#hope it stops right immediately now

[writing-is-a-martial-art]

There was always a dragon under the hill. It sleeps, now. Sometimes in the night one can hear its snore mixed in with the crickets and the nightingales. The dragon had always been there but it hadn’t always slept: the story behind that isn’t as clear as one would imagine - not many left to tell it, fewer still who wanted to. The last elder to bear the scars of its claws died last spring, and her memory wasn’t what it used to be for the years before that. 

The folks with silver in their hair can still recall the first years after the dragon was put to its sleep: the crops were so fertile back then, with all the ash. Some say that the winters used to be warmer, the flame the dragon breathed in its lair heating up the hill where it didn’t burn it.

There were heroes, back in those days, and the youth listened to the elders, and the elders were younger, and nobody dared steal or raise a hand against one of their own, with how few they were.

They’d add after that, in a quick, learned mumble about the pity and the tragedy of it all, and of course it was awful under the dragon but, but…

Back in the dragon days they had no taxes (except, of course, for the dragon meals). The king’s men thought it wise not to approach the beast’s domain. There were no lords to claim their territory—who in their right mind would want to get close to the lair, try to harvest the charred land? 

Back in the dragon days the men were real men and the women were real women and it all was so simple, and really the young die all the time anyway, and the dragon still sleeps under the hill and there must be a reason they didn’t kill it, back then.

There was always a dragon under the hill: some say it isn’t a hill at all but the land that settled over its den, that without the dragon it wouldn’t be here in the first place, and the dragon didn’t even eat all that many people, really. A sort of protector. A sort of lord – not much worse than the rest of them. Saw value in its people, one way or another.

The dragon sleeps now. The crops haven’t come in all that well this year and there are taxes to pay and border disputes to settle and the women who washed and clothed the elder’s body one last time say the scars weren’t as horrid as some one-bit storytellers make them out to be. 

By the mouth of the old cave, someone holds out a bell, someone else urges them to get on with it. 

Years later, they’ll say it was the wind that did the chiming, but the whole story isn’t as clear as one would imagine.

[aroaceleovaldez]

Nico and Percy's dynamic through the series is eternally funny to me, because it's just. like.

Percy's having a constant mental struggle between his fatal flaw of loyalty with a promise he made to Bianca to protect Nico, versus his Big 3 kid desire to maim other Big 3 kids / Poseidon descendant urge to totally maim Nico specifically. He hates Nico so so much. He thinks Nico's annoying and weird at best, and creepy/sketchy when he's older. The only positive thoughts Percy has towards Nico are "He's Bianca's brother and Bianca was my friend and I owe her/He's Hazel's brother and Hazel is my friend and would kill me if I was mean to him," "He's a powerful asset and useful ally (if questionable)," and "He's kinda pathetic and I feel maybe a little bad about it." Percy has multiple occasions throughout the series where he strongly considers - and on one occasionally actually goes through with - throttling Nico.

Meanwhile, Nico is following around Percy like a lost puppy. He explicitly can never bring himself to even dislike anything about Percy no matter how hard he tries. He has a whole bit in BoO where he's mentally going "UGH he's so stupid BUT IT'S ENDEARING HOW DARE HE." He's totally smitten. He's making deals with his dad for Percy. He's making convoluted plans to help Percy stand a chance against Kronos. During the entirety of BoTL it's like he's playing tsundere - "I'm helping NOT PERCY SPECIFICALLY with this quest! Me helping Percy would be SILLY because I DEFINITELY HATE HIM." Then he proceeds to show up to Percy's birthday party to basically ask him on a weird date and spend the entire next book scrambling around trying to help him or protect him or impress him. And Percy could not give less of a shit.

Just. That dynamic is so funny to me. Percy is the founder of the Nico Protection Club in that he's the one they're all protecting Nico from and meanwhile Nico is throwing himself at Percy to the point where the literal god of gay love calls him out on it.

[mattodore]

birthday boy 🎂

[bizarrelittlemew]

i was hoping to make a post like this under happier circumstances, but here goes.

as some of you know, everything with the cancellation and renewal campaign has happened right on top of the worst part of my mom's cancer treatment (plus the show was cancelled on my actual birthday 💀). i won't go into details, but it's been tough. lots of ups and downs, mostly downs, luckily ending (for now) on as much of an up as circumstances allow. the whole thing has been weirdly tied to the cancellation for me, kind of amplifying every feeling. the grief got mixed up, and there was so much of it - mourning the loss of the kind of future i thought i'd have with my mother and the time we might not get, mourning the end of a show that means so much to me and is such a big part of my life. different types of grief, sure, and of different magnitudes, but in one big ugly swirl. i sort of had a breakdown right at the start of february, and it was because of news about my mom, but it morphed into my brain telling me everything i'd ever written was shit and wanting to delete it all. stuff like that, spilling over.

anyway. i was holding off on writing this post to see if the show got picked up by someone else. but i still want to say it. because what also spilled over was the support and community from this fandom, and being in this space (despite the rough times and high emotions) helped me through it, because of all of you here. whether we talk regularly, or you left a comforting reply or simply a like on one of my posts about having a hard time (i tried to keep them few), or wrote a nice comment on a fic, or said something funny or nice or insightful in the tags of a gifset, or was active here (or on twt) in any way, talking/sharing/creating stuff about the show - THANK YOU.

you all helped me through all the ups and downs, and i am so grateful. thank you for being here, listening, distracting, helping me feel some joy despite the horrors. i love you and i love this incredible show and all it has brought and will continue to bring and inspire, and although it should go without saying, i'm not going anywhere. just do me a favor and give yourself a big ol' hug from me, and know that you made a difference for some random guy on the internet (but in reality for many more, and for this fandom as a whole, just by being here and being you) 💕

[perilegs]

my sweet little baby man is no longer with us

[bacchuschucklefuck]

assorted thoughts 1/when sklonda mentioned getting drinks with sandra lynn now and then I straight up cheered I was so scared for her social life being so overworked 2/straight up have no judgement on the whole ratgrinder situation on account of being a whole grown man. Im not getting into beef with fictional teenagers let them sort that out among themselves 3/sprak levefre

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

[taps mic] wings are to black mages as tails are to genomes, they're just axolotls about it

[sophieswundergarten]

MBS Humans as BIRDS Because I have been thinking about this for a bit and you can't stop me

Also, normally I would be factoring in sexual dimorphism for accuracy, but not today. We're not even worrying about size or anything today. Today it's all about aesthetics :)

Reynie - Cactus Wren

Sticky - Whip-poor-will

Kate - Caique

Constance - Galah Cockatoo

Mr. Benedict - Kākāpō

Number Two - Rufous hummingbird

Rhonda - Secretary Bird

Milligan - Philippine Eagle

Miss Perumal - Hoopoe

Curtain - Spix's macaw

Garrison - Monk parakeet/Quaker parrot

SQ - Kestrel

Martina - European Starling

Jackson - Killdeer

Jillson - Little ringed plover

Jeffers - Rock Pigeon

Ten Men - Barred Owls

[camgoloud]

DOMINATRIX CHASE?????

[izzy-b-hands]

I know it's probably just a part of restarting the lamotrigine, but. holy fuck does it have me short on spoons and patience and. Everything mentally today lmao

[lycanthian]

the horrors

[theheadlessgroom]

https://www.tumblr.com/beatingheart-bride/723147826502254592/theheadlessgroom-beatingheart-bride

@beatingheart-bride

“I’m sure you would’ve too,” Dorian smiled fondly, as he brushed away the tears pricking the corners of his eyes with his handkerchief. “She was an incredibly kind, incredibly gentle woman that I felt very honored to know, even for a short time. She was...very motherly to me as well when I was a boy.”

Oftentimes more than my own mother! he thought to himself wryly, as he began to recall stories from his youth to Emily (Randall briefly wondered if she’d heard these stories in the future when they were all dead, but it felt good to talk about his mother, and so he listened, chiming in here and there as well). While Mrs. Gracey was often away, having tea with her other wealthy friends (perhaps including Mrs. de Clair?) or just elsewhere in the house, June Pace was happy to keep an eye on her employer’s son (at least, when Beau couldn’t), always patient with the rambunctious Gracey boy (whose bountiful energy often rubbed off on her own son). She indulged his (many, many) questions and even showed him some of the finer points of gardening, allowing him to help her in her work, quickly enamoring him with the wonders of the world of horticulture.

“In fact, I credit her as being the one to get me invested in gardening,” he smiled, thinking of his bounteous conservatory, and all of its splendors. “We still maintain the beautiful rose bushes she planted-I see to that personally.”

[deeisace]

.

[neverendingford]

Fear drove me outside myself

arcing fountains and clotting rivulets.

.

Hopelessness caking to the denim of my favorite jeans

the conviction that I will never become, caked to the side of the tub in blackened flakes.

.

The thing I couldn't say in front of them

The thing I can barely say in front of anyone.

.

You stood in the dark and it pooled around you like water

Stretched and it rippled like a thousand stones falling into a pool

we share the same pool.

.

Can some water be wetter than others?

Your surface tension tighter than mine

your hydrogen bonds more electronegative

I could only be solute in your solution.

.

I said that I'm behind the curve

you said we are the curve

the water felt a little warmer then

[snekdood]

anyways the reason a lot of cis men move to the right is because they're isolated and outcasted when they come into leftist spaces for not knowing Every Possible Progressive Thing Under The Sun Immediately and now since they have no friends for being new to leftism they go to the right because its the only place welcoming them.

[theloveinc]

now if i go insane i need you to forgive me for it