts into the question the note, calling for 7:30 but it could be 7:30 am before the motive reveal. however, unless it was something like a trap, such a time is so tight i find it hard to believe. maybe i'll do a post later doing a fully theory as i lose my mind during this hiatus (praying for it be under 6 months)

[once-upon-an-animation]

I saw your post on how there was no fallout/chapter about the aftermath of Tartarus and I think you're absolutely right.

You know, my biggest grip with RR's writing is that he very casually brushes over trauma, to the point where it's like there isn't any at all.

Sort of like what you said, but Percabeth and Tartarus is probably the biggest example of this writing issue. Percy and Annabeth falling into Tartarus and their experiences in there had to have some sort of effect on them, right?? Especially because they were there for at least two weeks, and also, even the GODS don't go there.

Like, it was made to be such a huge and important and deadly thing, and like... nothing ever came of it emotionally for those two. You never see them struggling from it, you never see them having to grapple with the fact that they weren't able to save the ones who helped them escape, you don't see them grappling with the fact that Percy almost killed a Goddess and manipulated a titan, you don't see Annabeth really dealing with her fears that it was her fault after the fact, fears that she voiced in HOH herself. You don't see her dealing with the fallout of Calypso's curse, or the fact that the two of them had practically no food down there.

They just appear completely fine afterwards. There's no lasting impact for them, and I know it's a middle grade story, so you can't add too much, but it just seems like Rick decided not to address it at all.

Nico has similar issues with his own Tartarus trauma, and one of the reasons that I'm not super excited for TSATS is because I have a feeling he and Will are going to get the same Tartarus trauma treatment as Percy and Annabeth.

I know this was long, but I'm seeing more and more people talk about how Rick handles trauma and it's brought up my main issue with Rick's writing in general.

Thanks for reading this lol, have a nice day! :)

Thanks so much for the message! I appreciate you responding and I totally agree with everything you said.

One of the biggest criticisms that I also have of RR’s writing is the way he deals with emotional trauma. He picks and chooses when he allows the characters to have a meaningful and reasonable emotional response to the events around them, and when he spends time exploring those emotions. There are so many times when he could have added so much meaning to a character’s arc, personality, and development, but Rick just brushes it off like it’s nothing, and it ends up making certain plot-lines feel really empty and non-impactful.

And honestly, the middle-school thing isn’t a good justification because this is the same franchise that touches on abuse, alcoholism, neglect, dying children, murder, etc. If Rick can have all of that in there, then he can take the time to explore the trauma and PTSD that the characters should have from certain events. He doesn’t even have to say the words “trauma” or “PTSD”; all he has to do is just literally explore the emotions in a satisfying way!

As for TSATS, I’m already annoyed with the Tartarus plot line because Tartarus really shouldn’t be a place where demigods are just popping in and out. It was such a big deal when Percabeth fell in there; writing a story where demigods are just willingly going in cheapens the whole thing. Also, I read the unedited preview for TSATS and I’m not loving Mark’s approach to the characters. Here’s to hoping the final version is better.

[ciaossu-imagines]

And for the last fandom for this fandom prompt, I'm hitting a fandom of mine that kind of desperately could use a lot more love than it currently gets, Nanbaka! It's part of why I love creating for it so much, because I do feel it doesn't get the love or attention it should! For anyone wondering, my lovelies, I have about six more fandom prompts I plan on throwing up soon and then I'm hoping to get at least one, but possibly two, good quality responses to a request out before shit-posting some gif reactions/non-gif reaction headcanons for various fandoms that I have kicking around.

Send me a fandom and I will name a character:

Who I will protect at all costs: Nico is a precious treasure. He’s gone through so much that he shouldn’t have had to but he’s still so cheerful and sweet and pure and just…ugh, I want all the good things for him.

Who deserves better: Shiro! So many people seem scared of him but he’s just a gentle giant who loves cooking!

Who was killed off too early: Nobody. Absolutely nobody that my mind can come up with at all. Nanbaka really did start out as a comedy, after all.

Who I used to hate but now I love: I hated Honey at first. Just something about him really irked me with his first appearance but I did really grow to enjoy him. I don’t quite love him as much as some other characters but he definitely grew on me.

Who I used to love but now I hate: There’s nobody who fits that bill because, while there’s character’s I mildly dislike, there’s none I absolutely despise, to be honest with you all.

Who needs to be killed off asap: I think it’s just because of my own personal feelings, but Inori could disappear forever, and I genuinely would not care.

Who is unfairly hated: There is really nobody, either by the writer or by the fandom. I won’t question the writer’s decisions for their own story, and I firmly believe that everyone has the right to feel however the feel about fictional characters, love or hate!

Who is unfairly loved: See the answer above.

Who needs to sort out their priorities: Oh, so many but I’ll go with the notable one. While I understand a lot of where Enki was coming from and why he did what he did, I also feel there were vastly better ways to handle it all. The way he did what he did was shit and it left lasting repercussions for those around him.

Who needs a hug: Samon. I really feel Samon would benefit from a daily hug. He really does get the brunt of it and isn’t respected enough. Also, the group from his building that we see a lot of, that is Liang, Qi, and Upa, also qualify for this.

Who needs to get out of their current relationship: Either Elf or the man with the scar. Those two together are toxic and take everything horrible about the other and amplify it, at least the way I view and see it, with the headcanons I have.

Who the writers love: Honestly, it’s Jyugo. However, he is the main protagonist, so it is only natural and they definitely don’t fall into the trope of making him just this incredible person with no flaws. I actually really enjoy his character and don’t mind the amount of focus he gets, though my heart, as with most of my fandoms, belongs to the minor characters.

Who needs a better storyline: A lot of characters honestly. I’m not fully caught up in the manga, so there is a chance a lot of the characters got more fleshed out and got character development, but a lot of the minor characters could use more focus. Even ones we really should know more about, like Mitsuru, don’t really have full storylines or fleshed out characters yet. However, Nanbaka did start out mostly as a gag manga, so I can get the reasoning behind why they don’t.

Who has an amazing redemption arc: I don’t think it counts as a full out redemption arc, considering there wasn’t really a lot of backstory or build up to it, but I liked seeing Qi’s character growth from his introduction to where he is now.

Who is hot as fuck: No lies, there’s just something about Rock that really does it for me.

Who belongs in jail: So yeah, funny thing…most of them kind of are in jail? Or guarding a jail. So, this question for this fandom is kind of a moot point, haha!

Who needs to be revived from the dead: I really don’t have an answer for this in this particular show/manga, honestly. The only person I can think of that I would really like to see more of, that doesn’t get much screen-time and could kind of fit this category, is Jyugo’s father. I feel like there’s a really interesting story there that would be well worth reading or watching.

[2nd2ndalto]

Fall Down With You

Chapter 6

(previous chapter)

Nico really should have known better. They both should have known that time wouldn’t be on their side. After all, it’s hardly the first time they’ve ended up in this situation.

But the thing is, they haven’t properly spent time together in almost three weeks, and now here they are, wrapped up together in bed in their little apartment in New Rome, still sharing soft kisses and careful touches, and Nico’s just managed to divest his boyfriend of the last of his clothes. He presses a final kiss to Will’s collarbone before ducking under the covers. Will sighs, his fingers coming to twine gently in Nico’s hair.

Then - “fuck,” Will groans.

“Hmm? What did I do?”

“My phone.” Will scrambles up, lunging for the night table, his knee bumping Nico’s cheekbone in his haste.

“Shit, sorry -” Will’s eyes go wide.

Nico winces, waving the other man off, and Will dives for the phone, catching it on the last ring.

It’s definitely the hospital. Will immediately puts on his doctor voice, and damn if that isn’t the hottest thing ever, especially combined with the view of the taller man pacing naked towards the hallway, phone pressed to his ear.

Nico hears him ending the call, and Will walks back into the bedroom looking regretful. “I thought I was going to get some sleep,” he sighs.

Nico rises up to his knees to embrace his boyfriend at the side of the bed. “I thought I was going to get to… you know.” He presses a kiss to Will’s chin.

Will chuckles. “What? What were you gonna get to do?”

Nico grins. “You know, that… that thing.” He tries his best to convey… something. Through raised eyebrows, tilts of his head and a pointed glance downward. He winks.

Will lets out a giggle. “I think I have even less idea of what your plan was than I did five minutes ago,” he teases.

Nico flops back onto the bed. “Well. Just rest assured it was going to be really good,” he says, only a little embarrassed. “I’ll show you when you get back.”

Will leans down for a kiss. “I’ll look forward to it.”

Nico watches the other man dress, disappointment tempered with the fact that he knows Will really, honestly loves his work. Even if it means Nico doesn’t have his boyfriend all to himself nearly as much as he’d like to. They’re both so busy these days, Will in the first year of his residency, Nico ensconced in his post-graduate program and the occasional errand for his dad.

Will returns for a good-bye kiss, his hair tousled, face flushed from his rush to dress as well as their earlier activities. They linger just a little longer than they should, in gentle kisses, Will sinking down to sit on the edge of the bed, warm fingers finding their way under the hem of Nico’s t-shirt. He finally pulls away, pressing a kiss to the bridge of Nico’s nose.

“Think they can wait another ten minutes?” Nico asks, hopeful and a little breathless.

Will grimaces. “I should probably go. Sorry, I -”

Nico silences him with another kiss. “Don’t be. Just come back to me.”

“Always.” ___

It’s hours later when Will finally crawls back into bed. Less than an hour before Nico’s alarm is set to go off, he notes, squinting blearily at the clock.

Will snuggles up to his boyfriend immediately, face pressed into the space between Nico’s shoulder and his chin, his words rushing against Nico's skin.

“My feet are killing me. I was stuck in surgery for four hours and by the end of it, all I could think of was being right here with you,” Will moans softly.

“Mmm. Poor baby,” Nico murmurs, sleepily raising a hand to stroke Will’s hair. Will hums happily, nuzzling.

Nico turns his head into Will’s, feeling himself drift closer to sleep. It’s delicious like this, cocooned in blankets, tangled with the only person he’d ever want to be entwined with.

And then Nico suddenly remembers where they left off, hours ago. And honestly, he’d be happy just to sleep a bit longer, but - “did you wanna um… do stuff?” he whispers.

There’s a long silence. Will shifts slightly, lifting his head.

“I do… but I’m just really -”

Nico shakes his head, smiling. “No - me too. It’s okay.”

Will flops back down, nuzzling closer, if possible. “Thank gods. I mean, if you really wanted to -”

Nico snorts. “Don’t be silly. Sleep, sweetheart.”

“Just want you,” Will mumbles, sounding half-asleep already.

“I’m all yours,” Nico murmurs. “For…” he glances at the clock. “Thirty-eight minutes.”

Will sighs. “It’ll have to do.”

Maybe almost an hour, if he skips breakfast, Nico decides.

(next chapter)

[thefandomenchantress]

Okay so. Had to take a moment to process this post, because it’s super long and detailed and stuff (Which I love whenever I see a super-long theory post about DRDT I get really excited). And holy shit this is so good.

So I agree with pretty much everything, honestly. It actually made me think of a cool concept for Nico’s death, since before this I had absolutely no idea how they would die, but I was pretty sure they would, since I think Ace will survive (due to being extremely biased haha) and Nico surviving with him seems unlikely.

I doubt their fighting will be as frequent in Chapter 3, since now everyone has finally got the sense to realize they should stop that kind of thing from happening, but there’s no way they’d be on good terms, no matter how many chapters pass. Chapter 2 was, if I’m not mistaken, only four or five days long, and if that time frame carries over, that means now to the chapter 5 trial would take place in about two weeks. And Ace will probably need longer than that to get over almost dying and forgive Nico (I’d argue nearly anyone would, even people who don’t hold grudges as��passionately as Ace does). Like you said, usually the last trial is when everyone realizes they need to work together to defeat and mastermind and all that, but that’s kind of hard to do if both Ace and Nico are there. Those two can’t be in the same room without starting a screaming match, let alone cooperate with each other for an extended amount of time.

All this is to say that at some point (imo) Nico probably has to die. But I was never quite sure how to justify that, because although they seem like a chapter three victim to me, how do you really justify killing them off? ‘The person who attempted murder and was raising tensions between people and causing an interesting moral dilemma is now dead for plot reasons, yippee!’.

But then I got to thinking. And I came up with an interesting idea. What if Nico was collateral damage in a murder that was supposed to kill Ace?

Teruko’s almost-murder was something tragic, but not something anyone had any hostility towards Teruko for (after they realized she wasn’t the one who tried to murder someone, that is). Sure, people are sad Xander and Min died, but Xander was trying to kill someone with seemingly no motive, or at least one no one could deduce, and everyone liked both Min and Teruko, so one dying for the other was just an unfortunate sacrifice.

But what happens when the person who dies for another is believed to be the one who should’ve lived? At least by some people, like Hu.

I’m not saying that Nico will sacrifice themselves for Ace, that seems incredibly out of character for them, seeing as they wanted him dead and tried to make it happen themselves. But if they were to somehow interfere with the killer’s plan to kill Ace, whether it be the cliche ‘they just so happened to walk into the room and see him getting murdered’ or not, I think it would be interesting to see how people would react to seeing Ace somehow survive yet again, while Nico dies at the hands of the blackened.

Of course, chapter three usually has three deaths. And if Ace miraculously survives, then that leaves Nico as the only victim. At first I thought this was the end for my theory, since I thought that it was a rule that the blackened could only kill two people, and the blackened obviously wouldn’t keep Ace, a witness, alive on purpose. Which meant they’d have to think they were killing three people, breaking the rule.

…But when I went back to look at the rules, I couldn’t find one about a body count limit. So maybe this could still work?

I’ve always thought the idea of Nico and Levi both dying in chapter three is very cool, since it would lead into Ace’s “I don’t know what to do with myself anymore” arc very well. Him surviving while they didn’t would be…Quite a wake-up call.

The most exciting part about this theory, to me at least, is Hu’s reaction. Can you imagine how distraught she would be, knowing Nico died instead of Ace? That Ace is here instead of them, even though they deserved to survive so much more? (At least according to her).

Anyways enough rambling. This is a very, very cool post and is full of cool ideas.

Danganronpa: Despair Time Mastermind Ranking (Least to Most)

Yeah, I should’ve known that I needed to get around to this someday.

You see, the reason why I hadn’t made a theory about the identity of the Despair Time mastermind is that… I'm not totally convinced on any one person being the mastermind. Like, look at these clowns! They’re all so weird! I love them all for it, obviously, but none of their personality quirks or roles in the story stand out to me as particularly mastermind-y. There are a lot of characters that I believe could be the mastermind, but it’s also pretty easy to convince me out of it for one reason or another.

However, it’s not like I had any idea about who the P:EG mastermind would be, either! At least with two chapters under its belt, I can feel more comfortable that I’m not just fully mischaracterizing the Despair Time cast. And I definitely have things to say about various DRDT masterminds, just… in a way that’s kinda hard to rank.

But, that’s no reason for me to be cowardly! I’m sure that seriously scrutinizing all of the characters’ mastermind potentials and ultimately coming up with who I think the most likely candidate is will be super fun. It’s just… going to be really long, so, buckle in. And maybe prepare to take breaks in the middle.

(Spoilers for all three main canon games and DRDT.)

Why is it going to be so long? Well, it’s because, when it comes to DRDT, I think that my predictions will be at least partially based on how long I think each character will make it into the story. If I have a particularly strong inclination that a character is going to die in Chapter 3.456, no matter how unfounded, it might make me feel worse about their prospects of being the mastermind. That’s not to say that a mastermind can’t appear to die (or actually die) before Chapter 6 rolls around, of course. However, it is an uncommon additional hurdle to the story that would require some justification and a little suspension of disbelief if I’m trying to call it years before it transpires.

So, if we’re going to talk about the mastermind, I need to share my current feelings about where each character might place in the death order. Should I update the title…?

Danganronpa: Despair Time Mastermind Ranking (Least to Most) AND ALSO Death Order Predictions

These are my mastermind rankings, so my opinions on where the characters might be headed will obviously be used as the baseline. Naturally, you don’t need to believe in anything I'm about to throw out here. I’m just trying to explain my thought process so that nothing I say later on will come as a total surprise.

Also, since it’s kind of long, here’s the top of the death order section. I think it’ll provide some important context, but if you want to skip it, look for the other green, bold text.

Some of my thoughts were inspired by anderscim’s death predictions theory, as I read that pretty soon after I joined the fandom. I encourage you to go read their work as well!

The tiers are mostly pretty self explanatory– 3-4 means I think they’re at risk of dying sooner and 4-5 means I think they’re at risk of dying later. But, I’ll give everyone what I hope to be a quick rundown on each character just to explain my thinking. 

Xander: Xander canonically died as the Chapter 1 victim.

Min: Min canonically died as the Chapter 1 blackened.

Arei: While I respect the concept, I personally don’t believe in the “J and Arei swapped places and Arei is actually still alive” theory, and I will be writing the rest of this post accordingly. So, to me, Arei canonically died as the Chapter 2 victim.

Eden: Pretty much anyone who’s seen my DRDT theories at this point shouldn't be surprised that I’m listing Eden as the Chapter 2 killer. The logic behind this belief has been explained by my lovely mutuals here and here.

Levi: Alright, on to the ones I don’t have any concrete evidence to support! (There is concrete evidence behind the ch2 murder, even if you believe it points elsewhere.) Levi has had a decent amount of focus already in his trainwreck of a relationship with Ace and discussions of morality with Eden and Teruko. If he does serve as an accomplice to the Chapter 2 killer (see the first link in Eden’s section), then I feel like his clock will really be ticking. He’d be trapped with the branding of a bad person, his greatest fear, and left without any relationships to lean on. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone targeted him as a victim they “believed deserved to die after what happened,” or even if Levi decided that he was doomed to be a villain from the start and decided to kill. Alternatively, he could try to redeem himself as a classic Chapter 4 buff curse sacrifice in some way. In either case (or even in the case of him just being the Chapter 2 killer), I have my doubts that he’ll be making it too much later into the game.

Arturo: To me, Arturo doesn’t feel like a character set up for incredible longevity. That doesn’t mean I’m pigeonholing him as a one-dimensional villain or pure comedic relief, just that Arturo seems like a character who might be set up to have his ideology lead to his downfall. I don’t think he’s dying in Chapter 2, as I believe the narrative would want to see how he reacts to J burning the bridges between them, but I could definitely see the story only needing one more round of daily life (or possibly a trial as well) to resolve wherever his character is going.

Charles: Look, it’s not only because he’s already been pronounced dead at 3. As I elaborated upon in Charles’ section of this post (The Jerk), Charles feels like he’s speeding towards the end of his character arc far ahead of schedule. It could just be that he needed to learn to make friends quickly before Whit makes an early exit, sending him on a secondary arc where he learns to process his current grief and fears as a parallel to regaining memories about Elliot. However, I find it much more likely that the Inevitable CharWhit Doom Scenario plays out in the opposite direction. He makes a lot of sense as a Chapter 3 victim to me.

Nico: Similar to Arei and J, I am writing all of my theories with the assumption that it really was Nico who attempted to murder Ace in Chapter 2, because I think it makes the most narrative sense. (I could keep typing out a “well, unless” every time, but I don’t really want to eat up my time writing or your time reading all of that.) Through that lens, the fact that Nico has already murdered someone and “gotten away with it,” more or less, puts them in a really weird situation. I don’t really see them killing again, as it feels like we’ve already explored the emotional and narrative implications of that happening through Chapter 2. Although, I can’t deny that it would be interesting to see the fallout of Ace being proven totally right and Hu 100% wrong. Still, if they were to be a survivor after doing something so severe so early into the game, it seems like they would have to undergo some sort of redemption for the audience to accept them as a face of hope in the end. I don’t currently see any great paths to that happening, although there’s obviously still plenty of story time for something to open up. For now, though, I feel more confident in placing them as a early/mid-game victim, likely as a consequence of choosing to harm someone else.

Hu: Given her overall lack of focus in the story thus far, I find it likely that Hu will be one of the focal characters of the Chapter 3 daily life. That could be bad news, considering how Xander and Arei fared after being focused upon in their respective daily lives, but… I dunno, I just feel like Hu would survive it, somehow? Wouldn’t be too surprised if she didn’t, but my gut instinct is that she would. I kind of see her character exiting the story in Chapter 4, no preference on killer vs victim.

Veronika: Veronika is a very weird character (an “oddball,” I’ll call it), and thus, my predictions for her are strongly based on the patterns that oddball characters normally follow. I’ll be using canon characters only, because I believe that those are the only killing games that I have the right to assume every DRDT fan has seen. But, you can apply these same kinds of patterns to many fangan characters. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for fangans breaking from typical Danganronpa norms and following their own paths. But, in the case of how oddballs are treated, I think these characters generally tend to follow these patterns because they’re sensible writing practices. I’ll try to explain why each of these conventions makes sense in the following bullet points.

Oddballs tend not to die in Chapters 1 or 2. This is because oddball characters are generally created to supply a very niche kind of comedic relief– examples from DRDT could include Arturo’s commentary on ugly people or Ace’s bizarre remarks of cowardice. Any character deemed worthy of being included in a fangan occupies one of 16 highly contested slots. So, if you include a character for the purpose of making jokes with them, you'll want to get your bang for your buck! It’s hard to fit every joke you have in mind into only a chapter or two. The best example I could come up with for a (canon) oddball who dies early is Teruteru. In his case, the writers likely anticipated that his hyper-flirtatious nature would get tiring if it continued on for too long, and thus, exhausted all of the jokes they wanted to make in Chapter 1 before his exit. An oddball who dies this early has a limited shelf life, and is likely accompanied by other oddballs who can pick up the comedic slack.

Many have pointed out that silly oddballs often die in Chapter 3 (Hifumi, Ibuki, Tenko) as a way to signify the death of fun and innocence. You also have a chance to get rid of some of the more sinister oddballs (Celeste, Kiyo) at a point where it seems unfeasible for them to have stuck around this long without… well, killing someone. In either case, it’s because Chapter 3 is a great balance of letting a character stay in a story for long enough that they achieve whatever strange effects you wanted from them, while also clearing them off the stage before you get into the really serious business. Silly oddballs especially may not be equipped to handle the often turbulent natures of Chapter 4 without breaking the serious tone too much, so it’s best to axe them at the midpoint.

Endearing oddballs (Gundham, Gonta) have a hard time making it past Chapter 4. If Chapter 4 is serious, Chapters 5 and 6 are even more so, and the Chapter 4 killer slot in particular is a viable dumping ground for characters who don’t really have a place in the finale. Their deaths are meant to pull at your heartstrings and prove how a killing game can make literally anyone– yes, even that guy– a killer. (Miu is an outlier; more like an extended Chapter 3. Unlike THH, which has its tonal shift at the end-of-Ch3-Sakura Traitor Reveal, and SDR2, which has its tonal shift at Mikan’s insanity and death, v3’s tonal shift comes at Kokichi's accusation and Kaito and Shuichi's argument, or possibly even Miu's death itself. The Chapter 4 Daily Life isn’t all that serious in and of itself. Thus, Miu dying as a Ch4 victim functions more like killing off a silly oddball before she has to deal with all the betrayal and scheming that occurs later on.)

Oddballs really only die in Chapter 5 to the extent that you can count major antagonists like Nagito and Kokichi as Weird Dudes. As the precursor to the big, showstopping, mind-bending Chapter 5 Trial, the mood is typically pretty… straightforward. Depending on the overall plot’s arc, Chapter 5 is either the point where most of the surviving students are concluding their character arcs and learning how potent a weapon teamwork is (THH, SDR2), or a “dark night of the soul” type moment where all of the slowly growing inter-character conflicts are finally coming to a head (v3). It can also be Version A for some characters and Version B for others, but, either way, hijinks are not ensuing, basically. Plot relevant things happen here, and as such, plot relevant characters are the ones who are dying. It can be hard for an oddball to find a place in the narrative relevant enough to serve as one of its final, poignant deaths without also being a major antagonist.

Despite everything I’ve said about oddballs dying, it is definitely possible for oddballs to survive. Danganronpa is, at its core, a dark comedy, and as such killing off all of your funny joke characters before the ending is probably a bad move. Hiro, Toko, Kazuichi, and Himiko are all characters I’d call oddballs that survive until the very end. The difference in their case is that part of their oddball nature is being… kind of pathetic? I think it helps them fade into the background more. It's also probably easier to give them a character arc than some others... like Veronika.

I’m sure that you can find exceptions to these “rules” I’ve laid out, especially amongst casts that have a high percentage of oddballs (which you could certainly argue fits DRDT). However, pattern recognition brain go brrrr. I don’t think that Veronika fits the description of a Chapter 1-2, Chapter 4, or survivor oddball particularly well. That leaves Chapter 3 (sinister) and Chapter 5 (bewildering antagonist). I don’t know if it’s that Veronika doesn't seem to have much of a reason to kill at this point in time or all of Veronika’s weird mastermind coding that makes me think DRDTdev might have greater plans for her. Either way, I’m leaning Chapter 5, probably victim. Jeez, that was a long section for one character. Favoritism, I guess?

J: J gets her own category because, honestly, I have no idea what to do with her. Could J make it to the end? Sure! Could J die in a Chapter 3 scheme? Sure! Could J be the Chapter 2 killer? Well, I personally believe the evidence points elsewhere, but in terms of narrative? Sure! The only real inclination I have is that I think it’s more likely that she would be a killer than a victim, mostly because Ultimate Effects Artist is a talent that could lend itself to some really creative and fun murder setups. Given that I have more characters pegged as early game deaths right now, I lean towards J late game, but… man, I don’t know!

Teruko: Teruko is the protagonist, and also is a Lucky Student who allegedly “can’t die.” Especially after she made that claim, it would be silly if she died before the ending– it’d just kinda make her look like a fool. I’m not averse to theories where Teruko is no longer the protagonist by the end, whether by her death or someone else taking up the role for whatever reason, but in the sense that “Survivor” = “Chapter 6,” I think Teruko will survive. I’m not here to predict crazy last-minute Kiibo-blowing-himself-up twists.

Rose: I think that Rose has a really nice arc of overcoming her fears and becoming less passive set up in front of her. We spent enough time establishing her relationship with Teruko that I could see her being a good potential friend/support character to Teruko in the endgame if relationships with people like Eden or Charles fall through. (And, at this point, you know what I think about Eden and Charles…) She’s also good at delivering low-key jokes that can provide some levity without totally ruining the tone. We already saw some of that in this scene. The main things that I think could be standing in her way are her photographic memory and history of debt. The photographic memory could be too annoying of an obstacle to write around for the entire game, and instead be an ongoing effect set to expire in in Chapter 3. Additionally, a money motive paralleling THH’s in Chapter 3 could be too tempting for Rose to pass up. Really, what I’m saying is, if Rose can make it through Chapter 3, I think she’s golden. We’ll just have to see how that Chapter pans out in the future.

David: Oh, David. Currently serving as Teruko’s largest antagonist, I can see why people would think that he would die in Chapter 5. However, I’m not going to beat around the bush and pretend that I’m the only person who thinks David might survive, either. As an inspirational speaker, David is established early on as a character who should be a beacon of hope, before revealing that he’s more of a hope-sucking black hole. It would make sense if, alongside Teruko, he learns to find more of a balance between blithe optimism and cynical depression and heal as a person. He has a lot of very obvious depth that I think a lot of people want to see explored, and whose exploration would be very on-brand for the themes of a typical killing game story. Plus, if Teruko ever does stop being the protagonist, David probably needs to be alive at that point to pick up the slack.

Ace: Similar to Nico, it seems like we’ve already gotten a taste of what Ace being a victim would be like, in a way where I don’t think we’re going to see it again. He could still be a killer, but would the cowardly Ace even want to attempt killing someone and throwing himself into the scrutiny of a Class Trial? Well, it is true that Ace believes that “[neither] dying young or living a long, shitty life of suffering… are as bad as this” (the killing game?). So, he could simply grow fed up with the killing game and decide that risking a Class Trial is worth it, even if he does wind up dying young. However, if that were to occur, Chapter 2 seems like the narratively best time to do it, as it’s when his emotions are most potent and probably when others would least expect him to do it due to his weakened state. Like Rose, I feel the period Ace has most to worry about is this upcoming Chapter 2 killer slot, but if he makes it through, his arc of learning to escape his fear by bravely rising above it instead of lashing out to try to knock everyone down feels very viable.

Whit: The pro of the Inevitable CharWhit Doom Scenario is that, hopefully, one of the two would manage to make it as a survivor after the other one dies. And, I’m Team Whit Surviving! Not just based on which of the two I like better (they’re my first and second favorite characters, so I’m taking a massive L either way), but because I think it makes more sense for it to be Whit that lives further on. Unlike Charles, who feels like he’s already in the final lap of the character arc race, Whit has barely left the starting line. The laundry scene in Chapter 1 and Whit’s secret in Chapter 2 have both been used to establish that Whit focuses on his and others’ bliss in hopes of remaining ignorant of everything that stresses him. The main offender, of course, being that Whit lies about his mom being alive to presumably stave off his grief. The easiest way to give him a character arc that resolves that issue is to give him something to grieve– namely, Charles– and soon. If Whit’s main character struggle is pretending that people dying doesn’t bother him, he might need an entire Chapter or more to stubbornly show off his central flaw. Now, it is possible that, if Whit can’t overcome this flaw, he could die soon after Charles and meet a tragic fate. But, those just… aren’t the vibes, to me? A post-character arc Whit who knows how to grieve fiercely but healthily might come in handy if Teruko finds herself handling her own emotions about Xander, Min, and/or anyone else at the end of the game.

And here’s the bottom of the death order section!

Finally finished writing something that nobody asked of me at all. Well, I still think it was important, and I hope you feel the same.

Now that we’ve laid all that out, I think it’s finally time to actually see who I think the Danganronpa: Despair Time mastermind might be! Although, please keep in mind that, despite the large preamble full of story predictions, I’m still pretty uncertain on who I think the mastermind is. So, my points might not be the best supported, and I might change my mind again pretty soon after I post this theory. I expect to be far better at disproving why everyone is the mastermind rather than proving why anyone would be, because that’s generally how I feel… but, onwards we go!

#17: Arei Nageishi

(Forgive me for reusing art here, I’ve drawn these bastards ENOUGH /j)

If I were writing this after Despair Time’s prologue, like I did with P:EG, there’s a pretty good chance that Arei, at the very least, wouldn’t have placed dead last. But, well, now Arei is dead. And also last.

Obviously, there are other dead characters too. But still, Arei is the one who I most struggle to see as the mastermind. Given that Arei died as a victim whose body was thoroughly investigated by several parties, it’s pretty hard for me to believe that anyone could have missed any signs of life. I don’t get the sense that DRDT is in some kind of simulation where everyone can magically be alive again at the end either, so I think Arei is, sadly, well and truly dead.

On top of all that, we know a lot about her backstory from her Chapter 2 breakdown, and none of it seems to point her towards masterminding a killing game specifically. She doesn’t have any particular ties to any big organizations that would have helped her accomplish it, either. While she is NOT just a temporary weather spell whose absence will be celebrated and then forgotten, David… I have a hard time believing that the audience would find her character relevant enough(?) to be a good twist mastermind come Chapter 6 several years down the line.

I don’t think I really need to keep elaborating on this. Arei isn’t the mastermind.

#16: Charles Cuevas

I know it’s a bit of a bold move to put a character who’s currently alive below characters who have already died, but… man, I really just don’t see how Charles could pull this off.

And it’s not (just) because I think he’s going to die in Chapter 3 as part of Whit’s character arc, or that I want to believe that he’s a good person. Really, it’s mostly because of his phobias. How is a guy who started gagging at the sight of blood splattered on the floor supposed to be the one who orchestrated an entire death game? Could he get through the process of creating a brutal execution like Min’s without freezing up and freaking out? Even if he could do it, why would he? Sure, he didn’t seem to remember the fact that he had necrophobia until Xander died, but that might be even more of a problem. Wouldn’t the mastermind, who’s certainly had to consider the others’ deaths before, remember that they were afraid of death? He would almost certainly have to be lying about at least the scale of his reaction, although that’s probably a given if he is the mastermind.

Of course, there are mastermind subcategories that could better benefit Charles. If DRDT is actually a simulation, especially one in which the participants don’t actually die, that would definitely make it easier for him to be the one behind it. We’re also meant to believe that Charles has childhood amnesia, so he could have amnesia in other areas as well and be a mastermind who forgot they were one.

However, as I said before, I don’t particularly believe that DRDT is going to be a computer simulation or that Charles is an amnesiac mastermind. I just… don’t see this one in general.

#15: Xander Matthews

Let me preface this by saying that I’m not trying to argue that Xander is actually still alive. The concept that he would be able to fool not only Min, making her believe that she dealt him a fatal blow, but also everyone else as they identified his body, seems outlandish to me. However, just because Xander is dead doesn’t mean that he couldn’t have entered this game as the mastermind.

We know for a fact that Xander wanted to kill Teruko due to his dialogue regarding the note he received, which lines up well with the popular theory that Xander is the individual speaking in the first scene with the papers and the blood. If we assume he is that guy, then it may seem a little counterintuitive to think that the person who says “I have to end the killing game” would be the one behind the killing game. However, he also says, “Even if I can’t do that… I have to kill Teruko Tawaki,” implying that killing Teruko is of a higher priority than ending “the killing game.” Thus, if, for some reason, Xander thought that orchestrating the killing game was the only way to kill Teruko, it’s possible that he would be willing to let the death game roll for as long as it takes to eliminate his bigger target.

However, I can’t deny that the Xander mastermind theory has some massive flaws to it. For one, Xander is dead. I don’t think we’ve technically seen any evidence that the mastermind has to still be alive as of Chapter 2, but a mastermind-less Chapter 6 would be… an interesting challenge to write, to say the least. Also, while Xander betraying Teruko and the others was a great surprising hook the first time, if it happened again, it would be kind of… underwhelming, in my opinion. It’s the same kind of concept I brought up in my Eden’s Garden ranking:

Then, in Chapter 6, we’d be faced with the revelation that, wow, the mildly antagonistic character was actually a really antagonistic character all along! It just doesn’t seem like enough of a dramatic hook to me, I guess?

“Wow, the guy who betrayed Teruko and became a killer actually betrayed Teruko and was the mastermind all along! And now, he’s not even around to reap the social or karmic consequences of it!” You see.

And then, there is the literal interpretation of the text that Xander (if he is bloody hands man) obviously stands against the killing games. He’s also the Ultimate Rebel, someone who stands against corrupt institutions in general.

If Xander is revealed to be evil later down the line, it would make much more sense if it was as a traitor type. As for being the one and only mastermind, I think the odds are pretty low.

#14: Ace Markey

Hey, it’s another character that’s alive! And, this one doesn’t even have a crippling fear of death. However, he is a massive coward, and that’s the main thing that’s dragging him down for me.

Similar to Charles, what would Ace stand to gain from hosting a killing game such as this? Ace doesn’t seem to have any interest in notoriety, money, the destruction of society, despair, or any other things that I can think of that would motivate a typical mastermind. We’ve seen time and time again that Ace cares most about having control over both his life and how other people see him, even though he often fails on both fronts. I guess both of those things could be solved by hosting a killing game, but… Come on, there have gotta be easier ways to do that which don’t threaten your precious life.

Furthermore, what exactly would Ace being the mastermind have to say about the story as a whole? Jockey has to be in the running for “talents that are least relevant to a potential killing game host.” How about the idea that the mastermind nearly died in Chapter 2, only to go off the rails threatening and blaming his assailant? I… always knew that Nico was… fully in the right for doing that, because it would have killed the big bad early??? Ace Mastermind is the preferred ending for those who believe that Nico can do absolutely no wrong, lol.

I can’t remember where I saw it, but I once saw a theory of writing that said that there are two major kinds of character arcs. One is the typical character arc, where the narrative pushes a character's traits to change over the course of the story for better of for worse. The other, this theory posited, was an arc on the part of the viewer, where they learn that a character that they thought was flawed was actually not as flawed as they thought all along. You could potentially apply this kind of thing to Eden: in the first chapter, some people may have seen her as a dim-witted positive girl, but in Chapter 2, we firmly establish that her kindness is not stupidity and learn how her optimism is a strength.

So, you could say that the character arc DRDTdev is going for with Ace is something more like that, where we spend the entire game learning to treat him more seriously just in time for him to be a real threat as the mastermind? It still feels like a bit of a stretch, though– I don’t know exactly what Ace would do to make us take him more seriously that wouldn’t either send him on a growth arc not super befitting of a mastermind or wind up with him being a blackened. Ace as the mastermind certainly isn’t impossible, but I obviously found it unlikely enough that I placed him below one character who is currently (presumed) dead.

#13: Arturo Giles

Arturo’s role in the story so far is not very mastermind-ish, in my mind. In the prologue, we establish him as a cold and judgmental person who puts his own opinions of how the world works over everything else, especially how other people feel. This already feels like how a mastermind would act, so if he turned out to be the mastermind, it would be more of the same.

Then, in Chapter 2, we establish that he’s a massive simp for celebrities, to the point of transforming into something adjacent to comedic relief. We’re meant to think that his over-the-top sprites and refusal to actually listen to anything J is saying is hilariously pathetic. Other characters are constantly dunking on him, such as Teruko calling him a “bigoted” “crazy person,” and even the narrative gets in on the action when highlighting how he cares less about the fact that J’s life was at risk than that she didn’t come out of it with drip. Narratively, we’ve already seen these characters get the better of Arturo. If we the audience interpret that as confirmation that the surviving cast could easily beat Arturo should he ever come to stand in their way, it could diminish the stakes upon his mastermind reveal.

However, for all of his negatives, there are some definite positives to Arturo being the mastermind, too. Despite his comedic effects, we have seen through his threats to Eden that Arturo is very capable of being very scary in a way that I don’t think we have with Ace. The horror factor of a plastic surgeon as the mastermind could be a really fun and creepy design theme to explore. And, Arturo is obviously super obsessed with celebrities. If hosting a deadly TV show is what he thought it would take to get him in with the Hollywood celebrity scene, he might be willing to go for it.

I don’t really know why he would have made his secret what it is if he was going to get that upset about it, though. I guess if there just weren’t any better options that wouldn’t tip his hand…? Also, Arturo would blend in terribly as a survivor. If you’re heading into Chapter 6 and you have to pick the evil character out of (let me spin a wheel real quick...) Teruko, Eden, Rose, Charles, and Arturo, Arturo is definitely the evil one. (Okay, that was actually a terrible randomized draw for Arturo on the innocence front, but I hope you can imagine how he would oddly stick out of most groups.) Like I said in his death predictions, I find it hard to imagine a character arc for Arturo, which is why I find it hard to believe that he would make it as far as Chapter 6.

#12: Min Jeung

Honestly, if Min weren’t (most likely) dead, she might be pretty high on my list of mastermind choices. While not as suspicious as the Spurlings, XF-Ture Tech is pretty suspicious, even more so with the introduction of that one altDRDT character. Min is related to XF-Ture Tech, so if that company has anything to do with the operation of the killing game, she could have been the one behind it. Min is also very smart, and her talent has obvious applications for how it could have been used to set up/influence the killing game. The fact that her talent is so similar to Teruko’s, Ultimate Student versus Ultimate Lucky Student, could have also set them up for some great parallels and duality down the line.

However… Min’s role as the Chapter 1 killer throws a pretty big wrench in her chances. Beyond the dying part, Min’s role as the blackened was incredibly evitable. It’s not like she was thrown into a situation where she had to kill or be killed, or even one where a motive was particularly difficult for her. If she wanted to be the mastermind and survive until the end, all she had to do was walk away from Xander stabbing Teruko and pretend she never saw it. However, if Min’s goal was the inverse of ol’ Bloody Hands (keep the killing game running, but most importantly, keep Teruko alive), her actions could line up. And then, perhaps Min could have falsified her own execution early to draw suspicion off of her, much like Junko did by killing Mukuro.

Beyond her death, though, it’s really Min’s reaction to being the blackened that makes me think she can’t be the mastermind. The stellar voice acting in Min’s breakdown scenes makes me really believe both that this was the first time she had ever hurt anyone as gravely as she did to Xander, and that she fully believed that she was about to die. Those are two things that a mastermind, especially one headed into a fake execution, would not be feeling. Maybe Min memorized how to be a great actress too amongst all those textbooks, but I doubt it. I can still see several reasons why Min would have been a good mastermind, but her actual death and her reaction to being told she was dying knock her down several pegs in my mind.

#11: Hu Jing

Hu is a bit more suspicious to me than some others just because I think she has something to hide. Between her refusal to share whose secret she received or had herself, mysterious “I want to pay for what I’ve done” hidden quote, and intense desire to be relied upon, there’s definitely something about Hu as a person that the narrative has yet to uncover. Could that something be “Hu is the mastermind”? I dunno, maybe.

Hu also has a tendency to react to things with her temper. That could be a sort of foreshadowing to how she would act as the mastermind, much like how David’s brief spell of apathy during the prologue hinted at the way he would act further down the line. Hu’s defense of Nico could act much the same way. Our overall impression of Hu at this point is that, while she is a flawed person, she’s one of the nicest and morally best people in the game, who’s always looking out for others. Defending Nico to the point of babying them might cross the line a little, but she’s only trying to help everyone…! Hu could make it to the end as a believably heroic survivor and then reveal that all of her presumed poor decisions were actually active malice, and I think she could pull that off.

All that being said… I don’t, like, actually think that’s going to happen. In fact, I’m probably overexaggerating the extent to which people think that Hu is nice and morally good. I’ve seen several people discuss the unjust amounts of hate Hu gets in this fandom, which implies that a lot of people hate her, even if I haven’t particularly seen much of it myself. At the very least, I definitely over exaggerated the extent to which people believe Hu could survive! As implied in the death order predictions, I do personally think Hu is going to die, possibly as a consequence of getting too invested in everyone else’s business when they don’t want her to be and/or wearing herself too thin. There are paths which I believe could lead to Hu being the mastermind, but they seem to be the roads less likely traveled.

#10: David Chiem

While I have no doubts that David has the fame, charisma, and worldview to pull off a killing game… I’d have to wonder about how he would see himself playing into all of it. As we saw in Chapter 2, David knows that his career has a lot of value, possibly to himself but definitely to other people, and therefore, he doesn’t want to jeopardize it. In fact, the reveal of his manipulative secret was the inciting incident behind his massive change in characterization. So, if he were the mastermind of a televised killing game… How would he think that would play out to his viewers?

Now, to be fair, there’s a lot we don’t know about the worldbuilding of DRDT. MonoTV claims that the TV show will be broadcast to a widespread audience. Perhaps that indicates that, in the world of DRDT, publicly broadcasting talented young peoples’ violent deaths is normal, or even sought after. Maybe the cast of DRDT forgot about it.

However, David seems to think that people learning that he sees everyone as manipulable would do damage to his reputation, so it’s a bit of a contradiction either way. If the world has been wracked with despair and craves intense violence on TV, then David’s reaction to his secret is either an elaborate lie or the result of the mastermind erasing his own memories regarding the situation. (Or, I guess the public could see death as fine and dandy but manipulation as a cancellable offense, which is… one of the interpretations ever.) Otherwise, in the scenario that the DRDT world is a normal one, David wouldn’t care about being revealed as a manipulator if he’d already committed to the mastermind bit. If his career was already preemptively ruined by agreeing to commit literal murder, why get so worked up about the thought that people might abandon ship over you not being 100% honest?

And then, there’s also the whole “surprise factor” thing that I keep bringing up. Admittedly, it’s been a longer hiatus between the start of Chapter 2 and the end of Chapter 2 than DRDTdev might have been hoping for, but that doesn’t change the fact that this part of David’s characterization happened in Chapter 2. DRDT fans far and wide have written thousands of words gushing over “the David reveal” or “evil David.” If David were unveiled as the mastermind, we’d have to start writing stuff about “the first David reveal” or “when David showed his true colors again.” You see how it kind of takes the hype away from such major plot points? That’s the sort of concept I’ve been trying to get across with some of my other choices too, but a bit more clear cut.

I don’t know why I sound so much like a hater in this section (in my opinion) when I’m literally putting David at #10, above seven other characters. I guess it’s because I can see why his theatricality and traits foiling Teruko could make him a good mastermind, but also have some major issues with the logistics of him getting there. A lot of good points versus a lot of bad points settle out to him winding up someone in the middle.

#9: Levi Fontana

With our first single digit number, we’ve also reached our midway point of mastermind candidates: Levi!

Levi would be a really interesting mastermind choice because of how his character centers around grappling with his morality. I think it would be really intriguing to have a mastermind outwardly struggling with their attempts and failures to be a good person throughout the entire game, only for the player and the characters to receive the full context of the debacle at the very end. I guess in this situation, it would be pretty likely that Levi would be redeemed at the end? That’s not necessarily a problem. (Honestly, I don’t know if I think the DRDT mastermind could be redeemed or not based on the fangan’s themes… that’s a post for another day, perhaps.)

Anyways, I think that what we know of Levi’s backstory could work well with him being the mastermind. If he does have the “murderer without remorse” secret, that would be in line with orchestrating a killing game. We also know that he’s “been disowned” and that he and his family were “all bad influences on each other.” We’re meant to assume that Levi was fortunate enough to escape a bad/abusive situation (and in all likelihood this IS what actually happened!!!!), but we are hearing about the situation from his point of view alone. There is a small possibility that, if Levi is actually a despair enjoyer, his family cut him out because they thought he was a danger to their lives.

I will reiterate again, though, that I don’t think this is the case. Levi seems like he’s a chill guy, or at least that he’s trying very hard to be one despite how he’s been told to react all his life. The whole “mastermind wanting to become a good person” lens also makes less sense given how channeled Levi’s development is through Ace. Like, I would imagine that, if this were the angle DRDTdev was going for, Levi would be making an effort to get along with everyone as part of his atonement. The mastermind randomly choosing to focus on just one person out of the crowd seems kind of strange, especially when that person is someone as disagreeable as Ace. That kind of plot would have big “the mafia CEO vampire prince fell head over heels in love with me, the random average girl” vibes. Repenting mastermind Levi is the preferred ending for pining lovers to enemies to lovers AceVi shippers, lol.

And then there’s the part where I think he’s going to die. I don’t think Levi is the worst mastermind choice, but I think there are better out there.

#8: Nico Hakobyan

Yay, we finally got to one of the characters that Anon thought was suspicious! It only took… 7k+ words. Oh boy.

I definitely think that the cat coding is the strongest thing that Nico has going for them. It would be pretty funny if the extent to which “Ultimate Pet Therapist” is relevant to the plot is the climactic reveal that “yeah Nico has been talking to a (robotic) animal the whole time.” That’s a joke, as Ultimate Pet Therapist is already quite relevant to Nico’s characterization as someone who prefers communicating with animals over people, but it would be funny as hell from a character designing perspective.

There are less silly reasons to believe that Nico is the mastermind too, though. While it seems like, similar to David, pulling the trigger on Nico’s change in behavior in Chapter 2 would be a bit early, I don’t think it’s as destructive to mastermind Nico as it is to mastermind David. There’s a lot more doubt in people’s minds that Nico even did anything to Ace, to the extent that a decent number of people (in the story and out of it) think that it was someone else trying to kill Ace entirely. Nico also has a stalwart defender in Hu, which adds an extra level of intrigue to the situation. Instead of confirming that everyone was right to be suspicious of David, at least some amount of focus could be placed onto Hu being wrong for trusting Nico and failing to see someone’s true colors again, which could be interesting for her characterization if she was alive at that point.

On the other hand, the biggest reason that I think Nico isn’t the mastermind is also because of the attempted Ace murder. Why would Nico, as the mastermind, try to kill Ace at this time? If Nico wins the Class Trial, then the killing game is over, which is probably counter to the mastermind’s goals. If Nico loses the Class Trial, well, we’ll say that the possibility of Nico dying isn’t an issue, as they could just fake their own death or deny entering the execution. But still, why?

It could be that Nico was trying to remove themselves from the killing game on purpose, but I don’t see why it would be necessary. No one was particularly suspicious of Nico being the mastermind, and if they were worried about their gender identity getting out, they could have simply made their secret something else. A mastermind could kill to avoid the killing game falling into a standstill, but tensions were really high at the time that Ace almost died! With a full day left to go before the motive secrets were revealed, such drastic action wasn’t yet forced. I guess the best option would be that Nico was just really angered by what Ace said, and wanted to retaliate as part of their vicious mastermind nature. Is that worth taking yourself out of the killing game and risking the show’s termination, though…?

There is also the possibility that Nico is the mastermind, but didn’t try to kill Ace. In that case, suspicion of Nico would be such a huge in-universe coincidence that I’m doubtful DRDTdev would have included it as a major plot point.

Speaking of “show’s termination,” I also don’t know why Nico would have any involvement in creating a TV show, both from a backstory/talent perspective and a personality one. Nico doesn’t like interacting with people. Therefore, I don’t know what would possess them to want to create and join a TV show for which the major draw is a big stressful discussion between a bunch of people.

I guess I had fewer reasons why I thought Nico would be the mastermind than I thought. I would love to hear more details about why you suspect Nico though, Anon! I’m definitely willing to believe that they could be the mastermind.

#7: Eden Tobisa

Make no mistake, I still think that Eden is the Chapter 2 killer. However, in the case that she isn’t… mastermind isn’t a terrible choice for her.

The biggest draw of Eden being the mastermind would definitely be the shock value. The seemingly nicest character suddenly being revealed as the mastermind would create a huge hurdle for the surviving characters to overcome. Teruko especially, given that she probably would have grown at least a tad closer to Eden if they survived five chapters together. It would be a little mean to give Teruko a trustworthy friend just to rip it away from her again, but I could see the opportunity being used to highlight Teruko’s growth. When Xander and Min betrayed Teruko, she panicked and shut everyone out, but when Eden betrays Teruko at the very end, she’s able to remain strong and rely on the other friends who she continues to trust. Or DRDT could have an unconventional feel-bad ending, I suppose.

If some kind of time loop is at play within DRDT, then Eden’s talent would obviously be thematically and perhaps practically relevant as well. I could see a lot of comparisons being made regarding a killing game being run “like clockwork.” Her secret quote “you can’t go back, no matter how hard you try” is... actually kind of anti-time loop, but at least the concept of going back in time is somewhat related…? Speaking of secret quotes, her Mai quote, “she kept calling the number, even though no one picked it up” is also really weird. That suspicious hidden evidence could point to her being the mastermind.

However, Eden’s personality is a pretty major issue when it comes to her being the mastermind. Shock value is great in the moment, but it can ring hollow in retrospect if people find that the twist doesn’t make any sense. Masterminds aren’t typically known for their kindness or optimism. So, if Eden is the mastermind, it seems like her whole “even if this world is cruel, I’ll still make the choice to be kind” speech is a complete lie. And, that would be a shame! I don’t think that having an unexpected mastermind at the end of the game is worth the cost of completely demolishing a character that we’ve come to know and love over the course of six chapters and several years. (I’m not saying that complete demolition has to be the case if Eden is the mastermind, but I think it’s a reasonable worry that many people have.)

And, I know that all this talk about how wonderful Eden is might sound rich coming from someone who strongly believes that she just killed someone who wanted to be her best friend. But, that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? As someone who thinks that Eden is the killer, I know very well how a lot of people have a really hard time believing that Eden could do something as terrible as killing Arei. I can only imagine how hard it would be to accept that Eden was the one who put Arei, Min, Teruko, and everyone else in danger, and the one pulling the strings behind every execution.

Eden as the mastermind, to me, is more tempting in concept than it would be viable in execution. And also, I don’t even think she’s going to live to see the light of Chapter 3 day. However, there’s also some definite emotional power behind the accusation that makes me see how shooting for this ambitious choice could be worth it in the long run.

#6: Whit Young

Alright, it’s finally time to talk about Whit. I know that he’s a really popular mastermind choice, but… I just don’t see it, personally. Even though I put him at 6th place. (I do not enjoy putting him in 6th place.) Is that just because he’s my favorite and I’m attached to my interpretation of the character? Perhaps. But, I’d still like to explore some points that I find faulty.

Perhaps the biggest reason behind suspicion of Whit that I’ve seen is the way that he breaks the fourth wall. People connect his asking people to pause for the evidence list to MonoTV invoking similar mechanics, and lines such as “do you really think she’d be hanging out in the playground” to him knowing more than he’s letting on. However, there are a couple of ways that this accusation can be depowered, in my opinion.

Firstly, Whit isn’t the only person who says stuff like this. Veronika alludes to the killing game before it begins, Teruko also breaks the fourth wall to tell the viewer to pause (albeit only in her thoughts, not out loud), and Arei makes the same kind of “hanging” wordplay in Eden’s flashback that Whit did. I won’t say that characters addressing the fourth wall can’t be important at all, because I believe there are some moments where the other characters commentate on how weird it is that MonoTV is talking to no one. However, I also think that breaking the fourth wall may simply be part of DRDTdev’s humor, as exemplified by that “make sure to like and subscribe so that Teruko has enough mental strength to carry on” joke. Whit is a funny guy, so it just makes sense that if DRDTdev’s brain generates funny meta jokes, Whit would get some of them. Everything that Whit says reminds me more of Mia AceAttorney saying “hit tab to open the Court Record” than some sort of groundbreaking DDLC-Undertale direct communication with the viewer. However, I can see why others would think otherwise.

The second is that I think some of Whit’s comments (more so the “dead at 3” and “hanging in the playground” than the pause) are just meant to showcase his intuition. And, yeah, it could be that DRDTdev has been leaving crumbs of Whit’s intuition behind so that in Chapter 6, he can use it to exploit everyone’s insecurities and greatest despair. To me, though, Whit’s intuition has always reminded me of the myth of Cassandra.

For those who don’t know, Cassandra is a figure in Greek mythology who was blessed/cursed to receive prophecies, but for no one to ever believe them. By my interpretation, Whit is a really smart and perceptive guy who has strikingly accurate gut feelings about how things will play out down the road, even when he doesn’t realize it himself. However, the curse of his own coping mechanism– choosing to act like an eternally cheerful goofball– leads the majority of the other students, and perhaps some of the viewers, to never take his point of view seriously. He can only realize the accuracy behind what he said after the bad things have already happened, leading him to blame himself more and more for not being able to speak up and help when times were tough.

This kind of behavior would line up with two different themes we’ve seen from Whit before. The first, that when he jokes around without thinking, he can accidentally say hurtful things that he later reprimands himself for. We saw that when Charles blew up at him at the end of their shared FTE. The second is Whit’s major theme of good things hiding a darker undercurrent. Being the Ultimate Matchmaker is great until you’ve never had a successful relationship yourself. Having an awesome mom is great until the truth comes out that she’s actually dead, and you’ve been covering it up. Growing super close to someone is great until he dies. Having an amazing intuition and understanding of everyone is great until you can never actually use it to help those you care about. Joking around is great until it's all you can do. Pretending everything is fine is great until it’s not.

Like I said, very specific interpretation. I promise I was not citing classical literature to make my argument sound smarter than it actually is. I am aware that my interpretation of Whit is no less or more valid than everyone else’s. However, it’s one that I hold very close to my heart, and thus, I personally have a hard time seeing around it.

However, I’ve also seen a lot of people argue some valid points for Whit, so I can at least acknowledge that he deserves to be in the upper echelon of choices. There’s a lot of weird stuff regarding him in Literature Girl Insane, and he’s certainly an option of someone who felt so much grief that they became totally empty inside as shown in that one hidden quote. I would be appropriately surprised and heartbroken if Whit revealed himself as the mastermind in Chapter 6, so he checks the box in that regard. There isn’t anything from his backstory that opposes the notion that he set up the killing game, and, to quote what I said about our other Ultimate Matchmaker, Toshiko…

While Ultimate Matchmaker might seem like a silly talent to give the mastermind, it could also be a ruse to distract us from the fact that [Whit] has a talent that allows [him] to read people well and make choices that will impact their lives dramatically.

I don’t like it, but I can see the argument… kind of. To me, most mastermind Whit interpretations feel like mischaracterization, but as a theorist, I always try to keep in mind that I’m the one who could be twisting the text to my whims as well. In this my-opinions-based list, though, he’s not getting any higher than 6th.

#5: Veronika Grebenshchikova

Ooh, what spooky art for a spooky mastermind. Let’s be real, though, Veronika is way too obvious of a mastermind candidate to actually be the mastermind. Unless… she’s so obvious that she loops back around to not being obvious, and thus, is the perfect mastermind candidate?!

Veronika is in a really weird place. I obviously have no doubts that she would have any moral qualms about hosting a killing game, because she’s told us herself that she doesn’t. She knows what Monokuma is in immense detail, but claims to have no idea what a killing game is. She’s dressed really similarly to Junko, though. Is that just a coincidence? Are giant pigtails also a symbol of fear in the DRDTverse? I need ANSWERS, LADY!!!

The biggest problem I see with Veronika is the potential for obviousness. Similar to Arturo, if she actually made it to Chapter 6, I feel like it would be pretty obvious what’s going on. An oddball like Veronika is not the typical survivor type (although she could break the mold). Because Teruko’s character arc is all about trusting people, it would make sense if the reveal of the mastermind was someone who challenged her trust to some degree. With Veronika being obviously unhinged the whole time, I don’t think that Teruko would have any particular difficulties with kicking her to the curb.

However, Veronika clearly has the motive to start a killing game, and potentially to spread despair. DRDT has taken inspiration from Trigger Happy Havoc in the past, so it could make sense if DRDT’s mastermind was also inspired by THH’s. Having a so-obvious-it’s-not-obvious mastermind could also be another way to mess with theorists like me, as DRDTdev did with the comments section portion of Literature Girl Insane. “bro Veronika being the mastermind would be WAY too obvious” sounds EXACTLY like “I just hope XXXXXX doesn’t go crazy and kill in chapter 3. That would be way too predictable” or “XXXXX will obviously die in ch5”. If part of the point of DRDT is to make know-it-all analysts rethink the rules they believe to be set in stone, I could see Veronika as a subversive choice.

Veronika definitely seems to be building up to something, but I don’t know if being the mastermind is exactly it. I think that Veronika could make it pretty late into the game, but I still struggle to see her making it all the way to Chapter 6. I would absolutely love to see what DRDTdev does with her writing if that is the case, though. 

#4: Mai Akasaki

(Well, now I feel bad that I’ve never made a colored portrait of Mai.)

As you may have noticed back at our first entry, Arei, I started the countdown off at seventeen, not sixteen. (If you didn’t remember that, I don’t blame you– it was a WHILE ago.) That’s because I thought it was only fair to include DRDT’s best kept(?) secret, the lovely Unnamed Student herself, Mai Akasaki, as an option! Because, man, is she mysterious in some suspicious ways.

“But, didn’t MonoTV tell the students that the mastermind was one of them? Mai isn’t one of the students in the killing game (unless prosopagnosia is REALLY going crazy), so she can’t be the mastermind, right?” Well, yes and no. The scene where MonoTV confirms the existence of the mastermind is SUPER weird. Let’s take a look at it.

On one hand, MonoTV is still in the Movie Screening Room, where it was JUST talking to the student body, so it would only stand to reason that it’s a continuation of the scene we just saw. However, the setting also seems to be doing everything in its power to tell us that this is NOT the same scene we just saw. The lights have been turned off, even though they were on in the scene just before this. They return to being on in the first scene of Chapter 1, which the students treat as being directly after the scene during which the lights were on before. The widget denoting the time, chapter, and episode has completely disappeared, placing this at an even more unknown time than “Time Unknown.” The text indicating that the speaker is MonoTV has even disappeared! I mean, I assume that MonoTV is still the one saying it, considering that it’s on screen and the speech bubble is pointing right at it, but we don’t even know that for sure!

Additionally, MonoTV refers to the viewers directly (“dear viewers”) two speech bubbles after this one, which makes it seem more like MonoTV is talking to us the audience rather than the students in the room. But then, if the mastermind is “one of you,” and MonoTV is talking to us, wouldn’t that mean the mastermind is someone in the audience? That could lead in to some really meta interpretations of the text (i.e. “DRDTdev is the mastermind of DRDT because he’s the one who created the killing game”) or it could indicate that I’ve gone fully off the rails. 

A midpoint between those two ideas is that the mastermind is part of the in-universe audience watching the killing game, as in, a fictional character who is watching the real-to-them TV show that is Danganronpa: Despair Time. That could include Mai, a very notable character who is not one of the sixteen participants in the killing game.

Side note, I’ve seen some people fight back against the concept that Mai could be the mastermind with the idea that making the mysterious character the mastermind would be too obvious. While I sort of agree, I feel like we’re somewhat overestimating the extent to which Mai is obvious. It’s not like no casual viewers would know who she is, because her image was shown pretty obviously in Chapter 1. However, the name “Mai Akasaki” is only accessible by finding the hidden quotes on the optional associated website’s character profiles. To learn anything about her beyond that, you have to have the thought to type the name into the website URL, and then solve another puzzle just to see the bare bones of what’s there.

I’m not trying to assert any sort of dominance or superiority over DRDT fans on YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, or anything else, but from what I’ve gathered, Tumblr is the place you want to go for deep analysis and theories on DRDT (possibly because of Tumblr’s longer word count). Therefore, anything about DRDT that may seem like common knowledge on Tumblr may only be common knowledge to the fans who specifically bothered to come to the deep lore and crack theories website to find deep lore and crack theories. Essentially, this:

Sort of similar to what Gravity Falls did with the reveal of Bill Cipher back in 2012 (at least I think, I wasn’t actually in the Gravity Falls fandom at that time), I think it would be reasonable to plant clues about an overarching villain that people who want to analyze can analyze ahead of time, such that the villain’s arrival can come as a victory to the puzzle solvers and an exciting new development to the more casual viewers.

However, while I believe that Mai has an awesome setup that she could use to become the mastermind, whether she would actually fit the role is another question entirely. As I alluded to back in the first Mai paragraph, I’m rolling with the widely held (among theorizers) belief that the Unnamed Student in Xander and Min’s bonus episodes is supposed to be Mai. In those episodes, Mai seems to be incredibly caring, peppy, and sweet. She knows a ton of little heartwarming details about Min and Xander, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same is shown to be true with Arei and whoever else’s bonus episodes in the future. Those hidden quotes on Mai’s profile also give off the impression that everyone in the cast really loves Mai– one could call them a “portrait of a person dearly loved,” perhaps.

While it’s possible that these scenes are supposed to highlight Mai’s social prowess and how much she can get people to fall in love with her, they… don’t really seem to be giving off those vibes. We see her thoughts in those bonus videos, and she really does seem to be dedicated to helping Min and Xander out. Mai’s change from someone who wanted nothing more than to help out her friends to someone who was willing to throw all of them into the killing game is something that would have to be explained, and it could be difficult to communicate that shift within the confines of bonus material, if Mai’s content is mostly kept there. There is the concept that Mai could have put her friends into a killing game to protect them somehow, which could be a way to avoid Mai’s character seemingly doing a total 180, but that rationale would need a lot of explanation too.

Otherwise, there’s also the problem that Mai is almost certainly dead. I won’t get super into it myself, because the amazing @1moreff-creator has already done a great job explaining why here (starts in the XI. God is Dead section). I don’t think I need to elaborate on why Mai being dead potentially before the killing game even began would be detrimental to the idea of her being the mastermind.

To be honest, I don’t know how much this idea actually makes sense. I think I’m personally more inclined to believe that Mai could be the mastermind just because I really don’t get mastermind vibes from pretty much anybody in the cast. If the mastermind simply wasn’t one of the members of the main cast, that could solve that issue, right…? Mai is very likely involved in the inception of the killing game somehow, so extending that role to one of being the mastermind isn’t the biggest stretch. However, her personality and living status do throw in some pretty big question marks, so I don’t think she should go any higher.

#3: Teruko Tawaki

Teruko was definitely the first character who I believed could be the mastermind after I watched the series for the first time. However, over time, I’ve sort of fallen off of the idea that she would be. Is that because I’m forgetting key details of the plot, or because I’m drifting closer to the truth…? Honestly, I have no idea.

Let’s start with the strongest “evidence” we have against Teruko, her motive secret: “How could I even select which secret to make your motive? Just about everything you’ve done in your life is worth killing for. The killing game is all your fault.” Although “the killing game [being] all [Teruko’s] fault” sounds pretty damning, there’s the obvious counterargument to be made that this isn’t even Teruko’s motive. In fact, the board currently shows it assigned to Xander. However, the majority of people (including myself) seem to believe that David was lying, and this secret is Teruko’s. So, let’s analyze under that assumption.

Teruko did admit to Veronika that she doesn’t know what secret could be used as her motive because there were so many. Even if that motive secret isn’t hers, that still means that Teruko has done a lot of shady stuff. Teruko’s decision to live on set forever could line up with the mastermind's goal of wanting to keep the cameras rolling as well. The very first scene of DRDT shows that someone who wants the killing game to end also wants Teruko dead, which implies that Teruko and the killing games are on the same side.

Teruko also has a prior history of concealing things about herself from us, the viewing audience. We knew basically nothing about her past or trust issues before Xander stabbed her, causing her sudden change in attitude to come as a blindside. Teruko apparently has a “risky” killing game-ending plan in mind for the end of the second Class Trial that she’s told us absolutely nothing about. And, most notably, Teruko clearly knows things about Mai that she’s decided not to share with viewers at home. (I do believe that Teruko genuinely can’t remember Mai’s name, but she does remember that Mai is similar to Xander and wanted to help, which is more than anything we would have known from the main text on our own).

Point is, DRDT is written in a way where we don’t hear a ton of Teruko’s thoughts. That would make it much easier for her to scheme something behind the scenes, as opposed to someone who we get a lot of emotional reactions or logical theorizing from. It’s actually kind of similar to the difference between Kaede and Shuichi’s styles of narration, as pointed out by ShortOneGaming in their impeccable v3 playthrough! I recommend watching their entire letsplay if you're in the mood for v3, but I found one time where they talked about this concept here. I’ll transcribe it for anyone who doesn’t want to open YouTube right now:

Gina: I do want to call– as my final sort of note– what’s interesting is that you called out immediately that Kaede’s narration was weird. That, it was always, like– dictation? Allison: Yes! Gina: It’s always, like, speaking directly to a person– Allison: Yes! Yes, I did say– It never really felt like actual internal monologue. Like, she never was expressing her thoughts or anything to us. I mean, yes, she was, but then there were those weird moments where she was, like… y’know, hiding it from the player, and… probably from herself, too, to some extent. Like, she was just like, “and then I had to go do this thing.” Um, and like, “we won’t really address how I’m feeling about this.” Gina: Yep. Allison: And at the same time, it hides it from the– the player. And that was very clever. Really good. I mean, her– yeah, her narration was always kind of weird. But, she did have moments where she had internal reflection.

Hopefully, you can see the comparison. By putting a greater emphasis on actions as opposed to what Teruko is feeling (“I kneeled down and touched his neck” after finding Ace’s presumed-dead body; “Everyone else started filtering in” when people walk into the Playground and find Arei’s corpse), it becomes much easier to have Teruko hide exactly what she knows or exactly how she feels about certain events. It’s actually the opposite of the kind of narration that Damon had (“I’m trapped in a killing game… with people who despise me. How… how did this happen? I just wanted to help… I wanted to make sure we didn’t trust each other too easily… and now I’m being treated like the bad guy” after the 0th Class Trial) that made me believe he wasn’t the mastermind!

So, do I think that Teruko would be a mastermind who remembers, or a mastermind who forgot? Well, I could kind of see it either way. Personally, I think that Teruko being a mastermind whose memories are intact is the more interesting version, and I do believe it’s possible. I also don’t understand why someone with as many trust issues as Teruko has would want to remove her own memories if it weren’t necessary. Then again, Teruko being an amnesiac mastermind could make up for some of the… issues that arise with her as a mastermind candidate.

What? She’s in third place, not first. Despite how long I’ve already talked about Teruko, there’s still more to say!

First, the problems if Teruko did retain her memories: why would she ask MonoTV about the mastermind’s identity when the two were alone? Why would she be creating a plan to end the killing game? Why would she pretend to not know who Mariabella Rosales was even though everyone else clearly knew?

And then, the problems that persist even if Teruko did lose her memories: where would Teruko have gotten the resources to plan a killing game of this caliber? Even if she had them, why would she use it on this? Assuming that secret is hers, why would she write that about herself in a plausibly public place (beyond the swapping, Arei looked over Whit’s shoulder)?

Oh yeah, back to that secret. Just because “the killing game is all [Teruko’s] fault” doesn’t mean that she’s the one who planned it. In fact, the wording sounds very accusatory and hostile for something that Teruko would have theoretically written to herself. From the first scene, we already know that there is a person or group of people somewhere who are out to get Teruko. It could make more sense if that entity is the mastermind, and wrote the secret to blame Teruko for whatever she did that got her on their bad side.

There’s probably more to be said, but hopefully you can see why I have so many mixed feelings about Teruko. I definitely think she’s one of the more likely mastermind candidates out there, but I still don’t know exactly how likely that is, y’know?

#2: Rose Lacroix

Once upon a time, a wise and powerful theory alchemist known only by the epithet @1moreff-creator postulated that Rose could be the mastermind of Despair Time, and then never elaborated on the idea at all. For centuries (a couple of weeks) the townsfolk (me) were baffled by these dark and mysterious ramblings. However, as seasons passed by, as travelers came and went, as the tide advanced to kiss the land before slinking back to its home once more– the idea… started making more and more sense?

Rose is a really smart character who has already shown her proficiency in Class Trials. In the first, she utilized her ability to perfectly capture the scene and her knowledge of chromatography. Although her talents haven’t been as useful so far in the second, she’s still managed to keep up with the conversation despite never looking at the scene of the crime. Thus, I can see why, from a writing perspective, DRDTdev would choose to make his mastermind the Ultimate Art Forger.

There’s also the angle that Rose is a criminal, and therefore could be willing to do illegal or immoral things. However, she does seem to be pretty remorseful about it, and she’s already been caught for her criminal behavior before. Unfortunately for her, her relationship with her saviors the Spurlings only makes her all the more suspicious. Even if Rose didn’t want to be the mastermind of a killing game, if the Spurlings forced her to do it, she might have not had a choice. (Xander is very against the Spurlings… Xander is bloody hands guy → stop the killing game → stop the Spurlings?)

I also like the angle of “the Spurlings forced her to do it” because of what I talked about back in Mai’s section– the concept of the mastermind not being among the students. In Rose’s case, you can get the best of both worlds. The entity behind the killing game, the Spurling Foundation, would be a group outside of the killing game for MonoTV to contact, but there would still be a student among the cast’s ranks to suspect and accuse come Chapter 6.

What’s the argument against Rose? Well, I would ask why Rose would want to put herself in this kind of situation, but if it was the Spurlings’ choice, then that explains that. You could say Rose has been too helpful to be a bad guy, but everything she’s done so far has been to help the students win a Class Trial. That keeps the killing game running, which keeps the show on. The biggest problem I’m thinking of at the moment is the notion that the Spurling Foundation would have chosen to make Rose’s secret about how her backstory led her into their clutches. However, the secret doesn’t actually acknowledge the Spurlings by name, and it also frames Rose’s crimes in a way that makes her look like a good person– the opposite of what someone would think of as a mastermind. The secret was also only intended for Rose’s eyes, so it could have functioned as more of a low-key threat to remind her why she needs to stay in line.

Shouldn’t all of this talk of Rose lacking agency make her a bad mastermind candidate, though? If a villain doesn’t even believe in their villainous motivations, the story could end on a really flat note, with the good guys steamrolling an evildoer who doesn’t really care. How are we supposed to reach a satisfying conclusion if the mastermind hardly has anything to be held accountable for?

Those are normally things I would argue, but as many have pointed out, Teruko isn’t a normal protagonist. Actually, I think that this kind of mastermind setup for Rose could be a great way to end Teruko’s arc about learning to trust other people. Rose is the mastermind, somebody who shouldn’t be trusted…! It would be so easy for Teruko to just crush this person who betrayed her into dust– Rose isn’t even putting up much of a fight. But in the end, Teruko will choose to be patient, and see that Rose never wanted to betray Teruko. Even if her actions wound up hurting Teruko and many others, she still deserves a second chance, or at least a second evaluation.

As you saw in the death predictions, I obviously believe that Rose has the potential to make a late game run, whether as a survivor or something else. Writing all of this out, I can see even more clearly why Rose just might be the DRDT mastermind. However, despite all that I wrote, the idea still feels kinda more like a fun AU than the actual truth to me…? So, I still think there’s one person whose chances I like slightly better.

#1: J Rosales

Whaddya know, J’s personal ??? tier catapulted her into the lead. It is probably true that my uncertainty about where she might land is contributing to me deeming her the mastermind– it’s a really weird space in the kill order, as someone who survives long enough to theoretically have a positive character arc while sometimes not being counted among the survivors at the end.

Part of why I put J this high is that I really like the theory of J being the mastermind along with her brother, Ryan. Sadly, I cannot find any of the original theories that postulated this idea to link to, so I’ll try my best to explain what I remember myself. Basically, some people found the scene in c1e4 where Rose doesn’t remember who J is suspicious. They combined this scene with J’s younger brother, Ryan, and J’s talent, the Ultimate Effects Artist, to suggest that J could be using her FX talents to disguise Ryan as herself and have them occasionally trade places. From this Q&A, one of the few things we know about Ryan is that he enjoys crossdressing, which furthers the idea that he could enjoy pretending to be J. Ryan is also (to my memory) the only DRDT character’s sibling whose name we have seen in the main text, which could indicate that he’s more important than Arei’s sisters, Levi’s brothers, or other potential siblings.

I think it’s a really fun idea that I would at the very least want to see come to fruition, regardless of how likely it is. If J was working with Ryan, you can once again repeat the argument that there’s both a mastermind for MonoTV to talk to outside the game and one to be accused within the game. The biggest issue with it is that I don’t know how Arturo wouldn’t see the differences between the two, even if Rose may have. Maybe if J and Ryan haven’t swapped since the Rosales secret got out, and won’t swap again until Arturo dies…? I don’t know, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The thing is, other than just being a unique and interesting concept, I’m not really sure what the point of having J and Ryan swap would be, in universe or out of it. (This is why I wish I could’ve found a link to the original theorist... :,( ) My best argument for in universe would be that there are some things that only J has the skill to do, her being the Ultimate Effects Artist while Ryan is not. However, they couldn’t just have Ryan be the one in the killing game full-time, because he’s too young and therefore wouldn’t have been part of the original Hope’s Peak class. Thus, there are some points in time where J needs to be working behind the scenes (like on the executions or something), and during those intervals, Ryan subs in. Metatextually, I guess it could show how every person in the entertainment industry can be cutthroat, or that every child of a celebrity is bound to get messed up about it somehow…?

Regardless, even if Ryan isn’t involved at all, there are plenty of reasons to suspect J on her own. Ultimate Effects Artist is a highly suspicious talent when it comes to the deception of a killing game (just check out how many people think J already used it to kill Arei), and in connecting her to Hollywood. J may claim to specialize in theater as opposed to television, but 1) she could have been lying, or 2) that could be true, but she’s making an exception this time. Even if she normally works in live theater, if you were a TV executive approached by the daughter of Mariabella Rosales who is also a Hope’s Peak Ultimate student in her own right, would you really turn her away…?

J’s custom weapon is also pretty suspicious. Even if it doesn’t seem to be able to trigger traps like the one used on Levi (though that could be another lie), I could still see it being pretty helpful for subtly operating MonoTV, turning on a monitor, starting an execution, or stuff like that. Charles essentially confirms that the custom weapons were in the students’ rooms since they all woke up, which means that J could have had this remote on her the entire time.

J’s relationships also seem potentially mastermind-y. Thus far, the two characters with which she’s been associated most are Arei and Arturo. Those two (at least, prior to Arei’s change of heart) have been so clearly villainous and hateful that J would obviously look like a nice person in comparison. Why is this helpful? It means that J can get away with doing more objectionable things without raising any huge red flags. If J is the mastermind, we can look back on her demolition of Arturo in the Chapter 2 Trial as a brief early glimpse into how cruel she can really be. But, for the moment, although it’s definitely memorable, many people (including myself) can react to it with a, “yeah, but based on what Arturo was doing to her, it’s kinda justified…” (Not saying it isn’t somewhat justified either way, just that it could also be something more.)

J could also have a range of motivations related to her hatred for her mom. Maybe she’s trying to turn people against the Rosales name to ruin Mariabella’s reputation. Maybe this killing game is a plan to finally have a big artistic success all on her own (or with Ryan) to prove her mom wrong. Maybe she thinks that a world so enamored with fame and glamor deserves to rot in a pit of despair. I don’t know which of these options would be the most likely, but I could see how any of them could be possible explanations for how J got to this point.

I think my biggest argument against J once again comes back to the “why”. I think that J has a lot of potential to be a good mastermind, but I don’t know if that carries over to being a good mastermind for Teruko. Unlike with Rose, I don’t have a good sense of how J being the mastermind would tie into a satisfying ending to Teruko’s trust arc.

@venus-is-thinking and I sometimes like to run randomized killing games as a fun writing exercise (randomize the cast, motives, and mastermind; see where it takes you), and we’ve generally found that the most compelling protagonist-mastermind duos either have the protagonist sharing the same worldview with the mastermind, or being the only person who believes the opposite.

If the protagonist starts with the same beliefs as the mastermind, then defeating the mastermind is a showcase of the protagonist’s development. Hajime and Izuru work as protagonist and mastermind because Izuru is the manifestation of Hajime’s belief that only talented people are important and can make an impact on the world. By renouncing Izuru, Hajime proves that he’s learned that anyone has the chance to change their future if they put in the effort. 

If the protagonist has the opposite opinions from the mastermind, then it proves how crucial the protagonist is to the narrative because they are the only one who could deliver the critical message. A great example of this is Shuichi and Tsumugi. When Tsumugi tries to set up the conflict of “hope good, despair bad” that will keep the killing games going, all of the other surviving students fall for it. Shuichi being the only character who has spent the entire game learning the importance of balancing two extremes makes his callout of Tsumugi incredibly satisfying, and justifies the protagonist swap by proving that Shuichi is the only hero who could have saved this day.

That’s why I think that J would be a great mastermind for a protagonist who has issues with family or stardom, but might not be the best choice for a story with Teruko at the helm. Those are only my observations, though, so I’d understand if DRDTdev planned things differently.

And that is finally the end! Here’s the final tierlist I wound up working off of, which I fiddled with a TON while writing:

(It’s based off of Ocean Unknown’s tierlist!)

Since this has already gone on so long, I’ll try to keep the conclusion brief. Please take all of this with a grain of salt, as I wound up making a lot of claims about writing that don’t necessarily have the strongest foundation. I didn’t write anything that I think is blatantly false, obviously, but whether it’s good advice or not doesn’t necessarily mean that DRDTdev considered it. We may have different priorities in telling a compelling story. And, we’re less than two chapters in! Even the end of the Chapter 2 trial could throw a positive or negative wrench in any of these profiles.

Thank you so much for reading through this whole thing, and if you got through it and still have anything you want me to elaborate on further (a specific character, a specific theory, a specific aspect of fangan writing, etc), I would be happy to do so. I, uh, really hope that this answered the question that Anon asked, haha. Until next time… stay wary. There could be masterminds lurking about...!

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 15: NOBODY GETS THE FLEECE

"Like Annabeth-Nobody, or nobody-nobody?" Percy demanded of his friends. Why were these stupid chapter titles here, they were never any help!

"Or is it the original Odysseus Nobody, back as a ghost?" Alex played along.

Nobody answered, in any sense of the word, so Percy grumbled for only a moment and kept reading.

"I got Nobody!" Polyphemus gloated.

"We can only hope," Percy scowled at the capital N in hopes the book was deceiving him.

We crept to the cave entrance and saw the Cyclops, grinning wickedly, holding up empty air.

The monster shook his fist, and a baseball cap fluttered to the ground. There was Annabeth, hanging upside down by her legs.

They all saw the fear and worry radiating off of Percy, Thalia even shivered at the blast of icy ocean water that was trying to engulf him, but it was just that. They were only seeing it, Percy's soul attention was concentrating harder than he had on any book in his life on the words in front of him so much so even his inherited abilities weren't managing to make these dangerous waters.

"Hah!" the Cyclops said. "Nasty invisible girl! Already got feisty one for wife. Means you gotta be grilled with mango chutney!"

"I'm sure Grover's offended he didn't get that first caught, first wed treatment," Jason frowned.

"This guy is seriously making me crave whatever mango chutney is," Alex shrugged, he sure wouldn't shut up about it.

Annabeth struggled, but she looked dazed. She had a nasty cut on her forehead. Her eyes were glassy.

Percy's grip on the book tightened, though he wasn't sure if he was imagining strangling this cyclops or pulling Annabeth close, both warred like crashing waves in him to be done.

  "I'll rush him," I whispered to Clarisse. "Our ship is around the back of the island. You and Grover—"

"No way," they said at the same time. Clarisse had armed herself with a highly collectible rams-horn spear from the Cyclops's cave. Grover had found a sheep's thigh bone, which he didn't look too happy about, but he was gripping it like a club, ready to attack.

"Both of them deserve revenge," Thalia agreed, resisting the urge to smack Percy again for trying to be the hero they already knew he was.

"We'll take him together," Clarisse growled.

"Yeah," Grover said. Then he blinked, like he couldn't believe he'd just agreed with Clarisse about something.

"It's really not so bad as having agreed with Percy about something," Thalia smirked.

"Do you want me to threaten to shove your arms down your throat?" Percy asked. "Because this is how I'll agree with Clarisse."

"All right," I said. "Attack plan Macedonia."

'They're going to do the Macarena?' Hearth blinked in confusion.

"You're going to send him to Europe?" Magnus repeated in confusion even as he corrected the word for his friend.

"How come when we get attacked by you we don't get a vacation out of it?" Alex pouted.

"Sush, listen," Percy ignored all of them.

They nodded. We'd all taken the same training courses at Camp Half-Blood. They knew what I was talking about. They would sneak around either side and attack the Cyclops from the flanks while I held his attention in the front.

Jason looked particularly thrilled about getting to hear of one of their battle strategies and muttered something about turtle formation.

Probably what this meant was that we'd all die instead of just me, but I was grateful for the help.

"Honestly, without you steering that giant ship they probably would have died anyways," Nico reminded.

"This is just faster," Thalia nodded.

"You guys have such faith in us," Percy huffed. The fact that they were joking about it made him at least hope he hadn't gotten anybody killed though.

I hefted my sword and shouted, "Hey, Ugly!"

The giant whirled toward me. "Another one? Who are you?"

"Put down my friend. I'm the one who insulted you."

"You are Nobody?"

"That's right, you smelly bucket of nose drool!" It didn't sound quite as good as Annabeth's insults, but it was all I could think of.

"You expect witty retorts from her though, that knowledge has to be good for something," Alex shrugged. "You've perfected the classics with practice Perce."

"Thanks," he snorted.

"I'm Nobody and I'm proud of it! Now, put her down and get over here. I want to stab your eye out again."

"RAAAR!" he bellowed.

The good news: he dropped Annabeth. The bad news: he dropped her headfirst onto the rocks, where she lay motionless as a rag doll.

The wince that encircled the eight of them might as well have come from one person attacking them all, though Percy hadn't done anything again as he kept his focus. Thalia's hands were twitching as she longed to draw her bow and help, Will was clasping his hands with nobody to heal in here, even Alex, Nico, and Jason were resisting the urge to grab their weapons while Hearth was gently reminding Magnus Annabeth was surely okay out there now.

The other bad news: Polyphemus barreled toward me, a thousand smelly pounds of Cyclops that I would have to fight with a very small sword.

"We will not be judged by the size of our blades but the courage of our hearts-"

"Stop quoting cooler movies during my fight scenes!" Percy interrupted Alex in exasperation.

"It was supposed to be motivating," he huffed.

"I'm motivated enough to finish," Percy assured.

"For Pan!" Grover rushed in from the right. He threw his sheep bone, which bounced harmlessly off the monster's forehead.

'He gets credit for trying,' Hearth winced and hoped it at least annoyed Polyphemus.

Clarisse ran in from the left and set her spear against the ground just in time for the Cyclops to step on it. He wailed in pain, and Clarisse dove out of the way to avoid getting trampled. But the Cyclops just plucked out the shaft like a large splinter and kept advancing on me.

I moved in with Riptide.

The monster made a grab for me. I rolled aside and stabbed him in the thigh.

I was hoping to see him disintegrate, but this monster was much too big and powerful.

"Great," Will said in a way that didn't sound so great.

"Get Annabeth!" I yelled at Grover.

He rushed over, grabbed her invisibility cap, and picked her up while Clarisse and I tried to keep Polyphemus distracted.

I have to admit, Clarisse was brave.

"Twice in one book," Percy shook his head at himself, "it is a good thing she isn't here or she'd never let me live this down."

She charged the Cyclops again and again. He pounded the ground, stomped at her, grabbed at her, but she was too quick. And as soon as she made an attack, I followed up by stabbing the monster in the toe or the ankle or the hand.

Jason was all but bouncing in his seat, his hands twitching with the urge to jump in and help that wasn't needed. These two made an excellent team, as if Annabeth herself had given them this perfect strategy. It wasn't great for long term, but a perfect distraction, if only they had more forces to finish this beast off!

But we couldn't keep this up forever. Eventually, we would tire or the monster would get in a lucky shot. It would only take one hit to kill us.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Grover carrying Annabeth across the rope bridge. It wouldn't have been my first choice, given the man-eating sheep on the other side, but at the moment that looked better than this side of the chasm, and it gave me an idea.

"Fall back!" I told Clarisse.

She rolled away as the Cyclops's fist smashed the olive tree beside her.

Thalia winced again at just sitting here doing nothing. Even knowing the gods would never intervene in this fight, she kept hoping Athena would take something of this personally and help another Perseus, if not for her daughter, then the tree!

We ran for the bridge, Polyphemus right behind us. He was cut up and hobbling from so many wounds, but all we'd done was slow him down and make him mad.

"Grind you into sheep chow!" he promised. "A thousand curses on Nobody!"

Nico wondered for a moment if the arai would take that literally, then frowned as he decided they wouldn't care and enact it on anybody with the misfortune to say the word nobody around them.

"Faster!" I told Clarisse.

We tore down the hill. The bridge was our only chance. Grover had just made it to the other side and was setting Annabeth down. We had to make it across, too, before the giant caught us.

"Grover!" I yelled. "Get Annabeth's knife!"

His eyes widened when he saw the Cyclops behind us, but he nodded like he understood. As Clarisse and I scrambled across the bridge, Grover began sawing at the ropes.

The first strand went snap!

Polyphemus bounded after us, making the bridge sway wildly.

Magnus was biting his lip and making some very odd signs about an ogre, a donkey, and a dragon to Hearth Alex was jealous he couldn't understand yet, but the meaning was clear, this really couldn't get any worse.

The ropes were now half cut. Clarisse and I dove for solid ground, landing beside Grover. I made a wild slash with my sword and cut the remaining ropes.

The bridge fell away into the chasm, and the Cyclops howled ... with delight, because he was standing right next to us.

Percy's anger swelled as he glared down at those words, his hands tightening along the spine of the book sending an ominous cracking noise in the room. Thalia suddenly decided maybe it was a bad idea if he broke that thing instead of blasting water around and braced herself as she said coolly, "but how's he going to get back to his cave? He might miss sheep vs shark on cable!"

Percy looked around at her, at least vaguely distracted from doing anything permanent as he scoffed, "I'm going to make you eat mango chutney the rest of the time we're here if you don't shut it." It was good for her she knew Annabeth was okay, he'd still like to get through the surviving it all part first.

Thalia smiled without regret and grandly waved him on.

"Failed!" he yelled gleefully. "Nobody failed!"

Clarisse and Grover tried to charge him, but the monster swatted them aside like flies.

My anger swelled. I couldn't believe I'd come this far, lost Tyson, suffered through so much, only to fail—stopped by a big stupid monster in a baby-blue tuxedo kilt. Nobody was going to swat down my friends like that! I mean ... nobody, not Nobody. Ah, you know what I mean.

Now everybody was grinning along too, Percy most of all as he hadn't looked up once from narrating his thoughts, because they had known what he meant. He was glad he wasn't going through this alone right now or he might have broken the Titan's domain.

Strength coursed through my body. I raised my sword and attacked, forgetting that I was hopelessly outmatched. I jabbed the Cyclops in the belly. When he doubled over I smacked him in the nose with the hilt of my sword. I slashed and kicked and bashed until the next thing I knew, Polyphemus was sprawled on his back, dazed and groaning, and I was standing above him, the tip of my sword hovering over his eye.

The others kind of wished Percy would at least put himself in a bubble for his time down here as they sat watching him now. Nico looked like he'd never shut his mouth again he was gawping at him so much.

Percy looked up and shrugged like, 'what?' before he kept going.

"Uhhhhhhhh," Polyphemus moaned.

"Percy!" Grover gasped. "How did you—"

"Please, noooo!" the Cyclops moaned, pitifully staring up at me. His nose was bleeding. A tear welled in the corner of his half-blind eye. "M-m-my sheepies need me. Only trying to protect my sheep!"

"The man eating sheep, that he was threatening to feed you to seconds ago, not to mention his countless other eons of harm," Jason was frowning at Percy's mellowing tone, the way the tension was easing out of him and there was something new growing in its place overpowering the anger.

He began to sob.

I had won. All I had to do was stab—one quick strike.

"Kill him!" Clarisse yelled. "What are you waiting for?"

The Cyclops sounded so heartbroken, just like ... like Tyson.

"He's a Cyclops!" Grover warned. "Don't trust him!"

Thalia sighed for Grover. He knew nothing of Tyson, he probably felt particularly indignant Percy was hesitating after all his best friend had been through and falling for this act.

I knew he was right. I knew Annabeth would've said the same thing.

They were still gawping at him, every one of them. Even Will apparently couldn't wrap his head around the idea of showing mercy here when his friend's lives were on the line. He couldn't really blame them, he'd never thought of all monsters he'd hesitate to kill, it would be this one who'd hurt Annabeth and tormented Grover...but...

But Polyphemus sobbed ... and for the first time it sank in that he was a son of Poseidon, too.

Like Tyson. Like me. How could I just kill him in cold blood?

"Ah Percy..."

For a moment Percy thought Thalia was laughing at him again as she shook her head with a whisper of a smile, but that wasn't it. She just seemed, resigned about him. She'd never really understood before this moment how Percy had set aside everything to let Luke make the final blow though.

"We only want the Fleece," I told the monster. "Will you agree to let us take it?"

"I would, he wouldn't," Will was frowning at Percy like he'd lost his mind, again. Nico finally came out of his daze and gave a soft laugh for the pun at least.

"You're insane," Alex politely informed Percy.

"And your hair is green," Percy said without looking up. He didn't care to give himself a headache to find out if he was right or wrong to do this, he was ignoring Thalia and his own sixth sense of what the outcome was. He didn't regret giving this chance.

"No!" Clarisse shouted. "Kill him!"

The monster sniffed. "My beautiful Fleece. Prize of my collection. Take it, cruel human. Take it and go in peace."

"I'm going to step back slowly," I told the monster. "One false move ..."

Polyphemus nodded like he understood.

I stepped back ... and as fast as a cobra, Polyphemus smacked me to the edge of the cliff.

His rib cage on the other hand sure regretted his actions right now, he swore they throbbed with the remembered cracks they'd gotten from that. He sat and waited for a moment for somebody to call him a fool and say they'd known it, but Jason looked as resigned as Thalia at his actions, their faces looked oddly similar the way they did that. Nico was just looking at him casually waiting for him to get up and keep going while Magnus was still studying the book with as much concern as Percy felt, waiting to get to the important part where Annabeth was okay than really anything else going on.

"Foolish mortal!" he bellowed, rising to his feet. "Take my Fleece? Ha! I eat you first."

He opened his enormous mouth, and I knew that his rotten molars were the last things I would ever see.

"It's to bad he and Charybdis can't just match already," Alex was right back to being sarcastically unhelpful in the face of Percy at least being very much alive.

"Maybe she has commitment issues," Percy nodded along.

Then something went whoosh over my head and thump!

A rock the size of a basketball sailed into Polyphemus's throat—a beautiful three-pointer, nothing but net.

"Only you would make a basketball comparison at a time like this," Thalia informed him, choosing now to look offended at his thoughts.

"If it was one of the piranha sheep that did it, I promise I won't stab that one," he grinned like that was the concern here, but he hardly looked up, attention suddenly riveted on the book again. For something good this time though...that had been a huge rock. Surely Clarisse hadn't...

The Cyclops choked, trying to swallow the unexpected pill.

"He should try drinking water with it," Will offered.

"New favorite mental image for hard-to-swallow facts," Nico snickered.

He staggered backward, but there was no place to stagger. His heel slipped, the edge of the cliff crumbled, and the great Polyphemus made chicken wing motions that did nothing to help him fly as he tumbled into the chasm.

A hearty laugh encircled the room, Percy more than happily joining in. Just because he hadn't been able to do the deed himself didn't mean he was going to feel bad at this turn, and he was now reading as lightheartedly as ever as if nothing else could possibly be wrong.

I turned.

Halfway down the path to the beach, standing completely unharmed in the midst of a flock of killer sheep, was an old friend.

"Bad Polyphemus," Tyson said. "Not all Cyclopes as nice as we look."

"Tyson's alive!" Percy shouted with such joy he lobbed the book into the ceiling above and didn't watch it sink back down as he beamed. The sensation swamped over him so much he looked ready to literally start jumping with joy, if only Annabeth wasn't hurt so badly this could have been a perfect moment...

Alex made a grab for the book as it came floating down with his own pleased smile, Tyson was a cool outlier and he couldn't wait to get back to the surface and meet him- but Percy snatched the book back to him via the current again as he told Alex, "wait your turn!"

At least he'd controlled it enough this time he hadn't sent him crashing to the ground so Alex only brushed his fingers under his jaw at him as Percy read eagerly.

Tyson gave us the short version: Rainbow the hippocampus—who'd apparently been following us ever since the Long Island Sound, waiting for Tyson to play with him—had found Tyson sinking beneath the wreckage of the CSS Birmingham and pulled him to safety.

"Remind me to give Rainbow all of the extra treats when I get back," Percy was still grinning like he'd won the lottery, like he'd be running over and hugging Tyson and that hippocampus now, even looking around the room eagerly for a moment like the two would just happen to pop up down here.

He and Tyson had been searching the Sea of Monsters ever since, trying to find us, until Tyson caught the scent of sheep and found this island.

I wanted to hug the big oaf, except he was standing in the middle of killer sheep.

"Note to self," Nico muttered. Will gave him a very odd look why Nico would avoid a hug from Percy, and where he'd get the killer sheep.

"Tyson, thank the gods. Annabeth is hurt!"

"You thank the gods she is hurt?" he asked, puzzled.

"Punctuation matters," Magnus couldn't help the laugh that burst out of him.

"Uncle Jack and his horse can explain it to him later," Alex smirked.

"No!" I knelt beside Annabeth and was worried sick by what I saw. The gash on her forehead was worse than I'd realized. Her hairline was sticky with blood. Her skin was pale and clammy.

Some of Percy's enthusiasm finally faded, he stopped half shouting everything even at the revelation his brother was alive and turned a concerningly matching description of that now. He couldn't lose her right after he'd just gotten Tyson back!

Grover and I exchanged nervous looks. Then an idea came to me. "Tyson, the Fleece. Can you get it for me?"

"Duh!" Magnus sighed in relief, though there was still a rush of feeling coursing through him with the urge to do anything to actually help. He was almost glowing, and not from a blush for once, Alex noticed, but it was so faint only he did as Hearth was still concentrating on reading Percy's lips. "The entire reason you came on this quest! If it can heal a magic dying tree it can for her too, right?"

"Finger's crossed," Percy said fervently.

"Which one?" Tyson said, looking around at the hundreds of sheep.

"Valid question," Jason couldn't help a little chuckle, "though I wonder if it would be divine too and kill whoever it was draped over."

"Magic devouring fleece, the opposite of this one, yeah I can see it," Nico nodded.

"In the tree!" I said. "The gold one!"

"Oh. Pretty. Yes."

Tyson lumbered over, careful not to step on the sheep. If any of us had tried to approach the Fleece, we would've been eaten alive, but I guess Tyson smelled like Polyphemus, because the flock didn't bother him at all. They just cuddled up to him and bleated affectionately, as though they expected to get sheep treats from the big wicker basket. Tyson reached up and lifted the Fleece off its branch. Immediately the leaves on the oak tree turned yellow.

Magnus and Percy exchanged uneasy frowns at that development. Even if it healed Annabeth short term, the effects might not last. They had to get her real help. Then Percy's concern grew more as he studied Thalia for a moment, troubled all the more if her life was tied to that tree always having this fleece around it or something...there was definitely some kind of connection there he was missing...

Tyson started wading back toward me, but I yelled, "No time! Throw it!"

The gold ram skin sailed through the air like a glittering shag Frisbee.

"We seriously need to get Tyson into the NBA when this is over, he's won this for you guys twice in as many pages," Jason grinned.

I caught it with a grunt. It was heavier than I'd expected—sixty or seventy pounds of precious gold wool.

I spread it over Annabeth, covering everything but her face, and prayed silently to all the gods I could think of, even the ones I didn't like.

'Isn't that, all of them?' Hearth asked. Percy hadn't exactly mentioned he even liked his dad much yet.

'I'd be doing it too if I could remember half their names,' Magnus signed.

Please. Please.

The color returned to her face. Her eyelids fluttered open. The cut on her forehead began to close. She saw Grover and said weakly, "You're not... married?"

"Is he still a goat in white?" Nico barely sounded coherent he started laughing so hard.

"He's got more virtues than half the humans I've met," Jason went a little cross-eyed for making such a broad statement, but he was still smiling along nonetheless.

Grover grinned. "No. My friends talked me out of it."

"It wouldn't have been a very holy matrimony," Percy nodded seriously.

"They never would have made it out of the honeymoon phase," Alex smirked.

"Besides, we all know it never would have gone off without Annabeth being the bridesmaid," Thalia chuckled.

"Annabeth," I said, "just lay still."

But despite our protests she sat up, and I noticed that the cut on her face was almost completely healed. She looked a lot better. In fact, she shimmered with health, as if someone had injected her with glitter.

Alex wolf-whistled at Percy but gave a little wink to Magnus...like Alex was picturing him glittering? Magnus could feel himself glowing a different kind of way, because he was blushing more than ever and yet not bothering to turn away as he smiled back. If Alex was imagining injecting him with glitter, he wasn't going to protest.

Meanwhile, Tyson was starting to have trouble with the sheep. "Down!" he told them as they tried to climb him, looking for food. A few were sniffing in our direction. "No, sheepies. This way! Come here!"

They heeded him, but it was obvious they were hungry, and they were starting to realize Tyson didn't have any treats for them. They wouldn't hold out forever with so much fresh meat nearby.

Percy would bet his pen at this rate he'd yet gone a whole chapter of any of these without something going wrong and was increasingly wondering which of those gods were going to never let him live down how he was alive in exchange for Annabeth still breathing.

"We have to go," I said. "Our ship is..." The Queen Anne's Revenge was a very long way away. The shortest route was across the chasm, and we'd just destroyed the only bridge. The only other possibility was through the sheep.

"I don't suppose they'd let you play leapfrog on them?" Will frowned.

"I'd rather have another round with Polyphemus than try," Percy shook his head.

"Tyson," I called, "can you lead the flock as far away as possible?"

"The sheep want food."

"I know! They want people food! Just lead them away from the path. Give us time to get to the beach. Then join us there."

Tyson looked doubtful, but he whistled. "Come, sheepies! Um, people food this way!"

He jogged off into the meadow, the sheep in pursuit.

"Keep the Fleece around you," I told Annabeth. "Just in case you're not fully healed yet. Can you stand?"

She tried, but her face turned pale again. "Ohh. Not fully healed."

Clarisse dropped next to her and felt her chest, which made Annabeth gasp.

"Ribs broken," Clarisse said. "They're mending, but definitely broken."

"How can you tell?" I asked.

Clarisse glared at me. "Because I've broken a few, runt! I'll have to carry her."

Before I could argue, Clarisse picked up Annabeth like a sack of flour and lugged her down to the beach.

"Remind me to mention this in my wedding speech if Clarisse ever gets hitched," Percy said warmly.

"I'll bet Clarisse will during yours," Thalia said slyly, causing Percy to flush and keep reading quickly.

Grover and I followed.

As soon as we got to the edge of the water, I concentrated on the Queen Anne's Revenge. I willed it to raise anchor and come to me. After a few anxious minutes, I saw the ship rounding the tip of the island.

"Incoming!" Tyson yelled. He was bounding down the path to join us, the sheep about fifty yards behind, bleating in frustration as their Cyclops friend ran away without feeding them.

"Show this to someone who ever laughs at the idea of running away from a chicken coop," Percy said as he still shifted about in his chair uneasily. This was almost over, they were almost home free.

"They probably won't follow us into the water," I told the others. "All we have to do is swim for the ship."

"With Annabeth like this?" Clarisse protested.

"We can do it," I insisted. I was starting to feel confident again. I was back in my home turf—the sea. "Once we get to the ship, we're home free."

We almost made it, too.

"Did I piss off the god of jinxes too?" Percy was glaring down at that stupid sentence.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Thalia said with honest sympathy.

We were just wading past the entrance to the ravine, when we heard a tremendous roar and saw Polyphemus, scraped up and bruised but still very much alive, his baby-blue wedding outfit in tatters, splashing toward us with a boulder in each hand.

"Do I even want to know what else could go wrong?" Thalia actually hesitated to grab the book from Percy as she looked over his shoulder at that horrid last paragraph, a promise for even more carnage to come. "Does Luke's cruise ship come around too and attack again? Do you and Grover get drunk and accidentally get hitched?"

"You tell me," Percy restlessly reminded. He couldn't decide if he was reluctant to hand the book over or should just keep reading to get it over with himself.

[visionrailmepls]

Your Beauty Never Ever Scared Me - Entrée De Journal Un : Memories

This Journal belongs to: Will Solace (Apollo Cabin)

So, here I am, writing in a stupid journal. I just want to say, if you’re mortal, then please stop reading this. This isn’t a normal journal. If you’re a Demi-god and stole this, please stop reading as well. This is private.

This is where I go when things get hard. I know, I know, I’m a healer. Things aren’t supposed to ‘be hard’ for me, but they are.

I don’t think things would be as hard as they are if it weren’t for Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. He’s always walking around like he owns the Camp, well, news-flash, Nico, you don’t own this Camp.

I mean, I get it. The kids had a hard life so far, but that doesn’t make him better than anyone else!

Part of my brain is saying ‘Get as far away from that kid as you can, he’s no good,’ while the other part, the doctor part, is saying ‘You’ve got to help him, he’s obviously got depression and if you don’t help him and he kills himself, that’s on you, Solace’.

I’m just not sure what to do. Do I listen to the healer side of my brain or the reasonable side of it?

I think first, I should listen to the healer part and then go from there to see if he’s really that bad or not.

I thought back to our first encounter, about how sarcastic he was just a few days ago, and how I was currently forcing him to stay in the infirmary.

“Put that down!” I hissed, careful to keep my voice quiet, “What are you doing here?

“Me?” Nico asked, “What are you doing here? Getting yourselves killed?” “Hey, we’re scouting the enemy. We took precautions,” “You dressed in black.” Nico noted, “With the sun coming up. You even went as far as painting your faces but didn’t think about covering up that mop of blond hair. You’re basically a waving yellow flag,”

My ears turned red and I blushed, “Lou Ellen helped mist around us, also,”

“Hi!,” Lou Ellen said, “You’re Nico, right? I’ve heard a lot about you. This is Cecil, he’s from the Hermes Cabin.”

Nico knelt on the ground with us, “Did Coach ever make it back here?”

“Yeah, Hedge is fine. He managed to make it right in time for the birth of his child,”

Nico smiled, which looked like it hurt his face. He probably wasn’t used to making many expressions like that, “Is the kid and Mellie alright?”

"Yup, just fine. Little Satyr boy,” I said, “I ended up having to deliver him, though, not very fun at all. Have you ever delivered a baby?”

“Um, no?” Nico said. I could see the look of confusion on his face when this topic was brought up. Obviously not seeing how this was supposed to be helping us.

“Yeah, well, I needed to get away from all that. That’s why I volunteered for this ‘mission’. Gods of Olympus, my hands are still shaking, do you see this?” I asked.

I grabbed Nico’s hand. It sent an electric current down my spine. I could see that Nico felt it too because he flinched and pulled his hand away. I didn’t like that feeling.

“Whatever, we need to come up with a plan because the Romans are supposed to be attacking us at dawn and I need to-” Nico started,

“If you’re planning to shadow-travel, forget it. Don’t bother,” I said,

“Excuse me?”

I could tell that Nico expected me to flinch or shy away from him, but I didn’t, I stood my ground.

“Hedge told me about what happened last time you did it. You’re not doing it again,”

“I literally just did it. I’ll be fine. Plus, you don’t tell me what to do,”

“No, you’re not fine. I could sense the darkness coming off of you when I touched your hand. They don’t call me a healer for fun, di Angelo,” I said. “You’re in no shape to fight, one more shadow-travel and you might actually turn into a shadow. For good. So, no shadow-travelling. Doctors Orders.”

“The Camp is about to be destroyed, Solace-”

“And we’ll defend it. We’ll stop the Romans, but we’re doing it our way. Not yours,”

I want to help him because of the darkness within him, but how am I supposed to help him if he’s so arrogant? I mean, honestly, I wouldn’t mind being his friend, but I don’t want to be friends with someone as stuck up and pushy as he is. My sister, or half-sister, Kayla, has suggested that I may like the son of Hades, but I don’t think I do. How could someone ever like someone like him? My other siblings keep saying that it’s not like me to talk so down about Nico, but I just can’t help it. I don’t like him and I never will.

But, just because I don’t like someone doesn’t mean I can just abandon my job as a healer here at Camp. If someone needs my help, I have to help them, regardless of what they may have done or who their godly parent is.

Nico needs my help. I don’t need the stress of something happening to him, all because I didn’t help him.

So then, it’s decided, I’ll attempt to help him during his stay in the infirmary. It’s currently his second day. The war happened yesterday. But it seems like it happened years ago already.

And, don’t get me wrong, I would just like to say that I am not homophobic in any way. Just because I deny liking Nico and complain about him all the time does not mean I have anything against LGBTQ. Just thought I would put that out there. Plus, my dad’s Apollo, and he’s Greek. Greeks are bound to be gay one way or another. A lot of my siblings are either gay or bi as well, some of them are even pansexual, so I have nothing against it.

But back to Nico. I have a feeling he’s going to push me away so I might have to get one of the seven to help, maybe even Hedge. He cares for Nico.

I don’t know, it’s late now, and tomorrow is Nico’s last day in the infirmary, but I want to try to see just how much darkness is still in him and then see if he needs more time to rest without distractions.

That’s all for now.